Taken by the Cowboy (34 page)

They had shared many
special times together, laughing and giggling, wrapped up in a warm
quilt, while Callie’s mom told the next instalment of the magical
story.

But those days were
gone now.

Since her mom had died
two years ago, Callie had felt out of sorts inside, like a huge
part of her was missing. And that kind of thing was hard to explain
when you were eleven, going on twelve. Dr. Sam, her counselor, said
that what Callie felt was completely normal.

Callie thought that if
this was normal, she didn’t want to know what
abnormal
felt like.

So instead of focusing
on the fact that she missed her mother terribly, and sometimes even
pretended that her mother was still alive and had just been
kidnapped, and would come home as soon as she could escape the evil
clutches of whoever was holding her, Callie concentrated on being
normal and ordinary, like the other kids at school who
did
have mothers, which at Maplehurst Middle School (it was a small
school) was all of them. For the most part, it worked.

But Callie didn’t know
that on her twelfth birthday the so-called ordinary life that she
worked so hard at preserving would never, ever be ordinary
again.

Today was her twelfth
birthday.

She wanted to say that
it had started off ordinarily enough, even for a birthday, but it
hadn’t. She’d woken up in her bed with the strangest feeling that
she hadn’t really been asleep. Then she remembered the dream about
the necklace and the jeweled key; the huge stone gate guarding the
city, and the gargoyles smiling down at her in the torchlight. The
evil queen and her army were advancing, and an insurmountable task
had been placed before Callie.

A mind-numbing fear
gripped her heart and squeezed—she couldn’t breathe.

She sat up in bed,
gasping. She tried to shake the awful feeling that still swirled
sickly in her stomach, but it lingered like the aftermath of a bad
meal.

Have you ever had a
dream so real, you could feel it still in the bed with you when you
woke up? And you dashed out of bed and ran to your parents’
bedroom, jumping into their bed and trying to explain that it
wasn’t just a dream. The fire-breathing dragon was real, and his
rough, bony scales were real, and his big yellow eyes were real,
and the stinky smoke coming out of his nostrils was real, and he
was right now sitting on your bed, eating the rest of your crackers
and refusing to leave?

Well, that was how
Callie felt right now. She could still smell the sharpness of the
damp forest air, still hear the labored breathing of the horses and
the muffled sound of their hooves striking the ground, still hear
the discordant clang of heavy swords as two huge armies clashed in
battle, and she could still hear the terrible laugh of the queen
echoing in the still morning air.

And the ravens, cawing
and screeching and darkening the sky like a black cloud hurtling
towards them.

The worst part of
all was that in her dream, the evil queen looked exactly like her
mother
.

It was the same dream
Callie had been having for weeks now, only this was the first time
she’d seen the Raven Queen’s face. The shock of seeing her mother’s
beautiful face, her mouth twisted into an evil grin, still made
Callie feel weak and sick.

In the dream, Callie
was a princess in a magical land. The Raven Queen and her army were
trying to kill her. An important battle had been lost, and Callie
had failed her countrymen. Soon she’d have to turn and fight the
Raven Queen alone, but she didn’t know how she was going to do that
all by herself. She wasn’t prepared! And yet, something deep inside
her knew it wouldn’t make any difference. She was going to have to
deal with it. She had no choice.

Just like the day she
had lost her mom.

She’d have to tell
Lewis about her dream today at school. Lewis was her best friend
and always gave good advice. But she knew what he’d say, “Tell Dr.
Sam. Dream interpretation is very important.” Lewis was only
twelve, but he was the smartest kid in their school. He read books
on things no other twelve-year old had even heard of like,
The
Physiology of Amoebae
,
Secrets of Unstable Gases
, and
A Short History of Rocks
. Lewis wanted to be a scientist
when he grew up, which was no shock as both of his parents were
scientists.

Callie sighed. She
didn’t want to have any more weird dreams like that one. She wanted
to have normal dreams about normal things, like cute boys and shoe
shopping and hair accessories. And moms being there when you woke
up.

