The Universe in 34 Time by Leona Francombe

Author:Leona Francombe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Indie Author Project
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 46

A WOMAN EMERGED onto the bridge, although she was only obviously female through her voice. She was very tall and thin and had no discernable feminine contours. In her dark-green oilskin and high rubber boots, she resembled a malnourished gamekeeper. Her graying hair seemed to have been shorn with a blunt knife. A pair of diamond stud earrings caught the failing light and hinted at her gender.

Gloria von Helden loped across the drawbridge.

“Xairetízo ti melodía mésa sou!” she exclaimed, and embraced Graf, whom she dwarfed. Her cheekbones had been sculpted by generations of pedigree.

I salute the melody within you. Audrey glanced at Florian in shock. He knew Zar’s greeting, too. She whispered it to Jonas, all the while steadying her nerves. Where were they, exactly? And with whom?

“You haven’t grown much, Friedrich, my dear,” Gloria laughed tunefully. The corners of her eyes fanned with tiny lines. “I’ll have to feed you tonight!” She’d been speaking in German, but switched effortlessly to French and said, “It’s always an honor to meet friends of Olivia Taverner. Welcome!”

The countess embraced the musicians as if they were returning relatives. To Florian she said, “I understand Olivia is your great aunt. Ah, yes…” She sized him up as she might a favorite horse, and ruffled his curls. “You really do look like Schubert!”

Gloria turned to Graf. “It looks as if you’ve finally killed off that ridiculous vehicle. Never mind. There’s an old Škoda you can drive to Prague. It’s the dark-blue one in the stables. The gardener usually uses it, but he’s off on his annual holiday. The keys are in it, I believe.”

She led them over the drawbridge, through the square tower and into a courtyard where several centuries appeared to have been walled in, alive. Torches flanked the main entrance to the castle, and in their lilt, frescoes of Bavarian scenes trembled and flitted around the courtyard walls: village fetes and dances; hunters and wild animals; musicians playing lutes and fiddles…everything in ochre, peach, forest green, misty blue.

The visitors gaped and marveled. Graf broke away to share pleasantries with the countess.

“Are we hostages?” Jonas said under his breath.

“Don’t be an idiot!” Florian snapped, although each of them had detected the foreboding in the others.

“We must not forget that these are Olivia’s friends,” Audrey said, though this reassurance was wearing thin. Olivia Taverner was many hundreds of kilometers away. And in any case, what sort of friend was Gloria von Helden? Even Florian had never heard his great-aunt mention her.

The door between the two torches swung mysteriously open and four fox terriers bounded out.

“Hunde!” cried Jonas. He lay his cello case on the cobblestones and fell to his knees. “Yes, yes, I know,” he murmured into the crush of fur. The dogs yipped and whined and ignored the other newcomers entirely.

“A fellow dog lover, I see,” said Gloria. “They sense it immediately.”

The dogs wandered off to do a round of the courtyard, glancing back at Jonas as if he might join them. He probably would have.

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