The Bleeding Dusk (6 page)

Recently Victoria's choice to wear the split skirt and long tunic favored by Kritanu for both training and rest had nearly given Verbena fits. But since Victoria had rarely left the villa except late in the day to go to the Consilium and then to search the streets for vampires, it was her opinion that it mattered not what she wore. Since she knew few people in Rome, there were no social obligations requiring her attendance. And, quite honestly, Victoria preferred it that way.

Her days of balls and soirees and musicales (thank goodness) were over. She was a Venator, and that was her life.

But all that would change now that Lady Melly and her cohorts were here.

“Mother's horror at my choice of attire and coiffure was made abundantly clear, but at least the neglect was attributed to grief due to Aunt Eustacia's death.” Victoria looked longingly toward her bed. Perhaps she would have two hours to rest, if she could keep the list of worries at bay. “However, sadly, that topic brought an even larger problem to mind.” She looked in the mirror at her maid's crystal blue eyes.

“I've no fear ye can't handle yer mama an' her biddies. I heard her say ye should come back to London and rejoin Society…she wants ye to marry again so ye can give her some little bunnies in nappies.”

Victoria was shaking her head. “No, no…that I can manage. I think. There is an even bigger problem.” She closed her eyes for a moment, then rose to move toward her bed. “The silver armband my aunt always wore…I must find it. As soon as my mother remembers it she'll want it—but the bigger problem now is that the vampires are already looking for it, because it holds a special key.”

Their gazes met again in the mirror, Verbena's eyes rounding in her cherub face, and her mouth following suit.

“That, my lady, is a bloody mess of a pro'lem.”

“Indeed it is, since my mother believes Aunt Eustacia died in her sleep. Thus, she expects that the bracelet would have been on her arm, readily available for me to retrieve.”

“Per'aps yer auntie gave it to Kritanu.”

Victoria shook her head. “No, she did not, for he gave me all of her personal effects, and it was not there.”

The apple-cheeked maid frowned, pity curving her lips down at the corners. Then they tilted up. “But, my lady, ye've forgotten someone did see th' body after. He must've, in order to send ye her
vis bulla.
Perhaps—”

“I know,” Victoria said again, rising to go to the bed, her head suddenly aching. “That is the biggest part of the problem.”

Not only would she have to keep the vampires from finding the keys and opening the Magic Door…but now it appeared she would have to find some way to contact Sebastian and ask for his help.

Then he would, as usual, expect her to demonstrate some form of gratitude for said help.

And, truth be told, she could think of worse things to do. Much worse.

 

+ + +

Victoria's meeting with Ylito was delayed to just before noon on a rainy morning two days after her mother and friends arrived. Even so, it was pure luck she'd actually been able to slip out of the villa that day, for Melly had planned to take her to see the Colosseum, but had developed a headache. Victoria had quickly seized upon a similar excuse, retreating to her room and instructing Verbena to allow no one to enter until the next morning.

“This is the first day she's not dragged me about shopping, viewing the sights, parading around the city,” Victoria hissed as she slipped back down through the servants' hall to the exit. “Pray God she has the headache all afternoon and misses dinner as well.”

“Now, milady, ye shouldn't wish such stuff on yer mama,” Verbena cautioned. “She can' help it if she jus' wants t' show ye off and dress ye pretty.”

“Marry
me off is rather more accurate,” Victoria mumbled, tamping away the guilty feeling. She paused with her hand on the back door. “And for someone so concerned with propriety, the fact that it's been only three months since Aunt Eustacia died and we're not expected to be in mourning is surprising.”

“'T might be so, milady, but close as ye were to her, she was still jus' yer great-aunt. Not so long fer mournin', even back in Lunnon, but ye're in Rome now. An' if Lady Melly was in mournin' she wouldn't be able t' go to Carnivale this week.” Verbena looked up at her, and Victoria saw sympathy in her eyes. “Ye're still so young and pretty, milady. Yer mama jus' wants ye to find happiness. She wants t' erase that sadness in yer eyes.”

Happiness. Victoria wasn't sure it was possible.

