She struck it another half a dozen times. By now, she was a physical wreck. She had never in her whole life carried out such work, and she prayed she would never do so again. I will happily settle for my pianoforte, sewing, and writing. Abandoning the table, she gripped the door handle and pushed. The door moved several inches. She pulled it towards her and pushed again. Pushed and pulled. It became her new regime. Finally, she saw a sizable, jagged gap in the timber.
Jane hurled her weight against the door. It burst open—and she went sprawling into the hallway. She could scarcely believe that she had achieved such a thing. I'm through. I've broken through. She gave a cry of joy and disbelief. For one horrible instant, she wondered if this could all be another one of Dracula's illusions, but she discarded the notion. Dracula had said he would not mesmerise her, and she believed him. And now she was more attuned to her senses. She was fully awake. Besides, her body could not ache so much if this were an illusion.
She glanced back at the window. The sun was down! Only its fading sienna afterglow remained in the sky. She still wanted to find Cassandra, but she would never discover her in time. To risk doing so would risk losing her newfound freedom.
What will I do?
There was only one thing she could do. Make a run for it, find the authorities, and return for Cassandra later. It tore at Jane's heart to do such a thing, but there was no denying the facts. She could not search an entire castle in time.
Jane raced down the hallway. Reaching the end, she glanced into a courtyard—and froze. Several torches had already been lit. One of Dracula's women was prowling the courtyard. The woman seemed to sniff the air—and then her head snapped about. Her eyes narrowed on Jane.
No!
The vampire spat a guttural hiss and charged across the courtyard. Jane turned and fled. It was pointless trying to reach the gate. There was no way through it. She would have to take the route she had used in her dream state: across the moat.
Jane reached a door at the end of the hall and pushed through. Before it shut behind her, she spotted the vampire tearing down the passageway towards her. Crying out, Jane locked the door, but the creature crashed against it almost instantly and began battering wildly against the timber. Jane ran down the corridor, praying there was a way to reach the battlements above.
Her prayers were answered. A set of timber stairs appeared on her right. Jane raced up these, and then she was outside. Frigid wind swept over the castle battlements. Glancing back down into the courtyard, she spotted half a dozen of Dracula's women racing. It was like watching an ant's nest that had been disturbed.
Then two women began climbing the sheer rock wall. They'll reach me in seconds. Her heart in her throat, Jane crossed to the crenellated wall. She peered through the gap at the water far below. It looked shallow. Landing in it would undoubtedly kill her. She needed a different spot.
A thunderous pounding came from the door she had barricaded. To her horror, it was followed by the cracking of timber. The creatures had already broken through! Jane tore along the battlements to one of the castle's round towers and peered down again. Still, the water seemed shallow.
Jane raced along another side of the castle. Glancing back, she saw one of the frenzied vampires heaving itself over the edge of the stonework. On her other side, a figure made its way sedately from the next tower.
'Jane!' Dracula called. 'You never fail to impress me.'
Stepping between the stonework, Jane peered down at the water below. It was an exceptionally long way down, but at least it seemed deeper here.
'You'll find I'm full of surprises,' she said.
'Surely you do not mean to jump.' Dracula sauntered to the edge and peered over. 'It's a very long way down. You may survive it, but what then? We will just scoop you up on the other side.'
Jane hated what the vampire was saying, but he was probably right. She hesitated. Peering over the battlements, she saw the darkened sky and great whale-like clouds. One of those clouds appeared to be moving. She blinked. It seemed to be headed towards her. Such a thing was utterly impossible, of course, but she had endured many impossible things over these last few days.
'Is it true what you said about Mara?' she asked.
Dracula's mocking bravado fell away. 'It is true,' he said, motionless. 'I believe you are Mara. I love her as much now as I did then. Join me as my Queen, and we can rule the world together.'
Jane stared into the darkness. 'I have never believed in love. If it exists at all, then love is not based on control, but on freedom. On the power to choose. If you truly loved me, you would let me go.'
'Jane,' he said. 'There is no freedom greater than being a child of eternity.'
'There are greater freedoms. The power of flight is one.'
The cloud bore down on Jane, and she saw it more clearly in the shifting light of the castle's torches. It was not a cloud but a balloon. She had read a story about two men who had crossed the channel in a gas-filled contraption. This was such a creation, and beneath it hung what appeared to be an enormous boat.
The behemoth came rushing at her and scraped the top of the battlement between her and Dracula.
Max leaned out of the side. 'Jane!' he cried. 'Grab my hand!'
The balloon was already moving over the other edge of the wall into the castle. It was like an enormous raft being carried on a river. Max and its other passengers could not stop it. Jane ran as Max extended a desperate hand. Reaching the edge of the wall, she launched herself into space.
Their hands touched. Gripped. And then her forward momentum swung her under the boat. For one terrible second, Jane felt her hand inch free of his grip, but then he clamped harder. When she swung back into view, he pulled up with all his might and hoisted her over the edge of the boat.
She slid, gasping, onto the deck. Doctor Porter was there, laughing with exhilaration. Beyond her, a man she did not know controlled the device—what control there was. The balloon flew across the courtyard and then over the opposite wall into the night beyond.
Max tucked a blanket around Jane's shoulders as she looked back to the castle at the solitary, diminishing figure on the battlements.
Dracula was motionless as he watched her being carried away by this modern invention. Jane felt his eyes boring into her. She actually felt a moment of pity for him. He had called himself a child of eternity, but in reality, he was a prisoner of it. Whatever lessons life had taught him had been warped by his own twisted perceptions.
She turned her gaze to Max. The last bruised echo of daylight illuminated his features, and in those features she saw only goodness and all that was true in the world. In her heart, she felt it too, knowing that she felt something for him that could not be defined.
It was love. It had to be love. She knew it as surely as she knew her own name. All the writers, artists, and great thinkers of history might try to characterise it, but the feeling was lost in words. Some things couldn't be spoken, couldn't be enunciated. Some things could only be felt. Love was such a thing.
It was a feeling that she doubted Dracula had ever truly known.