Splendors and Glooms

by Laura Amy Schlitz

  “I know.”

  “I ran till I had a stitch in my side. I kept thinking he might be behind me. But then it came to me that Madama must have lied to us. Because if he’s living in the gatehouse, she must know, mustn’t she? And when we first met her, and we told her Grisini was gone, she didn’t seem a bit interested. And I remembered something I overheard when we came here. One of the servants said, ‘First foreigners and then riffraff.’ I was so cross that she called us riffraff, I didn’t stop to think who the foreigners might be, but she must have meant Grisini.” She took a deep breath. “How long have you known he was here?”

  Parsefall’s mouth was dry. He thought back to the night when Grisini crouched on top of him. He couldn’t find the words. Ruby squeezed out from Lizzie Rose’s embrace and leaped into his chair. Uninvited and unwelcome, she set about making herself at home in Parsefall’s lap.

  Parsefall moistened his lips. “He come in the middle of the night. The night before Christmas Eve, it were. He ’eld me down — wiv his ’and on me mouf — and told me I ’ad to steal that fire opal from Madama. He wants it. But he daren’t steal it for ’imself.”

  “Why not?” breathed Lizzie Rose.

  “’Cos it’s dangerous,” Parsefall answered. “It’s magic — powerful — but it’s bad for the one that steals it. Clara told me so. She — she comes to me in my sleep.” He saw the shocked look on her face. “Almost every night, I dream about Clara. She says Madama’s a witch and the stone’s cursed, like the Bottle Imp — and summink bad’ll ’appen if I take it. But if I don’t, Grisini’ll come after me. And I don’t know ’ow long I can ’old out.” He stopped, clenching his teeth. “I know you don’t believe me.”

  Lizzie Rose had gone pale. “I do believe you,” she said breathlessly. “I dream about Clara, too. She comes and stands at the foot of my bed, and I know she wants to tell me something, but she never speaks.”

  “She’s tryin’ to help,” Parsefall said in a low voice. “That night, after Grisini came, I wanted to find a place where ’e couldn’t get me. I woke up with a picklock in me hand, right outside the Tower Room door. I think Clara tol’ me to go in there. After I went in —”

  “You went in the Tower Room?”

  “I needed a place to ’ide, didn’t I? The locks in this ’ouse are no good — a baby could pick ’em. But the Tower Room has a bolt on the inside of the door. Grisini can’t get in.” He dumped Ruby off his lap and got up. “Come on. I’ll show you.”

  Lizzie Rose followed him to the door, but she looked worried. “But the tower’s unstable,” she protested. “Mrs. Fettle says so. She says —”

  Parsefall snorted, dismissing her fears. He led Lizzie Rose down the passage and held open the tower door. Once they were inside, he shot the bolt. “See?” he whispered. “It ain’t so bad.”

  Lizzie Rose did not seem to share his opinion. She gazed around the tower, noting the tent shelter he had built. Then her eyes traveled to the mirrors and the panels of black lacquer on the walls. She circled the room, examining the red lines of the maze, the spell books in the bookcase, the Tarot Cards that Parsefall had swept off the table onto the floor. “Oh, Parsefall,” she whispered, “the smell . . .”

  Parsefall sniffed obligingly. His shoulders lifted in a faint shrug.

  “This is . . . a witch’s tower,” Lizzie Rose said. “It’s true what Clara says to you. Madama’s a witch, and Grisini’s a bad magician, and I don’t know what they want from us, but it can’t be anything good.” She opened one of the drawers in the cabinet, glanced inside, and shivered. “We must go away.”

  She turned slightly. Against the dark wood of the cabinet, her red hair seemed to blaze, and her face was very pale. For the first time, Parsefall realized that she was beautiful. He thought of posing a puppet like that, motionless against a dark backdrop. Cinderella, perhaps, when the stepsisters left her alone and desolate on the night of the ball.

  Then the meaning of her words sank in. “Where?” he cried. “Where’ll we go? We can’t go to London.”

  Lizzie Rose considered. “We’ll go to Carlisle.”

  “Wot’s Carlisle?”

  “It’s north,” Lizzie Rose said hesitantly. “It’s on the rail line. When we were in the second-class carriage, I heard one of the gentlemen say he was staying on until Carlisle.”

