They were in uniform, white, or black, with plates of metal, and guns, and I ridiculously thought The House Guards!
They must have grabbed hold of me. I was in a sort of metal web, and I couldn’t see where Teil and Dagger and the others were. As I kicked and tried to bite I hoped they’d got away. And I thought, They’ll get help – and then, Anyway, someone will have seen – but the camp had been so busy – getting ready for the wedding. And these woods were uphill. And the trees—
Then one of the armoured men said to me, ‘Stop struggling, or you’ll wish you had.’
They weren’t House Guards. But I knew that tone, those words. He meant what he said. (It was useless anyway.) I became quite still.
Another one said, ‘Is this the one?’
‘It’s her,’ said the first one, who must be the one who had hold of me in the web. ‘I saw her almost every day in the City.’
‘He’d never forget,’ said the other, ‘would you, Chospa? Not after she made such a blazing great fool of you.’
‘Chospa’ growled and shook me angrily, and the chain-web rattled. Who was he? Just one of several enemies from my past—
Then there were shouts of ‘Haul away!’
And to my disbelieving horror I was being hauled upwards, up through the slapping branches of the trees, so I had to protect my eyes – up into the air. Up to the disgusting balloon.
I kept thinking, someone will come in a moment. Argul and the Hulta had rescued me before – once, twice – Argul will rush in gorgeously bellowing, and Mehmed and Ro and Blurn and everyone.
I kept thinking this even after I was pulled over into the basket under the balloon. Kept thinking it even as the balloon lifted, with a terrifying hiss of hot gas over my head. As the ground fell away. As the trees became like a clump of watercress, as I saw the Hulta camp – like a child’s colourful tiny toy, spread out, peaceful, far away – too far even to see if they’d noticed.
Then suddenly, as I lay there on the balloon-basket’s floor, I knew it was now too late. And then it was as if some mistake had been made and it was my fault, my mistake. Only what had I done wrong?
BALLOON RIDE
‘Some girls would give their front teeth, to ride in a balloon like this,’ said one of my captors haughtily, about an hour later.
So I was ungrateful, presumably?
Chospa, who was in the white uniform, glared at me under his steel helmet crested with a stiff white plume.
‘Chospa’s still very angry with you,’ said the one in black.
I thought I was quite angry with Chospa. Or would be if I weren’t so frightened, so numbed by what had happened.
‘Look, she doesn’t remember you, even, Chospa.’
‘No. She never looked at me once, until that last time.’
‘Tell us again, Chospa. It’s always good for a laugh.’
Chospa swore.
He said, ‘She was going to be Wolf’s Paw. I respected her.’
‘You trusted her,’ said the one in black.
‘We all did. Who didn’t? She was absolutely correct in everything. Couldn’t fault her.’
The one who’d remarked I might want to give my front teeth for this exciting ride (I found out later his name was Hrald) said, ‘But listen, boys, she’d destroyed everything, even the holy books, and then she prances down with our Chospa here, to the street. Says she wants a walk. Then she says,’ (here Hrald mimicked a female – my – voice, high and stupid and squeaky, how he thinks females sound, I suppose) ‘ “Dooo let me see that delicious darling rifle, dearest Chospa. Ee’ve always admeered it sooo.” And what does the dupp do, but give it to her—’
‘I didn’t know she’d destroyed the Law – or that she had savage barbarians waiting by the Tower door,’ snarled Chospa.
I knew him now, of course.
He’d been my guard/bodyguard in the City. Meant to protect me and/or keep me prisoner.
It’s true, I’d never really glanced at him. Most of the people there looked like mechanical dolls, clockwork, without minds or hearts.
I’d just been glad that night it was all being so simple, getting away.
Argul had taken the rifle from me and shut Chospa in the Tower, and I hadn’t really thought about it again. Not even when I wrote down what happened.
Chospa now said, ‘I couldn’t open the Tower door. You can’t from inside, unless it recognizes your rank – like it did hers. I had to sit there. Later I was called in to the Old Lady. I was in there, explaining, two hours.’
No one laughed at this.
Two hours with Ironel Novendot. Ironel either furiously angry or else making believe she was. Her black eyes, snapping real-pearl teeth and poison tongue, her dry white claws. I didn’t envy him. His face now, just remembering, was pale and sick-looking. (The way mine felt.)
‘Lost his house in the City,’ said Hrald. The one in black – his name is Yazkool (I haven’t forgotten their names, once heard. Never will, I expect) – said, ‘Just about kept his place in the City Guards. Allowed to come with us on our joyous quest, weren’t you, Chospa, to identify Miss, here. Ironel’s orders.’
(I hadn’t realized he couldn’t open the door. Thought they’d just sat there and not come after us because they were insane.) (The Tower door could recognize me? That was new. But so what—)
Drearily I huddled on the floor of the balloon-basket. Were they going to throw me out when we got high enough? We were high up now. No, they were going to take me back to the City, to the Tower. To her. And then – well.
Would Argul realize? Of course. He’d come after me, like before. Rescue me, somehow.
A spark of hope lit up bright inside me. I was careful not to let the three Guards see.
But I did sit up a bit. The web-chain had fallen off.
