We set out. Darla kept her hand in mine, and I kept my free hand on Toadsticker’s hilt.
We hadn’t gone far when Marlo halted and began to carefully pick up and move the various cast-off treasures that made their home down in the dark with the crickets and the ghosts. Now I knew why I’d missed the cornfield tunnel my first time here-the entrance was covered with junk.
We all joined in, moving slowly and carefully. There might be soldiers hiding ten feet up, through the roots and grubs and soil. The last thing anyone wanted to do was bring a mob with shovels and picks down on our heads.
We cleared the entrance to the new tunnel in minutes. Marlo’s torch illuminated a much smaller, narrower passage, lined with bricks obviously older than the ones used elsewhere.
Marlo pointed, and aside from Mama we ducked and pressed on.
I picked half a dozen crickets out of Darla’s fine black hair. They never fell into anyone else’s. Darla never made a sound, though the things were fat and cold and wet in my hands.
I tried to picture our location, imagining that we walked up on the lawn. The tunnel ran more or less straight, which meant it took us under a couple of outbuildings. In three places, huge old blood-oak roots broke through the bricks, and by remembering the trees I was able to sense we were very close to the end of the tunnel.
I was right. Iron stairs, like the others, shone from Marlo’s torch.
We all moved to the foot of them and stood looking up.
These stairs were practically new. There was rust, here and there, but only in small patches, and they’d been sanded and painted recently.
The same system of chains and weights and pulleys was in place. But again, these lacked rust, and much to my delight they were liberally coated in a thick, fresh application of grease.
Marlo blushed.
And I knew.
This was how he managed to spend the night with the Lady without raising eyebrows at such a mismatched pairing. He could sneak in and sneak out of the House proper, at least while the corn was up. And I imagine he and his ladylove had a way to accomplish the same even in the cornless dead of winter.
Love will find a way, as they say. Often it’s a way that doesn’t speak well of the intelligence or maturity of the lovers in question, but it finds a way nonetheless.
I spared Marlo any speculative comments on the well-maintained state of the workings.
“I go first,” I whispered, as I put boots on the treads. “Then Evis. Then Mama.”
Nods all around. Darla squeezed my hand, and let it go.
“Not to worry,” I said. “Let’s go.”
And up we went.
Marlo worked the crank with practiced ease. Chains moved over pulleys with all the fuss and commotion of a carefully stirred cup of tea. I stood under the steel slab and watched it rise. Within a few moments I could see cornstalks, and a few moments more revealed sky.
Marlo stopped and nodded. I lifted myself out of the ground, lay flat and rolled away from the door.
Evis popped up next, rising like a shadow from the dark. Mama was next, silent save for her usual huffing and puffing.
Darla popped her head up, and before I could speak she was out too.
I glared. She pretended not to see.
Marlo reversed his machinery, and the door closed. It had a lip that ran all the way around and held an inch or two of dirt. We smoothed out the crack left in the earth, shuffled around on it a bit, and after a few minutes all sign of the opening was obliterated.
Darla came and stood beside me, not saying a word. I let her hand take mine.
“I go alone.” She squeezed my hand twice, our secret code for yes. Heads nodded in the starlight.
I let go of Darla’s hand, and walked down the row, toward the woods.
No one followed, though I knew Evis was probably slipping off and flanking me a row or two on my right.
I kept walking. The wind rustled the stalks, surrounding me with dry whispers.
And there he was.
I halted, for a moment, my heart pounding, trying to pick out some detail in the dark.
All I could see for certain was that a man knelt in the dirt a stone’s throw away. His back was to me, his head bowed. He might have been sketching something, in the soil.
I dared another dozen steps, and then stopped.
The man rose. I could see a little better. He was tallish and thin and-
Skin, the beekeeper. It was Skin, no doubt about it.
I let out my breath.
Skin turned to face me.
There were four crossbow bolts buried in his chest. His face was the pale bloodless white of the new moon. His eyes glinted like dirty marbles in the dim light. He didn’t blink.
He didn’t need to blink anymore.
He smiled a wide, dry corpse’s smile and began to walk towards me. His steps were halting and stiff. His arms hung limp at his sides.
I counted his strides. I did not draw Toadsticker. I did not turn and run.
But oh, how I wanted to.
The dead man stopped six feet from me. That was close enough to hear the sucking noises from the holes in his chest as he walked.
Poor dead Skin worked his jaw experimentally, and then wet his lips with thick dried blood from a tongue gone white and stiff.
“Fancy meeting you here, Finder.”
His voice was Skin’s but slurred and weak. The wounds around the shafts of the crossbow bolts gurgled and hissed. I gathered the Corpsemaster was having trouble forcing air through the pierced lungs.
“Corpsemaster.” I nodded in what I hoped was a polite sign of deference. “I was hoping we could speak.”
Skin raised an eyebrow and feigned an expression of surprise. “Why, isn’t that a change of heart, Mr. Markhat. You, wanting to speak to me. I feared that after our last meeting we would never meet socially again.”
I kept my face carefully blank and my mouth even more carefully shut.
“I trust your stay at the Werewilk estate is proving interesting?”
“Very.” I realized I’d fallen into attention, and made myself relax. “I suppose I ought to thank you for what you did in the yard.”
Hisvin raised a dead hand in a gesture of dismissal. “Not at all, Finder. I was merely enforcing Regency law-rogue sorcerers, caught in the act of using magic against a law-abiding citizen of the realm? I simply had no choice but to take action. Though it was fortunate I happened along, when I did.”
“A happy coincidence, all around.” I made myself take a couple of slow, deep breaths. “I’m in over my head here. Your presence proves that. I’d like to know what I can do to keep myself and these people alive.”
Hisvin made wet chuckling noises. “I do admire your blunt nature, Finder. To a point.” He coughed up a mouthful of dark blood and spat it to the dirt. “But to answer your question. Remain indoors. Remain vigilant. Remain prepared to fight or to flee, as circumstances dictate.”
That wasn’t what I’d expected to hear. My expression must have conveyed what I dared not voice.
“I’ve disappointed you.” More blood came up. I studied the tips of my boots. “For that, I am chagrined. But you see, Finder, regardless of what you think about me, I am determined to remain honest with you. It’s a bit of a game, if you prefer to think of it in that way. The first time I lie to you, I lose. And I do not love to lose.”
I didn’t like the sudden change in Hisvin’s tone. I decided to risk changing the subject. “Why bring Darla here? Why bring Mama?”
The Corpsemaster pulled Skin’s lips back in a grin. “Your involvement in this matter is known, Finder. The other parties involved were already scheming to use Miss Tomas and Missus Hog as hostages. I brought them here, using the most expedient means possible, so that I could protect them. Even I cannot be all places at once.”
“You’re making me nervous, admitting things like that, sir.”
“As I said, I am resolved to tell the truth, even if it casts me in less than an omnipotent light.”