As we burst into his office at something like breakneck speed, he looked up from his desk with a startled air. It was probably the fastest anyone had moved in that building for nearly sixty years. “Mr. Quinn?” he said, blinking in astonishment. “Is that…is that aspirit thew?”
“Good afternoon, Professor Throckmorton. It is.”
Throckmorton blinked again. I was beginning to think that he lived in this office, perhaps inhabiting that very chair day in and day out. Livia stood by the window, hands clasped before her, demure as ever, but with a tension that mirrored Clementine’s. “But…” Throckmorton said. “But it’s aman.”
“Precisely,” Clem said with a perfunctory bow. “Just as you say. A man.”
Shaking his head, Throckmorton endeavored to overcome his wonder and move on to yet another perplexity. “But whose thew is it? I know of no enchanter who has a male thew.”
Clem smiled. “He is my thew. Although, to be frank, I dislike the sound of that, and it may be better to say that this spirit, Samuel May, and I are bound to each other.”
“Youboundthis spirit to yourself? You? So young? But how? And why?” He was so astounded by his own questions that he actually rose several inches from his chair, like a balloon drifting free. Then he collapsed back down in the chair, overcome.
“Ah! Interesting questions.” Clem held up a hand to enumerate her replies. “How? Because I am not a member of the Cisneros Society”—Throckmorton’s eyes popped at the mention of this august body—“I accomplished it the traditional way. By traveling into the realm. Why? For many reasons, but among them, because Sam knows as well as I do the crimes committed by the Cisneros Society. Now, thanks to Sam, we know how your thew was acquired.”
Throckmorton gaped. The loose tendrils of his white hair fluttered over his scalp. He turned in his chair with effort to look at Livia, and then he returned his gaze to Clementine. He blinked beseechingly. “I don’t understand,” he said piteously. “Crimes? How…how my thew was acquired?”
“Will you persist in the false claim that you ventured into the spirit realm and found her there yourself?”
Throckmorton clasped a hand to his mouth, hoping, perhaps, that this would prevent the truth from spilling out of him. “What are you saying?”
“Sam had the misfortune of being coerced into ‘roping’ thews for the Cisneros Society. Is that not how Livia was found in the spirit realm? Not by you, but by a roper?”
Abruptly, Throckmorton shifted from confused to indignant. “And what if I did rely on another man to find the spirit? That was no crime. I paid my dues. I designed that damnably ridiculous armor with swans on it. Quite reluctantly, I might add, and the acquisition of a thew was only fair recompense.”
“So one act of coercion justifies another? Justifies two others?” Clem reached into her jacket pocket and withdrew a small lead case about the size of a flask. It was the case Vera had delivered to Keel House.
“What?”Throckmorton rose tremulously to his feet, revealing a pair of tweed pants that were covered with crumbs, no doubt the remnants of his most recent meal. “You ungrateful thief.” His voice was bitter with fury. “I’ve been nothing but kind to you, and this is how you repay me.”
“Youhavebeen kind to me,” Clem acknowledged quietly. “Which is why we have bothered to come here at all. You should know that Sam has just transformed Karl Draken into a serpent.” Throckmorton’s small eyes widened with awe. “But the fact remains that several years ago, you allowed a young man to travel into the realm on your behalf and find a spirit for you. That spirit was not yours to take. Not only because you didn’t find her yourself, but because her life was stolen by Draken. She was forced to end her life to serve as a thew. She must be set free.”
The effect upon Throckmorton was severe. He sank into his chair heavily and pitched forward onto the desk, resting his head in his hands. We waited in silence for several seconds. Livia was watching Throckmorton with an unreadable expression. She did not seem resentful, as I would have been. She seemed, almost, to feel sorry for him.
“I loathe them,” Throckmorton said wearily. “I loathed them then, and I loathe them now. Vain, grasping, power-hungry prats.It is all true.” He lifted his head and turned to Livia. “But they gave meyou. You’ve been a such an aid to me, Livia. You’ve been a patient companion to a querulous old hermit. I’m eternally grateful to you.”
He glanced at Clem. “Take it. Take the shroud,” he said, waving his hand. He did not look defeated. Somehow, despite what he had just confessed and despite the fact that Livia did not need his permission to leave, he looked magnanimous, as if he had just bestowed upon her a great favor.
Clem bowed. “Thank you.” For a moment Livia and Clementine stared at each other across the room, and then Livia burst across the space and enfolded Clementine in her arms.
“There, there,” Livia said. Her voice was soft and soothing. “We are together now at last. You’ve done it, my brave, dear Clem.”
Clem’s eyes, squeezed shut, ran with tears. She buried her face in Livia’s shoulder, and she shuddered with the force of a sob. “I thought I’d never get you back,” she whispered.
“Never mind,” Livia said, as if calming a child. “Never mind now.”
Throckmorton looked at them, flummoxed once more. He looked at me for an explanation. I took pity on the old fool. “In her lifetime, Professor Throckmorton, Livia’s name was Lydia Quiñones, or Lydia Quinn. She is Clem’s mother.”
Sam: The Arbor
Esconder: It isn’t possible, technically speaking, to render a thing invisible. But it is possible to conceal things in plain sight, andesconderis the simplest means of doing so.
—Euphemia Parra,Encantos de palabra(translation mine)
Saturday, September 29, 1888
A short time later, we were once again aboard the horseless carriage, now with rather less space on the driver’s seat. But Clem needed to see the road to drive, she and her mother wouldn’t be parted, and I certainly wasn’t going to ride inside. As a result, we were all crammed together, Clem and Lydia very happily so, while Clem clung to her mother and directed the carriage simultaneously.
“I’ve been so worried for you,” Lydia said to Clem. “That last note you sent me…”
