Chapter 32     Love Sacrifices

I

Edmund fell on his knees to hit the floor. His moistened eyes were fixated on Ardith’s face, who watched him plummeting on the floor. Edmund’s hand still held the dagger that pierced his abdomen. Blood gushed out the herald’s wound painting dangerously in carmine the green silky fabric of his tunic. All the present in the alcove stared in awe, intrigued because of the stupidity of self stabbing a dagger.

Ardith screamed with great angst. “Noooooo! Edmund, but what have you done?”Ardith managed to release herself from the soldier’s tense grip – not that tight for they were staring at Edmund and lowered their guard- and hurried to hug Edmund her agonizing love. She placed her hands on the bleeding wound and cried a sea of tears. Ardith trembled in sorrow and despair as she contemplated the hands dripping of her open hands.

The soldiers suddenly woke up from their absentminded state and ran after Ardith to ensnare her back, but inquisitor Gui signaled them to retreat. He needed to see with his own eyes the moment when Ardith couldn’t control herself and transformed into a vampyr sucking to death the poor’s man blood. That was the proof he needed to take the young duchess with him to behead and dismember her. He would enjoy for sure burning her limbs on a pyre. But before he would interrogate her to know more about the fascinating mystery these demonic creatures of the night hid in their soulless bodies.

Bernardo Gui awaited alert and he ordered his legionaires to stand on guard ready to respond.

Meanwhile, Ardith remained on the floor shivering crying. Her eyes were red and she gave painful gasps.  The young duchess placed Edmund’s head over her lap and speaking in a whisper told him, “Don’t talk and take a deep breath. I am going to take out the dagger.”

Edmund gave Ardith a throbbing look while a thin smile drew in his lips. A second after the poor man screamed in shrieked in soreness while the dagger slid slowly out of his tore skin. Once out, Ardith hurled the knife away under the perplex stare of the inquisitors who couldn’t give credit to what their eyes were witnessing. The woman, who had been bitten by a vampire remained immutable in front of Edmund’s profuse bleeding.

The feeble Ardith managed to rip her skirt and pressed Edmund’s wound with the cloth that immediately stained in red. The man protested for the pressure made on his injure to stop the bleeding.

“Why did you do this, Edmund? Why?” A crying Ardith inquired.

“It was the only way to prove you were not a demon. I knew you would never attack me as a newborn vampire should do… you are not like them… you are not one of them.”Edmund spoke in a labored whisper and he clung to life and to Ardith’s love.

The clergymen were astounded. Gui advanced to stand next to Ardith and Edmund holding tight his crucifix in one hand and the Holy Water bottle in the other. “I can’t believe this! I had never witnessed something like this before. This woman has been bitten by a demon and she’s clean! There’s no evil in her. This is a miracle!”

“And what is to be done now, Monsignor? Would she become a vampire later on?” Bishop Fredrick asked.

“No. I don’t think this possible. It has been a long time after she was first bitten. The normal reaction in a newborn vampire is to attack by the first drop blood. This has not happened and that means she’s unharmed.” Gui responded with some resignation in his voice. Deep inside of him, the inquisitor wished to take Ardith with him as a living proof, a precious token that would have confirmed that these creatures were real. A trophy for the church at the end that was equal as a golden medal for his sagacity. He had been after Leila von Dorcha for decades. The damned vampire had escaped time after time and finally, when he was about to trap her, this Edmund took the glory off his hands by killing her first. Then, the young duchess, after been marked, didn’t turn into one of them. It was very disappointing for Gui, who looked crestfallen. Yet, he had to give the order to his men. “Soldiers, release this people! We have nothing else to do here. The he spoke to the duke of Harzburg with severity in his tone. “Lord Aelderic, you know it is against our faith, but I should advice you to run to message your medic, Baron Ascili… don’t look at me that way. We’ve always known that he had come regularly to Harzburg to practice his medicine. I guess God works by mysterious ways and only Him knows his domain… And if Jesus Christ chose Lucas, who was a medic, to be an apostle… Well, what are you waiting for? Go! The legionnaires will escort you, while we all pray for the life of this man… the King’s herald.”

After glowing a look filled with incredulity to the inquisitor, Lord Aelderic left the room to get Ascili followed by the two soldiers that grasped him before.