Perhaps not happiness, then, but contentment. Or at least satisfaction that her place on earth was more than merely one half of a marriage, a womb to bear an heir, or a showpiece for her mother to flaunt.

Victoria had a more important, more difficult role than most women—or men—could imagine. If she could find the same satisfaction and peace her aunt had as
Summa
Gardella, Victoria could ask for little more.

Because her mother delayed her, Victoria was late meeting Ylito at what was left of the Villa Palombara. Despite the early February chill and dampness, she had Oliver drive a circuitous route in the city in order to make certain no one was following her from Aunt Eustacia's villa. When the barouche stopped in front of the crumbling wall shaded by the old oak that had grown through it, Oliver turned to look at her.

“This the meeting place?” He looked at her questioningly. Not only was his driving gentler than that of Barth back in London, but his care for her safety was as well. Unlike Barth, Oliver wasn't as keen on leaving a woman alone on the streets, particularly in areas that could be considered dangerous.

Of course, unlike Barth, Oliver had never seen Victoria fight vampires.

“Yes, you may let me off here and return to the villa.”

She'd never seen a person with such dark skin as Ylito. Even Kritanu, who had the mahogany skin and sleek dark hair of his Indian heritage, had lighter coloring than the hermetist.

“So, you are the new
Summa
Gardella,” he said, looking at her soberly. Victoria was surprised at his low, smooth voice. For some reason she'd expected him to sound as exotic as he looked, with his walnut skin and hair that spun out in tight, finger-length coils all over his head. His family was originally from Egypt, Wayren had told her, but Ylito's grandfather had left the land of the pyramids and come to study with the Venators in Rome nearly a century ago.

“And you are the mysterious Ylito,” she replied, and felt compelled to make a brief bow to him. “I'm delighted to meet you, particularly since I understand you rarely venture out.”

He looked as if he was at least two decades, or more, older than her own twenty-one years. He was dressed in boots and breeches and a coat and shirtwaist, as any other man of the times would be, but with his dark skin and regal bearing, he still looked exotic. He gave her a formal bow in return. “Come, let us look at this strange door.”

Now, in the daylight, Victoria could really see the deep split in the wall. It was caused by a low branch of the large oak growing through what had likely been a small crack at one time, but as the oak's branch and trunk filled out, it had opened the wall. The shadow of the large tree, along with a mess of leafless vines, had helped to camouflage the opening.

With Ylito's help, Victoria climbed through the crack, turning sideways so she could slip through the wet stone. She couldn't help but think it was best that Zavier wasn't there, for he would never have fit his bulky muscles through the slender opening. As soon as Ylito stepped both feet on the ground, they started off, Victoria leading the way.

The ground was wet and muddy, seeping into Victoria's slippers, and the budding leaves had begun to shoot into green furls that would soon thicken the view even more.

Ylito made a disgusted comment under his breath as he paused to wipe mud from the side of his boot, but then he followed behind Victoria as they traipsed through thigh-high grass toward an awkward-looking gray-brick building. What must have been the main part of the villa loomed high behind it, and was made of the yellowish stone most common in Rome.

As Victoria trudged along, she turned her mind from the chill of her cold, wet gown to something nearly as uncomfortable: how to find Sebastian.

In London she had been able to go to his pub, The Silver Chalice, to contact him, but it had been destroyed. The last time she'd seen him was here in Rome, when, with his usual talent, he'd simply shown up when she didn't necessarily want him to. Short of putting a notice in the newspaper, there was little she could do to find him.

But then a thought struck her. Sebastian had introduced her to two young women, twins named Portiera and Placidia. Perhaps if she called on them she might be able to learn how to find Sebastian in this city.

Not to mention the fact that her mother would love to see her interested in making social calls.

Since Lady Melly had arrived, Victoria had spent the last two nights at home with her aunt and friends, playing whist, catching up on gossip, and generally doing the things she thought she'd left behind when she married and moved from her mother's home. Even as a marchioness she was expected to have social obligations—but at least they would be under her own terms.

