“Oh, I see, you’re saying the clothes suit me, but you still haven’t said whether I look stupid in them,” Werrien teased.
Their conversation was interrupted when a red carpet came rolling up to them. Kristina moved out of its way, but there was really no need—the carpet stopped right at their feet. Hundreds of dwarfs, gnomes, fairies, and animals lined up on each side of the carpet.
“I feel like a Hollywood celebrity,” Kristina said to Werrien.
“Like a what?” Werrien looked puzzled.
“Oh, nothing. It’s just an Earth thing.” Kristina smiled and her eyes sparkled.
Suddenly there was a loud boom, and when they looked up to the sky, it was filled with fireworks bursting in all directions. They were different from the fireworks that Kristina would see at home, because instead of disintegrating in the air, the tiny sparkling lights actually fell to the ground and landed there. When they fell toward Kristina, she quickly dodged out of the way, thinking that they might burn her skin. Werrien found it very amusing, watching her try to avoid them, and he began to laugh.
“Oh, yeah; it would be real funny if I got burned,” Kristina said irritably.
“You think that they’ll burn you? Whatever gave you that crazy idea?” Werrien jumped directly under a few of the falling sparkles, and when they landed on him, they burst into tiny sprays of what seemed to be sparkling colored water. “They really only tickle a little.” He smiled boyishly. “Come on! Try it!” He jumped under more of them.
Kristina quickly joined him, and when the multicolored sparkles landed on her, she burst out laughing. “They do tickle,” she said gleefully. She smelled something wonderful, like fresh spring flowers. “What is that scent?”
“It’s the sparkles. When they burst open, they let out a fragrance.”
Something on the other end of the red carpet caught Kristina’s attention, and she turned to see Hester in a robin’s egg blue gown, with a matching bow in her hair; and Davina in a pumpkin-orange gown. Both girls were running toward her and Werrien. Kristina thought they looked like football players coming in for a tackle. They both stopped running when they reached Kristina and Werrien, and they stood there, panting.
“Wow! I see you guys got dressed up also,” Davina said, catching her breath.
“We both got crystal bracelets,” Hester bragged and held out her wrist for Kristina to see.
The sparkle from Kristina’s crystal necklace gleamed and caught Davina’s eye. “Holy moly! Look at the rock on her neck. It’s got to be three times the size of ours,” she said to Hester. Hester’s eyes grew wide with envy.
“Are you two all right?” Kristina asked. “You seem really tuckered out.”
“Are we all right?” Davina said excitedly. “I’d say a lot better than just all right. You’ve got to come and see all the food!”
Kristina hadn’t eaten anything more than the food that Leacha had given them for their journey, and Werrien had only had the soup from the gnome girls, so they were both very hungry. She looked to Werrien.
“What are we waiting for?” he asked. “Let’s go.”
The four of them ran down the red carpet, past the crowd on both sides that was cheering and partying. At the end of the carpet, they came upon a very long table that was lined with many ornate gold chairs. The table was set with the most beautiful silverware, tall candles, flower arrangements, and of course the food Davina had been so excited about. All kinds of dishes, such as shrimp, crab, oysters, and clams, were set on fancy plates. Beside them were colorful vegetable and fruit platters and numerous kinds of edible nuts and cheeses, soups, sauces, breads, rolls, fancy finger foods, and crackers. And the desserts! There were many desserts—cakes, cookies, puddings, molds of wobbly jelly, parfaits, pastries, and candies. In the very center of the table was a punch bowl with an ice fountain in its center. The fountain spouted bright-red, fairy blossom punch, which came up from the center of the punch bowl, ran down the sides of the ice, and then returned to the punch bowl. As the children were admiring the beautifully set table with its entire splendor, a dwarf came toward them carrying a gold tray topped with tall, slender glasses full of bubbly red fairy-blossom punch. Werrien took two glasses off the tray and handed one to Kristina and the other to Hester. Then he took two more off, one for Davina and one for himself.
Another finely dressed dwarf approached them. “May I lead the honored guest to her seat?”
“Why, yes, of course.” Hester held her hand out limply and pointed her nose to the sky.
