Part 25 (1/2)

He left us there, smiling at his own wit.

The rest of the day pa.s.sed as it usually didwith meals and gossipand it also pa.s.sed as it usually did not. I had begun trying to craft in my free time, something Lia thought was a very good idea. We practiced shooting pale smoke at each other. But nothing would happen except for coughing fits. ”It'll happen. I know that now,” said Lia. She winked at me.

”I guess,” I said. I wasn't so sure. Lux's pep talk was like a band-aid. I needed a new one now.

”Where there's smoke there's fire,” said Lia, encouragingly.

At dinner Ballard was with the rest of the werewolves. I saw him drinking from his moon flask, pretending like the rest of the Meadpalace didn't exist. He, Paolo and Locke were sitting together. Ballard shook his head forcefully, like he didn't want to hear anymore. Locke got up and left him, after which Paolo paid attention to his steak, and Ballard stared at a spot on the wall.

Most of the vampires, by this time, had stopped coming to the Meadpalace. You saw them, time to time, in the hallways, but they rarely if ever engaged people in conversation, keeping mostly to themselves. The Wiccans were also distant. It was a good thing that each particular race had somewhere they could go, because the more I saw, the more it looked like we were getting tired of each other.

I wondered if every Wiccan, werewolf and vampire was a social misfit, and then, when I thought about it, yeah, we kind of all were. At least we had that in common!

I left Lia and went to go back to my dormitory. But before I could get there I was hailed by someone I had not seen in a while.

It was Asher, and he was motioning to me like I should follow him. He looked guilty about something, almost as if he had done something wrong, or was about to, like he had carnivorous b.u.t.terflies gnawing at him or something.

I said, ”Hey, what's up, Asher?”

”Come with me,” he said. Wouldn't you know it, he led us straight to the s.p.a.ce in the wall, I had seen him coming from once before. And there were the stuccoes with the sculptures of the warriors on them. Asher felt around, trying to find the finger hold which would allow him to open the secret pa.s.sageway.

”This is a cryptoporticus,” he said. ”It leads to the columbarium.”

Crypto-what? Columbarium-who?

”Hurry! We'll be safe there!” he said.

I followed after Asher. Ballard's and Gaven's vouching for him wasn't the only reason why I felt safe; I had come to trust Asher. He took a torch from a bracket on the wall and whispered secret words to it. A flame lit. The entrances closed and we were standing in a small tunnel which went on for as far as the eye could see.

I saw various niches in the walls, Asher said were called loculi. They had urns tucked into them.

”There are the ashes of the warriors that were killed when a great war was fought here, Halsey Rookmaaker,” he said, pointing them out. He wasn't going to start that Halsey Rookmaaker nonsense again, was he?

”It was their sacrifice that repaired originally relations.h.i.+ps between shapes.h.i.+fters and Immortals. Follow me.”

He guided me as fast as he could through tunnel after tunnelwhat looked like trenches. You could still see where the ghosts of soldiers had fought and died.

”Where are we going, Asher?” I said.

”There's no time. Hurry!”

I hurried after him as fast as I could. When we finally got there, he entered into a circular room, which was like the Pantheon, except buried deep underground. An oculus in the ceiling fed into daylight. The Columbariumthe vaulted tomb.

Five funerary urns the size of living people stood in the corner, as well as other tombs. ”The Five Fallen,” he said. ”Five immortal vampires who died defending Rome. They rest now with the Dog Kings, in the royal columbarium.” He saw me looking up. ”Above us is the fighting pit,” said Asher.

”So this must've been what Gaven was talking about,” I said. ”The tomb of his forebears. The Columbarium. But there are vampires?”

I asked Asher about this. He said, ”Wethat is, shapes.h.i.+fters and other Supernaturalshave not always hated each other... Much. Don't get me wrong. We're not the best of friends. But this Gatheringplace was selected to honor the pastin an attempt to try and prevent it from reoccurring.”

In the center of the room was a large and ornate sarcophagusthe kind Egyptians used to bury their mummies in. It looked like a man and woman had been sculpted on the cover of it.

”Rhea Silva,” he said. ”She was said to possess all eight of the Wiccan Virtues. She found her true mate. They rest now, in peace, at an eternal banquet.”

The man and woman looked peaceful, powerful, old.

”Asher. I think I may be her,” I said. ”This super witch they have all been waiting for. I have disturbing nightmares. And my mindit can go places. When I asked Gaven about my visions, and the thing which is chasing me, he said it may have been 'the Calling', what werewolves feel before they change.”

”I see,” said Asher. ”You think you may be one of them, a Witch s.h.i.+fter. It's true. Such beings have existed. Before the change, as you call it, young warriors are possessed of their Animals... in their dreams. It is only natural.”

”You mean, it will try and become one with me, that I may be a werewolf?” I said.

Was that what the monster was that was chasing me? My Animal? Before I became a s.h.i.+fter?

”Who were your parents?” asked Asher. ”Forgive me.” He could see that he had made a fur paw. ”So you, like me, Halsey Rookmaaker, are outcast, too.... You know, this animal may be your Other, or it may not be, but I perceive incredible things for you” He wanted to say my name again. ”If you are this One, then this would be your Mecca. Rhea Silva was a true Level Nine Wiccan. She was not any of the Virtues. She was all of them. Beyond Fledged. She was also a Witch s.h.i.+fter and she could See.”

”You mean like you do? Is that why you are here? Did you seesomething? Me? Did you see something with me?”

”Camille asked me to come here,” said Asher. ”She wrote to me about you. She said you deserved the right to look, even though her husbandand these were her wordsworried that you might overreact, if you saw what was happening. Halsey needs to know, said Camille, for her own illumination, WHAT THESE THINGS ARE,” said Asher.

”What what things are?” I said.

Asher blinked.

”Do you know, Miss Rookmaaker, who and what, the Dioscuri are?”

”I have heard that name before,” I said. ”But I do not know what they are.”

”They are here with usin Rome,” said Asher. ”Even Prague is nervous. They have sent their emissaries, the two twins. Two very deadly men. Never speak to them.”

”I haven't. I won't. But who are the Dioscurvy?”

”Dioscuri.” Asher trailed his torch along the rounded walls of the werewolf tomb. I saw the figures battling in two dimensions. ”The stuccoes tell the tale of the First War,” he said. ”The Dioscourges, on the other hand, tell the tale of the Second.”

I didn't follow. ”But what Second?” I said. ”I thought there was only one war. The First War. You mean to say, there's another?”

”The Dioscuri have, indeed, begun to predict of late a second war,” said Asher.

”You mean...”

”They are Seers. The most powerful kind. But they are untrustworthy.”

”But what are they?” I asked.

Asher shook his head.

”Not just what, who. They are... alive in some strange sense. Avoid them. And most importantly, the twins. They will be missing you soon. I would like to meet you here tomorrow night. We will throw our minds together, eh, and cast out, to see what we may see. I have certain things I wish to show you. Among them Lennox. And the Agonies.”