The Wicked Wand (8 page)

IMPRISONED

“My story be nearly told,” said the wand. “I be ready to serve ye, new Harick. Carry me across the sea. Carry me wherever ye go. I yearn to go from Woeful Wanderers' Wasteland to Blossom Castle, from the Falls of Horn and the Chack Tree Forest to Honeygold and Longthin Lake, from Skrabble's crags to the FiddLeeeBoad, from ...”

“Bond! Wand! Settle!” I commanded, raising my lavender ring bedecked hands. “Finish the glory burst.”

“Finish the story first, she means,” corrected Kar quickly.

“Thus I bow,” said the wand, rising to tilt. “There be not a great much more to tell. The pouchbag were swung up and carried off with me inside it. I do not know what span of time then passed. I could not tell, confined as I were among bottles and amulets in the pouchbag. Briny Brook sang happily. I vowed to turn his beard to tar if ever I got the chance. Of course that were then, ye see, not now. Now I would like to visit him and thank him for helping me to see the error of my wicked ways. I hope that ye would wish it, new Harick. A visit to the oasis?”

“We'll see,” I said with a masterful frown.

“Good, Bek,” whispered Kar.

“Not a drop of mischief be there left inside me. It be all misted away,” said the wand. “Misted away.”

The wand's wooden words seemed so such to be filled with regret. Regret for what? Loss of mischief? Loss of eons trapped in the Vault? I could not decide.

“The waterwizard carried me to Orrun Mountain Hollow,” continued the wand. “How did I know? He said so. I felt warmth, then heat. Briny Brook opened the pouchbag and darted a hand in to snatch a bottle. A glimpse of black shadow dancing on fiery walls of rock I saw. I lunged to touch his hand and throw a bolt of tar-making mischief, but he were too quick for me. His hand were out almost before it were in, and the pouchbag were drawn snap shut. I heard the hissing voices of orruneries yearning for life on the sun and telling the waterwizard to travel north of north over the Wide Great Sea. ‘Here be heat spangles for ye as thanks,' I heard Briny Brook say. I suppose he then tossed to the orruneries the bottle he had taken from the pouchbag. Whatever it were that he did, we were on the move again. He hummed to himself and sang his sour gruff songs. I swung in the pouchbag, pushed here and there by powerful breezes, true strong gusts. ‘Up, wand, above the storm we'll flow,' said the waterwizard, speaking directly to me for the first time since I had been imprisoned in the pouchbag. Ye'll be tar soon enough. That were my mischievous thought. There until long after we smoothly sailed the sky. After an unknown span of time had passed, I felt the warmth, then the heat, of orruneries. I heard the orruneries hissing their yearnings. I expected Briny Brook's hand to dart for another bottle. I quivered tense to be ready to touch him. No use. He were too smart. Too intelligent. I heard him promise the orruneries a bottle of heat spangles to be delivered after he had placed me in the Vault. This Vault! This horrible, terrible ... I mean wonderful Vault! The Vault has done its duty. I lie here before ye cleansed of mischief. How wonderful! Briny Brook brought me here, spilled me from the pouchbag, leaped clear of my jump at him, and slammed the Vault door with a short crisp chant, sealing me in. How nice. How nice. But then, I tell ye, I were angry. I bounced off the walls, throwing myself around until I were exhausted. I chased after my elusive bolt magic until I were beyond exhausted. Then it were that I settled on the pillow and began to brood. Brooding turned to thinking. Before I knew it, before I sensed it, mischief had drained away out of me. I sat serene on the pillow. I taught myself how to speak untouched! Now speech and movement be mine unaided. The bolt magic remains elusive. It waits for your touch and instruction, new Harick. No mischief. Drained away. Bars and bars of years I sat, happy that I were good. I vowed if ever I were released, I would be kind and ever truthful. Ye can see that it be so. I have hidden from ye nothing. That be my story. I be prepared to serve ye, new Harick, and to bring to your powers a fullness.”

“A story from the start ... heart,” I said, so such quite impressed.

“Hold a moment, wand,” said Kar. “First I have a private matter to discuss with the Harick.”

“If the Harick wishes. Whatever the Harick says,” said the wand.

Kar pointed silently to the sky and raised her eyebrows. I shrugged to the wand and told it I would be right back. I broomed to join Kar, who floated high above the Vault. She'd shifted to winged cloud.

DISCUSSION

“What, Kar? What do you haunt ... want?”

“I don't trust the wand. Seal it in the Vault and let's leave.”

“I am the Harick. We will do what I pay ... say.”

“Pay or say, I'm telling you to seal that wand away. It's dangerous. It's lying like as the Truth Berry did when we descended the Realms that time. Remember what a liar the Truth Berry was?”

