Mags strode forward, her face suddenly dark with anger. ‘What?’
Palila fell to her knees, head bowed, her hands held up in supplication. ‘I’m sorry. I could not bear him hurting me anymore. Kill me now, get it over and done with. I don’t deserve to live.’
Mags looked down at the old woman’s scarred, misshapen hands, then roughly raised the old woman to her feet. ‘I don’t kill,’ she said brusquely. ‘You think I’m a starkin, that I would kill you for no greater crime than trying to keep yourself safe? You say you’re sorry. Well, show us! Come and work with us, and help us heal those that are hurt and help those that are helpless.’
‘A crutch for the crippled, a shield for the meek, a voice for the speechless, a sword for the weak,’ Merry said softly, and Mags smiled at him.
Palila looked from one to the other. ‘You mean it? You really can forgive me?’
‘Maybe one day,’ Mags said. ‘If you work hard enough. Start by helping my son.’
Palila picked up the bottle she had dropped and brought it to Merry. Her hands were trembling so much she could not hold it to his lips, and so Liliana took it from her and helped Merry to drink. The medicine gave him the strength to sit up.
Suddenly he heard an immense sound, like a thousand crystal chandeliers smashing to the ground at once. The sky lit up with pale fire. Merry struggled to his feet. ‘Oh, no! The crystal tower . . .’
‘It’s exploding,’ Liliana cried. ‘Zed is there, with Rozalina! Could they have got free?’
‘Zed . . .’ Merry whispered. ‘Oh, no, not Zed . . .’
He staggered to the window, Liliana and Mags helping him. There was an eerie white glow to the sky that showed everything sharp and clear and strange. Merry saw a ship far below, sails billowing out. He saw Zed and Rozalina flying in the sky, the cloak of feathers spread like wings behind them. And, towering above them, an avalanche of ice, a cascade of white glass, crashing down upon them.
‘When there’s dawn at sunset, and frost in spring,’ Liliana whispered through her tears. ‘Oh, Stiga, why couldn’t you have spoken clear?’
For a moment, Zed hung in the air, Rozalina in his arms, his eyes wide as he saw the waterfall of broken glass roaring towards him. Then he dived.
Down they plunged, fast as an arrow. The glass tinkled and sang as it fell. Zed tried to spring free of the weight of its fall, but the wind created by the explosion sucked at his heels. He felt sharp cuts and stabs in his legs and feet, and kicked as if he was swimming.
He and Rozalina shot out from under the waterfall of glass, and saw the sea springing towards them, a wrinkled cloth of silver. Zed spun, trying to regain control. The sails of the ship hurtled towards them.
Suddenly a shriek filled the night. Enormous white wings tore apart the wind. Zed caught a glimpse of curved beak and fierce eye, a flash of cruel claw, and a white, sneering face he knew all too well. It was Zakary, astride the back of his sisika bird. Zakary reached out and slashed down with his dagger. The blade of his knife hacked through the collar and tie of the cloak of feathers, and cut deep into Zed’s shoulder. Zed cried out in terror and pain as the cloak of feathers was dragged free from his shoulders. At once, he and Rozalina began to freefall, plummeting head over heels, down, down, down.
‘Open the window! Hurry!’ Merry commanded.
Liliana supported him as Mags swung open the casements. ‘What do you plan to do?’ she asked breathlessly.
‘Call,’ Merry said briefly, and leant out into the night.
Silently he called, Come to me! Help me! Birds of the air, come to me!
From over the ocean they flew, vast-winged albatrosses and grey-backed gulls, stormy petrels and the great snow goose. From the harbour they rose, pelicans and herons and black terns and sandpipers, and a flock of white swans, trumpeting loudly. From the mountains came the eagle and the kestrel and the red-tailed hawk, and from the forest came sparrows and curlews and nightingales, blackbirds and the sweet-throated starling. Hens rose from their roosts, and doves from their dove-cotes, and little songbirds from their cages. Their wings shadowed the stars and blackened the moon.
‘I must have been calling all this time,’ Merry thought with wonder. ‘The birds were waiting for me.’
Save them! He commanded. Catch them as they fall!
