The Stranger's Woes (24 page)

I slumped down on the ground, wiping the cold sweat from my forehead. I felt sicker than I had ever felt before.

“Max, what’s all this about?” Melamori said in horror. “What have you done?”

“I don’t really know,” I said. “I think I may have restored justice. I think I acted right, but then why do I feel so wretched? And the bottle of Elixir of Kaxar shattered. Thanks to our dead redhead, by the way.”

“Is it that bad?”

“Well, not so bad. Fair to middling bad. I just don’t have an ounce of strength left, that’s all.”

“Why do you need to be strong now? We’re going home. I’ll take the levers, and you can lie down in the back seat. Sleep a little bit if you wish. Everything is over, isn’t it?”

“I hope so. Help me stand up. I’m so dizzy.”

Melamori held out her hand to me. Easily, as though I weighed nothing, she lifted me up from the wet grass and helped me into the amobiler. She climbed into the driver’s seat. I stretched out in the back. I had to stick my legs out the window, but this pose was very much to my liking. I closed my eyes and got ready to dive into sweet slumber.

“Max, it won’t start!” Melamori yelped, jolting me out of my blissful paralysis.

“Why? What could be wrong?” I groaned.

“Probably something with the crystal. It could have shattered from the impact of our crash. Let me take a look.”

I heard the door slam, the hood creak as it opened reluctantly, and a few mild curses, after which the lady returned to her spot in the driver’s seat.

“Just as I thought. It’s broken, the rotten stinker!” she fumed.

“This is bad.” I drew myself up into a sitting position and paused to think. Actually, there was nothing to think about. The magic crystal is the heart of the amobiler. Without it the sinning buggy won’t move an inch.

“I’ll have to send a call to Juffin,” I said wearily. “Someone will have to come after us. It’s not the end of the world.”

“All the same, it’s frustrating.” Suddenly Melamori almost jumped out of the seat. “Look, Max, someone’s coming!”

I tried to brace myself, just in case. You never know who might come along.

“Is that you? Where did you both rush off to? I was looking everywhere for you underground,” Chvaxta the forester said, sticking his head through the window. “Is everything okay? Do you want some nuts?” A handful of damp nuts rained down on the seat, and a few rolled onto the floor.

Melamori and I looked at each other in astonishment, then burst out laughing. This was too much!

“Do you have an amobiler, Sir Chvaxta?” Melamori asked.

“Yes, at home, of course. Why don’t you want to go home in this one? You don’t like it?”

“Like it?” Melamori giggled. “Sinning Magicians, our crystal shattered!”

“Really? That’s strange,” the forester said, shaking his head. “Well, let’s go to my place.”

“Is it far?” I said.

“No. Close. An hour and a half by foot, not more.”

“No way! Thank you very much, but no. I’m just spent. I couldn’t make it that far if my life depended on it. How about this: you go home, get the amobiler, and come back for us. Sound good?”

“Okay. I’ll be back in two hours. But don’t go anywhere without me. You might get lost.”

“Do you think he’ll come back?” Melamori said when the forester had disappeared into the undergrowth. “Maybe it would be better to send Juffin a call. It would take them five hours or so to get here, but they are certainly more reliable.”

“Let’s just hope Chvaxta keeps his promises. The guy is completely nuts, but he came to us with Juffin’s stamp of approval.”

“I think it must have been one of our boss’s more questionable jokes. Did you hear him ask us where we had rushed off to?”

“All the same, I think he’ll return,” I insisted. “Two hours isn’t too long. And if I take a little nap, I may be able to drive. Another hour and we’ll be home. Maybe even sooner if I’m on a roll.”

“Of course, try to sleep,” Melamori urged. “And I’ll—”

“Sit down beside me, okay? What if I have a nightmare or something?”

“After the adventures we’ve just been through it wouldn’t surprise me in the least.”

“Aw, shucks. What are a few little adventures? All the same, I don’t have my talismanic kerchief, and Sir Juffin said that . . .” My head fell back on the soft seat, and I dropped off to sleep in mid-sentence.

This time my dreams took me so far there was no farther to go. I dreamed that I was in a completely empty place. There was nothing there. It’s impossible to describe or explain, but there was truly nothing: no space, no time, no light, no darkness, no height, no depth, no gravity, no weightlessness. There was no me. At least, being present there didn’t mean the same thing as
being
. More like the contrary.

