Forever Young The Beginning (32 page)

After letting the sun consume the
grisly remains of the nine vampires, Ian and the others searched
the property for implements. They found some and dug a grave for
the dead human at vampire speed. Ian recited the 23rd Psalm over
the grave and asked for God’s everlasting mercy for a man who had
lost his life trying to help a child. The group then saw to their
weapons and departed into the woods.

Ian led them to the big creek he had
jumped earlier. They paired off and scattered along the stream to
strip and bathe. Ian and Cosette went downstream for a quarter mile
to find a sizeable pool. They stripped and waded in, washing the
blood and grime off wordlessly as they washed their clothing. Ian
came up behind Cosette and pulled her to him, both of them sitting
down in the deep shade against a tree growing on the bank of the
creek, her back to him. He just held her there, both arms around
her, kissing her hair and her cheek as she turned her head to one
side. They lay like that in the water for several minutes. Ian
sighed then he said “Ah, lass. I know that was hard on you and
Marie, seeing that. I wish it hadn’t happened that way. I regret
that you saw me behave that way with those vampires after we’d
beaten them.”

“
Hah! If you hadn’t done
that Marie and I would have! All I could think of was those little
girls and how terrified they must be. What else would anyone with
any feelings at all have done? Those murdering vermin had done this
before. How many little ones have they delivered to God knows what
fate? And that Jean Pelleau? His days are numbered!”

Shortly they had dressed and picked
their way upstream, calling ahead so that the others knew they were
coming. They were answered, and rejoined the others in a place of
deep shade. Marie had retrieved her gloves and broad-brimmed hat
and Cosette’s as well, handing them to her. Li rejoined them then,
having bathed elsewhere along the stream.

Ian said “We have all of our weapons,
powder, shot, and sabers. Henri, Li, and I can divide those and
carry them. We should be off to Lyon now. We can stay in the forest
to avoid being seen until after dark. Isn’t it is east and a bit
south of here?”

Henri replied “Yes, it may take us
some eight hours on foot. We go on foot or we might as well not go.
I’ll take the lead.”

Cosette said “What about
money?”

“
You’re right. I’ll go
retrieve our money and have the headmaster send our clothing to our
apartment” Marie said.

Li asked ”What about
Sophia?”

“
She’ll be told to wait in
our apartment. We have two servants on duty now so she can remain
there in comfort. We can come back here after this is done and
visit Celeste too.”

Li nodded agreement as she leaped away
and streaked towards the orphanage, knowing that her clothes would
be dried by the time she arrived. The others went more slowly down
the hill to the flat plain and waited there. Soon she came back
with three purses which Ian, Li, and Henri hung around their necks.
The group had taken nourishment from their copper flasks while she
was gone. Henri handed a flask to Marie and said “Take it now and
drain it. We’ll find more along the way.” He bounded away toward
the east, the others behind him.

A few hours later they were over
halfway there and stopped to feed when Henri scared up a doe.
Within ten more minutes they were again on their way.

***

Chloe rolled about in the darkened
carriage, her bonds chafing her skin. She was sure that there were
other girls with her in the carriage. It never stopped for long,
but when it did, there were sounds of horses being walked about and
the carriage would jiggle about a bit. There would be a little
talking between men somewhere not too distant. Someone would open a
carriage door and take a gag from her mouth and give her water to
drink. After she drank all she could, she was gagged again. It
wouldn’t be too long though after the last one was given water that
she would feel the carriage start up again and they would ride
along for hours and hours without stopping. They did that around
ten times she thought. She finally came to think that they were
changing horses. It seemed that it would go on forever, and she was
sure that they had been traveling now for over three days, maybe
even four. She and the others had soiled themselves several times
by now, and the blankets they were wrapped in stunk
badly.

In the beginning she’d seen the eyes
of the others, wide with fear, darting towards every sound or each
time one of the side curtains would let a sliver of light in. In
time those same eyes became lifeless and dull; no longer darting to
every different sound or change of lighting within the stinking
carriage.

They stopped and something was
different. She couldn’t hear any horses being walked about or feel
the jolt of the carriage having new horses attached. The doors
suddenly opened. It was dusk and black-hooded figures carried them
one by one through a small door in the side of what looked to be a
really large mansion. They were taken down a flight of stairs into
a large cellar room. It had a cobblestone floor and some sort of
five-pointed design set into it with some kind of tile. Tall
candelabras were set everywhere and were lit with innumerable
candles.

They passed through that and went to a
small room beyond that where they had their clothing stripped. Then
they were put whimpering and weeping into a large tub to be bathed
in total silence by the black-hooded figures.

***

It was already dark as the five came
into Lyon so they stopped on a knoll overlooking the city. Ian
asked Henri “Do you know where the Francoise chateau
is?”

Henri smiled at him and said “Bankers
know all kinds of things about rich people, including where they
live. They live to the east of Lyon on the road to Geneva,
overlooking the Rhone. Follow me.”

He bounded away and the others
streaked after him. They skirted the city and climbed through more
rolling country. In around twenty minutes they came to a clearing
through which they could see the lights of a really large chateau.
It was a magnificent place with a commanding view of the Rhone
River to the south and the foothills and mountains beyond. They
skirted the place, knowing that there were dogs, but those were
confined in an area behind the chateau in a kennel on the north
side of the main house.

There was a steady breeze from the
north, so they were left with three sides to approach without
alarming the dogs. Henri stopped after they got to an area just
west of the mansion. Three hundred feet further west behind them in
the woods was a creek that paralleled the house.

