Tosho is Dead

by Opal Edgar

  She hopped like a rabbit over the roots. The trees zipped past and, little by little, the easier it became. There was no designed path, but I didn’t have to dodge the trees as often as I should have. Soon, we were running in a straight line instead of zigzagging round trunks. The trees parted for us and disappeared abruptly as we reached a clearing.

  I stopped, hands over my eyes to protect them from the sudden glare. Kemsit crouched a few metres in front. She had her back to me, hiding in the long grass like a tiny tiger, ready to pounce. I lifted my hand a few centimetres higher, turning it into a visor. In front of us was Alpheus, the gladiator, with his heavy helmet, his axe and a paintbrush in the air.

  He sat cross-legged, oblivious to our presence. Before him was a large canvas with undefined shapes dancing about. Stacked round him were large palettes of paint and jars of coloured water. He must have been there for ages because his light skin now glowed a very bright red. So even after death people still got sunburned.

  Kemsit sprang. She landed on his head, legs on each side of his neck, feet battering his chest and both arms grabbing onto his helmet like a real little monkey. And … no reaction. I took a few careful steps towards them. Kemsit loosened her grip and swung down, landing in Alpheus’s lap, cradled like a baby. By the time I had approached them, she was poking at his helmet.

  “Alpheus?” I tried.

  Kemsit grabbed the blackboard hanging round his neck. She dipped her finger into the thick white paint and splattered some everywhere as she wrote: “Kick me.”

  “He got heat stroke or something? Should we take his helmet off, check he’s all right?” I asked.

  “You crazy! He’ll petrify us with his medusa face!”

  “He can do that?” I jumped backwards, horrified.

  Kemsit laughed. “You’re so gullible, dumb-dumb. He’s just shut off. He does that when he paints. He says he meditates.”

  Kemsit slithered under his arm and sprung onto the grass. She kicked at a patch of marigolds. Their decapitated heads flew into the air. I deserved her nickname. I shook my hand in front of Alpheus’s eye slit.

  “Seriously, he takes it off sometimes, doesn’t he?” I asked.

  She shook her head. “Never. I reckon he must be ugly as a bum, but I don’t care, I’ll always lo—”

  A resounding crack echoed through the air. Kemsit stood to attention. Alpheus stayed like a lump on the grass. We looked towards the sun. In the distance, a flock of birds rose above the treeline. Not too far away, we could see the roof of Elise’s house and the myriad of cabins in the trees. People darted in and out of them, running everywhere, carrying things, handing over things and throwing things. It looked ... panicky. I crinkled my eyes and tried to see better – the atmosphere felt really different from last time.

  “That’s weird,” Kemsit whispered.

  “I think your lost boys are remodelling,” I said.

  A wail broke the air. Sharp, foreboding. Alpheus’s helmet turned towards the sound. Had that woken him or had he been awake the whole time?

  “It’s the alarm!” Kemsit broke out, sprinting off towards the house.

  My heart rose to my throat and throbbed there.

  She looked back with a smile. “Well come on, dumb-dumb!”

  “Hey!”

  I was on Kemsit’s heels. If I thought she was going fast before, it was nothing to what she was doing now. I felt like a blind one-legged elephant attempting to fly after a hummingbird. The trees jumping out of our way made it easier, but she was dozens of metres ahead already. Butterflies rose in our wake.

  Suddenly Elise barrelled towards us, grabbed Kemsit’s hand and turned her round. Both rushed back where we came from. I continued towards them, towards the cottage, the cabins and the attack. As I reached Elise, she caught my hand too. And then it hit me. My hands were empty! I’d lost the black bottle!

  “They’re coming!” yelled Elise. “Evacuate!”

  “Who?” I asked.

  “’Tis power thieves! They’ve breached my world! I have to go back, make sure everybody leaves.”

  She tried to get away from us, but neither Kemsit nor I were letting her go. She shook her arms as streams of children and teens ran past us. A shadow fell over our heads. A monstrous black stingray, rising from the horizon, flapped its wings and blocked out half the sky. It looked like all the scary thoughts of the night had taken form and spilt into the day. Little by little, cracks appeared on the wings of the beast. The sky bled through, and the stingray broke down. It wasn’t one single monster, it was hundreds of caped people soaring in the air, right between us and the sun.

