Shadows on the Stars

by T.A. Barron

  The travelers pounced on the feast, their troubles momentarily forgotten. Lleu went first for the giant shrimps, rolling them in sea salt, while Elli started by drinking a paua shell bowl of oyster stew. Catha, squawking eagerly, tore open clamshells with her talons. Brionna and Nuic stayed with the savorykelp and other vegetarian options—while Shim made no effort at all to restrict his diet. Very quickly, the little giant discovered that dumping a bowl of seal butter on anything improved its taste.

  Sticky-fingered and smelling like fish, they washed down the meal with coral mugs of seamead and waterberry ale. But as full as they were—”stuffed like those mushrooms,” as Lleu put it—they managed to find room for dessert. Caviar cakes, still steaming because they were flown straight from the dragons’ kitchens by white-winged albatrosses, were devoured right away. As were the orangecaper cream pies, sealime tarts, brineberry cobblers, and chocolate-of-the-abyss truffles.

  At last, stomachs bulging, they were led to a hollow at the upper end of the tunnel. A pair of seaglass torches lit the area with pearly luminescence. Without a word of conversation, the tired voyagers stretched themselves out on mats of thickly layered spongefern. And promptly fell asleep.

  When Elli awoke, however, she had just one thought on her mind: They were captives, plain and simple. And over the next five days, the water dragons gave her no reason at all to change her thinking. All the companions were ever allowed to do was eat, eat some more, sleep, and swim occasionally in the sparkling water of the hollow.

  Elli’s frequent requests to see the highlord were simply ignored. Watched by shifts of dragon guards who swam over to check on them at regular intervals, she and her friends could only worry about their fate . . . as well as Avalon’s. For with each passing day in captivity, their chances of succeeding in their quest grew smaller—and would, at some point soon, vanish completely.

  On the fifth night, Elli was suddenly awakened by a sharp kick from Nuic’s foot against her ribs. When she sat up to look at the sprite, his skin had turned deepest black, the same color as the strange, dark shadows they’d seen in the vision atop Hallia’s Peak. There was no need to ask him what he’d been dreaming about. Then she noticed that the old fellow was shaking, trembling uncontrollably. Quickly, she drew him to her chest and held him, until at last the shaking stopped.

  The next morning, Elli sat on the tunnel ledge with her feet in the water. “How long is Hargol going to keep us?” she demanded impatiently. “Even if he does finally decide to help us, that could be a dragon’s age from now. And we’re losing precious time.”

  Brionna, seated beside her, swished her feet, making trails of phosphorescent sparkles. “Or he could just decide to crush us in his jaws, steal our crystals, and be done with it.”

  “A lovely thought,” commented Nuic, who was floating on his back nearby. “Now that he’s fattened us up, we’ll taste like seafood casserole.”

  “Even if he doesn’t eat us,” Brionna continued, “he could simply keep us here forever—enjoying the company of his two distinguished visitors, as he called them.”

  Lleu, who was sitting against the cavern’s rock wall, knees to his chest and falcon on his shoulder, looked up. “I don’t know about the rest of you, but I’ve come to a decision.”

  “What?” asked Elli.

  “We’ve got to break out of here. Escape somehow.”

  She bit her lip, then nodded. “I think you’re probably right. But how? And if we try that, we’d just better succeed. Hargol would be furious! He’d just swallow us like so many shrimp. Or at least chain us to some wall so we’d never try again.”

  “All the more reason for us to escape now, while we still can.” Lleu slammed his fist into his palm. “The only question is how.”

  “I agree,” said Elli. “We must find a way.”

  “That we must,” said Nuic, now floating in the water by her feet. “And I think Rhia would also agree, if she were here. But it’s much easier said than done.”

  “That’s true,” said Lleu, shaking his head glumly. “We really could end up stuck here forever. By the crooked teeth of Babd Catha! Why did I ever come along on this quest, if this is as far as we ever get? I should have just stayed with Coerria.”

  Nuic’s color changed a bit, as some veins of compassionate pink worked into his murky blue. “You saw her just yesterday in the Galator, don’t you remember? She is still alive, if only barely. Even if you were there, you couldn’t do anything to help her.”

