Chapter 4, Part iv

Hector followed Burr as the Tove stooped and looked down into the hole. “There he is,” he said excitedly, but then he hissed in fury.

“What, what is it?” Hector asked, scrambling to get a look as well.

“It's going to eat Lilly!” Burr cried, and suddenly leaped straight into the void.

Hector's mind didn't register this for a moment, but the thought connected with his brain like a thrown brick. “Burr, wait! You can't just jump-- Gah! Be careful!”

*

Burr's fur rippled in the air as he leaped from the stone wall straight toward the Bandersnatch. He landed heavily on the beast's neck, and gripped it by the fronds. With a great hissing noise, it bucked and lurched, swinging its great head back and forth to shake him off. Burr sank his teeth into one of the thin, blood-red tissues that sprouted from its neck, and the monster roared in pain. With a sudden movement it heaved into the wall, pinning Burr's left leg and tail to the rock.

With his free leg he deftly swiped with his foot-claws and caught them on another frond, which made the beast convulse and release him. It hurt when he landed on the floor, but he was used to such rough treatment. He scrambled to his feet and rushed to the gray-and-tan heap on the ground.

“Lilly! Lilly,” he called, and stuck his arm beneath her back, lifting her shoulders. Her head lolled back limply, hair splayed across the floor and her jaw hanging open. But Burr couldn't look away from her eyes, which were wide open and moving, but which didn't see a thing: just like the people in the mountain village. “Lilly! Listen to me! What you see is not real, don't believe--”

With a sweep of its mighty claw, the Bandersnatch knocked Burr and Lilly sprawling across the canyon floor. Burr did his best to cover her with his body as he slammed into a boulder; he yelped in pain, and lights flashed behind his eyes. He struggled to stand.

Growling deep in its throat, the Bandersnatch's head loomed high in the air, and with no effort it brushed away the boulder. Burr stumbled backward and looked up at the predator's eyes...

It hissed, and its fronds flashed bright red.

*

Hector wasn't sure what to do. From his high vantage point he could see the humongous Bandersnatch was slink closer and closer to Burr and Lilly, both of whom weren't moving to escape. And if his eyes didn't fool him, Burr was just standing there, watching it get closer!

Something must be wrong, Hector suspected. I have to do something! But what?

Not sure what else he could do, Hector cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted down into the crevice. “Hey! Hey, you! Mr. Bandersnatch!” If it heard him, it didn't respond. It just crawled closer and closer to the frozen Tove, flickering its thin red tongue to taste the air.

“Hey! Get away from him!” Hector cried. His throat seemed choked with anxiety. The beast was only seconds away from gobbling up his friends! And there was nothing he could--

“What'cha lookin' at?” asked a horrible, raspy voice.

(Graphic 4.7: The Jubjub Bird stands next to Hector, looking at him sideways again with its beady eye.)

“Oh, it's you!” Hector sighed with relief. “You're just in time!”

“I need my library card,” the bird demanded.

“Sure, sure. You'll get your card. But can you help me with something first? I need to get down there as fast as--”

“Where's my library card?” insisted the Jubjub. It blinked, then swiveled its head to look at Hector with its other eye. “You promised! I want to read those diaries!”

Hector felt like tearing his hair out. “Look, I'll keep my promise and you'll get that card, but unless you help me rescue my friends I'm afraid I might have to refuse you library privileges! Please, just fly me down there, and I'll... I'll make you an honorary Deputy Librarian! How about that?”

The bird seemed unperturbed by this. It rapped its terrible beak on the rock surface and stomped petulantly. “I want the library card! I want it, I want it, I want it! Give it to me now!”

Hector thought quickly. “Mr. Jubjub, have you ever thought of what it might be like to have a book written about you?”

The Jubjub paused. “What kind of a book?”

Hector grinned and held up his journal, flipping dramatically through the pages. “Why, an adventure story, of course! In which you were the hero! Then everybody who read that book would think of you and say 'Wow, what a brave, handsome bird he is!' You would be famous! Children would read about you in school, and their teachers would tell them 'Remember, you all need to be strong and wonderful like the Jubjub Bird,' and people would write plays and sonnets about you and your marvelous plumage, and they would write about you in their diaries--”

“In their diaries, you say?” it asked. It clicked its beak in interest. “Hmm... brave and handsome, you say? Would they really write plays and sonnits 'bout me?”

Hector scoffed. “Of course! You would deserve nothing less. You would become a literary hero of legend.”

It shuffled its great, horrible feet, raking its sharp talons across the ground in excitement. “Oh! Oh! Oh! I want everyone to know how brave and handsome I am! I want them to write sunnets about me! I want them to write in their diaries about me! Then I could--”

“But!” Hector exclaimed, and held up his hand to stop the bird. It looked at him in eager expectation. Hector then pointed at the canyon crevice. “You have to help me, first, otherwise there will be nothing for me to write about. You must fly me down to the Bandersnatch. Do you understand?” The bird nodded fiercely. “Good. Then please get me down there.”

“I'm gonna be famous!” squawked the Jubjub bird triumphantly, then suddenly snatched Hector's coat in its beak and flapped its wings. Hector fought not to vomit as the ground lurched away from him, and he reached up to awkwardly grip the bird's huge beak. The wide crack in the ground moved upward to swallow them and down they plunged through the bitter-cold air to where the Bandersnatch crouched, poised to strike at Burr.

Suddenly the lizard lashed upward with its tail and struck the Jubjub bird who squawked in alarm and dropped Hector in a shower of grimy feathers. Hector screamed as he fell the last few feet onto the lizard's back, then rolled off and tumbled to the ground in a sore heap. Limbs shaking with the rush of it all, he forced himself to stand as the ground rumbled with the movements of the Bandersnatch. In the blink of an eye the beast had turned to face Hector, bore its terrible fangs, and let out a deafening hiss.

