The Black Shard (31 page)

Werrien sat down on the ground near the edge of the bluff. "Have a seat," he said to Kristina, patting the grass beside him. Kristina sat next to him, and as she did, she felt the stone heat up, though not around her neck area—this time it was inside her shirt, near the waistband of her jeans.

Werrien stared out at the sea. "How do you like the view?" he asked.

"It's beautiful," Kristina said, but all she could think of was the broken necklace. Her stomach cramped up, and even though the sun's warm rays shined down on her, she shivered.
There's no more time for putting it off. I need to tell Werrien now what has happened to the necklace.

Before she could, however, he addressed her. "Kristina?"

She turned to look at him and wondered why his blue-green eyes had a peculiar look in them, one she hadn't seen before. "Yes?" She felt very uneasy and hoped Werrien didn't notice her apprehension.

"Do you remember when we were behind the waterfall, and you asked me if there were any girls in Tezerel that I might be interested in?"

Kristina quickly broke eye contact with him and stared out at the sea again. "Yes, of course I remember," she said somberly.
I suppose that now you're about to tell me that there was someone all along.
She turned again to face him. "Werrien, before you say anything more, there's something really important that I need to tell you."

"Please, let me finish first what I was about to say," Werrien insisted.

"Okay, if you must, but then I really need to tell you something."

Werrien looked intently at her. "I just need to say that there is actually someone in Tezerel that I am interested in."

Kristina's heart torpedoed.
Of course,
she thought. I
already knew it. It's that beautiful girl who was in the restaurant.

"Actually,
very
interested in," he added. If her mind hadn't been consumed by thoughts of the consequences of the broken necklace, she would have gotten up and walked away.

"Whatever, Werrien," she said sharply. "If it's 'I'm happy for you' you're wanting me to say, then I'll say it." Her eyes glazed over. "But that doesn't mean that I'll really mean—"

Before she had finished her sentence he reached his hand out toward her and brushed away a strand of her hair that had fallen across her left eye. "You know what I admire about you?" he said.

"No, I can't say I do," Kristina said. She just wanted him to get on with it and tell her who the girl was so that she could tell him about the necklace.

"You don't realize how incredible you are," he said softly. "And, may I add, how beautiful you are."

She stared at the ground between them, and a tear rolled out of the corner of her eye. "Thanks for the compliment," she said softly, "but you really don't have to try to make me feel better. I can take what you're about to tell me."

"Please look at me," Werrien said. She did so, and his eyes seemed to pierce through hers like lasers. "The girl in Tezerel is you," he said.

Kristina's brow creased—she looked up at him curiously, trying to comprehend his words.

He smiled. "You weren't in Tezerel when you asked me, so I didn't want to lie and say that there was someone there, when she just happened to be sitting right next to me on the rock behind the waterfall."

Kristina sniffled and at the same time couldn't help but smile. Her eyes shifted back to the ground.
Leave it up to Werrien to make a joke out of this,
she thought.

"Please don't look at the ground," Werrien said.

"All right," Kristina said, her stomach flooding with butterflies. She looked up at his face.

His eyes scanned her face. "I'm in love with you," he said.

Her mind drew a blank; she was speechless.

"Ever since that day we stood on the rock, before you left Bernovem the first time, I knew that I loved you."

Kristina wanted to tell him that she felt the same about him, but for some reason, the words wouldn't come out of her mouth. Then suddenly, he drew nearer to her, and instinctively her eyes closed. Next, she felt his lips touch hers, and at that very moment, her heart sped up, so fast that she thought it might explode out of her chest.

Right after the kiss, Werrien noticed that she was trembling. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"I'm fine," she said, even though her nerves felt like they had just been lit on fire. "It's just that ... this is the first time for me."

"For me as well," Werrien said. "And I'll remember it forever."

Kristina stared up at him again. "I will, too," she said.

They kissed again and then both fell silent for a short while, listening to the light breeze roll over the hills.

Then Werrien broke the silence. "I was planning to tell my parents how I feel about you." He paused for a brief moment and then went on. "But now that I already know what their reaction will be, I don't think I will."

Kristina suddenly thought of Werrien's conversation with his father the night before. "Werrien," she said, "it's about the necklace." She nervously tore a chunk of grass up from the ground, and as she did so; Werrien looked at her hand and noticed blood trickling onto it, down from the same spot on her arm that she had been scratching.

T
he persistent itch on Kristina's arm had suddenly returned and she began scratching it again, not even aware of the blood.

Werrien took hold of her arm; it felt cold and was covered in goose bumps. "You'd better quit scratching. You're making it bleed," he said.

Kristina looked at her fingers. They were trembling and the tips had blood on them. Werrien turned her wrist over, and they both stared at the spot where she had been scratching.

"The last time I looked at it, it was only slightly red," Kristina said. It was now an open wound the size of a pencil eraser. She looked up at Werrien and pulled her hand out of his grip. Then she quickly stood up and backed away from him.

Werrien stood up as well. "Hey, if I hurt you in anyway, I'm—"

"No—it's not you," she said agitatedly. "Werrien, the necklace broke." She reached into her shirt and pulled out the warm stone; it was shimmering, pale pink, and dangling at the end of the golden chain's broken end. "Hester tore it from my neck last night in a jealous fit of rage," she explained.

Werrien's lips tensed into a thin line. Though he tried not to overreact, he couldn't hide the bleak expression that had formed on his face. He stared blankly at the broken necklace, a million random thoughts churning in his head.

"Werrien, I know why I have these sores," Kristina said distraughtly.

