“The Roughlands.” Chantel gestured broadly. “This place.”
Franklin looked amused. “‘This place’? What exactly do you mean by ‘this place’? You’re in the kingdom of West Pharsalia, near the southern border of the United Chieftancies.”
“I’ve heard of those,” said Anna.
“I’d think so,” said Franklin. “Since you can’t possibly live more than a few miles from them. Wow, you people are really shut off from the world, aren’t you?”
“I read a book about the Chieftancies, for your information,” said Chantel.
“That’s nice,” said Franklin. “Stay out of them. They’d probably eat you for breakfast.”
He lowered the crossbow, and Chantel felt rather insulted by this. Apparently he no longer considered her a threat.
“The worst chieftain is the warrior Karl the Bloody,” Franklin added. “They say he lines the road to his fort with the heads of his enemies, and when he captures you, he lets you choose the stake he’s going to impale you on.”
Chantel shrugged. Everyone in the Roughlands was more or less a barbarian. She’d learned that in school.
“I only mention this because he’s looking for me,” Franklin added. “If you can hide me with your magic, I might show you the way to the gate.”
Franklin lived in a cave. It wasn’t a very big cave, and the floor was rocky and not at all comfortable, but at least he had food. He gave them soup made from eggs and green stuff. He told them the green stuff was nettles. It tasted pleasantly salty. He baked some potatoes, too, in the embers of the fire. He said he’d scavenged them from a farm.
The snake in Chantel’s head wanted her to say, “You mean you stole them.” But she wanted a baked potato very much, so she resisted.
“Is there a street that goes to the port?” Anna asked.
“A street? There’s a road,” said Franklin.
“What’d you do to get a guy called Karl the Bloody chasing you?” Bowser sounded slightly jealous.
“Doesn’t matter,” said Franklin. “What can you do to hide me from him?”
Chantel thought it did matter. “Nothing,” she said, at the same moment that Anna said, “We can do an abnegation.”
“A what?” said Franklin.
“It’s a thing where you make people think you’re not important enough to notice,” said Anna.
Franklin huffed impatiently. “I can do that myself.”
“You can do magic?” Bowser looked even more jealous.
“No, but making people not notice you—that’s basic.” He turned back to Anna. “You can’t make me invisible?”
“No,” said Anna. Then she went on, despite Chantel’s frantic gestures: “We need a lot of supplies and things to do most of our spells.”
“So get supplies and things! What kinds of things?”
“Magical ingredients,” said Anna. “Water from certain wells, blood shed in certain ways. And then for wards—”
“Wards? What do those do?”
“Strengthen walls,” said Anna. “They can be used to seal doors and windows, too. Chantel’s really good at them. But we couldn’t do anything here, because there’s nothing to seal.”
They were sitting in the open mouth of the cave, around a crackling campfire. The soup pot was balanced on rocks over the fire, and the baked potatoes were beginning to smell nearly done.
“It’s the sorceresses that strengthen Seven Buttons,” said Bowser. He’d been watching the stranger in silence, summing him up, Chantel thought.
“Seven what?”
“The wall around the city,” said Bowser. “But now that—”
Chantel made a shut-up gesture at Bowser, and to her relief, he trailed off. The Marauders had kidnapped Miss Ellicott and the other sorceresses. Lord Rudolph had said so. The Marauders mustn’t find out how much the sorceresses’ absence endangered the city.
“The wall is impenetrable,” said Chantel firmly.
“I’d think it would be that even without magic.” Franklin poked a baked potato with his knife, nodded, and flipped it to Bowser.
Bowser caught it, winced, and dropped it. Franklin set potatoes down more gently in front of the girls, and for a while there was silence as they ate. The potatoes were hot and crumbly, and the best thing Chantel had tasted in a long time.
“Right, I’ve decided,” he said when they’d finished. “I’ll guide you to the port, and then I want you to take me into the city with you. It’s the one place Karl the Bloody will never think of looking for me.”
“I think that would be treason,” said Anna uncertainly. “I mean, no offense, but you’re a Marauder, right?”
She looked to Chantel for support.
“Everyone outside the walls is a Marauder,” Chantel explained.
“Take it or leave it,” said Franklin. He leaned back against a rock, hands behind his head, and looked like he didn’t care.
“We’ll discuss it,” said Chantel.
They stepped out of the cave. The night sky was a dome of stars, with no walls or towers to block them out. A breeze brushed the land, bringing a smell of green growing things. It suddenly came to Chantel that she might like it out here, once she got used to it.
Of course, that would be only if the place weren’t full of Marauders with names like Karl the Bloody.
“We can’t take him into the city with us, can we?” said Anna. “It would be treason.”
“He’s only one Marauder,” said Chantel. “And he’s just a kid. What could he do?”
“Open the Seven Buttons?” said Anna.
“How, without magic?” said Chantel.
“He could open the gates to the Marauders,” said Bowser.
“The guards would stop him,” said Anna.
“They probably won’t even let him inside,” said Chantel. “He’s got a crossbow. And a horrible Marauder accent. And at least he’ll help us find the gate.”
They walked back to the cave. Franklin was still lying with his head against the rock. He sat up. “So what did you decide?”
“We decided we’ll take you to Lightning Pass,” Chantel lied.
9
THE HARBOR
Franklin said they should wait until the moon rose. So they lay down to rest for a few hours. Chantel couldn’t sleep. She was too worried about the little girls. What if Mrs. Warthall had sold them already?
The moon crept over the distant mountains. Franklin jolted awake and said it was time to go. White mist hung heavy over the land, weaving around the tall weeds and reminding Chantel uncomfortably of ghosts and fiends.
Chantel made a light-globe (which impressed Franklin) and they picked their way along a path through bushes and thorns. After an hour or so they stumbled out onto a road.
“Put the light out now,” Franklin murmured. “Someone might see it.”
“Who?” said Chantel.
“He means Karl the Bloody,” Bowser said. “Just put it out.”
Chantel did. “I don’t see why Karl the Bloody would come all the way down here from the United Chieftancies, looking for you.”
“He might send someone,” said Franklin, as they made their way by moonlight along the road.
“What’s so important about you anyway?” Chantel demanded.
“Chantel’s usually very polite,” said Anna. “It’s just that she has a snake in her head.”
“Is that an expression?” said Franklin.