Eternal Night

(III) Chapter 34: Clandestine

The night continued to wane, and as the final stratagems were put in place for the battle on the horizon, Frankie found herself combating the same anxious uncertainty that had driven Vladislaus from the house. Last she had checked, he was still wandering the endless rows of graves on the hill that overlooked the estate, but when he had assured her that he was well and just needed some air and time to think, she chose to leave him be with his thoughts.

Now she was back in the Vilkova library, absently thumbing through the countless tomes of Mariella Bernardini's journals, as if those pages could offer her the assurances she was unconsciously in need of. But they provided her no such thing. Without even making the conscientious decision to do so, she was soon in search of a phone, fishing out one of the burners from an old crate that Jack had been keeping on hand for the last several months. After tracking down a charging cord, she slipped into an empty sitting room for some privacy, closing the door behind her before locating an outlet. The mobile charged fairly quickly, and with pure muscle memory she dialed the number to her uncle's estate.

Fabian, the butler, answered after the third ring.

When she asked to speak with Armand, the man hesitated, which was rather unlike him.

"I'm sorry, Miss Francesca, but I'm afraid your uncle, the Comté, is not on the grounds at the moment," he said after a spell.

"Oh. That's strange," she admitted. "Any idea when he'll be back?"

"He didn't say."

Odd.

"What about Alayna? Is she around?"

"I'm afraid she's gone as well."

"Is Señor Meirás still there?"

"No, he departed before your uncle did."

"Did he say where he was going?"

"The only thing I caught was that he had some business in Geneva to take care of. Perhaps he intended to meet up with one of your cousins?"

Curiouser and curiouser.

"And he didn't say what kind of business it was?"

"I didn't think to ask. You know how Satanas is, my lady – tends to come and go at will."

That was true.

"Is anyone at home that I could speak to? Any of the family?"

"None that are readily at hand. Is everything all right? Should I have someone reach out to you once they're made available?"

Frankie sighed, trying to conceal her disappointment.

She supposed she shouldn't be so surprised – her family had always been so far removed from all the goings on in Budapest, and while she may have been up to her eyeballs in a war that was on the verge of coming to a head, that didn't mean that her uncle and cousins' lives had come grinding to a halt like hers had.

With great reluctance, she said,

"There's no need to alarm anyone. I just wanted to check in... see if they learned anything new about the Sumerian glyphs on Lyra's arm in the last few hours."

"I'm afraid I'm quite ignorant on the matter, my lady. Forgive me."

"It's all right, Fabian."

The words came out easily enough but she immediately questioned their sincerity the second she uttered them. The rather abrupt and inexplicable absence of her family, her safety network... perhaps it was the stress she was under, but she couldn't help but feel abandoned suddenly.