Kendra Kandlestar and the Crack in Kazah (14 page)

SOMETHING WAS WRONG. It was like all of Kendra’s senses were clogged; she couldn’t quite see or hear or move. It was cold, and her nose was stinging as if someone had punched her. She opened her mouth to scream and water flooded down her throat. In an instant of terror she realized what was happening.

She was drowning.

Frantically Kendra waved her arms, but she was disoriented and didn’t know which way was which. Then she felt something grab her by two braids and yank her upwards, hard. Next it was a hand underneath each arm. She broke the surface with a gasp and was dragged onto a grassy bank. She lay there heaving, and it was only after a few seconds that she had recovered enough strength to look over and gaze upon her rescuer. It was Gayla. She looked in just as bad shape as Kendra, dripping wet and breathing heavily.

“Oki?” Kendra gasped, suddenly realizing he was missing.

Gayla’s eyes flashed with alarm and she plunged back into the water. Kendra crawled to the edge, panicking; but only a moment later Gayla reappeared, this time clutching a very soggy mouse. Kendra reached out and helped pull them both to shore, and there all three of them lay for several minutes, coughing up water in shock and exhaustion.

“Where are we?” Gayla asked finally, sitting up. “Shouldn’t we have just landed back in the Elder Stone, but in a different time?”

Kendra nodded. She pulled herself to her elbows and took a look at their surroundings. They were at the edge of a large, round pond in the middle of the woods, but nothing seemed familiar. “There’s definitely no Elder Stone here,” Kendra said.

“Good job, Braids,” Gayla snorted. “Not only do we not know
when
we are—now we don’t know
where
. Figure out how to use that stone before you kill us!”

Kendra wiggled the ring off her finger and held it in her palm. “The crack is getting wider,” she murmured.

“What does that mean?” Gayla asked.

“The blind old sorceress warned me about it,” Kendra replied. “We have to be careful . . . too many jumps and the ring will burst completely apart.”

“Eek!” Oki squealed. “Maybe the ring already stopped working. Maybe that’s why it brought us . . . well,
here.
”

“Hmph,” Gayla grunted.

“Your arm is still bleeding,” Kendra said, now tucking the ring in her pocket. “We have to get you fixed up.”

“It’s just a scratch,” Gayla told her, though she grimaced as she spoke.

Kendra was just about to insist upon taking a closer look at her injury when a slight movement caught her eye, and she turned to see a rust-colored squirrel sitting at the edge of the pond, just a short distance away. It was staring at her with two large, round eyes.

Kendra assumed at once that the squirrel was an Een, for though he wore no clothes, he was very large. (Een animals, of course, are much bigger than the normal critters we find in our backyards or out in the woods.)

“Hello,” Kendra said to the squirrel. “Can you tell us where we are?”

The squirrel cocked its head quizzically at Kendra and then broke out in a chatter: “Chy chy chee chee! Chee chee chasta!”

Kendra looked at Oki and Gayla in surprise. “He can’t talk! Maybe he
is
wild after all.”

The squirrel chattered again, this time in a more excited manner, his fluffy tail twitching back and forth like a flag.

“Hmm,” Oki murmured.

He stepped closer to the squirrel and then, much to Kendra’s amazement, chattered back. This exchange went on between the two animals for some time until at last Gayla said, “Hey, Eeks! Can you actually understand Chatterbox?”

“Sort of,” Oki replied. “He’s speaking . . . well, it’s like an ancient dialect or something. I don’t quite understand. It’s like he’s trying to speak, but he can’t quite do it. I think he
is
an Een squirrel.”

“Then that means we
are
in Een,” Kendra said. “But the question is
when?
”

Gayla shook her head and looked back at Oki. “Well, what did that little twitter-tail say?” she asked.

“I’m not sure,” Oki answered. “I think he wants us to follow him . . . to his
dray.
I think he means his family . . . or his house.”

“Well,” Gayla muttered, wincing as she climbed to her feet. “We don’t have anything better to do. Maybe he’s got some acorn soup on the go. I don’t know about you two drips, but I’m starving.”

This remark seemed to quite please the squirrel, and he now beckoned them to follow him through the woods. It was warm at least; Kendra guessed it was either late spring or early summer, and the walk helped dry them even further. As for the squirrel, he scampered far ahead, sometimes scrambling up tree trunks and leaping from one low-hanging branch to another. It took some effort for Kendra and the others to keep up, but after an hour or so they reached a clearing with a small knoll in the center. The knoll was shaped like the wave of the sea, and from its crest there grew a long, crooked tree; this was definitely an Een house, for it had doors and windows and even a small chimney pipe. Indeed, it quite reminded Kendra of her own house.

