Cat - I need you in Caprona. Bring your best. - Tonino.
***
The overnight train roared down the Italian countryside. In the first class car, a set of three powerful enchanters were napping gently. One of them was a griffin. One was a woman in a tweed suit and a red cloche hat. The last was a young blond man in a white linen suit, and an ineffectively grown mustache.
The young man was a nine-lived enchanter, in government service to England, regulating magic use across the related-worlds. His name was Erik 'Cat' Chant and he had been Chrestomanci for two years. His associates were Marianne Pinhoe, partly his secretary, partly his partner, and Klartch, the griffin he had raised and trained at Klartch's mother's request.
Cat made a snuffling noise in his sleep and stretched out his legs. He'd long-since kicked off his shoes and was warming his feet in the fur of Klartch's back.
The train rounded a turn on the tracks and early morning sun blasted the car. Marianne, who had been keeping up a steady rattling snore to challenge Klartch's whistling noises for noise supremacy in the train car, snorted in her sleep and flung her arm over her eyes. She then turned over in her chair and tugged her legs up beneath her to curl up for a few more precious minutes of sleep.
Cat had gotten the hasty message from his old friend and gotten Mariann and Klartch on a train to Caprona within the hour. He was concerned that Tonino had chosen not to use a phone, or offered more of an explanation for why he needed Cat so urgently.
Cat wondered if Tonino needed Cat, or if Tonino needed Chrestomanci.
***
At the train station in Caprona, Tonino Montana waited, eyes on the schedule board for any notices of delay and pacing to work off his nervous energy. The sun had risen and was gently heating away the autumn morning fog.
In the distance, a train horn blew. Tonino's shoulders lost a fraction of their tenseness and he sat to wait for Cat's train to come into the station. He glanced from side to side, to make sure he hadn't been followed. But the only others waiting for the train were an elderly couple who had told him they were there to pick up their granddaughter, and the various station workers.
The train pulled in smoothly, bright blue and powerful. Porters leapt to attention to get the luggage of the late night passengers off, and open the doors. Tired passengers began to descend from the train.
Tonino's ideas of subtlety were dashed when Klartch, the least subtle sentient being ever to exist, bounded out of the first class car first. Klartch, the size of a lion with the head of an eagle owl and wings capable of carrying him and a human, searched the platform with his eyes until he spotted Tonino and came running towards him. Porters yelped and dodged, not realizing Klartch was more than smart enough to not send them tumbling onto the tracks. "Tonino!"
Tonino leaned down and held his arms out to hug the griffin. Part of his precautions may have been ruined, but he was happy to see Klartch. They'd met and become instant friends, helped in part by Tonino's ability to communicate with cats on a whole different level than most people. Klartch's lion side was particularly fond of Tonino.
Tonino was ruffling Klartch's mane when Cat and Marianne caught up.
"Hullo," said Cat in Italian with a smile.
"Hello," replied Tonino. "I brought a car. I hadn't thought you'd bring Klartch."
Klartch's head-tufts went down in sadness. Tonino rubbed Klartch's mane quicker to reassure him.
"It's good to see you, really! I just wasn't planning on you!"
"You should always plan on me," said Klartch with great dignity. His accent was terrible, Italian wasn't easy with a beak.
"I'm sorry, hello to you too, Ms. Pinhoe," said Tonino. "Shall I take your luggage?"
"I'm fine," said Marianne. "It's a small bag. We didn't know how long we'd be here and I can always just clean what I brought."
Tonino stood up and brushed off his knee where he'd crouched on the ground. "I'm so glad you all came."
"What's this all about, then?" said Cat. "And it's not far too Casa Montana from here, is it? I can walk with Klartch if the car is a problem."
Tonino shook his head. "We're not going to Casa Montana. My problem's on the other side of the city. And, actually, being seen is a problem." As he talked to them, he led them off the [train receiving area] to a more private part of the station.
Cat looked at Marianne, who smiled. "I can solve that one," said Marianne.
"Please don't make me look like a dog again," said Klartch.
"You make a terrible little boy," she replied. "Your hind is always getting stepped on by people who can't see it. But... I'll see what I come up with." She had Cat, Tonino, and Klartch stand together and focused on them, then closed her eyes. In her head, she began to picture them with different features. Cat, she turned into a taller, older, ginger man with a proper mustache to tease him. Tonino became a brunet, and much fatter. She gave herself a similar build and colouring, to appear to possibly be a sibling. Klartch, sadly, became a labrador.
Klartch sighed as he looked down at his feet which would normally be large claws and were currently dog paws.
"I'm sorry," said Marianne. "Nothing came to mind."
They bundled into Tonino's car, Klartch filling up the entire backseat none-too-comfortably, with the other three squished into the front.
Tonino pulled onto the streets of Caprona, beautiful in the morning sun shining on the golden stones that the city was built from. Red shingled roofs glinted with morning dew, and the last fading flowers of balcony gardens gave flashes of colour to their ride.
***
The trio were very excited when they got to their destination after having been filled in by Tonino on the ride. Tonino's big secret was in a small apartment he'd been renting for some solitude, having gained a taste for it in his time at Chrestomanci castle. He loved Casa Montana, but there was no getting around the fact that the Montanas were a huge, bustling, and always always present family.
Still, he didn't spend much time in his hideaway. It was just nice to have it.
Klartch headbutted Tonino's leg. "Come on, open the door!" he said.
"You are the most talkative dog in the world," chided Tonino as he searched for the right key. Finding it, he fit in the lock and opened it up. The apartment was mostly bare except the necessities, but it was the bathroom they were interested in. The sounds of light splashing could be heard from it.
"She's really there," said Marianne with wide eyes.
"I certainly hope so," said Tonino as he led them.
In the bathroom there was a toilet, a sink, a large white clawfoot bath, and a mermaid.
***
Amaranta turned a sweet, unforced smile on Barone Erasmus Arrigoni. "Barone, we continue to search for the last piece of your collection. I assure you, it will be found."
Amaranta was beautiful, short and full-bodied, with long thick black hair and smoky eyes. Her mother would brag she had the smile of an angel. It never met her eyes.
Right now she was using her smile to calm the good Barone, who did not like it when he paid top dollar for an incomplete product.
