He laughed noiselessly as he ran, without humour. And the laugh died into a silent howl. Charlotte dying in Pierre’s embrace; or in his own. And if he resisted, went on and on resisting… Charlotte dying of old age, leaving only a memory to haunt Karl. An unseen hand on his arm; when he turned round, no one there. Heine’s words and her clear voice… ” ‘This house she dwelt in, she I lov’d dear… ‘ ” Only the ice-wind of an existence that went on forever.
Karl arrowed upwards on a thin, bitter stream of energy. Mountains of violet quartz, glittering as they rolled slowly through the firmament, bore him upwards to their summit, and on to the pale blue-green pathways to the next layer.
Ilona… Where are you? He stretched his senses wide, searching for the black-diamond coolness of another vampire, which was so easy to miss. He felt nothing, but a thought came to him.
Germany.
Would not Kristian have taken the shortest route, climbing directly from Schloss Holdenstein into the Ring? Karl let the magnetic field draw him southwards, keeping his bearings like a bird. The lines were like ribbons of the aurora, rippling from blue to green to gold.
A long way… but he did not think of the distance. Paler and paler grew the light. The mountains gave way to mare’s-tail wisps. Coldness drenched him. He closed his mind to everything except sensation; the clear aching beauty, the lucent surfaces on which he struggled to gain height. Once or twice he lost his footing and fell; a slow-motion fall through an atmosphere hardly less viscid than the cloud-slopes. No harm done, except the insidious leeching of his strength.
He broke through a paper-thin layer of mist and saw the plateau rising before him under the blue-black vault of space. He was unprepared for the ineffable beauty of it; a vast ice-cap gliding on a silent ocean of cloud. The stars were like flowers and under their light the plateau shone a luminous and eerie blue-white.
The temperature, though, was far below freezing, and it entombed his limbs in stone as he crawled on to the blinding-bright surface. The fabric of the Weisskalt seemed more stable than the rest of the Crystal Ring. Though it felt fragile as a snow-crust, it did not flow or dissolve beneath him.
Karl’s body burned and ached with the cold. He felt leaden, but the shifting light filled his mind with brilliance, with unheard music. The wonder of it, and the pain… Is this God’s joke on us?
He sensed them now. They pricked his mind, like pieces of coal thrown into the snow, like a field of stars in negative. The sleeping vampires.
In the eerie whiteness he walked among them. Liebe Gott. They were dead, weren’t they? So small, crumpled in on themselves like folded black sails. A wave of grief washed over him. Were they aware of anything? Pasted on the edge of eternity, did they still hunger for blood and life, and endure the slow passing of time?
God, if this is all we can hope for…
They all looked the same, but he knew which of them was llona. She lay on the end of one of the neat rows, a little apart. He would know her anywhere, in any guise. Hers was a deceptive presence, like a sliver of glass; invisible until light caught a blood-red flash from its edge. That was how her spirit felt to him, unseen but sharply embedded within him.
But the others… There were others, here, too, who had been his friends, Andreas and Katerina not least among them. He would not look for them. He could not bear it. But he thought, if I can do this for Ilona, could I not have saved you, Katti, Andrei? But it was not that simple, had never been that simple. And now he was not sure he even had the strength for llona.
Her skin crackled with ice as he knelt beside her and lifted her weightless form in his arms. She felt brittle, as if the pressure of his finger and thumb would be enough to crush her. False wings folded around her. Dark eyelids closed in a face that was neither human not that of any earthly animal. Diabolically lovely. What are we?
He wept.
“Ilona,” he said through his tears. He did not know how to revive her, except to give her warmth. But he felt his own joints stiffening and fatigue clouding his mind… and he stumbled and fell, and felt the whiteness begin to cover him forever.
A surge of will forced him awake. Ilona… and Charlotte. He fought the paralysis and crawled towards the path that led down to the lower, warmer layers, Ilona clasped in one arm. As he went he bit his own wrist and sucked at it until the blood began to flow.
He held the wound to her lips. After a few moments he felt her mouth tighten and her tongue working roughly against his skin.
