Princess Of The Silver Woods Part 24

"More power for the spell if I stay," Rose murmured.

"She's right," Oliver said. "Give the signal, Heinrich. We have to start now."

Lily and Petunia kissed Rose as Heinrich pulled them away. When Petunia's foot was on the bottom stair, Heinrich tookout a pistol and fired two quick shots in the air. Oliver knelt by Rose and raised her up to lean against his chest.

"You know what to do?"

"Yes," she whispered. "I helped Galen in his studies."

Oliver began pulling things out of his pockets: a wand of silver, a bag of black soil mixed with powdered diamonds, an intricate knot of unbleached wool. He laid the knot on Rose's lap and scattered the soil and diamond dust around them both. Then he helped her take a silver knitting needle out of her bodice. It was red and sticky.

"I never meant to leave Galen behind, anyway," she whispered. "Not when he came back for me. He always comes back for me." She gripped the b.l.o.o.d.y needle, looking like a sorceress from a story, all terrible beauty.

He took out a long silver branch of his own and held it up like a sword. He was ready.

The dark princes rounded the corner of the path and headed for Oliver and Rose, their faces twisted with rage, but it didn't matter. There was a strange tug in Oliver's chest, and then he heard a voice that boomed over the sound of the princes' shouts, over the wails from Olga as she crouched over Grigori's body, over the sound of Rose's quiet tears.

The voice was that of the good frau, and yet it could not be the good frau, for it was so loud that it made Oliver's ears hurt, and so beautiful that it brought tears to his eyes. It was old and young and beyond time itself. He loved the voice, and feared it too.

The voice went on and on for an age, and all the while Oliver forced himself to think, as he had been told, of a wall of silver without door or break, a wall that ran around the Kingdom Under Stone. He had no magic of his own, but Walter Vogel had told him it wouldn't matter: the strength of his spirit, his conviction, would be enough.

Oliver thought so hard about this wall, and held so tightly to Rose, that when the wood began to burn he never noticed. His eyes were shut anyway, and the pulling in his chest was so strong that when hands began to drag him backward through the gate, he only held tighter to Rose. They must not be separated. Together they would let the good frau draw all the strength she needed from them, and then the silver wall would have no seam.

The voice stopped, and Oliver fell into darkness.

Cloaked.

Petunia only paused long enough at the top of the stair to see that her sisters and Heinrich were safe. Then she picked up her skirts and started back down.

"Petunia, no!" Pansy wailed.

"Wait," Heinrich said, and she heard his boots. .h.i.t the first step. "Take this."

She looked back and he was holding out a pistol. She grabbed it and then flew down the stairs, leaving it to him to stop the others from following. She was not going to leave Oliver and Rose to die.

At the bottom of the stairs a great voice suddenly overtook her. She staggered to Rose and Oliver, who were in the gateway. She stood behind them, bracing her upper arm against the side of the gate as Telinros came howling toward them.

She shot him.

His body jerked and then tumbled to the ground, nearly tripping Blathen who was right behind. Petunia aimed for Blathen next.

"Mine!" Poppy said from behind her.

Petunia leaped aside as Poppy leveled her pistol and shot Blathen through the heart. "b.a.s.t.a.r.d," she muttered as his body crumpled atop Telinros's. She exchanged a fierce smile with Petunia.

And then there was the king. The King Under Stone stepped toward them, his face taut with rage.

"Come with me now and your punishments shall be lessened. Unlike your sisters'."

"No," Petunia said. She leveled the pistol at him, but her heart quailed. Heinrich didn't know that the grand d.u.c.h.ess had called her son Alexei. If his bullets were marked, they would be marked only with the name Rionin.

"Ha!" Poppy fired her pistol, but the king swiveled, bending backward in a way no human could have done. The bullet struck Derivos, and he dropped with a scream, clutching his side.

"I am not so easy to kill as my brothers," the king purred.

"That's what you think," Poppy snarled, and c.o.c.ked her pistol again.

"Alexei," Petunia said, suddenly.

The king's gaze snapped to her. "What did you say?"

Petunia reached up to her elaborate coiffure. After Olga had left she had nestled several silver needles into it. All had been etched with the name Alexei Rionin Under Stone. She handed one behind her to Poppy, then rolled the others between her fingers.

"Alexei," Petunia said again. "Catch!" And she tossed the needles like darts.