Hector squinted and covered his face against the flying saliva. “Now, that's no way to treat strangers,” he said as calmly as he could, but the Bandersnatch had no patience. It thrust its head at him and flared its blood-red facial fronds. Hector felt something smash into his mind like a brick through a window.

“You're just embarrassing,” Trisha sighed. She and Hector stood in a large room which he recognized as his parents' house; looking around, Hector realized that not only were his parents and younger siblings there, but Tom, Blanche, Slick Johnny, and all his friends and coworkers from Dunberg. “I'm sorry, Hector, but whenever I'm around you it's just... embarrassing. There's no other word for it.”

Everybody nodded their heads in agreement and avoided his eyes.

Hector blinked in confusion. “What do you mean? What are you talking about? Did I do something wrong?”

“Honey,” said his mother, a wonderfully plump woman, and patted his cheek. “It's just that of all her important jobs, Trisha just finds it awkward to babysit you. And you know what, sweetie, to tell you the truth, a lot of us feel that way as well.”

“It's true,” he heard Tom add among the general murmurs of agreement from the crowd.

“We're glad you spend all your time holed up in the Library,” affirmed Dad. “You know, to spare us all the awkwardness of putting up with your constant talk of children's books and the like. You understand, of course.” There was a prolonged silence, in which somebody shook their head and left the house, closing the door sharply.

Hector put his hands on his hips. “Now, this is just weird. What is everybody doing in here?”

There was an uncomfortable silence; at least, uncomfortable for everyone else. Hector just sighed. He smiled. “Look, I may be awkward, and I probably need to get out more. And I'll be the first to admit that I do tend to dominate the conversation when it has to do with literature. But I'm sure glad you're all usually so nice to me! You have all helped me so much during my life. Tom, you keep things interesting around the library! And Blanche, you keep everything extremely neat and tidy. Slick Johnny's got the best storytelling ability that I've ever seen, and Mom and Dad, how could anyone replace you? Really, it's been great. I thank you all for everything.” Trisha glanced at him with a confused expression, then looked away. “Especially you, Trisha! You come and visit me regularly, and you keep my debate skills sharp.

“I'm not sure why you're all here right now,” he went on, “but I'm helping to save the world right now, and it's the most amazing thing I've ever done. I'm afraid that I just don't have time to sit here and have you all tell me how awkward I am-- and besides, don't you think I already know?” He smiled, and made his way toward the door. People shuffled out of his way. Hector waved to everyone before gripping the handle and swinging the door open. “See you all when I get back, and be careful with the hardwood floor in the kitchen, my mom will give you all what for if you scuff it.”

He walked through the door.

The frozen mountain air rushed back to his senses, like a slap to the face. Hector shuddered and blinked, and saw the Bandersnatch towering over him. However, the creature seemed confused and hesitant this time; they looked at each other, and the lizard halfheartedly flapped its red fronds.

“So that's what you do, is it?” Hector asked innocently. The Bandersnatch stood still, and glanced nervously from side to side. “You make people see what they fear most. I get it. You made me see my friends and family tell me I was awkward in front of everyone I knew. I'll admit, that was pretty clever, because I'm normally mortified of that sort of thing, but ever since I've left Dunberg I've gotten... well... I guess you'd say I've gotten more self esteem. I'm over that.”

He looked around and saw his journal lying on the rock floor. He picked it up, dusted it off, and tucked it under his arm as he slipped his hands into his pockets. “You know, Mr. Bandersnatch, I bet you hypnotize people into feeling insecure and ashamed to make you feel better about yourself. Am I right?”

The lizard ducked its head and folded its fronts tightly against its scales. Its tongue flickered weakly.

“I thought so. It's understandable, I suppose. You probably don't even have any friends, I'd venture; but we can fix that.” With this, the Bandersnatch perked up a little and sat down on the ground with a thunderous crash. Hector stabilized himself before speaking. “Since you have that marvelous talent of making people see things that aren't there, maybe you could make others see good things. How about that? You could help them remember their friends and family, or help cheer them up if they're feeling down. What do you think? Want to give it a try?”

The Bandersnatch slowly raised its expressive fronds, and there was a sparkle in its crimson eyes that wasn't there before. It was about to stand up, but suddenly a battle-cry rent the air. Hector peered up into the sunlight and saw the silhouette of a very large and ugly bird with a man sitting upon its back.

“Behold your demise, foul brute!” screamed Aric, and leaped valiantly from the Jubjub bird, vorpal sword raised in the air. Just as he landed on the Bandersnatch's back, preparing to strike, the lizard turned its great head and opened its face-fronds at him. Aric's determined snarl turned into an expression of languid bliss, and his whole body relaxed. The flaming vorpal sword clattered to the ground.

“I feel pretty,” Aric mumbled, and swooned.

Hector laughed and let Aric and the Bandersnatch be; he turned and ran to Burr, who was still standing completely still with a look of grief on his face. Hector grabbed his shoulders and shook him. “Burr! Burr, it's me, Aric! Wake up! The Bandersnatch it's going to eat you any more. Everything's going to me all right. Hey, Burr!”

The brown Tove blinked and shook his head slowly. “What?” he drawled. “Wha' happened...?”

“The Bandersnatch isn't going to hurt us,” Hector reassured him. “Look, he's talking with the Jubjub bird.” In the distance, they could hear the bird asking the Bandersnatch if it kept a diary.

Burr blinked again, as if he couldn't believe what he was seeing. “But... it was going to eat Lilly...”

As if she had heard her name, Lilly came stumbling toward them from the darkness. She held a paw to her head and her eyes were red and swollen, but she wore a smile. “Hector Blithe, is that you? Burr? And Aric is over there, I see... you found him.”

“I didn't, actually,” he clarified. “But how are you feeling, Lilly? Did the Bandersnatch hypnotize you, too?”

