by James Roy
‘This is terrible,’ Amelia said.
‘Oh, it’s all right – the goat’s fine. Her milk might be a bit off for a couple of days, but that’s probably all. But as for our -’
‘We don’t care about the stupid goat!’ Philmon snapped, and Myla blinked in surprise. ‘What’s upsetting me is that while you and your staff were out the back pulling some farmyard animal out of a pile of rocks, our friend was being kidnapped!’
Myla cleared her throat. ‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We don’t know that he’s been kidnapped -’
‘Well let’s see: is he in his bed? No. Is he sitting beside his bed? No. Is he anywhere in this building? I assume you’ve looked for him?’
‘Of course. And you’re quite right, he’s not here.’
Amelia thought Philmon’s head was going to burst with rage. ‘Look, if someone who hasn’t spoken or moved for almost a year suddenly leaves their bed and disappears, I’d say there’s a good chance that they’ve been kidnapped, wouldn’t you?’
›››Armla! Armla!
‘Ah!’ yelped Amelia, as a sudden pain ripped through the space behind her eyes. Her hands went to her forehead, but no matter how hard she pushed, the pain wouldn’t stop.
And there was the voice, like the sound of grinding teeth. ›››Armla! Armla! These is steel kelp!
‘Amelia, are you all right?’ Philmon asked, placing a steadying arm around her shoulders.
‘Do I look all right?’ she said through clenched teeth. ‘Something’s happening. Someone’s trying to say something to me.’
‘Are you sure?’ asked Myla.
‘No, I’m creating a diversion. Of course I’m sure!’
‘No, well you don’t look at all well. There is a bed just through here. Come this way. Risha! Risha!’ she called.
But as quickly as it had come, the pain went, along with the teeth-grinding voice. Amelia felt suddenly drained, her energy depleted, and stumbling forward to a nearby stool, she sat down carefully.
‘What was it?’ Philmon asked.
‘I’m fine,’ Amelia replied. This wasn’t what Philmon had been asking – she knew that – but she didn’t want to talk to him about it until they were alone. Myla and the nursemaid, who was now fussing around getting a cup of water for Amelia, didn’t need to hear what she was about to tell Philmon.
She was going to tell him that someone had been trying to mind-meld with her, but that she didn’t have a clue who it was.
***
‘So tell me again, what did the voice say? Tell me exactly.’ Philmon seemed excited at this new development. Excited and thoughtful.
Amelia glanced around to make sure that no one could hear her. There was no chance of anyone within the infirmary overhearing her, since the door had been shut rather firmly behind them when they left. But these days it was hard to know who to trust out in the street.
‘Come over here,’ she said, leading Philmon to one side, near the path that led around to the back of the infirmary. ‘I told you, the voice sounded as if it was saying something like “Armla, armla, these is steel kelp”.’
Philmon screwed up his face as he thought about this. ‘That’s strange,’ he said at last.
‘I know. I’ve been going over it in my mind, and I think it might have been meant to sound like “Amelia, Amelia, this is steel kelp”, whatever that means. Steel kelp… Steel -’
‘No!’ Philmon said suddenly. ‘No, I’ve got it! It’s saying “Amelia, Amelia, this is Stelka”. Help. Could that have been it?’
‘Of course!’
‘So why wasn’t she clearer?’
‘The thing about the mind-melding is that Stelka’s not very good at it yet. I mean, Tab’s been teaching her through the mind of a rat, for goodness sake.’
‘And can you do it? Can you mind-meld?’
‘Tab’s tried to teach me, but it’s not a skill you can just pick up, like playing hooey.’
‘I know that, but I didn’t ask if it was hard. I asked you, can you do it?’
‘I’ve managed once or twice, but it’s hard to get right. I’ve watched Tab do it – she’s amazing.’
‘Yes, well in case you hadn’t noticed, Tab’s not here, so it’s up to you. Did Stelka give you any kind of hint of where she might be?’
‘No, she only said what I told you.’ Amelia frowned. ‘This is getting very strange now, Philmon. First Tab disappears, then Torby, and finally Stelka sends a message asking for help.’
