‘That is impossible. There must be something.’
I laid a hand on Alban’s arm, for he seemed to be working himself into a froth. ‘Forgive me,’ I said to Dame Hellenna, ‘but were there any books on those topics, at any time in the past?’
Her eyes got a bit shifty. ‘I… couldn’t say, madam.’
Uh huh.
Alban was all over that like a rash. ‘So there aren’t now but that hasn’t always been the case. When were they removed, and by whose order?’
‘They— I don’t— I don’t precisely know, sir, but…’ She glanced about, as though she might be overheard, though no one was nearby save for myself. ‘I know of no specific removal of those books, but there are records of a general purge undertaken some years ago, by order of your highness’s mother’s esteemed father.’
It took me a moment to parse that. The queen’s dad, or Alban’s adoptive grandfather. Got it.
‘The library was overfull, of course, though so it always is…’
‘How many books were taken out?’ said Alban crisply.
‘The records suggest a great many, sir, though few titles are listed by name.’
‘When was this?’
‘More than fifty years ago.’
Well, well. Interesting. A spot of spring-cleaning would make a good cover for the removal of a few inconvenient books, though I failed to see why a former royal would have wanted to. What had he found out about Torvaston?
Did Alban’s mother know?
I could see similar questions echoing through Alban’s thoughts, for he’d developed a grim demeanour, and a note of worry lurked in his eyes.
Dame Hellenna appeared to be suffering some second thoughts. ‘I… beg your highness will not inform the queen of my comments, sir. My job—’
‘I need not mention your name,’ Alban said, in a fractionally softened tone. ‘Thank you for your help, Hellenna.’
Upon which words we turned away, leaving poor Dame Hellenna to recover her poise.
Jay was happily installed at a table with a stack of no fewer than eight gigantic tomes beside him. They were too big for the table, so he’d piled them up on the floor beside him. The heap was half as tall as I was.
‘I’m sorry to interrupt your book party,’ I said, with more sincerity than probably appeared, for he did look happy. ‘We have hit a snag.’ I told him about the Torvaston problem.
Jay regarded Alban thoughtfully. ‘So his highness is off to lay the smack down on her majesty?’
‘Something like that.’
‘While he’s doing that.’ Jay turned a page the size of a small sail, and the word Farringale caught my eye. An exquisitely detailed drawing depicted a block of several rooms, gathered together like a honeycomb. After a moment, the penny dropped: Farringale’s library. This must be where Alban had copied his hand-drawn map from. Jay looked up at me. ‘We could trawl from library to library looking for lost books, but it seems to me there’s only one place we can be sure of discovering the truth.’
‘You want to go back to Farringale?’
‘Don’t you?’
No. Yes. I did, sort of? And at the same time I really didn’t. I’d suspected, since the beginning, that our going there was precisely what Their Majesties had in mind when they’d summoned us to the Court. ‘I don’t want to do it alone,’ I said. ‘Nor can we, really, since we’ll need House’s help if we want the third key back.’
‘Do you think Milady will agree to partnering with the Court on this? She was against our ever going there in the first place.’
‘True,’ I conceded. ‘But since we came out alive, and with some highly interesting books in tow, I’ve some hopes she might have changed her mind.’
‘Right. We can’t take the baron this time, though.’ Jay sat back in his chair, and glanced perfunctorily at Alban. ‘Sorry, I mean the prince.’
Alban’s brow went up.
‘Too dangerous for you,’ said Jay. ‘We could have stayed longer the last time, if we hadn’t had to evacuate you.’
‘There is now a cure,’ Alban pointed out, presumably referring to the condition of ortherex… infestation, or whichever charming term by which one might discuss that disease.
‘Which has never been tested in Farringale,’ I pointed out. ‘As danger zones go, that place is code red. And you’re the crown prince, for heaven’s sake. I can’t believe Their Majesties let you go in the first place.’
Alban busied himself adjusting the cuff of his left sleeve. I received the impression he was avoiding my eye.
‘Oh,’ I said. ‘You didn’t ask them.’
‘I had their authority in the same way that you had Milady’s.’
‘Touché.’
