It made me sick to my stomach to think about it. “They can’t just leave people frozen in amber like that! Those Cognites must have families! Surely somebody would notice…”
Anouk made an uncomfortable sound in her throat and began to fidget.
I raised an eyebrow. “What else did you find out?”
“Terrible things,” she said in a heavy voice. “My whole life all I ever wanted to be was a priestess. Now I know it’s all a lie. I just—” she broke down into sobs.
Fredwina and I watched helplessly. I did a poor job of handling my own breakdowns, let alone somebody else’s. Still, I wanted to make the tears stop. Anouk was not meant for tears.
Quite abruptly Anouk ripped off her headscarf. She looked on the verge of tearing it apart. “Blast them!” she exclaimed. “I’ve wasted so much of my time! If I had only known!”
“Known what?” I asked, both taken aback by the display of vim and instantly jealous of the burgundy hair that fell free over Anouk’s shoulders.
“The clergy is not meant to help anyone,” Anouk said. “It’s all a means of control. Oh, sure, it preserves history and all that, but now that I know the cost…” she let out a trembling sob.
“You mean what they do to the Cognites?” I asked.
Anouk nodded. “Those people don’t have families because they are the last of their bloodlines. That means they have the potential for magical greatness.”
“But the clergy would rather drain it all out of them than let them use it.”
“Right,” Anouk said. “Anyone seen as a threat gets turned into a Cognite…or worse.”
“They must have meant that for me all along!”
“No, I don’t think so,” Anouk said. She looked slightly shame-faced again. “I did know that the first crystal they gave you was a dampening crystal, not a real source crystal. Beyond that, I was instructed to give you proper cathedral training. The high priestess said that she’d monitor your magic. I think they meant for you to be a real priestess, if only to put an end to your bloodline. But that was before everyone knew the king was dying. Once it became clear that Chloe would soon be in charge, everything changed.”
I thought of my grandfather. “Not very original of them. I think they’ve got something else in the works, too. They mentioned something about looking for a tablet. Do you know anything about that?”
Anouk furrowed her brow in deep thought. After a moment, she gave up with a shake of the head. “I don’t have a clue. Did they say why they were looking for it?”
“Not exactly, but I got the vibe that they need it for more of their sneaky evildoing. We need to tell somebody. Is Commander Larue around?”
“No,” Anouk said. “The duke has banished him to a far off outpost along with most of the Master Casters. None of the royal family are here, either. Chloe vanished the day of the coronation along with the Queen Mother and Princess Violet.”
A vague memory of the events stirred in my memory. I had been completely overcome by the poison fruit during the would-be coronation. “Is there nobody left who can help?”
Anouk did not answer. There was only the distant rumble of water spilling into the reservoir.
I sighed. “I see. Then that settles it. If help can’t be found inside Ivywild, I’ll just have to go elsewhere.”
“But our allies are scattered to the four winds!” Anouk said dejectedly. “How will you find them?
With no Chloe, Othella or Commander Larue, my best chance lay in finding Garland and Lord Finbarr. They had been traveling less than two weeks. Maybe I could catch up to them.
“Have you had any letters from Garland?” I thought to ask.
Anouk’s eyes welled up with tears all over again.
“Never mind,” I said. “I’ll find him and his father. Their first stop was in Loosestrife. I can start by asking people around there if they know what route they took.”
At this Anouk’s expression brightened a little. She reached into her robe and pulled out a small, crinkled paper. “I was told to give this to you if you escaped the cathedral.”
I read the sloppy words on the paper. “Cloud Lane, first flagpole on the left. What is this?”
“A Mr. Bazzlejet gave that to me,” Anouk said. “He’s the one who helped me get into Judge Marcellus’s quarters. Seemed to have a knack for that sort of thing. He had to sneak out of Ivywild shortly after, though, because the duke put a bounty on him. I suppose it’s because he’s kin to Commander Larue and he caused a stir at the coronation. Anyways, he said if you escaped you’d need a place to go. His family lives in Loosestrife. That’s directions to their place.”
