Part 32 (1/2)

The Cardom had agreed to divert the attentions of the people guarding Meri long enough for the rest of us to affect the rescue. Lady Cardom had smiled thinly and predicted that this should pose no problems.

And my job? Nick a priceless trea sure from Lord Antoch's rooms without getting caught, of course.

It was a solid plan, once Berdal and I had worked out the logistics of the job. Roof access was inconvenient, but not impossible. There was one tense and ridiculous moment, when Berdal and I were slipping up the servants' stair and heard footsteps descending toward us. I flung myself at him, pulling him into a pa.s.sionate embrace - which probably had the opposite of the effect I'd intended, making us actually more noticeable, particularly since I had to stand two steps up from Berdal to even make the maneuver possible. When the guards finally spiraled down out of view, Berdal broke away from me, his face purple from the effort of not laughing.

”Sorry,” I sputtered. ”I panicked.”

”Just glad I was here,” he said smoothly.

”Hopefully that was the last of the Greenmen,” I said, tallying them up in my head, and continued on up. The Lodge attics were little more than cramped, narrow pa.s.sageways extending the length of each wing, but doors beneath the eaves opened onto tiny stone walkways running along the roofline. I'd been up there only once before, my first week spying for Daul, and I'd loved the exhilarating height and the blasting wind.

There were no locks on these little doors; there was no point. Particularly in the dead of winter, when ice coating the frame and the hinges and the latches had frozen every thing shut.

”h.e.l.ls,” I said, giving the door a fruitless tug. This was as bad as the lock on Daul's door. I hated to use such a pretty blade for such an inelegant purpose, but I pulled out my dagger and started to dig away at the crack between door and frame.

”Stop,” Berdal said. ”Here.” He threw his shoulder hard into the door, then braced his foot against the wall and heaved. The door popped open with an unG.o.dly sound, shards of shattered ice raining down on the attic floor. ”G.o.ds - do you think they heard that?”

I shook my head, slipping my knife back into its sheath; weird attic noises were beyond the scope of Greenmen's duties. As we stepped out onto the ledge, a swirl of snow rose up in the icy wind, and I had to lift my hand before my face. ”This is horrible,” I said, trying to keep my voice low, even in the screaming wind. ”Are you going to manage?”

”Lead the way,” Berdal cried back, crouching as he moved along. ”And remind me to ask how you got so adept at climbing about on castle rooftops when you can't even ride a horse.”

”You're a fair hand at this too.”

”I'm a mountain boy, remember?”

We followed the footway to a terraced landing behind the Round Court's domed roof, which s.h.i.+elded us from the worst of the wind. A flight of narrow steps linked the landing to the battlements curving past the Lodge. The door to Lord Antoch's pa.s.sage was hidden behind a decorative corbel shaped like a bear and buried under a foot of snow. Inside we could see a narrow iron ladder fixed to the wall of the snug pa.s.sageway.

”Are you sure about this?” Berdal said, staring into the darkness.

”It's nothing,” I said, lowering myself over the edge. I gave him a grin I didn't quite feel. ”I'll have her back in a minute. Try not to fall off the roof.”

The ladder led to a narrow crawl s.p.a.ce almost directly above Antoch's rooms, then a tight staircase dropped into the s.p.a.ce between his chamber and the servants' stair. I knew I was near when I heard angry voices, m.u.f.fled through the walls of wood and stone. I couldn't make them out, but I prayed it was the Cardom, starting their per for mance. I felt through the dark for the end of the stairs, the back of Antoch's paneling, a latch in the wall. My fingers had just worked out the mechanism when a shrill voice in the distance declared, ”Absolutely disgraceful!”

Lady Cardom, right on schedule. I took a deep breath.

I flipped the latch, easy, easy, just tapped it open . . . The door slid silently sideways, tucking back neatly inside the wall. Listening first, I could hear nothing between Lady Cardom railing in the hallway, and the almost soundless rustle of the heavy tapestry hanging in front of me. Now behind Antoch's bed, I sank down, feeling for the bottom of the bed frame.

As Lady Cardom carried on outside, I slid onto my belly and pulled myself under the bed, pus.h.i.+ng forward with my toes. My shoes were wet and my feet were cold, and I left a trail of damp behind me that we'd have to crawl through again. Fortunately there was plenty of daylight seeping through the heavy bed-hangings, and nearly enough room underneath for me to sit up without hitting my head on the straps holding the mattresses in place.

”Is this how all His Grace's interrogations are carried out? I tell you, the things I've seen in this house -”

I inched forward and found a gap in the curtain panels, lifting them aside so I could see into the room. Meri's chair was still by the fireplace - which was still unlit, the savages - and I only spotted one pair of green boots beneath a long green hemline. I eased myself to the far side of the bed and slipped out into a snug alcove between the bed and the wall, still mostly hidden from view, unless somebody decided to look straight at the bed itself.

