Page 14 of Ruling Destiny

Finally, after the third go, the obscure imagery clicks into place. The answer is so obvious, I can’t believe I didn’t see it from the start.

Of course.It’s a reference to the Tarot Garden.

Between the perfume and this note, Song is pointing the way to wherever she’s hidden the book.

Or at least I hope that’s what this means. And if I’m right, then I’m pretty sure I know just where to start.

A tarot deck consists of seventy-eight cards—twenty-two that comprise the Major Arcana, and fifty-six that make up the Minor Arcana. And those first twenty-two cards—starting with The Fool and ending with The World—follow a specific order that also serves as an allegorical journey of life.

Just like Niki de Saint Phalle’s sculptures in Tuscany, the Tarot Garden at Gray Wolf includes pieces that represent all the cards in the Major Arcana. Which leads me to believe that the first line in Song’s note, “O follower of fools,” is referring to the Magician card (a card I once associated with Arthur), since that card happens to be number one, which immediately follows the Fool card, which is numbered zero.

The second line, “You stand afore the oracle,” confirms that I’m right. The oracle, also known as the High Priestess, is the number two card in the deck, coming just after the number one card, the Magician.

The “Serpent girdle at your waist,” along with the “Red roses spread above and below you” line, further confirms that Song is pointing me toward theMagicianstatue, since in the standard Rider-Waite tarot deck, the Magician is depicted with a snake wrapped around his middle and a bed of roses sprawling above and below him.

But I’m still not sure what she meant by: “It’s folly that binds you to this place.”

Is Song referring to the fact that the sculptures here are duplicates of the ones in Italy?

Or maybe it’s a veiled jab at Arthur himself and this time-traveling fortress he’s made?

Or is it more personal, like a reference to me and the fact that I’ve stopped fighting, stopped trying to find a way out of this place?

Honestly, the last phrase could mean just about anything. And since it’s not like I can ask her, I’m forced to work with what I have.

With the perfume bottle and note in hand, I make for the large picture window, where I gaze out at a day that’s already revealing itself to be gray, gloomy, and cold. Nothing new here.

I dip my focus downward, dropping several stories to the Tarot Garden below. When I find the silver dome that marks the top of the Magician’s head, a sudden chill shudders through me, reminding me of something I’d forgotten until now.

In a traditional tarot deck, the Magician wears a red cape—much like the figure I saw racing through the maze during the Unraveling on my first day.

Is that another connection—or another coincidence?

Always look beyond the surface,my dad said.Always go for the deeper meaning of things.

My gaze drifts back to the sky, where dark, swollen storm clouds are crowding into one another until they double in size. Any minute now, the heavens will break and unleash a torrent of rain.

There’s a voice in my head urging me to get outside while I can—before the rain has a chance to ruin my plan.

But I also know that appearances matter here, and I can’t afford to draw any negative notice my way.

Setting the poem and the perfume aside, I strip off my borrowed clothes, slip into the shower, and crank the water on high.

As the shower stall fills with steam, my memory returns to the day I saw the leather-bound book in Song’s room, and how it reminded me of the one I saw in an Unraveling on my first day here. But when I asked for a closer look, Song blew me off.

Some other time, she’d said. Quickly followed by a phrase I haven’t been able to get out of my head:Just so you know, magick has always been the currency of the oppressed.

I’ve dissected those words more times than I can count. I even checked to see if she was quoting someone—as far as I can tell, she wasn’t. And I seriously doubt she got it from one of the inspirational messages Arthur likes to send to our slabs.

No, Song was telling me something—something related to the book. And though I’m still not sure what she meant, I think I’ve managed to solve the riddle inside that note:

Arthur is the Magician. The rest of us are the oppressed. But we’re only bound here by folly. We have defenses—by way of magick—that just might free us from this place.

There was a time when the thought of using magick for anything would’ve made me laugh. But now that feels like a lifetime ago.

Ever since I learned time travel is real—ever since I was vaulted several centuries into the past—virtually nothing is off the table for me.

Wasn’t it Einstein who said, “That which is impenetrable to us really exists”?

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