The Violet Keystone Read online

  "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.

  When her vision cleared, she saw Saylsen struggling on the ground, the severed locomotor hand still gripping her tight. Milla got up and rushed toward her, in case the hand was somehow strangling the Shield Mother even after it was cut off.

  Then she heard movement behind her, the sudden rush of displaced air. Thinking the locomotor had somehow reversed, Milla flung herself aside and spun around, the Talon ready.

  But it was not the locomotor.

  It was Graile's Spiritshadow, its huge wings fully extended for the first time Milla had seen. It rose above the metal lines, wings beating furiously, then glided in to hover well clear of Milla and her Talon. The Spiritshadow held Graile tenderly in its claws. It hovered in place for a few seconds, then gently deposited the Chosen on the ground and slid down next to her.

  Only then did Graile wake up. She stretched and yawned, then looked around with puzzled eyes. She saw Milla, and Saylsen clambering out of the locomotor's severed hand, and Ebbitt and the rest of the Icecarls hurrying up from where they'd jumped.

  "I'm sorry," she said. "I fell asleep. Did I miss something?"

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Edol led Tal and Crow through a series of ever-narrowing corridors used by the Underfolk waiters. It became clear why the waiters were mainly young children, as there were several places where Tal and Crow had to crawl or squeeze through gaps as the serving way ran under floors or inside a wall. Sometimes there were peepholes to look through, or hatches where food could be left, but Edol led them at a cracking pace and there was no time to steal a glance.

  Finally they came to an intersection of four equally narrow corridors. Edol pointed along the left-hand one, which ended in a small door, and said, "Through there's the Grand Parade. Doors to the Audience Chamber across the Grand Parade."

  Then he scampered away along the opposite corridor, his forefinger already jammed in his nose again.

  Crow squeezed along the corridor, Tal following a little way behind, with Adras at his shoulder. Tal still wanted to keep Crow in front, where he could see him, though the Freefolk leader had behaved perfectly so far.

  "Dark take that boy!" swore Crow softly as he examined the door.

  "What is it?"

  "This isn't really a door," said Crow. "It's a hole in the wall, with a painting or something hung over it. I'm going to have to push the painting off the wall and it's bound to make a noise. If there's anyone on the Grand Parade they'll know about it."

  "You can't lift it off quietly?" asked Tal.

  "No. It's too heavy."

  "Can you cut through it?" asked Tal, thinking of the portraits of former Lectors that were hung in the Lectorium. They were painted on cloth stretched on metal frames.

  Crow tapped the obstruction again and shook his head.

  "It's made of something solid. I think… I think it's a thin sheet of metal. It might even be a mirror."

  "I guess we'll just have to risk it," Tal said finally. "And hope that everyone is down fighting Icecarls."

  Crow nodded and began to push at the top of the sheet. It slowly shifted, with a screeching sound that set Tal's hair on edge.

  "Hurry up!" he said. The continuous screech of metal on stone was bad enough, let alone any other noise. "Adras, help him!"

  Adras flowed around Tal and pushed with his huge puffy arms. Almost immediately the screeching stopped, and the whole sheet of metal fell forward, letting in bright Violet-tinged Sunstone light from the broad corridor beyond.

  Crow, Tal, and Adras watched the rectangle of metal fall, all of them tensed for the sound it would make. But none of them was prepared for the tremendous crash that did eventuate, nor the ringing sound that continued afterward, a ringing that echoed everywhere.

  Light flashed everywhere, too, for the sheet was a mirror of highly polished silver. It quivered on the floor, sending wild flashes in all directions.

  "Quick!" said Tal, and the three of them squeezed out into the Grand Parade. With the ringing still in their ears, they looked every which way for possible enemies and somewhere to run to.

  Then they all stopped and stared.

  Diagonally opposite them were two enormous arched doors. They were made of the ancients' golden metal, but studded with tiny Sunstones so that they shone in all colors, ripples of rainbow light constantly shimmering across their surface.

  Both doors were partly open. But neither the Sunstone-laden doors nor the fact that they were open had stopped Tal and Crow in their tracks.

  It was the piled-up bodies of dead Chosen sprawled in front of the doors. More than a dozen of them, including Chosen in Violet robes and guards. There was no sign of any Spiritshadows.

  The last echo faded away, and the silver mirror lay still.

  "Sushin did get here first," said Crow.

