Chapter Eighteen
The Shimmering Path
Trinka awoke the next morning to find that a heavy mist had settled all around the ship. It not only blanketed the surface of the deck, but crept into every nook and niche. It filled Trinka’s mouth and lungs, and as she breathed it in, the heavy mixture of water and air sent a damp, chilly thrill all through her.
Its taste was somehow familiar too. It had the clear, fresh smell of the water and winds of Brace and some of the thickness and lightness of Ellipsis too. Its taste was refreshing―almost delicious―and it filled her up inside like a mouthful of cake, not just a breath of fresh air. For the first time since arriving on Brace, Trinka didn’t feel hungry. She took in another mouthful, thankful that she wouldn’t have to face another seaweed breakfast.
Bram called to her from the other side of the deck to witness the spectacle of seven airships coming toward them. They were hard to see, but faint outlines of their billowing sails and broad, white wings fluttered and shifted in the mist.
It seemed to strange that she had been on one not so long ago, hoping to come here—and here she was. Still waiting, in a way. But was she still hoping?
“Trinka!”
Her thoughts were interrupted by a scuffle near the cargo hold.
Raido and some of the other sailors were trying to get to the jewels, but Nefertari hissed and spit little fiery sparks every time they came near her treasure.
Trinka took the tiny bottle off the peg where she had left it and dangled it invitingly, but Nefertari’s eyes just narrowed.
“Here. This will get her out,” Snorri said as he approached carrying a pot of water. He threw the contents in the cargo hold, and as the cold drops came near the misticat, she fled with a shriek, tearing past them and bolting into the genie purse at Trinka’s side. Trinka writhed and giggled as the creature squirmed inside her pocket. She finally pulled out the purse and dropped the little bottle inside.
“How are we going to get all the jewels out of the hold and onto the airships?” Trinka asked.
“We don’t. The dream merchants will come here and pick them up.”
“Here? You mean, inside the ship?” Trinka asked in surprise.
“Yes, in here, where else?” Raido answered impatiently. “And the inspector will be here any moment.”
No sooner had he said the word than Pellen suddenly appeared in the cargo hold, looking sharply over the load. His back was toward her, and Trinka shrank behind the piles.
“Excellent. Superior quality as always. We’ll take them all,” Pellen announced, and disappeared as quickly as he had come.
“We’re not in Ellipsis, are we? That he can transport himself like that?” Trinka asked, peering up at Raido.
“No, we’re in the elaphromyria,” he answered brusquely.
“You mean there really is such a place?” Trinka recalled the sailors’ stories about how Ellipsis had been created.
“Of course. The boundaries between the worlds are very weak here where the air and water mix. Like the stuff that’s in the traveling talisman you used to get here.”
“But,” Trinka began thoughtfully, “how come I got so sick when I did that and he―?” she stopped abruptly as she realized Pellen could pop in and out of the ship as easily as entering a room because he was so experienced at it. And, unlike her, talented.
“Because it’s safe here, if you stay within the elaphromyria and don’t go flitting about between worlds.”
“You still couldn’t get me to try it,” Vann commented. “I thank my sails we just deliver and the merchants pick up.”
Trinka walked back across the deck to get out of the sailors’ way, and sat down thoughtfully with the genie purse in her lap. All of a sudden, she began rooting through the bag, and at last she found the old ornament with the murky green jewel in the center. In a moment, she had awoken Grble from his nap, and two familiar eyes appeared, wobbling twice as much as they had on land. Trinka knew he didn’t like being out on the ship, but this was important.
“Listen,” Trinka began. “I’ve got an idea. If people can transport themselves in the elaphromyria, maybe if I get enough of it, I can travel to Apostrophe and bring my mom back here. Then she and my dad would have to meet and, maybe she’d remember who she is, and…” Trinka swallowed hard. “And maybe she’d know who I am again.”
Grble’s eyes bobbled as he tried to take all this in.
“Ridiculous, totally ridiculous,” a new voice answered.
Trinka turned her head and saw an oddly shaped talisman staring back at her. He was even shorter than Grble with a large, bobbly head and a protruding hook-like nose. Although the top of his head looked black, like hair, it appeared to have been painted on, and ended in a strange, twisting spiral that came to a rather sharp point. His body, shaped like a large jar, balanced atop a slender pole supported by a single, rubbery foot that looked like an upside-down bowl.
“Who are you?”
“I’m Stanley. Stanley the Whatler.” His body pivoted on its pole as he made a slight bow.
“What’s a whatler?”
