“You want to pour it on your head?”
The princess smiled weakly. “In the land from whence I hail, we breathe water more than air.”
I tried to remember what “hail” meant. That the princess came from there, I thought. Trying to follow her speech was like taking an English test. From the twelfth century.
The princess poured the water over her head. Her hair came alive, reaching up like tentacles, as if it was drinking. The sparkles in her hair gleamed, filling the room with soft blue light.
The princess sucked in a great breath like she had been suffocating. I looked for the puddle at her feet, but there wasn’t one. The princess’s body had soaked up the water like a sponge.
“Holey moley,” I said.
The princess stood straight now, firmly on her feet. Her dark blue eyes sparkled.
“Many thanks, Lady…” she began, then trailed off, raising her blue eyebrows.
“Lorelei. I’m Lorelei.”
“And I am Princess Ripellia. Thou might call me Ripple, an’ it please thee.” The princess dipped into an elegant curtsey.
I gave one back because, well, what do you do when someone curtseys to you? Except I was clumsy compared to her. Ripple’s hands moved like reeds, and everything she did seemed part of a dance.
“Princess, we must get you out of here,” Gruffy said. “Whatever fears you have, you may set them to rest. My companions and I shall protect you. Know that you walk with the greatest Doolivanti in all of Veloran.”
“Indeed?” Ripple glanced at me, lashes low, but her gaze was intense. “Not a title lightly given,” she said slowly. “Nor lightly accepted.” She paused as though she expected something particular from me.
“I-I’m not … I don’t even know what’s going on here,” I said. I wondered if Gruffy felt the need to compliment me just because I’d told him how brave he was.
Ripple turned back to Gruffy, and her intensity was gone. I wondered if anyone else had noticed it. She said, “Griffon and mouse, toucan and grimrock and Doolivanti, I am grateful for thy assistance. Thine interventions are most timely. I am able to travel, if thou art ready.”
“Not a minute too soon. Not a minute too soon.” Pip flapped overhead.
We started back up the dark hallway, and the softly glowing princess lit the tunnel. The walls shimmered blue, and I felt like I was underwater.
Excitement had begun to build inside me. If Gruffy was right about the princess being here, then he could be right about the Ink King and my family. And if we could rescue the princess, we could rescue them, too.
“Princess? I mean, um, your highness?”
“An’ it please thee, thou might call me Ripple.”
“I … Yes, okay. Ripple?”
“Yes, Milady Lorelei?”
“Your kingdom, it’s called the Eternal Sea, right?”
“Indeed, milady.”
“How did the Ink King take it?”
“With stealth and allies, milady. Ratsharks and Beetlins and great magic. A Doolivanti, he is.”
“And are you a Doolivanti, too?”
“I am the Princess of the Eternal Sea. I am one with the waters of my birth.”
“Um, okay. What does that mean?”
“Prithee, there are those who doth visit Veloran. Travelers, an’ it please thee. Likewise, there are others, bright souls who are one with this land,” she said. “Like thy griffon and toucan, thy mouse and grimrock.”
“And you’re one of those?”
“This body was birthed from the Eternal Sea, milady.”
“Um, okay.” I thought about that. I wasn’t sure she’d really answered my question.
We wound around until we reached the place where I had first sent Gruffy home and pushed my way into Veloran. Aside from scuff marks on the sandy floor and the broken blocks in the wall Urath had hit with his fist, it could have been any other place in this winding, torch-lit hallway. I looked for any sign that there was a way back to my world. There was nothing, and I felt a sudden pang of fear. What if I couldn’t get back? What if I was stuck here forever?
I pushed the thought away. It didn’t matter. Find Theron, find my parents. That first, and the rest I could worry about after.
I turned my attention back to Ripple.
“When the Ink King did it, you know, when he took the Eternal Sea from you … did you see a little boy, nine years old? Did you see any grown-ups?” I asked.
“Grown-ups?”
“Adults. Parents. And the little boy is about this tall.” I put my hand up to my chin. “With blond hair. He’s really strong and, well … That’s my family.”
