Grizelda (22 page)

Calding,
Warden
Calding, threw open
the doors of the officers’ mess hall with an expansive double-armed
shove. They slammed against the wall with a satisfying crash. That
fool of a new lieutenant Whatshisname winced and the officers
inside all stared at him like startled rabbits. He could get used
to this.

He strode down the center aisle of the hall
to the podium. “I called this general meeting to introduce myself
as Promontory’s new warden. Consider me introduced. You all know
that the police force has been having difficulties these past few
weeks. Incredible breaches of security, hostility from the people,
even rumors of missing prisoners. All that is going to change.”

He scanned their faces, looking each officer
in the eyes in turn. Yes. Some of them were good. Some of them
would have to go. Those ones that were still petrified, still
looking at him like he had just smacked them. If they couldn’t even
handle a dramatic entrance, how could they be effective leaders of
the gendarmerie? He would be doing a lot of sorting in the next few
months. Efficiency. Finally.

“This is the part where I’m supposed to tell
you not to worry. That it’s an honor to be following in my
predecessor’s footsteps and nothing … substantive will be changing
in the operation of this prison. It isn’t true.” He leaned forward.
“Warden Mant was fired for being an incompetent jackass. Do not
expect the same from me. Expect to get your sorry behinds cleaned
up, straightened out, and kicked into gear as I clean up the
mess
he left!”

He paused to let their horror sink in.

“Dismissed.”

He spun on his heel and walked out the way he
came.

Around midmorning Geddy showed up in her
room. Grizelda was sitting cross-legged on the mattress, feeling
miserable. He was about the last person she wanted to see right
now, but he showed up anyway. One moment there was nothing, then
the next time she looked he was sitting there on a paint can.

“Oh, hi, Geddy,” she said without much
pleasure. She scooted around on the mattress so she was not quite
facing him.

“I wanted to know how things were going at
work,” he said.

“Why should something be wrong at work?”

“Because you’re not there.”

She couldn’t escape that point. She sighed.
“It’s the thing with the train last night. I hadn’t bargained on so
much stealing.”

“That’s not everything.”

Why did he have to be so
insightful?
He folded his arms and gave her a stern, for-your-own-good look.
She looked back at him and refused to say anything more.

“All right, don’t tell me. I came for
something else, too. The day after tomorrow night there’s going to
be a pixie ring. Ratriders don’t usually let anybody in from the
outside, but they decided you can come. And you can bring a guest.
I thought it would take your mind off things.”

“But that’s the night before the big
breakout!”

“Exactly. Everything’s coming together.
This’ll help you relax.” Then when he saw the look on her face, “Go
on, Griz.”

She tried not to grimace. “I’ll think about
it.”

Chapter 22

Grizelda did finally go back to work, but
there were subtle changes in the way she went about it now. She no
longer apologized when something jammed, and the next morning she
took her time about setting up. What did she care about keeping in
line with the goblins anymore? They were all against her,
anyway.

Crome didn’t say anything about her new
attitude. Probably he didn’t dare.

Work took up a lot of her time, but she still
found that the waiting for the breakout was getting intolerable.
She wasn’t sure if having the ratriders’ party to look forward to
helped or made it worse. The Undergrounders had had their final
meeting the night before, going over their homemade maps of the
tunnels under Lonnes and ironing out last-minute details of
distribution of prisoners, supplies, and Laricia’s fliers. They all
seemed really excited about it, but she hadn’t been enjoying the
work quite as much since the train incident. Something was wrong
with the plan, but she didn’t know what.

When the evening bell rang, there were still
three hours to go before she was expected to show up at the
ratriders’ grotto. She wandered the streets of the goblin city for
a while. The shrinking number of Loyalist bands she found
everywhere she went was so distressing that eventually she gave up
and went back to the laundry. She went up to her room, pulled the
ream of blue paper out of its hiding place, and started to
fold.

She was halfway through a star flower when
she thought she heard a noise from the bottom of a pile of shelves.
She stuffed the flower deep into her pocket, though it was trying
desperately to twine around her arm, and shoved the papers under
the mattress. At the base of the shelves, there was a flicker of
movement.