“Did he say he would be there?” I asked.
Anouk shrugged. “Maybe, but don’t count on it. The duke’s men are all over the place, even in the outlands. You’d be wise to take a disguise and lay low.”
It was looking more and more difficult. I tried to hold a good thought. I had friends out there. I just had to find them.
“Come with me,” I said.
“No,” Anouk said. “I can’t. I’d slow you down. No, really!” she said to my disbelieving scowl. “You’re made for this sort of thing, but me…well, I’m just a soft, indoors sort of girl, aren’t I?”
“But you make a mean crispy bread!” I said.
Anouk laughed softly. “Yes, but what help is that to you? Besides, I’ve got my own schemes. Something must be done about those Cognites. If it means keeping my head low and playing Old Grimmy’s puppet, then that’s what I’ll do. I’ve got to make up for all my wasted years and do something that actually matters!”
“But I’m going to search for Garland. Don’t you want to see him?”
“Of course!” Anouk said, blushing. “But I’m sure he’d understand. Just give him a big kiss for me when you see him.”
I made a face. “How about I don’t and you can just wait until we come back?”
“Deal,” Anouk said.
“But how am I to get out if I can’t get above ground?” I asked.
Anouk chewed her lip. “I thought we could at least get you up above and disguise you as a merchant so you could slip out in the morning, but by then they’ll no doubt be onto you. I trust you left Old Grimmy unscathed enough to report your escape?”
“I’m not a murderer,” I said. “She’ll be back if she hasn’t gotten out already. So what then?”
It took a moment for Anouk to reply. “All waterways here lead to Ivywild River. Of course, that means you’d have to go over the waterfall.”
Every grisly possible end to the scenario flashed through my mind. The waterfall fell hundreds of feet down a sheer cliff face. At the bottom was a shallow, turbulent pool surrounded by jagged rocks.
“I don’t think we’d make it,” I said, patting the serpent on the back of its head where scales met fur.
The sea serpent gave an agitated wriggle and blew water from its nostrils.
“Looks like that critter of yours thinks otherwise,” Anouk said. “I’d offer you aid to get down the cliff, but I’m just not that strong. My wimpy little wings can barely pull myself up, let alone another person.”
I recalled bitterly that there was, in fact, only one person strong enough to carry me long distances.
There came the sound of voices up above.
“Get the cover off that well,” somebody said.
“The well, sir?”
“Our orders are to check all waterways!” replied the other.
“Looks like me and Fredwina here will have to give the waterfall a try,” I said.
Anouk’s face drained of all color. “Do be careful!”
“Yeah, I’ll be real cautious while I’m plummeting to my doom.”
There came a groan of wood on brick as the men above began to move the well cover. Anouk jumped into the water. The toadstools popped out of existence.
“Go!” Anouk hissed as a crack of moonlight shone down into the well.
Without further hesitation I urged t
he sea serpent downstream from the well. Once again in stifling blackness, there was nothing for me to do but hold tight and trust the magical beast that carried me. “Get us safely out of here,” I whispered.
We passed through a maze of watery caverns. Many times I was forced to hold my breath and endure long, submerged passages. My lungs were pushed to their limit as I struggled between pockets of air.
Gradually the stream grew wider, fed by other underground tributaries. The current grew faster. Now when I took gasps of air they tasted fresh like the night outside and not like the stagnant air trapped in the underground chambers.
The stream widened again. A telltale roaring noise grew closer. The subterranean passage spit us out in the main river just beyond the wall encircling Ivywild’s market. We were in the castle’s outer perimeter, and our presence did not go unnoticed.
“There, in the water!” shouted a lookout on the castle wall. “What’s that?”
Airborne guards with their wings casting colors against the night sky gathered near the wall. Some were armed with crossbows, others with only their magic. They were the least of my worries. The arch loomed ahead. It was the gaping maw where the river spilled through the castle wall to the valley far, far below.
