Vanished

CHAPTER 34

I jerked Marsden up to me from the surface of the creaking, darkened pier. “What?”

“It’s a puzzle,” he replied in a distant voice. “That is a key. A key to an enigma. That is the way. A. door at the center of a labyrinth.” He shook himself and sagged onto the dock. “Will you bloody well unhand me, girl? You’ve got the damned thing in your pocket. I’d like to see it for myself.”

“What damned thing?” I asked, eyes slitted.

“The puzzle. It belonged to your dad, yeah? It’s in your pocket. Show it me!”

That was when Michael stepped back out onto the dock and stared at us, lit from behind by the lamps of the floating restaurant. “What are you two doing? If you’re going to kill each other, can you do it later? There’s food in here and I, for one, want to eat it. Are you coming in or not?”

“Lad’s got a better head than either of us, I think,” Marsden mumbled. “Food first, eh? Fight later.”

“Don’t tempt me. ” I muttered, letting him up.

Marsden brushed at his moleskin collection and straightened his clothes. “I shall still want to see that puzzle.”

He started into the restaurant and I followed him as he followed Michael. “What’s it got to do with saving Will?” I hissed under my breath.

“Nothing. It’s for later. If you insist on being a bloody heroine.”

“Don’t start.”

He cackled and ignored me until we reached the table. We eased into our seats and kept an ugly silence while we fell on the food Michael had ordered. Meat pies, salad, bread, and beer vanished and I didn’t even taste it. Marsden and Michael did theirs in with equal speed, though they seemed to enjoy it more. Marsden finally leaned back and patted his mouth with his napkin before holding up his glass for a refill.

As we waited for the new round, Marsden put his hand out on the table palm up. “C’mon, girl. Show it me.”

Glowering, I brought the little metal puzzle out of my pocket and put it on Marsden’s palm.

“What’s that?” Michael asked.

“It’s a puzzle my dad used to carry around. This guy seems to think it’s important.”

“It is,” Marsden said, fidgeting with the puzzle. He didn’t bend his head to look at it. It wouldn’t have done any good, but the effect of him scrambling the puzzle with deft fingers while he kept his head tipped back and his wrecked eyes turned toward the ceiling was still unsettling.

He grunted and scowled. “Here,” he said, forcing it back into my hands. “You’ll have to do it—it only likes you.” He put his hands over mine.

I wasn’t sure why he said it liked me—objects rarely have any “feelings” about people one way or another—but this one did seem to. fit me better than it had him. Maybe because it had been my dad’s, but I doubted that was the only reason. Where or when had my father gotten it? Somewhere in the Grey? But he couldn’t have. He would have said something about it in his journal. And it seemed to me he’d always had it, as far back as I could remember.

Marsden’s cold, dry touch guided my fingers. I repressed a frisson as the metal links slid into positions I’d never seen before, making low, sure clicks with every change. The little puzzle gleamed pale blue until something fell into place. Then it blazed gold and settled down to a dull humming in my hand that felt like a fistful of bees. Yet another strange link between my past and the present.

It didn’t look like a key—actually it looked more like a mutant fork or a lock pick—but the satisfied sensation it gave off left me with the conclusion that it was pleased with its current shape and ready to do something. I wouldn’t call it alive or sentient, but the odd, flat prong I now held did seem. ready for something, even eager.

The thought left me uncomfortable. My dad had never made such a configuration with the puzzle that I’d seen. If it was something only I could do. was that a sign of the direction in which Wygan was pushing me, of the purpose to which he’d already bent me? I didn’t like that. It stunk of Fate and Destiny and a lack of free will.

I pressed on the last puzzle piece that I’d moved and bent it back until it clicked again. The golden glow drained away, and the whole thing faded back to an inert collection of metal parts as I shuffled the surfaces around and wondered what it was meant to do. Or I with it. Besides the useless drivel Marsden had spouted on the dock, that is.

Michael had watched it like a hawk does a mouse.

“Did you see something?” I asked.

He hesitated. Then admitted with a drooping head, “No. I was hoping. ”

“Haven’t you seen enough uncanny stuff for one day?”

Michael shrugged. “Not so much, really. I mean. there was Will—that thing that wasn’t Will—and the Tube station. Everything else is just creepy stuff you and this guy have told me.”

He was trying to forget the extent of the weirdness and I wasn’t sure that was wise just yet. “That’s not enough to convince you something strange is going on?”

“Oh, I’m convinced! It’s just. y’know. if there’s vampires and witches and stuff, it might be fun to see—”

“Don’t think it, boy. That lot’s fun like being thrown off a cliff,” Marsden said.

The waiter brought our drinks and we set to them for a moment, each in our own thoughts. Or at least Michael and I were. Marsden somehow gave the impression of watching us both.

Michael shot him a nervous glance. “Why do I feel like you’re staring at me.?”

Marsden snickered. “More perceptive than I’d have credited. I’m wondering what we shall do about you.”

“We who?” Michael demanded. “Do what about me?” He turned a furious expression toward me. “Who is this guy, anyhow? How do we know he’s not with them?”

Marsden patted at the air with one lazy hand. “We’ve been through that already.”

“Not with me you haven’t!” Michael snapped.

I sighed. “He’s not with the enemy. But that doesn’t mean he’s trustworthy, either,” I added, giving Marsden a sharp look.

Marsden almost smiled. “You’re getting smarter. But I am not going to do you any harm, boy. You’re a bystander in this—like your brother.”

I almost choked on my beer. “You two-faced rat bastard,” I muttered.

He made a little shrugging motion on one side. “All right. I admit I don’t give a tinker’s about this missin’ brother, but the lady here says she ain’t leaving without ’im. The sooner she’s gone and out of reach of certain people, the safer we all are. So. I’m for finding that brother quick and gettin’ shut of the lot of you.”

“Yeah? Well, isn’t that lovely of you?” Michael sneered.

“Michael,” I started, “he’s a lying, manipulative, sneaky—”

“Rat bastard,” Michael reminded me.

“Yes. But he knows the lay of the land and I don’t. I don’t know where to start looking for Will.”

Michael glowered at Marsden. “He does?”

“Probably.”

“Of course I do. Mind, I don’t say I know where he is or who’s got ’im, so don’t get shirty ’bout that. But I have an idea where to start lookin’. ”

I hated having to cooperate with Marsden. I knew I couldn’t trust him; he had an agenda and I wasn’t sure it had changed since we’d left St. Pancras churchyard. But he was the only resource I had left.

“Where should we start?” I asked.

“The Greek sisters,” Marsden said.