“No. It’s very moving, isn’t it?” She nodded at the painting.
“Do you really believe such a thing can be done?” I asked her.
“Of course. By God.”
“Then why not ask Him?”
She said nothing.
“Have you asked?” I persisted.
“Please don’t be disrespectful, here of all places.”
I wasn’t trying to be disrespectful. I was genuinely curious. “Surely you want Konrad back as much as the rest of us. More, maybe. So why wouldn’t you ask, if you believed in such astonishing power?”
“Miracles were rare even when Jesus walked the earth. Lazarus was a friend of His, and people needed to believe, to know He was the son of God.”
I stared back at the painting, at the power emanating from Jesus’s body like a corona.
“Is it because you don’t really believe it can be done?” I asked.
She sighed. “When Konrad died, I prayed for his soul to go straight to heaven. Death is part of life, Victor. I hate it, but I’ve accepted it.”
“When he died,” I told her, “I made myself a promise at the crypt. I promised myself I would bring him back.”
“That was not a good promise.”
I pointed at the painting. “What if I can achieve the same thing?”
She put her fingers to my lips to stop me.
I grabbed her hand. “Please come and help me.”
Slowly she shook her head.
“Henry and I will go alone, then,” I said with a sigh, releasing her hand. I looked down, forlorn, but watched her from the corner of my eye. “Konrad will miss you. When I think of him in there alone… Well, he’s got Analiese, of course. She must be a great comfort to him.”
“Can’t you see I’m at war with myself?” she whispered, her eyes wet. “I want him back! My memory of him is so intense, it mocks reality.”
“Then help me make a new reality.”
The church’s stained glass darkened briefly as a cloud passed over the sun.
“God is the sovereign master of life, Victor, not us.”
“Rules, and then more rules,” I muttered savagely. “They can all be broken. You love him too much to let this chance pass!”
Her breath slipped out of her, and I sensed her resolve falter.
“You don’t know what it cost me, going in just that once,” she said, and then with resignation added, “I may already have eternally damned myself.”
I grinned. “In that case what do you have to lose?”
CHAPTER 6
A drop upon the tongue and we are here, all three.
I sit up on my bed and turn to Henry, seated in the chair at my desk, hands in his lap, eyes just opening. Here is my oldest friend, and yet it takes me a moment to recognize him. His frame seems more substantial, the lines of his once slender face wider, his wispy hair more abundant, the jaw harder.
“Why’re you staring at me?” he asks.
Because you’re transformed, I think. But instead I say, “How do you feel?”
His nostrils flare and he smiles. “Fine.”
He opens his hand and regards his talisman-a bit of folded paper. An odd choice, I think, and a mysterious one, for he wouldn’t show us what was written on it. He slips it into his pocket, and when he stands, he stands taller.
I look over at Elizabeth in my armchair, radiant with beauty. As she pulls her hair bracelet over her slender wrist, she looks at Henry, surprised and intrigued-and with a sting I know that she too has noticed his change. Her hazel eyes swing over to me, appraising, then slide away.
The faint ticking in my hand draws my eye to the spirit watch, and I see the fetal sparrow limb jerk slightly to the right. Outside my window the eerie white mist coils and moans, and the glass shudders. Henry looks over sharply.
“This is the evil spirit?” he asks.
“Don’t be afraid. It can’t come in,” I say.
“I’m not afraid,” he says, so calmly I believe him.
“Good,” I say, but I’m not at all sure I’m happy with this new, more confident Henry.
We leave my bedchamber, and as we walk down the hallway, I notice that Elizabeth lets Henry walk between us, as if she’s trying to keep me at a distance. Is she afraid we might touch and become overwhelmed once more? But any pleasure this thought gives me is tempered with jealous anger. I don’t want her to be able to control her attraction to me here. I smile to myself. We will see how long she can resist me.
All around us the house seems to pulse, remembering itself. As we make our way down the hallway, we check for Konrad and finally find him in the library. Analiese is with him, and they sit side by side at a table, their heads practically touching as they look over a book. Her fingers stroke absently at her earlobe. I sneak a glance at Elizabeth and see an expression I’ve never before seen on her face-undisguised jealousy.
And then Konrad squints and turns toward us, a hand shielding his eyes.
“You’re back!” he calls out. “And, Henry? Is that you?”
“It is,” our blond friend says.
Konrad stands, takes an eager step toward us, forgetting for a moment our searing heat that keeps him at a distance of some five feet. “I’d clasp hands with you if I could,” he says. He gives a chuckle and adds, “I must say, Henry, I’m amazed that Victor bullied you into coming.”
“I didn’t need so much bullying,” Henry replies amicably, but with an uncharacteristic firmness. “I wanted to see you, Konrad, and this place for myself.”
“Hello, Konrad,” says Elizabeth.
“Hello,” he returns, and then almost guiltily adds, “I’ve been teaching Analiese to read.”
“How wonderful,” says Elizabeth with a smile so sincere, it’s almost frightening. “Is he a good teacher, Analiese?”
“Very good, miss. No one ever taught me my letters, and he’s very patient with me.”
“Nonsense, you’re learning splendidly,” Konrad says. “And it passes the time. It seems an age since you were last here.”
Swiftly my eyes move about the room, and I see his saber resting atop a shelf of books.
“You’ve been safe?” I ask him.
He nods and adds quietly, “But the sounds are getting more frequent.”
“Sounds?” asks Henry, looking at me. “You didn’t mention anything about strange sounds.” His expression is somewhat accusing, though nowhere near as alarmed as I’d expected.
“Just a rather noisy houseguest,” I say lightly.
“Where?” he asks.
“No one knows, sir,” says Analiese.
“Look, butterflies!” Elizabeth says, head tilted up.
I turn and see three of them. They flit among us expectantly. Henry inhales sharply when one lands upon his arm, and watches, enthralled, as the creature’s wings begin to radiate color.
“Incredible,” he murmurs as it flutters away.
One grazes Elizabeth’s hair, glowing amber, and then moves on.
