Fortunately it was almost noon, and there was daylight.
She would have to let someone else in on the secret, and Kadie was the obvious choice, as she would have to know eventually. She was old enough to respect a confidence now, and almost as tall as her mother. Surely Gath wasn’t all that heavy . . . If the two of them couldn’t manage, then they would have to enlist Krath or someone; but she thought they could.
“Mama?” Kadie said, without looking around.
“Yes, dear?” Inos tugged Gath’s underwear into position, restoring decency.
“If you don’t tell me what you are doing, I shall probably scream piercingly very soon now.”
“I’m dressing your brother.”
“I know that,” her daughter said sweetly to the fireplace. “I want to know why. Is there a history of insanity in the family?”
“Probably. You can look now. I’ll need you to hold him up while I put his shirt on. Gently!”
“Mama!” Kadie’s green eyes flashed.
“I’m going to show you a secret, a big secret.”
“That’s nice.” Kadie steadied Gath.
His head lolled drunkenly. “Goblins,” he muttered.
Inos pulled a sleeve over a limp arm. “You know your father went away by sorcery. If you didn’t know, you must have guessed. Well, we’re going the same way.”
“Going where?”
“To Kinvale, dear. Hold his head, if you can. . .”
4
By the time Gath was dressed, Inos had had another bright idea. She marched out into the corridor in search of an accomplice, and found Pret waiting patiently outside—in case he was needed, perhaps, or so no one else would give him something to do. Sounds of. many voices came drifting along from the hall, meaning that lunch had begun.
“Is the council still in session?” she demanded.
“Er . . . yes, ma’am.” The little footman seemed sober enough, although one could never be sure with him.
“Good. Go and sound the fire alarm.”
His pale jotunn eyes widened like two snowballs. “Ma’am?”
“A practice. You heard me. Go!” She had not held a fire drill all winter and this would be a very good time, with Lin and the other leaders tied up in the council, but she was not going to explain all that to Pret. “I’ll look after Gath,” she shouted as he hurried off.
She went back into the parlor and closed the door. “Let’s see if we can lift him.”
Kadie looked just as disbelieving as Pret had done. “Is this wise, Mom?”
So Inos was back to being Mom again. “No, it isn’t, but we have to do it. He hasn’t any broken bones, the doctor said.” Gath was taller than either of them and heavier than his willowy shape would have suggested—or perhaps he just seemed so because he was so limp. He hardly seemed to notice as he was maneuvered back onto the stretcher, although his gray eyes opened. He was more delirious than unconscious, muttering anxiously about imaginary goblins. As soon as he was tucked in, he went back to sleep.
Inos raised one end of the litter, and Kadie the other, and they exchanged worried glances.
“Can you manage?”
“I think so,” Kadie said doubtfully.
The corridor was empty. In the distance Pret was beating a carillon on the fire gong and there was shouting farther away yet. “Come on!” Inos said, and they headed for the hall.
The room above the Throne Room had once been called the Presence Chamber. Now it was just a storage for unneeded furniture, and it was cold. Inos wrapped Gath up in the extra blankets. He roused again, slightly, seeming to use his eyes alternately, as if they were pointing in different directions. He mumbled, but all she could make out was “Mustn’t! . . . screaming? Torturing people! ”
“Yes, dear. Terrible.” Shivering, she pulled on her winter furs. ”Come on, Kadie. Your father used to call you a little mule. Now you’re going to have to live up to it.”
The stairs winding up inside the walls of Inisso’s Tower were steep and narrow. Inos made her daughter go first, which left her struggling to hold the stretcher high enough to keep Gath from sliding down on top of her. She recalled tales of lionesses defending their young and the maniacal strength attributed to desperate women rescuing their children—right now she could use some of that. She reminded herself that Rap had carried her up this tower once, and she had certainly weighed more than Gath. Rap had a lot more muscle than she and Kadie did, though.
They paused for a rest in the next room, their breath coming in huge clouds of smoke, as if the castle truly were on fire. Kadie looked very worried. Perhaps she really believed her mother had gone mad. Inos did not wait until the questions could start again.
“Next level!” she said, and bent to lift the burden once more. In the stairwell, she banged her knuckles on the wall, but she did not have enough breath to say any bad words. Dim daylight filtered through tiny snow-covered windows.
Level followed level. The rests grew longer, but if they could do one stair, they could do them all. The air seemed to become ever colder.
Once in a while Gath would stir and mutter urgently about goblins. She wondered why his delirium had fixed on them. Was it possible that he had been attacked by a gang who had painted their faces green as a disguise? If so, Oopari would only have to look behind the ears of every young imp in the kingdom.
She did not die of heart strain. Nor did Kadie. They did not drop Gath, or let him slide off the stretcher, and eventually they staggered into the room that had once been the royal bedchamber. The furniture was still there, shrouded in cobwebs.
“One more to go,” Inos gasped, as soon as she could speak. ”Open the door.”
Kadie gave her mother a sick glance, looked carefully around the room, and said, “What door, Mama?”
The door was in plain view, but of course there was an aversion spell on it.
“That one.”
Kadie tried again. “Oh! I didn’t notice.” She took a step, and stopped. Another. No more. “I can’t, Mom! I just can’t!” Inos said, ”Holindarn!” but she was still too short of breath to speak above a whisper, and that whisper wasn’t loud enough, apparently. She could feel the occult revulsion stopping her also. “Holindarn?” Kadie shouted angrily. “What’s Holi got to do with it?”
That worked. Kadie rushed over to open the secret door.
5
The final stair brought them at last to Inisso’s arcane chamber and there they again laid down the stretcher to catch their breath. Gath mumbled in his stupor.
The big room was bare, with nothing marring its circular emptiness except the angular shape of the royal treasure chest—Inos certainly did not intend to tell Kadie the secret word for that yet! Faint marks in the dust on the floor showed a path crossing from the stairs to the magic portal, but the traffic had been slight this winter. Occupied with being both a mother and a full-time queen, Inos had come up here only twice since Rap left, each time in answer to a summons from Aquiala. Whenever there was need, the duchess would come through from Kinvale and leave a piece of parchment against the eastern casement, which Inos could see from her bedroom. The first time the marker had been a note from Rap, two days after he left, and the second paper had been an invitation to the Kinvale ball, which Inos had declined. She had done so in person, and thereby enjoyed a pleasant afternoon tea party.
As she stood and puffed, recalling dramatic memories of things that had happened in this chamber, her daughter was excitedly moving from casement to casement, peering down at the Winter Ocean. The sun was vanishing into the ice fog already, the brief arctic day almost over. Krasnegar did not sport as much smoke as it usually did in cold weather, which was a reminder of the peat shortage. The fire drill was probably over by now. The council would be back in session and Inos ought to return and take charge again before it voted in a republic or something . . .
Kadie said, “Eeeek!”
She had discovered the magic portal itself, and was peering through one of the two windows that flanked it. Straight below her, a very long way down, was the castle courtyard.
“You go first,” Inos said, still puffing. “After you, Mama!” Kadie said politely. “Let’s move Gath over there, and then I’ll explain.”
Kadie came to lift her end of the stretcher. Within the circle of her fur hood, her face was flushed with excitement. Inos thought of the day she first learned of this chamber—her father, and Sagorn, and Kade’s tea party . . . She had not been so very much older then than her daughter was now, a couple of years maybe. How time passed!