Alosha (25 page)

“ 'Tis always a bad omen to see trolls at the door,” Paddy agreed.

“Hold on a second,” Ali said. “We don't know if there are more than three trolls on this whole mountain. Three's all we've seen so far.”

“You're really determined to go in that cave,” Steve said, disgusted.

He had a point. Like the Yanti, the cave called to her. Enter Ali, it seemed to whisper in her ear, and you will be shown real magic, even dark magic, if you're ready for it. She understood the source of the call. She felt the cave was where she was destined to face her last four tests. Either she would pass them far beneath the earth and claim the Yanti for her own, or else she would die trying and never be heard from again.

Best to get it over with, she thought.

Ignoring Steve, Ali called to their troll. “Farble!” He came lumbering over, and she patted him on the shoulder and asked, “Do you still want to stay with us? Or would your rather go off with your friends?”

Farble gently squeezed her arm. “Ali.”

She smiled. “That's great. But we have a problem. Your friends are blocking our way. Could you ask them to please let us pass?”

Farble nodded and walked back to his friends. The three trolls talked a couple of minutes and then Farble returned. He pointed to his sunglasses and his umbrella.

“Want,” he said.

“They want umbrellas and sunglasses to get out of the way?” Ali asked.

He nodded. “Sunscreen.”

“We're all out of sunscreen and umbrellas. Maybe we could give them a couple of pairs of sunglasses.” Ali turned to her friends. “Guys?”

Steve put his hand to his glasses and took a step back. “These have Polaroid lenses. They cost me fifty bucks. I'm not giving them up to a couple of smelly trolls.”

“Same here,” Cindy said.

“You bought your sunglasses at the drugstore for two bucks,” Ali told her.

“It makes no difference. I don't want to go in that cave. None of us do,” Cindy said.

“I do,” Karl said, handing over his sunglasses.

“Thanks.” Ali took them and gave them to Farble.

“I thought we agreed that we'd all have a say in what we were going to do?” Steve said, although he must have known they had reached no such agreement. He continued, “Three don't want to go in the cave, two do. You're outvoted, Ali.”

“Farble likes the cave. He has a vote the same as the rest of us,” Ali said.

“What!?” Cindy and Steve screeched.

“My poor head,” Paddy said, looking ill.

“We have a deadline. We cannot keep stopping to argue,” Ali said. “Cindy, give me your sunglasses.”

Cindy practically threw them at Ali. Ignoring her, Ali handed them to Farble, who seemed unaffected by their argument. She spoke to the troll.

“Tell your friends this is all we have to give them,” she said.

Farble left to deliver the message. He was back quickly. He pointed to Paddy.

“Hungry,” he said.

Ali frowned. “They're hungry and they want to eat Paddy?”

Farble licked his lips and nodded. “Leprechaun.”

Paddy's headache got a lot worse. He had to sit down. “Oh Missy. Negotiating with trolls. It's not done.”

Ali shook her head. “No way. Farble, you tell your friends they're making me angry. And if they don't let us pass, I'll use my fire stones and cook their hides.”

Farble's huge yellow eyes grew wide, and he hurried back to his friends. This particular conversation lasted a while, and was quite animated. Ali wondered what it would be next. Finally, Farble returned.

“Names,” he said.

“Huh?” Ali said.

“Want names,” Farble said.

“New names? Like I gave you a new name?”

He nodded. “Pretty names.”

“This has got to be a first,” Cindy said.

“If I give them new names, do they promise to let us pass and never bother us again?” Ali asked.

Farble nodded. “Like Geea.”

Ali was not sure if they wanted pretty names like Geea or if they personally liked her. But since she had almost killed them the last time they had met, she doubted it was the latter. With Farble by her side, she walked over to meet the trolls. They lowered their heads as she neared, although they continued to drip green spit out their mouths. Ali tried to sound friendly.

“I hear you guys want new names?” she said.

They both nodded vigorously. Standing near his friends, acting incredibly proud, Farble pounded his chest. “Farble,” he said.

“So what are your names now?” she asked, thinking she might make the new ones rhyme with the old ones.

“Spit,” the one on the left said.

“Snot,” the one on the right said.

“Oh boy,” Ali said. She had to rack her brain for a minute, but then she had it. She pointed to the troll on the left. “Spit,” she said, “from now on you shall be known as Sprite. That means, ‘He who is tasty and refreshing.' ” She paused. “Do you like it?”

Sprite positively glowed. He nodded and patted her so hard on the back that she almost fell over. She had to put up a hand to stop him. She turned to Snot.

“And you shall be known as Snickers,” she said. “That means, ‘He who is chewy and crunchy.' ”

Sprite and Snickers were the happiest trolls on Earth. They pounded their heads as if they were coconuts to split open, then bumped their butts together out of sheer joy. Ali was relieved. She wished her friends were as easy to please.

Ali returned to the gang. Again she argued for the cave. They could hide from watchful eyes. It could be a shortcut to the top. They could avoid most of the snow. They might find water underground. They would need less water if they were out of the sun. The argument seemed logical to her.

They hardly listened, she saw that. While she had been talking to the trolls, they had resigned themselves to the fact that the new and improved Ali Warner had to get her own way.

She didn't like the feeling she got from her friends as they walked past Sprite and Snickers and into the cave. Paddy had spoken of omens. Perhaps their anger was a bad omen. It seemed a bad way to start the darkest leg of their journey. She wondered if it would come back to haunt them.

