FOLLOW THE DOG
The small casket, upholstered with hyacinths, rose slowly into the ice chimney and disappeared from their eyes when the light became too dazzling. The breeze was swirling up, taking with her white petals and small pearly scales.
- "Now that's it. He's gone", muttered Christopher. "Always with class, the ol' fellow."
Günter took off his glasses to wipe away his tears and smiled as he put them back. His gray hair was falling on his forehead in uneven strands and his tanned cheeks looked hollower than usual.
- "Always", he repeated softly. "If you do not mind, now, I'd like to be alone for a little while."
The others nodded sadly and walked away in silence.
Matilda moved further into the field with her herbarium. Christopher lay down in the middle of the flowers, his arms crossed under his neck, and pretended that he was taking a nap. Terrence went to bed. Scorpius went for a walk with his notebook. Wendy went back to repairing the dents on their faithful vehicle's metal body and Albus sat next to her to watch her work.
Euphrosine went back inside the Pumpkin and, tiptoeing to not disturb the exhausted healer, she headed to the kitchen cupboards. She took the big teapot on the highest shelf, lifted the porcelain lid and smiled.
- "That's not the best hiding place", she said gently. "Someone could have poured water on you inadvertently."
- "Is he dead?" Calcifer asked, curling on the fingers reaching out to him.
He was no bigger than a sparrow and his tiny blue flames were crackling.
- "He's dead," said Euphrosine softly. "Like every creature of flesh and blood. You don't have to be afraid, you can't die."
- "But if the Reapers had caught me, it would have been worse than death!" squeaked the little daemon in the palm of her hand.
- "I know", said the old woman. "I'm sorry. We should have listened to you and kept going instead of staying to study the fresco. None of this would have happened."
She sighed.
- "But there's no point in saying that kind of thing. Too many people already feel guilty..."
She stroked Calcifer's purring head, brought him close to her face and let him curl up against her cheek. He was warm and throbbing wildly like the heart of a scared child.
- "I'm so sorry," she repeated.
The daemon, eyes half-closed, snuggled against the wrinkled neck of the witch.
- "I miss the house elf already", he said, his high-pitched voice suddenly hoarse. "It hurts. Have you been missing Jen Pendragon like that for a hundred years?"
- "Yes", whispered Euphrosine.
- "I miss the sky too," mumbled Calcifer. "But it's different, because I know it's still there – only out of reach."
- "It'll be over soon," said the old woman. "I promise."
oOoOoOo
Wendy finished screwing tight a bolt, then wiped her sweaty face with the back of her wrist, leaving a trail of grease on her forehead. Her gloves made huge paws at the end of her slender arms. She searched the kangaroo pocket of her overalls for a handkerchief and blew in it loudly before continuing to fix the metal plate under the belly of the Pumpkin which was gurgling contentedly.
- "It's so weird", she sniffled. "Pepper's dead and yet the world has not stopped rolling. Our journey in the Axis goes on, the weather's nice, this iceberg is beautiful and the hyacinths smell good... it's unfair."
Albus, who was holding the manual open to the right page, nodded.
- "I know," he said simply.
Wendy's gray eyes flashed dangerously.
- "I really wish you'd stop doing that", she said through her teeth, focusing on a new bolt so she wouldn't have to look at the young man.
- "What d'you mean?"
- "You're always so... so..."
The screwdriver slipped and wrenched off the bolt which, carried away by momentum, hit the mechanic's jaw. She let out a cry of pain.
- "You get angry when we try to help you, but you keep everything for yourself!" she hissed, tears in her eyes. "You're allowed to explode, but you can't blame us when we're worried! Look at how calm you are right now! I know you'll make yourself sick overthinking and then you'll push us away when it'll become too hard to bear! "
Albus frowned and put down the manual.
- "I don't do that", he protested.
- "Yes, you do! I liked it better when you were crying for peanuts... I hate arguing, but I'd rather you let me see how you feel... You did, before. You've changed, Al."
He stiffened.
- "And you don't like that, I guess," he snapped back.
Wendy looked at him beseechingly.
- "I'm trying to understand you," she pleaded. "We're getting married and it won't be easy every day. We will fight, we will have troubles, we will have to make decisions, we will change. Not just you, me too. I love you, Al, and I want us to get to the end together."
