"That's it," Byrd said. "I'll get Magiere and Emel."
He walked away. Byrd's eagerness roused a sickening knot in Leesil's stomach. He and Magiere could get Wynn back, but they still had to keep Byrd in check.
Leesil leaned into the opening, and looked down. In the dark, he barely made out metal rungs forming a ladder down to a stone alcove deep beneath the triple trees. There was no wall on the alcove's side facing in the direction of the keep. This would be the tunnel they sought.
For a moment, Leesil imagined the panicked faces of his parents appearing in the alcove to look at him.
Byrd hurried through the trees toward the road rather than to the small fire where Emel and Magiere waited. When he had the wagon in sight, he took out the strange small mirror the anmaglahk had given him and stepped to where he could clearly see the near-full moon. He tilted the mirror and aimed its reflected light toward where they'd left the horses.
He'd done the same thing as the wagon had headed for the front gates of Venjetz. Carefully shifting in the dark beneath the canvas, he peered out the back and used the mirror, fie wasn't even certain if they were nearby, but they always seemed to appear whenever he wanted to contact them.
Anxiety built as he waited. Then a light sparked in the night woods. Byrd took a deep breath of relief.
At least one of his allies had escaped the city and understood this was an opportunity that might not come again. He signaled his acknowledgment and ran back through the forest to find Magiere and Emel.
The anmaglahk would follow.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Wynn's feeble pounding on the locked door received no answer. No food or water had been brought, and her thirst grew with the pain in her head. She crawled back onto the narrow bed with no blanket and huddled in her sheepskin coat, trying to keep warm. Her right eye opened only halfway. The inside of her cheek felt raw where it had ground against her teeth when she was struck down.
Wynn was alone and imprisoned.
The soldiers had searched her before leaving and found the other dagger strapped to her wrist. They took it and both sheaths and her pack. After they left, she put her hands into her coat pockets for warmth and touched the one thing they had missed-the cold lamp crystal. She had left behind her working journals and notes at Byrd's inn, as well as Chap's talking hide.
She hoped that Magiere and Chap had escaped, and felt ashamed for screaming out the instant she was in trouble. Her companions would not be able to get her out. Darmouth knew who they were and had set a trap for them. She saw no way for her companions to reach her without being captured. And she did not wish that to happen, even to save her.
Footsteps grew loud out in the hall. Wynn was uncertain whether to approach the door or hide behind the bed. Frozen, she remained huddled upon the bed, waiting.
"How dare you?" said a haughty female voice outside the door. "I am bringing the prisoner her supper."
"Lady Progae, I… I can't," replied a young male voice, stuttering with uncertainty.
Wynn sat up. The woman's name was familiar, but she could not remember where she had heard it.
"I've orders not to open the door," the man continued, "Lieutenant Omasta said-"
"Do you know who I am?" the woman asked. "I will soon be the matron of this keep. I do not forget a face. Now open the door!"
A moment of silence followed, and then a rattling at the lock. The door swung inward.
Grasping its handle was a young soldier no older than twenty, and likely less. A small-boned woman stood in the opening. She had pale skin with dark hair cut above her shoulders and a velvet ribbon around her throat. She held a wooden tray with a clay bowl and pewter tankard.
It was the same woman who had stopped Darmouth from stepping on Wynn's face.
Lady Progae stepped past the anxious guard, and her glare encouraged him to close the door quickly. The instant it was shut, she put the tray on the floor and fumbled beneath her voluminous skirt.
Wynn watched closely but stayed on the bed. Lady Progae removed a canvas sack tied about her waist with a bit of rope and placed it on the floor with gentle care.
"We have little time," she whispered. "That boy outside may be easy to cow, but if I stay too long, he will call for a superior."
Wynn stared at her. Who was this woman?
Lady Progae crouched and carefully opened the canvas bag. A small brown-black cat crawled out. It plopped its hind end down, twitching its stub of a tail, and looked up at Wynn. The cat lifted its tiny muzzle with a soft mew for Lady Progae, who answered with a "shush" and pulled a heavy brass candlestick from the bag.
She stood up and stripped off her velvet gown to expose a plain muslin dress beneath. She removed this and began pulling her own gown back on.
"What are you doing?" Wynn asked.
Lady Progae took the tankard from the tray and handed it to Wynn. "It is only water, but I assume you need it."
Too thirsty to question, Wynn gulped down the chill liquid. The cat meowed, and the woman glanced down at it.
"My name is Hedi Progae," she said to Wynn. "Do not be alarmed or cry out, no matter what you see."
The cat hunched down on the stone floor, and a rippling swell passed through its shoulders.
Wynn stopped drinking, tankard poised at her lips.
An undulating ripple cascaded down the cat's body, and its torso swelled in lurches.
Wynn backed into the bed's headboard.
The cat's feet grew, then its legs. Black-brown fur receded to expose bare flesh. Its body continued to expand at a rapid pace, and fur on its head elongated to shiny hair. Its front paws became hands.
Out of the grotesquely writhing form appeared the face of a girl with dark eyes and a smooth dusky complexion. She stood up, slender and naked, and Wynn's mouth dropped open, dribbling water down her chin.
Hedi Progae retrieved a short cotton shift from the bag.
"I am sorry I could not bring anything more," she whispered to the girl. "I was afraid my skirts already looked too bulky."
"Oh, this is fine," replied the girl, and looked at Wynn with a wide grin. "Hello!"
Wynn wiped her chin, mouth still half-open.
"This is Korey," Hedi said. "Some of her family are… have certain abilities. We are here to help you."
Fatigue and pain kept Wynn's scholarly instincts from rising up. All she noted was how much the child resembled the Mondyalitko she'd encountered during the journey into Droevinka with Leesil and Magiere.
"We must hurry," Hedi said. "If we can get to the lower levels, Korey says there is a way to escape the keep and reach the forest across the lake- outside the city."
This was happening too fast. Wynn was desperate, but she hesitated to blindly trust someone she had just met in the company of this strange child.
"A way to escape?" Wynn whispered. "We cannot swim through freezing water, and a hidden boat would be spotted by soldiers walking the keep walls."
Hedi's face flattened in quiet anger. "This child's father took a great risk to show her a door he called 'a portal' and promised she could es-cape through it, if need be. That is all I know, but we have to go down and find it."
"If she knows a way to escape," Wynn asked, "why come for me? Why not just leave?"
"Because I might need assistance," Hedi answered bluntly. "And I do not care to leave anyone in Darmouth's hands, if possible. You would not last long in any further 'conversation' with the lord of this keep."
Perhaps Wynn had spent too much time in this threatening land, with Leesil seeing plots and ploys all around. Or maybe she began to see things from his perspective. In the end, she had no choice.
"How do we reach the lower levels?" she asked.
" Then you are with us?'