Habis stared at her a moment, then threw the wooden spoon on the floor and stormed out of the room, leaving Tabitha blinking in her wake. A moment later she stormed back in again and collected the little pot of boiling potion without a word. Tabitha heard the front door slam and watched as Habis walked down the front path.
“What did you say to her?” Chantra asked in awe when Tabitha rejoined her in the yard.
“Told her to do something impossible,” Tabitha said.
“Huh. I didn’t know anyone could get her that mad. You must be quite special, Tabitha.”
Tabitha blushed.
“Good luck, dears,” Maggie said, patting them on the shoulder as she followed after Habis. “Try not to die.” And she rounded a corner, leaving Chantra and Tabitha alone in the yard.
Chantra crooked an eyebrow.
“Well, it’s nice to see that you’re conscious again,” Tabitha said. “Brinley was really worried about you, and I didn’t want you to die.”
“Oh, um, thank you,” Chantra said.
“So…” Tabitha went on awkwardly, “you can ride on my back?”
Chantra nodded. “Thanks.”
“Do you think you’ll be able to help me find him?”
“Kuzo?” Chantra said. “I could find that dragon anywhere. I can see his living fire from miles away. That’s how I found him in the first place.”
“Oh,” Tabitha said. “Really? I didn’t think it would be that easy. Things usually aren’t.”
Chantra laughed and pointed to the left without looking. “He’s that way. I don’t know how far, though.”
“Can you wait for just a minute?” Tabitha said, glancing back at the house. “There’s one thing I have to do.” She turned into a butterfly and fluttered up to the tiny second-story window, which had been left slightly open to let in the breeze. She passed through it and landed on Belterras’s chest. She watched him for a moment, her little butterfly body rising up and down and up again with his slow breathing, then flew back out the window and changed into the great black swan. Chantra clapped in appreciation and then climbed onto her back.
“Yes!” she said when Tabitha rose into the air. “Oh, this is wonderful.”
They rose in lazy spirals until they found the cool air that was easier to fly in, and then Tabitha turned in the direction that Chantra had indicated from the ground. Chantra pulled the vials of medicine out of her pocket and emptied them one by one into the wind.
“I’m very grateful that Habis healed me,” she said. “But I’m never drinking this stuff again.”
Chapter Five
In which they all fall up
Brinley fell just long enough that she ran out of air with which to scream. Then the world disappeared, and she was gliding quite gracefully into a golden sunrise. At least, that’s what it reminded her. The ground was practically glowing with reflected light, as if the floor of Inveress were some sort of giant mirror. She drifted to the ground, touched it lightly, and then the strange force that bore her carefully down was gone, and she was on her own two feet again.
“Well, that took you long enough,” the Swelter Cat said, walking up beside her. “I expected you to be more tough.”
“It was an awfully long way to fall, even if it turned out to be rather pleasant at the end.”
The Swelter Cat flicked his tail loftily. “Getting in is such a breeze, but one does not get out with ease.”
She had not told Tobias about her plan for getting out of Inveress with the summoning bell yet. “How did you get out, Tobias?” Brinley asked, suddenly curious.
The Swelter Cat snorted. “Move a bit, or you’ll get hit.”
“What?” Brinley said, and then someone shouted “Oy!” from above her, and Unda’s foot knocked her in the back of the head.
“Oh!” she said, and moved aside for him. Lignumis came right behind, then Archibald, and a minute later they were all inspecting the new world together.
“It’s like we’re just…on the other side,” Unda said, and for the first time, Brinley truly inspected the ground. She saw now that it was not really reflective. Rather, it was made of a semi-transparent golden substance. She was looking into Aberdeen from the bottom up, and what she had taken for a sunrise was the light of day, filtered through the golden ground substance. She picked up a foot and stomped on it experimentally. It was firm, but strangely absorbent, and her foot made no noise when it struck. With a jolt, she realized what it might be.
“You are right,” the Swelter Cat confirmed, watching her closely. “It is light.”
