Wizard's First Rule (74 page)

“What’re they lookin’ for?” a woman asked.

“Don’t know. Least they didn’t tell Frank and Jenkins. But I wouldn’t want to be the one that had whatever they’re after. Those men from D’Hara could give you nightmares when you were wide awake.”

“Wish they’d find whatever it is under Violet’s bed,” somebody else said. “It’d do her up right to get a nightmare for a change, ’stead of givin’ ’em.” Everyone laughed.

Rachel went on, through the big storeroom with all the columns. Barrels were
on one side, all piled up in rows on top of one another; boxes and crates and sacks were stacked up on the other side. The room smelled damp and musty, and she could always hear mice scratching about. She went down the middle, past the lamps hung on the side of columns, to the heavy door at the other end. The iron strap hinges creaked when she strained and pulled on the iron ring and opened the door. Rust from the ring got on her hands, so she wiped them on the stone. Another big door to the right led to the dungeon. She went up the stairway. It was dark, with only one torch at the top, and she could hear water go plink, plink, plink and echo. Through the door at the top that stood open a crack, she went down the stone block halls like the wind that was always in them. She was too scared to cry. She wanted Sara to be safe, with her, and away from here.

On the top floor, at last, she peeked her head around the door, looking up and down the hall that ran past Princess Violet’s room. The hall was empty. Tiptoeing across the carpet with the pictures of the boats on it, she reached the entry way set back from the hall. She snuck into it, checking the hall again. Carefully, she opened the door a sliver. The room was dark. She slipped in and shut the door tight.

There was a fire in the fireplace, but no lamps were lit. She sneaked across the floor, feeling the fur rug on her bare feet. She got down on her hands and knees and crept into her sleeping box, and pulled the blanket back with one hand. She gasped. Sara wasn’t there. She felt just as if a cold wind had blown across her skin.

“Looking for something?” It was Princess Violet’s voice.

For a minute, she couldn’t move. She started to breathe hard, but she kept the tears from coming. She couldn’t let Princess Violet see her cry. She backed out of the box and saw there was a black form standing in front of the fire. It was the Princess. She took a step forward, away from the fireplace, toward Rachel. Her hands were behind her back. Rachel couldn’t see what she had.

“I was just coming up to get in my box. To go to sleep.”

“Is that so.” Rachel could see better in the dark now, could see the smile on Princess Violet’s face. “You wouldn’t happen to be looking for this, would you?”

She slowly pulled her hands out from behind her back. She had Sara. Rachel’s eyes went wide and she suddenly felt like she had to go potty.

“Princess Violet, please…”she whined. Her hands reached out, pleading.

“Come here, and we’ll talk about it.”

Rachel stepped slowly to the Princess, stopping in front of her, twisting her finger in the hem of her dress. The Princess suddenly slapped her, harder than she had ever slapped her before. It was so hard that it made Rachel give out a little scream as she was knocked a step backward. She put her left hand over the stinging pain. Tears welled up in her eyes. She jammed her fist into her pocket, determined that she would not cry this time.

The Princess stepped to her and hit her across the other cheek with the back of her hand. Her knuckles hurt more than the first slap. Rachel gritted her teeth and clutched her fist around something in her pocket to keep from letting the tears come.

Princess Violet stepped back to the fireplace. “What did I tell you I would do if you ever had a doll?”

“Princess Violet, please don’t….” She was shaking because her face hurt so
much, and because she was so scared. “Please, let me keep her? She’s no harm to you.”

The Princess laughed her awful laugh. “No. I’m going to throw it in the fire, just like I told you I would. To teach you a lesson. What’s her name?”

“She doesn’t have a name.”

“Well, no matter, she’ll burn just as well.”

She turned around to the fire. Rachel’s fist was still clutched around the thing in her pocket. It was the magic fire stick Giller had given her. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at it.

“Don’t you dare throw my doll in the fire or you’ll be sorry!”

The Princess spun around. “What did you say? How dare you talk to me in that tone of voice. You’re just a nobody. I’m a Princess.”

Rachel touched the magic fire stick to the doily on a small round marble table next to her. “Light for me,” she whispered.

