Thanks to Demonprincess81 for reviewing again. I've tried to put a little fluffy stuff in - you're not the only one who loves it. It's a shame there's not more of it in the books themselves.
To MzHissyFits – thanks for the compliment, although the plot of the story hasn't actually been that well worked out – I just sort of write and see where my ideas take me. I only have a vague idea of what's going to happen next myself. Millie may be a little more self conscious seeming here, but it's useful for the plot and it seems feasible that she might have gone through that sort of a stage – lots of people do after all.
Chapter Three
When Millie awoke after what felt like no more than five minutes of sleep she was rather shocked to find herself laying next to Christopher on top of the covers on her bed. For a moment or two her still half-asleep mind was quite understandably very confused, and then she began to remember the events of the night before – the spell, what she'd seen in the divination bowl and her long conversation with Christopher afterwards. They must have fallen asleep – the last thing she remembered was arguing (good-naturedly of course) with Christopher over which spells to use to stop Gabriel from immediately tracking them down after he realised they were missing, then she had closed her eyes for just a minute…
She wondered with some embarrassment how they had got into this position, with her head laying on his chest and his arm around her waist but she supposed it must have been purely accidental - they had both been asleep after all. For a minute or so she felt almost too lazy to move, despite their potentially awkward position (she was very tired after all), but the frankly terrifying thought of what Gabriel would say, or perhaps even more frighteningly, do if he found out about this caused her to wake up rather rapidly.
She hurriedly extricated herself from his grasp and sat up to shake him awake, feeling panicked even though she knew it must still be too early for even the servants to be awake. That was the effect Gabriel tended to have on people, which was probably useful considering the job he had to do. Anyone who wasn't afraid of would have to be either stupidly brave, know nothing about magic or like Christopher she supposed, despising him while at the same time trying pig-headedly not to be afraid of him. He looked to be so deeply asleep that she actually felt guilty about waking him at first, before she remembered what would happen if she didn't.
"Christopher, you really must wake up now!" She whispered sharply in as loud a voice as she dared while at the same time shaking him, perhaps with a little more force than was strictly necessary.
"No I don't." He mumbled indistinctly in reply, adding something else hat sounded like "go away", although by this time he had buried his face in the pillow so it came out rather muffled. He sounded every bit as tired and disorientated as she had felt five minutes ago.
"Are you always this rude when people try to wake you up in the morning?" she asked, unable to resist the chance to tease him a bit. She really did feel sorry for the poor maid who had to get him up in the morning, it must take her ages.
Relentlessly, she shook him again and this time succeeded in getting him to open his eyes. A vague, perplexed expression immediately crossed his face, although for once his confusion appeared to be genuine. "Millie what are you doing here?" He asked sounding, if it was possible even more bewildered than he looked.
"It's my room, silly," she replied watching, enjoying herself a little as his face grew even more confused. He obviously couldn't remember how he'd got there. "We fell asleep, after the spell last night, remember?" She reminded him kindly. "At least we know what we're doing next."
Christopher suddenly looked enlightened. "Ah yes, I remember now. Sorry, I wasn't quite awake before."
"I noticed," she interjected, in a sarcastic way that she normally would have left to Christopher.
"Oh ha ha. Very funny." He replied, his tone dripping with sarcasm but with his smile seeming to suggest that he wasn't at all serious. Then he added more soberly "You're right though we do know what we are doing next, and I for one will be extremely glad to tell Elizabeth that the plan is, in fact well underway." Millie was confused for a moment, until she remembered Elizabeth's comments at breakfast the previous morning – it was less than twenty-four hours ago but it felt like a lifetime. "I get the distinct impression sometimes that she doesn't think much of me. What would you say, Millie?"
His vague expression had altered slightly, to his vague-but-knowing one, and she knew exactly what he was trying to do. Elizabeth had been right, he really was terribly predictable at times, and he could never stand the idea that there might be anything going on in the Castle that he didn't know about, or wasn't involved in, and the friendship between Millie and Elizabeth was no exception. When they had been younger, and she had only been able to visit the castle during the school holidays (thankfully she had finished a few months ago – it really wasn't as much fun as it had seemed in the Millie books), he used to complain that she wasn't spending enough time with him. She suspected this was mainly because he felt left out, not because he really felt she was neglecting him – he had had plenty of other friends there after all. Anyway, the point was that he couldn't stand the idea of being left out, or of someone thinking he was less than perfect. And Millie had no patience with this particular aspect of his personality. She therefore decided to ignore the question and change the subject, knowing that it would annoy him no end. It was also a thing he did himself rather often.
"Christopher, I really think it would be a good idea if you went upstairs before a maid comes in. I dread to think what Gabriel would do if he ever found out you spent the night here" Annoyingly, she actually found herself blushing a little at this point. She added quickly: "Even if all you did was sleep of course. I actually think that wouldn't really matter to him."
"That, Millie is a rather good point, even if you didn't answer my question." He followed this up with a shrewd look to make if clear she hadn't got away with it. "I'll see you at breakfast and you can tell me later." He got up and walked towards her door, pausing with his hand hovering somewhere near the handle. "I really am glad you're helping me Millie, you know that, don't you?" he said quietly and almost tenderly, turning to give her one of his dazzling smiles. She gave him a truly genuine smile back, relieved that any awkwardness between them seemed to have disappeared. "There's honestly no-one else I'd rather be working with."
"Really?" She asked, pleased and surprised at the unexpected compliment, which was high praise from Christopher.
"Of course. We work well together, don't we? Remember the Dright, and Conrad's uncle? And the fact that you're the resident expert on Series 10 doesn't hurt I suppose. Now I'd really better go before Linda or Lydia or whatever her name is gets here. Goodbye."
