Kendra Kandlestar and the Crack in Kazah (15 page)

YOU NEVER KNOW what to expect when you are asked to dinner, especially when going to some-one’s house for the first time. Of course, you might think a wizard would be capable of whipping up a grand and delicious feast with a mere flick of his staff, but the truth is that while Een wizards are known for many things, cooking is not one of them. This is why Kendra wasn’t the least bit surprised to discover that dinner was nothing more than Squibbles and Pip (or, as we might call it—leftovers).

“I hope you will excuse my humble offerings,” Leemus said as everyone took a seat at the table. “Visitors such as you certainly deserve a scrumptious feast. But I am a simple wizard, after all.”

Clovin chittered in the wizard’s ear, causing him to exclaim, “Oh my! It seems that in all the fuddle-duddle I failed to make proper introductions. This is Clovin, my loyal assistant. As for me, I am Leemus Longshanks, a Brother of the lands of—”

“Longshanks?” Gayla interrupted as she began spooning some of the Squibbles and Pip onto her plate (it looked rather like mashed potatoes). “Don’t you mean Longbraids?”

“
Toodlewitches!
” the wizard exclaimed. “I think I know my own name.”

“Well, you are the
wise
one,” Gayla snorted, and Kendra felt it was such a rude remark that she tried to kick her under the table. Unfortunately, she booted Oki instead, causing the mouse to squeal and drop his fork.

“Now, now,” Leemus said. “There’s no need to get in a
frunzy!
Are you all right, my little friend?”

Oki nodded, and Kendra whispered him a “sorry.” Then she thought to herself,
Longshanks? How could all the stories and legends get his name wrong? But he doesn’t have braids, that’s for sure.

“Well, come, come, my friends,” Leemus said, interrupting Kendra’s musings. “It’s time to tell me
your
names.”

“Sure,” Gayla said between bites. “This is Braids and Eeks—or Kendra and Oki, if you like. And I’m Gayla. We’re from . . . well, let’s just say
far away.
”

“Far away indeed,” Leemus mused, leaning back to stroke his beard. “Clovin tells me you came swimming from the sacred Elder Pool.”

“Well, some of us were swimming,” Gayla said, casting a sidelong glance at Kendra and Oki. “Others were drowning.”

“Er . . . we didn’t mean to be in the Elder Pool,” Kendra told Leemus. “We just ended up there by accident.”

“I see, I see,” Leemus mused, now twisting one finger around the tail of his beard. “Such are the dangers of celestial travel, I suppose.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Gayla asked.

“I have been studying the heavens these many months,” Leemus replied. “The stars have foretold that travelers from the great beyond would arrive at my doorstep—and now, here you are. Why, I suppose you are Eengels!”

Kendra, who had just taken a drink of Eenberry juice, nearly spit it out in surprise (actually, she was lucky it didn’t come out of her nose). Eengels, of course, are what you and I might call angels. Kendra had been called many things in her life—but Eengel had never been one of them.

“You’ve got your whiskers crossed,” Gayla told Leemus. “We’re not Eengels! We’re Eens. Just like you.”

“
Smingle-smongle!
” Leemus scoffed. “You are no ordinary Eens! You have been sent to help us; this I know. And tonight I shall take you to meet my brothers at the Elder Stone.”

Kendra looked at the wizard in surprise. “But there is no . . . er, well, that is to say: where is the Elder Stone?”

“Why, right next to the Elder Pool,” Leemus answered. “Didn’t you see it? Well, you shall tonight; all in good time.”

“But what’s going to happen at the meeting?” Oki asked.

The old wizard’s face suddenly turned serious. “Tonight the council meets to discuss our brother . . . the fallen one.”

Kendra shivered. She knew Leemus was speaking of the first elder of Een, Grendel Greeve. He was a dark wizard, and she had met him—his ghost at least—in the temple he had built with the power of his black arts, so many years ago.
Except it’s not years ago,
Kendra thought.
It’s happening all right now—and we’re in the middle of it.

“The heart of Brother Greeve turned so dark and wicked that we banished him from our lands,” Leemus said, a tone of regret clear in his voice. “That was three years ago. And yet, seven moons past, a giant moth appeared before the council, carrying in its feelers a message from our brother begging for forgiveness. Tonight we shall decide our response.”

Kendra tugged hard on a braid. She knew how this was going to turn out. The brothers would go before the Wizard Greeve and all would fall victim to his curse—all except Leemus.

Maybe I can convince the elders not to go,
Kendra thought.
I can stop this curse from even happening.
But then another voice came to her. It sounded like her elder self, the blind sorceress.
You can’t pull at the fabric of time, Kendra,
the voice warned.
If you do, everything will change.

Kendra sighed, and stared across the table at Leemus.
He thinks we’ve been sent to help him,
Kendra told herself.
And he’s said to be the wisest Een that’s ever lived. So there must be something we have to do in this time. The question is . . . what?

The moon had just appeared in the sky when the three “Eengels” set off for the council meeting, following Leemus Longshanks along the same path in the woods that they had taken earlier that day. Clovin scampered through the treetops above, leaping gracefully from branch to branch.

