I was about to hurry down when I noticed the figure of a woman on the heath. The cloud was moving toward her.
“Mina!” I shouted, startling a formation of gray geese overhead.
I ran to the stairway and wound down to the main floor, crossing to the door so quickly I overturned a chair, its back striking the floor with a sound like a shot. The steep entry stairs forced me to slow, but soon I was flying down the hill, dodging the moorstone in my path.
The cloud had reversed course now, and I soon closed the distance. Plunging inside the wall of vapor, I waved my hand as if to clear smoke from my vision.
“Mina?” I called out. Droplets collected on my exposed skin.
No answer came as I moved within the cloud, stumbling over the uneven ground that I could no longer see. I called for her again without result, but then finally the vapor cleared enough that a hulking shadow began to take shape—along with Mina, invisible at first against the silhouette.
Goosevar.He had the torso of a tall, broad-shouldered man, back curved like a crescent moon as he hunched over her. The network of branches fanned out from his head, and the bottom half of his torso divided into legs, shaggy with gray lichen. His flesh looked rough like the bark of a tree, including that of the canine face—long snout, ember eyes, and thin lips peeling back over black gums to reveal a gleam of white fangs.
Mina, child-size before him, appeared unharmed, though her eyes were glassy. Her hair hung loose about her shoulders, and her freckles stood out starkly in the strange silver-white light. Her gaze was flat, expression blank. She did not seem to have registered my presence.
“What have you done to her?” I demanded, voice broken by coursing fear.
Goosevar made no reply, but the curtain of fog was re-forming. I lunged for Mina, catching her against my chest. Once again trusting that she was safer with me than this monster.
He stepped back from us, folding himself low to the ground, moving down the heath within the cloud.
Then a series of impossible scenes played before my eyes.
Goosevar
The strange veil fell away, and I felt the body of another person break from mine.Impossibly cold.
Harker.
Wind lifting the ends of my hair, I touched my throat, finding the bandage still in place.He hasn’t fed on me.
Roche Rock loomed before me, its master standing between us. He wore a stunned expression, and his own loose waves blew back from his face.
I hugged my arms around my chest. This didn’t feel like a dream, yet how had I come to be here?
Then I remembered the cloud that had seemed somehow alive, and Goosevar waiting inside.Waiting for me.I had at last glimpsed his face, with its long jaw and twin flames for eyes. I remembered how fog had rolled from his open mouth.
“What happened?” My voice carried only a hint of the panic I felt. “Where is he?”
“I’m not sure about either,” Harker said. “But let us get out of this wind.”
I eyed the curving spine of the dark ridge jutting behind him, with its promise of shelter—or possibly death. I looked at him, and he read my question.
“I’m afraid I don’t know what else to do,” he said, and I could see his desperation. “I have much to tell you. I would far rather take youhome. I would far rather you weren’t involved. But it seems that you are, whether I like it or not, and I’m beginning to be more afraid for you when you’re away from me than when you’re with me.”
My heart wrenched, and I took a step toward him.
His arms flexed, like he mightreach for me. Instead, his hands curled into fists.
Breathing deeply, I gazed into the sky. It had gone dark, only a shade or two lighter than the chapel itself. A few cold needles of rain found my cheeks, and soon there were more.
“Yes,” I said. “Let us go in.”
He followed me up and through the heavy door, and he bade me sit near the hearth while he got a fire going. For long moments neither of us spoke, and the air began to feel thick.
In the silence, I thought about what had happened—the fact I’d been in the power of that creature and had almost no memory of it—and I began to shake.
“I’m frightened, Harker,” I said.