She seemed to grow heavier in her arms. Was that her life returning, or his own strength fading as she drew on him? There was a strange throbbing in his head and he had to pull his hand free, but it was enough, she was alive.
The cloud-ocean below, which had chilled him on his way up, now warmed him like a tropical lagoon.
“Kristian?” murmured Ilona, like a child half-asleep. “Kristian… you came back. I knew you would.”
“Ilona,” Karl said softly.
She opened her eyes and stared up at him. “You!”
It cut right through him, her hatred, as it always did. Every time like the first. Even here, even though he had rescued her and she was barely out of the coma, the loathing surfaced as if it, alone, had not slept. And she began to struggle, though she was pitifully easy to hold.
“What the hell are you doing here?” she said furiously. “Why couldn’t you leave me alone?”
“Look around you,” Karl said impassively. “Where do you think you are?”
“In the Crystal Ring. I know where I am!”
“And you wanted to stay here? You preferred to remain near death than to be saved by me?”
“That’s exactly right!” she hissed. “Damn you. Kristian would have come back for me, I know he would.”
Fierce currents tugged at them. Below the upper layers it grew dark swiftly, and the landscape through which he had ascended had already rolled away and reformed itself. Against the dark swollen hills, a black shape was flitting up towards them.
“But he imprisoned you,” Karl said calmly, watching the shape. “That is how much he cares for you. Don’t tell me you still love him, after he has done this to you.”
Ilona laughed harshly. “And am I expected to love you, for rescuing me? You can’t win my love by putting me in debt to you.”
There was real venom in her tone. It still hurt; even though he was an immortal, even after all this time. He didn’t reply. He gazed down at the being that was now swooping straight towards them, a nightmare creature that might be created from a child’s fears and a swirl of leaves in the night.
He knew it was Kristian. He waited, holding Ilona to him.
Kristian seemed surprised that Karl did not try to escape. On a billow of iron-grey cloud they faced each other, and Kristian said in German, “I should destroy you for this, Karl.”
“For saving someone we both love?” said Karl.
“You always think you can outwit me.” Kristian’s voice was low, but it shook with fury. “How dare you take her out of the Weisskalt? Did you not realise that you were likely to freeze there before ever you could escape?”
“God must have favoured me,” Karl said sarcastically.
Kristian’s anger deepened. “You almost killed yourself, and for nothing! I can take her from you and put her there again in a moment!”
“What would be the point?” Karl felt unspeakably weary. “We could go on like that forever.”
“So what do you suggest?”
“That you leave us both alone. Why is that so hard? You have power and you have God, so you say; why do you need us?”
“It’s you who need me, if you would only acknowledge it!” said Kristian. “Why should you escape retribution? Give her back to me.”
“Ilona, have you nothing to say about this?” said Karl. “I don’t believe you are content to be used as a playing piece between him and me. Don’t you want to be free?”
Ilona came to life at his words and pulled away from him, her dark figure gleaming
with red and purple fire, the lacy false-wings wrapped around her like a cloak. “Don’t you talk to me about freedom!” she shouted at Karl. “What freedom did you give me? What choice? Love! You make me sick, both of you. There’s no such thing!”
Then she turned and raced away along the thunder-grey slope, which rolled on itself and swallowed her into a glowing chasm. Kristian started after her but Karl leapt on him, caught him. They tumbled over and over through nothingness.
“Run, Ilona!” Karl called after her, though he doubted she could hear him. “Hide from him!”