“Who’s there?”

Tunya peeked out from around the corner.
Grizelda hardly recognized her, so different was she from the
smart, acid-tongued Tunya that she was used to. She looked red-eyed
and rumpled.

“What happened?” It was all she could think
of to say. Only some sort of natural disaster could have done this
to Tunya.

“You’re the only person I know who isn’t a
ratrider and will go and tell everybody. I know I look like a fool
coming here, but…”

“I don’t understand,” Grizelda said.

“I’ve been trying for hours and it just won’t
go!”

Then Grizelda saw for the first time the tiny
hairbrush clenched in her hand.

“Your … hair?” she said, a little
bewildered.

“I don’t know who else to go to. Please.”

Tunya looked up at her. It was so strange to
see Tunya pleading that Grizelda didn’t know what to do.

“I don’t really know anything about hair,”
she said. She held up a handful of her own silver-gray curls. “I
mean, if I did, I wouldn’t have left
this
the way it
was.”

“Well, in comparison to–” Tunya gestured at
her own bushy mess. Grizelda had to admit she had a point.

“Okay. Okay,” Grizelda said, trying to think.
Her thoughts were still muddled, refusing to line up. “Hold on a
second.”

She ran down the hall to the washroom. The
first thing she did there was take the flower out and tear it
systematically into pieces. She wasn’t sure if they would run down
the sink easily, so she put them back in her pocket for throwing
away later. Then she ran water into her cupped hands and brought it
back with her.

“Maybe it’ll help if we get it wet.”

Tunya was looking a little better when
Grizelda got back. She was sitting slouched on the mattress, calm,
but miserable.

“I hate to have to ask, you know,
you
for a favor,” she said when Grizelda sat down behind her. She made
a face like she’d eaten something not ripe yet.

“Um … don’t worry about it. I think.”

Grizelda dabbed water on the hair to weight
it down. It
was
a horrible mess. It moved in response to her
touch like something living, shrinking away from her. Was pixie
hair always like this, or was it just Tunya? There was something
she could do about it, of course. Magic. She considered the
consequences. The Committees and the midnight police raids were far
away now; they’d never see her. It probably wouldn’t hurt.

She cracked her knuckles, then chewing her
lip, reached out to touch the hair again. This time she commanded
it. It still felt alive, but this time it bent to her will, more
like a tame animal than a wild one. She forced it to go into a
braid.

It did get her to wondering. Why now? Why
didn’t Tunya ever try to do anything about her hair before? Who did
she have to impress at this pixie ring?

While she worked, Tunya picked at the fabric
of the sheet. “I haven’t been exactly … nice to you, I know. I just
don’t like ogres very much. But you can’t be
that
bad, I
mean…”

Grizelda finished and let her go. She nudged
her in the direction of the derelict standing mirror someone had
dragged up here ages ago. Tunya was just tall enough to see over
the lower edge. Instantly she turned back around, in shock.

“I can’t pay you back for this!”

“Did you see anything weird here?” Grizelda
said.

“Huh?”

“Did you see anything weird going on, just
before you got here?”

“Um … no,” said Tunya.

“Then that’s perfect. If you don’t tell
anybody you saw anything weird, I’ll call us even.”

Tunya looked at her, puzzled. Then she
shrugged. “Okay. You have a deal.”

“Are you sure this is the right place?” Toby
said.

Grizelda could understand his doubt. She’d
taken him on a tortuous route through the underground of Lonnes,
deeper than he had ever gone before. Abandoned goblin mines,
fungus-crusted caverns only two people wide with rickety, sloping
floors – she had to admit it didn’t look like they were going
anywhere. She just nodded and encouraged him on. When he stumbled,
she showed him the good footholds.

When they got to the crevice that was the
entrance to the ratriders’ lair, Toby looked highly doubtful.

“You’re skinny, it’ll be fine,” she said.
“Watch.”

She pressed her back against the wall, slid
herself sideways. After a squeeze, she was out in the grotto.

