SandRider (11 page)

PART V

F
ORTY
-E
IGHT
H
OURS TO
H
ATCHING

T
he next morning Tod woke
unusually early. It took her a few moments to remember why she was sleeping on the floor of her tent and some moments more to realize that the very reason for her being on the floor had disappeared: her bed was empty and Kaznim was gone. Tod leaped up in dismay, unable to believe her eyes.

The night before, as she left the Sick Bay, Septimus had said that her quick thinking had very likely saved them all from a highly dangerous situation. He was, he had told everyone, very proud of his new Apprentice. “Well done for putting Kaznim Na-Draa in your tent,” he had said to Tod as he'd walked her to the door. “Keep a close eye on her from now on. Bring her up to my rooms for breakfast in the morning and we will all have a talk.” Then he had smiled and said, “I'll leave it
to you to ask her where the Orm Egg is. You have the magic touch.” Tod hadn't been too sure about that, but she'd been delighted that Septimus trusted her so much.

And now Tod stared at the Kaznim-shaped space in her bed, horrified. She had blown it. All Septimus's trust was for nothing. Frantically, Tod threw on her clothes, raced out of the dorm and ran into the early-morning quiet of the Apprentice corridor. She stopped at the spiral stairs, which were traveling slowly on nighttime mode, heading downward. Above, Tod heard the unusual sound of footsteps—someone was running down. To her utter relief she saw Kaznim approaching at top speed. Tod was amazed at how Kaznim had overcome her fear of the stairs. “Hey!” she called out.

“Go away!” Kaznim shouted as she rattled past.

Tod leaped on and clattered after her. “Hey, wait!” she said.

“Go
away
!” Kaznim yelled back and hurried on, whirling around like a top.

“Kaznim . . .” Tod was getting dizzy, but she dared not slow down. “Kaznim . . . please . . . What's the matter?”

Kaznim stopped and turned around, furious. “I hate this place. And I hate you. You stole my box, you stole my cards
and if you had found it, you would have stolen my
Egg Timer
too—”

“No! No, I didn't steal anything,” Tod protested a little guiltily.

“Yes, you did! You took the cards when I was asleep. I woke up in the dark and they weren't there!” Kaznim's angry voice echoed into the Great Hall as the stairs took them slowly down past the flickering pictures, bright in the dawn dimness.

“Shh!” It was not done to shout in the Great Hall, and Tod felt responsible for Kaznim's behavior. “Look,” she said quietly, “I didn't steal your box.
No way
. I didn't steal your cards, either. Okay, I admit I borrowed them, but that's all. I'm sorry, but you were asleep and I couldn't ask you. I gave them back.”

“So what!” Kaznim snapped.
“
It was
my
stuff and you took it. You're a nasty, sneaky pickpocket and
I hate you
.”

“I'm really sorry, Kaznim, but you see—”

The stairs had now reached the ground and Kaznim—whose anger had driven away her fear of the stairs—jumped off without a thought. While the words wandering across the floor bid her
G
OOD
M
ORNING, YOUNG GUEST, HAVE A HAPPY DAY
IN THE
W
IZARD
T
OWER
, Kaznim yelled, “You're all murderers and thieves!”

Tod jumped off the stairs to an accompanying wish from the floor—
G
OOD MORNING,
E
XTRA
O
RDINARY
A
PPRENTICE, HAVE A HAPPY DAY WITH YOUR NEW FRIEND
—and hurried to catch up with Kaznim. “No, Kaznim . . . wait. We're not thieves. And there's no way we're murderers. Honestly, we're not . . .”

Kaznim stopped and spun around, her dark eyes blazing with anger. “Yes, you are! That horrible murderer woman has
stolen my tortoise
!”

Tod knew exactly who she meant. “Kaznim, Dandra hasn't stolen your tortoise. You
gave
it to her.”

“I gave my tortoise to
Sam
,” Kaznim yelled. “Not her!”

Tod was relieved to see that apart from Jim Knee wrapped in a fur coat, sleeping on the visitors' bench, there was no one in the Great Hall to hear Kaznim shouting. “Is that where you went just now? Up to the Sick Bay?” Tod asked, following Kaznim as she headed across toward the open doors, beyond which Catchpole was sweeping the snow off the top step.