She nodded and massaged her temples. “Yes, it did... I saw my father and mother, and the togom, and River, and a host of other people I know... they were all saying horrible things. But I realized that they are all my friends, and they would never really say things like that; and even if they did, I should keep loving them.” She directed a tired smile at Hector. “Thank you, Hector Blithe, for teaching me to forgive others.”

Hector blushed. “Aw, it was nothing... Burr? What did you see? If it's not too personal to ask.”

Burr shrunk and didn't say anything.

“That's all right,” Hector shrugged. “Now, it's time to ask Aric where he's been.”

The three of them walked to the Bandersnatch, who gingerly bit the collar of Aric's coat and brought him down on the ground. It made a strange clicking sound deep in its throat, and Aric's dilated eyes snapped back to normal.

“What! Where! Where am I? Where did everyone go?”

“You got hypnotized by the Bandersnatch,” Hector explained, as he watched Burr retrieve the glowing vorpal sword. He held it at arm's distance and handed it back to Aric, who absently slid it back into its black sheath. “Except now it makes people see good things, not bad things.”

“So I noticed,” he said with a strange smile.

“Where were you?” Lilly suddenly snarled, and gripped him by the lapels. “It's your fault that all of us were almost killed! Never should you run away like this!”

Aric put up his hands defensively, leaning away from Lilly's snout. “Look, I was going after the Bandersnatch. It snuck into our cave last night, and I had to chase it off. I didn't want it to come back, but I got a little sidetracked... Look, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I caused you all so much distress, especially you, Miss Lilly, because you are the Guide, after all.” He smiled winningly. “Now, will you please let me go?”

She released him, brushed off his coat, then batted his face with her fist.

“Ow!”

“I am glad that you are safe,” Lilly said firmly. “Don't do that ever again.”

Aric rubbed his cheek. “Now I know not to. Yikes, I think you knocked a tooth loose...” He cracked his jaw, then grew serious. “But we're severely sidetracked now. We've lost far too much ground, and I'm absolutely certain that the Mome Raths are on their way to the Tulgey Wood, and we have to get there first, or else. The question is, how do we get there?”

“Well, I ain't flyin' you there,” the Jubub bird complained, startling Aric with its sudden appearance at his side. “One o' you's is fat enough as it is.” It hobbled over to Hector and whispered, “Would you say I'm dashingly handsome, or ravishingly handsome?”

“Ravishing, definitely.”

The bird danced around happily.

Lilly pointed at the Bandersnatch, who sat patiently, watching them talk. “The Bandersnatch can climb these mountains very quickly, and surely it knows how to cross them. Noble Bandersnatch,” she said, bowing before the lizard, who looked away shyly. “We must get to the Tulgey Wood to stop the Jabberwock from waking. We must get there quickly. Will you please take us there?”

The gigantic creature nodded and lowered its head. Lilly swiftly swung herself up to sit on its neck, and helped Burr to sit behind her. Aric, laughing with incredulity, reached up and struggled to find a seat. “Come on, Hec,” he called down. “Sorry, there's no time to get your books. We have to leave now if we want to get there in time.”

Hector turned to the Jubjub bird, who glared at him with its eye. “Would you please be so kind as to go get my books from our cave? I give you permission to read them all. Please bring them back to Dunberg, with this--” Hector pulled out his library card and some string he had in his pocket, scribbled a note on the paper and tied it around the bird's stringy neck. “--This will get you into the library. Give it to Tom or Blanche, they'll let you in. Just don't eat anybody.”

The bird was elated. “Yes, yes! Yes! My own library card! My own, my own! Ha ha ha ha! Mine!” It flapped its putrid wings and struggled into the air, finally vanishing from sight as its laughter echoed through the canyon.

Aric helped him onto the Bandersnatch's back as the beast began to move. “I have a question for you, Aric,” he asked, wrapping his arms around Aric's waist as the lizard dug its claws into the wall and started climbing upward with sickening verticality.

“Shoot, Hec.”

“Were you after the Bandersnatch so it wouldn't show you your past?”

Aric tangibly stiffened, then laughed softly so no one else would hear. “You're too quick for me, Hector. Later, I'll tell you exactly why. But I was indeed after the Bandersnatch because of what it would show me. Don't tell anyone I told you that, okay?”

“I won't,” Hector said between gritted teeth. Finally, after climbing for a year, the lizard became horizontal again and started bounding across the snowy hills. “One more question, actually,” he managed to say between leaps.

“Yes, Hector.”

“Were you watching us when the Bandersnatch was about to eat us?”

Again Aric paused. “Yes. And to answer your next question, I got the Jubjub's attention by telling it I had a nice, juicy diary.”

Hector squeezed his eyes shut as the Bandersnatch leaped gracefully across a ravine; he make the mistake of opening his eyes for a horrible moment when he could see a tiny river with great ice chunks some miles below. They landed with a crash, then kept moving.

“Sorry, Aric, just one more question.”

“Then you get just one more answer.”

“How do you know so much about everything? The Toves, their culture, the Jubub bird, the Bandersnatch, the Mome Raths. The vorpal sword, too. How--”

“I'll give you that answer,” Aric whispered solemnly, “But some other day. Okay? Let's just get everyone over with, then I will answer all of your questions. I promise.”

“Okay,” Hector said, and concentrated on not throwing up as the Bandersnatch slithered up another rock face.

*

(Graphic 4.8: Three black-clad Tove thralls stand in the snow, watching the Bandersnatch crawl away. They follow it, unseen.)

Chapter 4, Part iii

 Hector was shaken from his dream by a giant fuzzy brown blob, which, after blinking a couple of times, he realized was Burr.

“Whas' going on?” Hector mumbled, trying to sit up.

“He is gone,” Burr said urgently, and pointed to the other side of the ashes of last night's campfire. “Look, he is gone!”

“Who's gone?” He yawned, rubbed his eyes, then got a better look. There was a skin mat lying on the ground, with a couple other articles, but their owner was indeed missing. Hector gasped with realization. “Goodness! Aric's not here! Where did he go, Burr?”

