‘Gran!’ cried Archie, giving her a big hug. ‘You’re back!’
‘It would certainly appear so,’ said Gardenia with a twinkle in her eye. She gave him a massive hug. ‘Now where are my other two grandchildren?’
Just then there was a whoop from Bramble and Thistle as they came into the kitchen and caught sight of her. They came rushing forward.
‘Steady now,’ said Gardenia, a big smile on her face. ‘Or you’ll knock me over. I’m not as young as I was, you know.’
‘Nonsense,’ said Bramble. ‘You look great. Travelling obviously agrees with you but we’re very glad to have you back!’
*
A little while later, they were all seated around the kitchen table at 32 Houndstooth Road: Archie, Bramble, Thistle, Loretta, Woodbine and Gardenia.
‘More cake, Mum?’ asked Loretta.
‘Did you make it yourself?’ enquired Gardenia, holding a half-eaten piece of cake and chewing thoughtfully. ‘I can’t quite place the flavour.’
‘Yes,’ said Loretta, proudly. ‘Victoria sponge with pilchard filling – it’s my own recipe.’
‘I thought it might be,’ said her mother.
‘I’ll have another piece,’ said Thistle, holding out his plate hopefully.
Loretta cut him another slice and Thistle crammed it into his mouth whole.
‘Where are your manners, Thistle Foxe?’ said Loretta, shaking her head in despair. Thistle flashed a smile, his teeth covered in cake, which Loretta tried to ignore.
‘Well, now you’ve eaten something, Mum, let’s hear about your travels,’ Loretta continued. ‘Where have you been all this time?’
‘Yes, come on, Gran,’ said Bramble. ‘You promised to tell us all about your adventures.’
‘I did,’ said Gardenia, her eyes lighting up. ‘And what an exciting time I’ve had!’
She looked pleased to have a reason to leave the rest of her cake and pushed her plate to one side. The Foxes stopped chewing and paid attention.
‘I’ve been following in the footsteps of Fabian Grey,’ Gardenia said, looking at Archie. ‘Your father told me to find out everything I could about him. I went to the Himalayas first because that’s where Grey headed straight after escaping from the Tower of London.’
Archie remembered the first postcard Gran had sent was from Kathmandu.
‘High up in the mountains there’s an ancient library with some very old magical records. I tracked Grey to that place. It was clear that he went there looking for The Opus Magus.’
‘And did he find it?’ asked Thistle, excitedly.
Gardenia shook her head. ‘No, but he stayed in the mountains for a while studying the old records for clues about what had happened to it. Those clues led him to India and then to China, and eventually to Alexandria.’
‘How do you know all this?’ asked Woodbine.
‘Because I followed his trail.’
‘But after three hundred and fifty years I’m surprised there was a trail to follow,’ said Loretta.
‘Ah, I knew what to look for,’ said Gardenia. ‘Everywhere I went I heard the same story again and again. It had been handed down from generation to generation. The local people spoke of a wild-looking man with a streak of white in his hair seeking a magical book. And everywhere he went a large, black, talking bird appeared soon after – a raven.’
‘A raven!’ exclaimed Bramble, her hand flying to her mouth.
‘A raven delivered Grey’s ring to me!’ said Archie, holding out his hand so Gardenia could see it on his finger.
She nodded, knowingly. ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Wherever Grey went, the raven went, too. But they never appeared together at the same time – it was always one or the other.’
She looked around at their curious faces. ‘Some of the tales went further, saying that the man and the raven were one and the same. At first I didn’t believe it. But as I learned more, I began to wonder. And it was then that I realised how Fabian Grey had escaped from the Tower of London.’
‘He turned into a raven!’ gasped Archie, suddenly remembering something he’d heard before. ‘That’s what Arthur Ripley said when I saw him in the asylum. It didn’t make any sense at the time, but Ripley must have heard the stories, too, and made the same connection.’
Gardenia smiled. ‘That’s right. It seems that Grey was able to turn into a raven. That’s how he escaped.’
‘But that’s impossible,’ cried Loretta. ‘Isn’t it?’
‘Not impossible,’ said Woodbine, rubbing his chin. ‘There are shape-shifting spells and Grey was very gifted magically. Brilliant in fact.’
Gardenia’s eyes gleamed. ‘Yes, he was, but I don’t think it was something he did on purpose. It wasn’t his spell, you see. I believe it was the curse The Grim Grimoire put on him.’