  “Why’ll we go there?”

  “Because they’ll expect us to go south. Madama and Grisini. They don’t know that the police in London are looking for you because of the photograph you stole. They’ll take it for granted that we’ll go back to Mrs. Pinchbeck’s. So we’ll trick them and go north, to Carlisle.”

  “’Ow?” demanded Parsefall. He remembered their last journey by rail. It had been endless and unnerving, but at least they had known where they were going. He thought of the acres of empty land around them — to Parsefall, it was a wilderness — and wondered if they would even be able to find the train station.

  “It won’t be easy,” admitted Lizzie Rose, “but there must be a village nearby. I’ve heard church bells. So we’ll try to find the village, and if we see anyone on the road, we’ll ask where the train station is. We’ll buy third-class tickets — I have the rest of the ten quid from the pawnbroker.”

  Parsefall brightened. “We ’ave Madama’s gewgaws,” he reminded her.

  “No. I think we’d better leave Madama’s things behind. They’re too rich for us. Think, Parsefall! If she decided to send after us, she could say we’d stolen those things. Nobody’d believe she gave them to us.”

  “Wot about the puppets?”

  “We’ll need them,” Lizzie Rose said after a moment’s reckoning. “Once we get to Carlisle, we’ll have to find work as soon as we can. You must do your best with the theatre, and I’ll help you — or I’ll look for a place as a maid-of-all-work.” She bit her lip, and Parsefall realized that she, too, was appalled by the journey ahead. “Only we mustn’t take the wicker trunk, because it takes two of us to carry it. It may be miles to the train station.”

  “’Ow’ll we carry the puppets?”

  Lizzie Rose thought. “I’ll sew the muslin bags to our coats,” she said, after a moment. “We’ll look dreadfully queer — though I can put my shawl over the lumps — but we must have our hands free. I’ll sew as much as I can today, so we’ll be ready to leave tonight —”

  “Tonight?” repeated Parsefall, and his voice came out in a squeak.

  “Tonight,” Lizzie Rose said, so gravely that he understood that she had no intention of losing time. “We’re in danger here, Parsefall. We shan’t stay here another night.”

  At eleven o’clock that night, they stole from the house, unlatching the kitchen door and creeping out into the garden. Both children were heavily laden and wore several layers of clothes. It was snowing, which made Parsefall curse under his breath. “Don’t worry,” Lizzie Rose assured him in a whisper. “It’ll stop soon; it’s only flurries,” but the flurries were as large as halfpennies, weighing heavy on the children’s eyelashes, and drenching their cheeks.

  They passed through the kitchen garden and started down the hill. Ruby pranced against her leash, overjoyed that they were taking a walk in the middle of the night. Parsefall muttered, “Bloody ’orrible dog,” but he was uneasy. Why was Lizzie Rose leading them toward the lake? Perhaps she knew of a shortcut that would bypass the gatehouse. It was only when they reached the two stone urns that he confronted her. “Why’d we come ’ere?”

  Lizzie Rose gave a little jump. “How queer! I don’t know why. I suppose I wasn’t attending.”

  “Well, ’adn’t you better attend?” said Parsefall. He knew she hated sarcasm, but he was too frightened to be careful of her feelings. She was in charge of getting them away from Strachan’s Ghyll. He needed her not to make mistakes.

  Lizzie Rose glared at him. Then she spun on her heel and started up the path, taking such long strides that he had to trot to keep up with her. He said, “We show up too much against all
this bloomin’ snow.”

  Lizzie Rose frowned at his language but pointed to the trees surrounding the house. The trees might serve for cover. She squeezed between two large hollies, and Parsefall followed suit. The holly leaves scratched and plucked at him, catching his cap and the puppet bags on his back. The noise was deafening. He found it hard to believe that no one in the house heard it. Nevertheless, he was grateful for the shelter. The space between the house and the shrubbery was like a tunnel: private, dark, and close. Behind him, Lizzie Rose gave a little cry. She had caught one of her plaits on a holly twig. He waited for her to free herself, glad for the moment of rest. He hadn’t realized how much the puppets weighed, and walking was arduous.

  “Parsefall,” Lizzie Rose said in a low voice, “we’re at the tower.”

