“I am convinced, though, we must face those dangers, for we are surely not safe here. Letitia, Calabus' behavior toward you is alarming enough. The old man's daft. That device down below has scrambled his head. And Sabatino has such a hatred for me—and a lewd obsession toward you—I feel he's a greater menace than Calabus himself.”
And why don't you tell her there is something so dread and unspeakable here, that even the dead fear it? Are you doing her a favor, keeping her in the dark?
“There can be no more waiting for a ship. If I knew one would sail into the harbor tomorrow, I would not wait it out. And if we can't stay here, if we cannot stay in that— that open asylum they choose to call a town, then we must go somewhere else still …”
For a moment, silence met his words. Letitia's eyes told him nothing at all. She worried at a pitiful chunk of nearly petrified bread.
“All right, I'll be the one to say it,” Julia said, with a rattle and a croak. “If not here or the lovely village, where? Are you aware your flair for the dramatic drives others to the limit, Finn? Up the wall, right to the edge—”
“You do, you know,” Letitia put in, “not that I don't like the way you talk, because I do.”
“Oh, well I'm sorry if I do my best to make matters clear. I regret I'm such a bore.”
“Stop it, dear. We don't need that.”
“All right, I'll get to it at once,” Finn said, grateful for the intrusion, which had given him time to discover several new thoughts.
“We will not stay here, and we will certainly not go into town. It is senseless to wait for a ship. We will—we'll travel over land. Away from the coast. Entirely the other way. If anyone pursues us, and I really doubt they will, we— should get a good start before any Foxers or spiritual zealots know we're gone.”
“How on earth are we going to do that, Finn? Would you please tell me that?”
Letitia sat cross-legged on the bed running her hands through her hair.
“We don't have a map, we scarcely know where we are now. We have no provisions, and—don't take offense, dear—it appears they're quite hard to get.”
Finn pretended not to hear. “We have no knowledge of the country, I'm aware of that. But this is clearly not the only village in the land. We'll follow the road. It has to go somewhere besides this.”
He hoped the folly of his plan did not appear as fragile to Julia and Letitia as it did within his head. He regretted now that he hadn't thought this out before, that he hadn't asked the crew of Coldies, for most of them had lived or died nearby.
“We can't be sure there won't be Hooters and Hatters in the next place too,” Julia said. “Quite often, religions aren't confined to one town.”
“She's right about that,” Letitia said.
“We don't even know where the next town is.”
“We don't know if there is a next town.”
“If there is, it could be worse than this one, how do we know?”
“What if there's no one but Foxers there?”
“What if there's Vampies? Vampies with brooms? Why, I could've been squashed completely flat!”
“All right, that's quite enough, both of you.”
Finn stood, leaving a wet spot on the bed. He'd slipped off his shirt, but kept the damp trousers on.
“I don't know what we'll face out there, I don't know what we'll find to eat. I know that we're going, all right? We don't have a choice. If someone has a better idea, I'd be pleased to hear it now.”
“It's not that we don't approve, dear. It's just—frightening, is all. The thought of having no idea where we're going, what we'll find there …”
“And that's exactly what's kept us here, what's blinded us up to now.”
Finn shook his head, frowned at the grim, peeling paper on the walls, at the spiderwebbed ceiling, at the threadbare carpet on the floor.
“We'll leave an hour before sundown. Tonight. That gives us time to see where we're going before it gets dark. By the time night falls, we'll be safely out of sight. I doubt anyone will bother to track us down. If they do, we'll be ready for them, you can count on that.”
“I know we can, dear.”
“Well, you can. We'll—get out of this …”
He was wet, hungry, ready to drop for lack of sleep. Letitia reached for him and drew him back to the bed.
“Finn, I really think you should sit. It won't do any good to keep talking about this. What we all need to do is get some rest.”
