The Ever After

Chapter Twenty: Nine Knaves Grotto

A CIRCLE OF SKY GAPED BEFORE THEM, FULL OF zipping stars. May hurried past Pumpkin and burst into the open air. "Whew!"

They were about halfway up one of the cliffs. Below and to the right was the Dead Sea. May breathed in the open air gratefully. When Pumpkin caught up, he did the same.

"It's down there," Lucius said, still pointing.

May scanned all along the shore, which wasn't a shore anymore but a collection of cliffs butting up against the water's edge.

"I don't see anything but water."

"If you stare long enough, you will. It's there"-he pointed- "in that little curve in the rocks. It's hidden."

May stared down hard at the curve he'd indicated. She stared for several seconds, so long that her eyes started to lose focus.

And that's when she saw it.

At the base of that curve, nestled in under the shadow of the rocks, was a tiny walled town built on a network of planks and bridges. It looked like the layers of a cake, with small square houses sitting almost on top of one another, reaching from the walkways and canals toward the cliffs. Its seaside side clung to the water, looking as if it might lean forward to peer into the waves and fall in. The wall itself was surrounded by a boardwalk and interrupted only by a tall, open gate. But it all blended so well with the shapes of its surroundings that when May looked away, then looked back, it took her a second to pick it out again.

"Gosh, it's practically invisible!"

"That's the way they like it," Lucius said. "Few spirits even know it's here. Knaves are like that. They're a secretive bunch."

May nodded. They must be, to live in such a dangerous spot-just inches above the deadly water of the Dead Sea.

"I'm sad to see you go," Lucius said gravely, interrupting her train of thought. His long handsome eyelashes fluttered at May.

"You're not coming any farther?" She searched the cliff 's edge. "But how will we get down?"

"There," Lucius said matter-of-factly, pointing to a tiny indent in the rock, which May now could see was a path.

She walked over to its edge. It was just enough room for one person to stand on, if she hugged her stomach against the rock.

"Really? This is the only way?"

Lucius nodded. He stuck out his hand, and May took it reluctantly. "There's a girl. It was nice to meet you. Good luck, May Bird."

He started to turn away. May and Pumpkin looked at each other. Poor, lonely soul, May thought. Pumpkin's eyes said he felt sorry for Lucius too.

"Wait." She threw out her hand to touch him, but he turned around first.

May bit her lip. "Won't you come with us? Just to the grotto? Just to get out of the caves for a little while?"

Lucius looked back at the cave, then at her. "Oh, no. I can't. Really. He might see me."

"But . . . you can turn around whenever you want. And it's not very far. . . . If you could just take us to the edge of town . . . Please?" May didn't want to put Lucius in danger. But she also didn't want him to spend the rest of Eternity hiding in a cave.

Lucius looked bashful. "You mean, you'd like for me to come?"

May smiled sincerely. "Very much."

Lucius gazed down at the grotto. "I suppose I can venture down to the water with you. Maybe I'll even take you to the gates," he said proudly.

With Lucius leading the way, May and Pumpkin grinned at each other. Pumpkin insisted on being in the middle as they made their way down the cliff, zigzagging back and forth along the face of the rock. Several times May lost sight of the town below and thought for a minute that there must be some other path and that they were going the wrong way. But finally it came into view again, and a few minutes later they reached a small platform of rock that marked the end of the trail.