They paddled the boat to shore, got out and pulled it up onto the pebbles where they stood, shining their lights on a patch of finer sand.
“Not only two people,” said Simon. “Other things, too.”
“Timmys?” asked Onsofruct.
“That size, at least,” said Madame. She turned her light onto the small area around them. A rocky wall, a few fallen chunks of that wall, no openings that they could see—that they could … see.
“That wasn’t there before,” whispered one Hagger to another, pointing.
They all looked. An opening. Too small to worry about. They looked away, looked back. Perhaps not that small. Looked away, looked back.
“It’s opening,” said D’Jevier in a shocked voice. “The rock is opening!”
It was opening slowly, a vertical slit, perhaps as high as their boat was wide. It made a grating sound as it went on opening, wider and wider, displaying a gleaming orb inside which swiveled in their direction. An eye, with a vertical pupil. And another slit opening, a much wider horizontal one, below. A mouth.
From which, after some time—while they all froze in place, scarcely breathing—came a voice like rocks grinding together.
“I am sent by Bofusdiaga, burrower of walls, singer of the sun, death defier, savior of Quaggima. I am sent by him who alloys and thereby preserves. I have come to take you to the Fauxi-dizalonz.”
Onsofruct sagged. Calvy and Madame caught her as she crumpled to the ground.
The mouth opened again. “Terror is inappropriate. Proper emotion is gratitude. I am tunneler. My way is much less tiring than the way of the Pillared Sea. Besides, many of your people are already there.”
D’Jevier cleared her throat several times, managing to get the words out on the third try. “We’re searching for … ah, some others who have come this way … “
“First group, eight strange people belonging to Questioner. They are already at Fauxi-dizalonz arguing with one another. Second group, two dancers, they are now in swimmer, arguing with Timmys about mothers and fathers. Soon they will be at Fauxi-dizalonz. Third group: Mouchidi, Ornery, and the Questioner, they are far ahead on the Pillared Sea, experiencing the Quaggima voyage, and arguing with the Corojum.”
“Mouche!” cried Madame. “Mouche also?”
“So I have said. You are fifth group. If we go same way, would not catch them in time.”
“Who’s the fourth group?” demanded Calvy.
“The jongau.” The messenger spat the words in a hail of gravel. “Many jongau. Large and small, all horrid, they are going on the surface, and they are getting near to the sacred place.”
“The jongau,” said Madame. “Being?”
“That Ashes. Those sons of Ashes. All those bent ones. They will be there, too, and I have come to take you where you can meet them.”
The voice made Madame think of walking on scree, a gravelly crunch, rattle, and slide. Was this irritation? Or mere impatience? “We are grateful,” she said loudly.
The mouth turned up its corners, dislodging small boulders in the process. “At least you are not arguing! Mankind is a very arguing species! Bring your belongings,” it said, then opened its mouth to display two complicated, bellowslike structures on either side and between them, access to a dry, sandy-floored space.
“I think it means we should go in,” said Calvy, a slight tremor in his voice. “I presume it knows we are easily crushed.”
The mouth waited. “After you,” said Simon politely, needing two tries to get it out.
Madame pressed her lips tightly together, took a deep breath, lifted her pack from the boat and walked into the creature’s mouth. After a long moment, D’Jevier and Onsofruct did likewise.
Simon looked after them, doubtfully.
“This is why women rule this world,” Calvy observed. “We men can’t make up our minds.”
“I’m going, I’m going,” said Simon, taking up his pack. “What about the Haggers?”
The Haggers were out in the river, having already waded some distance along the edge in the direction they had come.
Calvy called, “Farewell. Don’t forget to turn off into the little stream when you get there.”
They splashed more rapidly away, without replying. Calvy picked up his own pack and one of theirs; Simon took another; together they stepped into the mouth of Bofusdiaga’s messenger.