“What riddle? We don’t even know what riddle? Where’s the riddle?”
“First, the Waterwheel. Second, the riddle.”
“Third, we’re stuck here forever.”
“Third, even if we can’t solve the riddle, Dak and Ragaba will rescue us.”
“You think so such?”
“I believe so such.”
“Well then, hurry up! Shift to your fastest flyer, whatever it is.”
“My fastest that can haul you along with me is Striped Green and Gray Racing Dragon.”
“So such then. We’ll fly a great circle and make it ever wider, searching all the while for this Waterwheel of Time.”
“……Climb aboard.”
“I … Oh! … You might have allowed me to get a good grip first!”
“Are you dizzy? Maybe you should play Jo Bree.”
“Not dizzy. Watch the sparkles on the sea. Make the circle wider. Go faster!”
“Bek, do you think it means something that the sparkles off over down there are all green?”
“Ah, I see. It might. Drop down. Let’s look.”
“The waves seem agitated. What happens when seas boil?”
“Something rises from the depths. Such happens in many a Gwer drollek story. Remember the … Oh, something IS there. Kar … Kar … Fly up, Kar! Fly up!”
“Bek, settle. It’s merely a wonder. So such I believe that we have found the Waterwheel of Time.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
The Waterwheel of Time
Rising ponderously from the sparkling sea was a Wheel so such grandly immense it dominated the newly pinking dawn sky, fair truly almost blotting it out. Spokes thicker than the thickest turret tower sprouted heavily from its hub. Its rim shined bright liquid white so such as had the first of the Ramps. Each spoke blazed a different color. Seven spokes, seven colors. Red. Orange. Yellow. Green. Blue. Purple. Gold. The Wheel, when it broke entirely free of the sea, stood still, brightly blazing. I had a terror grip on Kar’s striped Dragon neck. Kar settled onto the sea. The both of us were unable to speak. Our heads, her Dragon, my bendo dreen, were bent back full stretch so such that we could stare up at the Wheel, which dripped a steady rain of sparkle water. From the bright liquid white hub of the Wheel the gold spoke pointed straight up. Chimes sounded. Jo Bree jumped from my belt and began to pulse, turn and turn, the colors of the spokes. As it pulsed, it sang:
“Before the golden spoke completes one turn
The final Realm riddle you must learn
And after you learn it, you must be
The one to solve it on the sparkling sea
And if you solve it, you will find
Destiny, duty, and peace of mind.”
Jo Bree faded to flush yellow pink and wobbled its way back to my belt. Chimes sounded. The Wheel, with a wrenching groan, moved. The thick blazing red spoke, on the left flank of the gold, now was the spoke pointing so such straight up.
“What’s the riddle? What’s the riddle? What’s the riddle?” I babbled at Kar.
“I don’t know. I don’t know. I don’t know,” she Dragon-hissed back.
I snatched Jo Bree from my belt.
“What’s the riddle? What’s the riddle? What’s the riddle?” I repeated with by far the fullest measure of urgency possible.
I felt a sudden splash of relief because Jo Bree again began to pulse colors. I released the Flute to the air and waited for it to sing. It sang:
“Jrabe jroon, for you I have a question
If you are now
What you have always been
And will ever be
Who are you?”
The Flute faded to flush yellow pink and floated back to my belt.
“That’s the riddle! It’s for you, Kar! It’s for you! It’s easy! It’s ridiculous!” I shouted happily.
“Me? How?” she hisspered while we continued to bob on the sparkling waves under the Waterwheel of Time.
Chimes sounded. The Wheel moved. The orange spoke pointed straight up. The steady rain continued to fall.
“It moved. The Wheel moved again. What’s the answer? Before the gold spoke gets all the way around, you have to say it. If you are now what you have always been and will ever be, who are you? Simple. Answer, Kar!” I said.
Chimes sounded. The Wheel moved with a creaking groan. The yellow spoke pointed straight up. Kar blinked her Racing Dragon eyes. She shook her head. She darted her tongue. Wisps of smoke plumed from her nostrils. She looked fuddled.
“Say something, Kar!” I screamed.
“I … I don’t really know who I am … or be,” she said quietly.
Chimes sounded. The Wheel groaned. The green spoke pointed straight up.
“You are the first jrabe jroon! You are Karro of Thorns! You are bendo dreen, Dragon, winged cloud, a shapeshifter sorceress! You are Rakara! You are my friend!” I shouted, screamed, whined, urged.
