Part 14 (1/2)
”Did you hear something?” she asked Thom finally.
He glanced up and shook his head. ”No. Did you?”
”I thought so.”
He shrugged and went back to his sorting. She watched him for a few moments, absorbed in his work, and then she quietly rose and started walking toward the interior of the Stacks, searching the gloom. The shelves ran on endlessly into the darkness, finally disappearing altogether. How far back did they go? How big was this room, anyway? She kept walking, glancing over her shoulder once to where Thom knelt on the floor, absorbed in his work. The silence was deep and pervasive, broken only by the soft sounds of her footfalls and Thom's rustling of pages.
Then she heard the voice again, and this time she was certain that it came from somewhere in the direction she was going.
”Ellice!” Thom called out suddenly. ”Wait!”
She stopped and turned. She was surprised to find that she had gone far enough down the aisle that he was almost out of sight. ”What?”
He was approaching her at a run. ”Don't go any farther!”
She stared at him. ”What are you talking about? I was just ...”
”I know what you were doing,” he interrupted. His face was flushed as he came to a stop in front of her, and she was shocked to catch a glimpse of fear on his angular features. ”I don't want you going into the Stacks by yourself. Not ever. Not without me. Understood?”
She nodded, not understanding at all. ”What's back there?”
”Nothing,” he said quickly. Then he shook his head in denial. ”Maybe nothing. But maybe something, too. I don't know. I just know it might be dangerous.” He saw the look on her face and grimaced. ”I know how that sounds. But I know what can happen because it happened to me.”
She gave him a look. ”Are you going to tell me what it was?”
He nodded. ”But not here. Not now. Tonight. Just promise me you'll do as I say.”
She was touched by his concern. He was genuinely worried for her. ”All right, I promise. But I still think I heard something.”
She followed him back to where they had been working, quietly dissatisfied. She had told him she would not to go back into the Stacks alone, but she had already decided she was doing exactly that the first chance she got. It wasn't lying exactly; it was more like ...
Well, she didn't know what it was more like. But it was not his decision to make; it was hers.
She had heard the voice clearly the last time it called, and she didn't think there was any way she could ignore its plea.
Help me, it had begged.
THEY SEEK HER HERE, THEY SEEK HER THERE.
High Lord Ben Holiday, beleaguered King of Landover and increasingly troubled father of Mistaya, was up early the next morning. He had been unable to sleep for yet another night and had slipped out of the bedroom and come down to his desk in the library to do some work. Even though he was consumed by thoughts of his absent daughter, there were pressing issues in the governing of his Kingdom that required resolution. And even though much of what he did in those still-dark morning hours consisted of rumination and paper rearranging he still felt as if he was doing something.
He looked up in surprise as Bunion appeared in the doorway and announced the arrival of a messenger from the River Master. Ben was still in his robe and pajamas, not accustomed to receiving visitors either at this hour or in this state of dress. Still, he would make an exception here. He told Bunion he would see the messenger, and the kobold disappeared without a word. Within minutes the kobold was back, their visitor in tow. The messenger entered with a slight bow, an oddly misshapen creature with twigs and leaves growing out of his body and patches of moss attached to the top of his head.
”High Lord,” he growled softly, a strange guttural sound that caught Ben by surprise. ”The River Master awaits you on the far side of the causeway. He wishes to speak to you of his granddaughter.”
Ben was on his feet at once, asking Bunion and the messenger to wait where they were. He headed down the hallway and up the stairs to wake Willow. They were washed and dressed in minutes and on their way downstairs to meet Mistaya's grandfather. The River Master refused to go inside man-made structures, which were anathema to him. All meetings had to be conducted out in the open. Ben was used to this and didn't let it bother him. The River Master almost never left his home in Elderew. The fact that he had come to Sterling Silver said much about the importance of his visit. In any case, Ben would have gone anywhere to meet him if he had news of Mistaya.
He glanced at Willow as they descended the stairways of the castle in the company of Bunion and the woodsy-clad messenger. She looked calm and alert despite the circ.u.mstances, her beautiful face serene. The fact that she had been awoken from a sound sleep seemed not to have affected her at all. Nor did she seem bothered by the unexpected visit from her father, who was indifferent to her in the best of times. Ben knew she had grown used to his coldness, the result of his inability to accept her mother's refusal to become his wife, a betrayal of which Willow's birth reminded him every day of his life. His grudging acceptance of her marriage to an outsider and her status as Queen of Landover was the best she could hope for. If not for Mistaya, he would undoubtedly have less to do with either of them than he did, so she was probably grateful just for that, though she never spoke of it.
Ben studied her a moment-the slender curve of her body, the smooth and graceful walk, and the strange mix of emerald-green hair and moss-green skin. He had loved her from the moment he had encountered her so unexpectedly, twenty years ago, standing in the waters of the Irrylyn, naked in the moonlight. She had told him he was for her, and that in the fairy way they were bound by fate. He could not imagine now, though he had been doubtful then, that it could have turned out any other way.
