Crewel Lye (34 page)

“To trick me into reanimating her!” Jordan said bitterly. “I would never have done it if I'd known she was the evil Threnody.”

“But Renee told you not to do it,” Ivy pointed out.

“She knew I'd do it anyway.”

“But when she came here to die, four hundred years ago, you had no spell. She thought you were dead to stay, didn't she? Why did she choose to become a ghost--or if not a ghost, why did she come here to die?”

Jordan shook his head, bewildered. “I guess I can't make sense of it at all. If she had had any change of heart, she could have dug up my bones herself; she knew where they were. But she's demon-spawn; I never truly understood her nature. Her mother destroyed her father, and she destroyed me. Now she's taken Renee from me, and left me not only desolate but branded as big a fool as a ghost as I was in life. The cruelty other lies just goes on and on!” And he sat on the edge of the bridge and put his head in his hands.

Pook approached from one side, not knowing how to comfort the man who had loved so unwisely, and even the moat monster looked sad. The tragedy of Jordan's first life had seemed to be beyond redemption, yet he had redeemed it in death--only to have it eclipsed by the tragedy of his second life.

Ivy had some idea how he felt. After all, she had just lost Stanley Steamer. But somehow it didn't make enough sense to satisfy her. “I'm going to ask Hugo,” she announced.

Jordan did not answer. He just sat silently, gazing into the water of the moat, his new life turned to ashes.

Ivy had been grounded for getting into some perfectly innocent trouble on the way to the North Village several days ago. This time, she knew, the trouble was not innocent. Lives had been restored--and ruined. Castle Roogna had nearly fallen. What explanation could Hugo offer that would make any of this right? But she had to ask.

She left the little group on the drawbridge, returned to the castle, and hurried through the halls. No one noticed her; they were all too upset about the mysterious shaking of the castle. Once they realized what her part in this had been--she quailed before a mental picture of the giant flying hairbrush she had encountered at the Good Magician's castle. Yet that could hardly be the worst of it. What would the other ghosts say to her after what she had done to two of their number?

She reached the mirror and called Hugo again. “You're the only one smart enough to figure this out, Hugo,” she said tearfully when his face appeared in the glass. “I'm in a big awful lot of trouble!”

“But I'm not smart!” he protested, none too eager to get involved in her trouble. It took no genius to know that what Ivy considered little trouble was big trouble to anyone else, and what she called big trouble was apt to be downright dangerous.

“Yes, you are!” she insisted. Hugo was stuck for it; he changed his mind for a smarter one.

Ivy told him what had happened, and Hugo listened intelligently. “Why, the answer is obvious,” he said as she concluded; he explained it to her.

Ivy brightened phenomenally. “That's it!” she exclaimed happily. “That solves everything! Oh, thank you, Hugo!” And she dashed out of the still-confused castle.

She returned to Jordan, who remained seated forlornly on the bridge, in the gloomy company of the ghost horses, the moat monster, and a stray zombie. “I know why!” she cried.

“Because she hated me and wanted to humiliate me yet again,” Jordan mumbled.

“No! Because she truly loved you, Jordan!”

Jordan looked up. “Some love!” he growled.

“Now listen, you dumb barbarian,” Ivy told him severely. “You don't know a thing about women!”

“On target,” he agreed morosely.

“Threnody knew about Yin and Yang, right? That they were just different sides of the same Magician?”

“She had to know,” he said lugubriously.

“So she knew that all the evil that was in Yang was in Yin, too, only it didn't show. Because the whole man is the sum of his parts. If she married Yin, she was marrying Yang, too--and Castle Roogna would fall before she even got to Yin, since she had to return there in order for him to win. And since they were the same Magician, she knew that all those bad spells that were trying to kill you were really from Yin as well as Yang; in fact, maybe Yin mixed up the white spells himself, to be quite sure you'd be killed, without King Gromden knowing why. Because that Magician liked his evil side better, but had to do the contest to get Good King Gromden's approval. So the contest really was fixed, with no way Yin could win. Threnody knew that.”

“Yes,” Jordan agreed, seeing it. “And she helped them get rid of me. Was that love?”

