He had finished extracting all the marrow from my fourth finger bones, and was now expertly flaying the skin and tissue from my smallest finger. His expression as he worked was one of immense and emotionless concentration.
On a shelf above his worktable I saw two vials.
“Are those the other ingredients?” Elizabeth asked, following my gaze.
“Indeed. The coelacanth oil and the lunar lichen. Once I extract the last of the marrow, I will combine the ingredients.”
“We’ll be able to take it home tonight, then,” I said with a glad heart. Konrad would have the elixir within hours.
“Sadly, no,” Polidori replied as he worked. “The elixir must be left for an entire day to build to its full power. You will need to come back tomorrow to collect it.”
Faintly, through the cellar walls, came the tolling of Saint Peter’s. Eight bells.
“It is best you go now,” the alchemist said. “I will have it ready for you tomorrow.”
“He is very close to death,” Elizabeth said anxiously. “What if he does not survive the night?”
“I am sorry, miss,” said the alchemist. “It cannot be hurried.”
“Can we not take the elixir home with us now,” I asked desperately, “and store it safely until it is ready?”
“No,” said Polidori, “there is one final treatment that must take place just before it is imbibed.”
“Could you write us down clear instructions?” Elizabeth asked.
“Your recipe for the wolf vision tincture was wonderfully clear,” I said. “I’m sure I could-”
With uncharacteristic terseness he said, “It is a procedure I must perform myself.” Then his tone softened. “I am only thinking of your brother and his best success for recovery. Let me do this for him. If you cannot return, I will send Krake to deliver it to you.”
Even if I had been willing to wait, I was not willing to tell Polidori where we lived. Should he find out our family name, he might fly into a fury and refuse to help us further. I quickly thought of another excuse.
“But Krake might break it by accident. It is better we take it now.”
“Krake treads with a velvet step,” said Polidori. “He is less likely to break it than you. I am sorry, but it must wait a day so I can make the final preparations.”
“There seems nothing we can do, then,” I muttered. I looked at Henry across the room and saw him staring at me urgently.
Carefully I lowered myself from the stool. For a second I needed to hold the seat for balance.
“Are you all right?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes. I just need a few steps to clear my head.” I walked slowly about the laboratory, making my way gradually toward Henry. When I reached him, he silently pushed a piece of paper into my hand and put his finger to his lips.
On the paper, he’d written simply:
He lies.
Henry tapped a parchment on Polidori’s cluttered desk. I could see it had to be some bit of translation for the elixir, for among the many fierce scratch-outs were characters I recognized from the Alphabet of the Magi, and then several other alphabets, one of which was Greek-my weakest subject. Henry was jabbing his finger at a particular sentence. In vain I tried to decipher it. I looked at Henry and shook my head. Impatiently he gestured me closer, then whispered in my ear.
“It says here, ‘The elixir must be imbibed within four hours, after the three ingredients have been combined.’”
Despite the heat of the cellar, I shivered. It was like I was suddenly seeing the world through a different lens. The haze that had veiled everything since the surgery evaporated, and everything was sharper-and much, much more dangerous.
I forced myself to take five deep breaths, then made my way back to Polidori’s workbench, where he was in the process of mixing the ingredients into a single flask. I needed to be very calm.
“There it is,” said Elizabeth.
The Elixir of Life.
It did not look inspiring. It did not gleam and refract the candlelight into a thousand rainbows of promise. It was murky brown and oily. I watched as Polidori pushed in a stopper and slipped the flask into a snug padded leather sheath.
“Mr. Polidori,” I said, “we’ve been very remiss in not offering you payment sooner. You have worked long and hard for us, and received nothing. I apologize. You must tell us what it is we owe you for your excellent services, and we can settle accounts now. Simply name your price.” If he meant to cheat us of the elixir-if he’d maybe promised it to someone else at a vast price-maybe I could change his mind. “We’re wealthy people, and-”
“My dear sir,” Polidori said, beholding me with such an affable look that I wondered if Henry was mistaken. “Let us first see if the elixir has its desired effect. If it does, the recipe itself is payment enough for me. Now, have you a conveyance to take you home? I could send for a carriage-”
“Quite unnecessary, thank you,” I said. “Are you sure there is no way we could take the elixir away with us tonight?”
