---Chapter 17
The world they jumped to appeared to be another quiet woodlands, lighter than Leaflow’s but just as sparsely inhabited. None of the travelers were disappointed. It was land, real land with earth, sky and living things in it. No more blank white nothingness and worlds too far away for the Di-jump to reach. They had re-entered the circle of nine.
After observing everything out of the windows, the travelers had remarked a little smoke coming up from beyond the trees in two different directions. One, to the left, was a thin, narrow column, while straight ahead out of the side windows was a group of thicker streams like what might come up from a town. None of the crew wanted to have another argument, so the plans were quickly and quietly made for who would go and stay.
Everyone was ravenously hungry by now, so Amber and Raggsy took a large basket from the caboose and went down the hill, through the woods towards the larger group of smoke drifts coming up. They had a handful of gold coins with them, part of which had been levied from Patch’s box.
Jax and Leaflow wanted to satisfy their curiosity before anything else, so they decided to travel towards the south, where the smaller column of smoke was rising. Soleeryn wished to hunt for herbs growing in the direct vicinity of the train, near enough to keep it in sight. Patch and Lenny volunteered to stay behind and watch over it in everyone else’s absence.
Raggsy pointed out the streaks of purple on the ground as soon as he jumped down onto it. “Watch it, Amber. Don’t wanna’ step on any of those. You t’ink there’s going to be much food in this place?”
“We’ll just have to see, Raggsy.” Amber smiled, tucking the basket under her arm as she skipped down beside him. “I sure hope there will be. Oh, I wish my mother was bringing us a picnic out into these woods right now! She would have a basket like this one, full of fried chicken, boiled potatoes with plenty of butter, cold lemonade, apple pie, roast beef, crispy, puffy bread rolls--”
“Agh!” Raggsy put a hand to either side of his head. “I can’t stand it! Shut up! Shut up!”
“Then daddy would be coming behind, carrying a biiig water melon under one arm,” Amber went on mischievously, “and a bottle of fine wine or two, all sealed up with red wax. He loved to peel those labels away with his jack knife.”
She stopped with a sigh after this addition, looking down suddenly to conceal a tear in her eyes. “sometimes I do miss them...”
Noticing her depression, Raggsy slapped her on the shoulder with one narrow paw. “Aw, don’t feel too bad, Amber. Lenny was in the dumps at first, too, but everyone is lonely at some point. You’ve got friends, that’s the important t’ing!”
“Was Lenny?” Amber looked up thoughtfully. “I wonder if he’ll ever find his friend, the one who made a different Di-jump. He said that her name was Sara. I think he misses her.”
“Really? I didn’t hear about her. Why do you t’ink that?”
“Just the way he said it.” She gave him a sideways look, then stopped and pointed ahead. “Look, there is an opening in the trees ahead. I think I see the roofs of buildings!”
They hurried forward through the edge of the woods until they came out onto a grassy slope looking over a shallow, wide valley. A city lay sprawled before them with winding, narrow streets, colorful stalls, gracefully-roofed houses and what looked like three pagodas with swept silhouettes standing in the middle of it all. A river ran into the city on one side and out the other and they could just make out boats with angled sails moving along it.
Looking over to their left, above the city, Amber noticed a craggy cliff with a castle set on top of it, banners hanging sadly at half-mast all over its pinnacles. It was made of dark stone and looked grim, standing above the valley with no trees or bushes around it. A thin line of smoke rose from its courtyard, though she could not see the fire.
“This looks like a good place to find food, alright!” Raggsy said enthusiastically, pointing his nose at the town below. “Look at all of those little stall t’ings with fabric roofs. They should be packed with stuff to eat!”
Amber turned away from the castle. “You’re right. It does look like a good place to buy things. Let’s just hope that they don’t notice your furry snout too much!”
Together, they made their way down the hill into the city, where they plunged into the moving flow of dark-haired, colorfully dressed people and disappeared. They did not notice that a dark figure stood at the edge of the woods behind them, watching, before disappearing into the trees again.
