"Oh," said Tal. "Well, the Underfolk are different. Most of them are born to be servants… or they ended up as Underfolk for… good reasons. And they don't get bought and sold. Just reassigned."
"A thrall by any other name still stinks the ship," said Milla.
She emphasized this with a shrug and did two cartwheels along the corridor, to loosen up her muscles. Tal groaned and hit his head even more forcefully. Out of the corner of his eye he saw his shadowguard copy his action, until Milla noticed. Then it slid back to become a natural shadow once more.
Tal watched it go. It was only then he realized that he wasn't as pleased to be back as he should be. He should be kissing the floor and laughing with joy. After all, he'd survived a fall of thousands of stretches from the Red Tower. He'd lived through an encounter with Icecarls. He'd crossed the Living Sea. He'd helped kill a Merwin. He'd seen the Ruin Ship, climbed the Mountain of Light, and made it through the heatway tunnels.
But he didn't feel joyful. He felt tired, as if all this was only the beginning. He'd always thought that he'd go straight to his family's rooms when he returned, and see his mother. But that wasn't possible.
The trouble was, he didn't know what to do instead.
Milla cartwheeled back, reminding him that he'd brought the particular problem she represented on himself.
"What now?" asked Milla. "Do we go and meet your clan Crone?"
"Um," said Tal, brightening as an idea suddenly came to him. "Not exactly but close to it!"
CHAPTER
TEN
"We're going to see a wise man," explained Tal, as they crept along the corridor that led to a stair up to the first Red level. "My great-uncle Ebbitt. He will help us work out what to do next."
And, Tal thought, he'll know what to do about Milla. Perhaps she could hide out while Tal found her a Sunstone.
Milla nodded, silent once again. Tal noted that her hand was on her sword, and her eyes constantly in movement, searching for enemies.
"He has a Spiritshadow," Tal added. "All the Chosen do. But they won't do anything unless they are ordered to."
"These Spiritshadows are like your little shadow, but bigger?" asked Milla.
"They're not always bigger," said Tal. "But stronger and more dangerous. They can't change shape like a shadowguard, but they can stretch and twist the shape they've got."
Milla thought about this for a while. A few steps farther on she asked, "What happens to a Spiritshadow when its master is killed?"
Tal shook his head.
"The Spiritshadow fades with them"
He broke off, reminded of his mother. She had to still be alive.
"Perhaps we will find out," said Milla.
Tal stopped and turned to look Milla in the eye.
"Milla, you can't fight in the Castle!" he warned her. "We have to be careful as it is. No one has ever come in from outside before. If you attack someone, it will just make everything worse."
"I only fight if I am attacked," said Milla. "But you are afraid of something. Why should you be afraid in your own ship… your own home?"
"I'm not afraid!" Tal snapped. "It's complicated. There are some Chosen who don't like my family, and there are some other things happening that I don't understand. I'm just being cautious."
"You know very little," said Milla. "I do not think your Chosen teach their children well. We would not let anyone off the ship who was so ignorant of the Ice."
Tal started to reply, but he was too furious to get any words out. He took a long, slow breath, and finally managed to say, "It is very complicated, because it has to do with people, not animals or, or… the weather!
You don't have the education to understand. So just follow me and be quiet!"
"I know how to be quiet," agreed Milla. "I can be much quieter than you."
"Good," snapped Tal. "Start now!"
They didn't meet anyone on the stairs or in the corridor that led to Ebbitt's rather strange quarters. This was not surprising, since Ebbitt had chosen to live in the least-used part of the lowest Red level. Apart from him, everyone here was a Dimmer -the lowest possible rank in Chosen society and was desperate to rise.
As they left the stairs, Milla noticed the faint red tinge to the Sunstones in the corridor and the faded red stripes that adorned the ceiling, and asked about them. Tal found himself giving a garbled explanation about the different Orders and levels, which Milla reduced down to the rather simplistic "Many clans live in your Castle."
