Voices rose in something of a babble, but one of them cut through, speaking directly to Harry. It was a girl’s voice, sweet and small. I know Romania, it said. Something of it, anyway. I came here from Romania after the war. There were troubles and oppressions, and so my elder brothers sent me away to an aunt who lived here. Strange, but I came all this way, then caught a cold and died! I was very young.
‘And do you know someone I can seek out, who can perhaps help me on my way?’ Harry didn’t like to seem too eager to be off, but he really couldn’t help himself. ‘It’s very important, I assure you.’
But my brothers will be delighted to guide you, Harry! she said at once. It’s only since you came that we’ve all been able to. . . well, get together again. We all owe you so much.
‘If I may,’ Harry answered, ‘I’ll come back and talk to you again some time. Meanwhile, I’m afraid I’ve no time to spare. What are your brothers called?’
They are Jahn and Dmitri Syzestu, she said. Wait and I’ll call them for you. She called, and in a moment her brothers answered. They were very faint, like voices on a telephone from the other side of the world. Harry was introduced.
‘Just keep talking to me,’ he told the brothers, ‘and I’ll find my way to you.’
He excused himself from the company of his friends in the Hartlepool cemetery, found a space-time door and passed through it into the Mobius continuum. ‘Jahn, Dmitri? Are you still there?’
We’re here, Harry, and we’re honoured to be able to help you like this.
He homed in on them, emerged through another door into the grey Romanian dawn. He found himself in a field of grass beside a pock-marked wall fast crumbling into ruins. There were ponies in the field but of course they couldn’t see him; they just stood still, shivering a little, their coats shining with drops of dew. Plumes of warm air came snorting from their nostrils like smoke. In the distance, the last lights of a town were blinking out as the sun rose on the eastern horizon.
‘Where is this place?’ Harry asked the brothers Syzestu. The town is Cluj, said Jahn, who was the oldest. This
place is just a field. We were in prison — political prisoners
—and we ran away. They came after us with guns and caught us here, trying to climb this wall. Now tell us, Harry Keogh, how we can help you?
‘Cluj?’ said Harry, a little disappointed. ‘I need to be south, I think, and east — across the mountains.’
This is easy! The younger brother, Dmitri, was excited.
Our father and mother lie side by side in the graveyard in Pitesti. Only a little while ago we were talking to them!
Indeed they were, a deeper, sterner voice joined in, from some distance away. You’re welcome to come and visit, Harry, if you can find your way here.
Harry excused himself — a little hastily but with many apologies — and re-entered the Mobius continuum. In a little while he was in a misted graveyard in Pitesti. Who is it you’re seeking? inquired Franz Syzestu.
‘His name is Ladislau Giresci,’ said Harry. ‘All I can tell you is that he died some little time ago at his home near a town called Titu.’
Titu? Anna Syzestu repeated. Why that’s nought but fifty kilometres or so away! What’s more, we’ve friends buried there! She was plainly proud to be of assistance to the Necroscope. Greta, can you hear?
Indeed I can! A new voice, sharp and shrewish, answered. And I’ve the very man right here.
There you are! said Anna Syzestu, in a told-you-so tone. If you want to meet someone in Titu, ask Greta Mirnosti. She knows everyone!
Harry Keogh? A male voice now came to the fore. I’m Ladislau Giresci. Do you want to come closer or will this do?
‘I’m on my way!’ said Harry. He thanked the Syzestus and went to Giresci’s plot in Titu. And finally, at last in the presence of the vampire expert himself, he asked, ‘Sir, I believe you can help me — if you will?’