The Book of Life

by Deborah Harkness

  "Okay. I'll go to Seville." I didn't want to, but I didn't want the Madison witches to suffer either.

  "No, it's not okay," Sarah said, her voice rising. "The Congregation wants answers? Well, I want answers, too. You tell Sidonie von Borcke that I have been consorting with vampires since last October, ever since Satu Jarvinen kidnapped and tortured my niece while Peter Knox stood by and did nothing. If that means I've violated the covenant, that's too damn bad. Without the de Clermonts, Diana would be dead--or worse."

  "Those are serious allegations," Vivian said. "You're sure you want to make them?"

  "Yes," Sarah said stubbornly. "Knox has already been banished from the Congregation. I want Satu's ass kicked off, too."

  "They're looking for Knox's replacement now," Vivian reported. "It's rumored that Janet Gowdie is going to come out of retirement to fill the chair."

  "Janet Gowdie is ninety if she's a day," Sarah said. "She can't possibly be up to the job."

  "Knox insists that it be a witch known for her spell-casting abilities, as he was. No one--not even Janet Gowdie--ever bested him when it came to performing spells," Vivian said.

  "Yet," said Sarah succinctly.

  "There's something else, Sarah--and it might make you pause before you go after the witches of the Congregation." Vivian hesitated. "Sidonie has asked for a report on Diana. She says it's standard procedure to check on witches who haven't developed their magical talents to see if anything manifested later in life."

  "If it's my power the Congregation is interested in, then Sidonie's request really has nothing to do with Sarah and me consorting with vampires," I said.

  "Sidonie claims that she has a childhood assessment of Diana that indicated she was not expected to manifest any of the normal powers traditionally associated with witches," Vivian went on, looking miserable. "Peter Knox conducted it. Rebecca and Stephen agreed to his findings and signed off on it."

  "Tell the Congregation that Rebecca and Stephen's assessment of their daughter's magical abilities was absolutely correct, down to the last detail." Sarah's eyes glittered with anger. "My niece has no normal powers."

  "Well done, Sarah," Matthew said, his admiration of her careful truth evident. "That answer was worthy of my brother Godfrey."

  "Thank you, Matthew," Sarah said with a little nod.

  "Knox knows something--or suspects something--about me. He has since I was a child." I expected Matthew to argue. He didn't. "I thought we'd discovered what my parents were hiding: that I'm a weaver, like Dad. But now that I know about Mom's interest in higher magics, I wonder if that doesn't have something to do with Knox's interest as well."

  "He's a dedicated practitioner of higher magics," Vivian mused. "And if you were able to devise new dark spells? I imagine that Knox would be willing to do almost anything to get his hands on them."

  The house moaned, and the sound of a guitar filled the room with a recognizable melody. Of all the songs on my mother's favorite album, "Landslide" was the one that most tugged at my heart. Whenever I heard it, I remembered her holding me on her lap and humming.

  "Mom loved this song," I said. "She knew that change was coming, and she was afraid of it, just like the woman in the song. But we can't afford fear anymore."

  "What are you saying, Diana?" Vivian asked.

  "The change my mom was expecting? It's here," I said simply.

  "And even more change is on the way," Chris said. "You're not going to be able to keep the existence of creatures secret from humans for much longer. You're one autopsy, one genetic-counseling session, one home genetic-testing kit away from being outed."

  "Nonsense," Matthew declared.

  "Gospel. You have two choices. Do you want to be in control of the situation when it happens, Matthew, or do you want to get smacked upside the head with it?" Chris waited. "Based on our limited acquaintance, I'm guessing you'd prefer option A."

  Matthew ran his fingers over his scalp and glared at Chris.

  "I thought so." Chris tipped back his chair. "So. Given your predicament, what can Yale University do for you, Professor Clairmont?"

  "No." Matthew shook his head. "You are not using research students and postgraduates to analyze creature DNA."

  "It's scary as hell, I know," Chris continued in a gentler tone. "We'd all rather hide somewhere safe and let someone else make the tough decisions. But somebody is going to have to stand up and fight for what's right. Fernando tells me you're a pretty impressive warrior."

  Matthew stared at Chris, unblinking.

  "I'll stand with you, if that helps," Chris added, "provided you meet me halfway."

