Chapter 20

Locks’s voice spat harshly out of the darkness close by Hubley’s ear. Her scalp still ached from where he’d dragged her from the freezing water by the hair.

“Why?” Corns grumbled from her other side. “Ain’t no one followin’ us. An’ not likely to, neither, with Obo pluggin’ up the back door.”

“You think Obo pluggin’ up holes is gonna stop stoneboys?” Locks sneered. “They’ll carve him up like the grunter he is, push the pieces down the hole, and hotfoot it after us. That’s what I’d do.”

“When the chops come rainin’ down we ain’t gonna have no time t’ eat ‘em. Stoneboy’s’ll be right behind. Who brought the light?”

“Ya think so?” Locks’s voice curled like a snake about to strike. “Well, it ain’t no more. Not when I got my own magician. You, witch. Snap us up some light.”

A soft hand cuffed Hubley hard in the dark, banging her head to the side. Despairing, she fell back onto the stone. Her head hurt, and her hands and fingers had been rubbed raw scrabbling at the rock as she fell through the hole. The fact that Avender and Findle hadn’t been able to rescue her frightened her thoroughly.

Locks used Hubley’s hair again to pull her back upright. “Answer me, witch, or I’ll do ya a lot worse ‘n that.”

Shivering, Hubley let out a long, choking cough. “A-all right. B-but you have to stop hitting me, or I can’t concentrate enough to do the spell.”

“You do the spell, or it’s th’ end o’ ya,” Locks warned. “My knife’s ready for stickin’ in yer gut any time.”

Hubley’s heart shrank as the sharp point pressed against her stomach. Her wet clothes provided hardly any padding against the blade at all.

Normally, light was a spell she could cast in a moment. However a knife to the ribs changed her state of mind considerably. Her father had often told her she needed to be able to cast spells regardless of what was happening around her, and now she understood why.

It was a moment before she could think of the appropriate words to give her magic focus.

“Give me light so I can see

the sissit standing over me.”

A small brilliance burst forth above her head and a little bit in front of her. Startled, the sissit jumped back. Righty held up both right hands as if warding off a flame.

The chief nodded approvingly. “That’s the first spell yer gonna teach me,” he cackled.

She started at the sight of him. His hat had disappeared, and his hair along with it. Now he was as bald as the others, water glistening off his pale skin.

The chief flushed and groped his naked pate. His eyes narrowed. “None o’ yer nosy business. You boys wanna get outta here or what?”

“Down.” Locks pointed his thumb at the stone beneath their feet. “We can’t outrun them stoneboys. They’ll sniff us out like hungry toads. But if we beat ‘em down to the Lamp there’s an airship just waitin’ fer us t’ steal. Then you’ll be kings o’ the Stoneways, an’ I’ll be emper’r.”

“Ain’t I always said to stick with me?” Locks sneered wickedly. “Always good eatin’ when I’m boss.”

Tired, frightened, and sore, Hubley trotted with the sissit through the tunnels and caves. There were four of the creatures now, including one named Dinge whose left arm and leg were considerably longer than his right. Although he hopped at the back of the column like a bird with a broken wing, he still made better time than Hubley, who found herself nearly overwhelmed with fear and fatigue. Corns prodded her from behind every time she faltered, his knotted knuckles jabbing her in the back, but it was only fear that kept her going now. Her legs blundered on like leaden stumps; her plain wet dress weighed her down like a pack full of stones. The long, weary climb down the stair from the College seemed like a picnic on Aloslocin compared to this horrible trek.

She stumbled once, catching herself on her hands just before she hit the ground. As her mind jerked away from the spell, the light went out, ending as suddenly as if doused in a pool. The sissit called out in surprise.

Corns pressed a knobby knee hard against Hubley’s back. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to think about nothing but light. To her great surprise, fresh brightness swelled out near the roof of the cave though she hadn’t said a word.

“I don’t care if ya die. Jus’ keep that light on. I might o’ run into a wall.”

They trotted off again. Hubley thought miserably about all the people hunting for her in the caves and tunnels nearby: her mother, Avender, Mims. But none of them seemed any closer to rescuing her now than they’d been when she was first caught. What had seemed almost a lark at the beginning had become a nightmare. Findle might be the greatest hunter in all the Stoneways, scourge of Wizards and manders, but Hubley was afraid that, by the time he or anyone else found her, the sissit would already have stolen the airship and taken her off with them to plunder the bottom of the world.

