Chris Moriarty - The Inquisitor's Apprentice

“No.”

Wolf’s pale eyes widened. It was such a small movement that you couldn’t even really call it an expression. Yet it seemed to have a remarkable effect on Rabbi Mendelsohn.

“That is to say, I didn’t really pay attention, but I… I think it started with a W . And it was an unusual name. Worley, Wormley. Something like that. and I remember what the machine was called. It was called a Soul Catcher.”

For a moment Wolf looked like he was about to ask another question. But then he slipped his notebook into his pocket and unfolded his lanky, rumpled frame from the leather armchair. “Thank you, Rabbi Mendelsohn. You’ve been most helpful.”

Suddenly Wolf seemed to be in an unusual hurry. He grabbed the two children by the elbows and practically dragged them back through the synagogue and onto the sidewalk.

“That’s ridiculous!” Lily erupted as soon as they were outside. “Morgaunt can’t have summoned Edison’s dybbuk! Why would he want to kill his own business partner?”

“I don’t know,” Wolf said shortly. Then, to Sacha’s writhing mortification, he asked, “this Rabbi Kessler wouldn’t be any relation of yours, would he, Sacha?”

“No! Well … maybe.”

Wolf raised his eyebrows.

“I have a big family. he’s some kind of … distant cousin? I’d have to check.”

Now Wolf and Lily were both looking at him like he was crazy.

“Well, check, then,” Wolf said. “And find out where he lives. I want to talk to him.”

WOLF STOOD OUTSIDE Rabbi Mendelsohn’s temple looking up and down the block and blinking in astonishment. “Well, bless my soul!” he murmured. “how extraordinary!”

It took Sacha a moment to see what Wolf was so surprised about. Then he realized this was the first time he could remember that there hadn’t been a cab waiting at the curb for them.

Wolf scanned the block again, as if he suspected there might be one hiding behind a tree or under a manhole. “Perhaps on Fifth Avenue?” he hazarded.

But there were no cabs there either, even though they waited anxiously for several minutes.

Wolf produced a battered pocket watch and checked the time. “I really need to get back to Hell’s Kitchen and call the Patent Office before closing time. I’d better just leave you two here and walk across the park. Why don’t you take the rest of the day off?”

And then he hurried away, leaving Lily and Sacha staring after him.

“Can you get home all right from here?” Sacha asked Lily.

“Of course I can. I live just around the corner.”

“Oh,” Sacha said, feeling a little silly. “Right.”

Lily turned to leave, hesitated, and then turned back to Sacha with a look on her face that suggested she was about to perform an unpleasant but necessary chore. “I guess I should invite you over to my house for tea,” she mumbled, as if the words were being squeezed out of her against her will. “If you want. But I’m sure you have better things to do.”

Sacha felt a flash of anger. What was the point of giving an invitation she so plainly didn’t want him to accept? And how dare she make it so insultingly obvious that she didn’t think he was good enough to enter her house? He started to make some polite excuse, then decided to make her squirm a little. “Actually,” he said, “tea sounds delightful.”

The Astral home was even more spectacularly luxurious than J. P. Morgaunt’s mansion. Not that Sacha had much time to look around. Lily hurried him through a side door to a narrow creaking stairway that was obviously only meant to be used by servants. She was plainly terrified that her parents would see him. Sacha felt humiliated. He wished he hadn’t come at all. In fact, he decided, there was no reason he shouldn’t just turn around and leave right now if this was how Lily was going to act.

Except that when he turned around to stomp back down the stairs, he found himself face-to-face with Mrs. Astral herself.

“You must be Sacha Kessler!” she said with a brilliant smile that made Sacha feel as if he were the only person in the whole world Mrs. Astral cared about. “I can’t think why Lily didn’t tell me she was bringing you! She knows I’ve been dying to meet you. I do hope you have time to stay for tea?”

Sacha glanced at Lily. She gave a tiny, stiff shake of her blond head and mouthed a single word at him: “No!”

“Thank you,” he told Mrs. Astral. “I’d love to.”

Sacha took the arm that Mrs. Astral graciously offered him and accompanied her into a vast drawing room filled with palm trees, marble statuary, and overstuffed furniture. Lily trudged behind them like a soldier being ordered into a hopeless battle.

Sacha had read almost as many newspaper stories about Maleficia Astral as he’d read about J. P. Morgaunt. She’d been a famous beauty, the daughter of an old New England family from Salem, Massachusetts. Then she’d married the heir to the Astral family fortune — rumored to be a formidable Wall Street Wizard in his own right. Now she ruled New York high society with absolute authority. No one could be invited into the best houses without her seal of approval. No ball or soiree was a success unless she attended. And any proper New York socialite would rather die a thousand deaths than wear a gown that clashed with whatever Maleficia Astral was wearing.

From what he’d read in the papers, Sacha had assumed that Mrs. Astral would be haughty and snobbish. But instead, she was bewitching. Her eyes were the brilliant iridescent green of hummingbird wings. Her clothes were impeccably ladylike, yet they flowed over her body like water rippling over rocks, revealing every sinuous curve and graceful movement. And her voice … well, when Maleficia Astral spoke to you, it was absolutely impossible to think of anything but Maleficia Astral.

“So you’re Lily’s little friend,” Mrs. astral cooed at Sacha. “I’m so very pleased to meet you. Lily’s told me so much about you.”

“No I haven’t,” Lily said churlishly.

“But, darling, don’t be shy! Of course you have! I’ve heard no end of charming stories about the fun you two have together!”

Sacha doubted that. But he thought it was nice of Mrs. Astral to say so. Unlike her daughter, she apparently cared about making people feel welcome and comfortable. Basking in the warmth of Mrs. Astral’s smile, he tried to be charitable toward Lily. It must be hard to live up to such a dazzling mother. Not that Lily wasn’t pretty enough in her own way. But she couldn’t hold a candle to her mother. As for personality, he supposed Lily must take after her father there. And while that sort of personality was no doubt very useful in a captain of industry, it was hardly the thing for a girl!

The tea arrived, and Mrs. Astral made a point of serving Sacha personally. She asked him how much milk and sugar he wanted in his tea as if he were a grown man instead of a boy. And when she handed him his cup, her hand brushed his in a way that made him feel very grown-up indeed.

“Now, Sacha,” she said, fixing him with her brilliant green gaze, “you must tell me all about your fascinating work with Inquisitor Wolf! He’s my hero! I’m simply desperate to meet him!”

“Then why don’t you invite him to dinner?” Lily interrupted.

Mrs. Astral cast a cool eye upon her daughter, as if she’d just noticed her presence and wasn’t entirely pleased about it. “Darling, what are you wearing? If you must go out in public like that, can you take some decent clothes in a bag and change before you come home? What if someone saw you?”

Before Lily could answer, Mrs. Astral turned back to Sacha.