Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (30 page)

“Alright, easy does it, you’re doing great.
 
Abby, you
have
to keep your eyes open.
 
That’s it, you’re doing great.”
 
Michael wasn’t sure what was more exhausting, moving across the chain, or the constant encouragement he had to give his sister.
 
He’d never seen her more terrified, and although she was doing her best to keep going, he found himself constantly having to push her.

After what seemed like hours, they’d made it within just a few dozen feet from the other tower.
 
“Come on Abby, we’re almost there.
 
Look!”

She raised her eyes and tried to force a smile.
 
Michael smiled back, but then something off in the distance caught his attention.

“Hold on,” he whispered to the girls.
 
“Don’t move for a minute.”
 
Magda shrugged at him questioningly.
 
“Over there,” he whispered again.

She turned her head to find what he was looking at, and nearly fell over backwards.
 
Far down toward the other side of the castle, on a chain leading from the keep to another tower, a humongous form swung playfully along, hand over hand like a gorilla.
 
It stopped and gazed in their direction, muscles bulging as it hung from the chain.

Magda squinted her eyes to get a good look at it, but it was so dark she couldn’t see any real details.
 
Was the thing even human?
 
“Do you think that’s what these chains are for?
 
Just so that creature can move around the castle?”

“I don’t know,” said Michael.
 
He stared at the beast nervously, relieved when it finally resumed its path toward the keep.
 
“What the heck
is
that thing?”

“Can we just hurry up and get inside,” Abigail pleaded.
 
“What if it sees us?”

Michael nodded and patted her hand.

They finished scurrying along the chain, and as soon as he cut Abigail’s rope, she scrambled up through the window as if the devil himself were behind her.
 
Magda followed, and finally Michael cut his own rope and pulled himself up onto the sill, eager to be on solid ground once more, and then his blood ran cold at the sound of Abigail’s scream.

Michael hopped down from the window and landed next to Magda.
 
The chamber was dark and he couldn’t make out much, but he could see the form of Abigail as she stumbled backward, knocking him into the wall.

“What’s wrong with you?” he demanded.
 
“What are you screaming at?”

“There’s something over there!
 
Something big.
 
I saw it move just after I came through the window.”

Michael pulled out his faery lantern.
 
Its warm blue light enveloped the room, and he and both girls moved as far back against the wall as they could.
 
Michael had the sudden urge to jump back out the window, but he knew that wouldn’t turn out well.

Curled up in a ball on the floor was a dragon.
 
It looked up at them like a dog caught in the middle of a nap.

“I-is th-th-that what I think it is?” Magda quivered.

Michael pulled his bow from his shoulder and strung an arrow.

“Wait,” Abigail gasped, “I know what that is.”

“Uh, we all know what that is,” Michael whispered sarcastically.
 
“It’s a dragon.”
 
Ever since his encounter with Zuriel, Michael hated dragons.
 
He’d always thought they were a cool legend before one tried to kill his family.

“No, it’s not,” she told him.
 
“It’s a dracorex.”

“A what?” he snapped.
 
“What are you talking about?”

“It’s a dracorex hogwartsia.
 
A dinosaur.
 
Elizabeth taught me about them in science a few months ago, but they’re
supposed
to be extinct.”

“Yeah? And faeries, werewolves and vampires are only
supposed
to be legends, right?
 
You can’t always believe what you read, remember?”

“Fine,” said Magda, “so it’s a dracorex.
 
But why is it locked in a tower in Dracula’s Castle and why is it lying there staring at us?”

“I don’t know, but it doesn’t look very aggressive, does it?” Michael said.
 
“Maybe it’s a plant eater or something.
 
What are they called?
 
Herbvores?”

“Herbivores,” Abigail corrected him.
 
“And don’t act stupid to show off for Magda.
 
Women like
smart
men.”

For a moment, Michael thought about shooting Abigail instead of the dinosaur.

“So what do you have to say for yourself Lizard Lips, are you going to try and eat us?” he asked it.

To his astonishment, the creature shook its head.

“WHAT?” Abigail gasped.
 
“Did you see that?
 
Hey dinosaur, can you understand us?”

The beast nodded its head, and slowly drug itself to a standing position.
 
It looked really tired, or sick, or depressed.
 
Michael wasn’t sure which.
 
“Wait a minute, are you a shape-shifter?”

The beast looked as though it were thinking hard about whether it wanted to answer, but after a few moments nodded its head again.

“A shape-shifter?” Magda asked in a disgusted voice.
 
“We should kill it then.”

“Kill it?” snapped Abigail.
 
“What for?
 
It hasn’t done anything to us.”

“Shape-shifters are evil.
 
Werewolves, vampires, changelings- I’ve never heard of one who wasn’t.”

Abigail’s face was getting redder by the second.
 
“Well, we have!
 
And I don’t think
you
know what
you’re
talking about.”

Michael thought he’d better defuse the situation before they began brawling again.
 
“Abigail’s right.
 
Not all shape-shifters are bad.
 
In fact, we’ve met some really nice ones.”

Magda frowned at him skeptically, but it appeared that Abigail’s face was returning to a normal color.

“All right,” he told the dracorex, “now that we’ve established that none of us is going to kill each other, how about you change back into a human so we can talk.”

The creature looked down and slowly shook its head.

“Why not?” Michael asked it.
 
“Are you unable to change back?”

It shook its head again, and then looked up toward the ceiling.
 
Michael followed its gaze, where a series of heavy steel spikes hung menacingly above them.
 
