His voice broke off and his eyes misted up.
“Tia LaMontagne?” I asked softly.
He nodded. “She was the most beautiful woman I ever saw, Lily. Even so, there was something strange about her. For one thing, she was so pale, she looked as if she were carved out of white marble, like one of those tombstone angels come to life.” Grampa paused, and I could tell it was hard for him to go on. At last he said, “When I asked her if she was all right, she reached a hand toward me, then gave a little cry and collapsed.”
Grampa went silent. I was itching to know what came next, but we had come to an upward slope that was covered with loose stones, and it took all our attention to climb it without slipping. When we finally reached the top, I said, “So what happened after she collapsed?”
“I picked her up and carried her to the house—same place we live now—and we sent for Doc Dillon. Docs still visited back in those days. Doc said there was nothin’ wrong with her, she just needed rest.”
He turned away, as if he couldn’t bear to say more. After a bit of silence Mrs. McSweeney picked up the tale. “Well, no one thought it was fit for that woman to stay in the house with two men, of course. And since Abraham and I were cousins, he brought her to me. He used to bring me all his problems back then, me being five years older and considerably wiser.”
“Which is why you had four husbands, you being so smart and all,” said Grampa with a snort.
“Only one bad marriage in the lot,” replied Mrs. McSweeney serenely. “I simply outlived them all, and you know it.” She turned back to Jacob and me. “As I was saying, they brought the mystery woman to me. It didn’t take too long for her to recover, and I found her fascinating … partly because she wouldn’t say word one about where she was from or how she got here. The only thing she wanted was to meet Arthur Doolittle! I might have been jealous if I hadn’t found a good man of my own by that time. Well, set that aside. Arthur wasn’t that famous yet, so he was delighted to meet a fan, especially one who was quite beautiful. As it turned out, she was more than a fan … she was also a brilliant painter. Even better, from Arthur’s point of view, she liked painting scenes from his stories. Six months after they met, Tia and Arthur were married.”
I glanced at my grandfather. He was staring at the ground.
“Well, a bit of time went on and the two of them seemed truly happy together. Tia never really fit in, of course. Not easy to get accepted in a small town under the best of circumstances, and Tia was just odd enough to make it even harder.”
“I know what that’s all about,” I muttered.
“Then one day she just … vanished. It was quite a scandal. From what Arthur testified, the last time he saw Tia, she was in her studio, finishing up a painting. He was up in the tower, working on his new book, not knowing it was the one that was going to make him famous. Lunchtime rolled around and he went down to get her and … she was gone.
“Now, some folks wanted to believe he had killed her. But there was no sign of blood and no one ever found a body. Other folks thought she just got tired of living with such a peculiar man. Some thought something stranger had happened, though no one could ever say exactly what it was. All anyone really knew was that she had just vanished.” She snapped her fingers. “Like that!”
I saw Jacob shiver.
“Eventually Arthur remarried and had a son. That would be your dad, Jacob. And Abraham here, he recovered too—”
“Did not,” muttered Grampa.
“Well, whether you recovered or not, you got married, which is how come Lily is here.” Turning to Jacob, she said, “About the time your daddy was ten, your Grampa Arthur disappeared. Not as mysteriously as Tia, since he left a note, though the note itself was pretty mysterious.” She closed her eyes, as if searching her memory, then quoted: “‘The mystery calls. Though it breaks my heart to go, I can stay no longer. Forgive me, wife. Forgive me, son. I have done the best I could. With love and regret, Arthur.’”
I shivered as I recognized the message we had found in Jacob’s father’s notebook.
“My dad never told me that,” said Jacob, his voice bitter.
Mrs. McSweeney nodded. “No surprise there. Your daddy didn’t like to talk about it.”
“But why did Tia come to our side of the Tapestry to begin with?” I asked. “And why did she leave?”
