The Nexus Ring

by Maureen Bush

  Eneirda spotted a trickle of water cutting through the ice, winding its way down the mountainside. When I set the boat in the water, it shrank to fit the tiny stream, then each of us shrank as we stepped into the boat. I was the last in and I worried I’d sink the boat. But as I shifted my weight, I began to shrink. My skin tightened and squeezed, and everything around me grew as I settled into the ­boat.

  Breathing was easier once we were smaller. We cheered as we slid off the edge of the ice into a creek. The creek was small but wild, crashing over rapids, flinging us with it. But somehow Eneirda slowed us with her paddle, and as we flew down the side of the mountain, the creek became wider and calmer. It must have been a hot day; the air was warm and the sky clear as the sun set. But the setting sun didn’t reach down the ­east-­facing slope, and soon we were travelling in the shadow of the ­mountain.

  “How long can we keep going?” I asked. “Can you see in the dark?”

  Eneirda kept paddling. “Chrrr. River will guide us.”

  Trees closed in above us, and we travelled through gloom and then total darkness. The stream grew larger, and as it grew, the boat grew. I could feel my arms and legs stretching, but no matter how hard I stared, I couldn’t see them ­change.

  Eneirda said she would drop us off at the base of Castle Mountain, but how were we to climb it in the dark, before the troll and Aleena came after us? This was our second night away from Mom and Dad; they’d be frantic. I couldn’t believe that the Shadows would fool them for ­long.

  Maddy and I sat silently, listening to the sounds of the forest and watching the water. We could hear paddle splashes and Eneirda’s breathing, an owl call startling us out of the silence. I blinked as my eyelids drooped and grew ­scratchy.

  Then I spotted a shadow. “Look out!”

  The boat slammed to a stop, filled with icy water and tipped. I was flung into the river. Water filled my nose and my lungs were bursting. I struggled to the surface, coughing and ­numb.

  I looked frantically for Maddy. I couldn’t see anything in the dark. “Maddy?” I yelled. “Maddy?”

  I heard choking, and flailed around. Something soft brushed my hand. A pigtail. I grabbed it and pulled Maddy close, then swam sideways to the current. We swept up against a tree trunk fallen over the ­water.

  I pushed Maddy ahead of me, then climbed out of the water and collapsed on a pebbly shore. We huddled together, shivering, as we peered into the darkness, looking for Eneirda, the boat, the ­paddle.

  Chapter Nine

  Before Dawn

  Maddy and I staggered out of the river, gasping and numb, but soon I could feel the warmth of the magic world wrapping itself around me. We were still shivering in wet clothes, but at least we weren’t in danger of ­hypothermia.

  “Eneirda, Eneirda,” Maddy and I shouted. “We’re over here.”

  I could only hear water rushing. What if Eneirda was drowning? Should I go back in? I knew I couldn’t, not in the dark, not back into that icy water, with Maddy here, depending on me.

  I couldn’t see a thing. The sky was a deep teal blue, speckled with stars, but there was no moon. Even in this magic world, I couldn’t see by starlight ­alone.

  We kept calling and finally, we heard a faint call back. “Eneirda?”

  “Here,” she answered.

  I listened carefully to the direction of her voice. “I think she’s across the river.” I shouted, “We’re over here. Do you have the boat?”

  “No boat,” she called back. “Ankle hurt. Cannot swim.”

  Eneirda hurt? No boat? I leapt up, arms waving around me. “The troll will be coming for us by dawn. And when he’s free, Aleena will be too. What are we going to do?”

  “F-­f-­first, we ­n-­need to get ­d-­dry,” Maddy said, teeth ­chattering.

  “And how are we going to do that? Do you have any matches?”

  “Humans,” I heard Eneirda grumbling. “Fur easier than clothing. I have firestone,” she ­called.

  “We can’t come across to you, and you’re too hurt to swim to us,” I ­said.

  “I can throw. Can you catch?”

  “But firestone is magic. I can’t do magic.”

  “You ate muskberries?”

  “Yes,” I ­said.

  “You crossed glacier, saw with fingers?”

