by Cameron Jace
Seeing that Night Von Sorrow wasn’t in the coffin confused me and turned everything upside down. If it wasn’t him in that coffin, then who was it? Who was so important to the Sorrows that much to have a whole ship sail him, or her, across the Seven Seas?
“Is there anything wrong with the coffin?” Night asked his men.
“We were wondering if we should open it to check on what’s inside.” The hunchback offered.
“That’s unnecessary,” Night said. “Just make sure the coffin stays in this room until we find the island.”
“But we’re afraid it will break,” the henchman said. “What’s inside the coffin, I mean.”
Night let out a brief chuckle, looking down upon the henchman. “You really don’t have an idea what’s inside the coffin, ugly man, do you? Just do as I say,” he turned to his huntsmen. “Any news about the island?”
“We’re lost in the sea,” one of the huntsmen said. “It’s really hard finding it.”
“How about Angel and Carmilla?”
“We can’t find them either. It’s as if the sea swallowed them.”
“I wonder if they are dead already,” another huntsman offered. “I mean they’re in a small boat in the middle of this raging sea. How can they survive it?”
“Fate promised Carmilla sorrow, not death,” Night said. “Also the sea doesn’t want to kill them. The universe wants to help them.”
“We don’t understand.”
“And you shouldn’t,” Night said. “There are things I know that would make no sense to you. What I’m sure of is that the mist we see hovering across the waters every once in a while might be protecting them.”
“So how are we supposed to find them?” the hunchback asked.
“We wait until they make a mistake,” Night said. “My son is in the middle of his transformation as a vampire. Carmilla will not be able to stick to him forever. They will falter under the pressure and we’ll find them.”
“Is it necessary we find them?” the hunchback asked. “I thought our priority was to deliver the coffin.”
“How will we know where to deliver the coffin without finding Angel and Carmilla first?” Night seemed fed up with the hunchback.
“And then, when we do, will we kill them?” one of the huntsmen asked.
Until that moment I was sure the answer would be yes, but then I saw Night hesitate, and found myself puzzled with questions again. “That depends on Carmilla,” Night said and left the room.
Perplexed with uncertainties, I sat back down next to Angel, trying to make sense of things. Why did so many things depend upon me? And how come Night wasn’t in the coffin? Who was in the coffin?
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by another surprise. I realized there was another man standing in the room.
Chapter 10
The Queen’s Diary
The mysterious man stood there silently, but I had a feeling he was looking in my direction. I could have simply mistaken him for an apparition or ghost of some kind, but he had a certain presence about him that I could not explain.
I squinted at his silhouette and saw that he held a sword. A warrior’s pose. I began to worry he was one of the huntsman.
But then he stepped out of the dark into a slim piercing light from a crack in the wood above. He didn’t wear a cloak, and his face visible to me now. He wasn’t one of them.
Who was he?
His silent demeanor was unsettling and awkward. It was hard to take a better look at his eyes from where I sat. Slowly, I began to feel optimistic. Maybe this man was here to help. A human who had secretly slipped onto the ship somehow. A helper sent from the invisible forces that were trying to protect me, like the mist in the sea.
Then I saw him slide his sword back into its sheath and aim a bow with a sharp, shining arrow at me. Now I could see his eyes. They were full of hatred and revenge, but not the evil or sorrow kind. This was a man in pain. Something dear had been taken from him, and he was out for revenge.
“Please, no,” I pleaded. “Don’t kill me.”
“I’m not aiming at you,” the man said. “I’m aiming at him.” He pointed his bow at Angel.
I shrieked as quietly as I could, not wanting to alert the others in the room next door and covered most of Angel’s body with my arms.
“You don’t want him to wake up, Carmilla,” the man said. “He will kill you, kill me, and kill everyone, eventually.”
“No, he won’t,” I hissed with gritted teeth.
“Sooner or later, Angel will be one of them.”
“Who are you?”
“Move, Carmilla,” the man said. “I know about your sorrow. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“No.” I insisted. “Who are you?” I asked again.
The man sighed, lowering his bow a little. “I’m the greatest huntsman in the world.”
“What?” I grimaced, confused by the statement and the man’s vanity. “You don’t look like a huntsman. Besides, they work for vampires.”
“Unless they learn to rebel against them,” the man said. “Unless they’re hurt by them.”
“You’re a vampire hunter?” At this point in time vampire hunters were just a myth. A mother’s wish to calm her frightened children when they heard about vampires.
“The first and the best,” he said again.
“Vampire hunters are just a myth.”
“Really?” he said. “Didn’t you ever hear about the Chosen One? The Karnstein who will eventually rid the world of all vampires?”
I shrugged, unsure why he mentioned this. It was part of my childhood education back in Styria. They’d always talked about the young girl, a Karnstein, who was destined to kill every Sorrow left in the world. But even I thought she was nothing but a myth. “How do you know about the Chosen One? Are you a Karnstein? Did my father send you to help me?”
“You don’t need to know much about me,” he said.
“I’m only asking for your name,” I said, trying to sound as sympathetic as possible.
