[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Aviler's house, to see if Lucas and the others have left yet." She hesitated.
"Now that Denzil's dead . . ."
"I don't know if he's dead. I'm sure I hit him, but he might be only wounded."
"That would be very inconvenient."
"To say the least." Thomas couldn't get his mind off the castle, and looked
back at it. "When you're inside, are you upside down?"
"No, that would be silly. It's bad enough as it is, with the stairs all funny
in some places. In the middle, between the castle on top and the one below,
you have to climb a ladder for a bit and no one likes it."
They stood in silence for a time, until Thomas saw something oddly like a
large red dog leaping over the grass toward them. "A friend of yours?" he
asked.
Kade said with a sigh, "I suppose so. That's Boliver."
By the time Boliver arrived he had managed to become a wizened little man
about Kade's height with red hair and an odd peaked hat and the bluest eyes
Thomas had ever seen on anyone.
When he had reached them Kade asked, "How did you know I was back?"
"How could I help but know? They must have heard the yelling in the next
century." He jerked his head back toward the castle. "The others are watching
with a spyglass from the
274
MARTHA WELLS
wind tower, and it fell to me to come out and ask just what was doing." He
eyed Thomas speculatively.
Kade shaded her eyes and peered at the castle. "Don't they have anything
better to do?" She shook her head and turned back to Boliver. "Have the Host
tried an attack yet?"
He said, "No, but I been to the village and they say they've seen a hag in the
pond and there have been odd things setting the dogs to barking and the sheep
to running."
The look on Kade's face explained the danger. "It's what I thought." She
nodded to herself. "The Host will come here soon."
Thomas hated to see her so torn and desperate. "Look, you've done enough. Send
me back to Aviler's house and stay here."
She shook her head. "No, that's what they want. If I let them chase me about,
then they'll know they can make me do anything they please."
Thomas understood that only too well. It was a damnable trap, one he'd been
caught in half his life. He watched her, knowing there was nothing he could do
to help her and that his own involvement had made her decision all the more
difficult.
She paced and tugged on her hair. "This place is very strong. It can hold
itself against them without me for a time. The village . . . Damn it, the
village." She stopped and told Boliver, "Go up and tell them there's going to
be a battle; tell them to run."
"Very well, I will." The fay hesitated then and, with what had to be uncanny
and devastating perception, said, "So here's your reason. Well he's got my
heartfelt sympathy."
Thomas looked at Kade, though it was a struggle to keep his expression
neutral. The look Kade directed at Boliver should have dissolved him into
charred coal on the spot. She said quiedy, "You're dead."
Boliver shifted uneasily, as though realizing he might have overstepped
himself. He said, "I'll just go and have a word with the village, shall I?"
THE ELEMENT OF FIRE
275
"Yes, why don't you do that."
"Have to be quick, you know. Wouldn't want to be caught by the Host."
"It wouldn't be nearly as terrible as some things I've just thought of."
"Ah. I see. Well, I'll be going now." Boliver whirled around rapidly, becoming
a ball of heatless flames, then shot toward the lake surface above like a
firework.
"Do me one favor," Thomas said.
"What?" She was blushing furiously and attempting to ignore the fact.
"Don't kill Boliver."
Kade sighed. "I wasn't going to. I just wanted to think about it for a bit."
She dug in the pocket of her smock and produced the chip they'd taken from the
wardstone. "I can do this now."
She started toward the castle, and still half-unwilling, he followed her.
As they reached the base of the hilly garden, the castle had begun to look
almost ordinary, as if it were perfectly normal to hang upside down from an
island suspended in glass with its top turret brushed by a tree. If he had
ever thought about it at all, Thomas would have expected a place like this to
be eerily perfect, without blemish, as if it were carved out of marble by a
sculptor who smoothed away all imperfections. This fayre castle had cracked
stones where heavy climbing vines had silently invaded, had moss growing
around its windows, and was crumbling around the edge of its parapet.
Below the lowermost turret, a stone stair curved up the hillside garden to
meet one of the windows, and he followed Kade up to the top. The garden itself
was a little overgrown, as if it was only tended when someone had the time.
The grass was tall, flowers hung out of their beds, and heavy rosebushes had
all but taken over the low wall that circled it, but the fountain was running
cheerfully.
The room inside the turret was round, taking up the entire
276
MARTHA WELLS
top, or bottom, level. It was lined with book-filled shelves, and clay jars
seemed to be crammed into every available space that wasn't occupied by the
books. It smelted thickly of herbs and flowers, and sunlight from the wide
window had faded the once-bright colors of the carpet and the chair covers.
Kade hopped down onto die wide stone window seat and then to the floor, and
turned to look back at Thomas as he was getting his first bemused look at the
room. "Not what you were expecting?" she asked.
He stepped down from the window seat after her. "If I'd ever considered it, I
wouldn't have expected to see the place and still be in any kind of condition
to comment on it. You were a deadly enemy of the crown not so long ago,
remember?"
"I'd forgotten." She crossed over to the shelves on the far wall. "Well, it
doesn't look like the abode of a wicked fay sorceress, but this is where it's
all done, all the plots, all the nasty little tricks." Kade ran a hand along
the shelves, and selected a large dusty volume.
She flipped through the book until she found the page she wanted, and he
watched her as she stood on the lower shelves to take down several of the day
jars. He asked, "How did you find this place?"
"It belonged to my mother. She had others, but she lived here most of the
time. After I left the convent, I looked for her. I looked so long and so hard
she eventually had to let me find her."
Kade dumped the armful of jars on the draw table. "She wasn't a very nice
person, not exactly what I was hoping for. But she was taken with the idea of
having a daughter, for awhile at least." She paused in dumping the herbs and
powders out of their containers and smiled at some memory. "She gave me a
fayre ointment to take the mortal scales off my eyes so I could see through
fayre glamour. She had more people here, fay and humans, all of them bound to [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]