A goblin said something to which Azdra'ik paid attention, something which brought frowns all about, and another and another spoke, in increasing heat.
"He points out," Azdra'ik said then, "that there is no good for us in waiting for the outcome. If you fail, young witch, we will be the queen's loyal subjects—because there will be no other possibility once she gains the fragment. You see what's at stake for us."
(The Wood is the only safe place,) something said in Tamas' heart, and he felt a great unease, as if that dreaded voice were giving him the only honest advice. (Azdra'ik is a liar, he's always been a liar, ahead isn't the only choice open to you. Everything he's done has been to his benefit and our harm. This is not the time to believe him, Tamas.)
But that was Ylena—he had Azdra'ik's word it was Ylena who haunted him, and Azdra'ik was standing in front of them in plain daylight, a goblin countenance which they had learned to tell apart from all other goblins, and which did not now appear to be lying.
"Are you going to let us go?" Ela asked.
"Go," Azdra'ik said, and waved his hand toward the horses. "Unless it occurs to you, as perhaps it will, that there are a great many hazards in the land, and that if you go back to the woods, you would fall into the worst hands that could hold the fragment, except the queen herself."
"And you," Ela said.
"Young witch, I, and my company, are as I said, yours to command, if you can command us. That's the nature of the mirror, and of any portion of it. Make us free of it."
Ela reached slowly to her throat, and drew the mirror from her collar. Goblins about the circle rose to their feet, and those nearest jostled for a look at it.
"Have a care!" Azdra'ik said, alarmed.
But Ela hurled it to the rocks at her feet. Tamas jumped back, expecting fragments, expecting—the god knew what. But it lay there whole, reflecting not the sky—but fire; and when he dived to retrieve it, his eye caught the roiling of dark images before his hand shut the sights away.
"Only magic can break it," Azdra'ik said. "Would not I have tried to have a piece of it to myself, when I had the chance? I tried the same. I tried stones and steel and curses, and it would not break."
Tamas gave it back to Ela—was glad to surrender it to Ela, because he only half-heard what Azdra'ik said: louder was the whisper of the wind in the trees, and keen and cold was the touch of a hand at his shoulder, an angry protest he could not altogether hear.
"Don't use it here," Azdra'ik said. "Wait. Be wise, young witch, put it away. And go where you please. But unless you use the mirror against us, and I do not for your sakes advise it—this company will go with you, this company will go with you against the queen, which is where you're bound, whether or not you know it—until you can no longer hold that portion of the mirror. We—come and we go with that. We rise and we fall with that. We will never betray the holder of the mirror. And that, young witch, comprehend exactly as you hear it, no more, no less."
12
BEYOND THE ARCH WAS A TUMBLED RUIN, A WHOLE GREAT hall with hardly anything of it standing but the walls—a mysterious place, very old. Master Karoly said it was Hasel, but it was not at all what Yuri had heard regarding Hasel. Master Karoly rode behind them while Nikolai walked ahead with the bow in hand and he followed Nikolai—Zadny keeping right by him, sometimes crossing in front of him, sometimes trying to press up against his legs while he was walking.
It was hard to believe that these halls, open to the sky, had ever had a roof or held colors and voices. Nikolai had talked about wars and towers burning, they had seen the destruction at Tajny Straz, and seen the work of ghosts, but the spookiness about this place was unbearable—maybe, Yuri thought, that it had been dead longer or (he shuddered to think) that worse things had happened there. Constantly there was a hint of movement in the tail of one's eye. There was a chill in these stones that had nothing to do with early morning, and the echo any sound made lived on and on here, imitating voices, while they walked through what had been walls, and a horse went through what had been rooms, with a lonely clatter of hooves.
Yuri cast a glance over his shoulder, just to be sure—and something flitted in the edge of his vision. He felt a coldness at the back of his neck and swatted at it, but nothing was there. If he had been alone, he would have run for his life. But there was Nikolai, there was master Karoly, and he had to be brave. He had to figure master Karoly knew what he was doing and where he was leading them, and most of all that Tamas had gotten through here somehow—and if Tamas had gotten through, then he would.
He saw trees above the next wall, tall trees, and he looked to that as the end, the boundary where the ghosts tied to this place had to stop. He was ever so glad when they passed the farther gateway and leaf-strewn pavings gave way to earth.
"Keep together," Karoly said from behind him as they entered forest shade. "Nikolai, stay with us. This is no place to stray off. Believe me, master hunter."
Nikolai scowled and fell back to their pace. "I can't hear a damned thing with your clatter, master wizard. Ghosts are one thing—if it's goblins—"
"Not in this woods."
"Not in this woods," Nikolai echoed. And Yuri wished master Karoly would say more than that, too. "Not in this woods," Nikolai said again, and they walked, and the brush grew thicker. And darker with shadow. "Not in this woods, is it? Then what is in this woods, pray tell?"
"It's not always the same woods, master huntsman—and I don't know. It's not been the same woods since me mirror broke. By what Ylysse said—and that's all I know, the witches exist here, they spelled this place to protect them, and it did. Maybe for some it's random what woods you enter—but some of us—some of us some of them still have an interest in. I've brought Ysabel here."
A lady was walking far in front of them. A lady in black clothing. Yuri saw her of a sudden. And there was a shadowy figure of a man holding her hand.
"Thank the god," Karoly breathed. "Thank the god, she's leading us, and Pavel's sane. Don't lose sight of her."
She looked real enough. Yuri blinked as they walked, and blinked again, and the lady was still there, although one was not sure at times about the man.
They came to a sunlit spot and both of them faded, then came back again beyond it. Yuri wanted to tell that to the boys at home, if they would ever believe it. He forgot to be afraid, he was so fascinated by this going and coming.
Of a sudden he saw other figures standing in their path, and he looked back at master Karoly, wondering should they stop or not, but master Karoly kept riding, without a change of expression, and Nikolai walked on the other side. Yuri gave Zadny a pat on the head as Zadny pressed close to him, and kept walking toward what he was sure were other ghosts—women, ladies, queens they looked to be; and he drew deep breaths trying to be calm and not act the fool in what he was sure was a very serious meeting.
"Damn," he heard Nikolai mutter. "Are they real?"
"As real as death," Karoly said.
"The trolls—" Nikolai said. And they were there, behind a shaft of milky daylight, at least two of them, no. ...
"Three. There's three."
The lady in black kept walking, and so did her companion, slowly, slowly, dissolving in the light and reappearing faintly on its other side, while the trolls (three at least) sat like statues, like heraldic beasts, in the presence of the three queens.
Then the lady in black and her companion met with them, and turned and faced them as they came, with the man faint and gray behind her. Very solemnly they waited, until they had gotten into the daylight, with the trolls—one had to be Krukczy, Yuri was sure of it, but he dared not blurt out anything—it was too quiet, too dangerous.