Invincible by Dawn Metcalf Read Free Book Online Page B

“There is some advantage to being the High Water Seat, after
all.”
    Joy gaped at him. “But then couldn’t you have escaped from
Under the Hill yourself?”
    His icy glare was damning. “Do you truly think that I would
have been delivered in such a state if they had lent me a mirror?” He sounded
aghast. “Besides, they not only knew my skills and limitations, but how best to
humiliate me. All my meals and my toilette were performed in the dark so as to
enhance my discomfort in subtler ways than the Council’s usual base methods of
inquiry.” He growled. “We learned some things from humans, after all.”
    He massaged the bone dice between his palms, warming them. “Now
then, we will send you to Maia’s back door, which is used by me as well as the
other members of the Council, so should be both accessible and vacant given
their current pursuit, namely you. First, request sanctuary. Once granted, ask
that she swear by the King and Queen and her True Name that she will not cause
you harm by word or deed or intent to hinder or hamper your efforts nor aid any
other against you. Now repeat that back to me.” It took Joy three times to get
it right, but it was the best she could do without a Pearl of Wisdom. She still
had one in her handbag, collected after Hasp had broken her double-stranded
necklace of magic cheat sheets. She’d promised to grant a boon to whoever
brought her every single pearl and didn’t want to owe a promise she couldn’t
keep, so had kept one herself. She’d learned something from Graus Claude, after all.
    After her third attempt, the Bailiwick nodded, satisfied. “I
will use these to open a gate,” he said. “When you are ready to return, call
your house phone, let it ring twice, then disconnect. That will be my signal to
reopen the gate.”
    Joy tried to remember how the knucklebones worked. “Don’t you
need a laser beam? And coordinates?”
    The Bailiwick shrugged, fingers fussing with the sheets and the
dice. “The photon effect isn’t strictly necessary,” he admitted. “Consider it a
precondition for the appropriate sense of drama. However, one always needs
coordinates, or else you might end up anywhere in creation. Fortunately, as I’ve
explained, this is a property of Water and once one of the Water Folk has
slipstreamed, there remains an echo of a trail, like a rivulet tracing a path
through stone, weathering a course through which it can easily flow once again.”
He pointed a clawed finger at her. “You have traveled to Maia’s before, as Kurt
explained to me upon my escape, so the coordinates are already available in
you.”
    â€œBut I’m not Water Folk,” Joy said, twisting her fingers. “I’m
Earth.”
    â€œI am well aware, Miss Malone,” Graus Claude said, “Hence ‘in
you’ is less a turn of phrase and more a literal fact.” He tapped the side of
his head near his eardrum. “The eelet inside your
inner ear is one of the Siren’s royal breeds, if Dennis Thomas was to be
believed. This would make it one of the Water Folk’s creatures and since it has
traveled this route previously while anchored to your skull, it should be able
to carry you back along the route as well.”
    Joy blinked. “You want me to be dragged through the Twixt by a
worm in my ear?”
    Graus Claude grinned. “You must admit, no one would think of
it.” He didn’t laugh. Neither did she. The Bailiwick arched himself forward, the
bed groaning in protest. He enunciated his words to give them the proper weight
and severity. “The longer we dally, the greater the chances of our being
discovered. Master Ink, as well as the Council, demands that we take swift and
decisive action before that time.” Joy hesitated, losing the feeling in her
fingertips. The great frog’s eyes softened. His nostrils flared a final