Island Has Ghosts

Chapter 8

"I think Vsevolod was here yesterday," said Elvira, when they crossed the forest and reached the first tower.

"Yes, but he could have missed something," Violet objected, "he was tired and alone."

"Our task is not to explore this part of the island, but to find the person who sent the note," Elvira reminded, and Violet could not but agree with her. But to do that we had to find a way to get to the tower. What a pity the dog never came again! She could have led the way to the loophole.

Red suggested that they go straight up to the towers and look around from there. It was possible that the dog might not have come through the gap in the wall, but had taken a roundabout way. And, hand on heart, neither of them wanted to go to the ruined hospital. Violet hadn't told her what had happened there, but her companion was frightened of the building as it was.

"Shall we go together?" Elvira asked, tilting her head to get a good look at the top platform of the tower.

"Are you afraid of heights?"

"Nope. But physical exercise is not my thing."

With these words Elvira first went to the stairs and took hold of the handrail with peeling paint. Violet waited a little and followed her.

Getting to the top landing was not so easy.

"I can't imagine how the redhead climbed up here yesterday," Elvira said, trying to catch her breath, "he limped so badly that I thought he wouldn't make it. Where else would he climb to such a high place!"

"He climbed three towers, not just one," Violet grinned, looking at the space below them. The view was not so much of the part of the island they were on as it was of the area beyond the wall.

The strip of forest from here seemed like a wide river, and the meadow a vast green shore. Farther away, the water glistened with dark mica, and the horizon line was drowning in a cotton-candy haze. Maybe she was right in assuming that the other half of the island was being watched. But what could be there when all that could be seen was a lush grassy open space?

"And there's that damn fog," Elvira grumbled, "and over there is something dark."

Violet turned and saw a rectangle of black earth.

"You can't see it from here," she shook her head, "I suggest not to look for another tower, but to go along the wall. It's partially hidden by the forest. We won't be able to see the trapdoor from up there."

They descended to the ground and, reasoning that the dog had hardly made a huge detour, and had probably found a passage closer to the intersection of the two walls, they set off in the opposite direction.

"What could be here?" Violet continued to ponder, but out loud, to pass the time. "The fog surrounds the pond, which, according to Vsevolod, is not easy to swim across. I was on the shore when he tried to do it. He was gone for too long, and from the fog Vsevolod came back exhausted, scared and wounded, so I believe him. And the island itself is divided by walls."

"This place is like a prison," Elvira sighed. "Maybe the island was once a prison? Or a haven for lepers, judging by the hospital and the bars on the windows?"

"Maybe."

"Listen, and you did not know Vsevolod before?" Elvira changed the subject abruptly. The question took her by surprise, but Violet had nothing to hide.

"No," she answered without the slightest hesitation, "I have a good memory for faces. And Vsevolod's looks are memorable."

"I had the impression that he knew you," Elvira continued. The wall seemed to have ceased to attract her attention, while Violet, on the contrary, was interested: the stone was different here - dark, in some places greened by lichen, and the masonry was also different. The stones were so tightly fitted together that the seams between them were almost invisible. The wall looked monolithic and impregnable, and also very, very old.