“What’s a whatler?” Stanley fumed impatiently. “Only the most useful talisman ever invented. I have more tools at my disposal than… than a hundred talismans,” he huffed. His body suddenly expanded, and his arms spread wide to reveal a sparkling array of unfamiliar gadgetry. Trinka glimpsed the long double prongs of eating utensils and the sharp edges of cutting blades, some that folded out, some with serrated edges, and some that rose and fell in a whirl of assorted shapes.
“Whatlers can catalog books, prepare correspondence, make beds, dispense drinks,” Stanley produced and retracted various claws, pens, grippers, and glasses as he spoke, “slice vegetables in any desired configuration, deliver food trays, unclog plumbing…”
“At the same time?” Trinka wrinkled her nose.
“I assure you, all my functions are completely sanitary,” Stanley sniffed. “Any household would be absolutely delighted to have me. Whatlers were all the rage on Apostrophe, at least until genies came into fashion.” He looked at Ullali, who had tumbled out with him, and drew his hook-nose up haughtily. The absent-minded genie smiled vaguely at him
“Oh,” Trinka answered, unsure what to think of this dazzling display. She turned back to Grble. “So, if I could use the elaphromyria...”
“If even the most experienced people haven’t done it,” Stanley asserted, “it would be absolutely inconceivable that a girl like you could do it. I formally pooh-pooh the idea.” He snapped his body closed again.
Trinka turned to Grble. She could shake off Stanley’s response easily enough, but Grble’s opinion she trusted. He had seen her fail in the airships… was he sure she would fail again?
“Do you think I could do it?” she asked quietly, but before Grble could answer, another voice responded.
“Do what?” Ullali asked.
“Bring my mom here to Brace.”
“Of course you can, dear,” the genie patted Trinka’s arm. “You can do anything if you put your mind to it.” She smiled and continued aimlessly dropping colored scarves all over the deck.
“What do you think?” Trinka persisted.
Grble’s mouth quivered uncertainly and his short legs shook. For a moment, it looked as if he might curl up into his jewel form and never come out again.
“It’s okay, I understand,” Trinka said quietly.
“Of course you can,” Grble answered. “You crossed worlds to rescue me.”
“Here it comes!” Matros yelled behind them.
Trinka looked up to see the airship hovering just above them, the cargo hold dangling below it like a huge white bubble.
The dream merchants suddenly stood side by side on the deck of Bram’s ship, not far from her, their hands raised together. A thick, white mist much denser than the fog all around them swirled through the cargo hold, spinning faster and faster. It lifted the jewels from their stacks and carried them out the cargo ho
ld door and spun them up toward the airship like a glittering, fast-moving cloud. The airship bowed and stretched as the jewels permeated through it as easily as they would have slipped through air or water.
Pellen looked on with satisfaction and, with a curt nod toward Raido, seemed ready to go.
“Wait!”
Pellen turned.
“We have one more jewel,” Trinka stepped forward.
“What are you talking about? I have the exact number written down.” Raido fumed, as he pointed emphatically to the carvings on the wall of the hold.
“No, you’re right,” Trinka quickly soothed. “It’s mine. I… I brought it with me.”
She looked at Pellen. “Will you take it?”
“I’m not sure we’d be interested in anything you’d have,” he began.
“But it’s really huge,” Trinka interrupted. “I got it from the caves of Apostrophe myself.”
“You?” he sneered. “That’s absurd. You must have been on this ship ever since we expelled you from our airship just outside the City of Mirrors.”
Trinka blushed feverishly. She hadn’t meant to make him bring that up.
“It’s the truth,” she persisted. She wanted to get her truthstone, but sadly remembered she didn’t have it anymore.
“All right,” Pellen sighed finally. “Let’s have a look.”
Trinka began emptying fistfuls of talismans from her genie purse, tossing aside bottles and baubles, trinkets and talismans, spilling them all over the deck.
The whole ship rocked as the enormous crystal came loose. It was a good thing the jewel hadn’t landed with its pointed end down or the hull might have been pierced, and Trinka doubted even Spout and Spigot could bail that much water.
“Oooh!” Solange and Delphine gasped in unison as the sailors gaped.
Pellen approached and ran his thin, light fingers over its surface. “It has a crack in it,” he observed dryly, but his eyes betrayed his interest as they flickered over the crystal’s gleaming surface greedily.
“I know. It must have split. There’s more of it.” Trinka shook the bag once more, and the jewel’s outer shell fell to the deck.
“What do you want for it?”
“I don’t want dream dross, I want…” Her voice trailed off, uncertain of how to phrase her request.
“But we are dream merchants,” Pellen explained with a bite of impatience. “That is our trade. I suppose we could take you back with us, if that’s what you’d rather have.”