‘You found nothing?’ said Queen Ysurra perhaps half an hour later. Alban had escorted us back to Their Majesties’ manor, but not to the Topaz Parlour. The queen sat, surprisingly, in the kitchen, sorting an array of dried flowers across the top of an aged, much-scrubbed oak table. There was no sign of the king.
‘Not precisely nothing,’ I said placatingly. I was perched atop a stool on the other side of the table, with a glass of clear, cold water before me. I was more disconcerted than encouraged by this peculiar simplicity. I’d only just begun to get used to all the pomp and gilding. ‘The ortherex simply aren’t such a problem in the fifth Britain. They are viewed as pests, like rats. Which means, the conditions which led to their total overrun of old Farringale may well be unique. So. If we can find out precisely what those conditions are, and how the parasites came to proliferate so excessively, then perhaps we can reverse those changes. If we can, the ortherex will die out.’
‘Which they should have, already,’ said Jay. ‘There are no trolls left alive there, and nothing but raw magick for the creatures to eat. That makes no sense. We can’t find an answer to these mysteries in another world; Melmidoc had no idea what we were talking about, and Whitmore’s library had nothing. We need to go deep into Farringale itself, and take a look with our own eyes.’
Queen Ysurra carefully crumbled desiccated lavender into a bowl, wafting pungent aromas everywhere. I took a deep, grateful inhalation. I’ve always found it a relaxing scent, and perhaps so did Her Majesty. ‘I cannot deny that I had hoped for just such a venture in time,’ she said, after a moment’s thought. ‘But not in so ill-prepared a fashion. What do you propose to do?’
‘We would like the Court to partner with the Society,’ I said. ‘Jay and I will spearhead this mission, but we would like our own allies with us. And we’d like to do it with your blessing, and Milady’s — not least because we’ll need every resource either organisation can put at our disposal.’
Queen Ysurra’s gaze went to Alban.
‘We won’t be taking Alban with us,’ I said quickly. ‘Not into such danger.’
That apparently wasn’t what was on her mind. ‘Do you really think my father knew something about this?’ she said in a low voice.
‘It looks that way,’ said Alban softly. ‘It does seem that he was hiding something about Torvaston.’
The queen looked, suddenly, haggard, and I remembered what Alban had said about her health. She sagged over the table top, weary beyond even her advanced years. ‘We had no thought, when we began with this ill-fated idea, that there could be any scandal attached.’
I began to feel afraid that she might refuse us. ‘Our promise, your majesty,’ I said firmly. ‘We are well used to keeping secrets. It is to be hoped we will find nothing to the detriment of your family, but if we do… provided it endangers no one, we undertake to keep it to ourselves. This I can promise on behalf of the Society as a whole.’
I suppose so conditional a promise was not as reassuring as Ysurra might have liked, but she sighed, and gave me a nod. ‘I cannot prevent your going. Not when Naldran and I opened this can of worms ourselves. But I beg you to be… careful.’
A host of different warnings could be read into those words. Careful of what? Everything? Everything. It wa
s, after all, a dangerous place. Ortherex might be dangerous mostly to trolls, but we did not absolutely know that they wouldn’t attack us. There were griffins, too, and that was just scratching the surface. What if we were right, and it was magick-flooded? What else might we find when we lingered in those ruined halls?
My stomach fluttering with a mix of excitement and fear, I stood up and gave Her Majesty my best curtsey. ‘With your leave, majesty, we’ll get going immediately. No time like the present.’
Queen Ysurra just looked at me, and her face was grey. ‘Thank you, Miss Vesper,’ she said. ‘Mr. Patel. Alban will see that you receive everything you need.’
‘A couple of keys to Farringale, for a start,’ I said. ‘The third one’s our problem.’
14
‘You want to do… what?’ said Milady, some twenty-four hours later.
‘Pop back into Farringale, ascertain the true cause of its infestation and consequent demise, mend it, divest it of its juiciest books by way of our well-earned reward, and be home in time for tea,’ I said smoothly.
‘Is the tea strictly vital to the mission?’
‘When have I ever been willing to miss tea?’
I chose to interpret Milady’s subsequent silence as either amusement or a hearty endorsement of the plan, and waited.
