Stargazer Page 7

  “Don’t be so sure,” I said. “Abaddon has ways of reaching places he wants to control.” He had certainly had no trouble reaching into my own thoughts.

  “Abaddon? Who’s Abaddon?” asked Marco.

  I just shook my head and looked at the house again. I wanted to fill my mind with something beautiful, to get the image of Abaddon out of my head, and the house was so perfect and peaceful.

  “Where is everyone?” I asked, aware that this was supposed to be the edge of a village and that there was no one but us. No one was flying overhead. All was quiet.

  “They’re waiting farther inside, down between the houses,” said Jonezy. “We don’t see a lot of visitors here, Alexa. They needed a reason to celebrate.”

  “You didn’t tell them, did you?” I asked, sure that Jonezy had let slip that I was Roland’s niece.

  “Tell them what?” asked Matilda. She was like a curious sister, afraid I’d kept something from her. I liked the way this felt.

  “I’m afraid they do know about the sea monster,” said Jonezy, winking at me ever so slightly. “It’s not as if we can hide it from them.”

  Jonezy turned to Marco and told him to go back up to the edge and scout the water once more. The brash young skimmer appeared more than happy to leave as the rest of us made our way into the village.

  The houses were set so close to the path that I could reach my arms out and run my hands along moss on both sides as we went. It was a safe, cozy feeling, surrounded by walls of soft color and a blue sky overhead. The path turned sharp, this way and that, and I realized that we were in a labyrinth.

  “This way,” said Matilda, turning into an opening. A little farther and I couldn’t tell if it was houses at my sides or simply stones covered in moss. The walls grew higher and darker of hue, and I was again reminded of a past life surrounded by towering walls I could not escape.

  “How much farther?” I asked. We turned another sharp corner and I thought I heard a whisper from somewhere ahead.

  No one answered me. They didn’t have to, because on turning the corner we came into an open space a hundred feet around. In the middle, there was a long table surrounded by people.

  “Welcome to the village at the third pillar,” said Jonezy.

  Yipes held me by the arm and ushered me all around the table. He had clearly met all of these people before, and being the sociable fellow that he was, he’d already befriended most. There were fish of every kind from the Lonely Sea, apples and pears, and bread!

  Here was the greater part of the population of the Five Stone Pillars, and I was somewhat taken aback to realize that there were probably less than two hundred people living here in total. There were children and adults alike, all dressed very much like I was. The same sorts of long shirts of white, brown, and green. I’d changed into sandals for an endless summer that were laced at the ankle. Everything they wore was simple but well made—crafted to last—to get more comfortable with age.

  Jonezy must have offered his approval of my arrival, for they never tired of my endless questions, no matter how mundane. In fact, such a clamor broke out every time I asked a new question that Jonezy had to choose who would get to answer me. And so it went something like this….

  “How is it that you have bread to eat?”

  “Roland brought us wheat a long time ago. We grow it over there.” And the woman pointed in a general direction.

  “What about the fish? They’re so far down, how do you catch them?”

  “Roland brought us nets and ropes. We lower them and haul them up.”

  “And your clothes—they’re just like back home. Where did they come from?”

  “Roland brought them to us.”

  It was in this way that I began to realize how important Roland had been to the emerging society on the Five Stone Pillars. No wonder they had treated him as a king—he brought them everything they needed! It made me wonder how the needs of these people would be met in the future. What if all the nets broke or fell into the ocean? What if their clothes all wore out?

  It wasn’t only me with questions—they, too, wanted to know everything. How did I know Roland? What could I tell them about the sea monster far below? Some, not all, wanted the latest news from The Land of Elyon.

  After I’d asked my thousand questions and they theirs (or so it seemed), a group of three girls my own age surrounded me. I was someone new and they all wanted to be my best friend, which I have to admit I very much enjoyed. It was like being a child again at a time in my life when I was sure all the child had drained out of me. There was a moment—like a spark—that felt like I could forget all the trouble in the world and just run free with my friends and be happy.

