Chapter Twenty-One
The Queen stood in front of one of her mirrors, disgusted with the scene before her. Beantown was a war zone. Bams were burning in the background, buildings were obviously pillaged, and some were covered in graffiti. She could hear the faint sound of screams coming through the magic glass.
The Troll King stood before her, his hands on his hips. He had soot on one side of his face, and he did not seem happy to be summoned by her.
“What do you want?” the Troll King asked.
“You are inviting trouble,” the Queen said.
‘Til tell you something,” the Troll King said. “War is great fun when there’s no enemy.”
Behind him, a crowd of locals were being herded toward the river by Trolls. The locals looked beaten and bloodied, the Trolls victorious.
“You are very stupid, even for a Troll,” the Queen said. “Wendell’s kingdom borders all the others. They’re not going to let it fall without a fight. The other kingdoms will send in troops and crush you.”
“I’ll kill them, too,” the Troll King said. “I’m not scared of anybody.”
She leaned toward the mirror. Something had to interest this creature. “Listen to me. I will give you everything you desire, but you must leave Beantown. Now.”
A battalion of Trolls marched behind him. They had banners and were singing marching songs.
“Beantown’s old news,” the Troll King said. “We’ve got control of every village within twenty miles of here. And it’s not stopping there. I’m taking my half of the kingdom right now. Want to make something of it?”
He walked away from the mirror, laughing. She tried to summon him back, but he did not come. With a wave of her hand, she got rid of his image and replaced it with another.
The Huntsman stood in the woods, gazing at her in a hand mirror. He did not seem upset that she had contacted him.
She said, “Wendell’s council don’t believe the letter I sent, telling them Wendell was recovering in his hunting lodge. I watched their stupid meeting and they have sent a man to the lodge. He must not return.”
“It is done,” the Huntsman said.
The Queen smiled at him. He, at least, was a worthy ally.
Virginia followed Wolf deeper into the forest. Her father walked behind her, the wheels of poor Prince Wendell’s cart squeaking in a regular rhythm. She found that almost comforting. Everything else was not.
It was dark, even though it was the middle of the day. The trees were so close together that she had to search for pockets of light. In the distance, she could hear screeches and howls. They were unlike any noises she’d heard before, yet they made the hair rise on the back of her neck.
But those noises weren’t what unnerved her the most. It was the whistle of the wind, the groaning of the trees, and a sound she couldn’t identify, a sound almost like breathing, as if the entire forest were alive.
“Hey, is it just me,” her father said, “or can you hear moaning?”
“You’ll hear lots of things,” Wolf said. “The forest is magical.”
He sounded so calm about that. Virginia had now spent two days in the presence of magic, and she still wasn’t used to it. Nor was she used to the threats that seemed to come from everywhere.
If it wasn’t an old woman warning that they’d all be killed, it was Trolls chasing them, or horrible magic fish granting her father’s wishes. Wolf led them to a clearing and Virginia groaned. This was a prime example of what she had just been thinking about.
Dead animals were strung up all around them: rabbit, deer, even a bear. Hanging from the bottom of another signpost were these words:
If You Are Reading This,
You Are Trespassing.
All Trespassers Will Be Considered Poachers.
All Poachers Will Be Shot.
—By Order of the Huntsman
And beneath that was a large circle of dried blood, fur, and feathers, apparently to make the point to all species. Virginia didn’t like the forest, the clearing, or the sign. Especially the sign. It showed a knowledge of Aristotelian logic that made her shudder.
The Huntsman was smart.
“Do you actually know where we’re going?” Virginia asked Wolf, trying to keep the worry out of her voice.
“I am following my nose,” the Wolf said.
The screech of the wheels on Prince Wendell’s cart stopped. Virginia and Wolf turned at the same time. Virginia’s father was using all of his strength to pull Wendell’s cart from a rut in the narrow path.
“Tony!” Wolf shouted. “Don’t move!”
Her father looked startled. “What? Why?”
