Path of the Magi (Tales of Tiberius) (19 page)

Nothing but a parlor trick, thought Tiberius as he regained his mental balance.  And, Tiberius suddenly recalled, it was one he’d had some instruction in himself.  His eyes flashed with a touch of anger.  He wasn’t accustomed to being ordered about.    

“No,” he said firmly.  “Mi ordonas vin, vi respondas al mi!”  Tiberius said, gesturing downward with his hand. 

The vampire dipped a knee for a moment, staggering from the change in direction of the mental battle.  Then it gestured and cut off mental contact.  It then looked on Tiberius again, as if studying some new, strange, and slightly distasteful creature it had never encountered before.

That had not gone as planned.  In his years of hunting, the vampire had encountered strong minds before that would not give in before him, but never like this.  Not only had this young pup thrown aside his mental commands, he’d actually tried to reverse them and nearly succeeded. 

A lesser creature might have run at this point.  The more dangerous servants of the dark prince were not completely without virtues.  A creature of pure evil was not really of much use to anyone.  The vampire still possessed some courage.  The false Will Scarlet had no desire to yield the field so quickly to this strange unknown.

“You have a powerful mind,” the vampire said.  “But I have other means of persuasion.” He reached down for his cane.  Drawing out the tip, he revealed a short sharp rapier.  Then he then took a short menacing step forward.  Tiberius held forth the cross again and the vampire was forced to take a step back.  But he gave a cunning smile all the same, as if he knew he’d won the day already.  He gave a soft whistle into the night air; then he relaxed and smiled. 

“No cross will hold me back for long,” he said. 

Tiberius wasn’t sure of that, but he didn’t like the way the vampire had suddenly relaxed.  It was waiting for something, something that wouldn’t be good.  Tiberius couldn’t stand here forever either. 

“Vergo venu!” Tiberius shouted, making up his mind.  It was difficult from this range, but his call was urgent.  Just then, in answer to his call, Ti’s staff flew into the room and right into his hands.  The instant he touched it, he spoke, “Mi forĝu Kiraso de Dio!” 

Tiberius then dropped the cross and brought both hands on his staff, bringing it to the en guarde position. 

The lunge was expert, sudden, and deadly.  Taking advantage of the now absent cross, the faux Will Scarlet made a fierce attack with his sword.  Tiberius had faced worse from old Okubo though.  He parried and dodged and gave the vampire a solid blow on his back with his staff.  Their positions reversed in the exchange.   Tiberius now blocked the window and the vampire stood in the center of the room.  Will Scarlet made another lunge; the vampire had great strength and speed, but Tiberius had a better teacher and was more in practice.  He parried and countered.  The blow he struck in the vampire’s chest should have at least knocked the wind out of him, but he seemed to have barely felt it.

“You can’t hurt me with a stick, boy,” the vampire taunted.

Tiberius suddenly gestured towards the vampire.  “Kineta frapu!” he said.

A telekinetic blow knocked the vampire back a step.  Tiberius stepped in and followed with a two handed staff strike that sent the vampire flying back across the room.  It should have broken its neck, but it was merely stunned.  Shaking off the blow, he gave a Tiberius a puzzled look. 

“What are you?  If you’re a wizard, why do you oppose me?  We serve the same master.”

“I’m a magus,”  Tiberius answered.  “Where we walk, the blind see, the sick are healed, the oppressed relived, and the good news is preached to the poor.  What follows in your wake, I wonder.”

“I never look back,” the vampire said, smiling.

“No, I’ll bet you don’t.”

There was a faint flutter at the end of the hall.  “Perhaps you should,” said the vampire, triumphantly.   

Tiberius saw a dark shape moving at the end of the room.  A large bat had just flown though an open window and now it stopped suddenly to hover in a way that no natural bat should have done.  Within the shadows of the moonlight a mist formed and wrapped itself around the bat.  The bat then started to change its shape, swiftly transfiguring into a human form.  It took the form of a pale, tall, thin, shapely woman.   She was dressed in thin, white, flowing robes of almost obscene transparency.  Her hair was long and flowing, a bleached white.  Her hands were tipped with long claw-like fingernails. You could have called her beautiful, save that her eyes were dark and lifeless, and her skin unnaturally white.  Glancing at her, Tiberius felt horror, not attraction. 

