His voice trailed off as Milla stared at him. It was not the Icecarl way to complain, he knew. It was the Chosen way, though. Chosen complained about Underfolk servants, about food quality, about their clothes, about anything.
Anything trivial, Tal thought. Did he really want to be like that?
He looked down at his reflection again and tried to force a smile. It came slowly and for some reason it no longer had that annoying crooked curve on the left side.
"On the other hand," he said slowly, "I have a new Sunstone, which is all I wanted to start with. And a Spiritshadow--"
"That's me," said Adras proudly.
"And we have the Codex hidden up in the Mausoleum," Tal continued. Saying the positive things made him feel a bit better about the whole situation. "So what am I complaining about?"
"I don't know," said Milla. She frowned and added, "You are alive. Be grateful for the gift of life, till you have it no more."
She turned and plowed off through the weed again, faster than before. Tal followed, wincing at the pain in his leg. She was going faster than was comfortable for him, but he didn't complain.
It was hard going, wading through the seaweed. There was a lot more of it than Tal would have thought was healthy for a working fish pond. For that matter, there didn't seem to be any fish. Or eels. Though it was possible they had scared the fish away, or couldn't see them in the dark. Milla had in-sisted that they keep their Sunstones down to dim sparks so they didn't give themselves away. Adras and Odris had complained at first, but seemed to have gotten used to feeling weak from the lack of light.
Tal waded for at least fifteen minutes without a single thought and without being aware of what he was doing. He just pushed through the seaweed, following Milla. He would have mindlessly kept on doing it, too, except she stopped.
"What is it?" he whispered, edging around her. "Look," Milla whispered back.
Tal looked. There was some light ahead. But it wasn't the clear, steady illumination of Sunstones. The light was flickering and fairly weak, changing color quite a bit. A couple of oil lamps, Tal thought--the ones the Underfolk used in the parts of the Castle where there were no fixed Sunstones. Underfolk couldn't use Sunstones, of course, so they had to make do with oil lanterns and similar devices.
In the dim light, Tal could see four… no… five people hard at work. Two were in the water, passing loads of something up, while the others were taking whatever it was and putting it in barrels.
"Underfolk harvesting fish," Tal said, not bothering to keep his voice down. "We can just walk past--"
A cold hand across his mouth cut him off.
"Quiet," Milla whispered fiercely. "They're not normal Underfolk. And they're not harvesting fish."
For a moment Tal was tempted to bite her hand, but the moment passed and Milla took her hand away. Besides, as he squinted at the dock, he realized there was something funny about these Underfolk. They weren't wearing regular white robes, for a start. And they weren't harvesting fish. It was the seaweed they were dragging up, cutting it into lengths on the dock before putting it in the barrels.--
"They have spears," said Milla quietly. Her eyesight was much better than Tal's, particularly in the dark or near-dark. "And one of them has a long knife. Ah."
One of them had stopped exactly where the lantern light fell most brightly. He was a boy not much older than Tal, but taller and more muscular. He wore Underfolk whites, but something had been painted or embroidered on the cloth--some sort of pattern or writing that Tal couldn't make out from the distance. He also wore a strange triangular hat, with the sharpest peak at the front. It had several long black or deep blue feathers stuck to it at a jaunty angle.
He looked vaguely familiar. Tal felt sure he'd seen him somewhere before, but he couldn't work it out where.
Milla could, though.
"It is the one called Crow," she said. "The leader of the people who brought us up from the heatways, when the air went bad."
"Them?" asked Tal. He'd been partially unconscious, or delirious, from the fumes in the heatway tunnels. If they hadn't been rescued they would have died down there. He hadn't had time to think about the people who'd carried them out. Now it was all coming back.
"Yes," said Milla. "We had better be careful. Most of them wanted to kill us. And they hate the Chosen."
"What?" asked Tal. "They're Underfolk! They can't hate the Chosen! It's… it's not allowed."
"They are not normal Underfolk. It is like I said before. They are Outcasts."
Tal stared at the Underfolk. It was true they were wearing very odd clothes. And no Underfolk had any business to be in the heatway tunnels, where they'd rescued Tal and Milla. He had heard that some Underfolk rebelled against the Chosen and lived below the normal levels. But he'd never really believed it.