Ardith kept crying embracing her love on the floor. The injured man barely could open his eyes. His face appalled for the loss of blood. The young duchess spoke to Edmund tenderly. “Oh, please Edmund, don’t leave me. I loved you before I met you… and when I thought I had lost you I loved you even more. Now that you have come back I can’t lose you again. I will not renounce of this love now that I have you back with me.”Aloud, the woman prayed for Edmund’s life. In her mind she asked for the forgiveness of sins committed. Those terrible sins of lust when she succumbed to the carnal instincts and desire provoked by a forbidden relationship with Leila… but those were to be confessed later.

“Poor Edmund. He had sacrificed his own life for the woman he loves… God shall place His powerful hand over this man and don’t allow him to die.” The religious party whispered and their prayers began.

Ardith was desolated. She watched how the man she loved was losing the battle for his life. He had commanded many wars in the name of the Church and had returned unharmed. It was ironic how the same church he defended was the one that provoked all that mess. However, Edmund had lost too much blood and feebly, he whispered to Ardith. “Forgive me Ardith… I love you… please… for-…” Edmund couldn’t finish the phrase.  After giving a long breath, the man’s eyes shut.

A scream was heard in the alcove. “Nooooooo! Please, Edmund! Nooo!” Ardith hugged Edmund with the scarce strength she had. She cradled Edmund’s inert body. The tears poured down her dismal face. She couldn’t do anything and her cries mixed with the insipid prayers of the inquisitors.

II

Three days after that fatidic incident and Edmund remained unconscious. Baron Ascili examined his wound. He wasn’t in a position to give any hopes to sweet Ardith, because the man was in a very delicate condition. Yet, Ardith hadn’t lost her faith. The duchess truly believed her love would awake soon in the way she had done before.

And she had recovered completely. She looked amazingly beautiful and her skin bright and healthy as porcelain as it used to be before Leila had come to Harzburg with all her demons and doom. Ardith had regained her strengths and appetite and that was the ideal, because she had to be strong and healthy for when her love wakes up.

The young duchess took care of Edmund’s health herself. She followed strictly Ascili’s advices and recommendations. Ardith changed the bandages daily after cleaning and applying herbal ointments to the wound. She herself prepared the infusions and became the best nurse healing with love and tenderness the man she loved.

Ardith spent hours sitting by Edmund’s side. His breathing was barely perceptible and his face looked pale and ghastly. But this was not enough to discourage the duchess. She was a living proof that death could be defeated, and she had been in a more deplorable state than Edmund was. She had been kissed by the Hell’s lips and escaped triumphantly from the cold Reaper’s claws.

Ardith read love poems to Edmund and narrated Bible’s passages where the most fantastic miracles. Bishop Fredrick had stayed in the manor as a “good will act”. He prayed for Edmund’s life every twice a day. Of course it was his duty and obligation, more like a way of vindicating the harm the clergymen did when they falsely accused Ardith of being a vampire and that provoked all that tragedy. The man that was agonizing was the King’s herald and who probably would become Germany’s ruler in a not too far away future. If Edmund dies, the consequences could be terrible. The empire could withdraw the support given for centuries to the Catholic Church. Even a war could start if something happened to Edmund. The clergymen proceeded hurriedly when they broke in the Cuthberth’s Mansion and dared to apprehend the duchess without having the evidence needed.

And the Church was already in a complicated position and was in debt with King Henry for the large display of men to the southern territories. The best generals and soldiers were sent to a suicidal mission and the war against the vampires left thousands of casualties. The battle was not against Visigoths, it was against demons and the fact of hiding information to the kingdom caused a great loss of lives and military resources. At the end it was a horrid genocide. The church should show their entire empathy and support to the Cuthbert’s family or these successive errors would cost too much for the Germanic-Roman Alliance.

Ardith swallowed with pain the lump in her throat, a  knot that barely left her breath. She just wanted to kick out the bishop out of her room. It was his fault… his, Bodicelli’s and Gui’s fault. Edmund stumbled between the realms of the living and the dead. Yet, deeply inside of her she knew that the clergyman’s prayers would go higher than hers. Ardith still felt dirty, stained by her sins. At the end she needed to stand his presence and listened deafly to the apologies offered by Bishop Fredrick.