Part 19 (1/2)

Her father's tavern stood on a street in a cluster of coeneral store and an apothecary As Erna approached the entrance, Jakab hung back, watching froroups of hter, the clink of glasses, the buzz of conversation He felt a flash of anger at the leers Erna drew as she walked to the tavern door and went inside, but he stilled his body Noas not a time to allow emotion to distract him

They were here He could feel them

Whether it was a previously doruise, he knew, could ensure invisibility from his compatriots for ever, but they would still need to ht This feeling was so, a vague itch behind his eyes He shook his head against its effects, disturbed and confused

The front door of the tavern opened and a ht that shone from the s Jakab felt a shi+ver of awareness The ar between his lips and when he struck a match, his face was illuerows, dark locks shi+ny with grease, a crooked scar that ran from the left corner of his mouth across his cheek Jakab had never seen hi at hi that he had found one of his pursuers The ar, puffed out s into the night

In the alley, Jakab remained wreathed in shadows, but he felt the prickle of the stranger's eyes nonetheless

Fear rolled through hi classes had always been fractious, and he knew his actions the previous year had soured those relations further The tanacs needed to appease their critics by ht, his life would be forfeit

Froure appeared It approached the first man and conferred with hied closer All of a sudden, the newcomer stiffened and turned towards the alley For the briefest instant, light spilling from the tavern s shone on his face

Jani

Jakab felt his heart quicken His blood surged through his arteries His stoan to pound

Of course

They had sent his brother after hied hiht about it While his fellow hosszu eletek could identify hi hie

But a relative, a brother that was different Jani had the vererzet, the blood tie that allowed him to intuit his brother's whereabouts in the saht he lacked that particular gift: just one ging watched feeling he had experienced earlier His own ability was clearly ed to follow him here from however many hundreds of miles away

He watched, mouth dry of er back into the tavern What had he done to deserve betrayal like this? What had they pro hi to kill his pursuers tonight How, though, could he take Jani's life? And, just as distressing how could he ever hope to be free, ever hope tothey would look for hizet Would they still be looking for him another year froht, coue directional pull rather than a bright beacon, Jakab eed fros to the woods behind the tavern

Erna arrived minutes after his lohistle fro grass, the ht The realisation that this ht be the last he saw of her for some time distressed hie of the wood and when she reached hi his eyes as he embraced her

They stayed that way for a while,as a thousand crickets mourned them

'I saw theht to tell me You probably saved o I have to end this Otherill never have any peace'

'Is it safe? Will you be all right?'

'I'll be all right if you say that you'll wait for one?'

'I don't know exactly But I won't be long, I promise you that I don't think I could stay away fro' He hesitated 'These are hardly the circuht you down to the lake tonight so I could ask you to be my wife'

Tears brimmed in her eyes now too 'Whoever those people at the tavern are, whatever they ith you, you know my answer, Jakab'

'You'll wait for me, then?'

She kissed him, and he felt her desperation in the press of her lips 'Why must I? Let me come with you'

'Erna, no'

'Why not?'

'There are things I s I would protect you from Your place is here until I can finish this I'll come back Soon When I do, I'll speak to your father And we'll do this the right way'

'Proainst his cheek He could feel his anger rising, a cold fury that made him clench his fists at the injustice of what they faced The hosszu eletek had cast hily, yet they were not content to leave hi these shores he had found happiness, and now they interfered with that too, jeopardising everything he held precious

For now, he would run He was unprepared for a confrontation He needed time to plan But he would return to Erna, and he would kill anyone that got in his way

In his pocket, he felt the weight of the gold ring he had bought her, pressing against his leg It see in a restaurant near the Festetics Palace when he next saw Erna Novak It was spring, and he had been back in Keszthely two days This was a different town to the one he had left baking under the hot eye of a su down from the mountains slid across the war into a mist that draped the entire area like a shroud

The e serenity to Keszthely Sounds wereas if from the bottom of a well Jakab found it impossible to pinpoint its direction

He had known that returning would feel like a ho, and the athered him in its arms and cradled him with its peace

How he needed that peace He could not be sure exactly how long he had been away, but his experiences in between leaving Keszthely and returning already see fro rando back?

When he had fled the Lake Balaton region, he had not forged et as far ahead of Jani as possible, and find somewhere he could prepare for his arrival At the outset, the thought of har his brother sickened him, but the further he travelled from Keszthely and Erna Novak, the less the prospect troubled hih ahead, finding hie, he was unable to decide what to do when Jani caught up Su to Keszthely As that season slipped away, and then as autue that the challenge of killing two hosszu eletek, one of whom could track hi hi excuses for his inaction Rather than fighting back, he was finding usted by his lack of resolve, he vowed to take the next opportunity that ca

In Pozsony, he seized his chance He reached the city knowing he had gained a feeeks on his pursuers Renting an extravagantly large house in the Rusovce borough, Jakab played the role of an eccentric and introverted aristocrat He paid for the services of a lawyer, who in turn paid for the services of a dubious yet reliable character called Alexej who spent all his tiht for the approach of Jani and his accomplice

It must have been February, or possibly March, when they finally appeared Alexej woke hiates at the front of the house

The first intruder approached the building'sa wisteria vine to the first-floor balcony that overlooked the garden Waiting in theover the balustrade and pad to one of the tall sash s Finding it unlocked, the intruder, still a faceless silhouette, lifted it open Jakab stepped out of the darkness, pressed a Colt revolver to the er

It was only in the flash fronised Jani's startled eyes His brother's head broke apart in the same instant The thunder of that shot echoed around the house and ricocheted through Jakab's soul He watched Jani's lifeless body pitch backwards over the balcony, landing in the shrubbery below

Hours later, he would marvel at how easy and how quick that murderous act had been But at the tiunpowder in his nostrils, he found hilittered on thedown at his brother's corpse, thinking of all the history they had shared, he tried to surief It seemed appropriate somehow Yet all he could feel as he stood at the balustrade was euilt, no remorse Not even any satisfaction He was an empty vessel, a vacuum, devoid of emotion

While Jakab knew there had never been any path back to his old life, he still understood that this was a watershed moment The tanacs would exhaust every h, had they given him? Jakab had been content to walk away fro, had even resorted to the spectacular cruelty of setting one brother against another He had felt no great love for Jani, had spenthim, but the number of people in the world hom he shared a history had just contracted and for that, if nothing else, he supposed he should feel sadness

Alexej walked out of the darkened bedroom and joined Jakab on the balcony 'The other one bolted when he heard the shot,' he said, peering over the rail at Jani's corpse 'Want et rid of that?'