  “What the hell is that?”

  I was bumped a few steps backwards by a harras of teen centaurs. I held on to Elise. Their hair beat the wind, and their hooves drummed the rhythm of the terrible escape. They each carried a number of small kids attached to their manes, on heir backs or even hanging in side bags. The crowd rushed through the virgin forest. At any moment I expected girls and boys to crash down, but the place had to be enchanted somehow because no root caught anyone’s heel. There were many more people here then I’d realised.

  Elise shook my arm harder. Tears ran down her face, but the determination in the set of her jaw was fierce. What was going to happen to her world, to everyone here?

  “’Tis too dangerous, I’m not risking your death, go to Alpheus.”

  But there was no arguing with us. We were going to the cabins with her, whether she wanted it or not.

  As they saw us go against their flow, kids threw Elise desperate looks. A girl with flaming hair grabbed her as we passed. “Don’t you dare get eaten!” she cried.

  “Never,” Elise said. “Keep running!”

  Elise was strained between Kemsit and me. One yanked her forwards, one dragged her down like a bag of lead. I did my best, but those two were zipping wind. Still she held tight onto my leaden fingers. And I felt it in her grasp that I was one of those kids she protected and never let go of.

  Round us, the trees turned brown and brittle. Behind us was still green, but something ahead was sucking the sap right out of the soil. Flowers wilted as we passed them and fruits fell to the ground shattering in rotten heaps. Their splashing crashes accompanied the beat of our frantic hearts and hammering feet hitting the ground.

  The tree village was falling apart. Branches, dry and white as bone, rained down over our heads. We looked up. The noise of all that dying vegetation was deafening.

  “I think they’re all gone!” I yelled.

  “Kemsit?” Elise insisted.

  The little girl narrowed her eyes.

  It was like the world had caught a bad case of autumn disease. The grass turned yellow and brown, the roots snapped out of the ground, broken. The giant trees swayed. Any second they were going to crush us like ants. I wanted nothing more than to move away from the spreading rust. It looked alive, ready to eat through our leather soles and nibble us from the feet up.

  “There!” Kemsit pointed.

  Up in a tree cabin, two kids wrestled with a giant bag. They were trying to push it out of a window, but it was too big. Logs collapsed round them, but they didn’t care.

  Kemsit was a snake again and slithered up along the trunk. Elise rushed up the rope ladder. Her satin shoes had no grip and she slipped on every second rung. That didn’t stop her.

  “Why don’t you sprout yourself a tree?” I called after her.

  Her pale face looked back at me for a second. Circles were visible under her eyes when I looked at her. Her face shone with fever. She looked sick.

  “’Tis impossible.”

  She hadn’t stopped going up, no matter how weak she was. I hovered behind, ready to catch her if she fell. Kemsit was already at the top. She snapped at the heels of the two kids, but they simply refused to let go of their treasures. The argument was heated. Their little heads bobbed up and down as they talked. The kids had matching costumes sewn in burgundy velvet, with ribbons tying up their collars and sleev
es. Kemsit was growing extra snake heads and yanking at the bag with one, and their feet with the others, but nothing moved.

  “I tried— I can’t— nobody can! So now get outta here before you end up as power thief snacks!” she raged.

  “We promised Claire her teddy! Liu and Harry forgot their shoes, Kirvin worked so hard on her brother’s present and it was up the tree with our mission. We’ve got Komang’s coat, Beza’s essence chest, Hannah’s print collection—”

  “I get it! But if you stick round you’re not going to be able to give anyone anything ever again!” Kemsit was pacing.

  “We’d be too ashamed to show our faces again anyway!” the kids yelled back.

  The bark under our hands felt corky and on its way to spongy. We didn’t have much time at all. Elise kneeled over on the twig platform. The wood rippled under her, sending a tremor through the entire floor. Her skin was turning grey, and that didn’t look any better on a dead person than a live one. The tree swayed.