  “But at least my being there would signify something. Here, I just feel like one of those empty butter bowls that Shim discards left and right.”

  Elli looked over her shoulder at the hollow where Shim was napping, snoring like a rumbling dragon. “How does he do it, anyway? I mean, how can he eat like a giant but still look like a dwarf?”

  “Have you seen his rump?” asked Nuic. He blew a spray of seawater into the air, as if he were a whale. “Before long he’ll be as wide as this tunnel, unable to budge. He’ll be trapped.”

  “We’re all trapped,” declared Elli. “And it’s worse than just having no way to escape! Even if we could find some way out of here, we’d still have absolutely no idea where Kulwych and his evil crystal are hiding.”

  “But at least we’d be free.” Lleu straightened his back against the rock wall, causing Catha to flap her wings to keep her balance. “We could go to the last place you saw Kulwych and track him from there, searching everywhere in the Seven Realms, in every tree and burrow, until we found the crystal. Why, I’d climb up the branches of the Great Tree, all the way to the stars, if that’s what it took!”

  His words made Elli stiffen. She’d been missing Tamwyn—nothing more than a mild twinge, but nothing less, either—for almost a week now. And last night, after helping Nuic feel better, she had fallen asleep wondering what had happened to him. She turned to Nuic, and asked, “Could I try again?”

  The sprite understood immediately. He paddled over to the ledge where she was sitting. As he approached, she lifted a dripping foot out of the water. Then, with one of her big toes, she touched the Galator, and closed her eyes. She thought about Tamwyn—his quirky ways, comforting clumsiness, and sturdy ideals. And about how he made her feel: sometimes spitting mad, and sometimes more alive than she’d ever felt before.

  Just as she opened her eyes, the green jewel flashed. Light and color swirled, then coalesced into an image. Tamwyn! He was lying on his back, badly wounded, in a darkened room. Bloody bandages covered much of his body. Someone was kneeling over him, touching his forehead—someone with wings! Or were they just shadows? It was impossible to tell.

  Elli peered into the radiant crystal. How severe were his wounds? How had he gotten them? And who was that winged person? A he or a she? Elli didn’t like the feeling that another woman would be so close to him—and liked even less that she would care about such a thing.

  Abruptly, the image blurred. Green and violet hues swirled around, as if the Galator held a maelstrom inside itself. There was another flash, and the jewel’s normal color returned.

  “Ho ho ho, quite a show!”

  She whirled around, splashing Nuic with her foot, to see who had spoken. To her astonishment—and everyone else’s—there was a bent, balding man standing right behind her on the ledge. No one had seen him approach, nor heard his leather sandals or cherry wood cane on the wet rock. Not even Catha, it seemed. Had they all been so focused on the Galator, or was this fellow more stealthy than a ghost?

  His sallow face creased in a rather silly smile. Then he bowed in greeting, twirling on his cane as he did so, like some sort of children’s toy. When he stood still again, he announced: “Seth be my name, jests be my fame. A pleasure to serve you, and hope not to unnerve you.”

  Brionna, whose hand had moved to the handle of her longbow, eyed him skeptically. “How did you get in here? And who exactly are you?”

  Before he could speak, Lleu cut in sternly. “And stop that infernal rhyming! Pretend to be s
ane for a moment, and just tell us who you are in the Common Tongue.”

  Quite pleasantly, the man nodded. He was hunching, so as his head moved up and down, his whole body bounced like a spring. Tiny silver bells that had been sewn onto the arms and shoulders of his maroon jerkin and his baggy brown leggings jingled. The whole effect was rather comical.

  He cleared his throat, which took an unusually long time. “Ahemmm, as I was saying, good people, my name is Seth. I am a jester, a trickster, a beggar, or a madman, depending on the mood of my audience. And I have no particular plans this day, but to entertain you if you like.”

  “We don’t want to be entertained,” said Lleu. “We want to be freed.”

  Elli traded glances with Brionna. “You didn’t tell us how you got in here.”

