The Dark Volume

there?”

“He does,” replied Aspiche.

“But it is horrible.”

“It is perhaps notorious.”

“It is louche,” insisted Phelps, “and foul.”

“So,” observed Aspiche, “is the man in question—”

THE WOODEN chair caught the Colonel across the legs, but Chang took care—whipping it with one arm from behind a table—to aim so it would not bounce in the direction of Mrs. Marchmoor. Aspiche went down with a shocked cry of pain, and as the man groped for his saber Chang stepped on the blade. Again, his reaction far too slow, Phelps raised his revolver, but Chang had already hauled Aspiche up by the collar, holding him as a shield.

Mrs. Marchmoor had not moved.

“Take control of your man,” Chang snarled, “before he hatches an idea.”

Phelps lurched and then settled like a stack of jostled crockery, his face blank. Aspiche's body stiffened beneath Chang's grip, ensuring the same degree of silence and cooperation.

“I have others at my call,” she whispered, “in every direction throughout this house. You will not escape, no matter what you believe.”

“Whoever you call will only find a pile of broken shards.”

“I can have Mr. Phelps shoot you.”

“You can have him try.”

He scooped up Aspiche's saber and felt the desperate thrust of her mind. Two steps gave Chang the range to take her head.

“If I had decided to harm you, Margaret, I would not have thrown the chair at the Colonel.”

The glass flesh conveyed no more feeling than marble—or less, as marble at least presented a coherent surface. Chang's gaze penetrated beyond his ability to measure, into a swirling well whose depths he could not resolve.

“Of course, Cardinal… perhaps we can aid each other… there must be so much you want to know…”

Chang sneered at the need in her grating, acid-etched voice.

“Why have you taken Charlotte Trapping's children?”

“To force the cooperation of their mother, of course.”

“Why should you need the cooperation of Charlotte Trapping?”

He could feel her presence again, more gently, like the flickers of an annoying breeze.

“Stop that, Margaret. Answer me.”

The coldness fell away but her eyes still watched him closely.

“I should think it obvious. I need her because the Grand Design depended on shipments of munitions—how else were we to make sure of Macklenburg, much less our own city? With Henry Xonck lacking a mind and Francis Xonck ruined, Charlotte Trapping takes their place.”

“You're a liar.”

“How dare you!”

“When your masters left for Macklenburg, Henry Xonck was exactly as empty-minded as he is now, and Francis Xonck as unavailable—nothing has changed to require Mrs. Trapping's participation. All munitions were to be managed by Francis Xonck's handpicked man, Alfred Leveret—whom you have driven away. But that is not what I asked. I asked why you have taken that woman's children.”

Chang's voice had become too loud, and in the silence that followed he feared some earnest minion or other would take it upon themselves to intrude—or perhaps those intrusions were just what Mrs. Marchmoor was preventing as she paused.

“Think of all I can tell you, Margaret,” he whispered. “Just answer this first. You sent Rawsbarthe into her home—”

“Charlotte Trapping is not important,” she barked, like a nail scraping porcelain. “But there is too much for me to manage—the Duke, the Council, all the adherent minions awaiting instructions— so many tasks… and I am alone, without help.”

“Without help? You have the servants of a Pharaoh.”

“But they must not see me! They would rebel! They would break my body!”

“Why is that?”

“Because they are all as ambitious as I once was!”

“Once?”

“You cannot begin to understand what has been done to me!”

“What has been done? What you desired!”

“But so much has changed… I was not to be alone…”

“Everyone's alone, Margaret.”

“No, not everyone.” Her voice had gone disturbingly still. “Some are fortunate enough to carry their loved ones with them always …”

CHANG SENSED the pressure of her thought entering his palm like a key into a lock-hole, and before he could react the same vision of Angelique that had over-borne him in the garden swallowed his awareness again. Chang shook his head but it was too late. When he saw the room once more, Colonel Aspiche had been pulled away, his body positioned to shield her. Chang stood utterly open to a bullet from Phelps, who extended the revolver with an arm of stone. How had she done it?

“All you can tell me?” Mrs. Marchmoor mocked him. “Will you begin—or will Mr. Phelps shoot your leg?”

“I should prefer he didn't.”

“How do you know of Leveret? Where is he now? I need the machines! I need the power!”

“You need a book too, I believe. Xonck's book.”

“She has it. And she is already mine! I have been inside her mind, your proud little island rat—and left my stain upon it. Will it disgust you when her hair falls out—or her teeth? Will the stench of her decay revolt you more than I do?”

The glass woman's laughter came in brittle snaps. Chang felt the heat on his face, wanting to break her graceful neck. Mrs. Marchmoor leaned even closer and hissed again.

“How is it you were able to resist me?”

“I find you vulgar, Margaret,” he replied. “Why should a little glass change that?”

In answer, Mrs. Marchmoor poured all her energy into his palm— could there still be glass in the wound? Once more Chang was drowned in Angelique's incomparably sweet memory… once more, with a near-nauseating pang of loss, he dredged his mind free.

He looked up, breathing hard. Why was he not dead? Aspiche had returned his saber to its scabbard. Chang wiped his mouth on the back of his glove.

“Madame,” began Phelps, “we should not allow him to—”

“He wants nothing more than all our deaths,” Aspiche croaked. “He is our enemy.”

She did not reply. Chang looked into Mrs. Marchmoor's expressionless eyes. He took a step backwards.

“Where would you go now, Cardinal Chang?” she hissed.

“There's nowhere he can go,” said Phelps.

“Do not believe it. Cardinal Chang is resourceful.” He felt her loathing, her open hatred, her clear memory of his every insult. “He may even escape from Harschmort House alive. Who can say when we will encounter him again… each party having accomplished so much in the meantime?”

AS HE cut through Harschmort's maze, he met not a single servant or soldier. Had the glass woman cleared his path of any possible obstacles?