Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers (14 page)

FOR TWO DAYS AND NIGHTS, Kendra and the rest of the company lay in the silver cage, amidst the piles of treasure, without so much as a visit from the dragon. Even so, they knew he was never far, for the castle often rumbled with his presence. They had no food, very little water (only Kendra and Jinx had managed to hang onto their canteens during their capture), and try as they might, they had no way of escaping. At first, Kendra harbored a hope that Pugglemud would come to their rescue, but they saw no sign of the scraggly Dwarf.

Kendra had never felt so miserable. Her stomach ached with hunger, and she spent hours on end gazing out at the dimly lit vault that stretched before their prison. There were countless cages scattered about the chamber, most of them filled with the skeletons of desperate thieves that Kendra imagined had come seeking the dragon’s gold over the centuries. They had probably all perished from hunger and thirst, surrounded by the very treasure they had come to thieve. Now their remains hung limply out of their cages, tattered clothes and rotting skin hanging from their bones, and more than a few of their skeletal claws still reaching out in vain towards the glittering floor. Many of them seemed to be staring at Kendra with their giant vacant eye sockets, as if to taunt her.

“We’ll end up just like them,” Kendra murmured, rubbing her ravenous stomach.

“We must try to remain positive,” Professor Bumblebean said, lifting his eyes from
The Comparative Book of Creatures from Beyond the Magic Curtain
, the only book he had left in his possession.

“I don’t know how you can keep reading that thing day after day,” Jinx grumbled irritably as she paced about the cage. “Kendra’s right. We’re just going to end up skeletons like everyone else in this wretched prison,
Bumblebones.
”

“Hunger is obviously driving you insane,” the professor replied. “For, after all we’ve been through, you’re still getting my name wrong! It’s Bumblebean, you know. I am a scholar, like my ancestors before me, and reading is what I do best. Besides, I’m sure, Captain Jinx, that if you were in possession of your sword, you would have polished it down to the size of a needle.”

“If I had my sword, I would have hacked our way out of here by now,” the grasshopper retorted.

“Humph,” Uncle Griffinskitch grunted. “Such bickering will not save us.” He himself had spent the better part of the last two days, recovering his strength and waving his hand over his broken staff, chanting strangely. According to the old wizard, it was a way to mend his staff, and he now closed his eyes to begin another round of incantations.

“Is it fixed yet?” Kendra asked when the old Een opened his eyes a few minutes later.

“Not yet,” her uncle replied. “It takes a long time to mend magic things, if it can be done at all.”

Kendra sighed. She was going crazy. Even sleep was of little comfort to her, for each time she drifted off, it was only to hear the dragon’s voice, inside her dreams, chanting, “Een has helped Unger!” over and over again.

“Even if we get out, what will we do then?” Oki asked Uncle Griffinskitch. “If we try to take the Box of Whispers again, we still have to get past the dragon somehow.”

“I say we leave the box behind,” Jinx declared. “Let’s just get away from this castle. Once we’re back home, we can raise a proper army and attack the dragon in full force!”

“We cannot abandon the box,” Uncle Griffinskitch said without hesitation.

“Why not?” Jinx demanded. “What’s so important about it that it’s worth risking our lives?”

“It is vital that we recover it,” the old Wizard replied.

“But why?” Kendra asked. “It’s just a box after all.”

“It’s not the box that’s special,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. “It’s what’s inside it.”

“And that is?” Kendra persisted.

“It is a matter for elders only,” the bearded old wizard said.

“Please,” Kendra implored. “Look at everything we’ve been through, Uncle Griffinskitch. We could die in this cage, and we won’t even know what for! Don’t you think we deserve to know what’s in the box?”

She paused and watched her uncle’s bushy eyebrows furrow, as if he was in deep thought.

“For what it’s worth, I agree with Kendra,” Jinx said.

“I’m afraid I do as well,” Professor Bumblebean spoke up.

“And me,” Oki squeaked.

“Very well,” Uncle Griffinskitch said finally, releasing a long sigh. “Listen, what I’m about to reveal to you is known only to the Council of Elders. So guard this well!”

“We will,” Kendra assured her uncle.

“The Box of Whispers harbors a secret,” Uncle Griffin-skitch declared. “A very important secret—one that could mean the end of Een.”

“I do say!” Professor Bumblebean exclaimed. “What is it?”

“It is the secret of the magic curtain,” the old wizard replied gravely.

“What do you mean?” Kendra asked.

“The magic spell that makes the curtain work,” Uncle Griffinskitch explained. “If the secret of this spell falls into the wrong hands, then the curtain could fall down.”

“Fall down!” Oki cried.

“Yes,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. “All of Een could be destroyed!”

“My word!” Professor Bumblebean gasped.

“That is why we must retrieve the box,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. “We cannot risk the secret of the curtain being discovered.”

Kendra sat down in the corner of the cage and sighed. “Well, this certainly changes things,” she said. “We have to get that box—or else die trying!”

She had no sooner spoken when the chamber of cages began to tremble.

“Eek!” Oki cried, scurrying to the back of the cage. “It’s Rumor!”

They watched and listened as the dragon approached. When he finally entered the chamber of cages, he seemed larger than they remembered, moving slowly through the room and knocking over mounds of treasure with his giant, reckless body. It was clear to see that he had captured someone else, for his fist was clenched in a tight ball. He slithered past the prisoners and emptied his claws into a nearby cage.

“Pugglemud!” Kendra exclaimed when she saw the hapless Dwarf roll out of the dragon’s fist. Rumor smiled, and with a flicker of his tongue, shut the door to Pugglemud’s cage. Kendra could barely believe her eyes—the Dwarf was dirtier and more ragged than ever. Gold coins were spilling out of every pocket (of which he had many), and his red hair was even more wild and tangled than before.