“As Keegel Farzym told you, monsters occasionally visit Humana, just as some few humans, like me, sometimes visit Always October. One of their … well, scouts, I guess you could call them … brought back some of Arthur’s early stories, the ones where he was trying to create a world of monsters to write about. Tia liked the stories, but he was getting a lot wrong, and it annoyed her. She came to Humana to set him straight and ended up falling in love. She was, in the truest sense, his muse. A World Made of Midnight and all the other Always October stories never would have been written without her.”
“That doesn’t answer the question of why she left,” said Jacob. “Especially if she loved him.”
Mrs. McSweeney glanced at Grampa, then said, “Tia left because she was going to have a baby, and she felt it would be safer for it to be born in Always October.”
“How do you know all this stuff?” I asked.
Mrs. McSweeney smiled. “A woman alone in a strange new world needs a friend to confide in, Lily. Tia chose me to be that friend. It’s how I learned about Always October and found my way into the magical world.”
“It’s also how she got me,” put in Luna, who was trotting along at her feet.
“And a great blessin’ to me you’ve been, darlin’.”
About that time we reached a tunnel that sloped upward and brought us back to the surface. Even above ground it was still night, though I couldn’t tell if that was because we had slept so long or just because it stayed that way in Always October most of the time. At least the moon was full … and fully visible, since the forest where we now stood was sparse, the trees small and twisted.
We could hear the River Doom before we saw it.
“Getting close!” said half of Sploot Fah.
“Sploot Fah good guide!” said the other with obvious self-delight.
We emerged from the forest onto a stretch of bare rock about fifty feet wide. In the light of the full moon I could see that the rock ended at the lip of a chasm. I couldn’t tell how deep the chasm was. I could, however, see that it was hundreds of feet to the other side.
Stretching across that gap was the strangest bridge I had ever seen.
Also the most frightening.
It was a good thing I was carrying the baby at that point, because if I thought the bridge was frightening, then I was pretty sure Jacob was about to …
28
(Jacob)
THE BLACK BRIDGE OF DOOM
FREAK OUT!
Of course I freaked out.
I have a problem with bridges even when they’re short, wide, and sturdy. The Black Bridge of Doom wasn’t short, it wasn’t wide, and it wasn’t sturdy. Oh, and one more thing it wasn’t: something on which any sane person would set foot!
“I can’t cross that!” I screamed.
The truth was, I had been bracing myself for this moment ever since the Poets had first told us we would have to cross a bridge. I had also been praying it wasn’t going to be one of those swaying rope-and-board horrors you sometimes see in adventure movies. I should have been so lucky! The Black Bridge of Doom was not made of rope and boards, or metal, or stone, or concrete, or anything normal like that.
It was made of twigs.
Twigs!
Long black twigs that grew together in a woven mass and stretched from one side of the abyss to the other, a distance that appeared to be longer than a football field.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the wretched thing was only three feet wide, hardly enough to make me feel safe—especially since it had no side rails!
“I can’t go on that,” I repeated, more softly this time. “Why didn’t the P
oets warn us it was made for crazy people?”
“If you’ll remember, our conversation with the Poets was cut short,” said Mrs. McSweeney. “And I’m afraid you’ll have to cross it if you want to get home.”
I stared at the bridge in dismay, flinching as it swung in a gust of wind.
“Why can’t you cross?” asked half of Sploot Fah.
“Jacob has a problem with bridges,” said Lily.
“But it’s a very nice bridge!” cried Sploot Fah’s other half. He scampered onto the bridge, ran about twenty feet out, then jumped up and down. I suppose the point was that since it didn’t collapse, I should feel safe crossing it. Unfortunately, though the bridge didn’t fall, it did bend and sway. The sight made my stomach churn. Sploot Fah wasn’t that big. If the bridge moved that way under half of him, what would it do when I got on?
“Jacob, darlin’, we’ve got to cross that bridge if we’re goin’ to get you home,” Mrs. McSweeney repeated.
“I know, I know,” I groaned. “But you’ll have to give me time to get ready for it. Maybe you could just knock me out and carry me.”
Gnarly rolled his eyes. “Fer Pete’s sake, kid, it’s just a bridge. Get over it.” He blinked, looking surprised at himself, then began to laugh. “That was a good one! Get it? Bridge? Get over it?”
