“Can I ask you something?” Pogue sounded almost timid. Wizard Bratsch gave a regal nod. “Why don’t you have a griffin?”
The elderly man fumbled with the kettle for a moment. “I — I am a wizard,” he told them. “I have my mind on other matters, and no time to train a beast.”
“Ah,” Pogue said.
Celie thought he sounded less than convinced. Which matched exactly how she felt. Either Bratsch was lying, or the Arkower was. Bratsch’s story would explain the different types of tapestries and the Arkower’s constant striving for new griffins for his people. But why were they still taking care of the Castle, if they were Arkish? Celie’s head was spinning.
Rolf clearly felt the same. He stood up and clapped his hands, startling them all.
“Thank you so much for sharing this with us, Wizard Bratsch,” Rolf said. “It is a great deal to take in. I think it best that we retire to one of the towers for the evening. If our sister is found by the griffin who rescued us, then that is where she will look for us.”
“Oh, go, go!” Wizard Bratsch flapped his hands at them. “They come, they go, they do nothing. And what’s to be done without it? Nothing,” the old man muttered as they left.
They picked their way silently through the ruins of the Castle, to the tower that Celie had awakened. She realized that she hadn’t told them what she’d done, but decided to wait and see if they noticed. Rufus flew them up one at a time, Celie first, and she lit the lantern that Bratsch had given her.
Rolf looked around, surprised. “It’s alive! Or awake, whichever it is.” He ran a hand lovingly down one of the walls. “I wonder when that happened!”
“What?” Pogue knocked on the window frame. “Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
“I did it,” Celie told them excitedly. “It was me! I used the crown and woke this tower!”
“What?” Rolf gaped.
“It’s true,” Celie said. “I dropped the crown and it made the tower wake up!”
“That’s amazing,” Rolf said. “We should go do the other tower.” He turned as though to go straight to it.
“I tried,” Celie told him, deflating. “But it didn’t work. And then Wizard Bratsch found me … and well, you know the rest.”
“Odd,” Rolf commented. “We’ll have to try again later. For now —”
“For now we have to try to sort through all those lies and half-truths,” Pogue said grimly.
“Exactly,” Rolf said with a sigh. “And hope that that other griffin brings Lulath and Lilah soon. And Ethan. Another mouth to feed …” He threw down some of the blankets they’d brought along and slumped down on them. “Well.” He brightened. “I wonder if we could ask the Castle for some food now.”
“We’ll see about that,” Pogue said. “But what about all we’ve learned?”
“The Hathelockes built the Castle,” Celie said with surety.
“That explains the changes in the tapestries,” Pogue agreed. “The old ones, by the hatching towers, must be Hathelocker … Hathelockish? And the fancier ones are Arkish?”
“The other way around, I think,” Rolf said. “The ones that show people and griffins dancing around and hunting are Hathelocke. The ones that show people trying to bond with griffins are wishful thinking on the part of the Arkish. Most of the tapestries in the Castle are Hathelocke … if we’re right. The ones that came with the hatching towers are Arkish.”
“And then more happened,” Celie said. She yanked some of the blankets out from under Rolf for herself.
“Then the Arkish fought the Hathelockes, took the Castle, and lived there,” Rolf said. “That much is clear as well.”
“But after that it’s all …” Pogue shook his head, trailing off.
“I’m guessing no one had full control of the Castle after that,” Rolf said. “It sounds like it was just endless betrayal and fighting.”
“So the Arkish poisoned the lakes, but it was the Hathelockes who decided to leave for Sleyne,” Celie said.
“But the Arkish broke the Eye,” Pogue said.
“Which side should we be on?” Rolf asked.
“Neither,” Pogue said with disgust.
“The Castle’s,” Celie retorted.
They all sat in silence for a long time. After a while Pogue climbed down and gathered wood for a fire. Celie reclined against Rufus, who had gone right to sleep, and was just starting to tip downward into an exhausted doze herself when Rolf spoke again. She jolted awake, and it took her a moment to realize what he was saying.
“Do you think the Castle made our parents get married to stop this war?”
