like some dim-witted Philistine. Would that he’d never followed the conversation down this particular path.
“Is this what you’d wanted to show me?” he asked.
“No, it’s something else, another statue even older than these, one of the most ancient artifacts at Grotte Cachée. It’s in the cave.”
David looked toward the slab of dark, moss-draped volcanic rock that formed the back wall of the bathhouse. Slightly off center in the rock face was a roughly triangular opening about five feet high. A little bluish bird—a thrush, he thought—stood sentinel just inside this natural doorway.
She said, “There is a chamber called the
Cella
about a quarter mile in, where the Gauls who once lived here used to worship their gods. They carved a stone effigy with some rather curious features.”
A quarter mile in.
Precisely the limit imposed upon him by Bartholomew Archer. Far be it for her to have invited him to venture farther than that.
David had yet to set foot in the “Secret Grotto” for which this valley had been named, and he was eager to do so, but not with Lili as a guide. He’d meant it when he’d told the archbishop that he would refrain from becoming too familiar with the residents of Grotte Cachée. Doing so could only muddle his judgment and call his conclusions into doubt.
It would be particularly unwise to cultivate an attachment to Lili, with whom, if he were honest with himself, he’d been enthralled from the first. And, too, how likely was it that this effigy would be of interest to his investigation, given how keen she was to show it to him? He would be better off exploring the cave on his own, at night, as he’d planned.
“It is a statue of a dusios,” she said.
He looked at her sharply. “A
dusios
?”
“Do you know what that is?”
He hesitated for a moment, choosing his words. “I understand it to be a type of demon.”
That smile again. “What some call demons, others call gods. A French term for them is Follets. ‘Dusios’ is a Gaulish name for a type of Follet with the ability to transform himself from male to female.”
It was a simplistic description of a complicated being, to which a large section of
Dæmonia
was devoted.
According to the writings of St. Thomas, Vallesius, Maluenda, and others,
he’d written in his introduction to this type of incubus,
Dusii procreate, after a fashion, by assuming a female form so as to fornicate with an exceptional man and secure his seed, after which they revert to the masculine and lie with a woman into whose womb they inject that seed. The offspring of these unions, although the human children of the men whose seed were captured, are reputed to be endowed with extraordinary gifts. Plato, Alexander the Great, and Merlin, among others, are thought to have been conceived through the intervention of a Dusios.
This is not to say that Dusii only engage in coitus for the purpose of reproduction. They are, like all Incubi, sexually voracious. In a state of almost constant carnal excitation, the Dusios, in his native male form, will copulate with any and every desirable female who puts herself at his disposal, as well as with some who do not, by means of enchantment that causes his victim to submit willingly to such violation. There is no agreement amongst demonologists as to whether Dusii, or Incubi in general, are in the habit of taking human women by physical force. From my study of the subject, I would suspect that there are some who are and some who are not.
Lili said, “The stone figure in the cave portrays both male and female physical attributes. I had thought you might find it interesting, given your artistic inclinations, but having witnessed your reaction to these satyr statues . . . well, I’m afraid you might be put off by—”
“No, no, not at all,”he said quickly. “I . . . I do think I would find it interesting, very much so. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression of me. I daresay I’m a good deal more
“Is this what you’d wanted to show me?” he asked.
“No, it’s something else, another statue even older than these, one of the most ancient artifacts at Grotte Cachée. It’s in the cave.”
David looked toward the slab of dark, moss-draped volcanic rock that formed the back wall of the bathhouse. Slightly off center in the rock face was a roughly triangular opening about five feet high. A little bluish bird—a thrush, he thought—stood sentinel just inside this natural doorway.
She said, “There is a chamber called the
Cella
about a quarter mile in, where the Gauls who once lived here used to worship their gods. They carved a stone effigy with some rather curious features.”
A quarter mile in.
Precisely the limit imposed upon him by Bartholomew Archer. Far be it for her to have invited him to venture farther than that.
David had yet to set foot in the “Secret Grotto” for which this valley had been named, and he was eager to do so, but not with Lili as a guide. He’d meant it when he’d told the archbishop that he would refrain from becoming too familiar with the residents of Grotte Cachée. Doing so could only muddle his judgment and call his conclusions into doubt.
It would be particularly unwise to cultivate an attachment to Lili, with whom, if he were honest with himself, he’d been enthralled from the first. And, too, how likely was it that this effigy would be of interest to his investigation, given how keen she was to show it to him? He would be better off exploring the cave on his own, at night, as he’d planned.
“It is a statue of a dusios,” she said.
He looked at her sharply. “A
dusios
?”
“Do you know what that is?”
He hesitated for a moment, choosing his words. “I understand it to be a type of demon.”
That smile again. “What some call demons, others call gods. A French term for them is Follets. ‘Dusios’ is a Gaulish name for a type of Follet with the ability to transform himself from male to female.”
It was a simplistic description of a complicated being, to which a large section of
Dæmonia
was devoted.
According to the writings of St. Thomas, Vallesius, Maluenda, and others,
he’d written in his introduction to this type of incubus,
Dusii procreate, after a fashion, by assuming a female form so as to fornicate with an exceptional man and secure his seed, after which they revert to the masculine and lie with a woman into whose womb they inject that seed. The offspring of these unions, although the human children of the men whose seed were captured, are reputed to be endowed with extraordinary gifts. Plato, Alexander the Great, and Merlin, among others, are thought to have been conceived through the intervention of a Dusios.
This is not to say that Dusii only engage in coitus for the purpose of reproduction. They are, like all Incubi, sexually voracious. In a state of almost constant carnal excitation, the Dusios, in his native male form, will copulate with any and every desirable female who puts herself at his disposal, as well as with some who do not, by means of enchantment that causes his victim to submit willingly to such violation. There is no agreement amongst demonologists as to whether Dusii, or Incubi in general, are in the habit of taking human women by physical force. From my study of the subject, I would suspect that there are some who are and some who are not.
Lili said, “The stone figure in the cave portrays both male and female physical attributes. I had thought you might find it interesting, given your artistic inclinations, but having witnessed your reaction to these satyr statues . . . well, I’m afraid you might be put off by—”
“No, no, not at all,”he said quickly. “I . . . I do think I would find it interesting, very much so. I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong impression of me. I daresay I’m a good deal more
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