Part 19 (1/2)

We did not leave Carfax without making a thorough search. But as Kovacs had said, they were gone. The door to the keep was unlocked, and in two of the chambers we found signs of recent habitation; the embers were still warm in the grates, and I plucked several of Quincey's gold hairs from the pillows of both beds. But the house was deserted, the caleche and horses gone from the stable.

When we returned to the crypt to talk to Kovacs once more, a weird fluttering of the air began. The whole, low vault of the chapel was coming alive, rustling, peeling off in sooty layers. The air was suddenly full of flying things; bats and huge moths. Disgust and panic gripped us as they swarmed around our heads. We struggled to beat them off, but more came, flapping around us, tangling in our hair.

Defeated, we turned and rushed out of the chapel, heads down and hands flailing wildly. Dracula's servants, the beasts of darkness, pay no heed to holy symbols!

Outside, the remaining dogs let us pa.s.s, but once we were beyond them, they leaped up and came growling after us until they had driven us off the premises. One bit me hard in my nerveless right arm; I barely realized it had happened until I saw the blood flowing. Seward beat the dog off with a club.

Disheartened, desperate and exhausted, we retired to Dr Seward's house. Alice Seward was there to meet us, and we have told her everything. She is like a mother to us, and unshockable.

As we sat over a hurried meal, Van Helsing said, 'Of course, it is obvious why Dracula wanted us to destroy Professor Kovacs!'

'Is it?' Seward said sourly.

'He wants no other male vampire, that might challenge his power. But the fact that Dracula did not do it himself, that he must have us do it - this means only one thing, that the vampire cannot destroy his own kind!'

'Or thinks he cannot, at least,' said Seward. 'The so-called Beherit seemed to have no difficulty in beheading Miklos.'

'Who had not yet become Undead. But that is a fascinating idea - a vampire who breaks free of the restrictions that nature and G.o.d have placed upon him! And this is the secret Dracula may discover, if we do not prevent him reaching the Scholomance!'

Van Helsing was animated - even excited. I said, 'I don't know what you find so amusing, professor.'

'The abstract idea. The ludicrousness of the natural and the supernatural. You know me by now, friend Jonathan -but I ask your forgiveness for my jocular tone, all the same. I cannot stop being fascinated by the unknown, however dire our situation.'

'But,' said Seward, thoughtfully, 'if a vampire can think, and reason, as Dracula clearly can, and feel regret, and self-knowledge, and concern for his living relatives, as Professor Kovacs obviously can - have we any right to destroy such a sentient being?'

For pity's sake, don't start on this!' I cried. 'I shall go mad.'

Seward put his hand on mine. I'm sorry, Harker. At least we know Mina and Quincey are alive.'

'For how long?' I groaned.

Van Helsing said, 'Ah, friend Jonathan, do not lose heart! For I know what it is to lose a son in boyhood, and for this reason share keenly your sorrow. I too have lost wife and son and have nothing left but my work; therefore I am all the more determined that you shall not have cause to grieve as I have! For all that our brotherhood is diminished, shall not . those of us who remain be closer, and more resolute than ever to go on to the bitter end? We have received another setback, but if I feel my resolve waver then I have only to look on your sad face or to think of poor Madam Mina and the innocent child, and I am more determined than ever that the author of this misery must be destroyed, once and for eternity.'

Solemnly, the remaining three of us remade our promise; and my vow, even though I felt it to be hopeless, was heartfelt.

Well, I have all the time in the world to write this account -- ”3 which I do, very slowly and laboriously, with my swollen right hand.

Van Helsing, Seward and Kovacs have gone after Dracula without me.

I find this unbearable, but there is no choice. I have only one good arm, yesterday's adventure has aggravated my damaged ribs, and to crown everything I have a fever. I * protested, all the time they were making ready, but in the end I was forced to admit the truth. I am unfit to travel. I would only hold them back. I shall help Mina and Quincey more by remaining in Seward's house, under Alice Seward's maternal care.

How intolerable, to be so incapacitated! And every wound I have received, to body or mind, has been dealt by Dracula.

None of us are young men now. I am greatly concerned for Van Helsing, in particular. For all his courage he is, truth be told, a tired and grief-stricken old man. Dracula has sucked the spirit from each and every one of us.

Chapter Fifteen.

JONATHAN MARKER'S JOURNAL.

