Shade and Sorceress

by Catherine Egan

  “It’s too late, Eliza,” said Charlie gently. “Dinnay worry. We’ll nay be here long.”

  “It’s nay too late. We’ll find a way to pay you,” she shouted at the Boatman. “You have to turn around!”

  The Boatman ignored her and kept the boat pointing straight for the cliff.

  “We have to arrive before we can go back,” said Charlie. “What about your da?”

  “I cannay save him,” cried Eliza. “I’m twelve years old! What am I supposed to do?”

  The cliff loomed overhead. The creatures carved into that black rock gazed down at them, and they could see. Eliza felt that powerfully – how the rock could see her and looked on her with contempt.

  “Turn back!” she screamed at the Boatman. The boat was plunging straight at the cliff, which suddenly was not a cliff at all but a broad stone stairway zig-zagging upwards. There at the bottom of the steps stood Ka, flanked by Obrad, Aysu, Anargul and Trahaearn.

  “Blast the Ancients, they got here faster,” said Charlie. “I’d nay thought of that.”

  PART 2:

  Tian Xia

  ~

  ~ Chapter 10 ~

  The shock of seeing the Mancers stilled Eliza’s panic just long enough for her to regain control.

  “How will we get past them?”

  “Get everything together,” said Charlie. “Grab Nell. We have to make our move quickly, before they guess what we’re going to do.”

  “What are we going to do?” asked Eliza.

  “Just hurry,” said Charlie, grabbing the bag of food with one hand.

  The boat was plowing fast for the Steps, where the Mancers blazed white against the dark rock. Charlie lay flat on the floor of the boat, out of sight of the Emissariae, whose eyes, Eliza knew, were trained on her. She hung her satchel over her shoulder so the strap crossed her chest, then tried to lift her sick friend with her one good arm, eliciting a sharp gasp of pain from Nell.

  “Climb on my back,” said Charlie.

  “What?”

  “Do it. Both of you. And hang on.”

  Eliza pulled Nell across Charlie’s upper back, and Charlie gave a little grunt. Eliza sat on his lower back. “I dinnay see how...” she began to say.

  And then she almost fell off as they surged into the air. She threw her body forward so that she was practically lying on top of Nell, hanging on desperately with her knees, her face buried in the white and brown feathers that had sprung up where Charlie’s neck had been. Charlie was no longer Charlie but was swooping over the heads of the startled Mancers, eagle-headed, with powerful wings and the sleek, muscled body of a lion. Eliza was seated precariously on the coarse gold fur of his shoulders and Nell lay over his neck, entirely limp, pinned there only by Eliza’s body. They soared along the cruel, hating cliff, then up and up and up towards the fiery sky, ragged with clouds. Eliza’s head spun as the rock flew by, carved eyes staring out at her, carved mouths hungry. Then all at once they were at the top and over.

  Eliza was so intent on hanging on to Nell and not falling off that her first bird’s-eye view of Tian Xia barely registered with her. The lake was set very deep in the earth, like a giant caldera, its centre lost in thick white mist. On the other side of the cliff was a strange sort of outpost made up of countless earth-red, honey-combed domes, several stories high. Platforms and stairs were built right around the outside of these and black-clothed beings milled about on them, many of them pointing up at the gryphon. Cultivated fields gave rise to rows of stunted, leafless trees. For a few miles beyond this, the earth was riddled with dry gorges. A hem of dark forest scooped around the horizon in a semi-circle, straight ahead of them and to the right. To the left the plains rolled on to a smudge of mountain far in the distance. The air tasted different, too sharp, and to Eliza’s panicked gaze everything seemed alive and vaguely threatening, painted in unfriendly darks and reds.

  A canyon opened up below them and the gryphon dove into it so suddenly that Eliza’s body lifted slightly off his back. Without Eliza’s weight holding her in place, the unconscious Nell slipped right off his neck. Before Eliza could scream the gryphon had made another little dive and caught her. She hung from his talons with the bag of food. Eliza clung to the coarse feathers of the gryphon’s neck and hid her eyes from the dizzying view of this strange world rushing up to meet them. The gryphon kept flying low inside the canyon, which opened wide where it met the forest. Without slowing down he flew straight in among the trees, settling with surprising gentleness beneath a canopy of dark green that blocked out the sky altogether. Eliza relaxed her grip and slid to the ground. It was moist and spongy to the touch. She wanted to lie still until she stopped shaking and was capable of thought or speech, but she wasn’t given time.

