by Vashti Hardy
She tried to find the route of least resistance, but the going was slow because she only had the folding knife from her toolbelt to clear a path. As she moved further in, she recognized what she thought could be a cabbage palm, and it jogged her memory of something Harriet had told them about collecting wood in the jungle: up in the air is best, always look up in the air, not on the ground. She selected for the highest palm she could reach and cut it close to the trunk. It was much bigger than those she’d seen in Stella Oceanus, but, sure enough, when she took the stem and pulled it apart, there were the thin stringy bits that would be good for getting a fire started. She stuffed it in her pocket and looped strands of palm around her neck in the hope they’d dry out some more.
As she moved through the forest, she found tree ferns with fine hair on the side. She pulled some off and put it in her pocket, thinking it might make more good tinder. She remembered how Harriet had gathered resin from the trees to create a torch in the Everlasting Forest of the Ice Continent, and collected some herself now. But there was still no sign of a water source.
How could somewhere so damp have no water to drink?
Then she heard what she thought was a slow drip of water. She followed the sound, then saw a pool of water beside a bank of foliage. She cupped some of the liquid into her hand and tentatively put her tongue to it. It tasted fresh, but she resisted the urge to drink it, remembering how Felicity had always insisted on boiling water, even if it looked clean. But then she realized she had nothing to boil or carry the water in. She absentmindedly tucked her ribbon behind her ear and looked around for a solution. There would certainly be nothing man-made or metal around here to use. She sighed, and Arthur’s voice was in her mind telling her that there was always a way. She realized that although she was good at engineering and making things, it was often Arthur’s encouragement that helped her solve challenges. All she needed was something that didn’t let the water seep through. Some of the plants had immense, thick leaves, the biggest she’d ever seen – perhaps she could shape one to hold water, and she could use her ribbon to tie it?
After choosing a suitable leaf, Maudie looked for the best place to make a fire. She pulled back the curtain of vines and squinted into the dark. It was a cave! She could build a fire here; perhaps it would be a better place for a camp than the beach.
Soon, she’d cleared the entrance and set about making a fire. She was so relieved she’d attached the strike-fire Harriet had given her to her belt. After a few attempts the spark caught, and she carefully arranged the twigs in a cone shape so as not to stifle the flame. When she was confident it would keep burning, she set about bending the leaf into a shape so that it would hold water more effectively, creating two holes on the rim which she joined with her ribbon to make it into a bowl shape. The water boiled quickly, then she submerged the leaf partway into the pool, and when it had cooled enough to be bearable, she tipped the whole lot into her mouth, gulping it back as though it was the finest honey from Tarn.
The cave led enticingly onward, and Maudie decided she’d invesigate, but with great caution. She didn’t know what creatures lurked in this new land, but there were certainly many, and chances were that some wouldn’t be the friendly sort.
As the cave turned and went uphill slightly, a faint light showed. She followed the light into another cave section and her breath was taken away as the hollow glittered with pink jewels embedded in the jagged walls. In the centre above was a great opening where dappled sunlight streamed through. The floor was uneven here, so she decided to check out one more section in case it would be suitable for a base. Above, light crept in through several holes in the cave ceiling, and there was a large ledge that looked to be the perfect place to build a fire and rest a little.
Moving through the jungle had been exhausting and so was keeping all the thoughts about the others at bay.
She made another small fire, and soon there was nothing she could do to keep sleep away.
CHAPTER 19
SMEM
By the morning, the storm had well and truly passed. Arthur had never seen anything quite like the volume of rain that fell. Even though Ermitage kept telling him that it was nowhere near as bad here as it was in the northern mountains of Erythea, it had been little consolation as he listened to the creaks and felt the sway of the rickety old house above the flood water. Ermitage saying that such things were built to last wasn’t exactly reassuring as Arthur had bailed the water out that was flooding down the chimney and swept the consistent flow from the windows across the floor and out of the door. Meanwhile Ermitage had seemed more worried about the water getting into his notebooks than making sure the water didn’t kill them.
But Ermitage had been right. The risen house was still standing.
The first thing Arthur did that morning was to look at the barometer. It said fair. “Phew!” he said, looking out. It was extraordinary how swiftly the water had subsided overnight.
They cranked the handle and went down by a full ten metres.
“It’s the root system. Some of the trees act as nature’s drainage, sucking it up and releasing it back into the air.” Ermitage pulled Arthur to the door and pointed up to the tree canopy. “See the rising evaporation?”
All around, the leaves were giving off vapour in the morning sunshine and above looked like a great steam bath.
“Of course, the cycle fuels itself – great deluges lead to enormous amounts of evaporation as the trees take it in and release it back, then the moist air heads up, gathers again over the mountains and down it comes again as rain. The Erytheans have installed much of their own drainage to assist, of course. Marvellous inventors, these people.”
“In the city?”
“Oh no, the city operates quite differently, it … well … you’ll see when you get there. Their inventions are all around us too. I’ve not pointed it out, as I was curious to see if you’d notice for yourself.”
“Notice what?”
“Take a look out of the window and tell me what you see.”
“Trees, trees and more trees?”