17 November I am certain that my decision to stay behind was for the best. My ribs are so bruised that I can stand only with difficulty. The bite I received from the dog is inflamed, and I s.h.i.+ver with fever; this in addition to the loss of use in my right hand! I am well enough to sit in a chair with a rug over my knees, like some ageing invalid - ah, but for heroic deeds, I am as useless as a girl-child.

Van Helsing has promised to keep us informed of their progress. As yet, we have heard nothing. He left us a bag containing the usual tools and wards against vampires, just in case we should need them, but I cannot bear to look upon them and have removed the bag to the other, empty guest-room.

I wish I could order my thoughts about Mina. In my heart I love her; I know she is still the good, pure woman I married; I would do anything to be the husband she deserves, to brave fire and flood to save her! I cannot bear my enforced idleness.

Yet in some cold, festering portion of my brain - which I cannot overcome, as if it were some ghastly sore planted by Dracula seven years ago - another Mina lives, and will not be erased. The fallen Mina, who welcomed Dracula's embraces, who went all too easily into the darkness with him.

Am I being quite unjust? Was there any manner in which she might have stood firm against him, refused his demand that she go with him? I don't see how. Yet I believe it would be almost better for our son to die, than for Mina to have surrendered her virtue - 1 mean the rich virtue of her whole, good being!

Alice Seward is looking after me. She is like a mother, so strong and good. She knows everything; I am glad she is not some innocent who must be s.h.i.+elded from harsh knowledge. I feel at ease with her. We can be gloom-ridden together!

She said, after Dr Seward had gone with Van Helsing, 'I fear I will lose my husband to Dracula even now; I mean, if not physically, that I will lose him to his obsession. He wants science, rationality. The irrational unhinges him.'

'But he works with the insane every day of his life, and has done so for years!' I protested.

'But that is why he works with them,' Alice answered. 'To understand them, to make sense of nonsense. He must go out and fight it, like St George against the dragon - out of fear as much as courage. The irrational never goes away. It comes back again and again, in different forms, to try the strong and the weak alike.'

I am sitting alone in the pleasant guest-room, which is cosy enough; yet certain companions seem all too close. That is, the chill of the night, the moans of the asylum inmates, and the howling of dogs from the grounds of Carfax Abbey.

19 November Last night, as I sat playing cards with Alice in the drawing room, we heard someone pounding at the front door. We both got up, startled. Then one of the maids came in looking worried, and said, 'A woman and child to see Mr Harker, ma'am. The woman seems indisposed.'

The visitors were shown up, and there in the doorway stood Elena, holding Quincey by the hand! I was so astonished that I could say and do nothing. Quincey looked sleepy and bewildered; seeing me, he cried, 'Papa!' and rushed to my arms!

As he left her side, Elena fell forward in a dead faint.

Quickly we took her upstairs to the unoccupied guest-room, revived her with smelling salts then gave her water and drops of brandy. While I sat with her, Alice took charge of Quincey, fed and bathed him and took him to her own room. (I can only hope that his childlike trust in Elena has s.h.i.+elded him from realizing the peril he was in.) Elena had all the signs of Dracula's attentions: ragged, unwholesome-looking wounds in her neck, the rapid heartbeat and shallow breathing. Her flesh was tinged almost to pale yellow and drawn back against me bone, her teeth prominent under her taut lips. Her eyes were large and brilliant in lakes of purplish-black, the skin so thin the bones of the eye sockets could be seen through it. Her lids kept falling sleepily.

She looked very sick - near to death.

When we had revived her, she clutched at my arm and tried to haul herself up. 'Your friends,' she gasped, 'they are pursuing Dracula? Why not you?'

'I am injured,' I said. 'But I don't understand. How is it that you came here? Where is Mina? We were told that Dracula had taken you all away!'

She spoke with effort, between wheezing breaths. 'Dracula took only Mina with him. He told her I had run away with Quincey, that she must go with him to bring us back. Dracula lied to Mina, and I lied to my uncle.'

'But why?'

'It is my uncle's fault, for coming here and telling him about Beherit and the Scholomance. I wish Dracula had not gone! But he insisted he must go to the Scholomance at once. He needs Mina as his hostage; that is the only reason he took her, not that he truly wants her - not as he wants me. He lied about Quincey and me to ensure her co-operation. We would have slowed him down, you see; the boy would not have withstood the journey. So Dracula told me to hide with him in Carfax and remain there until he returned.'

'But we searched Carfax!'