Mearsies Heili Bounces Back

by Sherwood Smith

  We held a council of war with the captain, while PJ banged and yelled in the cabin they’d put him in.

  “In short, I didn’t find any sign of the Chwahir—”

  “Where’s my manservant! I’m hungry!”

  “—leading me to think they are stretched very thin indeed.”

  “I order you to open this door, or I will have you killed!”

  “I’d like to keep patrolling. I suspect that some of our potential allies are hiding in inlets along the north shore, or even in the islands. Everyone is afraid of the Chwahir,” he said.

  “Did you hear? I’m hungry! Let me out of this hole! I wish to bathe, and pass judgment upon whoever put me here!”

  “I want to go home,” I said. “Maybe if we all go to MH, and get Clair and the girls back, the rest will work out.”

  “Now! Do you hear me? Now!”

  Captain Heraford tapped his fingers on the chart table, then said finally, “May I offer a compromise? Some of us will go with you to aid the search effort, and the rest can watch for the enemy from the sea.”

  “Okay.”

  “I want fresh clothes! And my dinner!”

  The captain said to Puddlenose (who was grinning), “He’s your worry. I trust he won’t be keeping that up all night.”

  Puddlenose said, “I’ll go tell him he won’t get any grub until he’s quiet for a whole watch.”

  While he was gone, I turned to Irene. “Now we’re going to have to listen to PJ’s whine forever. This idea is as stupid as Rel. What happened to you?”

  Irene rolled her eyes and sighed in a loud, dramatic way. Not that I blamed her. “You want the long version or the short?”

  “Short for now, and tell me everything later,” I said.

  She looked a little disappointed, then shrugged. “You were gone, CJ. In the morning, I mean. Seshe said she’d heard you walking around the Junky during the night. It was Sherry, Gwen, Diana, and Seshe’s turn to patrol, so they went out to look for you as well as see what was going on. At noon, they weren’t back. So Dhana and I went out.”

  She sighed again, and gave a real wince when she rubbed her shoulder. Carefully. “We got to the beginning of the north road—not far at all from the Junky, you know—and there was a gaggle of Chwahir. They got us surrounded. Dhana went up into a tree, but that one had branches too high for me to reach. One of them had a transport medal, and did something, and suddenly Kwenz was there! Kwenz threw some kind of spell at Dhana, who gave a yell and vanished in a weird smear.”

  “Uh oh,” I said, as below, kid voices collided—one whiny and one laughing.

  “Oh, it was horrid. Then I got transferred, and found myself in Elchnudaeb. Under guard. Then in comes Fobo, and she tittered. ‘That’s one of them. The worst,’ she said, pointing at me ...”

  By now I realized I was going to get the long version anyway. Let me boil it down to a short version, because it took pretty much the rest of the evening.

  Fobo was gloating. She wouldn’t let them put Irene in the scullery, but she had to be right there in Fobo’s rooms, “To learn respect.” That meant so Fobo could personally boss her around, and see them thrash Irene if she said anything or did anything Fobo didn’t like.

  At first she had to wear chains, but Irene moved extra slowly, and pretended to faint, and acted all weak and weepy. She clanked the chains a lot, too. Fobo liked the sound at first, but got tired of it fast, especially when Irene seemed to clank loudest when Fobo was gabbing. Irene would look all innocent and say, “But you told me to change the ruffles around the tables!” Then she’d pretend to cry. Fobo loved making her cry for about two days, then got tired of that, too.

  Gradually Fobo also got tired of all the guard-servants in her way, and not much getting done, so the chains were taken off, and then there were only two guards.

  She’d just been reduced to one guard, and she was that very day considering a break (as soon as she got over the last beating, for making a face at a really, really, REALLY ugly outfit that Fobo loved), when suddenly there I was.

  o0o

  PJ continued to wail, moan, threaten, and drag his feet the entire rest of the way, as we sailed southward, where the captain let us off along the coast of Wesset North.

  It’s a horrible coast for ships—rocky beach, and high palisades. PJ perforce had to go with us, but he complained all the time. Puddlenose obviously thought it funny, and Irene occasionally snarked back at him.

