The Adventures of Rustle and Eddy Read online

  “These are names that will never die, Rustle. They are names that lived more than the rest of us. I want that for me! I want to see the thing, to do the thing. I want to bring back the thing no one knew was missing, to fight the thing no one thought could be fought!”

  “I don’t. I just want to know about it, so I can tell my people about it.”

  “Then we are a team! You see the thing and tell me. Then I go to the thing and do the thing. And then you tell the people about the thing! But you go first.”

  Rustle glanced out into the darkness.

  “I don’t—”

  Eddy clasped his hands together. “Please, Rustle! Just look. If there is nothing to see, nothing to do, then we go. No harm. And if there is something scary, you come back very fast and I will tear it to pieces. Please!”

  The fairy chewed his lip. Exploring this place was a bit tantalizing, but finding exciting new things seemed a lot more desirable when it was simply an idea and not something he actually had to do.

  “Fine. But just a look.”

  “Yay!” Eddy clapped. “You call back, tell me what you see!”

  Rustle buzzed forward and upward. The wind was strange and constant. On the surface, it was always a bit chaotic, whorls turning this way and that. The best fairies could bend the wind to their whims. The worst could at least read it and know from where it had come and to where it might go. But here… it was different. The whisper in his ears and around his wings that he’d craved to be reunited with was certainly back, but it felt as though it was speaking a foreign language. It didn’t feel like proper wind at all, but he couldn’t put his finger on just what it did feel like.

  As he buzzed deeper, the pocket of air proved to be quite large. It looped up, then down again, and opened into a yawning emptiness. After a few minutes of flitting about, he looked back and realized that he could no longer see Eddy. That he was alone in this place sent a jolt of concern through him, but to his great surprise, it was tempered by the feeling of anticipation. The merman’s words must have sprouted the same seed of curiosity and wonder that had led him to meet Eddy in the first place. This was something entirely new. For each nook and cranny of the black stone walls, his were certainly the first fairy eyes to behold it.

  It was thus with a mixture of relief and disappointment that, for nearly ten minutes, his buzzing and exploration turned up very few things of interest. The place was enormous, yes, but filled with little more than the foreign wind. Unlike in the rocky tunnel and practically everywhere else he’d seen on the sea floor, this place had no crusty glaze of tenacious life clinging to the stone. Indeed, it was gleaming and perfect, with the same perilously sharp texture. He did find more water. It covered nearly the entire bottom of the massive void in the sea floor. It was some distance below where they had entered, far farther than he suspected Eddy was willing or able to crawl across the land, particularly in light of the vicious sharpness of the stone. Other than that, there was nothing. He flew along the roof of the place, buzzing against the flow of the wind. No matter how far he flew, its strength never wavered. How could he have gone so far and not felt some inkling that he was nearing its source, or at least where it entered the current cave?

  When his curiosity was no longer capable of overruling his survival instinct, he turned back, this time dropping low and following the surface of the water. Mindful of what had gotten him into this situation in the first place, he gave himself a bit more distance than when he’d investigated the half-seen form that had turned out to be Eddy. The relative friendliness of his captor was a profound and unlikely stroke of luck. He didn’t trust such good fortune to come his way again any time soon.

  The time in the darkness, lit by his own subtle glow, had allowed his eyes to adjust. Below him, the water rippled gently under the influence of the constant wind. It created little rolling waves, all propagating in the same direction. They caught and bent his glow into rings and loops of light. The water spread outward into the darkness in all directions, vanishing at the edge of his glow. He could almost imagine that it had no end. If not for the wind, and his innate skill at using it to navigate, it would have been impossible to be certain he was heading in the right direction.

  He gazed down into the water. Unlike the higher levels of the sea, where it was a murky soup, here the water was eerily clear, offering fleeting glimpses of rock formations beneath the surface as they caught a glimmer of his light. Not far from the foot of the steep wall leading up to where Eddy patiently awaited his return, Rustle finally spotted something worth noting.

  It was beneath the water, at the very limit of his vision—which thanks to the clarity of the water, meant it was a long way down. At this distance, he couldn’t make out precisely what it was, but there seemed to be intricate designs of a pearly white material inset into an oddly smooth and rectangular slab of stone. He drifted closer to the surface of the water and strained his eyes, but the ripples kept him from getting any more detail. The smoldering spark of curiosity flared again, and he swept his eyes anxiously about. He’d yet to see anything that suggested there was any life in this cavern. Perhaps, if he was swift, he could risk a quick dip beneath the surface. Without Eddy’s water-for-air spell, he would have to hold his breath, but he only needed a minute or two, not the hours he could hold his breath if he set his mind to it.

  Rustle drifted down and risked a toe to the water. It was warm. Not scalding hot, but warmer than any natural body of water he’d felt before. Before he could talk himself out of it he buzzed up his wings and plunked below the surface like a dart. He’d gotten a great deal more practice in the water in the past few hours than he’d had in the rest of his life, so making the switch from fluttering to swimming was swift and smooth. He shrugged off the light squeeze of additional pressure as he swam deeper and finally came to the unusual artifact.

