Page 95 of Time's Fool

That was even harder than it should have been, since at the same time, we were using a hidden tunnel to sneak into the princely court, where the creature had been taken by some of the voivode’s soldiers. They had arrived on the scene shortly after Mircea’s pronouncement, their horses rearing and bucking at sight of the monster, and their highly polished armor reflecting its hellish light. Yet the men never wavered.

They had seen monsters before. Wallachia and its neighboring states had been a hotbed of supernatural activity for some time, most recently in the epic struggle that the vampire Consul had waged against those who would unseat her. And there were still strange creatures in these mountains, although fewer every year.

But none like this.

The men had come prepared, however, and rolled out a wagon with a great cage affixed to the back. There were claw marks on the thick iron bars, which almost bisected a few of them. I didn’t know what had been in there, but it had wanted out.

But it didn’t look like it had succeeded in escaping, and neither did the demon. Although the bars had heated up red hot in places when it threw itself at them, after it was jabbed at by pikes until it entered the cage and the door was slammed shut behind it. The soldiers wasted no time whipping up the very unhappy double team of horses pulling the wagon, which had lurched off at breakneck speed for the castle, scattering gaping townsfolk in its wake.

Leaving us to jump down from the roof as night fell, and follow along behind.

And now I was sloshing through ankle deep water, for the low-ceilinged tunnel was not well drained. And prodding Louis-Cesare for answers while we chased Mircea’s torchlight up ahead. He was moving quickly, for he knew the route, having said that he ruled from here as his father’s regent something like fifty years ago.

A new ruler sat on the throne now, a nephew of his infamous brother Vlad, who might not know about some of the hidden ways in and out of a castle that had been built a century before his birth. At least, that was the hope, as the fortress employed magic workers to create wards stronger than any lock. Although I doubted that anyone was too worried about having people sneak into the place this night.

Most were probably busy trying to get out of it.

But we were being cautious, which was why Mircea had gone ahead. That was fine with me. Louis-Cesare had been considerably more talkative and I wanted answers.

“Not exactly,” he said patiently. “Your dhampir nature was driving you mad, and your father used his mental abilities to split your consciousness between the human and vampire parts of your nature. Or as well as he could manage with no training in such things, and no one to teach him.”

“So, I have a sister,” I persisted, trying to grasp onto something that made sense.

“You have another half,” he corrected. “A stronger, more deadly half, who has been locked away in your mind all these years, for fear that she would overwhelm you. It is one reason your past had to be hidden; you would have attempted to contact her had you known, something your father feared would undo his good work and put you back on the path to madness.”

“One reason?” I stared at him, wondering if I wanted to ask. “What were the others?”

“You could be kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip against him, had anyone known of your importance. His star is rising quickly, and the higher he goes, the more enemies he makes, ones that will exploit any chink in his armor. His affection for you is a weak spot, one he can ill afford these days.”

So, he left me to starve in a barn, I thought, my head swirling.

“It would also have brought you to the attention of the Vampire Senate,” Louis-Cesare added. “Who knew you existed but were willing to wink at it for Mircea’s sake as long as the two of you were not in regular contact. They could hardly make laws against dhampirs, yet have a member of their own court keep one as part of his household.”

“All right, but . . . but I have a sister,” I said, not caring if I sounded like a parrot who only knew one phrase. My brain simply couldn’t take in everything that had been thrown at me in the span of a few minutes, much less all of the emotions that went with it. But that I understood.

Louis-Cesare sighed and shot me a glance. “Yes, you have a sister,” he said. And then stopped, since we’d almost run into Mircea.

He had paused at a warded door at the end of the tunnel, one outlined in blue fire, the color making me twitch. But at a word from him, it dissipated; it seemed that no one had changed the password since his time. Or perhaps the ward itself had been forgotten, an old relic powered by some talisman or other, fritzing its way through the centuries.

But now the water-bloated door was the only barrier to entry, one that would give way quickly enough under the pressure that a vampire could exert. Only he wasn’t exerting it. Instead, he turned to me, with the torch highlighting his face and throwing leaping shadows onto the walls.

“I do not fully understand what happened once your soul was separated from your body,” he told me abruptly. “You were sent into the future, but Dorina did not follow you there. She seems to have stayed with the witch, and taken refuge in her purloined form—”

“What?”

“—but it was already possessed, and not just by Mistress Morgan. But by this demon she has been using to fuel her travels, who you accidentally attacked when you fought with her. It must have panicked when you began absorbing its life force and attempted to shift you away again, but you had hold of its power and dragged it into the spell along with you—and Dorina.”

“Is that what you call her?” I asked. “Dorina to my Dory? Is that why—”

“Does it matter now?” Louis-Cesare asked, which might have made sense under the circumstances, except that the answer was yes. Far more than anything else, my mind had been captivated at the thought of having a sister. Someone who had lived what I’d lived, who had suffered right along with me, who understood.

I wanted to meet her so badly my palms itched.

But Mircea didn’t answer me. “The three of you arrived here together, but Dorina pulled the creature away from you and the two of them are now locked in deadly combat—”

“How do you know this?” I asked. “You weren’t there—”

“Some I saw in Morgan’s mind when she arrived at the alehouse unexpectedly, before the demon perceived my intrusion and shifted me here. The rest I surmised when Dorina dragged the villain back to town, looking for me. He is strong, and she cannot overcome him alone. I must help her.”

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