William Alexander - Goblin Secrets

They reached the door. It was locked. This didn’t matter much, because the lock was also rusted through and broken. Wood and metal complained when Rownie pushed, but the door still opened. In the dark behind it Rownie found an iron staircase. He found the handrail and shook it hard. Nothing broke or came loose. It didn’t seem to be too badly rusted.

Rownie and Rowan climbed the iron staircase, up and farther up.

They passed rooms that used to be barracks, now empty. Small amounts of cloudy sunlight crept in through narrow windows. The light seemed bright and blinding after the gloom of the tunnel.

Rownie was angry now. The momentum of anger pushed him forward. His skin was angry and his bones were angry and his heart was angry at the vertical scar on Rowan’s chest, where Rowan’s heart used to be.

They climbed up through the center of the Fiddleway, up into the Clock Tower. Rownie led his brother out among the masks and the tree-size gears and pendulums, out beneath the clock faces of stained glass.

He pulled the fox mask from his face and shouted for help.

SEMELE CAME OUT FROM behind the bookshelves. Essa jumped down from somewhere overhead. Patch limped from the pantry, with Nonny helping him. Thomas approached with his cane’s tip clacking against the tower floor.

“You found your brother!” the old goblin said. He whipped his cane through the air. It made a celebratory swishing sound. “Magnificent! However did you manage it? Never mind, never mind, tell us the tale over some refreshment. Welcome back to us, young Rowan. Your timing is absolutely flawless.”

Rownie said nothing. Rowan said nothing. Semele was the first to notice the two different sorts of nothing that they said.

“Hush,” she said to Thomas. “Hush.”

She lifted a torn corner of Rowan’s shirt, and then set it back in place to cover the scar.

“He doesn’t know who I am,” Rownie told her. He felt his anger drain away. He didn’t want it to go. He fought to keep it. Anger kept him moving. It kept him warm. But now words fell out of his mouth like cold pebbles. “He just stands there with his ribs all empty and he doesn’t know me.”

Semele took his hand and shook her head. “He does remember you,” she said. “To be heartless is to be without his will, but not without himself. He is still there. He still knows all that he knew.” Her voice grew softer and more careful. “But intention and volition have been taken. He has no momentum beyond what others give him.”

“Can we find his heart?” Rownie asked. “Can we put it back?”

Semele did not say no. She did not need to. She did not say anything else.

Rownie shook his head. This was not true. He would not let it be true.

“He looks very calm,” said Essa, clearly trying to help and not knowing how. “Heartlessness doesn’t look too unpleasant.”

“He’s a puppet,” said Thomas, disgusted and sad. “May the Mayor eat rancid liver paste, and suffer crippling pains. The floods are coming, and the city has no one to speak for it.”

“The floods are coming right now, actually,” said Essa. “I would have said so earlier, and I was on my way down here to say so, but then it seemed rude to interrupt because Rownie’s brother got his heart taken away, and I am so very sorry about that. But now I need to tell you that the floods are here already. You can see the water rising from the upstream clock face.”

“You can also hear it,” said Semele. “Listen.”

A sound like endless and ongoing thunder filled the space around them. It grew louder. It came from the waters beneath the bridge, and it came from the oldest mask. Floating hair of braided riverweed moved in a mane around that mask.

Thomas whacked the floor twice with his cane. “Places, everyone!” he roared. “Essa, back up the winding stair with you. Ring the tower bells, if those old things are still capable of ringing. Anyone who hears that sound, and remembers what the sound is for, will head for the hills. Nonny, help me throw a few sandbags behind the tower doors. Locks and chains won’t keep the River out if it rises this far. Patch, come and help us if your injury will allow it—or else keep us company if it will not. Rownie . . .” Thomas paused, and then shook his head. “Rownie, look after your brother.”

“What if the whole bridge comes crashing down?” Essa asked.

“This bridge has stood for a very long time,” said Thomas.

“Because people keep rebuilding it!” Essa countered. “Not because it never falls down! It does fall down sometimes!”

Thomas hit the floor again with the tip of his cane, as if to demonstrate that it was solid. “Places, everyone!” he roared again. Then he whispered to Semele. “A chant or a charm to help hold these stones together might not be amiss.”

“I suppose that would be useful, yes,” said Semele.

“You inspire great confidence,” said Thomas. “I’ll compose my last words while we stack sandbags.”

Everyone moved, except for Rownie and his heartless brother. Rowan seemed perfectly content to stand in place, whether or not the bridge came crashing down beneath them.

“Are you listening?” Rownie asked him. “Can you hear what we’re saying? Do you know what’s going on?” He poked Rowan’s arm and got no reaction. He kicked his brother in the shin, and got no reaction from that either—and then he really wished that he hadn’t kicked him. He felt his own heart slam against his rib cage, as though it wanted to get as far away from this place as it possibly could.

The stones and metal workings of the Clock Tower groaned. Rownie thought he also heard music in the sound, but he couldn’t be sure. Then the flood noise grew louder. It roared and echoed in the unseen throat of the River mask.

The roar shifted something inside Rownie’s chest. An idea came to him.

“Come on,” he said. “You might not have any will or momentum, but I think I can find you some.” He took his brother’s hand and led him to the very first mask, the mask that was also the River, the mask no performer ever wore. The open mouth of the mask thundered. Rownie was very much afraid of sinking down and drowning in its bottomless eyes.

He took it from the wall. It was made of stone and very heavy. He stumbled under the weight of it.

“Rownie?” Thomas called from the other side of the tower. “Whatever you are doing, I doubt very much that it is a good idea!”

“Probably not,” Rownie answered, but he did not return the mask to its place. He looked up at his brother. “I’m going to put this on you. I really hope you don’t mind. But if anyone can keep from drowning under this, it’s you.” He climbed onto a crate and slipped the mask over Rowan’s face.

The River mask merged with Rowan’s skin. The inked and painted lines of it flowed across his face. He threw back his head, opened his mouth, and gave one wordless shout with an immense and canyon-carving voice. The sound was a bridge of water between the mountains and the sea.

Rownie jumped down from the crate and shouted against the swirling, rushing onslaught of noise. “Rowan!”

Rowan looked at him. His hair moved around his head like riverweed swept by strong currents. His eyes had become vast and full.

“Hi,” Rownie said to his brother, who was also the River. “Please don’t flood.”

“This is not a very good idea!” Thomas called as he hurried across the tower floor. “Where is the city mask? Nonny, fetch the city mask! Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up. The source of all our craft seems to be underway, and no one has rehearsed for it!”