Thursday, May 27, 2010
I drove through the streets of Belfast, the road atlas on my lap. I was fascinated with the ancient Anglo-Irish town. I had studied the politics of the Troubles and I hated them because it tore apart two very needy communities. Eric was looking at the huge sectarian paintings.
“Aslinn, when we are back in America and have time, you must tell me what you know about this,” he said, waving his fingers casually at the paintings on the buildings.
“I have a couple of books you could read,” I offered.
“I’m too lazy, and I enjoy your company,” he said.
I took a right and headed toward the outskirts of town. The road would follow the coast line til I came to the right spot. Finally I saw a sign reading “Giant’s Causeway” and followed it to a large parking area. I got out and Eric with me. We walked side by side to the edge. There was a long stair way all the way down to the beach. I could see the area was lit up with arc sodium lights, glowing amber on the white rocks below.
“I can make it down okay Eric, but I may need you to help me upstairs when we go back,” I said. He nodded and we began our descent. We said nothing to each other til we got to the beach. I walked along, holding my jacket a little closer to me. We came to a pile of white, loosely octagonal shaped towers that seemed to make an elevated path toward the sea.
“The story goes that Fionn MacCumhail created the Giant’s Causeway to go to Scotland. You can just make out the coast of Scotland from here. Geologists say the stones themselves are lava flows from a crevice under the ocean that pushed up stones. The shape is just coincidental,” I said, sitting down on one of them.
“So, what has that to with me,” asked Eric, standing there, his arms folded in front of him.
“I don’t know,” I said, lighting a cigarette. “Eric, do you know your family tree?”
“No,” he said. “I can tell you who my father was and who my grandfather was, but beyond that, I don’t remember.”
“This means something Eric, I know it does. When I heard the queen of faery’s name, I knew something about her,” I said. Eric looked impatient. “Don’t look at me like that, Eric, I am going on instinct here, you want me to pull answers out of your hat, and I just can’t.”
“Perhaps you are trying too hard,” said the Vampire.
“I don’t think so. This is the clue,” I said. “The main reason we are here is because of you, because you are hunting for something in your human past and we sort accidentally fell into this thing about the fae and Markingham, and the babies. But this is about you and either you don’t honestly remember or you remember and you aren’t telling me and either way, it is not helping.”
“What do you think it means Aslinn?” asked Eric.
“I think this Oracle is going to tell you about something in your past. Nothing more. But I think there is a reason we are going to see the oracle and I think it has to do with this. The queen of Faery, she is someone. I think she was the wife of Fionn MacCumhail,” I said.
“So what if she is? What has that to do with me?” he asked.
“It may have everything to do with you Eric,” I said. “Loosely translated, Fionn means white or pale.”
“Den Bleka,” said Eric.
“Right, The Pale. The legend you told me said The Pale went away to a land no one knew of, and he never came back, but his sword was sent back to Valhalla and appears in the scabbard of the king,” I said.
“But it was just a legend,” said Eric. I laughed at the Vampire.
“Yeah, mythology out of the mouth of something that only existed in legends and movies and suddenly walks among us,” I said. “Why can’t you believe something else besides what you know? Is it because you learned the myth as a human, alongside your religion which you now eschew because you defy all notions of mortality and the gods because of your supernatural existence? I knew you guys were arrogant, but not this arrogant.” I laughed.
“Don’t laugh at me Aslinn,” he said.
“Then stop being silly,” I said, the humor having flown from me. “You think it is easy for us to believe and accept you people for what you are? We have been taught that you are evil; you come from the devil, that you have no soul, that you are monsters who want to rape and eat us. Do you know the gulf we had to cross between what we had been taught about you and what is real about you? There is no reason not to believe a great Irish hero happened to come from somewhere else that he might have been from your country and may have had a child. Perhaps Ossian returned to your people and had a family and begat….” I looked at Eric.
“What Aslinn?” he said.
“This is crazy, it’s insane,” I said. “Tell me about your father Eric, where did he come from, who was he?” Eric stood up and turned his back on me. “Eric, turn around and tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t remember.”
“Fine,” I said. I headed up the stairs and began to climb. I was half way up and about to die of a collapsed lung when I felt the Viking scoop me up in his arms.
