'I'll do my best to behave according to the regulations.'
Father Jacow looked at me from beneath his bushy eyebrows with no trust at all, as if he thought I made fun of him.
'Good.' He finally turned around to get to the lift allocated in the corner of the lobby and lead me to the rooms for guests.
Lobby was huge, almost three floors high, with double row of banks in front of some-thing that in ordinary chapels would be an altar. However, the lobby didn't have any religious emblems and the only thing that could be considered part of the doctrine was a big portrait of Karras hanging on a wall opposite the entrance. The lobby must have served as a place of secular meetings, rather than of religious services. The chapel was supposedly somewhere else.
The man closed safety-rails behind me and hit the button of the lift with an air of a man aware of his mission. The lift swiftly begun to move up but halfway to the second floor I heard some noise, raised voices and somebody's hurried footsteps. A commotion upstairs wasn't a normal thing: there was a man lying on the floor of a long corridor, with a puddle of blood growing under him. The second person in a robe stained with blood was just lifted by two Mechanists, while a man in a long violet tunic was bending over a strange machinery on the left side of the corridor. Suddenly father Jacow stopped the lift.
'Please, stay here,' he gave me brief look, quickly opened the rails and went closer to the few Mechanists who gathered around the person in the violet robe.
'What happened here?'
'A watcher took brother Dominic for an intruder and attacked him,' one of the breth-ren who was holding the injured man looked hatefully at the Violet Robe. 'Before brother Mason managed to switch it off, brother Dominic had died and brother Mason had been badly hurt too.'
'Get him to the ambulatory.' Brother Mason was hanging like a rag doll in the arms of brethren holding him. 'Quickly!'
Disregarding the instructions father Jacow gave me, I left the lift and came closer, making way for the two brethren who were carrying the injured man. The thing responsible for the mess, which Violet Robe was leaning over, was a strangely looking machine in the shape of a human head but twice as big. It was located on a pedestal resembling a tripod. There was another face hanging over it, fixed to the ceiling. Instead of one eye it had a light-blue lens that was gleaming slightly and there was a little lamp embedded in the machine's 'neck'.
'I said they weren't ready yet!' the Violet Robe abruptly turned to father Jacow and I felt an unpleasant squeeze in my stomach when I saw his face: it was Friend Coltus. 'I don't understand why you insisted on installing them. I warned that they had to be tested.'
'There is no need to raise your voice, friend,' father Jacow raised his hand. 'Everybody knows it wasn't your fault.'
'I will not tolerate slip-ups. More people could've died there!' He pointed at the Mechanists who were standing around him. Then he met my gaze. Recognition flashed in his eyes. 'What is she doing here?'
I instantly moved my hand, seemingly to comb back my hair, and at the same time I put my fingers to a gesture. A faint smell of Tatiana's flowers spread in the air. Damn, if he sensed my intentions...
'Your words hurt me, friend. Do you not remember our last conversation and your assurance that you would support my request that I be permitted in the Angelwatch?'
The man's head drooped and his gaze became dull.
'Right. Now I remember,' he answered unnaturally slowly. The spell could not fully affect him, since Friend Coltus was not an ordinary guard and his strong will was strengthened by religious service, although he did not have enough strength to resist it entirely. I was only afraid that someone could just now...
'Then you also remember why she is in here,' father Jacow looked at me, as if he wanted to find a confirmation or denial written on my face but obviously he found nothing. He turned to Coltus. 'I hope that you will show miss Ryen the workshops, as she is interested in modern mechanics.'
The man didn't answer, his gaze focused on one point, as if he was deep in thoughts. Finally he moved along the corridor and spoke, vaguely pointing the machines with his hand.
'I'll send someone to dismantle it.'
'Friend Coltus!' Jacow cried but the man didn't respond, still walking down the corridor and vanishing around the corner.
For a long moment Father was watching the place where Coltus had disappeared. His face wore a blank expression, as if the sudden change in behaviour of the chief inventor did not surprise him a bit. After a while he nodded to the Mechanists to clean up the mess. Only then he gave me a brief look and turned to the lift.
'Follow me, please. Your room is on the fourth floor.'
