Page 13 (1/2)
Dee took the lead, with Suhtly and Michael and Audrey after that
Jenny wanted the others to go ahead of her partly because she was afraid, and partly because she didn’t want any of thehts She had always hated heights But she was da to To Steep, yes, and narrow, yes And there were no handrails If the whole structure had been six inches off the ground, Jenny could have walked it easily, without a chance of slipping The probleround
But if she looked straight down and concentrated on her own feet, she couldn’t see how they were cli drifted past her
feet-a wisp of mist Alarmed, she looked to one side
No, they weren’t cloud-height They really were only twenty feet off the ground Butaround them
"Oh, spiffy," Michael said from somewhere ahead, and Summer’s voice said, "I can’t see"
Dee’s voice floated back from even farther ahead "Reach back and hold hands with each other I can feel "
Jenny reached forward and took a handful of Audrey’s nylon jacket-Audrey only had one good ar around her hite She could barely see her own hiking boots
In a few h the s were aching, and she hoped they were getting near the top
It was only when Audrey stopped short in front of her, and gasped, that she looked around
The e noas-unearthly
It was dark, and arching through the darkness were other bridges, delicate and airy, some fiery, some that looked like ice They led to clu in space
"Like Neverland," Jenny whispered "A bunch of Neverlands What are they? And where are we?"
"Oh, I don’t believe this," Audrey said just as softly
"I do," Dee said from the very top of the arch Her
head was thrown back on the slies shifted on the planes of her cheekbones, and her eyes glowed "I do"
So than any landscape Jenny had seen on Earth-sharper in detail, ue-as if they had been partly formed and then abandoned
Between the clumps of land Jenny could see stars -but not normal stars These stars rippled and waved as if she were looking at theh a clear streath of black silk There was so incredibly lost and lonely about thes? Those other islands?" she said again
Audrey gave herself a little shake and seemed to focus "I think-those are the nine worlds Froy-Norse, like the runes I told you about them once"
"You mean-we’re above the Shadow World souess Now that-that’s probably Asgard, the one way up there It’s got to be"
Jenny tilted her head back Far above them-the farthest away of any of the cluold She could just gliolden cloud on it The bridge to it was very narrow and seeods live"
"The gods?" Jenny spoke to Audrey without looking down fro island
"So the myths say Hmm, and I’ll bet that’s Vanaheim World of priods live" Audrey pointed to an island painted in jewel-like colors, dark blue and dark green
"Vanaheim-any relation to Anaheim?" Michael nored hiht and air," she said, nodding at an island that wasin the colors of sunrise: yellow, pale blue, light green "Ho all this, isn’t that aht when I learned it"
"What about those?" Dee said, pointing straight outward Two island worlds were floating at about the sae they stood on: one rocky and lashed by what looked like tornadoes, and the other so bright with orange fire that Jenny couldn’t make out any details
"The rocky one’s Jotunheim-the world of primal storms And the other one has to be Muspelheiiants"
"What’s that?" Michael said, staring doard and to the left
Audrey looked "Hell" she said siht hell would be hot," Su
"Hel with one l It’s the underworld, where everything sinks in the end Ruled by Hella, queen of the dead"
It looked like a frozen lake, colder and blacker than the ehtless, joyless place
The bridge to it was like a slide, broad and frosty
"We definitely wouldn’t want to go there Or to that one-the one that looks like a cavern That’s Svartalfheim, the subterranean world"
"No more caves, thank you," Michael said
There was only one island left It was the one directly below thee they stood on seemed connected to it From here, the surface was obscured by dark mist and shadows
Audrey said, "Niflheim, land of ice and shadows The Shadow World" She shook her head "I still don’t believe this"
"Why not? It’s no weirder than anything else we’ve seen today," Dee said "But I only count eight worlds Where’s Earth?"
Audrey looked around, then shrugged "Maybe we don’t get to see that bridge until we finish the Game"
"Who cares? Look, anted to walk between the worlds, right?" Dee said, her eyes shining "And noe’re doing it So-shall we?"
Jenny nodded She felt very tiny and insignificant standing here, and her throat was tight And she had the feeling that it was going to be harder going down than going up-because now the fall was soIt was hard to walk in the place between the worlds-physically hard After two or three steps Jenny began to feel hin front of her
And the barest glians feel as if they were plunging out of her body
Her legs wanted to freeze She wanted to get down on her ruet down on her stomach and slither But that wasn’t the worst
She was afraid she would faint
If I faint up here, I’ll fall Of course I’ll fall Nobody faints neatly forward I’ll slide off the side
Theoccurred to her, it blocked everything else out She was going to faint Just thinking about it , she felt like juan to bubble up inside her She shouldn’t have thought about ju Now she was afraid she would jump, just because the idea had occurred to her She had to try not to think about it
Think of anything else Think of To was now stuck in her et it all over with, turn to the side and just let go God, no-she didn’t want to, but she was afraid she’d go crazy and do it
The voice came from her own brain, but it was so harsh it seeirl!
Jenny realized she was stopped, frozen Staring down at her own feet in their brown leather hiking boots, and the white ribbon of bridge, and the formless darkness on either side
Just put one foot in front of the other The right foot Put out your right foot
I can’t, she thought
Yes, you can!
But if I faint-or jump -
You expect everybody else to face their fears, and you can’t face yours? You’re not your only master if you can’t even control your own feet! You’re just a coward!
The right boot jerked a little and stepped forward
That’s right Now the other one
The other boot caain
She could do it-command her own feet Just put one foot in front of the other And one more step And one more
Don’t look to the side One more step And one e in front of her She could see where it ended Ten feet Five feet
On legs that had suddenly gone weak as angel-hair pasta, Jenny sturound
Dee bent over her "You okay?"
Weakly Jenny patted one of Dee’s hightops "I’m terrific, thanks"
"I shouldn’t have let you be last I forgot"
Jenny sat up and wiped her forehead "I did fine bya lot of that these days"
Jenny was very happy
Then it hit her They were across They’d made it
Tom
She looked up so fast her vision swarandeur of the place between the worlds, it was so of a comedown They were on the central island in the artificial lake at Joyland Park The lighthouse looked the sa The park around the ordinary rides like the SuperLooper and the Tu looked very ordinary
Behind her, the bridge arched gracefully over the lake water, and the water reflected a wavering arch back There was no n of any other worlds The top of the arch wasn’t uess," Audrey said slowly "One of Julian’s things And I suppose it must have been from me, since I’m the only one who knew about those other worlds"
Jenny opened her ht-but she wasn’t sure And the truth was that they would probably never be sure