The Secret Country (30 page)

“Did you get our note?” cried Ellen.

Fence gave her an absent pat on the shoulder, nodding, and looked at Ruth. In the purple dimness of the stair torch, the stars on his robe seemed to grow and swarm.

“My lady, I thank you most heartily for your trouble,” he said. “Will it please you to examine the knife?”

Ruth looked as if it would have pleased her to go away quickly, but she nodded. “If your beast will let us by,” she said.

“It is not mine,” said Fence, and addressed it in burbles.

It shifted and seemed to swell, and from it came a hissing like water droplets on a hot griddle. It was not a loud or particularly menacing sound, but Laura’s hair prickled and Fence looked astonished. He hissed back. The beast slurped and squelched, and overflowed onto a lower step.

“You had better remind it of its place,” said Randolph, at Fence’s shoulder.

Fence gave him much the same kind of pat he had given Ellen, and shook his head. Then he looked at Ruth, who was standing at his other side with Laura hanging on to her hand. She was gripping Laura’s hand with more force than that necessary to be comforting. Ellen was cramped between Laura and the wall, looking as if she wanted to pet the beast. Laura, who did not even want to see it, looked over her shoulder and saw that Ted stood behind them all, seeming bored.

“Can you do aught with it?” Fence asked Ruth.

Laura felt her tense, but she sounded quite composed. “I can call on water,” she said.

“You and Randolph are both too precipitate,” said Fence.

Laura glanced up in time to see Randolph look at Ruth over Fence’s head. He rolled his eyes at the ceiling and grinned. Ruth smiled back.

“Well,” she said to him, “we could call on the mountains, then.”

“Nonsense,” said Fence, “this is rival waters.”

“And that rivals all nonsense,” said Randolph.

Laura looked to see if Ruth was as bewildered as she was. Ruth looked outraged, but she said nothing.

“What are you talking about?” demanded Ellen.

Ruth looked at Fence, took a deep breath, and answered her sister. “When the power of the Green Caves, which is over earth and water, meddles with matters of the Blue Sorcery, which is of fire and air, then these beasts are made, which are air and water.” She sounded as if she were quoting.

“Who’s been meddling?” asked Ellen.

“Claudia, no doubt,” said Fence.

The beast sucked and bubbled like someone trying to pull the last drops of a milkshake through a straw—a loud and unmistakably rude noise. Fence laughed at it. “Thou art a guardian, not a warrior,” he said. “Begone.”

The beast rose up like a geyser, swirled, and vanished. Fence and Randolph stared at each other. Then Randolph shrugged and Fence started up the steps. The others followed, one by one.

Laura hung back to walk with Ted, who still looked bored. “What did you do at the banquet?” she asked.

“Ate.”

“No, what did you do
wrong?
”

“Thanks a lot.”

“Well, Matthew told Fence you did.”

“Great,” said Ted, climbing faster.

“Well, what?”

She expected him to shut her up, but he told her. Laura was awed. “Prince Edward would
never
do that!”

“Well, I’m not Prince Edward.”

“Shhh!”

“Sorry.”

“Why can’t you play Edward the way we’re all playing?” Laura was breathless just from asking questions, and it was hard to climb stairs and pay proper attention to Ted’s answers. But who knew when she might find him in this mood again?

“Because it’s not a game. It’s important. Maybe if Edward wasn’t such a milksop Randolph wouldn’t have to kill the King. Maybe if the King respected Edward he’d listen to him about sorcery.”

“He doesn’t respect you for hitting Andrew, does he? Didn’t you say he was mad?”

“Sure he was, but he might respect me for it anyway.”

Laura gave up and climbed in silence. The closer they got to the top, the colder it became. As she came around the last corner before Claudia’s knife and bumped into Ted, she realized that she could see her breath in the purple air.

“You see,” said Fence to Ruth.

“Uh,” said Ruth.

She knelt on the step and looked at the knife. Laura, regarding the cold gleam of the jewels, felt a picture begin to form in them and looked away quickly, right at Fence’s robe. The stars exploded at her so that she blinked, and the flat red and green afterimages wavered into a vast field where the tiny figures of men and beasts strove together. Laura finally blinked again, and screwed both eyes tight shut, breaking the picture into meaningless dots. When she opened her eyes again, Ruth was talking.

