“Found you?”
“I was thirteen.”
“How long have you been here?”
He didn’t answer me, but grinned instead. He was very foxlike when he did that.
“And how did Veloran find you?” He turned my question on me instead.
I shrugged. “I just … Gruffy showed up in my house. He said I pulled him into my world, and asked me to—”
Sir Real held up a hand. “A moment, por favor. You pulled a griffon to Earth?”
“I-I don’t know.”
“You keep using those words. For someone who does not know much, you certainly do a lot.”
“For someone who’s mostly a fox, you certainly talk a lot,” I retorted. “I didn’t do it on purpose!”
“So you accidentally did the impossible. That makes me feel much better about you.” He paused with a wry smile, and when I didn’t say anything, he said, “I have never heard of anyone who could take part of Veloran back to Earth. Not even a twig, much less a whole griffon.”
“Well…”
“What do you know about Veloran?” Sir Real asked.
“I know that I’ve seen more in only a few days here than a full year back home,” I said. “I heard it’s called the Wishing World.”
“Zam. Yes. Who told you that?”
I pressed my lips into a firm line. I didn’t want to talk about Jimmy. Sir Real didn’t push it.
“Okay, let me tell you what I know,” he said. “In Veloran, children get what they want. You arrive here, Veloran paints you in clothes that fit you, with your true name, and you find things you like right away. For me, the Flimflams found me. They are fun. They fill the world with color and art and silliness. They teach me what I want to know, just by being here. I found them because I was meant to find them.” He shrugged. “This does not happen by accident in Veloran. It is not like home. I think maybe that I made the Flimflams. You know? That I wanted them, or something like them, and Veloran made them for me.” He glanced over to where Gruffy lay, preening his wing. Every now and then, the griffon’s huge eye would swivel to glance at us, then focus back on his work. “I think you are the same.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your creations over there.”
“I didn’t make Gruffy. Or Pip and Squeak. They were here when I got here.”
“This is what I mean,” he said. “It is not like I waved my brush and the Flimflams appeared. They found me, surrounded me. Cared for me. What did you most need when you came here?” He gave a sly glance at Gruffy. “A protector? It makes me wonder what the toucan is for you. He is caring but silly. He repeats everything he says. On Earth, this is what adults are for you, maybe? And this mouse, they give respect to him like he knows what they do not. They listen to what he says, though he squeaks only. He is the wise one in your group. Do you sometimes feel that you cannot hear your own wisdom? Do you sometimes not want to hear it? They are very curious companions.”
I blinked, unable to look away from Gruffy. He was magnificent. He was … perfect.
“You came looking for family, yes?” Sir Real asked.
“My family.”
“Well, that is what they are.” Sir Real looked at Gruffy, Pip, and Squeak.
Gruffy kept his protective gaze on me as he settled his head on top of his mighty talons. I turned away. Sir Real watched me with one of his dark eyebrows raised, waiting for my response.
“What was your name, on Earth?” I asked.
He seemed surprised, and opened his mouth to say something, but stopped himself. “I do not go by this name anymore. No one in Veloran uses their name from before.”
“Well, I’m not from Veloran, and I’m not calling you ‘Surreal.’”
He chuckled. “No?”
“No.”
“And here is a question for you, Lorelei: why do you not have a new name? Every Doolivanti does.”
“That’s not…” I began, and stopped. Theron … Darthorn and the Mirror Man. Jimmy, the Ink King. Sand Spinner and Sky Captain and the Leaf Laugher.
Loremaster …
“I didn’t … My name is Lorelei.”
He paused, raising one of his black eyebrows. “I think this is part of how you are different. I have never seen anyone cause a rip like this.” He pointed at the red fire in the sky. “Veloran did not shape you as it shapes us. Look at me, at your brother. We have been altered. But not you. You march across Veloran on a mission, wearing your own skin and using your own name.”
“Well…” I started to say.
“Veloran showed me what I wanted to be. But you already knew, I think.”
