who had followed Saint-Lucq since his arrival on Ile Notre-Dame-aux-Ecailles, two were lying dead in the mud, now darkened by their blood, at the end of an alley where they had thought they could easily put paid to their victim — who was armed, to be sure, but also alone and visibly unaware of the danger he was in. As for the third drac, he was currently being held at bay by the point of a rapier that
was nicking his larynx, and struggling to comprehend how the human could have surprised and then overcome them. All three dracs had entered the alley with swords in their fists, their senses searching the shadows and the silence, and suddenly death had struck twice.
In the nocturnal darkness, with two small red disks in the place of eyes, Saint-Lucq was no more than a silhouette brandishing his rapier — a rapier which did not so much as tremble as it caught a small sliver of the pale moonlight.
'First, you will listen,' he said in a calm voice, 'and then you will think. And lastly, you will speak . . . Don't speak until you have thought, and above all, don't speak until you have listened carefully. Do you understand? You may answer.'
'Yes,' replied the drac.
'Perfect. This is the moment when you listen. Seven black dracs. Mercenaries. They have been in Paris for five days now, and in those five days no one has seen them. That can only mean one thing: that they have been hiding in Les Ecailles for the past five days. I want to find them and I'm counting on you to lead me to them. A mere piece of information or two shall satisfy me. That, and nothing less . . . Have you understood what I just said?'
The drac, still immobilised by the point of the sword threatening to pierce his throat, nodded.
'Good,' said Saint-Lucq. 'Now, this is the moment when you think . . .'
At La Renardiere, Alessandra saw the sun rise and knew it was approaching the hour when the chambermaid would knock at her door. The young Italian woman's pallor betrayed her anxious state. Seated in an armchair before her window, with a shawl wrapped around her shoulders and Scylla in her lap, she stared blankly out at the scenery and started whenever she spied signs of movement in the sky.
Charybdis had still not come home.
The two dragonnets had been slipping out of the manor each morning for four days now, and flying to Paris to accomplish a mission whose importance they scarcely understood hut whose urgency they nevertheless felt. They returned each afternoon, before their mistress was brought back to La Renardiere and her apartment was once again visited.
The previous day, however, Scylla had been alone in the cage when Alessandra returned.
The adventuress was immediately worried, but she had to deal with her most pressing concern first, making sure no one noticed the absence of the male dragonnet. Luckily, Charybdis and Scylla were twins. By leaving their cage open and letting the female come and go freely, all Alessandra had to do was to call 'Charybdis' from time to time in order to convince others that both little reptiles were present, if never together in the same room.
Finally they had all left her alone and La Donna, from her window, had scanned the skies all night, tormented by the long wait. In vain. Dawn had come, and now morning. La Renardiere began to stir and Alessandra would soon have to show herself, to endure the hypocritical chatter and attentions of her chambermaid, to put on a brave face with Leprat, and then let herself be taken by coach to see that miserable Laffemas, in his no less depressing Chatelet . . .
Assuming that Charybdis's disappearance wasn't noticed by someone first, would Alessandra be able to maintain the illusion of normality for so long?
She doubted it.
Charybdis and Scylla were far more than pets to her. She adored them and regarded them as her allies, partners whose faithful services she readily employed.
Too readily perhaps.
If anything had happened to Charybdis she would never forgive herself, although she knew she'd had no choice but to use her dragonnets to locate her pursuers' hiding place within Paris. It was in fact the second part of her plan. First, deliver herself up to the cardinal, be held at La Renardiere, draw the dracs to Paris, and force them to establish a base in the only area within a radius often leagues