You may think me mad, and
mad I am for it is death that I am waiting for –though it be a long time in
coming; she will make sure of that. Each night she takes it from me in
exquisite agony. Do you know that there is a point when sensation becomes so
intense it is near impossible to tell pleasure from pain? I had heard this but
never sought to discover whether it was true or not; now each night takes me
further and further past that point and each night I become less of a man.
The story; my story
started off with so much hope: a young man seeking his fortune, cock-sure of
himself; born of poor parents who sent him out in the world with nothing more
than a song in his heart, the clothes on his back and the luck of the ragged. I
was a quick learner and educated myself by the road, picking up whatever
language I could from those I passed. You have heard this story many times, I’m
sure, but I was happy to be the living testament to it – I believed most
strongly that we create our own luck; and for a time this was true.
I had many adventures –the
life of a vagabond is varied and no two days are the same. One day you can be
sleeping under the stars with a roasted coney in your belly and a warm fire by
your side, the next hiding from the local militia in a cave, shivering ‘mongst
the cold and slimy walls. Hardships I could always endure for it was those that
made the good times so much sweeter.
And there were good times;
there was always wine, good food and women if you knew how to look and how to take!
I was blessed with good looks and a boyish charm that hid the cold nature of my
inner most. It was easy to tell the young girls what they wanted to hear in the
various villages on the way and then leave when I had taken my fill with nary a
thought to them excepting a notch on my walking crook.
But it was whilst I was
sitting minding my own at the local inn at Dunninsford where I met him that was
to change my life. I had recently charmed a few crowns out of a local doxy who
took a shining to me –she believed my sob story about my parents dying; gave me
a lay for free and the crowns to boot. (All I can say is that she can’t have
been on the game for long; most other scut’s I know have raised their cynicism
up to the level of an art form!) I was quietly smug and took no notice to the
other people that were around me –I found it best to mind my own. Trouble only
finds you if you go looking for it (or so I thought at the time). Consequently
I didn’t see the man eyeing me; sizing me up –it could have been for a casket
or to mark me as a fool. In the end it
could well have been for both of those as he turned to me and asked a simple
question.
“How would you like to
earn the wages of a Prince for doing no more work than a pauper?” I looked at
him: the eyes bedevilled and bloodshot, recessed in a hollow stare; a stubbled
and fear etched face hiding the clothes of a noble man, no less. These were no
rags of a street seller or beggar but fine silks and embroidery. His hair was
finely cut too; albeit bestraggled and unkept. I turned away from him and
laughed briefly.
“There’s nout you can spin
me that I haven’t tried myself, mate; nothing you could give me that you
wouldn’t steal back when my back was turned. I’ve been doing this too long; go
back to your pint and I to mine and we’ll both be much better off.” I replied
but he weren’t having any of it.
“This is no joke. I have
need of a strong, smart man… with his wits about him and that can hold his
own.” He explained, motioning to the bar keep to serve drinks to the both of
us. He tipped the bar man in gold. “You can see I have wealth; I have no need
to rob you of yours.”
“Having wealth don’t mean
you’re not desiring of more. In some ways it just makes you more determined.” I
replied, nodding to the barman for the beer. I drank the first mouth full and
knew that I had nothing else to lose by hearing this man out so I turned back
to him and bade him continue.
“Well, I am determined.
Determined to live at all costs… and this is where you can help me, and for
doing nothing than to watch me sleep.” I laughed at this and immediately
realised what he was getting at.
“I ain’t no god-cursed
buggering soddomite. I suggest you leave now, matey whilst you still can.”
“You misunderstand me,
Sir. I ask for nothing more than what I have said already –someone to watch
over me and protect me whilst I sleep…” His eyes glassed over, the gaze
pleading.
“You have made enemies
then?” I ventured.
“Yes; enemies that would
think twice if they saw another watching over me. You have arms of your own?
Weapons?”
“No… save a small paring
knife.” I lied. One of the first rules is to lie regarding weapons. If people
know what you are carrying then you are easily disarmed; the less they know the
more damage you will be able to do should the need arise.
“That’s ok; I have plenty.
God willing you won’t need them.. .but it always pays to be forewarned.” There
was a slight twitch in his eye when he said that but I thought nothing of it.
