Séance for a Vampire, Fred Saberhagen [win 10 ebook reader txt] 📗

though there were as yet no formal charges to be brought against him. The cable brought a prompt response, which seemed to promise co-operation; but we feared that Kulakov might have so much influence in the Tsarist government as to be effectively immune to the police.

And Mycroft Holmes promised us that he could arrange for a swift vessel, perhaps even one of the Royal Navy’s new turbine-powered destroyers, to carry his band of hunters on to St. Petersburg, where the next act of the drama was going to be played out.

Dracula remarked that he could feel a certain remote sympathy for Kulakov.

“Sympathy!”

“Yes, Doctor. Oh, he is my enemy now, and I will hunt him down and kill him. but I found myself in a somewhat similar situation, that of the hunted vampire, about twelve years ago, on my first visit to britain, before I had met either you or my distinguished cousin.

“Perhaps I will someday tell you that story, Doctor.”

Seventeen

Before departing for London and thence for Russia, Holmes and I paid a final visit to the home of the Altamonts. The sad condition of this once-intelligent and happy couple stiffened our resolve to see that justice was done.

Ambrose Altamont, still denying the fact that his older daughter was truly dead at last, now assured us that his younger daughter, Rebecca, was only visiting a friend and would return at any hour.

Altamont’s back was bent now, like that of an old man. He peered at us timidly, and his voice and hands alike were quivering. “Surely becky will be back with us by this evening. Then we will have our next sitting. You gentlemen are welcome to attend.”

With our former client in this condition, and with Mrs. Altamont still prostrated by brain fever, there was obviously no point in our attempting any further explanations... either of vampires or on any other point. Instead, we nodded and smiled and said our good-byes, promising to call again, with good news, when we could.

At least, as I commented to Holmes a little later, Louisa’s parents had been spared the ultimate shock of being present when their daughter was staked as a vampire.

Mycroft was as good as his word, and with the benefit of his powerful though hidden influence, discreetly exercised, our expeditionary force was able to obtain, quickly and quietly, the use of a fast steamer for the journey to St. Petersburg. The vessel provided was in fact the private steam-yacht of one of the Sea Lords–I think that even now I had better not be more specific regarding the vessel’s ownership or the circumstances in which we obtained its use.

There had been some discussion of our using a naval vessel, but Holmes had promptly decided that would be inappropriate. “Owing to the essentially private nature of our business, a privately owned craft is preferable to a ship of His Majesty’s navy, which would inevitably attract attention, and would require some diplomatic prearrangement.”

Another advantage of a private ship was that she could stand by unobtrusively in the Russian port, ready to carry us on the return voyage–but haste in returning should not be necessary.

The craft we were privileged to obtain had engines similar to those of the new turbine-powered destroyers, capable of making more than thirty knots. Most naval vessels of the time could sustain no more like half that speed.

During our voyage, Count Kulakov’s motives and behavior were naturally the subject of intense discussion. So were those of Rebecca Altamont, the question being by what combination of force and guile she had been compelled to accompany him. Our party included Sherlock Holmes, Prince Dracula, Armstrong, and myself, as well as Sarah Kirkaldy, without whose genuine psychic capabilities we might never have been able to follow the escaping Kulakov with any accuracy.

While the Russian’s vampirish bloodlust had played a part in his behavior, obviously his prime motive in his attacks upon the Altamonts was–or had been–revenge. Even so, that left unexplained many details of his behavior. Nor was it very helpful simply to say that the man was mad, though that undoubtedly seemed to be the case. And there was still the matter of the mysterious treasure. Did that exist only in the fevered imagination of a deranged vampire?

“It will of course be difficult, or impossible, to arrest the man we seek, in Russia even more so than in England–but it would be useless to arrest him anywhere. Courts, fines, and imprisonment are meaningless threats to him. The only practical way to punish a vampire is by the application of direct physical violence.”

We could not but agree with Holmes.

At the same time, of course, Rebecca Altamont was making the voyage with Kulakov. We were sure that she must be in some sense his prisoner, though we could not say by what combination of threats, actual violence, and mesmeric power he might be forcing her to his will.

At one point Armstrong asked me whether becky, having made the voyage with her captor, would be unloaded in an earth-filled trunk, and whether she had been brought aboard his ship and spent most of the voyage thus confined. We all assured him that this was unlikely–unless Rebecca had already become a vampire. Such intimations as we could receive through the entranced mind of Sarah Kirkaldy indicated that this was not the case, but we could not be sure.

Our sea route to St. Petersburg took us through the North Sea, among the islands and peninsulas of Denmark, and past Copenhagen, with a brief stop there to see if a cable might have arrived from Mycroft–the wireless was not yet available on ships–before entering the baltic. Our journey in itself was almost completely uneventful, leaving us plenty of time for discussion of vampirism and related phenomena. I realized only belatedly that the favorable winds and generally calm seas we enjoyed were at least in part a result of Prince Dracula’s efforts in an occult way.

Whether Kulakov might be capable of exercising a similar influence upon