The doily burst into flames. The Princess’s face looked surprised. Rachel touched the fire stick to a book on a short marble table. She looked quickly to the Princess’s eyes to make sure she was watching, then whispered again, and with a roar it, too, burst into flames. Princess Violet’s eyes were wide. Rachel picked up the book by a corner and threw it in the fireplace while the Princess watched her. Rachel spun around, took a step, and put the fire stick against the Princess.

“Give me my doll, or I’ll burn you up.”

“You wouldn’t dare….”

“Right now! If you don’t, I’ll set you on fire, and your skin will burn up.”

Princess Violet pushed the doll at her. “Here. Please, Rachel, don’t burn me. I’m afraid of fire.”

Rachel took the doll with her left hand, hugging it to her, still holding the fire stick against the Princess. Rachel was starting to feel sorry for her. Then she thought about how much her face hurt. More than it had ever hurt before.

“Let’s just forget all about this, Rachel. You may keep the doll, all right?” Her voice was getting real nice now, not mean like before.

Rachel knew it was a trick. As soon as there were guards around, she knew the Princess would say to chop her head off. Then Princess Violet would really laugh at her, and burn Sara up too.

“Get in the box,” Rachel said. “Then you can see how you like it.”

“What!”

Rachel pushed the fire stick a little harder. “Right now, or I’ll burn you up.”

Princess Violet walked across the floor slow, with the fire stick at her back. “Rachel, think about what you’re doing, are you really…”

“Be quiet and get inside. Unless you want me to burn you.”

The Princess got down on her knees and crawled inside. Rachel looked in at her.

“Go to the back.”

She did as she was told. Rachel shut the door with a clang and went to the drawer and got the key. She locked the iron door on the iron box, then put the key in her pocket. She got down on her knees and looked inside through the little window. She could hardly see the Princess’s eyes looking back in the dark.

“Good night, Violet. Go to sleep. I’m going to sleep in your bed tonight. I’m sick of your voice. If you make any noise at all, I’ll come over and light your skin on fire. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” came back the weak voice from the dark hole in the door.

Rachel set Sara down while she pulled the fur rug close and turned it over on the box, covering it all up. She went and bounced on the bed to make it squeak, to make Princess Violet think she was going to sleep in it.

Rachel smiled and tiptoed all the way to the door as she hugged Sara.

After she had gone all the way back the way she had come, through the servants’ passageways and to the door at the end, she looked carefully into the hall, and went down to the big door with the guards. Rachel didn’t say anything. She couldn’t think of anything to say; she just stood and waited for them to open the door.

“So that’s it, a doll you forgot,” the guard said.

She just nodded.

She heard the door clang shut behind as she went into the dark, to the garden. There were more guards than she was used to seeing. The regular guards had new ones with them, dressed different. The new ones looked at her more than the old ones did, and she could hear the regular ones telling them who she was. She tried not to let them see her looking back as she walked with her doll, holding it tight against her, trying to keep her feet from running.

The bundle with the bread with the box in it was where she had left it, under the flowers. Rachel pulled it out, holding it in one hand by the knot, while she held Sara to her chest with her other. As she walked through the garden, she wondered if Princess Violet still thought she was sleeping in the big bed, or if she knew it was a trick and was yelling for help. If she yelled for help, and the guards had come and found her in the box, they might already be looking for her. She had had to go the long way; it had taken a lot of time for her legs to take her under the whole castle and back up again. Rachel listened carefully for shouts, to see if they were looking for her yet.

She could hardly breathe, hoping she could get out of the castle before they chased after her. She remembered Mr. Sanders saying they were going to search the castle. She knew what they were looking for. They wanted the box. She had promised Giller she would get it away, so they couldn’t have it and hurt all those people.

A lot of men were on the walk at the top of the wall. When she got almost to the door through the wall, she slowed down. Before, there were always two of the Queen’s guard there. Now there were three men. Two she recognized—they wore the red tunics with the black wolf’s head, the Queen’s guard—but the other was dressed different, in dark leather, and he was a lot bigger. He was one of the new men. Rachel didn’t know if she should keep going or run away. But run away where? She had to get through the wall before she could really run away.