“It could be dangerous, but you will be well rewarded when all is done. In the
meantime you will live in my humble abode and what is mine will be yours until
the job is over. Is this agreeable to you?” I nodded and finished my beer in a
few gulps before being shown to the man’s abode –a castle no less!
Gerbert of Auriliac was a
man of means –or at least his father was; and it was actually his son that I
was to oversee the next few nights –he had wanted to keep his son’s reputation
free from scandal, hence the lies.. Gerbert’s father, Raymond, explained to me
that his son had become infatuated with the beautiful daughter of a local
university dean. So enraptured had he become that even when she turned him
down, due to his lowly birth-right and lack of social standing, he took matters
into his own hand.
We had just entered the
castle threshold and upon hearing this information I stopped before Raymond
shut the door behind me.
“Now look; vagabond I may
be but I’ll not actively break the laws so flagrantly –especially not when
witnesses abound. I won’t do anything that’ll end me up in jail.” I said.
“No.. Please don’t think
he did anything like that.” He looked shocked as if the very prospect was
abhorrent to him. I bade him continue, mollified by his apparent genuineness. “He
wanted her to love him more than anything in the world, but he’s not practical.
I’m afraid his mother doted on him too much when he was a child and filled his
head with all the wrong notions. She had leanings towards… witchcraft, would
you believe? And this is how much I am trusting you now, young sir, for such a
thing could ruin me if it became knowledge. Would I part with such if I were
going to trick or double cross you?”
“It depends on whether I
would be alive by the end of this transaction.” I replied.
“I give you my word – you
will not be harmed by either myself or my son. We have no wish to see harm come
to you at all!”
“Very well then; go on
with your tall tale.”
“I wish it were such;
alas..” He replied, closing the heavy wrought door. The castle seemed very
quiet, haunted even. The walls dense with despair and dampness; it seemed far
colder within than it did outside. “Are you hungry, Sir?” Raymond asked,
changing tack before telling me any more of the story. I hadn’t eaten for a
while and one of the rules of the road is never turn down the offer of a meal
so I shook my head. He led me to the kitchen and found some joints of meat.
“No kitchen staff or
servants? Are you that hard up?” I asked.
“No; I have given them
time to themselves. They were distraught over what was happening to my son and
he needs peace and protection not people cloying over him.” This didn’t ring
true but I had no reason to doubt what he said; I made a mental note and bade
him continue with the narrative regarding his son. “Gerbert became infatuated
with this lady and, through his mother’s contacts, sought out a wild woman from
the woods around here. You know the sort I mean, I take it.” I nodded; some
were indeed wild; though not all of them wise. “She made him a draught; a love
potion which he succeeded in slipping into her wine one evening. Since then she
has visited him at all times of the night; though God knows how. I have taken
great pains to lock the castle down each night but she still manages to torment
him. That is why I have come to you; a man of the world, who has seen many
things on his travels. Can you help me? Can you help my son?”
I thought this over. I
knew the strength of some of these potions and philtres; some were indeed
intoxicating –some people said that they could even grant spirit powers to
those who desperately needed them. Could such a thing have happened here by
mistake? I doubted this very much; no doubt it would be little more than a
love-stricken harlot that could easily be dissuaded by someone of a much more
manly physique. Who knows, this might even be fun! I agreed and a princely sum
of one purse of gold pieces was agreed and I was shown up to Gerbert’s room, up
in the tallest tower. How anything, let alone any slip of a girl, find their
way up there during the day time –let alone at night- was a testament indeed. I
was given a rather uncomfortable chair to sit on, level with Gerbert’s head and
told to watch over him whilst he slept.
Gerbert was already asleep
and his pallor was as white as the stone that lined his room; had he not moaned
at that precise moment I would have thought the deed over before it had begun.
Raymond left me then and wished me luck, for his son’s sake. I nodded and started
my vigil. I wasn’t concerned for I was, as the father had surmised,
well-travelled and would easily be able to handle whatever life threw at me.
What a fool I was!
It was to be a quiet
night. Nothing happened for at least the first few hours and I admit that I
fell asleep very quickly. I knew there was no truth to the story I had been
told, knew not why I had been chosen for such a task but was happy,
nonetheless, to take the man’s money.
Whether it was the intense
cold that surrounded me or the sound of such tortured moaning that woke me up
I’m not sure, but wake I did. What I saw astonished me!
