She didn’t look at him, and he didn’t look at her.
“An informant,” said Séverin, with equal coldness. “He also told me the Sleeping Palace is somewhere in Siberia.”
“Siberia?” repeated Hypnos. “That place… it’s full of ghosts.”
Hypnos looked around the room, perhaps expecting someone to agree with him. The others stared at him blankly.
He pressed on. “Well, it was before my time… but my father once told me about something strange that happened there years ago. There were stories of terrible sounds near Lake Baikal, like girls screaming for their lives. It terrified the locals, and got to be so bad that the Russian faction, House Dazbog, asked the Orderto intervene. My father sent a small unit of mind Forging artists to detect if anyone was being controlled. But no one ever found anything.”
“And it just stopped?” asked Laila.
Hypnos nodded. “Eventually. The locals claimed girls were being murdered, but they never found any bodies.” In a smaller voice, he added: “I hope the Sleeping Palace isn’t in Siberia.”
Enrique winced. “I think the name alone confirms it… The etymology of the word ‘Siberia’ isn’t exactly clear, but it does sound remarkably close to the Siberian Tatar word forsleeping land, which would besib ir. Hence,Sleeping Palace. But maybe I’m wrong,” he added quickly when he saw the panic on Hypnos’s face. “Where are the Tezcat spectacles anyway? A bank? A museum?”
“A mansion,” said Séverin.
He tapped the Mnemo bug pinned to his lapel. The Forged creature shivered to life, its jewel-colored wings whirring and its pincers clicking as it opened its jaws and projected an image onto the bookshelf showing a huge waterfront mansion overlooking the Neva River. He’d written the street name in the margins:Angliskaya Naberezhnava. The English Embankment of St. Petersburg, Russia.
“That’s… a big house,” said Enrique.
“It’s in Russia?” asked Zofia, her eyes narrowing.
Séverin switched the image to another external shot of the waterfront mansion. “The Tezcat spectacles are concealed in a private collection in the home of an art dealer. The room itself is called the Chamber of Goddesses, but I could find no information—”
Enrique squeaked. “I’ve heard of that installation! It’s hundreds of years old… No one knows the original sculptor. If itissculpture. At least, that’s my guess. I’ve been dying to see it!” He beamed at the room, sighing. “Can youimaginewhat’s in the Chamber of Goddesses?”
Zofia raised an eyebrow. “Goddesses?”
“Well, that’s just the title of the room,” sniffed Enrique.
“The title is lying?”
“No, the title isevocativeof the art, but it could be something else.”
Zofia frowned. “Sometimes I don’t understand art.”
Hypnos raised a glass. “Hear, hear.”
“So, we have to go into the Chamber, find the Tezcat spectacles, get out,” said Zofia.
“Not quite,” said Séverin. “The Tezcat spectacles are like ornamented glasses, and one critical piece… the lens… is kept around the neck of the art dealer.” He paused to consult his notes: “A Monsieur Mikhail Vasiliev.”
“Why do I know that name…,” said Hypnos, rubbing his jaw. “He owns the Chamber of Goddesses?”
Séverin nodded.
“But why would the Fallen House entrust him with the key to finding their ancient estate and its treasure vaults?” asked Hypnos. “What does he know?”
“And why would he wear something like that around hisneck?”
“He knows nothing, apparently,” said Séverin. “According to my informant, the lens is disguised as a nostalgic keepsake, shaped like the old key that had once unlocked his lover’s bedroom.”
Laila looked down at her lap, pulling at a tassel on her dress. It was a shade of blood red that unnerved him. He didn’t want to look at it.
“But why him?” pressed Enrique.
“He’s important enough to keep his objects safe and insignificant enough that he draws no eyes,” said Séverin. “He’s not related to the Order, so he wouldn’t be brought in for questioning. The most scandalous piece of his past is an affair with a prima ballerina that soured. He got her pregnant, refused to marry her, the baby was stillborn, and she killed herself.” Enrique shuddered and crossed himself. “As a result, Vasiliev went into hiding for a few years, and that’s when he purchased the Chamber of Goddesses. He wears his guilt over the whole affair around his neck.”
