He smiled at the girl, but then quickly registered the fear in her eyes. Tucked under her arm she carried her leather boots that dripped onto her soggy overcoat. Her woolen stockings were torn and muddied.
“Are you all right, Miss?”
“What does ‘PP’ stand for in a license plate?” she gasped.
“‘PP’? I think it is Poprad, near the border with Poland. The High Tatra Mountains,” said the clerk. “Did you get hit by a car?”
“No,” she muttered. “It just missed me.”
Chapter 67
SOMEWHERE IN SLOVAKIA
DECEMBER 25, 2010
Draska woke to a strong smell of ammonia. She covered her nose in disgust, opening her swollen eyes as best she could.
The woman in the barred cell next to her squatted over a plastic bucket, urinating.
“Where am I?” Draska muttered. Her mouth tasted like dry cotton, her tongue thick. Her head ached, pounding at her temples. The air was dank.
“Ah, you are awake at last,” said the woman, urine still splashing into the filthy bucket. “We thought they had drugged you to death. You’ve been unconscious for days.”
“How long—where am I?” Draska struggled out from under a blanket on a soiled mattress. She tried to focus her eyes in the dim light, the room illuminated only by burning torches.
“We don’t know,” whispered the woman, as she pulled up her dirty leggings. “We don’t know where we are. Or why. All we know is that ghoulish men and women bring us food and water. We hear screaming, pleas for help.”
“What?”
“It’s true,” said a voice with an English accent. “Please speak in English, I can’t understand but a little Slovak.”
“Why we here?” Draska tried to find words in the foreign tongue.
“We are all kidnapped in Bratislava. At night, near nightclubs or bars.”
Draska pulled her dirty blue hair from her eyes so she could see better. She already knew much more than she wanted to know.
The English woman added, “There is a white-haired freak called Count Bathory who questions us. Where did they kidnap you?”
Draska shook her head, trying to clear the drugged confusion.
“From above. I worked for Count Bathory.”
The other girls jumped away from the bars, staring at her in horror.
Chapter 68
RIVER VAH, UPPER HUNGARY
DECEMBER 25, 1610
Zuzana came upon Janos at the river below the castle. He was wrapped in a thick woolen blanket, motionless. Frost had collected on his hair, coloring it white, as if he had aged overnight.
“Janos! Are you—”
He did not answer, his open eyes did not blink. The white stallion stood motionless at his side.
“Wake up, Janos. Wake up!” she said, shaking the immobile figure. Her face creased in terror.
She shook him hard. He did not respond, his eyes staring blindly at the moving water.
The horse reached out with its soft muzzle, nudging him.
Janos blinked. He looked up at Zuzana, with no recognition in his eyes.
“Janos! Are you ill?” she asked, her hands frantically moving over his face, trying to bring it back to life. “Do you have the falling disease?” She wanted to scream.
“No, no. Do not worry,” he whispered, his voice still sounding far away. “I am…listening.”
“You will die of cold. Look at the ice on your hair, your eyebrows. How long have you been here?”
Janos looked around slowly at the frozen edge of the River Vah, the light reflecting off its surface.
“Perhaps—all night?”
“We must get you to the castle at once! You are as cold as a graveyard bone.”
“I am all right,” he said, rousing himself slowly from his position.
“What are you doing here?”
He looked at her eyes, stormy blue in worry. “I needed to think.”
“Think by the warmth of a fire, you fool!”
“Too many distractions. It is difficult to explain.”
“It is madness, that’s all.”
“No, Zuzana. The world is a torrent of madness, I need to hear beyond. I have had these spells since I was a child. They are normal and healing for me.”
The stallion nuzzled his neck.
“Must you be so alone that you risk freezing to death?’
“I was not alone. I was with my horse.”
Chapter 69
HOFBURG PALACE
VIENNA
DECEMBER 25, 1610
Palatine Thurzo was brought before King Matthias, who was seated in an enormous high-backed chair, playing chess with Counselor Klesl. The King looked up, annoyed.
“You look hard traveled, Count Thurzo,” he said, surveying him. “What matter keeps you away from Court?”
Klesl stood up, bowing to the king, and moved a few paces back.