A bell rang in the back of my mind. I will write my own story.
“I just wanted my family back,” I said. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone else.”
“How did you do it?” he asked. “How did you come here?”
“What is your real name?” I shot back.
He smiled a tight smile. “I do not want to tell you.”
“Why not?”
He looked away, out over the dark sea. “Because I do not want to go back,” he whispered. “I do not want to be ordinary again. If I say my name, I will hear my father speaking, and then I will have to go home.”
Suddenly, he was just a boy, not some mystical creature who could shift back and forth between a fox and a human. He was just a boy afraid of his father.
“Nobody is ordinary,” I said softly.
He let out a breath, and didn’t speak for a long time. “I do not know whether I like you or I hate you.” He looked back at me. “I have never met anyone who made me feel safe and scared at the same time.”
“I don’t mean to make you scared.”
He let out a breath.
“You know,” he finally said. “I have watched the colors of the sea darken on my palette this past year. I saw the storm start. Mostly I do not pay attention to what is going on outside these trees, but it is hard to ignore when the sea turns cold. The storm has been out there a long time, getting larger. I knew that something was coming. But I did not expect you.”
“Jimmy is the one who is making the sea dark, not me.”
“Ah. Jimmy is from Earth. This is the Ink King?”
“Yes.”
“And he took your parents.”
“And Ripple’s kingdom.”
“He is not good for Veloran.”
“I know.”
“But you are worse.” He glanced at the burn in the sky. “The Ink King took his kingdom by force. But he did not rip the world.”
I swallowed and tried not to show how much those words hurt.
“Well, the sooner I get my parents, the sooner…” I cleared my throat, but the lump didn’t go away. “The sooner I can leave.”
He nodded, and for a long moment, he just watched the gash of fire. Then he clapped his hands, and the loud noise startled me. “Then let us begin. Your princess will need more soldiers. Shall we?” He extended his hand, and as he did, purple fur grew on it. Wings rose up from his back. His nose lengthened until his face became a fox’s face.
“Right now?” I asked.
“There is only one hand on a Veloran clock,” Sir Real said. “And it always points to ‘now.’”
CHAPTER 18
Sir Real spoke a few quiet words to Sir Vant, and the green Flimflam flew up through the leaves, high into the sky, and painted bright pink letters across the dark horizon: Flimflams to the beach!
The entire tree shook as multicolored Flimflams shot from between its branches, each one gliding down to the gentle surf and landing in clusters among the waiting giant Grumpalons. There were hundreds of Flimflams, each different from the next. One had red and orange fur swirled together. One had blue and green. There was a zebra-striped Flimflam, a giraffe-spotted Flimflam. I marveled at them, all of them, wondering if they had come from Sir Real’s palette. Had they all sprung up from his imagination? Or had some been here already? Had HuggyBug sprung from Theron’s imagination?
Gruffy came to me and I climbed on his back, as did Ripple and Theron. He leapt from the tree and dropped like a stone over the combined armies of Grumpalons and Flimflams. Ripple yelped.
Gruffy flared at the last second, opening his wings and swooping over the sand, then rose suddenly and landed. The force of his stop pressed Theron into Ripple, Ripple into me, and me into his feathery neck. Gruffy screeched with excitement.
“Yeah!” Theron jumped from Gruffy’s back and thumped onto the sand. “Flying rules!”
“Ooooh,” Ripple moaned, clinging to my waist. “I like not the idea of war, but I shall be joyous to clash with the Ink King if only the fight may happen ’neath the waves, and not in the air.”
Ripple waded happily up to her knees in the water. Her sparkling dress blended with the sea and turned the same turquoise color. Hundreds of Grumpalons marched farther out to sea, but still towered over the surface, shifting back and forth at the sight of their princess.
She nodded to them, holding up her hands. They calmed.
Ripple turned back to us. “I do fear, my most stalwart friends, that needs must we part company now. My path lies beneath the surface in parley with the Swisherswashers. With them, we shall have a force that may yet break the iron hold of the Ink King and his Ratsharks.”
