Under pressure, she flat out lied again. "The pedestal was already empty when I got here.”
Her claim was met by icy silence.
“Maybe Budd ate it or something,” she suggested.
Bone’s brow tilled into thick furrows. “It’s always something with this one. She knows exactly where the Elboni be. This Tullahn may be tender on the outside, but she's already hard on the inside and rotten too, like the rest of her kind.”
"Rotten?” Glory gave an incredulous frown. “You're the ones kidnapping little girls out of their beds and eating rabbits... (gulp) ...alive.”
“You’re not so little,” Bone said, saluting his hand from his forehead to Glory’s forehead, emphasizing that she was actually a speck taller.
“Enough,” Needle said. “We be having no choice. Take her home.”
“Home, whew.” She could feel the tension drain away, every muscle relaxed a little. “If we hurry I can be back in bed before anybody notices I was gone.”
“Not your home, Rock Collector,” Bone snarled, showing his gnarly teeth. “Ours.”
“Uh-oh.”
Needle and Bone squeezed her between them, holding onto her arms in case she tried to bolt. She tried to wriggle away, but didn’t dare scream for fear of alerting Budd.
“Extra motion increases the effects of Paraplume lag.” Needle informed. “So try to relax.”
White Feather took the white feather from his hat, drew a large circle in the air and said, "Issatti". Glimmering waves filled the spot. White Feather walked into the circle and was absorbed by the waves. Bone and Needle followed, tugging their hostage with them.
WELCOME TO WYBB
PART 2
Chapter 16
Bone clutched Glory’s forearm as they passed through the shimmering circle. Everything flashed brilliant white. When her eyes adjusted she found herself in a tunnel made of colored ribbons of light. A resonating hum passed through her body making her feel peculiar, but the star riders continued to ruthlessly pull her along.
Between different bands of color, she caught glimpses of jungles, snow-capped mountains, and endless stretches of outer space. She stopped to watch as two triangular metal ships hovered over a red planet hurling beams of light at one another.
“Whoa,” she marveled. “Just like on Galactic Space Heroes.” Clash would be so impressed.
“We’re traveling through the knot,” White Feather informed.
He held a finger over his mouth. Then he pointed between two ribbons of green. Atop a rocky plateau, rising from the center of a vast purple ocean perched a gleaming golden palace. Hundreds of frilly spires rose from it, lancing the aqua sky.
“This way,” said Bone, ushering Glory toward the scene.
“I feel dizzy.”
“Talking makes it worse,” Needle informed.
Pressure squeezed from every side. She felt like a ripe melon about to burst. Needle shoved her forward between two shades of green. The discomfort ended and suddenly they were standing inside a huge cathedral, probably the one she had seen atop the rocky plateau.
She wobbled like a kid in her mama’s high heels.
Needle offered a steady hand.
The room was as spacious as a professional sports arena, but vastly more remarkable. Four-story high arched windows lined the walls. Rainbows hung like valances at the top of them. Through the glass, the intensely blue sky touched the violet-colored ocean below. Coppery clouds drifted past the windows like cotton candy.
Sunlight bounced off the pristine white marble floor inside the cathedral. The walls leaned inward as if bowing in worship toward the center of the room, reminding her very much of the way the walls inside the enchanted cavern had bowed to the Elboni.
“Whoa,” Glory whispered again. “It’s incredible!” An indescribable airy joy lifted her spirits, making her forget her woes, if only for the moment. “How far did we travel?”
“An infinity miles and none,” said White Feather. “For we have entered the green side of the Elboni, yet we remain firmly inside Queen’s Mesa.”
“Huh?”
“What do you think of this place?” Needle asked.
“I don’t get how we got here, but this is the grandest place I’ve ever seen.”
The Wybbils nodded in approval.
Bone released her arm. “’Tis good to be home.”
“Aye,” agreed the others, their eyes misting over.
