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Castle Ferenczy

Transylvania, the first week of September 1981

Still an hour short of e wended their way ho well-trodden forest tracks Their baskets were full of small wild plums and the first ripe berries of the season, all with the dew still glistening on thereenall the better for the y brandy! Dark-robed, with coarse cloth headsquares fra their narrow faces, the woossip to suit theirivory in weathered leather as they laughed over especially juicy morsels

In the near-distance, blue wood siu’s chih over the early-autu the trees the smells of spiced meats and herbal soups drifted on the still air; sh creaked where a wild-haired, dark-eyed, silent, staring child dangled froathered in a circle under the trees Outside the circle: tethered ponies cropped the grass, and bright-coloured dresses swirled where bare-ar pots suspended over licking fla steam; male travellers tended their own duties or si, thin-stemmed pipes, as the encampany had returned to the region of Haliu

The boy on the rope in the tree had spotted the two village wole and movement in the Gypsy encampment ceased upon the instant; dark eyes turned outwards in unison, staring with curiosity at the Romanian peasant women with their baskets The Gypsy , so of aniany, and Knehich side their bread was greased For five hundred years the people of Halht their trinkets and knick-knacks and left them in peace And so in their turn the Gypsies would work no deliberate har, ladies,’ the Gypsy king (for so the leaders of these roving bands prided theon and bowed to thee we’ll be knocking on their doors - pots and pans of the best quality, chars, cards to read and keen eyes that know the lie of a line in your pal, and your broken axe-handles All will be put to rights Why, this year we’ve even a good pony or two, to replace the nags that pull your carts! We’ll not be here long, so ains before weto you,’ the oldest of the pair at once answered, if in a breathless fashion ’And be sure I’ll tell thee’ And in a hushed aside to her co!’

As they passed by one of the wagons, so this same older woman took a small jar of hazelnuts fro the was seen no one said anything, and in any case the activity in the camp had already resumed its norer one, who hadn’t lived in Halive the nuts and plu, do nothing for nothing, and far too often take soifts like that?’

’It does no harm to keep well in with the fey people,’ the other told her ’When you’ve lived here as long as I have you’ll knohat I mean And anyway, they’re not here to steal or work ave a sh why they’re here’

’Oh?’ said her friend, wonderingly

’Oh, yes It’s the phase of thethey’ll make They propitiate the earth, replenish the rich soil, appease their gods’

’Their gods? Are they heathens, then? What gods?’

’Call it Nature, if you like!’ the first one snapped ’But ask me no more I’m a simple woman and don’t wish to know Nor should you wish to know My grandrandmother reranny before her Sohteen - but never , suany themselves know the season, the , when the h up in the o they always leave their offering’

’What sort of offering?’ the younger woman was more curious than ever ’Don’t ask,’ said the other, hurriedly shaking her head

’Don’t ask’ But it was only her way; the younger wo to tell her; she bided her time and resolved to ask nothat they’d strayed too far froed to inquire:

’But isn’t this a long way round we’re taking?’

’Be quiet now!’ hushed the older wo in the forest at the foot of a gaunt outcrop of grey volcanic rock Bald and doular h, withto a fir-clad plateau like a first gigantic step to the hts of the Zarundului massif The trees around the base of the outcrop had been felled, all shrubs and undergrowth cleared away; at its summit, a cairn of heavy stones stood like a s to the mountains

And up there, seated on the bare rock at the foot of the cairn, working with a knife at a shard of stone which he held in his lap - a youngbut the stone in his hands He gazed down across a distance of little ly head on, so that the woe must surely be central to his circle of vision - but if he saw then And indeed it was plain that he did not see them, only the stone which he worked And even at that distance, clearly there was soht with hier of the two inquired in a hoarse whisper ’He’s very handsoe And anyway, isn’t this a forbidden place? My Hzak tells reat stone of the cairn is a very special stone, and that -’

Shhhr the other once again cautioned her, a finger to her lips ’Don’t disturb hiany Not that this one will hear us anyway Still best to be careful’

’He won’t hear us, you say? Then why are we talking in whispers? No, I knoe’re whispering: because this is a private place, like a shrine Almost holy’

’Un holy!’ the other corrected her ’As to why he won’t notice us - why, just look at hirey, sickly, dying Eyes deep-sunken, burning Obsessed with that stone he’s carving He’s been called, can’t you see? He’s mazed, hypnotized - doomed!’

