He dropped the sheet onto the floor and it burst open, spilling dozens of loaves of bread across the stones.
“Ahhhhh!” the grimrock said, sitting down with a thoom. He began grabbing fistfuls of the loaves and stuffing them into his mouth.
“Well played, Doolivanti,” the griffon said, his talons clicking on the stones as he walked up to me and bowed.
“Squeak,” said the mouse.
The griffon nodded. “Yes, of course. My apologies.” He inclined his head. “These are my friends.”
“I’m Pip. I’m Pip,” said the toucan.
“Squeak!” said the mouse.
I looked at Pip and the griffon. “Is he saying something?”
“Can you not understand him?” Gruffy asked.
“Just squeaks.”
“Well, allow me to introduce our most clever friend, Squeak.”
“Squeak!” said Squeak.
“And you’re Gruffilandimus?” I asked. “Or Gruffy?”
“Gruffilandimus,” the griffon said quickly. He straightened and his chest broadened.
“Squeak-squeak-squeak,” said Squeak softly, his whiskers twitching behind one of his paws. It sounded like he was laughing.
“His name is Gruffy. His name is Gruffy,” Pip said.
“That was my name. I am now—”
“A new name doesn’t make you braver. Doesn’t make you braver,” Pip squawked.
I put a hand on the griffon’s feathery neck. “You’re the bravest creature I’ve ever met. You don’t need a long name to prove that.” I said. “Gruffy is better.”
The griffon paused, beak open. He looked down at me. His fierce gaze softened, and that curve appeared at the corner of his beak. “Very well, Doolivanti. I am Gruffy the griffon.”
“You should stick around. Stick around,” Pip said. “He never listens to anyone. Never listens to anyone.”
“Well, I—”
“What is your name, Doolivanti? Your name, Doolivanti?” Pip asked.
“I am Lorelei,” I said.
“Squeak,” Squeak said.
“Not Rock Tamer? Rock Tamer? Or Sandwich Slinger? Sandwich Slinger?” Pip squawked.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. Loremaster … the whispering voice was like a quiet, receding echo. I ignored it.
“Squeak.”
“Lorelei doesn’t sound like any Doolivanti that I’ve ever heard of. That I’ve ever heard of,” Pip said.
“Why not?” I asked.
“It is because she is better than all other Doolivantis,” Gruffy interrupted.
His towering confidence in me made me feel hot in the face. “I don’t, um…”
“Her family was stolen by the Ink King, even as the Eternal Sea was stolen from the princess. We shall restore them both.”
“Yes,” I said. “Yes, but…” I paused. Everything had happened so fast. Going to my old house, then rain and lightning, then falling off the roof. Then griffons and grimrocks and … My mind felt like a balloon with too much air, stretched to the limit, and how could I be sure the Ink King had my family? I wanted to believe it so badly …
“Are you sure the Ink King is the one who took my family?” I asked.
“Of course I am,” Gruffy said.
“Of course he’s not. Of course he’s not. Any more than he’s sure the princess is here. The princess is here.”
The grimrock finished the bread, then leaned back against the wall, which shook, rock dust sifting down from the ceiling. His eyes slid shut.
“Full,” he rumbled.
“I am certain the princess is here,” Gruffy said. “Why else would there be a grimrock underneath the streets of Azure City?”
“Oh right. Oh right. You know it deep in your hero’s bones. Your hero’s bones.”
Gruffy’s wings flexed, as though he might leap into the air again. Pip flew backward, out of range.
“She’s not even your princess! Not your—!” Pip started, but he was interrupted by the grimrock, who sat up and spoke.
“Princess?” he said, and his tiny eyes narrowed. “No can have princess.”
CHAPTER 5
The grimrock stood up one shoulder at a time, rising to its intimidating height. “Princess stay here,” he said.
“You see?” Gruffy said as he swiveled to face the creature. “She is here.”
“And now we’re lunch again. We’re lunch again,” Pip replied.
The grimrock shook his head, and it sounded like grinding rocks. “Ink King return. Ink King punish Urath,” he rumbled ominously. “Make Urath starve.”
