Dragons of the Watch (43 page)

Ellie jumped to her feet and ran to Yawn, then knelt beside him to see if he’d been hurt.

Wizard Pater passed her on the way to the broken bottle. “We must hurry. No time to lose.”

“He’s not bleeding,” Ellie announced, then realized that only Bealomondore seemed interested. He called for Laddin.

Stooping beside the leader of the gang, Bealomondore felt the boy’s head for a bump. “Yawn couldn’t put out a hand to break his fall. Our bodies’ instinctive reactions save us more than we realize.”

Ellie heard Bealomondore call Laddin again and realized that both this time and the first time he’d been mindspeaking. Perhaps when the message was loud, it should be called mindshouting.

Bealomondore must have heard her frivolous thought. He winked at her.

Aloud, he said, “Laddin’ll be here very quickly, and though he can’t reverse the wizard’s still command, he can check for injuries and keep bruises from forming.”

Wizard Pater came to them with the shattered bottle in a cloth he’d also used to wipe up the liquid. “We must get to the surface and to the bottle before this dries, or all is lost.”

“We can’t leave Yawn!” Ellie clasped the stiff hand of the young gang leader.

“We will, indeed, leave the rapscallion,” said Wizard Pater. “The dragons of the watch will take good care of him until I return.”

“When do you plan to come back?” asked Ellie as Bealomondore lifted her to her feet.

“Only you and Bealomondore will go through the wall at this time. With the bottle broken and the liquid rapidly evaporating, we can only send two safely through the glass.” He started for the door that led to the great hall and the entry to the subter. “Listen carefully as we walk. I have instructions for you, and it is imperative that you remember.”

Ellie and Bealomondore kept pace with the wizard’s long legs. The children ran in order not to be left behind.

“Some of the contents of the bottle fell on your shoes and lower garments. Do not wash them. Put them away someplace safe until you have contacted Wizard Fenworth. He may be able to reconstitute the substance and engineer our escape. The residue on your apparel will also help you move through the glass.”

“Why were we able to come into the bottle without any special liquid?” asked Bealomondore.

“Ah! Don’t you know that it is always easier to get into a predicament than to get out of one?”

They passed into the tunnel through which the stream flowed. The wizard turned away from the route they’d taken to get to Tuck.

Ellie pointed over her shoulder. “Shouldn’t we be going that way?”

The wizard answered without pausing. “We’d be walking back to the center of the city, and then we’d have to walk out of it again. This way is shorter. We’ll climb the steps to the surface a few yards from the glass wall.”

They had neglected to grab the lightrocks. Without them, they had
only the glow given off by embedded globes along the walls and down the center of the tunnel ceiling. Ellie could see the others vaguely. Tak’s white coat gleamed blue as he passed under each lit orb.

Ellie worried about the children. “Be careful of the stream.” That only covered one of her concerns. “You’re to stay with Wizard Pater after we leave, and we’ll be back for you as soon as we can. Be good for him. Use your manners. And never come down to this part of the subter without an adult. You could drown in that river.”

“Miss Ellie,” Cinder complained, “that’s not a river. It’s just a trickle of water.”

“You can drown in two inches of water, young man. Don’t argue with me.”

They reached stone steps, obviously built by tumanhofers. Ellie and Bealomondore climbed to the rough door easily.

Cinder rushed to help lift the wooden planks upward. It swung open like the cellar door on Ellie’s family farm. Slanted golden rays of sun greeted them from the west. Their shadows stretched out across the grassy plain.

The children romped like springtime rabbits in the meadow. Tak settled in to trim down the abundant growth.

“They’ve never been in the country,” Ellie said. “Look how excited they are.”

“Come, hurry,” called Wizard Pater. He charged toward the glass wall.

“I can see it,” said Ellie, huffing a bit as she kept up. “When I first passed through, I turned around and couldn’t see the glass.”

“Neither could I,” said Bealomondore.

“Angle of the sun,” Wizard Pater yelled. “No time to talk about
diffusion, reflection, and refraction. Fascinating, but I judge we only have three minutes to get you through to the other side. This rag is all but dry.”

He stopped by the wall. Ellie and Bealomondore caught up. The wizard showed no signs of strain. The tumanhofers panted. Ellie’s knees buckled, and she sat in the grass.

“Get up, girl,” demanded the wizard. “You can collapse on the other side.”

She struggled to her feet with Bealomondore’s help.

The wizard unwrapped the glass shards. “Aaah! Just enough moisture within the cloth to get you through. Ready?”

Ellie turned to the frolicking children. “I need to say good-bye.”

“No time,” the wizard said.

“Tak! I have to get Tak.”

The goat still foraged near the open door to the subter.

“Too far, no time.” Wizard Pater gave the bottle fragments and cloth to Bealomondore. “Now hold Ellie’s hand and just walk through. No problem.”

Bealomondore started to speak, “Thank you—”

“No time. Walk!”

They stepped toward the barrier, Ellie looking over her shoulder. “You will watch the children? They’ve made such good progress. And take care of Yawn and his little toughs. They really are just children.”

“Yes. Yes. Go, girl, or you’ll be left behind.”

Ellie felt Bealomondore tugging at her hand. She turned to find herself pressed against the glass. Part of Bealomondore had already penetrated the barrier.

Both hands were empty. Bealomondore spun around, but there was no sign of Ellie. Instead, he could see two wagons, his and another traveling cart that reminded him of caravan wagons the wanderers lived in, a tiny house on wheels.

