On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness Page 13

  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.

  “STAY 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

  Leeli 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.

  28

  Into the Forest

  The boys ran to the cottage without a word. Nia flung the front door open and ran to meet them.

  “Where’s your grandfather? Where’s Leeli?” she demanded.

  Between breaths, they told her what had happened. She gave Janner a quick look of disappointment that cut to his heart. His stomach felt hollow and cold; there was nothing to do but wait.

  Nia said as much. Janner could tell she was worried from the way she stood with her back straight and her shoulders squared. The more frightened she was, the tougher she looked.

  Nia led the boys into the house, her hands on their shoulders. The brothers sat on the couch in front of the empty fireplace without speaking for a long time. Janner’s eyes roamed the room, and everything he saw reminded him of his little sister—Nugget’s pallet on the floor by the hearth, Leeli’s whistleharp on the mantle. He thought with shame about the many times he had been frustrated at his sister for slowing him down, as if it were any choice of hers to have been born with a twisted leg. He thought about the times he had teased her for making such a fuss over Nugget, the dog who had done a better job of watching over her than he himself had. He imagined her pretty voice filling the house with music, and he missed her.

  Janner slouched back in the couch and stared at the timbered ceiling, trying hard not to cry.

  Slarb flew through the air toward Leeli, fangs bared in a vicious snarl. Too frightened to move, Leeli forced away the thoughts of the Fang’s long teeth sinking into her, the poison coursing through her veins; in that heartbeat she thought of the warm cottage, the only home she’d ever known
. She was sad that she’d never get to see it again.

  Leeli imagined Janner, Tink, Podo, and Nia standing on the front lawn waving to her. And she thought of Nugget. She hoped that Janner and Tink would remember to feed him, and scratch his belly once in a while.

  Suddenly, Slarb’s growl was cut short. Trembling, Leeli opened her eyes and saw the Fang’s claws clutching desperately at an arm locked tight around his throat.

  She couldn’t see the person’s face, only a tuft of white hair sticking up from behind Slarb’s shoulder—but the arm around Slarb’s throat had a dirty knitted sock pulled up to the elbow.

  Slarb’s black eyes wheeled in their sockets as he scratched and dug into the socked arm, but it did no good. The arm held firm. Slarb staggered backward and turned away from Leeli, revealing lanky Peet the Sock Man, who was either brave enough or foolish enough (and maybe both) to attack a Fang barehanded, or sock-handed, as it turned out.

  Peet’s eyes were squeezed shut as he hung on desperately to the thrashing Fang. Slarb’s teeth were bared and oozing with yellowish venom, but his movements were slowing down.

  Leeli began to hope that just maybe she would live to see her family and Nugget again. Peet was grunting, straining to keep his grip on the twisting beast; though blood was soaking the sock where Slarb’s claws were digging into Peet’s forearm, he showed no sign of pain.

  Slarb spun around, so fast that Peet’s feet flew out behind him. The Fang lurched this way and that, his tail whipping the underbrush. Finally he fell first to one knee and then to the ground, unconscious.

  Peet lay on top of Slarb, gasping for air. After a moment, he loosened his grip and carefully slid his arm out from under the creature’s neck. When Peet saw Leeli he relaxed and stood up, brushing himself off as if embarrassed. Leeli was still crouched down in the brush at the edge of the trees, looking warily at her rescuer.

  “Thank you,” she said timidly. “That was very brave.”

  Peet watched her without speaking, still winded from his struggle.

  She felt like she was talking to a scared animal, and her heart went out to him, much as it had gone out to Nugget when she’d found him as a puppy. Something about his face looked familiar—a thought that had never occurred to her before. She’d seen him bouncing through town, but she’d never really stopped and looked at the strange man before. She knew that he was prone to speaking gibberish to lampposts and attacking street signs, but she had never spoken to him. No one did. The Glipwood Township ignored him like a stray dog.

  Leeli felt like she should have been scared, but she wasn’t. Not only was there a Fang that was still alive, lying just a few feet away, but she was at the edge of Glipwood Forest. She was also in the presence of a man who, though he had just saved her life, was supposed to be as crazy as the Dark Sea was dark.1 Somehow, though, she felt a peace that surprised her. She hobbled from behind the brush. Peet shrieked and scrambled backward.

  “It’s okay,” Leeli said, again feeling as though she were calming a frightened puppy. Peet’s eyes darted to and fro like a trapped animal. She stopped in front of him and smiled up at the tall, ragged man. “Is your name really Peet?”

  His wild eyes finally settled on hers. She saw the jittery fear gone for a moment and detected a sorrow in his gray eyes that she hadn’t noticed before. He reached out a socked hand to touch her wild hair, and Leeli suddenly felt afraid again. She hopped back a step, tripped over Slarb’s tail, and fell hard to the ground. Peet withdrew his hand and gasped as if he had touched a hot coal. The wildness crept back into his eyes.

  Slarb groaned and strained to push himself up from the ground. One of his black eyes fluttered open and focused on Leeli.

  She cried out and scrambled away, but Slarb wasn’t going anywhere yet. Peet kicked him, hard, slamming his scaled face back into the ground and knocking the Fang unconscious again. Then in one sweeping motion Peet stepped over to Leeli and scooped her into his arms. But she saw with horror that Peet the Sock Man wasn’t carrying her home. He was taking her deeper into Glipwood Forest.

