I am lifted high above the chapel soaring up even higher above the streets of Tarantos, carried by talons gripping my arms near my shoulders. I can see hearth fires burning by peering straight down chimneys. The temple of Ashera the Temptress, formerly that of God the Healer, rises tallest among all the buildings of the city, lit by oil lamps and glowing coals in brass basins.
I am carried by a bat as large as a man, but broader, covered with auburn fur and with the face of a fox. Its black leather wings beat powerfully, lifting us upward and carrying me in the direction of the mountains. In my first encounter with a bat like this one I reacted out of fear, rationally thinking that I was a prey item being carried off to be devoured on a nearby peak, or perhaps the spire of some building. But Liana confirmed my feelings after the incident, when I burned the bat with my fiery hands and nearly fell to my death after it dropped me, that its intentions were not hostile.
In the dark, the glowing lava streams trickling down the slope of the volcano are clear, as are the brilliant blur flames burning in a fissure in its side. We fly over a river cutting through a steep, rock-lined canyon, originating from a point in the heights where the volcano melts the snow surrounding its peak. We are buffeted upward, tossed by a wave of hot air raising from the lava flow, and sail over a field of hexagonal basalt columns.
My stomach sinks when we drop and zoom into the mouth of a cave, gliding over black sand lined by streams of both water and lava. I am dropped onto an outcropping of rock, where I hear the endless chatter of a thousand voices. Looking up, the ceiling is carpeted with rust orange and black, the colors of the bats who inhabit this cave and cling to the roof.
“Welcome, lizard person.” The bat who speaks to me, with glassy black eyes and the long brown snout of a fox, has a surprisingly deep voice.
“I am honored, great king, to be your guest.” I reply, standing on the rock and having a conversation with a man-sized bat who is hanging upside down. I notice that he didn't use the word “man,” because I'm not human, but used the word “person,”
“I am sorry Jenreth took you by surprise. He didn't mean you harm.” The king speaks, with his black membranous wings wrapped around his body like a regal cloak.
“I'm sorry if I hurt him. I reacted out of instinct and fear.” I bow my head. “May I approach, your highness?”
For a moment his eyes flicker to the two males clutching the roof on either side of him and just behind him, no doubt his lieutenants. “You may proceed.”
I leap from the rock column where I stand, springing over to the wall. I clamber over the wall until I am on the ceiling and crawl upside down over the pitted surface, moving toward a furry colony of bodies packed together on the roof of the cave for warmth. I see a lava river below me, and I think for a moment that falling would be certain death, but my grip is secure and fierce as always. I crawl across the ceiling, hand and foot on diagonal sides advancing, giving me a serpentine movement across the domed roof of the cave. Bats fall, dropping from the ceiling, then snap their wings open and fly off, resuming their perches at different spots on the ceiling to create room for me as I pass.
I reach a stalactite near the king where I lie, gripping it with my hands and feet, and I think for a moment that in reality I have four feet, but it's my experience as a human that makes me think that I have hands. I am face-to-face with the king, and we are both hanging upside down, even though it appears we are standing as we talk. The human in me is disoriented, but the gecko part of my nature was meant for this, to climb upside down, clinging to the underside of branches and rafters.
“This is more like it,” the king says. “It is cumbersome to speak to someone who is upside down. It takes an honest person to admit his fear.”
“More like terror, your highness.”
The bats on either side of him laugh with high-pitched squeaks.
“Our tradition says that the Creator gifted us with flight to escape the reptiles. In truth, my people once preyed upon yours, and vice versa. We were at war, but that was millennia ago. Can we be done with fighting?” His black eyes are like polished obsidian as they regard me without blinking.
“Yes, by all means, your highness. As far as I know, I am the last of my kind—it would be foolish to go to war. Furthermore, my life is in service to Lord Riyel, and not to settling old grievances.” Behind the king I see a vast colony that appears to be standing on the ceiling, mothers nursing their young at their breasts, and elders with sparse hair and tattered wings resting while others bring them bits of fruit. The cave is a beehive, filled with the flying shapes of hundreds of bats flitting round the cavern, going out into the night or returning.
“I have heard reports that you are a holy man. What do your scriptures say about the bat people?” The king opens his wings and closes them once again as though he is readjusting his cloak.
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“I'm the least of all the holy men—I'll let Lord Riyel be holy for me.” I climb a little “upward” on the stalactite so that I can be seen. “The psalms say nothing about the bat people, but they do teach that all living beings are made from clay vessels, the lesson being that the likeness of God is not in the form of the clay, but what is inside of us. Earthen pots, not those of silver or gold, shall contain the glory of the Lord. Not long ago I was a man, but now I inhabit this body, so I understand how appearances can be deceiving.”
“Does that change if I tell you we are vampires?” The king looks at me with unblinking eyes and an expressionless face.
