by M L Dunn
“That’s why Red didn’t tell me anything.”
“Exactly,” he said as the sled with Dante and Figaro reached them.
Dante approached Count Vasili with a pair of bolt cutters and freed Count Vasili from his handcuffs and then they embraced. They spoke in Russian and then Dante helped Tom into the sled as Figaro and Count Vasili hugged one another. Dante placed a heavy coat over Tom and stuck one of those Russian hats with the fur lining on top his head. Then Count Vasili climbed in next to him.
“We do have another surprise or two in store for you, but you’ll just have to wait a while yet,” he told Tom as Tom began to warm up to him.
Chapter 53
As they rushed toward the Vladivostok Station, Count Vasili explained how Red had set Stone up to be a double agent. How Rollo was the cab driver who had driven them to the Dauntless and was hidden on board now. Another golem, part of the crew bringing Vamp’s onto the Dauntless, had placed a yellow cap on his head and pretended to be the cab driver headed back to his cab.
Rollo, hidden on board, had sabotaged the rudder cable so the zeppelin could not regain lift after coming across the pole and had caused the alarms to go off so Mr. Slang would rush out the cargo hold, leaving Tom in Stone’s hands.
As Tom sipped from a warm bowl of soup, Count Vasili went on; telling him Stone’s job was to drop him near the river, not in it, and how this whole complicated mess had begun twenty two years ago when King Nikola called his two sons, as well as his trusted advisor, Count Voorhees, to his deathbed. A Mr. Jordan was present also.
King Nikola decreed then that Yuri would succeed him as king. He signed the document stating so and sealed it with his ring. The document was handed over to Count Voorhees for safe keeping until it could be announced throughout the kingdom.
Prince Havel knelt, kissed his brother’s hand and promised his everlasting loyalty. That very night, King Nikola died.
The following day, as the King’s Guard searched throughout the Royal City for Count Voorhees in the hours after Prince Yuri’s murder - a cloaked messenger came and bid Count Vasili follow him. Count Vasili was led down into the city’s underground storm tunnels to meet with his father.There Count Voorhees told his son what really had happened.
Headed for Prince Yuri’s room to tell him that King Nikola had died, Count Voorhees came upon Prince Havel stabbing his brother in the back. Count Voorhees ran to the aid of Prince Yuri and fought with Prince Havel, managing to disarm him of the knife he’d used to murder his brother, but then several soldiers arrived and Prince Havel shouted that Count Voorhees had murdered Prince Yuri. Count Voorhees knew he looked guilty holding the knife, and he tried to explain, but the captain of the guard went to slash him with his sword and Count Voorhees fled through a secret panel.
He fled to Anna’s room and told her what had happened, warning her that her life was in danger now, as well as the life of the child she carried inside her. Since that child inherited the right to rule the kingdom that Prince Havel so desperately wanted for himself.
As Count Voorhees talked with Anna, from down the hall, came the screams of Diana, who was going into labor. Count Voorhees fled then.
Anna went to check on Diana, learned she had passed out, and helped the midwife deliver her child. The child did not live.
“They will blame me,” the midwife claimed. “At the very least my family will be banished. I may even be beheaded.”
“No,” Anna said lying down on the bed. “I know what must be done now. I will cast a spell over myself that will cause me to go into labor this night. Lock the door,” she instructed the midwife, but before the midwife did, there came a knock upon the door. The midwife opened the door and there stood Mr. Jordan. Mr. Jordan explained that Count Voorhees had come to him and asked that he go and meet with Anna. Thus, an hour later, when Anna gave birth to a daughter, Mr. Jordan was witness. When the midwife went to hand the child to her, Anna refused.
“Wake Diana,” Anna said. “Tell her she has given birth to a beautiful child.” Anna, with Mr. Jordan helping her, crossed the room and picked up the body of the other child born that night.
“I will take this child to my room. In a few hours I will give birth, but my child will not live. Do you understand?” Anna asked the midwife.
