‘What about Leucer? You say he sneaked out. How could he have known that Vincent was planning to go to the Governor’s Residence?’
‘Well, I saw this in the Degringolade Daily the other day,’ said Suma quietly. ‘I wonder if that might have something to do with it.’ She held up the paper, folded to show the article about the governor’s new safe.
‘I didn’t see that,’ said Folly with a frown.
Vincent pulled the same article from his pocket. ‘I tore it out,’ he said. ‘I wanted to leave it in the safe when I took the Blivet. A message to Leucer.’
Folly looked at him in astonishment and tutted loudly. ‘More like a message to you! You do realize it was a trap?’
Vincent threw up his hands. ‘OK, so I flamped, I messed it all up, I failed,’ he began, but Folly cut him off.
‘It’s all right. I know you can’t help it. It’s like an addiction. You just can’t resist a challenge.’
Vincent reddened ever so slightly and began to pat his hair, ostensibly to remove the dust and dirt from the lighthouse collapse, but really to conceal his embarrassment. Folly was right, but he wasn’t going to admit it. Then something flew out of his hair and landed at Suma’s feet. She picked it up.
‘It’s a silver cufflink,’ she said. ‘And it’s engraved – “HNC”.’
Citrine sat bolt upright. ‘HNC? Hubert Nathaniel Capodel! It’s my father’s. Vincent, where in Aether did you get this?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know. At the lighthouse maybe, when it started to crumble. There was stuff flying about all over the place.’
‘What was my father doing in the lighthouse?’ wondered Citrine as she placed the cufflink in her locket. ‘Well, I made a promise to myself not to give up on finding out what happened to him. Until I have real proof that he is dead, I will continue to believe that he is alive.’
‘Speaking of lighthouses,’ said Suma, addressing Jonah and Folly, ‘what I really want to know is how you two found your way to the lighthouse.’
‘The Puca told me the way.’
Suma’s eyes widened and Wenceslas’s mouth gaped. ‘The Puca told you?’
Folly nodded and adopted her inscrutable expression, the one that defied anyone to probe any further.
Suma said no more, but looked as if there was plenty she could say, and Wenceslas slapped his thigh heartily. ‘Well, it seems to me you’ve all had more than your fair share of Degringolade luck.’
‘Thanks to you, Wenceslas, in no small part,’ said Jonah humbly. ‘Those glasses you gave me saved all our lives. I even managed to get my whale spear back from the river.’
Citrine sighed. ‘I still have to prove my innocence.’
‘I might not have got the Blivet this time,’ said Vincent rather defiantly, ‘but at least we know now for sure that Leucer has it.’
‘And what about you, Folly?’ asked Suma in that knowing way of hers. ‘Have you made any promises to anyone or anything?’
Vincent looked directly at the leather-clad, Blivet-wielding Supermundane hunter (in many ways all that he himself wanted to be), but Folly just shrugged and didn’t answer. He chewed on his lip thoughtfully. There was at least one promise he could think of: the one she had made to Axel. As for the Puca, he just knew there was more to that encounter than she was telling.
In his pocket his hand slipped again through the hole in the lining and his fingers closed round the silver compact. Instantly he remembered the dream. He heard Lady Degringolade’s voice again, as if she was right beside him, and it sent a cold thrill down his spine.
‘You will know when to come.’
Folly, for once, averted her gaze from Vincent’s penetrating stare. Suma’s question was unnervingly close to the bone. What exactly did the wily old woman know about dealing with the Puca? Had she guessed the bargain that had been struck? Folly could barely bring herself to think on it. But she had had no choice. She could not have escaped the tunnels, or saved Jonah, without the Puca’s help. As for the deal, how could she have known that it would happen so quickly, that she would rise from the dead? Folly had so hoped that she had imagined the woman in the tunnel, but when she looked down at her boot and saw the stain, the stain that wouldn’t rub away, the stain of the beast’s saliva, she knew that it had all been very real.
Now she must honour her promise . . . and bring to the Puca the head of Lady Scarletta Degringolade.
Or face certain death.
