The Lands Below

They were plummeting, in pitch darkness. Alexandra heard Charlie screeching, close by her ear, and Maximilian calling her name.

She was trying to hook her legs around her broom as they fell, and then she hit water. The shock of the impact almost made her suck in a breath, which would probably have been fatal. She was underwater, and it was freezing and dark. Fighting against panic, she kicked her feet, realized she was upside down, kicked again to right herself, and then pushed upwards.

Her head broke the surface of the water and she felt cold, damp air on her face. She gasped, and heard splashing next to her.

“Max!” she cried. “Charlie!”

“Alexandra!” cawed Charlie from overhead. It was too dark to see, but she heard the raven's wings flapping.

“I'm here. Don't swallow the water!” Maximilian sputtered, from a few yards away.

She had lost her grip on her broom, but she still had her wand. She dog-paddled blindly, until she heard Maximilian say, “Lumos!” In the sudden flare of light, she saw a vast cavern, so large that the light shed by Maximilian's wand didn't reach to the walls or ceiling. Eerie columns, sloped stone mounds, and other ancient rock formations surrounded them, and Alexandra couldn't really get a good sense of its size from where she was treading water.

Maximilian rose out of the inky black water on his broom, looking like some great dripping bat. He set down at the edge of the pool, where Alexandra could now see a rocky shelf. She paddled through the water towards him, and he knelt by the water's edge and reached a hand out. She took it, and he pulled her ashore. Her feet slipped a little on the wet stone as she tried to stand, and she almost went back into the water, but Maximilian held on to her.

As they both regained their balance, Maximilian slapped her on the back. She hacked and spat out some of the water that had entered her mouth, while Charlie landed on her shoulder. Her brother turned his head and spat. “Make sure you don't eat or drink anything while you're down here, except what we brought with us,” he said.

“Don't eat while in the underworld.” Alexandra nodded, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand. “That's one of those things that would have been really good to tell me before we got here – which I guess you would have, if you'd actually been planning on bringing me.”

“Is this really a good time to start a fight?” he asked dryly.

She sighed, and shook her head. Water went flying and Charlie squawked. “Anything else you'd like to tell me, now that we're down here?”

“Nothing is likely to be what it seems. Be polite to anyone or anything we meet, but assume everything will try to kill us. If we can't get someone to show us a way out, we'll never leave. And I only brought one tent.”

She wrinkled her nose. “I hope this isn't going to be a long camping trip.” She held up her wand and cast a Light Spell of her own.

As her wand added illumination to the cavern, she squinted at her brother. “Where's your pack?”

“In the water.” He pointed his wand. “Where's your broom?”

“Ditto.” She turned around, and pointed her wand in the same direction. Now she could see that the water they had fallen into was a small underground lake – really more of a pond – filling a bowl-like depression in the rocky floor of this vast cavern. The water stretched off into the distance, where there were more tunnels and caves, and it was impossible to see how deep it was. But her broom was not far away, floating on the surface, and Maximilian's pack was bobbing in the water a few yards beyond it.

She tried a Summoning Charm: “Accio broom!”

Nothing happened, much to her disappointment. Usually she at least got some movement, but there wasn't so much as a ripple in the water. She ground her teeth in frustration, and Maximilian shook his head.

“Calm down, and focus.” He pointed his wand at the floating backpack. “Accio pack!”

The pack didn't move either. Alexandra turned to her brother, with a raised eyebrow.

“That shouldn't be,” he muttered. He repeated the incantation: “Accio backpack!”

“Huh.” Alexandra tried not to look smug, as Maximilian's spell had no more effect than hers had. Then they noticed something glowing underwater. As the glow became brighter, several yellow lights appeared, below their floating gear.

“Umm...” Alexandra licked her lips. “Are those...?”

“Eyes,” Maximilian grunted, and to her annoyance, he stepped in front of her and started to push her behind him. She side-stepped so she could see what was rising to the surface.

