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To Dream of Darkness

A story by DoggyStyle57

Chapter 54, Written May 2013

===

Chapter 54 - A Serpent in the Garden

Sarina took her time over the weekend as she made the statue that would indicate to her mysterious employers that her task had been accomplished. There was little reason to rush to put the statue on display on a Saturday, when, like most shops in the city, she kept her shop closed on Sundays. And the pay they had promised her was quite generous, so they may as well also get a very good statue for their money. She also wanted to add several subtle details to the statue, as a message to those who had hired her - just in case their messenger was completely clueless about what this was all about.

So it was Monday morning when Sarina placed the finished statue of the badger gardener in front of her shop. The five and a half foot tall black granite statue was remarkably realistic, even though the only coloring she had added to it was for the badger's white markings on his face and throat. She depicted him as standing on a rough earthen mound, while wearing a gentleman's jacket and waistcoat, with simple trousers that looked somewhat worn at the knee. In his right hand he held a garden trowel, and in the left he held an uprooted seedling, its earthen root ball freshly taken from an empty pot by his left foot. His pose indicated he was ready to plant the seedling in a hole by his right foot, as soon as he finished inspecting it with his experienced eye. The seedling itself was made of brass, which would eventually tarnish to a nice green patina. On a finger of his right hand he wore a ring, embossed with the same pruning shears symbol that was publicly visible on the rings worn by members of the 'Gentleman's Garden Society'. The same symbol was on the buttons of his jacket and waistcoat. And by his right foot she added one more detail, and hoped that whoever was paying her would look at the statue well enough to notice it.

She got quite a few complements from customers and passers-by on the beauty and lifelike detail of the statue, but no serious offers to purchase it until the end of the second day that it was on display. Sarina was just about to close up her shop for the day on Tuesday evening, when a somewhat rotund, middle aged bear arrived in a nice carriage, walked in, and said, "I say! Are you the proprietress here?"

"I am," she said. "May I help you?"

"Well I certainly hope so!" he said eagerly. "That badger statue by the door is remarkable! Absolutely remarkable! I simply must have it! I have the perfect place for it in my garden. How much do you want for it?"

"Ah, well, that particular statue was commissioned by another gentleman for his garden, I'm afraid." She stated. "It has no specific sale price, as it will be delivered soon to the one who ordered it. I could make you another that would be quite similar, if you're willing to pay a suitable price. My statues are in rather high demand of late, but I craft by magic, so I could have another to sell to you in just a day or two."

"No, no no! I must have that statue! Here, will this price be sufficient to entice you to sell it to me, and no one else?" He scribbled a number on a slip of paper and handed it to her. "If someone else wanted it, they can't be in any great hurry! The statue has sat there for two days. I've seen it as my coach passed each day. Couldn't miss it! Surely a few days' additional delay won't discomfort your other patron?"

Sarina looked at the paper. The number was the precise, odd amount that her true 'patron' had told her she would be paid. "I see. Well, perhaps we could come to an agreement then. How would you be willing to pay that sum?"

"In silver ingots. Will that suffice?" he stated. Then he explained, "I buy and sell precious metals, you see. I just took delivery of a fresh batch of pure silver, so as it happens, I can pay you right here and now, and send a cart and workmen for it in the morning."

"Very well then. Produce the silver, and I will deliver it for you," Sarina offered. "No need to risk your workmen damaging the statue. As I said, I am a mage. If you have a pedestal or stone courtyard ready to receive a sculpture of this size, I can examine the location and then cause the statue to appear directly on that spot."

The bear gestured to his carriage driver, who immediately brought in a heavy chest and set it on one of Sarina's worktables. "There is your payment, Lady Sarina Randall. Count and weigh the bars if you wish. That chest contains the exact amount I offered to you, and has a sworn certificate of assay with it, from the merchant I bought the silver from. You need not trouble yourself with delivering the statue. I will send men to get it in the morning. Our business is concluded."

Standing several feet away from the table and chest, Sarina opened the chest with a slight gesture from one hand, and with a second gesture caused one of the ingots to float through the air to her open hand. It melted and flowed like water at her touch, and reformed in a heartbeat into a silver disc embossed with a crossed shepherd's crook and bill hook design. She kept it in that form only long enough for the bear to recognize the emblem, before reforming it into the ingot. "Nice purity, yes. I will certainly trust your assayer's valuation, sir. But about delivering the statue for you, well, I am afraid I must insist, as a matter of professional courtesy. You see, for a piece of this size and value, I really should inspect the pedestal or platform, to make sure there are no cracks in the place that you would set that statue upon. You wouldn't want your foundation to crumble and topple what is so precious to you, before you get to appreciate what you paid for, would you? I assure you, it will be worth taking less than an hour of your time to ensure that your foundation has no unanticipated weaknesses."

