“Then give us the key,” she said, choosing to ignore his veiled insult. She looked down at Marcus, running a hand over his brow.
“There is one more test.”
“No!” Kyja shouted. “No more tests. He can’t survive it.”
“It’s not him I’m worried about,” Mr. Z said. Something in his voice made Kyja look up. “You’ve done an outstanding job on your first two. If I didn’t know better, I’d think . . . But that’s nonsense.” He waved his hand, then pointed a finger at Kyja. “I am here to make you an offer.”
“What kind of offer?” Kyja expected a trap, yet all she sensed from the man was sincerity.
“Don’t take the last test. If you skip it, I will return your friend to full health and place you anywhere on Farworld you wish.” He lifted the green stone from his desk and tossed it into the air, catching it in his palm. “I’ll throw my paperweight into the bargain,” he said with a raised eyebrow. “There are those who might consider it rather valuable.”
Kyja narrowed her eyes. “Why would you do that?” The offer sounded too good to be true.
“Because I’m a sucker.” Mr. Z pulled out his scarf and gave his nose a loud honk. “A sucker and a patsy. But surprisingly, I’ve come to, if not like, then at least appreciate the two of you. You seem almost . . . human, which I have to say is quite rare in humans. The truth of the matter is, there is no way to win the last test; you can only lose. I don’t want to see you go through that kind of pain. So I propose to throw the competition now. I urge you to take this offer. I’ve never made it before, and I could change my mind at any moment.”
Kyja looked for a loophole but couldn’t see any. “And the land elementals?”
Mr. Z frowned. “What about them?”
“We need to find a land elemental so we can open a drift between Farworld and Earth. It’s why we’re here.”
“I’m afraid that isn’t possible.”
“Why not?” she asked, her voice quiet. She thought she knew where this was going now. It was a choice she didn’t want to make—couldn’t be asked to.
“I do not control the land elementals,” the little man said, folding his arms. “But as you may know, they have not been seen for some time. It is possible—even probable—that the land elementals no longer exist.”
“But I thought . . .”
Mr. Z pulled out his pocket watch. “There is very little time left. Once you move to the last test, you’re beyond my ability to help. Take my offer now. Save yourself pain you can’t imagine. I have nothing against stacking the deck. I’ve done it on more than one occasion for myself. But the odds are not just stacked against you this time. You will lose.”
This wasn’t fair. Why was he asking it of her? If she said yes, Marcus would live. But what would he say when he discovered she’d given up any chance of opening a drift and returning him to the world where he belonged? If Mr. Z could be trusted, she was guaranteed to fail the last test. Then Marcus would die. And it might all be for nothing anyway if the land elementals were really gone for good.
“What kind of test is it?” she asked. “How do you know I’ll lose?”
“The time for questions is over,” Mr. Z said, urgency clear in his voice. “Make your decision now!”
She looked down at Marcus. What would he say if he was the one making the decision? She knew what he’d say. She squeezed his hand, looked the little man in the eyes and said, “I’ll take my chances.”
Instantly, she found herself standing in a bank of brilliant white fog. She held her hand in front of her face, but even when she touched her palm to the tip of her nose, she still couldn’t see anything. It wasn’t just fog then. It was like being in a pitch black cave, only in this case, it was pitch white. How could that be? If total darkness was a complete lack of light, was this the opposite? A light so complete it blinded?
“Marcus?” She knelt and ran her hands across the smooth floor until her fingers found his body. She put her hand to his chest and sighed with relief when it gently rose and fell.
“Why are you here?” The voice was neither loud nor soft, male nor female. It came from no single direction, but rather seemed to originate from the light itself. It wasn’t demanding in any way or threatening, but Kyja felt her mouth go dry.
Reluctant to leave Marcus, she rose slowly to her feet. Her heart pounded. Mr. Z had promised she would fail this test—that she would lose no matter what. So why was she here? Dozens of answers raced through her mind. Because she needed to find a land elemental. Because she had to get to the Augur Well. To open a doorway. To save Marcus. To save her world . . . and his. Because she had no choice. All of those were true except for the last.
The voice asked again. “Why are you here?”
“Because . . .” She licked her lips. “Because I chose to come.”
“How did you get here?”
What kind of question was that? She had no idea how she got here. One minute she was standing in a room full of books with a strange little man, and the next minute she was here. That couldn’t be what the voice meant.
How had she come all the way from sleeping in the Goddnuffs’ barn—dreaming of learning enough magic to move a hairclip—to this? In her mind, she saw all the events that had brought her to this point—from the first time she saw Marcus in the aptura discerna to their decision to search for the elementals despite the fact that no one even knew they existed.
She remembered the times she couldn’t make it on her own and Marcus had stepped in to help her, the times she’d seen him struggling and had known it was her turn to pull him up. She thought about the first test with the rafts and the crazy swamp monkeys. Marcus’s impulsiveness had nearly got him killed. Her stubbornness hadn’t let her consider different options. But her logic and his quick action had ultimately solved the puzzle. In the second test, they’d switched roles. She was the one taking chances, and he was the one thinking things through.
