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Authors: Steve Shilstone

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BOOK: The Wicked Wand
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Chapter Eight

TO FAN WA'S ISLAND

We trudged back up the tunnel, arguing about the Great Sea Fire Spout. Kar made me change my hat's color four times and we ate two conjured pies each, gadapple and palmpear. We reached the cavern of painted glories and paced in a circle, examining the famous walls while we argued.

“We should go to the Hall of Clowns on Fan Wa's Island. You need to inspect the Clock, sign the book,” insisted Kar.

“Great Sea Wire ... Fire Spout first,” I resisted.

“You keep saying that, and I keep telling you that it's a Great Sea Fire Spout, not a Lake Spout or a River Spout. My island of Acrotwist Clowns sits in the middle of the Wide Great Sea. SEA! Sea Spout! Fan Wa's Island is so such probably on the very way to this Great Sea Fire Spout,” argued Kar.

I looked at my twenty-two rings. I couldn't think of a thing to do with ‘em to make my path any clearer. I looked at Kar. She shrugged like we do and nodded at me and raised high her coppery eyebrows.

“The ... Spout ... fight ... might be ... out ... out beyond ... the island,” I admitted, returning her shrug.

“Of course!” she enthused. “The Clowns have never seen you as Bekka Ja Harick. I'll be the first to introduce you! Let's race there! No. Better. I'll carry you! I'll swoop in as Golden Dragon and then shift to Queen Jebb. That'll ... No! Better! We'll land on Rocky Beach and sneak up to ... No! Better! We'll ...”

My green jade ring with the flecks of gold positively itched on my little finger. It wanted so such that much to be used. With a simple twist and a mumble I used it. Kar fell silent, though her lips still moved. I gave her a shrug and a guilty smile. Kar folded her arms across her chest and looked fierce.

“We should grow ... go, not walk ... talk,” I explained.

Kar jabbed a fierce finger at her tight-lipped frown. I twisted the gold-flecked green jade ring and mumbled. Kar shimmered a shift to cloud and floated up the neatly carved gilded stairs. I followed. Up at the entrance by the jeweled sign she waited, bendo dreen Kar again, arms folded, fierce. She glared at me.

“You can ... talk ... how ... now,” I said.

She shimmered to Golden Racing Dragon and lashed her tail to knock off my hat. I conjured a double round lemon gold pie and held it out to her. So such, it was my offer of apology for striking her silent with my ring.

“We had to grow ... go. You were ... talking,” I shrugged. “You wanted me to ... to show you ... ring shells ... spells. Yoss? Well ... I'm doing it.”

She snatched the pie and swallowed it whole. The gleam in her eyes softened to merry.

“Rings. Yes, the rings. You have powers, Bek. You are the new Harick, not just my plain old Bekka. I have to get used to that, don't I? I do. Yes. I was the first ever to be spelled by the new Harick. First ever! First ever twice!”

“Yoss, such is woe ... so,” I agreed, picking up my hat.

“Climb on. We'll ... Oh, never mind,” laughed Kar, and she jumped to the sky.

I rose on my broom and sped after her. We made a pair of streaks leaving Orrun Mountain Hollow and racing on a line high above the Wide Great Sea. We approached Fan Wa's Island, and Kar twisted her serpent neck to look at me.

“Rocky Beach,” was all she said.

I nodded and dipped to dive. We came low above the waves to the island home of the Clowns and landed unobserved at twilight on Rocky Beach. Behind boulders on silver sands Kar shimmered to shift. In a nince I was in the company of Jebb, Queen of the Acrotwist Clowns. Her whitepainted face was sprinkled with red stars. Her spiral of dark green hair curled up to a point on her otherwise bald white head. Her painted red smile beamed at me below her bright yellow eyes. She wore long yellow slapshoes and a red-spotted jumpsuit and a floppy blue neck ruffle. She thrust her yellow-gloved hands into her round red patch pockets. She pulled ‘em out and held ‘em forth for me to see what she held.

“Pebblecake crumbs,” she said. “Want some?”

Chapter Nine

THE CLOCK INSPECTION WHIRL

“We'll nest ... no ... rest ... yoss ... here tonight,” I decided while we sat on silver sands among boulders watching gentle waves lapping the shore.

“More rest? I thought this was our rest. I thought we were waiting for Supper Pie Time to burst in on ‘em, surprise ‘em,” complained Kar.

“In the morning. Yoss. Surprise ‘em in the ... the ... the ...”

“Morning! Yes, I know. Why not now? Can't one of those rings jump us to morning?” said the impatient Kar.

“No. Haricks can't ... lime ... grime ... no ... time! Yoss! ... Haricks can't time travel. And also besides so such in any way, I want to ... to ... watch Jeth and Jith,” I explained.

“Ah, moons over the beach. We've seen ‘em a few times, haven't we? That is a so such pleasure, true,” recalled Kar.

