by Paul Collins
Tab slumped. This was all her fault. If she hadn't been stupid enough or arrogant enough to think she could handle the Tolrushian spies, she wouldn't be here now. But then she wouldn't have found Torby either…
She sighed, and told them exactly where she had hidden the gem that she'd stolen from the magicians.
Kull smiled broadly. ‘See, how hard was that?’ He suddenly frowned and pursed his lips. ‘Tell me, riftling. Why didn't you hand over the icefire to your Navigators’ Guild?’
Tab slumped with her betrayal. ‘I was going to but as time went by I knew no one would believe my story. And even if they did, they would have blamed me for everything. I had… had intended to leave it in the Chief Navigator's office… but -’
Kull slapped his thighs with merriment. ‘Enough, you fool of a child. For a moment I thought perhaps the icefire was faulty. Instead you worried about your own safety and have caused a two-fold calamity for your city!’ He turned to go.
‘What about us?’ said Tab. ‘You've got what you wanted… ’
‘We'll see,’ said Kull. ‘Perhaps the gem is where you say it is, and perhaps it isn't.’
He turned and strode out of the cell and the guards followed him. The cell door clanged shut with an ominous sound. Tab held Torby as tightly as she could. She suspected there was almost no chance that Kull would release them, even when he had the gem. Much easier just to slit their throats and throw them overboard.
Torby raised his face and looked at her. ‘You knew.’
She smiled down at him. ‘Yes. I went back to the slaughterhouse and grabbed the icefire. Only just in time, too, because Fontagu turned up about two minutes later. I don't think he saw me. I snuck out and hid the gem where nobody could find it.’
‘Why?’
It hit her then that Torby was actually talking. She felt like laughing, as if he were her own child, or a little brother, and these were the first words he had ever spoken. The feeling caused an odd ache in her chest.
‘Because I thought that it was the most dangerous thing in the whole world. And I was right. It ripped my home, Quentaris, from out of the very ground and threw it through a rift vortex, into another universe. Later, I realised what the icefire really was: a source of fuel. But by then I'd waited too long to hand it back to the magicians. And the longer I waited, the more impossible it was. But I really was going to leave it in Stelka's office.’
Torby was silent for a while, then he said, ‘What now?’
‘I don't know, Torby. I really don't know.’
She kept hoping that Kull, once he had the icefire, would release them. But that hope was dashed that evening. Kull himself, alone, came to gloat. He even bowed low to her.
‘Truly,’ he said, ‘I am in your debt. Never have I seen such an icefire gem! My magicians tell me it will power the ire ore for at least a year, maybe more. With it we will capture and crush Quentaris, and we will extract the secret of how to get home again. So once more, apprentice, I thank you.’
He bowed a second time, smirking.
‘If you are in my debt then I ask that we be released.’
Kull stared at her for a moment then burst out laughing.
‘You can't keep us here!’ she cried. ‘And anyway – Quentaris will send somebody to rescue us.’
Kull stopped laughing and his eyes glittered with malice. ‘Are you threatening me, brat?’
Tab's eyes went wide. She looked away from his gaze. ‘No,’ she said. But then she looked up again, defiant. ‘But they will come for me.’
‘Why, because you saved them?’ asked Kull. He emitted a scornful bark of laughter. ‘A creature like you lives to serve its city, not the other way around. Do you really believe Quentaris feels any loyalty towards you? Know this, even now they are making speed away from us. Besides, your name there is mud, thanks to the vigorous efforts of my… agent.’
‘You're a liar,’ said Tab.
Kull's face flushed and he gripped the cell bars. Tab knew that if it had not been for those bars he would have killed her on the spot. Finally, after a long panting moment, he took a step back, smirking.
‘Tomorrow morning, you will be given a breakfast fit for royalty,’ he said. ‘Then you will provide the day's entertainment. My nobles and I, you see, are in disagreement over exactly how high above the ground we are. And my master magician has come up with a delightful way to measure our altitude.’
Tab scowled and said nothing. She pressed her hands over Torby's ears so he couldn't hear.
