Heart of Gold

Bernard blinked at him, bewildered. 'You hit me,' he said in Gallian.

Aubrey smiled. 'I'm glad you're able to tell me that.' 'You have a silver bowl.'

Aubrey glanced at the bowl and put it on the floor. He helped the massive man sit up. Bernard was weak and wheezed noisily. 'It's a magical reflector.'

'Ah. I thought so.'

'Duval!' Aubrey called. 'Maurice!'

The two men rushed into the workshop. 'Monsieur Bernard!' cried Maurice.

'Let's get him to that sofa,' Aubrey said through gritted teeth. He scuffed the restraining diagram with his shoe.

Aubrey couldn't have done it alone, and it was a near thing with three of them. By the time they'd arranged the old magician on the sofa, Aubrey's head was a red haze of pain. He leaned against the wall, sweating.

'Bernard is not well,' Maurice said. 'His heart. He has a bad heart.'

'I'll get a doctor.' Duval ran for the door.

Bernard beckoned Aubrey to him. His voice was hoarse and feeble. Aubrey had to stoop to hear. 'I remember now,' Bernard said. 'My soul was taken. You got it back.'

'Rest. The doctor will be here soon.'

'Perhaps. Perhaps not.' The enormous man shrugged, but the motion sent him wheezing again. When he stopped, he turned his head to Aubrey. 'I can see you. You have been touched by magic.'

Aubrey nodded.

'More than that.' Bernard coughed. 'You have experimented with death magic.'

Aubrey swallowed. 'Yes.'

'You are on the edge. The true death is calling.'

All Aubrey could do was nod again.

'I, too, tested myself against death magic. Just the edges. It was enough.'

'Did you learn anything? Can you help me?'

'My notebook. In my desk. I've learned things. It is yours.'

Bernard's eyelids quivered. He sighed and his great hands trembled. Then he was gone.

Eight

MAURICE HAD SEEN ENOUGH IN THE FACULTY OF Magic to understand what he had to do next. Stony-faced after Aubrey's explanation, he nodded. 'I'll call the police. You'll not want to wait for them, I expect.'

Aubrey felt Bernard's notebook, heavy in the inner pocket of his jacket. 'I will, if you think it necessary.'

Maurice shook his head. 'I will do what is needed.' He'd already torn down the drapery and used it to cover the body of the old magician. 'You'll find that man, the one who did this?'

'I will.'

Outside the Faculty of Magic, Aubrey ran into Duval, who was accompanied by a lean, harried-looking man. He clutched a black bag that announced his profession better than an illuminated sign. 'Are we too late?' Duval asked anxiously.

'Bernard has passed away,' Aubrey said.

'Let me see,' the doctor said and he pushed through the door.

Aubrey stood on the stairs with Duval. He leaned against the wall of the tower for a moment, shivering in the sun. The encounter with the Soul Stealer and the death of Bernard had sapped him. He rubbed the back of one hand, then the other, and wished for an end to this frustrating existence.

'You look pale,' Duval said. 'It has been a shock, the death of the magician?'

'Yes. The photographer, the one who fled, was the Soul Stealer.'

'No!'

'He was in the process of taking Bernard's soul.' Aubrey sighed. 'I restored it, but Bernard wasn't strong.'

'Go and rest, my friend.' Duval clapped Aubrey on he back. 'You will need your strength for our rehearsal tonight.'

You have no idea how much I need my strength, Aubrey thought. 'Tonight?'

'Of course. And don't forget to bring Miss Hepworth.'

OUTSIDE THE UNIVERSITY GROUNDS, AUBREY STOOD ON Cooperation Street. Hands in pockets, he watched the cyclists, carriages and motorcars hurtling past with cavalier regard for anything approaching road rules.

Suddenly, a hand fell on his shoulder. He stiffened. 'Be easy,' a voice hissed in his ear. 'Pretend all is well.'

'Hello, von Stralick. Have you been watching me?'

The Holmland spy didn't answer. His eyes darted from side to side, at the traffic, the buildings opposite, and the sky.

'If I didn't know better,' Aubrey said, 'I'd think you were nervous.'

'Not nervous. Terrified.'

'Ah.' Aubrey wasn't sure he liked that any better. He was deeply tired, and he needed to examine the state of his skin, but he wanted to make the most of von Stralick's presence. 'Any particular reason I should know about?'

'Much is at stake.'

'I know that.'

'I've learned things that shed new light on the situation in Lutetia.'

Aubrey remembered Craddock's terse but urgent command to do what he could to find the Heart of Gold. 'What do you know?'

'What do you know?'

'We're not going to get anywhere like this. You're going to have to be rather more explicit.'

Von Stralick smiled briefly. 'Speaking explicitly is something I'm not accustomed to, either as a diplomat or an intelligence operative.'

'Spy.'

Von Stralick shrugged. 'Very well then. If we're speaking explicitly, "spy" is a reasonable enough term.'

Aubrey surveyed the Lutetian streetscape. The grey, pinched faces of the pedestrians hurrying past had a haunted look about them. 'Something is ill here.'

'Exactly. Now, will you come with me?'

Aubrey preferred marching into danger rather than being dragged toward it. 'Of course.'

THE PROPRIETOR OF THE CAFÉ ON THE TINY THINKERS' Square obviously knew von Stralick. The Holmlander nodded at the aproned Gallian behind the counter and immediately ushered Aubrey to a booth in the rear of the smoky establishment. Aubrey noted how von Stralick used the mirrors on the walls to watch the entrance.

The proprietor brought mineral water and coffee. Von Stralick downed the coffee and asked for another. Aubrey waited and sipped mineral water that had no taste at all, only to find that he had trouble swallowing. With a sinking heart, he added it to the list of symptoms of his deterioration.

When the second coffee arrived, von Stralick stared at it for a moment before speaking again. 'You know of the Marchmaine independence movement?'

Interesting beginning, Aubrey thought. 'We were caught in the altercation between them and the police at the Middle Bridge.'

'Precipitous lot,' von Stralick said. 'They don't realise what they're interfering with.'

'Tell me.'

'You know of their plans for an independent state in the north of Gallia?'

'Of course.'

'What you may not know is that some members of their movement are prepared to take desperate measures to achieve this.'