“I know! This is like . . . the opposite of the Between-World!” Meylyne laughed.
A vast ocean shimmered below them. Meylyne could just about make out the bridge above it. It stretched for miles, disappearing over the horizon. Glendoch was nowhere in sight.
“That Marzappan Sea beneath us. That mean Grimorex live in Celadonia. How we come so far in one night?” Hope asked.
Meylyne frowned. Celadonia was very far from Glendoch. “We couldn’t, unless sorcery was involved.”
“Sorcery? Whose? You didn’t magic us anywhere!” Blue pointed out.
“I have no idea. We obviously went the wrong way when the bridge split. Maybe we entered a grytch.”
“What’s that?” asked Blue.
Meylyne scrunched up her brow. Grytches were tricky to describe.
“It’s a bit like a tunnel. Back when Glendoch was really enchanted, it used to have these places that, when you enter them, you get transported really quickly to somewhere else. Supposedly they make you feel like you’ve been chewed up and spat out the other end—”
“Which we didn’t,” Blue pointed out.
“I know, but it’s the only thing I can think of for how we got all the way to Celadonia in one night.”
The three fell into silence as the chariot flew steadily onward. To the ships below it looked like a giant prism as it hurtled past the sun. Then it disappeared into a swirling cloud-bank and Meylyne, Hope and Blue were engulfed in white mist. They were drenched in minutes. Hope settled himself into an alcove while Blue explored the rest of the chariot.
Meylyne stayed where she was. The wetness didn’t bother her. If anything, she felt clean for the first time in days. Closing her eyes, she heard the clouds whispering about the sea—they spoke of mermaids and whirlpools and channels to distant worlds.
Finally the clouds thinned and slivers of blue emerged. Glendoch was in sight now. Meylyne could see its golden Titons and silver-white mountains; the six cities just beyond. As they drew nearer, the chariot dipped down until Meylyne could see the bridge upon which they had traveled quite clearly.
“Blue, Hope, look—I can see where the bridge split!”
Blue dashed over and scrambled up onto Hope’s back.
“Oh yeah! It looks like a piece of string all knotted up.”
“Bridge look weird. Can chariot go lower?” Hope asked.
“It does look weird,” Meylyne agreed as the chariot veered downward. “It’s as if the ground is moving.”
As they dropped even lower, Meylyne realized that the bridge was not moving but covered in scorpions crawling over one another. The bridge also had red patches on it, which the scorpions seemed careful to avoid. The patches oozed yellow liquid and when a scorpion came too close, the red patch would spit at it. Then the scorpion rolled onto its back, writhing before going still.
“Yeech!” Meylyne said. “I suppose we should be thankful that we went the wrong way!”
Before anyone could reply, the chariot whizzed off to the right and bumped to a halt. All around them were branches and leaves. Blue peered through the foliage, and then ducked down into an alcove.
“We’re here!” he hissed. “See that foggy-looking valley? That’s the Valley of Half-Light!”
Meylyne’s stomach lurched and she ducked down so that only her eyes showed above the chariot. Looking to where Blue pointed, she saw a lush green valley with tendrils of mist rising out of it.
“That’s the Valley of Half-Light?” she whispered in disbelief. “It looks so ordinary. Pretty, even.”
It was hard to equate this place with the vortex of evil she had heard it was. She sat down beside Blue. All the color had drained from his face.
“Um, do those spher things ever leave the Valley? Because we’re kinda close,” he said.
“Don’t worry. They can’t leave—they’re trapped inside the Valley by the Great Oaken Mother,” Meylyne said.
Blue frowned in confusion.
“Enchanted tree,” Hope explained.
“Enchanted tree?” Blue echoed. Then he sighed. “Of course it is. So now what do we do?”
Meylyne blinked. “I don’t know. The Well said that ‘everything I needed to know’ would be revealed to me along the way. But nothing has been revealed—”
“Ssshh!” Hope interrupted. “Hear that?”
At first, Meylyne heard nothing. Then a moaning sound rose up around her and a chill snaked up her spine.
“Yes. What is that?” she whispered.
“I don’t hear anything,” said Blue.
“Noise come from Tree,” Hope said.