Chimes sounded. A creak, a groan. The blue spoke pointed straight up.
“Kar, Kar, we’ll be stuck here. The gold will be pointing straight up again in just two groans of the Wheel. Such! Say who you are! Say it! It’s not hard!” I begged.
Chimes sounded. A terrible groan. The purple spoke pointed straight up. I sagged on the neck of my jark dweg best friend. I closed my eyes and pushed my face against her scaly striped skin. I waited for the chimes to doom us.
“Jebb,” said Kar in a clear strong voice.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Jebb
I sat on silver sands. I doubleblinked my eyes. Overhead the sky was familiar and blue. Clouds were white streaks in the distance. Gentle surf nibbled at the beach, retreated, came forward to nibble again. A slight breeze, warm, played on my face. My eyes, I blinked ‘em once more. Where was I? I felt I knew. Where was Kar? So such I did not know. Is this Fan Wa’s Island? I thought. The sands ARE silver. I sifted some of it through my fingers. Gwer drollek stories about Sill, Fiss, Nobb, others. Lovey, the Princess With the Lovely Foot!
“Bek!” sounded a glad cry from behind me, interrupting my tumble of thoughts.
I whirled a half turn and was met by the sight of an Acrotwist Clown standing posed atop a boulder, yellow-gloved hands on hips. The Clown’s white-painted face was sprinkled with red stars. Yellow eyes gleamed above a wide painted red smile. A spiral of dark green hair curved up to a point from the top of an otherwise bald white head. The Clown wore a floppy blue neck ruffle above a red-spotted white jumpsuit and long yellow slapshoes.
“Kar?” I guessed. There was a something so such about the pose and the eyes.
“Kar to you, and Jebb to solve a riddle,” she laughed. “Welcome to Fan Wa’s Island, Bek. We have answered the challenge!”
She sprang from the rock and cartwheeled to me. She gripped my hands, and we danced and spun in glee on the silver sands. She plucked my chonka from my belt and began to shake and tap the liveliest of the bendo dreen Celebration rhythms. I took up Jo Bree and followed along, dancing the tune in MY liveliest notes. Soon I was exhausted. Exhausted!
Tired! HUNGRY!! I dropped to the silver sands. Kar, so such Jebb, collapsed happily next to me.
“I’m tired and hungry,” I said. “Why now finally? And why are you Jebb? And why was that the right answer?”
“I will explain if you will settle, Bek. Here, have a pebble cake,” said Jebb, and she handed me a lump of cake from one of her round red patch pockets.
Never ever ever have I tasted so such a delicious morsel. Truth. I’ve had Clover honey, sweet and sour thorns, capp melons, jellies, ladge cakes with oat compote, everything all a lot, and nothing comes close to the lump of pebble cake I tasted then and there. I nearly swooned, but I wouldn’t allow it. My eagerness to hear Kar’s explanation kept me wide-eyed and alert.
“Remember the Ricks, Bek, and their wunce wuzzas?” she began. “I remembered ‘em, too, especially the last one before we reached the Second Realm. It went ‘Wunce wuzza delicate web, Trembling at sea’s lowest ebb, S
itting to listen, admiring its glisten, Was an Acrotwist Clown known as Jebb’. It struck me strange, Bek, and it nagged at me in a corner of my mind for all of the other whiles as we came down through the Realms. It jumped forward when I was confused by the Waterwheel of Time turning.”
“Why did it jump forward then?” I asked.
“Because, Bek, on that morning when Dak gave me all of the secret hints and clues, we were sitting over there among the boulders. While listening to him talk, I watched the water. A web had been constructed between a small pair of boulders near the shore. Its delicate strands glistened. I watched it and the water. I listened to Dak. So such I tell you that when I was confused by the riddle and couldn’t decide whether to say bendo dreen or jrabe or Karro of Thorns or Rakara, into my mind bounced the wunce wuzza together with a picture of me sitting and listening while staring at a web which was delicate and glistening. So I said, ‘Jebb.’”
“Mmmmm,” I was barely able to say before I sank into a long and dreamless sleep.
Chapter Forty
A Final Surprise
“Wake up, Bek. Soon ye must leave.”
“Hmmmmmm?”
“Wake up.”
“Rakara? Kar? What is this? Where…? Weren’t you an Acrotwist…? Are those…?”