They turned to the center of the cathedral, got down on their knees, and kissed the floor three times each. After they stood, White Feather puffed out his chest, and said, “This cathedral boasts seventy-two windows in all, including the four glorious rose buds.”
“Seventy-three if you count the split arch as two,” Bone added.
“Regardless,” Needle said. “There is no other place quite like it in the spectrum.”
Glory turned in place to take it all in.
Beyond the walls in the shimmering sea below a clipper ship with a rainbow sail bobbed over the waves. Even within the confines of the building, the faint smell of salty sea spray hung in the air.
"Is this heaven?”
For the first time, the Wybbils’ grins didn’t feel threatening. They seemed quite happy here, almost childlike in exuberance.
"Not quite heaven,” Bone explained. “But it sure feels like paradise to me.”
“As an emissary my life is not my own,” Needle remarked. “If I had my way, I’d never leave this world again.”
“We are in North Star Cathedral in the Sea of Serenity,” White Feather added. “Your cavern and this cathedral are mystically superimposed over one another. Outside and all around laysWybb, our home planet.”
"Wybb? Impossible. Only a second ago we were on Tullah."
"Wybb.” White Feather said stomping the floor of the cathedral. He held up his white feather.
“Amazing.” As hard as it was to believe, everywhere she looked proved he was telling the truth. “Your white feather, I mean the Paraplume, brought us here?
White Feather nodded.
“Where did you get such a thing?”
“From where all great gifts come from—the Elboni. Through it, I’m able to bypass time and space to get from one side of the cosmos to the next.”
Glory nodded, but didn’t understand. More questions were on her tongue, but the view beyond the windows caught her attention. A yellow flying craft circled the cathedral. From the side it looked like a spongy mattress, but as it turned in the, air she saw it was shaped like a triangle, a big flying wedge. One Wybbil rode at the helm, while one, two, three...ten Wybbils rode cross-legged behind him. The thin wedge glided through the open. A trail of bubbly vapor streamed in its wake.
“Wild,” Glory said. “I’ve never seen an airplane like that before!”
“It’s called a whifferdil,” said White Feather. “Under normal circumstances the sky would be swarming with them, bringing pilgrims to the cathedral, but we’ve had to halt tours because of one troublesome Tullahn.”
Just then, the whifferdil began to tilt into a dangerous lean.
“Someone’s going to need to turn them back,” Bone said to nobody in particular. “Pilgrims aren’t allowed here until the Elboni situation resolves.”
It looked like it might crash. “Do they always fly so, uh, crooked?” Glory asked.
“No.” White Feather said sharply. “If the pilots be struggling to keep their crafts airborne then Wybb’s connection to the Elboni be unraveling faster than expected.”
The whifferdil leveled at the last second, gained altitude, and then circled in a controlled descent.
"That’s some fancy flying,” Glory said. “I don’t see any wings, propellers or engines. So how do they go?"
“The whifferdils be superior to any aircraft on Tullah,” White Feather said. “Instead of clunky machines that run on noxious chemicals, our entire transportation system is powered by magic.”
Clunky, noxious—what a rude way to desc
ribe Tullahn technology. She must defend her world’s honor. “Personally, I’d rather be wrapped in metal with engines under my feet, and look, the passengers on the whifferdil aren’t even strapped in. That can’t be safe. If you ask me, it looks like a flying hunk of cheese—totally weird.”
White Feather narrowed his eyes and asked, “Which is weirder—placing one’s faith in pieces of metal junk that go ping, pop, whirl? Or having faith in the source of all magic?”
“I suppose it depends on what a gal’s used to.”
“Rock Collector,” Needle joined the conversation. “All dimensions be immersed in the magic, even yours, but the power manifests differently in each one.”
“If you say so.”
“Let me finish. Every world in the universe be ordered according to the designs of a greater magic. Ye Tullahns live in this magic, be held up by it, be surrounded by it and sustained, but ye go your whole lives not knowing it’s there. Born unaware, ye die unaware, never able to use the magic at will.