"Young lady," he said with a thunderous look, "your Mr. Abbot assured me that I would receive satisfaction. Instead, what do I have? Incompetence! He uses inferior materials and the inevitable happens!" Arrigoni reached out to touch Amaranta's cheek.
"And he lets a poor sweet child like you deal with the fallout. A real man would have faced me himself."
Amaranta managed to look touched by the Barone's concern. "My Mr. Abbot is a busy man. But we have sent a man on the trail of our missing item. You will have it soon and then all will be well." She smiled again. The Barone calmed a fraction.
Amaranta liked the Barone calm. When he was calm, his horrible little pet was calm too.
She tried not to look at it. As they were in the Barone's secret drawing room, the entrance to his personal zoo, the horrible little thing had a throne made just for it in the corner. Right now it was watching her, wings twitching and horns looking sharper than ever. The horrible beady eyes narrowed when her own darted to look at it against her will. She was rapidly starting to dislike rabbits.
The wolpertinger stood and stretched, wings spreading to their full length and it hopped towards the Barone, who picked up his pet.
"Ah, Guido, what do you want, my little boy?" he cooed at it. "Do you want to talk to the pretty girl? go on, my dear girl, give him a pet."
Amaranta shuddered inside and held out her hand to pet Guido the wolpertinger's head cautiously and as everytime before, he whipped his head around and sunk his teeth into her hand.
As the Barone apologized profusely, she thought to herself that this business deal couldn't end fast enough.
***
Coral wasn't a large mermaid. She was about the size of a twelve year old girl, if twelve year old girls had fishtails. Klartch was immediately drawn to her, one hybrid magical creature to another. Coral, likewise, found Klartch enchanting and spent much of their questioning giggling and splashing him.
"Lovely voice," said Marianne to Cat in English. "Wish she knew more words to use it with."
Questioning had not been successful. Coral's grasp of any language but her own was shaky at best, and as for translation spells on her own language, mermaids had very few words for land-related issues. Such as 'who transported you', 'was it a vehicle?' and 'are you sure you were in a cave?'
Coral's failure to pass on information to her rescuers wasn't met with frustration by the little mermaid, but with sweet tinkling laughter and ducking under the water, pink hair spreading out like the petals of a waterlily. As much as they could make out, Coral seemed to have total faith that the problem would be solved now.
Cat's face had held a grim look since they had seen that Tonino's secret was a mermaid.
"Tonino," he turned to his friend, switching back to Italian. "This isn't good."
"I know, I do," said Tonino. "Mermaids don't exist here. Our old Chrestomanci told me about them. It has to be world crossing, and I know it takes a powerful enchanter to even consider that. That's why I called you."
"That's not what I mean." Cat's frown deepened. "People don't want live mermaids in this world. Christopher's mermaids didn't have a happy end."
"Coral's alive," said Tonino. "Her sisters were too."
"There's a chance," said Marianne gently, "that whoever brought them here wanted fresh ingredients."
Their voices had become hushed. Klartch had good hearing and it didn't seem right to fill his meeting with his new friend with talk of how likely she was to be chopped up for ingredients for a spell.
"But you'll still look, won't you, Cat?" said Tonino. "I promised her. I've even worked out any place there might be caves here in Caprona to search." He glanced at the bathroom. Coral was giggling again. She sounded like a delighted child.
"Of course I will. The moment that this turned out to be smuggling was the moment this became an issue for the Chrestomanci. And," he added, "I'd do it as your friend. And for her. Not all sisters are the best, but she seems to like hers."
"Where do you want us to begin, Tonino?" said Marianne. She stifled a yawn. The train trip had been very long.
Tonino pulled a tightly folded out map from his pocket and laid it out on the table. "Here," he pointed at the mouth of the river as it led into Caprona, "there might be caves within the cliffs. And I thought, perhaps, she might have been in the sewers. I've marked them here. Uncle Umberto was very helpful with the city plans. Even if he thought I was Paolo."
"Did you ever deliver Paolo's love letter?" asked Marianne. Tonino froze.
"Oh. Oh no. I rather got caught up in this."
"Is she a forgiving girl?" said Marianne, smiling at Tonino's panic.
"Nooo. No, I would say Amaranta Coletti is the opposite of forgiving," said Tonino.
Oh, <I>damnit</i>," he blasphemed. "Paolo's going to get it. This is what I get for being the only one except Old Nicolo with a car, I get all the errands that take forever. Of course, I had a mermaid to save but Paolo is incredibly smitten and he is terrible when he's got a girl ready to break his heart."
"You were near her house when you found Coral?" said Cat thoughtfully, looking at the map. "Where is that?"
"Casa Coletti is outside of the city, yes. It's a small spellhouse, but well regarded. Not as much as Casa Montana, of course. Or," he added in a sense of fairness, "Casa Petrocchi."
"Maybe we should extend apologies to Amaranta on Paolo's behalf," said Cat. "I want to walk that river and if the smugglers have any clue where their mermaid's gone, it's best we have a good excuse to be looking around."
Marianne nodded and nearly tipped over from unbalance. She gave another huge yawn. Cat found himself following suit.
"I think perhaps it's time for you to be announced to the family as a random visit," said Tonino. "I can search the cliffs while you sleep at Casa Montana. They'll be thrilled to see you."
Cat yawned again. "Thank you," he managed.
"Klartch!" called Marianne. "We're leaving."
Klartch poked his head out of the bathroom. "I want to stay. Someone needs to guard Coral."
"I've got good privacy wards on here," said Tonino. "That's what this place is for, anyway."
Klartch shook his head and looked determined. Cat shrugged to Tonino. "It's not a bad idea. Klartch has his own magic, and he might be able to get more out of Coral."
"Plus," said Marianne, "I expect the poor thing's lonely."
Tonino gave in. "As long as you handle the questions if anyone sees a griffin around Caprona and wonders why yours isn't with you."
"I'll say he's gone rogue," said Cat. "Let's go." He grabbed his jacket off the hook beside the door and stepped out into the hallway of the apartment building perfectly in sync with the light fixture beside the door bursting into a ball of flame.
Cat ducked down, waving his left hand frantically to protect himself. The next explosion richoted off his shield and into a nearby potted plant. His shield spell was not yet formed well enough to block the shards of pottery, which cut his cheek and hand.
Behind him, Marianne was shouting angrily and waving her hands.
