The Wicked Wand (2 page)

ON THE MOVE

“I understand perfectly. Imagine my pleasure,” said the most agreeable hutkeeper Comb.

I'd explained to her all so such about my return from the Blue Hills as the new Harick and also so such about my desire to find the wand and thereby neatly complete the fullness of my magical witchly powers, and truth, in addition, also so such all about Kar and me and our long and winding adventurous history. I showed the twenty-two rings to the hutkeeper and even conjured a tiny cake in the shape of the tool shed for her to eat. Finally Kar stepped on my foot and elbowed me once to interrupt my bubbly flow. I admit I had galloped away with the opportunity to share for the first time with any other creature the story of my transformation from Bekka of Thorns, bendo dreen, to Bekka Ja Harick, lavender witch.

“Yes, yes, yes. All that. But we really must be on our way now if we hope to reach Orrun Mountain before sunsink, don't you think, Bek?” said Kar.

“Bun ... blink?” I fuzzled in my new witchly manner.

“Yes, bunblink, by which you mean sunsink. Comb, we will leave you now so such that you may continue to attend with truly magnificent thorn-like precision and skill this treasure of legend, Sadlar's Garden. Now observe as I shift to beeketbird with blinking orange black eyes. I'll be the first jrabe jroon to do so such in Sadlar's Garden!” gabbled Kar, of course the first, since she was the only creature ever with jrabe mother and jroon father.

She shimmered to shift and flew as a skrawking beeketbird impatiently in circles above my head. I shrugged a shrug at Comb and tried to explain our so such short visit.

“I would spike ... like ... to walk ... talk ... more about ... about Sadlar and ... and truly yoss about ... about Lace ... but the bond ... the wand awaits. I'll fling it sack! ... No ... I'll bring it back! ... Yoss! That's it! ... I'll ... I'll ... show it ... to ... to ... to ...”

Kar dove down and skrawked, “You!”

“Yoss. That's it,” I said, nodding.

“Imagine my pleasure,” said Comb. And she flexed her knees, bent low, and circled her arms in a wide sweeping motion. I took to my broom and the sky with a whispered, “Awaaaay.”

I quickly fell into a fit of cackling and enjoyed it zooming above the river. Kar entertained me by lengthening her wings, shortening ‘em, changing their colors -shift, shift, shift. She stretched her neck long, long, long, made it sag in coils, made it scaly, feathery, gleamingly smooth. She lengthened her legs absurdly, so such that from a ridiculous height she could drag her paddlefeet to lightly skim the river's surface. Her legs were a pair of lengthy strings hanging from a beeketbird bag of a body. She shimmered a glorious twang which sounded all ripply in my ears. I could no longer see her. I looked all around. Where was she? I dipped to land on the northern bank of the river at the edge of a field of oats.

“Kar!” I shouted, turning and looking, squinting in all directions.

A whizzing bizz sounded in my ear. I snatched at the annoyance. The bizz whizzed to my other ear. I snatched. The bizz whizzed to a spot two spans in front of my nose and hovered there. Tiny buzzer. A bee? No. Much too small.

“Kar?” I guessed.

The air exploded, and she was on the ground laughing and rolling, gasping and kicking.

“Your nose, your face,” she said before kicking and rolling and laughing some more.

I waited for her to subside. I was tempted to use a ring on her, the gold-flecked jade band notched with the Orrun rune, but I didn't. I allowed her to subside on her own.

“Your face ... your nose ... when I ...,” she whispered, shaking her head.

She got to her feet. She pointed a shaky finger at my nose. A little piece of honeycomb break stuck to its tip. I brushed it off. She blinked her yellow green bendo dreen eyes. Her lips were pressed together. She shook from head to toe so such in effort not to laugh.

“Are you finished laughing? Can we grow cow?” I said haughtily.

She fell into a quivering heap of laughter. I used the ring.

ORRUN MOUNTAIN HOLLOW

Truth, according to Comb the hutkeeper, sometime deep in past, eons ago, Gorge the three-toed troll took the dangerous wand to Cloud Castle City. How had so such an important incident escaped mention in the Gwer drollek stories of the bendo dreen and yet been known by the Garden-tending hutkeepers of Clover? I shrugged on my broom. Some things are how they are. The wind ruffled and flapped my blackest purple cloak when I turned to follow Kar, yellow Dragon Kar, fat, with orange wings. We lifted on a line above the foothills at the base of Orrun Mountain. Far below us the ribbon path climbing the mountain beside the Chasm of Kraan showed the way. Halfway up we saw the rope bridge across the Chasm swaying, buffeted by gusty breezes.

“Galones,” I shouted to Kar.

