---Chapter 11

The jump through the dimension boundaries was concluded just as smoothly and easily as the previous four had been. Lenny was going to warn Leaflow to touch the bar without a glove on, but the jump started before he could and Leaflow came through despite the interference of the glove. Jax held on to the wire that Lenny had strung so that he did not have to move from the seats he lay on.

The world they landed on appeared, through the windows, natural and serene. Far off a few small spirals of smoke rose from what must have been a cluster of houses, though it only appeared as a brown and yellow smudge from a distance. They were perched on top of a green hill, with a dirt roadway curving across its face to bend down and cross a river which lay half-way between the village and dimension-traveling train. After the river the road turned at a sharp angle and headed off to the right, disappearing into a thick woodland. In between the train and road by the river was an expanse of almost-level green grass and willowy bushes, speckled here and there with purple or blue flowers. Off to the left, the ground became more hilly. That was where the sun was rising at the moment, throwing its yellow, sparkling rays across the whole scene. It was the most peaceful and pretty place Lenny had seen yet.

Which caused some trouble. As soon as Amber and her helper Raggsy returned from running the Di-jump, everyone had to decide who would go out looking for a healer and who would remain behind. Lenny wanted to lead the expedition, as he had the most experience dimension traveling except for Jax. Jax, of course, could not go, but still sulked about it and tried ti influence who would be staying behind with him.

Amber pointed out that she had not been given the chance to see many worlds yet, so she should go, while both Patch and Raggsy complained about being tired of sitting around in the train and wanting some adventure.

Leaflow had already decided to stay behind to watch Jax and did not say anything during the argument, but he watched their debate with an ironic amusement that was more stinging than any words could have been.

“You don’t even want to go on our adventure, Patch,” Lenny exclaimed, “why do you want to leave the train?”

“I need to stretch my legs,” the pirate returned stubbornly.

“Yeah, an’ who wants to stay behind with the weird ghoul, anyway?” Raggsy added, looking towards Leaflow pointedly.

“This is no time for silly argu--!” Lenny began, almost shouting in his fury.

But Amber cut him off, her face red with frustration. “Oh, alright, I’ll stay behind! Yes, that way you boys will stop arguing. Now, go, we don’t have the time to waste!”

Everyone fell quiet, no happier than before even while a decision had been come to. Leaflow was still quietly mocking, Jax had turned his face to the window in disgust and Raggsy sat snarling noiselessly on the floor. Patch was gripping his sword’s hilt with a sullen, frowning face and Amber had her arms crossed in front of her most provokingly. Lenny felt so confused and angry that he hardly wanted to go out now, or stay behind. He did not want to have to be in the same room with his companions at all.

In a sudden, tearing pang, he wished that he had never started on this adventure at all. His apartment in Belltoh sounded like heaven.

Closing his eyes, he paced up and down for a minute, drawing in deep breaths. Finally he felt cool enough to organize himself and said, “so, I should take Raggsy and Patch with me to look for a healer?”

“That might be best,” Amber agreed, obviously through clenched teeth. Lenny was about to agree, when he thought of something and drew her aside a little, though she held herself stiffly and gave him a murderous glance for it.

“Do you think that’s wise, you staying here alone with Leaflow when we hardly know him?”

“Jax is here too.”

“But he’s hardly fit to do anything if Leaflow tries any violence.”

“I have my gun. We’ll be fine.” Amber pulled away from him and stalked across the room, stopping to say briefly to Raggsy, “be careful out there,” before leaving through the door towards the engine.

Feeling both miserable and frustrated at once, Lenny beckoned to his chosen companions and walked out onto the porch between the passenger car and caboose. He jumped down from there onto the ground next to the couplers, hardly waiting for the others before continuing towards the river that he had seen at a distance earlier on.

The grass rustled pleasantly under his feet, unseen birds shrilled warnings of their coming and the sun shone warmly. But he did not notice it any more. He was fighting to resolve his anger and come back to the cool-headedness that he usually preserved. Willowy branches whipped at his arm as he pushed through little thickets and cockleburrs stuck to his shoes when he brushed passed them. He did not stop until Raggsy called out, “hold on a minute, Lenny. There’s sometin’ here.”