I conjured a nearby boulder to as soft as the deepest plush carpet of grass on the Blue Hills where I'd become the new Harick. We arranged ourselves on the boulder to view the sky. Jeth and Jith, both full fat round, climbed out of the sea and up the night. Blue light on silver sands. Waves tumbling, foamy luminous blue. Stars and stars, sprays of ‘em. We rested and chatted like as we do, remembering back to when we were bendo dreen misfits repairing chonkas, so said tambourines, in the hedge. And who were we now? Kar was a jrabe jroon shapeshiftress, guised as Queen Jebb of the Acrotwist Clowns, gesturing with her yellow-gloved hands, her spiral of dark green hair bobbing to punctuate her speech. I, Bekka Ja Harick, gazed in wonder at my lavender hands and at the glints and gleams of my twenty-two magic rings. Wand. I needed the wand for my powers to be complete. Where was the Great Sea Fire Spout? When would we find it? On thoughts so such as these, I surrendered to the moons and the soothing rustle of the waves and found myself nudged awake in the morning by Kar, Queen Jebb.

So such began a day filled with nonsense and delight. We hurried to the Great Hall where we found Acrotwist Clowns scattered about, asleep and snoring on trampolines, under ‘em, in corners, slumped against walls. Kar shouted ‘em awake, announcing me as the new Fan Wa, the new Harick, Bekka Ja. They fairly slammed awake, shrieking with joy, bouncing, dancing on stilts, swinging across the Hall, trapeze to trapeze, juggling each the other, rolling on giant brightly colored orbs, hurling ceremonial pies at their Queen Jebb, at me, at all everybody in hectic ruckus. Poetry was recited in song. The gongs were bashed with endless energy, adding to the storm of deafening din. High laughter, low laughter, cries of triumph when pies struck home so such true on target. The Hall, ceiling to floor, became a slippery sticky mess of broken crusts and scattered fillings, custards and berries of all every sort. The hilarious babble of merriment flowed up the stairs to the Clock Vault on a shouted order from Kar Jebb, the Queen. I was swept along the rushing river of singing, dancing, spinning, juggling nonsense. I washed into the Vault much to the shock surprise of the wide awake Clown on duty, and everyone all of the other Acrotwist Clowns stood around suddenly silent and staring at me. I looked at the massive towering Clock. It hummed. Its ruby dials and flashing yellow, blue and red lights gleamed. Mirrors rotated, neatly polished. Wheels in wheels, coils and gears, everything moving, humming smoothly. I raised my arms out in a sweeping motion which I thought might look so such impressive.

“It looks ... wine ... fine,” I ventured.

A great shout of victory and relief erupted from the Acrotwist Clowns, and the river of nonsense picked me up and whirled me back down the steps to the Great Hall and deposited me in Fan Wa's Chair, where a quill pen was thrust into my hand and a book with a checkerboard cover was thrust in front of my face. Pages were turned, all of ‘em powder blue with neatly green-inked scribble scrawls, until a blank blue page confronted me. At my elbow, I noticed an inkpot brimming with green ink in its socket in the arm of the chair. I knew what to do. I knew full thoroughly the Gwer drollek stories. I dipped the pen into the ink, wrote in rune on the blank blue page. In this, your language from down the Well, what I wrote translates so such:

CLOCK MAINTENANCE

completed this very day

FAN WA

Chapter Ten

QUEEN JEBB BECOMES RAKARA

“Two harks and one huzzah!” shouted Queen Jebb. “The new Fan Wa, the new Harick, the Bekka Ja, has completed Clock maintenance and signed the book. We will now clean the Hall, step to the Sudser, and prepare the Nighttime Sea Grass Tea.”

The Acrotwist Clowns fell to cleaning the Hall with no delay and, truth, with silent glee. Walls and floors, trapezes and trampolines, everything all was scraped clean, wiped and polished. Ladecarts were hauled in. Cleaning towels mucked with crusts and fillings were carted away. The only sounds were slapshoes slapping the floor and various Clowns chuckling.

“Fairly done, good Bean ... Queen ... Queen Jebb,” I commented, truly so such impressed was I with Kar's Queenly command and the Clownly obedience.

“Step to the Sudser, Fan Wa. You shall be the first to cleanse, not I,” announced Kar formally, standing tall, yellow-gloved fists on hips.

I knew what an honor it was for Kar to let me go first. An honor and a surprise. I was quickly glad to enter the Sudser. Sticky pie filling dribbling down my neck was not for me a comfort. I left Fan Wa's Chair and made my way to the multi-colored patchmark Sudser door. I was more than familiar with it from my many previous island visits as common bendo dreen Bekka of Thorns. I latched myself in with a turn of the latchwheel and felt the cool ticklish wind. It circled me from hat to buckle shoes. Out I came, so such speedily cleansed and dried. Queen Jebb waited for me and greeted me with a wink. She sped into the Sudser for a thin span of time and emerged spotless clean.

