“Huh.”
Whatever the source of the letter, its sentiments were easily understood. Tammy herself might have penned such a letter — in a simpler style, perhaps; and a little more viciously — on more than one occasion. God knows, Arnie had violated his own vows to her several times, shamelessly.
Zeffer folded the letter up. “So, you can make what you want of all this. Personally I think it’s the real thing. I believe this woman was Lilith, and that she stayed in the Fortress to work on her revenge, where neither God nor her husband would come and bother her. Certainly somebody created that room, and it was somebody who had powers that go far beyond anything we understand.”
“What happened when she was finished?” Tammy asked.
“She packed up and disappeared. Got bored perhaps. Went back to her husband. Or found a lover of her own. The point is, she left the Fortress with the room still intact. And with Goga and his men still in it.”
“And that’s what you bought?”
“That’s what I bought. Of course it took a little time to realize it, but I purchased a little piece of Hell’s own handiwork. And let me tell you — to make light of all this for a moment — it was Hell to move. There were thirty three thousand, two hundred and sixty-eight tiles. They all had to be removed, cleaned, numbered, packed away, shipped and then put up again in exactly the same order that they’d been assembled in. I timed it so that the work could be done while Katya was off on a world tour, publicizing one of her pictures.”
“It must have driven you half crazy … ”
“I kept thinking about how much pleasure Katya would derive from the room when it was finished. I was oblivious to the human cost. I just wanted Katya to be astonished; and then, to look at me — who’d given her this gift — with new eyes. I wanted her to be so grateful, so happy, she’d fling herself into my arms and say I’ll marry you. That’s what I wanted.”
“But that’s not the way it turned out?”
“No, of course not.”
“What happened? Did she dislike the room?”
“No, she understood the room from the beginning, and the room understood her. She started to take people down there, to show the place off. Her special friends. The ones who were obsessed with her. And there were plenty of those. Men and women both. They’d disappear down there for a few hours — ”
“These were people she was having sex with?”
“Yes.”
“You said both men and women?”
“Preferably together. That’s what she liked best. A little of both.”
“And did everybody know?”
“About her tastes? Of course. Nobody cared. It was rather chic at the time. For women anyway. The nancy-boys like Navarro and Valentino, they had to cover it up. But Katya didn’t care what people thought. Especially once she had the room.”
“It changed her?”
“It changed everyone who went into it, myself included. It changed our flesh. It changed our spirits.”
“How?”
“All you have to do is look at me to see how I changed. I was born in 1893. But I don’t look it. That’s because of the room. It has energies, you see, painted into the tiles. I believe it’s Lilith’s magic, in the tiles. She used her infernal skills to lock the Duke and his men and all those animals into the illusion: that’s strong magic. The monks knew that. But they had the good sense to keep their distance from the place.”
“So did everyone who went down there stay young?”
“Oh no. By no means. It affected everyone a little differently. Some people simply couldn’t take it. They went in for a minute, and they were out again in a heartbeat.”
“Why?”
“It’s the Devil’s Country, Tammy. Believe me, it is.”
Tammy shook her head, not knowing what to believe. “So some people left, because they thought the Devil was in there?”
“That’s right. But most people felt some extra burst of energy when they went in the room. Maybe they felt a little younger, a little stronger, a little more beautiful.”