Graceling (Graceling Realm #1)(21)

“rolled you around in a puddle of mud, then I believe you.”

Katsa smiled. “May we see him?”

“You may,” Raffin said. “And I have good news. He’s awake.”

———

Randa’s castle was full of secret inner passageways; it had been that way since its construction so many generations before. They were so plentiful that even Randa didn’t know of all of them – no one did, really, although Raffin had had the mind as a child to notice when two rooms came together in a way that seemed not to match. Katsa and Raffin had done a fair bit of exploring as children, Katsa keeping guard, so that anyone who came upon one of Raffin’s investigations would scuttle away at the sight of her small, glaring form. Raffin and Katsa had chosen their living quarters because a passageway connected them, and because another passageway connected Raffin to the science libraries.

Some of the passageways were secret, and some were known by the entire court. The one in Raffin’s workrooms was secret. It led from the inside of a storage room in a back alcove, up a stairway, and to a small room set between two floors of the castle. It was a windowless room, dark and musty, but it was the only place in the castle that they could be sure no one would find, and that Raffin and Bann could stay so near to most of the time.

Bann was Raffin’s friend of many years, a young man who had worked in the libraries as a boy. One day Raffin had stumbled across him, and the two children had fallen to talking about herbs and medicines and about what happened when you mixed the ground root of one plant with the powdered flower of another. Katsa had been amazed that there could be more than one person in the Middluns who found such things interesting enough to talk about – and relieved that Raffin had found someone other than her to bore. Shortly thereafter, Raffin had begged Bann’s help with a particular experiment, and from that time on had effectively stolen Bann for himself. Bann was Raffin’s assistant in all things.

Raffin ushered Katsa and Po through the door in the back of the storage room, a torch in his hand. They slipped up the steps that led to the secret chamber.

“Has he said anything?” Katsa asked.

“Nothing,” said Raffin, “other than that they blindfolded him when they took him. He’s still very weak. He doesn’t seem to remember much.”

“Do you know who took him?” Po said. “Was Murgon responsible?”

“We don’t think so,” Katsa said, “but all we know for sure is that it wasn’t Randa.”

The stairs ended at a doorway. Raffin fiddled with a key. “Linda doesn’t know he’s here,” Po said. It was more of a statement than a question.

“Randa doesn’t know,” Katsa said. “He must never know.”

Raffin opened the door then, and they crowded into the tiny room. Bann sat in a chair beside a narrow bed, reading in the dim light of a lamp on the table beside him. Prince Tealiff lay on his back in the bed, his eyes closed and his hands clasped over his chest.

Upon their entrance, Bann stood. He seemed unsurprised as Po rushed forward; he only stepped aside and offered his chair. Po sat and leaned toward his grandfather, looked into his sleeping face. Simply looked at him, and did not touch him. Then Po took the man’s hands and bent his forehead to them, exhaling slowly.

Katsa felt as if she were intruding on something private. She dropped her eyes until Po sat up again.

“Your face is turning purple, Prince Greening,” Raffin said. “You’re on your way to a very black eye.”

“Po,” he said. “Call me Po.”

“Po. I’ll get you some ice from the vault. Come, Bann, let’s get some supplies for our two warriors.”

Raffin and Bann slipped through the doorway. And when Katsa and Po turned back to Tealiff, the old man’s eyes were open.

“Grandfather,” Po said.

“Po?” His voice rasped with the effort of speaking. “Po.” He struggled to clear his throat and then lay still for a moment, exhausted. “Great seas, boy. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to see you.”

“I’ve been tracking you down, Grandfather,” Po said.

“Move that lamp closer, boy,” Tealiff said. “What in the name of Lienid have you done to your face?”

“It’s nothing, Grandfather. I’ve only been fighting.”

“With what, a pack of wolves?”

“With the Lady Katsa,” Po said. He cocked his head at Katsa, who stood at the foot of the bed. “Don’t worry, Grandfather. It was only a friendly scuffle.”

Tealiff snorted. “A friendly scuffle. You look worse than she does, Po.”

Po burst into laughter. He laughed a lot, this Lienid prince. “I’ve met my match, Grandfather.”

“More than your match,” Tealiff said, “it looks to me. Come here, child,” he said to Katsa. “Come to the light.”

Katsa approached the other side of the bed and knelt beside him. Tealiff turned to her, and she became suddenly conscious of her dirty, bloody face, her tangled hair. How dreadful she must look to this old man.

“My dear,” he said. “I believe you saved my life.”

“Lord Prince,” Katsa said, “if anyone did that, it was my cousin Raffin with his medicines.”

“Yes, Raffin’s a good boy,” he said. He patted her hand. “But I know what you did, you and the others. You’ve saved my life, though I can’t think why. I doubt any Lienid has ever done you a kindness.”