Wolf picked up a stick and threw it just in front of Tony. There was a loud slam as a concealed bear trap snapped shut.
Virginia felt all the blood leave her face. If it had caught her father, it would have taken his leg off.
“That’s it,” Tony said. “Let’s get back on the road.”
“No, come on,” Wolf said. “Keep moving. Let’s get as far as we can in daylight.”
“Daylight?” Virginia asked. This time she let her nervousness in and she didn’t care if he heard it. “What do you mean in daylight? We’re not going to spend the night in here. Exactly how big is this forest?”
“The Thousand Mile Forest is approximately one thousand miles long.”
Virginia thought about that. How long would it take them to walk through the forest? A human being only traveled a mile every twenty minutes or so, maybe slower if she was with her father who was dragging a solid gold dog on a cart. That meant, at best, three miles an hour. There were twenty-four hours in a day, but a person could only walk about twelve of those so, three times twelve was thirty-six. A person could reasonably do thirty-six miles a day. And thirty-six went into a thousand-—
Her mind boggled. She forced herself to concentrate on the math. She knew she knew it. Math was easy for her. She tried to ignore the growing darkness. The forest was spooky enough with little rays of light coming in. Now that the light was fading, the place was becoming absolutely terrifying.
Twenty-seven-point-seven times. So thirty-six into a thousand equaled twenty-seven-point-seven, which meant that it would take a month to walk through this entire place.
Virginia shuddered. She’d only been here two days. A month seemed like forever.
“We can’t walk all night,” Tony said.
“Yes, we can,” Wolf said.
“Shhh,” Virginia said. “There are lights up ahead.”
They crept to a clearing deep in the forest, where three wagons formed a small encampment. They looked like gypsy wagons from old Bela Lugosi movies. Faintly, she heard music-—fiddle music. It made her want to dance.
“What do we do?” Tony asked.
“Come and join us, of course.”
Virginia started. The voice had come from behind them. She turned. Two men in colorful clothing stood as close to her as a person could get. They were carrying axes and firewood. They didn’t seem menacing, but she didn’t trust anything she saw in this place.
Wolf, on the other hand, looked very nervous. As the men led Virginia, her father, and Wolf into camp, Wolf leaned over to her and whispered, “They are all poachers. They will kill us if they so choose. Do not refuse anything they offer, but do not consume anything you have not already seen them eat first.”
“It’s just like eating at your grandmother’s house, Virginia,” Tony said.
She glared at him. He was still dragging poor Prince Wendell. She wondered what the Gypsies would think of that.
Their camp wasn’t as temporary as it had seemed from the clearing. All around there were skins and drying meat from the animals the Gypsies had killed. In one area, there were six wooden cages, filled with birds. The birds were still alive. They watched as Virginia and her band came into camp.
There were about a dozen Gypsies. One of them was throwing a large knife at a tree and didn’t stop as Virginia walked past.
&nb
sp; A shy boy of nine or ten sat near one of the wagons. He watched as Virginia passed; then he saw Wolf. The boy’s eyes lit up, but he didn’t move. The boy had a very intense expression on his face. Wolf didn’t look that unusual. Did the boy know him?
They reached the center of the camp. It was lit by lanterns and fires. Virginia didn’t realize how spooky flickering light was until she saw it against the utter darkness of the forest.
The light moved, and more than once she glanced into the shadows, thinking she saw something.
The music was even more intoxicating up close. Virginia could feel it like a live thing, encouraging her to dance. The Gypsies asked her and her friends to sit, which they did. They had interrupted the Gypsies’ dinner. Without asking, a Gypsy woman dished up plates for all three of them.
Virginia took hers without looking at it. Wolf held his. Her father turned his food over with his knife. He took a bite, and Virginia looked at him wamingly. Had the Gypsies eaten some of theirs? She hadn’t noticed.
He chewed the way he did when he was given something he hated, and then smiled unconvincingly.
“What do you call this?” he asked. “Suckling hedgehog?”
Virginia glanced at Wolf to see if he could smooth this over, but he was looking at the dark-haired boy.
