Glory Alley and the Star Riders (The Glory Alley Series) (55 page)

“Ye get out of
the
Bamboozle.”

“That’s it
?
No
magic for me,
no trophy
with my name on it
, no anything?”

“Trust me, escaping
the
Bamboozle will be reward enough
.
”

“Escape what
?
There’s nothing in there except sand.”

“
Ye
will be in there.”

“I kinda figured that
.
”
Glory
scratched h
er
head
.
“I don’t understand the point of all this
.
”

“The Bamboozle makes a stiff will more pliable.
”

“And if
my
will
stay
s
unpliable?”

“
The extraction will commence, taking away your memories through
osmosis
until your body crinkles
into a dried up rais
i
n
.
When
the
process
finally get
s
to your
deepest memories,
the
last bit of
blood
and fluids
will be leached away
.
By the time the
last
images of your life rise to the top of
the
pool the only thing left of ye
will
be bones and gristle.”

She
didn’t want to believe them
, but
her
fear grew
exponentially by the hour.
Maybe I should give up. How can I, a lone girl, defeat all of this?
Grandpa’s face jiggled into focus.
Keep your eyes on the treasure
.
Sh
e
forced herself to think of
the coveted Sliver,
the designer jacket, the respect of her peers, a pile of money to pay off the house and farm,
medical
specialists for George, and keeping people like Crenshaw off
their backs
.

“Why not just give me what I want and I’ll give you what you want?”

“Give us
the
Elboni
first and then we will discuss it,” Bone said.

“Why are you
Wybbil
s so stingy about sharing magic with people who need it?”

“Greedy
Indigoes
,” Bone muttered. “Always
thinking about money
.”

“It’s not just for me
.
It’s the only way to keep my family together.
”

“Ye and your puny problems,” Bone replied
.

“
They’re not
puny to me.”

“
Just like an Indigo to
think the
universe revolves around
her
,
” Bone replied, getting inches from her face
.
“Well, I got new
s
for y
e
—it doesn’t!”

She turned her head to avoid spittle.

“
Ye don’t understand
,
Rock Collector,
” Needle said
, coming closer, making her feel closed in
.
“Even though ye be so undeserving, we’d give ye what ye want to save Wybb, but we can’t break the rules.”

“Rules schmules,”
Glory
complained
.
“
T
here’s a
lways
a
way around them.
”

“Your darkened
Tullah
n mind tells ye that, but allow me to
set it straight
,” White Feather said
acting all
superior
.
“
Wybb runs on magic
, see
.
T
he
magic
be
given to us
—
we
do not
own i
t, so it
’s
not ours to use in any old way.
T
he
wind and
rain be not ours to command
.
We have no power over life and death
.
Everything we have to offer that
be
worth offering comes from
the
Elboni
itself
.

“
On
Tullah
,
it works
the
same way, except
the
inhabitants there be blind to
the magic
.
T
h
at’s why things
come
so
hard to
them
.
Tullah
ns must rely on
brute strength
and hard earned knowledge to su
r
vive
.
You
devote your lives to
buil
d
ing
machines and creat
ing
technolog
y
in order
to live
comfortably.
On Wybb things simply
come to us
as gifts
, so we can concentrate on better things
.”

“You mean nobody invented the whifferdils
—
they just fell out of the sky?”

“
Almost, yes
.”

“And the Nightburner
, Thunderbone
and
Paraplume
?”

“Gifts of
the
Elboni
as well.”

Glory
tilted h
er
head
in deep thought. This
new information might be pertinent to h
er
cause
.
She
had to know how it applied to the binding ritual.

“So you’re not really magic—just the gifts are magic?”

“Indeed.”

“If
that’s the case, and
you
Wybbil
s aren’t
magic
,
how
is it you have the power to grant wishes?
”

“Quit saying that word!
”
Bone yelled
.
“Call it a magical request or spell it out!”

“
W
hatever,”
Glory
said with a swish of h
er
hand
.
“You know what I mean.”

“If all the requirement
s
of a binding
be
met,
” Needle said. “T
he
Elboni
’s magic flows through
the
Wybbil who invoked it
.
We’re merely conduits
.
Don’t ask me why—it’s just the order of things
.”

“What are the requirements of a binding again?
”
Glory
asked, trying to sound casual about it.

“Ye
be
bold,
Tullah
n,” White Feather said
.
“And not very smart if ye think we’d tell ye how to bind us
.”

“The Elboni be very particular about who comes near it. Not even us emissaries can touch it with bare hands and live.”

“That’s right,” added
Bone
with a sneer
.
“I wouldn’t
dare
ask for a W-I-S-H on the behalf of
a thief like ye
for
fear of offending the
Elboni
.
”

“The
Elboni
wouldn’t mind,”
Glory
said
.
“Because we’re tight like this.
”
She
squeezed her hands together for emphasis.
“
I wasn’t going to tell you, but I already touched it. With bare hands. And I lived.”

“Liar!”
c
ried White Feather
, big nostrils were flaring and his fists were clenched tight at his sides
.
“Blasphemer!”
He
sounded downright vengef
ul.
“Let
the
test begin
!
”