Such Wicked Intent (26 page)

She cried and clawed and bit.

“Give me the branch!” I hollered at Henry, and he threw it to me. The water was murky, and I could not see the creature beneath the surface. My great fear was that it was under me and would drag me down for good.

“Dive for him, you coward!” Elizabeth screamed at me.

“You can’t drag a drowning man from the depths!” I shouted back at her.

The creature did not reappear. Not in ten seconds, twenty, or thirty. When a full minute had passed, I said, “It’s gone.”

“You killed him!” Elizabeth gasped.

“It would’ve killed us both!”

“He… he wanted you to help him….”

“Victor’s right, Elizabeth,” said Henry quietly. “There was nothing he could’ve done.”

“And where were you, Henry?” she cried.

“I found a branch as quickly as I—”

“Cowards, the both of you!”

We hauled ourselves out, cold and exhausted, and sat hunched on the grassy bank, shivering for some time, staring at the water. The silence was like a dreadful prison, entrapping me in my own bloodstained thoughts. Might I have saved it? But it needed to be killed, surely it did.

Then we stood and started the long walk toward home.

T
HE WALK HOME WAS INTERMINABLE, SILENT APART FROM THE
sporadic sounds of Elizabeth’s sobbing. She wouldn’t meet my eye, wouldn’t even let Henry place a consoling hand on her shoulder. We stopped only briefly at the glade to gather our things and dry off with the picnic blankets, working like automatons.

It was like losing Konrad all over again. I had killed him twice.

Only last night I’d dreamed we were to be reunited. The dream had had such substance, such certainty.

When we entered the château, Elizabeth immediately started up the stairs toward the library.

“I want to see them,” she said. “These monster bones.”

Henry and I followed. We found no sign of workers in the library, and as we made our way into the caverns, we found them empty too, though a few lanterns still flickered.

“Professor Neumeyer?” I called out, but heard no reply.

We ventured down the steep passageway to the burial chamber and walked to the edge of the pit. The ladder was still in place, but at the bottom all the skeletal fragments I’d seen earlier were gone.

I turned desperately to a tarpaulin where a few small bits of bone were laid out. I hurried over and knelt down, but these pieces were all so nondescript that they might have been from any creature.

“Is this all there is?” Elizabeth exclaimed, snatching up a shard of bone. “This is your monster?”

“They must’ve taken away the other pieces,” I murmured, feeling suddenly light-headed.

“If they were here at all.”

“They were here,” I said. “A bit of the giant skull, a clubbed foot. And the jawbone that bore the exact same teeth as Konrad’s!”

“A tooth!” She was shaking with anger now. “Is that all the proof you can muster? Admit it, Victor. From the moment you saw him growing as a baby, you didn’t want him back!”

My voice was hoarse with grief. “That’s a lie! You think you’re the only one who suffered today? I saw the hope of getting back my brother, my
twin
, sink! I want him back, Elizabeth, even more than you!”

She shook her head. “You were more interested in your stolen spirits and the power they gave you!”

“How can you say that, after all I’ve done—”

“With you, Victor, it’s never clear why you do things!”

I held up my maimed hand and shook it in her face. “I—gave—my—fingers!”

Dismissively she batted away my hand, and before I could check my rage, I smacked her face.

She flew at me, her fists battering my chest. I pushed her away so hard that she fell down.

“Victor!” Henry said sharply, his hand tightening around my arm.

“Take that hand off me,” I growled.

We held each other’s eyes for a moment before he released his grip.

There was a shuffling sound behind us, and I turned to see Gerard, one of the professor’s colleagues, emerge from the steep passageway.

“What’re you doing down here?” he asked.

“The pit remains, where have they gone?” I demanded.

“The professor’s taken them into Geneva not an hour ago,” he said.

“Why?”

“He was concerned they be preserved properly.”

“The body,” said Elizabeth, “was it truly of giant proportions?”

“Indeed it was, miss.”

“You saw its teeth?”

“They were unusually sharp.” He nodded at the tarpaulin. “I’m just here to gather up the last bits of bone.”

“Thank you,” said Elizabeth, walking out of the chamber. Henry and I followed.

As we made our way back through the vaulted galleries, I said, “You see, I didn’t imagine any of this.”

