On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (13 page)

26

Trouble at the Bookstore

T
he next morning, Podo was pleased to find more thwaps in the garden. He took such pleasure in overhearing Buzzard Willie complain about them at the tavern that Podo had begun looking forward to waking up every morning at sunrise to catch the little thieves at their business; part of his daily routine was sneaking into Buzzard Willie's backyard, dumping sacks full of thwaps, and watching them scatter. To be fair, after setting the thwaps loose, Podo would sneak around to the front door and hand Willie a basket of vegetables, compliments of the flourishing Igiby garden.

Janner, Tink, and Leeli did their morning chores and studied their T.H.A.G.S. Tink was excited that the two art books he'd borrowed from Oskar were helpful and overflowing with beautiful pictures. Leeli spent her time memorizing the words and melodies to several old tunes that Nia knew from childhood. But Janner sat on the front steps with his journal in his lap, staring out past the trees. Nia had asked him to write a book report on
In the Age of the Kindly Flabbits,
but try as he might, Janner couldn't make it past the first few words without thinking about Oskar's map.

Oskar N. Reteep was quite a different man than Janner had thought, hiding secret maps and hoarding weapons in a haunted manor. Janner shook his head and smiled wryly, thinking about all the jewels his mother had kept secret. She wasn't exactly who he thought she was, either.
Do all grownups have something to hide?

“Janner, are you almost finished?” Nia's voice startled him. She stood behind him, frowning at the mostly blank page on his lap.

Janner's cheeks reddened. He'd been sitting there for most of the morning and had nothing to show for it. “I just have…too much crammed in my head to write about flabbits and the Jungles of Plontst,” he stammered. He stared at the ground, wondering why he suddenly felt the need to cry. He waited for a rebuke of some kind, but instead felt his mother squeeze his shoulder.

“Then write about that. It'll do you some good,” she said, turning to go. “And I promise not to read it.”

He looked down at the quill in his hand and remembered the feel of the sword he had swung in the weapons chamber. It had felt good, like he was no longer a powerless boy in a boring town but someone whose life could mean something, like his father's had. All the tears that had gathered in him just moments ago changed into words, and he began to scratch them into his journal.

Janner filled pages in his journal for hours. By the time he finished relating the details of the last two days' adventures—the head full of questions they had raised, and the heart full of emotions they had awoken—his hand ached and the ink bottle was almost dry.

Nia called for a lunch of henmeat salad and roundbread, and Janner closed his journal with a feeling of lightness in his chest, as if he had been carrying a feed sack on his shoulders for two days and had just heaved it to the barn floor. But his mind still swirled.

Tink appeared and tried to push toward the kitchen door, but Janner grabbed his elbow.

“Henmeat and roundbread,” Tink said, patting his stomach. “What is it?”

Janner lowered his voice. “We have to return that map.”

Tink's face grew serious and he hid his hands behind his back, thinking about how much he wanted to keep the fingers attached to them. “Do we have to? What if Mister Reteep finds out?”

“He'll find out soon enough, if he notices it missing, and I'm sure he'll suspect we took it. I think our safest option is to try to slip it back when he's not looking. Trust me. We'll do it today when we go to the bookstore.”

They gobbled down lunch and headed out, Leeli and Nugget in tow. Once again, Podo escorted them into town as far as Shaggy's Tavern.

“After I chew the bone with Shaggy for a spell, I'm heading home to tend to the garden. I'll be back to get ye at sundown.” With a warning to be wary and to stick together, he sent them on, complaining loudly about his overwhelming thirst.

Leeli hadn't yet ventured into town since the Sea Dragon Festival, and she was anxious. But the sun was bright and the townspeople seemed their usual selves, so her spirits soon lightened and she took to humming while she limped along behind her brothers. They waved at the Blaggus boys who were pushing a wheelbarrow full of garden tools they had just acquired by spending the morning filling out a stack of Tool Use Forms.

The Fangs were at their usual place in front of the jail, laughing wickedly with one another and sneering at the Glipfolk who passed.

