by Max Turner
“Will you help us?” I asked him again. “I need to find my friends and get them out of harm’s way. They’re with Vlad Dracula.”
“So the Impaler is alive again?”
“He is.”
“And he has your friends?”
“He does.”
“And they’re under a pub?”
“Yeah.”
He clapped me on the back. “Well, let’s hope they’re still serving.”
THERE WAS MUCH to explain and little time. Mr. Entwistle listened intently as we moved through the matrix of caves. Each time we came to a new branch or tunnel, someone would be waiting to point us in the right direction. I started by telling him how we’d met—that he’d crashed a stolen police motorcycle through the front doors of the Nicholls Ward when I’d been a patient there.
“I have no memory of this, boy,” he said. “But I have a good nose for people. I trust what you’re saying is true. What name did I go by then?”
“Mr. Entwistle.”
His forehead knotted. “Mr. Entwistle? I never go by mister. Too impersonal. It’s always John.” Then his face lit up. “Yeah, John Entwistle, the bass player from The Who. Always liked their music.” He sidestepped a cluster of stalagmites. “Go on.”
“You died fighting a werewolf.” I went on to explain how he’d been buried in a cave-in and had then been dug up and resurrected by the Changeling. Somehow, he’d reverted back to an earlier persona, John Tiptoft, the Butcher of England.
“That sounds impossible,” he said. “I put that man behind me centuries ago.”
“The Changeling is powerful. The vampires you saw when you woke up were followers of his until last night.”
I told him about the Countess Bathory. How she had enslaved them, before Min and Hassan cast her into the light. “Her death freed the others. Most have run away or been killed. There don’t seem to be many left.”
“And Elza Bathory was behind it …” He frowned. “She’s been nothing but dust and bones for centuries, boy, and should have been left that way.”
That’s basically what she was, dust and bones, with a lot of char on top.
“Why don’t I remember any of this?” he said. “I used to have a brain like a sponge.”
“Maybe death wrung it clean.”
“Maybe,” he said. “Names would help. You mentioned Vlad. Who else is with him?”
When I mentioned my friends, I got nothing but a vacant stare. It was different when I told him about the Changeling and his Horsemen. His forehead became a mess of wrinkles.
“Elza’s bad enough, but a vampire would have to be nine-tenths crazy and one-tenth mental to bring back vampires like Timur and de Sade.”
“The Changeling’s not crazy,” I said. “Cold-blooded maybe, but not insane. Your transformation into Tiptoft would have been his work.” I then explained how the Changeling read minds and used the information to imitate people. Lastly, I mentioned his venom. “If he kills you, your death is permanent.”
“Boy, a vampire would have to be older than Rome to do half of what you’re saying. How much of this are you certain of?”
“All of it.”
John stood thinking, his eyes roaming over the cave floor. We were getting closer to the surface. The air wasn’t as heavy, and the mouldy smell of the earth was mixing with the odour of cold, wet concrete.
“I sense you aren’t lying, but perhaps you were deceived. A vampire with that kind of power and influence could have toppled Vlad and his Coven centuries ago.”
“So why didn’t he?”
“There’s only one reason I can think of. He didn’t want to.” He grumbled something under his breath. “What does it all mean, boy?”
I had no answer for him. It seemed our conversation was over anyway. Min appeared and waved us ahead. “Your friends have left the pub. We believe they are coming here.”
John let out a disappointed grumble. “Left the pub? Ahhh! Well, there’s no helping it, I suppose.” His eyes wandered up the tunnel. “Can we get out of here? I’m starting to feel like a corpse in a coffin.”
We travelled farther along until we reached the hole Vincent and I had used to get underground. A patch of sky was visible above, overcast and backlit by a hazy half moon. John bent his legs and jumped through the opening. I’d forgotten what an amazing leaper he was. I followed and was surprised to discover myself in the ruins of an old building. There was no roof, just the footprints of the old rooms. Around these were the stunted remains of ancient brick and stone walls, two or three feet in height. A light dusting of snow covered everything. I spied a few vampires keeping watch at either end of the lot. Several more were on the rooftop of the neighbouring Royal Palace. Otherwise, the place was like a ghost town.