But the dwarf didn’t go to Hester; he walked right past her, shaking his head at her hoity-toity attitude, and went up to Kristina. “Would you come with me, my fair young lady?” He bowed slightly and held his arm out to her.
Looking a little surprised, Kristina smiled brightly and took the dwarf’s arm. He led her to the very end of the table and pulled out the chair for her to sit down. Once she was seated, the dwarf pushed her chair up to the table. Then he turned to Werrien. “Come with me, Your Highness, and I’ll escort to your seat at the other end of the table.”
“Actually, I’ll do just fine to sit here beside our honored guest.”
“As you wish.” The dwarf bowed to Werrien and then turned to face Davina and Hester who were standing a little ways back from the table with slightly soured looks on their faces. They knew Kristina was the one who had saved Bernovem, but they were jealous of her special treatment.
“Please follow me, girls?” The dwarf turned and led them to the table. Davina and Hester followed the dwarf to the chairs across the table from Werrien. They waited for the dwarf to pull out their chairs, but he didn’t; instead, he just waved his hand for them to sit down. Once Davina and Hester were seated, King Warren, Queen Lafinia, and Uncle Corin were escorted to their seats at the opposite end of the table. Then Leacha and the gnome couple, who had given Kristina the basket of food during her journey, were brought to sit by Davina and Hester.
Kristina suddenly recognized the cat that had led her to the Salas Prison. It came prancing down the carpet, followed by an old gnome man who walked very slowly. He was hunched over and needed a cane to help him walk. The cat stopped at the end of the red carpet, said something to the gnome, and then pranced toward Kristina, with the gnome following it. It stopped beside her chair and stood there, purring loudly, while it waited for the old gnome to catch up with it. When the old gnome finally made it to Kristina, the cat said, “I want you to meet my master.”
The old gnome cleared his throat and said, “I am here to celebrate this lovely day, only because of a miracle, and that miracle is because of you.” His bright hazel eyes twinkled with joy. “You see, child, I was on my deathbed when my cat, Rone, came to me with a small amount of fairy blossom. I was merely seconds away from dying, but then he put it in my mouth, and I was given another chance at life. I just wanted to tell you how very grateful I am to you.” He got down on one knee, took one of Kristina’s hands, and placed a kiss on it. The dwarf then escorted the gnome and his cat to their seats at the other end of the table. Other guests also were escorted to their seats—Ugan, Retzel (with Raymond sitting on his shoulder) Retzel’s wife, Mitzi, and their child.
Raymond was admiring the new crystal necklace he wore around his neck, and when he finally took his eyes off of it, he noticed Kristina sitting at the end of the table. “There you are!” He jumped off Retzel’s shoulder and onto the table, knocking over Retzel’s punch―Retzel caught the glass before it spilled all over the gold-and-white lace tablecloth. Then he zigzagged between the delectable dishes, only stopping once to eat a sweet pickle skewered to an olive, and some sort of sea urchin.
“Raymond, where are your manners?” Kristina whispered loudly. “You just can’t go tromping between the food dishes to come and talk. You’re embarrassing me.”
Hester turned to Davina. “Oh, my gosh!” she said nervously. “There’s a swarm of glowing bees coming this way!”
Werrien chuckled at the wide-eyed lo
ok on Hester’s face. “That’s not a swarm of bees. It’s the fairies coming to join us.”
“Don’t they look beautiful?” Kristina watched the fairies move like twinkling balls.
King Oreadas, with Clover and Looper at his side, led the fairy colony to the table. They made their way to the fountain in the middle of it and encircled it. Then one by one, they landed at the base of the punch bowl, where there were tiny velvet pillows of all colors set around it—one pillow for each fairy. Beside the pillows were tiny plates, and on top of the plates were cutlery and glasses for drinking, so small that they were very hard to see.
Kristina turned her attention back to Raymond, who had snuck a chocolate-dipped strawberry and was busily stuffing it down his throat.
“Now what were you saying?” Kristina asked.
“I was just about to ask you…”
Kristina didn’t hear his next words, because the certain dwarf was blowing on the ivory horn again. Its sound was so loud that it startled Raymond, and he quickly crawled under the edge of an oyster platter. The platter tilted and the oozing, smelly delicacies nearly slid off onto the tablecloth, but Werrien caught the edge of the platter before they did so.
