The curtains were pulled back, letting in the sunlight, so she could see right away that the room was empty. None of the servants were cleaning or anything. The fire was burned out, and the servants hadn’t yet come and made another for tonight. The Princess’s big canopy bed was already made up. Rachel liked the bedcover with all the pretty flowers. It matched the gathered canopy and curtains. She always wondered why the Princess needed such a big bed. It was big enough for ten people. Where she came from, six girls slept together in a bed half the size of this one, and the bedcover was plain. She wondered what the Princess’s bed felt like. She had never once even sat on it.
She knew Giller wanted her to hurry, so she crossed the room, walking over the fur rug, to the polished desk with the pretty swirled wood. She put her fingers through the gold handle and slid the drawer open. It made her nervous to do it, even though she had done it before when the Princess had sent her to get the key, but she had never done it before without being told to by the Princess. The big key to the jewel room was lying in the red velvet pocket, right next to the little key to her sleeping box. She put the key in her pocket and slid the drawer closed again, making sure it was shut all the way.
As she started for the door, she looked at the corner where her sleeping box was. She knew Giller wanted her to hurry, but she ran over to the box anyway—she had to check. She crawled inside, into the dark, and went to the back corner where the blanket was pushed up in a pile. Carefully, she pulled the blanket back.
Sara looked back at her. The doll was right where she had left her.
“I have to go quick,” she whispered. “I’ll be back later.”
Rachel kissed the doll’s head and covered her back up with the blanket, hiding her in the corner so no one would find her. She knew it was trouble to bring Sara to the castle, but she couldn’t bear to leave her in the wayward pine, all alone. She knew how lonely and scary it got in the wayward pine.
Finished, she ran to the door, pulled it open a crack, and looked up at Giller’s face. He nodded to her and motioned with his hand that it was all right to come out.
“The key?”
She pulled it out of the pocket where she kept her magic fire stick, to show him. He smiled and called her a good girl. No one had ever called her a good girl before, at least not for a long time. He picked her up again and walked fast down the hall and then down the dark, narrow servants’ stairs. She could hardly even hear his footsteps on the stone. His whiskers tickled her face. At the bottom he set her down again.
“Rachel,” he said, squatting down close to her, “listen carefully, this is very important, this is no game. We must get out of the castle, or we will both get our heads chopped off, just like Sara told you. But we must be smart about it, or we will get caught. If we run away too quickly, without doing the right things first, we will be found out. And if we are too slow, well, we just better not be too slow.”
She started to get tears in her eyes. “Giller, I’m afraid to get my head chopped off, people say it hurts terrible bad.”
Giller hugged her tight. “I know, child. I’m afraid too.” He put his hands on her shoulders, holding her up straight while he looked in her eyes. “But if you trust me, and do exactly as I say, and are brave enough, we will get away from here, and go to where no one ever chops off people’s heads, or locks them in boxes, and where you can have your doll and people will let you, and they will never take Sara away from you or throw her in the fire. All right?”
Her tears started to go away. “That would be wonderful, Giller.”
But you must be brave, and do just as I tell you. Some of it will be hard.”
“I will, I promise.”
“And I promise, Rachel, that I will do whatever I must to protect you. We are in this together, you and me, but a lot of other people are depending on us too. If we do a good job, we will be able to fix it so a lot of other people, innocent people, won’t get their heads chopped off anymore.”
Her eyes got wide. “Oh, I would like that, Giller. I hate it when people get their heads chopped off. It scares me fierce.”
“All right then, the first thing I need you to do is to go scold the cooks, just like you are supposed to, and while you are down in the kitchen, get a big loaf of bread, the biggest you can find. I don’t care how you get it, steal it if you have to. Just get it. Then bring it up to the jewel room. Use the key and wait inside for me. I must tend to some other things. I’ll tell you more then. Can you do that?”
“Sure,” she nodded. “Easy.”
“Off with you then.”
She went through the door into the big hall on the first floor while Giller disappeared up the steps without making a sound. The stairs to the kitchen were at the other end, on the other side of the grand stairs in the middle that the Queen used. Rachel liked going up the grand stairs with the Princess because they had carpets, and weren’t cold like the stone steps she was supposed to use when she was on errands. The hall was open in the middle, where the grand stairs came down to a big room with black and white marble squares on the floor. They were very cold under her feet.
She was trying to think of a way she could get a big loaf of bread without stealing it, when she saw Princess Violet coming across the room to the grand stairs. The royal seamstress and two of her helpers were following behind, carrying bolts of pretty, pink cloth. Rachel looked quick for a place to hide, but the Princess had already seen her.
“Oh good, Rachel,” the Princess said. “Come here.”
Rachel went and curtsied. “Yes, Princess Violet?”
“What are you doing?”
“I was doing my errands. I was just going to the kitchen now.”
“Well… don’t bother.”
“But Princess Violet, I have to!”
The Princess frowned. “Why? I just said you didn’t.”
Rachel bit her lip; the Princess’s frown scared her. She tried to think of how Giller would answer. “Well, if you don’t want me to, I won’t,” she said. “But your lunch was simply dreadful, and I would hate to see you eating another dreadful meal. You must be starving for something good. But if you don’t want me to go tell them, I won’t.”
The Princess thought this over a minute. “On second thought, go ahead, it was dreadful. Just be sure to tell them how angry I am, too!”
“Yes, Princess Violet.” She curtsied. She turned and started to leave.
“I’m going for a fitting.” Rachel turned back to her. “Then I want to go to the jewel room, and try on some things, to go with my new dress. When you’re finished with the cooks, go get the key and wait for me in the jewel room.”
Rachel’s mouth felt as if it were stuck together. “But Princess, wouldn’t you rather wait until tomorrow, when the dress is finished, to see how pretty the jewelry will look with the dress?”
Princess Violet looked surprised. “Well, yes, that would be good, to see the jewels with the dress.” She thought another minute, then started up the steps. “I’m glad I thought of that.”
Rachel let out a breath, then headed off to the servants’ stairs. The Princess called down to her.
“On second thought, Rachel, I need to pick out something for tonight’s dinner, so I need to go to the jewel room anyway. Meet me there in a little while.”
“But, Princess…”
“But nothing. After you deliver my message to the cooks, go get the key and wait for me in the jewel room. I’ll be there as soon as I’m done with the fitting.”
The Princess went up the grand stairs and disappeared.
What was she going to do now? Giller was going to meet her in the jewel room, too. She was breathing hard, as if she was going to cry. What was she going to do?
She was going to do as Giller said, that’s what. She was going to be brave. So those people didn’t get their heads chopped off. She stopped herself from crying and went down the steps to the kitchen. She wondered what Giller wanted a big loaf of bread for.
“Well, w
hat do you think?” he whispered. “Any ideas?”
Kahlan was lying close, next to him on the ground, frowning while she looked over the edge to the scene below.
“I can’t even imagine,” she whispered back. “I have never seen so many short-tailed gars together in one place.”
“What could they be burning?”
“They’re not burning anything. The smoke is coming from the ground. This place is called Fire Spring. Those are vents where steam comes up from the ground, and from other openings water boils up from below, and more over there where other things boil, foul-smelling yellow liquid and thick mud. The fumes keep people away from this place. I have no idea what gars would be doing here.”
“Well, look there, near the back where the hill rises up, where the biggest vent is. There’s something on top of it, something egg-shaped, with steam coming out around it. They keep going up to look at it, to touch it.”
She shook her head. “Your eyes are better than mine. I can’t tell what it is, or even that it’s round.”