“You saw it too,” she said.
“No,” he whispered. “I mean, I saw some of that. I saw he was dying.…” Oskar’s eyes grew wet. “I—I don’t know how, I just sort of saw it, you know? And—and I saw how afraid he was. That’s what I mostly saw, Ko. The Spider’s fear. But there was something else, too. A shop front. It had ALBANY CHANDLERS written on it. And—and—I knew it, Ko. I knew where it was. It was the Grassmarket, in Edinburgh. Mr. Coulton and I stayed near there when he first brought me over, before we came on to Cairndale.”
“Albany Chandlers. It’s in Edinburgh?”
Oskar nodded. “Do you think … do you think the missing talents are there?”
“Maybe.”
“Why else would the glyphic show that? I mean, if not—？”
Komako wet her lips. She did a mental checklist of what was in play, ticking each off on her fingers. “We’ve got the glyphic dying. Dr. Berghast is trying to keep him alive, but it can’t be forever. We’ve got the dark carriage and the disappeared kids. It’s coming from some chandler’s in Edinburgh, looks like. And we’ve got the files on the disappeared being taken from Dr. Berghast’s office. Someone here at Cairndale has to be working with the carriage.”
“You reckon it’s all connected?” murmured Ribs. “You reckon Berghast knows about them missing kids? He had their names in that book—”
“No,” said Komako firmly.
Oskar’s watery eyes brightened. “Maybe it’s—it’s—it’s not as sinister as it looks,” he said. “Maybe Dr. Berghast does know about it, but the kids aren’t being hurt. Maybe it’s for their own protection.”
Ribs snorted. “Protection?”
“Maybe they’re in some special kind of—of—of danger. From Jacob.”
“More than Marlowe?”
Oskar blushed, fell quiet.
“Rruh,” growled the flesh giant.
Komako tugged at her braid, troubled. “Ribs? What’d the Spider show you?”
But Ribs had a strange expression on her face, half-anger, half-disgust. “Hm?” she said, her freckled nose upturned.
“Your vision. What did you see?”
“Oh, lots. Lots an lots.” Ribs nodded. “Plen-ty.”
“And? Would you care to enlighten us?”
Ribs picked at a scab on her elbow, her brow furrowed. “Oh, well … there were that chandler’s. Yep. In Edinburgh. An that bit about Berghast doctoring to the Spider, I seen that too. Whew. There were just, uh, lots of things, yep.”
No one spoke.
Then Komako said quietly, “You didn’t see anything, did you?”
Ribs scowled. Her voice fairly cracked in disbelief. “Why am I the one what never gets shown nothing? He bloody well picks you and—and Oskar, but he don’t show me nothing? What’s a matter with me?”
“Maybe he couldn’t see you,” Oskar said helpfully. “Because you were invisible?”
She gave him a poisonous look. “It were a rhetorical question!”
“Rrh,” mumbled Lymenion.
Ribs glared at the flesh giant. “What. The Spider talk to you too?”
Komako smiled, despite herself. “It doesn’t matter,” she said. “We don’t have much time. We need to find out what this chandler’s is.”
“What’re you saying?”
“We need to go to Edinburgh.”
Oskar blinked nervously. “Edinburgh! But we—we—we can’t get through the wards.… Not without permission.”
“Actually…” Ribs rubbed at her red hair, reluctant. “Me and Ko found a opening, a while back. I reckon it’s still there. It’s a gap in the wards, Oskar. Just near right big enough for all of us to crawl through. Even old Lymenion.”
Oskar looked hurt. “You never told me.”
Gently, Komako put her gloved hands on the boy’s shoulders. “We need to find the place that carriage is coming from, Oskar. Albany Chandlers. Before whoever it is comes looking for us. You saw the place in your vision. You can take us there.”
Oskar swallowed. “But we’ll get in trouble. If Miss Davenshaw—”
“There’s a reason you were shown that vision,” Komako continued. “The Spider wants us to go. He wants us to see. There’s got to be a link to what’s happening to him, and the kids.… It’s all connected, Oskar.”