“Gotta get home,” Gayla said, not even bothering to look at Kendra when she spoke. “Beards is going to be hotter than a hairball when he finds out I snuck out again.”
“Beards? Who’s that?” Kendra asked.
“My master,” Gayla replied curtly.
“So we’re going to Een?” Oki asked.
“No kidding, Eeks,” Gayla retorted. “That’s where Eens live. Well, me, anyway. I’m not sure what universe you two fluster-busters come from.”
“But how do we get past the magic curtain?” Kendra asked, fiddling with one braid.
Gayla turned, looked down at them and made a face. “You two bump your heads on the way down that tree?”
Kendra looked at her blankly.
“We walk through it,” