"Oh. All right." She got up slowly and walked to the back of the wagon, her steps unsteady.
"Are you all right?" Ven asked. Amariel nodded and let him help her out of the wagon. "What were you looking at?"
"Nothing. I was looking for the moon—it's set already."
"Oh." Ven scratched his head. "Any particular reason?"
Amariel shrugged. "I think it's waning, but I'm not sure. I like watching the moon. I told you a long time ago—it's kind of like the pilot fish for the earth—leading it through the darkness to wherever it should be going."
Well, at least it's nice to think someone or something knows where we should be going, Ven thought. He smiled at the merrow, and she smiled back, her peg-like teeth glistening in the dark.
Ven tried not to stare. Amariel hadn't shown her teeth in a smile since the first time he met her.
Just then, above his head, a crossbow bolt whistled skyward.
Ven whipped around to see black streaks in the dark diving beneath the wagon. A harsh, horrible cawing that sounded like shattering glass scratched his ears. He covered his eyes with his arms and crouched down as the claws of a squad of ravens flapped in his face.
He could hear the screams and gasps of his friends as they thumped around in terror, banging into the wagon bed above them. He felt around for the merrow, and found her rolled into a ball near the front wagon wheel.
Above them, he could hear the sound of Tuck's crossbow firing.
Just then Saeli's small body was dragged past him and out from under the wagon.
"Saeli!" Ven screamed. He followed her out, scrambling to his feet, with Char right behind him. The black night birds were flapping around the Gwadd girl, who was lying on the ground, slapping helplessly at them. They pecked at her head and hair as Clem crawled out from under the wagon, a look of horror on her face.
The birds seized the little girl by her shoulders and her long, caramel-colored braid. Before anyone could move, they dragged her up all the way out from under the wagon and hovered heavily in the air as Saeli kicked and screamed in her harsh voice.
Ven lunged for the Gwadd girl, followed a second later by Char. They each grabbed one of her legs and held fast as four ravens separated from the flock and circled back, aiming directly for them.
"Steady," Tuck called from somewhere behind them. "Don't move."
"Hurry!" Ven shouted in return.
Tuck got his bearings and fired low, dropping one of the birds carrying Saeli, but the other rank flew to attack Ven, who was pulling as hard as he could to free her from the ravens' clutches. At the last second he let go and ducked, and the birds sailed past the horses. Tuck fired twice, and two more thumps rattled the reins.
Ven struggled to his feet and grabbed into the air, trying to regain his hold on Saeli.
"Hurry, mate!" Char yelled. "She's startin' to slip!"
Four more shots whistled past their heads. Four more bodies fell thudding to the ground.
Then, after another round of crossbow fire, the Gwadd tumbled back to earth amid a mess of feathers and bone.
Clemency was there in a heartbeat. She threw her arms around Saeli, who was shaking and sobbing. She pulled Ven's hand off the Gwadd girl and hurried her past him.
"Let go, Ven," she said shortly. "I'll take of her while you go see to Amariel."
Ven felt like he had been slapped. "Wait, Clem—let me see if she's all right—"
"I'll make sure she is. You look after your friend—that's all you've been doing since we set out on this miserable journey."
"Whoa, Clem, calm down," Char commanded. "That's not fair."
The curate-in-training paused, then sighed. "I'm sorry. You're right. I guess the sight of Saeli being dragged into the sky has scared everything but the nastiness out of me. I apologize. But once I get her calmed down, we need to decide what we're going to do."
Ven nodded. He waited until Clem and Saeli had disappeared under the wagon, then went over to where the merrow had been lying. He found her straightening up the food sacks that had fallen over during the attack.
"Amariel? What are you doing?"
The merrow turned and looked at him, but he couldn't see anything but her outline in the dark.
"Cleaning up."
"Oh." Ven peeked over the side of the wagon. The provisions had been restored to order. "Why?"
Amariel shrugged. "I don't know. I wasn't sure what else to do."
"Are you hurt?"
