At the base of the stairs was a small room with several doors leading from it. Dray closed his eyes, then took the first one on the right that led into another tunnel-like hallway. He rushed forward to find another door not too far along it.
It opened easily into a small room. Off the room were several narrow wooden doors, and as he turned slowly, he saw her standing in the middle of the room with her eyes closed. The dim light of the window showed him there was nothing else but her. The world above them groaned, and he looked up.
She hadn’t moved.
‘Ana,’ he said, and she jumped at the sound. ‘We need to go.’
‘Can you hear me?’ she whispered, her voice dry.
‘I can see you,’ he said, reaching out for her.
She turned, her hand over her mouth, her face dirty and her eyes wet as she threw herself at his chest.
‘We have to go,’ he said.
‘He knows where I am,’ she whispered, clinging to him. ‘Ed isn’t safe.’
‘The lord?’
She shook her head. ‘The mage. He has seen me. They are coming.’
‘For the king?’
‘No, they want me. But in their coming it will be Ed who is in danger.’
‘If we leave here, can he find you?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, allowing him to take her hand and lead her back through the tunnel and up the steps.
Once they were standing in the courtyard, she pulled him to a stop. ‘Look,’ she breathed.
The castle was smaller than it had first appeared. The grey stone now blended into the mountainous backdrop. ‘It was all an illusion.’
‘Who for?’ she asked.
‘I don’t know,’ Dray admitted, looking up at the castle from the small courtyard. A distant window had a small corner pane broken, the light not reflecting as it did the rest of the windows. Appearing as a broken tooth.
‘How did you get here?’ he asked.
‘I think the castle put me here.’
‘He wants your help.’
‘Why? What could I help with?’ she asked.
‘I think the kingdom’s collectors are on the way. Tribute will be expected.’
‘He doesn’t want to give me as tribute.’
‘No, but he might want you to make it.’
She opened her mouth and then closed it.
‘Could you hide the king if required?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she whispered.
‘Can I hide you?’
‘Not here; not in the mountains. I don’t know how well he can track me.’
֍
Ed watched the world flicker around him, Ende shifted uncomfortably and Belle made a strange squeak. He looked from her to the lord and back again before he understood the look on her face was fear.
‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’ Dray said.
The lord gave a low growl.
Ed turned as Dray led Ana into the room. She looked even more concerned than Belle, and dirty, and he honestly expected something rude and catty from Belle about her.
She stepped forward and placed a hand on Ed’s arm as she moved directly to Belle. He felt a moment of calm, as though all would be well now that they were together.
‘What do you see?’ Ana asked the girl.
‘He…’ she stammered.
‘May I?’ Ana held out her hand and Belle looked at it, clearly confused.
Then she nodded and took Ana’s hand before turning slowly towards the lord. Ed was watching them more than the little man, but there was something as Ana turned that made his heart stop. She too saw something that made her nervous.
‘Who are you?’ he asked, stepping between them, unsure what it was that they could see and he could not.
‘I am the lord of all you see,’ the man snapped. Anger was thick in his voice, and Ende flinched as the room appeared to grow smaller around them.
‘Why did the King’s Men not stop for tribute?’ Ed asked.
‘I am sure they would have,’ he said, ‘if they thought there was anything to give.’
‘I’m surprised they didn’t see you shining from the forest, the great golden castle. Why would they not come?’
‘Perhaps they have forgotten me,’ he said with a shrug, lying back in the chair, although his focus appeared to be on Belle.
‘I think we should leave,’ she whispered.
‘Oh no, my dear. That isn’t going to happen. I need Ana. And Ana needs you.’
‘I can’t help you. And the mage knows where I am,’ Ana replied.
Ende took a step forward, but Ana simply nodded without a word.
‘I don’t fear him,’ the lord muttered.
‘And his soldiers?’ Ed asked, watching him closely and wondering why he couldn’t see his face as clearly as before. ‘He won’t come alone.’
He sucked in a breath and swung his leg from the chair arm.
‘Where is the Lord of Edge Mountains?’ Ed asked as the room slowly began to turn grey.
‘Why do you not believe that I am him?’
‘There is no history of magic within the line.’
‘There is always some magic somewhere. Look at the girl. She is from a long line of lords, and yet she is something very different.’
‘What?’ Belle murmured, looking at Ana. Ende huffed.
Ed was almost sure that he could feel the temperature of the room rise.
‘I understand her mother had some gifts of her own.’
‘You did not know my mother,’ Ana said quietly, but there was something very dangerous in the way she spoke, and for a moment Ed understood Ende’s fears.
‘No one cares for the mountains, and so I can do as I like. How many people do you think are dotted amongst these slopes? How much of anything of worth could I give to the Kingdom of Ilia?’
‘You appear to have much,’ Ed said carefully. ‘The stone alone could be valued by the regent.’
‘He has interests in other things.’
‘Gold,’ Ana murmured.
‘He has some interest in that,’ the lord admitted.
‘And you have more than enough to share.’
The lord scoffed and sat back. ‘Gold? What gold?’
Ana closed her eyes.
