A CROSSING OF PATHS
Every inch of Neverfell seemed to be throbbing with life. Everything was new, and new was a drug.
She piled some of the rubble back into the hole to conceal it, then ventured slowly forward, trailing her calloused fingers over the corrugated surface of the wall. New rock, cleanly chipped, not rough with age or lichen. Split rocks rolled under her shoe soles. Somewhere in the distance there were sounds, jumbled by echo, and she realized that these had been the background music of her world, until this moment muffled to cloud murmurs by the thick stone wall in between. Now she felt as if plugs had been pulled from her ears.
Most confused of all, however, was her nose. Over seven years it had become finely attuned to the overpowering odor of cheese, so that she could have found her way blindfolded through Grandible's tunnels by recognizing each great truckle she passed from its familiar soft, sleeping reek.
Now, there was an eerie nose-silence, followed by a giddy awareness of ... not-cheese smells. Cold, washed-chalk smells of freshly cracked rock, the dank fragrance of unseen plants clinging slickly to life. Warm smells, animal smells. People smells. Feet, sweat, hair grease, fatty soap ... and yet each fragrance different, personal. It was so overwhelming that Neverfell was glad of her mask, with its familiar scent of musty velvet.
Behind all these, she detected the aroma of scared rabbit. Neverfell followed the scent and found a tiny pyramid of moist brown droppings a little farther up the tunnel. The fugitive had clearly come that way.
She tiptoed to the end of her tiny passage, then crouched and peered out on the largest cavern she ever remembered seeing.
It was some fifty feet high, well-lit, and shaped like half a dome. The rounded walls were ridged with natural ledges and balconies, from which cascaded peach-colored stalactites, and on these nestled great wild flytraps as big as her head, freckled like orchids and glowing creamily as they gaped their finely toothed maws. Neverfell realized this must be a cavern through which many people passed, if the traps were thriving. These glowed brightly, which meant that not long ago they had sensed motion or a released breath.
Opposite the tunnel entrance was a large and ruggedly sheer wall with a number of broad rock shelves, along each of which a thoroughfare seemed to run. The uppermost bore metal tracks, and occasionally man-high trolleys of black steel would rear out of black tunnel mouths, rattle along the rails with their wheels sparking at the corners and their stunted chimneys shuddering with invisible fumes, then plummet into the shadows once more. Other narrower ledges appeared to be for foot traffic, to judge by the railings and the rope ladders that dangled to allow passage between them. The dusty cavern floor itself was striped with wheel ruts. Sheltered as she was, even Neverfell could see that this cavern was a great junction for passageways.
Halfway between Neverfell's hiding place and this wall of thoroughfares was a ten-foot crater with a raised lip that had filled to become a pool. A series of rusty rings was driven into the rock nearby, and to one of these rings was tethered a gray, four-legged, long-muzzled beast as high as Neverfell herself. From Erstwhile's descriptions, she realized that this must be one of the blind pit ponies that did most of the drag-work in the tunnels. Its muzzle was dipped into the cool of the water, and Neverfell watched with hypnotic fascination the soft puckering and quivering of its nose as it drank, the fine gray hairs and mottle spots between its nostrils, the ripples that raced across the water, the silver bells that festooned its bridle.
Then a strong pale arm reached around to slap at the pony's dusty flank, and Neverfell realized that there was somebody standing behind it. To judge by the shadow thrown on the wall, somebody small and slight. Somebody her size, perhaps her age.
Her heart leaped, but her body did exactly the opposite. Suddenly she found herself flat on the ground, her arms wrapped protectively around her head. She would be seen. The Great Outside would notice her. She was not ready. She had thought she was ready, but she was not.
"Hey!"
Neverfell made about six feet in a backward scuffle-crawl before she heard an answering yell, and realized that the first had not been directed at her. Gingerly, she advanced again and peered into the cavern.
There were no fewer than three people. The nearest was a brown-haired boy of about her own age, tugging at the pony's thick coat with a heavy brush, his blunt features frozen and alert, as if listening to an order. Even when he looked away, the expression hung as if the rocks, the horse, the lanterns were all there to instruct him. It was the sort of Face all drudge-class servants were encouraged to wear.