“What?” Celie pried her eyes open. Pogue, who was sitting against the wall a little way away looked at her blankly. Rolf was staring at the far wall, the flickering lantern light making his face look ten years older.
“Mother’s family are Hathelockes, and Father is Arkish, supposedly. Do you think the Castle made our parents get married to stop the war here?”
Celie thought about that. It took her a minute, but she thought she saw what Rolf was worrying about. Their parents had gotten betrothed after the Castle had locked them both in a room together for a day. “Maybe,” she said finally. “But Daddy was the Crown Prince and Mummy was the daughter of the Royal Wizard, so it was a good match for Sleyne, too. And so many years after the war started, it seems strange.”
“I know … but … I guess …” Rolf stumbled over the words.
“Are you worried the Castle will make you marry someone you don’t like?” Celie asked, still a little puzzled. “Mummy says that she’d been in love with Daddy for years before the Castle put them together.”
“I know,” Rolf said, waving a hand to brush that away. “It’s not that … All right, it’s sort of that.” He sighed. “I’ll try not to worry too much about that unless I get locked in a room with some girl I don’t know.” He cleared his throat. “But I am also wondering whether the Castle did that to stop this four-hundred-year-old war.”
“What difference does that make?”
“It just … I always thought that the Castle … liked us best,” Rolf said, and despite the lines the fire put in his face, he sounded younger than Celie. “But maybe nothing it’s doing is because of us, maybe it’s all still because of them.” He gestured as though to encompass the village by the shore, Wizard Bratsch, and the rest of the Glorious Arkower, or Hatheland, or whatever it was called.
Celie shifted around a bit and Rufus clacked his beak sleepily. She’d never thought of that. The Castle always did things for her and her family. When the Castle had started behaving strangely a few months ago, Celie had been disturbed at the thought that the Castle was stealing someone else’s feasts and giving them to her family. But even more unsettling was the idea that the Castle wasn’t doing any of it out of love for her family, but rather because it wanted them to solve other problems, problems that they didn’t even know about.
Neither of them said anything for a while, then Celie kicked at Rolf.
“Don’t you dare go to sleep and leave me to think about that alone,” she hissed.
“I’m not asleep,” Rolf protested, sounding as though that was only half-true.
“You both need to go to sleep,” Pogue muttered. “So I can.”
“There’s not really anyone left here,” Celie pointed out. “So I don’t think it’s doing anything for them anymore. Who’s ‘them,’ anyway? The Arkower?”
“True,” Rolf said.
“I thought that Rufus’s father would bring the others, but it’s been hours. We should go find them,” Celie said. She sighed and got to her feet. “Ugh, the lantern’s too smoky.”
Rolf groaned and creaked as he also stood. He leaned against a windowsill, and suddenly he swore. “That smoke isn’t coming from the lantern,” he said in alarm.
Screams shattered the air.
“That’s Lilah,” Pogue said.
Another scream was carried to their ears by the smoke-scen
ted wind.
“That’s Lilah all right,” Celie said.
“Go to her,” Pogue said.
Celie yanked Rufus to his feet and jumped onto his back. The griffin backed away from the window, balking and squawking. Lilah was making a terrific din, and there was a sudden blaze of light out the window as well.
“Rufus, go!” Celie dug her heels into his sides the way she would to a horse, which Rufus hated, but he just backed up again. “Rufus, now!”
Rufus shook himself as though he was trying to get rid of Celie, and she clung tight to the harness. Then they heard another sound from outside: a griffin’s cry, and Rufus leaped forward. He pushed Rolf aside and climbed through the window with Celie clinging to his back, then flung himself off into the strangely bright night.
The forest was on fire.
Chapter 14
Rufus began circling, calling out shrilly to the other griffin. From their left came an answering cry and Celie turned to see Rufus’s mother arrowing toward them. She sped past, headed straight for the fire, and Rufus followed. Celie didn’t object, because that was where the human screaming was coming from.
