The Black Shard (6 page)

"I'm up for a game of cards," Hester said eagerly, grabbing a tall glass of punch from a servant gnome's tray.

"Well, all right; as long as there is a place for me to sit down and eat. My feet are killin' me," Davina said reluctantly. Then off the four of them went.

Once they were gone, Werrien took Kristina around the palace grounds, and they enjoyed the many events of the party. It was the most fun Kristina had ever had in her entire life, other than the last time she had been in Bernovem, when she attended the celebration feast of the Magic Warble's being returned to its resting place.

The evening seemed to go by so quickly and before they knew it, the party was over and the last of the guests were moseying on home—at least they thought that the last guests were leaving, but as Werrien and Kristina stood on the terrace, watching the servant gnomes and dwarfs clean up the grounds, they could hear voices just below the terrace, talking and giggling. They leaned over the railing and saw Hester, Davina, Heerzek, and Sepel still deeply involved in a game of cards and seeming to be having a lot of fun at it. Davina was leaning back on her chair with her feet up and crossed on the table top. Hester was wearing a visor on her head, and she sat with her elbows up on the table.

Earlier on into their card playing, Sepel had figured out that if he let Davina beat him, she'd be nicer to him, and so it was that Davina beat him at every hand of cards after that.

Feeling very tired, Kristina yawned.

"Would you like to travel with me on our sailing ship to Tezerel tomorrow?" Werrien asked her.

"Are you serious?" Kristina suddenly felt wide awake again.

"Yes, I'm serious." Werrien smiled charmingly.

"That would be awesome!" Kristina said, but then her mood suddenly changed to a more somber one. "What about Davina and Hester? What are we going to do about them? I'm sure that you wouldn't want to leave the two of them here at the palace while we're away."

"Sepel and Heerzek are shipmates. I have no doubt the two of them can keep Hester and Davina entertained."

"Cool! Then I'd actually love to go," Kristina said happily.

Werrien began walking toward the palace. "Come on! Follow me," he said. "There's something that I'd like to show you."

Kristina followed Werrien inside the palace, where only a few dimly lit candles lined the walls and gave off a faint light. Werrien took a candle from a table and led the way up a winding staircase. When they reached the top, they came to another hallway. Directly across from the stairs was a large ornate door. Werrien took a key out of his pocket, unlocked the door, and they entered a dark, cold room. In the center, barely visible, was a large, elaborate table.

Kristina looked puzzled at Werrien. "Why did you bring me here?" she asked while rubbing her arms to keep warm.

"Follow me," Werrien said eagerly, walking toward a wooden cabinet set against the wall on the right side of the room. He held the candle out to Kristina. "Can you hold this for a moment?" he asked her. Kristina took it. Then he pulled the cabinet a little way out from the wall. He reached behind it and took out a black, leather suitcase and laid it on the table. "Could you bring the candle over here?" he said.

Kristina placed the candle on the table close to the suitcase, and then Werrien clicked open its old latches. Inside it was a purple, velvet cloth. He lifted the cloth to reveal a cushioned bed of purple, crushed velvet that held a black, flat stone, around two inches in diameter. Its rough edges suggested that it was most likely once a part off of a larger rock. He picked it up, and as he did so, Kristina felt a chill run the course of her body.

"This is top secret—between you and me only, okay?" Werrien said, his earnest face aglow in the flickering light of the candle.

"Sure," Kristina said, shrugging her shoulders. "What is it?"

"I think it's some sort of crystal, but I'm not positive. It's not like any I've ever seen before."

"Have you asked your parents about it?"

"No, not yet. I actually only found it earlier this morning." He put the stone between his thumb and index finger and held it up toward the window, so that the moonlight could illuminate it.

"Wow!" Kristina said, amazed. It reflected a red light onto the wall in the shape of a spider web.

"And, would you like to know what else is extraordinary about it?" Werrien said, smiling.

"Yes, of course," Kristina said keenly.

"Remember, you'd asked me how I knew you were in Bernovem?"

"Yes."

"I saw you in this stone. It's a seeing stone." He held it out to her. "Would you like to hold it?" he asked.

