Michael Belmont and the Heir of Van Helsing (The Adventures of Michael Belmont) (33 page)

Magda was standing behind them, glowing radiantly with the same blue light from the lantern.
 
“WOW,” Michael said excitingly.
 
“Magda, you’re glowing.”

She smirked at him.
 
“This is no time for your flirting,” she reprimanded.
 
All three of her companions just stood there and stared at her, and it made her feel very self-conscious.
 
“What the heck are you people looking at anyway?”

Abigail stepped up and took her hands, lifting them up so she could see for herself.
 
“No, you don’t understand.
 
You are
literally
glowing.”

Magda let out a confused squeak.

The Dragon gazed at her and smiled.
 
“Young lady,” he said, “you didn’t tell me that
you
were a Van Helsing.”

Magda Van Helsing stood before her companions, glowing with the same blue light that shone from Michael’s lantern.
 
In fact, it was almost as if she’d become a lantern herself; she was now much brighter than the light in Michael’s hand, and the cave was illuminated as though daylight were coming in.

“How very strange,” the Dragon observed.
 
“I’ve seen something like this before, but that was a long, long time ago.
 
Who gave you that soul lantern?”

“Soul lantern?
 
I haven’t heard it called that before,” Michael told him.
 
“It was a gift from Puck of the faery realm.
 
He called it a faery lantern.”

“Ah yes, and so it is.
 
I find that you and your girls here are amazing me more with each passing minute, young Master Belmont.”

Magda and Abigail both looked like they took umbrage at being called
Michael’s girls
, so he put an arm around each of them.
 
“Cheer up, my girls,” he told them. “A seventeen hundred year old man just told you how amazing you are, you don’t get a compliment like that everyday.”

Magda rolled her eyes.
 
“Great,” she told him.
 
“So what’s the plan now?
 
Am I supposed to glow down that door or something?”

The Dragon began to cackle, and Magda couldn’t help but smile back.

“You have spirit, my dear,” he told her.
 
“I’ll give you that.”

“The lantern isn’t giving you power or anything,” Michael told her.
 
“It’s just telling us that you’re the way in.”

“I’m the way in.
 
Okay, great.
 
So what exactly does that mean?”

“It’s a good thing you’re gorgeous because you can be a little thick,” Michael jested.
 
“Go on over and see if you can open that door up for us.”

She huffed at him and stooped to pick up a rock.

“Oh you shouldn’t need that,” the Dragon added.
 
“Just go push it open.”

She rolled her eyes, but walked to the crypt door and lightly gave it a shove.
 
To her amazement, it swung wide open.
 
“I can’t believe it,” she mumbled.
 
“You were right,” she smiled at Michael, throwing her arms around him and nearly knocking him over.

The Dragon leaned over to Abigail.
 
“She’s kind of a moody girl isn’t she?”

“Look, she’s been through a lot lately, okay?” Abigail snapped.
 
“Can’t you understand that?”
 
She humphed at him and stormed into the crypt.

The old man stood there scratching his head.
 
“Then again, I haven’t met many young girls who weren’t a bit moody.”

Michael and Magda followed him into the crypt.
 
They walked past a number of empty rock-cut tombs before descending down to an area where the tombs were sealed with rock and mortar.
 
Some of the tombs were etched with the mark for the Order of the Dragon.
 
Some bore other symbols, religious markings, and written passages.

Michael watched as the Dragon reverently glanced over each grave they passed. “Did
you
bury all these people here?”

The old man nodded.
 
“Many of them, but not all.”
 
He stopped before a sealed, waist-high tomb with a large iron cross embedded in the rock.
 
“This was one of the last men I laid to rest here, before I was taken captive by Mihnea.”

Michael read the name etched across the top of the tomb-
Abraham Van Helsing
.

Magda placed her hands on the seal and her shoulders slumped as she examined the epitaph under the name.
 
“Why would you bring him
here
?
 
It seems like an insult to bury him beneath Dracula’s Castle.”

The old man gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
 
“This cavern was set aside as holy ground long before my son’s evil corrupted the place.
 
That castle used to be so magnificent and beautiful.
 
It was a stronghold of justice and virtue.
 
I wish you could have seen it in the days of its former glory.”
 
His eyes went off wandering again.
 

Michael guessed that a man who’d lived so long must have innumerable memories to shuffle through.

“And now,” the Dragon said with purpose, “we must see to it that the castle is purged of Dracula’s evil once and for all.
 
Come,” he told Magda, “you have the blood of heroes and kings running through your veins.
 
We will honor Abraham Van Helsing by continuing his work.”

Magda grinned at the old man, but Michael noticed the confusion on her face as she gave him a nod.
 
A few moments later she had a renewed determination in her eyes.

They continued their journey into the depths of the cavern, passing many more tombs as they walked.
 
Michael tried to read every name as they went, but most didn’t mean much to him, until they passed through a section that really caught his attention.
 
“Abigail, look!
 
There are Belmonts buried here.”

“Yes,” the Dragon said.
 
“You are certainly not the first group of young people called upon to confront the forces of evil.
 
In fact, you’re not even the first members of your house.
 
Remember
that
when you feel alone in your struggles.”

Moving on, they came to a place where the passage widened and soon opened up to reveal a dark lake.
 
It was still, except for the water that drizzled down from the roof above, filling the cave with an endless chorus of drips.