  They took me about halfway up the side of the curved green walls of the third pillar, and we spent the afternoon skimming and laughing endlessly. I could not get enough of this activity and begged to ride again and again until my arms were burning with fatigue. All through the day I flew, looking up and seeing Yipes and Matilda much higher, flying down vines I wished I were skilled enough to ride. This wasn’t just fun for me—I was also learning something I knew would soon be very valuable.

  Later, when I was so tired and full of food I could hardly imagine doing anything but sleeping, I lay in the open of the green watching skimmers fly over my head through a web of ropes against a blue sky. It was, in a word, magical.

  I couldn’t have known then that someone was also secretly watching me, plotting my demise as I fell fast asleep to the sound of swishing overhead.

  PART 2

  Sir Alistair Wakefield

  He won’t be like anyone you’ve met before. Best not to keep him waiting too long.

  —Armon the giant

  CHAPTER 9

  THE NIGHT SKIM

  “Wake up, Alexa!”

  I couldn’t say for sure what time it was when I awoke, only that I’d slept clear through the late afternoon and into the early night. Sitting up, I was mesmerized by the world of the third pillar. It had been transformed as I lay sleeping.

  “Come on, Alexa!” Crystal, one of the girls my own age, was tugging at my arm, trying to get me up on my feet. “I have exciting news!”

  The sky overhead had changed from cobalt to deep blue. At first I thought there were stars hanging close in the sky, brighter than I’d ever seen stars before. But rubbing my eyes and looking again I saw that they were not stars after all, but lamps dangling all through the web of ropes, bouncing as skimmers raced past.

  And the skimmers! They, too, were somehow alive with light. They flashed across the sky in every direction like a show of comets and shooting stars.

  “What are they doing?” I asked Crystal as she pulled me along the soft floor of the third pillar.

  “They’re night skimming!” she replied.

  “I can see that,” I said. “I was hoping for a few more … details.”

  Crystal and her friends surrounded me and I was pulled along by the force of the group toward the village.

  “We should tell her, don’t you think?” asked one of the girls. This was followed by whispering, and Crystal shushing them to be quiet.

  “You’ve been admitted into the competition,” she said. She was looking at me.

  “What do you mean, admitted?”

  “You’re going to compete in the night skim. We all begged and begged, and Jonezy said it would be all right. You’re in with the beginners, but you’re in! It’s very exciting.”

  And I was excited! I couldn’t wait to get back on the ropes and skim across the sky. And at night! I could imagine nothing better.

  “Where are Yipes and Matilda? I want to tell them.”

  “I’m afraid that will have to wait. They’re way up there,” said Crystal, pointing into the sky. “The three of them have a duel set to begin any time now.”

  “The three of them?” I asked.

  “Marco,” said one of the girls. “He and Matilda have always been fierce competitors, but word in the vi
llage is that Marco really wants to humiliate Yipes.”

  “Where can we go to watch?” I asked, worried about my two friends. “I want to keep an eye on Yipes and Matilda.”

  We’d reached the center of the village and Crystal glanced into the sky.

  “Quickly!” she said. “The sky is clearing of skimmers. The competition is about to start!”

  All the girls raced through to the other side of the village until they reached the edge of the hills leading up. I followed close behind as they crisscrossed up a switchback trail toward the top. There were no vines here, as if it were prepared especially as a place to quickly rise along the hill. I passed people going down and saw that others were ahead of us, making their way up.

  When I was almost out of breath, we arrived at a long shelf with a twisted rail of wood across the front. Oil-burning lamps dangled here and there around the landing. People were standing all along the rail, talking to one another and yelling out names. I saw Jonezy standing among them and waved.

  “So glad to see you awake!” he yelled over the heads of twenty bystanders. “Come closer and bring your friends.”

  The girls and I scurried across the wide shelf and came alongside Jonezy.

