The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters

below her and the flicking catch of a match. Miss Temple scooted forward on her belly and gained a wider view of the room. With a tremor of fear she saw, almost directly beneath, the Contessa’s large party. How had they not heard them in the corridor? Next to the Contessa—smoking a fresh cigarette in her holder—stood Francis Xonck and Crabbé, and behind them at least six figures in black coats, carrying cudgels. She glanced again to Chang and Svenson and saw Chang’s attention focused elsewhere, underneath the opposite balcony. Glittering in the shadows, as the orange flames from the Comte’s crucibles reflected off her skin, stood the third glass woman, Angelique, silently waiting. Miss Temple stared at her, and was just beginning to examine the woman’s body with the new understanding that it was the object of Chang’s ardent affection—and in fact, its consummation, for the woman
was
a whore—which meant … Miss Temple’s face became flushed, suddenly jumbling her memories from the book with thoughts of Chang and Angelique—when she shook her head and forced her attention to the rather agitated conversation below.
    “We would not have bothered you,” began Xonck, his eyes drawn with some distaste to the spectacle before them, “save we are unaccountably unable to locate a workable
key
.”
    “Where is Lorenz?” asked the Comte.
    “Readying the airship,” replied Crabbé, “and surrounded by a host of soldiers. I would prefer to leave him be.”
    “What of Bascombe?”
    “He accompanies Lord Robert,” snorted the Contessa. “Wewill meet him with the trunk of books and his ledger—but he does not have a key either, and for any number of reasons I would prefer not to involve him.”
    Crabbé rolled his eyes. “Mr. Bascombe is absolutely loyal to us all—”
    “Where is
your
key?” the Comte asked, glaring pointedly at the Deputy Minister.
    “It is not
my
key at all,” replied Crabbé somewhat hotly. “I do not believe I am even the last to have it—as the Contessa says, we were collecting the books, not
exploring
them—”
    “Who
was
the last to have it?” cried the Comte, openly impatient. He shifted his grip on the repulsive metal device in his hand.
    “We do not
know
,” snapped the Contessa. “I believe it was Mr. Crabbé. He believes it was Mr. Xonck.
He
believes it was Blenheim—”
    “
Blenheim
?” scoffed the Comte.
    “Not Blenheim directly,” said Xonck. “
Trapping
. I believe Trapping took it to look at one of the books—perhaps idly, perhaps not—”
    “
Which
book?”
    “We do not
know
,” said the Contessa. “We were
indulging
him—I am still not satisfied as to his death. Blenheim either took it from Trapping’s pocket when the body was moved, or he was given it by Lord Robert.”
    “I take it Blenheim is still missing?”
    The Contessa nodded.
    “The question is whether he is dead,” said Crabbé, “or
independent
?”
    “Perhaps we can
query
Lord Robert,” said the Comte.
    “We could if he retained his memory,” observed Xonck. “But as you know it has been put into a book—a book we cannot find. If we did find it, we could not safely read it without a key! It is ridiculous!”
    “I see …” said the Comte, his brooding face dark with thought. “And
what
has happened to Herr Flaüss?”
    “We do not
know
!” cried Crabbé.
    “But don’t you think we should?” asked the Comte, reasonably. He turned to Angelique and clapped his hands. At once she stepped into the light like a tamed tiger, drawing the wary attention of every other person in the room.
    “If there is someone hiding here,” the Comte said to her, looking up to the balconies, “
find
them.”
    Miss Temple spun to Chang and Svenson, her eyes wide. What could they do? She searched around them—there was no other place to hide, to shield themselves! Doctor Svenson silently rolled back on his heels and pulled out the gun, his eyes measuring the distance to Angelique. Chang put a hand on the Doctor’s arm. The Doctor shrugged it off and eased back the hammer. Miss Temple felt the strange blue coldness approaching her mind. Any moment they would be found.
    Instead, the pregnant silence in the room was broken by a crash from the opposite balcony, directly above Angelique. In an instant Xonck had the serpentine dagger in his hand and was sprinting to the narrow stairs. Miss Temple heard a scuffle and then a woman’s gasping protests as Xonck dragged her twisting body