“I wondered what happened to you,” Jinx called to Pugglemud. “You were supposed to help us out, you know.”

At the sound of the grasshopper’s voice, Rumor turned and hissed.

“You know this little beast?” the dragon snarled. “Horrible little creatures, these Dwarves. Just as greedy as Goojuns and Ungers. They’re always coming after my treasure. You’d think they’d have learned by now, over these seven hundred years. But no, they keep trying. But has any thief escaped my watchful eye? No! Oh, yes, many are able to sneak inside the castle. And some I even let find the vault. But I don’t let anyone out. It’s all a game, but make no mistake: I’m the one controlling it!”

The dragon chuckled, and his breath felt like a roasting wind on Kendra’s face.

“Oh, please lemme out!” Pugglemud begged, clenching the bars of his cage. “I learned me lesson, Mr. Dragon. I am done—I swear it. I’ll never touch another piece o’ gold so long as I live.”

“LIAR!” Rumor roared.

There were no “tee-hees” from Pugglemud now. Large tears streamed down his dirty face, leaving long, clean trails on his cheeks.

“You know,” Rumor said, turning back to the company’s cage, “I had forgotten all about you pitiful creatures.”

“Seems like you forget about all your prisoners,” Jinx declared boldly, pointing to some of the other cages where the skeletons lay.

“Oh, those,” Rumor said. “Yes, well, as I said, Goojuns and Ungers and such. A little more dangerous than your kind.” He lowered his head, and with a zip of his tongue, ripped the door from their cage so that it drooped lazily on one hinge. “You’re free to go,” he announced. “You are no threat to me. So run back to your little land, and tell the rest of your wretched friends to leave me and my property alone!”

Uncle Griffinskitch stepped to the edge of the cage and stared into the eyes of the immense dragon. “We are not going without the Box of Whispers,” the wizard declared in a steely voice, though Kendra noticed that he was trembling.

“Then you will go nowhere,” Rumor chuckled. “For the box is mine, and it will stay here.”

“It belongs to the Eens,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. “Let us have it. You have many treasures. Why do you care about one tiny box?”

“You’re right about my wealth,” Rumor gloated. “Look about you. I have gold as far as the eye can see. More treasure than you could count in a lifetime. Trinkets, baubles, and all manner of curios have I collected. But nothing is more important to me than the Box of Whispers. I would give away all of my other wealth for it.”

“Still, the box is not yours to keep,” Uncle Griffinskitch told the dragon. “It belongs to the Eens, and we mean to take it back.”

“NO, THE BOX IS MINE, I TELL YOU!” Rumor roared, so loud that their cage rattled. He prowled menacingly before them, his nostrils flaring angrily with smoke. “Why don’t you scurry back to your tiny land, back to the rest of your frightened, foolish little folk?” Rumor growled. “You think you are so wise, with your Council of Elders. More like a council of buffoons! You think you know so much about the box, but I tell you—you can’t begin to imagine its power!”

“I believe I have a pretty good idea,” the tiny wizard said with determination.

“You’re a fool,” Rumor sneered. “A whiskered little fool.”

“You don’t frighten me,” Uncle Griffinskitch declared. “No power shall you steal from me.”

Rumor narrowed his yellow eyes at the wizard. “You really are quite clueless, aren’t you?” the dragon asked with a chuckle. He was silent for the next few moments, as if in deep thought, and the only sound in the chamber was that of the beast’s long pink tongue, flickering in and out.

“I tell you what, Gregor,” Rumor said finally, and Kendra was surprised that the dragon knew his name. “I will make you a proposal. A wager, if you will. Each of you will come before me, one at a time, and take a test. If any of you can succeed, then you may take the box and go free.”

“And if we don’t?” Uncle Griffinskitch said.

“Well, I don’t set the punishment if you fail. In a way, you do,” Rumor said wickedly. Then he added, as though he were offering them a great gift, “But listen, you don’t all have to succeed. Just one of you; then you all go free.”

“That is all?” Uncle Griffinskitch asked. “We solve your test, and then we can go free? And with the box?”

“That is the deal,” Rumor said. “But I know you Eens and your little animal friends all too well. You are weak. You will all fail.”

“We shall see,” Uncle Griffinskitch said defiantly.

“Indeed, we shall,” Rumor said. “Well, I must be on my way. When you hear the crash of my gong, the first of you may come before me in the vault of riches. I believe you know the way, being thieves and all. And remember, only one at a time.”

The dragon turned and rumbled away, his shoulders scraping the sides of the chamber as he went.

“Lemme out, lemme out!” Pugglemud begged, as soon as the dragon was gone. “Don’t leave me in this cage!”

“Why would we help you?” Jinx growled. “You certainly had no intention of helping us! We’ve been sitting here for two days.”

“I was goin’ to help you,” Pugglemud said. “I was on my way when I got captured.”

“Nonsense!” Jinx scowled. “The only thing you care about is gold.”

“How could we let you out?” Kendra asked the Dwarf. “We don’t have a key for your cage, and we’re sure not strong enough to bust it open.”

“Oh, I’m in a sorry way,” Pugglemud wailed.

“I do say, Elder Griffinskitch,” Professor Bumblebean said, turning his attention away from the Dwarf. “I don’t know about this contest. Do you think this game with Rumor is such a good idea?”

“Humph,” the old wizard grunted in reply. Professor Bumblebean shrugged, but Kendra knew what her uncle meant with that humph. He was saying: “Do you have a better plan?”