The tree? Reaching up, Meylyne touched one of the tree’s leaves, which was brown and mottled. The tree moaned again, sounding so full of pain that Meylyne’s breath caught in her throat.
“What’s the matter?” she asked the tree.
At first there was silence. Then a barely audible whisper.
“Poisoned. Failing Glendoch.”
“Failing Glendoch?” Meylyne echoed. “What do you mean?”
More silence. Then,
“I am the Great Oaken Mother.”
Meylyne gasped in disbelief, taking stock of the tree for the first time. It was clearly dying—its bark was flaking off in dusty chunks and its leaves shredded and drooping. She could feel its branches groaning under the chariot’s weight.
“We have to move, chariot. This tree is really sick,” she urged.
The chariot immediately lifted from its perch and landed on the ground nearby. Meylyne and Hope locked eyes.
“This can’t be happening,” Meylyne murmured.
“What’s the deal?” Blue asked nervously.
“The deal is that this tree is the Great Oaken Mother we just told you about,” Meylyne replied, her tone desperate. “It’s her powers that stop the sphers from escaping the Valley of Half-Light and she’s been poisoned! She’s supposed to live forever. If she dies, the sphers can get out!”
“Maybe some already have,” Hope said grimly. “Remember lion?”
Meylyne recalled the emptiness in the tusked lion’s eyes.
“Of course! That would explain why he attacked us!”
“Whoa! You mean to tell me that those sphers are not trapped inside the Valley of Half-Light?” Blue’s voice rose a notch. “Let’s get outta here!”
Hope sniffed the air.
“No worry. No sphers here. Must be because tree still alive. Suspect most sphers still inside Valley. For now.”
“But why? Who would poison the Great Oaken Mother? Who could possibly want the sphers escaping?” Meylyne asked.
“No idea. We need ask Tree,” Hope replied.
“Hope wait!” Meylyne hissed as he slunk out of the chariot and padded toward the tree.
Hope continued to walk away. Blue grasped her hand.
“Come on, we have to go with him.”
Judging by the quiver in his voice, Blue was just as scared as she was. Together, they jumped out of the chariot and caught up to Hope, wrinkling their noses at the sickly-sweet smell of rotting fruit. With one eye on the valley beyond, Meylyne put her hand on the tree’s trunk. A piece of bark fell to the ground.
“Poor tree. Who did this to you?” she murmured.
The tree sighed, struggling to answer. It appeared to be losing strength by the second. It whispered something but Meylyne could not tell what it said.
“Pardon?”
She pressed her ear against the tree’s trunk, grimacing as the stench filled her nostrils. This time she could just about make out what the tree said.
“What did it say?” Blue demanded as she pulled away.
“It sounded like, ‘the Thorn Queen,’ but I can’t be sure.”
The tree shook its branches, showering them with dead leaves. “Fetch Trisdyan,” it rasped. “He can cure me.”
Before Meylyne could reply, Hope froze.
“Look!”
A wisp of smoke inched its way toward them.
“B
ack to chariot,” Hope ordered. “Now!”
Meylyne and Blue did not need to be told twice. Running faster than they had ever done before, they reached the chariot in seconds.
“Fly, chariot—anywhere!” Meylyne screamed once they were all inside.
The chariot shot away, once again catapulting the three into its alcoves. Meylyne crawled over to Hope and Blue, shaking like jelly.
“Uggghhhh! That was a spher, wasn’t it?” she asked.
Hugging his knees, Blue nodded. Then he scrambled to his feet and ran to the other side of the chariot, retching.
Meylyne felt sick too. A memory had roused itself in her mind.
“You know Hope, before I left, Queen Emery said her queendom was close to war. At the time I thought she was just crazy but maybe she was right.”
“What you mean?”
“Well if some sphers have escaped and infected Glendochians then those Glendochians would turn on one another, wouldn’t they? And if enough people got involved, wouldn’t that be a war?”
Hope looked grave as he nodded.
“We must save Great Oaken Mother. Or no point in returning home. No home to return to.”
11
Grimorex has an Idea
MEYLYNE SHIVERED AS HOPE’S WORDS ECHOED IN HER MIND.
