Boon Mobbox added, “The people are so upset they forget their wagering.”
Effrin slightly smiled. “Never did I think I would see that day.”
“Indeed,” Lasun muttered.
CHAPTER 21
SOONER THAN HE EXPECTED, Raxton was back in the garden, which now had only four archways. He was relieved to see Oberra, and hurried to sit across from him. “Have you seen Effrin?”
“I have. He is happily back on Extane, in the throne room last I saw him.”
“He is...”
“You no longer need him.”
Finally, Raxton noticed Oberra’s hand. “You are without a finger.”
“Happened long ago.”
“Does it hurt?”
“Not any more. I did miss it for a time after it was cut off, but we adjust to our failings.”
“You are a Pendernic?”
“I lived with the Mobbox until a young man, and like the story says, I got lost in the castle.” Oberra smiled, showing his missing teeth. When he noticed Raxton’s frown, he said, “Bad teeth. Just another failing.”
Raxton had not considered his perfect teeth and could not name one person on Extane who did not have the same. “Is there no way to fix your teeth?”
“Perhaps, but just now I have a proposition. I shall give you the other four bells if you do not marry Sarinna.”
Raxton was horrified. “Give Sarinna up? I cannot. I will not!” In a huff, Raxton got up and began to pace the walkways between the flowers.
“Why not? If you marry her, will she not be shunned by the Carbollo as well as the Mobbox?”
“They will get used to it – eventually.”
“And her brother. If Nerratel shuns her, will she get used to that? When a queen cries in the castle, it can be heard in every room, as well as all over Upper and Lower Extane. When she cries, the Pendernics cry with her.”
Raxton was facing an archway when he stopped and looked up. He saw, without really seeing, the bluest of blue skies dotted with fluffy white clouds. Nevertheless, he made no answer and when he looked down, there was a door in the archway. His heart aching and his mind reeling, Raxton opened the door and walked through. To his amazement, he found himself on a dirt road in a countryside instead of a path, and just as Nerratel had, he marveled at the brilliant colors of the flowers and the trees. Before him stood two women, one more the size of a child than an adult, and one with straight eyebrows that met in the middle of her forehead with no break in between.
Fearing he had gone the wrong way and would miss finding the rest of the bells, he turned back, only to find the door gone and the road extended in the opposite direction. Raxton turned to face the women. “You are Pendernics too?”
Artilly giggled. “Raxton catches on much faster than Nerratel.”
“Yet he looks troubled,” Binna said. “What troubles you, Raxton?”
Unwilling to confess, he answered, “Nothing I cannot somehow resolve.”
“Perhaps he needs time to consider his future more thoroughly,” said Binna. “I think taking him to the top of the mountain might do him good.”
Artilly pointed at the mountain with a road that appeared to wind around it. “Only, stay on the side the sun shines on, for there is no other side.”
“No other side of a mountain?” a confused Raxton asked. He had only just said it, when he realized the three of them were already at the top. A little off guard, he quickly found a rock to sit on. The view from the top was the most beautiful sight he had seen, save perhaps the sparkle in Sarinna’s eyes. He took a deep breath and hardly noticed when Artilly came to sit on one side of him, and Binna on the other.
He assumed that all of what he saw was Upper Extane, but soon he realized he could see far more. On Extane, the place where he grew up and loved, the colors were not vibrant, not only that, there was some kind of ruckus in front of the castle. “What is happening?” he asked.
It was Binna who answered. “A Mobbox was injured, and when they heard, the Carbollo cheered.”
Raxton hung his head. “They cheered?” He turned away, unwilling to see more and muttered, “I find that to be the most unsettling thing I have seen so far.”
“Why are you surprised?” asked Binna. “The Mobbox killed King Grafton.”
“Not all the Mobbox,” he whispered.
Artilly nodded. “The Carbollo fail to see it that way.”
“You show me that the Carbollo have a failing?” Raxton asked.
“We hope to show you more than one,” Artilly answered, “but it is a start.”
“Will the Boons keep them from going to battle?”
Binna sighed, “If they can. Extane needs a kind and just king to show the Carbollo the error of their ways.”
Raxton asked, “King Grafton must have seen our failings. Why did he not teach the people?”
“King Grafton loved the quests more than he loved the people. He neglected his wives, his children, and he especially neglected both the Carbollo and the Mobbox.”
“I can see that now. He left everything for the Boons to settle.”
“True,” said Binna.
“But the Boons always favor their own side,” Raxton muttered. “Nothing is ever truly resolved. I see that too.”
“If you were king, what would you do?”
Raxton had to think about that for a time. “I would side with the Mobbox if it was just, and threaten to fight the first Carbollo who raised his sword.”
“You would fight one of your own people?”
“I would hope never to have to, but if it was the only way to settle an injustice, I would fight and kill or be killed.”
Artilly leaned around Raxton to looked at her sister. “Now he is twice troubled. I say he has earned another bell.”
“Two bells, if you ask me,” said Binna. Both of them pulled a bell out of their pockets, and handed it to Raxton. He said nothing and without marking the order in which he received them, he put them in his sack with the other four.
