Scholar of Decay Read Free

father, it was hardly surprising that he paled. “I’m not like him, Mama! I’m not!”
    “Good.”
    He basked in her smile.
    “Perhaps I will bring you something from the party.”
    “Thank you, Mama!”
    Watching their embrace, Louise ground her teeth. No one was closer to Jacqueline than Jacques. What a weapon the boy would make against her sister! In her hands he could be a lever to pry Jacqueline out of power and into the grave. But she’d never get her hands on him.
    There were watchers in the shadows.
    The boy’s grandmama, who’d occasionally questioned her daughter’s technique, had died under questionable circumstances. Although it was doubtful Jacqueline had actually done away with their mother—and no one, Louise acknowledged privately, actually missed the interfering old harpy—her death had made a convenient lesson on how Jacqueline tolerated no interference of any kind with her son.
    Louise scowled. She found the whole thing incredibly frustrating.
    “Wouldn’t you hate it if your face froze in that expression?” Jacqueline murmured as she passed. “If you’re coming with me, I’m leaving now.”

    “Look at it, Aurek! They must have dozens of lamps in every room!” Dmitri Nuikin steadied himself on the high prow of the canalboat and leaned dangerously far forward. “The reflectionlooks as though they’ve scattered jewels on the water!”
    “If you’re not careful, you’ll be in the water with them,” Aurek cautioned grimly. “And I doubt you’d survive the experience.”
    His younger brother snorted derisively and remained where he was. “It’d take more than a swim to kill me. Look at how that boat’s lit up! Why don’t we have colored lanterns?”
    “Because I didn’t wish to pay for them.”
    Theirs wasn’t the only craft arriving at the private dock. Most of the party-goers had taken the river road rather than risk the bridges—especially now that cooler weather had made the stench of the water almost bearable. Their boatman jostled for space, was jostled in turn, and when a group of a half-dozen young men and women blithely ordered their larger vessel in between his boat and the dock, he quietly muttered curses.
    As one, the six turned and smiled, an impressive array of long yellow teeth flashing in the lamplight. They were dressed alike in the glittering tatters currently fashionable with the young, and all shared a distinct family resemblance. Of the four young men, two were obviously identical twins, impossible to tell apart. One of the young women was dark, the other brilliantly fair. The tallest of the men, none of whom were very tall, shook his head slowly from side to side. “Stupid, stupid, stupid!” he caroled and rested an elaborately shod foot on the gunnel of Aurek’s boat.
    He was stronger than he looked.
    The canalboat rocked under his push. A swell of murky water lapped hungrily up and over the side.
    A heartbeat later, Aurek leaped to his feet, one hand preventing his brother from charging forward, the other curved to cup the night air. “Enough!”
    The young man glared at him, lip curled. “I’ll say when it’s enough, and …” He frowned. Survival in Pont-a-Museau wasinfinitely more likely if challenges were issued only when the fight could be won. What he saw in this stranger’s face told him three-to-one odds were not quite good enough. His nose twitched as though he smelled something unexpected, and with a sharp jerk of his head, he indicated that his companions should disembark.
    “But, Yves …” protested one of the twins, clutching at his sleeve.
    “But nothing,” Yves snarled, following them up onto the dock. While the others started toward the house, he took a long last look at the stranger. “Muzzle your boatman,” he advised, slapping the words down between them. “We have very good ears.”
    “Are you just going to let that insult stand?” Dmitri demanded, twitching his vest out of his brother’s grip and glaring at