It wasn’t long before they began clambering down a slope and the Elder Pool came into view. Now that she was looking at the meadow from above, Kendra could see a large, flat stone lying near the pool. Here, sitting cross-legged around the perimeter of the rock, were five dark silhouettes.

“I guess those are the Brothers of Een,” Kendra said to Oki. “And that must be the Elder Stone.”

“I recognize that rock,” Oki told her excitedly. “It’s the center tile in the council chambers of
our
Elder Stone.”

“That makes sense,” Kendra said. “The ancients must have used that rock when they built the new Elder Stone.”

They arrived at the bottom of the slope, and as they approached the stone Kendra was afforded a better view of the five Brothers. She already knew their names: Izzen Icebone, Nooja Nightstorm, Orin Oldhorn, Drake Dragonclaw, and Thunger Thunderfist. They did not look kindly in Kendra’s opinion, especially Brother Thunderfist, who was massive in size with a hunched back and two fists like rocks. Like Leemus, none of them wore braids in their hair.

“You’re telling me they’re brothers?” Gayla asked. “They all look completely different.”

“Oh, they’re not actually related,” Oki explained. “There’s one legend that tells how the first seven elders took an oath that bound them as one. ‘Brother’ is just a title—you know, like ‘Elder.’”

“How about the title of ‘I-don’t-actually-give-an-eek’?” Gayla muttered.

Kendra would have had a retort for her, but Leemus escorted them onto the Elder Stone and directly into the circle of brothers. All eyes were upon them; Oki began murmuring about eggs and Kendra had to nudge him to be quiet.

“What now, Brother Longshanks?” asked Izzen Icebone, some amusement in his voice as he stared at Kendra’s hair. “Is it not enough that you always insist on bringing your bushy-tailed sidekick to our council meetings? Tell us, who are these strangers?”

“My Brothers, a most
splendulous
event has occurred,” Leemus declared, his arms wheeling in the air as he spoke. “The Eengels we have been awaiting have arrived.”

“We?” asked Drake Dragonclaw, his quizzical expression punctuated by a crop of spiky hair. “You, Brother Longshanks, are the only one who has foretold these so-called Eengels.”

Kendra fussed nervously with a braid. It didn’t sound like Leemus was exactly the most popular member of the council.

“I shall prove they are from beyond,” the long-haired wizard declared. “Listen: the mouse can speak.”

He pushed Oki forward and, after much prodding, convinced him to talk.

“Spells and witchcraft for all we know,” Nooja Nightstorm grunted after Oki had forced out a few words. “What—if anything—is so special about these two sisters?”

“We’re not sisters,” Gayla interjected, crossing her arms.

Kendra, embarrassed by her rudeness, reached up to tug another braid; her palm must have shown in the moonlight, for at once Thunger Thunderfist cried, “Wait, child. Show your hand again.”

Kendra slowly raised her palm. The brothers gasped.

“Look!” Leemus declared. “She has the mark.”

Kendra gazed down at her own hand—there was nothing she could see, but she knew the mark was there. In her time, it was something only the Ungers and other monster tribes could see. For them it was part of a prophecy, that she would destroy the Door to Unger. And, of course, she had.

Now, in the ancient past, the mark seemed important again. When she looked away from her palm, she saw that all six Brothers had raised their hands. She could see nothing on their palms—but it was clear that they could.

“When we took our oath as brothers, the mark appeared,” Orin Oldhorn declared. “It is a sign of unity and purity. But the question is, why do
you
have it, child?”

Kendra gulped. What was she supposed to say? She had just been born with it. She couldn’t explain why. And she couldn’t tell them about the future either, not anything specific anyway. But the brothers were staring at her expectantly, so she just blurted out, “It is as you say. It is a sign of . . . purity. It means that I am the destroyer of the door to . . . the door to darkness and doom.”

“The door to darkness and doom?” Nooja scoffed. “What door? I know of no such thing.”

“You will,” Kendra assured him.

“You!” Thunger Thunderfist growled in an accusatory tone. “You predict our future, do you?”

Kendra fidgeted.

“Bah!” Thunger growled with a dismissive wave of an enormous hand. “How can we trust these strangers? Perhaps they have been sent here by Brother Greeve himself. They could be part of an elaborate plot to betray us.”

“No!” Kendra cried. “We’re on your side . . . I assure you.”

For a moment no one said anything; Kendra thought she might melt underneath the weight of their stares.

At last Izzen Icebone spoke. “There is no doubt that the arrival of these three strangers presents some mystery, and we know not if they be friend or foe. I suggest we decide their fate once we have turned our minds to the matter at hand: the invitation from Grendel Greeve.”

There was a murmur of consensus from the brothers. Kendra, Gayla, and Oki were asked to leave the stone, and Clovin escorted them to a nearby tree, where a low-hanging branch served as a type of bench.

“You know,” Oki whispered, “there’s no Captain of the guard here . . . no reason why we just can’t use Kazah and escape while we can.”

“Escape?” Gayla asked. “From what? These mouldy-oldies? They’re not out to hurt us, Eeks. Let’s just listen in on what they have to say.”

“I thought you didn’t care about all of this legend stuff,” Kendra said.

Gayla’s only response was a disgruntled “hmph,” so with a sigh, Kendra leaned forward, strained her ears, and listened to the words of the first elders of Een.