“There’s no time,” Pogue told her, turning away from the window. “And his hut is about to be consumed by the fire as well. I say we get the griffins to take us around the fire to the Tomb of the Builder. I may be wrong, but from here it looks like it’s still not touched by the fire.”
“Agreed,” Rolf said, shaking off his funk. “Everybody on a griffin!”
Celie checked that the ring, crown, and collar were safely fastened in her pouch. She mounted Rufus, and Rolf helped Lilah and Juliet onto Lady Griffin. Both young men looked at each other, then at the large male griffin still standing guard at the window. Pogue opened his mouth but it was Rolf who spoke first.
“Excuse me, sir,” he said politely, and gave a little bow. The griffin turned his head slightly to look at him with one eye. “We really must get ourselves and this baby griffin to safety. Would you be so kind as to carry my friend and myself to the tomb of the first king? The Builder?”
The griffin king studied him for another moment, then turned back to the window. Rolf’s shoulders started to slump, but the griffin tucked his wings and dipped a knee to make it easier for them to mount.
“Sir, we thank you,” Rolf said.
He mounted, and Pogue after him. The big griffin led the way, leaping out of the tower and over the lake rather than the forest, which blazed angrily.
“Why is the Arkower doing this?” Celie muttered. “Why now? After all these years of not imprinting a griffin, why doesn’t he just give up?”
Rufus carked in reply, sounding equally baffled, and then it hit Celie. The Arkower had always wanted a griffin, wanted them for all his people. He’d practically destroyed his entire world to get one. And then Celie came, with Rufus. Rufus, who was devoted to her, and she to him, and proved that it could still be done. That even someone who’d never seen a griffin before could ride one. Oh, how that must sting! Celie thought. No wonder he was willing to burn down the forest to get to them! She felt a surge of terror and knew that they had to get away from Hatheland or the Glorious Arkower or whatever this place was, and fast.
Rufus flew wide over the lake, and in the orange glow of the fire Celie looked down over his shoulder at the peaceful cauldron of poison. She could not imagine hating anyone so strongly that you were willing to kill thousands of people and animals to rid yourself of your enemy. But then, the Arkower had had many centuries to develop his hatred of the Hathelockes.
They finally flew past the edge of the fire and landed in the little clearing where they had first found the map on the back of Lilah’s cape. It seemed like weeks ago, but Celie realized with a shock that it was … the day before. Two days ago? With another shock she discovered that she honestly didn’t remember. Not only that, she couldn’t remember the last time she had eaten, and she was so tired that she fell trying to get off Rufus’s back, and landed atop her makeshift pack with a whoosh of air.
“All right?” Rolf hurried over to help her up.
“Yes,” Celie gasped, winded.
Pogue helped Lilah down from Lady Griffin, then looked around. “We all need some sleep. Should we go into the mound?”
“And sleep in a tomb?” Lilah’s voice cracked. Juliet was crying with hunger again, and Lilah looked strained.
“We really don’t have much choice, I’m afraid,” Rolf said. “I was just going to suggest it myself. Halfway underground, it’s probably the safest place to be.”
“The tomb is being nice, but in the tunnel is also having some rooms,” Lulath said, striding into the clearing with Lorcan still peeping out of the front of his ragged tunic. “Oh, my our dear Lilah! You are also having a fine griffin darling! What joy!”
The griffins broke into cries of welcome, while Celie was embarrassed to find tears of relief coursing down her cheeks. Pogue and Rolf could only gape, and Lilah, too, was in tears. Then she screamed and threw her arms around Lulath in an awkward embrace with the griffins squashed between them.
“You’re alive, you’re alive,” Lilah sobbed into Lulath’s ruined tunic.
“Come along,” Lulath said, patting her back tenderly. “Not the tears now! Into this tunnel we will be having a go!”
Chapter 15
Celie and Lilah and the others were all still trying to cry and laugh and hug Lulath and his griffin at once, but the tall prince was having none of it. He herded them around the mound to the entrance, griffins and all, nodding and smiling at their excited chatter.
“Yes, it is all so very,” he said. “But we are going in the tunnel now, and talking later.”