The Dragon pointed off into the darkness.
 
“We’re nearly there now.
 
The tomb of Saint George is just across this lake.”

Magda kicked a stone into the water.
 
“How do we get across?”

The old man scratched his head.
 
“Well, there used to be a boat here, but I suppose it rotted away and sank long ago.
 
I guess I’ll just have to swim across.”

“How deep is it?” Michael asked.
 
“Is it safe?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

Michael held his lantern over the water.
 
The light permeated as far down as he could see, and everything seemed clear and still.
 
He pointed out the sunken boat a few feet down not far from the shore.

“All right, I’ll come across with you,” Michael told him.

“As you wish,” the old man said, beginning to strip to his underwear.
 
“But there’s no need for all of us to go.
 
Girls, we’ll be back in just a few minutes.”

“Alright,” Abigail grumbled while turning around.

“Sounds good to me,” Magda told them.
 
“Just be careful in there.
 
I don’t like the look of this.”

Michael tossed his clothes beside his other belongings and followed the Dragon as he stepped into the water.
 
It was chilling, but not so bad as he’d expected.
 
Carefully they swam toward the opposite shore, the lantern dangling from Michael’s mouth by its chain.
 
It didn’t take them long to get there, but when he pulled himself out of the water on the other side, he looked back and saw Abigail and Magda under the light of their torches, and they looked small and uncomfortably far away.

Michael followed the dragon down the small passage that led them away from the lake, which quickly narrowed so much that they had to go single file.
 
He was shivering, but had to smile as he watched the old man, who was now moving along as spryly as a young boy on sugar.
 
Following him up the stone steps, Michael actually had to work hard to keep up.

They turned a corner and found themselves in a small cave, where an ancient stone casket rested in the middle of the floor.
 
The symbol of the Order of the Dragon was etched upon its surface.

“I haven’t been here in centuries,” the old man told him.
 
“But everything is just as I remember it.”
 
He placed his hands beneath the lid and lifted.
 
“Help me with this, won’t you?”

Together they rotated the lid across the top of the casket, and let it rest diagonally across the bottom.
 
Michael looked down to see the skeletal remains of an armored knight.
 
So this was all that was left of Saint George the Dragonslayer.
 
After seeing the world through his eyes, although fleetingly, some small part of Michael felt that he was looking down at his own skeletal body.
 
He scanned the warrior in awe, looking for whatever the Dragon might have brought them to get.

“It’s gone,” said the old man in disbelief.
 
“I don’t understand.”

“What’s gone?
 
What did we come to get?”

“Ascalon,” the Dragon responded.
 
“The lance of Saint George.
 
It was the other one of his two mighty weapons.”

“A lance?” Michael asked curiously.
 
Then he remembered his vision.
 
Uriel had promised to give George a second weapon, something to help him capture his enemies.
 
He’d never seen a lance short enough to place inside a coffin though.

Vlad seemed to guess what he was thinking.
 
“This was no ordinary lance.
 
It was small and light weight, but would grow longer when the need arose.
 
That however, was the least of its powers.”

“Well, maybe Alucard came and got it.
 
Did you ever tell
him
about this crypt?”

The Dragon shook his head.
 
“No, I’m afraid there were many things I never got a chance to tell Alucard.
 
I still had much to share with him before I was taken captive by Mihnea.”

Michael could detect the pain and regret in the man’s voice.
 
“I’m sorry to hear that,” he said, “but maybe you’ll still get the chance.
 
Anyway, this lance, you really think it would have helped us against Mihnea?”

“Ascalon was the weapon George used to incapacitate and capture the fallen ones.”

“The fallen ones?”

“That’s what George called them,” nodded the Dragon.
 
“They were powerful men capable of changing their form like me, but they could change into just about anything they wanted.
 
Oftentimes they chose regular animals like my dragon-form, but with terrifying abilities.
 
Some could breathe fire and had impenetrable skin.”

“And once George defeated them he’d bring them back to this castle and imprison them in that portal.” Michael said.

“Yes.
 
But how do you know so much about it?”

“I’ve been to another portal like the one in this castle.
 
And I’ve met one of the men you’re speaking of.
 
He was called Zuriel.
 
He was trying to gain control of the gateway to free others like him.
 
We were able to destroy the portal, but Zuriel escaped.”

“I have heard that other portals existed, but I thought all the fallen ones had been defeated long ago.
 
This is grievous news to me.”
 
He hung his head down to take another look in the casket.
 
“I’m sorry to have disturbed him on a fool’s errand.
 
Who knows how long the lance has been missing.
 
Perhaps Mihnea is in possession of
it
as well.”

“What are we going to do now?” Michael asked him.
 
“I mean, are there any other weapons we could use against him?”

“Perhaps, but the only thing to do now is put distance between ourselves and this castle.
 
We must come back with strength, and we must do it soon if we are going to help the woman you spoke of.”

The old man looked crestfallen as they returned to the edge of the lake.

“Don’t worry,” Michael told him.
 
“I’m sure we’ll find a way to stop Mihnea.
 
My dad has some friends who seem to be experts on the subject.”

The Dragon smiled and gave him a pat on the back.
 
“You’re right, of course.
 
There’s always a way, isn’t there.
 
Even when things look very bleak.”

They slid back into the water and swam back toward the girls, who were eagerly waiting for them on the other side.