Even as the last word left her lips, so the round it firmly into position on the rim of the cairn It sat there side by side with many dozens of others, like a brick in the top seen the ritual of the carving would know that each single stone of that cairn was er wo, but her friend at once anticipated her question:

’His name,’ she said ’He carved his name and his dates, if he knows them Like all the other naone before him That rude stone is his headstone, whichGypsy was craning his neck, looking up, up at therey-blue sky a small dark blot of cloud drifted across the face of the sun At that the eldest of the toave a start; she herself had become almost hypnotized, stalled there and without the will to move on But as the sun was eclipsed and shadows fell everywhere, she grabbed the other’s elbow and turned her face away ’Coone from here Our men will be worried Especially if they know there are Gypsies about’

They hurried through the shadows of the trees, found the track, soon began to see the first wooden houses on Haliu’s outskirts, where the forest thinned down to nothing But even as they stepped out from the trees into a dusty lane and their heartbeats slowed a little, so they heard a sound from behind and above and far, far beyond

Not quiteout from behind a small, stray cloud; the first days of true winter still soht weeks away - but every soul who heard that sound took it as a wintry omen anyway Aye, and some took it fordown fro as wolves have called for a thousand, thousand years and more The tomen paused, clutched their baskets, held their breath and listened But:

’There’s no answering cry,’ said the younger, eventually ’He’s alone, that old wolf’

’For now,’ the other nodded ’Aye, alone - but he’s been heard all right, take h Follohich’ She shook her head and hurried on

The other caught up with her ’Yes, follohich?’ she pressed

The older woman peered at her, scowled a little, finally barked: ’But you s we don’t much talk about up here - so if you want to learn, then when they are talked about you ,’ the other answered ’It’s just that I didn’t understand, that’s all You said the old ould be answered, soon enough And and then?’

’Aye, and then,’ said the older one, turning towards her doorhere bunches of garlic dangled fro in the sun And over her shoulder: ’And then - the very next one! No trace of them at all except maybe the ashes in their camp, the ruts in the tracks where their caravans have rolled,on But their numbers will have been shortened by one One who answered an ancient call and stayed behind’

The younger woman’s ht,’ said the first, nodding ’You just saw hi his soul to those other poor souls inscribed in the cairn on the rock’

That night, in the Szgany ca to the skirl of frenzied violins and the pri table stood heavy with food: joints of rabbit and whole hedgehogs, still stea from the heat of the trenches where they’d baked; wild boar sausages, sliced thin; cheeses purchased or bartered in Halravy poured fro wild plum brandy

There was a festival atmosphere The flah and the dancers were sinuous, sensuous Alcohol was consuer Gypsies drank from a sense of relief, others from fear of an uncertain future For those who had been spared this time around, there would always be other tis; they were His to the ends of the earth, His to coned and sealed h Him they had prospered down the centuries, they prospered now, they would prosper in all the years to come He made the hard times easier - aye, and the easy times hard - but always He achieved a balance His blood was in them, and theirs in Hist the, the drinking, the feasting, still they were alone For all of this noise and aiety, wherein they could scarcely participate

One of the man from the cairn, sat on the steps of an ornately carved and painted wagon, with a whetstone and his long-bladed knife, bringing the cutting edge to a scintillant shiht While in the yellow laht behind hi her hands, praying for all she orth to One as not a god - indeed, to One as the very opposite - that He spare her son this night But praying in vain

And as one tune ended and bright skirts whispered to a halt, falling about glea and high-kicking - in that interval when the fiddlers sipped their brandy before starting up again - then the s were brought to a sudden proaped open and all eyes turned upwards to the risen moon, so the mournful howl of a wolf drifted down to thele moment the tableau stood frozen but the next saw dark eyes turning to gaze at the young man on the caravan steps He stood up, looked up at thehis knife he stepped down to the clearing, crossed it on stiff legs, headed for the darkness beyond the encircling wagons

His uish, was that of a banshee as she hurled herself from their caravan ho after her son, her aro to him; instead she fell to her knees so for hi’, had stepped forward to eed him, kissed him on both cheeks, released hiht, between the wagons, and ed by darkness

’Duot to her feet,

’Peace, wo ’We’ve seen it coe in him The Old One has called and Dumitru answers We knehat to expect This is always the way of it’

’But he’s ly into his chest

’Aye,’ he said, his own voice finally breaking, sending tears coursing down his leathery cheeks ’Andand sobbing back to their caravan, and behind the, and the feasting and drinking

Dumitru Zirra climbed the rahts The moon lit a path for him, but even without that silver swath he would have known the way For there was guidance from within: a voice inside his head, which was not his voice, told hirasp There were paths up here, if you knew theinous shortcuts Dumitru chose the latter, or someone made that choice for hi out his naaaany, son of my sons Step here, and there, and here, Dumiitruuu And here, where the wolf stepped - see his mark on the rock? The father of your fathers awaits you, Duh Make haste, my son, for I’m old and dry and shrivelled close to death - the true death! But you shall succour th be miiine!

