Читать книгу Bathed In Blood - Alex Archer - Страница 6
ОглавлениеCsejte Castle, Upper Hungary December 30, 1610
The castle door stood partially open, as if in invitation.
From his hiding place amid the shrubbery half a dozen yards away, Count György Thurzó eyed the door cautiously.
He didn’t like it.
He had planned every detail of this mission, for failure could not only doom his career but bring reprisals the likes of which he’d never seen. Thurzó had informed no one of his intent to visit the castle; the king had merely ordered that he investigate the accusations, a task he could have assigned to one of his own court functionaries. But Thurzó had decided to investigate himself. If the claims proved to be unfounded, he would cull favor with the countess, the widow of his old friend, for having saved her from public embarrassment.
If the accusations proved to be true... Well, then, he would be in a position to handle the situation with the delicate hand it would surely require.
He and his men had traveled from the capital only at night, hiding out in abandoned barns and empty groves each morning so that none might see their approach and send word ahead to the castle’s mistress, Countess Elizabeth Báthory. The success of their venture depended entirely on surprise; the countess might not be cut from the same cloth as her deceased husband, Ferenc Nádasdy—a man whose ruthless ferocity on the battlefield had earned him the moniker the Black Knight of Hungary—but Thurzó knew her to be extraordinarily intelligent and cunning, a combination that was apt to make her dangerous.
His group had reached the village of Csejte just before sundown and hidden in a narrow canyon half a mile outside town until full dark. Then and only then had they passed through town and headed up the narrow road that led to the castle proper, sitting atop a hill that overlooked both the town and the surrounding territory. Nearing the castle, they’d dismounted before the final bend in the road, tied the horses to nearby trees and crept forward to their present position: a clump of shrubbery that allowed them to see the castle without being seen.
That door looked like trouble to Thurzó. He hadn’t come all this way to be ambushed.
Why leave it open?
Thurzó watched the entryway carefully, his gaze returning again and again to the narrow triangle of light spilling across the floor tiles just beyond. If someone was waiting inside the door, they would eventually shift their position, and their shadow would dance across that space, even if only for a second.
But the light on the floor remained steady; no shadow disturbed it, even after waiting several long, tense moments.
Not an ambush, then? A careless servant, perhaps?
If that was what it was, they were in luck. Before setting out for Csejte, Thurzó hadn’t known how he was going to gain access to the castle. He’d run through various scenarios, but each and every one of them, aside from clandestinely scaling the walls, had required help from someone already on the inside. He’d had his men pack grappling hooks and ropes just in case, but he’d spent the better part of the journey here praying for another solution.
It seemed his prayers had been answered.
He glanced back at his men, gave the signal and then rose from his crouch and headed for the half-open door at a brisk walk, drawing his sword as he went. If it came to fighting, he would be ready, as would his men; the handpicked fighters following at his heels were some of the best in his retinue, never mind the most trustworthy. They’d been sworn to secrecy for the duration of the mission, and he was confident that each and every one of them would keep their word. He heard more than one blade slide from its sheath behind him, and smiled at the sound.
Thurzó didn’t stop when he reached the door but strode in, an excuse about his concern for the countess’s safety ready on his lips. The excuse turned out to be unnecessary, though, for the foyer was empty and quiet.
Too quiet.
Thurzó waved his men forward. Perhaps it was just a misperception caused by his own unease, but every single man that followed him inside seemed to hesitate, as if aware that crossing the threshold put them on a path from which there was no return.
Real or imagined, Thurzó didn’t blame them. What they’d come here to investigate would chill even the most hardened of hearts. And if it was true...
If it was true, then God help us all.
The men quickly split into two groups. The first would sweep the upper floors while the second, led by Thurzó himself, would cover the main floor and then descend into the dungeons.
If the rumors were true, that was where he expected to find Elizabeth. Word had reached the king a week hence that she would be gathering tonight with her confidants for one of her dark rituals. Thurzó had come to catch her in the act.
Better me than someone else, he reasoned. At least I will show restraint.
They found the first body less than five minutes after separating from the others.
The young woman lay sprawled facedown against the side of the passageway. She was naked, with long blond hair that was caked with drying blood. A thin, wavering trail of the same stretched out behind her, as if she had been crawling forward on her stomach before her strength had given out.
Thurzó rushed to her side, but when he rolled her over it was clear he was too late; her unseeing eyes stared up at him from her slack face.