“How about that tree over there?”
Arthur wrinkled his nose in a confused way. “Er … just another tree?”
“Wrong, wrong, wrong!” Ermitage did a funny stamp dance with his skinny little legs.
“What do you mean?” Arthur said.
“That tree is not a tree.”
Perhaps Ermitage Wrigglesworth was going a little bonkers being in the forest on his own for so long. “It is a tree,” Arthur said, smiling and nodding as he would if a small child had spoken to him.
“No. It looks like a tree, but it isn’t a tree.”
Ermitage was making as much sense as a marsh cake.
“Oh … kay. Whatever you say, Mr W.”
“It’s a drain-tree! Made to look exactly like one of the surrounding trees, but this one has pipes inside that go into the ground, run through the marshes and carry the water far away into the sea. Ingenious, isn’t it?”
“What? But it looks completely real. It’s even releasing steam back, like the others.” Arthur was certain Ermitage was pulling his leg.
“They call it ecology-tech. Of course, in the language of Erythean it’s something different, but that’s the closest translation in Lontonian. It works in utter harmony with the environment, draining just enough to give the local inhabitants time to seek safety when there’s a deluge, while not altering the natural state of the habitat or damaging the climate in a way that would alter the natural eco-systems here.”
“Really?” Arthur said doubtfully.
“Absolutely. I’ve got notebooks full here documenting it, and there’s a whole library section dedicated to the technology in Tempestra.”
“They have a library?” Arthur’s eyes were bright with interest.
“The people here value knowledge above everything, and not just knowledge for the sake of it. Knowledge of their continent, knowledge of the plants, the creatures, the trees and
most of all, knowledge of their place within it all. Do you know they don’t have kings or politicians or any of that nonsense? They have scholars.”
“We have scholars too,” said Arthur.
“Yes, but Erythea is run by the scholars. In fact, the highest position is Proffesus Excelsis!”
“A professor is in charge?” he said.
Ermitage nodded.
It sounded fascinating. Arthur couldn’t wait to go to the city, and he’d almost forgotten that the reason he needed to go there was to find Eudora, expose the truth of who she was to these people, and find a way back to Stella Oceanus, back to Maudie and the crew. Back to his family. He felt dizzy just thinking about everything he needed to do.
“My ankle feels better now,” he said. “But I don’t suppose we can head off until the water goes down a bit more; it still looks like it’ll be up to our shoulders. Maybe later, or tomorrow?”
Ermitage grinned. “Come on, let’s have some jungle breakfast and we’ll leave after that. How does that sound?”
“But there must still be a few metres of water down there?”
Ermitage simply smiled. “There is a way. Didn’t I just tell you that the Erytheans are inventive? But first, breakfast. I have figs, pineapple and this delicious purple fruit. I’ve no idea what it is, but it hasn’t poisoned me yet.” He shrugged.
After breakfast, Ermitage asked Arthur to help him move the table to the side. Then he rolled back a rug to reveal a door in the floor. Below, there was some sort of vehicle, like a mini cart but with a glass roof; or more like a great iron shoe.
“I call this the sub-marshland-explore-mobile.”
“That’s a bit of a mouthful!”
“Or SMEM for short.”
“What does it do?”
“It’ll take us under the water and let us travel about.”
“Wow, did you make it?” Arthur thought of the Acquafreedas and how they were mocked by some in Lontown for wanting to travel under the seas. He imagined Maudie would think the machine fascinating and would be straight down there, figuring out how it worked. He smiled to himself.
“Well, technically the Erytheans made it… It’s very old tech, of course; they wouldn’t use it these days. I’ve had to almost completely renovate it. It’s powered by a wind-up mechanism, but I’d like to adapt it to use some of the ion plates they use in the city.”
“And we’re going to the city in it?” Arthur said doubtfully.
“It looks small and is built for one, really, but I’m sure we’ll both fit at a squeeze.”
“Is it reliable?”
“Yes … well, I predict it is.”
“Predict?” Arthur didn’t like the way this was going. Ermitage definitely lived on the rickety side of danger.
“Technically, it’ll be its first run.”
“Maybe we should wait for the water to subside some more.” Arthur sat down resolutely.
“My dear old thing, after such a vicious deluge the bottom layer of water can often take several days to go in the marshlands … but if you’d prefer to wait?”
The past days with Ermitage had been interesting, but Arthur needed to make progress. “No, if you’re sure.”
“We’re both here, aren’t we, Arthur Brightstorm? Alive and well in a continent that up until a few days ago you didn’t know was here. I’d say we have explorers’ hearts and luck on our side.”
Although Arthur wasn’t sure how much was heart and how much was blind charging ahead, he couldn’t knock Ermitage’s positivity, which radiated in the same way that Harriet’s did. Like his father’s had done.
“Ready when you are!” Ermitage slapped him on the back so hard that Arthur was worried Ermitage had snapped his own thin, little arm. He nodded and climbed into the SMEM.
“That’s the spirit, old thing!”
Inside, it was a tight space and smelt of stagnant ponds. As Ermitage wound the cog outside, Arthur listened to the curious tick of whatever powered the contraption. There was a thud as they dropped a little and Arthur clung to the seat.
