Chapter five

Millennia ago

 The tavern was dimly lit and held so much smoke in it from the torches off to the sides that were used for lighting and the many different pipes being used by the patrons that it was nearly impossible to see.  The hut that served as the tavern for the small town had been thrown together, much like the rest of the small village.  Those that had founded it had thought that a good deal more trade would come their way from travelers going and coming from Egypt, but they had been proven wrong.  Granted, there was a good deal of trade between the Nile River and the Roman Empire, but they had not taken into consideration that other routes of passage would be used instead of their’s, and so the founders of the village, mainly elderly men who could now not afford to travel any further, made due with what they could of what little traffic did come their way, usually the unwanted of the rest of the world, but who were they to judge where their meager income came from.
 Most of the men present were thieves and wanted criminals from the surrounding area, but a few were actually men of some note, Egyptians and Romans of some nobility traveling incognito to or from their respected Empires through these less traveled routes to keep from being spotted by unwanted eyes.  One would be hard pressed to tell the difference between the two types of patrons, since one group tried so hard to disguise themselves as the other, but if one were to look closely they would note that some of the patrons seemed slightly cleaner and more learned than others.  No one ever really did that, though, not wanting to scare away any of the coins that were coming into their hands from these characters.  It wouldn’t have been good for business to drive off the better paying customers, so there were no questions asked at the establishment, which was just how all of those who frequented the place liked it.
 Off to one side sat a man who would have been grouped as one of the latter groups, a Roman noble who was traveling back to Rome in disguise, being a general of the Roman army and having information to report back to the Senate when he arrived home.  He had been sent to spy on several members of the royalty in the surrounding areas, and had finally finished collecting enough information to place a handful of those he had spied upon in prison for committing, or plotting to commit, treason against the Empire.  He had only stopped in the village for a short while to wet his tongue and rest his travel weary legs.  Little did he know he would not be returning to his home anytime soon, and definitely not in the same capacity as he had planned.
  Marius lifted the mug of ale to his lips, and sipped at it.  He would have preferred to actually get to enjoy his drink, but knew all too well that in a place such as this, it was best not to let one’s mind be clouded by the pleasures of drink, or any other pleasures for that matter.  Any one of the men around him would gladly pick his pocket, if not kill him for the worn, tattered clothes he wore upon his back.  He dearly missed the order and peace of Rome, and longed to be back in his home with his wife, Lasha.  She had been a slave, captured from the Egyptians back before the trade agreements between the two Empires had been established.  Now, slaves were traded back and forth with ease.  Lasha had began her life as a servant to him, but he had soon fallen in love with her, and had taken her as his wife, an allowance due to his status in the Roman army.  She had yet to bare him any heirs, but they had not been married long, and he was still willing to give her the benefit of the doubt, knowing that if she did not give him at least one child soon that he would have to declare their marriage void and take another, Roman born woman as his wife.
 A strange woman entered the tavern, an unusual sight since women of this area were not often allowed freedom of movement, especially in such establishments as this.  The fact that she was unattended by any man at all was even more interesting.  He would have expected the woman’s father or husband to be with her if she were out of her household, but it seemed that she had free run, and this intrigued him greatly.  She had a presence to her, an aura, that seemed to radiate out from her.  This presence seemed to keep all the men at the tavern at bay, for not one even moved to challenge her being there.  She was dressed in silks and satins of red and black that flowed about her form as she moved, making her all the more appealing, and yet no one moved towards her, or even glanced her way.  No one seemed to even dare to approach this strange beauty that defied everything about what a woman in this land should be like. 
 She gracefully made her way through the tavern, acting as if she belonged there more than the men around her did, as if this was her domain, and she was not to be driven from it.  She eased her way towards him, and settled in the seat opposite his.  Waving a single finger, she indicated to the barkeep that she wished to have a drink.  Turning back to Marius, she said in perfect, flowing Latin, “How does this night find you, dear sir?”
 Taken aback, he could only stare into her deep, green eyes that seemed to light her pale face.  “How…how did you know I was from Rome?” he demanded, wondering who might have blown his cover.
 She smiled, exposing perfect, white teeth behind her glistening, red lips, and he wondered what sort of berry she could have rubbed over those full, luscious lips to get them to glitter like that.  “You are not so dark of skin as those who are not from the Northern lands, and it is a safe bet to assume a Northerner is Roman than any other nationality, since so few others come through areas such as this.”
 Marius felt his own lips starting to form a smile.  “And here I would have thought that my skin would have tanned a bit by now.”
