Back To The Divide (19 page)

184

they roared with approval and bounded around in a circle, ready to cut him off.

The guide had now found whatever it was he had been looking for. He pulled it out of his clothing and held it aloft. It was a brass lamp. As the children watched, the nomad's feet left the ground and he streamed into it, like a steaming kettle in reverse, and disappeared. The lamp tumbled to the ground.

The cutthroats sniffed the lamp with their four noses and looked at one another.

"He wasn't a nomad at all," said Jahim wonderingly. "He was a brandee."

"What's a brandee?" asked Nimby.

"Beings that live in magical lamps," said Jahim.

"In our world, he'd have been one of the jinn -- a genie," added Felix.

"This isn't your world," said Betony shortly. "He was our
guide,
Felix, and now we've lost him."

"We'll come back later, when the cutthroats have gone, and pick him up. When the sun rises his lamp will shine like a beacon. Then one of us simply has to rub the lamp and he'll reappear."

"Where are we going to spend the rest of the night?" asked Betony. "It's not safe down there."

"We need to put some distance between ourselves and those monsters," said Jahim. "Otherwise they'll just hang around, hoping we'll land. We'll fly on for a bit, and then hover until morning."

185

"I can't hover at night!" yelped Nimby. "Hovering uses up far too much energy." Tough," said Jahim.

"You don't understand," said Nimby. "I have to twisty-strip sunlight, and I can only store so much of it. That's why carpet racks are made of crystal -- to let the light through."

Wow, thought Felix. He's a bit like a solar panel.

"We'll find somewhere to land, then," said Jahim. "But we'll all stay on board and take turns keeping watch."

They flew for another fifteen minutes or so, and then they touched down. Jahim took the first watch, and Betony the second. By the time it was Felix's turn, dawn wasn't far away. He sat cross-legged on the carpet, his blanket wrapped around him, but he was still cold. He saw a strange long-legged mousy thing that bounced across the sand like a grasshopper, but that was all. When the others woke up they had breakfast. Then they had to wait until midmorning before Nimby had absorbed sufficient energy to fly.

When they were halfway back to where they'd camped, Jahim suddenly stiffened. Felix followed his gaze and saw a long low cloud on the horizon. After a moment or two he realized it was coming toward them and quite quickly, too.

"We need to land," said Jahim urgently.

"It's a sandstorm, isn't it?" said Felix.

Jahim nodded.

Betony looked interested. "Can't we fly above it and watch?"

186

"No," said Jahim. "It could be hundreds of feet high. We must find shelter."

Nimby lost height and settled himself gently on the sand. "I'd better make another tent," he said. "Only this time I'll make sure it's pile inward."

Betony laughed. "You vain thing," she said. "Worried that a bit of sand between your fibers will make you look scruffy?"

"I'd like to still
have
some fibers, thank you," retorted Nimby. "My underside is more resilient than my pile." Betony grinned.

"This isn't funny," said Jahim. "The sand will be blowing fast and hard; you won't be able to see a foot in front of you. Everything will get dark. A sandstorm can take the glaze off a pot, so wind your scarves tightly around your heads. Breathing will become difficult. I do not know how bad this one is likely to be."

"I might," said Felix, suddenly remembering the little crystal ball he'd found in the vamprey cave. He pulled it out of his pocket and felt around for the tiny instruction manual.

"A storm-oracle!" said Jahim. "We are fortunate. I know how to work it."

Felix handed it to him, and Jahim cupped it in his hands and peered into it. The clear transparency of the crystal clouded and turned yellow. The yellow deepened to orange, then red. After a moment or two it became clear that it was going to remain red.

187

"A bad storm," said Jahim, "but not the worst. The worst is purple. These instruments are valuable, Felix. If... when we get to the riddle-paw ..."

"If I don't survive you can have it," said Felix wryly, anticipating Jahim's request.

The three of them huddled together beneath the carpet's canopy, sitting on his folded-in edges to prevent him from blowing away. When the storm arrived it howled like a banshee, and despite their efforts to weight him down a corner of the carpet flicked up. It was as dark as evening out there, and they could see nothing except swirling sand, which dashed against the exposed parts of their faces like flicks from a wire brush. Jahim got the corner anchored once again and they sat there in the dark, sneezing occasionally.

"Won't it bury us?" asked Betony, sounding worried now that she'd appreciated just how violent a sandstorm could be.

"Only on the windward side," said Jahim. He didn't sound quite as confident as Felix would have liked.

The storm didn't last all that long, however, and after a while the noise died away.

Jahim lifted a corner on the lee side, and they could see the long low cloud barreling away from them in the distance. They scrambled out and dug the other side of Nimby free.

"Can you give me a shake?" asked the carpet, so Felix and Jahim seized him by one of his edges and shook the sand from his pile.

188

"Right," said Betony, "we'd better find that lamp now, hadn't we?"

Jahim looked at her as though she were mad.

"The sandstorm will have buried it, Betony," said Felix. "We haven't got a hope of finding it."

The color drained from Betony's face. "What will happen to the brandee?" she asked.

"He will sleep until one day the sand blows away and reveals his lamp again," said Jahim. "Sand dunes are like boils. They come and they go."

Betony made a face. "And what are
we
going to do? We don't have a guide anymore."

"We know the general direction of the hidden city," said Jahim. "We fly on and hope we can spot it from above."

They took off and flew for what seemed like ages across the flat plain below. Eventually some rock formations appeared in the distance, patterned gold with sunlight and violet with shadow. As they drew closer they realized that the terrain was very rugged indeed, but there was no sign of a city. They crossed the highlands, noticing gorges and ravines and canyons. On the far side the landscape changed dramatically. This was where the rain fell; the bare rocks were suddenly clothed with rich tropical vegetation.