“We got here together.”
“And what is it you desire?” the voice asked.
This question wasn’t one she’d been expecting, and it made her anxious that she couldn’t understand where things were heading. How could she keep from failing if she didn’t even comprehend the test? All the time, Marcus was getting sicker and sicker.
“What do I desire?” she said, feeling heat rise to her chest. “I want to get to the Augur Well. I want to find a land elemental and return Marcus to Earth. I want to open a drift and do whatever we’re supposed to do to save our worlds, then go back to being a kid. But most of all, I want to stop playing these stupid games!”
“Answer one last question, and you may leave,” the voice said.
Like a flame being doused in icy water, Kyja felt the heat of anger replaced with cold dread. She remembered Mr. Z’s words, You will lose. At that moment she wished desperately that she had accepted his offer.
“What will you pay?”
“I don’t understand,” Kyja said.
“There are those who are saved, and those who save,” the voice said. “You have chosen to save both your friend and your world. You cannot be a savior without a sacrifice. What will you sacrifice?”
In the blinding white mist, Kyja shrugged. She was willing to pay whatever it wanted, but she had nothing to give. She had no money. What few possessions she’d had before were destroyed when the Thrathkin S’Bae demolished Goodnuffs’ farm. Even the gold from Cascade and the rest of the Trill Stones were in her bag somewhere back in Land Keep. That must be what Mr. Z meant—there was no way she could pass this test because she had nothing to sacrifice.
“It’s not fair!” she shouted. “I don’t have anything to give.”
“What will you pay?” the voice repeated.
What was the voice looking for? If she’d had gold she’d have given it already. Land, buildings, anything—wealth meant nothing to her. The only thing she’d ever really cared about was . . .
Sudden realization dawned on her, and her bo
dy went ice-cold. Mr. Z hadn’t said she would fail—he’d said she would lose. Lose what?
“No,” she whispered, her lips numb. There was only one thing she’d ever wanted in her life. Only one thing she’d cared about. Since she was a little girl she’d dreamed of it. Even though she said she’d given up hope, in the back of her mind, she’d always kept a tiny flame burning with the thought that someday, somehow . . .
And now she finally had it.
“No.” She shook her head violently back and forth. “Not that. Anything but that.”
The voice was silent.
This was too much to ask. If she’d never felt magic coursing through her, she could have given it up freely. But she’d had a chance to see what her life could be like with it. It was everything she’d imagined and more. And she was good at it. Maybe better than good! It was like giving a person who’d been blind all their life sight, only to ask for it back that same day.
“My eyes—take my eyes! Or take my hearing!” she shouted, balling her fists. “You can have my arms and legs. I’ll crawl like Marcus if I have to.”
She couldn’t give up her magic. Not for Earth. Not for Farworld. Not even for Marcus. It was the only thing she’d ever owned in her life that meant something to her. She’d rather die than lose it now.
“I won’t,” she said, her entire body shaking. “I can’t.”
She imagined how proud Master Therapass would be to see how she’d mastered his lessons. Only when she pictured him, the old wizard wasn’t beaming at what she’d accomplished. He was shaking his head, and his words returned to her.
The real power of magic lies within you. Who you are, what you do, and most importantly of all, what you may become.
Was this the only way then? Did everything have to be so hard? Maybe the sacrifice really was just a test. Maybe she wouldn’t really lose her magic if she said she was willing to give it up.
But she already knew the answer to that.
“What will you pay?”
Hot tears burned her cheeks as she lifted her head.
“I give . . . my magic.”
Chapter 35
Mouth to Ear
It’s done, then?” Kyja asked Mr. Z after she and Marcus returned to his study for what she hoped was the last time.
“I believe this is yours,” he said, removing the brass key from his coat pocket.
Kyja took the key, hoping it would be worth what she’d paid for it, and knowing that, in some ways, it never could be. “Is my magic gone already?”
Mr. Z shrugged his shoulders. “Today, tomorrow. If not now, soon.”
“It was all real, then? This room? The rafts? The fairy?”
“Haven’t you learned by now? Everything is real to she who experiences it, and nothing is completely real to anyone else.”
“Where’s the Augur Well?”
“Left out the hall. First door on your right. Or is it the third?” he said, with a trace of a smile. “Remember, even an oracle can get things wrong sometimes. Or maybe we just misinterpret what we hear.”
“Thanks for the advice.” She picked up Marcus’s staff and lugged him to his feet.
“Fairy . . . song,” he mumbled, swaying.
“He’s lucky to have you.” The little man dabbed at his eyes with his scarf and blew his nose.
“We’re lucky to have each other,” Kyja said. “Will we ever run into you again?”
Mr. Z narrowed his eyes. “Would you want to?”
Kyja managed a small smile of her own. “I’ve never seen an actual snail joust.”
“Then perhaps we will,” the man said.
She started for the door, Marcus stumbling at her side, and turned back. “Who are you really, Mr. Z?”
But the man was gone.
“Figures,” she murmured.
It wasn’t a long walk to the first door on the right, but halfway there, Marcus seemed to wake up a little. “Where are we?” he asked groggily.