‘Ves,’ she said at last. ‘This is ambitious, even for you.’
‘What if I told you it was Jay’s plan?’
‘Hey,’ Jay objected. ‘My plan was to go into Farringale on a research and exploration mission. Scientific. Information gathering. That kind of thing.’
‘Right, sorry,’ I murmured. ‘I might have got a little carried away with the rest.’
‘If you find yourself with the means to restore the city then by all means use them,’ said Milady, with just a hint of sarcasm. ‘One suspects the situation might prove too complicated to mend by tea-time, however.’
When Milady starts referring to herself as “one”, she’s at maximum satire. ‘All right, we’ll take tea with us,’ I said sunnily.
The air sparkled. Definitely laughter; hopefully the nice kind. ‘May one ask what you are doing asking my permission?’ Milady continued.
Perhaps not the nice kind.
‘We’ll need Rob,’ I said. ‘And I’d like Indira, too.’
‘Wait, what?’ said Jay.
‘On the grounds that there’s little Team Patel can’t deal with,’ I went on, doggedly. ‘We’ll need the usual toys from Stores—’
‘Including that Sunstone Wand Ornelle has been complaining to me about?’ said Milady drily.
Since the object in question currently lay at the bottom of my satchel, with Ms. Goodfellow asleep on top of it, I smoothly let this pass. ‘And of course, we’ll need House to lend us the third key again.’
‘Ves,’ said Milady firmly. ‘Forgive me for pointing this out, but you would divest me of every single one of these advantages, without a word and without compunction, if you thought it necessary. So I ask you again: why are you asking my permission?’
‘Is it too much to believe that I’d like to do things by the book this time?’
‘Yes.’
Jay folded his arms and lifted his brows at me. The look said: Well. Go on.
So nice to have back-up.
‘Sneaking takes so much time and effort,’ I tried.
‘Undoubtedly, but Farringale has been lost for some four centuries already. It will await your kind, liberating efforts for another day or two.’
Unanswerable.
‘I miss Home,’ I said. I tried to sound nonchalant but I’m afraid the words came out in rather a small voice.
‘You what?’ said Milady. Even Jay looked a little surprised.
‘I miss Home,’ I said again. ‘I miss the Society. I miss my friends, and I miss you, even when you are witheringly sarcastic. I dislike being rogue and I want my family back.’ I paused. No one spoke. ‘Seeing as there’s no way the Ministry or anyone else could reasonably object to our assisting the Troll Court with a research expedition, I see no reason to go on playing the loose cannon while we do it.’
‘I see,’ said Milady, in something of a softened tone.
I avoided Jay’s eye while I awaited her verdict.
‘The matter of the fifth Britain is not yet resolved,’ she warned. ‘Not to mention whatever remains of the other seven. I had hoped to use the three of you to uncover more.’
‘You still can.’
‘Which cannot be done under the official aegis of the Society, for the Ministry is still being woefully stubborn upon that topic.’
My heart sank a little more with every syllable, but I tried not to let it show. ‘I understand,’ I said, which was true, though I didn’t like it.
‘However,’ said Milady. ‘The topic of Farringale is a loaded one. Its mythological status rivals that of Atlantis in some quarters. Were it to be widely known that we are launching an exploratory expedition, I fear we would be somewhat interfered with.’
My tension eased a fraction. ‘Most irritatingly,’ I agreed.
‘House, of course, is a related but separate entity and any choices made by her are little to do with me,’ she continued.
I was intrigued by this use of her to refer to the House. I don’t think I had ever heard Milady designate a gender before.
‘I will lend you Rob and Indira for one week, together with any supplies they should find it necessary to withdraw from Stores. You may not be aware, but Their Majesties of Mandridore recently communicated to me an urgent need for expert consultants in certain fields in which Rob and Indira excel. Naturally, we at The Society are always ready to assist the Court.’
I concealed a smile. ‘We’ll be very discreet,’ I promised. ‘Maximum sneaking.’
‘What’s more,’ said Milady, and the air glittered. ‘Tea will be provided.’
