Part 47 (1/2)
”Well, then, Lord Rafferdy must accompany you. Do what is required to see her swiftly to the Miss Lockwells, Lord Rafferdy, even if it requires some sort of enchantment!”
Rafferdy liked to think that he had seen so many things in his existence that astonishment was beyond him, but at that moment he could only look at Lady Marsdel with real shock. Yet her command was delivered in such a way that it could not be ignored. Mrs. Quent took his arm, and they started across the gallery.
”I am so glad you're here tonight, Mr. Rafferdy,” she said as they walked. ”So much has happened of late that I sometimes feel as if I'm in a carriage drawn by runaway horses, and all I can do is look at the scenes flas.h.i.+ng past the windows. It is a comfort to have such a dear and familiar friend here tonight.”
Rafferdy was aware of many eyes turning in their direction, and he could not help feeling pleasure at being singled out by the most desirable person at the party. No doubt they wondered how he had come to be so distinguished; he rather wondered at it himself. Yet he was not about to protest, and he attended to his duty, skillfully turning Mrs. Quent away from anyone who looked as if they were about to attempt to approach her.
”I am looking forward to seeing the Miss Lockwells,” he said.
”And they you! We shall all of us have to gather together with Mr. Garritt. It will be just like our time in the parlor at Whitward Street.”
He laughed as he glanced around at the grandness of the gallery and its current denizens. ”Yes, just like it-with a few small differences, perhaps. But where is that elusive Eldyn Garritt? I have not yet seen him tonight.”
”He is here. I encountered him only a little while ago, along with his friend Mr. Fanewerthy. Do you know him?”
Rafferdy could only confess that he did not. ”I am not surprised he has been required to find new companions. Given my duties, I have not had an occasion of late to meet Mr. Garritt at the Sword and Leaf.”
He was forced to stop, for she had suddenly come to a halt.
”The Sword and Leaf!” she gasped and looked up at him, her green eyes very wide.
Rafferdy could only wonder at this reaction. ”It's our usual haunt-the tavern where Mr. Garritt and I have often met.” Belatedly he wondered if her response was due to the fact that bringing up a house of drinking was not an appropriate topic for this occasion.
”You are certain that is the name of the tavern?” she said, gripping his arm.
Now his wonderment was redoubled. ”Yes, the Sword and Leaf. It's the same tavern beneath which the members of the magickal society I belong to gather and meet.”
”It cannot be chance,” she said, then shook her head. ”Only you told me that the tavern where you meet is not on Durrow Street. So it cannot be the tavern where Dratham used to go.”
She glanced again at the white curtain at the north end of the gallery, which they were now very close to. He saw a hand extend beyond the cloth, beckoning in an urgent fas.h.i.+on.
”It cannot be the tavern where who used to go?” he said.
But at the same time she said, ”Forgive me, Mr. Rafferdy, I must go to my sisters.”
Before he could ask more, she disengaged herself from his arm and vanished behind the curtain.
Rafferdy stared a moment, his mind as blank as the white drapery. Then he turned and wended his way back across the gallery. As he went, his startled mind calmed a degree and began to a.s.semble useful thoughts. Dratham-she had mentioned that name at Madiger's Wall, he recalled now. He was the man who had built this house centuries ago, and who had belonged to a magickal order that met beneath a tavern on Durrow Street. gallery. As he went, his startled mind calmed a degree and began to a.s.semble useful thoughts. Dratham-she had mentioned that name at Madiger's Wall, he recalled now. He was the man who had built this house centuries ago, and who had belonged to a magickal order that met beneath a tavern on Durrow Street.
”There you are, Rafferdy!” Lord Coulten said, slipping through a knot of revelers to come upon him. ”I was wondering if you wished to join me in asking some of these excellent ladies to dance. But I say, you look awfully confounded. Is something amiss?”
Rafferdy leaned in close to Coulten, so his voice would not carry. ”Tell me, do you know of any taverns on Durrow Street beneath which other orders of magicians might meet?”
”Well, I can't speak about other orders,” Coulten said with a frown. ”There is only ours that I know of.”
Now Rafferdy was startled anew. ”What do you mean, our our order?” order?”
”Don't you know?” Coulten said, only then he let out a laugh, his cheeks brightening. ”Of course-you always make a habit of coming in through the tavern proper. You like a nip of rum before our meetings, don't you, Rafferdy? Can't say I blame you.”
”What are you talking about?” Rafferdy said, growing perturbed now. ”What don't I know?”
”About the other door, the back entrance to our meeting room.”
”What's there to know? It's the back door, so it must be in the alley behind the Sword and Leaf.”