The sounds of traffic drifted over from the far side of the building. I tested the air, but all I could smell was snow and wet brick. Then my ears caught the whir of helicopter blades. One of the vampires on the palace roof was pointing towards the river. I drew my katana.
John dropped to the ground in the shadow of a ruined wall, then pulled me down beside him. “Put that away. The metal shines like a beacon.”
I slid the blade back in the sheath, then raised my head above the wall.
“That’s a US Battlehawk!” he said, surprised. “Looks like it’s had some custom work done.”
I didn’t know anything about that, but there was no mistaking the helicopter my uncle had given Vlad. The landing gear was out. It settled on the grass between several sets of paved walkways in the courtyard of the Royal Palace.
Vlad stepped from the cabin. He was carrying the Dragon Blade. Luna followed. My stomach tightened. She turned towards us and for a moment I had a window to catch her attention, then Vlad waved her towards the statue of Matthias Corvinus, still standing vigil in his hunting garb. Vlad stood out in the open and stared up at the roof. Hopefully, the vampires who had been keeping watch earlier had the sense to get out of harm’s way.
Charlie and Vincent were still aboard the helicopter. Each was perched behind a Gatling gun.
“Better sit tight,” John said. “Those are Dillon M134s, the fastest-firing guns in the world. If they get trigger-happy, anything out here larger than a moth is going to wind up with more holes than a screen door.”
The helicopter started to rise. Charlie and Vincent stayed in the cabin, searching the grounds for something. I could see Miklos in the cockpit, speaking into a headset. He turned the copter and hovered over the building.
“What do you make of that?” John asked.
I shrugged as Charlie and Vincent leapt down onto the roof and took up separate positions. Their eyes remained fixed on the courtyard as Miklos pulled away.
“Those are your friends?” John asked.
“Yeah.”
“I recognize them. Well, those two, anyway.” He flicked a finger at Luna, then Charlie. “They seem all right. You made it sound as though they were hostages.”
“They were. Now they’re recruits. But they don’t realize how dangerous Vlad is, and what he’s done.”
John hummed in quiet understanding. We watched without speaking for a few minutes.
“Funny,” he said at last. “They aren’t going inside the palace. And they’ve made no effort to hide. They must be meeting someone here.”
I glanced around but saw no sign of anyone. “What should we do?”
“Why are you asking me? Isn’t this your party?”
“I don’t remember getting an invitation.”
Snowflakes began to fall. Vlad and the others still hadn’t moved. No one was speaking to anyone else. The mood was very sombre.
“Maybe it got lost in the mail,” John said.
“I doubt it. I’m the last person Vlad wants to see.” I then explained how he’d lured me out into the woods and duped me into digging my own grave.
“What do you think he told your friends?” he asked.
I had no idea. Certainly not the truth.
He stood and offered me his hand.
“I’ll introduce you to him,” I said, rising.
“No need. I knew him even before he became a vampire. He was just as unpredictable back then.” He winked and brushed a few flakes of snow from his shoulders. Then we jumped the wall and walked across the courtyard.
CHAPTER 57
REVELATION
VINCENT WAS THE first to see us. He tapped Charlie’s shoulder. I raised my hand. Charlie waved back.
Luna left the fountain and walked towards me. A walk became a jog. A jog became a run. She whispered my name. If the two of us had been alone, this would have been a perfect happy ending. But Vlad said something and she stopped. He shifted forward so that he stood between us, then glanced back over his shoulder.
“Vincent?”
Vincent was already on the ground, Charlie in tow. They padded over. “It’s him,” Vincent said.
“Are you certain?”
“Yup.”
“What about this one?” Vlad pointed his sword at John.
