once my already bright career was solidified by this new project and the monetary award attached to it; and before I knew it I was packed and on my way, waving to Natisha who stood on the train platform promising to write each day and even make her way to the Castle if possible.
'But you will be with me in my heart every moment,' she said as the train pulled off, blowing me a kiss, and I watched until her lithe little form was finally lost to view as we rounded the first long curve on our journey.
It was only then, as the train wound into the mountains, that I began to wonder what sort of adventure lay before me.
When I arrived three days later at the town at the foot of the Castle, night had fallen and a chill wind blew a frosted mist through the deserted streets. I entered a tavern, also curiously empty, and, after pounding on a table to be served, finally resorting to shouts for someone to appear, an old man, with a dark coarse cloak thrown about his shoulders, emerged from the back room and asked me what it was I wanted.
'A loaf of bread, some cheese,' I answered gruffly, for I was both tired from my journey and annoyed at the slowness of the old man's movements and the dullness of his speech. He nodded tiredly and turned into the back room.
I waited ten minutes, and when the old man did not return I began to pound on the table once more. By now I was nearly enraged. I was about to rise and follow him into the back room when he emerged, with someone at his side. This new figure was also cloaked, his face even more wrinkled and time-worn than his companion's.
The older man approached me. 'You are Herr Begener?' he inquired in a listless monotone.
'I am,' I said, rising.
'Why did you not come directly to the castle?' he continued. 'Count Mayhew has been waiting for you. You were told to come as soon as possible.'
There was something about his cold voice that unnerved me. 'I was tired,' I sputtered, not believing his spiritless impertinence; '1 thought I would rest before climbing the road; perhaps even spend the night here. Besides, what is it to you?'
'You will follow me now,' he said.
'But I have not eaten! I am tired—'
'There is neither food nor lodging here.'
He turned away from me and as he did so, I reached out, dislodging his robe from his shoulder and revealing, on his back, a neat line of small round red welts. With a slow motion he merely reset his robe in place and disappeared, he and his companion, into the back room.
Half in rage and half in consternation, I rose and gathered my things to follow. I saw that the back room led directly to a door leading to the road. By the time I caught up with the two monk-like figures my anger had abated. There was no point in arguing. In silence we began the long, slow ascent to Castle Mayhew. We passed no one in leaving the town, and no one on the road.
'Look here,' I said finally, turning to my robed companions. 'I really should demand an explanation. Why is the town so empty? And why is it so important that I reach the castle tonight?'
My enquiries were met with silence, as the two old men continued grimly, gray heads bent.
By the light of a setting moon we reached the castle porch where the two cloaked figures promptly left me, turning off to the left. A few moments later I heard the dull slow tramp of feet ascending a metal stair. I stood silent, contemplating an abrupt about-face and a brisk walk back down the hillside, through the town and away from this place forever, but the bevy of arguments against this which my mind had readied, chief among them my wish to please Natisha, were not even brought to bear upon me because the oaken door was pulled open and I suddenly found myself standing in a huge vaulted hallway. The door was closed behind me by another robed figure, this one small in stature.
When he turned around I was startled to note that his face was not old and wrinkled, and I was pleased to realize that his countenance was a most amiable one, with the features of a smiling cherub. He rushed to me and took my hand.
'Herr Begener, it's so nice to have you here; we've all been waiting. The Count will be so pleased. Let me show you to your room—you can't know how good it is to see you've arrived!' This frantic speech was accompanied by wild gesticulations of the hands, and the little fellow gave such an impression of a happy little child that I almost reached down to pick him up. But in a second he had a bag of mine in each hand and was leading me up the marbled stairway to a room on the second floor.
'I know you'll want to freshen up,' he said after he had settled me in, 'so I'll tell the Count to meet you in the dining hall in fifteen minutes. There will be a late supper, and some fine wine.' And with that he was gone.
A quarter hour later, shaved and washed and dressed in clean linen, and feeling immensely better, I found myself ushered into the huge dining hall of the Castle Mayhew. A grand portrait hung over the fireplace of a man I assumed to be the Count—a tall, imposing figure, straight as an arrow with fine features; the eyes were powerful but not at all hard.
There was a sound behind me and I turned to find myself face to face with the man in the portrait—only with a horrible difference. The man before me was old, older than any man I had ever seen before—a mere bag of bones on a bent skeleton. The arrow-straight figure was warped, the noble bearing shrunken, the eyes filled with weariness yet still imbued with a kind of fire.
'I am Count Mayhew,' he said, his voice strong but low, his hand grasp lighter than I would have expected. 'Please sit down and as you eat we shall discuss the matter of your employment. As I mentioned in my correspondence, I am in a great hurry for the work to be completed.'
'You realize of course that things can't be done overnight, that materials and labor—'
'Please,' he said, motioning toward the table, his voice impatient. 'We will discuss all of this.'
I sat, and was treated to a sumptuous meal while Count Mayhew regaled me with his plans. The Count, I noted, ate nothing, though his eyes seemed to linger over each course with a strange hunger. I went so far as to offer him a portion of my veal, but he refused curtly.
'As I mentioned,' he said, 'there is a great urgency involved in your work. There are workmen presently in the castle and completely at your disposal; any materials that are not presently at hand can be acquired promptly. There are couriers and craftsmen to do whatever is asked of them.'
He went to a side table under the huge portrait and slid out a bottom drawer, removing a large sheaf of papers. These he spread before me. 'The basic plans,' he said, 'have already been drawn up. It is your job to make structural refinements and to direct actual construction.' I stared at the top sheet intently, and then glanced quickly through the rest. They all showed various views of a high-domed room with a strange box-shaped structure supported by cross-beams raised in the center of it. 'The dome is of wood,' the Count continued, looking over my shoulder, 'and there are removable panels on the top to open the room to the air. The platform,' he continued, pulling out a blueprint from the bottom of the pile and indicating the squarish structure, 'must be made with the utmost precision, and the dimensions as elucidated on this paper must be followed to the letter. Any deviation could ruin the entire project.' His hand swept over the platform itself, where two rigidly constructed chairs were indicated, side by side.
I looked up at this curiously old man peering over my shoulder, and gave a short laugh. 'Why, this whole contraption resembles nothing so much as an astronomical observatory. Either that or that ridiculous setup Mary Shelley's Dr. Frankenstein used to bring his monster to life!' I was referring of course to the popular novel by Shelley's wife which had been published a few years before.
The Count's eyes darkened. 'Hardly,' he said. 'I must insist that you keep your speculations to yourself. I do suggest you spend some time studying these papers, since we begin work tomorrow morning at dawn. It is time for me to go to bed. Good night, Herr Begener.' He bowed and left the room. I noted a curious sadness in his eyes as he turned to leave, as well as the fire I had noted previously.
No sooner had the Count left the room than the happy little monk who had met me at the front door earlier in the evening appeared. His manner was so cherubic that I felt an urge to pick him up and bounce him on my knee.
'More wine, Herr Begener? It is such a fine red vintage!' he asked, brandishing a crystal decanter. I shook my head no.
'But tell me,' I said, as the little fellow began to clear the table. 'Why was the village so empty when I was down there tonight? Where is everyone?'
'Why, they're here of course, at the castle. The Count has hired all the workers of the village for your project,