The griffins folded their wings and dived into the forest not far from the fire. This made Celie very anxious, but when she saw Lilah she forgot all about the fire. The griffins had landed just a few paces from her sister, who was so disheveled that Celie almost didn’t recognize her. Lilah’s gown was in tatters, her face smeared with dirt, and her hair was a rat’s nest. In her arms she cradled a griffin egg that had cracks running all around its surface.
“Lilah!” Celie had to shout to be heard over her sister’s screaming.
“It’s hatching!” Lilah shrieked. “What do I do?”
“Put it down!” Celie leaped off Rufus’s back. “Let it hatch, then let’s get out of here! The forest is on fire!”
“I know!” Lilah half knelt, half fell to the ground, lowering the breaking egg with shaking arms. “The Arkower set it on fire!”
“He … what?” Celie’s stomach lurched, and she thought she must have misheard.
“He set it on fire when I wouldn’t give him the egg,” Lilah said breathlessly. “Lulath and I were going to go back, but the Arkower came out of nowhere, and Lulath tried to chase him off and I think he got lost. Then the Arkower started the fire, and Rufus’s father came and scooped me up and carried me over the flames, but the egg started to hatch and … oh!” Lilah broke off, her face transformed. “Here she is!”
All at once the egg crumbled into tiny bits of shell, revealing the newborn griffin within. Celie couldn’t tell if it was male or female, but it was definitely smaller and more delicate than Rufus had been at that age. It was a very pale gold, with wings that were almost cream-colored.
“Isn’t she lovely?” Lilah breathed. “I will call her Juliet.”
Mewling with hunger, the little griffin stumbled into Lilah’s lap. Lilah cradled her delicately, while Celie snuffled away tears at the tender scene and worried about what they would do now.
They had two newly hatched griffins to care for (if they ever found Lulath) and the fire was headed toward them. A smoke-clogged wind was blowing right in Celie’s face, carrying the crack and roar of burning trees with it. Celie could see the flames through the trees around them now.
“Lilah, we have to go!”
Celie urged her sister to her feet. Rufus and his mother hovered around them, making cooing noises at the baby. Celie steered Lilah toward Rufus’s mother, hoping that she would cooperate. She seemed wilder than her mate … and where was he now?
Lady Griffin, as Celie thought of her, did not seem concerned, however. Nor did she seem reluctant to have a rider. She dipped her wing so that Lilah could slither onto her back, sidesaddle, with baby Juliet cuddled to her ruined bodice. Celie showed her sister how to grip the scruff of the griffin’s neck where the feathers were short and soft, since Lady Griffin didn’t have a harness. Then Celie hurried to get onto Rufus’s back. The griffins took off without any urging, but they didn’t return to the tower. Instead they circled over the forest, coming ever closer to the smoke and flames.
“Where are we going?” Celie called to Rufus. “We need to get the baby to the tower!” The smoke made her cough, and she yanked weakly at his harness.
Lady Griffin gave a long, low cry, and a griffin within the cover of the trees answered it. Then a figure burst up out of the smoking forest in front of them. It was Rufus’s father, and he gave another cry and raced toward them. The other two turned in the air and followed the big male as he made straight for the tower.
Celie fell off Rufus’s back onto the floor of the tower with great relief, coughing and hacking, her throat and eyes burning with smoke. Lilah slid off more daintily, still holding the crying baby griffin as delicately as if she cradled a breaking egg. Lord Griffin had gotten there first. He inspected Pogue and Rolf with a hard yellow eye and then took up a defensive position in one of the windows.
“Lilah,” Rolf said, sounding dumbstruck. “You have a griffin!”
“Isn’t she beautiful?” Lilah crouched by the fire. “Is she hungry? Is that why she’s crying, Celie?”
“Yes,” Celie said. “I just hope we have enough food, even for a very small griffin.”
Celie made everyone search their pockets until they located some hard bread to give to Lilah, who fed small pieces to the tiny griffin. Pogue and Rolf admired the little animal while Rufus and Lady Griffin looked on.
Celie longed to inspect the new griffin, but she felt herself drawn to the window instead. She didn’t fit beside Lord Griffin, so she took up a position in the window next to his and looked out.