T
he entrance was wide, but they had hiked only a hundred yards inside when the walls and ceiling narrowed. A grown man would have had trouble walking upright. Ten-foot-tall Farble had to stoop to keep from bumping his head. But the troll didn't appear to mind the awkward position. Ali was sure someone had dug out the cave. Its strange roughly-hewn-square shape continued. Nature just didn't form such sharp angles.

But there were no bricks on the walls, no tiles on the floor. The interior was as black as empty space, silent as a closed coffin. They had to stay close together to walk, which was difficult with the narrow walls. Ali hoped Karl had put new batteries in the flashlight before they had left home. The glow of their only light seemed to die against the walls and floor—the material sucked the
life out of it. Ali was not sure what the material was; not simple rock, no, it was too smooth, much too dark. It reminded her of hardened lava, which made sense in a way. Scientists said Pete's Peak had been an active volcano as recently as two hundred years ago.

Only the floor of the cave was different.

Grainy sand, black sand, it seemed to stick to the soles of her boots.

The cave went neither up nor down; it appeared determined to cut straight across the inside of the mountain. They were thankful for a flat surface. It gave them a chance to catch their breath. Also, the farther they walked, the warmer it got, and they were able to take off their jackets.

The increase in temperature surprised Ali. She knew most caves got colder the deeper you went into them. She wondered what it meant.

For a short spell Paddy ended up in the back with Ali. She took the opportunity to question him. “Do you have a mountain like this in your dimension?” she asked.

“Aye. Tall one like this.”

“Is it exactly the same?”

“Nothing is the same here. Nothing stays the same there.”

“What do you mean?”

“Missy must know.”

“I don't know.” He didn't answer so she tried another question. “If we have a big oil spill in our world, say down at the beach, does it show up in your world?”

“Aye. Something bad shows up. Doesn't have to be oil.”

“I don't understand,” she said.

“Humans hurt this world, it hurts ours.”

“But the damage could take another form?”

“Aye.”

“What if you guys damage your dimension? Does it hurt our world?”

“Don't know, and don't care.”

“Are you still mad at me for dragging you in here?”

“Missy has the power. Paddy's just a leprechaun.”

“I don't feel that way. I value your opinion.”

He gave her a look as if to say: gimme a break.

“I do, really.” She added, “Thanks for sticking with us.”

He waved his hand. “Paddy is here. Tries to help.”

“Why do you want to help us?”

“Missy and Paddy have a deal.”

“You want to stay in our dimension, right?”

“Aye.”

“And build up a big pot of gold?”

“Aye. Paddy has never had much.”

“I'm sorry to hear that.” She hesitated. “Do you have a wife? Kids?”

“No gold, no wife.”

“Is that why you want gold? So you can get a wife?”

Her questions might have gotten too personal. The leprechaun lowered his eyes. “Paddy used to being alone,” he said quietly.

She changed the subject. “This cave is square-shaped. Do dwarves like that shape?”

“Aye. Dwarf caves always square, like their brains.”

Ali smiled. “Is that a leprechaun joke?”

“Aye. Paddy can joke.”

“I'm sure you can. Maybe when this is all over we can trade jokes. But I need to ask you more about the dwarves. This cave wasn't made in the last few days. Dwarves must have built it in the past.”

“Don't know, never asked.”

“Is it possible elementals came into our dimension many years ago? We have so many stories about them in our books.”

“Don't know, and don't care.”

“Did you ever talk to an elemental that had been here before?”

“Leprechauns don't ask questions. Mind our own business.”

“You said that Lord Balar was angry at Lord Vak. But they have joined forces to attack humanity. Is that right?”

“Aye. Elves and dwarves fight together for first time.”

“Are you sure they intend to fight together? Could they just be acting like they're together?”

“Not understand, Missy.”

“This is a dwarf cave. You're afraid we might run into dwarves. But you also said the dark fairies live here. Is it possible the dwarves are working with the dark fairies?”

The idea shocked Paddy. “Dark fairies have no friends, only enemies.”

“Then who is letting them come through the Yanti?” she asked.

He hesitated. “The dark fairies . . . they must come from somewhere else.”

“Where?” Ali asked, surprised. Nemi had said nothing about another entrance into humanity's realm.

Paddy averted his eyes. “Best not to talk about.”

“Do the dark fairies work for the Shaktra?” she persisted.

She had hit the wrong button, or else the right one. The leprechaun fell silent and absolutely refused to speak. She had got out of him all she could for the time being, she thought. Quickly, he moved up front to walk beside Karl and she was left alone with her questions.

What was the Shaktra? Was it a powerful elemental? Or something else?

Ali turned her mind to her last conversation with Nemi. He had said he could not help her with her next test, yet he had given her hints on how she might face it.

“
Air is a mysterious element. Consider what is carried through the air—the greatest of all human inventions
.”

What was the greatest of all human inventions? Atomic energy? No, that was a brilliant invention but one couldn't say it was great. Atomic bombs killed people; besides, there was all that radiation to worry about. Rocket ships? Rockets had taken people to the moon and back, an amazing feat. Only, rockets were the one thing on Earth that did not travel through air.

Ali felt frustrated. Nemi had been purposely vague, she had no doubt. He didn't want to hand anything to her on a plate. For that matter, he did not seem overly worried if she got killed trying to reach the Yanti. Perhaps there was no such thing as death to him.

Back to the riddle. What was carried through the air? Dust? Pollen? Kites? Balloons? Airplanes? Planes were cool, they brought people from all over the world together. But what did they have to do with her?

Absolutely nothing. It was driving her crazy!

Ali tried to remember more of their conversation.