It took the glacier a million years to come and go. In its wake it left behind a valley with sheer cliffs, a half-mile deep, and at the bottom a small lake with water so dark and cold that it often had ice until the dog days of summer. Not that one could often see through the constant fog.
Not much had changed here since, other than that someone had been brave and foolish enough to build a road on the cliff-edge high above the water.
The lone gull circling overhead didn’t seem to notice the long black motorcar passing below; any sound that came from the engine was swept away by the rising wind. The clear sky, so bright and hopeful that morning, had been overtaken by a summer storm. There’d been another car earlier, but the black one now had the road all to itself.
• • •
Halick drove as someone who was more accustomed to riding in the back. He hunched up close to the windscreen, his hands gripping tight about the wheel, his dark eyes checking the mirrors.
“She’s a gentle person, my mother,” said Halick. “Most people don’t appreciate that about her. How many times have I seen her come upon a dead bird or a rabbit caught in a snare. Her eyes fill with tears. Days later she’ll still be going on about it. Of course, she can’t afford to show that side of herself. She is a duchess, after all.”
Halick glanced into the rearview mirror. Adi, unconscious, was stretched out across the back seat.
He swerved a little as his attention was drawn back to the road. There was a stone bulwark along some of the more dangerous sections, but it was unlikely that it would stop a car of this size.
“Which is why . . . by the bye, firefly,” he continued, “I told her not to worry her pretty head about you.”
“ ‘I’ll put her on the train,’ I said to Mother. ‘With a suitcase full of dresses and a generous wad of cash in her pocket. She’ll forget all about this little adventure of hers and start a new life far, far away.’ ”
Halick slowed down as he spotted a number of standing stones along the cliffside. Pulling the car into an open patch across the road, he stopped the engine and sat listening to the car’s cloth top thrum in the wind. He looked over the back seat at Adi. She murmured, as in a dream.
“Anyway,” he said, climbing out of the car, “That’s the great thing about my mother. She’ll believe any crap I tell her.”
Halick removed his suit coat and hung it neatly over the steering wheel.
“You see, Mother’s got plans for me. I’ve got plans for me, too.”
Pulling open the back door, Halick hoisted Adi from the seat with no more trouble than picking up a child.
“The thing is, the plans all work better with George drunk and bored. Really,” he said, shaking his head, “you weren’t helping there. He’s hardly had a drink since you arrived. I was watching.”
He carried her in his arms across the road, and stood on the cliff’s edge next to the circle of standing stones looking out over the fogged-in chasm.
Balancing on one foot, he kicked a rock. It flew high and far before it disappeared into the cloud. “Listen . . . five, six, seven, eight.” There was a distant crack.
He sat the girl up against one of the stones and straightened her dress.
The mist was turning to a drizzle. He did his best to pull her hair back from blowing loose in the wind.
“Doesn’t matter.” He got up, brushing his pants off as he walked back to the car. “Idle chatter, pitter patter, growing fatter . . .”
The seagull landed on the rocks nearby.
As soon as Halick turned his back, Adi’s eyes fluttered open. She stared down at her lap, at her hands open upon the rocks. She’d been dreaming about the syrup from the gulab jamun staining the carpet in the library.
She was still half asleep; her stomach felt as if it might tip over. Lifting her head, she saw before her stone and mist.
Hearing a sound, she turned her head. There was a black motorcar across a road and some man leaning in to take something from the glove box.
Halick? Why would Halick be here?
He came back across the road toward her, removing a large knife from a leather scabbard. He turned the knife about as he walked, studying the gleaming blade with a curve at the tip.
Adi’s heart heaved.
She didn’t know if she could get up or stand once she had risen, but she knew she couldn’t outrun this man.
In another second he would see that she was awake.
Lowering her head, she shut her eyes and tried to quiet her breathing.
She heard the whisper of Halick’s footsteps across the grass and then upon the rocks. Through her downcast eyes she made out the tips of his shoes standing before her. Halick dropped the empty leather scabbard on the rocks. It had long fringe and beads decorating the side, as something made by American Indians.
