The Warble (7 page)

Kristina and Werrien were in the second
day of their journey, and everything was going quite smoothly; even the rain
had let up.

“It’s going to get dark
soon, so we’ll need to stop and set up camp for the night,” Werrien said to
Kristina.

Kristina noticed a
smooth spot on the ground not far off in the distance. “Look! There’s a good
spot over there,” she suggested, pointing toward it.

“Good eye.” Werrien
smiled at her.

Kristina liked the fact
that she and Werrien were getting along better, and she was starting to see
that he had a nice side to him. They dismounted Taysha, and Werrien led her to
a shady area under a large tree. Then he and Kristina went to look for wood to
build a fire. While they were looking, they could hear Taysha talking. “Watch
where you’re going! I almost stepped on you!” she said.

“Well, excuse me,
Madam, but I don’t see very well, not to mention that I have no idea where I
am,” a huffy voice replied.

Kristina and Werrien
both stopped what they were doing to listen. Then they went a little closer to
Taysha to see who she was talking to.

Kristina’s mouth
dropped open in surprise. “Raymond? Is that you?” She walked quickly toward a
small gray mound in the grass.

“Yes, it’s me, and am I
glad to see you!”

Kristina scooped up
Raymond and then headed toward Werrien. “Look!” she said excitedly. “This is my
pet rat, Raymond,” She kissed Raymond on his head.

“Your pet rat?” Werrien
chuckled.

“Yeah. His name’s
Raymond.”

“How’s it going
Raymond?” Werrien tried to pet the rat on his head but as he reached out to
him, Raymond crawled into Kristina’s sleeve.

“I’ve been better,”
Raymond said in a muted voice.

“Finicky little
fellow,” Werrien said. Then he went back to looking for wood to build the fire.

Kristina quickly joined
Werrien. Raymond poked his head out of her sleeve and said, “Would you happen
to have a little morsel for me to eat? I’m very hungry.”

Kristina opened the
food bag and pulled out a few crumbs of bread and gave them to Raymond. “I can
hardly believe that Raymond can talk,” she said to Werrien.

“I can’t believe
animals don’t talk where you’re from.”

“It would make headline
news if they did.”

“That’s odd. I couldn’t
imagine a world without talking animals.” Werrien arranged the wood into a
teepee-shape at their campsite and then lit the fire.

Evening set in, along
with a thick fog. The two children sat by the crackling fire, eating the soup
that Leacha had prepared for them. When they were finished, Werrien took the
Warble out of his pocket and swirled it around on the palm of his hand.

“Do you know how much
farther we’ll have to travel to get it to where it needs to be placed?”
Kristina asked.

“If all goes as
planned, I’d say we’ll reach the city of Salas by evening tomorrow. From there,
it should take us about a half a day to reach the bottom of Mount Bernovem.
Then we’ll climb as far as Taysha can climb. After that, I’ll send her home on
her own, and we’ll travel the rest of the way on foot to the very top of the
mountain.”

“Why can’t Taysha
come?”

“It’s too steep for
her. I’m just hoping we’ll be able to make it. I haven’t told you yet, but it’s
a very treacherous climb. Nobody I know of has climbed to the top of Mount
Bernovem—that is, at least since Queen Sentiz took over.”

As Werrien stared at
the Warble, its rich dark-purple color swirled around inside it and changed to
blue. “Hold out your hand,” he said. Kristina held her hand out, and he dropped
the ball onto her palm. “Thanks for letting me carry it. It’s been an honor for
me to hold onto something that will finally bring peace and justice to our land
and allow my mother, Lafinia, the true Queen of Bernovem, to be able to reign
again.”

“Lafinia is your
mother’s name?” Kristina asked.

“Yes.”

“That’s an unusual
name.”

Werrien didn’t respond
as he stoked the fire.

Kristina wondered if
she may have hit a sore spot. She thought quickly and then said. “I like it
though; it’s pretty. What about your father? Where is he?”

“I don’t know where he
is or if he is even still alive. All I was told by my mother was that he and my
uncle Corin—he’s my father’s brother—had to go on a long journey. They never
returned, and so we figured that they must have been killed.”

Except for the
crackling in the fire there was silence. Kristina placed the Warble back in her
pocket. Their conversation was making her feel awkward. “I’m sorry,” she
finally said.

“Don’t sweat it,”
Werrien said and he began rolling out hid sleeping mat. Kristina did the same.

As they lay on their
mats, under the bright stars, Kristina couldn’t help but notice that the moon
in the sky seemed quite different than the moon where she was from. It was
larger, more pearly-white, and its texture was different. “Werrien,” she said.

Werrien turned to face
her. “Yeah?” he said.

“Where is your mother?”

