“How could they—” Blaise began.
I said, “Look!”
Closing my eyes, I envisioned Freda’s face in my mind, her long hair, the thin lines around her eyes, the shape of her jaws and cheeks. I held that image, made it my own, and then I opened my eyes.
“See?” I said with Freda’s voice. From the shocked faces of everyone around me, I knew my old childhood trick still worked. My face now looked exactly like Freda’s. “Anyone can do it.”
“How—” Blaise breathed.
Dworkin chuckled. “A simple enough trick. You have never tried to change your face, have you, my girl?”
Blaise looked from Freda to me and back again. Then, when she opened her mouth, no words came out.
“I have something to say,” Freda said, standing. She glared at Blaise. “First, my comings and goings are of no concern to anyone but myself. I don’t need your
“Where did you go?” Blaise countered. “Off to hide the body?”
“If you must know, I returned to my room,” Freda said coolly.
“What did you want with me?” I asked her.
“I wanted to read your cards. Just like this afternoon… only I didn’t get a chance then, either.”
“See?” Dworkin said. “A simple explanation.”
“Then who removed the body?” Locke said.
Nobody had an answer.
Then, for the second time that day, a distant bell began to sound an alarm.
Locke led the way out to the audience hall, where a man dressed as a lieutenant stood waiting with two other men. They were panting and soaked in sweat.
“General!” he gasped, saluting Locke, “they’re doing something to the sky!”
“What?” Locke demanded.
“I don’t know!”
As one, we ran to the windows and peered up at the sky.
Directly over Juniper, immense black clouds now boiled and seethed. A strange bluish lightning flickered. The cloud grew larger as we watched, and slowly it began to move, swirling, spiraling inward.
“What is it, Dad?” I asked Dworkin.
“I have never seen its like before,” he admitted. “Freda?”
“No. But I do not like it.”
“Nor I,” said Locke.
“Where is Anari?” Dworkin said.
“Here, Prince.” He had been standing to the back of our little crowd, also staring up at the sky.
“I want everyone out of the top floors,” Dworkin said firmly. “Bring the beds downstairs to the ballroom, dining hall, and audience chambers. No one is to go above ground level.”
“I’m going to pull some of our troops away from Juniper,” Locke said, starting for the door. “I don’t know how, but that cloud means ill for us.” To Dworkin he said, “You and Freda need to find something to stop it. If you need to swallow your pride and ask for help at the Courts of Chaos, do it!”
Turning, he ran for the door, with Davin and the lieutenant close behind.
“Oberon, come with me,” Dworkin said, turning and heading back toward his workshop.
I hesitated. Part of me wanted to join Locke in the field, getting the army camp moved farther from Juniper. There was something about those clouds that made me more than a little bit afraid. But a good soldier—and a dutiful son—obeys orders, and I followed him back to his workshop.
Inside, he bolted the door, then turned and went to a large wooden chest pushed up against the wall. He opened the top and drew out a blue velvet bag with its drawstring pulled closed.
He opened it slowly, carefully, and pulled out a set of Trumps similar to Aber’s. Looking at them over his shoulder, I saw portraits of men and women in strange costumes. I didn’t recognize any of them as part of our family.
He flipped past these people quickly, then drew out an image I did recognize… a gloomy castle almost lost in night and storm, with strange patterns of lightning around the silver-limned towers and battlements: The Grand Plaza of the Courts of Chaos, drawn almost exactly as it had been on Freda’s card.
“You’re going to the Courts of Chaos?” I asked slowly. Just looking at the Trump sent my skin crawling.
“Yes. Locke is right—I have avoided it too long. This fight has gotten out of hand. I must petition King Uthor to intercede. It is a disgrace… but it must be done. You will accompany me.”
I swallowed. “All right.”
He raised the card and stared at it. I took a deep breath, held it, expecting to be whisked off to the world on the card at any second.
But nothing happened.
I let out my breath. Still Dworkin stared. And still we stayed in his workshop, unmoving.
“Uh, Dad…” I began.
He lowered the card and looked at me. I saw tears glistening in his eyes.
“I can’t do it,” he said.
“Want me to try?”
Silently, he handed me the card. I raised it, saw the courtyard, concentrated on the image… and nothing happened. I stared harder. Still nothing.
Rubbing my eyes, I turned the card over and looked at the back—plain white—then at the front again. I remembered how other Trumps had seemed to come to life as I stared at them, and I tried once more,
Was I doing something wrong?
Dworkin took the card out of my hand.
“I thought so,” he said softly, returning it to the bag and tightening the drawstring. “Now we know what the clouds are for. Somehow, they are interfering with the Logrus. We are cut off.”
“Perhaps it’s just the cloud,” I said. “If we ride out from under it…”
“No,” he said, eyes distant. “They are here, now, and they are close. Now that we cannot retreat, cannot run, they will march on us… and they will kill us all.”
Chapter 18
I swallowed. “It can’t be as bad as all that.”
“Why not?” I had no answer.
“I’ll tell Freda,” I said, starting for the door. “Perhaps she’ll know what to do.” He gave a curt nod.
I left him there, seated at one of his work tables, just staring into space. I had never seen him like this before, and it tore me up inside. How could he have let it come to this? How could he have become so helpless so suddenly? It didn’t take me long to find Freda; she still stood at one of the windows in the audience hall, staring up at the sky. Aber and most of the others were still there as well.
The black cloud, I saw, had doubled in size, and it swirled faster than before. Blue flashes and the constant flicker of lightning gave it a sinister appearance.
I touched Freda’s arm and motioned for her to follow me. She gave one last look at the sky, then we went off to the side, where we could talk without being heard.
“What happened?” she asked. “Is he gone?”
“No.” Quickly I told her what we had discovered. “I thought you might be able to do something.”