At the end of the hallway and the source of the attacks was a huge man, holding up paper charms. He sung in a low, menacing voice as he read them. His attention to the charms had had the lucky result of interfering with his aim, sparing Cat his head.
He was near the end of his third charm when Cat and Marianne's combined defensive spells hit, binding him in invisible rope, and gagging him with a rotten tomato. Marianne was spiteful when her boss was in danger.
Tonino called into the apartment. "Stay inside, Klartch! Coral needs all the protection she can get!" Klartch yelled out an assent.
Cat brushed the pottery off him and nodded thankfully to Marianne as she healed his cuts. They walked towards the gagging attacker.
"Answer nicely and I'll take that taste out of your mouth," said Marianne, crouching beside him and lifting his head up by his ear. "You've made a big mistake."
"Very kind of you to be so helpful, Marianne," said Cat. "Offering favours and good advice." Cat crouched down too, to look the man in the face.
The man had a distinct green tinge to his face. He was even bigger up close, with hair covering the knotted muscles of his arms. He hadn't bothered to shave recently, and his eyebrows were more of an eyebrow.
"What's your name?" said Cat. "And do remember that my associate can make more tomatoes if she pleases."
"Orso," the man said, gagging as his tongue made contact with the rotten fruit residue in his mouth.
"Orso <i>who</i>," said Cat.
"Orso Spataro!" Orso yelled, eager to not be seen as disobeying.
Cat glanced up at Tonino, who shook his head. This man was not known to him.
"Mr. Spataro," said Cat. "Do you know who you just tried to kill?"
Orso had the look of a man who didn't care who Cat was, just that he'd never gone near him.
"I'm the Chrestomanci and you're performing a serious misuse of magic. I'm afraid I'm going to have to expect you to co-operate before there's consequences." He paused. "More consequences."
"You're a thief," muttered Orso, spitting out more tomato.
"You can't steal a sentient being, Mr. Spataro," said Cat. "And now's not the time to be throwing names. Who was I 'stealing' from?" Cat glanced up at Marianne to see how he was doing. They'd gone over the tough Chrestomanci act together privately for years. Cat relied on her better grasp of visual cues to tell him if he was actually succeeding in intimidating the criminals.
Marianne nodded, and emboldened Cat continued. "Please be clear and concise."
Orso weighed the options of his clients versus the Chrestomanci and Chrestomanci won out. "That cafone Englishman and his little witch. Look, I tell you, and you call it even? I'm just some warlock from Pisa, I'm not even part of this mess. Not like them. I just needed the money," Orso's rough voice took on a wheedling tone.
"Names, Mr. Sparato," was Cat's only reply.
Orso opened his mouth to break his apparently very weak bond of trust with his employer. But before a sound could come out, his eyes glazed over. Then they seemed to focus again, but Orso was now looking at the world as if it were completely new.
"He asked you a question," said Marianne, kneeling on Orso's back. She didn't take kindly to people who'd hurt someone like Coral.
Orso yelped. "Stop! Stop!" Then he made an agonized noise. "What is this TASTE?"
Tonino, Cat, and Marianne looked on in confusion as Orso seemed to realize his situation all over again, but with more noise, and frantic struggling.
"Hey, what are you doing! Why can't I move? What's going on? Where am I?" Orso yelled, moving so much that Marianne lost her grip on him. Orso wiggled around on the floor like a panicking snake.
"Huh," she said.
Cat waved his hand to freeze Orso and stop his panicking. Tonino stepped forward, going through Orso's pockets and pulled out a thin pink and black script. He studied it, then sighed. "I don't know this one, but I definitely see the words forget and duty. I think our Mr. Sparato was boopytrapped against himself."
***
"I hate this world," said Mark Abbot to the mirror in his hand. "Everyone is incompetent."
"This world has what we need for now," the mirror replied. It had a woman's voice.
"How long is for now?" said Mark, sitting at the desk in the rented office he'd been living out of for his time in this world so far. "You're not going to tell me there's more idiots I need to kill and rob here once I'm done with the current one, are you? <i>Your highness</i>." He rested his chin in his hand, the other hand holding out the mirror.
"How many loose ends are left?" asked her highness.
"Orso's out for the count, the great idiot. I've got just the spell to get rid of the girl when it's time, and I'm planning to just cut the old man, and then his horrible little pet too," said Mark, with utter boredom. "And I suppose I have to find out who stole our mermaid. It's one of the idiot spellcasters in this city. A jaguar crest was painted on it."
"I suppose your girl told you that?" said her highness.
"Yes, my native guide to this world has been quite helpful. Shame she has to die, but she'll be absolutely useless anywhere else. That's where we lost Orso, when he said he'd found it. Oh well." Mark made a show of examining his nails. He liked to at least appear to be totally at ease when talking to her highness.
"Mm. There's something I want you to do, while you're in the neighbourhood. Because if you've been as stupid as you seem, he's already been called in. His name, and don't repeat me for it will summon him, is Chrestomanci." As the voice said that, the mirror suddenly cracked. "He's an old… friend of mine. If you kill him, Markus, I will give you one of your lives."
Mark's eyes lit up. "You swear?"
"I like to reward good behaviour," said her highness. "Now go raid that old fool's collection. The ingredients he has are priceless. And when that's done, I'll tell you the many uses of the parts of a mermaid."
***
Marianne and Cat decided against sleeping at Casa Montana until they'd done some footwork. They bought some pep-up charms from a stand along the Old Bridge and decided to start with the search down the river.
There had been a brief detour to talk with the officials that the Chrestomanci dealt with in Caprona, and they had managed to defer searching the cliffs and sewers to these officials. This left them with the river walk, which needed much less manpower. Cat was hard at work squishing down the part of him that felt like he wouldn't be a proper hero for Tonino if the Caprona officials discovered the missing mermaids first.
Marianne had changed their disguises around, now Cat was fat, with a large brustling black beard and short-cropped hair nothing like his wavy blond, and she had become as thin as a rail and every picture of the English tourist. Tonino had not been disguised this time, to facilitate their excuse to see Casa Coletti and the delivery of the love letter.
"I'm not sure if it would be a bad thing if she dropped Paolo," said Tonino. "I don't like her eyes. They're mean."
"Ah, if my brother had cost me a boy I liked..." said Marianne meaningfully.
