The boy cast about fearfully, looking for another way out. There was only the single entrance to the crawlspace, at least as far as she could see, but the boy crawled over to a spot and started pushing up on the floor overhead. He strained, but no hidden hatch opened.
“It’s locked or something,” the boy hissed. “We’re trapped now. How’d they even know about this place?”
“What do you want to do?” Lemon asked.
“Not going out there, that’s for sure. They want me, they can come in and get me.”
“I’m not asking again,” the voice said.
“Why are they chasing you?” Something told Lemon it wasn’t a game. The boy’s pursuers were mad about something.
“No reason,” the boy said, too quickly. Lemon’s head swung around to stare at him, and he squirmed. “I… might have taken something from them.”
“Stealing is bad!”
“They stole it from my family first!” The boy reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of thin silver coins. “Called it protection money. Only thing we need protecting from is them.”
The face of one of the men chasing the boy appeared in the opening, neatly silhouetted against the daylight. He held up the glinting knife and said, “You’re gonna regret messing with us. Gonna cut you up, and your pa’s gonna pay double next week.” The man flinched back at Lemon’s sudden growl. “And if that dog of yours bares its teeth, I’ll kill it.”
The growl only got louder, and Lemon paced forward, already charging her speaking charm. The man scooted backwards and climbed to his feet. “Whoa there, mutt.”
Lemon unleashed the bark on the group. All of them cried out and flinched back. Before they could recover, she let another bark wash over them. By the time the third one hit, they were in full retreat.
“That’s right! Run away and don’t bother me anymore!”
The boy crawled out from behind her and, rubbing at his ears, said, “That was loud. What did you do?”
“Just a bit of magic.”
“Oh? You can do magic too?”
“Yes! I’m a magical dog,” Lemon said.
“Could… could you teach me how to do that? I don’t know how to do much, but I do have a few tricks. Want to see?”
“Sure,” Lemon said, tail wagging. Thoughts of the ruffians who’d chased the boy were already fading from her mind.
“Okay, well, first, I can do this.” The boy held up one of the coins, showing it to Lemon. Then he held up his other hand, currently empty. The coin disappeared from between his fingers and reappeared in the other hand. “I can only move stuff a few feet, but I’m getting better!”
“Oh wow. That’s amazing. What else can you do?”
“This too!” The boy’s face scrunched up and he took about ten seconds to get his magic ready, then he put both hands on the wall and started to climb. His feet dangled off the ground as he went higher, climbing straight up as fast as if he were scaling a ladder. After a few seconds, the magic gave out and he dropped back to the ground. “That’s how I got into their hideout and got my dad’s money back.”
“I wish I could do that. Though, I guess… I have other stuff.” Hogarth had warned her not to tell people that the collar was magical. He didn’t want anyone stealing it from her. It was best for everyone if she just didn’t call any attention to it.
“What kind of stuff can you do?”
“Well, I’m way smarter than a regular dog.”
“Yeah! And you can talk. And bark really… like not loud, but intense, you know?”
“Yeah! I’m Lemon. What’s your name?”
“Bon. Hey, do you want to come meet my family? It’s not every day a magical talking dog shows up.”
“Oh,” Lemon’s said. Her tail stopped wagging. “I kind of have to go to the wizard conference first. I have an errand to run. Maybe after?”
“Up on the floating island?” Bon asked, looking up at the giant chunk of rock. This close to it, it was hard to see anything except the raw, earthy underside. Some sort of magic kept bits and pieces of it from crumbling off to rain down on the city, but that did nothing to enhance the view. For the citizens of Kapsulon, the conference was probably a massive inconvenience and an eyesore.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
“Yep. My master is a wizard. He’s up there now. I have to go run some stuff up to him.”
“Up on the island,” Bon muttered, still staring at it. “Can I come too?”
“I thought you had to go home.”
“It’ll be alright if I’m a little bit late.”
Lemon didn’t see any reason why Bon couldn’t go with her if he wanted. In fact, it might work out better for her. “Do you know where Fisher’s Square is? I’m supposed to be going there, then to Gold Hill.”
“Oh, to where the light touches the ground? I know how to get there. Follow me.”
Bon led Lemon across the city, pointing out various places as they went. “That’s Ganner’s Park there,” he said, pointing at a small square of grass with a handful of trees growing out of it. “And there’s Jinel’s. She makes food for the rich people, and sometimes if there’s extra, she gives it away to us.”
Lemon dutifully observed each place Bon pointed out, and occasionally asked a question. “What kind of food does Jinel make? Does she make sausages?”
“Oh, I don’t know. I’ve never seen one in the leftovers, but she makes lots of different stuff. So maybe?”
A sausage sounded really good, but as Lemon found out when she went to pull one from her storage, she’d eaten the last one. She let out a low, sorrow-filled whine. At least the journey was almost over. Though… Hogarth might not be thrilled that she’d eaten all of their sausages. She’d just have to remind him how much effort she’d gone through to bring him his potion.
