by E E Rawls
She knew him well enough to know there was more than what showed on the surface. At heart, Madnes was loyal and caring. But he was also realistic, and to him much of the world was a cynical and dark place.
“Let’s give it a go, Madnes,” she prompted him with a smile. “For Harrey’s sake. You might even enjoy it!”
He stared at her in horror.
MADNES WATCHED THE airship gliding overhead, its massive torpedo-shaped balloon and spinning propellers appearing now closer than ever before. The ground elevation here brought the sky uncomfortably close. But it was easier looking up than it was looking down, and so he kept trying to keep his gaze up.
His feet carried him nervously up the wood planking of a winding staircase, up the side of a steep cliff face. The waterfall’s rush of thousands of tons of water spilling over the cliff and into the depths filled his ears like a giant’s constant rumble. The air felt thick with moisture forming misty clouds of droplets.
Harrey was enjoying himself immensely, head turning every which way as they climbed, and Alice looked awed. So, Madnes swallowed and let his gaze drift down to observe his surroundings.
They were nearing the top of the massive waterfall and its steep cliff face that curved like a giant horseshoe. It dropped the height of several cliffs before cascading deep into the earth down a hole-shaped cavern, where no light could reach. Beyond the waterfall cliff spread a scenic view of rock pinnacles and cliff balconies, and where a chasm ripped open the ground, the waterfall’s submerged river flowed freely out into the open. The river wound its course through the greenery, creating islets, to meet with the sea in the far distance.
The horseshoe-cliff walls rose to either side of Madnes, and everywhere along them adventurers were hiking. Some were even crazy enough to hang by a piece of V-shaped fabric and glide down the scenic cliff and massive canyon to the bits of grassy islands below.
“I refuse to do that,” he said instantly.
“But it’ll be fun!” Harrey pulled him by the arm up the last few steps, and they stood on top of the horseshoe cliff. The river rushed past them with hurricane force.
Madnes’s body trembled like a leaf inside that hurricane. “Your definition of fun and mine are VERY different.”
Harrey waved over one of the Glider Lodge staff, ready and waiting to outfit customers for a scenic flight down the cliff and following the river out. He handed over cash before Madnes could protest.
Madnes felt Alice’s reassuring hand pat his back. “The Drop just looks scary. But we’ll be attached to the safety line. See that rope?” she pointed. It ran from the Glider building and down at an angle like a rollercoaster, slanting through the air toward the low river before leveling out.
“Jumping off a cliff and hoping you can fly your way down...where’s the sense in that?” he muttered.
Alice shook her sun-blonde head.
Before Madnes could urge his feet to run in the opposite direction, he found himself buckled to one of those absurd, death-defying V-shape contraptions called a glider, and both his hands were gripping the steering bar before him.
Harrey went first, his glider attached at the top to the safety zip-line, and launched himself off the cliff edge at a run. Madnes’s lungs flew into his throat in fright, just watching. “Wahoooo!” echoed his friend’s wild laugh.
Alice turned and gave him a wink before she faced the cliff and charged forward, just as Harrey had done. Madnes panicked when the ground left her feet. But she giggled, gliding away like a graceful heron.
Madnes’s limbs shuddered, making his glider’s fabric shake.
“You’re next,” motioned the staff member.
He didn’t want to. Every inch of him screamed against it. But the worry that something might happen to Harrey or Alice while he was here being a lame scaredy cat made him more sick to his stomach.
“Oh the heck with it!” he shouted to the air, and he forced his feet into a run, eyes shut until the last moment. The ground suddenly bid his shoes farewell, and there was nothing but open air and a steep drop beyond his comprehension. The rush stole the scream from his throat, and his mouth hung wide open and silent, eyeballs bulging.
Behind him, the waterfall dropped as he did, and when he turned his face, he could see rainbows scattering the heavy mist rising in clouds. It was beautiful.
Directly below, the cavern hole swallowed the waterfall like a giant gulping mouth. The zip-line angled him down towards it, and Madnes gripped the bar for dear life.
Just as it seemed they might all crash one by one into the monstrous dark pit, the zip-line suddenly rose and leveled out, and they sailed past. Dipping at an angle again, the line carried them through the horseshoe canyon, following the rushing river as it carved its way through the terrain. It was like another world, trees perched on soaring rock pinnacles and cliff terraces. He was terrified and shaking and unexpectedly exhilarated.
It was petrifying. And it was beautiful.
Facing the fear, the unknown depths, and discovering that he was able to fly...it felt like a metaphor for what he was facing with the Madness Solver power. And now, he was actually enjoying the view, despite his hands being frozen stiff to the bar like a dead man’s.
Plok!
Hm? What was that sound?
Rip-p-p-pk!
Black things like arrows ripped through the glider’s supporting fabric.
Madnes’s breath hitched.
The glider descended like a falling bird.
Chapter 11:
Sky Fall
THE FABRIC RIPPED AND popped as a volley of black arrow-like things pelted the glider. It felt like a surreal dream—the glider losing air through the tears, causing it to lose altitude and descend.
