by KD Blakely
“Put up or shut-up,” Ray said, and laughed. It was a mean, ugly sound — like you’d expect from something monstrous on TV, not a boy you saw every day at school.
I risked a quick glance through the window and saw Polly put her hand on Ray’s arm. “Come on, Ray, stop arguing with Carly. I’m getting bored. Let’s go home and play video games.”
“You go,” he said. “I’m gonna make them tell me what’s going on!”
“What if they’re not coming today?” Andrew looked frustrated. “I say who cares. We’re here. Let’s look through this dump again, maybe we’ll find something worth taking.”
Afraid of being caught listening outside the window, I whispered to Doug, my voice quavering a bit though I tried to stop it. “Should we try to sneak by and go ‘you know where’?”
“Not yet,” Doug murmured. I wanted to argue. My jaw was clenched tight to hold back the words that were scratching at my throat to get out. Only fear that Ray would hear me kept me quiet.
Ray must have decided to ignore Andrew. “I was throwing rocks at that stupid rat — the one that keeps bugging me. It finally ran away. Maybe it’s learned its lesson.” Ray laughed and Andrew joined in.
Then Ray said, “Why are you such a wuss, Dandy Andy? When’re you gonna make that stupid donkey leave us alone?”
“Are you kidding? I’ve yelled and I shook a branch in its face. It just keeps coming back. I could try rocks next time.”
Ray laughed again. “Hey Carly, no whining if we throw rocks at that stupid baby cow the next time it comes around.”
“Those animals aren’t hurting either of you. Why can’t you just leave them alone!”
“Cause they bug me. That’s why.” Ray sounded disgusted. “None of them come close enough for me to hit anymore. I was hoping for some target practice today.”
Doug and I looked at each other and grinned. I felt like doing a happy dance, but was afraid of being discovered. Ray and the others still didn’t understand how familiars could help. And if they were throwing rocks to keep them away, it didn’t sound like they’d get any help in the future.
“They’re all so stupid,” Ray grumbled. “How’d they find this place? And how do they keep us out most of the time? One of them is gonna tell me. Or else.”
“Someone must have told them about it,” Polly said. “Cause Ray’s right, they’re stupid.”
Olivia bristled and started to straighten up. I caught her arm, afraid she’d go in and argue. She scowled at me, then leaned back against the cabin with her arms crossed over her chest, a sour look on her face.
All this time, Andrew had been ransacking the cupboards in the kitchen. His search grew more uncontrolled the longer it continued. I flinched as I listened to the sounds of things being knocked over and thrown, punctuated by the distinctive sounds of glass breaking and wood splintering.
Guilt squirmed through my stomach. How could we just stand here while they destroyed Ghalynn’s house?
I felt even guiltier when Faith, terrified as she was by Andrew, whispered, “Should we…I mean, do you think that…you know…should we try to stop them? Or something?”
“No.” Doug’s voice barely qualified as a whisper. “We need to find out what they’re going to do next!” He was utterly determined.
I peeked inside when the sounds stopped. Andrew was standing in the middle of what used to be Ghalynn’s kitchen. The cupboards were empty, the contents strewn over the floor. Andrew was looking around, obviously trying to find something else to destroy. That’s when he noticed a small cupboard nearly hidden at the far end of the kitchen.
Two quick steps brought him to it, and he ran his hands over the surface, searching for a handle. When he couldn’t find one, he grabbed the edges of the cupboard door and pulled. There was a metallic shriek, and the hinges protested as he wrenched the door open.
Andrew hefted a glass jar filled with a deep turquoise liquid in his hand, and then threw it to the wood floor. The glass shattered and the liquid spread, gleaming in the light from the open window. He began heaving out jars filled with different strangely colored fluids. They crashed onto the dusty wood, shattering into pieces. The contents splattered over the floor and walls. Odd smells rose from the mess. What started as flowers and spices that didn’t go well together quickly grew more and more disgusting.
I was glad I was outside the cabin.