  “Yes,” I said, ­puzzled.

  “Then can use firestone. I will throw it.”

  My heart skipped a beat. Me? Do magic? “How will I see it?”

  “Be quiet inside. Firestone gleams. Feel for it with fingers.”

  Oh no, not that again. I took a deep breath, then tried to feel catching the firestone. When I could imagine its cool softness in my palm, I decided I was as ready as I was going to be. I called out, “Okay, can you tell where I am from my voice?”

  “Yes. Catch now.”

  I could almost see it glinting over the river. I reached up and felt it graze my hand, but I missed. I heard a splash. Maddy plunged a hand into the water and came up with a fistful of rocks. One of them shone at me in the moonlight. “I have it,” I called back. “Now what?”

  “Collect dry wood. Find safe place.”

  Shivering, Maddy and I groped for dry branches. I found a gazillion needles, most of them poking into my knees, but I found dry wood too. We cleared a spot near the river, laid a base of dry moss, and set small twigs ­nearby.

  “We’re ready,” I called ­out.

  “Josh make fire,” Eneirda called ­back.

  Oh sure, I thought. How was I supposed to do that? I held the firestone in my icy hand, a round blackness with threads of gleaming ­gold.

  “Let mind be quiet. Let fingers feel magic. Find thread to pull.”

  Was she kidding? Do magic, with hands trembling so badly I couldn’t hold the firestone still? But I could try. I took a couple of deep breaths, trying to settle inside. Except I kept worrying about the troll, Aleena, the giant, the boat, Maddy, Eneirda, Mom and ­Dad.

  I took another breath, and energy pulsed through my body, steadying my hands. I focused on the firestone. My eyes must have adjusted to the darkness, because I could see the stone more clearly. I reached out to touch it and could feel a thread. It was hot, but it didn’t burn ­me.

  I gently grabbed the tip of the thread and tugged it out of the stone. It was like pulling a loose thread from a button. I dangled it from my fingers over the dried moss, and when it touched, fire flared up the thread. I dropped it, and the moss began to smoulder. I carefully added twigs, then, as the fire grew, small branches. Maddy and I wiggled out of our wet jeans and runners, hoodie and fleece, then huddled close to the ­fire.

  “Good work,” Eneirda called. “Better now?”

  “Much ­b-­better,” Maddy answered. “Are you okay?”

  “Ankle is hurt. Will heal. Boat is smashed. Lost.”

  “Oh no!” Maddy cried ­out.

  “How far are we from Castle Mountain?” I ­asked.

  “Hours by boat. Without, too far for small humans.”

  “How close are we to people?”

  “For human help must cross to human world. Would humans take you to Castle Mountain?”

  I shook my head. “No way. They’d take us to the police, who would call our parents. We’d never get to Castle Mountain.”

  “Then I will not help you to human world. You must take ring to giant.”

  “But how? How do we get there?” Frustration made my body ­tight.

  “Find boat. Fix it. Maybe. In morning we will know.”

  “But the troll could be looking for us by dawn!” I could hear the fear in my voice. “And you’re hurt.”

  “Only ankle hurt. Can paddle. Still need boat. Morning is time to know. Need light to see.”

  When our clothes were dry, and Maddy and I were well roasted by the fire, we curled up and tried to sleep. My body was exhausted, but my mind kept racing. I didn’t feel any of Eneirda’s sureness or patience. Finally I dozed, stirring at every owl hoot and twig �
�crack.

  I woke at dawn. A quarter moon was rising in a clear sky. I peered around, wondering if the troll was nearby. He could be anywhere now, except in sunlight. Maddy was curled up against me, small and soft. I built up the fire. We jumped around to get warm, then pulled on our damp ­runners.

  Eneirda was sitting on the far bank of the river, with one foot in the water. She called to me, “Humans sleep late. Is time to look for boat.” I could hear her words, but no whistles or purring over the sound of the ­river.

  I spotted the place we crashed. We’d hit a rock sticking out of the water, just in front of a fallen tree stretching out over the river. If we’d hit the tree, it would have been our heads that smashed. I felt sick imagining what might have ­happened.