“Yes. I’ll do as you wish.”
“Someday, not for many years, the truth of what happened here tonight will be made known,” Anna told Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Jordan promised Anna then that he would do what he could to help her.
“So Pandora has possession of the document restoring Prince Yuri’s right to follow King Nikola as king?” Tom asked when Count Vasili was done telling the story.
“Yes,” Count Vasili said. “She kept it safe in the Mouth of Hell cave.”
“You knew all this?”
“Not until this morning.”
“Who told you?”
“Anna told Inspector Meriwether just this morning,” Count Vasili said.
“He met with her?”
“Yes,” he said. “My father did not know about Princess Alexi and he did not tell me about the decree - just in case I was questioned about it.”
“Where is it now?”
“She delivered it to Mr. Jordan.”
“We are all set then?” Tom asked.
“We just have to take control of the Dauntless.”
Count Vasili leaned in closer then. “The messenger that night that had led me to my father was Mr. Jordan. There was nothing he could do to make things right. It was forbidden for a member of the Administration to interfere in the affairs of the king. My father was soon captured but he would not reveal to Havel what had happened to the decree King Nikola had signed. Havel didn’t think it mattered then anyway. He did not know then that Princess Alexi was not his child.”
Count Vasili went on then, telling Tom how Mr. Jordan suggested Anna be sent to Transylvania City to live among her own kind, but really he knew she would never be safe as long as Havel was king.
The black horses dashed across the snow-covered tundra at a furious pace and then they came to a small village. A fresh set of horses awaited them, and they were quickly hitched to the sled and then they took off again. Count Vasili told Tom they needed to change horses several times, and each time the men or vampires, a goblin even, who had brought the horses there, joined their group. Count Vasili said they needed to beat the Dauntless to Vladivostok and he had, using coded messages sent by way of transrealm cable, arranged all this ahead of time.
Chapter 54
A few minutes before 2 o’clock, Mr. Slang knocked on the door of the king’s suite of rooms. Dino opened it and he went in. Esmeralda was there and then King Havel stepped into the room.
They looked out the window toward the Tempest flying a mile ahead of them. Mr. Slang looked at his watch. It was a minute until 2.
“I sent a cable from Londonium using Count Vasili’s name and account,” Mr. Slang told the king. “It’s in the same code he’s been using.”
“What’s its say?”
“It’s from him to the president of the United Vampire Association of the U.R.R.K., the coded part reads. ‘I have chosen course of action certain to cause great deal of chaos. Look for event aboard Tempest’s return home.’”
“Wait until we show that cable to the papers,” King Havel said gleefully.
“Here we go,” Mr. Slang said looking at his watch, “3..2..1,” he counted down as he looked out the window toward the Tempest expecting a great ball of fire to appear in the sky.
Nothing happened.
King Havel looked at Mr. Slang.
Mr. Slang looked at his watch and then toward the Tempest again. “How did they…,” Mr. Slang said confused. He looked at Dino then. “Bring me Inspector Meriwether. Make sure you take his gun from him. And that woman too,” he said. “Take Trunk with you and search his luggage. Don’t let Colonel Popov see you dragging either of them up here. Don’t worry,” Mr. Slang said turning
to King Havel then. “This isn’t over.”
Dino shoved Inspector Meriwether into a chair as he handed Mr. Slang Inspector Meriwether’s gun and then a clock with sixteen sticks of dynamite strapped to it. “I found that in his suitcase,” Dino told Mr. Slang.
When Dino let go of Inspector Flynn’s wife, she went and sat next to Inspector Meriwether as Mr. Slang grinned at both of them.
“How’d you know?” he asked Inspector Meriwether.
“I knew Prince Marko was not your target. I knew you had taken a second clock from the shop there in Transylvania City. I knew you’d find a way to place a bomb on board the Tempest.”
“How you’d know about the second clock?”