“She’s imprisoned in
the top of a tower.”

“Has anyone tried to
rescue her?”

“There have been many
attempts, but so far they have all failed. The tower is surrounded by the
shark-infested Citnalta Sea. Her room is at the top of the tower and has only
one small, barred window.”

Kristina turned to face
Werrien. “It sounds like a very lonely place.”

Again Werrien didn’t
respond.

“You must really miss
her,” Kristina said softly.

“I used to think that
I’d never see her again, but now that the Warble has come, I have hope.”

They turned back on
their backs again to gaze up at the moonlit sky.

“Werrien, I was
wondering if you could tell me a little more about the Warble?”

Werrien rolled on his
side again to face her―his sandy blond hair partially blocking his
blue-green eyes. “When it is put back in its resting place, the spell that has
allowed Sentiz to reign as sovereign queen over Bernovem will be lifted—at
least, that is what the believers believe.”

“Who are the
believers?” Kristina looked curiously at Werrien.

“The ones who have held
to the belief that the Warble will return someday.”

“Are there many
nonbelievers?”

“Actually, there seem
to be more of them than believers. It started out the other way around, where
there were more believers, but over time, many gave up hope and became
nonbelievers.”

“What do the
nonbelievers believe?”

“They have accepted the
horrible Sentiz as their sovereign queen, and they’ve been brainwashed to
believe that the Warble is just a fable.” Werrien changed the subject. “Anyhow,
tell me about where you are from. Is it much different than Bernovem?”

“In some ways it is,
and in some ways not.”

“How is it different?”

“Well, for instance, we
don’t have dwarfs, gnomes, fairies, or talking animals.”

“Weird.”

“And another thing, my
world is much more modernized. We have motorized cars, trains, and airplanes,
as well as computers and cell phones. Bernovem seems to be at least a century
or more behind the time in my world.”

Werrien yawned and
closed his eyes. Kristina could see that he was growing very tired so she
reached out and gently shook him. “Werrien,” she said.

“Yeah?”

She sat up and took the
Warble out of her pocket. “I want you to carry the Warble,” she said.

Werrien looked
inquisitively at her. “Why?”

“I feel it will be
safer with you, and besides…I would like you to have the honor of carrying it
to where it needs to go.” Feeling shy, her eyes gravitated toward her sleeping
matt.

“You’d do that for me?”
Werrien said drowsily.

Kristina’s
eyes
sparkled in the fire-light as she smiled at him. “Just don’t let it go to your
head,” she said and handed the Warble back to him. Then they went to sleep.

While Ugan was filling his canteen with
water at the Indra River, Davina, Hester, and Graham sat on a washed-up log on
the riverbank.

“We’re tired of
walking! How much longer until we get to this so-called queen’s palace?” Hester
nagged Ugan.

“Now, now, patience, my
dear. It’s not much farther, and once you arrive, you’ll have so much fun that
you won’t even remember how long the walk was,” Ugan answered. But he actually
was thinking that he couldn’t wait to get the brats to the palace to meet her
ladyship, “Sentiz the Horrible.”

“This hiking stuff is
really a boring drag. I sure wish I was home, where I could be gaming with my
bros’,” Graham griped as he flung dirt from a stick toward Hester.

The dirt hit Hester on
her cheek. She quickly grabbed the stick away from Graham and was about to hit
him with it. “You little, filthy—”

“Lovely children,” Ugan
interrupted as he finished tightening the lid on his canteen, “save all that
energy for the fun and games at the palace.” He looked at Davina, who was
calmly gazing out at the Indra River and picking her nose. “Why don’t you
follow her example? She seems to be having a nice time.”

Hester threw the stick
on the ground and said, “Can we just get going? This walk is taking way too
long.”

Ugan started walking
back to the forest and the three children followed him. They passed through the
fairy colony, and they were fascinated by the very tall trees.

“Wow, I’ve never seen
such gigantic trees in all my life,” Davina said amazed.

Three fairies suddenly
came from out of nowhere and zoomed around Graham’s head, like bees around a
flower. Graham ducked and waved his hands around as if they were attacking him.
The fairies laughed and continued to torment him.

Davina, who was always
game to whack at something, grabbed a branch off the ground. “Don’t worry. I’ll
get the little pests. I’m not afraid of bees.” She swung the branch at the
fairies but it was Graham she almost hit in the head.

“You idiot! Watch my
head!” Graham shouted.

The fairies were too
fast for Davina and they flew away without as much as a scratch on them.

“Those were the largest
bees I’ve ever seen,” Graham panted to Ugan.

“They’re not bees at
all; they’re fairies,” Ugan replied.

“Fairies? Like the ones
in little-kid stories?” Graham asked, excitedly.

