Aurelius and I (10 page)

“You see, Charlie, to sacrifice a black cockerel was said to be a sign of great evil, of devil worship and black magic. People were more superstitious back then, and such a thing would have caused quite a stir in most communities at the time, but among the Romany it was just about the worst thing a person could do.

“My poor Asmodious was taken immediately to Uri’s caravan, and all the men in the group were called to convene a meeting to decide what to do with him. I pleaded with my father to listen to me about what had happened, but he simply asked me where my proof was, and I was forced to concede that I had none. Not only did I lack physical evidence, but I had not actually seen Felix enter the caravan with the cockerel, even though I knew deep down in my heart that he had done so. Nevertheless I made my father promise to at least question Felix over the issue in front of everybody else, to see what excuse he had for being in the caravan in the first place. Whether he did so or not I will never know, but the result was the same; your grandfather was convicted of devil worship and of practicing black magic and was extradited from the group.”

“They threw him out? Without proof?” I asked, incredulously.

“Yes, Charlie, they did. And he was lucky. Had he been a normal man, and not a wizard whose power everybody feared, they would surely have hung him for his crime. The cockerel was all the proof they needed. That was how justice worked within Romany communities.”

“That’s horrible,” I said. “I would never want to live in a community like that.”

“Neither did I, Charlie. Neither did I. And so, that evening, just before sunset, I had an enormous row with my father about how, for the first and only time in my life, I was ashamed to call myself a Romany. He told me that if I was ashamed of my heritage, then maybe I should just leave. I replied that I would, that there was nothing anyone could do could convince me to live among such a horrible group of liars and bigots. My mother cried and begged me not to go, begged my father to make me stay, but we were each as stubborn as the other, and neither of us was willing to back down. And so, late that evening, just as the sun was setting, I left the camp for what I thought would be the final time, all my worldly possessions wrapped in a sheet that I carried over my shoulder.

“I caught up with your grandfather a great deal more quickly than I had anticipated. I had been walking along the narrow mountain path for less than half an hour when I turned the corner to find Asmodious sitting on a large rock, his head in his hands as he watched the last moments of the beautiful, purple sunset.

“On hearing my footsteps he stood up suddenly, ready to do battle with any possible attacker. On seeing it was just little old me his stance immediately relaxed however, his angry frown replaced with a smile. He asked me what I was doing there and I informed him that I had run away to join him wherever he was going and that there was nothing he could say or do that could ever convince me to return to those people who I had once considered to be my family.

“I was young, naïve and angry, of course. And, after several hours of discussion, your grandfather’s charm one out. He convinced me that, while he greatly appreciated my courageous show of solidarity, it was too dangerous where he was going for me to accompany him. He said that I was too young and too angry to make an informed decision at the moment, and promised to return to me in a month or so, when I’d had time to consider my decision, and if I still felt the same way he would whisk me away to somewhere safe where we could live out our lives together. I tried to protest, but your grandfather was so clever and so charming that before I knew what was happening I found myself walking back to the camp with him.

“As we neared the camp I vowed to myself that I would wait for Asmodious, no matter how long it took. I knew at that moment that I never wanted to spend a moment of my life with any man but him. I decided to tell him how I felt as the lights of the camp became visible in the distance. When I had finished he just looked at me as if he wanted to tell me something important but needed a moment to find the words. We stood, silent, in the moonlight, looking into each other’s eyes. It was then that we heard the screaming.

“‘Wait here,’ he ordered. ‘Hide behind that rock and don’t come out until I tell you it’s safe.’ It was the most forceful I had ever seen your grandfather and it only served to make him more attractive to me.

“But of course, being a stubborn young woman who believed she knew all there was to know about the world, I did not wait for Asmodious’s return, I merely waited for him to leave. As soon as I was certain he had done so, I followed along behind. It is a decision I have lived to regret, for the horrors I witnessed upon re-entering the camp were of the kind that can never be wiped from the memory and they have haunted my dreams ever since.

“Blood and bodies covered the ground for as far as the eye could see and, in amongst the carnage, screaming gypsies desperately fought a battle they knew they could never hope to win. A battle to stay alive. A battle against the vampires.”

“Vampires!” I exclaimed, suddenly captivated by my grandmother’s tale now that it had moved from soppy love scenes into gory violence.

“Yes, Charlie, vampires. Vampires are not so uncommon in Eastern Europe, you know – especially in the remote, mountainous areas. They hunt in packs, and they would often wipe out an entire tribe of Romany in a single attack, turning a few of the stronger ones into their own kind and feasting upon the rest.

“They had no doubt been stalking our troop for days, if not weeks, only perturbed from launching their attack earlier by the presence of such a powerful wizard. As soon as Asmodious had left the vampires had seen their opportunity, and they had taken it.”

“What did you do?” I asked eagerly. “How did you and grandpa manage to survive?”

“Well, Charlie, that was all down to your Grandfather. You see, although I had heard many speak of what a powerful wizard he was, it was not until that day that I truly understood what this meant. Such was the fear of him held by those evil, undead murderers that each and every one of them ceased in their carnage when they saw that he had returned.

“There then followed a great silence, a standoff between your grandfather and the vampires. And then Asmodious began to chant.

“I just stood their watching, utterly bemused as to why these fearsome, evil creatures had suddenly stopped their assault and were now reduced to shaking, crying, begging for their lives or simply running away. It seemed utterly bizarre. And then I noticed it. Something strange was happening. At first I thought it was just my imagination, but it seemed to me to be getting lighter. But I wasn’t imagining anything; the more your grandfather chanted, the lighter it became, until, after just a few minutes, the sun rose up from behind the horizon below which it had long since set.

