The Lunatic's Curse (27 page)

We must be nearing the lake, she thought.

She slowed at the final bend. The blue light was stronger now and she could smell the water. Her hands were sweaty and her heart was racing as she stood just inside the exit. Ever so slowly she
inched her head around the rock. She saw the lake, the water higher now than before, and there on the ledge was Gerulphus, still dragging his awkward burden.

He went all the way to the end of the rocky promontory before dropping it. There was something in the way it fell and its shape upon the ground that struck a chord with Hildred. ‘Oh
Lord,’ she breathed. ‘It’s a person! He must have taken him from that last cell.’ She prayed that whoever it was was long dead, for she had an ominous feeling that what she
was about to witness was not going to be pleasant.

Gerulphus picked up a stick and began to beat on the water, causing a ripple to spread outwards to the middle of the lake. Nothing happened. Hildred cocked her head to one side, listening
intently, though to any other ears no sound could be heard. Seconds later a large scaly fin split the water like a knife. Gerulphus smiled and dropped the stick.

Hildred could hardly bear to look but she couldn’t help herself. So she saw the very moment the monstrous creature broke the surface of the water, its scarlet, yawning, dentiferous mouth,
its overlapping scales glittering in the blue light. She saw Gerulphus take up the man, for bag of bones he might be but he was still a man, and involuntarily she covered her eyes with her hands.
But it wasn’t enough and through the gaps between her fingers she watched as, with a great expulsion of breath, Gerulphus flung the body into the maw of the monster. It sank back down and
disappeared, the only trace of its existence being the rapidly subsiding undulations on the surface. And in her very marrow Hildred could feel the reverberations of its teeth crunching into the
dead man’s bones.

‘So, Mr Notwithstanding,’ crooned Tibor, ‘what exactly have you been looking into recently?’

Tibor’s voice was at its smoothest. Even through the door Rex could feel his head beginning to swim. He shook it hard and bit his knuckles in an attempt to stay focused.

Concentrate, he urged himself. This was not the time to yield to Dr Velhildegildus’s persuasive tones. Cecil Notwithstanding, however, had succumbed.

‘The beggars,’ replied Cecil easily. ‘Certainly there are fewer now than before but there are reports that they are disappearing under strange circumstances. And the asylum
superintendent, Cadmus Chapelizod – well, there were some very unpleasant rumours about him. I’m sure there is some sort of connection.’

‘Do you know of Cadmus Chapelizod’s whereabouts?’ continued Tibor. Rex bit harder and warm salty liquid oozed from his knuckle.

‘No,’ replied Cecil dreamily. ‘No one has seen him since news of the breakout reached Opum Oppidulum. It’s most infuriating. I wanted to speak to him, about the beggars.
I warned Ambrose Grammaticus that something was awry before his tragic . . . And, of course, I wanted to talk to you, Mrs Grammaticus, seeing as you are on the committee looking into the problem of
the beggars. It was such a happy coincidence that you invited me here tonight.’

There was a long pause then Tibor spoke again, slowly, very deliberately. ‘And what of Andrew Faye?’

Rex’s ears immediately pricked up.

‘Andrew Faye?’ repeated Cecil. ‘Not as yet. But, rest assured, if he is in any way involved in this, I, Cecil Notwithstanding, in the interests of truth and justice and the
Hebdomadal
, will find him and expose his crimes!’

There was a long silence and then the sound of deep snoring. Cecil Notwithstanding, under the influence of alcohol and the Lodestone, was enjoying a truly relaxing experience.

Rex knelt, carefully pushed up the keyhole cover and peered in. He could quite clearly see Cecil fast asleep on the couch by the window. Tibor and Acantha were staring down at him. ‘What do
you think?’ asked Acantha.

‘I think he is a danger to us all,’ said Tibor. ‘I will deal with him.’

‘What about Rex?’

‘I have a plan for him, and the girl. I don’t think it’s safe to let either go. Even though he admitted little under the Lodestone I have my doubts.’

Behind the door Rex stifled a gasp. Tibor’s unguent tones could not soften this betrayal. He continued to listen with a hardening heart.

