The Wicked Wand
Page 8
With the wand secure in his left hand, Briny Brook poked his right foot out from under his robe. The Golden Shoe glinted in the glow of the river.
“And, oh yes, to be sure, as long as I hold this little gray pebble, I retain the sea storm power of a single magic word. What word? UNLOCK!”
The wand quivered, its bolt magic surging and dancing within it, elusive, controlled by the Golden Shoe on Briny Brook’s foot. The waterwizard floated smiling out of the cave, the restored beams of his ice blue eyes lighting the night. He headed north for the Danken Wood.
Chapter Thirty-Four
BRINY BROOK INSTRUCTS ME
The wand whined wooden pleas of protest all the way to the edible cottage. Such and so occurred according to Briny Brook. Kar added she had heard the last and grumpiest of the protests when the waterwizard triumphantly entered the cottage. As for me, I heard nothing, suspended as I was in inky silence. The journey back from the so said inky silence was for me a strangeness of fuddlement beyond imagining. First, voices called from beyond the edges of distance. Echo tunes blurbed, unrecognizable, pushing through sticky black thickness. A formlessness of droning sound gathered around, behind, over, under. Was I me?
“Bek ... Golden Shoe ... wand ... waterwizard ... Bek, Bek, Bek!”
I blinked my eyes and sat up. I still felt gummy and so such sticky around the edges. I stared at my lavender hands. Harick. I was Harick.
“This be yours, I believe.”
I blinked my eyes, and the waterwizard swam into focus. White robe sprinkled with black moons and stars, cool ice blue eyes, fiery orange skin, long red flow of beard, I knew him at once. He held out to me the simple gold band. I flicked my eyes to my thumb where the ring should have been resting snugly secure above the simple silver and the simple lattice gold and silver weave rings. My mind yet blank, I watched while Briny Brook placed the ring in its proper place on the tip of my thumb.
“Oh, hah, I see a strange eddy. I see the problem,” said Briny Brook.
He dropped my right hand and grasped my left, lifting it up to study it closer. I was limp, without resistance. My mind had not yet gathered more than a few shavings of wit.
“What problem?” asked Kar, stepping nearer.
“The old Harick, the Babba Ja, was famously forgetful. That be why the wand so often was free to work its mischief,” said Briny Brook. “She forgot to wear the Golden Shoe. She forgot to turn the control ring under. She ...”
“Control ring? What control ring?” interrupted Kar.
I retrieved enough sense to be grateful to Kar for asking the questions my fuddled self couldn’t. I looked at my lavender left hand held in Briny Brook’s fiery orange right hand. He tapped with his thumb the ring at the base of my little finger. It was the tiny black pearl on a band of overlapping Dragon scales, gold-leafed with veins. It was the lone ring of my twenty-two whose powers were almost unknown to me.
“This one. The black pearl. Did the old Harick not tell ye to wear it with the pearl turned under?” Briny Brook asked me.
Mutely, I shook my head no.
“Forgetful. I myself whispered it to her when I brought her the Golden Shoe. Black pearl under, the wand be powerless to move or make magic on its own. Wear this ring always with the pearl turned under. Turn it up only when ye wear the Golden Shoe and desire to use the bolt magic. Be that not the clearest simplicity? Why the old Harick could not remember be shrouded in mist to me. Ye be new and young. Can ye remember?” grumbled Briny Brook, turning the ring on my little finger until the black pearl was under.
“Yoss,” I said.
He stood the wand in the corner near the cauldron. It leaned there motionless, silent. It hadn’t made a wiggle or a hum since I’d blinked back from tar. Kar and I both watched it warily. The waterwizard stepped out of the Golden Shoe and nudged it from under his robe toward me.
“Golden Shoe!” Kar and I gasped in unison.
“So it be. I found it in the Greenwilla bar years ago and kept it safe from Babba Ja Harick. Too much temptation.
Now ye have it as ye should. The black pearl be turned as it should. Complete control of the wand, in or out of your grasp, be yours. It will not speak unless ye wear the Golden Shoe and turn the pearl up. It will not move unless ye wear the Golden Shoe and turn the pearl up. It will not spell unless ye wear the Golden Shoe and so command, pearl turned up. I do believe that ye will remember now that ye have suffered a dousing of the wand’s mischief,” said Briny Brook. He turned and addressed the wand, “If not, there always be a fine Vault Island waiting for a companion.”
Happy content, we all shared windowsill brittle and cookie shingle snacks while we traded our tales until dawn. From time to time, I glanced at the motionless wand. My powers were complete.
Chapter Thirty-Five
TIME TO REST
“Well, Bek, there he goes. Now we’ve met Briny Brook.”
“Yoss, and we ... we have the ... the lost ... story of the Folding Glue! No ... Golden Shoe! Yoss! That’s it!”
“More than that. You have the Shoe. Are you going to keep it there next to the crystal ball?”
“Yoss. I ... bike ... trike ... like! ... to cook at it ... look at it. Kar, are you as fired ... tired as I am?”
“How tired are you?”
“Creaky tired.”
“Me, too. How long have we been awake?”
“Too wrong ... long. I’ll conjure us cushions to weep on ... sleep on.”
“Not for me. I’ll coil myself as beddysnake under the table. I’ll be the first anything ever to do so such. Show me the black pearl ring again. Good. Leave it that way forever. I still don’t trust the wand.”
“No need to bust ... trust it. I cow ... vow not to bruise ... lose ... command. I won’t forget as did ... as did the ... the ...”
“Babba Ja Harick. I know. I see. Nice cushion. Go ahead. Curl down. You can barely keep your eyes open, Bek. Ahh ... And the crysssstal ball ...”
“It ... snows ... glows ... safely ... safely blue.”
“Ssssafely ... And the wand ...”
“Bare ... there ... in the corner ... where it ... it will ... rest ... until ...”
“You sssstand firm in command, sssshoe and pearl, and venture to casssst a sssspell.”
“Yoss. I ... am ... the ... Harick ...”
“Your ... powers ... are ... complete. Resssst ... Ahh ... resssst.”
“............”
“.............”
THE END
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