2.2

April 27

After rearranging and pacing and rearranging some more, Marketa told me that she had found out which skeleton was important. This was the seahorse, which I believed to be a mythical creature until she told me otherwise. She held the seahorse up to the light, and the light shone through its bony plates and etched inside the bony plates were letters. These were the directions to Tove’s childhood home.

I said that this Tove could have left a letter with directions instead, and Marketa said not to be tiresome. I said that I was not tired, and Marketa said “Enough, Frida.” This is what she says when her choler is troubling her and her temper is short. So I went out into the garden so as not to bother her.

But presently she came outside and found me and explained that Tove did not want to be troubled by the gold-seekers and life-leechers who trouble all alchemists. Tove wanted to be followed only by those who loved knowledge. This I understood, and my heart warmed to Tove.

So now, after a night’s rest, we are following the directions Tove left behind. Soon we shall have arrived, and I will document further.

April 29

Tove is dead.

We arrived and found her clan of women in mourning. She was wrapped in a shroud and they were preparing for the rituals of the dead. I have never seen Marketa’s face look so empty.

April 30

We are staying with the women of Tove’s clan to perform funeral rites. Marketa believes that Tove was not the only one who knew of the Cave of Regrets. She believes the women also keep the secret of the cave. But they will not speak it to outsiders.

May 1

The women of the clan have agreed to share the secret of the Cave with Marketa, under one condition. She must pass the three tests that all women must pass to be accepted into their clan.

The first test begins tomorrow at dawn. She must pass this test before night falls.

I said to Marketa, “Marketa, is this woman of yours worth the trouble of rising at dawn?” I said this to tease her, for Marketa does not like to rise early. But her eyes grew suddenly wet with tears and I felt guilty. We were silent for the rest of the night.

May 2

The women have presented Marketa with the first test. It is a diagram of various shapes entering into numbered filters. It came with a story about water and toxic metals that I forgot to write down, and am now too embarrassed to ask them to repeat. However, I believe that the story was not as important as the diagram. Marketa’s task is to detoxify the water from the story by using exactly four of the filters provided.

As for test methods, they have given me very little to document. “The filters must be used in ascending order,” one of them said to me, and I nodded and started to write it down for Marketa. But I was nervous, and dropped the pen. She laid her hands on mine and smiled. “The odds are in your favor.” I wrote that down too.

I said to Marketa, this cannot be enough information. But she did not answer me. She is pacing again, poring over a metals chart. I will wait.