I didn’t answer. I couldn’t because I wasn’t sure. All I knew was that when I thought back to Lev’s departure and the things I’d said, I wanted to curl up into a ball and scream until I couldn’t scream any more.
Lord Finbarr’s expression grew softer. “Have faith,” he said again. “I’d take just a little faith over a big heap of destiny any day.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Woodman’s Hall was a grand conglomeration of rooms that had been added on as necessary or, in some cases, out of plain architectural insanity. The hunters and lumberjacks who’d put their mark on the place must have seen it as a living thing like the trees of the forest. Over the years, it had grown much like a vine that took root wherever it could find a foothold. Spiral staircases twirled around tree trunks. Some whole rooms were even inside trees with split-levels and hanging balconies perched in the branches above. The ground level was a jumble of little corridors leading to rooms great and small. It faced a swift stream in the front so that the main entrance was a drawbridge that could be lowered by working a hand crank.
I took in the hodgepodge design of the place as I followed Lord Finbarr through the great room and up a staircase, across a bridge between two tree trunks and back down to a room with three long wooden tables in it. Some of people must have already eaten because abandoned plates and silverware sat on some of the tables. Mrs. Larue was spreading a clean cloth over one of the other tables. Mr. Larue, Bazzlejet and the little girls were already seated. Beth went around the table laying out silverware. I heard voices coming from an adjacent kitchen.
“Have a seat,” Lord Finbarr said, directing Valory and me to a bench at the table.
“This is a nice set-up,” Valory said, admiring the clean tablecloth and the forks.
Bazzlejet traded places so that he could sit by me. “So are you going to tell me how you lived through that fall?”
I caught Mr. Larue’s eye and hung my head. “I’m really, really sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you guys like that. I had a plan to get out of the house, but it didn’t work.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Bazzlejet said. “Just make with the juicy details!”
I told him about sliding down the mountain on a piece of debris.
“Ooh, let me tell the rest!” Valory said after I had come to the part when I was lying injured in the snow.
“Okay…” I said hesitantly.
Fortunately Valory stuck with the facts, although she spoke with such animation that Mrs. Larue actually stopped setting the table to listen.
“…and then Emma went kind of crazy because she figured out who I was and I didn’t believe her at first so we got into a fight!” Valory mimed punches in the air. “BAM! We was going at it pretty hard until Emma talked some sense into me.”
Harriet and Alice both watched her, enthralled. Their mother cleared her throat. “I’m sure the rest of the story can wait until after dinner. I think Anouk is just about finished with the baked yams.” She went off to the kitchen.
Valory looked disappointed. “But I haven’t gotten to the part where Emma had to chase a bird naked through the forest!”
Bazzlejet hooted. “Do tell!”
Mr. Larue gave Bazzlejet an admonishing look. “Thanks for that lively account, Valory, but we’ll let you rest up a bit. We wouldn’t want you to go hoarse.”
Valory started to argue, but I cut her off by asking, “Mr. Larue, what happened to you guys after the wind carried you over the mountain?”
“We were at the mercy of the winds for a while,” he said. “When we got clear of the tallest peaks I put holes in the balloon to get us lower to the ground. Then Cecily and I used some of the ropes to make guidelines. We took turns flying with the ropes until we found a safe spot to land. We came down close to a settlement of Gnomes. Lord Finbarr had come through it only days before, so they were able to point us in the right direction. Bazzlejet rigged up the deck and balloon so that we’d have better control and we swept the area until we spotted the Finbarrs’ wagon.”
“And that’s how they found us,” Garland said as he entered the room with a platter of steaming meat.
Anouk glided in with two bowls of vegetables. She gave Garland a smile as they both huddled over the table with their dishes. After putting down the yams she wiped her hands on her apron and said, “I’ll be right back with the crispy bread!”
Garland watched her admiringly all the way back to the kitchen.
Valory nudged me with her elbow. “Look at those two! What I wouldn’t give for somebody to look at me like that!”
Garland overheard her and blushed.