  “She’s breathing, but barely,” said Charlie. The gryphon was gone, just like that, and Charlie the boy was bent over Nell. “Her pulse is faint. Forsake the Ancients, she’s nay going to die, is she?”

  “She shouldnay have come,” said Eliza thickly.

  “No time for that,” said Charlie. “Wait right here. I’ll come find you.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To get help. Dinnay move.”

  And he was off, running back towards the canyon. As he ran he became something else, fast and grey, and he was gone from sight in no time.

  Eliza sat next to Nell for a few minutes, looking around her with equal parts wonder and fear. The forest floor was carpeted with a thick yellow-gold moss speckled with black, and the roots of the trees were large as boulders, tangled together in dark gnarled masses. They surged up out of the moss like the backs of whales out of the sea. Thick vines hung down to the ground, mingling with ferns and greyish mushrooms that had somehow evaded the devouring moss and grew between the roots of the trees. The trees themselves were giants compared to Di Shang trees, the tops of them hidden in foliage. Yet in spite of their tremendous size there was something vaguely skeletal about them, their black bark twisted and knotty. The air in the forest was heavy with silence and a dark, damp warmth. No beast or bird stirred. Eliza was used to the rustling sounds of small creatures moving among fallen leaves, the sharp birdcalls, the various sounds of life that filled Di Shang forests. The silence here was absolute.

  The longer she sat, the more lost she felt. She knelt and listened to Nell breathing. Faint, but steady. This was probably the best chance they would get to escape from Charlie, but she had no idea where to go. Still, if she waited for him, he would just take them back to Di Shang and then to the Arctic. She needed time to think, to formulate a plan. If they hid deeper in the forest, maybe Charlie wouldn’t be able to find them, and when Nell woke up they could decide what to do. There was simply no way she could move both Nell and the bag of food with one arm, so Eliza took the sturdy bread knife out of the bag and slipped it into the belt of her tunic in case they encountered any strange Tian Xia animals, then shoved the bag of food in among some towering ferns. She wrapped her left arm around Nell’s body and shuffled backwards, pulling Nell after her. It was absurdly slow going and there was nothing resembling a path. Within a couple of minutes she stumbled, falling back against a tree root and jolting her injured arm. Pain zig-zagged through it and tears stung her eyes. She lay where she had fallen for a moment, clutching the arm and clenching her teeth against the despair that threatened to well up within her and sap her will to move. Then the whispering began.

  Do you want to come in, very nice, very tasty, hello how do you do, would you like to come in, it’s so warm, it’s so delicious, won’t you come in, one two girls, very nice, how nice, little girls come to visit, won’t you come in.

  Eliza sat up and looked around her. For a moment she saw nothing but the black forest and the faint green light that fell in patches through the canopy of leaves far above. Then smoky white wisps began to tumble from the trees in slow motion. They rolled about her and came in close, brushing against her then curving off again into the air, and all the while they kept up their strange
persistent whispering.

  “I dinnay want to come in,” said Eliza nervously.

  There followed a moment’s silence and then the little wisps set up more urgently: What does she say what does she say no no it’s so nice it’s so pleasant it’s like sweet sap won’t you please won’t you please one two girl that one is dead this one is live so soft and sweet and would you like to come in with us.

