Jinx On The Divide (36 page)

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"Betony, darling," said Betony's mother, giving her the sort of hug you give people if you think they've got something contagious. "How you've grown. And you must be Felix." She glanced toward the stage. "They're good, aren't they, that wailing ensemble. I think I cured the lead singer of ear rot a few years back. I'd better go and say hello." She drifted off.

"Ought to go with her, I guess," said Betony's father, and he followed suit.

Betony watched them walk away, an expression of sheer disbelief on her face.

"They're working on this new potion," said Tansy. "Cures spindle lung. Snakeweed's agreed to test it for them -- on
himself.
How generous is that? There could be side effects, but he says he doesn't care, he owes everyone a bit of personal risk. And he thinks it's working already."

Betony didn't reply.

"Come on," said Felix, deciding that she needed distracting, "let's go and mingle."

"Felix, aren't you going to introduce me to your human friend?" asked Agrimony, tossing back her forest of blond hair. "He looks really interesting."

Rhino was talking to Snakeweed about setting up visual displays and getting the right balance of showmanship and education. "And I'm using the moat," he said. "I've got a pair of shreddermouths living there -- Gulp and Gobble. They

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pop their heads up every so often and snap their jaws. The kids love it."

"Rhino, this is Agrimony," said Felix.

"Hello," said Rhino, taking in Agrimony's glittery clinging dress and her sparkly green face paint.

"Touch base again soon, then," said Snakeweed, giving Rhino a wink. "Like your idea about getting the troggle to knit souvenirs. Snot can't bear daylight, of course, which is why he isn't here in person -- although he has given me some knitting patterns for Pepperwort." He patted Rhino on the shoulder and headed off in Pepperwort's direction. On the way, he got sidetracked by the group of important people who had just arrived by fire-breather, raving about the caves and how wonderful the paintings were. Snakeweed started to tell them about something called gunpowder, and the way explosives could be used instead of drilling spells to construct useful things like canals and tunnels. It was just a matter of time before he got the recipe.

"Felix tells me you've been promoted and that you're managing the castle," said Agrimony, fluttering her eyelashes.

"That's right," said Rhino.

"Smooth," said Agrimony.

Felix smiled. Rhino had confessed to him earlier that evening that he used to see himself leaning on the hood of a Ferrari, wearing a sharp suit and shades and chatting on his cell phone. These days, he leaned against his personal fire-breather, wearing handmade tangle-tunics and communicating

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with someone on the other side of the world via a K'Faddle crystal ball.

"You must pay us a visit," said Rhino.

"When?" said Agrimony.

Felix and Betony grinned at each other and moved on.

Grimspite was enjoying himself. Ironclaw had looked at the Big Bang figures, and Fuzzy had helped him calculate a spell that neutralized the sinistrom reek. She'd kept this quiet from her mother, of course, for hens didn't mess with math as a rule. The anti-stink spell hadn't done anything for Grimspite's appearance, however, so he had diplomatically opted for lickit form. He was discussing his new book,
The History of the Sinistrom,
with the owner of the world-famous Yergud bookshop.

"Like the sound of it. I'll do a special promotion," said the bookseller. "I'm going to expand the shop, anyway -- there's going to be a lot more tourism in the area, with Snakeweed's Cave Experience opening next moon."

"Is that what it's called?" said Grimspite, alarm bells starting to ring in his head.

"Yes. The admission isn't too expensive, either. Although a family of thirteen might find it fairly pricey."

"Excuse me," said Grimspite, and he elbowed his way through the crowd to where Snakeweed was graciously accepting some corporate invitation to a wailing concert. "I want a word with you," he hissed.

"Can't it wait? I'm a busy being again these days."

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"No, it can't." Grimspite noticed that not only had Snakeweed's pallor gone but he'd put on some weight, and he wasn't coughing. "You're not at death's door anymore, are you?" he said.

"I'm testing a potion for Betony's parents. Least I could do. Too soon to tell, though, too soon to tell."

Grimspite had a sudden urge to transform himself back to his four-legged form, but he fought it. "Don't spin me a line, Snakeweed; you're completely better. You've got a future again, just like Felix. Only when he was given his life back, he didn't start planning an empire. Listen, if you don't make admission to those caves free, I'll come looking for you one dark night. And I won't be in lickit form, either."

Snakeweed's hand made an involuntary movement toward his wand, and stopped.

Grimspite sighed. "Forget I said that. Knee-jerk reaction, as they say in the other world. Violence isn't the answer to anything. Look -- if you waive that admission fee, you'll get ten times the number of people visiting. The whole
point
of opening up the caves is to show everyone that they're related to one another. You'll be hailed as a social visionary, not a profiteer."

For a moment Snakeweed didn't reply. Then he smiled and said, "You're right. OK. Admission will be free." It was only when Grimspite was out of earshot that he added, "And the merchandising possibilities would increase tenfold as

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well ... particularly if we can build an access road by tunneling through the mountain."

Turpsik the one-eye was arguing about subtexts with Pewtermane the brittlehorn, and they both seemed to be greatly enjoying themselves. It had taken Pewtermane half a moon to walk there from Geddon, but he had done it. Turpsik was going to read some of her poetry a little later, and Pewtermane was really looking forward to the one about starvation and hypothermia. Turpsik's ode to an iceberg was now a classic.

