She gave the name of the official blessed with the large family. “And there’s a password you must give the guard when he asks. It’s ‘carrot soup.’ Silly, isn’t it?”
Bryte agreed that it was silly, but if it served, that was all that mattered.
Aubie was skeptical. “I think I’ve done all I can by gettin’ you this far,” he said. “I won’t risk my cart, my livelihood, and my life.”
“But you must,” Ileta protested. “They’ll have no reason to doubt you when you know the password.”
He shook his head. “All they’d have to do is check with that overseer and he’ll say he hadn’t requested a performance. Then where’d I be? No, I won’t risk it.”
“I think you will,” Lina said quietly. And shifted. The panther leaped on Aubie, toppling him to the ground. Her claws dug into his shoulders; her jaws opened wide to encircle his neck, though she did not bite.
“Call her off,” Aubie begged in a trembling voice. “Call her off, and I’ll take the cart in.”
“Lina,” Bryte said.
The panther eased off him but Lina did not shift back. Crouched low, tail swishing back and forth, she watched Aubie, her eyes glowing in the lantern light.
“I think you’d better go to the driver’s seat now,” Bryte said. “And do exactly as Ileta told you. I’ll sit up there with you, so I can holler for Lina if you don’t follow directions. If they ask about me, tell ’em I’m your daughter and I help with the puppets. Ileta, you stay in here and tell us where to go. Keep your voice real low. Don’t worry, I’ll hear you.”
Aubie rose and went meekly to the driver’s seat, saying not a word as Bryte climbed up beside him.
He shook the reins and got the horse moving forward, and the cart lumbered on to the gate. The guard stepped out, barring his way.
“Here to give a performance for the children of … what was his name, daughter?” Despite his resentment, Aubie’s performance was flawless.
Bryte repeated the name Ileta had given them.
“Password?” the guard asked in a bored voice.
“Carrot soup,” Aubie said, his white knuckles gripping the reins, belying his casual tone.
The guard stood aside and waved them past. A warm feeling of happiness filled Bryte; her sister had not lied.
They continued a short distance, and Aubie growled, “Well, where’re we going?”
“Shh. Be quiet and I’ll tell you.”
Inside the cart, Ileta described the turns they must make. Bryte heard and passed the information on to Aubie. The directions took them to a short lane between two tall buildings that were mostly dark. The lane dead-ended; a high wooden fence blocked the way.
“The cart should be safe here,” Ileta said.
Bryte passed that on to Aubie, who brought the horse to a halt. He and Bryte climbed down, and the others exited the cart, Lina still in panther form and Kanra carrying her borrowed lantern.
“This way,” Ileta said, leading them to a side door of a building.
Aubie might have hung back, but the panther’s growls urged him forward with the others.
“I wonder,” Kanra said, “Aubie, you’re so good with the puppets. It might be wise to take them with us.”
“And risk having them destroyed? Anyway, I can’t manage them both. Frannie always controls Peppine.”
“She’s right, though,” Bryte said. “You should take Peppet. He might provide the distraction we need.”
“No, I won’t do it.”
The panther snarled and sank its teeth into Aubie’s leg.
“All right, all right,” Aubie yelped. “This’ll end in disaster, won’t it, but I’ll take Peppet and do what I can. Frannie’d skin me if I didn’t help all I could.”
He dragged the puppet from the cart and slung it over his shoulder. “No point in wasting power I’ll need later,” he explained.
Ileta stood by the door, looking disconsolate. “It’s locked.”
Bryte searched her pockets for something with which to pick the lock. Lina resumed her human form, pushed Bryte out of the way, and bent to examine the lock. Bryte heard a click; Lina turned the knob, and the door swung open.
Led by Ileta, carrying the lantern, they all filed inside, Bryte going behind Aubie to keep him from backing out now that Lina-as-panther was not threatening him.
The building was an ordinary office building, used by minor functionaries judging by its plainness and the small size of the offices. Ileta walked slowly, looking from side to side. Leaving Aubie to be herded along by Lina, Bryte edged past the others to reach Ileta.
