Queen Celina, Lilah, Lulath, and Pogue caught up to them as they left the clearing. They all had their griffins, save for Lady Griffin, and Lorcan had a basket of dogs hanging on either side of his harness. Celie gave the puppy in her gown back to its mother, but JouJou would not be appeased, so Celie ended up carrying the larger dog in her arms as she sat on Rufus’s back. The native girl watched this exchange without comment, and brushed aside their attempts at introductions as well.
“The Master of the Found will hear your names,” was all she said, cutting off Queen Celina mid-introduction.
Whereas she’d been positively chatty when she was leading Celie and Rolf through the jungle, she was completely silent now, moving ahead of them through the green without stepping on a single dry twig or disturbing a hanging vine. Meanwhile the others came behind her, hacking at the vines and exclaiming over the strange foliage, the dogs barking at birds and the griffins carking their displeasure at the entire enterprise.
They were deep in the jungle now. Celie would have been nervous about being so far from the shore and the Ship, except that she had Rufus. They could fly away the moment things looked dangerous. It was greatly comforting.
There was a break in the trees ahead, and the girl stopped. When they caught up to her, they stopped talking. The griffins stopped squawking and fussing, and even the dogs were silent. For a moment, everything just . . . stopped.
Celie had thought that the clearing where they’d met the unicorn had been like a bowl, but it was nothing compared to this. The ground in front of them dropped away, and there was a wide, deep valley curving out as far as they could see. It was just as round and even as the clearing, but the ground below was covered with trees rather than just moss.
But that wasn’t the most amazing part. No, the most amazing part was the city that had been built over the trees.
Rope bridges ran like a giant spiderweb across the valley, not even skimming the tops of the trees. The bridges connected large wooden platforms that had apparently been built on the very tops of the trees, and on the platforms were tents and wooden buildings of every shape and size and color, with woven ribbons fluttering from the peak of every roof and wound around the ropes of every bridge.
“So lovely,” Queen Celina said. “So bright!”
“Thank you,” the girl said with no small amount of pride. “The Found are fond of color.”
“And of ships,” Pogue said. He pointed to the nearest platform, which held a house that appeared to have been roofed with an upside-down rowboat and walled with sail canvas.
“Ironwoods are difficult to work with,” the girl said, rubbing her hand over the smooth, silver trunk of the nearest tree. “So we use found.”
“Your pardon?” Queen Celina said.
But the girl had surged ahead. She walked along the edge of the valley to the nearest rope bridge. There was a gate across it made of a net of ribbons, and she untied it with deft fingers and then stood aside, waiting for them.
Rufus walked to the head of the bridge, but then he carked his displeasure and backed away. The other griffins all took their cue from Rufus, and none of them would come any closer to the bridge, no matter how the humans prodded them.
“I can’t really blame them,” Rolf said, peering over the edge. “I mean, that’s a long drop through some very aggressive trees.”
“Where are we going?” Lilah demanded. “Rather than drag the griffins across these bridges, we’re just going to have to fly to wherever it is.”
“Suit yourself,” the girl said. She pointed to a platform that held a very large, very orange tent. There were three bridges between them. “That is the Master of the Found’s own place,” she said.
“We’ll just see you there, then,” Rolf said. “Right, Rufus?”
Rufus moved around so that Rolf could mount behind Celie. Rolf hopped on, and Queen Celina got on Juliet behind Lilah. Lulath and Pogue had been walking alongside their griffins to give them a respite, but now they also mounted.
“Would you like to ride?” Pogue asked their guide politely.
“No,” the girl said after considering for a moment. “Not right now.”
She passed through the gate and then began to knot it closed again. Rufus decided that he was done waiting, and he leaped off the edge of the valley. Celie had to grip with her legs, because her arms were full of JouJou. Rolf grabbed hold around her waist, which also helped. Rufus soared down to skim the fluffy green treetops and then sailed back up again and landed neatly on the wooden platform beside the orange tent.
In an instant, guards had surrounded them. They were male and female, dressed in clothes woven of many-colored ribbon—which would have looked quite festive, if it weren’t for the spears they were holding.
“We mean you no harm!” Rolf shouted, holding up his hands.
“How do you do?” Queen Celina said calmly, slipping off Juliet’s back. She, too, held her hands out where they could see them, but in a very elegant way, as though she were about to fluff her skirts. “I am Queen Celina of Sleyne, and I’m here to meet with your Master of the Found.”
“She brought us,” Lilah blurted out, pointing to their guide, who was walking calmly along one of the bridges, taking her time reaching them.
“You’re Sleynth?” one of the female guards asked. She was tall, with hair so blond it was nearly white.
“Yes,” Queen Celina said. “My husband is King Glower the Seventy-ninth.”
The guard nodded politely and said something to the male guard at her side in another language. He shrugged, and neither of them lowered their weapons.
No one moved after that until their guide reached them. She walked calmly past the guards and led them around the side of the tent to where the flaps had been tied open. Celie would have liked to stop and investigate before going into the tent, but the guards were right on the griffins’ heels with their spears held crosswise, and so they let themselves be pressed forward into the dimness of the tent.
Celie hadn’t realized how hot and muggy it was outside until they were inside. There were servants standing around the cloth walls with large fans, making a breeze blow through the tent. It was very refreshing. The sun had been high in the sky, but now with just lamplight shining, it was much more pleasant.
