Thud.
The raft jerked down into the water and struck Chloe’s head, but she felt little. Instead, her body went limp and she closed her eyes.
CHAPTER
20
CHLOE CAME TO with a splitting headache. Far above her, unnamed stars twinkled, larger and closer than those in her own nighttime sky, and around her stretched mountains, deep and ominous. Their shadows rose up and ate the stars on either side.
She pitched and bobbed and moaned, and Scout hurried to her. “Welcome back, Chloe.”
“The sneaky little fish chooses to wake. How pleasant for us all,” Tuftunder spat. “Were I commandeering this raft, which I’m not, I’d be making you swim behind.” He wriggled and collapsed onto his back. Chloe blinked. Tuftunder was tied — hand, foot, and chest — with thick rope.
“What happened?” she asked.
“I’ll leave that explanation to my brother.” Scout leaned back on his elbows.
“You have a brother?”
“He does.”
Nob waved and poled forward. The raft skipped over a wave and landed smoothly on the other side. He gave a bashful smile. “I am a ferryman, you know.”
Chloe’s jaw dropped and she propped herself up, then raised a finger.
“How could you … and Scout … and that dwarf …”
Nob grinned. “I’ve been following you for some time, not knowing who was in front of me. I was curious, though, as nobody falls off the bridge, especially to sail down this river. When I caught the scent of dragon blood, I prepared for the worst, but it was this dwarf who floated my way, and I scooped him up. Fortunately for me, he’s far from mute.”
“Mute you say? Mutiny, I say. That’s what we should be starting, lassy. From what I gather, this Nob left you in the cold, isn’t that right?”
Chloe said nothing. He is right.
Nob breathed deeply. “The dwarf has me there, and you aren’t the first one I’ve let down either. Fear got the best of me, but I didn’t leave you alone. I knew my brother would take better care of you than I ever could … He always does.” He hung his head.
“Go on.” Chloe stood and put her hand on his shoulder. “You’re here now.”
Nob lifted his gaze. “So when the river widened, I passed you in the fog and dragged the mouthy dwarf onto the bridge. I threw him onto your raft, neither knowing his weight nor that your head was inches beneath. I’m so sorry.”
Chloe hugged Nob from behind. “I am so glad you’re here. Will you stay?”
He nodded.
“Oh, how touching.” Tuftunder struggled against the rope and rolled onto his side with a huff. “Enjoy each other’s company. Soon you’ll be in waters only I know.”
Chloe ignored the dwarf and stared at Scout and Nob. Brothers! She didn’t need to ask their story. Scout was the leader, confident like Grif, only kinder. Nob was Q. Much quieter when Scout was around.
Gradually, Chloe’s sea legs returned, and she plunked down behind Nob. “Thanks again for coming for me,” she whispered.
“You don’t need me.” He didn’t turn.
“Secholit seems to think I do.”
Nob puffed out a long blast of air. “Yes, lady. So I came back. But I’m not a very …”
“What?”
The raft pitched downward and all went black.
“Nob!” Scout said. “Did we go in the tunnel? Are we heading toward Wayward Mountain?”
Nob poled hard. “I’ve never felt waters like these before.”
“And won’t likely again.” The dwarf chuckled.
“Remember, Chloe,” Scout shouted. “Remember anything!”
“Oh, right!” Pancakes. Her stomach growled. The thought slid easily into her mind. Mom’s buttermilk pancakes.
Her stone glowed blue and lit up the tunnel through which they hurtled.
Scout jumped over to Tuftunder and shook him. “Where does this end?”
“In her lair. Your oh-so-gifted Nob lefted when he should have twice righted. Now we’re all as good as dead.”
Scout nodded. “Did we pass two rights, Nob?”
“We passed ten. How was I to know?” He rubbed his face. “I should have known. I shouldn’t have come.”
They swirled deeper, bouncing off rock and rock wall, desperate to stay on the raft.
“What’s in the lair?” Chloe shouted. “It can’t be as bad as all that.”
Scout peeked over at Nob.
Tuftunder winked. “She’s worse.”
And with that, the raft accelerated toward whatever danger awaited them.
