On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness

by Andrew Peterson

  “Slarb?” Tink asked.

  “Yes. I think so. And that thing—Slarb—picked up Nugget and was about to bite him, so, I kicked it in the shin.” Leeli said this as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

  “You kicked a Fang?” both boys repeated.

  “Well, what was I supposed to do?”

  “I don’t know, but that’s about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard,” Janner said.

  “And the bravest,” Tink said.

  Leeli sat with her head down, her long hair almost touching the dirty floor.

  “And the bravest,” Janner agreed after a moment.

  Leeli sniffed and wiped her nose.

  “Hush,” Tink said with a hand on her back. “It wasn’t your fault, anyway. It was that dog of yours,” he said, trying to be funny. Tink regretted it as soon as it came out of his mouth. Leeli sobbed.

  “It’s not like him to run away like that,” she said, and buried her face in Tink’s chest. “What if one of those awful things kicked him over the cliff?”

  “Listen,” Janner said. “Be glad that Nugget isn’t in here with us. We’re the ones who are in trouble. Either we’re about to have the snot beat out of us, or we’re going to be shipped away to Dang. I’d rather not see Dang or the Castle Throg or Gnag the Nameless this week, so let’s hope for torture.”

  When the door to their cell opened, in wobbled Commander Gnorm with Slarb at his side.

  Janner, Tink, and Leeli stood and stiffened as Gnorm regarded them with his greenish scaly arms folded and resting on his large gut like they were resting on a table. He looked them over with black, droopy eyes.

  “Yesss, Commander,” Slarb said, “These are the ones.”

  “And these children somehow left you unconscious in an alley.” Gnorm turned to Slarb with a sneer. “They must be valiant warriors indeed to best two armed Fangs of Dang,” he said, his voice deep and wet-sounding.

  Like bubbling mud, Janner thought.

  “Well, sir—”

  “It would ssseem that you are curiously incompetent if it takes five of you to bring in three children. I sssit on my green rump all day long, growing fatter with every rat I gobble, and I believe I could whip this rabble with my eyes closed. You do have fangs, don’t you, Slarb, you tadpole? And you say these stones came from nowhere, do you? A little rock hits your ssskull and you sleep like babies in the dirt? Did some old mammy come tuck you in?”

  Slarb tried again and again to interject, but Gnorm gained momentum as he spoke until Slarb stood silent, his pale green cheeks puffing. Gnorm had his hand on the hilt of his dagger, itching for an excuse to draw it and bury it in Slarb’s soft belly.

  Slarb gave him no opportunity, however.

  “I beg pardon, Commander. My incompetence is inexcusssable,” Slarb said with his head bowed low. Gnorm grunted, satisfied with groveling. He turned to go with a snort, unaware that Slarb bared his fangs at his back. “What about the children, sssir?”

  The fat Fang stopped in the doorway and looked over his shoulder at the Igiby children on the floor of the cell. He considered them for a moment with his droopy black eyes. “What would you like to do with them?”

  Slarb grinned maliciously. “Commander, if it would please you, I’d like to torture them. The whips, perhaps?”

  Janner’s heart pounded. Tink squeezed Leeli tighter.

  “Would you, now?” Gnorm said coldly. “In that case, don’t touch them. If you tried to whip them, they’d probably bessst you anyway. We’ll have them sent to Dang tonight.” He laughed as he turned away. “Send a crow for the Carriage.”

  12

  Not the Same as Ships and Sharks

  The door closed with a thud, and Janner felt his heart drop like a stone over the cliffs and into the sea. Suddenly a growl filled the air. Slarb arched his back and opened his jaws impossibly wide, baring his fangs and clenching his fists. Janner could see the pinkish muscles in Slarb’s mouth, the black, moist tongue wriggling about like a worm, and worst of all, those yellowed, dripping fangs. He shuddered at the thought of those poisonous teeth biting into his skin, of those clawed hands tearing into his flesh. It was easy to see why it was said that no Fang had ever been killed by a human. Black Carriage or not, any fate seemed better to Janner than dying at the hands of Slarb.

