Part 15 (1/2)

After barely one wriggle, the caterpillar burst up out of the gra.s.s and became the Willing Warlock again, a little disheveled, but very pleased with himself. He threw himself on Chrestomanci again. As for Chrestomanci, it was plain that the watch-chain had somehow disabled him completely. There was a second or so of furious struggle in the archway, while the Willing Warlock tried to grab Chrestomanci in both brawny arms, and Chrestomanci tried to get the watch-chain off his wrist using his left hand, and William Nostrum hung on to it fiercely. None of them used any magic, and Chrestomanci seemed only able to shoulder the Willing Warlock weakly aside. After two attempts, the Willing Warlock wrapped his arms around Chrestomanci from behind and William Nostrum dragged a pair of silver handcuffs from his pocket and snapped them on both Chrestomanci's wrists.

There was a scream of triumph from under the nodding hats of the audience-the scream of true witchcraft, which made the sunlight tremble. Chrestomanci, even more disheveled than the Willing Warlock, was dragged out from between the pillars. His tall gray hat rolled near Cat's feet and Henry Nostrum stamped on it, with the greatest satisfaction. Cat tried to get out from under Henry Nostrum's hand while he did it. And he found he could not move. Mr. Nostrum had seen to that with Mrs. Sharp's postcard. Cat had to face the fact that he was as helpless as Chrestomanci seemed to be.

”So it is true!” Henry Nostrum said joyously, as the Willing Warlock bundled Chrestomanci towards the apple tree. ”The touch of silver conquers Chrestomanci-the great Chrestomanci!”

”Yes. Isn't it a nuisance?” Chrestomanci remarked. He was dragged to the apple tree and pushed against it. William Nostrum hurried over to his brother and pulled the watch-chain off Henry's bulging waistcoat.

Two silver watch-chains from two such ample brothers were more than enough to tie Chrestomanci to the tree. William Nostrum hastily twisted the ends into two charmed knots and stood back rubbing his hands. The audience screamed eldritch laughter and clapped. Chrestomanci sagged as if he were tired.

His hair hung over his face, his tie was under his left ear, and there was green from the bark of the tree all over his dove-gray coat. Cat felt somehow ashamed to look at him in that state. But Chrestomanci seemed quite composed. ”Now you've got me all tied up in silver, what do you propose doing?” he said.

William Nostrum's eyes swirled joyfully about. ”Oh, the worst we can, my dear sir,” he said. ”Be a.s.sured of that. We're sick of you imposing restraints on us, you see. Why shouldn't we go out and conquer other worlds? Why shouldn't we use dragons' blood? Why shouldn't we be as wicked as we want? Answer me that, sir!”

”You might find the answer for yourself, if you thought,” Chrestomanci suggested. But his voice was drowned in the yelling from the a.s.sembled witches and necromancers. While they shouted, Janet began edging quietly towards the tree. She supposed Cat dared not move with Henry Nostrum's hand on his shoulder, and she felt someone ought to do something.

”Oh, yes,” said Henry Nostrum, c.o.c.k-a-hoop with pleasure. ”We are taking the arts of magic into our own hands today. This world will be ours by this evening. Come Halloween, dear sir, we shall be going out to conquer every other world we know. We are going to destroy you, my dear fellow, and your power. But before we do that, of course, we shall have to destroy this garden.” Chrestomanci looked thoughtfully down at his hands, hanging limply in the silver handcuffs. ”I shouldn't advise that,” he said. ”This garden has things in it from the dawn of all the worlds. It's a good deal stronger than I am. You'd be striking at the roots of witchcraft-and you'd find it shockingly hard to destroy.”

”Ah,” said Henry Nostrum. ”But we know we can't destroy you unless we destroy the garden, my wily sir. And don't think we don't know how to destroy the garden.” He lifted his free hand and clapped Cat on the other shoulder with it. ”The means are here.”

Janet, at that moment, stumbled over the block of stone that lay in the gra.s.s near the apple tree.

”Drat.i.tude!” she said and fell heavily across it. The audience pointed and screamed with laughter, which annoyed her very much. She glared around the circle of Sunday bonnets and hats.

”Up you get, dear Gwendolen,” Henry Nostrum said gleefully. ”It's young Cat who has to go on there.”

He put an arm around the helpless Cat, plucked him off the ground, and carried him towards the block of stone. William Nostrum bustled up, beaming and uncoiling his rope. The Willing Warlock bounced up willingly to help too.

Cat was so terrified that he managed somehow to break the spell. He twisted out of Henry Nostrum's arms and ran for all he was worth towards the two pillars, trying to fetch out his dragons' blood as he ran.

It was only a few steps to run. But naturally every witch, warlock, necromancer, and wizard there instantly cast a spell. The thick smell of magic coiled around the meadow. Cat's legs felt like two lead posts. His heart hammered. He felt himself running in slow motion, slower and slower, like a clockwork toy running down. He heard Janet scream at him to run, but he could not move any longer. He stuck just in front of the ruined archway, and he was stiff as a board. It was all he could do to breathe.

The Nostrum brothers and the Willing Warlock collected him from there, and wound the rope around his stiff body. Janet did her best to prevent them.

”Oh, please stop! What are you doing?”

”Now, now, Gwendolen,” Henry Nostrum said, rather perplexed. ”You know perfectly well. I explained to you most carefully that the garden has to be disenchanted by cutting the throat of an innocent child on that slab of stone there. You agreed it must be so.”

”I didn't! It wasn't me!” said Janet.