Chloe loved water rides. Partly for the whoosh, but more for the splash.
There was no splash.
It was just down and down and down. Chloe couldn’t believe a mountain’s roots could reach so deep. But eventually the raft slowed and drifted into a still pool. There was still not a shred of natural light, and no matter how hard she remembered, a dull gray glint was all that came from her stone.
“Swim to the shore,” Tuftunder grunted. “And quick. Before she sucks us in.”
“Do not leave this raft.” Scout reached for Nob’s arm.
“He’s a fool,” Tuftunder snorted.
“He’s a dwarf,” shouted Scout.
Nob’s breath was heavy. “Lady, this is your quest. What do you want me to do?”
Chloe held up her stone and searched the dull shoreline. “We need to reach the bay; that’s my goal. But I can’t stand this water anymore.” She looked over at Scout. “You said I’d see what I wanted, and I guess I do. I want to land.” She exhaled. “Nob?”
Scout buried his head in his hands. “That was not beneath this mountain. We’re off course.”
Chloe closed her eyes and fought to remember her maps. “No, this is right. It’s where we need to be. We can walk out to the Safelands. I wrote a way out.”
“A wise decision, lassy,” Tuftunder whispered. “Though a wee bit ill informed. Now will someone release me? I will need my legs if you get my meanin’.”
Scout groped toward Tuftunder, and with three quick slashes set the dwarf free. Nob stretched his pole toward shore, and the raft slid silently into sand.
“May I suggest you attempt a faster exit from this place?” Tuftunder leaped ashore and was gone.
Chloe squinted at the grayish beach. A weight descended on her heart — there was something evil about this darkness. Still, she stepped onto solid ground. Scout and Nob followed. She couldn’t bear to look into Scout’s eyes. It wasn’t the first time she’d ignored his council.
“Help me secure the raft,” Nob murmured. “We may need it later.” Nob and Scout and Chloe splashed into the water and groaned the raft onto shore.
“Whose lair are we in?” Chloe asked.
Scout shook his head. “I had thought perhaps fortune had swept us to the meeting place. We’re many years too late, but … the lair, this I’ve always taken as myth. Nob?”
Nob squinted. “I see no danger, but my spirit feels one. Tuftunder ran that way.”
“Then let’s go the other,” Chloe said.
They traipsed along the waterline. Chloe had felt many emotions since her arrival, but the despair of that place was overwhelming. Every thought was filled with hate; every step took her deeper into disgust. They’d marched an hour, and still the drab scenery had not changed.
“This was your route, Chloe,” Scout hissed. “This was your decision. We could be in a wide place, but instead we are here, in this hideous, cavernous —”
He suddenly grabbed Chloe’s arm, and Nob grasped Scout’s. They looked at each other’s hands, and then up at each other’s rage-filled faces. Slowly, they released their grips.
“I don’t like my thoughts here. Angry thoughts, but familiar thoughts. May I suggest that the raft is our only way out?” Scout said. “This river flows in. It must exit.”
Chloe’s jaw tightened at the thought of more water, but she knew he was right. This shore was changing them.
“Fine!” She kicked at the sand. “Back to the raft. There’s nothing down here I want.”
Darkness gobbled up all sense of time, and in the forever space of their return shuffle, Chloe felt hope drain out of her. She forced her mind back home, but even there she found no joy.
Her family — who cares if she saw them again? She’d leave Nob and Scout if she could.
“We should have reached it by now.” Nob searched the area. Another five minutes passed.
“It’s gone,” Scout said, then pitched forward. “Well, most of it.” Beneath his feet, the pole lay in the sand.
Chloe fell onto her knees. “I couldn’t take it. It was me. I messed up.”
Scout said nothing.
Nob plopped beside her. “We’re still together. It could be worse … Scout, do you feel that?”
He nodded. “A cool breeze. Something comes.”
Chloe jumped to her feet, and Nob reached for the pole.
“Who goes there?” Scout yelled. “We demand safe passage through.”
The breeze grew stronger, circled them, and drew them forward.
“Give me your hands!” Nob grabbed Scout’s and Chloe’s, and they flew forward, squinting and blinking, toward a pinpoint light.
