The Wealding Word (22 page)
Authors: A C Gogolski
“Enough,”
snapped the crone, and Nell shuddered at the menace that one word could contain.
In silence they reached another set of doors, several long hallways apart from Evelyn’s chamber. Gadnik unlocked them and ushered Nell in. A small bed, a table with an oil lamp, a shelf of books, and an old dollhouse were the only furnishings. Two tall, narrow windows of checkered blue and red filtered light into the room. Below them in a stately pot grew a tree with huge leaves.
Wheezing, Rhiannon scuttled in behind them. “Here… is where you will stay. Don’t… try leaving. Gadnik… will see to your needs.”
“But I thought you were taking me home. Lady Zel said that you had an agreement about the… my problem.”
Rhiannon leaned upon one of the doors, her hairy lip curled and sneering. “Pah, I’ll not let
her
bind me to some righteous task. I have you, and she is none the wiser. Our agreement is nothing now.”
“You can’t do that! What about me?” Nell shrieked. The Widow of the Sea simply turned from the chamber wearing a satisfied smirk.
Gadnik blocked Nell from bolting, pushing her backward into the room. She fell on her hands next to the bookshelf, gasping with
outrage. She wanted to scream out, to strike fear in the old crone and threaten her with Lady Zel’s fury; but the words died on her lips. As the doors locked with a click, Nell found herself choked by doubt. Lady Zel hadn’t helped her when she fell into the well, or when the forest burned, or when the raiders kidnapped her. The sorceress couldn’t even banish the Malady. She banished Nell instead. For all of her magic, Lady Zel seemed unable to give aid of any kind when Nell needed it.
Cold and dazed, Nell crawled onto the small bed. For a very long time, she could register only one thought, as though her entire world needed to be realigned around it. It was a bitter truth, a simple question of logic: why keep expecting help to come, when none was ever offered? If she was to survive, she must find a way to do so on her own.
Nell had no further visits that day. The light of the stained glass windows was fading by the time she felt any life return to her body. Her stomach growled, but she assumed Gadnik would wander in at some point with dinner. Without much else to do, she dragged herself off the bed and decided to at least look around her new prison.
She found two small chambers adjoining the bedroom. In the first, scores of frilly dresses hung from rails spanning wall to wall. Dolls and wooden toys – leftovers, perhaps, from when Evelyn was younger – overflowed onto the floor from three large chests. One of the dolls sitting on top of the pile had its eyes pulled off. Nell’s skin prickled to look at the eerie thing, which she buried under a friendlier-looking blue bear.
The other adjoining chamber was for washing, and held a large, empty tub.
Having explored the rooms, Nell wandered over to the bookshelf, picking out a thick volume filled with illuminations. There were pictures of red-fanged demons, golden lamps, and princes with pointy shoes. She sat cross-legged on the floor, trying to make the letters on the page match the story of the pictures, but it was no use: she couldn’t make sense of the books. Besides, there was little enough light left to study the pages now.
She crawled back on her bed and resorted to the game she played on the ship. Letting those feathery feelings of worry quiet down, she opened to the Word, and soon an unsettling din arose in her ear: thousands of chimes ringing in extravagant discord. When she listened closely, she found the place made an awful racket. She took in the enchantments’ clamor, wondering if Lady Zel’s tower was similarly obnoxious to those who could hear it. At that moment, a soft rustling sounded close at hand. Opening her eyes, Nell saw the tree in her room leaning toward her in the twilight. Six plump figs dropped one by one onto the bed. She reached out to the lowered leaves, feeling the tree quiver at her nourishing touch, and then set to work on the figs.
The food made her feel a little better. The Word always seemed to bring something new and unexpected and utterly necessary. When she was open to its influence, she was free, and everything around her became a little freer too – even trees and grumlins. With a belly full of figs, Nell fell asleep remembering the twisted sycamores above the trapdoor.
She woke around mid-morning the next day, finding that nothing had been brought for her to eat. It was then that she remembered the trick Evelyn used to command Gadnik. Feeling foolish speaking to the air, Nell tested her voice, “I… want some food,
pretty please.”
