Celie recoiled as though he’d struck her. Pogue had never spoken to her so harshly before. She grabbed Rufus’s harness too tight, and he protested.
“How dare you use that tone with my sister!” Lilah raged.
Celie was more hurt than offended, and also more suspicious than ever that something was terribly wrong. Instead of joining in the fight or reprimanding Pogue, she chose to ignore it and just pointed to the haphazard stack of doors.
“Why aren’t they taking better care of those?” Celie asked, though she already knew the answer.
“They decided not to use them,” he said curtly, and turned back to Lilah.
“No, that’s wrong,” Celie said.
No one was listening to her. Lilah and Pogue were right back into their fight, and Queen Celina was fanning the flames by insisting that they talk to the Grathian shipwright, Master Cathan. Rolf was simply staring into space, muttering something, but Celie decided that he was her best bet anyway, and went over to tug at his sleeve. She had to yank on his arm to get him to look at her.
“Rolf!”
“I thought it would make us feel better,” Rolf was muttering. “But it feels worse.”
“Yes, it feels worse,” she said, shaking his arm again. “Because they’re doing it wrong!”
“What?” Rolf looked at her, and then back at the ship. “How can you tell? You don’t know how to build a ship. And they do.”
“The ship doesn’t like it,” Celie insisted. “Can’t you feel it? It’s making us feel wrong because it feels wrong. The Castle wants the ship to be made with parts from all the different lands, and they’re not doing it!”
She yanked his arm yet again and pointed at the discarded pile of doors with her free hand. Just as she did, one of the men tromped across a door in his heavy work boots, and there was a distinct cracking noise.
The sound woke Rolf up. He shook himself, dislodging Celie’s hand, and started toward the men, calling out. Celie followed him, pulling on Rufus’s harness to keep her griffin from diving at the workers. If she needed any proof that this was the problem, Rufus’s behavior convinced her. None of the griffins had liked the Arkish tunnels hidden in the Castle, but even Rufus seemed to take the mistreatment of the Arkish doors as a personal insult.
“Rufus, stop; we’ll fix it,” she said, gritting her teeth and tugging to keep him from snapping his beak at one of the workmen.
“My only good sir,” Rolf called in Grathian to the man who had just cracked one of the doors. “May I be having a speaking to you if it pleases the queen?”
Celie winced. Between her tutor, Master Humphries, and Lulath, they had gotten a comprehensive education in the Grathian language and culture, but Rolf had never been a very diligent student. Celie wondered if she should take over, but the man seemed to be able to follow her brother’s convoluted grammar.
“These are being doors for the untimely use of the ship,” Rolf said heatedly. “And now to have ripped it!”
The man glanced around, startled. He was holding a keg full of long iron nails, and now he handed them off to another man and came forward, wiping his hands on the seat of his pants.
“I’m very sorry, Your Highness,” the man said.
Celie did her best not to wince at how much more refined this shipyard worker sounded than her brother.
“But Master Cathan has decided that we aren’t going to use these doors,” the man went on. “If you would like them for another project, we will have them packed up and sent to the Sanctuary.”
“It is not being the Sanctuary of needing doors!” Rolf insisted.
“Pardon me, but where is Master Cathan?” Celie asked in her much more polished Grathian. “We should speak to him about this.”
The man looked only too glad to pass them off to the master shipbuilder. By now they had attracted the attention of many of the workers, as well as Lilah, Pogue, and their mother, who had stopped arguing to come and see what was wrong.
“It’s the doors,” Celie said to her mother. “The Castle—the ship, I suppose—wants them. That’s why we feel awful.”
Her mother just looked at her, uncomprehending.
Rolf squatted down and began to look at the crack in the door. “I think this can be fixed,” he said.
Celie hummed her approval. She was watching the workman talking to Master Cathan, who had slithered down a rope from higher up in the framing around the ship. She could tell by his expression, even from this distance, that he was not pleased to see them. But when he reached them he bowed and greeted them with his usual courtesy.
“Master Cathan,” Celie said. “I thought we had agreed these doors would be used on the ship.”
“Ah, indeed we did, Your Highness,” he said. If he was surprised that she was speaking Grathian, he didn’t show it, but just answered in the same language. “Now that we are here in Grath, with so many fine materials available to us, it seems a shame to use these old, less reliable things.” He scuffed a foot at the doors.
“Have a stop to that,” Rolf said sharply.
“That’s why you don’t want to use them?” Pogue said in Sleynth, sounding dazed. “Because they’re old?”
“And Grathian wood—” the shipbuilder began.
“Grathian wood is being of fine,” Lilah interrupted, folding her arms. “But the point of ship of mine is to use the woods and . . . and things not of wood . . . from all the place. Sleyne. Grath. Hatheland. Glorious Arkower, who is are our enemies.”
“I know your vision for the ship was very fine,” Cathan said with a simper. “But I must say, as a shipbuilder, well, I know you want your ship to be . . . the best.”
“Why is not an Arkish doors make not the best?” Lilah demanded. “The wood is finest quality, and thus finely carved!”
“It’s not something you can understand, Your Highness,” Cathan began.
“You have lies,” Queen Celina said. Then she switched to Sleynth, so that she would sound more regal, Celie guessed. “My oldest daughter is correct: there is no reason these doors cannot be used. Why don’t you want to honor our wishes?”
Master Cathan looked at all of them and swallowed visibly. “Well, because—” he began in Sleynth. “I am not knowing of what importance? I am thinking that the small princess is of frugal mind being?” He nodded at Celie.
“Well, I wasn’t,” Celie said, feeling her cheeks burn.
“We have plenty of money,” Lilah said at the same time, blushing in anger rather than embarrassment. “However, we are trying to unify several countries with the ship, something we thought you understood.”
Master Cathan frowned. He looked into the distance, trying to look noble and thoughtful, but Celie could tell it was an act. He’d stayed in Castle Glower for several months, getting the ship ready for the journey to Grath. He had agreed with their plans then, even if he was—
“You’re afraid?” Celie blurted out. “What are you afraid of?”
“I am not having fear,” Cathan said weakly. “I am having . . . easier to make doors to the ship, not making ship to the doors.”
Rolf shook his head and tutted, and Lilah rolled her eyes. Pogue frowned, and Celie felt rather bad for him. He’d enjoyed learning from Master Cathan, she knew, and now he was probably wondering if the man had lied about other things.