‘Did you see something?’ Ed asked, then noticed the little man flinch.
Anger radiated from him. Ed actually stepped back, but in the heat of his anger, Ende stepped forward. He grabbed hold of the lord’s arm and blew a breath into his face. The man shrieked, and the room altered.
‘Gwelka,’ Ende said.
The plump little lord, with his thinning hair and neat trimmed beard, had been replaced with a skinny, ugly, grey creature. It squirmed in Ende’s hold. ‘Let me go,’ he bellowed. His head appeared too large for his body and Ed was sure he saw small pointed teeth.
‘How?’ Ed asked.
‘Some of them have magic,’ Ende said, ‘same as any man. You could have stayed hidden in the mountains with your gold,’ Ende said to him.
‘I was tired of living underground.’
‘Where is the lord?’ Ana asked. ‘Where are the people?’
‘There hasn’t been anyone here for some time.’
‘Someone would have noticed,’ Ed said.
‘Who, boy, would come all the way here for some gravel?’
Ed opened his mouth and then closed it. He didn’t appreciate being called boy, but then he had no real idea of how the kingdom worked.
‘Everyone must pay tribute,’ Dray said, reminding Ed that he was still in the room.
‘There is nothing to pay,’ the creature said.
‘The mage and his men are still coming,’ Ana said.
The grey, wizened little man tried to shake Ende off. The castle’s illusion had been broken along with his.
‘He doesn’t want me,’ he said, the grin too broad.
‘But that might not stop them. And once they find a gwelka running the Seat, they might assume you have
something here. They could tear this mountain apart.’
His wrinkled face paled further, becoming an almost blue colour.
Ana cried out, a strangled pained plea, and then she was gone. Vanished. Belle sucked in a scared breath, stumbling a little, so Ed reached out an arm and pulled her closer.
‘She was holding my hand,’ she whispered.
The gwelka sighed. ‘It appears that my advantage is gone.’
‘Why would he take her when he has seen how dangerous she is?’ Ende mused.
Ed’s heart thumped loud in his ears. ‘They know I’m gone.’
‘You think they have only just discovered it?’ Dray asked.
‘I don’t get out much,’ Ed muttered. ‘It doesn’t take long for them to forget me.’
‘You are the king,’ Belle said.
‘I am a boy in the way of my uncle.’ He looked down at her bright yet confused face.
‘You may be off,’ the gwelka said, waving a skinny arm towards the door.
Ed sighed.
‘I agree,’ Ende murmured. ‘As much as I think it is a bad idea.’
‘What idea?’ Belle asked.
‘We are going to need some gold,’ Dray said, and the gwelka scowled at him.
Chapter 25
Ana was sure she would throw up. Her head spun and she ached all over, as though she had fallen a great distance. She dragged in a deep breath only to cough as the smoky, herb-infused air filled her lungs. She looked up into the dim light at the two men standing before her. She wanted desperately to pull back out of their reach, but she didn’t have the strength.
One man squatted down and peered at her as through she were something he had never seen before. He tilted his head. Although she didn’t know who he was, there was something familiar about him.
‘Are you certain?’ he asked, and the other man stepped into the light.
Ana managed to find some ability to scuttle back with the fear that rose in her chest. The mage smiled at her.
‘She may be a threat still. I saw her power with the king.’
‘He is gone,’ the first man said.
Ana blinked up at him and opened her mouth to ask where Ed might be, but changed her mind. As she slammed her mouth shut and chewed on her lip, she only hoped they didn’t know what she was thinking. Didn’t know she had been with him.
‘Where is your soldier?’ the mage asked.
Ana shook her head once as she looked around the dimly lit space. She had been here before. In one of the visions in the dark. ‘How?’ she asked.
‘I am far stronger than even you could understand.’
‘And yet you could only kill me by throwing me from the Walk.’
‘It is not the only way.’ She shivered despite her best efforts. ‘The Lord of Sheer Rock needed to prove herself.’
‘And did she?’ Ana asked. ‘Has she paid her tribute?’
‘She has now,’ the mage murmured.
‘Although she need not know that,’ the other man added under his breath. ‘She was keen to give you up, despite the family connection.’
‘I didn’t know that,’ Ana admitted. ‘I only knew her as the Lord of Sheer Rock.’
He nodded and held out a hand to help her up. Then he appeared to think better of it, or at least differently, for he withdrew his hand quickly as she reached for it.
They were scared of her, she realised, and she wondered if she was really the threat Ende had thought she was. What might they hope she could do for them? ‘Maybe you should just send me back to the mountains, out of the way.’
‘Enough,’ the man boomed, and she pulled back from him. ‘I want her somewhere she cannot do harm.’
‘You mean where someone can’t harm me?’ she asked hopefully.
‘No,’ he said, his voice determined. ‘I know my own mind.’ He turned and left the room, his dark robes swirling out around him. Although he didn’t wear a crown, she felt it hover over his head.
‘The king’s regent,’ she whispered.
‘And the reason you need to remember who and where you are.’
‘Where am I exactly?’ she asked.
‘Somewhere you can learn.’
‘I thought you wanted me dead,’ Ana said, sitting back against the cool wall behind her.
