The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) (51 page)

Bazzlejet’s voice chimed in with
hers.

“We would get captured,” Mr. Larue
said.

“Not me!” Chloe said. “Ivywild is
my home! I know every stone in the walls!”

“Yeah, and besides, what have we
got to lose?” Bazzlejet asked. “If we go back to Woodman’s Hall now, what good
will it do? We need to know what the Dookie of Briar is playing at. The others
are counting on us!”

“But what if we get caught?” Violet
asked. “Can you imagine?”

Chloe got to her feet and looked
down at the others. “I’m not asking if anyone else wants to go, but I’m telling
you all right here and now that I’m going to. Somebody has to stay behind anyways
and continue on to Woodman’s Hall. We can’t have a whole group of us tromping
around the castle or we’ll surely get caught.”

Bazzlejet jumped to his feet. “I’m
going with you.”

His father grabbed him by the pants
leg and gave him a stern frown.

“It is madness to expect the queen
to go to the heart of enemy territory,” said one of the Master Casters.

“I don’t deserve to be anybody’s
queen if I don’t do something,” Chloe said in earnest. “This is an opportunity
we can’t afford to waste!”

“An opportunity to get yourself
killed, more likely,” Mr. Larue said.

Chloe looked to her mother.

“I have to agree with Jules,”
Othella said with a tired sort of resignation. “It’s too dangerous.”

And that, it seemed was that. Chloe
puffed her cheeks and blew the air out in one long, frustrated stream.

“Phew, I’m beat,” Bazzlejet said,
unrolling a blanket. “Wake me when we get to Woodman’s Hall.”

Chloe glared at him. “This is no time
for jokes! What happened? You were all fired up to sneak into Ivywild only
moments ago.”

He let out a big yawn and stretched
out on the blanket. “I know a lost cause when I see one, Your Highness. Nighty
night.”

He winked. She almost missed it.

Garland cleared his throat. “I’ll
take the first watch. The rest of you look rather exhausted.”

“There’s a good chap,” said one of
the Master Casters. “Wake me in a few and I’ll relieve you.”

Chloe was determined to stay awake,
but she drifted off the moment her head hit the rucksack that was serving as
her pillow.

“Your Highness?”

Somebody was nudging her shoulder.
She opened her eyes to find Garland and Bazzlejet kneeling beside her.

Bazzlejet lifted a finger to his
lips. Chloe sat up and rubbed her eyes.

“Do you still want to go?” Garland
whispered. He slid the book out of his pocket.

Chloe’s eyes shot wide open. She
glanced back and forth between Garland and Bazzlejet. “You’ll come with me?”

Bazzlejet placed his right hand
over his heart and bowed his head. “Anywhere, my queen.”

Mr. Larue snorted in his sleep and
rolled over. Chloe, Bazzlejet and Garland froze, watching him. His eyes
remained closed.

“We must hurry,” Garland said,
flipping open the book. “Join hands.”

Chloe grabbed Garland’s free hand with
her left and Bazzlejet took her right. As their fingers interlaced, Garland murmured
an incantation that transformed the words on the page into a real environment
that they could see and feel. More importantly, it turned the book into a sort
of passageway. They could use its cross-references to enter other books. A
joyful ache filled Chloe’s chest at the thought that one of
those
books
was the doorway that would finally lead her home.

***

I stood at the top of the stairs at
Woodman’s Hall, waiting for the Slaugh to come back. The lights were low and
the place was quiet, but nobody was sleeping. I could feel them all holding
their breath just like I was.

There came a rattle at the
drawbridge. The night sentries called out to each other and the bridge was
lowered. The Terra Cartisans came in. They half-carried, half-dragged the
hostages from Feegman’s Boot.

A swift black and white shape flew
in after them. It was a young Slaugh woman with a grim expression on her face.

Something was wrong. Where were the
other Slaugh? A thousand terrifying possibilities surfaced in my mind all at
once.

A small shape brushed by me. It was
Noemi, rushing down to greet the lone Slaugh woman.

“Momma!”

The woman scooped up the girl and
hugged her tight. She murmured something soothing in Slaugh.

“Where are the others?” I asked.

“On their way,” the woman said.
“Where is Lord Finbarr?”

