‘We have massive preparations, pulled on us at the last minute,’ snapped Lew. ‘All the top people from the mainland are going to be here for a high-level Supreme Council conference tonight, and we have to cater for them all. Commander Los, the Lord Chief Justice, the Lord Administrator, the Chief Magus, the University Chancellor and heaven knows who else.’
‘But why?’ I asked.
‘Do you think they told me? Something mighty important, because we’re not allowed to send in the usual waiters. The food’s got to be ready and placed inside the conference hall before they start. And everyone will be confined to quarters while it’s happening. Oh, stop looking at me with your eyes popping out like a frog’s, boy, and get that pile of cutlery polished till it shines!’ He dumped a mountain of silver knives and forks in front of me. They looked old as the hills and about as dirty.
So I sat there and polished and polished, and all the while my hands were working, my mind was racing. Why was the Supreme Council of Krainos meeting here, on the island? Why all the secrecy? Could it have anything to do with the voices I’d heard – those words? Surely not.
It’s the only way to keep our land safe, the voice had said. His voice. On the day of your eighteenth birthday, you must die. And that girl’s voice, her crying … How could such a wicked thing have come to my mind? Alek Los was a true hero, not someone who would murder a young girl in cold blood. He was not like the others on the Supreme Council, whom nobody held in much affection. Like everyone else in Krainos, I looked up to the Commander. He had saved our country. He continued to serve it selflessly. His aim had always been to keep us safe. Always …
My parents had always said I put two and two together and came up with the wrong sum, that I had too much imagination. Gingerly, I felt the bruise at my temple. I knew I should just dismiss the whole experience, but I couldn’t. I had to know if those words I’d heard were real. I had to find out from someone who knew about these things. From someone who could see into one’s dreams …
I caught my breath as I realised where my mind was leading me. It was crazy. Dangerous. Yet not to try to find out seemed more dangerous than anything else. I had to see the witch. I had to ask her what it all meant.
I could hear my friends’ voices in my head: Lunatic! Stupid! Reckless! But I also heard the voice of curiosity – the voice that had been nagging at me ever since I came to the island. I’d take all precautions. I’d wear the thickest blindfold I could. The witch’s capacity for magic might be quelled in the Tower, but not her second sight. It was inborn in immortals. You could no more take it from them than you could unhook the moon from the sky.
I had to speak to her. Something deep inside told me it was urgent. The Commander’s honour was at stake. I wanted to be sure we still had truth and justice on our side; Krainos must not be stained with a young girl’s blood. And if it had been a hallucination, then she would tell me that too. She had to. Immortals cannot lie about what they see in second sight. They are bound to tell you. I knew that from all the old stories about the immortal feya. A feyin, who is only part-feya, may lie just like full-blooded humans do. But never an immortal. And so one way or the other, I would have my answer.
Now, for a way to get up to the forbidden room … I’d never be able to get past the locked door to the elevator, but I could go up in the dumb waiter. If I crouched down low I could fit in its narrow shaft. There was a lever you turned in the cellar to open and shut the door, and if I left it open down below, I could get down again without mishap.
I waited for what seemed like a long time. The conference doors stayed closed. The rest of the Tower Guard were confined to quarters but the kitchen staff had to keep working.
‘And I don’t mind staying behind till the kitchens close,’ I told Lew.
He looked hard at me, then growled, ‘I guess you think you’re going to get all the leftovers.’
I nodded ruefully, trying to look as though he’d rumbled me.
‘Then you’d better stay till I tell you to go home.’
‘Yes, sir.’
I told Franz I’d volunteered to work extra hours because I couldn’t afford to lose at cards again. And it was true – I had lost at cards a couple of evenings in a row. ‘Just tell Serek and Marcinek that old devil of a Lew kept me back,’ I added. ‘I don’t want them to know I’m penniless. You know what it’s like.’
‘Sure, friend,’ said an unsuspecting Franz, clapping me on the shoulder. ‘Rather you than me.’
Lew certainly kept me busy. I washed dishes till my hands were wrinkled, and swept till my arms ached. After I had finished all my work, I slipped into the cellar when Lew and Flamel weren’t looking. I could hear them toasting each other and talking for what seemed like hours. Before long, I heard the scrape of chairs as they got up, blew out all the lamps and noisily clumped off to their beds.
At last, I was alone.
Izolda
That morning I’d woken reluctantly, emerging from a wonderful dream. I’d had a few of those recently. In the dream I was flying high above the earth. Everything looked so beautiful – the pattern of field and forest, town and river, the sparkle of the sea, the tall peaks of mountains, the folds of hill and valley. I was dressed all in white like an angel, only I wasn’t an angel – I was just me.
But I wasn’t alone in the dream. Someone flew with me – a young man. I couldn’t see him properly. I only had the merest sense of him, just a flash of colour: hair black as coal, skin pale as snow, lips red as blood. He didn’t speak, and I didn’t know who he was. Yet I knew, like you do in dreams, that he was important to me. I had no idea why, and it didn’t seem to matter. We swooped and flew, swooped and flew, and all the while joy filled me. I was free – we were free. And I knew I’d never be alone again.
The dream always ended there. I would wake, filled with hope, and find myself once again in this place. Yet, somehow, the power of the dream lingered, giving me renewed strength. This time the dream had been different. It hadn’t ended on us swooping and flying. This time I’d heard a voice singing. His voice. I knew it was his voice, though I’d never heard it before. A voice deep and soft. And I’d heard the words of his song so clearly that I was able to write it down word for word:
If only I’d listened,
if only I’d cared,
if only I’d spoken,
if only I’d dared.
Then things would be different,
and all would be fine.
If only I’d done it,
what joy would be mine!
There was so much sadness in his voice. In the dream I had wanted to speak, to say, No, no, don’t be like that. There is so much hope. We are free, don’t you see? We can go where we like, do what we want …
And then I awoke. To those walls and the knowledge that had sat like a stone in my heart ever since they told me what would happen when this day had ended. No, I would not waste the day thinking about it. I had to remember who I was. But what a hollow thing to say! Memory weakens in this place that hollows you out, though it is hard to forget completely. I could remember the halls of my people. The black ships and the grim-faced warriors. My hand closing over the crystal heart …