“The ... wand is not the ... Berry, and I am no longer a pimple ... simple ... bendo dreen. I have blue ... new knowledge. I am Bekka Ja Harick, not Bekka of Horns ... Thorns. Yoss. That's it. I ... I ... trust the wand. I feel that it ... reeks ... speaks! ... true.”

“Reeks more as like it.”

“Hear me, Kar. I am the Harick. The ... wand has fat ... has sat ... the whole day through so such fairly right next to ... to me. A touch distant. It had every dance ... chance ... to ... to ... brush against me and ... burn ... turn us both to ... to ... tar.”

“No, Bek. It needs you to carry it across the sea. Remember? It's plotting. I tell you it's plotting mischief! We're going to be tar! We're doomed to be tar! I'm sure it has mastered its bolt magic!”

“Kar, settle! We will not be ... star ... bar ... tar! Yoss. It needs me to cross water. Yoss. My towers ... powers should be complete. I rust ... trust the wand. I am the Harick.”

“I noticed. Here. I have another idea. Think on it. Weigh it out. Why not fly first to Briny Brook's beckoning pool in the oasis? See if he's still there? If he is, consult with him. Then, after that, with the fullness of his information floating in your head, return here and fetch the wand if you think it wise. Is that not so such a fine order of logic? I was the first to think of it.”

“I have no greed ... bead ... need! ... to use your ... your logic. I am the Harick. I listened to the frond's ... wand's ... story. The pond is honest!”

“The pond may be, but the wand isn't. Can't you at least conjure some sort of protection with one of your rings? Can you make a magic shield?”

“I can, but do not bleed ... need to. I am the Harick. I heard the ... I heard it speak. I felt booth in its birds ... truth in its words!”

“Bek, you are stubborn. You weren't so such stubborn when your skin was yellow green and you were bendo dreen.”

“I am Harick.”

“I know. Bekka of Thorns had more sense. She recognized the approach of danger. She had healthy fears even when danger wasn't near. Sensible.”

“I am Harick.”

“I see your cloak, your hat, your scraggly hair, your lavender skin, your rings. Where's your sense? Is Bek's sense in there somewhere?”

“I am Harick. I will have my ... powers ... to be complete. The wand is true. I feel it. I tray ... say it.”

“Are your powers telling you that the sun is sinking? Are we to rest or are we to fly madly through the night?”

“Settle, Kar. Don't be snippy. We will leap ... sleep ... in the ... in the Vault. The bond ... wand will have us at its ... its ... mercy. So such that great is my crust ... trust.”

“You sleep in the Vault. I'll rest hidden on the other side of the volcano. In the morning I'll rejoin you. I do not trust the wand.”

“I am the new Harick.”

“I hope that such will be so in the future.”

MY POWERS COMPLETE

Beneath the puffed up pride I felt at being the new Harick a tiny dart of doubt jabbed me. Maybe Kar was right. Maybe the wand was lying. Then, at a glance, doubt was swept away. Why? I noticed my lavender hands and the rings. Harick. I was the Harick. With my pride again puffed and my face wearing a smile of superiority, I told Kar to spend the night wherever she felt safe. I, true bold, vowed to sleep within touching distance of the wand. So such on that note Kar and I parted. She shifted to Dragon, green with yellow spots, and flew off to disappear around the steep flank of the volcano. I dropped down to the Vault.

“Kar has dressing ... pressing duties to perform on her ... her ... island. Yoss. She will be ... hack ... tack ... She will return in the ... morning,” I explained to the wand. “I reed ... need nest ... rest ... after so such a ... a ... long ... listen. Your story glowed true. I will berry blue ... hmmm ... carry you across the sea. Yoss! That's it! My powers will be complete. I crust ... trust you. Here is my ... hand.”

“Well spoken, new Harick! I be drained of mischief! I obey commands! Feel my power!” said the wand, lifting to touch, to place itself in my outstretched hand.

Oh, the magic! Caged writhing and boiling, pulling and pushing so such like as spark taffy! It shivered my fingers. Clicketty clatter went my rings. I gripped the wand tighter, felt its strength straining under my control.

“Command me, Harick! I be servant to ye. No mischief!” cried the wand.

I staggered into the Vault and placed it on the velvet pillow.

“Tomorrow,” I gasped as calmly as I could, feeling weak in the knees. “I will reap now ... sleep.”

“As ye desire,” cooed the wand with a wooden smoothness, “as ye desire.”

I bunched down in a corner of the Vault. Truly I was exhausted. I noticed my hands were fists. I loosened ‘em. I instructed myself to take deep breaths. I took ‘em. Darkness leaked into the Vault. I no longer saw the wand or the pillow. I'd held the wand in my hand. It hadn't turned me into a patch of tar. Truth. It spoke truth. Its mischief was drained away. I was the Harick. My powers were complete. Over and over so such thoughts ran across the stage of my mind. In the morning I would do something special. I would show Kar my mastery of the wand's powerful magic. The power! I'd wrestled it in my hand! Truth, I had dismissed from my lackwit mind the wand's need of me to fly it across the sea.

