Emily Rodda - Ilse Of Illusion

Penn glared at her for a moment. Then, slowly, her rage seemed to die, and her face relaxed. ‘I am sorry for my anger,’ she said, walking to the window, pulling aside the curtain and staring out at the dimness. ‘I was wrong to blame you. The Plumes are clever deceivers.’

Jasmine looked as if she was going to argue further, but Lief spoke quickly, before she had the chance. Hope was again flaring in his heart. For if the second part of the Pirran Pipe was on Auron, it could surely be won, whatever the danger that guarded it.

‘Tell us, Penn, I beg you, why you say Auron is lost,’ he urged.

Strange, high, echoing calls began to drift through the window, filling the room, growing louder every moment.

Penn turned around. Her face was shadowed with weariness and something more. Despair, perhaps.

‘Dawn is being sung by the Piper,’ she said. ‘The time of sleep is over. Not that any of us have had our proper sleep, this night.’

‘I am sorry—’ Lief began, but Penn waved away his apology and walked to the hanging baskets on the back wall. She selected two small, ragged pieces of parchment, then moved to the door.

‘Come,’ she said. ‘Your boat may now leave the rafts with safety.’

‘We cannot leave!’ exclaimed Jasmine, glancing protectively at Kree. ‘Kree must rest further. He is still weak.’

‘The bird may remain where he is,’ said Penn, her serious face relaxing a little as she regarded Jasmine’s earnest face. ‘In his condition he will not trouble Tresk and Mesk, and you will be back before the Piper calls down the night. To swim would be faster, but not for you, I suspect. I am taking you to Auron.’

Lief’s heart jolted with excitement. He glanced at Barda, whose face was bright with triumph.

Penn’s shrewd eyes seemed to dim as she watched them. ‘I do not look forward to the journey,’ she murmured. ‘I had hoped to avoid it. But you must see the island for yourselves. Only then will you understand the truth.’

9 - Troubles

Not another word would Penn say. In silence she led the companions through the walkways. Curtains twitched aside as they passed, and faces filled with curiosity, fear or resentment peered out.

The back of Lief’s neck burned. ‘We are not welcome here,’ he muttered.

‘Why should you be?’ said Penn calmly. ‘You invaded our waters in a Plume boat, carrying the Plume part of the Pirran Pipe, to mock us. You brought fearsome creatures with you. You accused us of making Auron unfit for life. And you are very large and ugly, and smell unpleasant.’

‘An attractive list of qualities,’ said Barda dryly. ‘I wonder you could bear to have us in your home, Penn.’

Penn shrugged. ‘As I told you, I have read of your people. That was why the Piper chose me for this task.’

They reached the edge of the platform where their boat still rocked gently, tied up with a few others. Stony-faced guards moved aside, at a word from Penn, to let them pass.

The water was alive with huge, ferocious-looking eels like the ones the guards had been riding. They were cruising just below the surface, twisting together lazily.

Trying not to look at them, Lief, Jasmine and Barda climbed into the boat, taking great care not to slip. Penn followed, quite untroubled. Then she caught sight of Fury and Flash, still asleep in their cages on the floor of the boat.

‘I had forgotten them, when I suggested we take your boat,’ she murmured nervously. ‘Their cages are strong, I suppose?’

‘Very strong,’ Lief assured her, taking up his paddle.

Penn shuddered and untied the boat, turning her head as she did so to stare at the eels, which she plainly found quite restful to look upon.

She pointed west. ‘That way,’ she said in a low voice. ‘Keep a straight course. And please paddle gently. I do not distrust your word, but I would prefer that your beasts did not wake.’

The boat moved away from the platform. Ahead was dim, open sea. And Auron.

A world away, in Del, the sun was sliding slowly down towards the horizon.

Sharn had been in the entrance hall for far longer than she had intended. Many, many people were waiting to speak to her.

One of these was Barda’s deputy, a Resistance fighter called Mobley, who wished to report a death. Pieter, the brother of one of the helpers in the entrance hall, had died horribly when two Plains scorpions escaped from a box he had hidden under his shirt.

‘We think it was Pieter who put the scorpion in the king’s bed chamber, ma’am,’ Mobley said. ‘In the old days he was a roof-mender. He could have easily climbed to the king’s window and cut the bars. Also, we found this in the scorpions’ box. Maria says it is her brother’s writing.’

He showed a scrap of paper.

‘But why would Maria’s brother feel this way?’ Sharn exclaimed, amazed and distressed.

Mobley shrugged. ‘Who knows? Like many other folk, he and Maria lost each other the night the Shadow Lord took over the city. They only met again by chance, when Pieter wandered into the palace a few weeks ago. He was thin as a rail, had no memory, and suffered from headaches, bad headaches that gave him no peace.’

He paused. ‘It was a terrible thing Pieter did, ma’am, but as I saw him lying there it came into my mind that if things had been different, I could have gone the same way as he did. I, too, lost my family in the troubles. It was only joining up with the Resistance that kept me sane, I think.’

Sharn hurried upstairs at last, and went directly to the library. There she found Marilen sitting at one of the tables. Josef, looking harried and distressed, was checking books nearby, with Ranesh silently assisting him.

When Marilen saw Sharn, she stood up at once. Her face was very pale. ‘We will talk in my bed chamber, if you please,’ she said formally.

They moved down the great staircase in strained silence. As they reached the second floor, and the guards who barred the stairs stepped aside to let them pass, Marilen swallowed and seemed to make a great effort to calm herself.

‘Forgive me, Sharn, if I seem to be behaving oddly,’ she whispered. ‘I went to the library for comfort while I waited for you. But I must speak to you in privacy. Josef and Ranesh—especially Ranesh—must not hear what I have to say. And I believe it is dangerous to speak aloud out here.’

She hastened towards the hallway which led to her own room. Sharn followed, greatly troubled. What had made Marilen think the hallways were not safe? This floor had been searched very thoroughly for listening devices.

But even stranger was Marilen’s determination not to speak where Josef and Ranesh might hear. Sharn had assumed that the girl wanted only to discuss the report of Lief’s death. But Josef and Ranesh knew about that already.

What else could she have to tell me? Sharn thought. And why does she say that Ranesh, in particular, should not know of it?

Marilen had reached her door and drawn out her key. But when she put the key in the lock, she drew back.

‘It is already unlocked,’ she whispered.

Before Sharn could stop her, she had twisted the knob and thrown the door wide. There was a moment’s horrified silence. Then Marilen gave a single, piercing cry and buried her face in her hands. Sharn simply stared, shocked and silent.

Jinks lay sprawled amid a small wreckage of broken china and spoiled food. His eyes stared sightlessly at the ceiling. His mouth was twisted in a snarl of agony. From the pocket of his trousers spilled part of a fine gold chain with a locket hanging from it.