The Dark Volume Part 16

Svenson reached the crevice and pulled himself to the side of the sticky blood, exhaling with effort. The crevice was tiny, but extended farther than he'd thought, the depths too narrow for the boy to use. Svenson squinted... a pale object in the very distant dark... he flattened his body and extended one arm... his fingers touched cloth... he pulled on it, gently, and it came free-a grain sack... with something particularly heavy inside it.

He slid to the ground. Before Mr. Carper could ask what Svenson had found, the Doctor leaned close. "We must find Mr. Bolte, alone."

The rest of the men were a.s.sisting Mr. Potts, nosing about like dogs in the shadows. Svenson crossed quickly, took Bolte's arm, and walked him out of the rocks altogether, Carper trailing behind with the lantern.

"The Doctor has something to show you," whispered Carper, a bit too dramatically.

"Found in the crevice," said Svenson, "where the boy was attacked. I believe it was what he was protecting-why he was killed."

"I do not understand. Is it food?"

"It is not."

"Why would a wolf care about anything it could not eat?"

"Mr. Bolte... and Mr. Carper, you too must know."

The two men exchanged a glance and drew closer.

"There is no wolf," said Svenson. "At least no wolf in Karthe. Be fore you say a word-believe me, my proof for all I say is longer than we have time to tell-you saw the 'marbles' Mr. Potts found on the road, and you saw the dead boy's legs-the gashes of blue?"

"But you said that you did not know-"

"I had hoped it was not necessary. It has become so."

He opened the sack and carefully held it open, rolling down the sides so the two men could see, but keeping his fingers in contact only with the canvas. All three flinched as Carper's lantern was reflected back into their eyes, a bewitching, luminous indigo.

"It... appears to be... a sort of book..."

"Made of... gla.s.s," whispered Carper. "The same gla.s.s!"

"But of what use is a gla.s.s book?" asked Bolte. "It cannot hold printing."

Svenson stood, gathering the top of the sack into a knot. Mr. Potts was approaching from the stand of black stones.

"You must trust me and say nothing," the Doctor whispered quickly. "What this holds is unnatural-to even touch it is to put your very life at risk."

MR. POTTS informed them with a satisfied smile that someone had been using the rocks as a campsite, and that this person possessed a horse. The searchers had also discovered another spray of blue pebbles leading away from the rocks, into the hills. He looked at the sack in Svenson's hand but did not ask about it.

"Is the person with the horse related to the blue stones?" asked Svenson.

"I cannot say," replied Potts, his eyes carefully moving across their faces.

Mr. Bolte nodded sharply and announced that the search must continue, pursuing the trail of stones. Potts shouted over his shoulder to the other men, but paused, staring narrowly at the Doctor, before stalking off to lead them.

Svenson turned to Mr. Carper. "How many fellows exactly are with us?"

Carper frowned. "I believe it is six, and Mr. Bolte and myself. And yourself."

"Six counting Mr. Potts?"

"Yes, six with Potts. Nine with everyone, including you. Why do you ask?"

"Mere idleness. And apart from those staves, do any possess... weapons?"

"The staves are quite stout," answered Carper. "Do you mean fire arms?"

"I suppose I do."

"I would doubt there are five guns in all of Karthe. I believe Mr. Potts possesses a pistol."

"He does?"

"Well, he is a hunter."

"I did not know hunters often used pistols."

"No," said Carper, smiling, "that is what is so convenient for us! I should much prefer to shoot a wolf than kill it with our staves."

"Indeed."

"And yet... as you say... it may be no wolf at all."

Svenson did not reply at once, then dropped his voice even lower.

"It may-I hesitate to say-but our quarry may in fact be... a woman."

"A woman?"

"It is possible... perhaps I am wrong-"

"You must be, sir! For a woman to do such violence-and to a child!"

Svenson exhaled, not entirely sure where to begin, but Carper had reached his own conclusion, the fat man's breath rasping in clouds before his face.

"If you are correct-with so many of us, she must surrender. We will not be called on to shoot a woman."

There were calls from the darkness ahead of them.

"I believe Mr. Potts has found something," said the Doctor.

AT THE turning were signs of another struggle: flattened gra.s.s, a dark woolen wrap, and more gla.s.s-but this in smooth, broken wedges, not the rounded drips they had followed. Mr. Potts knelt over the gla.s.s, Mr. Bolte standing above him. It was clear by Potts' dark glare as the Doctor approached that the Ministry man had been told about the book. Svenson called out sharply as he saw Potts extend his hand.

"Do not touch it!"

Potts jerked his hand away, and stood with a triumphant sneer, making room for Svenson.

"It is just like what you discovered in the rocks," whispered Mr. Bolte.

"Exactly," said Svenson, to cut him off.

The pieces of gla.s.s were impossibly thin, snapped from an inner page of a book, and starred along their length, as if they had been shattered.

"I should be grateful to know your thoughts," said Potts.

"You would be even more grateful not to, I a.s.sure you," the Doctor told him.

"I do insist. I will have no more secrets."

"Then tell us where your fellow hunters are now? Your party."

"What is that to do with our search?" asked Mr. Bolte. "Surely we are enough-"

"It is to do with what they hunt, as Mr. Potts well knows."

"My companions are reputable men."

"Soldiers of the Queen?"

"They are not well-known criminals," spat Potts, "like your Cardinal Chang."

"Cardinal Chang has been accounted for," interrupted Svenson. "Your party has not. Your own arrogance shows exactly how little you do understand your prey-dangerous prey, as that poor child has proven with his life."

"What prey, Doctor?" snarled Potts. "Tell us all!"

"The Doctor mentioned a woman," said Mr. Carper.

Svenson wheeled to find Carper directly behind him, holding up the woolen wrap.

"Do you know it?" Mr. Bolte asked Svenson.

