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“I don’t believe it,” Baba Jen says, coming to stand beside me and gawk at the trembling assistant who is adding the final blue disc to the board. The tiny thesp nudges my leg and grins. “Nice going, kid.” Then she pokes Urszula and makes a rude gesture. “You’re losing your touch, Empress.”
Urszula doesn’t respond. She’s smiling thinly, not saying a word. The smile and silence unsettle me. I’d prefer if she was glaring and cursing.
Cal, Oleg, Dermot and Maiko come charging over to us. A cheering Cal picks me up and twirls me round, while the thesps hurry towards Baba Jen, who raises a finger and growls, “If you mugs try to hug me, I’ll bite.”
Oleg looks offended, but Dermot and Maiko laugh.
“You beat her, Archibald,” Cal shouts as he sets me back on my feet.
“Yes,” I say quietly.
I look for Inez and she’s trailing the others, studying the silent Urszula. I think, like me, she finds the empress’ subdued response worrying.
“A thrilling victory,” Urszula finally murmurs as the hubbub in the chamber dies down. “You played the game beautifully.”
“It was just luck,” I lie, feeling myself blush.
“Really?” she sniffs and glances at the two handles. “I find that hard to believe.”
She says it casually, but there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s calling me out, letting me know that she knows I cheated.
Inez reaches me and lays a hand on my shoulder. “Well done, Archie.”
“The mystery girl,” Urszula booms. “Do you want to remove your mask now, to celebrate openly with the others?”
“I’ll keep it on, if it’s all the same to you,” Inez replies.
Urszula shrugs, beckons one of her assistants forward and whispers in her ear. The assistant races from the chamber.
“So,” Urszula says to Baba Jen, “will you team up with the thesps again?”
“Until something better comes along,” Baba Jen sniffs.
“I couldn’t tempt you to remain, as an employee rather than a slave?”
Baba Jen laughs and shoots the empress a short, pudgy finger.
“And you?” a flushing Urszula says to Dermot. “You’d planned to put on a few shows here, isn’t that right?”
“Yes,” Dermot says. “There’s always an interesting mix of people in Suanpan, so we figured it would be a good place to practise before we hit Cornan.”
“You’ll have to come up with a different plan.”
Dermot frowns. “Why?”
Urszula sneers. “Your friend made a fool of me in front of everybody. A loss is one thing, but he insulted me. Do you think I take insults lightly?”
“I... he... what?” Dermot flounders, staring at me with bewilderment.
“How did Archie insult you?” Maiko asks.
“He knows,” Urszula hisses.
“It was a straight bet,” Inez says. “Archie won fairly. You’ve always honoured the terms of a bet in the past.”
“And I’ll honour them now,” Urszula chuckles flatly, “even though there was nothing fair about Archibald’s victory, was there?”
She looks at me questioningly but I don’t answer.
“Are you saying Archie cheated?” Inez asks quietly.
“I –” Urszula starts to respond.
“Because if he did,” Inez cuts her short, “explain to us what he did and how, and we’ll happily see him punished for it. None of us would lend our support to a cheat.”
“Speak for yourself,” Cal grunts, planting himself directly behind me.
Urszula stares venomously at Inez, then her gaze flickers to the audience. She can’t reveal how I defeated her, because if she did, she’d also have to confess that she’s been cheating ever since the Spinner was installed.
The empress of Suanpan trembles uncontrollably. Her face turns a vicious pink. Her lips peel back from her teeth and she snarls like a rabid fox.
Then she throws her head back and screams.
It’s an unnatural scream, and everyone in the chamber winces and covers their ears, eyes watering as the scream gets higher and higher.
Dust falls on my face from somewhere high overhead. I brush it away, but more falls. I look up, wondering where it’s coming from, and realise it isn’t dust at all — it’s very small slivers of glass.
Urszula’s scream has caused a crack to split the glass ceiling. It’s still running through it, spreading out above the benches, all the way to the back wall, which also starts to crack down the middle.
Lots of people are screaming now, afraid that the empress has gone crazy and plans to bring the Spin Zone crashing down around us.
Urszula abruptly stops, and so does the crack in the glass. She clears her throat, lowers her head and smiles as if nothing is amiss.
As people settle down, pale and shaken, the assistant that Urszula dispatched comes racing back, clutching a large hourglass. The lower glass bulb is filled with bright yellow sand.
“Ah,” Urszula says, taking the hourglass and caressing it lovingly. “My timer. I don’t like sleeping for long periods. Eight hours? Perish the thought. I prefer a few carefully timed naps over the course of the day and night. After much experimenting, I found that forty-three minutes was perfect, and I had this hourglass calibrated accordingly. Whenever I retire to my chambers, an assistant turns this over and the grains of sand start trickling through. Forty-three minutes later, a bugler wakes me.”
Everyone in the Spin Zone is silent. We’re still in shock after Urszula’s scream, and it’s clear to us all that her pleasant front is a deception. Her eyes are glittering, her lips are twitching, and she’s squared her shoulders stiffly, boiling up inside like a volcano ready to explode.
“Forty-three minutes,” Urszula says, pointing at me with the hourglass. “That’s how long you have to get out of Suanpan. That’s how long all of you have,” she adds, sweeping it around to take in Cal, Dermot, Maiko, Oleg and Inez too.
“You’re running us out of town?” Dermot squeaks.
“You brought this sweet-faced scorpion into my nest,” Urszula says, “so you’re as guilty as he is, you and your whole stinking company of pitiful thesps.”
“What if we don’t want to leave?” Cal challenges her, and I see Dermot blanch.
Urszula gawps at him. “I’m the empress of Suanpan,” she says slowly. “A deviser. If you cross me...” She points to the crack high above us.
Cal’s nostrils flare defiantly, but I can tell he’s troubled.
“Forty-three minutes,” Urszula repeats. “I’ll stay here that long – though I doubt I’ll snooze – then I’m coming after you. And don’t think you can leave through the usual boreholes. They’re closed to your troupe. You’ll have to exit by those at the top of the cliff.”
“The cliff?” Dermot bleats. “We’ll never get through all the pods and climb to the top of the cliff in forty-three minutes.”
“It’s doable,” Urszula disagrees. “It will be a close-run thing, but if you’re fleet of foot and don’t linger during the climb to compose poems about the view...”
“But –” Dermot begins to argue.
Urszula upends the hourglass and the first grains of sand slide through.
Inez curses, grabs Dermot and spins him towards the stairs. “Go!” she shouts.
Oleg and Maiko have already set off, while Baba Jen, despite her short legs, is far ahead of them, almost at the top of the stairs, evidently having figured out that something foul was in the offing the moment she spotted the hourglass.
“This isn’t fair,” Dermot wails, but hurries after the others.
Cal hasn’t budged. “I’ll take her on,” he snarls. “I don’t care if she’s a deviser. She can’t treat us like this.”
“Of course she can,” Inez snaps, then punches his arm. “Go!”
Cal sets off once he’s given the order, and Inez touches my shoulder again. “We have to flee, Archie.”
I haven’t moved. I’m trying to think of a way to stop this.
“Don’t punish them for what I did,” I croak. “Let them leave. I’ll stay and serve you.”
Urszula smirks. “No, I’d rather kill you.” She shakes the hourglass. “Hurry. Time is ticking and every second counts.”
I start to argue, but Inez grabs me and hauls me away. “Up the stairs,” she barks. “We probably won’t make it, but at least we have a chance. If you stay, you’re definitely damned.”
And since there’s nothing else for it, I follow Inez’s lead, turn my back on the chuckling empress and her ominously draining hourglass, and run.