"If I interfered with Janet," said Cat. "Well, I think. I'm not sure. She's never really spoken on it."
They were riding in Tonino's automobile, a beautiful piece of machinery with the crest for Casa Montana on it. Tonino had managed to wrangle it through much pointing out how much easier things would be if there was a car around the Casa to make deliveries, and how he'd learned to drive in England. And thus he had a car. And the job of delivery boy. Essential to Casa Montana though he was, useful skills like being able to drive all over Caprona were still useful.
Every few meters Cat would send out a feeling, for empty spaces around them, in the hopes of finding Coral's caves. Thus far the riverbank was solid, as one might expect.
In the distance, Casa Coletti was rising up. It had the look of new work that didn't match the old architecture. It was built partially over the river, as if to pretend it had half of a very large moat.
Tonino was pulling up in front of the Casa when Cat finally found empty space.
He was out of the car before Tonino had fully parked, almost stumbling facefirst onto the ground. "This way!"
Tonino looked relieved and finished parking. He didn't have to deal with Amaranta. He and Marianne followed Cat to the end of the trail, which was the docks over the river from the Casa. It looked like ground had been washed out, and if you laid on the dock and peeked underneath, you could see holes in the side of the bank. There were grey corners visible in the holes.
"I think they have a mausoleum down there," said Cat. He shuddered.
Marianne was taking off her nicer bits of clothing and folding them up on top of the dock. She ignored the two men as she turned her underthings into a proper bathing suit and climbed into the water.
"Well?" she said.
Cat shuddered again.
"It's real cats that don't like water," said Marianne. "You're confused."
Cat looked down at the deep river water. He could see that Marianne was actually holding very tightly to the dock to keep from being swept away. His mind was replaying with extra technicolour the time he drowned and hadn't realized that it hadn't just been very unpleasant, it had actually been his death. One of his deaths.
Marianne held out her hand. "Come on, you'll be safe, and the hole's really near. I can practically touch it with my foot."
Cat took her hand with his right, and waved his left. His crisp white linen suit became a white wetsuit and he climbed into the water, holding tight to the same pole as Marianne.
"I'll go see if I can find out who's upstairs at the Casa," said Tonino. "You two be safe."
"You too," called Marianne as she and Cat combined on a spell together to make the strong currents divert around them so they could dogpaddle safely to the hole.
Cat scrambled through first, then reached back to help Marianne. Inside the mausoleum, it smelled of decay and damp earth. The hole was just high enough the river wasn't flooding it, but examining it Cat could see where tiny hands had clawed at the earth to get over the side to the water.
"Coral was here," he said. He summoned a floating light and they began to follow a trail in the old dirt and dust made by a mermaid dragging herself along.
Marianne had changed her shoes to swim slippers, which the odd splat noises of wet cloth were sucked away by the roar of the river through the hole. "At least they won't hear us," she said in Cat's ear. Cat nodded and dimmed his light.
The problem was soon apparent that they wouldn't hear anyone in front of them either. But both of them felt something pushing against them.
Tonino was sitting in the front room of Casa Coletti while Amaranta's mother fussed over him, under the apparent belief Paolo was just an excuse and he was here to court Amaranta himself, no matter what he said.
"Such a lovely girl, so popular with all the boys!" said Signora Coletti. "I suppose you saw her in the marketplace, that seems to be where all grand romances start. My my, TWO Montana boys!"
Tonino had given up and was drinking the expresso Signora Coletti had fetched for him. He glanced around the room. It had many fancy decorations, but underneath it the room was actually quite shabby and in need of repair. He could see barely concealed cracks and flaking around the edges.
It was like the work outside the house, it hadn't fixed what was broken, just added a new spot polish. Tonino rather felt that was a waste of money to slap a fresh coat of paint on a rotten piece of wood, but as no one had asked him, he kept it to himself.
"She should be home soon. Off seeing another boy," said Signora. "You have competition!"
Tonino thought of how scandalized his family was when his sister Lucia had done something similar, but she'd shouted them down like she did with everything else. He supposed Amaranta had done something similar with the Colettis or they hadn't cared in the first place. "It's a new decade," had been one of Lucia's favourite sayings when she got as passionate as Aunt Gina. "And at least I'm not having secret weddings."
Tonino sipped the expresso. It was very good expresso. That almost made up for feeling like he was lying to a woman who seemed to like him well enough she was already extolling the virtues of him being her son-in-law. She'd moved onto Casa Coletti working hand in hand with the Montanas.
"Of course, that other boy..." she said. "Englishman. Your mother, she's one, yes?"
"Yes, signora," said Tonino. He smiled and tapped his light-coloured hair.
"Well, I see it worked out for the Montanas, but I'm not sure I want that for Amaranta! Mr. Abbot will just have to find some other Italian girl. He can barely sing, you know. He had too much spritz the last time she brought him around here and terrible! Just terrible!" Her chest heaved from the memory of how terrible it had been.
Tonino had mentally noted the Englishman detail. Things were not looking good for Paolo's romantic intentions.
Signora Coletti had taken up station by a huge picture window, with the Coletti emblem, a eagle killing a fish, in stained glass at the top. She ceased talking about how little competition Tonino had to grin widely. "She's home!" The rumble of a car came from outside.
Tonino sat to attention, not looking forward to what was next. He also wondered what he would say if she declared she would, say, 'head down to the mausoleum for a tick'. Yelling and tackling seemed impolite.
Amaranta breezed in, followed by two men. One was much younger than her, barely more than a teenager, and clearly not Italian in origin. The other was an old man that looked vaguely familiar to Tonino.
"Barone!" said Signora Coletti. "This is a treat! Sit, I'll have more expresso."
The man's identity snapped to in Tonino's mind. That was Barone Arrigoni, a man that Uncle Umberto had brought over to dinner one night as part of his plan to entice the man to donate to the university. The man had spent it talking about his strange pet, Tonino couldn't remember the name of it for the life of him, something german? and his collection of the parts of many magical creatures who had shuffled this mortal coil. Tonino had found it all ghastly. One of Rosa's daughters had begun crying when he talked about having the horn of a unicorn.
Amaranta gave Tonino a chilly and questioning smile. "I do not know you," she said.
"But he's here to see you," said Signora Coletti. "With a love letter!"
