one point in her life Matilda was very fond of Ellen’s smile, of the warmth it expressed. She hopes to see one of those smiles now, but it does not come. Instead, she takes both of Matilda’s hands in hers and leans in close. “When your brother awakens, tell him that what he saw in that room, the things that came from behind the door—they were not born of my beloved Deaglan O’Cuiv. It was Dracul acting through him. The fact that they share blood allows for that. My beloved would never say those things, do those things. I hope one day soon that the three of you will meet him and come to know the man I love.”
“Yes, one day very soon,” Matilda reassures her.
She leaves Ellen standing there on the deck, her cloak flapping in the sea breeze, and wonders if this is the last time she will see her alive. She wonders if by this time tomorrow she and her brothers will still be alive.
BRAM
Amsterdam is but a blur as they disembark from the S.S. Hero and make for the train station. Thornley attends to their luggage while Bram and Vambéry ensure the three wooden crates and the trunk in their possession are carefully extracted from the cargo hold. A customs agent approaches, but after a few words with Vambéry, and an exchange of funds, the agent waves them through. Bram secures a carriage, and the crates and trunk are loaded onto the back and transported to the station to be secured inside one of their train’s many boxcars. As the crates and trunk slip away into the murkiness of the dark car, Bram cannot help but wonder who is in each crate, there being no markings to speak of.
Within an hour of arriving in Amsterdam, they are off, as the train picks up speed and heads for Rotterdam, Düsseldorf, then Frankfurt. They arrive in Munich in the morning shortly after the clock strikes eleven. From the station, Matilda, Vambéry, and Thornley make their way to the Hotel Quatre Saisons, where rooms await them. Bram follows shortly thereafter, choosing to ride with the crates and trunk. As the heavy carriage rolls over the cobblestones, Bram places his hand on each of the three crates and closes his eyes until he determines which holds Ellen.
He arrives at the hotel to find Vambéry waiting out front. “I arranged for transport, but it was no easy feat; nobody wishes to go anywhere near this region. They have all heard stories since childhood of hauntings and the dead and they want no part of it. They say that on Walpurgisnacht you can hear the screams even here. The ma?tre d’h?tel directed me to a gentleman from Bethany Home who was willing to rent us a suitable carriage and a team of six horses, but he could not spare a driver. He said even if he wished to do so, none of them would go. We’ll have to drive the carriage ourselves.”
Bram nods on hearing this information; he had expected as much.
“Ah, here he is.”
A rotund man with a thick gray beard pulls into the drive behind the first carriage in an open-bed wagon being drawn by six horses. The horses have all seen better days, their swayed backs and prominent withers revealing their age all too readily, the eyes of the two wheelers are cloudy, showing some degree of blindness, yet all six are animated, showing real enthusiasm for the task before them.
Bram and Vambéry glance at each other but say nothing.
The man climbs down and shuffles over to where they stand, removes his hat, and scratches at the remains of his white hair. “I know they are not much to look at, but they’re all strong and broke; they won’t give you any trouble. Some of my younger steeds are as fearful of that place as my men. My son took one out there last year, and the horse turned around at the midway point and galloped home without once breaking stride. The animal did not seem to notice that my boy nearly fell off; it didn’t stop until it was standing with its head over the stable door.”
Bram notes the man’s English is very good, although heavily accented, and comments on it.
“I went