Jinx's Fire (13 page)

Listener. Where are you going, Listener?

He must be out of the mountains now, and under the forest. The walls were stone, and he could see no roots of trees, but he could hear them.

Listener, no, stop.

He has to go on. The roots of the Listener go deeper than the roots of trees.

I have to break . . . to remove the seal,
he told the trees.
Before it kills all of us.

The trees seemed to accept that, murmuring and mumbling their regret.

You don't happen to know how I do that, do you?
Jinx asked.

Wizard's magic,
said the trees.

Jinx sighed, and went on walking downward. Soon he couldn't hear the trees anymore. He was completely alone. The earth had ceased to be made of the remains of living things. It was all cold stone.

The stone, he felt, had once been fire. It had belched up, burning, out of the earth. He could not have said how he knew this, but he was sure that it was true.

The torch was now just a tiny stub in his hand. It spluttered and went out. The darkness was total, devoid of even the possibility of light. This was the dark that darkness came from, the place where night was born. He heard a faraway sound like whispers in distant rooms. He fumbled for the skeleton's torch and lit it. It flared, and Jinx knew the old dry wood would burn quickly. And then what would he do?

Send the fire into the walls.

Jinx wasn't sure where the thought had come from. It
almost but didn't quite feel like his own.

He tried it. He reached for the fire inside him and sent it into the walls.

The fire flared out from the walls, then leapt, much faster than burning, sending flames dancing down the walls of the tunnel and out of sight. The flames came leaping and spiraling back again. They raced along the walls behind him—he looked back, and saw them cavorting up the last slope he'd come down, and then they came dancing back. And then they went out.

But the walls glowed. Not orange like the embers of a fire, but a cool, pale yellow. They glowed into the distance as far as Jinx could see.

He extinguished the torch, and walked on, guided by the glow of the fire in the walls.

The floor under Jinx's feet was no longer stone—or at least, he didn't think it was. It looked like glass, or obsidian. It felt to his feet like ice. Jinx mentally dubbed it ice-glass. He walked on it as though it were ice, carefully at first. Then he skated along it. Then he ran and slid, ran and slid. Then he fell, hard, just as the path began to go down again.

The path was a spiral, and he was zooming around and around, faster and faster.

The Eldritch Depths

T
he slide ended abruptly and Jinx flew through the air, hoping he would land on something soft.

He did not.

He lay for a minute, trying to breathe and trying to figure out if anything was broken. It felt as if everything was.

“This is him, isn't it?”

“I told you he was coming.”

The words were spoken in Qunthk, a language that sounded like an all-out battle between a tomcat and a trash can.

Jinx sat up, painfully, and faced the cold stare of three blue-skinned, silver-haired elves.

“I know you,” he said, in Urwish. Well, two of them, anyway.

“We should kill him,” said the elf who Jinx remembered was named Neza. “I don't know how he got down to the Eldritch Depths, but he must not be allowed to leave.”

Jinx scrambled to his feet and backed away.

One of the elves, Dearth, arched an icy eyebrow at him. “You understand the Eldritch tongue, I see.”

“I wasn't even trying to get to the Eldritch Depths,” said Jinx. “I'm trying to get to the nadir of all things. Is this it?”

Jinx had never heard elves laugh before. It was a most unpleasant sound, like trolls walking on ducks.

“A matter of opinion,” said Dearth. “For many humans, it has been.”

“My mother,” said Jinx. He couldn't remember his mother. But he knew she'd been carried off by elves.

“We should kill him,” said Neza.

The third elf spoke. “We should feed him to the Queen.”

Jinx put his hand on the hilt of his knife, and the elves laughed again.

“The Queen is asleep, Shatter,” said Neza.

“We should not kill him. He's the wick of fire,” said Dearth.

“I know that,” said Neza. “That's why he would be better off dead.”

“I would not!” said Jinx.

“And what happens to our balance, if the other wick wins?” said Dearth.

“Balance happens on its own,” said Shatter.

“You're wrong,” said Dearth. “Balance requires care and guidance.”

“The Bonemaster is already winning,” said Neza. “He has nearly won.”

“As I've told you before, that is not necessarily desirable,” said Dearth, flickering irritation. “The Queen desires balance. Ice in ascendance, yes, but balance. Let this one go down and try to remove the seal. He'll die, of course, but he might succeed even so.”

“Where
is
the seal?” said Jinx. “How do I get to it?”

