“What?” Aladane exclaimed.
“Since when?!” Dale burst out. Fish just stared at her in disbelief.
Emeline watched as Dada scratched his chin. He glanced over at Reese and Rellum, who were arguing now, and gestured to her to join him on the front wagon seat.
“Now, Little Plum,” Dada said. “Tell me everything.”
* * *
Emeline told him the whole story while the others listened. She started with the water lilies back home and the reeds at the Hawking River; there were several exclamations of “Bless water” from behind her. When she got to the night before, Aladane interrupted to admit that he’d gone out to the wagon for food, which explained his disappearance.
Finally, Emeline came to the point of describing the Ithin, and her voice faltered.
“What did it look like?” Aladane prompted.
The image of that horrible face flashed out at her. It was real. It was so real. More than half of its face was just those giant fangs….And the dead eyes! She realized she was crying, and Dada held her close.
“Shh, shh, heart, you’re all right,” he said, sounding hoarse. He kissed her on the top of her head as she sniffled into his shirt, embarrassed, exhausted, afraid. “You know, I used to wonder about your mama. Sometimes there were things she did…” He sighed, long and heavy.
“What?” Emeline whispered eagerly. She needed to hear this.
“You know how much she loved the wind and the sky. Well, there was an accident not long before you were born, where the Trindles’ boy nearly died. This whole wagon was coming down on top of him,” Dada told her slowly. “But Airlinna was there, and along came this huge gust of wind, out of nowhere. It rocked that wagon backward, back onto its wheels. I remember her standing there, with her arm outstretched, white as a sheet. It wasn’t windy that day, heart. I knew that she’d made it happen somehow.”
She stared at him in awe. He smiled wistfully, but Dale piped up in a hurt voice, “Emeline! I can’t believe you can do magic and you didn’t tell me!”
“I wasn’t sure it was magic,” she said, putting an arm around him with a pang of guilt. But Reese’s smile as he’d said the word came back to her. He was sure.
Dada scratched his head, worry lines visible everywhere on his face. He shot Fish a look that said Now what do we do?
The big farmer stared at Emeline for a moment, almost as if he were afraid of her. She couldn’t blame him. “Well…I’ll just feed the horses some grass and let you folk talk for a while,” Fish said finally, uncomfortable. “Most of the hay got ruined….”
Then he hopped off quickly. Dada sighed.
“Hey! If it’s Keldare magic, then maybe I have some too,” Dale said, delighted. “From Mama!”
“Maybe you do,” Emeline told him. Maybe it was lying dormant in him, until he reached her age. If only Mama were around to tell them. Mama, I need you.
“I want to see you do it. We need to find some water,” Aladane announced. “Man, I can’t believe you didn’t show us at the Hawking River!”
“Dada, does Emeline have to tell the king?” Dale asked, suddenly serious.
Emeline held her breath and looked at their father. The words of the old man in Equane came back to Emeline suddenly: Bless water, she ought to be frightened. Everything’s going to change now.
This was no longer just a group of villagers reporting a sighting. Now a Lash Knight had seen an Ithin himself—even had his prisoner killed by one. And he had witnessed magic! Her magic!
“Well, I suppose Reese will tell Rellum Sapient,” Dada said slowly. “I reckon it’s his duty.” As a group, they turned to look at Reese and Innish, who were still speaking with Rellum outside his carriage. “But I’d give the kingdom for him to hold his tongue.”
“I think he will, Dada,” Emeline said quietly. “He told me not to speak of it.”
“Bless water, I’m glad. We don’t want to get involved in anything above us,” Dada said, crushing Emeline to him. He looked over all of them. “Don’t tell anyone. None of you.”
A second later, Rellum Sapient shouted at Reese, “It was a wild animal! Of course it was!” He banged a feeble fist against the side of the carriage, and then cringed. “Shame on you, Knight, for letting your imagination get the better of you!”
Reese gave Innish a disgusted look as the guard scratched his beard doubtfully. The knight looked back at the villagers, and locked eyes with Emeline for a moment. Her pulse quickened.
