None of them were making any suggestions.
"Well, then do something with the tapestry!" Karanissa called. "Set it up somewhere Tabaea will run into it!"
Tobas hesitated, then said, "All right, give me a hand with it, will you?" He hurried to the wagon.
A moment later, carefully holding the tapestry by the supporting bar and not allowing themselves to touch any part of the fabric, Tobas and Karanissa had the hanging unrolled, and up against the wall beside the door.
Passersby were staring, but no one interfered. This was clearly either the work of magicians or Tabaea's followers, and no one wanted trouble with either group.
"How do we get her into it?" Tobas asked.
"Put it across the door," Teneria called. "Then she'll run right into it."
"But Sarai will run into it first," Karanissa objected.
Teneria pointed out, "Well, at least she'll get away, then- and with the dagger." Karanissa looked at Tobas, who shrugged. "All right," the witch said, "let's do it." She swung her end around, and a few seconds later they draped the tapestry across the open doorway.
Vengar, using warlockry, helped them to raise it until it hung perfectly smooth and unwrinkled-the spell might not work if the fabric wasn't smooth.
"Now what?" Tobas said. "Do you think we could lift it while Sarai dives underneath, and then drop it back before Tabaea could stop?"
"I don't…" Karanissa began. Then, as the sound of desperately running footsteps suddenly became audible, drew near, and vanished, all in a few seconds, she said, "No."
"What happened?" Tobas asked.
"Sarai hit the tapestry. She's gone."
"What about Tabaea?"
"Stopped in time."
"Then should we put it down?"
"No!" Teneria called. "If we do, she might come out here and attack us!"
Karanissa nodded confirmation, and for a long moment she and Tobas stood absolutely still, holding the tapestry up against the palace door.
Then, at last, they heard retreating footsteps; cautiously, Tobas began to lower the rod, just in time to let them all hear Tabaea shrieking, "I abdicate! I abdicate! I give up! Just leave me alone!"
Karanissa lowered her end, too. "Now what?" she asked.
"Well, if she's serious, we just forget about her for now," Tobas said. "We have to deal with the Seething Death."
"What about Lady Sarai?"
"Oh, damn." Tobas frowned. "That's right, she doesn't know where she is. She's probably terrified. Someone had better go after her and bring her home."
"I'll go," Karanissa said. "After all, I know the way."
Reluctantly, Tobas nodded. "You're right. You go." He beckoned for Vengar to come hold the other side of the tapestry while Karanissa stepped into it.
Wizard and warlock supported the hanging, one on either side, while the witch stepped up and put her hand on it. Nothing happened.
"She must still be in the room," Karanissa said. "It won't work while she's in the part that's in the picture."
"That's it, of course," Tobas agreed. "I guess we'll just have to wait until she finds the passage, or wanders into one of the back corners."
He and Vengar stood patiently for a moment, while Karanissa kept her hand on the fabric. "I'm getting tired of holding this," Tobas said. "Maybe we should put it aside for now and see if we can do something about the Seething Death, and then try again later."
Karanissa, her hand still on the tapestry, started to say something-and just then, she vanished.
Karanissa found herself standing in complete darkness, and the silence was startling after the constant hum of the city. She stepped forward and peered into the gloom, trying to make out whether Sarai was anywhere nearby. "Sarai?" she called. "Are you there? Damn it all, I forgot we'd need a light."
No one answered; Karanissa frowned. Maybe Sarai had already found the corridor out to the rest of the castle.
"Are you in the passage?" the witch called. "Did you find it? Sarai, it's me, Karanissa!"
"I'm here," Sarai's voice replied. Karanissa still couldn't tell where it was coming from, though.
Well, she was a witch; she could do something about that. She raised her hand and concentrated.
The hand began to glow, a weak orange witch-light. At first, Karanissa saw only the bare stone walls of the arrival chamber, but then Lady Sarai, crawling on hands and knees, backed into the room from the passageway out, and turned to look up at her. "Karanissa," the Ethsharitic noblewoman asked plaintively, "where are we?"
"In the mountains between Aigoa and Dwomor," Karanissa answered. "In a secret room in a castle that Tobas and I own."
"What!? " Sarai shrieked, as she turned to a sitting position. "We're in the Small Kingdoms! A hundred leagues away?"
"Not much more than eighty, by my best estimate," Karanissa corrected her. "But yes, we're in the Small Kingdoms. I came after you to show you the way back. Now, can we get out of here, please? This light's very tiring, and there isn't much to eat around here."
"Yes! Where? Where's the door?" She was almost pathetically eager-but then, Karanissa could understand that.
"That way," she said. "Down the passage to the end, and out through the door."
Sarai stood and proceeded down the corridor, never more than a few feet ahead of Karanissa for fear of losing the light, until at last the two of them emerged into daylight in a room lit by a single high window.
Sarai stopped and stared. The room was lined with bookshelves, but most were empty, many broken or rotted; a table had been shoved to one side. And like the dark room and the connecting corridor, everything was at a slant. It was as if the entire building, whatever it was, had tipped.
She remembered what Karanissa had said; the words hadn't really registered, as she had been more concerned with getting out of that horrible darkness. "A castle?" Sarai asked. "You two really have a castle?"
"We have a couple of them, actually," Karanissa said. "Both of them were built by Derithon the Mage, hundreds of years ago. This one used to fly, until it ran into a place where wizardry doesn't work."
"Oh," Sarai said. Understanding slowly dawned. "Oh. A place where wizardry doesn't work? You wanted to send Tabaea here. That's why I lost… why I'm back to just myself. And she would have been, too."
Karanissa nodded. "She dodged the tapestry, though; she wouldn't touch it."
Sarai held out the Black Dagger, which she had not yet sheathed. "So this thing is useless, now? The spell on it is broken?"
Karanissa frowned. "No," she said, "it doesn't work that way. As long as we're in the no-wizardry area, that's just an ordinary knife; but once we're back out, it'll be magical again. We've brought a magical tapestry and an enchanted mirror through this place, and neither one worked here, but they both worked just fine elsewhere."
"Oh." Sarai looked at the dagger. "Maybe we should leave it here, then, where it can't harm anyone."
"Not without a guard," Karanissa said. "We tried that with the mirror. For one thing, there are spriggans around here, a lot of them, and they just love playing with magical things." She hesitated, then added, "Besides, we might need it."
"Against Tabaea?"
"Or against the Seething Death; I don't know if that thing will do any good against the Death, but it certainly stopped every other spell Tobas and Telurinon sent against Tabaea."