“The shopkeeper called me and reported one was stolen. Thought I’d like to know. It just made sense you’d want to smuggle a bomb aboard the Tempest.”
“You never had any intention of stopping Anna from hi-jacking the Tempest did you?”
“None at all.”
“How did you know that I knew I was being followed?”
“Since Princess Alexi was your target all along, you had no reason to leave a bomb at the Hotel Triumph. When you did, I figured you must have spotted my men following you.”
“I knew they were following me from the start.”
“How?”
“The last five words Krakov spoke were not – ‘I’m working for Count Vasili’,” Mr. Slang explained. “Although that caused quite a stir inside the courtroom,” he said nodding his approval.
“Thank you,” Inspector Meriwether said, “but Krakov was certain those were his last five words.”
“He must have forgot that he hailed a cab to take him up to the Triumph. I saw him telling the driver to take him there.”
“Oh,” Red said. “He must have figured you would not have known that.”
“And you had her follow me from the Triumph,” Mr. Slang said pointing at Inspector Flynn’s wife.
“Yes.”
“You wanted me to see her heading for the call box.”
“Not necessarily,” Inspector Meriwether said. “But if you did spot her, I figured you’d stop her from calling me and that way you’d think you’d succeeded in planting the second bomb without the TCPD’s knowledge.”
“Took a bit of risk there, didn’t you? I was ready to cut her throat and hide her body somewhere.”
“I was counting on you turning it to your advantage when you saw it was Inspector Flynn’s wife.”
Mr. Slang stared at Inspector Meriwether as he thought over this new information. “You kept what you knew from Inspector Flynn didn’t you?”
Inspector Meriwether smiled oh so subtly then. “That’s right.”
“You realized he would make a perfect candidate for truth serum didn’t you?”
“Count Vasili did. I’d never heard of the stuff before then.”
Mr. Slang turned to Dino then. “Did you actually see Inspector Flynn fall to his death?”
Dino hesitated. “Uh, no. Stone was dangling him on the end of a rope in front of the wolves, but then I saw we were coming to the river, so I grabbed the rope and let it go so the wolves would get him, but I was too late and the detective fell into the river.”
“I glad to hear it,” Mr. Slang said. “Since it doesn’t matter now.” He turned to Dino then. “You and Trunk take a golem gun and fire it at Stone. Put him in chains and place him in the cargo hold for now.”
“Stone ain’t with us?”
“I imagine that changes minute by minute,” Mr. Slang said, “but we can no longer trust him. Go on.” Mr. Slang turned back to Inspector Meriwether as Dino and Trunk went out the room. He held Inspector’s Meriwether’s gun on him as he looked at Inspector Flynn’s wife.
“I’m glad your husband is not dead, but let’s hope he doesn’t freeze to death,” Mr. Slang told her. “Or worse yet, another pack of ice wolves hunt him down the other side of the river, but I imagine Count Vasili is looking out for both of them.”
Inspector Meriwether said nothing.
“Stone must have snapped the cable rudder too,” Mr. Slang told King Havel.
“What are we going to do?” King Havel asked.
“We don’t want the Tempest docking at the Vladivostok station. You need to order Colonel Popov to radio ahead there and tell them not to let the Tempest dock there. The Tempest will just have to go on to Royal City without refueling. They should make it there if they slow their airspeed.”
Chapter 55
By the time they arrived at the outskirts of Vladivostok, their group had grown in force to a dozen. Some of them vampires, some human and one goblin even. They headed for a small farm. A few more men on horseback awaited them there. One of them pointed up at the sky and Tom and Count Vasili looked there. He was pointing at the Tempest approaching the Vladivostok Zeppelin station, but it seemed not to be descending lower.
“The Tempest is not stopping there,” Count Vasili determined.
“Does that matter?”
“It is unexpected, but I don’t see that it matters. As long as the Dauntless does.”
“How are we going to take control of it?”