Don’t tell, she thought And don’t look away.
“I don’t care what creature you saw,” Rellum announced, breaking the spell. Reese turned his attention back to him. “The fact remains that Loddril is dead and no longer able to tell us who hired him. My life is still in danger!” He slammed the carriage window shut.
“He’s right about that,” Innish said. Reese scowled and wheeled his great horse around.
“Son of a maggot in a rat,” he spat. “That idiot just had to get himself killed.” He looked again at Emeline for a heartbeat, and then added, louder, “Well, I can’t say I’ll miss him. We should push on.” He rode past the carriage to the front.
Fish rejoined the Equanians, Dada heaving a new sigh of relief.
“He didn’t tell him!” Dale whispered happily.
“Tell him what?” Fish asked, sounding tired and overwhelmed.
“Sir Reese said nothing about Emeline,” Dada told him. “And let’s keep it that way. Remember: No one say anything.” The Sapient’s carriage shot out steam nearby, ready to depart.
“But why can’t we tell?” Aladane asked. “Why can’t she just show them and say, ‘Magic is real! Everybody stop fighting’?”
“Because it’s not that simple, son. People are trying to kill each other,” Fish snapped, climbing up into the front seat. “We don’t want any part of it.”
His words made Emeline want to curl up into a tiny ball and hide in a bale of hay like Aladane had. For the first time since they’d left Equane, she longed for the safety of their quiet village. She had wanted to tell Dada about her magic…but now she wished desperately that she’d been able to hide it longer. At least until they got back home. Or maybe forever.
A deep anxiety gnawed at her insides.
The wagon was rumbling forward now. Dale leaned over and put his arm around her.
“We’ll protect you, Em,” he said.
“Yeah, we know a Lash Knight, remember?” Aladane said with a smile. “And Dale and I are going to be knights, too.”
She smiled, even as she stiffened at the memory of the Ithin’s slathering head bursting out at her. Reese’s and Dada’s voices were looping in her head: Don’t tell anyone. Say nothing.
“Son of a maggot!” Aladane called out. “I’m starving!” Emeline laughed, happy for any distraction. Dada and Fish glared back at him.
“Don’t you start talking like that now,” Dada warned. The boy grinned and began rooting through the wet food bundles with Dale.
evening, they stopped at a busy, muddy town with a dining hall and a public washhouse. Emeline watched Innish speak to Rellum through the carriage window before nodding and hurrying off, probably to order the Sapient’s dinner.
The Equanians gathered up their things and followed the signs to the bathhouse, staring at the people.
Both the men and women dressed in simple shirts and trousers, but there were a few women in heavily embroidered, parti-color dresses cut asymmetrically—women of means, shopping with their ladies’ maids for dinner. Many people were as dirty as the Equanians, their slouchy work clothes blackened. Almost no one looked like a farmer.
The washhouse had one entrance for women and one for men, so Emeline turned aside as Dada herded the boys in through the men’s. Inside the warm, clay-tiled bathhouse, there were rows of basins with water pumps. She did the best she could to bathe
without drawing any attention to herself, a knot of fear in her gut.
No one can tell my secret just by looking at me. They can’t.
She washed her tangled hair. What would Rellum do if he knew? Would he really lose his chance at being king if he was wrong about magic?
Even if he didn’t want to hurt her, he might lock her up. He might lock all of them up. Make them disappear. She squeezed the water from her hair, her heartbeat quickening. Reese had told her she couldn’t trust the Theurgists, either, but what did that mean?
She stared down into the basin, where the grime from travel spiraled in the lukewarm water.
I can’t show anyone, ever. This will always be my secret.
But…she already missed the touch of cool water, of pliable stems, of leaves. A tiny ache throbbed inside her when she thought of hiding something this lovely forever.
But Mama must have managed that for most of her life.
Slowly she wrapped her hair up in a towel, then changed into her striped brown dress, buckling her bodice back on.