‘You said “finally”. There’s no guarantee that there’s anything final about it. For all we know, we could be next.’
‘Don’t,’ Amelia replied. ‘That’s not funny.’
‘Do you see me laughing?’
‘So, what now?’
Philmon scratched his ear. ‘Do the goat, the falling wall and the fire strike you as a little odd? Especially considering that while all that was going on, Torby disappeared.’
‘Connected?’ Amelia said.
‘What do you think? Since we have no other leads just now, we should probably check out this wall and the burnt-down kitchen. Do you know where it is?’
‘She said it was around the back. Come on.’
Trying to ignore the dull headache that lingered after the message from Stelka, Amelia led the way around the back of the infirmary. The gate in the little archway was locked firm. Philmon jiggled the latch, then craned his neck to peek over the gate. He glanced up at the wall, which was far too high to climb over, then went back to jiggling the gate.
‘No, it’s no good. We’ll go around the other side,’ he said at last. ‘There’s a laneway that runs along the other side of the wall.’
‘Can you see where’s it’s fallen over?’
‘Yes. It’s a bit of a mess.’
They hurried around to the other side, and down the narrow lane that ran along the starboard side of the infirmary. The lane was empty, and the courtyard wall was slumped over in the middle. Several rows of bricks had fallen in, and were now rubble on the courtyard paving stones.
‘Oh, that poor goat!’ Amelia said. ‘I’ll be surprised if it ever gives milk again!’
She stepped closer to the gap in the collapsed wall and looked across at the kitchen. A small added-on section jutted out into the courtyard, and part of its corner had been struck by some of the falling bricks. The damage from the bricks was minor, but not so the damage from the fire. Above the broken window, the eaves had been blackened by smoke, and the smell of fire and damp ash hung in the air.
‘How do you think that happened?’ she asked.
Philmon shrugged. ‘I don’t know – there are dozens of ways a fire can start. A brick fell through the window and knocked something into the stove, maybe?’
‘Must have been a pretty light brick, or a brick with wings,’ Amelia said. ‘Look where the chimney comes through the roof.’
‘And?’
‘The stove’s way over on the other side of the kitchen. That fire didn’t start by accident. This was a diversion.’
‘Hmm,’ Philmon said. He was busy inspecting the part of the wall that was still standing. ‘This is interesting.’ He pointed at a mark about halfway up the bricks. ‘What does that look like to you?’
‘Um… mud?’
‘Look down here,’ he said, pointing at the base of the wall.
Amelia looked down at a large patch of mud. There were footprints in it.
‘So?’
‘Someone’s tried to climb this wall. See how they’ve stepped in the mud, then tried to climb over and left mud smeared on the bricks? And their weight on the wall has made it fall down.’
‘Yes, onto a defenceless goat,’ Amelia said. ‘Poor thing.’
‘Hey, hold up, what’s this?’ Philmon said, bending over and picking something up. It was small, about the size of a peanut. ‘What do you make of this?’
Amelia shook her head. ‘I don’t underst… It’s a pip, Philmon.’
‘I know. And there’s
another one here.’
Amelia was beginning to think that her friend might have finally lost it. ‘I don’t know why that’s such a huge discovery,’ she said.
‘Do you know what kind of pip it is?’
She took it from his fingers and looked at it closely. Then she sniffed it, and screwed up her nose. ‘Yes, of course I do. It’s a tigerplum pip. And now my fingers will be stinky for a week.’
‘Exactly – a tigerplum pip.’ He was already turning to go. ‘And do you know what that means? It means we know who kidnapped Torby.’
‘You can’t prove it!’ Amelia said as she jogged after him. She was getting the unnerving feeling that he was going to turn left at the end of the lane and make for the palace to have words with Kalip Rendana.
‘Amelia, when all the evidence points to one person, that’s who you have to talk to first,’ he was saying.
