Chapter Forty-Two #2
Frida started to shake. This couldn’t be real.
But she pictured him sitting at ease at his desk chair, writing letters to his childhood friend.
Smoothing a stray auburn lock back from his high forehead, studying the map on the wall, twirling the jade statue of the woman in his sure hands.
And her scaffold of reality as she knew it, which had been hanging by a thread as it was, came down at last, and the pieces broke into smithereens.
‘You are quite right, brother, however you mock me.’ Whichever of Joshua’s sisters this was, her voice sounded amused, as if she never quite stopped laughing.
‘These cakes are a delight. I shall congratulate Mrs Evans myself in the morning. But come now! We are on the edge of our seats. Will you tell us what it is you are hiding? Lest we wither away, and you find yourself speaking to a room full of corpses.’
‘Ah, my dear Georgiana, I hardly think there is any risk of you withering away.’
Frida swayed. This was a waking nightmare. Designed especially for her.
‘But I suppose you are correct.’ Sir Joshua’s whiskey voice – she knew it was him now, knew it was him who’d threatened to take her tattoos – dripped though her skull.
The famous, auburn-haired animal-rights activist, whose portrait she’d kowtowed to every day of her tenure as a zookeeper.
He’d put her in a cage. An actual cage! There was a clink, perhaps of a glass being put down, and the muffled sound of deliberate footsteps coming closer.
Frida shook so violently, her teeth were chattering.
Sir Joshua said softly, too close for comfort, ‘You are all well aware of how tirelessly some amongst us have laboured in pursuit of the grand ambitions of Forge House.’
She wanted to cover her ears, and yet she couldn’t help tilting her head, compelled to listen.
‘Well, the rumours are true. With the diligent work of our dear friend – and I daresay, our very saviour – Mr Henry Gladstone. A round of applause, if you please.’ There was a pause for hearty clapping, and a few amiable hear hears and huzzahs.
‘Now I charge you to recall how seized we were with excitement two summers past, when at last we laid our hands on the most extraordinary prize – the holy grail of magical law, the famed dragon’s Jewel.
It took a lot of work, and blood, and tears, and Mr Caval and I travelled long distances to find the dragon in its lair, but eventually, the endeavour was a success, despite all the odds against us. ’
It was quite possible Frida’s heart stopped beating. Sir Joshua. It had been Sir Joshua who’d found the terracotta dragon. Sir Joshua who’d taken her. Not rescued. Taken.
‘And though we have succeeded in powering our cages with this Jewel for over a year – thanks be to God – it remains, I confess, a far from perfect system.’
Frida didn’t dare breathe lest she miss a single word. Her brain felt like it was fracturing.
‘You’ve all heard me speak on this at length, so I shan’t weary you with it now. But truth be told, I dislike relying so heavily upon a thing we scarcely comprehend. I know you are all of the same mind.’
Mutters of agreement rose from behind the cloth.
Frida ached for them to tear it away and was simultaneously paralysed by fear that they might do that very thing.
She pressed her hand to her heart, her fingers digging into her chest bone.
Not rescued, taken. The words went over and over in her mind.
The steely light clung to her like molasses.
She could barely feel her magic inside her, and yet at the same time, she could feel it raging.
They had the Jewel. These people had the terracotta dragon’s Jewel.
And they were using it, like . . . like .
. . coal. A power source. She’d figured that out in the laboratory, but what about the other objects? What were their purposes?
She didn’t have to wait long. Within seconds, Sir Joshua had answered her.
‘The day may come when the power of this gemstone fails, just as it did with the weaker artifacts. As you know, they are withering daily. They are useless to us now and soon won’t have the strength to power anything larger than an apple!
So, pray, what will we do when this happens to the Jewel?
What would become of this wondrous place should our dragon perish? ’
Gasps rippled, Frida’s amongst them. She smothered it with her hand.
‘I know such a thought is shocking, dears, but the truth is plain: in this matter, we are in the dark.
We have relied too heavily on power we do not understand.
Moreover, we remain cloaked in secrecy, for there are those, as you well know, who would seek to undo our work, or steal these rare prizes from beneath our noses.
‘But now, friends, sisters, esteemed colleagues, it is my singular pride and honour to declare that we have moved beyond such perils. This day, we step boldly into a new world. Through our experiments upon the artifacts, we have arrived at a moment of true revelation – a marvel of science, of ingenuity, of perseverance! We have accomplished what, but five years past, would have been thought madness: a method to house these most extraordinary and excellent of creatures – so dear to all our hearts –’
‘And purses,’ someone bellowed.
Sir Joshua chuckled amiably, and Frida thought she would vomit, ‘Yes, Mr Caval . . .’
Mr Caval. He was here then, too. All the LEZites. They were all witnessing this.
‘And purses too, by God,’ Sir Joshua continued.
‘Tonight, we celebrate. Mr Gladstone and I have found a way to house all our interests, in a manner befitting the wealth of our human intelligence. These new cages are secure, cost-effective, and – of the utmost importance – sparing of resources. They will change the world. Indeed, when the beasts and demons threaten to overrun us, they might be the very thing to save us.’
He paused to collect the awed hush that rippled around the room.
Then Sir Joshua said, so softly that his voice poured through her like the very finest whiskey, ‘Will you see, dear ones?’