“You okay?” Bon asked.
“Yeah, I was just thinking a sausage sounded good.”
“It does,” the boy agreed. “But, uh, I need to give this money back to my dad. I can’t buy anything with it. Sorry.”
“It’s okay. I’ll get my master to get me more later.”
Things went well until they reached the end of the street. It poured out into another, wider one paved with bricks that ran around the slope of a large hill, with a fence on the far side of the street to prevent people from casually walking up the hill.
“This is Gold Hill. The rich people live up at the top of it,” Bon said. “We’re supposed to go around to one of the gates to get in, but they wouldn’t let a kid like me in, so let’s climb the fence instead.” It wasn’t that high, but if Lemon hadn’t been a magical dog, she wouldn’t have been able to jump it. Bon seemed to realize that a moment later, because he added, “Maybe you could just walk through the gate and meet me on the other side?”
“I’ll float over,” Lemon said. She swapped her spectacles out for her feather charm, walked over to the wall, and levitated up to the top. Then she reached out with her front legs and scrambled over it. Bon watched her, his jaw hanging open.
“That’s so cool!” Bon jumped up and, using his own magic, climbed over the fence to drop down next to her. “Okay, that was way easier than I thought it’d be! Now we just need to get to the light, dodge the guards, and up we go!”
“Wait, guards?”
“Yeah, they’re there to keep people from going up to the island who aren’t supposed to be there. I guess you could just walk on by since your master is a wizard, but I can’t. Unless you can get me through too? That would make it a lot easier.”
“I don’t know,” Lemon said. She hadn’t realized there would be guards. She tried to think back and remember if anyone had told her about that. Nothing came to mind.
“Oh, hmm. Well, maybe you should try first? Or do you just want to sneak by? It might be easier to explain things up at the top of the island than to try to talk our way past the grunts down here.”
“Hey! You! What are you doing, kid!”
An older man wearing overalls and a green cap and smelling of leaves and soil was standing at the top of the hill, a metal rake in one hand and glaring down at them. He advanced menacingly, waving the rake with each step.
“Uh oh. Time to run, Lemon. Come on!”
Bon took off, which caused the old man to start yelling again as he gave chase. Lemon trotted along next to him, easily able to keep up. “Should we go towards the light now?”
“Not yet,” Bon said, “Not until we lose that guy.”
It was easy enough to leave him behind. They ran a wide loop around the base of Gold Hill until Bon pointed out a stand of trees, which they ducked into and out the other side. They didn’t see him again after that, though Lemon did hear him yelling a bit later.
“Okay, easy enough. Now, like I said, sneak past the guards or try to talk?”
“I don’t know. I don’t have an invitation or anything. My master and his familiar went and left me at home. I’m just trying to get something he left behind to him.”
“So no official invitation. Might be better to sneak by them. Come on, let’s go get a look and see what we’re dealing with.”
A few minutes later, they were crouched near some shrubs looking at four men in armor with halberds posted in a square around the pillar of light. A brick path cut through the grass leading up to it, and a big house loomed over them in the background. It had its own wall, separated from the pillar by a wide field.
“Lots of open ground,” Bon said. “Going to be hard to sneak across that during the day. Plus, how does it work? Do we just have to walk into the light to go up?”
“I’m not sure,” Lemon said.
“Probably best to try to talk our way past them then, unless we can come up with a distraction good enough to get all four of them to leave.”
“I’m just going to go explain who I am and why I need to go up.”
“Wait, Lemon. Are you sure- Lemon!”
She’d already walked off though. One of the guards noted her approach and turned to face her. “Well hello there,” he said. “Aren’t you a pretty one.”
“Hello, my name is Lemon. I need to go up to the conference please.”
The guards exchanged surprised glances. “Do you have a pass?” one asked warily.
“What’s a pass?”
“So that’s a no. Listen, if you don’t have a pass, you can’t go up.”
“Are you sure? My master, Wizard Hogarth, is up there. I’m supposed to bring him something.”
“Be that as it may, the pillar only lets you up if you have a pass. We can’t do anything to change that.”
“Oh, really? Can I try anyway?”
“Sure, if you want. I guess it can’t hurt anything.”
“But sir,” one of the other guards said. “We’re supposed to keep people away from it.”
“People, not dogs. And this one is obviously a familiar or something.”
“Sir…”
“Go ahead, dog. Good luck.”
Debate settled, the guards let Lemon walk through. She padded forward, tail wagging, and stepped into the light. Other than being too bright to see, nothing changed. She could still smell the leather and steel of the guards.
Lemon took a few steps backwards out of the column of light and looked up at the bottom of the floating island. “Oh… now what? How do I get the potion up to Hogarth?”