“You are not pleased with the bells?” Binna asked.
“I confess I find much less pleasure in them now, than I did in the beginning.”
Binna and Artilly remained silent. Instead, they watched the people in Lower Extane, and waited for Raxton to notice them.
“Who are those people,” Raxton finally asked.
“The Pendernics live in a place you call the Lowlands. We call it Lower Extane.”
“Do all Pendernics have failings?”
“We do,” Artilly answered. “Yet, we are happy.”
“Why?” Just like so many others, this question went unanswered as well.
IN THE GARDEN, AND after Oberra told Nerratel he would find the next bell by going through the archway behind the old man, Nerratel did not hesitate. He started down a path that appeared to be part of the castle. The walls and ceiling were made of blue glass, it was bright and cheerful, and the path did not twist or turn. Nerratel could even see what he assumed was the end of it.
Yet it was Oberra’s words that echoed in his mind. The Carbollo and the Mobbox were once the same civic. Nerratel kept going, that is, until he heard a familiar giggle.
“Find me if you can.”
Nerratel looked all around but could not determine from where the voice came. “Where are you?”
“Over here.”
“Over where?”
“Look for a bell and you shall find me.”
That was easier said than done, for in a world of blue glass, how was he to see a blue glass bell. He slowed his pace down the path, looked up and then down, left and then right. It was not until he neared the end that he finally saw it. The bell sat on a small table made of the same blue glass. Carefully, he picked it up, put it in his sack, and then looked for the voice. “Now where?”
“It’s me,” Artilly giggled. She walked through the glass, and then playfully curtsied to Nerratel. “Your Majesty.”
It made him chuckle. He clearly had not thought ab
out the people bowing and curtsying to him. “Are you here to show me where the other bells are?”
“Perhaps, but first I have a question. “Your kindness stands tall above the kindness of all other Mobbox, but are you kind enough to let your sister marry the man she loves?”
Nerratel objected, “That is not fair. Raxton is a Carbollo.”
“And a Carbollo is...”
“I admit, Raxton is the fairest Carbollo of them all, and would make a good king, but the differences between our two civics cannot be overlooked.”
“Why? Are you not all strong, in good health, and without failings. Do you not all look the same, eat, sleep, hunt, fish, and build all that you need, the same as the Carbollos do?”
“It is not that. The Carbollo are prideful.”
“Prideful.” Artilly muttered. “Is it not true that the Mobbox think themselves far superior to the Carbollo? Are your women truly more beautiful than Carbollo women?”
“Yes...I mean, no, I suppose not. It’s just that...”
“It is that you grew up thinking less of Carbollo women, therefore, you do not see their beauty.”
“True, I do not look at them in that manner.”
“But you could if you bothered to notice. Raxton noticed Sarinna, but you stand in the way of their happiness.”
“Not only me, all the people will be against it.”
“You do not know that for certain. You said yourself, others have turned their hearts and their minds against the union of a Carbollo and a Mobbox.”
“I did say that.”
“How many?” Artilly asked.
“How could I possibly know how many?”
“There are Mobbox who very much desire a Carbollo wife.” Artilly’s words left Nerratel virtually speechless. “But then, you would not know that either, for you have never listened.”
“I would have heard.”
“Before he married a woman in his own civic, Lasun sought your advice. You dismissed him with a wave of your hand.”
“Are you saying ‘tis my fault he married a woman he did not love?”
Artilly did not answer. Instead, she hopped off the glass table and, being much shorter than he, looked up. “You’ll not find the other bells here. You best go back.” Artilly walked through the glass and disappeared.
He turned around and started back. “I tire of this quest,” Nerratel muttered. It took only a few steps before he was back in the garden.
ALONE IN THE GARDEN, Nerratel sat on the bench in the middle, leaned forward and covered his eyes with one hand. “Sarinna,” he muttered. “How can I let you marry Raxton? I am sworn to protect you from all possible pain.”
“Yet,” Oberra said, suddenly seated on the bench across from him. “There are many kinds of pain.” He waited until Nerratel removed his hand and sat up straight. “There is the pain of injury or illness, there is the pain of defeat, and there is the pain of loving and having lost at love. Which do you believe your sister would prefer?”
“None of them,” Nerratel admitted. “Nor do I wish pain for anyone else.”
“Then if you are king, you must first change the people so they will accept a marriage between Sarinna and Raxton.”
“How? How do I change the people?”
“Your failing is inattention. Perhaps if you are more aware, the people will show you how.” Oberra stood up and walked toward one of the last archways. When he did, he left the last two bells on the bench. “You have finished the quest. Whether or not you have heard the truth, we wait to see.”
“We?” Nerratel asked. There were no more answers and no more questions to be had as Oberra walked through the archway and into the mist beyond.
At length, Nerratel put the bells in his sack, picked up his provisions, and walked through the only other archway.
WHEN RAXTON HAD SEEN all he needed to see of the people in Lower Extane, Binna and Artilly led the way down the sunny side of the mountain – crossing one road, walking through the forest and then coming to a lower road. It was then Raxton saw something.