‘Typical Milady chicanery,’ I said to Jay half an hour later, as we sat waiting in a tiny back-parlour somewhere on the ground floor at Home. ‘If anyone asks inconvenient questions, she can simply blame the Court. And fairly enough. We are employed by them at present, after all, and they’ve got the might to out-manoeuvre the Ministry, if necessary.’
Jay slowly shook his head. ‘I may never get used to the double-speak.’
‘Give it time.’
‘Does she ever say no and, um, mean it?’
‘Frequently.’
‘Right.’
Confusion radiated off poor Jay, but one couldn’t explain these things.
We’d been sent down to the parlour to “wait”, officially, until Rob and Indira were ready to join us. Actually, we were hiding. The Society is full of wonderful, loyal people (I see no occasion to remember Miranda at this moment), but wherever there are people there will be gossip, and we did not want the grapevine ruining all our devious plans. Let them talk, if they would — after we’d got the goods.
I’d delivered a wish list to Rob, who’d promised to stop by Stores on his way down. I’d chosen him rather than Indira because, as charming as Jay’s sister could be (when she forgot to be shy), Rob had a way about him. I suspected Ornelle of being either a little afraid of his mildly forbidding air, or of harbouring a secret crush. The latter would hardly surprise me. Rob’s a good-looking man, with or without the greying hair, and underneath the grim exterior he’s marshmallow.
A few inches away from my feet, the floor bubbled. Considering that it was, in its entirety, paved with well-worn flagstones and carpeted with equally well-loved rugs, not a whole lot of bubbling should’ve been happening.
‘I think this is our key,’ I said to Jay.
We watched with spellbound fascination as a patch of stone a few inches wide buckled and boiled, belched bubbles into the air, and finally expelled a glittering key. I snatched it up. Its smooth silver, only slightly tarnished, was untouched by the churning goop, and its inset sapphire glowed.
‘Thank you,’ I said to House.
The floor settled
back into its usual smooth, unbelching configuration.
I paused to consider. House could have simply put the key into my hand; what did the swampy-floor routine betoken? Did it — she — disapprove of our return into Farringale? She had helped us the last time, even without Milady’s concurrence. Now, it seemed, the situation was rather the reverse; Milady had persuaded, but House was not pleased.
‘Do you dislike the prospect, darling House?’ I said aloud. ‘Is it the possible restoration of the city that you dislike? Surely not.’
There came no reply, a silence I was unsure how to interpret.
‘It will only be opened again if it is no longer dangerous,’ I assured the building. ‘Any such outcome is likely to be some way off, if it is ever feasible.’
Silence.
‘You’re worried about Ves,’ said Jay suddenly. ‘You think she’s reckless.’
The floor belched loudly.
Did that mean Jay was right, or did it mean that House rained scorn upon the very notion that it might be concerned?
‘We aren’t trolls,’ I put in. ‘We should be safe enough from the ortherex.’ Even I had to wince at the unpromising word should in the middle of my sentence.
‘And we’re pretending the griffins don’t exist, just now,’ Jay added helpfully.
‘We survived them last time!’
‘So we did.’
I glowered at Jay. ‘It was your idea to go. Have you forgotten that?’
‘Nope.’ He smiled at me.
The floor belched out another bubble, this time rather nearer to Jay.
‘Too right,’ I said. ‘If we’re eaten by griffins, it is all Jay’s fault.’
‘In which case, if we save the city, that is my fault, too,’ said Jay.
‘Deal.’
Secretly I was proud of Jay. I was having a deliciously bad influence on him.
‘Ornelle wants her Wand back,’ Rob told me when he finally showed up, a full hour later.
‘But it loves me.’
He grunted. ‘We all do, more’s the pity. Ornelle knows she stands zero chance.’ He was offloading objects into my welcoming arms as he spoke: some of Orlando’s sleep capsules (they’re my style, all right?); a few bottomless phials filled with various restoratives; an emergency porridge-pot (I know, I know. Porridge isn’t my favourite food for the road either, but one takes what one can get and a steady diet of gruel is at least way better than gnawing hunger); and one of those scroll-and-quill combos I may have mentioned before. Val had the other one. If our phones should fail while we were out there, I didn’t want to be totally incommunicado.
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