Violet Keystone right now, as they wasted time talking. They had to get to the Violet Tower and stop him from destroying the Veil.
"I'm not going," announced Adras, folding his arms. "You can't make me."
Tal was about to let his anger burst out into words when they both heard someone open the door. Instantly Tal ducked behind one of the workbenches, and Adras shot up to the ceiling and spread himself out among the shadows there.
The unknown intruder was trying to be very quiet. The door only opened a little way, and Tal saw someone slide in. In the dim light he couldn't even tell whether it was a Spiritshadow or someone wearing black.
Adras drifted over, ready to drop on the intruder. Tal lifted his Sunstone, and it began to swirl with red light in preparation for a Ray of Destruction.
It was a person, Tal saw, not a Spiritshadow. All dressed in black, with a black hood drawn tightly around his face. Tal saw a dagger in the hand held close by the intruder's side. He moved from shadow to shadow, until he could see the open globe and the body of Fashnek. He stopped suddenly then and looked around.
"Tal?"
It was a voice from the past, a voice from the dead.
Crow's voice.
But that was impossible. For a moment, Tal thought he might still be under the control of the nightmare machine. But the Sunstones on their silver stands were dark, the globe still open.
"Tal?"
Tal stood up slowly. Crow faced him and slowly undid his hood. He was very pale, and there was a partly healed scar across his forehead.
"I thought I killed you," whispered Tal.
"Ebbitt saved us," said Crow.
"Ebbitt's alive, too?" exclaimed Tal. He felt relief flood his entire body, making him feel weak. He needed to sit down.
"We all survived," said Crow. "I thought I'd killed you.
And I did hit you on the head. I… I'm sorry. I guess I went crazy… There is so much the Chosen have done to my family… "
"I've been in the nightmare machine," said Tal. He didn't need to say anything else.
Crow nodded and went over to look down on Fashnek's body.
"It took too long to come to this," he said.
"I'm sorry, too," said Tal after a moment.
"For bringing down the roof. For everything my people have done to yours."
"It's all changing now," said Crow. "The Icecarls will win. They have agreed that we will be free."
"I hope that happens," replied Tal. He was surprised to find that he meant it. He had come to learn that there was no such thing as the natural superiority of the Chosen over everyone else. In fact, Tal realized with surprise that there were more Underfolk and Icecarls who he admired and looked up to.
"I came to rescue you," said Crow. "The Codex told Ebbitt where you were. Or so he said. Only you seem to have rescued yourself."
Silence fell awkwardly between them then. Tal still wasn't absolutely sure Crow could be trusted. Too much had happened between them in the past. Could the Freefolk boy have changed so much?
"Um, I have to go," Tal said after a few more seconds of uncomfortable silence.
"Where?" asked Crow.
"The Violet Tower," Tal answered slowly. "Sushin has part of the Violet Keystone. It's probably enough for him to destroy the Veil. The Sun will come again and melt the Ice. There will be an invasion of shadows. Thousands and thousands of shadows. I have to… I
have to stop him."
"You will need help," said Crow.
"Like you helped me in the Red Tower?" asked Tal.
Crow shook his head.
"No. I swear it in my parents' names. We fight together now."
He clapped his fists, Icecarl-style, then drew out a Sunstone. For a moment Tal almost shot a Red Ray at him, but he forced himself to wait. Crow simply gave light in respect, and Tal let out the breath he didn't know he'd held.
"All right," Tal agreed. He clapped his fists, too, and let the red light fade from his Sunstone in order to give light in return. It was Violet that shone forth, though he had not tried to make it so. Perhaps even without the Violet Keystone something of the imperial majesty clung to him.
"We'll fight together."
"Adras fight, too," boomed the Spiritshadow from the ceiling. "Only can we fight someone easier, not Sushin?"
Tal ignored him.
"You said Ebbitt told you where I was? He didn't get hurt too much?"
"No. He was hurt, but he's all right now." "And Milla is with the Icecarls?"
Crow laughed for a moment, then grew suddenly serious again.
"Milla is the leader of the Icecarls! She has a magical fingernail of crystal and Sunstone chips they call the Talon of Danir, and she is called Milla Talon-Hand, War-Chief of the Icecarls and Living Sword of Asteyr. She has grown, I think--if not in size, in something… something you can't see. You have grown, too, Tal."
"What do you mean?" asked Tal. He looked down at himself. He didn't seem any taller or stronger or anything.
"You seem… more important," Crow said hesitantly, as if he wasn't sure himself. "Less a boy, and less a Chosen. You have become something else, something more."
"You have changed, too, at least in your choice of color," Tal said, with a slight laugh. He wasn't sure he liked Crow being strange and mystical any more than he had liked him being aggressive and antagonistic.
Crow looked down at his black robes, so different from the white normally worn by Freefolk, or the white with black lettering of the Underfolk.
"It's true I've changed," he said. "Deeper than my clothes. I know what's really important now."
Tal tried to smile again, but found he couldn't.
"I'm glad Milla leads the Icecarls," he said. "She knows about the danger from Sushin. How far have the Icecarls penetrated into the Castle? And where is the current fighting? I know a few ways to get to the Violet levels, but they may be blocked off or defended."
Crow nodded. "Come, let's talk as we go. There is no fighting close by, at least not yet. There are also Underfolk ways to the Violet levels. I will show you. Follow me."
CHAPTER NINE
"I have to find out what is happening with the main force before we can go anywhere," Milla said sternly. She looked across at Malen, who was once more standing still in absolute concentration.
Ebbitt looked at the Crone and wiggled his eyebrows, trying to distract her. But Malen did not see him, though her pure blue eyes were open.
"There are many of your people in the lower Red levels," said Graile. She was lying down, exhausted, supported by both her own and Ebbitt's Spiritshadows. "At least, that is what I overheard a Chosen saying. Thousands of them, he said. I am still not entirely sure why you are invading our Castle. But Uncle Ebbitt says we need you to stop Sushin from destroying the Veil, and I find myself believing him, which is not always the case. And my son sent me to you, not to any Chosen."
"Thousands?" asked Milla. "The main host must have arrived!"
Saylsen shook her head. "The Chosen may simply be afraid. Remember, 'In fear, nothing is certain. A single sharik becomes a swarm. Only the calm Shield Maiden can count."
Malen's eyes clouded. There was an instant hush. All the Icecarls leaned forward, as if they, too, might hear what Malen heard.
"There is a Crone at the exit from the heatways below. She will come no farther. She says that she has counted two thousand of our folk through and still they pass. Some wounded have come back, they say… They say we are victorious in the Red levels, and the Chosen retreat upward into Orange!"
"Ask her to tell a Shield Mother that Milla Talon-Hand lives," instructed Milla. "That I must now fight my way to the Violet Tower. Tell her that the most senior Shield Mother should assume command, and that they must keep attacking up through the levels, and try to join us in the Violet Tower as soon as they can."
"Feyle One-Ear will command if she still lives,"
said Saylsen. "We should send her a messenger as well, to be sure."
&n
bsp; Milla looked around the green and dripping walls of the room.
"How do we get out of here?" she asked Ebbitt. "And how do we get to the Violet Tower?"
"It is a secret, but some can go by steam to the topmost Violet level," whispered Ebbitt, holding his finger upright next to his nose. "But first we must all jump in the bucket."
He pointed at the wall opposite the stairway they'd come down. There was no sign of any bucket, or a hidden door or stairway, but the Icecarls moved apart so Ebbitt could press his palms against various stones in a complicated sequence.
Nothing happened. Ebbitt scratched his head. Then he pressed his ear against the wall. Whatever he heard satisfied him, and he stepped back.