In a narrow, unpainted wooden cart some small distance beyond were seated two girls, one tall, one short. The pair was talking, but it took a little time for Neverfell to be sure that it was words she was hearing. They prattled the way brooks ran, talking over each other with a speed and ease that left the poor eavesdropper grasping at stray syllables as they flew by. It was a far cry from Grandible and his curt, gravelly utterances. It was even faster than Erstwhile.
"... well, we have to do something about it quickly, or we are both down the well without a rope. I would love to take care of it all myself, but this time it just isn't possible. I really need you to help with this."
The older girl's high, confident tones were louder than those of her companion. She looked about fifteen, a long, blonde plait gleaming down the shoulder of her gray muslin gown. She had three smiles and was clearly proud of them. On the occasions when she was not speaking, she slid smoothly between them, as regularly as a rota. Warm confidential smile. Narrow speculative smile. Amused expectant smile with a tilt of the head. The drudge workers and errand boys who called on Grandible's domain usually had only one smile. This was clearly a better class of person.
The other girl was shorter, rounder, more hesitant in gesture, her hair tucked under a white coif. When she turned to look over her shoulder, Neverfell caught a glimpse of her rounded baby features. The corner of her mouth was dragged down unnaturally, and one of her eyebrows was raised high, as though the muscles of her face were playing tug-of-war.
The boy meanwhile tethered the horse to the cart once more, and began leading it at a gentle amble toward Neverfell's passage ... only to pass it and disappear into the next passage.
Close, so close! Neverfell had seen enough to be fascinated. The blonde girl had star-shaped spangles on her sleeves. The pony-boy had a toffee-colored mole on his neck. The little fat girl had short, pink, bitten nails. They were all new and large and real, and Neverfell felt sick at the idea of letting them pass out of her life and vanish.
Peering around the corner after the little cart, Neverfell noticed one other detail that made her feel yet more sick. At the back of the cart was a low-lipped trolley put aside for luggage, and poking up among the chests and boxes she could just make out the tips of two white rabbit ears.
She had a mission, of course, but sooner or later she had to return to Master Grandible. She did not think she could face him without the rabbit.
The three travelers did not notice as a dark-clad figure emerged from the shadowy rubble and edged down the path after them, nothing visible behind its black mask but a fog of red pigtails.
The little cart rumbled down a series of broad passageways and at last vanished into a narrow, rough-hewn tunnel, where the only light was the trap-lantern dangling from the boy's staff. Here the cart's progress slowed, and Neverfell could just see the pony-boy stooping now and then to clear fallen rocks so that the cart could pass. Under cover of the darkness, Neverfell dared to draw closer, and despite the echo was able to make out some of the travelers' conversation.
"Borcas, do you have to keep making those strange Faces while we talk?" the older girl was asking. "It's very distracting."
"Yes—I have an audition today, remember? I have to exercise my muscles!" exclaimed the smaller girl. At least, that was what Neverfell guessed she was trying to say. Her words were a little too slurred and misshapen to be certain, perhaps because of the way one corner of her mouth was tugged down. It sounded a lot more like "Yesh—I ha' un ardishun today, renenber? I ha' to eckshershishe ny nushulsh."
"Right now, dear, it's your brain you should be exercising!" retorted the taller girl. Somehow, her expression and tone remained kindly, if impatient. "Have you forgotten how much trouble we will be in if nothing is done? Madame Appeline caught me looking through her case. Once she finds out that we are close friends, she will work out who smuggled me into that party in the first place. Borcas, Madame Appeline only picks one girl a year from the academy to train as a Putty Girl, and it is hardly likely to be you if she decides she cannot trust you, is it? It won't matter how well you do in the audition."
Borcas, the younger girl, gave a small snuffle of what sounded like concern.
"You 'romished you 'ould take care o' it," she answered reproachfully. "You shaid you could nake her 'orget it all—"
"And I would have done," the blonde girl interrupted smoothly. "I had just the Wine for it and everything. But that plan only works if she is ordering Wine from my family, and she isn't so I can't. So you have to give it to her when you do the audition. All the girls give presents to the Facesmith judging, don't they?"
