To tell the truth, I couldn’t. The strength that came out of the space lined with red velvet did not feel to me particularly much to do with women, or men either. But I did my best not to say this. “They are … quite wonderful,” I said. “Quite the most strong and beautiful …” Then my worries got the better of me, and I burst out with “Oh, Heppy, Judith, how do I go about raising the land?”
“Good lords!” Heppy banged the two halves of the cupboard shut, and the cracks in panels where they had been vanished at once. “Heavens, child, don’t say such things! In front of the Regalia, too! Don’t even think them! Whatever put that notion into your head?”
“You really shouldn’t know about that,” Judith said reproachfully. “Come and sit down, my dear, and tell us what made you say that. I can see you’re dreadfully anxious about something, but I feel sure you have to be overreacting.”
I could see they were both going to treat me as an over-fanciful child. I sighed. But I sat down all the same in the upright chair Judith guided me to and tried to explain. I was so worried by then that tears were trying to push themselves out of my eyes, and I could hear my voice shaking as I talked.
And it was no good. Heppy simply laughed comfortably. “No, dear. You’ve got the wrong end of the stick somewhere. The Merlins are always for good, and Court wizards are chosen for their loyalty. What you’re talking about just can’t happen in Blest. We’re the most stable of all the worlds. You misunderstood something grown-up, dear. That’s all.”
“It’s so easy,” Judith explained soothingly, “to hear three adults talking in the dark and to imagine all sorts of queer things. No wonder you went on and had bad dreams about it. If you’d overheard them in daylight, you’d have felt quite different.”
“But you said yourselves that the magics were unbalanced,” I said desperately. “And Grandfather Gwyn told me—”
“Hush!” Heppy said sternly. “We don’t mention That One here. And he’s someone you can’t be expected to understand, not for years yet. You go and play in the garden, Arianrhod my dear, and don’t trouble your head anymore. Judith will get on the far-speaker to Maxwell for us, and we’ll have you all sorted out before bedtime. You’ll see.”
I left Judith dragging a far-speaker out from among the looms and went dejectedly out into the back garden. It was almost as empty as the front, just grass—where Grundo was sitting with
his arms round the dog and wearing his most faraway look—and some wire netting around it.
The Izzys were cavorting around the grass. “Pathetic!” said one.
“This boy is per-thetic!” said the other. “Fancy not understanding us Dimbers!”
When they saw me, they left off trying to provoke Grundo and began doing handstands up against the wire netting. “You understand us, don’t you?” Isadora said. She was rather muffled because her dress had turned upside down with her. I pretended not to hear and looked anxiously at Grundo instead. He just looked vague. He had had tons of practice in ignoring Alicia after all.
“Our family never stays married,” Ilsabil proclaimed, clattering the netting with her feet. “It’s against our rules. Anyway, I’m thinking of joining a circus.”
“We invented single-parent families,” Isadora said, from inside her dress. She came down, tangled in pink silk. “Our customs go back thousands of years,” she added breathlessly, “but I shall never marry. Boys are too pathetic. So are circuses. I shall be a great actress.”
“I believe you,” I said as Ilsabil came down in her turn.
Ilsabil went upside down again with a twang almost immediately. “I shall marry a rich wizard,” she declared, “and wear lots of jewels and lipstick. Then I shall kick him out and keep his money after seven years. Because I’m going to be chosen for Dimber third, not Isadora—Ouch!”
She ended in a scream and a collapse when Isadora rushed at her, shrieking, “No, you won’t!” and shoved her hard in the stomach.
“Filthy little witch!” Ilsabil yelled. They fell on one another and fought energetically. The pink dress tore with a noise like a gunshot.
Grundo, I could tell, neither heard nor saw any of this. I thought at the time that he had simply tuned the Izzys out, the way he does with Alicia or Sybil. It never occurred to me he might be up to something.
THREE
I found out what Grundo had been up to in the middle of that night. But before that Judith had rung London at least twenty times. She came away from the far-speaker looking more anxious each time.
“I can’t understand it,” she said. “I’m getting the engaged signal every time!”
“Don’t worry so,” Heppy said. “Dora’s probably calling that vile man of hers. That Jerome. Or Maxwell has some crisis on. Try again early tomorrow. And I’ll try telepathy after that. I’d try it now, only it always annoys Maxwell so when I do it. I always seem to catch him at an awkward moment.” And she cackled with laughter.
Of course Judith did worry. She was that sort. She set about cooking supper with her long, kind face all tense and wrinkled. I offered to help her, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Children didn’t help in that house. So I went away and defended Grundo from the Izzys instead.
They had discovered how to victimize him by then. One would twirl in and poke him, chanting, “Long nose, long nose, oh, pathetic long nose!” and the other would come sweetly undulating up on the other side and ask in a babyish little voice, “Forgive me asking, but where did you get all those pretty freckles from?” Then, of course, they would swap roles.
Grundo couldn’t handle this at all. He was looking desperate when I came up. I took hold of an Izzy in each hand and shook them, quite roughly. “If you little freaks do or say one more thing to Grundo,” I said, “I shall turn you both into fleas. Don’t think I can’t. So leave him alone. Now.”
They twisted round and stared up at me innocently. “But men are fair game,” Isadora said.
“Heppy says so,” added Ilsabil.
“And I say not,” I said. “And I say that you are ignorant, badly brought-up little witches, and I’ve got hold of you, so you are going to do what I say, not what Heppy tells you. Understand?”