“Thank you,” said Chantel. “And the other thing I need to find is anything at all about how the spell that strengthens Seven Buttons is done.”
“Why do you need spells to strengthen a wall like that?” said Franklin.
“Don’t you think your father could knock a hole in it if he tried?” said Chantel.
“I don’t know,” said Franklin. “I know that if he decided to try, he wouldn’t give up till the wall was down, or he was dead.”
“So look for the spell, please,” said Chantel. “And if there were some famous words that Queen Haywith spoke . . . well, if you run across anything she said at all, actually, write it down. I found paper and pencils here.” She opened a drawer at the bottom of a bookshelf.
Franklin didn’t respond. He was sulking, Chantel thought, because he had to stay behind. Well, at least she was showing him how to do something useful. “Over here,” she said. “On the wall, there’s a list of all the books. Do you see how it works?”
It was almost like a book itself, composed of hinged wooden panels. But she couldn’t get Franklin interested in it. He just leaned against the bookshelves and sulked.
“Well, you’ll figure it out,” she said, trying not to sound exasperated. “And I’ll be back as soon as I can. And we’ll figure out what to do with you.”
“I don’t want you to figure out what to do with me,” said Franklin, scowling.
“I meant you and me would figure it out,” said Chantel. “I’m trying to help you.”
“Yeah. Okay.” Franklin looked disagreeable.
“So if you could help me by—”
“Enough already!” said Franklin. “I’m coming with you. There’s going to be people looking for you, and I know a lot more about evading the enemy than you do.” He cast a hostile look at the books. “Even if I can’t read.”
“Oh,” said Chantel.
19
MISS FLIVVERS MISSES THE POINT
Lightning led them to a passage that went to the surface. Chantel had changed back into her school robe, although it was torn and pocketless and stiff with salt. The purple dragon robe seemed altogether too grand for Miss Ellicott’s School.
The passage decanted into a narrow cleft between two buildings in Bannister Square. There was an abnegation spell concealing it—Chantel had noticed the spell a few days before, when she’d been searching for the sorceresses.
“Now, you need to stay here,” said Chantel.
Franklin smiled in a very annoying and supercilious way. “Don’t give me orders.”
“I’m not giving you orders,” said Chantel firmly. “But if you come out into the city you’ll be in grave danger.”
“I’m not afraid.”
“You’ll be in grave danger from me,” said Chantel. “Because I’ll cast a horrible spell on you. And if you’re not afraid of that, you’re st—” Chantel’s deportment caught up with her. “Unwise.”
Franklin stayed, grumbling.
The wind chased curtains of rain across Bannister Square, turning the buildings gray and indistinct. Chantel made her way upward, fighting the water that gushed down the hill.
It was always like this in Lightning Pass when the rain came. The streets became rivers, the bridges became aqueducts, the alleys became rushing torrents. When it rained it seemed the only direction in Lightning Pass was down.
Chantel lost her bearings. She felt her way along until she came to an arched doorway, where she stood until the rain cleared enough for her to recognize something. Then she started on again, up streets and across bridges, with some brief rainfree interludes in which she squelched along arched alleyways, until at last she was splashing up the stairs of Fate’s Turning.
When she arrived, dripping, in the hallway of Miss Ellicott’s School for Magical Maidens, everyone came running, cascading down the stairs.
“It’s Chantel!” said Holly.
“Chantel!” Anna came out of the kitchen, then stopped and stared. “We thought—are you all right?”
Miss Flivvers folded her hands and stared at Chantel in dismay. “Goodness, you look a fright. We were dreadfully worried.”
“Chantel, there was a dragon!” said Daisy, jumping up and down.
Holly grabbed Chantel’s soggy sleeve. “A big green dragon in the sky!”
“Now, girls.” Miss Flivvers frowned. “The patriarchs have decreed that there was not a dragon. Daisy, go find Chantel a dry robe.”
But Anna was already bringing one.
“But we saw—” Holly quailed under Miss Flivvers’s frown. “I mean, I beg your pardon, we saw a dragon.”
“What you saw,” said Miss Flivvers, “was a symbolic expression of the city’s power and destiny. The image of a dragon was a sign that the city will triumph over her enemies.”
“Why is the city a her?” asked Holly. “When all the patriarchs and the king are hims?”
“Do not ask silly questions,” said Miss Flivvers. “Go and fetch a mop.”
Soon Chantel had changed into the dry robe, and the other was dripping on the kitchen hearth, making a puddle that ran down the hearthstone and hissed in the fireplace.
Miss Flivvers poured Chantel a cup of hot oniony broth. Chantel wrapped her hands around it to warm them. Holly and Daisy set about fixing Chantel’s hair, and Chantel tried hard not to wince at each tug. They meant well.
Anna sat and looked at Chantel with a concern that was equally uncomfortable. The other girls crowded around. There was definitely something missing from the kitchen— “Where’s Bowser?” Chantel asked.
“He was called up,” said Miss Flivvers.
“Called up?” Chantel said, bewildered.
“To serve in the army,” Anna said, looking down at the brick floor. “To defend the city.”
“What does Bowser know about defending cities?” Chantel demanded.
“All of the boys over the age of nine have been called up,” said Miss Flivvers. “The situation is—is desperate. No, I shouldn’t say that. We should not despair, because the patriarchs have told us we have the dragon on our side. Even if he is metaphorical.”
“How—” How desperate could it have gotten, in the time that Chantel had been underground? “What happened?”
“There was a terrible attack on the patriarchs when they were up on the city wall. A treacherous volley of Marauder arrows, under a flag of truce. Lord Rudolph was killed, along with several other patriarchs. Sir Wolfgang is now in charge,” said Miss Flivvers.
Chantel stared at her in dismay. “Lord Rudolph? Killed? But—”
“It is most unfortunate,” said Miss Flivvers. “He had a certain leadership quality that it would be disloyal to suggest the other patriarchs lack.”
“He could hear us when we talked to him,” said Chantel. “But—”
“Do not be impertinent,” said Miss Flivvers. “About an hour after the first attack, the Marauders launched three missiles into the city. The upper stories of two houses were destroyed, and two people were killed.”
“Oh.” Chantel suddenly felt terrible. By rescuing Franklin, it seemed, she and Lightning had caused several deaths. “Lord Rudolph was up on the wall to execute Franklin, you know.”
Anna gasped, and the little girls let out cries of dismay.
“He’s not dead,” Chantel added hastily.
“I suspected that boy was a spy,” said Miss Flivvers.