The Dragondain (22 page)

“I will.”

“Form your peerin.”

Lily felt her gut wrench.
“Rymee. I’m not sure that’s a good idea.”

“Why not?”

“Because . . . I’m not a lunamancer,”
Lily confessed.
“I only formed my very first peerin today. It will be years and years before I can do anything helpful.”

Rymee giggled.
“Form your peerin, Lily. And let me show you a little of what you can do!”

Chapter Fourteen

Castle Fendragon

“S
tay
close to the wall, Lily,”
instructed Rymee.
“There are hidden doors here. The canal beyond will float you to a hall below the castle, and I will bring you up a staircase known to no one alive but me.”

Lily stepped to the point of the bow. “There is a door here,” she announced to Darce and Annora.

Annora climbed up next to Lily. She formed a peerin and examined the wall.

“I don’t see anything,” said Annora.

“Maybe you have to be closer?” suggested Lily. Placing her palms together, she took a few deep breaths, concentrated, and drew her hands apart to form her second-ever peerin.

Bree joined the others on the bow.

“I still don’t see anything,” said Annora.

Lily held her peerin before her face, concentrating on what she saw within the rectangle formed by her thumbs and forefingers. The slim ring on her finger blazed under the dim light of the dragoyle lamp.

“Listen carefully, Lily. There is much more here than meets the eye. The first thing you must understand is that there is
always
something underneath. Don’t ever forget that. Even under the most complex spells, there is always something deeper, a . . . natural order on which all things stand. The best of spells don’t disturb this order, allowing them to stand the test of time. Conversely, a poorly made spell will falter, weakening until it breaks or, more dangerously, changes into something unintended.

“Now, allow me to reveal some of what is here, some of what
you
can see, if you look properly. Concentrate, Lily, not on the wall before you, but what lies
beneath
. There is a powerful enchantment here. It was laid down very carefully, a long, long time ago, when this castle was young. At first, you will see only lines. They’ll be different colors—different depending on where they’re attached, what they’re attached to, and exactly what was spoken to call them into being. All we are concerned about, however, is the locking portion of this spell. Locks are very easy to make, but hard to make
well
. I happen to have a knack for them.”
Rymee uttered a word the moon coin couldn’t translate, and a complex web of lines formed in the center of Lily’s peerin.

“You did that,”
breathed Lily.

“We did that,”
corrected Rymee.
“Take a good look at what you see—remember it.”

Rymee named the different lines, explaining how they fit within the spell. As she spoke each of their names, the lines pulsed and flared, as though answering to her call.

“When you are ready to open the door, pluck the keyhole line and say—in your mind—the word that was used to seal these doors.”

“Pluck?”

“Yes. Pluck. Imagine reaching into your peerin and plucking the keyhole line with a finger. Succeed, and it will vibrate. You will hear within it a sound like a voice, which may or may not make sense to you, depending on your abilities.”

“Okay, and what’s the password?”
thought Lily.

“Speak it as two words:
rendez
followed by
vous
.”

She didn’t have time to think about how strange it was to be using her mind like a finger. Instead, Lily reached into her peerin and plucked the glowing line of power that Rymee had called the keyhole line. She heard a strange shushing, whispering sound. Then Lily spoke the two words.

“I think there
is
something here, Annora,” said Bree. “But someone has worked very hard to conceal it. There are traces, almost like . . . little—”

The stone wall cracked explosively, and a great fissure formed down its center. An ancient-smelling wind exhaled into their faces, and the dark outlines of two immense doors formed. The bow lurched forward and bucked against the doors.

Annora and Bree fell backward into the boat. Lily kept her footing but spun around so that she was facing the stern. Water roared around the bow, thundering like a waterfall, and disappeared into the darkness behind the wall. Only the doors, grinding slowly inward, kept them from hurtling forward.

Suddenly, seized by the current, the boat twisted sideways. The bow submerged. The water surging over it knocked Lily’s legs out from under her. Sliding off the bow, Lily snagged hold of a cleat, first with one hand and then the other. The bow dipped deeper, the surging water pulling hard on her legs. Lily could see the rest of her friends in the boat struggling. Most were sliding on the deck toward her, trying to stand or get up on all fours. Only Darce had kept her footing. Lily watched with wonder as Darce moved down the length of the boat, reacting to the changing conditions as if she alone were privy to what would happen next.

“Hold on, Lily!” she screamed.

But Lily wasn’t sure how much longer she could hold on. The doors ground open ever wider, and the boat bobbed and pitched like a toy boat in a tub.

Someone screamed out—Ren? The boat edged further through the doors. The stern tipped up rapidly, the mast slamming into stone and shearing away with a terrific crack. The rushing water threatened to rise above Lily’s head. Dangling by the cleat, her grip giving way, Lily hovered over a precipice of unknown depth. The sky, which had seemed so dark, now stood out in stark relief against the blackness around her.