She was greeted by a chorus of hallooes from
every point in the cave. There were ratriders everywhere, more than
she remembered the last time she came – swinging from the rope
bridges and clinging to the cave rock like brightly colored bugs.
There weren’t any real flowers out this time of the year, but the
ratriders had done the next best thing by raiding a milliner’s
shop: a riot of silk flowers exploded everywhere, crowding together
on the ledges and fighting with the ratriders for space. All their
green lights had been turned up to full blaze.

Toby struggled in, bent double. As he rose,
he stopped midway, awestruck.

The ratriders started a new barrage of
greetings in his honor.

“It’s To-bee!”

“Sewer girl’s friend!”

“Do you sew, too?”

As soon as Toby got over his surprise, he
finished standing up. His head ran into some of the rope bridges
overhead, and he ducked and batted them away with a strangled
noise.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Grizelda
said.

“Well, yes, I…”

“Hey, Griz, Toby! Come on, I’ll introduce you
to everybody!”

Geddy came running down the side of the cave,
slipping and skidding every few steps on the rock that was made
slick by river spray. He didn’t slow down until he got to the
bottom. He motioned them eagerly to come into the middle of the
cavern, so they followed him.

Toby watched his feet nervously.

“I’m afraid I’ll step on somebody,” he
whispered to her.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “They’re very good
at getting out of the way.”

Geddy then did his best to introduce Toby to
every single ratrider in the tribe. Toby responded with lots of
nodding and strained smiles. He didn’t talk much, but it didn’t
matter. Geddy did all the talking for him.

“Don’t know where Tunya is,” said Geddy.
“Maybe she’s not coming.”

It was then that Grizelda spotted Laricia.
She wasn’t precisely being social, but she wasn’t scowling off in a
dank, dark corner, either. She was sitting on a rock ledge vaguely
near some other ratriders, holding a cup. When Grizelda looked at
her inquiringly, she only shrugged.

“Anybody want to try ratrider cordial?” Geddy
said before she could ask further. He dragged them off in another
direction.

The back of the cave was devoted to a table
that would have been large for ratriders, covered with beanpod
casks. Ratriders were cracking them open and serving syrupy,
wine-colored stuff up in glasses. When they saw Toby and Grizelda
coming, they ran to get containers that were more appropriate for
the two of them. Kricker came bounding up to them while they
waited.

“Hiya, guys! Hey, has anyone seen Tunya?”

“We were just wondering where she was,” said
Geddy.

Kricker shrugged and held a plate out to Toby
and Grizelda. “Want some fried spider?”

“No, thanks,” Grizelda said. Toby just shook
his head.

“Suit yourself.” He pulled off a leg and
started crunching it happily.

Then he choked.

Tunya was striding into the ratriders’
grotto, making a dramatic entrance. As she was dazzlingly late, the
other ratriders had no choice but to turn and stare at her as she
came in. And what a sight she was. She always had carried herself
like a princess, but before, she’d been a barbarian princess. Now
she looked real. With all that hair pulled away from her face,
Grizelda realized for the first time that Tunya was not actually
homely. There was still that awfully jutting jaw, but the eyes …
they sparkled.

“Well, I’ll be…” Geddy scratched his head.
“Tunya brushed her hair.”

With a mumbled excuse Kricker left them.

“Why did she do it, do you suppose?” Geddy
climbed up a rock to get a better vantage point.

Grizelda wasn’t sure how much she was allowed
to tell, but she was saved from that decision when Toby looked over
at her.

“Why is everybody so surprised that–”

Geddy laughed, covering his mouth.

“What?” said Toby.

“Look!” Geddy pointed. Grizelda and Toby
crowded in behind him and followed his line of sight down to the
cave floor. Kricker had gone up to Tunya and was talking to her
animatedly.

“Kricker … and Tunya?” Grizelda looked over
at Geddy. “Are you sure?”

He was practically hopping with glee.
“They’re just like Benedict and Beatrice!”

“Will somebody please tell me what’s going
on?” said Toby.