Dark Tarot (Dark Carpathians)

Sandu continued to rub her foot, his touch very gentle but firm. “Is Liona alive?”

“I have no idea. I really don’t. I only know that Lilith continues to send her army, led now by Nera, out to try to get the tarot decks. She needs me and you together. She can’t just steal the deck. That’s why my mother was of no use to them.”

There was a long silence. Outside, an owl screeched, the sound an intrusion into their world. The sound ran along her nerve endings, sending tiny pinpricks of unease darting through her body. She looked at Sandu. The red embers still smoldered, as steady as ever. He looked calm and relaxed. His gaze didn’t waver. He was aware of the owl, but it didn’t bother him. He trusted their safeguards would hold.

“Those parasites, Sandu. I told you, I’ve seen them before, in the book. I was told of them. To beware of them. It was disgusting and so horrible I could never forget the image.”

His eyebrow shot up. “Show me, Adalasia. In your mind.”

She shuddered. “The parasites had far-reaching consequences. They came from hell. From the mother demon who wanted to create hardship and chaos. She wanted to make certain families were torn apart. She often would drip parasites into the mouths of pregnant women while they slept, causing them to miscarry in horrible agony. Those pictures are horrendous as well.”

“Show me.” That was clearly a command.

Adalasia pulled up the memory of the old book her mother had read to her, showing her very graphic pictures of women who seduced men and then, after having their way with them, ripped them open with talons and turned into parasites, crawling inside their bellies, drinking their blood until the parasites were so bloated, they could barely move.

Then she showed him the picture of a gleeful woman standing over a sleeping pregnant woman while her horrified husband, who had clearly just had sex with the demon, shook his head in horror as she dropped parasites into his wife’s open mouth. Next came graphic drawings of the results.

This is what your mother read to you when you were a child, Adalasia? There was a touch of horror in his mind.

Did your parents warn you of vampires when you were a child, Sandu? she countered.

His hands soothed the skin of her ankle. I have no idea, but I suppose they must have.

“If these parasites were introduced by the Striga as far back as then, they must have given them, or the idea of them, to Xavier, the high mage in the Carpathian Mountains. Was there any mention of that in your books? Or by your mother?”

Adalasia shook her head. “Why, Sandu? What is important about those parasites?”

“Xavier claimed he created them. He had giant vats of them and leaked them into the ground where the Carpathians rested. Our women were unable to get pregnant, or if they did, they couldn’t carry. The few babies born were male. This happened slowly, of course, over time. Our people did not realize that Xavier was our enemy. He nearly wiped out our entire species.”

She let out her breath slowly. “Let me show you another image.” She tried to put as much detail as she remembered. The book was old. It had been handed down, mother to daughter. She had it in her bag, one of the things she always kept with her. She could just show it to him, but she didn’t want to. Her mother had drilled it into her that she could only show her daughter. Rather than get out the book, she recalled the picture to her mind. It had been painted, just like the others, by Tessina and Nera’s mother. It depicted a woman with snakes adorning her ankles and wrists and another sliding around her waist, its head up and tongue flicking out toward the man she faced.

The man was no doubt a mage, with his long robe and the walking staff set against a stone. He was reaching for the pail of wiggling worms she was extending toward him. In return, he was giving her, with his other hand, a little girl of about ten. The woman looked gleeful. The child terrified. The mage smug, arrogant even.

“Xavier traded either a Carpathian child or a mage child for those parasites,” Sandu said. “Why would she want that particular child? Something had to be special about that little girl for her to bother with Xavier. I suspect that is a demon sent by Lilith.”

“You would be right. We need to find out if a child went missing around that same time,” Adalasia said.

“This demon that Lilith wants is held behind a gate . . .”

“Four gates. It can escape from any one of them. Any of the four sides. East. West. North. South. All must be guarded. My family guards one gate only. As long as the tarot cards exist and stay out of the hands of Lilith, the gate will hold.”