“Come to watch, stupid seagull?” said Halick. “You do know that’s not a sea down there, don’t you? Come here. We’ll see how well you fly with your wings cut off.” He swished the blade through the air.
He leaned over to Adi. She was sure he must be able to see her heart pound in her chest.
“It’s called a Bowie knife. It was given to me by an American friend. Well, someone my mother knew. Named after some American who liked to cut people up with his big knife.”
He reached around the back of Adi’s neck and pulled her forward, fine rain beading upon her face. His breath upon her cheek. “I know you’re awake,” he whispered. “How stupid do you think I am?”
The fist-sized rock in Adi’s hand slammed against his head. Dropping the blade, he fell to his knees, howling.
Adi scrambled to pick up the knife; her fingers closed around the handle. He pushed her hard onto her side and grabbed her wrist to wrench the knife away. Adi scratched at his face with her nails and raised up the blade, shimmering against the dark sky.
Hard as she could, she slammed the butt of the knife into Halick’s temple. He dropped like a sack of flour on top of her. Unable to move the big man, she lay there gasping.
“If you use the pointed end,” said a voice from behind her, “you won’t have to keep doing that.” Adi strained to look past Halick’s shoulder.
Sitting upon the boulder where the seagull had been was Coal.
Pulling his overcoat tight, he slid down off the rock. He put a couple of fingers to the lad’s neck and checked his pulse.
“Fortunately for you, you didn’t kill him,” he said.
Sticking the tip of his black boot in between them, he shoved the young man off of her. The body came perilously close to the edge. Before she could move, Coal leaned down and snatched the knife from her hand. Her eyes grew large.
“What? You think it’s me you need to be worrying about, with the people you’ve gotten mixed up with?”
Coal admired the blade for a second, and then tossed it far out over the edge. He grimaced a little as if the motion hurt him.
Adi sat up, her head spinning, as much from the turn of events as from whatever had rendered her unconscious. She groaned as her stomach pitched.
Remembering her watch, she felt for it around her neck. Not there! Searching through the grass and rocks she reached the edge of the cliff—and scuttled back from the precipice. There was a break in the fog. She’d had no idea what she had been lying inches away from.
“Looking for this?” said Coal. Leaning down, he flipped open Halick’s coat and plucked out the watch and chain from a vest pocket.
But, as if he’d picked up something hot from the stove, he dropped the watch back onto Halick’s chest. He tried to hide his reaction, but it was clear that something about the watch had startled him. Adi grabbed it and looped the chain around her neck. Pulling herself to her feet, she held on to one of the stones and tried not to look at the abyss stretching out before her.
The rain was coming down harder, darkening the face of the standing stones. Coal reached out his hand and ran a finger around a large circle carved, ages ago, into one of them.
“An ouroboros,” he said. “That’s what this is called. A serpent, eating its tail. Time without end. You figure you’ve got so much ‘time without end’ that you can play dress-up? And go to parties as if you were on holiday?” He pushed a thumb up under his eyebrow. His face was haggard, his eyes bloodshot. He kicked at Halick. “I should have let him cut you open. I’d be done with you now.”
Reaching forward, he put his hand around Adi’s neck. She tried to pull free but backed into one of the stones. He tightened his grip and lifted her from the ground.
“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. Those tiresome little brothers, no one is going to find them for you.” Adi clawed at his sleeve, fighting to catch a breath. “But, what difference does it make? You don’t care about them. And nobody in the world cares about you. Your handsome prince. He kissed you and ran away as fast as he could. What about your detective? Surely, he will help? But he’s not going to, Adi. His car went into a ravine and smashed against a rock. He couldn’t even save himself.”
Coal turned to his right—Adi’s feet swung out over the gorge. The fog coiled up around her as if it might devour her. She’d have cried out if she had been able.
“Let’s try this again,” said Coal. “This time, with a lesson in gravity.”
He opened his hand.