Back To The Divide by Elizabeth Kay

moment. Then he looked up and said, "Are we friends?"
    Turpsik smiled. There was something rather endearing about him if you ignored the knifelike canines. "Reckon so," she said.
    Grimspite had a really good scratch to celebrate.
    "Need to decide on a plan of action regarding your manuscript," said Turpsik, wondering if Grimspite had fleas. "Be retching with rage if I lost any of my work."
    "It's called Dining Out on Mythical Beasts," said Grimspite.
    "Good title."
    Grimspite had never been congratulated for anything

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    except extreme violence before. It felt good. He started to tell Turpsik about triangle-fins and sword-noses. Not that he'd caught either of those last two himself, but he'd been to a couple of classy restaurants with Snakeweed and he remembered the menu with affection.
    Turpsik made a few suggestions about the names he'd chosen for various dishes. Berk buk-a-buk didn't have the right ring to it, and the otherworld name -- chicken -- had nothing going for it. Cluck-bird sounded better.
    The next morning he slipped out early and caught another gobblerfish for breakfast. As they ate, they talked. Talking was such fun. He told her all about Snakeweed's trial and how he'd witnessed it from the back row.
    "Sounds like a complete fiasco," said Turpsik. "Fleabane isn't nearly as clever as Snakeweed."
    "And you should have heard the anthem," said Grimspite. "It was a hoot."
    Turpsik stiffened.
    "Honestly," said Grimspite, warming to his theme, "the tune was totally unsuitable, and the words were just plain stupid...." He trailed off "What's the matter?"
    "Nothing," snapped Turpsik. "I've just got a lot of work to do today. Now shove off and leave me in peace."
    Grimspite felt devastated. What had he done? This friendship business was so complicated; there seemed to be rules all over the place that he just didn't understand.
    "It was funny," he said lamely, trying to make her laugh.
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    "When Pignut got to the fear each wand and fear each boot bit, he pointed to them just like a children's entertainer. Fleabane looked absolutely furious. I think the anthem was meant to be all sort of solemn and --"
    "Can't stand around gossiping all day," said Turpsik sharply. "Good-bye."
    The journey to Geddon was a two-day flight, and when the brazzles stopped for the night Felix raised the matter of his parents again. "I thought maybe you'd be able to calculate a spell," he said to Ironclaw.
    Ironclaw shook his head. "You need a proper sorcerer to sort that one out, Felix. I don't think even a brittlehorn could do it. We could do with a proper sorcerer to locate the king and queen, as well."
    "If there'd been a solution to petrification spells," snapped Betony, "don't you think we'd have found it by now? My brother and sister did try, you know. They wanted to bring me up even less than I wanted to be brought up by them."
    "This isn't the same thing at all, Betony," said Thornbeak. "Your parents were turned to stone by a spell that went wrong. Snakeweed must have quite cold-bloodedly used a specific chain-reaction hex, and the implications are very serious."
    Betony scowled.
    "He may not have known it was a chain-reaction hex," said Ironclaw. "Magical theory was never his strong point."
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    "Consider this, Betony," said Thornbeak. "Eventually the infection will spread outside Felix's garden, and people will start to notice. There is no magic in Felix's world; from everything he's told me, its arrival would be a disaster. What's a good thing in one place may be a bad one in another."
    "They'll want to find out how it works," said Felix. "Scientists will be desperate to analyze what's going on, and if they succeed they'll use magic for all sorts of dreadful things. Snakeweed was a total amateur compared to the businessmen in my world."
    "Hardly anyone understands the principles behind magic," scoffed Betony. "It's too difficult."
    "I understand the basics," said Ironclaw, and he started to explain, emphasizing the importance of