Brinley grinned. If Tabitha were there she would have said something about how Tobias had taken an awful risk pretending to read thoughts just so he could have an easy rhyme. She felt a sinking sensation in the pit of her stomach. Had she done the right thing leaving Tabitha behind? It seemed like the right thing at the time, but now she was regretting it. Everything was better with Tabitha around.
“Are we just going to stand here all day?” Lignumis said. “I, for one, would rather not spend any more time here than I have to.”
The Swelter Cat flicked his tail and moved off toward the center of Ninebridge.
“It’s like we’re right beneath the city,” Unda said quietly to her. “Except down here, up is down and down is up.”
“Quite disconcerting,” Archibald agreed.
Brinley looked up and saw that the sky was completely black. Blacker than anything that she had ever seen in Aberdeen. It was hard to imagine a sun rising in that sky. In fact, it didn’t look like a sky at all; it was more like a bottomless pit.
“All the light comes through the ground,” the Swelter Cat said perceptively, though he was looking straight ahead. “Night and day. All year round.”
“It must get dark at night,” Lignumis murmured.
Unda was gazing around in rapture. “Incredible,” he said. They were on the underside of Ninebridge now, and the city bustled under their feet. Or rather, above their feet. There was a small boy walking on the top side, in time with Brinley, and she sidestepped and then matched his pace again so that their feet looked like they touched.
“This is weird,” she said.
“I like it,” Unda said. “You get reflections like this when you walk on water…of course, this is not a reflection, per se.” His brows knit together thoughtfully.
“We are on the other side of Ninebridge now,” the Swelter Cat said, and Brinley picked up her pace when she realized that she was falling behind. “Cyus makes his home beneath the Lake of Gow.”
“The lake of what?” Brinley said. “Did you just make that name up just to rhyme with now?”
“I believe he is referring to Gangow Lake,” Archibald explained. “It lies on the border of Aquilar and the Greggan States.”
“What type of trees grow by Gangow Lake, Lig?” Unda said. Brinley caught something odd in his voice, but she couldn’t quite place it. Archibald shot him a quick look.
“Pine trees,” Lignumis grunted reflexively. “Just like everywhere else.”
Unda frowned, but said nothing.
“How long will it take to get to the lake?” Brinley asked.
“Three hours. Maybe four, I do not know,” the Swelter Cat said. “All day, if we walk this slow.”
At his words, they picked up the pace. After a few minutes, Unda and Lignumis each started trying to walk slightly faster than the other. Brinley had the shortest legs (apart from Tobias) and was practically jogging to keep up. Archibald wasn’t doing much better.
“Enough, gentlemen,” he said finally, grabbing a hold of each of their arms. “Slow down a bit, or one of you is going to have to give me a piggyback ride.”
“Me too,” Brinley added breathlessly.
Unda laughed, but he slowed down. His belly made a rumbling noise and he rubbed it. “Four hours, Tobias?” he said. “I should have eaten something.”
For the first time, Lignumis cracked a smile. “If your stomach is the worst of our problems, the
n this will be a very pleasant trip indeed.”
After a short while they came to the foot of one of the bridges, and Brinley did a double take. On the top side of the world, the bridge would have been sloping up and away from her at a steep angle, and there would be stairs carved into it. But from the bottom side, the bridge looked like a giant slide that cut through the ground of Inveress and dangled into Aberdeen. It was much too steep to climb down, especially without stairs being cut into it.
“Are we taking this?” Unda said incredulously, eyeing the steep slope. “Do the bridges even work in Inveress?”
The Swelter Cat nodded. “The magic will still do its part, but it isn’t for the faint of heart. All the bridges work from here, moving us from far to near, taking us from here to there, except the Bridge to Nowhere.”
“Where does this bridge go?” Brinley asked, looking around to get her bearings. “Is this is the second bridge?”
“The third,” Archibald said. “It leads to Garra.”
“Right next to the lake we want,” Unda said. He peered over the edge of the slide and Brinley put a hand on his shoulder and leaned out as well. It dropped almost straight down. From the underside, the giant bridge was shaped like the narrow cross section of a bowl. If they slid down it, through the mist in the center, they would be at the bottom of the bowl.