He noted absently that she’d probably been quite pretty, but the majority of his attention was drawn to the extreme pallor of her skin and the multiple wounds that covered her chest and abdomen. He stopped counting at twenty. The sheer violence of the act sickened him; who would do this to a woman?
He knew the answer, of course. He didn’t want to admit it.
Elizabeth, what have you done?
At first, Thurzó thought the injuries had been made with a knife or dagger, but upon closer examination he could see the wounds were rounded, like those delivered with an auger or some other tool designed for puncturing. They were also deep and had no doubt led to significant blood loss. That alone made him think she hadn’t crawled here on her own; someone had been dragging her and dumped her here when they had no more use for her.
After she’d been drained dry...
He shook the vile thought from his head and rose from the body, knowing this wouldn’t be the last corpse they would find within these walls.
“Nothing we can do for her,” he said quietly to his men. “We’ll take care of the body once we’ve secured the countess. Let’s keep moving.”
The group continued deeper into the castle. The halls were well lit but eerily empty, and the strange silence lay about the place like a shroud.
Thurzó was familiar with the general layout—one of the reasons he’d been chosen to lead the fact-finding expedition. He had been friends with Nádasdy, Báthory’s deceased husband, and had often played within the castle walls as a child. He used that knowledge to lead his squad through the various rooms that made up the lower floor with relative quickness until they neared the stairs that led to the dungeons. There they found a second body.
This one was also a woman, though slightly older than the first. She was a brunette and she, too, was naked, making it obvious that the two women had been treated similarly. Thurzó could see the same rounded wounds, the same pale hue to the skin that indicated massive blood loss, the same refined beauty in the woman’s features.
His men muttered darkly at the sight, and he knew their mood was changing from apprehension and fear to anger. It was one thing to accidentally kill a woman in the hot blood of battle. It was quite another, however, to ruthlessly murder a woman in one’s home. The noble class was not known for its gentle manner toward commoners, but this...this was just obscene.
Thurzó rose to his feet, intending to speak to his men, but before he could do so the door to the dungeons proper, just a few feet away, was shoved open. He spun around, sword at the ready, to find himself staring at two older women dressed in dark garments, carrying an injured and bloody girl between them. The way they were holding her, dragging her up the stairs by her wrists, made it clear they weren’t concerned with her welfare in the least; she was just another piece of garbage to be disposed of, no doubt the sooner, the better.
The two groups stared at each other for a long second, both nonplussed at being interrupted.
Thurzó recovered first, springing forward and pushing the point of his sword against the throat of the woman on the left, whom he recognized as Dorotya Semtész, one of Elizabeth’s personal servants.
“Put her down, gently,” he told them.
For a moment he thought Semtész might actually try to argue. She glared at him, pretending to dismiss the blade at her throat, but a glance over his shoulder at the rest of his party, all heavily armed and no doubt as angry as he, must have convinced her that arguing was a waste of time. Without a word she lowered the injured girl toward the floor and her companion followed suit.
Thurzó kept his blade on Semtész’z throat as he said, “Bakoš, Kollár, help that young woman. Szabó, keep your eye on her—” he indicated Semtész’s companion with a nod of his head “—while I talk to this one.”
As his men did as they were ordered, Thurzó nudged his captive off to one side, away from the others, with the point of his sword. When they were far enough away for his men not to overhear, he asked, “Where is she?”
Semtész didn’t bat an eyelash as she lied through her teeth. “At her estate in Vienna. She’ll be there for a fortnight.”
Thurzó knew that wasn’t true; he’d had men watching Báthory’s other estates for three days, and he knew she hadn’t left Csejte.
Kollár interrupted him from behind.
“She’s dead, sir.”
That made three victims so far.
God help them.
“If Lady Báthory is out of the country, then I suppose this was all your doing?”
Báthory’s servant was smart enough to see the trap he’d laid for her—admitting to the crime would mean she was as good as dead, since murder was a capital offense—but she surprised him by nodding in agreement.
“Yes. The girl’s death is my fault.”
He didn’t believe that for a moment, but he also realized the futility of trying to get information out of her when she was all too willing to confess to murder. Anything she said would be suspect, and all of it more than likely designed to delay him from carrying out his real objective—locating and arresting the countess.
He didn’t have time for this.
Thurzó grabbed the woman by the arm and led her back to Szabó, who was keeping an eye on her companion. “Put them in irons,” he told his lieutenant. “We’re taking them both back to Bratislava to stand trial.”