Janner was relieved to see no sign of either Slarb or Commander Gnorm.

Zouzab sat on the roof of Books and Crannies with his legs crossed, juggling three stones and watching the children approach.

“Hello, children,” he said in his quiet way. “Have you come to…return something?” Janner and Tink stole a glance at one another. Did Zouzab know that they'd taken the map? Janner told himself it was his guilty conscience. They waved at him, Janner trying to be as pleasant as he could with the strange little ridgerunner, though he always found it difficult. Zouzab's eyes seemed to be studying him in a way that was familiar to Janner, though he couldn't place why.

“We've come to see if Leeli here can borrow a few books,” Janner said.

“I'm sure that will be nice,” Zouzab replied pleasantly enough as he slunk backward, out of sight.

Janner watched the ridgerunner vanish and remembered Nicholas, Ferinia Swapleton's cat. It was usually seen lazing in the shade of the front stoop of the flower shop, licking its paws. But sometimes, when a butterfly bounced through the air in front of it, the cat would spring to its feet and watch the insect with a cold, careful intensity. Janner realized that when Zouzab watched him, he felt like the butterfly. He shuddered and hurried into the bookstore to find Oskar in his office hunkered over a huge volume at his desk.

“The Igiby three! Come in, come in.” He spread his arms wide and waved them in. His expression turned to one of horror, however, when he saw Nugget padding along beside Leeli. “Oh! No dogs, lass. First thing you know, he'll be gnawing on some old one-of-a-kind book of mine.” He shooed Nugget out the back door to Leeli's disappointment. Noticing, Oskar's expression softened, but only a little. “As the great animal trainer Yakev Brrz wrote, uh, let me see…how did that go…” Oskar closed his eyes with a finger in the air. “Ah! That's it. ‘Like it or not, the dog stays outside.' A wise fellow, Yakev was.”
¹

Leeli motioned for Nugget to wait for her beside the loading door in the back, where the crates full of books had been.

Oskar then escorted Leeli through the store to find the section on music.

Janner and Tink wandered through the maze of shelves for half an hour before Tink found the loose panel just below the shelf labeled I
TCHY
R
ASH
R
EMEDIES AND
A
NECDOTES
. The snot-wax candle was still in its place.

“Is he nearby?” Tink asked, looking up and down the aisle. Janner walked to the end, peeked around the corner and shook his head.

Tink wiggled the panel loose, pulled the map from his sleeve and slipped it beneath the shelf. As he replaced the panel, they heard a quiet voice above them.

“Drop something?” Zouzab said. He was perched on top of the high shelf above them, smiling.

Janner and Tink tried to smile back. Tink told him that he'd seen a woodmouse scurrying about and was trying to catch it before it ruined any of Oskar's books.

“Oh, yes, I see woodmice in here all the time,” Zouzab said. “I just”—quick as a flash, Zouzab scurried down the shelf and pretended to snatch at something—“sneak up and grab them before they even know what's happened.”

Tink and Janner smiled uncomfortably, still not sure what to think of Zouzab Koit.

Zouzab scurried back up the shelf and disappeared again.

Janner elbowed Tink and nodded toward the entrance. For another fifteen minutes they took wrong turn after wrong turn, trying to find Leeli and Oskar.

They eventually found Oskar, very pleased with himself, holding a stack of at least ten large volumes, all on the subject of the whistleharp.

“Where's Leeli?” Janner asked.

“Eh?” Oskar said, peering down at them through his spectacles. “Oh! She went to check on that little dog of hers a while ago.”

Janner's heart skipped a beat. Their first time into town since the incident that nearly killed them, and already he didn't know where she was. He told himself that he was overreacting, but the sick feeling in his stomach sent him running and calling her name, leaving Tink and Oskar standing there speechless.

Janner darted to and fro through the maddening twists and turns of the narrow aisles, trying to find his way back to the office. He rounded a corner and skidded to a stop right in front of Oskar and Tink, who had not moved. He was back where he started.

