Arrow (Knife) (20 page)

Rhosmari opened her mouth, then shut it again. It was true that Rhys had urged his followers to forsake violence, but there had been centuries of scholarly debate over exactly what that meant. After the shock of her father’s death, Rhosmari herself preferred to be cautious; even competing in the Rhysian Games had made her uncomfortable at times. But others she knew – including Garan – believed that it was lawful to fight so long as the cause was just, and not a matter of selfish greed or personal vengeance. Could Rhosmari really say with authority that she was right, and Garan and the others were wrong?

‘I don’t know,’ she said at last. ‘I don’t want to see anyone hurt, no matter how wicked they may be. But I don’t want to stand by and watch innocent people suffer, either. I just think…what if there’s a solution that doesn’t involve fighting? Some way to stop the Empress that doesn’t put so many lives in danger?’

‘If you could find one,’ said Linden, ‘we’d all be glad to hear it. Or at least I know I would. I don’t like the idea of people being killed, either.’ She gave Rhosmari an encouraging smile, and Rhosmari smiled back.

‘I should go,’ said Timothy. ‘Paul and Peri will be waiting to hear from me. But…’ He turned to Rhosmari, serious and intent. ‘If you need anything, or if you – I don’t know, you just want to get away from the Oak – then you’re welcome at the house. Any time.’

Rhosmari nodded her appreciation of the offer, but as he galloped away down the Spiral Stair she could not help wondering why he had made it. She would only be here for a day or two, after all, and then she would be returning to the Green Isles.

Homesickness rose within her at the thought, and tired though she was, she wished she could leave at once. Having to answer to her mother and the Elders would not be pleasant, but at least now she could be sure they would not send her away. Even if they felt that she deserved to be exiled for what she had done – and Rhosmari doubted that, for she had shed no blood and committed no violence – it would be far safer to imprison her on the Green Isles than to risk having her fall back into the Empress’s hands.

‘Come with me,’ said Linden. ‘I’ll take you to see Bluebell.’

Bluebell.
She had heard that name earlier. ‘Who is that?’ asked Rhosmari.

‘She’s our Chief Housekeeper.’ Linden led the way down the staircase. ‘She’ll find you a place to stay.’

‘Was she at the council?’

‘Bluebell? Goodness, no.’ Linden gave a rueful laugh. ‘She never wants anything to do with politics nowadays. Why do you ask?’

‘Only that Wink said she wished Mallow could be more like her. I wondered what she meant.’

‘Oh, that,’ Linden said. ‘Well, it’s a bit complicated, but Bluebell used to be Queen Amaryllis’s attendant. And she could be a little haughty about it at times, but no one thought much of that…until Amaryllis died. Then it turned out that Bluebell believed she was the rightful heir to the throne. Can you imagine?’

‘Well…perhaps I can,’ said Rhosmari. ‘It might not be the way things are done in the Oak, but there is an old tradition that the faery queen’s heir should serve as one of her attendants. Could Bluebell have been thinking of that?’

‘I think it was mostly Mallow who talked her into believing it,’ said Linden. ‘But in any case it was all very unpleasant for a while, with Mallow and Bluebell trying to convince everyone that Valerian had tricked Queen Amaryllis into choosing her, and that she wasn’t fit to hold the throne anyway because she was half human. Fortunately, most of the Oakenfolk were sensible enough to see that Valerian was a much better leader. And when Rob and Garan came to the Oak with their followers, they both recognised Valerian as Queen straightaway and paid no attention to Bluebell at all. So nothing came of that.’

Except for Mallow continuing to challenge the new Queen’s policies at every turn, apparently. After seeing how she had behaved at the council, Rhosmari had to wonder at Valerian’s patience with her.

‘But afterwards,’ Linden went on, ‘Bluebell was so humiliated that she locked herself in her room for three days, and then she came out and apologised. And she’s been loyal to Queen Valerian ever since… Here we are.’ She turned off the stair onto a walkway, which led them across to a landing ringed with doors. Walking up to the third door on the left, she rapped and called, ‘Bluebell, are you there?’

They waited, but no answer came. Linden was just about to knock again when Garan spoke up behind them: ‘Rhosmari?’