‘It may be that you are of use to us after all.’
‘And if I don’t want to be of use?’
‘You will be, one way or another.’
‘How did you know where I was?’
He sighed. ‘So many questions. You will learn how to be useful. And until you are, you can be a maid again. You can bring me tea,’ he said, pointing to the fireplace on the far side of the room.
‘You trust me to walk around the castle?’
‘You won’t be leaving this room,’ he said, moving back into the shadows.
Ana climbed very slowly to her feet, using the wall as support. Her head spun and she staggered a little, wishing Dray was close by to hold her steady. She chewed on her lip as she moved over to the fire. He was so very far away now, and he needed to help Ed, not worry about where she might have gone. She thought of the gwelka playing at lord. She glanced over her shoulder, but she had no idea where in the room the mage was. Could he know what it was in the mountains? Or did they not care as long as it didn’t stand against them?
A small pot bubbled over the flame. Ana looked at it suspended over the heat, yet there was no metal holding it in place. A tea pot and a small pile of cups sat on a low cupboard to the side along with various jars.
She selected one and lifted the lid carefully, sniffing at the contents and then shaking her head at the spicy burn. She pushed the lid back on quickly and rubbed the back of her hand across her nose. Then she tested the next one and, using the scoop in the jar, put some into the pot.
She ran her tongue over her dried lips as she poured the water over the leaves. She lifted the pot and two cups and carried them through the maze of shelves. The room felt familiar, and without thought she moved quicker towards a desk she wasn’t sure she knew existed.
‘Find what you need?’ the mage asked as she sat the pot and cups on the edge of the desk.
Ana nodded once as she poured tea into a cup and sat it beside the book he read. Then she poured another for herself. She turned back to the room as she sipped. He had managed to drag her all the way to the capital from the mountains. Was there any way she could protect Ed from these men?
Stifling a yawn, Ana moved back through the room. She looked over the shelves that lined the walls, and the others that sometimes filled the spaces between. There were jars, pots, books and strange ornaments tucked in amongst them. Some she wanted to touch, but she kept her hands to herself.
What did she need most? she wondered. Other than a way out of this mess—not that she had a choice of returning to the life she’d had. In any case, she was sure now it wasn’t what she wanted. Her mother had wanted to protect her, but whether that was only from the lord or men like the mage, she didn’t know.
In a far corner amongst the shelves and dust was a cot, narrow and covered in a thin blanket. She drained the remains of the cup, sat it on the floor and lay down, longing for the warmth of Ende’s cloak. She wondered where it was now that he was so far away and the gwelka was revealed. Her fine dresses had been an illusion. How had he managed to keep it up for so long, and without her seeing it?
She had felt something strange, but she hadn’t worked out what it was. She might not have the gifts Ende was so sure she had. She pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around herself. She still wore her tatty dress, and her shoes. She was still just a maid, and she had been stupid to think she could be anything else.
Chapter 26
‘Is it getting smaller in here?’ Dray murmured, looking over the cool grey stone and the narrow windows.
‘It might be a bit tight for a dragon,’ the gwelka quipped.
Ende, his hand still tight around the little grey man’s arm, s
napped at him, and he actually flinched.
‘I could do with some air,’ the king said. They headed as a group out into the courtyard, which didn’t appear to be familiar to any of them but Dray.
‘Are there horses?’ Belle asked, taking a step towards the stables. Dray glanced at Ende.
‘Don’t look at me,’ he said with a scowl.
The king looked up then, and Dray wondered when they would learn what Ende was. There had been a moment of understanding when the king had first arrived, clear on his face that this was the man he had searched for. Yet he didn’t know what kind of man that was.
‘I ate them,’ the little gwelka admitted easily.
Dray looked at him closely. He had never met a gwelka in the flesh before, and the stories he had heard were varied and, frankly, unbelievable. It was half the size of a man, and it even made the king look muscular. But with the tight grip maintained by Ende, he wondered just what it might do if released.
‘Are you going to call off the beast?’ he asked.
Ende smiled, his perfect teeth flashing in the clouded light of the day.
‘I think you should be more polite,’ Belle said, and Dray noticed that Ende didn’t meet her eyes.
‘We need horses and supplies,’ the king said, looking at the gwelka.
‘Nothing left. Hasn’t been anything left for a while.’
‘How did you maintain this?’ Dray asked, waving his hand over the much smaller castle.
‘I’m stronger than I look.’
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Ende murmured.
‘And if I ate you?’ he asked the old man. ‘What might happen then?’
‘You are not likely to survive the experience,’ Ende whispered.
‘Were you going to eat us?’ Belle asked, truly fixated on him as Dray searched her for signs of fear. She seemed unsettled, but no longer scared. He wondered what else this girl had endured on her way to the mountains.
‘In time. I needed the girl first.’
‘We wouldn’t have let you,’ she said, and Dray took a step forward. The gwelka laughed, the sharp sound echoing off the building around them. ‘We would have protected each other.’
‘You would have been gone before you knew what had happened. I was in your room and you never suspected me.’
The Empty Crown Page 17