Winter Door (34 page)

“So you’re going to try to sleep again?”

Rage nodded. They were back in the extension, having decided that they did not want to bother moving to her bedroom. “I have to find out what happened. I wish I could take you, Logan.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said. “But maybe you should will yourself to Valley. I mean, if a couple of days have passed, the winter door might already be gone.”

“I think I’m supposed to be there when it happens,” Rage said. She lay down on the bed and Billy stretched out beside her. Logan switched the overhead light out. The only light came from the desk lantern.

“I’m going to leave it on,” he said. “I was thinking that I might have a look at your uncle’s notebooks. I mean, if you don’t think he’d mind.”

“I don’t think he’ll be back for them anytime soon,” Rage said sadly.

She relaxed, feeling tired but peaceful despite her fears for Elle. Forgiving the wizard had done that. Mam had often told her that she had a good rage inside her, but now she understood that there had been the potential for destructive anger as well. Anger, Mam always said, made people stupid.

Rage’s eyes drooped, and she tried to picture herself and Billy standing with Mr. Walker. In her vision, Billy had an arm around her shoulders. Whether he was a dog or human shaped, they belonged together, she thought. Then she tumbled into a dream of walking through snow falling on a snowy plain. There was nothing to indicate where she was, nor any sign of Billy or Mr. Walker. But she heard the same voice that she had heard calling her before.

“This is a dream,” she muttered. “I must have gotten sidetracked.”

She was about to close her eyes and try another dream leap when she heard the voice quite clearly.

“Help me!”
It was weaker than it had been, and she had the feeling she knew the voice.

“Who are you?” she shouted on impulse.

“Who are you?” the voice responded. Rage gave a snort of disgust, realizing it must merely be a distorted echo of her own words. She closed her eyes and willed herself and Billy to Mr. Walker.

This time when she opened her eyes, she and Billy were standing on a snowy plain surrounded by jagged mountains. There was no snow falling and it was night. Before her stood a great crowd facing what could only be the Null side of the winter door: an enormous, pale arch of glowing ice with a fringe of icicles that glimmered white in the light of the torches carried by many of those assembled. Humans and other beings were passing through the door, one by one, and vanishing.

“Look!” Billy cried, pointing. “It’s
her
! Elle!”

Rage scanned the crowd until she saw Elle standing to one side, talking with the wizard, Mr. Walker, Nomadiel, and the rebel leader, Shona.

“Maybe she said no,” Rage murmured hopefully.

Billy shook his head. “Just before I woke, I heard her agree. She would never go back on her word.”

They made their way over the slippery ice. They skirted the gathering until they came to where Mr. Walker was speaking with Elle. Rage was touched to see that he was holding his daughter’s hand.

“This is not fair,” Mr. Walker was saying hotly.

Elle laughed. “Dear Prince Walker, you know that the real stories do not always end with everyone getting what they want. But do not think you have seen the last of me, for I intend to torment the Stormlord with my endless desire for the summerlands, until he begs me to leave Null and him in peace.”

“What of Fork?” Mr. Walker asked.

Elle sighed and a shadow crossed her face. “Part of Fork’s grief is caused by what flows through the winter door. But the city will grieve for me, I know. Upon your return, someone must go there and make it understand that there was no other way. Tell Fork that I send it a world full of lost souls to fill its empty streets, and charge it to produce beauty enough to open their withered hearts and help them grow. Tell Fork not to fail me.”

She caught sight of Rage and Billy and stepped forward to clasp them close. “I am glad to see you to say goodbye.”

“You
are
staying,” Rage said, unable to believe that it would come to this.

Elle smiled. “Do not be downcast for me, darling heart. The master of this place and I are about to enter upon a contest. He will seek to dull me and I will strive to brighten him. If I succeed, gaps will open again and again, and one day he will weary of the battle and I will be coming home to Valley.”

Such was the power of her personality that Rage could almost believe her.

“But to choose darkness and winter,” Shona wept. “How can this be a good ending for the story of our journey to the summerlands? That we sacrificed the golden lady who was our champion in order to gain the sun?”

“I am no sacrifice,” Elle said firmly. “You mustn’t think it, any of you.”

