CHAPTER 6
He was in time for the meeting, arriving along with a night-shift officer he had urgently picked up while he still was in the changing room, before he could wear his uniform.
The night shift was mostly composed by willing agents, meaning people that not only preferred to work after sunset but also, in many cases, would have had problems during daytime. This was the case of Krey M’sheat, one of the few remaining thousands of living pureblood drows. In the daytime he would have been almost blind. In the dark his sight was perfect.
Shim, as anyone of his race, had a limited ability to see infrared light emissions, developed into an hereditary trait during thousands of years spent in underground mines. Still he couldn't even try to compete with the night vision of Krey. Having your back covered by a dark elf in a night mission was the best you could ask for, at least as long as the dark elf, aside from seeing well, knew what to do.
Vivienne Blanchard and her coach were already waiting. She was outside the vehicle, in a pose halfway between languid and snob, so Shim could see that she was actually wearing a cloak as he had thought earlier.
Even though the area they were in was one of the less enjoyable of the city, the lighting was quite fine and almost soothing. Globes of enchanted light floated a couple of meters over the street level, almost unmoving, and radiated a clear and soft light around them, much like that of the Virgin, the smaller and brightest of the three moons inhabiting the night skies.
«I was starting to believe you would not come», the woman said in her peculiar aristocratic tone.
Shim, who was reasonably sure he wasn't late, let the comment drop. «Where do we have to go?»
«I am afraid that you will have to simply follow my steps», she answered, evasively. «Even if it were my intention to reveal to you the details of our destination, they would be of little to no use for you.»
«You know, of course, that if anything happens to us you would be the first to be implied», he said in a conversational tone.
Vivienne laughed, even though her laughter was more dark than fun. «I am sure that you do not want to imply that two men, for sure bringing weapons on them, are afraid that a woman alone and of my lineage might represent a lethal peril for them.»
«I am implying that the best way to be a lethal peril, as you say, is having people underestimate you.»
Vivienne laughed again. «You know, you are of my liking detective. You are... interesting. Now let us go, it is not proper to waste any more time.»
«Does she always speak like that?» Krey whispered toward his superior. Shim shrugged and started following the woman, who had already gone into the street where the shop he had visited earlier stood, and was now turning into an alley so narrow that it could barely be followed in a one-man line.
No one spoke for the rest of the way. Shim wasn't in the mood for conversation, and most of all he was trying to carefully check the path they were following, both to be able to remember it later and because knowing exactly where he was could easily draw the line between life and death, or at least between a long and quiet life and a short and painful one. In spite of this, he was under the impression that Vivienne was leading them on a wild good chase, making them walk in circle or making fundamentally useless turns just to confound them, succeeding pretty well. He did not know whether Krey had any idea about where that woman was leading them, but he knew for sure he didn't.
Eventually they came in view of a large and short building standing in a quite deserted area of the Twilight Zone, that peculiar part of the city which acted as a borderline between the center – with its offices and shops, mostly inhabited during the day – and the suburbs, mostly made up of houses to which people went back at night. It was easy to understand they were there, due to the clear contrast between the two urban areas delimiting it, hard to miss. Understanding which were the precise coordinates, though, was quite harder.
«What's that?» Shim asked, expecting an answer from Vivienne. It was Krey who gave it instead. «A disco.»
Shim turned to look at his officer even though all he could see in the scarcely lit space in front of the building was a red stain on the black background of the night, slightly brighter in the face and dimmer where his clothes retained his body heat.
«Did you know it already?» he asked.
«No, it's written above the door.»
Knowing that he wouldn't even be able to see the door if he tried, he didn't waste his time.
«In the past it was a discotheque» Vivienne confirmed. «It was closed a long time ago, and at the time being it is used for a different purpose. You will see. But before going in, detective, I wish that you have a clear mind about the terms of our agreement. Nothing of what you will see or hear does concern you this night, with the exception of what is related to your investigation.»
Shim sighed. «I will remember. And I also remember that you told me I won’t see any crime being committed tonight.»