No home to return to.
He was right. Only two fates awaited those infected by sphers—the Shadow Cellars and death. Blue plopped down next to them. His face was blotchy and he was trembling.
“Are you okay?” Meylyne asked him.
Blue nodded curtly. “What were you saying about war?”
“Nothing,” Meylyne replied, not wanting to think about that any more. “Listen—the Great Oaken Mother told me to fetch Trisdyan—that he could help her.”
“Who’s Trisdyan?” Blue asked.
Pulling herself up, Meylyne peered over the chariot’s side and sighed. The air was crystal clear. In the distance, Glendoch’s white-capped mountains were fading away.
“No one really knows. The Above-Worldians—” she stole a glance at Hope “—that is the Above-Worldian humans think he’s just a myth. The Between-Worldians don’t think that though.”
“Nor us,” Hope interjected.
“Yes but who is he?” Blue pressed.
“I’m getting there! According to legend, he’s a wizard of the oldest order. He’s the one that infused the Great Oaken Mother with the power to guard the sphers. But no one has ever seen him.”
“Fat lot of good that does us then.” Blue chewed his lip. “You said that the Tree Mother said the Thorn Queen did this to her, right?”
“Yes, but I have no idea who that is! I suppose we can ask Grimorex when we see him.”
“I have idea,” Hope replied. “Remember story about Queen Emery—when she forced to drink broth of thorns?”
“Of course!” Meylyne exclaimed. “For getting Princess Amber kidnapped. Why didn’t I think of that?”
“Well, no make sense. Why Queen Emery destroy her own Queendom?”
“Sorry. Kinda lost here. Who is Princess Amber?” Blue asked.
A cloud passed over the sun, casting a shadow over them. Meylyne felt her stomach tighten the way it always did when her thoughts dwelled on Princess Amber. Of all the things her father had done, this was possibly his worst.
“Princess Amber was Queen Emery’s best friend. Only Queen Emery got her kidnapped so she could rule all Glendoch by herself.”
And it was all my father’s fault.
“That rumor,” Hope said sharply. “Amber get kidnapped and everyone blame Emery for it. Make her drink thorns as punishment. That part true.”
“Oh.” Blue still looked puzzled. “So, you usually have two queens ruling Glendoch?”
“Yes—well kings or queens. The House of Cardinal—that’s Queen Emery’s house—rules the city of Tyr and the House of Rose is ‘sposed to rule the other Glendochian cities. They’re called the Francescan cities for short. But the Roses can’t seem to choose another ruler in Princess Amber’s place, so Queen Emery rules the whole thing.”
“And not very well,” Hope added. “That why Tyrians and Francescans fight. Francescans feel unprotected. Meph attack them and Queen Emery can’t help.”
“Hmmm.” Blue thought for a minute. “And why is Queen Emery blamed for the other one’s kidnap?”
“Cabbage-Wind,” Hope replied.
Blue gave Hope a blank look and he stared pointedly at Meylyne but she turned away. She wasn’t going to tell Blue. The shame of it was like a burning thread in her throat.
Hope sighed.
“Cabbage-Wind rumored to be dragon’s breath,” he explained. “But everyone believes Meph put dragon up to it. One night, fifteen years past—”
“Thirteen,” Meylyne muttered.
“Thirteen years past,” Hope continued, “wind slithered down from Glendoch’s peak—no ordinary wind. More like snake! It slither through Glendoch’s cities; crack window panes and freeze wells. Anyone caught in it suffer strange maladies. Ears turn black . . . hands turn into cabbages . . . some warble like marsh-frogs. And these lucky ones! Others look fine but they start behave nasty. No one know, but their hearts turn into cabbages—rotten ones!”
“Geez!” Blue exclaimed.
“And rottenness of hearts cause them commit crimes normally not done—some crimes against nature get them imprisoned in the Between-World. They become known as Cabbage-Windians.”
“I see.” Blue mulled this over for a minute. “But what does that have to do with Princess Amber being kidnapped?”
