In St Paul’s Noah caught Jack’s eyes.
When, Jack? When? How much further should they allow their Flower Gate to grow? How much longer should they give Ariadne and Silvius to build the devising Noah had taught them?
Soon, he whispered back into her mind. Very soon.
She knows, Jack. Catling knows. I can feel her seething.
Jack did not reply to that. Aye, Catling knew. He could feel her anger as Noah could, coiling under his feet and through every fibre of his being.
He could also feel the direction of that anger. Not at him, or Noah, but exclusively towards Grace.
Every instinct screamed at him to move now, but he knew he couldn’t. He had to wait, wait until they were all ready, until they were all attuned, until they were all at the peak of their dances.
He had to wait until Ariadne and Silvius were ready, and that would not be for a minute or two yet.
Meanwhile, the two Flower Gates continued to build, the Shadow Game increased its pull on Catling, and Catling…
All Catling seemed to be doing was channelling every ounce of malevolence she had towards Grace.
Jack hung on for as long as he could. Then, finally, he sent his senses scrying for Ariadne and Silvius, to make sure they were ready, then he looked at Noah, and with both mind and physical voice, said to her, “Stop!”
Several things happened at once.
ELEVEN
St Paul’s, Southwark, and the Tower of London
Saturday, 10th May 1941
Jack and Noah stepped back from the Flower Gate, withdrawing all their power from it.
The Flower Gate crumpled, the columbines scattering over the floor and blackening, as if they had been burned.
The next instant Jack’s form glowed, distorted, and suddenly it was Weyland standing there. He blinked, then reached out for Noah.
“Quick,” he said. “We need to get out of here.”
At Southwark, Jack appeared where, but a heartbeat earlier, Weyland had been standing. He reached out his hand, grasping Grace’s tightly, and they continued the dance.
The Flower Gate of the Shadow Game, before which they stood, shuddered slightly as the transfer was made, but then strengthened, its flowers forming an even tighter weave than previously.
About them came the sound of a thin wail.
Catling, perhaps, or the power of the Shadow Game drawing her in.
Catling was now concentrating everything she had on Grace. She was fully aware of what was happening—somehow a new Game had been made, its only purpose to trap her—but she also knew that she could concentrate on only one thing: either try to extricate herself from the clutches of the new Game, or to make sure that Grace would be pulled in with her. She couldn’t afford anger now; better to leave that for later when she wasn’t in so much danger.
Of the two Catling preferred the latter course of action. She wasn’t entirely sure she could escape the clutches of the new Game (it was so powerful! From where had they discovered the knowledge to make something this powerful?), but she was certain, absolutely certain, that if she pulled Grace into the Game’s dark heart with her then Jack and Grace (who Catling realised was partnering him in this Game) would not complete the Game.
Grace might continue her dance, but Catling was certain that Jack wouldn’t. He couldn’t bear to think of Grace trapped with Catling for eternity. Jack may have convinced himself that he’d be able to close this new Game out…but Catling knew Jack better than he knew himself.
She knew he would never do it.
I have you, Grace, Catling whispered, very, very glad that she’d put the extra effort into strengthening the hex that bound them.
But no need to close the hex just yet. No. Why alert anyone? Catling decided to wait just a little bit longer. Let them think they’d succeeded…then pounce.
As Grace and Jack concentrated everything they had on completing the Shadow Game, Ariadne and Silvius put their entire beings into the devising meant to protect Grace. While the building of the devising took concentration and skill, and not a little effort, the critical factor was timing. It was better that Grace stay in sight of Jack, with Jack, for as long as possible before they spirited her away into the Idyll, but leave her there too long, and the chances that Catling would snatch her first increased by the second.
Ariadne and Silvius could push Grace from the Shadow Game into the Idyll, but they did not have the power to push her from the Game’s dark heart into the Idyll. If Catling got her first, then Grace was lost.
They could feel Noah’s power behind them. She wasn’t interfering, but she was lending them all the power and support she could. Weyland was there too, opening the Idyll for them, preparing the way.
Almost, Ariadne whispered to Silvius. Almost…
Then Catling struck.
The Shadow Game had been drawing her closer and closer to St Thomas’ crypt. Catling had been resisting, and had slowed her approach, but she could not halt the movement.
If she didn’t do something soon, then she’d be pulled into the Game’s foul dark heart.
It was on the approach that Catling became aware of Ariadne and Silvius atop the Keep. She didn’t know the precise nature of their enchantment, but she was well aware of its purpose: to protect Grace.
Thus, at precisely the same moment that Catling tightened her hold over Grace, she attacked Ariadne and Silvius.
The attack was not physical, but Ariadne and Silvius suddenly felt their power rock, as if something had slammed against it.
Then again, but more powerful this time.
The devising they had been building began to shudder.
Jack and Grace felt it at the same time. Jack saw Grace’s eyes widen in fright, and he fought to keep himself calm. Ariadne, he commanded, send Grace into the Idyll now. Now, damn you!
It is too early, Ariadne said.
You have no choice. Do it now!
A heartbeat, a single heartbeat in which Jack stared into Grace’s terror-filled eyes, and then she vanished.
The Flower Gate rocked, stabilised, and then, achingly slowly, the flowers kept on building.
Wherever Grace was, she was continuing the dance.
Ariadne knew that Grace had managed to get to the Idyll, and she could sense that Grace was continuing her part of the Dance of the Flowers there, but at the same time she realised that she and Silvius could not close out the devising. Somehow Catling had got her clutches into their dance, somehow her power was reaching into the Idyll as it had so many years ago when first she had hexed Grace, and Ariadne knew, with a deepening sense of horror, that Grace was not safe.
Jack, she screamed, finish the Game now. Do it now, gods, do it now!
Before she could say or do anything further, Ariadne felt her power tear apart completely.
TWELVE
The Idyll
Saturday, 10th May 1941
GRACE SPEAKS
Icouldn’t remember precisely what it had felt like when I’d been a baby and Catling had sent her imps into the Idyll to hex me, but I didn’t imagine it could have felt any worse than this did, right now. Everything happened so fast, and so powerfully. Jack and I had been dancing the Flower Gate into its entirety, and had felt Ariadne and Silvius constructing my mother’s devising. We could feel Catling, feel her anger and malevolence, but we could also feel the Shadow Game’s grip on her, and sense her inexorable journey into the crypt of St Thomas’.
Then Catling did what no one had anticipated—she attacked Ariadne and Silvius, and disrupted the smooth flow of their power. Ariadne screamed, Jack yelled, and suddenly I felt myself enveloped in the devising and was propelled into the Idyll.
I had no time for thought. I had to continue the Dance of the Flowers with Jack, had to get that Flower Gate up, but, oh gods, I could feel Catling reaching into the Idyll. It wasn’t just that Catling had disrupted Ariadne and Silvius’ dance, it was that she’d somehow strengthened the hex which bound us.
I didn’t think Ariadne and Silvius could strengthen the devising. They didn’t have the power, and my mother’s devising wasn’t strong enough, in any case.
Catling was going to drag me out.
I could feel the pull of the Shadow Game on Catling, and at the same time I could feel Catling’s pull on me.
I went cold with dread. I also felt astoundingly sad, and I realised that the overwhelming emotion that I would feel when trapped in the dark heart with Catling would be this sadness. Not fright or terror or hopelessness.
Sadness, at everything that could have been. It was, I realised in a moment of blinding clarity, the feeling that enveloped many people at the moment of their death.