“I can’t have you dying of a heart attack before I find out more, Aslinn,” said Eric.
“Thanks a lot Eric,” I said sarcastically.
We got into the car and I drove us back toward Armagh. It was quiet and cold in the car. I could not tell if it was the temperature or the cold was emanating from the Vampire beside me. I ignored him. I turned on the heat and lit a cigarette and watched the road.
“There are very few things I remember. I remember my father, as he was when I was small and then as he was when I was a man. I remember my wife and children and I remember the battle I was in when I was made Vampire, and I remember Godric. But I do not remember my people or their ways or their culture. But every time I talk to you about the past you open some new wound in me and I feel the way humans feel,” he said.
“I’m sorry Eric,” I said. “You want me to help you, you demand things from me, from all of us, and we want to help you, but you have to know, memories are powerful, painful things and if you are going to take your pain out on people who care about you, who risk themselves for you, we won’t be able to trust you, and we need to be able to trust you and the others. You keep saying trust me, but how, precisely are we to do that when you don’t trust us.”
“I trust you,” he said.
“No you don’t,” I said. “But I don’t blame you…’Humans, honestly, I don’t know what you see in us.’”
Eric laughed at his words, which I’d thrown up in his face.
When we returned there were still a few hours til sun up. I was in a dark study. I could not find the link, why would they be interested in Eric? What would we learn about the Viking and his connection to the other supernaturals in the world? Bill came and sat by me.
“Pam and I believe none of you should go with us to the Oracle. We, the Vampires, should be the only ones to go,” he said in his low southern voice. I rubbed my eyes but said nothing. “What are you thinking?”
“I can’t get this,” I said. I pulled my laptop onto my lap and typed in Ossian to my database and looked at the page I had been looking at for a couple of days.
“Maybe you should look not into his life but into his death, how did Ossian die? Did he die?” asked Bill.
“There are several variations of Ossian’s death. Some say he fell in love with a nymph who took him to Tir Nan Og and he lived with her for three hundred years and when he longed for his human world, she enchanted him so that if he remained on his horse, he would still be young and beautiful but he dismounted his horse and aged 300 years in a second and died before his feet hit earth. Others say he went on a great adventure and met his death there,” I said.
“Perhaps he died at someone’s hands?” asked Bill.
“Eric’s?” I said.
“Or Eric’s people,” said Bill. “Perhaps in antiquity his people killed Ossian and now have something that belongs to him?”
I thought about it. It seemed more logical. That was the good thing about talking to Bill. He was a thoughtful, well read man who was calm. As I had said before, a Vampire can be still while all around them the world collapses.
“That could be it. I wonder what the archeologist has for Eric to look at?” I said.
“We probably should have gone there first, it would have cleared things up for us perhaps,” he said. “You look tired.”
“I am a little tired,” I looked at him and reached out and stroked his face. “How are you doing?”
“I am well,” he said.
“So, everyone has to stay in Offaly while you and the others go to see the oracle?” I said.
“We think it would be best,” said Bill.
“The bad thing about that plan is that once you go into Faery, the electronic gadgets don’t work. You guys can’t contact us and we can’t contact you and if we tried to get to you, we can’t because we don’t have any more goblin gold to get us across the lough,” I said.
“Who would you take with us, if the choice was yours?” he asked.
“If I were Eric, I would take the men, especially Body Guard, I would take your witches. I am not as experienced as Aolani but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. And I would take Fairy. She may not know how to access her fae powers, but they would sense her blood and they may listen to her where they would not listen to us…Kissing Cousins and all that,” I said. “And Scarlett, I would take Scarlett, she knows how to use a gun and she is definitely willing to use it.”
“I don’t see you hesitating to use one either,” said Bill.
“True, I am not shy about using a gun,” I said. “How do you feel about that?”
“I sometimes wonder if he isn’t right, that you would make a good Vampire,” said Bill.
Finally the sun was coming up, and our Vampires had to go to bed. After they went to their quarters, we sat down for our own meeting.
“Aslinn did you figure anything out?” asked God Speed.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think Bill and I figured out what may be the situation with the fae and Eric. Eric’s people may have killed Ossian, the Queen of Faery’s son.”
“But not Eric himself?” asked Linzy.