‘Apparently, sound travels at a fixed rate of speed. So my master magician has determined that by throwing a child overboard and timing its screams as it falls, we will be able to arrive at an exact measurement. Rather brilliant, I thought.’
And with that, Kull turned on his heels and strode out of the cell block, whistling merrily.
The night deepened. Tab dozed fitfully and woke to the sound of a distant bell tolling midnight. And with the final peal, the first threads of a plan began to knit in her mind. She woke Torby…
DESPERATE ESCAPE
Tab cleared her mind, and tried to recall what it felt like to be a rat, to be so small and scared, and always so hungry. She pictured the twitching whiskers on the snout, the feel of a tail stretching out behind, and she let her mind float outwards… and almost at once she was there, inside the rat, peering out from its eyes. It was reaching up a wall as though curious. Smells and sounds leapt at her. She forced the rat to look around and suddenly she gasped. She could see herself – only that wasn't what she looked like. To the rat, she was a tall, thin blob with a pale face and sharp horrible eyes. She was also black and white; the rat, like all rats, could not see in true colours.
She sent the rat hurrying back the way it had come, stopping directly above the key rail. Tab had to give the rat an extra push to do her will. It was hesitant and for good reason. The jump was risky and the rail narrow.
The rat half leapt and half slithered down the wall. Tab held her breath, but the rat was good at its job. It landed awkwardly, started to slip back, then dug in its claws and pulled itself to safety.
Inside the rat's mind, Tab directed it to grab the keys and slide them off the peg. This was the dangerous part. She didn't know how far away the guardroom was and the sound of the keys hitting the stone floor might bring someone. But as she overheard Verris say once, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
She urged the rat to push the keys off the peg with its snout. They hit the floor with a loud rattle. Tab waited, and she could feel both her own heart, and the rat's, beating hard. After what seemed an eternity, she relaxed. No one had come.
Tab had the rat leap to the floor and, very slowly, and as quietly as possible, drag the keys to her cell.›››There›› You're free to go
The rat scurried away. Tab reached through the bars and grabbed the keys. There were only three. The sodden clunk of tumblers told her when she had found the right one. Her heart leapt. With Torby held tight against her, they crept silently from the cell.
‘Torby,’ whispered Tab, ‘I need you to be as quiet as a mouse. Can you do that for me?’
Torby nodded, wide-eyed. She could tell he was scared but he was also excited. Good for him, she thought. They stole past the guardroom, hearing heavy, reassuring snores. Then they came to some steps. They climbed them, halting at a locked door. Tab fumbled for the key ring and mentally crossed her fingers.
But as she inserted the key, the door started to open. Someone was coming in.
In utter despair, she grabbed Torby and whirled to flee back down the stairs, but before she had even taken one step she heard a remarkable thing. Her name.
‘Tab!’
She looked back, and gaped. Philmon and Amelia stood in the doorway. It was almost too much. She felt herself sagging but hands were grabbing her, keeping her steady. She heard Torby whimper and instinctively put an arm around him.
Her head cleared. Philmon's grin was in her face. She threw her other arm around him an
d hugged him hard.
‘What in the name of all the odd gods are you two doing here?’
‘Oh, we were just in the neighbourhood and thought -’
Amelia elbowed Philmon in the ribs. ‘Shut up.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Honestly, if he cracks one more joke, I swear I'll throttle him.’
‘Hey, that's not fair,’ said Philmon. ‘At least I'm not all doom and gloom.’
Tab looked from one to the other. ‘But -?’
Amelia quickly filled her in. Exhausted, she had gone to bed early, then wakened to find a small blinking seed-gem on Tab's bedside table. She had known at once what it was: an alarm, the kind that was only triggered if something hidden was stolen, or a locked door was opened. The city had been searched at Verris’ request. But no sign or clue of Tab had been found.
Then Florian had started spreading rumours. About how Tab had sold out Quentaris, how she had been working with Tolrush all along and that the first attack had been designed to make her look good so that she would win favour.
‘The seed-gem is designed to take you to the place or object being protected, and that's just what it did,’ said Amelia. ‘I should have thought of it before.’
‘Bit of a shock, though,’ said Philmon wryly, ‘to stumble on a bunch of Tolrushians, I can tell you!’