 “Not as much as you would think,” she assured him.
 The barkeeper sent over her mug, and she took a sip of it.  Nodding, she placed it down upon the table.  “Not bad.  I imagine you are used to much better.”
 He nodded.  “Yes, the wines offered in Rome are beyond compare.”
 She laughed softly, a sound that went through his very soul, stirring his longings for this woman.  “I would imagine that is so.  I have heard that Roman men are fond of their drinks.”
 Marius laughed in turn.  “It would seem that you have heard rightly.  Are you here alone?” he ventured, hoping that the answer would be yes.  He dearly wanted to get to know this woman better, in more ways than one.
 “Yes, I have no…keeper, I suppose you would say.”
 “And how did you manage that, someone as beautiful and…intriguing as you?”
 She leaned closer to him, resting her check upon one, perfectly formed hand.  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
 He smiled, feeling the effects of this woman upon his mind and body more than that of the ale he had been partaking of.  “Did you have something in…particular…in mind?”
 She laid her hand upon his, her red fingernails glittering softly in the dim lighting of the tavern.  “Perhaps.  Would you be interested in finding out?” she purred gently, batting her long lashes at him.
 His grin widened, and he knew he must look extremely silly at that moment, but he found that he didn’t really care how he looked to the others around him.  She had invited him, not them, and that was good enough for him.  “Yes, I would be delighted to.”
 “Then come with me,” she muttered, batting her long, dark lashes at him yet again and pulling at his hand eagerly. 
 Marius tossed a few, gold coins upon the table, more than enough to pay for both his drink and hers, and followed her out of the tavern.  He did not see the glances of the other men there as they watched them leave, nor did he see the shivers that ran down the back of every man there, grateful that she had finally left without taking any of them.

 Marius followed the woman out into the dirt alley, and on to a hut not too awfully far from the tavern.  She invited him in with a wave of her arm, and he entered to have her shut the wooden door behind her.  He could see nothing in the darkness of the hut, but could hear her moving about with ease.  A few moments later, the small flame of a candle lit, illuminating a small, round room that served as kitchen, bedroom and living quarters.  There was an iron kettle over the fire pit set to one side, and a reed mat for sleeping upon on the other.
 He nodded over to the mat, but she shook her head before moving off to the opposite side of the hut.  Dusting away the sand that had been spread out there, she revealed a wooden door.
 “Where does that lead?” he asked, curious to where she intended to take him.  He would have been just fine on the reed mat, but this was her game, and he intended to let her play it her way, for now anyway.
 A sly smile crossed her face.  “You’ll see soon enough.  I think you’ll like it.”
 “Oh, you do, do you?  Well, let’s see how right you happen to be.”  He moved to stand beside her as she lifted the door up, a small pile of sand collecting to one side as she lifted it away.  He looked down into the opening, but could make out absolutely nothing, it was so dark down there.  “What’s down there?” he wanted to know, now not feeling so sure of himself.
 “A surprise.  Wouldn’t you like to see it?” she purred in such a manner that he could not control his need for this woman.  He would follow her into Hell if that was what it took to know her for just a few moments. 
 Nodding his head slowly, he said in a dull voice, completely unlike the firm and confident tone he was used to speaking in, “Yes, yes I would.”
 “Good,” and she disappeared into the opening.  She didn’t move down any staircase he could see, and he hadn’t seen her actually jump into the hole in the ground.  She had just been there one moment, and was gone the next.  He leaned over the side, trying to look in, but even with the light of the candle, he could not make out more than a foot or two into the hole.
 “Well, are you coming,” her voice drifted up to him.
 Well, if she could make the jump, surely he would be able to make it, too.  “How are we going to get out?” he asked, a little worried about getting stuck in the hole with a mad woman, if that was what she truly was.  He was honestly starting to doubt her sanity, after all.
 Her laughter drifted up to him from the dark.  “Silly.  There are hand and foot holds in the wall, and it is not that far a drop.  Come.  Will you not…play with me.”  These last words were said in such a soft and husky voice that they seemed to crawl, tingling, up and down his spine.
 With a steadying breath, he moved to the edge of the opening she had disappeared down.  He swung his legs over the lip of the hole, and then slid his entire body down into the darkness.
