The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [60]
Eventually, I came to a drawer containing a pile of modern maps. I took them out and began to leaf through them. There were dozens of them, and among them I found at last a map of the mountain region. It showed all of the mountains around Obernewtyn and even a sliver of the highlands, including a bit of the White Valley. I saw that the valley where Obernewtyn stood was only one of a series of valleys going high and deep into the mountains. I had not expected the area to be so big, and I felt a surge of relief, for surely we could find a place to hide. Resisting the urge to stand there poring over the map, I folded it and pushed it down my shirt, and I returned the rest to their drawer. Then I thought of the letters I had thrust under the metal cabinet.
I crossed to the bookshelf and entered the darker room behind it. I reached into the recess under the locked cabinet and pulled out the two letters I had thrust there in a panic.
I sat back on my heels, confused. If the report about someone breaking in had not been caused by the finding of the letters, then what? Was it possible that whoever had killed Ariel’s wolves had also got into Madam Vega’s room? There had been no specific mention of anyone gaining access to the doctor’s chamber, after all, so perhaps my carelessness wasn’t to blame.
Looking down at the letters, I decided on impulse to read them. The letter to Marisa from her husband was brief, a perfunctory inquiry after her health, then a list of books he had been able to obtain for her. At the end was a veiled suggestion that some of the books she wanted were dangerous, for the Herder Faction was becoming more stringent in its judgment against Beforetime artifacts.
The letter to Michael Seraphim was one page of what must have been a longer letter, and I gaped as I read it.
My friend,
I wish you would reconsider your notion to adopt young Alexi. Marisa finds him sly, and I fear I must for once agree with her. She is not motherly, of course, as you have oft said. She is too brilliant, too preoccupied with her books and researches, and seems to have little regard for her grandson, but she is still your mother. I think she knows that you never loved Manda and regrets your unhappiness. Now that Manda is dead, can you not bond again? Stephen is very young and would accept a stepmother, I am sure. What of the village girl you loved? Can you not seek her out?
Slowly I pushed the letter back into its envelope and replaced them both in the cabinet, astounded that Alexi was the adopted son of Michael Seraphim, the second Master of Obernewtyn. No wonder Alexi had spoken with such arrogance. He was more than the doctor’s “assistant”—they were legal brothers. How it must gall him to know that, by lore, only blood relatives could inherit property.
A slight scraping sound interrupted the thought, and I froze. The noise came again, and I crept across to the dividing shelf and peered into the main chamber. The door was closed fast, but to my utter amazement the entire huge fireplace suddenly swung open to reveal a descending staircase. I backed away and climbed under a table in a dark corner, my heart hammering. Hunched down as I was, I discovered that I could see the movement of legs and feet in the adjoining chamber. I could not tell if they were men or women, but there were four of them, and I saw the glitter of melting snow as they removed their coats. The passage they had used must lead outside.
The fireplace swung back into place, and when they spoke, I recognized their voices.
“I could have sworn I heard something as we came in,” said Ariel.
“Don’t be a fool,” came Alexi’s deep voice. “How could anyone come here without succumbing to the sleep candles?”
“Thank Lud we banked up the fire. It gets colder every time we go out, and now we have the snow to contend with,” said Madam Vega irritably.
The fourth person said nothing, but I could see she was a woman. Was it Guardian Myrna?
“What are you going to do about