“What tunnel?” Pogue wanted to know.
“It is being a fine tunnel that I am finding in the nearness to the first king’s place of final sleeping,” Lulath explained. “Come, only through seeing is there to be belief!”
As they followed him, Celie realized that they had five griffins with them. They would soon be able to fill the griffin stable back at the Castle.
If they ever got back.
“I am not knowing how far it is delving into this earth,” Lulath said, approaching the entrance and easily pulling open the door. “But we are being very safe from the fire.”
They crowded into the Tomb of the Builder, which was even more brightly lit than before. Every torch blazed and threw long shadows around the dome-shaped chamber. Celie tried not to step on something, and to keep Rufus under control, as they crossed to where the king and his griffin were laid out on their biers.
“It is being hidden just here, beside the noble of kings,” Lulath said.
The griffins moved easily through the baskets and boxes and statues, as though they knew the way. Celie worried that the sight of the ancient griffin’s body would upset them, and took a firmer hold on Rufus. But Lord Griffin merely looked with interest at both king and beast, and then turned away. Lady Griffin ignored the area entirely, and Rufus seemed to take his cue from her.
“There is being a ring of the iron here, for opening,” Lulath said, squatting down at the head of the Builder’s bier. Lorcan almost fell out of his tunic, and Lulath shoved him back in with one hand. The prince grunted, shifting the heavy stone.
“How did you find this?” Rolf asked.
“Here I came to hide from that wizard, who I think is not being evil but also sick in the head,” Lulath told them. “Also, perhaps being just too old.” Lulath nodded thoughtfully. “And my Lorcan, he is sniffing about for the food, and finding this ring, and I am saying, what could this be? So strange! Let me be looking, and behold, a tunnel!” He gave them a triumphant look as a final tug revealed a square opening and stone steps winding away into the darkness beneath the mound.
“There is being lamps, but I did put them out, for the fire safeness,” Lulath told them. “Friend Pogue, if you will be that torch bringing.”
Celie turned to watch as Pogue got a torch, and saw something on the wall that gave her pause. Between two of the torch holders there was a little wooden shelf that had been bolted to the wall. There was a cushion on the shelf, but nothing else. She frowned. The cushion was pale green and had a dent in it that was shaped like a crescent, and reminded her of something.
“What do you suppose that is?” Lilah had followed her gaze. “It doesn’t seem to go here, does it?”
“We know that someone besides us robbed the tomb,” Rolf remarked. He, too, had gotten a torch off the wall. “Not just Ethan, I mean, but even before that.”
“I don’t think so,” Celie said. “Ethan was too upset by what the Arkower made him do, and I don’t think anyone else has been inside. So the only thing that’s been taken is the broken piece of the Eye.
“Or at least, that’s what Wizard Bratsch says.”
“Who is he being when he is being in his home?” Lulath asked. He was holding out a hand to Lilah, to help her down the steps.
“The opposite of the Arkower,” Pogue said. “They’re apparently mortal enemies, but both of them are lying about something, so I’m not sure Bratsch is on our side, either.”
“There is something I can’t put my finger on,” Celie muttered, still staring at the cushion. “If that’s the shape of the piece of the Eye, it’s not very big …”
“Come on, Cel, let’s see what this tunnel is like,” Rolf said, taking her arm.
The stone steps wound around in a half turn and ended on a hard-packed dirt floor. Lulath hurried to light the lamps, casting a warm glow ahead of them down the dark corridor. The whole tunnel was dirt, with wooden beams to shore it up.
“How long is it?” Celie asked as Lulath joined her.
“I am not finding the end,” Lulath said. “Not as yet. But it is in the direction of, and of such length, that it is seeming possible to reach the Castle ruins.”
Lord Griffin, who had come down the stairs after Lulath, pushed his way to the front again. With a hoarse cry that seemed to say that they should follow him, he started down the tunnel. Celie looked at Lulath, who shrugged, so they followed. After a while, they found some lamps that Lulath hadn’t lit, and Pogue hurried to light them. Ever capable, he’d also pulled the tunnel entrance closed after they’d all entered.