I came to his rescue. “I’m surprised to see Anouk here. How did she make it?”
“I got up to my old tricks again,” Garland said, beaming. “I recalled that she still had one of the books I’d loaned her…you know, one of the ones with the funny errors? It just so happened that I brought a few books with me for the journey. I got to wondering one night if there was any way I could get from one of my books to hers. Every night I went into the books, researching cross-references and quotes and misprints until, after two months, I found her. I convinced her to come back with me.”
“That’s ingenious!” I said. “If there’s a book in Ivywild that we can get to—”
“It’s not worth the risk,” Garland said. “I was almost caught and besides, what would you do once you got there? The place is crawling with red capes. The duke keeps bringing in reinforcements from Larlaith. He has patrols on wind drakes and where he can’t go, the clergy can. We’d just be asking to get caught. The book works the other way as well. If they find out there’s a connection in the book to our hideout, then what would stop them from coming after us?”
I felt deflated. “But it took you two months just to figure out how to get from one book to the other. They wouldn’t fare any better.”
“It’s not a risk worth taking,” Garland said. “I was able to bring back Anouk. That is enough.”
Anouk emerged from the kitchen with the crispy bread. I recalled what she’d said during our last meeting down in the well.
“Did she manage to free any of the Cognites?” I asked Garland.
His face went pale. “Don’t mention that!” he whispered. “It’s a sore spot for her. She wasn’t able to help.”
“Looks like we’re all set here!” Anouk said as she placed the bread on the table.
Garland shot me a desperate look. I nodded to let him know that I wouldn’t bring up the Cognites again.
Mrs. Larue and Anouk served up plates of piping hot food. Nothing had ever tasted so good. I suddenly realized how famished and exhausted I was. Beside me, Valory tried her best to eat politely but she soon gave up on the silverware and dug into her meal with her bare hands. Alice and Harriet watched her with wide eyes and then they tested their mother’s patience by abandoning their own forks.
We all swapped stories over the table. Bazzlejet talked of his latest modifications to the flying deck. Anouk gushed over the abundance of fresh cooking ingredients that could be found in the forest outside. Garland discussed all the repairs they’d made to Woodman’s Hall and hinted that’d he’d gained enough handyman experience to build a little house of his own. Anouk seemed very pleased with the idea.
Ultimately the talk turned to Commander Larue. At first it was sad. Mrs. Larue looked misty, but once we started sharing stories about him the memories became less painful. Lord Finbarr, who had mostly been pensive and quiet, even made us all laugh with the story of how he first met the commander.
“As you know I’m older than the commander, though I won’t say how much older,” he said with a wink. “The failing of age is that it tends to make you think you can get away with things some others can’t. One day I was bored so I decided to enchant all the flowerpots in Ivywild’s market square to spit clods of dirt at each other. I thought it was all in good fun and I planned to clean up afterwards. So there I was, up to no good, when this hotshot young lieutenant of th
e Master Caster scouts comes up to me and jabs a finger right in my face. He was just an Amethyst Rank back then, but he already had a fierce reputation. He ordered me, not asked, mind you, but ordered me to reverse the enchantment. Well I puffed up and tried to shame him by throwing my title around. I informed him that I was Lord Mulberry Finbarr and he told me that I was going to be Lord Frostbite if I didn’t comply immediately. To save face, I enchanted his cape to flap like bird wings. He looked like a fool and I thought myself quite clever until he burnt the seat off my trousers. Everyone in the market saw the heart patterned underpants that Florrie had knitted for me. By then we were both so riled up that King Theobald came down to deal with us. He couldn’t stop laughing long enough to discipline us, so he sent us on our way. The next day, Lieutenant Larue got promoted to Commander and I got a package with three pairs of garish underpants inside.”
Jules Larue laughed so hard that his shoulders shook. “Frayne was always like that! I made fun of him all the time for being so strict but it never bothered him. He’d just give me that blistering look of his and shake his head.”
