The Elixir

by George Willson

  “Call me Voivode,” Draculya said. “I honestly have not been called Miraslav since I was a child, and my patronym always seems to conjure up images of young Vlad the third, who lived here for a time to put people up on pikes. Unpleasant business.”

  “Indeed, sir,” Jonathan agreed. He felt a wave of exhaustion wash over him, but he shook it off.

  “But you must be tired,” Voivode said. “Your bedroom is all ready, and tomorrow you shall sleep as late as you will.” Voivode led the way to the octagonal room where he opened the door for his guest. He gave another bow as Jonathan entered the bedroom.

  “Sleep and dream well,” the old man bade and then closed the door behind him.

  Jonathan was not sure what to think. He felt as if he had crossed into a sea of wonders where he found both doubt and fear. Now that he was alone with his own thoughts of the entire journey, he was not sure what to make of it, nor what to think of this Voivode Miraslav Draculya. He prayed God would keep him safe in this strange place.

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Voivode walked out of the dining room and down the castle stairs. He turned down a hall that ran parallel to the stairs and opened a door on the right side to enter his room. Waiting for him in one of the chairs, sipping the tea he had made was David Taylor, fresh in from the ride through the mountains in fetching young Harker from the village below. While David did not agree with bringing people out to the castle, Voivode was hesitant even after the collapse of the northern wing to leave the castle in which he had lived for centuries after the Felletterusk war through countless other inhabitants, including the irritating young Vlad, who brought little but shame to the once proud castle.

  “I do hope your trip was free of incident,” Voivode said.

  “Not entirely,” David said, “but for the most part, it went well. That coach is still extremely erratic and the Levi-Coils don’t always cooperate.”

  Voivode did not understand much about the Fempiror technology after he left them. He knew from David their primary advances were light without fire and something called a Levi-Cart which flew across the surface of the land at high speeds. Shortly after David had arrived, he had taken an excursion to the west to scavenge parts from the wreckage of a crash as well as whatever he could find in the ruins of a Tepish Fortress that Voivode had no idea had been constructed so close to him.

  David had constructed a few of the Levi-Coil parts of these flying machines and mounted them under a coach to be pulled by a pair of horses. This arrangement served to reduce the weight of the coach so the horses could pull it up the mountain easier and create a smoother ride. David had left the wheels on the coach to allow it to blend easier when the coils were off and to serve as a brake and support when they were not in use. In addition, the wheels helped to keep the coach from hitting the ground since the power in the aging coils did not always deliver consistently, so although he had placed four coils under the coach, the power in any of them came and went as he travelled so any of the wheels could hit the ground at any time which was smoother than the entire coach traveling across the ground. David admitted this was as far as he could take the design since he was a tailor by trade, and maintaining an old Levi-Cart was the only mechanical experience he possessed. He still had no idea how to build one.

  “In addition, Karian has not been idle,” David continued. “I discovered that his so-called children attack anyone who comes into the mountains which only further serves to create fear of the area. I found a campsite and fire, but by the time I arrived, the Mutations had already killed its inhabitants. I was able to deal with them and put the fire out.”

  “How many?” Voivode asked gravely.

  “Two males this time,” David said.

  Anytime someone came into the mountains to hike or camp or engage in most any activity where the humans would cross paths with the Mutations, the Mutations would feed on them, draining them to death. Sometimes, Karian would change one he thought looked promising, but most of the time, they were simply killed when multiple hungry Mutations converged. The worst had been a family of six where the mother was pregnant with a seventh, and the mountain hike of young boys and two men that appeared to be a massacre by the time he found it. What disturbed them both more was that these were simply the ones they knew about. The Mutations roamed the Carpathian Mountains freely, and so they knew there had to be many, many more tragic situations just like these.

  “There was also a minor incident with the wolves,” David finished, “but nothing more. It could have been worse.”

  “The threat of rain likely aided your cause,” Voivode noted.

  “Yes, I rarely see them out when the clouds darken, though I am grateful it remained dry,” David said. “It is comforting that the simple idea of rain keeps them at bay. I trust Harker is settled in?”

  “He is,” Voivode nodded. “He is not sure what to make of this place or what he has experienced. He asked many questions.”

  “He will have many more before we are through,” David said. “I would like to limit our contact with him. The less he knows about us, the better.”

  “He strikes me as inquisitive, David,” Voivode warned. “I doubt he will take well to all this secrecy.”

  “Right or wrong, I believe it is the best course of action,” David said. “I’ve locked every door that leads away from the central part of the castle to keep him confined. I’ve done what I can to secure our collapsed wall, and if not for that problem, we might be able to remain.”

  “He may feel like a prisoner,” Voivode said.

  “I know,” David said. “But prisoners are some of the safest people since the outside world can enter no easier than they can escape. If you watch Harker on the inside, I’ll keep a vigilant watch on the outside.”

  “We should tell him something.”

  “I agree. But what? What would he believe? What could we say in a fortnight that would allow him to believe the danger he is in here?”

