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.“At some time, that circle must be broken.So I will go and take a look at Basarab Laiota and his three thousand Turks.And I will kill him if I can.”Ion’s voice was as soft as his prince’s.“And if he kills you?”“Then I am dead.And my sorrow is ended.” Dracula clicked his tongue to lull the bird, whose feathers lifted at the sound.He loosed the jesses from his fingers, swiftly re-tied them onto the perch, took out a piece of raw meat, lifted it to the beak.“But let us not speak of my death but of his.We will send again to Bathory and Moldavia.We will urge the boyars to our side—and if the Cross does not draw them, the stake might, eh?” He smiled.“Believe me, I do not seek an ass’s death, only an ending to this…Danse Macabre.Will you seek it with me? For a little longer, at least?”“Do I have a choice?”Dracula, who had turned and beckoned Stoica forward, turned back, something else in his eyes.“A choice?” he said, handing the bird over.He looked up.“Do you remember, that time in Edirne, when I offered Ilona a choice?”The name burned him.The fury, as ever, was instant.“What choice did she ever have?” he shouted.“The same one we all have, Ion,” Dracula replied.“To stay or to go.The same one you have now.” The green eyes darkened.“That you took once before, remember?”Her name, her fate, the memory Dracula drew up now of his treason.The reason for that betrayal ever between them.Something shifted in him, rising in bile and blood, and he reached, grabbed the other man by the collar of his coat, jerked him close.Behind Dracula, Black Ilie stepped forward with an oath but the prince instantly halted him with a raised hand.“Wait!” he said, then looked straight into Ion’s eyes.“What is it,” he said softly.“What is it you want to say that you have always wanted to say?”For a moment, Ion couldn’t speak.Then he did.“I vowed to you once that I would kill the man that ever hurt her.It is yet another oath I have broken.But I tell you now, Vlad…” He coughed, found his voice again.“Never…never speak of her to me again, you…fucking…whoreson,” he whispered.“Never talk of her, or try to claim you ever loved her.For if you do, I will leave you again.This time, forever!” He pressed his face even closer, till nose touched nose.“But before I go, I will watch you die!”He threw Dracula back and he stumbled, Ilie moving to halt his fall.They hit the perch and the bird upon it lurched and began to scream, wings spread wide.Ion turned and ran from the stable, slamming the door.But it did not shut out the shriek of the hawk, nor block the green gaze that bored into his back.– FORTY-NINE –The Last StakeIon stumbled up the hill, snow-blind.The storm, with winds that swirled now this way, now that, had taken most of his senses.His horse had refused to move; he’d had to blinker and lead her, one hand trailing on the bridle, the other flapping, feeling with a frozen hand for the smooth trunks of beeches, whose leafless limbs provided no shelter to the white onslaught.Sight was useless; he’d long since wound his scarf completely over his face from the helmet down.His only hope was that the trees still delineated the path that Dracula had brought him up on a clear, sunny, snow-free morning five days before to peep at the enemy camped on the opposite hill.Laiota’s army had been there a week, obviously awaiting reinforcements before making the final push on Bucharest.Ion had been dispatched in one last attempt to rally reinforcements of their own.He’d failed.All he’d brought back was his frozen self.And then his only other working sense warned him of danger.The crack of a stick and his own horse’s sudden snort had him drawing his sword.He’d been gone three days and the enemy could well have moved onto this hill as well.If they’d discovered he was there, Dracula did not have enough men to hold it.He ripped the scarf clear, peered into whiteness.“Friend?” he called, but the wind shredded the soft word.Shrinking to place his back against a trunk, he tried it louder.“Friend of whom?” came a deep-voiced reply and he started, wondered what to say.When he’d left the skies had been clear, the air warm for December [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]