"This is most irregular, My Lady!" he complained.

"Yes, but what you are purchasing is no ordinary lump of stone. Come and see," Sarina countered. The vixen led the bear and his driver back out to the statue and said, "Look closely at his feet, good sir. It is likely that you have not noticed the small viper by his right foot. See how it looks ready to strike? And yet he is blissfully unaware of this danger to himself. If he but knew that there was a serpent in the garden, he could squash the viper with a single step. Sadly, if he remains ignorant of what he feels is not worth noticing, it may not go well for him. Just so it may be with what I can tell you of your foundation. I could certainly just take your payment, and not care if your foundation crumbles and your statue falls. But as a matter of professional pride, I would like to warn you if there is any remaining danger to the value of your purchase."

"Can... can I give you an answer in the morning?" the bear asked nervously.

"Of course. I will be here at seven o'clock sharp. If the statue is already gone by then, I will assume that your answer is that you have decided to do your own inspection and not benefit from my advice in the matter, even though I offer it freely, requesting no further payment for that service. But I do hope in the morning to see you, or a messenger of yours, and that you will allow me to ensure the safety of your investment," Sarina said. She gestured at the door and her shop locked itself up for the night.

"You will have your answer tomorrow, Lady Sarina," the bear said, getting into his carriage.

Sarina watched the gentleman depart, and hoped that she had not over-played her hand. Once he was gone, she re-entered her shop and stored the silver on her bracelet. Then she made a few other preparations, locked up again, and teleported herself to Lord Pennington's home.

===

After dinner that night, she said to Asha, "I want you to watch over Lord Pennington, tonight and until I conclude my business tomorrow. Do not let him out of your sight. It would be very inconvenient for me if anyone were to try to detain him to use as a bargaining chip with me. If anyone threatens him, you are to use any means necessary to prevent him from being harmed or captured."

"It shall be as you wish, Mistress," the black fire elemental replied, in her guise as a simple black furred vixen in a maid's uniform. "No one will be allowed to harm or detain the old fox."

===

Wednesday morning was a grey and gloomy day, with dense clouds and the threat of rain. It was now mid March, yet spring still seemed a long way off. But the rain would doubtless bring an abundance of flowers to life soon.

At precisely seven o'clock a carriage arrived at Sarina's shop. The driver opened the door for her, and she got in.

There was a young grey wolf seated across from her in the carriage, dressed in a black frock coat. As with the Human who had first approached Sarina for this work, his features were spell masked and hard to precisely remember. "Good morning, Lady Sarina," he said in greeting. "I am told that you insist on seeing our gardens, and that you have implied we have a serpent on the loose in them? Would you care to elaborate on that?"

"Some further information came to light while I was... making that statue," she said cautiously. "It is information that certain 'gardeners' might do well to know, about placement of figures in their garden, and their stability. I trust that you can take me someplace where I might converse upon this topic with a suitably knowledgeable gardener, and not be overheard? It's not the sort of thing to be discussed in public, or information to be trusted to underlings."

The carriage started moving when the wolf reached behind himself and tapped his cane on the front wall. He regarded her and said, "I suppose this information has a price?"

"The only price I ask is the attentive ear of a sufficiently high-ranked gardener. Someone who knows precisely why I was hired, and who can make good use of what I discovered in my research," Sarina insisted. "The information is of a sufficiently sensitive nature that I am certain those who hired me would not appreciate it if I spoke of those matters to just anyone. I am trying to respect their privacy and secrecy, you see."

"You really want no payment? Not even a promise of future work for us? So we are to believe you're just offering this information out of the goodness of your heart?" he asked incredulously.

"Not at all. I am offering the information for free because I don't like sloppy work or loose ends, and because I don't want your people coming after me or after my uncle like a pack of hell hounds later, and blaming me when the task I performed for you as you requested doesn't prevent my target subject from going down the same dark path again. And my public workshop or even this carriage are unsuitable places for me to discuss exactly what I found out," Sarina stated calmly. "I know who your employers are, and what they do. And frankly, I don't give a damn about who does what in your organization or who you do it to, as long as they don't interfere with my own goals and activities. I don't need to directly see your senior 'gardener' or be able to identify him, and I am perfectly satisfied to be placed in a situation where I can't possibly use magic during that conversation to read his mind or anyone else's who might be there. All I need or desire from this encounter is for that sufficiently highly placed individual to be able to hear what I say, and reply to what I say, and a private place where you can feel confident that no one who should not be privy to that information can overhear us. Then he can see to the proper pruning and elimination of the vipers in his garden, and I can be done with this matter cleanly."