Surprised, she turned and saw him coming along the walkway towards her. His manner was formal, his expression as sober as she had ever seen it.

‘I need to speak with you in private,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we should go outside.’

The sky over the Oakenwyld was untroubled by cloud, and the breeze that blew across the garden was mild. But as Garan led Rhosmari out onto the grass, she sensed something ominous in the air. It was a feeling that had been creeping up on her ever since she delivered her report to the council, and it had grown along with her body when she and Garan left the Oak and changed back to their customary size. And when he turned to her and she saw the pity in his face, her heart skipped a beat.

‘What is it?’ she asked.

He reached for her hand, which did nothing to reassure her. ‘Rhosmari,’ he said, ‘you cannot go back to the
Gwerdonnau Llion
.’

‘What?’ She stared at him. ‘What do you mean,
cannot
?’

‘You are the Empress’s only hope of reaching the Green Isles. And now that she has set her heart on conquering the Children of Rhys, she will do whatever it takes to recapture you. Do you really believe that you can leave the Oak and set out on your own, and have even the slightest chance of reaching Wales in safety?’

‘I could Leap—’

‘Martin knows every place where you have set foot,’ Garan said. ‘As does the Empress herself. If you had ten times the power, then perhaps you could Leap all the way from here to St David’s at this very moment, before she has a chance to send any of her people there. But the furthest you can Leap from here is Waverley Hall, and from there you could not even reach Cardiff by magic, let alone the Green Isles.’

He took her other hand in his own, his voice lowering to earnestness. ‘We did not make this decision lightly, Rhosmari. It grieves my heart to think of you having to remain here against your will. But we cannot afford to lose you to the Empress again. For all our sakes, we dare not even take the risk.’

Rhosmari snatched her hands away. ‘So you plan to make me your prisoner,’ she said in a shaky voice. ‘Trap me here in the Oak while you wait for the Empress to attack, because you are too cowardly to let me go – and when she does attack, and she defeats you, she will capture me anyway. And then the Green Isles will fall to her, without hope and without warning, and it will be
your
fault.’

‘It is not cowardice, Rhosmari.’ Garan spoke quietly, but there was no apology in his tone. ‘To give you safe conduct, we would have to send our whole army with you and leave the Oak defenceless – and even then we could not be sure of protecting you from the Empress. Keeping you here is the best chance we have.’

Rhosmari put her hands to her temples. She felt as though the ground had given way beneath her and left her tumbling through a dark void, helpless and alone. As Garan went on, his words seemed to be coming to her from miles away:

‘Do you think that knowing the Green Isles are in danger gives me any pleasure? If I knew any way to warn our people against the Empress, I would. But we have no means of communicating with the Elders at this distance. And even if we did, I fear they would not listen.’

No enemy can hurt us here.
She had said that to her students at the House of Learning, believing it was true. And then she herself had made it into a lie, and now Garan was telling her there was no way to undo it.

‘I am sorry, Rhosmari,’ he said. ‘I never wanted to have to tell you this. Until the council, I thought you understood it already. I even thought…’ He stopped. ‘Well. This is not the time.’

She raised her head, eyes burning but dry. ‘Not the time for what?’

‘When I heard you had come all this way to find me,’ he said, ‘I thought perhaps you were giving me a chance to make amends. I wronged you, Rhosmari, and I know you were disappointed, when I asked to break off our betrothal.’ He moved closer, his sea-green gaze holding hers. ‘I want you to know that if it brings you any comfort, if in any way it could make all that you have suffered a little easier, I am willing to fulfil the vows I made to you, and make you my wife.’

She was startled. ‘You mean…now?’

‘Well, not right away,’ Garan replied, a little uncomfortably. ‘You are only sixteen, after all. But in two or three years’ time, if we are still alive…’

Rhosmari let out a disbelieving laugh. ‘And what would be the use of that? You don’t love me. You told me as much, before you went away.’

‘Does that matter to you?’ He gave her a puzzled look. ‘I didn’t think you cared how either of us felt, so long as we could live peacefully together.’

Her fingers crept to her wrist, where Martin’s fingers had bruised her and Timothy’s rings had burned. Both of them had hurt her, but one had been trying to keep her prisoner, while the other had been trying to set her free.

