L. Frank Baum (10 page)

"I don't see anything remarkable about it," returned Prince Marvel,
calmly. "It is you, who are not singular, but double, that seem
strange and outlandish."

"Perhaps—perhaps!" said the two old men, thoughtfully. "It is what we
are not accustomed to that seems to us remarkable. Eh, Ki-Ki?" they
added, turning to the other rulers.

The Ki-Ki, who had not spoken a word but continued to play softly,
simply nodded their blond heads carelessly; so the Ki looked again at
the prisoners and asked:

"How did you get here?"

"We cut a hole through the prickly hedge," replied Prince Marvel.

"A hole through the hedge! Great Kika-koo!" cried the gray-bearded Ki;
"is there, then, anything or any place on the other side of the hedge?"

"Why, of course! The world is there," returned the prince, laughing.

The old men looked puzzled, and glanced sharply from their little black
eyes at their prisoners.

"We thought nothing existed outside the hedge of Twi," they answered,
simply. "But your presence here proves we were wrong. Eh! Ki-Ki?"

This last was again directed toward the pair of musicians, who
continued to play and only nodded quietly, as before.

"Now that you are here," said the twin Ki, stroking their two gray
beards with their two left hands in a nervous way, "it must be evident
to you that you do not belong here. Therefore you must go back through
the hedge again and stay on the other side. Eh, Ki-Ki?"

The Ki-Ki still continued playing, but now spoke the first words the
prisoners had heard from them.

"They must die," said the Ki-Ki, in soft and agreeable voices.

"Die!" echoed the twin Ki, "die? Great Kika-koo! And why so?"

"Because, if there is a world on the other side of the hedge, they
would tell on their return all about the Land of Twi, and others of
their kind would come through the hedge from curiosity and annoy us.
We can not be annoyed. We are busy."

Having delivered this speech both the Ki-Ki went on playing the new
tune, as if the matter was settled.

"Nonsense!" retorted the old Ki, angrily. "You are getting more and
more bloodthirsty every day, our sweet and gentle Ki-Ki! But we are
the Ki—and we say the prisoners shall not die!"

"We say they shall!" answered the youthful Ki-Ki, nodding their two
heads at the same time, with a positive motion. "You may be the Ki,
but we are the Ki-Ki, and your superior."

"Not in this case," declared the old men. "Where life and death are
concerned we have equal powers with you."

"And if we disagree?" asked the players, gently.

"Great Kika-koo! If we disagree the High Ki must judge between us!"
roared the twin Ki, excitedly.

"Quite so," answered the Ki-Ki. "The strangers shall die."

"They shall not die!" stormed the old men, with fierce gestures toward
the others, while both pairs of black eyes flashed angrily.

"Then we disagree, and they must be taken to the High Ki," returned the
blond musicians, beginning to play another tune.

The two Ki rose from their thrones, paced two steps to the right and
three steps to the left, and then sat down again.

"Very well!" they said to the captains, who had listened unmoved to the
quarrel of the rulers; "keep these half-men safe prisoners until
to-morrow morning, and then the Ki-Ki and we ourselves will conduct
them to the mighty High Ki."

At this command the twin captains bowed again to both pairs of rulers
and led Prince Marvel and Nerle from the room. Then they were escorted
along the streets to the twin houses of the captains, and here the
officers paused and scratched their left ears with uncertain gestures.

"There being only half of each of you," they said, "we do not know how
to lock each of you in double rooms."

"Oh, let us both occupy the same room," said Prince Marvel. "We prefer
it."

"Very well," answered the captains; "we must transgress our usual
customs in any event, so you may as well be lodged as you wish."

So Nerle and the prince were thrust into a large and pleasant room of
one of the twin houses, the double doors were locked upon them by twin
soldiers, and they were left to their own thoughts.

"Tell me, Prince, are we awake or asleep?" asked Nerle, as soon as they
were alone.

"There is no question of our being awake," replied the prince, with a
laugh. "But what a curious country it is—and what a funny people!"