Her rainy eyes were not letting him look away.
- "I won't let you down," she said in a trembling voice. "Do you hear me? I'll stay with you, even if you turn into a dragon forever, even if I have to sleep in the meadow to be next to you, so I warn you: I'm not going to be scared of you. I will confront you, every time I'll need to."
His anger crumpled down.
- "You're scared of me?"
The distress in his green eyes was such that Wendy dropped her wrench to take him in her arms.
- "Only when you tell me to leave you alone", she whispered. "When you try to make me believe you don't need me."
The young man leaned against her, burying his face against the t-shirt stained with black marks.
- "I always need you by my side, Wendy," he stammered. "But I wonder sometimes if one day you won't get tired of me... if you won't go away... I... when I hurt so much... when I think that maybe I'll... die... I tell myself that it'd be better if we had not met..."
She shook her head briskly and hugged him hard.
- "Nonsense," she whispered. "It was worth it – every moment we spent together, every battle, every laugh... and all that will come, wonderful or terrible – I will not regret it, not one moment, even if a day comes when we're separated..."
Her voice choked and Albus wrapped his arms around her.
- "If one day we find ourselves like Günter, watching the other one leave in a ray of light, I want to be sure that I lived intensely every second I spent with you. I don't want to find myself thinking about what I did not say, what I didn't do – or suddenly realize I didn't try to change. I don't care if we fight, as long as we live fully."
He tore himself from her and pushed aside the locks of brown sweeping on the cheeks of the girl, stuck by tears and grease.
- "I'm sorry, Wendy," he muttered. "You are so strong and I forget all too often that I should be protecting you."
She shook her head with a chuckle.
- "We're no longer in the Middle Ages, Al. We protect each other nowadays. You haven't heard a thing I said..."
He leaned into her.
- "Oh, I've heard you all right", he assured, brushing his lips against his fiancée's. "I've heard everything and I'm going to endeavor, I promise."
- "Well then. I forgive you, for this time," Wendy whispered, returning the kiss.
The breeze was gently blowing over the field of hyacinths, slipping their scent and the sound of voices through the open door of the Pumpkin.
On his bed, Terrence, eyes wide open, was staring hard at the bunk over his own.
oOoOoOo
In the two next following days, the iceberg began to melt rapidly and they found they were swept up a river so wide that they could not see the banks. The weather was good and the huge sky above them was of the cerulean blue of a romantic painting. Cotton clouds were floating along the water and the sun was shining in the current.
- "I hope we'll find a land soon," said Christopher. "Otherwise we might end up taking a bath."
In fact, what they were at risk of was rather in the nature of a dive.
They did not notice it right away. Their ears had become accustomed to the whispered silence of the iceberg, and then to the course of the river. It took a few hours for them to realize that the roar that was growing closer was that of a waterfall.
Then the Pumpkin quickened her pace, clinging to what little ice left that was keeping them afloat.
They all worked together to divert the ride to one of the islands that emerged from the river, without any success. Then the rapids swelled and they believed their last hour had come, until the Pumpkin stumbled on a big rock. Wendy operated the levers and the long articulated legs hoisted the golden vehicle to safety – for the moment.
- "We're steep above the waterfall," Scorpius announced in a worried voice.
It took a lot of contortions to draw to them the long, solid lianas they could see on a nearby island, to harpoon a palm tree and to levitate the round vehicle.
They collapsed in the sand, finally safe but out of breath, and stayed like this for a while. Then Günter stood up.
- "Come on, let's settle down for the night. We'll look for a way to cross the waterfalls tomorrow."
They drew straws to point out who would be making supper and when it fell on Scorpius, Vivienne volunteered to replace him. The government agent, who had never touched a pan in his life before, was the worst cook in the group. Even Terrence's strange concoctions were more manageable than his own, and their only source of comfort in the absence of Pepper was to imagine the horrified comments the house elf would have made had he seen the state of his stove.
