Spellfall (15 page)

“Your mother was a Spell Lord, wasn’t she? Father said something about her death when we got back to the Lodge with your spider, but I had no idea who she was then.”

“The Lady Atanaqui,” Natalie said with a surge of pride. “And now I think I know why she died. It was the first day of November when she drowned. The night before, the Boundary would have been open and she’d have been able to see. I think she saw something that night, Merlin! K’tanaqui says they were on their way to Earthaven when it happened but some men came out of nowhere and pushed her into the river. He jumped in and tried to save her but she sent him back to Earthaven to warn the Council. He doesn’t know what was so important. I get these flashes of a black bird flying... I thought it was your father’s hawk at first, except Hunter’s not black all over.” She frowned. Along with everything else the magehound had told her since he first spoke to her at the Thrallstone, the truth about her mother’s death was almost too much to handle. She needed more time to sort it all out.

Merlin, however, was staring at her. “A raven,” he whispered.

“What?”

“When we started the fire in the Lodge, Father said something about a raven in the cellar, didn’t he?”

“I’d forgotten that!” She closed her eyes, trying to recall the image K’tanaqui had shown her. “Could it be someone’s familiar?”

Merlin shook his head. “No. Hunter ate them all.”

“Maybe the Council will know.”

The boy crept closer. Hesitantly, he touched her arm. “I’m sorry about your mother.”

“And I’m sorry about yours.”

There was an embarrassed silence. Then K’tanaqui pushed his wet body between them and flipped his ear.
Pups swim now! K’ayparrri says betterrr hurrry, Council not like to be kept waiting.

Natalie passed on this message with a smile. She stripped off her two sweatshirts and her jeans and eased herself into the water, careful not to splash her glasses. It was wonderfully warm. She rolled on to her back and kicked lazily. There was a loud splash as the old magehound joined her. She laughed and grabbed his ruff, letting him pull her across the pool beneath the hanging vines at the far side. There seemed to be some kind of fruit over there, like large golden pears hanging temptingly just above the water. “Are they poisonous, K’tanaqui?” she asked.

Soulfrrruit not poison soultrrreee frrriends,
the magehound said cryptically.

“Does that mean I can eat them or not?” Their delicious scent was already making her mouth water. She could imagine the juice spurting between her teeth and sliding down her smoke-sore throat. She trod water and closed a hand around the nearest fruit.

“No, Natalie!”

Merlin didn’t even hold his nose but took a running leap that turned into the most painful bellyflop she’d ever seen. She smothered a giggle as he surfaced and started to doggy-paddle like K’tanaqui, but not nearly as effectively. He kept sinking then surfacing again to splutter, “No, don’t eat it... Natalie! Help!” His cries became more frantic, his splashing wilder. She frowned, reluctant to leave the soulfruit.

“
Natalie!”
This time, he disappeared under the surface and did not come up again.

“Merlin? Quit fooling around.” Heart thumping, she swam across, K’tanaqui paddling after her.

Mouse-pup STUPID
, the magehound said.

She was inclined to agree but fear for Merlin kept her from replying. She stared down through the silver-green water and saw his hair floating beneath her feet like red seaweed. Her stomach clenched. “Help him, someone!” she shouted. “He’s drowning! Lady Thaypari! Lord Pveriyan! Anyone! Help!” Snatching off her glasses, she threw them towards the edge and prepared to dive.

K’tanaqui caught them gently in his mouth.
Pup so silly. Ask Oq forrr shallow waterrr. Rememberrr to say please this time.

“But—” Then she understood. Grabbing the nearest vine, she yelled, “Shallow! Shallow water,
please
Oq!”

A great wave nearly knocked her over. She clung on to the vine for balance, afraid the tree had decided to take revenge for her calling it stupid when she’d rescued Tim. Then suddenly she was kneeling in water that barely covered her thighs and Merlin lay before her, coughing and spluttering like a landed fish.

K’tanaqui nosed him.
Mouse-pup will live
, he said, sounding pleased with himself.

Natalie stood shakily and addressed the interlaced branches overhead. “Thank you, Oq.”