The yellow lights were indeed eyes, bright glowing eyes that seemed lit from within. A pair of dark heads broke the surface, and Alexandra saw that the eyes were set in menacing feline faces that began floating across the surface of the pool towards them, baring mouthfuls of sharp teeth.

“Underwater panthers,” Maximilian gulped.

“I've read about those.” Alexandra knew she should probably be more frightened and less fascinated. “They're supposed to be really dangerous.”

“They are.” Maximilian nodded, and began pushing her again, as he backed away from the approaching cats. There was another, smaller pool of water behind them, so they were forced to step sideways along a narrow, slippery, rocky ledge that ran between the pools, towards higher ground where the floor of the cavern rose upwards away from the water. “According to legend, they can breathe fire and pestilence. The Indians say they're the most dangerous of magical beasts.” He grabbed her wrist and forced her hand down, as she pointed her wand at the panthers. “And their hides are known to repel spells. They're probably the reason our Summoning Charms didn't work.”

“Great. How do we get our stuff?”

“First worry how we're going to get away.”

Charlie squawked in alarm. Alexandra looked behind them as they edged towards the 'shore,' while the two underwater panthers reached the rocky ledge along which they were retreating, and unhurriedly dragged themselves out of the water. “Umm, Max?”

“Keep moving,” he hissed under his breath, still with his eyes on the cats, only yards away.

“That's kind of a problem.”

Maximilian turned his head slowly. Another cat had emerged from the smaller pool, and was now blocking their retreat. They could see more glowing lantern-like eyes rising to the surface on either side of them.

Maximilian thrust his broom at her. “Turn around and hold on tight.”

“What –?”

“Do as I say!” The three panthers already out of the water were within pouncing distance. Their eyes glowed eerily in the darkness, giving all of them a demonic appearance, and the nearest one opened its mouth and yowled softly.

Alexandra turned her back on her brother, shoved her wand into a pocket, with the lit end still sticking out, and gripped the broom tightly in both hands. “Get ready to fly, Charlie!” she whispered. Charlie trilled nervously. She felt Maximilian turning also, and he reached around her, grabbed the broom, and pulled it and her against him, so he was hugging them both against his chest.

“Ready?” he whispered. Alexandra nodded.

The broom shot straight into the air, and for a moment, they were both hanging on for dear life, feet kicking in the air as the broom threatened to accelerate out of their grasps. Charlie screeched and flapped upwards, letting go of Alexandra's shoulder, and the panthers howled and leapt at them. One almost caught Alexandra's dangling foot with the swipe of a paw, and another missed Charlie by a whisker. Alexandra saw fire belch from the cat's mouth. Then they were climbing higher and higher, towards the distant ceiling of the cavern. Maximilian forced the broom to level off, and they were both able to wrap their legs around the broomstick and balance themselves on it. Far below, on the floor of the cavern, the panthers were now looking up at them with their baleful glowing eyes, and sending more belches of fire upwards. Charlie cawed and circled around them.

Alexandra let out a little sigh of relief. She could feel her brother's arms and legs pressing against hers from behind, and she tilted her head back, until it bumped into his shoulder. “You okay?”

“Yes. But we need that pack. We can't last long down here without supplies.”

“Those cats aren't going anywhere,” Alexandra muttered. “Maybe we could –” She brandished her wand.

“No!” Maximilian snapped, grabbing her wrist again. “I told you, their hides will reflect curses.”

“Then we're kind of screwed, aren't we?”

Maximilian rotated them slowly in place, making out what he could of the base of the cavern. There were numerous dark openings visible along the circumference of the chamber, likely leading to other caverns, but no caves or outcroppings presented themselves higher along the walls. Even Charlie could find no place to sit out of the panthers' reach, and settled in front of Alexandra on the end of their broom.

“You think you can cast a few Gouging Spells?” Maximilian asked.

“Sure,” she replied. “But what for?”

He leaned, and they began drifting closer to the nearest sloping rock wall. “Make a hole, there,” he directed, pointing at a spot level with them, about sixty feet up from the cavern floor.

