Not any more. The door was closed and Ober's man could wander up and down the wall all night, peering behind shrubs or running his hands along the stones. He wouldn't find a sign of us.
Catching Nance's hand, I led the way. Throughout our blind journey down the black corridor I repeated to myself the arguments I would give to Tarvik, reasons he would have to accept. It would be no quick win. He would resist what would seem to him a coward's withdrawal from his duties as ruler. Also, a guy who carried a token of his promised beneath his tunic next to his heart seemed to me unlikely to suspect her of evil intentions.
Now that I had talked with the magician, I was prepared to argue with Tarvik until daybreak, if need be, because I was so sure of the danger planned for him. And in one matter only was I wrong. I misjudged Ober. The woman had no patience, wasted no time.
When I pushed aside the rug covering the opening to Tarvik's room, Tarvik sat alone on the stone floor, propped into a corner of the walls, his head dropped onto one shoulder, his eyes and mouth open but his mind and all his senses closed.
I flew across the room and knelt beside him, grabbing his shoulders, then running my hands over his face and whispering his name.
His skin was as cold as the stone walls.
Nance stuffed her knuckles into her mouth to keep from screaming.
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Chapter 13
After fumbling to unhook the clasp on his cloak, I pushed aside the heavy fur, pressed my hand against the soft velvet of his tunic and could feel nothing, no rise and fall of his chest. Frantic, I ripped at the laces until I could work my hand under the material and slide my fingers across his skin. Cold. When I leaned closer, a faint breath touched my face and beneath my palm I felt his heartbeat.
"He's alive,” I whispered.
Nance moved to my side and reached out a shaking hand to touch Tarvik's forehead. “He feels dead."
"Not yet."
"What is it? What has happened? Will he die? Stargazer, what will we do, should we call his guards? Where is Artur?"
I settled Tarvik against the wall, then caught Nance's face between my hands to make her stop babbling and look at me. She trembled violently.
"Listen to me, Nance. Tarvik was healthy when we saw him this morning, and I don't see any injury. Ober must have given him some sort of drug."
"Can you heal him?"
"Wish I could, but I can't. I don't know what's wrong with him."
"But he will die!” she wailed.
"Hush. We can't be caught here. If you want to save Tarvik, you must do as I say."
Nance blinked back tears and nodded.
"Nance, we have to speak with the magician."
"That is not possible!"
"Who else would know how to stop Ober's poisons?” I asked.
"Yes, I understand, but we cannot go past the guards to his cell,” Nance whispered.
"Do you know how to reach the courtyard that serves as ceiling to the cell?"
Nance thought I was leading us both to doom, but she was too terrified by Tarvik's condition to argue.
With his cloak and tunic open and his head fallen back against the wall, his throat was exposed and it was dead white and motionless, no visible sign of breathing or of a pulse. He wore his velvet cloak, probably about as warm as a sweater and used for an extra layer in the unheated rooms. His legs stuck out straight in front of him, sheathed in velvet pants and soft boots, again indoor wear, and the position suggested he had stood with his back to the wall, shoulder against the corner, and slid slowly down until he was sitting, then tilted sideways into the corner. His hands were open at his sides, rings gleaming.
Still dressed, not getting ready for bed unless he slept in his clothes, who knew? Oh wait, I did.
He'd slid onto the sheepskins beside me in his tent that first night after we met, and he had on his pants but nothing else, no shirt, no shoes. Of course, that was summer, so I still didn't really know.
His sword hung in its sheath from a peg on the wall. He hadn't been expecting trouble. It looked more as though he had invited someone into his room and the reason I thought that, and surely Nancy Drew would have agreed, was because there were a couple of fancy metal goblets on a tray on the table.
I hurried over to them, picked them up.
They were both empty. “The deathwalker, do you think he did this?"
Nance whimpered.
"Okay, let's figure out how to talk to the magician,” I said.
Nance drew imaginary lines on the floor with her fingertip, explaining the rooms and corridors of the castle.
"So there's only one room between us and the courtyard?"
"I think so,” she said. “It has been several years since I was free to wander the castle with Tarvik."
"Whose room is next to this?"
"It used to be the chamber of Tarvik's nursemaid. She was an old woman who had once been nursemaid to Kovat. She died long ago."
A thought stirred in my mind. “Was she fond of Tarvik?"
"She was like a grandmother to him, protecting him in all things, even against Kovat's discipline. Why do you ask?"
"Maybe she's the one who showed him the passageway. If so, it may extend to her room."
As there was no way to silently open Tarvik's door and go past the guards to the courtyard, the secret passage had to be explored. We slipped back behind the rug and felt our way toward the other direction of the corridor until it ended in a blank wall of stone. My fingers searched until I found a slightly indented stone, which I did not want to press, but what were my choices?
With Nance sniffling behind me, still horrified by her sight of Tarvik, I shivered violently at the thought of what might happen when I pressed the stone. Would a door swing inwards to a brightly lit room filled with Ober's guards? We'd die together, Nance and I, and if Ober had given him poison, rather than a sleeping potion, Tarvik would die alone in his chamber. Ober would tell Kovat the three of us had died of fever, and would Kovat ever know otherwise? It's not like these folks did autopsies.
