Page 5 of The Society of Unknowable Objects
“I quite like the biscuits,” Frank commented.
“And then we do it all again six months later,” Will continued. “That’s fine. I can handle the routine because it is predictable. But calling meetings at short notice, that’s never happened. It makes me anxious.”
“Will, let him speak,” Magda muttered, unable to contain herself any longer.
Will looked at her sharply, then dropped his eyes to the table.
“I don’t mean to make you anxious, Will,” Frank said, reaching over to clasp Will’s arm reassuringly. Magda immediately felt bad for snapping. “I’m really sorry about that.”
“Well... you know, it’s okay,” Will mumbled.
“But I am afraid I had no choice,” Frank continued, his expression turning serious. “It’s not about Henrietta, her whereabouts remain a mystery.” Magda glanced again at the vacant seat at the bottom of the table. A part of her was disappointed not to hear news about her friend, but if the meeting was not about Henrietta... then what?
“This is about something else entirely,” Frank said.
Magda picked up a biscuit and took a bite, just to be doing something. Her whole body was trembling with nervous energy. Frank said nothing for a few moments, and he seemed lost in thought, his eyes gazing vacantly ahead. Magda wanted to shake him and demand he get on with it.
Finally,blessedly¸Frank spoke again. “It’s been almost forty years since an artefact was last deposited within the Clockwork Cabinet,” he said. “Neither of you were even members then. And I was so young.” He shook his head briefly, as if suddenly taken with how quickly time had passed. “Forty years we have waited, protecting the archive, keeping it safe, always on the lookout for anything to add to the collection.”
“What are you saying?” Will asked, peering at Frank.
Magda realised what Frank was building towards and her mouth dropped open in disbelief.
“We’ve found an item,” Frank said, smiling. To Magda he sounded as if he could barely believe it himself. “For the first time in forty years, a new item has come to light.” He bobbed his head again. “Maybe.”
Magda didn’t know what to say. The fridge hummed thoughtfully in the silence, and Will goggled at Frank with eyebrows high on his head.
“You’re joking,” Magda said finally, although she knew he was not. Frank never joked when it came to the work of the Society.
“No,” Frank confirmed. He leaned forward on the table. “So now wemust act. Just because we haven’t had to do it for forty years doesn’t mean we neglect our responsibilities now. It’s why we are here.” He looked at Will. “It’s why we have tolerated all these pointless meetings over the years. Because we knew that someday, one day, we might be needed again.”
Magda found herself nodding, oddly stirred by Frank’s words.
For more than eighty years the Society of Unknowable Objects had existed with a sole purpose: to collect and protect and keep secret the magical items of the world. For forty years no new item had come to light and the world of magical things had been quiet, the Society’s collection of magical items undisturbed in the hidden recess behind the bookcase.
“It would appear that this magical artefact is in Hong Kong,” Frank said, nodding to himself. “And we have to do something about it, before it falls into the wrong hands.”
The Clockwork Cabinet
“The item is an ivory chess piece,” Frank said. “A rook.”
“What does it do?” Magda asked, sitting forward in her seat, desperate to know. She watched Frank’s eyebrows scrunch down as they always did when he disapproved of a question.
All unknowable objects did something; these ordinary, everyday items could enable those who possessed them to do unusual and extraordinary things. Several such items had been discovered throughout the history of the Society, some identified through concerted effort, others stumbled upon in the most unusual of places or unexpected of circumstances. And now that collection, the Society archive, was hidden away in the basement beneath Bell Street Books, kept safe from the world.
“No idea,” Frank answered. “Anyway, what it does is not really the point.”
For a man responsible for looking after magical items Frank was stubbornly incurious about what they could do, and that frequently drove Magda to distraction. How could you not want to know about magic? Magda had often thought that if she were the owner of a collection of magical items, she would spend all of her time studying them and experimenting, not keeping them locked away out of sight.
“How do we even know about it?” Will asked.
Frank relaxed back into his seat and Magda heard him sigh heavily,as if his old body was sore. “That’s partly why we’re here,” Frank admitted. “Because someone has breached the secrecy of the Society.”
“What?” Magda gasped.
The Society of Unknowable Objects was a secret created by Arthur Simpson, Frank’s grandfather, and three of his friends in the 1940s, a secret that had passed down through the same four families ever since. At any one time, no more than four living people were supposed to know about the Society. Arthur Simpson had given the name “unknowable objects” to the magical items, because they were impossible to understand, and he and his friends had created four rules to guide the work of the Society, four rules that Frank still reminded them of regularly:
Firstly, unknowable objects within the Society collection should be kept safe from those who might seek to use them.