He fought hard, but he was drained and Kristian’s strength was overwhelming. In this unhuman form, the stronger vampire’s skin was like glittering snake-leather as he wound his arms round Karl, suffocating. Kristian’s power flowed out like the bitter scent of snow and woodsap. Karl lost his grip, all sensation went out of his limbs, and he felt the stabbing ache of fangs in his throat. Whiteness. Whiteness spread through him as the warm, viscous fluid that animated him was slowly sucked away. His hands and feet seemed to be sparkling like snow and his head had become a massive, dazzling halo… an hallucination. His eyes were closed and he felt the heaviness of sleep, bone-biting coldness, and beneath that, very distant, something nagging at him like a pebble to be noticed…
Ah, terror. That was it. Remember to be afraid. “So… you’re leaving me to the Weisskalt, at last,” Karl mumbled through stiffening lips. “Whom will you find to persecute after me? I never thought you would admit defeat so easily… “
The fangs came out of his neck like daggers, chased by a sickening uprush of pain. “Defeat?” said Kristian, his face swimming hideously in Karl’s vision. “Ah no. You are mistaken. The game will continue a little while yet, and the conditions are still the same; you’ll come to me in the end, one way or another.”
And he dropped Karl, and Karl fell. There was a period of total disorientation that could have lasted moments or hours. He didn’t feel the impact, but slowly he became aware that he was lying face-down, spreadeagled on cold soft ground, the scent of damp leaf mould thick in his nose and mouth.
He was on Earth again. There were red fungi nestling under the tough stalks of fern, a huge spider edged with light swinging between the fronds inches from his face. Karl stretched his arms, staring at the whiteness of his hands against the soil, the shirt cuffs and the dark sleeves of his coat. Human again; human-looking, at least. Is it really our bodies that change, or only our perception of them? he thought abstractedly.
I saved my self… simply by reminding Kristian that it’s a psychological victory he needs, not a physical one.
With difficulty he pulled himself onto his knees. He was horrifyingly weak. The weakness was indistinguishable from the thirst, a nacreous aura that was in him and all around him, throbbing like a heartbeat. Through the haze he saw that he was in a wood. Dawn glimmered through the trees, and a few hundred yards away he saw the metallic glint of light on the long burgundy-red bonnet of a car.
Despite Kristian flinging him carelessly out of the Crystal Ring, a subconscious mechanism had returned him to where he wanted to be. He could not return to Parkland Hall with this desperate hunger on him, but if he could only reach the car…
Leaning on a tree trunk he hauled himself to his feet and shook the leaves from his coat. Something was moving through the undergrowth. A dog. In a flash of black and white it burst from the bracken and bounded towards him, then stopped dead in front of him, barking hysterically.
Animal blood was no use to him. He looked up, saw a human figure standing by the Hispano-Suiza, gazing in his direction. Then he reached down to the dog, let it catch his sleeve in its teeth, and ran his other hand over its forehead. It fell quiet and lay down at his feet.
Karl stepped over it and went slowly through the trees, his sight shimmering in and out of focus. The man by the car looked like a gamekeeper, dressed in rough tweeds, a rifle under his arm. His face was ruddy and weather-toughened.
“Don’t mind Sammy, sir,” said the man. “He only bites poachers. Sammy, come here!” The dog ignored him. “Don’t know what’s got into him. This your motor car, sir?”
“Yes,” Karl said automatically, but a red aroma of heat was flowing from the man in waves. He could think of nothing else.
There was nothing else. He moved slowly closer to the man, wholly caught in the enticing net of his warmth.
“Odd place to park. I thought someone had abandoned her. Didn’t seem likely, but—” He turned, found Karl leaning over him, and started backwards. “You all right, sir?”
He must have looked horrifying to the gamekeeper. A bloodless, mindless creature risen out of the grave in the mists of dawn. But the man had little time to reflect on this before Karl struck.
A brief scent of tweed and sweat and then the flesh broke and the blood flowed into his open mouth. The relief was so acute that he almost cried out. Heat to thaw the ice, glittering rain on parched earth. And life. Rich sensual energy filling every cell…
As the flow slackened and ceased he came back to himself, let the man slide out of his hands to the ground. Karl had drunk him dry. He had not killed outright for years and a faint sense of disgust went through him. But he had been unable to stop and even now the thirst was not fully assuaged.
It could take days, even weeks, to recover from Kristian’s attack. Until then he would not be strong enough to escape into the Crystal Ring; he was effectively trapped on Earth. The thought was uncomfortable, but there was no danger… unless a human found him out.
