[quote]Arthur had to swim for the surface. Now.[/quote]

The black shape spun and twisted in the water around Arthur, moving with him but never getting close enough for him to get a good look at it. The red of the pillow flashed now and then between the locks of thick, tentacle-like hair; occasionally a flash of big dark eyes blinked at him, curious. As Arthur swam, the bubbles he created floated downward, toward the darkness that stretched on below.

The surface was too far away. It seemed the more Arthur struggled -- the harder he swam -- the farther away the sunlight seemed. He would see the boat stop at the edge of the island, and shadows moving near it, but his air was running out fast.

Something grabbed the back of his shirt, and Arthur was suddenly being rocketed toward the surface. The child with the long hair dragged Arthur with great speed into warmer waters, then pushed his head out and into the open air before letting go.

The child swam backward, and for a moment watched him -- big dark eyes staring just over the surface of the water -- before it dipped silently back into the waves and was gone.

Arthur was now close to the huge cruise ship that had docked alongside the island. The sky above was blue and warm and filled with squealing seagulls. The island from this side seemed very small, smaller even than the cruise ship, despite the enormous expanse that Arthur knew stretched on below. A white-stone cliff stretched up and up toward the clouds, something between a sheer mountain and a tower. What lay at the top was a mystery.

A wide gangplank stretched between the ship and the island, and upon it trundled a line of monsters in single-file: tentacles, fur, talons and scales. Their eyes glowed, their teeth flashed, their mouths dripped ropes of drool. Each was as big as a room or bigger; each mouth was capable of swallowing a child Arthur's size whole. The gangplank wobbled with each terrible step, and the horrors filed in through the enormous open mouth of a doorway in the tower, shaped like a lion's head, above which read in sweeping letters: [i]LILYROSE HOUSE[/i]

The white beaches all around the little island offered an easy way out of the water. The tower had no windows, and was surrounded by a thick garden of lush trees and a rainbow of flowers that, upon close examination, turned out to be made of plastic.

[hr][quote]"Steady, we're going for a bit of a fly," she murmured, then leapt out of the more reasonably-heighted trolley. She landed feet first with a resounding clang, then immediately began making her way towards the ladder with the intention of going up.[/quote]

Nina squeaked upon landing, wriggled a little but didn't attempt to leave Riley's care. It was clear, now, that Riley was the safest place to be.

But the moment Riley landed with a clang on the metal floor, the movement in the next room froze. Someone on the other side of the door had stopped to listen closely.

Riley made it to the ladder and had climbed up halfway before the door squeaked open. A huge, spidery creature crept into the room, hissing and gurgling, its many beady eyes ticking in odd directions. With fidgety forelegs, it dug into the laundry basket, searching for anything amiss. When it found nothing, it picked up a few of the discarded bits of cloth from the floor, tossed them into the laundry basket, and hefted the basket onto its back to carry it into the next room, where the fires roared and steam hissed.

The trap door was heavy, but with a push Riley would be able to open it wide enough to crawl out with Nina in tow. The trap door opened underneath a thin oriental rug in a room only lit by one little gaslight. There was no movement; no one was around, at least not yet. For the moment she was safe.

Out from under the rug, she would find herself in a library filled with huge books: cookbooks and atlases, worn journals and piles of scrolls. A few of the books seemed to sparkle and glow: [i]House of Roses[/i], [i]Claw and Newt[/i], and [i]Song of the Whippoorwill[/i], all located on the higher shelves at completely different sides of the room; they would require a bit of climbing to get to.

Gaslights flickered on the walls. There was another ladder and another trap door in the roof. There was an open metal door to the left, through which was a little empty bedroom with an enormous bed bolted to the floor, a single bookcase, and a safe under the bed with a four-digit code. To the right of the library was a closed metal door that could be opened with a lever and some great effort. On the other side, a woman was humming a gentle song.