The squirrel led them along a cobblestone path that wound up the knoll, but before they even reached the house the front door swung open and there stood a tall and elderly Een. He was an imposing figure, with a giant, blunt nose and large ears. He had a long, white beard and even longer locks of snow-white hair that curled at his feet. In one hand he held a knotted staff of Eenwood. There was no doubt he was a wizard—the type, Kendra thought, you didn’t want to mess with.

Then the wizard spoke, and at once completely changed Kendra’s opinion. “Ah Clovin, my furry friend!” he trilled in a voice that sounded altogether musical. “You’ve found our visitors.
Fabullation!
”

“Fabullation?” Oki squeaked.

The wizard looked down at the mouse in surprise. “Did you just speak?” he asked.

“Er . . . yes?” Oki answered timidly.

“Fabullation indeed!” the wizard exclaimed. “A most appropriate word on this momentous occasion! A mouse that can speak! And you do it as well as any poet!”

“A poet?” Gayla snorted in derision. “Do you want to hear him recite
Ode to Eggs?
”

The old wizard tilted his head back and released a hearty laugh. “Indeed—I would!” he declared. “And you two kind sisters,” he added, gazing intently upon Kendra and Gayla. “What wondrous braids you have!”

“Er . . . we’re not sisters,” Kendra told him. “We’re just, sort of—”

“Thrown together right now,” Gayla interjected.

“Aha!” the wizard cried. “Well, come, come. We must sup. But first, let’s get you refreshed and repaired; it seems as if you”—here, he looked pointedly at Gayla’s bleeding arm—“have had some adventure.”

He chattered something to Clovin (as the squirrel’s name appeared to be), and the bushy-tailed creature at once ushered the three companions into the house. The inside was very similar to Kendra’s own home, for the rooms were narrow and cozy, and everywhere Kendra looked there was another nook crammed with books, scrolls, and mysterious instruments.

Clovin led them up a steep corkscrew staircase to a small room that contained a washbasin, a trunk, and a shelf filled with an assortment of bottles. Clovin pulled a roll of cloth from the trunk, yattered something to Oki, and with a nod scampered back down the stairs.

“There’s medicine in those bottles,” Oki translated. “And we can use this cloth for a bandage.”

“Ugh,” Gayla snorted as she uncapped one of the bottles to take a sniff. “Smells like Goojun breath. I’m not putting any of this stinky-pink on my arm.”

“Just let me clean and bandage you,” Kendra said, rolling her eyes.

“You know,” Gayla said, taking a seat on the trunk so that Kendra could begin washing her wound, “that’s one strange old man. I’m sure I’ve seen him somewhere before.”

“Of course you have,” Oki declared. “We just saw him. Well, at least in statue form.”

“What—OW!” Gayla snapped, flinching as Kendra administered the medicine. “Careful. That hurts. What in the name of Een are you talking about, Eeks?”

“We’ve traveled
way
back,” Oki explained. “That wizard is Leemus Longbraids, one of the very first elders!”

“Days of Een!” Kendra cried, looking up in surprise.

“Exactly,” Oki said. “We’re visiting ancient history. Before Een animals could talk, or before there even was such a thing as Een animals. Before there was a magic curtain. Before the building of the Elder Stone—that’s why we landed in the pond. There is
no
Elder Stone in this time!”

“Are you telling me the fuddy-duddy downstairs is that wizard from all those boring legends?” Gayla asked. “I thought those stories were all just made up.”

“Oh, they’re real,” Oki said. “Take Clovin. Haven’t you heard how Een animals came to be? They were wild once, but after living with Eens started to absorb their magic. They started to change. That’s what’s happening to Clovin right now—he’s learning to talk, he’s . . . well, he’s
Eening.
”

“But if that’s Leemus, where are his braids?” Kendra wondered. “He didn’t have any.”

“I know,” Oki said, furling his brow. “That
is
strange. But it’s him all right.”

“Hmph,” Gayla murmured thoughtfully. “Krimson would pluck out his eyebrows to be here right now. He’s always going on about all that mythology stuff. Wait till I tell him our founding father was a crazy old coot.”

“Leemus Longbraids is not a crazy old coot,” Kendra said as she began bandaging Gayla’s arm. “He was—well,
is
—the wisest of Eens. And I like him.”

“Me too,” Oki added.

“Of course you do,” Gayla told the mouse. “He uses silly words.”

“Like fabullation,” Oki said. “Ratchet and I can put that one in the dictionary.”

“I’ve got some words for you,” Gayla offered. “How about Egghead? Fur-nerd? Eek-Geek?”

“Just drop it,” Kendra said in exasperation, as she finished up Gayla’s arm. “We’ve got bigger worries than silly words. What are we supposed to do now?”

“Eat dinner,” Gayla replied, for just then Clovin had reappeared at the doorway. “Let’s just hope that old man knows how to cook.”