“Yes, sir.”
Semtész glared at him, but he ignored her, his thoughts on who he’d take with him into the dungeon for Elizabeth’s arrest and who he would leave behind to guard the prisoners.
He never got the chance to make a decision. Cries for help erupted from down below.
Thurzó didn’t hesitate; gripping his sword, he rushed down the steps. The stamp of booted feet on the stone behind him let him know that several of his men were following. At this point it didn’t really matter who it was, just that he had some backup.
Torches burned in sconces set into the walls, lighting the way before them, and the group of men quickly found themselves standing in a narrow passageway with rows of cells on either side.
The cells were full of women.
Some held the living. Some held the dead. Some held a mix of the two, and it was often difficult to tell the difference given the terrible state many of the prisoners were in. One glance was all it took to recognize that the women had been tortured. They had been beaten and battered and in some cases bitten, though by whom or what Thurzó didn’t know.
He had his suspicions, though, oh, yes.
Unlike the women they’d found upstairs, some of these prisoners needed immediate assistance, and he couldn’t just pass them by without giving aid. Leaving the dead to fulfill their mission was one thing; abandoning the living was something else entirely.
Thankfully the doors to each cell were made of wood, rather than iron. That meant there’d be no need to wait for a blacksmith. Thurzó had anticipated the need to smash through a few doors once they were inside the castle, so several of his men were carrying battle hammers.
“Break them down!” he called to his men. “Break them all down. Get these women upstairs and give them what aid you can!”
His men immediately got to work, the wood resisting at first and then splintering beneath the repeated blows. The noise drew the other half of his party from the halls and chambers upstairs, where they’d been searching for the countess, and the added manpower made the job go that much quicker.
Soon his men were entering the cells, leading those who could move up the stairs and into the great hall, where they received as much care as Thurzó’s men could provide. Those who were too injured to walk were carried upstairs by one or more of his soldiers; the gentleness these hardened warriors showed to the wounded struck Thurzó deep in the heart.
When the last of the prisoners were upstairs, the bodies were carried out of the cells and lined up in the passageway one after another. Thurzó stopped counting when he reached forty-three.
He’d checked the first few corpses—those that were reasonably intact, at least—and noted the same kinds of injuries as they’d discovered upstairs. They’d been bled dry like animals brought to the butcher’s for slaughter.
His disgust now in full bore, Thurzó stood back and let his men work, his mind wandering to all-but-forgotten days, trying to figure out just where the countess was hiding.
The upper floors were vacant, and they had covered every inch of the lower floors, as well. Lady Báthory had been inside these walls when the night had begun, and Semtész’s behavior seemed to indicate she was still here somewhere.
But where?
He cast his thoughts back, back to the days when he and Ferenc had run wild through these tunnels, and as the images rushed through his mind, one stuck out. A faint memory of Ferenc showing him a hidden door in one of the cells, a door that led to an unfinished tunnel...
Thurzó slipped away from the others and entered the cell in question. Holding a torch, he walked over to the back wall and pressed on it several times, trying to remember how his childhood friend had done it all those years ago.
Something about putting pressure on the right slab while standing...just so?
The wall slid open silently, revealing the passage he remembered from his youth. At that time, the tunnel had led to a dead end, but he could see now that improvements had been made over the years, widening the tunnel and lengthening it, as well. Torches had been lit at regular intervals. The tunnel took a couple of sharp turns and then opened up into a wide chamber.
In the center of the room, a large rectangular sunken bath was surrounded by half a dozen braziers. Each had a fire blazing inside, no doubt to help ward off the room’s chill.
In the flames’ lurid light, the bathwater had an unusual crimson tint.
Thurzó stepped forward, moving closer, and as he did so the smell finally hit him.
A thick, coppery scent—one he was intimately familiar with from the time he’d spent on the battlefield.
With slowly dawning horror, Thurzó realized the bathwater wasn’t truly water at all. It was blood, a vast pool of blood hot enough to give off steam.
He’d never seen anything like it.
And while he stood there, the surface of the pool suddenly rippled and a figure rose out of its depths, shocking him so much that he stumbled backward.
A hearty laugh—a laugh he recognized—filled the chamber as the woman rising from the bath caught sight of him.
“What’s the matter, György? Surely you’ve seen a naked woman before?”
Elizabeth!