“See the whifferdil pilots out there…as we speak they call upon the magic to power their crafts. If Wybb’s link to the Elboni closes all the way, more than just our transportation system will shut down.”
"On Tullah, we don't need magic to fly," Glory said with a toss of her head. “We use our brains. It’s called science.”
“So sad for you,” said Needle, wrinkling his nose in distaste. He pointed at a gold post taller than her head smack in the center of the chamber. “The Elboni belongs there.”
Glory made a step toward it. Her kneecap hit something hard. “Ouch!” She looked down. Nothing was there. “Huh?”
“Observe,” Needle said, shaking a pouch of orange dust into his palm. He blew. The powder scattered in the direction of the empty post and settled around it, revealing a rectangular barrier the size of a garage.
"A force field?"
"Aye. The rectangular shape of the field deflects all words uttered in the Elboni’s presence.”
Glory jerked to attention. “Did you say the shape of the field matters?”
“Aye.”
Glory knew useful information when she heard it, but was unsure how it applied to her mission. In Treasure Quest, when one looked for gold, the important thing was to keep digging, and in this world, her tongue served as shovel.
“Why does the Elboni need to be protected from words?” she asked.
“Not all words, Rock Collector, just certain ones, and it’s not the Elboni that needs protecting. The barrier prevents unsavory sorts from using its power for ill gain.”
“But I thought only Wybbils knew how to use it.”
“Not just any Wybbils, only the star riders,” Needle explained.
“Can only Wybbils be star riders?”
“No.”
“So the ritual isn’t just a Wybbil thing?”
“I suppose not.”
“Only a star rider can touch the Elboni without dying.”
“Not even a star rider can touch it with bare hands and live,” Needle assured.
“Are you sure?” Glory had touched it and lived. So why were they lying?
“As far as we know, but there are worlds in all shades of the spectrum waiting to be explored. Although the Elboni’s substance remains the same in every world, each world interacts with the magic differently. So perhaps one day we will find someone who can survive the Elboni’s touch.”
She wanted to tell them about her own experience, but they’d only call her a liar.
“You see,” Needle continued. “On Tullah the Elboni appears as a lovely indigo rock, but here on Wybb it looks like a beautiful swirl of green light. It reflects the appearance of each world it resides in, so it has many forms, yet in essence, the Elboni never changes. Do ye see, Rock Collector?"
“No. But it doesn’t seem fair that some worlds get to interact with the magic however they want and mine can’t.”
“Trust me,” Needle said. “Tullah’s not for such power.”
"If you say so.” Glory glanced around at the golden scrollwork running along a pearly buttress. The building was lovely and serene. The sea outside the window looked calm. “I don’t get why you need the Elboni back so badly. Everything here looks like it’s doing perfectly fine without it.”
"When ye removed it from the pedestal in your world, ye removed it from the pedestals in all connected worlds. This brings great danger to many places, including Wybb. If the Elboni stays separated from its pedestal for too long, this planet will lose her magic. Understand, the Great Elboni Stone sends its power to every place in Wybb by way of the pedestal.”
“Why?”
“Because this is the way our world was ordered.”
“Oh?”
“Look at it this way. The pedestal serves as the main artery of this world. Elboni functions as the heart, pumping its life force to all. When ye took it, ye ripped the heart out of this world. As we speak Wybb bleeds— magically speaking.”
Guilt stalked the edges of her mind, but she reminded herself how the Wybbils couldn’t be trusted. They had lied about being elves. And let’s not forget the fact that they were kidnappers. The story about their world dying could very well be a ploy to garner sympathy.
“I don’t understand how someone moving a rock in one world would move the Elboni in another.”
“It’s just the way things be,” Bone replied. “The Elboni be the Elboni no matter what world it resides in and how many.”
“If the Elboni is so great, why doesn’t it find itself and simply float back to the pedestal?”