«I do not know anyone who would hold a promise like that, detective. All that I can assure you is that what I want you to see does not directly contravene any law. If you should see anyone doing criminal acts, I will not ask you to pretend you have not seen it. I only ask you to act only if you are sure of what you have seen.»
«We are tough-headed, not hot-headed», Shim replied, not talking about himself and the officer with him, rather about the race he belonged to. Vivienne seemed to appreciate the answer, as she moved on to the door and knocked in a way that was just too random not to be extremely prepared. Someone opened just enough to look outside, then the door was opened all the way and the three could enter the place.
The inside was darker than the outside. Shim wasn't able to understand who or what had opened the door, he just passed by a figure radiating nothing more than a faint heat, almost impossible for his eyes to see, and completely impossible for him to make a sense of. Vivienne looked like a small pinkish ball floating in the air in front of him, the cloak shielded all the rest of her, making it invisible for the dwarf but surely not for his companion, who indeed was already following her. Shim stopped him brushing his arm with one hand, and gestured for him to slow down. He wanted to be as careful as possible, even though the situation didn't allow for too much prudence.
Soon they were able to see a trembling light, toward which they were going. Then the woman turned around a corner and following her was almost a shock for both of them, as they suddenly found themselves in a lit room. The light was not too strong actually, and came only from a large quantity of candles burning slowly, filling the air with the typical smell of hot wax, but the contrast with the darkness before made it look amplified, and Krey had to shield his eyes with one hand not to be blinded by it.
What once must have been the main room of the disco had been completely emptied, painted something that could be a matte black or a very dark gray – it was unlikely to be its original color – and refurnished, at least if an apparently endless series of tall dark iron chandeliers could be called furniture. There weren't any chairs, couches or any other kind of furniture, except for some sort of a desk not distant from the farther wall from the entrance. Shim took some time realizing what it actually was, and when he did he felt a cold shiver running down his spine; it was an altar.
The room was crammed full of people. All of them wore black tunics or large cloaks, with hoods lifted on their head, casting weird shadows at the dancing light of the candles.
«What exactly happens here?» the dwarf hissed to Vivienne, stressing the word “exactly” as if he was trying to teach it to some illiterate.
«Have you never seen a ritual, detective?»
«Which kind of ritual?»
«Something akin to a mass.»
Shim looked up at the women, trying to understand the expression on her face. What was “akin” to a mass?
He had seen masses for several deities, mostly for the sake of knowledge. He wasn't the kind of dwarf who put his life in the hands of gods, even though he ackno
wledged, if not their existence, at least their power; moreover, in his position, he really couldn't be other than neutral when it came to religious matters. Nothing of what he had seen so far, anyway, resembled even slightly what he was seeing right then. There was no officiant, no one was praying, the crowd just stood there staring at the altar, slightly swaying as if moving their bodies on the notes of a slow and monotone music he was not allowed to hear.
«A mass in honor of...» before he said "whom", his mind shaped a different word, which somehow seemed more fitting «... what?»
«Of the Lady of Necromancers, the Lady of Silence, the Dark Light», answered Vivienne, almost chanting. A new shiver run along Shim's spine, making him set a new record. Shivering for anything but cold was rare for him. Doing that twice in the same day, and just at a few minutes distance, was next to impossible.
«Death», he murmured, almost unbelieving, as if he was waiting for an answer to deny his conclusion, an answer that wasn't going to come. What else had he been expecting? All that people was gathered there to honor death, to adore it.
He stood, uncertain about what to do, even about what to think, until a sudden change in the mood of the place, the melting of an almost solid tension he hadn't noticed until it was gone, shook him.
One of the participants left the main group to reach the altar, turning around it to stand behind it. Then he raise his hands, keeping his arms in front of him, looking like a conjurer trying to show to the audience that there was nothing up his sleeves. All others mimicked the gesture, but Vivienne, Krey and him.
Slowly the man, if that it was, moved one hand to his chest, then let it slid down to his hip. Shim thought that if it was some kind of group dance, it was the worst he had ever seen.
