Circle of Shadows

V.9

By the time Georg had come back with another man, a bedsheet taken from his own house, a wide plank and a number of ropes, Michaels had cleared the rest of the earth away from the body. Her legs were curled up under her dress. He laid the donated linen over her, and then tried to push it into the soil below. The colour of the earth around the body was changed, darker, thicker somehow. The body rolled back into his arms like a lover sleeping and he found himself staring into a death’s head. There was a leathery skin clinging to parts of the skull. The long dark hair was loose, seemed unattached to the skull, but rather laid over it. The dress was thin and stained dark along the length of the body. Michaels held himself still. He thought of what the boy had told him, tried to make her alive again in his mind, laughing at simple magic tricks, worrying a system of magic of her own out of the library of the Alchemist. They had taken their chances, she and her sister. Now her sister had a house with a library in it and a reputation to protect, and this girl’s path had led her into the forest and the earth. He saw the glint at her neck, the little gold cross Mrs Padfield had told him of. He lifted the remains up in his arms, placed them on the board and folded the cloth around her while the priest continued to pray. He hoped she’d died quick, and not known the blow was coming.

Harriet did not have long to recover herself from the shock of Swann’s collapse before the Duke himself arrived. She, Crowther and Manzerotti stood and the Duke nodded to them, remaining just inside the door with his spaniel in his arms and with Colonel Padfield and Count Frenzel at his side.

It was Frenzel who spoke first. The skin around his mouth was white.

‘Who has done this?’

The Duke looked at him askance. ‘I rather think you have stolen my line, Count,’ he said. ‘However, I feel sure if our guests knew, they would tell us. Reymen?’ His personal physician scurried past him to the bed and took Swann’s wrist in his hand.

‘Weak, sire,’ he said eventually.

‘Will he live?’ the Duke asked. The physician looked hopefully at Crowther and Manzerotti. Neither man moved.

‘I do not know, sire.’

The Duke studied Swann’s thin form on the bed for a long moment. ‘Time will tell, I suppose.’ Then he turned on his heel and left smartly. Half-crouching, the physician followed him and his advisers.

‘What are we to do?’ Harriet said, then caught her breath, realising she was now including Manzerotti in the we she spoke.

The singer stood and bent over the bed to examine the hands. They looked as if they had been burned. ‘I think it was the gloves.’ They still lay on the floor by the bed, looking both dead and malevolent. ‘We cannot leave him unguarded. Whoever poisoned them may try again as soon as we leave. Your sister is something of a healer, I think, Mrs Westerman?’ Harriet stiffened, and though Manzerotti did not turn round he must have felt it. ‘No, we have not been gossiping and swapping receipts, madam. Colonel Padfield mentioned it.’

‘She makes and sells some household remedies in our village,’ Harriet said at last.

‘That must be excuse enough. Let her come, her husband and Mr Graves. They will make less convincing nurses, but better guards. He must not be left alone.’

Harriet nodded.

‘We should also send for Herr Kupfel. Though I doubt he will come willingly,’ Crowther said. Manzerotti turned and raised one beautifully groomed eyebrow. ‘It is likely that the drugs that disorientated Clode and rendered the victims passive came from his collection of receipts. Where there are instructions for the creation of two dangerous drugs, there are probably instructions for the creation of several more.’

‘I agree. Where are these papers now?’

‘Stolen at some point. With some of the elements needed to create them, and a number of volumes on alchemy and magic ritual. Kupfel might know some manner to ease the workings of whatever did this to Swann.’

‘Fascinating,’ Manzerotti drawled, studying the frayed flesh on Swann’s hands. ‘That is a collection of papers I would give a great deal of gold to see.’

Harriet shuddered and she stood to hide it. ‘I will go to Swann’s offices. Perhaps he has left some sign of what he meant to tell us. I assume it will be given out that the Chancellor is merely indisposed.’

‘You should not curl your lip, Mrs Westerman. It does not suit you. Yes, I imagine so. Do you think they will let you rifle through his papers, dear lady?’ She could hear the smile in Manzerotti’s voice.

‘The Duke has asked us to look into these matters. I go with his authority.’

‘But you speak German so badly … Still, perhaps it is better that Mr Crowther and I keep vigil here and you give yourself some other occupation round the court.’ He looked at her, his head on one side. ‘We would not want to ruin our present good understanding by spending too long in each other’s company, now would we?’

She had no answer for him and turned to leave the room. As she went she heard his low laugh and felt her cheeks burn.