“No, good princess,” Gruffy said. “We will stay with you.”
She smiled gently. “Truly, I could not have asked for more valiant companions. I would take thee with me an’ I might. But, prithee tell me, how wouldst thou breathe water as I do?”
Gruffy glanced up toward Squeak, who rode upon his head. I wondered if he could see the mouse.
“Squeak.”
Gruffy looked back at the princess. “We shall travel up for air as needed.”
“Dost know what the Ratsharks call those who bob on the surface?” Ripple asked.
Gruffy shook his head.
“Food,” she said.
“Let them try.” Gruffy’s neck feathers rose.
“Squeak.”
“What is he is saying?” I whispered to Sir Real.
Sir Real grinned. “I cannot understand a word. But I am sure it is very wise.” He winked at me.
I looked at him. “You’re making fun of me?”
“Nunca,” he said through his grin. “Never.”
I frowned. I felt like I was missing the best parts of the conversation when Squeak talked.
“Squeak squeak,” Squeak persisted.
“He has a point. He has a point,” Pip squawked.
“The Ink King seeks only an opportunity such as this,” Gruffy said. “I do not like letting you go without us. He will strike immediately if we do.”
“Squeak.”
“Indeed.” Gruffy nodded. “And he is Doolivanti. Would you pit yourself against him, knowing you had no Doolivanti to aid you?”
“Needs must I do just this,” Ripple said. “I shall send thee word ere I have broken through the Ratsharks. An’ thou might meet me on mine island?”
“Your island?” I asked.
Ripple pointed at the impenetrable storm far out at sea. “Mine palace lies atop a beautiful island. Thou canst not see it in the foul darkness, but thou shalt, ere we are done. We shall lift the shadows and make it again what it once was.”
I squinted at the unending rain falling on the sea. I couldn’t see any island at all, but the area covered in darkness was certainly large enough to hold one.
“Fare thee well, my friends,” Ripple said. “I shall send thee a sign, an’ thou might meet me at the palace.” She hugged each of them in turn, then started into the ocean. The Flimflams changed one by one, feathered wings becoming fins and flippers. Furry feet became webbed.
“You can do that?” I turned to Sir Real.
“Are they not simply so … surreal?” Sir Real said proudly, smiling.
Gruffy paced back and forth as Ripple started into the ocean. “This is foul,” he grumbled. “That villain will concoct something if we are not there to brace him. I do not trust him.”
“I don’t want to be left behind, either,” I agreed. What if the Ink King defeated Ripple and it made him stronger? What if Ripple defeated the Ink King and then I never found out where Jimmy was keeping my parents?
“Squeak.”
I looked after Ripple, who was submerged to the waist. The entire sea seemed like the vast billowing of her dress.
“Wait!” I called.
Ripple turned.
“Maybe I can do something,” I said.
“Prithee, what canst thou do?”
I raised my hand and wrote the words on the air.
Wings like fins. Feet like paddles. Hands like scoops. Water like air.
I wrote each word carefully, and they burned on the air for all to see.
Hot coals flared in my chest, and I clenched my teeth.
The ground rumbled, and the sand shifted. The whole beach shook and began sliding toward the sea. Gruffy stepped back, looking sternly at the misbehaving ground.
“What are you doing?” Sir Real said.
“Rewriting my story,” I said, digging my fingers into my shoulder at the pain in my chest.
Then it did. Everything stopped. The burn. The moving sand. It all settled, and everyone was absolutely silent.
Ripple stood in the water, her mouth open.
“She is Doolivanti,” Gruffy stated proudly.
“I’ve never seen anyone do that,” Sir Real whispered.
“You can change into whatever form you want,” I countered. “I just made it so we can breathe water.”
“Lorelei…” Sir Real pointed at the sky, and I followed his gaze. The rip was enormous now. Crimson, lavender, and orange boiled out like the sky was peeling back. It stretched from the northern horizon to the edge of the Ink King’s storm. Worry filled Sir Real’s silver eyes.
