Remnant of Power

Chapter Ten

Yavenna

As Yavenna climbed back up the rope she heard noise coming from the banqueting hall. Despite her run, she wasn't tired enough yet to sleep and all the way back she'd thought about the young man and her promise to try to find out if his dog was in the castle. In Tarhasta, when she wanted to go running, she let herself out into a tunnel that went deep into the bowels of the palace and then directly to the beach. This castle was huge, and ancient—it was quite possible there were cellars, or dungeons or even an underground exit that wasn't used anymore. She would go and search now, while the musicians were still playing and the courtiers were still dancing – surely it was the perfect time to go exploring. She might even find another way out of the castle. Making an excuse to Sharva about wanting some dessert, Yavenna slipped out of her door and down the stairs.

There were rooms leading off in every direction from the huge entrance hall - a footman came out of one entrance carrying a large carafe of golden liquid, she dashed to the door, caught it before it closed and found herself in the kitchen. She heard voices, but couldn't see any staff, then as she crept under a drying rack hung with tablecloths, she spied a large table in an adjoining room. The kitchen staff were eating their dinner. Excellent. She hoped they enjoyed it.

There were three doors opening off the kitchen, she tried each one. The last one led into a small empty room. There was nothing in it, only four walls of the dark grey stone of the castle, but an old oak door intersected one of them. Pushing it open, she saw a staircase descending into inky murk. The smell of sweat and mould wafted up the stairs. Yavenna stood in the doorway, listening. The kitchen staff were still at the table; she could hear their voices. But there was only silence from wherever the staircase led to. Yavenna looked down onto the grey stone steps. Well, she'd been brought here to be queen of this castle. There was no reason at all why she shouldn't explore it. Holding her nose against the stink and pressing her hands against the wall, she stepped carefully onto the stairs. Halfway down there was a landing, but she ignored it and slunk to the bottom.

A long corridor led to a row of dungeons. She shuddered. Thank goodness she wasn't in one. Sucking her lip as she walked past each one and looked in through the iron bars she was hugely relieved to see, as her eyes adjusted to the dark, that there was no one else in them either. And no animals, dogs or otherwise. She remembered the slaves she'd seen on the journey from Tarhasta and a felt a ripple of nausea. How utterly foul it would be to be held in these dungeons. But there was no door down here that led outside. The smell wasn't as bad at this level, more damp than sweaty, but as she climbed back up to the landing the smell grew worse. Another corridor led to three more doors. Even if there was an exit down here she didn't think she'd like to come down here every time she went for a run. Perhaps she should turn back. But there was a faint patch of light coming from under two of the doors. Was the dog in one of them? She had to just check it. Even if all at once, she felt strangely cold. She turned the handle.

The wall facing her was hung with bird skulls. A black candle standing on a tall thin table stood in each corner of the room and a few black feathers fluttered on the floor as she pushed the door open. Across a thin bed lay the staff she'd seen the green man carrying, but the stone wasn't in it. This was his room. What did he do in here with the skulls and the stone and the strange power he wielded through his eyes? Yavenna picked the staff up, but as she twisted it in her hands realized it was made of bone. She dropped it quickly back onto the bed. But it was too late. The next second a vision of the first moment she'd looked into his eyes replayed in front of her. Yavenna heard a scream of torment in her mind, and then it began to echo around her head. She stumbled against the bed, clutching her ears.

Yavenna rubbed her eyes. There was no reason for her to be in this room, there was no door here, and there was something that felt awfully wrong about it. And she was freezing cold. She should go. A sudden longing for Tarhasta gripped her belly. She staggered out of the room, and then shakily pushing open the door of the next room, she glanced in. It was almost identical, except the candles weren't lit. She closed the door shut and rested her fingers on the final door handle. As her fingers touched the metal she heard a cough, but it was too late to take her fingers off the handle; she walked in.

The girl who had been in the rhododendron bush was sitting on a chair in front of a small table, peering into a strange wooden object, a tube on a stand. She looked up in surprise as Yavenna entered, her expression changing so that she looked slightly guilty. But only slightly. She got up from the chair, still holding the wooden object, and frowned. There was a door behind her in the wall with a draught blowing from it.

"You shouldn't be here."

Yavenna stared at her. What could she say? Surely this wasn't the girl's room?

"I've just got here, and I was having a look round." The girl wrinkled her nose. "Well, you should go, now. This room belongs to one of the mages. If I were you, I'd go back upstairs before they come back.

Before they come back? So the green man was a mage, was he? But however many of them were there? Yavenna grabbed her pendant, then dropped it, rubbing her fingers. It was warm again. The girl looked at her. "What're you doing?" She stepped closer to Yavenna. The wooden tube brushed Yavenna's arm and she flinched. She remembered the echoes she'd heard in the other room. Shuddering, she looked round. What if the mage came back here now? She shot the girl a panic-stricken look and bolted out of the room, and back up the stairs.

In the kitchen, the staff had finished their meal. A round man gave Yavenna a strange look as she scurried through to the hall, but no one said anything to her and she didn't see anyone else on the way back upstairs. Sharva had gone to bed by the time Yavenna entered the suite and the room seemed oddly dark and empty as she took her clothes off. For some reason, even with a dagger under her pillow and a chair pushed against the locked door, it took Yavenna a long time to get to sleep.