CHAPTER 33
THE MISTRESS OF THE MANOR
Far away from the Caveat Emptorium, where the Phenomenals were mulling over their respective problems and secrets, and far too from the Governor’s Residence, where success was being celebrated, another performer in the complicated drama playing out in Degringolade was pondering her own fate.
Lady Scarletta Degringolade, with faithful Katatherion at her side, was standing at the top of the once magnificent staircase of Degringolade Manor. And her haughty gaze fell not on the all-encompassing decrepitude of her former home but on the quivering horde of Pluriba below awaiting her instruction.
‘Home, sweet, home,’ she murmured. ‘It’s been too long.’
GLOSSARY
Adderstone – a type of stone, usually glassy
Aether – heaven
Ambergris – aka ‘floating gold’, stone-like lumps of whale vomit, used to control Lurids and other Superents
Antikamnial – liquid painkiller
Apogee – the lunar apogee is when the moon is at the furthest point in its orbit from the earth (see perigee)
Autandron – a sort of robot
Black beans – used to distract Superents, they are compelled to pick them up
Blivet – a specialized weapon for repelling Superents, platinum with three prongs; verb to bliv
Brinepurse – a purse for carrying salt crystals to repel Lurids and other Superents
Browpin – like an earring but worn through the brow by Degringoladians for luck
Cachelot – (pron. ca-sha-low or catch-a-lot) a rare species of whale
Caligo – the name for the thirteenth month in the Degringoladian calendar
Card-spreading – the practice of ‘reading’ illustrated cards to aid decision-making and to predict the future
Carnifex – the hangman
Caveat Emptorium – a type of swap shop, akin to a pawnshop, from the Latin expression ‘caveat emptor’ (‘let the buyer beware’)
Claptrapulation – ‘nonsense’ (thought to be Irish in origin, peculiar to Julianstown, Meath)
Corvid – large black bird, similar to crow or rook
Crex – ‘evening’; one of the four segments in the Degringoladian day, the others being Lux (morning), Prax (afternoon), Nox (night)
Cunningman – a master of the Supermundane and practitioner of the Furtivartes
Domna – an interjection used by Degringoladian women
Domne – an interjection used by Degringoladian men
DUG – (abbr.) Degringolade Urban Guard, the Degringolade security force, members referred to as ‘Urgs’ (derogatory)
Ergastirion – a Cunningman’s workshop
Festival of Lurids – an annual festival intended to appease the Lurids on the Tar Pit
Firestrike – similar to a match, often referred to by brand, ‘Fulger’s’
Flamp – (verb) means to try but fail at an impossible task (attributed to Erin Tosh from Aberdeen, winner of The Phenomenals Invent-a-Word competition)
Flumen – the river that runs around Degringolade and flows into the Turbid Sea
Furtivartes – Rituals and ceremonies associated with the Supermundane
Gevra – the coldest of the four seasons in Antithica Province, followed by Torock, Savra, Faur (equivalent to winter, spring, summer, autumn)
Ghouze – a liquefied Supermundane substance consisting of particles called Minuscules; Superents are composed of ghouze
Grainwine – a strong, clear alcoholic drink
Hade
s – ‘Hell’ e.g. ‘What the Hades is going on?’