“Ladies and gentleman, may I have your attention?” the dwarf said. The guests fell silent. “I would like to propose a toast to our true King and Queen of Bernovem!” He lifted high his glass of fairy-blossom punch. The guests now filled every seat at the table, and all of their glasses went up in the air. The fairies’ glasses went up as well, filled with drops of punch that had splattered off the fountain. The dwarf cleared his throat and continued, “May our beloved king and queen be blessed with wisdom, strength, power, and happiness and may they reign long over our precious land, Bernovem.” He brought his glass down and took a sip from it, and the rest of the guests did the same.
Kristina tugged on Raymond’s tail to get him out from under the platter. “What is it you want to ask me?”
“I just wanted to say—”
“One more toast before we eat,” the dwarf said, raising his glass in the air again. “This is to the chosen one, who delivered the Warble to its resting place.” He turned to face Kristina, and all the guests turned in their seats to face her, too. Kristina quickly pulled Raymond onto her lap, so he wouldn’t be seen on the table. “I want to tell you how grateful we are to you, for coming into our land and saving it from that horrible Sentiz.” The dwarf’s eyes sparkled as he looked at Kristina. “You, my dear Kristina, will always be remembered in Bernovem.” Then he took a sip from his glass, and the rest of the guests did the same. “Now, let us feast!”
Kristina looked down at Raymond sitting on her lap. “Hurry up and tell me what you want to say!”
Raymond sat up on his hind legs to look up at Kristina. With his ears slightly back, he said, “I was thinking I might—”
Before he could finish, a dwarf and a grubby boy on a horse galloped up to the table and stopped abruptly beside Kristina. All eyes fell on the grubby boy sitting behind the dwarf—it was Graham Kepler.
40
The dwarf dismounted the horse and then helped a very weak and hungry Graham down as well. Graham was too embarrassed to look at the guests who were staring at him; he kept his gaze on the ground. When Hester saw him, she jumped up from her chair. “Graham! Where have you been?” she demanded angrily.
Graham didn’t answer.
At the other end of the table, King Warren stood up. “Please allow the boy to clean up and change. Then he will be fit to join us.”
The rest of the guests mumbled in agreement but not Hester. She gave Graham an angry glare before sitting back down in her chair.
The dwarf led Graham to one of the tents to clean up and change, and the guests all began eating the delectable food that was in front of them. Kristina and Werrien watched as Davina piled her plate with every single type of food she could get her hands on. Hester skipped the main courses and loaded her plate with sweets and pastries, the whole time complaining that Graham had caused her to worry unnecessarily. As for Raymond, he made himself a pile of nuts, cheese, and fruit and was so busy eating that he forgot all about telling Kristina what he wanted to say to her. Kristina enjoyed the feast and tried foods she had never tasted before, like olives and sharp cheeses, and she found them to be quite tasty.
As the guests enjoyed good food and conversation, Graham finally showed up at the table with his face washed and his hair slicked back. He wore new clothes—black breeches, long white socks, black shoes with shiny silver buckles, and a red vest that overlapped a white shirt with ruffles around the collar and sleeves. In the center of the ruffles, at chest level, sat a tiny crystal pin that held the ruffles in place.
When Davina saw Graham, she began to laugh, showing the food that had gotten stuck in her braces. “Cute, Graham! Real cute,” she said, inadvertently spitting some food toward Werrien’s face. Werrien ducked, and it hit Graham on his vest.
“Why don’t you say it instead of spraying it!” Graham said scornfully.
“There’s a chair for you on the other side of the table,” Werrien pointed out to Graham.
Graham sat down between Hester and Davina. “If I’d had it my way, I’d have never come back.” He piled large amounts of potatoes, bread, cheese, and crackers on his plate.
“Where did you go?” Hester asked. “I can’t believe that we were actually worried about you.”
“Speak for yourself,” Davina said, while stuffing her mouth full of jumbo shrimp.
“I don’t owe any of you an explanation!” Graham didn’t want anyone to know that he had escaped down the back of the mountain with Sentiz.
