The Gates of Winter - Mark Anthony [174]
Aldeth dusted cobwebs from his mistcloak. “I believe we'll find the passage useful as well, Your Majesty. There's a clear view of the Rune Gate from the crag where the passage lets out. We'll be able to see the army of the Pale King the moment it begins its march.”
Grace supposed that was something. “I'll want one of you Spiders to keep watch at the door at all times. And make sure you always have a runespeaker with you. Once the Rune Gate does open, you'll need to shut that door again.”
Despite the dark clouds looming on the horizon, as the days passed, Grace found her spirits lifting. While it was more the result of sweat and muscle than magic, it seemed miraculous how swiftly the keep was taking shape. Soon the wall was strengthened, the crenellations and machicolations built, and all the roofs repaired. After that, the men spent their time gathering piles of large stones that could be dropped on the heads of the enemy, sharpening swords, and fashioning arrows. Everything was coming together better than Grace could have dreamed.
Everything, that was, except for one thing: Though they scoured the keep from top to bottom, they still had not discovered the keyhole into which the rune of hope would fit.
Grace paced back and forth across the keep's main hall as Durge stood nearby. This room had been the filthiest in the keep, being the lowest besides the dungeon, and the men had only just finished clearing out the last of the dirt and debris. Now some of them wiped the floor with rags, cleaning away the last layer of grime. The floor was beautifully crafted, laid out with small pieces of slate of varying shades of gray. More men brought in armfuls of rushes and strewed them over the floor, covering the slate tiles to protect them from the passage of countless boots.
Grace rubbed a thumb over the surface of the rune. “It just doesn't make sense, Durge. If this really is the key to awakening the keep's magic, why would they have put the keyhole in a place where it's impossible to find?”
“They probably didn't,” said a ringing voice.
They looked up to see All-master Oragien enter the hall, Master Graedin at his side. The old runespeaker smiled in answer to Grace's look of confusion.
“I imagine that, to the builders of this keep, the keyhole was so obvious they didn't ever bother to write down where it was located. Only to us, seven centuries later, does it seem such a mystery.”
Grace supposed he was right. “You said the stones of this keep are bound with runes, All-master. Isn't there a way you can speak runes to awaken the keep's defenses?”
Master Graedin answered before the elder runespeaker could. “I'm afraid not, Your Majesty. Only a bound rune can be used to awaken another bound rune.”
Oragien gave the younger runespeaker a sharp glance. “You are clever, young Master Graedin, but you do not know all things yet.” He looked at Grace. “It is true that one cannot awaken a bound rune simply by speaking its name. However, there are other ways a bound rune might be invoked. Their magic may be crafted in such a way that certain things might awaken it.”
Grace shook her head. “What sort of things?”
“A bound rune might awaken when touched by water or heated in a fire, or even when the stars stand in a certain position in the sky. Almost anything might trigger the rune's magic. It's entirely up to the one who created it.”
Grace chewed her lip. Oragien's words made her think of something Grisla had said. Just because you have a key doesn't mean there's got to be a hole to stick it in. . . .
Maybe they had been going about this all wrong. Maybe the reason they hadn't found a keyhole wasn't because they had missed it, but rather because there wasn't one.
“Hope,” she murmured, gazing at the rune. “What gives us hope?”
“Life,” Graedin said without hesitating. “Where there's life there's hope.”
Grace looked at him. “Yes, and what else brings hope?”
Oragien