What felt like hours later, a call came up to douse her light. Hubley didn’t understand at first, having focused so hard on not letting go of her spell no matter what. Corns made sure to remind her by cracking her hard across the back of the head. Once again, the brightness died. Dimly, she realized the pale radiance ahead was not an after-image of the blow she had just received, but something new.

Arriving at a place where the tunnel branched in two, the sissit and Hubley crowded into the lower opening. Hubley found herself looking out through a narrow window at the bottom of the world. The Backford Lamp filled most of the view, its bright light making the sissit’s pale bodies gleam like moonlit snow. But nothing was visible of the unneret above as the Lamp’s glow pointed only out and down. Hubley couldn’t help but feel the Abyss crouching like a cat just beyond the veil of light, waiting to pounce on them all should the brightness ever falter.

Corns, who clung to the edges of the window like a folded bat, shook his head. “Nah. ‘Less they ain’t movin’. Looks like we beat the stoneboys here.”

“Do you want me to make another light?” asked Hubley as Locks led them back into the stone.

“You’d like that, wouldn’t ya?” The sissit chief whacked her between the shoulders, sending her stumbling into Corns’s hard back. “Let the stoneboys see us if they’re anywhere near by. I ain’t gonna let ya louse up my chance t’ be emp’rer that easy.”

Unhappy that Locks had seen so easily through her plan, Hubley plodded on through the blackness. Her arms brushed the rock on either side but, with her hands in front of her, she managed not to run into any walls. At one point she knew they had entered a larger cave by the way the sissit’s feet slapped less harshly against the stone. After that, they were hurrying down smooth steps in another tunnel until they emerged into what felt like another large chamber.

His extra right hand feeling very odd on her left arm, Righty grabbed Hubley from behind. The other three sissit slithered away. Hubley strained to see what was happening, but she might just as well have had no eyes. The creatures whispered together somewhere in front of her, but she had no idea what they were doing.

What they weren’t doing, she realized, was watching her. Now was her chance to get away. If she could just get Righty to let go of her. She remembered the spell she had intended to use on Corns, an itching spell Plum had taught her that didn’t need words. If she cast it on Righty, he’d be so desperate to scratch himself he’d have to let her go.

Her chance passed as Locks hissed across the darkness. “You, witch. Cast that light spell o’ yers again. We gotta see what we gotta do.”

Righty pushed her forward without letting go his grip. Afraid that Corns and Locks would hit her again if she didn’t do as they asked, she cast the spell. This time she didn’t even notice she did it without words.

She recognized where they were as soon as the soft light appeared, the bottom of the Backford Way. The other three sissit crouched at the edge of the well a few feet in front of her like frogs skulking at the side of a pond.

Arms and legs poking out above his back like fenceposts, Corns vanished over the edge. At the same time, the spell Hubley had been concentrating on came completely to her mind. Surprised, she cast it without thinking. Her light spell didn’t even waver. With all the nasty things still crawling around Righty’s clothing despite his plunge in the freezing pool, she didn’t think it would take long for the magic to take effect. She only hoped the bugs didn’t take a fancy to her as well.

Righty twitched, but didn’t let go her arms. Another shudder followed, more violent than the first. Unable to stop himself, he let go with his right hand and scratched behind his shoulder. Hubley tensed herself to run the moment his other hand let go. But Righty showed more control than Hubley would have thought possible, and managed to keep tight hold of her with one hand or the other no matter how much he scratched and squirmed.

Still clawing at himself, Righty brought Hubley to the side of the well. Looking down, she saw not one, but two airships hovering at the edges of the unneret. Startled at first, Hubley guessed Findle must have brought the second.

Scrambling headfirst down one of the larger supports, Corns disappeared for a moment beyond the arc of Hubley’s light, then reappeared to wave them down.

“C’mon.” Locks hooked both legs over the edge of the well and reached for the blumet ladder.

“Right, Boss.” Righty shuffled forward, one hand still gripping Hubley tightly. His free arm jerked out in another twitch, nearly knocking his chief over.

“Right, Boss. But I got the itches. Ya know how it is when I gets the itches.”

