The Nothing: A Book of the Between (13 page)

Still, when the griffyn opened her eagle beak and spoke, she didn’t quite believe her ears.

“Mistress of the Doors, your magic Voice will not help you here.”

Expectations and beliefs swirled and shifted in Vivian’s brain. No reason why a mythological creature shouldn’t be able to talk, and yet she hadn’t seen it coming. Fear that the Voice hadn’t worked combined with hope that a creature that could talk might be persuaded to let her go of its own free will.

Again the creature spoke. “The Between has gone wrong. You must set things right.”

Wonder and anger competed for supremacy. Anger won.

“You killed my companion. Why should I help?”

Feathers lifted on the back of the griffyn’s head. Her tail lashed side to side. “We do as we must. The babies were hungry.”

“I saw deer down there. Sheep.”

A growl pulsed in the griffyn’s throat. “The land is ours. We do as we will.”

“That seems to be working out well for you. What’s wrong with the little ones? Is that normal?” Vivian gestured to the babies, done feasting now and watching her with eyes too intent for her liking.

The griffyn lowered her proud head. “Things changed. The Between is not what it was. You must fix it.”

“That’s what I was trying to do. You interfered. You killed my guide. Now I will never gain entrance to the City of the Giants.”

Green eyes narrowed and the griffyn clacked her beak. “You must not go there.”

“Now you’re giving advice? I need their secrets.”

“Never there. The Queen will kill you or keep you captive. She will not share her secrets. It is to the Sorcieri you must go.”

“I don’t know how to get there. Callyn was going to intercede for us with the Giant Queen. And now you’ve gone and killed her!”

“We will carry you to the Sorcieri.”

Vivian stared at the creature, dumbfounded. Be careful, Vivian. All things have a price. “In exchange for what?”

“You will heal the sick one.”

And there it was. The catch. The little griffyn was barely alive. If it died—well, she only needed to look at the sharp beak and the powerful claws to know what would happen. Any chance was better than no chance at all.

“It is more dead than alive,” she said. “This is no easy bargain you set for me.”

The green eyes narrowed. “What do you ask?”

“You will also carry my living companion. He goes with me.”

“The one with the bright sword? The Warrior? You ask too much.”

Vivian shrugged. “As do you.”

The griffyn drew back a little, sitting on her haunches and thinking. “Very well.”

“All right, then. Let’s go.” No time to be wasted. Vivian stood up, holding the baby in one arm, and settled herself astride the griffyn’s back. She buried her free hand in the feathers of the neck.

“Do we have a bargain, then?” the griffyn asked, turning to look at her. “Will you keep your end true?”

“I will.”

The great wings unfurled and lifted, and in a moment, they were airborne. Another griffyn joined them, its beak and claws still stained with Callyn’s blood. Vivian wanted to close her eyes but kept them open, looking for Zee, hoping against hope that the Between hadn’t already killed him.

THE RIVER was warm. It was also thick with mud and debris and had an unpleasant greasy feel. Zee would have preferred crystal clear and icy cold. This water was only marginally cleaner than the dirt already in his wounds, and he hoped he wasn’t making things worse by submerging himself in it. He also hoped there was nothing in the unseen depths that would attack him. Just in case, he kept the sword with him, telling himself he’d dry it thoroughly as soon as he got out, and the threat of rust was less than the threat of a water snake or crocodile with some sort of supernatural intelligence.

So far, though, nothing had attacked. The sky above was blue and clear with a few puffy, innocent clouds. The air felt tropical, warm and heavy with moisture. The unfamiliar trees were jungle-thick and wound around with vines, forming an impenetrable green front on both sides of the river. There should have been noise, Zee thought. Frogs, insects, birds. But all around him nothing moved. No wind stirred the trees. Even the river ran silently.

Godzilla rested on the riverbank, his good wing neatly folded, the broken one trailing. Poe, not bothered by the dirtiness of the water, was taking a bath of his own. His movements and Zee’s splashing in the water created the only sound. Taking a good long look around to make sure nothing threatening was visible, Zee ducked his head under the surface, scrubbing at his face and hair in an attempt to clean away the ground-in dirt. He surfaced, clearing the water from his eyes.

A shadow passed over him, cast by something big and moving fast. Looking up, he saw griffyns. Two of them, descending directly toward him. Cursing, sword in hand, he splashed toward shore, more than ready to fight. Hopefully, they’d underestimate him based on the last encounter. That would make it easier to kill them. If he hadn’t had his head under water, he might have seen which direction they came from.

The creatures landed but didn’t attack, just stared at him out of golden predator eyes. They clacked their beaks and ruffled their feathers. One stretched, catlike, the tip of its tail twitching. Godzilla backed away, snorting smoke. Zee gripped his sword, standing just at the edge of the water and staring them down.

Maybe they would hate water, catlike, and he could use that to his advantage. All his instincts urged him to attack, to kill, but he waited, letting the griffyns make the first move. A small splashing behind him and Poe appeared on the river bank, waddling straight toward the griffyns on full steam.

“Poe!” he shouted. “Get back here.”

The little penguin ignored him. One of the griffyns stretched out its beak with a cry like a hunting hawk. Damn the penguin. Zee started after him, ready for battle.

A familiar voice stopped him.

“Leave the bird alone; he’s with me.”

