Quest for the King (18 page)

Alleophaz drew in a breath. "I wanted to meet with you all because
I fear that our host intends to betray us to the king's party. I cannot
be sure of it, but there were one or two little things . . ." He paused,
waiting for their reaction, which came quickly as several of them
spoke almost simultaneously.

Gerachti's eyes were alive with interest. "So you do suspect him.
Why?" he asked.

Kurt said, "Oh, it's not possible! He's a bit of an ass, I know, but
he was so set against the king! What about all the things he said about
the warrior queen?"

Belak looked bothered. "Oh, dear! This is awkward and embarrassing. Are you sure? His wife certainly would not be involved. Her
allegiance to the queen is obvious."

"It was the obviousness of their loyalty that awakened my suspicions," Alleophaz said slowly. "They both, Sir Robert especially,
seemed like unskilled actors overplaying their part, trying too hard to allay any suspicions we might have. Though, as you say, his wife could
be loyal."

"If you are right, then his treachery might be recent," Gerachti said,
frowning. "At any rate he knew the password, and passwords are
changed frequently. Either he has been more skillful in deceit than
you seem to believe, or else he has for some reason decided to betray
us very recently. But the wife, now-I find it hard to suspect her. What
else made you suspect the husband?"

"It was a little thing, and I cannot even now be completely sure. You
remember when his wife interrupted the story he was about to tell?
I cannot remember who said what, but he was annoyed at her attempt
to turn the conversation. There was something odd about the way he
looked at her."

"Yes-I saw it too," Wesley said. "It was almost as though he suddenly remembered something he had forgotten, or else he resented
his wife's suggestion. But the whole thing happened so fast that I
couldn't be sure. I thought I might be imagining it."

"No, Wesley, I do not think you were imagining anything."

There was another knock at their door, and the children froze.
Belak drew in his breath rapidly. Gerachti, who was nearest the door,
raised his eyebrows inquiringly, looking at Alleophaz. Alleophaz
nodded.

Gerachti opened it, keeping his shoulder against it as he did so, but
stepping back quickly when he saw who was there.

Lady Dolores entered. She smiled hesitantly. "You are all here! I
thought this was Wesley's room-but it is just as well." She glanced
from one of them to the other, making up her mind. The smile had
died from her face, and she was frowning slightly. Finally she nodded.
"I really came to find some way of letting you know that you are in
danger. I have reason to believe that he who is now my husband is
disloyal to the queen about whom he so freely boasts. Perhaps you
should leave without ceremony and make good your escape. I do not
know my husband's plans, but I fear that the house may already be
surrounded by his majesty's soldiers."

Alleophaz said quietly, "We had suspected as much. But is your
ladyship not running a grave risk in coming here telling us this?"

"My loyalty is to her majesty the queen. I spoke as I did tonight at
supper in order to let my husband know that I did not suspect any
treachery-"

"Yet you suspect him enough to tell us to flee ..."

The lady's face hardened. "Sir Robert needs money and will get it
from any convenient source. We have been married only a year. My
former husband died, leaving me with the two children. His majesty
the king granted Sir Robert's request to wed me, and for the sake of
the children and our safety, I agreed." She paused for a moment and
nobody spoke. Then Lady Dolores continued, "I must not stay. Never
mind how my suspicions arose. You will not be safe in your beds
tonight You can leave by the window, but beware the king's men. This
room faces the river, and ivy grows thick on this side of the house.
If you follow the wall of the house carefully in that direction," she
pointed toward Bamah, "you will come to the edge of the woods
twenty yards beyond. The river and the road grow further apart at this
point, and there is forest on this side of the road, between it and the
river."

"Madam, we are most grateful. Yet I would beg one thing from you.
Please seek at once to engage your husband in conversation."

"My lord?"

"If, as you suspect," said Alleophaz, "Sir Robert has betrayed us to
the king's party, and if indeed the plan is to seize us tonight, then
make some excuse for an urgent need to speak to him. I will follow
you and eavesdrop. I shall, I suspect, be able to learn more from his
response to you."

Lady Dolores smiled. "You think quickly and decisively, my lord.
Very well. Follow me at a discreet distance. I will conduct you by way
of a passage to the library. I suspect Sir Robert is there at the moment."

Alleophaz turned to Gerachti. "It is completely dark, and there
should be no moon until almost dawn. I would like you, Gerachti, to go with Wesley and Belak to take the horses a little way into the forest
and set them loose. Then take the panniers off the canoes. Put paddles on board and drag them into the trees. That way, if anything
goes wrong and we have to flee on foot, they will look for us in the
river. We will try to rendezvous at a safe distance from the house on
the river bank toward Bamah. If we have not reached you by sunrise,
then go on without us. Try to get to Bamah and to the queen, acquainting her with what has happened. Gerachti-you have in your possession copies of the trade proposals to his majesty the king. Make use
of them as you have need. I will try to get a clearer notion of Sir
Robert's plans while Kurt and Lisa remain here, but we will do our
best to catch up with you."

He strode to the window and opened it, looking round carefully.
"We are not on the ground floor, but the ivy has, as Lady Dolores
points out, grown well. We should have no difficulty leaving by this
route. It is unlikely that we will be observed climbing down." He
turned to smile at them. "So be off with you. We shall follow as soon
as we can."

Alleophaz bowed, moving toward the door to open it himself. "Lady
Dolores, we may owe you our lives. Many, many thanks for running
this risk. Please do not endanger yourself any further. And again,
accept our most fervent thanks." He opened the door and followed
Lady Dolores out. One by one, Gerachti, Wesley and Belak clambered
through the window, and Kurt picked up his cloak from the bed and
pulled it round his shoulders against the chill night air. Lisa shivered
in her cloak and pulled it tighter. They both felt strangely excited and
tense.