  The Fang strode over to the ring of keys, panting, a bit of poisonous drool dripping from the corner of his mouth. He ripped the ring from the wall, strode to the cell door and jammed a key into the lock, infuriated when the first key didn’t work. Tink and Janner slid Leeli into the back corner of the cell, then stood in front of her, wondering what they could possibly do other than grit their teeth and fight with all that was in them when this maddened Fang burst through the cell door.

  But Slarb never opened the cell. The door behind him opened, and the burly Fang called Brak lumbered in.

  “Hullo, Slarby.”

  Slarb straightened quickly and turned around, hiding the ring of keys behind his back. “Brak,” he said, “I told you not to call me that.”

  “So we get to deport ’em, eh?” Brak said with a hint of glee. “I love watchin’ ’em wriggle when we put ’em in the Carriage, don’t you, SSSlarby?”

  Slarb was straining to speak in a level voice. “Yesss. Deporting them all.” He wiped the poisonous drool from his mouth with his forearm and casually hung the keys back on the wall. “It’s probably worssse for them in the long run anyway,” he said with a wicked grin, turning his black eyes on the children. “Much worse in the long run.”

  The two Fangs left the room. Janner and Tink collapsed to the floor beside Leeli.

  “We have to figure a way out of this,” Janner said, trying again to sound older than he was. “If there’s anything Podo taught me, it’s that there’s always a way out.”

  “But that’s grandpa, a one-legged man playing Ships and Sharks1 with little kids,” Tink said. “This isn’t a game.”

  “I know it’s no game, Tink. But it won’t do any good to argue with someone bigger than you.” Janner punched Tink’s shoulder playfully.

  Deep down Janner didn’t have the slightest idea how they would get out of this mess—and he feared that they wouldn’t. But as the oldest, he felt the need to keep up their spirits. From what he’d heard, much bigger and braver people had been forced into the Black Carriage, so why shouldn’t they? Those bigger and braver people were never seen again, so why should they? All he knew was that it was better to be in a Fang jail cell with a little bit of hope than without it.

  Leeli fell asleep with her head on Tink’s lap, and before long Tink drifted off too. Janner paced the cell for hours, wondering what Podo and Nia were doing. By now they had to know the children were missing, and they likely knew from the townspeople that the children were in the jail. He pulled himself up by the bars in the high window, but it faced the shadowy rear of the jail. There was nothing to see. The cell door was locked fast and the keys were unreachable. There was nothing to do but wait. Tink was right; this wasn’t Ships and Sharks, and maybe there wouldn’t be a way out.

  Janner wished he could sleep like Tink and Leeli, but his anxious thoughts kept him from it. He tried to think about anything but the dreaded Black Carriage that was making its way over dark hill and starlit vale to Glipwood. He thought about how fine his breakfast had been that very morning, and how warm the hearth was in the Igiby cottage, nestled beneath the boughs of Glipwood trees. His heart was sad for Podo, his dear scruffy grandfather, who had lost his wife in the Great War. He was sad for his mother, whom the Great War had widowed. Now they would again be bereaved, all because he had failed to keep a close eye on Leeli.

  Janner sighed and leaned against the wall with his head hung low, thinking of his father. He wished more than ever that he was sailing on a boat in the open sea, and he thought to take his father’s drawing out again before he realized that there would be no way to see it in the dark. Surely his father would know how to escape from this dreary cell and
their terrible ride in the Black Carriage. Or, if he were still alive, surely he would come to their rescue. But young Janner Igiby had no father and very little hope, there with his brother and sister in that bare, awful cell.

  Leeli lifted her head and looked up at the window.

  “Did you hear that?” she said.

  Tink woke up with a start and said, “Pass the gravy.”

  “I think it’s Nugget,” she said. “Nugget! Is that you, boy?”

  Three pairs of eyes turned up to the window. The children listened. They heard a whine and a worried sound somewhere between a bark and a howl. Janner felt happy, though he didn’t know why. There wasn’t much a dog could do for them in their predicament, but knowing that Nugget had come back made hoping easier. Then they heard Fang voices arguing in the outer room of the jail. One of the voices—maybe Slarb—was cut short by a thud and a crash.

