The Flute Keeper's Promise (The Flute Keeper Saga) (49 page)

“We should run,” Violet whispered.
“Let’s go back the way we came.”

Chloe stood firm. “No,” she hissed.
“There’s no exit that way and you know it. Chin up, little sister. We’ve got to
wallop these guys and get them to tell us what’s been going on here!”

“Yeah,” Tobin said. “Maybe they
know where my mom is!”

There was no time left to argue. The
end of the hall lit up bright purple. Chloe saw the shadows of five men cast on
the wall by the light of the source crystal. To keep the upper hand she had to
act immediately.

She cast a pillar of flame at the
men. A bolt of lightning met Chloe’s spell halfway. The two spells collided,
transferring their energy back on each other. The flame sizzled back towards
Chloe while the lightning ricocheted towards the men.

Chloe dove to the floor to duck her
own failed fire spell. Fortunately for her, Othella cast a barrier and the
spell stopped short of doing any damage. The men down the hall took cover around
the corner as the lightning bolt pierced the wall where they’d been standing.
Chunks of stone and mortar flew out of the blackened impact crater.

For a moment nobody moved. Chloe
lifted her head cautiously and looked down the hall. The lightning bolt’s
remnant energy danced in little arcs around the crater. It was powerful magic.
Chloe trembled. She’d underestimated her advantage. Whoever had thrown that
bolt was as quick as she was—and far more powerful.

“We mean you no harm!” shouted one
of the men.

“Ha!” Chloe snapped. “Tell that to
the crater in the wall!”

“You struck first!” came the
snappish reply. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”

“Who are YOU and what are YOU doing
here?” Chloe snapped right back.

A different voice spoke up and
asked, “Your Highness?”

Chloe gasped. Othella drew a sharp
breath behind her.

A flicker lit up the end of the
hall with green light. The person holding the Emerald source crystal took a few
tentative steps toward Chloe. It was too dark to see his face. He paused and
studied her.

Chloe remembered that she was
wearing human clothes and a hat. She took off the hat and shook her hair free.

“Your Highness!”

The person dropped to one knee. He
was close enough that the crystal glow glinted on his eyeglasses.

“Garland!” Chloe shouted. She
started to run towards him, but Othella grabbed her by the wrist and held her
back.

“It could be a trick,” she
whispered. “
Doppelgangers
.”

Chloe remembered all too well how
she’d fallen for the trick before. Once, they had believed they were rescuing
Garland’s mother, but it turned out to be an enemy who had disguised himself by
using Florrie’s doppelganger. It was an atrocity to do such a thing but she
could tell by the looks of the prison that these new enemies were capable of
much worse.

The other men hesitated at the end
of the hall. Chloe did not recognize three of them, but when she saw the spiky
hair on the fourth one she knew instantly who had thrown the lightning bolt.

“Bazzlejet? Is that you?”

“One and the same, Your Highness.”

Othella still held Chloe by the
arm. Tobin hung back. Violet stood beside Othella, trembling. Her wide blue
eyes held the same desperate hope that Chloe felt—that they had found friends.

Then Chloe thought of a simple way
to tell whom they were dealing with.

“Bazzlejet,” Chloe asked, “What
color bloomers do I wear on the first day of each week?”

He hesitated. Chloe stiffened up.
It was not a good sign. As her maid he’d laid out all her laundry. He should
know.

“Red,” he said. “Always red with
the little ruffles.”

Chloe breathed a sigh of relief.
“And the next day?”

“Green silk.”

“And the next?”

“The light blue knits with the
little flowers on them.”

One of the other men that Chloe
didn’t know smacked Bazzlejet on the back of the head. “How do you know that?
What have you been up to?”

“Sorry, Pops. It was one of my
missions.”

“To memorize the queen’s bloomers?”

“No, not exactly…”

Chloe didn’t hear the rest because
Othella released her. Chloe ran over to Garland and wrapped her arms around him
just as he was trying to rise up from his knees. Laughing, he stumbled down again.

The two groups converged around
them. All the men knelt before Chloe, even Bazzlejet.

Chloe placed her hands on her hips
and stared down at the men. “What are you doing? Get up! Tell me what’s going
on. What happened here? Where are the others?” She singled out Garland. “Where
is your father?”

