「One, two, three, push!」 announced Mogget.

remarked Sabriel. 「Would one of you care to tell me something I really want to know, like what are the Great Charters?」

「Perhaps we should take it in turns to carry the pack,」 she said reluctantly, when they stopped at a sort of alcove to catch their breath.

「Your memory must be coming back,」 Sabriel commented, slightly peeved at being thwarted.

Touchstone, who had been leading, nodded and came back down a few steps to take the pack.

「Yes,」 replied Touchstone, visibly calming his breathing, composing his face. 「I』m sorry, Mogget. Milady.」

「You』re cleverer than I thought,」 commented Mogget. 「Not that that』s saying much.」

Touchstone was silent, eyes unfocused and staring, then he laughed, a bitter little chuckle.

「The fields are flooded,」 said Touchstone, in a puzzled tone, as if he couldn』t believe what he was seeing.

「I can』t,」 Mogget and Touchstone said together.

「Tell me, is this stair the one you mentioned when you said the Queen was ambushed?」

Lunch was a culinary and conversational failure.

「Sabriel,」 Touchstone said tentatively. 「I will try to remember. 『Milady』 is a habit . . . it reminds me of my place in the world. It』s easier for me—」

Below them were the flat, sunken fields of Nestowe, maintained by a network of raised canals, pumps and dykes. The village itself lay three-quarters of a mile away, high on another granite bluff, the harbor out of sight on the other side.

The stair was to the north of the middle ship of the four. Concealed by both magic and artifice, it seemed to be little more than a particularly wet patch of the damp limestone that formed the sinkhole wall, but you could walk right through it, for it was really an open door with steps winding up behind.

Dinner was not something anyone had looked forward to. Sabriel tried talking to Mogget, but he seemed to be infected with Touchstone』s reticence, though not with his servility. As soon as they』d eaten, everyone left the raked-together coals of the campfire—Touchstone to the west, Mogget north and Sabriel east—and went to sleep on as comfortable a stretch of ground as could be discovered.

Touchstone exclaimed. 「To follow the wind, to work without care . . .」

With that, he turned, and continued up the stairs. Sabriel followed, Mogget at her heels. Now that she wasn』t lumbered by her pack, she felt more alert. Watching Touchstone, she saw him pause occasionally and mutter some words under his breath. Each time, there was the fa九_九_藏_書int, featherlight touch of Charter Magic. Subtle magic, much cleverer than in the tunnel below. Harder to detect and probably much more deadly, Sabriel thought.

Half an hour later, perhaps a third of the way up the narrow, stone-carved stair, Sabriel regretted her decision to take the pack. She still wasn』t totally recovered from the Paperwing crash and the stair was very steep, and so narrow that she had difficulty negotiating the spiraling turns. The pack always seemed to jam against the outside or inside wall, no matter which way she turned.

「I』d still be sitting by the spring, watching it bubble, if you hadn』t come along.」

「Most of the Wall, the Long Cliffs, and Abhorsen』s House, are on, or part of, the Southern Plateau,」 Mogget explained. 「The plateau is between one and two thousand feet above the coastal plain. In fact, the area around Nestowe, where we are headed, is mostly below sea level and has been reclaimed.」

There were seven stones in all, and none of them broken, though Sabriel felt a stab of nervous tension every time they left the ambience of one and moved to another, a stark picture always flashing into her head—the bloodstained, riven stone of Cloven Crest.

「At least you got us up the steps,」 Sabriel pointed out, alarmed by the violence of his selfloathing.

They stood next to the stone and looked out, out towards the huge expanse of blue-grey sea, white-crested, restless, always rolling in to shore.

Clean, awake and clothed, she returned to the campfire and ate her share of the porridge. Then Touchstone ate, while Sabriel buckled on armor, sword and bells. Mogget lay near the fire, warming his white-furred belly. Not for the first time, Sabriel wondered if he needed to eat at all. He obviously liked food, but he seemed to eat for amusement, rather than sustenance.

Dried beef strips, garnished with watercress from the fringes of the spring, and monosyllabic responses from Touchstone. He even went back to 「milady,」 despite Sabriel』s repeated requests to use her name. Mogget didn』t help by calling her Abhorsen. After lunch, everyone went back to their respective activities. Sabriel to her book, Touchstone to his exercises and Mogget to his watching.

「Shut up. You』re to be useful, remember?」

The stones were still there, and after the first, some sort of animal track that meandered from one stone to the next. It was cool under the pines, but pleasant, the constant presence of the Charter Stones a reassuring sensation read.99csw.comto Sabriel and Touchstone, who could sense them like lighthouses in a sea of trees.