"No."
Ven took her by the upper arm and pulled her gently away from the wagon, wondering if she was in shock. "Why don't you come and sit with Ida and Char and me?"
"All right," said the merrow.
Ven's brows knit together in worry as he led her to where the others were. He sank to the ground next to Tuck. "Did you get them all?"
"As far as I can tell. More will come, I imagine."
Ven leaned closer to Char. "Well, I guess that tells us which of us Felonia wants back most," he said, nodding at the wagon beneath which Clem and Saeli were hiding.
"Maybe," said Char. "Or maybe she's the only one they could lift."
"That's true," Ven admitted. "But I'm worried for her anyway. It looked like they came for her intentionally."
"Yep," said Char. "They didn' seem interested in anyone else." He looked over at the merrow, who had gone back to watching the sky. "Amariel seems to be handlin' it pretty well."
"Ven, get over here." Clem's voice came from under the wagon.
Ven let go of Amariel's hand. He patted his pocket nervously, feeling the outline of his jack-rule, the Black Ivory sleeve, and his handkerchiefs, and felt a little better. Then he climbed under the wagon with Ida behind him.
Clem was sitting with her arm around Saeli.
I could see them only because Nain have special eyesight that works well underground and in darkness. If I had been human, I think I would only have been able to see their outlines.
But even if that was all I could see, I would still have been able to tell how terrified Saeli was. Her eyes were open as wide as I'd ever seen them, staring straight ahead. Her breathing was shallow, and she was shaking like a wildflower in the wind.
"We have to get her to a place where she can hide," Clem said in a low voice as she traded places with Char. "We can't take her on with us, Ven, especially if you really want to go north to the foothills where the Nain live. She's not going to survive—either Felonia's ravens are going to find her and drag her back to the Gated City, or she's going to die of fright. But either way, this is crazy."
"Yep," added Char. "No bunch of bloody blackbirds is gonna drag you or me off, Ven—but Saeli doesn't stand a chance, mate. We gotta get her to her family and leave 'er there—at least 'til you think it's safe ta go back."
Ven sighed. "You're right. And Tuck agrees. So we'll go in the morning." He looked around below the wagon bed. "I think we can all fit under here tonight. Let's not take any of those chances Char mentioned—scoot in and let's get as comfortable as we can. It will be a little crowded, but we'll manage."
"Amariel can sleep under the horses," Ida suggested.
"Shut up and move over." Ven glowered at Ida while Char went out to fetch the others. Once everyone had crawled under the wagon, he positioned himself between the merrow and Saeli and settled down to sleep.
In the morning, they rose, grumpy and sore. There was no sign of the birds, so they loaded back into the wagon and made their way north toward where Saeli and Tuck said the Gwaddlands lay.
It took us almost a week to reach those Gwaddlands.
I've had some painful weeks in my life. There was the week that I spent in bed after my brother Jaymes convinced me to try the soup he had been cooking all afternoon. Jaymes's skill with food preparation was what led my father to put him in charge of the section of the factory that made paint. Now he makes some beautiful colors of dye and enamels that decorate our family's ships, but those paints probably taste somewhat better than his soup did. I spent
the week with my tongue stuck to roof of my mouth and my stomach trying to exit my body through any escape hatch it could find.
There was also the week when I broke my ankle doing something stupid to impress Maisie Haggerty, the prettiest Nain girl in Vaarn. I was a little kid, no more than 30 years old, and I hadn't gotten my growth spurt yet. I hadn't even reached 45 Knuckles in height, so to make myself look taller I took to standing on pylons along the pier where Maisie couldn't see my feet when she walked by. Most days she ignored me, but one day when she was passing by, Maisie waved to me. I got so excited that I waved back really hard. I slipped on a piece of squid and fell backwards into the water, smacking my leg on a pylon on which I had been balancing. I was so embarrassed that I didn't even tell my mother I'd been injured until my leg swelled up as big as a buoy. The night I spent before they found that it was broken was the most physical pain I ever remember being in.