“Are bodice dresses coming back in style?” a beautiful dark-skinned girl asked her friend, glancing critically at Emeline. “They’re flattering on some girls, but so country village.” They laughed.
That shouldn’t have bothered her, with all she had to worry about, but it did. She glowered as she marched back to the wagon, reaching it just as Reese was returning from his wash. He wore the same white shirt and black trousers, but his hair was brighter now that it was clean. Emeline noticed that both men and women appraised him as they passed, tall figure that he was.
He spotted Emeline and raised his eyebrows at her towel-wrapped hair.
“Is that an Equanian look?” he asked, with some of his old condescension.
A flash of anger made her flush. This was too much after the comment about bodices. She turned away in disgust.
Miserably, she climbed into the wagon, sat down, and yanked the towel from her hair, glaring at Reese as he mounted his horse and whistled at Erd to start up the steam-carriage.
The knight noticed and gazed back at her, watching as she raked a comb through her wet curls. She wished she could read his expression, but she’d never been able to do that, had she? Abruptly, he rode off to the front.
“We saw a man with a sword in the washhouse!” Aladane crowded as he boarded the wagon.
“Everybody has weapons!” Dale added enthusiastically. Dada gave Fish a worried look.
* * *
That night’s ride was calm until the thunderous, crackling boom.
“What is it?” Emeline cried, startled out of a doze. Another boom struck her ears as a star erupted into blindingly bright pinks and purples. The horses were frantic, stepping sideways into each other.
The stars were exploding! Another one shattered into astonishing blues and whites.
“It’s beautiful! Em, I can’t believe it!” Dale shouted. “Sky magic!”
Emeline thought of Mama as intense colors flashed in the sky, sparkling red and green. She had never seen anything so lovely and terrifying at once.
“I’m not going any farther, Bird!” Fish roared. “I’m going back!”
“It’s safe, I assure you!” Innish called, raising his hand as he rode toward them. “These are fireworks! For a birthday celebration, perhaps! It’s not magic, it’s science!” A yellow firework flashed, lighting up his face. He was not smiling, but there was a strange, intense excitement in his eyes—just a trick of the light, surely, but it alarmed her. He didn’t look quite like himself.
“If that’s science, I’ll take magic,” Fish growled, reining in the horses.
Still dazzled, Emeline realized the wagon was passing beneath an enormous, gleaming silver archway that straddled the entire road. Colored rockets were streaking upward from beyond it, just inside the walls of—
Walls! City walls! It was the capital!
She had never imagined that their first view of the city would be at night, under a violent sky of convulsing stars. Her breath left her.
They were halted at a gate, but Rellum Sapient’s steam-carriage puffed on through. Innish stayed behind and spoke to the armored guard at the entryway. Unlike a Lash Knight, this guard’s armor was a deep blue and his helmet was peaked and rounded. Another guard, identical in armor, stood on the other side of the archway, glowering. Innish beckoned to Dada, who climbed out of the wagon to join them.
“It was nice of Sir Reese to wait for us,” Emeline muttered, still feeling the sting of his stupid Equanian look remark. She flinched as the fireworks roared.
“He’s got Lash Knight stuff to do!” Aladane said.
After a moment, Innish rode on through the gates and Dada came back to the wagon, illuminated by purples and greens.
“Come on, let’s go through before I forget the directions,” he said as rockets popped overhead.
“By all the fish in the canal,” Fish swore, cringing at the sky. He slapped the reins and the horses darted forward, eager to move in any direction.
“I can’t believe it’s not magic,” Emeline breathed. But of course, it couldn’t be. Not out in the open in the capital itself.
“Whose birthday are they celebrating?” Dale asked Dada.
“Some rich fellow, I imagine. All right, past this big park, it’s two rights, then a left and a right….The main streets are named after kings and the small ones are numbered.”
Behind the wagon the guards began closing the heavy iron gates, accompanied by the sounds of grinding metal and rattling chains.