Passed from one sissit to the other, Hubley found herself hanging lengthwise from Dinge’s long left arm. Face-on to the glowing depths beyond the bottom of the Lamp, she was certain she was going to fall. But Dinge, like most sissit, was stronger than he looked. They proceeded down the ladder in a series of steady jerks, Hubley with her eyes tightly closed till they stopped descending.

“Corns!” shouted Locks as the knobby sissit reached the airship that had brought Hubley and Avender. “Grab that one, ya gangle! Righty, ya go down an’ cut th’ other free so we can tie it t’ the first.”

The first airship quivered as Corns and Locks climbed aboard. When Dinge and Hubley followed, it began sinking noticeably.

“Look, Boss!” Corns pointed back toward the stone ceiling. “Lights! Stoneboys is comin’!”

Hubley looked up with the others; three lights had appeared at the top of the well. Her heart leapt with fresh hope. Her friends might save her yet. Already one was climbing down the ladder, his lamp bobbing in the darkness.

“Cut that rope, Righty!” Locks hissed. “No time to take ‘em both now. But give it a good shove before ya go, so the stoneboys can’t use it.”

Drawing his knife, the chief sissit turned on Hubley. “Now, Missy, ya better tell me how t’ fly this thing or I’ll kick ya over the side. Yer friends may catch me an’ mine, but they ain’t never gonna catch you.”

Knowing the sissit meant what he said, Hubley pointed to the engine. “Sit on the seat there and work the pedals with your feet. Th-that’s how you make it go.”

Calling back to his fellows, Locks climbed into the saddle. “Dinge, start cuttin’ us free. If that gimp Righty don’t get back in time, it’s his lookout.”

But Righty saw what Dinge was up to and, after giving the other ship a push to send it floating up and away, hurried back. Scrambling awkwardly among the girders, he reached the other ship just as it floated free. The Abyss opened up between them. He jumped but, just as he did so, a savage twitch jerked him off balance. Trying to scratch his shoulder, he missed the ship completely. For a moment his high, horrible scream hung in the air behind him, then followed him down.

Hubley covered her mouth with her hands. She’d killed Righty, as sure as if she’d stabbed him with a knife. She’d cast a spell she hadn’t thought was dangerous at all and killed him. Even though he’d wanted to eat her, that wasn’t what she’d intended at all.

Knowing Locks would do the same to her if he found out what she’d done, she looked up at her friends. They’d covered half the distance down the tower, but seemed to have given up getting any closer. Standing on a girder, Avender and Findle argued in a bubble of light. Hubley’s heart nearly stopped as the Dwarf grabbed the human and looked like he was about to throw him off the tower. Then the other man arrived and gave Avender his sword.

Findle threw Avender off the tower anyway. His lamp shining at his forehead, her old friend shot down toward the airship like a falling star.

“Look,” said Dinge. “We’re goin’ right past the Lamp. What ya think it looks li—”

All four sissit screamed. Hubley closed her eyes just in time, or she would have been blinded by the Lamp as well. A moment later there was a heavy thud and bodies falling all around her. Something heavy and fat knocked her down, but she still had enough sense to shout a warning.

Her old friend didn’t reply. Bodies thumped, interrupted by grunts and curses. Wrapping her fingers through the mesh, Hubley clung to the floor of the cockpit and hoped no one knocked her over the side. Twice she heard dying wails like Righty’s. In between, feet stepped all over her, though none of their owners took any more notice of her than they would a rug.

“It’s all right, Hubley. You can open your eyes now. Just don’t look up.”

Peering out through her hands, she saw Avender leaning against the engine, his sword dripping. Around him the ship was awash in light. Every scuff and dent on the metal catwalk gleamed bright as day. The balloons, usually lost in the dimness beneath the deck, bulged like gigantic brown eggs, every seam plain.

“There’s only one sissit left,” he said. “The one that looks like a spider.”

Keeping her eyes down, Hubley searched the well-lit nooks and crannies on either side of the catwalk. “I don’t see him.”

“He’s in the stern. Hey you!” Cupping his hands around his mouth, Avender yelled aft. His gray hair gleamed in the lamplight.

“Corns! Listen to me! I’ve thrown your friends overboard. If you give up now, I’ll let you go when we get back to the Lamp. The ship’s stopped falling, so we’re safe. Do you hear me?”