Alexandra didn't see how this was going to help them long-term, but she refrained from asking questions, and instead pointed her wand and concentrated fiercely. “Defodio!”

Maximilian did likewise, and the two of them together began hollowing out a small niche in the cavern wall, while below them, the panthers hissed and yowled, and one even tried leaping at them. It reached an impressive height, but fell well below the two teenagers on the broom. The dirt and rocks tumbling down on the cats only seemed to anger them more, and Charlie aggravated them further with a mocking cackle. They continued breathing fire and growling.

It only took a minute before the magically excavated cave was large enough for two people to sit in. Maximilian held Alexandra's arm as she placed her other hand on the ledge, and then quickly transferred her weight from the broom to the rocky shelf, and pulled herself into the small recess as far as she could, with her legs hanging over the side. Maximilian then simply tilted the broom and slid himself off of it and onto the ledge next to her. Once settled, Maximilian handed his broom to her.

“What now?” she asked, as she took the Twister across her lap, with Charlie still perched upon it. One of the beasts took a running leap up the side of the cavern wall, but its claws scrabbled futilely against the rock, far below their dangling feet, and it hissed and spat flames at them before sliding back to the floor. They were safe for the moment, but the only way out appeared to be through one of those tunnels down at the panthers' level.

Maximilian was staring past the cats, at the pool where Alexandra's broom and his pack were still floating, dark bumps on the water that could barely be seen from where they were sitting. “We need to get my pack back, before the momma cat shows up,” he murmured.

“Momma cat?” Alexandra exclaimed.

He nodded. “These are cubs. You said you read about underwater panthers. Didn't you read that they have copper hides and horns when they're grown?”

“I thought that part was an old wizards' tale. Like hodags and hide-behinds.” She stared down at the cubs, each of which was the size of a mountain lion.

He exhaled. “Okay. I think I can do this.” He looked at her. “I need you to keep these critters distracted, and their attention on you. Yell, make a fuss, be annoying – you're good at that.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What are you going to do?”

“We don't have time for you to whine 'who-what-how-why?' every time I tell you to do something!” he snapped, in the same voice he used when barking orders in JROC. “I need you to stop being a child and start being a witch, Alexandra!”

She blinked. His words stung, but she nodded. “Okay,” she replied, in a subdued voice.

“If something happens,” he went on, in a gentler tone, “take the broom and get out of here if you can, down one of those tunnels. This cavern is only an antechamber to the Lands Below. You are clever and resourceful, Alexandra. I'll wager you can make it on your own, somehow, if you have to.”

She sucked in a breath. “Don't you dare!” She shook her head. “Whatever you're going to do, don't even think about not coming back!”

He smiled. “Wish me luck, then. Now draw their attention – but remember, don't try to throw spells at them.”

Alexandra swallowed, and looked down at the cats.

“Hey!” she yelled. “Here, kitty-kitties!” She leaned over, and held her hands next to her ears and waved her fingers tauntingly as she made a loud raspberry sound. Charlie screeched and flew into the air, and the cats all opened their mouths and howled angrily.

Next to her, Maximilian disappeared, with a pop.

She had just enough time to gasp in surprise, and then she saw a shadowy figure moving at the edge of the large pool from which the cats had emerged. Her breath caught in her throat, and then she yelled again. “Neener, neener, neener! Meeeeyowww!” She picked up a rock and threw it down at the panthers. It didn't hit any of them, but all five of them hissed and sent such a torrent of flames in her direction that she could feel the heat even where she was sitting. Charlie added a few taunting catcalls as well. The panthers all began hurling themselves against the cavern wall, trying to scale it, but after Alexandra held her breath a moment, looking straight down into their furious, glowing eyes, she saw that even the magical cats couldn't climb a vertical rock face.

“I tought I taw a puddy tat!” she called mockingly, and then she heard a splash, and all five cats' heads jerked around to look back at the water. Something was swimming across the pool, and Alexandra screamed even more loudly and waved her arms, trying to regain the panthers' attention.