He seemed about to object once more, but with a sigh he nodded. “Very well. I can see how concerned you are about your brother.”
I exhaled with relief, and smiled over at Henry. We were mistaken. Perhaps my friend’s knowledge of Greek was not as perfect as I’d imagined.
“Thank you, Mr. Polidori!” said Elizabeth. “It eases my mind greatly.”
“Just give me a moment to fetch a preserving agent from upstairs,” he said, wheeling himself away from his workbench toward the elevator. “Then I will change the dressings on your wounds once more, young master, and write down very detailed instructions on how to perform the final preparations before the elixir is taken.”
“I’m very grateful,” I said.
I looked past Polidori at Henry and saw him desperately shaking his head. He still didn’t trust the alchemist. But why not? He was just going upstairs to-and then I remembered. All the drawers in his shop were completely empty. There could be nothing he needed up there. My eyes flew to the workbench. The flask of elixir was gone. I turned to see Polidori already halfway to the elevator.
He meant to leave us trapped in the cellar.
At the exact same moment, Henry and I ran and planted ourselves in front of Polidori’s weelchair. He looked at us in surprise. I saw the stoppered flask of elixir in his lap. I could not keep the tremor from my voice.
“Mr. Polidori, I must ask that you give me the elixir now.”
He gave a chuckle. “Good heavens, are you worried I’ll abscond with it? In my chair? If it makes you feel better, here-hold it yourself.”
With his left hand he held out the leather-clad flask.
And with his right he pulled from his chair a cane with a clubbed end. Without warning he swung it expertly and struck Henry in the head. Henry did not even cry out, just crumpled to the floor, and was deadly still.
“Henry!” Elizabeth cried in horror.
“You fiend!” I roared.
He seemed all at once a transformed creature. Gone was the mild expression, the air of defeat. His face blazed with a ruthless strength, and his upper body no longer sagged. He sat bolt upright, his shirt taut against his barrel chest. His forearms, with their sleeves rolled back, were ridged with muscle.
He launched his chair at me with such force that he knocked me over. I landed on my wounded hand and howled with pain.
From the corner of my eye I saw him raise his cane over me like an executioner’s axe. I rolled out of the way just as the clubbed head cracked down upon the flagstone. Polidori swiveled expertly to face me, cane raised once more. I scrabbled crablike, pain shooting up my right arm. His chair struck me again, sending me sprawling.
Wig askew, he glowered over me. He had me backed against a wall, and even as I lifted my arm to ward off the blow, I knew it was futile. That club would shatter my bones.
A poker struck Polidori on the shoulder so hard that he dropped his cane with a yowl. I looked over and saw Elizabeth gripping th
e weapon.
“Hit him again!” I shouted.
“He’s in a wheelchair!” Elizabeth cried.
“He means to kill us!”
I lunged to the side and tried to snatch up Polidori’s devilish cane, but from the bottom of his chair, from all sides, sprang long wickedly sharp blades. One very nearly impaled my leg as I leapt up onto a worktable, sending glassware shattering.
“Look out!” I shouted to Elizabeth. “His chair’s spiked!”
Polidori snatched up his cane and turned on Elizabeth. He was a demon in his chair, riding it like a malevolent barbed steed, driving her into a corner.
From the table I grasped a heavy flask full of vile-smelling liquid and hurled it at Polidori. It shattered against his skull. Instantly his wig began to smoke and melt, releasing acrid vapors. He gave a cry and ripped the wig from his head. On his bald scalp a few red welts were already blooming.
Cursing, he swerved away from Elizabeth and launched himself toward the sink. It gave her the chance to run clear, and together we rushed to Henry, still sprawled on the ground, though moaning now. Alive! I shook him roughly.
“Henry, get up! Get up!”