“Ye ask too many questions, Rock Collector,” Bone grumbled.
“Maybe you don’t ask enough.”
“She’s an impertinent fellow.” White Feather said.
“Aye,” the other two agreed.
“I suppose the stone could float back if it wanted to, but who be we to question?” White Feather went on to answer. “An emissary’s duty involves diverting chaos and maintaining the peace. Not questioning the order, but preserving it.”
“So here we be.” Glory said. “But, if you please, may I ask one more thing?”
The Wybbils groaned.
“If the Elboni exists in all dimensions at the same time doesn’t that mean the Elboni is still here on Wybb somewhere?”
“Aye,” Needle said. “But all our efforts to find it have failed. The search continues on Wybb, and on several worlds, by other teams of star riders. Going through ye—the one who took it in the first place—seems to be our strongest lead.”
“Or so we thought,” Bone added. “It’s as if the Elboni doesn’t want to be found. Time be running out for Wybb.”
“So the Elboni could save Wybb, but for some reason it doesn’t want to?” Glory scratched her head in confusion. “Isn’t that kind of mean?”
“We don’t understand the Elboni’s ways,” White Feather added. “Regardless, we be obligated to do whatever it asks of us.”
Glory gave them an incredulous look, thinking they were nuts for obeying a rock. In fact, she doubted their story all together, and ignored the little voice inside that repeatedly asked what if they’re telling the truth?
“Look.” Needle pounded the side of the needle in his hand, saying Nonru until it glowed serene shades of green. "Its brightness has already diminished."
Another ploy, but she refused to take the bait. "Does your spike need batteries?”
“Spike?” Needle inquired.
Glory pointed toward the silver spike in his hand.
“Ye mean this?” Needle held it up. “This be the Nightburner. And as long as I live it shall burn, unless of course, my planet dies."
“Must be nice to have a free and never-ending source of light.” Glory’s eyes lingered longingly over the Nightburner. How such an object would ease her mind in the deep dark recesses of Tullah.
“Why not plug the pedestal with another stone to stop the bleeding?” she suggested.
"Only the Elboni will do."
&nb
sp; "What will happen to Tullah if the Elboni isn’t returned?"
"Nothing," Needle said.
"Why should I be worried about nothing?”
"Nothing’s not good," White Feather explained. "If the Elboni doesn’t return to its proper place, your world will never discover the Elboni’s essence, trapping it forever in a darkened state.”
So far her questions hadn’t uncovered an additional condition, but surely something useful was hidden between all data she’d collected just now. If only she had the time to study, ponder, dissect. Oh, how she wished Clash were here to help her sort it all out. Better yet, Grandpa on one of his clear-minded days.
"You guys are making everything too complicated.” Glory knew coming out and saying it was a risk, but sometimes the blunt approach worked best. “Give me the never-ending supply of credits that I asked for earlier, and I’m sure your Elboni will turn up lickety-split.”
The Wybbils crossed their arms over their chest.
“Okay, maybe never-ending is a little greedy. I’ll settle for five million.”
If looks could kill, she’d be dead right now.
“Okay,” she rubbed a finger under her collar. “Four million credits, and that’s the lowest I’ll go. It’s pretty simple—a wish in exchange for the Elboni. ”
The three Wybbils hands went to their ears.
“We told ye that word is forbidden here,” said Bone.
“Oops, I forgot.”
“Words are very important in Wybb.” Needle said. He spelled the word letter by letter. “W-i-s-h be a very powerful one, so we prefer to use other terms, such as magical request.”
“How about the word binding?” Glory fixed her eyes on Needle’s watermelon face trying to see if that got a rise out of him, hoping it would mean she was getting closer to unlocking the binding ritual. “Is that allowed?”
“She’s relentless,” Bone said with a roll of his eyes.
“What about three million? I bet you could scrounge that up even without magic.”
Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) Page 14
