Kiss Of The Butterfly Part 32

He glanced at the four youths huddled in the bow: at Bear enveloping a shivering Vesna in strong arms, comforting her; at Katarina, her hair wrapped in a scarf, tending to Steven, whose motionless head she held tenderly against her bosom.

A quarter of a millennium earlier Slatina had lacked the conviction and courage to kill Natalija and the other ten. To satiate his heart and save one woman's soul he had preserved terrible forces that were just now unleashed, destroying a country and millions of lives. Because of his love for Natalija, many would suffer.

Tonight he had killed the first of the twelve, and as his thoughts turned to the remaining eleven, he began to plan his next steps. Yet his mind and gaze kept returning to the one, the dark figure lying splayed behind him with a stake protruding from her chest and back. He contemplated the darkness around her. Can it be transformed into light, he wondered. Do I possess the faith and strength to continue the fight against these evil forces?

He glanced again at the figures huddled close in the bow, then back into the enveloping fog. He wept as he stared ahead into the murky night, searching for the light that eluded him, yet firm in his stubborn conviction that he would one day find that light, no matter how thick the darkness that enveloped him.

As he thought of the future, his mind turned to the thick gloom that loomed around, thicker than any he had heretofore faced. Then, dense shadows broke over his soul in a tsunami of foulness that engulfed the depths of his heart and whispered a single word: Bosnia.

And when they had receded and fled, he knew that Bosnia awaited.

Historical Note.

The characteristics attributed to vampires in this book which differ radically from popular stereotypes are based on genuine Balkan folk tales as recorded by ethnographers in the 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. As a result, this book deals with authentic vampires as described in the folklore of those peoples most closely affected by them.

This book has been placed in as accurate an historical context as possible. This includes accounts of battles and historical events. The Vojvoda of Wallachia, Vlad III, Tsepe, also known as Dracula, visited Srebrenica in 1476 and conducted a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre. The physical description of Dracula is accurate, taken from an account written of Vlad III by the Papal Legate Niccolo Modrussa in 1466. The description of Dracula's Srebrenica ma.s.sacre is taken from the eyewitness account of Gabriele Rangoni, another Papal Legate. Vlad II, Dracul, the father of Dracula, was a member of the Order of the Dragon, as were the Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarevic and the Duke of Spalato, Hrvoje.

The 14th century Law Code of Tsar Dusan contains Article 20, which forbids digging up graves and destroying bodies by "witchcraft". King Sigismund of Hungary and his unfairly maligned wife Barbara are real historical characters. The Dubrovnik Bishopric conducted vampire trials of people from the island of Lastovo in the 1700s.

The description of the gravestones in the walls of homes in the villages around Ram is accurate, as is the recounting of the 1725 case of Petar Plogojovic from Kisiljevo. The Austrian Army did send military units accompanied by the regimental surgeon Johann Fluckinger into Serbia in 1731 and 1732 to hunt vampires. The result was Fluckinger's 1732 book Visum et Repertum (Seen and Discovered).

Most of the historical doc.u.ments mentioned and their references to vampires exist or existed. These include the 15th century Glagolitic ma.n.u.script in the Archive of the then Yugoslav Academy, now renamed the Croatian Academy of Arts and Sciences; the 16th century chronicle of Georgius Sirmiensis; the court records from Ston in 1666; the 17th century Orthodox Church Nomocanon; the Orthodox Church Council of 1730 in Belgrade; the Dubrovnik Court records from 1736-1744; and the decision of the Austrian Imperial Court War Council of 23 October 1748.

The Djordjevic book Vampiri i druga bica (Vampires and Other Beings) exists and const.i.tutes a veritable treasure trove of Balkan vampire lore. It provided much of the material for this book's descriptions of vampires as well as hints for where to look further. The only doc.u.ment that is entirely fictional is the Djordjevic book about the twelve. To the best of my knowledge, no such book exists.

The tales surrounding Petrovaradin's tunnels the giant serpent, hidden treasure, etc. are accurate, as is the Sign of the Elephant tavern and its owner, Hans Georg Siegel. So too are the descriptions of the Maltese cross and mysterious pa.s.sages under the fortress, as well as the description of the warren of tunnels under Budapest's castle hill. All descriptions of Balkan wines and viticulture are accurate.

Slobodan Milosevic and Vojislav Seselj are real. Both were indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague (ICTY) for war crimes, crimes against humanity, and/or genocide. Milosevic died during the course of his trial while in custody.

This is entirely a work of fiction, and with the exception of historical personalities, all the characters in this book are fict.i.tious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental.

end.