But then was the idea any less likely than the fact that the sky over her head was now filled with stars from the heavens of another universe? Even the darkness between those stars—the darkness of space itself—was not like space as she saw it from her bedroom window. There were subtle colors pulsing through it: shades of deepest purple and rich royal blue, moving like tides across the sky, ready to be swum or sailed.
In the time that she’d been turning all these wild ideas over, the Sea of Izabella had quieted down considerably. The waters were virtually flat now, and the step of the Sea-Skippers more hushed because it was easier going. It was even possible for Candy and the Johns to chat normally, as their bearers skipped side by side.
“We’re moving through the Ring of Darkness right now,” John Drowze explained. “That light you see ahead of us”—Candy had not seen any light before, but now that it was pointed out, she saw a distinct paling of the sky close to the horizon—”the light at Efreet—”
“—one of the Unfettered Islands,” Sallow broke in to add.
“What does that mean?”
“It means they govern themselves,” said John Slop. “They don’t pay taxes to the Abaratian government, nor are they part of the Commexo Company.”
“Oh, don’t get political on us, Slop,” John Drowze complained.
“I just wanted her to understand the complexities of—”
“Nobody
did
“O woe is me!
O woe is me!
I used to have a Hamster Tree!
But it was eaten by a newt,
And now I have no cuddly fruit!
O woe is me! “O woe is me!
I used to have a Hamster Treeee!
“You like my song?” Pux said, when he was done.
“It wasn’t quite what I was expecting,” Candy said. “But yes. It was certainly… um… unusual.”
“I’ll teach it to you!” Pux said. “Then you’ll have something to sing as you go around the Yebba Dim Day and people will think,
“Then I
Everybody joined in with the song this time (except Serpent and Moot), and Candy quickly picked it up. By the time they came to the fourth rendition, Pux said:
“This time a solo, from Miss Quackenbush.”
“Oh no…”
“Oh yes,” said Deaux-Deaux. “We’ve carried you all this way. The least you can do is sing us a song.”
It was a reasonable request. So Candy sang out her first Abaratian song as the mist ahead began to thin, and they skipped their way into the Straits of Dusk.
“Nice. Very nice,” said Pux when she was done. “Now I’ll teach you another.”
“No, I think one’s enough, for now. Maybe another time.”
“I don’t imagine there will
“Don’t be so sure you won’t meet this lady again,” Mischief said to the company. “I believe she’s in your lives forever now. And we’re in hers. There are some people, you know, who are too important to ever be forgotten. I think she’s one of them.”
Candy smiled; it was a sweet speech, even if she didn’t quite believe it.
Nobody seemed to know what to say when Mischief had finished, so there was just a thoughtful silence for a minute or two as the mists ahead of them continued to part.
“Ah…” said John Sallow. “I do believe I see the Yebba Dim Day.”
The last scraps of mist parted now, and their destination came into view. It was not an island in any sense that Candy understood the word. It seemed to be a huge stone-and-metal head, with towers built on top of its cranium, all filled with pinprick windows, from which beams of light emerged to pierce the mist.
“Set your watch to Eight,” Mischief said to Candy.
“I don’t understand,” Candy said. “One minute it looks like it’s dawn, the next it’s night, and now you’re saying set my watch to eight o’clock.”
“That’s because we’re now in the Straits of Dusk,” said John Sallow, as though the matter were simplicity itself. “It’s always Eight in the Evening here.”
Candy looked well and truly confused.
“Don’t worry,” said Deaux-Deaux. “Eventually you’ll get the knack of it. For now just
As she went she glanced over her shoulder, so as to have one last glimpse of her friends to fix in her head; just in case Mischief was overly optimistic in his beliefs, and none of them ever met again.
But Mischief had long gone, and all four Skippers had already leaped into the water and dived down under the boats so as to escape the harbor undetected.
Candy experienced a sudden and acute sense of loss. She felt utterly and painfully alone. Without John Mischief, how would she get by in this strange world?
It wasn’t that she felt the need to turn around and go home. There was nothing for her back in Chickentown, or at least nothing that she wanted. She hated her father. And her mother, well, she just made her feel empty. No, there was nothing for her there. But coming here, entering this strange New World, was like being born again.
A new life, under new stars.
So it was with a curious mingling of anticipation and heavy heart that she pressed against the flow of the crowd and eventually brought herself through the doors and into the city that stood on the Straits of Dusk.