She smiled. 'It's a new hobby.'
'Farentino?' Aubrey prompted, intrigued as he was by Caroline's questioning. 'Muller and Schnagel?'
'I have made some discreet enquiries since our incident with the lion, and I have found out that, despite what I had been told, someone did give Muller and Schnagel orders to steal the Heart of Gold and bring it to Holmland. Communications were intercepted, between them and an unknown party.'
'Ah. So they weren't acting on their own.' Aubrey was sure that his father, the Foreign Office, the Magisterium, the Special Services, all would be extremely keen to hear that someone high up in Holmland was actively trying to bring on war – and that there were others who were opposed to such action.
'Precisely. Their plans are in jeopardy, however, because the Gallians have been unusually efficient in their blockade of the city. They are in hiding, but the waiting has proved too much for them. Impatient as they are, they have embarked on a new mission, to fill in time, as it were. Probably Muller, but perhaps Schnagel, has decided that the methods of this Soul Stealer would be a useful weapon in war. They have organised their cadre to find this madman and take him and his methods back to Holmland. They began by abducting photographers at random, but they've come into some information that has led them here. Now, this action was apparently not sanctioned by anyone in Holmland.'
George harrumphed. 'We thought you wanted this Soul Stealer.'
Von Stralick was pained. 'Please give Holmland some credit. Not all of us are fools, despite what your popular press says.' He sighed. 'Some things are not to be countenanced. Stealing souls as a method of warfare? No. It would not be right.'
'Whereas blowing millions of people to pieces with bombs would be acceptable?' Caroline asked.
The Holmlander spread his hands. 'Can one fight a war and still be civilised? I don't know. But I do not feel that putting soul stealing into the hands of generals is a good idea, when they have so much already, as you point out.'
More to keep von Stralick off balance than anything else, Aubrey asked, 'And what do you hope to gain by frustrating the efforts of your countrymen?'
'Ah, motive. You Albionites are always interested in delving behind actions to find what lies beneath.' Von Stralick chuckled. 'Would you be surprised if I told you that self-interest is my motive here?'
'Hardly. Self-interest is the primary motivation for most actions.'
'You see?' von Stralick grinned. 'I am so obvious, not devious at all. If Muller and Schnagel's superior suffers a setback, then my superiors are advanced. When their fortunes rise, mine do too. Simple.'
If you're that straightforward, I'll walk backwards to the North Pole. 'And you need my magic to help you?' Aubrey said.
'Farentino has powerful sorcery, while I have access to none.'
'And once we have him,' Caroline said, 'he'll be handed to the Gallian authorities?'
'Of course.'
AS HE APPROACHED THE DOOR TO FARENTINO'S STUDIO, Aubrey felt the drone of magic. It was a mixture of raw, unfocused power and sharply organised spells; to a magician, it was like feeling the hum of heavy machinery under the ground.
Von Stralick nodded at the door, keeping his silence. Aubrey motioned the others back behind him.
He worked quickly. He crouched and carefully placed a hand on the surface of the door. His magical awareness told him that Farentino had done a good job. Magical wards were not just present on the door to the studio, but the walls, ceiling and floor were also reinforced. A veritable magical meshwork enveloped the studio, dormant but ready to react if the place was in danger of being breached. The whole lattice was overlaid with a recognition spelclass="underline" the door would recognise Farentino and admit him, but anyone else attempting to enter would be in for a surprise.
Aubrey probed gently, then drew back and stood. He wiped his hands together.
The meshwork sizzled with energy, a crude but powerful adaptation of the Law of Reaction. For every magical action there would be an opposite – but unequal – reaction. Farentino had managed to increase the reaction factor by two, so that any assault would rebound, doubled.
Of course, any competent magician would know this and make allowances, probably using an inertial deadening spell to catch and neutralise the reaction. Aubrey hummed a little, and glanced at von Stralick. The Holmlander took out his pocket watch and tapped it meaningfully.
Something simple, then, Aubrey thought.
He remembered when he last was faced with a magically guarded door. At Banford Park, Albion's magical research facility taken over by the renegade magician Dr Tremaine, Aubrey had to gain access through doors which the Sorcerer Royal had warded with complex spells – but he'd also overlaid them with a recognition spell, for convenience.
He led the others to the far end of the corridor, by the window overlooking the street. A butcher's cart rumbled past, but Aubrey's attention was taken by a grey-suited man standing in front of a shoe shop opposite. He was reading a guidebook, which shouldn't have been unusual in Lutetia, except that they were in a decidedly uninteresting part of the city.
'Do you know that man, von Stralick?' he whispered.
Von Stralick looked out of the window. 'No. He is not one of ours. And not one of those working for Muller and Schnagel either. Why?'
'I thought I recognised him. I must have been mistaken.' Aubrey tried to memorise his face and he filed it away under 'For Later Consideration', a category that was bulging.
He moved away from the window. 'I'm going to cast a spell,' he whispered to the others. 'Afterwards, I need you to tell me what I look like.'
Both Caroline and George nodded. Von Stralick was puzzled, but shrugged.
Aubrey summoned the memory of his confrontation with the Soul Stealer. Keeping the man's face firmly in mind, he cast the spell.
'Rough-looking fellow,' George whispered.
Von Stralick was impressed. 'So you only saw Farentino for a moment, but you can adopt his appearance? You have formidable skills, Fitzwilliam.'
Aubrey would have preferred it if von Stralick had a low opinion of his powers, but it was too late to worry about that. Wearing the appearance of the Soul Stealer, he walked to the door of Farentino's studio and presented himself.
The defensive meshwork melted away.
Carefully, probing for any secondary spells, he tried the door and found it was locked. He'd barely turned to Caroline when she nodded and extracted her hair pins from her waist band. While von Stralick's eyes widened, she slipped the pins into the lock and had the door open in seconds. With George close behind, Aubrey entered the studio.
The room smelled heavily of chemicals, with the acrid tang of flash powder cutting through a complex medley of harsh odours. A small stage was set up at the end of the room, with folds of white linen drapery hanging from the ceiling as a neutral backdrop. Standing on the stage, astonished, was Farentino, the Soul Stealer.