‘But that’s what I mean! The evidence doesn’t all point to Rendana. Let’s look logically at what we know: he took Fontagu’s script, which he returned, by the way; we know he works for Janus, who works for Florian, who is a rotter. And we know Rendana has a little knife that he uses to scare people.’
‘Exactly!’ said Philmon.
‘But none of that proves that he pushed down a wall, almost killed a goat and set fire to an infirmary kitchen just so he could kidnap someone. That could have been anyone!’
Philmon stopped. ‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘You say that all of that doesn’t prove a thing, and I was starting to believe you. But then you mentioned his little knife. Follow me.’
He ran to the end of the lane, but instead of turning left towards the palace, he turned right. Amelia raced after him, following him along the street in front of the infirmary, and back to the locked gate that led into the courtyard from the other side.
‘There,’ he said, grinning and running his fingers over the edge of the gate. ‘Now do you believe me?’
‘What am I meant to be looking at?’
‘ There!’ He pointed at a collection of fresh scars and scratches in the timber of the gate, just near the latch. ‘Do they look like the kind of marks someone would make trying to get through a locked gate? The kind of marks they might make with a little knife?’
‘Very well, I admit it,’ Amelia agreed. ‘But I still don’t think you should march up to the… Oh no,’ she sighed. ‘Where are you going, Philmon?’
Calling back over his shoulder, he said, ‘To the palace. I’m going to have words with Rendana.’
Amelia caught up with him just as he reached the street. She grabbed him by the arm and spun him around. ‘Philmon, think about this for a minute.’
‘What is there to think about? We need to ask this man where he’s taken our friend.’
‘What, and you think he’s just going to tell you? You think you can just walk up to him and say, “Hello, I’m Philmon, and this is Amelia, and we want to know where our… Oh, look, I’ve got a little knife stuck in my gut! ”? Come on, Philmon, not only does he work for Janus, but there’s a whole squad of huge, ugly Unja guards out the front of that palace. Now I think about it, you won’t have to worry about getting a knife stuck in your gut, because you’re going to get speared to death by Unja soldiers before you even get through the gate.’
Philmon closed his eyes and heaved a deep breath. ‘You’re right,’ he said, his shoulders slumping forward. ‘You’re right. I just want to know where Torby is. And Tab. And Stelka.’
‘Yes, and so do I. And I’ve just had a better idea.’
A NEW PLAN
‘It’ll never work,’ Fontagu said, nervously glancing around the New Paragon’s backstage area.
‘Can’t we at least try?’ Amelia pleaded.
Fontagu shook his head. ‘It’s foolish. And we shouldn’t be discussing it here.’
‘We’re alone,’ she said.
‘You can’t be sure. You can’t ever be sure any more. And your plan won’t work.’
‘Are you doubting yourself?’ Philmon asked.
Fontagu scowled at him. ‘Whatever could you mean by that?’
‘You say that getting into Skulum Gate can’t be done. Is that because you don’t think you can prepare a disguise that’s good enough?’
‘Now let’s not go too far,’ Fontagu warned. ‘I’ve been working in the theatrical arts for -’
‘It’s true, though, isn’t it?’
‘Look, it’s not all that important,’ Amelia told him. ‘We just need to see someone.’
‘But in Skulum Gate? Why there, of all places?’
‘I need to see someone who lives in there,’ Amelia explained. ‘It’s important, Fontagu. We wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t. We have to find our friends. Your friends.’
‘Oh, wait!’ Fontagu clapped his hands twice, threw open a wardrobe chest and began pulling clothes out of it. ‘I could do you a lovely palace guard’s outfit – you could wander in there and ask Florian anything you wanted!’
‘She doesn’t need to get into the palace,’ Philmon said. ‘She needs to go to Skulum Gate.’
Fontagu began to wring his hands together. The knuckles of his long fingers popped and crackled. ‘Please, children, I beg you, don’t go down there. It’s a bad place! It’s very bad. It’s where all the dregs live now, all the magicians that fled when Florian took over.’
