Inkdeath

44. THE HAND OF DEATH

Minerva made good soup. Meggie had often eaten it when she was staying with Fenoglio, and the aroma rising from the steaming bowls was so delicious that for a moment the huge, chilly cave really seemed like home. "Please, Meggie, do eat something!" Resa had said. "I don't have an appetite any more than you do, but it's not going to help your father if we starve to death because we're so worried about him."

No, she supposed not. When she'd asked Farid to call up the fiery pictures for her again, the flames had shown nothing. "You can't force them!" Farid had muttered in annoyance as he put the ashes back into his bag. "The flames like to play, so you have to pretend you don't really want anything from them. But how am

I supposed to do that when you're staring at them as if it were a matter of life and death?"

Well, what else was it? Even the Black Prince was anxious about Mo. He had decided to follow Violante to the Castle in the Lake with a few men. He was going to set off tomorrow, but he wouldn't take Resa and Meggie with him. "Of course not," Meggie's mother had whispered bitterly. "This world belongs to men."

Meggie picked up the wooden spoon that Doria had carved for her (it was a very good spoon) and listlessly stirred the soup. Jasper peered at it longingly. Of course. Glass men loved human food, although it wasn't good for them. Jasper was spending more and more time with Doria, even though Farid was back. Meggie wasn't surprised. Farid had been far from talkative since Dustfinger sent him away again. Most of the time he walked restlessly in the surrounding hills or tried to call up pictures in the fire. So far Roxane had looked into the flames only once. "Thank you," she had said to Farid afterward, her voice cool. "But I'd rather go on listening to my heart. It usually tells me whether he's all right."

"There, isn't that just what I told Dustfinger?" Farid had said, annoyed. "So why did he send me to her? She doesn't need me. She'd bewitch me away if she could."

Doria offered Jasper his spoon.

"Don't give him any!" said Meggie. "He can't digest it! Ask him." She was very fond of Jasper. He was so much friendlier than Rosenquartz, who liked nothing better than losing his temper and quarreling with Fenoglio.

"She's right," muttered Jasper gloomily, but his sharp little nose sniffed, as if at least to fill his glass body with the forbidden aroma. The children sitting around Meggie giggled. They all liked the glass man, and Doria often had to rescue him from their small hands. They liked the marten, too, but Jink snapped and spat when the fuss the children made over him got to be too much. The glass man, however, had little defense against human fingers.

The soup really did smell good. Meggie dipped her spoon into her bowl – and jumped when the magpie that had flown to Gecko fluttered over to her own shoulder. By now the bird seemed to belong in the cave, like Jink and the bear, but Resa disliked it.

"Get away!" she said, shooing the magpie off Meggie's shoulder. The bird croaked angrily and jabbed at Resa with its beak. Meggie was so startled that she spilled the hot soup over her hands.

"Sorry." Resa mopped the liquid off Meggie's fingers with the hem of her dress. "I can't stand that bird. I expect it's because it reminds me of Mortola."

The Magpie – of course. It was a long time since Meggie had thought about Capricorn's mother, but then she hadn't been there when Mortola had shot Mo. Resa had.

"It's only a bird," said Meggie, her thoughts already far away again, following her father. She had found very little about the Castle in the Lake in Fenoglio's book. Deep in the mountains, in the middle of a lake… an endless bridge over black water. Was Mo riding over that bridge now? Suppose she and Resa simply followed the Black Prince? Do you hear, Meggie? Whatever happens, stay with the robbers! Promise me!

Resa pointed to the bowl in her lap. "Do please eat it, Meggie!"

But Meggie turned to Roxane, who was quickly making her way past the children as they sat there eating. Her beautiful face was paler than Meggie had seen it since Dustfinger's return. Resa stood up, looking anxious.

"What's happened?" She took Roxane's arm. "Is there any news? Has anything been heard of Mo? You must tell me!"

