Bathory's Secret: When All The Time In The World Is Not Enough (Affliction Vampires Book 1) (4 page)

Seeing the girl, the Countess gestured for Kati to follow her and together they headed round the long building to a side entrance and up several flights of stairs. The lack of people at this large castle niggled at Kati but she didn’t quite understand why.

The atmosphere in this wing was different compared to Kati’s. It was warmer and smelled of old furniture made of noble woods which had been aged by use. The corridors were lined with beautiful long carpets of bright colors and were so restful underfoot. Paintings of important-looking people graced the walls, spaced by large wrought iron wall sconces lighting the halls. The rich spicy smell of the luxurious beeswax candles filled the air, reminding Kati of being in church. The tallow candles they burned at home never smelled so good. This was the family’s wing.

Stopping at a door with a large clay talisman impressed with odd symbols suspended above the frame as well as a potently smelling pouch of herbs, the Countess produced a large iron link with a couple of keys out of a pocket deep within her full skirts and carefully placed one in the keyhole leading them into a small space lined with bookshelves. The shelves had no books on them, but were instead filled with countless neat stacks of old-looking notes. Papers of different shades of beige and off-white filled every row of the bookcases, only occasionally interrupted by the odd tired-looking but bound tome. At the far side of the room Kati saw a small table but no chair. On the table she recognized several binders’ tools just like her mother had inherited from Uncle Alex, only these were new and unused. Everything a bookbinder could need: from a book press to a sewing frame, dividers, scissors, cutters, shavers, hammers, folders, glue brushes in every shape and size, iron weights, boards and even tools she had never seen before. Placing the bundle of leather on the ground next to a box filled with spools of thread in various sizes, Erzsébet inhaled as if she wanted to absorb the papery essence of the room and smiled.

“I brought these tools from Vienna especially for you,” she said smiling down at Kati who was awed by everything she was seeing.

“You want me to use them?” Asked the child.

“Have you ever been to school Katalina?”

“No mistress,” answered Kati with a tinge of shame.

“Wonderful! Do you know how hard it is to find a book binder who can’t read? I’ve searched high and low, from here to Vienna, and they all have at least a small grasp of letters, and sadly for me, most understand a little Latin too. The spread of Protestantism is making the learning of letters and the art of translation a more common occurrence than I like to see.”

Kati stared; she was out of her depth with this conversation.

“That’s alright my dear, you don’t have to understand, in fact it’s imperative that you don’t. All you need to know is that you will be practicing the skills your dear uncle taught you and your mother. All this time I was searching for an uneducated binder and you were in my back yard all along, so to speak.”

“You want me to bind all these papers?”

“Yes, and you’d better do a good job of it too!” She opened her eyes wide and Kati thought she could see a sliver of color around them.

“I’ve seen examples of your uncle’s work and it’s quite good, I expect he taught your mother well.”

“Why don’t you have my mother do them?” Kati asked innocently, instantly regretting speaking out of turn.

“You will not question me!” She said raising her hand to which Kati instinctively turned away, but to her relief no slap followed the threat.

“Yes mistress, I’m sorry mistress,” she said in one breath relieved to have been spared.

“All these documents are extremely important to me. They are very old and unique and need to be bound with care and attention. As you do not know how to read you will do well to remember their order and not mix any of the pages up. If I find any mistakes in them, you will be very sorry indeed. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes mistress, I will be very careful.” She wanted to ask what was in them, but it was obvious she wouldn’t get an answer. Looking at them she realized that if they were bound all these papers would form several books. What secret was so important that only an illiterate fourteen year old child could be trusted to work on them?

“Very good, you will begin right away, because you will have more work in the coming days and I will require that these are all done as soon as possible.”

“I’ll do whatever you say, Countess.”

“Very good. Tomorrow evening I will be leaving for a few days and I will return with my students. Do your work until then and if I am pleased you will receive more duties and maybe even a little more money to send to your mother.”

The mention of money overjoyed Kati who missed her mother terribly and thought of her constantly. She was pleased by the idea that she was now able to help her with the money she was making, though she didn’t know when she would get any.

“Oh and one more thing,” said the Countess before making her way out of the room. “You will be needing these to get in and out of this part of the castle as well as this room." She bent down to Kati’s height to hand over the two keys she had used to get into the room. “Do not lose them, Katalina, or there will be hell to pay. These keys are just as important as these books. Remember that you are being trusted with a lot at this moment, and I expect you will prove yourself. Disappoint me, and both you and your mother will spend the rest of your lives in utter misery!”

“I will not let them out of my sight I promise!” And with that she stuffed them into her dress pocket, keeping her hand in there for a few moments, too afraid to let them go.

***

As promised, the following evening the Countess departed from Csejthe leaving Kati to her new duties. Approaching the table of equipment, Kati felt overwhelmed by the sheer volume of work to be completed. She had indeed learned the binding process from her mother who had learned it from Uncle Alex, but it was far from a common occurrence. She wasn’t even sure if she remembered how to do it. She wondered what to do next. She could start and hope it all went well or she could go see her mother who could remind her of the process. Though she was hesitant to leave, she thought that attempting to bind the Countess’s precious notes and getting it wrong would be a lot worse than leaving the castle for the day without permission. She decided she was going to go at the crack of dawn when she had the least chance of being seen.

