The craggy battlements loomed high against the night sky. As Joel got closer, every rise of the Dnepr’s engine note as it lurched over the bumps made him cringe in case the noise reached listening ears. He didn’t dare use the headlight, and only the deep moon-shadows sloping away down the steep rocky banks either side of the road kept him from riding off course and tumbling a thousand feet down to the black depths of the valley below.
Fear had its icy fingers around Joel’s guts and was wringing them tight. A kind of madness was rising up inside him that almost made him want to laugh with terror. All that prevented his mind from cracking completely was the thought of the cross of Ardaich, nestling on the sidecar seat just a few inches from his right knee. He’d left the case behind in Vâlcanul. He no longer had any use for it. He was riding into war now – and whatever fate was lying in wait for him up there, there wasn’t a force on the planet that could have persuaded him to turn back.
Up ahead, the snowy road snaked all the way up to the castle gates. If he’d had any notions of storming right up to them like a conquering knight on his charger, they melted quickly away at the memory of the attack in Venice. Stone had humans working for him as well as vampires, and until the fangs came out, the only way to tell one enemy from another was to get close to them with the cross. One would shrivel up and die, but the other might easily just put a bullet in his head. He needed to approach by stealth.
He was still a quarter of a mile from the castle walls when he decided that the bike’s engine noise was too big a risk, and turned off the ignition. The machine coasted a few yards, and he jumped out of the saddle and used its momentum to roll it off the road and hide it behind a large rock on the verge.
Here we go, Solomon. This is it.
By the light of the moon he studied the lie of the land. The castle had been built to withstand sieges and wars, and its architects had known what they were doing. Except for where the raised roadway wound up to the gates, the base of the massive walls dropped away down a sheer cliff face. No ancient army could have scaled it successfully, weighed down as they would have been by shields and armour and weapons. Even if a few had made it to the top, archers in the battlements would have mown them down in the open killing field between the cliff edge and the foot of the wall.
But a single, skilled climber, armed with just a small stone cross, had a chance to get up there unseen. It had been a while since he’d done any rock climbing but, tracing his eye up the cliff face, Joel reckoned he could make it. It was a hell of a challenge, and he was mad even to think of attempting it, on his own, in the dark, without ropes or crampons or any kind of proper equipment.
But then, he reflected, he was mad. Had to be, to be here at all.
He zipped open his rucksack and shook all the contents – spare clothes, his stove and food supply, documents and passport, anything that was surplus weight – out into the footwell of the sidecar. He put the cross inside in their place and carefully closed the zippers and Velcro fastenings, before taking off his jacket and looping the rucksack straps around his shoulders and waist over the sweatshirt underneath. It cheered him immensely to think he was a walking anti-vampire weapon now, lethal just by his presence. The adrenalin was rushing through his veins so fast, he didn’t even feel the cold any more as he went scrambling down the snowy bank and traced a zigzagging path through the trees to the base of the cliff.
Chapter Seventy-Nine
Exactly two hours after Gabriel Stone had left her alone to wander about the great hall, Alex was summoned again and Lonsdale escorted her through the winding passageways of the castle, the vampire guards close behind.
She could see the heaviness in Lonsdale’s step, the dullness in his eyes and the way his head hung low as he walked. The ancient practice of enslaving humans as ghouls had been one of the first things the Federation had abolished when it had seized power, and Alex had been there at the reading of the proclamation. Trust Gabriel Stone to have flouted the law with such audacity. Lonsdale gave off an air of complete pathos – she couldn’t help but feel just a little sorry for him.
The pale ghoul showed her through a tall doorway into a brightly lit room filled with state-of-the-art equipment. A large and expensive-looking digital film camera was mounted on a tripod, pointing at an empty carved oak throne. A rack-mounted DVD recorder was connected to a large screen.