Looking back down at the creature’s feet, he saw that it stood on a round, discolored section of the floor, it was sunk down from the stones around it by a few inches.

“It can’t change form or move off that part of the floor,” he pointed out to the girls, “otherwise it triggers those spikes, and Bronto Burgers get put on the dinner menu.”

Abigail gave him one of her
this is no time for joking
scowls.
 
“Over there by the door,” she said and pointed.

Michael looked over and saw a lever on the wall.
 
“Good eye, Abby.”

“What’s that?” Magda asked him.

“This’ll disengage the trap,” he told her, walking to it.

“But aren’t those things usually hidden?”

“Only when the person who built the trap doesn’t want you to find it.
 
Our dad told us that having a lever like this in a place where the prisoner can see it is an additional form of torture.
 
There’s always a little sliver of hope in the prisoner’s mind that he’ll be able to reach it, but it’s impossible.
 
The means of his escape is right there in front of him, but he can’t do anything about it.”
 
He pushed the lever up and heard it click.
 
“There you go,” he told the creature.

The dracorex instantly changed its form into that of a skinny old man, who wore the remnants of a tattered, gray suit.
 
He fell to his knees, and Michael half expected him to keel over dead.

“Th-thank you,” the old man rasped.
 
“Y-you wouldn’t have any water would you?”

Michael walked over and knelt down beside him.
 
“I’m sorry, we don’t. Who
are
you?”

With effort, he lifted his head to meet Michael’s eyes.
 
“I’m a slayer,” he coughed.
 
“You can call me the Dragon.”

Michael remembered Alucard’s story, and also the one Abigail had told him about the man who’d once saved Dorothy Stoker.
 
Could this disheveled fellow be the same one who’d befriended and helped them both all those years ago?
 
He could see that his sister was wondering the same thing, and discreetly shook his head to warn her from asking him about it.
 
He wasn’t sure yet that the old man could be trusted.

“How long have you been trapped in this tower?” he asked, helping the Dragon sit up.

“I’ve been a prisoner in this castle for a very long time.
 
Almost too long to remember.”
 
He ran his fingers through his gritty salt and pepper hair, and eyed the three children curiously.
 
“They have been holding me here until…wait.
 
Are you
him
?”
 
He stared hard into Michael’s eyes, as if he were looking for something.
 
“I see no resemblance, but-but why else would you have come here?”

“We didn’t come here,” Michael told him.
 
“We were brought.
 
Who is it that you think I am?”

“Tell me your name,” the old man pleaded.

Michael hesitated.
 
As salty as the old man was, he didn’t seem evil.
 
He had kind eyes.
 
“I’m Michael Belmont.”

“BELMONT?” he repeated as if he’d just seen a ghost.
 
“Well that
is
interesting.
 
Still, you’re not the one I expected.”

“You expected a Van Helsing, didn’t you?” Michael asked him.

He frowned.
 
“How did you know that?”

“We know about Mihnea’s plans to re-open the gateway.
 
We’re trying to stop him.”

“Stop him?
 
How?
 
The only way to prevent that portal from being opened is to conceal the heir of Abraham Van Helsing.”

Michael shook his head.
 
“Mihnea knows who he is.
 
He’s been killing off members of the Van Helsing family for years, and the only way to make him stop is to destroy the portal for good.”

“Destroy the portal?”
 
He asked hopefully.
 
“I-I suppose it’s possible.
 
Yes, I remember something he said about that.
 
But you’d need something else to do it, something that’s very well hidden.”

“You mean the sword of Van Helsing?” Michael nodded.
 
“My dad found it years ago.
 
But Mihnea stole it from us.”

The old man suddenly looked shocked and worried.
 
“It looks like I’ve missed a few things while being held here.
 
We need to get out of this castle; there is much to do.
 
C-can you help me up?” he groaned while rising slowly to his feet.

Michael and Abigail each took an arm and helped him up.

“Who said something about destroying the gateway?” Michael asked him.
 
“Did they tell you how to do it?”

“That’s not important now,” the Dragon told him.
 
“We must focus on getting out of here immediately, while we still have the chance.”

Abigail crossed her arms defiantly.
 
“We can’t leave yet, Elizabeth is being held here somewhere.”

“I know, but how are we going to find her on our own?”
 
Michael’s heart sank.
 
We’re no match for Mihnea.
 
Maybe we should come back with Dad and Caleb.”

Abigail began to weep.
 
“But…but we can’t just abandon her?”

“We won’t, but we need to regroup first.
 
Not even Alucard returned from this castle alone.
 
What do you think
we’ll
be able to do?”

“You know of Alucard?” The Dragon asked excitedly.
 
“How is he?
 
Is he alive?
 
Is he well?”

“We’re not sure,” Michael told him reluctantly.
 
“He was the last time we saw him, but he disappeared after coming here to search for our friend Elizabeth.
 
We haven’t been able to contact him in days.”

“His brother must be holding him captive somewhere in the castle then.
 
I hate to say it, but your friend is correct, little girl,” the Dragon told Abigail.
 
“The best thing to do would be to come back prepared for a fight, and to bring the heir of Abraham Van Helsing with us.”

“He’s my brother,” Abigail corrected him.
 
“Besides, Olaf Van Helsing is off lying in a coma, so I don’t think he’s going to be up for the trip any time soon.”

“How do we even know we can trust this man?” Magda demanded.
 
“We don’t know anything about him.”

“What choice do we have?” Michael told her.
 
“Besides, I just kind of…
feel
like we can trust him.”