“It’s her!” shouted one of the men. “It’s the fugitive!”
“What’s that she’s riding?” asked another.
“Never mind that. GET HER!”
I thought of calling on Tuari, but to do that I’d have to dismiss the serpent and leave myself open to attack. Besides, there was no time and no easy way for me to take out the flute while clinging to the creature’s back.
A barrage of arrows flew my way. There was no chance of them missing their mark. Like any quality Fay product, they were infused with magic.
The sea serpent put on a burst of speed. While it bought me precious distance from the arrows, it also brought us closer to the arch. The curved stone passed by overhead. Then I knew only a horrible dropping sensation in my stomach. The sea serpent hung limp in the air for a blink of an eye.
The free fall began.
The air screamed by us. I might have been screaming as well, but I couldn’t tell. The ground below was a blur.
The guards became distant specks above. We were falling far too fast. There was no way I could survive the collision at the bottom. Even if the sea serpent managed to straighten out and dive gracefully, the impact would still be too hard. Plus, the pool at the bottom was too shallow.
All of a sudden everything around us changed. In one instant, we were plummeting down the castle cliff; in the next, we were gliding through a silent, white world with black shadows in the distance.
“What is this place?” I asked. The loudness of my voice startled me. There wasn’t a breath of wind. Somehow the atmosphere was both hazy and sharp. The black shadows spun, changing forms like liquid in a kaleidoscope. The otherworldly shapes danced, flickered, disappeared and reappeared closer, then further away.
Up became down. Somehow I perceived the change even though my only reference was the sinister black shadows. A flock of the things whipped by me with a sound like laughter. A chill went through me and suddenly I felt more scared than when we’d gone over the waterfall.
I knew where we were. There was only one explanation because there was only one other place where the sea serpent could exist.
We were in the Twi-Realm.
Jagged black shapes like broken trees grew down from the sky. Cackling forms spun around me. I was able to make out voices; a thousand voices, all at once, all screaming or wailing or laughing hysterically.
Was I dead? Maybe we’d hit the bottom of the waterfall. I shivered. The idea of an eternity in the eerie half-world terrified me.
Then I saw starlight. With a flash, we were back under the night sky. There was a perfectly natural breeze that told me we weren’t in the Twi-Realm any more. Tepid water lapped against my legs. Some water sprites were fighting on a lily pad nearby.
I lay slumped over the serpent’s back. My hair dragged in the water. Slowly I pulled myself up. I felt around to make sure I still had my shortsword. A sharp pain in my shoulder made me wince and cry out in shock. An arrow was stuck there. Its pointed head was lodged just beneath the skin. I was able to pull it free with one hard tug and a string of curses.
The serpent let out a low moan. It was then that I noticed the feathered shafts sticking out of the back portion of its body. No fewer than twenty arrows pierced its slick hide. The wounds weren’t fatal. Mere arrows couldn’t kill a powerful undead beast. That didn’t mean they weren’t painful. The serpent moaned again and I trembled, feeling its distress like it was my own.
I rolled over and looked around. This wasn’t the pool at the bottom of the waterfall. It was a millpond with a water wheel chugging away at the edge. Huge old trees stretched their branches overhead. I heard the curious whispers of Dryads living in the trees. The water sprites had also taken an interest in me. They swam up close to the injured sea serpent and poked at it with their webbed hands.
The serpent tried to growl at the pests but ended up moaning instead. It was time to send her back. Wherever this place was, it didn’t hold any immediate danger. I would have to make the rest of the way on my own.
“You are free to go,” I said, leaning close to the serpent’s scaly head.
The serpent made a thankful whistling noise. It stretched its body halfway up out of the water. Then it vanished, leaving only a glittering spray of droplets that fell back to the surface of the pond.
For a long time I lay on the grassy shore to recover. The season’s first leaves had fallen on the pond, creating a floating layer that lapped at my toes. I closed my eyes and listened to the water sprites splashing around and the rhythmic chugging of the water wheel.