“Good idea,” Finn said, pulling gently from her grasp, “I appreciate the thought, but there's much I have to do right now. This room is a ruin, but there are items here we can turn to good purpose for our trip. These drapes, which are filthy, could serve as a tent. The bedposts will serve as poles. If we break up the chair—”
“Finn,” Letitia said, as gently as her nature would allow, “I'm going to strike you, dear. I have never done that before, but I will surely do it now.”
Finn blinked, startled. There was something in those black, enormous Mycer eyes, something close to anger, something close to fire. Something new in this bold, defiant beauty, something haughty, something naughty, something wild.
Bones and Stones, he thought, whatever that is, it is terribly attractive, though I do hope she can't find anything to throw …
And, in that instant, she did. Reached out and clutched at an object, reached out unaware, lifted up Julia, ready to hurl her through the air.
“Letitia, don't!”
Letitia didn't hear. Letitia was hungry, Letitia was beat. Weary, strung out, tired of the same shabby dress. She yearned to wash her hair, soak in a tub, yearned to be anywhere but here. Something was squirming, squawking in her hand. She didn't know what and didn't care …
The door swung open and struck the wall hard, raising a veil of dust. Letitia froze. Finn reached for his blade, then remembered he'd left it in a chair across the room.
Sabatino slouched in the doorway, dressed in resplendent lilac hues, watching with a vain and arrogant grin.
“Oh dear, a family quarrel. What a nice surprise. Do go on, pay no attention to me. When you're finished, you'll find fresh linens, clothing, lotions and such. A tub and hot water, all right here, just outside the door.
“And—I nearly forgot—luncheon is served very shortly in the dining salon. I think you'll find it quite a treat. Squeen is maimed for the moment, so the meal should be a real delight.”
Sabatino paused, inspected Letitia up and down, then down and up again. It imparted such lewd and open desire that Letitia felt a rush of color to her face.
“There is nothing so arousing as a woman full of ire,” he said. “You are fortunate indeed, Master Finn.”
Finn went for him, unarmed or not, but the fellow was gone in a lavender blur before he could stalk across the room …
“THIS IS ANOTHER OF THAT DANDY'S DESPICABLE jokes,” Finn said. “Fraud, chicanery and lies have stained the man's soul. Treachery's the only skill he knows. He must be a fool to think we'll fall for something so utterly transparent as this.”
“I'm certain you're right, dear. He's cunning, devious and sly.”
“And we're not taken in, not by a whit.”
“If you'd like, I'll scrub your back, Finn. Then, if you please, you may do mine.”
“I'd be delighted, for sure.”
The tub was made of staves, held in shape by hammered copper bands, rolled in with steamy water buckets from the hall. It was clearly not a tub for two, but once Letitia let her dress slip to the floor, dipped a tiny toe, and immersed her lovely self, Finn was not far behind. He backed up against her, so close that her legs had to wrap around his front. A rather tight squeeze, but wasn't that the idea, after all?
“I'll bet that feels good,” Letitia said, scrubbing him with a brush. “It's been some time.”
“It has indeed,” Finn said, scarcely aware of any brush at all.
“I'd give a silver penny to know what he's up to,” he said, watching Let
itia's wiggly toes.
“Well, whatever it is, this wonderful tub and real soap and—clean clothes! That's no trickery, Finn, that's real!”
“Oh, it's trickery all right, make no mistake in that.” He leaned back against her, resting his head in the hollow of her shoulder, whispering in her ear.
“It's a cruel hoax, my dear, playing on our needs. All this is meant to distract us from some other purpose hatching in his devious mind.”
“What, though? I can't imagine what it might be.”
“Nor I, and it doesn't greatly matter, since it plays right into our plans to make our way out of here tonight.”
He kissed the steamy droplets on her cheek, and nibbled at her ear.
Letitia leaned away and gave him a wary look. “He said there'd be real food. I don't intend to miss that.”
“We won't, we won't. I can't imagine he knows what decent food is, but we'll gladly play along. The bath, the clothes, the food—it all bends in our favor instead of his. We'll be much better prepared to make our move. Cleaner, clothed and fed. The fellow doesn't know he's filling all our needs.”