Given any other choice, I would have taken it. Biting my lower lip, determined not to scream no matter what happened, I closed my mind to visions of disaster and pressed the stone.
A door indeed opened. It was a narrow stone slab set so well it pivoted into the passageway without creating any sound. I reached through the doorway and touched a rug backing. Moving it slowly to the side, I peered into a dimly lit room.
If some fears had been unfounded, so had some hopes. There was no one in the room, but it wasn't an unused room. The heavy swords and capes hanging from the walls above the sheepskin covered floor, and the one lamp flickering in a wall bracket, showed too clearly that guards slept here and came and went often enough to leave the lamp burning.
Nance caught my hand.
I whispered, “We have a little luck. The door to the hall is open."
Nance followed silently as I led the way across the room, into an empty corridor and around a corner and through an open archway to the starlit courtyard. It was a small space, perhaps once used as a private place to take the air, an empty square surrounded on three sides by blank palace wall and on the fourth side by an outer wall twice my height. If anyone came down the dead end hallway and shone a light through the archway to the courtyard, there we would be. The courtyard offered no hiding place.
We knelt by the grill and hoped none of Ober's guards would notice us, black shapes in the darkness.
I leaned down and whispered, “Are you awake, magician?"
I was answered by a long silence that I was afraid to break in case a guard might be standing in the cell.
Finally the magician whispered, “Who asks?"
"Stargazer,” I said.
"Have you given the potion to the guards?"
"There are no guards here."
"How am I to escape?"
"I don't know. But I need your advice. Something has happened to Kovat's son. His eyes and mouth a
re open, he breathes, but his skin is cold and he's unconscious. I can't wake him."
"Ah, the lady Ober has outwitted you.” He sounded too weary to be either pleased or frightened.
"Can I save him?"
"No.” In the long silence I could imagine him thinking through his choices. Finally he said, “But perhaps I can. I must see him."
Fortunately I could not see Nance's expression in the shadows. I knew what she was thinking.
"We cannot save Tarvik ourselves,” I told her and pressed her hand. To the magician I said, “Have any suggestions?"
"Do you wear a sash?"
"Yes."
"How long is it?"
Okay, I knew what he wanted. “I have two of them. Tied together they would be twice my height."
"That will do,” he whispered. “If you can lift aside the grillwork, tie one end of the sash to it and drop the other end to me."
"No, certainly not,” Nance said but as she said it, she reached under her cloak and untied the sash from her tunic and handed it to me. Together we struggled to lift the grill, with little Nance bearing most the weight.
I was not surprised the old man could climb sashes to the courtyard. All these people were hard-muscled, and even Nance, though she was a head shorter than me, had twice my strength. He came up hand over hand, reached the level of the courtyard, leaned his head on his crossed arms on the edge of the opening, and then pulled himself out and onto the floor.
Silently we replaced the grill, retrieved our sashes and crept back towards the empty room. Or rather, I thought it would be empty. No such luck. As we neared the door, we heard someone stir inside. A glance through the doorway showed a guard stretched full length on the sheepskins with his face to the wall. We stepped back into the courtyard and tried to blend into its darkness.
"We came through a door at the back of that room,” I whispered to the magician. “I don't know any other way out."
He looked back at the courtyard wall. We did not bother to discuss it. Even if we boosted each other up, it was too high to climb.
"The guard was there when you came through?” he asked.
"No, the room was empty."
"Then he only now returned to rest. We must wait until he sleeps."
And while we waited, would other guards return to the room, going in and out, taking turns at sleeping, until the night and Tarvik's life ebbed away? My thoughts raced desperately between climbing the impossibly high wall to taking a chance on dashing through the room. I even leaned around the doorway to take a better look at the guard, thinking that if it was Artur I would ask him to help us. Sure, it wouldn't be us he cared to help, and he might be angry that we'd freed the magician, but he would do whatever was needed to save Tarvik.
We were not that lucky. The guard was no one I recognized, and he was working very slowly, hanging his sword on the wall, then sitting down on a sheepskin and carefully unbuckling his belt. I wanted to hiss at him to hurry up and go to sleep.
Nance showed considerable control for someone who usually gave way to screaming. I could feel the agitation of her thoughts, almost as though she were drumming her fists on my shoulders.
Time slowed, the way it always does for those who wait, but at last we heard the heavy rough sounds of the guard's breathing and knew he slept deeply and with his mouth open.
At other times of danger I had hesitated, then berated or congratulated myself, depending on how well my heartbeat managed to stay steady. This time I refused to worry about consequences, kept my thoughts on Tarvik, and tiptoed silently across the dimly lit room.
As I passed the guard, he rolled over and uttered a sound. His outstretched hand grazed the hem of my cloak. Every muscle in my body tightened and my skin went cold.
He rolled away to face the wall, his hand now clutching the sheepskin on which he lay. The sound was probably the buildup to a snore. I found myself on the far side of the secret doorway with no memory of my last few steps.
When the magician and Nance were beside me, I pressed the stone to seal the entrance. We led the magician to Tarvik's room.
