him from Polidori. The quest for the Elixir of Life had been my idea. I was in charge, and I wanted to keep it so. I wanted to be the one to shine. If Konrad walked into Polidori’s laboratory, I feared we would be recognized, yes-but even more I feared he would take command of our venture. With his natural charm and his keen, calm intelligence, it might happen in a heartbeat. And I would not stand for it.
“Good, then,” I said. “We will proceed as before.” I clapped Konrad heartily on the shoulder. “Don’t worry. There will be plenty of adventure for you yet.”
They love each other.
I’d never felt so foolish-or so betrayed. Konrad and I had never kept secrets, but he had clutched this greedily to himself. For how long, I wondered? Why hadn’t he told me?
And how was it that I hadn’t noticed, when I so often knew exactly what he was thinking?
It was as though, in one moment, he had become a stranger.
And I a stranger to myself.
All my life I had wanted things: to be the smartest, and the swiftest and strongest. I’d dreamed of fame and wealth.
But looking upon Elizabeth’s face at that moment, I suddenly knew there was something I wanted even more.
It took seeing them together for me to properly understand my own feelings. A lightning bolt could not have been more sudden. Watching Konrad touch her, it was like seeing myself touch her.
In the Sturmwald I had tried to ignore my feelings. I told myself they were merely effects of the potion.
I am in love with Elizabeth.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I wondered what had become of you,” Polidori said as he led us into his parlor. “Your brother, how does he fare?”
“He is much improved,” I said.
I myself felt wretched. It had taken me forever to get to sleep, my mind twisting back again and again to Konrad and Elizabeth at the pianoforte. Konrad touching her. The heat in her cheeks. At dawn, when I’d dragged myself out of bed, I felt positively battered.
“Well, that is excellent news about your brother,” Polidori said. He turned in his wheelchair and smiled. “Do you wish to abandon this enterprise, then?”
His expression was calm, patient, but I noticed that Krake seemed to be watching me with great intensity.
“No,” said Elizabeth. “We wish very much to continue.”
“You are sure?” Polidori asked.
I nodded. “The doctor said the illness might return.”
“I see. I am very sorry to hear it.”
“You received the lichen, I trust,” said Henry.
“Indeed. Before sunrise on the very morning.”
“Is it enough?” Elizabeth asked worriedly.
“It is perfectly ample. As for the second ingredient, the translation has proved devilishly difficult. But last night I cracked it. Come.”
Once more he led us down the malodorous corridor to the elevator platform. Krake was again made to wait beyond the threshold.
“Krake is very clever,” I said. “How did he manage to find us in the Sturmwald?”
Polidori began to lower us to the cellars. “Young master, did you not know that in many mythologies the lynx is known as Keeper of the Secrets of the Forest?”
My skin prickled. Some small, insistent part of me had wondered if Krake’s surprising abilities could be explained by mere animal intelligence alone.
“Is that so?” I said. “Keeper of the Secrets of the Forest.”
“Indeed. In medieval times there are accounts of how the lynx could dig a hole, urinate in it, cover it with dust-and in several days’ time produce a gemstone. Garnet, actually. Some also thought the lynx capable of assisting in clairvoyance and divination.”
The alchemist turned to me with a grin. “But all that is mere fancy, young sir.”
“Ah,” I said, relieved and disappointed both.
“Krake is merely very well trained. I confess that in his infancy I did feed him plants and oils that are well known to assist the mental faculties of humans. So he may be more intelligent than most of his species, but as for him finding you in the Sturmwald, I knew you would be there on the new moon, so I let Krake out that night and told him to find you.”
“Incredible,” said Elizabeth. “He understands what you say!”
“Well, let’s just say a lynx’s sense of smell is very keen. He found you by scent.”
“He saved us from some bearded vultures,” Henry said.
Polidori looked over in surprise. “In the same tree as the lichen?”
“They had a nest,” said Elizabeth. “Three of them.”
He looked genuinely distressed. “Young lady and sirs, I am sorry your job was made so complicated. They are fearsome creatures.”
“Oh, we managed it,” said Henry breezily.
“I had little doubt you would,” said Polidori. “Here we are.”
After lighting candles about the laboratory, Polidori drew us to a desk strewn with books and quills and inkwells. This, I gathered, was where he was doing his translation. He took up a bit of parchment, squinting through his spectacles.
“What language is that?” I asked, peering over his shoulder.
Polidori lowered the paper with a small smile. “That is my own handwriting. But you are right. It is illegible, even to me sometimes. Now, here is the translation. There is a lengthy preamble-fear not, I won’t read it-and then the thing itself that you must acquire.” He looked up. “A gnathostomatus.”
“What in heaven’s name is that?” Elizabeth asked.
“Gnathostomatus,” I muttered, furiously dragging open the drawers of my mind, riffling through their contents, trying to remember my lessons. “It is from the Greek? Ha! ‘ Gnathos’ is ‘jaw.’ ‘ Stoma ’ means ‘mouth.’ It is a group of animals-vertebrates with jaws, yes?”
I stole a look at Elizabeth, hoping to see admiration in her eyes, and was not disappointed.
Polidori nodded. “Very good. You have been taught well. Who is your teacher?”
My eyes shifted uncomfortably. “Oh, a wise old fellow hired by our parents.”
“A jawed creature,” Henry said uneasily. “It is rather vague.”
“Indeed, but the text becomes more specific, you see. The creature you seek is the oldest of its lineage. It is an aquatic creature. The coelacanth. You have heard of it?”
I had indeed, and my heart contracted.
“Then, our task is at an end,” I murmured. “We’re undone.”
“Why?” Elizabeth said, turning to me in alarm. “Why do you say that, Victor?”
I gave a mirthless laugh.“Ah, this is one lecture you missed.”
“The creature is extinct,” said Henry, for he too had heard Father’s lesson and had gazed at the engraving of a fossilized specimen. It had swum with the terrible lizards, millions of years ago, but had not been seen alive for centuries.
“Surely there must be somewhere-,” Elizabeth began hopefully.
“Search the world,” I said. “It will not be found.”
We had risked our lives in the heights of the Sturmwald to obtain the lunar lichen. How cruel that our hopes