  I won’t describe the boring journey inland, just how glad we were to reach the Junky at last. And it was there, which had been a secret worry of mine. I hadn’t said anything because I didn’t want to sound like PJ, who never seemed to get tired of whining, though he got tired of everything else—boring food, walking, us, weather, roads, and everything else.

  The last distance we blindfolded PJ and led him around.

  We didn’t blindfold the captain or crew, but I was glad when we reached the Junky at night—and Irene didn’t say a thing when I made us go around in circles first.

  “Oh to be home again,” Irene whispered to Lina, Robin, and me. “When I was chained to that awful bed in the servants’ dorm every night, all I could think about was home.”

  “Ugh,” the three of us said, as softly as we could.

  The entrance was intact. When we got inside, I felt almost dizzy, it was so good to find it untouched. My sheets were a little damp but a snap through the cleaning frame and they were fresh again. Everything else was neat and tidy, just as we’d left it.

  “How do we do this?” Puddlenose asked.

  “We girls can double up, but PJ goes in your room. You can pull up the ladder, and block the entrance. If you don’t want to put a hammock in there with him, you can use somebody’s room until we get the girls back.”

  I set Faline carefully on my chest of drawers, where she glowed like a tear. Then we got together in the main room to plan, while Irene did her best with the few stores we had. I didn’t think Janil was cooking, if Chwahir had taken over the castle, so we couldn’t transfer food down.

  We finally ended up dividing into groups. Irene and a couple of the sailor kids would go to Seram Aru, where Gwen had been sent. We figured the toughest part of that trip would be the journey—surely Ka Nos would be able to help out.

  Seshe had been sent somewhere in Reyte. I figured I’d better go find Seshe because she was in another country, and the Captain said he’d go with me—he wanted to ask questions about their shore.

  Puddlenose and the two girls from the Torns would go to the caves, and if they could, remove a stone to replace the one that Sherry had been turned into, and put it up in the White Palace. They’d also transfer back with food, if they could get away with pinching some.

  A couple of the crew would stay behind to tend PJ, until Puddlenose got back. PJ was his job.

  I won’t put in all the details of our journey. It was uneventful, except for looking at scenery. Jilo had put Seshe atop the highest mountain in Reyte, where there was snow year round. She was in a magical sleep, inside a personal barrier. The magical barrier glowed, which had caused talk all the way down the mountain, so we did eventually get word of her.

  The scariest part was getting her out. The sleep spell was local, inside the barrier—which was a simple one. He obviously didn’t think anyone would bother. Seshe lay on the grass under this ward, where weather couldn’t get at her. But! When I got to her, I not only couldn’t wake her, I started yawning and feeling heavy and draggy.

  I just had enough presence of mind to realize what was happening. I grabbed her wrists and yanked her out, almost collapsing on the other side of the barrier. It was enough. Seshe blinked, looked around, and smiled. “CJ! Thank you!” Then she looked worried. “Please tell me you’ve gotten the other girls out before defeating Kwenz.”

  “No, but we are trying. Why?”

  “Because if any magic interferes with Kwenz, the spells on the girls will be made permanent.”

  I looked up
at Captain Heraford, and he stared back, hands on his knees. “Phew,” he said. “You were right, CJ.”

  “For the first time in my life,” I cracked back, jellying right down to my toes in relief. “I wonder how much bad luck will fall on my head now?”

  They just laughed at me. “Whatever ‘luck’ is,” Captain Heraford said, “I hope it never comes here.”

  TWELVE

  “The White Palace is full of Chwahir,” Puddlenose reported. “It took us extra-long to sneak in and out.”

  “Have they trashed the place?” I asked.

  We’d just gotten back with Seshe, and the others triumphantly displayed Sherry in stone form—a giant ruby—sitting next to Faline and Gwen.

  “No. Everything’s pretty much as it was. Except they have their own cooks in the kitchens.”

  “When I was forced to eat with Fobo’s servants, who only get gloppy cold oatmeal in the mornings, all I could think about was Janil’s food.” Irene sighed. “I wonder where Janil is?”

  “Safe, I hope.” Puddlenose frowned at the magic gems. “The Chwahir put Sherry’s stone in Kwenz’s scepter. He’s been using it when doing magic on people brought before him. We waited until he left the throne room, and did a switcheroo in the middle of the night.”

