“A nice rest, and in the morning we’ll explore this new world,” she told them brightly, as though sleep was easy to accomplish in such circumstances.
“But what about Lady Griffin?” Rolf asked, transferring some of the puppies to Lulath’s tunic and giving another to Celie to cuddle.
“What about her?” Queen Celina looked around with her brow furrowed. “Wait—where is she, Rolf? I thought you found her!”
“That’s just it,” Rolf said. “I got distracted by the puppies when I came back on deck, but there was no sign of her below.”
“Has anyone seen her since we came through the Well?” Queen Celina asked.
They all shook their heads.
It seemed that Lady Griffin was gone.
Chapter
21
Celie woke up the next morning feeling more exhausted than when she’d lain down. Her eyes were sticky and swollen, her mouth was dry, and she had a pounding headache. One look at Lilah told her that her sister hadn’t fared much better. Celie had cried herself to sleep, and she was sure Lilah had done the same.
Queen Celina had performed a searching spell, but there was no sign of Lady Griffin. She was just gone, and none of them could remember whether they’d seen her come through the Well or not. If she’d fallen off the Ship in this world, she would have flown right back on, so it was likely that she hadn’t come through at all. Which meant that, if she wasn’t drowned, she was alone at the edge of the Well.
A fresh wave of sobs came over Celie, and she hurried to try to scrub her face and eyes at the washbasin. Lilah was standing there with a wet cloth in one hand, her hair matted around her face and her eyes nearly swollen shut.
“Even if she didn’t drown, no one will come near enough to rescue her,” Lilah said. “How far can she fly? She won’t be able to reach land. Could she fly far enough to reach one of the ships we passed?” Her voice was dull, and Celie knew that she wasn’t really asking, just repeating the same thing over and over that Celie had heard in her own mind all night.
“She’s the queen of the griffins,” Celie said, with as much conviction as she could muster. “She’ll be fine.”
She tried to make her words more convincing by going about her morning ablutions: combing her hair and washing her face, which did make her feel better. She put on one of the simple gowns that she and Lilah had made from the blue cloth they’d bought in NeiMai. Lilah shook herself and fixed Celie’s hair and her own, though she looked very unlike herself in her plain gown and with her thick hair braided away from her face.
No one had much appetite for breakfast, but the sight of the shore made them feel a little more cheerful. Or at least it took their attention away from their loss.
With the sun up, they had weighed anchor and unfurled the sails, under the command of an equally tired-looking Orlath. The shore was fast approaching, revealing a white-sand beach skirting a green landscape. There were men posted in the bow and the crow’s nest, looking for rocks, but the water was surprisingly clear. They could see schools of exotic fish and forests of underwater plants despite the blackish tinge to the water.
But soon they had to drop anchor again. There was a shelf of sand extending out from the shore, and the water was not deep enough for them to continue. Celie stayed in the bow while the crew settled the anchor and the sails, gazing into the thick trees that obscured the land ahead.
Then she saw it. A flash of silvery white in the green trees.
“Rufus,” Celie called without taking her eyes off the spot.
Everyone else was fussing about, discussing how many of the small boats they should take and who would go and who would stay on the Ship. Rolf was pointing out that the griffins should fly over and leave more room for people in the boats when he saw Celie swinging her leg over Rufus’s back, her gaze still locked on the shore.
“I’m with Celie,” Rolf said. “We should head over there on the griffins first, to make sure it’s even safe to step on the land.” He quickly hopped onto Rufus behind Celie before she could say anything.
“Just hang on,” she muttered, and gave Rufus the signal to fly.
“Land over there,” Rolf said, pointing over her shoulder.
“No,” Celie told him. “I know where I’m going.”
She’d seen it again: the white flicker between the trees. There was a large moss-covered rock, then a tree that was bent over it, as though it were trying to grow around the rock. The flicker had been just to the left of them, both times.
“There’s more flat sand to land on if we go to the right,” Rolf said.
“I saw something,” Celie told him. “Over there.” She pointed, and he clasped her tighter around the waist in excitement. Something squirmed against her back. “What is that?” She tried to twist around, and Rufus squawked in disapproval.
“Sapuppy,” Rolf said.
“What?”
“It’s a puppy,” he said more clearly.
“What?”
“It’s a puppy,” he said again.
“Why do you have a puppy in your shirt?” Celie twisted around as much as she could and caught a glimpse of a small white-and-brown head peeking out from the collar of Rolf’s blue shirt.
He shrugged. “Lulath asked me to. We were looking for you to take one as well,” he said.
They were almost to the shore. The water was a pleasant pale green here, and the sand could clearly be seen under its surface, strewn with oddly shaped shells. Rufus soared down and landed neatly just beyond the water, on the stretch of sand right in front of the mossy rock.
Up close the sand wasn’t all that white, but freckled with black and red specks, as though it were salt mixed with a little pepper and another spice. The farther from the water they went, the more dark specks there were, until it blended into the black soil and rocks.
“With Lady Griffin . . . being gone, it made him nervous that we might lose the puppies as well,” Rolf explained. “So Lulath wants everyone to keep the dogs close.” He slipped off Rufus’s back and adjusted his belt so that the puppy could see out without scrambling around. “Now, the important thing is: what did you see?”