The tone of the Ratperson’s voice made Lenny stop and quickly collect his wits. Walking back, he saw the Ratperson crouched over something while Patch gazed around alertly, hand still on his cutlass.

“What is it, Raggsy?”

“Look, a track.” His companion indicated an impression in the soft ground, shaped roughly like a bird’s footprint but many times larger. “And there’s sometin’ kind’a funny about it, if you know what I mean. Sometin’ not so funny once you think about it.”

Lenny looked closer and saw that the earth inside the footprint had turned a soft, lavender shade. Outside of the track, the dirt was pale brown or covered in thick green sod. But inside it, there was a tainting.

“The corruption, you think?”

“Smells like it.” Raggsy tapped the side of his snout knowingly. “That same dark, evil taint. And there’s more of them back here. See, the big ‘ol bird was restin’ in these bushes--”

He pointed out a clump of willow that had been crushed down into a sort of nest.

“Then it waddled over to where we’re standin’ and took off.”

Raggsy displayed the last, scraped foot marks and the softly brushed over grass where its wings had dragged.

“But why are its footprints purple, do you think? No other creatures we’ve seen before leave marks like that.”

“I don’t know,” Raggsy shrugged, holding up his claws in a sign of bewilderment.

Patch scowled, spitting to the side. “Evil things be setting into these worlds for sure. Mad storms, poisonous beasts. Perhaps it oozes poison from its heels, did ye think 'o that?”

Raggsy hastily wiped his claws on his coat. “Er, maybe you’re right. Heh, I’d better not touch those things so much.”

His head cleared by the reminder of their enemy, Lenny looked all around the horizon. The train sat on top of a gentle rise behind them, the sun glinting off of it cheerfully. Its boiler had been allowed to go out, so no steam or heat waves issued from the black and copper-red engine. In front of the travelers, bushes and tall grass waved peacefully along the rushing river, with the smoke from the houses just visible beyond it, on top of the hill. The sky was almost cloudless, with just a few white puffs to ornament it. Somewhere in this peaceful scene, a giant creature of the corruption flew or stalked, leaving massive, tainted footprints behind.

Taking a deep breath, Lenny said, “we had better be on our guard from now on. There’s no telling how much of this world the evil power has taken over. We could be watched by our enemies all of the time.”

In a more grave mood, the three decided to cross the river and inquire at the town for a doctor. There was a ford where the river was crossed by the road, which they angled towards as they continued. The water’s noise got louder as they approached, while even Lenny could smell the wet, green scent of it.

They crossed a small path running back towards the east, before coming out onto the road. It was dry and well-packed, with only a few bumps or holes in it. Lenny saw tracks and guessed that they belonged to a cart, by the narrowness of their wheels. But he was not sure, as he had seen so many forms of conveyance on the worlds he had visited recently that it could be anything.

When they came near the ford, they saw that it was a shallow, rippling sheet of water which ran over a graveled path. Along the left side of the ford, the path fell off in a tiny cliff, causing a constant, miniature cascade across the whole river. On the right, the path was flush with the river bed. It was not a wide section of water, though the sun above them was not warm enough to make getting wet sound appealing. Lenny was about to brace himself in order to take the first step, when he noticed a woman crouching a little way up from the ford on their side, washing laundry in the running water. She had not heard them coming, as the sound of water overpowered their footsteps.

Lenny held out his hand to the others, saying quietly, “you two stay here. I’ll go talk to her alone. We, er, might scare her coming in a group.”

Honestly, he thought that just Raggsy or Patch alone was enough to scare someone. A giant rat wearing a helmet and a pirate with a patch would not be reassuring people to meet suddenly.

As he approached, Lenny noticed that the woman was dressed in a very coarse, old-fashioned dress of brown cloth, caught around the middle with a belt, while a blue shawl hung over her shoulders. He wondered, briefly, if he should have worn the jacket from Amber’s world while on this one.

Putting on his most gentle face, he came up beside her. “Um, ma’am? Excuse me, ma’am?”