The leaves rustled.

“How can you
thank
it?” Merlin hugged his bony chest. “It tried to kill me!”

She frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“It grabbed my leg and pulled me down!”

“I didn’t see anything.”

“You’re bound to say that. Your mother was on the Council.”

K’tanaqui growled.
Mouse-pup imagining things. Mouse-pup can’t swim.

“Is that true?” Natalie looked at the shivering boy with new respect. He’d jumped in for her sake.

“Is what true?”

“That you can’t swim? Didn’t you realize how deep it was?”

His red face told her all she needed to know. She fought a smile.

“Don’t laugh at me!” He scrambled out of the pool and retrieved his mouse from the branch where it had taken refuge when he had jumped in. “Everyone laughs at me. I can’t do anything right, I’m just a joke, a stupid joke.” Tears glittered in his eyes.

“I’m not laughing at you, silly. It’s just that no one has ever nearly drowned themselves for me before. I bet you couldn’t even see what you were doing after Redeye bailed out. What was it like, watching yourself go under?”

Merlin sniffed, and his lips twitched into a small smile. “Scary.”

Natalie couldn’t help a giggle as she squeezed the water out of her hair. The swim had made her feel almost normal again. “We’d better get ready, I suppose. I hope this Council doesn’t take too long, because the smell of that soulfruit has reminded me how hungry I am. I’m even beginning to regret throwing my spaghetti bolognese over you.”

“Yeah, that was stupid,” Merlin agreed. “If you didn’t want it, you could have given it to me.”

Chapter 11

THE COUNCIL OF OQ

Early Friday morning, October 30

~~*~~

The Council of Oq assembled at midnight in the dizzy heights of the soultree canopy. During the long climb from the pool, Lady Thaypari told her two nervous charges that when it wasn’t in use, the entire Council chamber could be shrunk to the size of a small hazelnut. She told them that once, long before the Boundary existed, Oq had disagreed with a decision and shrunk the chamber with the Council members still inside. “If you put your ear to the benches on a quiet day, you can still hear the unfortunate Spell Lords crying to be let out,” she added in a hushed whisper. “So you’ve got to be careful what you say or Oq might do it again.”

Merlin went white. But K’tanaqui curled his lip in the magehound equivalent of a grin, making Natalie giggle in spite of her nerves. “That’s not true, is it?” she said.

The Spell Lady smiled. “A pity it isn’t, the way the Council members argue sometimes!” Then she noticed Merlin’s expression and her tone gentled. “Oh come, young Caster, don’t look like that! I was only trying to cheer you up. Natalie’s quite right, soultrees don’t harm their Council members. And no decision is made unless Oq agrees with it. I thought you’d know that, being of the blood.”

“But I’m not a Spell Lord,” Merlin sniffed. “Oq might shrink on me.”

Lady Thaypari patted his arm. “Not while you’re with us, she won’t. Now, blow your nose. No, not on your sleeve, use this.… That’s better.”

While Thaypari handed Merlin a square of mossy material to wipe his nose with, Natalie gave his other hand a small squeeze. “It’ll be over before you know it,” she whispered, then turned cold. Exactly the words Claudia had used before the goshawk ate Itsy. Might that be what the Council had planned for Redeye?

Magehounds alrrready have full powerrr. Little mouse not worrrth eating,
K’tanaqui informed her. Which, far from setting her mind at rest, raised yet more questions. She thrust them firmly aside, adding them to an already long list of things to ask Lady Thaypari as soon as they had another proper chance to talk.

At last, the Spell Lady halted before a thick curtain of ivy. “You wait here until you’re called,” she told them. “I’ll go on in and inform the Council you’ve arrived.” She gave Natalie’s hair a final tweak, brushed a leaf off Merlin’s tunic, and smiled at them again. “Don’t worry, you both look fine.”

About the last thing worrying Natalie was how they looked but it did feel good to be clean at last. After they had swum and changed, Lady Thaypari had woven some small white flowers into Natalie’s hair. Their dreamy scent drifted about her as she moved. Thaypari had even managed to make Merlin presentable. With clean hair, decent clothes, and the grubby marks washed from his elbows and knees, he looked almost human.