  “Irene? How about your trip to Seram Aru?” I looked at the green stone.

  “Long journey up and up, but Ka Nos helped us. He said he followed the Chwahir by magic. Jilo went all the way to the top of the highest cliff and left the stone. Ka Nos wafted it down as soon as Jilo left, and waited for us to come collect it. He said he removed the ward that would make the stone form permanent—and that would affect all the other stones, if they shared the same ward. But he could not interfere with Kwenz other than that. His realm is his mountains.”

  I sighed. “Well, at least he undid the creepy ward. So how do we unstone these girls?”

  “Oh, that part is easy,” Irene said, grinning.

  She fluffed back her hair, rubbed her hands, then picked up the green gem. While everyone watched she wound up her arm, and flung the gem as hard as she could against the stone of our fireplace.

  Green sparks flew—and there sat Gwen, blinking and dizzy!

  I grabbed the other two and flung them. Sparks flew so wide I fell back, and knocked Irene down.

  Faline coughed, Sherry gasped, and Faline chortled, “Are you two having a contest?” She peered at Irene and me, still tangled up on the rug in the main room.

  Everybody laughed as Irene and I got up again. Then I rubbed my hands. “Now we’re getting somewhere! What happened to you two?”

  They didn’t have much to say—just that they went on patrol and got grabbed from behind, they were tied up with bags over their heads. Then they heard Jilo, and the next thing they knew, they were here.

  I gave them a quick rundown on our part (with Irene adding in plenty about how awful it was being Fobo’s minion) then I said, “Diana and Dhana are last.”

  Seshe said, “I think we should check the Magic Lake. It could be she escaped the magical spell by vanishing. Since she was not reduced to an object, or frozen like I was, or just sent off, like Irene.”

  “Oh, let us search?” Faline said, including Gwen. “We just had to be stones. Please, let us go to the Lake.”

  “Of course!” I said.

  “I’m going, too,” Irene stated, hands on hips. “I dreamed about finding the other girls, when I was chained to that bed at night, especially after those thrashings. I have to be there. In case.”

  Nobody asked in case of what. I wondered why she was doing that. I mean, she and Dhana are not enemies—plenty of times they get along fine—but they squabble enough that I would have thought Irene would let someone else go. But she was talking so animatedly, I finally realized, duh, she was performing. For whom? The sailors?

  Then I realized that Irene was acting like she was the center of our gang.

  This surprised me so much, as I watched her introduce the new ones, and whisper little stories about them in between Faline’s jokes and Sherry’s exclamations, I didn’t know what to say. And then I thought, well, maybe she is the center of us. I mean, how many of us think we’re the center of things, just because we’re us, but we aren’t?

  And is it such a bad thing, not being center, or Irene being center? I’m the princess, but that just means I’m in charge when Clair is not there. Another really horrible thought hit me then—am I like PJ after all, thinking I’m in the middle of things in the everyday, social way, just because I’m wearing a crown?

  Eugh!

  THEN I thought, why am I worrying about that, when Clair’s in danger and the whole kingdom is under the Shadow? Talk about squidbrains!

  Well, Faline turned out to be the heroine of the Lake Trip. The girls slipped down to the Lake in the early morning, when the Chwahir patrols were not in sight. There, they stood or knelt at the edge of the churning, bubbling water. The Magic Lake looks kind of like a hot spring, except with rainbow colors in water, spray, and great wobbling, jiggling bubbles. You can tell when the beings are around if you look closely, because they look kind of like rifts in the water—like cracks in ice look. Only they move.

  Well, none of them reacted to the girls ... except Faline kept feeling there was something going on. She has her own magical background, being an Yxubarec. She drew nearer and nearer to the fall, which plunged over the rocks and frothed and foamed in the water below. Instinct pressed her closer to that dangerous roar until she spied a shape wavering in the water, arms outstretched and vapory.

  “That’s her,” she gasped, pointing. “The magic musta caught her before she transformed—she’s half human and half not!”

  “What do we do?” Sherry asked.