"No!" she answered quickly. "Really—I'm good just looking at it from here." For some reason, only looking at the stone made her feel strange, like the sinking feeling she got in her stomach when she was on an elevator.

Werrien placed the stone back in the suitcase and then put the suitcase back behind the cabinet. He took another key out of his pocket and unlocked one of the cabinet's drawers. "Come and take a look at this," he said.

Kristina picked up the candle and went to the cabinet. "It's an old book," she said, curiously looking in the drawer.

"It's Bernovem's Book of Prophecy."

"Oh, yeah!" It was the same book Rumalock and her had looked through, in his living room, the first time she was in Bernovem, only it was much thinner, and it looked like it had taken a beating.

"My father found it on the bank of the Indra River, and the reason why it's so much thinner now than it used to be, is because it's only the middle section of it."

"So, where are its front and back sections?"

"The front section has been missing forever—well, not literally forever but at least my whole life. And, as for the back section, we think that after Rumalock got the book back from his brother, Ugan, Rumalock must have ripped the back section out of it, because it was missing when my father found it."

Werrien opened another drawer and held the candle above it. "Take a look at this," he said.

"The golden goblet!" Kristina said, full of wonder. "I thought it was destroyed when the Magic Warble became the Rainbow Tree."

"We thought so, too, but when my uncle Corin and I were hiking on Mount Bernovem one afternoon, I found it lying on the ground, not far from the Rainbow Tree."

"Wow, and it still looks the same, not even a dent in it," Kristina said, admiring the goblet as Werrien held it by the light of the candle.

While both of them were marveling at it, Werrien turned it upside down.

"Hey look! There's something written on the inside of the bottom rim," Kristina said.

"Where?"

"It's very faint, but I can see a B, and an E, and ... "

"I think it says Bernovem," Werrien said.

Before Kristina could read the next letter, some kind of creature flew by her, brushing up against her face. She gasped and leaned back on the meeting table, tensely gripping its edge in her hands.

Werrien turned around quickly.

"What was that?" Kristina asked nervously.

Werrien looked toward the window and noticed that it was slightly ajar. "It must have been a bird," he said, walking toward the window. "They nest in the tree right outside." He hadn't quite reached the window when they heard someone out in the hallway, approaching the room. "Hide! Get quickly—behind the cabinet!" He hastened to blow out the candle.

While standing quietly behind the cabinet, Werrien and Kristina could hear the doorknob slowly turn. Then the door opened, and the light from out in the hall spilled into the room. For a moment there was only silence, and then the door slowly shut again. They waited for a few minutes, and then Werrien went to get the candle from the table. "We'd best get out of here," he said, and began heading for the door. Kristina gladly followed him.

Once in the dim hall, they could see someone at the far south end of it heading their way. As the figure drew nearer, Werrien recognized who it was. "Elzwur!" Werrien said enthusiastically. "I was just going to look for you."

The dwarf stopped in front of them and bowed. "What can I do for you, Werrien?" Elzwur said, with a suspicious look on his face.

"Could you show Kristina and the two other girls to their sleeping quarters?"

"Most definitely," Elzwur said quickly.

Werrien turned to Kristina. "I'll see you in the morning," he said.

"Okay. Good night," Kristina said, and they parted in opposite directions.

I
n an obscure cave, in a cliff, on the most southern coastline of Bernovem, a serpent hovered over a dip in a rock bed that was filled with a potent combination of the juice of the Efah fungus and the sap from the Aurum root. The serpent lowered its head and drank every drop of the concoction. Then it turned and slithered to the front end of the cave, where its victim sat waiting for it.

"Did you bring what I asked you to bring me?" the serpent calmly hissed.

"Ye ... yes," the victim stammered fearfully.

"Where is it then?" The serpent lashed out its thin, whip-like tongue.

"Do you remember that you promised me a reward?" the victim asked cautiously.

"Of course," the serpent crooned slyly.

The victim brought forward a dirty fist and then opened it in front of the serpent's face. On the victim's clammy palm was the item. The serpent's yellow-orange eyes shifted back and forth between the victim and the item. "You did well," the serpent finally said. Then very suddenly, it lashed out and pierced the victim's neck with its dagger-like fangs.

