Chapter Six

CONSTANTIN FILLED HIS pockets with bread and retreated against the wall. Wrapping the shadows more tightly around himself, he stilled as a servant came by, bearing another platter of remnants from the manor’s table. He eyed the tray of thinly sliced roast beef and untouched game hens with crispy skin. He hadn’t had meat in well over a week, and they wouldn’t miss it if he snatched some of that. The children at the orphanage could do with extra nourishment besides the slop they ate, so it wouldn’t go to waste.

As the servants busied themselves with other tasks, Constantin slipped some of the meat into his canvas bag and grabbed a silver bowl of candied nuts. He was pressing his luck, and he needed to get moving. He’d promised Gabrielle he would visit today.

He made his way through the manor on quiet feet. He hated scrounging for sustenance like this. It brought too many memories of his dark days on the streets, but he couldn’t work, visit the children, and scheme to take down Nightingale at the same time. In the last week that he’d been at this, he’d come no closer to an answer for getting rid of the monster. There had to be a way to drive it out of Paris.

Which would lead to different victims elsewhere. No, he had to kill the magicman now. No more victims.

Constantin had witnessed enough incidents as a child to know that Nightingale was monstrously strong. It had the ability to feed off souls, and what Constantin learned about the creatures since his time on his own didn’t give him much faith in his ability to handle the problem alone. He needed more people and a specialized weapon. Constantin didn’t even know what Nightingale was doing in Paris after the creature had terrorized Toulouse for so long. But that could’ve been the problem. People may have caught on. So if it had been forced to move, that might mean it had a weakness. Constantin had to figure out what it was, or perhaps he was grasping at false hope.

As he neared the side door that he’d used to sneak into the manor, he slowed with a mental curse. Maids dusted and swept in the rooms beside it, talking amongst themselves. There was enough activity between them that Constantin didn’t want to risk alerting them by opening the door. He gauged the amount of work left and determined he was better off waiting than searching for another place to slip outside.

The maids gossiped about the other servants as Constantin eavesdropped. Information could be quite profitable if he could find a buyer. He crept closer to listen.

“Many of Madeline’s family disappeared, her cousins on her mom’s side. The few left don’t know what happened during the night. There was no noise to indicate they’d been taken against their will. Even stranger, her great uncle was bedridden, but he’s gone stark raving mad. Keeps talking about how he wants to go to the song. If I was stuck in a bed all day and all night, I’d want to go meet my maker too.” The maid surveyed the room with her hands on her hips. “He won’t tell anyone what happened to his family, but they’re sure he knows something.”

“It’s been happening everywhere, people leaving tasks undone, food half eaten,” another responded. “I heard from Yannick, whose brother is a footman at the palace, that a Chevalier de Rouen appeared and tried to warn the court about the mists, but they booted him out.”

“I didn’t realize there were any chevaliers left,” the maid’s voice brightened. “If anyone will know what to do about the mystery, they will. Though, I suppose, if one showed up, it’s not good news, is it? It means it’s serious.”

A subdued silence fell over the room. Then the maids gathered their cleaning items and marched down the hall to the next set of rooms. Constantin slipped out the door and closed it quietly behind him. The manor house was in the city, which made it convenient as loaded down as Constantin was. He should remain wrapped in the shadows, though the more he used it, the more like a shadow he felt. The more alone he became. Still, he didn’t want to draw attention to his bag full of purloined food and silver.

The orphanage wasn’t far away, and the mood on the street was uneasy. People kept half their attention on the horizon, their bodies tense as if they were constantly ready to flee. They reminded Constantin forcibly of rabbits with their quivering noses and ears. Prey. They were all prey to an unknown phenomenon. He tried to recall when the last mist had rolled through, but his attention hadn’t been on that phenomenon. He should be more observant. The last thing he needed was to be caught out in it. He’d never be able to help the children if he disappeared.

The garden was deserted when he arrived, and all the doors to the orphanage shut. No matter, Constantin had studied every entrance and learned the best ways of getting in. He pressed his ear against the door nearest the coal shed. It was always unlocked and busy only a few times a day. It sounded quiet, so Constantin eased the door open a crack and listened again before slipping through and latching it behind him. Down the short hall through another open door, the noise of busy clatter came from the kitchens.

The last time he’d visited, they had locked Gabrielle in the basement again for being defiant, and he’d had no way of getting to her. His frustration had been acute. But he had a solution of sorts. Something that would give her a sense of not being utterly alone. That is, if he couldn’t convince her to run away this time. At the moment, Gabrielle’s fear of the world outside was still bigger than her fear of Nightingale.

