Mina woke to the sound of the rooster crowing and a sense of familiar confusion. She turned left, then right in her bed -- and for a few moments, she thought that it had all been a dream. A terrible dream, the kind of thing she would have been delighted to read if serialized in the papers or printed in a penny dreadful...but that if it had happened in the real world...
For those few moments, she could exist in a world without heat rays and tripods and the black smoke and the terrible invaders that had turned everything upside down. But then she noticed she was not laying in her modest flat back in London -- rather, she was sprawled in a vast bed in a gothic bedroom, with the sunlight that shone through the window looking muted and watery. The forests beyond were thick and primeval, far from the beating heart of the civilization that she had taken for granted, before it had been swallowed up by madness. Mina stood from the bed, drawing her nightgown closer around her body...then her fingers quested, probing at her neck -feeling about herself gingerly.
No wounds. No marks.
She didn't know if that signified anything.
The door to her room opened after a short knock and Mina turned, her cheeks heating -- but it was only Lucy. Lucy looked gay as one could imagine, beaming as she swept into the room. "Mina, darling, you look as if you slept dreadfully," she said, with a playful giggle. "Come now -- we're safe." She put her hands on her shoulders. "Mr. Dracula has even sent some of his servants about, to see if they...cannot find what happened to Jonathan. He thinks he might be in Budapest..."
It had been a week since they had arrived in Dracula's castle and Lucy had taken to her new surroundings with terrifying alacrity. Mina, who had taken her food grudgingly and spoken but shortly with Dracula and his strange wives, had tried to council her friend to caution. But Lucy had gone fully ahead into conversing with not only Dracula's wives, but with the vampire himself, going on long, quiet walks in the twilight and evening, returning only late, to sleep, then come to the breakfast table bubbling over with conversations of everything from alchemy to sorcery to history -- all of it seeming relatively harmless, if it was just crankery...
But it wasn't, was it?
If it was
real
arts of darkness and devilry, didn't Mina have a duty to draw Lucy away from it? And yet, she couldn't think of how to do it without offending the hosts that were all that kept her alive and gave her hope. The villagers in the towns surrounding Dracula's lands, he had explained, knew of his nature and his curse and took it upon themselves to kill his 'minions' with worrying eagerness. Mina could remember what just being
suspected
of being related to Dracula had gotten her and Lucy. And even if she got past the villages...where would she go? Beyond them were the Martians.
Not that one could tell here, in this quiet castle. Here, everything felt timeless -- days and nights bleeding together so quickly she had barely been aware a week had passed.
Lucy scattered her thoughts by stepping to the window and looking out, her breath drawing in -- her rather darlingly cut dress accentuating the movement of her chest, her eyes closed. "Ah, what a lovely day!"
Mina shook her head. "How can it be lovely, Lucy?"
"The sun's shining. Well. Sort of." She paused. "And we're safe. And Vlade-" she stopped at Mina's furrowed brow and, to her credit, her cheeks flushed. "Mr. Dracula, that is...well, I suppose, Lord Dracula, him being a baron and all. Though...I suppose, since Wallachia is no longer a kingdom, I suppose Mr. Dracula would be...more..." She trailed off as Mina's expression grew more and more frowning. "What would you have me do, Mina!?" Lucy sounded exasperated, with such intensity that Mina actually felt taken aback.
"Oh, I know you've got nothing but frowns and suspicions for him," Lucy said. "But he's been nothing but an absolute gentleman towards us -- he said that Jonathan just misunderstood the nature of his relationship with his wives and got so frightened that he fled. He searched for him, and he's still searching for him -- it's a terrible mistake, but he didn't
mean
to do him harm. And, if what he's heard is right, Jonathan is just fine and will be with us in a week or two."
Mina shook her head. "Assuming we can trust him."
"He's done nothing but tell me the truth since he got here," Lucy said. "And if you
talked
to him rather than sulking in your bedroom..."
"I am not
sulking
," Mina said. "He's a
vampire
. And...a...sorcerer!" She stepped closer.
"And an alchemist," Lucy said, but she said it the same way one might speak of someone
also
being an equestrian or a fencer or some other field of endeavor -- like it simply made him more enticing. "Astronomer, cartographer, explorer, did you know, he even landed in the New World before Columbus ever did."
Mina admitted, that did cause her to blink. "H...How?"
"He turned into a bat and flew," she said, cheerfully. "Isn't that magical?" Her eyes shone. "I would so love to fly. Imagine the whole world under you, spread out like a painting or a view from a mountain..." She bit her lower lip.
"Didn't he need to sleep?" Mina asked -- curiosity growing in her breast despite herself.
