Dragons of the Watch (5 page)

Ellie fought rising panic as she examined the unfamiliar terrain. Rocks from tiny pebbles to huge boulders spotted the fields around her home. But grass covered this place. Trees with full heads of soft green leaves lined one horizon. Even the shrubs dotting the landscape appeared to be less rugged than the rough and thorny bushes of home.

Tak jumped to his feet and trotted off, following the impressive road going toward a line of trees.

“Wait!” Ellie scrambled to gather her carpetbag and stood. “Tak!”

She hoped they would pass through the glass wall, even if she couldn’t see it, and be back at the end of the ridge. Within a few steps, she knew that crossing over to the other side was not going to happen.

She ran to catch up. Tak jogged along at a brisk pace. Ellie, huffing and puffing, finally got close enough to grab his collar.

“Stop!” She jerked on the goat and fell to her knees beside him. Tak looked at her, the pupils of his yellow eyes mere slits. He thumped his hindquarters down. His disgusted look lingered on Ellie for a long moment before he turned to stare toward the trees.

The wide road could accommodate three wagons side by side. Ellie had never seen anything but dirt tracks, or paths covered in shale. Compared to those country lanes, this highway represented something she might see in the grandest of cities. She sighed, thinking she should be on an old dirt road headed to Ragar, probably the grandest city in Chiril.

She brushed her fingertips across the pavement. The satiny smooth surface surprised her. The odd creamy yellow looked like butter. She and her goat were the only dirty spots on the road.

Still holding on to Tak’s collar, Ellie put her arm around his neck and leaned heavily against his side. “I’m so hungry.”

Tak tilted his head back and rubbed his chin against her arm. Absent-mindedly, she scratched the spots around his head that gave him pleasure, behind his ears, around his ruff, and under his chin. The mist from the other side of the wall still clung to his coat. The odor wrinkled her nose, but she cuddled him anyway.

Her clothes were damp, flecked with mud, and smeared with grass stains. Cold, wet shoes trapped her feet and made her feel like she’d crammed them into a laundry bucket. She used one foot to push a shoe off her heel, then wiggled that foot out and used it to remove the other shoe. Blue dye from the leather stained her socks. She stretched her legs out in the sun, hoping to dry a little.

So much for elegant clothing.

Her stomach grumbled.

So much for eating fancy meals with her aunt and uncle in roadside taverns.

She could have gone to sleep in the warm sun, leaning against the goat. His coat was drier than her skirt. After a time, she forced herself to straighten.

“Well, collapsed in the road is not going to get us any closer to food.” She tied the laces of her shoes through the handle of the carpetbag and walked in the ruined socks on the smoothly paved yellow road.

With a firm grip on Tak, she let him pull her toward the horizon lined with trees. They walked for a long time before they entered the
shade of the forest. The warm breeze dried Ellie’s clothes and hair and the outside of the carpetbag.

She had to change to Tak’s other side occasionally and shift the heavy valise to the other hand. He walked along sedately, and she finally decided to let go of his collar and sighed her relief when he didn’t bolt.

Tired and hungry, she trudged down the middle of the road.

“The reason this road is so nice is that no one travels on it. How could it be worn with no use? I thought we might flag a carriage for a ride, or at least pass a traveler who could tell us where we are.”

“Maa,” Tak answered.

Between the towering trees, they passed in and out of shadows that fell across the wide highway. Tak gave a loud bleat, darted off to the side, and tore into a bush, ripping off tender green branches and chewing contentedly.

“I wonder if I could eat those.” Ellie followed the goat and dropped her carpetbag with a delighted exclamation. Berries grew on several bushes. One bush hid blackberries under broad leaves. Another bent under the weight of berries that looked much like the black ones, but the fruit was smaller and yellow. Ellie sat in front of the bushes and picked the berries as fast as she could put them in her mouth and swallow.

With her mouth full and juice running down her chin, she told Tak, “I would have walked right past these. Thank you, Tak.”

Remembering the time Gustustharinback had eaten a bushelful of fruit from their parnot trees, Ellie made herself stop as soon as she felt full. Gustus had had a stomachache for two days. She looked at her purple fingers with alarm. A glance down at her dress confirmed her fear. “I’m as messy as a pig.”

“Maa.”

“I am! Look at me. I
belong
in the country, not at a coronation or a royal wedding.”

She looked around her at the lovely road, the towering trees, and her goat. “This is probably my punishment for leaving where I belong and chasing after a glittery life. Just because something sparkles, Tak, doesn’t mean it’s good for you.”

The goat looked askance at her and then turned away, gazing down the road.

“Maa!” He took off, leaving Ellie to jump to her feet, grab her bag, and follow at a run.

Just before Ellie caught up to him, the carpetbag fell out of her hand. She didn’t stop but ran faster without its weight. Finally she latched on to Tak’s collar and pulled him to a stop.

“Whatever is the matter with you?” She dragged him back to get her valise, then once more started the uncomfortable business of hauling the carpetbag and keeping a firm grip on Tak’s collar.

In the distance, Ellie spotted the tops of many buildings.

“A city!” She hurried for a bit but soon realized that miles separated her from the metropolis. She slowed to a plod and dragged the carpetbag beside her.

She finally reached the first house on the outskirts of the giant city. The berries were just a pleasant memory, and the long afternoon walk an unpleasant reality. The enormity of the home matched the enormity of her dismay. Tak head-butted her off the road and toward the path leading up to the house.

The bottom step to the porch came up to Ellie’s waist. From corner to corner, the house was longer than any block in Glenbrooken Village. And as for its height, Ellie could not even begin to estimate.
Perhaps as tall as the tallest tree she had ever seen. And in the city beyond, buildings stood shoulder to shoulder, stretched to the sky.