  “She’s nay dead,” said Eliza, trying to bat the little shapes away. They were crowding round her in a tight circle now, and they were all over Nell, creeping up and down her splayed body, forming a gibbering chorus. Will be soon enough, but such a morsel, such a lovely, it’s so nice, dark and delicious, won’t you come in, have a visit, just a visit, this one that one have a taste, pretty, won’t you come, please come in. Frantically trying to brush the wisps off her friend, Eliza saw that a hole was opening up in the trunk of the tree nearest them. The bark creaked as it stretched, ever so slowly bending towards them. Yes yes, come in come in won’t you please very nice it’s so pleasant dark and lovely, this one, that one, girls one two, almost dead almost living but oh so nice oh so tasty, have one, have two, come in, won’t you. Eliza leaped to her feet and pulled Nell away from the bending, widening maw of the tree. The smoky shapes crawled all over them. As she drew away the next tree too began to open what could only be called a mouth, bending towards them. The little shapes were falling out of all the trees now, rolling in great masses through the air and whispering, whispering. The roots beneath them began to groan and shift and thick vines groped at them blindly like eyeless snakes.

  “Help!” Eliza shouted, pulling Nell between the bending, reaching trees. The lattice of roots underneath them tore through their mossy covering and lifted the two girls into the air as if clutching them in a giant wooden hand. How nice, how pleasant, won’t you come in, have a taste, one two, she’s only sleeping, only dying, only a girl, so delicious.

  “Stop!” screamed Eliza. The roots were closing like a fist around the two girls as the trees bent nearer.

  Tasty morsel do come in, a little breath a little skin a little mouth to put you in, one girl two girl crunch and bone and talk and moan and it’s so pleasant it’s quite delicious.

  She fumbled the bread knife free of her belt and began hacking at the roots that held them. There was a deep echoing roar from within the tree and the wisps began to dart to and fro very quickly and anxiously, whispering in their high little voices, Oh not pleasant, Di Shang and nasty, tasty one two come in won’t you stop so unpleasant not a nice girl delicious very very bad won’t you won’t you.

  The roots pulled away under the assault of the knife and Eliza and Nell fell again to the mossy forest floor. The wisps dove down upon them, whispering and hissing. Eliza’s fear had given her new strength. She dragged Nell on blindly, not paying any attention to which way they were going. The wisps swarmed about them and the trees kept bending, bending. A slender root caught her ankle and tripped her. She dropped Nell but managed to fall on her left side this time, protecting her hurt arm. There right in front of her was a large wolf, almost the size of a pony, with bright yellow eyes.

  Eliza stared at the wolf, frozen for a moment, and then some flicker in its gaze made her say, “Charlie?”

  “Well done.” The wolf became Charlie. “I see you’ve made friends with some tree wraiths, aye.”

  “They willnay let us go.” Eliza pulled free of the root gripping her ankle.

  “Oh, tree wraiths are wimps. They cannay do a thing,” said Charlie, feeling Nell’s pulse. “You just dinnay want any of the trees to get you. Thank the Ancients, she’s still alive. Why didnay you stay where I told you to?”

  Eliza had no answer. She was so glad to see him.

  “Lah, come on, then,” he said. “I found help, but help is nay going to follow us into the Ravening Forest. We have to go to It.”

  “It?”

  “Like a doctor. Kind of.”

  “Is it far?”

  Charlie nodded. “You’ll both need to go on my back, aye. It’ll be faster.”

  Without another word he became a wolf again. Eliza pulled Nell over his back and climbed on behind her. Vines were wrapping themselves slowly around her but she threatened them off with the knife. The tree wraiths tumbled and roiled about them, whispering still, though somewhat subdued. Once they were moving quickly, they were hardly bothered by the slow-moving tree roots or the swinging vines. They made their way out of the forest and back into the canyon. A red, swollen sun was setting in the darkening sky, sending ripples of gold upwards. Eliza knew she ought to keep a lookout for the Mancers but she was simply too exhausted to do anything more than keep Nell and herself steady on the back of the loping wolf. By the time they came to a narrow, stony path up the canyon wall, it was dusk. Eliza squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to watch the pebbles loosened by the wolf’s feet go rattling down the cliffside to the canyon floor below. Gradually the path evened out and they came to a cave opening in the side of the canyon wall. The wolf knelt to let them off and became Charlie again. The air in the cave was hot. Eliza stepped inside and touched the cave wall cautiously with her fingertips. It was soft and furred and shuddered away from her touch. She screamed.

  “Quiet,” said Charlie crossly. “Dinnay be rude.”

