CHAPTER 16
A Ribbon and Ink
Tears slipped from Marrill’s eyes. Whether they were in joy or sorrow, she didn’t know. Maybe they were both. She held her mother’s hand on the edge of the cliff they had jumped from years ago, a tropical waterfall pouring into the crystal-blue pool below. Inside it, the Shell Weavers spread their multicolored tendrils, glowing bioluminescent in the dusk.
“See?” her mother said. “Aren’t you glad you leapt in feetfirst?”
Marrill nodded. It had been a whirlwind day. It started with jumping off the cliff again, but when she hit the water, they’d been swimming in the Pirate Stream. Only, with her mom there, the waters weren’t dangerous.
At first, she’d felt the pulse of anxiety all around her, the nebulous swirl of fear that filled the Shell Weavers, constantly threatening to spill over and turn the dream into a nightmare. But with her mom there, it was okay. They’d swung like Tarzan through the Gibbering Grove, dared each other to climb the heights of Monerva, played doubles on Margaham’s Game.
Finally, Marrill was able to share with her mom all the wonders of the Pirate Stream. And with her mom there, everything was safe. Just like in real life, whenever she got scared, her mother was there to walk her through it. Her mom always knew what to do. Even when Marrill knew she didn’t, somehow she did.
Slowly, as the day wound on, the anxiety died down. Fear gave way to fun; worry turned to winsome. Now, the whole world hummed with a peaceful contentment.
And yet, there was still a hard core of sorrow. Marrill gripped her mother’s fingers tight, trying her best to pretend it wasn’t there. She wanted this day to last forever. But she knew it wouldn’t. She knew that no matter what she did, it was just a dream. When she woke up, she’d be out on the Pirate Stream, facing the Lost Sun of Dzannin. And her mother would be in a bed in Boston, waiting for doctors in white coats to bring her news.
She looked up into her mom’s eyes and sniffed. “I don’t want you to go, Mom.”
Her mother’s fingers ran through her hair. “Oh, honey,” she said. “I’m not gone yet. Just enjoy the moment. Even if it is a dream. Because here, dreams really can last forever.”
Marrill leaned in, letting her mother’s arm drape around her shoulders. She smiled as she watched the walls of ivory and horn stitching themselves into ribbons that wrapped around them both.
A moment later, her eyes popped open. For real this time, not in the dream. Around her, the shell turned brittle, cracked, and crumbled to dust. Before she knew it, she was lying next to Ardent and Fin on the deck of the Enterprising Kraken, as if she’d always been there.
“Ohthankgoodness,” Remy cried, pulling Marrill and Fin into a hug and squeezing tight. “That one was way too close.” The babysitter stood. “Full sails,” she cried, and the ship burst to life.
As the wind caught them and the Kraken gained speed, Marrill looked around. Next to her, the paper that had once made up the tubes of the Shell Weavers lay unspooled on the deck, joined together to make a single long ribbon.
The dream ribbon! she realized. The raw material of the Map to Everywhere.
They’d found it! She glanced around for any sign of the Weavers themselves. There was nothing. The Shell Weavers were gone. But suddenly, she realized she held something in her hand.
It was a white shell. A beautiful, round half-moon like a clam’s, with ridges of ivory and troughs of yellow-white horn.
She clutched the shell to her as the others swept her into an embrace. Inside, she could feel the warmth of the Weavers, tucked away and hibernating. Waiting to build a new Library, somewhere far away and safe.
Later that night, Marrill sat at the table Ardent had pulled out onto the main deck, as he liked to do in fair weather, and held the dream ribbon carefully in her hands. Karny purred happily in her lap. The wizard was pontificating loudly on the origin of the material and the nature of dreams, but she was barely listening. The blank canvas of the ribbon seemed to speak to her of endless possibilities. It seemed to beg to be filled with them.
“…and when you consider that the dreams had not yet been had, well!” Ardent explained to an obviously bored Remy. “I couldn’t begin to fathom how one knits with unformed dreams. Ah, the wonders of the Dzane.”
“Pretty spiff stuff, that,” Fin whispered in Marrill’s ear. “Raw dreams and such.”
She nodded. “I kind of want to draw on it.”
Fin looked one way, then the other. “Thought you might.” From a pocket in his coat, he produced a packet of her drawing pencils. “I nicked a set from you.” He coughed. “I mean for you,” he hastened to add. “Figured you’d run out somewhere when you really needed them.”
Marrill’s eyes brightened as she reached for the pencils. “You’re the best,” she said, and she meant it. She pulled one free and pressed the graphite down to the blank surface. “What should I sketch?”
He screwed up his features in thought. “How about… me kicking the Lost Sun in the face!” He dropped back into a mean fighter’s stance.
Marrill couldn’t help but laugh. “How about… a dragon!” she said. Quickly, she sketched out a vicious-looking beast, with a head too big for its body, a mouth full of oversized, dangerous-looking teeth, and a thick tail that wrapped around one of the Kraken’s masts.
As she put the finishing touches on the drawing, the image on the page shifted, breathing fire. Tongues of flame lit the night around her, licking toward the table. Marrill yelped, dropping the ribbon and jumping back. Karny bolted from her lap, racing up the nearest mast despite the pirats’ protests.
Ardent looked up. “Marrill, what in fourteen suns—”
Before he could finish, a huge scaly foot with enormous claws stomped against the nearby stairs. Marrill’s jaw dropped as her sketched dragon lurched down from the forecastle. Its enormous head bobbed from side to side comically, snapping at the air. Its tail lashed in a wide arc, forcing her to drop back.