Astiza
Since I couldn’t see the sky to pray, I prayed to the earth. There’s no greater torment than not knowing, and I yearned to learn the fate of my husband. My powers of prophecy had deserted me, and if Harry didn’t escape soon, we’d go quite mad. Then the earth seemed to answer. Isis sent me my path. Suddenly the old texts I’d read, the experiments I’d conducted, and the scraps of information I’d gleaned gave a flash of insight. Such revelations are a gift. I had a plan, and with a plan came hope. I began to feel Ethan was near. As if to confirm such suspicions, my jailers became surlier. They’re impatient, as if in a race with other villains. I eavesdropped at the door while guards murmured of a battle, French schemes, Jewish calculation, and refugees streaming into Prague. So I asked for gold.
“You cannot achieve final purification without a seed,” I insisted to Baron Richter. “You can’t forge the Philosopher’s Stone without a dissolution of real gold. Any alchemist knows this. Have the courage to invest in your dreams. Bring me something to work with.”
His look was suspicious. He knows I’m procrastinating. And yet here in the pit of hell, what use was gold except for alchemical stews? There was nothing to buy and no one to bribe, and no escape through solid rock. So he agreed, lusting for his great prize.
Then one day they said they needed to take Harry away to meet “a stranger.” I screamed and fought, fearing the worst. I imagined my son in that trunk of bones. His death would kill me, and before I died I would turn the alchemical laboratory into my funeral pyre. My captors stunned me with a club, leaving me dazed on the floor, and when I regained full consciousness I was feverish with anxiety. But hours later, I heard the noises of people returning, the lock rasped on the door’s metal, and Harry wriggled out of Auric’s grasp and ran to me with an excited shout.
“Papa is here to save us!”
There was a clang as someone was thrust into another cell far down the corridor.
“Your husband is here as my prisoner,” Richter corrected, stepping into the room. He was wearing his bishop’s robe—or, rather, costume—a sword strapped to his side. “It is still possible, madame, for us to work together and for me to show mercy. But only if you do what I expect.”
I was dizzy with longing. “I don’t believe you. Show him to me.”
“We’ll never have friendship without trust, Astiza.”
I felt the blood crusted on my scalp.
“You had my trust, and betrayed it when you took me to your mutant blacksmith. You were the great Primus Fulcanelli, seeker of truth, instead of a corrupt and venal German baron seeking small advantage, one of thousands of little men scuttling in the shadows of emperors.”
He flushed. “We’ll see who scuttles when I possess the Brazen Head.”
“I thought we were going to possess it.”
“You are going to find the Stone and turn lead into gold! Or have you already forgotten your promise? Your own son will testify I kept mine. His father is here. Tell her, boy!”
“Papa hugged me, Mama.”
I knelt and hugged him, too, while looking up at Richter. “Did you bring me my seed of precious metal?”
“Yes. Coins of your husband’s.”
Harry turned his own face up to Richter. “Why can’t Papa stay with us?”
“I don’t trust you together.”
I was close to fainting from fear and anger. “Show him to me and I’ll do anything you ask. If you’re lying, I’ll destroy all I’ve accomplished.”
“No! Do what you already promised! Complete your experiments!”
“Show me first or you’ll have nothing!”
“Damn you, I’ll pen the boy away as well if you don’t accomplish something!”
I stood, Harry clutched to my side, my hair grimy, my hands raw, my eyes those of a madwoman. “Show me or I’ll curse you all!”
Richter’s eyes blazed, his ruined mouth clenched, arms levitating as if readying to strike. But he still had no clues. He snarled, ruined lips twisted over teeth, and then he turned to the men crowded in the corridor. “Show her the fool.”
The cell was reopened, there was jostling, and Ethan was thrust forward, instantly recognizable even though he was only a silhouette in the gloom.
“Astiza!”
“Ethan! Thank the Goddess!” Despite being faint with relief, I managed to whirl on Richter. “I want him now.”
An amused shake of the head. “A beauty like you could do so much better.”
“Let us stay together, and we’ll do anything you ask.”
Ethan shouted to me. “Has he hurt you?”
“I’m alive.”
“Astiza, we forged an old sword. It may have something to do with Rosenkreutz.”
“Silence!”
“Did you bring it?” I asked.
“Richter has it.”
“Why is your shoulder bandaged?”
“I was wounded in the war.”
What war? I wondered. “Enough!” the baron interrupted. “Put him back.” The sentries dragged my husband away, ignoring his struggles and protests.
I was thinking furiously. How to complete the final act? “If I can do the alchemical miracle, you’ll let us go?” I asked Richter.
“Absolutely not. But we’ll leave here together to find the Brazen Head. Do that and you can go.”
I needed to know how much or little Richter knew. “Is it nearby?”
He shrugged. “Bohemia. Moravia. We’ll have to hunt.”
“A cave?” I was trying to mislead.
“A cave with a tomb.” He nodded as if he knew, convincing me that he didn’t. “Now you’re tantalized, yes? I’ve let your child live, brought back your oaf of a husband, and even delivered gold. All I seek is partnership. You and I can still be friends.” Such a ghastly grin, a slit in scar tissue. I tried to hide my shudder.
“I’ll finish,” I promised him.
“How long?”
“Not long with the gold. It’s the seed I needed from the beginning.”
“How long?” His dwarf danced behind him, like a child needing to pee.
“A day or two to finish formulating the Spit of the Moon and then transferring its purity. The last step is dangerous, having killed more than one alchemist. Are you ready for risk?”
“My whole life is a risk.” Richter blinked when he said it.
“Partners, but nothing more. You must never touch me or my child.”
“I’m talking about minds, not bodies.” How his eyes lied as he said it! Once he had what he wanted, we’d just hours to live.
And to avenge his deformity, he’d humiliate and ravish me before the end.