The Emperor of All Things - By Paul Witcover Page 0,165

have made certain of that – but it is less complete, for I do not have total control over that establishment, as I do this one. You have been in the Old Wolf’s den. There the timepieces march in strict conformity to each other, like soldiers on parade. The temporal emanations arising thereby are not chaotic but regular. They do not result in an obscuring cloud, but instead an open window, a doorway – an opening through which Doppler can enter our world … or, rather, through which his influence may enter, for I have reason to believe that Doppler himself cannot cross whatever boundary divides the worlds, or at any rate chooses not to, perhaps to spare himself the addiction he inflicted upon his fellows. Or it may be that none of them has the power to visit our world in the flesh any more, as, to judge by myths and legends, they, or some of them, must once have done. Perhaps something prevents them, bars them from direct access to us. I have my theories about that, but I will leave them for another time. Whatever the truth, their agents are active here – men like Aylesford, corrupted to their influence, who may not even be aware of whom or rather what they truly serve. But no matter. I have strayed from my subject. My point is that the watch is no longer here, under my roof. The Old Wolf has it now, and thus it is no longer veiled from Doppler’s view. No doubt he has already located it. And all his attention is fixed upon it – upon retrieving it. He will not notice us.’

‘Why, if you know all this – or, I should say, are convinced of it, as it is plain to me that you are – would you give up the watch so easily to Grimalkin? And having done so, why would you not take it back from Master Magnus when it came into his possession?’

‘Good questions all.’ Longinus nodded approvingly. ‘I am glad to see you still have your wits about you, Mr Quare. You shall need them. As for Grimalkin, you were in no position to judge what took place in the attic that night, perched as you were upon the rooftop. The fact is, I did not give up the watch easily. The defence of it cost good men their lives. That I did not care to throw my own life away into the bargain cannot be counted against me. As it is, I am fortunate to have escaped alive; why, the brigand held a blade to my throat! You may see the scab, if it please you. As to your second question, the answer is simple. Once Master Magnus had his hands on a timepiece that interested him, there was no getting it away from him – I had ample experience of that, believe me. And so I could only watch helplessly as he turned his prodigious intellect upon the mystery of the hunter. Helplessly, yes … but also with hope, for surely if there were any mortal man equipped to solve its secrets, that man would be my old friend and master. Alas, it was not to be.’

‘So Grimalkin told me, when I took the watch from her.’

Longinus’s eyebrows shot up. ‘Her?’

‘Yes. Grimalkin is a woman.’

At this, Longinus burst into laughter.

‘You don’t believe me?’

‘Oh, I believe you, Mr Quare, as far as it goes. Which isn’t very far. That woman was not Grimalkin.’

‘Master Magnus was of the same opinion. He did not believe it possible that a mere woman could be such a dangerous and successful thief.’

‘A regrettable prejudice,’ Longinus said. ‘There is nothing a woman cannot do, as I know very well from personal experience.’

‘Then how can you be so certain that this woman was not Grimalkin?’

‘Why, because I am Grimalkin, of course.’

Once more, Quare found himself shocked into silence. Lord Wichcote, Longinus, Michael Gray, now Grimalkin – was there anyone in the world whom his host had not been at one time or another?

‘I had not intended to reveal myself just yet,’ Longinus continued blithely, ‘but as you have raised the issue …’

Quare shook his head. ‘No. This is entirely too much, sir.’

‘How better to pursue my researches into time than as a thief? How better to gain access to timepieces that would otherwise be beyond my grasp? After my return from Märchen, as I resumed my work with Magnus, I resumed as well my solitary