Pushing that thought
away, Callie swung her feet to the floor, hopped out of bed, and
went to wash up in the bathroom. Still in her pajamas, she headed
downstairs for breakfast with her dad.

As she rounded the
corner into the kitchen, a kazoo bleated slightly off-key, sounding
like something between a sheep with a stuffed up nose and a goose
whose voice was changing. Balloons and streamers in vibrant colors
decorated the kitchen walls, the ceiling, the table, and even the
chairs. A colorful banner read
Happy Birthday, Callie
!

Her dad, Ben, wore a
silly-looking party hat. He blew on his kazoo again, and the paper
tube attached to it rolled out and poked Callie in the eye.

“Oops! Sorry, Sport.”
He put his arm around her and gave her a hug. “Happy Birthday,
Calandria.”

Calandria was her full
name. Actually, her full, full name was Calandria Arabella
Philomena Teresita Anastasia Richards. The only living person who
knew that besides her dad was Lewis, who had been sworn to secrecy
on the matter. All those funny names had apparently been her mom’s
idea. Anastasia was her mom’s name, but her friends had called her
Ana.

Her dad winked at
Callie, his blue eyes twinkling with pride. “My little girl is all
grown up, and looking more and more like her mother every day.”

Callie smiled, though
her heart knotted painfully. Even though two years had gone by
since her mom had died, Callie still missed her each and every day.
It made her heart ache, she missed her so much. Though she knew it
was impossible, Callie wished more than anything, and that included
all the money in the world, all the candy you could eat without it
killing you, or a super-cute boyfriend, that she could have her mom
back.

She didn’t tell her dad
that. In fact, Callie didn’t talk much to her dad about her mom
anymore. Because her dad had a new girlfriend, Sharon, who was
about as different from her mom as a stick of celery was from a
brick of gold.

Sharon was very pretty,
had short blonde hair, and always wore stylish clothes and jewelry.
She had her nails done at a salon. Callie’s mom had never even worn
makeup, never did much to her straight dark hair, and her nails had
always been broken from digging in the garden. Callie’s mom had
worn faded jeans and gone barefoot most of the time. Sharon, on the
other hand, looked like she had just stepped out of the pages of a
glossy magazine. She was a lawyer. She had her own house, her own
car, two walk-in closets, and an evil cat named Wallingford.

Callie tried very hard
to like Sharon, but the fact remained that she just didn’t. Because
when you’re a kid, you have an extra sense that lets you know
immediately when an adult doesn’t like you. And Callie knew without
a doubt that Sharon didn’t like her.

But for some unknown
reason which Callie couldn’t understand, her dad really, really,
really,
really
liked Sharon Hennessey. In fact, as far as
Callie was concerned, the liking was reaching dangerously high
levels.

But Callie knew her dad
had been through a hard time, too. For whatever reason, Sharon made
him happy. Callie thought there was no one on this earth who
deserved to be happy more than her dad.

Looking at him now,
marching around the kitchen with a silly hat on his head, blowing
on a kazoo and singing “Happy Birthday,” made Callie giggle. She
had an idea that maybe he was getting more enjoyment out of her
birthday than she was.

“I have an extra
special gift for you, Cal,” he said, looking very proud of himself.
“Something you’ve never, ever gotten before. Something rare and
beyond price.”

This peaked Callie’s
interest. Perhaps it was the trip to France she’d been begging
for?

Her dad whispered in
her ear, “I’ll give it to you later tonight.”

“What is it?” Callie
asked, knowing he wouldn’t tell her, but feeling compelled to
ask.

“It’s a surprise,
silly. But one that I’m excited about, too.”

Callie gasped. Maybe it
was the trip to France! Because her dad would definitely be going
on the trip, too-she was only twelve. She couldn’t go to France by
herself. Of course, they’d probably have to bring Sharon with them.
But even that thought couldn’t diminish Callie’s excitement.

“But first you have to
go to school,” he said. “Now, eat your cereal, Sport. If you’re
late, your principal, Mrs. Proctor, will be calling me again, and
to tell you the truth, Cal, she scares me.” He poured Callie a bowl
of alphabet cereal-her favorite-and gave it a splash of milk.

