“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.