Chapter Nine
Out of the Frying Pan
The blackness that Jack had seen was nothing more than the contrast between the light of the sun and the darkness of shadow. Without his knowing, he had been pulled sharply back through a door hidden in the wall and saved from the deadly phantasm. Now he was released by whatever hands held him and he fell forward with a grunt. Not bothering to look up to see who had saved him, he sat tiredly with his hands on his knees and his head drooping, breathing deeply to regain his breath and his wits. Maude sat down beside him, and Archipel's soft whine of lingering fear let him know that the wolf was there as well.
"You're safe now, travelers," a soft female voice said.
Maude looked up and gasped, her small hand flying to her mouth. Standing beside them was an enormous brown bear with huge black claws and a thick, shaggy coat. It had been standing on its hind legs as it watched them, towering a good six feet at least, but now it fell heavily to all four paws. Jack guessed that it must weigh close to a thousand pounds. Its claws were three inches long and sharp as knives. Maude scrambled to her feet and with a small, awkward curtsy said, "You saved us! Thank you so very much, ah…"
"You may call me Hilduin," the bear replied in her unexpectedly clear, melodious voice.
She added kindly, "All travelers are welcome at Tarah, though few come to this dying, old city. Come, I will take you to the castle, where you can refresh yourselves, for I can see you've had a hard journey."
She turned to lead them away and under her breath the children heard her murmur to herself, "Humans, and in Tarah once more no less. Whatever can it mean?"
The children and Archipel followed Hilduin as she lumbered up a narrow alleyway just wide enough for a cart and horse to pass through. Jack suspected that the city had been built on a circular plan with the king's castle placed at the center, for he now remembered that Tarah's walls had looked curved rather than straight from the outside. It was a clever architectural trick: the effect of all the roads leading to the castle was to reinforce the idea that the castle was the heart of the city. In the time of humans, Tarah must have been a vibrant, bustling city full of merchants, shopkeepers, and regular citizens, but now it felt more like a graveyard. The only sound they heard was that of their feet slapping against the paving stones, while every house they passed stood empty and silent like eternally watching sentinels. Dust lay thickly over the tables and chairs left inside the decaying buildings. The dead city made Jack's hair stand on end.
"It's so quiet," Maude whispered.
Her voice was low and soft. She added, "Does anyone live here?"
“Oh, yes," Hilduin replied, more loudly. "Why, there's a fox pair, several doves and owls, a flock of starlings, more mice and voles than you can count, and about half a dozen squirrels. And some others now who've come to escape the…well, nevermind that."
She added after a moment, "Most animals stay away from the city, my dear. They prefer to keep to their burrows and nests in the woods and fields.”
"I can see why," Archipel sniffed. "This city is a mortuary."
"It is shelter, nevertheless," Hilduin replied casually.
"What about Mirrin?" Jack asked urgently. "Are we safe here from her?"
The bear paused and Maude, who had been following closely behind, almost walked into her. Hilduin said hesitantly, " I don't know. But you're no less safe here than out there, that's for certain. For now, at least, I think you will find the shelter we can provide to be enough."
They continued down the alley and spoke no more. The sky remained dark, but it was lighter over the city than it had been over the forest, especially since the canopy of leaves had blocked out what little sunlight there was. Suddenly Maude breathed, "Look!"
Jack followed Maude's gaze and saw the four high turrets of a castle rising above the rooftops before them. The castle's mighty walls towered above the city with a breathtaking majesty and beauty. It had been built to show the power of the kings of Tarah, and it continued to do so long after their bones had turned to dust in the earth. When they reached its enormous iron door, Hilduin stood on her hind legs and knocked heavily with her great paw. The sound echoed like thunder around them. Presently they heard the squealing of metal long unoiled and the door swung open with a grating groan of protest.
Hilduin led them through the doorway and they found themselves standing in a large, dark entryway. The light from outside the castle followed them through the door, painting a distorted rectangular patch of light on the ground in front of them that provided the only real light in the room. Their shadows stretched like long parodies of themselves in the rectangle. Maude blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness and she tried to see what lay around them. She could just see the outlines of Hilduin's massive form standing in front of her, but nothing else. A single white mouse materialized from the blackness and stepped into the light. It was so small that neither Maude nor Jack noticed it until it squeaked, “Who comes here?”
“Travelers,” Hilduin replied.
Jack thought he heard her add under her voice to the mouse, "Humans."
“Humans in the castle again!" The mouse sighed in an almost reverential tone.
He immediately bowed to Jack and Maude, sweeping his tiny paw to his chest and dipping his head low to the floor. It was comical to watch, and Maude muffled a giggle. The mouse announced proudly, "I am Timab, guardian of Tarah castle. Please do come in; you are most welcome.”