While the astronomer was preparing dinner, Günter sat down at one of the folding desks and studied his notes on the fresco. Matilda got busy collecting samples of plants and Christopher started scrabbling in the rocks licked by the surf. Albus, on his improvised crutches, went away with Scorpius to explore the surroundings. Terrence, Calcifer floating over his shoulder, went off in another direction. As for Wendy and Euphrosine, they settled on the fine sand beach and watched the glorious sunset.
The island on which they had gotten stranded was just above the waterfall and when they had tasted the water, they had realized it was salty.
It was not a river. It was a sea that flung itself at the end of a plateau with passion, bubbling with mist and light. The pink and golden horizon was filling the sky with beauty, erasing the contours of the ocean. The water was glistening under the puffs of clear clouds, fleeting with shiny reflections on the edge of the rocks, and pouring into the depths of another ocean, rumbling powerfully. The wet haze rising from the waterfall smelled of papaya and was blurring the landscape.
It was the end of the world, in many ways, and their island was perhaps a lost paradise, with its coconut trees gracefully leaning over a turquoise lagoon, the lush vegetation that contrasted with the white sand and the rainbow fish that came undulating beneath the bright surface.
- "The Axis will never cease to amaze us," Wendy said, stretching languidly, savoring the gentle caress of the setting sun. "I was expecting an endless tunnel that would lead to some kind of magical ciborium, but it's a thousand times better."
She had barely finished her sentence that she turned crimson with shame.
- "Oh, I didn't mean... Pepper's death was awful and the Reapers are the most horrible creatures I've ever seen... what I meant is...er…"
- "I understood", said the old witch with an understanding smile. "You know, when we first came, we lost two of our companions in another hall of the Axis, but still, I couldn't help but marvel at what we were discovering."
She undid the elastic at the end of her short braid and let the breeze flutter in her white hair. For a moment, in the evening purple light, she looked very young.
Then she turned to Wendy and, on her grave face, an infinity of wrinkles deepened.
- "The journey will soon come to an end," she said. "At that moment, you will have to guide the others on the way home."
- "Why?" interrupted the mechanic, a flash of concern in her eyes. "Where will you be? What's-"
Euphrosine cut her imperiously. Her severe blue eyes dived into the girl's gray eyes, mesmerizing her.
- "Listen to me, Wendy. You will need to leave the Pumpkin behind. Don't worry, the Axis will spit it back to the surface. Now. When everything turns dark, follow the dog. The last verse of the prophecy always tells of the way out."
- "What about the skylark?" could not help asking Albus' fiancée. "And how do you know I'll still be there? Something could happen to me or..."
- "Let me speak," the old woman ordered, grabbing Wendy's hand and squeezing it so hard that the girl winced in pain. "I don't know what the skylark means, but I know that when the end of the time we're given is coming, we suddenly find ourselves in the most complete and opaque darkness."
- "What will the dog look like? How will I know it's him?"
- "You'll know, I promise."
Suddenly, the beach was very cold. The waterfall was growling and the bubbling mist gilded by the last sunrays felt unreal.
- "The dog will take you to a railway line submerged by a large body of water. Follow it. Listen to me, it's very important. Walk between the rails, do not stray left or right. And whatever happens, whatever you hear or feel, do not look back. Walk until you reach the lamppost. There, you will find a boat. You have to put something inside – a payment. A golden coin, a shoe lace or a strand of hair, whatever it is, you just have to leave a part of yourself."
Wendy nodded, mentally trying to write everything down.
- "The boat will take you to the ice banks outside of the Axis and, from there, you should be able to find your way back with the astrolabe."
- "But if we're far from the Scarlet Tower? Without the Pumpkin, we won't be able to survive on the surface of Antarctica."
Euphrosine's eyes sparkled and she grinned mysteriously.
- "Oh, you won't be cold, if that's what worries you. It will be a pleasant walk and you should not regret it."
Wendy bit her bottom lip.
- "Why me?" she repeated.
The old woman redid her braid and reattached the elastic.
- "Because you're not marked with a seal. You will not be tested. And because you're the most resolute of us all."
She rose in a ruffle of petticoats and brushed the sand that had slipped into the folds of her old-fashioned blue dress.
- "Come on. Let's go back to the others."