  “Look there,” he said as I took hold of the rail and gazed out into the open tangle of ropes and lamps. Jonezy was pointing up above us and to the left.

  “What are they going to do?” There was a well-lit platform high above us, and three competitors were standing side by side. Even from a great distance, it was easy to see that one was Yipes (the very smallest one), one was Matilda (almost as small), and one was Marco (about the size of both Yipes and Matilda put together).

  “It’s a three-part race,” said Crystal. “This is the first part.”

  The sky had cleared of skimmers, and only the gently bouncing lamps remained.

  “What about the lamps? Won’t they bang into them on their way across?” I asked.

  “Let’s hope not!” said Jonezy, laughing, but he could see that I was worried for Yipes. “The lamps are not on the same ropes as the competitors are. And Yipes is a fine skimmer. He’s a natural.”

  I was about to ask Jonezy what they were going to do when he stepped away without warning and leaned down, opening the lid to a box I hadn’t seen. When his hand emerged, it held a glowing ball the size of his head.

  “What is that thing?” I asked. Jonezy handed it to me, and I found that it was heavy like a stone and perfectly round in shape.

  “It’s a tracer,” he said. The palms of his hands were glowing, and as I handed back the tracer I saw that my own hands glowed softly. The stone ball was covered in something powdery and slick that had come off on my palms.

  Jonezy held the tracer over his head. Looking up, I could see that the competitors were standing at the ready, arms over their heads, with their sliders held firm over the ropes.

  Jonezy let out a great cry and dropped the glowing stone over the edge of the rail. All at once, the night became charged with energy from every direction.

  I watched the tracer roll along the hill. The hill was uneven where Jonezy dropped the tracer, and the glowing ball curved wildly from side to side as it gained speed. It left a trail of glowing light behind it, and as it went it seemed to grow less and less bright, every side of the stone ball touching moss as it swung back and forth down the hill. The tracer was leaving its glowing, dusty shell behind. We were just to the left edge of the village, and by the time the tracer went past the first of the houses it was impossible to see in the dark. All the glowing powder had been left behind on the way down.

  I looked up and saw that Marco, Yipes, and Matilda had jumped free of the platform and were flying down with incredible speed.

  “A flag hangs like a tail from each of the lamps,” said Jonezy, but I could barely hear him over the shouts and cries from the people standing around me. The shelf we stood on had become a boiling sea of screaming supporters. Some were cheering for Marco, others for Matilda, and a few for Yipes.

  “Go, Yipes, go!” I yelled, lending my support as best I could.

  As they raced for the bottom, some of the lamps along the way bounced and it appeared that flags had been pulled.

  “Pulling flags slows them down,” said Crystal. “But they need at least three or they’re disqualified.”

  “What about the tracer?” I asked. The trail of light it had left behind was still there, but it had gotten softer and softer the farther away it was. The tracer itself was nowhere to be seen.

  “It’s out there somewhere, past the tracer line. Only one of them will find it.”

  “Go, Yipes! Go, Matilda!” I screamed, my allegiance torn between the two. All the while I kept thinking about how much fun it was going to be when I got my own chance to night skim.

  “Marco is going to be first to the bottom,” said Crystal. “But he still has to find the tracer.”

  Crystal was right. Marco was out in front, followed closely by Matilda. I could tell it was her because her long hair was streaked with light as it flew behind her. Yipes wasn’t just in third, he was really in third, far behind the other two. Marco hit the ground first and began running toward the tracer line in search of the stone ball.

  “The ground down below is like a series of soft hills,” Jonezy explained. “When the tracer reaches the bottom, it’s really moving. The tracer line is long gone and the tracer’s not glowing, so it’s harder to find than you might expect.”

  Marco seemed to falter a little, as if he was unsure which way he should turn. I could see his legs as he ran in different directions—Matilda’s and Yipes’s, too—for they were smeared with the same glowing green dust as the tracer had been.