  He shrugged, tinkling some bells. “Came here to entertain, I did. I’d heard the dragon king, whatever he’s called, fancies jesters, jugglers, and the like. And pays in jewels, or at least pretty shells. But once I arrived, the brute didn’t even want to see me! He just told one of his guards to bring me down this tunnel—which he did, the scaly scalawag, by the seat of my pants, dropping me off at the food tables over there.”

  He danced a little jig before continuing. “So what else was I to do? I just filled my head with a bit of crabmeat and capers, then wandered up here to join you.”

  Nuic, who had climbed up onto the ledge, shook himself. Colorful droplets sprayed on Elli and Brionna, as well as the jester. But the sprite’s own colors remained murky.

  “You were asked a question,” the sprite declared, “that you haven’t yet answered. Just how did you come to the lair of the water dragons?”

  “Oh, that” He cracked another grin. “I just came through the portal, that’s all.”

  “The portal?” demanded Elli, Brionna, Lleu, and Nuic, all at once.

  Surprised by their reaction, Seth took a step backward. He spun his cane deftly in his hand before leaning upon it again. With a look of genuine puzzlement, he explained, “Why, yes. It’s just over there, in the next tunnel. Opened up just a few weeks ago, I heard one of the royal longnecks say. A bit soggy, you know, being mostly underwater. But it works. Got me here in no time.”

  Elli struck her open palm with her fist. “The green light I saw! I knew it seemed odd.” She spun to face her companions. “If we can just get over there somehow . . .”

  She glanced over her shoulder at the pair of guards who had positioned themselves further up the tunnel. They were chanting, their deep voices pulsing with notes that echoed on the rock walls.

  “If we can just get over there,” she said in a whisper, “we can escape.”

  Lleu pushed himself to his feet. His lanky frame made him a full head taller than anyone else, and two heads above the hunched jester. “Wait, though. We still don’t know where to find the—”

  He caught himself, glancing uncertainly at the jester. “The, er, thing we seek.”

  Elli chewed her lip. “I wish we could find that evil crystal before it’s too late.” Seeing the priest’s face tighten, she shrugged. “It’s all right, Lleu. It doesn’t matter if he knows what we’re after. How could it, if we ourselves don’t have a clue where to look?”

  Lleu blew a discouraged breath. “Guess you’re right. But I’d give anything for just one clue.”

  The jester stroked his chin. “Too bad I can’t help you. I get around a lot in my work, you know. Sometimes I have to leave in, well, something of a hurry, if it’s one of those places where the people want to burn, torture, or dismember the first newcomer they find. Which doesn’t bring them too many newcomers.”

  He shook himself, jingling his bells, as if all his jabbering had made him lose his train of thought. “Anyway, I do wish I could help you. Evil crystal, you say? The only one of those I ever saw you wouldn’t want to go near anyway! Nor that lout with the pale hands who was guarding it.”

  “What did you say?” demanded Elli. “ Who was guarding it?”

  Seth blinked at her innocently. “The lout with the pale hands? Bad tomato, rotten to the core.” His brow and bald head wrinkled as he tried to remember something. “Name was . . . um, Kul, or Kil, or—”

  “Kulwych!” Elli, like the others, caught her breath. This fellow Seth, fool that he was, might have actually happened across the crystal! In that instant, her hopes rekindled.

  “Well?” The jester rubbed his hands together and danced another little jig. “What would you like me to do? Juggle some fish, perhaps?”

  “No,” answered Elli breathlessly. “We need you to tell us where you saw this evil crystal.”

  “That thing?” He waved in the direction of the dragon guards. “As I said, you wouldn’t want to go there.”

  “Where?”

  He smiled meekly. “Shadowroot.”

  Elli blanched. She looked over at Brionna, who seemed no happier. Then, her voice resolute, she declared, “It makes sense that the sorcerer would go there to hide. Well, if that’s where he is, then that’s where we must go.”

  “Wait a second.” Lleu studied the jester suspiciously. “There aren’t any portals in Shadowroot, at least none that I know about. How did you get there? And how long ago?”

