The Ballad of the Pipe Player

by Kate Seidel

  Chapter Five: Knife in the Dark

  Coju woke with a start. He was no longer wrapped in his soft blanket on the side of the Road. He was instead in a black void. Looking around, he noticed Emrys there too.

  “Emrys!” He shouted. Emrys stood and glared at him.

  “What do you want, Pipe Player?”

  Coju was about to respond when a woman’s face loomed out of nowhere. It was the color of porcelain. There were beautiful blue eyes, curly gold hair, a pink tiara, and a rather cruel sneer.

  “Young travelers! You have chanced upon my Yellow Brick Road! If you stay on this road forever, I shall give you riches, fame, and power!” the voice, high pitched, squealed. Coju looked at Emrys. Emrys seemed almost swayed. Coju somehow knew it was a trap. He frantically searched his mind for something that would snap Emrys out of the honeyed words from the evil witch.

  “Moon! You would not be able to stay with Moon!” Coju cried. Emrys jumped.

  “Moon? Where is she? What did you do with her?” Emrys shouted at the beauteous witch. The witch scowled.

  “That brat does not deserve this power! She is a sniveling wretch!”

  Coju leaped for the face, intending to punch it. But it vanished, leaving only the voice.

  “IF YOU DON’T ACCEPT THIS I WILL CURSE YOU SO ALL KNOW THAT YOU ABANDONED FAME, FORTUNE, AND POWER!”

  Coju replied, “GLADLY!”

  Suddenly two hands, clawed with bright pink nails, grabbed the two travelers and squeezed tight. Both gasped for breath.

  “Goodbye, young travelers,” The witch sneered. She squeezed tight, too tight.

  Everything turned black.

  Coju awoke to a full moon shining like a beacon and a knife at his throat.

  “Don’t make a sound,” the knife bearer hissed. Coju coughed, so as to alert Moon and Emrys. Maybe they could get away. Then he caught a glimpse of Emrys, caught in a headlock by a gorillaesque man, sporting a few gashes and a bloody nose. Moon, however, wasn’t being restrained at all. It appeared that she, like him, had just woken up. Curled up in a blanket, she stared at him and Emrys. A man stood in front of her. Coju couldn’t see the man’s face, but by his ragged, mismatched attire and his haughty stance, Coju guessed he was a bandit. Suddenly, Emrys ducked out from his headlock and made a run for the man in front of Moon. Without any prior movement, the man turned and punched Emrys in the face. Moon cried out. Emrys collapsed to the ground, knocked into oblivion for the time being. Coju inhaled sharply as the man restraining him shoved said knife into his gut.

             

  If you are one of the unlucky few who HAS had a knife rammed into your stomach, I gather you know just how Coju felt. But to the rest of you who has avoided this particular fate…you lucked out.

             

  Coju felt as if he had been punched in the stomach. But instead of a rather aching, sore feeling, it was like somebody had punched his stomach with one finger made of glass. If you cannot imagine that feeling, don’t worry. All you need to know is that it hurt. VERY BAD. Moon screamed. Coju thudded to the ground as his eyes rolled back into his skull and dropped him into darkness.

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  Moon looked frantically from Coju, who was gasping erratically for air, to Emrys, who was barely breathing at all, to the man in front of her, who was observing with amusement.

  “Moon-Hajai, wai mayet gayai!” the man said, in a dialect that was all too familiar. Moon stared at him, wide eyed.

  “Who be you, and why do you speak like home? I have never encountered beast you like in my exist!” she demanded, skittering back a little. The man stepped into the moonlight, out of a shadow. Moon gasped.

  A young girl, just turned six, darted through the jungle. She had just sighted an albino monkey, and simply needed to see it again. Two older girls followed, much slower than the first.

  “Princess Moon, wait up!” One cried. The other echoed this.

  “Princess! Princess Moon! Wait up!”

  The cries ran through the trees. The running girl, however, did not halt. Her necklace, a silver moon, bounced against her chest, shining in the random patches of sun. Her grey eyes gleamed excitedly. She could almost see the tail! Just a little bit faster!

  The older girls had stopped moving.

  “Come on, Pearl. Don’t even bother following,” the first one sighed. “Let’s return to the castle. Princess Moon knows this jungle like the back of her grubby hand.”

  The other girl, presumably Pearl, looked confused. “Lily, what are you talking about? We were told not to let the Princess out of our sight!” After a moment, though, Pearl laughed. “She is a grubby little wild-child. She’ll be fine.”

  Lily grinned victoriously. The two girls walked back the way they had come.

  Meanwhile, Princess Moon was pushing full steam ahead. She had definitely caught a glimpse of the tail. If she ran just a tiny bit faster, she would see the monkey again. Her heart raced, not from running but from the sheer excitement.

  Suddenly, there was somebody in front of her. Moon halted to a stop, hating herself for it. She was a princess, and Mama had told her she wasn’t allowed to treat her subjects like they weren’t there. She never did. She just would rather chase after monkeys-she craned her neck and saw a flash of white fur speeding away. It was escaping-than talk to people. But Mama had also said not to talk to strangers without a guard with her. Speaking of which, where were Lily and Pearl? They were her escorts; they should be with her now!

  “Hello, Princess Moon. We finally meet,” said the subject in front of her. Moon fidgeted.

  “Mama told me I wasn’t s‘posed to talk to strangers,” she mumbled reluctantly.

