Bathory's Secret: When All The Time In The World Is Not Enough (Affliction Vampires Book 1) (31 page)

Overwhelmed and confused, Kati returned to the castle which was eerily quiet. It seemed that those servants that could leave did not stay a moment longer than they had to in this factory of horrors. The ones that lived there locked themselves in their chambers and did not venture out unless absolutely necessary. The corridors were dark and damp and since she had been bitten it seemed as if the smell of decay was everywhere. She wondered how much other members of staff knew of what really went on in the castle. Though she hadn’t seen many since being here, she had definitely smelled them since becoming Afflicted. They probably understood a lot of more than what the entranced Countess thought them capable of, but well-paying jobs with nobility were scarce in these predominantly rural areas where one bad crop meant starvation for entire families.

Back in her room she saw the dresses on the chair and retrieved the duplicitous pearl from her pocket. She rebelliously pinned it on the torso of the dress where the heart would be and crawled into her bed hoping that sleep would wipe away the thoughts of the poor girl that had been tormenting her all evening. She didn’t even know her name. She pictured the girl’s mother who would probably be frantic about now. Her own mother would feel the same if she disappeared.

She thought of the old man and the Pastor. Why was no one stopping this insanity? How many people had to die before this woman was arrested? She felt her eyes well up. Maybe nobody cared what happened to the girls in these woods. She wondered what the servants made of it all. No doubt everyone who worked here knew that terrible things happened in the dungeons but no one dared speak up even outside the castle walls. They realized the Countess's hand reached far and wide and any “false” accusations would land them and their families in quite a lot of trouble. They all worked in fear, trying to not be seen or heard but most importantly trying not to get killed.

She wanted to visit the old man, but she didn’t dare do it when the Countess was at the castle. She closed her eyes to sleep. The sun was just beginning to rise.

Nineteen

The following afternoon Katalina was in the courtyard playing with Mačka. She could see some increased activity in the kitchen by way of greater food deliveries than normal but she knew better than to approach.

The sound of the carriage from the front of the castle made her investigate. The day was considerably overcast, a fact which allowed her to venture outdoors. The Countess had had the same thought because she was entering the carriage which she hardly ever did in the daytime. Spotting Katalina, she gestured for her to approach which she diligently did.

“Katalina, I’ve been called to Vienna on urgent business, but I’ll be back tomorrow as more girls will be arriving at the Gynaeceum in a few days." Katalina was overjoyed at the thought of Oriana returning but then thought of the risks. Her heart did a skip.

“Prepare the barn and make all the beds. This time there will be more students.”

“More? Yes mistress.”

“And make sure to fill the basement with more hay, won’t you please?” Though her tone was sweet, Kati felt her stomach turn at the thought of the basement. She nodded.
What will she do to these girls?

“Don’t look so despondent, child, our work here is very important,” she announced before closing the carriage window in Kati's face and drawing the curtain. The dull knock on the front of the carriage gave the driver the go ahead to set off.

Come nightfall, Katalina realized this was the opportunity she was waiting for to learn more about her situation. When she was certain that all the staff had retired for the evening she headed straight for the Countess’s room. She didn’t know exactly where it was but something told her the smell would guide her to it. She hoped that looking around the room might reveal something beyond the journals, especially something pertaining to the biting. It was a long shot, but it was important. She climbed the stairs through the back passages and found herself in front of a little wooden door roughly where she knew the room would be. Using her apron to push on the latch so she wouldn't leave a scent, she realized it wouldn’t open. Remembering that this floor also had a balcony across several of the adjoining rooms she exited the hidden passages and went onto the corridor proper after making sure no one was around. Faced with a series of rooms, she waited to hear and smell if anyone was inside them and once she established the entire floor was empty she tried to see if there were any open ones. The first in line was locked. The one next to it, which she knew belonged to the Countess, was also locked but the third one, an empty, dusty affair which served as a furniture store, was open, its lock visibly weathered and useless. Pushing her way past the broken objects she walked onto the balcony. She was immediately struck by the enormity of the castle and its courtyard, which she'd never seen in its entirety before. The height gave her a whole new perspective to her surroundings.

Away from the edge she curiously looked into one of the rooms that she couldn’t get into from the front. The window was fitted with wooden shutters but she could still peek through the slats. The bed was grandiose and covered in rich linens of forest green but it appeared unused. She got the distinct impression that this room was being reserved for or had belonged to someone who had perhaps passed away. The thought crossed her mind that it might be a room she had her other Afflicted victims live in before she killed them but it smelled old and unused like it had been kept pristine for a long time.

She moved on to the Countess’s room and to her good fortune it did not have shutters but strange doors made of dark glass. With her heart beating out of her chest she carefully pulled back the latch and saw that the balcony door opened allowing her to enter the apartments.

Though the two adjoining chambers were quite stark for a woman of Erzsébet Báthory’s rank and status, they were nevertheless more luxurious than anything Kati had ever laid eyes on before. In the far end against the wall near the fireplace stood a magnificent four poster bed. It was made of a thick brown wood and every last inch of it was intricately carved with leaves and flowers and forest scenes similar to the box of silver knives. It was covered in sumptuous red velvet drapes which were trimmed with gold tassels. The head of the bed was covered by multiple pillows and cushions and decorated with more embroidered red velvet brocade. By the foot of the bed was the pelt of a black bear with the head still attached and the jaws wide open. It had black glass eyes and rich fur which shone under the dim light that entered the room.