---
Jax didn’t ride his hoverboard, giving it up for walking slowly through the thick trees of the forest. He still felt weary from his fight against the poison that had been eating into him, but he was of too lively a character to sit around all day, cooped up in a train car, because of it. He just went easy on himself and enjoyed breathing the fresh air of this world as he strolled along in a southerly direction.
Leaflow walked beside him, apparently appreciating the forest just as much as he did. At least, as far Jax could tell he was enjoying it. The cloaked one had no facial expressions to read except for the angle and color of his eyes, which did not give away much for the greater part of the time.
Tired of the boring quiet, Jax said casually, “you know, I’ll have to thank you again for keeping me alive until Soleeryn could be rescued.”
“Oh? Will you?”
“Yeah, ‘cause having purple energy fighting to destroy your mind is no fun and you stopped it somehow. For a little while, at least.” Jax shuddered, then laughed. “You know, it’s the funniest thing, but I thought that I heard you talking in my head then. Before I woke up the first time. Ridiculous, isn’t it?”
“Very funny.” Leaflow’s tone was dry. For a minute their eyes met and there was no humor in either of them. But there was no antagonism either, only a question and a wall that it could not pass.
They continued on through the woods until they reached a place where the trees thinned. Looking out between them in the direction of the thin smoke, Jax saw a huge iron gateway standing open, with a pair of what appeared to be armed guards just inside the arch on each side. It was the gate of a small, dark castle set on the edge of a craggy cliff, with sad banners hanging from all of its turrets. The smoke came from a dying camp fire just beyond inside the walls, where the guards could have cooked their breakfast or perhaps kept warm through the night.
“The gates are open but there are guards,” Jax muttered, “what’s that mean?”
“Perhaps they are waiting for someone?” Leaflow suggested, crouching in the shade of a bush beside him so as to be invisible to the guards.
“I’ll go find out,” the young man decided, “they look human and not too ferocious. You stay here and watch; they might not take kindly to glowing eyes.”
“And I can pull your buns out of the fire if they do happen to be 'ferocious’.”
“Exactly.” Jax moved a little distance away, buttoning up his coat before sauntering lazily into the open. The guards turned their heads in his direction, but did nothing further until he got near. When he was right outside of the gate they crossed their pole-arms to block him.
“Hi there,” Jax said cheerfully, coming right up almost to the pole arms and peering through at the courtyard. It was a small, graveled affair, with steps leading up onto the wall top and a large door into the main keep. Other than the burned-out fire the yard was empty. “What’s going on here?”
“Saru! Saru! Iyaya, saru!” The guards answered in words he could not understand. For a minute a surprised look crossed Jax’s face, but then he pressed on, pointing into the courtyard. “Hey, this castle’s cool. Can I go inside?”
“Saru, iyaya!” The guards started shoving him away, making violent gestures for him to leave. Finally taking the hint, Jax backed away, holding up his hands defensively.
“Alright, alright, I’m going! Man, you guys are party poopers.”
He turned around and strode back into the trees, where he found Leaflow looking behind himself into the woods reflectively.
“They won’t let me come in. And they speak a strange language, too! It’s rare to find other languages in this area of the worlds we are jumping to, but these fellows have it. What are you looking at?”
“I thought that I heard something moving back there.” Leaflow scanned the woods one more time, then shrugged and turned towards the castle. “Perhaps a deer. So, they aren’t letting anyone in?”
“No, they aren’t!” Jax frowned, staring at the open gate and the guards from behind the trees. After a moment he smiled. “But I have an idea. There might be a secret entrance around one of the other sides, maybe down along the cliff or around back. What do you say we play sneak-thief and find out what’s really in there that they are guarding so carefully?”
“If you wish,” Leaflow agreed, a few yellow sparks dancing in his eyes for a moment. “But we must not get caught, or else there could be trouble.”
Jax grinned and held up a thumb, before they went sneaking off through the border of trees to where an arm of the woods came near the edge of the cliff.
