“Good day, Lady Anne,” he said brusquely. “I have work to do, and time is running short.” He turned and gave a nod to his friends as he left the throne room.
From the look on Lady Anne’s face, if the insult had meant to wound, it had failed.
“He can be a bore, can’t he?” she said to no one in particular. “But I suppose that’s what makes him such a challenge.” Moving in their direction, she skipped by Castimir, ignoring him entirely as she put her arm through William’s. “Now William de Adlard, I want you to do something for me. When Theodore finishes his morning drill with his young men, I want you to lead him by the galleries. I will be waiting.”
“And why should I do this thing?” William asked, making no attempt to hide his own irritation.
“Because if you do as I say, I will put a good word in for you to Lady Caroline.”
Castimir saw Lady Anne’s spell work its magic.
“Would you?” the young noble said. “That’s very thoughtful of you.” Then, as he realised what he had said, his face wrinkled in a frown. “But what do I tell Theodore?”
Lady Anne gave that smile again. Castimir wasn’t sure, but he thought a part of it was aimed in his direction. He heard Doric huff behind him.
“You are both men,” she said blithely. “Men talk about things. I am sure you will think of something. I shall wait at the Salve gallery from midday until one o’clock. Don’t fail me, or Lady Caroline will be so disappointed that she may never talk to you again. I am very good at making things up William, a fact that could work to your advantage. Or not!”
With that she swept herself from the room.
“Come along, Castimir,” Ebenezer said with a cunning grin. “I think you need some air, and I know just where we can get it.” The alchemist turned to the noble who had been their guide. “Don’t worry William, I think we can find our own way. And I appreciate that you have greater priorities now.”
4
“Welcome my friends, to my home,” Ebenezer said. “Here, I am sorry to inform you, you are likely to meet more of my scientific friends.” The alchemist ignored Castimir’s sour expression and looked at the house he had left many years before.
Over twenty years before. More time than Castimir has been alive!
The dark oak door had been nicely varnished, while the white adobe walls-rare in a city built mainly from grey stone-had been recently repainted. To him, the whole townhouse looked fresher than he had ever remembered it being.
“It’s a big house, Ebenezer” Castimir said. “I’m surprised that you and your science cronies haven’t blown the roof off.”
Doric glared at him and shook his head slowly. The young wizard looked suddenly uneasy.
“It is all right, Doric,” the alchemist said in a good-natured tone. “Time has mellowed my pain.” Then he looked back at the structure. “My friends and I used to gather here to discuss the latest developments of architecture and engineering, chemistry and astronomy. Here, Castimir, you would have been the heretic.” He gave the wizard a smile. “But a welcome one nonetheless. Now, let us see who is in.”
He banged the knocker against the door. Almost immediately it was opened an inch. A woman peered through the gap, her round face and grey hair showing symptoms of her age. But her eyes sparkled with a formidable intelligence and, Ebenezer thought, force of will.
After all these years, can it be?
“Sally? Sally is that really you?” he said, peering at her closely through his glasses.
The woman remained silent for a moment, then suddenly she broke into laughter.
“Ebenezer! We’ve been waiting for you, Albertus and I! Your house is just as you left it.” The door was pulled open and Sally charged out to embrace him. Then just as suddenly she stepped back.
“Let me look at you!” Her eyes ran over the yellow waistcoat and blue jacket that he wore under his old travelling cloak. She stared at the golden fob watch that Lord Tremene had given him in Falador, in gratitude for all he had done in the war. Suddenly, her eyebrows rose quizzically.
“Surely this isn’t the same cloak you left Varrock with, all those years ago?”
Ebenezer laughed, feeling a happy tear appear in the corner of his eye.
“It is, Sally. The very one you hurled over my back as I promised never to return. It’s the one item of clothing that I have never parted with, even though the rest of my clothes are far too expensive, and hand-made by the tailors of Falador.”
Sally laughed again and looked past him, to Doric and Castimir.
“When he left Varrock, with his wagon full of rocks and chemicals, he sat out here in the road in the pouring rain, drenched. It was all I could do to force the travelling cloak on him, for it once belonged to my husband.”
Your husband… Ebenezer thought. I had forgotten Erasmus, and that is certainly no way to remember a friend. Have I really grown so old?
He felt more tears gather and threaten to spill over the lip of his eye. Yet somehow, he didn’t mind.
“It’s true,” he said with a tremulous voice. “I would have died of a chill if you hadn’t given it to me all those years ago, Sally.” He coughed and regained his composure. “Indeed, I have often thought that I wouldn’t have even made it to the home of the barbarian tribes, only a few days west of here.”
A silence fell, in which the two old friends stared at each other.
How you have changed Sally. You have replaced your beauty with dignity and grace, yet I am more glad for your kind heart.
But how have I changed in your eyes?
Finally, Sally spoke.
“Welcome home, Ebenezer, my dear, dear friend. Welcome home.”
“It was Eloise’s fifty-first birthday three weeks ago, Ebenezer. Albertus and I went to lay flowers by her grave. Your annuity has kept it in good shape since you left Varrock. She and the children rest well under the tree you planted next to them.”
The ash tree? Was it ash, or willow? How Eloise hated the children getting the sun on them. That was why I planted it there.
“Thank you for doing so, Sally. Your sister would be happy if she knew.”
“If she knew? So your travels have not yet persuaded you of the existence of the gods or an afterlife?” Sally laughed and he saw her look to Doric and Castimir, who sat opposite-somewhat stiffly, he thought, uncomfortably so. Castimir laboured with a biscuit, chewing slowly and deliberately, while Doric lit his pipe.
“Come Sally, our mawkish talk is making my friends uncomfortable,” he said, hoping to lighten the mood. “Although I feel I must answer your question, for that was a tradition of our debates, was it not? A question asked had to be answered. Yes, I believe in the gods. I think I always did. But I just don’t believe they care for mortals. I have seen too much ill in all areas of the world to think otherwise.”
“That I can believe,” she answered. “You don’t have to go far these days to prove such a hypothesis, alas.” Her voice trailed off, and Ebenezer saw the looks of his friends grow interested.
“What is happening in Varrock, Sally?” he asked. “What is this Wyrd that keeps taking people?”
Sally took a sip of her tea, avoiding his stare.
Ebenezer was content to wait.
“I first heard of it some months ago,” she said slowly. “Farmers from the east said that children had been taken from their beds at night, and devoured. Later on it started happening to adults, to farm hands. Strong young men who would fight a wolf, if it threatened.”
She lowered her cup.
“But it’s been said no one ever fought this thing,” she continued. “It kills with absolute impunity. Always in the night. Some have seen it, or so they say. It has been described as a giant bat, with fangs that drip blood, or poison. Some people say it is a woman. It has taken indiscriminately-men, women, children, the old and the young. Some vanish never to be seen again, other times remains are found, but still no one has an answer to stop it. Some say it has taken over a hundred souls since it first arrived in our lands.”