“My name is Van Helsing.”
Chapter 11
The Queen’s Diary
Now, in retrospect, I think it’s an understatement to say that Van Helsing changed my life, but that would come later. I spent a few seconds staring at him, questions roaming around my head. One of them was why he hadn’t just killed Angel and the rest of the vampires in their coffins? Why did he waste time talking to me?
I started with the question that concerned me the most. “How do you know my name?”
“Everyone knows your name, Carmilla,” Van Helsing said. “I bet Captain Ahab saved your life from what happened on his ship.”
“True. Do you know why?”
“Let me put it this way,” he said. “You’re a blessing to half of this world – a curse to the rest. Still both sides will want to see if you’re the one they think you are.”
“I’ve had enough of hearing this. I need firm answers.”
“Answers like why you can sleep inside a mixture of blood, milk, and chocolate, yet you’re not a vampire?”
I nodded eagerly. I was willing to listen to a lot of things to know about that part.
“I assume Angel didn’t tell you,” Van Helsing said, not expecting an answer. “That you’re mentioned in a prophecy, Carmilla?”
“I know,” I said. “I’m the girl who broke a curse of seven years of barren lands were no apples grew. A witch cursed me.”
“I heard about that, but it’s not the prophecy.”
“Then what is?” I titled my head.
“You’re aware of the eternal war between the Sorrows and the Karnsteins?”
“I am.”
“You and Angel are the last couple both your families would approve of.”
“That’s not news to me.”
“I know,” he nodded. “What you don’t know is that there is a prophecy about a girl from the Karnsteins marrying a boy from the Sorrows and having a baby.”
“Ange
l and I will have a baby?”
“One that will have an unmatched power.”
“What kind of power?”
“She will have the power to end the reign of the Sorrows, starting with the vampires in Transylvania, all the way up to the Piper himself. She will be the greatest vampire hunter in the world.”
It took me a moment to believe him. My dreams about the swans felt connected somehow. When the realization sank in, I uttered the words myself. “You mean I will give birth to the Chosen One?”
Van Helsing didn’t answer. It was already clear to both of us. I was the awaited mother of the Chosen One. No wonder Night Von Sorrow wanted to submerge me in the mixture of blood, milk, and chocolate. He needed to know.
I turned to look at the sleeping Angel in my lap, and realized I had much bigger question to ask now. Facing Van Helsing again, I said, “Why didn’t Angel tell me?”
Chapter 12
The Queen’s Diary
Still pointing his bow at Angel, Van Helsing didn’t seem like he was willing to answer me. I had to repeat my question.
This time he said, “Because Angel was sent to make you fall in love with him. [CB4] [CB5] His father sent him so he’d make sure you were the mother of the Chosen One. That’s why he wanted to submerge you in blood, milk, and chocolate. Other than vampires, only you could survive it.”
“That was his proof?”
“According to the prophecy, yes.”
“Angel was playing with me?” I felt a lump grow in my throat. The world I knew and had such faith in was shaking before me.
“That was the first time he arrived in Styria as an apple trader.”
“Then?”
“He fell in love with you when he saw you, so he disappeared and went back home to confront his father.”
“Is that why Night Von Sorrow tortured him and wanted him to fully turn into a vampire?”
Van Helsing nodded. “The rest of the story, you know well. Angel defied his father, but couldn’t get away from you. He made you forget about him for two years, but realizing you were the one meant for him, he had to show up again.”
“I remember I kept asking him why he made me forget, and I was never satisfied by his answers.”
“Angel’s plan was for you two to escape his father’s wrath.”
“Knowing our child will be the Chosen One?”
“He didn’t, Carmilla,” Van Helsing said. “He loved you. He also wished he could end the reign of the Sorrows. It was a journey you both had to take to build a family.”
“And here were are,” I sighed. “Lost in the Seven Seas.”
“Unless you find Lady Shallot in the Tower of Tales.” Van Helsing glanced toward me.
“You know about that, too?”
“I know a lot,” he said, titling his head up.
A few footsteps were audible upstairs. We both knew time was scant for the three of us. I needed to know what Van Helsing was here for.
“I can show you the way to Lady Shallot,” he offered.
“By that you mean Angel and me?”
Van Helsing hesitated for a moment. “Normally I would kill Angel,” he shrugged. “I actually still think I will need to kill him at some point. He is a vampire like the rest of them. I have no trust in him.”
“But?”
“Talking to you now gave me an idea,” he said. “I will let Angel live and will show you both the way to the Tower of Tales – under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“If you help me with something.”
“Anything.” I guess there was hope after all.
“First, we’ll have to wake Angel up.” He nodded at him in my arms. “Because he is the one who can help me.”
I thought that was an ironic need – the hunter needing the hunted. Each one had a million reasons to kill the other, yet a few other reasons to let them live.
“We can’t wake Angel up,” I said. “We’ve got two more days until he wakes up from the mixture inside the coffin.”
“Is that what he told you?” Van Helsing looked skeptical.
“Are you going to doubt that, too?”
“I will, because it only proves he loves you dearly.”
