Part 22 (1/2)

MINA HARKER'S JOURNAL (Continued)

When I came back to consciousness, I found myself lying on a couch in a dimly lit room. My head ached; my first thought was of Quincey. I tried to sit up, and then I saw two shadowy figures looking down at me, and my heart throbbed painfully in fear.

The room was plain and sparely furnished, with mosaic walls that put me in mind of a Roman villa. I had a profound sense of being underground, buried. The window had no gla.s.s but a sort of honeycomb grille, through which a bluish glow silhouetted the two tall figures who gazed down upon me.

One was Professor Kovacs. He looked white and grizzled with ice, like the corpse of a man who had expired in the snowstorm yet still walked. A smell of damp rose from his clothes, and from my own, for the air here was warm.

The other man, the stranger: it was he who struck the deepest dread into my soul. He might have stepped from a portrait of an Elizabethan alchemist, dressed in a long blood-red robe that hung heavy with embroidery and dull jewels. His hair was golden, his face pure and luminous - reminding me, painfully, of Quincey - yet no one could have perceived him as angelic! His beauty contained all the corruption, laughing cruelty and foul appet.i.tes of the d.a.m.ned. I felt coldness, the certainty of death, the unbearable knowledge that I might die without ever knowing what became of Quincey! My soul failed, and I cursed the folly that had led me to discard all holy defences against his kind. His kind? Or mine, also?

I rose to a sitting position, much as it pained me, and he spoke, bowing with apparent courtesy. 'Madam Mina, I bid you welcome to the Scholomance. Do not be afraid; you are safe. I am Beherit. Your journey has been long and arduous, and you deserve all the hospitality I may provide. You will wish to rest and eat ...”

Now I stood, despite my dizziness. 'Where are my companions?'

'Safe, as are you, Madam Mina. You may see them, in time.'

He seemed to know everything. The next question I could hardly bear to ask, but I must. 'Is my son here? A fair boy with a dark-haired Hungarian woman?'

Beherit paused, a smile playing on his red lips. 'He may be here. You may be allowed to see him, if your conduct pleases me.'

At this I almost fainted. Kovacs caught me, helped me to sit down and held a gla.s.s of water to my lips. So I am to be this demon's puppet, as I was the Count's!

'And Dracula?' I asked, my voice trembling.

'Ah, yes, Dracula is here.' As Beherit spoke, Kovacs moved back to his side and both watched me with the same luminous, unearthly stare. 'Andre has served me well.'

Now I was confused, and angry despite my fear. 'But I understood Professor Kovacs was meant to warn Dracula against coming here! He has failed you, surely.'

Beherit answered, 'But what surer way to draw Dracula here than to whet his curiosity, to rouse his war-like and defiant spirit by forbidding him to come? So far from failing me, my dear friend Andre has fulfilled my plan beautifully!'Beherit's next action I could hardly believe. He bent to Kovacs and kissed him full on the lips, just as a man would kiss a woman - and Kovacs allowed the kiss, nay, returned it! Now I know for certain that I am in the Devil's realm, where all of nature is turned upside down!

'Will you wish also to see Dracula?' Beherit asked, still caressing Kovacs.

I was unsure how the question might be meant to trap me. 'I -1 don't know.'

'Well, all shall be known in time,' he said enigmatically. With that, he and Kovacs bowed to me and left. I ran to the door after them, but found it locked; worse, there was no visible handle or keyhole. My head throbbed and spun from the exertion. Through the window I could see a courtyard, deserted and ghostly; no sign of my companions. When I called, there was no answer. Above the buildings, there was an indistinct darkness; no snow, but an echoey vault like the inside of a great cave. A hollow mountain. The Scholomance.

There is an inner door - an archway concealed by a screen - 1-which leads only to a little room, all marble, with a bath and privy. I say 'only' but this is remarkable; running water, hot and cold! Is such sophistication, such extraordinary architecture, achieved by necromancy? My practical mind will not accept it. I would rather recall the Roman influence upon this land. Yet the mosaic frieze along the white walls -showing, as far as I can tell, scholarly scenes of teachers and students - seems a parody of Roman art; the colours are so darkly succulent as to be repulsive and even the figures seem full of malign insinuation.

Understanding that I am a prisoner, I refreshed myself, then mastered my situation as I always do; by bringing my journal up to date.

Later Kovacs has paid me a visit, alone.

I slept for a while and was woken, again, by a presence in the room. I heard a voice say, 'Madam Marker, do not be startled. I have brought you some food.'

For a moment I thought it was Van Helsing! But with a weary mixture of dread and disappointment, I recognized Kovacs, who was setting a tray down on a small marble table. I asked, 'Professor, is Quincey here? Have you seen him? For the sake of our friends.h.i.+p in life, please help me!'

