Eluned forgot the floor in the flurry that followed, until the great hall was strewn with paintings, along with a mixture of things that clearly belonged to Aunt Arianne—pistols and neatly bundled letters and a very silly hat, all red and purple plumes.
"She had these all along."
Griff, who had been dancing about in the hat, stopped short, then said: "I think I'll go wake Aunt."
He put down the hat and scurried up the stairs, and Jack followed his lead, picking up one of the empty crates and carrying it off toward the cellar.
"She had these all along," Eleri repeated, voice throbbing. "We could have kept the fine tools. The workshop. The house."
"But why should Aunt Arianne have to sell her things, so we could keep ours? And besides, we had that fulgite all along."
It did seem a pity that Aunt Arianne could not have sold just one of the small fortune of paintings, but Eluned was careful not to say that—not that anything would make much difference to Eleri now that seething anger had overtaken her. She began listing all the things she had particularly wanted from their parents' workshop, stalking through the strewn artwork.
"This is what we're having a drama about?"
Aunt Arianne, barefoot in her nightgown, looked like she'd had no sleep at all. She definitely didn't seem at all inclined to calm Eleri down, and Griff glanced from her to Eleri, then took a skittish leap off the stairs to stand beside Eluned. He could be so fearless about some things, but Eluned could see he was going to work himself into a sick-fever if she didn't do something soon.
"You're not even able to understand what you did!" Eleri was only just not shouting. "You took away all their things! How could you be so selfish as to have all this, and yet still make it so awful!"
"Those are copies," Aunt Arianne said, the words very crisp and clear. "Done by students of your grandparents."
Eleri drew breath, then swallowed it as she processed what had been said. Aunt Arianne stalked the last few steps down into the hall, looking among the scattered contents of the packing crates, and picked out a leather case. From it she took a bundle of cloth and unwrapped an exquisite bronze, two hands in height, of a hare poised to take flight, ears high and eyes alert.
"This, however, is one of the few bronzes your grandmother ever did, and worth more than your parents' entire estate. It's the only thing of my mother's that I possess. So tell me, Eleri, should I have sold it so you could keep a collection of tools intact?"
"She didn't mean it," Eluned said hastily.
"Eluned, there's no need for you to play peacemaker. Your sister is perfectly capable of facing the consequences of her own temper." But Aunt Arianne's expression was no longer so tight, and she sighed. "Why don't you and Griff go put together a picnic basket, and we'll have morning tea in Hurlstone?"
That meant she had investigation things to talk about, but though thankful for the excuse to escape, Eluned shot a worried glance at Eleri, not certain she wanted to be left. Eleri's jaw was set. Not a good sign, but she gave no hint of wanting Eluned to stay.
"Do you think I could have the picture of Rome?" Griff asked, hurrying Eluned to the kitchen to avoid any further explosion. "Who was that by?"
"Was that the ink in Huaxia Classical style? I'm not sure—maybe Han Ying? I loved the bronze."
"Mm." Griff was not likely to be impressed by anything about a bronze hare but its value. "Could we take the custard tarts, Ned?"
Eluned hesitated, since the tarts were clearly marked 'dessert', but then nodded defiantly. "We could use a treat."
They planned a lavish morning tea: thick slabs of bread layered with cold corned beef, cheese and pickle, and they could use precious oranges and lemons to make fresh juice.
Griff drifted away during the bread-slicing, then hissed: "Eleri's crying."
Eluned was at the kitchen door in an instant, but the argument was obviously over. Aunt Arianne was sitting on the far stairs, and Eleri had her head in their aunt's lap, and she really was crying, really sobbing, as she practically never did. Eluned stared, then hooked her fingers into Griff's collar and hauled him back to the table, and when Jack poked his nose cautiously up from the cellar she roped him in to juice oranges, and gave him a doorstop of a sandwich in return. Then, when Eluned checked that it was safe, they all went out and moved empty crates into the cellar, and the paintings and trunks into the dining room. They finished before Eleri and Aunt Arianne came back downstairs, both thankfully looking more like their normal selves, in a drawn sort of way.
