“Well, Amel knows of the obscure messages,” I said, “because he began repeating them or I should say chanting phrases or sentences from them to me as soon as I opened my eyes. But I can’t tell whether he understands the language or what it means to him.”

Gremt gestured to speak. “If Amel doesn’t understand the language now,” he said, “he will soon.” His face was sad, and he seemed to have none of the energy of the others around him. “Amel is a learning creature. All along he has been a learning creature.”

Still Amel was not responding, and I gave them to know this without speaking a word.

“We must decide how to bring the creatures here,” said Marius.

Allesandra had said nothing all this time, but she had begun to weep during the description of Rhoshamandes’s cruelty. Armand had slipped his arm around her and was holding her as she rocked back and forth, apparently in deep grief. “If you had seen that poor creature, Derek,” said Allesandra, “if you had seen what he suffered. It is possible that Fareed can help him. Restore the arm if the poor being did remove it from the fireplace.”

“Perhaps I can,” said Fareed. “You might use this as an inducement to Derek to come here for shelter immediately.”

“He’d never make it if Rhoshamandes is about,” I said. “Rhosh would see him approach and move to take him prisoner again.”

“So they need to come here by day,” said David, “to remain in the village until close to nightfall and then to be brought up to the castle before sunset.”

“Yes, exactly,” said Marius. “This is what must happen.”

Now, the village beneath the Château was not a real village at all, but a community of the humans who had restored the Château and were still in the process of refining it, and improving it, and the technicians who worked on its electricity and computer connections, and the gardeners who tended the vast grounds which were now twice the size of what they’d been in my father’s time. The restored church was for these people. So was the town hall. The inn was for their occasional visitors or new workers who did not have housing as yet. The shops were for their necessities, including DVDs, CDs, and books as well as groceries and the like. They had a chocolate shop. They had clothing stores as well. It was a pretty place, meticulously created in period architecture. But all of these people were paid handsomely to ask no questions about us whatsoever and would indeed greet these beings and put them up in the restored inn until nightfall.

“And what if they’re hostile to us?” I said. “You want us to bring them into the house, so to speak?”

“We have to do that,” said Teskhamen.