Lily struggled against the current trying to drag her into the void. Darce approached the bow and grabbed hold of Lily’s arm.

“Falin!” Darce screamed. “Help me! Grimm, help Annora. We have to stop these doors from—”

The stern pitched up a second time, faster and more violently than the first. Shooting up into the air, it smashed into the stone above the opening with a force that burst the blackmage’s boat like kindling. As Lily watched the boat disintegrate into tinder, she lost her grip and fell backward into the black water, pulling Darce along with her. They tumbled down, buffeted by the torrent of raging water.

In the darkness, there was no way of telling which way was up. For a brief moment, Lily felt the coolness of air on her face, as though she had bobbed to the surface, but just as quickly she was forced under again, taking a lungful of water with her. She kicked against something solid, and then the force of the water pushed and dragged her along a hard, smooth surface.

And suddenly, the water was not so deep. Lily tried to stand, but she kept getting bumped by all manner of heavy wood, caught in the rush of water, just like her. Eventually, the current slackened. Lily took a good breath of air and coughed. She struggled to remain on her knees amid the rushing water. Somehow she stood and started running, as if escaping a ferocious ocean tide and emerging onto a beach. The water had receded to no more than a foot in depth.

A bright blue light ignited behind her and burned for a few seconds before vanishing. She heard Annora cursing, and a rush of other voices filled the air. The moon coin responded with a jumble of translated words.

The blue light ignited for the second time, and Lily turned to face it. Behind her were people rising from the shallow waters and wading toward her. Lily did a frantic head count: ten—they were all there! Falin and Grimm were the farthest behind, pushing against a logjam of wood to give the others a chance to get clear.

A grinding sound echoed through the passage, followed by a deep boom. The sound of rushing water vanished. The great doors had closed, and the water level sank even more rapidly.

Darce belted out orders to recover as much gear and as many supplies as possible, especially the food. Lily continued to stand where she was, wondering how they would ever get back and how close they were to the bad people Rymee had talked about.

“Rymee!”
thought Lily.
“Rymee! Why didn’t you warn us about the passage? We could have secured the boat!”

“But you don’t need to secure the boat,”
said Rymee.
“Just ride it into the canal. It will take you—”

“Rymee, the canal was empty, and I think we’re all down in the bottom of it, and our boat’s been destroyed. How—”

“Empty? But how could that be? Is everyone all right? Is anyone hurt?”

“I think we’re okay. At least, we’re all still alive.”

Lily rummaged through the debris that lay strewn around her feet and found a small pack, which she shouldered.

“Where does this canal go, Rymee?”
Lily thought.

“I’m afraid you’ll have a long walk, at least a mile. Maybe more. It leads straight under the castle. Is the canal still taking on water?”

“No.”

“That’s good. Although, it must be dark as a tomb down there.”

“We have light.”

“You see light, or you have light?”

“Annora, one of our lunamancers, has conjured a blue ball of light.”

“Clever girl.”

“Yes. Now how do we get out of this canal?”

“Eventually, you’ll see a landing on your right. How tall are the walls of the canal you’re walking in?”

“Maybe twelve feet, I’d guess,”
answered Lily.

“Then you’ll have to scale the landing. From there you will have to unlock a door using your peerin—exactly as before. I’ll guide you to the top of an unused tower, and you’ll be able to see all you require.”

“A lot of good it’ll do them, now,”
Lily thought.
“They’re trapped here! Without a boat, they have no way to leave Perianth.”

“The way you talk, it sounds like you don’t count yourself among them.”

With a nervous start, Lily patted her chest for the moon coin. It was still there, safely tucked away. And then Lily felt her first prick of suspicion regarding Rymee . . . if that was her real name.

“I don’t,”
thought Lily slowly.

“And how would you manage to leave? You said yourself that you only just today formed your first peerin.”

“I . . . have my ways,”
thought Lily.

Lily noticed Darce striding toward her, the look on her face inscrutable. Just looking at her gave Lily a terrible sinking feeling. How were they going to get home?

“Which pack is that?” said Darce, pointing to the one on Lily’s shoulder.

Lily let the pack slide off her shoulder and held it toward the light. Darce’s eyes lit up when she saw the markings on the back.

“Got it,” she hollered to the others. “Let’s move out.” She walked past Lily, eyeing the walls of the canal as though they might contain hidden dangers.

“Darce,” said Lily. “I’m really sorry.”

Darce turned on her heel. “Sorry about what?” she snapped.

Lily knew it wasn’t like Darce to play games, so this threw her a bit. “About the boat,” she said. “What else?”

Darce gave her an odd look. “It is what it is, Lily. Now how far do we go down this passage?”

Lily couldn’t believe how little Darce cared about the loss of the boat. “Darce, you have no way back! Your plans are ruined! Aren’t you worried about that?”

“Ruined, you say?”

