The Dark Rites of Cthulhu (9 page)

“No, it’s not. You’ve always been Kraygen. The other name was forced upon you by witless parents. This is exactly who you were meant to be.”  Radu sneered.  “Do you think our meeting was chance on this night of all nights? Do you think someone with my power would waste my time going to a convention of buffoons and charlatans if I wasn’t looking for someone special?”

“What do you mean?” The question came out tiny and terrified, as if Dennis’ little, inner voice had at last spoken aloud.

“I need someone like you, someone with the spark. It is the only way this will work, the only way they will mistake…”  Behind Radu’s red lenses, his eyes widened: the look of someone who’d almost said too much.

Before Dennis could ask Radu what he was going to say, the room’s window began to rattle. He turned his head toward the quivering glass. At first he saw only blackness, but soon he could recognize shapes: wings, feathers, gleaming obsidian eyes, and dark beaks far too many to count. A huge mass of large black birds swarmed at the window, crashing into it, trying to get in.

“What the hell is that?” Dennis cried out.

Radu laughed a joyless laugh. “That would be the murder. You know, a group of crows? Interesting that when crows gather they should be called a murder, don’t you think?”
              “What are they doing?” Dennis turned back to the old wizard. “What do they want?”

Radu snorted, went back to pouring sand to finish his circle and said nonchalantly, “They want me. Do you know what a psychopomp is?”

“No.”

“They escort the souls of the living to the underworld at their time of death. They can take many forms; usually birds like sparrows, owls, and whippoorwills, but crows are the most…tenacious. Those damn birds are here because my bill is way past due. You see, I should have died many years ago but I decided not to, and that really pissed them off. But don’t worry, that window is warded and it will keep them out for as long as I need it to.”

Radu was now done with the sand, so he placed the bottle into his suitcase and withdrew an ancient papyrus scroll. He then stepped into his magic circle. Once there, he removed his red spectacles and threw them onto the bed. He did the same with the gold cap, sliding it off his tooth. 

“There,” he said.  “That’s better.”  He unclipped his fake ponytail, tossed it away. “You see, after I cheated death, the psychopomps didn’t go away. They knew I wasn’t meant to be alive and they were determined to fix that. Now, one-on-one they’re easy enough to deal with, but over time their numbers swell and swell until there’s a huge murder constantly hounding me. That can be most problematic.”

“So what has this to do with me?” Dennis asked as he raised his foot and tried to step outside his circle of sand.

Radu acted immediately with a wave of his hand and an utterance of alien sounds that could hardly be called words, “M’ng wal thuhey ia yog-sothoth cul xil’thatul!”

Dennis put his foot back down. He tried, but he was unable to lift it again.

“What did you do to me?” Dennis shrieked.

“Don’t worry. I just wanted to make sure that when I cast this spell I’m not alone in this room. That would be very bad.”

Radu unrolled the scroll in his hands and continued gloating to his chosen victim. “You see this? This is the original scroll of Everlasting Life I used all those years ago. It’s absolutely ancient and priceless, penned by the Black Pharaoh, Nephren-ka himself more than a millennia ago. What am I doing with it now, you may ask? I’m going to use it to solve my crow problem. You see, that murder is here to take a soul away. If I give them one, they’ll be satisfied and leave me alone – at least for a few years.”

Cold realization of what was happening and worse, what was
going
to happen, uncoiled in Dennis’ mind like a waking serpent. He willed his paralyzed legs to move, but to no effect.

“Unfortunately I can’t sacrifice just anyone to the little black bastards to get them off my back,” Radu continued. “I found that one out the hard way the first time I tried to bribe the psychopomps and it cost me dearly.”

Radu motioned to his left eye, and now that it was no longer behind the red lenses, Dennis could see faint scars around the socket and that it didn’t move. It was pale blue and made of glass.

