The Eyeball Collector (26 page)

I have the seventh eye, Bovrik’s gold-rimmed and diamond-studded masterpiece. It is cracked and time-worn, and thankfully no longer toxic, though I always wear gloves when I handle it. And of all the objects I have acquired on my own journey, from Pagus Parvus to Urbs Umida and beyond, I think it is the one that fascinates me the most.

Finally, those of you who have been with me since the beginning of my adventures will know that even now not all mysteries have been solved. I cannot promise that they ever will be, but I am closer now than ever, as you might understand when you learn under what hallowed roof I write.

F. E. Higgins
Atrium Arcanorum

Postscript

If you would know more about Hector and Ludlow’s world, read first
The Black Book of Secrets
, where in many ways the story began, and then
The Bone Magician
.
The Bone Magician
is what I like to call a ‘paraquel’ – neither sequel nor prequel, but a story in parallel. In the same vein, I like to think of
The Eyeball Collector
as a ‘polyquel’, for it contains elements from both stories as well as mysteries all of its own.

Riddle Solutions

The Kingdom Where It Was a Crime to Tell a Lie

(Page 8) The man answers, ‘I will be burned’. This threw the king into such confusion that he had to release him.

‘E’

(Page 27) The answer, ‘senselessness’, is arrived at by breaking up the word into three parts – sense/less/ness i.e. the word ‘sense’
less
the letters ‘n e s s’. This leaves a single ‘e’.

The Landlord’s Pickle
(Page 62. See if you can make it work!)

Ten weary footsore travellers,
All in a woeful plight,
Sought shelter at a wayside inn
One dark and stormy night.

‘Nine rooms, no more,’ the landlord said
‘Have I to offer you,
To each of eight a single bed,
But the ninth must serve for two.

A din arose. The troubled host
Could only scratch his head,
For of those tired men no two
Would occupy one bed.

The puzzled host was soon at ease –
He was a clever man –
And so to please his guests devised
This most ingenious plan.

In a room marked A two men were placed,
The third was lodged in B,
The fourth to C was then assigned,
The fifth retired to D.

In E the sixth he tucked away
In F the seventh man,
The eight and ninth in G and H,
And then to A he ran,

Wherein the host, as I have said,
Had laid two travellers by;
Then taking one – the tenth and last –
He lodged him safe in I.

Nine single rooms – a room for each –
Were made to serve for ten;
And this it is that puzzles me
And many wiser men.

The Evil Queen and the Two Black Stones

(Page 130) Knowing there were two black stones in the bag the young lad reached in and took one out but quickly dropped it before it could be seen and it was lost in the gravel.

‘Never mind. Let us see what is left in the bag,’ said the young lad. ‘If it is a white stone then we know that mine was black, but if it is a black stone then we know that mine must have been white.’

Of course it was black and the lady had to honour her promise and allow him home.

The Land of Liars and Truthtellers

(Page 186) He said to one man, ‘If I asked your friend which fork to take, what would he say?’ He listened to the answer and then he took the opposite fork.

Think about it . . . it works.

Tartri flammis!

One of Hector’s favourite sayings; roughly translated it means ‘By the fames of hell’.

Lepidoptery

Lepidoptery is more commonly known as the collecting, studying or observing of butterflies and moths. The discipline, although popular from as early as the seventeenth century, rose to prominence during the 1900s, when the quest for knowledge and understanding of the natural world entered a stage of swift progression.

The process of lepidoptery starts with the capture of a live specimen in the wild or by a collector breeding a species themselves, as Hector did for Lady Mandible in his purpose-built
Incunabulorum
. Butterflies are captured in large nets or in specially designed traps before being carefully placed into a killing jar, which is filled with poisonous gas for a quick and effective death.

Once the insect’s body has thoroughly dried out and rigor mortis has taken its firm hold, the lepidopterist must soften the joints of the delicate creature to restore the exothermic frame (the hard outer body of the insect) and wings to their former glory. Holding the specimen gently between thumb and forefinger, the lepidopterist injects boiling water into the rear of the thorax (the part between the neck and the abdomen), using a very fine-needled syringe, until the water starts to dribble out and the insides become malleable.

Then the butterfly is placed into a container lined with damp cloth, known as a relaxing box. A fine mist of water is sprayed over the wings to aid the process before the lid is sealed and it is left for an hour. On returning to the relaxing box, the collector grips the base of the butterfly’s wings tightly and moves them up and down, as if the creature were flying. Gradually the muscles loosen and then finally give way completely. The now subservient butterfly is ready for positioning.

The lepidopterist grasps the specimen firmly and pushes a large pin directly through the centre of the thorax, ensuring it is perfectly vertical, then continues to ease the pin through the entire body until it emerges on the other side, through the middle of the legs. Now the butterfly is pinned very precisely on to a display board, with the colourful wings spread and fixed using smaller pins – inserted between the two veins on the forewings – to hold the insect for eternity in its magnificent shape.

Finally the specimen must be labelled, detailing its breed and the time and place of capture, or place of breeding. The board is mounted inside a glass-covered box and displayed, enabling the collector to admire his or her butterfly for evermore.

1
  If, dear reader, you would know the answer too, then turn to the back of the book, while I proceed with Hector’s story here . . .