Burr shrugged frantically. “I don't know! I wake up and he was gone, Lilly didn't know, and he not come back for a much time!”

“How much time?” Hector stood up and immediately started rolling up his sleeping mat and blanket.

“Two hours much,” Burr emphasized. “He leave no letters to say why he go, this make Lilly some sad.”

Hector looked at Burr in confusion. “Lilly, sad that Aric left? Well, I guess if he mysteriously vanished without telling anyone, that's definitely worrisome.” He looked around. “Where's Lilly?”

“She outside, looking for him, she not go far. She want us to go to her!” Burr tugged on Hector's arm. He was a lot stronger than he seemed, for his size, and in a glance Hector noticed that the muscles on Burr's arms were large and defined. That's interesting. Where's my journal? He thought. I've got to write that down! He snatched it up and stuffed it into his pocket before he was dragged from the cave.

It had stopped snowing, for the most part, but the entire world was covered with a thick layer of white powder that muffled all sound. Hector gasped in awe at the sight: they were surrounded by a magnificent mountain range, with towering peaks as far as the eye could see to the north and to the south. All of them wore a beautiful coat of pristine snow and ice, and the sun was just barely cresting the horizon. The view was blindingly white, but he couldn't help staring in wonder. Burr was already trudging up a trail already plowed through the snow – By Lilly, I suppose – so Hector pulled his coat tightly around himself and followed. On top of the cave was a snow-covered boulder, and on top of the boulder stood Lilly, searching the horizon desperately. She caught sight of them, and her face was full of concern.

“Hector, you're awake! Aric is gone, and we don't know where he went! We have to find him!”

“Okay,” Hector shouted back. He took another look around and bit his lip. “Em. Where are we going to start?”

Lilly grunted in frustration and jabbed a finger at the trail of powdery footprints leading away into the distance. “That way, of course! His tracks are still fresh, so he can't have gone too far! Come!” She leaped off the boulder and landed gracefully in the snow.

She's barefoot, Hector realized. And she doesn't seem to notice the cold. Burr doesn't, either. I suppose it's their fur?

Burr yanked him out of his thoughts and dragged him after Lilly. Together the three of them started stomping through the deep snow. They often had to stop and help Hector out of a snowbank, and he lost his shoe more than once. “You need to be faster,” Lilly said tersely, then apologized after a moment. “I'm sorry, I forget that you are not used to such travel...”

“It's okay,” Hector grinned. His teeth chattered in the cold. “What's an adventure without a little rugged hiking?” Lilly smiled nervously, and Burr laughed, though Hector was sure he didn't understand.

They continued like this for about twenty minutes, but they didn't make much progress down the mountain slope due to Hector's clumsiness. Finally Burr hunched over and instructed Hector to hop on his back; once in place, the Tove gripped him under the knees and started off at a rapid pace through the powder.

“Fascinating!” Hector cheered. Lilly snorted and couldn't contain a genuine laugh.

They entered a rocky plain, clean and white with snow, except for a wide trail plowed roughly straight through the middle. “That doesn't look like it was made by just one person,” Hector observed, as Burr's movements made his voice bounce.

“No, it wasn't,” Lilly said ominously. She still didn't seem out of breath. “Look at these imprints right here: these are Aric's tracks.”

Hector gripped Burr's shoulder with one hand and pointed with the other. “What made all the other tracks? They're all rough and curving, like they were dragging something big and awkward behind them.”

The concern on Lilly's face turned to something akin to terror as she paced through the tracks. “It... I fear it is that thing which I told you about, down in the valley. The thing which is much worse than the Jubjub Bird. Much, much worse...”

“Bandersnatch,” Burr said. Lilly shuddered.

“What's a Bandersnatch?” Hector asked.

Lilly shook her head. “I'm afraid you'll find out soon enough.”

Without another word they reached the end of the plain; black rocks jutted up from the white snow, forming strange little canyons, mazes and overhangs where the snow couldn't reach the ground. Burr gently let Hector down. “We cannot follow their tracks any longer,” Lilly said grimly. “But the trail leads us to this place. Aric must have come this way, as well as the Bandersnatch. I cannot tell which way they went. Unfortunately, we will have to go separate ways; Burr, you stay with Hector to keep him safe. We will meet again here in two hours' time, where the plain meets the black rocks.”

There was an awkward little moment, in which Lilly, despite her authoritative words, didn't seem to want to follow through. Hector took a deep breath and started marching toward the nearest crevice, which bent out of sight only several yards away. “Let's go, then! There isn't any time to lose! Come, Burr, I'll need your big, strong legs.” Burr obediently followed, and Lilly had no choice but to take her own path.

The narrow pass was dry and the dark-colored rock was beautiful, but a chill wind funneled through and made a frightening whistling sound. In only a few minutes, Hector and Burr had taken so many twists and turn in the black maze that they had become completely lost. They now turned left and right at random. Here and there some unseen animal moved or called out in the clear air, making them both jump.

“Gee whiz,” Hector whispered. Burr gaped at the walls and the sky, mouth wide open. Hector could see every one of his pointed teeth, and his thoughts raced.

“Hey, Burr?”

Burr shut his mouth and looked at him.

“Do you eat meat a lot? Like, Toves in general?”

He nodded.

“I thought so. You said you had eaten a Snark before.”

“I like Snark,” Burr emphasized.

Hector smiled as they walked. He rubbed his hand against the wall and absently felt the grit between his fingers. “What's that thing that River asked you about, that one sport? Glim? Guller?”

“Galum,” Burr answered, and he gave one his rare smiles. “It is a sport we play in Aztlav. They take a stone ball, and they throw it up into the air, and it has to hit all three trangels, and if it falls into the blurst it gives you extra point, but if it touches the flim you lose three points, and then you have to make it back to the pronk before the ball falls off the chook.”