But Roxane shook her head. "The Prince…" The anxiety in her voice was plainly audible. "He's not well, and I don't know what it is. He has terrible stomach cramps. I have a few roots here that may help him."

She moved on, but Resa held her back again. "Stomach cramps? Where is he?"

Meggie heard the bear's howl from far away. The Strong Man was looking like a desperate child as they made their way toward him. Battista was there, too, with Woodenfoot and Elfbane. The Black Prince lay on the ground. Minerva was kneeling beside him, trying to get some liquid into his mouth, but he writhed in pain, pressed his hands to his body and struggled for breath. Sweat stood out on his forehead.

"Quiet, bear!" he gasped. He could hardly get the words past his lips; he had bitten them in his pain until they bled. But the bear went on howling and snorting as if his own life were at stake.

"Let me by." Resa pushed them all aside, even Minerva, and took the Prince's face between her hands.

"Look at me!" she said. "Please, look at me!"

She wiped the sweat from his brow and looked into his eyes.

Roxane came back with a few roots in her hand, and the magpie flapped its way over to Gecko's shoulder.

Resa stared at it.

"Strong Man!" she said, so quietly that no one but Meggie heard her. "Catch that bird."

The magpie jerked its head as the Black Prince writhed in Minerva's arms.

The Strong Man looked at Resa, his face streaming with tears, and nodded. But when he took a step toward Gecko, the magpie flew away and perched on a ledge high up below the roof of the cave.

Roxane kneeled beside Resa.

"He's lost consciousness," said Minerva. "And see how shallow his breathing is!"

"I've seen cramps like these before." Resa's voice was trembling. "The berries that cause them are dark red, not much bigger than a pinhead. Mortola liked to use them because they're easily mixed with food, and they bring a very painful death. There are two of the trees they grow on just below this cave! I've warned the children not to eat the berries." She looked up at the magpie again.

"Is there an antidote?" Roxane straightened her back. The Black Prince lay there as if dead, and the bear pushed his muzzle into his master's side and moaned like a human being.

"Yes. A flower with tiny white blooms that smell of carrion." Resa was still looking up at the bird. "The root alleviates the effect of the berries."

"What's wrong with him?" Fenoglio made his way past the women, a look of concern on his face. Elinor was with him. The pair of them had spent all morning in Fenoglio's corner of the cave, arguing about what was good in his story and what wasn't. Whenever someone came near them they lowered their voices like conspirators, as if any of the children or the robbers could have understood what they were talking about.

Elinor put her hand to her mouth with alarm when she saw the Black Prince lying there motionless. She looked incredulous, as if she had found a wrongly printed page in a book.

"Poisoned." The Strong Man stood up, clenching his fists. His face was the dark red color that it usually turned only when he was drunk. He took Gecko by his scrawny neck and shook him like a rag doll. "Did you do this?" he cried. "Or was it Snapper? Come on, tell us or I'll beat it out of you! I'll break all your bones until you're writhing in agony, too!"

"Let him go!" Roxane snapped. "That's not going to help the Prince now!"

The Strong Man let go of Gecko and started sobbing. Minerva put her arms around him. But Resa looked up at the magpie again.

"The plant you describe sounds like deathbud," Roxane told her, while Gecko, coughing, rubbed his neck and cursed the Strong Man roundly. "It's very rare. And even if it grew here it would have died down in the cold long ago. Isn't there anything else?"

The Black Prince came to his senses and tried to sit up, but he fell back with a groan. Battista kneeled down beside him and looked at Roxane in search of help. The Strong Man, too, turned his tearful eyes on her like a pleading dog.

"Don't stare at me like that!" she cried, and Meggie heard the desperation in her voice. "I can't help him. Try giving him retchwort," she told Minerva. "And I'll go and look for deathbud roots, though I'm afraid there's not much point."

"Retchwort will only make it worse," said Resa in a toneless voice. "Believe me, I've seen this often enough."

