The Enterprise of Death - Jesse Bullington [158]
“Examination we’ll be doing?” The doctor’s voice bounced back at him, which only widened his smile as he removed his Stones of Immortality from their hidden compartment in the pommel of his sword. Technically they were not stones, being a compound of poppy oil, quintessence of gold, a few binding agents, and preservatives, and they certainly did not bestow immortality, although they did provide a wonderful buzz, but he thought the name had quite the ring to it—a fascinating drug, one of the finest discoveries to come from his time in the Middle East.
“Stick out your tongue … that’s a good doggie.”
“Ba-ba-bad doggie,” wept the creature, but it did as he asked, and when he had crumbled some of the laudanum onto its tongue it made a pathetic coughing sound.
“Noooo, good doggie. It will calm you, take away the pain,” said Paracelsus, and as the mighty head began to sag even lower he scratched behind its sharp ears. “Good doggie. Now, before your tongue grows too heavy, what do you think about the word vivisection ? The Latin vivus is obvious, but something about sectio strikes me as being apropos, don’t you think?”
“Vivus?” The hyena’s tongue was lolling, its eyes contracting as Paracelsus took something long and shiny from his bag and set it on the ground. Next the doctor removed a bandage and gingerly helped the creature roll onto its side. The animal was not responding as strongly to the stimulation as he plugged the gunshot wound, but it got another word out. “Sectio?”
“Yes, yes.” Paracelsus nodded as his fingers peeled back its gums, prodded its cheeks. It clearly wanted to bite him, tried, even, but it could barely stay awake. That changed soon enough. “Vivisection. A lovely word, don’t you agree?”
XXXIII
Bastards of the Schwarzwald
“Your companions must wait here,” said Awa’s host as he closed the red door behind them. The walls of the hut’s only room were smooth, dull metal that glowed and shimmered from the single torch set in a sconce. The only other exit was a round portal in the floor.
“Why?” Awa looked up at the gaunt, pale man, wondering just what his nudity indicated—madness or simply different societal mores.
“The iron will keep them insulated,” said the man as he put a foot under the handle on the portal, and with a light kick the metal door swung up to reveal a black pit. The trapdoor was as thick as Awa’s wrist but the man’s scrotum was barely swaying from the exertion of opening it. “Down, if you please.”
“What’s your name?” said Awa, warily noting that his spirit did not keep inside his body but stretched out from his skull in all directions, barely visible translucent tentacles swaying around him.
“Carandini,” said the man, and bowed. “It is an honor to make your acquaintance, Lady Awa.”
“Right,” said Awa. “So … down?”
“Down.”
“Why?” Awa glanced at her two mindless assistants and the dripping bag they carried containing Chloé. “And you said iron would insulate my mindless ones, my new bonemen. From what?”
Carandini’s left eyelid twitched, the pinkish eye it covered dilating ever so slightly. He sighed, plucked the torch from its mooring, and stepped forward, dropping straight down the black shaft. His fall stopped abruptly at shoulder height, and then he began descending a flight of stairs, his head dipping out of sight. Reasoning she had little choice, Awa lowered herself the short drop to the first stair and hurried after. She heard the iron portal somehow close behind her and knew she was sealed in with Carandini, his torchlight reflecting on the iron-lined walls of the spiral staircase. She was powerless, but she had not come to test her prowess against beings that even her tutor could not master.
Carandini was talking quietly, she realized with a smile. He was dead, undead but dead nevertheless, and so compelled to answer the questions of the living. It was a fine little loophole, Awa had to admit, answering but doing so out of hearing.
“I couldn’t hear you,” said Awa. “Why are we going down, and what will the iron room insulate my bonemen from? And please