They struck him in the chest, not hard enough to wound, but he hissed and swatted at them. While he was distracted Poppy shoved the last needle down the barrel of her pistol and then took her shot. A black flower blossomed on the white breast of the King Under Stone's shirt. He looked up at the sisters with horror.

His scream tore at their ears.

"Ha!" Poppy shouted again. There were tears on her cheeks.

Rionin's scream went on as he crumpled in a hideous, boneless way. When Petunia tore her attention from the king, she saw the remaining princes slinking away, hands to their ears, as the voice of the spell grew. Petunia and Poppy shot at them, but their shots went wild, as though the air were warping inward toward the palace. Petunia thought with horror that Rose and Oliver might be trapped half-inside and half-outside the new wall when the spell finished.

"Go," she shouted to Poppy. "I'll help Rose and Oliver."

"But I can't let you-"

"Yes, you can," Petunia said. "Christian is waiting."

Poppy grimaced, but then she turned and ran up the stairs.

Petunia went to the pair slumped between the gateposts. They were so caught up in the spell that Petunia doubted either of them knew she was there. But as she leaned down to get a grip under Oliver's arms, Rose's voice brought her up short.

"Galen. He always came back for us, Pet," Rose said. Her eyes pleaded with Petunia as she continued to hold her wand steady in front of her.

Looking up, Petunia saw that Kestilan had turned back and was coming toward her, straining against the onslaught of the voice. There was a black dagger in his hand.

"Mother, please protect us," she whispered.

Then Petunia reached into the bodice of her gown for her matches. She lit one and dropped it back into the box. The matches flared and she tossed the tiny ball of flames into the woods at her right.

The silver wood went up in a great sheet of blue-white flame. Kestilan and the tattered remnants of the court of the King Under Stone fled back to the lake. Petunia grabbed Oliver under the arms and dragged him to the foot of the golden stair, grateful that he was holding so tight to Rose.

The heat from the fire was intense. Petunia drew her cloak around her, gathering what little protection she could. Then she took a deep breath and plunged into the smoke and flames, looking for any sign of Galen or Bishop Schelker or Walter Vogel and the crone.

There was nothing, nothing but silver trees burning white and blue. She reached the sh.o.r.e and saw that the court had taken all the boats. They were well on their way back to the palace, and Petunia was alone. She swayed and nearly went to her knees at the edge of the lake. But the oppressive heat from the burning wood drove her on. She ran along the sh.o.r.e, calling out for Galen and Bishop Schelker.

When she found them, she hardly knew what it was she had found.

In a sudden clearing in the wood were four figures made of light, and for a moment she thought they were just more burning trees. But this light was green, as green as new gra.s.s or tulip leaves or the gla.s.s of her father's hothouses. It rose up like four shining columns in the clearing. She stopped, gasping for breath, and through the intense glow she could make out the dear familiar face of Galen, and beyond him Bishop Schelker, Walter Vogel, and a tall, beautiful woman who was speaking the endless words of the spell.

"The crone?"

The words burst out before she could stop them. Galen and Oliver had told her of the toothless old woman, but the face she could see through the green was wrenchingly beautiful. Long, dark hair fell on either side of the serene features, and a crown rested on her brow.

"My queen," said a familiar voice, and Petunia looked and saw that through the green, Walter was also young, and handsome, standing straight on two strong legs.

"Your queen?"

The heat forced her farther into the clearing, until she stood in the cool protection of the four columns of green light. Galen and the bishop smiled at her, though their faces were otherwise rigid with the intensity of the spell.

"One of the greatest queens Westfalin has ever known," Walter said. "Beautiful, brilliant, and just. When Ranulf, her husband, was killed by Wolfram von Aue, she learned magic that she might bind him in this prison. And I learned it, too, so that I might help her."

"Then she was ... Oh!" Petunia put a hand to her mouth in awe.

"Ethelia," Walter said. "Blessed Ethelia, they called her. And I was her knight."

Petunia did not know what to say. The grizzled old gardener who had shown her bird's nests when she was a child had been the knight protector of a queen? And one of the great wizards who had bound the King Under Stone?

"Pet, you have to go," said Galen, his voice strained.

"Come with me," she begged.

"I can't, not alone."

Queen Ethelia's voice was rising, and the figures in the columns of green light were stretching and wavering with the force of it.

"Go, Petunia," said Walter. "Go and save the others."

"Get Rose out of here," Galen said.

Petunia whirled and ran, racing along the sh.o.r.e until she reached the path. The flames rose ever higher, and the smoke choked her. She ran down the path, pulling the hood of her cloak up over her hair as sparks and burning leaves rained down.

