The woman read his expression and gazed down at the children, a shadow of pain passing over her face.
‘She’s dead, Aryami,’ murmured Peake. ‘She was already dead when I found her …’
Aryami closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Peake saw that the news cut deep into the lady’s heart, her worst suspicions confirmed.
‘Come in,’ she said at last, letting him pass and closing the door behind him.
Peake hurried over to a table, where he laid down the babies and removed their wet clothes. Without saying a word, Aryami fetched some dry strips of cloth and wrapped the children in them while Peake stoked the fire.
‘I’m being followed, Aryami,’ said Peake. ‘I can’t stay here.’
‘You’re wounded,’ said the woman, pointing to the gash from the nail.
‘Just a scratch,’ Peake lied. ‘It doesn’t hurt.’
Aryami moved closer to him and stretched out her hand to stroke his face.
‘You always loved her …’
Peake turned his head away and didn’t reply.
‘They could have been your children,’ said Aryami. ‘They might have had better luck.’
‘I must go, Aryami,’ the lieutenant repeated. ‘If I stay here, they’ll find me. They won’t give up.’
They exchanged defeated looks, both aware of the fate that awaited Peake as soon as he returned to the streets. Aryami took his hands in hers and pressed them tightly.
‘I was never good to you,’ she said. ‘I feared for my daughter, for the life she might have had with a British officer. But I was wrong. I suppose you’ll never forgive me.’
‘It doesn’t matter any more,’ replied Peake. ‘I must go. Right now.’
He took one last look at the babies, who had settled quietly by the fire. They smiled as they looked at him, their eyes bright and filled with a playful curiosity. At last they were safe. The lieutenant walked to the door and took a deep breath. Exhaustion and the throbbing pain in his leg overwhelmed him after the few moments of rest. He had used the last reserves of his strength to bring the infants to this place, and now he wondered how he was going to face the inevitable. Outside, the rain was still lashing down, but there was no sign of his pursuer or his henchmen.
‘Michael …’ said Aryami behind him.
The young man stopped but didn’t turn round.
‘She knew,’ lied Aryami. ‘She knew from the start, and I’m sure that, in some way, she felt the same for you. It was my fault. Don’t hold it against her.’
Peake replied with a nod and closed the door behind him. For a few seconds he stood there, under the rain, finally at peace with himself, then he set off to meet his pursuers. After retracing his steps back to the abandoned warehouse, he entered the dark building once more in search of a hiding place.
As he crouched in the shadows weariness and pain fused slowly into a drunken sense of calm, and his lips betrayed a faint smile. He no longer had any reason, or hope, to go on living.
Copyright
An Orion Books ebook
First published in Great Britain in 2010 by Weidenfeld & Nicolson
Ebook first published in 2010 by Orion Books
This ebook published in 2011 by Orion Books
Copyright © Dragonworks, S.L. 1993
English translation © Lucia Graves 2010
Illustrations © Sarah Jane Coleman 2010
First published in Spain as El principe de la niebla
The right of Carlos Ruiz Zafón to be identified as the author
of this work has been asserted in accordance with the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
All the characters in this book are fictitious,
and any resemblance to actual persons, living
or dead, is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978-0-2978-5740-2
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper Saint Martin’s Lane
London, WC2H 9EA
An Hachette UK company
www.orionbooks.co.uk
Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Prince of Mist
(Series: Niebla # 1)
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