The Keep (Adversary Cycle #1)

by F. Paul Wilson

The calendar said April, but it was still cold in Warsaw.

7.92mm Panzerbuchse 38s

Schmeisser automatic

They had affixed the family mezuzah to the inside of the apartment’s doorpost instead of the outside. Considering the temper of the times, that seemed wise.

The smuggler’s boat had taken him in near Silivri, west of Constantinople—no, they were calling it Istanbul now, weren’t they? He remembered the current regime changing it nearly a decade ago. He’d have to get used to the new name, but old habits were hard to break.

He cried too easily of late, despite his lack of tears.

“I am the Viscount Radu Molasar. This region of Wallachia was once mine.” He was saying that he was a feudal lord of his time. “A boyar?” “Yes. One of the few who stayed with Vlad—the one they called Tepes, the Impaler—until his end outside Bucharest.” Even though he had expected such an answer, Cuza was still aghast. “That was in 1476! Almost five centuries ago! Are you that old?”

From the millennia-old traditions and learning of his own faith that was so much a part of his daily life and culture, Cuza had always looked upon the wearing of crosses as a rather barbaric custom, a sure sign of immaturity in a religion. But then, Christianity was a relatively young offshoot of Judaism.

Woermann ignored the question. The professor had enough problems. Telling him that the Romanian equivalent of Auschwitz was in the offing would do him no good.

Cuza felt as if he were drowning. He had to try something. “What about these words? Yitgadal veyitkadash shemei raba bealma divera chireutei, veyamlich—”

This creature of the Dark cringed at the sight of a cross and retched at the mention of the name Jesus Christ. Yet the words of the Kaddish, the Hebrew prayer for the dead, were just so much meaningless noise. It could not be! And yet it was.

“Got to get to the keep…stop Rasalom.” “Who’s Rasalom?” “The one you and your father call Molasar. He reversed the letters of his name for you…real name is Rasalom…got to stop him!”