The Black Prince gasped in agony and buried his face against Battista's side. Then his body suddenly went limp, as if it had lost its battle against the pain. Roxane quickly kneeled down beside him, putting her ear to his chest and her fingers on his mouth. Meggie tasted her own tears on her lips, and the Strong Man began sobbing like a child.

"Still alive," said Roxane. "But only just."

Gecko slipped away, probably to tell Snapper what was going on. But Elinor whispered something to Fenoglio. He turned away angrily, but Elinor held him back and went on talking insistently to him. "Don't make such a fuss!" Meggie heard her whisper. "Of course you can do it! Are you going to leave him to die?"

Meggie was not the only one to have heard those last words. The Strong Man, bewildered, mopped the tears off his face. The bear groaned again and nuzzled his master's side. But Fenoglio still stood there, staring at the unconscious Prince. Then he took a hesitant step in Roxane's direction.

"This… er… this flower, Roxane…"

Elinor stayed right behind him, as if she had to make sure he said the right thing. Fenoglio looked at her in annoyance.

"What?" Roxane looked at him.

"Tell me more about it. Where does it grow? How tall is it?"

"It likes moist, shady places, but why ask? I told you, it'll have died down in the frost long ago."

"White flowers, tiny. Shady, moist surroundings." Fenoglio passed his hand over his tired face. Then he turned abruptly and took Meggie's arm.

"Come with me," he told her in a low voice. "We must hurry."

"Moist and shady," he murmured as he led Meggie off with him. "Right, so if they grew at the entrance of a brownie's burrow, protected by the warm air coming out of the burrow where a few brownies are hibernating… yes, that makes sense. Yes!"

The cave was almost empty. The women had taken the children out so that they wouldn't hear the Prince's cries of pain. A few small groups of robbers still sat there in silence, staring at one another as if wondering which of them had tried to kill their leader. Snapper was near the entrance with Gecko, and he returned Meggie's glance with such a black expression that she quickly looked the other way.

Fenoglio, however, did not avoid his eyes. "I wonder if it was Snapper," he whispered to Meggie. "Yes, I really do wonder."

"If anyone ought to know, it's you!" muttered Elinor, who had followed them. "Who else made up that horrible fellow?"

Fenoglio spun around as if something had stung him. "Now you listen to me, Loredan! I've been patient with you so far because you're Meggie's aunt -"

"Great-aunt," Elinor corrected him, unmoved.

"Whatever. I never invited you into this story, so you will kindly spare me any remarks about my characters in future!"

"Oh, will I?" Elinor's voice rose. It was loud enough to echo right through the huge cave. "And suppose I'd spared you my comment just now? Your befuddled brain would never have thought of getting the flower here by -"

Fenoglio pressed his hand roughly over her mouth. "How many more times do I have to tell you?" he hissed. "Not a word about writing, understand? I haven't the faintest desire to be drawn and quartered as a wizard because of a stupid woman."

"Fenoglio!" Meggie pulled him forcibly away from Elinor. "The Black Prince! He's dying!"

Fenoglio stared at her for a fraction of a second, as if he thought her interruption was in the worst possible taste, but then, without a word, he retreated to the corner where he slept. Stony-faced, he cleared a wineskin aside and found a bundle of papers under a few clothes. To Meggie's surprise, most of the sheets already had writing on them.

"Curse it all, where's Rosenquartz?" he muttered as he took a blank sheet. "Out and about with Jasper again, no doubt. The moment two of them get together they forget their work and go looking for wild glass women. As if the glass women would give one of those pink good-for-nothings so much as a glance!"

Paying no attention to the written pages, he put them aside. So many words. How long ago had he begun writing again? Meggie tried reading the first of the sheets. "Only a few ideas," muttered Fenoglio when their eyes met. "Trying to see how all this could yet end well. What part your father will play in the story…"

Meggie's heart turned over, but Elinor got in ahead of her.