  I climbed all around the tree, then began searching downstream. No boat. Maddy scrambled under the tree, and didn’t come ­out.

  “Maddy,” I ­called.

  I heard a muffled, “Under here.”

  Maddy’s hand waved from below the trunk. I lay down to peer under. She was wiggling through branches, trying to see into the ­water.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I wondered if the boat could be caught under here.”

  I tugged off my clothes, then slipped into the water and stood gasping at the cold. I knew it wasn’t as numbingly cold as it would be in the human world, but it was still painful. I pulled myself along the tree, then ducked underneath. I groped around, pushing my way past a tangle of branches, and then I saw it. “It’s here, Maddy! Climb out on the tree and help me.”

  She wiggled along the trunk above me, then helped me pull the boat out of the branches. I tugged it to shore, then struggled up the bank, stiff from the cold. Maddy inspected the boat while I dripped and shivered and huddled by the ­fire.

  “Josh, one of the branches is smashed. They’re tied together in a circle, and bark is lashed to the branches. I don’t think it will float.”

  “Water noisy. Speak louder,” Eneirda called from across the ­river.

  Maddy repeated what she’d told ­me.

  “Can be fixed. Need willow. Grows near water. Long, narrow leaves, thin branches. Cut three.”

  Maddy picked loose the lashings along the broken branch while I dressed, then searched the riverbank for willow. I couldn’t see anything that looked right. I kept walking and worrying about the troll and what we’d do if we couldn’t fix the boat. A branch slapped against my face. I looked at it and started to laugh. Long narrow leaves, growing near water – it must be willow. I tore off three long shoots, then ran back to ­Maddy.

  Eneirda talked us through setting the branches around the rim and lashing them into place. The repair was sloppy and weaker than the rest of the branches, but good enough. Fast was more important than pretty, right ­now.

  “Okay, what next?” I called across to ­Eneirda.

  “Josh paddle here.”

  “You want me to paddle? I’ve paddled a canoe a few times, but not in a mountain river, without a life jacket or a parent.”

  “Or a paddle,” said ­Maddy.

  “What?”

  “Where’s the paddle? We didn’t find it with the boat.”

  “Eneirda, do you have the paddle?”

  “Paddle here. Find another.”

  “We’re not going to just find a paddle!”

  “Look around. See what land offers.”

  I glanced around. Trees. Bushes. Rocks. Maddy and I walked along the river’s ­edge.

  “Would this work?” Maddy held up an old log, with a deep split down the length of it. I tried to pull the two pieces apart, but they wouldn’t budge. I grabbed a branch, and wedged it into the crack. Maddy leaned on the branch with me, and together we opened the split in the log. With a great crack, it broke, and we tumbled ­backwards.

  I picked up the smaller of the two pieces, and walked back to the boat. “Will this do?” I asked Eneirda, waving it in the ­air.

  “Will work. No magic in that paddle. Walk upstream. Current fast. Paddle hard, straight across.”

  We hauled the boat upstream until we reached a waterfall. I set the boat in a pool below the falls, and held it while Maddy climbed in. I steadied myself with the paddle across the sides of the boat while I sat, then pushed off into the ­current.

  It grabbed the boat and swept us downstream before I could get the paddle into the water. The round boat spun as I struggled, splashing water over both of us. I paddled furiously towards the far shore, but it seemed hopeless as the current carried us away. By the time I had a paddling rhythm, we could see Eneirda. We’d surged past her before we got near her ­shore.

  “Look out!” Maddy ­yelled.

  We were heading straight for a huge rock. The current swept past it in a rush. I flung my weight into the paddle and spun us out of the current into a backwater on the far side of the rock. From there, I paddled to shore. Then I carried the boat back to Eneirda. We had to struggle through the trees along the shore of the river, but walking was much better than ­paddling.

  Eneirda smiled when she saw us. “Brave work. Chrrr. I paddle now.”

  I handed Eneirda her firestone, and she slipped it into the pouch hanging around her neck. Maddy grabbed the magic paddle, then held the boat steady while I helped Eneirda into it. Soon we were floating again. I could feel the tension in Eneirda’s body as she paddled, faster than ­yesterday.

