I spun the staff’s gnarled top in my hand. “But then how can I find the soul of the Song? It has something to do with the treelings.”
Rhia ran her hands through her curls. “You do have a taste for challenges, Merlin! Your only hope is to go to Faro Lanna, the treelings’ ancestral home. I don’t think you will find much there, though.”
“How far is it?”
“Far. All the way to the southwestern tip of Fincayra. And we’ll have to cross the full length of the Druma, which will slow us down more. The only way to avoid that would be to cut across the Misted Hills to the coast, then head south—but that means passing through the land of the living stones. Not a wise idea!”
Bumbelwy’s head jangled in agreement. “Sound advice, young woman. The living stones have an uncanny appetite for travelers.” He gulped, wiggling his layered chins. “Especially jesters, I understand.”
“They must have strong stomachs,” I added sardonically. Facing Rhia, I asked, “That’s the region where the Grand Elusa lives, isn’t it?”
Bumbelwy shuddered. “Another excellent reason to avoid it! Even the living stones are afraid of that gargantuan spider. Her appetite is worse than theirs. Far worse.”
I drew a deep breath of air, scented by the boughs surrounding us. “All the same, Rhia, I want you to take us the shorter way, through the Misted Hills.”
Both the girl and the jester started. Even the silent cedars jostled their branches, seeming to gasp.
Rhia leaned toward me. “Are you serious?”
“Completely.” I pushed the hair off my brow. “If we can save a day, or even an hour, it could be worth my mother’s life.”
Bumbelwy, his frowns carved deep into his face, grabbed the sleeve of my tunic. “You mustn’t do this. Those hills are deadly.”
I pulled free. “If you would rather stay here with Tuatha, go right ahead.” As his eyes opened to their widest, I struck my staff on the needle-strewn ground. “Let’s go.”
We left the shadowed glade, trekking through the marshy terrain. Except for the steady rattle of Bumbelwy’s bells, we moved in silence. At least, I thought grimly, the Grand Elusa will hear us coming. But would we hear her? And would she hold back her appetite long enough to remember that she had once welcomed Rhia and me as guests in her crystal cave? My legs felt weak at the thought of her slavering jaws.
As our feet squelched through the muddy soil, the trees thinned and I noticed more landmarks. An odd, chair-shaped boulder splotched with yellow lichen. The twisted skeleton of a dead tree. A patch of flaming orange moss. A strange, triangular pit. In the deepening dusk, more water seeped into the soil, as well as our boots. Soon I heard frogs piping in the distance. Water birds joined the chorus, crying in eerie voices. The dank, rotting smell grew stronger. Before long, we arrived at the edge of a wide stretch of tall grasses, dead trees, and dark pools of quicksand. The swamp.
Waving two mud-splattered sleeves, Bumbelwy protested, “We’re not going across that now, are we? It’s almost nightfall.”
“Either we camp here,” I replied, “or find some drier ground in the hills. What do you think, Rhia?”
She pulled a handful of purple berries off a low bush and popped them into her mouth. “Mmm. Still sweet.”
“Rhia?”
“Drier ground,” she answered at last. “Though the berries here are tasty.”
As the cry of a swamp crane echoed hauntingly from the shadows. Bumbelwy shook his head. “A lovely choice. Spend the night in a swamp, and get strangled by deadly snakes, or at the Grand Elusa’s doorstep, and get eaten as her breakfast.”
“The choice is yours.” I started off, leaping over a rotting log. I landed with a splash in a puddle. Seconds later I heard two more splashes—along with bells and a lot of grumbling behind me.
For a while I followed a strip of caked mud that pointed like a finger into the marsh. Yet that soon faded away, making it necessary to slog straight through the grassy pools. Sometimes I sank into water up to my thighs. Long, blackened fingers of submerged branches clutched at my tunic, while mud oozed into my boots. And every so often, strange shapes stirred in the unknown depths.
The light waned steadily. Tonight there would be no moon, however, for thick clouds had rolled in, obscuring the sky. Just as well, I told myself. Seeing the moon would remind me all the more of my vanishing time, as well as hope.
We pushed on in the near-darkness. After another hour of slogging and splashing, all light vanished. A snake hissed somewhere near my boot. I began to fear that we had somehow veered off course. The murk seemed to stretch on endlessly. My legs felt heavier and heavier. Then, little by little, the terrain began to grow more solid under my feet. At first I hardly noticed the change, but in time I could tell that we were climbing gradually onto rocky ground. The rotten pools disappeared, as did their smell. The cries of frogs and birds faded behind us.
We had crossed the swamp.