“What do you mean?”
“There is another way to wake him up before the three days pass,” Van Helsing said.
“There is?”
“If you prick your finger and make him drink your blood from it,” Van Helsing said practically. “Now do it. We don’t have much time.”
Chapter 13
The Queen’s Diary
Pricking my finger with a shard of glass left on the floor, I felt like something inside me was changing. I mean, even though Angel wanted to protect me, I felt cheated not having known who I was. I watched Angel’s eyes flicker at the smell of my blood, while wondering if I ever would have embarked on this journey knowing what I knew now.
“Don’t let him suck a lot of blood,” Van Helsing said, bow still aimed at Angel. “Just enough to wake him up.”
“What happens if he takes more blood?” I asked, watching my blood dropping on Angel’s lips.
“Don’t you think it’s a bit strange you’re asking about Angel and not what happens to you if you lose too much blood?” Van Helsing eyed me.
“I love him.”
“I know, but you have to learn to think of yourself, too.”
Angel was already waking up. His eyes flickered open, and I was instantly shocked and drew back away from him.
“Easy,” Van Helsing said. “Don’t let the red eyes scare you.”
“What’s happening to him?” I asked, ashamed of being afraid of the one I love.
“He’s just being who he is,” Van Helsing aimed his bow closer at him. “A blood sucker.”
I watched Angel waking up, looking like a stranger to me. His eyes and clenched jaw reminded me of his father. Van Helsing kept his aim sharp and never moved his eyes away from him. Angel, on all fours, growled at Van Helsing.
“The bow in this arrow is made from the remains of one the Piper’s flutes,” Van Helsing threaten Angel. “It will kill you instantly.”
“And I thought he needed some kind of silver bullet,” I mumbled.
“Glad you didn’t think a cross would make him back away,” Van Helsing said dryly. “Now stay back and calm down,” he turned back, grunting at Angel who was slowly calming down.
“I’m here, Angel,” I whispered, partially afraid of him — and for him. “I’m Carmilla. You’ve only locked yourself for an hour in the coffin. You should be fine.” Then I turned back to Van Helsing. “You should lower your bow. He isn’t going to hurt you.”
“I’m not sure of that,” he said. “How do I know he hasn’t fully turned into a vampire?”
“Because I would have ripped you apart already,” Angel grunted, arching on the floor.
Van Helsing stepped back. Angel sounded angry. I didn’t know what was really going on.
“If I had fully turned into a vampire, your Piper arrow wouldn’t kill me,” Angel explained, leaning back against the wall. “They only work with half-vampires.”
“You’re lying,” Van Helsing said.
“What kind of vampire hunter are you?” Angel let out a painful chuckle. “Try using it on the vampires in the coffins. It will never work.”
“What works then?” Van Helsing stepped up eagerly. “Tell me!”
“Nothing but the old fashioned way,” Angel answered. “Stab them in the heart and then in the liver to make sure they never wake up again.”
Van Helsing’s jaw tensed, looking back at the coffins. I wondered why this man hated the Sorrows so much.
“I’m better now, Carmilla,” Angel said. “Tell this man to lower his bow.”
“He won’t unless we help him, love,” I said, still afraid to approach Angel.
“Help him with what?”
“Talk to me,” Van Helsing demanded.
“Here I am,” Angel turned his
head. It didn’t look like those two were going to be friends anytime soon. “What do you want in exchange for not killing me? Repentance?”
“The likes of you will never repent,” Van Helsing said. “Sooner or later, you will turn into a Sorrow like your father, but that’s none of my concern.”
“You’re right about that. It is none of your concern.” Angel said. “Spell it out? What do you want?”
That was the moment when Van Helsing’s pain showed up in the ragged lines on his forehead. The muscles in his face twitched, and I could finally see his pain. It was so deep, I almost thought it surpassed mine.
“What do you want from me?” Angel said impatiently.
“I want you to help my son.”
Chapter 14
The Queen’s Diary
“Your son?” I interfered. “Why? What happened to him?”
“Night Von Sorrow killed him.” Van Helsing’s knuckles whitened while gripping the bow.
“I’m not going to pay for my father’s sins,” Angel said.
“You’re wrong,” Van Helsing said. “Because I can make you pay for them right now.” He was about to shoot the arrow.
“Come on!” Angel ripped open his vest and shirt, showing his bare chest to him. “Kill me. What are you waiting for?”
“Stop!” I stood up, waving a hand at Van Helsing.
The two men locked eyes. Each of them in dire pain. Each of them threatening the other. But in truth, each of them wished they had just died because they couldn’t stand the pain. Strangely enough, it was me who could help with this. Me, who was bound to sorrow for life.
“Maybe you can help him, Angel,” I said.
“With what? My father either sucks your blood and turns you into a vampire or sucks it hard enough you die.”
I turned back to Van Helsing for explanation.
“My son died,” Van Helsing said. “But I managed to save his soul.”
“Yeah?” Angel snarled. “That’s impossible.”
“Not if your wife sells her own soul in exchange to save her son,” Van Helsing said.