“Nothing to worry about!” Ermitage said, climbing in clumsily beside him and stepping on Arthur’s leg with a bony heel. Arthur stifled an ouch. Then Ermitage dropped into the seat, and they were wedged inside like two sardines in a can.
“Snug, isn’t it?” Ermitage reached an arm up and pulled the glass canopy over their heads. “There we go.”
Arthur stifled the panic rising in his stomach. The days in the weather canopy of the Aurora were not too distant a memory, and he was thinking about Harriet and how she disliked being in enclosed spaces. He was pretty sure he was starting to feel the same way.
As the platform descended, they began to see the marshlands around them. Vines drooped from the trees like mossy necklaces, and huge lily-pad leaves floated on the surface of the floodwaters. Patches of green leaf debris drifted in clumps, making it look almost like patches of grass. Then they began submerging in the water until it was up to the glass. Arthur crossed his fingers as they descended further, and the water reached eye level, then further down until it was over the top of their heads. Then, after about half a metre, there was a clonk as the platform reached the bottom and they were completely submerged in a whole new world.
The water was murky, but they could see several metres in front, to the trunks and roots of trees. Branches swayed as though time had slowed; some leaves remained folded away, others danced slowly in the drift. A large golden frog swam past the window and paused to look before carrying on its way.
Arthur suddenly had a thought. “Er … how much air is in here?”
Ermitage tapped a gauge in front of him. “I should say there is enough.”
“How much is enough?”
Ermitage gave an absent wave of his hand.
Arthur had to admit that at this very moment he was missing Welby’s attention to detail.
“There’s some sort of air generator thingy. I’ve not quite worked it out yet.” Ermitage shrugged.
“Oh … very reassuring!”
“He who dares!” And with that he pulled back a large lever which led to a clonk and a whirr that may have been a small propeller somewhere behind them, and they were off.
“I’ll be captain and you can be navigator!” Ermitage said excitedly.
“But I’ve no idea where the city of Tempestra is?”
“Just direct me north-east-ish and cross your fingers! We can’t go the whole way in this thing, that would take weeks, but there is a rather friendly bubble-house village half a day away and they might lend us a different transport.”
It was clear that Ermitage Wrigglesworth had little regard for safety as he steered this way and that between the trees, with Arthur attempting to give directions from a roughly scrawled map he didn’t understand.
After minutes of trundling through the submerged forest floor in white-knuckled tension, Arthur decided to try to enjoy this underwater experience. A whole new world of animals had come to life, with fish, frogs, lizards, even water eels.
After a while, the water started to become clearer.
“Ah, this is it!” Ermitage declared.
“Are we near the village?”
“Of course not, not at the snail’s pace this thing travels, but we’re heading the right way. We’re about to hit one of the main river causeways.”
A huge shape swam past the window, but it was too quick for Arthur to see. Then it flashed past again. “Something’s out there!”
“Just pink river dolphins, fascinating creatures. The only dolphin to live inland that I know of.”
One swam alongside them on Arthur’s side and peered at them with intelligent eyes. “Are they sapient?”
“Sapient is a wide term, Arthur. If there’s one thing I’m sure of, the Wide is full of surprises and often we humans underestimate the possibilities. It’s part of our nature, I’m afraid; we tend to put ourselves on a bit of a pedestal in Lontown. Well, some people, not all. Perhaps some feel
threatened by others, that it somehow reduces their own standing somehow?”
Arthur knew he was talking about the likes of Eudora and the Vanes.
“I suspect that’s why it suits the Erytheans to keep themselves to themselves,” said Arthur. “How’s the air looking?”
Ermitage tapped the gauge. “We have a little longer.”
They carried along the riverbed.
“I should have said, in the event of an emergency, break the glass and swim up. There’s a hammer there.”
“Oh, thanks,” Arthur said frowning.
After a while there was a whirring sound and Arthur looked up to see something like a boat hull.
“We’re nearly there.”
“At the village?”
“Patience, my dear old thing. We’re close, but not yet. This is where we leave the SMEM for now.” He turned sharply and they began climbing up the riverbank. “The wheel tread should get us up here.”
The light above grew brighter and they soon broke the surface. But with a jolt the SMEM seized and they slid back a little. Ermitage tried to drive them onward, but the SMEM just shuddered. “Ah, I do believe we’re stuck in the silt. Not a problem. I’ll drop the anchor and…” He looked at Arthur with his glistening, beady eyes and stroked his beard. “Did I ever ask you if you can swim?”
Arthur noticed Ermitage’s eyes flick to his missing arm. “Yes, of course I can.”
“Good, because we need to swim for the bank. Watch out for river snakes, greebers and anything with lots of teeth.”
Arthur must’ve turned pale as snow because Ermitage put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Only joking!” But he laughed a strange, nervous laugh that told Arthur the contrary.
As the canopy was released, they both popped their heads out. The air across the lake was beautiful and fresh, and Arthur breathed in a huge lungful. Waterfalls cascaded from huge rocky riverbanks that went on into the far distance.