“Hey! Hey, you stupid furballs! HEY!” She threw more rocks, but while two continued pacing at the foot of the rock wall beneath her, three began running back towards the pool of water.

In desperation, she pointed her wand and shouted, “Stupefy!” A red beam shot out and struck one of the panthers, then rebounded directly back at her. She yelped in surprise, barely rolled aside as it hit the inside of the cave next to her, and then grabbed for the broom as she almost went tumbling over the edge. She regained her balance, barely, but saw that her Stunning Spell had hardly distracted the cats, and they were now at the edge of the pool.

“MAX!” she screamed, and then a dripping shape rose from the water, and kept rising as two panthers leapt at it. They landed in the water, and rather than making a splash, they disappeared beneath the surface without a ripple. The third panther leapt straight up with a roar, and unleashed another belch of flames, as Maximilian came soaring triumphantly towards Alexandra on her broom, backpack in hand.

He reached their small cave refuge and hovered in front of her, grinning, dripping more water down on the angry cats below. “Trade brooms?”

“Are you crazy?” she sputtered. “You stupid idiot! You could have been killed!”

“Do you know what the word 'irony' means?” He smiled as he slid from his broom to the rocky ledge once again. “Easy as pie.”

She shook her head, then something other than his recklessness struck her. “You can teleport!”

“It's not teleporting, it's –”

“Apparating, I know. You can Apparate!”

He nodded. “Don't tell anyone. I don't have my license yet.” His eyes twinkled, as he said with wry humor, “I wouldn't want to get in trouble.”

She punched his shoulder. “Jerk!”

Whatever retort he had in mind died as they heard a loud roar echo through the cavern.

Alexandra gulped. “Please tell me that's not –”

“Momma.” Maximilian nodded. He looked down at the dark tunnel mouths. “All right, we have no choice – I'm going to pick one tunnel and go down it. You follow me close, and don't stop for anything, even if I fall behind.” He gave her a stern look, as she opened her mouth to argue. She closed her mouth, swallowed, and nodded. They both mounted their brooms, and Alexandra coaxed Charlie over to her, and then tucked the raven under her arm. She didn't think a raven could fly as fast as a 2009 Valkyrie at full speed, but Charlie squawked and fussed and wasn't happy about it.

She couldn't help asking: “What if the tunnel we choose is a dead end?”

“Then we're kind of screwed,” Maximilian replied. Another roar actually shook dust from the ceiling, and seemed to come from much too close. Three of the underwater panther cubs dashed across the cavern floor, while the two that had dived into the pool after Maximilian earlier appeared once more on the surface.

Alexandra and Maximilian descended like meteors, shooting towards a dark hole gaping in their path. The panther cubs spun in place, claws skittering against stone, and began bounding after them, and Alexandra saw something huge squeeze its way out of another tunnel. She caught a metallic gleam, in the light cast by their wands, and then fire seemed to fill the entire cavern behind them.

Gripping her broom with one hand, while hunched over and holding Charlie against her stomach with the other, she followed Maximilian into the hole. It had looked much too small when they were diving at it from above in near-darkness, but as they shot past the mouth of the tunnel, Alexandra could see that it was big enough for a train to pass through.

Or a really big cat, she thought.

“Ter Lumos!” Maximilian shouted, and his wand glowed even more brightly than before, blazing like the headlight of a locomotive. The two of them hurtled down the tunnel, which was more or less straight for about twenty yards, before it began sloping away and downwards. Maximilian reached over one shoulder, and pulled a small bag out of his backpack. He held it out at arm's length and dumped out its contents. Alexandra saw spiky metal things, like large jacks, go tumbling away, strike the ground, and begin bouncing. Each one turned red-hot as soon as it hit the floor of the tunnel, and when they bounced against each other, they began multiplying. Then the glowing caltrops fell away behind them.

Maximilian decelerated a little and allowed her to pass him. She looked at him questioningly, and he ordered her, “Keep going!”