Vincent’s nostrils widened slightly. “Might be the Changeling. Might not be. But he was in the caves.”
“Are you certain?”
“Hundred per cent.”
“Step away from Zack,” Charlie said.
John raised his hands and backed away. “We’ve very exposed out here. Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”
“Improvising,” Vlad said. “We certainly weren’t expecting you. But since you are here, perhaps you could shed some light on where the Changeling is, and what he’s up to.”
John shook his head. “I can’t help you there.”
“What about his identity?”
“If I ever knew who he was, the memory is gone now. But some old ones seem to be making a comeback. Hi, Charlie. Hi, Luna.”
Luna smiled. Charlie nodded, a bit more seriously than I would have expected.
Vlad turned his eyes on me. “Well, you must know something, little cub. Speak up.”
I hadn’t anticipated any of this. I’d thought Vlad would be shocked to see me, but he was just his brooding, determined self. Luna looked at me expectantly. Charlie was staring too, an “out with it” expression on his face. Even Vincent was waiting for some kind of answer.
“Who is the Changeling?” Vlad asked. “Our little stunt in the woods should have flushed him out.”
His wide eyes wandered impatiently over my face. I stared back, unspeaking. He’d just buried me alive, and now he was acting as though it had never happened. Any anger I might have felt was dwarfed by my incredulity. Ophelia insisted there was nobility in him. I couldn’t see it. I wondered if my father had, and how he would have dealt with this. I could imagine him standing there in his fedora and khakis, sketch pad or brush in hand, examining some trinket he’d unearthed. “Every person should be the hero of their own life story, Zack,” he would have said. “So how should a hero behave?”
The answer was painfully simple. A hero does what’s right, and always stands up to the bad guys.
I felt the tip of Vlad’s sword against my chest. He was looking at Luna. “Can you bring him out of this?”
“I can try,” she said. Then she noticed I was back in the real world and nodded for me to say something. I glanced down at the Dragon Blade. Vlad lowered the tip.
“I have nothing to say to you except … Leave. Stay out of our lives. If I see you again, you’ll regret it.”
“I’ll regret it? I’LL REGRET IT?” Vlad puffed up so I thought his armour might pop. “Pup, you have answers, and now is the time to share them. I have done what I can for your friends, but I’m at the end of my rope.” He was practically frothing. “I told you when I saw you last that we had someone to find. That someone is the Changeling. I am certain he was watching us from the shadows. Why else would I have acted like that, and said those things? You must have learned something. Your presence here is all the proof I need. Speak up!”
His moss-coloured eyes passed frantically over my face, then remained fixed on the top of my head. He shifted closer. “Why isn’t there any dirt in your hair? How did you escape? Who saved you?”
The questions seemed to surprise everyone. He obviously hadn’t told them I’d been buried alive. I reached up and pulled my fingers along my scalp. There wasn’t so much as a grain of sand up there. It must have had something to do with travelling into the shadow world. The dirt must have stayed behind.
“The Changeling wants you alive. He must, or he would have killed you before. So who saved you?” Vlad pointed a finger at John. “It wasn’t him. He was dead. So are the other Horsemen. The horde has dispersed. The Changeling has no allies left. Don’t you see? There are no other players in the game. Whoever saved you was the Changeling! Who was it?”
Baoh had saved me, but I wasn’t going to drag him into this, not with Vlad ranting like a madman. He was out of his tree. I hadn’t seen him so incensed since the night he tried to kill my friends and me at Iron Spike Enterprises.
Luna stepped between us. The moment her hands touched me I felt my insides melt. “Zack, please. We need an answer.”
There was such hopefulness in her eyes that, in the end, I couldn’t keep it from her. “It was Baoh,” I said. “Baoh saved me.”
“Say that again,” Vlad said, his face twisted in confusion. I might just as well have told him it was the Pillsbury Doughboy.
“Baoh.”