Callie took it and went
to sit at the table, while their dog, Bo, a golden retriever,
wagged his tail hopefully.

She laughed. “This is
my
breakfast. Go eat your own.”

Bo ignored her
suggestion, probably because his food dish was empty. He continued,
with only the determination a dog can show, to stare pointedly at
Callie’s cereal with a wide doggy grin on his face.

Callie waited for the
cereal to get soggy. As she did, thoughts about her strange dream
swirled in her memory. Suddenly time seemed to stop. The kitchen
drifted away in a fog and she was transported back to the palace in
her dream, with all the sights and smells and sounds she
remembered….

Callie was sitting on a
dazzling throne. She wore a beautiful silver-white gown and a
spectacular diamond tiara on her head. A magnificent court
stretched out before her. The walls looked as if they were covered
in gold. The floor gleamed like mother-of-pearl. People in
richly-colored gowns and robes milled about, but they all seemed to
be looking to her, waiting in anticipation for some kind of
ceremony to begin. A mysterious voice spoke above the din:

When one is two and
two are one,

King Eldric’s Magic
has begun.

The Queen will call
the Princess home,

To sit upon the
Enchanted Throne.

All of a sudden, Callie
felt dizzy, as if she’d been somewhere very high up and had come
plummeting down quickly, like on a roller coaster.

“What a weird dream,”
she said to herself, trying to focus her eyes and shake the tingly
feeling that swirled in her stomach.

Bo barked, as if he
knew something strange was happening, too.

Callie looked down.
There was a message in her bowl. The letters of her alphabet cereal
had arranged themselves into a sentence:

It wasn’t a
dream

Callie gasped. She
closed her eyes again, her heart hammering. She whispered, “Yes it
was.”

She looked down
again.

No, it
wasn’t

It wasn’t a
dream

Callie gasped louder.
This time, her dad looked up from across the kitchen where he was
buttering his toast at the counter. “Did you say something,
honey?”

Callie grabbed her
cereal bowl and gave a half-hearted laugh. “Me? Say something?
Nope. Uh, Dad, I’m just going to go into the family room and watch
a little TV before school, okay?”

“Sure Honey,” he said,
beaming. “It’s your birthday. Knock yourself out.”

Callie scurried into
the living room and placed the cereal bowl on the coffee table. She
pointed a finger at it and said, “All right, who are you, and what
are you doing in my cereal?”

I’m someone who has
been watching over you since the day you were born

Callie trembled. Now
her cereal was spelling words it didn’t even have letters for. Then
a glimmer of hope ignited in Callie’s heart. “Mom?”

No

Though I was close
to her

This was unbelievable,
and yet Callie wanted, needed to know more. “Are you a ghost?”

I am very much
alive

“If you’re alive, why
can’t I see you?” Callie demanded.

You will see me
soon

Little One

Callie stared down at
the message in the bowl. Her mother had called her “Little One” as
far back as she could remember. She gulped.

“Where are you?” she
asked.

In the
World

In Albion

“Where’s that?” Callie
wanted to know, thinking that, even for a bowl of cereal, it was
being a little evasive.

You will find
us

“Huh? Look, whoever you
are,” Callie said firmly, “I’m not going to any ‘Albion.’ I want to
go to France!”

We need your
help

“Help? You want a
twelve-year-old to help you? You must be really desperate.”

We need you
now

Time is running
out

Callie felt a shiver
creep down her spine like a big, leggy spider. Either the cereal
was for real, or this was the best practical joke Lewis had ever
dreamed up.

Her army draws
near

“Army? Whose
army?”Callie said, unable to shake a strange feeling that the
cereal was deadly serious. Deep down, she knew whose army it was:
The Raven Queen’s…

Come quickly,
Princess Calandria

“What did you call me?”
Callie asked. But the cereal wasn’t responding. The letters were
all mixed up as usual, no longer arranging themselves into cryptic
messages.