Gruffy bristled and crouched. One of his wings flared out, gently sweeping me behind him.
“Wait!” I shouted, my feet scraping against the rock floor. “Wait a minute! Stop fighting for a second.” I tried to think. This was all so crazy and, at the same time, exactly what I’d asked for. A chance, just one chance, to find my family again. And here it was, if I could just believe it. My mind was spinning, and I had to sort it out. So I backed up and tried to stick to what I knew. I had come looking for clues. A magical griffon told me that a magical Ink King had taken my family to this place, called Veloran, through a sliding painting in the wall. Which was impossible, of course. I could almost believe I was dreaming except that my arms still stung from where rock chips had hit me. Except that I’d smelled the earthy yick of a grimrock’s burp. Not to mention …
I paused to glance up at the talking toucan, the enormous griffon and the enormous-er grimrock, all watching me expectantly. I blinked hard and tried to make them go away like I’d done with Gruffy back in my house.
It didn’t work. I glanced down at Squeak.
“Squeak,” Squeak said, shrugging and raising his paws palm up.
So they were real. Double real with a mouse on top.
Unless I was in that “delusion” Mr. Schmindly talked about, and I was actually drooling on the floor of my house right now, this was happening. For really real.
This was my chance. What I’d asked for. Except I didn’t know anything about where I was. I needed these creatures’ help to find my family and bring them back.
“Okay,” I said, “I’m going to sum up.” I pointed at the grimrock. “You. Urath. The Ink King keeps you here?”
“Urath cannot leave.”
“Then the Ink King’s a doofus. And he’s made an enemy of everybody here,” I said, looking at each of them in turn. “We should fight him together.”
“We should? We should?” Pip squawked. “Fight the Ink King? Fight the Ink King?”
“Indubitably,” Gruffy said.
“But he’s the most powerful Doolivanti in Veloran! In Veloran!” Pip squawked. “He—”
“Not anymore,” Gruffy said.
Pip rolled his eyes. “Okay, I like her, too. I like her, too. But that’s more reason to—”
“Squeak,” interrupted Squeak.
Gruffy smiled. “You see?” he said to Pip.
Pip flapped back and forth, agitated. “How do I get talked into this? How do I get talked into this?”
“Because you are a good friend,” Gruffy said.
“So are we agreed?” I asked, watching Pip. He didn’t seem convinced. I also wished I could understand the mouse. Everybody else seemed to. Pip didn’t say anything else, so I continued. “The Ink King is a doofus, and somebody should smack him upside his inky head.”
“Yes,” said Gruffy.
“Squeak,” said Squeak.
“Even I know that. Even I know that,” Pip said.
“Then we work together,” I said. I turned to the grimrock. “We’ll get you out,” I said. “We’ll get you away from the Ink King.”
“Wait! Wait! Free the grimrock? Free the grimrock?” Pip flapped erratically overhead.
“Urath no can leave. Ink King make wall. Urath stay to starve.”
“No!” I said. “You take us to the princess. We will find a way to get you out of here.”
Urath rose up, his roc
ky head brushing the top of the tunnel. “Take Urath out?”
I waved away the dust that sifted down and coughed. “I promise.” I turned to Gruffy, Pip, and Squeak. “Do we promise?”
“You don’t free grimrocks, you cage ’em. You cage ’em,” Pip squawked.
“Doolivanti,” Gruffy said. “Grimrocks are dangerous. We cannot just let him loose on Azure City.”
“The Ink King stole my family,” I said. “And he stole this poor creature’s freedom. We can’t just let him do that!”
“That’s not a poor creature. Not a poor creature,” Pip squawked.
Gruffy looked hesitantly at the grimrock.
From behind them all came a quiet “squeak.” Pip and Gruffy turned, and we all looked down at the tiny charcoal mouse.
“That is true,” Gruffy said, “A creature in need is a creature in need.”
He got all that from just one little squeak? Sheesh.
“But a grimrock—”
“Squeak squeak,” Squeak interrupted Gruffy.