“It’s like she took one of yours and one of ours and put them together,” she said.

Fence looked horrified. “And where is the desert she made in the combining?”

Ruth looked taken aback, but Fence did not seem to expect an answer.

“ ’Twas not made for you,” he said to her. “Can you hold it harmless?”

“Well,” said Ruth. She looked at the knife, and back up at Fence. “Why don’t you get Meredith?”

Randolph made an incredulous noise and looked at Ruth as if she were crazy.

Fence shook his head. “Think, child,” he said. “I did not say ‘unmake,’ but ‘hold harmless.’ ”

“Oh,” said Ruth. She looked at the knife again.

“Ruth,” said Ellen, “you want to slow it down, right?”

Laura looked at her with admiration. She had forgotten all about Shan’s Ring, but it was certainly the only thing they had that might keep Claudia out of the way.

“Oh,”
said Ruth.

“Hey,” said Ted, sounding alarmed. Laura wondered what was the matter with him.

Ruth put her hand in the pocket of her skirt and furrowed her brow.

“I am a trinket,” said Ellen.

“Hush,” said Ruth.

“Ruth,”
said Ted.

“Shut
up,
” said Ruth, fiercely. She shut her eyes and put out her other hand for the knife.

“Ruthie,
don’t,
” said Ted, putting his hand out too. Randolph caught his wrist, and looked at him as if he too were crazy. Ted seemed about to try to wrench his arm away, but then he gave up and stood glowering.

Ruth’s hand came down on the knife. There was not a sound in the stairwell. Ruth’s lips moved briefly and she opened her eyes. “Blow time awry for this!” she said, and the jewels in the knife hilt went dark. Laura was impressed. At least things were working properly for Ruth.

“Well!” said Ruth, pleased. She handed the knife to Fence, who flinched but took it and bowed to her, in the narrow stairway, without knocking anybody over. Randolph let go of Ted and they all began to climb again.

Patrick was standing in the open door to Fence’s living room with a rug over his shoulders and a sword in his hand. Both were too big for him.

When he had looked everybody over, he moved to let them in and put the sword on the mantelpiece. It was warmer inside, but it was not warm. Fence gestured at the fireplace, and flames leaped up again.

“It was a warm day for so cold a night,” he said.

“There is nothing amiss with the night,” said Randolph, sitting down where he had sat for dinner.

Fence brought another chair to the table for Ruth, between Randolph and Patrick. Everyone else sat in his old place. Fence put both hands around the wine jug, and when he poured the wine, it steamed.

“Before anyone else pounds upon my door with urgent summons,” he said, “I will have my spies’ reports.”

So Laura and Patrick and Ellen recited their parts, while Ted and Ruth sat with their mouths falling open. Fence made Ellen repeat one thing twice, and Laura two things. During Patrick’s recitation of how the kitchen staff would not let an undercook magic the soup to make up for having left out the saffron, Laura saw Randolph look over at Fence, who grimaced at him. But that was all the reaction they got, and the whole thing was quickly over.

“Well done,” Fence said to them. “You have earned your rest, and ’twere best you go to’t. Agatha will have my head on a pole if she discovers how late I have kept you.”

Ellen jerked herself up from where she had been falling asleep in Ruth’s lap. “But what happened at the council?”

“And where’s Claudia?” said Laura.

“What do you mean, where’s Claudia?” said Patrick, coming suddenly out of his slouch.

“Naught happened,” said Randolph. “Fence and Andrew aired their philosophies.”

“Who
won?
” said Ellen.

“None wins in the airing of philosophies,” said Fence, patiently.

“What did the King think?” persisted Ellen.

“He said not,” said Fence.

“Ellie,” said Ted, “go to bed.” She looked at him, outraged, and he mouthed, “I’ll tell you later,” at her. Ellen shrugged. Fence’s mouth quirked.

“Where’s Claudia?” repeated Laura. She felt that it was necessary to keep track of Claudia, much as it was necessary to keep track of a large puppy. They both made trouble when you weren’t looking.

“Claudia came to the council,” said Fence.

“What about your
spell?
” said Ellen.

