The World Above Read Free Page A

shawl with things to help Celine start a new life in the World Below.
    Seeds from the wise woman’s garden and orchard. A small pouch of gold coins. Various other sensible things it would be too long and boring to recount. Finally, though it made the bundle heavy, the wise woman added a hatchet. Then she tied the shawl twice. Once so that nothing could fall out, and a second time to make it nestle against the small of Celine’s back, leaving her arms free for climbing. Finally she threw Celine’s cloak over her shoulders and tied the drawstrings at the throat.
    “Now,” Rowan said, “let us go to the edge of the garden and see what has grown.”
    Together, the old woman and the young one walked to the place where the garden ended and a great meadow rolled beyond. The meadow was as flat as a pancake. At this time of year, summer just easing into fall, the grass was brown. But poking up through it was a sudden burst of bright green leaves covered with red speckles.
    It was a beanstalk.
    “Very good,” the wise woman said. “That is fast work. It must have fallen onto fertile ground in the World Below.” For that is what the magic bean had done. It had slipped through the World Above and fallen all the way down to the World Below.
    “We should give it a few more moments, I think. Just long enough to say good-bye.”
    The duchess threw her arms around her nurse and held on tight. Though the desire to weep filled her chest until she thought her heart would drown, she did not utter a single sound. She did not let a single tear fall.
    “Listen to me, Celine,” Rowan said. She swayed gently from side to side, rocking the grown woman as she once had the child. “I won’t tell you not to feel bereft, not to be afraid. You will be both. But know this: You will not be forgotten. Always I will hold you in my heart.
    “When the time is right, a messenger will come to the World Below. You and your children will be given the means to return to the World Above. It may be many years before this day comes, but never doubt that it will. Prepare your children well.”
    “I won’t and I will,” Celine said quietly. “I promise on the love I gave my husband.”
    “Then the time has come for you to climb down the beanstalk,” Rowan said. The two women released each other. “When you reach the World Below, take out the hatchet and chop the beanstalk to the ground. Once you have done this, there will be no mark in this world to show where you have gone.”
    “But what if Guy de Trabant suspects?” Celine asked in a whisper.
    Rowan gave a snort. “So what if he does? Guy de Trabant is going to have his hands full in this world. He will have no time to be worried about anything he might suspect of the World Below. You and your children will be safe there, Celine. Now trust me, and go.”
    And so the duchess Celine climbed down the beanstalk, down through the clouds and the wide-open sky, and alighted at last in the World Below. The moment her feet touched the ground, she immediately did as her old nurse had instructed. She took the bundle off her back, unfolded it, removed the hatchet, and chopped down the beanstalk.
    It did not fall straight, as a tree might, but wound around in a great green coil, settling to the earth with a rustle and a sigh. The duchess gazed at the beanstalk in astonishment. For now that it lay on the ground, she could not imagine how it could have carried her from one world to another. It looked too thin, too delicate, too short. Yet all the while Celine had been climbing down, she had never doubted for a moment that the beanstalk would take her where she needed to go.
    On impulse, she lifted it up and slipped it onto her shoulder. It seemed the proper thing to do somehow. Then she reknotted the shawl, slung it over the other shoulder, and looked around her. The beanstalk had taken her to a fold of gently rolling hills. In the distance, Celine thought she could see a ribbon of road.
    “No time like the