The Thief of Always

XIII

The Fourth Part of Darkness

"What happened to you?" Wendell whispered when Harvey reached the bottom of the lawn. "I thought we were meeting at midnight."

"I got...waylaid," Harvey said.

He'd intended to tell Wendell what had just transpired, but his friend was obviously nervous enough without being told about Lulu's fate. Harvey slipped the three survivors of the ark into his pocket and resolved only to speak of the encounter when he and Wendell were safely away from this terrible place.

Just one thing stood between them and that ambition: the wall of mist. Now, as ever, it seemed innocent enough. But that was an illusion, of course, like so many things in Mr. Hood's kingdom.

"We have to be very organized about this," Harvey said to Wendell. "Once we're in the wall we lose our sense of direction. So we have to be sure we keep walking in a straight line, and not let the mist turn us around."

"How do we do that?" said Wendell.

"I think one of us should go in first, and the other one keep hold of his hand."

"Me," said Wendell, eagerly. "I want to be first."

"No problem. Then I'll keep my back to the House, and keep guiding you. Who knows, maybe the wall's so thin you'll just be able to pull me through."

"We can hope," Wendell said.

"Are you ready?" Harvey asked, extending his hand.

Wendell took it. "Whenever you are," he said.

"Then let's get out of here "

Wendell nodded, and stepped into the mist. Instantly, Harvey felt his grip tighten.

"Don't...let...go..."Wendell said, his voice already remote although he was just a pace away.

"Just keep walking." Harvey said, as they reached arm's length. "Any sign of-"

Before he could finish his question a noise from the House behind him sealed his lips. He glanced back. The front door was open, and a light was burning in the hall, throwing into silhouette the figure rushing down the porch steps. It was Mrs. Griffin.

The noise he'd heard was not from her lips, however. Nothing human could make such a din. He saw Mrs. Griffin glance up toward the roof as she hurried down the lawn, and following her gaze, saw the noise-maker rising against the stars.

He knew its name, even though he couldn't see its face. Hood had four servants, and he'd met only three: Rictus, Jive and Marr. Here was the fourth: Carna, the tooth-stealer; Carna, the devourer; Carna, the beast Mrs. Griffin had hoped Harvey would never meet.

"Back to the House, child!" Mrs. Griffin yelled as the din of vast wings filled the air, "Quickly! Quickly!"

Harvey pulled on Wendell's arm, yelling to him as he did so, but Wendell had a whiff of freedom in his nostrils and wasn't about to give it up.

"What are you waiting for?" Mrs. Griffin yelled. "Get away from there or it'll take off your head!"

Harvey glanced up at the swooping beast, and knew this was no lie. Carna's jaws were wide enough to snap him in half with a single bite. But he couldn't leave Wendell in the mist. They'd begun this adventure together, and that was how they would finish it, dead or alive. He had no choice but to step into the mist himself, and hope that Wendell had snatched a glimpse of the world outside, and could pull him through to the street.

As he took that step, he heard Mrs. Griffin say something about leading the way; then he was blinded by the chill of the mist, and the sound of her voice became a garbled whisper.

Carna's shrieks were not so hushed, however. They pierced the murk, skewering Harvey's thoughts the way its teeth would skewer his head if the beast caught up with him.

"Wendell?" Harvey yelled. "It's coming for us!"

He caught a glimpse of a figure up ahead of him, then of Wendell's face, smeared by the mist, turning to say:

"There's no way out!"

"There has to be!"

"I can't find it!" Wendell said, his reply almost drowned out by the din of Carna's shrieks.

Harvey glanced back the way he'd come, more afraid not to know how close the creature was than to see it, however terrifying the sight. A veil of mist swirled in front of him, but he glimpsed Carna's form as the beast descended. It was the most monstrous of the brood: its skin rotted and stretched over barbed and polished bone, its throat a nest of snaky tongues, its jaws set with hundreds of teeth.

This is the end, Harvey thought. I've only been alive ten years and five months and I'm going to have my head bitten off.

Then, from the corner of his eye, a strange sight. Mrs. Griffin's arms, reaching into the mist, and dropping Blue-Cat to the ground.

"He's got a good sense of direction!" Harvey heard her say. "Follow him! Follow him!"

He didn't need a second invitation. Nor did Blue-Cat. Tail up, it padded off, and Harvey hauled on Wendell's arm to drag him in pursuit. The cat was quick, but so was Harvey. He kept his eyes glued on that bright tail, even when the rush of wings behind him announced that Carna had entered the mist and was almost upon them.

Two strides; three strides; four. And now the mist seemed to be thinning. He heard Wendell whooping for joy-"The street!" he yelled, "I see it!"-and the next moment Harvey saw it too, the sidewalks wet with rain and shining in the lamplight.

Now he dared look back, and there was Carna, its jaws a yard from them.

He let go of Wendell's arm and pushed his friend toward the street, ducking as he did so. Carna's lower jaw scraped his spine, but the beast was moving too fast to check itself, and instead of wheeling around to scoop up its quarry it flew on, out into the real world.

Wendell was already there.; Harvey joined him a moment later.

"We did it!" Wendell yelled. "We did it!"

"So did Carna!" Harvey said, pointing up at the beast as it rose against the cloudy sky and turned to come back for them.

"It wants to drive us back inside!" Harvey said.

"I'm not going!" Wendell cried. "Never! I'm never going in there again!"

Carna heard his defiance. Its blazing eyes fixed on him and it came down like a thunderbolt, its shriek echoing through the midnight streets.

"Run!" Harvey said.

But Carna's stare had rooted Wendell to the spot. Harvey grabbed hold of him and was about to make a run for it when he heard the beast's cry change. Triumph became doubt; doubt became pain; and suddenly Carna wasn't swooping but falling, holes opening in its wings as though a horde of invisible moths was eating at their fabric.

It labored to climb the air again, but its wounded wings refused their duty, and seconds later it struck the street so hard it bit off a dozen of its tongues, and scattered half a hundred teeth at the boys' feet. The fall didn't kill it, however. Though agonized by its wounds, it hauled itself up onto the spiky crutches of its wings and began to drag itself back toward the wall. Even now, in this wretched state, it was ferocious, and with snaps to right and left drove Harvey and Wendell out of its path.

"It can't survive out here..." Wendell realized aloud, "...it's dying."

Harvey wished he had some weapon to keep the beast from returning to safety, but he had to be content with the sight of its defeat. If it had not wanted their flesh so badly, he thought, it wouldn't have come after them at such speed, and brought this pain and humiliation upon itself. There was a lesson there, if he could only remember it. Evil, however powerful it seemed, could be undone by its own appetite.

Then the creature was gone, a curtain of mist drawn over its retreat.

There was only one sign remaining of the mysteries that lay on the other side of the wall: the face of Blue-Cat, gazing out at the world that he, like all the occupants of the Holiday House, could never explore. His azure gaze met Harvey's for a moment; then he looked back toward his prison, as though he heard Mrs. Griffin's summons, and with a sorrowful sigh turned and traipsed away.

"Weird," said Wendell, as he stared at the rainy streets. "It's as though I never left"

"Is it?" said Harvey. He wasn't so sure. He felt different; marked by this adventure.

"I wonder if we'll even remember we came here in a week's time?"

"Oh, I'll remember," Harvey said. "I've got a few souvenirs."

He dug into his pocket in search of the figures from the ark. Even as he pulled them out he felt them crumbling, as the real world took its toll on them.

"Illusions..." he murmured as they turned to dust and ran away between his fingers.

"Who cares?" said Wendell. "It's time to go home. And that's no illusion."