---
Lenny sat at at the workbench on one of the chairs from the caboose, his left hand flipped open so that he could access the connections and meter inside. Though he had been ignoring it because of the seriousness of their situation in the inbetween world, the buzzing in the back of his head and sparks on the edge of his vision were starting to worry him. He knew it must be a result of the lightening strike. That huge flow of electricity had effected him a little differently than the rest of the crew, because of his cybernetics. On one hand, it had fully recharged his reserves, giving him a large amount of power to work with in case of emergencies. But he had also felt it running along all of his cybernetics like fire and now there was obviously something wrong with them.
He could not learn much from testing the different connection wires, other than that they were still connected to him correctly. There was not many other points he could use to test himself. Always before, if anything was running incorrectly or felt strange, he had either used the specialized gear that had accidentally got left behind in his rucksack on Raggsy’s world, or gone to Dr. Devi. Now he was on his own, traveling through worlds which often did not have the technology to fix his problems. It was a sobering thought that a worse malfunction could easily kill him with no help from a specialist.
“It makes me feel strange, man, to see ye opening up your wrist like that,” Patch commented, coming back from the caboose with a mug of water in one hand. “All shivery inside, if ye know what I mean. I would hate to be an automaton and know that my innards were steel.”
Lenny gave him a wry look. “I’m not an automaton, really. Most of my workings are perfectly normal. It’s just that I have a few upgrades to help them out.”
“Whatever ye wish to say.” Patch shrugged, sitting down nearby. “Anyhow, what are ye tryin’ to do to yourself?”
“Just running a few tests.” Lenny let the ends of the multi-meter spool back into his arm and flipped his hand back up with a soft click. He did not feel like explaining the issues he was having, especially to someone who would not even understand what an electrical battery was. “Is that the last of the water?”
“Not quite.” The pirate took a sip, wincing. “Though I could almost wish it, if we had a barrel of beer to replace it with. We will have to find a fresh stream to water at before long.”
“Yes, I--” Lenny broke off as the forward door opened and Soleeryn came in, leaves stuck in her dark hair and robes looking mussed. She held a handful of plucked plants in one hand, but hardly seemed to notice it. Her face had anxious excitement in it and all of her movements betrayed the same emotion as she crossed the car to them.
“Patch, Lenny, there is something you need to know.”
“What is it, Soleeryn?” Lenny stood up, mentally bracing himself for action.
“I saw someone in the woods.” The healer set the herbs down on the bench absently. “It was a small, lithe man dressed in black. He came from the direction which Amber and the Ratperson took, moving through the woods towards where the other two went. I don’t think he saw me at all and I followed him for a little ways.”
“What did he do?”
“He was trailing Leaflow and Jax. I saw them talking on the edge of the woods, then move off towards a castle and cliff beyond the trees. The dark man stopped when they did, watching them, and then followed them towards it. As I said, I do not think he saw me. I know the ways of the woods and how to be quiet in them. But he was stalking our friends and came from the direction the other two went.” She made an obvious effort to calm herself, before gesturing towards the door, “I am afraid that he may mean harm, even be one of the Cruels. Perhaps I should show you where he went?”
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Lenny thought it over for a moment, then made a quick decision. “Alright, I’ll come with you. Patch, do you think that you’ll be okay, holding the train alone?”
“Aye. No one shall board her while I’m alive.” The pirate drew his cutlass, laying it on the bench next to him ready for action. “It could be nothing but curiosity on the part of this 'small, lithe’ man, but ye must be careful out there. There could be more poisonous beasts in this world, like what bit our friend Jax.”
“I’ll be careful,” Lenny promised, following Soleeryn out of the door.
Outside, the healer pulled her dark green robe tighter around her, hiding the pale gown beneath. Then she made a sign for him to follow and led the way into the woods. The twisty, tangled trees overhung their path, forcing Lenny to push branches aside or duck under them. He felt clumsy in comparison to Soleeryn, who moved with the confidence and grace of one who had spent much of her time in the outdoors, moving through trees and bushes.
The path she chose was a fairly straight one at first, going almost directly south towards where the smoke had been rising. But when the trees began to thin she zig-zagged a little, as if looking for something. Finally she stopped and pointed through the branches. “There is the castle. To our left is where our friends were standing.”
She turned and pointed at a group of bushes off to the side. “That is where the man in black stood, watching them. I was at this place, or very near it.”