  Irene sighed. “I was going to say ‘get Clair’ but we can’t do that, can we?” She looked around at the silent trees and grass and flowers, then at the people in the Lake. “Sure wish we could ask them.”

  “I know what I’ll do. Climb up and dive through and grab her,” Faline said. “Either she pops out, or just stays water.”

  “But you might fall on the rocks,” Sherry exclaimed.

  “Not if we stand on the other side, and if she falls our way, we bounce her into the water, which is safe,” Irene suggested.

  “Good idea,” Sherry said.

  Faline was relieved. “Okay.”

  She climbed up the slimy rocks, and edged into the pounding water. Sherry and Irene crept out onto the most dangerous stones below, tense and ready.

  The fall nearly knocked Faline down. She crab-crept out, and out, and then with a zooming dive dashed through—and two figures tumbled straight down into the water, past the rocks, as if thrown by unseen hands.

  Dhana sat up, blinking water from her eyes. “Hey,” she said. “I’m back.”

  Sherry hugged her, and everybody laughed as they slogged out of the weird water.

  Irene and Sherry had to help the other two—Faline was loopy, which the Lake water can often cause when you go into it. Dhana was reacting to being human again.

  Puddlenose had kept his promise, and used the kitchen transfer to raid the Chwahir stores. Seshe and Sherry, who were our two cooks, made up a big dinner. Everyone crowded together in our main room, making a party atmosphere ...

  Except for me, wondering how the heck to search for Diana. We knew she had been changed into an animal, and Seshe was certain that she’d stay in the forest. I agreed. But maybe they’d zapped her somewhere.

  “CJ, you look mad,” Sherry said at last.

  I beckoned to her. We went to my room, which I was sharing with her and Faline now. “I want to search for Diana, but how? We don’t know if she’s a snail—a lizard—a squirrel?”

  Seshe said from the doorway, “I saw you leave. Private talk?”

  “Come on in. Just me in a grundgy mood. About Diana.” I kicked the edge of my bed. “And it bothers me. These spells and stuff.”

  Sherry nodded slowly, her blue gaze sa
d.

  Faline appeared in the doorway. “There you are!” Her grin faded. “What’s wrong?”

  “Diana.”

  “Clair missing,” Sherry said.

  “The whole thing!” I kicked again, as below, PJ wailed. “He’s Relling again.”

  Faline cracked up. “Did Rel really sound like PJ?”

  “No. But everything he did and said was so dumbo and annoying that I figured he’s a great verb for PJ’s noise.”

  “He’ll stop soon, won’t he?” Seshe said. “I noticed he’s only yelling when people come to his door.”

  “Yep.” Sherry grimaced. “Puddlenose said he’d throw the food down if PJ yelled again. Euw.”

  “I’ll go help,” Seshe said, and vanished up the tunnel.

  Sherry sat on my bed, hugging her knees tightly against herself. “Why are you upset, CJ? We only have one more of us to unmess. Besides Clair. Is it Clair?”

  “Well, yes. But. It’s the stuff they did,” I said slowly. “Why not turn us all into stones, or animals? Making Irene be Fobo’s servant was extra mean. Like, like it was aimed at her on purpose.”

  Sherry nodded. “And sending you away?”

  “With a spell on you, so you couldn’t do magic?” Faline asked. “That’s creepy.”

  “And I was supposed to learn to be a good little kiddie, and just forget Clair and you guys and everything here. Somehow that’s as creepy as Shnit’s nasty plan for Puddlenose. Creepy in a different way, like they expect me not to care about anyone, and just happily go have this nice life on the other side of the world. It’s way more creepy than just turning us into statues, or stones, or something.”

  “Except you didn’t get sent to Shnit,” Faline said. “That would have been the worst of all.”

  “True. And that’s another weird thing. Raneseh knows whoever it was who picked him. He couldn’t know Kwenz very well, not the way he talked about him. So how could that other person know of us, when we’d never heard of Raneseh?” I got up. “Oh, I’m not getting anywhere. Let’s search. First thing in the morning.”

  We went out the next day in twos, and called Diana’s name over and over as we circled through the forest. At first we called softly, in case the Chwahir were clodding around. But we could always hear their patrols, and it was daylight and they usually stunk around at night, so before long, I was bellowing.