“What Grace and I share,” said Jack, gently squeezing my hand, “is so powerful, and our abilities are so perfectly matched, that we could almost be on opposite sides of the planet and so long as we remained perfectly coordinated, we would still be able to complete the Dance of the Flowers.”
He gave my hand a final squeeze then let it go, turning back to the rest of the group.
“We need to get Grace somewhere safe,” he said. “Somewhere so secure Catling’s hex can’t extend into it. She and I can begin the Dance of the Flowers together, but at the precise moment that the labyrinth begins to pull Catling into its heart, we need to get Grace somewhere where Catling’s hex can’t touch her. I don’t know how to break that hex, no one else does, but I think we can move Grace to a place of safety—”
“A shelter,” I heard my mother whisper.
“—at the precise moment Catling is being pulled through into the dark heart, when Catling is disorientated and likely to be expending most of her energy trying to escape the Shadow Game.
“Noah,” he looked at my mother, “I want you to use your powers as Eaving, as Mistress of the Labyrinth and as Darkwitch to construct a shelter for Grace. An enchantment whose only purpose is to shelter Grace during those terrible moments when Catling is being dragged into the dark heart of the Shadow Game and the Flower Gate closes on her for eternity. Can you do it?”
My mother’s eyes were wide, wide with the same thing I’d seen in Jack’s eyes over the past few days—an intoxicating excitement.
“Yes,” she said, “I can do it. I can construct a devising…something to keep her safe. Yes, I can do it.” She thought for a moment. “It will be similar to a Game, but not quite. The devising will need to be danced by a Mistress and Kingman, which will tie it in with the labyrinthine forces involved in the Shadow Game…yes, yes, I can do it.”
I saw Ariadne move slightly in a deliberate attempt to capture my attention, and I looked at her.
When I first trained your mother, Ariadne said in my mind, I realised then that she could do things with labyrinthine power that no one else could have ever imagined. She was born for this, Grace. She can do this for you.
“And I will dance the devising with Weyland,” said my mother. “With your father, Grace.”
“No,” said Jack, “Ariadne and Silvius will dance it.”
Everyone’s attention focussed back on Jack, and Noah opened her mouth to protest.
“Let me speak,” he said gently. “Let me show you what will happen.”
He looked now at the Lord of the Faerie. “Coel, the Faerie is in desperate peril, yes?”
The Lord of the Faerie gave a terse nod. “You know it is.”
“Then Noah and I will go to Catling very soon, and we will say to Catling that we’ve had enough, we cannot bear to see the Faerie perish, and we will complete her. She’ll be wary of our promises—after all, we’ve done this before—but I’m sure we can make her listen.
“Then, on the night of the next big air raid, Grace and I will open the Shadow Game.”
I felt my chest constrict both with fear and with excitement.
“Catling won’t realise?” Silvius said.
“I don’t think so,” said Jack. “The White Queen has made her Shadow Game well. It is so close a reflection of the Troy Game that Catling will think
—and especially during a night of a massive air raid
—of the slight reverberation of its waking as…oh, as nothing more important than a distant wavering along the borders of her own existence.”
Of course, Jack and I also needed the power of the air raid to infuse this Game with as much power as possible, but I hoped he and the White Queen were right about Catling not realising what was happening.
“Eventually, within weeks, I hope, we will close out the Shadow Game, but at the same time as it is closed, so also must we begin to close the Troy Game, and Ariadne and Silvius must dance the devising to save Grace. Everything must be done at the same time. They are all interconnected.”
“Of course!” I said. “The Savoy, the night we were all there, dancing.”
“Three damp rings on a table,” Ariadne murmured.
“Three sets of Kingmen and Mistresses, three labyrinthine enchantments, all danced virtually concurrently,” Jack said.
“It must be my age,” said Silvius, “but can you perhaps explain a little more clearly?”
Jack sat even further forward on the edge of his seat, and pulled a lamp table close, lifting the lamp down to the floor. Malcolm had earlier served tea, and now Jack took three of the empty cups, and placed them atop the table side by side in a line.