  Tal nodded and tore his gaze away, to check along the Grand Parade. He'd never been here before, though he had come to the Violet levels once. The Grand Parade lived up to its name, as a sweeping, broad corridor that went for stretches and stretches in either direction, before it curved away.

  There was no one in sight, at least no one alive. Tal went forward to examine the dead Chosen. They all looked surprised, rather than afraid. None of them had Sunstones in their hands, or anywhere visible, and the guards' swords were still sheathed. There was also no obvious cause of death. No wounds, no burn marks, no other signs of fatal light magic.

  "I wonder why he killed them," muttered Tal as he moved between the bodies, Crow close by his side, both of them with their Sunstones held ready. "And how."

  A slight movement near one of the doors made them spin nervously, red light flashing in their Sunstones. One of the guards, propped up against the wall, was not dead after all and she had moved her hand.

  Tal recognized her. It was Ethar, a Shadowlord of the Violet and a senior officer of the guard. Her hand twitched again, and Tal realized she was trying to get him to approach.

  "Who walks there?" whispered the woman, raising her head a little. Her eyes did not focus on anything. With a start of horror, Tal knew she was blind.

  "Tal Graile-Rerem," he said, stepping over a body to get closer. He was still ready for a sudden attack, but he did not think one would come. At least not from Ethar. Her face was as pallid as the dead Chosen, and he knew she would not live long.

  A momentary smile crossed Ethar's lips.

  "The Beastmaker boy," she said, and coughed. With the cough came a froth of bright red blood that bubbled out of the corner of her mouth. "You played well."

  "Did Sushin do this?" asked Tal. "Has he gone into the Audience Chamber?"

  Ethar did not answer immediately. Her chest heaved, and more blood stained her lips. Then she said, "Yes and yes. We protested, for all that he was the Dark Vizier and could command us, he had no right to try the doors… He showed us the Violet Keystone and told us to be silent, that he would be Emperor and do as he willed. But even with the Keystone, the Assembly must decide, and we told him… we told him he could not pass."

  Tal waited as she stopped and drew in a racking breath.

  "He blinded us then, with the Keystone, and in the darkness spoke words, words that felled our Spiritshadows in an instant. I felt my Kerukar go, torn away from me, and I almost went with him. But I did not. Duty… it is my duty… You must stop him, Tal, for he should not be Emperor… He must not be…"

  "I will stop him, if I can," said Tal.

  "I ask one small boon before you go," whispered Ethar. "From one player to another. End this game."

  "What… what do you mean?" asked Tal, but he knew what she meant.

  "A Red Ray," whispered Ethar, her hand
crawling across to tap weakly against her heart. "Here. Do not let me linger."

  Tal raised his Sunstone. Red light swirled inside it, building in intensity. Then a single thin ray snapped out, striking Ethar exactly where she'd indicated. Her body jerked, then slowly subsided down the wall.

  Tal wiped his eyes and turned away.

  "I never did… I never did kill anyone, you know," said Crow quietly. "Not a single Chosen, for all my talk. I couldn't do what you… I couldn't…"

  "I couldn't, either," croaked Tal. "Before I met the Icecarls, before… before everything."

  Crow was about to say something else, when Adras suddenly reared up and looked down the Grand Parade.

  "What is it?" asked Tal. "Is someone coming?" "Yes," said Adras. "A monster."

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Milla looked at the steps going down, the steps going up, and the narrow passageway that led farther on, while Ebbitt hesitated at the intersection, scratching his head.

  "Where do we go from here?" asked Milla. "Think carefully, Ebbitt. I don't want down when it should be up, or left when it should be right. You almost got Graile killed!"

  "A failing of mine," sighed Ebbitt. "Perhaps if I tied ribbons of different colors to my wrists, I might know left from right. But I am absolutely sure of our whereabouts now and about where we shall go. Though I'm afraid only four of us can travel by steam to the Violet levels. Everyone else will have to take those stairs back down to Red Five. I am sure it will be in Icecarl hands by now."

  "Why only four?" asked Milla. "And what do you mean to 'travel by steam'?"

  "Only four will fit in the envelope," said Ebbitt. "Which is propelled upward by steam rising in the aptly named risers. Though the return pipes for the condensed water are not called fallers, which is strange--"

  "Fit in the envelope? What is an envelope? Something like those metal buckets?"

  "Not at all," replied Ebbitt. "An envelope is what you put a letter in. An appropriate envelope, depending on the letter. A formal response to an invitation, for example, should be placed inside a square envelope that is either the color of your order, or white, if seeking to depress pretension--"