This whispered conversation lasted until they came to the beginning of the corridor that Ebbitt used as one big room. As usual, the entrance was blocked with a jumble of furniture and odds and ends. Strangely, there was no sign of the wardrobe that Tal had used before as a gate. In fact, there was no obvious way to get through the tangle of upended tables, stacked chairs, spiked hat stands, cabinets, carpets, marble sculptures, and wallhangings.
"Great-uncle Ebbitt is a bit…" Tal said, eyeing the pile that reached nearly to the ceiling. "Well, he's not exactly normal."
Milla nodded, then suddenly stepped back, her hand on the hilt of her Merwin-horn sword.
Tal couldn't see what Milla had reacted to, until she pointed to a large blue cushion at the base of the piled furniture. It was slowly moving outward, almost without a sound. Then it fell over, revealing a narrow triangular gap where two chairs had been leaning back-to-back. "Why couldn't you just have a door?" Tal asked, addressing the narrow tunnel through the furniture barrier. He got down on his knees and peered in. There was no sign of Ebbitt, but the falling cushion was clearly the old man's idea of a welcome.
"Come on," Tal said to Milla, stretching out so he could slide through the gap. "It might look like it's going to fall down, but Ebbitt's an expert at this sort of thing."
"There is wisdom behind all this rubbish?" asked Milla, but she knelt down, ready to follow Tal.
The barrier of piled-up bits and pieces went much farther than Tal had expected. He had to wriggle through several turns before he finally emerged into a relatively clear area. Once again, everything had changed. There was no sign of Ebbitt's faded throne. But Ebbitt was there, dressed in an Underfolk robe of white and a jacket in the Indigo color forbidden to him since his decline to the Red.
He was lying on a long, heavily cushioned lounge, with a sleep blindfold wrapped around his eyes. His Spiritshadow, a great maned cat, was sitting at his feet, watching Tal emerge.
"Go away," said Ebbitt, waving a languid hand. "I have a headache."
"So do I," Tal replied. "I need your hel
p, Uncle Ebbitt. It's very important."
"So important that you haven't been to see me in two weeks?" Ebbitt asked, without moving.
"I don't believe this!" Tal shouted. "I haven't been to see you because I FELL OFF THE RED TOWER!"
His shout made Ebbitt wince, but it had a more dramatic effect on Ebbitt's Spiritshadow. It leaped to its feet and stood poised to spring.
Then Tal realized it wasn't his shout the Spiritshadow was reacting to. Milla had just climbed out of the gap in the barrier.
"Don't do anything!" Tal ordered, though he wasn't sure whether he was talking to Milla or the Spiritshadow.
"What is going on?" Ebbitt asked testily. He tore off his blindfold and sat up, blinking. When he saw Milla, who had drawn her sword despite Tal's instruction, he raised his hand, the Sunstone ring on his finger swirling with sudden light.
"Don't!" Tal exclaimed again. "Don't anyone do anything."
"Who… or what… is that?" asked Ebbitt as he slowly got to his feet. He didn't lower his hand.
Tal saw that Milla had put her face mask back on and her hood up. The amber lenses shone horribly in the Sunstone light, and the mouth-hole was horribly dark. She did look like a monster.
"Please take off your mask, Milla," he sighed. "No one is going to attack you, right, Uncle?"
"If you say so," said Ebbitt, who seemed slightly relieved to hear the word mask, and even more so when Milla slowly removed it. "But again I ask, who are you? You have a natural shadow, but you do not look like any Underfolk I have ever seen."
"I am Milla of the Far Raiders. Daughter of Ylse, daughter of Emor, daughter of Rohen, daughter of Clyo, in the line of Danir since the Ruin of the Ship."
Ebbitt sat back down.
"She's from outside," said Tal. "They call themselves Icecarls."
Ebbitt didn't say anything. His Spiritshadow turned to look at him, then lumbered over to touch his face with one shadowy paw.
"Uncle Ebbitt?" Tal said, suddenly anxious.
The Spiritshadow pushed hard at Ebbitt's chest, and the old man let out a sudden, wheezing cough.