She turned her head to look at him suddenly, making him start. It was not that her face was terribly inhuman or even ugly, but it was definitely strange. Straight, black hair fell around it in shining locks, pushed out of her forehead with a hand that had obviously been wet at the time. The shape of her face was not horse-like, nor rodent-like, but it was long. Long and slim, with a thin, pointed nose and very dark eyes. In fact, there did not seem to be any white at all to those eyes, just a ring of dim, dark color in a sea of black. Her eyebrows were thick and gently curving, while her skin was pale almost to the point of having a faint luminescence.

It was hard to say who was more greatly surprised. Lenny stared, while the woman drew away a little, clutching a small garment she had been washing tightly in her slender hands.

Getting hold of himself, the young man held up his hands in a sign of peace. “I mean you no harm. Please, can you tell me where a healer can be found? Someone who can cure poisons and fatal illnesses.”

This did not seem to reassure the woman at all. She did not say a word, just moved one wet, delicate hand to point down the river towards the east, along the a path which ran there.

“That way? There is a healer?”

She nodded, before starting to gather up her clothes, wet or dry, and pack them into a basket. Swiftly, she picked it up and strode away west, looking back over her shoulders once or twice to make sure that he was not following. Ashamed that he had frightened her, though he had got what he came for, Lenny turned back and rejoined his friends.

“There should be someone to help us this way.” He led them in the direction she had indicated, down a narrow, winding trail that had been made through the grass by feet walking on it rather than by plan.

“Did she say anything?” Patch asked, glancing over his own shoulder to see if she was still in sight.

“No, I’m afraid I must have scared her,” Lenny admitted, “though...her face looked a little odd to me.”

“Well, there’s going to be non-humans on some of these worlds,’ Raggsy pointed out, “like me and that Leaflow thing. Whatever he is.”

“He’s a druid, rat,” Patch inserted, “and ye should not mock such people. They look strange, but that’s because they hold the power of magic in their hands. They talk to spirits and call on dark arts to aid them. We must be careful how we treat him.”

“I still t’ink he’s just a weirdo.” Raggsy shrugged contemptuously.

Lenny let them debate peacefully behind his back while he led the way. It did not matter what Leaflow was, to him, as long as the cloaked one was honest in his offer of help. So far, he had aided them greatly. As long as he continued in that vein, Lenny was content to think of him as simply being a specimen of the type of people which inhabited that world. One of the last that did, in fact.

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They walked beside the river for a long time, into the country of small hills and twisty, scrubby trees which he had noticed to the east earlier on. The grass here was lower, with little herbaceous shrubs and many colors of flower growing in it. Some patches almost appeared to have been tended like a garden, they grew so neatly and with no weeds in them. In fact, Lenny noticed that one patch of shrubs they passed had leaf-tips that had been cut off squarely, as if with pruners or a knife. His hopes rose when he saw it: perhaps the healer used them for medicines. If so, they must be getting close.

But it was longer than he expected before they crested a little hill and saw a tiny valley with a house in it before them. They were still not far from the river, which could be heard roaring softly to their right, but the grass was mellow and the trees scrubby rather than bushy. The path led right to the house’s doorstep, with a few stray fowls rather like chickens pecking around in the grass near it. They had a coop off to one side, open in front like a shed. There was a well, too, with quaint roof and windless. The house looked like it had been, at one time, very neatly kept with a thatched roof, stone walls and many little raised beds of plants growing outside of it. But now the thatch was smashed in, the red-painted door broken and the one glass window shattered to pieces.

“Oh-oh.” Lenny’s hopes sank away out of sight. Something had happened at the healer’s house and it looked bad.

“Raiders of some sort,” Patch asserted with a snort, “don’t they know better than to attack a peaceful leech? Bad luck always follows.”

“I don’t smell any corruption, though,” Raggsy put in, which was somewhat reassuring.

Hoping that the healer might still be somewhere nearby, Lenny strode down into the valley and up to the house’s door. Peering in, he saw a dark wreckage where there had been a cozy room. Ashes were on the floor, glass sparkling before the window and all of the furniture overturned. There was a wooden cupboard which had been broken into and various bottles thrown from it onto the floor. Most of them were shattered, though a few remained intact. Worst of all, there was a small smear of blood on the wall near the door, faded and crusty.