By now Neverfell was listening intently. She knew that every Facesmith employed a number of "Putty Girls" whom they used to display Faces to potential customers. They were so called because they were trained to keep their faces flexible, like modeling clay. The lucky ones eventually became Facesmiths themselves.
More important, it was clear that the two girls knew Madame Appeline. Perhaps they could help Neverfell, show her where the Facesmith could be found. Of course, that would mean actually having to talk to the two girls.
Heart in mouth, Neverfell crept closer to the cart. She tried to think of something calming and cheery to say to them, but her mind was a mass of scribbles. Soon she was close enough to make out the silhouettes of the girls' heads against the light of the lantern, which touched the older girl's long and elegant neck with alabaster and set the stray wisps of Borcas's hair agleam. It made the pair of them look warm, angelic, and fragile.
"Stop trembling." The older girl was wearing her warm, confiding smile, and her voice sounded kind and infinitely sensible. "It'll all be all right as long as you stick with the plan. You don't need to worry about anything. You don't ever need to worry about making decisions. I'll do that for you. I'll always look after you."
She sounded wonderful and big-sisterly, and Neverfell felt a flood of hope. Unguarded as ever, her heart galloped into a sudden wild liking for the two girls, with their scrubbed skin and clever voices. Perhaps everything was going to be all right after all. She could talk to them—they would be kind. They were her friends. Of course they did not know that yet, but if she followed them and listened to them and found out all their likings and habits and secrets and if she told them so, they would have to like her ...
These excited thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Borcas stiffening slightly.
"Zouelle! 'ot'sh 'hat?" The younger girl's voice was hushed with fear.
"What?"
Have I been heard? Have I been seen?
"I ... I can shnell shun'hing."
"What? Wait ... oh yes, so can I. It smells like rot, or maybe ... cheese?"
Neverfell sniffed, perplexed, for this tunnel smelled less like cheese than anywhere she had ever been. It took a moment for the real explanation to strike her.
"Borcas ..." Zouelle, the older girl, sounded less than confident for the first time. "I ... I think you're right. There's something down there behind us. I heard ... I heard it snuffling."
Quick! I need to make a sound like a ... a horse!
Neverfell had no idea what a horse really sounded like, only what they looked like they would sound like. Her panic-stricken effort came out as a cross between a yawn and a screech, echoing down the tunnel. The two girls screamed.
The pony-boy, with admirable presence of mind, threw a pebble down the corridor to strike a large, sleeping trap sprouting just behind Neverfell. It flared into a vivid and irritable glow, snapping its combs of fine teeth in search of food. Suddenly she was backlit, and her long, tapering shadow was extending down the tunnel before her.
"There! Look—there it ish!"
"It's got no face!"
"Aaaaaah! Red wormsh for hair!"
The pit pony and cart took off with unprecedented speed, the lantern bouncing and jolting before it.
"Wait! Please! Don't go!" Neverfell's words were lost amid the muffling of the mask and the echoes of the screams and pounding hoofs. She broke into a sprint, struggling as the rocks beneath her feet rolled, crumbled, and barked her shins. She saw both girls twisting around in their seats, mouths stretched in screams as a faceless monster pursued them in a lolloping run, one hand clawing out to take hold of the rear of the cart. Zouelle's features still held the remnants of her smile, and Borcas wore her lopsided "exercise" Face. The shock had been so great they had forgotten to change their expressions.
As Neverfell tried to take hold of the back of the cart and clamber onto the luggage trolley, she felt a blow to her neck. In panic, Zouelle had snatched up a horsewhip by the wrong end and swung it, so that the handle hit Neverfell below the chin. Out of surprise and hurt, Neverfell lost her grip, and then her footing, and tumbled to the ground, jarring her jaw. She could only watch, winded, as the cart rattled away and the light of the lantern faded.
"Please ... please don't run away from me ..."
As the cart receded, the newly woken trap decided there was no food to catch after all and slowly dimmed its light. Darkness descended, and the dripping water covered the sound of one solitary figure snuffling into her mask.