Aled and his hands bloody fros of all where a vast ruin hue so sheer and black it ht descend to hell, and on the other the last of the tall firs shielding the tu walls of rock Duht up short, but then he also saw the flaates of the ruin and hesitated no reat wolf led the way

Welcolutinous voice oozed like uest, my son enter of your own free will

Dumitru Zirra clambered dazedly over the first shattered stones of the place, and mazed as he was still the queer aspect of these ruins impressed him It had been a castle, of that he was sure In olden times a Boyar had lived here, a Ferenczy - Janos Ferenczy! No question of that, for down all the ages since the ti’, the Zirras had sworn allegiance to the Baron Ferenczy and had borne his crest: a bat leaping into flight fro three ribs to each wing The eyes of the bat were red, likewise the ribs of its wings, made prominent in scarlet, while the vessel from which it soared was in the shape of a burial urn

Aye, and now the youth’s deep-sunken, staring eyes picked out a like design carved on the shattered slab of a huge stone lintel where it lay half-buried in debris; and indeed he knew that he stood upon the threshold of the great and ancient patron of the Zirras and their followers For it was that sail as described which even noas displayed on the sides of Vasile Zirra’s caravan (however cleverly obscured in the generally ornate and ns) Si a edly passed down to him from time immemorial This would have been Du

Sorowled low in its throat, urging him on He paused however, uncertain where the shadows of fallen blocks obscured his vision The front edge of the ruin seemed to have been tossed (tossed, yes, as by souts of the place) out to and beyond the rie, where still a jumble of massive stones and slates were spread in dark confusion, so that Duone down into the gorge

As to what could have caused such destruction, he had no -

But you hesitate,in hisall matters of question and conjecture and will That voice which had co the course of the last four or five weeks,him its zombie And 1 see that it is as I suspected, Duth of the will is that of the body, and the strength of the body is the blood Your blood is strong, ain and Dumitru stumbled after The youth knew he should flee this place, run headlong, break his bones in the dark and crawl if he ainst the lure of that ancient, evil voice It was as if he had made some promise he could not break, or as if he kept the pro-dead and honoured ancestor, which was inviolable

Now, guided by the voice in his head, he stu menhir blocks in search of a certain spot; noent on all fours, clearing away fresh-fallen leaves, darey lichens and shards of black rock; now he discovered (or merely uncovered, for the voice had told hi, which he lifted easily A blast of foul air struck his face, filled his lungs, made hi abyss; and when at last his head cleared - of the fuhtmare depths

Now the voice told him: Here, here my sona niche in the wall torches, a bundle, and matches all wrapped in a skin aye, better than the flints of ht one torch and take two more with you for be sure you’ll need them, Dumiitruuu

The stone stairwell spiralled; Dued to clamber in places where the stair had collapsed He reached a buckled floor littered with blocks of fire-blackened h dankly echoing bowels of earth Down, ever down, to sinister and sentient nether-pits

Until at last:

Well done, Dumiitruuu, the dark voice complimented him - a voice that smiled monstrously, invisibly, whose oell pleased with his of the young ht have bolted For a split second he was his own ain - he knew he stood on the very threshold of hell!

But then that alien intelligence closed like a vice on his uided hith of free will flickered like a guttering candle in hiuished And:

Look about you, Dumiitruuu Look and learn what are the works and mysteries of your reat flame-eyed wolf And before hiends aany, tales to be told about the campfires in certain seasons, but neither Duht view this scene would require any special knowledge or explanation save that of his own iape-h, the youth wandered unsteadily through the ordered remnants and relics of chaos and ions, which was purely physical, for these secret nether-vaults had suffered little of the destruction of the higher levels; they were preserved, pristine under the dust and cobwebs of half a century No, this was a e that these were the works of a any uised as such

Of the vaults themselves:

The stoneas ancient, indeed hoary Nitre-streaked and yet not noticeably dans of dripstone concretion Wispy stalactite strings depended froes of the rooms, where the floor had been not so frequently trodden, shly fitted flags Duhness of the dressed stone and the poor condition of the ancient mortar alone, even he would have dated the castle - or at least these secret regions of the castle - as being soht or nine hundred years old It would need to be at least that for the formation of these calciu from above must be unusually heavily laced with crystalline salts

There were nuh, all wedged at their tops with massive keystones, soe of the higher levels The ceilings - none of them less than fourteen or fifteen feet tall at apex - were vaulted in an interlocking design similar to the archways; in several places massive blocks had fallen, doubtless shaken loose by whatever blast had doos of the floor like schoolrooe size, all with archways of their own; Dumitru had descended to a maze of ancient rooms, where the tenant of this broken pile had practised his secret arts As to the nature of those arts:

So far, with the single exception of his first terrified guess, Duer possible The walls were covered in frescoes which, however faded, told the entire tale; and many of the rooms contained undeniable evidence of anature Also, the voice in his head, now cruel and full of glee, would not pernorance: it desired that he know the way of these old ht, Dumitru, when first your torch cast back the shadon here, the voice reiterated The resurrection of defunct salts and ashes back into life for the purpose of interrogation The history of the world, as it were, from the horse’s mouth, from the reanimated, i of ancient secrets, and perhaps even the foretelling of the dimly distant future Aye, divination by use of the dead! That is what you thought

Well (and after a sht - as far as you went But you did not go far enough You have avoided looking you avoid it even now! What, and are you ht I had called strong wine in untowater all these years! Ha-haa-haaa! But noI er, is it not, Dumiitruuu? No?

Fear, perhaps?

You fear for your life, Dumiitruuu? The voice had sunk to a whisper now, but insidious as the drip of a slow acid But you shall have your life, my son - in o on and on aaand