  Parsefall opened his mouth to jeer at her. Of course they were at the tower; the curved wall to the side of them could be nothing else. Then he understood her meaning. They had lost themselves in the shrubbery, and they’d circled three-quarters of the way around the house, missing the front drive. Once again they were behind the house, looking down the sloping lawn to the lake.

  “We’ll go back,” Parsefall said resolutely. “This time, once we get to the lane, we’ll make a run for it.”

  Lizzie Rose gave his hand a quick squeeze. “That’s right. We’ll run when we get to the gatehouse. The snow will muffle our footsteps.”

  Parsefall hoped she was right. He tugged his jacket down in front. The weight on his back dragged at his collar, half choking him. He would have liked to unbutton his coat, but Clara was inside, curled up like an embryo against his chest. He could not risk dropping her in the snow.

  “This way,” said Lizzie Rose, and they set off at a jog-trot, heading for the lane.

  Cassandra stood by her bedroom window, gripping the fire opal in her unbandaged hand. She had awakened quite suddenly, knowing that something was wrong. Something was not only wrong but missing, and she didn’t know what it was. The servant who had been assigned to sit by her all night had deserted her, but that was nothing, Cassandra thought; that would not rouse her from a sound sleep. She sensed that she had suffered a distinct and dangerous loss — and all at once she knew what it was. The children were leaving the house. They were her last hope, and they were leaving. “Don’t leave,” she croaked, as if they could hear her. “Stay. Stay.” She clutched the phoenix-stone until her palm blistered. The pain was so great that she thought she might vomit, or faint. She couldn’t afford that; she must summon all her strength and cast the spell to bring the children back.

  She slid her hand between the buttons of her nightdress, pressing the jewel against her heart like a leech. She cried out, not weakly but in strong outrage. The skin between her breasts puckered and shriveled. Numbness followed the pain, and then a steady warmth. The sting and throb became almost comforting.

  Her mind was clear again. She thrust the stone back into the locket and peered out the window. She saw three small figures, dark against the snow. As her gaze fell upon them, they changed direction, veering back toward the house. Even from a distance, she could sense their bewilderment, and she almost pitied them. But they must not leave her. No one must ever leave her. She turned her back on the window and lurched forward, moving in a drunken zigzag, grabbing the furniture for balance. First the armchair — then the mantel — then the bedpost — the dressing table — the doorknobs. She wrenched open the doors and staggered out into the corridor.

  The candles in the hall were lit. Cassandra rested against the door frame, gathering strength. There was a small table halfway down the hall, and she steered for it, tacking back and forth like a ship. When she reached it, she fell against it. The candlestick on the table rocked; the candle tilted in its socket. The tip of the flame caught the sleeve of her nightdress.

  She stared at it, watching the flame swell and the white cloth char. So. It was going to happen, then: the doom she had feared so long. She was going to die by fire. First her nightdress would catch and then the outer layer of her skin, and then the burning agony would possess her whole body. Her mind accepted it and went dead.

  But her body, after one moment of frozen horror, was determined to fight. It flung itself against the floor, writhing against the carpet like a dog rolling in carrion. Both hands beat at the flames again and again, long after the last spark had been extinguished. The witch smelled smoke and singed cloth.

  The fire was out. She had survived it.

  She felt a childish urge to thank God for her deliverance — as if God had anything to do with her. The idea made her laugh a little. She set her palms against the floor and scrabbled until she got her knees under her. She stood up and staggered down the passage to the Tower Room.

  She found the door unlocked and went inside. The matches were in the top drawer of the tall cabinet. Cassandra’s hands shook as she lit the candles in the wall sconces. She hadn’t been inside the tower since the day the children came, and with faint surprise she noted the mess that Parsefall had made. The tent shelter was in her way. Cassandra set her whole weight against it and shoved it against the wall, kicking aside Parsefall’s pillows. She dragged the blankets and the bearskin to one side, hating them for being so cumbersome.

  She returned to the cabinet and withdrew a dagger with an ebony handle. With one practiced movement, she sliced the blade across her arm, letting the wound gape. The fat under her skin glistened like silver. After several seconds, the blood began to flow: first sullenly, then rapidly. She let it drip onto the knife blade. Then she took out the phoenix-stone, twirling it between her fingers until it was coated with blood.

