Chapter 6, Part v

Lilly no longer had to pause and meditate before telling them where to go. Hector supposed that the Wabe-energy was stronger here; or perhaps it was the fact that the strange, irregular seismic pulse coming from somewhere deep within the earth was getting stronger and stronger the deeper they went. Hector felt it through the soles of his shoes, and it was as though the earth's heartbeat was fluttering with some sort of illness. The tunnels here were lit with those strange mushrooms, and the space had widened up a bit, so they no longer walked in single file. It was much colder this far down, and much of the dirt that had surrounded them was replaced by weird, bubbly stone. Hector dodged a cone-shaped stalagmite.

Aric cautiously shuffled forward toward the corner where the tunnel turned sharply to the right. Flattened against the wall, he peered around the edge.

Lilly and Burr had been instrumental in tracking Professor Trellis's scent. According to Burr the Professor was not alone: he had at least four or five more people with him. They had left a scent trail, but also there was a heavy track of footprints left in the ash-colored dirt.

Aric did a double-take around the corner, and appeared confused.

“What? What is it? Is he there?” Hector hissed.

“Yes and no,” Aric said. He beckoned for the others to follow. “Come on, you have to take a look at this...”

Tiptoeing as softly as he could, Hector followed Burr around the corner, and curiously took out his journal to sketch what he saw.

(Graphic 6.9: At the end of a long corridor, there is a pair of tall, ornate stone doors. One of them has been swung wide open away from them, revealing a strange light from the whatever is on the other side.)

“So... this is the place where the Jabberwock sleeps,” Lilly concluded.

Aric nodded. “I think it's safe to assume so. Can't imagine what else it could be. It must have been sealed with some old magic or other; I wonder how they managed to--”

Lilly held up her hand and cut him off. Her long ear twitched slightly as she strained to listen. Hector held his breath. “He is there,” she finally whispered. She looked to Aric. “Should we enter?”

Aric shrugged and quickly moved forward in a stealthy crouch. “Well, we ain't come here to chicken out at the last moment. Let's go.” Lilly followed, her shoulders hunched with apprehension; Hector nervously shuffled after them and quickly drew a few details in his journal; only Burr seemed unruffled as he strode confidently toward the ancient, stone-wrought doors.

Finding his Gyre seems to have given him a new sense of pride, Hector realized.

Again, the company stopped at the doors, and Aric once more peeked around the corner. He signaled very slowly and very carefully with his finger toward Lilly. Like a shadow, she silently crouched by his waist and followed his gaze.

Hector, meanwhile, occupied himself by staring out into the chamber beyond the double doors. From the little that he could see, the chamber was... it was... what was the word? Large? Spacious? Cavernous?

Colossal, Hector decided.

The room or cavern or chamber or whatever it was had a roughly circular shape, with a crude stone walkway about five or six feet wide around the circumference. Beyond the edge, which was unprotected by a banister or barrier of any kind, a huge, engulfing void gaped like an open mouth. A faint, gray miasma drifted lazily inside, filling the space, and sent little ephemeral tendrils to lick the stone edge. It was impossible to see how deep the hole was, but the natural rock wall on the far side of the ring – it must have been at least half a mile away – extended downward until it was lost in the misty darkness.

The journal slipped from Hector's dumbfounded fingers, and landed flat on its cover. A painfully loud echo reverberated through the entire chamber, bouncing back and forth until Hector instinctively covered his ears. All three of his companions turned to glare at him.

Sorry, he mouthed silently.

Just then, for the first time, Hector noticed that there were voices in the chamber. At the sound of Hector's journal striking the stone floor, they began shouting in alarm. The tromp-tromp-tromp of footsteps – magnified by the cavern's acoustics – came closer and closer to their location. Everyone hid behind the door as the guards approached. Hector scooped up his journal, pinned himself to the backside of the second door, and held his breath.

Long shadows appeared in the open doorway, produced by the unearthly light beyond. A weapon that resembled the offspring between a spear and scimitar made its way into the tunnel and quested around blindly. It came within inches of Burr's nose, but he didn't make a sound. The person wielding the spear took a cautious step into the doorway--

Burr acted. With a fierce, sweeping movement, he knocked the soldier's legs out from underneath him and landed his fist straight into the Mome Rath's face. The man, out cold, dropped his weapon with a clatter. The second soldier kept his distance and slashed at Burr with his long blade, but the Tove easily dodged it, grabbed the shaft and pulled. The Mome Rath didn't have the sense to let go, and was tugged into the tunnel, tripping over his companion's body. Aric quickly kneed the man in the gut, and with a single blow more, incapacitated him. They dragged the unconscious bodies into the dark. They wore traditional black Mome Rath clothing, but they had helmets and breastplates as well.

