Behind the Canvas (27 page)

She heard the creak and pull of the oars close by. “Yes, and you're sitting on my foot.”

She scrambled onto the bench, still clutching the staff. She wrapped her arms around herself against the cold. The roar of the rapids seemed distant and almost innocent.

“Cash?”

“Still here,” came his voice from the front of the boat. “'Bout as happy as a wet cat.”

She sighed. It was a miracle none of them had ended up in the water. “You couldn't have warned us about that, Pim?”

“Sorry,” Pim said. “It was closer to the entrance of the Corridor than I recalled. And the painter—the line at the front of the boat—must have gotten stuck in the rocks right when we took a dive. Fortunately the puppy dog's bite really is worse than his bark. He bit through the rope.”

“You're welcome,” Cash said.

“It wasn't too bad, though,” Pim said. “Once we got past the rough bits.”

“Yeah?” Claudia said through chattering teeth. “Well, next time I drive.”

She clutched the staff and shivered. It would be so nice to get home and not be faced with life-or-death situations every ten minutes.

They knelt down and splashed water over the side with their hands until the boat seemed steadier in the water. She felt Cash weave his way over and curl up next to her on the bench. She petted his head. The oars creaked as Pim pulled on them. She looked around, searching for a pinprick of light in the distance, for shades of gray, for her hand in front of her face. But the darkness was complete and smothering.

At home, she never used a night-light, even when she was younger. Instead, she went to bed with the shades drawn wide. The night was always full of light. The moonlight, the streetlight, a passing car, the fireflies. She didn't need a light in her room when there was so much more interesting light outside.

But it was the darkness that made the light interesting. Like the darkened corners and crevices of a Caravaggio painting—the mystery of what they held and what they didn't. It was the way the street lamp cut a sharp line of brightness onto the asphalt. It was the way the full moon cast a glow on the world below her window so that you couldn't tell where the light stopped and the darkness started. The balance of light and dark—that was what she liked most about art.

Maybe that was why the pitch black of the underground river frightened her. It wasn't the darkness.

It was the lack of light, of balance.

Pim pulled regularly on the oars now, aiding the reluctant current. The boat bobbed and rocked, but it seemed like they were crawling along. She'd nearly drowned in the rapids, but at least those had some speed.

“Where does this let out?” she asked, as much to hear herself talk as for curiosity.

The oars creaked again. “Do you know Braque's painting
The Viaduct at L'Estaque
?”

“Braque
27
? He was a Cubist, right? So, no, I don't.”

Pim laughed, and the laugh echoed eerily in the darkness. “That's right. I'm talking to the realist. Well, Braque's painting shows a huge viaduct—kind of like a bridge with columns that come all the way to the ground—that stretches over a canyon. This river comes out shortly before it passes under that viaduct. The quickest way to where we're going is to cross the viaduct.”

“And where are we going?”

“To see Colossus.”

“Is that a person or a … something else?”

“Kind of both.”

“Well, he sounds big. Can he break the staff?”

“I don't know. When it comes to physical strength, there are two creatures that come to mind in this part of the world. Celebes and Colossus. Celebes, obviously, is not going to help us. So that leaves Colossus.”

“And does Colossus work for Nee Gezicht?”

“Not exactly.”

“Is he your friend?”

“Not exactly.”

“Who painted him?”

“Francisco de Goya.”
28

“Oh, goodie,” Claudia breathed nervously. She remembered his work from her art encyclopedia and other books in the library. His paintings often contained dark creatures and a bitter hopelessness.

“It's okay,” Pim said quickly. “Colossus owes me a debt. He may not pay it willingly, but he'll pay it. If there is anyone or anything in this part of the world that can break the staff, it is Colossus.”

“And if he can't break it?”

“Then we send you home.”

“Don't be ridiculous. I'm not going home without you.”