“You sure what you’re looking for is in here?” she whispered to her sister.
“I think so,” Ileta whispered back. “I overheard father and Lord Inver talking about it. They never imagined I was listening. This building belongs to Lord Inver and holds low-level employees. He likes to check on them now and then without letting them know he’s coming, so he uses a secret passage from his own building.”
“What is it you’re trying to find?”
“Here. I found it.” Ileta pointed to a diamond shaped panel on the otherwise undecorated wall. “Now if I can just remember how he said to open it …” She ran her finger along the edges of the panel frame, pressing here and there. With a suddenness that startled them all, the panel opened, and she reached through the opening and pulled a latch. A door not previously visible swung inward, allowing them to enter a long corridor that at first sloped sharply downward, then leveled off to a long, straight passageway. The floor and sides were tiled with cork tiles that absorbed the sound of their footsteps; the place had been designed for stealth.
They crowded into the corridor and walked forward single file.
“Wait,” Lina said in a whisper loud enough to carry to Ileta and Kanra, who still led. “There’s bound to be an alarm or some kind of trap at the end. Aubie, this is where you need to use the puppet. Better it gets caught than any of us.”
Aubie grumbled until a growl from Lina reminded him of the consequences of refusing. He lifted the puppet off his shoulder, set it on its feet, and motioned those in front to let it pass.
Peppet the puppet ambled awkwardly forward, its long legs raising and lowering in the peculiar, jerky stride of a marionette, its long arms swinging rhythmically as if to a march tune.
The others followed in a crazy parade. Bryte stifled a giggle. None of the others found the transit amusing.
Peppet stopped at a door at the corridor’s end. “This opens into Lord Inver’s private quarters,” Ileta whispered.
She tried the door. “It’s locked, too.”
Lina stepped forward and stared at the lock for a long moment, not touching it.
Bryte heard the tumblers spin. The lock snapped open. The sound was frighteningly loud to her, but the others didn’t seem to have heard. Bryte, hearing no sound from beyond the door, said, “Let’s go.”
Lina put out a restraining hand. “I’ll give the directions,” she said. “And remember, you want your brother, but I want that box. I won’t leave without it, no matter what. The Power-Giver knows what’s happening to Oryon in the Dire Realms. I’ve got to get him out of there before he loses his mind—if he hasn’t already lost it.”
I wonder what Lina’s doing to get me out of here. Wish she’d hurry. Don’t know if I can really trust her to do anything. The Dire Lord was right; this isn’t anything like the part of the Dire Realms I was in before. It still gives me the creeps. It’s no place for the living.
The Dire Lord says I’m not the first living person to come here, but that doesn’t help. It doesn’t help either that he says to call him Claid. Claid! What kind of name is that? Doesn’t sound like a Dire Lord at all. He just laughed when I said that.
Well, let him laugh. I won’t call him that name or any other. I don’t intend to be chummy with him. He can call me his guest all he wants; it doesn’t change the fact that I’m his prisoner.
Cold! This place is always cold
. And my power doesn’t work here; I can’t kindle a fire. Can’t do anything but sit and brood. He plays his pipes and says they should cheer me, but they don’t. They drive me crazy.
Hurry, Lina! If you don’t get me out of here soon, I’ll lose my mind.
CHAPTER TWENTY
LORD INVER
Lina opened the door and stood aside. “Send the puppet in first,” she whispered.
Aubie grumbled but sent Peppet strolling through the door. When the puppet had gotten several steps into the room the others followed: first Aubie, Lina behind him, then Bryte, with Ileta and Kanra bringing up the rear.
Bryte noticed first the plush carpet that muffled their footsteps even better than the cork tile of the passage had done. That was a good thing, because although they were all walking very quietly, Aubie seemed unable to make the puppet step lightly. Its movements were awkward and noisy, and had they not been absorbed by the carpet’s thick pile, they would surely have drawn guards.