She shuddered. “I didn’t realize how steep they were,” she said.
“It’s the stairs,” Unda said. “That’s what makes the climb doable from the other side.” He bent down and ran his hand across the ground. “Well, it’s lucky we get to slide down on this soft, light stuff instead of the actual bridge. I can’t imagine that would feel good. You’re right after me, Magemother,” he said, and jumped over the edge. He gave a shout that might have been terror or excitement and sped away. It took at least ten seconds for him to reach the bottom, where he shot out into space and vanished from view.
Brinley sat down and dangled her feet over the edge, sliding closer and closer. She gulped and grabbed the Swelter Cat. “You’re coming with me,” she said, and pulled him into a tight hug. He hissed, and his claws dug into the fabric of her jacket, which was not exactly comforting, but it was better than nothing. “Oh boy,” Brinley said. She screamed as she forced herself over the last few inches of the edge.
She had been to a water park only once in her life, and it had taken her forever to work up the courage to go off the Dead Drop—the steepest, tallest slide. But that was nothing compared to this. This went on and on and on, and all she could see beneath her was a golden sky, so that if she fell, it felt like she would fall forever. For the second time that day, she ran out of breath to scream with, and then she was at the bottom. The slide launched her through the curtain of gray mist and she closed her eyes and squeezed the Swelter Cat so tightly that she was afraid his head might pop off.
When she opened her eyes, Unda was helping her to her feet. Tobias leapt from her arms and began to preen himself, pausing only to glare up at her in disgust.
“Watch out,” Unda cautioned, and moved her out of the way as Archibald and Lignumis came cruising through the mist behind her.
“Wonderful,” Lignumis said. He stood up and made a show of brushing himself off, even though the gleaming ground could hardly be very dirty. “Now how are we going to get off this thing?”
They were standing on the underside of the bridge in Garra, with the city spread out upside down around them. They were on the underside of the other half of the bridge now, and it was steep and slick here as well. While it had been a simple matter to slide down from the other side, this one would be impossible to climb without stairs or handholds.
“Good job, Tobias,” Lignumis said sarcastically. He was standing on the edge of the bridge and leaning over the side. “You’ve gone and led us into a dead end. We can’t go back either. We’ll just be in the same position on the other side.”
“If you want to get off, then just follow him,” the Swelter Cat said. “But don’t think about it, or your thoughts will just swim.” With that he leapt into the air and landed on Lignumis’s rear end, sinking his teeth into the seat of his pants.
Lignumis yowled and hopped forward inadvertently, so that he fell right off the edge of the bridge. For a moment, he seemed to just hang in midair, suspended between the sky of Aberdeen below him and the upside-down city of Garra above.
In that instant, time seemed to stand still, and Brinley had no idea what would happen next. Her intuition told her that he should fall down. The trouble was, she wasn’t sure which way was down. He might fall into the sky of Aberdeen, but they weren’t in Aberdeen, strictly speaking. They were in Inveress, which was mostly above them. But he couldn’t fall up, surely. After all, most of what was above them was the city of Garra. But that wasn’t right either, was it? The ground in Inveress was the other side of the ground in Aberdeen, so the city of Garra couldn’t really be above them. Her mind was already swimming, just like the Swelter Cat had warned it would.
After quivering in midair for a moment with the Swelter Cat dangling from his backside, Lignumis started to rise. Brinley realized that he hadn’t really fallen off the edge of the bridge at all. His body had tried to fall off the edge, but it couldn’t. There was no edge to fall off of. He had found some invisible limit between Inveress and Aberdeen. He continued to lift away from them, as if he had become stuck to the side of some nearly transparent bubble that was now floating upward, moving him slowly but surely back toward the hole in the ground that surrounded the inverted bridge of Inveress above them.
“Oh my,” Lignumis said nervously.
He must have been truly taken aback, Brinley thought, to have forgotten about Tobias and his teeth.
“Intriguing,” Archibald said, tipping his hat to scratch his head.