His situation was desperate now.  He was barely handling one vampire; two could flank him if he wasn’t careful.  Well, he wasn’t licked yet.  He’d had good teachers.  Okubo had told him how to defend himself, Dallen had showed him the art, but his father had taught him tactics. 

The new arrival took a few slow steps forward.   “You called for me, my love?  Have you found a new plaything for me?”

“Be careful, this one is trouble,” Will Scarlet spoke, giving Tiberius a wary glance. 

The woman was now running towards him.  It leapt into the air and in mid-leap changed into the form of a large ferocious wolf. 

Tiberius tapped his staff on the ground and spoke. “Movu!”

In a flash he had teleported to the other side of the room.  The wolf, meanwhile, had hardly missed a beat.  Leaping though the empty air where it thought its prey was to be, it had continued on, reversed direction, and charged back towards Tiberius. 

Tiberius gripped his staff and pointed.  “Fulmo trafu!” he ordered, and there was a blast of lighting from his fingertips to the wolf.  The lightning arced though the wolf and down its leg.  The wolf gave a sharp yelp of pain and jumped up involuntarily.  Then it stopped its charge to shake off the pain. 

Will Scarlet responded by grabbing a heavy chair and throwing it with his great strength across the room at Tiberius. 

“Ŝirmu!” Ti answered, and it came to a halt in mid air, then gently dropped to the ground.

Will Scarlet’s eyes now were shining with a savage hatred, as he glanced about looking for the best way to kill Tiberius.  He took a step forward, but was stopped by a strange sound.  Tiberius had let out a slight chuckle.

“You think this is funny, pup?  You’ll soon change your tune,”  he glowered.

“Apologies, sir, I didn’t mean to laugh at you.  I was just thinking of my father.  He told me always to check my ground.  I just realized how inopportune your choice of ground really is.”

The vampire and wolf exchanged glances for an instant.  The vampire had a sudden sick feeling that the boy was right.  Something was horribly wrong here, but he couldn’t place it.  The two of them turned with puzzled faces towards Tiberius. 

“Don’t you see?” he laughed.  “This is a Christmas party!  You have no power here.  You are undead, yet you try and work mischief here?  Look around you!  There isn’t one cross here, there are a thousand!  The tree, the holly, the star on the tree, you’re surrounded by symbols of the one who triumphed over death and gave us all eternal life?  The very music in the air reeks of the sound of triumph over death!”

The undead creatures were stunned.  Tiberius turned to the Christmas tree next to him and gave almost a casual gesture towards it.  “Jen la lumo de li kiu malamiko morto eternulo!”  Tiberius said.  The lights of the tree suddenly flew off the tree and charged towards the wolf-shaped vampire like a swarm of hornets.  They swirled around the wolf and in their lights the wolf started a transformation.  The wolf changed back first into the woman, then the flesh rapidly melted off of her and she changed to a skeleton.  Finally, the skeleton crumbled into dust and was blown away by the night air.  The lights returned to the tree. 

Will Scarlet turned to run.  He took a step towards the open balcony where he’d first been standing, but a gesture from Tiberius sent strands of pine roping to seal the french windows and block his path.  Whoever this strange man was who suddenly opposed him, he seemed to have an answer for his every move.  Suddenly, he threw his sword at Tiberius, turned, and ran for his life.  He ran blindly towards the crowded ballroom. 

There were screams as he suddenly burst into the crowd.  He desperately knocked over some of the guests, but there were too many for free passage.  In his haste he’d made a wrong turn.  He could feel the life force draining from him with each step as he could see nothing but holly and signs of everlasting life at every turn.  There were more screams as, seeing he could not pass easily, he changed into a large bat in their very midst.  He flew up into the center of the room.  Tiberius ran after him, saw him change, and start to flee.  He gestured.

“Flamoj frapu vin Diablo!”

There was a bright intense flash, and the best fireball he’d ever thrown hit the fleeing bat in mid-flight as easily as he’d hit the snowballs.  The bat burst into flames and then turned to dust.  Only a small black residue filtered down to the center of a suddenly empty dance floor. 

Tiberius continued walking to the center of the room looking with satisfaction at the dust.  This creature would bother the living no more.  Looking up, though, there was another problem.  Everyone in the room was looking at him in stone silence. 