Vlad’s breath hissed out in icy disgust. He dropped his Dragon Blade, tip first, into the snow so it stood up like a cross. John, meanwhile, was staring at my face as though I must have made a mistake.
Luna put her arms around me. “We knew you could do it. Vlad said you put yourself in incredible danger, but that you’d come through for us.”
By the sound of things, he’d omitted a few details.
“Baoh …?” Vlad muttered to himself. “That sideshow phony! He’s as harmless as a housefly. Damn it, pup, you can curse me for a fool. I’m sorry. I truly am. I thought our little gambit would reveal the last piece of the puzzle, but it was all for nothing. For nothing. We’re finished …”
CHAPTER 58
MISPRONUNCIATION
I DON’T KNOW if it was the presence of Charlie, and the familiar way he’d waved to me when I’d first arrived, or the feel of Luna’s arm around my waist, and the thought of her running to meet me, but I was suddenly homesick. I longed for a night run through the streets of Peterborough and some time alone with the people I loved most. Something told me that if I didn’t sever the ties between my friends and Vlad soon, I would continue to lose them, one after the other, until my whole world was just an empty shell.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” I said to Vlad, “but I don’t care if the Changeling is really Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man. I’m leaving.” I pulled back from Luna so I could look at her more closely. “I have no idea what Vlad told you, but it was a lie. I didn’t put myself in danger. I wasn’t on any secret mission. He drugged me, buried me alive in the woods and left me to suffocate. That’s where I’ve been. In a hole.”
The courtyard was suddenly very quiet.
“Now that’s the Vlad we know and love,” Mr. Entwistle said. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he was staring at the Prince with eyes that were smouldering.
“This doesn’t concern you, Tiptoft.”
“I no longer answer to that name, Impaler.”
Vlad shifted so he was directly in my line of sight. “If you think I don’t care about your well-being, you are mistaken. I do.” He glanced at Mr. Entwistle. “Is that a lie, Butcher? I’m told you can detect any falsehood in a man’s words.”
John stepped up beside me. “Whether you care about him for his sake or your own I wouldn’t venture to say. Regardless, burying him alive isn’t the best way to show it.”
“A calculated risk. I knew the Changeling wouldn’t let him die, no
t after sparing him that first time. I have no doubt Baoh was sent to save him.”
Luna stared at him. The colour had drained from her face. “Did you arrange for Istvan to give him away that first time?” Her voice was a hoarse whisper. “Did you? Was that all part of your plan?”
“No,” Vlad answered.
“You’re lying,” I said.
He glared at me. “And how do you know? Because the Changeling told you? The same person who killed Ophelia? You would take his word over mine?”
“You’re both liars,” I said. “And I don’t trust either of you.”
“What else have you lied about?” Luna asked.
Vlad scooped the Dragon Blade from where it was sticking from the ground. “You should never accuse a man without proof.”
“You said you sent Zack on a mission.”
“I did. And it is true. He simply didn’t know it.”
John snorted.
“I played the cards I was dealt,” Vlad said. “The only connection we have to the Changeling is that boy.”
Luna took hold of my hand. “I think we’re finished here.”
“Why did you lie?” Charlie said, his eyes fixed on the ground.
Vlad snorted angrily. “Not a lie. An omission. Would you have agreed to stand by me if you had known?”
“You had no right to put him at risk,” Luna said.
Vlad made no apologies. “I knew if he were in danger the Changeling would save him. And if not, we could go back to the woods and bring him back ourselves.”
“Unless our enemies dug him up first and torched his corpse,” Charlie said.
“If they wanted him dead, they would have killed him when he was their prisoner.”
“That’s nonsense,” Luna said.
“No, it isn’t,” said Mr. Entwistle. “I may not approve of Vlad’s methods, but he’s right about this. The Changeling has more than just a passing interest in the boy.”
“His name is Zachary.”
“Remembered by God. A fitting name for a messiah.”