He dragged the stocky body into the undergrowth. The dog watched, hypnotised, all instinct to defend its master gone. Karl glanced back at it, then climbed into the car, taking his trilby hat from the passenger seat and pulling it low over his eyes.
Given a choice, he would have driven to the nearest port and taken the first ferry to the Continent. But he dared not leave the Nevilles, in case Pierre came back. And there was Charlotte… how would she feel if he simply left without explanation?
Yet it would have been better, in the end. If I don’t leave her… He started the engine and steered the car onto the rain-dampened lane.
He knew that Anne and David had witnessed events that were bound to have made them suspicious. It made things awkward, but it would not be difficult to give a plausible explanation. As a rule, vampires could make humans believe whatever they wanted. Perhaps, if he could salvage the situation, he could continue his studies in Cambridge as if nothing had happened.
Until Kristian’s patience ran out again.
The thought depressed him. He felt exhausted, as if no amount of blood could revive him. Perhaps he should feed again before he went back, but the prospect held no allure. Charlotte was a shimmering presence in his mind; he wanted to see her, he wanted no one else.
When he brought the car to a halt on the gravel half-moon in front of Parkland Hall, David Neville was standing in the portico. He raised his hand to greet Karl, but his open, honest face was serious, and his attempt to act casually was not wholly convincing. But let us play the game, thought Karl as he stepped from the car.
“Good morning, David.”
“Morning!” David replied. “We thought you’d gone for good, old man; where on earth did you disappear to? My aunt’s been worried.”
Karl smiled. “My friend had to go back to London so I offered to drive him. I’m sorry if I’ve been the cause of any anxiety. It was remiss of me to go without saying anything, but in view of his excitable state of mind, I thought it wise to take him off the premises as quickly as possible.”
“Well, I suppose you did the right tiling.” David stood looking at him. “Must have been dashed embarrassing for you… “
“Quite.”
Karl began to move towards the house, but David said, “I know you must be tired, but I have a favour to ask you.”
“Of course. Anything.”
“Well, you know that Anne and I are having the old manor house renovated; I have a few
decisions to make and I would appreciate someone casting an objective eye over the place. Would you mind coming up there with me to take a look?”
“David, if you have something to say to me about last night, there is no need for a pretext. I am quite happy to talk about it.”
David looked startled, but Karl’s apparent openness disarmed him. “Well—I did have it in mind to mention it, but I am on my way up there to see the workmen now and I’d appreciate your company. Chance to talk in private, clear up one or two things.”
In other words, you do not even trust me to go back into the Hall.
“In that case, I shall be delighted to come with you,” Karl said graciously. He moved towards the portico. “However, I have had a long drive, so if you’d excuse me for a few minutes… “
David looked unhappy about him going back into the Hall, but there was nothing he could say without seeming ill-mannered. Oh, this English etiquette.
“I’ll wait for you,” David said ominously, leaning on the side of the Hispano-Suiza, hands in his coat pockets.
“I shall not be long,” said Karl, thinking, How fiercely you love your family. Distrust is written all over you. Strange that you can be so wrong about me… and yet, so right.
* * *
Chapter Nine
Into the Darkest Heart
Charlotte stared at her reflection in the mirror; eyes rimmed with tired shadow, lips too dark against her drained skin. She pressed powder on her cheeks in the hope of disguising her paleness, but she felt desolate.
Over her slip and stockings she put on a beige dress sashed across her hips, a long matching sweater, a rope of pearls. She brushed her hair until it was a crackling mass of gold around her shoulders, then did her best to smooth it down, pinning it at the nape of her neck and trying to tame the wisps that escaped round her forehead and ears. She was almost shocked to see how normal she looked; there was no outward sign of her turmoil, no marks of shame. But she felt fragile, as if the slightest blow would shatter her.
Taking a deep breath she left the room, went along the corridor and knocked on Madeleine’s door. She expected to find her sister still in bed but she was at her dressing table, half-dressed, brushing her short hair with aggressive vigour.
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