Part 34 (2/2)

Christopher pushed aside his shock. If I get out of here, I'll try to be nicer, he thought, and then concentrated carefully on what Tacroy had told him might be the best things to say. ”I've come to fetch back something of my own,” he said. ”But first, let me introduce you to my colleague the Living Asheth.

G.o.ddess, this is the Dright of Eleven.” The ostrich feather fluttered on the G.o.ddess's head as she stepped up to the sharp stakes and bowed graciously. There was the slightest twitch to the Dright's features that suggested he was impressed that Christopher had actually brought the Living Asheth, but the G.o.ddess was still behind the fence in spite of that. ”And of course you know my man Mordecai Roberts already,”

Christopher said grandly, trying to slip that point past as a piece of pride.

The Dright said nothing about that either. But behind him, the people were now all sitting down. It was as if they had never been any other way. By this, the Dright seemed to be saying, ”Very well. You are my equal, but I'd like to point out that my followers outnumber yours by several thousand to one-and mine are obedient to my slightest whim.” Christopher was amazed that he had won even this much. He tried to squash down his amazement by watching the people. Some were talking and laughing together, though he could not hear them. Some of them were cooking food over little b.a.l.l.s of bluish witchfire, which they seemed to use instead of fire. There were very few children. The two or three Christopher could see were sitting sedately doing nothing. I'd hate to grow up on Eleven! he thought. It must be a hundred times more boring than the Castle.

”What thing of your own have you allowed to stray into my world?” the Dright said at length.

They were getting down to business at last, even though the Dright was trying to pretend that Christopher had been careless. Christopher smiled and shook his head, to show he thought that was a joke of the Dright's. ”Two things,” he said. ”First, I have to thank you for retrieving the lives of Gabriel de Witt for me. It has saved me a lot of trouble. But you seem to have put the lives together in the wrong way and made Gabriel into a boy.”

”I put them into the form which is easiest to deal with,” said the Dright. Like everything he said, this was full of other meanings.

”If you mean that boys are easy to deal with,” Christopher said, ”I'm afraid this is not the case. Not boys from Twelve-A.”

”And not girls either,” the G.o.ddess said loudly. ”Not from anywhere.”

”What is Gabriel de Witt to you?” the Dright asked.

”He is as father to son,” said Christopher. Rather proud of the way he had carefully not said who was which, he glanced through the fence at Tacroy. Tacroy was still sitting wrapped into a ball, but Christopher thought his curly head nodded slightly.

”You have a claim to de Witt,” the Dright said. ”He can be yours, depending on what else you have to say.” The fence around the other three slid and poured smoothly away sideways until it was out of sight, just as the trees had.

Gabriel looked puzzled. The G.o.ddess stood where she was, clearly suspicious. Christopher lookedwarily at the Dright. This was too good to be true. ”The other thing I have to say,” he said, ”is about this man of mine who is usually known as Mordecai Roberts. I believe he used to be yours, which means you still have his soul. Since he is my man now, perhaps you could let me have his soul?”

Tacroy's head came up and he stared at Christopher in horror and alarm. Christopher took no notice. He had known this would be pressing his luck, but he had always meant to try for Tacroy's soul. He planted his aching feet astride, folded his arms across his fur and jewelry, and tried to smile at the Dright as if what he was asking was the most ordinary and reasonable thing in any world.

The Dright gave no sign of anger or surprise. It was not simply self-control or pride. Christopher knew the Dright had been expecting him to ask and did not mind if Christopher knew. His mind began to work furiously. The Dright had made it easy for them to come to Eleven. He had pretended to accept Christopher as an equal, and he had told him he could have Gabriel's lives. That meant there was something the Dright expected to get out of this, something he must want very much indeed. But what?

”If my Septman claims to be your man, you should have his soulname,” the Dright observed. ”Has he given you that name?”

”Yes,” said Christopher. ”It's Tacroy.”

The faces of all the people sitting in the meadow behind the Dright turned his way. Every one of them was outraged. But the Dright only said, ”And what has Tacroy done to make himself yours?”

”He lied for me for a whole day,” Christopher said. ”And he was believed.”

The first real sound in this place swept through the seated people. It was a long throaty murmur. Of awe?

Approval? Whatever it was, Christopher knew he had said the right thing. As Tacroy had told him, these people naturally lied for their Dright. And to lie convincingly for a whole day showed the utmost loyalty.

”He could then be yours,” the Dright admitted, ”but on two conditions. I make two conditions because you have asked me for two things. The first one is of course that you show you know which the Septman's soul is.” He made a small gesture with one powerful brown hand.

A movement in the trees to one side caught Christopher's eye. He looked and found the slender trunks pouring silently aside there. When they stopped, there was a gra.s.sy lane leading to the square framework of the Gate. It was about fifty feet away. The Dright was showing him that he could get home, provided he did what was wanted.

”There's a huge block of their magic in the way,” the G.o.ddess whispered.

Gabriel craned over his shoulder to look longingly at the Gate. ”Yes, it's just a carrot in front of the donkey,” he agreed.

Tacroy simply groaned, with his head on his knees.

In front of Christopher, people were bringing things and laying them out in a wide crescent-shape. Each man or woman brought two or three, and stared derisively at Christopher as he or she thunked the things down in the growing line. He looked at the things. Some were almost black, some yellowish, and others white or s.h.i.+ny. He was not sure if they were statuettes or blobs of stuff that had melted and hardened into peculiar shapes. A few of them looked vaguely human. Most were no shape that meant anything. But the stuff they were made of meant a great deal. Christopher's stomach twisted and he had a hard job to go on staring haughtily as he realized that all the things were made of silver.

When there were about a hundred of the objects sitting on the green turf, the Dright waved his hand againand the people stopped bringing them. ”Pick out the soul of Tacroy from the souls of my people,” he said.

