Séance for a Vampire by Fred Saberhagen (top ebook reader TXT) 📗

the manner of one who looks forward to some task he is about to undertake. “Tell me,” said the prince, “more about this man we are looking for. I confess that I am intrigued. About this insane Russian, if that is really what he is.”

Holmes shrugged. “There is not much more that I can tell. I am not even completely certain that I shall recognize him when I meet him again. The darkness was very nearly absolute in among the trees where I was questioned, and I was cast to the ground in such a position that my face was turned away from him. And as we know, the face, even the voice of the vampire may change from one day to the next, much more than that of any breathing man.”

I interrupted at this point to say that perhaps I could provide some physical description of the enemy, and now I repeated to Holmes another episode I had earlier recounted to Dracula: Rebecca Altamont’s revelation of what she had seen, but had not previously disclosed, on the day her sister had been lost.

Holmes, who did not appear to be much surprised, listened with great attention. “So, he deliberately capsized the boat to get at his prey! The faint marks on the prow had suggested as much to me; but I could not be sure. The maneuver required him to expose his naked body to the daylight, if only briefly–even for an angry vampire such a tactic seems bizarre, does it not?–but there can be no doubt that it is the same man. Did Rebecca Altamont hear him speak?”

“Apparently not.”

My friend arose from his chair and paced the floor, and I was glad to see this evidence of his returning strength. He said: “Overturning the boat suggests a certain cleverness–it allowed him to make off with the older sister, and use her for his own foul purposes, while leaving everyone else with the impression that she had been accidentally drowned. but then why take the risk of allowing himself to be seen? Surely he might have tipped the boat while remaining hidden. Why? Why? Mere bravado? but that would be inconsistent. Real lunacy is a more convincing explanation.” Holmes paused, and sighed. “Watson–”

“Yes?”

“A criminally insane man is terrible enough when he is breathing. When we add the immense physical strength of the nosferatu, and the other powers they possess–this is a fearful business indeed.”

Holmes was excited and expressed his urgent wish to question Rebecca, and his concern for her safety.

Presently, seating himself again, he resumed the narrative of his captivity. “Our criminal’s accent is Russian, I should say. Though I have some small knowledge of the language, I cannot be absolutely sure–perhaps his native tongue is some antique dialect of Russian. That would suggest that he is of considerable age. Definitely he is a native speaker of one of the Slavic languages; with years, perhaps centuries, of intermittent practice in the English tongue, yet still the traces linger.”

“Holmes–”

He turned to me with an inquiring look.

“Holmes, is the name’Count Kulakov’ familiar to you?”

He thought a moment. “No. Who is he?”

“I ask because a man of that name’phoned to baker Street and left a message of sympathy for me.”

“Sympathy? because of my supposed demise?”

“I assumed that was the reason. The name sounds Russian, and your mention just now–”

“Quite so.” My friend was frowning. “Count Kulakov. but no, I am acquainted with no one... well, we shall see.”

Dracula, who had been listening intently, asked: “And you really can give no reason why you were spared?”

“I cannot. Perhaps, as I half-seriously suggested a moment ago, it was out of a mere uncertainty as to what to do with me. During the hour or more that I was in the immediate presence of my enemy, I am sure that there were intervals, some lasting a full minute, when he was not entirely aware of everything about him. Could I have freed myself from my bonds during one of those periods, I might have been able to escape. but the cord was strong, the knots were skillfully tied, and I was not allowed time to overcome them.”

“You say he was’not entirely aware’?”

“That is understating the case. The actuality was something more frightening; the word’catalepsy’ comes to mind. It was rather as if my antagonist were functioning in a trance, or under some kind of posthypnotic suggestion.”

Dracula and I were both intrigued by the medical possibilities, and the prince urged his cousin to give us more details.

Holmes did his best to provide them. The foreign vampire had sat immobile for minutes at a time, staring at nothing, as far as Holmes had been able to discern, except the very darkness of the night. “Again, the suggestion of real insanity looms. Had he been a breathing man, I should have strongly suspected epilepsy, or drugs.”

At this, Dracula shook his head doubtfully. “Among us, both epilepsy and drug use of any kind are practically unheard of.” The prince paused before adding, with evident reluctance: “Unfortunately, we do have cases of insanity.” He paused again before admitting: “And they are not particularly rare.”

Holmes turned toward his cousin. “Prince, he may have given us a valuable clue. There was a certain name he uttered–I do not think it was his own, but he pronounced it more than once. Does the name’Gregory Efimovich’ mean anything to you?”

Dracula shrugged minimally. “Male. A Christian name and patronymic, according to the Russian style of address.”

“Of course. but–?”

Our vampire colleague shook his head. “No. As the name of an individual, it means nothing to me. No more than does’Count Kulakov.’ Well, possibly they are the same.”

Holmes returned to the question of Louisa Altamont. His brief observation of that young woman when she appeared at the séance had been enough to convince him, even as I was convinced, that she had definitely passed into the nosferatu state. but my friend had seen nothing of her, indeed, he had seen or heard no one but his captor during