“Oh, Elle,” Nomadiel cried. She let go of her father’s hand and flung herself into Elle’s arms.

“Do not weep, little one. Grow well and expect me to come to visit you one day. But mind, I will expect a royal feast and many fine songs and stories.”

“You shall have them,” Nomadiel whispered.

Elle straightened. “You had better go now before the master of this place discovers what a bad bargain he has made. He will arrive soon with the last prisoners, and you must be ready to tend them on the other side of the door.”

Rage could see nothing through the door, but she hoped that the summerlanders would be stepping into a blaze of sunlight. The crowd diminished as more and more streamed through the door.

“Maybe Rage can dream us to visit you,” Billy said.

“I am afraid that cannot be,” the wizard said. “You see, the magic that Rage is using to dream-travel is not hers but a magic the firecat stole from me in its desire to bring me aid, though I did not want it. The dream-traveling spell will wear off before long. Indeed, it is a wonder to me that it has not done so sooner. No doubt the firecat meddled with it.”

“Where is the firecat?” Mr. Walker asked. “Didn’t you say that you would need it to help you close the door?”

“I will force it to come to me when the time is right, but being here in a land steeped in despair will torment it because of its own hungers. I do not wish it to suffer more than it needs to,” the wizard answered.

At last, it was their turn to pass through the door. Before any of them could speak, there was a blinding flash of bluish light, and the Stormlord, clad in his heavy gray robes, stood in front of them.

“Now he will betray us,” Puck muttered.

The Stormlord ignored him. “I have listened to your words, Lady, and I find myself…troubled. You spoke of a challenge, and it comes to me that my decision to keep you here was a challenge. Perhaps I do need a real contest to remind me of what I meant to do with this world. Things became confused once I began to put Null-landers into my machine. Since it has fallen silent, my mind is clearer. I still believe that conquering what you represent, Lady, will cleanse me and purify my world. But I desire the challenge to be more honorable.”

“What do you mean?” Elle asked.

“You will remain here, as we have agreed, for six months. In this time, we will contest. But if at the end of that time you retain the will and desire to leave Null, I will open a true gateway to your land, and you will pass through it. There you will remain for six months so that we can gather our strength, and then you will come again. So it will continue until I do not desire you to come to Null, which means that you will have won, or when you lack the will to leave Null, and you will have lost.”

“Six months here and six months there?” Elle asked. The Stormlord inclined his dark head. “Very well, I accept your renewed terms, my Lord. Gladly.”

The Stormlord bowed to her and then lifted a long, thin hand toward the winter door. There was a flash of light, and suddenly a line of people was shuffling toward the door. The remaining prisoners. Most did not even look to see where they were walking.

“Where is the creature who created the false door?” the Stormlord asked.

The wizard lifted his hands into the air and made a twisting motion with his fingers. There was a hissing burst of light, like that of a rocket that had not been released. The firecat appeared, a spitting, screeching brightness hurtling through the winter door.

“No! Not coming. Hateful place. Hurting!”

“Firecat! Hear your master. I have told you that you must help us to dismantle the door you created.”

“Letting go! Must going! Hurting!” it shrieked.

“Be calm. The sooner you help, the sooner we can leave this place,” the wizard said firmly.

“Wizard not leaving firecat?” Rage saw its red, slanted eyes clearly for a moment, beseeching but filled with fury.

“Of course not,” the wizard said gently. “Now will you help us willingly, or must I cast a spell to make you obedient?”

“No! Not making ssspell. Firecat doing what isss wanted. Nice wizard.” It began to snarl and weep.

The wizard gave a sigh and turned to the Stormlord. “We are ready.”

“Are
you
ready, Lady?” the Stormlord asked Elle.

“I am ready,” Elle said. She crossed the little space between them to stand beside the Stormlord, bright flame alongside dark flame.

The wizard lifted his hand and nodded gravely to Elle.

“Farewell, my friends.” She gave a flashing smile. “Look for me in six months!”

“Goodbye,” Thaddeus called.

