know about this witch is what the house-goblin has told you?”
“Yes . . . But he is very frightened. He did not want to leave the house, and now he is lost and confused, even among his own people. Truly, he has seen dreadful things.”
“House-goblins frighten easily,” said Fern. “Most of them, anyway. Tell the queen . . . tell the queen I would like to question him myself. This matter of another witch could be important; our information must be carefully sifted. Since this is such a serious issue, perhaps the queen would honor me with her presence here. Then we could consider the problem together.”
“Here?” said Skuldunder. “The queen?”
“She would be my most royal guest,” said Fern—implying, Will thought, that lesser royalty came to her flat on a regular basis.
“I will ask her,” Skuldunder said doubtfully. He retreated toward the window, fading into a pattern of shadows.
“Well?” Will inquired.
“It’s probably nothing,” Fern conceded. “A storm in an acorn cup. I’m just curious to meet Mabb. Ragginbone is too aloof. Even a witch needs friends.”
“Especially a witch,” said her brother.
“She reminds me of another case I had,” said the new doctor. The medical team who briefed Kaspar Walgrim normally varied little, but every so often they would call for a second opinion, and a third, and a fourth, and another check would wing its way toward the clinic’s bank balance. The doctors accepted advice to prove they were not rigid or hidebound; Walgrim needed both the input of wisdom and the output of checks to prove he was doing something. The regularity of his attendance had fallen with the passage of time; now he came only once a fortnight, or once a month.
“What is the point?” he said to his son. “She doesn’t know we’re here.” But Lucas was still there, night after night, though his days were filled with a feverish intensity of work that he hoped might divert his mind if not his heart. He was on hand when the new doctor dropped in—not a fifth opinion so much as an interested party, an expert in coma cases to whom Dana was a novelty specimen. At the remark, which was addressed to the colleague accompanying him, something in Lucas’s brain switched to alert.
“It was when I was up in Yorkshire,” the doctor continued. “Another girl—a bit older than this one, but not much. I don’t know if that’s significant. She had a history of what looked like psychosomatic symptoms, and the case itself had several bizarre features . . . However, there’s nothing like that here. It just seems to have started in the same way: a night out, too much to drink, and then total blackout. Slowed heart rate—“ he lifted an eyelid “—eyes turned up. No known allergies?”
“None,” said the other.
“No physical injury?”
“A minor contusion on the head. Nothing serious. Her skull is normal. Erm . . . this is her brother.”
“Lucas Walgrim,” he introduced himself, extending a hand. “What happened to the girl in Yorkshire?”
“She revived. Very suddenly. After about a week.” For no obvious reason, the doctor looked uncomfortable. “She discharged herself the same day.”
“The same day?” His fellow medic was startled.
The new doctor shrugged. “It was an odd business. One moment, barely alive; the next, sitting up, throwing her weight around, getting out of bed. I believe the first thing she did was to dump her fiancé. Most people would have given themselves a couple of days to think it over, but not her. She was . . . difficult.”
I like her already, thought Lucas. I want Dana up and about, being difficult with doctors.
He said: “I’d like to talk to that girl.”
“You know that’s not possible. Patient confidentiality.”
“You’ve already breached that confidentiality,” Lucas pointed out, utilizing a manner that had been honed to an edge in backrooms and boardrooms. “You’ve discussed various aspects of her case with someone outside your profession. I want to talk to her. Arrange it.”
“Out of the question.”
His colleague interceded with a smoothness doubtless oiled by the size and regularity of the Walgrim checks. “Perhaps we can deal with this another way. If my associate were to contact the patient in question and explain the position, giving her your name and number, I’m sure—under the circumstances—she would be willing to get in touch with you. Although I’m afraid she won’t be of much help. The patient rarely understands the illness: that’s why they come—”
“Thank you,” Lucas cut in. “I’d be grateful if you would do that. I’ll