“Calm down, dear,” Othella said.
“We have some explaining to do ourselves.”

“Not here,” Violet said, shivering.
“Is there a way out? Is it safe?”

“This way,” said Garland.

***

I watched Lord Finbarr pace back
and forth in the kitchen of Woodman’s Hall. He rubbed his chin, mumbled to
himself and shook his head. More pacing.

Beside me, a restless Slaugh
awaited Lord Finbarr’s orders. Lev was as tense as a drawn bowstring and his
wings wouldn’t stop twitching. I could almost read his mind:
Attack. Kill.
Destroy the threat
.

I felt the same, except that there
were hostages involved. I could only guess what had happened at Feegman’s Boot.
Word must have gotten out about what Commander Larue had done to the red capes
there. The duke had sent reinforcements. The townspeople’s ambush must have
failed.

Lord Finbarr paused and took a deep
breath. He raised his eyes to meet mine, then Lev’s. “We cannot risk giving
away our location, nor can we risk the lives of those poor souls from Feegman’s
Boot. King Hugo?”

“Yes, Sir?”

“You know I don’t like asking,
but…”

Lev relaxed a little. “There’s no
need to ask. I’ll have my quickest flyers scout out the enemy numbers and we’ll
engage the red capes in ground combat.”

“What about the hostages?” I asked.

“There’s the problem,” Lord Finbarr
said. “We need to distract those red capes from the hostages so we can get them
somewhere safe without revealing ourselves.”

“I could lead them back to the
cave,” I said. “You know, the one in the forest? We could hide there until the
Slaugh are finished with the red capes.”

“No,” Lev said.

I scowled. “Why not? It’s a
perfectly good idea!”

“Yes, the idea is good, but you
cannot be the one to lead the hostages. I’ll have one of my people—”

“You’ll need every Slaugh here to fight!”
I argued. “This is a Fay hideout, too. We have to do our part to protect it!”

“Agreed,” Lord Finbarr said. “I
agree with the king, too. I need you here, Emma. I’ll ask the Terra Cartisans
to assist with the hostages. Mr. Tully knows that cave better than anyone. He
and his men should be able to hold out until the Slaugh have handled the red
capes and then they can take the hostages to safety. I’ll round up all our
resident Channelers, too. I’m sure they’ll be needed.”

Outnumbered, I was left with
nothing to do but worry and fume.

“Why doesn’t Lev trust me to handle
it?” I mumbled aloud as I paced back and forth upstairs in much the same way
Lord Finbarr had been.

Valory sat listening on the nearest
bed. She was picking fish bones out of her teeth with a small knife. “I don’t
know,” she said, lowering her knife. “Sounds to me like he’s protecting you.”

“Why on earth would he do a stupid
thing like that?”

Valory shrugged. “Mmmph dudn ate
eww.”

I tried to translate and couldn’t
quite manage it. “Could you repeat that without the knife in your mouth?”

Valory sighed and abandoned her
oversize toothpick. “I said maybe he doesn’t hate you.”

I hadn’t bothered to brief her on
what Lev had said back in the forest. For one thing, I wasn’t sure what it
meant. Had he forgiven me? Were we friends again? More than that? All had been
overshadowed by the appearance of the red capes.

Valory’s ears pricked up and she
sprang from the bed. Without a word she ran out of the room and down the hall.

Soon enough, I heard what Valory had:
the clinking of armor. I followed her out to the stairway above the great room.
Valory stood motionless, captivated by the scene unfolding below.

A dozen Slaugh stood in formation,
awaiting King Hugo’s orders. They wore breastplates made of animal bones and
metal. They also had helmets with narrow eye slits and plumes of black feathers
going down the middle. Most impressive was their wing armor. Thin, mobile
plates of metal bound by leather straps guarded the backs of their bony wings.
At the metal joints where their wings bent there were spikes like spearheads
sticking out of the armor. It made their wings like weapons—not that they
needed more. Each Slaugh carried a spear and more daggers than I could count.

They were in perfect form—intimidating,
disciplined and majestic. Valory had gone completely silent and there was a
look of reverence in her eyes. “
My people
,” she said in a breathless
whisper.