  Matilda was on the ground next, and she took a different route in search of the prize. The two were moving toward the same place from different directions when Yipes appeared overhead. To everyone’s surprise, Yipes twisted his slider and slowed down well before the end of the rope. He was hanging overhead, thirty feet off the ground, while Marco and Matilda made a beeline across the moss.

  “They’ve found it!” said Jonezy, and he was right. Both Marco and Matilda sprinted at full speed toward the same spot. “I’m afraid Yipes will have to settle for third in his first night skim.”

  “Don’t be so sure,” I said. I knew Yipes well enough to know he wouldn’t give up so easily. He was moving very slowly again, skimming right in between and over the top of Marco and Matilda. And then without warning, he was falling through the air.

  Everyone leaned out on the rail and gasped. It was at least a twenty-five foot drop. Marco and Matilda dove headfirst onto the moss, arms held out and sliding toward the tracer, but they were too late. Yipes had landed right next to the stone ball and rolled on top of it. He curled around the tracer as Marco tried to pry it away, but there was no use. Yipes wasn’t letting go.

  The acoustics on the third pillar were very good, like a giant music hall, and we could hear them shouting from below.

  “Let him up!” cried Matilda. “He might be hurt!”

  Marco stumbled back on his feet and Yipes uncurled. Someone from the village ran out and stood next to them.

  “The judge,” said Crystal. “He’ll sort things out.”

  A moment later, Yipes was on his wobbly feet.

  “Five points to Yipes for retrieving the tracer!” yelled the judge. Yipes held the tracer high over his head and everyone cheered from the rail.

  “Five points for Mr. Yipes,” the judge continued. “A valiant effort!”

  “He cheated!” said Marco. But everyone knew that if you were brave enough to fall twenty-five feet from the air, there was nothing a fellow skimmer could do about it.

  “And for flags we have …” the judge continued. He counted Matilda’s flags, and Jonezy whispered in my ear.

  “They’re a point apiece and there are ten for each contestant to try for. Yipes could still lose.”

  “Matilda with eight,” said the judge. “A fine
effort!”

  My heart was pounding as the judge began counting the flags that Yipes had collected.

  “And for Mr. Yipes,” said the judge, “four flags. That makes nine points with the tracer. Mr. Yipes holds the lead!”

  He turned to Marco and began counting flags. The only way Yipes could lose now was if Marco had collected every single one of his ten flags.

  “Very rare to collect all the flags,” said Crystal. “Very rare indeed.”

  “And finally for Marco, the reigning champion,” said the judge. There was a hush in the crowd. “A perfect score of ten!”

  The judge raised Marco’s hand high in the air. “Marco is the winner!”

  The reaction from the rail was mixed. There were some who couldn’t help but admire Marco’s skill, but deep down, I think the whole crowd really wanted Yipes to win.

  “Your turn!” said Crystal. “Come on!”

  Without warning, she took hold of my hand and hauled me along until we reached a ramp up and to the right of the rail. The platform wasn’t as high as the one Yipes had jumped off of, but it was plenty high for my first night skim. There were two boys my own age waiting for me, and both appeared more than ready to take on the new girl at the Five Stone Pillars.

  I had taken to hanging my slider from a leather belt around my waist as everyone else did. It was a simple matter of taking the center of the slider and pulling it behind the belt until the knots stuck at the top. I reached behind my back and gripped the knots, pulling the slider out of my belt. It was still slick from earlier in the day and I held it over the rope above my head.

  Crystal went to the back wall and pulled a small clump of moss from the stones. The underside of the moss glowed with a powdery green and she wiped it along my arms and legs. A chalk dusting of sparkling light ran the length of my limbs.

  “Okay,” she said, setting the moss aside. “You’re all set.”

  I placed my hands on the rope knots of the slider and held on. I was filled with nervous excitement, my hands sweating and shaky at the thought of diving out onto the vine.