“Thourt intrepid to seek them so fervently, milady,” the princess said. “I regret to say I have no news for thee. The Ink King struck fast. I saw nothing of his attack. Mine own memory extends only to a sharp blow in mine back. I didst see inky tentacles, then nothing ’tween that moment and this when thou didst wake me. Truly, I am sorry.”
I nodded, feeling glum. “It’s okay. I … It just would be nice to know I’m on the right track, you know?”
“Thy griffon friend hast utter faith in thee.”
I glanced over at Gruffy. “Yeah,” I said. “Yeah, he hast.” Which was strange. Why was he such a big fan? That was another question that needed answering. We’d just met, but he kept talking about me like I was a celebrity or something.
Urath stopped, and we all pulled up short behind him. He put his hand out and the air suddenly crackled with black lightning. Fingers of black ooze slithered back and forth and solidified into a wall. The grimrock winced, yanked his hand back, and the wall faded.
“No can leave.” Urath turned to me. “No can get more food.”
I walked forward, but the wall was gone. Nothing stopped me from continuing up the tunnel. And Gruffy had flown right up this corridor after I gave my sandwich to Urath.
“There was no wall when I flew to get bread,” Gruffy said, seeming to read my mind.
Worry furrowed the grimrock’s brow. He looked down at Ripple and lowered his huge hand in front of her, blocking her way. “No leave Urath. Leave Urath and take princess, Ink King punish.”
I jogged back down the tunnel and put a hand on Urath’s big arm. “I’m not leaving you, Urath.”
“You fix,” Urath said, and there was menace in his tone. “You set Urath free.”
Gruffy watched me, then watched the grimrock. His talons gripped the sandy floor.
I walked up to the exact spot Urath had stood, closed my eyes, and put my hands in front of me, trying to find what had repelled the grimrock.
At first, I felt nothing. But then, slowly, my hands grew warmer. I followed the feeling.
The burn in my chest flared.
“Ow!” I winced.
“Doolivanti?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Can go now?” Urath asked, reaching forward. The air crackled and spit sparks. Urath snatched his hand back. Inky fingers slithered in front of the grimrock, creating the black wall again.
“You promised!” he wailed, turning to me.
The wall slowly faded again.
“I am trying.” I held up my hands. “Just wait.”
With a low rumble in his chest, Urath sat back, but he did not look happy. He kept himself in front of the princess. Gruffy was rigid, alert. Ripple waited calmly, as though she had nothing to fear. Her gaze stayed on me.
I looked at all of their faces, then turned back to where the wall had appeared for Urath.
I had a hunch. I raised my hands as though I held a pencil, just like I had with Gruffy in my house, and I wrote on the air.
Lorelei could see the wall clearly.
The burn in my chest blossomed like a double-decker jalapeno sandwich.
My fingertips tingled, and I felt something hard. I opened my eyes and saw murky black bits of wall in little circles underneath my fingers.
“Stop it,” hissed a dark voice.
I snapped my head
up. Orange torchlight glinted off an oily black form slithering up the wall, then it was gone, lost in the shadows. “Loreliar…” Its voice stretched on each syllable. That was the same voice that had whispered to me in the dark!
“Beware, Doolivanti.” Gruffy landed at my side, lowering his eagle head. “That is the Ink King.”
“Oh yeah?” I turned toward him and balled up my fists.
The darkness chuckled. I couldn’t see where the shadows stopped and the Ink King started. Was he a person or a spider or a snake? I couldn’t see. I peered to try to get a better look.
“Oh, you’re so tough,” the voice hissed. “Make a fist and hide behind a griffon? Well, he’s nothing.” Black tentacles streaked out of the darkness. Gruffy screeched as he leapt forward, talons extended. But the tentacles wrapped around his front legs, binding them together. They continued, coiling around the griffon’s wings, hindquarters, and finally his head. Gruffy fell to the floor like a sack of flour.
“Squeak!” exclaimed Squeak.
“Stop it!” I yelled.
“You’re so stupid,” the Ink King’s voice echoed in the tunnel. “This is my world. What you make doesn’t matter.”