"We can't call them odd or singular," said the esquire, "for everything
is even in numbers and double in appearance. It makes me giddy to look
at them, and I keep feeling of myself to make sure there is still only
one of me."

"You are but half a boy!" laughed the prince—"at least so long as you
remain in the Land of Twi."

"I'd like to get out of it in double-quick time," answered Nerle; "and
we should even now be on the other side of the hedge were it not for
that wicked pair of Ki-Ki, who are determined to kill us."

"It is strange," said the prince, thoughtfully, "that the
fierce-looking old Ki should be our friends and the gentle Ki-Ki our
enemies. How little one can tell from appearances what sort of heart
beats in a person's body!"

Before Nerle could answer the two doors opened and two pairs of
soldiers entered. They drew two small tables before the prince and two
before Nerle, and then other pairs of twin soldiers came and spread
cloths on the tables and set twin platters of meat and bread and fruit
on each of the tables. When the meal had been arranged the prisoners
saw that there was enough for four people instead of two; and the
soldiers realized this also, for they turned puzzled looks first on the
tables and then on the prisoners. Then they shook all their twin heads
gravely and went away, locking the twin doors behind them.

"We have one advantage in being singular," said Nerle, cheerfully; "and
that is we are not likely to starve to death. For we can eat the
portions of our missing twins as well as our own."

"I should think you would enjoy starving," remarked the prince.

"No; I believe I have more exquisite suffering in store for me, since I
have met that gentle pair of Ki-Ki," said Nerle.

While they were eating the two captains came in and sat down in two
chairs. These captains seemed friendly fellows, and after watching the
strangers for a while they remarked:

"We are glad to see you able to eat so heartily; for to-morrow you will
probably die."

"That is by no means certain," replied Marvel, cutting a piece from one
of the twin birds on a platter before him—to the extreme surprise of
the captains, who had always before seen both birds carved alike at the
same time. "Your gray-bearded old Ki say we shall not die."

"True," answered the captains. "But the Ki-Ki have declared you shall."

"Their powers seem to be equal," said Nerle, "and we are to be taken
before the High Ki for judgment."

"Therein lies your danger," returned the captains, speaking in the same
tones and with the same accents on their words. "For it is well known
the Ki-Ki has more influence with the High Ki than the Ki has."

"Hold on!" cried Nerle; "you are making me dizzy again. I can't keep
track of all these Kis."

"What is the High Ki like?" asked Prince Marvel, who was much
interested in the conversation of the captains. But this question the
officers seemed unable to answer. They shook their heads slowly and
said:

"The High Ki are not visible to the people of Twi. Only in cases of
the greatest importance are the High Ki ever bothered or even
approached by the Ki and the Ki-Ki, who are supposed to rule the land
according to their own judgment. But if they chance to disagree, then
the matter is carried before the High Ki, who live in a palace
surrounded by high walls, in which there are no gates. Only these
rulers have ever seen the other side of the walls, or know what the
High Ki are like."

"That is strange," said the prince. "But we, ourselves, it seems, are
to see the High Ki to-morrow, and whoever they may chance to be, we
hope to remain alive after the interview."

"That is a vain hope," answered the captains, "for it is well known
that the High Ki usually decide in favor of the Ki-Ki, and against the
wishes of the old Ki."

"That is certainly encouraging," said Nerle.

When the captains had gone and left them to themselves, the esquire
confided to his master his expectations in the following speech:

"This High Ki sounds something terrible and fierce in my ears, and as
they are doubtless a pair, they will be twice terrible and fierce.
Perhaps his royal doublets will torture me most exquisitely before
putting me to death, and then I shall feel that I have not lived in
vain."

They slept in comfortable beds that night, although an empty twin bed
stood beside each one they occupied. And in the morning they were
served another excellent meal, after which the captains escorted them
again to the twin palaces of the Ki and the Ki-Ki.

