Wednesdays in the Tower (21 page)

Rolf came back with four soldiers, one of them Sergeant Avery, who had so tirelessly searched for their parents and Bran the year before. The king swiftly told Avery what was happening. To the credit of the sergeant and his men, though their faces paled, they all nodded and stood to the side, ready to go when the wizards told them it was time.

“I’m going to go see if Arkwright needs help,” Pogue announced.

“Do you think he ran for it?” Lilah asked in a low voice.

Pogue and Celie looked at her in surprise. She made a face.

“I’m not stupid, you know,” she said. “He’s a weasel, even if he isn’t evil. Which I kind of thought he was, for a while.”

She was tugging on one of Rufus’s wings, making him stretch it out and then snap it back, which was one of his favorite games to play with Celie. Celie wondered whether Lilah would like a griffin of her own, and decided that she would make an excellent griffin rider. After all, she loved animals, and she could be incredibly persistent.

Pogue just gave a curt nod and headed out of the archway. A moment later he was back, trailing behind Arkwright, who had his arms full of magical supplies. Pogue’s face still looked suspicious, but Arkwright didn’t seem to notice.

“Are you ready to begin?” Bran asked. He surveyed the room. “Once we mix the herbs and cleanse the bowl to open the gate to your world, will we need anything else?”

“What about ordinary supplies?” Queen Celina asked. “We should pack you some food.”

“We’ll come back within a day,” Bran said. “I just want to see what the situation is there. It’s probably too dangerous to stay. And if it isn’t, then there’s no reason we can’t come and go several times.”

Arkwright only nodded, a jerky movement. His gaze flicked to the Eye and back. He and Bran began to set out herbs and amulets and all manner of strange, wizardly things. The soldiers stood in a line, and Sergeant Avery
talked with the king and queen about how long they planned to be gone and what they might encounter.

“Pogue,” Celie whispered. “Keep an eye on Rufus.” She was certain that Arkwright had hidden the real Eye, and she wanted to find it before it was too late.

“Right,” Pogue whispered back. “Be careful!”

When no one was looking at her, Celie slipped out of the holiday feasting hall. It would be odd calling it the Heart of the Castle, but she supposed she would have to get used to it.

The Castle was nearly twice the size of what she was used to, and Arkwright could have hidden the Eye anywhere. It was most likely in his rooms, though, so she went that way. He hadn’t been gone long, after all, and he’d brought back the herbs and tools he needed. He probably hadn’t thought that they would guess what he’d done, and had just stuffed the Eye in a wardrobe or something.

She passed several members of the court in the corridor. They looked at her curiously, and she nodded and walked even more quickly past them. They wanted to know what was going on, with the Castle, with the griffin she’d flown into the courtyard earlier, but there was no time.

Lord Sefton, however, stopped her.

“Princess Cecelia,” he said with a bow. “A word?”

There were a few other councilors standing behind him, looking equally curious. She supposed that he was their
chosen delegate, since he was known to be a favorite of the Glower family.

“I’m in a hurry, my lord,” she said, continuing to walk. He followed her. “So let me just tell you: Yes, I have a griffin that I hatched from an egg the Castle gave me. Bran and Wizard Arkwright are preparing to travel to the world where the Castle was born, to see if they can … well, they’re going to try to help the Castle so that it stops doing … what it’s doing.” She was panting slightly from walking rapidly and talking at the same time.

“Is there anything we can do?” Lord Sefton asked.

That was another reason Celie liked him: no criticizing or pointless hand-wringing, despite the startled look on his face at what she’d just said.

“Keep everyone out of the holiday feasting hall,” she instructed. “And let them know that all is well, and my father will be giving more details later.” She was sure that last was true. It was what her father did, after all.

“Very good.” Sefton took his fellow councilors and headed down a cross-corridor toward the councilors’ privy chamber.

Celie had reached Arkwright’s rooms, and took a deep breath before trying the door. It was locked. She wiggled the latch, and felt just the faintest twinge in her head. The door swung open.

The room was very tidy. Celie could see exactly where he had grabbed up some tools from the array on the table,
and bundles of herbs from the well-organized shelves. The bed was neatly made, the wardrobe door closed and latched. Celie ran over and opened it, releasing a scent of lavender and revealing a row of plain gray robes. She pulled them off their hooks, not caring about the mess, and flung them on the floor. Nothing.

She turned and threw herself flat on the floor, groping under the bed. Nothing. She checked under the pillows, and in the little cabinet by the side of the bed. Nothing there, either. She checked the chamber pot, since this room didn’t have a water closet, but it was empty (and blessedly clean).

She turned around again, searching the room. And that was when she noticed a narrow door. It was half-hidden behind the window curtains, and Celie couldn’t remember seeing it before. Of course, she couldn’t remember whether she’d been in this room before, either. It was one of the guest rooms, one that only used to appear when very important guests arrived.

Celie went through the door and found a narrow corridor—one of the secret passageways that ran through the Castle!

The passageway was dark, but there was a smell of lamp oil in the air. Celie’s heart pounded: she was sure that Arkwright had come this way. She heard a noise and turned quickly, frightened that Arkwright had followed her, but there was no one there. She steeled herself and continued on.

She passed one door, but the latch felt gritty with dust, so she kept going. The passageway ended in a door with a clean latch, and she pushed it open and shoved aside the tapestry that covered the opening. The threshold was higher than she’d expected, and she fell into the room.

And bounced.

Chapter
26

It was the room with the bouncy floor. The floor was some sort of slick, black material, held taut at the walls with steel fittings, which allowed you to jump much higher than you normally could. Celie looked around. The main door to the room was across from her, and she bounced her way over to it, but it was locked from the other side. Celie looked around, and then up, bouncing herself gently while she thought.

