"Outside?" he gasped. "Outside the Castle?"
"Yes," Tal explained. "That's where I've been. I really did fall off the Red Tower. My shadowguard saved me."
Ebbitt took a deep breath, then reached under the lounge to pull out a long crystal bottle with a narrow neck. Tal saw that there was a glass next to it, but Ebbitt didn't bother with that. He took out the stopper and took several long drinks.
"Distilled cordial of Halo-flower," he said, setting it down. "From Aenir. Medicine for a mad old man. Come closer, Milla, daughter of Ylse and… all those others."
"You can put your sword away, too," Tal said, then added in an aside to Ebbitt, "It's made from a Merwin horn. That's why it glows."
Milla hesitated, then sheathed her sword and approached. A few feet away, she clapped her fists together, in the Icecarl salute.
"So there is some truth to the old legends," said Ebbitt, peering at Milla in fascination. "There is more out there than ice and snow."
"Much more," said Tal, with considerable feeling. "Most of it trying to kill me."
"Tell me everything," Ebbitt exclaimed, flapping his arms up and down in excitement. "This is the best thing that's happened in years."
"What about Mother?" asked Tal. "How is she? And Gref? And Kusi? What's happened while I've been gone?"
"Your mother is still not well," said Ebbitt evasively. He got up and went to a cupboard, fetching food and a bottle of sweetwater, obviously more suitable for his current guests than the distillation of Halo-flowers. "We will talk about them later. First, I must hear your story."
Tal frowned, but from long experience he knew he couldn't make Ebbitt do anything he didn't want to do. The quickest way to find out anything from his great-uncle would be to tell him what had happened.
"After I left you," he started, "I climbed the Red Tower…"
CHAPTER
ELEVEN
Ebbitt paced up and down as Tal spoke. Occasionally he interrupted to ask questions, mostly of Tal but also of Milla. Sometimes he laughed, and sometimes he clapped his hands together and his laugh became a cackle. Milla moved back a bit when he did this, and her eyes flicked between the old man and the Spiritshadow.
She knew that Ebbitt must be as old as the Crone Mother of the Far Raiders, but he didn't look it. His hair was silver, not white, and grew long at the back while it receded at the front. His skin was lined, but his wrinkles could not compete with any Crone Mother's.
He was much taller than she'd expected, and moved more briskly. But his most dominant feature was his nose. In an Icecarl saga, Ebbitt would definitely be called Ebbitt Greatnose.
"Now," said Tal, as he finished with their strange rescue from the heating tunnels. "What about Gref? And Kusi? And Mother?"
"Your brother, Gref, is missing," Ebbitt said heavily. "I thought he might be with you, and that you were merely lying low to avoid the bloated Sushin. Kusi is with those tainted products of my niece's marriage, I'm afraid."
The bloated Sushin was Tal's enemy, Shadowmaster Sushin. It took Tal a second to realize that the tainted products of my niece's marriage meant his mother's cousins, Lallek and Korrek. They were just as bad as Sushin. Worse really, since they were supposed to be family. His small sister would not like being with them.
"But we wouldn't have tried to hide without telling Mother." Tal frowned. "You should've asked her! Anything could have happened to Gref!"
"I'm afraid I have not been able to speak to Graile," Ebbitt replied carefully. "She fell into a very deep sleep the day you disappeared - and has not awoken."
"What!" exclaimed Tal. His fingers twitched as he paced the room. "She wasn't that bad when I left. I should have -"
"There is nothing you could have done," said Ebbitt. "She sleeps to save her strength. I think she can be awakened, but only as a last resort. It should not be done until she can be taken into Aenir on the Day of Ascension. There are several magics to be found there that will heal her spirit, and thus her flesh."
"I can take her into Aenir," exclaimed Tal, pulling out his new Sunstone. "I could do it today. I don't care about waiting for the Day."
Milla stirred, her hand once more falling to her sword. Tal looked at her, and slowly shook his head.
"No, I guess I can't," he said, letting the Sunstone fall back under his fur coat. "If you're sure Mother will just sleep till the Day of Ascension, then I should… well, Kusi will be miserable, but at least she's safe. So I need to find Gref, and get a Sunstone for Milla."
Ebbitt looked at the Icecarl girl.