Directly ahead stood an enormous figure, lit by an eerie glow. Emeline was mesmerized by it; as they came closer, she saw it was a great statue of white stone, ringed by lanterns.
“Is that a statue of the king?” Dale asked amid the firework crackles.
“If it is, it’s not a recent likeness,” Fish said. The ghostly statue was of a heavily muscled youth, striking an athletic pose.
Emeline turned to look back at the fireworks as they rode past the statue. One fractured into three astonishing blooms of red and gold.
“We gotta bring some of those back to Equane,” Aladane said, staring back also.
“People would run screaming,” Dale told him sensibly.
“I know!”
The wagon crossed over a small bridge under which a dark canal slogged. Lanterns atop tall poles marked the road ahead of them, and rising around them was the glow of lighted windows in dark buildings.
Suddenly they were in the city proper, and the noise of the fireworks was nearly drowned out by the sounds springing up on all sides. There were nighttime voices, calm and steady, but there were so many….The great hum was accented by door slams, shouts, scraps of music, the barking of dogs, and—mysteriously—the jingling of many small bells.
“Listen to all that racket,” Fish said wearily.
“That’s it—take a right here on Ardellin,” Dada said. Fish turned them onto a road full of shadows.
“King Ardellin lived the longest,” Dale murmured.
They turned right again onto a road numbered 25, and then there were the two left turns. If it weren’t for the noise, Emeline would’ve thought they were riding through some kind of dream—a dream of floating lights and towering dark shapes. The roads grew narrower and narrower, and the buildings leaned closer on either side.
“This is it,” Dada said finally, and Fish slowed the horses to a stop. “The royal lodge.”
Before them was a large courtyard, bordered by columns and arches. There was a shape in the middle that was perhaps a fountain; at least, Emeline could hear water gurgling. The voices and night noises seemed a little quieter here.
“Wait. There’s supposed to be someone to let us in.” Dada climbed out of the wagon and returned a moment later with a sleepy-looking boy in a wrinkled black suit, who yawned and t
ook the horses’ reins from Fish.
“You can have the two rooms over there,” he said, pointing vaguely. “You’re the only guests here. Master Quaith will sort you out in the morning.”
Everyone got up quickly and began gathering their things as the boy waited impatiently, shifting his feet. Then he led the horses and wagon away, leaving them standing there in the dark.
“What if we don’t ever see them again?” Fish asked, watching the wagon go.
“Then we’ll just live here,” Aladane declared. “Let’s go look at our rooms, Dale!”
He ran off, Dale following. Their excitement roused Emeline’s; she walked along with Dada and Fish for a few paces, then gave in and ran after the boys. They were in the capital! What did rooms in the capital look like?
Across the courtyard, the boys disappeared through an arch and she followed. She almost smacked right into Aladane on the other side; the two boys had stopped dead in front of a couple of open doors, intimidated by the darkness inside. Other doors lined the corridor to the left and the right, all closed.
Emeline stepped into a room and heard the faint sound of a clock ticking. She took a few steps and then bumped into what felt like a table. “Where’s the lantern?”
“Maybe on the wall. If this is an inn, how come we didn’t have to pay?” Dale asked, warily sticking his head in.
“Because we’re here to see the king!” Dada said behind him. “Innish called it ‘official business’ at the gates. I never felt so important,” he added, amused, and Fish snorted.
He stepped inside, Dale and Aladane following, while Fish lingered warily in the corridor.
“Don’t break anything,” he warned them. She could hear them groping around.
“What’s this?” Dale asked. There was a sudden cranking, winding sound, and the room flooded with a painful light. Emeline cried out and covered her eyes.
“Bless water!” Dada exclaimed over the others’ shouts of astonishment.
Dale stood near a short crank-handle on the wall near the door, which was slowly unwinding itself, ticking softly as it went. Overhead, a collection of glaringly bright bulbs dangled from the high ceiling, suspended from several slow-turning gears. Emeline was reminded of Rellum Sapient’s cloak.
Between the Water and the Woods Page 10