A Tale of Two Castles (20 page)

A guard put his hand across my mouth.

“Father! You mistrust me?”

“I trust you. You are my beloved daughter, but hold out your arm.”

She held it out. He rolled up the long sleeve inch by inch. No poison.

Chapter Thirty-Seven

I
t had to be there. What had she done with it?

“The other arm,” the king said. “I will be thorough.” He revealed her right arm to us all. No poison.

I bit the guard's hand. He squawked and let go. “Her purse!”

The guard covered my mouth again.

The king laughed. “She is so funny. Your purse, my love.”

The purse contained only keys.

“That is enough. I am tired of this sport. We cannot keep girls who won't stay in their guarded towers. Tomorrow—”

Keys! I'd put the tower key in my shoe. I bit the guard again, and he let go again. “Look in her shoes! I'm—”

The guard muffled me again.

“Father!”

“Dear, you needn't remove your shoes. Tomorrow the girl will die. Poison will be her—” He coughed and put his bedsheet to his mouth. It came away stained with blood, and blood etched a line down his chin.

The guard dropped his hand from my mouth.

What would she do now?

“Father, are you ill again?” She began to untie his cap, a daughterly gesture.

He turned frightened eyes to Sir Misyur. “Look in her shoes.” The inside of his mouth was bright red.

She jumped off the bed and stood.

“Your Highness,” Sir Misyur said, “take off your shoes.”

She stamped. “I will not.”

Sir Misyur nodded to a guard, who approached her.

“You see . . .” She laughed awkwardly. “There is a darn in the heel of my hose. I would not have you see it.”

“Beg pardon, Your Highness.” The guard knelt at her feet. He lifted her right foot by the ankle.

A pouch was in the toe of the right shoe.

“Let me have it.” Goodwife Celeste took the pouch and sniffed inside. “Eastern wasp powder.” She looked at Sir Maydsin. “Deadly.” She rushed out of the chamber, crying, “I have a remedy. I'll fetch it.”

“La!” Her Highness pulled herself to her full height. Her voice achieved extraordinary heights as well. “I was kind enough. . . . I was kind. . . . I am kind. . . .” Her eyes swam, and her nose reddened. She buried her face in her long sleeve. “Alack!”

Sir Misyur told the guards to take the princess to the tower where I had been kept.

“If the guards there ate my food, they've been poisoned, too.”

“Send them here,” Sir Misyur said.

The princess was escorted out, bent over, sobbing.

“Pardon . . . may I leave to find my masteress?”

Sir Misyur nodded.

A Lepai finch flew in the window and landed between Sir Misyur and me. It fluttered its yellow feathers, then began to vibrate—and grow.

I saw Sir Misyur's smiling face and his tears. I wept and smiled, too.

What brought him back now? Where had he been?
What
had he been?

Sir Misyur removed his cloak and draped it around the ogre as he became himself again. “Welcome home, Your Lordship.”

I heard distant barking. Nesspa had sensed his master's return.

“Thank you. Elodie, your masteress wants you.”

“Is IT injured?”

“The animal physician is with IT.”

I ran out of the room and pelted down the tower steps. The day was ending, and the rain had resumed. With my feet squelching in mud, I raced across the inner ward, between the inner gatehouses and the outer, across the drawbridge, along the moat, around the outer northeast tower. And there IT lay sprawled, ITs belly and legs on a mound of hay, ITs head and neck extending across the ryegrass.

Master Dess sat on the hay mound, dabbing ITs belly with linen.

“Elodie!” IT lifted ITs head. White smoke rose in spirals. “You escaped! I congratulate you.”

“Master Dess, is my masteress badly hurt?”

IT began to rise, stopped, and asked Master Dess if IT might.

“Yes, honey, honey. Elodie, I wish all my patients would pull their arrows out with their teeth and then eat them. I stopped the bleeding. Took just a moment.”

IT sat up, looking pleased with ITself. “Pine arrows and quartz arrowheads. Quite tasty.”

I marched straight to IT and hugged ITs front thigh. Leaning my face into ITs belly, I inhaled sulfur. Lambs and calves, IT stank! Heavenly.

“Mmm,” IT said. “Mmm, Lodie. If you must. Mmm.”

Finally I stood back. “Her Highness signaled the cats and poisoned the king and mauled the ox and tried to poison me.”

“Honey!”

“The whited sepulcher,” IT said. “The poison was secreted on her person?”

“In her shoe.”

Of course I bathed before entering the lair. IT toasted skewers for me and then insisted I sleep, despite my protests that I wasn't tired and had much to tell and much to ask.

In the morning IT declared a holiday. After breakfast I sat on a pillow on the floor, and IT reclined on ITs side before me, ITs right arm bent at the elbow, ITs big head resting on ITs right claw—a feminine pose, I thought.

“Did you put out your cap to call me? I hoped to approach close enough to see and then fly off again if all was well.”

I nodded. “I was watching when you were struck. I thought . . . I couldn't tell. . . .” If IT had been slain.