"I see. Well, that can be arranged, yes. You will have your meeting then," the wolf said. "And possibly we may have further work for you, if this 'free' information proves as useful as you seem to think it might be. But that will be for others to decide. My job is merely to deliver you."

"Or to dispatch me, if I seemed too troublesome?" Sarina asked. "Oh, don't look so worried. I didn't need to read your mind to expect that such a contingency would have been planned for. But do not be foolish and think that I can be easily disposed of if I should prove to be inconvenient. Though I may be a 'mere woman', I assure you that trying to kill me would be, at best, a very costly and messy endeavor. Not a good use to your vast resources. So please don't waste your life by trying to harm me. You probably are quite incapable of doing more than making me very angry, and as long as your people play nice, I really won't be any trouble for you. It's really very simple. There's no benefit to me for opposing you, and plenty to be gained by me for staying in your organization's good graces. I won't be any trouble for you, as long as you cause no trouble for me. Do we have an understanding?"

"That... is not got me to say, My Lady. But I will offer you no harm at this time," he replied.

They rode the rest of the way in silence. At one point the carriage drove down a shadowy alley, and right through what seemed to be a brick wall at the end of it. Sarina only got a glimpse of the illusory wall as she passed through it, but she felt the magic and the wards that were part of it, and saw the alert guards posted just past the false wall. From there they descended a long ramp in a tunnel, going fairly deep before leveling out again.

During that segment of the trip, the only light outside the carriage was what the carriage's two lanterns provided. Within the carriage, Sarina casually summoned a faintly luminescent ball of light, which floated in the middle of the carriage between herself and the wolf. She smiled at the wolf beside her, who seemed quite surprised that she could do any magic at all.

"B-but you can't... You shouldn't be able to..." he said softly.

"Shouldn't be able to cast a spell? I can feel the wards and barriers of this place, just as easily as you can see the fur on the back of your hand. Many kinds of spells would indeed be blocked here. But there are spells, and then there are spells. Not all magic works by the same rules, nor do I." Sarina said, grinning and baring her teeth slightly. "But I said I will not try to read anyone's thoughts here, and promiesed no trouble as long as no one causes me trouble, and I will keep my word. Will you? Or will this get... messy?"

"You will have your meeting, as promised, My Lady," the wolf said. His tone was more respectful now, and his scent was definitely tinged with fear.

"Good. It's so difficult getting blood out of silk, and I do like this dress. I'd hate to have to ruin it," Sarina said calmly.

===

Soon they arrived at their destination, and the wolf led Sarina down a wood-paneled passageway and into a rather pleasant looking but windowless room, whose walls were lined with books and scrolls. There was an ebony table in the middle of the room surrounded by seven chairs.

A hooded figure sat in one chair at that table, illuminated by an oil lamp to his left on the table. He gestured with one gloved hand to one of the chairs on the far side of the table, and said, "Sit, Lady Sarina. That will be all, Wilson. You may leave us."

"Leave you alone? But Master, I... Shouldn't I...?" the wolf asked.

"You should go. You're no match for this girl. But I will be fine. I want to hear what she has to say," the hooded figure said. The lamp was positioned so the interior of his hood was deeply shadowed. He could see Sarina quite well, but she could see nothing of him. A spell on his dark blue garment no doubt increased that effect. "It's not often we meet a female with talents such as hers, at so young an age. Go now. She has made it clear she won't speak in the presence of underlings, has she not? GO!"

"Yes master!" the wolf said, backing from the room and closing the door quietly behind him. Sarina heard the click of the door being latched.

The hooded one regarded Sarina and calmly stated, "I was told that you cast a spell in the tunnel? You must tell me some time how you managed that, though I suspect that I know how you tricked the boy. But such trivia can wait. You came to speak to one of my rank, so you may do so freely now. No one outside this room can hear or scry what takes place within it, nor can any outsider within it cast any spell or contact any outside confederate. Rest assured though that I have no such limitations here. I will hear what you have to say, and then you may go, unharmed. I give you my word on that."