Stone looked breezy and relaxed in an open-necked white shirt and silk necktie. Lillith had draped herself over a divan in the corner, while Zachary and the other two of his inner circle were watching over the prisoners. Rumble and the seven Federation Supremos were huddled together, surrounded by the sword-wielding guards. Olympia Angelopolis had completely lost her famous composure, but she still managed to look proud next to Gaston Lerouge. Hassan, Goldmund, Korentayer, Mushkavanhu and Borowczyk stood gazing down at their feet, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.
‘Alexandra,’ Stone called with a bright smile, looking genuinely pleased to see her. Alex noticed the hot glower that Lillith shot at his back as he walked across to greet her. ‘Thank you, Jeremy,’ he said to Lonsdale. ‘That will be all for now. You may return to your hole until I call for you again.’ He took Alex’s elbow. ‘Let me show you what your friends and I have been up to for the last couple of hours,’ he said warmly. ‘I must say it’s all been going marvellously.’ He turned to Olympia. ‘We’ve been having rather a lot of fun down here, have we not?’
The Vampress let out a humiliated sob.
‘Perhaps I really should go into film-making after all,’ Stone went on. ‘Let’s take a look at the fruit of our labours.’ He aimed a remote control at the DVD player. The screen lit up and, framed there in high definition, sitting slumped and defeated on the oak throne under the bright lights, was Olympia.
‘In her final and most spectacular public appearance,’ Stone smiled.
On screen, the Supremo confessed openly to a host of injustices, and pleaded guilty to charges of corruption and the murder of innocent vampires whose only crime was to honour their ancient heritage. The creation of Solazal and Vambloc had not, she admitted, been done with the interests of vampires at heart, but right from the very beginning had been conceived as a deliberate scheme to enrich her and her colleagues at the expense of their fellows. She told the camera that the burden of her sins had become too heavy to bear, and she now planned to go into seclusion and hide her face away from the vampire community in everlasting shame.
Stone turned off the DVD. ‘That just about sums it up. It’s taken us a little while to get everyone’s confessions down on film, but I must say I’m very pleased with the results.’
‘They made me say it,’ Olympia protested.
‘Of course we did,’ Stone said. ‘Everyone had their own script.’
‘Written by me and Lillith,’ Anastasia cut in proudly.
‘The finest hour of the Federation,’ Stone went on. ‘This is how they will be remembered. Confessing their sins, laying bare their consciences, asking forgiveness of the citizens as they release them from the yoke of oppression. Magnificent.’ He beamed. ‘And now, thanks to our friend Xavier Garrett, who kindly provided us with access to the Federation register, word will be sent out to each and every vampire in the database, summoning them to gather en masse at prearranged venues across the world, where these confessions will be screened. The Federation will be officially disbanded. The beginning of a new era is upon us.’ He turned to Alex with a flourish. ‘Which brings me neatly back to you, Alexandra. Have you decided to accept my offer?’
Lillith’s eyes narrowed into slits and she uncoiled herself from the divan. ‘Your offer, Gabriel? You said you were going to film her with the others. You never mentioned anything to me about an offer.’
Stone ignored her and went on smiling at Alex. ‘Well? What is it to be? Will you join us? Or do you choose to be executed along with your illustrious Vampress and her acolytes?’
A mutter of horror rippled through the little crowd of p
risoners. ‘Executed?’ Lerouge burst out, his eyes darting wildly from side to side. ‘But you told us we’d just be sent into exile—’
Stone made an apologetic gesture. ‘A slight deception on my part, I concede. But how else could I have drawn such wonderful performances from you all?’
Lerouge started struggling and screaming. ‘You’ll never get away with this!’
Stone gestured to one of the guards. A quick stroke of a sword, and Lerouge’s head was swiped clean off his shoulders. The head bounced into the fireplace and lay there sizzling. The remaining Supremos cringed and sobbed. Harry Rumble stared hard at Stone but remained silent.
‘Now, what was I saying? Oh yes. My offer, Alexandra. I’m waiting. Don’t disappoint me.’
‘Here’s my answer, Gabriel,’ Alex said, glancing at Olympia. ‘You were right. I’ve been working for tyrants. There isn’t a decent vampire on the Ruling Council. As an agent for VIA, I’ve been the instrument of their corruption. I suspected it all along. There were things I noticed, but chose to keep quiet about. Now I see differently.’