The victim grabbed its throat and gurgled in pain. It could feel the warm venom pump into its jugular vein and then slowly travel down its arms.

"To be the firstborn is your reward," the serpent said, just before scooping up the item in its mouth. Then it slithered slowly away, deep into the bowels of the cave.

On the cold, damp cave floor, the victim lay convulsing in agony. Gray foam frothed out of its mouth, and its body began to contort. Hard rope-like muscles formed beneath its now greenish-gray skin, and the hair on its head turned brittle and began falling out in clumps. At the same time, its teeth crumbled and fell out of its mouth. Then new teeth grew instantly in their place, jagged and sharp, like frayed metal.

The serpent peered around the corner of a crevice to view its victim. "Finally," the serpent said, "the birth of a new creation. I'll call it the Irgul."

Kristina, Davina, and Hester spent the night in the palace guest quarters. While sleeping with her feet sticking out the end of her blanket, Kristina suddenly felt something tickle her foot and then tug on her big toe. It was Looper, and he let go of her toe just as she pulled her foot back under the blanket. Then he flew to her ear, lifted a few strands of her hair, and said, "Wake up, sleepyhead! It's almost time for breakfast."

Kristina sat up, and right after she yawned and stretched her arms in the air, she became aware of a loud droning sound coming from the bed to the right of her bed. In the other bed, Davina was sleeping with her mouth wide open, and the droning sound was her snoring loudly.

Kristina glanced across the room where Hester was sound asleep in a bed beside a large stone fireplace, where a warm, cozy fire was burning.

"I can't stand the sound of snoring," Kristina heard a small voice say. She looked over at the night table, between her and Davina's bed and saw Clover the fairy sitting on it, plugging her ears with her fingers. "Snoring brings back bad memories of the day I was captured and held hostage by Ramon, the disgusting son of Queen Sentiz." Clover took to the air and flew over to Davina's pillow, and yanked out a feather that was poking out of it. Then she flew with the feather over to Davina and hovered above her gaping mouth. She stuck it in her mouth, and wiggled it around.

Davina gagged, coughed, and swatted at the air just before sitting up abruptly. Confused and with fuzzy vision, Davina stared into the crackling fire directly ahead of her. "Where am I?" she said groggily, and at the same time grabbing her thick glasses off the night table.

Looper flew over to her. "You're in the palace, in Bernovem," he said, hovering in front of her face.

"Oh, yeah!" Davina stretched her arms in the air and yawned. "What time is breakfast?" she asked.

"Well, that would be as soon as you three get up and get dressed," Looper said.

A knock came at the door, and Hester suddenly sat up with her dishwater blonde hair strung about her face.

"Who is it?" Kristina asked.

"Elzwur," a distinguished, nasally voice answered.

Kristina glanced at Hester and Davina.
I guess we're all decent.
"Come in," she said.

Elzwur poked his silver-bearded face into the room and with annoyed, squinty eyes, he glanced at each girl. "The prince has given me precise orders to take you three to meet him out front of the palace within the hour, so please hurry up and get dressed in the clothing that has been provided for you. You will find three sets hanging in the closet," he said. Then he removed his head and shut the door.

"What's up with him?" Hester said, rubbing her sleepy brown eyes.

"He's such an old crank," Davina added. Kristina agreed but said nothing.

Just like Elzwur had said, hanging in the closet were three outfits consisting of a pair of pants, a shirt, a jacket to go over the shirts, and black leather boots. The outfits that fit Davina and Hester were dark maroon. Kristina's was navy blue. All three shirts were white.

The girls dressed quickly, and Hester was the first to stand, with slouching shoulders, in front of a long mirror. She carefully examined herself and then said, "This is really not up to my standards. I feel like I'm dressed for Halloween."

Davina suddenly jumped in front of her and struck a pose. "Well, I feel like I was born to wear this type of clothing," she boasted, looking into the mirror at Kristina's refection behind hers. "And, what about you?" she asked.

"What about me?" Kristina said.

"What do you think of these fabulous outfits?" Davina said in a dramatic voice.