Bram Stoker's Dracula

by Fred Saberhagen

  The time seemed terribly long while they were waiting. Dr. Seward, observing Harker, was again struck by the change in him. Last night Mina's bridegroom had been a frank, happy-looking man, with strong youthful face, full of energy. Today he was a drawn, haggard old man, whose white hair (in certain lights at least it looked that color) matched the hollow burning eyes and grief-written lines of his face. His energy, however, was still intact; in fact the image that struck Seward was that of a living flame.

  Shortly before two o'clock, Holmwood and Morris returned to the Piccadilly house, to report a successful mission, in the East End and elsewhere. All in all, forty-nine of Dracula's fifty coffins had now been denied him*

  What to do now?

  Quincey gave his opinion: "There's nothing to do but wait here. If, however, he doesn't turn up by five o'clock, we must start off; for it won't do to leave Mrs. Harker alone after sunset."

  Van Helsing had just begun to say something about the need for a concerted plan of attack when he stopped speaking and held up a warning hand.

  All four men could hear the sound of a key being softly inserted in the lock of the hall door. With a swift glance around the room, Quincey Morris at once laid out their plan of attack, and without speaking a word, with a gesture, placed each man in position. Van Helsing, Harker, and Seward were placed behind the door. Godalming and Quincey stood ready to move in front of the window, should their enemy attempt to escape them by that route.

  They waited in a suspense that made the seconds pass with nightmare slowness.

  A moment later slow, careful steps could be heard coming along the hall; the count was evidently prepared for some surprise—at least he feared it.

  Suddenly with a single bound he leaped into the room, winning a way past his enemies before any of them could raise a hand to stay him. There was something so pantherlike in the movement, something so inhuman, that it sobered them all.

  As the count saw them a horrible snarl passed over his face, showing the eyeteeth long and pointed; but the evil smile quickly passed into a cold stare of lionlike disdain.

  Harker evidently meant to try whether his lethal-weapon would avail him anything, for he had ready his great kukri knife, and made a fierce and sudden cut. The blow was a powerful one; only the diabolical quickness of the count's leap back saved him.

  Instinctively Seward moved forward with a protective impulse, holding the crucifix and wafer in his left hand. He felt a mighty power fly along his arm and saw the monster cower back.

  The next instant Dracula had swept under Harker's arm before his next blow could fall, dashed across the room, and threw himself at the window. Amid the crash and glitter of falling glass, he tumbled into the flag-stoned area below.

  Running to the window, the men saw Dracula spring unhurt from the ground, cross the yard, and push open the stable door. There he turned and spoke to them.

  "You think to baffle me, you bastards with your pale faces all in a row, like sheep in a butcher's. You shall be sorry yet! My revenge is just begun. I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side. Bah!" With a contemptuous sneer he passed quickly through the door, and his foes heard the rusty bolt creak as he fastened it behind him.

  Godalming and Morris had rushed out into the yard, and Harker had lowered himself from the window to follow the count; but by the time they had forced open the bolted stable door, there was no sign of him.

  Realizing the difficulty of following their enemy through the stable, Van Helsing and Seward moved back toward the hall. The first to speak was the professor. "We have learned something—much! Notwithstanding his brave words, he fears us; he fear time, he fear want."

  It was now late in the afternoon, and sunset was not far off, with heavy hearts the others agreed with the professor when he said: "Let us go back to Madam Mina—poor, dear Madam Mina. We need not despair; there is but one more earth box, and when we find it, all may yet be well."

  Seward could see that he was speaking as bravely as he could to comfort Harker.

  On returning to the asylum, the group was welcomed by Mina. On seeing their faces, her own became as pale as death. For a second or two her eyes were closed as if in secret prayer. Then she said cheerfully: "I can never thank you all enough. Oh, my poor darling!" And she took her husband's graying head in her hands and kissed it.

  The sky had begun to lighten with the first foreshadowings of dawn when Mina awakened her husband. Her voice and manner were calm and determined. "Jonathan, go, call the professor. I want to see him at once."