“No, I have to find someone with a soul somewhat like mine in order to fool them. That means someone with a talent for sorcery. As you can imagine, wizards are none too common in this day and age, despite the popularity of Harry Potter. Luckily for me, I discovered that those with untapped potential often take to playacting the lives they were born to lead. That’s where you and those other fools at the convention come in. Too bad that you happen to have the brightest spark in that pathetic bunch. You offer me the greatest chance of success with this.”

“You’re going to kill me?” Dennis croaked.

“Not directly. I’m going to call forth a Harbinger of Hermes, one of the Lords of the Wing, a Black Flyer of Yibb-Tstll. Oh they have had so many names over the countless centuries. Essentially they’re just really big psychopomps, soul takers of the highest order. When these things are summoned they never arrive happy, and if you’re not thoroughly warded, they’ll tear your soul out of you and take it back to the stygian depths.” 

Radu gave Dennis a cold look, like a butcher appraising a cut of meat. “Ideally,
you
would cast the spell, as it would draw the Black Flyer’s complete attention to you, but I guess that’s out of the question now. But, as you should doubtless know, a good magician is always prepared, and that’s why I purposely didn’t complete your magic circle.” 

Radu grinned, the very image of Mephistopheles. “When the Black Flyer arrives and finds out that it can’t get to me, it will be even more pissed-off than usual, and I’m afraid that it’ll take that out on you, my unprotected, immobile friend. In doing so, it’ll take your soul to wherever they take them, and those damned crows outside will disperse. That will give me a few more years of peace to find a better solution to my bird problem.”

“Oh my God,” Dennis whispered.

“No, my gods, the Old Ones, and they’re listening,” Radu said. “Now, let’s get the show on the road.” With that, he began to read the strange words from the ancient papyrus.

Dennis pulled and struck at his legs with his hands, even tried to force himself to fall over in order to crawl away, but all for naught. It was as if he was stuck in cement from the waist down. He looked around for something, anything he could grab hold of to either pull himself to the floor or use as a weapon. Unfortunately nothing was within reach.

Remember the water bottle trick?

Dennis stopped his frantic looking around and turned his head towards what his little voice was suggesting, an open bottle of water he’d bought from a vending machine in the hall and brought with him to Radu’s room.

Remember the levitation spell Radu taught you?

Dennis nodded, focused on the water bottle and intoned the spell of levitation just under his breath in the hope that Radu wouldn’t hear him. At first nothing happed, so he concentrated even harder. Dennis gritted his teeth and mumbled the alien sounds through his clenched jaws. He could feel pain starting to build in the front of his forehead, between his eyes, like a start of a bad sinus headache.

The water bottle twitched ever so slightly, but that was all.

What’s going on? Levitating Radu and the chair was easier than this?
Dennis wondered, and his little voice answered,
maybe he was helping you then?

“No, I can
do this,” Dennis whispered and then started intoning the spell again. He balled his hands into fists, sweat gathered at his temples, and he started to tremble from the waist up. Then all of the sudden and without warning, the water bottle rose up and flew towards Radu.

It missed the wizard by mere inches, landing at his feet with a thud.

Radu stopped reading and arched an eyebrow at Dennis. “Trying to throw off my concentration, little apprentice? Sorry to inform you, but I’ve done this incantation so many times, I could now almost do it in my sleep.”

He went back to reading from the scroll and the room became charged with ozone. The crows outside cawed and threw themselves against the magically-protected window.  Dennis felt the air around him change, become heavy, press in on him from all sides. He saw the shadows in one corner of the room darken and solidify, elongate and take on the shape of something winged and monstrous. It appeared to be made as much out of darkness as it was out of anything solid. The creature’s form twitched and blurred into the shadows around it. What little Dennis could make out was mostly piecemeal images: ebony feathers, a long and wickedly serrated beak, eyes fathomless
and dark; each image was only an individual fragment of a terrible whole.               

A sudden and total silence filled the room. Radu had stopped chanting and although Dennis could see the crows still crashing into the window, they made not a sound.