Gerbert writhing in what I
assumed to be the throes of sexual ecstasy until I saw the look of terror on
his face –he was still asleep! I tried to shake him awake, ashamed that I had
fallen asleep and hoped that I could make amends. Strangely enough my hands
gripped something else instead of Gerbert’s shoulders –something far more lithe
and scaly! There was something lying on top of Gerbert and it was attacking him
somehow, forcing him to do things. I had no clear thoughts of what to do; it
can’t have been the woman that Raymond had told me about as the door to the
bedroom was still closed and there was no way anyone could have scaled the
walls.
I moved around the bed
quickly to try and see if there was anything interfering with him; to my horror
there was. There was… something straddling Gerbert, I could see an outline
against the open window and the stars outside. This form was writhing and
bucking against his naked body causing him no end of pain. He cried out again
and I did the only thing I could; grabbed at the.. thing and pulled it off of
him. It was surprisingly light and again there was the feeling of cold scales
where it should have been skin. I was horrified and backed off when it suddenly
revealed itself to me.
It was female; that I
could discern in the gloom but it had wings! I could feel the currents of air
beat me as it hovered in front of me. There were indeed scales where there
should have been flesh and it looked at me and leered. What had I done? What
was I a party to?
“That was foolish,
mortal.” It leered at me, the voice rasping from hell itself. “He was a willing
slave to me but by interrupting us you have become my next and I have a feeling
your torments will be longer lasting still. Until tomorrow.” And then it furled
its wings around itself, the air around it shimmered before it disappeared. I
went to see if Gerbert was ok but felt my head go light, my body went numb and
I just felt myself fall in to a place that had no end.
I woke thinking that only
a few minutes had passed, but upon trying to move my limbs I realised that I
could not. Opening my eyes I realised that I was in the same bed that Gerbert
had occupied and my arms and legs were now chained to the posts. I was naked as
well, the bed clothes barely covering me. The window had been blocked up with
stone but I could see Raymond sitting on the chair that I had sat at just a few
hours ago and Gerbert stood by the door looking at me with pity.
“I did not tell you the
whole truth, after all.” Raymond explained, his voice little more than a
whisper. “How could I? What would you have done, had you known?”
“What have you done?” I
shouted and thrashed violently, trying to extricate myself. “What’s going on?”
“You’re quite secure
there; there’s no escaping. I’m sorry.” And he was, as strange as it might
sound, he was genuinely sorry. “I told you half-truths, I’m afraid. My son did
go to a wild woman when his beloved scorned him, but she did not give him a
love potion; for that was not what he wanted. He wanted to be free of the lust
that plagued him and sought the services of a succubus that could drain him of
those energies so he could live a normal life. However he knew not what he was
asking; indeed even the wild woman did not understand his request, had she done
I’m sure she would have dissuaded him of such an action.”
“That was a succubus that
I interfered with?” I shouted, cursing my own stupidity; of course it was! What
else could it have been, and why the hell hadn’t I realised it before?
“You see, even you –a mere
tramp knows of the dangers of such a spirit. So, why then didn’t my son? Why
should he suffer for such ignorance?”
“So I’m to suffer
instead?” I asked, trying my best to talk my way out of this.
“No doubt you have done
much worse in your life; how many people have you used for your own purposes?”
“But you’re condemning me
to death!”
“So that my son can live.
For a father there are no depths I won’t plunder; you would feel the same, I’m sure.
No one knows you are here and no one will miss you when you’re gone. The same
can not be said of my Son, who will grow to great things now. Thanks to your
sacrifice he will live to be pure of heart and noble of purpose. Can the same
be said of you?”
“You said that I would be
unharmed!” I snapped as a last desperate gamble.
“And neither my son nor
myself have or will harm you. To be
fair, neither will the succubus; all she offers is love after all.” He looked
at me one last time before leaning over and kissing me on the forehead. “I
thank you for your sacrifice. You will not be forgotten”. He then walked to the
door, ushering his son to do the same.
I then hear the sound of
the door being blocked up; now that his son had been rescued it was safe for Raymond’s
servants to return –he did not wish them to be victim’s themselves. Oh no; far
better to be some traveller that no one would ever miss to bear the burden!
So I wait, chained to this
bed, and I can tell that the hour is getting close again. They say that the
kiss of a succubus is to die for, but death is often the last thing she will
bring. Madness and delirium first, followed by exhaustion –only when there is
nothing more to take will she leave one last lullaby; a kiss before dying.
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