1x05
Midnight.
Savina and Arden sat huddled just outside the wall of the di Raprezzi estate, a long rope coiled by Arden’s feet. It was going to be a long, silent wait.
Inside, Mena arrived in the drawing room to find Kormick waiting, leaning against a bookcase and flipping through his leather notepad. Tavi, Rose, and Twiggy followed shortly thereafter, having traded ball gowns and boutonnieres for boots and bedrolls.
The group looked at Rose, waiting for a cue. She opened her palms in invitation. “I am in your hands.”
Well, Twiggy thought, I guess she really means it about us making all the decisions.
“Ho-kay, then, we begin.” Kormick flipped his pad closed with a snap. “Step one: sneak out of house without alerting Dona Giovanna, Signora Rose’s wary and extraordinarily skilled mother. Step two: travel through bustling town without being identified. Step three: break into magically-alarmed teleport center. Step four: teleport to Sovereignty before guards seize and imprison us all. Couldn’t be easier. What are we waiting for?”
Phoebe flew eager circles around Tavi's head. Acorn scrunched himself further into Twiggy's pocket. Did he say imprison us all? I don't want to go go to prison! Prison is for bad people! There are probably rats in pri--
Don't worry, Acorn, we'll be fine, Twiggy thought, almost convincing herself.
Tavi opened the door a crack and peeked out. “We’re clear.” He waved for the others to follow. But it only took two steps out into the hall to know it would not be that easy. A faint scuffling sound came from down the hall. Then Tavi saw all he needed to: the flick of a fuzzy tail and the glint of a tiny eye.
Euro.
What Euro knew, Dona Giovanna knew. And as far as Dona Giovanna was concerned, Rose was to be tucked up safe in her bed, and not at all sneaking out of the house. And not even a little bit headed to the Sovereignty on a crazy escapade. Tavi and Twiggy were supposed to keep Rose home and safe, and Euro knew that. So if they wanted to get out of that house, they were going to have to steer clear of Euro. Tavi stepped back into the drawing room and pulled the door shut. “We have a complication. A small, brown, fuzzy complication.”
Twiggy looked at Rose, and then at Tavi. No one else was going to speak up; she might as well. “We still need to get out of here. We just need a better way out.“ She paused. What, exactly, is the best way to tell your Mistress and her brother and their tutor that you know something better than they do? “I think it is fair to say that there is no one in the world who knows this house better than I do,” she said. “So . . . follow me.”
Twiggy leaned on the bookshelf behind her, which pivoted with a soft swish. A guest room stood on the other side. “This way,” she motioned. The group tiptoed behind.
From there, a connecting door led to a servant’s room. Twiggy peeked in. Unoccupied. Next, they could take the servants’ stairs down to . . . no. Mama Rossi would still be up and about in the kitchen, and so would the scullery maids, ready to raise the alarm. They were going to have to stick to the upstairs.
When I was six, Twiggy thought, exploring the ins and outs of the house was the biggest adventure there was. Now, it’s the only thing standing between me and a bigger adventure than I can even imagine. And the only thing standing between Rose and her future. She motioned for the others to wait, and dashed out into the hallway, sliding into a broom closet. “Clear!” She whispered, pointing down the hallway and up the side stair.
The group rushed down the hall and up the stairs, aware of every clink and shuffle from their packs. Someone was bound to hear them.
Sure enough, as Mena reached the top of the stairs, she spotted Euro, around the corner to the right, at the far end of the hall. “We’ve got company,” she whispered, her back flat against the wall.
The grandfather clock at the other end of the hall chimed one. It didn’t usually sound so ominous.
Euro was faster than they were. It was going to be a mad dash.
Marcus gave Tavi a serious look. “Sir . . . I believe can distract the weasel,” he whispered. “I’ll divert its attention. You go on ahead.”
Tavi shook his head. “You are the captain of the guard, and a strong fighter. We may need that for whatever we face out there.”
“You won’t face anything at all, if you don’t make it out,” Marcus whispered in reply. “If anyone asks, I can say I tried to stop you. I can even give misleading information about where I think you went.”
Twiggy knew the sacrifice Marcus was making. It might mean the end of his career. She knew Tavi knew it, too, and that they had no choice. Tavi clapped his captain on the shoulder in silent assent. “You’re a good man, Marcus.”
Marcus ran up the stairs and turned right, out of sight. Euro followed.
When reached the top of the stairs, she turned left and kept on running. The rest of the group followed Twiggy, straight toward the end of the hall, straight toward the clock, straight toward a dead end . . . and Twiggy touched the side of the clock and it slid to the side, revealing a narrow passage. They piled in. When Twiggy shut the passage door, she could hear Euro’s claws scratching toward the clock. Marcus had given them just the seconds they’d needed. That was close, she thought, gulping for breath.
“Keep moving,” Mena whispered insistently, pulling Twiggy from her reverie. “We don’t have much of a head start.”
The passage was dark, but light might have betrayed them. They felt their way down a steep set of stairs, to a narrow passage, cold and damp. After a while, the ground sloped up, up . . . and emerged under a shallow shelter near the wall of the di Raprezzi estate, not far from Savina and Arden.
Kormick gave a low whistle, and Arden appeared at the top of the wall, rope in hand.
Wow, Twiggy thought, how can she climb that fast? Impressive.
