Page 19 of Salt Magic, Skin Magic
She raised her arms above her head and took a few steps across the moss, so graceful she seemed hardly to touch the ground. When her skirts moved, John heard silvery music. While her attention was diverted, he tried again to make his ward stone work, throwing every ounce of power he had into it. It sat in his hand, lifeless as the pebble it had once been.
The queen held her hand out to Thornby, an inviting expression on her face. He bowed again. “My lady, compared to you, I dance like a donkey. I couldn’t do you justice. Really, shouldn’t we be going? We’ve taken up so much of your time already.”
She lowered her hand, smile fading. “You won’t dance? You won’t stay?” She shrugged. “Well, then, what will you give me if I let you leave? A gift? A kiss?”
“I—” Thornby shot a look at John, who shook his head, as obviously as he dared. He hated to think what ‘gift’ might be asked of Thornby, or what a kiss might mean.
“What about a game?” said the red dog, licking its chops. “I like games better.”
“All right, a game,” said the queen. She walked in a circle around Thornby, forcing him to turn to keep facing her. “Perhaps you’ll have a wager with me? How about this? Answer three questions truly, and you can have the guest.”
“Don’t,” John said in a low voice. He suspected a trick, but didn’t dare to say so, with her standing right there.
“Three questions?” Thornby put his head to one side and appeared to consider. “I don’t think he’s worth three. Perhaps one? An easy one?”
“One, is it?” The queen snarled. “So brave, my little fighting cock!” She broke off into peals of hissing laughter and the others joined her. The dog laughed so hard it seemed to dislocate its jaw.
Thornby shot John a look that saidWhat the hell do I do?as clearly as if he’d spoken aloud. John said quietly, “Be careful. She’ll cheat if she can.”
The queen stopped laughing, abruptly. “All right. I’ll give you a chance because I like your pretty face. Answer one truly and I’ll let you leave. If you want him to leave with you, but somewhatchanged, you must answer two. If you want to recognise him when you get back, it stands at three.”
“I can’t quite see it at the moment, but you know we’re standing in my house, don’t you?” said Thornby carefully. “I think I can leave when I like. So perhaps if I answer two?”
The queen tilted her head as if listening, sloe eyes not leaving Thornby. She smiled, slyly. “But itisn’tyour house. It’s your father’s. And you can’t leave. Can you?”
She laughed again, and the court joined in, a cacophony of jeers and whinnies. Thornby glanced at John again, perhaps in order to see another human face. John tried to inject some reassurance into his expression, but he had none to give.
Thornby drew himself up. “Very well, I accept. Three questions. What’s your first?”
“My diamonds and pearls, in a box they are hid, with the sun for the satin and the sky for a lid.” Her voice was mocking. “Where are they, sweetling, where do I keep my jewels?”
A look of disbelief crossed Thornby’s face, and John almost groaned aloud. The question was impossible. How could anyone answer that? And yet, suddenly, Thornby’s eyes glittered and he almost laughed.
“On the nasturtium leaves of course,” he said. “In the sunken garden.”
The uproar from the court was so violent that John thought the answer must be wrong and they planned to tear Thornby limb from limb without regard for the rules of the game. Thornby clearly thought so too, from the look of horror that crossed his face and the way he hunched defensively. Then the queen was snarling at them to shut up.
“Clever, isn’t he?” she said, when at last the place was silent. Her voice was vicious. “But how about this?The place is old, the house is new, the goose is red, the hound is blue; yet neither one is truly meet, which sign should grace Dezombrey’s seat?Which sign, little one? What’s the real emblem of Raskelf?”
There was a long pause. Thornby turned to John, face appalled. “I don’t know. It’s been a red goose and a blue hound for centuries. How could it be anything else?”
“Think harder. You got the first one right.”
“That was chance.”
“You might know more than you think.”
“All right.” Thornby put a hand to his forehead. “Um, they found a mosaic of a bull when they moved the stables. Could it be that? A bull? I—”
Out of the corner of his eye, John saw something coming. One of the creatures from the watching crowd was advancing. He swung around to face it, trying again to charge the ward stone, though he knew in his heart it was pointless.
“Wait!” A note of panic entered Thornby’s voice. “Give me a chance!”
But the creature came closer. John recognised it now, a small creature, half-hedgehog, half-human. It ignored Thornby entirely.
“Got any more o’ them walnuts?” it said to John.
He stared at it open-mouthed for a moment. He could feel the eyes of the watching semi-circle of creatures, intent on his every move. Walnuts? At a time like this? But he pushed a hand into his pocket and found a few pieces of broken walnut mixed with fluff and breadcrumbs. He tipped them through the glass thorns into the creature’s small clawed hand.
