Underbelly (21 page)

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Why do you want that information?” he asked.

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I could ask you the same question of your interest in me, which I could take many ways. I’m going to leave you now, because my temper is rising and it’s best for you that you don’t see it. Before I go I’d like you to answer me one thing – what made you believe that it was true, that I am the ’Ninth Heretic’? That’s an outlandish claim, and you seem to have accepted it without any proof, which is hardly the academic approach. Why?” she asked, keen to know what marked her out as a witch so that she could disguise herself better.

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They made a compelling case, though I tried to keep an open mind, until you confirmed it,” he said, his answer making her turn away and run away in pique, furious at herself. She should have just denied it and made out she thought him mad.

The desk clerk gave her a camp smile when she returned back to her hotel, asking if she’d had a pleasant afternoon. She sneered at him rudely and went up to her room, feeling completely paranoid and believing that the desk clerk, the maids, porters, doormen – everybody was in on the conspiracy to keep an eye on her. A drastic haircut, which she despised, having liked her long black locks, wasn’t enough to throw them off the trail, nor was changing her name, the alias of Sarah Curtis proving to be her briefest identity change. Why couldn’t they just let the past lie?

Was it because they’d desecrated one church? There’d already been consequences for that…

Aolfa could hear Acca making herself be sick repeatedly and she went outside to join her.

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Good morning. You feel ill too?” Aolfa said tiredly.

Acca nodded tearfully. “I’ve had orgies before but last night was too, too much. Don’t you think?”

She shrugged. “They killed my friend. Ilsegarde never hurt anyone and they tortured her to death and they have to bear the consequences.”

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Who? That baby never killed her, and Ioshua…we shouldn’t have left him.”

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If we hadn’t then the pain he felt at being crucified would have been pointless. He wanted them to find him. That was the point.”

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And what will they do to him now?”

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Acca, it’s too early for a discussion like this. You’ve been lucky in your short life and you’ve never known true hardship and danger. Ioshua sought it from an early age and will be revelling in the attention. He will be destroyed now and that’s how things are – worrying about it doesn’t help anyone.”

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I feel tainted, not because of him. It’s the baby. I consumed innocent flesh.”

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The mother killed her own child. If there is such a thing as sin, then she was the sinner. She provided the body for the ritual and we made use of it – perhaps it would have been a sin to decline. Wasteful, certainly.”

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I don’t think I could do that again,” Acca said, shuddering as she remembered how easily she had chewed his flesh.

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We can talk later about this. Excess always produces these feelings. Initial bliss and then a stomach ache. Don’t vow to abstain forever because you feel bad now. Life is very long for such as us, remember that.”

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I know. Eternity is a long time to have regrets.”

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Exactly, so don’t. I lost count of how many lives I took years ago. If you’re scared become an Antinomian,” she joked.

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That’s not for me. All I’m saying is that don’t we have to have limits? If we don’t then they’re right to persecute us. I want to live forever and I want to enjoy living forever, free of guilt.”

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They do not persecute us yet. They will, Acca, and this is what our actions are all about. I have no fondness for the Cathars, but it is obvious that they will be just the first in a long line of opponents to be eliminated. That is why we want them to win. If all of the different faiths are destroyed and the practitioners killed then we will be left with one tyrannical faith that will be too powerful for us and they will come for us, and sooner than either of us are prepared for. Our survival is in jeopardy.”

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I don’t understand what good our protest will do.”

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Our resistance is a reminder that there are worse things than the Cathars. If our actions force some of the Crusaders to return home to protect their land and people then it’s successful because it gives the Albigensians more of a chance.”

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I’d sooner fight with them to repel the invaders rather than kill and eat babies and turn on our own.”

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We’d die. I haven’t lived to be this old by being reckless.”

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Our whole mission seems reckless. Are we going to be much longer because I want to return home?” Acca said sadly.

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Not yet. These fools believe they are invulnerable and we have to show them terror, erode their confidence and their ambitions. By the time we’re through they won’t be thinking of eliminating anyone, they’ll just be praying meekly to survive.”

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Ioshua won’t be coming back with us, will he?” Acca said, realising that he was lost to them.

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No. I guarantee that there will be interesting occurrences on the night that he dies,” Aolfa promised, smiling gleefully as she imagined the carnage she would wreak. She went inside to the small house they were ‘borrowing’ (Ioshua, Wykeham and Alice had scared the elderly owner, Remy Renaud, to death and had dismembered and disposed of the corpse) where she found Wykeham drinking some holy water they’d taken from the church.

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I have to congratulate you on last night, Wykeham. Your actions were the most impressive,” Aolfa said, smiling at him.

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Thank you. It wasn’t planned, but it was fitting. I was concerned that Alice might be cross with me today and I’m pleased to say she agrees that it was the right thing to do.”

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What about Mildburgh? She certainly enjoyed the spectacle last night. Is she as thrilled today?”

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She slept in our bed so I would think so. Her feelings aren’t important anyhow, she’s our chattel now."

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That worked out well then,” Aolfa laughed, having little time for Layne who had never fitted in at the rites.

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Indeed. We’ve gained another lover, while you’ve lost one. They will kill him of course.”

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Of course. Just imagining what they’re doing to him now is excitement enough for me at the moment.”