Exhausted, we stumbled into a level clearing surrounded by boulders. I declared it our camp for the night. In unison, we flopped down on the mossy ground. To warm my cold hands, I slid them into the opposite sleeves of my tunic. My eyes closed, and I fell asleep.
I awoke when a large drop of rain splashed on my nose. Another drop came, and another. A cloud on the horizon flashed suddenly with light, and thunder rumbled over the ridge. The downpour began. Rain pelted us, driven by the rising wind. The night sky grew even darker, as if the clouds had condensed into great slabs of rock. Waves of water poured down from the sky. Even if I could somehow have changed into a fish, I’d have been no wetter. All I needed now was gills.
Shivering from the cold, I moved closer to one of the boulders, hoping to find at least a little shelter. That was when I realized that the boulder was moving closer to
me.
“Living stones!” cried Rhia. “We’ve got to get—”
“Aaaaiieee!” screamed Bumbelwy. “It’s eating me!”
I tried to roll away from the boulder. Yet the shoulder of my tunic was caught, holding me fast. I tugged on it, trying to break loose. As water streamed down my face, I pounded my fist against the stone.
My fist hit the wet rock—and stuck there. It wouldn’t budge! Then, to my horror, the rock started closing around it. Swallowing my whole hand with lips of stone. I shrieked, but a clap of thunder drowned out my voice. In the blackness, in the torrent, I fought with all my strength to pull free.
Soon the stone had consumed my whole hand. Then my wrist. My forearm. My elbow. Hard as I kicked and squirmed, I could not get away. Though I could still feel my fingers and hand, the pressure on them was increasing steadily. In no time my bones would disintegrate, crushed in the jaws of a living stone.
A sudden flash of lightning brightened the ridge. In that instant, a huge, hulking figure, broader than the boulders themselves, entered the clearing. Its voice, louder even than the thunder, rose above the storm.
“Huuungry,” bellowed the great beast. “I aaam huuungry.”
“The Grand Elusa!” shouted Rhia.
Bumbelwy screamed again, the scream of a man about to die.
In a single leap, the Grand Elusa landed at my side, her eight legs splattering mud in all directions. Despite the rain and the darkness, my second sight could not miss her massive jaws opening. As I glimpsed the endless rows of jagged teeth, I struggled all the harder to escape. The jaws closed.
Not on me! With a terrific crunch, the Grand Elusa took an enormous bite out of the living stone itself. The boulder shuddered violently, then released my arm. I tumbled backward onto muddy ground. Before I knew what was happening, someone fell on top of me, as a blast of white light seared the ridge.
14:
T
HE
C
RYSTAL
C
AVE
Light, sparkling like stars, danced all around me. And around Rhia and Bumbelwy, as well, for we lay in a single heap of arms and legs and torn clothing. I pushed someone’s dripping foot out of my face and sat up. Aside from being soaking wet and feeling intensely sore in my hand, I was fine. Wherever I might be.
In a flash, I recognized the rows upon rows of glowing crystals, the shimmering waves of light that vibrated over the walls, and the sheer magnificence of this place. Thousands upon thousands of dazzling facets, each as smooth as ice, glittered on all sides, shining with a light of their own. The crystal cave! On my first visit here, I had known that I had never been anywhere as beautiful. Now I knew it again.
Something cracked behind me. I swung my head around to see the Grand Elusa herself, her body so vast that it nearly filled the entire glowing cavern. She had just taken a bite of what looked like the hind quarters of a wild boar. Her huge eyes, faceted like crystals themselves, observed me as she chewed. After swallowing the last morsel, she licked her arms clean with surprising delicacy.
“Welcooome tooo myyy caaave,” she bellowed.
Bumbelwy, his bells jingling as he shivered, clutched my sleeve in terror. “Are—are we n-n-next?”
“Of course not,” chided Rhia, her damp curls sparkling like the crystals around us. “She brought us here to get us away from the living stones.”
“S-s-so she c-could eat us hers s-self,” stuttered the jester.
“Siiilence.” The gargantuan spider scratched the white hump on her back. “I haaave saaatisfied myyy huuunger fooor nooow. Luuucky fooor youuu, liiiving stooones taaake sooome tiiime tooo diiigest. Theee boooar waaas meeerely deeessert.”
Using the sleeve of my tunic, I wiped the raindrops off my face. “Thank you. But how did you get us here so fast?’
“Leeeaping.” The Grand Elusa edged a bit closer, so that I could see myself reflected dozens of times in the facets of her eyes. “Iiit iiis aaan aaart youuu maaay leeearn ooone daaay.”
