The Kaiserine's Champion

"Stick out your tongue," he ordered.

I hesitated, suspicious. Schmidt shook his head in obvious irritation.

"There is nothing to fear. This will allow you to recall the memories that were deliberately hidden by the vampyre filth that drank your blood."

"Drank my? Are you insane?" The absurdity of his statement confused and angered me. Vampyres were mere creatures of legend. Mothers threatened unruly children that they'd be snatched from their beds by vampyres if they were naughty. Did Schmidt really expect me to believe such nonsense?

And yet

And yet there had been stories. I'd heard soldiers who'd served with General Beethoven's 5th Army in Transylvania speak of what they'd encountered in that dark, remote place. Of undead rising out of the ground. Of flying things in the night.

I shook my head. How could any intelligent man be expected to accept such fiction?

"Do as Doctor Schmidt says, Herr Manfred," Thenck ordered in his soft, infinitely dangerous voice. He reminded me that this had nothing to do with fairy tales. The thought of a noose tightening about my neck made me open my mouth and stick my tongue out.

Slowly, carefully, Schmidt tilted the bottle until a single drop of green liquid left the neck and fell onto my tongue

An avalanche of memories.

We'd met aboard the overnight coach traveling from Guttzeig to High Sazburg. After the first few stops at various mountain villages, we had the coach all to ourselves. It was a long trip and, as people do, we started talking. She told me her name was Fräulein Ulrike Dornier, and that she was soon to be married to a sea captain who commanded one of the new ironclads of the Kaiserine's Imperial High Seas Fleet. They planned to live in the port of Bremhagen and raise six children. In return, I told her I'd been recently invalided out of the Army because of the chest wound I'd sustained in Moskovia, and was journeying to High Sazburg to seek employment. A cousin who lived in the city had written to tell me that merchants were always looking for trustworthy bodyguards, and Army veterans received preferential consideration. I'd been exercising steadily since my release from the military infirmary, fencing twice a day to build up my strength and stamina. My shortness of breath only became a problem if I had to exert myself for prolonged periods.

We were getting along famously until I lifted the curtain to see where we were on the mountain road. A shaft of light from the rising moon struck Fräulein Dornier and she recoiled from the window in shocked surprise. In the space of a single heartbeat she changed from a beautiful young woman to a snarling harpy with cat eyes and fangs as long as my fingers. She lunged at me, pinning me against my seat with fantastic strength. I tried to break free, but couldn't. Her mouth opened wider than it should have been able to; her fangs grazed my neck

I opened my eyes. Thenck and Schmidt were staring at me dispassionately, as if I were a specimen insect under the lens of a microscope, my wings spread and pinned, my belly ripe for the scalpel. I could only marvel at what Schmidt had done. My attacker had somehow concealed my recollection of her assault, but whatever Schmidt had given me had torn away her deception, revealing the entire disgusting business.
 
"Now do you remember what happened?" Thenck asked.

"Yes," I said. "I remember only too well. There wasa woman. Or at least, I thought she was a woman . . ."