Madnes tried not to panic while lifting his gaze to see the rips above his head. Surely, the safety zip-line would stop him from plummeting to his death?
Then he felt a jarring tremor followed by a loud Snap!
The sudden strain had either been too much, or another black arrow had cut the rope. He heard and felt both the clamp and rope that connected his glider to the safety zip-line snap.
There was a momentary pause while he hovered serenely in the air, and then the glider stalled and descended towards the canyon below. His frantic heart leaped up his throat, smothering his scream.
Vaguely he heard something. Alice or Harrey, was it? But both were far ahead and had no way to turn around and help him. What help could they possibly give, anyway? Funny, he’d come along on this trip to make sure they didn’t get hurt, but now he was the one falling to his death.
It wasn’t being the Madness Solver that would kill him, after all. No, just a glider accident.
Heh, it was almost humorous.
Those black arrows, he thought, where were they coming from? One zipped by, its sides lined with black feathers.
Must be from a very large crow. Interesting the random things you notice when you’re about to die.
He looked out to where his friends should still be flying. There was Harrey at the front. And behind him another glider was...falling? He couldn’t tell at first because it fell at the same speed as his. There were rips and holes in the other glider’s fabric, and it was lilting crazily.
‘Alice!’ his mind shouted.
Whatever had damaged his glider had done the same to hers. He couldn’t accept Alice dying with him. She had a long life ahead of her. And he still wanted to keep however much of his own he had left!
The power—he had to use it.
Madnes let down the wall inside his mind which kept the power at bay, and a surge of knowledge and strength came flooding through into him.
You’ve finally let me through, now that you need me, hm? An airy voice spoke inside his head, and the translucent image of a young female with fairy wings glowed behind his eyelids. I suppose I don’t have much choice but to help you. If you die, I’ll have to hop over to someone new—and I’d really rather not, just yet.
A light fla
shed, and his mind and body suddenly began to work without him while he watched.
He tried to ignore the canyon walls around him and the river chasm growing below, as his hands moved on their own—removing his jacket and spreading it against the glider’s thin framework, covering up most of the rips and holes. The updraft rising from beneath him held the jacket in place, and he fished out safety pins from a pocket his mother had stuffed (who knew why). His fingers worked quickly, securing the jacket to the intact portions of fabric. The jacket now acted as a temporary patch, but it wouldn’t last for long if he couldn’t level out the glider. Wind flapped and pushed against the patch work. But there was something he had to do first.
No. It’s too risky to save her. I refuse.
“What?” Madnes shouted at the strange fairy-person inside his head. Somehow she must be linked to the power, or was she the power itself? “I’m saving her—with or without you. You may as well help me so we can all survive!”
Tch. Stubborn humans... But it is one of the things about you that fascinates me, heehee.
Madnes gripped the steering bar and angled it towards Alice’s glider.
The wind roared past his ears, and he didn’t dare glance down at how defined the river and foliage below were becoming.
His mind raced for ideas until he caught up with Alice. Coming from behind and above, he undid the straps that were holding his legs up and let them dangle down. He then reached both his feet through two of the holes in the fabric of Alice’s glider wings and, once through, bent his knees and locked his feet together—basically turning himself into a makeshift clamp; Alice’s glider was now attached to his.
The strain burned his leg muscles, but he refused to crumple and instead drew more power.
His legs steadied, and her glider stopped lilting beneath him. He used his own glider to steer them both and try and level out.
A hawk soared the air not far to the right. Madnes shifted the gliders, steering them toward the bird. There he found what he needed: a strong updraft, which the hawk was using, and it filled out the gliders’ wings and crude patchwork.
The sudden fill of air slowed their descent, and at last, they were gliding—or falling with style. And to anyone watching from the cliffs and ledges around the canyon, it must have looked like a crazy, daring circus performance.
Alice couldn’t see him. The only thing she could see, and knew, was that she’d been falling uncontrollably until a pair of legs came through the glider wings above her head. She recognized the shoes, and she wondered if this was all some terrible dream.
It was a long ride down to the ground, and they had to steer clear of pinnacles and clawing branches. Beyond the horseshoe canyon were patches of clear land, where the cliffs became rolling landscape and stretched onwards toward the sea, the river below racing to kiss its salty counterpart.
Madnes pushed the bar, and the gliders curved down before making a rough landing. He released his leg-hold on Alice’s glider so it could land first. He flew ahead a ways before crashing his glider to the ground.
Bruised and battered held a whole new meaning for him, these past few days.
Alice hopped out, and he hobbled over to her. “Are you okay? No—clearly you’re not, but—”
Alice hugged him tightly, buried her head in his chest, cutting off his sentence. Not knowing what to do, and suddenly feeling awkward and a rising blush coming on, he turned his head up to the sky.
A black winged figure circled in the distance. He couldn’t make it out well, but he could feel eyes on him before it veered and soared away.
‘No, it couldn’t be... Was that Oz?’
The black feathers. He glanced down at a piece of feather still stuck in the fabric.
He wanted to get rid of Madnes—that he expected—but Alice, too?
Madnes couldn’t forgive that; he wouldn’t forgive that! Their quarrel had nothing to do with Alice or anybody else. This was between him and Oz, and he would make him answer for this if it was his doing!
