Mearsies Heili Bounces Back (35 page)

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 sad.

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.

Seshe spotted a squirrel on a tree branch, and climbed up
fast, but the squirrel gave a frightened squeak and scrambled away, vanishing
into another tree.

She swung down to the grass where I waited, then sighed. “You
know, I wonder if she might have been turned into something large. If it’s a
true shape change, wouldn’t she have to be a larger animal, something girl
sized?”

“I hadn’t thought of that. Shapechanging magic—the real
stuff, not illusion—is way beyond me,” I admitted. “But it has to be a little
like that shrinking magic. When part of you gets shifted into non-being,
somehow. I guess that’s not so bad.”

“Here’s what scares me.” Seshe started forward. “I read
somewhere once that if you take the true shape of a creature, after a time you
become the creature and forget you’re human.”

“DIANA!” I screeched, so upset I forgot about the Chwahir.

Naturally, my superbellow managed to bring trouble. Not long
after we heard a suspicious rustle from ahead, but when we turned to run the
other way, we discovered we were surrounded.

The Chwahir never spoke. That was somehow creepier than the
prospect of getting bagged. I thought about the magic on them—and then came a
familiar yell. Jilo. “Grab them! Don’t let them—”

One of the Chwahir rushed at us—then came the biggest
surprise. A yellowish streak tore past me, and hit the Chwahir full in the
chest. He slammed to the ground, and a feline shape bounded from him and away,
a couple of Chwahir chasing with their swords.

Then Puddlenose and some of the sailors dashed up, Puddlenose
bellowing, “Lordsnordsword to the rescue!”

The sword whistled as he waved it. He jumped between me and
a couple of Chwahir. “Hey!” I yelped. “That thing nearly cut my ear off!”

“You don’t trust my mighty skills?” Puddlenose hooted, as
sword clanged. “Ow.” He danced back and switched hands, blowing on his fingers.

I touched my necklace, but my Shoe did not appear.

The Chwahir advanced—but only for a moment. Both were
tackled from behind by sailors, klonked over the head, and we ran.

Later that night, most of the sailors and Puddlenose, Lina,
and Robin were in the main room, playing a big game of Dive, which is kind of
like Spoon. You keep the cards going, and then when you get six of a kind, you
sneak the stick from the center, and everyone dives to get the rest of the
sticks. There is one short, and the person without a stick has to sit out the
next round.

I usually love this game, but I was in a Mood, so I went to
my room to draw, and the girls in our gang sort of drifted in to join me.

PJ had been so quiet I managed to forget he was there until
we heard his plaintive wail, “There’s something
scra-a-a-a-atching
outside.”

“Shut up, PJ,” Puddlenose bellowed. “We’re busy.”

“Why don’t you let him out,” Seshe called up the tunnel. “He
can’t go anywhere.”

“Because he whines, and he needs to see what it feels like
to be stuck in prison, he’s so fond of doing it to others,” Puddlenose called
back cheerily.

“But—”

“But nothing. He’s my hostage. Everybody agreed.”

“So butt out,” Seshe finished. “All right. But I hate this.”

She left the tunnel door. “I really don’t like having Prince
Jonnicake here.” She sat down on my bed.

“So do I.” I shrugged. “I hate his pimply scowl, and his
whiny voice. He’s even stupider than Rel. Nobody is going to pay any ransom to
get him back—and Puddlenose hasn’t even written a ransom letter or anything. It
was a dumb idea.”

She sighed. “It has to be horrible sitting down there,” she
said.

“You feel sorry for him?” I asked, making a face.

“I feel sorry for his entire life. And we’re just making it
worse.” She looked angry—a rare expression for her. “They have all these gems
and jewels, but Fobo won’t even get his front teeth fixed, so he can talk
properly.”

“I thought the lisp was on purpose.”

“No, you can hear it, how much trouble he has.”

One of the things I’d hated about PJ—one of the many—was his
say-it-don’t-spray-it speech. Eugh. I never thought about how his teeth might
be wrong—an easy fix in this world. You just went to a healer, and they did
spells over a period of time, kind of like braces. It would hurt a bit as they
readjusted—like braces—but then the teeth came out straighter, depending on how
much magic they did.

“But there’s something out there!” he howled. “I’m scared!”

And from the main room, a bunch of hoots. After some more
whining and howling, the grownups said variations on, “Go outside and check!”
to Puddlenose.

Since he was in charge of the hostage, he had to go.

“I’ll tell you what has been bothering me,” I said. “That
all this stuff done to us shows imagination.”

“Villains shouldn’t have imagination.” Irene raised a
finger. “Number forty-seven in the Villains’ Rules.”