  "Why?"

  "I have an idea. I think that now, only now in this hour before the dawn, I may be able to speak freely—about him."

  Harker hastened to do as his wife requested.

  In two minutes Van Helsing, wrapped in his dressing gown, was in the room, and Morris and Lord Godalming with Dr. Seward were at the door asking questions.

  When the professor saw Mina, a positive smile ousted the anxiety from his face. He rubbed his hands together and said: "Oh, friend Jonathan, we have got our dear Madam Mina, as of old, back to us today!" Turning to her, he asked cheerfully: "And what am I to do for you? For at this hour you do not want me for nothings."

  At last Mina, in an almost ordinary voice, replied to Van Helsing's question: "It is hard to describe. But he… speaks to me, without even trying to do so."

  The professor nodded. He understood, at least in part.

  Quietly, as if the two of them were quite alone, he said to Mina: "Prince Dracula has a strong mind connection to you. He was, in life, a most wonderful man. Soldier, statesman, alchemist—the highest development of science in his time. His heart was strong enough to survive the grave."

  Mina searched the professor's eyes, as if to find in them a spark of hope. "Then you admire him."

  The old man nodded. "Much so. His mind is great." Then he leaned forward deliberately. "But greater is the absolute necessity to stamp him out. That is why I ask you help me to find him, before it is too late."

  Torn with a terrible inner conflict, Mina murmured: "I know that you must fight—that you must destroy him—even as you did Lucy."

  Van Helsing, even as he nodded in agreement, sighed in grief and sympathy.

  Mina continued in a dead voice: "I know also that I am becoming like him. When I find in myself a sign of harm to anyone I love, I shall die."

  The professor's bushy eyebrows rose. "You would not take your own life?"

  She nodded, with firm conviction. "I would, if there were no friend who loved me, who would save me such a pain, and so desperate an effort!"

  Van Helsing struck the table with his hand. "No, I tell you, that must not be! You must not die by any hand, least of all your own. Until the other, who has fouled your sweet life, is true dead, you must not die, for if he still walks as an undead, your death would make you even as he is. No, you must live!"

  Mina's eyes looked in turn at each of the men who were gathered here with her, united by their determination to fight for her. Her gaze seemed to reach them from the great distance of her terrible position as the vampire's victim. First Professor Van Helsing, then her husband—to meet Jonathan's eyes required the greatest effort on her part—then Dr. Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and finally Quincey Morris.

  She said to all of them: "And I see that you must fight. But not in hate. The poor lost soul who has wrought all this misery is the saddest of all of us. You must pity him, too—as you must me. Why need we seek him further when he is gone away from us?"

  "Because, my dear Madam Mina, now more than ever must we find him, even if we have to follow him to the jaws of hell!"

  "Why?"

  "Because," Van Helsing answered solemnly, "he can live for centuries, and you are but mortal woman. Time is now to be dreaded—since once he put that mark upon your throat!"

  Harker sprang forward to his wife's side, as for a moment it seemed that she might faint.

  But then with an act of will she rallied. "I want you to hypnotize me!
" the woman anxiously declared, speaking to Van Helsing. "Do it before the dawn, for then I feel I can speak, and speak freely. Be quick, for the time is short!"

  Without a word Van Helsing motioned for his patient to sit up in bed. Setting his candle on the bedside table, and looking fixedly at her, he commenced to make hypnotic gestures in front of her, from over the top of her head downward, with each hand in turn.

  Mina gazed at him fixedly for a few minutes. Seward could feel his own heart beating strongly, for he felt that some crisis was at hand.

  Gradually Mina's eyes closed, and she sat stock-still; only by the gentle heaving of her bosom was it possible to see that she was still alive.

  The professor made a few more passes and then stopped; his forehead was now covered with great beads of perspiration.

  Mina now opened her eyes again, but there was a faraway look in them, and she did not seem the same woman.