Reluctantly, she did, but she looked over her shoulder to make sure he wasn't falling out of sight. Only a few yards behind her, he pointed his wand at the ceiling of the tunnel and shouted, “Deprimo!” The ceiling exploded over his head, and left a shower of rocks in his wake. He did this several more times, filling the tunnel with bangs and flashes of light.

She couldn't see whether or not his spells were actually collapsing the tunnel behind them. Then she had to look ahead again, to steer her broom. The tunnel followed a generally straight course, occasionally sloping or bending slightly. Numerous smaller tunnels branching away from the main one flashed past. And then, as suddenly as they had entered the passageway, she emerged into a much larger cavern, with Maximilian right behind her.

Alexandra assumed it was a cavern, anyway. This one made the lair of the underwater panthers seem tiny; when she looked up, she couldn't even see the roof overhead, and when she looked right and left, she saw an enormous, gray, shadowy landscape. Off in the distance were, she was almost certain, hills and rivers. A vast underworld stretched out before them, soft and gray, like the contours of a blanket seen in dim moonlight. She couldn't see where the light was coming from, as above them was a featureless black void. She couldn't tell how she was able to see so far at all. The rock wall from which they had just emerged towered above them, yet ended so far below the starless 'sky' that it seemed like a tiny and inconsequential feature on this otherworldly landscape. Alexandra felt a moment of disorientation; her sense of distance and perspective was completely off down here.

“These are the Lands Below,” Maximilian declared, unnecessarily. She merely nodded, overwhelmed. Then, a sense of wonder seized hold of her, and she suddenly began laughing. She let go of Charlie, who flapped only a few feet into the air before landing on her broomstick with a subdued caw.

Maximilian, sitting on his broom, stared at her. “What in Merlin's name are you laughing about?” he demanded.

“We made it!” She grinned. And as he kept staring at her, she said, “Come on, Max! We're on an adventure! And we survived the first part... isn't that kind of cool?”

“Cool,” he repeated, with a disbelieving expression.

She sighed. “I know, Max. It's dangerous. I haven't forgotten, and I am taking this seriously, I swear. But isn't it exciting – just a little bit?”

Her brother stared at her for several moments more, then shook his head. “No.”

He descended towards the ground, and she followed, a little deflated. “What now?” she asked.

“Now we start walking.”

“Walking? What did we bring brooms for?”

“To get away from underwater panthers.” He regarded her solemnly as she landed next to him, but she had learned to recognize his dry sense of humor. She put one hand on her hip, expecting more of an explanation.

“We're here as strangers, hoping to be received as guests,” Maximilian explained. “We don't know much about the Lands Below, the Little People, or whatever other powers may dwell here.” He waved a hand to take in the vast dark realm surrounding them. “But Father believes that zipping around on brooms is likely to be seen as disrespectful. That's a frequent complaint Indians have about us – we're impatient, always in a hurry to get somewhere.”

“I thought we're here to talk to magical beings, not Indians.”

“Indian wizards used to come here and treat with these beings, and they didn't ride brooms.” He held up a hand, as Alexandra started to argue again. “What did you promise back in the basement?”

Angrily, she closed her mouth.

“Since we don't know where we're going, there's no point getting there any faster, and being up in the air just makes us more visible,” he pointed out.

“Fine.” Reluctantly, she balanced her broom over the shoulder that Charlie wasn't sitting on.

Maximilian pointed his wand at her soaking wet clothes. “Exaresco.” Water turned to steam and billowed away from her, leaving her dry in moments.

“You need to teach me that one,” she said.

He nodded, as he applied the Drying Charm to himself.

“Why didn't you tell me you can Apparate?”

“Because you'd pester me to teach you.” His lips showed a trace of a smile.

“Well, yeah!”

“Forget it.” He shook his head. “You can start taking lessons when you're sixteen, like everyone else.”

“Whatever.” She decided not to argue. But she was definitely going to pester him when they got back. She took a breath. “Which way?”