“We don’t think so, the time line is off,” I said. “So, how do you feel about being left behind?”
“I hate it!!!” said Chris. “If all I am supposed to do on this trip is keep a diary for Eric, he could have phoned this in.”
“Well, that is true,” I said. “But he cares about you chere, he doesn’t want you to get hurt.” Chris was still disconsolate.
“I get that Butter should stay behind, by why should I be left behind?” said Fairy.
“Or us, “Linzy and Lina in a chorus. “We want to help Eric.”
“I don’t always have a lot to say but I know I want to help Eric,” said Minnie. “Why drag us over England and every bog and swamp of Ireland just for us to cool our heels here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Body Guard, what do you think?” I asked the werewolf.
“I think some of us should go and some of us should stay, and I will tell you why,” he sat down. “If the main party should be captured or gods forbid, if you be deceased, then someone has to be able to contact Niall Brigant. Niall wants Eric to learn something. Something that will interfere with things that will be going on during the summer. I think this thing about Eric’s past is interesting, but it is not the reason we are here. I think what we learned about in England is far more important. This thing about selling V and the queen and Edgington is the thing. And who the hell is Franklin Mott? He is English you know.”
“Very true,” I said. “You think he has something to do with Markingham?”
“He could,” said Body Guard.”Whatever we learn about Eric and his past, that is just for Eric, well for us too so we know him a little better, but the truth of it is, we really have no reason to be here.”
“I wish we had access to those books in Bill’s house,” said Renee. “We could be going through them now.”
“We could,” I said. “I have a feeling Eric and Bill both will want us all going through those books, entering data into Bill’s database.”
“All of those books with all those European Vampires,” said Westexan.
We finally began to scatter to our rooms. I was getting undressed. I looked at the place where the window would have been. “I miss the sun,” I said to Barrister as he began to undress.
“I know you do,” he said. “Aslinn, I don’t want you to go with them tomorrow.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” I said. “You are going.”
“It’s dangerous,” he said.
“And if something happens to you guys, who do you think would go after you?” I said. “Whatever happens, I want to be with you, I want us to be together.”
To Be Continued
I drove through the streets of Belfast, the road atlas on my lap. I was fascinated with the ancient Anglo-Irish town. I had studied the politics of the Troubles and I hated them because it tore apart two very needy communities. Eric was looking at the huge sectarian paintings.
“Aslinn, when we are back in America and have time, you must tell me what you know about this,” he said, waving his fingers casually at the paintings on the buildings.
“I have a couple of books you could read,” I offered.
“I’m too lazy, and I enjoy your company,” he said.
I took a right and headed toward the outskirts of town. The road would follow the coast line til I came to the right spot. Finally I saw a sign reading “Giant’s Causeway” and followed it to a large parking area. I got out and Eric with me. We walked side by side to the edge. There was a long stair way all the way down to the beach. I could see the area was lit up with arc sodium lights, glowing amber on the white rocks below.
“I can make it down okay Eric, but I may need you to help me upstairs when we go back,” I said. He nodded and we began our descent. We said nothing to each other til we got to the beach. I walked along, holding my jacket a little closer to me. We came to a pile of white, loosely octagonal shaped towers that seemed to make an elevated path toward the sea.
“The story goes that Fionn MacCumhail created the Giant’s Causeway to go to Scotland. You can just make out the coast of Scotland from here. Geologists say the stones themselves are lava flows from a crevice under the ocean that pushed up stones. The shape is just coincidental,” I said, sitting down on one of them.
“So, what has that to with me,” asked Eric, standing there, his arms folded in front of him.
“I don’t know,” I said, lighting a cigarette. “Eric, do you know your family tree?”
“No,” he said. “I can tell you who my father was and who my grandfather was, but beyond that, I don’t remember.”
“This means something Eric, I know it does. When I heard the queen of faery’s name, I knew something about her,” I said. Eric looked impatient. “Don’t look at me like that, Eric, I am going on instinct here, you want me to pull answers out of your hat, and I just can’t.”
“Perhaps you are trying too hard,” said the Vampire.
“I don’t think so. This is the clue,” I said. “The main reason we are here is because of you, because you are hunting for something in your human past and we sort accidentally fell into this thing about the fae and Markingham, and the babies. But this is about you and either you don’t honestly remember or you remember and you aren’t telling me and either way, it is not helping.”