Constantin moved away from the kitchen, deeper into the bowels of the orphanage. He’d learned all the ways to get to the dormitories and the rooms where the children worked from sunup to sundown if they weren’t toiling in the garden. He checked all the favorite punishment spots that he could get to. The room where they forced the children to kneel on wires for hours at a time until their knees bled. The cold storage for food that held barely clad shivering littles.

Constantin’s fists clenched. More than one master and matron had met with an accident in the last week. He was not sorry in the least. It didn’t take care of the monster who ruled over the entire place, but it made the children breathe easier to have a few of the worst out of their lives. He kept reminding himself he had to be careful and not attract attention, but that mattered little when he came upon a situation he could do something about.

He made his way up to the niche where he met Gabrielle and left presents when he could.

It was empty. Outside the window Constantin spied the mist slithering along the ground in a darting, fast moving dance with its familiar black filaments. He shivered with dread. There was nothing natural about that occurrence, and he’d be stuck inside the orphanage for several hours until it cleared out as quickly as it arrived.

His fingers curled into claws. Maybe he could arrange another accident while he was here. If a few more evil people disappeared into the mists, no one would comment on it, but before he hunted them, he needed to check on Gabrielle.

Constantin slipped a small object out of his pocket and held it up. It was a beetle, no bigger than his thumbnail, made of metal and wire, but so meticulously crafted that it had a life of its own. He concentrated on an image of Gabrielle, offering a tiny thread of his soul’s energy, and felt wings whir against his palm. He lifted the beetle to his lips. “I’m here,” he whispered, and the device took off in a blur of wings.

It shouldn’t work. Constantin still didn’t know how he did it, but ever since he found himself scrabbling on the streets for a bite of bread, he’d learned how to transform his tinker-toys into objects of useful wonder. They’d also gotten him chased out of more than one town by those fearing witchcraft.

Constantin sensed the beetle searching, darting through the large, cavernous rooms of the dormitories, into tiny closets, and even into the basement. He could follow the location of any of his objects once he linked to it. He could send brief messages or use it to find places or people he had seen with his own eyes.

Constantin drew his knees up and stared out at the mist as it crept to envelop the building. All the other times it had trapped him inside with no access to windows, and he’d never had the opportunity to study the phenomenon. It engulfed everything, massing so thickly that all the nearby buildings disappeared. Even the wall surrounding the orphanage and what was left inside was hazy and indistinct.

He shrank back as those black filaments webbed over the glass like a sudden frost. He drew away from the window, eyeing the sill. There were no drafts. It didn’t appear like air was getting in, but it didn’t pay to take chances. He slipped out of the niche and made sure the heavy drapes were in place.

He sensed when the beetle found Gabrielle, a distinct pinging in his head. She was in the southwest section, lower down. He sensed a large room and many other bodies. After a few minutes, he perceived her drawing nearer, so she must’ve received his message.

Constantin tightened the shadows around him and waited to be sure she was alone. No one came up to the dormitories at this time of day once the cleaning was completed, so they should be left alone. She appeared in the doorway at the end of the hall and looked over her shoulder before making her way inside at a run. Constantin smiled, his spirits lifting at the joy on her face. He eased back the shadows around him so she could see him and held out his arms as she threw herself into them.

“You came back!” she said, squeezing hard as if he’d disappear.

He chuckled. “You say that every time, ma petite chouette. I made you a promise, didn’t I?”

“The mists are here. I didn’t think you would come today.” She glanced toward the shrouded niche and froze. “The hungry man is out there. He goes hunting when the mists come.”

Constantin went still as well, an icy shiver running down his spine. He forced himself to go to the niche and peer out the window. The lanky figure of Andre Nightingale strolled into the shrouding gray as if it were a bright summer day. He’d known Nightingale went out into the mists. That’s what led him to this place, but the sight troubled him. Whatever dangers the outside held plainly did not worry the creature. Constantin would dearly love to know what brought it out there.

“What does it hunt, ma petite chouette?” Constantin asked softly, and Gabrielle clung to him harder.

“More children,” she said in a small voice. Gabrielle laid her head on his shoulder, idly playing with his hair, and then she relaxed as both of them lost the sense of Nightingale as it moved farther away. “He’s gone.”

Constantin set her down on a bed. “Are you hungry?” She was painfully thin, like many of the other children. He’d seen the dining rooms. He’d witnessed the children being fed slop while the masters and matrons had nourishing meals. Living under the eye of Nightingale took a toll on the hardiest even in the best of conditions.

“I’m always hungry,” Gabrielle whispered. “Just like he is.” She looked toward the window, her little face solemn. “He’ll come back with more of us. He always does.” She shivered. “They scream a lot. First, they scream to go to the music. Then it’s like they wake up from a dream, and they scream for their families. Sometimes he tires of it, and the screaming stops.”

Constantin cupped her chin. “You don’t have to stay, Gabrielle. I don’t have much, but you could stay with me.”