The hidden sissit made no reply. Knowing how well Corns climbed, Hubley shaded her eyes and peered over the airship’s side.

“Go up in the bow,” Avender ordered after a few more unsuccessful attempts to coax the sissit out. “You can watch while I pedal. If you see so much as a finger come out of the stern, tell me. Meanwhile we have to get going.”

He was just working the ship up to cruising speed when the stern began to droop. Hubley found herself leaning backward on her heels to stand up straight.

“That’s funny.” Avender pumped away on the engine. “I haven’t started heading us up yet.”

Wondering what was wrong, he stopped pedaling and looked over his shoulder. Now that the chain no longer rattled beneath the deck, he and Hubley both heard a soft hiss.

His face went pale. Seeing Avender as frightened as any adult she’d ever seen terrified Hubley as well. Handing her his sword, he placed his knife between his teeth and crawled back into the narrow tunnel between the stern balloons.

The deck dipped further. The hissing increased. A breeze lifted Hubley’s hair. The ship was falling again, despite having lost the weight of two sissit. Already the deck was canted more steeply than any part of the road up Aloslocin. Hubley’s boots slipped on the blumet, making her grab the engine in alarm. Casting through her small catalog of spells, she wondered how she could help her friend.

Movement on the port side caught her eye. A hand grabbed one of the lines running over the canvas hull. A second hand, then Corns’s face came into view as the sissit crawled up onto the top of the ship like a crab on the side of a rock.

“Avender!” Hubley shouted, hoping he could hear her inside the ship. “He’s outside!”

Shivers ran along her back as the creature crept toward her. She could almost feel Corns’s spindly fingers gripping her spine instead of the airship’s cables. The angle of the deck steepened as the craft settled further onto its stern, but the sissit caught himself quickly with both feet and hands. Above him on the catwalk, Hubley looped her hand in the rigging. If this tilting kept up the airship would soon be standing on end.

Making sure he had at least three of his hands and feet holding onto something at all times, Corns scrabbled around the edge of the deck and into the cockpit. Overhead, the still-bright Lamp shone nearly straight down, forcing the sissit’s eyes into cruel slits as he climbed up toward her. Hubley pointed the sword Avender had given her at the creature’s face, but she knew she wasn’t nearly strong enough to use it. If her father had planted any other special spells in her mind, now was the time for them to spring up and be useful. Light or invisibility or itching would never do the trick.

Reaching suddenly up out of the stern, Avender grabbed Corns’s ankle and heaved himself up the nearly vertical deck. Snarling, the sissit turned and slashed at him. Avender let go and reached for his own knife. The sissit twisted away, stabbing blindly as the human crawled up the deck after him. Avender jabbed upward. The sissit scrambled out of the cockpit and onto the side of the hull, where his strong fingers and toes gave him a better grip than Avender’s boots.

The airship tilted farther. Avender just managed to get a hand around one of the engine pedals, otherwise he might have fallen over the side.

“Corns!” he cried. “Can’t you see what’s happening! We’re falling! Unless we lighten the ship, we’ll never get back!”

In answer, Corns launched himself at the human, who had no choice but to let go his hold. Soaring across the deck, the sissit missed his mark entirely as Avender fell back into the stern. Desperately the creature grabbed at the rigging, then disappeared into the darkness. Like his companions, his screams faded quickly.

“Are you all right?” Hubley’s heart spun as fast as the engine’s whirling pedals.

Carefully Avender climbed back up the blumet deck toward her. The airship had tilted almost completely onto its stern. What had once been the back wall of the catwalk was now the floor. Hubley started to disentangle herself from the rigging in order to climb down, but Avender held up a warning hand.

“Wait.” Using his knife, he cut free a section of the rigging. “We can’t be too careful. Tie one end of this around your waist.”

It took three tries, but Hubley eventually caught the end of the cable Avender threw up at her. She had some difficulty fashioning a knot out of the thick rope but, after some cheerful coaxing, eventually got it right. Avender tied his end off on one of the catwalk’s blumet struts, then caught Hubley as she lowered herself down to the bottom of the deck. His steady arms and calm strength reassured her much more than any rope.

He shook his head. “I should have known better than to leave a sissit alone in an airship. He had no idea what he was doing.”