  Matthew was not only an impressive warrior but an experienced one. He knew when he was beaten.

  "You win, Chris," he said quietly.

  "Good. Let's get started, then. I want to see the creature genetic maps. Then I want to sequence and reassemble the three creature genomes so they can be compared to the human genome." Chris ticked off one item after another. "I want to be sure that you've correctly identified the gene responsible for blood rage. And I want the gene that makes it possible for Diana to conceive your child isolated. I don't believe you've even started to look for that yet."

  "Is there anything else I can help you with?" Matthew's brows rose.

  "As a matter of fact, there is." Chris's chair thudded to the ground. "Tell Miriam Shephard I want her ass in Kline Biology Tower on Monday morning. It's on Science Hill. You can't miss it. My lab is on the fifth floor. I'd like her to explain how my conclusions in Science were wrong before she joins us for our first team meeting at eleven."

  "I'll pass that message along." Matthew and Fernando glanced at each other, and Fernando shrugged as if to say, His funeral. "Just a reminder, Chris. The research you've outlined thus far will take years to complete. We won't be at Yale for very long. Diana and I will have to be back in Europe by October, if we want the twins born there. Diana shouldn't travel long distances after that."

  "All the more reason to have as many people as possible working on the project." Chris stood up and put out his hand. "Deal?"

  After a long pause, Matthew took it.

  "Smart decision," Chris said, giving it a shake. "I hope you brought your checkbook, Clairmont. The Yale Center for Genome Analysis and the DNA Analysis Facility both charge steep fees, but they're fast and accurate." He looked at his watch. "My bag is already in the car. How long before you two can hit the road?"

  "We'll be a few hours behind you," Matthew said.

  Chris kissed Sarah on the cheek and gave me a hug. Then his finger rose in a gesture of warning. "Eleven A.M. on Monday, Matthew. Don't be late."

  On that note he left.

  "What have I done?" Matthew muttered when the front door slammed shut. He looked a bit shell-shocked.

  "It will be fine, Matthew," Sarah said with surprising optimism. "I have a good feeling about all this."

  *

  A few hours later, we climbed into the car. I waved to Sarah and Fernando from the passenger seat, blinking back the tears. Sarah was smiling, but her arms were wrapped so tightly around herself that the knuckles were white. Fernando exchanged a few words with Matthew and clasped him briefly, hand to elbow, in the familiar de Clermont fashion.

  Matthew slid behind the wheel. "All set?"

  I nodded. His finger pressed the switch, and the engine turned over.

  Keyboard and drums flooded out of the sound system, accompanied by piercing guitars. Matthew fumbled with the controls, trying to turn the music down. When that failed, he tried to turn it off. But no matter what he did, Fleetwood Mac warned us not to stop thinking about tomorrow. Finally he flung up his hands in defeat.

  "The house is sending us off in style, I see." He shook his head and put the car in drive.

  "Don't worry. It won't be able to keep the song going once we leave the property."

  We drove down the long driveway toward the road, the bumps all but imperceptible thanks to the Range Rover's shock absorbers.
>
  I twisted in the seat when Matthew flicked on the turn signal to leave the Bishop farm, but the last words of the song made me face forward again.

  "Don't look back," I whispered.

  Sol in Virgo

  When the sun is in Virgo, send children to school. This signe signifieth a change of place.

  --Anonymous English Commonplace Book, c. 1590,

  Goncalves MS 4890, f. 9r

  More tea, Professor Bishop?"

  "Hmm?" I looked up at the preppy young man with the expectant expression. "Oh. Yes. Of course. Thank you."

  "Right away." He whisked the white porcelain teapot from the table.

  I looked toward the door, but there was still no sign of Matthew. He was at Human Resources getting his identification badge while I waited for him in the rarefied atmosphere of the nearby New Haven Lawn Club. The hushed confines of the main building dampened the distinctive plonk of tennis balls and the screaming children enjoying the pool during the last week of summer vacation. Three brides-to-be and their mothers had been escorted through the room where I was sitting to view the facilities they would enjoy should they be married here.

  This might be New Haven, but it was not my New Haven.

  "Here you are, Professor." My attentive waiter was back, accompanied by the fresh scent of mint leaves. "Peppermint tea."

