"Hit him with everything we can," said Tal. "You can do a Red Ray of Destruction, can't you?"
"Yes," admitted Crow. Even though he was an Underfolk, he had stolen a Sunstone and had been secretly trained by Ebbitt and Lector Jarnil.
"Then do that," said Tal. "There's a spell I've been meaning to try on him, too, if I can do it. The Violet Unraveling."
"What does that do?" asked Crow.
"It dissolves anything it touches," Tal answered grimly. "I only wish I'd been confident enough to try it on him before."
The cook came hurrying back through the kitchen, dodging the workers as they moved between stove and bench and swung open ovens or sharpened knives. A young Underfolk boy, no more than six or seven years old, trailed after him, surreptitiously picking his nose. He stopped when he saw Tal looking at him and whipped his hands behind his back into the approved posture of a servant.
"This is Edol," said the cook. "He will show you through the serving ways to the Audience Chamber."
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
"I
can't truly say I have experienced this delightful ride before," replied Ebbitt, a moment after he landed with Milla in the metal bucket. "But I have read about it."
"I hope what you read is true," said Milla. "I do not like traveling this way, stuck to these metal rails. Even a Selski may be steered."
The other Icecarls in the bucket murmured their agreement.
The sloping sides of the bucket were too high to see over easily, so Milla ordered a Shield Maiden to climb up on the broad shoulders of Jarek to look ahead. Odris slid up and poked her head out so she could see, too.
"How will we know when to get out?" asked Milla. "Is there some sign or mark?"
"When the locomotor slows then we will know," said Ebbitt. "If the locomotor speeds, then we have gone past our needs."
Milla scowled and turned away. She had to think. If the main host had indeed arrived below and was attacking, then the rest of her advance guard would be relieved in time. Tal would probably be all right, since Ebbitt was sure Crow would rescue him, and she had a low opinion of Fashnek. But Sushin had half the Violet Keystone and with it he could finally destroy the Veil. He might already have done it, for all they knew down here. Down here in this metal box, trapped traveling in a straight line to who knew where…
"What's ahead?" she suddenly asked.
"It is very dark," answered the Shield Maiden. "I think… I think the rails ahead go down."
"Down?" asked Ebbitt and Milla at the same time.
"Yes," answered the Shield Maiden. "Definitely. I can see a locomotor ahead, but not the buckets it pushes--now it has disappeared, too. It must be a steep slope."
"Perhaps I misremembered," mused Ebbitt, ducking his head and scratching under his breastplate. "Was it ascends or descends for the Underfolk corridor I mentioned before? Ascends, descends, upends, depends… oops--"
He turned to Milla and bowed deeply.
"I fear, my dear, that I have been unclear. We need to disembark from this equipage before it descends."
"Our first bucket is already over the edge," reported the Shield Maiden.
"Everybody out!" Milla shouted. "Jump!"
She jumped up and got astride the rim of the bucket, swinging her legs over to jump clear. Icecarls jumped around her, but at the last instant Milla hesitated. Someone was missing. She looked back down and saw Graile still lying there, asleep, with her Spiritshadow sprawled next to her.
Milla looked ahead. The next bucket had started down the slope. It had to be an almost vertical drop, she realized, as the buckets disappeared immediately from sight.
"Graile!"
The Chosen did not stir.
Milla jumped back inside, shouting for Odris.
"What?" came a plaintive cry from the Spiritshadow, calling from some distance back along the path. She had obeyed Milla's order to jump.
"Come here!" screamed Milla. "Now!"
She bent down and shook Graile hard, but still the Chosen didn't stir. She was breathing, but deeply unconscious.
Milla heard another bucket go over the edge, the regular clacking of the third wheel replaced by a much higher pitched and more frequent screeching.
She slapped Graile then, but the Chosen woman would not wake. Her Spiritshadow did not move.
"Odris!"
"I'm here," grumbled Odris, who was hovering overhead. "No need to shout."
Milla dragged Graile onto her shoulder. She was surprisingly light for her size, but even so, she was too heavy to boost up over the rim of the bucket.
"Take her," ordered Milla.
Odris dropped down and grabbed Graile with her two puffy arms. As she started to rise again, she gave out a surprised yelp.
"She's stuck," announced Odris. At the same time, Milla heard another bucket go over the edge. That was the third, and they were in the sixth. There were only five or six breaths before they would go over, too.
"What do you mean?" Milla asked frantically. Then she saw what Odris meant. Graile's Spiritshadow was holding on to her with one claw, somehow weighing them both down. "Try harder!"
"I can't move!" wailed Odris. "The Spiritshadow has done something weird--it's too heavy!"
"Leave her!" shouted another voice. Saylsen. The Shield Mother had jumped back onto the side of the bucket and was looking down. "Leave her, War-Chief!"
Another bucket went over. Number four. Milla stood motionless, her mind traveling as fast as it had ever done.
"Light, Odris! What light is best for Spiritshadows? To make you strong?"
"I don't know!" shrieked Odris. "Can I let go?" "Think! What color light?"
"White!"
"Look away, Saylsen!"
Milla pointed her Sunstone at Graile's great bird Spiritshadow and thought of pure, white light, the brightest she could imagine. At the same time she turned her head away and lidded her eyes.
Light burst out of the Sunstone. Pure bright light that lit up the bucket and the cavern beyond and made the two Spiritshadows stand out as if they were cut from black cloth and stuck on a whitewashed wall.
Graile's Spiritshadow stirred and flexed its wings. One eye opened and it moved its beak.
"Jump, War-Chief!" pleaded Saylsen. Her cry was immediately followed by the sound of the fifth bucket going over the edge.
They were next.
Still Milla kept the light pouring into Graile's Spiritshadow. She raised her other arm and called to Odris.
"Odris! Lift me out!"
Odris swooped, Saylsen jumped, and the bucket started to tip. Graile slid down to the end, as Milla leaped into the air and Odris lifted her up. The white light snapped off, and the topmost rim of the bucket clipped Milla's boots as Odris groaned and carried her free.
They landed in a heap only a few stretches from the edge of the cliff, as the seventh bucket went over.
Saylsen was there, already back on her feet. But there was no sign of Graile or her Spiritshadow.
Milla hobbled to the edge of the cliff and looked down. It was a vertical drop, and it went down as far as she could see in the light from her Sunstone Somehow the locomotor and its buckets stuck to the metal rails. But whatever was in the buckets would almost certainly fall out, down to a distant death.
Milla was suddenly furious with Ebbitt. She had put up with his meandering, crazy ways, but now his absentmindedness had got his own brother's daughter killed. She turned back from the cliff edge to find him… just in time to see an extra arm come out from the locomotor that was approaching. A pink and grisly arm fifteen stretches long that ended in a three-fingered hand the size of a human torso, a hand that was about to grab Saylsen as the locomotor trundled past.
"Ware foe!" shouted Milla and she ran forward, the Talon extending from her outstretched hand.
Saylsen whirled, knives ready, even as the hand closed around her. She stabbed at it over and over again, sending out spouts of gray, watery blood. But the locomotor did not let go and the l
ast bucket went over the cliff and the locomotor began to tip up as Milla reached it and struck.
A brilliant line of light shot out of the Talon and whipped across the creature's wrist. Sparks shot out everywhere, momentarily blinding Milla. She threw herself to the ground in case another arm attacked her while she couldn't see, and rolled farther away from the cliff edge.