City of Lost Dreams

THIRTY-FIVE

A woman loves or hates; there is nothing in between. So now, the dilemma is a binary question for you. Yes: you will come at midnight to the Star Summer Palace with the folio and Sarah Weston. Or, no: you will not do these things and I will kill the girl.

Max read through the message for the hundredth time, and for the hundredth time looked at the clock in his office. Nico was standing on the window seat, staring out. Sarah would be getting to Prague soon. She had actually been on her way, when he had called her.

Of course Sarah would be bound up in this latest edition of Hell Portals for Dummies. Sarah had the key that Nico had given her. Once before when their lives were threatened, it had opened a door and they had watched evil fall into its fathomless depths. He hadn’t told Harriet about the key or what it had done, but had she found out somehow?

He had hurt more than just himself when he had fallen for Harriet. Now Pols was in danger. They were all in danger.

“Max?”

It was Jose, standing at the doorway. Max turned to him.

“Pollina’s parents. They are coming. They will be at the airport tomorrow morning.” Jose held up his phone. He was trembling. “I tell them nothing. I say she is in hospital and situation is serious. I no tell them you let her be stolen when she is dying.”

“We will have her back,” said Nico. “Before her parents return.” Max watched as the little man jumped down and crossed to Jose.

“Is it money?” Jose’s voice was hoarse. “They want money? Because parents pay money. They want these things?” He waved a hand around at the library vaguely. “You give them every fucking thing in this palace.” His nostrils flared. “Every stupid butter knife and old painting of ugly lady in bad dress. They want blood?” He thumped his chest. “I cut out my heart. I . . . I . . .” His eyes filled with tears.

“You must have faith.” Nico spoke with great firmness and solemnity. “I would not say this of everyone, but in your case faith is a good thing. Because you are a good man. Your actions are good. Whatever your sins are, they are not against love. So I believe your life will be a happy one.” To Max’s surprise, Jose knelt down next to Nico, who gave him a kiss on the forehead and whispered something in Spanish. Jose embraced him for a long moment and then rose. He looked at Max expectantly.

“Jose is a knight. He wants you to give him a task,” said Nico, as if he were translating. “Be a prince, Max. Delegate.”

Max kept himself from ordering Jose to bop Nico in the nose.

“There are some airtight containers in the supply room,” Max said. “Find one big enough for Boris and put him in the wine cellar. Pollina will want to give him a proper burial. Then call Oksana. If for any reason we are delayed, Oksana can help you stall the parents until we get Pollina back here. Keep your phone charged.” Jose bowed and left.

Nicolas returned to the library table, where he had spread out the pages of the folio and where he had installed a rat in a cage that for some reason he had brought with him from Vienna.

“Okey-doke,” Nicolas sang out, cheerfully. “I could really use an astronomical sextant for some of these instructions, but I think I have the basic idea of what’s what. And now I would like to shower and shave and pick out something snazzy to wear. Be a dear and open up a bottle of Château d’Yquem.”

Max crossed the room in three quick strides. His anger had found a new focal point. He would not threaten the little man physically (not because of political correctness but because Nico had once demonstrated to Max with an uncooked potato a move Nico called “the testicle puree”), but he wasn’t going to let Nico treat this as another entertaining rotation in the great Wheel of Life, or whatever.

“They stole Pollina,” he thundered. “She’s sick and she’s blind and they took her. And now they want Sarah in exchange. Stop acting like it’s prom night.”

“He doesn’t want Sarah.” Nico waved a hand. “He wants Sarah to open up a hell portal. And he found a very efficient means of getting her to do it. He won’t harm the child, whom I will remind you is very close to dying anyway. But nobody wants her to be murdered. This will be prevented. You and Sarah will get her back. She is not important to him.”

“Who? Edward Kelley?”

“Edward Kelley.” Nico’s eyes were shining. “Edward Kelley. Or possibly Dee. It has to be one of them, and from all the little tricks I’m thinking it’s Kelley. Dee was rather a sweetie. I can’t see him snatching little girls.”

“Your ‘Moriarty.’”

“Yes. Kelley must have taken the same drug Tycho forced on me.”

“But why does Edward Kelley want to open a hell portal in the Star Summer Palace?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps because that is where the Fleece is. Perhaps it is the presence of the Fleece that creates a hell portal. But if it’s Kelley, he’ll know what the antidote is. He’ll know how to help me die.”

“But how can you be so sure that Kelley will be able to kill you?”

“You cannot have the code for life without the code for death.” Nico smacked the table with his hand. “Death is everything. Death, therefore, art. Therefore, religion. Therefore, sex. Therefore, drugs, wall-to-wall carpeting, salad forks, the Westminster dog show, Barbie, Twitter, soap on a rope, and ShamWow.”

“ShamWow?”

“It’s a towel. Very absorbent. Oksana ordered one off the Internet. I am trying to say good-bye to you.”

“I know. Your requiem sucks. And you might be wrong. Even if it is Kelley, he might not be able to reverse the curse. If he had it, wouldn’t he have used it on himself?”

“Edward Kelley has had a choice!” Nicolas thundered. “That is the difference. I have had no choice. I am Time’s pawn. I am History’s bitch.”

“Okay, that’s a little dramatic, even for you.”

“Pandora opened a jar out of curiosity and all the evils flew into the world. She shut the jar and caught Hope in the lid. It’s all I have. You’ve always been supportive of my suicide. Don’t get soft on me now. This is my moment of exaltation. Kill not my buzz.”

Nico leaned over and flipped open the door to the cage that held the rat. The animal immediately ran up Nico’s outstretched arm, nuzzled the little man’s ear, and then settled himself on Nico’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Hermes,” said Nico, with more tenderness than Max had ever heard in the man’s voice. “I would never leave you here alone. We’ll go together.”

“I can look after the rat,” Max said.

“Not this rat.”

A silence fell between them.

Max found that his anger had dissipated, replaced with a profound sadness. You are the only family I have, Max wanted to say. Don’t leave me.

“You will have a family of your own,” Nico said, as if reading his thoughts. “And you don’t need me as much as you think you do. Also, I’ve stolen a number of things from you.”

“I know you have.”

“And if Sarah had let me sleep with her, I would have.”

“Okay. The moment you’re dead I’m shagging Oksana.” Max turned away, trying to control the spasm in his throat.

“It all comes down to sex, apparently,” said a familiar voice. Max turned. Sarah was standing in the door of the library. She looked like hell. She looked wonderful. “All right, I’m here and I’m ready to open a hell portal to get Pols back. The question is . . . what happens after that?”

“Precisely,” said Nico. “It’s very exciting.”