Not that Celie had much time to enjoy it. The tent was full of people, and the guards herded her and her family forward until they were right in the middle of the crowd. Everyone was sitting on low, backless stools, holding shallow bowl-like cups and sipping as they talked. Or at least Celie assumed that they’d been talking; now they were entirely silent. She liked the fact that she was taller than everyone sitting on the stools, but she didn’t like the way they were all studying her.
At the far end of the tent, a wizened man with a brown face and a cloud of white hair stood up.
“You were from Sleyne?” he asked.
“Yes,” Queen Celina said, stepping to the front. “We are from Sleyne. I am Queen Celina, and my husband is King Glower the Seventy-ninth.” She made a little curtsy, one ruler to another. “And you are the Master of the Found?”
“Yes,” he said. “I am.” He sat back down. “The griffins are new,” he remarked. “How much of your ship can we salvage?”
“Salvage?” Queen Celina said, her voice faltering. “We . . . the Ship is just fine.”
“Just fine?” The Master sounded as though the words didn’t make sense. “You came here through the Well, did you not?”
“We did.”
“Then how is your ship just fine?”
There was much murmuring among the people. Celie heard Grathian, what she was sure was Bendeswe, and even a word or two of Sleynth. Looking around the tent, she saw people of all colors and ages, all wearing the odd ribbon clothes. Or so she thought at first. Looking closer, Celie saw whole pieces of clothing that she recognized: bodices and strips of lace from Grath, the one-sleeved tunics of Bendeswe. She suspected that woven ribbons were a way of patching and mending old clothes, possibly even things that washed up on the shore after falling through the Well.
“Like the people,” she whispered, looking around.
No one heard her, because all eyes were now on Queen Celina, the Master, and their guide, whose name was Kalys.
Apparently Kalys had erred by leading them directly to the City in the Trees, as this place was called. She should have gone back to the shore with Celie and Rolf and checked to see how many survivors there were and how much salvage was possible.
“They flew to the shore on griffins,” she said in a sulky voice. “The griffins were far more interesting than how much rope we could get from their ship.”
“I promise you the griffins shan’t be any trouble,” the queen said. “Nor will we. We need to refresh some of our supplies, and then with your help, we need to get home.”
“This is your home now,” the Master said, as though it were obvious. “What is found through the Well stays Found. But tell me,” he went on, “how did your ship not fly into a million pieces? The force of the Well can crush a man’s skull, and wood is equally brittle in its grip.”
“I am a wizard,” Queen Celina announced.
Since the queen was not a full wizard, she was not supposed to make such a claim. But Celie was glad that her mother had. It was much more impressive than saying that she was studying magic, and Celie had a feeling that they needed to impress the Master, immediately. Besides which, there was no one there to call her bluff.
However, the Master wasn’t easy to impress. “Another wizard could be of some use,” he said, much as though Queen Celina had announced that she was a shoemaker.
“I’m so very sorry,” Queen Celina said. The icily formal tone of her voice would have sent anyone of the court running for cover, but the Master didn’t flinch. “But I’m afraid that, since we’ve just come to your world from ours, we don’t understand what is happening. Would you be so kind as to explain yourself?”
The Master drew himself up. He stretched out a hand, and someone put a staff into it. The staff was tipped with iron, like a Vhervhish mountain climber’s walking stick, but there was a scroll wrapped around the top and tied with red thread. Lulath gave a small exclamation and whispered something to Lilah about Bendeswe.
“Before the first men fell through the Well, there was nothing here. Nothing but the land. There were fish in the ocean. There were birds in the trees. And on the land, among the trees and rocks, there were small animals, burrowing things, climbing things, small things.
“Then man began to sail the seas, and he fell into the Well. From every country of the world beyond, he sailed, and he was drawn into the Well and brought here. And so we built our cities, and we gathered the Found from every corner of the world. We gather tools. We gather cloth. We gather food. We gather what wrack and ruin comes through the Well, and we build with it.” He waved his staff around, indicating the stools, the tent, the clothing, and the people. “That is what the Found are. That is what you are now.
“You have been Found.”
“What an amazing thing you’ve done,” Queen Celina said blithely. “To have built all this from the wreckage coming through the Well.” She smiled around at the group. It was her court smile, the very one that Lilah had become so good at during their time in Grath. “However, I’m afraid that we cannot stay,” the queen continued. “Though if there are any tools you need that we can spare from our Ship, we will happily give them to you.”
“You will share all with us,” the Master said. “That is what it means to be Found.” He sighed. “It is not easy to be Found,” he said with great sympathy.
“But we aren’t Found,” Queen Celina said. “Because we weren’t lost.”
The whole crowd of people were shaking their heads, and a few were laughing. Celie put on her own court smile, even though it wasn’t half as good as her mother’s. Also, she would rather have been shaking her fist at the people.
“There is no way back,” the Master said, beginning to lose his patience. “The Well flows only in one direction. You are here now, and here you will stay.”
Lilah slid off Juliet’s back, the better to have hysterics on the floor.
“Now,” the Master said, raising his voice over the howls coming from Lilah. “We will help you dismantle your ship so that you can build your homes here in the trees, away from the unicorns and other monsters.”
Lilah cut off mid-sob. “Did you just say unicorns?”