Inky tentacles unfurled from the blackness, grabbed me and lifted me off my feet. Behind me, the sandstone wall flickered gray. Lightning flashed beyond it, and I saw the window in my parents’ bedroom.
“Doolivanti!” Gruffy shouted, struggling against the black bonds.
“Lady Lorelei!” Ripple cried.
The black tentacles threw me toward the light. I hurtled past Gruffy and Ripple like a softball.
“No!” I shouted. The last thing I saw was Pip’s long beak as he flapped frantically toward me, then everything was gone.
I crashed onto the hardwood floor of my house. Dark, slanted walls hovered over me and the orange light of the hallway vanished. The thunderstorm rumbled outside the window. I was in my house again, right where I had been when I had followed Gruffy through to Veloran.
“No!” I sat up, craning my neck to look back at the wall, but someone was standing there. “Who—?”
A thin hand lanced down from above me and grabbed my arm.
CHAPTER 8
A teenage girl hauled me upright. She was slender, with bulgy green eyes and black bangs cut straight across her forehead. She looked like a frog with a pop-star haircut.
“Let go!” I yanked my arm, but her hands were like bones, and she was way stronger than she looked.
“Dad said you would try to come here,” said Froggy Pop Star. “I wonder if he knew you’d be up here. Freak.”
She dragged me toward the doorway on the opposite side of the room, the one that led to the staircase.
“This is my house!” I shouted, struggling. Froggy Pop Star bent my arm behind my back, and I gasped. Pain shot through my shoulder.
“Stop it, or I’ll make it worse,” she said through clenched teeth.
We went down the stairs awkwardly, reached the first floor, and she shoved me into the kitchen, making me trip and almost fall.
“Dad, it’s the crazy girl. She was upstairs.”
There was no one in the kitchen, and I got ready to bolt for the front, but a stooped figure blocked the doorway, hands together like a praying mantis. It was my psychiatrist!
“Mr. Schmindly!” I spat.
“Dr. Schmindly,” he corrected me. He hated it when I called him “mister.” But I would never call him doctor. Doctors were supposed to help people.
I felt like someone had put a pot next to my head and hit it with a hammer. My ears wouldn’t stop ringing. Fear blossomed inside me. What if I was actually in a therapy session? What if I’d imagined Gruffy and all the rest?
I looked down at my arms. But no. The scratches were there from the fight with the grimrock. I had been in that corridor. Right?
I craned my neck to look back at the stairway to upstairs. I need to get to Veloran again. I tried to pull free, but Froggy Pop Star wrenched me around to face Mr. Schmindly.
We’d only had a few sessions together, and not a single one was helpful. From the beginning, he kept asking me about the night of the rainstorm, over and over about the tentacles, like he was looking for something, like he knew something more that he wasn’t saying. He asked about the details, looking at me like I was three scoops of his favorite ice cream. But after our talks, he’d report out to Auntie Carrie and Uncle Jone about my “delusions” and “trauma.” I begged Auntie Carrie not to send me to him anymore, and she finally agreed, even though Schmindly kept calling her to set up new appointments. I hadn’t seen him for months.
He blinked behind his thick glasses. He had a gap in his gray front teeth, and he brought up a cigarette and sucked on it. In my house!
“What are you doing here?” I demanded.
He flicked an annoyed glance at his daughter. “Keep hold of her, Tabitha. She’s quick.” He turned his fake smile on me again. “We wouldn’t want her running about, hurting herself.”
Tabitha’s hands tightened on my arms.
Mr. Schmindly seemed to relax. “How are you?” he asked in his nice voice. The fake voice. The voice he used to fool everyone. “It’s been a long time since you’ve come to see me. Your aunt said you’ve been sick.” He looked at me. “You don’t look sick. You know, telling the truth to others helps you tell the truth to yourself. This is how we get better. You cannot change things by avoiding the truth.”
“This is my house. Get out!” I said.
He chuckled, a horrible smoker’s rasp. “You should thank me.”
“For smoking in my house?”
He glanced at the cigarette, then shook his head. “I’m saving your house, Miss Lorelei. No one else wanted it. Old thing. See the cracks in the walls? They were going to tear it down and build a new one. But I saved it, took it as my own.”