  By now the men who had been standing in the hallway had come into the room, where they stood crowded around the foot of the bed. Raising his hand to impose silence on them, the professor spoke to Mina in a low, level tone. "His destruction is your salvation, Madam Mina. Help me find him!"

  "He is gone," she responded unexpectedly. And added: "I believe that he has now left the country."

  "Ja," the professor agreed. "Our experienced hunters were busy yesterday. We may be confident we have now destroyed all of his boxes but one." Then quietly he asked: "But how do you know, child, that he is gone?"

  "Yes, gone," she whispered presently. "And I must go to him. I have no choice. He calls."

  The old man glanced at the onlookers, silently urging them to remain quiet. Then he waited a little longer, until he was satisfied that the trance was deep enough.

  At last he asked Mina softly: "Where are you going?"

  Long moments passed before she whispered in reply: "Sleep has no place to call its own—I am drifting, floating."

  "Where?"

  "Going home… home."

  The professor took thought, frowning and pulling at his lower lip. "What do you hear?" he tried.

  Another pause. "Mother ocean," the young woman replied at last. "I hear lapping waves, as on a wooden hull… rushing water. Creaking masts…"

  The professor turned in hushed elation to his male colleagues. Fiercely he whispered: "Then truly we have driven him from England!"

  Hushed exclamations broke from the other men. Spontaneously they edged a little closer to Van Helsing and his patient.

  After a glance at Mina, which told him that she was emerging spontaneously from her trance, the professor clenched a fist and spoke in a more normal voice.

  "God be thanked that we have once again a clue! The count saw that with but one earth box left, and a pack of men following like dogs after a fox, this London was no place for him. This means he have take his last earth box to board a ship, and he leave the land. Tally-ho, as friend Arthur would say.

  "Our old fox is wily; but I, too, am wily, and I think his mind in a little while."

  By this time Mina's eyes were fully open again and she was listening, nodding slowly in agreement.

  Seward, looking on from a little distance, noted grimly that already, with hideous swiftness, this latest victim of the vampire was turning gaunt and pale, her gums receding from her teeth. In his opinion the process of transformation was even now well advanced.

  18

  The Harkers were badly in need of rest, as were the small determined band of men who would protect the couple and avenge their injuries. But before any of the group could rest in anything like peace, it was necessary to do all that could be done to verify the report Mina had given under hypnosis. Therefore as soon as full daylight came, the four men other than Jonathan paid a visit to the London docks.

  That evening, back in the asylum, Van Helsing reported to the Harkers on the results of this expedition.

  "As I knew that he, Prince Dracula, wanted to get back to Transylvania, I felt sure that he must go by the Danube mouth; or by somewhere in the Black Sea, since by that way he come.

  "And so with heavy hearts we start to find what ships leave for the Black Sea last night. He was in sailing ship, since Madam Mina tell of masts and sails… and so we go, by suggestion of my Lord Godalming, to your Lloyd's insurers, where are note of all ships that sail.

  "There we find that only one Black Sea-bound ship go out with the tide. She is the Czarina Catherine, and she sail from Doolittle's Wharf for Varna, and thence on to other parts and up the Danube. And there are those who remember seeing the heavy box, of coffin shape, being loaded on board her, and the tall man, thin and pale, with eyes that seem to be burning, who see that the box is loaded.

  "And so, my dear Madam Mina, my dear Jonathan, it is that we can rest for a time, for our enemy is on the sea."

  The Harkers exchanged a look and nodded; this news was no surprise.

  Van Helsing continued: "To sail a ship takes time, go she never so quick; and we go on land more quick, and we meet him there. Our best hope is to come on him in the box between sunrise and sunset; for then he can make but little struggle, and we may deal with him as we should."

  For the first time in many days, the Harkers and their friends were now able to sleep with something like a sense of security; and the first day after their confirmation of Dracula's departure was spent in resting and regaining strength.

  Then the preparations for the next phase of the battle went forward apace.

