Witch and Wombat by Carolyn Cushman

Author:Carolyn Cushman [Cushman, Carolyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Time Warner
Published: 1994-05-19T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

THE morning dawned fair and bright, with a gentle breeze that tossed the treetops, scattering dappled sunlight on the trail below. Wandering in and around a series of gentle hills, the road took the gamers through a surprisingly varied landscape. They passed from the dark depths of an old oak grove to a rocky stretch that boasted only a few twisted pines, warped by the wind until they appeared almost human, like tortured souls with arms outstretched, begging for release. The resemblance was enough to make Tracy shudder, but not enough to quell the gamers' ebullient spirits.

Even Jamison seemed remarkably cheerful, having adapted quite well to his new insect identity. He trundled along the road, rolling his ball of dung, adding to it at every opportunity. Fortunately, such opportunities were scarce; the gamers met no one on the road, and the few droppings encountered were old and dry.

The travelers made good time, held up only by Hali's determination to explore every empty hut and hovel on the way. The first they encountered was a tiny tumbledown shack, surrounded by nettles, briars, and lichen-covered fruit trees. Blackberry vines encroached on an abandoned orchard, having already taken over the ornamental shrubbery where overgrown roses fought a last desperate battle for space. A few valiant lilacs still lifted their fragrant flowers above the thorns; brave narcissi and hyacinths poked their heads out from under the bushes and around the shack's foundation.

Everywhere, the seasons mixed madly in this wild garden. In the orchard, some trees were bare of leaves, while others were heavy with fruit: one contrary apple tree was in riotous bloom. The shack itself, though quite picturesque from the outside, was quite plain within, and in tediously good repair. It boasted three rooms—one large room in front, a kitchen in back, and a small loft under the roof—with nothing magical in any of them.

After a couple of such undistinguished houses, the gamers quickly lost interest in the basic Grimmworld domicile, with its one or two rooms built of bare, weathered wood planking, crude stone fireplace, and possibly a sink and luxurious indoor pump. Hali found a promising shack, at the edge of an odorous marsh, that had—in addition to its highly desirable location—an infinite number of rooms magically tucked away inside. Unfortunately, the house had been stripped of its furnishings and any distinctive decor, leaving a series of almost identical rooms in which the gamers got thoroughly lost. By the time she managed to track the last one down, even Hali was a little annoyed with the building's idiosyncratic floor plan.

Halting for lunch in a pleasant glade, Hali spread out her maps, fighting the breeze which threatened to carry them off. "Get over here and hold this down," she snapped at Bernie. "You might as well see this yourself. There's no point in our looking at every cottage and shack along the way—we'd be at this forever."

While Bernie squinted at the map, Tracy wandered over and squatted beside him. "Where are we now?" she asked.

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