Before she could decide what to do, they saw her, so she kept going. One of the regular guards turned to lift the bolt. The new man put his arm up to stop him.

“It’s just the Princess’s playmate. The Princess puts her out sometimes.”

“No one goes out,” the new man said to him.

The regular guards stopped opening the door. “Sorry, little one, but you heard him, no one goes out.”

Rachel stood there with her mouth stuck shut. Her eyes stared at the new man while he looked down at her. She swallowed. Giller was depending on her to get the box out. There was no other way out. She tried to think what Giller would do.

“Well, all right,” she said at last, “it’s cold tonight, I’d rather stay in anyway.”

“Well, there you go then. You get to stay in tonight,” the regular guard said.

“What’s your name?” Rachel asked.

He looked a little surprised. “Queen’s lancer Reid.”

With her doll in her hand, Rachel pointed at the other regular guard. “What’s yours?”

“Queen’s lancer Walcott.”

“Queen’s lancer Reid and Queen’s lancer Walcott,” she repeated to herself. “All right, I think I can remember.” She pointed at the new man, the doll swinging back and forth by its arm when she did. “And what’s your name?”

He hooked his thumbs in his belt. “What do you want to know for?”

She hugged Sara back to her chest. “Well, the Princess yelled at me, to tell me to be put out tonight. If I don’t go out, she’ll be spitting mad, and want to chop my head off for not doing as she said, so I want to tell her who wouldn’t let me be put out. I want your names so she won’t think I’m making it up, so she can come and ask you herself. She scares me. She’s been starting to say to have people’s heads chopped off.”

All three of them stood back up a little and looked at each other. “That’s true enough,” Queen’s lancer Reid said to the new man. “The Princess is turning into her mother’s daughter. A little handful, what with the Queen letting her cut her teeth on the axe now.”

“No one goes out, those are our orders,” the new man repeated.

“Well, the two of us are for doing as the Princess orders.” Queen’s lancer Reid turned a little and spat. “Now, if you want her kept in, that’s fine by us, so long as it’s clear whose neck’s on the block. If it comes down to it, we told you to let her out, just like the Princess said. We’re not going to the block with you.” The other guard, Walcott, nodded that he agreed. “Not for the threat from a little girl, no taller than that.” He held his hand out, level with the top of her head. “I’ll not tell them we three big strong soldiers all agreed we thought she was dangerous. It’s your call, but it’ll be your head, not ours, if you go against the Princess. You’ll answer to the Queen’s axeman, not us.”

The new man looked down at her; he seemed a little mad. He looked back at the other two a minute, then down at her again. “Well, it’s obvious she’s no threat. The orders were meant to protect from threat, so I guess…”

Queen’s lancer Walcott started lifting up the heavy bolt on the door.

“But I want to know what she’s got there,” the new man said.

“Just my supper and my doll,” Rachel said, trying to make it sound unimportant.

“Let’s have a look.”

Rachel laid the bundle down on the ground and untied the knots, laying the corners back. She handed Sara up to him.

He took Sara in his big hand, turning her around, looking. He turned her upside down and lifted her dress with his big finger. Rachel kicked him in the leg, hard as she could.

“Don’t you do that! Don’t you have no respect?” she yelled.

The other two guards laughed. “You find anything dangerous under there?” Queen’s lancer Reid asked.

The new man looked over at the other two, handing Sara back down to her. “What else have you got there?”

“I told you. My supper.”

He started to bend over. “Well, a little thing like you has no need for a whole loaf of bread.”

“That’s mine!” she yelled. “Leave it be!”

“Leave it alone,” Queen’s lancer Walcott told the new man. “She gets little enough. It look to you like the Princess overfeeds her?”

The new man straightened up. “I guess not.” He let out a deep breath. “Go on. Get out of here.”

Rachel tied the cloth back over the bread and other food as fast as she could. She held Sara tight to her with one hand, and held the bundle just as tight with the other as she went between the men’s legs and out the door.

When she heard it clang shut, she started running. She ran fast as she could, not looking back, too afraid to know for sure if anyone was chasing her. After a time, she had to know, and finally stopped to check. No one. Out of breath, she sat down to rest on a fat root in the path.