Brood of the Witch-Queen

Antony Ferrara

Ferrara moves through London society as a wealthy, charming man about town, heir to Sir Michael's fortune and trusted as a brother by Myra Duquesne. Yet Robert Cairn senses something wrong—why does Ferrara need a fire on a blazing night?—and the museum encounter confirms it: he wears the Witch-Queen's ring, the original, while the case holds only a copy. He is the quiet center of dread around which every early mystery turns.

Dr. Bruce Cairn

Dr. Cairn belongs to the generation that remembers things better left forgotten, and when his son brings him tales of spiders and bats and secret incense, he does not laugh. He is the one who understands that a vampire's victim may also be its weapon, who knows the ring of the Witch-Queen and what it means. His authority anchors the investigation; without his grim knowledge, Robert would be alone against the dark.

Robert Cairn

Robert Cairn returned from Egypt with lines on his face that tell of fires passed through, and now he works at the British Museum on articles while hunting Antony Ferrara through London. He loves Myra Duquesne, who still thinks of Ferrara as a brother, and must keep the truth from her while every night might bring some unholy visitant to his rooms. He is the eyes through which the horror is seen, and the will that refuses to break.

Dr. Sime

Sime is the skeptical medical man, the one who laughs gruffly at native superstitions about khamsin and demons, who tells Cairn they will get out of their depth. Yet he watches his friend covertly and sees the nervous disaster written there, wonders how near Cairn came to insanity. He is the rational world looking on, and his slow unease measures how far the story has drifted from the ordinary.

Myra Duquesne

Myra has been brought beneath Dr. Cairn's roof as a feudal baron gathers those he must protect, and she is grateful without knowing why. She dreams—of a barn-like building, a silver lamp she has seen in Antony's rooms, an iron box, a book in strange characters—and repeats these dreams to the two men who understand their import. She is the heart the sorcery circles, the innocent whose trust in Ferrara makes the danger almost unbearable.

Lord Lashmore

Lord Lashmore carries the name Dhoon, and with it a doom: a headless ancestress whose spirit hungers still, and a family line that has dwindled to him alone. He is the target of a possession he cannot see coming, the wealthy widower-to-be whose death would enrich a hidden enemy. Dr. Cairn warns him to lock his doors at night, but the threat walks in wearing Lady Lashmore's shape, and the horror closing on him shows the true reach of Ferrara's design.