Felix looked around at the company, and at the enormous number of friends that he'd made. Yes, he would miss his parents -- but they still had him. He wondered how differently the two versions of himself would turn out. How much would the two divergent worlds mold his essential self? If he really could be reproduced like this -- cloned, almost -- what was identity, anyway? An illusion that depended on sheer chance for the form it took? Nothing was set in stone, not even Betony's parents. And what
had
appeared to be set in stone wasn't necessarily genuine -- Flintfeather had turned out to be a schemer called Topaztoe. It was strange that Betony was so stuck on history, because how did you ever really know what
had
happened, and what
hadn't?

There was a stir at one end of the grounds; people were looking up into the sky. Felix searched for the identification jets of flame from a fire-breather, but he couldn't see any.

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There was a shape, though, dark against the bloodred sky. It was gliding in, quite slowly, reminding him of an albatross coming in to land.

The fact that the area below cleared very quickly suggested that whatever was arriving was viewed with considerable respect --- or fear, even. There was a most unorthodox mix of beings at this party, creatures that never normally had time for one another. Triple-heads and lickits were discussing recipes; carrionwings and diggelucks were talking about landscape gardening; tangle-folk and japegrins were dancing together.

When Leona the riddle-paw landed, somehow Felix wasn't surprised. It must have been quite an arduous flight for her, for her wings weren't all that powerful. But she was just as dangerous and cunning as the sphinxes of his own world were said to have been, which was why she quickly had a space around her. Sheathing her claws with the flick-knife sound he remembered so well, she lashed her dragon tail and surveyed the scene with her beautiful sloe-black eyes.

"Hello, Leona," said Felix, stepping forward.

"Hello, human child," replied the riddle-paw, in her low, menacing purr.

"You're just the person I wanted to see," said Felix.

"I'm never the person anyone wants to see," said Leona. "Apart from Ironclaw, and that's purely a mathematical relationship. So prrrecisely
why
would you want to see me?"

"Because you're a sorceress of the first order."

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"Go on."

"Well ... I've been split in two."

"I know," said Leona. "What is your question?"

"Is there any way I'll ever be able to find out what's happened to the me in my old world?"

"Why would you want to?"

"Well ... he's me, isn't he?"

"Not anymore," said Leona. "That's like saying twins remain exactly the same. They don't. They have different experiences from the moment they become aware. You may well have reacted identically to begin with, on both sides of the Divide, but as what you experience diverges, the people you become will diverge, too."

"So the me over there is already different from the me over here?"

"Of course."

A sudden explosion of applause from the direction of the stage made them turn to look. "Hello, everyone!" trilled the queen, clearly audible even at that distance. "Isn't this just
so
much fun? The dancing will start in a moment, and the king's found a new one that you're all going to love -- it's got a few twirls with ..."

The wise-hoof emcee stepped over to her and whispered something in her ear.

"Oh, yes," said the queen brightly. "The Magical Objects Bravery Awards." She was wearing a gorgeous green velvet gown that was covered with emeralds. The wise-hoof handed her a many-faceted silver orb that glinted with rainbow colors, like a dewdrop caught in sunlight.

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[Image: Nimby.]

The queen held up her hand for silence.

"That's your magic carpet at the side of the stage, isn't it?" said Leona, ignoring the queen's order.

"Betony's," said Felix. "We'd better go and watch." The two of them moved forward and found a place very near the front, since people seemed remarkably willing to get out of their way.

"This year's award goes to Nimblenap ..."

Felix watched Nimby fly onstage and bow, and a lump came to his throat. "The Nimby in my world never got to

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experience this," he said. "I hope the other Felix finds a way of making it up to him."

"He'd have a hard job," purred Leona. "In your world, Nimby's dead."

Felix looked at her, horrified. "What?"

"When the Divide closed," said the riddle-paw, "the half-twist straightened out. No magic can operate in your world anymore."

"So Nimby's
dead?"

"Yes."

"And I wouldn't be able to do the ignition spell anymore?"

"No."

"And Betony wouldn't be able to perform any illusion spells?"

"No."

"And the reverse is true over here," said Felix, remembering the way his compass had stopped working and his watch had stopped ticking.

"That is correct."

So the other me is going to have a scientific future after all,
thought Felix.
I feel sort of sorry for him. Magic's more fun. I guess Betony will still become a historian -- she'd love all the museums. Life, eh. There are good and bad parts wherever you are -- pluses and minuses in both worlds. But without the bad parts, the good ones would be meaningless. At least I got to stay with Betony. I wonder if her ears will stay rounded over there, though? Things might get tricky if...

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And then the most terrible thought occurred to him.

"Leona," he said, hardly daring to speak it out loud, but knowing that he must. "If magic no longer works in my world, does that mean that my cute has been reversed as well?"

"Why do you want to know?"

Felix had to dig his fingernails into the palms of his hands to stop himself from shouting out,
Isn't it obvious? I don't want to think of my parents watching me die within the next few weeks. I don't want to think of Betony stranded in my world, alone.
But, of course, it wasn't obvious. Leona was a sphinx -- she'd probably eaten her own parents; she wouldn't understand at all. Or was she giving him a chance
not
to know? What did he want, ignorance or the truth, however bad it was? In the end, all he said was, "It's important to me."

"There's a difference between live magic and dead magic," said Leona. "The twisty-strip DNA thing. A new illusion spell would be live magic, the same as lighting a candle with a wave of your hand. Dead magic is something that's been magically achieved but is no longer actually working. Betony's ears will stay rounded -- I assume you did that before you went, because she'd be awfully conspicuous otherwise. And you'll live, Felix, for quite a long time in all prrrobability. In both worlds."