Unda said, “Good enough for me,” and walked off the edge of the bridge at once. Brinley followed suit, spreading her arms to embrace the invisible surface. It enfolded her like a sort of magnetic blanket, and lifted her up smoothly. Despite the amazing nature of her predicament, her only thought was that Tabitha would have enjoyed it even more. It made her a little sad.
When they reached the top, they followed the Swelter Cat away from the city.
Soon a lake came into view in the distance, but it was too far away to see much detail. She thought she could see something in the center of it, an island perhaps.
“It looks like some sort of pyramid,” Unda said, clearly looking at the same thing she was.
“Is that where Cyus lives?” Brinley asked.
“Yes, but don’t get too excited,” the Swelter Cat said. “There are three trials yet that endeavor to—”
The Swelter Cat’s final words were cut off as Lignumis landed a kick in his belly. The Mage of Wood was rubbing his backside angrily; clearly he had remembered the Swelter Cat’s attack and decided to retaliate.
The Swelter Cat sailed through the air and landed on his feet a few yards away, with his tail erect. Despite his graceful landing, his face was twisted in pain.
“Oh no!” Brinley said, rushing to his side. “He’ll die if he doesn’t finish his rhyme.” She stroked the cat’s furry back encouragingly, but he said nothing. His mouth was hanging open, his body heaving silently.
“The air’s been knocked out of him,” Unda said, coming up beside her. He smacked Tobias across the back. “Come on, old boy. Breathe!”
Archibald took off his hat and fanned the cat nervously.
Despite their efforts, the Swelter Cat was changing. His hair whitened and his ears drooped, and his nose became cracked and dry.
“He’s aging,” Unda whispered in astonishment.
The Swelter Cat’s slanted pupils narrowed alarmingly and his tongue lolled out of his mouth. He lost his balance and began to sway from side to side, and Brinley put out a hand to steady him. When she did so, his eyes snapped open and breath rushed into his lungs again in short gasps. “Hh-huu…H-Hide it. Hide it!” His voice was bare
ly audible, but the moment the words were out, the effects of his aging began to reverse. In a few short seconds, he looked normal again. Normal, and very angry.
He spun around to Lignumis and beat the ground with a paw. It would have been more menacing if it had made a noise, but Lignumis seemed to take the hint. Unda was glaring at him as well, and Archibald was watching him with a wary look.
“Ah,” Lignumis said awkwardly, cowering beneath their stares. “Sorry about that, Tobias…Didn’t realize…Won’t happen again.”
There was remorse on his face, but Brinley couldn’t help noticing a hard look in his eyes that was less than sad. It caught her off guard.
“Well,” Lignumis said, pretending not to notice all the eyes still on him, “let’s get going.”
The Swelter Cat gave him one last withering look and then turned to lead them toward the lake.
For the next few minutes, Unda kept leaning in toward Brinley as if he wanted to say something, but he never did. Every time this happened, he glanced at Lignumis, who was walking close by, and then leaned away again. Brinley nearly asked him what he wanted, but thought better of it, guessing that whatever it was, he didn’t want to say it in front of the others.
“What is that?” Unda asked, interrupting her thoughts. He was pointing at what looked like a round grate in the ground off to their right. It reminded Brinley vaguely of the manhole covers in streets back home, except that it was made of the same light-like substance as the ground itself, and it had a distinct handle that stuck up.
“A portal to the world’s void,” the Swelter Cat said. “Jump in if you like. I won’t be annoyed.”
“I think I’ll pass,” Unda said. “But, what is in this ‘void’?”
“Nothing,” Lignumis said. “Emptiness.”
“Quite right. Quite so,” the Swelter Cat said. “A place that only Cyus can go.”
“Then that is how he found my father,” Brinley said. “It must be!”
“A place that only Cyus can go and come back from, then,” Lignumis said. “If your father got in, then I suppose anyone can do it. Getting out must be the hard part. Like this place…”
Magemother: The Complete Series (A Fantasy Adventure Book Series for Kids of All Ages) Page 64