‘What is a sky crack?’ Zluty asked, but the Monster’s eyes had closed.
The Monster did not wake again that day or the next and the potion-maker warned them gravely against tiring it so badly. Bily said they must be patient and Zluty knew that his brother was saying he must be patient, yet the brief talk with the Monster had roused his old suspicions. It was clear to him, if not to Bily, that the Monster’s people served the Makers, and in doing so they had accepted and likely helped the Monks enslave the diggers.
The captive diggers were a source of much discussion amongst the clan, who were determined to raid Stonehouse in Spring and rescue them even if their heads had been emptied. They seemed not to worry that the Monster was a Listener and might wake and overhear what they said.
When Zluty tried to speak of his doubts, Bily reminded him that the Monster had ranted at the Makers in fever dreams, rejecting them and their plan. It was true, and the Monster had run away from the Makers, just as the diggers and the Guardian had done. Yet Zluty could not rid himself of the feeling that the Monster had not told them everything, though he felt rather guilty when it again fell into a fever.
Alarmed, Bily asked Flugal to fetch the old potion-maker, who came and examined the Monster. He announced cheerfully that its paw had all but healed, but when he touched the Monster’s head, his smile faded. He pulled open the Monster’s eyelids to look into its eyes and his expression grew very serious.
‘Metal not healing,’ he said. ‘Maybe metal of diggers being different to metal of Listeners.’
‘How can we heal it then?’ Bily asked.
‘Must taking Listener to Makers machines. If metal not healed, then Listener must stay close to Makers machines.’
‘We will take the Monster to his city on the other side of the mountains as soon as the Winter ends!’ Bily cried.
The digger shook his grizzled head. ‘Must do more soonly than that or Listener will dying. Must going when the Listener wakes.’
Bily was stricken. ‘But I promised Blizzard I would bring diggers to help it.’
‘Diggers can doing fulfilling of promise without Bee-lee,’ the potion-maker said.
Bily turned to Zluty, wringing his hands in distress. ‘I can’t let the Monster die, and yet I promised Blizzard I would help him.’
‘You have helped by getting the diggers to agree to try to heal his metal when Spring comes and they go back up the mountain,’ Zluty said. ‘You know the diggers will do their best for it when they find it. But if you want to help the Monster, it seems we must leave as soon as ever we can and get the Monster to its city, where there are Makers machines. Flugal said the coldwhites will fall and fall from now on and every moment we delay, they will lie thicker on the ground.’ He thought for a moment then added, ‘Let’s talk to Flugal about it and see what advice he can give us.’
Bily had never loved Zluty more than in that moment, for he knew his brother did not love the Monster as he did and yet he was willing to leave the safety of the settlement and risk travelling through the bitter coldwhites to help save him.
When the Monster woke a day later, Bily told it they had been making preparations to leave. When it heard why, it said drearily, ‘I thought I would be free of the Makers plans when I ran away, but perhaps it is impossible.’
Bily was taken aback. ‘You needn’t go back to your people, Monster. The potion-maker said you need only be close to the Makers machines.’ He hesitated then said shyly, ‘You could come and live with us sometimes, in the Vale of Bellflowers, if it is not too far from the machines. You can just go back to your city whenever you begin to feel ill. I should love you to come, and I am sure Zluty would be glad, too. ’
Bily was not actually sure of this at all, but he was certain Zluty would warm to the Monster, if only he would spend more time with it. How could they not love one another, after all, when Bily loved them both?
Epilogue
It took two more days for them to complete their preparations.
The diggers packed food that would travel well in the wagon and produced a new canopy dyed in such glorious shades of crimson and gold that it was as if they were unfurling a little sunset. There were curtains, too, which could be lowered to turn the wagon into a small cloth house that would keep the coldwhites out and the warmth in. Several long, narrow, flat pieces of metal wrapped in cloth had been tied to the side of the wagon and Flugal insisted they would need these to get to the other side of the mountains, but he would not tell them what they were or how they were to be used, saying it was to be a surprise. Much to Zluty’s delight, he told them he had decided to accompany them to the flyway, where Redwing would leave them to cross the mountains. Before they parted he would show them what was needful to know.
The diggers also gave them new pots covered in tiny gleaming coloured tiles and new warmer mattresses and bedding, as well as hooded blanket cloaks for Bily and Zluty. Zluty had tried to argue that they would not need so much, but Flugal disagreed. He had also insisted they take some moss, so they could carry the embers for a fire with them, rather than trying to light a fire with flint stones each night when they stopped. Zluty was glad of these, for he would be able to put the bee urn next to them. He had been worrying about the bees getting too cold. Bily had feared they might be dead, but Zluty was certain they were only in deep hibernation now, and would remain so until they came to warmer lands. The diggers had also collected several bulging nets of ground nuts, which were hung from the rear of the wagon as well, and a small bag of the greasy black rock that they used to feed flames, and which would burn much longer and hotter than wood or ground nuts.
Their last day dawned sunny and clear, but cold. Bily was gifted many tiny pots of dyes and a tightly bound stack of root parchment by the dye diggers, as well as medicines from the potion-maker. Fortunately, none of these took up much room for the wagon was packed tight. In return, Bily gifted the diggers with most of his little garden pots, keeping only two hardy plants for himself. He told the diggers he had also prepared a garden bed, which they were to seed in Spring. He gave the delighted potion-maker a bag of seeds from the cottage garden, and careful instructions for their planting.