Wykeham considered her words and said, “That thought is quite invigorating. I’m going to pay my new woman a visit,” he said, taking his leave from her. Aolfa sat by herself for a while, Darlynn joining her shortly afterwards, her fingers continually fidgeting, unsure what to do with her hands now she no longer had her baby to hold. She was unable to stay still for long and wandered around the room mumbling to herself before she went outside, to Aolfa’s relief – like Layne and Mildburgh, Darlynn wasn’t really one of them, just an insane young woman who couldn’t fit in with normal society and presumed that she could pass herself off as a witch. While Mildburgh had a role to play in the circle (as masochistic concubine), Darlynn did not, her drastic action only granting her temporary membership and Aolfa sensed that Darlynn knew this. Aolfa went outside and saw that Darlynn was harping on about what she’d done to Acca, seeking commendation, a true sign of an amateur.

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Killing your baby is by far a greater sin than killing an adult male or getting crucified,” Darlynn complained to Acca, who was still being sick sporadically. While Darlynn downplayed Ioshua’s actions, he had been her sole link to the group and in his absence she wore his clothes and gave his fate much thought.

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I don’t want to talk about it.”

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I stabbed him and made him cry and then I let him have comfort at my breast, suckling him to make him trust me again before I plunged the knife…”

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Shut up!” Acca shouted, sick of hearing her revel in it. “Yes, your sin was greater than Ioshua’s. At least he was self-destructive. Your baby and Layne were unwilling victims.”

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I could not have paid my baby a higher honour than that ritual.”

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Aren’t we lucky that our mothers didn’t honour us so?”

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Morality is not applicable to rituals, Acca. Ritual sacrifice is something that you will have to get used to,” Aolfa said. While she liked Acca, she felt that she was in the wrong and corrected her.

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I thought that you didn’t partake in that.”

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I don’t perform the acts myself, but I attend them, I watch them and reap the blessings. Some of our kind choose that course and rejecting them is not an option.”

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But you’re so much more powerful than the rest of us. You could speak out against it.”

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How am I in a position to? I don’t go out and steal children or kill on the wild ride. I don’t abduct virgins for the rape and murder offerings. That is not my way. I do, however, kill for mammon. Killing by imprecation is no more moral than manually sticking a knife in their side.”

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I don’t know why you do that either.”

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I’ve told you, mammon. I care about wealth and power. Killing is not pleasurable for me, generally, but it is not difficult either. You’ll learn.” Aolfa considered there to be much hope for young Acca, certain that her stomach would grow stronger in time.

Alice and Wykeham didn’t want to come down from their high and they learned of a small group of Beguines who worked as laundresses in a remote area and suggested their sacrifice. Acca was unwilling and Aolfa was uncertain, preferring to kill the church’s favourite daughters, a convent of nuns, rather than the Beguines who seemed to be outsiders, any connection to the church very peripheral. Alice tried to persuade Aolfa, talking of poor Ilsegarde, tortured to death just for writing of the occult, never hurting a soul in her life and more likely to attend church than a black mass. Wykeham told Aolfa and Acca what he had heard of Ioshua, of how he had been paraded through the streets and spat on and assaulted by the townspeople as a precursor to the real torture. The Turners said enough to sway Aolfa and she went with them and Mildburgh, Darlynn and Acca. The spokeswoman of the small community invited them inside; a welcoming young woman called Beatrice who offered them some food in their humble home. Alice started playing with her first as they sat around the long table with around 20 Beguines in the room, telling Beatrice that she recognised her and knew she was a fallen woman. Beatrice admitted that she had sinned in her past, only for Alice to shout, “Don’t lie and say it was years past, you were at Remy Renaud’s house today sucking his cock.” Aolfa and Acca sniggered at this and laughed louder as Mildburgh climbed onto the table and removed her clothes and began inserting vegetables into herself upon Wykeham’s command. The Beguines looked to the door and saw that Darlynn blocked the only exit and was brandishing a large knife. Acca stopped laughing as Wykeham removed his clothes and grabbed Beatrice, who offered herself to him if he let the other girls leave.

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I told you all that she was a filthy whore!” Alice said, producing a knife of her own, which she plunged into the Beguine nearest her, possibly the youngest, looking to be no more than 14, her death scream emerging as a small squeak. The first murder caused a mass panic, the Beguines running at Darlynn, who only managed to lacerate one ineffectually before she was bundled aside and they poured out of the building, at least six escaping. Alice went mad with her, too busy stabbing a second victim to take her place and Aolfa salvaged the situation, using winds to slam the door firmly shut. Wykeham raped Beatrice on the table, aided by Mildburgh who helped restrain her, while Acca remained in her seat. What had happened to Ilsegarde and what was happening to Ioshua was awful, but this was abhorrent to her. Aolfa noticed her non-participation and tried to draw her into it, telling her that she would open and shut the door sporadically to give them false hope of escaping. Acca was not entertained by this and told her to open the door and let them out. Aolfa went with her original idea, opening the door and letting them think there was a way out before shutting it with the force of a hurricane. When there was only five left alive Wykeham began an incantation, the final five to be sacrificed ritually. They were stripped and bound, and Wykeham covered his first victim’s face with his palm as he made an unholy offering of her.