When his thirst was sated there was still no sign of Akish or Kako, and Rafiq felt it good to prowl closer to the garden walls. He could smell a fresh breeze sweeping over the wall, pleasantly tinged with half-familiar scents: it seemed to promise freedom. He was right at the wall before he knew it, his palms pressed against the brickwork as if he could force his way through to Faery, and a wild frustration taking hold of his soul.
Why was he always to be caged? Why could he never be free?
The spring water bubbled in his stomach, frothy and light, and the idea grew in him that he could be free: would be free. All he needed to do was climb over this wall– this cumbersome, confining wall.
Rafiq threw himself at the brickwork, silent and savage, and climbed. He heard a babble of noise that meant nothing, a mere birdcall of nonsense that tried to pluck at his reason and return it to him. Pink fluttered in his peripheral and made dashes at him, then hit him solidly, knocking him from his hold. Fire and rose dashed into the dirt together. He groaned and tried to draw breath, but the someone who had knocked the breath from his lungs was now sitting on his chest and unceremoniously shoving her fingers down his throat. Rafiq choked; retched. Pink silk tumbled off his chest as he spasmed and jerked sideways to empty the contents of his stomach in the dirt.
“That’s better,” said the pink silk encouragingly, when the worst of it was over.
“No,” said Rafiq in a thick voice, lurching to his feet again with a dog-like determination. The pink silk seemed to tangle his legs and shove at his shoulders, and he found himself tumbling into the dirt again. He scrabbled to right himself, shaking his head to clear away the strange fog that clouded it, and heard a voice that made him struggle the more determinedly for the wall.
“What ails him? Down, you son of a lizard!”
“Oh, be quiet!” said the pink silk despairingly. “Can’t you see you’re making him worse? Look, help me tie him to the tree.”
There was a frosty kind of silence while Rafiq attempted a fumbling ascent of the wall and was once more dragged back. Then the hated voice said: “I’ve Commanded him to lie down. Why isn’t he obeying?”
“He drank water from Faery,” said the pink silk. “I don’t know how they got it in here, but it’s Faery all right; and it’s at least strong enough to give a Thrall spell fair fight if the Thrall Commands are opposed to the desire to climb over the wall.”
“Why hasn’t he changed back to his dragon form?”
“I’m not sure he’s thinking clearly enough for that,” the pink silk said seriously. Somehow or other she was twined around his wrists just as she’d twined around his ankles earlier, and that coupled with the stronger, metallic presence that hove him sideways, compelled Rafiq back into the garden against his will. He felt the wall receding from him and fought doggedly to get back, but there was no resisting the twin power of metal and silk, and before long Rafiq began to feel the tug of another wall.
“Careful, or you’ll have him going for one of the other walls,” said one of the voices. And then, as Rafiq felt himself spiralling down into heavy darkness, he was shoved against something hard and rough, his legs collapsing under him.
The first thing that Rafiq became aware of was the sad, aching desire to be gone from this prison and over the wall into Faery. That was a very odd thought for him to have, so he considered it carefully with his eyes closed. While he was considering it he became aware of a second sensation: that of a light breeze playing across his bare toes. Why were his toes bare?
That particular question led on to the certainty that it wasn’t a breeze playing across his toes. No, somebody was tickling him. Something light and quick stroked across the pad of his foot, causing his toes to curl instinctively. Rafiq’s eyes snapped open.
“Oh, you’re awake,” said Kako.
“Why are my boots gone?”
“I actually thought you’d ask why you’re tied up, first,” she said.
“I suppose I tried to go over the wall,” Rafiq said impatiently. “Why are my boots gone?”
“I took them off,” Kako said. “I wanted to see if you’re ticklish.”
“You wanted to see if I’m ticklish?”
“Yes,” she said. “You are, by the way.”
“It was the water, was it?”
Kako nodded. “I checked it quickly while you were unconscious. Faery water is being pumped into the garden through the spring.”
Rafiq grimaced slightly. He couldn’t help feeling that it was thoughtless of him to have taken water from inside the Enchanted Keep without even testing for residual magic first. How long had he been unconscious? It was now night, but the moon shone so brightly that it was hard to tell the time.
“Don’t feel too badly about it,” said Kako, as if reading his mind. “There’s also a glamour on it. It’s supposed to draw you in.”
“Did you know?”
“What? No, of course not!”
“Do you know the way out?”
“You’re very curious tonight,” Kako said, looking at him through her eyelashes.
“Why didn’t you want Akish and me to go over the wall?”
“As it happens, I do know the way out,” she said. “Well, to a certain extent. I know what’s required to get us through the Circle. These last four circles are the hardest: they’re not so much about solving puzzles as they are about testing character.”
Rafiq’s chest expanded against his bonds in a huff of a laugh. If the last four circles were tests of character, Akish had no chance at all of making it through them.
“Exactly,” said Kako. “These few circles should be interesting.”
Interesting was one way to put it, thought Rafiq; but there was still a curl of amusement to the corner of his mouth. He flexed uncomfortably against his bonds, and said: “When are you going to untie me?”