“Yes. I woke up because I missed my tortoise . . .”
Kaznim's eyes filled with tears and made Tod feel very guilty. “So I went up to see Sam. There was no one there except for Marwick. I asked him if I could have Ptolemy back and he said yes. But then
she
came in and took my tortoise away from me!”

“Kaznim, please. I'm really sorry about Ptolemy—”

Kaznim did not want Tod's sympathy and she knew that the only way to avoid crying was to stay angry. “You're not sorry!” she yelled.

“I am, honestly. But I expect Dandra thought that Sam still needed Ptolemy,” Tod said, wondering how to make things better. Behind Kaznim she could see Boris Catchpole coming in from sweeping the newly fallen snow off the top of the outside steps. Aware that the officious Catchpole was looking at them disapprovingly, Tod said soothingly, “Kaznim, why don't we go up to the Sick Bay together and I will talk to Dr. Draa? I'm sure we can sort this out.”

“I'm not talking to
her
,” said Kaznim. Her voice went up a few more decibels, just as a group of elderly Wizards wandered in from the canteen. “Dandra Draa is a
murderer
. She killed my father and now she has
stolen my tortoise
and I
hate
her! I hate everyone in this horrible place—
every single one
!”

Tod and the elderly Wizards stood shocked as Kaznim spun around and set off at a run toward the slowly closing doors. Tod raced after her, but Kaznim was fast.

Kaznim reached the doors, wheeled around and yelled, “She'll be sorry! I'll be back with someone much more powerful than your stupid wizard and then you'll
all
be sorry!” And as the doors drew dangerously close together, Kaznim Na-Draa threw herself into the rapidly narrowing gap.

“No!” Tod shouted, afraid that Kaznim would be crushed like a nut in a nutcracker. But the small girl wriggled through and the next moment the doors settled together with their familiar soft
thunk
.

Quickly Tod gave the new day's password and, agonizingly slowly, the doors began to open again. Aware that she was being watched by Catchpole, Tod hopped up and down impatiently, waiting for the doors to open wide enough for her to slip through. Tod did not like Boris Catchpole. He hadn't actually ever been mean to her, but there was something in his manner that told her he would not pass up the chance. And that morning he didn't.

The silver doors of the Wizard Tower closed softly behind Kaznim and the cold hit her like a hammer. It was like nothing she had ever experienced; she could feel it seeping into her bones, thickening her blood, slowing her thoughts. She breathed in and the frosty air seared her lungs. Her thin red coat gave about as much warmth as a sheet of paper and her bare feet in her sandals ached. But Kaznim knew that there was no going back into the warmth of the Wizard Tower—at least not right then. But she would make good on her threat. She would indeed come back for her tortoise and she would not come alone. She would bring the sorcerer. Oraton-Marr was older, wiser and much more powerful than the two-faced young man with his soft blond curls and fancy purple robes. Then they would indeed be sorry.

Seething with anger and conveniently forgetting that the sorcerer she was lining up for a Wizard Tower takeover had actually stolen her baby sister, Kaznim took off down the
wide, white marble steps. She headed quickly across a large courtyard lit by flaming torches, bright in the twilight of the winter dawn.

The courtyard was a strangely exotic place and had Kaznim not been running away, she would have happily wandered through, looking at the cold, white sand that was banked up against the walls as if blown into drifts, and the beautiful, dancing colored lights. But Kaznim had no time to stop and stare. She hurried toward a massive archway that led out of the courtyard, her sandals flip-flapping as she went. In seconds she was going through the arch, glancing up at the beautiful blue lapis that lined it, reminding her of the egg at home. And then she was out. She turned briefly to check that no one had followed her, then ducked out of sight and stopped to catch her breath. Shivering violently, Kaznim stared at the scene before her, trying to make sense of it.

In front of her stretched a beautiful, wide avenue lit with flaming torches perched in tall silver torchposts that ran down its entire length. On either side of the avenue were low buildings of an ancient yellowing stone. Most of these housed shops and small businesses, somewhat obscured by a variety of stalls that were being set up in front of them. Straight down
the middle of the avenue was an empty roadway, which was lined with banks of the strange, sparkling white sand. The surface of the roadway itself looked to Kaznim like white frosted glass. It was both beautiful and bizarre and she had no idea what it could possibly be.