“Elodie, I told you to stay out of the window.” IT touched my shoulder gently with the flat of ITs left claw. “Princess Renn must have suspected I would come to you. Hence the archers.”

In a shaky voice I said, “They would have been considerate if they'd shot straight into your mouth.”

Enh enh enh
.

“I wonder why His Lordship arrived at the castle when he did.”

“There is nothing to wonder at. I found him.” ITs smoke curled in a lazy spiral. “Logic took you to the menagerie, Elodie. Logic took me there as well. My first two visits bore no fruit, but two failures did not rule out future success, and indeed His Lordship arrived there last night. I discovered him as an additional monkey and brought him here, where he became himself again. Do you know that he had been poisoned, too?”

“I thought he might have been.”

“I didn't know. May I enter?” His Lordship stood in the doorway, carrying a large basket, Nesspa at his side.

My masteress heaved ITself up and invited him in.

The count let Nesspa's chain go, and he ran to me, tail wagging. I patted the top of his big head.

With the help of His Lordship, IT moved the table—His Lordship's bench—back to the hearth. I put pillows on top while he placed the basket on the fireplace bench, now our low table. Then he seated himself carefully and removed delicacies from the basket. I toasted skewers. When all was ready, I perched on my stool at one end of the table. My masteress sat at the other. Nesspa stationed himself at the count's leg.

IT and I had just eaten, but we feasted anyway and shared according to custom, with no danger of poison. Nesspa was too polite to beg, but hospitality was extended to him, too, from my hand and His Lordship's, but not from my masteress's claw.

I had almost the appetite of an ogre, and this ogre had brought marchpane. Still, I finished before him.

When even he finally put down his knife, I said, “You didn't know you were poisoned?”

“No.” His ordeal had not made him more talkative.

“But you were ill?” I asked.

He nodded.

“His Lordship has told me some of this, Lodie. Until last night he was in a mouse hole in his bedchamber wall, at first ill almost to death, then improving slowly.”

“Why didn't the poison kill him?” I turned to him. “Kill you, I mean. You were so tiny!”

“I am strong, even when I'm a mouse.” He made a fist and held it up.

“Did you run to the menagerie as a mouse?” And no cat caught him?

“As a flea. At the menagerie I became a monkey.”

“Your Lordship . . .” I hesitated. “Pardon my questions.”

“People don't ask enough questions.” He shrugged. “They just guess.”

Encouraged, I said, “Can you change whenever you want, to whatever you like?”

“Unless there are cats.” He patted Nesspa's head. “Then I can't resist becoming a mouse.”

I had been curious about this ever since I first saw him as a monkey: “Are you yourself inside the animal?”

He stared at the ceiling and said nothing for a minute. “I am thinking.” He was quiet again. “Are you yourself inside a dream? The monkey is a happy dream.”

IT said, “Mmm,” but not ITs usual
Mmm.
This one was softer, a feeling
Mmm
, not a thinking one.

“I wake up inside the beast from time to time, to decide if I want to shift back. When I was the mouse, I was awake because I was sick.”

“Your Lordship,” IT said, “did you realize Her Highness had signaled the cats?”

He shook his head.

I dared to ask the question I most wanted to know. “Your Lordship . . . er, did you love her?”

He blushed. “I did not.”

Good!

He went to the middle of the lair, where he paced in a small circle. Nesspa followed him, whining uneasily. After a few minutes His Lordship stopped and Nesspa nuzzled his legs. “I should not have agreed to the marriage . . . but I wanted to be king so people would learn an ogre can be good.” He paced again and spoke while walking. “I liked Her Highness. I thought she loved me. I was grateful.” He went to Masteress Meenore. “I am to blame.”

Chapter Thirty-Eight

E
nh enh enh.
“And I am to blame for lighting the forge of a dishonest smith, although I was unaware of his dishonesty, and Lodie is to blame for allowing herself to be the victim of a thieving cat.”

I smiled, but His Lordship looked puzzled.

IT continued. “I suppose that your cook is to blame for preparing food that could be poisoned.”
Enh enh enh.
“Perhaps the builder is at fault for building the castle you would eventually hold a feast in.”

I don't think His Lordship had ever graced my masteress with his full, sweet smile before, but he beamed it on IT now. ITs white smoke curled into spirals, and I understood what spirals meant—dragon happiness.

“Elodie,” IT said, “I have not yet told you all. His Lordship was with me, as a flea again, when I was shot. He returned to the castle to plead your case after Dess told us where you were.”

“Thank you, Your Lordship.”

He inclined his head. “I knew you would not poison anyone.” He stood. “I must leave. Misyur worries if I am gone too long. Meenore, I owe you payment.” He untied a brocade purse from his belt. “What is your fee?”

Promptly IT said, “Ten silvers.”

Astounded, I blurted, “So many?”

IT glared at me.

His Lordship counted out coins into ITs claw. “And a silver for—”

IT snapped, “You may give that to me, and I will hold it for her.”