She blinked an orange eye and nodded her scaly head. Gwer drollek stories flooded our memories. Such and so many a Gwer drollek story paid visits to the Huge Galones. The Huge Galones are great sculpted heads of stone standing at the brink of the Chasm near the frail-looking strand rope bridge. There they were. I looked at ‘em. I saw no Ibblers. Ibblers, so said, dwell inside the hollow Galones. They host the way to Shangra Pass.

“Where are the ... the ... Nibb ... no ... Ibblers?” I wondered.

“Probably in one of the Galones eating kettel,” hissed Kar, flickering flames of gold from her nostrils.

“We'll visit ‘em ... on the hay stack ... no ... the way back ... after I bind the frond,” I said.

“Good idea,” agreed Kar, knowing full well what I'd meant to say.

Up and up the mountain we went. Its snowy white peak yet loomed above us. The winds grew colder and rougher. I had to hold onto my hat. My hair flew into my face, surprising me with its black stringiness. So such, I'd been accustomed to my life-long bendo dreen coppery hair. My cloak flapped and snapped. Up and up. I squinted and grimaced. The top. The rim. Where was it? I tucked in close behind Kar, so such providing myself with fat yellow Dragon protection from the wind. I followed her undulating tail. Below, a blanket of white snow covered the mountainside. I shifted my gaze to Kar's flapping wings. Up and up she climbed. At last there was sky and a rush of peace. No wind. No cold. We had arrived above the ever-blooming springtime of Orrun Mountain Hollow.

“Sarajandos,” I gasped.

“Sarajandos,” echoed Kar.

The plateau in the bowl of Orrun Mountain Hollow offered a wonderful view of sarajando trees, white with blossoms, and fields of lush green grasses sprinkled with yellow and purple dots of flowers. The cherry vanilla scent of the sarajando blossoms perfumed the air all around us. And the road. There was the road! Round green cobbles made a stripe along the floor of the Hollow. The road led to Cloud Castle City. Oh, the Gwer drollek stories! Cloud Castle City! The troll brought the wand here! I dropped low to the road and raced along it. Whiz! I cackled. Ahead. Ahead. Ahead I saw the famous Crag of Orrun Mountain rising above the rim on the far side of the Hollow.
Cloud Castle City nestles under the Crag. Cloud Castle City. Cloud ...

“It's ... It's ... It's ...,” I said.

“Not here,” completed Kar beside me.

We landed at the end of the green road of round cobbled bricks. Before us, below us, spread a vast scoop of empty, a vast scoop of empty where the flying city rested whenever it was home.

CONVERSING AT THE BRINK OF THESCOOP

“Where is it, do you think, Bek?”

“I don't drink ... think.”

“Can't you do something with one of your rings to find out where it is? That one there looks so such like a tiny crystal ball.”

“This? It's ... It's ... It's the ... the orb of clarity. It bends ... no ... sends messages to me from ... from the crystal doll ... ball ... in the ... the ... the ...”

“Edible cottage?”

“Yoss.”

“Nothing in it now?”

“No.”

“Oh. It's a great grand deepness of a basin, isn't it? It would be so such an amazement to see the city float down and settle here, wouldn't it? Lit up in the night, floating. Cloud Castle City. Why haven't we visited it ever yet before?”

“Too many other ... adventures.”

“Truth. But we're here now, and Cloud Castle City isn't. Do you think the wand is truly hidden somewhere within the city? Might not the troll have buried it any old where here in the Hollow? Might he ...”

“Orruneries!”

“What?”

“Orruneries! Caves! ... Bun ... Fun ... Tun ... Yoss! ... Tunnels! Yoss! That's it!”

“What's it?”

“We'll bask ... ask the orruneries under the ... wallow ... no ... Hollow. Yoss.”

“Why should they know anything? Don't they just dream about going to live on the sun? So is such in all the Gwer drollek I've ever heard.”

“Maybe ... but I bought it ... thought it, so said it might be ... be ... be ...”

“All right, enough be be be's. But if we're going to find the entrance to the underground, you'll have to make us ruby ring alert and your hat luminous or something so such. I can breathe fire as Dragon, but it's tiring, and I'm already tired. Use your rings. Why for else have you got ‘em?”

“No. We'll nest in fleece ... rest in peace ... under ... under a sarajando bee ... key ... tree. Yoss. In the morning, Cloud Castle City might be back. If not, we'll ... we'll ... hunt for the ... the tunnel down to the ... the ...”

“Orruneries. Well, yes, truth, to sleep blanketed with cherry vanilla scent under sarajando blossoms would be a thorns brimming over pleasure. I'll be the first jrabe jroon to sleep as a bendo dreen in Orrun Mountain Hollow. Oh, such, too! Maybe you're right! Cloud

Castle City could return all lit glowing in the darkness to settle so such right here! Jeweled castles! I'll watch for that! I'll ...”