  I reached up and touched the soft fur on her shoulder. “We’ve faced the troll before. We’ll be okay.”

  She shivered. “Hate him. Sssst!” Never want to see him.” She paddled ­on.

  “Do you think the troll and Aleena are free yet?” asked ­Maddy.

  I glanced at her. She looked pale. “Probably,” I said. “But he can’t follow us on the water.”

  “Aleena can,” Maddy said ­softly.

  I nodded and ­swallowed.

  With morning light we could see more clearly. The river was widening, milky green from glacial runoff. We watched sunshine touch the mountain peaks to the west, then creep down the mountainsides until it lit the river in blinding light. Eneirda paddled ­faster.

  Finally I spotted Castle Mountain. Wolf willow grew along low grassy banks. Trees were more scattered as we moved into the wide meadows of the Bow ­Valley.

  “How will you get home after you drop us off?” I ­asked.

  “Chrrr. Getting far from troll will make it easy.”

  “Will the boat hold together?” Maddy asked. “Won’t you be tired?”

  “Will reach home. No hurry, tss. You must hurry. Follow animal trail straight to mountain. You must find giant.”

  Eneirda paddled the boat to shore, stopping beside a fallen log. I could see Maddy didn’t want to say goodbye, torn between worry for Eneirda and fear of what lay ahead. Finally, she touched fingers with Eneirda and turned away, brushing a hand across her cheek. I didn’t know what to say either. Eneirda reached out and we touched ­fingers.

  “Thank you,” I whispered. “Thank you, and be careful.”

  “You must give ring to giant, tss. That is thanks I need.” And she was gone, paddling upriver, heading back to the ­glaciers.

  Chapter Ten

  Castle Mountain

  Maddy and I stood on the bank of the Bow River, looking up at the sheer cliffs of Castle Mountain. Dark storm clouds were building across the valley. Why couldn’t it stay sunny? The troll and Aleena could be here any moment. Maybe they were here already! I spun around, watching for movement. I didn’t know which was worse – meeting the troll and Aleena, or finding a ­giant.

  Maddy spotted a faint trail winding across a meadow. It led us into a matchstick forest of tall evergreen trees with bare trunks and low ground cover. We hiked through the morning coolness, stomachs grumbling. But even if we’d had food, I was too anxious to choke down a single ­bite.

  We followed the trail up the forested base of Castle Mountain. It towered over us, striped in horizontal layers and vertical crevices. The path led us hig
her, up the flank of the mountain. We walked slowly, while I watched and ­listened.

  I heard a rumbling, then another, and another, regularly spaced. Maddy reached for my hand and we stood on the path ­listening.

  “Maybe it’s the giant,” Maddy ­whispered.

  I didn’t know if I wanted her to be right or not. I had a really bad feeling about this. We stepped around a curve in the path and there was the troll, standing with his feet planted wide, his arms crossed, ­fuming.

  Maddy and I froze. We stood staring up the path, the troll glowering down at us. His gaze shifted behind us, and his lips curled in a nasty smile. I glanced back; there was Aleena, cloak swirling. They each took a step closer to us, Aleena from below, the troll from above. Maddy shivered and moved closer to me. It was like they had agreed to work together, to stop us from taking the ring to the giant. Afterward, I guessed their fight would go on. My stomach ­churned.

  Another step from above and below narrowed the trap. I thought frantically, trying to find a way out. Maybe we could run, but could Maddy run fast enough? Could I? I felt panic rising up my throat as I heard Aleena and the troll each take another ­step.

  I grabbed Maddy’s hand and pulled her off the path, into the forest. We dashed through the trees. I could hear the troll crashing through the brush behind us. I figured Aleena was moving silently, and probably faster. We raced to the left, then up the mountain, branches slashing our faces. Maddy stumbled; I caught her around the shoulders and together we ran ­on.

  And then we were out of the trees, in a clearing high on the side of the mountain. That’s when I realized the rumbling continued, regular, deep thuds. Soon I could feel it through the earth. They were footsteps. It had to be the giant!