“What do you think it means Aslinn?” asked Eric.
“I think this Oracle is going to tell you about something in your past. Nothing more. But I think there is a reason we are going to see the oracle and I think it has to do with this. The queen of Faery, she is someone. I think she was the wife of Fionn MacCumhail,” I said.
“So what if she is? What has that to do with me?” he asked.
“It may have everything to do with you Eric,” I said. “Loosely translated, Fionn means white or pale.”
“Den Bleka,” said Eric.
“Right, The Pale. The legend you told me said The Pale went away to a land no one knew of, and he never came back, but his sword was sent back to Valhalla and appears in the scabbard of the king,” I said.
“But it was just a legend,” said Eric. I laughed at the Vampire.
“Yeah, mythology out of the mouth of something that only existed in legends and movies and suddenly walks among us,” I said. “Why can’t you believe something else besides what you know? Is it because you learned the myth as a human, alongside your religion which you now eschew because you defy all notions of mortality and the gods because of your supernatural existence? I knew you guys were arrogant, but not this arrogant.” I laughed.
“Don’t laugh at me Aslinn,” he said.
“Then stop being silly,” I said, the humor having flown from me. “You think it is easy for us to believe and accept you people for what you are? We have been taught that you are evil; you come from the devil, that you have no soul, that you are monsters who want to rape and eat us. Do you know the gulf we had to cross between what we had been taught about you and what is real about you? There is no reason not to believe a great Irish hero happened to come from somewhere else that he might have been from your country and may have had a child. Perhaps Ossian returned to your people and had a family and begat….” I looked at Eric.
“What Aslinn?” he said.
“This is crazy, it’s insane,” I said. “Tell me about your father Eric, where did he come from, who was he?” Eric stood up and turned his back on me. “Eric, turn around and tell me what you know.”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t remember.”
“Fine,” I said. I headed up the stairs and began to climb. I was half way up and about to die of a collapsed lung when I felt the Viking scoop me up in his arms.
“I can’t have you dying of a heart attack before I find out more, Aslinn,” said Eric.
“Thanks a lot Eric,” I said sarcastically.
We got into the car and I drove us back toward Armagh. It was quiet and cold in the car. I could not tell if it was the temperature or the cold was emanating from the Vampire beside me. I ignored him. I turned on the heat and lit a cigarette and watched the road.
“There are very few things I remember. I remember my father, as he was when I was small and then as he was when I was a man. I remember my wife and children and I remember the battle I was in when I was made Vampire, and I remember Godric. But I do not remember my people or their ways or their culture. But every time I talk to you about the past you open some new wound in me and I feel the way humans feel,” he said.
“I’m sorry Eric,” I said. “You want me to help you, you demand things from me, from all of us, and we want to help you, but you have to know, memories are powerful, painful things and if you are going to take your pain out on people who care about you, who risk themselves for you, we won’t be able to trust you, and we need to be able to trust you and the others. You keep saying trust me, but how, precisely are we to do that when you don’t trust us.”
“I trust you,” he said.
“No you don’t,” I said. “But I don’t blame you…’Humans, honestly, I don’t know what you see in us.’”
Eric laughed at his words, which I’d thrown up in his face.
When we returned there were still a few hours til sun up. I was in a dark study. I could not find the link, why would they be interested in Eric? What would we learn about the Viking and his connection to the other supernaturals in the world? Bill came and sat by me.
“Pam and I believe none of you should go with us to the Oracle. We, the Vampires, should be the only ones to go,” he said in his low southern voice. I rubbed my eyes but said nothing. “What are you thinking?”
“I can’t get this,” I said. I pulled my laptop onto my lap and typed in Ossian to my database and looked at the page I had been looking at for a couple of days.
“Maybe you should look not into his life but into his death, how did Ossian die? Did he die?” asked Bill.
“There are several variations of Ossian’s death. Some say he fell in love with a nymph who took him to Tir Nan Og and he lived with her for three hundred years and when he longed for his human world, she enchanted him so that if he remained on his horse, he would still be young and beautiful but he dismounted his horse and aged 300 years in a second and died before his feet hit earth. Others say he went on a great adventure and met his death there,” I said.
