David Liss - The Twelfth Enchantment - A Novel

When Mr. Morrison raised the light, Lucy almost screamed with surprise. Upon the steps to the main entrance was a crumpled figure in white. For an instant, Lucy had no doubt that she beheld a ghost. Then, while her heart pounded in her chest, she recognized the wild auburn hair and frail limbs. She let out a gasp of relief and rushed over, even as Mr. Morrison called out for her to stop. Lucy felt no fear, however. She knelt by Sophie Hyatt’s prostrate form, and saw that the deaf girl was not hurt, only sleeping.

Lucy took her exposed hand, which felt as cold as ice. Sophie awoke with a start and sat up, looking both confused and disappointed to see Lucy staring at her.

“Hold up the light,” she said to Mr. Morrison, who was now behind her. “She must see my lips to understand me.”

Without inquiring what she meant, he obeyed.

“Miss Hyatt,” said Lucy. “What do you do here?”

She did not shiver. The elements appeared to have no effect upon her. With a steady hand, she took her slate, which rested by her side, and found her chalk upon the ground.

I love him , she wrote.

Lucy took her hand. “I know you do, but you will catch your death. Are you not cold?”

The fire within warms me , she wrote.

“Improbable, I should think,” said Mr. Morrison, who removed his greatcoat and draped it over the girl’s shoulders. It looked absurd upon her—she was like a kitten lost in tangled bedsheets—and she reacted to the added warmth not at all. “You are acquainted with the shivering deaf girl, Miss Derrick?”

“We have met before,” said Lucy. “She has bound herself to Lord Byron.”

“Tell her to come with us, but to make no mischief,” he said. “When we are through, we will see her someplace safe. I won’t leave her here to be pounced on by bears or nibbled at by tortoises or whatever else can happen at this wretched place.”

Mr. Morrison’s concern surprised Lucy. It would have been more consistent with her idea of him if he had been content to leave a damaged girl such as Sophie to her fate, particularly if it were a fate she had chosen for herself. Perhaps it was the spell Lucy had put on him that made him more caring than was his nature.

They attempted the front door, which was locked.

Mr. Morrison retrieved from his pocket a long, ornate gold key. “Association with my order has certain advantages. We know so many marvelous people, including locksmiths.”

He rotated the key in the lock, and the heavy door swung inward.

Lucy expected something vile and cold and heavy to wash over her, but it was only a large hall, dark and empty and badly kept. They had taken only a few steps inside before her lungs began to feel heavy with dust, and if there was nothing inherently frightening she saw or felt, she nevertheless started when she felt Sophie’s frail hand tug upon her gown. When she turned, the girl held out a pebble no larger than a raisin.

Sophie twisted the slate that hung around her neck and scratched out a few lines. Emethist. For spirits .

Lucy nodded. She had her own amethyst upon her to protect against ghosts, but she did not want to reject the girl’s generosity. She took the stone and squeezed Sophie’s arm by way of thanks, and then stood back while Mr. Morrison held up his lantern.

“Amethyst?” he asked.

“Yes,” Lucy said.

“Smart girl.”

“Smarter than you,” said Lucy, who held up the small amethyst pendant that she wore around her wrist.

“Think you so?” asked Mr. Morrison, who removed an amethyst on a chain from his pocket. “It appears that the deaf girl is the only one of us generous enough to share.”

“I presumed my gem would be sufficient for all of us,” Lucy answered sulkily. She did not like to be accused of being unkind.

“It will. I should not have let you come if I were not prepared for what we might find,” said Mr. Morrison. “I don’t much care for ghosts—bit of a bad history there—and the ones here are more unpleasant than most.”

Lucy laughed nervously. She was eager to move on. “You know the way to the library?”

“He has no great library,” Mr. Morrison said. “But I know where he will have such books as he possesses—in the old drawing room.”

Again, there was that tone in his voice, but Lucy did not ask questions. Instead, she took Sophie’s hand and followed Mr. Morrison into the great expanse of the entryway. Here was a vast, cold stone room with vaulted arches. There was little in the way of decorations or wall hangings, and Lucy perceived it was but an entrance to the abbey proper. Somewhere in the distance she heard a slow drip of water.

Mr. Morrison turned back to her. “This is the crypt.”

“Splendid,” she answered.

They turned right and proceeded up a great and broad stone staircase, the steps wide enough to be negotiated without much difficulty by a horse. Horse droppings scattered about the floor gave evidence that Byron had actually ridden indoors. Lucy also observed overturned plates of food upon which rats nibbled, occasionally turning to stare at them brazenly. There were, however, no ghosts in evidence.

At the top of the staircase they entered the great dining room, which showed more evidence of horses, discarded food, and overturned and shattered bottles of wines. Cobwebs tickled their faces, and they heard the scurry of little animal feet—more rats most likely, but this being Newstead, there could be no assurance that they would not be poisonous lizards or African monkeys or anything else Byron’s imagination might desire and his credit might procure.

Through a carved doorway they entered a corridor which took them to a short set of steps, and then a door, which Mr. Morrison pushed open. They followed him inside.

It was a massive room, sixty feet long, and almost half as wide, and it was the most orderly and well-kept space Lucy had yet seen in Newstead. There were paintings upon the walls, and comfortable furnishings near the ornate fireplace. Along the far wall, even in the dark, Lucy could perceive bookshelves. Relief washed over her. Their journey was near an end.

“This is the great drawing room,” said Mr. Morrison. “Byron keeps his collection here. Nothing like what a gentleman would call a library, but a few hundred volumes, so this may take some time. Let us see if we cannot find some candles or lamps to light to make the work go faster.” He raised up his lantern and then began to let out a long string of uncharacteristic curses.

Lucy saw at once his reason. The shelves along the wall, where Byron’s books ought to have been, were completely empty.

“Damn him,” said Mr. Morrison. “I should have known he would do something of this sort.”

Lucy tugged on his sleeve.

“You will have to endure my language,” he said. “And the deaf girl cannot hear me.”

“Not that,” said Lucy. “By the door.”

Mr. Morrison turned his lantern toward the door. At first, he saw nothing in the gloom—Lucy watched him shift his light about in search of what had alarmed her—and then he saw it, the massive gray wolf, its yellow eyes reflecting the lantern’s glow. Even in that dim light, they could see that its mouth was open, its head low to the ground. The animal let out a low, rumbling snarl.

They stood on the far side of the furnishings, so the sofa and chairs and tables were between their position and the wolf’s, but that would do them little good. Very slowly, Lucy reached into the inner lining of her cloak and removed a small felt pouch. Loosening the drawstring, she began to sprinkle its contents on the floor around them while she muttered an incantation. She hoped it did not need to be spoken clearly, for she was still slightly embarrassed to do such things in front of other people.