Henri said “Let me go and look through
the windows on the main level. I might see what kind of security
they have. Just wait here.” He flitted silently away toward the
house. When he got there he ghosted from window to window silently.
He saw no one, but the house wasn’t darkened at all. People were in
the kitchen who he thought might be staff. There were easily a
dozen and they wore uniforms.

Finally he saw movement in a corner
room near the front of the house. As he carefully peered in from
some fifteen feet away, he recognized Marcel Francoise himself. He
sat at a beautiful ornate desk, a very large one and he was writing
in a ledger book of some kind. In some five or six minutes, he
closed that book and put it in the bottom drawer on the right-hand
side. He stood and opening a small closet with a key hanging around
his neck, he took a red hooded robe. Leaving the room he didn’t
bother with the lamps. Henri waited several minutes, and then he
stepped to a window and pressed his elbow against it until it
cracked. It made only a tiny noise. Waiting two full minutes he
reached through and undid the latch, raising the window. He went to
the desk and in seconds had broken into the bottom right hand
drawer. Taking the ledger, he tucked it in his pocket and
rearranged the drapes so that they covered the broken window pane.
He vanished like smoke through the window, closing and locking it;
he rejoined the others.

“
I have a ledger book and
when we go in, I’ll leave it here with the rucksacks.” He showed it
to everyone and then they talked about where to go in.

“
Ian, Li, what do you think
of that row of dormers along the third story?”

“
I count twelve. Maybe the
window of one is unlocked?”

“
One way to find out. Are
our weapons all ready?

“
Yes. We’re ready to
fight.”

“
What will we find inside,
regarding resistance?”

“
I saw maybe a dozen
servants who we may assume might be armed. Regarding servants, we
kill who we must. Those who run away, we let live.”

Cosette said “There’s a creek behind
us, and I think we should all smear mud on our hair and our faces.
You and Marie are well known and any of us could encounter one of
the people inside this place in Paris or anywhere one day. As many
as you saw in there, some are likely to get away.”

“
That’s a good
idea.”

Shortly their faces were all covered
in mud and it was caked thickly in their hair as well. Ian embraced
both Marie and Cosette and after shaking hands with Li and Henri,
he streaked towards the huge chateau, bounding effortlessly up to
land on the roof beside the westernmost dormer. They watched as he
flitted like a bat to one and then the next. He flitted quickly
back to the fourth one from where he had started and seemed to melt
into the face of the dark dormer.

Chloe and the others had been bathed
and had clean white robes put on by the black-hooded men. They were
then carried whimpering into the large room and to a place where
the tile was set into the stone and forced to lie down on their
backs there. There were four iron rings set in the floor at each of
the five points of the pentagram. The five girls were each tied
hand and foot to the four iron rings. Straw was scattered thickly
at all five tips of the pentagram. A door opened at the side where
they had come in earlier and seven men wearing red-hooded robes
filed in. Chloe was filled with a sudden dread as she and her
companions began to cry.

***

While waiting for the others, Ian
quickly looked out at the hallway and saw no one in sight. The
others joined him shortly. He had broken a window pane to enter.
They proceeded out into the hallway, lit by candles on wall
sconces. The house was quiet and it seemed that there were no
activities. The five glided along trying all the twelve doors
leading to the twelve rooms. They saw bags that had been unpacked
in six of the bedrooms. Skirting the balustrade they checked all
twelve bedrooms along the north wall and found them unoccupied.
They glided down the open staircase to the second floor and
repeated the search and came up empty. On the main floor, they
heard who they thought were servants talking. It sounded like a
sizeable group, easily a dozen or more which was nothing unusual
for a house this size.

They passed the kitchen and pantry
area by and made their way to a door that Henri thought went to the
cellar Ian paused and the others looked at him questioningly. A
nagging premonition caused him to sign to Li to take the lead with
Marie and Cosette following. He signed to Henri to precede him and
he brought up the rear. They descended a well-lit stairway into the
cellar.

Ian was the last to reach the bottom.
Just as he did, he felt an icy prickling that plunged down his
spine.

“
Vampires behind us!” he
said as he spun, his pistol raised. He sensed rather than saw the
others turn with him as he saw a large muscular figure flying
towards him followed by three more. He moved to one side like
lightning as he shot the first one between his eyes. In a blur he
drew his sabre with his left hand and delivered a deep cut to the
giant’s neck, severing it three fourths through as his momentum
carried him to a large table with two fully-lit candelabras. The
table crashed over and the candles rolled everywhere including into
some left-over straw piled around a cedar support post. There was a
large container of lamp oil on the table for the lamps along the
walls and it had spilled as well. A fire started and soon the cedar
post was blazing, the flames licking hungrily along the exposed
cedar beams. No one had noticed it yet as all were busy fighting
for their lives.

Ian had dropped his pistol as he heard
another pistol discharge and saw an even bigger vampire hurtling
down on them with a gaping hole in his throat. Li moved towards him
and like lightning he lowered himself to dodge a tremendous slash
as the giant tried to take his head off with a short sword. Li
drove a powerful side kick into the giant’s knee, breaking his leg
backwards, causing that one to roar in pain. Ian had already hacked
off the first one’s head. They backed away from the foot of the
steps as two more came screaming, leaping to the landing below.
They were females and Li stepped in and broke one’s arm; following
up with a vicious elbow to that one’s jaw, crushing it and driving
her jawbone around her head to one side. Cosette pounced on her and
nearly cut her head off with her curved dagger. The other one fell
to Marie who ran her through repeatedly and stepping back lopped
off her head cleanly. More of them leaped down the steps roaring,
swords drawn. Still more appeared above.