“First you must understand that there are different kinds of magic,” Gabriel said. “The magic of the Dominion that summons revenants and wights and things of darkness. We call this necromancy. Then there is natural magic. Bending the elements to your will. As a daēva, you already know that. But there is other esoteric knowledge that can be learned if one is patient and devoted.”
“Such as how to change one’s form?” Anne asked.
Gabriel dried a plate and slid his hands back into the soapy water. It was strangely erotic to watch him wash dishes. The muscles in his forearms flexed as he moved the sponge in lazy circles across the plate.
“Oui.”
“So there’s truth to the pricolici legends?” she asked, looking resolutely at the cake.
“I think so, yes. There have always been men who ran with wolves, who gave themselves over to the wild and the savage.” He rinsed a knife. “But that is something you are born with, not from God or the Devil. What I am is not pricolici.” He glanced at her. “Hand me that bowl, would you?”
Anne did.
“It was the year of our Lord 1764. I was living in the Margeride Mountains at a remote manor house. The Duzakh was tearing itself apart in a bloody civil war and I thought it wise to retreat to the countryside while they destroyed themselves. I had long stood against them. One in particular, a necromancer named Jorin Bekker, was hunting the followers of my Order, slaughtering them where he found them. So when the killings began, I thought it might be him.”
“But it wasn’t?”
“Witnesses reported seeing a fearsome creature with huge jaws, much larger than a wolf. A man-eater. The attacks multiplied, claiming dozens of lives. You cannot imagine the terror of the peasants. They eked out a pitiful existence grazing their livestock in the forest, and these solitary adults and children were the main targets. Finally, the King put a bounty on its head and sent men to hunt the Beast of Gévaudan, as it came to be known.”
Gabriel shook his head. “They tried everything. Bloodhounds, parties of soldiers with muskets combing the woods, professional wolf-hunters who knew the art of stealth. But the Beast was cunning. He outwitted them all and they could not catch him. The captains blamed the peasants, and each other. A fiasco. Then one of them managed to shoot a large wolf. He claimed it was the Beast. They stuffed it and sent it back to Versailles.” Gabriel snorted. “Louis displayed it in his court for his nobles to shudder at.”
“But it wasn’t,” she breathed from the edge of her chair.
Gabriel refused to take the bait. “Some weeks passed. I went out walking one day, deep in the woods.”
“You weren’t afraid?”
He shrugged. “I thought the reports of its size were probably exaggerated, and I am not exactly helpless. There had been no attacks near my home for a long time. It was a fine spring day, the sun bright and warm. Then I noticed the birds had stopped singing. It was so quiet I could hear only the beat of my own heart.” The sponge paused and his gaze grew distant. “But I felt something watching me. You know that sensation? The cold prickle at the base of the neck? Yes, that is what I felt that day.”
Anne swallowed. She knew it well.
“The Beast was on me before I could blink. Never have I seen anything move so quickly. It caught me by the throat and would have destroyed me in another instant.”
“But…. I thought you couldn’t be killed.”
He gave her a grim smile. “Anything can be killed, Anne. Not to give you ideas but, yes, if my throat had been torn open, my lifeblood emptied upon the earth and my flesh partially eaten, I think that would do the trick.” Gabriel resumed washing. “Luckily, I was quick, too. The moment I heard the birdsong cease, I readied myself. I always carried my necromantic chains because of Bekker. As those huge jaws closed around my neck, I snapped the collar shut around his. It was all I could think to do at the time. I had no ulterior motives. Only to save my own life.
“How he howled in fury! He knew he belonged to me now.” Gabriel drew a deep breath. “I had never used the chains on an animal before, and the Beast was no normal creature. The torrent of him nearly knocked me off my feet. Hunger and fear, but also…. How to explain? I could smell each pine needle and the musk of the stag that had passed a day before. The muscles in my thighs quivered with the urge to bunch, to spring, to run as fast as the wind. I tasted my own blood on his tongue and it was sweet as nectar.
“His bones held the echoes of an ancient magic, the magic of that unseen world you spoke of, Anne, and I realized I could not kill him. He was a man-eater, but there was no evil in him. He did only what his instincts demanded. So I used my will to calm him, to slow his great heart and show him I meant no harm. Then I led him back to my house and gave him a brace of rabbits.”
Anne nodded slowly. “I’m glad you didn’t kill him. He was unique in the world.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But the Beast had a mate. She came to the walls of my manor and howled. The servants were terrified, but I ordered them not to report it.”
“Poor thing,” Anne muttered.
“I know.” He looked sad. “I tried to catch her, but she ran away. After a while, she stopped coming.”
“And you kept him in chains?” She frowned.
“Only for a little while. I became…. A bit obsessed. It was a novelty when I thought there were no novel experiences left to be had.”
Anne nodded. She understood this too.
“We fed together and slept together and ran together in the forest. After a while, he followed me even without the chains.” He dried a plate and looked at her. “I never drained him of life, not a drop. I hid him and protected him. Eventually, I knew I needed a better place to keep him, one with high walls and space for him to roam. I found this old ruin and bought it on the spot.”
Gabriel looked pensive. “Fate placed him in my path that day, Anne. I believe that. He became my teacher in ways long forgotten by men. And over many, many years, I learned to use his magic to transform myself. It takes great mental concentration. My first efforts were … clumsy.” He laughed. “I looked like a mangy dog. But I got better at it with practice.”
“And now you can transform at will.”
“Oui.” He dried the last bowl and set it aside, turning to rest against the counter.
She hesitated. “What do you become?”
“You don’t remember?” He gave a slight smile. “Then I will show you sometime, if you wish. But not tonight.”
“Why not?”
Gabriel laughed. “Because I am tired from baking birthday cakes.”
“But it can be taught?” she persisted.
He gave her a shrewd look. “You wish to learn?”
“I’m only asking.” She kept her voice light, although Anne was profoundly intrigued by his story.
“It can.” Gabriel’s face darkened. “I taught three others of my Order. Men whom I trusted with my life. One of them was Adrian. After what he did at Mara Vardac, I vowed never to teach another. I thought I knew all there was to know about the transformation, but I was wrong. The magic is old and powerful. It can be darker than I imagined.”
“In what way?”
“The beast you become is a reflection of the man inside, but more so. Like the telescope, it magnifies your soul. And Adrian’s was … unfit.” He tossed the dish towel aside. “There. I’ve bared my heart to you, Anne. Very few people know that story. Very few. Now you tell me why you hunt the old stories.”
She tensed. “I already told you—”
He made a sharp gesture. “No. You could do anything with your life, be anyone. But you chose this. I want to know why.” His voice softened. “I won’t judge you for it, I swear.”
She almost told him. He had given of himself, something of value, and wanted her to give in return. Gabriel was not the sort of man to accept copper when the debt was in gold. But she’d never confessed her reasons to another living soul, not even her brother, and the thought of doing so filled her with a strange shame.
“Because they fascinate me,” she said with a smile. “Did I tell about the time I was caught in a hail of toads? I was in Northumbria, looking into reports of a bogle, when a great dark cloud came and disgorged hundreds of little things that looked like hazelnuts….”
Gabriel listened to her ramble for a minute or two with mounting scorn. Then he turned without a word and stalked out the door. Anne hardened her heart against a pang of regret. She’d be leaving this place soon anyway.
“Let them eat cake,” she murmured, sticking a finger into one of the rosettes and licking the frosting off.
It tasted like ashes.