  I leaped at the centre of the argument. The bag was triple the size of the window. But the walls of the suspended cabin were made of nothing more than thin planks. I prepared for the pain, moved backwards and rammed into the window frame with my shoulder. Shattered flaps of wood flew in every direction. Shards embedded themselves in my arm, but it was done. I dragged the bag out.

  “Anything fragile or can I throw it down?” I asked.

  The twins, as it turned out they were, shook their heads vigorously. Their dark curly hair wiggled about their faces.

  “We’ll take it from here!” They clutched the bag above their heads and leaped off the tree construction. For a terrifying second they stayed suspended, their little red-clad bodies immobile, and then they plummeted down like bricks. I looked away with a cringe, but couldn't help a peak over the platform.

  Their bodies smooshed like pancake batter, liquid circles … but they sprang back up. Their bodies were like rubber. They left in an uneven trot, dodging the rotting fruits splattering round them.

  “Well don’t just stand there!” Kemsit yelled. “Move, people!”

  Elise nodded. She was still on her knees. Her hands had sunk into the platform. The whole place was going to collapse under us. I grabbed her by the waist and leaped forth … or tried to. Elise slid from my grip until I was holding her knees. She was literally melded into the wooden floor. Kemsit slithered to her, snapping her impressive fangs to get her attention.

  “I don’t think that’s wise at all, Elise, you’re bleeding power all over already …”

  Elise muttered under her breath. The tree shook. I tumbled backwards. I tried to catch myself … but the railing had the texture of wafers. It shattered in my hands. Kemsit lashed out. The tiny cottage swung into my vision, surrounded by withered grass. Kemsit’s tail had wrapped round my leg. I swerved over the void. But Kemsit was holding on better than a rope. No piles of broken bones for me today.

  The tree telescoped into itself. My heart rose to my throat as we collapsed down, down, down. The mossy floor leaped at our faces. I hadn’t let go of Elise. She didn’t care, she was deep into her spell, or whatever it was that controlled the trees round us. As soon as we were close enough to the ground, I yanked at her again. This time her hands popped free. Swiftly, I hiked her round my neck. She weighed less than she should have, much less. I pulled on Kemsit too, wrapping her round my arm, wrist to elbow like a thick rope.

  “What do you think you’re d—”

  But she had no time to complain. I dived to the ground just a few metres off by now. Air whooshed out of our lungs at the impact. I ran as fast as I could to where Alpheus was. It wasn’t hard to know where to go, Kemsit traced the way in front of our eyes with her incredible serpentine power. The connection stream from her to him was so wide it looked like a path.

  “’Tis too much, I have to cut my world off.” Elise panted.

  “Do it!” Kemsit yelled. “Just do it now or you’ll disappear!”

  A tear trailed down my neck. The trees stopped parting for us. I knocked my shoulders into their trunks, but instead of knocking me backwards as I rammed into them, their bark crumbled like dry biscuits.

  “What going on!” I yelled out.

  “They’re sucking the power out of my world like marrow out of my very bones.” Elise cried.

  “Power thieves can do that?”

  “Just cut yourself off from your world!” Kemsit yelled.

  “Not with us inside,” Elise whispered, barely audible.

  “What about the vamp? I didn’t see him.” I panicked.

  “Baas is but gone to a summit.”

  Alpheus’s silhouette cut a shadow in the clearing ahead. He pushed the twins through the huge canvas in front of him. Their little shoes left rippling rings on the unfinished painting. They were the last ones through.

  On the other side of Alpheus hovered a pitch-black circular disk. It was big enough to swallow a man. It hadn’t been there minutes ago, when Kemsit had climbed all over Alpheus’s head.

  I opened my mouth to ask what the hell it was, when suddenly the world turned upside down. Elise was ripped from me and the ground hit me in the face.

  Wait.

  That was wrong.

  I was down, stomach in the dirt. Something awfully heavy sat on my back and pounded on me from behind. Nothing in the world had changed places except me. My eyes reached the calves of Elise. She stumbled on her feet, holding an armful of her dress. She had tiny little feet in tiny little slippers. My head banged on the ground. When my hair was yanked backwards I saw the terror stricken faces of my companions. Well, I couldn’t be sure about Alpheus, because of the metal covering his face, but he brandished his axe and that was enough of a statement.