“One night, three dances, three sets of Kingmen and Mistresses, three purposes,” he said. He tapped the cup at the left end of the line. “The Troy Game.” Then he tapped the middle cup. “The Shadow Game.” He tapped the final cup. “Noah’s devising, designed to shelter Grace from Catling’s hex. For the moment let’s forget the devising and concentrate only on the Troy and Shadow Games.”
His attention turned back to the first cup, the Troy Game. “Noah and I begin the Dance of the Flowers within St Paul’s to complete the Troy Game. We won’t mean to complete it, but it will distract Catling from what else is happening that night.” Now his fingers tapped the middle cup. “At precisely the same time as Noah and I begin to dance, Grace and Weyland begin the same dance over the top of the river crypt in order to begin the process of completing the Shadow Game.”
“But my father and I can’t—” I began, stopping as Jack glanced at me.
“Let me finish,” he said. “The Flower Dances for the Troy and Shadow Games need to be danced concurrently, precisely in step. Two reasons. First, this way it is less likely that Catling will realise what’s happening. Everything she feels she will think a product of her own completion. But secondly, and far more importantly, it enables me to transfer power smoothly between the two dances. Look…”
One of the cups had residue of tea left in it, and Jack dipped in his forefinger and drew a damp figure of eight about the first two cups, so that they were each enclosed by interconnecting circles.
“Weyland,” he said, “in partnering Grace you are my shadow, my proxy. You will still need to use your own power, and you will need to dance precisely what is needed, but you will also be acting on my behalf. While I will do enough with Noah to enable the raising of the Flower Gate in St Paul’s, most of my attention will be on Grace.”
“How nice,” said my father, “to be your proxy.” There was humour underscoring his words, however, and Jack sent him a brief grin.
“Noah and I dance the Troy Game almost to completion,” he said, “but before the Flower Gate is fully raised I transfer completely to Grace, Weyland moving to Noah’s side. Noah, at this point you stop dancing, and I withdraw all power from the Troy Game and concentrate entirely on completing the Shadow Game with Grace. This is a dangerous time for you and Weyland. Catling will realise instantly what is happening, she will flail and fight as the Shadow Game drags her into its dark heart, and the very first people she will flail out at is you and Weyland. Be careful.”
“Grace will also be in terrible danger at this moment,” said Ariadne, “as Catling will drag her into the Shadow Game with her. When do Silvius and I dance Noah’s devising?”
“You start just before Noah and I abandon the completion of the Troy Game,” said Jack. “You accelerate the devising to full strength as I move to Grace’s side; by then Catling will know something has gone wrong, she will suspect the worst, and she’ll be concentrating on Grace.” His finger traced out a new figure of eight, now enclosing the middle and last cups. “I will get an instant with Grace, in harmony, over the river crypt, before you and Silvius manage to enclose her within the devising Noah has created. Then, in whatever safe place the devising has moved her to, Grace continues to dance with me, the Shadow Game is closed, the Troy Game is trapped, and we’re all safe.”
Silence.
“Uh-huh,” said my father. “Very simple.”
I didn’t know what to think. It was horribly complicated. Three dances, enacted virtually simultaneously. One Game to trap another, and a devising to keep me safe so I could close off the Shadow Game with Jack, trap the Troy Game and avoid being trapped myself.
What a complex solution to fend off the Troy Game. And we couldn’t destroy it. Only trap it.
I hoped London Council had no plans for a major dredging of the Thames in the near future.
“Everything will need to be so carefully timed,” said Ariadne. “Not a single step wrong, not a single dancer out of time.”
“We did it that night in the Savoy,” said Jack, “without even trying.”
“And I?” said Silvius. “I will need the power of the kingship bands to dance Grace’s game with Ariadne. I’m assuming you will share that power with me in the same manner you explained you will with Weyland.”
