Budding Star

by Annie Dalton

  “Up on those rocks,” Reuben said in a low voice. “Keep your voice down, she’s quite jumpy.”

  I looked around and eventually spotted a young she-wolf eying us nervously from the rocks. Tsubomi must have changed back at sunrise. I was so ashamed of myself. What kind of angel is jealous of the soul she came to save?

  Reuben has an unnerving habit of reading my mind. “Don’t feel too sorry for her,” he said, carefully folding up his cloak. “In some weird way, I think this is actually doing Tsubomi good.”

  “You think being under a curse is doing her good? Is that, like, Level Two logic!”

  “Don’t twist my words, Beeby,” he said mildly. “I meant being a wolf. Running on all fours, out in the elements, sniffing all those smells. The Dark lord had a point. This has to be healthier than that mad celebrity life she had before.”

  “I never thought about it like that,” I admitted.

  “Jessica’s right. We’ve just got to go along with this big quest delusion, let Tsubomi run with it and see where it goes.”

  I gulped. “I’ve been thinking the exact opposite.”

  “I could tell,” he said gently. “But I think we should hang on in.”

  “Reubs, she’s dying.”

  “I know, but if we interfere, we’re disrespecting her, don’t you see? If we want to save her, we have to trust her, even when she’s doing something that seems crazy or dangerous.”

  I was close to tears. “I know you’re right. It’s just the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

  Reuben nodded. “Me too, and we should probably get going.”

  I tried to grin. “Yeah, it looks like Fido’s getting restless!”

  Up on the mountainside, a bored Tsubomi was chasing her tail.

  She followed us all the rest of that day as we covered the remaining miles to the volcano. I say “followed”, but it was more like she roamed around us in huge circles, like a hyperactive puppy.

  As we got nearer, something happened that it isn’t easy to put into words. Something started calling to us. A force, kind of, some ruthless attraction that wrenched at our heartstrings, pulling us closer and closer and closer…

  This probably sounds v. alarming, so you’ll have to believe me when I say that it felt wonderful! We’d been travelling for hours, yet not only were we not tired, Reubs and I were just bubbling with high spirits; laughing, teasing each other, doing silly walks. It was like we were literally being energised by our proximity to the volcano.

  “This feels like falling in love,” Reuben said, half laughing at himself.

  “True love on an industrial scale!” I agreed.

  It was evening by the time we reached the lower slopes.

  The track snaked around a sharp bend and suddenly, high above us, was the most magical-looking palace. Its walls had been covered in millions of pieces of highly polished metal. Each one reflected the setting sun, turning the palace into one huge blazing mirror.

  Then it hit me. The sun had already set. The light wasn’t a reflection, it was flooding out from inside. This palace must be the source of that fabulous life force that we’d felt zinging from every stone and tiny desert plant. I could actually see it, now, radiating out from the palace, like those sunrays that baby angels like to put in their paintings.

  “This is the Palace of Eternal Flames. It’s even more amazing than I imagined!” Tsubomi appeared in her human form, babbling with excitement.

  As angels, Reubs and I are used to high levels of cosmic energy, and even so the extraordinary volcano vibes had us buzzing. Tsubomi was as high as a kite! Gabbling on about how she knew we were really her friends, how special last night was, sharing our fire and our companionship. But to cut a long, l-o-n-g story short, Tsubomi had made a decision. “I’ve decided I can trust you and so I’m going to tell you absolutely everything,” she told us.

  I was fairly sure that Jessica Lightpath would approve our decision to go along with Tsubomi’s quest fantasy, however mad. Our soul-retrieval teacher would probably tell us to follow Tsubomi’s soul into the boiling crater of the volcano if necessary. I’m not sure she’d have wanted us to commit actual burglary though.

  My heart sank into the bottom of my ninja boots, as Tsubomi explained exactly how she’d break into the Palace of Eternal Flames and steal its owner’s most treasured possession.

  “Oh, and obviously I want you both to come with me,” she bubbled. “It’s going to be a blast! Back in a sec, I’m just going to scout around and check out the positions of the guards.”

  More like she’s totally hyperactive and can’t sit still, I thought gloomily.

