They had come up to a room that Maggs called The Charter Chamber, although Oscar couldn't see quite why they had come up there at all. There seemed to be just as many Magi here as there had been in the Great Hall, only now packed into a space ten times smaller. There were three rows of benches along three walls of the room and each row was packed with Magi, with some of them even climbing higher up the walls to perch precariously on the wood panelling.
Oscar and Maggs were sat at a large round table that took up the centre of the room. Cuddy was at the head, with the old Lord Chancellor and the small woman who had been on stage earlier seated on his right. The rest of the table was crammed full of a variety of Magi, some of whom Oscar recognised from the raid on the White Tower, including Murray, who waved at him, cheerfully flapping a piece of blood-soaked bandage where his hand had been hastily bound up.
There were also some older men and women who all shared a look of confusion and surprise. Oscar suspected that they had, up till Thursby and Cuddy had taken over, been important Magi, who were now somewhat taken aback to find themselves not so important as before. Cuddy was trying to control the meeting, but everyone else seemed to determined to have their say and not let anyone else stop them.
Ridley was crammed into a corner behind Cuddy and she smiled at him and then turned her attention to the debate around her.
The fourth wall of the Chamber was almost entirely glass: it was, in fact, the back of the stained glass windows that looked down over the stage of the Great Hall. Seen from behind the images were oddly flat and confusing, but you could see a lot more of the detail.
Oscar could now clearly see the huge, wingless, white dragon that coiled up the centre of the windows, its yellow eyes staring down at them all, blindly. Next to it was a man in what Oscar took to be some sort of toga, holding an apple in one hand and a black staff in the other, like the one the Knights Watchmen carried. There was a scrolling piece of paper by his head with something that looked like a name written on it, only it was meant to be read from the other side and was all the wrong way round.
'NOTWEN'
Oscar tilted his head on one side trying to figure out what it said.
"Maggs!" he jabbed her with his elbow and whispered under the talk around them, "Why is that man labelled 'Newton'?"
"Because that's his name," she hissed back, "Isaac Newton, he foundered the Royal Order."
"Newton? The man who invented gravity?"
"He didn't invent it, dear, he discovered it," Maggs was trying to follow all the arguments going on around them and wasn't giving him her full attention, "Just like he discovered the Magi."
"So he didn't invent the Magi? They were already there?"
"Goodness, no, there have always been Magi, he just helped get them organasised... he helped get us our Charter - that's it there - in that case on the table," Maggs was pointing at a wooden box in the middle of the table. It had a glass lid and Oscar could see inside something that looked like a piece of paper.
"It's the Charter that makes us a Royal Order, you see," added Maggs, but she was distracted by Cuddy leaning over the Charter and jabbing at the glass himself.
"The Wise Lords have been deposed, we have Darklings rampaging around, the Knights Watchmen are not to be trusted, the whole Order is in an uproar, what else would you call this but an emergency?"
"Cuddy," Maggs' voice cut through the hubbub, "You can't just declare emerginancy powers like that. You can't just throw out everything."
"Clive and I were elected to our positions completely legally according to the Charter," Cuddy banged on the glass again, "And also according to that Charter, I am enabled to declare a state..."
"That's not what I meant, and you know it," Maggs was standing up now and leaning over the table, not that it made much difference to her height compared to when she was sitting down, "It's exactly what Skelton did when he became Lord Protector and institutitoo... started The Veil: you're turning into Skelton, Cuddy." The noise dropped at this and all eyes turned on Cuddy, "I thought that that was what you were replacing..."
"She's right, Cuddy," Murray spoke up, "We do things differently."
The assembled Magi murmured their agreement.
Cuddy held out his hands, pleading, "But we need change, you all know, you've all shown your readiness, you all took the vote in the Great Hall, a vote for change..."
"Yes, Cuddy, for change, not for destruction," protested Maggs.
"Maggs is right," said the man who had been Lord Chancellor when the evening began, "If the Magi want change, it's reform, not revolution."
"We all know what you want," interrupted Murray, "And that's no change at all." The old Lord Chancellor blanched and drew back in his seat.
"You said it yourself, Cuddy," Ridley leaned into the table, "The whole Order is in uproar, we can't go around making things worse - we need calm and stability, not more chaos."
"Ridley is right," agreed Maggs, "You and Clive have been elected, that's two out of the Three Lords, we need that leadership."
"Maybe we do," Cuddy was reluctant, "But what do you propose to do about the third Lord, the Lord Protector? We can't trust the Watchmen, not now, and we certainly don't want to create another Skelton."