He looked down at his clothes. His sword was at his side, even though he had not been wearing it in Tuck. He had on the same ragged shirt, coat, and pants that had been his uniform while away.

But his wagon and the old slow horse were right where he’d left them in the shade. The sun hadn’t even moved enough to change the direction of the shadow.

A marione came out of the back end of the large cart. He waved. “There you are!” He beckoned him closer. “Come. Have some refreshments.”

The voice sounded familiar. The man looked familiar. Bealomondore squinted to read the lettering on the wooden side of the wagon. “Rowser and Piefer Insect Emporium. The finest supplies in medicinal bugs.”

“Rowser?” Bealomondore dashed across the field. “How did you get here? What are you doing here?”

“Vacation.” He smiled and held out his arm, gesturing to the lovely countryside around them.

“
He’s
on vacation,” fussed another voice Bealomondore remembered. “He sits and reads.”

Rowser held up a finger. “And records.”

“While I run around with a butterfly net, catching specimens for our shop.”

Bealomondore came to a halt beside Rowser. “Piefer, where are you?”

He heard a scraping noise from under the wagon. Soon Piefer’s
head popped out. The bug man was on his back, and he grinned up at the tumanhofer. “I was just checking on the night beetles. We have to keep them cool and alive.”

Bealomondore made a disgusted face. “Surely you don’t feed them to your patients alive.”

Rowser looked up from the book he’d opened. “Alive? The patient or the bug?”

Bealomondore looked over his shoulder again. Where was Ellie? To Rowser, he answered, “I assume the patient is alive. A corpse would be uncooperative when asked to swallow your brew of medicine.”

The emerlindian Piefer climbed out from under the wagon and slapped the loose dirt from his pants. “I look like I’ve been working in the field. But then, I have been working in the field. Why do you look like you’ve been wallowing in nature?”

“I—” Bealomondore stopped. He’d been in Rumbard City, trapped in a bottle. How was he to tell these men he’d met several years ago about his latest adventure?

He searched the horizon, the edge of a small wood, and the distant meadow.

“What are you looking for?” asked Rowser.

“Tell me”—Bealomondore would wait for an appropriate time to go into his lengthy tale—“have Paladin and Queen Tipper married yet?”

“She’s still Princess Tipper until the coronation, and that’s still months away.”

Rowser tapped his finger on the open book. “Just barely seven weeks.”

Piefer took exception to the correction. “Seven weeks is almost two months. Thus the plural is necessary. Singular would mislead
Bealomondore. They will not be married in a month. She will be crowned, and they will be married in almost two months. Plural.”

Bealomondore scratched his head as he once again scanned the fields. “I came out on the same day I left. She either did the same, or she wasn’t able to get through.”

“What’s that, Bealomondore?”

“I’ve lost a friend, and I’m not sure if she has vanished to a different time or a different place or didn’t make the journey at all.”

“Ah, I see,” said Rowser.

Piefer nodded his head in agreement. “He’s been gadding about with wizards again.”

Rowser’s eyebrows arched. “Only explanation. Did you want tea or something stronger?”

“I’ll stick with tea. Your something stronger might still have bits of legs and antennas in it.”

Ellie stumbled over a runt bush and landed hard on the palms of her hands. They stung. She quickly turned over and sat up. The rock ridge she’d thought looked like a stone dragon rose out of the ground right in front of her. Her feet touched the part that looked like the tip of the tail.

She recognized this spot.

She could see quite well across the valley. No misty cloud hung over the land now. But water soaked the ground, and she stood up to avoid getting any wetter.

No sign of Bealomondore. No sign of the bottle. Over to the south she could see smoke curling out of the Hopperbattyholds’ cabin. To the west, she caught a glimpse of the road to Pence. Her aunt and uncle would have long ago passed that crossroads village.

She searched the terrain once more, looking for Bealomondore. Should she turn back to walk home or go on to the road? Stopping in the village seemed the best thing to do. She could ask what day it was, if the royal wedding had been magnificent, and if anyone had been looking for her.

As she trudged over the rough moor, she wondered if she should go looking for Bealomondore or go home to see if he came looking for her.

“He will,” she said aloud, then felt foolish. Tak wasn’t with her, so she couldn’t pretend she was talking to him and he understood. “What
are people going to say?” She raised her arms a bit and let them fall back to her sides. “What am
I
going to say?”

She thought perhaps she should go to Ragar and find Wizard Fenworth. She had a message to deliver from Wizard Pater. But so did Bealomondore. A clump of coarse wire grass slashed her ankle as she walked by. Tiny cuts above her sock bled a little, not enough even to wipe away. She returned to mulling over her immediate future and stumbled over a tangle of bracken.

With her eyes on the ground, paying better attention to where she put her feet, Ellie reached the road and turned toward Pence. Perhaps she could get a ride back to Glenbrooken Village and walk home from there.

She moved to the side of the road when she heard a carriage approaching from behind. She didn’t bother to look as the coach rumbled past. It splashed mud on her clothing, and she jumped farther out onto the sloped grass beside the road. With her head down, examining the new stains on her tattered skirt, she heard the order to stop.

A screeching rendition of her name caught her attention. “Ellicinderpart!”

Aunt Tiffenbeth?

The carriage looked very familiar. She trotted over to stand next to the coach and look up at the people inside. Her aunt and uncle stared at her in disbelief. Aunt Tiffenbeth’s face had turned a horrid shade of reddish purple. Her eyes were wide and slightly unfocused. Uncle Stemikenjon looked perplexed.