CHAPTER ELEVEN
Suddenly the panorama of the treetop city of Wyld Fell came into view.
Pathways and rope swings and suspended logs and netting and ladders and platforms ran in every direction between the branches and leaves of the giant trees. The city was lit by a thousand lanterns that seemed to float in the air.
A crowded boardwalk ran in a semi circle from one giant tree to another. Around the biggest of all the trees the was a marketplace with stalls and shops and awnings and wooden signs. Higher and further away stood a palace, tall and thin, its base fifty feet higher than where the girls had emerged from the arch of vines. Balconies and turrets jutted out of the main structure.
Everywhere were the green skinned thrips, swinging across yawning gaps on long vines, or climbing rope ladders to overhead buildings, or squatting on branches with their green eyes gazing about.
A boy thrip with muscled arms and curly green hair seized Trinket by the belt that cinched in at her waist. She turned and, with a snake-like snap, she brought her arms down to break his grip.
‘Borrowdale, You startled me.’
‘You walked straight past me without a greeting.’
‘I didn’t see you in the crowd.’
‘Where have you been? I haven’t seen you since the school of alchemy.’
Borrowdale had the look of injury, of someone who had been rejected for no good reason.
‘I have been to the western realm at the request of my father.’
Borrowdale let go of Trinket’s belt, and a cloud came over his face.
‘Where is your father… our King?’
‘I don’t know Borrowdale. I have just returned, and I have yet to find out what has happened.’
‘There are Empire soldiers in Wyld Fell.’
‘I have been told.’
Borrowdale nodded at Jane.
‘Who is this? Does she have anything to do with what is happening?’
Trinket paused, and Borrowdale watched her carefully, suspecting perhaps that she was about to lie. The pause would have told him that Jane was important.
‘This is Jane and she is … my friend.’
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Borrowdale looked at Jane with eyes that were dark and intense. ‘You are from the realm of men. Perhaps you have knowledge of the Emperor.’ He spoke carefully, not knowing if he was talking to a friend or an enemy.
Jane shook her head. ‘I am visiting here from …’
Trinket interrupted, putting a finger to her lips. ‘Shhhhh.’
Just then a hush came across the crowd of thrips. Someone spoke in a whisper.
‘Empire soldiers.’
Another thrip whispered, ‘They are going to pass.’
Another thrip said, ‘Continue to act normal.’
Borrowdale grabbed Trinket on the forearm and said, ‘Don’t do anything silly.’
Take your hand off my arm.’
The thrips along the boardwalk stopped walking, and stood still.
The soldiers were walking on a path adjacent and parallel to the boardwalk. They were men in red and black coats with military insignias on their shoulders. Below their coats they wore tight black pants and black boots that rose nearly to their knees.
‘Don’t make a play of this Trinket,’ said a thrip from amidst the crowd.
It seemed that Trinket, the princess, had all the thrips worried.
Too late though … Trinket was already on the way to ‘making a play of this’. She shoved a short thrip out of her way and went to the safety rope. She leaned over and shouted across the yawning gap, ‘Empire toads, get out of my city.’
The soldiers turned. They were men, like human men, and their faces were white and angular and haughty.
As if by magic, the bow that was slung across Trinket’s back sprang into her left hand, with an arrow nocked and the string drawn. The soldiers stopped walking and one put a hand in the air and said, ‘Lower your weapon thrip.’
Trinket answered by raising the bow and sighting down the shaft of the arrow.
The soldier said, ‘Threatening an Empire soldier is an offence under section 27 of Federated Paris’s Policing Code. You are liable for trial by an Empire judge with a penalty of 300 days banishment to the Mudwash.’
The thrips along the boardwalk reacted to this threat by dropping their heads and maintaining a deathly silence.
Trinket however, wasn’t like the other thrips. Her indignant feeling had her raised up, her shoulders squared and her right hand pulling the strung arrow even tighter.
Trinket’s spoke in a tone like that of Sister Drury when she spoke to Lulu for blaspheming: indignant, enraged, and holy.
‘I spit on your Empire laws. Get out of my city.’
The soldiers glanced at one other as though expecting the other to say something.
Trinket continued, ‘You are in breach of Wyld Fells’ charter that says Thrips can only be policed and judged by other Thrips.’
The soldiers didn’t reply, and for a moment it seemed like they might be working up a plan to arrest Trinket. If there hadn’t been a dangerous gap between the path they were on and the boardwalk, they might have.
Without lowering her bow Trinket climbed up onto the rope where she balanced and bent her knees as though she was preparing to launch herself across the gap between the two walkways. Jane wondered if Trinket could leap that far.
Borrowdale and another thrip grabbed Trinket from either side and pulled her back off the rope.
‘Let me go,’ snarled Trinket as she twisted in the strong grip of the two males.
‘Stop this Trinket. This isn’t going to be a victory for you.’
‘I am not going to allow Empire soldiers to go unchallenged in my city.’
‘The soldiers are going to report what just happened to the Governor and it is going to lead to problems. This could be bad for you Trinket.’
‘I am not afraid of the Governor.’
‘He was always hard on you Trinket. He will I don’t think that will have changed.