“Leaping is one of the Seven Songs I have to master! Don’t tell me I need to learn how to do what you just did. That alone could take a lifetime.”
“Maaany liiifetimes.” The great white spider continued to examine me. “Espeeecially fooor ooone whooo caaanot compleeete hiiis taaasks. Wheeere haaave youuu leeeft theee Flooowering Haaaip?”
Perspiration beaded on my brow. “It’s safe. In Arbassa. But I can’t go back to the Dark Hills now! I have another problem to solve first.”
“Aaa proooblem youuu caaaused.”
I lowered my head. “Yes.”
“Aaa proooblem,” thundered the creature, “thaaat youuu caaan stiiill sooolve.”
Slowly, I raised my head. “Are you saying I might really have some chance to save her?”
One of her enormous legs tapped against the floor of crystals. “Aaa minuscuuule chaaance iiis stiiill aaa chaaance.”
Rhia crawled a little nearer to me. “So Elen might survive?”
“Sheee miiight, aaand heeer youuung maaan miiight aaas weeell.” As the Grand Elusa cleared her throat, the rumble echoed between the curving, crystalline walls. “Buuut heee wiiill neeed tooo surviiive thiiis queeest, aaand maaany mooore, befooore heee maaay ooone daaay fiiind hiiis ooown crystaaal caaave.”
“My own crystal cave?” My heart leaped at the idea. “Is that really possible?”
“Aaanything iiis possiiible.”
The immense spider slid her bulk to one side, revealing an array of glittering objects. The Treasures of Fincayra! I recognized the Orb of Fire, its orange sphere aglow like the crystals; the graceful horn I knew to be the Caller of Dreams; and the great sword Deepercut, with one edge that could slice all the way into the soul, and another edge that could heal any wound. Just behind them, I glimpsed the plow that could till its own field, the Treasure that Honn had described to his son. Near it lay the rest of the Wise Tools—except for the one that had been lost.
“Iiit iiis eeeven possiiible thaaat, ooone daaay, youuu maaay beee wiiise enouuugh tooo caaary ooone ooof theee Treasuuures aaand nooot destroooy mooore thaaan youuu creaaate.”
I swallowed hard.
“Youuu maaay teeell meee theee Seeeven Sooongs.” Not a request but a command, her words boomed in my ears.
I hesitated for an instant, then sucked in my breath and began:
The Seven Songs of Wizardry,
One melody and many,
May guide ye to the Otherworld,
Though hope ye have not any.
Bumbelwy, who was huddled at the far end of the cavern, shook his head morosely, clanging his bells. The spider turned an enormous eye on him, and he instantly stopped.
In the glow of the crystals, I continued, reciting the warning to master each of the Songs in turn. Rhia’s bright eyes sparkled like crystals themselves when I spoke the words that were now embedded in my very being:
Each Song’s essential soul.
Then I moved through the Seven Songs themselves. When, at the conclusion, I mentioned the eye of Balor, the Grand Elusa shifted her weight uneasily on the faceted floor.
No one spoke for some time. At last the Grand Elusa’s voice rang out.
“Aaare youuu afraaaid?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “I’m afraid I can’t do it all in four phases of the moon.”
“Iiis thaaat aaall?”
“I’m afraid of how hard it will be to find the souls of the Songs.”
“Iiis thaaat aaall?”
I ran my hand nervously across the crystalline floor, feeling the sharp edges. “I’m afraid of the seventh one, Seeing, most of all. But . . . I don’t know why.”
“Youuu shaaall fiiind ouuut whyyy, iiif youuu geeet thaaat faaar.”
Using three of her arms, she scratched her hairy back. “Youuu maaay leeearn aaa liiittle maaagic, aaas weeell. Iiit iiis aaa piiity youuu wooon’t leeearn anythiiing reeealy uuuseful, thooough. Liiike hooow tooo spiiin aaa weeeb. Ooor hooow tooo cheeew aaa stooone.”
Rhia giggled. Then her face grew taut. “What does it mean, the part about Balor’s eye?”
The spider’s white hairs bristled. “Theee ooogre haaas ooonly ooone eeeye. Aaand iiit kiiills anyooone whooo loooks intooo iiit, eeeven fooor aaan iiinstant.”
Rhia leaned toward me. “That must be how Tuatha died.”
“Yeees indeeed,” declared the Grand Elusa. “Aaand hooow youuu tooo wiiill diiie, iiif youuu aaare nooot caaareful.”
I frowned. “The truth is, I may never get past the first Song. When you found us, we were trekking to Faro Lanna, in the hope of learning something that might help. But with no treelings left, it is hardly a hope at all.”