The Great Outside that had filled Neverfell's thoughts had noticed her and judged her. It had found her wanting. No, worse than that, it had screamed in horror and disgust and fled from her. Her neck was bruised, but far more painful was the thought of kind big-sister Zouelle hitting out at her.
Wincing a little, she picked herself up and felt for lumps and cuts. Then, still snuffling with misery and pain, she limped off after the cart. Neverfell had never taken rejection well. In fact, despite plenty of practice, she had never learned how to take it at all. Aside from anything else, she still had a rabbit to retrieve.
A few minutes later, her persistence was rewarded by the sound of a deafening crash.
Neverfell ran toward the noise as quickly as her bruises and the near-absence of light would allow. Peering around a corner she glimpsed her quarries' lantern and discovered the cause of the cacophony.
There had been very good reasons for the cart's previous sedate pace. The way was scattered with fallen rocks large and small, and occasional foot-deep potholes just waiting for a careless wheel. To judge by the tilt of the cart, its pell-mell flight had run its left-hand wheel straight into one of these holes.
Both girls had dismounted. The pony-boy, with some hushed verbal instruction from Zouelle, seemed to be trying to heft the cart out of the hole again. Borcas was acting as lookout, which appeared to involve a lot of whimpering and hand-wringing as she gazed back the way they had come.
When Neverfell stepped out, legs trembling, hands raised to show that she was harmless, Borcas gave a wail and pointed at her.
"The demon! It followed ush! It'sh come after ush!"
"Argh!"
A shower of inexpertly thrown rocks clattered around Neverfell, chipping pieces off the walls.
"I ... Stop it! You nearly—ow! Stop it! I won't hurt you! I don't want to—"
She might have explained in more detail, but at this point the rabbit decided that it had had quite enough of all the screaming, and made a break for a fissure in the wall. Neverfell promptly abandoned her placatory pose and sprinted toward the cart, to the terror of its passengers, and then past it, ending her run with a pounce at full stretch. Her body hit rock, her hands met fur, and she had it, flattened to the ground, terrified, maddened, tensed for action but still. She scrambled to a crouch, held it between her knees, ripped off her doublet, and a few moments later was cuddling a kicking, wild-eyed rabbit bundle.
"I'm sorry," she babbled helplessly, "I'm sorry, I had to get my ... It kicked the bucket and ran and I squeezed out after it and I'm here ..."
Her voice sounded so ugly and unused next to theirs, and the welling of tears was making everything worse.
"I won't hurt you." She rose unsteadily, and took a few limping steps back toward the cart.
"What do you want?" Zouelle's voice was strident but tremulous. She was holding the whip out toward Neverfell in a very shaky hand.
"I just ... I just ... needed some cheese ..." Despite herself Neverfell started to sob.
The three strangers observed her rigidly, then exchanged brief sideways glances.
"Does anybody have any cheese?" whispered Zouelle to the others. "If we give it cheese, will it go away?"
"No ... it's not just any cheese. The ..." Neverfell collapsed to her knees, hugging the rabbit while it tried to bite her. The conversation had gone wrong. She tried to explain everything, her mistake in sending the cheese to Madame Appeline, her desperate need to recover it, but the words sounded clumsy and stupid even in her ears. When she finished, she was scarcely sure that the others were still there listening. She was in a hell of self-hate, and barely heard the whispers from the cart.
"No," Zouelle was hissing, "listen to me. This fits. This fits. This girl wants to go and find Madame Appeline. We want somebody to present the Wine to her. So you help smuggle her in, by stealing her an invitation or something, and she helps us out. Stop whimpering, now. Put on a clean Face. I'm going to talk to her."
Neverfell only started paying attention again when she heard the crackle of gravel underfoot. She looked up and found that Zouelle was walking toward her, carefully, as if afraid of startling a wild animal. The blonde girl was wearing her amused smile, her eyes twinkling and expectant.
"It's all right," she said, in much the same tone Neverfell had used on the rabbit. "It's all going to be all right. We're going to help you."
Neverfell looked up into her smiling face and thought that she looked like an angel.