Some of the colorful puddles began to change, turning repulsive brown or bilious green where they touched. Some were developing a scummy black foam on top. The cabin floor was filling with a nauseating brew that steamed and bubbled with the stench of rot and mold and sulphur.
As the liquids mingled, swirling clouds of violently colored vapor began to billow through the room. Where some colors mixed, the vapor twisted into monstrous shapes.
Andrew and the others were choking and coughing. Ray managed, “Forget this! They’re not coming.” He turned and stumbled towards the exit, the others following behind.
There was nowhere to hide. I threw myself flat on the ground, and my friends pressed close around me. We peered after the Rejects as they moved in the direction of the fig tree.
That’s when Pyg took off after them.
“Oh no,” Olivia breathed. They were far enough away that they couldn’t have seen where Pyg came from. But this time, Andrew must have seen Pyg coming.
Andrew stooped to get a rock as Pyg flew overhead. None of the owl droppings hit Andrew, but Ray’s head got really messed up. Ray shouted and Andrew heaved the rock at the owl. Pyg shrieked in pain as the rock clipped his wing.
Olivia had to clap her hands over her mouth to hold back a scream, and made little whimpers of distress as the owl flew awkwardly into the trees next to the road.
“Go get him,” Ray yelled. “I’m going to kill it.”
“No way! I’m not getting off the road,” Andrew told him. “I hit it, what more do you want?”
I couldn’t hear Ray’s response as he turned to go. They headed for the tree and didn’t turn back. As soon as they were out of sight, Olivia hurried to the edge of the road where Pyg had disappeared. She called and we all waited anxiously for a sight of the little owl. Olivia was vibrating with tension.
When Pyg hooted mournfully and flew onto Olivia’s shoulder, she gently grasped the tiny bird and checked it carefully. “No blood. Thank goodness! Pyg, you should never do that again. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
Olivia’s face was pale when she glanced at me. “When that rock hit Pyg, I couldn’t breathe for a second. It felt like that rock hit me, too.”
I’d’ve hugged her, but she still had the now blissful owl clasped carefully in her hands. “I hate Andrew!”
Brady sat down and cleared his throat. “Can we discuss what just happened here?”
Chapter 24
When You Wish Upon A…Map?
Brady cleared his throat. “Ray’s focused on getting information from us. I believe he necessitates extreme caution when we’re in here.”
“Yeah, like I’ve been saying,” Doug told him.
I said quickly, “I don’t agree. We need to watch out for Carly.” When Brady started to speak, I continued quickly, “Carly’s the one who figured out how often we come here. She’s smart and she’s watching us.”
“They’re all a problem,” Olivia said. “We need to pay attention to each one of them. And to any strange things in here. Who knows what’s important. Like that smoke!”
We all looked back at the cabin where vapor still poured from the door and window. It moved slowly, writhing and coiling into grotesque, almost recognizable shapes.
“I don’t believe in ‘strange things’,” Brady told her. “I do math and computer science. I do logic puzzles.” He ignored Olivia’s snort. “Logically there must be rules to this place. Once we know the rules, we’ll know what’s important.”
“Okay, maybe there are rules. But strange things can happen! Maybe not at home, but they happen in he
re,” I said.
Brady shook his head in frustration. “I do not have to believe in strange—“
Doug interrupted, “Brady’s actually right about rules. Ronny told us there are rules here.”
A slow smile lit Brady’s face. “Rules are good! Rules make it a logic puzzle. We just need to know the rules and how they work.” He thrust out his hand. “Let me see the map, okay? Maybe it’ll make more sense to me now.”
After digging in his pocket, Doug pulled out a creased square of paper and tossed it to him. Brady smoothed it out, grimacing at the jagged tear in the middle of the page. He turned it around slowly, squinting in concentration, then pointed to the upper right corner. “What are these words?”
I shrugged. “Ronny didn’t know. They’re in a language she called Standard Runic, but she said they aren’t in the right order. They don’t spell anything.”
“Let me see,” Olivia said, and gazed down at the map.
“Like a code!” Brady’s voice cracked with excitement. “Can I have my own copy? I’ll try to decode it before we come back next time.”