There was a moment of silence after everyone had gone.

"So now what?" Lisa asked.

"Just wait, I guess."

"I hate waiting. I just hate it." She made as though to bite her nails,
then pulled her hand away from her mouth. "Y'know, there's some
thing I can't understand."

"What?"

"Wesley said a spirit of light named Risano spoke to him in the
dream. We did everything we were supposed to do, and yet here we
are being betrayed. If it was a spirit of light, surely we would not have
been led into a trap."

"You think Wes was deceived?"

"I just don't know. I'm scared. I don't like what's happening."

Kurt stared at a picture on the wall behind their bed. "It's a picture
of a door, just an old door. Why do they have a picture of a door?"

"Kurt, I'm scared. I wish we could know for sure what's happening.
This is awful."

"Yeah. I know." Kurt was moving toward the picture, a puzzled
frown on his face.

"You're not listening, Kurt. I'm scared, I tell you."

Kurt stared at the picture intently. "I can't see it properly in this
light. Just a second." He tried to lift the picture. "Good grief-it's
heavy ... Oh, good grief!"

The picture was pulled out of Kurt's hand. Slowly and silently a
section of the wall behind the beds swung open like a door. Beyond
the wall, a dark tunnel led down a flight of stairs. The children stared,
momentarily speechless.

"Let's see where it goes and follow it!" Kurt said eventually.

"No. I want to stay here. Alleophaz is coming back."

Kurt hesitated. "I'll only go down a little ways-this could be another way to escape."

"No, Kurt! What would we do if Alleophaz came back and we
weren't here? Besides, I-I don't want to be alone."

"Well, come with me then."

"Kurt, I really think-Oh!" Lisa stared into the dark stairway, her
eyes alight with wonder. "Oh, Kurt-I can see it! It really is there!"

Kurt looked first into the tunnel, and then at his sister, a frown on
his face. "You can see what?"

"The column of blue light. Look, right at the bottom of the stairway!"

Kurt laughed. "I can't even see the bottom of the stairway. Sounds like our roles are reversed!" He laughed again. "Lisa, I'm so glad you
can see it! Even after all this time, I still had a feeling that you didn't
believe me."

Lisa said nothing, but pushed past him into the opening and began
to descend the stairway, her attitude transformed. A moment before
she had been torn with fear, but now she was confident, even joyful.

Kurt followed her. "Hold on. The further we go the less I can see.
It's getting darker as we go down. An' there's a lever in the wall here
that must operate the opening from this side."

Kurt pulled the lever, and the section of wall began to close. Hastily
he reversed the motion of the lever, and the opening remained as it
was.

"Hurry, Kurt! The column's moving along the corridor. You still
can't see it?"

"Not right now. But in the woods it was sometimes very clear, and
at others not clear at all. That's when I started remembering the
things the book said-y'know, that I could trust an' I wouldn't be let
down."

Lisa paused, still watching the moving column of light. "I guess I
owe you an apology, Kurt. At first I really thought you were out of your
mind. Later I had to believe-after all, Wes and even Gerachti began
to see it. An' at that stage I just felt envious-I didn't like being left
out."

She resumed her downward course. The passage at the bottom went
straight forward. After a minute or so, they began to feel drips of water
from above, and the floor sounded distinctly wet. Five minutes later
they became aware of fresher air, and, after pushing through leaves
and branches, emerged by the river. For a few moments they stood
and stared.

"We mustn't stay here-we gotta get back!" Lisa said. "Where's the
column gone?"

"It's behind us in the bushes," Kurt said.

"I thought you couldn't see it!" Lisa replied, turning.

"It happened gradually. I still can't see it too clearly. Anyway, we'd better not delay."

Once back in the bedroom they noticed that the window was still
open. Kurt pulled down on the picture and swung the passage door
closed just as Alleophaz hurried through the other door.

"Give me a hand," Alleophaz said. "We must barricade the door.
Apparently there is a passage leading from this very room to where
the canoes are moored. Soldiers are being brought here by Sir Robert
so as to prevent us from reaching them and escaping. Their real
suspicion is that we have left on horseback-someone reported the
missing horses already."

"We know how to get into the passage!" Kurt struggled to lift the
picture. Again the section of the wall swung back.

"Wonderful! But let us barricade this door to increase our chances."

Excitement gave them strength, and they succeeded in wedging one
of the beds between the door and another piece of heavy furniture,
which itself backed against the outer wall. They listened for a second
or two longer, but there were no sounds of anyone approaching.
Then, throwing themselves down the stairway, they hurried to follow
the column of blue light. "They'll suppose we left by the open window," Kurt thought, pulling the lever behind him.

"What is that light?" panted Alleophaz. "Is it ... oh, I can actually
see it! I am beginning to perceive as you do!"

They eased through the screen of shrubs hiding the exit and found
themselves on the bank of the river among trees. They peered in both
directions, hoping to see Gerachti, Belak and Wesley.

"There's the others." Kurt pointed upstream. "An' they've got a
couple of animals with them-I think."

"Let us not rush. It could be the soldiers. I'll go. Hide in the bush
if anything goes wrong," Alleophaz ordered.

But it was Wesley with the pack mules. "We've already unloaded the
bedrolls and odd bits of supplies."

They turned the mules loose among the trees, slapped their rear
ends and left them pushing their way in among the trees. Then,
clambering into the canoes, the six travelers pushed off. Darkness hemmed them in like a dense curtain, cutting them off from everything except a column of blue light In near silence they dipped their
paddles into the water. Would they escape? The water was smooth and
the current slow, but they still had to paddle upstream. Would their
pursuers discover they were traveling by river?

Yet there was no other way to go. They were committed-committed to the darkness and to the mysterious column of light that led
them.