Bloodborn (16 page)

Mathilda’s eyes opened wide. ‘Not I, lady. I’ve been keeping to home as you directed. Haven’t left this room in days.’

‘No,’ said Hermione, curling her lip. ‘But the nights are another matter, I’ll warrant.’

Gabriella stepped forwards and curtseyed respectfully before Mathilda could reply. ‘I am Countess Gabriella von Nachthafen,’ she said. ‘Sent by our queen to help Lady Hermione put an end to the murders of our sisters. It was about this that we wished to speak with you.’

Madam Mathilda returned Gabriella’s curtsey with a nod, and a more appraising glance. ‘Luck to you, then,’ she said. ‘Her ladyship certainly ain’t been makin’ much of it.’

‘I beg to differ!’ said Hermione stiffly. ‘In fact, with the help of my champion here, Lord von Zechlin, I have discovered the culprit!’

‘Oh?’ Mathilda raised her painted-on eyebrows. ‘Who’s that then?’

Hermione levelled a beringed finger at the madam. ‘You.’

Mathilda’s eyes widened again, and this time Ulrika thought the reaction might be genuine.

‘Me?’ Mathilda laughed explosively, then lay back on the divan, displaying her preposterous curves to best advantage. ‘And why would I kill Rosamund and Karlotta, who never done harm to me?’

‘You’re forgetting Lady Alfina, she-wolf,’ said von Zechlin.

Mathilda turned from him to Hermione. ‘Alfina’s dead too? By the queen, that’s bad! In the same way?’

Hermione sneered. ‘Your shock is almost as artfully constructed as your illusions, sister. And just as false.’ She tugged the handkerchief from her sleeve and threw it on the table. ‘Look there,’ she said. ‘Open it!’

Mathilda gave her a glare, then rose and sauntered to the table to unfold the kerchief, revealing the black curl within. She looked up at Hermione, frowning. ‘From yer hairbrush?’ she asked.

‘From your pelt!’ snapped Hermione. ‘Wolf’s fur. Bertholt discovered it at the scene of Alfina’s murder, next to a trail of paw prints.’

Mathilda goggled at her for a moment, then bellowed out a laugh. ‘This is your proof? A few tufts of hair?’

‘From the beast that slew our sisters?’ said Hermione. ‘It is enough. Who else among us can become a wolf? Who else could tear a vampire limb from limb?’

‘But why would I want to?’ asked Mathilda, advancing angrily. ‘I told ye. They done nothing to me.’

As she came forwards, her perfume came with her, a cheap rosewater reek. Ulrika inhaled it, searching for what it hid. Beneath it she found dirt and mildew and the usual dry Lahmian musk, but not the smells she hunted for.

‘Ah, but they
have
done,’ Hermione snarled at the madam. ‘They have lived well. Something that must wound you to your core, stuck here in this flea-bitten hovel. You mean to kill us all and take our places! To steal what you aren’t entitled to.’

Mathilda barked out another laugh. ‘You think I want that?’ she asked. ‘Having to ponce around and put on airs all the time? Having to watch my step every second of every day? No thank you! This is my place. I rule here more completely than you rule the neighbourhoods you hide in, and that’s the truth.’

Ulrika inhaled again, deeper this time. There was indeed an animal scent there, as if even in human form the madam could not entirely hide her nature, but it was not the smell from the fur she had found in the mud. It was a wilder scent, more wolf than dog, and of the battlefield corpse stench she found no sign at all. She edged to Gabriella as Hermione and Mathilda continued to shout at each other.

‘Mistress,’ she murmured. ‘I do not smell on Madam Mathilda the stench I found on Mistress Alfina’s corpse and outside the Silver Lily.’

Gabriella shot her a sharp look out of the corner of her eye. ‘It wasn’t her, then?’

Ulrika shrugged. ‘She could be hiding the scent, but the scraps of fur do not smell like her either. And her scent was nowhere at the scene.’

Gabriella nodded, then shot a grim look at Hermione. ‘Thank you.’