The elves ignored him. They were arguing with each other. “And when he dies, where's your balance?” Neza demanded.

“The Urwald remains,” said Shatter. “It's been without a Listener for years. Fire is in abeyance, but enough remains for balance.”

“Excuse me, but
I
remain,” said Jinx. “And I'm talking to you. Do you mind telling me how to get to the flippin' nadir of all things so I can remove the flippin' seal, and die in the attempt or whatever?”

The elves regarded him coldly. “Goodness, he understands quite a bit of Eldritch,” said Neza.

“Doesn't speak it, though,” said Shatter.

“It hurts my throat.” Jinx wanted to get out of here. Elves creeped him out, even when they weren't talking about killing him. “Where does the path go from here?”

“How would we know?” said Dearth. “It's your path.” He turned to Neza. “Take him to the Queen.”

“The Queen sees no one,” said Neza.

“Then take him to the Princess.”

“I will ask the Princess,” said Neza.

There was a brief pause.

“Look, all I want to know—” Jinx began.

“Silence,” said Dearth. “She is talking to the Princess.”

Neza seemed to be listening to the empty air. She nodded. “Very well,” she said. “The Princess will see you in the garden.”

A garden, down here? “Will she tell me how to get to the nadir of all things?”

“If she desires balance,” said Shatter.

“Which she doesn't,” said Neza.

“Which she does,” said Dearth.

“Come along, human,” said Shatter.

Neza and Shatter led Jinx through an ice-glass passageway that opened into a cavern so large that at first Jinx thought he was outdoors.

The garden was dazzling. Clusters of crystals sprouted and spread like shrubberies. There were amethysts blossoming beside the path, and sapphires sprouting from rocks. Jinx stood beside a charming little bed of rubies and topazes, like frozen fire.

“Follow the path. The Princess is waiting,” said Neza.

It seemed the elves were coming no further. Jinx walked alone, a narrow path that twisted between outcroppings of emeralds and under an arbor of peridots and pyrite. There was light from somewhere, and the gems and crystals flickered.

“Welcome, Flame.”

Jinx had to blink several times before he saw the Princess among the crystals. She was sitting on what he supposed must be a seat hidden in the midst of tall spikes of blue-white crystal—if there wasn't a seat there, she must have been very uncomfortable.

“Hi. My name is Jinx.”

“What an unfortunate name.”

“I can't help it,” said Jinx, staring at the Princess. Putting aside the fact that she was blue, she was the most beautiful lady he had ever seen.

“Do you like my garden?”

“It's, er. There's nothing growing in it.”

“If it didn't grow, then how did it come to be?” This was apparently a rhetorical question, as the Princess didn't
wait for an answer. “Have a seat on that topaz, and I will tell you about everything.”

Jinx would very much have liked to be told about everything, but the Princess in fact only told him about the gems in her garden, and how they'd grown. He learned quite a bit about rocks, and he figured he'd be able to describe the garden now, if he lived long enough to tell anyone about it.

“So much lovelier than those messy gardens in the world above,” said the Princess. “Don't you think? No insects, no decomposition.” She wrinkled her perfect nose. “Nothing dies down here.”

“Nothing
lives
down here.” Jinx had meant to be tactful, but it just came out.

“Exactly.” The Princess smiled at him, and Jinx couldn't help feeling pleased to be smiled at by such a beautiful person.

But she isn't alive, he reminded himself.

“I—my mother was stolen by elves,” he said.

“Was she? And is that why you have come down here, Flame?”

“No,” Jinx admitted. “But I would like to know what happened to her.”

“Oh, she'll have drifted away by now,” said the Princess. “They never stay long.”

“You mean she died?”

“Some silly human custom like that.” The Princess waved a long, graceful blue hand dismissively.

Jinx was relieved. He had been afraid it might have been possible for his mother to become an elf.

“And for that you came down here? Just to ask me this question?”

“No,” said Jinx. “I'm just passing through actually. I'm on my way to the nadir of all things.”

“How dramatic.”

“I could use some help, actually,” said Jinx. “Well, advice.”

“Could you? And why do you imagine that I would give you good advice?”

“Well, I expect you know the Paths better than I do . . .”

“The Path of Ice,” said the Princess. “And thus far, you have walked the Path of Fire.”

“I have?” Jinx was surprised. “But I didn't burn.”

“Not yet. You brought your fire with you. But further down, of course, the fire burns hotter. Fire, you know, makes beautiful gems. Would you like a few to take with you?”