I peered round the corner. Meri was facing the wrong direction; she'd have to turn halfway around to see me, and I was going to have to cross half the open room to reach her. As I waited, debating my next move, a Confessor appeared, carrying a book, and seated himself right across from Meri. Pox - he was going to read scripture to her. This could take all afternoon.

Blessedly, at that moment Lady Cardom's protests. .h.i.t a new level. ”I will not be manhandled by you, young man!” she cried, quickly followed by the outraged voice of Lord Cardom: ”Take your hands off my mother! Can't you see she's frail? Guard! Help! Guard!”

Meri turned her head toward the door, startled, and as she glanced across the room, her eyes caught mine. They went wide suddenly, but darted away again just as quickly. She was pale, and there was no way to tell what she was thinking, but my heart was hammering wildly.

”Take your hands off me!” Lady Cardom's voice was loud and incensed. ”In my day, servants of the Holy Mother would never have disgraced themselves this way!”

Suddenly Meri spoke to her Confessor. ”Oh, don't you think you should see what's happening?” she said, her sweet voice wavering with concern. ”I think he might hurt her!”

For a brief, deadly moment, I worried the Confessor would ignore her. But he was young, and kept casting ner vous glances toward something in the corner I could not see. Finally he set the book down in his seat and got up to investigate.

Now! I scurried out into the room, but Meri was shaking her head wildly. I edged backward, frowning, and she nodded toward the obscured corner, carefully mouthing one word to me.

Werne.

d.a.m.n.

I had to get Meri out of here before the Cardom got themselves arrested too. A moment later, Meri looked straight at me and yelled, ”Help! Help! I think he's going to kill her! Your Grace, come quickly!”

I froze, my heart in my throat, but Meri showed no fear.

”What is it now?” said a cross, low voice, and Werne stepped into my field of vision. He stared at Meri with contempt and loathing, but she met his gaze, her eyes wide and innocent.

”Your Grace,” she pleaded. ”Might you go see what that fuss is? I truly do think someone might be hurt.”

”I told you silence, blasphemer!” He turned back, and Meri looked at me despairingly. I had just decided to dash forward anyway and fight it out as I could, when from the hallway, Lady Cardom gave one piercing, heart-stopping scream.

”What in Celys's name?” Werne spun on his heel and headed toward the door. I dived for Meri, skidding across the floor and then searching through the silver chains for the tiny locks. I fumbled through my bodice for my thinnest lock pick. Could I snap the chains? They were so thin - I bent my head to take a link in my teeth and gave a yank sideways with my head. The delicate chain popped apart, but something burned on my lips and tongue, and for a moment my vision blurred.

Out in the hallway, I heard Eptin Cwalo's smooth voice trying to calm everybody down. I frantically unwound the chains, but my fingers felt strangely fat and I couldn't work them fast enough. I finally got one of Meri's hands free, and she fought through the bonds with me, until they were loose enough for her to pull her other hand out.

”They're coming back,” she whispered, and I grabbed her bodily and shoved her, none too gently, down underneath the bed.

”Go, go!” I hissed, right behind her.

”Where?” she said wildly, her face pressed to the floor.

”Straight back - there's a hidden door, you'll go right through!”

Meri found it, thank the G.o.ds, just as Cwalo's voice grew closer and more distinct. He was in the room now, and he had to keep them occupied long enough for Meri and me to reach the roof. Otherwise they'd tear the room apart until they found our escape route.

”Quickly now, or they'll find us,” I said, coming up behind Meri in the pa.s.sage. I slid the little door closed, wis.h.i.+ng I had some way to jam it shut.

”Here,” Meri said, and she pa.s.sed something thin into my hand in the darkness. It felt like a hairpin, long and flexible. I bent it open and thrust it between the back of the door and its narrow track. It wouldn't stop anyone determined - but it might keep the hidden door from being discovered immediately. ”I took it from one of the Confessors when she bent over me to check the chains,” she explained. ”I thought it might be useful, somehow.”

I was too astonished to say anything, just nudged Meri forward, up the narrow stair. ”Can you make a light?”

In the darkness I felt her shake her head. ”There was something - wrong about the chains,” she whispered. ”It wasn't ordinary silver; it burned.”

That would account for the strange taste in my mouth. ”That's all right,” I said. ”Just go quickly and try not to b.u.mp your head. Two flights up, and we'll be on the roof.”

She barely faltered in her climb, and in a moment we could see the square of light from the open trapdoor above. Weak with relief, I pushed Meri upward. ”Berdal's standing guard,” I said. ”Do you see him?”