“Here,” said the old man as he
emerged from a room off the main hall. “Ah, Wilhelmina. What is the news?”

Wilhelmina lowered Noemi to the
floor. The little girl stood close by her and squeezed her hand.

“They defeated the red capes,”
Wilhelmina said. “All but one. He escaped with a Pyxis Charm.”

There was no hiding the grief in
Lord Finbarr’s face. He’d weathered a lot over the past year but this was the
blow that almost felled him. He swayed on his feet. I offered him an arm to
lean on.

“This is…disastrous,” he said. “We
can stay here no longer. We must move!”

Everyone nearby heard him. The
Channelers who were trying to help Trapper Toussant and the others froze in
shock. The Terra Cartisans hung their heads. Mrs. Larue, who’d just come from
the kitchen, pressed a hand to her chest and looked like she might cry.

“Where will we go?” She asked.
“Where
can
we go?”

A swarm of winged figures landed on
the drawbridge. Lev led them. They looked defeated. The sight stunned me. Slaugh
were never supposed to acknowledge failure, but it showed plainly in their
lowered eyes, their slumped shoulders and the heavy way that they dragged their
feet.

Lev wore an expression I’d never
seen on him before. It was shame. More than any of the others, he looked as
though he hated himself. Gone were all traces of his pride.

It had a strange effect on me to
see everyone looking so crushed. I grew angry. Were they really prepared to
give up after holding out for this long? Now was not the time to feel sorry.
Now was the time to act.

I climbed up on the banister above
the main hall so that I towered over all of them, even the browbeaten Slaugh. I
cleared my throat and everyone looked up at me.

“So what?” I said.

I waited a moment to make sure they
were all paying attention. The listless Slaugh fighters barely acknowledged me.
Only Lev appeared to listen, and he still looked so shamefaced that it made my
blood boil.

“So what?” I repeated, raising my
voice. “One red cape got away and the duke will know where we are. He’ll send
his army for us. Who’s to say we can’t fight back?”

“He’ll burn down the whole forest
trying to get to us,” spoke up one person.

“We’ve held off water,” I said. “We
can hold off flames as well.”

“But they outnumber us,” spoke up
another.

“So we’ll just have to fight better
than they do,” I said.

The crowd below hummed with
discontented murmurings.
They’re saying I’m crazy
, I thought.
Maybe
they’re right, but I’m tired of running
!

“Hey!” I said sharply. “Listen up.
We call ourselves rebels. Rebels fight! Until now, we’ve really just been
refugees. We’ve let that Larlathian tyrant run us out of our homes. Are we
going to do it again? Just let him chase us out of here like we’re nothing but
a bunch of rodents?”

“I’m not a wodent,” Noemi spoke up
from her mother’s arms.

I gave the girl a grateful smile.
Then I scowled at the adults. “Well, are we? Yes, we are outnumbered, but we’ve
got magic and brute force—”

“And cannons!” shouted Joyboy.

“—and cannons,” I added. “This place
is home now. It may not be Ivywild, but it’s what we’ve got. If we can’t defend
it then we aren’t fit to lay claim to the castle. You want Faylinn back? Start
right here.”

“Hear hear!” shouted Valory.

To my surprise, many other voices
answered with a loud, “HEAR HEAR!”

The rebels had been catalyzed. All
I’d done was speak my mind and, to my great relief, they’d actually listened.

But now they needed direction.
Normally I would have looked to Lord Finbarr to tell me what to do, but I was
the one in the spotlight. They were looking to me and I knew I had to be able to
back up my bravado.

“You,” I said, pointing to the
handful of resident Channelers. “Take the injured hostages down to the lowest
level and stock up any supplies you’ll need for mending. The children and
others who are unable to fight will join you. Where is Captain Sandrine?”

The blind Hobgoblin was standing
near the door. She waved her cane angrily, almost hitting Bayard Barrie. “Don’t
make me hide out with the feebles and the children!”

“I wouldn’t dare,” I said with a grin.
“I want you to supervise the cannons and any other weapons you were able to
salvage from the ship. Take some helpers and have them gather anything you can
use for ammunition.”

Sandrine smiled. “That’s honest
work. I only wish Dr. Splitfoot were here to join in. Bayard! Pick some stout
young lads to give us a hand!”