"Aha! So it was you who wrote all that about Mortimer after all: letting himself be taken prisoner, then riding to that castle, while my niece cries her eyes out at night!"

"No, it wasn't me!" Fenoglio snapped at her angrily as he quickly hid the written sheets under his clothes again. "I didn't have him talking to Death, either – though I must say I really like that part of the story. I tell you, these are just some ideas! Useless scribbling that leads nowhere! And it'll probably be the same with what I'm trying to do now. But I'll have a shot at it all the same. So kindly be quiet! Or do you want to talk the Black Prince into his grave?"

As Fenoglio dipped his pen in the ink, Meggie heard a slight sound behind her. With a clearly embarrassed expression, Rosenquartz emerged from behind the rock on which Fenoglio's writing things stood. The pale green face of a wild glass woman appeared behind him. Without a word, she scurried away past Fenoglio and Meggie.

"I don't believe it!" thundered the old man in such a loud voice that Rosenquartz put his hands over his ears. "The Black Prince is at death's door, and you're gadding about with a wild glass woman!"

"The Prince?" Rosenquartz looked at Fenoglio in such dismay that he calmed down at once. "But, but -"

"Stop all that gabbling and stir the ink!" Fenoglio snapped. "And if you were going to say something clever like, 'But the Prince is such a good man!' that never kept anyone alive yet in any world, did it?" He dipped his pen in the ink so vigorously that it splashed Rosenquartz's pink face, but Meggie saw that the old man's fingers were shaking. "Come on, then, Fenoglio!" he whispered to himself. "It's only a flower. You can do it!"

Rosenquartz was watching him with concern, but Fenoglio just stared at the blank sheet before him. He stared at it like a matador facing a bull.

"The entrance to the brownie burrow where the plant grows lies where Elfbane sets his snares!" he murmured. "And the flowers smell so horrible that the fairies give them a wide berth. But moths love them, gray moths with wings patterned as if a glass man had painted tiny death's-heads on them. Can you see them, Fenoglio? Yes…"

He put pen to paper, hesitated – and began to write.

New words. Fresh words. Meggie thought she could hear the story taking a deep breath. Nourishment at last, after all the time when Orpheus had merely fed it with Fenoglio's old words.

"There we are! He only has to be brought up to the mark, you see. He's a lazy old man," Elinor whispered to her. "Of course he can still do it, even if he won't believe it himself. You don't forget that kind of thing. I mean, could you forget how to read?"

I don't know, Meggie was going to reply, but she said nothing. Her tongue was waiting for Fenoglio's words. Healing words. Like the words she had once read for Mo.

"Why is the bear howling like that?" Meggie felt Farid's hands on her shoulders. She supposed he had been off in some place where the children couldn't find him, to try conjuring up fire again, but judging by his glum face the flames had refused to show anything.

"Oh no! Him, too!" cried the exasperated Fenoglio. "Why did Darius and I pile up all these rocks? So that anyone and everyone can march into my bedroom? I need peace! This is a matter of life and death!"

"Life and death?" Farid looked at Meggie in alarm.

"The Black Prince… he… he…" Elinor was trying to sound composed, but her voice was shaking.

"Not another word!" said Fenoglio, without looking up. "Rosenquartz! Sand!"

"Sand? Where am I supposed to find sand?" Rosenquartz's voice rose shrilly.

"Oh, you really are useless! Why do you think I dragged you off to this wilderness with me? For a nice holiday so that you can chase green glass women?" Fenoglio blew on the wet ink and handed Meggie the sheet he had just written. He looked unsure of himself.

"Make them grow, Meggie!" he said. "A few last healing leaves, warmed by the breath of sleeping brownies, picked before the winter freezes them."

Meggie stared at the paper. There it was again, the story she had last heard when she had brought Orpheus here.

Yes. The words obeyed Fenoglio once again. And she would teach them how to live.