Chapter 8: Discoveries
Transylvania ca. 1895
"Is there anything you remember that might give us a clue?"
Mina, shivering from the cold, pulled the blanket tighter around her shoulders, as she thoughtfully paced the bedchamber, while letting her eyes wander again and again over the maps, drawings, and documents that lay spread out on the floor in front of us.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, did it take your father and the men who took you to this strange place long to get you there? A day, maybe? A couple of days? Or perhaps just hours?"
"Of course my memories could be playing tricks on me, after all these years, but I'm sure it wasn't more than an hour. But you should remember, I was nothing more than just a boy of merely ten at that time."
"Fine! So, let's assume an hour then to start with. When you got there, was it broad daylight, sunrise, or sunset? Was it dawn or dusk?"
"It was a winter morning, about the same time of year as today. The valley where my father took me was narrow. There were steep mountain slopes on both sides. However, one side was covered in dense forest, while the other loomed steep and forbidding before us. The sun rose late that day and fell directly on the rock face."
"That means this rock face must be in the west when the light of the morning sun illuminated it. This also explains why all your attempts to find that place were in vain."
"Because I was looking for this place at night?"
"Exactly!" A smile crossed her face as she continued: "Now all we have to do is look within an hour's circle for a narrow valley that runs from north to south and is bordered on the western side by a rugged rock face. Is there anything similar near your castle?"
I feverishly began to study the charts again, until my eyes found the all too obvious. The only valley worth to be considered was actually not far from the castle, but if we wanted to get there without horses it would certainly take us longer than an hour.
I raised my eyes and looked at Mina thoughtfully for a moment before I noticed: "Are you still sure you want to accompany me to this place, my beautiful? Getting there will certainly be difficult because we have to cover the whole distance on foot."
"You don't doubt me, do you, Dracula?"
"Oh no, I just wanted to make sure you'll stick to your decision."
"I have not travelled so far and faced all the dangers that came our way to give up so close to this journey's destination. But I admit I'm afraid of what we might find there."
"Trust me, I'm sure we'll both find exactly what we long for the most."
Mina hesitated for a moment, as if she wasn't sure whether she should ask the question that was on her mind. Eventually, however, she overcame her shyness and asked: "What happens if we escape that place unscathed? How will we go on? I...I don't think I could return to Jonathan and carry on as if nothing ever happened..."
"You already know my answer, don't you? I never made it a secret that I would like to know you by my side..."
It was the truth.
Whatever would happen, however my plans would develop, I would never be able to let Mina Harker go.
Probably, for a creature like me, this was the closest thing to what was commonly known as love. But no matter what I was able to do, the purity of true love would remain eternally denied to me. Even if I could shake off parts of the curse that weighed on me. I had already advanced the plans I sought to realize as head of the Circle of Seven too far to let go - and the feeling of holding power in my hands was undoubtedly exhilarating.
A curse on its own.
And no less destructive than the one that still held me in its claws, as I should soon find out...
Mina owed me an answer.
Instead, we prepared for what lay ahead. Knowing that we had to hike for several hours along snow-covered paths through no less snow-covered forests and valleys, we decided to set off long before sunrise. We were aware that if our assumptions were wrong, we might not get a second chance:
Either the bandits hiding somewhere in the castle would be waiting for us when we returned, or we would run into van Helsing - each of which I was only too keen to avoid.
In order to spare my brave companion another climb down the castle wall, this time I led her via well-hidden secret stairs and passages down into the crypt wherein I had been condemned to sleep the sleep of the undead for so many decades.
Nothing stirred down there, and no one would ever step out of one of those coffins again after van Helsing and his demon hunters had wiped out my three beautiful brides. A fate that came within a hair's breadth of overtaking me as well, and one that I probably wasn't able to avoid in the long run either.
To my great surprise, Mina showed no fear or concern as she scurried alongside me through the deathly quiet halls. Only once did she stop briefly to look at a sarcophagus decorated with an elaborate relief.
I understood her silent question and replied in an almost toneless whisper: "My mother's tomb, but it's not yet time to tell you more about it."
She left it at that and followed me out into the wintry night without pressing on me any further.
We then made our way through the darkness in silence.
Driven by hope, doubt and uncertainty, and fully aware of the one truth that neither Mina nor I would be the same after this day.