In every direction but the way they'd come, an equally endless trek appeared before them, so Maximilian shrugged his pack back on, and pointed. “This way.” They began walking.

Their 'adventure' was somewhat less exciting after a few hours of walking across barren gray rocks. They crossed a number of small underground streams, but other than moss and lichen, there was no sign of life. Alexandra thought this was an awfully empty, dismal place for such a carefully guarded realm, and said so.

“I'd guess with all the gates sealed, they don't get many visitors from our lands,” Maximilian mused. “Maybe they figure a gate guarded by underwater panthers isn't likely to see anyone coming through it and making it out on this side.”

They crawled over some particularly large rocks, topping a small hill. The Lands Below were not unlike pictures she had seen of the surface of the moon, Alexandra thought, except for the water and the lichens. It was nearly as quiet as she imagined the moon to be. Occasionally she and Maximilian heard something flapping in the air overhead. Charlie cawed in response, but they heard no other sounds disturbing the still, cool air.

“Maybe we should just, I don't know, send up a flare or something? Make some sparks with our wands?” she suggested. “I mean, we want to find the people who live here, right?”

“Indian and Colonial legends alike say that you'd best be polite when treating with beings who live in the Lands Below,” Maximilian countered. “Making a commotion and demanding their attention probably wouldn't be considered polite.”

Alexandra looked around the relatively flat, sandy field they were now traversing, between ridges and tumbles of rocks, and paused. “Max, look!” She pointed.

There in the cold, gritty sand, they could see something growing. In fact, all around them, droopy, brownish-green plants of some sort poked feebly out of the inhospitable terrain. None were more than a foot high, and their leaves lay flat on the ground around them, wilted and lifeless. To Alexandra, the plants' nearly-dead appearance was less remarkable than the fact that they were here at all. She had never gotten as far as magical plants in Mr. Fledgefield's Magical Ecology class, but she didn't see how anything could grow down here, deprived of soil, water, or sunlight.

Maximilian seemed to be thinking the same thing. He knelt next to one plant and examined it, without touching it.

“If I didn't know better,” he muttered, “I'd say these look like corn stalks.”

“Corn?” Alexandra shook her head. “How can corn grow down here?”

“How can anything live down here? These are the Lands Below, Alexandra. Forget what you think you know.”

“Okay, Mr. Know-it-all. So what is corn doing in the Lands Below?”

“Dying,” whispered a sad voice.

Maximilian and Alexandra both blinked, and looked at each other.

“So cold,” whispered another voice.

“So dark,” whispered a third. And then a chorus of voices drifted up to them, in the still air.

“Our father the sun,
our mother the moon,
our brother the wind,
oh, how we miss them!
We fell through a crack,
and here the stones are our brothers,
snakes and scorpions our sisters.
We lonely and forgotten ones.”

Their sad lament filled the air. Alexandra found herself feeling sorry for the dying plants.

Maximilian stood up. “Come on. We'd best not meddle with what we don't understand.”

The voices of the corn plants continued chanting, dirge-like:

“Where is the sun? Not here.
Where is the moon? Not here.
Where is the wind? Not here.
Only we are here.
We lonely and forgotten ones.”

“Can't we... do something?” she asked.

Maximilian shook his head. “We can't help them, Alexandra.”

“How do you know? Maybe they can help us!” She knelt next to one of the wilted plants.

“What do you need?” she asked.

There was a pause in their chanting, and then a tiny voice said, “Bring us the sun.”

“Bring us the wind,” whispered another.

“Tell our father we are here.”

“He will crack the earth and split the sky!”

The voices pleaded with her. She looked up at Maximilian, who just frowned and shook his head. “We can't exactly bring the sun down here.”

“But we can create light! With our wands.” She held up her wand. “Ter Lumos!” Her wand flared and died. She frowned, looking at the tip.

“You mispronounced it, and the angle was wrong...” Maximilian exhaled through his teeth. “You can't just imitate every spell you see. You're going to hurt yourself if you keep trying that.”

“You do it, then.”