Not long after that the doors opened and Gadnik came in pushing a cart piled with olives, cheese, and slices of bread. The lock clicked behind the vacant man as he left, leaving Nell alone once again with the fig tree.
When Gadnik returned with her dinner – “Roast chicken and potatoes with butter, pretty please,” – she tried questioning him. “Do you know when Rhiannon will come back? Can I go and see Evelyn?” He scratched at the fester below his neck and stared at the wall, as though waiting for someone else to respond. Nell repeated
her questions, but the servant simply drifted out of the room, locking the door behind him.
It was around noon the next day that she decided she would waste no more time shut away in the chamber. “If I can’t force the doors open, I’ll climb out the window,” she told herself. When she reached for the ornate handle however, something trembled in her pocket, and the doors opened easily. “Swsty!” Nell breathed, taking the glowing marble out of her pocket. The sight of it was like meeting an old friend. “I can’t believe I forgot about you!”
Squeezing the stone in her fist, Nell ventured out into the hall. She quickly retraced her steps back to Evelyn’s room, pausing at every corner to ensure no one was coming. Outside the great double doors she listened for a few breathless moments, but could hear nothing within. When she swung them open, she saw Evelyn combing a cat on her bed.
“Nell!” she shrieked, flinging the cat away at the sight of the girl. “What are you doing back here? Mummy Ann took you away two days ago.”
Nell shook her head. Trying to keep the quaver of fear from her voice, she said: “I never left. Your mummy locked me away in a room. I just got out.”
“No,” Evelyn said firmly. “Mummy Ann took you away over the sea two days ago.”
“That’s what she told you,” Nell argued, “But I was locked up on the other side of the keep. Gadnik brought me food and I found some of your old toys. There was a creepy one with no eyes.”
“Molly-no-eyes! I’ve been looking everywhere for her.”
“See, I told you,” Nell continued. “Your mummy is not nice like you think. She wants to keep me here.”
“But that’s good,” Evelyn said, hopeful. “We can be friends – I will be the queen and you can be my lady-in-waiting.”
“I want to be friends with you, but I want to go home too,” Nell countered.
“This
is
home!”
It was then that the Word brought something new to Nell’s ear. Evelyn made
noise
, just like the sea fortress itself. There was a faint, high-pitched trill about her. And the more she argued about Rhiannon, the louder it got. “Wait,” Nell said slowly. “I think you have a spell on you.”
“The only one who could do that is Mummy Ann, and she wouldn’t put a spell on me. Besides, she’s teaching me magic, so I think
I
would know if
I
was enchanted.”
“Oh yeah, try taking her necklace off.”
“That’s easy,” Evelyn scoffed. “I take off the chain every time Mummy Ann visits.”
“Well go ahead then,” Nell demanded.
Evelyn reached behind her neck to unclasp the chain, and a funny look spread across her face. “My fingers won’t move.” She shook her hands in front of her to get the feeling to return, and then tried again, but it was no use. “That’s weird.”
“Here, let me try,” Nell said. Maneuvering behind Evelyn, she unfastened the hook with a quiet click. “There.” Immediately the air outside exploded with the sudden, frenzied screech of gulls. The floor trembled as hundreds of the birds began whipping past the windows, their shadows flung madly across the floor. Nell stared at the silver chain in her hands. “I don’t think we were supposed to do that.”
Evelyn’s eyes went wide. “That was naughty! This is your fault – you’re going to get us in big trouble!”
Nell didn’t know what to do – except to thrust the necklace at Evelyn and run. The raucous cries of the seabirds pained her ears as she flew down the corridors, gripping corners to fling herself around them. When she reached her own chamber Nell slammed the doors shut, breathing hard.
“And how did you escape this room, child?”
came an icy voice from behind. Leaning on her cane, Rhiannon wheezed like a dying animal. A dark mist lingered around her, leeching away the afternoon sunlight.