"No, Tante Sabet was using them in guest rooms," Aunt Arianne was saying. "But it seems she's decided that now I have a permanent address, she has an excuse to redecorate." She smiled down at Eluned and Griff. "If we go by airship, do you think you could cope with a trip to Lutèce, Griff? It really is past time you three met some more of your family, and we could easily fit in a trip to celebrate Eleri and Eluned's birthday before the school term starts."
"Really an airship?"
"Truly an airship."
Griff danced briefly on the spot—a sign that he was still quite anxious—then said: "We could try. I want to see the Towers of the Moon."
"They're certainly worth seeing. What do you two say? Birthday in Lutèce?"
"Yes," Eleri said, definitely. "So long as we can visit the museums."
Collecting the picnic basket, they strolled out toward the grove, discussing the technicalities of travel, and the fact that they would be entering an area of different territorial allegiance, and all that entailed. Strange that yelling at Aunt Arianne had somehow brought about a relaxation, a feeling of family that Eluned hadn't found with her before.
As usual Aunt Arianne studied the roofs as they walked toward the gate, though there was only a single raven today, which could very well really be a raven, and not people spying. But once the gate to the Great Forest had closed behind them she said calmly: "The Huntresses are keeping watch on the house as well. Personally at night, and probably controlled cats by day."
"What?" Griff clutched at Eluned's arm, looking over his shoulder as if expecting an attack. "Why?"
"My best theory is they're watching for another sphinx attack."
They walked through the tumbled walls of the town before London, to what had become 'their' spot: at the feet of a vampire turned to stone, overseen by a ram-horned snake of Cernunnos and watching in turn an automaton perched stubbornly motionless on a waist-high wall. It should not feel at all familiar, should be scarcely believable: to sit on the fringe of the Great Forest, to glance up at a castle shrouded in cloud, and across at a shining white tower, while remembering Dem Makepeace warning them about 'passing gods'.
And then Eluned forgot even the wonders of Hurlstone as Aunt Arianne caught them up on all the things that had happened the previous night. They let her talk without interrupting because it was hard to believe they'd finally found what they were looking for.
"Then it's over?" Griff asked. "The police will find out the rest?"
"I very much hope they will find the proof we were looking for," Aunt Arianne said. "And there is a strong chance that one of those who died last night was directly responsible. But untangling this gang of thieves does little to solve the problem of Monsieur Doré, and of sphinxes, and whoever it was who asked for the stolen fulgite to be bought back. And Albans." She frowned.
"I want to continue investigating workshops," Eleri said firmly.
"Then be more than ordinarily careful. I suspect we are currently in more danger than previous, not less."
"We better get on if we're going to go today."
Eleri stood, stepped toward the path back, then turned and walked over to the converted mannequin. And it dropped off its perch into the tall flowers on the far side of the wall.
"Did it fall off?" Griff asked, springing up to peer into the floral mass.
"No, it moved." Eleri hitched herself up on the wall, then dropped down among the flowers. "And it's…can you see where it went, Griff?"
Aunt Arianne calmly repacked the picnic basket and Lila watched with regal indifference as Griff, Eleri and Eluned hunted among cosmos and cowbells for an automaton that really was not small enough to hide so easily.
"You've got pollen all over your face, Griff," Eluned said, trying not to giggle.
"Least I'm not wearing a spider in my hair," Griff retorted, then hastily checked his own head. He was less bothered by insects than furred and feathered animals, but that didn't mean he was willing to give them rides.
"What do we do, Aunt Arianne?" Eluned asked, swiping semi-accurately at her hair with her wooden hand. "How are we going to catch it?"
"I suspect the first step would be to stop trying," Aunt Arianne said, hoisting the picnic basket. "The more interesting question, don't you think, is why you suddenly need to?"
"You mean why did it finally move?" Griff asked.
"What were you planning to do, Eleri?" Aunt Arianne asked.
