Arcanum Part 32

"Time for our secret weapon, then," said Thaler, and went to collect Sophia from the anteroom.

She wasn't there. He went into the corridor beyond and looked up and down its length. She still wasn't there.

Had she wandered off? Gone home? Been chased away? Thaler clenched his jaw. It was one thing to hear two old men tell a story about a blood-stained hexmaster promising the world if they'd just give him people to kill. It was another to hear a young woman testify that the Order were killers, and that Goat Mountain was already a graveyard for countless victims.

She could help swing the decision in their direction.

He went back into the solar. "She's gone," he said.

Messinger groaned. "That's what you get when you rely on a woman. And a Jewish woman at that."

"I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation-"

"As to why she's left us in the lurch? Curse her." Messinger looked back at Allegretti's empty chair. "Do you think I could have him?"

"Who? Trommler?" Thaler was appalled.

"No, the Italian." The mayor rested his hand on his sword.

"Oh, you mean the prince's very own Genoese sword-master, the one who fights two-handed and has nothing to do but practise all day, every day, for what? Two decades?" Thaler considered the matter for a moment before concluding. "Don't be an idiot, man. He'd spit you like a partridge and pluck you to boot. Neither of which will help us find Sophia."

There was nothing for it but to admit her disappearance to the chamberlain.

Thaler cleared his throat. "Mr Trommler. Miss Morgenstern appears to have vanished."

Trommler stretched his calves by standing on tiptoe, and turned around to bake the other side. "Vanished, you say? Despite everything, I find that extraordinarily difficult to believe. You are normally so precise in your vocabulary, Mr Thaler: please try again."

"Well, she's not there." The librarian tutted. "Perhaps she's taken fright after all."

"Oh, I don't believe we're as frightening as all that. Civilised men can and do disagree passionately, something that Miss Morgenstern surely knows." Trommler rose again on his toes. "Even if she can't be found, I'm sure she has used her time wisely."

Messinger started to pace the floor. "We need to offer something in magic's place. Other than barbarism and defeat, that is. Can we do that?"

"The water," said Thaler. "The Romans did it. So can we."

"How? Deliver water to every house, every yard, every fountain in Juvavum?" Messinger snorted. "If you can do it, it'd be-"

"Magic, Master Mayor?" Thaler looked down at his boots. "Yet we know that the water used to flow without it." Somewhere beneath his feet, beneath the very fortress itself, was the answer. The Romans couldn't create water like the Germans: the spell for that, the associated rune, didn't exist then yet they were still using Roman plumbing, and dabbling in Roman pools.

Then he looked up, so suddenly that the bones in his neck went crack.

"The mikveh," he shouted.

Messinger, startled, stopped his furious pacing. "What? What's that you say?"

"The ritual baths of the Jews. The mikveh, they call it. All this time, it's had water it still has water that doesn't come from magic." Thaler blinked in surprise. "So where does it come from?"

But there was no more time for questions. The prince, one sleeve of his white shirt trailing like a banner, slipped quietly into the room, and only Trommler seemed to notice.

"My lord Felix," he said. "The mayor of Juvavum and the library wish to exercise their ancient rights of audience."

Thaler expected Allegretti to be right behind the prince, but he hadn't appeared by the time the boy had nodded to both him and Messinger, and crossed to the fire. The night wasn't that cold, but he seemed to need the heat.

Trommler was also looking around for Allegretti. "My lord should be aware that a decision, or even an indication of his thoughts, is not required at this time."

"Thank you, Mr Trommler." Felix looked up at the chamberlain. "Mr Trommler, do you work for me now?"

"If it's your wish that I keep my position, then I'll serve you as faithfully as I served your father."

"I do wish," said the prince. "There's so much I don't know."

Trommler looked over to where the Book of Carinthia lay on a table. "My lord mustn't worry. Good advice is closer than you think. Gentlemen?"

Thaler and Messinger drew closer, and Trommler introduced them. The prince had met the mayor before, but he frowned at Thaler's name.

"The letter writer."

Ah. Thaler had wondered when this would come, and it was sooner than he thought. "Yes, my lord. Both mine and Peter Buber's loyalty to Carinthia are as solid as the foundations of this fortress. If he is at fault in fearing the Order, then I'm more to blame."

"He took the blame for himself." Felix blinked up at him. "Both he and the witch are banished. He admitted he should've told my father."

Thaler felt his heart sink. "Our fault was assuming he already knew. My deepest regret, my lord, is that we didn't discover the Order's perfidy in time. We failed Carinthia."

Instead of sending him away, or calling for the guard, what was left of it, Felix looked away. "I ... mistakes get made, sometimes."

"My lord would not have a fiercer protector than Master Buber," said Thaler, knowing it was true.

It seemed that the librarian wasn't the only one with regrets. Felix turned to the chamberlain. "Is there any way I can change my mind?"

Trommler cleared his throat. "We can try and get a message to him, but he's the huntmaster and will be difficult to find. Such men are much more adept at disappearing than even Miss Morgenstern."

"She didn't disappear," Felix blurted. "She was with me."

Then Allegretti came back in, signalling his approach with the jingle of his scabbards. Thaler, open-mouthed, had his slack jaw closed by the back of Messinger's hand.

The Italian stalked to the centre of the room, looking at the faces of the others to gauge what had transpired while he'd been away. Thaler was examining Allegretti's features, with similar intent.

"My lord, gentlemen."

Messinger grunted impatiently, and seemed eager to state his case to the prince, but Thaler wanted something else first.

