Four projection layers in total.
Raphael turned it over in his mind, but the logic kept slipping, something was missing, some piece he hadn't accounted for.
He thought about the stairwell, which he'd moved through without stopping. The same strange empty base at its center.
He went back and swept the lantern across it.
A massive grey-white statue appeared in the light. A vampire, carved with considerable care and in considerable detail, the face unmistakably Count Jestan's.
"Vain bastard."
A sound from below. He angled the lantern down.
The Marquess's wife was on the stairwell landing, wearing a silk nightgown that covered very little, one hand holding a wine glass.
She and the count were talking with the ease of people who had been doing something else together recently.
The count's clothes were still visibly disarranged, which he was addressing without particular urgency.