“I've already put you in great danger, Claudia. I don't think you realize just how much danger, even if you have stood up to the Sightless One face-to-face. There are other ways, perhaps, to break the staff. Maybe Granny Custos will know. But I could never forgive myself if you didn't make it home safely.”

Claudia cleared her throat. She was suddenly glad it was dark because she could feel herself blushing, though she didn't quite understand why.

She racked her brain for something else to say. Cash wheezed quietly beside her in his sleep. “So what are you going to do when you get free? I mean, do you, like, have any … plans?”

The question was met with silence, broken only by the strokes of the oars, creaking in their oarlocks as the blades cut forcefully into the water.

“You could come and live with my family—at least for a while,” Claudia suggested. “I mean, I'm sure my parents would love you—and especially my grandpa. It might be a little hard to explain, of course, but we'll think of something.”

There was more silence and Claudia desperately wished she could see Pim's face.

“Yes,” he finally said. “We'll have to cross that bridge when we come to it, I suppose.”

It seemed like a strange response since they were talking about the goal they had worked so hard to accomplish.
Maybe after this long,
Claudia thought,
it's not something he lets himself think about
.

That thought was as sad as the Corridor was dark. Claudia had a strong urge to move next to Pim and wrap her arms around him and put her head on his shoulder and whisper something encouraging. She shifted where she sat and almost moved forward. Almost.

Instead she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.

 

C
HAPTER
24

T
HEY RODE
the river in silence, the Corridor amplifying the creak of the oars and the splash of their path through the water. Time was hard to hold on to in the darkness. It seemed that they had been on the river for at least an hour, but it was impossible to say for sure. The air grew warmer as they traveled, which at least stopped Claudia from shivering, despite her soaked clothes. She shifted uncomfortably from sitting on the hard wooden bench.

At last the echo of the water in the Corridor slowly changed. It sounded faster, as if the current now had a destination in mind.

“We're getting close,” Pim said.

“Finally. I think I've had enough river to last me a while.”

“Got that right,” Cash mumbled, stretching his legs on the bench.

Within minutes, the darkness of the Corridor turned charcoal gray. She held her hand in front of her face and breathed a sigh of relief to see its outline appear against the dark. By degrees the darkness lessened, and the hint of colors returned as Pim continued to pull at the oars.

“We'll have to move quickly when we come to the bank,” Pim said, his voice sounding strained and tired. “Our tracks won't be hard to follow. Nee Gezicht will know we came on the river. The Corridor only leads to one place, and she probably knows that, too. The question is how fast they can follow us over land. I think we'll come out ahead. But it will be close.”

Claudia swallowed hard. “Good. Don't want to make this too easy, do we?”

A light gleamed up ahead, like a star in the dark fabric of the sky. It expanded as they continued, until she could make out the craggy outline of the wide exit from the Corridor. The light stung her eyes, but she forced herself to stare into it. She welcomed the pain, because the light restored the balance.

The current quickened, pulling the boat with it. Pim turned in his seat to face the bubbling white water ahead of them. It roiled over rocks that poked their heads above the surface.

Claudia gripped the side of the boat, staff in hand, preparing for another roller-coaster ride. Cash whimpered and jumped to the floor. Pim pushed at one oar, then the other, guiding the boat between the rocks. It dropped and spun slightly as water sprayed over the sides.

But that was it. The river leveled out, and a smooth path of water spread before them. Claudia let out the breath she had been holding. They passed through the wide rocky opening, giant boulders flanking the exit like sentinels.

A small cove with sheer, towering walls waited for them. It was open to the blue sky above, as though a canyon came to a dead end at the mouth of the cave. Pim again turned and laid into the oars, and they glided out of the cove and into the main part of the river.

On the left side of the canyon stretched a sheer wall that rose up more than a hundred feet above them. The right side provided a gradual slope away from the riverbank. The boat turned a bend and ahead of them stood what could only be the viaduct of L'Estaque.

“Whoa,” she mumbled.