Stone walked up to Alex and laid a hand on her shoulder. ‘You make me very happy.’
‘You can’t be fucking serious, Gabriel,’ Lillith said.
‘You didn’t let me finish, Gabriel,’ Alex went on. ‘I may have seen through them, but that doesn’t make me want to come over to your side. Not after the things you told me. Yes, I’m a vampire – but I could never be like you.’ She sucked in a breath. ‘So my answer is no. I still believe in what the Federation could have been. What it could be. What it will be one day.’
There was a silence in the room. A smile had spread over Lillith’s face. Stone raised his eyebrows and let out a regretful sigh.
‘Then on your own head be it,’ he said. ‘Let the executions begin.’
Chapter Eighty
The mountain wind stripped Joel like a knife as he struggled up the cliff. His hands were raw, every muscle in his body screaming at him to stop. But there was nowhere to stop when you were clinging to a steep rock face with only a few narrow ledges and the occasional clump of protruding vegetation between you and the valley floor a thousand feet below. Risking a glance downwards, he could see how far he’d come. A few more minutes, and he’d reach the base of the wall.
He climbed on, glued like a spider to the sheer slope, relying more on feel than the dim moonlight as he worked his painstaking way from handhold to handhold, foothold to foothold. Climbing was a game of strategy. Beating the mountain was all about planning your route; pick the wrong one, and the mountain beat you.
So far, Joel was winning. But then a small ledge of rock that had looked like a good left foothold suddenly gave way with a crack. The sudden weight transfer tore Joel’s left hand from its grip, and he felt himself going. Faster and faster, scrabbling desperately for a hold. He didn’t scream or cry out – everything happened too fast in that moment of eerie silence, as surprise gave way to denial and then to shock. By then it was too late and the long drop was inevitable. Joel felt himself spinning downwards.
Something raked the side of his face. With a terrible splintering and crackling, his fall was arrested. A lancing pain in his right shoulder, and he felt the flesh rip. Then the waist girth of his rucksack was yanked brutally against his lower ribs, squeezing the air out of his chest. His legs kicked in open air as he hung helplessly from whatever it was that had broken his descent. The pine-studded valley was a very long way down below him.
He twisted his head painfully upwards and saw that a protruding dead tree, growing out of an overhang that he’d avoided on the way up, had speared through the right strap of his rucksack, tearing away some of his shoulder with it. Blood was already spreading through his sweatshirt. He was caught like a fish on a hook.
He tried swinging his legs to move his body so that he could regain a hold on the rock face. The dead tree gave an ominous crack and he felt himself lurch half an inch.
Bad idea, he thought as he dangled there in space. The tree cracked again, then a long creaking groan became a ripping, splintering crackle.
And a second later, it gave. This time Joel had time to cry out ‘Shiiiit!’ as he felt himself going. Falling, he closed his eyes.
He hit the rocks face down with a grunt of pain.
Slowly, he dared to open his eyes again. He wasn’t spread out in a quivering pool of spattered flesh and burst entrails over the valley floor. He was still remarkably alive, and a reassuringly long way up with the mountain wind still whistling over him. Even more reassuring was the solid slab of rock he was lying on. Wincing at the pain in his torn shoulder, he scrabbled to his feet and whacked his head painfully against something hard above him.
At that moment, he understood what had happened. When the dead tree had broken, it hadn’t snapped clean off but had lowered him into what seemed to be a cave entrance that he’d missed in the darkness. He rubbed his bruised head and felt his way around inside the mouth of the cave. There must be some way to clamber back out to the rock face and continue his climb.
Something crunched underfoot. He reached down and felt brittle fragments – then his groping fingers found the rest of the skull and he fell backwards.
He sat there panting against the wall of the cave. The empty eye sockets of the human skull seemed to watch him. They weren’t alone. As his vision adjusted to the darkness he could see dozens of other skulls heaped in piles. No, not dozens, hundreds.