‘Yes,’ she told him quietly. ‘It matters.’

Rhosmari sat at the foot of the Oak, hugging her knees as she gazed wearily across the lawn. Hedges rose on either side of the garden, blending into an old stone wall closer to the house, and in front of her stood the house itself, blocking out the sun and the sky.

The Oakenwyld was even smaller than Waverley Hall had been. And yet this was about to become her whole world.

Garan had told her she would be safe in the garden, for it and the neighbouring fields were under constant watch and ward, and the Empress’s servants could not approach from any direction without being seen. But he had still tried to coax her back inside the tree with him, so that Bluebell could show her to a room – and Rhosmari was not ready for that. Not when it might be weeks or months, perhaps even years, before she returned to her homeland again.

She tore a handful of grass out of the lawn and scattered it to the wind, watching the blades flutter and spiral away. No wonder everyone at the council had looked uncomfortable when she spoke of going back to the Green Isles. No wonder Timothy had felt sorry for her, and—

Wait. What had he offered her, exactly?
If you need anything, or if you just…want to get away from the Oak…

He had known what Garan was going to tell her. Could he have meant those words more literally than she realised? After all, he had told her himself that he knew what it was like to be alone in a strange country, and longing for home.

Rhosmari got slowly to her feet, eyes fixed on the house. She could not go there right now, at least not discreetly. But later tonight, when everyone was asleep…

Yes. She would do it. If Timothy understood – really understood – how she felt, then he would want to help her. And since he was human, and creative by nature, he might well be able to think of a way to get her safely to the Green Isles even though all the faeries in the Oak could not.

Just thinking about it eased the ache in her chest a little. Hope renewed, Rhosmari made herself small again, and climbed back down the root ladder into the Oak.

‘Have you seen Bluebell?’ Rhosmari asked a passing rebel on her way in, but he shook his head. She went back to the Spiral Stair and met three more faeries coming down, but they couldn’t help her either. Rhosmari climbed all the way up to Bluebell’s door and knocked again, but there was still no answer, so at last she gave up and followed the rest of the faeries down to dinner.

She had forced herself to finish her mug of hot chicory despite its bitterness, and was scraping the last bit of mashed roots from her plate when Holly, one of the faeries she had met on the stair, stopped by her table. ‘Are you still looking for Bluebell?’ she asked. ‘Because I saw her pass by the dining hall just a little while ago.’

She paused with a meaningful look, and belatedly Rhosmari realised that the other faery was waiting for her to bargain. Linden had spoken to her so freely, she had forgotten that the other faeries might be a little less charitable about giving out information.

‘I have nothing to offer you at present,’ Rhosmari replied, choosing her words carefully. ‘But if there is something I can do for you at a later time, I will be glad to hear of it.’

Holly sighed. ‘Oh, very well. I saw Bluebell going down the East Root corridor. Probably to one of the storerooms. If you hurry, you might still catch her.’

‘I appreciate your help,’ said Rhosmari. Hurriedly she pushed her cup and plate aside, and set off to find Bluebell.

As she headed away from the core of the Oak the air in the passage grew damp and earthy-smelling, the ceiling webbed with thin roots. The lamps flickered wanly, giving off more shadows than light. The old fear of closed-in places crept up on her, and she was just about to turn back when she heard someone talking.

‘…should never have come here. I have nothing to discuss with you. I don’t even want to be seen with you any more.’

The female faery’s tone was high-pitched and a little lofty, but it also sounded fearful. It came from behind a closed door to Rhosmari’s right, and her first impulse was to go in. She reached for the handle.

‘You’re being ridiculous,’ said a flat voice, and Rhosmari jerked her hand back. ‘All I’m asking is for you to stop fussing and listen. Haven’t I always looked out for you? I wouldn’t bring this up if I didn’t think it was worth your while.’

‘I’ve already told you I’m not interested. Now let me go.’

‘You’re not going anywhere until I’m done,’ retorted Mallow. ‘Don’t you care what Valerian’s doing to us? It’s not just a matter of bringing more faeries to the Oak or getting our magic back, not any more. She’s going to force us all to fight the Empress, and like as not get us all killed, just so we can protect her precious pet
humans
.’

‘That’s her right. She’s the Queen.’