The Chemickal Marriage

how quickly his fortunes had changed – from free man to prisoner to fleeing through the streets – all of a piece with a city set spinning on a different and degraded axis. His first struggle with the Cabal had been a battle to gain control over institutions – Crabbé suborning the Ministries, for example, but the Ministries had been left intact. Now it seemed possible that anything could fall, any edifice could be torn down.
    Chang sighed. If he lived, Svenson was their prisoner – as he was Foison’s, as Celeste Temple had been taken by the Contessa. Was that what had become of their grand alliance – tethered familiars, each to a different demon?
    The lead men signalled a stop. Chang bent over, still wary of the pursuit they had outpaced. Foison wiped the sweat from his neck with two fingers and then, in a disquieting gesture, licked them, an animal seeking salt. Their path had dead-ended near the sounds of a crowd, whose voices echoed over the rooftops …
    ‘Two more avenues and we will find a coach,’ said Foison.
    ‘Or more empty stables.’ Foison did not respond. Chang spat on the cobbles. ‘Come – we’re alone. No one will hear. What does it mean that the child is dead? What does it mean that Mrs Kraft is healed? Why did your master choose me over Celeste Temple?’
    ‘None of that is my concern.’
    ‘Someone might be saved. You can choose.’
    ‘And follow your example – the nation of one man? Vanity.’
    The blend of doom and duty drove Chang mad, almost as bad as the damned Doctor –
    Doctor Svenson. Chang thrust out his hand. ‘The message, from the stable!’ Foison took the paper from his coat and Chang snatched it away. The black Executioner had been sketched like a gypsy’s Tarot trump, in blunt strokes of a primitive, emblematic power – the axe in his hands, the casket at his feet …
    ‘Explain,
’
said Foison.
    ‘Vanity. The Chemickal Marriage
.’ Chang tapped the new-made slash of ink. ‘The Executioner puts on the blindfold to kill – that mark is the order for Bronque, for our lives.’
    ‘We know that.’
    ‘Yes, but look at the image itself – torn from an old book –’
    ‘So? Drusus Schoepfil has copied his uncle’s esoteric habits –’
    ‘Do
you
know the details of this story –
The Chemickal Marriage
?’
    ‘Should I? My duties do not –’
    Chang cut him off. ‘Precisely the point. You know it exists, but only because of your master’s interest.’ Chang held up the paper. ‘Schoepfil is no different. He knows the topic and pours himself into learning – from
books
. But the Comte d’Orkancz abandoned books to make his
own
versions – do you see? Schoepfil cannot know the Comte’s vision of
The Chemickal Marriage
, because he cannot have seen the painting.’
    Foison paused. ‘And you have?’
    ‘We all did – Svenson, Celeste Temple and myself. A memory from before the canvas burnt – preserved in blue glass.’
    One of Foison’s men hissed from the road ahead. Foison extended a palmso the man should wait, never taking his eyes from Chang. ‘So you lied. Why raise the question now?’
    Chang thrust the paper back at Foison. ‘Because
this
is not from any book.’
    A line of letters crossed the top and bottom of the image, so closely written as to appear decorative, like an engraved frame – yet without question recently added in the same black ink as the blindfold. Foison read the top line aloud. ‘ “Virgo Lucifera. No heart but goblet.” ’ He looked to Chang.
    ‘In the Comte’s painting,’ Chang explained, ‘there is no heart in a casket. The Executioner decapitates the Bride and Groom and their blood flows into a goblet. Don’t you see? It’s a message from someone who
does
know the painting, and who saw
me
in the foyer of Schoepfil’s house. To anyone else the words are alchemical nonsense.’
    ‘You believe Doctor Svenson inserted his own message into the one for Bronque?’
    ‘Who else? That first line is to prove his identity to me. Now read the second.’
    Foison rotated the page, for the letters on the lower edge had been written upside down. ‘ “Mother Child Heir … Virgin Lucifera … I’m sorry –” ’
    ‘The symbols!’ Chang ran a finger along the text, as if he were schooling a child. ‘ “Mother Child Heir” is followed by two elemental signs taken from the Comte’s work, for iron and wind. “Virgin Lucifera” is followed by signs for water and fire. Svenson had no time, so used code