I'd been thinking about my family a lot as we made our way north in the lands east of the river. Since the king hoped I would be able to help the Nain figure out why the dragon was tormenting them, I expected I would eventually be seeing people of my own race, actual Downworld Nain, something no one in my family had ever done. I thought about my sister Matilde, who was fascinated with our heritage and read as many books about it as she could. For the better part of a week I had been wishing she was here, so that she could get to see what she longed for more than anything. It gave me another kind of pain, the pain that makes your heart hurt even though your body is fine.
But when it comes to heart pain, the kind of pain you feel when someone you know and care about is suffering, I don't think I've ever felt worse than the week it took to get to the Gwaddlands.
Because I think Saeli cried the whole way.
By the time they reached the place where Saeli began looking for her people, the moon was new, and there was no longer any light whatsoever in the sky at night.
The ravens that had been chasing them for so long finally seemed to have lost their trail. Each day the children scanned the sky for the signs of any dark birds following them, but only occasional starlings and crows could be seen circling overhead, cawing harshly, soaring out of the way of the wagon as it clattered by. The companions breathed a sigh of relief, especially Ven and Ida, every time that happened.
When night came, a blanket of bright stars covered them, allowing them to sleep peacefully. Tuck let them out of the wagon to sleep on the ground whenever he could find a safe spot. The Wide Meadows were aptly named, stretching out for miles without a break. It was not always easy to find shelter, but most of the time the forester was good at locating a small grove of trees or a hollow swale for them to sleep in.
Everyone seemed to be getting more rested and healthier except for Ven and Saeli. The tiny Gwadd girl had trouble falling asleep. Each day she grew quieter and paler.
Ven's nightmares were getting worse as well. Every night his dreams were haunted, even when they started out happy.
He often dreamt of the Great River and its king, in whose palace he and his friends feasted, played, and danced. He could almost smell the roasting meat, taste the sweet pasties, feel the bright silks and linens of the festival booths. But always the scene would turn dark.
One night he dreamt he followed Amariel up the wooden stairs to Regis's throne room where the strange, knobby telescope stood.
"Look through the lens," the River King suggested. In his sleep Ven watched as Amariel put her eye to the glass. "What do you see?"
"The Summer Festival," the merrow answered wistfully. "Everyone is waiting for me—the hippocampus races are about to begin. They have just crowned the Sea King and Queen. All my friends and family are there—and I'm missing it."
The phantom River King then turned the twisted telescope toward Ven.
"And you?" Regis asked. "What do you see?"
Ven looked into the lens. He saw a flock of dark birds circling above the sea to the south, flying over the wreckage of a ship. As he adjusted the instrument, he saw himself floating there below them. He strained to look closer, but as he did, an enormous eye filled the other end of the lens, the beautiful black eye of the Queen of Thieves.
It narrowed as it saw him, staring as if it could see him through the glass.
Then Ven realized the pupil of the eye was thin and vertical, not round like a human's. He pulled back away from the lens. As he did, the pupil on the other end did as well, growing larger.
It was serpentine, set in a lidless eye surrounded by scales, puffs of smoke rising around it.
Still watching him,
He could hear the farmer's voice.
Scarnag. They say it means scourge, a cause of great suffering.
From such dreams Ven would wake, sweating and breathing hard. He learned to keep from crying out, and took to staring at the sparkling web of stars above him in an attempt to calm himself enough not to wake his sleeping companions.
How bright they are out here in the Wide Meadows, away from the lights of the city, he thought one night as he waited for the wind to dry the sweat from his forehead. It's like being back on the sea. Several nights he wished he was on the sea, floating alone on a piece of wreckage, where Felonia and her spies could never find him. He took to looking for constellations the crew of the Serelinda had shown him, or making up pictures in the stars himself, until sleep returned.
When daylight came each morning, tempers began growing shorter until sometime during the afternoon they would explode.
"Would you care to share the joke?" Clemency asked tartly one day when Ven and Amariel were laughing quietly in the corner of the wagon.
