Abarat

'Yes,' said Pixler. 'Minnesota is in the Hereafter.'

Leaving them to their discussion, Candy wandered off into the woods, making sure she kept well away from the area where the men were now at work under Doggett's supervision, bringing the dead moth down from the branches.

She found a place where the dirt looked relatively easy to penetrate and she proceeded to dig with her hands. When she'd got down a foot or so, she lay Squiller's little body at the bottom of the hole and threw a fistful of earth over him. She'd only been to one funeral in her life—her grandmother's—but she remembered a smattering of words from the ceremony.

'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust…' she murmured. Then she improvised: 'Thank you for your company, Squiller. I'm sorry you're gone. I'm going to miss you.' She began to push the remaining dirt over the squid's body as she spoke, covering it completely. 'I hope wherever you've gone, it's a place you want to be.' She sniffed hard, swallowing her salty tears. It wasn't just Squiller's impromptu funeral that had brought them on. It was thoughts of home, and of the great distance that lay between this place and the streets of Chickentown. 'Now I'm alone,' she said to herself.

'No, you're not.'

She glanced over her shoulder. Rojo Pixler was standing close by.

'This is a private funeral,' she said to him.

'Oh, I'm sorry,' he said, sounding genuinely contrite. 'I really didn't wish to intrude on your grief. It's just that back there you said something very interesting.'

'I did?'

'When you told me that you came from Minnesota.'

'Oh, that.'

'Yes, that. Were you telling the truth?'

'Why?'

'Because I would be extremely thankful to you if you would lead me back there.'

'To Minnesota?'

'Yes. To Minnesota.'

Candy looked incredulous. 'You wouldn't like it,' she said.

'Oh but I think I would. I'm always looking for new markets for the Commexo Kid and his Panacea.'

Candy didn't reply. She finished covering up Squiller and gently patted down the earth. Pixler had meanwhile squatted beside her.

'Here,' he said. He had made a small cross of two pieces of twig, tied together with a length of grass.

Candy was a little taken aback by the simple gentility of the gesture, but then she thought, Well, he's trying to be civil , so she took the cross from Pixler and pushed it into the soft earth at the head of the grave.

'Thank you,' she said.

'No problem. I want us to be friends. What's your name again?'

'Candy Quackenbush.'

'Candy, I'm Rojo. I won't beat around the bush. The fact that you've come from the Hereafter is of the greatest possible importance to me.'

'I don't see why,' said Candy. 'It's not as interesting there as it is here.'

'Well, maybe not to you ,' Rojo replied. 'But you're used to it. To me it's… new territory to explore. A new frontier. I've done all I can here. I need somewhere new to—'

'Conquer?' Candy said, standing up and looking down at Pixler.

'No,' he protested mildly. 'Do I look like a conqueror? I'm a civilized man, Candy. I build cities—'

'And burn books,' she said.

He looked pained to have been caught in a lie. Before he could come back with another response, she had more to say: 'And shoot down defenseless creatures.'

'I didn't see you being carried by the moth, I swear. If I had, I wouldn't have fired.'

'There was a rider on the moth too.'

'Really?'

'Yes. His name was Mendelson Shape. He fell to his death.'

Rojo looked genuinely distressed. 'That's a tragedy. I am completely culpable. In the heat of the hunt I did something I shouldn't have done. Did you know him? The rider, I mean? If he has family I'll make whatever reparations I can.'

'I don't know if he had any family. He worked for someone called Christopher Carrion.'

'Carrion? Really ?' Rojo glanced away from Candy toward the moth, which Doggett's men were seconds away from bringing down out of the trees. 'So that was Carrion's handiwork, eh?' he said, his voice touched by awe. 'Very impressive.'

Candy followed his gaze toward the moth. Light and color were still pouring from it, dissipating on the air, illuminating the trees: blue and purple and yellow and red.

'So tell me—' Pixler said, '—what were you doing, taking a ride on Carrion's moth?'

'If you must know I wasn't taking a ride. Shape abducted me.'

'Abducted?'

'Yes.'

Rojo gave a little self-satisfied smile. 'Well then,' he said. 'I saved you from some very serious trouble. You wouldn't have wanted to be Carrion's prisoner, believe me. He has the morals of the very Devil, that man. And if he ever found a way to get over to the Hereafter…'

'It's not that difficult,' Candy said.

'To get there, perhaps. But to gain a foothold…' He passed his hand through his hair. 'That's the challenge. Please listen to me. Candy. I truly believe we could be very useful to one another.'

Candy was not convinced. 'How?' she said.

'Think it through. I'm in need of somebody with a good working knowledge of the Hereafter, and you need somebody here to protect you from Carrion.'

'I don't need protection.'

'Oh, my dear, you don't have the first clue what this man will do to you if he takes it into his head to be cruel. He is a law unto himself, believe me.'

'Even so, I don't care to tell you about the Hereafter,' Candy said, backing away from him.

'Oh, now don't be difficult,' Pixler said. 'I realize we met under difficult circumstances. But I'm genuinely sorry about the moth. It was just an accident. It could have happened to anyone.'

'Anyone who was out hunting,' Candy said.

'I realize not everybody approves of it. But it relaxes me. And I have a huge collection of stuffed animals in Commexo City. Nineteen thousand specimens, from fleas to Kiefalent whales. I'd really like you to see it.'

'Some other time, maybe,' Candy said.

Pixler shrugged. 'Believe me or not,' he said, his tone hardening, 'I don't really care. In the end, you're going to come begging to me, when Carrion's on your tail. Begging for me to hide you from him.'

'Yes, well maybe…' Candy said. 'But right now I'd prefer to take my chances.'

'Please,' Pixler said, making one last desperate attempt to convince her, 'let me bring you back to Commexo City. It's not safe on half these islands. The inhabitants are savages. Totally uncivilized.'

'I am not going back to Commexo City with you. That's final,' Candy said.

In truth there was a little part of Candy that wanted to accept Pixler's invitation. He was polite enough, after all; he seemed more like an ordinary human being than many of the creatures she'd met on her travels, which right now she found reassuring. She was feeling very much alone, and very tired. She'd lost count of the time that had passed since she and Mischief had plunged into the Sea of Izabella (though she'd reset her watch when Mischief had told her to, it had stopped); now she felt the way travelers in the Hereafter felt when they'd traveled around the world and their body clocks had become confused. Her thoughts were sluggish and her limbs ached. The thought of going with Pixler to some civilized place where the showers were probably hot and the beds were surely soft was not without its attractions.