All the lords and ladies were drinking their special drink. They all seemed happy to be doing it. Giller was standing behind the Queen with her other advisors. He was talking quietly to the court artist. She didn’t like the artist, he scared her, he always smiled funny at her. And he only had one hand. She had heard the servants talking before, that they were afraid the artist would draw a picture of them.
The people started getting scared looks on their faces. They were looking at the Queen. They started to stand up. Rachel looked over at the Queen and saw that the people weren’t looking at her, they were looking at something else, behind her. Her eyes got wide when she saw the two big men.
They were the biggest men she had ever seen. Their shirts didn’t have sleeves but their arms had metal bands on them, with sharp things sticking out. The men had big muscles all over, and yellow hair. They looked like the meanest men she had ever seen, meaner even than any of the dungeon guards. The men looked around the room at the people, then went and stood on each side of the big archway behind the Queen and folded their arms. The Queen huffed and turned around in her chair to see what was happening.
A man with blue eyes, and long yellow hair and white robes, and a gold-handled knife at his belt, came through the archway. He was the handsomest-looking man she had ever seen. He smiled at the Queen. She jumped to her feet.
“What an unexpected surprise!” she said in her nicest dog voice. “We are honored. But we weren’t expecting you until tomorrow.”
The man again smiled a pretty smile at her. “I couldn’t wait to get here, to see your lovely face again. Forgive me for being early, Your Majesty.”
The Queen giggled as she held her hand out for him to kiss. She was always having people kiss her hand. Rachel was surprised at what the nice-looking man had said. She never knew anyone who thought the Queen was lovely. The Queen took his hand in hers and brought him forward.
“Lords and ladies, may I introduce Father Rahl.”
Father Rahl! She looked around to see if anyone had seen her jump, but no one had; they were all looking at Father Rahl. She was sure he was going to look at her, and see that she was going to run away with the box. She looked at Giller, but he didn’t look back. His face was white. Father Rahl was here before she had run away with the box! What was she going to do?
She was going to do what Giller had told her to do, that’s what. She was going to be brave and save all those people. She had to think of a way to get out.
Father Rahl looked around at all the people who were standing up now. The little dog barked. He turned to the source of the sound and it stopped barking; instead it began to whine softly. He turned back to the people. It got real quiet.
“Dinner is over. You will excuse us now,” he said in a soft voice.
Everyone started whispering. His blue eyes watched. The whispering stopped and they started to leave, first slow, then faster. Father Rahl looked at some of the royal advisors, and they left, looking glad to be doing it. A few he didn’t look at, including Giller, stayed. Princess Violet stayed, too, and Rachel tried to stay behind her so she wouldn’t be noticed. The Queen smiled and held her arm out to the table.
“Won’t you sit, Father Rahl, I’m sure you have had a strenuous journey. Let us bring you something to eat. We have a lovely roast tonight.”
He looked at her with blue eyes that didn’t blink. “I don’t approve of butchering helpless animals and then consuming their flesh.”
Rachel thought the Queen was going to choke. “Well, then… we also have a lovely turnip soup, and some other things, I’m sure… there must be something… if there isn’t, the cooks will make whatever…”
“Perhaps some other time. I am not here to eat, I am here for your contribution to the alliance.”
“But… this is sooner than expected, we haven’t finished drawing up the agreements, there are many papers to be signed, and you will want to have them looked over first, surely.”
“I will be only too happy to sign anything you have ready, and offer my word that I will sign whatever additional documents you might have drawn up. I trust your honesty to deal with me fairly.” He smiled. “You don’t have any intention of tricking me somehow with these agreements, do you?”
“Well, no, Father Rahl, of course not. Of course not.”
“There you have it, then. Why would I need anyone to look over these papers, if you are being fair with me? You are being fair, you say?”
“Well, of course I am. I guess there is no need… but this is most unusual.”
“So is our alliance. Let’s be on with it, then.”
