Give the Dark My Love(78)

“Open up!” a loud voice called. “By order of the Emperor’s Guard!”

My hand clenched. I backed away from the door, deeper into the laboratory.

Master Ostrum hesitated.

The Emperor’s Guard pounded on the door again, and the glass window shattered, dozens of shards skittering across the floor. Master Ostrum cursed, reaching for the door as the guards stormed in.

I ran to the center of the laboratory, my fingers scrambling along the wooden planks, searching for the hidden panel. I opened it as silently as I could, although the shouting in Master Ostrum’s office would hopefully block any sound. I tossed my bag into the cool, earthen hole of the subbasement. It landed with a thud, and I bounded down the ladder, pausing only to slide the floor panel back into place.

“Don’t go in there!” Master Ostrum shouted as the laboratory door opened. There was a scuffle, a thud against the wall, books falling from the shelves.

Feet overhead.

The boots of the Emperor’s Guard thundered into the laboratory. There was hardly any light in the little subbasement, but I knew what was there. And what I wanted. As the guards searched the lab and Master Ostrum’s office, I rifled through the shelves, finding the small wooden box that housed the copper crucible.

Above me, an authoritative voice rang out. “Phillious Ostrum, you are under arrest.”

Master Ostrum sounded indignant. “On what charge?”

“On treasonous use of alchemy,” the master of the guard said.

The silence that followed felt thick and heavy.

“Say it,” Master Ostrum said in a disgusted voice. “Don’t be a coward.”

“You are under arrest for necromancy,” the master of the guard said, his voice cracking on the last word.

There was a scuffle then, and Master Ostrum shouted—far more loudly than was strictly necessary. “Be careful, you oaf!” His voice carried down toward me. “You’ve cut me. Now my blood is all over this table.”

“If you will not go willingly—”

“I’ll go, I’ll go,” Master Ostrum growled. “Try not to destroy any more of my lab.”

He’s doing this for me, I thought. Leading away the guard before they find me. Letting me know his blood has spilled.

“I know why you’re doing this.” Master Ostrum’s voice came from his office now, but was loud enough to carry down to me. “I’m being damned for my blood. But you’re fools. I’m the only person who could have helped you.”

Not the only person.

“My daughter and my wife both died of the plague,” the master of the guard said. “And the Emperor says the plague isn’t natural, that it’s caused by someone like Wellebourne.”

“Still scared of the word?” Master Ostrum mocked.

A heavy cracking drowned out whatever else he was going to say as the guards slammed their fists into Master Ostrum’s body again and again.



* * *



? ? ?

    It was hard to tell how much time had passed. After Master Ostrum was carried away, some of the guards remained behind, shuffling papers, moving books, shaking out boxes. Their footsteps pounded over me. I strained my ears to listen for the big clock in the tower, wondering how long Ernesta had been alone in the quarantine hospital. Wondering if she was still alive.

Have faith in me, I prayed. I’m coming. I had all the ingredients now. I could make a necromancer’s crucible. I could become a necromancer. If a necromancer had created the plague, surely one could stop it. I would find a way.

I can save you.



* * *



? ? ?

After the last guard left, I counted to a thousand. Then I counted a thousand more.

I climbed up the ladder, my bag strapped to my back. The floor panel crept open.

It was dark.

Debris and papers shifted as I slid the floor panel all the way open and crawled out. I readjusted it, then kicked some books with broken spines over the entry. Father would be so disappointed in my treatment of books lately, I thought. Then I remembered where my father was.

I moved to the table with a streak of red blood across it. Clever of Master Ostrum to alert me to its presence. I used a glass slide to scrape some of the blood from the table, then let it drip into the bottom of the copper crucible I had retrieved from the subbasement.

The price had been paid. The copper crucible, once empty, now contained a bony, dried-up hand. The crucible cage I needed.

Outside the lab, I heard a sound. Glass crunched. I froze.

Someone was entering the office.





FORTY-NINE


    Nedra



“Hello?” A voice said softly in the dark.

“Grey,” I breathed.

He didn’t hear me. Flickering candlelight flowed into Master Ostrum’s office, and I stepped out of the lab.

“Who—” Grey started, cursing. The candle shook in his hand as he let out a relieved sigh. “Nedra,” he said. “I’ve been wondering when you’d return.”

“I arrived today,” I said, keeping my tone neutral. I stuck to the shadows, remembering my reflection.

“Is everything all right?”

I laughed aloud, perhaps a bit hysterically.