The Master Of Misrule Part 12

Dazed, Cat turned round to face the steps of Temple House. A toss of a coin ... the slam of a door ... a snap of bone ... In real time, she had barely had the chance to catch her breath after her last move, and yet its ordeal already seemed misty and muddled, like something from long ago. She looked back at the others. "Did you see the giant chessboard, too? And the other kings and queens, with their cards?" she asked.

They nodded.

"It was strange," Flora murmured. "It's not as if I'd expect them to be overwhelmingly grateful for being set free. After all, we're the ones who wrecked their Game in the first place. But they ... they looked so ... ruined."

"They've lost everything," Toby replied solemnly. "After centuries of ruling the Game, what could life in this world possibly offer? Perhaps for an ousted Game Master, even suffering in the Arcanum is better than being banned from it."

"More fool them," said Blaine.

"And more power to us!" Toby's face brightened. "C'mon, guys, we did it. We're the new generation of Game royalty! All hail the King of Pentacles! Wooo-HOOO!" He let out a victory yelp that echoed around the square.

Flora smiled a little but shook her head. "What's the use of grand t.i.tles if we don't have our Game Masters' decks?" She spread out her empty hands. "One minute the Queen of Cups' cards were there-floating toward me-and the next they had gone. Nothing."

Toby inspected his own palm. "Hmm. There must be a way of getting them back. Maybe we need to find those magic-ball-amulet thingies first."

"Or maybe Misrule has stolen them," said Flora. "Who knows? Without the High Priest to guide us, we haven't a clue. About anything."

Cat opened her mouth to tell them about the oracle, then thought better of it. The words of the prophecy were hopelessly entangled; she needed to straighten them out in her own mind first. In the meantime, Toby's confidence was irrepressible.

"Well, we've got at least one card up our sleeves. Look!" With a flourish, he pulled out the card he had taken from the old man. "It's blank at the moment. But the High Priest must have meant us to have it, as our next move. Perhaps it will take us to the rest of the deck."

"We don't know that for certain," Cat cautioned. "It could lead to anything."

"Doesn't matter," he replied. "Once we're in the Arcanum, the Game will show us what to do. We'll just keep going until we get some answers. I lost my die but I've still got my ace, by the way. What about you guys?"

It transpired that they had two dice but only the one ace between them.

"Better than nothing," Toby said. "And you never know, our last moves might hold some clue as to what's in store for the next one. Here, Blaine, what card did you get?"

Blaine glanced up from trampling leaves in the gutter. "Nine of Swords. And I don't want to talk about it."

"What d'you mean?"

He lowered his brows heavily. "Exactly what I said."

But Toby didn't back down. "I'm sorry, but what affects one person affects us all."

"He's right," Flora told Blaine. "The High Priest was the only person who could have told us what to do next. But we're on our own now. When it comes to the Game, all we have is each other."

Cat noticed that Flora had turned a little pink.

They went to a greasy spoon in Soho that they'd met up in before and whose chief recommendation was that the s.p.a.cing of its tables and noisiness of its customers helped even the most outlandish conversation go unnoticed.

It wasn't even noon, yet the idea of food was comforting. Plates of fries revived unsettled appet.i.tes; everyone began to relax as they eased into the bustle of the cafe.

In the end, Blaine was the first to relate his experience in the Arcanum. It was a curt and cut-down summary that set the tone for the others' narratives. Even Toby's account was relatively restrained. Flora spoke third.

"... and I still don't know what a cross sum is, let alone who or what Death's is supposed to be," she said in conclusion.

"The Emperor, obviously," said Toby.

Flora rolled her eyes. "Well, it's obviously not obvious to me."

"The cross sum of a number is what you get when you add its digits together. Death is the thirteenth triumph, right, and one plus three equals four. The fourth triumph is the Emperor. So if you think about it, that last question was actually the most straightforward of the lot.... Pity you wasted that ace, though."

"Excuse me-I didn't 'waste' anything, thank you very much," Flora retorted. "I used the card to save Odile's life."

"She would have survived anyway. That's the point of Misrule's punishment: whatever horrible things happened to them in one move, they'd always regenerate safe and sound in the next one. Think of their doppelgangers in the crypt-there wasn't so much as a scratch on them."

"I'm still not convinced. And there's no need to look so pleased with yourself, Toby," she added. "It was only sheer dumb luck you didn't have to use your ace as well."

"Not necessarily. The fact is, whatever card you get dealt, there's always going to be some way of winning it, even if you haven't got an ace to help you. For example-"

"You haven't heard about my card yet," Cat interrupted, hastily launching into a description of the High Priestess. As she'd expected, although everyone was interested in the Minotaur, it was the oracle that got their attention. After explaining the falsehood about the Empress, she did her best to relate the main prophecy.