"Check whether any moisture had gotten to the mechanism." Eleri's nose was orange, and she stood indifferent to purple petals tickling her chin, her brows drawn together. "Can it possibly—how can it possibly have known? It doesn't have any ears or eyes, and even if it did, I've picked it up more than once since we put it here. It's never reacted before."
"Not until you decided to open it up. Which of course makes the reaction entirely to be expected—what would you do if someone proposed to remove your lungs, just to check them over?"
"You—are you saying it read her mind?" Eluned scanned the area again, unsure whether to be nervous.
"I have no idea. But whatever is controlling Monsieur Doré clearly finds us strange and threatening." Aunt Arianne set the basket on the wall, and looked at the gold-crowned amasen draped on a broken pillar. "Lila less so, I think. But we are effectively keeping…a kind of person prisoner here. I find myself decidedly uncomfortable with the question of what to do next."
"We should put a pencil and paper out, in case it wants to write us a message," Griff said.
Aunt Arianne glanced at him, then smiled. "I think I'll do that. And you three, if you're intending to be taken at all seriously at these workshops, better go wash up."
Twenty-Three
The trip to the sprawl of workshops, factories and occasional farms that made up London's west had not been productive: no new haunted automaton stories, and even fewer bored craftsmen willing to take interested children on a tour of the facilities. They were all too busy, or outright suspicious. Nathaner's, which they'd particularly wanted to look over, had barely spared them two words. The only bright point was a smaller workshop called Gretcher's, where they were given a cool drink while Eleri haggled her way down to almost all the money she carried in exchange for an extensive fine tool set.
"You drive a hard bargain, young dama," the workshop foreman said. "I'm making you a gift here, but it's better than them gathering dust, I confess."
"I'm glad you can spare them," Eleri said, buckling shut the last of the packs.
"We don't have anyone who does the miniature work any more," the man said sadly. "True automatons have become a luxury. It's all ugly little boxes on wheels these days, with no thought to artistry."
"Not everywhere," Eleri said, with all the determination of the future she had mapped out for herself.
They waved the man goodbye and shouldered their packs. "Enough for the day," Eluned said firmly.
"Let's take a taxi back," Griff said.
"Don't have the money," Eleri told him.
"Aunt could pay when we got there."
"Mightn't be home."
"You did keep enough for the bus, right?" Eluned asked.
Eleri only had a few coins left, and they counted them doubtfully, then decided they would take a bus as far as they could go, and hope that wouldn't leave too much walking at the end.
"What will we do tomorrow, then?" Griff asked, as they trailed back toward the nearest main road.
"See if the Aunt's right about that automaton," Eleri said.
"You think it's really a person?" Eluned asked. "How are we—?"
Griff, a few steps ahead, stopped abruptly and Eluned had to sidestep to avoid smacking into him.
"Look," he said.
Eluned studied the scene ahead, trying to work out what had caught his interest. Two growlers were drawn up in front of one of the buildings, and various boxes were being briskly loaded. There didn't seem to be anything unusual about that.
"Roof."
Following Eleri's direction, Eluned spotted two cats on the roof opposite the growlers. They were entirely ordinary-looking cats: a fat ginger and a moth-eaten tabby, but their unwavering stares did remind Eluned of a row of ravens. Though cats often looked like that.
"You think they're being controlled? They're probably just cats."
"Except, see the name by the doors?" Griff said.
Ficus Lapis. The company that had been contracted to provide digging automatons and engineers to the Prytennian Underground Rail Project.
"Tiny sign," Eleri said. "Low key."
"They look like they're moving out." Griff was bouncing on his heels now, excited, but he remembered to keep his voice low as he added: "They're making a run for it! I bet they're the ones who wanted to buy back the fulgite. They probably sold it accidentally in the first place."
This almost made sense. Eluned exchanged a glance with Eleri, remembering Aunt Arianne's warnings about danger.
"Ask about the parts we're looking for," Eleri said. "Keep our eyes open. Leave."