‘Yes,’ said Archie, remembering what his father had said to Fabian Grey in The Book of Yore. ‘Part of the curse was that he would turn into the first beast he saw. And in the Tower of London the first animal he would have seen was a raven.’
Gardenia nodded. ‘The other members of the Alchemists’ Club met with accidents,’ she said, ‘but the Grimoire saved its cruellest curse for Grey because it hated him the most.’
‘According to the stories, the raven always appeared at the same time of the month – when there was a new moon. That’s the darkest night of the month because the moon is at its weakest. On those nights I believe that Grey became a raven for a few hours.’
‘But you said the Grimoire kept its cruellest curse for Grey. There are worse things than turning into a bird once a month!’ said Loretta. ‘And at least it meant he could escape from the Tower.’
‘Ah, but that’s not the worst part,’ said Gardenia. ‘The curse also took away his greatest magical gift, his bibliographical memory. In fact, it gradually took away all memories of his former life. So after a while he was searching for The Opus Magus without knowing why.’
‘How awful, to forget who you are and what you’ve been,’ Bramble said. ‘But what became of him?’
‘Eventually, his search brought him back to England. By then he had lost his identity so completely that no one knew who he was – not even himself.’
‘So he came home. I’m glad about that,’ said Bramble. ‘I wouldn’t like to think of him wandering the world lost and alone. Do you know what happened to him in the end?’
Gardenia smiled knowingly. ‘I know where his grave is, and I plan to take Archie there if he is willing.’
‘Yes, of course,’ said Archie. ‘But how sad to think that he died so alone.’
‘But I’m not convinced that Grey is in it,’ said Gardenia. ‘That’s the other strange part of the story. Grey’s travels took him all over the world and lasted many years. But the descriptions of his appearance barely change. He never seemed to age. Or at least he aged very slowly – a year for every ten years of a normal life. Three hundred and fifty years would be like thirty-five years to him.’
‘Wait a minute,’ said Archie. ‘Are you saying that he might still be alive …?’
Gardenia nodded.
‘But that really is impossible!’ exclaimed Loretta.
‘No,’ said Gardenia. ‘Grey discovered the formula for azoth. One of its properties is that it can extend the life of mortals.’
Archie pictured the scene in the cellar in Pudding Lane. ‘I remember now!’ he said with a shock. ‘When the experiment went wrong, Grey was showered in azoth. It must have prolonged his life.’
‘The azoth must have affected him,’ said Gardenia. ‘It would have slowed down his ageing. Who knows, perhaps he realised what had happened and started taking it himself deliberately in order to stay young.’
‘But if he’s cursed to turn into a raven every new moon and he doesn’t even know who he is, why would he want to prolong his misery?’ asked Loretta.
‘I think I know,’ said Archie. Something had suddenly clicked in his mind. ‘If Grey is still alive it’s because somehow, in spite of all that happened to him, he knows there’s something he desperately needs to do.’
‘What could he possibly need to do after three hundred and fifty years?’ asked Loretta.
‘Save magic,’ said Archie. ‘Whatever it was that he saw in The Book of Prophecy, he needs to finish it.’
Gardenia nodded. ‘That’s right. It’s his destiny.’
‘But what is it he’s meant to do?’ cried Thistle.
‘Ah, that is the cruellest part of all,’ said Gardenia. ‘I don’t think he knows. Thanks to the curse, he has no memory of it.’
‘You have got to be kidding me,’ cried Thistle. ‘Are you saying that Fabian Grey doesn’t know what he has to do? So even if we find him, he still can’t help?’
Gardenia nodded sadly. It was such a strange story. Not only was Fabian Grey quite possibly still alive, he was cursed to turn into a raven every new moon. And the next day he would have no memory of it. Strangest of all, he did not even know his real identity.
The whole family sat up late into the night talking. One by one they crept off to their beds until it was just Archie and Gardenia left. The fire was burning low. Now that they were alone, Archie asked her the question that had been on his mind all evening.
‘Gran, why did you never tell me about magic and about the museum and everything?’
She gave a long sigh. ‘It all seems like such a long time ago now,’ she said, putting her hand on his shoulder. ‘When you were born it was a very happy time for all of us. But a few weeks later your father came to see me. He told me he was worried. By then we could all see that your eyes were different colours, making you the first Grey to have magician’s eye since Fabian Grey, so naturally we wondered whether you might take after him.’
‘But is that so bad?’ asked Archie.
Gardenia shook her head. ‘No, it’s not. But you have to understand that no one knew much about him then. We had all grown up believing he started the Great Fire of London. He was blamed for blackening the name of magic and driving it underground. As far as we knew, it was because of Fabian Grey that magic had been outlawed.’