~ ~ ~
While he was still tied up in the cave with Davina and Hester, Sentiz was on the ground, close by him. She threw small pebbles at him to get his attention, and when she finally did, his eyes met hers and he suddenly remembered her from the boat ride to Treachery Island. She whispered to him that if he would help save her, she would let him live in the palace with her and she would allow him to be next in line to the throne. As Graham listened to her voice and gazed into her dark eyes, she began to hypnotize him. Under her spell, he began to feel that he would do anything for her, even if it meant risking his own life. He decided not to tell Hester and Davina about Sentiz; instead, he would wait for an opportune time to sneak away when the girls had their backs turned. But when the cave walls started crumbling and there was no light to see even a few feet ahead of him, he never found his opportune time that is until when the other children were escaping. Werrien held the torch, which gave Graham just enough light to see down the cave, and that is when he went to her. He found Sentiz and helped her out the back of the cave. Once outside, they met up with Ramon and Rumalock, and they escaped from the mountain. They traveled until they came to the Indra River, where there was a raft near its bank. Rumalock, Ramon, and Graham helped the injured Sentiz onto the raft, and then got on themselves. Soon after, they began to cross the wild river. While on the raft, Graham couldn’t help but notice that Sentiz’s appearance began to change. Her face no longer had that smooth pale complexion that he’d thought was so beautiful; now, it looked older and wrinkled. She began to develop warts, one on her right eyelid, and another under her left nostril. Her eyebrows grew bushier, and her teeth became pointier—and then one fell out of her mouth, right before his eyes. Her mouth shriveled and sunk in, and her whole body became smaller and frailer. Her shiny black hair became thinner and turned a dull gray. You’ve turned into an old hag! Graham thought. Of course he didn’t find her attractive any longer, but he was still glad he had helped her, for now that she was old and feeble, it meant that he was closer to becoming the King of Bernovem.
All was going well on the raft ride until Ramon turned to Graham and said, “I don’t think we’ll be needing you any longer.” Then he pushed Graham off the raft, into the icy cold turbulent water. After that, all Graham could remember was being wakened by a dwarf, who’d found him on the river
’s bank shivering and near death. The dwarf opened his canteen and gave Graham a drink of hot fairy-blossom tea. Then he placed a warm woolen blanket around him. When Graham had regained a little of his strength, the dwarf helped him onto his horse, planning to bring him back to the other children. Graham wondered about Sentiz and what she had said about him being able to live at the palace and be next in line to the throne. He didn’t believe that she had anything to do with his being pushed off the raft. No, it was that stupid oaf of a son of hers. He was surely jealous.
Now, Davina and Hester continued to interrogate Graham as to where he had been, but he wouldn’t tell any of it. Their continual bickering was getting on Kristina’s and Werrien’s nerves, and they found it hard to enjoy their dinner. They watched Davina shovel food in her mouth and Graham pour so much gravy on his potatoes that it ran over the sides of his plate.
Kristina suddenly felt the crystal around her neck warm up, which she had forgotten about until now. She took it in her hand and saw a rainbow of colors swirling around inside of it. Then she looked over at Davina’s and Hester’s bracelets. The colors were also swirling inside their small crystals, but the two of them were too busy eating and squabbling to notice. She looked over to Raymond’s necklace and then to Graham’s pin, and the same was happening. As she watched her own crystal, staring into its dazzling colors, all the clinking and clanking of glasses and cutlery and the celebrating and arguing around the table seemed to grow distant. She began to feel very relaxed and peaceful, and the colors in the crystal seemed to entrance her. Suddenly she felt something on her shoulder. She turned and saw that it was Werrien’s hand. “Would you like to go for a ride?” he asked. “There’s something really neat that I’d like to show you.”
“Yes, I’d like that very much.” Kristina felt relieved to be able to get away from the other children.
Kristina rode Taysha, and Werrien rode Lisheng into the meadow. They rode until the clamor of the celebration grew faint and the sound of the sea grew louder. The scent of flowers mingled together with the scent of sea water filled the air. The moon illuminated the tall green grass ahead of them. A large rock came into view, and Werrien led the way to it. Once there, he dismounted Lisheng and then climbed on top of the rock. Kristina dismounted Taysha, and Werrien helped her up onto the rock as well. Ahead of them, beyond the bluffs and cliffs, was the Citnalta Sea shimmering in the moonlight.
The Warble Page 23