“No, I don’t want to go back,” Trinka replied firmly. “I will trade you the solid jewel if you fill the outer shell with elaphromyria. I can make my own stories.”
Pellen looked at her in surprise, then something like alarm, then he looked as if he might laugh out loud at her.
“Done,” he said quickly. In a matter of moments, he had filled the outer shell of the jewel with thick, swirling, white mist from the elaphromyria, and Solange and Delphine closed their eyes and concentrated as they laid their hands on it until the top of it twisted closed, forming a massive version of the vial Annelise had given her. And in just a moment more, Trinka was left with what she had requested, as the dream merchants picked up their prize and swiftly disappeared into the mist.
All Trinka wanted now was peace and quiet, but it seemed to be the one commodity that was completely out of supply. Matros and Vann wanted to talk to her about the giant jewel and tried to get her to tell stories about how she had found it. Knop and Thork wanted her to inscribe a record of the incident on the deck where the jewel had almost dented it, and Yerik and Gudlaug wanted to know what she would do with the jewel shell next. Raido only wanted her to pick up the talismans she had spilled all over, the sooner the better, and Snorri wanted Ullali to stop dropping scarves in his soup pot.
Although the ship was always crowded, it had never seemed that nine men took up so much room, nor seemed so hard to find space to sit and think undisturbed. For the first time, Trinka began to appreciate the silence and solitude of Ellipsis. As everyone finally settled back into their routines, Trinka crawled into the empty cargo hold. Her talismans followed and circled around her, resting on her lap or settling down nearby. Grble plunked down at her right arm. Spigot hopped onto her shoulder. Spout rested his head on her knee and promptly fell asleep, dribbling water on her feet as he began twitching in his dreams. Alfredo’s purple and blue flame provided a dim glow in the darkening mist.
Now that she had the giant jewel shell full of elaphromyria, there was only one flaw in her plan to make a traveling charm, really. She didn’t know how to do it. Trinka wished there was a way she could just tell her mother what she was feeling―or even her father, for that matter.
The adults on Ellipsis, especially the teachers, often mind-melded to discuss things with each other without having to be in the same physical space. Trinka hadn’t learned how yet―it was supposed to be easy, but the teachers at the Predilect didn’t consider their students mature enough to use it wisely until they reached the Elite Academy. Most of them had learned at least a little bit about it anyway through parents, friends, or, as in Trinka’s case, older siblings. Annelise had tried to explain to Trinka how it worked and to share her thoughts with her, but Trinka had only succeeded in perceiving a general feeling that was obvious anyway.
The endless, even lapping of the waves against the ship made for a sort of silence. Not as still as the absolute quiet revered in Ellipsis, but a soothing, steady sound. One that let her mind slip away from the water, back to the hot, dry, sandy shores of Apostrophe, back to the palace that perched upon the high, red cliffs, across the garden, and in through the back door.
“I know you’re in there. If I were you, where would I be?”
At first, Trinka pictured the balcony where she had first seen her mother’s sweet young face, smelled her familiar fragrance.
Don’t look for her face, look for her feelings, Trinka remembered Annelise’s advice. When she had seen Ashira that first time, her mother had been facing the sea, looking out at the distant waves, lost in their endless motion.
Just as Bram did when he threw away the truthstone. Maybe if they’re both thinking and feeling the same thing… maybe I can bring their thoughts together.
Trinka closed her eyes and gave away all other thoughts, thinking only of her two parents and what they might be thinking and feeling right now. And then she heard Bram’s voice, seemingly inside her head.
Ashira… is this a dream? Or can I just not forget things that happened long ago? I must still be remembering.
No! Trinka wanted to interrupt her father’s thoughts. You’re seeing her how she is right now. But she kept still. She couldn’t break her concentration.
I keep seeing people who look familiar, yet I can’t quite remember who they are. First that girl, now the sailor in my dreams. Who are they? Why do I feel I should know them?
Why can’t I get her out of my head? She left me and that’s that. I can’t believe she never came back, even to say good-bye to the children. She must be too proud. She always did have a temper.
I feel like something’s missing. Like there’s something I’ve forgotten how to do. Is it living? I go places and do things and see people, but it’s almost like they’re a mirage. Sometimes I don’t feel I’m really here at all, that I’m really somewhere else.
I should have known it wouldn’t last. It was a foolish dream to begin with. We’re from entirely different worlds. We didn’t always agree, but that was the one thing she was right about. We never should have met.
