“Close the gates!” I called down to the guards on duty. “Don’t let anyone in except Locke or Davin! It’s too dangerous!”
“Yes, Lord!” one of them called up, and two of them began to swing the heavy gates shut.
I went back down to the courtyard, waited for the next bolts of lightning to strike and the debris to fall, then sprinted across the courtyard and into the audience hall.
It was deserted. Two of the windows had broken, and I saw blood on the floor—someone had been cut by flying glass, I thought.
I spotted servants moving in the hallway, and I hurried to see what they were doing. Anari, it turned out, had taken Dworkin’s orders to heart and had begun moving all the castle’s beds and bedding to the ground floor. Servants would sleep in the grand ballroom. My sisters would share the dining hall. My brothers and I would have one of the lesser halls—one with no windows. Hopefully the lightning would stop or the castle would withstand its blasts through the morning.
I caught sight of Aber, who was supervising two servants as they carried an immense wooden chest down the stairs, and I strode over to join him.
“Who got hurt in the audience hall?” I asked.
“Conner,” he said. “A section of the glass fell in on him. His face and hands are cut up, but he’ll live.”
“That’s good news,” I said. “What’s in the trunk?”
“My set of Trumps. And a few other precious items I don’t want to lose. I thought I’d store them down here until we leave. We are leaving, aren’t we?”
I smiled bleakly. “What happened to your faith in Dad, Locke, and me? I thought you planned to sit tight until we killed everyone.”
His voice dropped to a whisper. “No offense, brother, but have you noticed what we’re up against? We won’t be alive to fight if we don’t get out of here, and soon. They’re bringing the castle down on our heads!”
A particularly loud crack! sounded outside as if to underscore his words. The castle shook, and I heard the low rumble of falling stones.
He might have a point, I thought. But the castle walls grew stronger the closer you got to the foundations. It wouldn’t be easy to destroy Juniper.
“In case you missed it,” I told him, “our Trumps aren’t working anymore. We can’t go anywhere. It’s time to stand and fight.”
“What?” He paled. “You’re wrong! The Trumps always work!”
“Try one,” I said, “and you’ll see. Neither Freda, Dad, nor I could get them to work.”
The servants carrying the trunk had reached the bottom of the stairs, and he motioned for them to set it down. They did so, and he flipped open its lid. I peered over his shoulder and saw stacks of cards… there had to be hundreds of them.
He picked up the top one, which showed me… it was the same card he’d been painting in his room earlier.
“Do you mind?” he asked me.
“Go ahead.”
He stared at it intently, frowning, but I felt no sense of contact. From his frustrated expression, I knew it wasn’t working for him, either.
With a low moan, he dropped his arm and looked at me. His face had gone ashen; his hand trembled.
“I’m sorry,” I said. I felt a little guilty for having him try the Trump when I’d known it wouldn’t work. Making Trumps seemed to be his one great talent, and it had been rendered useless right now.
“I can’t believe it,” he said.
“We’ll think of something else,” I said with more confidence than I felt. “Dad has whole rooms full of magical stuff. He must have something that can help us.”
Aber tossed the card back into the trunk, then slammed down the lid. Motioning for the two men to pick it up again, he told them to put it with the rest of his belongings. They started off down the hall.
“Well,” he told me philosophically, “I’ll just have to fall back on my other plan, I suppose.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“Hide until the danger’s past!”
I laughed, and he gave me a weak smile. At least he still had his sense of humor.
The lightning stopped half an hour later, with the coming of night, but I suspected it was a temporary reprieve. Perhaps whoever had sent the cloud needed daylight to direct his attack. I had little doubt but that the blasts would resume at dawn.
Our father remained locked in his workshop, leaving the rest of us to care for the castle. It was late by the time we had everyone bedded down for the night, from family to servants. The guards bravely walking the battlements were the only ones outside.
Freda, Blaise, and I retired to the audience hall, waiting for Locke and Davin to return. We didn’t have much to say to each other, but the company was better than being alone.
The silence outside seemed ominous.
Finally, toward midnight, I heard horses in the courtyard and rose to check.
“It’s Locke and Davin,” I told my sisters.
“About time,” Blaise murmured.
Locke left the horses with Davin and hurried inside. He looked grim when he saw us.
“What news?” I asked.
“The men are now a safe distance from the castle,” he said. “I don’t think the lightning will reach them. What have I missed? Where’s Dad?”
“Locked in his rooms,” I said unhappily. “He’s not answering to knocks.”
Freda added, “We moved everyone to ground level, and they are settled for the night.”
“I saw the lightning strikes,” he said. “Perhaps we should move everyone out to the fields as soon as possible.”
“I think that would be a mistake,” I said. “They’re trying to drive us into the open. Despite the lightning, we’re better off in here. Although the top towers will fall, the closer the walls get to the ground, the stronger they become. We’ll be all right for a while yet.”
“Good enough.”
“If you’re going back out tomorrow morning,” I said, “you might want to do it before daybreak. I think darkness stopped the lightning.”
“I will.” He glanced around. “Where are we camped out tonight?”
I rose. “I’ll show you.”