‘But how did you get here?’ asked Tab.
‘Flew,’ said Philmon.
‘I enchanted an old rowboat – levitated it, to be precise,’ said Amelia proudly. She looked at Torby. ‘I think we should get moving. But who's this?’
‘His name's Torby. They – tortured him. We have to get him to safety,’ said Tab.
Philmon and Amelia heard the appeal in her voice, and both nodded. They couldn't imagine even for themselves what it would be like to be trapped in a Tolrushian dungeon, let alone for a young child. Amelia put her palm to Torby's cheek. It was a measure of his newfound security with Tab that he didn't quite flinch. ‘We're going to get you both out of here, Torby, don't you worry,’ she said. ‘The rowboat's on a tower not far from here. Let's go.’
As they ran, darting from one shadow to another, Amelia filled Tab in on the rest of the story. They had followed the Tolrushians, who already had the gem – Amelia and Philmon had seen them later admiring it – to their flying ship. From what they could overhear, the group had been led by a Quentaran spy or traitor, someone who knew his way around, and who kept mentioning his ‘prodigious reward’.
Tab started at the words. They reminded her of someone, but just then she couldn't think who.
Amelia continued. ‘We didn't know exactly what was going on, but it was pretty clear that if you were still alive, then you had to be on Tolrush, and this bunch knew where. So I enchanted the boat and we tracked them. The rest you pretty much know.’
‘You came here on your own?’ Tab gasped.
Philmon shrugged. ‘We couldn't alert the City Watch. If they knew Tolrush was so close they'd have alerted the Navigators’ Guild and they'd have fled faster than you could say “drop dead”.’
Tab was amazed, and humbled. It must have taken a lot of nerve for both of them to come and rescue her. This was probably the first time in her life that she knew that other people actually cared about her. She felt an odd stinging in the back of her eyes.
‘Nearly there,’ said Philmon as they reached an arched doorway. They had been following an enclosed passageway between high walls. Tolrush was a grim rat's warren of alleyways, tunnels and interconnected streets that had long ago been built over, forming even more tunnels.
‘Hold!’ growled a voice.
The children skidded to a stop in front of four armed guards. ‘What we got here? A scurrying rat pack, no less!’ one of them said. ‘And fell right into our trap, they did.’
‘Behind me,’ Amelia said.
‘The skinny girl and the boy alive,’ said the leader. ‘Kill the others.’
Amelia blew into her hands and something not quite invisible sparkled like a gust of vapour, smothering the nearest guard. He coughed and buckled over.
Philmon snatched up the fallen man's sword and waved it uncertainly. ‘Stay back,’ he threatened, his voice almost breaking.
‘Take them!’ snarled the leader.
A guard smashed down on Philmon's sword, jarring his arm. The sword clattered to the floor but Tab leapt forward and snatched it up, raising its point just as the guard advanced, almost skewering him. He leapt back just in time, bellowing a curse as he tripped over his fallen comrade and slammed backwards into the wall. There was a nasty crunch as his head connected, and he dropped.
Meanwhile Amelia's shaking hands wove a quick spell and the third guard's face went suddenly blank, as though he didn't know where he was.
But now the first guard who had fallen was getting up. The leader shouldered past him, cried ‘Enough!’ and swung his sword. It sliced through the air an inch above Philmon's ducking head. Amelia, drained from her use of magic, slumped against the wall. Tab tried to block the leader's way, brandishing Philmon's sword, but she knew she was useless at fencing.
Someone blocked the light from the doorway. Tab's heart sank. Reinforcements had arrived.
‘Drop your weapons else I'll slay the lot of you,’ warned the leader, who had also seen the shadow.
Then a chair came crashing down on his head and he fell like a sack of wheat. The first guard, his head clearing, took to his feet, and bolted.
The man in the doorway stepped forward.
‘Fontagu?’ exclaimed Tab. She couldn't believe her eyes. ‘Wha – how -?’
‘Never mind all that,’ said Fontagu in a quavering voice. ‘Let us flee this horrible place!’ The Tolrushian sergeant groaned. Fontagu started. ‘He's not dead, is he?’