His eyes opened blearily. I looked around in a frenzy and saw Polidori with his head bent under the water pump, trying to flush the acid from his flesh.
“We must go!” said Elizabeth, helping me pull Henry to his feet. “The elevator!”
“Not without the elixir!” I said.
I snatched the poker from Elizabeth and ran toward Polidori.
Before I reached him, he whirled his chair round to confront me. His face was livid with acid burns, and anger emanated from his face like a kiln’s heat. I stayed well back from the chair’s wicked blades. I could not see his cane. Polidori’s hands slipped into the large pockets of his vest, no doubt concealing the flask of elixir, for it was no longer in his lap.
“Give it to me,” I said, poker held high over my shoulder. “It contains only my marrow. It’s useless to anyone but my brother.” My stomach churned. “Or was that a lie too?”
“Indeed it was. Any marrow would suffice.”
We’d merely been Polidori’s pawns, used to gather ingredients-used to sacrifice our body parts. I felt a rage building inside me, and I welcomed it.
“You monster!” I spat.
“I did not want it to be this way, young master,” he said, with a trace of what seemed genuine ruefulness. “My plan was to make two doses of the elixir. One for your brother. One for myself.”
“Why didn’t you, then?” I demanded.
“You did not bring me enough lichen from the tree.”
With a sick heart I remembered how I’d forced Elizabeth to abandon her task before her vial was full.
“We had no choice,” Elizabeth said. “There was lightning, and the vultures!”
“I completely understand,” said Polidori. “But the result was that I had ingredients for one dose only. The good news, for you, young master, is that I only needed to take two fingers, and not four.”
“The elixir’s mine! Give it to me!”
“Very well,” said the alchemist.
Both hands flew from his pockets. In the palm of one was a mound of yellow powder. In the other was some kind of tinderbox, which was instantly aflame. He raised the powder to his lips and blew, igniting a comet of fire that streamed toward me.
I scarcely had time to fling an arm across my face before I was engulfed. Vile fumes seared my nostrils and choked me. Something struck me hard, and I crashed to the floor, rolling over and over to put out the flames-but, amazingly, I was not alight at all. The flame had spent itself seemingly without scorching me. Coughing, I staggered to my feet and saw Polidori hurtling toward the elevator, bellowing and swinging his brutal cane to clear Elizabeth and Henry from his path.
Fury obliterated my pain and exhaustion. I ran and, with a roar, threw myself at the back of his wheelchair. My weight tipped it, and it slewed wildly before toppling over, spilling Polidori facedown onto the floor. For a brief moment I almost pitied him, his withered legs thin and quivering as he scrambled to turn himself over.
“Victor, he has the elixir!” Henry cried.
Polidori’s back was to me, and I had to run around him to see that the vial was indeed in his hands, and he was pulling at the stopper.
I lunged and knocked it from his grasp. In shared horror we both watched as the vial hit the flagstone-but did not break. Then I felt his fist slam into my jaw and drive my head back.
With stunning speed he dragged his body atop mine, and had my neck locked in one powerfully flexed arm.
“You will not deny me this,” he hissed. “You will not deny me the chance of being healed.”
I writhed and flailed, but his wrestler’s grip closed ever tighter around my windpipe, cutting off my air.
“Get me the vial!” he shouted at Henry and Elizabeth. “Or I will break his neck!”
My injured hand plucked uselessly at his arm. My vision swam. My heart kicked violently, and suddenly a great weight fell upon me and I had air, and gasped to fill my lungs.
Henry, the poker gripped in his hands, towered over me. Polidori’s senseless body was toppled upon my chest. I pushed him off, and Elizabeth helped me to my feet.
“Well done, Henry,” I croaked.
“Have I killed him?” he said. He was trembling.
“He breathes,” I said. “Where is the elixir?”
Elizabeth held the vial up before me, and we all turned and ran for the elevator. Inside I stared at the confusion of dangling ropes and pulleys. I cursed myself for not paying more attention when Polidori had worked them.