  It wasn’t very large, a bit smaller than he was, and sat in a carefully smoothed recess in the floor of the cave. He ran his fingers across the stone and its mother of pearl inlay. It must have taken a profound amount of effort to create such a thing. The shapes were familiar, not so different from those on Eddy’s book. More of the merfolk writing, he supposed. He stepped lightly on the smoothed stone and reached down. The slab was thin, and though it wasn’t exactly light, he found that with a bit of effort he could lift it. He heaved it free and swam for the surface. Hopefully this would satisfy Eddy’s thirst for adventure.

  #

  Eddy’s eyes darted across the page of the spell book detailing the complex spell to conjure up a pair of legs. The incantation was an extremely long and complex one, and the procedure for casting it was liberally sprinkled with warnings against novices casting it. That much didn’t concern him. The same warnings had been applied to the much simpler water-for-air spell, but that one was at least fit on a single page, and most mermaids knew it by heart. If he’d miscast it, he would only have needed to find the nearest mermaid to set him straight. He would have had to do it before he drowned, but fortunately that hadn’t been necessary. This one would be reshaping his body, and he was a long way from anyone who could help him if he didn’t do it correctly.

  “Why do all of the interesting things happen where there isn’t any water…” he moped, slamming the book shut and huffing out a sigh.

  “Eddy?” called a tiny voice.

  He instantly perked up. “Yes! I’m over here! What did you see for me, Rustle the Fairyman!”

  The glow of his friend approached from the distance. Rustle was bobbing low to the floor of the tunnel, his flight clearly labored. When he arrived, Eddy held out a hand to receive the odd tablet he was carrying, but instead, Rustle landed on it and sat down on Eddy’s palm.

  “It is enormous,” Rustle said. “It is like there is no end to this place. But in all of my searching, this is the only thing I found besides wind, water, and stone.”

  Eddy took the tablet with his other hand. Though quite clear and legible, the words inlaid on the tablet we
re of an incredibly ancient dialect. It was nearly unreadable, but after a bit of puzzling he worked out what it said.

  To all foolish enough to venture to this place. The doors above and below are sealed. The Bandits cannot leave. We cannot know what the years ahead may hold. There may come a time when Bandits are second to a greater threat. For those times, we offer this key. May it be used only by the bold.

  Following this inscription, rendered with even greater care, was a brief sequence of words. He’d never seen them before, but they had the same shape and structure as the words covering the pages of the spell book.

  “You’re just staring, Eddy,” he said. “What is it?”

  Eddy looked to Rustle, then back to the tablet. “It is… I do not know for sure what it is. It is very old.”

  “Can you read it? That is writing, isn’t it?”

  “I can. Yes, I can read it.”

  “Well? What does it say?”

  Eddy grappled with himself. On one hand, he was quite sure if he spoke those final words aloud, something would happen. On the other, he wasn’t quite sure what would happen. That sounded wonderful to him, like the beginning of a hundred exciting stories from his youth. It also sounded like the sort of thing that Rustle would not like. … But then… Rustle didn’t know any of that…

  “It says Oorow Ho-own Willwoon.”

  Eddy’s eyes darted about as he watched for some sign of the effects. He was a bit disappointed when nothing seemed to happen at all. When he looked back to Rustle, the little fairy had quite a different look on his face.

  “Something is wrong,” Rustle said, huddling down and looking over his shoulder.

  From his posture and expression, one would think he was certain he would find a hungry creature breathing down his neck.

  “What? Nothing happened?” Eddy said.

  “You can’t feel it? The wind! It’s blowing the other way.”

  Eddy scratched his head. “I know currents change. Does wind not change?”

  “Not like this… Wind flows and weaves. It eases this way and that. Even in a storm it doesn’t move like this. First forward, now backward, nothing between. That isn’t right.”

  “Odd…”

  “Did the tablet say anything about wind?”

  “Nothing about wind.” He glanced down. “And it didn’t say about water either! But look!”

  The edge of their little pool was edging up along the slope.

  “I don’t like this… What if the water is rising down there, too.”

  “Then look please! Down there! Please look, Rustle my friend!”

  “Fine! I’ll go. But if there is anything bad happening, I want to leave this place, immediately.”

  “Yes! We go if anything is bad. But look now!”

  Eddy tossed Rustle in the direction of what was now a quite audible rush of water below. The fairy gave him a hard look, then buzzed off into the distance. In no time at all, he was on his way back.

  “What do you see?”

  “I think the water is rising. Slowly, but it is rising.”

  “This is very good! If it gets close enough, I can explore as well! We can explore together.”

  “Eddy, you said three words, and it reversed the wind and caused the cave to begin flooding. That is powerful magic.” Rustle said firmly. “We should go. We don’t know what else will happen.”

  Eddy crossed his arms. He tried to scrape together some sort of argument that might convince him to change his mind, but Rustle’s steadfast expression made it clear he would not be budged.