The forest was burning brightly in a great circle some hundred yards beyond the tower. The orange light was vicious, and the smoke was blowing straight at them. As Celie blinked her smoke-reddened eyes, she saw that the fire really was a circle … a perfect circle that was getting wider and wider. One edge of the circle was moving along the shore of the poison lake, and it was also coming closer to them.
“Why is the Arkower doing this?” Pogue asked, looking over her shoulder. “He’s going to destroy the remains of the Castle and the Builder’s tomb!”
“I wouldn’t give him the egg,” Lilah explained. “He found me in the forest and demanded that I give it to him. I said no, and then it started to hatch. He went mad, shouting that I’d ruined his plans, hundreds of years wasted, and such. I didn’t know what to do, so I started to run, then he started the fire, and I just … screamed for help.” Her face, under its covering of sweat and dirt, glowed red. “The big griffin swooped down and chased the Arkower away, and then you found me, Celie.”
“Did he say anything about Lulath? And Lulath’s griffin?” Pogue asked.
“He ranted about Rufus and Lorcan, and what a waste it was for Celie and Lulath to have them,” Lilah said. “But I don’t think he’d captured Lulath. He wasn’t gloating.”
“That’s good,” Pogue said. He rubbed his face, wincing as his fingers encountered the lump where he’d hit his head.
“Lulath will figure out a way to get back here,” Celie said confidently. “He’ll probably turn up with Lorcan and a basket of food he’s located somewhere.” She went to Lilah and stroked Juliet’s gold and cream feathers.
Lilah giggled. “That’s true.” Then her expression clouded over. “The Arkower is insane,” she said with a shudder. “We should still look for Lulath, just to make sure he and Lorcan are safe.”
“Well, we met our own crazy old wizard in the ruins,” Pogue told her. “The last of the Hathelockes, apparently, and he had a great deal to say. We’re just trying to piece it all to — Rolf, are you all right?”
Rolf was staring fixedly at the tiny griffin as Lilah continued to feed her whatever scraps of food she could find. He tore his gaze away for a moment, looked at Pogue and then Celie with an anguished expression, then back at little Juliet.
“Ye-es,” he said. Then, after a moment, “No, no I
’m not!” He drew in a deep breath. “I wanted a griffin!”
They all blinked at him.
Rolf’s face was red. “I wanted to bring this egg with us … well … I assumed I would bond with it,” he said. “Do you have any idea how jealous I’ve been of Celie since the minute I saw Rufus? I mean, she’s already the Castle’s favorite, and now it gives her this amazing creature, too?”
Celie shook her head. “You’re the next king!” But she couldn’t fight the little niggle of pleasure at being called the favorite.
“I’d rather have a griffin,” Rolf sulked.
“Oh, Rolf,” Lilah said impatiently. “We’ll find another egg, and then you’ll have your griffin. But for now we have other concerns!”
“You can say that: you have a griffin, and you never even wanted one!” Rolf snapped.
“The first king, the Builder, had a griffin,” Celie pointed out by way of making peace. She truly didn’t want to be the king — er, queen. “I’m sure the Castle will want you to have one, since you’re the next king.” She remembered the collar in her pouch. “And Daddy should have one, too, and it should wear the collar.” She realized that she was mostly talking to herself, and stopped. When they got home, then they would see what the collar could do. And the crown, and the rings.
“As Lilah said, finding another baby griffin that will need constant feeding is the last thing we need right now,” Pogue said, keeping vigil at the window. “The fire is moving closer and we still don’t know where Lulath is.”
Celie went to stand beside Pogue again, ignoring Rolf, who continued to seethe. The other, still-dead tower had flames licking at its base. They could feel the heat beating on their faces even from this distance, and she felt her stomach tie itself in a knot. Would it hurt the Castle to be engulfed in flames? And what would happen to them? Stone didn’t burn, usually, but this was a wizard fire.
“All right,” Pogue said. “We’ve got to move. Now. The fire is only getting closer, and I doubt the Arkower will care if we burn up in here.”
“I wonder if Bratsch could help us,” Celie mused.
Thursdays With the Crown Page 11