Oooookay. I got thrown a curveball there that I didn't see coming. Although they're huge, these bats appear to be flying foxes, which are fruit bats, courtesy of Mr. Frazier's freshman biology class. I just saw several elderly being brought fruit, so that fits, but maybe they're like humans, omnivores who can take advantage of whatever food is available, including blood.
“Honestly, I didn't expect that,” I admit to the king, “but the scripture is clear—we're all made by God the Healer, and none is better than another because of the form he takes.”
The king and his men confer for a moment, speaking in a high squeaks and clicks that are at the edge of my ability to hear.
“Now we get to the heart of the matter.” Despite the constant chatter of a thousand bodies nestled together and the swarm of bats flitting about the cavern, the king is calm. “My subjects are imprisoned in the temple of the Ashera the Temptress.”
“My calling is to free the captives and to deliver the oppressed. My companions and I are outnumbered, so we have been slowly taking out the queen's enforcers, but we will retake the temple, and any of your subjects who are imprisoned there will be freed.”
A hissing sound can be heard below us, and I can see from the edge of my large eyes a stream meeting a lava flow and turning to steam.
“Free my subjects and you will have many riches.” The king looks to the bat on his left, who opens his wings like a cowl and removes a ruby the size of a golfball with the thin bony hand attached to his wing, holding the gem out so that I can see it glow in the unearthly light of the cave illuminated by lava flows. The ruby gives off a lustrous red brilliance like molten glass pulled from the furnace
“Thanks for your generosity, great king. But I really have no need for riches. I've learned my lesson.” My mind flashes back to images of watches, name-brand sunglasses and shoes, sports cars, and liquor that I forced down my gullet because I thought the name and the price would impress people. “Not long ago I killed the king of St. Janith, ripped his head right off his body, and I spat out the jewels from his crown. I live for justice. As long as your subjects are free and can see you again, that is my reward.”
“So you admit to killing a king.” The monarch of the bat people has no lips, but I detect a wry smile, perhaps in the tone of his voice.
“He was an idolater, and he won't be the last. The queen of Tarantos is next.” I clamber down from the stalactite, going on all fours. The human in me is screaming in panic, because I'm upside down a hundred feet above a river of lava. I bow my head low to the ceiling of the cave. “But you, noble king, I would be honored to serve.”
The king stands tall and his large ears twitch. “One last thing before Jenreth takes you back. He says that you burned him, and we have seen his wounds. How did you do that?”
“As I said, your highness, I was a human, who after my death was forced to endure purification by fire to remove my stubborn pride. Like Lord Riyel, in my suffering and death there is power.” I raise the plump fingers of one hand, and by will the flames of purgatory engulf my hand, accompanied by a wave of agony.
For the first time the fox-like head of the king reflects emotion, perhaps one of surprise, or wonder. “It is a sign. We the bat people are alive with the flame of Mt. Ttleeetstsee, to put it into a word that you might be able to hear, and its lava runs through our veins. As long as the fire burns, you are alive, and a person. May the true God grant you success.”
The king releases his grip on the ceiling with his feet and falls head-first, diving down toward the black sand dotted with guano from the bat colony. His companions follow, and the three of them drop like stones, before their wings pop open and they glide across the cavern floor and skirt a steam cloud.
I follow, falling from the ceiling and rolling slowly, doing a lazy somersault until I open my body spread eagle, and the folds of skin snap out from my sides like sails, and I glide up over the thermal air drafts. A man-sized bat pounces on me from above, seizing my shoulders with his talons, and carries me out of the cave.
* * *
“You're alive,” Taur observes, resting a brawny hand on my back. “Oh, your skin is soft and cool—I didn't expect that.”
“Don't say that; you'll just fuel my vanity.” It would be just like me to get all big-headed about how smooth a gecko's skin is, unlike those filthy lizards. “Liana was right. They weren't out to kill me. Turns out several of the king's subjects are imprisoned in the temple of Ashera the Temptress.”
“What would they want with giant bats?” Liana asks, pulling her knees in close to her body as she sits on the roof.
All three of us are sitting on the roof of the chapel, looking out over the city lit by oil lamps and hearth fires, which seems to me to be warmer and more welcoming than the artificial electric lights of modern cities. Our eyes are drawn to the spire of the idolatrous temple, lit by braziers, which is the repossessed temple of God the Healer.
“I have no idea.” I'm not sitting, but lying on my stomach, closely studying the temple for anything that I can detect. “The king also told me that they are vampires.”
Taur lets out a long breath. “These are sick people, more like animals in clothes. Combine that with vampire bats...”
“I know the feeling, Taur.” I clamber over the edge of the roof to get a better look at the temple. “They thought when they got rid of Lord Riyel that they were freeing themselves of restriction, of old-fashioned, outdated ideas, but they opened an abyss of depravity. It's a bottomless pit without limit. We'll rest up during the day, and tomorrow we see what's in the temple.”