Doug narrowed his eyes skeptically, but said, “Keep mine.”
“Thanks. I always thought it would be cool to have a treasure map. I just wish there were markings to show where Ray and the other are, like the Marauder’s Map. Then we could always tell where they are in here.”
Olivia made a choking sound and bent over, resting her hands on her knees, shaking her head.
“Are you sick?” I asked, alarmed.
“No,” she gasped. “I’m fine. I guess I…stopped believing. In wishes.” At my blank look, she straightened up and said, “Brady, its obvious things get totally strange in here.” She scowled when we only acted confused. “Ronny told us about triggering existing spells, remember? Well, Brady just did.”
Olivia rolled her eyes, and then stabbed at the map with her finger. There, four small red dots were moving down the road close to the elaborately drawn tree.
I grinned. “We can see the Rejects now. That’s so cool!”
Faith said hopefully, “Maybe it’ll work at home, too.”
“Doesn’t look like it,” Olivia said, nodding at the map as one after another the red dots touched the tree then disappeared. “Our genius only wished we could tell where they are in here.”
An embarrassed flush stained Brady’s face a deep red.
Unexpectedly, Faith spoke up for him. “I don’t think it would work outside Chimera anyway. Santa Ramona doesn’t show on that map.”
“Faith’s right,” Doug said, frowning at Olivia. She sighed, crossing her arms over her chest, and turned away.
“Well, that’s that,” I said, kicking angrily at the dirt road with the toe of my shoe. “It’s getting too late now. We’ll never make it to the cave and back now. At least next time we can use Brady’s map to keep away from the Rejects. No matter what else happens, next time we’ve got to get to the cave and find Ghalynn!”
As we made our way back to the tree, Olivia stopped sulking long enough to ask, “So did we learn anything?”
Faith grinned. “Bats won’t get stuck in my hair.”
“Hah! I learned I can make things happen by wishing.” Brady looked down at the map and shook his head. “Wishing! It’s scientifically impossible. It’s just…it’s inconceivable.”
In a terrible imitation of Inigo Montoya, Olivia quoted, “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” Olivia shouldn’t sing or do impressions! Dropping the accent, she said smugly, “It can’t be impossible if it happened.”
I grinned at him and ignored Olivia. “You keep forgetting. This place runs on magic, not science.”
“Wishing,” Brady muttered. Then he continued, “It’s kinda disturbing, you know? We need to be very specific when we wish for something in here.”
I was tempted to say I wished we were already back at the tree, but Brady might not find that very funny. The walk back seemed longer than usual, maybe because I was so disappointed we hadn’t made it to the cave.
I might have wished it anyway, but I was afraid it could go really wrong.
As I’d promised, we took Brady to Chris and Ronny’s after school on Monday. When I introduced him, Ronny stared at him intently for a moment, then nodded and asked him to enter. Brady’s eyes were wide with amazement as he stared around at the pictures and decorations, or maybe it was amusement. Brady had made it clear he didn’t believe in all this magic stuff.
Ronny sat forward and asked if we had anything to share about our last trip to Chimera.
After filling her in on what happened, she sat back with a sigh and her eyes looked miles away. “There is still no sign of anyone there,” she said sadly, speaking to herself.
Brady cleared his throat. “It might help if I knew more about that place.”
Her eyes snapped into focus. “Perhaps it will help if I give you our history. This is our story as my mother told it to me when I was young.” She settled back and closed her eyes. Her voice changed, becoming deeper and slower.
“On the day of Chimera’s creation, we gathered together by the hundreds. I know not what the humans would have done if they had come upon us; all of mankind’s dreams and nightmares gathered together in one place. But we had chosen our location well, far from human villages, rarely visited by men.
Beings of magick who agreed to leave the human world stood in a far-flung circle. The land was flat, as it was important there be no hills to disrupt our spell.
Reaching out together, our magick flowed across the ground, pooling in the center. Then we pulled with every bit of power we possessed, the effort so great some perished.
