“Achoo!”
“Bless you,” both Will and Liesl said automatically, at the same time.
“I didn’t sneeze,” Liesl said.
“I didn’t either,” Will said, fear creeping into his voice. “Liesl, I think—”
The rest of his words were drowned out. Lanterns flashed on around them, and suddenly the house was filled with shouting. A woman was crowing, “Found ’em at last! And didn’t I know they’d be together!” Liesl and Will felt rough hands seize them—in their fear, they could not have said how many hands, nor how many bodies materialized from the darkness around them. Everything was confusion, an inhuman wailing almost like a cat’s yowling, and a rapid stuttering of sneezes, one after another, and the walls lit up with dancing shadows.
Will saw an enormous face, white and terrible in the glow of a lantern. Its smile was as broad as a half-moon, and beneath it was another face—an animal’s face—two bright yellow eyes and a small nose. Terrified, Will had the impression that the faces were fused together and he was staring at a two-headed demon.
“There you are,” the upper face said. “I knew I’d catch up with you sooner or later. I have a little present for you.”
Will saw two enormous hands coming toward him, holding a black piece of fabric. He thought, I am going to be suffocated.
He thought, I am going to die now.
And then, just as Mo slipped a heavy woolen hat on Will’s head, he fainted.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
FOR A FEW SECONDS AFTER AWAKENING, WILL did not know where he was. The small and faded room, the pain in his lower back, and the familiar mutterings of the alchemist made him think for a moment he was back at the alchemist’s apartments, and the past few days—the misplaced magic, the flight, the train, and Liesl—had been a dream.
“Did you enjoy your nap?” Po asked sarcastically.
Will jumped, and immediately felt a sharp pain in his shoulders and wrists. The ghost flickered just to his left, then materialized on the other side of Liesl. Liesl and Will were sitting side by side in two rickety chairs. They had each been handcuffed with their arms behind them, and their ankles had been bound to the chairs with heavy rope.
Will felt his cheeks burn. He could not believe he had fainted in front of Liesl. “What—what happened?”
“We were ambushed,” Liesl said dully. “And they’ve taken the box.”
Will shook his head, trying to clear it. The oil fumes in the room—from several lanterns, placed at intervals on the wooden floor—made thinking difficult. Will guessed they were in the dining room. There was a long wooden table in the center of the room, surrounded by several chairs whose silk cushions were long faded to a dingy white, and torn apart by insects.
Standing in one corner were the old woman from the train, the policeman, and the guard from the Lady Premiere’s town house. The guard was still carrying a cat in a sling around his chest. This, Will realized with a sense of shame, was the two-headed monster who had confronted him in the hall, the one who had so terrified Will in the dark.
The old woman seemed to be berating him. She jabbed her cane onto the wooden floor for emphasis.
“Of course it’s necessary that they be kept under lock and key!” she was saying. “It’s the definition of necessary! Those two—ACHOO!—are criminals, and we are doing our public duty by—ACHOO!—bringing them to justice!”
“Criminals, eh?” Mo was rubbing his forehead and looking confused. “They just look like two kids to me.”
“A criminal disguise! Didn’t you hear what the—ACHOO!—Lady Premiere said? In possession of stolen property! ACHOO! And fugitives to boot! ACHOO!”
“I don’t know,” Mo said doubtfully.
The door of the room banged open, admitting a gust of old, cold air. The Lady Premiere swept regally in from the hallway, followed by the alchemist.
“We will perform the ceremony here,” she said, gesturing to the old dining room table. “I will see it work with my own eyes. There will be no mistakes this time.”
“No, no,” the alchemist hastened to assure her. “Absolutely none.”
“We will wait for Augusta,” the Lady Premiere said sharply, “since she has been so instrumental to us.”
Next to Will, Liesl began to tremble. “Augusta’s here,” she whispered. “She means to kill me, I’m sure of it.”
“I won’t let her,” Will said, with a confidence he did not feel. “Don’t worry, Liesl. We’ll figure out a way to escape.”
“How?” Po flickered. “Do you intend to faint them into submission?”