Lirael arrived unceremoniously at the palace at nearly 3 a.m. Lacking any energy whatsoever, she leaned farther back in the hammock-seat and promptly fell asleep.

She awoke to the rising sun, a pleasant warmth on her stomach, and a lining of white hair on her surcoat.

"Mogget," she mumbled. "Get off before you poke holes in the map." Once again, the cat was using his favorite excuse. Ranna had, supposedly, put him to sleep. Lirael heard a slight snigger from behind her and turned over to find the source. Mogget, having lost his bed, jumped off the Paperwing.

"Hello Nick. Has there been any trouble in the Palace?"

"Nothing to worry about, dear."

Lirael made a noise faintly distinguishable as 'good.' and clambered out of the Paperwing before tottering groggily down the stairs. She had just flopped onto the bed she and Nick shared, with every intent of getting a few more hours of shut-eye, when Ellimere strode in with an obnoxiously loud greeting.

'Grand. Now everyone in the building will know I'm here. Looks as though I'm going to get no more sleep.'

There was, indeed, no more rest in store for Lirael. Ellimere swooped down to the bed like a hawk to it's prey. "Any luck?"

"Only of the bad sort."

In an instant, Nick was behind her with a comforting arm. "What happened?"

"They were waiting for me. Three necromancers together in Death, and shadow hands to come after my body."

Her niece gasped. "And you fought them all off?"

"I wouldn't be here if I hadn't. I was slightly lucky, I suppose. All were novices with their bells. Their main skill was hand-to-hand combat." Lirael touched her arm, and winced. "At best, I'm pretty bruised. But I do believe my arm's broken."

"Hm. I'll get the healer up here soon. Meanwhile, why don't you come down and have some breakfast."

Lirael inwardly sighed. Of course Ellimere would find a way to keep her out of bed.

"No, Ellimere. What she needs now is rest. Go fetch Eldra and I'll take care of everything up here."

Thank the Charter. Nick had saved her from Ellimere yet again. He was truly her knight inÉsomething. Her eyes were too fogged with the anticipated sleep to see what he had been wearing. It didn't matter anyways. All that mattered now was the soft bed, the softer pillow, and sleep, sweet sleep.

She woke to gentle candlelight late that evening. Her arm was splinted, and Nick was still beside her, studying something. From the room's decor she knew he had taken her back to the Abhorsen's house. Wait, she knew that tattered old paper he held. It was the one she'd salvaged from the physical body of one of the necromancers. "You know, it's rather improper to search a slumbering lady's pockets."

Startled, Nick's head snapped towards her. "It's not very nice to scare people like that either."

She grinned. "Perhaps, but it is certainly is entertaining."

"Hm. Where did you come by this?"

"The usual way."

It was common knowledge that the Abhorsen's pay came through the pockets of the necromancers they defeated, as well as small wages for the charms they cast around people's homes.

"How would they have gotten this information? This could have been used to kill us, and possibly the rest of the bloodlines."

That finally woke her up. Lirael sat up straight and demanded the paper. After less than a second, she could only hope that there was not another copy of the map.

The thin paper held a highly detailed map of the Abhorsen's house, showing clear pictures of every level and room. It even extended to show all the tiny, insignificant things outside, like the herb garden. Upon closer inspection, the map showed which of the trees in the orchard were good to hide in, as well as a tiny note below the sketch of Alliel's fountain. There, the ink faded and the parchment worn, clearly from being touched far too often.

But what would anyone want with the fountain? It was a nice place to sit when the sun was shining, but nothing important ever happened there. Really, the Book of the Dead was less confusing.

On the thought of that, she pulled the tome out of her surcoat, which had found itself on the floor. Lirael flipped to the last few pages of the book with one hand while screwing a nib onto her owl-shaped pen. Every Abhorsen had added something to the leather-bound pages, even if it was just a brief history of their birth. She dunked the tip of the pen in an inkwell and turned to the blank page before her. Or, at least, the page had been blank. Lirael quickly scanned the text and finished just in time to see the last word tracing itself upon the parchment. She then went back to carefully read over the entire thing.

The fountain arrived today. It was a horrible task to get the thing over those infernal stepping-stones, but at least it's here now. The chamber, as I have written, was completed two weeks ago, minus the damageables of course. At last, we won't have every visitor staring at that gaping hole. I shouldn't complain, though. Donniken assures me it's made from only the strongest materials and marks. For being a Clayr, and my brother, no less, he certainly has a way with creating things. We can only hope he won't get in trouble with some of them. In any case, he did a beautiful job engraving my name in the bottom of it. I honestly wouldn't have known whether it was done by hand or spell if he hadn't told me it was the latter.

Alliel, 14th Abhorsen

There was more on the next page, but Lirael feared she would not be able to withhold her curiosity if she read any farther. As it was, she would be eagerly awaiting first light to examine the fountain.

Lirael began as the first hints of gray teased the October sky into dawning. Dew soaked through her house shoes and she found herself rubbing her goose-pimpled arms. This month's wind was constant, and she should have brought a jacket. But Lirael had been, and still was, far too eager to pause for anything.

There. It was in sight now, the tall jade statue rising from an ebony base. It truly had been made of the finest materials, and she had often been comforted by the security of its spells. And now, here she was heading back to the fountain. Again, she needed comfort, and to know that she could truly rest, if only for a day. But rest was one thing Lirael would not get. Even as she strolled the rest of the way to the site, she knew that it would be a long, long time before then.

Now that she was closer, she could see the statue's extreme detail. It was a striking image of an Abhorsen Lirael could only assume was Alliel. Every tiny key that had been embroidered on the surcoat was chiseled out in even finer detail, if that was possible. She was pictured in full gethre, and the effect of it on the pale green stone made her look like a rare fish leaping from the water. It was so beautiful Lirael was sure it was accurate down to the very number of scales and keys. But, at last, she tore her eyes from the torso.

Only to gape at the face. Every hair, line, and eyelash had be sculpted perfectly and dutifully, almost as though by a lover's hand. But even a statue like this one could not hold her attention for long when there was a secret about it. Somewhere, there was a large hole in the ground. Something, obviously valuable, would have been placed there. And, from the sound of it, everything was right under the fountain. The fountain, though, was huge. It really must have been quite a task. They couldn't have possibly lifted it across, and there wasn't enough space in a paperwing for both the stonework and a pilot. If they had even been created at that point. Lirael never could remember just which Abhorsen had made them. Which left only magic. It would have taken an incredible surge of power to move such a heavy object, but it was possible. If she could duplicate the spell, she should have enough power to move the fountain enough to slip inside.

But finding a spell strong enough would take long hours of searching through endless volumes. UnlessÉshe could get the Book of the Dead to show her more of Alliel's writing. A spell like that would almost certainly be documented. Dealing with that book was never easy, but it would be worth a try.

A/N Wow. I've been working on Chapter 15 for quite a while now, and I must say, I've found a whole new respect for people attempting to describe the old Kingdom's past. It's very tricky to make anything important really mesh with both Nix's original plot and your own ideas. So, kudos to all those who've managed it, and good luck to those who try!