The Questory of Root Karbunkulus - Quill

by Kamilla Reid

  “CPR! Stop!”

  CPR froze and looked at Root. Only a fraction of a moment grew between them before she flew forward again with even greater speed and fury. Before Ernward could do anything she pounced, sending him flying back into the bidding podium and knocking it to the ground. The small ivory treasure went up and landed in CPR’s jaws.

  “Nooooo!” Ernward screamed.

  But CPR had already spun back around and raced with Root out the door.

  “Stop them!” Ernward screeched, rising to his feet.

  Root led CPR not to the main door but to the back of the gallery where she snatched the black book from the counter. She grabbed the pen and waited while the pages flipped.

  “Get her!” shrieked Ernward. At once, from all manner of places the room was filling with Squawnches.

  “Not again,” Root groaned. “Hurry! Hurry, you stupid thing!”

  The pages finally halted at their destination. Root scanned the entries. She was thrilled to see, as she had hoped, that only one transaction had been done today.

  999 Lampfire Lane.

  Now all she needed was…

  CPR began a tirade against the Squawnches, which were now upon them in full force.

  …scissors!

  Root grabbed them and threw them on the paper. She pointed at the single receipt. “That one! Cut!” The scissors opened and slid into the page with ease.

  “Whatchya doin’, o miss?” A Squawnch appeared from under the counter. Root grabbed the pen and stabbed. The Squawnch fell back shrieking.

  The scissors went still. Root grabbed the receipt and plunged it into her pocket. “C’mon CPR!” she called and they raced for the main doors.

  Of course not before knocking down the cages of all sorts of foul, nasty things. If there is one thing that will stop a fleet of Squawnches in their tracks, a breakout of foul, nasty things would be it.

  “Shut down the store!” Root heard Ernward scream as she and CPR barely managed to slip through the sliding doors. The walkway was just beginning to fade. They leapt forward hoping beyond hope that it would last to the other side.

  No such luck.

  Three quarters of the way across, the walkway vanished altogether. Root felt her feet give out from under her. She closed her eyes and braced herself for the fiery explosion.

  She opened them only once she realized her feet had landed and she was still alive. Her loyal staircase had just managed to catch them…in the knick of time as its scorched and now smoldering lower step could attest.

  The staircase lurched them forward, through the threshold of the Zero-th floor and out into…chaos.

  A siren was screaming as hundreds of people were being cattled off floors and taken to the main lobby.

  “The front doors!” Root yelled. Her staircase jerked forward. CPR and Root scrambled to stay on.

  Closer, closer they got, dodging other scrambling staircases and the reach of far too many Squawnches to count.

  They were so close now. Root could see the outside.

  Stogie! Her beloved Hovermutt was on the other side of the doors, seeking desperately to get at her.

  Oh no! That meant….the staircase screeeeeeched to a stop…the doors were locked.

  Root and CPR fell forward and landed in a slump at the foot of the doors. Behind them, scratching madly at the glass was Stogie. Root could hear his whimper.

  A laugh. An awful, raspy, fingernails-on-the-chalkboard laugh. Ernward was walking toward them. His smile was lost in the melted, unmoving skin of his face.

  “Give it to me,” he said in his bland, cold way.

  Root backed up.

  “Take it out of that creature’s mouth. You have ten seconds.”

  Root looked at CPR who still had the ivory prize in her jaws. Root could see it was spongy now and made a slight squeak as CPR clenched it. She thinks it’s a squeaky toy, Root thought and was about to take it. But then it occurred to her that, even if Ernward got it back, he would still kill them. Could she at least use it as leverage somehow?

  “Five…four…”

  A movement, high up at a slightly tinted window behind Ernward caught Root’s attention.

  She knew exactly what it was. She backed up again, pretending to be scared but really checking to make sure both she and CPR were still sitting on the staircase. The staircase stiffened under her movement, preparing. Amazing that it could already read her unspoken signals. “Now!” Root screamed and at once the staircase jerked its passengers forward and up.