 He fell, and continued to fall.  It seemed as if he fell forever, crying out as his body plummeted down and down into the hole , into the darkness that refused to let him go.  Gravity pulled at him one way, while the air seemed to be pulling at him another.  Darkness surrounded him, and for a time he was thankful of that.  He did not want to see the walls speeding by him, or the ground below him speeding towards his helpless form.  Still, he continued to fall, and after a time he wondered if there was a bottom to this opening in the earth.  Logic demanded that there be a bottom, but his heart and mind were starting to honestly wonder if this had to be true or not.  Perhaps there was no end to this, and he would fall and fall forever.  Was this Hell, he wondered.  Could the afterlife truly be this cruel to one, to torture them in such a fashion?  But, he could not remember dieing.  Would he not have had to hit bottom before he would have been sent to the here after?  He could not remember hitting the ground, but how could he keep on falling like this?
 His feet suddenly hit into something that gave out under his weight.  He tumbled through the wooden planks that had finally stopped his fall and landed on the stone floor beneath them.  To his amazement, he was not only still alive, but appeared to be unhurt.  He rolled over onto his front, and pushed himself up off the dusty ground.  Turning round and round, he could see nothing in the pitch blackness he now found himself surrounded by.  “Hello,” he called out, wondering where the woman could have possibly gotten to.  Had she been hurt on the way down?  Was she even still alive?
 Suddenly, a silvery light cut through the darkness, and he looked to one side to see a window with the light of the moon falling through it.  “What the devil?”  He walked to the window, and looked down to see the sheer walls of some fortress, tremendous waves lapping at sharp rocks far below.  “Where am I?” he cried out in disbelief.  There had been no large bodies of water anywhere near the village he had been in just a few moments ago.  How could he have been transported this far in such a short amount of time?
 Laughter floated through the air towards him.  “This is what you wanted to see, wasn’t it?  Why I have no keeper?” her voice drifted towards him.
 He spun about, but the woman was no where in sight.  “Where are you, witch?  Mistress of the Dark One?  Where have you brought me to with your dark and fowl magic?”
 Laugher again rang through the stone corridor.  “Magic?  Witch?  Dark One?  Now, now, is that anyway to refer to a lady?  You did follow me here of your own accord.  I did not force you to come with me.  It is not my fault your loins got the better of you.  Perhaps if you had more resistance to such temptation you would not be in the predicament you currently are in.”
 Marius drew his sword from the sheath he had concealed under the cloak he had been wearing, preparing himself for the attack he was certain was about to come.  “And what sort of predicament am I in?  What is your plans for me, fowl beast?”
 “Why not find me, and discover your destiny?”
 Not sure of what else he could do, Marius cautiously made his way toward where he had heard her voice coming from.  All thought of frolicking with this monster was gone.  He intended to either draw the truth of his location from her, or slit her heathen throat and finding his own way back home.  He held the sword out before him as he moved, heading deeper and deeper down the corridor, away from the window that had let in the light of the moon.  He could see a second window down the hall, the silvery light falling upon the stones of the floor before him. 
 Heading down towards that patch of light upon the floor, he noticed an aged set of wooden steps leading up to a higher level of the fortress.  The laughter was drifting down towards him from up there.  Turning that direction once he reached the window, he could see nothing beyond the first few steps.  He felt uncertain about going up those stairs, worried that although the ones he could see were in decent conditions that that didn’t mean the ones beyond that were good. 
 “Frightened of the dark?” her voice floated down towards him, taunting him.  He was not a foolish man, but he would not allow a woman, a witch, to get the better of him.  Taking another, steadying breath, he took to the stairs, moving cautiously and slowly, testing each step before he placed his weight upon it, and then moving to the next.  He was half way up the stairs when a cracking sound came from behind him.  He whirled in the dark, but could not see anything. Even the light from the window was gone.  He felt several of the steps he had just passed crumble and fall to the ground, leaving him no choice but to continue upward.  He turned his back on the ruined section of the staircase, and headed on up.  Every few feet, more stairs would give out behind him, as if the things were actually waiting for his passage before they finally gave into time and allowed themselves to finally fall to their resting places on the floor below.
 As he neared the top of the staircase, he noticed a shaft of light coming down from the floor above him.  The light passed through a thick mist that floated and stirred about at the top of the stairs.  He continued on into this mist, feeling its bitter cold enveloping him.  The mist was several degrees cooler than the air had been, and he shivered in the unnatural chill.  It seemed to press upon his skin, weighing him down.  Trying to ignore the strange feeling as best he could, he called out, “Where are you, witch woman?  Show yourself to me.”