"What do you mean, 'sores'?" Werrien responded. "Do you have more than one?"

"When you didn't come to meet me last night, where the trio was playing their music, I decided to go to your father's cabin and meet up with you there instead. But when I arrived there, it dawned on me that you might be having a private conversation with your father that I shouldn't interrupt. Instead, I decided to go back up to the main deck, but as I approached the ladder, I saw Elzwur's foot stepping on it. I panicked and quickly hid behind the ladder. Anyway, to make a long story short, I heard through the outer wall of your father's cabin when your father told you what had happened to Margah, when he took off his crystal."

"How many sores do you have?" Werrien calmly asked again.

"Only two," Kristina said, bending down to roll up her left pant leg to show him the one on the inside of her calf. When she viewed her bare leg, her stomach wrenched in a knot—the sore was now the size of a dime, with a small amount of puss surrounding it. But that wasn't the worst of it. She had developed what looked like a raised, red rash on her leg as well. She quickly rolled up her right pant leg and found yet another sore developing just below her knee, and the rash was forming on that leg as well. Werrien was standing beside her and she looked up at him. "It's happening to me, the same as it happened to Margah."

Werrien was afraid she was right, but he didn't want her to know it. "Kristina, try to stay calm. I'll run to the woods and find some fairy blossom."

"All right, but hurry—please!"

Werrien was only gone for a few minutes, but every one of those minutes felt like an hour to Kristina. Her mind gravitated toward thinking of what it would be like to be a tree on top of the Hills of Norel.
At least I'd have a nice view of the Sicapif Sea.
She cringed at her thought.
I can't believe that I'm actually trying to make the best of this terrifying situation. Am I going crazy as well?
She glanced around but couldn't see a single tree, other than those in the woods where Werrien had run. She thought of how lonely she would be.
I hope that Werrien would at least come to visit me.
Just as she thought this, Werrien's hand gently touched her shoulder. She flinched away from him.

"Sorry," he said as he knelt down, holding a handful of the fairy blossom and a canteen of water he had gotten from the saddlebag. "I didn't mean to scare you." He opened the canteen and then squished up the blossoms and poured them into the opening of the canteen.

Then he screwed the lid back on and shook the canteen. "Hold your arm out," he said. "This will take care of the sores." He unscrewed the canteen's lid again and poured the liquid on Kristina's arm.

The pink liquid stung as it flowed out onto Kristina's open wound. Werrien frowned as he watched it. Kristina looked nervously up at him. The fairy blossom liquid had no effect whatsoever on the wound.

"Hmm," Werrien said. "This is really odd. Let me try it again." He poured more onto the sore, but again, there was no change.

Neither of them spoke, but they both were thinking of what King Warren had said to Werrien the night before—that the fairy blossom had no healing effect on the inhabitants who were ungrateful to Yolen.

How can this be?
Kristina thought.
Even though I don't know Yolen, I am definitely grateful to him.

Werrien had a similar thought:
Why isn't it working? Kristina is certainly a grateful person.
He poured every last drop from the canteen onto her arm, but there was no change. He sat down on the grass beside her, and they both stared out at the sea. The sun was now setting over the horizon, making the water look like liquid gold.

Werrien sighed discontentedly. He had anticipated this moment of being with the one he loved, watching the sun set over the sea, but he had thought it would be very different than it was turning out to be. Feeling extremely frustrated, he picked up a rock and threw it as far as he could over the steep bluff. Kristina looked at him curiously— she noticed his eyes were filled with anger and resentment.

"I don't care," he said suddenly, frustrated.

Kristina felt her heart palpitate.
Wow! Really?
she thought. She stood up, turned, and walked briskly toward the forest.

Taken off guard by her suddenly leaving, Werrien jumped up as well and went after her. He caught hold of her arm and spun her around. "Hey?" he said angrily. "What do you think you're doing?"

"I'm going into the forest to be as far away from civilization as possible," she said hotly.

"Leaving me isn't going to solve anything."

Kristina looked up at him, her face now filled with animosity. "I'd rather leave to be on my own and face my horrible fate than to be with someone who has the nerve to say he loves me one minute and then, only a few minutes later, says he doesn't care about me."

Werrien looked puzzled; then suddenly realized what she meant. He shook his head. "I'm such a fool," he said. "I was thinking out loud when I said that."

"Oh really! Now that makes it all better," Kristina snapped.

"Listen to me," Werrien snapped back, and then he repeated more softly, "listen to me."

With fear written all over her face, Kristina stared up at him. Werrien took her in his arms and embraced her, and Kristina returned the embrace. Then he let go of her and looked into her eyes. His eyes now filled with fiery passion. "When I said I don't care, I meant that I don't care what the consequences will be for me regarding all of this. I will do anything and everything for you, even give up my future throne." He paused for a moment, and smiled at her. "I'd even give up my life if I had to for you."

Kristina smiled timidly up at him, and then wiped a tear that had streamed down her face. "I love you, Werrien," she said very softly.

"It's about time you told me that," Werrien said. "I was starting to worry that you'd never say it."

Once again, Werrien kissed Kristina. As he did so, he felt the Black Shard heat up from within his pocket.

W
errien reached inside his pocket and brought out the Black Shard, which once again radiated a deep, red light. He held it between Kristina and him, and as they stared into the shard; its red aura pulsated a few times. Then the city of Ezeree appeared inside it. The normally hustling-and-bustling streets were almost barren, except for some dwarf and shamel city officials on horseback who were cruising up and down them.