A sudden reflex of light startled him. The flames were mirrored on the glossy blade of a black-handled knife which had suddenly appeared in the hands of the officiant. Immediately several more identical blades were drawn by the other people in there. The dwarf stiffed, his muscles were suddenly ready to spring, even though he still didn't know where and why. Then he felt an hand touching his shoulder almost casually. With the corner of one eye he saw long black-painted female fingernails and a fair skin framed in white clothes. Vivienne. That touch dispelled his half-shaped intention, not because he soothed him but because it gave him something different to worry about. Although the hand of the woman was just brushing him, barely keeping him back, he had the distinct feeling that, if so she wanted, she could not only stop him, but also rip his arm from its socket.
An uncountable number of hands raised at the same time. The sharp blades brushed the wrists of their owners in a single, fast movement that drew a drop of blood to stain the polished steel.
The silence was replaced by a deep murmur when everyone said something that Shim couldn't understand.
«Blood renews the pact», Vivienne whispered, almost in a religious tone. Was she repeating? Translating? Or maybe what she was saying had nothing to do with the murmur at all?
The officiant lowered his free, bloodletting hand and took something from below the altar. Shim had to squint his eyes to discern it was a black chicken. It was still, but it was also clearly alive.
The blade, already bloodstained, raised, and in a single arc it cut the throat of the bird, which didn't make any attempt to flee. A barely visible squirt of blood fell onto the people nearer to the altar.
Shim was disgusted, but admittedly Vivienne hadn't lied when she had said that nothing illegal was going on in that place. As horrible as it looked to him, religious freedom was one of the pillars on which society stood tall, and no one could be prevented from worshiping death, at least as long as their worship didn't become a danger for anyone who had more rights than a chicken. And even though sacrifices like that were what gave power to necromancers, or helped them to keep it, this wasn't enough to state that killing a chicken was against the law. Necromancy proper was very different from making small cuts in one's own wrist or slaughtering a bird, and so far no one there had done more than that.
Vivienne's voice shook him from his thoughts. «Now wear these», she said as she gave him two neatly folded black cloaks she had taken somewhere. She had closed hers and lifted the hood on her head.
Shim looked at her dubiously, but before he could object she continued, «If you do not look like you are part of the community, they will not talk to you. Nothing bad would happen to you, because if you have been able to enter without resorting to force or deceit you do not represent a menace, but still you would not be worthy of their trust.»
The dwarf gave up. That wasn't his territory and he had to comply to the rules. His agent hadn't even tried to complain and was already fastening his cloak, thus becoming even blacker than he already was.
Shim did the same and found out that, although it wasn't exactly his size, the garment fitted him quite well, just brushing the floor a little. He half-wondered whether there were any dwarves among the necromancers. It seemed unlikely, his people didn't tune well with magic, in none of his many facets, still it wasn't impossible. For sure, if there were any, it would have been hard to see them in the crowd, unless they were standing right next to him.
«We will part», Vivienne said. «Do no ask anyone their identity, no one will ask it to you. And remember the reason why we are here, do not try to learn anything that does not concern the one that rips hearts out.»
The astonished look on Shim face was lost in the shadows of the hood.
«How do you know...?»
Vivienne didn't let him complete the question, «For which reason should I be interested in your quest if I did not have a very good reason myself? Whoever is the one who is responsible of what is happening, his behavior poses a danger for those who only want to live what they are and not be afraid. Without me, you would investigate on innocent people, whose only guilt is their faith in something you are not able to comprehend. With my assistance you have the chance to talk to them, instead of accusing them, and receive their help to stop someone that they want to be stopped as well. If I did not know what I do know, I would not be here. You would not be here.»
She slid among the crowd and was far in a second, leaving Shim pondering on what she had just said, thinking that almost fore sure that woman knew and was much more than she showed. He searched the room for her with his gaze, already knowing how useless it was. Impossible to recognize her in the middle of so many people who looked all alike, or at least all very similar to one another.