“Well you’ve all gone crazy. You’ve all gone crazy,” Pip squawked.
“Squeak!”
“No, Pip. Our valiant friend speaks aright,” Gruffy said, though he, too, sounded reluctant. He turned back to Urath. “Very well, grimrock—”
“Urath,” I corrected him. Gruffy’s huge eye swiveled to glance sidelong at me, and I thought there was a smile at the corner of his beak.
“Very well, Urath.” Gruffy looked back at the grimrock. “If you assist us in freeing the princess, we shall make sure you are free of the Ink King.”
Urath’s little coal-black eyes became very wide. “Th-th…” He slammed his fist alarmingly onto the stone floor. I jumped and Pip flapped backward.
“Thank you,” the grimrock finished.
CHAPTER 6
“Princess down.” Urath turned and headed into the dark tunnel. We all followed. Soon, there were no torches in the wall. The tunnel reminded me of the drainage pipe underneath St. Michael’s Street in the arroyo near Granny and Pop Pop’s house. Pitch black. I could barely see the outline of the griffon next to me. I reached out and put a hand on Gruffy’s feathery ruff to steady myself. He seemed to be able to see just fine.
At least now we were getting somewhere, though. Less fighting. More doing. Except I had a million questions. Who was the Ink King? Why would he steal my family? And if the princess was imprisoned during the same storm, as Gruffy seemed to think, did she have anything to do with my missing family?
“Why did the Ink King take the Eternal Sea from the princess?” I asked Gruffy.
“Who can say why villains do what they do?” Gruffy replied.
I frowned. That wasn’t an answer. “Well, I want to know why he took my family. Maybe they’re related.”
“Indeed,” Gruffy said. “Let us pose this question to him when we have brought him to his knees.”
“Um, yes. But isn’t there any way to know—”
Loreliar … a voice whispered. This one was completely different than the first whisper. It felt like someone was trying to pour oil in my ear.
I shook my head and turned around, peering into the absolute black behind us.
“Doolivanti?” Gruffy asked. “Are you well?”
“Did you hear that?” I asked.
The griffon peered up the hallway, then at me. “I heard nothing, Doolivanti. Does something follow us?”
“No. I thought I—”
Ahead in the tunnel, Urath said, “Princess here,” and stopped.
I waited a long moment for the whisper to return, but it didn’t. I gave one last glance up the dark hallway, then turned and jogged up to the bulky shadow of the grimrock.
There was a straight, faintly glowing blue line where the wall met the floor: light leaking underneath a door. I knelt down and put my fingers by the blue glow.
The door was made of thick wooden planks bound with iron. An iron lock the size of my head was just below the curved iron handle.
“What’s this glow?” I asked.
“Princess,” Urath rumbled.
“The princess is glowing?” I asked.
“Open the door,” Gruffy said to Urath.
“No key,” he replied.
Gruffy put his talons over the giant handle and pushed. His feathers rippled, wings flexing, and the muscles in his lion legs bunched, but he finally let out a breath and shook his head.
He turned to Urath. “Can you bash it down?”
The giant swayed back and forth. His stomach rumbled like he was hungry again.
“This bad idea,” Urath said. “Cannot get princess. Cannot stop Ink King.”
“No.” I put my hands on the grimrock’s forearm, and it felt like the cold stones by the stream where we had camped in San Isabel. “It’s a good idea. Do you want to be his prisoner forever?”
“Ink King leave Urath to starve.” The grimrock shook his tiny head, making a sound like rocks scraping together. His hands slowly balled into fists.
“Urath, no!” I yelled.
Gruffy let out a screech, feathers standing up on his back.
A loud grinding and a metal kronk stopped us, and we looked back at the door.
Squeak emerged from the enormous keyhole of the lock. He was breathing hard, and he dropped the piece of wire he’d been holding and shook out his little paws. He looked at me and Gruffy in turn, then nodded.
“Squeak!” He jumped to the floor.
Urath stood there, his fists still balled up, but he didn’t swing.