  “Nooooo! Stop her!” Ernward screeched.

  Up Root flew, not stopping for the window but crashing right through it. Immediately she felt her staircase lose its power now that it was out of Vulcherk’s domain. They began to fall.

  Stogie’s soft, furry padded back caught them all just as another fleet of Squawnches was piling out of the building.

  Root had no idea where they could go. Maybe they could hide. She looked around the surroundings of the building and spotted something familiar.

  “Is that a landing pool?” she asked herself. She stared at the still round pool of water that was nearly hidden amongst Vulcherk’s refuse.

  The Squawnches were rounding the corner. She could hear the Curator screaming.

  There was no choice.

  “Down Stogie! Dive!”

  With Root, CPR and now a limp staircase on his back Stogie dove for the black waters. It was the oddest thing for Root to see her reflection getting bigger and bigger as they plunged forward. She grabbed a full breath of air just before they went under, praying it wasn’t just a puddle.

  The pool took its arrivals fully into its depths and soon they were sucked into a powerful current. Root had no idea which way they were going; she was spinning so wildly. It had escaped her that they’d be under water for quite some time. And now the realization was making itself known by the ache in her lungs. She longed for breath but the swooping pull of the water would not allow it. It was moving fast now, spinning her through the tunnel. Her lungs felt like they were going to collapse. Air! Air!

  Air…Her head was going numb. She needed to breathe. Just one breath. God…Air…Her thoughts started to slip away. Silence replaced them. Silence, calm and beautiful…

  Any second now her lungs would give in…release themselves…the water would…fill them. And she would…surrender…

  A sudden change in the current roused Root back to consciousness. She was being sucked upward with tremendous force. Before she could comprehend what was happening the water shifted again and with a great burst, she was spewed into the air. Air! She was gulping for breath before her body even hit the soil. Stogie, CPR and the staircase landed in wet lumps around her.

  For a long time they lay there, filling their lungs over and over. And over again.

  They had broken through and landed in what looked like the charcoaled remains of a giant abandoned bonfire. Coal, ashes and blackened wood were strewn all around. Root could care less how much of it was now staining her clothes. She was so soooooo soooooooooooooo happy to be alive. As were CPR and Stogie who couldn’t stop licking her wet cheeks.

  A short distance away was a roughly hewn cabin. Once inside Root realized it was actually a stable. There were four straw beds in a corner and another one in the opposite corner; this one much larger, enormous in fact. To Root’s immediate shock, a gigantic tortoise was gawking from it. Right at them.

  It roared, sending Root scrambling backward into a row of bunk beds.

  Wait a minute. Bunk beds?

  Root looked closer at the tortoise. She immediately identified the symmetrical purple design of its shell. “Is that you, Corky?” she whispered.

  The tortoise roared again but this time Root recognized his rich, bass tones. It was just a greeting. A Corky hey, how’s it goin’?

  Root stood up and gave the beast a relieved pat, all the while surveying her new surroundings. They were in Haverly’s stable to be sure. The Hovers’ beds were in the corner and bunk
beds for the team, just like Haverly had said.

  This coincidence could not go unnoticed. A tunnel leading from Vulcherk’s to Haverly’s property? That was more than just strange.

  Something was not making sense.

  Stogie was overjoyed to find bowls of food and water had been set out for the Hovers. Soon the room was filled with the sound of gulping and slobbering and lapping. CPR, uninterested laid a ways further, licking her delightful new squeaky toy.

  Root watched her. And then, as if an angel had suddenly swung down and whispered a secret in her ear, she knew something beyond any shadow of doubt. A shiver tore down her spine. Goosebumps raised her skin. Her mind spun and flashed images around, trying to fit them together like a puzzle.

  “Oh. My. God.…” she whispered as the last piece clicked into place.

  Then she was off, flying through the stable, barking off a score of commands, soldiering a plan into action.

  “Corky, where’s the water carriage?”