“That was close,” Hector laughed nervously, but Lilly silenced him.

“These guys aren't messing around,” Aric whispered, and gently lifted one of the bladed spears. Without touching the metal, he indicated the swirling runes etched into its surface. “Look at the blade of this thing. It's got fleshrending enchantments on it; it'll cut through bone and muscle like butter.”

“Give me one,” Burr said excitedly, and retrieved the other fallen soldier's weapon. He twirled it around with practiced ease. Aric took the other one and pointed his thumb toward the doorway.

“Well, they'll be missing their buddies pretty quickly. We'd better get a move on before they decide to investigate. There are about a dozen of them out there on the walkway, and they all have these sorts of weapons or worse. It looks like they're heading down deeper into the pit, where the Jabberwock doubtless is napping. We have to get there first, 'cause they've got the Manxor Slithe, remember.”

Hector naturally felt excited at the prospect of the adventure, but a seed of worry cankered his stomach. “But, Aric, how are we going to stop them? If there are that many of them we can't stop them all. Lilly doesn't have her Gyre and I'm no good at fighting.”

Aric looked at Burr, who shrugged. “Um...” Aric said, and licked his dry lips. “We're just going to have to be really sneaky, I guess... Gee whiz, Hec, you're looking at me like I have an idea of what I'm doing! I'm winging this whole thing, couldn't you tell?”

“Yes. Right.” Hector cleared his throat, and Aric slunk back toward the door. He and Burr slipped out into the main chamber, vanishing from sight as they moved to the right-hand side of the stone walkway. Hector felt frozen with fear. His knees betrayed him, and the very thought of having to fight and kill or be killed made him feel--

His wandering eye suddenly caught sight of Lilly. Her whole frame was trembling violently, and she kept running a quivering hand across her ears to stop them from twitching.

“Lilly? Are you all right?” he asked. She directed a withered smile at him, but shook her head.

“Hector, I am frightened. I feel even worse than when they took my Gyre from me. I feel as helpless as a newborn pup. They will kill us all!”

“They're not going to kill us all,” Hector chuckled. “Come on, let's follow Aric and Burr, or they'll lose us.” He gently placed a hand on her back and pushed her toward the open doors, but she resisted.

“Hector, how are we going to stop the Mome Raths? What if we cannot stop the Jabberwock at all? What if we cannot get the vorpal sword or the Manxor Slithe away from Professor Trellis? What if--”

Hector cut her off. “Lilly, 'what ifs' aren't going to help! Why, Sir Jimbo never said 'what if' in his whole life! And look at all the things he accomplished!”

Lilly looked at him dryly. She clenched and unclenched her black-fingered hands together. “Sir Jimbo is a character in a story. Real life is much different.”

“Have we ever gotten anywhere on our journey by saying 'what if', Lilly of Noosta?” Hector asked. She didn't respond for a moment.

“Hector, there is something I must tell you,” she whispered ominously.

“Go on.”

She looked at the ground and squeezed her hands together to keep them from shaking. It didn't work. “The togom of the Tulgey Wood... she said that we are not destined to slay the Jabberwock. Only wound it.”

Hector screwed his eyebrows together. “What? That doesn't make any sense. We've come all this way to slay the Jabberwock, once and for all. What do you mean, only wound it?”

“That is what the Gimble says,” Lilly reiterated. “That is what will come to pass. We cannot slay the beast, only bar its path for a time. It will go back to sleep for another thousand years, then someone else will have to wound it again, and so on and so forth into eternity.”

“Hogwash!” Hector laughed.

“It is already decided, Hector!” Lilly snapped, growing angry. “It is fate! You cannot change fate at your whim!”

“Is that so?” Hector said, and planted his hands on his hips. He looked at Lilly square in the eye. “Well, we could run away right now and go home. Then we wouldn't even be wounding the Jabberwock. I'd be defying fate right there.”

Lilly seemed very sad. She shook her head. “You do not understand, Hector Blithe. This thing must be done. The Gimble has spoken.”

“So let's prove the Gimble wrong!” Hector laughed, and clapped his hand heartily on Lilly's shoulder. She staggered under the unexpected shock.

“Prove the Gimble... wrong?” Lilly asked, completely disbelieving.

“Yep! Let's go slay ourselves a Jabberwock. Come on, Lilly, let's go before Aric and Burr lose us.”

Lilly reluctantly followed, though it was clear that she didn't seem to be able to accept the idea of disproving the Gimble's prophecy. The truth of it was that Hector also doubted that they could prove the Gimble wrong, but he couldn't let Lilly just sit there and melt under her own uncertainty. Scared as he himself was, Hector didn't want to let his friend give up.