  Commander Gnorm growled something about obeying orders, then footsteps clunked toward the door.

  The door creaked open to reveal Gnorm’s chubby silhouette. Janner could see Slarb sprawled on the floor behind him. For the second time that day, because of the Igiby children, Slarb’s head had found itself in the path of a blunt object. Gnorm took the keys off the wall and unlocked the cell door.

  “You’re most fortunate, children,” he gurgled. “Someone thinks you’re worth a few shinies.”

  He wiggled his pudgy fingers at them. They were studded with four golden and bejeweled rings that hadn’t been there before. Glittering bracelets covered his forearm and a golden medallion on a silver chain hung around his neck. The jewelry looked out of place on such an ugly creature. Gnorm swung open the door and waved out the children.

  “So…we can go?” Janner asked timidly.

  “Yes. Out of my sight,” he said impatiently. Gnorm admired his new jewelry while the children eased by. But as Janner passed him, the Fang snatched him by the face and jerked him close. The Fang’s baggy face filled Janner’s vision. He saw his terrified reflection in the black bottomless pools of the Fang’s hateful eyes, felt his claws digging into his cheeks.

  “Touch one of my soldiers again and a thousand chests of gold won’t ssssave you or your family,” Gnorm said in a low, menacing voice. He thrust Janner away so violently that he fell to the floor. Tink helped him up, not daring to look at the Fang or to breathe a word. The boys helped Leeli past the soldiers, past Slarb, who by now had picked himself up off the floor and was seething with anger as he watched the children leave unscathed.

  In the faint lamplight in the middle of the street stood their mother, Nia, whose face was as pale as the moon.

  13

  A Song for the Shining Isle

  Janner, Tink, and Leeli stepped down the wooden steps to the dusty road, looking carefully sideways at the Fangs who lurked on the porch. Janner could hardly believe they were free. Was this a trick of some kind?

  Commander Gnorm waddled out and plopped down in the chair on the porch, still admiring the jewels shining on his hand. Leeli between them, the boys walked slowly to their mother, whose eyes were brimming with tears.

  “Let’s go home,” she said with a strong voice as she put her arms around her children and turned carefully away from the Fangs. They moved down the street in silence, as if they had stumbled upon a sleeping dragon and were loathe to disturb it. Janner wanted to run, to get as far away from the Fangs and the jail as fast as he could. All the children felt that way, but Nia sensed it and held them back.

  She walked her children through the empty thoroughfare of Glipwood with her back straight and her chin thrust out. Quiet laughter drifted from The Only Inn, the lampposts flickered yellow, and the wind whipped up swirls of dustlike ghosts in the moonlight.

  When they were well up the road and out of sight of the jail, Nia spoke first.

  “I don’t know what I would have done without you.”

  At the sound of her voice, Janner, Tink, and Leeli felt a rush of relief, as if they’d been holding their breath underwater and their mother had just pulled them to the surface. “I just don’t know what I would have done,” she repeated. She knelt down, gathering them to her and hugging them tightly. Leeli looked up to see Nugget racing toward her. He was on her in a flash, whining and ferociously wagging his tail, licking not just Leeli but each of them wherever he could find exposed skin. Leeli laughed and tumbled backward as she squeezed Nugget’s neck.

  “Where were you, boy?” she said, rubbing his neck and the sides of his face. Why did you leave us like that?”

  “We looked for you at the cliffs,” Nia said. “Your grandfather and I were worried. But there were so many people there. We waited until after the dragon song and the crowd had mostly gone, but we still couldn’t find you. We rushed back home, thinking that maybe we’d just missed you…” Nia bent down to the little black dog in Leeli’s arms. “That’s when little Nugget here found us. He led me to the jail.” She scratched behind Nugget’s ears. “I made your grandfather stay home. He would have torn the jail to pieces and fought an army of Fangs to bring you home, but it would have just gotten us all killed. So I came alone.”

  “Where did those jewels come from?” Janner asked. “The ones on Gnorm’s hand?”