“Perhaps he died at someone’s hands?” asked Bill.
“Eric’s?” I said.
“Or Eric’s people,” said Bill. “Perhaps in antiquity his people killed Ossian and now have something that belongs to him?”
I thought about it. It seemed more logical. That was the good thing about talking to Bill. He was a thoughtful, well read man who was calm. As I had said before, a Vampire can be still while all around them the world collapses.
“That could be it. I wonder what the archeologist has for Eric to look at?” I said.
“We probably should have gone there first, it would have cleared things up for us perhaps,” he said. “You look tired.”
“I am a little tired,” I looked at him and reached out and stroked his face. “How are you doing?”
“I am well,” he said.
“So, everyone has to stay in Offaly while you and the others go to see the oracle?” I said.
“We think it would be best,” said Bill.
“The bad thing about that plan is that once you go into Faery, the electronic gadgets don’t work. You guys can’t contact us and we can’t contact you and if we tried to get to you, we can’t because we don’t have any more goblin gold to get us across the lough,” I said.
“Who would you take with us, if the choice was yours?” he asked.
“If I were Eric, I would take the men, especially Body Guard, I would take your witches. I am not as experienced as Aolani but I have a few tricks up my sleeve. And I would take Fairy. She may not know how to access her fae powers, but they would sense her blood and they may listen to her where they would not listen to us…Kissing Cousins and all that,” I said. “And Scarlett, I would take Scarlett, she knows how to use a gun and she is definitely willing to use it.”
“I don’t see you hesitating to use one either,” said Bill.
“True, I am not shy about using a gun,” I said. “How do you feel about that?”
“I sometimes wonder if he isn’t right, that you would make a good Vampire,” said Bill.
Finally the sun was coming up, and our Vampires had to go to bed. After they went to their quarters, we sat down for our own meeting.
“Aslinn did you figure anything out?” asked God Speed.
“I don’t know,” I said. “I think Bill and I figured out what may be the situation with the fae and Eric. Eric’s people may have killed Ossian, the Queen of Faery’s son.”
“But not Eric himself?” asked Linzy.
“We don’t think so, the time line is off,” I said. “So, how do you feel about being left behind?”
“I hate it!!!” said Chris. “If all I am supposed to do on this trip is keep a diary for Eric, he could have phoned this in.”
“Well, that is true,” I said. “But he cares about you chere, he doesn’t want you to get hurt.” Chris was still disconsolate.
“I get that Butter should stay behind, by why should I be left behind?” said Fairy.
“Or us, “Linzy and Lina in a chorus. “We want to help Eric.”
“I don’t always have a lot to say but I know I want to help Eric,” said Minnie. “Why drag us over England and every bog and swamp of Ireland just for us to cool our heels here in the middle of nowhere?”
“Body Guard, what do you think?” I asked the werewolf.
“I think some of us should go and some of us should stay, and I will tell you why,” he sat down. “If the main party should be captured or gods forbid, if you be deceased, then someone has to be able to contact Niall Brigant. Niall wants Eric to learn something. Something that will interfere with things that will be going on during the summer. I think this thing about Eric’s past is interesting, but it is not the reason we are here. I think what we learned about in England is far more important. This thing about selling V and the queen and Edgington is the thing. And who the hell is Franklin Mott? He is English you know.”
“Very true,” I said. “You think he has something to do with Markingham?”
“He could,” said Body Guard.”Whatever we learn about Eric and his past, that is just for Eric, well for us too so we know him a little better, but the truth of it is, we really have no reason to be here.”
“I wish we had access to those books in Bill’s house,” said Renee. “We could be going through them now.”
“We could,” I said. “I have a feeling Eric and Bill both will want us all going through those books, entering data into Bill’s database.”
“All of those books with all those European Vampires,” said Westexan.
We finally began to scatter to our rooms. I was getting undressed. I looked at the place where the window would have been. “I miss the sun,” I said to Barrister as he began to undress.
“I know you do,” he said. “Aslinn, I don’t want you to go with them tomorrow.”
“Why shouldn’t I?” I said. “You are going.”
“It’s dangerous,” he said.
“And if something happens to you guys, who do you think would go after you?” I said. “Whatever happens, I want to be with you, I want us to be together.”
To Be Continued
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