「I can see time,」 whispered Mogget, so softly that his words were lost.

Finally, they came to a large chamber, with a set of double doors to one side. Light leaked in from a large number of small, circular holes in the roof, or as Sabriel soon saw, through an overgrown lattice that had once been open to air and sky.

Wood! Yes, that』s what I deserve to be—」

「I』ll lead, then,」 Sabriel added, flexing her back and shoulders, shuddering slightly at the packinduced layer of sweat on her back, greasy under armor, tunic, shirt and undershirt. She picked up her candle from the bench and stepped up.

Sabriel hesitated, then did the same against the right.

You are the Abhorsen, so they might let you past, but I am not sure.」

「Very well, Sabriel,」 Touchstone said, with careful emphasis. He was angry now, but at least that was an improvement over servile, Sabriel thought.

「Perhaps,」 agreed Sabriel. 「But now that I know more of the Old Kingdom, I suspect being at school in Ancelstierre saved my life. But enough of that. Which way do we go now?」

Touchstone started, rocked back on his heels, and almost fell over. For once, he didn』t sound like a sulky servant.

Sabriel groaned at that word again. Feeling like a shambling, blanket-shrouded excuse for a human being, she picked up her shirt and trousers and staggered off to find a suitable bush en route to the spring.

Touchstone muttered. 「Or Mogget would.

The icy water of the spring completed the waking up process without kindness, Sabriel exposing herself to it and the marginally warmer air for no more than the ten seconds it took to shed undershirt, wash and get dressed again.

「A boat would be the quickest way to Belisaere, and I am reasonably confident of my sailing,」 Touchstone remarked. 「But if the Dead are there, shouldn』t we . . .」

「Are you all right?」 Sabriel asked quietly, propping herself up on one elbow.

「Please, go back to sleep, milady,」 Touchstone continued, slipping back to his servile role. 「I will wake you in the morning.」

The last stone stood on the very edge of the pine forest, atop a granite bluff thirty or forty yards high, marking the forest』s eastern edge and the end of high ground.

「If you』d had a proper education, you』d know too,」 said Mogget. 「A waste of good silver, that school of yours.」

He hesitated, then passed it to her and would have helped her put it on, but she had her arms through the st九九藏書raps and the pack swung on before he could take the weight.

Then the doors were open. They walked through, shielding their eyes against the sun, feeling the cool breeze sharp on their skin, the fresh scent of pine trees clearing their nostrils of underground dust. Mogget sneezed quickly three times, and ran about in a tight circle. The doors slid shut behind them, as silently and inexplicably as they』d opened.

「Touchstone,」 Mogget interrupted, hissing.

They stood in a small clearing in the middle of a pine forest, or plantation, for the trees were regularly spaced. The doors behind them stood in the side of a low hillock of turf and stunted bushes. Pine needles lay thick on the ground, pinecones peeking through every few paces, like skulls ploughed up on some ancient battleground.

Sabriel pushed on 「three」 and Touchstone on 「push,」 so their combined effort took several seconds to synchronize. Then the doors creaked slowly open, sunshine spilling through in a bright bar, climbing from floor to ceiling, dust motes dancing in its progress.

Sabriel opened her mouth to say something scathing about the arrogance of pretended humility, then shut it, and subsided back under her blanket. Just concentrate on rescuing Father, she told herself. That is the one important thing.

「Winter,」 replied Sabriel. 「It was snowing quite heavily, back near the Wall. It seems much milder here.」

「Wake up!」 Mogget said, right in her ear. She rolled over, ignoring him, but he leapt across her head and repeated it in her other ear. 「Wake up!」

「Not really. I remember what I would not, and forget what I should not. Forgive me.」

Rescue Abhorsen. Don』t worry about Touchstone』s problems, or Mogget』s curious nature.

「Why not?」 said Touchstone, shrugging. He took up a position, braced against the left side of the door, palms flat on the metal-studded wood.

「I can hear voices,」 exclaimed Sabriel at the same time, her ears full of half-caught words, laughter, distant singing.

