was not food at all, but only a little water, warm and musty. His throat was so parched that Taran disregarded the taste, thrust his face into the bowl, and drank it dry.
He curled up and tried to sleep away his pain; the tight thongs pinched, but his swollen hands were mercifully numb. Sleep brought only nightmares and he roused to find himself shouting aloud. He settled down once more. Now there was a rasping sound under the straw.
Taran stumbled to his feet. The rasping grew louder.
'Move away!' cried a faint voice.
Taran looked around him, dumbfounded.
'Get off the stone?
He stepped backward. The voice was coming from the straw.
'Well, I can't lift it with you standing on it, you silly Assistant Pig-Keeper!' the muffled voice complained.
Frightened and puzzled, Taran jumped to the wall. The pallet began rising upward. A loose flagstone was lifted, pushed aside, and a slender shadow emerged as if from the ground itself.
'Who are you?' Taran shouted.
'Who did you expect?' said the voice of Eilonwy. 'And please don't make such a racket. I told you I was coming back. Oh, there's my bauble…' The shadow bent and picked up the luminous ball.
'Where are you?' cried Taran. 'I can see nothing…'
'Is that what's bothering you?' Eilonwy asked. 'Why didn't you say so in the first place?' Instantly, a bright light filled the cell. It came from the golden sphere in the girl's hand.
Taran blinked with amazement. 'What's that?' he cried.
'It's my bauble,' said Eilonwy. 'How many times do I have to tell you?'
'But? but it lights up!'
'What did you think it would do? Turn into a bird and fly away?'
Eilonwy, as the bewildered Taran saw her for the first time, had, in addition to blue eyes, long hair of reddish gold reaching to her waist. Her face, though smudged, was delicate, elfin, with high cheekbones. Her short, white robe, mud-stained, was girdled with silver links. A crescent moon of silver hung from a fine chain around her neck. She was one or two years younger than he, but fully as tall. Eilonwy put the glowing sphere on the floor, went quickly to Taran, and unknotted the thongs that bound him.
'I meant to come back sooner,' Eilonwy said. 'But Achren caught me talking to you. She started to give me a whipping. I bit her.
'Then she locked me in one of the chambers, deep underground,' Eilonwy went on, pointing to the flagstones. 'There are hundreds of them under Spiral Castle, and all kinds of galleries and little passages, like a honeycomb. Achren didn't build them; this castle, they say, once belonged to a great king. She thinks she knows all the passageways. But she doesn't. She hasn't been in half of them. Can you imagine Achren going through a tunnel? She's older than she looks, you know.' Eilonwy giggled. 'But I know every one, and most of them connect with each other. It took me longer in the dark, though, because I didn't have my bauble.'
'You mean you live in this terrible place?' Taran asked.
'Naturally,' Eilonwy said. 'You don't imagine I'd want to visit here, do you?'
'Is? is Achren your mother?' Taran gasped and drew back fearfully.
'Certainly not!' cried the girl. 'I am Eilonwy, daughter of Angharad, daughter of Regat, daughter of? oh, it's such a bother going through all that. My ancestors,' she said proudly, 'are the Sea People. I am of the blood of Llyr Half-Speech, the Sea King. Achren is my aunt, though sometimes I don't think she's really my aunt at all.'
'Then what are you doing here?'
'I said I live here,' Eilonwy answered. 'It must take a lot of explaining before you understand anything. My parents died and my kinsmen sent me here so Achren could teach me to be an enchantress. It's a family tradition, don't you see? The boys are war leaders, and the girls are enchantresses.'
'Achren is leagued with Arawn of Annuvin,' cried Taran. 'She is an evil, loathsome creature!'
'Oh, everybody knows that,' said Eilonwy. 'Sometimes I wish my kinsmen had sent me to someone else. But I think they must have forgotten about me by now.'
She noticed the deep slash on his arm. 'Where did you get that?' she asked. 'I don't think you know much about fighting if you let yourself get knocked about and cut up so badly. But I don't imagine Assistant Pig-Keepers are often called on to do that sort of thing.' The girl tore a strip from the hem of her robe and began binding Taran's wound.
'I didn't
'I hate Achren!' Eilonwy burst out. 'She is a mean, spiteful person. Of all the people who come here, you're the only one who's the least bit agreeable to talk to? and she had you damaged!'
'That's not the end of it,' Taran said. 'She means to kill my friend.'
'If she does that,' said Eilonwy, 'I'm sure she'll include you. Achren doesn't do things by halves. It would be a shame if you were killed. I should be very sorry. I know I wouldn't like it to happen to me…'
'Eilonwy, listen,' Taran interrupted, 'if there are tunnels and passages under the castle? can you get to the other cells? Is there a way outside?'
'Of course there is,' Eilonwy said. 'If there's a way in, there has to be a way out, doesn't there?'
'Will you help us?' Taran asked. 'It is important for us to be free of this place. Will you show us the passage?'
'Let you escape?' Eilonwy giggled. 'Wouldn't Achren be furious at that? She tossed her head. 'It would serve her right for whipping me and trying to lock me up. Yes, yes,' she went on, her eyes dancing, 'that's a wonderful idea. I would love to see her face when she comes down to find you. Yes, that would be more fun than anything I could think of. Can you imagine…'
'Listen carefully,' Taran said, 'is there a way you can take me to my companion?'
Eilonwy shook her head. 'That would be very hard to do. You see, some of the galleries connect with the ones leading to the cells, but when you try to go across, what happens is that you start to run into passages that…'
'Never mind, then,' Taran said. 'Can I join him in one of the passageways?'
'I don't see why you want to do that,' said the girl. 'It would be so much simpler if I just go and let him out and have him wait for you beyond the castle. I don't understand why you want to complicate things; it's bad enough for two people crawling about, but with three, you can imagine what that would be. And you can't possibly find your way by yourself.'
'Very well,' Taran said impatiently. 'Free my companion first. I only hope he is well enough to move. If he isn't, then you must come and tell me right away and I'll think of some means of carrying him.
'And there is a white horse, Melyngar,' Taran went on. 'I don't know what's been done with her.'
'She would be in the stable,' Eilonwy said. 'Isn't that where you'd usually find a horse?'
'Please,' Taran said, 'you must get her, too. And weapons for us. Will you do that?'
Eilonwy nodded quickly. 'Yes, that should be very exciting.' She giggled again. She picked up the glowing ball, cupped it in her hands, and once again the cell was dark. The stone grated shut and only Eilonwy's silvery laugh lingered behind.
Taran paced back and forth. For the first time, he felt some hope; though he wondered how much he could count on this scatterbrained girl. She was likely to forget what she started out to do. Worse, she might betray him to Achren. It might be another trap, a new torment that promised him freedom only to snatch it away, but even so, Taran decided, they could be no worse off.
To save his energy, he lay down on the straw and tried to relax. His bandaged arm no longer pained him, and while he was still hungry and thirsty, the water he had drunk had taken some of the edge from his discomfort.
He had no idea how long it would take to travel through the underground galleries. But as time passed, he grew more anxious. He worked at the flagstone the girl had used. It would not move, though Taran's efforts bloodied his fingers. He sank again into dark, endless waiting. Eilonwy did not return.
Chapter 7
The Trap