She glanced over at him suddenly and smiled, as if she knew what he was thinking. She was almost prescient, at times. He smiled back, reaching over and taking her hand in his. Whatever else happened in their lives, he knew they would never be apart again.
They left the castle through the main gates and crossed the drawbridge and causeway to the far sh.o.r.e of the mainland from their island home. The River Master was waiting just inside a screen of trees not two hundred yards from the moat. He stood with a single retainer, his tall, spare form as still and hard as if it were carved from stone. He wore a look of obvious distaste, which might have had something to do with the people he was meeting or the purpose of his coming or even the weather-there was no way of telling. His nearly featureless face, smooth and hard, turned toward them as they approached, but gave no sign of interest one way or the other.
Ben nodded as he reached Willow's father. The leader of the once-fairy nodded back, but spared not even a momentary glance for Willow.
”I've come about my granddaughter,” he announced tonelessly How typical of him to refer to Mistaya as his his granddaughter, Ben thought. As if she belonged to him. As if that were what mattered. granddaughter, Ben thought. As if she belonged to him. As if that were what mattered.
”She came to Elderew to ask for 'sanctuary,' as she referred to it,” he continued, hurrying his sentences as if to get through quickly. ”She complained that she was being misused and generally misunderstood by her parents. I don't pretend to understand all of it or even to care. I told her that her visit was welcome, but that sanctuary was not a reasonable solution to her problems. I told her she must go home and face you directly rather than trying to use me as a go-between.”
He paused. ”In short, I did what I would have expected you to do should one of my children come crying about their treatment.”
Something about the way he said it suggested that he was referring in oblique fas.h.i.+on to Willow. Ben didn't get the connection, but thought it best not to comment. ”But she didn't take your advice, I gather?”
The River Master folded his arms. ”She disappeared sometime during the night and was not seen again. The once-fairy, on my orders, attempted to track her and failed. That should not have happened, and I worried over the reason. Only a true fairy creature could hide its tracks from us. Was she in the company of one? I waited for her to return, as I thought she might. When she didn't, I decided to come here to tell you what had happened.”
Ben nodded. ”I appreciate that you did.”
”I should have done more. She is my granddaughter, and I would not forgive myself if something happened to her.”
”Do you have reason to think that something has?” Willow asked suddenly, speaking for the first time.
The River Master glanced at her, as if just realizing she was there, and then looked off into the distance. ”She came to Elderew with a pair of G'home Gnomes. She claimed they were friends who had helped her. I thought them untrustworthy traveling companions for a Princess, but she is never predictable. Her mud puppy was with her as well, however, even though we did not see him, so I thought her safe enough from harm.”
”How can you know he was with her if you didn't see him?” Ben demanded, no longer feeling quite so calm about things.
”Fairy creatures, such as Mistaya's mud puppy, leave a small but unmistakable trace of magic with their pa.s.sing. Even if they are not visible to the eye, they can be detected by the once-fairy So we knew he was there with her when she arrived. But when she left, there was no longer even a tiny trace of him.”
”Perhaps it was the mud puppy's doing.” Ben was trying to put a good face on things, even though he wasn't feeling good about this piece of information. Haltwhistle, a gift from the Earth Mother, was his daughter's constant companion and protector in Landover. He was as close to her as her shadow. ”Couldn't he have covered their tracks?”
The River Master shook his head. ”A mud puppy can transport a charge to another place. It cannot hide its own or another's pa.s.sing. Mistaya's trail was hidden from us. Another magic was required for that. Only the most powerful of fairy creatures would possess such magic.”
Ben thought immediately of Nightshade, but quickly dismissed the idea. The Witch of the Deep Fell was gone. There was no indication that she had returned. He was letting his imagination run away with him.
”I shall continue to search for Mistaya, Ben Holiday,” the River Master added. ”I shall do everything in my power to find out where she has gone.”
Ben nodded. ”I know you will.”
”There is one thing more I need to say. I know what you and my daughter think of me. I know I have brought some of this on myself. But I would do nothing to undermine you with Mistaya. When she asked to stay with me and I told her she could not, I told her as well that when I had doubted your ability you had proven me wrong, that you were the King that Landover needed. I told her, as well, that you and my daughter were good parents to her and that she should listen to you and trust you.”
He s.h.i.+fted his gaze to Willow. ”I have been hard on you, I know. I wish it could be otherwise, but I am not sure it ever can. Although I have tried, I find I cannot put aside entirely the pain even your presence causes me. You are your mother reborn, and your mother is a ghost that haunts me daily. I cannot escape her memory or forgive her betrayal. When I see you, I see her. I am sorry for this, but there it is.”
Willow nodded. ”It is enough that you do what you can for Mistaya, Father,” she said quietly. ”She looks up to you. She respects you.”
The River Master nodded but said nothing There was a momentary silence as they stood facing one another.