“Yes. Yes, of course.” She turned to one of her advisors. “Go get whatever of the alliance treaty you have ready and bring it. Bring ink and pens. And my seal.” He bowed and left. The Queen turned to Giller. “Wherever you have secreted the box, go and get it.”
He bowed. “Of course, Your Majesty.” Rachel felt alone and afraid when she saw him go through the door, his silver robes flying behind him.
While they waited, the Queen introduced the Princess to Father Rahl. Rachel stood behind Princess Violet’s chair after she went to have her hand kissed. Father Rahl bowed to her and kissed her hand and told her how she was as pretty as her
mother. The Princess grinned and grinned and held the hand he had kissed to her breast.
The advisor came back with his helpers; they each carried armfuls of papers. They moved plates aside and laid the papers all over the head table, pointing to where the Queen and Father Rahl should sign their names. One of the helpers dripped red wax on the papers, and the Queen pressed her seal into it. Father Rahl said he didn’t have a seal, and that his written name would do, that he was sure he would recognize his own writing in the future. When Giller came back, he stood off to the side and waited until they finished. The men started gathering up all the papers, arguing with each other about which order they went in. The Queen motioned Giller forward.
“Father Rahl,” Giller said with his finest smile, “may I present you with Queen Milena’s box of Orden.” He held the fake box out in both hands, careful, just as if it were the real one. The jewels all sparkled real pretty.
Father Rahl smiled a little smile as he reached out and carefully lifted the box from Giller’s hands. He turned it around a minute, looking at the pretty jewels. Then he motioned one of the big men with all the muscles to come forward. When he did, Father Rahl looked him in the eye and handed him the box.
With one hand, the man squeezed the box. It shattered. The Queen’s eyes got real big.
“What is the meaning of this!” she asked.
Father Rahl’s face got scary-looking. “That would be my question, Your Majesty. This box is a counterfeit.”
“Why, that’s simply not possible… there is no way… I know for a fact…” The Queen turned her head to Giller. “Giller! What do you know of this?”
He held his hands in the opposite sleeves of his robes. “Your Majesty… I don’t understand… no one has tampered with the magic seal, I saw to that myself. I assure you, this is the same box I have guarded ever since you put it in my hands. It must have been a fake from the first. We have been tricked. That is the only possible explanation.”
Father Rahl’s blue eyes stayed on the wizard the whole time he talked. Then they slid to one of his men. The man came and grabbed the robes at the back of Giller’s neck. He lifted Giller off the ground with that one hand.
“What are you doing! Let go of me, you big ox! Have respect for a wizard or you will regret it, I can assure you!” His feet were dangling in the air.
Rachel had a lump in her throat, tears in her eyes. She tried to be brave and not cry. She knew that if she did, they might notice her.
Father Rahl licked his fingertips. “Not the only possible explanation, wizard. The real box has magic, a particular type of magic. The magic of this box is wrong. A Queen would not be able to see it, to know if it was the real box. But a wizard would.”
Father Rahl smiled a small smile to the Queen. “The wizard and I are going to go now, and have a private conversation.” He turned and walked out of the room, white robes flying behind him. The man holding Giller up in the air followed Father Rahl. The other man stepped in front of the door and folded his arms. Giller’s feet didn’t touch the ground as he was carried away.
Rachel wanted to run after Giller, she was so scared for him. She saw his head turn back and look at the people. His dark eyes were wide, and for a second, they looked right at her, right into her eyes. When they did, she heard his voice in her head, as clear as if he had yelled to her. The voice in her head screamed only one word.
Run
.
Then he was gone. Rachel wanted to cry. Instead, she sucked the hem of her dress. All the people around the Queen started talking at once. James, the court artist, started picking up some of the pieces of the fake box, turning them over in his one hand, looking at them, holding them against the stump of his other. Princess Violet took one of the big pieces from him and looked at the jewels, running her fingers over them.
Rachel kept remembering the voice in her head, Giller’s voice, yelling at her to run. She looked around; no one was paying any attention to her. She went around the tables, keeping her head down, below the tabletops, so they wouldn’t be able to see her. When she got to the other side of the room, she poked her head up to see if anyone was looking. They weren’t.