"Will Miss Morgenstern be joining us, Master Allegretti?" The Italian had returned some time after the prince had arrived. If Sophia had been with the boy, then so had Allegretti.

For a brief moment, the mask slipped and Thaler saw Allegretti's intent naked: only for a moment, because the urbane tutor reasserted himself quickly.

"She will not, Mister Thaler. As you well know, it is only free men who have rights of audience."

"If my lord Felix commanded it, however?" Thaler suggested, but the prince blushed and waved at the chairs.

"I don't need to," he said, and picked a chair for himself.

Allegretti looked satisfied. Self-satisfied, in fact. Thaler, however, thought he knew Sophia well enough to suspect she hadn't been entirely silent. The Italian took the chair next to Felix, positioning himself on the other side to Messinger and Thaler, creating the semblance of a faction and promoting himself to the prince's right.

Trommler hovered in the shadows while the other two took their seats.

"Mr Trommler, is there anything to drink?" asked Felix. "Or eat?"

"I'm sure there is, my lord. I shall return shortly." Trommler eased himself away, and Felix looked expectantly at the mayor.

Messinger scratched at his chin, and with a resigned shrug of his shoulders recounted the entirety of his and Thaler's trip up Goat Mountain. When he left something out, Thaler filled in the missing details, including the parts that should have been Sophia's to relate and, judging from the prince's reaction, it didn't seem that he was hearing these things for the first time.

When the moment came to tell of the encounter with Eckhardt, the mayor reached forward and drank a good deal of the wine provided by Trommler. He could barely bring himself to speak of it to Felix.

So Thaler took over and explained what exactly the hexmaster had offered, and what he wanted in return.

"My lord, those are his terms, and he awaits your answer."

Felix stared into the fire. "How long do we have?"

"He didn't say." Thaler looked to his own wine. Despite everything, he was determined to sleep well that night. "Whatever you decide to do, you have to consider other factors as well."

Allegretti shifted in his chair. "We have heard your testimony, gentlemen. Thank you. Mr Trommler will show you out."

Felix looked from the Italian back to Thaler. His lips twitched. "What other factors, Mr Thaler?"

"We can discuss them when the gentlemen have left, my lord." Allegretti said firmly.

But the boy would not be swayed. "Mr Thaler?"

"Water," said Thaler quickly, before he could be interrupted. "Juvavum's water supply depends on magic to push the water through the pipes. Without it, we have no sanitation, no domestic or industrial supply."

"Be assured," said Allegretti, "that the prince has the welfare of all his people in his heart."

"Tell him, man," growled Messinger. "Tell him your plan."

Allegretti was about to cut the mayor off, when Felix held out his hand. He fixed Thaler with his fire-bright gaze. "A plan, Mr Thaler?"

The librarian went cold inside, and his mouth went abruptly dry. He took a mouthful of wine, and swallowed hard. "I do have an alternative, my lord." At least, he hoped he had.

Felix leant back in his chair. "Go on."

Thaler got out of his chair and started to pace the floor. "The Romans, my lord: their magic was poor, and their building excellent. When they founded Juvavum or rather, razed the German town on this site to the ground and built on top of the ruins they installed a water supply that worked without magic."

"Gods," muttered Allegretti, shaking his head.

"It is my belief that this underground system is still working."

"Ha."

Messinger gripped the arms of his chair. "If you don't shut up, you coxcomb, you gilded pig's..."

Thaler kicked the mayor's chair. Hard. And he was still in his library slippers.

"When did Rome fall, Mr Thaler?" asked the prince.

"A little over a thousand years ago, my lord. However, the Romans built to last. We have Roman buildings in Juvavum and throughout Carinthia. Parts of this fortress date back to Alaric's time, and as I'm sure my lord is aware, the library used to be a Roman temple."

"And what makes you think that the Roman water pipes are still there?"

"Because we still use part of the system. And because there is still water flowing into the Jews' ritual baths."

At mention of the Jews, Felix raised his head, and Thaler suddenly, dizzyingly, realised that he might actually pull this audacity off.

"If the ah, mikveh, still has water," he continued, "so could we. At least, I'd like your permission to investigate the possibility before my lord feels compelled to accept Master Eckhardt's bargain."

Allegretti looked disgusted, but the prince seemed intrigued. As for Trommler? He never gave anything away he didn't intend to.

"It's good to have choices, Mr Thaler. You taught me that yourself, signore."

"My lord, this hardly counts as a choice!"

Felix ignored the man. "What do you need, Mr Thaler?" he asked.

"I ... I don't know." He looked to Messinger for support.

"He'll have everything he needs, my lord," said the mayor. "Men, materials, whatever."

"Thank you, Master Messinger." The prince nodded. "Mr Trommler said I didn't need to make a decision now, and Master Eckhardt seems to say he can wait a little while. Can you hurry, Mr Thaler?"

All hopes of sleep had gone in an instant. "My lord, I shall apply myself and my fellows to the task with all haste. Starting now. Mr Messinger, if you please?"

The mayor rose from his chair and looked sternly at Allegretti, before bowing to Felix. "We'll send news as we have it."

The boy shook his head. "Don't. That'll waste time. Just tell me when you've done it, or you know you can't."

"As you wish, my lord." Messinger swept from the room, pushing Thaler ahead of him. When they were alone, he hissed: "Do you really think you can do this?"

"I have absolutely no idea at all." Thaler cracked his knuckles. "But we're about to find out."

33.

Chapter end