Chloe cracked an eyelid as her body swirled helplessly and her feet lifted off the ground. Above them — hundreds of feet, thousands of feet — she could see an opening and the clear blue of the sky.
“Ooh!” The foot of a dwarf kicked her head as he spun by. She ducked as a wood elf skimmed her scalp.
“Wind funnel!” Scout screamed.
Chloe squeezed Nob’s hand. “We’re trapped inside the mountain! This is not how I wrote it! Nothing is like I thought it would be!”
They were not swirling alone. Thousands of creatures, from fleet-footed cheetahs and tumbling snapping turtles, to trolls and gnomes and elves and men and winged giants with their hands on sword hilts, all spun limp and lifeless.
The air about her was so thick with creatures that Chloe caught just a moment’s glimpse of the shaft’s walls. This wasn’t a thin hole that reached down from above. This was an entire hollowed-out mountain.
A tiny dragon thunked Nob square in the chest. He gasped and Chloe broke free from his grasp.
“Scout?” Chloe yelled as her body whizzed by his.
“These are Old Retinyans!” he called. “I don’t know if they are living or dead.”
“Dazed.” The voice echoed from below, and Chloe twisted to catch a glimpse of a woman, hooded in white, standing on a rock and unaffected by the whirling winds.
“Scout, it can’t be!” Nob said.
“Poor, frightened ferryman. A bit late to the meeting, wouldn’t you say? Is that how you greet royalty?” she said, calmly raising her hand. Nob’s body crashed against the rocky wall and kept spinning.
“Younger sister, is this how you greet your royal brothers?” Scout shouted. “I am Biln. This is Nob. We wandered this land together.”
That’s your sister?
“That was a different life, Scout. When all was set right. When this lair was not my prison. Before Secholit fled —”
“I didn’t flee.”
A shadow darkened the inside of the mountain. “I don’t flee.” The voice was closer now. “I won’t flee.”
The wind funnel spun even faster, and then the winds stopped. The host of creatures fell, landing hard on top of the stone slab. Chloe was fortunate. After landing feetfirst on top of a giant’s back, she leaped toward a wall as the sky rained man and beast, freed from their merciless spin.
Chloe witnessed far more painful descents. The shadow that darkened the sky vanished, and in the light she clearly saw four upright figures. Chloe drew nearer. Scout and Blind Secholit stood together. Nob cowered behind Scout. The hooded woman backed away.
“You abandoned me here,” she hissed.
“You left me. I never left you.” Blind Secholit stepped forward and pointed upward with his staff. “That opening above you was a gift. You’ve always been free to leave this place.”
“Vaepor’s funnel cloud was too strong.” Her voice cracked. “It held us all in.”
“Your courage fell.” Another step. “Your anger grew.” And another. “I gave you these men and creatures to lead, and you allowed their capture.”
Secholit leaned over to a wood elf. He whispered and it opened its eyes.
Then he turned to Chloe. “Did Scout not tell you to stay on the raft?”
She nodded. “But he said that beneath the mountain I’d find what I most wanted.”
“Have you?”
“I guess this is the wrong mountain, and I didn’t find home. But I did find … you.”
Secholit smiled, but only for a moment. “Your trip will now be more difficult. I see heartache ahead for you, Chloe.” He turned to Scout. “But still you are not too late. Nick is near. And as for you, Zophira, you will accompany Chloe and your brothers.”
The woman pointed at Chloe. “But she is weak. Isn’t there another task?”
Secholit nodded. “Only one, and that is mine to complete.” He glanced around the mountain. “Zophira, all these I gave you to lead, I now remove from your command.”
Her jaw dropped. “But, sir, only a gifted one can command their respect.”
“Agreed.” Secholit leaned hard on his walking stick and approached Scout. “Move.”
Scout stood aside. Nob stared up with wide eyes and gradually straightened.
“Yes.” Secholit tapped him on the head with his staff. “You will do well. I place this army under your command.”
“I don’t … I haven’t … Maybe Scout would be a better choice,” Nob stammered.