“Yes!”

“Our plans are not ruined, Lily. They’ve simply changed. We must change with them.”

Lily stepped forward. The sounds of the others were getting closer. “Simple? You call this simple? The boat’s been destroyed! You have
no
way to get home!”

Darce held up a hand for silence. “So far, yes, I do call this simple. Do you really think our boat is the only way to and from this city? Because I don’t.”

She took a few quick steps toward Lily. Reaching up, Darce swept swept aside Lily’s wet bangs and squinted. “No one’s been seriously hurt,” she said quietly, tilting Lily’s face toward the light of Annora’s glowing blue ball. “Have Nye take a look at this, all right?” Lily touched a hand to her forehead and felt an egg-sized lump at her hairline.

“Remember, Lily: there are many ways to make a moon.”

Satisfied that Lily was in no serious danger, Darce turned away and began strolling down the dark, empty canal. “Where are we headed, Lily?” she yelled over her shoulder. “Talk to me.”

They walked for what felt like an hour before reaching the landing. Lily identified it easily; several wide steps that would have led into the water of the canal now hung above their heads. Getting everyone out was easy until they got to Falin and Grimm, who had to take off and hand up all their armor before they could climb out. Once everyone had assembled on the landing, Darce had them unpack their belongings.

While the group divvied up the essential gear, Lily stepped over to a tall, smooth wall where it looked like a door
should
be but wasn’t. A moment later, Annora joined her, touched the wall, and sneaked a sideways glance at Lily. Then Bree appeared on Lily’s right and opened her peerin.

“What are we looking at, Lily?” Bree asked with an odd look.

“Ren claims you formed your first peerin just today, on the boat,” said Annora, opening her own peerin and examining the wall.

“But we both know that’s not true, don’t we,” stated Bree a bit coldly.

Lily didn’t want to ignore them, but neither did she want to complicate matters by trying to explain the girl in the ring. At least, not until she understood things a little better herself. Lily formed her peerin. She focused her thoughts on the ring, and it burst into light. The fact that neither Annora nor Bree commented on this assured Lily beyond a shadow of a doubt that they couldn’t see the ring’s light. With Rymee’s help, Lily used her peerin to make the door ripple into being.

“Well, well,” said Annora under her breath, “aren’t you just one surprise after another.”

Annora extinguished her blue ball and opened the door just wide enough to get a look at what lay beyond.

“When you’re ready,”
began Rymee,
“run to the opposite side of the hall. You’ll want to be quick and quiet. It’s late enough that most everyone should be asleep, but dawn won’t wait forever. You’ll have a harder time remaining unseen after that, but you can return here and hide in this secret passage until nightfall. You must not be seen before then. And it would be bad if someone saw you going into one of my secret passages. I need every one I’ve got left.”

“We need to get across that hall,” whispered Lily. Lily closed her peerin and made to angle past Annora, but Darce’s hand closed on Lily’s elbow like a vise and pulled her back. Darce made a shushing sound and closed the door.

“What are you doing?” asked Lily. “Time is of the essence.”

Darce nodded to Byrne, who pulled a folded piece of paper from the pack Lily had retrieved from the wreckage. Except for the rubbings that Dubb had given Ember, and the pads in her own pockets, this was the first paper Lily had seen since entering the Moon Realm. As Byrne smoothed it out on the stone flooring, Lily noticed it had an almost cloth-like quality to it. All across its surface were etched finely detailed drawings. The many gaps between them suggested missing information. Annora reignited her glowing ball and swept it over the map. It hovered over their heads.

“We’re here,” said Annora, tapping a blank space behind a wall that bordered a hall. “I recognized this area here through the door.”

“Are you across the hall, Lily?”
Rymee asked.
“You should have gotten there by now.”

“We haven’t left the landing yet,”
thought Lily.

“Why? What’s happened? Were you seen?”

“Nothing’s happened. I’ll let you know in a second.”

Pinching a scrap of red chalk between his fingers, Byrne traced the landing they were on. Working backward, he drew as much of the canal as fit the map.

“You’ve been here before,” said Lily. It was more of a statement than a question.

“No,” said Byrne. “This map is a compilation of bits and pieces I’ve been able to collect from my father’s maps. He drew many of them from memory.”

“Let’s hope they’re accurate,” murmured Lily.

Byrne and Darce smiled briefly at each other, as though sharing an inside joke.

“All right then,” said Darce, tracing a path with her finger. “We’ll be using the northern staircase to this level here. From there we . . .”

Lily stopped concentrating on Darce’s words.

“Rymee, they have their own map. They’re going to use the northern staircase.”
Lily followed the movements of Darce’s hand.
“From there they plan to move deeper into the castle, toward the palace keep. Then more staircases . . . they want to get into the royal tower.”

“What are they after?”
asked Rymee.

“I don’t know. But the places they want to go—won’t the doors be locked?”