Elizabeth ignored me.

“Whatever that thing was, or is, it wants a body born, and not for Konrad—for itself. You can’t blame me for what happened at the lake.”

“Don’t worry about me,” she said. “Worry about your brother when you tell him tonight.”

*   *   *

When he sees the three of us, Konrad beams. He’s in the library with Analiese, who is carefully reading aloud to him when we enter. Arranged on the tables is an arsenal of weapons from the armory, as if he’s expecting to be attacked at any moment.

“Are we ready?” he asks, leaping up. “This is the night, is it not?”

“Konrad—,” I begin.

His face falls. “What’s happened?”

My voice is a defeated croak. “Your body… There’s been an accident.”

Analiese gasps. Konrad sinks down in his chair. “What kind of accident?”

I swallow, struggling to govern myself. “It drowned.”

“How?”

Before I can assemble the words, Elizabeth says, “Victor fought with him and they fell into the water, and he didn’t know how to swim.”

Konrad looks at me, his eyes dark with reproach.

“Listen to me,” I say. “You must believe me. The body was corrupted. It was violent. It tried to rape Elizabeth!”

“No!” she objects. “That wasn’t the case. It kissed me and became enflamed, as any young man might’ve done. It had no conscience yet to—”

“The body was not yours, Konrad!” I shout over her. “It was meant for another.”

“What do you mean?” Konrad demands, standing now, pacing like a tiger caged.

“That creature in the pit, your body was meant for it!”

“How can this be?” exclaims Analiese.

I see how, even now, Elizabeth looks at her, with suspicion and barely veiled hostility.

“The spirit that animated your body comes from that creature!” I tell Konrad. “And all of these,” I add, looking nervously at the black butterflies that circle overhead. “Don’t let them land! They’ve been feeding on us whenever we come here, especially me, taking our life energy back to the creature and gradually waking it. When I last saw it, it had changed yet again. It was like some vast embryo.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this last night?” Konrad demands.

“My time was up. I… I had to leave,” I tell him, unable to meet his gaze.

Konrad’s voice is irate. “You take time to do your reading and collect your specimens—but not enough to warn me about this
thing
!”

“I still wasn’t sure what it was,” I tell him. “Or how dangerous it might be. It wasn’t until this morning, when the professor dug up the remains in the real world. It’s some kind of monstrosity, maybe not even human. Some of its features were exactly the same as the body we’ve been growing for you!”

“One!” protests Elizabeth. “A single sharp tooth! That’s Victor’s lonely bit of evidence.”

“No. There were other moments when you—the
body
—became strange and frightening. It bit. It growled. Its face changed into something brutal.”

“Victor has become addicted to the spirit butterflies,” says
Elizabeth, “and they’ve clouded his judgment. He sees all manner of things.”

Konrad looks at me long and hard, then turns in Henry’s direction.

“Henry, you’ve always had a level head. Tell me what you know.”

“The body we grew for you did have a strange tooth, it’s true.” He sighs and looks ruefully at Elizabeth. “And today I did see those features Victor mentioned. They were like a shadow crossing its face.”

I feel a rush of gratitude for Henry. “I swear to you, Konrad, there is some infernal design at work. The professor thinks this pit creature may have been considered some kind of god, and maybe he’s right. How else to explain the fact that it created these butterflies from its own dead body?”

Analiese is shaking her head, frightened. “But the butterflies have always been here. And I’ve never sensed any evil purpose in them.”

“Until they have living souls to feed upon,” I reply. “Look how the little parasites hover, wanting to steal more from us.”

Overhead they flutter closer, darting toward Henry, Elizabeth, and me, wanting to touch us. I shoo them away viciously.

“They’re like leeches!” I shout. “They’ll drain us and use our power to fully wake that creature in the pit!”

“But you put such faith in these creatures!” Konrad says. “You said they gave you immense powers.”

“They did,” I say, swatting one that alighted on Henry’s back
without his realizing. “But even as they gave, they took away. Elizabeth! Don’t let it land on you!”

I am suddenly aware that everyone is looking at me as though I’m a lunatic—and no doubt I look it, my eyes darting about, lunging to and fro to swat butterflies.

“Victor,” says Elizabeth sadly, “you’re deluded. There was nothing the matter with the body we grew. And you let it die!”