  “Yes. This cave will not go anywhere. If it floods, then tomorrow, or the next day, I can come and explore.”

  He gathered his things together.

  “Thank you…” Rustle said, profound relief in his voice. “There is already so much for me to learn elsewhere.”

  “It is no problem, Rustle my friend. If we are friends, we cannot always do the things that I want to do. You are small and afraid. That is not bad. It is good. Keeps you safe.”

  “I am not… Well, I am small. But I’m not… I… I am afraid. … But that’s not a bad thing!”

  Eddy furrowed his brow. “I said this. I did say this, didn’t I? Is the spell working less now?”

  “You did say that, but… It felt like…” He sighed. “I suppose sometimes seeing big brave things makes me think maybe it isn’t always good to be small and… cautious.”

  “If you say so. Get ready for breathing water again.”

  He grabbed the fairy, murmured the spell again, and plunged down into the water. Once there, he released Rustle and swam along the darkened tunnel.

  “It is best if we wait until tomorrow for adventure. Today there is more work to do. Almost we are out of time for lunch, and then there is mining.”

  They swam along, working their way back through the tunnel to the main mine. It was taking a bit more work to do so than he’d expected. There was a current now where there wasn’t one before. That stood to reason. If the water was rising, it must have been coming from the tunnel. And quite quickly at that.

  He worked his tail harder, but the current was getting stronger by the moment. They’d barely reached the midpoint of the tunnel they’d uncovered when it was all he could do just to keep from losing ground.

  “What’s happening?” Rustle called out, holding for dear life to Eddy’s hair.

  “I said it was good to be small and afraid.” Eddy gritted his teeth, the water beginning to draw him backward. “This time, it was better than being big and brave, I think.”

  Bits of stone and silt were rushing along the tunnel toward them, striking Eddy’s face and chest painfully. He worked his way toward the wall of the tunnel and tried to hold tight to it, but the jagged surface cut his fingers. He reached back and grasped his pick. A mighty thrust wedged it into the floor of the tunnel and provided an anchor point.

  “What do we do?” Rustle said.

  “Do not worry! We learn about how to handle too strong current when we are young.”

  “Then what do we do?”

  “Get in shelter.”

  “But we can’t do that!”

  “Then you get up and away from anything solid that the current can hurt you against.”

  “But we’re surrounded by that stuff.”

  “Then you find a thing to hold tight to. Like I do now!” He turned his head, offering an exhilarated smile to the fairy clinging to the end of his fluttering hair. “You see? Nothing to worry about. We know all about how to stay safe.”

  It was entirely possible Rustle did not hear this final assurance. The current had reduced Eddy’s hearing to little more than a mass of current and turbulence. He shut his eyes and lowered his head, streamlining his shape as best he could to keep from being swept away and to help avoid being too badly scoured by bits of jagged stone.

  Eddy had faced a strong current before. Being in the wrong place during a tide or being too near to a mudslide when it happens could cause the water to become dangerously churned up. And sometimes, where warm and cold water mixed, or two currents met, there could be a whirlpool. But all of those reached intensity like this only very briefly.

  His hands were shaking, but he held firm until the pick itself suddenly shifted. He risked opening his eyes long enough to see the wall where he’d embedded the pick’s head was beginning to crumble.

  “Rustle!” he cried.

  The fairy did not answer but the painful tug at a lock of his hair assured him where the fairy was. He released the failing pick with one hand and snatched Rustle, then held the terrified creature close to his chest.

  “This will be bad, Rustle. If it is very bad, I am sorry. But I will try to make it worse for me than for you.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “I will tell you after. If there is an after for me.”

  #

  Eddy’s fingers tightened around Rustle. The fairy couldn’t see what was going on, but a heartbeat after the merman had clu
tched him tight, he felt them both lurch into motion in the direction of the current. Eddy curled himself as tightly into a ball as he could, his thick tail folding up, his head curling down, his arms pulling in tight.

  The pair thumped and bashed into the walls with punishing force but protected as he was in the center of ball Eddy had made of himself, Rustle was spared the worst of it. He could hear Eddy grunting and wheezing as he smashed and slid against the walls.

  All at once, the bashing, pummeling journey changed to a tumbling, flailing arc, as the tunnel ejected them in a geyser. They struck the steep cliff twice on the way down, then splashed into the water below.

  “Eddy?” Rustle said, dizzily recovering from the journey.

  The merman didn’t answer. His grip was still painfully firm around Rustle. That was a good sign.

  “Eddy, are you awake? Are you hurt?”

  “Ugh…” he groaned.

  The grip loosened and Rustle flitted out to see what had become of him. All things considered, the merman had faired remarkably well. His entire body was checkered with scrapes and gouges, but none seemed particularly dire. His eyes were half-lidded and looked unfocused.

  “Where are we?” he said, blinking and feeling a lump that had formed on his head.

  “We came back out of the tunnel. We’re down in the cave again.”

  “Do you see any rays?”

  “Rays?”

  “Big fish. Like the sail of a boat. Are there any here? Golden? Pulling a shell behind?”