To their surprise, just as they were to leave, Flugal announced that his mate would travel with them, and that they would both come all the way to the other side of the mountains instead of just to the flyway as originally planned. The clan leader explained it was his idea. He had remembered a memory song that suggested it might be possible to climb into the mountains more easily from the other side, and hence to fulfil Bily’s promise to the Guardian long before Spring.
Bily greeted this news with delight, saying he was very glad the Blizzard would not have to wait so long to be delivered from its pain. Zluty could not help but wonder if it would be possible to free the Guardian from the Makers pain binding, given the diggers’ failure to heal the Monster, but he did not say so. Indeed, he was more than happy not to have to part from Flugal and his mate, for he had come to love them both.
Many lavish speeches were made to Redwing, and she was hugged and kissed and petted until she took to her wings to escape the diggers’ adulation. She had tried to explain to Bily what the flyway was, but even he had not been able to understand.
In truth, neither Zluty nor Bily were happy with the idea of parting from her, but then Flugal had asked was she not a free flier, with her own will and wishes. That shamed Zluty because he realised he had got into the habit of thinking that she needed them to tell her what to do, and that was silly. She had been their friend and willing companion for a long time, but now she wished to go West as soon as could be, and they must not hinder her. Even so, he thought it a pity she was to leave them so soon, just when he seemed to have suddenly got better at understanding the diggers. He had looked forward to seeing if it would be the same with Redwing.
‘I think I can talk to the diggers better now because I think of them differently,’ he said to Bily, as he took up the new staff he had carv
ed, admiring the arrangement of the several skystones caught in the net he had woven at its tip. The diggers had been full of admiration for the skystones and Zluty had given one each to Flugal and his mate and to the third little male digger in gratitude for his rescue.
‘When we were at the cottage, I thought of diggers as simple creatures without many words. Maybe that was how the cottage diggers were, but maybe that is only what I thought, and thinking it stopped me seeing anything else.’
Bily fastened the green neck kerchief the diggers had made him around his neck and replied thoughtfully, ‘I think when you care very much for a thing, you understand it better.’
Seeing his brother’s tail was swishing, Zluty asked gently, ‘Are you thinking of your Blizzard?’
‘I am thinking of the Makers,’ Bily said. ‘How they sent Blizzard and his mate here, and when one died, the other had to stay here all alone forever. How they sent an object that made a storm that killed all of Redwing’s people. How they sent the Monks to punish the diggers.’ He turned to look at Zluty, his soft grey eyes unusually stern. ‘They have done great harm because they don’t care about any makings but their own.’
‘Well, let us just hope they never find a way to get through the sky crack,’ Zluty said.
For a moment Bily had a look in his eyes that Zluty could not read. But Flugal appeared just then to summon them for a farewell feast. After they had eaten, there was an elaborate and flowery farewell from the clan leader, and several long songs from other diggers, then more drink and singing and at last the lighting of a few firesticks that looked like sparkling flowers.
The cool, bright sun was high in the sky when at last Zluty bent to take hold of one of the new tow ropes attached to the wagon. It seemed a long time since he had done this, and yet it was not so very many days ago.
Bily’s hand was quite healed now, but Zluty had bidden him walk free while he could. After all, he had more than enough help. A good many of the younger diggers had insisted on accompanying them as far as the flyway, and they had rigged up a dozen temporary tow ropes to help with the pulling. Besides, it was surprisingly easy to pull the wagon on its belly, without wheels, over the blanket of coldwhites. The clan leader had suggested they go directly North to begin and then cut West to the mountains and the flyway. That way they would avoid the deeper snow at the base of the mountain for a day or so.
Zluty fretted a little at how late it was, but Flugal, walking beside him, said that was only because he had always set off on journeys to the Northern Forest in the morning. Zluty smiled at how well the digger had come to know him and he thought how sorry he would be when they finally parted.
He glanced over his shoulder at the Monster, and as if it felt his gaze, it turned and looked at him. Zluty held its enigmatic golden gaze a moment, then the Monster turned away and laid its head down on its paws.
Turning North again, Zluty noticed Bily’s tail was swishing restlessly and wondered what his brother was thinking about. Then he decided it did not matter, for Bily would tell him when he was ready. The main thing was that they were together.
Acknowledgements
With thanks to Katrina Lehman, who edited me so beautifully, and to Marina Messiha for her lovely, creative handling of my little pictures.
With thanks also to Ben Johnson of Bolinda, who picked up the final few typos and errors in the text.
The Kingdom of the Lost is a magical new series for younger readers from the award-winning author of the Little Fur books.
In The Red Wind, a devastating red wind sweeps across the land. Brothers Bily and Zluty are forced to fight for their survival and journey into the perilous unknown to find a new home.
Book 1 – The Red Wind
Book 2 – The Cloud Road
Book 3 – The Velvet City
VIKING BOOKS
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First published by Penguin Group (Australia), 2013
Text and illustrations copyright © Isobelle Carmody, 2013
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
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Cover illustration by Isobelle Carmody
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ISBN: 978-1-74253-817-4
Isobelle Carmody, The Cloud Road
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