"We've come too far," said Jahim. "We'd better go back and try again."

They flew down the ridge, concentrating on the arid side of it, but they still didn't see anything. "They were right

189

about it being a hidden city," said Felix. "It doesn't have a spell on it, does it, so that it can't be seen?"

Both Jahim and Betony burst out laughing. "Magic doesn't work like that," said Betony. "There's no such thing as an invisibility spell." She stopped laughing. "Is that something you can do with science, then?"

"No," said Felix.

Jahim suddenly looked interested. "You know about science?"

"Not much," said Felix warily.

"But you have flown in balloons, and you have lamps that are lit by gas?"

Felix was about to remark that those things had been replaced by airplanes and electricity, but he thought better of it. "Balloons and gas lamps are things in storybooks," he said.

Jahim looked disappointed. "I thought you said the things in
our
world appeared in
your
legends, and
our
legends were real in
your
world?"

"Only some things," said Felix.

"So you don't have metal bridges, or underwater boats, or tall houses with shiny windows that gleam rose-red in the sunset?"

"That's it!" shouted Felix.

"What's
it?" asked Betony.

"Rose-red.
'The rose-red city, half as old as time.'
It's a quote from a poem about Petra, a town cut into the rock that could

190

only be reached along a narrow winding chasm. I bet this city's similar -- we need to look for an opening."

Betony's eyes strayed to the escarpment that stretched away into the distance in either direction, creased and folded like crumpled material. "It would be like looking for a flea on a cuddyak."

"The trick, then," said Jahim, "is to make the flea jump." He studied them both for a moment. "Tell me," he said, "you seem unaccountably anxious to find Sebeth, when meeting the riddle-paw will probably end in your death.
Why?"

"Tell him," said Betony.

"This all started when a japegrin turned my parents to marble," Felix began, and he gave Jahim an abbreviated version of his story.

When Felix had finished Jahim said, "You think the brazzles have survived, don't you? I have to hope for your sakes that they have. You are a noble creature, human, and I shall assist you in every way I can. I didn't like the idea of just tipping you off and watching Leona devour you -- it lacks honor. The king of Kaflabad has been far too influenced by newspaper reports about the new president of Andria."

Felix and Betony glanced at each other.
"New
president?" queried Felix.

"He is called Snakeweed."

"I don't
believe
it," said Betony, her face suddenly scarlet with fury.

"Oh, it is true. I have read about it myself -- it was the

191

very latest news, just before we left. Snakeweed is using a triple-head to distribute his newspapers, as they can fly long distances at great speed. The old president -- Fleabane -- was killed by a renegade sinistrom."

"Harshak, presumably," said Felix.

"You are very well informed," said Jahim.

"Snakeweed was the japegrin who petrified my parents," said Felix.

"Well,
give me an underlay and tack me down,
" Nimby piped up. "You do know some famous people, don't you?"

Felix scowled. "Infamous rather than famous, I think."

"We need to get back to the problem at hand," said Jahim. "How do we make our flea jump and become visible? A city cannot exist without trade -- not a city bordering a desert such as this. But we have not seen any convoys of travelers -- we have seen no one. This is perhaps not surprising, considering the cutthroats. However, the citizens of this city must eat, and you cannot transport great quantities of food by carpet."

"Maybe they get their supplies from the other side of the highlands," suggested Betony.

Jahim nodded. "In which case, there must be a road. That's what we must look for -- we've been flying too high, hoping to spot a city, when what we need is a narrow highway through the mountains."

Nimby gradually lost height, and they started to fly at a lower altitude. The details of the scenery were now much easier to pick out: spurs and gullies, cairns and corries. They

192

saw a goaty thing, similar to the one outside Turpsik's cave, which sprang from rock to rock in alarm as their shadow passed over. A flock of twittering birds lifted out of the scrub, and something that resembled a tiny pink ankylosaurus lashed its armored tail and retreated into its shell. The flowering cacti grew here in clumps, twisted into strange interwoven designs, and once in a while they saw bushes covered with pear-shaped orange fruit.

"Remember I can't fly at night," said Nimby. "We'll have to make camp before too long."

And then they saw it. A narrow path that wound its way between the rocks -- and shortly after that, a line of heavily laden quaddiumps, roped together. The leading rider looked up, saw them, and waved. This was so cheering that they all waved back, and Nimby had to be reminded that he couldn't loop the loop when he had passengers. After that it was easy. They followed the trail until it zigzagged down to level ground and ran along the escarpment for a little way until an opening appeared, dark against the honey-colored rock.

The carpet slowed to a walking pace, since the cleft was narrow. "Hang on," said Felix as Nimby was about to enter it. "I thought Leona would be lying in wait on a rock somewhere."

"Maybe there's another entrance," said Betony.

"It's not very good terrorizing practice to stay in the same place indefinitely," said Jahim. "People tend to abandon cities they can't enter. No, she'll wander off from time to

193

time, looking for ideas for new riddles. I think we should go into Sebeth and find lodging for the night. Nimby could probably do with a shampoo, as well."

"Yuck," said the carpet, just like a small boy with a strong aversion to soap and water.

"What's that?" asked Felix, pointing to some symbols etched into the stone next to the opening.

"No idea," said Jahim.

They all looked at it, wondering whether it was some sort of sign in a strange language. "There's a whole list of symbols that seem to have been crossed out," said Felix. "All we're left with is that." He pointed at the line that read:

[Image: Symbols.]

"Only open between certain hours?" hazarded Betony. "Keep left?"

"A speed limit?"

"Choose Fettle's Livery Stables for the best quaddiump care in Sebeth?"

"Maybe it's simply a decoration," said Felix. "Oh, well. Let's go."

Nimby turned into the chasm and flew sedately along its length, passing some merchants going the other way.