“I have to find Leeli!” Janner exploded.

Oskar blinked, shocked at Janner's tone of voice, but he dropped the books to the floor in a heap and shuffled forward, leading the way as fast as possible with Tink in the rear. Janner moved past him when he saw the office ahead and burst through the back door, praying that Leeli would be sitting there in the grass scratching Nugget's belly.

But she was nowhere to be seen.

The area behind Books and Crannies was empty except for the stack of old crates piled there two days prior. Beside the crates lay Leeli's new L
IZARDKICKER
crutch.

Janner felt his insides quake. He couldn't believe that already he had failed to protect his sister, and he had the sinking feeling that this time they wouldn't get out of it unscathed. He was dimly aware of Tink yelling Leeli's name as loudly as he could and Oskar shuffling around the corner of the building, calling for Leeli too.

Janner dropped to his knees, on the verge of tears. He was cycling through feelings of anger towards Leeli for stepping outside alone, anger toward Oskar for leaving her for even a moment, and guilt for once again failing Podo, Nia, and most importantly, Leeli.

Oskar came back around the corner. “She's not here,” he said, worriedly adjusting his spectacles.

Suddenly, Nugget appeared, favoring one leg and whining.

“Nugget!” Tink cried, and he ran over to the little dog. “Where's Leeli, boy? Leeli?” Nugget pointed his nose across the field behind Oskar's shop and barked.

“There,” said Zouzab from above them. He was standing on the roof again, pointing north toward a cluster of trees. “I can see something moving… there.”

“Is it her?” Janner demanded, scrambling to his feet.

“It appears to be a Fang…and…yes, it's carrying something. I believe it's her,” Zouzab finished, with a note of sadness in his voice.

With a roar, Janner leapt to his feet and ran as fast as he could for home. His only thought was that he had to find Podo because Podo would know what to do.

Janner and Tink both screamed his name the whole way up the lane to the cottage, and Podo, who had been hoeing in the garden, dropped his hoe and ran, stump and all, to meet them.

“W
HERE'S MY GRANDDAUGHTER?
” he bellowed.

Between breaths, Janner told him what happened, and in the middle of the story he started crying. He felt stupid for it, but he couldn't hold back the tears any longer.

Tink stood beside him awkwardly, staring at the ground and praying that Podo wouldn't be too hard on his big brother.

Without a word, Podo wheeled around and dashed to the barn.

“Grandpa, what do we do?” Tink called after him.

Podo emerged from the barn, suddenly astride their old carthorse Danny—but both Podo and Danny looked different. Danny was galloping like a war-horse, his mane whipping around like it was on fire, and there on his bare back sat Podo, wild white hair flying, his back hunched forward as he urged the horse on.

Janner thought his grandfather looked ten years younger and twice as strong.

“Stay here,” Podo growled.

“But—” Janner said.

“S
TAY HERE!
” Podo roared. The veins stood out on his neck, and his face turned red as a plum. He galloped away down the lane toward town, leaving his grandsons staring after him in awe.

27

A Trap for the Igibys

L
eeli was having a miserable time. She had been slung over Slarb's shoulder like a sack of trullie roots. From her upside-down position she was able to see little other than her blond hair bouncing above her head and the grayish green scales of the Fang's shoulder and back.

Slarb's cool skin was smooth and damp, like leaves in the late morning, only the wetness on his scales surely wasn't anything as pleasant as morning dew. He stank, a sharp smell that reminded Leeli of the compost pile beside the garden, where she was often sent with vegetable peelings and scraps of food.

As unlikely as it might seem, Leeli actually found herself feeling sorry for Slarb. He probably had no friends, she thought, and no matter where he went he had to smell himself, unless of course he got used to it, but she dismissed that idea as impossible.

Any compassion she felt for the Fang vanished, however, as soon as she spoke to him.