Hector coughed politely. “Yes, I see. Very interesting.”

“It is very violent sport,” Burr added gleefully. “Takes lot of practice.”

“I imagine so. Are you good at this game?”

“Very good.”

“Good for you.”

They took a right turn, climbed up a few fallen boulders, then continued uphill.

“How long have you played Galum, Burr?”

Burr gave a toothy grin as he lightly jumped a gap between boulders. Hector leaped clumsily, and Burr grabbed his arm to help him up. “Eight years,” he answered.

“Ever since you were... Eight? Nine?”

“I was glad to have tenth birth-day, because they do not let you play if not have ten years.”

“I see.”

They reached a sheer cliff wall about six or seven feet high, and without any apparent effort Burr scaled the surface and extended a hand to Hector. They somehow scrambled to the top, where Hector brushed off his pants, straightened his jacket, and kept walking. The black walls were not as tall, here, and a few flakes of snow made their way into the crevice.

“What other things do Toves do with their time?”

At this, Burr's excitement visibly evaporated. He didn't answer for a while. Eventually he tried to speak, hesitated, then spoke. “Um. Some things. The togoms work the Gimble. The others work. Some play Galum.” He shrugged, and once again appeared to be his typical quiet self.

Hector changed the subject. “Do Toves have books? Do you read a lot?”

Burr shook his head with certainty. “No. Only togoms know to read. And their children, like Lilly.”

That's why she was sent to find the Manxor Slithe, Hector noted. Aloud, he said: “I see. That's a pity, my friend, because there are so many things to be learned from books!” He held his hands up in the air. “Why, you can explore the whole world without leaving your own home by reading! Of course, that's no replacement for the real thing. But I don't know what I would do with my life if I couldn't read!”

Burr was silent, and seemed to withdraw into himself.

“What's wrong?” Hector asked. The narrow canyon suddenly came to an end, and a little pathway opened up. It curved sharply around a protruding rock, and Hector pinned himself to the boulder, because on the other side of the path was a steep, snowy slope that ended with a dark line of sharp, black rocks. “If you want,” he asked the brown Tove, “I can teach you how to read.”

“No good, I can't read,” Burr said despondently. He followed Hector along the trail, but his head hung, ears drooping.

Hector laughed as he scooted sideways along the rock. “That's why I'm going to teach you! It's really rather simple, but it's amazing the doors that literacy opens up. Why, you--” They rounded the corner and stopped dead.

Before them lay a village, but it there was something wrong. Squat, stone houses built of blocks of black mountain rock were scattered around the little snowy hilltop, and Hector fancied that one of the bigger ones was a City Hall, or perhaps the town library. They were all covered with a thick layer of snow, as though they hadn't been touched in a long, long time. However, the strangest part of all of this little mountain village was its inhabitants,

They stood idly in the streets, in their doorways, and behind windows; one solitary figure even stood on top of his roof. But every last one of them was standing completely still, and had a blanket of snow on his or her head and shoulders.

Hector forgot all about the cold and the rock in his shoe. “What happened here?” he whispered. Burr seemed worried, but offered no explanation. The two of them moved forward into the town, as if drawn by invisible cords.

(Graphic 4.4: Hector and Burr walk through the not-quite-abandoned village, passing by its inhabitants who are frozen in place like statues. They touch them and wave their hands before their faces, but to no effect.)

“But... look, they're breathing!” Hector exclaimed incredulously, holding his fingers beneath a bearded man's nose. “I can feel his breath! And if you look closely, you can see his chest moving!”

Burr poked a young boy in the forehead; he stumbled backward, giving Burr a shock, but remained where he stood, staring blankly into space. The Tove looked despondently at Hector, who sighed in confusion and placed his hands on his hips. “I don't get it,” he muttered. “What could have happened to these poor people?” He glanced around the street, searching for clues.

“Look,” Burr called out, and pointed somewhere. Hector rushed to his side and followed his finger with his eyes: the Tove had noticed something behind the line of houses on the edge of town.

“That looks like tracks,” Hector said suspiciously. “The very same tracks we saw on the plain. The big ones that were left by the... what's it called?”

“Bandersnatch,” Burr said quietly. He stared, hypnotized, at the wide, sweeping trail in the snow.

Hector pointed to a nearby roof, where a citizen stood motionless. “Hey, give me a boost up there, Burr. I want to take a look at something.” Burr squatted with his hands folded, and Hector struggled up until he made it to the roof, brushing mounds of snow off his sleeves. “Excuse me,” he said to the unmoving man as he tried to get a good vantage point.

Hector squinted in the sunlight that reflected off the snow. “Yep, it's just like I had thought,” he called out, “the Bandersnatch's trail leads from the rock maze, all along here, up behind that house, and past the City Hall. It keeps going up the mountainside until--”

He didn't say anything for a second. The second stretched to two seconds, then ten. Burr called out his name nervously from the street.

“I'm okay, don't worry,” Hector said in a quiet, strangled voice. “It's just that... I just saw something huge and scaly crawl away behind that boulder near the top of the mountain...”

“Come down,” Burr urged, and waved frantically at him. “You have to come down! Bandersnatch will see you!”

“Was that really the Bandersnatch?” Hector asked dreamily, as Burr helped him down off the roof. “That thing is huge! It looked like a giant lizard, from what I could see! Wow! If only I could get close enough to see what its face looks like!”

Burr shook his head in terror. “No, Hictar, you no want to see Bandersnatch close! The Bandersnatch do this to these people!” He waved his arms over the whole town. Hector blinked in astonishment.

“Really? This was the Bandersnatch's doing?”

“Yes!”

Hector couldn't decide if he was horrified or fascinated. “That means... That means we have to hurry after it, because it might be after Aric!”

“Or worser,” Burr said, starting toward the Bandersnatch's trail, “It will find Lilly!”

“Then we've got no time to lose!”