“Not for quite a while yet,” said Kako. She sounded slightly apologetic. “You’ve moved toward the west wall more than two inches since we’ve been talking.”
Rafiq stared at her, then down at the dirt around the tree he was tied to. There was a distinct pattern of shuffled dirt from where he had been to where he now sat. “How long will the effects last?”
“Possibly until morning,” she said. “You threw up most of it, but some of it was already in your system. When Dai ate a Faery plum it took a week to purge it– though she ate the whole thing, of course.”
“Of course she did,” said Rafiq, with gloomy understanding. It was obviously going to be a long night. “You might as well get some sleep.”
“I’m not going to sleep,” Kako said, surprised. “You’d be over the wall and away before we could get up tomorrow. I’ve already had to re-tie your hands three times while you were unconscious.”
There didn’t seem to be much to say to that, especially since the information made Rafiq realise that the muscles in his shoulders were tight, his wrists straining against whatever it was Kako had tied them with. “What did you tie me with?”
“There wasn’t much to work with,” said Kako, with her one-shouldered shrug. “You have two of my handkerchiefs around your wrists, and the prince used a few of his sashes around your waist and shoulders.”
Rafiq found himself grinning. “Resourceful of you.”
“He’s not very happy about it, by the way. Apparently all his sashes have a meaning and none of them are to be used lightly. He explained them all to me but I got bored and stopped listening.”
“When do you get bored and stop listening to me?” asked Rafiq curiously.
“You don’t say enough to get boring,” Kako said. “And quite honestly, you’re more inclined to be horribly startling than boring.”
Rafiq tried not to look as pleased as that made him feel. He said: “You’re more inclined to lie to me than you are to tell the truth, so I suppose we’re even.”
“Oh!” said Kako, looking hurt. Her dragon aura had vanished completely and it was hard to tell if she was really hurt or not. Ra
fiq had just come to the conclusion that she really was, and that he ought to apologise, when she began to laugh. “Your straight face is wonderful!” she said. “All right, let’s play a game. I’ll answer a question truthfully for every question that you answer truthfully. Neither of us will get any sleep tonight, after all: we may as well entertain ourselves.”
“How will I be able to tell if you’re lying?” said Rafiq cautiously.
Kako shrugged. “You don’t seem to have much trouble reading me,” she said. “Guess!”
“All right,” Rafiq said. “But I get to ask the first question.”
“Fine,” Kako said. “But if I find you too close of a questioner, I’ll dissolve into tears. Just a friendly warning.”
Rafiq, distracted by the thought that he hadn’t yet seen Kako cry despite the roughness with which Prince Akish had attacked her, and Rafiq’s own violence toward her, said: “Did you cry when you got those scars?”
“I cried for one of them,” said Kako. “My turn.”
“No!” said Rafiq, startled. “That wasn’t my question!”
“Too late now,” Kako said. “You asked, I answered. My turn!”
Rafiq eyed her broodingly. “You tricked me. You distracted me just as I was about to ask my question.”
“How did you become chattel of Prince Akish?” she asked, acknowledging his accusation with a narrowing of her eyes in amusement. “I mean, Illisr is magically inclined and always up to date with the latest spells, but your Binding is something else entirely. I’ve never seen anything half so strong.”
Rafiq’s head jerked up. “What do you mean, see?”
“This is my question,” Kako objected. “I answered yours. Where did he get such a spell?”
“That’s two questions,” said Rafiq. “You’ll have to answer two questions if I answer them both.”
Kako’s brown eyes widened. “Finagler! All right then, I will: but you first.”
“Akish had the spell from his father: I was given to him for his sixteenth birthday. His father captured me when I was a young drake, with a spell so sharp and strong I couldn’t fight it. Of the spell itself I know little: the prince always said it was Fae magic, but it doesn’t feel like it. Strong and foreign, yes: Fae, no.”
“Very strong,” said Kako absently. She was teasing one of the tattered ends of her neck-scarf between her fingers, making a longer tail-end of frayed silk.
Rafiq was hit with a sense of alienness and familiarity all at once. Kako’s dragon form had the same slit eyes that looked quietly and a little slyly on the world, giving away very little; but her human form in all its strangely pleasant alienness still made the hairs rise at the nape of his neck.
“I only once heard the king speak of the spell directly,” he said, hunching his shoulders slightly to curb the feeling. “It was when he gave me to Akish. He said the spell was a burden not to be taken lightly, and that many protections were bound up in it.”
Kako’s eyelashes dropped over her eyes as she looked down at the scarf she was playing with. Rafiq was certain he hadn’t imagined the sudden glow to them, but when she looked up again her face was bland.
“Did the king mention where he got it?”
“That’s another question,” said Rafiq, with the suspicion of fire and smoke in his voice.
“So it is,” said Kako. She sounded surprised. “How badly behaved of me! What would you like to ask me?”
“I have two questions,” he said, unwilling to allow her to slither out of her obligations.
