A Riddle of Green

by Isobelle Carmody

  Ofred at last noticed the light. He sat up and gazed at it.

  “Did you dream of this?” Little Fur asked him.

  “It is the safe place,” said Ofred, blinking.

  The lemur did not smell of fear, and Little Fur wondered if he understood that false light always meant humans. Ofred turned his head slowly and looked away from the light and the white tower. His gaze was so intent that Little Fur followed it. Something dark was swimming toward them through the mist.

  A sleek furred head emerged from the water. “Greetings, Little Fur,” came a bright voice. “My name is Trik.”

  It could only be one of the selkies that Brownie had told her about!

  “How do you know my name?” Little Fur asked as the head of another selkie emerged beside the first.

  “Who does not know the name of she who stopped the tree burners from killing the seven sacred trees; who journeyed to Underth to save the earth spirit from the tricks of the Troll King; who went to the ice mountains to save her friend?” Trik asked, a teasing note in her voice.

  “But how do you know of me?” Little Fur asked with as much dignity as she could muster.

  Before the selkie could answer, the beam of false light swung back to shine on all of them.

  “We must not stay here,” Little Fur said urgently. “The human will see us!”

  “What human?” asked the other selkie, a male.

  “The human that makes the light dance upon the sea,” Little Fur said.

  “There is no human,” answered Trik firmly. “It is only a human device to make the light dance. But there is sweet water ashore, and you smell of thirst. We will bring you to the island, for your raft will break on the reef that surrounds it.”

  “But how will we get to the island if the raft cannot?” asked Little Fur.

  “There are gaps in the reef, but none wide enough for your raft,” Trik said.

  Little Fur did not want to leave the raft, but the white stuff was beginning to crack and crumble, and it would not bear them for much longer. And she was dreadfully thirsty.

  Little Fur helped Ofred into the water, where he began to swim with a good deal of wild-eyed splashing until the two selkies bore him up and carried him smoothly toward the reef. They vanished, and Little Fur’s heart sank. But in a short time, the three heads reappeared in the calm water between the reef and the rocky shore of the island. Then Ofred was safely ashore.

  By the time the selkies returned for her, Little Fur had tied the cloak about her neck. She slipped into the chill water and at once felt the hungry magic in the waves tugging and nudging at her. The sea magic felt far more powerful than it had by the sandy shore of the mainland. The selkies swam on either side of her, drawing her along far more swiftly and smoothly than she could have swum alone in the rock-studded churn of water. Even so, the wildness of the water was daunting.

  “Do not be afraid, Healer, for this shape knows well how to swim,” the male selkie said soothingly.

  Little Fur’s mouth fell open, for she recognized his voice. “Danger!” she cried.

  “I am,” he said, chuckling in a way that must come from this new shape, for Little Fur had never heard him laugh in his panther form. “It may be that my name must be changed,” Danger went on, “for it does not fit this shape at all. There is too much laughter and mischievous daring in it. Yet I cannot change my name every time I change my shape.”

  “What happened?” Little Fur asked incredulously. “I thought the sea had swallowed you!”

  “It did,” said Danger. “It dragged me deep under the waves. I was beginning to join the world’s dream when Trik came to me. She meant just to save me, but when she touched me, I felt the rightness of her shape for that place. I yearned so strongly to be like her that it was so. She was surprised, but no more so than I!”

  “So you didn’t need to go to the earth spirit after all,” Little Fur murmured.

  Trik bade Little Fur hold her breath at that moment. Then Trik and Danger carried Little Fur down into the fierce green water and through a submerged hole in the reef. They soared back to the surface and Little Fur glided through the calm water to where Ofred waited.

  To Little Fur’s amazement, there were several lemmings with the lemur, Silk among them.

  “However did you get here?” Little Fur marveled.

  “The selkies came and found the tree. They pushed it here to the reef, and we swam to this island of the shining light while they went to find you,” said Silk. “Now come to the fresh water and food.”