Ellie listened. The wind rustled the leaves in a nearby tree. The tree had grown no bigger than it should have, and for this, Ellie was grateful. The tragabong tree looked just like the tragabong trees at home, and the sight of it comforted her.

Of the birds and insects she’d seen, none were oversize like the giant buildings. Now when she looked at the very wide road, she realized it matched the proportions of the other man-made structures.

The sun slowly sank to the west, and crickets tuned up for a nightly serenade. All good and normal, except for the monstrous house in front of her.

Ellie left her carpetbag in the grass where Tak nibbled a presupper snack and hauled herself up on the first step. Unfortunately three more steps confronted her. By the time she scaled the last one, her breaths came in deep pants. She collapsed on the wooden porch until breathing came normally again.

Who would be in the house? All of the natural landscape seemed normal-sized. Surely the people would be too. However, why would normal-sized people build such enormous houses? She strained her ears to pick up some noise from behind the front door. Nothing.

“Nobody’s home,” she whispered.

The idea that no people lurked within gave her courage. She sat, listened, heard nothing but the sounds of nature, and got up. Rapping on the door with a closed fist, she hoped no one would answer the knock. If someone did, what would she say?

She looked down at her feet and saw a bundle-up bug crawling in front of her toes. “Small, like a bundle-up should be. The people will
be normal as well. Or maybe not. Even so, I will not scream, no matter how big they are.”

No one answered. She knocked louder, and still no one came. Stretching and standing on tiptoes, she jiggled the doorknob. Locked.

With a sigh that expressed both relief and frustration, Ellie left the door and stood under a window. If she stood on tiptoes, she could grasp the windowsill. She jumped to look inside. The sun shone in the west windows, illuminating the room. In the brief moment she could look in, she saw big furniture. The next time she jumped, she noticed a huge coat hanging on a hook on the wall. Next she saw a teacup on an end table, but it looked more like a soup bowl. And the last time she jumped, she saw Tak standing in the center of the room.

She jerked around to look where she’d last seen him. Of course, he was not in two places at the same time. Only her carpetbag remained at the bottom of the giant steps.

Ellie scrambled down the stairs with much less care than she had used coming up. Her landing on the grass didn’t contain one iota of dignity. Aunt Tiffenbeth would have been displeased.

She stood and raced around the house. The distance to the corner was just as she had surmised, about a half a village block. The side of the house seemed to stretch forever, but this was not true. Her sore legs protested as she rounded the next corner, and the sight of the back entrance allowed her a brief moment of relief.

Instead of steps, a ramp tilted from the ground to a huge open door. She slowed going up the incline, not because she feared what hid in the house, but because her body protested the long day of walking and the dash to get to the back door.

Tak welcomed her with his usual comment. “Maa.”

He whirled away from her, and she followed at a walk, craning her neck to see all the fascinating features of the room. She walked under the rough-wood kitchen table. A spoon the size of a ladle lay on the floor. Everything looked just like the things at home, only on a larger scale. She passed through the door into a dining room. The eating table here was grand, with carvings on the legs. She guessed they had been polished at one time, but now dust coated everything.

Tak trotted down the hall, and his hoofs clumped on the thin carpet runner. Ellie came to the front room and stood in one place, staring. Cozy chairs and sofas surrounded a much shorter table, with playing cards sprawled across its surface. A basket of knitting sat at a corner, within easy reach of one of the stuffed chairs. Empty shelves stood beside a comfortable chair, and she wondered briefly what they had once contained. A pillow rested on the floor next to the smaller sofa.

Ellie resisted the urge to lie down. Instead, she made the long journey back around the house to fetch her carpetbag. After bringing it inside, she searched for anything from which to make a meal. Dishes and empty canisters cluttered the shelves but offered no sustenance. She found no food or water, so she would go to bed hungry and dirty. But she had four walls and a roof, enormous walls and a massive roof. She took off her filthy dress and slipped a nightgown over her long underwear. She brushed her teeth as best she could, then unbraided and re-braided her hair.

“It might get chilly tonight,” she said.

Tak swung his head to look at her, but didn’t offer a comment.

Rummaging around in her carpetbag produced a voluminous skirt to use as a blanket. The pillow on the floor wasn’t quite as big as her bed at home but was twice as soft. The light faded, and Ellie made one more search for something to eat. Under the counter in the kitchen, she found
an enormous cupboard door that she had overlooked. Several jars and boxes tumbled out. In all the disorder, she found nothing edible.

She made her bed on the pillow and climbed in as twilight gave way to night. For some time she lay very still, listening to every noise. But soon her thoughts overcame her awareness of the old house, and she pondered her unusual circumstances.

She tried to shut down a flow of questions, but found it impossible.
Where am I? How do Tak and I get back? Does anyone even know I’m lost?

This pesky quizzing cycled through the main queries and occasionally added or subtracted one or two questions. Since she interrogated herself and she had no answers, the exercise became boring.

Tak settled beside her, and his outline in the light of the moon helped her forget the strange happenings of the day.

When she awoke in the morning, his chin rested on the pillow-bed beside her. He opened his eyes and greeted her.

“Maa.”

“Tak, I think I feel brave enough to go into the city. Last night I wasn’t sure. But I was tired. Maybe we’ll find someone to tell us where we are and how to get home. That would be nice.”

She glanced around at the room they’d slept in.

“It would also be nice if this helpful person is no taller than I am.”

Dew still clung to the grass and bushes as Ellie and Tak walked deeper into the city. The space between houses became shorter, and the structures loomed larger. A string of homes changed to shops, with only an occasional residence. Still no signs of life. Each building appeared to be deserted. A shiver ran up Ellie’s spine from time to time as she walked. Sometimes the frisson was caused by her awareness of being alone except for Tak. Sometimes, an eerie feeling of being watched caused her to glance around at the empty windows.