'I cannot help you.'

'Where is Count Dracula? Why doesn't he come to me?'

'Please, Madam Harker. I don't know.' Kovacs came and sat beside me on the couch. He looked at me and then I saw all the horror of his fate in his eyes, in his hangdog white face. Such despair! He said, 'I came back to Beherit in terror, _,. believing I had failed him, but where I expected punishment I found joyful grat.i.tude. Now I have all I desire. Beherit and the library. Yet how hollow it seems to go on without human love from now until Judgement Day!'

His voice was cracked and dry, as if it issued from a corpse! I wanted to show him compa.s.sion but I recoiled, unable to help myself. Then his hands shot out and seized my shoulders, like winter twigs, and I felt his breath fall cold upon my neck, and I heard the churning of his tongue over his great sharp teeth.

'In G.o.d's name!' I whispered. 'Don't!'

He flung himself away from me with a groan. I fell back on to my elbows, panting for breath. I saw Kovacs by the door, his gnarled hands dangling by his sides and his countenance suffused with shame. 'I should be destroyed. But the library ... for that I will survive. Nothing matters but the library!'

'Not even my son?' I cried, but the door opened and shut quickly, and I was alone. I dried my tears as swiftly as I might, for my becoming prostrate with grief will aid no one.

Then I ate the meal, which consisted of paprika chicken, potatoes and hot spiced wine. How this was produced I don't know, unless the Szgany serve Beherit as they serve Dracula. I was too hungry to decline the meal, and I tried not to think of the consequences, in fairy tales, of eating 'goblin food'.

Now I feel restored in body, but in mind -! These monsters are all around me. How, after seeing the evil in Beherit's eyes, the despair in Kovacs's, can I even contemplate Quincey becoming one of them?

Or myself. When it so nearly happened to me the first time, Jonathan said he would rather come with me into that unknown country than let me go into it alone - and no more could I let Quincey enter Undeath without me! I have such fond thoughts of Jonathan now. He seems as wholesome and good as milk against these b.l.o.o.d.y, brimstone spirits that have stained me!

Yet Jonathan would disown me now, and quite within his rights. My son is not his son. But if he could forgive me, and I him, and if we could accept each other, our faults and sins and all...

Later - 5 December?

Now all is dark, and the end surely not far off. I have time, I hope, to finish this account, if any ever discover it. I have only a few sheets of paper left and I am almost too exhausted to write, but let me record what has happened in order. The lamp will last a little while yet, I pray.As I was writing my last entry, Beherit came to my room and to my astonishment held open the door, beckoning me to go outside with him. 'Come,' he said, with a pa.s.sable show of friendliness. 'Walk with me. I would talk to you.'

I did not trust him, but what was the use of refusing? So I went, tucking the sheaf of paper that contains my journal inside my dress but leaving my heavy furs behind. Outside - strangely I remember little of our surroundings, Beherit's voice had such a lulling effect upon me. I recall a dull white courtyard, tumbling ferns, and then dark caverns with an underwater glow glimmering on the walls, s.h.i.+ning now and then on a startling mosaic of dragon or serpent. 'You must not fear me,' Beherit said. 'My quarrel is not with you, and my need to restrict your movements only for your own safety. The Scholomance is greater in size than a castle, with many dangers.'

'Then I am free to go?'

'Yes, but how could you go, sans friends and child, into that blizzard?'

'Of course, I can go nowhere! But I must know where my companions are.' He ignored my question. I grew outraged. 'Are you a courteous man, Beherit?'

'Naturally.'

'Then do me the courtesy of telling me the truth! I have no power over you, I cannot use this knowledge to harm you. If you ever had one ounce of compa.s.sion within you, you would understand my natural feelings as a mother and friend.'

'But try to understand me,' Beherit said. Here I recall we were walking upwards through a sinuous tunnel whose walls were decorated with fantastic and obscene images; even their visceral hues were shocking. The air became steamy and oddly lukewarm.

”Someone cheated me. Someone failed to pay the Devil his due, for which omission I have been held hostage for four hundred years and more, and may be held for ever if the debt is not paid. Dracula must be made to ”* pay.'

I understood, yet in another way felt I did not understand. 'You mean he must give himself to the Devil, then you will be free to roam the world?'

'Yes, my dear Madam Harker, as in the Bible; a tooth for a tooth and so on.'

And I could feel the Devil's presence very close; a dragging down of the spirit, a heartlessness, a hollow glee without joy, which sickened me to the very stomach. To think of Beherit at liberty in the world! 'But you insist the Count is here!' I said. 'Isn't that enough to buy your liberty?'

'Not enough,' Beherit said quietly. 'What is he to you?'

I gasped at the impudence of the question. 'That is none of your concern. Sir, you are most impolite.'