  “Well, darling princess, I’m not a stranger. I’m your friend!” The man exclaimed enthusiastically, spreading his hands wide. Moon’s face brightened.

  “You mean it? You really are my friend?” She asked. The man grinned.

  “Of course I am! Now, how about you come with me for some lunch! You look hungry, and we common peasants know that growing tyrants need their food to grow big and tyrannical!” The man declared. Moon looked dubious.

  “I dunno, Mama wouldn’t want me to without her knowing. I should ask her first…”

  The man suddenly looked scary.

  “NO! We aren’t telling your mother! You’re coming with me,” The man growled. Moon shrunk back.

  “I don’t wanna, but thank you for asking,” Moon whimpered. She could hear her mother’s reprimanding tone in her head, saying, “My little moonbeam, you must have manners in even the worst of situations.”

  “HA!” The man laughed harshly. Moon jumped. “You think your cute little girl manners will get you out of this one? No sir, you’re not going to see your cruel, mannerly mother ever again…”

  He grabbed her wrist. Moon pulled away. The man grabbed a white bone knife from his belt and waved it in her face. Moon gasped. The man smiled cruelly. “This knife will be a lot closer to you than it is now if you ever try to escape again. Now, WALK.”

  Moon walked for hours, until the sun sank beneath the clouds and the air grew cold, with the white knife at her back. She didn’t dare to make a sound the entire time. The man looked over his shoulder the whole time. Finally, they stopped. Moon knew not where they were, but she knew it was very far from her palace.

  “Now, little princess, I’m going to end you,” the man whispered. With a sadistic grin, he raised his knife. Moon squeezed her eyes shut, bracing herself. Suddenly she felt a red hot pain on her chest, right where her necklace was. Is this what death was like? Red-hot pain? That wasn’t very interesting, Moon decided. Then she heard thuds and yells. She dared to open her eyes a bit.

  The cruel man was sprawled on the jungle floor, knocked out. Standing over him was a spectral man, with a sword and a helmet. A hero, Moon’s own imagination of a hero! But what was he doing here?

  “Run home, little princess. Run, and d
on’t look back,” the ghost man said. Moon obliged, running faster than she had to find the monkey. Later, she had dismissed it as a dream. Unfortunately, it was not so.

  “You…” Moon whimpered. The man who had nearly killed her once smiled a very familiar smile.

  “I’m back, and this time, you won’t have a guard to interfere,” the man proclaimed. He grabbed a blade, bleached bone white, from his belt.

  “Recognize this?” He questioned. Moon’s eyes were a big enough answer. “Well, dear, finally you’ll get to meet it!” The man raised the knife. Moon couldn’t close her eyes.

  A very familiar pain shot through her chest, right where her necklace was. A man very greatly resembling Emrys appeared out of nowhere.

  “Emrys?” she gasped. Then she caught sight of the real Emrys on the ground. Moon was greatly confused. Who was the man in front of her then?

  The Emrys-ghost sent a bolt of lightning through the would-be murderer’s chest. With a sizzle, the murderer collapsed, dead as a doornail. Then the Emrys-ghost vanished, leaving an unconscious witch, an injured wizard, a dead murderer, and a very startled princess.

   

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  Coju awoke to a bright morning, with no injuries. He stood quickly and saw a non-bloodied Emrys and a sleeping Moon.

  “Wacky dream,” he muttered. Emrys tapped him on the shoulder.

   

  “Coju, we’re glowing gold. I’m thinking we should leave,” Emrys suggested.

  Coju nodded, examining his suddenly luminous hand. “Yeah, I like the leaving idea.” Coju made to wake Moon up, but Emrys stopped him.

  “She’s had a long few days, probably much worse than anything that happens on her Island.” With that, Emrys scooped Moon up and held her as if she was a newborn baby that was too fragile for the world. Once the Ozians were out of sight Emrys and Coju made a mad dash for the fields of green past the stream. They weren’t five feet before they had to dodge spears and arrows cutting through the air, courtesy of the once-friendly Ozians. They kept running. Emrys squinted. “That tree wasn’t there before, was it?” he asked.

  Standing in a middle of tall cucumber colored grasses rested a tree, swaying unperturbed. It seemed slightly eerie compared to the chaos raging in front of it. It appeared as a willow tree to Coju, but it looked like a palm tree to the half-conscious Moon and an imperial oak to Emrys. Time moved like molasses around this tree, and the spears and arrows and other projectiles Emrys and Coju had strived so hard to avoid seemed as easy to evade, as it was to breathe. Emrys and Coju plopped down at the trunk, Emrys carefully placing Moon down on the silky soft grass. The soft breezes that moved the tree’s branches tasted like sugar and the leaves emitted a scent that reminded Coju of warm honey. The air seemed to ring with wind chimes, the pursuing Ozians’ cries dimmed. Coju, Emrys, and Moon felt ready to stay there forever, right at the tree. As if swimming through syrup, Coju turned his head to look past the tree. He slowly brought his hand up to rub his eyes.

  What had just been a grassy plain was now an entire forest full of these fantastical trees! Coju, Emrys, and Moon were sitting at the head of the forest. With slightly faster motions, Coju pulled a sleepily smiling Emrys and a giggly Moon to their feet.

  “Come on! Let’s go! Into the forest!” Coju yelled. Emrys yawned in response. Moon just kept giggling. Coju growled something rude and pulled them deep into the forest.