  Nia looked back toward the jail. “They were stored away in case of an emergency,” she said simply. She looked Janner in the eye. “This was an emergency.”

  “But where did you get them?” Tink asked. “That was a lot of gold.”

  Nia sighed. “From your father.” Nia turned to Janner, clearly wanting to change the subject. “Your cheek.” She touched the bruised and bloodied spot. “Did they hit you?”

  Janner nodded.

  Nia tilted Janner’s head toward the light for a better look, then kissed his cheek.

  Janner grimaced and wriggled away, though secretly he enjoyed the warm feeling it gave him. He wanted to ask more questions about the jewels that came from his father, but his mother had already turned away.

  “And you, sweetie?” Nia asked Leeli.

  “I’m okay, Mama.”

  Nugget was lying on his back in the dust with his tongue lolling out while Leeli rubbed his belly.

  Tink showed his mother the lump on his head, and she winced for him and kissed it.

  “Did you see the dragons? Did you see how they stopped and listened when Leeli started singing?” Janner said.

  Nia looked startled, but she collected herself quickly.

  “That was you, dear?”

  “Yes ma’am.”

  Nia smiled down at Leeli and put a hand on her hair. “It was beautiful.”

  “But why would the dragons do that?” Janner said. Nia’s answer was a shrug. “And why wouldn’t Gnorm have just taken the jewels and killed us anyway?” He felt like every question led to another, and his head was swimming.

  Nia took Janner’s shoulders in her hands and looked him square in the face. “Because I told him I could cook the finest maggotloaf in the four seas and that if he let you go, I’d cook it for him every third day of the week, once the meat had plenty of time to fester. I told him I had a secret recipe that involved hogpig sweat. The gold was just to get his attention, you see. Fangs have a weakness for jewelry.”1

  “You know how to cook maggotloaf?” Tink said.

  “I have no idea. I suppose I’d better learn,” she smiled. “Now, enough questions from you three. Janner, what happened to your neck?” She turned him again into the lamplight to see the bright red splotch on his neck, where Slarb’s venom had dripped on him.

  “Fang venom. From the one called Slarb,” he said, touching his neck with the tips of his fingers. “The one that attacked Leeli.”

  “So that’s what happened,” Nia said. “Why did he attack you?”

  Nia put an arm around her crippled daughter, who recounted the events with Janner and Tink adding bits as the Igibys continued up the lane. Nia listened until Janner told about the two rocks that struck the Fangs in the alley. She stopped walkin
g.

  “And you saw no one? No sign of who might have thrown the rocks?”

  “No one.” Janner looked puzzled. He saw his mother’s brow crease as they continued walking. His head buzzed with questions. Where had she hidden all those jewels—enough to buy half the town of Glipwood? And why did she keep the secret from the family all these years? Couldn’t they have used just a bit of it to make their lives a little easier? Janner had never seen so much gold in one place, and the thought that they had been in his family all these years made him—what? Angry? Thankful? Janner didn’t know what to feel, as if his insides were as clumsy as his outsides. All that gold, all those precious stones, gone. No, not gone. Adorning Commander Gnorm’s fingers and wrists. Janner wondered what their family needed and didn’t have and was humbled to realize that there was nothing. He had to admit to himself that his mother and Podo had provided all that they needed. The jewels wouldn’t have changed a thing, except that without them Janner would still be sitting in that jail cell with his siblings. Still, he thought with a sideways glance at his mother, what else was she hiding?

  But his tumble of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of someone singing.

  On the lawn in front of old Charney Baimington’s2 cottage a small fire was burning. Several people lounged around it, listening to Armulyn the Bard sing. The orange glow of the fire lit his face and cast a large shadow on the house behind him. Armulyn was singing a song of Anniera, and his eyes seemed to glow with their own light as he looked out past the dark around him. It was as though he could see before him the fair island itself with its kingdom of sailors and poets, its high green mountains and shaded vales, the bright city where a good king once reigned and the people sang in the fields while they gathered the harvest. Somehow, Janner felt that it was more than just a song. Armulyn had put his secret dreams to music. Janner felt pulled to those mountains, and he saw it in the faces around the campfire too.