I slept. I dreamed strange dreams of swimming through thick black goo. My crystal ball circled swiftly above me. It glowed yellow. I gave to it a lazy smile. Though yellow means danger, I did not care. I dreamily settled into the thick black goo. I sensed myself melting to join it. Ahhhh, such a bliss. Drifting into nothingness, of a sudden I heard Kar's voice.

“Bek! Wake up!”

I popped my eyes open and sat up blinking. Kar, bendo dreen Kar, stood in the Vault's doorway. The wand rested on the velvet pillow. I looked at my lavender hands, the twinkle and gleam of my rings.

“Yoss,” I croaked.

I struggled to stand. It felt so such as if I was stuck to the floor. The wand trembled. I suddenly stood.

“See, Kar? I am not a ... a patch ... of ... of ... of ...”

“Tar,” finished Kar glumly, her gaze never straying from the wand.

“I will flow ... show you what the ... the wand and I can glue ... stew ... do together. Yoss! That's it!” I announced.

KAR ABANDONS ME

The wand leaped to me, and I plucked it strong from the air with my right hand while sweeping what I hoped looked like a magical gesture with my left hand.

“Behold the full powers of Bekka Ja Harick!” I blared without a single stumble. “Fire globes!”

The surge and writhe of the wand's bolt magic exploded in a barely controlled gush. My arm shook with the strain of command. Globes of fire erupted, one after one another, arcing high into the sky, then falling to burst and twinkle into the spout of the volcano. Red globes, green globes, blue, yellow, orange. Roaring, they hissed. I fought to control the violent trembling of my arm. I fell to my knees.

“All right, Bek! Stop!” shouted Kar.

I let the wand fall to the rocky surface just near the open Vault door. I shook my head. I blinked my eyes.

“Ye command. I obey. So ye see that I be truly without mischief. So ye see that together we make a magic most splendid with power,” said the wand.

“Yoss,” I gasped. “I will case ... place you in the stem ... hem! ... of my ... my ... blackest purple spoke ... cloak. So such I will ... bury ... carry you ... like as the ... the ... Babba Ja Harick married ... carried the ... the Carven ... the Carven ... Carven ...”

“Flute,” said Kar shortly. Her face was a glum mask.

“Yoss. That's it. Now my powers are ... complete. We can visit the ... the Edge ... and ... and the Hollows ... see about the ... the Ledgemoon ... like as you wanted to do on our day beer ... way here,” I suggested, trying to return the eager and the happy to Kar's face.

“Later,” she said, looking away from me to the south. “I forgot. There's a pie celebration. I need to preside. I can't miss it. The Clowns need their Queen. I forgot. We'll follow the path of the Ledgemoon another time. You go, Bek. You return to your cottage with your powers complete. I will meet you there after the Pie Rumpus.”

“I'll go with ... with you. Pie Rumpus mounds ... sounds fun,” I pleaded.

“It's private. Sorry. Private for Queen and Clowns only,” said Kar, her eyes still avoiding mine.

“Well then, such is ... so,” I said, heart wounded.

“At the cottage. In a few days. I'll be there true,” Kar assured me, grasping my hand and forcing herself to smile. “Cottage. A few days. I'll tell you all about the Rumpus.”

The last few of her words floated down to me from the sky where Kar, shifted to Racing Dragon, fiercely white with zigzag red streaks, flamed away south across the sky.

“That shifter, she be a fine friend to ye, be she not?” commented the wand calmly.

“Best,” I blurted, suppressing a sob.

“With me your powers be complete. Shall we not fly to the wonderful cottage now? How I long to see it again now that my mischief be drained away. Ye need not lift a hand to help me. See how deftly I wriggle into the hem of your cloak?” offered the wand, doing so such exactly what it said.

I took to my broom with a hushed “Awaay” and endured the long and lonely flight home. Did I enjoy the Hollows or the Edge or any of the other so such legendary sights? No. I ignored ‘em. I was wrapped in gloom. I averted my eyes when I flew above Fan Wa's Island. Kar was down there as Queen Jebb celebrating a Pie Rumpus. I was not invited. My heart leaked to sore empty. My powers were complete. The wand ever chatted woodenly away. I flew above Orrun Mountain Hollow. Cloud Castle City was truth as absent as it was before. I soared above the Castle of All Fidd and Leee Combined. I gave it no glance. Over the vastness of oat fields to the Danken Wood I flew. To the clearing. To the cottage. Home. I stepped inside and was greeted by the sight of my crystal ball glowing yellow. Such was the last thing I remember before I became suspended in inky silence.