I liked him better when he showed no sense of humor at all.
“We can’t delay much longer,” Mrs. McSweeney said firmly. “It’s possible Mazrak is on our trail.”
I drew several deep breaths, tapping the fingers of both hands against my thumbs so fast, it’s a wonder my arms didn’t go airborne. Then a sound distracted me—LD, shaking that rattle I had bought him.
In that moment I knew, without question, what would get me across.
“It’s my job to take care of Little Dumpling,” I told myself firmly. ‘“And I have to get him to the other side.”
I turned it into a ritual. Crossing my arms in front of my stomach so my right hand was against my left elbow, and vice versa, I repeated to myself, “It’s my job to take care of the baby. It’s my job to take care of the baby. It’s my job to take care of the baby.”
Each time I said it, I smacked my fingertips against my elbows.
Ten repeats, ten smacks, and I was ready to give it a try. Stepping over to Lily, I reached for LD and said, “All right, let’s go.”
She hesitated, then said, “Maybe we should bind LD to your back before you cross.”
“How?” I asked.
“Octavia’s silk would do,” said Mrs. McSweeney. “It might be safer that way, Jacob. I’d hate to think of LD lunging for someone else while you’re in the middle of that thing.”
“I could carry him,” offered Gnarly, surprising me a bit.
“Thank you, Abraham,” said Mrs. McSweeney. “But I think it’s better to have you on defense, in case of attack.”
He nodded and tightened his grip on his pickax.
I had decided Lily’s idea made sense. Lifting my shirt, I unwound the silk and handed it to Mrs. McSweeney. Lily put LD on my back, and Mrs. McSweeney started wrapping the silk around the two of us. The little guy protested at first, but after a minute or so he settled down.
“I think the binding makes him feel secure,” explained Mrs. McSweeney. She stepped back to admire her handiwork. “There,” she said with satisfaction. “Snug as a little papoose!”
I swallowed hard. It was time to start.
Half of Sploot Fah was on the bridge already.
Lily went next.
Then it was my turn. Luna Maria Eleganza trotted on beside me, as if to provide encouragement. I needed it, because the bridge instantly sagged beneath my feet, making my stomach lurch. It was like walking on a trampoline, except a trampoline is wide and only a few feet above the floor while the bridge was narrow and spanned a horrifying chasm.
“Good boy!” cried the part of Sploot Fah who was ahead of me.
For some reason I found the approval of the little monster, or at least this half of him, heartening.
I got a good way out before I accidentally looked down.
Instantly, I wished I hadn’t. Hundreds of feet below me the River Doom raced and roared between jagged rocks. The white, foaming water threw up so much spray that some of the rocks were completely shrouded in mist. Even so, I could see long-jawed creatures leaping from the waves. If I could spot them from this height, I knew they must be enormous.
Closing my eyes, I murmured, “I have to get the baby across. I have to get the baby across!”
“Jacob?”
Opening my eyes, I saw Lily looking back at me. Her face was etched with worry.
“It’s all right,” I said, and took another step forward.
“Good boy,” said a voice from behind me. To my astonishment, it was Gnarly. “Now just keep goin’. Keep goin’....”
Slowly, painstakingly, I made my way forward.
Everything might have worked out fine if Mazrak and his henchmonsters hadn’t come charging out of the forest.
Because my eyes were locked on my destination, I didn’t realize they were there at first. But when I heard Mazrak’s roar, I turned to look back—and almost lost my balance.
Mrs. McSweeney and the other half of Sploot Fah, the last two of our group to mount the bridge, hurried back toward the rock shelf. The little monster leaped forward and latched onto the leg of one of the attackers, managing to trip it. Mrs. McSweeney pulled out a knitting needle and started blasting out bolts of power. One monster screamed in anger. Another crumpled and fell.
And more emerged from the woods.
“You kids keep goin’!” bellowed Gnarly. “Git the baby away from here!” Then he turned and headed back toward the fight.