“We will have to storm the base and then the zeppelin when it docks.”
“Just the twelve of us?”
Count Vasili smiled as he put his arm around Tom. He led him toward a very large barn. As soon as they came inside, they were met with cheers as men and vampires swarmed around Count Vasili.
A company of the Red Faction, the partisans fighting for the overthrow of the monarchy, was gathered there, nearly a hundred of them. Most of them were men, but about a quarter were vampires, a few were women, a few more were vampiress, and there was even a pair of goblins and a couple of golems. They were all carrying rifles and long knives. At the back of the barn were their horses.
Count Vasili began shaking hands and embracing others. This went on for a minute and then he asked that they listen to him.
They gathered around him as Count Vasili began addressing them. He spoke eloquently, elegantly and forcefully, several times pounding his fist into the palm of his hand. It was the most stirring call to arms Tom ever heard even if he didn’t understand one word he said. It was all in Russian.
Tom looked through the faces of the soldiers there, they all bore the marks of experienced fighters, scars and old wounds were in abundance, but it was the look in their eyes, the way they carried themselves that told him none feared the thought of going into battle against a much larger, entrenched enemy.
When Count Vasili was done speaking, several bottles of vodka appeared, glasses were filled, toasts were made and then the shots quickly downed. Then, abruptly, the soldiers turned and mounted their horses. The doors to the barn were thrown open and they slowly began filing out as some stirring Russian song was sung by everyone there, except Tom of course.
“Can you ride?” Count Vasili asked leading him out the barn.
“Yes,” he said.
He led Tom toward two horses. Tom was handed a rifle as he and Count Vasili mounted their black steeds.
“I have one last thing to say to these soldiers,” Count Vasili told him.
“What?”
“I’m going to tell them they must only shoot to wound. If all goes well, this war will end this day, and we must show mercy to our enemy if they are to become our allies and friends once again.”
Tom looked down the line of soldiers filing out of the barn. They were the toughest looking bunch he had ever seen. Right then they were ready to charge straight across open ground toward their enemy and destroy them. “Good luck with that,” he told Count Vasili.
Count Vasili galloped a little ways ahead of the column and turned his horse, a tall, black, muscular charger, around. The soldiers pulled their mounts to a halt as Count Vasili began speaking. Tom did not know exactly what he said, but it was not met with cheers. He implored them, he pleaded, he stood firm in his conviction and then he fell silent. No one spoke. The cold win
d blew. They stared at him incredulously,
Then, right at the front of the column, Tom saw Dante nod his head in agreement. Dante looked at Figaro. Figaro began nodding and then he turned to man behind him.
“милосердие,” that man said and then the men and vampires behind them nodded and repeated this word, until the whole column had said it. Count Vasili smiled. He rode down the line encouraging each man or woman and then he rode back to Tom.
“What is it they are saying?”
“It means mercy. They will show mercy unto our enemy.”
“милосердие,” Tom repeated.
As the column rode through the village, many children and woman, vampires and humans alike, came out and began cheering them. Someone began singing the same song as before, and soon everyone was singing again, that is until the column crested a small hill right at the end of the village and the Red Army base came into view. The singing stopped and a more sober mood descended over the company of soldiers.
Tom was happy then that the U.R.R.K. was like the year 1900 then, because the guns he was looking at, were not the high-capacity weapons he’d faced on D-day at Normandy, but they were frightening still. An even larger gun, stationed on a platform inside the sandbags that surrounded the base, was pointed right at them.
As soon as their column came into view, they were spotted and an alarm was sounded inside the base. As Tom and his fellow riders rode closer, the Red Army soldiers rushed out their barracks toward the sandbag wall, which stood about five high.
“Don’t worry,” Count Vasili leaned over and told Tom. “We have some surprises for them.
The partisan battalion commander at the head of their column shouted out an order and the partisans began forming a line on either side of him, until a single line, facing the enemy, was formed. It was to be a charge.