Night was falling and the Pumpkin's windows reflections looked like stars in the lagoon.
oOoOoOo
Terrence was sitting in the natural seat of a crooked coconut tree. His left knee was raised under his chin and his right foot was tracing circles in the fine sand. His long blond ponytail and his white coat were gently fluttering in the breeze. The setting sun was casting a golden glow on his glasses, but could not erase the bitter fold of his mouth.
Calcifer, while nibbling at a volcanic rock, was watching him with interest.
- "Stop blinding yourself," he suddenly piped up in his high-pitched, mocking voice. "It's not getting any better and you know it."
Terrence jumped.
- "What are you talking about, Firefly?"
Calcifer chuckled.
- "I know what you're thinking, you know. In fact, anyone would know, just taking one look at your face."
The healer blushed hard.
- "Anyone?"
- "You're so obvious, Terrence Swanson. Even more than your friend Scorpius. A teenager's feelings do not remain those of a man and what you thought right at that time is no longer true now. It was beautiful and it was good, but it's not worth it anymore and you can feel it, isn't it? Circumstances have changed – people too."
Terrence frowned.
- "For the last time, what are you talking about?"
- "I'm talking about when you were in the Hebrides and you decided that if it was Albus Potter's job to save the world, it would be yours to take care of him," said Calcifer, staring at him with his fiery eyes.
The young blond man flinched.
- "How d-do you know t-that? You were not there!"
- "Yes, but the dragon was", sing-sang the daemon, inflating his red flames like a big chicken settling over an egg.
- "You're no dragon," Terrence said flatly.
Calcifer laughed.
- "No, and I think you've known what I am for a while now. Then you should remember that my wisdom is infinite and my advices must be accepted with reverence."
- "Well. Shall we talk about a certain will-o'-the-wisp that was hiding in a teapot, freaking out after the Reapers attacked us?"
The daemon swelled with fury and his heat felt so threatening that the healer stepped back.
- "It's all about you, human," Calcifer roared angrily. "About your hesitations, your doubts, your regrets! About you, about this girl who was fighting with a bludgeon and about all the knowledge of the world! If you keep going like this, you will be devoured by the shadows."
Terrence tilted his head to the side and put his hands in his pockets. A funny expression passed over his face, something between bitterness and gratitude.
- "Why do you take the trouble to talk to me if you know how it'll end?" he asked in a low voice.
- "I know what's going to happen, and I also know what might happen," Calcifer said, calming down. "It's different."
- "Nothing forces you to point us in the right direction. After all, it was some of our fellows that damned you to this long exile..."
The daemon squirmed uncomfortably.
- "I don't want to lose someone else," he mumbled.
The night was beginning to fall and the lagoon was darkening. A phosphorescent glow was born underwater in the coral reefs and drew slowly luminous arabesques beneath the surface of the water. The breeze shuddered in the lush greenery, carrying away the distant laugh of a mermaid, and the insects started to chant their nocturnal, rustling song.
- "I don't want to lose either," Terrence muttered.
He took off his glasses and massaged the ridge of his aquiline nose.
- "I don't know what to do, Cal. I don't want to do anything but I don't want to regret not doing a thing and I don't know what I should be doing anyway. I feel overwhelmed..."
Calcifer hesitated, then he flew to the healer and stared intensely at the frustrated blue eyes.
- "Terrence Swanson from Finchley. The boy who did not know how to give up. It's not about understanding, Asparagus, it's about choosing. If you keep trying to understand, you'll end up losing yourself forever. The good question is: what do you want to do?"
The young man smiled bitterly, but he did not answer. The daemon let out an exasperated sigh.
- "We don't have much time, you know. If you don't make a decision, Albus Potter will not be able to show resolution, the dragon will become a wild beast again and Scorpius Malfoy will kill the skylark."
Terrence's heart stumbled on a beat.
- "You mean that because of me, they could all get stuck in the Axis?"
- "No," said Calcifer, rolling his eyes as if he was addressing a particularly inattentive child. "What I'm saying is that you and your friends are complementary and inseparable. You were born the year the Gates opened but no one found the way into the Axis. I thought you had made the connection a long time ago, smarty pants."
- "Al was born the year before," Terrence objected.