He stood there staring—he couldn’t help himself. The countess stood thigh deep in the tub, the fluid slowly sliding down her curves and back into the bath, allowing her pale skin to peek out from the crimson flow. Her usually raven-black hair was highlighted with streaks of color, and her blue eyes peered out of a face that seemed to be camouflaged in red paint.
When she licked her lips, he was reminded that it wasn’t paint at all, but blood.
Human blood.
“My God, Elizabeth, what have you done?”
She laughed again, longer and harder this time, and he realized that asking what she hadn’t done might have proved a more useful starting point.
Even so, her answer surprised him.
“What have I done? I’ve found the very thing man has spent centuries searching for, the very thing he thought forever out of reach. I’ve found the secret to immortality!”
Thurzó couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Immortality? You’re insane! Look at yourself, Elizabeth. You’re covered in blood, for heaven’s sake!”
“Yes, look at me, György. Look at me!” she exclaimed, spreading her arms to draw his attention to her body. “I’m fifty years old and I look like a girl of twenty-five! I’m getting younger with every treatment.”
Thurzó was looking; as morbid as the scene was he couldn’t take his gaze off her. He told himself he was looking for evidence to back up her claims, preposterous as they were, but deep down he knew the truth. Countess Elizabeth Báthory was a beauty, even as she appeared now; Thurzó couldn’t deny that. He’d found her attractive when they were younger, when she’d been betrothed to his friend, and the years had only done her justice.
He looked because he wanted to look. It was as simple as that.
Rounded wounds, like those caused by a pike or an auger...
The thought slipped in like an enemy from the shadows, reminding him of just how the countess and her companions had obtained all the blood currently steaming in the sunken bath and Thurzó was suddenly ashamed.
He focused his gaze just beyond her, so he could see her movements but wouldn’t be so tempted to stare. Thurzó tried to figure out just how many bodies it must take to fill a tub of that size. And she had mentioned multiple treatments...
“I don’t care what you claim to have discovered,” he said through a jaw stiffened with anger and distaste. He waved with his free hand at the bath before him. “You should be struck down where you stand for this...this abomination!”
Elizabeth walked forward slowly, swaying slightly as if listening to some sensual rhythm only she could hear. Thurzó tried to keep his gaze focused over her shoulder, but the closer she came, the more difficult that was, until he had no choice but to face her.
By now she was only a few feet away.
His gaze found hers, and then, as if by its own volition, dropped to her body once more.
Catching himself, he looked back into her face and saw her smirking at him.
“Oh, but you’re not going to do that, are you, György?” she asked softly. “There are other things you’d much rather do than strike me down.”
She was right; he could no more hurt her than he could grow wings and fly. The sad truth was that he’d been in love with Elizabeth Báthory for years.
Elizabeth moved closer, until her blood-slicked body was just inches from his own. He could feel the heat rising from it as she said, “So what are you going to do, György?”
Thurzó stared deep into her eyes, letting her see the storm that raged within him, and then, steeling himself, said, “In the name of His Majesty, King Matthias II, and under the authority granted to me as the palatine of Hungary, I place you under arrest for the torture and murder of multiple young women under your care...”
Bytča, Hungary
January 1611
THE TRIAL WAS a madhouse.
Thurzó had been observing the proceedings from the balcony overlooking the judges’ box for the past several days. He’d watched witness after witness take the stand and condemn the three women and one man on trial for the evils conducted at Csejte and elsewhere.
Elizabeth herself was not on trial; she remained at Csejte Castle under house arrest, guarded by ten of his most trusted men. It had taken considerable effort on his part to convince King Matthias that putting a member of the upper nobility on trial would serve little purpose. Báthory came from a wealthy and influential family; angering them by trying and executing her, which was precisely what Matthias wanted to happen, would have caused no end of difficulties. Thurzó had hoped to convince the king that Elizabeth should be spirited away to a nunnery for the remainder of her days, but that possibility became less and less likely as word of Báthory’s involvement in the atrocities quickly spread.
Just the day before a journal was produced as evidence by one of the maids, listing six hundred and fifty victims who’d died by Elizabeth’s hand. Thurzó hadn’t seen it himself, so he couldn’t vouch for its authenticity, but at this point it really didn’t matter. Elizabeth was responsible for killing young women and stealing their blood. Thurzó had witnessed her crimes firsthand.
Commotion spread through the courtroom below, breaking into Thurzó’s thoughts. Leaning over the banister, he could see that Royal Supreme Court Judge Theodosius Syrmiensis was returning to his seat while his twenty co-judges took their places in the judges’ box.