“Villains are stupid, or they wouldn’t be villains,” I said,
and Faline nodded, and I could tell she was thinking up more Villains’ Rules. “I
mean, they wouldn’t want to be villains. If they’re as stupid as Rel, maybe
they don’t even know they’re villains.”

“How do they not know they’re villains?” Sherry asked.

“Oh, not Rel again,” Irene muttered, looking skyward.

I got prickle-heat all over, and wanted to snap something
nasty at her, but I made myself not say anything. Irene hadn’t been stuck with
Rel around, or she would be talking even more than I was, so there. “Villains
don’t know they’re villains when they think they’re on the good side. And they’re
too stupid to know they’re not. Oooogh. I just figured out why that business
about what happened to us bothers me so much. It’s because the stuff they did
makes it clear somebody knows us—knows our personalities.”

Seshe looked up, her lips parted. “I think that’s it.” She
flushed. “And whoever it was—Jilo, almost certainly—thinks I’m really boring.
To be stuck asleep in a forest?”

Irene sighed. “I’d rather be boring than a slave. When I—”

Dhana and Faline both said, “—was chained to that bed—”

“—was ch ...” Irene stopped, and reddened up to her
hairline. “That’s mean.”

See how you like it
, I thought. I didn’t say it, but
my face must have showed it because Irene glared at me.

Seshe, always the peacemaker, said to Irene, “What they did
to you was cruel. Is Fobo as cruel to her regular servants?”

“I heard that they quit a lot,” Irene said, distracted by
the question. “King Fudalklaeb has to pay them extra to wait on the Dudly Duo.”

I said, “I wish I could figure out a way to find Diana. I’m
really worried, and you know what worries me extra is, out of all of us except
you, Seshe, she loves animals the most. Maybe she’ll want to stay one, and not
be human anymore.”

Dhana shrugged. “That would be all right. If she wanted it.”

“But she didn’t! They put a spell on her!”

Sherry looked from me to Dhana, eyes round.

“Perhaps. But if she likes her new shape ... being human
isn’t the best thing in the world, you know.”

“Then why are you human?” Irene flashed.

Dhana just shrugged. “Because I wanted to try it. I like it.
But it isn’t best. I don’t think I’d want to be an animal. But Diana might.”

The talk just made me more and more uneasy.

“It’s
out
there again!” PJ wailed.

“Shut up! There’s nothing there!” Puddlenose yelled
impatiently. “Just the tree branches rustling, or something.”

Puddlenose’s room is directly below a huge tree, and roots
form part of the ceiling. I could see finding them scary if it was dark. “Does
PJ have a light in there?”

“He has the glow globe,” Seshe said. “I made sure.”

“Okay, then let’s ignore him.”

Well, we did—or I did—but not for long.

Everyone had gone to sleep and I was still awake, because
this time I could hear it, too. It was barely there, a ghostly scritch-scratch.
So I got up, and fog-footed up the tunnel to look around.

The night air was cool, the forest still. So much for wind
making tree branches rub together.

I edged to the small cave at the back entrance—and jumped in
fright when a large, pale shape paced out of the cave. It was a huge feline,
yellowish in the moonlight.

And I knew. “Diana?” I said cautiously. And held out my
hand.

If it was, did she still remember me? She snuffled my hand,
whiskers brushing it, then opened her mouth very wide. I snatched my hand back,
then said, “Wait here.”

Well that was stupid, I thought. If she’s a human, she’ll
wait, then I don’t have to waken anyone, but if not ... I didn’t pause to
untangle that, but dashed downstairs and shook Seshe awake. She has that odd
almost communication with animals, so I said, “I think Diana’s here. But I need
you to make sure.”

She got up at once and followed me.

The feline was still there. Seshe laid her hand on the flat,
triangular head. A deep, rumbling noise started. At first I thought it a growl.
No, it was a rough, rusty sort of purr.

“It’s Diana,” Seshe whispered. Her nightgown shifted as she
shrugged. “I just know it.”

I crept out, and pressed close to the tree I thought was
above Puddlenose’s room. Fresh scratch marks marred the bark. “Whaddaya know.
PJ was right.”

Seshe was whispering to the feline.

“I told her what happened, and asked her to stay,” she said.

We went back to bed.

o0o

That night I dreamed about Clair. She was looking for me, as
I looked for her. The details were smeary—a background that made no sense, just
bright color, and our conversation didn’t make any more sense than the
background did. It was a dream, I told myself. They never make sense. Still, it
left me with a creepy feeling all the next day.

“We gotta get going on some kind of plan,” I said when we
all were together. “We’ve got the girls, and I have no idea where to start
searching for Clair. “

The girls looked solemn. Captain Heraford said, “One thing
we can do, while you investigate.” Then he waited.

I said, “Go ahead. It’s not like my ideas have gotten us
free yet.”