Part 22 (2/2)

'And you are easily offended, madam, for a woman who demands frankness. Yet you didn't answer as I expected, ”He is a monster, I wish him dead.” You love him, then.'

'That is an extraordinary a.s.sumption,' I said. I felt blood rus.h.i.+ng to my cheeks. 'There is no love here, nothing but greed for knowledge and power. Dracula was unfortunate to fall among such as you.'

'Unfortunate? I beg you, don't make him a victim of this. Don't you know how powerful, how ruthless he is?'

'But I have seen a n.o.bler side to his nature, of which you cannot conceive. There is no such side to you!' I don't know how I dared speak so provokingly to a vampire who had corrupted Professor Kovacs and murdered his friend Miklos. I forgot myself.

Beherit said, 'But I had brothers to surpa.s.s, a father to prove wrong...', and I caught just a glimpse of the human he had once been. All humanity worn away by a surfeit of arcane knowledge and centuries of bitter imprisonment. 'You feel some tenderness, at least, for Dracula.'

'Very well, yes, I do. Christian pity.'

At this he gave a smile of such sneering contempt that I blushed. 'The object of your pity arrived less than a day before your party, Madam Mina. I regret to say that we fought and that Dracula fled and locked himself in a section of the library, denying me access. Unless I can persuade him to come out. . .'

His tone was quite soft, not dangerous, or so I thought. But suddenly Beherit stopped and pulled me to face him. Then I saw the fierce rage swimming in his eyes, almost a madness, and I was terrified - not entirely for myself. I saw his sharp ivory wolf-teeth.

'Please, unhand me! There is nothing I can do!'

'You can persuade him to come out.'

'So that you can destroy him?'

Beherit released me. 'I cannot and will not destroy him,' he sighed. 'Believe me. I cannot physically harm him. He is as strong as me, if not stronger. I wish only to talk to him.'

Oh, I so wanted to see Dracula, but I was sure I was being tricked! We walked in silence, and the eerie corridors began to oppress me unbearably. I was aware that if he abandoned me I would be utterly lost! I saw an even stranger glow ahead, a reddish light that cast an unutterable spell of dread over me, and I felt an inrush of foul air; not icy, but unpleasantly warm and sulphur- scented.

The pa.s.sage gave into a series of antechambers all surfaced in mosaics as richly red as poppies, and then into a great chamber worked with such an obscenity of colour and design that I could not endure it. The b.e.s.t.i.a.l scenes, the intensity of the oily purples and dripping, subterranean greens revolted me, and yet I felt that if I looked on them too long I would be quite mesmerized - corrupted! Kovacs described this place. I can add nothing, for I have seen images no Christian woman should see.Beherit took me towards the grotesque, obsidian dragon statue, and between its great claws to the door Kovacs so dreaded. I felt no great fear, only mixed fascination and anxiety. The door was translucent white with darkness behind it. Beherit opened it and led me through.

We came out upon a long ledge of rock that ran high above a gloomy chasm. Disorientated, I clung to his arm in shock. Beyond the ledge on which we stood soared a cavern so vast I could see neither the far side nor the roof. The air was damp, and somewhat rank; draughts moved sluggishly through the darkness. By instinct I wanted to cling back against the wall, but Beherit drew me forwards to the very edge.

I gasped. The slippery ledge on which we stood was the lip of a cliff that fell a hundred feet sheer towards an underground lake!

One thing gave me the courage to remain there; that there was a great protective gate or fence running along the lip, like the black, s.p.a.ced railings of a graveyard. To left and right it ran, and upwards, vanis.h.i.+ng into darkness. Resting a hand on one of these railings, I looked into the void.

I saw the same faint light that s.h.i.+nes everywhere reflected off the lake far below, and a different light coming from beneath the lake, as if from an underwater fissure that looked fathomless. Deep in the abyss there was a globe of dull bronze light, like ... oh, dear G.o.d, like a great baleful eye under the water!

'What is it?' I said.

As my words died, I saw a roiling under the surface, as if the glowing sphere were rippling and rising. A great bubble surged upwards. I watched in alarm, as if some h.e.l.lish monster were about to unleash itself upon the world. The bubble breached the surface in a plume of steam and spray; nothing more, but the stench of brimstone that drifted up made me cough. Little flames danced on the water for a moment, then all turned to coldest, darkest blue. But the eye was still there in the fissure. All of this filled me, not with clear terror, but with darkest unease.

'The Cauldron of the Dragon,' Beherit said with a soft laugh in his voice. 'The lake in the valley pa.s.ses under the roots of the mountain and surfaces again here; a dual lake, of darkness and light. The Cauldron in which all things are made and destroyed. We name it also the Gate. And then again, Yadu Drakuluj.'

'Why did you wish me to see it?'

'I am showing you my domain, like a good host. But we were speaking of Dracula...” I said nothing. Beherit took my hand and kissed it, an intimacy I did not want or invite; looking into my eyes he said, in a soft malicious tone like the very Devil, 'Your child, Madam Mina. If you wish to see him again you will answer me. Does Dracula love you?'