“Vivian.” He couldn’t see her; she was screened by one of the griffyns, but he would have known her voice anywhere. Poe had sensed her without her having to utter a word and was running now, neck outstretched. He skidded to a halt when he got close, barely catching himself from tumbling beak over tail, hissing. The instant Vivian emerged from around the griffyn, Zee understood why. In her arms she carried a bundle of tawny fur. A long, feline tail draped over her arm.

“Zee, wait. They’re not going to hurt us.”

He stopped in his tracks, a little more graceful than the penguin, but not by much. She looked all right, not under duress. Had the creatures hypnotized her? Closer up, he could see that what she carried looked like a lion cub. As for the griffyns, their beaks and claws were all too sharp, and he’d seen them kill Callyn. They stood where they were, alert and watchful but making no move to attack while Vivian carried her burden down to the edge of the river.

She crouched by the water’s edge and began dribbling water into the mouth of what looked like a lion cub. He joined her. Close up, he could see an odd burst of feathers sprouting on either side of the cub’s jaws where whiskers ought to be. It was thin to the point of starvation and barely breathed.

Vivian caught his gaze but didn’t speak, trying to tell him something with her eyes alone. “The griffyns are carrying us to the Sorcieri,” she said in a voice that revealed nothing of her opinion. “The little one is surety.”

He tried to keep his face as unexpressive as hers, even as dismay ran through him. The Sorcieri bit he understood, much as he didn’t like it. No point going to the Giants without Callyn to intercede. And he had no trouble believing that the griffyns were intelligent enough that Vivian had had found some way to communicate with them. But the cub was barely hanging on. Knowing Vivian, it was more than just a bargaining chip to get them where they needed to go. She was personally invested in its healing; he could see it. And if it died, the griffyns would seek revenge.

“It looks like it’s starving. Can’t it eat?”

“Apparently, griffyns don’t make milk.”

“Well, hell.” He stood a minute, looking from the woman he loved to the dying griffyn cub to the watchful creatures. He did not want to leave Vivian alone with them, but he also knew he couldn’t protect her against two of them at once if the baby died.

“I’ll be back. Don’t go anywhere, okay?” He wanted to kiss her but wasn’t sure how the present company would react, so he gave her a smile and hoped his eyes would say everything he was holding in.

“Where are you going?” she asked. Her face was a mask of dirt, eyes irritated and red. He wanted to pick her up and carry her into the river, washing it all away with his own hands. And then he wanted to kiss her deeply and relieve her of her clothing.

One quick touch of his hand to her shoulder was all he allowed himself, and then he was off, calling back over his shoulder, “Off to fetch some milk. Wait for me.”

“Always,” he thought he heard her say, but the sound of his sword slicing through vines swallowed the word.

T
HE
MIRROR
embedded in the dead tree just north of the seven mud pits was Kalina’s favorite. The tree itself had been dead for long past a thousand years. Its bark was as smooth and glossy as stone, and she could detect no magic that had made it that way. But the mirror was special. Of all of the mirrors on the island, it was the most alive.

Running her hand across the glass, Kalina could sense the fingerprint of the maker. Jehenna, the cursed, last of the female Sorcieri. Kalina was not permitted to speak the name, and the Master would beat her severely if he knew that she looked into it, let alone touched it. Still, she could not leave it alone.

The other mirrors had been made by the Master, and the man who had been Master before him, and so on, back two thousand years. They, too, revealed things but were empty much of the time of all but the occasional creature sighting. Kalina didn’t care much for griffyns and slime toads or the other creatures. Giants were interesting, but they never lingered close to the mirrors for long. She loved the dragons, but they had all left the Between.

As for the forbidden mirror of Jehenna, it was as close as Kalina could get to the mythical Kingdom of Surmise. She’d discovered Surmise in the secret books that the Master did not know she read, since he didn’t know she could read at all. So much power, to be able to weave Dreamworlds into the Between. Kalina, who had never been off of the Island, was fascinated. What was Surmise like now that Jehenna had died? Had it altered, or did her power still bind it together?

The Master knew the answers, she was sure, but he never spoke of the place. Kalina suspected there was a collection of mirrors hidden away somewhere that reflected Surmise. Jehenna would have crafted them, she was certain, but she had never been able to find them. This mirror was as close as she could get. It showed the intersection of a heavily traveled path through the Between and the borders of Surmise.

Today, it was full of life. Human, dwarf, Giant. All sorts of creatures, all crossing into Surmise. Some of them were carrying bundles of possessions, or children. This was no wandering trek through the mazes, and they definitely did not have the look of revelry, as if there was a feast on the other end. All of them looked worried, and they moved with purpose.

Kalina put her hand to the mirror to adjust the focus and then snatched it back as the mirror went dark. In the distance, with a gurgle and a thump that shook the earth beneath her feet, the seven mud pits erupted, heaving boiling globules of mud high into the air. Small spatters stung her face and scalp and she bent double, shielding herself with her arms. The pits settled back to their usual slow, sticky boil, but when she turned back to the mirror, its surface was smooth, black, and unresponsive.

Kalina’s heart beat fast but not with fear. The change had begun with the opening of the Black Gates and Aidan’s entrance into the Forever with all of the dragons of the Between behind her. Of these things the Master spoke. But of the coming danger he said nothing. If he was aware, he kept it to himself.