- "Yes, but it was because of him and of what he was that the Shufflers broke their vow to no longer meddle in human affairs. And it's not for nothing that the Gates have reopened now. Three times seven years have passed. This is the last cycle. To be born, to live and to die. The Axis keeps the world in balance and that, you don't need to understand it: you just have to accept it."
The healer nodded silently. He put back on his glasses and thoughtfully rubbed his neck. He raised his head and held out his hand to pat Calcifer's head.
- "I think I'm starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, thanks to you," he said.
- "Finally. It was laborious", grunted the daemon, curling up under his palm like a cat.
Above the dark blue sea, on which were darting brief silver gleams, three large moons had risen. The white steam of the waterfall was rising toward them, leaving brilliant droplets on the black rocks emerging from the river.
oOoOoOo
Albus made sure the loose soil was stable, then planted his crutches and jumped over the big root blocking his way.
- "These crutches look good to me," Scorpius commented. "They're just like the other ones. I can't see what Terrence has against them."
- "It's because the others were actually my prosthesis. It's not cheap, and now that we've lost it, he thinks his internship supervisor will get so mad he'll fail him."
- "There's no insurance for that?"
- "No, but on the other hand I could tell them it was my fault. If Terrence had not metamorphosed my prosthesis into crutches and made sure I couldn't reverse the charm, I probably would have tried putting it on again and I might have made things even worst."
- "You really are an idiot," said Scorpius.
- "I know," mumbled Albus.
- "Anyway, I'm glad you're better. First you make us believe you're going to die, then you're better, then you're back to really sick and then you miraculously get back on your feet again... no wonder Terrence's pulling his hair."
They walked for a while before finding what they were looking for: a stream of fresh water with green grassy banks in a grove of breadfruit trees.
- "Ah, we'll be able to fill the tanks," Scorpius said. "I'd never have imagined Aguamenti to be the kind of spell to have a limit, but now that I think about it, it's no wonder. Can you picture yourself trying to quell a fire with it? The physical expense of such magic would be enough to kill a man."
- "Filling Vivienne's bath twice a day would exhaust anyone too."
- "Yes. Pepper had pointed it out to me. Fortunately, we never were short of water until now. Actually, we wouldn't have been if we could have refueled on the territory of the Rea... back there."
Albus decided not to notice the hesitation that had altered his friend's last words. He sat down in the velvet grass, took off his shoe and dipped his good leg into the clear stream. Scorpius sat quietly beside him, and washed his hands that were still sticky with salt and sand.
- "Pepper was doing the accounting with you?"
- "Yes, and there was no need for abacus, believe me."
They remained silent for a moment, filled with emotion at the thought of the house elf.
- "You have a lot more work to do, now," Albus said softly. "You'll be okay? Need help?"
- "Not from you, you're as bad with numbers as a mountain troll."
They laughed together, then Scorpius darkened.
- "It'll be fine," he said. "It keeps me busy, it's better like that."
Albus tilted his head to look at him. In the evening light, the broad leaves of the trees were fringed with purple and gold. The brook was chirping between the stones and some insects were still buzzing in the large white flowers of the frangipani.
- "What's wrong with you, Scorp'? Since the day we got lost in the field of butterflies, you've been acting different..."
- "Nothing's wrong with me," grumbled the blond young man, looking away.
Albus pulled his foot out of the water and crossed his leg in front of him, leaning slightly to make up for the missing counterweight.
- "Is it because of the dream you had that day?"
Scorpius looked up with tormented, pleading gray eyes.
- "Please, don't ask."
The emerald eyes that he met were not those of the dragon, but those of the little boy sitting at the same table as him on his first day at Hogwarts.
- "I'm worried about you, you know."
Malfoy clenched his fists, his dark eyebrows frowning under his pale fringe in a last thread of will.
- "Scorpius... Wendy says we should not carry our burdens alone. That we'll only hurt ourselves if we shut the others out…"
His friend stifled a broken laugh.
- "And when you listen to her at last, it's to me that you apply the advice..."
Albus looked at him sheepishly.
- "Sorry. I'm trying, but..."
- "It's okay," interrupted Scorpius, sighing. "All right, you won."
He put his hands on his ankles and said nothing for a while. Albus waited patiently. The night breeze, warm and caressing, was playing with the dark curls in need of a trim on his nape.