The birds gathered around the tumbling couple, breaking their fall with their wings. At first Zed and Rozalina just smashed through, dropping hundreds of feet every second, but gradually, as more and more birds joined the throng, their precipitous fall slowed. Still more birds came, so that Zed and Rozalina rolled and reeled through feathers, soft and warm and pale, till at last they were caught in the billowing sails of the ship, slid and rolled again, dropped through a tangle of rope, and fell headlong towards the deck. At the very last moment, with a massive wrench of muscles, Zed twisted his body so that he fell first, Rozalina hurtling upon him.
They lay spread-eagled on the deck, unmoving.
CHAPTER 33
Words Have Weight
TOM-TIT-TOT SWOOPED DOWN UPON ZAKARY, BITING HIS HAND VICIOUSLY. The sisika rider squealed in pain and let fall the precious cloak of feathers. At once the omen-imp caught the cloak and flew up to the window where Merry leant, one hand outstretched.
Thank you, Merry said bleakly as he took the cloak, his eyes on the smashed bodies of Zed and Rozalina. He swirled the cloak about his shoulders and clambered up on the windowsill, cradling his broken arm against him.
‘Don’t you dare even think about going without me!’ Liliana cried, and leapt up onto the sill. She wrapped both arms about his waist, and pressed her cheek against his. He held her close with his one good arm, overcome with joy and anguish.
‘We won’t know until we go and see,’ she said gently. ‘Come on, Merry.’
He looked back at his mother and Palila. Mags smiled at him. ‘Go! I’ll be all right. I’ve got my own ride.’ He looked a question, but she flapped her hand at him to go, fumbling in her pocket and withdrawing a wooden whistle. ‘Go on, go! I’ll meet you at the ship.’ She blew a shrill blast on the whistle.
Merry lifted a hand in farewell, then together he and Liliana leapt from the window, and flew down through the storm of bird wings towards the ship. Tom-Tit-Tot flew ahead of them, as noisy as an enraged bee, shrieking, ‘I’ll beat you, black and blue!’
Zakary saw them coming and flew towards them, his dagger held triumphantly high. Tom-Tit-Tot flew straight at Zakary and punched him hard on the nose. He flinched, wrenching Sugar’s head around, and struck out at Tim-Tot-Tit, who somersaulted midair and changed shape to a black eagle that slashed at Zakary’s face with its beak. Zakary whipped Sugar around, and they dived and swooped among the birds, slashing out with beak and claw and dagger, so that small feathered bodies began to fall from the sky.
Then came a blood-chilling cry. The shadow of immense black wings crossed the moon. Sugar screamed in terror, beat his wings frantically, and fled away from the grogoyle flying in from the west. Zakary shrieked and tried to wrench the sisika’s head around again, but Sugar paid him no heed. In blind terror he flew right into the path of the waterfall of glass roaring down from the ruin of the Tower of Stars. Zakary screamed, high and thin, and flung high his arms as sharp slivers of glass stabbed him, one through the eye, one through the heart, and one right through his tongue.
He fell backwards and went tumbling down to crash into the sea, Sugar plummeting after him. Seconds later, the avalanche of broken glass plunged into the water, burying Zakary and his sisika bird deep.
Gradually the roar of the broken glass faded away, and all that could be heard was the waves, the wind, and the exultant call of the thousands of birds wheeling overhead.
Merry and Liliana landed lightly on the ship’s deck a few seconds later. Merry cast off the cloak of feathers, and they ran to where Zed lay. Rozalina and Priscilla knelt on the deck on either side of him, weeping, as Pedrin very carefully examined Zed’s shattered body.
‘I think he’s
broken his back,’ Pedrin said, looking white and stricken. ‘And look! His leg.’
Merry knelt, gulping as he saw Zed’s leg. It was bent sideways at a terrible angle. Two shards of broken bone protruded from a bloody wound in his thigh. More blood ran from a crack in his skull, and pooled under his shoulder.
‘I don’t think there’s anything we can do,’ Pedrin said, smoothing his son’s blood-matted hair from his face. ‘No-one can survive a fall like that.’
Merry turned and looked at Liliana. ‘Can you help him?’
‘I don’t know. I don’t know what to do. What if I touch him, and heal him, but the bones are all wrong inside? I don’t know what to do!’
‘I do,’ a quavering old voice said. Merry turned in surprise, and saw Palila of the Birds limping towards him. Mags hurried forward by her side, while above the ship the grogoyle wheeled high in the sky, illuminating the scene with a blast of fiery breath.