“I…” I started, but I didn’t know what to say.
“Come, Doolivanti.” Gruffy strode into ocean until the water was up to his belly. He submerged his head and, after a moment, brought it back up, flinging sea water. “Your spell works, and the villain is waiting.”
“Lorelei, wait.” Sir Real put a hand on my arm.
I looked at him, felt his tension in my own body. He was right. I was dangerous. I was hurting Veloran.
“What would you have me do?” I asked. “Leave my parents? Never see them again? I can’t do that! I’m not like you.”
He drew back as though I had slapped him.
I ran and dove into the curling surf as quickly as I could. Quick enough to hide my tears.
CHAPTER 19
I plunged into the water and breathed it in. It filled my lungs like cool, heavy air. I coughed, my body panicking, and for a moment I felt like I was drowning.
Then I breathed, easily and steadily. I looked around and saw far into the water. Colorful fish flicked away from me. The white sands looked silver, stretching forward into the blue water.
I did this, I thought. I made myself breathe water and swim like a fish!
Gruffy plunged in next to me, his huge eyes looking at me as he opened his beak and fearlessly did what I had just panicked about. He smiled and nodded, then flexed his wings and shot forward like a dolphin. His triumphant screech vibrated through the water.
I swam after him, faster than I had ever done in a pool. This was completely different; this felt like my natural self, like I had been born to swim. My hands looked the same, but they cupped the water as though there were invisible webs between my fingers. My feet kicked—tennis shoes and all—like they were flippers. Pip drew alongside me, his wings flapping against the water like fins.
“This is the weirdest thing ever. The weirdest thing ever,” he warbled through the water.
“I can’t even believe it!” Theron said, swimming up next to me. “Lor, you’re like a wizard!”
“She is Doolivanti,” Gruffy said as he swam up next to us. His talons and lion’s paws swept strongly through t
he water, keeping him upright. They all swam like fish, but none of them looked any different.
Ripple twirled through the water, and stopped just short of me, her dress flaring. The sparkles became glints reflecting the sunlight above. We might have been turned into human fish, but Ripple was the water. “Tis amazing, Lady Lorelei. Thourt truly a marvel.”
“And now let us find the villain. Let us oust him,” Gruffy said.
“Verily.” Ripple shot forward, spinning like a drill.
The Grumpalons moved quickly, their long legs working against the ocean floor, and the Flimflams swam before them.
Word of my earth-shaking magic traveled ahead of us, and the Swisherswashers were excited to receive us. They emerged from holes in their coral palace, which looked like a pink sponge the size of a football stadium.
The Swisherswashers were giant eels. They were powerful, long and graceful, slipping through the water like kite ribbons. Each one was longer than three Gruffys put end to end. Their eyes were large and when they blinked, it seemed to take forever. They were every shade of green imaginable, from light lime to deep forest green. Some were even so dark they looked black at a distance. Only one was a different color. Their leader, Queen Swish, was the color of sunlight.
The Swisherswashers rallied immediately to Ripple’s cause. Swisherswashers and Ratsharks were natural enemies, and the Swisherswashers wanted the fierce usurpers out of their sea.
I had never seen a Ratshark, but according to Pip they were a lot like Swisherswashers, except with giant rat claws and toothy heads.
The Swisherswashers brought Ripple and the rest of us into their palace and sat us in a large, circular room. They brought food, laying it on coral tables that seemed to have grown up from the ground. The sensation of chewing food with a mouthful of water was completely weird, and I concentrated on keeping my mouth shut. Everything was salty.
As Ripple and Queen Swish discussed the plan, I caught Sir Real’s glance from across the room. He didn’t look happy. Only Sir Real was dwelling on what I had done. The others, though surprised by the earthquake and the red light in the sky, seemed to take what I had done in stride. They did not see a danger. Or if they did, they did not connect it to me.
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