The others did the same, then they turned to pass one by one through the door: Thaddeus, Mr. Walker, Nomadiel with Rally on her shoulder. Billy passed through the gate before Rage. She turned to look one last time at Elle, who smiled.

Weeping, Rage stepped through the winter door. There was a moment of extreme coldness, then she was stepping onto the hillside in Valley.

It was dark and raining heavily. The snow underfoot was a muddy slush, and Rage slipped. Billy caught her arm and held her steady. He shouted over the rain that the others had gone up to the wizard’s castle. Then the wizard stepped through the door, the firecat struggling in his arms. Its heat did not seem to trouble the wizard, and he seemed not to notice the rain as he turned to face the winter door.

At that moment, Gilbert came dashing out of the darkness with an armful of umbrellas that he promptly dropped in the mud. He fell to his knees to gather them up. The wizard helped him up and said a little water never hurt anyone.

The wizard turned back to the door. “Now, to complete the spell, firecat, you must desire the door to be gone. I will send the power through you to make it so.”

“Door gone!” the firecat shrieked.

There was a flare of light. For one moment, Rage saw them through a slit-shaped hole: Elle with her bright golden hair, and the tall, pale-faced Stormlord as he held out a formal hand, and Rage saw Elle look at him and then lay her own hand in it.

Then the Stormlord lifted his free hand and pointed toward the slit.

The door vanished.

“Wetnesss! Horrible cruel wetnesss and coldnesss!” the firecat hissed.

“Go and find a fire to curl up by,” the wizard said wearily, and he released it. The firecat vanished in a fizzing flash of light. “I shall have to do something about that firecat,” he murmured, “else I will spend the rest of my days being enmeshed in its mischief.”

“Come out of the rain,” Gilbert said. “There is hot soup and fresh-baked bread and warm fires back at the castle. I’m afraid I didn’t know so many would be coming, and I was so upset about Elle not coming back that when I tried to create enough food for them all, I misspoke, and the castle is full of purple chickens. I can’t seem to remember how to make them go away. I am sorry, master.”

“Dear Gilbert, how I have missed you!” the wizard laughed, and threw a long arm around the bedraggled faun’s shoulders.

“I am glad to see you, too, master,” Gilbert said. He looked at Billy. “You have grown so much,” he marveled, then his pale eyes watered. “Was there really no other way but to leave her?”

“I don’t know if there was another way, but Elle chose this way,” Billy said. “But Gilbert, maybe no one has thought to tell you that the Stormlord of Null changed his mind. Elle will not remain there forever now, but only for six months at a time.”

“You mean that she will come back here…”

“For six months. But then she must return to Null for the next six months. This will go on until the Stormlord desires her not to return to Null, or she desires not to return here,” the wizard said. “Well, we seem to be wet enough that we might have gone bathing in our clothes. Let us go and try your soup and deal with these chickens.” He turned to Rage. “Will you remain awhile with us? I can ensure that you do not wake until you desire.”

“Just for a little while,” Rage said, torn between knowing Logan was waiting anxiously and knowing this might be the last time she could be in Valley. “Until day comes.”

“Day…” The wizard’s face was transformed by longing. “Oh, to see day again, even if it is a day full of gray skies and rain.”

“Maybe it won’t rain,” Gilbert said.

The castle was now an enormous mansion with dozens of bedrooms, which was lucky, given how many guests had arrived through the winter door. Most of those from Null were eating in a great dining hall, for the wizard had conjured a feast tempting enough to dazzle the most numbed senses. Rage, Billy, their companions from Valley, and a few of the summerlanders were sitting in the library by the fire, drinking soup out of big mugs. As they ate, they took turns telling Gilbert and the witch Mother all that had happened. The silver streaks in Rue’s hair shone in the firelight, but despite this, she seemed younger when Thaddeus sat very close to her.

Then they moved on to plans for the future.

“There will be a lot of cleaning up because there will be flooding now that so much snow has begun to melt,” Thaddeus said. “But as the sun is shining and the flowers blooming about us, I won’t mind how hard I work. I have never longed more for the smell and sounds of spring.”

“I, too,” Mr. Walker said. “I will plant a honeysuckle on Feluffeen’s grave. She always liked honeysuckle.”