Part 9 (2/2)

Halfway down the next alley, I stepped out of the surging flow to take a closer look at the sparkling array of goods on open display. Various lumps of amber and a jar full of beads like large beans were laid out on a plank of wood blocking the entrance to a tiny den. I leaned close, and I was greeted by a jab in the ribs from a man already positioned there. Voices from behind began to shout more loudly, 'Get a move on!'

The owner looked up and flashed a winning smile at the man beside me.

'Herr Gusmar! Welcome back, sir! Do come in.'

Was that the secret? Would traders only speak to men they knew, customers they had dealt with before? If that was the case, the best thing for me to do was search out the gendarmes, make my ident.i.ty known to them, then question these people while slapping Malaport's order in their faces. But what if the soldiers were in cahoots with the amber dealers?

'Come with me, sir. The real thing. Prize goods only.'

The voice seemed to rise up from the earth, like s.h.i.+fting gravel. I looked down. She was not much taller than my daughter, Suzi. That is, she barely reached my waist. But this child's hair was an artificial flaxen colour streaked with grey, as if she had dyed it badly. It was tied up in a thin tail at the nape of her neck, like a newborn kitten's. Her voice was shrill and seemed to rattle in her throat. Her hand was small, but it clutched at my hand like a blacksmith's vice, and refused to be shaken off. In the lobe of each ear, a bit of rough-cut amber shone.

The strangest little girl that I had ever seen.

The only female I had noticed in Nordcopp that morning.

Wearing a white gown with many strings attached, she might have been wrapped in swaddling clothes. Yet everything about her contradicted everything else. Do little girls have grey wrinkles? The lines ridged at the corners of her mouth, and hung in heavy folds beneath her eyes, which were over-large, red-veined, rheumy like a grandmother's.

'They won't sell you anything,' she declared. 'They can't.'

There were people buying and selling amber everywhere in Nordcopp.

What did she mean?

I looked around for a.s.sistance, and was roughly pushed aside. I was creating a bottleneck. The cork threatened to explode as the pressure built up in the alleyway behind me.

'Get a move on there!' someone shouted violently.

'Follow me,' the child hissed. 'Before you get yourself arrested.'

There was urgency in the voice, crus.h.i.+ng strength in the fingers.

'Call the French,' another voice insisted. 'They'll move him on quick enough.'

'Gendarmes! Gendarmes!' the cry went up.

A French soldier appeared at the end of the alley, waving his bayonet in the air.

'There's amber here for everyone,' he shouted. 'Calm yourselves down!'

His execrable German caused a general laugh to go up.

'We have to get off the street,' the child insisted, tugging at my sleeve, charging forward towards the gendarme, brus.h.i.+ng hard against the wall, barging people out of the way.

'Well done, Erika!' the gendarme called. 'Caught another, have you?'

She skipped to the left without warning, pulling me after her, cutting through a narrow breach in a wall. Though limping heavily, she was extremely agile. Three pigs squealed in fright and skittered away to the corner. Underfoot the earth was mushy, the smell of filth unbearable. We were in the wreck of what had once been a house. Though the walls still stood, the roof had collapsed and left the building open to the sky.

I tried to free myself.

'Let go of me!' I shouted, but the demon child would not release my hand.

Grim tales of the countryside rang in my head, tales of wanderers waylaid by beautiful maids, toothless crones, or smiling children, lured to their deaths in the name of Prussian hospitality.

'Will you not leave go?' I grabbed at her wrist, struggling to throw her off, as if she were the Devil himself. As I swung her around, she crashed against the wall, and I heard the rattle of her bones.

The pigs squealed, and ran away to the other corner.

The child breathed heavily, leaning back against the wall, looking up at me.

'Near tore my arm off, you did,' she complained. And yet, there was a hint of a smile on her lips. 'My hands are as strong as an eagle's claws. Did you feel the force, sir?'

'What do you want from me?' I looked at her intently, struggling to suppress a wave of revulsion. I was eager to get out of that foul pigpen.

'You're after amber,' she said, panting after the tussle. 'I heard you say so to the soldier on the gate.'

Had she spotted me so soon? Had she been following me?

'This town is full of people selling amber,' I replied.

'They'll never sell it to you,' she answered quickly.

'My money is as good as any man's.'

'I told you, sir,' she said sternly, staring into my eyes. 'The Nordcopp guild don't ever deal with strangers. I can help you, though.'

Nothing in her manner was childish. Indeed, she spoke to me as if I were a child that had to be protected.

'How can you help me?'

She kicked out at a pig that came too close. 'I know where amber's freely sold, sir.' She looked at me coyly. 'Is that all you're looking for?'

Incredulity robbed me of speech. I had just been propositioned.

'Amber is my only interest,' I murmured in reply.

'Ours is the very best,' she said. 'Our prices are the lowest. And if you're hungry, why, we'll sell you a bowl of fish soup, too.' She jammed her hand up to her mouth and suppressed a girlish giggle. 'I heard you tell that story to the guard.'

'Amber that is not controlled by the French, or the guild?' I asked. 'You know the punishment for stealing amber . . .'

'There's profit here for everyone,' she replied with a shrug. 'The guild don't care. Their own business is flouris.h.i.+ng. And the French take a cut from everyone, legal or not. That gendarme knew where I was leading you. I'll have to grease his palm before the day is out.' She laughed shrilly. A harsh metallic sound. 'He don't care if you buy amber, or the little jewel between my legs.'

I had always thought of amber as something sacred, ancient, mysterious. A gift of G.o.d, a blessing on mankind. Instead, it seemed to affect the people on the coast in a way that was unwholesome. In Nordcopp every soul was blighted with evil intentions, or marked by their consequences. The corpse of Kati Rodendahl flashed before my eyes again. The face of Hilde, the woman who worked for Pastoris. The speech and manners of this child blotted out any presumption of innocence. Had all the females on the coast been seduced and ruined by amber?

'Amber, sir?' Her head tilted to one side, smiling, taunting. 'The finest in Prussia! And the best fish, too. Don't let the opportunity get away.'

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