  “I do not know,” Voivode said. “He has already told me that I am regarded as an evil spirit or some such nonsense. It’s these creatures that came out of that forsaken fortress of the Tepish. They know I am old, and the sight of these creatures attacking people and animals have somehow served to tarnish what reputation I had. Add to that the superstition and history the Carpathians have possessed for centuries, and somehow, I am a supernatural phantasm.”

  “Another reason to go,” David said.

  “I wish we did not have to,” Voivode lamented. “So many years. Centuries lived here. I have seen kings and warriors pass through these gates, and always I have remained. I have seen history made here. I have been a part of it.”

  “I would never disrespect that, Voivode,” David said.

  “After so many years, you still call me Voivode, and somehow, I still feel honored by it,” Voivode said. “We will endure this as I’ve endured so many things before.”

  “I pray that once we reach England, we may have some peace,” David said.

  Voivode agreed and knew once this move was completed, he would live the final years of his life in peace on the outskirts of a city where they can finally meet what needs they have more quickly and easily than going down the mountain for them. He was truly looking forward to it.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Mina Murray was nineteen with a bright energetic face, long brown hair she kept wrapped up in a bun on her head, deep brown eyes, and a smile to die for. While it had only been a few days since her fiancée, Jonathan Harker, had left on his important business trip, she was constantly distracted by the hope of his rapid return. She had yet to receive any letters from him, but the post took time to get to Whitby, England from the other side of Europe. She told herself this often, but patience was not something she tended to hold in spades for this sort of thing.

  What would help to distract her from this today would be meeting with her childhood friend, Lucy Westenra, who had invited Mina to stay with her while Jonathan was gone. They both knew that
since Jonathan was employed in Exeter, which was over three hundred miles southwest of Whitby, she would see Lucy quite a bit less once she and Jonathan were married. The train would make weekend trips possible now and then, but spending this much time with her childhood friend would no longer be possible in the coming years.

  Mina worked in London as an assistant schoolmistress, and after Jonathan left, she still had responsibilities to attend to before she could meet with Lucy. Once these were satisfied, however, she took a couple of days to get her things together before taking the train to Whitby where Lucy was to meet her at the station. The trip had been long, and when she saw the Whitby station, she could barely contain her anticipation.

  Lucy Westenra stood on the platform looking every bit as beautiful and elegant as Mina had always remembered her. Her blonde hair rippled down her back and shined like the sun, and her bright, blue eyes flashed with happiness as soon as she saw Mina emerge from the carriage. In contrast to Mina’s simple, blue dress, Lucy’s green dress was wide and made of crushed velvet, and fit her small frame like a glove.

  On the platform, they merely exchanged pleasantries as Lucy’s dress hardly permitted Mina to get close enough for a hug, and Lucy led her to a cab she had waiting for them. Based on the smile of the cab driver, she had paid for his patience with her smile alone. Once they were on their way across the picturesque countryside she remembered nostalgically as a child, Mina glanced at Lucy.

  “I fear that if you don’t say what you have to say quickly, you’ll combust and take all of us with you,” Mina said.

  “Oh, Mina, it’s been such a whirlwind the last few days, I can hardly believe it,” Lucy pattered. “I’ve always prided myself on being calm, sweet, and conservative in all my dealings with the men I’ve met whether at a dinner party or simply coming to visit my mother … or rather, under the guise of visiting my mother, coming to see me. But all the same, I take their advances with the most gracious of attitudes, never allowing anything untoward to conspire, lest the tongues begin to waggle against me.

  “You know the son of the Honorable Mr. Holmwood, Arthur, has always been good to my mother and I, and has always been one to come around anytime we’ve needed something that a couple of women can’t deal with on our own.”

  Mina nodded. The Holmwoods and Westenras had been family friends for many years, though she had only met Arthur on a handful of passing occasions at the Westenra home.

  “Well, I’ll tell you that if you weren’t engaged right now to Mr. Harker, he introduced me to a friend of his the other evening who was simply delightful and a doctor. His name is John Seward, and he’s quite handsome, well off, and of good birth as well. He has an immense lunatic asylum under his care somewhere just outside of London, I think. Anyway, Arthur introduced me to him, and he drops by now and then to visit. He’s incredibly level-headed, and it doesn’t seem that anything can break that confidence he has, so I can only imagine how he must be with his patients. He told me I would make an interesting psychological study, and I think I must humbly agree. I don’t make any effort to study the latest fashions and yet, I do all right by them. It’s just so boring to study them when you can just go with what looks good. Or I think so anyway.”

  Mina shrugged. She enjoyed listening to Lucy go on, and it was clear she had hardly come close to her point, so Mina was content to just keep listening and let whatever it is come out without breaking Lucy’s somewhat erratic train of thought.

  “Well,” Lucy continued, “it’s quite a significant thing to get a proposal. Why, in my life, I wondered when it would happen to me, and only the other day, I received not one, but two proposals. Just like that. Well, I might go so far as to say three, but the third was simply a bit of jocularity on the part of an old friend of my mother’s and really doesn’t count since there are laws against such things, and his wife would certainly not approve even if there weren’t. But I digress.