Somehow I already knew the rules of the game. A few of them, anyway. I could get anywhere I wanted to from here. Not just to any city but to any World, uninhabited or inhabited. And to my surprise there were multitudes of them. I felt not only that I could but that I
had
to plunge into one of these unknown realities. I knew it would be dangerous to hesitate. If I didn’t take the initiative, one of the Worlds would take me by force.

The Doors between Worlds—Juffin and Maba Kalox had often mentioned them to me. I had been dying to learn what they were like, and now I had the answer to that question. There was nothing here at all except those sinning Doors between Worlds! And they had all been flung wide open, as if to welcome me inside.

I stood frozen in the emptiness, knowing that now one of the Worlds would take me and that I would never find my way back to Echo. This seemed to me to be a disaster. I wanted to go home. What did it matter where and when I was born? My place was in Echo, and I wanted to stay there, because . . .
it was right
.

I had to get out of here immediately. To go back to the Magaxon Forest, to the broken-down amobiler of the Ministry of Perfect Public Order, where Sir Max, that me I very much liked being, remained. But I didn’t know which of the doors in this eternity led home.

I demanded of myself that I stay. Easier said than done! The unknown Worlds were determined to get hold of me. I sensed their hunger and their power, which were absolutely indifferent to my desires, hopes, and plans for the future. With what could I counter this power? I had only my inborn obstinacy, which had almost driven my parents to an early grave. That and an irrational fondness for the mosaic pavements of Echo, and the habit of starting my morning with a mug of kamra. Not to forget my love for my friends, a feeling that was clear and profound, and that I had hardly even suspected until now. And the gray eyes of Melamori that reflected our mutual disappointment, and the longing for that which could never be ours. But even these things were not enough. I felt that I was disappearing, slowly but surely sinking into the crevice of another reality, and a new, already delineated fate.

A resounding slap brought me back to reality. I jerked awake, stunned, discombobulated, and boundlessly happy. I didn’t remember where I was or what had happened at first. I just felt that I had been snatched back in the nick of time from some terrible danger. But what kind of danger was it?

Melamori, pale and shaken, was looking deep into my eyes.

“What happened?” I asked. “Why are you slapping me? Did I try to make a pass at you or something? I know I do all kinds of things in my dreams, but I never thought I’d stoop to that.”

“Sinning Magicians, as if that were all that had happened! That would have been nothing! I’m sorry for slapping you, Max, but I had to wake you. You began to
disappear
. I was afraid that in another moment you would disappear altogether.”

“That’s not good.” I shook my head, trying to come to my senses. “Where could I have gone? That’s ridiculous. And what did it look like?”

“It was terrifying. When you fell asleep I sent a call to Sir Juffin to fill him in on the details of our hunt for Jiffa. At the same time I asked him to send a call to that crazy forester, to make sure he didn’t decide to just go to bed and leave us without an amobiler. Then we gossiped a bit, you know how I goes.”

“I know.” I smiled in spite of myself. “And what happened then?”

“Then he told me that I should keep an eye on you, that your heart wasn’t in the right place because you were sleeping without your talisman. Just in time! When I looked at you, you had already become half-transparent and were growing more so with every passing second. It was happening so fast! I was scared to death. Then I realized that if some misfortune was underway in your sleep I ought to wake you up. And that everything might be all right then. Obviously, I was right.”

“Yes, you were,” I said rubbing my jowls, still sore where she had slapped me. “How smart you are! Something terrible was happening to me, but what was it? I can’t seem to remember.”

“Max, I think you have to force yourself to recall it. Please, you must!”

“I’ll try. Make sure I don’t start to disappear, though. And don’t slap the living daylights out of me next time, okay?”

“Did it hurt a lot?” asked this fragile lady with the strength of ten men. Then, blushing violently, she said, “I’m sorry, Max. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“Never mind,” I said with a smile. “I enjoyed it in a way. Sort of. I’ll save this bruise as a memento of a wonderful evening together. There must be some way to keep it from fading.”

“I think the only way is to repeat the procedure from time to time,” Melamori said tenderly. “I’m prepared to do it every day if you like. But don’t get distracted, Max. Think. Try to remember.”