  I let her get out of earshot then I told Reubs how I felt. “I know it’s just a game, but something in that palace has real power, and I don’t think Tsubomi has a clue what she’s getting into.”

  “For sure,” he said quietly, “but we agreed we had to trust her.”

  “Reubs, she’s planning to go storming up a volcano, and rob some scary fire demon of - of who knows what? She thinks this is just some fairy tale, and she can’t get hurt. She’s never even asked herself, ‘Hello! Where did this robbery idea come from? Who ARE these demon lords?’”

  Reuben sounded disturbed. “I assumed they were a game thing.”

  “So did I,” I admitted. “But now I’m thinking, who set this game up? Who’s making these rules?”

  My buddy swallowed. We both knew I was talking about the PODS.

  Reuben dropped his voice. “You’re worried this is a trap?”

  I nodded. “And we could be helping her walk right into it.”

  We heard an owl hoot, not very convincingly.

  Tsubomi appeared, looking annoyingly perky. “Aren’t you guys ready yet? I needn’t have panicked about that moat. I know exactly how we’re going to get in!”

  To my surprise, the first part of the operation went really smoothly. Actually, considering Reuben and I had only been ninjas for twenty-four hours max, it was a breeze! I could see why Tsubomi had been worried about the moat; instead of stagnant water, it was full of boiling lava. But with the help of the hooked rope that had come with our bag of Limbo resources, not to mention our impressive new ninja throwing skills, we calmly abseiled over it.

  The shiny mirror walls of the Fire Palace presented more of a problem. Then I remembered the little spiky things in our bag. They were actually quite cool. We whacked them on to our boots and just ran up the shiny mirror walls of the palace like flies, until we reached an open window.

  We climbed in, quickly removed both spikes and boots, creeping down the glowing gleaming corridors in our padded socks, as softly as cats.

  OK, the first time flames spurted out of the floor at my feet, I might have let out a teensy squeak of surprise, but once you got into the rhythm, (pad, pad, pad, spurt of fire, pad, pad, pad) it was easy.

  At intervals along the corridor, a bunch of the fire demon’s guards would erupt from a doorway and we’d have to do some serious biffing and boffing. These soldiers wore red armour, the dull red of smouldering coals, and they had alarming-looking weapons that sent out spurts of pure lightning. Luckily they didn’t get much use out of them. We were moving way too fast.

  Our ninja fighting stars were cool. If you threw them with just the right amount of spin, (pyu, pyu) you could take out three or four guards at once. Mostly, though, we stuck to good old-fashioned biffing and boffing.

  Leaving heaps of stunned, silent bodies in our wake, we finally fought our way to a huge door framed by carved pillars. The energy coming from inside was so strong; I could literally feel it buzzing in the roots of my teeth.

  What the sassafras is in there? I wondered nervously.

  Like the outer walls of the palace, the door was made from tiny pieces of shiny bright hammered metal. In this dazzling mirrored surface, the ghosts of red and yellow flames flickered and flared.

  Tsubomi listened carefully at the door, with the intensely-focused expression you see on safe-crackers on TV. “I
t’s still sleeping. Good,” she whispered to herself. Taking a hairpin out of her hair she began expertly jiggling the lock. After a few seconds, I heard a spring give inside. Next, she took a feather and a small bottle from her bag and softly oiled the hinges. Only then did she risk turning the handle.

  The door swung open as smooth as butter.

  I don’t know what I’d expected on the other side, but it definitely wasn’t a glowing fire garden with red, gold and rose-coloured flames for flowers. In the centre of the garden, where normal people might have a water feature, the demon had a fountain - of fire.

  In the white-hot heart of the fountain, was the most magical bird I’ve ever seen. She had glittering gold-tipped wing feathers and the downy feathers on her breast glowed with a fiery sunset glow. She seemed to be asleep, her golden wings carefully spread over her clutch of eggs. I couldn’t see them very clearly but I glimpsed magical gleams of colour.

  “Either I’m dreaming,” breathed Reuben, “or that’s a real phoenix.”

  Tsubomi gave a nervy giggle. “Of course it’s a phoenix,” she hissed. “It’s the source of the fire demon’s power. Don’t feel bad about her eggs,” she added in the same excited whisper. “We’re only taking one.”

