The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [59]
Regardless of when we would leave, we still needed a map. I resolved to go to the doctor’s chamber again the next night. Whatever measures had been taken after the supposed break-in must surely have been eased by now, and if I had to, I would use coercion. It would not take much to prevent someone seeing me and surely it was far enough from the farms and the strange machine that had caught hold of me months before to risk it. I thought about the machine and wondered, as I had done before, if it was being used by Alexi and Madam Vega to try to trap a misfit like me. It seemed very likely. As for the machine itself, how had the Beforetimers created such a thing before the Great White had begun to cause Misfits to be born? Or had Alexi done something to adapt a Beforetime machine to his purpose? Madam Vega had spoken of his ability at dealing with Beforetime machines.
I admitted to myself that beyond my desire to secure a map, I wanted to see if I could discover what Alexi and Madam Vega were seeking. I was convinced I would find the answers to all my questions in the doctor’s chamber.
20
THE NEXT DAY, there was a story circulating that someone had tried to break into Obernewtyn. One of Ariel’s wolves had been poisoned, and another shot full of arrows. It seemed incredible and insane. Whoever would want to attack a home for Misfits? Surely there was not enough of value to entice robbers over the badlands, and so close to winter!
Someone told Matthew the attackers had been the Druid’s men and that one of them had been wounded in the clash. It seemed too far-fetched to credit, and yet I thought of Daffyd, who had spoken so knowledgeably of Henry Druid, then of his uncle’s visit earlier in the year, disguised as a potmender. Was it possible that the events were connected? Given what I knew of the Druid, I knew he might covet the Beforetime books in the doctor’s chamber. But how could he even know they existed?
I asked Louis what he thought, but he was in one of his reticent moods and answered all of my questions and speculations with shrugs and grunts.
That night, I waited until the others in my chamber slept, opened the lock, and slipped out into the halls. It was freezing cold, and I was shivering violently before I had gone more than a few steps. I had got as far as the circular entrance hall before I noticed a pungent smell in the air. I was moving along the hall to Madam Vega’s waiting room when I stumbled clumsily, and all at once it came to me that the strange smell in the air was the same scent that came from the sleep candles my mother had created when Jes and I were sick. I held my breath and used my abilities to coerce the fog from my mind, guessing the precaution was the result of the break-in.
At Madam Vega’s door, I forced myself to stop and listen carefully, despite the fact that my ears were beginning to buzz with my need for air. I could hear nothing, and I unlocked the door hastily. It was dark in the room beyond, for the moon was covered in a thick sludge of clouds, but the air was clear. I closed the door behind me and gasped in a great breath before continuing cautiously to the doctor’s chamber. There was no one there, but the fire was burning brightly. Someone had been here not long ago.
This time I ignored the books. There were simply too many of them. I decided I would concentrate my search on the tables and their drawers. I set to work methodically, going from left to right.
In the second drawer, I found more arrowcases. Several were real compasses from the Beforetime. I pocketed a very