There must be guards. But she heard no sound of movement in adjoining rooms, no voices within the range of her hearing. Her mind more at ease, she gazed around to orient herself by the light of Kanra’s lantern.
They were in what must be a private dining room. The table in the center of the room was large enough for only six place settings. Its covering of white linen gleamed in the lantern light. Fine china was set at each place, and the silverware beside it made Bryte’s palms itch.
She sidled up to the table, slid a fork, a knife, and a spoon into one pocket, and was reaching for a silver saltshaker when Lina’s hand clamped down on her wrist.
“Not what we came for,” she whispered so low that Bryte doubted that any of the others could have heard.
Reluctantly, Bryte retracted her hand. Lina was right, but oh, how she coveted that saltshaker.
They passed through the room, Bryte staring at the glass-fronted cabinets along the sides, their shelves filled with fine, hand-painted china, crystal goblets with gold rims, and gold and silver serving dishes. What a price they would fetch in the bazaar!
She kept her hands to herself, but could not suppress a sigh as they left the room.
They passed into a luxurious sitting room and from there into a room with more plush carpeting, paneled walls hung with fine art, a wine rack, a phonograph and cabinet of recordings, highly polished tables, and a desk with a glass top. The desk, the swivel chair behind it, and, lining the back wall, floor-to-ceiling bookcases filled with leather-bound volumes all marked the room as a study.
And on the desk, in plain sight, was The Box.
Too easy, Bryte thought as Lina pounced on it and snatched it up with a soft cry of triumph.
Bryte in the lead, Lina clutching the box to her breast, they all turned to go back the way they’d come.
Lord Inver stood in the doorway. His lips curled in a cruel smile. “So many rats caught in my trap,” he said. “What a delight!”
They froze. Peppet the puppet collapsed in an ungainly heap.
“I’ll thank you for that box you’re holding so tightly,” he said, approaching Lina, who glared back at him without extending the box.
He stopped before reaching her, his eyes falling on Ileta, in the rear of the group.
“Why, who is this?” he said with exaggerated surprise. “Not Lord Hallomer’s missing daughter? My dear, your father has been ill with worry. He will be so relieved to hear that I have rescued you from your captors.”
“They aren’t my captors,” Ileta said with dignity. “They’re my friends.”
“I should have thought you would have better taste in friends,” Lord Inver said. “You aren’t one of them, you know. You never can be. They only want to use you. Let me take you to your father. I’ll just get this box first.”
“No!” said Lina.
“No!” said Bryte, stepping in front of her sister. “I won’t let you!”
Lord Inver threw back his head and laughed his horsey laugh.
Bryte’s fury exploded into brilliant, blinding light.
Lina handed the box to Kanra and shifted. The panther launched herself at Lord Inver. Inver raised his hands and flung fire from them. Although he couldn’t have seen them, he didn’t have to. The gouts of fire fountained over them.
And then the fire was gone, leaving them to swat out small flames on their clothes and on the carpet by their feet. Bryte saw the smug look on Kanra’s face and knew she’d used her power of suppression.
Peppet lumbered to its feet and blundered about in the general direction of Lord Inver, but not close enough. “To your left,” she directed Aubie, who was blinded by her light. “And back about two steps.”
Inver had all he could do to fend off the snarling, biting panther. Following Bryte’s directions, Peppet came up behind him. “That’s it,” Bryte told Aubie. “Now have him reach forward.”
Peppet did so and wrapped his wooden hands around Lord Inver’s upper arms. The panther ripped at his throat.
“Lina, don’t kill him,” Bryte shouted. “He has to tell us what he’s done with Stethan.”
Lord Inver fell, blood streaming from his torn neck. Peppet tumbled, too, so that Inver fell on top of him. The puppet’s hands still gripped the lord’s arms.
Bryte’s light faded, letting the others see. Lina-panther crouched on top of the fallen lord, no longer biting and clawing but only snarling.
“Think you’ve won, but you haven’t,” Inver said in a hoarse whisper. “The boy is where you’ll never find him.”
