Charlie looked at himself, the heat rising to his face. It was true: there was mud and grime from the island in streaks all over.
“You have been to see Mr. Thorpe,” Dr. Berghast continued. “It is not permitted.”
Charlie blinked. “Thorpe—？”
“Our glyphic. He is … not well. I trust you knew it was forbidden and that is why you snuck across, after midnight. Did you find the answers you sought?”
“I … I don’t know, sir,” he mumbled. “We—”
“It was my idea,” said Marlowe boldly. “I wanted to know if Alice was okay.”
Dr. Berghast turned his intense gray eyes on the little boy. “And is she?”
Marlowe hesitated. All at once it was like all his boldness was gone, and he chewed at his lip, coloring. “I don’t know.”
“But that is not all you asked about, is it? That is not the only reason you disturbed the rest of a dying man. Do you know who I am, child?”
Marlowe nodded. He was staring at the floor.
“Look at me. Who am I?”
“You’re my adopted father,” whispered Marlowe.
“Yes.” He smoothed his beard, weighing them both in his gaze. “And what is it you do, when you are not sneaking around the institute? Does Miss Davenshaw instruct you in the use of your talents?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Did she explain to you what it is the glyphic does?”
“Yes.”
“Tell me.”
Marlowe looked quickly up, a question in his eyes. “Miss Davenshaw says he keeps the orsine closed. But she’s wrong, isn’t she? He opens it sometimes too. You make him do that. But he’s got to be careful or else any sort of a thing could come out.”
“How do you know that?”
“The Spider. He … told me.”
“I see. And what sort of a thing would come out?”
Marlowe furrowed his brow. “Is it Jacob Marber?”
Dr. Berghast folded his big arms and leaned back on the desk and regarded the boys. “There are worse things in that world than Jacob Marber,” he said softly.
The boy lifted his eyes then, defiant. “But you sent them in there anyway, didn’t you? You sent the old talents in, even though it was dangerous. All those years ago.”
Charlie felt a sudden misgiving. He looked at Marlowe, wondering just how much the glyphic had told him about this place, what had happened here.
Berghast was obviously wondering the same thing. “Mr. Thorpe has been rather forthcoming, it seems. Despite his condition.”
It had never occurred to Charlie that anyone could be sent through the orsine. But then Charlie thought of something. “That’s what you want us for too,” he said. “To go in there.”
Dr. Berghast’s eyes glittered in a way that made Charlie suddenly afraid. “Yes,” he said.
“Because it is important,” said Marlowe.
“Because it is important,” echoed Berghast.
Charlie glowered. “Important for who?”
But if Berghast minded Charlie’s tone, he gave no indication. His face was as cold and flat and emotionless as ever. “In the other world, in the land of the dead … nothing is as it is here. There, matter is dust and spirit is substance. It is a world as different from ours as the inside of your body is, from what lies outside it. Its dangers are various and changing. It is easy to become lost. There was a time when I sent talents through. The old ones, you call them.” Dr. Berghast worked his hands in front of him, massaging the scarred knuckles as if they pained him. He looked up. “But then something terrible came out of the orsine and put a stop to it all. A creature. It is this that gives Jacob Marber his strength, and his purpose. It is this which we are trying to stop. The drughr.”
Charlie shivered.
“Miss Davenshaw will have told you about the orsine. But not its essence. Where do we come from? What are we, really? We are connected to the orsine in ways you cannot imagine. The orsine was built at the behest of a man named Alastair Cairndale. He was the first of our kind, the First Talent. You will have seen his portrait in the great hall. After his talent manifested, others emerged, other talents who found their way to him. All of this was many centuries ago. But wherever there is order, chaos will press in. In time there was disagreement, a struggle between talents for how to be in the world. Whether we ought to reveal ourselves fully. Whether we ought to play a greater role in the fates of nations. The drughr emerged out of that chaos, seeking to destroy us.”