The viaduct crossed the expanse of the river with sandy-colored brickwork and three enormous columns reaching up from the water. It reminded Claudia of the trees in the Southern Forest—she could make out the general hulking shape, but the details of the structure were hard to focus on. It gave the suggestion of being a viaduct made out of bricks without really letting her see the specifics her eyes expected.

Pim guided the boat toward the bank on the right side, pulling hard across the current now that their destination was in sight. One final pull forced the fishing boat into the bank, sticking its prow in the mud and reeds. The sight of the viaduct made Claudia anxious to cross it, to get off the river, to keep moving. Cash leaped from the boat ahead of her.

“Let's go,” Pim said, dropping the oars and jumping to his feet. He grabbed the staff and reached for her hand.

A trumpeting roar reverberated through the canyon so fiercely that Claudia's bones vibrated. She spun to find the source of the sound.

Several hundred yards upriver, on the other side of the viaduct, a hulking metal form rushed directly toward them with frightening speed. It looked like an enormous mechanical elephant crafted and welded out of a thick potbellied stove the size of a garage. Its two stout legs flashed through the water. A mechanical trunk extended from below wicked red eyes that flickered like flame, and long silver tusks glinted coldly in the sun. Its savage tail swayed as the beast ran, as thick and as long as a tree and ending with bull-like horns.

Smoke belched upward from ports in its side as it moved, swirling around a figure perched in a chair welded to the creature's back. Through the smoke, Claudia saw the hint of a black silk dress, and she didn't need to see any more.

She leaped from the boat, heart already racing.

Pim grabbed her arm as they scrambled together up the slope. “Cover your ears!” he shouted at her over another echoing blast from Celebes.

“What?” Did he think the noise from the beast would hurt her ears?

Then a voice echoed in the canyon—a woman's voice. The words were distant and unclear, but its owner unmistakable. The scene from Nee Gezicht's living room came to mind and Claudia knew what worried Pim.

She slapped her hands to her ears. She had sipped the witch hazel tea. Why on earth had she drunk the stupid tea? If the witch was close enough for Claudia to hear her command …

The soft dirt gave way as she stumbled on the slope. Pim half pulled, half steadied her. Cash skittered up and down the slope, muttering, “Come on, come on, come on.”

They crested the hill, and Celebes disappeared from view as they charged along the dirt road that skirted a grove of trees and led to the viaduct.

From atop the hill she could see that the river canyon widened in the distance, making room for houses built along the riverbank. She had only a moment to glance at the homes as she hurried forward, but it looked like some of the walls had been crushed into rubble. Perhaps a gift from the metal elephant's tail.

She turned to look back the way they had come, expecting to see Celebes charging over the top of the slope. There was nothing. Maybe it was too steep for Celebes to follow. Was there another path to the viaduct? Had Nee Gezicht not seen them?

And then they arrived at the viaduct, setting foot on the stone path, looking across to the other side of the canyon a hundred yards away. The path was straight and solid and offered a sense of hope. Masonry trowels and buckets and bricks were piled off to the side, as though recent repairs had been made.

“Go! Go!” Pim shouted, pushing her into a run.

They took five, six, seven strides when the elephantine roar filled the canyon once more, and this time it was followed by a crash of metal and stone, like a semitruck plowing head-on into an old brick building.

Boom!

The air around them convulsed. The viaduct shuddered and time seemed to slow as the smooth path split into hundreds of jagged cracks. Dust sprang into the air. The stone bricks beneath their feet were separating, pulling away from one another, sinking. Behind them, the entire section of viaduct they had just crossed was bowing like a wet towel. And then time resumed and down it went and Pim's hand was on her back and Claudia's legs carried her forward, flying over bricks that shifted and crumbled even as she raced across them.

The columns below the viaduct. That monster had just knocked out an entire column in one swipe of … what? Its tail?

She shot a frantic glance back at Pim, her eyes wide and filled with terror. His face held the same expression.