“Within an instant the vampires began to catch fire. It was a terrible sight, watching them run around, screaming as they burned into little piles of dust. What made it all the more terrible was the part of me that relished in their suffering. They had hurt my family after all.”

“Was everybody okay?” I asked, desperate for the happy ending I knew was unlikely to arrive. “Except for the vampires I mean.”

“No, Charlie, they were not. Well, not at first anyway. For it was only after the vampires had been destroyed and the darkness of the night had safely been returned that your grandfather showed how powerful he truly was, for it was then that he began to heal the wounded.”

“Grandpa could heal too?”

“But of course, Charlie. Where did you think you got your own powers from?”

“I thought you said all Protectors had powers?”

“They do, Charlie, they do. But not powers like that. Well, not usually anyway. Humans cannot be trusted with the responsibility that comes from such high power. No, I fear that your power to heal is more to do with the wizard in you than the Protector.”

“So, do you think I have more powers?”

“Perhaps.”

“But why don’t I know what they are?”

“Well, you didn’t know you could heal either until recently, did you? It may be that you just don’t know how to activate them yet, or maybe you just haven’t needed them. Anyway, that’s not important right now, what’s important is that your grandfather could heal, or else even more people would have lost their lives than just the six that did so.”

“Six people died? Why didn’t grandpa save them?” I demanded, upset to have been robbed of my happy ending.

“Because he couldn’t, Charlie. He only had the power to heal the sick, not the dead. I suspect the same is true of you. He did everything he could, but for some it was already too late. It was a very sad day, perhaps the worst of my life.

“In hindsight though, without it your grandfather and I may never have been married, for it was his actions that day that lead him to finally become an accepted member of my people. From that day forward the fact that he was different no longer rendered him an outcast and instead made him a hero. Even those who remained jealous of him began to give him the respect he deserved and, over time, many of his former enemies became his greatest friends - particularly once he and I were married and he was no longer seen as a rival in the romance stakes.”

While I had enjoyed grandma’s story, I was beginning to wonder what all this had to do with The Professor and the watch, as you no doubt are too. Well, I’m pleased to say that, just as I was considering raising the issue with my grandmother, she finally came to it of her own accord.

“We lived happily together for many years, awaking each day in a new place, seeing the entire world without ever leaving our own home. It was a truly magical time. But I’m afraid all good things must one day come to an end, and our end arrived six months after I gave birth to your mother.

“The tribe had arrived at a small village on the outskirts of Romania to find it completely decimated. Houses had been burned to the ground and bodies were strewn across the streets. Unfortunately, it was not an isolated incident. While we personally had never seen such sights before, there were stories of similar things happening all over the East. Until that day though, most of us had considered them to be fables and scare stories made up to sell local newspapers and deter travellers- who many people disliked. Your grandfather, though, had always held suspicions that there may have been some truth to the tales.

“It seemed as though no living thing could have survived such merciless brutality, but, miraculously, one had. Some of the men from the tribe had gone searching for supplies inside the abandoned, fire-damaged shops. They discovered nothing salvageable and were just about to leave when they had heard a whimpering sound coming from under the floorboards. Upon tearing them up they found a little girl, no older than you are now. She was covered in blood and dirt and skinny as a rake. She had clearly witnessed sights no child should ever have to witness and had not eaten for weeks.

“The girl was brought to the women to be cleaned up. We washed, clothed and fed her, and Asmodious healed her wounds; many of which had become infected. I doubt she would have survived much longer had we not discovered her. But while we were able to restore her appearance to something approaching normal relatively quickly, the same could not be said for her mind. For many days she did not speak at all, but merely shivered. And while I feel bad for saying such a thing, the truth is that I wish she had stayed that way.

“It was your grandfather who eventually got her to talk; nothing too taxing at first, merely her name, which was Bettina, and whether she felt well and such. It took weeks before the poor girl was able to recount what had happened to the people of her village, but one night, in front of a roaring fire, with just Asmodious, myself, and our pet cat Merlin for company, she did just that. And every day since I have wished that she hadn’t.

“You see, it’s not the gruesome details of how her family were killed in front of her that I wished I hadn’t heard (although I could happily have continued with my life without knowing of such things, and hence I will spare you such details, my child). No, it was
who
had been responsible for the killing that I wished she had never revealed.

“She described how the village had come under attack from all manner of strange creatures, from mischievous goblins to walking corpses. Some of the creatures she recognised from fairy tales, and scary late-night stories, others had been too horrible for her to have imagined without witnessing them firsthand. But the worst of all, she said, had been their leader.

“While not the most frightening in appearance – he had looked basically like a man, with bald head and long purple cloak, only taller and paler than a man, almost white in fact – his deeds were by far the most evil, stamping on babies and puppies as if they were bugs and ordering others to do the same.

“As little Bettina spoke the words, your grandfather and I simply looked at each other in horrified silence. But it was not the description of the terrible acts that had so shaken us, but the description of their perpetrator. It was quite clear to both of us that the leader she spoke of could only be one person – your grandfather’s former friend, Professor Balzanfjoord.”

“Grandpa knew The Professor?”

“Knew him well, I’m afraid, Charlie. You see, your grandfather and The Professor had both had the same mentor, a wizard named Peronicous. Peronicous was a powerful, stern, but righteous wizard who was quite a celebrity among his own kind. He taught The Professor and your grandfather not simply how to use their gifts most effectively, but also how to use them safely and responsibly. He was a great man who Asmodious admired very much. The Professor, or Melvin as he was known then, did not feel the same way.