“No thanks,” said Jinx. “I really need to know how to get to the nadir of all things and—and how to remove a seal.”

The Princess half closed her eyes and half smiled. “Ah.
The seal. Yes. We wondered if you would notice that.”

“Of course I noticed it!” said Jinx. “He's my friend!”

“Your friend?” The perfect eyebrows frowned ever so slightly. “The other wick is your friend?”

“No, the other wick is the Bonemaster,” said Jinx. “The person he's used to make a seal is my friend.”

He explained to her about Simon, and what he thought the Bonemaster had done to him. He told her about the threats to the Urwald.

He told her about his people, and about the new free and independent nation of the Urwald. If she privately found all this about as interesting as he'd found her lecture on geology, she gave no sign.

“But I don't understand,” said the Princess. “While you're down here, the Bonemaster is up there, in the, er, organic mass, making things difficult for all your other friends, isn't he?”

“Yes,” said Jinx. “But if I can remove the seal, then the Bonemaster won't have as much power.”

“And you'll have more,” said the Princess, musingly.

“Well, yeah, I'll have what I had before,” said Jinx.

“If you return to the world above at all,” said the Princess. “It's very easy to become lost on the paths.”

“To die, you mean,” said Jinx.

“Oh, I suppose so,” said the Princess. “But also to become lost, which is much more serious. As for your
friend, you must realize he won't have . . . kept his shape. It's unlikely there's much left of him that you would recognize.”

Jinx felt cold. He thought of how the Simon in the bottle had grown weaker over time. How he'd spoken to Jinx once, but not again. And he'd said he'd stop the Bonemaster from getting at Jinx through him, but he hadn't been able to do that, had he?

“And if he's been made a seal,” said the Princess, “there's no way he can escape with his life.”

“What about without it?” said Jinx desperately.

“Have you bottled it?”

“Someone else did. The Bonemaster.”

“Ah.” The Princess smiled. “In that case, it
might
be possible. And then you plan to return to the world above, vanquish the Bonemaster, and reign supreme?”

“I don't want to reign supreme,” said Jinx. “I've never wanted to!”

“Never? Not even for a moment?” The Princess's eyes glinted like amethysts. “Not even when the people around you are being impossibly slow and stupid, and you are so much cleverer than they are, and could manage matters so much better, if only everyone would shut up and do as you say?”

Jinx shifted uncomfortably on his topaz. Could she read minds?

“If I ever
do
want that,” he said, “I know it's not what I'm supposed to want.”

“And you only want what you're supposed to want? What an unusual quality.”

“I don't only want what I'm supposed to want,” said Jinx. “But I don't want to want stuff that, if I had it, would . . .” He fumbled for the right words. The combination of the Princess and the gems was confusing. “Would mess everything up for everybody. I just want to get Simon out alive, and to stop the Bonemaster. And to save the Urwald.”

“I see.” The Princess rippled icy amusement. Jinx was surprised that he could see any of her feelings at all.

He was surprised by something else, too. He couldn't help admiring her, because she was, after all, extremely beautiful, and he realized that she was drinking his admiration as if it were a nourishing soup. Feeding on him. It made him angry. He clenched his teeth and looked away, at a thicket of tourmalines.

“You don't want to reign supreme either,” Jinx told her. “Not even through the Bonemaster. It's too much work. It involves messy, live things, lots of bugs, and hardly any jewels.”

The Princess looked miffed. “You are rather insulting, young man.”

“Sorry,” said Jinx. “I'm tactless and undiplomatic.”

“Very. And since neither of us wants supremacy, I should help you?” The Princess looked around at the gems in her garden, and then smiled down at Jinx. “Very well. I shall tell you the most important things.

“The first is that you must recognize when it is time to make your own path. The path you see may not be the path you should travel.

“The second is that you must travel both paths. No one who travels only one path can achieve knowledge.”

“I don't want kn—”

She held up a hand to silence him. “The third is that when you reach the seal, you must touch both paths. This will be difficult for you, because you are so determined to do what's right. But you must touch the paths as your friend would, and not as you would.”

“Touch the paths like Simon would? But Simon's . . .” Jinx stopped himself. He didn't think Simon was
evil
, exactly. “I'm not going to have anything to do with deathforce.”

“Deathforce? Oh, that's what you humans call the ice. I don't know why. It's merely ice.”

“It's evil,” said Jinx.

“Death is evil? You all die.”