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Hattie leans back on her throne and laces her fingers together.
“There are many ghosts in here. Are you looking for one in particular?”
“An old one. A little mad they say. He thinks he knows secrets.”
Hattie nods.
“Yes. The old Roman. I know of him. Why do you want him?”
Delon smiles.
“We want to know his secrets.”
Hattie glances back at us.
“There are six of you. That’s a lot of people for a dead man’s secrets.”
“Too many people, if you ask me,” says Delon. “I’d prefer to be doing this on my own.”
“Then you’re a fool,” says Hattie. “No one goes alone here. Especially to the old ghost. He’s at the very bottom of this castle keep, in the old baths in the basement.”
“You mean a spa?”
Hattie makes a face.
“No. Roman baths. Saltwater baths from the sea. Some lunatic’s idea of a health balm. Me, I’d rather bathe with rats than the fetid ocean that surrounds this place.”
Finally, Hattie and I agree on something.
The rest of us sit on the patched furniture across the room from Her Royal Highness. Diogo and his crew stand around us. One with close-cropped white hair has noticed Candy’s shiny backpack. He pokes at it with the tip of his sword. Candy pulls the pack onto her lap.
“We were hoping you might take us to the old Roman,” Delon says.
Hattie shakes her head.
“Can’t. It’s not in our territory. It’s the Shoggots’ and we don’t go in there. Hell, we don’t even like to trade with them.”
Diogo has noticed that Vidocq is still holding a vial in one hand. He points to it with a knife and Vidocq gives it to him with a smile. He shakes it and sniffs. Opens the top and gets a face full of acrid white smoke. We’re all choking and coughing by the time the idiot gets the stopper back in.
Hattie looks at our gagging group and says, “I was just telling this gentleman how we don’t like trading with the Shoggots, except some of the more gullible among us do, don’t we, Diogo?”
He waves away some smoke and smiles at her.
“Yes, Mama.”
“Those swords and knives the boys like to show off. Trust me, they don’t have the wit among them to make something like that. That’s Shoggot work. They’re good makers. Especially sharp things.”
“Maybe you could take us to meet them,” says Delon.
She raises her eyebrows.
“When I called you a fool earlier, I meant it figuratively. Now you’re making me think I might have a been a bit too generous.”
“But you know how to contact them.”
“Why would I do that?”
Delon reaches into his bag and pulls out another small bottle.