- "I saw him," the young blond man finally said hoarsely. "The Dark Lord."
Albus flinched. Images immediately began to bubble up in his memory, born from the empathic bond he had shared with his father for years. Fugitive and abominable pictures in which two red eyes were slithering among black fumes crawling out of Hell and where a long cloak that hid something more appalling than death.
- "He told me... he said it was not wrong to want something and to do everything to get it... that I too had the right to... oh, I wanted to believe him... I could have... he was so... sinuous, so captivating... so terribly tempting..."
Scorpius swallowed hard. He had not realize he was shaking under his thin white shirt.
- "You know, my father... he became a Death Eater to protect his family – but I think I could have sold myself just to get that power..."
He bit his lip and a drop of blood pearled out.
- "It was so intoxicating... to tell yourself there was nothing forbidden anymore, no reason to hold back, to not get what you wanted – and the power! The incredible power I would have possessed... it could have changed everything..."
His voice was feverish and two red spots had appeared on his pale cheeks. His gray eyes had lost their softness to a metallic luster, like the reflection of a blade in a fog.
- "You've seen the... the Reapers of Stars... what they became because they wanted more than what had been given to them! I... I know it's inside me… the same repulsive… desire..."
He paused suddenly and clutched his fingers on the strangely gleaming mark on his left arm.
- "I'm scared," he whispered, "I'm so scared of... of myself."
Night had fallen now, and it was very dark beside the stream, whose water was barely gleaming.
- "If I can't have... what am I going to be?" he stammered.
Albus had remained frozen, as if he had suddenly seen an ignoble monster stand in front of him, and Scorpius slumped a little more on himself, his neck burning with shame, listening to the silence like if it was a condemnation.
Then a hand touched his shoulder and he flinched.
- "But you did not give in, did you?
The blond young man stifled a sob, refusing to look up.
- "Matilda woke me up. I don't know what I would have done..."
He gasped, overwhelmed by the despair and shame with which he had struggled for days.
- "You should stay away from me. I'm dangerous... Calcifer told me so when I came here, but I didn't want to believe him... I'm going to do something horrible if you let me stay with you... I'm going to hurt you and I can't bear the idea I..."
The grass was mussed and suddenly an arm hugged him firmly.
- "Good thing you finally got that stuff out of you," Albus said. "No wonder you looked like something was eating you from the inside."
Scorpius turned his head and again the green eyes of his childhood were there – the same compassion, the same unshakable faith, the same innocence stronger than all the doubts of the world.
- "You'd never hurt me," said Albus, smiling. "I trust you. You wouldn't hurt anyone, and you never would have kneeled in front of the Dark Lord, whatever he'd have promised you."
Scorpius wanted to burst into tears and confess that there was something for which he could have lost his mind, but he suddenly froze when the green eyes glittered with the familiar gold. Albus was still gazing at him, but he heard the dragon's voice very clearly.
"You are strong, Scorpius Hyperion Malfoy, and your heart is as pure as that of the child of forgiveness. Do not be frightened and the skylark will fly high. I too trust you."
The three moons were gliding in the dark sky and their silvery rays were shimmering through the thick foliage of the trees, caressing the brook's waters that were glinting like angels' hair.
- "Don't be scared," Albus said.
Scorpius nodded. He closed his eyes for a moment to get rid of the strange feeling of having cotton in his ears, then he pulled away brusquely, disengaging himself from the arm resting on his shoulders, and stood up.
- "The others are probably starting to worry about us," he said, clearing his throat. "We should go home."
- "Okay," Albus said, taking the hand reaching out to help him up.
On the way back, their soles left bright footsteps in the soft soil. Wherever the crutches sank, two small round holes were outlined in the ground and small transparent shoots were germinating instantly. The leaves and bushes were serrated with pink and blue light and the insects were sparkling like so many stars in the lush forest.
The next day, when they woke up, the Pumpkin was surrounded by a multitude of seeds similar to small jellyfish and it started to rise above the island like if the whitish cloud was lifting it. They moved slowly over the waterfall, then descended into the depths, sinking into the thick mist.
TO BE CONTINUED
Next chapter: STONE GIANTS