“There it is,” Victoria said, gesturing to the wall made of slim gray stones stacked atop one another as she and Ylito passed through the same gate that the vampires had used two nights before. Off to the right was the smooth white lintel framing a solid stone door.

“
La
Porta Alchemica
,”
said Ylito, stepping toward it.

Victoria's sodden skirt brushed against him as she too moved toward the door. It was not a particularly large one, now that she saw it in full daylight. Just an average size, low enough that someone as tall as Max would have to duck to cross the threshold.

She watched as Ylito smoothed his dark hand over the white marble as though reading with his fingertips the symbols carved there. Above the door was a large circle carving, within which were two triangles superimposed on each other, one pointing up and the other pointing down, and a cross stamped on top of them.

“Jupiter…tin…
diameter sphaerae îhau…circli
…
non orbis prvsunt…
Venus…copper…” murmured Ylito, moving his hand down the right side of the doorway.

“What does it say?”

“Alchemical symbols—this is for the planet Jupiter,” he said, showing her the top carving that looked like a cross with an arrow pointing to the right, “and represents the metal tin. Below it, the symbol of femininity, or Venus, the circle with the cross below it. There is Mercury and Mars…” he added, gesturing to the other side.

“What does it all mean?”

Again Ylito flashed his white teeth. “I do not know, and apparently neither did Palombara. As the story goes, he found the papers of an alchemist who came to Rome searching for a mysterious herb. After the alchemist disappeared, Palombara studied his journals and had some of the content engraved on the door. For example, under the Jupiter symbol it says, ‘the sphere's diameter, the circle's tau, and the globe's cross are of no use to the blind.' It simply means one might have the tools, but if one doesn't know how to put them to use, they're worthless.”

Victoria, looking at the odd symbols, couldn't agree more.

A large dial was set into the stone of the portal, covering about the center half of the entrance. The round disk, which was flush with its setting, was formed of a different color stone and had the shape of a triangle carved into its face. At each of the three corners was a small rectangular notch, no more than two fingers wide and one thumb-length long. Victoria could see that the dirt and moss had been scraped away from the bottom right-hand notch, as though someone had recently slipped something into the hole.

She pushed her fingers in, examining the stone around the opening of what must be one of the keyholes, though it looked nothing like any keyhole she'd ever seen. Which made her realize that the key was perhaps not a long metal one with notches carved on one side, but something different. More of a small tab that would slide into the small opening. “Ylito, look at this.”

He crouched next to her with a faint pop in one of his knees and thrust his fingers sideways into the notch. They disappeared up to his second knuckles, and his dark eyes lit up with interest. “The key. One of the keys has been found.” He looked up at her, more animation in his face than she'd seen yet today. Obviously this was a fascination to him. “
Si
, that slot has the key slid in, unable to be retrieved until the door is opened. It has been fitted into place, and there it will stay. Each key fits in its slot and lifts the insides of the lock, and thus allows the disk to turn. That will open the door.”

Victoria nodded, her heart filling her chest. Was the missing key the one that had been given to Augmentin Gardella and then passed down to Aunt Eustacia? How could they know? Had the others been found?

Then she noticed that the moss and dirt had been cleaned off just above the notch, and there was a faint carving on it.

Ylito was already looking at the etched lettering, his quick, dark hands passing over it as if it would help him to read it. “That is the name of the key. “
Deus et homo.
God and man. And see there: its symbol—a large circle with rays like the sun, with a smaller circle inside it, resting at the bottom. It will be carved on the key itself, so the user knows where it fits.”

“And the other two?” Victoria crouched so she could look at the bottom left corner of the triangle, using her nails to scrape away the moss, feeling the grit of moist dirt. “They're named as well?”

“They are all noted here, in this symbol above the door,” Ylito said, drawing her attention to the large circle above the door. “See, it names the keys—
'tri sunt mirabilia: Deus et homo, mater et virgo, trinus et unus¦
that means ‘three are the wonders: God and man, mother and virgin, the one and three.' The wonders are represented by the three keys that will give access to this secret laboratory.”