At that moment, the fiddler finished a beautiful piece of music.
“Your turn, stranger,” he said to Tony.
“I don’t play.”
“Then sing us a song,” the Gypsy said.
“I’m not really a singer.”
Wolf finally turned his attention back to what was going on. “Sing anything, Anthony,” Wolf said softly. “Let’s not insult them.”
“I can’t think of anything,” Tony said.
Virginia couldn’t either. She glanced over her shoulder. The big Gypsy in the back was sharpening his knives. He saw her look at him.
“Is our hospitality not worth a song?” he asked.
Her father grinned his little suck-up grin and glanced at Virginia. She shrugged. Then he started, in a wavery voice, to sing the old Cher song, “Gypsies, Tramps, and Thieves.” Surprisingly, he remembered the verses, and even more surprisingly, his voice got stronger and became rather nice as it went along.
She hadn’t heard her father sing in a long time. Even if the song was not really what she would have chosen.
As her father sang, Virginia noted another Gypsy man studying Prince Wendell. The man ran his hands along Wendell’s back. Virginia wanted to stop him, to claim that Wendell was hers, but she was afraid of insulting him.
When her father finished singing, the man said to him, “Is he real gold?”
Virginia felt her heart sink. How would they get out of this one?
“Oh, no, no,” Tony said. “It’s gold paint. He’s one of a pair I bought for my driveway, you know, they’re both going to sit on the front gates.”
The Gypsy man seemed to accept the explanation. Virginia stood to stretch her legs. She wasn’t sure she could sleep here. It was so strange.
She walked toward the birdcages.
“Set me free.”
Virginia jumped. She looked both ways, but didn’t see where the voice had come from.
“Set me free.”
She peered into the cage. One of the birds had spoken to her. She wasn’t as surprised by that as she would have been just a few hours ago. Maybe she was getting used to this place.
“Please set us free,” another bird begged. “We’re just little victims.”
Wolf came up behind her. She could feel him before she heard him.
“They are magic birds,” he said softly. “Very rare, very hard to catch. Only the Gypsies know how to catch them.”
“Little victims,” one bird said. “You understand that, girlie? Little victims.”
Virginia felt Wolf’s warmth against her back. “What will happen to them?”
“They will have their wings broken and then be sold to rich people.”
“We won’t, .will we?” one bird asked. “That’s awful.”
“Some people eat them,” Wolf said, “believing they absorb their magic.”
“They don’t, do they?” the bird said. “That’s terrible.”
“I have six little babies waiting to be fed,” the other bird said. “They’re starving to death without me.”
“It’s so cruel,” Virginia said.
Suddenly the door to one of the caravans opened, and an ancient crone emerged. Virginia would never have used that word, not even mentally, but she knew of no other. The woman looked like she was six hundred years old and had been the meanest person on the planet for five hundred and ninety-nine of those years. Virginia felt her heart begin to race.
The crone fixed her glare on Wolf, then Tony, and then Virginia. Virginia had never seen eyes like that, and she knew her own fear showed in her face.
This woman, or so someone whispered, was the Gypsies’ Queen. Virginia was beginning to think being a Queen in this place was not a good idea.
“Set up the table,” the Gypsy Queen said.
The other Gypsies hurried to do her bidding. Quickly they set up a table with a cloth over it and a chair at one end. They placed a tarot deck in front of her, and a bowl of red liquid. She beckoned Virginia’s father to sit in the chair. Virginia was relieved that the crone didn’t ask her to sit.
The Gypsy Queen dealt the cards. “I see great wealth coming to you,” she said to Tony.
He smiled. “I like the sound of that.”
“And passing straight through,” the Gypsy Queen said.
“That was just the bean I had,” Tony said. “What about the future?”
“I find The Fool,” the Gypsy Queen said as she turned over another card.
“What’s that card?” Tony asked, pointing to the next card she turned over.
“The Fool’s friend, The Oaf,” the Queen said, turning over more cards. “He is joined by The Buffoon and The Village Idiot. And behind him, The Cret—”
“Can we get back to the financial advice?” Tony asked.
