“Nothing was taboo. They took their own little revenges as they painted: particularly on women. Some of the things they painted still shock me after all these years.”
“Are you certain all of this is true?”
“No. It’s mostly theory. I pieced it together from what I researched. Certainly Duke Goga and several of his men went missing during an eclipse on April 19th, 1681. The body of one of them was found stripped of its skin. That’s also documented. The rest of the party were never found. The Duke had lost his wife and children to the plague so there was no natural successor. He had three brothers, however, and-again, this is a matter of documented history — they gathered the following September, almost six months to the day after the Duke’s disappearance, to divide their elder brother’s spoils. It was a mistake to do so. That was the night the Lady Lilith took occupancy of the Goga Fortress.”
“She killed them?”
“No. They all left of their own free will, saying they wanted no part of owning the Fortress or the land, but were giving it over to this mysterious cousin, in their brother’s name. They signed a document to that effect, and left. All three were dead within a year, by their own hand.”
“And nobody was suspicious?”
“I’m sure a lot of people were suspicious. But Lilith — or whoever she was — now occupied the Fortress. She had money, and apparently she was quite liberal with it. Local merchants got rich, local dignitaries were rather charmed by her, if the reports are to be believed — ”
“Where did you find all these reports?”
“I bought most of the paperwork relating to the Fortress from the Fathers. They didn’t want it. I doubt they even knew what most of it was. And to tell the truth a lot of it was rather dull. The price of pigs’ carcasses; the cost of having a roof made rain-proof … the usual domestic business.”
“So Lilith was quite the little house-maker?”
“I think she was. Indeed I believe she intended to have the Fortress as a place she could call her own. Somewhere her husband wouldn’t come; couldn’t come, perhaps. I found a draft of a letter which I believe she wrote, to him — ”
“To the Devil?” Tammy replied, scarcely believing she was giving the idea the least credence.
“To her husband,” Zeffer replied obliquely, “whoever he was.” He tapped his pocket. “I have it, here. You want to hear it?”
“Is it in English?”
“No. In Latin.” He reached into his jacket and took out a piece of much-folded paper. It was mottled with age. “Take a look for yourself,” he said.
“I don’t read Latin.”
“Look anyway. Just to say you once held a letter written by the Devil’s wife. Go on, take it. It won’t bite.”
Tammy reached out and took the paper from Zeffer’s hand. None of this was proof, of course. But it was more than a simple fabrication, that much was clear. And hadn’t she seen enough in her time in the Canyon to be certain that whatever was at work here was nothing she could explain by the rules she’d been taught in school?
She opened the letter. The hand it had been written in was exquisite; the ink, though it had faded somewhat, still kept an uncanny luster, as though there were motes of mother-of-pearl in it. She scanned it, all the way down to the immaculate and elaborate Lilith that decorated the bottom portion of the page.
“So,” she said, handing it back, her fingers trembling slightly. “What does it say?”
“Do you really want to know?”
“Yes.”
Zeffer began translating it without looking at the words. Plainly he had the contents by heart.
“Husband, she writes, I am finding myself at ease in the Fortress Goga, and I believe will remain here until our son is found — ”
“So she didn’t tell him?”
“Apparently not.” Zeffer scanned the page briefly. “She talks a little about the work she’s doing on the Fortress … it’s all very matter-of-fact … then she says: Do not come, husband, for you will find no welcome in my bed. If there is some peace to be made between us I cannot imagine it being soon, given your violations of your oath. I do not believe you have loved me in many years, and would prefer you did not insult me by pretending otherwise.”