Son of the Hero

18 – Doors

I knew that it wasn't that simple-it couldn't be-but I was so astonished by A

Soldiers finally came through from Basil. Maybe the barn hadn't burned down first, but that was only because somebody had blown out the match. It took time to sort out the confusion in Arrowroot. Resler got patrols out to check on the town's residents, to make sure that the elflord's army was really gone, and to see to the dead that had been left behind. I went to Basil to check on Parthet. He was in bed, propped up, awake and eating. Mother was confident that he would recover.

"It'll take time, though," she told me in the hallway outside his room. "At his age, he can't spring back the way he once would have."

"Do what you can," I said. "We're going to need his magic when we meet the Etevar. He's certain to have his wizard along."

"I don't know." Mother shook her head doubtfully. "Three days? He may need that many weeks."

"We don't have weeks. Unless there's another qualified wizard lurking around that I don't know about."

"There isn't. Uncle has never trained an apprentice."

"Well, one thing anyway. You can be my link to open the new doorways. I'll set up one in Arrowroot, pop over to Coriander, and set one up there-with a little luck, maybe the elflord has abandoned that siege too-then come back here to start my ride to Thyme." Mother nodded. I stared at her for a moment. Our roles had changed drastically since I arrived in Varay, and I was just becoming aware of that. "You can handle a passage when we transfer the troops too, I guess."

"I might as well, since I'll be there to open them."

"Yeah. I don't want to try it solo if I can avoid it. But once the army comes through, we have to have Uncle Parthet." There wasn't the slightest doubt in my mind of that.

"I'll do what I can."

There wasn't time for much more. I wasn't even sure that I would have time to get the doorways set up and make the ride east before the Etevar's army crossed the border. Mother and I set up schedules for when I'd want somebody at the new doorways. We couldn't synchronize watches or get on the telephone, or anything like that. We would try just before sunset the next day, in case I managed to get to Thyme that fast-though Mother and I both knew that it would take Kentucky Derby racing the whole distance to make it-and then the morning after that, begi

"How's your uncle?" she asked.

"Eating. He'll recover. Where's your uncle?"

"The last I saw, he was in the great hall, trying to organize a meal."

He was still there. I interrupted his work for my own. "I'm going to open new passages, one from here and one from Coriander. Then I'm going to ride to a place just this side of Castle Thyme to put the other ends of the passages. When I've got them open, we'll bring through every soldier we can to meet the Etevar."

Resler started to nod but checked his head in mid-gesture. "Just what do you mean, 'every soldier we can'? How many men do you figure to leave to guard my castle and town?"

I had never really gotten down to thinking about those details, but I hesitated for only an instant. "We don't leave a single soldier behind. This has to be all or nothing. If we don't stop the Etevar, the elflord is his headache. If we do stop him, we can ferry your men back here as quickly as we move them out." Resler nodded, but with obvious reluctance. "I'll put this end of the passage at ground level, through an outside door so we can transport horses." For a moment, I thought that Resler was going to demand confirmation of my orders by the king, but he didn't.

"The northwest tower might be best then," he said. "It's nearest the mews. You open the way. We'll be ready."

I gri

"So do I," Resler said. "I'll see you in a couple of days." His face was grim as he nodded and walked off. He did have a lot of work to do before he could be ready to move his garrison out. There were people missing from his town, though most of the locals were okay now that they were awake again-just scared. Food had to be found, which meant hunting parties. And there was a siege tower to dismantle.

"I'll show you the door he means," A

"I thought you'd want to get out and join the hunt for stragglers," I said, but not harshly-carefully, not harshly.

"No. I'm sticking close to you until this is over. You've hurt the elflord more in a couple of weeks than I have in a lifetime."

"And one of these days the elflord will do whatever it takes to even the score," I said. I didn't care much for this new Hero worship. In some ways, I preferred the old bloodthirsty, rebellious A

The sea-silver seemed alive and active, animal rather than plant, when I pulled the first strand from the water bag. When the silver completed a circuit between my rings accidentally, I felt an itchy tingle in both hands. I got to an end of the strand and applied it to the bottom corner of the doorjamb. The silver grabbed at the stone the way iron filings grab a magnet. I was able to stretch the weed in place as fast as I could slide my hands along the jamb. By the time I got halfway up the first side, the silver seemed to be leaping ahead, racing to attach itself, leeching to the stone. The first strand reached up the side and across the top. A second completed the circuit. When I was done, I couldn't even make out the joins between the two strands, even though I knew precisely where they were.

"Stand inside the tower, behind me," I told A

I stood in the doorway the way Parthet had told me to and reached out to touch the tracing on either side with my rings, igniting that soft tingling again. I stared out at the courtyard, not focusing on anything in particular, simply trying to set the entire scene firmly in mind, what I would see from the other end of the passage. People crossed the courtyard. Some turned to look at me, others made a point of looking away. I tuned them all out, as best I could. I didn't know how much effort I had to put into this memorization for the magic to work, but I couldn't afford to come up short after making an insane marathon ride across nearly half the kingdom. Sure, I hoped to have either Mother or Parthet on this end when I opened the way, but I didn't dare count on that absolutely. I had to be ready to try the job single-handed if it came to that. And if my first shot failed, I wouldn't have time to ride back to make a second attempt. I sca