“This one, I think,” Elizabeth said, pointing.
“Henry, your help,” I said. We seized it and pulled, but nothing happened. In a frenzy I began tugging at others.
From the cellar floor came a groan.
“He’s stirring!” cried Henry.
“I’m sure it’s this one!” Elizabeth said, jabbing a finger.
“You already pointed at that one!”
“Yes,” she said, “because it’s the right one.”
“It does nothing! Look!”
“There was a lever or a brake he pulled first,” she muttered, looking around wildly, pushing at things.
Henry’s icy hand gripped my shoulder. Polidori was lifting his head from the floor. I wished we had brought the poker. He glared at us. I had never seen such determination or malice. He flexed his arms and began walking toward us on his fists with terrifying speed, dragging his body behind him.
“Try now!” Elizabeth cried.
Polidori was not fifteen feet away.
We heaved at the rope, and this time felt the elevator’s frame shiver and lift a few inches off the floor.
“Again! Don’t stop!” I cried, for Polidori was very near the threshold. He lunged, his right hand straining for the edge of the elevator floor, but Henry and I gave a mighty heave and hoisted ourselves just out of reach. We heard his strangled curse of defeat.
“He cannot get us now!” panted Henry.
We kept hauling at the rope, but were so exhausted that we rose more slowly with every pull. My right hand was of little use, and the pain in my wounds was brutal. A rivulet of sweat ran into my eye.
Even with the three of us, we could barely budge the elevator. How could it suddenly have become so much heavier?
And just as I understood, an arm darted up over the edge and slammed down on the floor. Like some horrific white spider, the hand hopped about, and before I could dance clear, it fastened around my ankle and dragged me off my feet. I landed with a thud and grasped the rope for dear life, for I was being pulled hard.
Polidori’s second arm came swinging over the edge and seized my other leg. Then his head lurched into view as he started hauling himself up my legs and into the elevator.
I thrashed about, trying to throw him off, but his grip was so strong that I feared his iron fingers would crush my fles
h to pulp.
Henry grabbed one of Polidori’s hands and began prying his fingers off my ankle. Elizabeth kicked his head. But it was as though he no longer felt pain, as though his muscle and tissue would never tire.
My grip on the rope tightened, and I noticed that as Polidori pulled on me, he also pulled on the rope, and so the elevator was still rising, albeit slowly. I looked up and saw we were not so far from the cellar’s stone ceiling.
“Henry!” I yelled. “Keep pulling!”
“What?” he shouted.
“Raise us!”
At this, Polidori looked up, and seemed to understand my plan, for he redoubled his efforts to clamber up me and into the elevator. His belly, hips, and legs still dangled over the edge.
In three feet he would have to let go, or be crushed.
Elizabeth kicked at him again, and he lost his grip for a moment, sliding down my body. I thought he might fall off altogether, but he grabbed hold of both my ankles. The elevator lurched upward.
Less than two feet now to the ceiling.
With a burst of preternatural energy and speed, he climbed up me once more: clawing up my legs, then grabbing at my waist. I bellowed and kicked even as I hauled on the rope with Henry. The elevator lurched up another foot.
“Let go!” I shouted at him. “Or you’ll be severed!”
“And you will lose your feet!” he bellowed back.
In horror I saw he was right. He had dragged my legs over the edge.
For a moment no one moved. The elevator was filled with the sound of our animal grunts and panting.
“Then I will live without them!” I roared into the alchemist’s acid-stained face. “Henry, Elizabeth, pull hard!
With all my strength I heaved on the rope. The elevator lurched up. Polidori tilted his face to the stone bearing down on him-and let go. The elevator, suddenly lighter, rocketed higher. I yanked my legs back, and stone grazed my feet as the gap closed before us.
We were in total darkness now, for we had not thought to bring a candle or lantern. And for a moment we just sat sprawled on the elevator floor, panting raggedly.
“We had best keep going,” I said. “He may have some way of summoning the elevator back to him.”
“Yes, you’re right,” said Elizabeth.
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