Mouse-pup less human than daughterrr-pup
, K’tanaqui reminded her, making her smile. Then she clutched Merlin’s hand as the ivy rustled aside.

A voice boomed, “Enter and kneel before the Council of Oq!”

K’tanaqui went first, claws clicking on the perfectly smooth floor. Natalie took a deep breath and pulled Merlin after the magehound, trying not to think about Lady Thaypari’s story of the crushed Spell Lords.

Inside, she got a crick in her neck from staring upwards. The Council chamber was a vast, circular dome ringed by two tiers of glowing greenwood benches. Twelve Spell Lords and Ladies in shimmering Earthaven robes, wearing crowns of leaves and flowers, sat around the upper tier; while their magehounds reclined on the lower bench, bushy silver tails hanging over the edge. A high roof of interlaced branches rose to a central opening through which moonlight poured to form a silver circle on the floor. K’tanaqui padded straight to this circle and sat in the middle of it, his newly washed coat shining. He raised his muzzle and gazed proudly at the twelve magehounds.

Natalie’s heart thumped as she knelt beside him and pulled Merlin down beside her. Every Spell Lord, Lady, and magehound in the chamber was looking at her and their intent gazes made her skin prickle. Lady Thaypari flashed her an encouraging smile.

“Welcome, Daughter of Atanaqui,” boomed the same voice as before, making her jump. She tried to see who had spoken, but the voice seemed to come from all directions at once. “You may stand.”

She breathed a sigh of relief. But scarcely had they scrambled to their feet than Lord Pveriyan leapt from his bench and pointed a gnarled finger at Merlin.

“The Caster is a spy!” he announced. “Sent here by his father, the Spellmage known as Hawk, who we banished across the Boundary fourteen years ago under the terms of the Spellfall Solution. Apparently Hawk has mastered the ancient art of transportation. It’s obvious he intends to use this to launch an attack on Oq during this year’s Opening, and he’s sent his son through the Thrallstone to plant spells at strategic locations within Earthaven. I say the young Caster should be taken at once to the Heart and forcibly drained of all he knows.” He sat down.

Natalie’s stomach fluttered. She cast an anxious glance at Merlin.

But the Council seemed amused. “The boy doesn’t look as if he’d know a strategic location if it hit him in the face,” said one of the Lords, raising a few chuckles. “Besides, what would be the point? If Hawk really can transport, he’d simply use a place of power for the destination. Almost anywhere within Oq would work better than a spell. But this is all academic, anyway. No Caster would dare enter a soultree uninvited, particularly during the Opening.”

“Hawk has always dared what others do not,” returned Pveriyan. “Don’t forget he lived on this side of the Boundary for many years. His powers are considerable.”

“Even if they transport directly into the Heart, they need a full spellclave to do any real damage.” Another Lord.

“They are already twelve. They made a mistake with Natalie, but they could easily find another Caster to make up the number. They might even intend to bond their young one once they get across the Boundary.” One of the Ladies.

Merlin paled. Lady Thaypari gave him a sympathetic glance and said firmly, “Then we must make sure they don’t. Keep him where they can’t reach him until the Opening’s over.”

“Better to execute his mouse now and make certain they can’t use him for anything,” Lord Pveriyan muttered darkly.

Natalie squeezed Merlin’s hand, wondering if she’d made a mistake bringing him here, but Lady Thaypari was still on their side.

“Don’t be silly, Pveriyan,” she said, winking at them. “There’s no need for that. He’ll be safe inside Oq.”

Pveriyan scowled round the benches. “I know what you’re all thinking. You think because he’s small he’s no threat. I’m telling you, it’s a trick! There’s no other reason Hawk would let his son anywhere near a gateway so close to the Opening.”

This provoked quite an argument. The Spell Lords’ voices grew louder, and some of them stood to shout across the chamber. Magehounds on the lower bench growled. It wasn’t clear who was saying what, though Natalie saw Lady Thaypari frown, her fingers twisting one of the orange flowers in her hair.