"Not at all," replied the Doctor.

Mr. Bolte turned to Potts. "Do you? Do you know any woman here?"

Mr. Potts shook his head. He glanced down at the gla.s.s shards and then back to Svenson with a cold, knowing gaze. As if in silent answer to all of their questions Doctor Svenson stepped forward and with deliberate strikes of his boot heel smashed the gla.s.s fragments into glittering powder, then scuffed as much dirt as would come loose on top of the pile.

Potts pointed above them, farther into the hills.

"The trail continues. Perhaps we've argued enough."

IT WAS another hour of steady climbing before they stopped again, by which time the air had grown quite cold. Without the slightest regard for propriety, Mr. Carper had thrown the woolen wrap across his shoulders. Ahead, at the front of the line-a line that had become distended as their journey increased and the urgency of their errand diminished with the deepening chill-Svenson saw Mr. Potts conferring earnestly with Mr. Bolte, and knew he ought to take part, if only to defend himself. But Doctor Svenson was tired and still too generally touched with despair not to instead take a cigarette from his case and light a match. He looked above him at the dense carpet of low cloud, so near it seemed he might exhale directly into its smoky ma.s.s. He offered the case to Mr. Carper, who shook his head, and then looked up to approaching footsteps-Bolte and Potts bringing the conversation to Svenson.

"It has grown late," began Mr. Bolte. "Mr. Potts suggests we stop."

"And go back?" asked Mr. Carper, hopefully.

"That would take half-way to morning," announced Potts. "Apparently there is an old mine just ahead. Shelter enough, and we may make a fire."

"Have we any food?" asked Carper.

"We did not think to bring it," snapped Potts, glaring at Svenson, as if the lack of a dinner was his doing.

The fire was made in a long roofless hut, the far end sloping into shadows where a deep shaft had been sealed with a hammered-together wall of boards. Across a small clearing were two more huts, one also roofless and the other-because of the roof-a haven for nesting birds, its floor crusted and foul.

"I have told you exactly the truth," said Potts, his sharp features etched deeper in the firelight. "I joined a hunting party-"

"Hunting what?" asked Svenson.

"Deer," replied Potts. "And wild boar."

"Boar?" asked Mr. Bolte. "At this time of year?"

"I am no expert," said Potts. He sighed with a sudden peevishness. "I am no particular hunter at all."

"No," said Svenson. "That would be your Captain... what was his name?"

"Captain Tackham," yawned Carper. "I came up with them on the train. Elegant fellow for a soldier, I must say."

"Mrs. Daube told me the party went separate ways to hunt," said Svenson to Potts. "I wonder who went north... and if they have returned."

"The Captain," said Potts. "According to Mrs. Daube he returned and then went out again, searching elsewhere-there can be nothing, no good game, in the north."

"And what about this woman?" asked Mr. Bolte, poking the fire and looking seriously at Svenson across the rising sparks. "A woman is responsible for all this death? I confess that makes no sense to me."

Svenson met the gaze of Mr. Potts, who seemed just as concerned about the question as he himself. Perhaps, as far as the men of Karthe were concerned, they shared a desire to keep their business as hidden as possible...

"I will tell you all I know," Svenson replied, and reached into his coat for another cigarette. "Though I cannot pretend to possess an answer to her particular mystery. Even her name may be a fiction- Rosamonde, Contessa di Lacquer-Sforza." He glanced at Potts, but the man's face betrayed nothing.

"She is Italian?" asked Bolte.

"Venetian, I was told," said Svenson, deliberately deepening his own accent. "Though that too is most likely a lie... I myself first made her acquaintance in a private room of the St. Royale Hotel, in search of my charge-the Crown Prince of Macklenburg, Karl-Horst von Maasmarck. Do you know the St. Royale? It is an extraordinary place-the lobby is like an Ottoman palace, with carved columns and walls of mirror and marble-you can just imagine the sort of woman who keeps a whole suite of rooms there to herself! But, yes, the Prince-I was the Prince's personal physician-the Contessa was an intimate of the Prince's fiancee, Miss Lydia Vandaariff, though she was more truly an intimate of the girl's father, Lord Robert Vandaariff, whose name you must know, even in Karthe, for he must be reckoned one of the wealthiest men of the age-the Contessa being in fact a member of Lord Vandaariff's inner circle of advisors with regard to a particular business strategy involving my country of Macklenburg- thus his daughter's alliance in marriage with the Prince-mining rights, to be precise, which must interest you gentlemen very much, and then in turn manufacturing, shipping, markets in general-in any case, in this particular private room, the Contessa was, if I recall correctly-and I'm sure I do, for if ever there was a striking woman, it is she-wearing a dress of red silk, a Chinese red, which as you will know is a color that possesses more yellow in it than, for example, what one would call 'crimson'-a very striking choice when set against the woman's very black hair..."

He was gratified to see Mr. Bolte yawn, and pressed ahead with this pattern of detail and digression, giving at all times the impression of complete cooperation without ever revealing anything of substance regarding the Cabal, not even the airship and why such a woman would be in Karthe to begin with. Instead, by the time his narrative had paused to describe the labyrinthine interiors of Harschmort House, his only remaining listener was Mr. Potts, across the fire. The Doctor allowed his sentence to drift into silence and he reached for another cigarette. Mr. Potts smirked at the slumbering men around them.

"An amusing stratagem."

"They have no need to know," said Svenson. "I do not claim to know who has precisely sent you."

"You will accompany me back to the city," snarled Potts.

Svenson looked up at him. "Quite possibly."

"Without question."

"Mr. Potts, I appeal to you-you have seen for yourself this violence, the unnatural effects of the blue gla.s.s, the wickedness-"

"I know that, alone amongst my fellows, I have discovered my enemy."