Hector and Burr took off in the snow, following directly in the trail left by the gigantic creature.

*

Lilly was starting to wonder if she had lost Aric's trail for good. She paused for the thousandth time, stooped low to the ground and sniffed carefully. She repeated this process several times, but it was no good; Aric's scent had vanished. She found a spot where a boulder had tumbled to the narrow canyon floor; using it as a springboard, she gripped the snow-covered ledge and pulled herself to the top.

She looked around, sniffing the air, but all she could see were narrow canyon passes that dropped off steeply into the icy rivers that slithered between the mountains. The cold air burned her nostrils, but still there was no sign of Aric. All was as silent as the grave.

I can't help feeling that this is all my fault, she thought, as her heart raced with suppressed panic. I should not have fought with Aric, it was all over a silly map....

Lilly's sensitive ear suddenly twitched. There had been a faint, powdery sound, as if someone or something was moving a lot of snow very slowly...

“Aric?” she called, and whipped her head around.

(Graphic 4.5: Lilly faces a giant lizardlike creature with large fronds on its face and neck, standing in the snow. It bares its sharp fangs)

Lilly only had time to gasp before bolting in the other direction. The Bandersnatch thundered after her.

She awoke her Gyre and sent a giant wave of white powder behind her, but the lizard didn't slow. I have to get out of the snow, it's too deep to run, she realized, and leaped from the snowbank onto a black ledge near a sheer cliff. She rolled onto her feet as she landed and kept running, not sparing a single glance behind, but from the terrible sounds of cracking stone she knew it was only a breath's length behind her. There was another ledge farther down, so she jumped onto it and and sprinted as fast as she could. She peeked over her shoulder.

The Bandersnatch followed, crawling vertically across the face of the black rock and hissing at her. Lilly formed a ball of air between her fists and flung it at the beast, but it only flinched before redoubling its speed.

There was a wide gap in the rock only a few paces away. If she jumped and used her Gyre, maybe she could just--

(Graphic 4.6: Lilly prepares to make the jump, but at the last second her foot twists on a rock and she loses her balance. She falls into the hole and tumbles down into a deep chasm where only a little light makes its way to the dry rock floor. The Bandersnatch appears and looms over her.)

As Lilly gazed up at the Bandersnatch, she remembered the words of Ashes, her togom: that the worst danger of the Bandersnatch was not that it dismembered and violently ate its victims, but rather what it did to them beforehand...

The Bandersnatch looked at her straight in the eye, and flared the fronds on its neck. They glowed a bright red.

Lilly's sight went blurry, and her thoughts whirred against her will.

Lilly ran to the man and woman who stood at the other end of the glade.

“Mother! Father!”

Halfway across the clearing, they turned away and talked amongst themselves, as though their own daughter were not running to them with arms wide open. She heard every word they whispered.

“Such a disgrace...”

“A coward and a failure...”

“Glad we did away with her...”

Lilly's heart gave out. She fell to her knees. She looked up to her parents, but they had vanished, and in her place stood the togom.

“Ashes,” Lilly whimpered. “My togom... I have tried, we are looking for the Sword Bearer, and I--”

“Do not speak to me of effort,” Ashes spat. She refused to look Lilly in the eye. “I placed so much responsibility upon your shoulders, and what do you do with it! You squabble with your rescuers, you destroy them from the inside out!”

“But, my togom--”

“Do not speak to me!”

Lilly felt like sobbing. “But, but, my togom...”

“I am not your togom any longer!” bellowed the shaman, and stormed off into the woods.

Lilly collapsed. She wished she could get those haunting whispers out of her head, but her mind felt as sharp and as lucid as ever. She grit her teeth and held her hands to her head to block out the echoes, but they only returned stronger and stronger...

Her nose picked up a familiar scent. She fought to focus and blinked the tears away, and saw the person she dreaded most to see in all the world.

River's feet were only inches from her face.

“Lilly,” he said in his deep voice. “You look like you are in a lot of pain... what's wrong?”

“I... I have failed,” she choked. “I've failed, River, I've failed...” She looked up to see him looking down at her. His face was contorted in a sickening sneer.

“Good. Then stay there.”

“River, please! You can't say--”

“Useless!” he roared. “You're useless, Lilly!”

He kept shouting at her, but his words all blended together into a nightmarish swarm of insults, squeezing her heart like a vice...

Chapter 4, Part ii

 In the afternoon it started to snow a little, and the wind was bitterly cold, so they decided to build a fire in a small cave which Burr had spotted. Aric got the dead wood burning almost instantly, and the four of them had dropped their packs and were warming themselves by the fire. Soon afterward the drifting flakes became a thick snowstorm, and Lilly had decided that they should wait it out. Aric hadn't complained, at least.

Hector had pulled out his journal, but for some reason didn't have the drive to write anything. Burr was curled up by the fire like a cat and was breathing deeply in his sleep, and Aric was sitting cross-legged, staring absently at the flames, absorbed in his own thoughts. Lilly stood by the cave mouth, facing the snowstorm outside with her arms folded. Her tail gave the occasional twitch. Laying down the journal on his bookbag, Hector pushed himself to his feet and approached her.

(Graphic 4.2: Lilly is staring into the blizzard with an angry look on her face.)

“How are you feeling?” Hector asked, as innocently as he could.

Lilly exhaled deeply from her nose. She didn't blink. “The same,” she said.

Hector stuffed his hands into his pockets and shivered. “Personally, I don't know if it would have been faster to take Aric's way or not. I don't know if that helps.”

She didn't say anything.

“I have a cousin,” Hector said, to break the awkward silence. “Her name is Trisha. She lives in Dunberg, and when I lived with my parents she would always come over for dinner, because her own parents – my aunt and uncle – live in the big city. We practically grew up together. She's a sergeant in the City Watch and is also a budding politician, and goes to New Poliston every now and then for debates and conferences and things. So you can imagine that she was a rather opinionated person. We didn't always get along.”

