Man From Mundania (19 page)

Grey looked around. "Somehow I don't want to wade

through it. There must be something we can use to make

a bridge or raft. Maybe there's a boat; I mean, the regular

users of this path must have a way to cross."

"They might jump," Ivy said. "Or have a fly-across

spell; you never can tell."

Grey grimaced, still not believing in magic despite ev-

erything. "Well, since we can't jump that far and have no

flying spell, we'll have to make do with mundane efforts.

Let me check along the bank."

They walked upstream. The forest became thicker, and

there was a huge tree partway fallen across the river, but

no boat or raft.

Grey eyed the tilting trunk. "Wind must have taken that

down, but then it hung up in those trees on the other side.

Looks about ready to fall the rest of the way.''

"Yes," Ivy agreed, nervous about walking under it. If

that huge trunk came down on them, it would drive them

right into the ground!

"Maybe we can make it drop," he continued. "Then

we could walk across on it, no trouble at all." He walked

to the base and pushed with his hands.

The tree was so firm it was rocklike. Then Grey put up

a foot and shoved. Ivy happened to glance at the top,

across the river, and saw it wiggle. "You moved it!" she

exclaimed.

"But it's still hung up. It's too well supported." He

walked around the base. "Look, there's a branch, driven

into the ground. That must be holding it up, while the top

is hung up in the other trees. If I knocked out that bottom

one, it would probably tear free and come right down."

"Right down on your head!" Ivy said, alarmed.

He looked up. "Um, yes. Maybe if I could pull on it

with a rope, if I had a rope ..." He looked around, but

saw no rope. "Some vines, perhaps." But there were no

vines. "On the other hand, if I got a pole and levered at

the base ..." But there was no pole, either.

"Maybe there's something better downstream," Ivy

suggested. "We could walk down and see."

Grey nodded. They walked downstream, beyond the

path that intersected it, but the land only cleared, offering

nothing, and soon the river flowed into a much larger river,

its blood diffusing in swirls through the clear water.

"We might swim around it," Grey said.

"No," Ivy said firmly. "See those colored fins?"

"Sharks! Feeding on the blood!"

"Loan sharks," she agreed. "They'll take an arm and

a leg if you let them, but I suppose they'll settle for just

blood if there's nothing better.''

"Loan sharks," he muttered, looking as if he had

chewed on a lemon.

86 Man from Mundania

"We could follow the path in the other direction," Ivy

said. "Down past where the castle was." But she was

afraid that even if they managed to return to the castle, it

would be too late for the rendezvous with her mother.

Maybe it was time to use the mirror again, even if that

made for a problem with Grey.

"Let's go back to the tilting tree," he said. "There has

to be a way to bring it down."

She was glad to agree, because that would keep him

occupied while she pondered what to do. She was getting

increasingly hungry now; that alone would drive her to the

mirror, if they didn't make progress soon. This setting was

quite unfamiliar to her, and she didn't know what direction

was best. The realm of dreams was odd to begin with, and

she did not enjoy being lost in it.

They reached the tree. Grey scouted around. "You

know, there's a pretty steep slope here," he remarked.

"And only brush, this side. There were a lot of big rocks

in the field we walked through."

"Yes," Ivy agreed, wondering what he was working up

to.

"If we could roll one down here, to knock out that

supporting branch—"

"Yes!" Ivy exclaimed, seeing it.

They hurried up the slope. Soon they were back in the

field. There were several big rocks, ranging from knee-

high to waist-high. "This one seems about right," Grey

said, approaching the largest.

"But that's way too big to lift without magic!" she pro-

tested.

"And too big to move without a lever," he agreed.

"But see how it's perched on the slope. I think it will

work, with a little luck."

"Luck? I thought you didn't believe in magic!"

He smiled. "That kind, I do. Let me see what I can

do."

He walked across the slope, and picked up a sharply

pointed stone he had spied. Then he went back to the

hung-up tree. "Yes, it's pretty good; certainly worth a

try."

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87

"Try what?" Ivy asked, baffled.

