The Stranger's Woes (25 page)

Don’t get distracted. Easy to say at a moment like this.

I closed my eyes, tried to relax, and allowed myself to doze off. Not to fall asleep but to doze, to inhabit the delicate, intangible threshold between sleep and waking. This is my tried-and-true method for trying to remember what I have just dreamed. It worked this time, too.

I was nearly suffocated by the flood of memories that poured over me, so strong it almost pulled me back down into sleep. I opened my eyes just in time, however, and, overmastering myself, shook my head free of the sweet vestiges of slumber.

“Were you able to remember? Was it really that bad?” Melamori asked. “You look like you’re in shock!”

“It seems pretty bad . . . or maybe not. It’s hard to tell. I’ll send Juffin a call—he should be able to explain what happened to me. It seems I could have just disappeared into oblivion. Can you imagine? May I take your hand? I’m scared.”

Melamori nodded and grabbed my big paw between her icy palms. I calmed down a little, then sent a call to Sir Juffin Hully. I hastily told him my strange dream. Juffin didn’t interrupt me a single time, which was already suspicious.

I must say I expected something like this
, the boss replied when I had finished my incoherent story.
It’s good the talisman saved your life
,
but I’m very worried that it perished
.
I don’t have another one
.
In fact
,
it was the only one of its kind
.
The Grand Magician of the Order of the Secret Grass had only one kerchief
,
unfortunately
.
He didn’t like superfluity
,
you see
.
Don’t worry
,
Max
.
This just means that you’ll have to learn a few things very quickly
.
You would have had to acquire the wisdom of traveling between Worlds eventually
,
in any case
.
I just thought it could wait a few years
.
Well
,
it’s common to assume that it’s all for the best
.
Maybe it is
.
Now you just have to prevent yourself from falling asleep until you reach me
.
Can you manage?

I can manage
.
Juffin
,
will I really be okay? I don’t want to leave Echo
.

What if the new World is as wonderful as Kettari?
he asked cunningly.
You still wouldn’t want to go there?

No
.
I need to be here
,
in Echo
.
I so much want to
. . .
I can’t explain it
.

No need to explain
,
Max
.
I’m glad to hear you say this since everything really does depend only on you
.
Everything will be fine as long as you don’t doze off before you see me
,
I promise
.

There’s no way I’ll fall asleep
.
But when I’m awake
. . .
they can’t take me from here
,
can they?

No
,
as long as you’re awake no one can spirit you away
.
Over and out
.

Melamori noticed my attention was no longer so focused and threw a questioning glance my way.

“Juffin says that everything will be fine,” I told her. “The main thing is not to fall asleep. And I won’t. What do you think, Melamori, will Chvaxta get back soon? Has it been two hours yet?”

“Almost.”

Melamori crawled into the back seat, sat close beside me, and put her arm around my shoulders.

“Don’t disappear, Max, all right?” she said.

“I’m not planning on it. You won’t get rid of me that easily.”

“This is no time for joking. I don’t want to get rid of you. You know, everything is so trivial in comparison with this. It just doesn’t matter. You’ve scared me to death three times today already—first with the Thin Death, then the shot from the Baboom, and now this. But here you are sitting beside me, and I’m so glad, enormously glad!”

“The feeling is mutual.”

I tried to laugh, but an embarrassing sniffle came out instead. And not for the first time that day. I was really letting myself go!

Melamori and I sat in a silent embrace. We tried with all our might not to burst into tears, both from a kind of deep sadness and inexpressible joy. It was such a perfect moment that I never wanted it to end.

The noise of an approaching amobiler jerked us out of our pleasant stupor and returned us to reality. The large round eyes of the forester stared at us from the window.

“Are you sad?” he said. “You shouldn’t be so sad about an amobiler, especially an official one.”

Melamori and I exchanged looks and burst out laughing. This possibility was just too absurd. Sir Chvaxta got out and came over to us while we were recovering from this latest bout of hilarity. Then he asked in a concerned voice, “Do you need me to accompany you back to Echo, or can you make it by yourselves?”