Tonino got up. "It's from my brother Paolo."
"Oh!" said Amaranta. She gave an apologetic look to the two men she was with. The young man looked... Tonino shivered. He looked ready to kill at this interruption. Amaranta held out her hand for the letter.
Tonino handed it over quickly, mind racing. He had to keep them out of the mausoleum. He'd looked into the young man's eyes and seen a very powerful enchanter.
***
"Horrid down here, isn't it?" said Marianne in English. "I don't fancy spending my next trip to Italy here again."
"Remember Paris?" said Cat.
"I remember Paris. I remember the catacombs. I remember saying this exact thing about them as I'm saying now. I never seem to get my way." The path was getting wider, as if Coral had been wetter at the start.
"Well, dark dead places make good hiding places."
"I don't like what you find in dark dead places. They're often things that shouldn't be moving."
Cat walked past the grave of another long gone Coletti, the light in his hand bouncing off the damp walls. "I don't want to find dead mermaids, Marianne. Coral was so..."
"I understand," said Marianne, and that was that.
***
Amaranta gave Tonino another chilly smile. "Thank you for the letter, but I am tired and I must rest. You may tell your brother I will reply soon."
"Oh, but--" began Tonino.
"He should stay for supper!" said Signora Coletti. "It would be an honour to host a Montana."
"Mother," said Amaranta. "Mark is tired. I'm tired. And I'm sure Barone Arrigoni would like to leave soon. We really must attend to business."
"Business!" yelled Signora Coletti. "What possibly business could you have?"
"Barone Arrigoni is very interested in the history of Caprona, mother. I said I would show him our mausoleum," Amaranta said stiffly.
"Yes," said the Barone. "Mr. Abbot has extolled to me about the virtues of your family graves to me quite a bit." He sounded eager.
Signora Coletti looked annoyed. "What would <i>Mr. Abbot</i> know about our family?"
Mark Abbot was still staring at Tonino with the murderous eyes. But at the signora's words, he turned to her and she fell silent. Then fell, stiff as a board. Tonino ran to her, but suddenly stiffness overtook his body as well and he fell.
"Oh, Mark," said Amaranta. "It's going to take forever to make her forget that one." She didn't sound angry, just resigned.
"I have no time for this. This Montana. What can he do?" said the man, barely not a boy. He sounded ready to consider Tonino a loose end that needed tied with drastic measures.
"They're just one of those well-regarded families," said Amaranta. "I'll make him forget too. We don't want his family to start investigating."
Barone Arrigoni made a reluctant noise. "Freezing mothers and Montanas seems a bit... uncouth."
"Well, what we're doing is a bit uncouth, sir," said Abbot. There was no apology in his tone. "We need to get in and out, before more go missing, or the water fouls and they all end up floating facedown. Come along."
Amaranta sighed. "I worked so hard to get everyone out of the Casa today, why did mother have to be stubborn?" She followed them out of Tonino's line of sight. Tonino tried to open his mouth to start yelling to his friends, but his body was completely frozen.
***
Cat and Marianne heard the singing first. They were far enough from the river now that the roar of the waters had died down to a dull white noise. The song that floated through the mausoleum was beautiful and sad, and sung with many voices. A huge grin spread across Marianne's face and she grabbed Cat's arms. "That's them! That's got to be them!"
They ran on ahead, figuring that if the mermaids were singing, their captors couldn't be near. They had been traveling through a tunnel for most of their journey, that had several branch offs. But they stepped quite suddenly out of the tunnel into a large chamber. Against the wall was a makeshift giant fishtank filled with six mermaids. The tank was wrapped with tied down netting, across the sides and over the top, so that even if the tank was smashed, no escape was possible.
The water was clouded, and the mermaids had to push up the netting as far as they could for air and for their song. They were all bigger than Coral.
"Oh, those absolute beasts," said Marianne with feeling. "How could you do this?"
Cat had no answer and waved his left hand, snapping the ropes of the netting. The singing stopped and the mermaids turned to stare at Cat and Marianne. Marianne gave a little wave as she started yanking the netting away from them. "We need some way to get them out!" she said as she dragged the netting off the tank.
Cat nodded, already making a bit of rock get bigger and smoother, into an almost boat-shaped sleigh shape.
That was when Mark Abbot, Amaranta, and Barone Arrigoni arrived.
The Barone reacted first. "Thieves!" he yelled. "Filthy thieves!"
Amaranta ran forward, singing a spell. Cat dropped his mermaid transport and sent back a counter spell. Marianne was working on a binding spell and getting away from the mermaids to keep them from being a target.
Mark simply looked at them, then waved his hands and ripped away their disguises so powerfully that they could feel it.
"You're Chrestomanci," he said. "Amaranta, stop. And do stop bleating, Arrigoni. It's tiring."
Surprised, they obeyed quickly.
Cat stood up straight. Mark looked like no one he'd ever met before. He couldn't even quite place where Mark may be from. His Italian had an accent that was English but not quite English.
"My queen doesn't like you, Chrestomanci," he said. "I thought you'd be older."
Cat groaned. A worst case scenario had just sprung to mind. "Gwendolen?"
"She promised me one of my lives back if I killed you," said Mark. Suddenly the air around Cat was filled with stiletto knives. Cat was too busy turning them to birds or just deflecting the knives to keep questioning Mark. Marianne meanwhile had to deal with Amaranta's renewed attack. Two very different magics clashed.
Barone ran out of range. "No one said anything about killing!" he yelled. In their tank, the mermaids had started shrieking.
Mark set a new set of knives at the Barone that Cat managed to deflect just in time, but his inattention got his ear clipped badly. He clutched his bleeding ear with his right hand.
A multi-lived enchanter. With Mark's power, four or maybe five lives. If Cat had guessed right, that would also explain how Gwendolen had had the power to re-open her world. She was feeding off a new enchanter. Cat was disgusted with himself for not even noticing that it was open again. He'd gotten so used to it being gone, he'd simply stopped looking in its direction.
Mark had his teacher's nasty streak, his attack was unrelenting and getting closer by the second. The Barone had run away up the stairs after Cat saved him. Cat made a mental note to himself that if he survived this, he was making sure the Caprona government threw the full force of the law at him for illegal trading.
