The Water Mirror by Kai Meyer Page A

up. He wanted to talk them
     into feeling guilty. It would have suited that purpose better if he hadn’t
     referred so plainly to “unnecessary conflicts”: After all, it had been the
     childish quarrel between him and Umberto in the first place that caused this whole
     upset.
    Sooner or later it would have come to a break between her and Dario
     anyhow, she’d felt that on the very first day. She surmised that Arcimboldo had
     foreseen it too. Did he regret taking her from the orphanage? Would she have to go back
     to the dirt and the poverty now?
    Despite her fears, no feelings of guilt troubled her. Dario was a whining
     coward, as he’d just demonstrated twice: once when he went for Serafin with the
     knife, andthe second time when he’d taken cover behind the
     defenseless Junipa. He’d richly deserved his box on the ear and, if it had been up
     to her, a good beating right afterward.
    Clearly Arcimboldo saw it very similarly. “Dario,” he said,
     “for your unworthy and unrestrained behavior you will clean the workshop by
     yourself. I don’t want to find one single spot of paint tomorrow morning early.
     Understand?”
    â€œAnd what about her?” Dario growled, pointing angrily at
     Merle.
    â€œDid you understand me?” Arcimboldo asked once more, his bushy
     eyebrows drawing together like two thunderclouds.
    Dario lowered his head, though Merle did not miss the hateful look he sent
     her secretly. “Yes, Master.”
    â€œDario will need a quantity of water. Therefore, you, Merle, will
     get ten pails full from the well, carry them upstairs, and take them to the workshop.
     That will be your punishment.”
    â€œBut Master—,” Dario flared.
    Arcimboldo cut him short. “You have shamed us all by your behavior,
     Dario. I know you are rash and hot-tempered, but you are also my best student, and
     therefore I intend to let it go at this. As far as Merle is concerned, she has only been
     here for two weeks and must first get used to the fact that here, unlike the orphanage,
     a disputeis not settled with fists. Have I expressed myself clearly
     enough?”
    Both bowed and said in unison, “Yes, Master.”
    â€œAny objections?”
    â€œNo, Master.”
    â€œSo be it.” With a wave, he indicated that they could go.
    Outside the door of the library Merle and Dario exchanged black looks,
     then each turned to the appointed task. While Dario prepared to remove the residues of
     the paint attack in the workshop, Merle ran down into the courtyard. Beside the back
     door a dozen wooden pails sat lined up. She snatched up the first one and went to the
     well.
    Strange creatures were carved in the stone of the wall around the well,
     fantastic creatures with cat’s eyes, Medusa heads, and reptilian tails. They were
     strung out in a stiff procession around the well. At their head went a creature, half
     human, half shark, with arms whose elbows pointed in the wrong direction; in its hands
     it carried a human head.
    The metal lid was heavy. Merle succeeded in opening it only with groaning
     and straining. Below, there was nothing but blackness. Way deep, deep down, she saw a
     shimmer of light, the reflection of the sky over the courtyard.
    She turned around and looked up. The view was only a little different from
     the one inside of the well: The walls of the old houses rose up around the courtyard
     like thestone wall of the well. Perhaps the water wasn’t so
     far down as she’d thought. The reflection of the courtyard added that much more
     height, and so the well shaft seemed to be more than double its actual length. It would
     be less trouble to climb down to the surface than Merle had thought—at least now
     she could see metal handholds going down the inside of the well into the abyss. What
     could it be that Eft kept doing down there?
    Merle tied the bucket to the long rope lying ready beside the well and