The room filled with laughter. It died down until we were all silently staring at our plates, lost in thought. Valory leaned heavily on her elbow. Her eyes were half-closed. I pushed around scraps of food and fought off waves of drowsiness. I didn’t want to sleep. I feared that if I did, I’d wake up and find the past day was just a dream.
“CLANG!” Valory’s head crashed into her empty plate. She jerked up and looked around in a daze. “Whada—huh? Somebody say somethin’?”
Mrs. Larue yawned. Harriet was already asleep on her lap and Alice looked close to nodding off.
“Come on,” Mrs. Larue said. She got up slowly so as not to wake Harriet. “I’ll show you girls where you can sleep.”
Valory and I followed her while Anouk stayed behind to clean up. Lord Finbarr and Mr. Larue went off together to discuss something.
“Oh fine, I suppose I’ll go to the boys’ quarters,” Bazzlejet said. “Come on, Finbarr.”
Garland hesitated to follow him. “I think I’ll stay and help Anouk clean the kitchen.”
“You know my mom’s rules,” Bazzlejet said, wagging a finger. “No fraternization after dark.”
“So the men and the women stay in different rooms?” I asked Mrs. Larue.
Beth rolled her eyes. “More like different buildings.” The boys’ side is all the way on the far end of the hall at ground level. Ours is up the stairs at the other end.”
“And that’s as it should be,” Mrs. Larue said as she led us down a mossy corridor. We climbed some stairs and went around a tree trunk to a high room with a window overlooking the forest below. Somebody had set up little beds in frames made from branches. A few girls I didn’t recognize were already asleep in their own beds. Mrs. Larue placed Harriet in an empty one. Alice curled up beside her. Beth stalked off to an unoccupied cot and pulled the sheets over her head.
“Emma, you can have that one,” Mrs. Larue said, gesturing to an empty mattress. “I’ll have to find something to make a hammock out of,” she said apologetically to Valory.
“Don’t worry about it,” Valory said. She did a belly flop into the nearest empty bed and began snoring almost instantly.
“I’m just in the next room if you need anything,” Mrs. Larue said to me.
“Just promise you’ll all be here when I wake up,” I said.
Mrs. Larue burst into tears.
Alarmed, I grabbed her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”
“Oh…it’s silly,” Mrs. Larue said as she pulled a worn handkerchief out of her apron. She took a shuddering breath and looked at all the sleeping faces in the room. She lingered on Harriet and Alice dozing peacefully together in their little bed.
“You’re worried about them,” I said.
“I’m a mother,” Mrs. Larue said with a half-laugh. “I worry every moment of every day! No, dear, it’s not that. I just get sad because in times like this you children have to grow up too soon. I listen to you talk and even though you’re just a few years older than my Beth, you’ve been through things that someone your age should never have to deal with, and I just…” she looked back at Alice and Harriet. “I just wonder if it’s going to be that way for all of you.”
“Probably,” I said. “But if you’re worried that they’re going to stop needing you, don’t. Girls always need their mother.”
Mrs. Larue managed a smile. “Thank you for that, dear. Shame on me for keeping you from your rest!” She dabbed her face and left the room.
I made myself comfortable in my bed. Before I closed my eyes I watched Valory dozing blissfully a few feet away. I thought of what I’d just told Mrs. Larue. At least I had known my mother. Valory never had that chance. Would she and Marafae have gotten along? I wondered. Could Valory have mended wounds in Marafae’s heart? Could Marafae have molded Valory into a proper Slaugh warrior?
The thought got lost among a drowsy replay of the evening’s events as I closed my eyes. My reunion with Lord Finbarr and the others brought me more relief than I’d known in a long time. The only part of the night that pained me was Lord Finbarr’s confession about Hugo.
If Hugo had truly kept his promise to Lord Finbarr and Othella, then his mission wasn’t a selfish bid for power. I wished it was. Then I could justify all the things I’d said to him. Regardless of his intentions, I still felt a stab of bitterness. If he hadn’t lied to me in the first place things might have been very different.
