The Water Mirror Read Online Free PDF Page A

foaming tide at one’s feet during a walk on the
     beach.
    The sound was repeated. Metal grating on metal, coming up from the
     courtyard. Merle recognized that sound—the lid of the well. It sounded the same
     way all over Venice when the heavy metal covers over the wells were opened. The cisterns
     existed all over the city, in every open piazza and in most courtyards. Their round
     walls were carved with patterns and fabulous creatures of stone. Gigantic semicircular
     covers protected the precious drinking water from dirt and rats.
    But who was busying himself about a well at this time of night? Merle got
     up and wiped the sleep from her eyes. A little wobbly on her legs, she went over to the
     window.
    She was just in time to see in the moonlight a form climb over the edge of
     the well and slide into the dark well shaft. A moment later hands reached out of the
     darkness, grasped the edge of the lid, and pulled it, grating, over the opening.
    Merle emitted a sharp gasp. Instinctively she ducked, although the form
     had disappeared into the well long since.
    Eft! There was no doubt that she had been the shadowy figure in the
     courtyard. But what would make the housekeeper climb into a well in the middle of the
     night?
    Merle turned around, intending to wake Junipa.
    The bed was empty.
    â€œJunipa?” she whispered tensely. But there
     was no corner of the small room she could not have seen from there. No hiding place.
    Unless . . .
    Merle bent and looked under both beds. But there was no trace of the
     girl.
    She went to the door. It had no bolt that the girls could have slid closed
     for the night, no lock. Outside in the hallway it was utterly quiet.
    Merle took a deep breath. The floor under her naked feet was bitterly
     cold. Quickly she pulled her dress and sweater on over her nightgown and pushed her feet
     into her worn-out leather shoes; they reached beyond her ankle and had to be tied, which
     at the moment required much too much time. But she couldn’t possibly go looking
     for Junipa and run the danger of tripping over her own shoelaces. Hastily she laced and
     tied them, but her fingers trembled, and it took twice as long as usual.
    Finally she slipped out into the passageway and pulled the door closed
     behind her. An ominous hissing came from somewhere in the distance. It didn’t
     sound like an animal, more like a steam engine, but she wasn’t sure whether it was
     coming from here in the house. Soon after, she heard it again, followed by a rhythmic
     pounding. Then silence again. Only as she was already on her way down the stairs did it
     occur to Merle that there were only two inhabited houses on the Canal of the
     Expelled—Arcimboldo’s workshop and that of the
     weaver on the other side.
    The whole house smelled strange, a little of lubricating oil, of polished
     steel, and the acrid odor she knew from the glass workshops on the lagoon island of
     Murano. She had been there one single time, when an old glassmaker had contemplated
     taking her to work for him. Right after she arrived, he ordered her to scrub his back in
     the bath. Merle had waited until he was sitting in the water and then run as fast as she
     could back to the landing point. Stowing away in a boat, she’d managed to get back
     to the city. Such cases were not unknown at the orphanage, and although the authorities
     weren’t at all happy to see her again, they had enough decency not to send her
     back to Murano.
    Merle reached the landing on the third floor. Until then she’d met
     no one and discovered no sign of life. Where might the other apprentices be sleeping?
     Perhaps on the fourth floor, like her and Junipa. She knew at least that Eft was not in
     the house, but she avoided giving too much thought to what the odd woman was looking for
     in the well.
    There remained only Arcimboldo himself. And, of course, Junipa. What if
     she’d only had to go to the bathroom? The