“She broke it,” said Fence, shortly. “She came to the council and I made accusation of her, which she chose not to answer. She was taken to the South Tower. If she chooses to stay there and be tried, which she well may if ’t amuses her, all of us save Ruth may be called as witnesses. If she hath not chosen to stay she is no doubt wherever it pleases her to be. I could discover her with some effort. Without her knife she is, I think, less menace than nuisance. Randolph and I will make shift to deal with her, with Lady Ruth’s help.” Ruth looked nonplussed.

“How does she do all this?” said Ellen.

“Peace,” said Fence.

“I’m sorry,” said Ellen to Fence. “Only nobody knows anything, and anything can happen.”

Randolph reached out and patted her head. Ellen glowered but sat still under it, like a well-trained cat. “Anything may usually happen,” he said to her. “Get thee to bed—and thee, and thee.”

Laura and Ellen got up, reluctantly, and came around to Fence, Patrick on their heels. “Thank you for dinner,” they said, almost in chorus. Ellen burst out laughing, and Patrick looked disgusted.

Fence smiled. “And for thy aid,” he said. He kissed Laura. Laura, looking back over her shoulder as he kissed Ellen, saw Patrick’s eyes grow wary. He took Fence’s kiss as Ellen had taken the pat on the head, and came quickly away, hunching his shoulders.

Randolph came to bar the door behind them, but he stood in the doorway watching them go down, and under even his imagined gaze they were quite silent. It was deathly cold in the stairwell, and every shadow looked like a beast about to appear.

CHAPTER 16

WHEN the younger ones had disappeared down the steps, Ted began to say something to Fence, and saw with dismay that Fence had put his head into his hands. Ted and Ruth looked at one another. When Randolph shut the door behind Patrick and came to stand by Fence’s chair, Fence still did not move.

“Let it wait upon the morning,” Randolph said, and his look was anxious.

“Claudia waiteth not,” said Fence into his hands.

Randolph was silent, and the four of them sat listening to the fire. Ted was very sleepy. Even with the fire, a cold crept out of the corners that made him expect to hear the wind howling outside. He looked at Ruth. He had to warn her about using Shan’s Ring. He wondered what else she might have been using it for.

Fence took his head out of his hands, and Randolph moved to sit on the edge of the table.

“Three matters,” said Fence. “This cold, Claudia, and Edward’s performance at dinner.”

Ruth looked a question at Ted, who scowled at her.

“I had not thought the cold was Claudia’s doing,” said Randolph. “I had thought it one of the workings of the Dragon King. And proof of thy observations, if any heeded. But when thou didst arrive, the cold was lessened.”

“And lessened also,” said Fence, “for that short time she held in my spell.”

“To make the cold,” said Randolph, slowly, “is neither Green nor Blue sorcery, but yellow. Her studies have been wide. Heaven grant they have not been deep also.”

“Claudia, then,” said Fence, and he looked at Ruth. “I am in your hands.”

Ted admired Ruth; she hardly blanched. “Well,” she said, “I can do to her what I did to the knife.”

“How long does such an enchantment endure?” Randolph asked her.

Ruth did not even hesitate. “A year and a day,” said she.

Fence whistled, and Ted jumped.

“I wonder if I have missed my calling,” said Fence.

Randolph laughed. “Each magic hath his benefits.”

“After all,” said Ruth, “I can stop Claudia, but you have to find her for me first.”

Both Randolph and Fence looked astonished, and Ted wished he knew more about the magics of the Secret Country. If Ruth were winging it, she ought to stop.

“I’m only a student,” said Ruth, so crossly that Ted knew that she had been winging it.

“Randolph,” said Fence, “how is thy searching eye?”

“Sharp enough,” said Randolph. He went to one of the carved chests, took a mirror from it, and left the room.

“Ruth,” said Ted.

“Edward,” said Fence, “have a care.”

“I just want to say,” said Ted, “that she shouldn’t do to Claudia what she did to the knife.”

“It won’t hurt her,” said Ruth.

“It might hurt
us.
”

Randolph came briskly in, laying the mirror on the table before Fence.

“Is that she?” he asked. He sounded put out.

Ted and Ruth craned to see into the mirror. It showed a tower room much like the one they were in, except that it had a bed and fewer tapestries. There was a shadow on the floor, but no figure to cast it.