Lilly still didn't say anything, but her expression seemed to have softened a little (or perhaps that was just optimistic thinking.) The fire popped and cracked behind them.

“We would fight over just about everything: politics, sports, jobs, favorite colors, who could eat the most pudding in one sitting. Anything and everything was fair game. If things ever got physical, she would always wrestle me to the ground and win. But underneath it all we both knew that we loved each other. We defended each other and helped when help was needed. Trisha was always like a sister to me. I don't know what I would do without her.”

Lilly turned slightly in Hector's direction, and he was surprised to see tears in her eyes. “Hector, it is good that you have a friend like Trisha. I have no brothers or sisters. The togom of my tribe was both mother and father to me. Perhaps the ones who gave birth to me had other children, but I did not grow up with them, or laugh, or cry, or eat, or sleep, or live with them. Perhaps we have seen each other on the island of Noosta, but how would we have known our kinship?” She sighed, and wiped at her eye with the heel of her furry hand. “I do not know how you see me, Hector, but I am not a very social person. I do not get along well with others. I prefer to be alone if I can.”

“I think you're a nice person,” Hector told her. “I think you're very kind and helpful. You rescued me from the Jubjub Bird, and you escorted me to Noosta. You didn't have to do those things.”

Lilly's face contorted into a pained expression. “I almost did not,” she croaked, and looked away. She tightened her folded arms as if to defend herself. “I had gone some way into the forest, heading toward home, when I heard the Jubjub Bird, and I only returned to make sure it wasn't following me--”

“But you did return!” Hector grinned. “And for that I thank you. I saved your life, you saved mine, so now we're even.”

Lilly's ear twitched, and she forced a smile. “I suppose so.”

They both watched the falling snow for a while. The swirling whiteness made the most distant mountains invisible.

“So, how are things going with River? He certainly seems affectionate.”

Lilly lolled her head to the side, and a faint smile ghosted across her face. “Yes, he is. He is very kind to me. We grew up together, so I suppose he could be like a brother to me after all. I think he has always loved me, and I have often felt similarly toward him...” She trailed off, and Hector kept respectful silence.

She continued with a note of concern in her voice. “However, as of late, River has been meeting with a human settlement, and he is often gone for long weeks. And he speaks like a human, he acts like a human, and he thinks like a human. He has become somewhat... alien, you could say.”

“Do you still love each other?”

“Oh, yes,” she quickly pointed out, “Of course. But... well... there is a sort of distance between us, at times. I...” Lilly sighed. “I do not feel comfortable around him any more. Not like I used to. Something has changed in him, I can tell.”

Hector nodded. “Oh. Okay. I see.” Then, after a moment, he added, “I'm sorry I brought all this up last time and made you angry--”

“It's all right, I forgive you,” she said lightheartedly. “You were only being curious. It is something you are good at. And you did not know how I felt about those things, and I know you were not trying to hurt my feelings.”

Hector smiled. “It's good to know I'm forgiven! You know, you might try forgiving Aric as well. You never know: you might end up being friends in the end.”

“Perhaps,” Lilly said. A genuine smile finally lit up her face, and her arms relaxed and fell to her sides. “Thank you for speaking with me, Hector Blithe. You have a gift for being friendly. I never would have opened up like this to a stranger, or to... to Aric or to Burr,” she added in a whisper.

Hector shrugged humbly. “Is it okay if I write our conversation down?”

Lilly looked at him strangely, but she laughed. “You humans have such strange customs! All right, you may, as long as nobody will see it.”

“I can't guarantee that,” Hector warned, “but until I get this thing published, it'll stay private.”

Lilly laughed again, then waved him toward the fire. “Go stoke the fire, it's dying down. And get some rest. We might leave again if the storm stops soon.”

Hector nodded and turned toward the campfire, but hesitated. He pivoted back toward the Tove. “Hey, Lilly. I just had one more question, then I'm done, I promise.”

“Yes?”

He licked his lips and rubbed his hands together nervously. “Em. I know it's a personal subject, but I just have to know. How did you find your Gyre?”

She sighed and pondered for a moment before answering. Without speaking, she held up her hand, a white light sparked in the air above it, and a dozen snowflakes drifted in from the storm outside. They fluttered and hovered above her hand, trapped in a little ball of air, as she looked at it with the same awe and wonder as one might feel looking at a live butterfly in a jar.

“It is a long process, to find one's Gyre. You must search yourself, find out what you are like, what you enjoy doing, and how you fit into the world. It is something that cannot be explained. But I found mine by wandering alone through the Wabe, exploring, feeling the essence of the air as it moved about the land and through the trees...” She waved the trapped snowflakes gently toward the cave mouth, and they vanished into the storm.

Hector nodded pensively.

“Hector? What are you thinking about?”

“Oh... I was just wondering what my Gyre would be.”

Lilly smiled warmly. “I have an idea of what it might be. Ask me to tell you after we finish our task.”

Hector yawned and nodded. “Okay, I will. I look forward to it. See you in the morning, I have to go to sleep or I'll collapse.”

“Good night, Hector Blithe.”

*

(Graphic 4.3: We see the cave mouth, white with falling snow. The cave is black, with the silhouettes of the sleeping travelers, and the ashes of the fire drifting in the air. A shadow appears in the cave entrance: a large, mysterious crawling creature peering in from the top of the entrance.)

                                                                                 *

 After but a couple days, the pathetic city of Dunberg was completely under Professor Trellis's control.

The City Council had been replaced by other, more responsible members, who had come in directly from New Poliston. All the farms, textiles, and businesses had likewise had their ownership readjusted. The native Dunberg population no longer had any desire to leave the city, thanks to the de-slithed sentries that stood guard day and night around the city limits.