At dawn she was already up and heading down the long stone walk that led away from the castle. To her good fortune the gate had not been sealed so she slipped out unobserved. In the days she had been here she had yet to come face to face with anyone so she doubted if anyone was around to watch her go anyway. Safely out of range of any prying eyes she reached the lower gardens and headed in the direction of her mother's house. Getting there was quite easy, all she had to do was cut through the Nádasdy forest grounds, go past the village and then journey a few more miles out to her house.

As she was making her way through the woods she noticed an area where the trees had grown differently. Instead of the random way in which trees of different species grew in the little forest, this section was more artificial. Instead of the usual spruce, chestnut and oak tree selection, this wall of trees consisted only of thickly arranged pines and when she approached it the line practically formed a corridor which led towards a small orchard with a little hut inside. The chimney was smoking and the curtains were open and though curious she was too apprehensive about getting too close. Then she noticed an old man kneeling on the ground tending to some seedlings with his back towards her and tentatively she approached.

“Who’s there?” Asked the old man turning his head a little in her direction but not showing his face. She could see his rich white beard but not much else.

Kati stopped where she stood, alarmed by his hostile tone, wondering whether she should cut her losses and make a run for it before he saw her face.

“Speak up!” Insisted the man.

Taking a few hesitant steps closer, she spoke, “I’m Katalina, I work at the castle, but I’m not supposed to be here." She grabbed on the outside of her skirt pocket ensuring that the keys were still there, an act she would frequently repeat in times of anxiety.

“Then you’d better not be here,” said the man, carefully pushing the fresh dirt around his sprouting plants.

“If you speak with anyone from the castle, please don’t tell them you saw me, alright?”

“Oh, don’t worry child, I won’t see anyone,” he said turning around causing Kati to inadvertently gasp.

His face was terribly scarred where his eyes had once been. In their place, misshaped skin had formed permanent lids with marks that led all the way down to his cheeks as if some crazed animal had mauled at him. Supporting himself up against the tree he was near, he brushed the dirt away from his knees and hands before fumbling around in the air to locate his walking stick which he had planted into the soft soil.

“Don’t be alarmed, I won’t hurt you, I’m perfectly harmless as you can see,” he said, making her feel ashamed of thinking that this fragile old man could be dangerous.

“What happened to you?” Asked Kati, following him but stopping at the door as he went inside.

“Nothing that should concern a little girl,” said the old man putting his cane against the wall and washing his hands at a bucket near the door after locating it with his foot.

“Were you born like that? I’ve seen other people with deformities. I’m not afraid. One of my mother’s neighbors has a little girl with bowed legs who can’t walk so sometimes I sit with her and we make up stories like I used to do with my Uncle Alex.”

Ignoring her, the old man dried his hands on a tired and dirty looking cloth.

“Did you say you worked at the castle?”

“Yes.”

“And won’t your mistress be looking for you?”

“Oh she’s away today.”

“Did she tell you you could leave?”

“No, but…”

“Then I suggest you get back immediately,” he said with a stern tone.

“But there is something I need to do first.”

“You do that then and get back quickly.”

“She won’t know that I left, nobody saw me. In fact I wonder if there are any other people up there except us. I haven’t seen anybody since I've been here.”

“There’s people there. Unlike you though, they have the good sense to do as they’re told. The Countess likes her privacy, you better remember that. And so do I for that matter."

“Fine, then I’ll go,” she said knitting her brow.

“You’ll be wise to do so. Servants must do as they’re told. It’s our duty.”

“Are you her servant too?”

“Since the day I was born.”

“So you’ll be here if I come back?”

“Where would I go?”

“I’ll come back another time then,” said Kati and the old man sighed.

***

Kati’s mother was returning from the stream where she had gone to wash some clothes. The basket was heavy and the strain was reminding her that her joints were not what they once used to be. Her body always seemed to hurt lately and many simple tasks felt very difficult to her. She hoped it was the changing seasons and that soon she would feel her old self again.

She thought of Kati who was on her way to becoming more independent and perhaps mature a little now she had gone to work at the castle. She had always doted on the girl, her only child to survive infancy, and she often wondered if she had harmed her by being too tender.
Nonsense
, she thought to herself as she climbed up the grassy incline,
affection is never a disadvantage. Katalina is a smart girl and she’ll find her place in the world.

Approaching the clearing their house was located in, she put the basket on the ground in order to catch her breath.

“There you are!” Kati shouted from the front of the house and ran towards her, jumping into her arms.

Her mother was startled to see her, but overjoyed at the same time.

Pulling her back she stroked her face, “Let me look at you,” she demanded examining the girl closely.

“Mother, I’ve only been gone a few days, I’m fine, look!” She did a twirl in her new servant dress.

“You look well, you cheeks are filled out! You must be eating well.”

“Yes Mother, the food is very good at the castle.”

“My hard working girl! I’m so proud of you, even though I didn’t want you to leave at first.”