Lenny took in the whole scene, peering through the branches for a minute towards the castle on the rock before glancing through the bushes nearer to them. “Alright, now where did Jax and Leaflow go?”
“That way.” Soleeryn gestured down at an angle, towards the base of the cliff below. “They disappeared around it and I could not see them any more. But the stranger was still following them.”
“Then let’s follow him. You lead the way.”
Soleeryn guided him through the trees, down to where an arm of the woods almost touched the low end of the cliff. There was a slope of green grass here, splitting the two apart and making a dangerously open place they would have to cross. Soleeryn looked up, down and around before bending in half and darting across to the shelter of the first rocks, where she crouched down against them. Lenny thought wryly that silver was not a good color to be wearing all over for camouflage, before he ducked down and hurried across to join her.
The cliff face was made up of pillars and wrinkles of a dark, volcanic stone. Little arms of it stretched down into the thin, gravely soil where short weeds grew. Thin cracks cut back into it, full of tiny ferns and moss. The cliff curved enough where the pair could not see all of the way around it from where they were crouching, only the next twenty feet or so. Looking up, Lenny could just make out the sheer walls of the castle built on top of the cliff.
Looking outwards, away from the cliff, he noticed for the first time that they were on the edge of a shallow valley, most of which was filled by a sprawling town along the banks of a river. The thought crossed his mind for a moment that Amber and Raggsy must be somewhere down in that city at the moment, buying supplies. It reminded him of how hungry he was and made his stomach ache.
Pushing the thought of food aside, he followed Soleeryn as she began to glide silently along the edge of the cliff, taking advantage of every pillar or arm to look ahead without being seen. After a few minutes she held up a hand for them to stop and pressed back into a wider crack.
“What is it?” Lenny joined her, leaning back against the rough stone.
“Someone is coming.”
In the quiet that followed, Lenny distinctly heard voices approaching their hiding place. It only took a moment for him to recognize them.
“It’s Jax and Leaflow,” he whispered.
Soleeryn nodded. “Good. Wait for them to go past and we will see what comes after.”
Soon they heard Jax’s voice quite clearly, speaking in indignant tones, “he wouldn’t even let me bribe him! I mean, I know that we don’t speak the same language, but any fool can understand a gold coin. Huh, I guess we don’t get to see what’s in the castle. Unless...”
“We break in from the rear?” Leaflow’s voice suggested, tinged with a bit of irony. “Yeah, that’s just what I was thinking!”
At that moment they came into view, walking along the edge of the cliff. But they were a few yards from the base of it, where they would not have to follow every curve and dip of the stone. Obviously, they were not trying to be stealthy at the moment. Jax walked right past Lenny and Soleeryn, still caught up in plans for invading the castle from the rear so that he did not see them. Leaflow’s hood turned towards their hiding place, his green eyes stared at them, and he passed without saying a word.
Lenny let out a held-in breath. The cloaked one was not going to show their hand too soon.
They waited in the crack, ears strained to hear more footsteps coming their way. Every once in a while, Soleeryn would peek around the corner of the rock, looking back the way their friends had come from. After about ten minutes, she shook her head.
“I see no one. He must have stopped following them.”
“Or be going around a different way. Let’s catch up with Jax and warn him.” Lenny peeled himself out of the crack. He winced and rubbed his back, feeling the place where a bump in the rock had been digging into his side. “Come on, we’ll have to hurry.”
Soleeryn looked back the other way once, then agreed with a nod of her head. Together they made their way back along the cliff, darted across the open gap and came into the woods. As soon as they were in the trees they saw Jax and Leaflow ahead. Jax had stopped and was looking back suspiciously, as if he had heard some tell-tale noise of their coming. When they came into view, his expression turned to surprise. “Hey, what are you two doing here? I thought that you were staying at the train.”
“We came to warn you.” Lenny said, hurrying up to them. “You were being followed.”
“By you?” Jax smirked. “That’s obvious.”
“No, by someone else! Soleeryn, tell them what you saw.”
The healer told her story again, before asking, “what were you looking for down there, along that cliff?”