“You bought my house?” I felt light-headed.
Mr. Schmindly’s bespeckled black eyes flicked back and forth, up and down, as though he was studying my left ear, then my right, then my hair, then my neck.
“You kept talking about how important your house is to you. So I figured there might be something here that I’d want to see.” He smiled halfway, like he could barely make the effort to keep up the act. “And now here you are, sneaking around. Are you looking for something? A doorway, maybe?”
I felt cold. Doorway. He knew about Veloran. Crumpling creepers. Veloran was real, and Mr. Schmindly knew all about it. That’s why he kept calling to get appointments with me. Not to help me, but because he wanted what I knew. What he thought I knew. All this time, he thought I knew where my family had gone, and he was trying to find out more. Except I hadn’t known, so he’d never been able to get it out of me.
Frustrating for him, I bet. The big, skinny smokestack.
He leaned forward, hands clasped together in front of his chest. Smoke curled up from the cigarette stuck between his fingers. A flake of ash fell on my floor.
“You’ve been there, haven’t you?” Mr. Schmindly said, his eyes lighting up as he looked at me. “I can see it.”
I swallowed. “Um, been upstairs?”
“Clever,” he said, ignoring my totally lame lie. “To the Wishing World. Did you see my son?” Yeah, right. If Mr. Schmindly had a Doolivanti son, he was probably the Ink King.
“I knew it,” Tabitha said. “The little bug-head made it.”
“Of course he did,” Mr. Schmindly said. “I told him how.”
“You told me how, too. Like that helped,” Tabitha retorted.
“You have to have imagination to be invited to Veloran, Tabitha,” Mr. Schmindly said, flicking a derisive glance over my head at her. “Obviously that was too much to ask of you.” I snuck a look up at her. Her lips were pressed together so firmly that they were a straight line. Now she looked even more like a frog.
“This sounds like a family argument,” I said. “I’ll come back some other time.” I tested, pulling against Tabitha’s grip again. Sh
e yanked me back in front of her.
“What are you looking for here?” Mr. Schmindly asked. “Something from the Wishing World, maybe? Something you left behind?”
If I was as strong as Theron, I could have done something. Even at nine years old, he could out-wrestle fourth and fifth graders. He could tackle a grown man. He could have twisted out of skinny Tabitha’s grip, knocked Mr. Schmindly down, and run right over him.
I’d have to go a different way, make up a better story. I hung my head, tried to look dejected.
“Yeah. I had to get something my Dad left me,” I said.
Mr. Schmindly’s eyes got wider, and a smile crooked his thin lips. “Tell me about this thing.”
I didn’t know why he wanted to get to Veloran, but he was so eager that he was shaking. And that pretty much meant there was no way he should ever go there.
“It’s a rock,” I said. “A piece of rock my Dad gave me, said it was from the comet. About this big.” I held up my hands as though I was holding a basketball.
“Narolev’s Comet.” Mr. Schmindly nodded. “Yes. Go on.”
“Well, I hid it in the house. That’s why I came back.”
“Excellent. This is real progress, Lorelei.” He put the nasty cigarette to his lips and sucked, blew out smoke. “Now, tell me where you hid it.” The smoke wafted out of his mouth around the words.
“In the vent cover.”
His smile widened, and his hands trembled. If he knew I was wearing one of Dad’s “comet stones” under my shirt right now, he would’ve snatched it right off me. I felt the need to grab it, but I kept my hands tight by my sides.
The stones were linked to the comet. The comet was linked to Veloran.
“Which,” he said, and took a little gulp of air as though he couldn’t quite catch his breath. “Vent cover?”
“In-in the dining room.”
“Excellent, Lorelei. Excellent. You’re a charming child.” He turned and disappeared from view.
I had to get out of here. I had to tell Auntie Carrie and Uncle Jone.
I heard him thump to his knees to take off the vent cover. It didn’t lead to a vent, like a normal vent cover would. My house was a hundred years old, and things didn’t always do what they had been made to do. Mom and Dad called it “quirky.”
The Wishing World Page 4