Millie once again found herself quite a loss. She didn't believe she would ever understand Christopher as long as she lived. It didn't mean she didn't like him though; on the contrary she liked him rather a lot, as she had always done.
The sun was setting as Millie and Christopher made their way across the Castle's immaculate lawn, taking care to keep out of sight of the castle windows even though they had taken the trouble to cast the strongest invisibility spell they could manage between the two of them – after all, Gabriel was watching and it wouldn't do to be caught before they had even left the Castle grounds.
The Plan, despite the hours of discussion it had taken to come up with it had actually turned out to be quite simple in the end, at least the getting past Gabriel part. Luckily, he was due to entertain some Very Important guests on the particular night they had chosen, and almost certainly wouldn't notice they were missing until the following morning, which would give them a chance to stop him from tracing them magically, for a while at least. It was the question of what they would do once they got to Series 10 itself that was proving to be really problematic. They couldn't really expect just to turn up there and immediately find whatever it was that was bothering the staff of Chrestomanci Castle so much, although with Christopher's talent for getting into trouble Millie had to admit that it was a possibility. If only the spell had worked like it was supposed to have done, and the annoying thing was that it should have, because she was fairly certain that neither of them would have ever made a mistake with such a simple spell, and it was rather frustrating that they had no real leads whatsoever. Still, hopefully one of the priestesses at the Temple might know something.
Once in the garden they moved speedily through the seasons until they reached the gateway and stone slab in the centre. Christopher activated it easily, remembering his lessons in he garden with Gabriel. The air between the broken pillars of the gateway began to shimmer and flicker as it usually did, before darkening to allow the familiar image of the city where Millie had spent the first part of her life to develop.
"I must say I prefer travelling this way to going through the Place in Between, it's really much more pleasant" Christopher whispered to Millie, unable to resist making one of his light-hearted, joking comments even now.
"Ugh, you can say that again", Millie replied, shivering involuntarily when she remembered her own freezing and terrifying journey through there when she was trying to escape from being sacrificed to Asheth. She was certainly glad that they wouldn't have to do that again – she might even have been tempted to stay at the Castle, rather than repeating the horrible experience. "It looks like the portal's about ready. Should we go through now?"
"Well that is the general idea…." he began somewhat sarcastically, before noticing the sharp frown she was beginning to give him and adding a hurried apology: "Sorry, you know I can't help it." He gave her an appealing smile, and her frown immediately disappeared. She had only been half-serious anyway. For some reason she wasn't finding Christopher's inappropriately timed jokes and sarcasm as annoying as she used to. She took his hand (just so they wouldn't get separated of course) and they stepped through the gateway together.
Series 10 was hot. Really hot - beyond anything you'd find in the Europe of any of the worlds in series 12. Even though she'd been brought up there, Millie was sweating in seconds in her too-thick dress designed for a chilly English autumn, and Christopher looked to be faring even worse. The heat hit you straight away and made it hard to concentrate on anything beyond finding the nearest patch of shade. Because of this, the muddy coloured walls and the brightly painted colours of everything else passed in something of a blur as Millie led Christopher in what she was almost sure was the direction of the Temple.
The city looked frighteningly unfamiliar to her and she was beginning to wish that she were back in Series 12 which, as she realised with a bit of a jolt she really considered to be her home now. The strange, exotic smells, the sounds of people chattering excitedly and the clinking music that seemed to be everywhere only added to her confusion and she was quite relieved when the square filled with various temples came into sight. She recognised the one to Asheth immediately. It was right in the centre, twice the size of the others, and by far the most richly decorated.
Millie hesitated. She was suddenly irrationally afraid, as afraid as she could ever remember being in her life before. She couldn't help imagining that Asheth would somehow realise as soon as she stepped inside the Temple that she hadn't been sacrificed after all, and come to get the life she was owed. And what if a horrible priestess like Mother Antsey recognised her? She turned around and glanced at Christopher, who was busy trying to brush the sandy dust of the city off his new suit. Oops. It looked like it was completely ruined, and that he'd be in a bad mood for the rest of the day. The thought actually cheered her up a little, even though she knew it shouldn't.
"Are we here?" he asked, looking up for a second. "I wish I had worn another suit. A brown sandy-coloured one perhaps." Then he noticed the look on her face. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be?" she answered, even though she really felt anything but. "They'll be going for their Midday Rest soon – look how high the sun is the sky. It'll be easier to sneak in then – and of course most of
the Arm of Asheth will be resting too, if you're worried about that." She was amused to see that he really did look rather terrified at the thought of the silver - armoured guards that had killed him with a spear.
"I think that might be best." He answered with a slight shiver in spite of the heat. "Definitely a good idea. Now let's go and sit down in the patch of shade over there and you can tell me what's really bothering you, without changing the subject this time."
Christopher really was very sympathetic when he heard about what was worrying her – indeed she was rather surprised at just how concerned he seemed to be, and by the end of the conversation she felt much better. They didn't just spend their time talking however – Millie had noticed the strange looks they were getting in their seemingly strange and foreign-looking clothes and had had the bright idea of changing their clothes magically to the robes that seemed to be worn universally here. Thankfully they both immediately felt much cooler, although Christopher seemed somewhat regretful about losing his suit. They had explored the rest of the city a little too, and Millie was beginning to enjoy the chance to look around without the crowds and confusion of the Temple. It was a beautiful city, in its own way, very exotic seeming now she was accustomed to series 12, and she regretted never having had the chance to see it properly before. By the time it was time to try and get inside the Temple she was absolutely certain that they done the right thing, despite the fact that they were still no closer to finding anything.
A/N: Please don't forget to review – I need encouragement, it makes me write faster! I've changed my profile thing so it accepts anonymous reviews if that was putting you off before.