Trellis sat in his new office in City Hall, hands folded, as he listened to the reports that his fellow Mome Raths gave him. As Doctor Virchuk described the current agricultural status of the surrounding area, Trellis took a moment to appreciate the re-decoration of the Hall. The green banners with the Dunberg Seal on them had been torn down and replaced with the luxurious black and red of the Honorable and Venerable Guild of the Mome Rath, with its insignia. He had always had a certain penchant for red and black.

The good Doctor finally shut up, and Trellis nodded to the next black-clad City Council member. Chairlady Semmerfish was an austere woman, whose night-black hair was pulled back into a bun on her head so tightly that her eyebrows were permanently raised in a haughty, condescending expression. Her gray eyes glinted as he acknowledged her. “Respectable Chairlady, finally we come to you. Do tell, what is the current state of affairs concerning the library? I have been waiting all day to hear this.”

“Very well, Professor,” she sneered, her lips pursed like a miser's wallet. “The Dunberg Public Library has been thrice-scoured, with no evidence of the Manxor Slithe. You were correct: it is not there. We could find no evidence that the man Blithe knew of its existence, either. However, we did find something...”

Everyone leaned forward ever so slightly. The Chairlady, reveling in the attention, continued. “We found a receipt in Blithe's desk, concerning a certain request that had been made by the Central Library in New Poliston, for a certain number of books on ancient Tovish culture and documentation. Most of them were named, with their authors given, but the last one was listed as 'Untitled. A Documentary of Customary Rituals and Superstitions of Tovish Society, written in Tovetongue. A large book, about 500 pages, well-aged. Author unknown.' Sound familiar to anyone?”

They all muttered excitedly amongst themselves, but only Trellis kept his face hard, despite his inner elation. Inspector Bulno, a plump, florid brother, screwed up his face in concentration as he spoke. “But, dear Chairlady, who made the request? I know of no such request made by ourselves. It must have been a rival faction in the Guild; I suspect the Revered Consul of The Blackened Splinter.”

Another brother expressed his disagreement. “No, I believe it was the Order of Fervent Secret-Keeping...”

“No, no! It must have been the Aged Neophytes of Gleaned Learning! They're always poking their crooked noses where they don't belong--”

“You're all wrong! It was the Magnanimous Society of the Fist of Wisdom!”

Trellis let them argue among themselves for a few moments. A little dissension always provided a fertile ground for a strong, uniting voice like his own. The Chairlady noticed that she was losing their attention, and her confidence started fraying.

“Enough!” Trellis commanded, and pounded the table once with his fist. There was immediate silence. “It matters not who requested the Manxor Slithe. All that matters now is that we recover it. Now, noble Chairlady, who did Blithe give the book to for delivery?”

The Chairlady hesitated. “Professor, we could find no evidence thereof... We have already checked with the New Hume Postal Service, and the Pony Expeditors, and with every other delivery service we could find. Nobody knew of such a delivery.” Trellis frowned as the rest started arguing again. Io had not returned, so the whelp Aric must have caught up in time. Blast that vorpal sword! Blithe might still have the book, but they couldn't be sure. His blood started pumping as his anger swelled.

He suddenly stood up, toppling his leather chair to the floor, and planted his thick hands loudly on the table. “We must have that book! I have no time for excuses and groveling! If the Jabberwock awakes fully before we have that book, it will be forever out of our control! We have only a few days!”

Doctor Virchuk had the cheek to speak up. “I understand, milord, but--”

“Not one of your understands!” Trellis bellowed. The Doctor sank fearfully into his chair. “Aric, that insolent boy, has the vorpal sword, and he is after the Jabberwock! He is going to slay it unless we stop him! And if we can't control the Jabberwock directly with the instructions from the Manxor Slithe, we must stop him from slaying it, so that we can at least direct the beast where it will do the most harm!”

“Good Professor, if I may humbly submit a question?” Trellis swung his great, angry head toward the speaker. He was a middle-sized, average-looking man, whom the Professor recognized as Senior Archivist Reming. “We have a large number of de-slithed Tovish thralls at our command. Cannot we send them directly after the librarian and after the boy Aric? Surely we can keep things under control in this small town without our servants' help.”

Professor Trellis thought for a moment, doing the math in his head. He nodded. “That is the best suggestion that I have heard all day, no thanks to the rest of you. I am hesitant to send them all, Reming, because we must defend ourselves from our rival Mome Raths. But we will send ten of them. We must do so at once, for we have little time as it is.”

Reming nodded with a confident crook in his eyebrow. “May I take the great responsibility of sending them off?”

“You may. But there is one more thing on my mind.”

“Yes, good Professor?”

Trellis clasped his hands together behind his back. “If Aric and Blithe are together, and the Tove that came here two days ago looking for the Manxor Slithe is with them as well, then they will have returned to Noosta. They will have spoken with Ashes, the togom of that Borogrove, and she will have told them to slay the Jabberwock with the vorpal sword. They will have left immediately, I am certain. And, in the little time that they have, they will have chosen to cross the mountains to reach the Tulgey Wood, where the Jabberwock sleeps.”

“Go on,” said the flushed Inspector.

“My point is this: they are venturing into the territory of the Bandersnatch.”

There was excited whispering among them.

“Yes, my friends,” Trellis continued in a quiet but triumphant voice, “They might not make it out of those mountains at all. But just in case, send three thralls after them, Reming, and we will reserve the rest for other purposes.”

“Yes, milord, it will be my burden to do so.” Reming stood, bowed, and made for the door of the Hall. Trellis snapped at a nearby Tove, standing inert in the shadows, to pick up his chair. It rushed to his side and gently lifted the leather throne, upon which the Professor sat again. Finally, things were getting done. But wait...

“Oh, Reming,” Trellis called, and the man Reming stopped.

“Yes, my dear Professor?”

“Prepare for me a contingent of thralls. I am going to make a small business trip.”

“Yes, milord. May I have the cheek to ask where?”

Trellis held his head high. “I am going to see if I can't beat our little friends at their own game.”