The Dragon's Lair (21 page)

"Not right," she whispered back in her gravelly voice. "Not right."

"What's not right?" Clem added.

Saeli spread her tiny hands out as far as she could.

"Everything," she said.

Tuck slowed the wagon to a halt while they were still a distance away.

"Look," he said, pointing to the outer edge of the fields. "That might explain how the wildfire south of here got started."

"I don't see anything," Ven said. He unbuttoned his shirt pocket, careful not to let anything fall out, and pulled out his jack-rule. He extended the far-seeing lens and looked through it.

Beneath the rolling gray and white clouds of ash and smoke he could make out many small figures in the distance. They were wearing what appeared to be straw hats like Tuck, the king, and the farmers of Westland wore to keep the sun off their faces. In each of their hands were dry cornstalks, at the tip of which Ven could see a tiny flame burning. They seemed to be setting fire to the grass at the base of the ground.

"What are those Gwadd doing?" he asked Tuck.

"They are clearing the natural brush of the fields by burning it," the Lirin forester replied. "It's a fast, though not always smart, way to turn scrub into plantable soil. But those aren't Gwadd—they're humans."

Ven glanced over at Amariel. She was humming to herself. "Relax," he whispered to her.

The merrow blinked. "Why? Do I seem nervous?"

Ven stared at her. "Actually—no," he admitted. "Did you hear what Tuck said? Those people are humans."

"Yes, I heard him."

The hairs on the back of Ven's neck started to prickle. "And that doesn't worry you?"

Amariel shrugged.

"What's the matter with humans?" Ida demanded crossly.

Saeli held up her hand.

"Don't belong here," she whispered. "Where—where are the Gwadd?"

Silence fell over the wagon, until nothing could be heard but the clopping of the horses' hooves as they danced in place, the squeaking of the wheels and the rattling of the boards.

"What do you mean, Saeli?" Char asked finally. "Are ya sayin' the Gwadd are missin'?"

The little girl peered into the distance, then nodded sadly.

"Maybe they're inside the buildings, eating noon-meal?" Clem offered hopefully.

Saeli shook her head.

"Buildings too big," she said in her strange voice. "Gwadd would never feel comfortable in them."

"Oh dear," Clem whispered to Ven. "Where are the Gwadd? Where's Saeli's family?"

"I have no idea," Ven said. "But whatever is happening here, I'm not liking it."

The Lirin forester clicked to the horses.

"Let's go find out what's going on here," Tuck said. The children settled down in the back in a nervous silence and stared over the side of the wagon as it descended the swale into the valley below.

As the farm grew closer, the buildings seemed to grow larger. The rows of corn went on for miles, standing pale and straight against the sun.

Just as they came to the floor of the valley, the door of one of the houses in the center of the pasturelands opened, and a pleasant-looking human man came out, smiling. He waved to the wagon, then approached it in a friendly manner.

"Hullo, folks!" he said merrily. "The name's Clovis. How can I help you all today?"

"Hello," said Ven. "We're looking for the Gwadd—but we don't see any. Are these not the Gwaddlands?"

Clovis looked surprised.

"Goodness, no," he said. "There haven't been Gwadd here in a
very
long time, years, at least."

"Where did they go?" Char demanded. "What happened to 'em?"

The man's pleasant smile faded a bit.

"I've no idea," he said shortly. "This is a human settlement now. I've never even seen a Gwadd. I don't even know what one looks like."

"It's a lovely place you have here," said Clemency quickly before either boy could speak again. "Perfectly tended—and very pretty."

Clovis's smile returned.

"Thank you so much," he said, sounding pleased. "We work very hard to keep it shining. Would you like a tour?"

"Absolutely," said Clem quickly. "But I think I'm going to stay here and nap a bit, if nobody minds." She stretched lazily and then pulled the horse blanket up over her shoulders, hiding Saeli beneath it as well.

Char and Ven immediately understood.

"Thank you very much," Ven added. "We'd love to see this pretty place. Come on, mates, let's take the tour."

Char and Ida got out of the wagon, followed a moment later by Ven and Amariel. They fell in line behind Clovis, who took them proudly around the pastures that were each perfectly planted in the vegetable assigned to them, without so much as a wildflower growing out of place. He walked them along the long rows of spectacular corn, each stalk the same size as all the others around it. He let them stop and offered them a drink at a sparkling stream, which they politely declined, took them around to the Fairy Forts, the tall, leafy trees that upon closer inspection seemed to be braided with razor wire through their branches.

"Why are they called Fairy Forts?" Char wondered aloud.

"Oh, when we cleared each field we left a single tree to serve as home to the fairies that live in that field," Clovis said, running his hand proudly across the tops of the stalks and smoothing out the cornsilk in each of them. "The presence of the fairies brings luck and good fortune to the field."

"That's interesting," said Ven.

"It's really just an old superstition," said Clovis. "Of course there are no such things as fairies."

"How I wish
that
was true," Char whispered to Ven.

"They use razor wire to keep the nonexistent fairies in," Ven whispered back. "This place scares me."

"Would you like to see the cows?" Clovis asked Amariel sweetly. Amariel looked at Ven in confusion. Ven nodded quickly, so Amariel did as well. "Good," Clovis said. "The cow houses are back here."

"Cow
houses
?" Ida muttered under her breath.

"Wire in trees," said Char. "Don't think too hard about it—you'll hurt your head."

They followed Clovis into a stand of long white buildings with small, rectangular windows. Inside each of the buildings

were many black and white spotted cows side by side in pens, quietly chewing their cud or chomping hay. Ida wrinkled up her nose at the smell and hurried to the other end of the building past Clovis and out the door.

"Are you thirsty?" Clovis asked as they came outside near a large shelf on which many bright metal milk cans were standing.

