“Like I said, the boy has his talents.” Mama waggled her owl at the window. “All they’ll do when they start dowsing it with water is make it spread.”
I dared a quick glance. The catapult frame was engulfed in oily black flames. But the timbers were massive, and the iron bolts huge. I knew in my heart we’d inconvenienced the crews, but we’d hardly damaged the actual machines.
“Don’t look so glum, boy. Bet they wasn’t expectin’ wand-wavers and halfdead. At least we’re makin’ ’em work for it. Now are you going to see Darla or not?”
“I’m going. Keep your head out of the window. Lots of archers down there. A few of them might be that good.”
Mama cackled. “I didn’t get this old by acting the fool, boy. And today ain’t the day I die, neither, so don’t you be worried about me.”
I made for the door. When I left, Mama was shaking her owl at the yard and muttering hexes under her breath.
I was halfway down the last flight of stairs when Evis caught up with me. He was wrapped in black, against the sun, and he smelled of lamp oil and soot.
“Having fun?”
“Just getting a bit of exercise,” he replied. “They won’t be using their siege engines for a while.”
I grunted, not quite ready to start sounding any victory trumpeting just yet.
“Saw something strange in the woods. Not sure what it was. Come nightfall, Victor is going to slip out and see.”
I slowed a bit. “Strange how?”
Evis glanced around. “Not the time or the place. But if I’m right, the catapults are the least of our problems.”
I stopped and turned to face him and kept my voice at a whisper. “Worse than catapults? What the Hell is worse than catapults from forty feet?”
Evis put his finger to his lips. “You don’t want to know, and you’ll just have to trust me on that. I will say this much-if I’m right, and if I give the word, you’ll want to grab Darla and Mama and Gertriss and get to the tunnels. There won’t be time to haul every soul down there, and you won’t be able to stop this and you won’t be able to save them.”
Hell. Evis was scared.
“I’m serious, Markhat.”
“About what?”
“Remember the worst thing you saw used during the War. This makes that look like a snowball fight.” Footsteps and voices sounded, coming up the stairs toward us.
Evis put his hand on my shoulder. “Trust me. If I give the word, you grab your women and you run for the tunnels. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Evis removed his hand. There’d be a bruise on my shoulder that would linger for weeks. I doubt he ever realized how hard he’d gripped me.
A bevy of grim-faced carpenters came stomping up toward us. The carpenters put their backs to the wall as they sidled around Evis. One made some sort of holy sign with his hands as he passed.
“I’m having them make a couple of new openings in the attic,” said Evis. We started back downstairs. “Our friends on the ground know about the existing bolt hole, and are watching it now. But with any luck, we can open a new one in secret. Victor and Sara have expressed a desire to take a stroll around the property in the moonlight.”
I grinned, sure they’d find numerous ways to amuse themselves, each at our attackers’ expense.
I found Darla and Gertriss in the hall, right beyond the gallery doors. Buttercup was between them, prancing around in a pair of slippers twice the size of her feet.
“Mama said you were looking for me.”
“I was. Gertriss? A moment?”
Gertriss nodded and caught Buttercup up by her waist and spun her around. The banshee clapped and squealed. Gertriss dropped to one knee a few paces away and began a game of hidey-face with the giggling banshee.
Darla took my elbow.
“Someone around here listens at doors,” she whispered. “Gertriss and I both heard some of the staff talking about daggers and how no one here need die just to protect some half-Elf wild thing you dragged in from the woods.”
I cussed. Darla pretended she didn’t hear.
“It’s just talk right now, my intended. But let things go a little longer, or get a little worse, and it might turn out to be more than idle conversation.”
I made sure no one was idling nearby, and then I bent, pulled the dagger from my boot, and handed it hilt-first to Darla.
“I can’t be forced to give it to anyone if I don’t have it. Get it to Evis if things get complicated. Like to see one of these bumpkins take on three halfdead.”
Darla frowned, but took the thing. She withdrew a prim but freshly sharpened dagger from her own right boot, slipped the Corpsemaster’s dagger in its place, and then gave hers to me.
“Give them this one, if they insist,” she said. “They might be inclined to be civil if they think they’re getting what they want.”
“Not a bad idea.” I put Darla’s dagger away. Gertriss danced with Buttercup, who was having trouble keeping her feet in her too-large shoes.
The House shook. Dust and bits of plaster fell from the walls and ceilings. Shouts rose all around.
Buttercup shrieked. Gertriss wrapped her arms around Buttercup and put her back to the wall.
“Markhat. Come quick.”
“Stay with Gertriss.” I gave Darla a quick kiss on the cheek. “Keep the tip of your blade level with your waist. They’ll likely come in overhand. Sidestep and stab. Works every time.”
I ran. The shouting continued. I burst into the front room and was met by a mob of panicked household staff, with Marlo at the fore.
“They’ve done something to the sky.”
I frowned. But the room was dark, and getting darker by the second.
Evis darted down the stairs, pausing halfway to the landing to motion me up.
“He’s right,” he said. “The wand-wavers are busy.”
“Busy doing what?”
“Come and see.”
“Keep this lot right where they are,” I snapped, when feet began to shuffle my way. “Wash some dishes. Mop some floors. Just keep your fool heads away from the windows, got it?”
I dashed up after Evis.
I was panting by the time we reached the attic. Victor and Sara were already there, as were the carpenters, who had dropped their tools in favor of huddling in a corner and engaging in silent prayers.
I put myself by the opening Serris had nearly leaped from, opened it quickly and glanced up.
Then I slammed the makeshift door shut and held it closed as a trio of arrows broke against it.
The sky above was gone. Just gone. Instead, and impossibly, it appeared as though a vast flat mirror hung just above Werewilk’s peaks. I’d even seen my own frightened face reflected back at me, seen the upraised faces of the men on the ground, the tops of the roofs, the ravaged, burned yard.
The carpenters paused and looked my way. “Pray harder,” I said.
Evis snorted. “Ever seen anything like that?”
“I’ve never had that much to drink. You?”
“Never saw it. May have heard of it, used at a place called String during the War. If that’s what it is, it’ll drop slowly lower and lower. Anybody it touches gets pulled into it. They still move, still try to talk-but they never come out. When it hits the ground, it breaks up and melts like ice.”
“Marvelous. Wonderful. Any defense against it?”
Evis shook his head no. “The wand-waver that cast it was called Three Eyes. Heard of him?”
“Maybe. Didn’t hear much if I did. Died during the war.”
“Didn’t die. Just didn’t resettle in Rannit. Went into hiding in what was left of Prince. Fits with what else I saw out there.”
“This day gets better and better, doesn’t it?”
“Seems that way. Look. If you have any more chats with a certain mutual acquaintance of ours, she needs to know all this. Make sure you tell them, or that I’m there to tell it myself.”
“I’ll have the invitations printed right away. What about this lot? Any point in keeping them working?”
Evis sighed. “No. We’re going to lose the attic soon to that.” He hooked a thumb up toward the missing sky.