pursue some childish fancy!”
He brought his fist down on the desk and I jumped, but the violence of his gesture sparked my own anger. I was being treated like a criminal. Interrogated. Tortured.
“You’re wrong! It wasn’t childish! The vision of the wolf. The flameless fire! I made them both, and they worked!”
I regretted my outburst immediately. Father’s eyebrows contracted and he sat forward in his chair.
“You have been working alchemy?” he asked with disconcerting calm.
“Only to help us find the elixir’s ingredients.”
“And whose miraculous recipe have you been following? Master Caligula’s? Eclecti’s?”
“Agrippa’s,” I told him.
He shook his head. “No. You are not being honest. That recipe cannot be made.”
“You seem to know a lot about it,” I countered, then said, lying only a little, “We found a translation of the Magi’s Alphabet.”
“It has been lost!”
“We found one. Surely you cannot have read every single book in the Dark Library!”
This was a gamble, I knew. I saw my father bristle, but then he reigned in his temper.
“Victor, you have no idea the danger these elixirs pose. They are not proper cures!”
“Like Dr. Murnau’s?” I blurted.
He looked at me, silent.
“Konrad told me,” I said. “We have no secrets. But you’re keeping one from Mother. His illness might return.”
Father seemed weary suddenly. “There is a small chance.”
“And next time it might kill him! How can you sit back and do nothing? How can you trust Dr. Murnau’s guesswork, and no one else’s? Why not Agrippa’s? There are accounts of its successes-”
“Don’t be absurd,” said Father. “Dr. Murnau’s methods are informed by centuries of proper scientific learning.”
At that moment we were interrupted as the door to the study opened, and Elizabeth and Konrad, warmly robed, were ushered in by my mother.
“They wanted to see how you were,” Mother said to me.
“The patient will survive,” Father said.
Konrad was studying me, no doubt wondering how much of our adventure I’d revealed. I felt ashamed. I’d crumpled under Father’s interrogation. I’d not told him everything-but too much.
“It seems,” Father said to our mother, “that the children have been trying to gather the ingredients for an alchemical potion. An elixir of life, no less.”
The look of sheer surprise on Mother’s face told me that Konrad and Elizabeth had confessed very little.
“You said you’d gotten lost exploring the caves!” she exclaimed, seeming genuinely hurt. “How long has this been going on?”
“Since Konrad got ill,” Elizabeth murmured. “We wanted to cure him.”
Mother frowned. “But why would you persist with this even after Dr. Murnau cured him?”
From the corner of my eye I saw my father and brother exchange a glance, as if reminding each other of the secret they kept.
“An elixir of life would be a glorious thing to have,” Konrad said smoothly. “I confess I couldn’t resist the sheer adventure of it.”
“You must abandon this dark endeavor,” my father said firmly. “It is finished. Is that clear?”
“Yes,” Konrad and Elizabeth said.
“Victor, I don’t believe I heard you.”
“Yes,” I muttered.
“You’ve put your lives in peril. You might easily have been killed in those caves. And you should know this as well. Not only is the practice of alchemy fruitless, it is also illegal in our republic. You were unaware of this, no doubt.”
I nodded, truly surprised. I remembered Polidori telling us he’d personally been forbidden from the alchemical arts, but I hadn’t realized it was considered a crime.
“Some years ago,” Father went on, “we tried an alchemist who had been administering a certain miraculous elixir. People paid for it eagerly and willingly drank it. Some of them were made sicker; one died. To prevent further tragedies, the other magistrates and I decided to pass a law making it illegal to profit from, or administer, alchemical medicines.”
“We did not know that,” murmured Elizabeth contritely.
“I cannot have my own children daring the laws of the land,” he said.
“No, Father,” said Konrad.
“And while I admire the selflessness and love that inspired your actions,” said Father, “I’m very disappointed by how you’ve deceived your mother and me.”
I looked at him coldly, and thought he was a hypocrite. Was not he being dishonest with Mother, by not telling her the truth about Konrad’s illness?
“I’m placing you three under house arrest for the next two weeks. No riding. No boating. Your footsteps will not tread beyond the inner yard. You will receive no visitors.”
“Not even Henry?” I cried.
“Especially not Henry,” Father snapped. “He was one of your accomplices!”
“He didn’t really do much,” I muttered, and Konrad could not suppress a laugh.
“He was very good at staying behind,” said Elizabeth, biting back a smile, “on account of his acute imagination.”
And then the three of us fell into a violent fit of giggling, despite our exhaustion-and the prospect of being imprisoned for the next two weeks.
“We must somehow get a message to Polidori,” I said quietly.
We had slept deep into the morning and after a late breakfast the three of us had met in the ballroom, where we could stand outside on the balcony and see the glorious summer, forbidden us for two weeks.
“We need to make sure he got the coelacanth head from Henry-and that he knows we won’t be visiting for a fortnight.”
I was very worried what Henry might have told the alchemist; I didn’t want Polidori to think we’d exposed him, or given up on our plan.
Konrad exhaled. “Victor, we promised to end our adventure.”
I looked at him in surprise. “Yes, but we were lying.”
He glanced at Elizabeth, as though they’d already discussed this without me.
“Perhaps ending it is for the best,” she said.
“How is it for the best?” I demanded.
“We might have died, Victor,” she said in astonishment.
“Yes, I know. I was very nearly inhaled by a fish. But we can’t give up now. We have only a single ingredient left to find! Konrad, it was you who wanted to continue.”
“I regret it now. I’m of Father’s opinion. We are chasing a mirage. There is no proof these alchemical cures work.”
Elizabeth nodded, and I stared at her in astonishment. “You saw that book move; you smelled its blood!”
“I don’t know what I saw or smelled anymore.”
“Did you not say the room was bathed in red lamplight?” Konrad asked her. “That might have created the effect of-”
“You were not there,” I reminded him pointedly. “If you had been, you would’ve felt the power of the book, and Polidori-like Elizabeth and me.”
“I find it curious,” said Elizabeth, turning to me, “that you can’t believe in God but are more than willing to believe in alchemical wonders.”
“The vision of the wolf. The flameless fire. They may be wonders, but they’re real. It is just science by