‘Did I hear you say you can heal by the touch of your hand?’ Palila asked Liliana, who nodded, saying breathlessly, ‘But I don’t know what it is I do, I’ve only just discovered it.’
‘A great Gift,’ Palila said. ‘I’ll have to teach you all I know, once we are safely away from here. One day, maybe, you could even be one of the Crafty, of which there are far too few. Now come and help me straighten his leg and see if we can knit those smashed bones back together again.’
Liliana looked shaken and surprised, but did as she was told.
Merry sank down onto the deck, watching intently as the young and the old wildkin women worked together to try to heal the broken pieces of Zed’s body.
‘Next shall be the king-breaker, the king-maker, though broken himself he shall be,’ Merry murmured, reaching out to touch his friend’s limp arm. ‘Oh, Zed.’
‘So will he live?’ Pedrin asked, his big hands cradling his son’s head.
‘He’ll live,’ Palila said. ‘Though it’ll be a while before he’s up sword-fighting again. And I’m afraid we may not be able to save the leg. We’ll have to see how well he heals.’
‘As long as he’s alive,’ Rozalina said. ‘Did you see how he twisted as we fell, to make sure I was not hurt? He’s so brave.’
‘Thank Liah he’s alive!’ Merry said.
‘I’ve given him a potion to help him sleep and to numb the pain. I’ll give you some too, young man, for that broken arm of yours. I can see by your face that you’re in pain.’
Merry nodded and drank the sweet liquid Palila gave him. He was feeling very tired, he had to admit. He sat for a moment, head resting against the mast. Liliana sat beside him, wearily trying to wipe the blood from her hands. The ship plunged through the waves, while overhead a hundred birds flew still about the ship, their wings pale against the dark, starlit sky.
‘I can’t believe we did it,’ Liliana said. ‘Is it true?’
‘It’s true,’ Zed’s voice said. They turned and saw him leaning up on one elbow, his head and chest and leg heavily bandaged, Rozalina hanging on to his hand. Joyously the friends greeted each other.
‘I was afraid you were dead,’ Merry said to Zed.
‘I was afraid you were dead!’ he retorted. ‘What happened to you, squirt?’
‘I did die,’ Merry said hesitantly, ‘but then I came back.’
Behind them, the whole palace was on fire, flames leaping high into the sky, smoke billowing in the wind. Merry wondered how the fire had begun, and heard, far away, the triumphant bugle of a grogoyle.
‘This place shall fall into desolation, and none shall dwell here but owls and bats,’ Zed quoted. ‘I think your curse has begun to work, my wildkin witch.’
Rozalina bent her head down so that her face was pressed against his hand, her black hair flowing across his bandages. ‘I will never curse again,’ she whispered.
‘You won’t have to,’ Zed said drowsily. ‘Blessings only from now on!’
‘Curse?’ Merry said.
So the whole story had to be told, much slowed by exclamations and explanations from all sides. Priscilla had her own adventure to tell, and Tom-Tit-Tot kept repeating at the top of his voice, ‘I punched and crunched, I smacked and cracked, I beat him black and blue!’
‘Well, at least I am free now,’ Rozalina said. ‘I flew like a bird over the wave, just as I wished.’
‘All will be well now,’ Zed said.
‘Do you really think so?’ Merry said. ‘Because it was the blood of all of us you cursed, as well as the king’s, Rozalina. My blood and Zed’s blood and yours, we are all kin.’
‘I know,’ she answered, very quietly. ‘I’m sorry. But a Teller must speak, you know.’
‘What will happen now?’ Liliana wanted to know.
‘We will have to fight,’ Pedrin said. ‘Lady Vernisha has seized the crown, and I fear she will be even more of a tyrant than her uncle was, since her claim on the throne is shaky at best.’
‘Merry is the true king,’ Liliana said passionately. ‘You should have seized the crown from Lady Vernisha when you flew overhead, Zed. The crown is rightfully Merry’s!’
‘What?’ Rozalina cried. ‘Whatever do you mean?’
‘Merry is the grandson of Princess Druzilla,’ Liliana said. ‘She was the elder sister. Rightfully she should have been queen herself, if it was not for the stupidity of the starkin law.’
Merry shook his head. ‘It was a long time ago, and the law had not yet been changed.’
‘It doesn’t matter anyway,’ Zed said. ‘You are still the true heir. By rights, you are king, Merry. And a very good king you would be too.’
