Page 35

CHAPTER 35

I had come to Master Mikhail’s with the clothes on my back and my weapons. No phone chargers, no computer, no books, no clean panties. With nothing to do, the lack of books was a major irritant. No clean clothes was a problem that promised to get worse.

I helped the Master in his forge, but he didn’t have a lot of projects in the works, so I helped Dominica in the kitchen. Both masters gave me some magical exercises to do, and I worked on those. I read a book on Swiss history from Master Mikhail’s library that he recommended. It did help with my German a little, but I wished he had a German-English dictionary.

Three days after my arrival there, Luka showed up. He got out of his car and opened the trunk.

“Frau Buckner sent these,” he said. There were two boxes, and Luka helped me carry them into the house.

One box held books, my chargers, and my computer. They were the books Frau Buckner was using to teach me German and a couple of books on the theory of magic that Master Adolphus had given me to read. The other box held some clothes and my toiletries. At the bottom was a box of tampons with a note in English in Siobhan’s handwriting:

Don’t know if you need these now, but you will eventually. —S.

“I’m not going home,” I said.

Luka shook his head. “No, you’re not. There is still a warrant for your arrest. The Kantonspolizei will arrest you on sight. Müller thinks he’s being clever.”

I sighed. “I guess I should have killed him when I had the chance. I mean, if I’m going to get sent to prison for murder, it should be a murder that makes the world a better place.”

He shot a glance at me, then said, “I’m glad you don’t really think that way.”

“Yeah, well, it is tempting, though. The weird thing is Nicola is the only member of that family I’ve met that I like.”

He laughed. We carried the boxes to the room I was using—Master Mikhail and Dominica’s daughter’s room. The girl was grown and married with kids of her own. Master Jonas was using their son’s room.

Müller’s faction of the Guild also had a warrant out for Master Jonas. In his case, they wanted him only “for questioning.”

“I don’t think they would like the answers,” he said with a laugh.

Luka stayed for dinner, then drove back to town.

After doing the dishes, I retreated to my room, and soon thereafter, Dominica knocked on the door.

“These are the books you were so concerned about?” she asked, looking at the titles, her expression clearly puzzled.

“Yes, most of these are the books Frau Buckner is using to improve my German. I have to be fluent enough by fall that I can follow the lectures at the university and pass my classes.”

Her face cleared. “Ah, I see. Is there anything I can do to help? You know, German is not my native tongue, although I’ve been here for more than seventy years. I still remember some of the things that I stumbled on.”

I showed her the instructions Frau Buckner had included with the books—things I should concentrate on.

“Yes,” Dominica said, “I think I can help you with some of these.”

And so, after breakfast every morning, she worked with me for an hour or so. She turned out to be very helpful, as she explained some things Frau Buckner considered self-explanatory.

I knew that Mikhail and Jonas were monitoring the political situation in Zürich and across Switzerland very closely, but I figured they didn’t need my help with that, and when I checked the news, it just upset me. I spoke to Master Adolphus a couple of times, and to Master Elias and Amelia in the States. The whole world seemed to be in crisis, but very little new was actually happening.

Three days after Luka’s visit, Master Adolphus called me.

“Kaitlyn, you’re going to receive a visitor—Nicola Müller. I’ve spoken with her and understand why she’s going to see you. The Church and the Knights have escalated the conflict with the strigoi. Yesterday, they sent a large force into the Langstrasse, and slaughtered more than a hundred strigoi. They also captured Verner Karlsson. That is something likely to have wide ramifications.”

“Captured? You mean they took his body during the daytime? Took it where?”

“No one seems to know. Nicola thinks to the Liebfrauenkirche. It’s the major Universal church in Zürich. Officially, the Church and the Knights are saying nothing, not even acknowledging their incursion. One of our spies in Müller’s group informed us of it, but even Müller didn’t know of their plan ahead of time.”

“So, what does Nicola want with me?” I asked, although I had a terrible suspicion.

“She needs a tracker. But you don’t have to say yes. I’ve talked to Jonas and Mikhail, and they think it’s a bad idea.”

“And you?”

He was silent for what seemed a long time. “I’m not sure if it’s a bad idea or a good idea, depending on how you balance it. It’s certainly dangerous. I want to talk to you after you meet with Nicola. Don’t give her an answer tonight.”

* * *

S oon after sundown, a limousine pulled up about a hundred meters from the fence surrounding Master Mikhail’s property. Someone got out and walked up the road. As the person got closer, I had the feeling it was a woman—due to her shape and the fact that she was wearing a dress.

