Only to open her eyes and find that she hadnt moved an inch.
Her destination was within her vaulting range. There was no reason she should have failed. She tried again. And again. And again.
To no avail.
Atlantis had turned the entire school into a no-vaulting zone.
CHAPTER 
22
If Kashkari had been telling the truthand she had no reason to doubt himthen Atlantis had not only established a no-vaulting zone, but also made sure that one would not be able to simply walk out.
But not all no-vaulting zones were created equal. Permanent ones, like the one the prince had established in his room, took tremendous time and effort. A completely new, and most likely temporary, no-vaulting zone sometimes had areas of incomplete denial that could be exploitedor so shed recently learned in the teaching cantos.
She did not stop until she was before the wardrobe in Wintervales room. Paired portals, unless specifically allowed, did not work inside a no-vaulting zone. When one was inside and the other out, however, they were sometimes overlooked by a first-iteration no-vaulting zone, especially one that covered such a huge area.
She opened the wardrobe, pushed Wintervales coats aside, squeezed in. and closed the door. But when she opened the door again, she was still in Wintervales room at Mrs. Dawlishs.
Her fingertips shook.
Unless . . . unless the portal had a password. Most didnt: the magic undergirding portals and that which governed the use of passwords were not terribly compatible. But the prince had definitely used one for the bathtub portals connecting the castle to the monastery.
But how was she to find out the password now? The prince was out of reach. And were she to set out to search for Wintervale, there was every chance shed be seen and brought to the Inquisitor before she could come back and use the portal.
She perspiredit was dark and stuffy inside the wardrobe. Her lungs felt as if they were about to collapse. Her hands, braced on either side of her person, barely kept her upright.
Like a bright flare at night, the Oracles counsel came to her. You will best help him by seeking aid from the faithful and bold. Shed thought of those words daily, and never had they made any sense.
Now they did.
Fidus et audax , she said, Latin for faithful and bold.
And this time, when she opened the door of the wardrobe, she was in Wintervales house in London.
Iolanthe stepped down. The dark-blue wallpaper and the rich Oriental carpet both looked unfamiliarshed remembered very little of the decor. The space behind the wardrobe, where the prince had shoved her when Wintervale came at his mothers summons, was tiny. She and the prince must have been pressed together like a pair of shirts going through a clothes wringer.
But the window and its deep ledge looked exactly rightexcept shed thought it faced the street, when in fact it overlooked a small garden in the rear of the house.
The corridor outside was thickly carpeted, the walls covered in a pale-gold silk. There were several other bedrooms on the floor, but they were all empty.
Lee, is that you? came a feminine voice behind her. What is the matter? Why are you home?
The madwoman. Wintervale kept insisting she was only sometimes mad. Iolanthe prayed that today was one of her more lucid days.
She slowly turned around, her hands held up, palms out. Wintervales mother was in another tightly cinched English dress. And for all that shed spent the spring in a spa town, she did not appear rejuvenated: her eyes were sunken, her cheeks hollow, her skin as thin and fragile as eggshells.
The moment she realized it was not her son standing before her, however, her gaze turned feral. She pointed her wand at Iolanthe. Who are you? What are you doing here?
I am the one you swore a blood oath to protect, from the moment you saw me Iolanthe pushed the words past her rapidly closing throat. Last time I was here, you tried to kill me. This time, you will help me.
The corner of the madwomans eye twitched. I said I was asked to swear a blood oath. She laughed softly, the sound of nightmares. I never said I did.
Titus prayed.
He had meant for her to flee, and judging by what Cooper said, she had run for it. But had
she gone far enough? He wanted her halfway around the world by the time the Inquisitor broke him.
The Inquisitor would break him. For all her days in a coma, she seemed to be haler than ever. Her eyes were sharp, her complexion glowing, her attention as focused as a beam of light that had passed through a magnifying glass.
Mrs. Hancock arrived with the staff from Mrs. Dawlishs house: cooks, maids, laundresses, and charwomen. Much to the complaints of those standing in the queue, they leapfrogged to the head of the line.
The Inquisitor leaned forward with anticipation.
Of course a girl living in Mrs. Dawlishs house was going to be subject to more suspicion than a boy. And several of the maids and laundresses were about the right age.
It so happened that a kitchen maid had the day off to visit a sick sister in London. The Inquisitor was displeased. We asked for all the members of the staff to be accounted for.