I swallowed his words hard. I suspected every single one was true. But I'd traveled all the way to Transylvania on the slimmest of hopes and there was no way I was giving up now, even if it meant chasing after a witch from a book of fairy tales or a figment from a confused old woman's imagination.
The three of us left the meadow and Andrei led us deeper into the forest. The trees seemed to grow thicker and the forest seemed to grow quieter. And then we reached the stones.
They were no more than a small, semi-circle of broken boulders, none of them more than three feet high, but it was obvious they were a ruin of something that had once stood there long ago. And we were the only ones there.
Andrei sat on a stone and gave me a sympathetic smile. "You see? No girl. No witch."
I nodded as if I'd never actually expected to find anyone there, but I knew I was meant to find this place. The small, hidden clearing was covered in a shroud of fallen leaves, and the sweet odor of their decay mixed with the earthy aroma of the clearing to create an eerily familiar smell -- the exact same scent that had accompanied my nighttime visitor.
I was sure she'd been real and I was sure that she'd been here. "What are these stones, some kind of ancient ruins?"
Andrei nodded. "There are many of them that can be found in Transylvania, but most are far better preserved than these ones."
"Who made them?"
"The Romans most likely, it is from them that Transylvania gets its name. In Latin it means, Beyond the Forest. But there are some scholars who insist the ruins are even older, perhaps Dacian."
"Dacian?"
"Yes, the Dacians were the people who once ruled this land. But the Romans came and conquered them, subjugating them for centuries until the Huns arrived and took over."
I listened to him talk, outlining the history of his country and people, as I ran my hand over the worn stones, wondering how they were connected to Matusa Ildiko and wondering what to do next.
As I wondered, Adriana reached into her pack, pulled out some food she'd prepared for the hike, and shared it with Andrei and me. I thanked her and the three of us sat down in the stone circle to eat. Adriana watched me as I ate and noticed how I kept craning my neck around, watching the woods.
She smiled and said, "You really think you will find your witch out here, don't you?"
"I -- I don't know," I said. The idea of finding either her or her servant here had seemed a lot more plausible in the dark before dawn than it did now, in the bright mid-morning sunlight. But after the visit I'd had during the night, which I was still trying to convince myself hadn't been a dream, I was determined to keep hunting.
Adriana's thick, dark hair had tumbled down over her shoulder, and she swept it back as she said, "I do not mean to be rude, but can you tell me why you are so anxious to find Matusa Ildiko?"
I leaned back against one of the stones, slowly twisting my wedding ring back and forth. "It's because of my wife, she's...she's in a hospital back home."
Adriana lowered her head in sympathy. "I am so sorry, is it serious?"
I nodded. "She had a stroke a few months ago."
"A stroke?" Adriana said. "But she must be so young?"
"She is, she's thirty, the same age as I am. But they told me a stroke can strike down people of any age. She's been in a coma ever since, but her condition has been steadily worsening. And now the doctors...they say she doesn't have much longer."