In the distance but drawing nearer, Bryte heard the sound of booted feet. “Guards coming,” she said. “We gotta get outta here.”
Lord Inver gave a croaking laugh. “How far do you think you’ll get?” he rasped and waved a hand.
Bryte braced herself for more of his flame throwing, but nothing happened. Kanra’s power of suppression must still be working. Yet, looking at Lord Inver’s face, Bryte wondered. The lord looked smug rather than disappointed.
“We gotta go,” she repeated, trying to herd the others back the way they’d come. The tramp tramp tramp of the guards’ feet was drawing much nearer—near enough that the others could hear it now.
The panther leaped off Lord Inver and toward the door, transforming to Lina as it moved. Peppet shifted so that Lord Inver rolled off him with a groan. The puppet lumbered to its feet and Aubie grabbed it, slung it over his shoulder, and followed Lina. Kanra ran after them. Bryte reached for Ileta’s hand.
“Come on,” she told her sister. “Let’s go. We’ll find Stethan yet.”
Her sister neither moved nor spoke but stood still as a statue, eyes focused on nothing.
“What’ve you done to her?” she demanded, glaring down at Lord Inver.
The lord did not answer. Blood poured from his neck wound and trickled from his mouth.
Bryte tugged at Ileta, could not budge her, tried to withdraw her hand and run after the others. She could not pry her hand from Ileta’s, nor could she move.
Armed guards burst into the room and surrounded her and Ileta. Two guards went to their fallen master and tried to lift him.
“Leave me,” he whispered. “I’m too badly injured to move. Go, fetch Lord Hallomer. Tell him all his lambs are back in the fold.”
“But, my lord, you need care,” one man objected.
“Do as I say. I’m not as close to dying as I seem. Keep these two young women under guard. Two of you go after the ones who fled.”
One guard left at a run, to take Lord Inver’s message to Lord Hallomer, Bryte presumed.
She worried over Lord Inver’s statement that he was not as close to dying as he seemed. He might have the ability to heal himself, but he had to be expending a lot of strength to hold her and Ileta immobile. That wouldn’t leave a lot for healing. If only Kanra had stayed with them and used her power of suppression. Lina had what she wanted: the box that held Oryon’s conscience. It did not surprise Bryte that Lina had abandoned them, but Kanra, surely …
She tried to ignite her light but could not. He must be suppressing that ability as well as holding her and Ileta immobile. Good, she thought grimly, use all the power you can summon.
She tested her ability to move. Her feet refused to take a single step, but her fingers responded to her attempt to squeeze Ileta’s hand. That was something. She squeezed harder, hard enough to hurt. As she’d hoped, Ileta tried to free her hand from Bryte’s tight grip.
Bryte loosened her grip, allowing Ileta’s fingers to slip through hers but catching one finger and pinching it until Ileta jerked her hand away.
The furrow of concentration on Lord Inver’s brow brought a smile to Bryte’s lips until the lord ordered the guards who’d surrounded them, “Get them out of here. Bind them. Tightly. In an upstairs room. Hurry.”
Obediently the guards prodded them into motion. Yes! Motion! Bryte stood firm, making the guards lift her. They did so easily; she was not heavy enough to be a real burden. Nor was Ileta. But Bryte’s efforts were enough to make Lord Inver release all control, perhaps thinking that his power was making the guards’ task more difficult.
She twisted and kicked the knees of the guard who held her and rejoiced to see her sister follow her lead.
Lord Inver scowled, and sweat beaded his forehead. His throat wound still bled copiously. Bryte’s muscles stiffened, making it harder to move. Harder but not impossible. His power was waning.
She kicked out again just as the guards carried them through the door into the next room. Her bearer cursed and his grip loosened. She jerked away and squirmed past him to rush to Lord Inver’s side.
“Where’s Stethan?” she demanded, raising her foot above his throat wound.
BRYTE'S ASCENT (Arucadi Series Book 8) Page 21