The Warble (10 page)

Twilight was setting in as Kristina and
Taysha neared the dwarf graveyard that Looper had mentioned. Heavy dark clouds
rolled across the sky, and the wind started to pick up, blowing the fallen
leaves around the tombstones.

“It looks like a storm
is approaching,” Taysha said.

Raymond poked his head
out of Kristina’s vest, and the wind came directly at him, blowing his whiskers
against the sides of his face. “I hate storms! Can’t you pick up the pace a
little so we can get out of here?” he asked Taysha.

“If the ride’s not good
enough for you, I can always stop and let you off. Maybe you could run faster
yourself,” Taysha answered.

“I suppose I’ll just
have to tough it out,” Raymond said, feeling sorry for himself. He went back
inside Kristina’s vest to take cover.

“It is eerie, passing
by a graveyard in this stormy weather,” Kristina said.

“You can thank Queen
Sentiz for that. Before she came to power, Bernovem only had a few graveyard
for the gnomes and dwarfs, but now, due to the shortage of fairy blossom, the
gnomes and dwarfs don’t live as long, so there are many graveyards scattered
throughout the land.”

Kristina thought of
Leacha giving away her last bit of fairy blossom and hoped that she was still
alive.

The wind picked up even
more, and thunder pounded the atmosphere. Then lightning struck right in front
of one of the tombstones.

“Did you see that?”
Kristina asked Taysha.

“What? The lightning?
It’s very common in our land.”

“No, I saw something
run from behind that tombstone over there, to that tombstone over there.”
Kristina pointed at where she saw.

Taysha looked toward
the tombstone. “I don’t see anything.” But then, whatever it was, ran again to
hide behind another tombstone.

“Did you see it that
time?”

“No, though we’d better
get out of here, in case it’s one of the queen’s zelbocks.” Taysha quickly
picked up her pace to a gallop.

Kristina slid to the
right side of Taysha. “Hey, don’t take off so suddenly! You didn’t give me a
chance to hold on.”

Taysha came to an
abrupt stop, and Kristina fell to the ground. Then Taysha turned to face her.
“I’m sorry, but it could be a zelbock in the graveyard. I told you before, when
it starts to get dark, that’s the time you’ll most likely see one of them. They
are always out at night, trying to find anything that they think looks
suspicious.”

A sly look appeared in
Kristina’s eyes. “It sounds like someone I know back at home.” She thought of
Davina, who was always suspicious of her.

“We’d better get out of
here—and fast.”

“No! Let’s wait until
its dark. That way we’ll have a better chance of not being seen.” Kristina
jumped to her feet. No sooner had she done so, and the rain began to fall
again.

“Look, over to your
right—there’s a large tree over there. We can take cover under it,” Taysha said
and began heading toward it.

Kristina tailed behind
the mare as the rain began to pour down and thunder roared in the sky again.
They took cover under the tree and Kristina waited for the lightning to follow.
When it struck, she poked her head around the tree, checking if anything was
lurking in the graveyard. When another bolt of lightning flashed across the
sky, the suspicious character ran from behind one tombstone to another, just
like it had before.

“It’s an old dwarf, and
he was limping,” Kristina said excitedly.

Raymond poked his head
out of her vest. “I must say, I think the horse had a good idea when she said
we should get out of here.”

“I think he’s trying to
hide from us.”

“I say we leave now,
while it’s running in the other direction,” Taysha suggested. “It could be
going to tell someone of our whereabouts.”

“But what if it is a
dwarf, and what if he’s hurt, and it thinks that we’re Queen Sentiz’s spies?”

“We can’t take any
chances.”

Kristina paused for a
moment and then replied, “I want to help him.”

“What can you do to
help him? We can’t take him with us. He would only slow us down, and then we’d
most likely be captured by the zelbocks.”

“We won’t have to take
him.”

“Then you can’t help
whoever it is, and besides, without fairy blossom―”

“I have some fairy
blossom.”

“How can that be? We
haven’t come across any growing.”

“I never told Werrien
or you but Leacha gave some to me, before we left on our journey.”

“Why would she give you
her fairy blossom when she needs it herself?”

“She wanted me to have
it in case one of us was injured on our journey. We haven’t used any so far, so
if it is an injured dwarf behind that tombstone, I’m sure that I could spare a
little.” Kristina reached into her pocket to get the fairy blossom.

“Well, do what you feel
is best.”

“Wait here, then. I’ll
be back as soon as possible.”

She was just about to
run over to the graveyard when Raymond poked his head out of her vest and said,
“I’m really not one for graveyards.”

Kristina smiled at
Raymond. “You mean you’d rather stay with Taysha? All right.” She took Raymond
out of her vest and placed him on Taysha’s back. Then without looking back, she
ran off toward the graveyard.

“Wait! Wait! Please
don’t leave me here on top of this large, unpredictable beast!”

Kristina didn’t
respond; she figured it was about time that Raymond got out of his comfort
zone.

Taysha was annoyed at
Raymond for calling her an unpredictable beast, so she shook vigorously.
Raymond, half out of his wits, held on for dear life.

The rain poured down on
Kristina. She opened the rusty gate that led to the graveyard. It reminded her
of the gate in front of her own house, except that it made a creepy creak when
it opened. Just as she walked through the gate, a loud thunder clap startled
her, and she drew out the knife that Werrien had given her. When she arrived at
the tombstone, lightning flashed across the sky again, revealing the suspicious
character. “Rumalock!” Kristina said.

“Kristina!” Rumalock
said. “If I’d known it was you, I wouldn’t have hidden behind this tombstone.”

“And If I’d known it
was you, I wouldn’t have drawn out this knife.”

Rumalock looked
surprised. “Where did you get that?”