“Settle, Bek. Ye be lying on a trampoline in the Great Hall of Acrotwist Clowns. Ye have been sleeping so such for three full days. I have been learning to tend Fan Wa’s Clock as Jebb. Ragaba and Dak have been teaching me. Now it be time. I will shift to Kar because … it’s time to say good-bye.”
“Good-bye? I’m all fuddled and muddled. Why goodbye?”
“We passed the Realms to the Realm for an unrevealed reason. Truth. The challenge was for me to discover my duty. Such was so. Ragaba has said it. Dak has said it.”
“Ragaba and Dak. They have said it. Where are they? What did they say?”
“They are waiting on the sands to take you home.”
“Me? What about you?”
“I stay as Jebb to tend Fan Wa’s Clock. It is my duty.”
“But the other Acrotwist Clowns. Aren’t they …?”
“After you have departed, Bek, they will return on Cloud Castle City. I must be alone here to greet ‘em. So such because, you see, I am for to be their …. QUEEN!!”
“Queen! Queen! … Queen?”
“Oh, yes, that’s my surprise! I spent my younglinghood with you, my best friend, never knowing that I was Rakara, jrabe jroon. I grew up as Karro of Thorns, bendo dreen, the first jrabe jroon to do so such. Now I will be Jebb, First Queen of the Acrotwist Clowns. Bek, I am to be a Queen!”
“This is a Gwer drollek! Pots of ink! Oat parchment! I’ll … We’ll … be apart?”
“Bek, you are the Chronicler. Your duty is to write the Gwer drollek stories. You write ‘em! You were chosen by the witch. I, remember this, be the jrabe jroon sorceress Rakara! I be your jark dweg best friend forever! Apart? Yes, for a time. Ye need to scratch with your quill all about the Lie Berry and the Ricks and the oddly strange younglings who live in a red teapot on a blue boat and how ye saw through the fleckrunner tricks and how we came to the Realm and I knew in a flash the answer to who I was. Ye need to write this down. I need to be Queen Jebb of the Acrotwist Clowns! I will visit ye as winged cloud from time to time, and when ye have finished scribing the tale of the Realms, I will fetch ye here as Royal Guest of the Queen! So
such glorious fun it will be! Pie fights! Trampoline! Trapeze!”
“I’ll write the story. I’ll write it quickly.”
“What sort of Dragon would ye like me to be to carry ye to the sands?”
“No Dragon. Carry me in your bony arms.”
“But your ribs …”
“I want to feel ‘em …”
Chapter Forty-One
The Story Ends
And she carried me in her bony Rakara arms to the silver sands. And there I met Dak the jroon whose golden robe WAS a wonder and whose storm gray eyes flashed with a sort of hidden kindness. And Ragaba was there, floating upside down, her dark green mantle pooling above her. And we had a lively lengthy conversation about when Ragaba was Zinna in the hedge and about the Ledgemoon and the Waterwheel of Time and about the Realms, each of ‘em, and about Kar as Queen of the Acrotwist Clowns. And Kar shifted from jrabe to Jebb and showed us some of the handsprings and flips she had been practicing. And Dak and Ragaba shifted to Dragons, Dak golden, Ragaba ruby with white-tipped red fringe feathers on her membraned wings. And Kar shifted to Kar and gripped me tight before I climbed aboard Ragaba’s ruby red neck. And we flew away high above the Wide Great Sea, above the Orrun Mountains, and over the Chasm of Kraan. And I spied far below the hedge of home. And the Dragons Dak and Ragaba landed in the meadow next to the Well of Shells, where I bid ‘em farewell, knowing that they were on their way to visit the Realm of Violet, Lionel, Guy and Slingsby. And when I entered the hedge to share my tale with the rest of the bendo dreen, I was jumbled into confusion on learning that I had been gone for a full FIVE bar years. And so such I came to my hut to write out the story of the Realms. And as I have been doing so such, days and weeks, even months, have passed. And I HAVE been visited four times by my jark dweg best friend Kar. And she has shared her Queenly experiences among the returned Acrotwist Clowns with me at this table where I sit writing and where she, as Rakara, is swirling her mantle impatiently and urging me to hurry up and finish so such that she can fetch me to be Royal Guest of the Queen on Fan Wa’s Island and throw a pie in my face. And I AM hurrying. And she is waiting for me to put down my quill right now. I will, but oh, I wonder what our next adventure will be.
* * *
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