“See?” I said. “We got this door open. We’ll get you out, too, okay?”
Urath didn’t say anything, but he unballed his fists.
Gruffy pushed hard on the handle. It gave way with a rusty groan, and the door swung open, filling the hallway with blue light.
A girl with light blue skin lay sleeping on a stone bed, which rose up from the floor like the rest of the room had been carved away from it. She didn’t move, despite the racket we had caused in the hallway. Was she in some kind of magical sleep?
Her arms were crossed over her chest, and her hair looked like a dark blue river with sparkles of light in it. Her dress looked like someone had poured blue paint over her and … it just stopped that way. It covered her entire body except for her webbed blue feet.
This was the girl who had lost her kingdom to the Ink King the same night I’d lost my family. It made us sisters, bound together by the doofus deeds of a bully.
Well, we were going to fix that.
CHAPTER 7
The princess’s nose was straight, almost pointed. Her face was long, her chin sharp, and her closed eyes were slanted upward. Her arm was cool to the touch.
Her eyelids fluttered, and I jumped back.
The princess sat upright and opened her eyes, which were all blue with no whites. Um … weird much? I tore my gaze away and saw a wound on her side, it glowed beneath the blue dress like it was burning. It was small, and it looked just like the fiery thread that had fallen out of my chest when I first came here. She caught my glance and put her hand over the wound.
“What is that?” I asked. I suddenly had a sinking feeling that I had hurt this elegant princess somehow, that there was a connection between that burn in my chest and that wound on her side. “Are you all right?”
But when the princess moved her hand, the fiery cut was gone.
“Thourt kind to ask.” She dangled her feet over the edge of the stone bed. “Tis true I am assailed by weakness. Prithee, to whence have I come?”
My parents had taken me to see Shakespeare in the Park once, and this princess sounded like those actresses.
“Azure City, your highness,” Gruffy answered, bowing his head. “We have come to free you. This is the Doolivanti Lorelei, and our companions Pip and Squeak. Outside the door is Urath, the grimrock. Once your jailor, now he aids us in freeing you.”
The princess blinked, as if trying to take all of that in after just waking up. I sure knew a
lot about how that felt.
“I know not this city,” the princess said. “Tis one of the land kingdoms?”
“A human city, of the Triad,” Gruffy said.
“The Triad … Thou dost speak of the desert. Twould account for my weakness.” She pushed off the table, but couldn’t bear her own weight and crumpled.
I caught her, put my hand around her waist, and brought her upright. She was as light as a leaf.
“Thou dost assist me and I know thee not. In my weakened state, there are many who would seize upon the chance to malign me.”
“Malign you?” I was having a hard time understanding what she meant; her speech was so strange.
“To harm me. Some do such simply because they can, or because they crave that which belongs to another, or simply because they are nefarious at heart.” She paused, staring at me through her dark blue lashes as if she was waiting for an answer to that. If that little thread of fire had gone out of me and into her, was she asking me if I’d done it on purpose?
“Well I’m not like that,” I said, trying to remember what “nefarious” meant. I was pretty sure it wasn’t anything good. “I’m not nefarious.”
The princess paused. “I see this is so.” Then she drooped again and I lifted her higher. She steadied herself on the table. “My apologies. Tis so dry…”
“I have water,” I said. “Stay here.”
The princess put both hands on the table and leaned against it. I stepped back, waited a second to see if she would topple, then hastily took off my pack and knelt on the floor.
“Food?” Urath asked hopefully, poking his rocky head into the doorway.
“I’m sorry, Urath. No more food.” I grabbed my stainless steel water bottle and pulled it out. I offered it to the princess.
She accepted it and took two great gulps. With each one, she straightened a little more.
“Glorious.” She stopped, looking longingly at the bottle, then at me. She offered it back. “Thou art too kind, but I shall not use the entirety of thy water…”
“Use it all,” I said.
“In truth?”
“Uh, yes. In truth.”
“And wouldst I offend thee if I did use it thus?” She held the bottle over her head.
The Wishing World Page 3