  “The wall moves,” hissed Eliza. As she spoke she felt the ground shifting under her feet as well. She bent to touch it and found that it too was covered with fur and gave slightly beneath her touch, like flesh.

  “What is this?” she asked in a low voice.

  “It’s good with sickness, aye,” said Charlie. “And It will help Nell because It’s kind. I’d heard It was around here, but I had to look a while to find It.”

  “What’s it called?” asked Eliza.

  “I dinnay know. It doesnay talk, and nobody has tried to give It a name that might nay be right. Help me get Nell inside.”

  Near the back of the cave the fur grew thick and soft, and they laid Nell there as if in a bed.

  “Now we need to get out,” said Charlie.

  “Why?”

  “Lah, because we’re nay sick.”

  “We cannay leave her here.”

  “That’s how it works, Eliza. Come on. Leave the book with her – it’ll be safer here, aye.”

  Eliza rummaged in her satchel for the Book of Barriers and laid it down next to Nell. Reluctantly she followed Charlie out of the cave and then watched in horror as the dark opening closed over her best friend. She started to run back in but Charlie stopped her.

  “She’s close to dead,” he said. “If we pulled her out now...lah, I think It’s our only chance.”

  The rock closed with a grinding sound and left no mark at all.

  “You’d better be right,” said Eliza in a small voice, staring at the smooth rock face that had swallowed her best friend.

  ~

  Eliza and Charlie waited by the vanished cave as it grew dark. The rock felt like ice against her back and the air chilled her to the bone. Three half moons performed a slow circling dance across the black canopy of the sky and every now and then a red comet flashed and vanished. To the south, suspended just above the horizon, a sea of lights flickered and moved, throwing up ever-changing images. One moment the twinkling points of light formed spires and towers and great bridges over billowing gold waterfalls, a city of stars, and the next moment the city was swept away by rippling strips of luminescence that flowed like rivers and then surged up into a forest of sweeping, wavering trees before collapsing again into frothing waves of light and sparkling fountains.

  “What’s that?” asked Eliza, pointing at the moving lights.

  “The hanging gardens of the Sparkling Deluder,” said Charlie.

  “What’s a sparkly deluder?”

  “One of the Four Immortal Powers of Tian Xia, aye. They’re the children of the Ancients, supposedly. The ice plains of the Horogarth are in the north, the hanging gardens of the Sparkling Deluder in the south, the R
ealm of the Faeries to the west and the Dragon Isles to the east.”

  “Oh.” Eliza tried to sound casual. “Lah, this sparkling deluder...is he...it...one of the Xia Sorceress’s enemies? I spec you know who they are, nay?”

  “I’m nay stupid, Eliza,” said Charlie.

  Her stomach dropped.

  “I nary said you were,” she said. “You know what, we left all the food in the forest. I’m hungry.”

  “You were trying to run away from me back there,” he said. He didn’t sound angry. He was staring up at the night sky with an expression that was almost forlorn. “But you’re lucky you didnay get far. You’d both be dead by now if I’d nay found you.”

  “I dinnay know if lucky is the word I’d use for this,” said Eliza.

  “I know what you want to do, aye. You think you can find the Triumvira and get them to help you.”

  “The Triumvira?”

  “The three beings that banished the Sorceress from Tian Xia.”

  “I didnay know that’s what they were called,” said Eliza.

  “It’s a looped idea,” he said flatly. “They’re no likelier to help you than the Mancers. Less so, actually. Even if you could find them, which you cannay.”

  Eliza had no retort. She felt the futility of her situation like a great wave threatening to capsize her tiny boat of hope. A little boat about to be wrecked on the shores of an unfamiliar, unforgiving world.

  “It’s funny, you nay getting sick at all from the Crossing,” mused Charlie. “I thought the Shang Sorceress was supposed to belong to Di Shang, but you must really be a Tian Xia worlder. Or both. The first time I crossed, I thought I was going to explode. It was horrible, aye. I turned into everything I could think of, one after the other, trying to find something that wouldnay feel the pain so intensely. That’s when I learned that every living thing feels pain, and it’s awful no matter what you are. Every crossing gets easier, though.”