The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making (15 page)

Death grew.

Death stretched and lengthened and got heavier and heavier. Her hair curled and spread, and her arms grew to the size of September’s own arms, and her legs grew to the size of September’s own legs, and in no time at all, Death was the size of a real child, and September held her still in her arms, slumped, sleeping, still.

Oh no!
thought September.
What have I done? If my Death has grown so big surely I am doomed!

But Death moaned in her sleep, and September saw, glinting in her mouth, something bright and hard. Death opened her mouth, yawning in her sleep.
Be bold
, September told herself.
An irascible child should be bold
. Gently, she put her blackened, sappy fingers into Death’s mouth.

“No!” cried Death dreaming. September snatched her hand back. “She loved you all those years, it was only that you couldn’t see it!”

September tried again, just grazing the thing with her fingertips.

“No!” cried Death dreaming. September snapped back. “If you had gone right instead of left you would have met an old man in overalls, and he would have taught you blacksmithing!”

September tried one more time, sneaking her fingers past Death’s teeth.

“No!” cried Death dreaming. September recoiled. “If you had only given your son pencils instead of swords!”

September stopped. She felt hot all over, and the hole in her cheek itched, as though there were leaves crinkling in at its edges. She breathed deeply. September smoothed Death’s hair with her ruined hand, which was sprouting new branches even now. She bent and kissed Death’s burning brow. And then she began to sing again, softly:

“Go to sleep, little skylark…” She caught the edge of the thing.

“Fly up to the moon…” It was slippery and sharp, like glass.

“In a biplane of paper and ink…” September pulled. Death groaned. Birds flew up from the night forest, spooked.

“Your wings creak and croon, borne up by balloons…” There was a terrible creaking, crooning sound as the thing in Death’s throat came free. Death’s mouth opened horribly wide, bending back and back and back and her whole body
folded
strangely back around itself as the thing emerged, so that just as September pulled it out entirely, Death vanished with a little sound like the snapping of a twig.

“And your engine is singing for you,” September finished quietly, almost whispering. In her arms she cradled a smoky glass casket, just the size of a child. It was hung with red silk ropes and bells and on its face was a little gold plaque. It read:

Will hilt to hand yet be restored?

Take me up, thy mother’s sword.

September ran her hands over it. She did not understand. But given a magical box, no child will leave it shut. She fumbled with the knots and rang the bells a great many times with her twiggy hands, but finally, under all that blood-colored silk was a little glass latch. September wedged her woody thumb underneath it and all the forest echoed as it popped free. One by one, the mushrooms that made up the Lady’s face began to peel off and float away, until September was surrounded by a gentle whirlwind of delicate, lacy mushrooms and the last curls of her own hair, gone red as knots. She lifted the casket lid.

Inside was a long, sturdy wrench.

#

In Which Our Heroine Succumbs to Autumn, Saturday and the Wyverary are Abducted, and Saturday Has a Rather Odd Dream.

September ran.

The sky behind her had gone an icy lemony-cream color, pushing the deep blue night aside. Dew and frost sparkled on the Worsted Wood, clinging to the silken puffs like stitched diamonds. Her breath fogged. Leaves crushed and rustled beneath her feet. She ran so fast, so terribly fast--but she feared not fast enough. With every step she could feel her legs getting skinnier and harder, like the trunks of saplings. With every step she thought they might break. In the Marquess’s shoes, her toes rasped and cracked. She had no hair left, and though she could not see it she knew her skull was turning into a thatch of bare, autumnal branches. Like Death’s skull. She had so little time.

When they are in a great hurry, little girls rarely look behind them. Especially those who are even a little Heartless, though we may be quite certain by now that September’s Heart had grown heavier than she expected when she climbed out of her window that long ago morning. Because she did not look behind, September did not see the smoky-glass casket close itself primly up again. She did not see it bend in half until it cracked, and Death hop up again, quite well, quite awake, and quite small once more. She certainly did not see Death stand on her tiptoes and blow a kiss after her, a kiss that rushed through all the frosted leaves of the autumnal forest, but could not quite catch a child running as fast as she could. As all mothers know, children travel faster than kisses. The speed of kisses is, in fact, what Doctor Fallow would call a cosmic constant. The speed of children has no limits.

Up ahead of her September could see Mercurio, the spriggans’ village, nestled in the flaming orange trees, loaf-chimneys smoking cozily, the smell of breakfast, pumpkin flapjacks and chestnut tea floating over the forest to her shriveled nose. September tried to call out. Red leaves burst from her mouth in a scarlet puff, and drifted away. She gasped, something between a sob and an exhausted wracking cough.
I’ve lost my voice after all
, she thought. She clutched the wrench to her chest, hooking it through her twiggy elbow, which had grown soft sticky buds, like rosehips. The wrench gleamed in the dawn, burnished copper, its head shaped and carved into a graceful hand, ready to clutch a bolt in its grip. Everything shimmered with morning wetness.