In Extane, his friend Whildon Carbollo and Elder Kircom Mobbox stood together and although he could not hear them, it appeared they were planning something. He watched for a time, and then was amazed when several Mobbox headed for Carbollo City, and several Carbollo men started off for the city of the Mobbox.
“What is happening,” he gasped. “Do they mean to do each other harm?”
Binna answered, “The Carbollo are missing something very valuable and so are the Mobbox. As usual, they blamed each other, so it was suggested that they search each other’s land.”
“To prove neither side lied?” Raxton lightly bit his lower lip. “I never believed I would see the day when the two Civics would work together for any cause. What is missing?” That was yet another question that went unanswered, so he tried another. “Will they find what they are looking for?”
“Not on Extane.” As soon as she answered, Binna continued on down the mountain. “Raxton, though you be tempted, do not eat of the fruit.”
He wasn’t even hungry.
At the foot of the one-sided mountain, Binna said, “You need but one more bell. She looked at Artilly. “I wonder where we hid it?”
Artilly giggled, “In his bag?”
“That’s right, we put it in his bag.” She grinned at the befuddled expression on Raxton’s face. “It means the quest is over.”
“It does?” he asked. “I thought...”
“You thought wrong,” Artilly laughed. “A hundred bells would not make you win, not without you seeing the truth. Will you take the truth to the people? They want a better life and they are waiting.”
“All this time, I thought we had the best life possible. I thought wrong about that too.”
Binna touched his shoulder. “Your mother will give birth soon. ‘Tis a girl this time.”
“Then I best be there to greet my little sister.”
“If she lives, she will be a Pendernic. She will need kindness and understanding all of her life.”
He was surprised by the revelation, but he soon nodded. “If she lives...she will have all that I have to give, and more.”
“We must leave you now and return to Lower Extane. We await your decision.”
Right before his eyes, Binna and Artilly disappeared. Behind where they had just stood was a door. Raxton smiled, took hold of the handle and pulled down.
CHAPTER 22
INSTEAD OF NONAME, three people Sarinna and Gincar had not yet met came out. Each of them went to hug Lentee, and introduced themselves to the strangers. “The quests are finished,” said Oberra. Now we wait to see if they heard the truth, and which of them shall become king.
“The bells?” Sarinna asked.
“Each have all seven. They are even,” Artilly answered.
As soon as they saw Oberra, all the people in Lower Extane gathered behind Sarinna and Gincar to see what the future king of Extane would do. The coins in the money pot for Raxton and for Nerratel were even and no one wished to change their wager.
Just after Noname came out, his cottage door became an archway and at first, there was a mist inside it, but then the mist began to clear.
“Tis the throne room,” Artilly said. “I love the throne room.”
NERRATEL WAS ALREADY seated on a bench by the time Raxton entered the throne room.
Raxton chose the same bench, set his provisions and his bag of bells on the floor and sat down. “You have heard the truth?”
“More truth than I was prepared to hear. And you?”
“My mind is cluttered with all that I have seen and heard. “You saw the Pendernics?” Raxton asked.
“I did. Is it not strange we have no Pendernics on Extane?”
“Artilly said the daughter my mother carries shall be a Pendernic.”
Nerratel was amazed. “Truly? Did she say what her failing will be?”
“I promised to care for my sister no matter her failing.”
/> “And I shall help you,” said Nerratel. “I wonder. Will she be born without a mark?”
“I hope so, and if I could, I would remove mine. Sarinna says that is what separates the Carbollo from the Mobbox.”
Nerratel chuckled. “My sister is the wisest of us all. I must learn to take her council more seriously.”
Raxton bowed his head. “I have decided against agreeing to marry Sarinna. I thought only of my desire and not of what is best for her. Oberra said when a queen cries, the Pendernics cry with her. For Sarinna, there would be many tears.”
Nerratel nodded. “Yet, I have come to understand that I should put my sister’s happiness above my resentment of the Carbollo. If I am king, I shall agree to your marriage.”
“If you are king?” Raxton asked. “I assure you, you are far more deserving than I.”
The two men sat quietly and thoughtfully for a time., “Oberra said the Mobbox and the Carbollo were once the same Civic. Is there not a way for the two civics to become one again?”
“It will take time to teach the people to accept each other.”
“You could share your music with us,” said Raxton. “I knew not we were missing the joy of it until I heard Sarinna singing.”
“And you could teach our children how to be more exacting?”
Raxton sighed. “The children. It should begin with letting the children play together.”
“I agree.” Nerratel opened his sack and withdrew one of the bells. “I have all seven bells, but I did not truly work for them. You should be king, for you do not know my failing. All these years, I never once considered the people on Lower Extane.”
“Neither did I. Therefore, I have the same failing.”
“Perhaps we should have two kings,” Nerratel snickered, “and two castles.” His smile faded. “You found all seven bells?”
“I did, but what worth has a bell or even seven bells, if we must continue all the old ways.”
“We cannot,” Nerratel agreed. “For me, there is no going back to the old ways.”
The Kings of the Seven Bells Page 18