They entered the main chamber. Inside, it seemed even bigger than before, with a ceiling that stretched upward for hundreds of feet and capped the room with a field of stalactites, like an upside-down forest of petrified pine trees. The walkway that ringed the walls bulged in one place, allowing space for a handful of people to stand together without fear of falling off. The Mome Raths had disappeared, and Hector managed to see Burr's prickly head vanish over the edge of that platform. There must be a staircase or ramp leading even farther downward, he realized.

Lilly grabbed the strap of Hector's bookbag and gave it a rough tug. “Hector, not so quickly! What if they see us?”

“They already know we're here,” he shrugged. “I wouldn't be surprised if Professor Trellis has set a trap for us already. There's nothing to do but continue onward. Like my favorite line in The Adventures says, 'Twas the richest boat of--”

Lilly tugged again, making Hector stumble backward. He quickly scrambled to the stone wall as his feet sent a single pebble tumbling off the edge and down into the misty blackness. He and Lilly waited for what must have been a whole minute, and they never heard it hit the ground.

Hector adjusted his bookbag and caught his breath. “Yikes,” he muttered.

“I am sorry, Hector,” Lilly apologized. Her eyes were wild. “But I-- I am starting to think that this was all a mistake. Let us let Aric and Burr take care of the Jabberwock; they are more than capable of taking care of the soldiers, now that Burr has his Gyre--”

Hector had had enough. “Lilly, what is wrong with you? I'm sorry, I don't like talking like that, but... really, what has gotten into you? You've never acted like this before!”

“It is because I am frightened!” she exploded. Her rough, tan hair flew in front of her face, and she hastily brushed it aside. “That is the truth of it! I am frightened to death, as you humans say. I do not want to be here. I have done my part. I have guided us here; now it is Aric's task to wound the Jabberwock, and we can all go home.”

Hector looked her in the eye for a long time, trying to think of what to say. When he didn't speak, Lilly straightened her shoulders and huffed. “Let us go back. I wish to help the others take care of the Mome Raths in the Tulgey Wood. We can then return here to guide Aric and Burr back to the surface.”

“Lilly, what are you talking about?” Hector asked. “We can't just leave them. It's everybody's task, not just Aric's. What if I had thought that same thing when you were in the jail in Dunberg? You'd still be there right now, or worse, you'd be Professor Trellis's personal slave in a dungeon somewhere. And besides, you're plenty brave.”

“I have no Gyre,” she argued.

“Neither do I,” Hector responded.

“I am weakened and cannot fight.”

“I'm even worse.”

“I will drag you all down.”

“That's what I've been doing our whole quest long.”

Lilly fumed for a moment, searching for another argument. Hector spoke first. “Look, Lilly, you're a lot braver than you think. We all are.”

“Name one time when I have been brave, Hector. One time!” Lilly held up a single finger in Hector's face, baring her sharp teeth and puffing through her black nose. After a few loud breaths, she scoffed. “See? I am a coward, and I will not drag--”

Hector pushed her wrist down. “You went to Dunberg to find the Manxor Slithe.”

“We failed. It was not there, and I was captured.”

“Yes, but you went.”

Lilly was silent.

“You saved me from the Jubjub bird, then defended me from the de-slithed Tove in Noosta,” Hector continued.

“I failed then as well.”

Hector spoke more loudly and clearly than before. “Yes, but you tried! Then you accompanied us to the mountains, knowing full well the danger that was ahead. Then you set out in search of Aric in the Bandersnatch's territory.”

“But--”

“Then you led us to the Tulgey Wood, and solved the riddle of the Gimble!”

“But it was Burr that--”

“But he couldn't have read the Gimble!” Hector laughed. “And then, when the Mome Raths captured us in the Tulgey Wood, you came to rescue us! And don't say that it was Trisha and Tom that did it, because you were there too. There's no shame in being having help. Then you took down Doctor Virchuk before he could take away Burr's Gyre! Then you led us through the tunnels, and here we are! If it weren't for you, I would have been food for the Jubjub bird two days ago! Lilly, if it weren't for your bravery, we wouldn't be here right now!”

Lilly didn't speak for a time. The wild panic in her eyes had dried up, and she looked out blankly over the abyss. She absently smoothed her hair back into place.

“We're better than we think,” Hector repeated. “I'm probably a lot better at hand-to-hand combat than I take myself for.”

The Tovess continued to ponder. Hector knew that Aric and Burr were getting farther and farther away, but he wanted Lilly to follow them of her own free will, so he folded his arms and he waited.

Finally, she nodded. “You... you are right, Hector Blithe. I am sorry. I apologize for letting my fear master me.” She straightened up and set her jaw. “Let us stop the Jabberwock.”

“It's about time,” Hector smiled, and scurried down the staircase with Lilly on his heels.