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Dieth nodded. He did seem pained by Dad's death, even in the middle of his own nasty little war.
After taking in a little more food and beer, I collected my people. We got back into our war gear and went for the doors. The passage to Arrowroot was in the cellar of Coriander's keep. The door to Castle Basil was on the floor above the great hall.
"Have your swords ready when I open the way to Arrowroot," I said. "I don't know how close the danger will be." The rest of our weapons were back in the great hall, except for my pistol, and I had pretty much discarded that from my thoughts. I stood in front of the door and stared at the silver tracing.
"You know where in Arrowroot this opens?" I asked Dieth.
"I've never been down here when it was open," he said. "It doesn't get much use. The old doorway opened into a gate tower on the Mist side of the castle, but your father set up a new passage after I left his service."
"We going straight through?" Lesh asked.
"Depends on what happens when I open the way." My palms were sweating. I couldn't have been more nervous if I were about to stick my hand into a snake charmer's basket. "Ready?" I looked around at my companions.
"Aye, lord," Lesh said. A
I stretched my hands toward the silver. I remembered the sense of danger from that first day, and I had seen enough evidence of the danger sense since. I closed my eyes while I took a deep breath, then opened them again.
"Here goes." I touched my rings to the silver. The passage opened to a door on a blank corridor. I didn't see anyone, any clue to what might be happening there, but a wave of such deadly peril engulfed me that I stepped back in a hurry and broke the co
"What is it?" Everyone asked that, more or less in unison.
"The worst I've felt." Everyone understood what I meant, even Dieth, since he had once been Dad's squire.
"You think the elflord's taken Arrowroot?" Dieth asked.
"Or worse." I wasn't sure what I meant, but I didn't have any doubt that the elflord could find something worse.
"What will you do now?" Dieth asked.
"Go to Basil and see if they know anything about it there. Then I think I'll probably still have to go into Arrowroot." I was the Hero, after all. Any solution was going to have to come from me, no matter what the problem was.
"If you'll open the way here again, I'll go through and start whatever needs doing," A
"I don't think so," I told her.
"If you know what the danger is, you can prepare for it better," she said.
I shook my head. Maybe A
Dieth showed us to the doorway to Basil after we collected the rest of our gear and the new pouches with the sea-silver.
"Thanks for your help, Baron," I told him. "We may be back this way or go straight on to Arrowroot from Basil." I opened the passage-not a hint of danger at Basil. A
"Until we meet again, lord," Dieth said as I got ready to follow my companions. He touched his hand to his head in salute. I nodded and went through the door.
We came through in one of Basil's gate towers and headed across the courtyard for the keep and great hall. It was late evening. Supper was over, but a few men were still at the long table drinking.
"Lesh, check Parthet's room and workshop. See if he's around." If he wasn't at Basil, I'd have to pop through to his cottage, but I wanted to check the castle first. "I'm going to look for Kardeen. Harkane, find Timon. Maybe he knows what's going on here."
"What about me?" A
"You'd better stay with me. You may have answers I don't."
Kardeen's chambers were a floor above the king's, close enough whenever His Majesty might want him. I banged on Kardeen's door and waited until he called out-not too happily, I thought. The room was dark, so I took a torch from the hall with me. When Kardeen saw me, he got up fast and pulled on a fur robe.
"We were afraid you were lost," he said as he hurried across the room, knotting the belt on his robe.
"Why?" I cocked my head a little to the side. "It's only been nine days. Parthet said he didn't think we could get back in less than ten, that it would probably take even longer than that."
"Nine days?" Kardeen shook his head. "It's been twice that."
It was my turn to shake my head. "Impossible. Four and a half days going north, four days coming back." I looked at A
"It couldn't have been an hour," A
I started to protest instinctively. Time is time. All parts of a solid world have to rotate in the same period. It was an outrage to the laws of physics to think otherwise… but then, there was a lot about the buffer kingdoms that seemed to have little relation to the laws of physics-magic doorways, ethereal duels, dragons. Those dragons had no more business flying than Wrigley Field would. But the protest never got out of my mouth.
"Where's Parthet?" I asked instead.
"At Arrowroot, waiting for you. He wouldn't stay here."
"Have you heard anything from him?"
"Not for a week. Why?" I told him about the intense danger I felt from Arrowroot and about the siege of Coriander. He knew about Coriander.
"Your mother has been handling their resupply, opening the way," Kardeen said.
"How much time do we have to meet the Etevar?"
"Little enough to intercept him at Castle Thyme, at the border. If you opened a passage at Arrowroot this minute, then rode your horse to death, you might barely have time to reach Thyme ahead of the Dorthini army. And you say there's trouble at Arrowroot and Coriander."
"There is. When I ride east, I'll start from here. I've been over that route before. Does that buy me enough time?"
He nodded hesitantly. "It should, a day or two. But we can't abandon the northern castles if they're under siege."
"Did you send any other men on toward Thyme?"
"We have six hundred men near there now. That's not nearly enough to hold the Dorthini army."
I closed my eyes to think. There could be no help from either of the northern castles unless the elflord backed off, and if he already controlled Arrowroot, I didn't see any way to make him back off. "I guess I have to go into Arrowroot first," I said. "Find out just what's going on there. Can you find me a half-dozen soldiers?"
"We'll find them. When will you go?"
"Before dawn, when most of the people there should still be asleep, whether they're ours or Xayber's. Maybe we can raise a little hell."
"We can do that!" A
"You're Resler's niece?" he asked. She nodded.
"We picked her up on our way into Xayber," I said. "She's been a help." Somehow, I managed to get that out without choking-probably because Dieth's drug picked that moment to start wearing off. I guess I grunted at the return of pain.
"Are you all right?" Kardeen asked, concern immediately appearing on his face.
"Not completely," I admitted, "but I don't have time to worry about that. Baron Dieth had a foul brew for pain. It worked. Would there be any of it here?"
"Number," A
"I'm sure your mother has some around here somewhere," Kardeen said. "You'd best have her check you out right away. What happened?"