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FIFTEEN

‘What happened in Prague?’

‘Why is it that you assu did?’ Ysidro took his accustomed seat, across froreen plush first-class seats, and withdrew from a pocket his deck of cards Saxony’s forests sed the lights of Dresden The va claws like lacquered ivory, shuffled and cut, shuffled and cut, like some delicate machine, while his colorless eyes held Asher’s

‘It seehts to make contact with the ue are not like va, has heard naught of any who has made it a habit these three years to travel to Berlin Thisout the cards between theht rain upon Berlin and every other city in Gerue would make little of it They are old’

His ue, Asher didn’t see him move But he seemed to jerk awake after rip like anail, Ysidro moved Asher’s sleeve up to show Dr Karlebach’s silver-studded leather band ‘That is new,’ he observed

‘A toy To keep ood a second ago, daly ‘There is a shop in Prague that sells such toys?’

‘There is’

He won’t break the bones, Asher told hi as he needs me

He kept his eyes on the vampire’s, and his jaw ached with the effort not to cry out in pain

‘The vaht from me assurance as to when I would kill you and your lady’

His voice held steady with excruciating effort, Asher said, ‘How do they know about Lydia?’

‘They know of no h the safety of his wife’

He wanted to ask, What assurance did you give? but knew if he tried to speak he would probably screao of his hand There was silence for a tiht flutter of the cards as the va thenorance frouard you from ould be your death’

‘Were that entirely so,’ Asher returned, a little surprised that he could speak at all, ‘you would content yourself with a verbal warning, now that we’re nowhere near Prague’ Across the little railway table, the vampire’s face was expressionless ‘Neither you nor I knohat’s afoot or what’s involved with thisthis interloper in Petersburg, who ht not be the same as the interloper in Berlin Neither you nor I knohat piece of evidence will unlock the puzzle Nor do either of us kno high or how deadly are the stakes It may be that this interloper’s contact with Benedict Theiss is only the tip of an iceberg, the visible tenth of a danger more perilous and vast, which we have no concept ofand may not ever see, if we continue to hide facts from one another’

That said, he at last trusted hiers, which he was astonished to find able to move at all

‘Whatever it is,’ he continued, ‘I think we both agree that whatever it was that Lady Irene learned, no league between a vaovernment is part of the Triple Alliance or the Triple Entente or outside theood’

Ysidro nodded – what, for hiue--’

‘You did not ave away the Spaniard’s concern

‘Do you think I would have survived a ?’

‘No’ The pale brows flexed, infinitesie – or the knowledge of the vaains with athered again ‘I take it you spoke with the Jew near the Spanish Synagogue?’

‘I did,’ said Asher ‘He told me to kill you without delay He told enerating spontaneously And yet they – and you – and the Others – inated somehow’

‘The Others are a variety of vaue, the first of them were o, in the tiht to do with this matter is not written, perhaps never known The va tried to destroy these creatures They were hus – like the vaeneration otiose But in all the years of observing theue have not seen how this condition is transmitted They do not appear particularly human

‘I had wished,’ the vaht hesitation in his whispery voice, ‘to have spoken with Mistress Lydia of these things ’Twould have been useful, to hear her opinion as to whether this agent of the blood, as she deeling, can undergo enitor The matter would interest her vastly, I think’