 Peering into the mist, he could see nothing beyond a few inches from his face aside from the shimmering droplets that made up the small cloud.  There was no sign of the woman who had lured him, then again, he could not even see the floor beneath his boots.  He was not too keen on the idea of walking down that corridor with nothing to lead him, not even her haunting laughter, and so he stayed in place, waiting her out, sword in hand and ready to strike at any moment.  He only needed a target, but at the moment, one did not seem forthcoming.
 “You are a brave one, aren’t you?”
 Marius jumped back, almost tumbling down the edge where the stairs had once been.  The last of them had plummeted to the ground as he had looked around in the mist.  The voice had came from no where and everywhere around him at the same time.  He looked about frantically, trying to find her.  Still he could see nothing of the woman.
 “Where are you?” he cried once again, brandishing his sword.  “Show yourself.”
 Laughter filled his ears.  No, no that wasn’t right.  It filled his mind, tinkling and working its way at his brain, trying to drive him mad, but he would not allow it.  He lashed out with the sword, aiming at nothing and hitting just that.  He spun about again and again, slashing and hacking at the mist around him, but never hitting anything solid.  All the while, the laughter haunted him, letting him know that she was close, but not giving him any idea where she might actually be.
 He swung his weapon one, last time, knocking himself of balance, and he crashed into the wall opposite the stairs.  He thanked his good fortune that he did not tumble off the other direction.  He doubted he would have survived a second, incredibly long fall. 
 Blinking his eyes to clear them of the haze that had dulled them when he had hit his head, he could see the mist before him starting to pull in on itself, the swirling edges drawing in towards the very core of the fog.  It soon began to take shape, turning into the woman he had been hunting, yet it was not the same woman.  Although this one had the same form, it did not have the same coloring.  Impossibly pale skin gleamed in the light of the moon, her lips were a dark, purplish color and her hair was jet black, far darker than any hair he had ever beheld before.  She leaned close to him, capturing his hands with powerful claws that held him pinned to the wall.
 “Ah, my dear, you have given a good deal of fun this night, more than I have had in a long, long time, but now I am afraid it is time to end our little game.”
 “What are you going to do to me?” he breathed, his strength spent.  He was now resigned to dieing at the hands of this unearthly creature, confident in the knowledge that he would be welcomed in the afterlife as a hero for having tried to destroy this beast.
 He could see the coldness of her heart as she smiled down upon him.  “It has been so long since I have had such fun, I’m not sure I wish to end it forever.”  With that, she dipped down her head towards his neck.  He saw the flash of her ivory fangs right before her face disappeared from sight.  A moment later, he felt the sharp stab of pain as those teeth sank into the flesh of his neck, piercing one of his blood vessels.  The teeth slid out with a sickening, wet sound, and she clamped her lips over the wound.  He could feel the pull at his veins and arteries as she began to draw the blood out of his body.  It was like nothing he had ever felt before.  It wasn’t really pain, nor could he actually say it was pleasure, at first as she drained the blood out of his body.  His heart was racing, but he knew from the feel in his body that she did not need his beating heart to bring the blood to her.  She would simply have sucked it out of him if he had been dead.  She did not need him alive, but she had not killed him for some reason.  She had wanted him to experience this, and he had no idea why that would be.  Wouldn’t he die long before she had drained the last drop out of him?
 The pain came suddenly as the blood vessels in his extremities suddenly collapsed under the pressure of her greedy feasting.  He cried out as it stabbed white hot through his mind, but there was nothing he could do to end the pain.  He was too weak to even think of moving, and didn’t know if he would still have the ability to do that anyway.  His limbs turned a sickly, pale color as the very force of his life was drawn from him to fed her monstrous needs.   
 He could feel that terrible pain moving inward, heading closer and closer to his heart as the blood was pulled further and further from where it had once traveled so easily.  His heart beat began to slow as she took from him what they both needed to live.  The steady drumming filled his ears, until it was all he could hear, coming slower and slower, lasting longer and longer between beats.  The pain now enveloped his entire body, consuming him until it was now all he knew.  He couldn’t even think to pray to the gods to end his suffering and misery.  All he knew was that he surely could not continue on like this.  It had to end soon.  It had to.  How much more could he have left in him for her to take, how much more did she need?
 Finally, her lips let go of him, and she leaned back to gaze upon his glazed eyes.  Smiling, his blood glistening on her lips, she leaned back over him, running her hand along the side of his face.  “And now, my dear, prepare to join me in entirety.”
 The agonized cry was the last sound he would make in life.