The Book of Three

FROM THE CORRIDOR, a faint sound grew louder. Taran hastened to press his ear against the slot in the portal. He heard the heavy tread of marching feet, the rattle of weapons. He straightened and stood with his back to the wall. The girl had betrayed him. He cast about for some means to defend himself, for he had determined they would not take him easily. For the sake of having something in his hands, Taran picked up the dirty straw and held it ready to fling; it was a pitiable defense, and he wished desperately for Gwydion's power to set it ablaze.

The footsteps continued. He feared, then, they would enter the other cell. He breathed a sigh of relief when they did not stop but faded away toward what he imagined to be the far end of the corridor. Perhaps the guard was being changed.

He turned away, certain Eilonwy would not be back, and furious with her and her false promises. She was a rattlebrained fool who would undoubtedly giggle and take it as a great joke when the Cauldron-Born came for him. He buried his face in his hands. He could hear her chatter even now. Taran started up again. The voice he heard was real.

'Must you always sit on the wrong stone?' it said. 'You're too heavy to lift.'

Taran jumped up and hurriedly cleared the straw away. The flagstone was raised. The light from the golden ball was dim now, but enough for him to see that Eilonwy looked pleased with herself.

'Your companion is free,' she whispered. 'And I took Melyngar from the stable. They are hidden in the woods outside the castle. It's all done now,' Eilonwy said gleefully. 'They're waiting for you. So if you get a move on and stop looking as if you'd forgotten your own name, we can go and meet them.'

'Did you find weapons?' Taran asked.

'Well, no. I didn't have a chance to look,' Eilonwy said. 'Really,' she added, 'you can't expect me to do everything, can you?'

Eilonwy held the glowing sphere close to the stone floor. 'Go first,' she said. 'Then I'll come down after, so I can put the stone back in place. Then, when Achren sends to have you killed, there won't be any trace at all. She'll think you disappeared into thin air? and that will make it all the more vexing. I know it isn't nice to vex people on purpose? it's like handing them a toad? but this is much too good to miss and I may never have another chance at it.'

'Achren will know you let us escape,' Taran said.

'No, she won't,' said Eilonwy, 'because she'll think I'm still locked up. And if she doesn't know I can get out, she can't know I was here. But it's very thoughtful of you to say that. It shows a kind heart, and I think that's so much more important than being clever.'

While Eilonwy continued to chatter away, Taran lowered himself into the narrow opening. The passage was low, he discovered, and he was obliged to crouch almost on hands and knees.

Eilonwy moved the stone into place and then began to lead the way. The glow from the sphere showed walls of hard packed earth. As Taran hunched along, other galleries opened up on either side.

'Be sure you follow me,' Eilonwy called. 'Don't go into any of those. Some of them branch off and some of them don't go anywhere at all. You'd get lost, and that would be a useless thing to do if you're trying to escape.'

The girl moved so quickly Taran had difficulty keeping up with her. Twice he stumbled over loose stones in the passage, clutched at the ground, and pitched forward. The little light bobbed ahead, while behind him long fingers of darkness grasped his heels. He could understand why Achren's fortress was called Spiral Castle. The narrow, stifling galleries turned endlessly; he could not be sure whether they were making real progress or whether the tunnel was merely doubling back on itself.

The earthen ceiling trembled with racing footsteps.

'We're just below the guard room,' Eilonwy whispered. 'Something's happening up there. Achren doesn't usually turn out the guard in the middle of the night.'

'They must have gone to the cells,' Taran said. 'There was a lot of commotion just before you came. They surely know we're gone.'

'You must be a very important Assistant Pig-Keeper,' said Eilonwy with a small laugh. 'Achren wouldn't go to all that trouble unless…'

'Hurry,' Taran urged. 'If she puts a guard around the castle we'll never get out.'

'I wish you'd stop worrying,' Eilonwy said. 'You sound as if you were having your toes twisted. Achren can set out all the guards she wants. She doesn't know where the mouth of the tunnel is. And it's hidden so well an owl couldn't see it. After all, you don't think I'd march you out the front gate, do you?'

Despite her chattering, Eilonwy kept a rapid pace. Taran bent close to the ground, moving half by touch, keeping his eyes on the faint glow; he skidded past sharp turns, fetched up against rough walls, skinned his knees, then had to move twice as fast to regain the ground he had lost. At another bend in the passageway, Eilonwy's light wavered and dropped out of sight. In the moment of darkness, Taran lost his footing as the ground rose steeply on one side. He fell and rolled. Before he could recover his balance, he was sliding rapidly downward in a shower of loose stones and earth. He collided with an outcropping of rock, rolled again, and dropped suddenly into the darkness.

He landed heavily on flat stones, legs twisted under him. Taran climbed painfully to his feet and shook his head to clear it. Suddenly he realized he was standing upright. Eilonwy and her light could not be seen. He called as loudly as he dared.

After a few moments he heard a scraping above him and saw the faint reflection of the golden ball. 'Where are you?' called the girl. Her voice seemed quite distant. 'Oh? I see. Part of the tunnel's given way. You must have slipped into a crevice.'

'It's not a crevice,' Taran called. 'I've fallen all the way down into something and it's deep. Can't you put the light into it? I've got to get up again.'

There were more scraping noises. 'Yes,' Eilonwy said, 'you have got yourself into a mess. The ground's all broken through here, and below there's a big stone, like a shelf over your head. How did you ever manage to do that?'

'I don't know how,' replied Taran, 'but I certainly didn't do it on purpose.'

'It's strange,' Eilonwy said. 'This wasn't here when I came through the first time. All that tramping must have jarred something loose; it's hard to say. I don't think these tunnels are half as solid as they look, and neither is the castle, for the matter of that; Achren's always complaining about things leaking and doors not closing right…'

'Do stop that prattling,' cried Taran, clasping his head. 'I don't want to hear about leaks and doors. Show a light so I can climb out of here.'

'That's the trouble,' the girl said. 'I'm not quite sure you can. You see, that shelf of stone juts out so far and goes down so steeply. Can you manage to reach it?'

Taran raised his arms and jumped as high as he could. He could find no handhold. From Eilonwy's description, and from the massive shadow above, he feared the girl was right. He could not reach the stone and, even if he could have, its sharp downward pitch would have made it impossible to climb. Taran groaned with despair.

'Go on without me,' he said. 'Warn my companion the castle is alerted…'

'And what do you intend doing? You can't just sit there like a fly in a jug. That isn't going to help matters at all.'

'It doesn't make any difference about me,' Taran said. 'You can find a rope and come back when things are safe…'

'Who knows when that will be? If Achren sees me, there's no telling what might happen. And suppose I couldn't get back? You'd turn into a skeleton while you're waiting? I don't know how long it takes for people to turn into skeletons, though I imagine it would need some time? and you'd be worse off than before.'

'What else am I to do?' cried Taran. Eilonwy's talk of skeletons made his blood run cold. He recalled, then, the sound of Gwyn the Hunter's horn and the memory of it filled him with grief and fear. He bowed his head and turned his face to the rough wall.

'That's very noble of you,' said Eilonwy, 'but I don't think it's really necessary, not yet, at any rate. If Achren's warriors come out and start beating the woods, I hardly think your friend would stay around waiting. He'd go and hide and find you later, or so I should imagine. That would be the sensible thing to do. Of course, if he's an Assistant Pig-Keeper, too, it's hard to guess how his mind would work.'