“A snow toad would be a better choice,” Zophira muttered. “You can’t do this to me!”
Blind Secholit turned toward her slowly, his face stern. “Where have you come from, Zophira?” And Secholit grew, not in inches or in feet. He swept Zophira up in his hand and grew until his head shielded the sky. Chloe rubbed her eyes, blinked, and when she looked next, Secholit was back to normal size and reaching for his stick, while Zophira sat pouting in the corner.
“Did you just, uh, get really big?” Chloe asked.
If Secholit heard her, he gave no sign. “Vaepor’s winds seek to return. Nob, you will know when Retinya needs you, but for now, remain with Chloe. There is an order in everything. I will stay and wake the others, but I will send two more with you.” Secholit hobbled toward the dragon that had collided with Nob. “Pindle, wake.” The tiny dragon opened one eye, then another, and offered a large yawn. Pindle was a perfect miniature of Flit, but in Chloe size.
“How cute.” Chloe took a step forward and stopped. “And old.” His leathery face wrinkled beyond deep.
“Good morning, Pindle,” Secholit said. “Your children need you. All but Flit have turned and now roam Retinya.”
“Which?” Pindle looked around. “Oh my.” He bowed to Scout and Nob and the woman, and lastly to Secholit. “How have I come here?”
“You came to the Last Gathering of Old Retinya. During the war council, Vaepor spun the winds and trapped you in the mountain. It was not to have happened.” Secholit glanced down, and Zophira looked away quickly.
“Vaepor,” Pindle hissed. “How I hate that misty beast.”
“Then may I introduce you to Chloe.” Secholit smiled. “She now holds Retinya’s future in her hands.”
Pindle hopped toward her and set his wings in her palms. “Then you will hold mine.”
Secholit turned toward a sleeping figure slumped against the wall. “Finally, Groundspeaker, the soil needs you.”
A slim man blinked and rose, and fell to his knees.
“The ground has become foul. Make it new.” Secholit faced the group. “All of you. Chloe must pass through the Safelands to the bay and then reach Shadowton. This was her plan, made without consultation.” Secholit sighed. “Though the consequences are great, it’s the road she must now t
ravel. From there she will rejoin the Pilgrimage and enter the City of Reckoning and finally reach the pool.” He paused. “To complete the task I have given her, this must happen.” He turned to Chloe. “From there, she alone knows what to do.”
“And now, farewell, friends.”
“Wait!” Chloe ran up to Secholit. “I don’t want you to get big on me, but I still think you could do this whole deal better than me. I mean, especially …” She scanned the cave and lowered her voice. “The last part of my job. I mean, I lose my temper and I lost Nick, and I usually mess up.”
Secholit folded his arms. “Perfect.”
A giant updraft swept them into the air, lifting them higher and higher toward the freedom of blue sky. They popped out the top of the mountain and landed with a thud in the cool snow of its peak.
For a minute, nobody spoke.
“That was where Old Retinya took our last stand.” Pindle shook his head. “Inside the Hollow Mount we met for one last council of war, but the ground spread word to Vaepor, and we’ve been trapped ever since.”
“But you’re out now, right?” Chloe shivered.
“Yes, Chloe. We are out.”
Nob took a few steps and slipped to his knees. “I just wish I still had my raft.”
From behind, a blast of air whooshed out of the mountain. Chloe looked up and watched as a speck whistled down, growing larger and squarer, until poof!
The raft landed flat in the snow beside Scout.
“Well, now.” Nob grinned. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”
CHAPTER
21
WIND WHIPPED AROUND THE PEAK, wrapping Chloe’s shins and knees with layers of white. Her clothes — still damp from her river ride — plunged freezing needles into her legs. She knew she wouldn’t last long.
“This is what he does.” Zophira drew herself up. “He rescues from one danger only to throw us into another. Give me the comfort of the mountain!”
“Comfort?” Pindle said. “Let it go. Think now. I could carry a few of you down, but would not have the strength to ascend again.”
“At least we have some firewood. There’s not much use for a raft up here.” Scout dusted himself off.
A grin spread across Chloe’s face. “But there is for a sled!” She jumped aboard.