The wooden stairs lower, and even as the boys work to secure the ship, Henry and Elise descend, hugging me and inadvertently pulling my hair. Something sticky smears from my cheek to my forehead. Before I can wipe it away, Mina is approaching.
“April’s gotten worse,” she begins. But she doesn’t have to say anything. April is right behind her. I gasp. She looks awful. Exhausted, her skin deathly pale and her eyes sunken. I’m careful not to be too obvious about adjusting my mask before I reach to embrace her, but then Elliott is there, picking her up in his arms.
“I’ll take her downstairs,” he says. Kent follows.
The balloon is deflating, and they’ve completely covered the ship with gray fabric. Unless you were standing on the roof looking for it, I doubt you would pay it any attention.
Will stops in front of me. “Elliott has asked me to take something across town for him tonight,” he says. “Some message for one of his officers. Could the children sleep in your room?”
I rub at whatever sticky residue Henry smeared across the side of my face. “Of course,” I say. “I’ve missed them.”
In the light of a lantern, Will’s smile is sudden and radiant.
“Where is Thom?” I ask, turning to Kent.
“He didn’t want to come in this far. Not with his very obvious illness. We set him down on the outskirts of the lower city.”
April’s room is in the same corridor as mine and Elliott’s. Kent tucks her into bed; Mina goes to a cot in her dressing room. After I’m sure April is comfortable, I retire to my room. Elliott grimaces when he sees the children following me.
But I’m relieved. There can be no repeat of what happened this afternoon. I never wanted to share anything like that with Elliott. I’ve always known better.
I lie awake for a long time. I can’t even toss and turn because Henry is curled up on one side, Elise on the other. I can’t get the image of April, and her pallor, from my mind. If I can’t find my father very soon, then I must go to hers, as Thom suggested.
And as I consider giving myself to Malcontent, I realize that if the children on either side of me were in danger, that I would do exactly what Will did. That I can’t hold his betrayal against him any longer.
I forgive him. And with that, I fall asleep.
The next morning, sun is streaming through the window. Henry reaches over me to pinch Elise, and she slaps his hand away. I push both of them back to their own sides of the bed and sit up so I can look down at them. “I haven’t seen you in days,” I say. “Did you have many adventures while we were apart?”
“We saw animals in the forest,” Henry says. “Cougars and wild dogs. Kent said that maybe we could tame a rabbit, so that I could have a pet.”
Finn and I had a cat when we were young. She disappeared soon after we moved with Father to the cellar.
Henry is working up some excitement for telling me what he saw in the woods. “And then we saw a large animal that I thought might be a horse, but it had horns—”
“Antlers,” Elise corrects, shaking her head at her small brother. “Is there something to eat?”
“We’ll have to get dressed and go downstairs,” I say. I show them to the closet. “Take anything you want.
Before I know it, Henry is wearing a coat that nearly drags on the floor, with the sleeves carefully rolled up, and a woman’s hat with two feathers in it.
It isn’t exactly what I expected when I told him to take what he wanted, but Elise starts to giggle and can’t stop, and her laughter is infectious. We are all laughing when we are interrupted by a light knock at the chamber door.
“Good morning.” It’s Will. My heart speeds up at the sound of his voice, and I’m not sure how I should feel about that. Everything has changed, and nothing. I can’t just blurt out that I forgive him, and he’s not likely to see it on my masked face.
“Look how pretty Araby is,” Elise announces loudly. “She hasn’t even washed her face yet, and she’s still pretty.”
“Actually, I have washed my face,” I say, and feel myself blushing.
“She smells good,” Henry adds.
“I’m thrilled that you could spend your evening with such a pretty and fine-smelling young lady,” Will says. He hasn’t really looked at me, and his face is drawn.
“What’s happened?” I ask.
“More cases of the Red Death. Some areas are overrun with it.” He starts to say something else, but he looks to the children and closes his mouth.
“Do you want me to take them to get something to eat?”
“I’ve asked one of the servants to deliver breakfast to my rooms.” He smiles. “It’s like I’m a patron here, instead of a glorified servant.” He yawns.
“Go, get some rest,” I say. “I should check on April.”
“It doesn’t look good, Araby,” he says softly. And then, as we all walk into the hallway together, “Don’t take off your mask.”
He leads the children, smiling quietly as they chatter, and I stop at April’s suite. A servant is outside with a tray. “I’m not going in there,” she says. “No matter what Mr. Elliott says.”
So the servants know already. I don’t blame her for not going in. She has a mask, but no one trusts the masks completely.
“I’ll take it.” I lift the tray from her hands, and she looks at me with suspicion, as if I might have the plague too.
