Splendors and Glooms

Despite their attempts to leave the grounds, Lizzie Rose and Parsefall keep getting turned around back toward the house. Cassandra uses the phoenix-stone to cast a spell on the maze in her tower that keeps the children walking in circles. Finally, they realize what’s wrong and give up, returning to the house.

Cassandra calls for Clara, who tells Cassandra the children left because of Grisini. Enraged, Cassandra summons Grisini, intending to use him to get what she wants. The thought makes her smile because “it was her turn to be the master, and his to play the puppet” (308).

Cassandra summons Lizzie Rose, Parsefall, and Grisini. The children admit the truth of Grisini’s threats, and Cassandra punishes the man, making him bleed and dance like a puppet. Lizzie Rose stops Cassandra, and Cassandra sends Grisini away. After dismissing Lizzie Rose, Cassandra casts a spell to unblock Parsefall’s memories of how Grisini hurt him in the past. Cassandra takes Clara and hangs her in her room, and after Parsefall leaves, Cassandra repeats to herself “I had to” (318).

In Lizzie Rose’s room, Parsefall falls asleep immediately, dreaming of Grisini. Long ago, Grisini turned Parsefall into a puppet and filed off one finger on Parsefall’s hand. Clara uses her link to Parsefall’s mind to wake him, and when Parsefall wakes knowing the truth, he “shrieked as he had never shrieked in his life” (321). He vows to steal the phoenix-stone and use its powers to take revenge on Grisini.

In Cassandra’s room, Clara hears Parsefall’s intention to steal the stone and knows he will be destroyed by its power. Remembering Cassandra’s insistence that Clara could steal the stone for herself if she wished hard enough, Clara resolves to save Parsefall, which breaks Grisini’s spell and returns her to human. Clara steals the phoenix-stone, which burns hot; with Grisini in pursuit, she rushes outside onto the lake. Clara breaks the phoenix-stone, its heat cracking the ice. Grisini falls into the water, but Clara lies flat as Parsefall throws her a rope. He hauls her back across the ice, and Clara is struck by the imagery of the rescue: “Parsefall is pulling my strings” (330).

Back at the house, the tower has fallen, and the children rush to Cassandra’s room. The woman is both overjoyed and enraged to have lost the phoenix-stone, mired in confusion about how to feel: “it was all I had. And yet it gave me no happiness, none at all” (338). Cassandra dissolves into sobs while telling the children she only ever wanted love she couldn’t find. Though she’s been terrible to them, the children feel sorry for her and comfort her.

Mrs. Pinchbeck pays Dr. Wintermute a visit with the letter Cassandra sent Grisini to summon the children. After a theatrical production of a story, Mrs. Pinchbeck says it’s possible the children’s and Clara’s disappearances are related before leaving. Dr. Wintermute decides to go after the children just as his wife enters the room. She wants to go with him. When he protests, she silences him: she “pressed her fingers against his lips and would not let him speak” (348).

Cassandra cries all night, caught between the present and the past. In the morning, she continues the tale of her past. Her friend received her mother’s jewels for her 12th birthday, among which was the phoenix-stone. Believing the stone was magic, Cassandra stole it, never revealing the truth to her friend. Despite everything, Lizzie Rose feels badly for the woman. Cassandra snaps at Lizzie Rose, insisting the girl not pity her. Cassandra brought the children to her home for them to steal the stone, knowing one of them would inherit the curse of a terrible life. The truth, Cassandra insists, is “I didn’t care” (357).

Later, Clara and Parsefall wake, and Parsefall helps Clara construct a story about where she’s been. Clara feels like she must go home, though she doesn’t want to because she’ll miss Parsefall and Lizzie Rose. The servants all left in the night, and just as the children begin to realize the enormity of everything facing them, the doorbell rings. It’s Clara’s parents, and the family joyfully reunites. When Clara’s mother asks why Clara ran away, the children explain Grisini kidnapped Clara and that Parsefall and Lizzie Rose came to the house to rescue her. Clara insists both of them be allowed to live with their family—Parsefall will get an apprenticeship with the royal puppet show while Lizzie Rose takes lessons since she will inherit Cassandra’s home. Looking shocked, Clara’s parents agree, and Clara hugs them, shouting “we’re going to be so happy!” (369).

Cassandra’s last days are spent in a mix of sharp awareness and hazy memory. All the while, she feels the presence of something hovering and waiting for her to die. Parsefall and Lizzie Rose bring in the puppets to entertain Cassandra, doing the skeleton dance from Clara’s birthday. At this, Cassandra realizes Clara is envious of the dancing puppets and that she’s keeping a secret. Clara confesses she killed her brother because she gave him her share of the watercress that had the cholera that killed her siblings. Cassandra calls this nonsense and orders Clara to dance.

At first, Clara is timid, but as she moves about the room, her confidence grows. She feels even freer than she did dancing as a puppet, and guilt no longer weighs on her. When Clara finishes, Cassandra wants to applaud, but her hands won’t move. The thing hovering swoops down to claim her life, and Cassandra dies, albeit with a small point of relief: “at her eleventh hour, she had done one good thing” (378).

The children and Clara’s parents attend Cassandra’s funeral. Parsefall is extremely bored, and he keeps himself busy by picturing the theater he’ll have someday. Finally, he exchanges smiles with Clara and Lizzie Rose, and he knows that all three of them were waiting “for the moment when they could be alone again and free to laugh together” (385).