"The Knights Errant," said Murray, and there was a gasp round the table, "Lift the ban and you've got a replacement for the Watchmen right there."
"That's ridiculous," cried the old Lord Chancellor.
"That's reform," retorted Cuddy and there was a ripple of applause that spread out from the back of the room, "Andrew's right, it's a perfect solution..."
"But what about the Lord Protector?" Ridley leant forward again, "It's not just the title, you know, it's concentrating all that power in one person's hands..."
"I have an idea," said Maggs, and Oscar noticed that she was smiling to herself, "I think what we need is a Lord Protector as a figurehat, someone who can representatate the new Wise Lords and the Council, who can samba... simba... be young and new and trustworthy..."
"Ha!" Ridley laughed with delight and clapped her hands. Everyone turned to look at her, "Sorry," she was still laughing, "I just figured out where Maggs was heading... you're going to love this..." and she grinned at Oscar again, a wide, delighted grin.
"Who better," continued Maggs, "Than someone who has played a key role in today's events, who has faced down Darklings, Watchmen, even the old Lord Protector..."
"Someone," said Ridley, "We can all trust..."
"I give you the new Lord Protector, Defender of the Magi and Commander of the Temple," said Maggs, grandly and suddenly put her arm round Oscar's shoulders, "Lord Oscar."
All Oscar really got from the rest of the meeting was a sore back, since everyone in the room seemed determined to clap him on the shoulders in congratulations at least twice. It was soon evident that everyone else thought Maggs' idea was the solution they all needed - even if Oscar had his doubts, not least because then all started trying to explain his new job to him all at once, which was loud, confusing and, frankly, irritating.
Maggs, however, soon realised that what the new Lord Protector chiefly needed was not a discussion of the transfer of power to the Knights Errant, or a guided tour of his new offices in the Temple, or even another a round of hearty cheers, but actually something more like supper and bed, before he dropped where he stood. So, eventually, Oscar found himself sitting at a large, rough table in a vast, echoey kitchen somewhere deep under the Temple.
They were surrounded by all kinds of mysterious looking pieces of equipment, but couldn't find anyone who knew how to use any of it, so Maggs was making do with toasting cheese under a grill.
The black cat had reappeared and was sitting as close as it could to the heat, watching the cheese bubbling underneath.
"But that's not real, is it, Maggs?" Oscar could quite take it all in, "I'm not really Lord Protector, am I? I mean, that's an adult's job, isn't it?"
"And yet not everyone who has been one has been very adult about it," Mags chuckled to herself, "Does that look done to you?" She poked a bit of cheese suspiciously, "Perhaps not..." She slid it back under the grill, "But you really are Lord Protectoror, Oscar, I'm afraid that bit's true, yes - I thought it was a good idea to have someone that everyone could trust, but now I'm worriting about what I might have got you into..."
"But how can I be?" Oscar protested, "I mean, I don't know any magic, I know anything about Darklings or anything - it should be someone like Ridley or Murray, they'd be much better at it..."
"That, I'm afraid, is rather the point - we've had someone who was good at the job and look where that got us - I rather think we want someone who's just good, for the moment..."
"Which would be fine, if everyone else were good," said a voice, and Oscar turned to find Ridley standing in the doorway, " but sadly Oscar's quite right, these are dangerous times and... oh, is that cheese on toast?" and she jumped up to sit on the table and stole a slice from Oscar's plate, "Case in point," she continued through a mouthful of hot cheese, "The wards have been breached in the Museum - the spirits are moving: there are Darklings abroad tonight."
"Oh no," Maggs turned from slicing bread, "No, you don't..."
"Don't what?" Oscar was confused.
"This is it," Ridley was gleeful, "This is the moment we've been waiting for, our chance to confront the Wild Ride, to stop hiding and skulking behind the Veil and start taking charge, to take the fight to them..."
"You're going to fight the Darklings?" Oscar was finding Ridley's excitement infectious.
"And we can't do that without our Lord Protector, can we?"
"Ridley!" Maggs waved the breadknife at her, "He's a child!"
"And he's faced Darklings before and seen them off..."
"Maggs..." Oscar started to protest.
"I said, no," Maggs was firm, "I'm not letting you out of my sight."
"Then you're coming too? Excellent," Ridley grabbed hold of Oscar hand and whirled him out of his seat, "Come on, then, there's no time to lose..." and she hurried out of the door with Maggs scurrying to catch up.