"Making a channel," he said. He squatted, and began

digging beside the supporting branch.

"Don't do that!" Ivy protested. "You'll bring the tree

down on your head!"

"No, this is only the end of the channel." He was al-

ready moving away, scraping the soft forest dirt into a

cavity that was indeed lengthening into a channel.

"You mean—the rock? Down here?"

"Yes. It should roll in the direction of least resistance.

It shouldn't take much of a channel to guide it. By the

time it gets here, it should be rolling pretty fast.''

"Why, that's brilliant!" Ivy exclaimed.

"No, only common sense," he said, pleased. "I'm not

a brilliant guy; you know that."

Ivy thought about that as she searched for a sharp stone

so that she could help. Grey didn't seem to think much of

himself, and indeed he was generally unimpressive, but

he didn't seem to fade much in the crunch. He just keep

plugging away at whatever he was doing, and doing in-

creasingly well. She liked that. She would never have

thought of rolling a rock down a channel to make a tree

fall across a river!

•They dug and scraped, mounding dirt on either side of

the channel, and evening out any bumps so that the rock

could roll smoothly. When they reached the rock, they

deepened the channel, undercutting the boulder.

The rock didn't move. It extended down into the ground.

But Grey kept working at it, deepening the channel and

maintaining its slope, so that when the rock did move, it

would keep moving.

Ivy, fatigued and dirty, straightened up and stood back.

"Maybe if we pushed, now," she said. She wondered

whether she should offer to Enhance his strength for this,

but feared that he would take it the wrong way.

"Maybe," he agreed.

They got on the other side of the boulder, braced their

backs against it, and pushed with their legs.

It moved. Surprised, they tumbled and scrambled out

of the way.

88 Man from Mundania

The boulder crunched down into the channel, hesitated

ponderously, then decided to move on. It rolled, slowly

and raggedly, but determinedly.

They jumped to their feet and followed it down. Would

it break out of the channel? It seemed to be trying to, as

it rolled irregularly, but never quite made it. It gathered

speed, and plunged into the bit of forest.

Just before the branch, the rock veered to one side,

threatening to miss. But the edge of it clipped the branch,

and the branch snapped with a loud crack. The tree shud-

dered, then slowly let itself down as the rock splashed into

the river. Crunch! The top crushed into the ground on the

opposite side and wedged into place.

"Oh, it worked, it worked!" Ivy cried, dancing with

joy. Then she grabbed Grey, hugged him, and kissed him.

"Let's roll some more boulders!" he said dazedly.

She ran to fetch her knapsack. "Let's get across; we've

used up half the day already.''

Grey climbed onto the trunk and followed her. But in

the middle, directly over the river, he paused, staring

down. "I've been thinking," he said. "Where does all

this blood come from?"

"I told you—it's just a prop from the bad dreams," Ivy

said. "It doesn't have to come from anywhere. It's—" She

stopped herself before saying "magic."

"But it goes somewhere," he pointed out. "It goes into

the larger river. And if it doesn't come from anywhere,

then we should have been able to walk upstream and get

around it. It just seems too much like a regular river to

me."

"Maybe there's a blood spring, farther up," Ivy said,

losing patience. "Look, Grey, this place doesn't follow

normal rules as either you or I know them, any more than

dreams do. It's not worth worrying about."

"I was thinking," he continued doggedly, "that if it

comes from an—an animal, a big animal, that creature

must really be hurting. I think we should go check."

Ivy opened her mouth to protest, but the insidious logic

of it began to get to her. A big animal? What an awful

thought!

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89

"Very well," she said wearily. "Let's find out exactly

where it comes from."

Grey completed his crossing and climbed down beside

her. Then they trekked upstream. Ivy hoped that Grey's

conjecture was wrong, but she couldn't discount it. Surely

a big bucket of blood, self-restoring, would have done the

job as well as this river! And why was the blood so hot?

Temperature hardly mattered for bad dreams, just appear-

ance. Also, why was it out here in nowhere, instead of