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mention of Elena and child, however. We are now, we estimate, approximately
half a day behind them.
Kovacs travels parallel to us, as it were, rather than with us. My supposition
is that he travels as wolf, and finds the unhallowed graves he needs for rest
along the way. Rivers may only be crossed at the slack of tide, you understand.
But the restrictions that delay us delay Dracula also!
He seeks the Scholomance, I hardly need add, precisely for the purpose of
finding a way to rid himself of these limitations.
I hope you are on the way to recovery in Alice Seward's tender care. Keep up
your courage, my friend!
Yours,
Abraham Van Helsing
Chapter Sixteen
MINA MARKER'S JOURNAL
10 November
It is a long time since I have felt able to bring this journal up to date. We are in
Sighisoara for one night; tomorrow we go on to Hermannstadt. I am in a little hotel room
with crooked walls and ivy hanging over the windows, the foliage crusted with light
snow; the Count ... but let me record all as I remember it.
I was in a state of bewilderment when we left Carfax. I could not believe that Elena
had fled with my son, could not comprehend her reasoning. Something seemed wrong,
but Dracula assured me it was so, and I had no choice but to put my faith in him. He said,
'She believes that I have broken faith with her, therefore she is fleeing to another, who,
she thinks, will confer immortality upon her. Her uncle has given her this idea. She is on
her way to the Scholomance.'
'How can you be certain of it?' I asked.
'When my blood was in you, and yours in me,' he said, looking intently at me - even, I
might say, with a kind of brooding affection - 'were we not linked? When I returned to
Castle Dracula, you knew, at every stage of my journey, where I was. Is it not so? That
was how your menfolk followed and destroyed me. Well, it is the same. I know where
Elena is bound.'
'Then why can you not call her back?' I exclaimed. 'Surely your will is stronger than
hers?'
He paused, then gave a strange reply. 'Sometimes the Devil's call is stronger.'
I am so afraid for Quincey. It is almost winter, and the Transylvanian climate is bitter.
His delicate constitution will never bear it! Still, I must focus all my will on finding him
alive, or else I shall go mad.
We went in the caleche to Dover, and thence by boat and train towards Transylvania.
Since Dracula cannot travel without his native earth, a great box must be conveyed with
us. I acted as solitary guard to the box in which he lies, on the long train journey across
the continent, supervising the transfer of the box from one train to the next at every stage
of the journey. I was surprised at my own resourcefulness in this, using all my wiles and
authority as an English 'lady' to sweeten recalcitrant foreign guards along the way.
Sometimes the Count would be at rest in the box. Then I would wonder how easy it
might be to prise open the lid, to gaze upon his waxen, aquiline face, and then to plunge
some sharp implement through his heart. I thought of it constantly. But I could not do it.
Alone, I would have no hope of finding Elena. More than that; I have grown used to him,
seen every shade of his temperament; his tenderness and nobility, as well as his brutality.
I feel, however wrongly, that the world would be a lesser place without him.
And then I remember the evil he has wreaked upon us, and I despair.
As the train raided through the darkness, and I sat in the guard's van watching over
this strange cargo, a white mist would spill from under the lid, and the Count would stand
before me; a pillar of obsidian, his white face fierce as an eagle's, his eyes agleam like
rubies. And each time I would experience the same frisson of fear and longing.
Often he would be gone from the train for hours. I imagined him racing as a wolf
through the night; perhaps waiting by a bridge for the slack tide that would allow him to
cross the river, then gliding as a bat through the chittering darkness to rejoin the train.
I have grown used to the odour of Castle Dracula's earth upon him; there is a
comforting quality to it, a dry spiciness and something of autumn and woodsmoke. He
has not taken my blood a third time. There are silver streaks in the darkness of his hair
once more. It seems to me that he does not absolutely need blood, for he is immortal
anyway; rather, he takes it for vigour and power. And even, or -God have mercy on me! -
above all, for the carnal pleasure of it.
___
I had a great shock on the stretch from Buda-Pesth to Klausen-burgh. I was sitting as
usual in the dinginess of the guard's van, quite comfortable upon some sacks of fleece. It
was morning, but the motion of the train lulled me towards sleep, for I was by now worn
down from the constant travelling and the ever-deepening cold. Of a sudden I woke from
my doze, roused violently by a fierce sense of alarm. Two men were coming along the
swaying, creaking carriage, making their way between the stacked boxes and chests.
Their faces were haggard with strain, horrible to behold.
I almost did not recognize diem as Van Helsing and Dr Seward! I started up, amazed;
mirroring my shock, they rushed to my side. 'Come away, Madam Mina,' Van Helsing
said urgently. 'You are safe now.'
'But how have you found me?' I cried, utterly dumbfounded.
Van Helsing responded with a grim smile; grim, I knew with great regret, at least in
part because my demeanour on greeting them had been one of dismay, not joy. That must
have convinced them that Dracula was turning me against my own. . . but I found myself
unable to dispel this impression. He said, 'Have you forgotten what detectives Dracula
forced us to become? An Englishwoman travelling alone with a great chest does not pass
unnoticed. Our greatest struggle has been to close the gap of time between us; it has
taken us all the miles between Dover and the plains of Transylvania to do so.'
'Oh, Professor,' I said, ashamed. I could imagine their desperate journey! 'Where is
Jonathan?'
'His health would not let him travel, but he is in Mrs Seward's care. Is the Count.. . ?'
Van Helsing looked at the box; I nodded. 'Then we will dispose of him at once.'
He was already reaching into his case for the wooden stake and other paraphernalia; I
felt quite sick to see it.
'No,' I said quickly. Panic-stricken, I spoke with a good deal of force. I had to make
them understand! 'No, I cannot come with you, nor can I let you harm him.'
'In heaven's name, why not?' Dr Seward cried.
Van Helsing said, low but firm, 'This time we make no mistake. We dispatch him with
wood, not metal; we force garlic into the mouth.' Then with his black humour, 'Think,
even should he come back again in seven years we need only a few days, a few
moments to free you and Elena and Quincey from him!'
He held my hands, but I pulled away. 'No. Elena and Quincey are not with us! Don't
you understand? Surely you know!'
They shook their heads, frowning. 'Kovacs told us that Dracula took you all.'
'Then he was wrong. Elena quarrelled with Dracula and she ran away. She took my
son with her. We are following them! Only Dracula can find her, so if you destroy him,
we may never see Quincey alive!'
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