Things were going better for Marianne. She'd managed to turn Amaranta's clothes into binding ropes and sent her tumbling down in a heap. Marianne went for a proper gag for Amaranta this time, instead of just fouling her mouth with rotten fruit.
Marianne made Amaranta sleep and turned her attentions to Cat and Mark's duel. Finding a weak spot without interfering with Cat's efforts was Marianne's main priority. After some thought, she picked up a rock and flung it at Mark's head.
The rock, impervious to counterspells by the nature of not being a spell, struck Mark's head right on the temple. He screamed and clutched his head, giving Cat a chance to get out of danger.
Cat began weaving a spell to nullify Mark's powers.
"We can help you," Cat said. "She can do a real number on you, I know."
Mark snarled and grabbed the cracked mirror from his side, and disappeared into it with a flash. The mirror dropped to the ground and got a new crack.
Cat sighed and went to pick it up. "I've got to reseal it. I don't even know how she did it in the first place, besides being terrible."
"It was your sister then?" said Marianne.
"Well, it was her little kingdom's world. Limits the suspec--"
"You miserable little brat!" yelled the mirror. Gwendolen, now an adult, looked out, face distorted by the cracks in the mirror. "I should never have left you with so many lives!"
Cat's face went deathly pale as he looked at the mirror in his hands. Then suddenly it flashed and went completely grey with no reflection.
"Oh," said Cat in a faraway voice. "I figured out how to block off her world again."
Marianne gently took Cat's elbow and sat him down on an old stone grave.
Tonino called down, sounding worried. "Is everyone alive down there?"
"Yes, thank you!" Marianne yelled back.
"Where is my Amaranta!" yelled Signora Coletti.
Amaranta was still sleeping soundly in her bonds, Marianne's spell holding fast.
"Please tell whoever that is not to come down!" yelled Marianne. "And if you see an old man, please detain him!"
She turned to the most important task at hand then. Getting the mermaids out of the filthy water. She pressed her hands against the tank and thought light thoughts. Slowly it started to shift under her touch, like it had no more mass than a balloon. She pulled it out from against the wall, then got behind it to push.
The mermaids had stopped screaming and were watching her excitedly, some even laughing. Marianne endeavored to explain to them that where they were going, it was in their best interests to stay there because they had to be taken home after they got some proper water.
The mermaids got much louder and excited as they saw sunlight from the hole in the wall. "Second to last stop," said Marianne as she tipped over the tank at the hole enough that the mermaids could wiggle out into the river, laughing and cheering.
Marianne pushed the tank away, it was starting to become heavy again, and leaned against the hole looking down. The mermaids were bobbing happily in the water, smiling at her.
"I'll get you back with Coral," Marianne said. The mermaids cheered.
***
Barone Erasmus Arrigoni never did shake the scandal of being arrested for his arrest for illegal trading, and his collection was seized. He did, however, come to feel it was a better exchange than the death Mark Abbot had planned for him.
Amaranta Coletti came to feel the same way once she'd served her time. To her mother's lasting disappointment, her courtship with Paolo Montana fell through. Amaranta was too busy enjoying surviving a bad lifechoice to care.
Coral and her sisters were returned home, and their rocks were protected by wards.
Marianne, Cat, and Klartch eventually got to Casa Montana where they were fussed over. Then they finally got to sleep.
Tonino was not held responsible by Paolo.
Gwendolen and Mark Abbot were stuck with each other.
discarded:
The other six remained missing, and Coral had only the vaguest of ideas of how they'd been plucked from their ocean home and brought to this place where the water tasted bad, there were terrifying caves ("Where would there be caves in Caprona?" Cat had asked and Tonino couldn't answer), and people with legs screamed at them to be quiet.
Coral's cage had broken and she'd fled through the horrible water, and been found by Tonino just as things had become darkest.
The mermaid was small, only the size of a twelve year old girl if a twelve year old girl had the tail of a large fish, and had soft pink hair. She was also grinning widely from ear to ear, and couldn't keep from laughing at the smallest things. Cat understood why Christopher Chant, his mentor and the last Chrestomanci, had referred to them as the giggling ladies.
The problem, as laid out by Tonino, had been thus. He'd been on his way to deliver a love letter for his brother Paolo, a lengthily explained reason involving Tonino's car and the distance of the sweetheart's home of Casa Coletti, when he'd spotted something pink and green on the riverbank. That thing had turned out to be a small half-starved mermaid.
Now, Tonino had known that magic creatures most certainly existed. His friend Klartch, Marianne's grandfather had ridden away on a unicorn, and he himself had faced off against a demon once as a child. But he had also been told quite firmly what didn't exist in his world naturally, such as dragons and especially mermaids. Chrestomanci, the old Chrestomanci when he'd answered that question had looked quite sad when he spoke of mermaids.
But here was a mermaid, bold as day. He'd pulled her out of the mud and splashed her with proper, clean water to revive her and found out things were not at all well.
Her name was Coral and she was the youngest of seven sisters.
***
"She didn't make much sense," Tonino said to Cat in the next room while Marianne and Klartch cheered up the little mermaid. "I had to teach her the word cave before she could even explain where she escaped from. I don't think whoever taught her English taught her much."
Cat had his arms crossed, frowning. His disguise was still going strong, so his large ginger mustache bristled as he did so.
"Tonino..." Cat began. His tone was reluctant.
"What, Cat? I mean, surely you'll help me find the others," said Tonino. "They must be terrified."
"They're probably..." Cat looked towards the bathroom and hushed his voice. "They're not with us anymore, Tonino. Mermaids have one use to enchanters in this world, and it's as ingredients."
Tonino's eyes widened in horror. Cat continued.
"They cut the up and they sell them. Christopher told me that. She was probably being kept where she was to keep her fresh."
"Well, maybe they're still being kept fresh!" said Tonino. "I mean, why would you go to the trouble of illegally going through the worlds with lots of living mermaids when you could easier bring them over dead? I mean, it doesn't make sense. Cat, I'm sure her sisters are alive."
"Then where would there be caves in Caprona?" said Cat with a sign. "You're built on a river."
"I've been thinking about that," said Tonino. "Based on the fact she had to stay in the water."
Cat eyed him, trying to figure out if that was a crack or the surrealness of figuring out the origins of the mermaid. A giggle floated out of the bathroom as Coral splashed Klartch, to the griffin's indignation. For her situation, the mermaid seemed quite happy.