“Yes! Because she knew Yin-Yang would kill you all the way dead if he realized she loved you. And he was a Magician, a strong one, and he was going to be King no matter how the contest turned out, so no one could stop him. He would burn your body to ashes and scatter them in the sea, or seal them in stones, or something, so there'd be no chance at all for you ever to recover. And because she loved you, she had to pretend she hated you, because he was already suspicious and probably would have killed you anyway; there was a lot of evil in him.”

Jordan nodded, becoming interested. “Yin-Yang was evil; surely he had nothing good for me in mind. I was just a tool for his ambition, to be used and thrown away. Even without Threnody, he would have had to get rid of me so no one would know how he cheated. But Threnody didn't have to--to make me love her, then kill me herself!”

“She didn't, not exactly,” Ivy said. “She didn't know you before you came for her, and then she tried to kill you, but gradually, as she got to know you, she got to love you, too. She told the truth when she said she loved you. She had never loved any man other than her father before, but you proved to her she was, after all, human. Then she really had to kill you!”

“Huh?” Even the ghost horses and the moat monster and the zombie looked perplexed at this.

Ivy realized that Hugo's clear explanation was getting a bit garbled in translation. She concentrated her mind and tried again. “Actually, it was Yang's evil death-spell that killed you. Then Threnody knew he'd finish the job if she didn't act quickly. So she cut up your body and hid the pieces very carefully to be sure she could find them again. She knew she could bring you back to life--after the Magician had forgotten about you. That's why she told that cruel lie--to save you from real death! She was lying to the Magician when she said she hated you. She told you the truth when she said she loved you.”

“I don't know--” Jordan began doubtfully.

“Remember when you were in Threnody's body, holding the evil sword, and you couldn't tell Pook the truth?” Ivy asked. “You lied--to fool the sword, not Pook! Well, Threnody was in a similar situation, because Yin-Yang was more dangerous than that black sword ever had been.”

Jordan brightened, then dulled again. “But she never did bring me back.”

“Because Yang remained suspicious. Evil people are like that; it's the good people who are too trusting. Yang must have watched her all the time. Renee told you how unhappy her marriage was! It must have been truly terrible--because she really hated the Magician and had to pretend she loved him. Finally she couldn't take it any more. She realized he would never give her a chance to return to you. Not while he lived. Not before she was an old hag. She could do nothing about him, because his Magician's power was much more than hers could ever be, and also, he was the King. The moment she made any motion to dig up your bones, he would have known, and destroyed you both in terrible fashion. So she joined you the only way she could--in death. She loved you enough to die for you. She hadn't known about the ghosts at Castle Roogna.”

“Yes...” Jordan said. Wishing he could believe. “But why didn't she tell me then?”

“Two reasons. Yin-Yang knew she was dead, but didn't know she had become a ghost; only people with horrendously unresolved problems become ghosts. But when she said anything about her identity, the Magician would recognize her and know it wasn't over and take steps to finish it, if only by digging up your bones and burning them. She couldn't risk that! So, to protect you as a ghost, she lied to you again.”

“But Yin-Yang didn't live forever!” Jordan protested. “After he died, she could have told me!”

“No. You hated Threnody for what you thought she had done to you. You would have thought it was just another lie. You were coming to love Renee; if she told you, all that she could expect was that you would hate her--as you did when her identity was revealed just now. She loved you and just wanted your love in return; her name didn't matter to her. So she loved you as Renee, and you loved her, and that was enough. Until you messed it up by returning her to life. And then she couldn't tell you, for the same reason, because you wouldn't listen, so she just went away, heartbroken, and I guess she'll turn herself into a skunk-cabbage or something and wilt away.”

“But Renee helped me Find my bones!”

“Because she wanted what was best for you, and life was best. If it hadn't been for her, you wouldn't have died before, so she helped give that life back to you. She felt she owed it to you, to make up for the way she had ruined a fine man. She didn't know you would bring her back, too, and didn't know how to handle it. She had expected you to return to life, slowly forget about her, and find someone new. Then she would have done the right thing at last and made up for her cruel lies.”

Jordan considered that. “But she really didn't try very hard to convince me.”

“What use?” Ivy asked. “Your mind was closed. And she's a proud woman. She wasn't going to beg. She never begged in her life; she just did what she had to. So when you rejected her--”

Jordan was stricken. “True, true! I have wronged her!”

