He had no doubt the illustrations were lavish and meticulous, detailed to excess, but somehow his curiosity was not up to the challenge of perusal.
By now the commotion at the gate had been settled. Various members of the guard had returned from the fracas, with much muttering and cursing that fell away abruptly as soon as they entered the main house on their way to their rooms, telling Torvald that the master was indeed home and probably asleep. Which was something of a problem, given just how paranoid the bastard was and the likely hiding place of his trove was somewhere in his damned bedroom. Well, the world presented its challenges, and without challenges life was worthless and pointless and, most crucially, devoid of interest.
He moved to the door leading to the hallway, pausing to wrap a cloth about his face, leaving only his eyes free. The cat watched intently. Lifting the latch he tugged the door open and peered out into the corridor. Left, the outer, back wall not three paces away. Right, the aisle reaching all the way through the house. Doors and a central landing for the staircase. And a guard, seated facing that landing. Black hair, red, bulbous nose, protruding lower lip, and enough muscles slabbed on to a gigantic frame to fill out two or three Torvald Noms. The fool was knitting, his mouth moving and brow knotting as he counted stitches.
And there was the horrid cat, padding straight for him.
Torvald quietly closed the door.
He should have strangled the thing.
From the corridor he heard a grunting curse, then boots thumping down the stairs.
Opening the door once more he looked out. The guard was gone, the knitting lying on the floor with one strand leading off down the stairs.
Hah! Brilliant cat! Why, if he met it again he’d kiss it — but nowhere near where it licked itself because there were limits, after all, and anywhere a cat could lick itself was nowhere he’d kiss.
Torvald quickly closed the door behind him and tiptoed up the corridor. A cautious glance down the wide, central staircase. Wherever the cat had run off with the ball of wool, it was out of sight, and so too the guard. He faced the ornate double doors directly behind the vacated wooden chair.
Locked?
Yes.
He drew his dagger and slid the thin blade between the doors.
Ornate decoration was often accompanied by neglect of the necessary mechanisms, and this lock followed the rule, as he felt the latch lift away. Boots sounded downstairs. He tugged open the door and quickly slipped inside, crouching once more. A front room, an office of sorts, with a single lantern on a short wick casting faint light across the desk and its strewn heap of papyrus sheets. A second door, smaller, narrow, behind the desk’s high-backed plush chair.
Torvald Nom tiptoed towards it.
Pausing at the desk to douse the lantern, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, crouching yet lower to squint at the crack beneath the bedroom door, pleased to find no thread of light. Drawing up against the panelled wood with its gold-leaf insets now dull in the gloom. No lock this time. Hinges feeling well oiled. He slowly worked the door open.
Inside, quietly shutting the door behind him.
Soft breathing from the huge four-poster bed. Then a sigh. ‘Sweet sliverfishy, is that you?’
A woman’s husky, whispering voice, and now stirring sounds from the bed.
‘The night stalker this time? Ooh, that one’s fun — I’ll keep my eyes closed and whimper lots when you threaten me to stay quiet. Hurry, I’m lying here, petrified.
Torvald Nom hesitated, truly torn between necessity and. . well, necessity.
He untied his rope belt. And, in a hissing voice, demanded, ‘First, the treasure. Where is it, woman?’
She gasped. ‘That’s a good voice! A new one! The treasure, ah! You know where it is, you horrible creature! Right here between my legs!’
Torvald rolled his eyes. ‘Not that one. The other one.’
‘If I don’t tell you?’
‘Then I will have my way with you.’
‘Oh! I say nothing! Please!’
Damn, he sure messed that one up. There was no way she’d not know he wasn’t who he was pretending to be, even when that someone was pretending to be someone else. How to solve this?
‘Get on your stomach. Now, on your hands and knees. Yes, like that.’
‘You’re worse than an animal!’
Torvald paused at the foot of the bed. Worse than an animal? What did that mean? Shaking his head, he climbed on to the bed. Well, here goes nothing.
A short time later: ‘Sliverfishy! The new elixir? Gods, it’s spectacular! Why, I can’t call you sliverfishy any more, can I? More like. . a salmon! Charging upstream! Oh!’
‘The treasure, or I’ll use this knife.’ And he pressed the cold blade of the dagger against the outside of her right thigh.
She gasped again. ‘Under the bed! Don’t hurt me! Keep pushing, damn you! Harder! This one’s going to make a baby — I know it! This time, a baby!’