  Corky’s great head gestured to a corner where the water carriage sat covered in a tarp. Root ran over, removed the tarp and opened the drawer of Haverly’s driving podium. She pulled out Horace Gastral’s Finest Gills and dropped two sets in her palm. “Stogie, come here!” She pasted the gills onto the sides of his neck while his tail sunk between his legs. She then ran to CPR, still drooling over her squeaky prize. “CPR, give me that!”

  CPR thought to resist but the tone of Root’s voice had an authority in it that had to be obeyed. She released her beloved toy. Root pasted a couple of Horace Gastrals along her neck too.

  Root’s mind was going a million miles an hour. There was so little time. She could feel the Squawnches searching for her. It wouldn’t be long before one of them found the pool. She ran back to Haverly’s drawer and rummaged through it. She pulled out a Road and remembered that Haverly had said they could be waterproofed. Surely this one would be. Root tucked it in her pocket and returned to the drawer. ClearView drops! Perfect! And – aha!- a pen and paper in a waterproof bag. Root quickly scribbled a note and folded it. She ran to Corky and placed the bag securely in the leather straps over his head.

  “Take this letter to Haverly!” she instructed the tortoise. “Don’t let anyone else see it. Only Haverly!”

  Corky roared. Root was sure he understood even though he didn’t have Quatra.

  And now the dreaded deed. Root pulled a pair of gills from her pocket; the same ones Haverly had given her at the entrance to the Snakes. With a look of terror, she stripped off each backing and smoothed them along the sides of her neck.

  The transformation was fast. And actually pretty painless, thank goodness. All Root felt was a tingling sensation on each side of her neck. She cringed as she reached her hand up to feel. Eight strips had cut into her skin, four to each side, folding open and shut, open, shut. She had gills!

  Stogie came to her side whimpering. He wasn’t pleased with this new feature at all. Root had to stop him from scratching at it. CPR, on the other hand, didn’t even seem to notice. Root guessed it was because she was probably too busy sulking over her lost squeaky toy.

  Back at the pool, in the middle of a scorched dumping ground of debris, Root took a last look of her surroundings. And that’s when she saw it. Her staircase. It was mangled up over a stretch of black soot. Root picked it up tenderly.

  “It’s okay, big guy. We’ll get you fixed up as good as new.” Funny how life can hit a switch and suddenly talking to a pile of wooden planks is perfectly normal. Root placed the staircase carefully under a tree with a large canopy. It would be safe there until she came back.

  And now, dreaded deed number two. After administering two drops of Clear View into each eye she looked into the glassy, dark face of the pool. It was a risk for sure. For all she knew she’d be swept right back into the Curator’s clutches. But surely the tunnel branched off somewhere along the line. She hoped that her preparations would allow her the ability to find out.

  “Okay, on the count of three. One…two…three!”

  The pool splashed, gulping three figures into its depths.

  30

  THE DROWNED CITY

  The current was very strong. Root was instantly caught in its pull, dragging through the water like a worm on a hook. She could breathe, yes but what good was that if she was taken right back to Vulcherk’s and the hands of the Curator.

  She had to try to fight the current. Or at least find some way to gain control within it. She spread her arms, an attempt to brake against the flow, but all it did was make them tired. The tunnel’s momentum was too much. Soon her arms collapsed back into her and she was spinning once more. She could see nothing but a blur of darkness rushing past her.

  It took her faster now, pummeling her along, closer to her fate. She grasped at mental straws. Perhaps, when she popped out of Vulcherk’s pool, they’d all be gone, looking for her, never expecting her to come right back. Yeah, maybe there was still a chance.

  When she felt the body of something rubbing up to her, she screamed a muffled drowned scream. She panicked and kicked. But she was no match for the creature and soon was forced…upon its back?

  Stogie!

  Oh the relief!

  Root grabbed hold of her Hovermutt and let him lead. He was overcoming the water and able to control himself within it. Root longed to know how CPR was succeeding. She turned her head briefly to see if maybe she could catch a glimpse of her.

