The Season of Goodwill
Castle Dracula, Transylvania, December 22th, the year of our Lord 1534.
It was finally Christmas Eve…Vladimir loved the days immediately before Christmas….so many wonderful things went on in Castle Dracula. His father was known far and wide for his magnanimity and many poor and destitute would come to get their share of the huge Christmas Bounty that was the gift of Count Vladimir Dracula I to his people. Vladimir cast a thought to his own future…it would be his coming of age tomorow…and his coronation as co-regent to his father…the traditions would be his to keep now, and he hoped he would have the same will as his father to carry on where his father would leave off.
Christmas Eve was also the ordination of Don Rosario. Vladimir was looking forward to Christmas Mass, because his dear friend would be celebrating along with Don Anselmo. And, of course, Valdimir would see Lucy…and announce his intentions of making her his Countess.
Yet, with all this good to look forward to, Vladimir had an aching feeling that something was not going to be as it should…Amira’s words kept popping into his head, and the threat of the curse made him feel uneasy. Perhaps it was just an empty threat…Vladimir was not suerstitious…but he couldn’t help feeling that something irrevocably bad was about to happen.
“Penny for them?” He looked up to see his sister standing before him.
“Maria. I didn’t see you…thoughts elsewhere. ”
“Father is weaiting for us…there are a last few small arrangements to be made- Uncle Felix is coming today too- I am so glad. He has not been the same since Aunt Mara died…”
“Yes…poor Mara…so young…Damned consumption!”
“I am glad he will be here…He will be able to counter Uncle Igor and his dreadful wife….”
“And Zoltan,I hope…nothing good ever happens when cousin Zoltan is involved. Speaking of which, where is he?”
“Making a fool of himself with father. Father needs someone to ride out to Baron Zeleky to escort him and his wfie and children to the Castle. The Baron is poorly but insists on coming for your Coronation.”
“Yes.. he is a wonderful old man… he is much older than his wife, but they are both very dear to me. I assume..”
“Yes. Zoltan wants to be the escort, but father says we should go.”
“Hmmm..ok. I don’t like going and leaving the castle with the Rakovsky’s on the loose…Barn Zeleky’s castle is a day’s ride in either direction, and that is as the crow flies, for as far as it can.”
“We have no choice. father thinks that it is your duty to go, and I will go with you. ”
“I would welcome your company on this cold winter’s day…but you are a lady…”
“I am also the daughter of Count Vladimir Dracula I…That makes me a warrior too…”
Vlad smiled. His sister was never one to shirk danger…or indeed, anything else.
“OK, Here goes…I guess we had better go see father…” Vladimir reluctantly dragged himself out of his chair and took his sister’s hand. Together they descended the long ,sweeping stairway down to the main hall where their father was waiting.