Miserably, Christopher paced along the curving row with his hands clasped behind him to stop them trembling and Beryl's ornaments c.h.i.n.king. He felt like a General reviewing an army of metal goblins. He paced the entire line, from left to right, and none of the objects meant anything to him. Use witch sight, he told himself, as he wheeled on the right wing and started back again. It might just work on the silver statues provided he did not touch them.

He forced himself to look in that special way at the statues. It was a real effort to do it through the wavy sideways magic of Eleven. And, as he had feared, the things looked just the same, just as grotesque, just as meaningless. His witch sight was working, he knew. He could tell that a number of the people sitting in the meadow were not really there. They were in other parts of the forest busy with other schemes of the Dright's and projecting their images here in obedience to the Dright's command. But his witch sight would not work on silver.

So how else could he tell? He paced along the line, thinking. The people watched him jeeringly and the Dright's head turned majestically to follow him as he pa.s.sed. They were all so unpleasant, he thought, that it was no wonder their souls were like little silver monsters. Tacroy was the only nice one-Ah! There was Tacroy's soul! It was some way around to the left. It looked no more human than any of the others, but it looked nice, fifty times nicer than the rest.

Christopher tried to go on pacing towards it as if he had not seen it, wondering what would happen when he picked it up and lost every sc.r.a.p of his magic. He would have to rely on the G.o.ddess. He hoped she realized.

His face must have changed. The Dright knew he had found the right soul and instantly began to cheat as Christopher had known he would. The line of twisty objects was suddenly a good mile long, with Tacroy's soul away in the far distance. And all of them were changing shape, melting into new queer blobs and fresh formless forms.

Then, with a sort of wavy jolt, everything went back to the way it was at first. Thank goodness!

Christopher thought. The G.o.ddess! He kept his eye on the soul and it was quite near. He dived forward and picked it up. As soon as he touched it, he was weak and heavy and tired. He felt like crying, but he stood up holding the soul. Sure enough, the G.o.ddess was staring at the Dright with her arms spread.

Christopher was surprised to find that, even without his magic, he could see the second pair of ghostly arms spread out underneath.

”My priestesses taught me that it was low to cheat,” she said. ”I'd have thought you were too proud to stoop to it.”

The Dright looked down his nose at her. ”I named no rules,” he said. Being without magic was a little like another kind of witch sight, Christopher thought. The Dright looked smaller to him now and not nearly so magnificent. There were clear signs of the shoddiness that he had seen in Uncle Ralph. Christopher was still scared stiff, but he felt much better about things now he had seen that.

While the G.o.ddess and the Dright stared at one another, he lumbered weakly over to Tacroy. ”Here you are,” he said, thrusting the strange statue at him. Tacroy scrambled on to one knee, looking as if he could not believe it. His hands shook as they closed around the soul. As soon as he had hold of it, the thing melted into his hands. The fingernails and the veins turned silvery. An instant later, Tacroy's face flushed silvery too. Then the flush faded and Tacroy looked much as usual, except that there was a glow about him which made him much more like the Tacroy Christopher knew from The Place Between. ”Now I really am your man!” Tacroy said. He was laughing in a way that was rather like sobbing. ”You can see I couldn't ask Rosalie-Watch the Dright!”

Christopher spun around and found the G.o.ddess on her knees, looking bewildered. It was not surprising.

The Dright had thousands of years of experience. ”Leave her alone!” he said.

The Dright looked at him and for a moment Christopher felt the strange distorted magic trying to force him to his knees too. Then it stopped. The Dright still had not got what he wanted from Christopher. ”We now come to my second condition,” the Dright said calmly. ”I am moderate. You came here demanding seven lives and a soul. I give you them. All I ask in exchange is one life.”

Gabriel laughed nervously. ”I have got a few to spare,” he said. ”If it means getting out of here-”

This was what the Dright wanted, Christopher realized. He had been aiming for the life of a nine-lifed enchanter, freely handed over, all along. If Christopher had not dared to ask for Tacroy's soul, he would have asked for a life for setting Gabriel free. For just a second, Christopher thought they might as well let him have one of Gabriel's lives. He had seven, after all, and another lying on the floor back in the Castle.

Then he saw it would be the most dangerous thing he could do. It would give the Dright a hold over Gabriel-the same hold he had had over Tacroy-for as long as his other lives lasted. The Dright was aiming to control the Chrestomanci, just like Uncle Ralph was aiming to control Christopher. They did not dare give him one of Gabriel's lives.

”All right,” Christopher said. For the first time, he was truly grateful to Gabriel that his ninth life was safely locked in the Castle safe. ”As you see, I've still got two lives left. You can have one of them,” he said, naming conditions very carefully, because he knew the Dright would cheat if he could, ”because if you take more than one it would kill me and give my world the right to punish yours. Once you have that life in your hands, your conditions are fulfilled and you must let all four of us go through the Gate back to Twelve-A.”

”Agreed,” said the Dright. He was keeping his face as expressionless as always, but underneath Christopher could tell he was hugging himself and chuckling. He stepped solemnly up to Christopher.

Christopher braced himself and hoped it would not hurt much. In fact, it hurt so little that he was almost taken by surprise. The Dright stepped back a mere instant later with a floppy transparent shape dangling in his hands. The shape was wearing a ghostly tiger-skin and it had a dim gold band fluttering from its transparent head.

Christopher conjured fire to that shape, hard and sideways and wavily, with all the power he had. Fire was the one thing the Dright was not used to. He knew it was the one thing that might cancel out those thousand years of experience. To his relief, the G.o.ddess had made exactly the same calculations. He had a glimpse of her, with all four arms spread, conjuring fire down as he called it up.

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