Fairest (23 page)

The lake went on as far as I could see, branching into smaller caverns. The surrounding rock was pink and ivory and wet, like the inside of an enormous mouth. I wondered how sound would carry. If I'd been alone, I would have yodeled.

I swam through sea foam, which turned out to be soap bubbles, coming from a spring below me. I raised my arm and found bubbles clinging to it. Scrub brushes were on the closest lantern boat. It was glorious to become clean. The soap-bubble water was buoyant. I didn't have to paddle to stay afloat, and the mud I shed disappeared in a trice. I gave myself over to the sensation of the water on my skin, the pleasure of massaging my scalp, the vividness of the brush on my back.

I sang a toddler's bath song.

When not a speck of dirt remained, I swam away from the soap spring and floated on my back, drifting. I fell asleep and woke only when I passed through a stretch of pulsing, tingly water. My hunger returned in force. I swam to shore.

My filthy gown was gone. I found instead a female gnome's robe and undergarments, freshly washed and smelling sulfuric. The robe was a golden color. I suspected that the threads were actual gold, although they were soft as silk. The fabric would have fascinated Ivi.

The neckline was square in front and rounded at the back. The shoulders were too broad, and the waist was vastly too big, but there was a sash, which improved matters. The skirt would have been too short, but a border of more gold cloth had been sewn on.

I considered myself in the mirror. The bodice hung loose. The shoulders bunched up. However, I was still beautiful. I was radiant—among the gnomes, who thought me as hideous as I'd ever been.

A servant conducted me to an alcove, where Uju and zhamM sat at a round table. Uju was attired in gnome finery too. zhamM may have supplied the tunic, because it had emerald buttons.

Uju kept looking uneasily at the rock walls. I wondered what was troubling him.

Servants appeared bearing steaming platters. I remember little of the meal. I was too exhausted. I know we were served root vegetables and there was conversation, but I have no memory of what was said. I don't remember finishing my food or being taken to a bedchamber.

When I awoke, the room was dark. I didn't know where I was. After a few moments I remembered. Oh, yes. Gnome Caverns. I was an exile.

I wondered what was taking place in Ayortha. Was Ijori still shuddering over the memory of our kiss? Was Skulni carrying out his plans, whatever they were? Did Mother and Father know of my disgrace yet? Was the search for me still underway? Might they pursue me here?

Would the gnomes let me stay?

I sang to quiet my thoughts:

I wondered if it was morning.

I sat up and saw the glowing outline of a door. I slid sideways, and sideways, and sideways. I finally reached the edge of the bed and started cautiously for the door, hoping not to trip over anything.

When I opened it, a servant bustled in with a lantern. “!evtoogh fwthchoR” she said gaily.

“!eftook swithcoR” I said, trying to get it right.

She giggled and lit a lamp. I saw my bedchamber. Its walls were hammered copper laid over the underlying rock. Here and there a triangle or a square or a diamond shape had been painted on the copper in bright blue or green or red. The effect was cheery.

The entire chamber had a lighthearted charm. There was a yellow rocking chair, a pink bureau, and a blue-and-white table. Atop the bureau was a bowl of colored stones—amber, blue, violet. I wondered if they were pebbles or gems.

There was no fireplace. It always seemed comfortably cool down here.

The maid said slowly and carefully, “Dress you. After I you widyeH zhamM take.” She curtsied and left the room.

Another gnome's gown had been spread out on an easy chair. After I dressed, the maid led me through a maze of carpeted tunnel to an open door.

I entered a cozy parlor. There were four wide easy chairs, upholstered in bright fabrics, each with a matching footstool and a side table. The legs of the tables, chairs, and footstools were set with stones. On each table was a bowl of pebbles, or gems, like the one in my chamber. A low table was heaped with books. A circular hooked rug extended almost to the cavern walls. The walls were alive with glow iron, making the chamber as bright as could be without sunlight.

zhamM came in through a door across the room. “Good morning, Maid azacH.”

It was morning then. “Good morning, widyeH zhamM.”

“Oh! My title.” He led me to a chair. “They are bringing breakfast.”

“I'm the chambermaid. I should be waiting on you.”

“Not here. Here you are my guest.”

Breakfast arrived on a tray: raw carrots, carrot puree, and glistening candied carrots. To the side was a tumbler of orange liquid. There were also two cups and a silver ostumo pot.

zhamM said he'd eaten earlier. He indicated my meal. “Carrots done three ways and carrot juice and ostumo. We gnomes have come to enjoy your ostumo. It is a delicacy, to be exact.”

I poured the ostumo for both of us. The color was right, but the smell was sharp. He sipped his and looked satisfied. I sipped mine and began to cough.

He put down his cup. “I see we haven't got it right yet. The carrot juice will be excellent, however.”

It was, and the other carrot preparations were tasty, too. I felt guilty for wishing for a muffin.