“It's not sunlight, Alexandra. Magic can't create sunlight.”

“Are you going to keep saying 'can't-can't-can't' every time I suggest something?”

Maximilian's face turned dark and angry. She took a step back. “It can't hurt,” she insisted. “I do have good ideas sometimes, you know. That's why you brought me, because I'm clever and resourceful.”

“I brought you because you gave me no choice!” he yelled. Growling in frustration, he raised his wand overhead. “Fine. Ter Lumos!”

His wand blazed, casting a brilliant light on the two of them, and on the corn plants. Stark shadows radiated away from all of them, and then the shadows of the plants began moving.

The plants were stirring. Their drooping, half-dead leaves curled upwards, reaching towards the light, and the sagging stalks began to straighten. Then they all began growing, stretching upwards, and the leaves parted, and Alexandra and Maximilian both gasped in astonishment, as arms and heads appeared, emerging like strange flowers from the corn stalks, which were now waist-high.

Alexandra looked at her brother, but he seemed as surprised and baffled as she was.

The stalks widened, and the heads all raised their faces towards the light radiating from Maximilian's wand. Now shoulders and torsos emerged. They were all young and female, and pretty. And naked. They looked like Indian maidens, with long hair rippling, leaf-like, in wide plaits that merged with their stalks. They reached towards Maximilian with their bare arms, and Alexandra raised her wand, prepared to defend herself or her brother. Maximilian held a hand up, shaking his head. He looked wary, but not frightened.

“It is a pale light,” complained one of the corn girls.

“Like our mother behind the clouds,” bemoaned another.

“But oh, it shines!”

“It shines!”

“It shines!”

The voices echoed, wistful and desirous. The nearest maidens clutched at Maximilian's pack and his sleeves, but he shrugged them off easily; they seemed to be almost insubstantial.

Charlie cawed, and the girls' heads turned in the raven's direction.

“Raven!”

“You have found us!”

“Oh, wise, clever bird!”

“This isn't helping,” Maximilian muttered. “I don't see what we can do for them.”

“We can't bring you the sun,” Alexandra told them. “And we can't stay. I'm sorry.”

The corn girls were all looking at her now, and Charlie on her shoulder.

“Take news of us to our father!” they pleaded.

“Your father, the sun?” she asked. This sounded like something out of a fairy tale. How could the sun literally be their father? But their heads all bobbed, like ears of corn.

“He will crack the ground and split the sky!”

“He will send wind and rain!”

Alexandra licked her lips hesitantly. “I'll try,” she promised, while Maximilian stared at her. “If I ever meet... your father, the sun, I'll tell him.” She glanced at her brother. “I know something about being forgotten by your father.”

They all sighed, and then began to weep. Alexandra had no idea what to make of these strange, piteous creatures. “Can you help us?” she asked. “We're looking for the Little People.”

“Little People?” piped the nearest maiden, wiping her tears from her face.

“Who are these? We know only of the Two-Legged People and the Four-Legged People,” murmured another.

“And the Screaming Water People, and the Smoking Rock People,” added a third.

“We're looking for the people who rule the Lands Below,” Alexandra explained. “The ones who control the gates between this world and the world above.”

“Gates?” mused the girls, not understanding, but then one spoke up. “Only the Generous Ones bring things from the world above.”

“That is true.” One of her sisters nodded, and the girls whispered agreement amongst themselves.

“But never for us, not pollen or even a single drop of water.”

The brilliant light at the end of Maximilian's wand was beginning to dim, and the corn maidens all cried in dismay, reaching towards him again. Uncomfortably, he shrugged away their clinging hands, as they began to shrink, still stretching desperately towards the source of light.

“How can we find the Generous Ones?” Alexandra asked, kneeling next to the nearest maiden, who had already nearly disappeared back into her stalk.

“Send Raven,” the girl told her, in a voice that was hardly more than a soft whistle. “The Generous Ones may give it a gift.”

“Send my raven where?” Alexandra implored, desperately, as the corn plants were now almost back to their previous stunted size, and wilting back to the ground.