About ten feet up was a small ledge. She could barely see a hint of something gold sitting on it.

“There you are,” she said aloud.

She jumped. And jumped again. She and Rolf had spent many afternoons in the bouncy-floored room, and she knew that it would take a while to build up some height. It would have helped if Rolf were there to give her a lift; they’d developed a way of launching each other that let
them go much higher. Celie jumped again, but still fell several feet short of reaching the ledge.

She bounced over to the one window, which was a few paces away from the ledge, and slightly lower. She bounced up and tried to land on the windowsill, but it was too narrow. She jumped, caught the latch, and swung the window open. On her next jump she landed on the windowsill and barely caught herself before she pitched right out and into the moat.

She grabbed the edge of the window tightly. Then she closed her eyes and held on as the Castle rippled. And rippled again. There was a groan, and a sound like sliding stones.

“Oh, no,” Celie said. “What’s happening now?”

She looked out the window but couldn’t see anything. She wished Rufus were there: it would be easy to fly him up to the ledge. She thought about whistling for him, but didn’t think even his keen ears would hear. Still, she sent out a sort of silent call.

Rufus, come to me
.

The Castle rippled again, and she clung to the copper window frame.

When that ripple passed, she took her chance. She threw herself down as hard as she could, feeling the floor dip beneath her feet almost to the height of her knees. Then the floor snapped her back up, and she stretched out her fingers for the ledge. She just barely caught her fingers on the Eye, and then her cheek and shoulder slammed
into the stones of the wall. She fell back onto the floor, which bounced her six more times before she came to rest. A little dizzy, shoulder and face throbbing, she looked around.

She’d knocked the Eye off the ledge, and it was sitting on the floor by her feet. With a crow of triumph she picked it up and tucked it into her bodice. The Castle rippled again, and groaned, and she headed for the secret door.

Rawk
, came Rufus’s cry from the open window.

Celie whirled, and there he was, staring in at her with his wings pumping to keep him level. She bounced back up to the window and climbed out and onto his back.

“That’s my wonderful boy,” she said, stroking his neck. “My clever boy! Take us to the courtyard!”

Rufus wheeled around and flew up and over the Castle walls. From her vantage point in the air, Celie watched the stones of the courtyard ripple. She could see that the stables were abuzz with activity as the grooms tried to calm the horses, and saw two guards head for the gatehouse at a dead run.

Rufus had barely come to rest on the ground when Rolf ran out to meet them, his face white.

“Something’s wrong,” he shouted before Celie could dismount. “The hall closed up as soon as they started the spell, and everyone else is inside! Have you got the real Eye?”

“Yes!”

The Castle groaned.

“Bring it! We’ll have to try to break in! Or—”

“No!” Celie had an exploding feeling in her chest, a dryness in her throat that told her she needed to get the Eye to the Heart of the Castle with all possible speed. She knew it, she knew it, she felt it beating inside her. She gripped the handles of the harness.

There had to be a faster, better way. Rufus pawed at the courtyard paving and Celie shifted on his back, her skirt catching the harness. She really needed to get a riding dress made like … The leather cloaks! “Rufus, take us up!” Rufus sprang into the air, and Celie called down to Rolf, “I’m going to throw it down the chimney!”

She didn’t know whether the Castle was in distress because Arkwright was doing something deliberately to ruin the spell, or if the spell was simply going wrong because they weren’t using the real Eye.

She guided Rufus over the rooftops to the curved roof of the Heart. There was the chimney, jutting upward with its iron cage on top. When Rufus was hovering over the chimney, she looked down. It wasn’t big enough for Rufus to perch on, and there was no way she could pry the bars aside. She would have to drop the Eye down as carefully as she could, to make sure it didn’t just bounce off the bars or shatter.

She held tightly to Rufus’s sides with her knees. Leaning as far over his shoulder as she dared, she pulled out the
Eye. She tried to hold it over a space between two bars, despite Rufus bobbing up and down in the air. With a little prayer and then a scream, she let the Eye fall.

It passed between the bars and fell out of sight. Celie counted to five, and when nothing happened she brought Rufus around and they headed toward the courtyard again.

Only then was there an explosion that seemed to lift up each stone of the Castle and set it down again. Rufus stumbled as he landed, the stones of the courtyard rising up and back again under his talons. Rolf fell down the steps and hit his chin, coming up with blood running down the front of his tunic and his eyes wild.

“Are you all right?” he and Celie called to each other at the same time.

“I’m fine,” Celie said.

She dismounted and led Rufus up the steps, meeting Rolf and hurrying inside the Castle with him. The explosion had thrown the doors open, and the guards had fallen down as well. They were just getting up, shaking their heads and checking for their weapons, when Celie and Rolf swept by.

“Thank heavens,” Rolf said, speeding up. “It’s open again!”

They skidded into the Heart of the Castle, as Celie now found herself calling it in her mind. Rufus didn’t stop fast enough and nearly knocked Celie down, but Lulath reached out and caught her. The Castle rippled again, and
she found herself clutching at Rufus with one hand and Lulath with the other to stay upright.

“What have you done?” Bran roared at Arkwright.

“It should have worked,” Arkwright babbled. “Why didn’t it work?” He scrabbled in the remains of the spell on the table.

Everything had been thrown around by the explosion. Lilah leaned on Lulath with one hand to her cheek as if something had struck her, and King Glower was sitting on a bench looking dazed while Queen Celina hovered over him. The tapestry was on the floor in a heap, and so were the lances and cloaks. The guards had their weapons out but didn’t seem to know where to point them or what to do.