It was only shortly before dawn that we reached the valley where we hoped our search would come to an end. Ice-cold fog had rolled in, as if some invisible force was trying to prevent our eyes from scanning the rock faces in front of us for any clue. Our breath froze in the cold, our clothes were covered in a thin layer of the freezing fog, and I noticed that Mina was gasping for breath from exhaustion. She was pale and tired, and I wasn't sure if she would last long enough to make it through this exploration unscathed.
"Why are you looking at me like that, Dracula?"
Her voice trembled with cold, but she would never allow herself to give up.
"I was just wondering if I was right to bring you here."
"You doubt? You, of all people?" An amused laugh accompanied her words.
"We haven't reached the end of our journey yet, don't forget that, Mina Harker! The first rays of the morning sun will tell us whether this is the right place. And even then, we can only be sure that we have reached our destination once we have entered that ominous hideout. But let me warn you, the evil in there is unpredictable. We want to steal something from it that it is not willing to give up to us..."
"If I didn't know you better, I would assume you are afraid of what might wait or us..."
"Do not scoff, Mina! This is not the place for anything like that."
"So, I'm right in my assumption, am I!"
"You have no idea!"
Before we could continue, we saw the first light of the day shine through the fog. A lonely, almost lost-looking ray of sunshine crept behind us over the mountain and through the dense forest until it wandered along the rock face like a seeker and paused briefly at a certain point.
"Look, Dracula! Up there!" Mina pointed her hand at that very spot...
We both knew our search was over.
And whatever was waiting for us up there knew we had discovered it...
The stray ray of sunlight illuminated the entrance to a cave. At first glance it seemed deserted and there was nothing to suggest that a guard would be waiting for us up there, but the oppressive feeling that we would find more than we bargained for did not only creep over my intrepid companion. I, too, felt the darkness of this place take over me, and there was no longer any doubt that my father had abandoned me right there to those who had made me what I was today.
Mina's hand slipped into mine as if she was waiting for a word from me, but all I could say was: "It is you who must enter first. Only then will I be allowed to set foot over this threshold."
She didn't hesitate, and I followed her.
A blackness deeper than the darkest night surrounded us as we entered a room that seemed not only large but enormous, and that we were not mistaken was immediately proven by the sight of the vault that opened up before us, as torches were lit by an invisible hand on the walls around us.
They were neither intended to reveal the secrets of this place nor to penetrate the abyssal blackness.
Their only purpose was to show us what we longed for so deeply.
Illuminated by the flickering light of the torches, we saw two altars in front of us. On one of them lay a blood-red stone, on the other...
"Quentin!"
Mina's painful scream echoed through the massive vault, followed by heartbreaking sobs.
Bloodstone in hands, I turned to her: Bending over the altar, weeping violently, she held our son's lifeless body in her arms and the fresh blood running down one side of the altar revealed to me what happened: It was his mother's love which brought him both death and salvation.
Mina had defied the evil that spun its dark web in these halls, and it took from her what she wanted to take from it, and I understood, this would have been my fate too, had my mother shown the same strength...
Did she know her love would have killed me?
Did she know my death would have saved me from a much crueller fate?
"You! You knew it, didn't you? You knew it from the very beginning!"
Mina's voice was calm, but she left no doubt that she would accept nothing other than the truth - and it was at that moment that the whole of this perfidious plan revealed itself to me.
Whatever the chess pieces on the game board of the initiators of this plan did, their lives would still be destroyed forever - and the death of one of these pieces would be the most merciful of all possible variants, since this game would break all the others so thoroughly that they would never find each other or themselves again...
No, I didn't know our son would be sacrificed on this altar, but...
"I expected it!"
"Oh no, Dracula! That's not enough of an answer for me! You lured me here because you wanted nothing more than the stone in your hands, which would now allow you to direct the Circle's business during the day! Quentin and I were just a means to an end for you. You have exploited me and the bond that still exists between us and made me your tool..."
"Stop it!" I snapped at her: "It's enough!" I went to her side, looked for a long time at our son's delicate face, which so closely resembled his mother's, and finally added: "Yes, I knew what was going to happen. Yes, I came here to look for this stone! And, yes, I knew that the stone would be found where our son would be held. The truth is, his death would have been inevitable!"
"What does this mean?"
"If Quentin hadn't died here and now, one day he would have become a creature of evil like me! And neither you nor I could have prevented it...!"