A-Through-L yawned in the town square, his huge neck shining as he stretched it up and out. As September burst into the square she saw the Wyverary playing some kind of checkers with Saturday, using raisiny cupcakes for pieces. Doctor Fallow sat back in a rich, padded chair, smoking a churchwarden pipe with satisfaction. They looked up joyfully to greet her. She tried to smile and open up her arms to hug them. But September could not fault them for the shock and dismay on their faces as they saw her ruined body stumble onto the bread-bricks. She wondered if she still had her eyes left. If they were still brown and warm, or dried up seed pods. September could hardly breathe. Branches poked and stabbed at her as she gasped after her breath. The green smoking jacket despaired. If it had hands it would have wrung them, if a mouth, it would have wept. It cinched itself closer to her waist--only a cluster of maple branches, now--trying to stay close to her.

“September!” cried A-Through-L. Saturday leapt to his feet, upsetting the cupcake-checkers.

Saturday gasped: “Oh, no, no…are you all right?”

September sank to her knees, shaking her head. Saturday put his thin blue arms around her. He was not sure it was allowed, but he could not bear not to. He held her, gingerly, much as she had held Death. Saturday had never had anyone to cradle and protect before, either.

Saturday
, September tried to say.
I understand now
. Red leaves puffed from her mouth. Branches ground on branches in her throat, but no words came. Rubedo and Citrinitas peeked out of one of the low, round houses, clucking piteously. Rubedo stroked his wan crimson face. Citrinitas nervously tied knots in her golden hair. But Doctor Fallow kept smoking his pipe, smacking his lips and blowing rings.

Ell! The Marquess needed me! Because of my mother!
Golden leaves dribbled onto the square. Saturday stroked her brow, and September had a moment, only a moment, to be amazed that he did not think her ugly, that he was not afraid to touch her.

Because she fixes engines, Ell. So this is her
sword
. Do you understand? If it had been anyone else, it would have been something else. Like, for you it might have been a book. For Saturday, a raincloud. If only I knew what she needed a magic wrench for! I am sure if we think hard on it, all three of us, we shall be able to figure it out.
A torrent of orange leaves vomited up from her dry brown mouth. September laughed. More leaves flew. She was probably the only girl in all of Fairyland who could have pulled a wrench, of all the ridiculous things, out of that casket. Whose mother here could have wielded such a weapon? The Wyverary and the Marid exchanged miserable looks.

“We must get her out,” Citrinitas said. “How could this have happened so fast?”

“Does it happen
often
?” snapped Saturday, quite beside himself. A-Through-L’s eyes rimmed slowly with turquoise tears. One fell with a plop onto September’s poor bald head.

“Well, no…but then, we don’t have many human visitors…” Rubedo swallowed wretchedly.

“Autumn,” said Doctor Fallow, the Satrap, the Department Head, “changes everything. If she could only relax, she could be happy. She might even bear fruit, given a few years’ careful pruning. One must accept the way of the world, for it will always have its way, one way or another.”

“But everything doesn’t change,” said A-Through-L. “They have their wedding, every night, just the same. Because every day is harvest and feasting! I may not know Winter or Spring or Summer, but I know my Autumn, I know my
Fall
, that’s
A
and that’s
F
, Doctor Fallow! September is the only thing changing here! Winter never comes. It will never snow. The leaves never die and fall off, they stay red and golden forever. Why not her? Why must she wither all up? What have you done? We only have a few days left to get back to the Marquess…”

Saturday was shaking his head back and forth like a little bull. His face darkened, as though clouds moved beneath his skin. “Did the Marquess tell you to do this to her?” he said coldly.

“Oh, no!” cried Citrinitas. “No, it’s only that she’s Ravished and human and it’s all so unpredictable, the chymical processes that occur in Autumn…”

“But she probably knew,” mumbled Rubedo. “She could have guessed, what might happen. She could have hoped.”

Doctor Fallow smoked his pipe and sat back, his expression unreadable.

A terrible sound broke through the morning, like a tuba being crushed with iron hammers. The sound shook Doctor Fallow from his chair. Saturday laughed cruelly at him, but his laughter caught itself and crawled away as the sound grew only louder. September found she could not get up, her knees had locked into sapling-trunks. They no longer moved at all. Rubedo and Citrinitas shrieked together and dashed into their house, bolting the door. The three of them were left alone, clinging to each other, Ell trying to shelter the little ones with his bound wings, when the lions came.