Several of our number, much stronger in magick than others, exerted greater force. They reached deeper, pulling greater portions of the land.
We tore it from the human world, placing it in the opening we had created, suspended between normal space and time. The jagged roots of that ground, where magick had pulled in unequal measure, forced parts of our new land up. This is how our hills and mountains were formed, where none previously existed.
Thus, from that piece of earth, was our world created.”
Ronny opened her eyes, which looked slightly damp. “I grew up hearing that story from my mother.”
Brady pushed his glasses up, but not before I saw the intense curiosity in his eyes. “Why didn’t they just create the land when they created that opening?”
Ronny’s face went blank and she blinked. “But we cannot create something that did not already exist. It’s the first rule of magick.”
“Then how did you create a place?” Brady asked, running his hands through his hair. He really shouldn’t do that. It stood out in strange spikes all over his head. Like he’d stuck his finger in an electric outlet.
“Creating a pocket out of time and space is empty. You are not creating anything.”
“Cool story,” Faith said quickly. “Better than the stories my mom used to tell, like Hansel and Gretel.”
Ronny made a disgusted sound in the back of her throat, rather like a cartoon cat trying to cough up a hairball. “Hansel and Gretel is one more story designed to make children fear witches. Like Little Red Riding Hood was designed to make them fear werewolves!”
Doug interrupted, “I thought it was a wolf.”
“What wolf could talk and put on clothes? It was meant to be a werewolf. My Aunt thought it was really amusing, but I never did.” Ronny took a moment to unclench her fingers before she said, “I am sorry. I know I sound angry and I do not mean to. It is just, those stories are about beings I care for.”
“You know werewolves?” Faith sounded breathless.
Olivia and I looked at each other and rolled our eyes. We must have looked like we were trying out for a synchronized eye rolling contest.
“What’s the matter?” Doug asked, sitting on the edge of his seat.
Olivia raised one eyebrow and shook her head. “She use
d the ‘W’ word! We’re in for it now.”
Faith didn’t even bother looking at us. “Very funny!” Keeping her eyes on Ronny, she leaned forward, a dreamy look stealing over her face. “My favorite stories are about witches and vampires and werewolves.”
Ronny smiled at Faith and chuckled. “I know all three.”
“So what kind of creatures do you know?” Doug asked, leaning forward on the edge of the couch. He needed to be careful. If he sat any further forward, he’d end up on the floor.
She ticked each name on her fingers, like she was reading off a list. “Elves, fairies, goblins, trolls, ogres, dwarves, brownies, unicorns, gryphons, dragons as you know, merpeople, dryads and centaurs. Also elementals – salamanders, sylphs, undines and gnomes.”
She wiggled her fingers like all those names hadn’t added up correctly. Her next words confirmed it. “I have forgotten some.” She sighed and said, “I guess it is good they cannot hear me.”
There was a moment of intense silence. I wondered if any of the others had felt their heart pound at the thought of all those creatures running around Chimera. I cleared my throat and asked tentatively, “All of those are real?”
“Oh yes. Some are friendly but others are dangerous, even to those who can wield magick. Some are quite intelligent. Others, well, they are not. For instance, a unicorn is no smarter than your regular horse, though its innocent nature blazes from its horn like the sun.
She smiled as Faith laughed delightedly. “Not all creatures are so pleasant. For instance, trolls and ogres have no intelligence, but have deadly instincts. Sadly, the dragons used to be an intelligent race, but there has been too much in-breeding. Over the years, they have begun to die out, and not many remain. Most of those are quite dim-witted.”
At Faith’s small squeak of dismay, Ronny said, “That is not a bad thing. They no longer do so much looting as before, or destroy our homes with their fire when they are angry.”
Doug frowned in disappointment, and then his face cleared. “Can you ride on dragons?”
“Ride on dragons?” Ronny’s delighted laughter pealed out. When she saw Doug’s embarrassed face, she fought for control. “Ride on dragons.” One last giggle burst out, then she said, “Absolutely not! Why would you think of such a thing?”