“Oh, I know it's going to work. It's a good plan, Finn. And we are going to eat first, right? I feel it's essential that we do.”
“Well, yes. I think he might grow suspicious if we don't.”
“Come here, please. Turn around, love.”
Finn felt his heart leap. “I—think I can. If I stand up first. I don't want to flood the place. We might go right through the floor.”
Letitia watched his clumsy gyrations, hiding a laugh behind her hands.
“Take your time,” she said, with a glow, with a glimmer, with a shine, with a very saucy hint in her great enormous eyes.
“I'll be right here, love …”
And Julia Jessica Slagg, aware there were times when she shouldn't be around, took a lizard nap beneath the chair.
Sometimes she felt Finn had built in a toggle or a spring, a tiny little switch that said forget you're even here. She couldn't say for sure, and could never quite remember to ask …
THE FIRST THING FINN NOTICED WAS THE TABLE. It was painted a shade of creamy white. Not black as it was the day before. Closer, he realized that it wasn't painted, but merely scraped clean.
Beside him, Letitia drew a breath, dazzled by the sight before her eyes. There were truffles, pickles, cheeses of every sort. Steamy roasted potatoes split down the middle with a buttery lake inside. Fish grilled crispy brown, fragrant with a lemony sauce.
And greens, to Letitia's great pleasure. Crispy, leafy treats of a color she'd nearly forgotten. Even the dishes were whole, and the vessels made of glass.
“I have to say,” Letitia said, “in spite of my intense dislike for you, I must say this is a stunning feast you've set before us this day. Don't you think so, dear?”
“I expect it's ill-mannered to ask, but do I have your word nothing here is laced with deadly herbs or drugs? No foul or septic powders, no poison of any sort?”
Sabatino looked hurt. “Of course not. If I'd not already called you out, I would do so again.”
“Is that a yes or no?”
“You may trade plates with me if you like.”
“Oh, no you don't,” Finn said, with a sly and knowing grin. “That's just what you'd do, isn't it? You're ready for that, you'd expect me to ask.”
“Eat, Finn, it's delicious.” Letitia stabbed a bite of vinegar greens, savored it a moment, closing her eyes in delight.
“Oh, my, that fish looks divine. I shouldn't, but I simply have to try.”
“I don't sense any virulence in the air,” Julia said from Finn's shoulder. “Of course, there could be something I've never sniffed before. There are things I can't detect at all.”
“I'm stunned to hear it,” Finn said, wrinkling his nose at the fish, risking a tiny bite.
“What concerns me more is why you're doing this? You have some reason, Sabatino, and I doubt it's too obscure.”
“You're quite right, of course. And you as well, dear lady. There is no need to mask our loathing for one another, it makes for a most unpleasant meal. Oh, and I must say you look enchanting. That gown fits you well.”
“I'd rather you didn't, but thanks all the same.”
The gown was quite nice, an enchanting shade of blue, and it certainly fit, Sabatino had seen to that. If Letitia hadn't done hasty work with pins, she'd be naked to the waist.
“You didn't cook the meal,” Finn said. “I doubt you made the dress. This crockery is whole, everything's clean …”
Sabatino wagged a finger at Finn. “You're such a curious fellow, I knew you'd have to ask. Not a healthy trait, I might add. There's a place I go for ale now and then, TAVERN,as it's called. Some people go to BAR—I wouldn't be caught in there, of course.”
“Neither would I.”
“No, you would not. At any rate, the food was prepared by the keeper's wife. The gown is her daughter's. If you could see the wife, you'd know it wasn't hers.”
“And what's it all for? You never got to that.”
Sabatino held his glass up to the light. It wasn't turnip wine, but he didn't seem to mind.
“My father is mentally impaired. Poor fellow gets daffier by the day. I should have taken action before. I've put up with his madness, but I cannot afford to indulge him anymore.”
Letitia raised a brow. “He won't be joining us, then?”
“Very astute, miss. No, he will not.” Sabatino spoke in warm and earnest tones as if he were gathered with family and friends.