She reached up and took some food off the plates: a piece of meat, three bread rolls, and a big piece of hard cheese. She stuffed them all in her pockets, then checked the people again.
Then she ran for the hall. She kept herself from getting tears, to be brave for Giller. Her bare feet ran down the carpets, past the picture rugs hanging on the walls. Before she got to the guards at the doors, she slowed down, so they wouldn’t see her running. When they saw her coming, they pulled up the big bolt and didn’t say anything as she went through the door. The guards on the outside of the door just glanced at her as she came through, then looked back out, watching the grounds.
Rachel wiped some tears off her face as she went down the cold stone steps. She had tried to keep them from coming, but a few got out before she could stop them. The guards on patrol ignored her as she walked fast over the cobblestones, toward the garden.
Away from the torches hung on the walls outside the castle it was dark, but she knew her way. The grass was wet on her bare feet. At the third urn, she knelt down, looking to see that no one was watching, then reached under the flowers. She felt the cloth around the bread, and pulled it out. Untying the knots, she laid the four corners back, then reached in her pockets and put the meat, the three hard rolls, and the cheese on top of the bread and tied the corners of the cloth back up.
Just before she started running for the outer-wall gate, she remembered, and made a little gasp. She froze stiff, her eyes wide.
She had forgotten Sara! Her doll was still in her sleeping box! Princess Violet would find her doll, she would throw Sara in the fire! Rachel couldn’t leave her doll there; she was running away and not coming back. Sara would be afraid without her. Sara would get burned up.
She pushed the bundle with the bread back under the flowers, looked around, and ran for the castle. She had to slow down and walk when she got close, back into the torchlight. One of the guards at the door looked down at her.
“I just let you out,” he said.
She swallowed hard. “I know. But now I have to go back in for a few minutes.”
“Forget something?”
She nodded and managed to make herself say, “Yes.”
He shook his head and lifted the little window. “Open the door,” he said to the guard inside. She heard the heavy bolt open.
Once back inside, she looked down the hall. The big room with the black-and-white floor and the grand stairs was ahead, a few turns down some long halls and through a couple of big rooms. One of the big rooms was the dining room. That was the shortest way. But the Queen, or the Princess, might be there, or even Father Rahl. They might see her. She couldn’t let them see her. Princess Violet might take her up to her room and lock her in the sleeping box; it was late.
She turned and went through the little door on the right. That was the servants’ passageway. It was a lot longer, but no one important would be in the servant halls or on the servant stairs. None of the servants would stop her; they all knew she was the Princess’s playmate, and they didn’t want the Princess mad at them. She would have to go down through the place where the servants stayed, down under the big rooms and under the kitchen.
The stairs were all stone, worn smooth on the front edges. One window at the top was uncovered and it let in rain, and the steps always had water leaking from the stone walls, running down them. Some places it was just a little, some places more, and there was green slime on some of the steps. She always had to step careful to keep from stepping in the slime. Torches in iron brackets made the stone and the steps look red and yellow.
There were some people in the halls on the bottom floor, servants carrying linens and blankets, washwomen with buckets of water and mops, and men carrying bundles of firewood for the fireplaces upstairs. Some of the people stopped and whispered to each other. They seemed excited. She heard Giller’s name and it made her get a lump in her throat.
When she went past the servants’ quarters, all the oil lamps were burning, hung from the big beams of the low ceilings, and there were bunches of people gathered around, telling each other what they had seen. Rachel saw one of the men talking loud, with mostly women, but some men, too, standing around him. It was Mr. Sanders, the man who wore the fancy coat and greeted the fine ladies and gentlemen when they came to dinner, and announced their names when they came in.
“Heard it myself, from those two that stand watch over the dining room. You know who I’m talking about, the young one, Frank and the other, with the limp, Jenkins. Said the D’Haran guards told them personal that there’s going to be a search of the castle, top to bottom.”