  I tried to turn but a hand still had my hair in a vice. Another hand circled my throat. I thrashed. On Alpheus’s slate appeared the words: “Get back or get hacked!”

  Something tickled my throat, like soft bristles or silk threads. I looked down, pulling on my hair as much as possible, and gagged. The hand was covered with eyes. The fluttering over my skin was the eyelashes.

  “Don’t fight, big boy,” a wet voice whispered in my ear.

  The smell of decay assailed me.

  “If you fight, I won’t let them escape. You want them to escape, don’t you?”

  But I didn’t get time to answer. Alpheus smashed into us and rolled on the grass with my attacker. A bare-chested man, covered with mad rolling eyes all over his arms, back, scalp and stomach, parried and answered the threat with large animal claws growing from his hands.

  “Get away from the carrion-eater!” Kemsit yelled at me.

  Elise had gone catatonic. She crouched on the ground, eyes closed, and whispered under her breath, over and over, like an incantation. But she didn’t have power left for that, did she?

  “That’s a power thief too?” I asked aloud.

  “It is, those crazies come in plenty of shapes, but they sure as hell will eat you all the same!” Kemsit yelled, coiling round Elise protectively. “So get away from him, dummy! You’re not a match! Damning hell, I hate the ones who keep trophies!”

  Elise’s eyes remained closed. All round the clearing, tiny little plant germs pushed their heads up. It was cute, but what the hell did she think she could do?

  Alpheus and the eye-freak were locked in a tight wrestling grapple. Alpheus had dropped his axe when he’d jumped us. I guess he hadn’t wanted to accidentally hack my arm off. What could I do to help?

  The black disk buzzed over the scene unpleasantly like a power-line. I edged towards the axe, reluctant. I might hurt Alpheus if I really tried something. But the fight got closer to the sharp blade too. If I didn’t grab it before them, things might turn ugly. The eye-freak wasn’t missing a beat. Alpheus saw the twinkle of his blade in his way too numerous eyes.

  All three of us plunged. The eye-freak flew above the canvas, Alpheus rolled under. The heavy trestle toppled over me, sending the painting crashing to the g
round. I crumpled under the frame.

  When I looked up, the eye-freak brandished the axe. Alpheus sat up, but the eye-freak hurled the axe at his head. He darted back down. The axe flew over him and into the back of the painting. It hit it right in the middle. The two pieces flew apart.

  “Our exit!” Kemsit screamed.

  Alpheus turned to her to point at the hovering black hole. On his slate the words: “It’s a gate too,” appeared. But turning away from the enemy was a mistake. The eye-freak lunged, claws first, ripping at his back. Alpheus arched. But no sound escaped his helmet. He braced himself and fell backwards on his attacker, trapping him underneath. For a terrifying second it looked like the eye-freak’s hands entirely disappeared into the gladiator’s back. I yelled and kicked at the head of the eye-freak. His head rocked to the side and stayed there, motionless.

  I couldn’t have killed him, right? He was already dead, right?

  Alpheus released a trembling breath and rose on his elbows and knees, leaving a red puddle behind … but he was okay.

  Just then, I caught another movement from the corner of my eye, where the trees began. I gazed up. In the shadows of the powdery leaves, skulked a hooded crowd. They edged closer and closer by the second. A few floating masks hovered round, flying in our direction too. Behind them hordes of hoodies ran to catch up.

  We had lost.

  Then again, no one had to be hurt but me.

  “They want me. Not any of you, just go!”

  I pushed Alpheus towards Elise. He resisted, but not for long. She was a sad sight. Her head lolled down on her chest, and she was crumpled in the moss and leaves and dirt: her great puffy dress, now too large for her, soaking it all in.

  “Go, damn you! Pick her up and get her out of here!”

  “I don’t think so!” Kemsit hissed.

  I took a step towards the edge of the trees. The power thieves were all watching me now. Alpheus shook his head.

  Suddenly, the sprouts at our feet sprang from the earth into strong ropy strands. In seconds, they grew into a circular wall between us and the enemy. It was just centimetres from my nose and reached high into the sky. Hundreds of metres high.