I began to rifle through drawers and Annette, seeming to understand, began to go through them as well. Ludovico continued paging through the notebook, scanning pages with a furrowed brow. Unfortunately, I found nothing useful in the drawers but more equipment.
I turned my attention to one of the doors and tried the handle. It was unlocked, so I stuck my head inside, but not before we discerned voices approaching from the other door.
“… need to make sure there is enough for another year,” I heard someone say. “We can’t be traipsing back and forth from Château le Blanc to Udolpho constantly.”
My blood ran cold. I knew that voice. It was Montoni.
I gestured wildly to Annette and Ludovico, and they hurried to the door where I stood as we heard a key scraping against a keyhole. I had just closed the door softly behind us when we heard the other door open. With a wince, I extinguished my lantern, plunging us into darkness, save for the golden light leaking from beneath the door.
Annette attempted to control her ragged breathing beside me as Ludovico gripped my arm so tightly that it made my hand go numb.
“Of course we will need more donors to make enough antidote,” another voice said as two footsteps were heard sweeping through the room.
I bristled as I recognized Father Schedoni’s voice. This was the medicine he provided, so it made sense that he would be involved.
“And there’s still no advancement on a cure?” Montoni asked.
“I’m afraid not. I have some of the brightest minds working on it, Henry chief among them, but also Griffin, Lidenbrock, Moreau, Clerval … we haven’t made much headway. I’m not sure at this point there is a cure to be had, at least not with the current tools available.”
“Yes, well, I have a very long time to let technology catch up, don’t I?”
“I should hope so, my lord.”
I tilted my head curiously. Wasn’t Schedoni wary of modern medical advancements? Didn’t he hearken back to a day of traditional medicine? If so, why was he conferring with scientists?
The footsteps neared the door I was crouched behind, and even though Montoni and Schedoni couldn’t possibly see me, I crouched low as I ventured farther into the room, Annette and Ludovico carefully following. I felt a pillar nearby, relief washing through me as we ducked behind its cover. I leaned against the pillar, staring into the utter blackness of the room, knowing not what was in front of me.
Suddenly, the door to the chamber began to swing open and Annette squeezed her eyes shut, burying herself into Ludovico’s chest as light entered the room. A lantern was brought inside, chasing away the shadows, but thankfully, whoever wielded it remained on the other side of the pillar and did not see us. Yet.
“This one will expire soon,” Schedoni said offhandedly as he and Montoni paused just inside the room. “Securing three new subjects would be ideal.”
“Mm. True. Send Orsino with some men. And tell them to get far enough from Udolpho to avoid suspicion.”
“Of course, my lord. It will be done.”
I listened with rapt attention and glanced over at Ludovico to find Annette still pressed into him. Ludovico himself was white as a ghost and stared straight ahead with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing as if he were a fish gasping for air.
Frowning, I followed his gaze and my stomach tightened. Before us stood iron bars, sectioning off the rest of the room. Within that chamber were eight smaller rooms, also barred like jail cells, with benches, filthy mattresses, and manacles hanging from the walls. A dungeon. So, the castle had one, after all.
My eyes drifted to the only cell with an occupant. A man leaned against the back wall with his arms fastened over his head by the manacles there. He was naked, but I couldn’t see his actual skin, for he was covered head to toe, in small black and green growths.
My heart seized and gooseflesh ran across my entire person as I stared at this man, who I could only tell was a man from the tuft of black hair atop his head. A moan escaped the poor prisoner, further sending my body into a state of disbelief.
I swallowed hard.
Annette began to lift her head, but I reached my hand out to stay her. If she saw the monstrous sight before us, I wouldn’t put it past her to scream and give us away. I wasn’t far from it myself.
Another moan issued from the prisoner, and he shifted, his manacles clanking overhead. As he settled back again, I noticed that the boils were moving, wriggling. I briefly recalled the spiders pouring out from the suit of armor at Château le Blanc and shivered, before realizing that what was covering this man was even worse. They wiggled and coiled like maggots, only with slippery dark flesh.
Leeches.
I couldn’t help it. I lifted a hand to my mouth to stop myself from screaming. Ludovico’s hand dug into my leg, keeping me grounded, but I couldn’t look away from the man, whose whole body suddenly seemed alive with the leeches, the light from Montoni’s lantern making them gleam like glittering beads on a dress, but alive as they burrowed deeper into the man’s flesh.
My breathing was becoming more labored, and I feared I would give us away, after all, when the lantern finally retreated, and the door closed behind Montoni and Schedoni. We were left in complete blackness again, but I was grateful for the darkness now, for it meant that I didn’t have to look upon the poor wretch being drained of his blood, alive, at the mouths of hundreds of squirming parasites.
I felt faint and leaned into Ludovico until the voices of Montoni and Schedoni disappeared, the sound of another door closing signaling their departure.
“Are they gone?” Annette asked after another few minutes.