  Reuben stared at her. “You don’t seriously intend to steal a phoenix egg!”

  I saw the phoenix open an ominous amber-yellow eye. Oh-oh, I thought.

  “It’s my task,” Tsubomi said in her fairy-tale voice. “I thought you and Melanie understood that.”

  The phoenix stirred, clearly uneasy. A loose feather floated from her fiery nest, brushing Tsubomi’s cheek like a warning. I saw a bright red weal appear. The shock made tears well in her eyes though she managed not to cry out. For the first time she looked afraid. “I thought I’d know,” she whispered. “I thought I’d know what to do, when we got to the palace.”

  Reuben and I exchanged glances. It would have been better, obviously, if Tsubomi could have told us this before she made us abseil over a moat filled with molten lava, but she looked so vulnerable, that I felt really sorry for her.

  Until that phoenix feather gave her a nasty burn, Tsubomi thought she was living inside a magical story where the hero isn’t allowed to get hurt. Now she knew better. “I brought you guys here, and I have no idea how we’re even supposed to do this,” she whispered, ashamed.

  “That’s OK,” Reuben told her. “Something will come to you.”

  I don’t think it was his words, so much as his smile, that calmed her down. Lola calls it his “Sweetpea smile”. She says when Reubs gives you that smile, you just know in your heart that everything in the Universe is totally working out the way it should.

  Tsubomi’s expression changed. Even the energy in the room changed. “I have to play my lute,” she whispered. “I didn’t realise, but I think it might actually be magic.”

  “Play it and see,” Reuben suggested.

  And be quick before Mama Phoenix loses any more of those scary feathers, I thought nervously. The phoenix was obviously getting really restless.

  Scared but determined, Tsubomi unstrapped her harp. It looked like a normal lute to me, or as normal as a lute can look by the glowing light of a phoenix fire. I’m not sure that her agent would have approved of her singsong magic chant.

  The phoenix loved it! She started making ecstatic cooing sounds.

  “It is, it’s a magic lute,” Tsubomi breathed to herself, like music was only OK if it was magic, I thought.

  “Don’t stop,” Reuben hissed.

  He was gradually edging over to the nest. Suddenly he plunged his gloved hand into the flames and pulled out a phoenix egg. “Go, go, go!” he urged.

  Too late. The phoenix exploded out of her nest. A nanosecond later we all got the shock of our lives, as she morphed into a hideous scaly red demon with one blazing amber-yellow eye and more arms than is actually attractive.

  I wasn’t actually nearly as scared as you might think. All you need to kill a fire demon is water, right?

  “Have you got a bottle of water in that bag, Tsubomi?” I screamed.

  She started frantically emptying her bag. “Nothing!” she screamed back. “Just a stupid peach stone.”

  Yess. I literally snatched it out of her hand. I remember thinking, I’ll only get one shot, I’d better do it right.

  ZOOM. The peach stone skimmed towards the demon, hitting her smack in the eye, her yellow all-seeing eye.

  Crude, perhaps, cruel, definitely, but extremely effective!

  While the female demon blundered around her magical fire garden, howling in pain and clutching her blinded eye, we fled from the palace.

  We made it back over the palace moat, in time to see the sun coming up.

  Reubs and I collapsed into each other’s arms, almost hysterical with relief.

  “Nice work, Beeby,” he congratulated me.

  “Hey, I’m just grateful Tsubomi had that peach stone!”

  Tsubomi wasn’t paying one scrap of attention to this conversation. “It’s sunrise,” she said in a stunned voice. “And I’m still a girl!”

  I stared at her. “Omigosh, that is SO brilliant, Tsubomi! The curse must have been broken. Now you can go back to—”

  My words were drowned by horribly familiar musical chords.

  Tsubomi vanished. A second later, so did Reuben.

  I stood alone on the volcano, the hot wind whipping through my hair, waiting my turn to be whisked up to Level Three.

  This isn’t right, I thought. Tsubomi got her phoenix egg. This game is over. The game lords or whoever can’t just go on shuttling us from level to level like pinballs!