"So we'll start there," said Marianne, stepping out to join the conversation. "What were you doing so close to the river anyway?"
"Playing mailman for Paolo. He's got a passion for a girl named Amaranta Coletti, from Casa Coletti, one of the small spellhouses here in Caprona. He wanted to make sure it actually got to her, he's got some idea her father doesn't approve. Old alliances with Casa Petrocchi and all that," Tonino said with a shrug. "I think she just throws them out. She has a mean look to her eyes, but Paolo won't hear it.
Casa Coletti is actually outside Caprona, alongside the river. So when I was going down the road…"
***
After delivering Coral her fresh meal of fish and assuring her they'd find her sisters, the trio stepped outside the apartment on the balcony hallway. They looked around for any of Tonino's supposed smuggling agents and seeing just a janitor at the end of the balcony fixing a light, began speaking.
"At least I can write this off as a business expense," said Marianne. "Someone powerful enough to bring living creatures across the worlds illegally is ripe for some Chrestomanci intervention."
"We'll need a map of Caprona and the surrounding areas," said Cat, "to find our caves. If there are actually caves. This would be a lot easier if we spoke mermaid."
He was about to give further instructions, when the potted plant hanging from the ceiling beside his head burst into a small fireball.
Marianne and Tonino dived left, Cat ducked, and Klartch wheeled around right and launched himself at the source of the explosion. The janitor had thrown away his tools and was now singing a low, menacing song.
The next spell hit before Klartch got to the end of the balcony, throwing the griffin off course with a wave of horrible buzzing black flies. But by this point Cat had recovered and with a wave of his left hand, gagged the supposed janitor to stifle any further spells.
Marianne had begun moving her hands back and forth, forcing the spell flies into a smaller and smaller ball and out of existence. Ducking under the ball, Klartch grabbed and pinned the gagged janitor before he had a chance to escape. The janitor was a huge bear of a man, but not many can move under the full weight of a full-grown griffin.
Caprona. Cat Chant hadn't been there since he was just Cat. Now most people called him Eric if they felt really familiar but not familiar enough, Chant to be rude, or more often Chrestomanci.
He straightened his tie again, and felt his pockets to make sure he'd gotten out all the ticket stubs. On the floor between his and Marianne Pinhoe's seats, Klartch the griffin lay and snored. Marianne was doing much the same in her chair. Between the two of them they made a noise that sounded like a whistling saw.
Cat looked over his message from Tonino. Marianne had gotten the phonecall and written it down, and Tonino, it seemed, hadn't been sure how much he could tell her.
"Message from Tonino, says it's most urgent we find time to go to Caprona. Says it's business. I've already told your secretary to arrange things."
The last time he'd seen Tonino was the celebration party for his appointment to Chrestomanci. The previous Chrestomanci, Cat's guardian Christopher Chant, had taken his retirement after losing another life in an incident with a sentient flower with teeth and it being decided that maybe it was time for his own good.
Cat was doing well. He had gotten the hang of traveling between worlds, after quite a bit of what was almost but not quite just like seasickness mixed with drunkenness at the beginning, and took on his assignments of keeping the peace with relish.
Marianne had grown into an incredibly competent sorceress. The castle was still full of witches and wizards, magicians and sorcerers, but Marianne was the closest he had to a partner. Well, her and Klartch.
He reached out a foot to rub Klartch between the wings. He'd slipped off his shoes five hours into the train trip and he wasn't regretting it yet.
Klartch's whistling snores turned into a purr noise as Cat rubbed. Cat had stuck to his word to raising Klartch and teaching him, and the griffin stuck to his side like a little brother and partner. Klartch's strange ability to stand out wherever they went kept attention off Cat, which Cat liked very much. He was Chrestomanci, but he was still more comfortable when he was working, not socializing.
***
Tonino met them at the station. His hair had darkened to black when he'd grown, and he looked oddly nondescript for how he usually dressed. Cat felt distinctly overdressed as he, Marianne, and Klartch descended in their formal working clothes.
Klartch bounded forward to headbutt Tonino's hands. They'd met that school term when Tonino had come back and become good friends, Tonino's natural affinity for felines making it easy to befriend the half-lion creature.
***
They were halfway to Casa Montana when Tonino broke the news to Klartch.
"Where we're going, we have to be unseen and you're… well…"
Klartch looked up piteously.
"Well, it's just that--" Tonino stumbled further.
"It's my mane," said Klartch. "I understand. I told Marianne that this cut was too flamboyant." He drooped the two long feathery tufts that stuck off the top of his head that the unwary often mistook for ears.
"You hush, it's lovely."
"I look like a GIRL," said Klartch irritably.
"Girls," said Marianne with an air of authority, "do not have manes."
"If they did," replied Klartch, "They'd cut them like this."
Tonino looked at Cat helplessly. Cat shrugged. "This is how he feels better, I think. Maybe."
"Oh good," said Tonino.
Klartch gave a put-upon sigh. "So do I go on without you?"
"Well, no," said Tonino. "They're not actually expecting you there. I haven't mentioned the problem to them yet. You'll know why when you see it. And why I can't say it out here."
Marianne and Cat looked at him silently while Klartch groomed a claw.
Tonino continued: "I planned to say you'd dropped by unexpectedly. Not on business. Klartch, would you…"
Klartch twitched his tail. "Paint me grey. I will be a statue." Tonino smiled.
"I was going to suggest the library."
"Oh, that's perfectly acceptable. Marianne?" Klartch said, looking inquisitively at his friend.
Marianne nodded and began weaving a 'do not notice the griffin overmuch' spell overtop Klartch's spectacular appearance. It had gotten a lot of practice for when he needed to go somewhere without an introduction beforehand and didn't want anyone trying to capture or ride him.
"You will tell me after, won't you?" said Klartch. His feather tufts went up hopefully.
Marianne nodded. "We will. Won't we, Cat?"
Cat patted Klartch on the head. "We'll come for you right after." Tonino patted Klartch as well, looking apologetic. The spell was good, but it was obvious Tonino didn't want to take any risks.
"Shall I do us up too?" asked Marianne.
"Good idea. I think Cat should be a ginger," said Tonino. "Lots of ginger cats around Caprona these days now that there's a new head cat at Casa Montana. He'll fit right in."