  Living in New Haven with Matthew was going to require some adjustment. My little row house on the tree-lined, pedestrians-only stretch of Court Street was far more spartan than any of the residences we'd occupied over the last year, whether in the present or the past. It was furnished simply with flea-market finds, cheap pine furniture left over from my graduate-student days, and shelf upon shelf of books and journals. My bed didn't have a footboard or a headboard, never mind a canopy. But the mattress was wide and welcoming, and at the end of our long drive from Madison the two of us had collapsed into it with groans of relief.

  We'd spent most of the weekend stocking the house with essentials like any normal New Haven couple: wine from the store on Whitney Avenue for Matthew, groceries for me, and enough electronics to outfit a computer lab. Matthew was horrified that I owned only a laptop. We left the computer store on Broadway with two of everything--one for him and one for me. Afterward we strolled the paths of the residential colleges while the carillon played in Harkness Tower. College and town were just beginning to swell with returning students who shouted greetings across the quad and shared complaints about reading lists and class schedules.

  "It's good to be back," I had whispered, my hand hooked through his arm. It felt like we were embarking on a new adventure, just the two of us.

  But today was different. I felt out of step and out of sorts.

  "There you are." Matthew appeared at my elbow and gave me a lingering kiss. "I missed you."

  I laughed. "We've been apart for an hour and a half."

  "Exactly. Far too long." His attention wandered over the table, taking in the untouched pot of tea, my blank yellow legal pad, and the unopened copy of the latest American Historical Review that we'd rescued from my overstuffed department mailbox on our way to Science Hill. "How was your morning?"

  "They've taken very good care of me."

  "So they should." On our way into the grand brick building, Matthew had explained that Marcus was one of the founding members of the private club and that the facility was built on land he'd once owned.

  "Can I get you something, Professor Clairmont?"

  I pressed my lips together. A small crease appeared in the smooth skin between my husband's keen eyes.

  "Thank you, Chip, but I believe we're ready to go."

  It was not a moment too soon. I stood and gathered my things, slipping them into the large messenger bag at my feet.

  "Can you put the charges on Dr. Whitmore's account?" Matthew murmured, pulling out my chair.

  "Absolutely," Chip said. "No problem. Always a pleasure to welcome a member of Dr. Whitmore's family."

  For once I beat Matthew outside.

  "Where's the car?" I said, searching the parking lot.

  "It's parked in the shade." Matthew lifted the messenger bag from my shoulder. "We're walking to the lab, not driving. Members are free to leave their cars here, and it's very close to the lab." He looked sympathetic. "This is strange for both of us, but the oddness will pass."

  I took a deep breath and nodded. Matthew carried my bag, holding it by the short handle on top.

  "It will be better once I'm in the library," I said, as much for my benefit as his. "Shall we get to work?"

  Matthew held out his free hand. I took it, and his expression softened. "Lead the way," he said.

  We crossed Whitney Avenue by the garden filled with dinosaur statuary, cut behind the Peabody, and approached the tall tower where Chris's labs were located. My steps slowed. Matthew looked up, and up some more.

  "No. Please not there. It's worse than the Beinecke." His eyes were glued to the unappealing outlines of Kline Biology Tower, or KBT as it was known on campus. He'd likened the Beinecke, with its white marble walls carved into square hollows, to a giant ice-cube tray. "It reminds me of--"

  "Your lab in Oxford was no great beauty either, as I recall," I said, cutting him off before he could give me another vivid analogy that would stay with me forever. "Let's go."

  It was Matthew's turn to be reluctant now. He grumbled as we walked into the building, refused to put his blue-and-white Yale lanyard with its magnetized plastic ID card around his neck when the security guard asked him to, continued to complain in the elevator, and was glowering as we looked for the door to Chris's lab.

  "It's going to be fine, Matthew. Chris's students will be thrilled to meet you," I assured him. Matthew was an internationally renowned scholar and a member of the Oxford University faculty. There were few institutions that impressed Yale, but that was one of them.

  "The last time I was around students was when Hamish and I were fellows at All Souls." Matthew looked away in an effort to hide his nervousness. "I'm better suited to a research lab."

  I pulled on his arm, forcing him to stop. Finally he met my eyes.

  "You taught Jack all sorts of things. Annie, too," I reminded him, remembering how he'd been with the two children who had lived with us in Elizabethan London.