“It was given to me by
a boy named Werrien.”

“So you did meet up with
him,” Rumalock said softly.

“Remember you told me
that I might get help along my journey? Well, you were right, because I met up
with Werrien. Anyhow, it’s so good to see you, Rumalock. I have so much to tell
you.” She was going to explain all that had happened to her, but then she
noticed that Rumalock looked unwell. He leaned his head against the tombstone,
seeming to not have much energy. She frowned. “What happened to you?”

“I was returning home
from collecting fairy blossoms when a band of zelbocks caught sight of me. They
arrested me and took all the blossoms that I had collected. Then they tied my
hands together behind my back, and tied me with another rope to the back of one
of their horses. They led me to where my house used to stand.” He paused for a
few seconds as tears welled up in his old eyes.

“What do you mean, ‘
used
to stand’?”

“It’s no longer there.
They burned it to the ground, along with all my belongings, including the only
prophecy book in Bernovem. They dumped out the sack of blossoms that I had
worked so hard to collect and told me that it was a crime to collect the
blossoms in such large quantities. Then they burned them. After that, they led
me away, and I had to walk and walk, sometimes being dragged when I was too
exhausted to move as quickly as they wanted. They took me to the city of Salas,
and as we entered it, all the dwarfs and gnomes, who were going about their
usual business, stopped and watched in awe as I was led by the zelbocks through
the main street. The zelbocks brought me to the city prison, where they threw
me in a cell. I was there for two days, and was told I would be leaving for
Treachery Island on the third morning. There was no way of escaping—a zelbock
posted in front of my cell made sure of that. I fell asleep on the hard
concrete floor and started dreaming of the horrible place—Treachery Island. It
was a terrible dream, in which the wicked Queen Sentiz was dragging me by my
beard to a damp, cold cell. I could see that there was no floor in it, just
bars, and beneath the bars, vicious sharks were snapping their jaws at anything
that dangled even an inch below the bars. The queen was just about to throw me
into the cell, but then I woke up, and to my surprise, fluttering above me and
tugging on my beard, was Clover—bless her heart. She said she thought I’d never
wake up—I was so glad to see her.” A glitter of hope sparkled in his watery
eyes.

“How did she get past
the zelbock on guard?”

“He had fallen asleep,
and so she managed to pull the key out of his hand. After that, she dragged the
key as close to my cell as possible, but because it was the same size as
Clover, she couldn’t lift the key off the ground, so she flew through the bars
and woke me. Then I stuck my arm through the bars and grabbed the key.”

“Did the zelbock wake
up?”

“No, thank goodness. He
was snoring so loudly that he didn’t hear as I reached my arm through the bars
and tried to put the key in the lock.”

“So you unlocked the
cell door?”

“I almost had it, but
then I dropped the key, and the zelbock flinched, but he didn’t wake up. I
tried once more, and that time, I was successful. I pushed the large barred
door open and made my escape.”

“What happened to
Clover?”

“She led me out of the
prison. Then she said she had some business to take care of, and that is when
we parted.”

More lightning flashed
across the sky, revealing Rumalock’s wrists. They were wrapped in cloths that
were soaked in blood.

“What happened to your
wrists?”

“The ropes that were
tied around them cut into them as I was being dragged behind the zelbock’s
horse.”

“Mind if I take a look?
Maybe I can help.”

“That’s very kind of
you, but I have already lost too much blood. Without the fairy blossom, there’s
really nothing you can do.” Rumalock sat down and leaned against the tombstone.
His strength was fading fast. “I’m just glad that I escaped the prison and a
most assured horrible existence or even death at Treachery Island. At least now
I have peace in my heart, knowing that the Warble has returned. After it is
delivered to its final resting place, Bernovem will be restored back to its
original way.” His eyes began to close.

“Wait! Hold on!”
Kristina took his left hand and gently removed the cloth that was tied around
his wrist. Then she removed the other cloth from his other wrist. She could see
that the ropes had cut deep into them. “Hold out your wrists out into the
rain.”

With the little
strength he had left, Rumalock held his cut wrists up to the rain and the blood
rinsed away. With trembling hands, Kristina took fairy blossom from the small
pouch. She pinched about a third of it between her fingers and dropped it onto
her other palm. Holding her open palm up to the rain, she let it fill with
rainwater and squished the soaked fairy blossom onto Rumalock’s wrists—they healed
instantly.

Rumalock’s eyes
suddenly opened and had a vibrant glow. He glanced down at his healed wrists.
“Bless you, child. You have saved my life.” He stood up with renewed strength.
“I wish that I had some way to repay you, but I’m sorry, everything was taken
from me.”

“There is one thing you
could do for me.”

“Name it, and I will do
it for you.”

Kristina opened the
little pouch and took about half of what was left of the fairy blossom and
wrapped it in a napkin. She handed the napkin to Rumalock. “Could you please
take this to an elderly gnome lady? I’m sorry that I don’t have much
information about her, other than that her name is Leacha and she lives in the
bottom of a large tree in the forest.”

Rumalock tried to
recall who she was.

“She is Werrien’s
guardian, if that helps any.”

“You mean Prince
Werrien, Queen Lafinia’s son, the true prince of Bernovem?” Rumalock seemed
surprised.

“Yes, don’t you
remember my mentioning him to you a few minutes ago?”

“I’m sorry; I guess the
intense pain made me forget. Anyhow, however did you meet him? Did the fairies
introduce you?”

“Yes, you could say
that.”

“I certainly do know
Leacha and the boy as well. It will be nice to see her.”

“That will be great if
you could deliver the fairy blossom and pay her a visit at the same time.”

“Yes, that would be
wonderful.” His rosy cheeks protruded as he smiled happily.