‘Does
he
know about Andrew Faye?’ asked Acantha.

‘I’m not entirely sure.’A grin appeared like a dark crevice across Tibor’s square jaw. ‘But I think we will have to induct them both into the Society, after the
full moon. That should satisfy their curiosity!’

Acantha laughed. ‘You are such a devil, Tibor. The years haven’t changed you a bit. Ambrose Grammaticus wasn’t a patch on you, the old fool. If you had seen him that night! He
might have been a clever inventor, but he wasn’t clever enough for me. What a shame we ever parted. But now that I have you back again it was almost worth the pain!’ She flung her arms
around him and gave him a long, loud kiss on the cheek.

Tibor laughed. ‘Fate has seen fit to bring us back together,’ he said. ‘And now for your surprise, the one you have been waiting so patiently for.’

Acantha clapped her hands in delight. ‘At last! Are you certain I will like it? I am
so
difficult to please!’

‘Dear, dear Acantha,’ said Tibor. ‘You most certainly will. Thanks to
my
invention, we will both be rich beyond our wildest dreams.’

He pulled out the copy of
Decline and Fall
and once more the bookcase slid aside, but he hesitated on the threshold. ‘You must promise me one thing.’

‘Anything, anything,’ said Acantha girlishly.

‘No fish!’

‘Never! Only the best of meat from the finest butcher.’

Tibor gestured into the darkness with his hand. ‘After you,’ he said gallantly.

40

Rex was waiting in Hildred’s room when she ran in. She was shivering and her face was grey. She looked, he thought, as if she had suffered a monstrous shock and he felt
dreadful that he had left her alone. ‘At last,’ he said. ‘Where have you been? You won’t believe what I just heard.’

‘And you won’t believe what I just saw,’ blurted Hildred. ‘Gerulphus fed a person, a
person
, to some sort of lake-dwelling monstrous creature.’

‘What?’

Hildred then recounted exactly what she had seen and heard. Rex’s eyes widened impossibly and his mouth hung open throughout. At intervals he exclaimed, ‘No!’ and ‘I
don’t believe it!’

‘This proves that Walter Freakley’s right,’ said Rex at last. ‘There
is
a monster in the lake.’

Hildred chewed on her lip nervously. ‘When I was in the Panopticon I got used to all sorts of things. There was a woman who could bite her own elbow, a fellow with three legs – but I
have never seen anything so vile as Gerulphus throwing that man to the monster. The crunching. I can still feel it!’

‘He was . . . dead, wasn’t he?’ asked Rex.

‘Oh, Lord have mercy, I do believe he was. There’s another cell deep in the catacombs; I think he was kept in there. Maybe it was him doing all that moaning.’

Rex was licking his knuckles. When he saw Hildred looking he wiped them on his trousers.

‘The monster,’ he said, changing the subject. ‘What do you suppose it is?’

Hildred looked dumbfounded. ‘Some sort of ancient fish perhaps? Its scales were huge and they seemed to glitter. Gerulphus actually touched it before it submerged. I think he was stroking
it!’

‘But how did you get back?’ asked Rex.

‘Well, when he finished with the creature, I hid in a side tunnel until he went past. I thought it would be safer to go back through Tibor’s study and take my chances that he
wouldn’t be there; I knew it was getting late. I went around the lake. It was horrible; there were bits of clothing floating in the water. Just as I reached the
Indagator
I realized
that Acantha was coming – that woman walks like an elephant – so I hid behind the whale oil barrel and Acantha
and
Dr Velhildegildus came out. He wanted to show her the
Indagator
. You should have heard his boasting! He was making all sorts of promises, about money and the future. Not a word about you or me. She even tried to go inside but she couldn’t
fit through that hatch. As soon as they weren’t looking I raced back to the study. I nearly died of fright when I saw Cecil Notwithstanding, but he was fast asleep on the couch.’

Hildred fell silent, reliving in her head the all too recent horror. ‘What about you?’ she said eventually. ‘Where have you been . . . since you left me?’