  My surroundings blurred out of focus. I heard a sound like wind chimes, or tiny temple bells. I tried to remember what came after earth and fire. A deadly chill crept into the soles of my feet and rose up my legs.

  Ice? Could that be right? Earth, fire… ICE?

  Chapter Seven

  The light was unbelievably bright. And my bum was unbelievably cold!

  Seen from the air, we would have made a star shape. Three of us, lying head to head, with our arms outstretched.

  Icicles tinkled overhead, making the magical wind chime sound I’d heard as I switched levels.

  I scrambled to my feet. Same wood; totally different world. This world was pure white. Everywhere you looked, just pure sparkling white.

  “Is this what snow looks like?” Reuben breathed. His face was a picture of amazement.

  “This IS snow, bird brain,” I said affectionately. “Ah, that’s SO cute! I can’t believe you never saw snow before!” I stooped down, stealthily packing my gloved hand with snow. “So, um, I’m guessing you don’t know about the sacred snow ritual?”

  Reubs glanced up unsuspecting. “What’s that?”

  I let fly with the snowball, catching my shocked buddy bang on the nose.

  He didn’t blink, just wagged his finger. “OK, Beeby, now that was sad!” he taunted. “You did that just like a girl!”

  “Yeah?” I flashed back. “Don’t remember you complaining when I saved your booty from the one-eyed fire demon!”

  “We’re talking about style,” he said loftily. “But it’s never too late to learn from the master. Now THIS is a stylish throw!”

  Next minute the two of us were having a major snowball fight. We’d reached the childish stage of stuffing snow down each others’ necks, when I became aware of Tsubomi watching us, tapping an elegant boot on the frozen ground.

  “Wow, look at YOU,” I breathed.

  For the first time, I glanced down at my own outfit.

  “I’m not sure we should be wearing fur,” Reuben said doubtfully.

  We’d been upgraded to noble Japanese lords and ladies. All three of us wore padded, fur-trimmed winter robes, absolutely stiff with embroidery. My hair was in its usual messy style (it’s basically untameable). Tsubomi’s was carefully put up with combs. Under our outer robes, Tsubomi and I wore several layers of gauzy inner robes. Mine were
pure winter tones, grey, ivory, silver, shimmery green; each colour peeping out from under the next.

  “You wouldn’t think dreads would go,” I told Reuben admiringly, “but you look great.”

  “Could we get started, everyone, please? We are supposed to be on a quest, or had you forgotten!” Tsubomi’s tone was as cold and sharp as the weather.

  I guiltily shook loose snow out of my robes, and hastily went into celestial-agent mode. “Anyone seen a bag?” I asked bossily. “There should be a new bag of Limbo goodies around here somewhere.”

  Tsubomi quickly shook her head. “No, there’s just this.” She was clasping a mother-of-pearl casket, bound with hoops of gold. Her expression was oddly evasive.

  “That’s so pretty!” I breathed. “Have you opened it to see what’s inside?”

  “No, and I don’t intend to. I’ll just look after it until we need it,” said Tsubomi in her new frosty voice.

  I was hurt. On the last level we’d all been mates together. Now suddenly Tsubomi was treating us like her minions or whatever.

  We were suddenly surprised by silvery tinkling sounds, like a more musical version of the icicle wind chimes.

  For the first time I noticed three milk-white horses waiting for us under the trees, their saddles gorgeously decorated in medieval Japanese style. The bridles were hung with dozens of tiny bells, which jingled whenever they moved.

  Woo, we are going up in the world, I thought, impressed.

  Tsubomi positioned the mysterious casket in front of her on her saddle. (As noble ladies, Tsubomi and I both had to ride side-saddle.) She kept darting uneasy looks in our direction.

  “Does she think we’re going to steal it?” I whispered to Reuben.

  “Who knows what she’s thinking?” he sighed. “I get the feeling she doesn’t totally remember who we are.”

  “More like she totally doesn’t care!” I muttered.

  As if to prove my point, Tsubomi spurred her horse and cantered off, sending up flurries of powdery snow.

  “Just out of interest, where are we going?” I called.

  “I don’t have to answer to you,” she called back. “This is my quest. You just have to follow me and do what I say.”