And he realised fully where he was. At one time this must have been an escape tunnel leading out of the castle – or maybe an invasion tunnel leading in. Whatever steps or bridge had been built there had long since eroded or rotted away. In the centuries since, the tunnel had been used for another purpose.
He was standing in the dump where the vampires threw away the remains of their victims.
It wasn’t hundreds of skulls that Joel passed on his stumbling way through the dark passage. It was thousands. After a while he stopped trying to even count. The tunnel led sharply upwards, with crude steps cut into the rock. He followed them up and up to the sound of the steady drip of water and the rasping echo of his own breathing. The steps kept spiralling upwards until his legs felt ready to collapse under him. More skulls littered the ground, and ribcages and scattered limbs. He soon became as numb to them as he was to the pain in his shoulder and the blood still seeping through his shirt.
And then he came to the manhole cover. It was two feet above his head, a concreted circular hole with iron rungs for access in and out. He hesitated, then gripped the rusted handles of the lid, mustered his strength and scraped the cast-iron plate a few inches sideways. Powdery snow showered down onto his face. Very slowly, he eased the cover all the way aside and poked his head up through the hole.
He was inside the castle courtyard.
The snow had intensified while he’d been in the tunnel, covering up the cobblestones and drifting against the inner sides of the walls. Rapid flurries of snowflakes swirled and spun through the strong beams of the floodlights that illuminated the castle grounds. A layer of white had settled on the two battered four-wheel-drive vehicles parked up just inside the gates. Joel knew Gabriel Stone liked cars, but these didn’t seem quite the vampire’s style. They had to belong to the men he paid to guard and carry out tasks for him.
Joel squeezed up out of the manhole. Moving fast, he shrugged off the rucksack, took out the cross and shoved it diagonally into his belt. He dumped the empty rucksack back in the hole and then, as quietly as he could, grated the iron cover back into place.
A few yards off was a narrow archway, beyond it a passage with doorways either side. There wasn’t much he could do about his footprints in the snow as he sneaked away towards the passage. He had to hope they’d be covered over before anyone spotted them.
With one hand on the shaft of the cross, ready to draw it from his belt like a dagger, he moved furtively through the castle. From outside, the place had looked enormous and imposing; inside, it was l
ike a fortified town, a maze of streets and winding lanes and squares. Many of its buildings still bore signs of their original purpose: an old smithy still had its forge and anvil, disused for centuries, and there were remnants of ancient straw on the cobbled floor of the stable block. Pitted stone staircases spiralled up to the sentry watchtowers along the battlements, and he passed a long barracks where two hundred or more troops might have been stationed. A thousand years ago, the self-contained castle community would have been a hive of bustle and industry.
Before the vampires had come to claim it.
Looking up, Joel could see the upper sections of the castle dominating the town. Like the bridge of an old sailing ship where only the captain and senior officers were allowed to stand, he guessed the grand towers and lofty halls would have been the exclusive domain of the castle’s lords and masters. That was where he would find Gabriel Stone.
Joel heard voices and shrank back against a wall as a group of shadowy figures appeared under an archway, heading towards him. He ducked into a building and watched through a craggy porthole, straining to see the figures more clearly. They were thirty yards away; then twenty-five. As they came closer, Joel gripped the cross and tried to calculate how close Alex had been to it in Venice before she’d started showing signs of distress. But nothing happened. The cross remained cold and lifeless in his hand.
The figures passed through the light of one of the flood-lamps. They were wearing heavy greatcoats and fur hats, cradling rifles and talking to each other in a language that could have been Romanian, or some kind of dialect version of it. From their swarthy features Joel guessed they must be rustic locals, maybe gypsies. They were completely oblivious of the cross’s presence and that worried him as much as the rifles they were carrying. Against these guys, he was completely unarmed.
Joel watched the men walk by and wondered whether they had even an inkling of who their employer really was. Did they know they were protecting a vampire? Did Gabriel Stone pay such men in money, or did he have other ways of holding their allegiance?
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