Impedimentium – a magnetic ore, in plentiful supply under the salt marsh and Tar Pit in Degringolade
Katatherion – a Supermundane beast that slumbers underground until required by its master or mistress
Kekrimpari – an energy source discovered by Professor Arkwright Soanso
Kew – ‘thank you’ (colloquial)
KiteWagon – a type of gypsy caravan characterized by its sloping walls, wider at the top than the bottom
Klepteffigium – (Greek and Latin) a device similar to a basic camera; literally ‘image stealer’
Komaterion – cemetery
Kronometer – landmark clock tower in Degringolade, situated in Mercator Square
Kryptos – (pl. Kryptoi) burial chamber
Leech barometer – a weather-predicting device containing leeches whose movements can be interpreted to predict the weather
Lux – See Crex
Maerl – ossified seaweed used to make the specialized multifaceted dice used in card-spreading
Mangledore – the pickled left hand of a criminal, usually a murderer, thought to have Supermundane properties
Manufactory – factory
Manuslantern – hand-held oil lamp
Memento mori – (Latin) literally ‘remember that you will die’; a symbolic or artistic reminder of mortality
Nany/nanyone/nanything – (colloquial) not any, no one, nothing
Narkos – a sleep-inducing potion
Natron – specialized salt to repel Superents, more effective than normal salt
Nox – see Crex
Omnia Intum – literally ‘all things within’; a Cunningman’s handbook of rituals, recipes and aspects of the Furtivartes
Pedalate – technical term used in relation to a Trikuklos, using the pedals to move the vehicle
Perigee (see Apogee) – the point in the moon’s orbit when it is nearest the earth
Prax – see Crex
Propinquity – (Latin) the state of being close to something or someone, similar to ‘proximity’
Puca – elusive, mischievous spirits, seen as blue flames, inhabiting the salt marsh (aka ‘Palus Salus’) to the west of Degringolade. They lead unwitting travellers off the path into danger
Quodlatin – a form of Latin used in Omnia Intums (also Inta), similar to Latin but deliberately misleading and open to interpretation
Sal volatile – a chemical compound used to arouse consciousness
Sella Subjunctum – literally ‘Chair of Subjection’, aka torture chair; used to ‘persuade’ the occupant to confess or give up information and in Supermundane ceremonies
Sequart – see sequentury
Sequentury – coin in the monetary system of Antichica Province. Sequenturies are divided into four sequarts and ten sequins
Sequin – see sequentury
Slumgullion – a type of stew
Smitelight – a hand-held light, activated and deactivated by tapping
Spergo – (Quodlatin) a liquid that causes temporary blindness
Spletivus – an interjection
Stunner – walnut-sized explosive, creates bright light and stuns enemy
Sylvan Beluae – bear-like creatures that inhabit woods
Superents – (abbr.) Supermundane Entities, the name given to mainly malignant creatures that exist in the world of the Supermundane
Phenomenals – particularly malevolent Superents, usually found in groups
Lurids – restless shades of executed convicts
Noctivagrantes – (sing. Noctivagrant) vicious invisible Superents who hunt in packs, often underground
Pluribus – (pl. Pluriba) globular greenish Superents, usually solitary, exist above ground
Hypnagogue – generally benign Superent that leads a person into sleep
Hypnopomp – generally benign Superent that leads a person out of sleep
Supermundane – broadly similar to the concept of ‘the Supernatural’, a parallel world outside normalcy, causing inexplicable events; the origin of Superents
Tar Pit – a treacherous lake of tar in the salt marsh surrounded by toxic gases generally necessitating the use of gas masks
Temptatious – tempting
Treen – a term used for items made from wood
Trikuklos – (pl. Trikukloi) a sophisticated three-wheeled vehicle
Troika – a luxurious vehicle pulled by three horses abreast
Turbid Sea – the sea into which the river Flumen flows, that washes the shores of Degringolade
Vanitas painting – a still-life painting characterized by objects representing man’s mortality, e.g. a skull and items in a state of decline
Vulgar – term used to describe people not initiated into the Supermundane
F. E. Higgins has been fascinated by the macabre ever since seeing a ghostly apparition as a child. Nowadays Higgins travels the lands, collecting strange artefacts and the even stranger stories behind them. Her Tales from the Sinister City series has sold all over the world.
When not in pursuit of a story, Higgins may be found in a haunted house in Kent.
Books by F. E. Higgins
The Phenomenals series
A Tangle of Traitors
A Game of Ghouls
The Tales from the Sinister City series
The Black Book of Secrets
The Bone Magician
The Eyeball Collector
The Lunatic’s Curse
www.fehiggins.com
First published 2013 by Macmillan Children’s Books
This electronic edition published 2013 by Macmillan Children’s Books
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ISBN 978-1-4472-4811-8
Copyright © F. E. Higgins 2013
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The Phenomenals: A Game of Ghouls Page 15