「The Watchwood,」 said Touchstone. He took several deep breaths, looked at the sky, and sighed. 「It is Winter, I think—or early Spring?」

「Yes,」 said Touchstone. 「I remember. Long Dyke, the raised canals, the wind pumps to raise the water—」

「No,」 Touchstone replied flatly. He hesitated, then added, 「That stair was in Belisaere.」

Sabriel said, mouth tight, words cold. 「And I can smell a certain stench on the breeze. There are Dead in the village.」

「I don』t care what』s easier for you!」 Sabriel snapped. 「Don』t call me 九九藏書milady and stop acting like a halfwit! Just be yourself. Behave normally. I don』t need a valet, I need a useful . . . friend!」

Touchstone looked at the sky, blue above the clearing, dark where the pines circled. The sun was just visible above the trees, perhaps an hour short of its noon-time zenith. Touchstone looked from it to the shadows of the trees, then pointed: 「East. There should be a series of Charter Stones, leading from here to the eastern edge of the Watchwood. This place is heavily warded with magic. There are . . . there were, many stones.」

「No, Touchstone. It』s my pack. I』ll carry it, thank you.」

「You would have found the way out,」

「There are no people in the fields—no one on this side of the village,」 Mogget added, his eyes keener than the telescope in Sabriel』s pack.

Touchstone continued being a servant after breakfast, cleaning pot and spoon, quenching the fire and putting everything away. But when he was about to swing the pack on his back, Sabriel stopped him.

「Please, please, just Sabriel,」 she said tiredly.

「There are guards—and guardians—on this stair. I know the words and signs to pass them.

「How does it open?」 asked Sabriel, indicating the door. She couldn』t see any handle, lock or key. Or any hinges, for that matter.

「You』re both very informative for a change,」

「No,」 said Touchstone, stepping in her way.

「I』m awake,」 grumbled Sabriel. She sat up with the blanket wrapped around her, feeling the pre-dawn chill on her face and hands. It was still extremely dark, save for the uneven light of the fire and the faintest brushings of dawn light above the sinkhole. Touchstone was already making the porridge. He』d also washed, and shaved—using a dagger from the look of the nicks and cuts on his chin and neck.

「Have you got any ideas about this door?」

Rescue Abhorsen. Rescue Abhorsen. Rescue Abhors . . . rescue . . .

Then Touchstone continued, haltingly, 「There is a spell . . . a binding on us. But someone who is not a Charter Mage, or otherwise closely bound to the Charter, might be able to speak. A child, perhaps, baptized with the Charter mark, but not grown into power.」

「Push. One on each side.」

Windmills, power for the pumps, stood silent, trefoil-shaped vanes still atop scaffolding towers, even though a salt-laden breeze blew in from the sea.

「We』ll go down and get a boat,」 Sabriel announced firmly. 「While the sun is high.」

They decided to take these steps the next morning, after another day of rest. Sabriel was eager to move on, fhｔｔpｓ://read•99ｃsｗ.coｍor she felt that her father』s peril could only be increasing, but she was realistic enough to assess her own need for recovery time. Touchstone, too, probably needed a rest, she thought. She』d tried to coax more information out of him while they』d searched for the steps, but he was clearly reluctant to even open his mouth, and when he did, Sabriel found his humble apologies ever more irritating. After the door was found she gave up altogether, and sat in the grass near the spring, reading her father』s books on Charter Magic. The Book of the Dead stayed wrapped in oilskin. Even then, she felt its presence, brooding in her pack . . .

「That』s the outside door,」 Touchstone said, unnecessarily. He snuffed out his candle, took Sabriel』s, now little more than a stub of wax, and put both in a pocket stitched to the front of his kilt. Sabriel thought of joking about the hot wax and the potential for damage, but thought better of it. Touchstone was not the lighthearted type.

Sabriel woke once in the night. Without getting up, she saw that the fire had been rekindled and Touchstone sat beside it, staring into the flames, his eyes reflecting the capering, gold-red light. His face looked drawn, almost ill.

「I don』t remember! All the way up the stair, all the words and signals . . . and now useless! Useless!」

「Push?」

Now she knew it was there, she also picked up the faint sensation of Death. This stair had seen killings, a long, long, time ago.

「It feels strange,」 said Touchstone, the wood humming beneath his hands like plucked lute strings.

Sabriel didn』t answer. He had spoken the last two words to the fire, not to her.

「Nestowe』s Charter Stone must be broken,」

「Now,」 she said to the smirking Mogget.

「Just one,」 replied Mogget, sliding between her legs and over to the thin line that marked the division between the two leaves of the door.

Sabriel followed his gaze, and saw that what she had taken for some crop was actually silt and water, sitting tepidly where food once grew.

「I』ve only just left school—I』m only eighteen! Calling me milady seems ridiculous.」

「Good morning,」 he said. 「This will be ready in five minutes, milady.」

「A child,」 said Sabriel. 「Why would a child know?」

Touchstone stayed at the opposite end of the ship, near the bow, performing a series of fencing exercises with his twin swords, and some stretches and minor acrobatics. Mogget watched him from the undergrowth, green eyes glittering, as if intent on a mouse.

「But the pumps were Charter-spelled,」