"Hm, I'll leave out the tail," said Marianne and pictured her and the two men in her head, then started switching out features. She couldn't seem to focus on changing Cat to a redhead and when she opened his eyes, he was giving her an impish smile.
"Oh do let me do my job, will you," she admonished him.
"I'm just feeling more brunet today, that's all, Marianne," he said, running his hand through his wavy golden blond hair.
"Have it your way," she said with a shrug and finished his disguise. A very plain black haired man of much more years than Cat had accumulated looked back at her. Tonino had become rather fatter and rosier cheeked. She'd done a similar bit with her disguise, fancying she'd make her and Tonino look like brother and sister.
"Come on," said Tonino. "It's this way. Goodbye, Klartch."
Klartch bowed to them and went one way, while the rest of the party went another.
***
"In here," said Tonino, "is the reason I contacted you." He pulled a key out of his pocket and fitted it into the lock.
"Whose apartment is this, then?" asked Marianne. It wasn't a bad place to live, but very out of the way.
Tonino looked embarrassed. "It's mine. I love my family, but I acquired a taste for solitude with my time in England. I keep this apartment as a secret, when I need time to myself. Turned out to be useful, no one would think to look for her here." He swung the door open.
"Her?" said Cat as he stepped inside. It was a very modest apartment, with just the essentials, and a sound of… splashing?
"Come on," said Tonino, gesturing at them to follow. They walked to the bathroom, where inside… was a mermaid splashing in the bath. Size wise, she was a bit bigger than a twelve year old, which gave her plenty of room in the bath. She giggled and splashed water at Tonino.
"Hey, Coral," said Tonino as he leaned down to take her hand. The water seemed to become clearer. Tonino looked up. "Mermaids can fix their own habitats. I just helped make it faster, that's all."
Coral laughed again and smiled at Tonino. "They're going to find my sisters?" she said cheerfully. Tonino nodded.
"Coral," said Tonino, "is from out of town and not here on purpose."
"Christopher told me about mermaids," said Cat, looking at Coral with a touch of awe. "Marianne, she's not from this world."
"Drat," said Marianne. "I should have liked to meet more."
"There are more," said Tonino. "Six more."
Cat frowned and took Tonino's elbow. "Excuse us, Coral. I need to talk to your friend." He half-dragged Tonino into the bedroom, shutting the door behind them, leaving Marianne to talk to Coral.
"Christopher told me about mermaids," began Cat. Tonino opened his mouth to interject, but Cat kept speaking. "He told me that people don't take them alive. They chop them into little bits and sell the parts. Tonino, I can't tell that girl that her sisters are alive and be truthful, I don't think. They're probably in bits."
Tonino's eyes widened. "But they were alive when I got Coral out!"
"To be kept fresh? Tonino, you've got to tell me everything."
***
Marianne began unpacking her bag in her room at Casa Montana. It was a cosy little room, with a vase of fresh crocuses on the windowsill. Out in the courtyard little Montanas were playing while black, ginger, and white cats lounged and watched them, or didn't watch them. Cats didn't bother having interest in things for very long.
Cat had a larger room, to accommodate himself and Klartch, who despite Marianne and Cat's best efforts, had not managed to convince the older, more stubborn Montanas that the griffin wasn't actually just a very clever pet.
She took off her cloche hat and ran her fingers through her short brown hair, which brought back memories of Coral the mermaid's long golden hair, which somehow stayed untangled and lovely even as she dipped in and out of the water.
Coral was a sweet little thing, and Marianne didn't want to break her heart. If the other mermaids were still alive, despite what cat said, she wanted to find them. The problem was with a city on the river like Caprona, there was almost too many easy ways to stash the water-dependent sirens.
***
Cat laid out the investigation plan. He and Tonino would investigate where Coral had been found, while Marianne would perform inquiries towards who had recently purchased the work for a large aquatic system, following Tonino's theory that the mermaids were still alive. Klartch had the final job to start with, which was a patrol of the skies of Caprona to see any likely mermaid hiding out locations.
***
"I can't work in these conditions, your <i>highness</i>," said Mark Abbot. He was a young, thin, harassed looking young man. He couldn't have been more than eighteen but his hair was already thinning and he had a cruel look to his lips.
The voice on the other side of the mirror had no pity for him. "You'll work in any conditions I command you. There's much worse places to be than a crypt. As long as you're living. And… well, I believe you just have three lives left."
Abbot shuddered. "We're almost ready. We'll slaughter Barone Arrigoni once we have the names of his suppliers, refill our stock, and move onto our next buyer. If that plan pleases her highness?" Abbot's face looked like he'd rather it would make her highness drop dead, even as his voice was sickly sweet. Klartch angled his head to see the mirror better. All it showed was Abbot's face. Klartch could only assume that the only reason this was going well enough for Abbot was because her highness could only see her reflection as well.
"And how is that going?"
Abbot tapped the arm holding the mirror, considering his words. "Not well, your highness. He's close-lipped, even to Amaranta. She's doing her best, he's been calling her like a daughter to him, but he hasn't revealed where else he acquires his animals. He's protections on him from one of the stupid little families here. The Petrocchis." He smiled thinly. "But I've got my own ways. He won't be a loose end."
"Good. Loose ends get snipped," said her highness. "I learned that a long time ago."
Klartch tried to ignore an itching on his hind leg as his mind gnawed on how much her highness sounded like Cat's sister Janet. Not Janet as she usually was, but Janet during a Christmas pageant they'd put on for a lark last year where she was a wicked ice queen.
Abbot frowned at the mirror. "I am aware of her highness's opinion on the matter." He hesitated, clearly fighting with himself over what he had to say next. "Orso is no longer with us."
"Dead then?" snapped her highness. "Why didn't you tell me at the start? Do you enjoy disappointing me?"
"He's not dead. He ran into the Chresto--"
"Don't say that name!" shrieked the mirror. A crack formed across it.
Abbot went silent, eyes wide.
"I want him dead. If he suffers, I'll give you one of your lives back. Is that understood?"
Abbot's eyes lit up. "Of course, your highness!" The delight in his voice was genuine.
"Good. Go." The glass of the mirror clouded over. Abbot placed the mirror on a desk and pulled out a knife with an unearthly blue tint to it. He was smiling.