Rasnake(14)

"For those that do not already know," Cecil continued, "my brother Milton has returned to us this day. He and his friend, Master Tallant, have pledged their services to our cause. Make them welcome. I admonish you again not to relinquish hope. We have fought long and hard against the dragons, and we will defeat them. We'll not let this latest tragedy stop us. Thirteen women are still missing; we need to be strong if we are to find them. Now eat, relax, and prepare to face the morrow."

Of the imprisoned councilman, of his own imprisonment, Cecil made no mention. No one else brought it up, either. Tallant supposed that was for the best. He looked down the table at Cecil, and said, "So tell us about the missing women."

Cecil took a swallow of his wine, obviously avoiding Tallant's gaze as long as he could, but finally said, "It started a few weeks ago. The women, minus a special few, are not allowed to go beyond the castle walls without an escort, and only during certain times—and to certain places."

"But some of them snuck out," Tallant guessed.

"Lily and Mary," Cecil replied. "They wanted berries, because it was Lily's birthday and she wanted her mother to make her a berry cake. Mary came home screaming and crying in the late afternoon, saying that a monster had taken Lily and tried to take her too. We never could figure out what she meant by monster. A couple of days later, we woke up to find that Mary had been taken from her bed in the night. Ever since, every few days, another women is snatched from her bed. It doesn't matter what we do, or how we try to protect them. Then Irene—" He broke off, and drained his wine. "Irene went missing the same damned way. I'd wanted to protect her, but I had other duties that night.

"We have no idea who or what is behind it. At first, we suspected dragons—but no dragon takes girls from their beds. That means the culprit must be human, but everyone here is adversely affected in some way by at least one of the missing women, and we all feel the collective loss."

One of the twins leaned forward. "They thought it was us at first, 'cause so many other things kept going missing, and who but thieves would steal? But it ain't us. We don't steal from friends, and we don't steal people. Now the missing objects are turning up with the dead girls, who even knows what's going on."

Milton frowned. "What do you mean?"

"When we found Lily dead," Cecil replied, "she was holding something of mine. I used to carve things, mostly for Irene's dollhouse when we were growing up. Furniture, decorations, even an entire forest of trees that we covered in gold and silver leaf, with glass 'jewels' for the fruits."

"I remember that," Milton said with a smile, looking happy and sad all at once. He laughed, "Dollhouse hardly does you justice. It was a replica of the castle and surrounding land. Those trees were the forest. His Grace used to admire it, said he wished he could walk through forests of silver and gold and jewels."

Cecil nodded. "Lily was holding a branch of one of those trees when we found her body. That's why they locked me up for the murder. But those toys were packed away years ago. The whole castle. There was just no more time to play and fuss with it, not when we had stopped being children a long time ago. But Irene kept a couple of the trees. When they went missing, we just assumed some of the children had run off with them again. They had a way of vanishing and reappearing.

"But other things went missing too—trinkets, jewelry, little things like that. We didn't really noticed at first, because no one is going to tell me if they lost little things, personal items, and like I said—half the time, we assume the children are playing with stuff. The thefts were going on for months, we think, before we made the connection and noticed the vast numbers of missing items. We still do not know who is responsible."

Milton frowned. "What about His Grace?"

"What about him?" Cecil asked sourly. "He's locked up in the tower. His food is given to him through a hole in the bottom of the door. Irene visits him occasionally, but it always left her in tears. Henry holds the only key to the room. The only other way out is through a window too small for his Grace's corpulence. I do not see what he had to do with any of this, except that dealing with him on top of the mess he left for us is just one more burden."

"He fell mad shortly before the wards broke?"

"Right around that time, but to be honest I do not recall if it was before or after. Those were bad times." Cecil motioned for more wine, then drained half the cup.

"I see," Tallant said quietly, turning that bit of knowledge over in his mind. More than ever, he needed to see the break in the wards. "Speaking of the wards, would it be possible for me to get someone to take me out that way? Or simply give me directions."

"I'll take you," Cecil said. "I have to go out that way, anyway."

"Why?" Milton asked.

"That's near to where both bodies were found," Cecil replied, and finished his wine, motioning for a refill.

He had, Tallant noticed, barely touched his food. Frowning, Tallant searched for a subject change that might improve Cecil's mood, but could only come up with one feeble idea. "What was it you cut out of the dragon earlier?"

"Oh," Cecil said, as if suddenly remember something. From his waist he pulled a pouch, pulling the strings loose to open it and tipping out a cloth-wrapped bundle a little smaller than his fist. Unwrapping the cloth, he tipped the object into his hand.