She crossed the fence line and continued up the road. As she came closer, it became apparent that her feet never touched the ground. She seemed to float.

“How is she doing that?” I asked.

“A mystery to me. Some kind of magic, or an illusion?” Master Mikhail said.

“I think she heard about the Knights’ attempt to come here,” I said.

In the distance, outside the fence, the landscape seemed to ripple, as though a stiff breeze was blowing. I realized there were people, or some kind of creatures, moving around. Probably Nicola’s escort.

She floated up to the front porch, stopped, and bowed.

“Master Mikhail, Master Jonas,” I said, “may I present Mistress Nicola Müller.”

The two men bowed.

“Welcome to my home,” Master Mikhail said. He led us all around to the back porch, where a table and chairs were laid out.

“I’m afraid we don’t have any of your preferred beverage,” he said. “Will water suffice?”

“That will be fine,” Nicola said. “Thank you.”

She sat and arranged her skirt. The rest of us took our seats.

“I assume you’ve spoken to Adolphus,” she said, “and he has told you of the Knights’ assault on our properties in the Langstrasse. It has left us in an untenable situation.”

“Master Verner was captured?” Jonas asked. “Are you sure he was captured and did not suffer the final death?”

Nicola nodded. “I am his child. If he were truly dead, I would know. More to the point, so would all seven of his surviving children. And that potentially could affect you and all beings in Zürich.”

The masters took this poorly—creased foreheads, frowns, glances at each other, and shifting around in their chairs.

“Okay, someone explain the problem to me. Pretend that I’m totally ignorant.” I chuckled. “No detail is too small.”

Nicola took a deep breath, imposing not only because of the way her chest swelled, but also because she didn’t really breathe the way someone alive would.

“When a strigoi dies, his or her children are cast adrift,” she said. “An older, more powerful strigoi, is expected to step into that void. Or, in the case of the death of the Master of the City, the surviving children battle until only one is left.”

She fixed me with her eyes. “I have my children, and their children, as do Verner’s other children. I know that at least two of them are making plans to expand their lineage in anticipation of the battle to come. That means the kidnapping of normal humans will increase. Some of my rivals might see Verner’s conversion of me and decide to experiment with mages—anything they think might give them an edge.”

Shaking her head, she said, “I am the youngest of his children. What power I have and what it would mean in a succession battle is untested. I need to find Verner and rescue him. Otherwise, if the Knights kill him, there will be a strigoi civil war that will tear this city apart. You and the lycanthropes currently have an agreement with Verner to abide by the Compact. If he dies, you’ll have to renegotiate that with his successor. In the meantime, chaos will reign.”

“The Church could keep him prisoner forever,” Master Jonas said. “That’s what I would do if I were the archbishop. A dark dungeon, don’t have to feed him. He would still live, but he’d be out of the way, and his children would be paralyzed.”

“Not completely,” Nicola said. “Remember what I said about the various factions building their forces. That is already happening, to some extent due to our losses in recent months. Verner had already forbidden his grandchildren from turning new children. They were brought to him after the strigoi fed, and he gave them to me or his other direct children to turn. He knew too well what happens when many new strigoi are not supervised properly.”

I nodded. “I’ve seen several instances of that on the streets. Newly turned strigoi without any discipline, just the hunger. The Knights destroy them every night.”

Her eyes looked directly into mine. “I need to find Verner.”

I was not susceptible to vampire entrancement, but I still felt her force of will.

“I must speak with Master Adolphus,” I said. “I can’t give you an answer right now.”

She bowed her head slightly. “That is fair. You are his apprentice. He was my first choice to assist me, but he declined.”

“He told me that Master Jonas and Master Mikhail think any involvement by me is a bad idea. I do know that if I were to agree, you would have to follow any plan I might devise.” I allowed a bit of a smile to cross my face. “I have trust issues, Nicola. You would have to convince me I could trust you. The reputation of the strigoi does not easily inspire that.”

One of the major precepts I lived by—and that had kept me alive—was that vampires had no morals or ethics, and that all they cared about was their own survival. Having died once, they tended to cling to their half-life with every fiber of their being. If not for the power of entrancement—which grew stronger with age—there was no way one could create a vampire army. They wouldn’t willingly sacrifice their lives for an ideal, a person, or riches. When you might live a thousand years, running away to ensure survival made sense.