  “Oh, but know that I simply adore him. My fiancée, I mean. We’ve always told each other everything. All our secrets, and this is too much for me to keep in, and I know that no matter what I tell you or how badly I patter it out, you’ll keep my confidence. I mean, I’d expect you to tell Jonathan since a woman should have no secret from her husband, but you know what I mean.”

  Mina nodded. Lucy continued.

  “The first came to me early in the day, and it was that Dr. Seward who managed to get me all alone before he suddenly seemed so nervous. You know, I said he was always so level-headed and never one to be flustered, but there he was, just babbling and carrying on, and part of me knew what he was doing, but another simply could not believe it. He told me how dear I was to him while he was playing with a lancet in a way that made me want to scream. He went on to say that even though he’d only know me a little time, he let me know how his life would be with me there to help and cheer him. Then he said how unhappy he would be if I did not care for him, and I confess, I started to cry since he is such a dear, sweet man, and I could not bear what I had to do to him. He sensed the turn it was taking and asked me if I could ever love him, and it was with the greatest pain that I shook my head.

  “Oh, Mina, part of me wanted to give in to him, but I just couldn’t. Not with what else lay upon my heart, for he asked me right then if there was someone else since he knew that only when a woman’s heart were free that there may be hope, and I knew I owed him an answer on that point. I told him plainly there was, and with the strength that only man could have in such a situation, looking very strong and grave as he took my hands in his and wished me the utmost happiness and to count him as a friend should I need one.”

  Lucy paused, her eyes brimming with tears at the memory. Mina reached over and took her hand, and Lucy smiled in return.

  “It’s silly, really,” Lucy said. “I mean, I am happy. How can I possibly be so sad when I am truly the happiest I’ve ever been? Oh, you should have seen his face. It was just so…” She trailed off, but then came back to her story.

  “Well, the other hardly needs much of a story, does he? Arthur Holmwood took me aside after what I believe were two failed attempts to do so earlier that day, and confessed his devotion to me, and it wasn’t long before his arms wrapped around me, and he was kissing me. I really don’t know what I could have done to deserve someone like him, but please believe me when I tell you that I am very, very happy, and I am so grateful to God for all his goodness in sending to me such a lover, such a husband, and such a friend. I only hope that in my small way, I can be worthy to be the wife of such a wonderful man.”

  “When is the wedding?” Mina asked excitedly.

  “As soon as he can work out the details,” Lucy said, “and as soon as we can work out ours. He has a lot to do, but he has spoken with my mother, and they are working out the finer points.”

  “I wish I could work out any points of mine,” Mina said. “Jonathan is out of the country, and it’s supposed to be a week or so. It won’t be a ceremony like yours, with all kinds of pomp and dignitaries. He’s a solicitor, and neither of us has much in the way of wealth or family. It’s just us, so I would guess the ceremony would be small and private.”

  “Oh don’t be silly,” Lucy said. “I’ll throw you a lavish party.”

  “I would have no one to invite,” Mina shrugged.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Lucy said.

  “What of this other proposal you mentioned?” Mina asked. “Who was the cad, anyway?”

  Lucy laughed at the notion. “No, my mother’s friend, Florence Stoker, was visiting with her husband when Arthur and I made the announcement. In the midst of all the congratulations, her husband up and said that Arthur was surely unworthy of my hand, and that he would be far more worthy of my affections. Well, his wife let him know right there that she agreed, and she mentioned that since he’d taken her from Oscar Wilde to begin with, Mr. Wilde could well be happy to have her back if he’d decided to steal another man’s interest. We all had such a laugh over it, but he did tel
l Arthur to take good care of me, or he was certain that Arthur would answer to more than just him for it.

  “It was so hard to leave Arthur that evening, and he and my mother spoke for some time over it, but he’s back in London, and here I am with you. And I’m so glad you could come. We have so much to do.”

  * * * * * * * * * *

  Dr. John Seward had returned to Purfleet not in the best of spirits after leaving Lucy in Whitby. He had kept a level head while he was there after she had rejected his advances, but deep down, he was devastated. He opened the gate to the asylum where he presided as the doctor and walked up the worn, concrete path to the main door which was locked and guarded.

  The entire building resembled a large, old mansion but all of its rooms had been reinforced to prevent escape from its residents, and though the rooms had windows, they were fairly small and barred. The stonework of the outer walls helped to reinforce the idea that this place was largely a prison and also served to keep the patients trapped on the inside. While it wasn’t secure like a prison, he had experienced few escapes over the years, so the government kept the asylum in place and left him in control.

  He entered the main door and walked through the old lobby area which was well worn, and funding would certainly never pay to keep current since no one came here for its looks. His office and apartment were on the second floor while all of the patients stayed on the first behind a second, secured door beyond the lobby. He plodded up the stairs only barely acknowledging the guard stationed behind the front desk. He was not interested in talking.

  The second floor creaked as he walked to his office and opened the door. He pushed it closed behind him as he walked to his desk and dropped into the chair, holding his head in his hands. He felt like a fool. He really felt like he had a connection with Lucy, but she had devoted herself to another, which meant there was no chance for him to win her heart. Not unless something changed dramatically, which was unlikely.