“Did he cut the balloons?” Hubley slumped down until she was sitting on the mesh bulkhead. Above her head the Backford Lamp had dwindled to the point where she could almost look at it without blinking, but the slight wind blowing past their faces hadn’t let up at all.

“He did,” Avender answered. “He found the access hatch down to the driveshaft, then cut his way through every bag until he reached the hull. Half the stern balloons are gone.”

“Would it help if we made the ship lighter? The first time I ever rode in an airship Nolo let out some water because we were too heavy.”

“I already did that. But this ship is built for speed, not cargo, so there isn’t a lot of ballast. If I could cut off some of this blumet, that would do it, but I can’t cut blumet without tools. Grimble and Gammit once blew up an airship in midair and managed to get back to Bryddlough all the same. But I’m not Grimble or Gammit.”

“Better we stay with the ship then. Otherwise we might get lost. Even feathers fall. But it was a good idea.”

Avender looked briefly at his hand. “Mims told me not to use it unless I absolutely had to. She said it’d take us to Fornoch.”

The Wizard was the last person Hubley wanted to see just then. Thinking hard, she peered out over the edge of the deck. “Maybe if I go up into the bow and switch on the light, Findle will come get us in the other ship.”

“We should definitely do that,” Avender agreed. “But it might take a long time for Findle to reach us. We’re falling faster than he can fly. I don’t know about you, but I’d just as soon not waste all that time just waiting. Your mother wants to see you, you know.”

“And I want to see her.” Hubley felt a tear tickling at the edge of her eye. “But how?”

“You got us to Malmoret, didn’t you? Maybe you can cast the traveling spell again.”

“I don’t know.” Hubley looked down at one of the balloons that was still full beneath her feet. The light from the Lamp was dimmer now and she could no longer make out every dimple in the fabric. She didn’t want their escape to have to depend on her, but Avender, though he was very good at things like fighting and scouting, wasn’t the one who was a magician.

“You’ve already cast the spell once,” he went on encouragingly. “I don’t see why you can’t do it again. I think you’re far stronger than you know. Don’t you remember how you cast it the first time?”

“Then maybe you should try sleeping again. I’m tired enough myself.” Avender yawned widely. “All that fighting wore me out.”

Knowing full well that yawns were catching, Hubley clamped her jaw shut. The idea of trying to cast the travel spell again without knowing what she was doing frightened her much more than sissit. Who knew where they might end up this time. “What if I can’t do it?”

“Then we’ll just have to wait for Findle.” Settling his hands behind his head, Avender yawned again.

This time Hubley couldn’t help herself, though she was certain Avender was more concerned about their situation than he was letting on.

Together they climbed up to the forward hold. While Hubley switched on the light, Avender built a small bed on what had once been the stern bulkhead with the last blanket that had been left in the ship, then lashed their hands together once again.

Of course the moment Hubley lay down all thought of sleep disappeared. Her wind-dried dress scratched her chest and chin, and the torn canvas fluttering in the wind was much less soothing than the steady rattle of the chain. She tossed and turned, but it was no use. Despite her every effort to think of something else, she kept seeing Righty’s missed jump and hearing his fading scream.

“Avender,” she asked, turning to look at him in the pale light. “Why’d you never get married?”

“Hmm?” He yawned again, sleepier than she. “I don’t know. Not as lucky as your mom and dad, I guess.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Snuggling closer, Hubley settled under Avender’s arm. “I mean did you ever love anyone like my mother and father love each other?”

“I’m sure you wouldn’t. Maybe I will, someday. But not now. Now it’s time to go to sleep.”

“All right,” she murmured, closing her eyes. “But you have to sing me a song.”

“Hush little baby, don’t you cry,

Mamma’s gonna sing you a lullaby.

And if that lullaby don’t suit,

Mamma’s gonna give you a golden lute.

And if that golden lute don’t play,

She’ll kiss you awake at the break of day.”

“I like that one,” Hubley said, her eyes still closed. “I never heard it before.”

“When I was buried in your father’s cave. That’s what he did, you know, after he cut off my hand.”

Hubley wouldn’t have believed him if she hadn’t been to the mussel cave herself. If her father could do something as awful as that, he could do anything.

Chapter 20

A Lullaby