Eluned weighed their choices. They couldn't try to follow the growlers—not with less money than bus fare. They could find the nearest policeman and make a very likely ineffectual fuss. They could assume that Prytennia's investigators knew perfectly well what was going on—or that the cats on the roof really were controlled by the Huntresses—and leave keeping an eye on the growlers to professionals rather than exposing themselves to danger. Not that a glance in the door should be all that dangerous.
The sheer, frustrated desire to do something finally decided her. It was time they contributed, instead of putting all the risk on Aunt Arianne.
"Let's go."
There were a few casual glances as they marched confidently up to the wide-open entrance to Ficus Lapis' workshop, but no particular interest or suggestion of threat. No-one tried to stop them as they slipped past the growlers, and a single look confirmed that the place was indeed being emptied out. Eleri homed in on a weathered little man who was watching proceedings, and began as usual by indicating Eluned's arm, and asking about fine machine tools, and the availability of parts.
They'd been lucky in their choice. Although the man's Prytennian was only functional, he was very interested in Eluned's arm, and particularly in Eleri's plans for a replacement, and Eluned and Griff had plenty of opportunity to make full use of eyes and ears as the discussion became deeply technical.
Most of the things being taken out looked to be exactly what you'd expect for a workshop that dealt with industrial automatons. Tools. Massive gears. Tubs of grease. But every so often out would be wheeled a middle-sized crate, very stoutly made and so heavy that four men together were needed to lift it into the growler.
They were being quite open about it though, treating the boxes as heavy, but making no attempt to hide them. Eluned squinted through the trees, then slowly recognised what she was doing.
The trees had been there all along, even if she had only just noticed them. The Great Forest, always with her, but suddenly pressing down. Why? What had changed?
Eluned barely had time for the stone sinking realisation that Griff had pulled another of his vanishing acts when he was hauled into view by a sternly handsome woman who had his ear in one hand and a cane in the other. She walked with difficulty, each step obviously painful, but that did not slow her as she called for the attention of the men loading the truck.
Reaching Griff a few beats before the men did, Eluned and Eleri stood firm, though there w
ere now a half-dozen people looming over them and nothing felt safe at all. The woman said something angrily, but it was in a language Eluned didn't recognise, and the woman didn't even seem interested in listening to what Eleri was trying to say to her, but instead was addressing an older man coming out of a different room, his progress halting.
He said something back to her in the same language, point clear whatever the words, and Eluned flinched at the heavy hand that grabbed her left arm. She muttered: "Go low and run," to Griff, preparing to hit out with her right arm in the hopes that surprise could win them free.
"Enough, enough!" said a new voice, and the crowd around Eluned parted to allow a man through. It was Aunt Arianne's friend Felix, who had obviously not left the country at all.
"What a display," he said, in very clearly enunciated Latin. "Practically brawling in the streets. What will our clients think of Ficus Lapis, to have this uproar over a curious child?"
The woman said something back to him, again quite incomprehensibly, as Felix rested one hand on Griff's head, and the other on Eluned's back—a gesture that she did not know whether to regard as support.
"But there is nothing to see, no secrets to fall across," Felix replied, still in Latin. "You yourself told me that not an hour ago. Why must we then have dramas, and risk bringing Ficus Lapis' name into disrepute?" He was now addressing the man who seemed to be in charge.
The older man dropped his chin, and Felix seemed to take this as agreement, steering Griff, Eleri and Eluned through the crowd and toward the street. No-one moved to stop them, or argue, but Eluned did not let her breath out until they were past the growlers, and nothing stood between them and safety.
"Thank you," Griff said, voice high with relief.
"There is nothing to thank for," Felix said, his heavily-accented Prytennian difficult to understand because he spoke so low. "That place you live. It has the protections of two gods, yes? Go to it. Go quickly. Go for your lives."
He gave them the tiniest of pushes, and turned away. Wasting no time, Eluned grabbed Griff by the arm and practically hauled him down the street, Eleri close behind. Eluned knew it wasn't over. The forest was still with her, looming and dark. She hadn't understood what it meant before, but she did now: Cernunnos was the dual-nature god, hunter and hunted. The danger was getting worse.
The Pyramids of London Page 23
