CLOUD CASTLE CITY HELPS ME KNOW
When I arrived at the clearing of jarbot nests, no creature was there to greet me. No Kar, no Reeb, no bubble, no jesterbeast. Such was so. I was not surprised. Off through the forest and above it hung Cloud Castle City. I saw its lowered stairway descending behind a screen of trees. I guessed so such it touched down somewhere near my cottage. That’s where they’ll be gathered, all of ‘em. They waited for me and the tangled useless jumble of what had been rows of knowledge in my mind.
Of a sudden Kar burst into the clearing and spouted, “Hurry up! They’re all waiting like struck statues! Cloud Castle’s stairway lowered right down onto the cottage roof. I almost went up, but decided to ask you. Should I go up first? Or you? Unhook me from this bubble, will you? It’s annoying. I was the first to carry it here. Now it’s your turn.”
Reeb ran out from the trees to join Kar. Her eyes were big and round with wonder. Clutching the Golden Shoe tight to her chest, she whispered, “It’s got stairs.”
I opened my mouth, trusting with hope that something proper would fall out of it. “Kar,” I said, and the fingers on my right hand flicked so such in a way they had never flicked before. The balloon carrying the three patches of tar flew from being suspended over Kar to being suspended over me. “Kar,” I repeated with a slight new fizz of confidence buzzing inside me, “return with … with Reeb to … to the … cottage. Reeb, flow … go with Kar. You may waste … taste … my cottage. I will moon … soon be glare … there! … to take you up the … Bell … Well! Yoss! Go!”
I pointed ‘em away with glittery rings flashing on my right hand lifted high in dismissal. They both of ‘em obeyed without complaint or question. I must have seemed so such that commanding. After they rushed off through the trees, I swung to my broom with the wand clamped tightly under my left arm. I waved the bubble down to a jarbot’s nest and glued it there with a new known chant. Up I rose and with no thought at all sped directly to carve an impressive loop above the gaping jesterbeasts scattered in gather around my cottage. Having so such amazed ‘em, I flew directly to skim the stairway up and into Cloud Castle City.
Silent. Abandoned. Empty. I climbed to the obsidian streets. Silent. Abandoned. Empty. Emerald Spire. Silent. Ruby Spire. Abandoned. Sapphire Towers. Empty. I flew the spiral staircase up to the famous Throne Room. On its frost blue carpet I stood and stared up at the famous obsidian Throne high on its pillar under the open roof. A thousand years and more in the ago this room had been alive with the nervous flutterings of Lady May of Orrun, the scowls of Rindle Mer, the rare but lively visits of Nimble Missst, the pacing of Dabber of the West, so on and so forth and more. Now it echoed silent, abandoned, empty. It was a puzzle screaming at me to solve it. This I felt. I sat on the frost blue carpet.
This means something. What does it mean? Where are the craggers and the hollowites and the wingeds? Safe up the Well? Or … not? I removed the crystal ball from the pocket of my cloak. Inside it the yellow smoke of danger wisped, but would not form into words. Won’t you … ? … Oh … what? The smoke still turned in wisps, but now more orderly and forming so such into a sort of shape. What … what … Throne! I snapped my head back and stared up. I jumped to my broom and flew to the Throne. I snatched the scrap of oat parchment resting on its seat and threw myself down in its place. I smoothed the scrap and read it. I laughed with glee and flung the crumpled paper away. Down the Sapphire Tower spiral steps, out over the obsidian streets, down to the Control Room with its cranks and levers and dials, out to the stairs and down to the waiting creatures I flew. I landed with a swerve of perfection on the roof of my cottage and sang out twice, once in each language, “Yoss! That’s it! Listen well!”