“I don’t know,” Celie said. “But it was white, and it was right here.” She pointed to the crooked tree.
She started to get off Rufus, but Rolf waved for her to stay on. He drew his sword, which looked highly incongruous with the puppy peeking out of his clothes. He stepped in front of Celie and Rufus, which was irritating, but since the others were on their way to the shore, she decided not to waste time complaining. Using his sword to sweep vines and branches aside, Rolf led the way into the dense forest.
The trees were strange. The vines were strange. Even the rocks were of a type that Celie had never seen before: porous, jagged-edged, and black beneath the moss that grew on them. The moss also grew on the ground and the trees, and she worried that if Rufus stopped moving, it would grow on him, too.
They hacked their way past the crooked tree and into the forest, and a green silence closed over them. They could no longer hear the ocean, or the cries of Lilah and Pogue, calling for them to wait. All Celie heard was the soft squish of the moss under Rufus’s feet, the slice of Rolf’s sword through the vines, and the occasional squeak from the puppy.
Rolf was trying to be as quiet as possible, which Celie appreciated. She didn’t know what she’d seen: animal, bird, or human, and any one of those things might be wary of humans. They would certainly be wary of griffins. She just hoped they didn’t hide so completely that they never found another living soul on this island.
“Wait,” Celie whispered as something occurred to her. “Is this an island? Or a continent?”
Rolf stopped. “I don’t know,” he whispered. “I mean, how big does it have to be before you say that it’s a continent?”
“Big,” said a voice from the tree above them.
Celie screamed, and Rufus leaped back, his wings rising up and his front right talon poised to strike. Rolf whipped
around so fast that he tripped on a vine and fell on his rump. The puppy took the opportunity to wiggle free, but all it could do was roll off Rolf’s lap and then sit on the moss and cry.
Celie craned her neck back, but there was nothing to be seen in the branches above her head. She stuck her feet into the straps of Rufus’s harness and tried to stand up so that she could get a better look, but Rufus lurched forward.
He stepped right over Rolf before he could get up, and Celie dragged on the harness, but he wouldn’t stop. She was about to give him an order, loudly, when she heard something. It was coming from the tree in front of and above them.
“Bigger than a ship, smaller than a world,” said the voice in the tree. Then the tree rustled, and Rufus charged ahead.
“Get up,” Celie called over her shoulder to Rolf.
“I’m trying,” he shouted as she left him behind.
Rufus followed the rustling of leaves and the occasional laugh from whoever it was taunting them. And Celie knew they were being taunted. There was no doubt about it. Whoever it was didn’t have to laugh in that pointed way. They didn’t have to rustle the leaves so loudly. They were leaping from tree to tree in complete silence and without revealing themselves at all, so the laugh and rustle were purely to tell Celie where they were.
“Celie, stop! It’s a trap,” Rolf called.
“I know, but we need to talk to them,” Celie cried. “Please stop! Please help us!”
“Why?” the voice asked, curious.
“Because our Ship is—”
Rufus stumbled over one last root and through some trees, and Celie stopped short. They were in a little clearing, the ground sunken like a bowl and lined only with moss. There was no sign of whomever they had been following.
“Please help us,” Celie said again, craning her neck to try to see any movement from the trees. “Our Ship came here from another world! We fell through the Well, and we . . .” She closed her eyes, still tired and itchy after her restless night. “We need to get back. Please.”
Wheezing, Rolf caught up to her. He put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath.
“Are you all right?” the voice asked.
“Be all right in a minute,” he gasped. “You speak Sleynth very well,” he managed.
“We have your kind here,” the voice said, clearly offended—and clearly a female, Celie could tell, now that she wasn’t chasing her through the jungle.
“Our kind?” Celie asked.
“The Sleynth, by your talk. Also the Grathians, with their lace. The Neirans, all in blue. Like you. All people come here.”
“But where are we?” Celie demanded. “And who are you?”
“Here is the land,” the voice said, impatient. “And I am one of the Found.”
“Okay,” Rolf said, finally straightening. He adjusted the puppy in his shirt. “So you’re one of the found and you live in this land?”
“That’s right.”
“Then can you come down out of the trees so that we can introduce ourselves properly? We would like to see whom we’re speaking to.”
“I was about to,” the voice said petulantly. “But you have attracted attention, and I’m not coming down until it’s gone.”
“What’s gone?” Celie said, her scalp prickling.
“That.”
Celie still didn’t see anything, but Rufus could either see or smell something, and he didn’t like it. He shifted beneath her, clacking his beak and clawing at the soft moss with his talons.
“Take this, would you?”
Rolf pulled the puppy out of his tunic and gave it to Celie. She stuck it down the front of her gown, which was a much tighter fit than Rolf’s tunic, and held the puppy more securely. Rolf drew his sword again and moved close to Rufus.
Across the bowl of the clearing, a creature stepped into the light. It was white, and Celie wondered if it was what she had seen by the crooked tree. It was the size of a large deer, though more delicately boned. It gleamed, sleek and vividly pale, with huge dark eyes. The ivory horn that spiraled up from its forehead was easily as long as Celie’s arm.