“Where is Uju?”

“He set out for Ontio at dawn. He said he disliked being underground. Do you mind it?”

I shook my head. I didn't mind at all. This was nothing like the dungeon at Ontio.

“Good. Few humans are able to remain here as long as you already have.”

Did this mean I could stay? “It's cozy.”

“That is how we feel. But Guard Uju wouldn't even wait for you to awaken. We gave him a centaur to ride when he left.”

“The prediction!” I said.

“Yes. The gnome who made it must have been thinking of Guard Uju's age in gnome years.”

“Oh.”

“Before leaving, he promised to convince your pursuers of your death.”

Good.

But word would reach Mother and Father. “widyeH zhamM, would someone be able to deliver a letter to my parents?”

He inclined his head. “I'll see to it.”

After I finished eating, he said, “You are in danger, as I foresaw. Tell me what brought you here. Perhaps a gnome can help.”

No one could help. I didn't want to talk about it, but I owed zhamM an explanation, and the gnomes needed to know I was an outlaw.

“What took you to Ontio Castle in the first place?”

“The royal wedding.” I told him everything—about the ceremony, the composing game with Ijori, meeting Ivi, the centaurs.

He listened quietly, now and then sipping the bitter ostumo.

I wept over King Oscaro. zhamM gave me his handkerchief, which was embroidered with green thread. Then he took another handkerchief from another pocket and shed a tear, too. He rang for a servant, and when one came, he told her to bring a pitcher of water.

The water arrived, and I continued my tale. zhamM kept my glass full. When I told about illusing for Ivi, he asked me to demonstrate.

I illused Uju's voice coming from the air above one of the chairs. The voice sang lines from a traveling song.

“Superb!” zhamM said. “How is it done?”

I explained. “No one else can do it,” I added. “Perhaps my birth family would be able to.”

“The innkeepers are not your true parents?”

I thought everyone who visited the Featherbed knew. “They're my true parents, but not my birth parents.”

“I see. Now let me try this illusing.” He tried and failed and tried again. He said, “I have it now,” and failed again. He tried twice more, and then his voice came from somewhere over the low table. “Marvelous, to be exact,” it said. He clapped his hands.

How could he illuse, when Mother and Sir Uellu, the best singers I knew, had failed?

“Thank you for showing me, Maid azacH.” This came from the ceiling.

He couldn't imitate other voices or sounds, but he could illuse.

“Please continue with your tale,” he illused from near the door.

I suspected he might never again speak without illusing.

I went on. He looked shocked when I told of Ivi's threats against me. But he laughed over my beauty-spell calamity and asked to see my marble toe.

After I assured him that it didn't hurt, he said he wouldn't mind a glow-iron toe.

I continued my tale. I mentioned my friendship with Ijori and said that he'd kissed me, but I told it in as offhand a manner as I could.

I broke down again when I reached my final night at the castle. I had to wait before I could relate Sir Uellu's accusations against me and Ivi's lies.

“Then they tied my hands and gagged me. widyeH zhamM, it's terrible for a singer to be gagged.” I finished the tale, feeling tired enough for another night's sleep.

He was silent, his hands folded in his lap, his head bent. Such a sympathetic silence it was. It took in my grief and misery and didn't try to put a bright face on what had happened.

After a few minutes he reached into the bowl of pebbles on the table next to him and selected a largish stone about the size of his thumb. He came to my chair and showed it to me. “What do you see?”

“A rock?”

“What color is it?”

“Dull black.”

He put his free hand on mine. “Now what color is it?”

“Oh!” It wasn't black at all. It was another dark color, but not a color I knew. I had no words to describe its hue, but I felt it, an intensity behind my eyes that was almost pain.

He let my hand go, and the rock became dull black again. He returned it to the bowl and sat back down. “That rock was htun. Most humans can't see htun, even if I hold their hands. Maid azacH, I doubt you have a single drop of ogre blood in you. However, my dear cousin, I am certain that one of your ancestors was a gnome.”

I
,
PART GNOME
?

“These are my reasons,” zhamM said. “Your hair has htun highlights, which no other human hair has. It used to be all htun before you drank that dreadful potion. I must say, you were foolhardy when you did so.”

“But—”

He held up a hand. “You were foolhardy.” He smiled at me. “.byjadh heemyeh odh ubaech achoedzaY Foolishness may have golden offspring. I hope yours does.”

I did too.

“There are more reasons than your hair to think you are part gnome. Before drinking the potion, you were wider than most humans. You were taller as well, which we cannot take credit for. However, we can take credit for your thinking it's cozy here.

“What's more, you discovered how to penetrate our rock curtain when you arrived. To be exact, no human has ever done so before. And I can illuse, although I am no singer.”

“But … but Sir Uellu said I wormed my way into people's affections as an ogre would. He said I looked like an ogre, too.”