Ven looked up, surprised.
"It's nothing, really," he said quickly. He didn't want to explain Amariel's confusion about why he and Char would take their rest breaks away from the wagon standing up in the tall grass, while the girls would walk away and disappear by sitting down. It's something that's only a mystery to an ocean-dweller, he thought, and we don't want anyone to know that's what she is.
"Well, if it's nothing, why are you annoying the rest of us with it?" Clem pressed.
"Why does it annoy you to see other people having a laugh?" Amariel asked, perplexed. "That seems rather crabby. Actually, it's worse. Even crabs aren't that resentful when someone else is having a good time as long as they're not getting eaten in the process." She smoothed out the skirt of the dress Mrs. Snodgrass had given her.
I didn't remember ever having seen her wear the dress before. But maybe I just hadn't noticed.
"Where did you find this girl, Ven?" Clemency demanded. "She is the rudest person I have ever met."
"Hey—no, she's not," Ida protested as Ven's mouth dropped open and Amariel blinked in surprise. "That's me. She's just the dumbest."
"All right, that's enough," said Ven, expecting that Amariel was preparing to spit. He looked and saw that she wasn't. Instead she was watching the clouds overhead. "What's gotten into you girls lately?"
"They could ask you the same thing, mate," said Char in a low voice. "Ever since you brought your new friend along, everythin's been at odds. We had a great group that worked fine before this. Now, without even askin' us, you bring a total stranger along. And suddenly you're not talkin' to anybody but her anymore."
Ven opened his mouth to retort, but as he did, Saeli suddenly stood up in the back of the wagon. She pointed off to the north.
"There!" she said in her strange, growly voice. "Look!"
She did not sound happy.
14
Something Not Quite Right
About This Place
EVERYONE IN THE WAGON JUMPED. IT HAD BEEN SO LONG SINCE Saeli had spoken aloud that they had forgotten how odd the sound was, coming from such a tiny person.
"Are these the Gwaddlands, Saeli?" Ven asked. "Where you come from?"
The little girl nodded. The keekee's head appeared atop hers, its large eyes staring in the same direction.
"I advise you again to stay down,"
said Tuck from the wagon board near the horses. "Remember, you are cargo, nothing more."
The wagon crested a rolling swale, and brought what Saeli was pointing to into view. It was an enormous farming community that stretched as far as the eye could see to the north, east and west. Tall stalks of corn stood in neat rows, with perfect rows of soil between each of them, making for a pretty pattern of pale green and brown stripes on the rolling hills. Between the endless lines of corn were meadows, in the middle of which stood many small white houses, clean and sparkling in the afternoon sun, exactly alike.
The meadows were divided into straight rectangles like a patchwork quilt in many different colors of green, yellow and brown, sewn together with long seams of corn. Each of the rectangles had a different kind of crop, all as neatly tended as the corn was, each field of which had a leafy tree standing in the very center of it.
"How pretty," Clemency said, sitting up on her knees to get a better look. "This is ever so very much better kept than the farms where I live. You can tell that the Gwadd really know how to take care of the land."
"What is this place?" Amariel whispered to Ven.
"A farm," Ven whispered back. "Where food is grown."
The merrow's nose wrinkled. "We have farms where I live, but ours are much nicer," she said. "There are so many colors of fish and anemones in the farmlands beneath the sea—it's like an explosion of rainbows everywhere. Here it's all the same color. It looks like it doesn't feel very well." Ven just smiled.
The closer they got to the enormous farm, the more upset Saeli became.
"What's the matter?" Char asked the small girl.
"Not right," she whispered back in her gravelly voice. "Not right."
"What's not right?" Clem added.
Saeli spread her tiny hands out as far as she could.
"Everything," she said.
Tuck slowed the wagon to a halt while they were still a distance away.
"Look," he said, pointing to the outer edge of the fields. "That might explain how the wildfire south of here got started."
The Dragon's Lair Page 13