Read Online Deep Amber by C.J. Busby - Free Book Online Page B

started to get his teeth into it, he turned to Caractacus.
    â€œSo you’re a forest agent? What’s one of those, then?”
    Caractacus put his head on one side, as if considering how much to tell Jem.
    â€œThe forest agents keep the worlds stable,” he said, eventually. “There are many worlds, and they all originate here. They’re part of the World Tree. We look after the balance of those worlds, deal with any problems that come up.” He snorted. “Of course, this particular agent is meant to be retired . Four hundred years of service – you’d think it would be enough. But no – you two come blundering in, pulling the energies every which way, and suddenly everyone else is just too busy to deal with it.”
    He picked up a long green stem and began to chew it absently. “Of course, now I’m here, I can see that it’s just as well it was me that came. I’d better contact our agent in that world. We mayhave a serious rift developing, and that would mean there’s deep amber at the bottom of it.”
    â€œDeep amber?” said Dora. She had a feeling she’d heard the words before, somewhere.
    Caractacus looked at Dora, and sighed. “Don’t you know anything ?” he said. “Maybe I’d better begin at the beginning. Get yourself something to eat before the boy finishes it all off, and I’ll tell you both the story of the forest, and the World Tree, and all the worlds.”
    He settled himself against the tree trunk he was leaning on, stretched out his multiple legs, and took a deep breath. As he spoke, the firelight dimmed, and the green shadows of the forest grew closer.
    â€œIn the beginning, there was nothing but snow and ice and darkness, and in this darkness lived the wolves and ice giants, the shape-shifters, the crow karls and creatures of the dark.”
    Dora shivered. She could almost see the cold waste, and the dark creatures roaming across it. And now that Caractacus had started, she knew she’d heard this story before, from her grandfather. It was the story of how the world began.
    â€œThen,” Caractacus said, with a little flick ofone of his feet, “a small crack appeared in the ice, and light flowed from it like a river. A little plant pushed its way out of the crack, and this plant grew until it became a great tree, gathering light and warmth and life around it.”
    Dora gasped as the fire seemed to glow more brightly, and a little finger of flame rose up from it into the air. A shimmering tree shape grew out of the flame, right in front of them. It got bigger and bigger and branches started to spread out from it.
    Caractacus continued in a low voice, and as he spoke, they could see the story unfold in front of them in the fire.
    â€œThe surrounding lands became warm and bright and full of other trees. The first humans appeared, along with the first dwarves and elves and other magic folk, and they all sheltered under the Tree and lived in the forest around it. As the Tree grew tall, other worlds grew from it, like fruit from its spreading branches, and humans and others learned to travel freely between all the worlds. Everywhere the ice and darkness was pushed back.”
    The scene in front of Dora and Jem was beautiful. There were tiny creatures flittingaround the tree in the spreading forest, and on each branch they could see misty worlds in which were more tiny people. But then at the edges the scene suddenly started to darken, and tendrils of shadows started to invade the picture.
    â€œBut at the edges of the worlds, the shape-shifters and wolves, the dark crow karls and the ice giants remained. The creatures of darkness were jealous of the warmth and life of the worlds,” said Caractacus sadly, “and they wanted to destroy the Tree and the worlds it sheltered so that everything would become cold and dark once more. Over the years they tried many ways to invade the worlds and harm