  Little Fur turned to speak to Danger, but he and Trik were already in the water, diving and splashing. So instead Little Fur followed Ofred, who was picking his way across the water-slicked stones, urged on by the lemmings. Little Fur was very glad to have her feet on solid ground again, though she staggered slightly, as if the ground were tilting. Her heart clenched, for surely this was a sign that the elf part of her was failing. Then she saw that Ofred was staggering, too, and her heart calmed.

  “We knew you would come safe to land because the master dreamed it,” Silk told Little Fur earnestly when they reached the base of the white tower, where a little feast was laid out. “We foraged in preparation.”

  There were tiny shellfish and sea grapes, as well as eggs donated by the gulls. Silk explained that the island was home to a great flock of gulls. They had been very happy to see the lemmings and, excited by the prospect of even more company, had flown out to search for Little Fur and Ofred.

  “Soon they will return,” Silk said as they drank from a spring of icy water. The lemming offered Ofred some of the sea grapes, and then she brought some to Little Fur, adding, “The gulls are eager to meet the one who will enter the maw of the sea.”

  This news wiped the smile from Little Fur’s face.

  Another lemming offered her some seeds, explaining that he had harvested them from the great tree that had carried them across the sea.

  “But I thought you swam through the reef,” Little Fur said, puzzled.

  “We did,” Silk replied, going on to explain that the tree had been driven onto the rocks and broken. The wind and waves had carried part of it over the rocky reef, and it now lay on the shore of the island. “Would you like to see it?”

  Little Fur nodded. Silk and the lemmings guided Little Fur down the other side of the island to a wide, still lagoon protected by the reef. Here, where there was no wild sea to scour it away, was a sandy little beach. Part of the broken tree lay on it, already sinking into the sand. It had lost most of its smaller branches, but there were still several with tatters of dead leaves and rubbish. Little Fur wondered for the first time in which land the tree had grown, and how it had come to be in the great sea.

  “It is lucky it was not swallowed by the maw of the sea,” said Silk.

  Little Fur looked at her, and a chill ran down her spine. “What do you mean?” she asked.

  “Trik said the maw is out there, among the shoals beyond the reef,” Silk said, pointing.

  Little Fur could see nothing but the black barrier of the reef. Beyond it was a wild churn of waves and jagged rocks, but she had no doubt that whatever the maw of the sea was, it was there. There was a raucous call overhead, and she looked up to see a net of gulls descending. The gulls called out rough greetings and landed, and the lemmings clustered about them eagerly. The birds dropped seeds and leaves—and even a few roots!

  “They want us to stay, and they have promised to feed us,” said Silk, who had come to stand beside Little Fur. “We told them that although there is good water, we cannot stay where the earth spirit does not flow.”

  Ofred had come down to the shore, too. He was gazing out to sea in the direction that Silk had pointed to, and he was trembling.

  At dusk Little Fur went down to the sandy shore, for she had seen the selkies in the lagoon. She sat on a rock and waited until the darker one swam over to her, which he did quickly.

  “Will you stay in this shape?” Little Fur asked Dang
er, as casually as she could.

  “I could change now, if I wished,” said the shapeshifter, answering the question she had wanted to ask rather than the one she had asked. “After I took this shape, I remembered how to change. Curiosity plus yearning equals change.”

  “So you will stay this way?” Little Fur asked.

  “I will keep this shape until I understand the joy in it,” he answered. Then he gave her a shrewd look. “In giving myself to the sea, I found what I sought,” he said.

  “I thought you would come with me to the earth spirit,” Little Fur murmured.

  “I thought so, too,” Danger replied. Little Fur smelled his pity for her.

  “Silk told me the maw of the sea is very near,” she said in a low voice.

  “It is on the other side of the reef, among the rocks,” Danger told her. “Trik showed it to me.” He hesitated. “I do not think you can enter it and live.”

  “I must go into the mouth of the sea, for that is what Ofred dreamed. If I am to find the earth spirit, I must follow his dreams.” Little Fur sighed. “Perhaps the only way for me to rejoin the earth spirit is to join the world’s dream.”