Just as the new baby griffins were starting to cry again from hunger, the tunnel bulged out into a decent-size room. It even had a few chairs, and more beams and lamps. Pogue lit the lamps, and Lilah sank into one of the chairs with a sigh that ruffled the feathers of Juliet’s sleek head.
Celie collapsed onto the hard floor, and Rufus quickly lay down behind her to support her back. She threw an arm around him in gratitude. She was so tired, but she didn’t want to fall asleep and miss anything. Her eyes drifted down just for a second, and when she opened them again, the others were gathered around Lulath.
“… which of course I am thinking was done only that my Lorcan might leave freely with me,” Lulath was saying as Celie opened her eyes again.
“Amazing,” Rolf said. “Such clever creatures.” The envy was plain in his voice.
“Who did what?” Celie’s voice was little more than a croak.
“Cel! Are you awake?” Rolf hurried to her side. “You’ve been snoring!”
Celie felt herself blushing a deep red.
“Rolf! You don’t need to tell her that,” Lilah scolded him. She brought Celie a waterskin, and Celie drank the lukewarm water greedily.
“Well, you were,” Rolf said with a grin. He offered her some cheese and a round biscuit, and she snatched them from his hands and shoved them both into her mouth at the same time.
“Where did you get the food?” She could hardly talk again, but this time it was because her mouth was full.
“Lulath,” Rolf said simply.
“Oh, I missed his story,” Celie lamented after she swallowed. Then she took another biscuit and chunk of cheese.
“It is being as a nothing,” Lulath called over to her. “I am only sitting and feeding my little Lorcan, after our Rolf and our Pogue are flying away, and feeding him and feeding him. Then to myself I think, I must be saving of the food, so that when we are again together, we could be having some.” He shrugged. “And saying also, that I am not knowing where the Ethan is.”
“Oh, dear,” Celie said.
“He went back to his master, didn’t he?” Pogue asked. He made a disgusted face and kicked at the packed dirt of the wall.
“Of a sureness no,” Lulath said, shaking his head emphatically. “Before the Arkower is coming to shout and wave the arms at me, the Ethan is saying to me that there is a thing in this forest which he must do. Or see. Bring?” Lulath frowned. “I am not remembering, but it was not a thing that the Arkower is telling to him to be doing.”
“I wonder what he has to do that’s so urgent?” Pogue still sounded suspicious. “Well, is everyone rested? I’d like to go farther along the tunnel and see what’s what.” He was pacing rapidly around the small chamber, showing no signs of having rested himself, despite the fatigue evidenced by the dark circles under his eyes. “We don’t know what’s happening up there, and it’s making me twitchy.”
Rolf went over and looked down the tunnel toward the Castle ruins. Or in the direction that they hoped led to the Castle ruins, anyway.
“I am agreeing with you, Friend Pogue,” Lulath said. He gathered up his things and popped Lorcan back into his tunic. “We must be finding the way back to Sleyne! I am thinking it will be of greater ease now, when there is only small griffins and not eggs to carry.”
“We’ll see,” Pogue said, not looking convinced. “Celie, are you up for more walking?”
“Yes, I’m fine!”
She tried to leap to her feet, embarrassed that they all seemed to be waiting for her. But her body wouldn’t leap, and instead she fell over sideways.
“Are you all right?” Lilah scrambled to try to help her, but Juliet got entangled in Lilah’s skirts, and Lilah nearly fell on top of Celie.
Pogue leaned down and picked Celie up, setting her on her feet with a small smile. “Tired?”
“So tired,” Celie agreed.
“We’ll be home soon,” Pogue told her with perfect certainty.
“Let’s get back to the ruins,” Rolf said. “We need to see how far that fire has spread, and what the Arkower is going to do next.” His face was grim.
“You certainly perked up,” Lilah said to him, gathering Juliet into her arms. “A moment ago you were too busy pouting over not having a griffin to care about getting back.”
“There’s something down here,” Rolf said, pointing down the tunnel. “Can’t you feel it?” He rolled his head around, stretching his neck. “We really need to see where this leads.
“Cel, why don’t I carry the crown and ring?” He held out his hand for the pouch.
