On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness (14 page)

28

Into the Forest

T
he 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

I
nside, 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.

Janner thought about the horned hounds and shuddered.

Tink asked if Podo had seen any toothy cows. “No, lad, and thank the Maker I didn't. But a cave blat attacked me. Tall as a tree if it was an inch,” Podo declared, “and claws like knives. But ol' Danny the carthorse kicked it square in the jaw, and the blat yelped and scurried off.”

Tink asked how something as tall as a tree could “scurry,” but Podo continued as if he didn't hear.
¹

“The going was rougher the farther I went. At first it was only a few wee gullies and ol' Danny could get down 'em without much trouble, but after a while I was thinking twice before I spurred 'im down there. Deep they were, and I've only got one leg, y'know,” he said with a frustrated swipe at his stump. “And then I heard a noise,” he said in a whisper. They leaned in close, even Nia.

“We were—” Leeli began, but Podo shushed her.

“Hold on, honey; ye gotta build suspense, see.” He paused for effect, and Leeli tried not to laugh.

“Oh, get on with it,” Nia said.

“Can I tell the story here?” Podo asked, offended.

“Well I don't know,” Nia said. “
Can
you?”

“I can if I don't have any more interruptions,” Podo growled, mumbling something about people these days not knowing a good story if it stung them in the rump. “So anyway, I heard someone singing—but it weren't our Leeli here. Now that's enough to scare an old fella half to death, hearing a song in the belly of a dark wood when the only thing he's heard for the last hour is the snort of a horse and his own toots.”

Nia rolled her eyes and put her face in her hands.

“So I start looking all around, thinking I must've heard wrong, when it comes again: a voice singing. All of a sudden, Nugget here barks a fury, and I look at 'im and he's barking up a tree. At first I think,
Now ain't the time to be fussing over thwaps!
But right then a quill diggle the size of a goat comes out of nowhere and starts baring its fangs and circling. Its quills were raised, and it started screaming like a hawk, and I thought,
Well, it's a good thing I brought my fork from the house, otherwise I wouldn't have anything to fight with at all.
So I knew I didn't have much time before the diggle's quills came flying, and I threw my fork as hard as I could—” He stopped, looking down dramatically.

“And?” Janner asked, taking the bait.

Podo looked back up, relishing the suspense. “And I missed,” he said with a shrug, leaning back in his chair. “The fool thing stuck in the ground about a foot in front of the critter. ‘Brilliant,' says I, wonderin' what to do next. That critter hissed and jumped back and turned to sling its quills. But just before it did, I saw the last thing I ever expected.”

Podo enjoyed a long, noisy sip of cider while the Igibys waited on the edge of their seats. “Swinging on a vine from somewhere come that crazy fella from town, Peet the Sock Man.” Janner noticed Nia's and Podo's eyes meet at the mention of Peet, as if they'd had a whole conversation in that one moment. But Podo continued so smoothly that Janner wondered if he hadn't imagined it.

“He saved me,” Leeli piped in, speaking fast. “He fought Slarb and took me to his house in the forest. It was wonderful, even though he smelled like a rotten onion berry.”

“So back to the quill diggle,” Podo said impatiently. “Peet the Sock Man swung down with a staff and smacked that diggle so hard it turned inside out, and while it was scurrying away, he took a stone out of a pouch and threw it at least a mile and hit it square in the head.”

Janner's jaw dropped. “It was Peet!” he said. “It was Peet who threw the rocks at the Fangs that attacked Leeli before, wasn't it?” They all looked at him.

“Well, it might have been,” Nia said, “but no one saw him, so we can't know for sure, can we?”

“Well, no, but who else—”

“What happened next, Papa?” Nia said curtly.

Podo cleared his throat. “So, as I was saying, we were standing right underneath a tree house way up in the top of a glipwood tree and sure enough, there was little Leeli, safe and sound, wavin' down at ol' Podo like she was on holiday.”

“So the Sock Man didn't try to hurt you?” Tink asked. “He always gives me the weirds.”

“No!” Leeli said. “He fought that Fang all by himself and took me to his tree house. He has lots of books and a rope ladder, and he just needs some friends. Mama, can we bring him some food? All he eats is animals from the forest. He kept the diggle and said he was going to eat it later—and it wasn't really inside out, by the way—but I just thought that maybe we could help him—”

“We'll see,” Nia said, with a wave of her hand. “Enough talk about this Sock Man character. I'm glad he saved you, dear, but it's plain that he's not right in the head. Now it's time you children get ready for bed. You need rest.”

Nia peeked her head through the door to the children's bedroom. She listened for a moment and heard the deep breathing of sleep coming from all three. Only Nugget stirred. Snuggled tightly beside Leeli, he raised his head, cocked it to one side, and wagged his tail slowly for Nia. Nodding to Nugget, she smiled and pulled the door closed.

Podo was nearly asleep in his chair with his leg propped up on the footstool. He had unstrapped his peg leg and the wooden stump lay on the floor beside him.

“Fire's getting low, lass,” he said with a yawn.

Nia sat down on the couch and yawned too. She stared at the flames and thought long before speaking.

“He can't come near them, Papa.”

“Eh?” he said, scratching his head and stifling another yawn.

“Peet.”

“Ah.” Podo roused a little and stared into the fire as well. They were silent for a long time again.

“Tomorrow morning I'll have a talk with the children,” Nia said. “I'll forbid them to ever speak with him again.” She sighed and let her hair down from the bun. “These last few days have been the longest I've lived through since we came here, Papa, and I pray to the Maker that the danger passes soon. If my maggotloaf is good, and if we can last until that Fang, Sloop—”

“Slarb.”

“—is transferred to another village, I think we'll be all right. At least we'll be together. And we'll be alive.”
²

“Aw, but this ain't life, lass!” Podo said. “Not as it's meant to be. Do you see the way the people's heads bow? Do you see the fear that leaks out of 'em and sits on this town like a fog on the sea? Bah! They've forgotten what it is to live anymore. But yer Podo hasn't.” He smiled at the fire and closed his eyes. “Today when I was ridin' through the wood I remembered what it was like to have the wind in me hair and the world unrollin' before me eyes.” Podo looked hard at Nia. “If Esben was still kickin', he'd have a thing or two to say about these Fangs breathin' their venom down our necks. He'd have somethin' to say about that Carriage rattlin' up these hills to carry off the youngsters—”

“Enough, Papa. He's not here. And that recklessness is exactly what got him killed.”

“No, lass,” Podo said. “The Fangs is what got 'im killed.”

“But if he had run, if he had come with us and laid low, then he'd be here now—” Nia cut herself short. She was on the verge of tears. “He'd be here now,” she repeated to herself.

Podo put one of his weathered old hands on her arm.

“It's all right, lass. And don't you worry about having any long talk with the bitties about ol' Peet the Sock Man. You know as well as I do that for young lads, a warning is about the same as an invitation. They'll not be able to stop thinkin' about 'im if you do that. I say just let it go.” His voice grew dangerous. “And I'll take care of ol' Peet. Don't you worry about him coming near the children again. I'd say he's done quite enough.”

Nia said nothing as she stared sadly at the dying fire, struggling to burn.