"OK, here goes. The prophecy began with a lord standing over a threshold, and filling a house with cloud and a court with glory. Then the Priestess described four wheels: one with a bull in the middle, and a man and a lion and an eagle in the others. Like in the picture of the Triumph of Eternity. But there were cherubs mixed up in it, too-riding the wheels or something. Anyhow, we have to make some kind of offering to the cherubs because they're the only ones who can bring us Eternity."

"Cherubs?" Toby pulled a face. "Like on Valentine cards?"

"Those are cupids, technically," said Flora. "Cherub is the singular of cherubim, who were originally powerful angels, and part of the heavenly host. But the only angel-type cards I can think of are the Triumphs of Love and Fame."

"Hmm." Cat helped herself to the last of the fries. "Well, we have to find some way of working out who they are and what kind of offering they need-or else Misrule and his wheel are going to kick into action. At the turning of the year, the girl said."

"So the big showdown will be on New Year's Eve!" Toby failed to keep the relish from his voice.

"I might have got things garbled," Cat warned them. "It didn't help that the Priestess was speaking in this fancy ye-olde-worlde style. Thee and thou and whatever."

"I'm beginning to think it could be biblical," said Flora. "Both Tarot and triumph cards use religious imagery, you know."

"Or religion uses Game of Triumphs imagery," said Cat. "After all, the Game and the Bible are both old and creepy and don't make much sense. Maybe the Bible pinched some of its ideas from the Arcanum."

Flora rolled her eyes. "Amateur theology aside, the business with the wheels and cherubim sounds familiar. It's the kind of apocalyptic vision the book of Revelation goes in for."

"Or the prophet Ezekiel," said Blaine quietly. " 'Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub, and stood over the threshold of the house; and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was full of the brightness of the Lord's glory....' Does that sound right, Cat?"

"h.e.l.l, yeah. That's it exactly."

Flora laughed. "You'd be top of any Bible study cla.s.s. Maybe Charlie wasn't so wrong about you and the priesthood, after all."

Cat and Toby looked confused; Blaine, uncomfortable. He coughed. "The last time we were in this cafe," he said, "I asked how you people first got mixed up in the Game, remember?"

"Yes," said Cat. "And you said that you'd got involved because of something you read in a book."

"A notebook. It was written by the man I'm looking for." Blaine moved to touch his scar before self-consciously pulling back from the gesture. "He filled it with research on the Game. Or rather, some of it's about the Game. Mostly it's the usual hocus-pocus Tarot c.r.a.p. Anyway, there was a reference to Ezekiel chapter 10 in his notes on the Triumph of Eternity. When I looked up the pa.s.sage, it didn't mean much. But now ..."

"Do you still have the notebook?" Toby asked eagerly. "Have you checked out all the references yet? Can we see it?"

"It's back at Flora's place."

Toby got to his feet. "Then what are we waiting for?"

"Don't get too excited," Blaine warned them as they approached the Seatons' house. "There're no earth-shattering secrets waiting to be discovered in this thing. Most of it's any old occult rubbish."

"You never know. As Toby said, everything and anything could be important," said Flora, getting out her keys.

The door opened before she could reach for the lock. Mina stood in the hall, hands on hips.

"Miss Flora! I try to call! Why you no answer your phone?"

"Oh ... I'm sorry-I, er, my battery's dead." Flora came to a fl.u.s.tered halt in the doorway, with Cat, Toby and Blaine hovering behind.

Mina eyed them doubtfully. Apart from her scratches, Flora was as neat as ever, but then her most recent visit to the Arcanum had not involved any physical exertion. The others were distinctly bedraggled: Toby still had bits of ivy in his hair.

"Yes, fine, Miss Flora, but why you no tell me you have friend staying over? Your parents, they phone, they ask about you, and I do not know what I am to say."

Flora flushed. "It's all right, Mina. I'm going to talk to them myself. Honestly, there's nothing for you to worry about."

Suspicion struggled with the concern and affection in Mina's face. "But my job is for worrying about you, yes?" Then she sighed. "OK. So you do that. I know you are good girl, always. And Mr. Charlie is waiting for you now."

"What?"

"In the study. He try to call you, too. Miss Tilly has also come visit, but she went to the shop." Mina turned round and headed in the direction of the kitchen. "Let me know if I to get snacks for your guests."

"Thank you!" Once Mina was gone, Flora said hurriedly, "Look ... I'm awfully sorry, but I think we'd better postpone. Can we meet back at the square at, say, four o'clock? It's only because-"

"I hope no one's leaving on my account." Charlie had emerged from a room to the right. He was holding a battered leather notebook.

Blaine shouldered past the others. He stood only a few inches away from Charlie, quite controlled, but with pent-up force visible in every line of his body. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing with that?"

"I found it."

"No. It was in my bag. Under my bed, in my room."

"Yes-the bedroom Mina was tidying. She must've decided to give the bag a good scrubbing along with everything else. I found the book lying on the kitchen table while your bag was being disinfected or deloused or whatever."