“Aye aye, Captain!” Bayard shouted,
leaping into action.

I went on to break up the rest of
the rebels into six different crews all charged with gathering of supplies,
fortifying the hall exterior, helping the Channelers, or practicing their
magic. Lord Finbarr watched the process, nodding his approval or making
suggestions as he saw fit. The only people I didn’t dare to boss around were
the Slaugh. I avoided them until last.

Lev still appeared to be in some
kind of depression. Of all the people in the world, he was the last I’d expect
to worry about a battle. He was not charged up like the others. I thought he
would give his people their own orders, but instead he waited, staring into
space and not looking at all like the king he was supposed to be.

His hesitance affected the other Slaugh.
They milled about, rasping their wings in uncertainty. They had no role to fill
unless he gave it to them.

Only one of the Slaugh was in high
spirits.

“What’r you ladies and gents
loafing around here for?” Valory asked. “Your wings still work, don’t they?”

“Shut up,” Katriel said. “We’ve
already fought once tonight.”

“Good, you’re already warmed up,”
Valory said, unfazed. “I’ll tell you what. I’ve done some trapping in my time.
I reckon a red cape ain’t much different than any other varmint. Let’s use
fallen timbers and set up some traps, what do you say?”

They just glared at her.

Lev stirred. “Go,” he said to the
others. “Set up traps. Patrol the air. All report back here in half an hour.”

Without question they did as he
asked. Valory flew off to join them.

“How much time do you think we’ve
got?” I asked.

He shook his head. “No telling.
Minutes. Days.”

It was just the two of us now in
the main hall. Lev stayed rooted in place. Everything about his appearance
spoke of sorrow and defeat.

It was more than I could take. I gave
him a nudge. “Wake up. What’s wrong with you?”

He turned his back on me and stared
at the floor. “It’s my fault,” he said. “I lost the red cape. He escaped
because I hesitated.”

“So.”

He turned around to face me. “I’ve
started it. There’s no turning back now. Everything is set in motion and it
won’t stop until…”

Destiny again. Lev really did have
his mother’s gift. “You can see that?” I asked. “You see the threads?”

“All entwined now,” Lev said sadly.
His eyes were full of such grief that it made my mouth go dry. “One of them is
about to break.”

I shivered. I didn’t like him this
way. I’d rather he hate me than look into me with those grief-filled eyes and
speak to me with the voice a prophet.

“Don’t,” I said. “Just stop. We
need you here
right now
. The future can wait.”

Something cold wrapped around my
hand. I jumped and then realized it was his fingers.

“I’m scared,” he said.

It was the ultimate confession any
Slaugh could make. Hearing it and seeing him and knowing he truly meant it was
like having the whole world pulled out from under my feet.

“But…why?” I asked. “What’s to be
scared of? Death?”

He looked away and said nothing.
Whatever he was thinking, it was too powerful for words.

“I’ve been to the other side,” I
said. “I’ve seen the Twi-Realm. It is scary, but when you’re there…well, you’re
still
you
. You still exist. I could live with that—or, I guess, I could
die
with that, as long as I knew my friends were safe here.”

He studied me keenly. “You’ve been?
How?”

“One of my beasts took me there.” It
was the simplest explanation I could think of because I hadn’t worked out yet
exactly how it did happen.

He nodded. At what, I could only
guess. He let go of my hand and slid the red dagger out of its scabbard on his
belt.

“Take this,” he said. “It is
useless to me.”

Stunned, I took the dagger. “So you
never found the lock?”

Pain flickered up into his face
again. “I wasn’t looking for the lock. I just wanted to keep the dagger away
from you.”

“Why?”

He didn’t answer. He turned and
walked to the drawbridge. A humid breeze blew in from the forest. “Tell me
something,” he said. “Do you believe in miracles?”

It was the strangest question he’d
ever asked me. Still dumbfounded from the return of my dagger, I wasn’t sure
how to answer. “I guess so,” I said. “I mean, I’d like to think they can happen
but I don’t count on them. Why?”

He took a deep breath and then
exhaled slowly. “Because if we have to fight the duke right now, we will fail,”
He glanced over his shoulder at me. “If you can’t count on miracles then you’d
better count on
somebody
, because we’re going to need all the help we
can get.”