"I leave them in your able paws, Timab," Hilduin said. "From the looks of them, they have had a long journey. Please find them comfortable accommodations within the castle where they may freshen up. I wish you luck, travelers."
She nodded to them and padded back out of castle, her claws clicking against the stone floor. She was swallowed up by the light and they saw her no more.
"Come," Timab said, "I will show you to your chambers."
The white mouse turned and disappeared beyond the rectangle of light into the dark of the room. Maude felt Jack take her hand and they followed him. Their eyes adjusted enough to the dim light that they could just barely see the white gleam of his fur against the darker stone floor. The grand reception hall gave way to a long hall lit by glimmering orange torches. The corridor was like the trunk of a tree, from which branched many other rooms.
"We have tried to preserve Tarah as the humans left it," Timab explained as he ran before the children's feet. "It is to us a reminder of Devorian's past. The kitchen and baths, you will find, are all in perfectly working order just as they were during the time of the last king of Tarah. Though not many animals choose to live within the city walls, any animal who wishes may live here and find whatever protection we are able to offer."
They left the main hallway and entered a narrower corridor lined on both sides by wooden doors. Timab stopped before one of the doors and gestured to it with his small paws.
"This, young sir, shall be your room. If you please," he said, indicating Jack.
Jack turned the brass knob and pushed. The door resisted at first, but he leaned his shoulder against it and at last it gave way with a groan. Narrow windows, just wide enough to let in slats of light to illuminate the room, revealed a giant bed larger than any Jack had ever seen. The bed was made of heavy chestnut wood and hung with silks decorated with a large, branching tree on a field of deep azure.
Timab scaled up one of the legs of the bed frame and stood at the foot of the bed. He exclaimed wistfully, “This was the bed of the King of Tarah. Oh, how fine the silk! Made from thousands and thousands of silk worms. And this blue! We have no dyes this color anymore; they are lost to us now, like so many other things. The silver tree you see is the symbol of Tarah. You will see it carved and sewn throughout the castle."
"It's beautiful. Do you stay here normally, Timab?" Maude asked.
"Me?" Timab asked in surprise. "Certainly not. I prefer to remain in the gatehouse, with my family. No, this room is very special. It is only for guests."
The white mouse continued, eying Jack appraisingly, "As to attire, you are small, but there may yet be some articles of clothing in the old stocks that will fit. I shall have them sent to you immediately. Please, rest and refresh yourself in the meantime. The bath, you will find, is in the adjoining room."
Turning to Maude, he said, "Come, young lady. Your room is further on.”
Timab scurried off the bed and out of the room. Jack looked at Maude and nodded for her to follow. He disliked the thought of being separated from her, but he trusted that at least for now they were safe. Timab led Maude, with Archipel padding faithfully beside her, down the hall to another room only a few doors away and entered it. The door was already open, so Maude followed him in. This room had obviously been that of a woman. In addition to the bed in the middle of the room, Maude saw against the far wall a desk topped with three mirrors.
"This room will be yours," Timab said to Maude. "It belonged to the Queen of Tarah."
"Thank you," Maude said politely.
She looked all around the room. It was draped with silk fabrics in every color of the rainbow. Gold and silver decorations also covered the wall, including a giant dragon six feet long that breathed a plume of pure gold. Maude ran her hand along its tail and felt the individual scales that the artist had carved. It must have been very expensive to make, and taken years to carve.
"When darkness falls, I will send fire to light the torch in your room. If you have need of anything, follow the hall back as we came and you shall surely find help there. Now as for you, sir…" Timab began, turning to Archipel.
"I will stay here," Archipel interrupted politely.
"As you wish," Timab said.
The mouse bowed to them slightly and hastened from the room. Archipel circled a spot near the door several times and then collapsed with a sigh, resting his head against his crossed paws as his unblinking pale blue eyes watched Maude. Maude walked to the dressing table and ran her finger down one of the mirrors, watching as a line of gray dust collected on her finger. She pulled open the table's drawer and found within it a light, silver brush with intricate designs etched into the head and white horsehair bristles. The hairs were soft and she enjoyed rubbing them with her hand for a moment before she carefully set the brush back down again. Archipel blew air out of his long nose and closed his eyes.
"Archipel?" Maude asked softly.
"Yes?"
He did not open his eyes.
"Will we ever go home?"
Archipel opened his eyes and looked at her. He said, rising to his feet and padding toward her, "You must have faith that you will see your home again."
"But what if we don't?" She persisted.
"You will," the wolf reassured gently.
Maude sat down on the bed and Archipel placed his head in her lap, allowing her to stroke his soft fur. Maude whispered, "I'm scared."
"It's alright," Archipel said, "I'm scared, too. It's alright to be scared."
