1.
Vanity was staring at the two oblong clocks which stood to either side of the door. She cocked her ear to one side, listening.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“They sound funny. Weren’t they ticking slower earlier…?”
Meanwhile, Victor was saying to Quentin, “What do you remember?”
Quentin said, “Maybe things are more dangerous than we think. There was a woman in Dr. Fell’s office. A vampiress. She tricked Fell into stepping outside, and she tried to kill me.”
Colin said, “Why don’t we just leave? Right now, right this second, money or no money? We walk to Abertwyi and steal a boat.”
Victor said, “They’d send the police.”
Colin said, “So? So we tell the police that there are ancient Greek gods kidnapping us, and they lock us up in a madhouse. At least we won’t be here. And if our powers work on Earth, you point your little pinky finger at the locks and we walk out. We could hunt in the woods for food, or work, or live off the dole. They don’t let children starve in England, despite what Maggie Thatcher wanted.”
Quentin said, “Amelia, you’re not going to leap to Prime Minister Thatcher’s defense? You are her biggest fan.”
I said, “Those clocks are in time with each other now.”
Victor said, “What?”
I said, “They were out of synch before. Now they are in synch. When I was in the Fourth Dimension, I sensed their internal nature was watchful, and trembling with hate. They’re beings. Alive things. I think they may be listening to what we say.”
Quentin turned to Victor. “They know we know. The Head of Bran appeared out of the tabletop here and called us by name. They saw us do our magic. There is no chance of fooling Boggin any longer.”
Colin said, “I’ll go get the fire axe.” And he ran out the door and down the corridor. We all knew which axe he meant; it hung by a fire extinguisher on the second-floor landing.
Vanity said, “If we chop up his clocks, Boggin will know.”
I said, “What if we chop up the clocks and take Colin’s plan and just run away? Now, before they wake up or get back from wherever they went?”
Quentin said, “There is an amnesia drug Dr. Fell used on me. I could go down to his office, steal some, and bring it back.”
Victor said, “Where would we inject the clocks? Do they have veins?” And he went over, stooped to examine the panel in the front of the clock. He ran his hand over the lock, it clicked, and the front little cabinet opened just a crack. Victor peered in.
“Oh, that’s just lovely,” said Victor in disgust.
“What?” we all said.
He pushed the door shut and the lock clicked. “It’s nothing I want you girls to see. Quentin, do you know those large canvas sacks we found in the kitchen? Go down and get me two. If you pass Colin charging back up here, tell him to go steal a shovel from Mr. Glum’s shed.”
Quentin pointed. “There are corpses inside those clocks, aren’t there? Dead bodies.”
Victor said, “Yes.”
Quentin blanched and Vanity said, “Yeeew!”
Victor said, “I was going to pop them in sacks and give them a proper burial once we’re all in the woods somewhere. If I do that, and reset the clock mechanism, maybe whatever inside this clock Amelia says is watching us will be disabled. It’s just a guess, mind you. But I thought it would give us more time before they noticed anything wrong. Amelia, bring me Mr. Glum’s hammer. If we leave it in this room, maybe they’ll think he did it.”
Colin was at the door. “You mean I don’t get to chop down the clock?” He had the fire axe in his hands.
Victor said, “We must be unanimous in this. Is everyone willing to leave? Now, this minute?”
I said, “What about the things in the safe?”
He said, “Tell Vanity what of your things from your room you want. Vanity, we’ll give you ten minutes or so to pack. We boys will go bury the remains in the clock.”
Colin said, “There are dead bodies in the clock? You were all looking at dead bodies and I missed it?”
Victor continued, “That will give you ten minutes, Amelia, if you think you can bluff or brass your way past the workmen and get to the safe.”
Colin said, “Wiggle your nipples in their faces, Aim. It worked on your boyfriend, Glum.”
Victor said, “If you want to take the risk. Otherwise, we can always try to sneak back on the grounds later on, and crack the safe then.”
I said, “You should do that, not me. You can wave your hand and get it open. I don’t think my powers will turn on unless the sphere is ringing, and the sphere only rang because Miss Daw’s music was shocking it.”
Vanity said, “I want to hear Quentin’s story!”
Quentin, as if summoned by his name, came trotting back in, carrying empty canvas potato sacks. “Mr. Glum is still sleeping soundly. But out through the window, I thought I saw two people walking toward the Great Hall. Miss Daw and a man in a coat. I didn’t recognize him, but he was too short to be Dr. Fell.”
Victor said, “I hate doing things in haste, but we’re short on time. We have an opportunity to escape while everyone is drunk or asleep or whatever happened to them. We have to be unanimous in this; we have to be of one mind. Who wants to escape now?”
I asked, “As opposed to what?”
“Waiting, preparing, getting a better chance later, getting some notion of where we are running to. Quentin, now or later?”
“Now. The woman I talked to last night is dangerous, and she is not afraid of Mavors. One of these factions—I don’t know which one—wants to provoke a war between Chaos and Cosmos. Killing us is how to start the war.”
“Colin? Now or later?”
“I think we should stay till Halloween, so we can dress up like goblins before we run away, and feed ourselves by going from house to house asking for trick-or-treats. Maybe if we stay till Christmas, they’ll give us a present in a box with a ribbon, or we’ll all get invited to the wedding of Vanity and Grendel Glum. I want to be a flower girl.”
“Is that your vote? To stay?”
“No, you great git. I vote go now. It was my damn idea.”
“Vanity? Now or later?”
Vanity said, “I think they are afraid of the human beings for some reason. Mortals think these guys are myths, right? So if we hide among the human beings, how are they going to find us? The only point in staying here is to see if we can find out more. But what if we contact our families? Or just write a threatening letter to Mr. ap Cymru? We get him to tell us what we want to know or we reveal him to Boggin.”
Colin said, “Yak, yak, yak. Can’t you just vote?”
Vanity answered hotly, “I didn’t go on as long as you, and I am saying smart things instead of smart- mouthed things! Anyway, my point is, before I was so rudely interrupted (geez!) the only advantage to stay is to learn more, but we might learn much more and at less risk if we were living in London, and had jobs as fashion models or film actresses or something.”
Colin said, “Oh yes, we’ll hide by having you appear in a swimsuit on a billboard. Great plan. Isn’t there already an actress named Vanity, anyway? You’ll have to pick a stage name. Something unusual. Like Jane.”
Victor said, “Shut up, Colin. We have two votes for leaving immediately and one vote for going to London to be fashion models. Amelia? Now or later?”
I said, “I vote ‘now.’ I waited my whole damn life.”