“Settle, Kar. Pear ... There. Let's bake our vest ... take our rest ... over there. I'll conjure us bakes ... cakes.”

“Could you conjure pies instead? After all, I am Queen Jebb of the Acrotwist Clowns as well as all the other things I am. I'm hungry for pies. I'm used to eating and throwing ‘em every day.”

“Eyes ... Pies ... yoss. Lemony steam ... cream ... swirled with ool. Yoss. Yoss.”

“Yoss. I mean yes. Oh, it looks ...”

“Mmmmmm ...”

“Yes, mmmmmmmmm ...”

A VISIT WITH THE ORRUNERIES

We settled under a sarajando tree to take our rest in the ever-springtime warmth of Orrun Mountain Hollow. We wafted to slumber on the cherry vanilla scent of the blossoms. Such was pleasantly so. When I awoke in the morning, I kept contentedly still. I watched the light through the canopy of clustered blossoms go from dim to light, and the blossoms ‘emselves go from shadow gray to white. After a span of time passed, I turned my gaze to where I hoped Cloud Castle City would be nestled in the scoop under the Crag of Orrun. No spires of jeweled castles. No ornate gate. No City. I poked Kar with my broom and put on my buckle shoes.

“Bake ... Wake, Kar,” I croaked. “Orruneries.”

Kar pushed herself up, stretched, rubbed her bendo dreen eyes, stared with a half-smile at where the Castle City wasn't.

“Nice place, Bek. Best sleep I ever had. I think I might have almost dreamed. If I commanded Cloud Castle City, it would never spend a night other where,” said Kar.

I nodded at her nonsense and got to my feet. Time for business. Time to talk to orruneries. I was on a search for my wand. Cloud Castle City wasn't in its place. Orruneries were ever always in their place deep below Orrun Mountain Hollow. So such said many a Gwer drollek story.
Orruneries are famously knowing,
I thought
. Knowing. I'll ask ‘em about the wand. They might know. They might know
.

“Remember the Gwer drollek of Lord Fay Dot and ... and ... Bones ... no ... Yones the Hollowite?” I asked.

“How many times did we play avalanche in the hedge?” snorted Kar. “Of course I remember.”

I nodded. She did remember. In that story, Fay Dot and Yones escaped the craggers by causing an avalanche and hiding under it in a cavern. A tunnel from that very cavern led down to the orruneries' golden river of fire.

“Let's grind ... find ... the bite ... site of the ... the ... the ...”

“Avalanche,” completed Kar. “It was near the green road at the edge of the Hollow. I'm first!”

So saying, she shimmered to Racing Dragon, leapt to the sky and sped off above the round green cobbles of the road. I took to my broom with a shrug and an “Awaaaay”. I floated slowly after her, humming a bendo dreen tune. Kar likes to be first. I don't care. I smoothly sailed the fair full width of Orrun Mountain Hollow. On the ground I noticed Kar, shifted to bendo dreen Kar. She leaped up and down between a pair of sarajando trees.

“Stairs! Wide open!” she yelled. “It wasn't like this in any Gwer drollek!”

I touched down next to her and was thrilled up to amazement at what I saw. A clearly marked opening. A well-made sign studded with jewels shaped to form Ancient Orrunian runes. Ruby runes. Emerald runes. A background of glittering countless diamonds. Hundreds? Thousands? Stairs down to under, carven and gilded. Without a word, down ‘em we went to a cavern. I touched my square emerald ring just so. My hat glowed luminous green.

“Ah,” said Kar.

Walls painted with glories. No time. Wand. The tunnel. Orruneries. Down. Down. Warm and warmer. Aglow ever deep. Gold. I touched my ring. My hat light was doused.

“Ah,” said Kar.

Down. Turn. We came to a ledge and saw the splashing yellow molten river. Writhing twists of fire with willowy arms threw dancing shadows on the glowing red walls. Buckletar and lava, brimstone, the river of fire churned by.

“Orruneries! I am ... am ... Bekka Ja Harick! I feed ... need my wand to complete my towers ... powers!” I shouted.

A form boiled up from the middle of the river, surging and waving its willowy arms.

“When we go to live on the sun, we will know all about the wand. And we won't be so chilly. At last we'll be warm. We'll know if the wand safely hidden in the Great Sea Fire Spout will be discovered,” hissed the figure, and it threw itself to sink in the crashing tumbling churning fiery river.

“Wait! What is the ... the Great Sea Fire Spout? Bear ... Flare ... Where is it?” I shouted.

Figure after figure, orrunerie after orrunerie, rose writhing to say the same thing. Each of ‘em repeated, word for word, what the first one said.

“That's all you're going to get,” said Kar.

We shrugged like we do.