The Imagination Machine

Chapter 17

Courtney fought hard to keep her eyes open. She'd discovered in the past few hours that driving a carriage was a lot harder than it looked. And often, the longlegs would stop simply without explanation. 

She had, under Lucretia's instruction, managed to get the carriage moving west, away from the river. 

"They'll probably expect us to keep to the water. In which case, we must move in the opposite direction to avoid them."

Of course, Courtney had already known that. She'd been planning to avoid the river and castle already, decided not to mention it to Lucretia. 

The big problem was that the villagers knew that they were gone. Courtney had to pray that they'd followed the wrong path, near the river, and were on the other side of the valley. It must have taken Enysis some team to alert everyone else. He couldn't have just come after them by himself.

Hopefully.

It was a lot colder in Labania at night than during the day. Courtney was suddenly glad she'd decided to wear her clothes and sneakers from home. She would have frozen in the loose-fitting Labanian robe she'd been wearing for a while now.

"Rudy!" she yelled. "Keep an eye on Sable and tell me when she wakes up!" They still hadn't figured out what they would do when Sable did wake up, of course. How they would explain the situation to her, Courtney had no idea.

Of course, when she looked back, Rudy was asleep. He was lying on the bench with his head right next to Sable's. 

He looks so innocent when he's asleep, Courtney noticed. Then

They're both going to fall out.

Courtney tried to ignore the grim thought and keep her attention on what was in front of her. She had to be careful and avoid steering the Longlegs into the jungle, which bordered the valley on both sides. 

She didn't understand how Lucretia was doing it. He made it look so easy. His knees clasped the midsection of the longleg he was riding, and his arms were thrown around its neck. He leaned forward, the slight breeze blowing his longish hair back. His hair was just the right length. It didn't come down to his neck, but you couldn't call him bald either.

What are you doing? Stop thinking about his hair and focus!

Courtney decided that she would never forgive herself if she crashed the carriage and hurt her brother or Sable. She wasn't so sure anymore that she wanted to apply for a driving permit when she turned fifteen back home.

Courtney hadn't realized she had started to fall asleep until she felt the carriage jerk suddenly. She'd unintentionally let go of the reins and the longlegs were running wild. The carriage bounced roughly over grass, throwing Courtney up in her seat. 

She tried to regain control of the reins, but she was distracted by the sounds of Rudy waking up behind her. "Courtney?" he muttered, sounding sleepy at first. Then his voice quickly cleared as he realized the situation they were in. "What's going on?" he yelled. 

Lucretia's longleg was racing alongside the carriage and he was shouting instructions to her, but Courtney was finding it hard to pay attention. "Let me drive!" Rudy was saying. Courtney turned to see that he was slowly starting to stand up.

"What are you doing, you idiot? Sit dow-" Courtney never got to finish her sentence. The longlegs were headed straight for a tree at the edge of the valley, but managed to veer away at the last second. Unfortunately, their momentum brought the carriage crashing against the trunk, sending Rudy over the edge.

"Rudy!" Courtney screamed, finally managing to find the reins and jerk on them, bringing the carriage to an unsteady halt. The longlegs whined and pawed the ground. Courtney jumped out of the carriage's front seat and ran around to the back to check on her brother. Sable, amazingly enough, was still lying in the back seat of the vehicle, unharmed.