"A little," Ven admitted.

"Ah! Well, I have just the thing for you, then," said Clovis. He took five gleaming mugs off the shelf, unscrewed the top of a milk can and poured the silky white contents into each of them.

"Drink up," he said, taking one and doing so.

The children looked at each other, then each took a drink.

It's hard to explain how it tasted. It wasn't bad, really, but there was something just not right about it. It was not too sour, or too sweet, it was just, well, wrong
.

They placed their empty mugs on the shelf next to Clovis's. "Sun's going down," Clovis said, shielding his eyes. "We'll be having supper soon and turning in for the night. Where are you young folks heading?"

"We're never sure," said Char.

Clovis nodded. "Well, if you're looking for a place to stay for the night, you are more than welcome in the bunkhouse here. Supper's good and filling, and the price is right—you just have to help with the washing afterward. You kids aren't allergic to good, honest work, are you?"

"Not at all, sir," said Ven.

"Define 'honest,' " said Ida.

"Thank you for the invitation," said Char quickly. "We'd love ta stay." He shot Ida a vicious glance.

"Why don't you go get your friends in the wagon?" Clovis suggested. "I'll show you the dining hall and the bunkhouse. You can get something to eat and make yourselves comfortable."

"Did you notice the spots on those cows?" Char asked Ven under his breath as they headed back to the wagon. "They were all
exactly
the same," Char said. "Not a little bit, but exactly, as if it were the same cow, over and over."

"What do you think about this place, Tuck?" they asked the forester when they returned to the wagon.

"Do you think it's evil?" Ven added.

The forester exhaled. He looked around the farm from west to east, then shook his head.

"Can't say for sure, but I don't think so," he said. "There's something wrong here, as Saeli said, but I have no idea what it is. It's not the sort of place Lirinved would stay—but that doesn't make it evil."

"What do you think happened to the Gwadd?" Clemency asked.

The forester shook his head. "I don't know, but we can keep looking. It won't hurt if we are heading north to the Nain lands anyway."

They had their fill of a generous supper, once again noting the while the corn was beautiful, it was paler and duller tasting than they were used to. Clemency even took some out to Saeli, who was still hiding in the wagon, but the little girl shook her head violently and refused all food.

After they had finished washing up they snuck Saeli and the keekee into the bunkhouse with them, hiding them in Clemency's pack, and settled down for the night. The bunks were comfortable and clean, and Ven fell into a deep sleep almost immediately.

His dreams were grand and warm. He was on the deck of the
Angelia,
the ship that his father had built and he had accidentally sunk trying to fend off a Fire Pirate attack. But now the ship was whole again, and all the crew alive and well. He sat on a barrel with them amidships and ate delicious apple fritters and sang thrilling sea chanteys until morning crept in at the window, spilling a beam of dusty light onto the floor.

He had finally gotten a good night's sleep.

It was the last he would have for a while.

15
The Hidden Valley

T
HE NEXT MORNING THE CHILDREN AND TUCK SAID A PLEASANT IF
nervous farewell to Clovis, got back in the wagon, ready to continue northward toward the lands of the Nain.

"Are you certain you wouldn't like to stay and work?" Clovis asked, disappointed. "We have all the land west to the Great River, and a good deal of the Wide Meadows to the east. It's a pleasant life, it really is."

"Thank you, but no," said Clemency. "We really must be on our way, but we do appreciate your hospitality."

"Come back anytime," Clovis said as they got into the wagon.

"Excuse me—by any chance, have you heard anything about a dragon in these parts?" Ven asked as Tuck took his seat on the wagon board.

"Don't be ridiculous." Clovis said. "There are no dragons—it's just superstition."

"Well, thank you anyway."

Once they had departed, they slowed and consulted Saeli, who was pale and wan.

"Where to now?" Tuck asked Ven. "Shall we head for the foothills of the High Reaches?"

The companions nodded except for Saeli, who shook her head violently.

"What do you want to do instead, Saeli?" Ven asked gently. "I know you must be very upset, but Clovis didn't think there had been Gwadd around here for
years
. Are you certain this is the place your family came from?"

Saeli nodded grimly.

"The Wide Meadows might be an easy place to mistake," Char added. "How many miles of highgrass did we plow through that all looked the same? Maybe our compass is off, maybe we are just missin' it by a few miles."

The little girl shook her head.

"You might not know this, having lived your whole life on the sea, Char, but when you grow up in a place where your family farms, you never forget that land," Clemency said. "Especially the Gwadd. I came from a town near the source of the Great River, but my family got to know a lot of Gwadd as they portaged their grain, their fruits and vegetables downriver. They're the ones who taught me to speak to and see the Spice Folk, by the way. There is no mistaking it when they live in a place—they are a gentle people who love the land, and it shows. If Saeli says this is where her family once lived, I'm sure she's right."

"Then what should we do?" Ven asked sadly.

Saeli thought for a moment, then pointed to the ground. Tuck slowed the horses to a halt. The Gwadd girl got out of the back of the wagon, followed by the others. She stared at the highgrass, concentrating.

After a few moments, it seemed to Ven that the grass was beginning to wither, or at least to shrink back into the earth. As Saeli continued to concentrate, he was certain of it.

A large, kidney-shaped area of the grass all but disappeared, leaving nothing but a barely green stain on the ground. Then, before their eyes, it began to reappear, but in various heights, showing hills and swales, hummocks and pits.

In the far west of the grass-map a wide swath of forget-me-nots swelled forth from the ground and burst into vibrant blue, painting a ribbon that ran north-south in tiny blossoms.

"What is that, Saeli?" Clemency asked.

Saeli continued to concentrate. "Great River," she whispered.