Authors: Romina Nicolaides
“We are going to need some vestments for the outside,” Vyktor said matter-of-factly.
“You are, you are!” Agreed the priest, seizing his chance at engaging us in negotiations. “I have some in my chambers. Regular garments, non-clerical ones. You'll blend right in with those.”
Both Vyktor and I regarded him with suspicion but led him to his chambers. The last time I had come here was when I was first brought to the Keep all those centuries ago. Besides the significantly larger number of books, not much else had changed. There were some tapestries with biblical scenes on the walls but I could not remember if they’d been there all along. The space was still imposing but well worn. As we let him in, he ran to open a chest on the ground but Vyktor held him back. He was holding a lance we’d found along the way which was proving handy in subduing the priest.
“You can open it yourself if you wish, it only contains clothing.” Unconvinced Vyktor preferred that the priest open it, but as soon as he unlocked it, Vyktor used the end of the lance to push the lid back in case it contained anything dangerous. Establishing that it was indeed filled only with clothing the priest was permitted to remove it from the trunk. It seemed like peasant clothing but it was well made and clean. With shaking hands he took all these items out of the chest and gave them to us including a large pouch of gold coins.
At that moment I felt that we no longer needed him and without a second thought I bit his throat and savored his blood. Stopping while he was still alive but semi-conscious I was just about to tear into his skin and remove his heart with my bare hands when Vyktor stopped me.
“That’s enough killing for one day, Theodora, let’s go.”
Looking around the room I noticed several handwritten notebooks on his desk and I took them with me. We made our way out into the Keep again and tried to reach the stream and hopefully get out of the system. The time must have been around five and dawn was approaching. At the lowest level of the Keep we came to a stop when a bereft nun saw us and started to shriek hoping guards would come after us.
“Stop it right there, where do you think you’re going? There is a clampdown; all slaves are in their quarters! Guards! Guards!”
I felt a sense of panic even though I knew that the Keep was in a state of dissolution. We let her live because time was of the essence and she wasn’t much of a threat and proceeded down as fast as we could. We arrived at the passage and as we were making our way into the now bone-dry water way we heard the tormented hiss of a thousand slaves in agony. The Lightflood had been activated by one of the few remaining members of the Keep now that the sun had risen. The light followed us and burnt our eyes but we were sheltered enough to suffer it. With the sleeping child still in my arms we walked as fast we could into the narrowing corridor reaching the grate. Due to the unusual heat of that summer the metal had warped quite a bit and combined with years of water wear the connection to the stone had weakened considerably. Had this been a regular summer they would have eventually got round to fixing it but due to the pestilence they had not managed to keep up with their maintenance. With the lance as a lever and a large rock to assist we managed to dislodge the grate from the stone allowing us enough room to crawl through. For the first time in centuries I felt a sliver of hope come over me.
Fourteen
Katalina put the book down. She remembered that she hadn’t stepped foot outside that room in days. She desperately wished to go on but she was starving so she went to get something to eat.
She returned to her room to find Miloš sitting on the ground in the corridor waiting for her.
“There you are; I was starting to get worried. You haven’t shown your face in ages! Where’ve you been?”
“I’m binding some books for the Countess.”
“And you can’t even stop to eat?”
She wanted to tell him about the riveting read the journals were proving to be, but she knew it was a bad idea.
“I want to be done before she comes back, I don’t want her to be mad.”
“I understand, I guess... Here eat, I want to show you something!”
Sitting down on her bed and digging into the rich meal of veal covered in a thick sauce over potatoes she wondered what he wanted to show her. “What have you found?”
“I’m not going to tell you, it’s a secret!” He said with a playful smile.
Hurriedly stuffing the last forkful of food in her mouth she got up, “Come on let’s go,” she said as she imagined him having discovered something that could be used to overthrow Báthory. Miloš regarded her with curiosity, but didn’t say anything.
It was mid-afternoon and the castle was quiet as usual. Miloš and Katalina came out onto the courtyard and headed towards the back wall near the kitchens. The boy stopped just as they reached the aged back wall of the castle and seemed to be staring into nothingness. This part of the yard was so seldom visited that vines had grown all over it practically hiding every last piece of stone.
“Are we here to just look at the wall?”
“Will you stop being so impatient?” He said before digging his hand deep into the vegetation and revealing a door knob. Twisting it he pulled back and a small opening appeared into the vines.
“Go through,” said the boy, clearly satisfied with himself.
“Go where? We’re at the edge of a cliff, Miloš.”
“Will you just trust me and go through? Carefully!”
Slightly hesitant, Kati walked through the dense vines and came out on a small precipice. The wind blew ferociously and all under them as far as the eye could see were dense forests glistening with the remains of a summer shower. Spring had passed and so had most of the summer and the leaves were starting to turn. The Countess hadn’t been back when she’d promised to, which was a small blessing for Kati.
“Beautiful isn’t it?”
Kati shook her head in agreement.
“Come on there’s more,” he said carefully closing the door behind him.
“Where are we going? There isn’t much else up here.”
“Just do exactly as I do,” he advised before climbing up the face of the cliff on some very precarious stepping stones which formed a small staircase into the side of the mountain beyond the wall’s edge.
“I’m not going up there, it’s dangerous!”