Gabrielle shook her head, turning her frightened eyes on him. “I don’t want to go to the ghostland.”

He had tried wrapping her in the shadows once, and she had not cared for the experience at all. “It wouldn’t be for long. Just until we are safe, but I understand.”

Gabrielle’s eyes widened when Constantin drew out the bread and roast beef. He’d leave the rest for her to share with her friends and take the silver bowl with him. It had to be worth a month’s rent. Maybe even better lodgings where he could care for Gabrielle properly. She stuffed a roll into her mouth and reached for the slice of roast beef that Constantin held out to her.

“Are you still going to kill the hungry man?” she asked when the edge of her hunger eased.

“I am. I’m searching for a helper.” Constantin thought of the chevalier the maids were discussing. If there was anyone who could help or would know of a way to kill a magicman, it was a chevalier. They were all rumored to be insane. Insane, but utterly dedicated to hunting down monsters. A chevalier wouldn’t refuse him, even if Constantin had nothing to offer but his service, such as it was. “I believe one came into town. Have you heard of the Chevaliers de Rouen?”

Gabrielle nodded, her legs swinging as she nibbled on another roll. “Papa said the chevaliers had lost their way, but once they were the saviors of France. What does that mean?”

“It means they are as human as we are. They make mistakes, but they are our best hope.” Constantin peeked out the window again. “I’m going to talk with him. If anyone can help us, it will be him.”

Gabrielle paused in her scramble for food and stared at him with wary eyes that appeared too old for her face. “Why do you want to help us so much? What’s in it for you?”

Constantin crouched in front of her. “When I was a little older than you, my papa sold me and my brothers to Nightingale. My maman and little sister had died of a fever, and he had no way to care for us. The creature had a place like this in Toulouse. We were with him many years before we escaped. We went through the same horrors you are. And like you, I could sense the monster’s hunger, its feeding. I bet none of the other children believe you when you tell them about it.”

She shook her head, her mouth turning down. “They say I’m touched.”

“They said the same about me. I stopped talking about it because for the others who can’t sense what it’s doing, Nightingale gives them the bit of comfort that allows them to struggle on.” It broke Constantin’s heart again. He could harden himself against other adults, but not the children. “The ones that survive understand later on. Instead of giving peppermint sweets, it could’ve put a stop to all of this, but it didn’t. They’ll understand your warnings later.”

The little beetle came back, flitting around Gabrielle’s head, and Constantin caught it. It became inert in his hand, and he slipped it back into his pocket. “How do you do that?” Gabrielle asked.

“It’s a bit of magic, like the shadow twisting.” Constantin eyed the otherworldly quality about her. “One day you’ll be able to do magic things as well.”

“And then I’ll be safe always?” Gabrielle tightened her little fists. “I can fight them?”

Constantin chucked her chin gently with a smile. She was a fighter to her core. “The world is a dangerous place, ma petite chouette. But oui, safer at least. Remember, you don’t have to be alone. Which reminds me.” He pulled the little mechanical cat out of another pocket. Constantin had finished the toy and was rather pleased with the result, as well as the avid gleam in Gabrielle’s eyes. He brushed it with a thread of magic and the whiskers twitched. “This is for you.”

“Me?” Gabrielle gasped, her hands reaching toward the creature that gave a whirring, soft purr as it batted her hands with its head.

“Oui. You’ll have to keep her hidden.” Even if the matrons or another kid tried to steal it, the construct would find its way back to Gabrielle, but he didn’t want her to get into trouble.

“Oh, I will. I promise.” Gabrielle carefully picked it up and slipped it into a ragged pouch in her skirts. “I won’t be so afraid when they put me in the basement.”

It was said so matter-of-factly, as if it was a foregone conclusion she wouldn’t escape that punishment, that it made Constantin ache for her again. Children shouldn’t be locked away from the sunlight and warmth. “There’s something else special about that cat. If you ever decide you want to leave this place and I’m not here, you lift the cat to your mouth and whisper, ‘Help.’ It knows to find me, and I’ll come right away.”

“Promise?” Gabrielle’s familiar query didn’t have the same desperation that it once did. She’d learned that Constantin kept his promises.

Constantin smiled. “Promise. Let’s go sneak this food to the neediest of your friends and get you back to your station so you don’t get in trouble for being missing.”

Gabrielle clung to his hand before he could wrap the shadows around himself. “You’re not going outside while the mists are out, are you?”

Constantin shook his head. “I’ll remain nearby until it’s safe.” Once she was settled, he’d seek out Nightingale’s quarters to search for any weaknesses. He’d have to be quick. He had no way of knowing how long the creature would be out. Then he’d have time to create havoc for the human monsters that ran this hell.