“There called ‘fairy
tales’ dimwit,” Hester said curtly.

Graham’s face broke
into his bothersome grin. He looked at Ugan and said, “Do you happen to have a
jar or something? I’m gonna catch some of them and take them home. Then I’ll
charge people to see them, and I’ll get super rich.”

Ugan looked irritated
at Graham but then he smiled and said, “Why, yes. We have just the sort of jar
you’d need, but it is at the palace, so why don’t we hurry along so we can get
there? Then we can look for that jar.”
If Ugan didn’t get back
to the palace soon, he knew that the queen would punish him for taking too
long.

~~~

Meanwhile, at the
palace, Queen Sentiz sat at her ornate table, once again looking into the
seeing crystal. Her loyal counselor, the old Sir Rupert was at her side, now in
a wheelchair because of his failing health.

“Can you see them?” the
queen asked impatiently.

“Patience, my lady,
they will appear shortly,” Rupert said.

Queen Sentiz got out of
her chair and started pacing the floor. “Why hasn’t that nincompoop dwarf
returned yet?”

“Quick, my lady, come
look.”

She hurried back to the
crystal to look inside it. “Where are they?”

Rupert pointed his bony
finger between the tall trees in the forest, and the queen rubbed her hands
together with satisfaction. “Oh, yes, there are the little dumplings. I can
hardly wait for their arrival.” A wicked smile appeared across her gaunt face.
But then her expression changed to an insecure worried look, and she began
nervously tapping her long red nails on the table.

Rupert looked
concerned. “What is it, my lady? Is something distressing you?”

“I’m wondering where
that good-for-nothing son of mine is. Make the crystal do its thing again, so I
can see his whereabouts.”

“As you wish.” Rupert
closed his eyes and waved his bony fingers around the crystal, but just as he
was about to begin his chant, the itch in his throat came back. Queen Sentiz
glared down at him with ice-cold eyes as he tried desperately to hold in his
cough. Thankfully, the itch went away, and he was able to continue on with his
chant.

The crystal lit up, and
it began to spin again. Its colors swirled around the room. Then, once again,
they formed a tornado-like funnel over the crystal and, just as before, were
suddenly sucked back inside it. Ramon appeared in the crystal, sitting against
a fallen tree, in a field, with his horse standing by his side.

“What is he doing?” the
queen asked.

Rupert took a velvet
handkerchief out of his pocket and wiped the sweat from his brow. “It looks to
me, my lady, like the prince is whittling wood.”

“Whittling wood? Why
that lazy—”

“Someone is coming from
off in the distance. Look, my lady.” He pointed his finger for her to see, but
before she could see who it was, Rupert’s nagging itch came back in his throat.
His face turned lobster red and he began to sweat heavily. He tried to hold
back his cough, but it was no use and he let out such a loud hack that it
knocked the crystal over. Then it turned dark and teetered back and forth on
its side.

Queen Sentiz was
furious, and in her rage she stomped over to the door and flung it wide open.
Two dwarfs were standing at attention right outside.

“Take him!” The queen
pointed to Rupert.

The two dwarfs ran into
the room and quickly rolled Rupert’s wheelchair out. The queen slammed the door
shut behind them. She could hear Rupert coughing as he was being rolled away
down the long hallway to his bedroom. She stormed back over to the table, took
a deep breath, and then calmly sat down. She stood the crystal up and, just as
Rupert had, waved her hands around it, but nothing happened. Her anger began to
bubble up inside her, though she managed to calm herself. She tried for a
second time to wake up the crystal, nevertheless again, nothing happened.
Furious, she grabbed hold of the edge of the table and dug her nails into the
wood. Then she grabbed the crystal in both hands and held it over her head, as
if she was going to smash it on the table. However, before she could do it, a
soft knock came at the door. She took a deep breath and then gently laid the
crystal down on the table. “Enter!” she bellowed.

It was one of the
dwarfs. “Your Majesty, Ugan has arrived with the three children.”

“How wonderful.” Queen
Sentiz smiled. “Where are they?”

“They have just entered
the palace garden.”

“Very good. I will have
time to freshen up before they enter the palace.”

The dwarf bowed and
then left the room.

Queen Sentiz quickly
went to her vanity mirror and applied white powder to her already pale
complexion. Then she put on her red lipstick, brushed her hair, and admired her
reflection in the mirror.

Another knock came at her
door.

“Enter!” the queen sang
cheerfully.

The same dwarf opened
the door again. “The children have arrived and are waiting in the atrium for
you, Your Majesty.”

The queen smiled one
last time in her mirror. Then she blew herself a kiss and got up to meet her
guests. Little did they know they actually were her victims.