‘ ‘There is nothing beneath the surface,’ ’ the Gypsy Queen said. “I will read the girl.”
Virginia shook her head. She didn’t want this woman looking into her life. “No, thanks.”
The Gypsy Queen stared at Virginia. Virginia stared back. The Queen’s stare grew more and more malevolent. Or perhaps Virginia only feared that was what was happening.
Finally she took a deep breath. What would it hurt? Tarot cards existed in her world. They didn’t work.
Virginia sat in the chair her father had just vacated.
The Gypsy Queen dealt some cards, then stared at them for a moment before speaking. “You are full of anger. You conceal much about yourself.”
The Gypsy Queen reached into her dress and removed a pair of scissors. With age-crabbed hands she reached forward and grabbed a lock of Virginia’s hair. Virginia tried not to cringe as the Gypsy Queen snipped it off. She threw the lock of hair in the red liquid.
“You have a great destiny that reaches way back in time,” she said.
Virginia snorted. “I’m a waitress, so no prizes so far.” The Gypsy Queen looked at her hair as the strands separated in the liquid. ‘ ‘You have never forgiven your mother for leaving you.”
That was enough. Virginia stood. “As I said, I don’t really want my fortune read.”
Wolf slipped into the chair, a smile on his face. He held his hand out like a child. Virginia moved out of the way, relieved that he had taken her place.
“Love and romance, please,” Wolf said as the Gypsy Queen took his hand. “Marriage, children, how long I will have to wait until the creamy girl of my dreams says yes, that sort of thing.”
“I see death,” the Gypsy Queen said. “A young girl dead. Tom to pieces.”
Wolf’s smile faded. “Oh, no. I was thinking more along the lines of two boys and three girls—you know, a family—” “I see a fire being built,” the Gy
psy Queen said. “You are going to be burnt on it.”
“No.” Wolf tried to pull his hand away, but the Gypsy Queen kept a firm grip on it.
“You are not what you seem. You are a wolf!”
Knives came out all over camp. Virginia had never seen so many weapons in one place. They glinted in the moving light, like the eyes of the Gypsies themselves.
Wolf didn’t seem alarmed by this. He had stopped struggling. He was looking at the Gypsy Queen. “I am a wolf,” he said softly, “and so is your grandson.”
Virginia looked at the boy in the comer. He was watching just as intently.
The Gypsy Queen gazed at Wolf for a long moment, then smiled and released his hand. “You must stay with us tonight,” she said. “Friends must stay together in the dangerous forest.” The word “friend” reassured Virginia a little. She would rather be in this heavily guarded place, trying to get some sleep, than walking through the forest in the dark. She said as much to Wolf later, who gave her a measuring look, as if he wasn’t sure he would rather be here.
Eventually, Virginia lay down by the fire. Her father was beside her, and Wolf was nowhere to be seen. She craned her neck and finally saw Wolf talking to the young boy. There was a tenderness and patience in Wolf’s manner that Virginia had never seen before.
She smiled and watched for a time. But her eyelids got heavier and heavier, and eventually she fell asleep.
She dreamed she was in the forest. It was twilight or perhaps full daylight. She couldn’t tell. But she could see Wolf about twenty feet away from her. In the strange light, he looked very predatory. She closed her eyes for an instant, and when she opened them, her heart jumped. Wolf was closer.
“You moved,” she said.
“No, I didn’t.” Wolf was standing absolutely still, just as he had before. The darkness was becoming night. The light was fading fast, and Virginia did not want to be in the woods in the dark. She glanced over her shoulder and when she looked back, she saw Wolf.
“You moved,” she said.
“I haven’t moved an inch,” Wolf said.
But he had. He was only ten feet away from her. And he was standing still, smiling a weird smile. She felt as if she were prey. She finally understood why people talked of deer getting trapped in the headlights. She had this funny feeling that, if she moved, he would be right beside her.
The 10th Kingdom Page 19