“Hello?” Lenny called, but even to him the sound was small and hollow. There was no one in that place. As far as he could see, the healer was must be dead. Sadly, he backed away from the opening. Then his eyes fell on a piece of paper tacked to the stone bricks of the wall.

Patch had gone around the house to look behind it, while Raggsy searched the poultry shed. So Lenny read the message silently, to himself. It was written in the language which he understood, just like all of the worlds he had been on so far, but the handwriting was so frilly and the dialect so fanciful that it was difficult to read. Somewhat simplified, this is what he found written there;

'By order of Sir Onymynon, bailiff of the Serynon county and indivisible (which seemed to Lenny to be an odd word to use) ruler of the Lumyn people, or any other inhabitants nowwithstanding, of that sector:

The owner of these premises has been arrested by our grand bailiff’s supreme order on the charges of witchcraft, unwholesome religious practices and calling the purple Cruels upon us. Of these charges she shall be convicted on next Semestide day, at the meridian of the sun, and summarily burnt at the stake. All you who would aid or abet this witch shall face a like extinction. All who wish to see the execution of a foul witch shall gather on Semestide day before our grand bailiff’s castle of Hur’yallon, where the stake shall be set and made to blaze.

Written by the hand of Sir Onymynon’s chief sectary, Gallord, and carried out by his captain of the guards, Senwithyn.’

By the time Lenny had finished reading this missive, both Patch and Raggsy had returned. The pirate had found the tracks of horses and some other large beast back in the woods, apparently where they had been tied up for a short time. There were also the footprints of heavily-booted men, which all led up to the house from the beasts tracks and back again. Looking around, Lenny noticed that there were many tracks in the dust nearby and in the grass as well. He did not often pay attention to those things, as city cement does not hold prints well. He told himself that as long as they were away from cities he would have to try to pay more attention.

Raggsy had found a handful of warm eggs, which he tucked in his pockets, and a few bottles of a thin, brown liquid stashed in the straw. He thought that it might be some sort of alcohol and brought them with him as well. Lenny read both his companions the message from start to ending, upon which Patch shook his head sorrowfully,

“Well now, there goes our chance to use this healer on Jax! They’ve already taken off with her. What shall we do about it?”

“I guess we’ll have to look for someone else in the town.” Lenny shook his head. “Though it is frustrating, after coming all this way. This message says that the 'witch’ was convicted of calling 'purple cruels’ into this area, but I doubt she really has anything to do with it. Unless--”

He broke off, thinking. “Unless she is the Power Core of this world. Then I guess the creatures would be her fault.”

“I don’t smell anyt’ing evil around here.” Raggsy shrugged, moving over to poke his head into the house, then draw it out with a shake. “Naw, this couldn’t be a Power Core’s house. They would smell of it, just like Mendo Drann did.”

“You can smell the purple corruption on a person?” Lenny asked him, realizing how useful this might be to them when it came time to find all of the Power Cores.

“Oh yeah.” The Ratperson tapped the top of his helmet with a claw, cunningly. “It strikes me up here just like the stink of dead Ratpeople, if you know what I mean. Bad, not somethin’ you want to mess around with. And all of those creatures smelled like it, too. If only I had stuck with Jax that one day, I might have been able to smell the creature coming and warn him!”

“It’s not your fault.” Lenny shook his head again. “We should have thought of going in pairs before then. But I have one question for you...if you can scent corrupt creatures...Tell me, does Leaflow smell like one?”

“Now that’s the funny thing.” Raggsy gave him a sideways look. “One of the reasons that I think he’s so strange, you see. He doesn’t smell like one of those t’ings, but he doesn’t have much of a scent at all. Just kind’a smells like leaves and bark and damp earth, t’me. You humans are all pretty distinct, but not him.”

“That is odd,” Lenny agreed, but he felt relieved more than anything. He did not care what the people of that world smelled like, as long as it was not of the corrupt power center. It took a weight off of his mind knowing for certain that Leaflow was not one of them, no matter what else he might be.

Looking up at the sky, he saw that the sun was swiftly ascending the blue. “But what we really need to do now is find a healer for Jax. Come on; let’s go ask around in the village.”