  Seth spun his cane nonchalantly. “Oh, just a couple of weeks ago. And I got there by the portal in the upper reaches of Fireroot, the one that overlooks Shadowroot as well. Small matter of a gobsken fortress to avoid, but they haven’t the humor to appreciate a good jester anyway.”

  “Is that so?” asked Lleu, his gaze boring into the jester’s head. He turned to Elli. “Something about this doesn’t seem right to me.”

  “What?”

  The priest scratched his head. “I don’t know, but . . . I’m just not sure if we should listen to anything this jester says.”

  “Very sensible,” commented Seth. “Even I wouldn’t listen to anything I have to say.”

  Elli frowned and said to Lleu, “What choice do we really have? He may be wrong, or crazy, or both—but he could also be right.” She looked down at Nuic. “What do you think?”

  “Hmmmpff,” the sprite said, frowning. “I think it’s complete lunacy to follow this madman anywhere! Which is why it appeals to you, I should add.” He peered at her with his liquid purple eyes. “But the truth is, you’re right. We have no choice.”

  She bent down and picked him up from the ledge. Wet though he was, she pulled him close to her chest. “Let’s hope we survive this day.”

  “I’ll just settle for this hour, Elliryanna.”

  She turned to Lleu and Brionna. “Any ideas how we can get ourselves over to that portal without getting caught?”

  The tall priest nodded thoughtfully. “What we need is some sort of distraction.” He looked at the silver-winged falcon perched on his shoulder. “Wouldn’t you agree, Catha?”

  In answer, the bird screeched loudly. Then she leaped into the air and took flight.

  21 • Swallowed

  Catha went right to work. Screeching wildly, the silver-winged falcon flew down the side tunnel and around the central cavern, diving at waterbirds and surprised dragon guards, causing a considerable stir. The excitement really picked up when she clawed the eye of one dragon, who nearly leaped out of the water and slapped the face of another guard with his great tail. An all-out brawl ensued. Dragons mauled each other with their teeth, smashed ribs and skulls with their tails, knocked huge holes in the cavern walls with their bodies—and sprayed each other with freezing blasts of ice.

  Before long, gulls, cranes, cormorants, egrets, kingfishers, flying crabs, and several huge albatrosses joined in the fray, shrieking as they attacked anything that moved. Roars and cries echoed in the tunnels, along with the resounding crunch of icebergs colliding. Soon it was so noisy that no one could possibly hear Elli and her companions, including the jester, swimming to the portal.

  Even so, their plan almost failed. Not because of their captors, but because of Shim. It was no easy feat to get him to end his nap
and plunge right into the cold seawater. Or to get him to swim over to the place where underwater flames flickered so strangely, throwing bizarre shadows on the tunnel walls. Then came the challenge of getting him—as well as everyone else—to dive down to the shimmering green fire.

  Finally, they succeeded. Following Seth, all of them made the dive. Even as Hargol’s roars of absolute outrage echoed around his lair, the water rippled with the kicks of Lleu, last to leave the surface. Holding Catha in his arms, he swam out of the dragons’ lair—and down to the portal.

  A large air pocket, smelling as resinous as a grove of evergreen trees, separated the flames below from the water above. On a ledge of black rock within the pocket, the companions gathered, dripping like freshly caught fish. Elli glanced anxiously up into the water, knowing that a dragon’s body could appear at any moment.

  “Quick now,” declared Brionna, as green firelight danced along her braid. “Bend your thoughts toward the place we want to go. And think of nothing else.”

  Nuic, riding in Elli’s arm, looked over at Shim and turned his most sardonic orange. “For some of us, thinking of nothing is easy. It’s thinking of something that’s hard.”

  Shim shook his mop of white hair, spraying everyone else with drops. “I knows you is making funs of me,” he grumbled. “I just knows it! If I was still bigly, you wouldn’t dare treat me so disrespootably. Certainly, wetly, absolutely.”

  Nuic shifted to steely gray, with flickers of green from the portal. “Body size and brain size are different, you bone-headed fool! If you—”