‘I doubt whether the starkin lords would think so,’ Merry said bitterly. ‘My grandfather was a bellringer, my mother the daughter of a bandit.’
‘Your grandmother was a princess, and your father a prophet. I can think of no better lineage,’ Liliana said stoutly.
Blood is blood, duty is duty. Merry remembered Liliana’s words. He shrugged, looking back to where the palace burnt upon its headland.
‘I can never prove it,’ he said. ‘I left my pack with the bell box back in the tower. And my lute. Oh, my poor Lady Oriole, I shall miss her.’
‘Of course you can prove it,’ Mags said softly. ‘Do you think I would leave such important papers lying around? No, of course I brought them with me when I flew from the palace. And your lute.’
She held out the leather lute bag and Merry took it, laughing unsteadily. ‘Everyone is conspiring against me!’
‘Will you let that horrible old woman win the throne, with her pugsie-wugsie?’ Zed said. ‘Or Adora? Even you’d be better than those two, squirt.’
‘It’s impossible,’ Merry said again.
‘As impossible as rescuing a wildkin princess from a tower?’ Liliana challenged. ‘As impossible as a prophecy that has come true?’
Rozalina frowned a little, thinking it through. ‘It is the eldest child that becomes Erlqueen or Erlking among the Stormlinn, regardless of whether they are a boy or a girl. It seems a much better way, for we all know women can be just as wise and strong and courageous as men.’
‘My swan wife,’ Zed said to her with a sleepy smile.
‘I am glad,’ she said to Merry. ‘I did not want to be queen.’
‘But you are queen,’ Liliana said. ‘Just queen of the wildkin, not the starkin.’
Tom-Tit-Tot crept forward and bowed, a strange gesture from such a hideous small creature. ‘I am glad that I have seen, the lovely face of our Erlqueen.’
‘Tommy-boy! I never knew you could be so gallant,’ Merry cried, while Liliana and Rozalina both laughed, in a sudden joyous release.
‘We will make a treaty,’ Rozalina said. ‘The first ever treaty between starkin king and wildkin queen. We will promise to be good kings and queens to our people, and work together for the good of everyone in the land.’
Merry reached out his hand, and she clasped it above the bloody bandages that bound Zed’s broken body.
‘Just give me a few wee
ks, and I’ll be up and fighting for you,’ Zed promised. ‘You’ll be king by midsummer.’
Merry smiled wearily. ‘You’ll be the king’s champion.’
‘And I’ll be the king’s mother!’ Mags crowed. ‘Wouldn’t my old da laugh!’
‘And you’ll be my queen,’ Merry said to Liliana. ‘Won’t you?’
She smiled wryly. ‘Queen of the starkin scum? Now that’s something I never imagined would happen.’
‘What’s this?’ Mags cried. ‘A marriage proposal? You’re far too young, Merry.’
‘You were the same age when you met my father,’ Merry reminded her. ‘Would you have let anyone tell you that you were too young?’
‘Leeblimey, not on your life!’ she exclaimed.
‘Then neither shall I,’ he said.
She laughed and threw up her hands. ‘Listen to him, he’s getting all high-handed already. I can see he needs a strong woman to stop him from getting too cocky.’
‘I think I know just the girl,’ Zed said and winked at Liliana. She smiled through tears and held out her hand, and Merry gripped it in his one good hand.
Then Priscilla said in a plaintive voice, ‘Is there any way I get to be a princess in all these plans?’
She gazed expectantly around as everyone burst out laughing.
Pedrin called for wine, to drink a toast, and Mags said, ‘Leeblimey, I’m fair famished. I never got to eat any of that feast you were all scoffing down.’
‘You were the feast,’ Rozalina said, laughing, and Zed laughed too, then winced and held his ribs, saying, ‘Don’t make me laugh! It hurts.’
At once Rozalina was fussing over him, trying to make him more comfortable, and Priscilla went to show Mags the way to the galley, and Palila went to see about cabins, and finding some men to move Zed somewhere more comfortable, and Merry and Liliana were able to slip up to the poop deck, watching the birds soar and swoop among the stars.
‘Only when a blind boy sees and a lame girl walks on the water shall peace come again to the land, and the rightful king take the throne,’ Merry repeated thoughtfully. ‘Do you think it will ever happen? It seems so impossible . . .’