Thurzó felt his pulse race; a verdict must have been reached.
Judge Syrmiensis sat down and waited for the wardens to restore order to the room. When all was quiet, he faced the defendants.
“Dorotya Semtész, Ilona Jó, Katarína Benická and János Fickó, this court finds you guilty of eighty counts of murder.”
A roar went up in the courtroom, and the judge had to wait until the wardens could quiet everyone a second time.
“Defendants Semtész, Jó and Fickó shall be put to death, sentence to be carried out immediately. Defendant Benická is sentenced to life imprisonment. The court has spoken.”
Commotion erupted again, but Thurzó had lost interest. The verdict was exactly what he’d predicated; Benická had been bullied by the others and therefore deserved a lesser sentence, an opinion he had stressed during his own testimony a few days earlier.
Justice had been served.
A memory of Elizabeth rising out of the pool of blood reminded him that one aspect of this whole mess still needed to be resolved. Thankfully the verdict would give him the opportunity to see the king and plead his case again.
Perhaps this time the king might listen...
Forty minutes later he was ushered into the king’s meeting chamber, where he found Elizabeth’s eldest son, Paul, already in conference with His Majesty.
“Ah, welcome, Thurzó,” the king said when he arrived. “How goes the trial?”
“Judge Syrmiensis returned a guilty verdict less than an hour ago. The three sentenced to death have little time left in this world.”
“And thank God for that,” the king said with a grim expression. “A nasty business all around.”
Thurzó glanced at Paul, but the other man wouldn’t meet his eye. A tremor of concern shook Thurzó. Had Paul been negotiating with the king behind his back?
Thurzó suspected he had, and the king’s next words confirmed it.
“Young Báthory has a rather unique answer to our other problem.”
“Is that so?” Thurzó replied, glancing at Paul one last time—still no response—before giving his full attention to the king.
“You made it clear that a public trial and execution of Countess Báthory would be a mistake.”
“Yes, I have and...”
The king held up a hand, silencing him.
“I happen to agree with you. As does the countess’s heir.”
This time Paul met Thurzó’s gaze and nodded briefly before looking away again.
“We cannot, however, allow the countess’s monstrous actions to continue.”
Here it comes, Thurzó thought.
“I have agreed to grant Countess Báthory my pardon and absolution for the crimes she has committed against my subjects. In return, her son will consider my debt to the Báthory family repaid in full.”
Thurzó knew the family had loaned the king considerable amounts over the past several years. But Countess Báthory controlled that debt, not Paul. And she would continue to control it until her death. Then, and only then, would control pass to her son.
The king wasn’t finished, however.
“Paul agrees that the countess must pay for her crimes. It is only just. To that end he has suggested that she be imprisoned within her suite of rooms inside Csejte Castle, there to remain until she passes from this earth. Since she would be unable to carry out the myriad duties her position as head of the Báthory family requires, I would have no choice but to declare her legally dead and pass control of her estates to her heir.”
Matthias and young Báthory smiled at each other, and Thurzó knew in that moment it was already decided. The king wanted his debt excused and Elizabeth’s son wanted her out of the way. The solution was elegant and simple. Everybody would win.
Everybody, that was, but Elizabeth.
At least she’ll be alive, he told himself.
Pasting on a smile, Thurzó told the king he approved of the solution.
“Good,” the king replied. “I’m putting you in charge of the masonry work.”
It took a moment for the king’s words to register. “Masonry?”
“Yes, of course. Did you think we would just guard the door?”
That was exactly what Thurzó had pictured. Post a guard, allow her to spend some time in the fresh air every day—the civilized approach.
But too late Thurzó remembered that Matthias had a cruel streak, and this was his way of getting back at the countess for holding that debt over his head.
“I want the entire suite of rooms bricked up. Doors, windows, everything! We’ll leave a few slots in the walls through which she can receive her food, and so the guards can keep an eye on her, but she will remain a prisoner—a real prisoner—until the day her vile countenance passes from this earth! Do you understand, Thurzó?”
He nodded and waited for the king to dismiss him with a toss of his head. As he moved toward the exit, one final question occurred to him.
“If I may, Your Majesty, why me?”
The king didn’t even look at him as he delivered his answer.
“You should have killed her when you had the chance, Thurzó, and saved me all this nonsense. Since you didn’t, I’m leaving it in your hands.”
And that was that. In trying to save her life, he’d ended up bringing her a fate worse than death.
Love certainly was blind.