‘So you see, when your father thought you might have inherited some of Grey’s magical ability, he was worried that people would think the worst of you. He set out to discover everything he could about Grey. Eventually that quest led him to The Book of Prophecy.’
She shook her head. ‘Everyone who has ever consulted that book has paid a terrible price, including your father. And now I understand that the book is destroyed. Perhaps it is for the best.’
‘How can you say that?’ cried Archie.
She gave a wan smile. ‘It’s unwise to look too far into the future. Your father found that out the hard way. The book showed him that your fate and that of Fabian Grey were linked: that you had great magical ability and would become a magic writer, and that like Grey, too, you had a forked fate. The first fork would be meeting Barzak, and if you survived that, the second fork was connected to Grey himself.’
‘That was the Alchemist’s Curse,’ said Archie.
‘Yes,’ said Gardenia, ‘and the third fork is also connected to Grey.’ She paused. ‘You see, Archie, I believe that you have a part to play in fulfilling Grey’s destiny.’
Katerina had said as much already. Archie felt the knot in his stomach tighten another notch.
He had so many questions but Gardenia was still speaking.
‘Your father was very shaken by what the book showed him. None of us could imagine how you might survive an encounter with a darchemist like Barzak. Surely he would either kill you or enslave you with his dark magic.
‘We should have had more faith,’ she said, squeezing his arm. ‘But we feared the worst. That’s why your father made me promise to keep you away from magic. He hoped against hope that you might be able to avoid the first fork.’
‘But it didn’t work,’ said Archie.
‘No.’ She shook her head. ‘In my heart of hearts I never believed it would.’ She gave Archie a sad smile.
‘No one can cheat his fate,’ said Archie, repeating what The Book of Prophecy had told him.
‘That’s right,’ she said. ‘But a promise is a promise, so I kept you away from magic and that meant I had to keep you away from Oxford. That was the hardest part of all. It was the only way to prevent you finding out about the museum, but it broke my heart that you had to grow up apart from Bramble and Thistle.’
‘And I found out anyway,’ said Archie.
Gardenia smiled, and this time it was a real smile. ‘Yes, you did. When the book arrived on your twelfth birthday I knew the game was up and you had to make your own way. Of course I had no idea what the book really was. I thought it was from someone at the museum. If I had thought for one second it was Barzak’s book …’ She shivered.
‘So you let me take the book to the Aisle of White knowing that I would find out about the museum.’
‘It couldn’t be helped. The book came with a special instruction so ignoring it would have meant breaking the lore. I had to trust Loretta and Woodbine to keep you safe. But it also meant that you were finally reunited with Bramble.’
‘And Thistle,’ said Archie.
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘Of course. And it also left me free to keep the other part of my promise – to discover everything that I could about Fabian Grey. So that’s what I did.’
Archie was quiet for a while. He was still digesting all this. Some of it he already knew or had guessed, but other parts were new to him. He had not understood all his connections with Fabian Grey. No wonder everyone had been so concerned about his magical abilities, his book whispering and the unusual firemarks. No wonder they had been so alarmed about his forked fate.
He wanted to ask Gran why she had lied to him about his parents’ disappearance. But this didn’t seem the right moment. He was angry that she had deceived him. But he was fascinated by the new information she had managed to gather.
‘In all your travels did you ever find out what Grey actually saw in his vision?’ asked Archie.
‘No,’ said Gardenia. ‘That is the one thing that eluded me. But tomorrow I will take you to see his gravestone. Perhaps there will be a clue there.’
*
In a house on the other side of Oxford, a single candle was the only light in a downstairs room. The flickering flame illuminated a dead rat on the table. A boy sitting in the shadows picked it up and bit into it. The rat’s blood trickled down his chin like a red stream.
‘Swallow it!’ said his master. ‘Use the rat’s life power to extinguish the candle and command the darkness. If you can take the darkness from a rat’s blood, one day you will be able to take it from a dragon’s.’
The boy closed his eyes and swallowed. Concentrating very hard he uttered the words of the spell.
‘Blood of Ratus
Newly slain
Beast of darkness
Quench the Flame.’
The candle guttered and went out, plunging the room into total darkness.
‘Good,’ said the man. ‘You are almost ready!’
‘But where will we get dragon’s blood?’ asked the boy.
‘Leave that to me,’ said the man, relighting the candle. ‘There is more than one way to bleed a dragon.’
He opened his left hand to show the boy the firemark there.