I wonder what would happen if I took a walk, down by the sea. It seems to me I used to do that when I felt angry or happy. But now I don’t feel… anything. Maybe a walk would remind me.
I wonder what would happen if I sailed over there. Just showed up and said, “By the way, remember me? We used to be married and have kids together.’” They’re nearly all grown up now, all but one of them at least. She probably doesn’t even remember you, you’ve
been gone so long, and we’ve been apart so much she probably thinks I don’t care about her at all. Even now that she’s here, I’ve hardly spent any time with her. I meant to. But I’ve been busy… thinking of you.
I wonder what’s beyond the garden, down the steps, toward the shore. It’s been so long since I’ve left the palace, I can’t remember. Surely I must have been there before.
I can almost see her, coming down the stairs.
Toward the shore, as if I’m running out to meet it, or it’s coming up to meet me…
She’s like a vision, like no one else I’ve ever seen.
Maybe it’s the coolness of the sea, but I feel better―freer. Is it just the sea I’ve missed? It’s like an old friend. Like it’s not just something coming to meet me, but someone.
I’ve got to do it. No matter how much it hurts, I have to go there. I have to see her.
“Ashira!” A new voice entered the reverie, at first strange, but then horribly familiar. “Come back inside,” it ordered. “You don’t want to get sick, out in the heat of the day. Why don’t you have a nice, cool drink—?”
“No!” Trinka screamed. Instantly, the world she had built in her mind shattered as the sound of Vashti’s voice, and then her own, interrupted it, like the sound of glass crashing to the schoolroom floor. Trinka felt as if she had been struck in the stomach, and everything from her hands to her eyeballs ached with the effort it had taken to keep such a strong connection, between people so far apart, alive for that long. But more than anything, she ached from the knowledge she had almost made something work, and then lost it.
“Trinka! Trinka!” All of a sudden, Bram was standing over her, gripping her arms. “Where’s your mother? Have you seen her?”
At first, all Trinka could think of was that she had never seen her father so excited before.
“Yes,” she finally answered. “Have you?”
“I think so. I was sitting on the ship, thinking about her, and all of a sudden, it was like I could see her, I could hear her.”
“I can get her back! Maybe I can even bring her here.”
Stanley laughed, a dry, involuntary sort of “ha.”
“It would take someone really powerful to transport people outside the elaphromyria,” he said. “And we’ll be leaving it soon. Better save what strength you have left.”
Hearing that only made Trinka want to try harder than ever, but even she felt the weight of defeat dragging her back down.
She looked up at her father, and for the first time Trinka could remember, she saw water dripping, not just from his sleeves, but from the corners of his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Dad, I…”
“No. I’m the one who’s sorry. I…” her father’s voice faltered, as it always did when he was forced to speak too many words at once. “She’s been gone all this time, and I never did anything to…”
Bram’s voice faded and choked, and this time he gave up speaking and held out his arms to her. Trinka did the same. As she closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder, she felt for the moment that even if nothing else turned out right, at least she was there, at last, with her father.
It wasn’t until they heard the other men on the ship shuffling uncomfortably and quietly clearing their throats that they finally let go.
“There is another way, I think,” Trinka whispered as Bram pulled away.
Her father wiped the side of his face, then brushed Trinka’s hair back from her forehead, his fingers still wet, his eyes looking intently into hers.
“You can go to Apostrophe. Jamilah―she’s my cousin―and I were working on giving her memories back to her. If she remembers the first time you came for her, she might know who you are if you came for her again.”
Bram sat quietly for a moment, looking pale and thoughtful.
“How soon can we reach the shores of Apostrophe?” Thork asked.
“Well, the return trip is always faster once we’ve unloaded the jewels,” Bram began thoughtfully. “If we chart our course carefully…”
“And you can bet we’ll tell enough stories to bring the wind from every wave on the sea,” Vann interrupted.
“Hear!” the other men echoed in agreement.
“Just a minute,” Raido objected. “This crew isn’t on deck for personal expeditions. I’ll say where this ship goes.”
There was a lengthy pause as everyone turned to stare at him.
“We’re going there anyway,” Thork pointed out finally. “We’ve got an empty cargo hold waiting to be loaded.”
All eyes watched and waited as Raido’s gruff face paused thoughtfully.
“Well,” he said finally. “What are you all waiting for?”
All hands scrambled. All men hurried to their posts. Spigot, Spout, and Butwhat rushed about eagerly and aimlessly.
“Don’t worry, Trinkalassa,” Bram assured her. “We’ll sail faster than we’ve ever sailed before.”
Trinka nodded weakly and hoped it would be fast enough.
Trinka and the Thousand Talismans Page 21