They pounced with a horrible silence, their paws landing softly. There were two of them, each nearly as big as the Wyverary. Their fur shone deep blue, deeper than Saturday’s skin, the color of the loneliest winter night, and all in their manes and tails silver stars shone, burned. They roared together, and the terrible tuba-sound blared once more. Saturday screamed, and if she could have put out an arm to comfort him, September would have. But it all happened faster than she could understand. One lion snatched up Saturday in his jaws. Drops of Marid blood, the color of seawater, spilled onto the square. But he did not scream when the lion’s teeth cut him. The boy only closed his eyes and reached out for September, imploring, even though he knew it to be useless. The second lion slashed Ell’s face with his claws, leaving a long gash in his red scales. There must have been a treacley-dark poison in those claws, for the great red Wyverary tottered and fell with a crash down to the forest floor in a deep sleep. The starry lion grabbed Ell by the scruff and began dragging him away. Neither of them paid the slightest bit of attention to September.

No!
cried September. But only leaves fell out of her mouth, and she could not move.
No!

But even if she could have spoken loud and true, it would have been no help. The lions’ eyes were shut. The Marquess’s lions slept, and dreamed, even as they did their work, and carried off their prizes into the bright, clear day.

September screamed without a sound and cried bitterly and beat her twig-hands against the ground. Her heart ached as though a knife had quietly slipped between her ribs. She looked up to the cheerful sun, as ever unimpressed by little girls’ sorrows, and tears of amber maple-sap squeezed out of her eyes.

September finally fell backwards, quite out of herself, and the world slid away, for a little while.

September dreamed. She knew she was dreaming, but she could not help it. She was quite well and whole and sitting at a very fine table with a lace tablecloth draped over it. On the table lay several greasy, grimy iron gears and a great number of mismatched nuts and bolts. September did not know what they were for, but she felt certain that if she could fit them together as they were meant to go, everything would suddenly become clear.

“Shall I serve?” said Saturday. He sat primly across from her, dressed in a fine Sunday suit, with a high collar and cufflinks. His hair was neatly combed, his face scrubbed clean. The Marid took up one of the gears and scraped it with a butter knife. He handed it back to her.

“It’s getting very late, November,” said a young man. He sat very near to her and held her hand. September felt certain she had never seen him before. He had dark red hair and oddly golden skin. His eyes were big and blue. They swam with turquoise tears.

“My name is September…” she said softly. Her voice was weak, as it often is in dreams.

“Of course, October,” said the young man. “You must speak twice as loudly just to be heard in the land of dreams. It is something to do with physicks. But then, what isn’t? Dreams begin with D, and therefore I can help you. To be heard.”

“Ell? Where is your tail? Your wings?”

“It is mating season,” the Wyverary said, straightening his lapels. “We must all look our best, January.”

“She wouldn’t know a thing about that,” said Saturday reproachfully. September saw suddenly that he had a cat in his lap, purring. The cat’s fur was blue, and in his bushy tail was a single, glowing star. “Such a lazy girl. Lax in her studies. If only she’d kept up with her physicks homework, we’d all be safe and sound and eating pound cake.”

“I’m not lazy! I tried!”

September looked down at the buttered gear in her hand. It was smeared with Marid-blood, like seawater.

“Mary, Mary, Morning Bell,” sang a third voice. September turned to see a little girl sitting next to her, swinging her legs under her chair. The girl looked terribly familiar, but September could not think where she could have met her before. She had dull blondish hair bobbed short around her chin, and her face was a bit muddy. She had on a farmer’s daughter kind of dress, gray and dusty, with a yellowish lace at the hem. She rubbed at her nose.

“All praise and glory to the Marquess,” said Saturday reverentially, passing a thick iron gear to the girl. The child accepted it and allowed him to kiss her dusty hand.

“Dances in her garden dell!” she sang. The blonde child giggled and swung her legs harder.

“Please, oh, please, start making sense!” cried September.

“I always make perfect sense, December,” said Ell, smoothing pomade into his hair. “You know that.”

The dream-Saturday held up his hands. They were chained in ivory manacles. “Did it mean me, do you think?” he said. “When it said you’d lose your heart?”

“But when the night comes rushing on,” sang the girl, laughing uncontrollably. She took a bite out of her iron bolt. It crumbled like cake in her mouth. “Down falls Mary, dead and gone!” The girl smiled. Her teeth were full of black oil.

And for a moment, just a moment, September saw them all: Saturday, Ell, and the strange blonde girl, bound and bolted and chained in a dreary, wet cell, sleeping, skeletal, dead.