His hand moved to touch the fading claw mark scabs on the side of his face.
Harrey finally made his way through the long grass over to them. He grabbed them by the shoulders, asking over and over if they were really okay.
“I’m fine. Really. Nothing that a few days can’t heal up, anyway,” said Madnes.
“Good. Because I gotta ask you something.”
“What?”
“Is your hat super-glued to you? Because how in the stars is it still on your head?”
Madnes adjusted his maroon top hat, the goggles and decorative gears still in place. “It’s a hatmaker’s secret that I won’t divulge.” He turned to the wrecked glider. “Are we done here? I’ve had enough near-death excitement for one day,” Madnes said and tried to gather up his torn jacket.
“Yeahhh, just one more thing.”
“What now?”
“How did you do it?”
“Do...what?” He blinked at Harrey, wrapping the jacket up nervously into a ball.
“You held up another glider with your crossed legs! Are you kidding me? Anybody else would’ve lost their legs trying to pull off that stunt! You must be super strong. And you managed such a neat landing, too.”
“Erm, well, I wouldn’t say it was neat...”
“But still!” Harrey leaned close. “That isn’t normal, dude. That’s a miracle!”
Madnes fumbled for words. And then the recoil hit him.
He fell to his knees and grasped his wrist. It felt like part of him was being sucked out, his body’s life force ripping from his being and going into the wrist—no, into the clock inked into his skin.
He raised the wrist up to see: The long hand had moved four ticks, and the black ink filling the space of his used-up time widened to fill the gap.
Madnes swallowed and shut his eyes.
“What is that?” came Harrey’s voice beside him. “Say, what’s going on?”
“You cannot tell anyone about the power draining your life—that’s one of the rules,” he recalled Cheshire’s words.
But could he tell them about the power in general?
Should he?
That would mean having to explain Wonderland, too, and the strange situation he’d been caught in. Would it put them in danger to know, or would his friends be better off not knowing?
‘Alice almost died, even though she knows nothing of Wonderland—it didn’t matter.’
His friends were in danger now, whether they knew his secrets or not. So...he may as well spill the beans, right?
OZ ALMOST CHUCKLED, watching from afar in the azure sky. “I’m surprised he survived that... The power truly is incredible.” His gray eyes narrowed. “I’ve rattled his little world, though, and that was certainly worthwhile.”
Madnes wouldn’t rest easy knowing that even his friends were no longer safe—that his Madness Solver job was putting them all at risk, as well as himself.
Friends...hm. Oz wondered how short of a time it had taken for Madnes to forget all about him—back when they were kids—and move on to his new friends...
“Ah, Madnes. You will soon be broken and beg me to take your cruel power away from you. That will be your punishment; I will watch you unravel and beg for your existence to be no more than a bad dream. And then,” his hand clenched, “with the Madness Solver power transferred over to me, I will find her.”
Chapter 12:
Quest for the Goose
MADNES WANTED TO TELL them about Wonderland. About the strange creatures he saw. About this crazy power he was forced to live with until his numbered days came to a swift end.
What came out of his mouth instead was: “It’s...well, it’s this place that...that...”
Madnes had no words to describe it—any of it. How do you explain something so bizarre that people would be convinced you belonged in an insane asylum?
“...It’s this new job I have,” he fumbled. That part was true. “The work makes me strong, I guess, and...the
clock is a symbol-thing for the job.”
There. All true, just vague.
“Huh?” Harrey and Alice both tilted their heads to the side, bewildered.
Madnes fidgeted under their blank stares, then he straightened himself and began the long walk back to The Drop without another word. He didn’t wait for them to follow; his cheeks were red enough as it was.
Why couldn’t he just tell them? ‘Because it sounds too freakishly crazy, that’s why!’
He would have to mentally prepare them first, or give them some sort of proof beforehand. Yes, he would tell them—eventually. When he didn’t look like a buffoon that’d gotten hit over the head with a glider too many times.
THE NEXT MORNING, MADNES opened the glass door to the giant mushroom-of-a-building he was forced to call the Madness Solver Office.
“Did something happen yesterday?”
Madnes stumbled in surprise and caught himself. There was Cheshire, bright and early, and looking dapper as ever.
“Nope. Nothing of importance to you,” he murmured in reply, hanging his top hat on a hook. He was wearing his spare maroon jacket, the other being repaired from the glider ordeal.
The cat adjusted his blue bowtie and eyed him sidelong. “I’m not quite sure how I’m supposed to take that...”
“With fish and chips, if you like.”
“Haha. Clearly the power has been improving your sense of humor.”
Madnes went over to the coffee maker—an odd contraption fueled by steam as it heated and bubbled water before blasting it into the coffee grounds.
He got a full pot boiling. He would need it. Now that school was out for the summer, and Uncle Cosmic kept waking him up at ridiculously early hours to train, the last thing he wanted to do was be stuck inside a musty office lacking air coolers on a muggy day.
He wasn’t sure which was worse: the stuffy scent of the office, or the scorched pavement of the town as it baked under the sun.