  “I do not think so,” Danger said. “For if that were so, you would not have needed to come so far.”

  That was true, Little Fur reflected, and hope stirred in her. She stood up, suddenly resolute. There was no sense in delay. “How do I get to it?”

  “The selkies will take us to the maw of the sea, where we will be swallowed and come to the deepest green,” said Ofred, who was coming down to the sand, toward her.

  Once again, the selkies brought them through the jagged bite of the reef. By now Ofred was shivering with cold. Little Fur saw that there was another wide lagoon beyond the first. The low-lying sun had turned the water in the lagoon to a milky gold without a fleck of blackness. Although no wave ruffled its surface, there was motion. It was not the wild churn of the waves, but a smooth spiraling of water such as fish and waterbirds make when they dive deep and fast, pulling the water down after them. As they drew closer, Little Fur saw that the spiraling was, in fact, an enormous whirlpool.

  The selkies brought Little Fur and Ofred to a rocky outcrop at the edge of the whirlpool. “It is a maelstrom,” said Trik with unusual gravity. The sound of the word was deep and compelling and mysterious. “Danger says that you must go into it, but perhaps you will change your mind?”

  “It is the way to the deepest green,” Ofred said. “Here is the end of all dreams.” His eyes blazed red in the fading light.

  Little Fur felt the wind of the maelstrom in her hair, felt its voracious hunger in the water. She had no doubt that an end for her lay within it if she surrendered to its call. “Someone told me once that in every ending there is a beginning,” she said. Though the words smelled of truth, she could not remember when she had heard them or who had said them. She looked into the shining eyes of the shapeshifter. “Can you take me closer?”

  Danger did not answer.

  “We cannot go more than a little farther, lest the maelstrom devour us,” said Trik.

  Little Fur looked at the lemur. “You could choose not to obey your dream, just this once,” she said.

  “I will go into the maw,” said Ofred.

  Little Fur drew a deep breath. “We will go together, then. To death, maybe, or to some fate no one has dreamed of.”

  Ofred and Little Fur entered the water with the selkies again. The pull of the whirlpool was stronger, as if it knew what they had decided. The selkies swam only a short distance; then Trik said, “We will be sucked in if we go any farther.”

  Little Fur bade the lemur hold on to her neck. He could swim, of course, but she did not want them to be separated. He climbed from Danger’s back onto Little Fur’s.

  Little Fur had to swim hard to keep them both afloat. She had no breath to say farewell to the selkies, nor was there time—the maelstrom had got hold of them! It pulled them into its slow outer whorl, and Little Fur saw that at the center was a deep green funnel going down into shadow: the maw of the sea.

  Little Fur and Ofred circled ever more swiftly as each turn brought them closer to the center. While they were turning on the very edge of the deep green well in the middle of the maelstrom, Little Fur had a sudden memory of climbing down into the misty chasm where the tree guardian lived. Then she and Ofred were drawn over the lip.

  Little Fur had thought they would fall into it as into a hole, but the force of the spinning water held them and they turned round and round at a dizzying speed. The tunnel narrowed and darkened as they spiraled down.

  Realizing what must happen at the bottom, Little Fur shouted, “Ofred! Hold your breath!” But she did not know if he heard, for all at once they were at the bottom. The force of the enveloping water was so great that it nearly tore the lemur from her. Her own terror might have overwhelmed her, but all the trollish stubbornness and strength in her was bent on keeping hold of the lemur. She closed her eyes and had a vision of Crow flying above Ginger, who was racing across a sea of bending grass.

  CHAPTER 13

  The Source

  Little Fur fell, holding her breath until she couldn’t anymore. The moment she gave up and breathed was the moment the water was gone. She took in a breath of air and opened her eyes. Little Fur felt a tightness around her neck loosen as Ofred fell to the ground. Little Fur knelt beside the lemur and touched him. He stirred and sat up with a groan.