“Of course we’ll make it on our own,” I said. “Thank you for rescuing us, though.” I moved behind the levers of the forester’s new amobiler. “We’ll send someone back tomorrow. He’ll return your buggy to you and pick up this wreck”—I waved in the direction of our defunct means of transportation—“after he supplies it with a new crystal.”

“You think of everything, Max,” Melamori said with gentle irony. “But are you sure you haven’t forgotten anything?”

“I don’t think so.”

“What about this?” She waved my traveling bag in front of my face triumphantly.

“Oh, that. Of course,” I said and smiled sheepishly. “I’ve got a sieve for a head. Throw it in back there somewhere, and get in beside it. I’m going to take you for a ride. Good night, Sir Chvaxta. Thank you for your help.”

“Did I really help you?” The forester seemed surprised. “Good night. What a strange bunch you are after all, you Secret Investigators.”

I drove through the forest very cautiously, much more cautiously than usual. I didn’t want to wreck yet another amobiler. But when we finally turned onto the highway, I gave myself free rein. We were flying so fast that it seemed the wheels hardly touched the ground. Melamori was elated.

“Could I do that, too, do you think?” she said timidly.

“You can do even more.”

She smiled with pleasure. “Really?”

“Really.”

We were silent for the rest of the way home. No language contains the words we wanted to speak, and the crazy flight through the darkness offered a perfect alternative. It was even better.

“Here we are,” Melamori said faintly, when I turned onto the Street of Copper Pots and stopped at the Secret Entrance to the House by the Bridge.

“Yep, it’s the end of the line,” I said. “You know, where I come from that expression has another meaning, too. Like ‘Now we’ve done it,’ or ‘We’re sunk,’ or, as Anday Pu would say, ‘The dinner’s over once and for all!’”

“How true!” Melamori said laughing, and together we went into Headquarters.

Sir Juffin Hully was sitting in his armchair just staring into space. I was always a bit afraid of his vacant stare, which seemed as heavy as an anvil. But when he saw us he broke into a smile and even stood up to greet us.

“Well, you certainly sorted out Jiffa and his ladylove,” he said. “The boys next door in the Police Department will be glad to know that you’re so keen on justice, and that you even know how to restore it when you’re lucky. You were marvelous, too, Melamori, especially the restraint you showed. Please accept my congratulations! Well, I guess that’s about it, then.”

“The highest form of praise would be some Elixir of Kaxar,” I grumbled. “I’m about to collapse from exhaustion. Did you hear about the sad fate of my own precious bottle?”

“I heard, I heard. And to think it’s the first time you managed to take your own bottle with you and not mine!”

“Fate gives wise counsel,” I said pedantically. “From now on I shall just filch your supplies.”

“Iron logic,” Juffin said, reaching into his desk drawer. “Okay, take it, you sponger. We need to petition Sir Dondi Melixis to open a new category of expenditures to cover your little penchant.”

I took two enormous gulps of Elixir of Kaxar. The delightful vitality and cheer of a person refreshed from good night’s sleep—how I loved the sensation! I felt light as a breeze again. Life seemed simple and wondrous. I closed my eyes in ecstasy.

“Delicious.” I turned to Melamori. “I highly recommend it.”

“I think I’d rather just go home and sleep for two dozen hours,” she said. “And you really won’t be needing me for now.” Then she looked at the boss. “Sir Juffin, Max won’t disappear anymore, will he? Are you sure of that?”

“I’m sure. And if he disappears, I’ll snatch him back from wherever he ends up. I give you my word of honor. Are you satisfied?”

“Yes.” Melamori put on the sad semblance of a smile, then came up to me and kissed me on the cheek, quite unexpectedly. “I hope I’m allowed to do that, at least,” she said with a slightly bitter grin. “No objections from that bitch Destiny, the Order of Dark Magicians, and other Jackasses of Fate. Good night, gentlemen. I’m asleep on my feet already.”

“Morning. It’s already morning, Melamori. So good morning,” Juffin called after her as she was leaving.

I just stood there with my mouth agape, like a fish on dry land. Juffin looked at me with sympathetic curiosity and shrugged helplessly. There was nothing else to say.