Just before she reached the gate, a tree fell across the path.

The blue-white flames were staining her vision, and the heat made her cloak feel like it was made of lead. Beyond the fallen log she could see Oliver and Rose, huddled at the very foot of the stair. She turned, seeing nothing but flames and more trees falling as the fire tore away their roots.

"There's nothing for it," she said. She pulled the cloak even tighter around her. "This velvet was once a gown worn at the Midnight Ball. The silver was given to me by Bishop Schelker for my nameday. It's all I've got, and it had better be enough."

Petunia rose up on her toes, took two quick steps, and then leaped through the flames.

The fire did not touch her. She landed within the arch of the gate and dropped to her knees beside Rose.

There was no movement from Oliver or Rose, save for the blood that continued to ooze from Rose's side. Petunia tore off a strip of her skirt and pressed it against the wound.

The powerful voice of the ancient queen rose to a crescendo, and Petunia swayed on her knees. And then there was a sound that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. Petunia wasn't even sure she had heard it with her ears; it might have come from inside her body for all she could tell.

The darkness overhead glowed green, and within the green Petunia thought she saw a face of ineffable beauty smiling down at her. From the ground at the outer edge of the burning forest, a band of silver light stretched upward and became a ma.s.sive wall without a door or gate as far as she could see in either direction.

It was done.

Tears slipped down Petunia's cheeks, and she keeled forward over Rose for a moment in sheer relief. Her ears felt like they were full of cotton, and she wondered if the spell had damaged her hearing for good. She freed her sister from Oliver's grip and began to drag Rose up the stairs. Halfway to safety her burden was lifted by a pair of large, rough hands, and there was the giant bandit Karl, grinning at her.

Petunia hurried back for Oliver, but when she reached him someone stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. The older bandit, Johan, had followed her and was saying something, but she could hear only her own heartbeat. Seeing that she didn't understand, he just smiled and leaned down to hoist Oliver across his shoulders. Then he began slowly climbing the stair.

Petunia stood shaking at the bottom for a moment, wondering if Karl or Johan would carry her up. For the first time, she understood: they were safe. It was over. And they would always be safe from the King Under Stone.

The new king, whoever he was, could not leave his shining prison. If the fire did not destroy them all ...

Her knees buckled.

"Come on, Pet," Galen said as her ears finally cleared. "I don't think I can carry you under my arm this time."

Epilogue.

The twins' wedding was such a grand affair that two days later there was a small party in the gardens, just for the royal family. Spring was always unpredictable in Westfalin, but that day the sun shone and it was warm enough to be pleasant, though still cool enough for cloaks and m.u.f.fs.

"I shall buy you a new red cloak," Oliver promised Petunia as they sat on a small bench to one side of the lawns.

Christian was attempting to put a rosy glow in everyone's cheeks by teaching them a game featuring several wooden b.a.l.l.s and a child's hoop he'd found somewhere. Petunia was fairly certain that he was making it up as he went along, but Poppy didn't seem to mind even though she was losing badly. Hyacinth was fairing rather better, though her husband kept breaking her concentration by trying to kiss her.

"I like my old one," Petunia said.

"It has a bullet hole in it," Oliver said, "and I understand that it still smells of smoke."

"Any cloak that can save you from a fire so hot it can melt silver is worth mending," Petunia said primly.

"That is true," Oliver agreed, his gaze on a sofa near the mouth of the hedge maze.

On the sofa, covered in a beautifully knitted throw blanket, Rose reclined like an exotic queen. Her side no longer pained her, but Dr. Kelling had insisted that she rest after the rigors of the wedding, hence the sofa in the gardens. It worried Petunia that Rose hadn't objected to this, but it soothed some of her worry to know how much worse things had almost been.

Galen sat on the end of the sofa by Rose's feet, knitting something that Petunia had thought was a hat but now seemed to be much too large. White frosted his hair on the sides, and there were new lines around his eyes, but otherwise he seemed well enough. They were all mourning the loss of Bishop Schelker, Walter Vogel, and the good frau, but every time she looked at Galen, Petunia wanted to cheer. With her last ounce of power, the good frau-Queen Ethelia, Petunia had to remind herself-had pushed Galen out of the silver prison wall.

Jonquil went by with a full plate of food, and Petunia reached out and tried to snag a small cream puff from it. Jonquil lifted it over Petunia's head before she could, and clucked her tongue.

"These are for Lily," she said.