  She shut the stone back in the locket and bent forward, dragging the blade of the dagger along the lines on the floor. She shuffled backward and forward, tracing the pattern, casting the spell. When she finished, she wrapped her fingers around the filigree locket. She shut her eyes. “Clara Wintermute!”

  The girl’s face appeared at once. It was as distinct as if it had been painted inside the witch’s eyelids. Cassandra snarled aloud. “Why are they leaving me? How dare they? What made them decide to go? Answer me!”

  Clara’s expression was mutinous. Her mouth drew back in a stubborn line. She was fighting, trying to hold back every syllable. But the witch’s power was overwhelming, and at last Clara’s lips parted. Her voice was scarcely audible. Cassandra caught only a single word: Grisini. Then the girl’s face faded, as if it had been painted in watercolor and sponged away.

  The witch uttered a shriek of rage. Grisini! Fool that she was, she had forgotten him. Why had she allowed him to stay on in the gatehouse? Why hadn’t she foreseen that he would meddle with the children? Cassandra shut her hand around the gold locket. She spoke his name with murder in her voice: “Gaspare Grisini!”

  She saw him, and he was asleep. He looked frail and peaceful: an old man taking his ease in a soft bed. “Gaspare!” she bellowed, and the puppet master opened his eyes.

  An idea flashed through Cassandra’s head. She would punish him, and she would make use of him. She would — what was his phrase? — catch two pigeons at the same time. At the thought of what she meant to do, her lips drew back in a yellow-toothed smile, for it was her turn to be the master, and his to play the puppet.

  “Parsefall,” Lizzie Rose said, on the verge of tears, “there’s something wrong.”

  Parsefall was too weary to answer. It seemed to him that they had been tracking back and forth across the lawn for hours. His feet were icy, and his teeth chattered. The snow had stopped falling. The moon slid out from under a cloud, pouring gray light onto the trampled lawn.

  “Those are our footprints,” said Lizzie Rose. “We’ve been going in circles.”

  Parsefall stared at the pattern in the snow. It was extraordinarily regular, and with a jolt he recognized it. “It’s the maze. On the Tower Room floor — the red lines that woz painted there! We been making the lines wiv our tracks — over and over —”

  “It’s a
spell,” Lizzie Rose said despairingly. “We can’t leave. She cast a spell on us so we can’t leave.”

  Parsefall did not ask who she was. He looked sideways at Lizzie Rose. If Lizzie Rose didn’t give up, he wouldn’t.

  “We’ll have to turn back,” Lizzie Rose said wretchedly. “We can’t go on like this. We won’t get anywhere — and we’ll freeze to death.”

  “We ’ave to go back,” agreed Parsefall, and with dull fear in their hearts, they broke the pattern of the maze and started back to the house.

  Inside Parsefall’s jacket, Clara was uncomfortably warm. She was imprisoned in a puppet bag, flattened between two layers of clothing. She listened to Parsefall’s heartbeat as he entered the house. It quickened as he mounted the grand staircase. Turn back, she wanted to cry, but her jaws were fused together, and if Parsefall sensed her warning, he paid no heed.

  Cassandra said, “Come in.” Her usual waspish tones had softened to a mellow contralto. “Come to the fire, and warm yourselves! You must be dreadfully cold!”

  Clara doubted it. Even through the layers of clothing, she felt the hellish heat of the room. She thought that Parsefall must feel it, too; he was fumbling with the buttons on his jacket. He stuffed Clara under his arm and let his jacket drop to the floor. She felt his muscles tense: he was nerving himself to accuse the witch. “You cast a spell on us!”

  “I did,” admitted Cassandra. “I didn’t want you to go away.”

  Lizzie Rose took up the battle. “I don’t see what right you have to keep us here. Why shouldn’t we be allowed to leave if we want to?”

  “Because I didn’t wish it. And because it’s not what’s best for you.” Clara heard the rustle of silken skirts: Cassandra was approaching. “You may dislike me, my child, but you’re safer with me than you would be alone, out in the wicked world. Haven’t you been comfortable here, safe and warm and well fed? I wish only to look after you, and, in a very short time, you will inherit everything I have.” Another rustle and her voice sharpened. “That bag you’re holding, boy! Is that Clara?”