There the two pairs of rulers met them and headed the long procession
of soldiers toward the palace of the High Ki. First came a band of
music, in which many queer sorts of instruments were played in pairs by
twin musicians; and it was amusing to Nerle to see the twin drummers
roll their twin drums exactly at the same time and the twin trumpets
peal out twin notes. After the band marched the double Ki-Ki and the
double Ki, their four bodies side by side in a straight line. The
Ki-Ki had left their musical instruments in the palace, and now wore
yellow gloves with green stitching down the backs and swung gold-headed
canes jauntily as they walked. The Ki stooped their aged shoulders and
shuffled along with their hands in their pockets, and only once did
they speak, and that was to roar "Great Kika-koo!" when the Ki-Ki
jabbed their canes down on the Ki's toes.

Following the Ki-Ki and the Ki came the prince and Nerle, escorted by
the twin captains, and then there were files of twin soldiers bringing
up the rear.

Crowds of twin people, with many twin children amongst them, turned out
to watch the unusual display, and many pairs of twin dogs barked
together in unison and snapped at the heels of the marching twin
soldiers.

By and by they reached the great wall surrounding the High Ki's palace,
and, sure enough, there was never a gate in the wall by which any might
enter. But when the Ki and the Ki-Ki had blown a shrill signal upon
two pairs of whistles, they all beheld two flights of silver steps
begin to descend from the top of the wall, and these came nearer and
nearer the ground until at last they rested at the feet of the Ki.
Then the old men began ascending the steps carefully and slowly, and
the captains motioned to the prisoners to follow. So Prince Marvel
followed one of the Ki up the steps and Nerle the other Ki, while the
two Ki-Ki came behind them so they could not escape.

So to the top of the wall they climbed, where a pair of twin servants
in yellow and green—which seemed to be the royal colors—welcomed them
and drew up the pair of silver steps, afterward letting them down on
the other side of the wall, side by side.

They descended in the same order as they had mounted to the top of the
wall, and now Prince Marvel and Nerle found themselves in a most
beautiful garden, filled with twin beds of twin flowers, with many
pairs of rare shrubs. Also, there were several double statuettes on
pedestals, and double fountains sending exactly the same sprays of
water the same distance into the air.

Double walks ran in every direction through the garden, and in the
center of the inclosure stood a magnificent twin palace, built of
blocks of white marble exquisitely carved.

The Ki and the Ki-Ki at once led their prisoners toward the palace and
entered at its large arched double doors, where several pairs of
servants met them. These servants, they found, were all dumb, so that
should they escape from the palace walls they could tell no tales of
the High Ki.

The prisoners now proceeded through several pairs of halls, winding
this way and that, and at last came to a pair of golden double doors
leading into the throne-room of the mighty High Ki. Here they all
paused, and the Ki-Ki both turned to the prince and Nerle and said:

"You are the only persons, excepting ourselves and the palace servants,
who have ever been permitted to see the High Ki of Twi. As you are
about to die, that does not matter; but should you by any chance be
permitted to live, you must never breathe a word of what you are about
to see, under penalty of a sure and horrible death."

The prisoners made no reply to this speech, and, after the two Ki-Ki
had given them another mild look from their gentle blue eyes, these
officials clapped their twin hands together and the doors of gold flew
open.

A perfect silence greeted them, during which the double Ki and the
double Ki-Ki bent their four bodies low and advanced into the
throne-room, followed by Prince Marvel and Nerle.

In the center of the room stood two thrones of dainty filigree work in
solid gold, and over them were canopies of yellow velvet, the folds of
which were caught up and draped with bands of green ribbon. And on the
thrones were seated two of the sweetest and fairest little maidens that
mortal man had ever beheld. Their lovely hair was fine as a spider's
web; their eyes were kind and smiling, their cheeks soft and dimpled,
their mouths shapely as a cupid's bow and tinted like the petals of a
rose. Upon their heads were set two crowns of fine spun gold, worked
into fantastic shapes and set with glittering gems. Their robes were
soft silks of pale yellow, with strings of sparkling emeralds for
ornament.

Anything so lovely and fascinating as these little maids, who were
precisely alike in every particular, neither Prince Marvel nor Nerle
had ever dreamed could exist. They stood for a time spellbound and
filled with admiration, while the two pairs of rulers bowed again and
again before the dainty and lovable persons of their High Ki.