“Well, you didn't know. You're sort of proud, too. But now it's all right. You can go to her!”

Jordan seemed awed. “All that she's done--she did for love of me! Even her crudest lies! I was too ready to believe in her guilt!”

“Well, so was I,” Ivy said. “Until Hugo explained it all to me. But of course, I'm only five years old; I don't understand about romance.”

“All those centuries!” Jordan lamented. “What Renee told me is true; she was miserable because she could not marry her true love--who was me! I must beg her forgiveness !” He got up and hurried in the direction Threnody had gone.

Pook started to follow, then decided not to; some scenes were better without audiences. “I guess she'll forgive him,” Ivy said with satisfaction. “She can change her form; she can change her mind, too.” She looked around. “Oh, I've just got to hug somebody! You!” And she hugged Puck, the little ghost horse. “And you.” She hugged Pook, and Peek, and even the nose of the moat monster. “But not you,” she decided, encountering the zombie.

She looked toward the orchard; did she see two figures merging behind the trees? She realized that she would not see Jordan again after this day, for Threnody would never enter the castle alive. Not with her curse. She might be demon-spawned, but she had love and conscience and surely a soul, and she didn't want the castle to fall. The happy couple would have to go elsewhere, and that meant Pook and his family would go, too. Ivy knew she would be very sad about that when she got over her present happiness.

“I suppose I'd better tell my folks about why we've lost two ghosts and a dragon and why the castle shook,” she said to herself. She didn't relish the prospect, but it was best to get it over with early.

She went inside. Things had settled down somewhat now. Her mother was sitting pensively, while Baby Dolph was fussing in his crib. “What's the matter. Mom?” Ivy asked, willing to postpone the inevitable a little longer.

“He's so restless,” Irene said. “I don't know what's the matter. I thought it was because of the earthquake tremor, but that's past now. I'm at my wit's end!”

Ivy studied her little brother. She had resented him from slightly before the moment he arrived at the cabbage, but had never really looked at him. He was an ugly thing, sort of bald and fat and toothless and drooly, and she couldn't see why anyone would want to pay so much attention to him. But the story of Jordan the Ghost and Threnody the Demon-Spawned was fresh in her mind, and she had just had a lesson in prejudice. If Jordan had been ready to believe the truth instead of the cruel lie told to save him--

Suddenly Dolph reminded her of Threnody. It was a completely incongruous impression on the physical side, yet a profound one emotionally. Why did her helpless, roly-poly baby brother remind her of that beautiful woman?

Well, there was one way to find out. Ivy moved closer to the crib and concentrated, enhancing the baby's qualities. “What's his talent?” she asked.

“We don't know, dear,” Irene said. “Sometimes it takes years to discover a person's magic talent, and there's no guarantee it will be worthwhile.” Irene was really worried about that. Ivy saw. She didn't want any child of hers to have a poor talent.

“He's trying to do his magic,” Ivy declared, trusting her little-girl intuition. “But he can't quite do it yet, so he's frustrated.” Ivy was something of an expert on frustration.

Irene smiled, not taking her seriously. Adults could be especially annoying that way. “Whatever you say, dear.”

Ivy continued her concentration, knowing that something was bound to show. It always did when she willed it so. She was sure there was some reason Dolph reminded her of Threnody, and sure she could make this apparent if she just intensified it enough.

Suddenly there was a wolf cub in the crib. “Say, look at that!” Ivy exclaimed, pleased.

Irene looked--and screamed.

In a moment Daddy King Dor and half the personnel of the castle were in the room. They were all edgy because of the earthquake--maybe it should be left at that?--but it was too late. Startled by the scream, Dolph had changed back into a baby. “Aw, you missed it,” Ivy said petulantly. “Dolph's a changer.”

Irene calmed down enough to pay attention. “A what?”

 “Like Threnody. Only he's fast. He does it in an instant, not an hour. He--”

“Who?”

“Threnody. That's a long story.” Ivy looked again at the baby, who was now peacefully sleeping, satisfied with his effort. Dolph no longer looked as disgusting. “Maybe Dolph has demon blood in him.”