It was the start of the course for the annual Manuscriptorium Sled Race. A wide racetrack of compacted, icy snow ran down the center of Wizard Way, which led from the Palace to the Wizard Tower. All the preparation had been done the day before, and now, early in the morning, the people were beginning to venture out to begin what promised to be an exciting day. Stalls were being set up behind the racetrack walls, and a low buzz of excited chatter filled the air. A boy selling hot chestnuts was tending a brazier on wheels close to Kaznim. He had just set the first batch of chestnuts on the griddle when he noticed a wide-eyed, slight girl in the long red coat and bare feet in summer sandals. He wondered who she was; she looked so cold that he was quite worried for her. “Hey!” he said. “Come and stand by the fire. Get yourself warm.”

Kaznim smiled shyly and shook her head. She was scared that any minute now, someone from the giant stone tower would be out to track her down. Relieved that the sneaky
pickpocket Apprentice girl had not found it, she took the pale blue origami paper bird from her secret pocket and with shaking hands began to unfold it. From the bird's body Kaznim took the small opal pebble, clutched it in her fist and muttered the words the sorcerer had taught her:

Let me Fade into the Aire,

Let all against me know not Where,

Let them that Seeke me pass me by,

Let Harme not reach me from their Eye.

Once again, Kaznim felt the warm, buzzing sensation of ancient
Magyk
enveloping her. As it spread through her body, her shivering stopped and when the chestnut boy turned around to offer her a bag of hot chestnuts, he couldn't see her. It was strange, he thought, that he hadn't seen her go.

Inside the Great Hall, Tod watched the doors to the Wizard Tower begin to open once more. “I hope you're not planning
to do a Squeeze-Through like your young friend,” Catchpole said. Running through the doors before they were fully open was known as a “Squeeze-Through,” and Apprentices were banned from doing it. It was considered bad form even for Wizards not to wait until the doors had fully opened and settled onto their hinges.

Desperation made Tod brave. “I
have
to get out. It's an emergency,” she said, edgily eyeing the doors, which always moved slowly in frosty weather.

“An
emergency
,” Catchpole said mockingly. “Huh! And
I'm
a banana.”

“You said it,” Tod muttered under her breath.

The doors were now showing a gap just about wide enough for her to get through, but Boris Catchpole had planted himself in front of it with his broom held horizontally. He looked down at Tod pompously. “An ExtraOrdinary Apprentice is expected to set an example,” he said. “She is not expected to have a slanging match in the Great Hall nor is she expected to play tag within the confines of the Wizard Tower.”

“It's not tag!” Tod shouted in exasperation, and heard tut-tutting from the elderly Wizards who were now discussing the bad behavior of modern-day Apprentices. “I
told
you,
Catchpole. It's an emergency.”

“Rules is rules,” Catchpole said, doggedly holding the broom across the ever-widening gap. Tod saw that his gaze had shifted and was now fixed on someone behind her. “
You'll
have to wait an' all,” Catchpole told whoever it was. Tod glanced back, expecting to see one of the elderly Wizards, but to her surprise she saw Jim Knee. He stood, tall and resplendent in his long fur coat, glaring at Catchpole. The jinnee, like all jinn who were at a Master's disposal, disliked authority. Jim Knee particularly disliked the Catchpole variety: the relish of enforcing petty regulations. He had had a few Masters like that himself, and he didn't like to see a young Apprentice being treated in this way.

“Let the Apprentice leave as she wishes,” Jim Knee said. There was a threat in his voice that would have given most people a jolt of fear, but Boris Catchpole, who was not the most subtle of people, did not notice. He positioned himself firmly in front of the gap and held tightly onto the broom. “Let . . . her . . . leave,” Jim Knee repeated.

“She can go out when the doors is fully open like everyone else does,” Catchpole retorted.

Jim Knee stared at Catchpole with narrowed eyes. A long,
low growl rippled through his body, making the hairs on the back of Tod's neck stand up. Jim Knee began to shiver and sway. There was a sudden flash of yellow and Catchpole screamed. Planted firmly in Jim Knee's place, teeth bared, muscles flexed, ready to pounce, was a long, low, yellow-and-black-striped tiger. A menacing snarl filled the Great Hall, a distant Wizard shrieked and Catchpole fainted—but not before Tod had seized her chance and raced out of the ever-widening gap into the frosty early-morning air. She stopped at the top of the steps. It was as she had feared. The courtyard was deserted. Kaznim had gone.