Coulten waggled a gloved finger at him. ”Haven't you been paying attention to the sages, Rafferdy? A magickal door doesn't have to behave like a usual one. Just because one side of a door is on the inside wall of a building doesn't mean the other side of it has to be on the outer wall. It can be...well, it can be anywhere at all.”
”Anywhere?” Rafferdy said, and at last understanding dawned upon him. ”You mean like Durrow Street.”
”Now you've got it!” Coulten said, his tall head of hair bobbing as he nodded. ”I'm not sure exactly why the outside of the door is on Durrow Street. I suppose it was put there long ago, when arcane orders were all considered a bit more dodgy than today.” on Durrow Street. I suppose it was put there long ago, when arcane orders were all considered a bit more dodgy than today.”
Now that Rafferdy considered it, this arrangement made a great degree of sense. Anyone who saw magicians entering the door wouldn't know where it was that they were really meeting, and without the correct runes they would not be able to follow. They could tear apart the building that contained the door and still not discover the room where the magicians gathered. It was a clever way to keep their meeting place secret in a time when magickal societies were frowned upon or even outlawed.
”So our order does meet beneath a tavern on Durrow Street,” he said.
”Or a tavern reached from Durrow Street, I would say. But why is it so interesting to you of a sudden?”
Rafferdy didn't know how to answer that, and before he could think of what to say, the music rose to a crescendo, rising above all conversations. Then the musicians ceased their work, and all in the gallery turned toward the north end as a deep voice-one which could only belong to Sir Quent-thundered out over the room.
”Permit me to introduce to you,” he intoned, standing beside the white drape, ”a scene of the Annunciation of Ca.s.sephia and Hesper.”
And the white curtain fell.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR.
IVY FELT LIKE a leaf afloat on a windswept sea. Her wishes were of no consequence, and as the revelers surged all around her, she could only go where the ebb and flow of their movements took her.
”Your sisters' tableau was magnificent,” someone told her. ”What a surprising and charming sight,” said another. And exclaimed someone else, ”How lovely the Miss Lockwells looked!”
Though Ivy's thoughts were awhirl in her head, she managed a smile and a thank-you to everyone who approached her. Yes, the tableau had been all the doing of her sisters, she a.s.sured them, and she agreed it was remarkable how very well it had turned out.
In fact, it was more than remarkable; it was extraordinary. The tableau had been a far greater success than Ivy had ever imagined it would be. She had not seen Lily's and Rose's final preparations, for they had kept the tableau secret from all in the house but themselves. Even so, she had been confident that their scene would be met with at the very least polite approval, and perhaps even some amount of genuine delight.
What occurred when Mr. Quent pulled the rope and the curtain fell was something else altogether. Ivy could not say what it was-the illumination of so many candles and lamps, or the way it reflected off the jewels and finery of all the partygoers-but the light in the gallery had appeared to gather about the little stage like a gauze, imbuing all the trappings upon it with a pearlescent sheen and granting them an astonis.h.i.+ng verisimilitude, as if they had indeed been just raised up from the sea.
The light had wrought no less of an effect upon Lily and Rose. Dressed in their cla.s.sical Tharosian costumes, their cheeks and lips tinted coral pink, they were the very image of young G.o.ddesses. As the curtain fell to reveal the scene, a gasp had pa.s.sed through the gallery like a zephyr, followed by a rising gale of murmurs, which quickly broke loose in a storm of hand-clapping that went on and on. All the while Lily beamed upon the stage, never straying an inch from her perfect pose; while Rose, clearly dumbfounded, wore an expression of sweetness that was so natural, and so unaffected, even the most skilled actress could never have hoped to duplicate it.
In all, the scene rivaled any of the tableaux Ivy had ever seen at Lady Crayford's house, and perhaps even surpa.s.sed them all. For what could ever be more marvelous to behold than youthful and innocent beauty?
All these thoughts, however, pa.s.sed fleetingly through Ivy's head, as she was swept to and fro. Instead, it was the words Mr. Rafferdy had spoken to her that kept returning to her mind.
Given my duties, I have not had an occasion of late to meet Mr. Garritt at the Sword and Leaf....
How strange that he should happen to speak such a thing tonight! Her father had used the same words-the Sword and the Leaf-in the entry she had read in the journal just before the party. From her father's words, she had realized that her earlier hypothesis, which she had previously dismissed, was in fact true: Tyberion and Arantus were the two doors that had been discovered in this very gallery. Then, as if somehow knowing what it was she had read in the journal, he he had appeared to her, the man in the black mask. had appeared to her, the man in the black mask.