Sarina could feel that the room was indeed well warded. It was much better protected than the tunnel on the way in. The wards would certainly prevent a normal mind-reading or mind control spell from working, as well as blocking most spells from being cast within the room by a visitor, while allowing the Sheperds themselves to still work magic here. And she couldn't sense Asha's mind, since she stepped across the room's threshold. The hooded man had good reason to feel as safe as he appeared to be. Yet Sarina was confident that she could cast enough spells to defend herself if need be. She had two major advantages that most visitors to this meeting place would never have. First, she was wearing Sir Jeremy's ring, having used her own magic to reshape its appearance. Even in its altered state, the ring seemed to identify her to the wards as a member of the Shepherds. Second, even if the ring had not granted her some privileges within their wards, she was confident that much of the magic she had learned in the orient, such as the harmless glowfly spell that she had successfully used in the tunnel, would be completely unaffected here, even without the ring.

"Thank you for your hospitality. But how should I know that you are not merely another underling, in his Master's robes?" Sarina asked. "If you are sufficiently high in this organization to hear what I have to say, then you should be able to tell me why I was chosen and not one of your own agents, who I was sent to deal with, and why. Answer that, and I will give you my information."

"I think I am beginning to like you, Lady Sarina. That was an intelligent and cautious riposte, and well deserving of an answer," he replied. "You were selected because you can alter the minds of others, and because you are immune to fear spells. And also you were chosen because we were able to uncover certain sensitive facts about your past that would be useful in convincing you to work for us, if payment alone was not sufficient. You were sent to seek out Sir Jeremy Fields, who is a member of the House of Lords. You were to determine if he had read and comprehended a demonic summoning spell that he had stolen, to eliminate his memory of having stolen that spell from us, and prevent him from making use of that knowledge. And yet if at all possible, Sir Jeremy was to be left alive and in a state where he would remain useful to us. Is that sufficient detail for you? I gather that you have accomplished that task, since Sir Jeremy still lives and has caused us no difficulties, and since you signaled to be paid. Yet you seem to believe the task is not complete? Please, say to me what you have come to say."

Sarina smiled and nodded. She had no need to cast any spells to tell if the man was lying or not. The barriers against spells did nothing to the senses of a person whose father was of the Feral folk. Sarina's sense of smell as well as her sense of hearing were as finely tuned as the canniest feral wolf. Sarina inhaled slowly before replying. She could tell from the man's scent that he was not at all afraid of her. She could also tell that she was not speaking to Sir Jeremy under that hood, since she knew his scent quite well by now. His heartbeat and breathing had not increased at all as he spoke. None of what she sensed indicated that the man was lying.

"Very well. I determined that Sir Jeremy had indeed read and comprehended the spell, and that it was a spell to summon a specific greater demon. And yes, he intended to use the spell, as well as the second spell that the Demon was offering to your mages. He thought he was capable of casting the summoning spell, if he had assistance from just one additional, more powerful mage, and not five, as you were prudently using. He has a confederate who was and still is willing to help him to summon that demon privately - a mage whose location and protections I do not know, and who I was not told to affect. Sir Jeremy believed that, once he was in possession of the second spell, he could use that second spell on his own, merely for his own personal gain, and not always to benefit your Shepherds and their agendas. Personally, I don't think he would have survived casting either spell with either his mind or his soul intact. But his attempting to do so and failing could have caused quite a public furor, and would have been an embarrassment and a problem for your organization. So I removed the details of the spell from his mind, and made him believe that he went out and got drunk that night, instead of stealing anything from you. He does not remember possessing the spell, or what he intended to do with it, or... the price he was willing to pay for the power that spell could give him. Quite frankly, if you hadn't stated I was to leave him alive and useful, I would have wiped his mind completely and left him a drooling idiot. The man was willing to sacrifice his own wife, children and mistress to the demon, to further his ambitions."

"He was? How interesting. Do go on. Who is his confederate? And what do you think is left undone, other than dealing with that second rogue mage?" the hooded man asked.

Sarina paused, scented the air again, and then named the second mage. Then she said, "I would imagine that your own agents are better suited to dealing with that second mage. But Sir Jeremy remains a problem. Because you wanted Sir Jeremy left alive and useful, I couldn't completely erase his memories of having attended several of the summoning ceremonies when your senior mages tried to negotiate with the demon that the first spell summons. After all, Jeremy was the scribe who was supposed to keep the minutes of that casting session, and someone surely would mention to him later that he was there. I had to settle for making his memories imperfect enough to make it certain that if he had nothing else to go on, he would fail in casting the summoning spell. It would, in fact, summon a lesser but rather dangerous demon who would be quite likely to kill him. He also won't remember precisely what the demon offered, or asked for in payment for that second spell."

