"There are a number of basic steps, amulets, and phylacteries I should have been using since long ago, and certain consecrations I ought to do before attempting anything more. Like you, I don't have some basic tools my book talks about. I've been using a butter knife for my athame. I do not have any sort of athanor or any way to make one. It is all going to take time I do not think we have.
"And if I did something wrong, as Vanity says I did, I might have trapped Colin in that shape by mistake."
Vanity said, "You said chapter two had the bestiary in it."
"It was chapter three. Chapter two is the celestial hierarchy…"
"Whatever! You know the true names of the lord of eagles, and the true name of Colin, so why can't you just zap him?"
"Well, watch…" Quentin put out his hand. We had not yet unpacked, so all the Paris clothes boxes and scuba gear and stuff was simply lying piled on the divan. The white birch wand jumped across the room from the pile into Quentin's hand.
He touched the wand to the bird first with one end, then with the other. 'Ter! Remove this false shape from one who is not your son. Phobetor! Return to your own human shape, without hurt or pain, and stand before us. I charge and compel you in the name of the Third of Choirs: Eliphamasai, Gelomiros, Gedobonai, Saranana, and Elomnia!"
Vanity looked at the bird curiously. "Was something supposed to happen?"
"There is a tiling called the Almadel I am supposed to make, but I haven't gotten the chance yet. A square of wax written with holy names and bearing the Seal of Solomon. So, I guess I am not doing it right. But even without that, if there was a curse keeping him in this shape, I should have just revoked it."
Quentin put his white stick down beside him and reached into the food again. "Hey! This is soup in this container. Smells wonderful. Did they give us spoons? Oh, and before I forget…"
He tossed the ring of Gyges across to me. I caught it, but I said, "Don't give it to me! I am the only one here who doesn't need it. I can step half an inch into four-space, so that photons slide past me without touching. I can do better than invisibility."
Victor was pouring ketchup on some potato things, which (in my opinion) defeated the whole purpose of having them baked with spices. "Not me," he said, "I might demagnetize it by mistake. I think all that thing really does is interfere with the visual centers of the brain, anyway."
I tossed it to Vanity, who caught it. "What!" she said. "Am I the cripple in the group or something, the only person not from Chaos, so I need to be able to turn invisible? It is obvious that Colin has to get this ring, and for the same reason Grendel wanted it. If Colin wears it, he can stop Miss Daw, but Mrs. Wren cannot stop him. If Grendel is dead, they can't mount an effective attack on us. Amelia is now our trump card. No one can neutralize her. She neutralizes Dr. Fell, and with Fell out of the way, Quentin can blast them with magic."
Quentin murmured, "Not exactly 'blast.' I can tell them the true name of the first Salmon."
I said, "Maybe I was wrong about who stops whom. If someone other than Quentin tried to unstick Colin…"
Victor said, "You are not wrong, Amelia. Quentin, show her the diagram."
Quentin said, "I cannot believe they did not give us spoons. Does anyone mind if I just drink this straight out of the container? I mean, if no one else wants any…"
Victor said, "Quentin, the diagram, if you please."
"Oh, sorry. Here." And he took his grimoire out from an inner pocket of his long cloak, waved his hand over it in a mystic gesture, while unlocking it with his other hand (I saw him do it), and opened it to the frontispiece.
"There it is, right in the beginning," Quentin said. "Your table of oppositions. The four houses of Chaos and their relationship to each other."
I saw a diamond, whose opposite corners were connected by the arms of a cross. There were heraldic signs surrounding each corner, and writing along the lines in some sort of crooked, cursive script. The script did not actually change when I was looking at it, but I kept getting the strange feeling that it just had changed.
I said, "I cannot read the faerie letters."
Quentin said, "Don't worry about that. It correlates the houses with the four elements, the four seasons, and so on. You can still look at the pictures. The apple blossom symbol at the top is your people. The pomegranate at the bottom is mine. The poppy flower to the left is Colin, and the mistletoe to the right is Victor's group, the Telchine. Here is what is interesting. The horizontal line connecting poppy to mistletoe, marked with a white lily, represents the Phaeacians; the vertical line connecting pomegranate to apple blossom, marked with a red rose, represents the Olympians, although you can see a thyme leaf where the Olympians touch you, and a sage herb where it rests on me…"
All these flowers were confusing me. Apple blossom? Why was I an apple blossom?
I interrupted, "So what is the deal with all this? What's it mean?"
Quentin said, "We think it means your table of opposition was a correct theory, and that you guessed right about the two non-Chaotic powers. This chart implies that the Olympian power is a mean between multidimensionalism and the True Art, your paradigm and mine. A second implication is that the Phaeacian power is a mean between or combination of materialism and mysticism, Victor and Colin."
Vanity said, "It was Miss Daw and Mrs. Wren who were tending me when I had pneumonia. The so-called pneumonia."
Victor said, "Which means we need Colin to fix Vanity."
Vanity said, "Maybe Colin is stuck because he still wants to be stuck. I mean, did he really enjoy himself when he was a boy? Sometimes, I do not think he was very happy. It's hard on a fellow who is stupider than everyone around him."
Quentin frowned at her, his face dark, and real anger in his eye. "Don't say such things again. You were brought up better than that!"
Vanity said, "Why are you standing up for him? You were the one he always picked on!"
Quentin said, "Colin? He never picked on me. Where do you get these ideas? I won't have you speaking such ill of him, especially as you are the one he is going to save, once we get him back. Don't let such words pass your lips again!"
5.
The scene of mild-mannered Quentin browbeating the bubbly Vanity over what was obviously just a light-hearted joke made me uncomfortable. (Besides, Colin did pick on Quentin, all the time. How could Quentin not see it?) I stood up. "Listen—I am going to go to my room and change out of these Grendel things. I cannot believe I have been wearing them all day. You guys keep talking. Figure something out."
I gathered an armful of dress boxes and the things I wanted to put on.
Vanity leaped to her feet, all smiles. "I have the answer! I have an idea! I've got it!"
I had my hand on the door to my cabin, and I turned to see Vanity, the Colin eagle resting in her hands, come skipping after me. "Come on!" she said to me.
"What?" I said.
Bird in one hand, she urged me into the bedroom. She paused to stick her tongue out at the boys, and danced into the room, closing the door behind. The lights had a dimmer switch, and she turned them only to a dim, golden half-light. Everything was touched with soft shadows and rich textures in that light.
Vanity put the eagle on the headboard of the bed. 'This is such a good idea. I know it is going to work!"
I put the boxes and stuff on the foot of the bed, and started to unbutton the first of the two shirts I was wearing.
Vanity came dancing back, grinning, and put one arm around my waist. She turned and smiled at the eagle.
She said through her teeth, "You're not smiling!" This came out sounding like: lour nn't sn'lingk!