As Maude ran her small hands through the fur between his ears, she looked through one of the window slits out onto the plain that lay before Tarah. A dark, menacing shadow seemed to be advancing from the woods and coming in the direction of the city. She thought it was a trick of the sun until she noticed unmistakable movement among the trees several hundred yards outside the city walls.
"Trolls," Archipel growled.
He raised his head from Maude's lap. His pale eyes were fixed upon the same spot in the woods.
"What?"
"Trolls. They're stupid, nasty brutes, but rare, luckily," the wolf explained. "They live in dank, dark parts of the forest far to the west. It's almost unheard of to encounter one this close to Tarah. Usually the smelly creatures can't even stand to be around one another; I'm surprised there are so many of them in one place. There must be several dozen of them at least."
"What are they doing? Why are they out there?" Maude asked.
"I haven't the slightest notion. They appear to be building something," Archipel replied, looking with his keen wolf eyes. "Something large and wooden."
"Catapults or a siege engine, I reckon," drawled a voice.
Maude and Archipel were surprised to hear someone else speak, and looked to the open door to see an enormously large vulture standing just outside it. Maude squealed and jumped behind Archipel nervously. The bird was a good three and a half feet tall, with a white head and brown feathers. It looked vicious and scary.
"Sorry, didn't mean to scare you," the vulture apologized. "Anyway, those trolls have been out there for days now cutting and clearing the woods for something. I took a gander myself not yesterday and it seems to me like they've got it in mind to attack Tarah."
"Surely not," Archipel said doubtfully. "Siege engines? How could trolls possibly think up something like that? And an attack? Even if they tried, the trolls would probably fall to fighting each other long before they got around to attacking anything else."
"Maybe so, but that don't make it any less true what they're doing out there. And I'll tell you what: they're not the only things that go bump in the night out there. All the creepy crawlies your mama used to tell you about afore bedtime are out in those woods right about now. The trolls might not be smart enough to plan an attack, but someone is, and I'll give you one guess who that might be."
Maude shivered. Archipel growled deep in his throat, though his tail tucked fearfully between his legs. The vulture hopped from one foot to the other, bobbing its head. It said, "Piece of advice, friends: leave before those nightmares out there get in here."
Then the bird was gone as though it had never been there. Maude fell to her knees and clutched Archipel to her, shuddering with fear. The wolf licked her face to comfort her. Suddenly his body stiffened and his head jerked towards the door, his tail erect and his ears pointed forward. He cried, "Who goes there?"
A familiar male voice said, "It's me, Jack."
Jack's head appeared in the doorway, followed by his body. He still wore his rumpled striped pajamas, and he looked tired. The pajamas were stained by dirt through and through; nor had the soaking they had received in the river made them any cleaner. The inside of the knees were nearly black from where they had rubbed against Aldair's sides for hours, while streaks of green acquired during their escape from the phantom warrior lent a splash of color to the arms and legs. Jack's hair stood up in clumps and a streak of dirt under his left eye gave him the appearance of having a black eye. He smiled sheepishly.
"I was bored," he said unconvincingly.
Then he added quietly, "And I didn't want to be alone."
Maude rushed wordlessly to him and dragged him to the window by his hand. She pointed to the trolls, who could now clearly be seen chopping down trees in the forest. She exclaimed, "Look!"
"What?" Jack said, peering out the window through squinted eyes.
"Trolls, Jack! There are trolls in the forest just outside the city and they're going to attack Tarah."
Jack frowned. He looked more closely and finally saw the trolls. Because they were so far away, he knew that they must be enormous for him to be able to see them at all. They worked diligently, hacking at the trees and then dragging them away once they fell. He felt a rock settle at the pit of his stomach. They had escaped the wargs and the phantom warrior, but perhaps they had only moved from the frying pan into the fire. He moaned miserably, rubbing his face with his hands. He wished, as he had often lately, that they had never found the mirror in the attic.
"What do we do, Jack?" Maude asked.
Her large, dark eyes pleaded with him. He was supposed to protect her. He was supposed to keep her safe. He had promised. But how could he?
"We'll tell someone," he said weakly. "They have to do something!"
He did not believe his own words, however. He knew a small white mouse and a hodgepodge of woodland creatures would be no match for the large creatures lurking in the woods beyond Tarah's walls. Still, it was something. He nodded grimly and then he, Maude, and Archipel left the
room and began walking down the hall. The passageway was longer than Jack anticipated, and when they reached its end he could not remember if Timab had brought them from the right or the left. Guessing, he turned to the left. As they continued down this new corridor, they began to hear the low murmur of voices. Suddenly cautious, Jack held his finger to his lips and waved Maude and Archipel into a single line behind him. They crept close to an open door and crouched outside to listen to the voices coming from within.
"This is not our fight," a deep voice growled. "Give Mirrin the children and she will leave us in peace."