Kako said: “Pushy!” but she didn’t seem to be offended. “Go on, then.”
“How did you stay alive when I killed you?”
“Hm. I was actually hoping you wouldn’t ask that.”
“Why?” asked Rafiq; and then, realising his mistake: “No, that’s not my question!”
“You have a lot to learn about this game,” said Kako happily. “I stayed alive when you killed me because I haven’t got the kind of fire in my blood that you’re used to. When I change to dragon I keep my human form as well: my human body falls into a deep sleep while my consciousness goes into my Constructed dragon form. And I was hoping you wouldn’t ask because I was afraid the answer would inadvertently give away something else I don’t particularly want you to know.”
“What–”
“And before you ask, you’ve used up both your questions, and I won’t answer any questions asking exactly what I don’t want you to know.”
Rafiq glared at her. “Why not?”
“Because there are some things I don’t want you to know,” said Kako, perfectly logically. “Also, I make the rules for this game, so I’m allowed to change them when I want to.”
“Does that mean I can refuse to answer questions too?”
“Of course,” she said. “When we’ve both refused to answer three questions each, the game is over. My turn, I think!”
The game was a pleasant way to spend the night. Rafiq was so caught up in trying to ask the right questions and in studying Kako to guess if she was lying to him, that he didn’t notice the sun was coming up until Prince Akish appeared, pulling uncomfortably at his chainmail.
“Is the lizard well again?” he said briefly.
“I think so,” Kako said. “He stopped fidgeting with the handkerchiefs an hour or so ago, and he’s been leaning back against the tree for the better part of half an hour. It should be safe to untie him now.”
“Good,” said Akish. “I’ve solved this Circle while you were twittering away together. Untie him.”
Kako said agreeably: “How nice!” and untied Rafiq, who hadn’t realised that she’d been watching him– or that he hadn’t had the desire to climb over the wall in quite some time now.
“What’s the solution?” he asked Akish, while Kako’s fingers tickled around his wrists.
“The water is Fae water,” said Akish, his eyes gleaming. “And when I went around the garden this morning I noticed that there were some Fae plants here as well. In fact, they’re all Fae plants: every morsel of food or sustenance to be had in this accursed place is Fae and inedible to us.”
“I’m sure they are if you say so,” said Kako amiably. She’d gone on to the knots of sash at Rafiq’s chest. His struggling must have made them distinctly hard to untie, because it took her some time, tugging at the knots and wriggling the free ends, to loosen them.
“And what, I asked myself,” continued Akish impressively; “Is the use of myriad sources of food, if we cannot eat of them?”
“Did you answer yourself?” Rafiq flicked a look up at Kako as she untied the last of his knots, and found that her eyes were laughing down at him.
Akish, unperturbed, said: “It was evident. The plants and fruits must have another use.”
“And do they?”
“Each of them is an ingredient in a Door-opening spell between worlds. We can open a Door from here in Faery to the human world with the ingredients found here.”
“Is that so?” murmured Kako. “Are you sure?”
For the first time, Prince Akish looked slightly uncomfortable. “All except for one: there isn’t a petty-pink to be had in the garden.”
“Never mind,” Kako said soothingly. “It was a clever thought!”
“I say there aren’t any in the garden because they’re outside the garden!” said Prince Akish exasperatedly. “I can see them when I look over the wall.”
“Well, it may as well be in one of the other Circles,” said Kako. “It’s still Faery out there, and if you think we’ll be able to get back in after being out there, I’ve got a horrible surprise for you.”
“Perhaps not if we all went together,” said the prince. “But if only one of us went? If one of us was harnessed to the others in the garden?”
Rafiq thought Kako sighed slightly as she untied the last of the knots that bound him to the tree. “That would probably work.”
Akish, looking rather more satisfied that Rafiq liked to see him, nodded. “Ve
ry well. Rafiq–!”
“Don’t bother to tell Rafiq,” interrupted Kako. “He’s part of your little rescue attempt and the Enchanted Keep will probably choose to consider he’s taken a Door Out if he leaves the garden. I’m not part of the group, so if you tie the sashes around my waist and drop me over it should be safe enough.”
There it was again, thought Rafiq. That unwillingness for either himself or Akish to climb over the wall and into Faery. Why was Kako so set against either of them venturing into Faery? He wished he’d thought to ask her that last night.
“The sashes aren’t long enough,” said Akish. “The petty-pinks are at least fifteen yards from the wall.”
To Rafiq’s eyes, Kako looked distinctly pale.
“Oh, at least,” she agreed. “But the sashes will stretch just the same. Space in Faery is different when you’re on a quest.”
Prince Akish sniffed. “I’ve not heard any such thing.”
Kako, busily tying one his sashes around her waist and draping the remaining sashes over one arm, said: “It’s simple addition: one Enchanted Keep, one quest, and one required item, equals a warping in space and sometimes time.”
The prince began to look distinctly annoyed, and Rafiq, to hide the grin he could feel spreading over his face, seized Kako by the elbows and carried her over to the closest wall.
Shards of a Broken Sword Page 19
