Voices in the Dark (41 page)

I checked each of the rooms. The kitchen window was broken, and birds must have got in, because the floorboards were strewn with dirty feathers. A patch of damp had spread on the wall of the smaller bedroom. The other was completely bare. I stacked up two packing cases and raised the candle, flooding the cupboard on the wall with light. It was empty. My courage failed me at that point, and I turned and ran.

As I was leaving the alleyway, I saw the words on the front of the building, faded now because of the frost that obscured everything.
THIS IS THE PLACE
. This was where he had died. And I could not help thinking again of Leo and the man he had shot. Had that man and Ahira been the same person? How could they have been? I fell to my knees in the dust and thought of Ahira falling there while I was a baby sleeping in the house above him. I wondered if I had woken and begun to cry. I wondered if he had known it was our house.

I did not want to think about it, not now, when I had to talk to Jared Wright. I knew suddenly that I was losing my way. But knowing it doesn’t help you when you are already lost. I got up and made myself set one foot in front of the other. On the way, to put Ahira out of my mind, I worked out my price. It was what Leo had always told me to do. It was dishonest to cheat people, he said, like Mr
Pascal did, but there was no shame in knowing how much money you needed to make. There was no shame in deciding how much money you needed to come home with, in order to survive.

I wondered what we needed. Two thousand for the hospital. A thousand for Dr Keller – it was two months’ rent that we owed him, plus the price of the windows. He had backed down over the three thousand crowns but not over the rest. A hundred or two, I thought before I could stop myself, to get out of this city. A few hundred crowns for the journey west. Because if the invasion really did come, what else could we do? Really we needed five hundred, I decided, in case we had to stop at inns on the way, and to buy clothes and things for the baby, and to transport our belongings with a shipping firm. And Christmas presents, I thought, because Jasmine expected something. Another twenty crowns would cover that. But then what about Michael? How would I ever go and find him again, without money saved now to go and do it?

By the time I reached Jared’s shop, the figures were reaching dizzying heights, and I knew it. I stopped outside the door and brushed the cobwebs off my jacket and straightened out my hair. There were no lights in our old shop, but the windows of J. W. Fortune, Esq., were lighted. I could see Jared behind the glass. He was sitting with his feet on the counter, smoking. One thing I had decided on the journey to his shop: I would ask him to lend me the money first. And only when he said no would I resort to the other plan.

Jared got up and came to the door at last. ‘Anselm,’ he said. ‘How long are you going to stand outside my shop before you come in?’

‘I was about to come in.’

He gestured me through the door and closed it again behind me. I did not know what to say. ‘Well?’ he asked me at last. ‘What can I do to help you?’

I hesitated, then gave up altogether and said it. ‘Lend me five thousand crowns.’

To his credit, he did not laugh. He sat down heavily behind his counter and said, ‘Five thousand? You are serious?’

I could not swallow – my throat was dry. I nodded.

‘Come here,’ he said quietly. ‘It is a lot of money. A hell of a lot.’ I nodded again. ‘What’s your security?’

I had not thought of that. ‘I have a watch that belonged to my grandfather,’ I said. ‘It’s at home, but I could go and get it.’

‘How much is it worth?’ said Jared.

‘One hundred and thirty,’ I said.

Jared did not laugh as I had expected him to. He just watched me, his eyes narrowed, then sat down at the counter. ‘I’m a rich man,’ he said. ‘I did not become so by giving out loans, but that is of no consequence for Maria Andros’s son. Who wants your money?’

‘It’s for the hospital for my mother’s baby.’

He gave a twisted smile at that and ran his hand over his oiled hair. ‘She needs a hospital?’ he said.

‘The midwife thinks there may be complications.’ He glanced up. ‘I would pay it back,’ I said, playing quickly on his concern. ‘I swear I would.’

‘Not this year, though, surely? Not for a long time.’

‘As soon as I could.’

‘And what would you do in between? To prove that you were no liar?’ I stood there helplessly. ‘As far as I can see,
you have no income,’ he said. ‘You are at school. This country is about to fall altogether, and there are a lot of people who are borrowing far beyond their means, because they think they can get away with it.’

There was a silence.

‘I will be honest with you,’ he said. ‘Five thousand crowns would not bankrupt me. But I would need more than a hundred-pound watch as security.’

‘All right,’ I said.

