Suddenly, through the haze of my fading senses, I am aware of a thickening of the air behind Bram. A movement of some force, some malevolent force. Too late I realize we have been overheard. Willoughby! Willoughby’s Dark Spirit was here all along, waiting, listening. Stricklend knew I would be forced to pass on the Great Secret. I was the intended victim all along. He knew that only at the point of my death would I divulge what he wanted to know! The shadowy shape shifts and is gone again. Gone to its master!

“Oh Bram, we have been tricked! I have been so stupid! The Dark Spirit was here.” I try to sit up, shaking my head. I have not enough breath to explain. “He will take what he has learned to Stricklend. If that monster knows … don’t you see? No baby, no mother, would ever be safe again.”

“Hush now, Lilith, do not distress yourself further, please, my darling.”

“You have to stop him. Promise me, you and Louis. And Druscilla. Ask for her help. Promise me!”

“I promise. Oh, God, Lilith!” Bram’s eyes fill with tears again as my body is wracked with a painful spasm.

“One more thing, Bram, it is vital … listen…”

“Yes, my love, I am listening. What is it?”

“At the convent. Ask for the cask … Sister Bernadette. And Bram, you must remember, a girl baby.” I can feel myself fading. My limbs are weightless. There is no longer any pain, merely a sensation of floating, of drifting upward. I can hear the spirits calling to me…’The precious drops of blood must be … taken from a girl baby to raise a woman. From a … boy baby to raise … a…” As I form the words they sound to me as if they come from some far distant place, rather than from my own mouth. And at last I am free of my body. Free of my earthly ties. And the blessed blackness of the night envelops me, swaddles me, embraces me, until at last I am absorbed into the dark where no stars shine, no light glows, save for that of the phantasmagoria that rises to welcome me to my new home.

Chapter 27

27.