She noticed that the balcony door she had come in from was clearly newer than the rest of the building and sported that unusual glass she’d noticed from the outside. Instead of the regular white pieces of glass most windows had, this one was made with yellow segments peppered with dark streaks and dots, most probably to dull some of the sunlight. Immediately to her right stood an upright hourglass-shaped mirror which had clearly seen a lot of use. A small clay talisman similar to the one outside the binding room and a small bunch of herbs and flowers were secured to the top of it. The wooden frame was polished but in places it had been worn out like an old church pew. Kati peered closely at the glass and she could see handprints right where the face of the person reflected would be. To the side of the bed, by one of the larger windows, stood a dressing table with a cushioned stool and another large mirror. She realized that though the countess needed the light to look at her face in order to apply her potions, she also couldn’t tolerate the brightness and had to diffuse it as much as possible with the darker panels. In fact, all the windows were adorned with a complicated system of drapes; behind the thick dark velvet ones were lengths of linen of varying thicknesses probably used to regulate the glare according to the Countess’s ability to tolerate it on any given day.

The surface of the dressing table was filled with myriad glass bottles of different shapes and sizes all filled with oils and potions she couldn’t identify. The smell that came out of some was disgusting, while others smelled of flowers and others of alcohol. Several were filled with blood and other unguents. On smelling it she felt herself drool a little. All the bottles had labels with all sorts of descriptions and flower names.

In the corner across from the standing mirror lay a large plain desk and chair which did not really seem to go with the room. It was large and stark and quite masculine with a gloss that the rest of the furniture didn’t have. Next to it stood an equally large cupboard and under it a closed leather chest. On top of the desk lay an open leather bound notebook, with what looked like frantic writing on and some drawings. Some of the pages were smeared with blood and in places the ink and the blood met. The notebook was half filled with odd recipes but she had never heard of any of the ingredients before. Most of them were roots and powders based on their descriptions but she couldn’t understand the use of them. Next to the notebook stood two large candlesticks with rivulets of dried molten candle wax along their length which reached and fused to the table top, a sign of many a night spent under their supervision. The quill and inkwell had also seen better days.

Walking a little bit further and into the second section of the room through a stone arch where the bed was, she saw the enormous fireplace that a room this size needed to keep warm. On the opposite side of the window stood a large wooden chest of drawers made in the style of the bed and which was filled with dresses and chemises and undergarments of every fashion. On its marble surface was a box of precious jewelry. It was all so shiny and beautiful! Rubies and garnets and pearls, crystal and gold… so much gold! There were brooches and earrings and tiaras and rings, beautiful large rings with the Nádasdy and the Báthory coats of arms and smaller delicate rings, more than you could fit on all the fingers of both hands. Then she glanced at an open pendant which lay on the table. On one side was a tiny portrait of a young man no older than sixteen and on the other a perfectly white lock of what she assumed to be his hair.
Her son?
The man was fetching, with skin so pallid it was practically translucent and that white hair, which hung loose almost reaching his shoulders. His eyes were also very pale and appeared to differ in color from each other. It seemed as though the picture did him no justice at all. She thought it extremely peculiar that someone so evil and twisted as Erzsébet Báthory would hold anyone in any esteem and would lovingly wear their picture around her neck, but the journals reminded her of a younger, gentler Countess before her life had corrupted her.

She stepped back from the dressing table, took another look around feeling a little afraid she had been in there a little too long and, wanting to let her scent dissipate in case the Countess returned soon, she left the apartments the way she had come in and returned to her room. She hadn’t found anything to reveal the secret behind the fainting victims.

Twenty

She woke as the sun was beginning to set to the image of Erzsébet Báthory sitting next to her on the bed and looking down at her. The green in her eyes was once again clearly visible and glistened like translucent verdigris. She was entranced and was caressing Katalina’s hair as the girl slept, with a dedication which was far from tender. At times her long pointed nails would dig into Kati’s flesh but she kept quiet.

“Are you aware of the concept of trust, Katalina?”

“Of course, Your Grace.” She was looking up at her but still with her head on the pillow.

“Then you understand that I
trust
you to respect my privacy?”

“Certainly, Your Grace,” she lied.

“I take you young girls out of your impoverished little families and give you all these privileges and pay you so well, so that you can double-cross me?”

Pay? What pay?

“I returned today to discover that my apartments had been intruded upon. I don’t need to remind you that nothing goes on in this castle that I cannot sense a million miles away, do I my sweet child?”

Kati was frightened. She wondered if there was any sense in denying doing it or if she would’ve been better off confessing. The entire event was racing through her head. She had made sure not to touch anything with her bare hands when she had been in there and she was certain that enough time had lapsed for the smell to dissipate. How on earth could she still detect her?

“Do you see this, Katalina?” She asked holding up a single wilted and aged leaf from the tips of her fingers with contempt.

“Yes mistress.”

“This here was found in my room, designating that the balcony door had been opened and detritus flew in.”

One decrepit leaf is her proof?

“That in combination with this,” she said revealing her trump card, a singular long auburn hair which when measured against Kati’s other hairs proved to be a perfect match, "is how I knew for sure it was you. It was strewn across my dressing table.”

Kati swallowed hard.

“So do you ignore my instructions, child, or are you simply an imbecile?”