“If it returns...” The voice was a whisper so soft Alexandra wasn't certain she'd heard, and she strained her ears to hear the rest, but Maximilian's Light Spell had ended, and the corn plants were now nearly lifeless husks lying on the ground again. All they could hear were whispers, chanting but almost inaudible:

“We lonely and forgotten ones. Oh!
We lonely and forgotten ones. Oh!
We lonely and forgotten ones.”

Alexandra shivered. She felt moved by the plight of the corn maidens, yet the subliminal voices were creepy and disturbing.

“What do you think you're doing, making promises to beings you don't know?” Maximilian hissed.

She looked back at him defiantly. “If I ever do meet the sun,” she said, “I'll keep my promise.”

Maximilian stared at her a moment longer, then made a snorting noise, like a strangled laugh. “Come on, Troublesome.” He resumed walking, and she followed him.

“Anyway, now we know more than we did before,” she pointed out. “We're looking for the Generous Ones. And Charlie can find them.” She bit her lip. If it returns...

Maximilian looked at the raven on Alexandra's shoulder. “How can Charlie do that? Do you know where these Generous Ones are, bird?”

Charlie cawed, but Alexandra couldn't tell whether it was meant to be affirmation, or a 'What-are-you-talking-about-you-silly-human?' caw.

“Well, I'm not an expert on Indian legends, or the Lands Below...” Alexandra began, and Maximilian snorted. She glared at him, and he rolled his eyes.

“Okay?” he coaxed, indicating she should continue.

“I read lots of stories about people going on journeys, and birds, too, flying to the houses of, I don't know, the sun and the moon, or where some hero lived. I mean, a lot of it didn't make sense. Except that kind of thing happens in fairy tales all the time. Not just Indian legends.” Alexandra almost laughed as she realized that something she'd learned in Vacation Bible School might actually be relevant. “I think there was even something about the raven going out to find things in the Bible.”

Maximilian blinked at her. “What does that tell us?” he demanded.

Alexandra turned her head to look at Charlie. She swallowed, thinking again about the corn girl's words. “If it returns.”

“Familiars always return to you,” she murmured softly.

“Alexandra,” Charlie crooned, as she lifted her familiar from her shoulder.

“I need you to go... find the Generous Ones,” she said. The raven tilted its head and regarded her inquisitively with its beady, black eyes. She knew Charlie couldn't really understand the specifics of what she was asking. She reached into a pocket, and pulled out a handful of owl treats she'd been saving for the bird. She held them out in the palm of her hand, and Charlie gobbled them up greedily.

“Bring back a gift, Charlie,” she said hoarsely. She had the feeling this was the right thing to do, but it was just a hunch, from reading books of fairy tales, and listening to the nonsensical babbling of a dying plant. If the Lands Below were dangerous to humans, they must be no less dangerous to ravens.

She reached under her shirt, and pulled out the locket she'd been wearing. Charlie's eyes gleamed.

“Bring back a gift, and I'll let you have all the shiny things you want to play with,” she promised.

Charlie sat on her outstretched wrist a moment, then cawed, “Alexandra!” and took off.

She stood and watched as the raven flapped away – it only took seconds before the black bird disappeared against the endless dark backdrop of the Lands Below.

She looked away as Maximilian put a hand on her shoulder. There was a hard lump in her throat. What if Charlie got eaten by something? Even a raven could get lost down here, and starve to death. The horrible fates that could befall her familiar suddenly seemed much more real and ominous than the horrible fates that might await herself and her brother.

“Ravens are wise birds,” Maximilian said, echoing his mother's words. “They don't get lost.”

She nodded.

“Come on,” he continued briskly. “Charlie may return with a gift, or directions, but I don't want to just sit here waiting. If we keep walking, we're bound to meet someone.”

Alexandra wasn't sure how logical that was, but walking beat standing there worrying about Charlie, so she hoisted her broom over her shoulder, and followed her brother across the endless gloom.