“Oh,” Celie murmured as she stared at the unicorn. “Where is Lilah?”
“She’s going to kill us when she finds out we saw one first,” Rolf agreed.
He hadn’t bothered to lower his voice, and the unicorn’s head came up. It froze, and Celie and Rolf froze, while Celie silently cursed. Now it would run off, and they’d probably never see it again, and Lilah would be so disappointed!
But instead of fleeing, it lowered its head so that the horn was pointed right at them. And then it charged.
Rufus flew straight up in the air, screaming in terror. Not sure what else to do, Celie kicked at Rolf as she went past, hitting him squarely in the chest with her foot and knocking him flat.
The unicorn passed right under Rufus, narrowly missing Rolf with its hooves. It turned when it realized it hadn’t struck either of them and prepared to charge again. Rufus wanted to go higher to avoid it, but Celie urged him down so that he could pick up Rolf with his talons. They wouldn’t get far that way, but they could get away from this dreadful beast.
Rufus refused to go lower, however, and the unicorn charged before she could convince him. Celie screamed and Rolf rolled to one side, and then a brightly colored shape hurtled out of the trees and swung across the unicorn’s path. The unicorn trumpeted in distress as a gold whip lashed its side. It spun on a single hoof and tore away into the forest.
The brightly colored shape shook itself and then helped Rolf to his feet. Rufus landed a few paces away, allowing Celie to get a look at their rescuer. She was a young woman of about Lilah’s age, with very large blue eyes and very brown skin. She was covered from head to foot in layers of clothing that appeared to be woven out of ribbons in a rainbow of colors. Even her hair was covered with a headdress of dangling ribbons.
She coiled her golden whip and bowed.
“Now that you are out of danger, will you stay to meet the Master of the Found?” she asked.
“Um, I suppose we’d better,” Celie replied.
Chapter
22
Queen Celina, Lilah, Lulath, and Pogue caught up to them as they left the clearing. They all had their griffins, save for Lady Griffin, and Lorcan had a basket of dogs hanging on either side of his harness. Celie gave the puppy in her gown back to its mother, but JouJou would not be appeased, so Celie ended up carrying the larger dog in her arms as she sat on Rufus’s back. The native girl watched this exchange without comment, and brushed aside their attempts at introductions as well.
“The Master of the Found will hear your names,” was all she said, cutting off Queen Celina mid-introduction.
Whereas she’d been positively chatty when she was leading Celie and Rolf through the jungle, she was completely silent now, moving ahead of them through the green without stepping on a single dry twig or disturbing a hanging vine. Meanwhile the others came behind her, hacking at the vines and exclaiming over the strange foliage, the dogs barking at birds and the griffins carking their displeasure at the entire enterprise.
They were deep in the jungle now. Celie would have been nervous about being so far from the shore and the Ship, except that she had Rufus. They could fly away the moment things looked dangerous. It was greatly comforting.
There was a break in the trees ahead, and the girl stopped. When they caught up to her, they stopped talking. The griffins stopped squawking and fussing, and even the dogs were silent. For a moment, everything just . . . stopped.
Celie had thought that the clearing where they’d met the unicorn had been like a bowl, but it was nothing compared to this. The ground in front of them dropped away, and there was a wide, deep valley curving out as far as they could see. It was just as round and even as the clearing, but the ground below was covered with trees rather than just moss.
But that wasn’t the most amazing part. No, the most amazing part was the city that had been built over
the trees.
Rope bridges ran like a giant spiderweb across the valley, not even skimming the tops of the trees. The bridges connected large wooden platforms that had apparently been built on the very tops of the trees, and on the platforms were tents and wooden buildings of every shape and size and color, with woven ribbons fluttering from the peak of every roof and wound around the ropes of every bridge.
“So lovely,” Queen Celina said. “So bright!”
“Thank you,” the girl said with no small amount of pride. “The Found are fond of color.”
“And of ships,” Pogue said. He pointed to the nearest platform, which held a house that appeared to have been roofed with an upside-down rowboat and walled with sail canvas.
“Ironwoods are difficult to work with,” the girl said, rubbing her hand over the smooth, silver trunk of the nearest tree. “So we use found.”
“Your pardon?” Queen Celina said.
But the girl had surged ahead. She walked along the edge of the valley to the nearest rope bridge. There was a gate across it made of a net of ribbons, and she untied it with deft fingers and then stood aside, waiting for them.
Rufus walked to the head of the bridge, but then he carked his displeasure and backed away. The other griffins all took their cue from Rufus, and none of them would come any closer to the bridge, no matter how the humans prodded them.
“I can’t really blame them,” Rolf said, peering over the edge. “I mean, that’s a long drop through some very aggressive trees.”
“Where are we going?” Lilah demanded. “Rather than drag the griffins across these bridges, we’re just going to have to fly to wherever it is.”
“Suit yourself,” the girl said. She pointed to a platform that held a very large, very orange tent. There were three bridges between them. “That is the Master of the Found’s own place,” she said.
“We’ll just see you there, then,” Rolf said. “Right, Rufus?”