I push the door open, but April is sleeping. I put my hand to her forehead. She’s feverish but breathing well. The best thing she can do is sleep. I set the tray beside her bed and tiptoe out.
Down in the dining room, Elliott’s at a big table, talking to several of his officers.
“I’m going out,” I announce.
He raises his blond eyebrows.
“We haven’t done anything since we arrived. I don’t know where my father is, but he isn’t here. I have to do something. April—”
“I’ll go with you,” he says. “I want to get a feel for the streets around the club. As long as you don’t mind stopping to burn bodies.”
“It’s how I long to spend all my days,” I say. “Burning the dead.”
He nods to his man, and then we exit the building to midmorning sunshine. Elliott toys with a match that he’s taken from his pocket and doesn’t say anything.
“What shall we do?” I ask. “Have you heard from the clockmaker? We’re a day overdue in searching the Akkadian Towers.”
“The clockmaker promised to contact me if he discovered anything. To get to the Towers, we’ll need a steam carriage.”
“Then we should go back and get it.” Did he not see how deathly sick April was? Kent risked his ship to bring her home early. But Elliott does not seem to be in any sort of rush.
“It’s too dangerous to take the steam carriage out during the day,” he says. “But I’ll take you this evening. I promise. And I’ll send someone to question the clockmaker. Be sure he’s doing what he said he would.”
He stops to burn some bodies in a courtyard behind the Morgue. To his credit, he doesn’t tell me not to look. To my own, I do not avert my eyes. At the same time, I don’t think about who they once were. Elliott says something under his breath, what seems to be a sort of benediction for the dead. Then he drops the match.
“This is likely to be unpleasant,” he says.
It’s worse than unpleasant. The metallic-sweet smell of death is inescapable, and ashes fly up into the air. If I didn’t have my mask on, I’d be choking on death.
“Will says that the Red Death is getting worse,” I say.
“It is. Two of my soldiers died yesterday. And another was killed. We think he was ambushed by some of Malcontent’s zealots. They’re using the tunnels to reach more people. Climbing into houses through cellars and basements.”
We’ve stepped back, away from the burning remains.
“We need to find a way to use the tunnels against them. Perhaps block them off,” he says. “Do you want to have a look? I’m open to suggestions.”
Exploring tunnels seems better than standing here, choking on ashes. And if our search for Father is as fruitless tonight as it’s been since our return, then I’ll need to use the tunnels to find Malcontent.
We climb down into earthy-smelling tunnels, much like the ones that we entered from the clockmaker’s basement.
“Who built these?” I ask.
“No one knows. They’re ancient. My father”—he grimaces—“was a student of history, and he said that city after city has been built on this site because of the harbor. He used to fund excavations, and I’d go watch the men dig, waiting to see what they would uncover. My uncle thought it was foolish, but when they uncovered something shiny or valuable, he was the first person on hand.”
“Was he always so ruthless?”
“Yes. Father didn’t see it. He was a good man . . . then. Easily led, I suppose, but a good man.”
“So was my father.”
I wait for Elliott to argue, but he’s stopped, examining a skull embedded in the wall. A pile of ancient bones lies in the tunnel. After the diseased corpses we just burned, these brittle bones have an antique sort of elegance.
Eventually we come to an intersection that looks more frequently used than the one we’ve been traveling.
“This is the path his men are taking,” Elliott says in a hushed voice. “I can’t spare enough men to waylay them, but perhaps Kent could devise some sort of trap. At least to keep them out of this area.”
I memorize the route that brought us here, paying special attention to the last few twists and turns. If I need to reach Malcontent, this is my best path. And with April in such poor shape, I suspect I will be using the tunnels before Kent sets up any traps. At least I hope so.
“I could use some fresh air. Let’s go back to the club. I’ll dispatch a soldier to check in with the clockmaker,” Elliott promises. “We will find your father.”
We backtrack to the nearest ladder and climb up to the street.
The streets we traverse in the Debauchery District seem in relatively good repair. Only one small building looks burned out; a few have broken windows. The streets are relatively free of debris, though I nearly trip over a broken jug. Was it dropped as someone fled from the Red Death, or used as a makeshift weapon?
We turn a corner and see dozens of people carrying luggage, looking up at the buildings with hopeful expressions. The first of Elliott’s settlers.
A soldier leads the group.
“The Morgue is nearly filled, sir,” he says to Elliott. “I’ve sent men to search the surrounding buildings. We’ve been sending those from the upper city to the Debauchery Club.”
“Be sure you leave room in the club for some officers,” Elliott says. “Consult the list of safe buildings.”
“We’ve cleared three city blocks so far,” the soldier says.
One of the women falls to her knees before Elliott and tries to kiss his hand. He pulls back, his cheeks flushing.