(With thanks to Sabb for the inspiration for this story; for a companion story, see "Bite of the Schlange")
*
None of the young men who climbed the hill above the harbor at Starigard were music aficionados; they were all just curious about who had taken up residence in the castle. Of the bit more than thirty men coming up from folding nets in their fishing boats tied up in the harbor or from across the fields of Hvar Island, a beautiful, wild, and very remote isle off the Dalmatian coast in the Adriatic Sea, none either took notice of or, at least, remarked at who had received invitations. The cream of the island's young manhood. Comely and strong and well-formed young men all. And from all walks of the island's somewhat primitive life, from the fishermen to the shepherds to the merchantmen's pampered sons.
For weeks Starigard and its surrounds had been abuzz with rumors about who had moved into the castle above the harbor. All they had heard was that it was Count Schlange, but the island had never before been visited by anyone of nobility, and no one could imagine what their picturesque, yet simple world would have to offer anyone of noble birth. They were of hardworking, albeit unusually handsome stock, living by the muscles of their bodies and the sweat of their brows.
The rumors did have a somewhat sinister aspect to them, though, no doubt brought about by the count's men, who had been seen in brief glimpses working about the castle grounds and pulling provisions up from the imposing black-painted vessel floating in the center of the harbor, which had heralded the arrival of the castle's new master. Massive, broad-chested, hefty-thighed, hooded, swarthy men, swathed from head to toe in black and casting glowering, penetrating looks that did not invite questions or friendly prattle and caused one to look quickly away.
No sign of hospitality from the brooding castle for weeks and then the surprising invitations, the puzzling invitations. Fifty of the region's most handsome, most well-formed young men had received invitations to attend a concert evening at the castle on the next moonless night. A concert evening. Invitations not to any Starigard resident of remote culture and refinement, of which there were almost none, and not to any of the island's comely lasses, at least some of whom might appreciate the music. But to fifty of the region's young fishermen, shepherds, farmers, and shop apprentices only.
None of these young men had heard of the rising fame of the composer Richard Wagner, let alone his minor, never performed composition, the
Siren Song Symphony
, inspired, it was said, by the legend of the Lorelei, the sirens that charmed sailors to their deaths on rocks at a particularly treacherous bend of the Rhine River. But some thirty of those who had received invitations were curious enough—and brave enough, considering the somewhat foreboding vibes drifting down the hillside from the castle—to suffer a bit of culture to see this reclusive foreign count for themselves and to check out what he had done to make the castle habitable after three decades of disuse.
As the thirty-some handsome men moved up the hillside or across the fields and under the castle portcullis and into the stone-paved castle courtyard, it appeared that the count had done nothing at all to stave off the ravages of time pulling at the castle. Everything was in mid rot and decay, loose stones fallen from the battlements lying about in disarray and weeds struggling up from the cracks in the paving stones. Two of the count's hulking minions, heads partially shrouded in the hoods of their black, full-length capes, stood beside seven-foot torches at either side of the wooden doors leading into the castle's main banquet hall.
The faint hint of music wafted out from the hall through the open doors, merely a wisp of sound at the beginning, but haunting and beckoning, causing the boisterous chatter of the arriving men to dull to a hushed murmur and drawing them to the steps up from the courtyard into the banquet hall. None had heard music like this before. It was beautiful, enchanting, stroking. The rugged young men of the island were mesmerized by its call to them.
Silently, the thirty young men and more, subdued and awed now, filed into the banquet hall and found seats in front of a small orchestra set between them and a curtained stage. The contrast of the lushly appointed hall, with its rich mahogany walls, massive tapestries, and blood-red carpeting and velvet upholstery on sensuously curved, white-painted and gold-gilded chairs, against the raw, rough-stoned clutter of the courtyard was unnerving and callowing for the young men of the island who knew nothing of culture but only of a rough, muscle-straining life of hard work.
They were awed by everything, as the music invaded and swirled around in their brains. The thousand candles in the gilded chandeliers high overhead both sharpened and softened the magnificence and mystery around them. Two of the count's hulky minions were stationed at the corners of the stage, almost completely hidden within their hooded cloaks. And the eyes of the young men that scanned across the upper reaches of the chamber could barely discern another black-cloaked figure in the shadows of an overhead gallery. The count himself, perhaps? No one other than the young men themselves and those two hulking figures at the side of the stage had put in an appearance yet.
No one other than the small orchestra itself, of course, which was producing that divine, enticing, possessing music. If any of the young men knew anything of culture and of chamber music, they would have been instantly perplexed by the orchestra. But, of course, all of this was well beyond any of their understanding. The orchestra was certainly producing the loveliest of music, but it was not music that the orchestra members themselves could hear. All of them were wearing muffs over their ears that was blocking the notes they were playing. Master musicians all, they were playing in perfect harmony wholly by following the beating of the similarly deafened conductor's baton as he moved across the bars of the opening movement of the