THE LIBRARY
As soon as Keir ran for the open door of the sitting room, I grabbed the briefcase and followed. When we reached the doorway, we slowly stuck our heads through the gap.
Van Helsing and his crew were in a tight defensive circle as hawks and ravens, falcons and owls swerved and swooped above them. Mrs. Calabash pointed her sword, Dolp swung his shotgun loaded with silver pellets, and Mr. Jack cocked his pistols loaded with silver balls. Waving two flaming torches, with a trail of black smoke rising from each, were Pili and Olivia, shoulder to shoulder. Van Helsing himself held the two fancy knives that were used to kill Count Dracula over a hundred years ago.
And outside the circle stood Barnabas with his hands behind his back, calmly watching it all.
After the jury had voted to free Keir—a win for moi, how surprising is that?—Van Helsing showed us the arrest warrant for Miss Myerscough, issued by the Court of Uncommon Pleas for the District of Great Britain. If Keir helped him get inside, Van Helsing promised to capture, not kill, Miss Myerscough and ensure she had a fair trial in the court that had sat for centuries in the upper reaches of the Tower of London. Olivia had joined his crew to once again stand with the great friend of her childhood. And Barnabas was there as a noncombatant to make sure Van Helsing kept his word.
As Van Helsing and his crew shuffled in formation toward one arm of the stairway, Egon pulled off the cover of a coffin-shaped cage and opened the cage’s door. The condor stuck its head out of the opening.
The great bird looked left, looked right, and then flapped itself free before landing heavily on top of its cage. It stared at us as it preened its wings, like a costumed supervillain about to go into battle. Then it jumped off its cage and circled just under the high ceiling. It grunted once, whipping the swarm into a frenzy, before it attacked.
“Follow me!” shouted Keir over the hiss and caw, the shouts and the gunfire. He hustled across the hallway to a black door and pulled it open. I sprinted after him and found myself at the foot of a dark staircase that Keir was already climbing. I climbed quickly behind him. As the two of us approached the door at the top, we slowed down, sneaking up the final steps together.
Beyond was a commotion of sorts, something loud, fierce, and definitely unhealthy.
“Wait here while I check it out,” whispered Keir. He opened the door, crept through, and closed it behind him.
The seconds it took for him to come back felt like hours, like days. And when he did return, shutting the door quietly behind him, his forehead was creased with worry.
“The fight made its way upstairs,” he whispered. “Miss Myerscough’s and Van Helsing’s crews are battling to the right. The countess will be there, too. Avoid that side like the plague. Trust me, Elizabeth, the countess would snatch your heart and feed it to her birds before you knew something was missing.”
“She certainly has the nails for it,” I said.
“The countess’s library is down the hall to the left. Look for the word Private on the door.”
“You’re not coming with me?” I said, panic turning my voice into a squeak.
“It’s gone bad,” he said. “I need to help. Miss Myerscough convinced the rest of those she saved with her bite to join the battle. She has them believing Van Helsing is after them, too. But they might listen to me. After your little speech, I don’t have any choice. They’re sort of friends, too, I suppose.”
“So it’s my fault.”
For a moment his sly smile returned. “Don’t you know, it’s all your fault, Elizabeth. Find the contract. I’ll come when I can. If you find it before I show, you know what to do.”
“But I don’t,” I said. “See, that’s the thing. I don’t know what to do.”
And with that, he was gone. I couldn’t decide if I was impressed with what Keir was doing to help the others, or foot-stomping angry that he was leaving me alone.
I was frozen for a moment, and then, before I realized it, I was through the door and racing down the hallway to the left with the clatter of the fight behind me. The bloodred wallpaper was flickering with the reflection of firelight. The old dead people in the paintings were staring down at me like I was a scurrying cockroach with a briefcase. As I ran, I glanced behind me.
Birds flying, swords swinging, walls burning.
When the hallway turned to the left, I leaped and landed right in front of a door with the word PRIVATE printed on a plaque. Somewhere inside the library might be the contract that was the key to Keir’s freedom. I hesitated a moment and took a deep breath—I didn’t know legal discovery could be so terrifying—and then I turned the knob.
The air inside the room felt somehow alive, like it was breathing and waiting, waiting and breathing, hungry, angry, scratching at time itself. My hand shook as it bounced around the wall beside the door, looking for the light switch.
Click.
Light flooded the large room and my heart seized.
It wasn’t the old books that caused my little heart attack, or the wooden file cabinet where old contracts might be kept, or the desk on top of which a rodent with gorgeous brown fur was pawing at the floor of its cage.
No, it was the woman sitting in the winged chair facing the door, her chin high, her black suit buttoned tight, a paisley scarf around her throat, holding in her hand a large piece of vellum covered with red writing.
“How unsurprising to see you again, Elizabeth,” said the Countess Laveau. “I assume you’ve come for this.”