"That seems nicely enough done to me," the hooded man said. "What is missing, assuming that we deal with his confederate?"

"First, Sir Jeremy remains at a tipping point - easily tempted to sacrifice his family if he realizes what he could possibly gain by negotiating with that demon himself," Sarina replied. "Even if you kill the mage he was working with, any of the other mages that attended the summoning could inadvertently give him sufficient information to send him careening down that path again. And this time, he might cast the spells before he can be stopped. He was within a day or two of casting them when I stopped him."

"Second, your other mages that are negotiating with that greater demon are also a serious threat to your organization. I may be young, but I have dealt with Hell's denizens on several occasions. The only thing in that first spell that was new to me was the name of a treacherous demon that I would not want to deal with. I know how demons love to deceive mortals," Sarina said. "Your mages were wise not to give the demon what he was asking for as his price. Even if you felt the price was well worth paying, it is unlikely that the demon will treat fairly with you. He will do all that he can to trick you and to ensnare as many souls as he can. The mage that he bargains with is surely damned, and the spell the demon offers is unlikely to be as powerful and invincible as he claims it is. I understand what he offered you, and how tempting that spell would be to possess. I am warning you not to try to possess it. Tell your mages that this is one thing that may not have. If you try to claim it, you will destroy yourselves."

"You oppose that sort of sacrifice on some sort of moral grounds?" the hooded man asked. "Or are you hoping to secure the spell for yourself, and to be the sole possessor of its power?"

"Neither," Sarina insisted. "I have sent living souls to Hell for my own gain, and my soul is already damned many times over. It is the youth and innocence of the proposed victims that appalls me. But even if it didn't, I have the good sense to know that some roses are not meant to be cultivated, no matter how beautiful their blossoms or how sweet their fragrance. I would not make any deal with that demon. Not even to regain my own soul."

"See that you don't," the hooded man said. He stood and gestured to the door, which unlatched on its own. "I will speak with my peers, and we shall consider your warnings carefully. Oh, and what about the statue? My agents reported that it vanished when the coach left your shop."

"Have your agent show me a suitable place for it, and I will place it as I promised," Sarina replied. "It is... well, the method of its transit is one of my little secrets. I can make it appear wherever you like. Even in this very room, despite your wards."

"I think that would bother my colleagues a great deal, if you are not bluffing," the hooded man said, with a slight chuckle. "Let's not agitate them. The coach will take you to a small semi-public garden. The statue may be placed there. And... we may be in touch later. Thank you, and good bye."

===

As the hooded Shepherd had stated, the coach took her from the underground meeting place and via a very circuitous route to a small park, where she placed the statue on a waiting granite pedestal. She briefly distracted the wolf in the frock coat while she enlarged the silver charm from her bracelet, restoring the statue to its full size. It had been on her bracelet before the carriage arrived to get her. The statue by her door when she departed had been a mere illusion.

===

When Sarina got home, Asha reported only a minor disturbance in her absence. The elemental had escorted Lord Pennington to his club that morning, and a lame beggar had suddenly stood and tried to grab the Lord's arm and drag him into a nearby clump of bushes.

"He burned quite nicely, I must say," Asha commented casually. "You may want to alter the Lord's memories of that event. He was rather shaken to see the one who accosted him suddenly bursting into black flames, and incinerating to a degree that not even a pile of ashes remained. After that incident, I assumed a male form and followed him into his club, where he had several stiff drinks, and said not a word."

"That's fine. I'll take care of that when he mates with me after dinner," Sarina said. She would have said more, but just then the canine maid, Michelle, walked up to her with a puzzled look on her face. "Is something troubling you Michelle?" Sarina asked.

"Something right queer, Mistress," the maid said, handing Sarina what appeared to be a gentleman's 'visiting card'. "I was in your room to stoke the fire, an' I saw that lyin' neatly on your pillow. Wasn't there when I made the beds after you left, and not a soul's been by to visit. What do you make of it?"

Sarina looked at the card. It was blank, except for two words hand-written on it in blue ink. The words read, "Well played".

"Nothing you need worry about Michelle. Thank you. Forget you saw this," Sarina's eyes glowed as she forced the memory from the girl's mind.

The girl shook her head, and asked, "Mistress? What were we just talkin' about, My Lady?"

"Dinner. And I said I would like my steak rare tonight," Sarina said.

"Oh? Of course, Mistress," Michelle said, heading for the kitchens to tell Lu Chen.

When the girl was gone, Sarina looked at Asha and said, "I think it is time to set a few more wards and traps. I believe our life is about to get more interesting."