Jack nodded, and his finger traced out the two figures of eight that connected all three cups: the Troy Game, the Shadow Game, and the devising Ariadne and Silvius would dance. “The power of the bands can extend through to all three sets of dancers. It will be easy enough.”
“Sharing the power won’t lessen it?” asked my mother.
“No,” said Jack. “The kingship bands provide clarification and guidance rather than real power…Kingmen draw and use power from the labyrinth in the same manner as do Mistresses. The kingship bands show us clearly how to direct that power, and where to direct it. I can share the bands with Weyland and Silvius with no harm.”
My mother cleared her throat, edging forward a little. I knew her too well not to know she was about to broach a delicate subject.
“This sheltering devising you want me to make,” she said. “Jack, if I devise it, then surely I would be the best person to make it?”
“There is no denying,” Jack said, “that if you enacted it then it would be at its most powerful. But, Noah, Catling will expect you to be at St Paul’s in order to dance her final completion, and—”
“But there’s no reason,” said Noah, “when you swap with Weyland, when you and I stop dancing the Troy Game, that I couldn’t then enact the sheltering enchantment with Weyland. There is no need for Ariadne and Silvius to do it.”
Jack looked at her, taking his time, and I had to look away from my mother. I knew what he would answer, and I prayed that he found the tact to say it without destroying Noah.
“The devising will need to be started just before we stop, Noah,” Jack said.
“But—” my mother said, looking ready to argue the issue.
“If the enchantment was for anyone other than Grace,” Jack said, “then, yes, you could do it. But—”
Oh, gods, that “but”.
“—Grace is more comfortable with Ariadne and Silvius, and between them there lies no history of discord.”
I had to close my eyes. My poor mother. Why was it that somehow she always had to hear these small pieces of horror in front of an audience?
“There will be no second chances at this, Noah,” Jack continued. “None. You and Grace love each other, but you are not close. I need Grace to be able to submit entirely and without question to the wielders of this devising.” A pause. “I want her to be entirely comfortable with them.”
Ouch.
“Besides,” said Ariadne, far too brightly, “Catling will surely be centring all her anger on you, and you won’t have the chance to—”
“She’ll be centring all her power on dragging Grace into the heart of the Shadow Game!” Noah said, her voice too loud and too hard. “She won’t have time for anything else but that!”
I was watching my mother from out of the corner of an eye now, too embarrassed to look at her directly, and saw her swing back to Jack.
“Ariadne and Silvius can do it, Noah,” Jack said, very gently, before my mother had a chance to say anything.
She deflated. Her mouth closed, she stared at Jack, then her back straightened. “Very well. If you think it worth the risk.”
There isn’t much more worth recounting about the evening. Jack arranged for people to meet up as needed, he asked Harry to arrange a meeting with the king so that Jack could ask George’s permission for what he was about to do (as he had earlier promised George he would), then everyone left Jack and Malcolm and me to Copt Hall, and then, finally, Jack and I had some time together, alone.
He leaned back against the bedroom door as he pushed it closed, sighed, and rubbed a hand wearily across his face.
“Why do I always manage to say the wrong thing to your mother, Grace?”
“I don’t think there was a right way to say that.”
I had sat on the side of the bed, and now Jack came and joined me. He slid a hand behind my head, and tipped my face to his. “Are you scared, Grace?”
Oh, aye, desperately, and he saw it in my eyes.
“It is the best I could think of,” he said. “I—”
I leaned forward and held him tightly to me. I knew it was the best he could do, and that was all I could ask of him.
“Do you think Ariadne and Silvius strong enough to work my mother’s devising?”
“Ariadne managed to destroy the Aegean world all by herself, and Silvius has as much talent as I ever had. They can do it, Grace.”
I let myself believe him. “You were right, Jack. I’d feel more comfortable with Ariadne and Silvius. With my mother there would always be the chance that our distance would intrude.”
We were silent a long time, sitting on the bed, holding each other.
“I wish there were another way, Grace,” he said.