On sudden inspiration he gave his staff a twirl and set the ends on fire again.  He threw the twirling, burning staff into the air.  He spun around and then nimbly caught it as it came down.  He bowed low with the staff.  It was a showoff move, but he knew it from one of his katas that he’d learned in the years with Mr. Okubo.  It came in handy now as he posed as a mere entertainer.   

Gesturing dramatically back towards the entrance, he cast another spell.  There was a puff of smoke and then the image of Will Scarlet suddenly stepped forward at the top of the steps, smiling and waving to the crowd.  Tiberius took an elaborate bow in the center of the room and suddenly everyone was applauding.  It was nothing but a harmless conjurer’s trick after all.  Will Scarlet calmly walked off into the other room and disappeared.  Merrily waving his staff, Tiberius marched boldly out of the room to where he saw Salina motioning to him.  The band played and the crowd started dancing again.  Tiberius slipped quietly out of the room.     

Salina led him and another older man, presumably the girl's father, to a quiet parlor.  The young lady sat by a fire while a young gentleman spoke comfortingly to her.  One of the staff came over and gave the young lady a brandy.  Seeing his daughter was now in good hands, the older man turned to Tiberius and held out his hand.

“I’m Geoffrey Thomas; I know what you did back there.  I can’t thank you enough.  You freed my daughter from that fiend.”

“I’m just glad to be of service, sir.  Is she all right?”  Tiberius answered.

“She is now.  What’s your name, sir?”

Salina interrupted.  “He is Harlequin, la?  Better no names.  Better no questions asked or answered.  One of the powers of a vampire is that they hide in shadows.  People do not believe in them.   But he had eccentricities, no?”

“Mr. Harkov?  That’s a kind way to put it,” Mr. Thomas replied.

“La, if anyone asks, he hired this conjurer himself.  A festive touch of his own.  You have no idea who it was.  There are a dozen harlequins tonight, yes?”  Salina said. 

“Well, yes.  As a matter of fact, I don’t know who you are,” Mr. Thomas said. 

“Good.  We say goodnight then.  Be well.  Come,” she said, gripping Ti’s hand.  She led him back towards balcony.  They almost ran into Dallen who was standing, staff in hand, over the dust of the first vampire.  He looked up with concern towards Tiberius.

“I thought something was wrong,”  Dallen said.  “Was this yours?”

“One of them, I killed the other one in the main room,”  Tiberius said.

“You killed two vampires?” Dallen asked.

“It was pretty easy once I realized that we’re surrounded here by images of the Christ-Mass.  Trees, holly, etc., it’s all symbols of Christ’s triumph over death.  Bad place for a vampire.”

“You might have left one for me; folks will think I’m useless at this rate,”  Dallen said.

“I’m sorry, sir, I didn’t think I could wait as…”  Tiberius stammered, slightly flustered.

“Don’t be ridiculous, that was a joke,” Dallen said.  “You did extraordinarily well; I’m proud of you.” 

Salina threw her arms around him and kissed him.  “You  were magnificent!” she said.  “We were right about you.  You are trembling though; are you cold?”

“You do look a bit pale; are you all right?” asked Dallen.

“Yes, no.  It’s just sinking in a bit what just happened.  I killed that man.  Was that right?  Maybe I should have tried to capture him?  What?”

Salina had stopped to look at him.  “Do you care what happens to your enemies?”

“Yes,” he answered.  “God tells us to love our enemies.  A knight must defend the innocent, but also show mercy to enemies.  I’ve got to know how to put down the sword as well as when to pick it up.  Especially with this sword,” he said with a meaningful glance at his staff. 

Putting his hand to his head he tried to think.  “There were two of them; I don’t see how I could have done it differently.  Maybe if you had been here, sir, I…”

Salina put her arms around him again with a gentle hug.  “How I wish my own had been like you,” she said strangely.  “But shed no tears for this fallen.  I know them, the life-drainers.  You cannot reach their hearts; they have given them to Satan.  This man tried to kill you.  He did not ask for mercy but fled to wreck more evil.  La, he was a coward as well as a villain.  When he met an equal on the battlefield he ran.  You killed him too quickly.”