Inkdeath (Inkworld 3)

"What does that mean?" whispered the Strong Man as even more soldiers appeared on the rocks. "Can there be another way into the castle? I’ll go and look. But you’re not coming with me this time. Please! I promised the Bluejay. He’d punch my nose in anyway if he knew you were here."

"No, he wouldn’t," Resa whispered back, but she stayed where she was, and the Strong Man slipped away as she stood under the trees, freezing and watching him go.

The water of the lake was lapping on the bank almost to the toes of her boots, and she thought she could see faces under the mirrorlike surface, faces pressed flat like patterns on the back of a stingray. Shuddering, she retreated and heard footsteps behind her.

"Hey, you there."

She spun around. A soldier was standing among the trees, sword in hand. Run, Resa!

"Rat," said the Mole, "I simply can’t go and turn in, and go to sleep, and do nothing, even though there doesn’t seem to be anything to be done."

She was faster than he was, with his weapons and heavy shirt of mail, but he called another man up, and this one had a crossbow. Faster, Resa! From tree to tree, hiding and then running, as children do. As she would have played with Meggie if she’d been there when her daughter was still small. All those years missed. . .

An arrow drove into the tree beside her. Another buried itself in the ground just in front of her feet. "Don’t follow me, Resa. I have to know you’ll be there when I come back." Oh, Mo. It’s so much harder to wait, just to keep on waiting.

She ducked behind a tree and drew her knife. They were coming closer, weren’t they? Run on, Resa. But her legs were weak with fear. Breathing heavily, she staggered to the shelter of the next tree — and felt a large hand over her mouth.

"Call and tell them you’re surrendering!" the Strong Man whispered. "But don’t go toward them. Make them come to you.

Resa nodded and put the knife away. The two soldiers called something to each other. She felt sick with fear as she put out her arm from behind the tree and asked them not to shoot, her voice trembling. She waited until the Strong Man had crawled away — with astonishing agility for a man of his size before she emerged from the shelter of the tree with her hands in the air. The eyes under the soldiers’ helmets widened in surprise as they saw she was a woman. Their smiles boded no good, even though they lowered their weapons, but before one of them could grab her, the Strong Man was behind them, and winding an arm around the neck of each. Resa turned away as he killed them. She threw up in the damp grass, hand pressed to her belly, afraid the child had sensed her terror.

"They’re all over the place!" The Strong Man pulled her to her feet. His shoulder was bleeding so freely that it dyed his shirt red. "One of them had a knife. ‘Watch out for knives, Lazaro,’ that’s what Doria always says. That little fellow’s far cleverer than me." He was swaying so much that Resa had to support him. They staggered on together, farther into the trees.

"The Piper is here, too," the Strong Man whispered. "Those were his men we saw on the rocks. Seems there’s a tunnel under the lake there, all the way to the castle. And I’m afraid there’s more bad news."

He looked around. Voices came over from the banks of the lake. Suppose the men’s bodies were found? The Strong Man led her to a burrow in the ground that smelled of brownies.

Resa heard the sobbing as soon as she made her way into it. The Strong Man was groaning as he crawled in after her. Something furry crouched there in the darkness.

At first Resa thought it really was a brownie. Then she remembered the description Meggie had given her of Violante’s servant. What was his name? Yes, Tullio.

She reached for the furry hand. Violante’s servant stared at her eyes wide with fear.

"What’s happened? I’m the Bluejay’s wife! Please, is he still alive?"

He went on staring at her with his dark eyes, which were round like an animal’s.

"They’re all dead," he whispered. Resa’s heart began to falter as if it had forgotten how to beat. "There’s blood everywhere. They’ve locked Violante in her room, and as for the Bluejay. . . ."

What had they done to him? No, she didn’t want to hear. Resa closed her eyes as if that would take her back to Elinor’s house, the peaceful garden, where she could go over to Mo’s workshop. . . .

"The Piper has shut him up in a cage."

"Does that mean he’s still alive?"

The quick nod allowed her heart to beat more regularly again.

"They still need him!"

Of course. How could she have forgotten?

"But the Night-Mare has eaten the Fire-Dancer."

Oh no. It couldn’t be true. Resa buried her face in her hands.

"Is the Adderhead already in the castle?" the Strong Man asked.

Tullio shook his head and began sobbing again.

The Strong Man looked at Resa. "Then he’ll be riding over tonight. And the Bluejay will kill him." It sounded as if he were reciting a magic spell.

"How?" Resa cut a strip of fabric from his tunic with her knife and bandaged his wound, which was still bleeding hard. "How is he going to write the words if Violante can’t help him anymore and Dustfinger is . . ." She did not utter the word dead, as if she could make it untrue by leaving it unspoken.

Footsteps could be heard outside, but they moved away again. Resa undid Mortola’s bag from her belt.

"No, Lazaro," she said softly it was the first time she had used the Strong Man’s name. "The Bluejay will not kill the Adderhead. They will kill him, once the Adderhead finds out that Mo can’t cure the White Book. And that will be very soon.

She sprinkled a few of the tiny seeds into her hand. Seeds that taught the soul what only Death could usually teach: how to take on another form.

"What are you doing?" The Strong Man tried to take the bag away from her, but Resa clutched it in both hands.

"You have to place them under your tongue," she whispered, "and take care not to swallow them. For if you do that too often the animal will grow too strong, and you forget what you were before. Capricorn had a dog that was said to have been one of his men once, until Mortola tried out these seeds on him. A day came when the dog attacked her, and they killed it. At the time I thought it was just a story to scare the maids."

She shook all but four of the seeds back into the bag. Four tiny seeds, almost round like poppy seeds, but lighter in color. "Take Tullio and go back to the cave!" she told the Strong Man. "Tell the Black Prince what we saw. Tell him about Snapper, too.

And take care of Meggie!"

He was looking at her unhappily.

"You can’t help me here, Lazaro!" she whispered. "You can’t help either me or the Bluejay. Go back and protect our daughter. And comfort Roxane. Or — no, perhaps you’d better not tell her anything yet. I’ll do it myself."

She licked the seeds up from her hand. "You never know what kind of creature you’ll turn into," she whispered. "But I hope it will have wings."

CHAPTER 58

HELP FROM MOUNTAINS FAR AWAY

Meggie waited . . . while her ears were filled with screams. While Farid put out Sootbird’s black fire with white flames. While Darius soothed the children by telling them stories, his soft voice louder than usual to drown out the noise of fighting, and Elinor helped the other women to cut the ropes that the Milksop’s men had shot up into the tree on arrows.