‘It is a lie!’ Hermione was saying. ‘Who could want to live here? You couldn’t possibly–’

Gabriella took a deep breath and stepped forwards. ‘Lady Hermione, wait. I fear we have come here in error.’

Hermione spun around, eyes flashing. ‘What do you say?’

‘You have tracked the wrong wolf,’ Gabriella said. ‘The fur Lord von Zechlin collected is not that of Madam Mathilda. The scent is not her scent, and her scent was not present outside the Silver Lily or on Alfina’s corpse.’

Mathilda grinned. ‘There y’are. Y’see?’

Hermione stared at Gabriella. ‘What is this nonsense? Are you trying some trick?’

‘No trick, sister,’ said Gabriella. ‘Surely you remember when we all stood around Lady Alfina’s corpse in your kitchen. Did you smell Mathilda’s scent on her? I did not.’

‘I don’t go around sniffing corpses,’ said Hermione. ‘It’s disgusting. And–’ She frowned suddenly, then narrowed her eyes. ‘And how do you know that her scent wasn’t present outside the Lily? Did I not forbid you to go there? Did you disobey me?’

Gabriella hesitated the barest moment, then spoke. ‘I did not go there, sister. I did as you commanded and established myself at the house of Guildmaster Aldrich, but you gave no such order to my protégée.’

Ulrika hid a smile as Hermione hissed.

‘Conniver!’ she cried. ‘The order was for your household!’

‘I apologise, sister,’ said Gabriella. ‘I must have misinterpreted it. Nonetheless, Ulrika was the only vampire to examine the scene, and she sensed things that Lord von Zechlin – only human for all his astuteness – was incapable of noticing. And she swears to me that Madam Mathilda’s scent was not there.’

‘Then she masked it!’ said Hermione. ‘Or has changed it now! She’s covered her tracks!’

Gabriella nodded. ‘That is indeed possible, but not certain, and to accuse a sister of killing another sister, one must be certain. The queen would accept nothing less. We must find more proof.’

Hermione looked around at them all, her dainty fists balled in frustration. ‘This is madness! I remember no smell! And I have only your word that there ever was one!’ A light dawned in her eyes. ‘I know what this is! You want to be the one to find the proof! You want to be the one who wins the queen’s favour, so you pretend that my proof has no merit! Well I won’t fall for it!’ She pointed a finger at Mathilda. ‘As head of the Lahmians in Nuln, I order you to execute this murdering wolf-bitch.’

CHAPTER TEN

ALFINA’S FOLLY

‘Hoy!’ said Mathilda, stepping back. ‘Hang on!’

‘Hermione,’ said Gabriella. ‘Listen to me–’

‘No!’ Hermione cried, and Ulrika could see the fear in her eyes behind the rage. ‘There are three of us dead! Will you allow the slaughter to continue? We must end this, now! Kill her!’

Mathilda snarled, her fangs shooting out and, on that signal, hidden doors all around the room slammed open, spilling a mob of bravos and bashers that surrounded them all, swords and cudgels at the ready. Rodrik and von Zechlin whipped their blades from their scabbards and faced them as Ulrika went on guard, her claws extending. Beside her, Famke and Dagmar and Hermione did the same. Only Countess Gabriella kept her talons sheathed.

‘No,’ she said into the tense silence. ‘I’m sorry, Hermione. I will not support you. If you wish to fight, you do it on your own.’

Hermione turned on Gabriella, furious. ‘You are disobeying your orders from the queen! You were to help me!’

Gabriella drew herself up. ‘My orders were to find the killer and put an end to the killings, not to follow you blindly. I am not convinced Mathilda is the culprit.’

Hermione sneered. ‘Not until you can find a way to claim credit for it, you mean.’ She turned to Famke and Dagmar. ‘Sisters, you will obey me! Kill the she-wolf while I subdue this treacherous countess! Come, we fight for our very lives!’

Famke dutifully lined up behind her mistress, though Ulrika could see questions in her eyes, but Dagmar bit her lip, piercing it with an extended fang and looking around at the enemies ranked against her. Ulrika remembered what she had said about not having been in a fight for centuries, and didn’t wonder at her hesitation.