“On our way to the Augur Well.”
“We passed, then?”
She felt a little of his weight lighten from her shoulder as he grew more steady on his feet. “We did. You were great.”
“Were there any other tests?”
“One.” Running her free hand along the wall, she felt the rough wood of a door. Halfway down, her fingers located a keyhole.
“Was it hard?” he asked. “I’m sorry I didn’t help.”
“Oh, you did.” She shifted the key to her right hand and the staff to her left. “Do you think you can stand on your own?”
“I think so.” In the darkness, she felt Marcus take the staff.
She reached toward the lock with the tip of the key, fumbled it for a moment, and finally slipped it into the hole. Work, she whispered to herself. She turned the key and heard an audible click.
“Should we make a plan?” Marcus asked.
In the darkness, she couldn’t tell whether he was joking, but it didn’t matter; she was done with planning—at least for today. She pushed the door open, and a flood of pink light filled the hallway.
They stepped through the doorway together and found themselves looking at a staircase winding downward. The walls, floor and steps were made of glowing pink crystal. Marcus groaned. “They couldn’t have provided an elevator?”
She knew he was joking, but could see real apprehension on his face as he eyed the steep stairs. “I’ll help you.” Kyja put her shoulder under his left arm.
“I can handle it,” he said, but didn’t complain as she supported him one step at a time.
At last the stairs ended in an arched doorway so low Marcus had to duck to get through. As they came out the other side, he stared at the walls and frowned. “What is this?’
They stood in a circular room. Curved pink walls rose as high as Kyja could see, making it look like they were standing at the bottom of a well. But it was the first five or six feet of the walls that held her attention. Other than the opening they’d come through, the entire surface of the walls was decorated with a variety of crystal mouths and ears up to the height of the doorway.
Half the room was covered in lips, muzzles, bills, and beaks. There was what looked like an alligator jaw filled with glittering pink teeth, thick lips that looked like they might have been smiling if it hadn’t been for the foot-long tusks curving out, a narrow beak that was at least eighteen inches long, and even something that could have been a fish mouth. The other half of the room had ears that seemed to belong to as many different species.
As they reached the center of the room, the arched door disappeared.
“I am the Augur Well,” the mouths, muzzles, lips and beaks said as one. “Why do you seek me?”
Kyja glanced at Marcus and answered for them. “We come seeking knowledge,” she said. Many of the ears seemed to move or flick as she spoke.
“You shall be granted one question,” the mouths said. “But first, I will foretell of things to come. Things both good and bad. Things that may help or hinder, depending on how you use them. Things which may lighten your loads or burden your hearts.”
“Okay,” Marcus said, sweat shining on his forehead. “Go ahead.”
At once the mouths began to talk, but it was impossible to make out what they were saying. All of them talked over each other. The voices echoed and bounced off the walls in a cacophony of noise.
“Can. You. Understand?” Marcus mouthed.
“No!” she mouthed back.
“Be quiet!” she shouted over the noise. The mouths kept chattering, screeching and howling words she couldn’t make out.
Retreating from the assault of voices, they backed to the side of the room with the ears. The noise was still intolerable, but at least they could hear each other if they shouted.
“What are they saying?” Marcus yelled.
“I have no idea!” If she concentrated, she could make out a word here or there, but not enough to understand even a sentence. The noise sounded like a riot in a forest.
Something brushed up against her arm. What looked like the ear of a mouse or some other small rodent quivered. All the ears seemed to be reacting to the noise in one way or another.
“Stay here!” she shouted.
Marcus nodded.
Dropping to the floor, where the sound didn’t seem quite as bad, she found a fur-covered muzzle and crawled up next to it. She placed her ear as close to the lips as she could, trying to concentrate on its words. It was hard to make anything out, but the mouth seemed to be repeating something over and over. She tried to block out all the other noise and focus just on this one, deep voice.
“What . . . floats.”
She got that much.
“What . . . floats . . . in . . . the . . . hair . . .”
Hair?
She tried again. “What floats in the . . . air.” Not hair. Air.
Little by little, she got the entire message. “What floats in the air, burrows in the ground, wears away mountains, and creates life wherever it goes?”
It was a question. A riddle? She hurried back to Marcus and repeated the riddle. It took her several tries, but at last he seemed to understand.
“What floats, burrows, wears things down, and creates life,” he repeated, his brow furrowed. “Water!” he shouted. Beside him a pointy ear glowed briefly for a moment.
Kyja looked back at the muzzle. It had stopped talking. “It’s another puzzle!” she shouted, pointing at the silent mouth.
Marcus nodded. “Do we have to do all of them?”
She shrugged and motioned for him to stay by the ears while she listened to the mouths.
For the next hour they listened and called out answers. Some of the riddles were hard, while others were absurdly simple. But one by one, they answered them all. At first Kyja focused on listening while Marcus came up with the answers. Later they switched places. Early on, it was almost impossible to make out what was being said, and they had to yell directly into each other’s ears. But as more of the mouths quieted, the task became easier.
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