With those words I realised he wasn’t sure it would work, and I buried my face against his chest, and fought desperately to keep the blackness at bay.
FOUR
Copt Hall and London
Sunday 6th April to Tuesday, 15th April 1941
Of the six people involved in the entrapment of the Troy Game and the saving of Grace, only Weyland needed any degree of extensive training in the steps of the Dance of the Flowers. Even then, he needed merely to shadow Jack, to be his footsteps and body, and thus his training needed only to show him the steps of the dance, and not to train him in the arts of wielding its power. Jack could have taught Weyland the steps, but he left it to Grace and Silvius.
Once Weyland learned the steps, then Jack needed to be sure that everyone knew precisely what to do, and at what point in time they needed to do it. But that needed to be left until Weyland was quite ready.
One of the first things Jack did was to visit the king, explain to him what he wanted to do, and ask his permission to go ahead. George was appalled at the risk, but he finally nodded. Better to take the risk than submit the land to Catling’s rule.
Noah concentrated on building the devising that would shelter Grace from Catling’s hex. For ten days after meeting with Jack at Copt Hall, Noah isolated herself in a room at Faerie Hill Manor.
Here, she sat in a chair, its back to the closed door, facing an open window. The room had no lights, no heating, no stimulus of any kind save from the open window, and for these ten days Noah took no sustenance save from her power, nor did she move from, nor move within, the chair. She sat, clothed in her power as Eaving, staring unblinking out the window with sage green eyes shot through with lightning.
Exploring possibilities.
As Eaving, Noah’s very purpose was to shelter. As a Darkwitch and a Mistress of the Labyrinth she could bring added (and far darker) power to her goddess powers which would entwine her devising with a strength that would give it its best chance of success.
Firstly, Noah had to think of a physical place of shelter. Grace had to go somewhere, and it had to be a place that already was something of a fortress. That inherent quality would surely need to be buttressed, but if it were a natural fortress in any case, then its power would be so much more potent.
There was one place which shone out, but it had
some massive problems. Noah kept returning to it, then discarding the idea almost immediately.
No, it had already been corrupted by Catling. She could already stretch her malevolent fingers in there.
So Noah tried to think of somewhere else, somewhere naturally safe from Catling.
And, over the three days, she came up with nowhere as suitable as her first thought. Even though it was corrupted, it was such a natural shelter, and one where Grace would feel so comfortable…somewhere where she would have no doubts, which would feel like home to her.
“If only I can protect it,” whispered Noah, over and over. If only I can devise some means to keep Catling’s claws out of it.
The Idyll.
When Weyland had originally constructed his Idyll atop the house in Idol Lane, he had, because of his secretive, close nature, instinctively made of it a fortress. Over the following years, as Weyland’s relationship with Noah had developed, so the Idyll had grown, eventually touching the borders of the Faerie.
But with the gradual disintegration of the Faerie over the past year, the Idyll had retreated. Noah and Weyland rarely used it, and the Idyll had isolated itself from what was happening within the rest of the land. Now, as originally, there was only one entrance. Weyland’s house on Idol Lane had been destroyed in 1666, so the Idyll had taken as its single entrance the next best thing—the steps leading up through the rebuilt spire of St Dunstan’s-in-the-East.
Noah could easily protect those steps, and the Idyll was so familiar to her that she knew she could just as easily devise a sheltering protection for it.
Indeed, the Idyll would embrace it.
Yet there was a problem. Catling had already penetrated the Idyll. In fact, it was the place where Catling had managed to hex Grace in the first instance.
For days Noah went over every possibility, tried to think of every complication, tried to think of somewhere else.
At the end of the ten days, Noah finally acknowledged that she had no choice. The Idyll was the best shelter possible for Grace…now all Noah had to do was craft a devising that would shelter both Grace and the Idyll from Catling’s hex. Noah needed to create a devising that not merely transported Grace into the Idyll (relatively easy) but would then seal the Idyll from Catling’s hex (supremely difficult).