  Podo reined up his horse at the edge of the trees. He hadn’t entered Glipwood Forest since he was a boy, when hunters and rangers had kept the dangerous animals in check. Now here he was, an old man with one leg and no weapon to speak of, and the forest teeming with all manner of hungry beasts. Nugget was panting, staring fiercely into the shadowy wood.

  Slarb’s trail had been easy to spot. It led out of town, past several homes and farms. The closer Podo, Danny, and Nugget got to the border of the forest, the more the properties were run down and abandoned. Old fences slouched. Sad husks of homes stood charred and forlorn in the fields, where families once worked and lived and loved. These abandoned homes stood like gravestones scattered across the prairie. As he drove Danny northward, Podo thought back to his fine, green years as a boy in Glipwood, long before anyone had heard of Gnag the Nameless.

  The memories stung him and filled him with rage.

  “Aye, Nugget, she’s in there.” Podo nodded in the direction of the dark trees and patted Danny the carthorse’s shoulder. “I reckon we ought to go get our girl.” He clicked his tongue and Danny snapped into a gallop.

  Though dusk had settled on the Igiby cottage, no fire burned in the hearth. No lanterns were lit. Janner, Tink, and Nia sat without speaking in the darkening house, waiting, as they had for hours.

  “Mama?” Janner said finally. Nia looked up at him from the chair where she’d been sitting with her head bowed. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I lost her again.” Janner couldn’t continue without crying, so he looked away.

  Nia crossed the room and lit a lantern. She placed it on the windowsill, then sat down beside her older son.

  “Hush, now. It’ll be all right. It does no good to worry over what’s already happened. What matters is now. The past and the future are both beyond our reach.”

  “I’m afraid she might not come back,” Tink said.

  “You have to think hard about the very thing before you, dear. Nothing else. To think too long on what might happen is a fool’s business. Right now, for your Podo, the thing before him is to find Leeli, not to think about how it happened or who’s to blame. And the thing before us is to wait in this old cottage without giving up hope. Even if hope is just a low ember at night, in the morning you can still start a fire.”

  Janner couldn’t hold his tongue. “Is that why you and Grandpa never talk about our father? Because ‘the past is beyond our reach?’” Tears filled his eyes. “If Leeli never comes back, will we just pretend like she never existed, the way you do with—Esben?”

  Nia stiffened.

  Janner stared at the floor and fidgeted with the hem of his shirt. He hated the tension he felt in the room, but he couldn’t apologize. He knew Nia was right about hope. He felt it in his bones. But he couldn’t bear the way his mother and Podo had buried the memories of his father, whoever he was.

  “Janner.”

  He looked up at his mother. She was a picture of strength. Her elegant jaw was set, her head was erect and her posture firm. But her eyes were churning with conflicting emotions. She looked like she might at any moment burst into tears of either sorrow or anger. “I know it’s hard for you, but you have to trust me,” she said. “There are things you don’t understand.”

  He rolled his eyes and looked away, but she took his chin in her firm hand and turned his face to hers. “One day you’ll know why we don’t speak of your father. You both will,” she added, looking at Tink. “But he’s been dead many years, and your sister yet lives…I hope.” Nia looked out the window into the near dark and put a hand to her mouth. “Someone’s coming.”

  Janner leapt to his feet and flung open the door. He saw the shadowy form on horseback making his way up the path to the house. No one dared to breathe. Finally Janner saw that it was, indeed, Podo on old Danny’s back and Nugget trotting along beside them, but he couldn’t tell if Leeli was there. Janner had a dreadful feeling that earlier that day
at Oskar’s was the last time he would ever see his sister.

  Tink ran to meet his grandfather and the others followed. When he was still a stone’s throw away they heard Podo’s voice call out in the fading light.

  “I’ve got her,” he said. “She’s fine.”

  Tink whooped with joy and ran to help Leeli from the tired horse.

  Janner nearly collapsed with relief. He looked over at his mother, who was standing in the doorway with her hands folded tight at her chest. Her eyes caught the last light of the evening, glowing like embers smoldering long into the night.

  29

  Cave Blats and Quill Diggles

  Inside, each Igiby fussed over Leeli and helped her to sit with a very happy Nugget. Janner set to making a fire. He and Tink showered Podo and Leeli, who was giggling, with questions about the details. But Nia told them to give their poor sister and grandfather time to rest.

  Podo eased himself into his chair with a groan and propped his one leg up on the footstool while Nia herded the boys into the kitchen to help her prepare dinner.

  In a short while they brought out steaming bowls of henmeat soup on a tray. They sat around the fire and sipped the broth, the boys in anguish from having to wait so long for the story. Podo cleared his throat, and the room was silent but for the crackling of the fire.

  “I never found the gut-sucking Fang that took ’er,” Podo began with a sigh. He savored the anticipation and slurped his soup, grunting with pleasure and nodding appreciatively at Nia. “But little Nugget here.” He patted Nugget’s head. “Nugget found the stinker’s tracks, didn’t ya, boy?”

  Nugget wagged his tail and yipped.

  “It was Slarb,” Leeli said, and all eyes turned to her. “He snatched me from behind Mister Oskar’s and took me to the forest, hoping that you’d all come after me.”

  Nia looked sharply at Podo, who told about how he had come to the edge of the forest and found signs of a scuffle and two sets of tracks leading away from each other. He chose to follow the human tracks, and they led deeper into the forest than he’d ever been.