Abarat

18. THE TALE OF HARK'S HARBOR

They passed several more images of the Commexo Kid as they made their way to Klepp's Press. He was on a poster advertising his cinematic adventures: The Commexo Kid and the Wardogs , and there were several more advertisements for his Panacea. His face was on the T-shirts of children who ran by, and the toys they were playing with were plastic versions of the Commexo Kid.

'Do you have anything like this in the Hereafter?' Klepp said.

'Things like the Kid?'

'Yes. You can't escape him.'

Candy thought about this. 'Not one thing,' she said. 'Not like the Kid. He seems to be everywhere.'

'He is,' said Klepp grimly. 'You see the Commexo Company has this promise: they will take care of you from the cradle to the grave, literally. They have Commexo Kid Maternity Hospitals and a Commexo Kid Funeral Service. And in between, while you're living your life, there's nothing they can't supply. Food for your table. Clothes for your back. Toys for your children…'

'What does Commexo want?' Candy said.

'It's not Commexo, it's the man who owns Commexo: Rojo Pixler. It's what he wants…'

'And what's that?'

'Control. Of all of us. Of all the islands. He wants to be King of the World. He wouldn't use the word king because it's old-fashioned. But it's what he wants.'

'And you think he'll get what he wants?'

Klepp shrugged. 'Probably,' he said.

They were almost at the top of the hill now, and Samuel paused to look up at a sculpted version of the Commexo Kid that was mounted on the building that awaited them at the end of their journey. It was huge.

'Behind that happy smile,' he said, 'is a very cold mind. Cold and clever. Which is why he's the richest man in the islands and the rest of us are left buying his Panacea.'

'You too?'

'Me too,' Klepp said, sounding almost ashamed of his confession. 'When I get sick, I drink his Panacea like everybody else.'

'Does it work?'

'Well, that's the trouble,' Samuel said. 'It does. It makes me feel better, whether I've got a bellyache or a bad back.'

He shook his head despairingly and dug in his pocket, pulling out a bunch of keys. Selecting one, he led Candy to a little door, which was so dwarfed by the statue of the kid that she would have missed it if Klepp hadn't led her to it.

As he put the key in the lock he spoke again, his voice now the lowest of whispers.

'You know what I heard?'

'No, what?'

'Now this is just a rumor. Maybe it's nonsense. I hope it's nonsense. But I heard that Rojo Pixler has approached the Council of Magicians to buy the Conjuration of Life.'

'What's that?'

'What does it sound like?'

Candy pondered on this for a moment. 'The Conjuration of Life?' she said. 'Well, it sounds like something that raises the dead.'

'You're right. It's certainly been used for that purpose in the past. Though the results are unpredictable. And they can be grotesque, sometimes tragic. But no, that's not what Pixler wants it for.'

'What then?' Candy said. Then her eyes grew wide. 'No,' she said. 'Not the Kid?'

'Yes,' said Samuel. 'He wants to use the Conjuration to give life to the Commexo Kid. According to my sources, he was refused. Which, if any of this is true, is all good.'

'What was his response?'

'Outrage. He flung a fit. He kept saying: The Kid is a joy bringer! You can't deny him life! He could spread so much happiness .'

'But you don't believe that? About being a joy bringer?'

'Here's what I believe,' said Samuel. 'I believe that if Pixler had the Conjuration of Life, we wouldn't just have one living, breathing Kid. There'd be armies of them! All of them wearing that idiotic smile as they took over the islands.' He shuddered. 'Horrible.'

He turned the key in the lock and pushed open the door. The smell of printer's ink stung Candy's nostrils.

'Before you come inside, I should warn you,' Klepp said, 'it's chaos.'

Then he swung the door wide. Chaos it was; from ceiling to floor. There was a small printing press in the middle of the room and dozens of unruly piles of Klepp's Almenak on every side. Clearly Samuel slept in the midst of his work, because there was an old sofa against the wall, with pillows and a couple of blankets strewn upon it.

But what immediately drew Candy's eye was a number of faded sepia photographs that were framed and hung up on one of the walls. The first in the series pictured the lighthouse where Candy's journey had begun.

'Oh, my…' she said.

Klepp came over to look at the pictures with her.

'You know this place?'

'Yes, of course. It's near my home in Chickentown.'

She moved on to the next picture. It was a photograph of the jetty that had appeared from the ground when she'd summoned the Sea of Izabella. The picture had been taken at a busy and apparently happy time. There were people crowding the jetty from end to end, some dressed in what looked to be frock coats and top hats, others—the stevedores and the sailors—more simply attired. Moored at the end of the jetty was a three-masted sailing ship.

A sailing ship! In the middle of Minnesota. Even now, having walked on the jetty and skipped that sea, the notion still astonished Candy.

'Do you know when this was taken?' Candy asked Klepp.

'1882 by your calendar, I believe,' Samuel said.

He moved on to the next photograph, which showed the other end of the jetty, where there were several two-story buildings, stores advertising ship's supplies and what looked like a hotel.

'There's my great-grandfather,' Samuel said, pointing to a man who bore an uncanny resemblance to him.

'Who's the lady beside him?'

That's his wife, Vida Klepp.'

'She was beautiful.'

'She left him, the day after this photograph was taken.'

'Really?' said Candy, her thoughts going for a moment to Henry Murkitt, who had also lost his wife when he'd turned his attention to the Abarat.

'Where did she go?' Candy said.

'Vida Klepp? Nobody knows for sure. She took herself off with a man from Autland and was never seen again. Whatever happened to her, wherever she went, it nearly broke my great-grandfather's heart. He only went back to Hark's Harbor once after that…'

'Hark's Harbor? That's the name of this place?'

'Yes. It was the largest of the harbors that served the Abarat, so that's where all the big ships came. The clippers and the schooners.'

Of all things to think of at that moment, Candy pictured Miss Schwartz, instructing her class to find ten interesting facts about Chickentown. Well, how about this ? Candy thought. What would