“You three have been having an adventure, I think.”
We glanced at one another and laughed.
“You lucky wretches!” Konrad said. “Tell me everything.”
We enjoyed taking turns telling Konrad of our adventures: our secret visit to the Dark Library, the burned book of Agrippa, and Paracelsus’s mysterious Alphabet of the Magi. We told him of Julius Polidori and his pet lynx, Krake.
“You’re not inventing this!” Konrad broke in more than once, looking from Henry to Elizabeth, then to me, in bewilderment. “It seems the stuff of an overheated imagination!”
“It is all true!” I told him, laughing, and then told him of our nighttime escapade in the Sturmwald, the vision of the wolf, and our climb into the tallest tree during the tempest.
“You climbed the tree?” he asked Elizabeth in amazement.
“I did,” she said.
Konrad looked at me and Henry severely. “Honestly, you two, what were you thinking? She might have come to harm.”
Elizabeth’s eyes sparked. “I’m quite capable of taking care of myself, Konrad, I can assure you.”
“She bit a bearded vulture on the throat,” I added.
Konrad’s face flinched in revulsion. “You what?”
“You needn’t have told him that bit,” Elizabeth said, frowning at me.
“Well, it was very impressive,” I said defensively. “ I was very impressed.”
Konrad looked astonished, so we hurried on and told him of our battle with the three lammergeiers, and how Krake had come to our rescue.
“No one could have invented this,” said Konrad. “I believe it entirely!”
“It seems almost unreal now,” said Elizabeth. She looked at me briefly, awkwardly, and I wondered if she was remembering how we’d gazed at each other hungrily with our wolves’ eyes. My own feelings for her in the Sturmwald had been so powerful that they made me blush now, and I looked away to check the trim of our mainsail.
“Anyway,” Elizabeth said gaily, “it is over now. There’s no point continuing, since the brilliant Dr. Murnau has put things to right.”
I watched Konrad’s face carefully as she said this, and suddenly my heart was like a fist, tightening in my chest.
“What is it?” I asked him quietly.
“Mother doesn’t know,” said Konrad, “and you must not tell her. Father doesn’t think she could bear it.”
“What?” said Elizabeth in alarm. “What must she bear?”
“It is not necessarily a cure,” said Konrad.
“But look at you!” said Henry. “As fit as ever!”
“Dr. Murnau said it might come back.” I saw my brother’s eyes go to Elizabeth. “He has seen other cases where it has returned.”
Henry gave a cheery chuckle. “Well, then, another dose of Dr. Murnau’s famous elixir should be all you need, surely.”
“He would not want to administer it again for quite some time,” Konrad said. “Another dose too soon could be fatal.”
“You assume the worst,” Elizabeth said firmly, though she looked pale. “He said your illness might come back. Might.”
Konrad smiled, but it was the kind of smile a father gave children when trying to reassure them.
“Let’s come about,” I said, and pushed the tiller. The boom swung overhead, and Konrad adjusted the foresail to our new course.
“Father should tell Mother,” said Elizabeth, sounding annoyed. “It is wrong of him to keep it from her.”
“You’re not to say anything,” said Konrad.
“Of course she can bear it. She’s very strong. Just because she’s a woman, he needn’t treat her like a child.”
“I agree,” I said.
Konrad sighed. “He’s doing her a kindness. He wants to spare her worry-most likely unnecessary worry.”
I did not feel so kindly toward Dr. Murnau anymore. A doctor cured people. If a cure was not certain, was it any cure at all? For a while we said nothing, skimming over the water. I watched Konrad and knew exactly what he was thinking.
“But I do believe,” he said finally, “it might be a good idea to continue seeking out the Elixir of Life.”
Elizabeth and Henry stared in astonishment. But I felt no surprise. I knew him as myself, and I would have made the same decision.
“Just in case,” Konrad added.
“Absolutely,” I agreed.
Henry looked decidedly queasy. “But we have only one of the three ingredients, and that was hard enough.”
“Henry was quite sick with worry while we were up in the tree,” I remarked wryly.
“You have no idea what it was like,” he protested. “You two were up there with your crazy wolf eyes, and I had to keep my wits about me down on the ground and try to make sure you didn’t get struck by lightning or eaten alive by a wildcat…”
“You did a good job stopping him, by the way,” I quipped.
“It was hardest on you, really,” Elizabeth agreed, and bit her lip so she wouldn’t laugh.
“Oh, go ahead, have a good laugh,” Henry said. “You should be grateful that at least one of us has some common sense.”
“It won’t be so bad, Henry,” Konrad said, giving him a wink. “Now that I am well, I can help find the remaining ingredients.”
The next day I came upon Elizabeth and Konrad in the music room.
The sound of the pianoforte had lured me there. I knew from the song that it was Elizabeth at the keys. The door was ajar. Silent and unnoticed, I watched them. Konrad stood beside her, turning pages. As she played, he touched a stray strand of her curly hair and tucked it behind her ear, and let his hand linger on her cheek for three, four, five beats of my pounding heart. There was such tenderness on his face.
Elizabeth smiled, and the color in her cheeks darkened to a blush. She stumbled over the notes, then lifted her hands from the keys and said something to Konrad in a low voice I could not hear.
I retreated a few steps, steeled myself, and then came whistling down the corridor before I entered the room. I pretended not to notice their surprised and embarrassed faces.
“Father is going into town tomorrow,” I said. “We can go with him and see Polidori.”
“Excellent,” said Konrad. “I’m looking forward to meeting this fellow-and his lynx.”
“You cannot come,” I said.
Konrad chuckled. “Why not?”
“Polidori does not know who we are,” I explained. “But if he sees the two of us, he may suspect. Most people in Geneva know that Alphonse Frankenstein has twin sons. It is uncommon.”
Konrad shrugged carelessly. “So what if he does suspect?”
I shook my head in irritation. “Konrad, don’t you remember? It was our father who tried him. Who ordered him never to practice alchemy again! If Polidori knows who we are, he will want nothing more to do with us.”
“Even so,” said my brother more thoughtfully, “surely we have the advantage. He knows we can report him to Father, if he refuses to help us.”
“That is not a game I think we should play,” I said.
“Victor is right,” Elizabeth said, and I looked at her, pleased. “We cannot risk it, Konrad. We must keep our identities secret.”
Konrad sniffed and looked so disappointed that I almost felt sorry for him.
“It is for your own sake, you oaf,” Elizabeth said, more tenderly than I liked.
“Yes, I can see that now,” he said. “You are clearheaded, Victor. Thank you.”
I said nothing. I could not accept his thanks with a pure heart, for I had another, selfish, reason for keeping