”Be quiet!” Chrestomanci said from the tree. ”Do you want to be put in Cat's place?”

Janet stared at him, and went on staring as all the implications struck her. While she stared, Cat, stiff as a mummy and wound in rope, was carried by the Willing Warlock and dumped rather painfully down on the block of stone. Cat stared resentfully at the Willing Warlock. He had always seemed so friendly.

Apart from that, Cat was not as frightened as he might have been. Of course Gwendolen had known he had lives to spare. But he hoped his throat would heal after they cut it. He was bound to be very uncomfortable until it did. He turned his eyes up to Janet, meaning to give her a rea.s.suring look.

To his astonishment, Janet was s.n.a.t.c.hed away backwards into nothingness. The only thing which remained of her was a yell of surprise. And the same yell rumbled around the meadow. Everyone there was quite as astonished as Cat.

”Oh, good!” Gwendolen said, from the other side of the stone. ”I got here in time.”

Everyone stared at her. Gwendolen came from between the pillars, dusting off the dragons' blood fromher fingers with one of Cat's school essays. Cat could see his signature at the top: Eric Emelius Chant, 26 Coven St., Wolvercote, England, Europe, The World, The Universe-it was his, all right.

Gwendolen still had her hair up in that strange headdress, but she had taken off the ma.s.sive golden robes.

She had on what must have amounted to underclothes in her new world. They were more magnificent than any of Chrestomanci's dressing gowns.

”Gwendolen!” exclaimed Henry Nostrum. He pointed to the s.p.a.ce Janet had vanished from.

”What-who- ?”

”Just a replacement,” Gwendolen explained, in her airiest way. ”I saw her and Cat here just now, so I knew-” She noticed Chrestomanci limply tied to the apple tree. ”Oh, good! You caught him! Just a moment.” She marched over to Chrestomanci and held up her golden underclothes in order to kick him hard on both s.h.i.+ns. ”Take that! And that!” Chrestomanci did not try to pretend the kicks did not hurt. He doubled up. The toes of Gwendolen's shoes were as pointed as nails.

”Now, where was I?” Gwendolen said, turning back to the Nostrum brothers. ”Oh, yes. I thought I'd better come back because I wanted to see the fun, and I remembered I'd forgotten to tell you Cat has nine lives. You'll have to kill him several times, I'm afraid.”

”Nine lives!” shouted Henry Nostrum. ”You foolish girl!”

After that, there was such a shouting and outcry from every witch and warlock in the meadow, that no one could have heard anything else. From where Cat lay, he could see William Nostrum leaning towards Gwendolen, red in the face, both eyes whirling, bawling furiously at her, and Gwendolen leaning forward to shout back. As the noise died down a little, he heard William Nostrum booming, ”Nine lives! If he has nine lives, you stupid girl, that means he's an enchanter in his own right!”

”I'm not stupid!” Gwendolen yelled back. ”I know that as well as you do! I've been using his magic ever since he was a baby. But I couldn't go on using it if you were going to kill him, could I? That's why I had to go away. I think it was nice of me to come back and tell you. So there!”

”How can you have used his magic?” demanded Henry Nostrum, even more put out than his brother.

”I just did,” said Gwendolen. ”He never minds.”

”I do mind, rather,” Cat said from his uncomfortable slab. ”I am here, you know.”

Gwendolen looked down at him as if she was rather surprised that he was. But before she could say anything to Cat, William Nostrum was loudly shus.h.i.+ng for silence. He was very agitated. He took a long s.h.i.+ny thing out of his pocket and nervously bent it about.

”Silence!” he said. ”We've gone too far to draw back now. We'll just have to discover the boy's weak point. We certainly can't kill him unless we find it. He must have one. All enchanters do.” So saying, William Nostrum rounded on Cat and pointed the s.h.i.+ny thing at him. Cat was appalled to see that it was a long silver knife. The knife pointed at his face, even though William Nostrum's eyes did not. ”What is your weak point, boy? Out with it.”

Cat was not saying. It seemed the only chance he had of keeping any of his lives.

”I know,” said Gwendolen. ”I did it. I put all his lives into a book of matches. They were easier to use like that. It's in my room in the Castle. Shall I get it?”

Everyone Cat could see from his uncomfortable position looked relieved to hear this. ”That's all right, then,” said Henry Nostrum. ”Can he be killed without burning a match?” ”Oh, yes,” said Gwendolen. ”He drowned once.”

”So the question,” said William Nostrum, very much relieved, ”is simply how many lives he has left. How many have you, boy?” The knife pointed at Cat again.

Again Cat was not saying.

”He doesn't know,” Gwendolen said impatiently. ”I had to use quite a few. He lost one being born and another being drowned. And I used one to put him in the book of matches. It gave him cramps, for some reason. Then that toad tied up in silver there wouldn't give me magic lessons and took my witchcraft away, so I had to fetch another of Cat's lives in the night and make it send me to my nice new world. He was awfully disobliging about it, but he did it. And that was the end of that life. Oh, I nearly forgot! I put his fourth life into that violin he kept playing, to turn it into a cat- Fiddle-remember, Mr. Nostrum?”

Henry Nostrum clutched his two wings of hair. Consternation broke out around the meadow again. ”You are a foolish girl! Someone took that cat away. We can't kill him at all!”

For a moment, Gwendolen looked very dashed. Then an idea struck her. ”If I go away again, you can use my replacem-”

The watch-chains around Chrestomanci c.h.i.n.ked. ”Nostrum, you're upsetting yourself needlessly. It was I who had the cat-violin removed. The creature's around in the garden somewhere.”