Page 7 of The Society of Unknowable Objects
“But that’s all history now, I suppose.” Frank continued. “Whatever Ellery did or didn’t do, we need to deal with this item.”
“What are you proposing?” Magda asked.
“One of us has to go to Hong Kong,” Frank said. “It might be nothing, but it might be something.”
Magda glanced at Will, but Will wouldn’t meet her eye.
“If itisan artefact,” Frank continued, “it would be the first time we’ve added something to the archive for almost half a century.”
Magda felt her excitement returning like a tide coming in as the conversation moved away from uncomfortable matters and turned to action, but as she watched Frank it wasn’t excitement she saw, it was unease, as if this whole matter had unsettled him.
“We’d have to open it up,” Frank said, turning his head to look towards the bookshelf on the far wall. “For the first time in years.”
Magda knew exactly what he was referring to. The Society archive was hidden behind the shelves, kept safe inside the Clockwork Cabinet.
***
Magda often found herself reminiscing about the day ten years earlier when she had first laid eyes on the Clockwork Cabinet. It had been such an important moment in her life. Only a short while after the death of her mother she had discovered that magic existed in the world, and that a collection of magical items was hidden away in the basement beneath Frank’s bookshop.
“You know there are magical items,” Frank had said to her, as Willand Henrietta had looked on. “But as a new member it is important that youbelievethis to be true, that you experience the reality of magic. Otherwise, how can you possibly understand the importance of our work?”
Frank had walked across the room to press the hidden button on the bookshelf, releasing the catch to let the shelves swing open. The Clockwork Cabinet sat in the dark recess behind them. Magda had joined Frank in front of the cabinet, her heart in her mouth and very aware that everyone was watching her, judging her.
It was a large cabinet made of varnished wood the colour of golden caramel, the grain visible in light and dark swirls. The face of the cabinet was a series of twenty drawers of different sizes, each with a number stencilled on the front in gold. On the right side of the cabinet there were wheels of different sizes, and on the left side were wooden buttons and switches. The cabinet, Frank told her, had been made by a master craftsman in the 1960s, and each of the drawers could only be opened by turning the wheels and pressing buttons or flicking switches in a certain order. Each drawer had its own unique sequence, like a mechanical combination lock. The Clockwork Cabinet was where the Society kept its archive of artefacts, and as far as Magda understood, most of the twenty drawers contained an item.
“Pick a number,” Frank had said to her, gesturing at the cabinet. “Pick a drawer and I will show you what’s inside, I will show you a magical item.”
Magda had hesitated before selecting drawer number twelve. Frank had then gone to the cabinet, pressed the buttons in a sequence that Magda couldn’t follow, and then turned the wheels on the right side of the cabinet. A few moments later he had pulled out the drawer, yanking it slightly as if it was stiff, and had reached in and removed an item.
“Here you go,” he had said, handing Magda a small wooden cube, a dice with the lettersYandNetched on the faces instead of the usual dots or numbers.
“What is it?” Magda had asked, tossing the item experimentally in her hand. It had felt unnaturally heavy.
“It’s the Yes/No Dice,” Frank had explained, and there had beensomething new in his eyes, something Magda had never seen before, something hard-edged to this man she knew as soft and comforting. He beckoned her over to the table and the two of them had sat down again. “Ask it any question that can be answered with a yes or a no and it will always tell you the truth. That is its magical power.”
“Any question?” Magda had asked, struggling to believe that this could possibly be true. How could a simple wooden dice know the answer to any question? It was preposterous.
Frank had shrugged. “Try it. Ask it something only you would know the answer to.”
Magda had looked around the table.
“Go on,” Henry had encouraged, smiling.
So Magda had experimented. She had asked questions about her own personal history, things nobody else could know the answer to, and each time she had rolled the dice it had answered correctly. Then she had asked, “Does magic exist?” and the dice had answered, “Yes.” Then, in a moment that she had remembered often in the following years, she had asked one more question: “Is magic dangerous?”
Frank had nodded before she had rolled the dice, as if he approved of the question. When she had finally tossed the dice onto the table it had tumbled over itself until finally coming to rest with aYuppermost.
“Yes,” Frank had said, speaking aloud the answer the dice had given.
“Isn’t it exciting?” Henrietta had asked, smiling beautifully at Magda, her eyes flashing. “You can ask it about the future, about secrets, about people’s desires and wishes. With something like this you could do so much good in the world.”
“Or evil,” Will had countered, the first thing he had said since the start of the meeting.
“Alright,” Frank had said, quietening them, and Magda had seen Henrietta roll her eyes, but her smile hadn’t dropped.
“Just a simple, little thing,” Magda had reflected, holding the dice up to the light.
“Yes,” Frank had agreed, as he had taken it from her. “And this is just one of the artefacts in the cabinet.” He had walked back across the room to return the dice to drawer twelve. Magda had watched as heclosed the drawer and then pushed the bookcase back into place, hiding the beautiful face of the Clockwork Cabinet.