“A way into the castle.” Jax shook his head. “We found one, a ‘secret’ entrance built into the stone, but it was shut with an iron grating and guarded. And, can you believe it, the guard wouldn’t let me bribe him!”
“You probably shouldn’t be sneaking around in other people’s castles, anyway,” Lenny pointed out, “you could get caught, and then where would we be?”
“Aw, you’re such a stick-in-the-mud.” Jax shrugged. “We would have been fine! If only there hadn’t been a guard there, I could have unlocked the door and walked right in.”
“In to the hands of whoever was inside, that is! You have to use your brain, Jax, we can’t afford mistakes.”
They bristled and faced each other, just on the brink of another serious argument. But this time Leaflow interfered with a small wave of his hand between them. “Excuse my interruption, but what about this spy that was following us? If he came from the town, as Soleeryn said, what was he doing wandering around up here? And did he meet our other friends on the way up?”
The two young men stared at him for a minute, then looked sheepishly at each other. He was right, it was no time to quibble about things that hadn’t even happened.
“Do you think that he is still after us?” Jax asked, peering around through the trees.
“We did not see him.” Soleeryn explained how they had waited down below the cliff in order to catch the spy, if they could. There had been no sign of him then, and they could not see or hear anyone following them at the moment. After discussing it, they decided to split back up and make their way towards the train. The spy could only follow one group at a time, so Jax and Leaflow would go first, with the other two following at a distance. Both groups would keep an eye out and try to catch the small man spying on the other group, if they could.
They put this plan into action and spent some time maneuvering through the woods, but all to no avail. When they reached the train, neither group had seen anything but their companions moving through the trees.
By this time Jax was starting to look worn and pale from all the exercise, so they all went back into the train to wait for Amber’s return. Patch had not been disturbed during their absence.
“Perhaps he was just a traveler passing by, who saw you and was curious,” Lenny suggested, when they were discussing the stalker further. “Just because he was following you doesn’t mean that he was a spy of the enemy.”
“He did not act merely curious,” Soleeryn returned, a worried expression on her face.
They were all on the alert now and often looked out of the windows as if feeling hostile eyes peering in at them, but they never saw anyone.
---
Amber had experienced a frustrating morning, trying to bargain for goods in the open market of the city. There was plenty of food to buy, and the dark-haired inhabitants were just as willing to sell it, but they did not understand her words and she did not know theirs. By pointing, gesturing and offering different amounts of coin, she was usually able to make a purchase eventually. But many of the things in the stalls she did not recognize and there was no way to find out what they were without communication.
“It’s all food,” Raggsy pointed out, “so we could eat it. Food is food, ya know.”
But Amber did not want to eat random pieces of dried meat, especially as some of it bore a decided resemblance to dogs and rats. So she argued, bargained and tried to communicate with the natives, often to no good result. Finally they were standing in front of a stall with dried sausages hanging from its rafters, the girl’s face turning pink as she almost shouted, “what meat? Is it pork? Pigs?”
She was trying to make signs for 'pig’ with her hands and face, but that only made the plump, round-faced woman who ran the stall laugh at her.
“Oh, this is hopeless!” Amber flung up her hands, about to turn away. Before she could leave, she felt a light tug on her sleeve and heard the accented words, “perhaps I may help you, miss?”
She turned to see a slight man with a cheerful, round face standing next to her. There were so many people in the streets she had not seen nor heard him come up. He was dressed in dark clothes and wearing a conical, woven hat, as many of the poorer folk in the streets were. But he had spoken in her language.
“Oh, yes please,” she said in a tone of relief, “I’m afraid that I am a foreigner here and don’t understand the language. Can you translate for me?”
“Yes. The Flat language is not spoken here often, but a few people know it. I have traveled to the country of the Flatspeakers and know,” the man explained, before asking, “what is it you wanted from the sausage woman?”
“I just want to know what sort of meat they are made of.” Amber looked a little embarrassed. “I’m afraid I was losing my temper.”
The man flashed her a smile. “Do not worry. No one is angry. There are two types of sausage sold here. One is blood sausage, stuffed with rice, nuts and the blood of pigs. The other is made just of pig meat.”
