Let him go now. You can. “Imagine what?” I reply a momentlater. “You’re not making any sense.”
“The vision. It happened when we shook hands. You had to haveseen it.”
I gasp, pretending offense. “Does it look like I havevisions? It isn’t very kind to tease a blind woman.”
A door in the station house opens, and Mrs. Craddock calls forTom. “Go to her,” I rasp, picking up my hammer. “And stop drinking so much.It’s addled your wits.”
He doesn’t follow when I walk away. As the distance between usgrows, I hear the entire Craddock family board their train and head forCalifornia.
Goodbye, Tom. Deus benedicite.
35
Veritas lux mea.
The truth is my light.
Twopeople are waiting on the platform with James Scarlett. Standing a gooddistance from my enemy, they laugh together and puff on expensive cigars—theirreward for a job well done. I know these charming fellows—they kidnapped me.Over the fall of raindrops, I gather a picture of my surroundings through sound,graphing even the tiniest details. An insect flutters its wing, water runs downa broken pipe inside the depot wall, a mouse crawls near the tracks. I memorizethe space in my head, and slip my cane under an empty bench. This is thefarthest platform from the station, for the privately-owned railway cars. We shouldn’tbe disturbed here.
Still laughing, the first brute doesn’t even notice I am behindhim until I slam the sledgehammer into the side of his knee. Bones andcartilage snap and pop, sounding like water on a hot skillet. The man gives ashriek and crumples. Before the second fellow turns around, I hit him on thehead with the handle and he goes down as well. Oh shut up, will you? He’scrying so loud, I hit him again, and the kidnapper loses consciousness. Heart’sstill beating, breathing’s all right. Recovery is likely. I point my weapon atthe fellow with the knee injury and he turns quiet, crawls over to the wall.Smart man.
Footsteps, soft clapping. “Brava, Hester,” Scarlett says. “Iwas going to fire them anyway.” He stops several feet from me. “Never took youfor the violent type, but I must say, you handle yourself in a scrape.”
No scent or emotion coming from Scarlett. Just like the nightwe met at Griffin House, he has no tells.
“It’s come in handy lately,” I say.
My half-brother laughs at my hoarse voice. “Baby sister, that’smarvelous. You’re speaking again.”
Would people stop talking about my talking? “Spareme your false praise.”
“It’s not false at all. You have my respect. I’ve had fun, hearingabout your escape from Harrow, Faust, and Swinton. Why, that sounds like a lawfirm.”
A droll villain, just what I need. The connection with Harrowis obvious, but how does Scarlett know the two from Ironwood? I lift the hammerto my shoulder, listening for his goons, making sure they’re still down. “Whynot leave me alone?”
“Can’t oblige. Archimendax’s heir, remember? It’s my job tostir up trouble.”
I detect a faint stretching sound and the smell of leather, asthough he’s removing his gloves and shoving them into his pocket. “I knew theexact moment you came into the world, Veritas. I was eleven at the time, andeven then, all it took was a whisper in John Grayson’s mind, and he turnedagainst you. Because I told him to do it.”
Arrogant ass. I track his movements and pivot to the side as hesteps toward the sledgehammer. The humidity in the atmosphere feels likeribbons of silk winding around us—binding us together in our circle of hell.
My new brother lifts and drops the sash on my gown. Too close.Get away. He must know I despise being touched by a certain kind of man. And thatI loathe tight spaces—must be why he chose the sarcophagus. Exploring my fears,is he? What’s next, an ice bath?
“Scared of a little cold water, pet,” Scarlett whispers againstmy neck, sounding exactly like Faust. “How sad. I planted the desire within Graysonto send you to Ironwood years ago, and it grew, and grew. Until itbecame an obsession, and he acted upon the idea.”
I spin toward him. Scarlett? Scarlett was behind mycommitment to the asylum? The hunger. Addiction. Endless work. Faust’s bloody whip…And I had thought I couldn’t hate my brother more. “You failed. I cameback.”
“Like a bad penny. I obviously underestimated my opponent.Don’t worry, it won’t happen again.” He slips out of his coat, dropping it on abench or something. “This is my corner of the world. No room for you, baby sister.”
“Move, then.”
Scarlett rolls up his sleeves. “Not an option, I’m afraid.”
So Stonehenge is his seat of power, too. We can both visitother parts of the world, but we must always return. Damn, I should’ve guessed.If I die today, a new Veritas will take my place, and if Scarlett falls,another heir of Archimendax will arise. I was foolish to waltz in here andexpect to dispose of him as easily as I did his employees. Think ahead, Hester.You’re always too impetuous.
A terrible sport, my foe tries to belittle me before the gameeven begins. “It isn’t as though you’re a great threat, with those scarymagic ears, that smelling ability.” Scarlett imitates my rasp next,saying, “I can’t see you, but I sense your emotions and hear like a owl.’” Hereturns to his own voice. “Your feeble ways are amusing.”
In a sense, Scarlett is beginning to sound like an actualbrother. The kind who tattles, dips your braids in ink, and burns ants with amagnifying glass. Except that he won’t think twice about destroying me orkilling good people.
“David Thornhill,” I say. Scarlett seems like the bragging type,habitually crowing over his victims. “Why did you make him murder Freckles…Imean, Maude Lambson?”
It sounds as though Scarlett is untying his precious cravat now,the popinjay. He pauses, as if weighing whether he wishes to indulge mycuriosity. “Stalling, sis? All right. I’m game. Thornhill worked for me untilhe met his wife. She awakened his conscience, I presume, and my employment wasno longer to his liking. He needed to be taken down a peg.”
“And Miss Lambson?”
“You met her. The woman was obnoxious. Surely