“Stop being such a baby and follow me, it’s really quite safe and it’s only a few steps, I promise.”
She took a deep breath and watched where Miloš put his feet. When he was safely up a few yards and standing on another little platform she felt safe enough to follow him up.
“See I told you it wasn’t that far,” he said helping her climb the last step and find her footing.
The two children were standing at the mouth of a storeroom which included two buzzing beehives and a wall lined with jars of glistening honey.
“This is it?”
“Of course, what did you expect?”
Realizing the pressure she was under with her knowledge in recent days, she let out a sigh and ruffled the boy’s hair.
“Nothing, I think my imagination just got away from me a little bit. How did you find this place?”
“I was in the back playing one day when I noticed the vines moving. When I looked more closely I saw that someone hadn’t closed the door properly and I came through it, just as terrified as you were because I knew it was the end of the wall. It was the bees that told me about the storeroom though, I saw a bunch of them flying in and I followed. I think it’s the cook’s little side business. Can you imagine that rotund woman making her way up here every day? I’m surprised she hasn’t killed herself yet.”
Kati inadvertently giggled. “Where is she now?” She asked.
“It’s her resting time, she won’t catch us,” he said grabbing a jar of honeycomb from the shelf and handing it to Katalina who was greeted by the most delicious smell when she opened it.
“I haven’t had honey in ages,” she said licking her finger which she had sunk into the viscous liquid as far as it would go. She took out a piece of honeycomb and gave it to Miloš and the two of them sat on the ground greedily devouring the lot, getting lost in the moment. Their little excursion had helped ease some of the tension she had been feeling in recent days and she was grateful for it. Leaning to her side she gave the boy a brief squeeze on the shoulder and then headed back inside to continue reading about Theodora's escape from the Keep.
At the end of the passage we saw yet more daylight. We had walked far enough from the main part of the Keep to have avoided the most lethal intensity of the Lightflood but it had now started seeping in from in front of us too. A few more paces and we would be out. When we reached the opening we were immediately blinded by the light. My skin tickled slowly and then started to burn. My eyes watered and my head throbbed with pain; I instinctively covered the child with more of his robes to protect his delicate skin and tried to look out to where we could run to hide but was greeted by an unexpected development. We were a great height up from the ground into the side of a sharp cliff.
“We have to jump, Theodora, there is no other way,” said Vyktor answering my unspoken question. We certainly couldn’t go back and there was definitely no other way down. The light was really strong and blinding and we couldn’t make out what lay at the base of the cliff. All these years in that place and finally a stroke of luck had allowed us to escape only to jump into the void to an almost certain death. I looked down at the child and secured him a bit more in his robes, which were now considerably less white than when we'd started out. I turned to Vyktor who gave me a knowing nod encapsulating exactly what we were both feeling in that moment: fear, love, uncertainty, hope. Clasping the child tightly in my arms I jumped and asked the Eternal Mother to watch over us.
The trip down was not as long as I had anticipated but it was still formidable and painful at landing but whatever broke our fall was softer than the ground would have been. The light still burned me so I knew I had to find the strength to get up and run towards the shade as soon as I could. I sat up and looked around to see where I was and was greeted by a horrifying sight. I was laying on a pile of dead bodies casually disposed of in a massive pit in various stages of decomposition. The stench emanating from the cadavers was unbearable. It was pure death mixed with quick lime, sickness and dirt. The pestilence that had taken hold of the priests in the Keep was making its way through the villages and the countryside too. There must have been hundreds of them, men, women and children in various states of undress. There were rich and poor, lay people and even some priests. This disease made no discrimination and it was hungry. I stood up as fast as I could and located my son, who was lying close to me. For the first time during this ordeal I was grateful he was unconscious and would not have to see any of this. As I got up I located Vyktor who was standing on the edge of the overflowing pit gesturing towards a covered wooded area.
The small cave in which we hid was damp and dark. I hated being back into one of these so soon after our escape but it was the only relief we could get from the light. We knew that we were not too far from the Keep, but we had to wait for nightfall before setting off. My whole body hurt and I reeked of the death that had saved me but there was nowhere to wash for the time being, so I just hid in the dark with the boy close to me.
“Don’t worry, they won’t be coming this way, there is far too much death for them to enquire around the pit,” said Vyktor as he caressed both our heads sensing my fears once again. “In many ways we are in the safest place we could be, not even the Ghosts could locate us right now in this stench. All the same I’ll keep watch for a few hours while you sleep and I will wake you later on so that we can change places.”
By night time I woke up and instantly felt a wave of panic at the new surroundings. It was the first time in two and a half centuries that I had slept outside the Keep. Looking around I found Vyktor was at the mouth of the cave looking out and the child was still sleeping in my arms so I relaxed.
“You said you were going to wake me.”
“I couldn’t do it, it’s been so long since you slept in the day I didn’t want to deprive you of the satisfaction. I’ll sleep when we’re gone from here.”
“Vyktor, why is he still asleep after all these hours?” I asked gazing down at my beautiful boy.
“I don’t think he’s a healthy child, Theodora…”
“No! They did something to him, I’m sure of it! They’ve given him some sort of concoction to make him sleep so that he could take his heart and now he's not waking up! My boy is not ill!”
Vyktor lowered his gaze and said nothing.