Inkdeath (Inkworld 3)

"We knew the Piper would be coming sometime," said the Black Prince. "The Adder could hardly have failed to notice that his brother-in-law was keeping most of the taxes he collects for himself. But as you’ve heard, the taxes aren’t the only reason why he’s coming. We all know only too well what they use children for in Argenta."

"What do they use them for?" Meggie’s voice sounded so clear among the voices of all the men. You couldn’t tell from the Sound of it that it had already changed this world several times by reading a few sentences.

"What for? The tunnels in the silver mines are narrow, Blueiay’s daughter," replied Snapper. "Be glad you’re too large to be any use down there yourself."

The mines. Resa’s hand went instinctively to the place where her unborn child was growing, and Mo glanced at her as if the same thought had struck him, too.

"Of course. The Adderhead has sent far too many children to the mines already. His peasants are beginning to resist. It seems the Piper has only just put down a revolt."

Battista’s voice sounded as weary as the Prince’s. There were too few of them to right all these wrongs. "The children die quickly down there," Battista went on. "It’s a marvel the Adder hasn’t thought of taking ours before. Children with no fathers, only defenseless, unarmed mothers."

"Then we’ll have to hide them!" Doria sounded as fearless as only a boy of fifteen can. "The way you hid the harvest!" Resa saw a smile appear on Meggie’s lips.

"Hide them, oh yes, of course!" Snapper laughed with derision. "A fabulous idea.

Gecko, tell this greenhorn how many children there are in Ombra alone. He’s a peasant’s son, you know; can’t count."

The Strong Man was rising to his feet, but Doria cast him a warning glance, and his brother sat down again. "I can pick my little brother up with one hand," the Strong Man often said, "but he’s a hundred times cleverer than me."

Gecko obviously had not the faintest notion how many children there were in Ombra, quite apart from the fact that he wasn’t too good at counting himself. "Well, there are a lot," he faltered, while the crow on his shoulder pecked at his hair, presumably hoping to find a few lice. "Flies and children that’s the only two things still in plentiful supply in Ombra."

No one laughed.

The Black Prince remained silent, and so did everyone else. If the Piper wanted those children, then he would take them.

A fire-elf settled on Resa’s arm. She shook it off and found herself longing for Elinor’s house so much that her heart hurt as if the elf had burned it. She longed for the kitchen, always full of the humming of the oversized fridge, for Mo’s workshop in the garden, and the armchair in the library where you could sit and visit strange worlds without getting lost in them.

"Perhaps it’s just bait!" said Battista, breaking the silence. "You know how the Piper likes to leave bait lying around—and he knows very well that we can’t simply let him take the children. Perhaps," he added, glancing at Mo, "perhaps he’s hoping to catch the Bluejay that way at last!"

Resa saw Meggie instinctively moving closer to Mo. But his face remained unmoved, as if the Bluejay were someone else entirely. "Violante’s already told me the Piper would soon be coming here," said Mo. "But she said nothing about children."

The Bluejay’s voice. . . the voice that had fooled the Adderhead and beguiled the fairies. It did nothing of the kind to Snapper. It merely reminded him that he had once sat where the Bluejay was sitting now — at the Black Prince’s side.

"You’ve been talking to Her Ugliness? Fancy that! So that’s what took you to Ombra Castle. The Bluejay in conversation with the Adder’s daughter." Snapper twisted his coarse face into a grimace. "Of course she didn’t tell you anything about the children! Why would she? Quite apart from the fact that we can assume she doesn’t even know about it! Her Ugliness has no more Say than a kitchen maid about what goes on at the castle. That’s how it always was, and that’s how it always will be."

"I’ve told you often enough, Snapper." The Black Prince spoke fllore sharply than usual. "Violante has more power than you think. And more men, too — even if they’re all very young." He nodded to Mo. "Tell them what happened at the castle.

It’s time they knew."

Resa looked at Mo. What did the Black Prince know that she didn’t?

"Yes, come on, Bluejay, tell us how you got away unscathed this time!" Snapper’s voice was so openly hostile now that some of the robbers exchanged uneasy glances.

"It really does sound like enchantment! First they let you out of the Castle of Night scot-free, now you’re out of Ombra Castle as well. Don’t say you made the Milksop immortal, too, in order to get away!"

Some of the robbers laughed, but their laughter sounded uncomfortable. Resa was sure that many of them really did take Mo for some kind of enchanter, one of those men whose names were best spoken only in whispers, because they were said to know dark arts and could bewitch ordinary mortals with no more than a glance. How else was it possible for a man who had arrived as if from nowhere to be able to handle a sword better than most of them? And he could read and write as well.

"Folk say the Adderhead’s immortality doesn’t bring him much joy!" objected the Strong Man.

Doria sat down beside him, his eyes fixed darkly on Snapper. No, the boy certainly didn’t like his rescuer much. His friend Luc, on the other hand, followed Snapper and Gecko like a dog.

"So how does that help us? The Piper is looting and murdering worse than ever."

Snapper spat. "The Adder is immortal. The Milksop, his brother-in-law, hangs at least one of us almost every day. And the Bluejay rides to Ombra and comes back unharmed."

All was very, very quiet once more. Many of the robbers felt that the deal the Bluejay had done with the Adderhead in the Castle of Night was more than uncanny, even if ultimately Mo had tricked the Silver Prince. But the Adderhead was immortal all the same. Again and again he enjoyed giving a sword to some man the Piper had captured and making him thrust it through his body — only to follow that up by wounding the attacker with the same sword and giving him enough time to die to attract the White Women. That was the Adderhead’s way of proclaiming that he no longer feared the daughters of Death, although it was also said that he still avoided getting too close to them. DEATH SERVES THE ADDER was the inscription he had had placed in silver lettering above the gates of the Castle of Night.

"No. I was not required to make the Milksop immortal." Mo’s voice sounded cold as he replied to Snapper, very cold. "It was Violante who got me safely out of the castle.

After asking me to help her kill her father."

Resa placed her hand on her belly as if to keep the words away from her unborn child. But in her mind there was room for only one thought: He’s told the Black Prince what happened in the castle, but he didn’t tell me. He didn’t tell me. . .

She remembered how hurt Meggie had sounded when Mo finally told them what he had done to the White Book before giving it to the Adderhead. "You moistened every tenth page? But you can’t have done that! I was with you the whole time! Why didn’t you say anything?" Although Mo had kept her mother’s whereabouts a secret from her all those years, Meggie still believed that in the last resort he couldn’t really have any secrets from her. Resa had never felt that. All the same, it hurt that he had told the Black Prince more than he’d told her. It hurt badly.