He had finished extracting all the marrow from my fourth finger bones, and was now expertly flaying the skin and tissue from my smallest finger. His expression as he worked was one of immense and emotionless concentration.
On a shelf above his worktable I saw two vials.
“Are those the other ingredients?” Elizabeth asked, following my gaze.
“Indeed. The coelacanth oil and the lunar lichen. Once I extract the last of the marrow, I will combine the ingredients.”
“We’ll be able to take it home tonight, then,” I said with a glad heart. Konrad would have the elixir within hours.
“Sadly, no,” Polidori replied as he worked. “The elixir must be left for an entire day to build to its full power. You will need to come back tomorrow to collect it.”
Faintly, through the cellar walls, came the tolling of Saint Peter’s. Eight bells.
“It is best you go now,” the alchemist said. “I will have it ready for you tomorrow.”
“He is very close to death,” Elizabeth said anxiously. “What if he does not survive the night?”
“I am sorry, miss,” said the alchemist. “It cannot be hurried.”
“Can we not take the elixir home with us now,” I asked desperately, “and store it safely until it is ready?”
“No,” said Polidori, “there is one final treatment that must take place just before it is imbibed.”
“Could you write us down clear instructions?” Elizabeth asked.
“Your recipe for the wolf vision tincture was wonderfully clear,” I said. “I’m sure I could-”
With uncharacteristic terseness he said, “It is a procedure I must perform myself.” Then his tone softened. “I am only thinking of your brother and his best success for recovery. Let me do this for him. If you cannot return, I will send Krake to deliver it to you.”
Even if I had been willing to wait, I was not willing to tell Polidori where we lived. Should he find out our family name, he might fly into a fury and refuse to help us further. I quickly thought of another excuse.
“But Krake might break it by accident. It is better we take it now.”
“Krake treads with a velvet step,” said Polidori. “He is less likely to break it than you. I am sorry, but it must wait a day so I can make the final preparations.”
“There seems nothing we can do, then,” I muttered. I looked at Henry across the room and saw him staring at me urgently.
Carefully I lowered myself from the stool. For a second I needed to hold the seat for balance.
“Are you all right?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes. I just need a few steps to clear my head.” I walked slowly about the laboratory, making my way gradually toward Henry. When I reached him, he silently pushed a piece of paper into my hand and put his finger to his lips.
On the paper, he’d written simply:
He lies.
Henry tapped a parchment on Polidori’s cluttered desk. I could see it had to be some bit of translation for the elixir, for among the many fierce scratch-outs were characters I recognized from the Alphabet of the Magi, and then several other alphabets, one of which was Greek-my weakest subject. Henry was jabbing his finger at a particular sentence. In vain I tried to decipher it. I looked at Henry and shook my head. Impatiently he gestured me closer, then whispered in my ear.
“It says here, ‘The elixir must be imbibed within four hours, after the three ingredients have been combined.’”
Despite the heat of the cellar, I shivered. It was like I was suddenly seeing the world through a different lens. The haze that had veiled everything since the surgery evaporated, and everything was sharper-and much, much more dangerous.
I forced myself to take five deep breaths, then made my way back to Polidori’s workbench, where he was in the process of mixing the ingredients into a single flask. I needed to be very calm.
“There it is,” said Elizabeth.
The Elixir of Life.
It did not look inspiring. It did not gleam and refract the candlelight into a thousand rainbows of promise. It was murky brown and oily. I watched as Polidori pushed in a stopper and slipped the flask into a snug padded leather sheath.
“Mr. Polidori,” I said, “we’ve been very remiss in not offering you payment sooner. You have worked long and hard for us, and received nothing. I apologize. You must tell us what it is we owe you for your excellent services, and we can settle accounts now. Simply name your price.” If he meant to cheat us of the elixir-if he’d maybe promised it to someone else at a vast price-maybe I could change his mind. “We’re wealthy people, and-”
“My dear sir,” Polidori said, beholding me with such an affable look that I wondered if Henry was mistaken. “Let us first see if the elixir has its desired effect. If it does, the recipe itself is payment enough for me. Now, have you a conveyance to take you home? I could send for a carriage-”
“Quite unnecessary, thank you,” I said. “Are you sure there is no way we could take the elixir away with us tonight?”
He seemed about to object once more, but with a sigh he nodded. “Very well. I can see how concerned you are about your brother.”
I exhaled with relief, and smiled over at Henry. We were mistaken. Perhaps my friend’s knowledge of Greek was not as perfect as I’d imagined.
“Thank you, Mr. Polidori!” said Elizabeth. “It eases my mind greatly.”
“Just give me a moment to fetch a preserving agent from upstairs,” he said, wheeling himself away from his workbench toward the elevator. “Then I will change the dressings on your wounds once more, young master, and write down very detailed instructions on how to perform the final preparations before the elixir is taken.”
“I’m very grateful,” I said.
I looked past Polidori at Henry and saw him desperately shaking his head. He still didn’t trust the alchemist. But why not? He was just going upstairs to-and then I remembered. All the drawers in his shop were completely empty. There could be nothing he needed up there. My eyes flew to the workbench. The flask of elixir was gone. I turned to see Polidori already halfway to the elevator.
He meant to leave us trapped in the cellar.
At the exact same moment, Henry and I ran and planted ourselves in front of Polidori’s weelchair. He looked at us in surprise. I saw the stoppered flask of elixir in his lap. I could not keep the tremor from my voice.
“Mr. Polidori, I must ask that you give me the elixir now.”
He gave a chuckle. “Good heavens, are you worried I’ll abscond with it? In my chair? If it makes you feel better, here-hold it yourself.”
With his left hand he held out the leather-clad flask.
And with his right he pulled from his chair a cane with a clubbed end. Without warning he swung it expertly and struck Henry in the head. Henry did not even cry out, just crumpled to the floor, and was deadly still.
“Henry!” Elizabeth cried in horror.
“You fiend!” I roared.
He seemed all at once a transformed creature. Gone was the mild expression, the air of defeat. His face blazed with a ruthless strength, and his upper body no longer sagged. He sat bolt upright, his shirt taut against his barrel chest. His forearms, with their sleeves rolled back, were ridged with muscle.
He launched his chair at me with such force that he knocked me over. I landed on my wounded hand and howled with pain.
From the corner of my eye I saw him raise his cane over me like an executioner’s axe. I rolled out of the way just as the clubbed head cracked down upon the flagstone. Polidori swiveled expertly to face me, cane raised once more. I scrabbled crablike, pain shooting up my right arm. His chair struck me again, sending me sprawling.
Wig askew, he glowered over me. He had me backed against a wall, and even as I lifted my arm to ward off the blow, I knew it was futile. That club would shatter my bones.
A poker struck Polidori on the shoulder so hard that he dropped his cane with a yowl. I looked over and saw Elizabeth gripping the weapon.
