The Devil Aspect

by Craig Russell

“The Bear Man?” asked Viktor. “Carved out of bone, apparently—human bone some said, but I doubt that, more likely bear bone. It depicted a figure with the body of a heavyset man and the shoulders and head of a bear. It was discovered about a hundred and fifty years ago but became lost. When it was first discovered, the local Hussite cleric denounced it as a representation of Satan, claiming it was connected to Jan of the Black Heart and all his goings-on—I take it you know all about Jan of the Black Heart?” “I’m afraid I don’t.” “Oh.” Pedersen looked disappointed. Viktor was always amazed at how experts invariably expected others to be versed in their specialty—something he’d come across a lot in the medical field. “Never mind,” said the German. “Jan of the Black Heart was the erstwhile lord of the castle and really has nothing to do with the Bear Man other than the figure being represented on the familial coat of arms. Anyway, some of the locals claimed that the Bear Man carving was a representation of Veles—you know, the part-man-part-bear lord of the underworld of Slavic tradition. But of course that’s nonsense: the carving belonged to a time millennia before the Slavs arrived. However, it seemed everyone agreed something dark and powerful adhered to the artifact.”