House of Shadows by Nicola Cornick

carefully, ‘that after Dr Ansell contacted me I did make some enquiries into his background and history.’ He spread his hands in a gesture of apology. ‘Forgive me, but I am a rich man and sometimes criminals will try to target my collection. Naturally I quickly realised your brother was no such person.’ His smile was disarming. ‘Yet equally I could find no obvious connection between your family and the Winter Queen to suggest why your brother might possess the Sistrin.’
    ‘Did you ask him?’ Holly said. ‘Whether he had the pearl, I mean?’
    ‘Yes,’ Shurmer said. His tone was pensive. ‘He was … evasive. He suggested we meet and I agreed.’
    There was silence. Holly tried to remember her conversations with Ben. None of them had involved anything as arcane as lost treasure. She thought about the mill. She had spent much of the day tidying it up and she had found nothing unusual or unexpected. The lack of clues towards Ben’s disappearance had frustrated her.
    ‘I’m very sorry,’ she said helplessly. ‘Ben said nothing to me. I really don’t think I can help.’
    ‘No matter,’ Shurmer said graciously. ‘I would ask, though, that if you discover anything, you let me know?’ He took a card from his inside pocket and passed it to Holly. It felt crisp and smooth beneath her fingers, the edges sharp.
    ‘Oh, of course,’ she said. ‘Of course I will.’
    She stood up, suddenly wanting to be gone from this place, the supernatural stories and the crystal mirror’s sinister gleam. It was easy to believe in superstition when she was encased in a world like the Ashmolean, where thousand-year-old tribal masks watched her with blank eyes as she passed and she could hear the whispers of history.
    ‘I understand that you are most anxious to uncover the reasons for your brother’s disappearance, Miss Ansell,’ Shurmer said quietly, getting to his feet too. ‘I hope that you find what you are looking for.’
    ‘Thank you,’ Holly said. ‘I …’ She hesitated. ‘I’m sure he will turn up soon.’
    She saw the smile that touched Shurmer’s eyes and knew that he knew she was lying.
    ‘Let us hope so,’ he said. He held out a hand and Holly shook it.
    ‘It was … very interesting … to meet you, Mr Shurmer.’
    ‘A pleasure, Miss Ansell,’ Shurmer said. He sounded as though he meant it.
    Holly had already taken five steps away when she stopped and turned back. Espen Shurmer was standing where she had left him, beside the display case that contained the crystal mirror.
    ‘What was the special power that the pearl was said to possess?’ she asked. The words seemed to spring from her of their own volition. She was not even sure what had put them in her mind. Then, when Shurmer did not immediately reply, she added:
    ‘You said that the mirror destroyed its enemies through fire. What did the pearl do?’
    She saw it then, the flicker of disquiet in Espen Shurmer’s eyes, and knew that for some reason he had deliberately kept this from her.
    ‘Mr Shurmer?’ she said.
    ‘The pearl’s power came from water,’ Shurmer said. ‘It destroyed its enemies through the medium of water.’
    Holly thought of the mill, of the splash of the stream running beneath the wheel and the lazy glare of the sun on the pond. It had to be a coincidence, and yet she felt a deep chill in her bones. She thought of Ben and for a terrifying moment her mind was full of darkness. There was the rushing sound of water in her ears and a pressure in her lungs that smothered her breath. Coldness gripped her limbs and there was fear that cut like a blade.
    ‘The Winter Queen’s eldest son died from drowning,’ she said slowly. ‘And her brother – did he not die after swimming in the Thames?’
    ‘That is indeed so, Miss Ansell,’ Shurmer said. ‘Those who dismiss such magic as mere superstition are perhaps complacent.’
    A huge shudder shook Holly. If Ben truly had the Sistrin pearl, had it destroyed him, too? She