  But all was far from satisfactory. On the fifth of October Van Helsing said to Seward: "Friend John, there is something you and I must talk of alone, just at the first at any rate. Later, we may have to take the others into our confidence."

  "What is it, Professor?" Though Seward was afraid he knew.

  "Madam Mina, our poor, dear Madam Mina is changing."

  A cold shiver ran through Seward to find his own worst fears thus endorsed.

  Van Helsing continued: "With the sad experience of Miss Lucy before us, we must this time be warned before things go too far. I can see the characteristics of the vampire coming into her face. It is now but very, very slight. Her teeth are some sharper, and at times her eyes are more hard."

  Seward thought that "very slight" might be too optimistic a view, but at the moment he was not disposed to argue.

  The professor went on: "Now my fear is this. If she can, by our hypnotic trance, tell us what the count see and hear, is it not more true that he, who have hypnotize her first, and who have drink of her very blood and make her drink of his, should compel her mind to disclose to him what she know?"

  Seward reluctantly nodded acquiescence. "Yes, including our plans for hunting him."

  "Then what we must do is keep her ignorant of our intent, and so she cannot tell what she know not. This is a painful task; but still it must be. When today we meet, I must tell her that for reason we will not speak she must not more be of our council, but be simply guarded by us." The professor wiped his forehead, which had broken out in perspiration at the thought of the pain he might have to inflict upon the poor soul already so tortured.

  But when it came time for the day's strategy session in Dr. Seward's study, Mrs. Harker sent a message by her husband to the rest of Dracula's foes.

  Jonathan, on entering the room where they were waiting for him, reported: "Mina tells me that she believes it better that she should not join us at present. She says in that way we shall be free to discuss our movements without her presence to embarrass us."

  Van Helsing and Seward exchanged a look, both physicians were relieved.

  With that question apparently settled, the men began at once planning the campaign. Van Helsing put the facts before his associates.

  "The Czarina Catherine left the Thames yesterday morning. It will take her at the quickest speed she has ever made at least three weeks to reach Varna, on the Black Sea; there is the Atlantic and the whole Mediterranean she must traverse. But we can travel overland to the same place in as littl
e as three days.

  "Now, if we allow for two days less for the ship's voyage, owing to such weather influences as we know the count can bring to bear, and if we allow a whole day and night for any delays which we may suffer, then we have a margin of nearly two weeks. Thus, in order to be quite safe, we must leave here on seventeenth October at latest. Then we shall be sure to be in Varna on the day before the ship arrives; of course, we shall all go armed—against evil things, spiritual as well as physical."

  On the morning of the sixth of October, Mina woke her husband early and asked him to bring Dr. Van Helsing. Harker thought it was another occasion for hypnotism, and at once went for the professor.

  On reaching Van Helsing's room, he found the professor already dressed and the door of his room ajar, as if he had expected some such call. The old man came to the Harkers' rooms at once, and asked Mina if the others might come, too.

  "No," she said quite simply. "It will not be necessary. You can tell them just as well. I must go with you on your journey."

  Dr. Van Helsing was as startled as the lady's husband. After a moment's pause the professor asked: "But why?"

  "You must take me with you. I am safer with you, and you shall be safer, too."

  "But why, dear Madam Mina?"

  "I can tell you now, whilst the sun is coming up; I may not be able again. I know that when the count wills me, I must go to him. If you leave me here in England, and he tells me to come to him in secret, then I must—using any device to hoodwink—even Jonathan."

  With that last word, she turned upon her husband a look filled with bravery and love. Harker's eyes filled with tears, and he could only clasp her hand.

  "Madam Mina, you are, as always, most wise. You shall with us come; and together we shall do that which we go forth to achieve."

  The penetrating gaze of the professor lingered, and Mina returned it calmly. What she had just told him had been no worse than a half-truth; the full truth would have included the fact that she yearned desperately for reunion with her vampire lover. There were hours when she found herself shamelessly ready to abandon her husband, even her life, to be with Dracula.