‘Yes, and many of those “dregs” are my old friends. And so we’re clear, they didn’t flee – they were sent there.’ Amelia could feel her face beginning to flush red and hot. ‘They were supposed to feel grateful that they weren’t tossed over the side like some. And they’re not bad people – not if you know them. If you think they are, you’ve been spending far too much time with Florian and his horrid little friends -’
‘Shh,’ said Philmon, placing his hand on Amelia’s shoulder. ‘Calm down.’
‘Oh, it just makes me cross,’ she said. ‘It makes me cross that I have to get a disguise to go to talk to my old friends.’
‘Why do you need a disguise to go to Skulum Gate anyway?’ Fontagu asked.
‘Just in case Florian has people watching the entrance,’ Philmon said. ‘Amelia needs a disguise that she can throw away as soon as she comes out. We’ll pay you for it.’
‘It’s a bad idea,’ said Fontagu. ‘Besides, how can I concentrate on opening night if I know you’re in danger? And knowing that I’ve been an accessory to -’
‘Can you help us or not?’ Amelia asked him. ‘Because if you can’t …’
‘Very well, very well. But if you get caught, I’ll deny that I was ever involved.’
‘I wouldn’t expect anything else,’ Philmon muttered.
***
‘I just noticed something, old woman,’ Philmon said as he and Amelia took one of the back lanes leading towards Skulum Gate.
‘Oh yes? What is it?’
‘You know how Fontagu said that if we got caught he’d deny everything?’
‘Yes.’
‘His name is stitched inside the neck of that cloak you’re wearing.’
Amelia laughed. ‘That’s funny.’
‘Not as funny as you,’ Philmon said. ‘He’s actually done a pretty good job, you know. I keep looking at you and wondering who it is I’m walking along with.’
‘Yes, well you’re not walking along with anyone any more. It’s time to make yourself scarce. We can’t have anyone seeing you with the old woman who’s about to go into Skulum Gate.’
‘Are you scared?’ he asked.
‘A little. To be honest, I’m more scared of getting caught when I come out. But I bet I’m not as scared as Torby was when he was taken.’ She shuddered then, as she remembered Stelka’s voice, screaming out in her mind. ‘And I know I’m not as scared as Stelka.’
‘Well, all the best. I’ll be waiting right over there,’ Philmon said, pointing to a small flight of stone steps that led up to another, higher street. ‘I’ll see you soon.’
‘With any luck,’ she replied.
‘You might smile, sweet one, but nothing will get you noticed faster than trying not to get noticed’, he’d said.
But it was good advice nonetheless, and the closer to Skulum Gate she got, the more she had to remind herself that she wasn’t a young former apprentice magician on a mission, but an old woman out walking the street.
The temperature fell noticeably as she rounded the last corner and stepped into the lane which led to Skulum Gate. She took a deep, fluttery breath. At the end of the street was… nothing. A dead end. The wall of a double-storey building stood there, leaning slightly inward. Its windows were empty. Dead.
‘Calm, Amelia,’ she muttered as she stepped forward. The further in she went, the cooler it seemed to get, and the drier her mouth became. As well as that, the walls on either side were closing in. With a struggle, she resisted the urge to look back. She’d really thought that going into Skulum Gate during the day would be the easy option, but now that she was approaching the entrance, it felt anything but easy.
She was almost at the very end of the alleyway now, and was just beginning to think that she’d come into the wrong lane when a deep chill passed over her. She shuddered all over. She was sweating, and yet she felt terribly, terribly cold, as if she had a fever.
Somewhere behind her eyes she felt noise, conversations, cries and moans. Her fingers tingled and her toes began to cramp. And that deep thrumming pain in her stomach was back, but it wasn’t nerves. It was something of a far more magical nature, and not necessarily the good kind.
Skulum Gate proper was immediately to her right. It was a small, rather unimpressive archway, cleverly hidden from view until she’d been right upon it. The archway was free-standing, and looked to lead into an open courtyard, and yet the light through the gap was darker in some way. Was it like a shadow? No, it seemed to be more like a barrier was around the area that kept most of the light out, or most of the darkness in.