"Opportunist theft is still theft." Blaine hadn't taken his eyes off Charlie's face.

"Stop it, Charlie. Just give him his book," said Flora tightly. Toby and Cat exchanged glances.

With insolent casualness, Charlie held up the book and walked slowly backward into the room. Blaine advanced toward him, matching him pace for pace, until they were squaring up to each other in the center of the study. Helplessly, the others followed. In this moment of confrontation, Flora found the contrast between the two boys disconcertingly blurred. The blue polo s.h.i.+rt she'd lent Blaine was an ironic match for Charlie's green one. The hardness in Charlie's face was new, too; he looked older, more sharply focused, than she would have thought possible. He opened the book and brandished the pages so that everyone could see them.

"Devils and death's-heads and burning towers. Not exactly the sort of material a protege of St. Bernadine's should be interested in, is it?"

"This has nothing to do with you," said Blaine, his voice dangerously quiet. "You don't know what you're getting into."

"I'm not the issue here. It's Flora I care about." All of a sudden, the arrogance left Charlie's voice. "I mean, for G.o.d's sake-this thing is covered in bloodstains."

Blaine paused. For the first time, he really took in his surroundings: the book-laden shelves, the desk, the filing cabinet. This room was a world of luxury away from Arthur's study, yet the fittings were essentially the same. Charlie's reaction to finding the notebook wasn't all that different to his own, either. Although he was still angry, he managed to take a step back, keeping his voice level.

"The blood's mine," he said. "But the stuff in the book isn't." He pushed up his sleeve. "It was written by the man who gave me this scar. He got married to my mother. He bullied her and made her ill, and hit me. I didn't know what any of the book meant, just that it was important to him, and so I stole it. When he pulled a knife on me, that's when I left. I'm staying with Flora only because I have nowhere else to go."

There was the sound of bustle in the hall. Gripped as they were by the unfolding drama, n.o.body had noticed the bell ring, or heard Mina go to answer it. But suddenly a pretty brunette was in the doorway, swinging a bottle of Diet c.o.ke in a shopping bag.

"The Lord of the Rings Role-Playing Society!" she exclaimed, smiling at Cat. "That's right, isn't it? You came to see Flora in that coffee shop off the King's Road before Christmas."

Oblivious to the atmosphere in the room, Tilly looked from the pale, scruffy girl to the boy in the blue polo s.h.i.+rt to the one with bits of ivy in his hair. "It was about a game of Orcs versus Elves, or something...." Her eyes slid back to Blaine and she gave a self-conscious laugh. "Come on, Flo, aren't you going to introduce us?"

Everyone else was still frozen in place.

Blaine abruptly turned to Flora. "We'll meet later, like you said. Excuse me." He took the book from Charlie's unresisting hands and pushed past Tilly into the hall. The front door slammed.

"Satisfied?" Flora asked Charlie through gritted teeth.

"I'm sorry. But I had to know that you were safe."

They stood staring at each other as Tilly looked on, bewildered, from the side.

"Right now," Cat told her, "it seems the Orcs have the upper hand."

CAT AND TOBY MADE THEIR OWN EXIT shortly after Blaine's. As soon as they got outside, Cat could see that Toby was fit to burst with exclamations, and before he could launch into anything, she got in, "OK, then, so I guess we'll meet up later. Bye."

"What, you're just going to go home?"

"I could do with putting my feet up. There's something about being hunted down by bloodthirsty mutants that really takes it out of a girl."

"There's still lots of preparation to be done, though. Wouldn't it be better if all four of us camped out at Flora's? For one thing, if I tell my parents I'm staying with a friend, they won't worry if I'm out late or gone for ages. Then we could make her place a proper team HQ. It'd be fun."

"Fun? Since when is any of this remotely fun?"

"I'm just saying we should make the most-"

"For G.o.d's sake! Give it a rest. We're already doing as much as we can."

"I'm not sure we-"

"It's all right for you." Cat was close to her snapping point. "You've always wanted to save the world. But Blaine and his stepdad ... Flora's sister ... my parents ... the Game's mixed us up in all sorts of other bad stuff, as well as Misrule, and we're still dealing with it. You don't understand what it's like for me, for any of us, because you treat everything like one big happy-go-lucky adventure."

"But-"

"I need to go now, Toby. I'll see you at four."

He looked hurt, but she walked rapidly away all the same, in the opposite direction to where he'd go to catch his bus. When she turned the next corner, she found Blaine leaning against a wall, almost as if he'd been waiting for her.

Cat went and stood beside him. She didn't say anything at first. Her reflection floated in the window of a car parked opposite. Face to face with her own wintry sharpness, Cat wished she could be someone else, just for a little while. Someone accessible and comforting, who could give a hug as easily as a smile.

Instead, she cleared her throat. "Mind if I have a look at the book?"

Blaine pa.s.sed it over silently. She flicked through a few pages.