‘Do not act rashly, sister,’ Gabriella said to Hermione. ‘Are you prepared to face the queen’s displeasure if you are wrong?’

That seemed to decide Dagmar. She turned to Hermione, lowering her head meekly. ‘I’m sorry, mistress,’ she said. ‘I do not wish to make a mistake.’

‘Foolish cow!’ Hermione snarled, then glared around at them all. ‘You all conspire against me! It is mutiny!’ She turned, and turned again, like a cornered rat, then blew out an angry breath and turned on Mathilda. ‘Let me out of this filthy hole! I will not stay to have my authority flouted.’ And with that she started across the room, her nose in the air, with Famke and von Zechlin trailing uneasily behind her.

Mathilda raised an eyebrow, then chuckled. ‘Y’think yer walking out after all that?’ she called after Hermione. ‘My back’s not safe with ye walkin’ around.’ She snapped her fingers and her bashers closed ranks in front of the main door.

Countess Gabriella stepped in front of Madam Mathilda. ‘Have a care, sister. The queen’s wrath will fall just as heavily on you if you kill her without provocation.’

Mathilda laughed. ‘She told ye to kill me! Y’don’t call that provocation?’

‘No blow was struck,’ said Gabriella. She put a hand on the bigger woman’s arm. ‘I promise you, if you are innocent, no harm will come to you. We will find the true killer and that will be an end to it.’

‘Will it?’ asked Mathilda. ‘She seems set on having my head, no matter who the killer is.’

Gabriella shot a glance over at Hermione, who was fuming near the door while Famke attempted to comfort her and von Zechlin turned in wary circles. ‘She will see reason. I will calm her.’

Mathilda hesitated, then sighed. ‘See you do, then,’ she said. ‘I’ll not start anything, but if she comes after me, I’ll finish it.’

‘That’s fair enough,’ said Gabriella, nodding. ‘Now let us out. We’ve a killer to catch.’

Hermione stormed ahead with Famke and von Zechlin, and was already in her coach by the time the rest of them climbed the rickety stairs and stepped out into the yard. As they crossed the muddy court under the watchful eyes of Mathilda’s bullies, Dagmar edged close to Gabriella.

‘Countess,’ she whispered. ‘I fear for my place here, now I have gone against Lady Hermione. You will speak to the queen? You will say that I did the right thing?’

Gabriella patted her hand. ‘I will. And fear not. I am the primary object of Hermione’s wrath. When the killer is caught and I leave again, all will return to normal.’

‘I hope so, sister,’ said Dagmar. ‘I hope so. I do not like trouble.’

‘None of us does,’ said Gabriella, and gave her a smile. ‘Now, go home and stay in. You will hear from Hermione when all is well again.’

Dagmar curtseyed, then turned and mounted the step of her coach. Gabriella and Ulrika continued towards Hermione’s coach with Rodrik following behind as rear guard.

‘Things would be so much easier,’ Gabriella muttered, ‘if I could just tear Hermione’s head off.’

Ulrika smirked as the countess climbed into the coach. She had been thinking the same thing.

Ulrika and Famke sat side by side in uncomfortable silence as the three coaches rode back out of the Faulestadt slums and rumbled across the wide bridge towards the north side of the city, listening to Gabriella and Hermione continue their argument.

‘Six Lahmians ruled in Nuln before this horror began,’ Gabriella was saying. ‘Now there are three. You, Dagmar and Mathilda. If you go to war, there will be two, or less. Don’t you see? No matter what happens, fighting among yourselves will weaken the Lahmian hold over Nuln for a long time to come. You can’t allow this to happen.’

‘Well, I didn’t start it,’ said Hermione, pouting. ‘It was that she-wolf, no matter what you say.’

Gabriella sighed. ‘If there is one single iota of doubt about her guilt, we cannot go forwards. The queen will have both our heads if she is innocent.’

‘And if she isn’t innocent? She knows we suspect her now. She will strike while we wait to find your precious proof!’

‘You can’t blame me if you played your hand prematurely,’ said Gabriella.