The old man bent over him and touched his skin. He ran his fingers over Tarvik's throat until he found the faint pulse, then peered closely, his eyes narrowed.
"Is he drugged?” I asked.
The magician shook his head. “He is alive, which is good. Drugged, yes, not poisoned. He will remain like this through two risings of the sun."
"Two days! We will have to hide him for two days,” I thought aloud.
"It could be worse,” the old man said. “With a deathwalker in the house, I feared much worse."
"That servant of Ober? What could he do?"
To my surprise, the magician looked frightened. He shook his head, refusing to speak any more of the deathwalker.
"But why would anyone drug Tarvik?” Nance asked.
I said, “To give herself time to do what she wishes, without Tarvik's interference."
Nance sucked in her breath. “It is you, Stargazer. She wants to destroy you."
"Or both of us."
"But why?"
The magician said, “One who knows this drug also possesses drugs to control the mind. If she has such access to the prince, she can make him do her will."
I didn't know why he explained this because surely he did not care about Tarvik's fate. Perhaps he was concocting the worst reason he could think of so we would believe we needed his help. Or perhaps he was telling the truth.
Didn't matter. We could not take a chance on Ober's control. If Kovat's battles kept him away throughout the winter, he might return in the spring to find he no longer ruled his city. And Nance and I would be long since dead.
"Can you wake him from this trance?” I asked.
He shrugged. “From a potion? I owe you that for my freedom. But I see nothing here and my own powders were taken from me."
"What is it you need?"
"Leaves. Roots. They could be gathered and mixed but I cannot wait to be captured again."
"If you had the plants you need, how long would it take you to mix your powders?” I asked.
"A few moments."
"And how quickly would Tarvik waken?"
"By morning."
With no assurance he spoke the truth, I decided to accept his offer. Without Tarvik, we were all in big trouble. “So we need to hide Tarvik for now."
Nance and the magician shouldered Tarvik's weight between them, scuttling sideways in the narrow passage. I walked in front of them, feeling my way in the dark, my fingertips grazing the cold stone walls until we reached the end where I opened the outer door. Because it seemed likely the magician might try to leave us, I mentioned to him that our guards waited by the trees. Without the magician, the best we could do was hide Tarvik in the temple for two days or more and hope his mind returned, a plan filled with way too many possible disasters.
However, the magician stayed with us, despite old Lor's arrival and scowl of distrust.
"He is the only one who can save Tarvik,” I whispered.
Lor grunted, touched Tarvik's face which was now as chilled as death, then said, “Cover the magician's eyes."
When the magician did not protest my wrapping my sash across his eyes, I knew he had decided we were his best chance. We carried Tarvik through the stable to our chambers in the temple.
"Lor must gather the plants,” Nance said. “Tell him what you need, magician."
"They cannot be found in the dark,” he objected.
"I can find them,” Lor said.
The roots and leaves that the magician required were common plants. Lor knew the hillside. He said he could put his hand on any plant from memory as well as sight.
Although we did not remove the magician's blindfold until we were well within the temple, it seemed to me a useless precaution. Any person would know from the smell that he was being led through a stable. When we reached Nance's chamber, I pulled off my black wool cloak and tossed it to the shivering magician,
then handed him the bread left over from our supper and a mug of mead.
Following the magician's directions, Nance and I shouldered Tarvik between us and walked him up and down the length of the room.
His chin dropped forward on his chest. He breathed in ragged gasps, and sometimes not at all. When he fell silent we both panicked and shook him until his head rolled back and forth and he again began gasping for breath. His feet dragged and his knees buckled.
It took all my strength to hang onto him and I stumbled sideways with one shoulder wedged under his arm and both of my arms around his chest. I thought Nance, Tarvik and I would all end in a pile on the floor.
Just about when I was ready to give up and collapse, Lor returned with the roots and leaves. He took my place supporting Tarvik while the magician ground the herbs to bits. The bits were then covered with boiling water to brew into an evil-smelling tea.
Partly to gain distance from the yucky smell, and partly to pull myself together after way too much tension, I wandered out to our private courtyard. Took a deep breath of clean, cold night air and gazed up at the stars in the silvered sky. I noticed a few embers in the fire pit.
And the gate open.
I caught a glimpse from the corner of my eye and moved carefully. My back was to the side wall near the gate and I did it slow step by slow step, kept looking at the stars, acted casual until I felt the wall against my spine. Slowly I lowered my head, let my eyes move sideways, saw him.
He, too, was pressed against the wall in shadow to one side of the door. Watching me. Inside the deep hood all I could see was the dark glitter of his eyes picking up the reflection of the fire pit. Or maybe his eyes really were red.
"Don't move,” he rasped and slowly crossed the court toward me. His voice souned like a dry rattle of bones.
Okay, this guy was tall and from his reputation I had to guess he was strong and could deliver a wicked punch. I could shout for help but obviously he had dismantled our guard again. Lor would come running, a strong old man but no match for this creature.
Halfway across the court he reached out one long bony hand. When it hit my windpipe, I was dead. Lor might throw a knife if I screamed, would that help?
Tarbaby Trouble [Mudflat 1] Page 17