LD was screaming and shaking his rattle.
It was excruciating to leave our friends, but getting the baby to safety was the most important thing. I started forward again. Behind me I heard more shouts of pain, and then of rage. Suddenly Gnarly bellowed, “Cover me, Eloise!”
I glanced over my shoulder and froze.
Gnarly was kneeling at the end of the bridge. He had pulled out his clippers and was cutting the twigs!
“Jacob, keep moving!” he roared when he saw me looking at him.”
I understood his plan at once. It was to sever the bridge so the monsters couldn’t follow me and Lily across. So we had to get over quickly. But the fact of standing on a bridge that was, literally, being cut out from underneath me had me once more frozen in my tracks.
“Jacob!” said a small voice. “Brace yourself. I’m coming up.”
It was Luna. Even though I was wearing jeans, I flinched as her claws dug into my skin and she began to climb my side. Once she reached my shoulder, she said, “Close your eyes. I will be your guide and we’ll take it one step at a time. First one now. Now!”
When I still didn’t move, the cat nipped my ear. “NOW!” she repeated fiercely.
I took a step forward.
“Good, you’re doing fine. Now take another. I’ll tell you if you drift toward either side. I don’t want to die any more than you do, so you can trust me to guide you true. Just keep walking the way I tell you.”
“Faster, Jacob!” urged Lily from ahead of me. “FASTER!”
“I can’t!”
“You have to!” Her voice hardened. “Or are you going to let those monsters get Little Dumpling?”
That was cruel, but it worked. The thought of failing Little Dumpling pierced my heart, and I knew I must get him across one way or another. I began to move faster, following Luna’s instructions. The bridge bounced beneath me, and swayed side to side as well, making it impossible to run, or even trot.
“Almost there,” said Luna. “Keep going!”
I opened my eyes. The end of the bridge was no more than twenty feet away! Suddenly I felt it sag worse than ever. Wondering if Gnarly was about to cut it loose, I glanced back. To my horror, one of the monsters had knocked him aside and leaped onto t
he bridge. Even worse, Gnarly had cut away so many of the twigs, the bridge could not support the weight of the huge creature.
That end broke free from the cliff.
With LD screaming in my ear, I flung myself forward. I sank my fingers into the coarsely woven twigs, but my feet could find no hold. In an instant I was dangling hundreds of feet above the roaring, rock- and creature-filled river, holding on by only my fingers.
Luna still clung to my shoulder. And LD, of course, was strapped to my back.
I looked up.
It was about ten feet to the top.
I looked down.
The monster whose weight had broken the far end of the bridge free had also managed to hold on! He was a couple of hundred feet below me and climbing fast! His movements caused the long ribbon of the bridge to swing wildly back and forth.
Lily stared down at me, her face white with terror.
“Climb, Jacob! Climb!”
As if I was planning to let go! Except I did have to let go, with at least one hand, because that was the only way to move up. Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and pulled my right hand free of the twigs. My body sagged. The bridge twisted sickeningly.
I stretched, grabbed more twigs, pulled.
Progress! My head was actually about a foot closer to the edge.
Another excruciating pull upward, and then another. My arms ached. My muscles felt as if they were on fire.
About four feet from the top, I ran out of strength.
Lily was on her stomach, reaching down to me. “Come on, Jake, come on! Just a few more feet!”
“I can’t,” I gasped. “I’m out of strength.”
“Nonsense!” hissed Luna. “Keep going. Keep going!”
I took a deep breath, reached up, grabbed for another handful of twigs … and missed.
My fingers slipped. I began to slide.
Lily screamed, which did nothing to reduce my panic—especially when I realized it wasn’t even my situation that had made her scream.
29
(Lily)
TOOZLE
I don’t like screaming, I think it’s for sissies. But what I saw by the full moon’s light tore that one out of me. Actually, I had first felt a brief flash of hope because I saw what Jake couldn’t: Keegel Farzym and Teelamun had arrived! They must have been trying to catch up with us ever since the battle in the Council Chamber.