“Day after Cabbage-Wind, princesses walk to top of Glendoch Mountain. Not realize Princess Emery’s heart a cabbage! When near top, she pluck sacred flower—punishable by imprisonment by garlysle law. Princess Amber snatch from her, meaning to re-plant, but garlysle burst out of ice and drag her down to Between-World.”
“I see,” Blue said. “And is that when all the fighting between the two sides of Glendoch began?”
“Yes,” Meylyne replied. “And it’s all my father’s fault. Even after the physicians worked out what had happened and my Great-Uncle ordered the release of the Cabbage-Windians, Princess Amber was never found.”
The shame of it weighed upon her like a pile of rocks in her tummy. From the whispers of her classmates to the deliberate avoidance from the shop-keepers down the street, she had felt the blame for this particular act of her father’s madness ever since she could remember.
Blue nodded, his brow furrowed. “Well it still doesn’t make sense. Hope’s right—why would Queen Emery destroy her own Queendom now?”
Meylyne had no good answer for him. She lapsed into silence, staring morosely at the blue-green sea that stretched below them for miles and miles. Maybe Queen Emery’s as crazy as my father—so intent on killing him that she’ll do anything—even start a war.
She did not feel the prickle in her shoulder blades at first. When it came again, more like a bee sting this time, she was jolted out of her worrisome thoughts. Pulling out her pills, she swallowed one, trying not to let Hope and Blue see. She could feel Hope’s eyes boring into her back.
I could just tell them. Neither of them would care about my secret.
She kept quiet. This was not the right time for spilling secrets. Closing her eyes, she tried to silence her mind so that the clouds might speak to her again. They would surely know who the Thorn Queen was. The clouds however remained silent, and eventually a smudge appeared on the horizon.
“That place where Grimorex lives, what’s it called again?” Blue shouted above the wind.
“Celadonia. I don’t know much about it. We never get visitors aside from the merchants—and they aren’t allowed beyond the harbors,” Meylyne replied.
The chariot picked up speed and soon the edges of Celadonia came into view. To the north, Meylyne saw white-capped mountains and a sharp glint of light. Grimorex’s castle loomed straight ahead of them. As it got nearer and nearer, Meylyne’s palms be
gan to sweat. If they didn’t slow down they would crash right into it! Then the chariot plunged downward and she shrieked as she catapaulted to the back of the chariot along with Hope and Blue.
“Slow down!” she screamed.
Just as she was certain they would crash into the lagoon, the chariot pulled up, skimming across the top of the water and bumping to a stop, inches from the shore. Meylyne, Hope, and Blue lay in a sprawled heap on the floor. They were all silently congratulating themselves on being alive when an enormous shadow loomed over them.
“Hello my friends!” Grimorex’s face was wreathed in smiles as he stared down at them. A blue and green striped bow tie bobbed up and down on his neck. “How delightful to see you so soon. I trust you were successful?”
His smile vanished as Meylyne pushed herself up, using Blue’s soggy head for support. They had each got drenched from the spray.
“You look a tad peaked, all of you. Well, I did try to warn you. No one ventures inside the Valley of Half-Light voluntarily. The sphers are not to be trifled with—”
“We never made it inside the Valley,” Meylyne cut him off. “The Great Oaken Mother has been poisoned. Sphers are escaping.”
Grimorex fell silent, his mouth open. He blinked three times and when he spoke again his tone had no trace of its usual lightness.
“Poisoned? You’re sure of this?”
Meylyne nodded. “The tree said the Thorn Queen had done it.”
Grimorex frowned. Opening the back of the chariot, he walked away.
“Come,” he called over his shoulder.
Scrambling out of the chariot, Meylyne, Hope, and Blue followed Grimorex as he wandered down the mossy path. This time they turned away from the castle, winding their way through a lemon orchard to end up at a jasmine-covered gazebo. Inside a picnic table was set with a silver teapot and an assortment of doughnuts.
“Help yourselves,” Grimorex said, picking up Meylyne and Blue and depositing them on the table. “Sorry, Hope. Not much to interest you here.”
Grimorex sat down and stared at Meylyne.
“You say the Great Oaken Mother said that the Thorn Queen did this to her?”
“Yes, do you know who that is?” she asked.
The Thorn Queen Page 8