'I won't answer!' I cried, pulling free. 'Your question is obscene. You are a liar. This is a place of lies, and a cap over the very mouth of h.e.l.l! Sir, if my Quincey is here, I must insist that you take me to him at once!'

I cursed my outburst, for I hated to show my weakness to this creature. I felt suddenly desperate to flee from him, from this madness; I took a few steps away, but Beherit did not move or speak. I stopped where I was, leaning on a railing. I had an overwhelming sense that I stood on the threshold of a vast graveyard, where ghosts and vampires moaned, and the black-clad figure of the Grim Reaper walked slowly towards me ...

There came voices, at first afar, then close at hand; a lamp shone in my eyes so brightly that for a moment I could not see. Then Van Helsing's face appeared through the glare! 'Madam Mina! Kovacs brought us to you - thank G.o.d!'

I saw Dr Seward just behind him. Both men were panting for breath, as if their search for me had been long and arduous.

Seward was brandis.h.i.+ng a cross at Beherit, who withdrew slowly and with an expression of contempt, until I could not see him in the shadows. I saw Kovacs in the temple doorway, more than ever as pale as a walking corpse.

They clutched my hands, Seward and Van Helsing, but I could not respond to their expressions of concern. 'I am well,' I said.

'No, I have not seen Quincey or Elena - or Dracula.'

'Nor have we,' said Seward.

We talked rapidly, I relating my experience, then Seward giving his own account: 'We blundered about in the dark for a long time - I could not relight my lamp - until we found ourselves in the ten-sided chamber of which Kovacs wrote. It was only then that I got the lamp lit, by which time you and Kovacs had long vanished. We were trapped there for many hours. The experience came close to unmanning me, I must confess. The body of poor Miklos was still there. The severed head .. . I'm a doctor, I have cut up my fair share of cadavers - but still this made me almost sick to see and smell it! Van Helsing saved us; after much exertion he found a secret mechanism that caused a door, a quite invisible door, to open. As we explored, Kovacs found us, and we made him bring us to you. Kovacs has betrayed us; he was only ever acting for Beherit! I don't know what loyalty we expected of a vampire.'

I hardly knew what to say to them. These men who are so dear to me seemed to be strangers! 'You must be exhausted,' I said.

'I have at least had rest and food.'

Van Helsing waved his hand impatiently, as if bodily needs could not matter less. His face was wrought with strain, yet his eyes still gleamed with the look of wonder I knew so well. 'But what a place is this! The Devil's or not - a structure of the most extraordinary engineering. Weighted doors, magnets, subtle mechanisms; heat from some underground fire, technology the Romans possessed but which we have lost; science in advance of our own! What tragedy that we come here in such circ.u.mstances and not as discoverers!'Beherit said contemptuously from the shadows, 'To seek knowledge of the Devil, whom you profess to despise?'

Kovacs added, 'You accuse me of betrayal, yet it is in my nature to betray the living. But look at the library, my friends, before you condemn me. Millions of books believed lost, burned, destroyed. A complete perfect copy of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Treasures you can't guess at.' I saw a glint of temptation in Van Helsing's eye. 'Why is your scholars.h.i.+p G.o.dly and ours evil?'

'I am tempted to ask the same question,' said Beherit, 'but I will not.' He came into the lamplight; Seward lifted the cross again.

Revulsion flickered on Benefit's face but he said, 'Please, put down your holy weapon. I am not your enemy. We all wish Dracula destroyed, do we not? Therefore let us call a truce and help each other.”

I saw my two companions exchanging cautious looks. But I was horrified. I said, 'No! Professor, don't listen to him! You cannot take his side against Dracula. Can't you see dial Beherit is even worse?'

'But Madam Mina, our priority, our only hope of saving Quincey, is to destroy the Count, that monster!'

Van Helsing looked keenly at me; I could see he was already lost! Corrupted, like Kovacs! Some strand within me, stretched beyond tolerance, now broke, and I turned away and went running along the rock, holding up my skirts around my ankles, the cliff edge and the tall railings to my right, the cave wall on my left.

This wall curved in front of me, but there was a fissure within it, a short tunnel into which I ran, thinking to hide but finding only a dead end. I know not what I meant to achieve with this flight. I acted in desperation, that is all I know.

I heard the others coming after me. Then a light flooded from the blank end of the tunnel and a voice said, 'Mina!'

A hand seized mine, pulling me through a doorway into a small well-lit room. A door slid shut behind me; glancing around, I saw there was only a bookshelf where I had entered. And before me stood Dracula!

His hair had gone almost white again, but with stark black streaks; the effect against his austere black clothes was startling and handsome. His face, ageless, with its bushy brows and strong nose and the deep-coloured lips lifting over the great white teeth ...

he looked serious, tender, yet monstrous, like some infinitely wise yet utterly depraved necromancer ... and yet I forgave him this.

He held my hands; he embraced me. I think I wept.

'Can Beherit come in here?' I asked.

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