Rolf took it and unrolled it.
“Lulath’s back,” he said.
“Is he all right?” Celie asked.
“It just says he’s back,” Rolf said.
They all exchanged looks.
“Lilah!” Celie shouted. “Lilah! Lulath’s back!”
They heard a squawking that sounded like something that might come from a griffin, and Lilah came up from below deck. She looked around wildly.
“He’s at the Sanctuary,” Rolf explained.
“Juliet!” Lilah cried.
Instantly her griffin was there. Lilah leaped onto her back. Celie and the others all whistled for their griffins and followed her.
They flew straight for the courtyard, where there were horses and coaches milling about. In the middle of it all stood Lulath, in perfect health.
As soon as Juliet’s talons hit the pavement, Lilah was off her back and leaping at Lulath. He caught her easily, laughing, and they kissed. Then he put her down, and they stood there blushing while everyone else gathered around.
“What did they say?” Rolf demanded.
Lulath’s brow clouded. “They are saying to me nothing.”
“They still wouldn’t talk to you?” Pogue frowned. “Did they let you into the village?”
“There was no person to stop our going in,” Lulath said. “Of the village there is only houses, empty as shells on this very beach.
“The people, they are being long gone.”
Chapter
9
By the night of the betrothal celebration, they still hadn’t found any sign of the villagers. From what Lulath and the others of his party could tell, the village had been abandoned a year ago or more, and any tracks had long since been washed away.
Celie had been having nightmares that the missing villagers were watching them from within the walls of the Sanctuary, as Wizard Arkwright had been in the Castle. King Kurlath had assured the Glower family that there were no hidden passages in the Sanctuary, but still Celie felt every wall and floor tile in her room. She poked every inch of every ornamental doorway and pulled the books off every shelf, but it seemed true that there were no secret passages.
Lulath’s family had built the Sanctuary, and there had never been a war fought on Grathian soil. So as the king kindly pointed out to Celie, there was no need for them to have any secret hiding places.
Queen Celina had shared Celie’s suspicions at first, but once the Royal Wizard had helped her perform a spell that found no sign of any of the villagers anywhere in the area, she, too, believed them to be gone.
“They could be anywhere,” Queen Celina admitted. “But they’re not here in the Sanctuary, that’s certain. Perhaps they gave up hope of having griffins again and left.”
“But left to go where?” Rolf said plaintively.
“Wherever they like,” Queen Celina countered. “I think they were waiting for something to happen, all these years in their village. The return of the griffins, most likely. It happened, and it had nothing to do with them, so they left.”
This wasn’t all that reassuring, but it was all they had, so they continued with their preparations for the betrothal. Lilah and Lulath would not marry for another year, of course, but in the meantime their intention to marry needed to be shouted to the skies, and, more important, to the Grathians.
The betrothal celebration was to be the most wonderful thing anyone had ever seen, according to Queen Amatopeia. Lilah and Lulath would be married in Sleyne, but for the first time, Celie understood Lilah’s constant worry that their family would look poor in front of Lulath’s.
The betrothal festivities would last from dawn until the following dawn, and Celie herself had five changes of clothing for the event, beginning with a breakfast gown and ending with a ship-launching gown. All of these were delivered to her room the night before, along with a maid who had been assigned to dress her in each ensemble, fix her hair, and follow her around to make any needed repairs or adjustments.
At first Celie was annoyed by both the costume changes and the assignment of the maid, but it turned out to be the most fun she’d had in ages.
For one thing, the food was delicious, which made up for a lot of the fuss.
Then the clothes turned out to fit perfectly (which might have been achieved through magic, as Celie had not been measured or fitted by anyone in Grath).
The maid, Renia, was a good-humored girl a few years older than Celie, whose duties not only included changing Celie’s clothes and hair but also carrying things like fans and gloves, which Celie was always dropping or losing. Renia even had a small flask of hot chocolate hanging from her belt, in case Celie need a little refreshment. And she wasn’t afraid of Rufus, either. After meeting the griffin, Renia added a pouch of biscuits to her accoutrements just for him, which endeared her to both Celie and Rufus forever.
The first breakfast took place in the larger, more formal gardens. Everyone lay on couches to eat, and the servants placed tiny plates on low tables by the side of each couch. The Glower family and Lulath’s family weren’t to move around, but the rest of the court and ambassadors from various countries came to bow to them, and perhaps share a slice of cake or melon.
Rolf thought this was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen, and he lounged across his couch and dropped food into his mouth with abandon.
Pogue came over to talk to them, and laughed so hard at Rolf that he ended up sitting on the end of Celie’s couch to recover. A servant instantly brought Pogue his own tray, and he spent the rest of the breakfast with Celie, throwing food at Rolf when no one was looking, and at Arrow and Rufus even when they were. The dogs had been locked inside the Sanctuary for the occasion, but JouJou managed to get out, and Celie propped her in the crook of her arm and fed her cake until the little dog fell asleep. When JouJou began snoring, a servant appeared with a velvet cushion and bore her away, as though he were carrying the king’s crown.
“This isn’t another country,” Pogue said. “It’s another world!”
“And it is only being the more fantastical,” Lulath called out. “After, there is being a parade! With all the darlings!” He clapped his hands. “And a parade of boats in the later, when there has been more food.”
“How is it possible for there to be more food?” Rolf groaned. “I think I have cake coming out of my ears.”
“That’s what you get for making a pig of yourself,” Lilah said.
She said it very pleasantly, though, without losing her smile, because the ambassador from Bendeswe was hovering near her couch, and fortunately he did not speak Sleynth. She and Lulath had a sort of V-shaped double couch to lounge on, and he laughed and put some grapes in her mouth.
“It is being expected,” he said. “Therefore there are being also parades!”
“What sort of parades?” Celie asked.
In Sleyne they sometimes had a springtime parade, when the village children would dress as birds and flowers and butterflies and dance down the main road to the Castle. And sometimes the guards would put on their nicest uniforms and parade in the courtyard, to show their training off to the king. But Lulath had a twinkle in his eye—more so than usual.
“Wait and be seeing, our Celie,” he said.