"I don't think most of the Chosen are ready to hear about Icecarls and their ships and the Ice," he said. "You will have to disguise yourself as an Underfolk, Milla."
"Shield Maidens do not hide behind false banners," said Milla proudly. It sounded like she was reciting a rule.
"Mmmm," replied Ebbitt. "Perhaps we can discuss that later. As to finding Gref, I do have one small idea. One very small idea. So small that it could disappear if I don't snatch hold of it "
"What idea, Uncle?" Tal interrupted. Ebbitt was starting to hop around in a circle, as if his idea were something he could physically pursue.
"Ssshhh," said Ebbitt. "I've almost got it!"
He made a sudden snatch and clapped his hands around seemingly thin air.
"Have you got it?" Tal asked. "The idea?"
Ebbitt opened his palms and inspected something. "What?" he asked. "No, it's a piece of fluff. I wonder where that came from?"
Tal glanced at Milla. She was expressionless as usual, but a muscle under her eye twitched, just for a second. He hoped it was amusement.
"What about the idea?" he asked. "To find Gref."
Ebbitt blew the invisible piece of fluff off his palm.
"The Spiritshadow who took Gref away, outside the Red Tower," he said. He seemed to be addressing the air in front of him, rather than Tal. "You saw it clearly and remember what it looked like?"
"Yes," said Tal. He moved around so he was in front of Ebbitt, but the old man swiveled on one foot so he was looking at the wall. "It had the shape of a Borzog. I recognized it from your Beastmaker game."
"An unusual Spiritshadow," said Ebbitt. "Not one I have seen before. I know one thing, though."
"What?" asked Tal in exasperation, after Ebbitt didn't continue.
"Or two things actually," said Ebbitt, counting on his fingers. "One, two."
"What!"
"One. You must identify who that Spiritshadow's master is." Ebbitt folded back his finger so hard that he flinched. "Ow!"
"And the second thing?" Tal prompted.
"Second. The only reliable way to do this is to look that Spiritshadow up in the Codex."
"The Codex?"
"The Codex of All Things," Ebbitt whispered. "The Compendium of the Chosen. The record of our race, inscribed in light upon crystal. Speak and it shall answer. The greatest magic ever to come out of Aenir. The Codex that knows all names - all Chosen, all Spiritshadows, all shadowguards."
"Well, finding out who the Borzog Spiritshadow answers to will be a start," said Tal, though he was a little worried by the gleam in his great-uncle's eye. "Where can I find this Codex?"
"That's the catch," Ebbitt said dolefully. He collapsed back into his lounge. "It disappeared more than twenty years ago. Lost, to our great sorrow. Or stolen, which I am beginning to think might be the case. If that is true, then it is for reasons so horrible that I have forced myself to forget them."
Tal groaned and collapsed next to his great-uncle. His shadowguard crept to his feet and turned into a Dattu again, all floppy-eared and harmless. Ebbitt's Spiritshadow leaned across and licked it, a great shadow-tongue suddenly appearing from its dark mouth. Tal had never seen it do anything like that before, and was momentarily shocked.
"Why" he began to say, when shadowguard Spiritshadow, and Milla all suddenly stiffened to attention, heads turning to the furniture barrier and the entrance to the corridor.
Tal looked, too. To his horr
or, he saw dark shadows sliding under the mass of chairs and bric-a-brac. Long shadows, with a shape he recognized almost manlike creatures, but with very broad shoulders and impossibly thin waists.
The Spiritshadows of the Imperial Guard! Once
Tal would not have been afraid of them, but now he knew some of the guard were in league with Sushin. How had they known he was back already?
"Out!" shouted Ebbitt. "This way!"
Ebbitt was up and over the back of the couch before Tal even realized what was happening. Ebbitt's great maned Spiritshadow was gone a moment later.
Tal hesitated. Should he run from the Imperial Guard? If they were true guards, they might take him before the Empress and he would get the chance to set everything straight. But if they were Sushin's cronies
One of the Spiritshadows lunged forward, and a cold, shimmering hand clutched him around the ankle. Tal's own shadowguard jumped to his defense, but was instantly batted away.
The Spiritshadow pulled, and Tal went down. Too late, he tried to get his Sunstone out. He almost had it free when the Spiritshadow flowed across him, horribly swift, pinning him to the floor.