  That’s all it took.

  She flew from Stogie.

  And landed on CPR.

  Good answer, she thought.

  Eventually she found herself a little niche right behind Stogie and in front of CPR where they made sure she was safe. From here, under their controlled momentum she could see much better. She peered into the water, thankful of enough glow from the water creatures to make things visible. Eerily visible. The tunnel was fuzzy with algae and there seemed to be nothing more to it than endlessness. No intersecting tunnels. No escape.

  They sped along. It wouldn’t be long now until they would be belching out of the original pool. Root tried to affirm herself. No Squawnches…no Squawnches…no ugly, gross curator guy…

  All at once, for no obvious reason the water slowed down. Root gawked around. The current had almost come to a standstill. She remembered the same thing happening the first time but now she had a chance to see why. A brief chance, for the current would pick up any second now. She peered through the murky water, as far as she could. There had to be a reason it had slowed. As if something was diffusing its strength.

  Aha!

  There was a connecting tunnel! She could just make it out under a carpet of waving algae, a huge round opening that, for whatever reason, had been plugged. So, where was its cross current coming from? She scanned….right there! At its lower section, near the floor. Time and water had taken its toll, leaving a breach for the traffic of those creatures that could fit through it.

  Already she could feel the pull of her tunnel, a much greater current, trying to return to its full strength. She quickly directed Stogie and CPR to the gap in the connecting tunnel and found that it was, thankfully large enough for all of them to fit through. A bit tight for Stogie, but doable. They squeezed past the plug, which was remarkably like an actual cork.

  As they arrived on the other side, Root was struck with awe.

  The new tunnel they had ended up in was not a tunnel at all. It was a lake!

  An enormous, spread for miles and miles, underwater chasm.

  And then it hit her as its many features became clear. Pillars, buildings, walls, walkways, statues! All eerily coated in the swirling, fuzzy green of algae.

  She was in the long forgotten Drowned City of Divit!

  From a peak overlooking the chasm Root could practically see the whole of the Drowned City spread out before her, the ‘Pearl Below the Sea’. Though suffering from the ravages of time and erosion there was no doubt this was once a city of majesty and wonder. Buildings rose in
abundance, claiming the sea in glorious feats of ivory; honoring it with coral gardens and mother of pearl roadways. Even under water the details of art and beauty were not lost. Sculptured heroes and beasts sprang up in squares and atop pillars and along the fronts of golden architecture. Schools of iridescent fish meandered in and out of windows while static sea creatures found post along the great ivory wall that surrounded the city.

  With no current to yank them, Root, Stogie and CPR descended leisurely into the watery streets. It was a tour of wonder as the magnificence of the great city enclosed upon them. Under a watery grave it had remained a treasure of the sea. Root couldn’t even imagine what it must have been like bathed in the light of a cloudless sky.

  Their silent tour would not last, at least not in the glory of which it had begun. For as they came out of a street, they were met with the shocking reality of Haverly’s warnings.

  A flat, open field lay ahead. Broken buildings littered it like the clean, white bones of an elephant graveyard. Hungrily sifting through this, as termites taking to the rotted remains of nature, were hundreds of swarming, sifting, scavenging workers. They were all gilled, like Root and upon their heads were funneled lights that cut through the water’s murky depths. They were each uniformed in a waterproof suit, sort of like Haverly’s but steely black. Termite black. And to Root’s astonishment the sleeves of these were stamped with a crude symbol, the same of which sent chills of terror through her spine.

  The sign of the Murk Lord. Kakos.

  Root shrunk back into the street.

  How on earth….?

  She had to regroup. And find a way out of here. The last thing she needed was Kakos added to her list of hunterss. As Jorab had said, Kakos would remember the destruction of his Black Market, of which Root was responsible. And there was no doubt he’d be more than pleased to ‘bump into her’ and exact revenge.

  “Hey!”

  It had come out more like a muffled “Mmmaawww!” under water but Root got the gist of it. And now one of the Termites was pointing.