Hugo entered the room. His armor was
no better than any of the rest, but there was no mistaking who was in charge.
The others went still as statues when he appeared, offering him every last
ounce of their attention. The sight gave me shivers.

That’s really him down there.
The Slaugh boy who fought me the first night we met. The filthy orphan with the
blue dagger and the torn wing. My Lev, leader of the angels of death.

When he spoke, he took off his
helmet and held it under his arm. He looked more severe without it. His hair
was brushed back off his face so that his jagged scar stood out.

“I’m not going to say this will be
easy,” he addressed his troops. “But we’re dealing with flesh and bone this
time, not metal. The duke’s men have the advantage of magic. Don’t give them
the chance to use it. We’ll lay in an ambush and remain unseen as long as
possible. If you are injured, remain in the forest until someone comes to find
you. Do not come back here.”

The floor shook as all the Slaugh
tapped their spears and shouted a war cry.

A little cry escaped Valory’s
throat. She caught herself and covered her mouth.

“Feeling left out?” I asked her.

Valory turned to me with sparkling
eyes. “They’re so…”

I nodded. “I know.”

Valory’s wings trembled and she
hugged her body as though it ached. “I want to be a part of that. I see now. I
see why they hate me so. I could never…I’m not…”

She looked like she might cry.  I
gave her arm a little squeeze. “You’re you.”

The Slaugh filed out of Woodman’s
Hall. Outside, Mr. Tulley had already assembled his Terra Cartisans. The two
groups set out into the shadows of the forest to wage a battle that I would not
be able to see. The rest of us could only cross our fingers and hope for the
best.

Not all were content to sit around
and wait, however. Joyboy and Wimbleysminch hauled something on creaking wheels
to the far end of the drawbridge. The bulky apparatus was covered in a canvas
tarp.

“What is that?” I asked.

“Something we’ve salvaged from the
ship,” Joyboy said with a grin that showed all of his pointed teeth.

“Just in case,” Wimbleysminch said.

Bayard followed them with a bag of
something that looked suspiciously like cannonballs. Sweating as he lugged the
heavy bag, he called out to the Gremlins to slow down.

“How about you hurry up, you big
lout!” Joyboy shouted back.

In the kitchen, Anouk, Yert and
Mrs. Larue were busy packing all of the remaining food stores into bags and
baskets. Mrs. Larue worked her magic to make the entire contents of the pantry
fit into four small containers.

“Just in case,” she said frantically.
She paused to wipe her brow and flashed Valory and me a tired smile. “Would you
girls mind checking up on the children? I left them in the nursery downstairs.”

I found the nursery in a state of
chaos.  Fritz, my poor old Gnome butler, was trying to handle fifteen small
children all by himself.

“Please climb out of that
flowerpot!” he pleaded with one toddler

A budding Enchanter somehow managed
to turn Fritz’s shoes into pie pans. The tot laughed and squealed as Fritz
clanged around the room, trying to restore order. Alice and Harriet Larue shouted
at the other children to quiet down and behave, but none of the others would
listen.

I recalled how the children had taken
to Valory before. I turned to ask her if she would help get the kids to calm down,
but she wasn’t behind me. I spotted her in a corner with a shy-looking little Slaugh
girl.

I had not realized that there were
any Slaugh children staying at Woodman’s Hall. The girl was nearly invisible in
the dusty corner. 

Valory was speaking softly while
the girl listened with wide eyes. Except for her little wings and her
frost-colored skin, she looked much the same as any toddler. She had one thumb
in her mouth and the other hand was wrapped around some kind of rag doll.

“Hey, Emma,” Valory said. “This
young lady is Noemi. Noemi, this is my good friend, Emma.”

I knelt down. “Hello, Noemi. It’s
nice to meet you. Are your parents with King Hugo?”

Without removing the thumb from her
mouth, Noemi nodded.

“This is the first time that
Noemi’s been left with the other children,” Valory said with a sideways glance
to me.

Noemi took her thumb out of her mouth
and frowned at the pack of Fay hooligans who were tormenting Fritz. “Why are
they so loud? Mom says you have to be quiet so that bad men can’t hear you.”

I smiled at Noemi, but I felt sad
for the little girl. She was no older than three. She’d never known a life when
the Slaugh were at peace.