"There are only five of them," he said finally. "We both have Sunstones, and Adras and Odris."
"But we're weak," said Odris, a plaintive voice in Lie darkness. "I couldn't crush a caveroach the way I feel at the moment."
"I could," Adras chimed in. "I could easily crush a caveroach and maybe something about as big as a Dattu, or, say, a Lowock--"
"I was exaggerating,"
interrupted Odris. "Of course I could crush a caveroach.
But I wouldn't be much use in a proper fight."
"I would be," Adras said proudly. "But if there was more light--"
"Quiet, both of you," Milla ordered.
"We have to get past them," said Tal "There's no other way out of this lake. And the guards will probably find that trapdoor soon."
"We owe them life," said Milla, the words coming out slowly as if she were thinking aloud. "That means we must talk to them first. They may know where to find your greatest uncle Ebbitt."
"Great-uncle, not greatest,"
Tal corrected. "I
doubt it, though. Underfolk don't normally know anything except their jobs. I wonder what they're planning to do with that weed?"
"Adras, Odris, be prepared to defend us if they attack," said Milla. "We'll give you more light. Let's go."
CHAPTER FOUR
They were only a dozen stretches from the dock when the Underfolk noticed them. It was Crow who glanced across the water, alerted by a splash. Shock flicked across his face but it was gone in an instant as he shouted and grabbed his spear.
"Look out! In the water!"
The other two Underfolk on the dock went for their spears as well, while the two in the water splashed in a panic to the steps. Weed went flying through the air as the Underfolk threw it aside in their hasteto get weapons or get out of the water.
"Peace!" shouted Milla. "A truce!"
"Talk!" shouted Tal. "We just want to talk!"
Unfortunately, Adras decided at the same moment that he would help with a thunder shout. It broke across the water with all the strength of real thunder, drowning out everyone's words and momentarily stunning the Underfolk.
As the thunder echoed through the pool, Crow threw his spear straight at Tal. Milla leapt forward and snatched it out of the air.
Tal fell into the water, up to his neck. But he kept his hand and Sunstone ring above the surface. Suddenly angry, all his thoughts focused on bringing forth blinding brilliance.
Light exploded out of the stone, banishing the darkness. Adras and Odris roared with delight, suddenly visible as hard-edged shadows, huge humanlike figures of billowing cloud. They rushed at the other Underfolk, who threw their spears uselessly at the Spiritshadows. Adras and Odris batted them away.
It looked like a full-scale battle was about to develop when Milla shouted, using the voice that she had been trained to use aboard an iceship at the height of a gale.
"Stop! Everybody stop!"
Everybody stopped. They might have started again if Milla hadn't kept on shouting.
"Adras! Odris! Come back here. You Underfolk, stay where you are. We just want to talk! We're not Chosen!"
Tal dragged himself up from
the water, pushing the weed off his shoulders. He kept his Sunstone burning bright, but deflected the light off the distant ceiling so it didn't blind anybody.
"It's them," said one of the Underfolk, a tall blond-haired boy… no… girl who Tal suddenly remembered was called Gill. "The two we dragged up from adit three. I told you we should have killed them."
"Close it," said Crow. He was looking at Tal and Milla, but his eyes kept shooting across at Adras and Odris. He had a knife in his hand, held low at his side.
"We aren't Chosen," repeated Milla. She ignored Tal's furious look at her. She might not be Chosen, but he was and he couldn't see any point in pretending otherwise.
"No?" asked Crow. "You have Sunstones and Spiritshadows."
"I am Milla, an Icecarl, from outside the Castle. Tal… used to be a Chosen but he's not anymore. The Chosen have cast him out. The guards are after him."
Tal opened his mouth to protest, then shut it again. Milla was describing what had happened to him in her terms, but it was still true. He was effectively an Outcast. He hadn't really thought it through before.
Crow listened without changing his expression. Even the news that Milla came from outside the Castle didn't seem to perturb him. The others shifted nervously and looked behind them to the open door and the tunnel beyond.