“He is obsessed with that outrageous folly in the cellar. I can't say whether this nonsense warped his mind, or whether he was bonkers all along. It hardly matters now. I've put an end to that before we end up in the street. He has poured his last coin—and mine—down the drain.”
“I see,” Finn said, trying to catch the man's ever-shifting eyes, hoping a glimmer of truth might leak through the barricade of lies. For, no matter what Sabatino said, Finn was certain he could not avoid deceit for more than a minute at a time.
Sabatino faced him, then, with a most sincere and artless smile as if he'd guessed Finn's thoughts all along.
“You and this charming lady can be grateful to me, Finn, have no doubt of that. Surely you guessed Father lied, that if, somehow you failed to return, he would give Letitia safety here, that I was the villain all along? He said I'd set a trap for Master Finn, did he not, my dear? When he came with that false and deadly offer to aid him in his folly down below?
“Yes, I know about that,” he said, catching Letitia's surprise. “I know a great deal. I have this shameful hobby of listening at doors.”
Sabatino's eyes glittered with specks of gold in the flickering candlelight. “Oh, I know some other things, too, things I'd never tell …”
Whatever those things might be, Finn didn't want to hear.
“You'd have us believe you didn't set the trap?”
“Certainly not. There are easier ways to dispose of you, sir. And there's clearly no honor in such a device. Did you not detect the inventor's weakness for pulleys, ropes and such, for the needlessly complex? I should think you would, a craftsman like yourself.”
“Your father told me it was you,” Letitia began, “so I would think …”
“… So you would see him as your savior after I supposedly murdered Finn. He sent Squeen William out to get the lizard, and the wretched fellow caught himself in Father's trap.”
Sabatino paused, studied the ring on his finger, watching it catch the light. The stone was a brilliant green, the size of a lump of coal. And worth about as much, Finn knew, for he had some knowledge of precious stones.
“I am supposed to be the rogue here and I won't deny that. But what do you think would happen, miss, if you fell into Father's hands? He is mad, and likely to grow madder still.
“I can see the question you're burning to ask, Master Finn,” Sabatino said, waving his hand in disdain. “What now, that you must deal with me, and
not a witless old man?”
“In truth, we had no intention of dealing with you at all,” Finn said. “As long as I can wield a blade, we'll decide our own fate. It has little to do with you.”
Sabatino tried to hide his chagrin. “You face many dangers outside this house, I trust you're not ignorant of that. I am trying to be your friend whether you're blind to that or not.”
“What you're doing is overthrowing your father. Any good that comes to us is accidental at best—”
“We've made our own plans, anyway,” Letitia broke in, “we don't need any help from you.”
“Letitia …” Finn nearly came out of his seat, but it was useless to stop her now.
“Forgive me for speaking up, dear. The more I think about it, the more foolish it seems to be less than open here. If he truly has our interests in mind, he'll be glad to rid himself of one more complication in his life.”
She turned then to Sabatino, with a bold, most determined eye.
“We are leaving, sir. Between sundown and dark. We will travel inland, and trust we will find safety there. You have already provided us with clothing and an excellent meal. If you wish to prove your concern, perhaps you'll draw us a map of some kind, and give us any extra provisions you can spare …”
For a moment, Sabatino looked bewildered, astonished, as if Letitia had spoken in some strange and alien tongue. Then his cheeks puffed out in an explosion of laughter. He threw back his head in hearty guffaws, scarcely able to contain himself at all.
And Finn, who knew this rascal had seldom been caught in unthinking emotion, no more than an actor on the stage, wondered what this performance was about. Likely, he decided, to give the fellow time to think of what to say next. In the meantime, Finn had the chance to consider why Letitia had spilled the goods, and decided she was very probably right after all.
“Forgive me, please,” Sabatino said, exhausted by this clownish display. “The thing is, you see—and I doubt you'll credit this—that is exactly what I had in mind myself. I do have a plate full of trouble on my hands, with Father and all, and I would like you out of my way.”
The Prophecy Machine (Investments) Page 20