Celie blinked at him. None of them had cared who carried the crown before, and it certainly wasn’t heavy, but she supposed there was no reason why Rolf couldn’t have it. Still, she hesitated.
“It’s fine,” she said. “It’s not heavy.”
“Just let me carry them for a while,” Rolf said.
Celie thought of her secret dream of presenting their father with the crown and ring. She put a hand over the bag.
“Celie, I need them,” Rolf said, looking at her intently. “I need them.”
She was too tired, and Rolf was too insistent. Slowly she handed him the pouch, he fastened it to his own waist, and she breathed a little resigned sigh.
Pogue picked Celie up again and put her on Rufus’s back. Celie would have felt embarrassed at being treated like a child, but she was just too tired. She felt as though she was drowning in honey, every movement too slow and deliberate. She worried that Rufus was too tired to carry her, but he didn’t seem to mind, so she stuck her hands under the straps of his harness and let her shoulders slump.
“Lead on, our Rolf,” Lulath said cheerily.
Rolf started down the tunnel without even looking around. The others followed at a more sedate pace, stopping to light the lamps as they went. Rolf went on into the darkness, oblivious, and the full-grown griffins followed at his heels, seeming to be bothered by the light.
“This is worrisome,” Pogue remarked as he lit another lamp.
Celie, sitting on Rufus nearby, didn’t answer. Rolf’s behavior was worrying her, too. He was moving out of sight, marching along as though he knew exactly where he was going, and no amount of calling had brought him back. He hadn’t even turned his head the last time Pogue had shouted his name.
“Be not afraid,” Lulath said. “It is my only thinking that the Castle has our Rolf in its grip. This is being not such a bad thing.”
“Lulath,” Lilah said with exasperation as they moved on to the next lamp. “Doesn’t anything ever bother you?”
“Yes,” Lulath said, his voice curt for the first time in Celie’s memory of the Grathian prince. “Of course! I am telling this of our Celie only the yesterday! But we are all needing our shoes on but one at a time, and going forward!”
Lilah made a small noise and subsided.
“Lulath,”
Celie said, startled out of her exhaustion for a moment. “Goodness!”
Lulath froze in his tracks. “Oh, it was being so rude! Oh, our Lilah, can you be forgiving of this man?” He looked for a moment like he was going to throw himself at Lilah’s feet. “It is being so horrible here,” he babbled. “And the Lorcan, I am wanting for him only good things, but this tunnel it only goes on and the fire and the Arkower …”
“It’s all right,” Lilah said in a husky voice, reaching out to stop Lulath from flinging himself around and endangering Lorcan. “I understand.”
“Do you think they’re going to start kissing?” Celie whispered to Pogue.
Pogue sighed. “We need to catch Rolf,” he announced. “Come along, all of you.” And he marched ahead.
Celie blinked. “What’s wrong with him now?” she asked Rufus. Then she remembered that Pogue used to come to the Castle every day to see Lilah … something that had stopped in the last few months, when Lilah had started spending much more time with Lulath. “Oh,” she said, feeling foolish.
“Where is that light coming from?” Lilah said, turning away from Lulath. “Do you see it?”
“I see it,” Celie said in a hushed voice.
Up ahead, Rolf was illuminated by a light shining toward them from the opposite end of the tunnel. It was a hazy, orange light, like a lantern, and Celie felt her breath catch in her chest. Was it the Arkower?
Pogue rushed forward to stand beside Rolf, and the adult griffins flanked them. They were packed so tightly in the tunnel now that Celie worried they wouldn’t have room to maneuver if it came to a fight. Lulath moved to stand beside her, holding little Lorcan tight to his chest with one hand, and resting his other lightly on Celie’s shoulder.
“Be ready to have the Rufus turning and have him on the run,” Lulath whispered to her. “Lilah?” he called in a slightly louder whisper. “You will be ready for running, please.”
“I am,” Lilah whispered, her face drawn and chalky in the lamplight.
The light grew brighter, spilling past Rolf and Pogue and the large griffins until it reached Celie and Rufus. She blinked in the brightness, and when her eyes cleared she saw a little man holding a dusty lantern high in one gnarled hand.