Amelia said, ‘Usually they don't groan when they're dead.’
‘Right,’ Fontagu mumbled.
‘Is this the Fontagu?’ Philmon asked, wonderingly. ‘The one you told us about?’
‘Yeah,’ said Tab, still amazed to see her friend.
‘I thought you said he was dead.’
‘I thought he was,’ Tab replied, dropping the sword and replacing it with a sturdy dagger.
Amelia looked at Fontagu through narrowed eyes. ‘He's about the same size as the one who guided the Tolrushians.’
‘I've just saved your wretched lives,’ said Fontagu petulantly. ‘And I've been a prisoner here too, you know.’ He glared at them.
‘You don't look as though you've been tortured to me,’ accused Amelia. This wasn't quite true. Fontagu did look thin and pale and his eyes were red-rimmed, but whether from poor treatment or crying, it was hard to tell. He was, however, wearing clean and rather expensive clothes.
‘Tortured!’ Fontagu cried theatrically. ‘Bound and gagged, half drowned, beaten to within an inch of my life, starved and driven mad with thirst -’
‘I think I saw that play,’ said Tab. Then she was struck by a sudden, rather unpleasant idea. She looked at Fontagu. ‘They captured you during the battle, didn't they? And you've been a prisoner ever since… ’
‘Oh, I could tell you tales of woe… ’ he began, but Tab cut him off.
‘That attack on Quentaris was a ruse to land a boarding party. They were really searching for you. You told them that I knew where the icefire was hidden. That's what happened, isn't it?’
Fontagu began to bluster. ‘Me? Well, really! Shame on you! You think I would hand over my only friend in Quentaris? What sort of man do you think I am?’
Tab said nothing. She continued to stare at him.
He broke down in a rush, falling to his knees and wailing, ‘Don't blame me, Tab. I couldn't help myself. They were going to poke out my eyes with a red-hot poker… I would never have acted again!’
Amelia and Philmon glared at him. Amelia snatched up a sword and looked as if she was going to run him through. ‘Because of you,’ she said, ‘Tolrush now has the magicians’ icefire gem and you nearly got Tab killed!’
Fon
tagu was weeping. Tab stepped between him and Amelia. There had been one brief flash of resentment when she had found out that Fontagu had betrayed her, but then she remembered her own torture, and Torby's, and how she had quickly caved in and told them where to find the icefire.
People like Kull Vladis always knew how to reveal the thing each person feared most, how to find their breaking point.
She stuck out her hand. Fontagu looked at it, not understanding at first, then he took it, still weeping, but with a kind of wonder.
‘I don't blame you, Fontagu,’ said Tab. She helped him to his feet. ‘But it's a pity about the icefire.’
Fontagu stared at her, then smote his forehead. ‘Oh, but it's not,’ he said.
Amelia muttered something darkly. Fontagu stepped around Tab, making sure she was between him and the more hot-tempered Amelia. He reached into his pocket and drew out the icefire in question.
Amelia and Philmon's mouths gaped. Tab stared. Torby eyed the gem with wonder.
‘How -?’ Tab began.
‘Well, I do have some skills you know… and the master magician does like to keep things in his pockets… ’
Amelia gaped. ‘You stole it again?’
Fontagu tried to look bashful, and failed.
‘Now we'd really better get out of here,’ said Amelia, ‘’cause they're going to come after us with everything they've got!’
Leading the way, Amelia hurried through several passageways, covered courtyards, and a long narrow lane. They came out into a square open to the sky. At the same time, a platoon of guards entered from the opposite side. Sighting their quarry, the guards charged, bellowing.
‘This way!’ shouted Philmon.
They fled up a stairwell to a tower that bordered the square. At the top, Tab slammed shut the stairwell door and drew the bolt. The door wouldn't hold for long, but it gave them breathing space.
‘Now what? We're trapped!’ said Tab. Fontagu wailed softly. Torby said nothing.
Amelia had rushed onto a large balcony. It was some eight storeys from the ground. ‘I'll have to try summoning the boat. We'll never get there with that lot on our heels.’