“It tried to drown me!”

“He did his best to save it,” says Henry.

“Make me another!”

The shout comes from Konrad, and when I turn, I know that I have never seen his face so angry. He stalks toward me, fists clenched.

“Make me another body!” he shouts.

“It can’t be done! It would be another monstrosity!”

“You promised me, Victor!”

His words impale me, and I have no reply.

“It’s just like last time,” he rails. “You make me these promises. The Elixir of Life! How it will heal me! How it will keep me from any illness. Then you tell me you can raise me from the dead! Your promises are meaningless, Victor! Meaningless!”

“Konrad, I’ve tried my—”

“No. You
tried
to make yourself grand and powerful, as usual, and you have ruined everything!”

I don’t realize how close he’s come toward me—until he strikes me. His fist actually touches my body. And though it feels like the graze of a feather, I gasp in shock. How is it he’s able to come so close?

“I want my life back!” Konrad shouts as he batters at me, his blows like little breezes. I wish they hurt more, to match my misery.

“I’d do anything for you,” I say.

“Liar! I half think you drowned me on purpose, so you could woo Elizabeth and take her for yourself.”

“That’s not so!” I protest weakly. But I wonder if all his angry words have the accuracy of arrows.

“You mean to whine at her and worry her like a dog until she takes you!” Konrad says with a cruelty I’ve never known from him.

Analiese puts a restraining hand on him, draws him back. “Konrad, his remorse is obvious. Please stop.”

“Don’t touch him!” Elizabeth yells at her. “We don’t even know who or what you are!”

A sense of madness throbs through the room, and the walls are beginning to pulse with our frenzied emotions.

Konrad shrugs free of Analiese and strikes at me again. “I—want—more—
life
! You’ve paraded it in front of me, and now I want it! Get me another body!”

Henry steps in front of me, and Konrad recoils, driven back by my friend’s light and heat. Why has mine not done the same?

My brother sinks suddenly into a chair, covering his face. “Victor,” he says, “I’m—”

“Do you all see?” I shout. “My light has faded. These spirits have stolen it from me and given it to that thing in the pit. Can’t you all see that? How else could Konrad have touched me?”

There’s an uncomfortable silence, and for a moment I hope I’ve finally convinced them.

But Elizabeth just shakes her head stubbornly. “If you’re weakened,” she says, “it’s because you’ve abused the spirits and dallied too long in this world.”

“But your light and heat are dimmer too,” says Konrad, looking at her carefully. “Not so much as Victor’s…”

Henry and I both regard her, surprised, for we’ve never been able to see one another’s auras.

“Have you been coming in, without me?” I ask her.

She nods quickly, and I see Konrad’s guilty look.

Konrad stands up and starts seizing weapons from the table.

“What’re you doing?” Henry asks.

“What I should’ve done much earlier,” he says savagely. “I’m going to destroy that thing!”

“Konrad, don’t!” cries Elizabeth. “It’s too dangerous!”

“He’s right,” I say, snatching up a crossbow and a sword. “It must be done.”

“Then I’ll fight with you,” says Henry.

But at that moment the spirit clock in my pocket begins to vibrate and shake with such frightening intensity that I fear the thing will burst apart. “It can’t be,” I mutter, pulling it out. “How can our time be up?”

“Can you slow it?” Konrad asks desperately.

“No… it’s too late. I can’t turn back time.”

He looks at me, desolate, and then his face hardens. “I’ll do it alone.”

“No,” I tell him. “You might need help. The help of the living.”

“I’m sick of listening to it!” he shouts. “Waiting for it to come!”

“It won’t come,” I tell him. “It needs more life to wake. Without us here it can’t wake fully.”

He shakes his head, refusing to meet my gaze. “How can you know that?”

“I won’t leave you here,” I say. “I’ll come back. I’ll solve this somehow.”

He is silent.

“I’ll find a way,” I promise him. “But don’t attack this thing on your own.”

He nods. I don’t want to leave him, not like this, with all hope drained from his face. I want to stay, to make amends, but the urgency to return to my real body makes a coward of me, and I run along with Henry and Elizabeth, her face streaked with tears, back toward my bedroom—and life—while Konrad remains behind once more, in the land of the dead.