“Acrotwist Clowns, hear your Queen,” she boomed. “Line up for the Sudser by height plus age divided by shoe size!”

The Clowns began tripping and falling over each the other and continued to do so such while shouting out numbers and rune fractions and recipe ingredients. The commotion continued for a good four or five spans of time. Queen Jebb elbowed me one and winked again.

“Now watch this,” she whispered.

She shimmered to shift, and there beside me hanging upside down in the air was Rakara, Kar's true jrabe form. Her dark green mantle pooled above her. Her enormous lavender ears stuck out from her mass of orange hair. Her sightless milky white eyes did not blink. The line of Acrotwist Clowns paid her no heed, having at long and at last successfully formed.

“Ye Acrotwist Clowns, your Queen now be Rakara! ‘Why?' ye may ask. I will tell ye,” called out Rakara, and the Clowns turned their painted faces her way. “Step to the Sudser. Clean ye up. Then prepare the Nighttime Sea Grass Tea. Your Queen Jebb would taste it as Rakara, the jrabe. Bring ye the tea to my Chamber. It be the first time for me, your Queen Jebb, to entertain the new Fan Wa after so such a success of Clock maintenance and book signing. I would be Rakara as I entertain her. No Queen has ever done so such before. I will be the first! Be that not a truth?”

The Acrotwist Clowns nodded in agreement, all of ‘em. And why not? Kar was the first and only Queen they had ever had. Anything new she did as Queen was always and ever a first. Kar likes it so such that way. Kar is Kar, whether winged cloud or Dragon or bendo dreen or anything other. She thrills to do things no one else has ever done. Truth, no one would want to do most of the first things she does. So such like as thrusting her arms into highboots and waving ‘em over her head while she hopped backward reciting bendo dreen poetry. She did that once in the hedge when we were younglings. Kar is Kar.

She floated as Rakara, upside down jrabe, to the Chamber where she lived whenever she was Queen Jebb. There we chatted like we do while waiting for the Nighttime Sea Grass Tea.

Chapter Eleven

CONVERSATION IN QUEEN JEBB'SCHAMBER

“This be a nice rest, be it not, Bek? Ye as Harick, me as jrabe. Tell me true, did ye really fix the Clock?”

“There was nothing long ... wrong with it. My crystal ... ring ... was deer ... no ... clear ... yoss. No message of ... danger ... from the ... the ... crystal hall ... ball ... back at the cottage. So such the block ... Clock ... was mine, twine, fine! Yoss!”

“Have ye had your fill of tea? More pebblecake?”

“No more tea. No more pebble ... bake cake. Kar, glisten ... listen. In the morning early, we ... we ... we ...”

“Should search for the wand. And I have a tasty idea about that. I do! I have a truly sharp idea. Thorn sharp! Remember the Gwer drollek tale which was so such somewhat about my very own father, Dak the jroon? Of course ye do. Why do I even ask? The first! Bek! The first! I be the first and only jrabe jroon ever!

“Kar! Settle! What is your ... your harp ... sharp ... idea?”

“This. Listen. This be it. We'll go north where Dak played the Ledgemoon Game with Sill and Fiss.”

“The twins? The ... Edge? Circle Island? The ... the Log ... no ... Fog ... yoss ... Maze? The Island of ... of ... of ...”

“Spitting Sand. True. All those things. And The Hollows. Ye forgot The Hollows! Places all we've never seen! We'll be the first jrabe jroon and Harick to travel together north beyond north over the Wide Great Sea!”

“You think ...”

“That the Great Sea Fire Spout be somewhere out there in the potent magic mysteries of the north? I think it be. It be there somewhere amongst The Edge, Circle Island, Fog Maze, The Hollows, Spitting Sand Island. Somewhere among ‘em. It seems so such possible, doesn't it, Bek?”

“North?”

“North.”

“It is an ... idea.”

“What better? Your rings be not itching to say different, be they?”

“No ... no ... north. In the ... morning. North. We'll follow the ... Gwer drollek bath ... path of Sill and ... and Fiss, the twins. It's a good idea, Kar.”

“And I was the first to think of it. Such in addition, even if we don't find the wand, which we like as probably will, but even if we don't, we'll see The Hollows and the Fog Maze and The Edge and Circle Island and Spitting Sand. Why haven't we gone there before? No matter. We be going now. I mean, in the morning. Not now, but in the morning. Of course, we could go now if ye would use your ruby alertness rings.”

“Kar.”

“Yes?”

“Settle. And please shift ... shift to bendo dreen. Your bloating ... floating ... upside down makes me ... makes me ... dizzy. Yoss. Let's reap ... sleep. Test. Rest. We need ... need plenty of ... nest ... rest. North. In the morning. It's a wrong ... strong ... no ... long way. Yoss. That's it. It's a good ... idea, Kar. Good.”

“I know. I was the first to think of it.”

BOOK: The Wicked Wand
6.88Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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