“I – I,” Nell stammered. “Gadnik must have left the door unlocked.”
“I think not,” the crone hissed. Nell covered her nose at the stench as Rhiannon waddled close. “Gadnik is a most obedient servant. He does not make mistakes.” She snapped her bony fingers and made a gesture, like pulling an invisible needle through the air. At her command, the candlestone shot out of Nell’s pocket and into the witch’s hand. “Well well,” she jeered. “You won’t be needing this. Did
she
give it to you?”
“No! That’s mine!” Nell grabbed for it, but the Widow smacked her hand away with a cane.
“I said you were not to leave this room, and I will not repeat myself. I know what you’re doing: blathering to Evelyn about the world, filling her head with big ideas. You’d be food for the birds if you didn’t have the Weald in you.” Her voice was high and fierce, her breath stinking in Nell’s face. “Tell me, how did you do it? How did you get the old tree to talk? He holds a secret that I must have – and you will be the one to find it out for me.” A hoarse cough interrupted her at that point. Her age-spotted hand came away from her mouth flecked with blood. “With Evelyn’s help,” she continued, “I will become much stronger soon. Then we will visit the Aureate together.”
“But the tree is dead! You killed him when you burned the forest,” Nell accused.
“That tree is five thousand years old! He’s survived worse.” She coughed again, exhausted from her travel. “But he can’t hide behind charred bark forever. I want the magic he guards, and I will have it soon.”
Confused and angry, Nell shot back, “What does the tree have that you don’t?”
To Nell’s surprise, Rhiannon answered her. “Eternity magic,” she crooned. “Whoever has it can reverse the march of time.
She
conned him out of the Word Eternis long ago. Now I will do the same, through you.”
“I won’t help you, you can’t make me ask for anything.”
The Widow shuffled to the door. “Don’t pretend to know the limits of my power, girl. I can make you do or say anything I choose.” She coughed again, spitting a red glob on the floor. “The birds will rip you to ribbons if you crawl out the window.
Never
leave this room. Hear me?”
Her next stop was Evelyn’s chamber, and Rhiannon assumed the role of kindly grandmother with practiced ease. A sudden change came over her so that, when she spoke again to Nell, her voice was sweet and kind. “Now, be glad, my child. When the tree reveals the Word Eternis –
and he will
– it will be unto you. Consider it payment for your cooperation. Then, when you give it to me, when you return me to the strength of my youth… I will take you as my apprentice.” Her eyes narrowed, appraising the girl. “Imagine: wealth, power, fame, and a life lived outside the shadow of death. Think on your future with me, Nell, and be grateful.”
Nell couldn’t think of anything except ridding herself of the old woman’s stench. After some time, she figured out the ornate system of levers that filled the tub in the adjoining room with hot water, and then crawled in. Like everything else in the palace, there was some enchantment to it, and the steaming bath stayed exactly the same sublime temperature for as long as she lay in it.
Nell closed her eyes, wondering what became of Rawley and Ward, hoping the soldier made it back in time to help Peter. It was bad luck that the hermit had been bitten, bad luck the doctor was gone, and bad luck the raiders came that night. She swirled the warm water with her hands. At least her wrist felt better.
As the bath leeched away Rhiannon’s awful smell, an odd tingle crept over Nell. Someone was watching her. She opened her eyes and snapped her head to and fro, searching for the cause of the feeling. But the room was empty, she was alone. Sighing, she sank down again, staring into the steaming bathwater.
It was only then that she saw it: the reflection of a pig-face wavering up at her from behind. With a splash Nell wheeled around to meet the intruder, but no one was there. Though she saw it for only a moment, she would recognize its leering snout anywhere. The Malady was close, and that meant something awful was bound to happen. Nell felt sick knowing the creature was there with her.
She remembered Lady Zel saying that accidents had a way of multiplying under its influence, but that attentiveness was a way of making her own luck. The best way to protect herself from the creature was to watch what she was doing. So, as carefully as possible she got out of the slippery tub, reaching for her towel with shaking hands.