"Oh, yes," Lucy said. "And he cannot cross running water -- it is some kind of ancient curse. But if he rests within some native soil, he is sustained against the curse. So, he flew with a small bag of dirt around his neck, and traveled very high, high enough that the curse and then when he required his rest, he would transform into a worm and as the sack fell, he would crawl inside, then wriggle into the small amount of dirt. Then it would bob about on the ocean waves and he would crawl out again after his rest and continue to fly! Apparently, the trickiest part was the initial start of each journey -- he would need to fly straight up, as he couldn't
cross
any part of the water -- so, he couldn't go from side to side." Lucy beamed. "Amazing!"
"How...ingenious..." Mina blinked. "Sounds rather troublesome, though. Why did he do it?"
"He was curious and wanted to see if he could!" Lucy said, nodding. "But once he got there, he ended up hiring natives to bring him back -- traveling from Alaska to Siberia, a relatively short trip, handled entirely in his worm form. The whole thing took a few years..." She leaned in close, whispering. "I think that's where he met one of his wives!"
Mina frowned. She wasn't sure she
believed
that story...but...then again...why would he make it up? It seemed rather undignified, not precisely something one would tell to a young lady to turn her head. Not a story of dashing adventure and lurid romance. She frowned, a bit. "He does seem to be a bit of a bluebagger," she said, quietly -- remembering the glimpse she had gotten of his titanic library. "More of a scholar than a soldier..."
"Well, he was that as well..." Lucy said. "But...he said he preferred not to speak on it."
Mina frowned.
* * * * *
Mina spent a day watching the household staff of Dracula's castle, his wives and him. She saw no sign that the library was guarded or warded, but she didn't precisely want to tip her hand. She was polite at dinner, which was usually only a place where Dracula visited to speak to her and Lucy, but didn't follow Lucy on her evening walk. Instead, when she was certain that his wives and he weren't going to witness her activities, she set out for the library. Finding it unguarded still, she slipped within, closing the door behind her.
The candlelit space was as vast as she had thought upon her earlier glimpse. The walls were lined with bookshelves, each one taller than her head. Gilded rows were set along the edges of the shelves, attached to ladders that could be rolled about on tracks. The floor was carpeted and soft, and a pair of fireplaces were constructed into the walls, crackling and burning cheerily. As she stepped inside, a single droplet of rain splashed against the window, and the distant rumble of thunder could be heard. Mina frowned, slowly, then picked up a candelabra, holding it up, the candlelight casting itself along the spines of books.
Many were in Latin -- which she could only faintly understand -- but others were printed in English, with modern bindings. It made sense, as London was the book printing capitol of the world. She quickly began to see a pattern to the organization: Each bookshelf was dedicated to a different field of study, with alphabetically organized books within. Chemistry and the physical sciences...the occult...military tactics and strategies...history. She stopped there, remembering Dracula's full reaction to the knowledge that the world had been invaded by Martians.
Well, then. We'll have to keep an eye on this. And you, of course, will be more than welcome to stay here, to stay safe.
He didn't care that, even now, thousands were dying to try and stop invaders of this world. Mina's tongue darted along her lips and she stepped to the history books. She...
She only had a vague sense of why she was here. But considering the hint dropped by Lucy, she knew that this Dracula had to have more in his history than simply being a curious aristocrat. How had he become a vampire? And how had he been named the Voivode? She only
vaguely
knew the Slavic languages, but she knew that that title was vitally important. Powerful. She shook her head. "Mina, find your definitions," she muttered, then swept away from History and to the Languages section. It took her a wink to find a few dictionaries that were designed to transform other languages to English. She thumbed through them as the rain began to patter faster and harder.
She found it after a few minutes.
"Warlord," she muttered. "Warlord of Wallachia."
Mina knew, then, that her suspicions were correct. She strode to the histories and began to tug down books that looked promising. She flipped through them -- and found an illustration of a man that looked remarkably like Dracula. "Vladimir Tepes..." she muttered, then flipped over to an illustration of a terrible battle. She couldn't read the Slavic script the book was in -- but she could see the drawings of military formations, the arrows and lines indicating movements and forces. She put her finger on the smaller of the two armies -- how it was encircled, drew backwards, then struck out with new forces that emerged from ambush. The larger army fled, was destroyed.
She flipped the page and jerked backwards, her hand going to her mouth.
The illustration was done in the old style, without depth and simple human figures. But she could still see the terrified expressions on the men as they were impaled through the chest by long thin stakes, raised up and off the ground by grim faced soldiers in conical helmets.
"The Impaler, they called me."
Mina screamed and spun around -- to find Dracula looming from the shadows, looking down at her. Rather than looking furious that she had intruded, he instead looked distant and faintly sad, his lips pursed together between the sleek curve of his goatee. His fingers went to the book, tracing the illustration as he stepped past Mina. She clutched her hand to her breast, stepping backwards and picking up the candelabra at the same time. Its heavy weight and silvery sheen felt comforting in her hand, as did the flickering flames.
Dracula's fingers hooked under the book and he swung it shut. "I...prefer to not talk about that part of my history."
"Who were they?" Mina asked, her voice tight. "Your enemies. I mean."