“Welcome, oh great Harbinger of Hermes!” Radu addressed the shadowy thing in the corner, then bowed low…and then abruptly stiffened in fear. Looking down, he saw the thrown water bottle lying at his feet. He also saw that it was open and had spilled its contents. The water had washed away some of the sand of his magic circle, breaking the protection it offered. 

“Oh shit,” was all Radu managed to get out before the thing in the corner lunged at him with a mighty, room-shaking caw.

You don’t want to see this,
Dennis’ little voice warned, but Dennis, a slave as ever to his curiosity, couldn’t look away.

The bird-thing landed within Radu’s ruined circle trailing feathers and tendrils of smoky shadow. Radu straightened up and raised his arms in front of his face in a futile gesture of defense. He began another of his arcane chants, but was only able to utter the single syllable of “Yog” before ebony talons buried themselves in his throat.

Even from across the room Dennis could hear the sound of flesh tearing and the delicate
click
of claws scraping Radu’s spine as the creature tightened its grasp. As jets of crimson sprayed the walls, the copper tang of blood filled Dennis’ nose.

Then Dennis’ head was filled with a sibilant whispering that cut ragged words into the soft folds of his brain. It was the voice of the Lord of the Wing.

Greetingssss, Grigory,
it said soundlessly.
Long have you eluded ussss, but no more. To your final judgment I sssshall take you, but firsssst, assss payment for your inssssolence, ssssome pain. A ssssmall tasssste of what awaitssss you.

Radu turned a wet, pleading eye towards Dennis. He extended a hand to the younger man, tried to beg, cry out, but the only sound that left his ruined throat was a red, bubbling gurgle.

The crow-thing ran a wicked talon slowly down the side of Radu’s face, a lover’s caress filled with malice. The claw peeled flesh off in a dripping flap, like it was skinning a blood-filled apple. Black eyes, devoid of mercy and filled with terrible wisdom, then followed Radu’s outstretched arm and fixed on Dennis.

Your tale issss not yet at an end,
the hissing screech scalded into Dennis’ mind.
And thissss issss not for your eyessss. Look no further, lesssss you learn too much.

The window shattered at last under the relentless assault and the murder of crows flew into the room, an undulating mass of darkness. Dennis could feel them all around him, their feathers rushing past, their claws and beaks scratching at his flesh. Now that the birds were in the room, it was filled with their deafening cries, but even still he could hear the Harbinger clearly in his head. It was mirthlessly laughing.  

Almost simultaneously the feeling returned to Dennis’ lower body and he toppled over, sending sand and black feathers scattering. His legs were cramped and unresponsive, so he dug his fingers into the matted carpet and slowly clawed his way towards the door.

Things wet and warm rained down on him and the carpet around Dennis became spotted with red as he pulled himself along. All around him were screams, the fluttering of wings, gurgling pleas in Russian, the snapping of bones, and the caws of the crows. Dennis kept his head down, eyes on the carpet, and focused on moving inches at a time out of this waking nightmare.

Did you think you could esssscape the pull of the Black Gulf, little wizard? Your kind, ever ssssince they crawled out of the muck have thought yoursssselvessss sssso sssspecial. All but the Great Old Onessss come before ussss in time, and you are far removed from them.

The crow-thing continued its psychic shriek as its claws made wet, ripping sounds in the quivering mass of bleeding meat with the one unmoving blue eye.

At the door at last, Dennis used one arm to lift himself up and the other to reach for the doorknob. Fingers wrapped around the cold metal and Dennis allowed himself a little smile of a job well done before twisting it. He then let out a curse and fell back down to the carpet. 

The door was locked and he was sure that Radu had the key.

Ssssorry young one, but the ssssoundssss musssst sssstay within thissss room for I have only jusssst begun to play. If you were to open that door, you would let the ssssoundssss out.

“No, no more, please,” Dennis cried, placing his hands against his ears in a vain attempt to block out the screeching in his head.