Amanda Grange - Mr. Darcy, Vampyre

‘There must have been a disturbance of the earth some time ago which damaged the foundations and brought the building down,’ said Darcy. He looked down into the hole, holding his torch low the better to see. ‘This bit will not be easy,’ he said to Elizabeth and Nicolei. ‘Are you still determined to come?’

‘I am,’ said Elizabeth.

‘I too,’ said Nicolei.

Darcy gave a reluctant nod. Then, handing his torch to Georgio, he lowered himself into the hole.

There was silence, with only the steady drip , drip to mark the passage of time. Then Darcy’s voice called up, ‘It’s all right, you can come down.’

Elizabeth sat on the side of the hole and then gingerly lowered herself down, with Darcy catching hold of her and helping her to finish her descent.

She found herself in an underground cavern which was lit by a weird green light, and she felt a sense of awe as she looked about her, taking in the sublime remnant of antiquity. The temple was large and circular. Roman columns, grooved and topped with elaborate scrollwork, could dimly be seen in the shadows, ringing the temple at the eight points of the compass. Most of them were still standing, but two had fallen and lay broken on the floor. Within that ring, six statues were set, all made of marble, standing on plinths that made them some twelve feet high. She walked round, holding her torch aloft, and upon examining them, she found that they were similar to the statues she had seen in museums when visiting her aunt and uncle in London, portraying as they did the old Roman gods. Behind her, Darcy and Georgio, with great difficulty, managed to lower Nicolei through the hole.

She paused in front of the first statue and recognised him as Neptune, god of the sea. He had a toga half draped across his torso, a long, curling beard, and in his hand he held a trident. Beside him, at his feet, was a monster from the deep. Next to him was Apollo, god of the sun, young and beardless, holding his bow and arrow, with his lyre beside him. Then came Minerva, goddess of wisdom, an owl perched on her outstretched hand. After her was Jupiter, her father, lord of the skies, and then Pluto, god of the underworld. He wore a fearsome aspect and beside him was his three-headed dog Cerberus. After him, completing the circle, opposite the goddess Minerva with her love of learning, came an unsettling image of Bacchus, god of wine, lord of chaos, with an impudent satyr curled around his legs.

Nicolei was at last lowered through the hole and Georgio swiftly followed, until at last they all stood together in the centre of the temple.

‘What now?’ asked Elizabeth.

‘There is a chamber beneath us, if we are in the right place,’ said Nicolei, ‘and that is the chamber we seek.’

‘Then we must look for it,’ said Darcy.

Georgio lit two more torches, and with the better light, they could see that there were passages beyond the columns, radiating outwards. Whilst the others examined the passages, Nicolei rested himself on one of the broken columns.

‘This leads down,’ said Darcy.

‘And this,’ said Georgio, who had gone to one of the other passages.

‘And this,’ said Elizabeth, from the mouth of a third.

‘Do you know which one we should follow?’ Darcy asked Nicolei.

Nicolei, breathing noisily still with the effort of the descent, shook his head.

‘No, Old One.’

‘Then I will have to try them one by one.’

‘We will go together,’ said Elizabeth.

‘No,’ Darcy said. ‘We do not know what is lurking in the darkness. You will stay here with Nicolei. I will take Georgio with me. Never fear,’ he said, ‘once I find the way down, I will return for you.’

He kissed her on her forehead and then he was gone, disappearing down one of the passages with Georgio behind him.

Elizabeth watched him go, but when he had disappeared from view, she went to sit with Nicolei on the fallen column.

‘Where do they come from, the vampyres?’ she asked. She knew so little about them, but Nicolei seemed to know more. ‘Did they have their genesis here, near Rome?’

‘I do not know,’ he said. ‘I only know that they are revered among my people and that they are very old.’

‘Darcy said that he first met your people when he saved the life of the head man as he was travelling to another village to arrange a marriage.’

‘Yes, that is so. The man he saved was my great-grandfather, and the marriage he was arranging was that of his son, my grandfather. If the Old One had not saved him, then the marriage would not have gone ahead and there would have been war between our villages. It would have been thought that the neighbouring people had refused my great grandfather’s proposals and had killed him in pride and anger. But because of the help of the Old One, our villages became united and flourished in peace and prosperity for many years. My whole village is grateful to him for this. And I am grateful to him because, without his help, my grandfather would not have married my grandmother and I, and Georgio, would not be here.’

Elizabeth sat in thought but at last she said, ‘Do you know what lies in the chamber we are seeking?’

‘No,’ Nicolei said.

‘But it is older than the temple?’

‘Much, much older. It is from a time when nature was greater than man, but also more in harmony with him. The vampyre embodies this, for he is both man and beast.’

‘What will you do when Darcy is no longer a vampyre?’ asked Elizabeth, saying when and not if in an attempt to will it to be so. ‘Who will protect your village?’

‘Times are not as bad as they were. We are more prosperous now, and more numerous. We have many strong sons, and if need be, we can pay for others to help us. Now too the hills are safer than they were. There are bandits, yes, but they are not so many. We will survive,’ said Nicolei. ‘But something is passing, something of great majesty, and a power is going out of the world.’

They sat in silence.

At last Elizabeth could bear it no longer, and she relieved her spirits by walking around the chamber. Nicolei watched her, but then, curious as to his surroundings, he begged her for the use of her arm. She gave it gladly. They examined the statues more closely and then the columns, seeing that they had been sculpted by an artist of great talent. Behind the columns the wall appeared to be made of solid rock. Its surface was uneven and water trickled down it in a small, steady stream. Its colour was that of dry sand, shot through with occasional veins of green and rust which gleamed fitfully in the torchlight. Set into them at waist height, one between each two columns, was a basin. To begin with, Elizabeth thought the basins were natural, but they were so regular in their spacing that she gradually realised that they too had been carved.

They had gone some three quarters of the way round when at last she heard footsteps. They were so faint at first that she thought they were in her imagination, but then they became louder and stronger, and she ran to the mouth of the tunnel from which they came. The echoes were deceptive, and it was from another tunnel mouth that Darcy at last emerged.

He was looking dishevelled. His hair was rumpled, his coat was covered in a fine sandy powder, and his coat was ripped across the shoulder. His cravat was torn and hung from his neck in a tangle of linen. There was a hole in his breeches at the knee, and his boots were caked with mud. Georgio was hard on his heels, his face ashen.

‘What happened?’ asked Elizabeth, running over to him and lifting her hand to his cheek.

He took it and kissed it, but all he would say is, ‘That is not the way. We will have to try another passage.’