‘All right what?’

I caught sight of my reflection in the gold-framed mirror and glanced away again. ‘Nothing,’ I said. ‘I was only thinking; I have things I can sell instead.’

‘Do you? I’m glad to hear it.’

I wanted to mention the prophecy then, but I could not do it. My initial courage had passed. I stood stupidly halfway across the shop with my hat and coat still on.

‘Come in,’ said Jared. ‘Will you have a drink, and we’ll talk about it?’

I nodded. He poured out two glasses of spirits and carried them into the back room. I followed him. Jared motioned me to a chair and set a glass down in front of me. He raised his own, and the crystal glittered. ‘To better times,’ he said. ‘No – to freedom. Why not drink to that?’

‘To freedom,’ I said, though I didn’t know what he meant by it.

He drained his glass in one swallow and lit a cigarette. ‘More doom and destruction,’ he said, pushing today’s newspaper towards me. According to its account, the Alcyrians had taken the villages surrounding Ositha and had started north to cut the city off. ‘The government is growing desperate,’ he said. ‘Have you heard its latest story?
Apparently the king has a secret child somewhere, the son of a former lover. I suppose the suggestion is that this boy can somehow be brought forward to rule the country if King Cassius is assassinated. Do you know what I think it is? I think the king knows that he is in danger of his life, and he’s trying to make himself look immortal.’

‘Can I ask you a question?’ I said. ‘Who is your allegiance with?’

‘Who is my allegiance with?’ He frowned. ‘No one. I thought you would know that by now. But I am a close acquaintance of several members of Joseph Marcus Sawyer’s government. I knew them in the old days. I have some influence.’

‘You support the king?’ I said.

‘I support the king’s government … and the king, I suppose, until a strong leader comes to take his place.’

‘But you have nothing to do with the Imperial Order?’

‘Good heavens, no.’ He leaned forward on the table and grinned. ‘Apart from anything, there is no money in it. Not yet anyway.’

‘They think they are going to be rewarded,’ I said. ‘When the Alcyrians come.’

‘Anselm,’ he said. ‘Let me tell you something. With those regimes, no one is rewarded. No one wins in the end. It might take twenty, or thirty, or a hundred years, but in the end, the cards are all down and everyone loses. Everyone is deceived.’

I was not certain he was right. ‘There isn’t justice,’ I said. ‘Not like you say there is.’

He gave a faint smile. ‘Look at you, Anselm. Your whole life is before you. What is there to be so bitter about?’

‘Yes, I suppose so,’ I said, because he wanted me to.

He picked up the empty glasses. ‘Another drink?’

‘No,’ I said. The alcohol was clouding my brain, and I wanted to think. ‘Do you remember when we talked about Aldebaran’s last prophecy?’ I said before I could lose my resolve.

Jared set down the glasses very carefully and looked at me. ‘Yes,’ he said.

‘And you said you would pay money for it and so would any political man?’

‘Yes. I remember.’

‘Why would you?’

He sat down. ‘Why? Because it would be the most powerful weapon. There are people who dislike the king. Sawyer as the new chief adviser is not well liked at all. But everyone loved Aldebaran. They loved him to the point of stupidity. And I would pay money for it because other people would pay me more. I am, first and foremost, a trader.’

‘Who would pay you more for it?’

‘Well’ – he shrugged – ’other political men.’

My words were following each other now, though I hardly knew where they would lead. It was like setting out on a road in the dark; I did it with blind faith. ‘How much would you pay?’ I said.

‘Whatever it was in my best interests to pay. The thing is worthless, but not to other people – and that, Anselm, is the first principle of trading.’

‘Why is it worthless?’ I said. ‘I mean to say, if it was a real prophecy.’

‘Good Lord,’ he said. ‘You are not suggesting there is any truth in these old stories? No, it is only worth something while the superstition of the general public is enough to make it so.’

‘Don’t you believe in powers?’ I said.

‘I doubt,’ he said. ‘Because people say they are dying out, and I can’t help thinking that what is dying out is the superstition necessary to believe in them at all.’

‘But if there was a prophecy, people would believe it. You still think so?’

‘I’ll tell you what I think,’ he said. ‘I think it would save this country. I really do. I think it would give people the will to fight back.’