They backtracked through the hills and across the flat by the river until they reached the ford. The woman had not returned to finish her washing. Nor had anyone else come to take her place. Water rippled gently over the gravel, glinting white and silver at every peak. Lenny stepped into it, closely followed by his companions. It was cold, so he moved as quickly as possible without losing his footing. Water splashed up around his legs at every step, dampening his pants.

Once they reached the other side, he hopped out swiftly onto the dry dirt of the path. His shoes were soaked through, but the sun was warm enough to chase the chill away. Squelching and swishing, the three made their way along the road up towards the houses which could be seen peeking over top of the ridge.

All of the buildings were made of either stone or thick timbers and plaster, with thatched roofs and brick chimneys. Some had flowers in boxes by the windows, which were mostly glass though some simply had wooden shutters. Other houses bore cloth banners with strange markings on them hung by the doors. The road was still only dirt, though some houses had walks of river stones. It was dusty, rutted and rough underfoot, where it was not spotted by brown heaps which Lenny carefully avoided. Many houses had sheds or stables beside them, which held a mixture of fat, stubby horses, lean cows with curly horns or poultry. There were people moving about the streets, working at booths set up near the houses or loitering in front of them. They all had the slim, dark-eyed look of the woman they had met by the ford and were dressed in plain, simply colored clothes. Most of them gave the three companions odd looks, or even walked pointedly away when they approached. If Lenny tried to come up to speak to one, they would turn away, becoming absorbed in doing something else. Or even slip away in a different direction.

Finally, after spending some time strolling up and down the streets, they met someone who stood and waited for them. He was a tall, strong-looking man with a pointed cap on his head and a long, thick stick held cross-ways in his hands.

“Why are you here, wondering our streets and bothering our people?” The man asked in a thick accent, “what do you want, strangers from the Outlands? Your Outlandish ways are bothering the townsfolk!”

“We don’t mean to frighten anyone,” Lenny explained, holding out his hands in exasperation. “we only want to find a healer for a friend of ours. He’s sick and needs one badly!”

“Hah, that’s what you’ll say.” The man regarded them all suspiciously, both Patch and Raggsy trying to look innocent under his gaze and failing. Lenny just looked earnest, which he was in the perfect mood to convey. Perhaps this was what decided the man with the stick to say what he did next.

“Alright, follow me then and I’ll take you to Mother Hammyn. But no tricks!”

He led the way with great strides over to a house on the edge of town, which had more flowers and plants growing about it than most of the townhouses, though not as much as the arrested healer’s house had growing around it.

Outside the house, an old, old woman was stirring a cauldron with what looked like blood and skin swirling around in it. When they came closer, a strong smell struck the three travelers, but at the same time Lenny saw the skeins of yarn hanging on a stick nearby and realized that she was dying string in a dye vat.

“Mother Hammyn!” their guide called, “I have visitors for you. Obviously from the Outlands, but they say that they have a friend who needs your skills.”

The old woman turned towards them with a sideways movement, like a crab, and tilted her head up at a sharp angle to listen. “Ah? What’s wrong with your friend, do you know?”

Lenny came closer, fighting to breathe in the thick, steamy odors pouring up from the cauldron. “He’s, er, been poisoned, ma’am. A wound on his throat that he got from an enemy. Will you come look at it?”

“Not until I know enough to know what salves to bring!” the healer protested, giving her cauldron another stir with a stick. Of all the people Lenny had ever seen, she looked most like a fairy-tale witch. But he told himself not to jump to conclusions based on appearances.

“Well, it is some sort of poison, as I said. He needs help urgently. Perhaps you could bring a variety of salves at once? We could help carry whatever you need.”

“What color is the flesh around the wound?” the woman pressed, ignoring his last statement.

Lenny glanced back at his companions, who were standing beyond the edge of the steam. They shrugged, so he told the truth, “dark and purple. It was a creature of the night, you see, and--”

“Ah!” The woman shrieked suddenly, looking at them with an intense fear in her eyes. “Purple, that’s the color of the cruels! Be gone! Be gone! You must have something to do with them if you are touched by their color. I could not heal it if I would! Be gone!”