I glared at IT.

His Lordship gave my silver to IT. “Come, Nesspa.” They left.

“You are my assistant, and you are a child.” IT placed the silvers in a stack on the cupboard, then lumbered to the coin basket. “You may have these.”

I went to IT and received four coppers, a fiftieth of a silver but more money than I had ever owned and much more than my promised salary. “Thank you.” I stacked my coppers next to ITs silvers.

Together we dragged the table back to its place against the wall. IT stretched out again, and I returned to my pillow near ITs head. “There is more to my tale, Lodie, and more to yours.”

I sat cross-legged on the pillow. “What happened after you found His Lordship?”

“He spent the night on my floor. He is no cleaner than a human. In the morning he stayed here while I visited your goodwife and her goodman, who are not thieves but the real spies for Tair. Their trade with the smith provides them enough to live on. They said none of this outright, but the goodwife hinted, and I deduced.”

Spies? I chewed on it and felt relief. A spy but not a murderer, a spy who'd saved the king's life with her knowledge of herbs.

“Do we have to tell His Majesty?”

“We have no proof, and I will not reveal them to Greedy Grenny. I believe I persuaded the goodwife that I am
not
moody.” IT scratched ITs snout. “Now tell me what ensued after I left you.”

I did. IT made me act out my mansioning to the guards, and this time I had to mansion their parts as well. IT
enh enh enh
ed heartily.

However, IT stopped laughing when I mentioned leaving my purse.

“You left the coins I gave you?”

“They may still be there.” I sat down again. “There's a saying in Lahnt.
Gold
—”

“Spare me your quaint sayings. Tomorrow we will go to the castle and reclaim your purse.”

“I'd like to apologize to the guards.” And learn if they'd eaten my meal and been poisoned.

“They may not wish to hear you.”

“And we must find out if His Highness survived.” How awful that I hadn't thought about this since leaving the castle.

“Yes, we must. But you have not finished your recitation. What did you do when you were outside your prison door? Surely there were more guards.”

I continued the tale. IT continued ITs questions. When I'd finally answered them all, IT said, “By coming to see why you were not dead, Her Highness as much as told you she was the poisoner. She saved you the trouble of deducing.”

Indignantly I said, “I deduced! I worked out why and how she did it.”

“Mmm. Mmm.” IT closed ITS eyes, then opened them. “You did. You did well, Elodie.”

I felt as if an audience of a thousand had just clapped for me. IT lumbered to the cupboard, where IT removed a skewer from its bundle. “Perhaps Misyur will make me a gift of the remainder of the arrows that were to be shot at me.” IT used the skewer as a toothpick and then ate it. “I imagine you will go to Sulow soon, tomorrow or even a few minutes from now, to become his new mansioner. I suppose you will not delay.”

Oh! I hadn't given Master Sulow a thought. “Could I do both, proclaim and deduce and induce and mansion, too?”

“I do not want a sometime assistant. You needn't worry. I will find another.”

I had more pride than that. “Who will replace me?” Nastily I added, “Is another cog coming from Lahnt?”

“Ah,” IT said, sounding pleased.

Oh. Oh. I was saying I didn't want to be replaced. But I was a mansioner. I went to the lair entrance. A brisk wind blew cloud tatters across the sky. I stepped outside. Cold. I stepped inside. Warm. Outside again.

Master Sulow had no warmth. If he'd been my master when I'd been imprisoned in the tower, he'd likely have left me there.

Pacing back and forth between the rain vats on either side of the lair, I debated with myself.

My masteress said I didn't have the temperament to be a mansioner, and in truth, I'd hated mansioning the moonsnake over and over for the king. But perhaps I'd merely hated the king.

And perhaps there was more than one way to be a mansioner, not simply as a member of a troupe. Since I'd been in Two Castles, I'd mansioned for Sulow, for the court, for the king, and for two bewildered guards.

But in a troupe, mansioners became better at the roles they repeated. Albin said a mansioner finds something new in a part each time she steps into it.

I felt pulled in two. I stopped thinking, wrapped my cloak around me, and stared up at the sky. The princess's cap kept my ears warm.

Her cap! The cap of a poisoner.

I stepped back into the lair, extending my arm and holding the cap in my fingertips. At the fireplace I threw it in.

My masteress reached in and pulled it out before it was even singed. “I deduce you no longer want it.”
Enh enh enh.

“I'd rather go bareheaded.”

“Then I suggest you sell it. People will fight to own a cap that once belonged to the poisoner princess. Trade it for half a dozen caps, or I will sell it for you if you like.”

“Sell it, please.” I wanted nothing more to do with the thing.

IT folded the cap carefully. “I will get a better price than you will. Now read to me. I believe you stopped at
mustard
.”

I found the book in the cupboard. IT had marked my place with a skewer. Outside the wind blew. IT rested ITs head on ITs front claws, ITs eyes on me.

Mother, Father, I thought. A lair is my home.