One by one, the party scrambled over the wall. Kormick stood atop it, pulling each member up the rope, until only Twiggy was left on the ground. Kormick offered Twiggy a boost. “Young lady?”
Twiggy looked at Kormick for a moment, and tilted her head. Ready, Acorn?
Ready for what? No! Not ready! Wha--?
Twiggy disappeared, instantly reappearing on the other side of the wall with a giant grin on her face.
Kormick clambered down the wall, muttering and scribbling in his book. “Thing number one hundred and ninety seven that you must warn your guide about ahead of time. The servant girl is a sorcerer. Humph.”
###
All was dark and quiet as the group stepped from the bushes on to a tree-lined boulevard. They walked in silence for a long while, taking advantage of the nighttime quiet in Pol Henna’s tree-lined wealthy areas. But eventually, the parks became smaller, the streets narrower, and the sidewalks more populated. Ahead were the crowded and cramped back streets of one of the seedier parts of town.
Tavi pulled the group aside. “Around this corner, there will be people. We cannot be noticed or recognized; our mother may already have sent people after us, and will certainly send more in the morning to look for our trail.” He tugged Rose’s hood further over her head, protectively, and put his arm around her shoulder. “Rose and Twiggy, you’re with me. You three,” he said, motioning to Mena, Kormick, and Savina, “will just be three clerics passing in the night.”
Arden looked up, silent. Kormick looked at Tavi and gestured to Arden with his thumb. “Take that one, too.” Arden stepped over toward Tavi.
The next street didn’t exactly bustle, but Tavi’s warning was well-taken. Torches burned, casting a dim glow across the cobblestones, and commerce still glowed in the windows of several taverns. The alleys shuffled with soft, unknown noises. A handful of people passed, appearing more interested in avoiding notice than in noticing four fellow-carousers or three quiet clerics.
Light burst on to the narrow street as a tavern door opened just in front of Tavi, and a man stumbled out. Several others piled after him, shouting incomprehensibly but with great emotion. The man tripped, unsteady. Tavi stepped to the side, avoiding his fall by inches.
The man rose to his feet and turned away, focused more on his pursuers than on Tavi. “You can’t kick me out!” He slurred, swinging wildly at his pursuers. “I happen to know the Doge’s brother!”
Twiggy stiffened. The Doge was Dona Giovanna’s brother; this man claimed to know someone in her family. Was he talking about that nasty man Marco? Was he bluffing?
From the other side of the street, Savina peeked at the activity. Tavi! she thought, first concerned and then impressed by his agility as he side-stepped the scuffle. Behind Tavi, a fist fight broke out. Punches flew, until the inebriated tavern-goer lay on the ground, moaning. The stranger was bruised, and his brow bled. Savina, on instinct, turned to walk toward him.
Kormick touched her on the shoulder. “Where exactly do you think you are going?”
“That man is hurt,” Savina pointed out, “and I am going to heal him.”
“No, Blessed Daughter, you are not going to help the very drunk very stupid man, and you are not going to get us all discovered and followed and dragged back in chains. You are going to keep walking.”
“But . . .”
Mena and Kormick shared a glance, and each put a strong arm around Savina, forcing her toward the end of the street.
All six of them turned the corner on to another street, lined with businesses shuttered for the night. There, two blocks down, stood the teleport center.
###
As Tavi pushed open the door of the teleport center, an alarm screamed. Who needs guards or locks, when there are magical alarms? Twiggy thought.
“They’ll be here soon, so we don’t have much time,” Tavi began, calm and confident, “but we have a lot to do.” For once, Phoebe hovered almost still, just over Tavi’s shoulder. “Do whatever you can to keep the guards out.”
Kormick pulled a bench over to the front door, jamming it up to the doorframe. Mena pushed a table against the door in the back and broke the handle off the back door. Arden pushed stones into the latches of windows and doors.
Wordlessly, Tavi and Twiggy pulled materials from their packs—ritual components for the teleport circle. “Rose!” Tavi called, “we need six finch feathers!”
“And six cornflowers,” Twiggy said, softly, to Savina.
Tavi began setting items in a careful circle. Candles. Herbs. Bits of wool. Stones. Twiggy followed him, lighting candles. Did he mean to put the thyme next to the shale? She moved the shale. They really needed those flowers and feathers.
There were voices outside, down the street. “This way! I see light inside!”
Rose and Savina scrambled through the drawers of the apothecary cabinet. This one had dried lizards. That one had ribbons. The floor was strewn with drawers and bits of plant and fuzz when they spotted their quarries: finch feathers. Cornflowers. They ran to the circle, and Tavi and Twiggy gingerly fit the items in their respective spots.
The doors shook as guards banged on them from outside. “We have set the circle to appear as if we are going to Pol Thane,” said Tavi, “but that means making a longer incantation. Everyone, get in the circle.”
Each of them ran in. Tavi began to chant. Thumps and clangs came from outside. A window broke. Tavi continued to chant.
Twiggy thought. Soon, Acorn, we’ll be as far from home as we can be. All the way across the Halmae.
Acorn’s whiskers twitched. Well, I hope the people there will be well civilized. Did you see those men at the tavern? They were positively violent—
The door flew open. Guards rushed in.
The ring on the floor glowed.
There was a bright flash of light.