“You'll—never—get—away—with—this,” she said in between the bounces. “My—brothers—and—grandpa—will—”

Slarb snarled and squeezed his clawed hands tighter around her legs until she cried out. Leeli said no more.

The boys would soon notice she was missing, and Nugget hadn't let her down yet.

After a while she began to think that dying would be preferable to the awful stench.

She could tell that they had moved gradually uphill in the direction of Glipwood Forest, but there was nothing for her to do. If she somehow got free, she couldn't run away; she had dropped her crutch when Slarb grabbed her, and even if she had it, there was no chance of outrunning a Fang.

Finally they stopped. Slarb had been striding through the fields for half an hour and the only sound he had made was to growl at Leeli when she tried to speak to him. He stopped in a cluster of trees at the beginning of the forest, sniffing the air.

Leeli kept quiet and waited to see what he would do. Surely he wasn't planning to take her into the forest. Even Fangs knew that entering Glipwood Forest meant a fool's death.

Slarb chuckled to himself, a sickening sound, and threw Leeli to the ground. The fall jarred her and she bit her tongue hard enough to draw blood. She could taste it in her mouth as she fought back the tears. But Leeli brushed her hair out of her eyes, and looked up fiercely at Slarb.

The end of his tail flitted and rustled around on the leafy ground, the only sound that Leeli could hear other than his ragged breathing. His black eyes looked down on her without emotion.

“Your brothersss will be along shortly, I think,” he said, and he slunk over to a nearby tree and leaned against it, a smirk on his scaly face.

Leeli lay on the ground thinking hard. She knew Slarb was right. She knew her brothers and that they'd come for her, but this once she didn't want them to. If Slarb didn't kill them, then there was a good chance that the creatures of the forest would. She didn't want them walking into a trap. Leeli looked around and saw a large gnarled glipwood tree a few feet behind her. She scooted back to lean against it.

Slarb heard her movement and he whipped his head toward her and hissed. His long, forked tongue slithered out of his mouth and over his fangs.

Leeli eased back against the tree. She knew Slarb didn't need much reason to kill her so she moved carefully. “I'm not going anywhere, Mister Fang, sir, I'm just leaning against the—”

“Sssilence!” he barked. “The only thing worse than the sssmell of you humans is the screech of your voices.”

Leeli nodded, her heart pounding.

During the several minutes that passed, Slarb was silent, listening. He leaned against a tree, seemingly prepared to wait for days if need be.

Leeli's mind was still racing, but try as she might, she could think of nothing she could do. One thought kept coming to her mind.
Get out of here. Hobble as fast as your twisted leg will let you. Don't sit here and wait to watch your brothers die.
It was useless, but she couldn't bear to do nothing.

Leeli eased forward. Slarb took no notice. He had cocked his head to the side, listening to something. Just as Leeli summoned the courage to turn and try sneaking away, she heard a crash in the underbrush off to her right.

No!
she thought. Leeli was certain that it was Janner and Tink, come to find her. Slarb slunk into the woods in the direction of the sound. Using the tree trunk for support, she got to her feet as quickly as she could.

“Run!” she screamed. “It's a trap! Run!” Then she turned and lurched through the brush, hopping along as swiftly as she could, waiting for her brothers' screams behind her
. Maybe they heard me in time,
she thought.
Maybe they were able to escape, or maybe they were able to hide long enough to cause Slarb to wander off in the wrong direction.
But maybe they were already dead.

Leeli burst from the cluster of trees and hobbled southward in the direction from which Slarb had carried her. Behind her, she heard a frustrated snarl and then the sound of Slarb coming after her, crashing through the brush. She pressed on, thinking only that she had to get away from the beast behind her. She cursed her twisted leg and the Fangs and the tall grass that slowed her down. Her dress caught on the limb of a duckflower bush, and it jerked her to a stop. Frantically, Leeli worked to loosen the snag and looked back in time to see Slarb flying toward her with his yellow fangs bared. She curled herself into a ball, squinted her eyes tightly shut, and prayed to the Maker that it would be over quickly.