And, with surprising quickness, she began hobbling towards the house. Lenny moved as if to stop her, before finding a cudgel’s end waving in his way. The man who had brought them waved it threateningly. “Nay, begone as she said! Off with you, workers of evil and things of the night, or I’ll call the guard on you. Go, now, or I truly will! And you can join the witch burning tomorrow on Semestide day at the castle. Go!”

Lenny looked from the retreating healer to the man with the stick in bewilderment. “I only wanted help...Jax was attacked by the things of the night, not--”

“Leave!” The man’s narrow face was turning red and he twirled the stick around menacingly. Patch made as if to draw his cutlass, but Lenny shook his head. “No, we’ll go. Come on.”

They were on the far side of the town from the train, but their accuser was blocking the way back through it. Lenny walked past the last houses with his companions following, out onto a space of hard-packed dirt on the edge of the hill. Here, the hillside fell of steeply towards the south, opening out into a wide valley of green grass. Peaks of spiky stone protruded from this green carpet, like petrified trees reaching for the sky. In the center of the valley there was a tall tableland with steep cliffs rising on almost every side of it. Lenny could see a small forest laying to its left like a darker green cloud. On top of the tableland stood a tall, gray fortress with pendants flapping from the turrets and sunlight glinting from the windows. It appeared to be built in a triangular shape, with two tall towers at the rear and a shorter one facing the hill where the travelers stood. The center of this hollow triangle was mostly taken up by a congregation of buildings, including a central one with a steeply-sloping roof. There was a road cutting steeply down the side of the hill they stood on, running across the valley floor and then ascending a man-made ramp to the level of the tableland. The castle had a wide space in front of it with a few trees growing around a clearing of pale dirt. Though the castle was at least two miles off, Lenny thought that he could make out a thin line standing up in this dirt space: the stake with which the witch was to burnt.

Lenny turned away from it to gaze back towards the area where the train was sitting. “Perhaps we could find someone in the other direction to help us. Or jump to another world...”

He looked up at the sun, which was nearing the middle of the sky. By now he was becoming tired and hungry, as well as depressed by the poor reception they had received. It must have been evening in Belltoh, because he was starting to feel a real need for sleep. When had the last time he had slept been? Back on Patch’s planet, while Jax went exploring it. Since then, they had all experienced adventures and stress.

“What do you think?” He looked at his friends questioningly.

They had been nodding and winking at each other for the last few minutes, making expressive gestures that he could not quite catch. Now Raggsy slapped him on the shoulder with one thin, delicate paw and said, “how about this, pal. You head on back to the train and make sure that everyone is still okay there. Meanwhile, Patch and I will look around a bit more. You look weary, but we had a rest on Leafy’s world, see?”

“I guess.” Lenny felt awkward about leaving them, especially after having argued so vehemently about being the one to go out. But he was still worried about the three people left at the train together and he was very tired.

“Aye, you had better return,” Patch urged, “as long as you think you can make it by yourself?”

The last words were said with just a little bit of challenge, enough to prickle without enraging. Lenny drew himself up and nodded once, decidedly. “Of course I can, in the daylight. Though I would prefer not to split up...”

“Look, Lenny.” Raggsy leaned over. “I still don’t trust that Leaflow fellow. Why don’t you run on back and check on the kids? I wouldn’t want anythin’ to happen to either of them while we were away.”

“Alright, alright!” Lenny threw his hands up in the air. “You two are planning something and want to get me out of the way. But no trouble! Don’t kidnap that old healer by force or anything, because she will just punish us by poisoning Jax more. Be careful.”

“Don’t worry.” Patch gave him a squinty wink with his one good eye. “We’ll be perfect angels. Won’t we, mate?”

The last words were addressed to Raggsy, who nodded and tapped his snout in agreement. Thoroughly dismissed, Lenny turned and began working his way down the south-eastern slope of the hill. It was steep going for a time, until he reached the open plains beside the river. There the willowy brush was thick and he had to fight through it towards the west until he reached the road.

“I hope no one from the town is coming this way, towards the train,” he muttered, “and I also hope that Raggsy and that pirate don’t get into too much trouble. What could they be planning?”

He had no answer for this, other than some sort of rescue for Jax.