‘Sir,’ I said. ‘Aldebaran was my uncle by adoption. My great-great-uncle, that is. He left us a few things in his will.’

‘Yes,’ said Jared.

‘He left a prophecy to my sister, Jasmine.’

Our eyes held each other for a moment. Then he set down the glasses and lit a cigarette, but I was certain that it was just an attempt to seem nonchalant. He exhaled slowly and said, ‘Are you lying to me?’

‘No.’

‘Because if you are …’

‘I’m not.’

‘Do I trust you?’ I did not answer. ‘I’m not so sure,’ he said. ‘How do I know you are telling the truth?’

‘I can take it to someone else if you don’t want the risk.’

I had learned this trick from Mr Pascal; it was an old and hackneyed method. ‘Five thousand crowns is no risk to me,’ said Jared. ‘It’s not about the risk.’

I shrugged as though it mattered nothing at all to me.

‘I am going to tell you a fact,’ he said. ‘I will say this once only. I work with people who make the Imperial Order look like a brotherhood of monks. I know the gang leaders, the debt collectors, the criminals, all right?’

‘All right,’ I said. Already the plan was starting to taste
bitter, and I half wished I had never started it. ‘But you aren’t going to sell it to them,’ I said. ‘You aren’t going to do that, are you? Because if you were—’

‘Lord, Anselm, who do you think I am?’

‘I’m sorry; it’s just—’

‘Right,’ he said. ‘Enough of this. Five thousand crowns.’

I had fixed my face carefully before he named the price, and I did not even blink. ‘What would you do with this prophecy?’ I said. ‘I mean to say, I’m willing to help the king and the government. It’s better than the Imperial Order taking over. But it isn’t really mine to give you, so—’

‘You trust me, don’t you? I have always dealt fairly with you?’

I did not answer.

‘Here,’ he said. ‘I am being generous. Take my hand and make this a bargain before I lose my patience.’

I could have turned and left. But the five thousand crowns already held me like a prisoner’s chains. ‘Go on,’ he said. ‘Just take it.’ I took his hand.

I put the paper on the table. It was strange to see Aldebaran’s writing here in the back room of Jared’s shop; it felt like selling a family member to a gang of thieves. Jared bent his head over it, fixing his expression so that I could make nothing of it. Then he nodded. He went on nodding as he crossed to a safe in the wall and began counting out notes. ‘Go on, take it,’ he said. Our bargain hung in the air for a moment, while the wind and the snow howled around the walls of the shop. Then my fingers took hold of the notes, and the deal was closed.

‘Can I go?’ I said. ‘It’s getting late, and I should get back.’

‘As you wish.’ I turned to leave. ‘Wait,’ he said as I started
towards the door. ‘Are you going to walk through the city like that?’

‘Like what?’

‘With that money in your pocket. Here.’ He went to the counter, reached up, and took a pistol down from the rack. ‘Have this.’

‘It’s all right,’ I said.

‘But you must. I insist.’ He took a box of ammunition from under the counter and began loading it.

‘I can’t take it,’ I said. ‘We had a no-guns policy in the shop. I don’t want to go against—’

‘Oh, don’t act so sanctimonious. Look, you can leave the safety catch on if you want to; just take it out if anyone gives you trouble on the way back.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘I really don’t want a gun. I don’t even have a licence.’

‘No one does any more. The police cannot control it. Anselm, it is dangerous to walk about the city without a gun in these days.’

‘People do,’ I said.

‘Listen,’ he said. ‘How far away are the Alcyrian army? Answer me.’

‘Ositha,’ I said.

‘Twenty-five miles. And when they are here, those who can fight will have a better chance. I worry about you – all of you. Maria has no one to look after her.’

‘She doesn’t need looking after.’

‘I have seen invasions,’ he said. ‘I’ve traveled, and I’ve seen them. Every war-torn city on this continent. There will be fighting in the streets. People will raid the houses. You might not want to accept the situation, but it’s here, whether or not you choose to look at it straight. It’s a few
miles away, with machine guns and armoured vehicles. All right?’

He held my gaze so that I had to nod. ‘So take the gun,’ he said, and put it into my hand. ‘It’s a Delmar Philippi .45. A good gun. You have heard of that one?’

People sold them at the market for a hundred crowns. I made an attempt to push it back into his hands. ‘I am not letting you walk home with that money unless you take this gun,’ he said.