“I would like some of that sort. Could you ask her how many coins for two dozen sausage?”
The man changed their words, helped divide the coins and sausage, then agreed to come with the girl to translate at other stalls.
“I’ll pay you if you do,” Amber offered, “I can give you a gold coin.”
The man shook his head. “No, I do not need your money. I am glad to be of help.”
She gave him a grateful smile. “You don’t know how good it is to be able to talk to someone who understands my language, here. It was so frustrating to try buying things with just hand gestures!”
“Huh, I can talk to you,” Raggsy muttered under his breath, giving the newcomer a jealous look around her shoulders.
They went on to buy goods at many of the other stalls, often for less than Amber had thought she had to pay. At one place the helpful stranger had her trade in most of her gold coins for a large purse full of many smaller, silver ones, which she used with better economy from then on. Finally, both the basket and Raggsy’s coat pockets were stuffed full of food of every description and they had even stopped to eat hot rice cakes with various toppings at one stall.
When they were about to leave the town, Amber said, “I don’t know how I can thank you enough for helping us, sir. I don’t even know your name.”
“You may call me Dansei.” The man bowed, casting a glance up the hill towards the forest and castle above the town. A pair of shapes could be seen moving down the slope, towards them. “There is no need for thanks. But I must be on my way now. Just tell me one thing, if you will. Where do you come from? Your face does not look like one from anywhere near here.”
Amber shook her head. “Far, far away.”
Dansei nodded thoughtfully, before turning and slipping away into the crowded streets.
Just then Lenny and Soleeryn came hurrying down the hill, gazing out into the crowd where he had disappeared.
“Who was that man? What did he want, Amber?”
She looked surprised. “Just a farmer, I suppose. He was very kind, translating for me so that I could make purchases in the market. He said his name is Dansei.”
Lenny cast a glance at Soleeryn, who bowed her head once in agreement. “That was the man. I could tell by how he moved; soft and stealthy.”
“What is all of this about?” Amber asked, looking between them in confusion. Raggsy, standing behind her, turned and made a face in the direction which Dansei had disappeared.
“We became worried at how long you were gone.” Lenny waved a hand up the hill. “I’ll explain as we go along. Come on.”
They all began the ascent of the hill, talking over the day’s happenings as they went. None of them noticed a face watching from the top of a nearby building, or that it slipped away as soon as they were out of sight.
---
In the palace, the emperor was listening to his favorite poet sing the tragic tale of Wakeo and Wil’on when a messenger was ushered in. The messenger trembled at disturbing the great ruler of Shinlang at his entertainment, but Takai Onmeru just fixed him with an impassive stare and ordered him to deliver the message he had been entrusted with.
“Great emperor, this message if from the city of Li’tanwa. The one called Shinto’dansei entrusted me with it under penalty of great doom if it was forgotten or I spoke it to any other.”
“He was right to do so.” The emperor waved a hand for the poet and guards to leave, before beckoning the messenger forward, directly in front of his cushioned chair. “Now, tell me his words.”
The messenger repeated the Shinobi’s words, telling how he had found a strange vehicle or structure in the woods full of forgieners and how he had followed different groups of them throughout the day. He warned that two of them, dressed in black and one with a shadowy face, had tried to get into Lord Kei’s castle and failed. He also warned that the purple corruption was spreading through the forest in that area, though it had strangely left the castle untouched so far. The message ended with the Shinobi’s wish to watch the strangers longer, perhaps infiltrating their vehicle at some point to see what was inside. He asked that, for the moment, no soldiers be sent to interfere
“And when did you receive this word from Shinto’dansei?” the emperor questioned, his hard face alert with the multiple meanings of the tale.
“Three days ago, in the city of Li’tanwa.”
The emperor recalled his servants with a clap of his hands. Pointing at the messenger, he commanded, “reward this man and make sure that he has eaten well before he leaves.”
The messenger bowed his head to the floor. “Thank you, great one.”
He was taken away. Takai Onmeru bowed his head in thought, nodding slowly as he turned the information over.