Why yes, I am a prince, I imagined him saying. How about that? Now you understand why my sense of duty is even stronger than yours. I am the leader of my people. I was always theirs. I could never forsake it all for you just as you could never forsake Ivywild for me.
Those words bobbed on the surface of my mind as sleep pulled me under. I wanted to cling to them in the hopes of salvaging some sort of peace, but those words had never been spoken. Meanwhile, the things I’d said to him when he left rang loud and clear.
The next day Valory and I woke later than everyone else. Despite a big meal the night before, I was starving.
“Breakfast?” I asked Valory.
She rubbed her eyes and yawned. Her hair was wild. Rather than comb it, she grabbed her hat, pulled it on tight and gave me a nod. “Breakfast.”
We retraced our steps to the kitchen. It was empty save for Anouk and one Gnome who was polishing the silverware. Anouk looked frazzled. Her face was pale and there was a crease between her brows.
“Hello girls,” she said, attempting a cheerful tone. “You missed breakfast, but lunch is on. I’ll have you something out shortly and you can eat before the rest.”
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“Lord Finbarr and most of the other adults are in a meeting,” Anouk said. The crease in her brow deepened. “They’re trying to decide what to do about Helm Bogvogny.”
I had already taken a seat at a table. I sprang back up instantly. “I need to be in that meeting.”
“They’ll call on you if they need you,” Anouk said. She laid out plates for us and then turned her attention to pots that were steaming on the stove.
“She don’t look too happy,” Valory whispered.
When Anouk came back to the table I asked, “What does Garland think about the situation?”
Anouk leaned heavily on the table and gave me a sad look. “He thinks that we’re going to have to send in a team. Most of the others think so, too. It’s terribly dangerous! Lord Finbarr told us all about the clergy’s experiments. Can you imagine? After what they did to Commander Larue…” she sighed. “Garland will volunteer to go, of course. What friend of the commander’s wouldn’t?”
She was getting worked up. I squeezed her hand. “It’s okay. Garland and Lord Finbarr will figure out some way to keep everyone safe. They’re brilliant. Look how well they’ve organized this place.”
Anouk took a deep breath. “You’re right. I know you’re right. I should have a little more fait
h in him.” Something whistled on the stove. Anouk hurried over to it. “The rice is done!”
After the meal we helped Anouk clean up and then we went to explore more of Woodman’s Hall. We found Mrs. Larue, Alice and Harriet along with other small children playing in an enclosed courtyard where moss covered the ground like a carpet. The children played while Mrs. Larue kept watch over them. A basket of knitting sat beside her. Beth was there, too. She had her own basket of yarn, but she seemed to be focused more on pouting than knitting.
“What’s got her gander?” Valory asked.
Mrs. Larue glanced up from her needles. They clicked together rhythmically as a sock took shape. “She’s been sour ever since we got here. We’re not allowed any outside correspondence, you know? Too risky. She hasn’t been able to talk to her boyfriend for months.” She smiled and dropped a completed sock into her basket. “I rather enjoy the arrangement.”
“I like Mrs. Larue,” Valory proclaimed as we left to explore another wing of the building. “She’s in charge of her roost and she don’t care what anyone thinks about it.”
“Is there anyone you don’t like?” I asked.
“That duke fellow, of course,” Valory responded in earnest. “And all the people that answer to him. And my half-brother, but that’s only because you say he’s a rascal. If you don’t like him, I don’t like him, but…”
I knew what was hanging on the tip of Valory’s tongue. It was impossible to hide anything from her.
“But what?” I asked, defeated.
Valory grinned. “Well, I kind of got the notion that maybe it wasn’t always like that. And maybe, just maybe, that Lev fellow you told me about and King Hugo are the same person because Lord Finbarr said Hugo hid his identity, you know?”
“You’re right. Congratulations. You figured it out. Do you want a medal or something?”
Valory looked hurt. “Now don’t get grouchy. All you had to do was tell me. You should’ve just said, ‘Valory, your half-brother’s a dastardly sot but he has your good looks and once upon a time we were smitten.’”
The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) Page 30
