“You mentioned a hunt that has led you here,” Berrytrill said.
“Matters such as these require a certain decorum, fairy,” Lazarus said. “Today is the most important day of my life. It necessitates a longer explanation so that history may be made whole again. Let my reason for coming here and the bargaining for what I want begin.” He paused, looking directly at Charles. “I will let these two workers free, if the Cardinal Archivist takes me to a very specific text I know exists in these Secret Archives, a writing so old and so ancient that only a handful have ever laid eyes on it, let alone read its pages.”
“You shall not lay your sinned hand on a single page under my care,” Cesare Farina muttered, his steel returning. “This library is owned by His Eminence. No creature of Hell has ever been given leave by the Pope to do as it pleases here. Not ever.”
“And yet here I sit, priest, in your home,” Lazarus said, taunting Cesare Farina with a sharp shake. “The Pope won’t mind giving me his leave. This is in his best interest, after all.”
“Which text would you be after?” Charles asked.
“The Bible.”
“I could have given you one from any hotel in Rome,” the knight snorted.
“No. The Bible. The first Bible,” the vampire said. “The Bible that is unsullied by editing fingers and biased purpose by those in power. The Bible that exists with the full text of the Word. There I will find what I seek.”
“Blasphemy,” Cardinal Farina croaked. “The Codex B is the oldest edition here and its contents are well documented outside these walls.”
“The Codex B, as you call it, is shyte,” Lazarus said, running a sharp fingernail down the man’s cheek, but his eyes never deviated from Charles. “That came into existence centuries after the original. There is another text, one I have been assured exists, and in it I will confirm my salvation and set right the wrong done me.”
“No such book is here, Lazarus,” the Cardinal Archivist said.
“You dare twist words with me. I smell it on your breath,” the vampire mocked. He grabbed a fistful of the old man’s white hair and yanked his head back. “It is not a book but a set of scrolls, more the like.” Charles could only watch the vampire’s fangs inch closer to the exposed neck. “Answer me!”
“It’s not a book!” Cesare Farina screamed, feeling death on his neck.
“What is it then, priest?”
Eyes rolling in panic, terror won. “A series of vellum pages and scrolls! Very old. Very fragile.”
“Of course they are, fool,” Lazarus said, smiling triumphantly.
The Cardinal’s fear filled the room like a stink. Charles hated the situation. He was unable to intervene without jeopardizing Cesare Farina’s life. No wizard spells or power from the Dark Thorn were faster than Lazarus; in the split second it would take to call his power and strike, Lazarus would have already sensed it and acted. If the vampire wanted to kill the Cardinal, there was nothing Charles could do about it.
That wasn’t his only worry. There were questions raised now, questions that needed answering. The original text of the Bible. An unedited edition. The information was daunting in its reality. Why would the Bible be edited? What could the Church gain? What was it protecting? Other editions of the book had been altered but they were common knowledge. Thinking about his debate with the Cardinal Seer, what if the Apostles knew of the fey? Had originally written about them? What if the Word called the fey good? What truths did the Bible hide in its first edition? Mentions of lost relics and places of power? What control did the Church keep by its revision work?
And most importantly, what did Lazarus hope to find?
“If we agree to give you access to this Bible, what will you give in return?” Charles asked, ignoring the protestations of the Cardinal Archivist.
“As I said, the lives of these Churchmen, to start,” Lazarus replied. “They are not the reason I came here, a mere means to an end. I will give you something more as well, something you as the unfettered knight want.”
“What is that?” Berrytrill questioned.
“My death.”
“I can do that for you right now,” Charles said, gripping the Dark Thorn tighter for emphasis.
“The badge of your duty through my heart, right?” Lazarus said, grinning the same humorless smile that began to grate on the Heliwr’s nerves. “Undoubtedly the same death you dealt my companions in the passageways below.”
“That’s right,” the knight said.
“Stakes do kill the progeny of my curse,” Lazarus said. “I would know. I have killed enough of them over the centuries when needed. No, as the first vampire, I am immune from such acts of wooden violence.” When Charles did not immediately respond, Lazarus learned forward. “Do not believe me, Heliwr?”