  They were in a tunnel that looked exactly the same in both directions. There was no way to tell where it led, but above them was a great opening, over which flowed the swirling blue-green water of the maelstrom. There was nothing to prevent it from flowing into the tunnel, and so it must be that magic kept it at bay, though Little Fur could not feel magic at all. But how had she passed through the magic then?

  “It must be magic keeping the sea out,” she said to Ofred companionably. “Though I do not know why it would let us enter.”

  The lemur said nothing, but he was soaked and shivering.

  Little Fur’s elf cloak was already dry, and faintly warm about her shoulders. She drew the lemur closer and draped it around him as well, knowing its magic would take the chill from his bones. Thinking of her father’s cloak made her check for her mother’s stone again. She was relieved to find it where it belonged, around her neck. She thought of the Troll King and felt a hard jab of anger, for was not this perilous journey his fault?

  Little Fur stood up, and her troll senses reached out to feel all the different elements and layers of the surrounding earth. It did not take her long to discover that the tunnel was simply a loop, leading to and from a cavern not far away but deeper down in the earth. She looked at Ofred. “I am going to see where the tunnel leads.”

  The lemur rose and followed her. Little Fur’s senses continued to feel the earth through which they walked. She felt that the tunnel had once been much closer to the surface of the world, for there were traces of land plants in the ground. Not just grass either, but deep roots of great trees. Some unimaginably huge disturbance must have sunk this part of the earth and brought the sea down on it.

  Little Fur thought of the sea that had flooded the valley where her father and her mother had been held captive in the she-wizard’s castle. She wondered if the same flood that had marked the end of the age of magic had covered the hole under the sea, and whose magic had stopped it up. No one knew where Little Fur’s mother had gone after her father had cracked open the earth to save her, but Little Fur was sure that her mother would have returned to her kin—for where else should she go? And she would have been welcomed, for not only was she a troll, she was a princess. Little Fur knew this because the green stone her mother had possessed was bestowed only upon trolls of royal blood.

  But something had clearly gone wrong. Why else would Little Fur have been left as a babe in the roots of the eldest in the grove of the Old Ones, with only her mother’s stone around her neck and her father’s cloak wrapped about her? She had
questioned the ancient trees, but they said only that one morning, when the sun opened its eye, she had been cradled in the roots of the eldest of them.

  Little Fur shivered and saw a mist of green light ahead. She and Ofred emerged from the tunnel into what seemed to be an immense cavern, such as those in which the troll city of Underth was built. It was difficult to see what lay within the cavern because of the green mist, but Little Fur could make out a path winding down toward several enormous rock formations. As they drew closer, Little Fur saw that the humped shapes were natural formations that had been carved and given graceful doors and windows. They passed by deserted dwelling after deserted dwelling, until Little Fur understood that what they were in had once been a great city.

  Utterly astonished, Little Fur wondered what sort of creatures had built the city, for it was far too ancient to be a human settlement. She had only to touch a wall to know that the stone had been shaped when the eldest of the seven great singing trees was planted, which meant it must be a city from the age of magic!

  Little Fur went on, marveling at how the builders of the city had sculpted stone in a way that revealed all of its hidden beauty. Humans built on the earth and smothered it, but here every dwelling was shaped to revere the stone from which it was fashioned! Some of the dwellings were rounded and smooth and others sharply faceted, but all took their form from the stone.

  Little Fur and Ofred passed sets of stairs that rose in dizzying spirals until they dissolved in green light. Little Fur’s troll senses told her that the steps went right up to the roof of the cavern and had once led to open air, but now they were blocked by earth. These, too, must have been closed by magic. Little Fur wondered if this had perhaps been a city of wizards.

  Suddenly she stopped, for the path they were following had brought them by a building so very like the round house where Lim had died that Little Fur could not doubt that the same kind of creature had made it. Was it possible that humans could have uprooted the round house and carried it to their city? Certainly some humans were almost as curious as cats. And being human, they would not think to leave the round house where it was, for they always wanted to possess things that interested them.