  "That was different. They were . . ." Matthew trailed off, a shadow flitting through his eyes.

  "Family?"

  I waited for his response. He nodded reluctantly.

  "Students want the same things Annie and Jack did: your attention, your honesty, and your faith in them. You're going to be brilliant at this. I promise."

  "I'll settle for adequate," Matthew muttered. He scanned the hallway. "There's Christopher's lab. We should go. If I'm late, he's threatened to repossess my ID."

  Chris pushed the door open, clearly frazzled. Matthew caught it and propped it open with his foot.

  "Another minute, Clairmont, and I would have started without you. Hey, Diana," Chris said, kissing me on the cheek. "I didn't expect to see you here. Why aren't you at the Beinecke?"

  "Special delivery." I motioned toward the messenger bag, and Matthew handed it over. "The page from Ashmole 782, remember?"

  "Oh. Right." Chris didn't sound the least bit interested. He and Matthew were clearly focused on other questions.

  "You two promised," I said.

  "Right. Ashmole 782." Chris crossed his arms. "Where's Miriam?"

  "I gave Miriam your invitation and will spare you her response. She will be here when--and if--she chooses." Matthew held up his ID card. Even the employment office couldn't take a bad picture of him. He looked like a model. "I'm official, or so they tell me."

  "Good. Let's go." Chris took a white lab coat off the nearby rack and shrugged it over his shoulders. He held another out to Matthew.

  Matthew looked at it dubiously. "I'm not wearing one of those."

  "Suit yourself. No coat, no contact with the equipment. Up to you." Chris turned and
marched off.

  A woman approached him with a sheaf of papers. She was wearing a lab coat with the name CONNELLY embroidered on it and "Beaker" written above it in red marker.

  "Thanks, Beaker." Chris looked them over. "Good. Nobody refused."

  "What are those?" I asked.

  "Nondisclosure forms. Chris said neither of you has to sign them." Beaker looked at Matthew and nodded in greeting. "We're honored to have you here, Professor Clairmont. I'm Joy Connelly, Chris's second-in-command. We're short a lab manager at the moment, so I'm filling in until Chris finds either Mother Teresa or Mussolini. Would you please swipe in so that we have a record of when you arrived? And you have to swipe out to leave. It keeps the records straight." She pointed to the reader by the door.

  "Thank you, Dr. Connelly." Matthew obediently swiped his card. He was still not wearing a lab coat, though.

  "Professor Bishop needs to swipe in, too. Lab protocol. And please call me Beaker. Everybody else does."

  "Why?" Matthew asked while I fished my ID out of my bag. As usual, it had settled to the bottom.

  "Chris finds nicknames easier to remember," Beaker said.

  "He had seventeen Amys and twelve Jareds in his first undergraduate lecture," I added. "I don't think he'll ever recover."

  "Happily, my memory is excellent, Dr. Connelly. So is your work on catalytic RNA, by the way." Matthew smiled. Dr. Connelly looked pleased.

  "Beaker!" Chris bellowed.

  "Coming!" Beaker called. "I sure hope he finds Mother Teresa soon," she muttered to me. "We don't need another Mussolini."

  "Mother Teresa is dead," I whispered, running my card through the reader.

  "I know. When Chris wrote the job description for the new lab manager, it listed 'Mother Teresa or Mussolini' under qualifications. We rewrote it, of course. Human Resources wouldn't have approved the posting otherwise."

  "What did Chris call his last lab manager?" I was almost afraid to ask.

  "Caligula." Beaker sighed. "We really miss her."

  Matthew waited for us to enter before releasing the door. Beaker looked nonplussed by the courtesy. The door swooshed closed behind us.

  A gaggle of white-coated researchers of all ages and descriptions waited for us inside, including senior researchers like Beaker, some exhausted-looking postdoctoral fellows, and a bevy of graduate students. Most sat on stools pulled up to the lab benches; a few lounged against sinks or cabinets. One sink bore a hand-lettered sign over it that said rather ominously THIS SINK RESERVED FOR HAZMAT. Tina, Chris's perpetually harried administrative assistant, was trying to extricate the filled-out nondisclosure forms from beneath a can of soda without disturbing the laptop that Chris was booting up. The hum of conversation stopped when we entered.