Tuesdays at the Castle

Celie is upset because her parents are going to Bran’s graduation at the School of Wizardry, but the rest of the family must stay behind. As she wanders through the castle, she sees a tower room that wasn’t at the top of the stairs before. Celie climbs to investigate because she is trying to create an atlas of the entire castle to keep people from getting lost: “So far she had three hundred pages of maps, and could get to most of the major rooms (winter and summer dining halls, chapel, library, throne room) in record time as long as the Castle wasn’t bored and looking to stretch” (7).

Celie notes the tower’s sparse furnishings. Aside from a table, it contains a spyglass at each of its four windows, a book, a compass, a coil of rope, and a tin of dry biscuits. Celie looks down at the courtyard through one of the spyglasses and sees that her parents are preparing to leave. The castle kindly offers her a stone slide to quickly get her all the way downstairs so that she can bid her parents farewell. The royal couple promises to return in two weeks, bringing Bran home with them.

The king and queen have been gone nearly two weeks, and fourteen-year-old Rolf is hearing petitions in their absence. Pogue, the son of the village blacksmith, has come to visit Lilah. Celie thinks, “Pogue was easily the handsomest young man in Glower Valley, which was presumably why he ended up in so many fights” (14). After Celie takes him to find Lilah, she goes in search of her own room, but the castle points her to the tower instead.

Celie looks through one of the tower spyglasses and glimpses the royal coach racing back to the castle. It isn’t carrying any baggage and doesn’t appear to be occupied. Celie runs to alert her brother and sister. When they arrive in the courtyard to greet the coach, the sergeant of the royal guard says it was attacked by bandits, and the king and queen are dead.

Sergeant Avery explains to the children that the carriage was set upon by thieves. The queen, king, and Bran have disappeared, but blood was found near the scene of the attack. The king’s ring was also found lying on the ground. Since the Griffin Ring has magical properties and can only be removed when a king dies, everyone concludes King Glower has been killed along with his wife and eldest son.

Rolf isn’t quite ready to accept this verdict. He orders a search for the missing bodies. In the meantime, the castle will prepare to hold a memorial ceremony. The three siblings comfort each other: “Rolf put his arms around Lilah and Celie, and everyone else left the room, leaving [them] to their grief” (25).

The morning after Celie and her siblings receive the terrible news, Rolf meets with an ambassador from the realm of Vhervhine. He announces the arrival of their Prince Khelsh along with a large entourage to attend the memorial ceremony. Celie thinks, “The Vhervhish people were rather warlike as it was, but the second son, she thought it was Khelsh, was supposedly a real horror” (29). The ambassador from Grath also announces that their Prince Lulath will arrive with a large party of retainers. Rolf asks Celie to arrange accommodations for the visitors by communicating their needs to the castle. Even though she doesn’t believe the castle will do as she asks, she agrees and leaves.

Later, in the tower room, the siblings and Pogue talk about the intentions of the two foreign princes. Pogue says they’re both planning to take over the kingdom before Rolf can assume the throne. Celie tells the rest, “Castle Glower finds a way to get rid of chambermaids it doesn’t like. It isn’t going to sit there and let a new king take over” (34).

The next morning, much to Celie’s surprise, the castle has rearranged itself to accommodate the visitors. “No one saw it happen, and the rooms were so perfectly normal, the stalls and barracks so perfectly plain and even worn-looking, that Celie herself had trouble believing that they hadn’t been there all along” (36). Bran once confided to Celie that the castle probably stores extra rooms in an alternate dimension and only allows people to see these spaces when they’re needed. The castle itself might really be the size of the entire valley.

Avery returns from his search, having discovered the queen’s wedding ring. He’s convinced the royals are dead but still can’t find the bodies. For the rest of the day, Celie helps with preparations for the memorial feast, which will take place after sundown. The princess consults with the cook to make sure all the guests’ food preferences have been arranged. The cook has everything under control, but she refuses to prepare meals for Prince Lulath’s pet dogs. She tells Celie, “When Prince Lulath comes with his herd of lapdogs, one of you must look him in the eye and tell him to take them to the kennel” (41).

Rolf, Lilah, Pogue, and Celie take lunch together privately so that no one can overhear their conversation. Rolf comments that his room hasn’t changed. Celie interprets this to mean that the castle hasn’t chosen a new king. Perhaps this is because their parents are still alive. All four rush to the king’s and queen’s apartments, which look exactly as they did before the royal couple left.

Rolf agrees that his parents must still be alive. Pogue offers to lead a search party to scour the area beyond the pass where the bandit attack occurred. He also suggests paying a visit to the College of Wizardry. Rolf exclaims, “I can’t believe we didn’t think of this before! There must be something they can do, to verify who died, or search for any survivors with magic” (50). While Pogue goes off to consult with the wizards, the others prepare to attend the memorial service.