Rex flushed. ‘It’s not half as bad as what you saw, but it concerns both of us. Tibor carried out a Lodestone Procedure on Cecil Notwithstanding. He wanted to know about beggars and
Andrew Faye. I swear, Hildred, Andrew Faye is the answer to all of this. We have to find that man.’

He was pacing up and down now, his fists opening and closing.

‘But that’s not the worst of it. Tibor isn’t going to let me go, or you. He said that you and I were to join the Society, and it sounded like a terrible threat. And then –’ he shook his head in disbelief at the thought – ‘Acantha kissed him!’

Hildred tutted. ‘And your father is hardly cold in his grave!’

‘By the sound of it they have known each other for years. I’m certain now the two of them are in this together. Acantha as much as admitted she sent my father mad. And in my book
that’s the same as killing him. For all I know Dr Velhildegildus was in on it too. Is there no one I can trust?’

Hildred raised an eyebrow meaningfully.

‘I know,’ said Rex, flushing again. ‘And you can trust me. I promise I won’t run off on you again. But is it even safe for us here any longer? Maybe we should just take
the boat now while we still have a chance.’

‘Let’s not be hasty,’ cautioned Hildred. ‘You can’t let them get away with this. Isn’t that what your father wanted, to expose her? Whatever he has left here
for you, it will reveal the truth about her. And think about it. Tibor won’t do anything until the
Indagator
is finished. You’re still working on the Re-breather, aren’t
you?’

‘The Re-breather,’ murmured Rex. ‘Yes, you’re right. It’s the only piece that really matters.’

‘Well, just make sure you don’t finish it until the very last minute. That will give us a little more time. Tibor won’t dare do anything to you until it’s ready.’

‘We have three days,’ said Rex. ‘And then it will all be over.’

But over the next three days no one – Rex, Hildred or Tibor – had a chance to do anything other than work on the
Indagator
. With the swiftly maturing moon and
the completion of the vessel (‘My wonderful
Indagator
!’ as Tibor kept saying, to Rex’s intense irritation, almost as if he truly believed that he’d invented it) in
sight, Dr Velhildegildus was fired up with unfettered enthusiasm. ‘Keep at it,’ he urged over and over. ‘We cannot let up now!’

So from dawn until dusk the trio put the final pieces of the vessel together. At night Rex and Hildred dragged their weary bodies up the tunnel and fell on to their beds, drained and exhausted.
There was no thought of solving mysteries. ‘Tomorrow,’ said Rex. ‘Tomorrow.’And no matter how she urged, Hildred could not persuade him otherwise. He too seemed wholly
consumed by the bewitching vessel.

By late afternoon of the third day, while Hildred and Tibor polished
Indagator
and checked and rechecked the seals and hatch, the levers and mechanism, Rex sat at a separate table putting
the final touches to the Re-breather. Tibor had asked more than once whether it would be ready, and Rex had assured him each time, monosyllabically, that it would. Hildred was keeping a close eye
on Rex. He seemed distant, preoccupied, and she was more and more fearful of where his thoughts might lead him.

In a rare moment of respite, Tibor emerged from the interior of the machine, Rex downed his tools and Hildred straightened her aching back and stretched.

‘Did you enjoy your supper the other night, Dr Velhildegildus?’ asked Hildred innocently.

‘Very much.’ He turned to Rex. ‘In fact your stepmother was at the table.’

‘Oh.’ Rex feigned ignorance. ‘We wondered who the guests were.’

‘I didn’t tell you,’ said Tibor plausibly, ‘because I know that you and she aren’t the best of friends. But I can reassure you that she has returned to Opum
Oppidulum and that I kept to our agreement. I told her you were making good progress but that you might need to stay a few more weeks at the very least.’

‘Thank you,’ said Rex without emotion. You are a liar, he thought, but your voice makes everything you say seem like the truth, a rare gift indeed! He nodded to the Re-breather which
sat before him, a simple-looking rectangular metal box. ‘I too am keeping my side of the bargain.’

‘The Re-breather,’ said Tibor excitedly. ‘The linchpin of the whole design. I cannot make head nor tail of it myself.’

‘I know,’ said Rex evenly. ‘But I can. It’s just the magnets now. It will be ready tonight.’