A small trickle of blood oozed from the wound in my shoulder. It seemed like a trivial thing. I was alive.
The living could not enter the Twi-Realm. That’s what I’d always been told, and yet I’d been there. Somehow the sea serpent had pulled me into it and brought me back out in a different place, sparing me a terrible death at the bottom of the waterfall.
“Where am I?” I asked aloud.
“Old Potter’s Mill,” said a Dryad in the nearest tree.
This didn’t help me at all. “Where’s that?”
“The eastern edge of Aki’s Forest,” the Dryad said. “Just on the outskirts of Loosestrife.”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
The light breeze had turned quite gusty by midmorning. Ragged low clouds tumbled through the sky. The weighted pulley on the flagpole clanged like a hammer, adding to my frustration.
I’d been staring at the thing for twenty minutes. I had gone to the address on the note Anouk had given me. Cheery little dwellings dotted the roadway all except for this spot. It was a bare lot and, as the address had suggested, a flagpole. I had not thought it would be quite that literal.
An old Fay woman was working in her yard two houses over. I thought about going and asking her if she knew where to find the Larue place, but the duke’s men had already come through earlier that morning. Without a proper disguise, it wouldn’t be smart to approach somebody out in the open.
So I stared at the flagpole. It was made of wood and it was ridiculously tall—so tall, in fact, that I couldn’t see the top of it. Occasionally I caught the shadow of some large shape through the low-flung clouds, but my neck began to hurt from craning upwards.
Clunk, clunk, clunk went the pulley. My head throbbed with it. “Shut up already!” I huffed, reaching out to hold the line taut for two seconds so I could think.
FWOOSH! The line jerked me upwards like a fish on a hook. My feet left the ground and I zoomed higher and higher. Startled out of my wits, I clung to the rope for dear life. Somewhere along the way a flag passed me, traveling down as quickly as I was traveling up. Higher and higher still I flew until I passed through a damp layer of clouds.
The top was in view. Convinced I w
as going to shoot past it, I squeezed my eyes shut and held on even tighter.
I stopped. The rejuvenated clanging of the pulley made me open my eyes. I was stranded at some indecent height above the ground, which I couldn’t see anymore because of the clouds. A tether line led from the ball atop the flagpole to a house.
I blinked. A house had no business being up in the sky yet there it was, complete with a patio garden and a cute picket fence. It took a moment for me to comprehend the madness of it. Then I saw that there were other tethers on the house that led up to a gigantic canvas balloon. The blimp-sized balloon swayed overhead, casting the airborne dwelling into shade.
“Who goes there?”
It sounded like Commander Larue. I looked around in excitement, but it was not Commander Larue who glared at me from the patio. This man looked slightly younger with a face softened by a beard and mustache. The eyes were the same, though. Hawk yellow and full of spark, they summed me up from head to toe in an instant.
“Bazzlejet Larue told me to come here,” I shouted. The rope started to feel slippery in my grasp. My voice rose with my anxiety. “I am Emma Wren.”
The man’s face relaxed. “The Emma Wren?” He turned and shouted towards the house, “Look, honey, it’s Emma! She made it!”
A short, round lady with curly hair the same silvery blue color as Bazzlejet’s walked onto the patio. “Bless my stars! We’ve heard so much about you!”
A bird flew by level with my head. My palms burned. It occurred to me that these people might not realize I didn’t have wings. “Hey, could you guys, uh, get me down from here?”
The woman smacked herself on the forehead and giggled. “Of course! How silly of us. Honey?”
“Coming right up!” said the man. He took a long stick with a hook on the end and stretched it towards the flagpole. When the hook caught around the pole, he pulled the whole house gently over to it.
I jumped down as soon as I saw the patio beneath me. It was all I could do not to hug the floor. I was not without manners, however, and etiquette dictated that I stand up and be civil to the insane, cloud-dwelling couple.
The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Page 17
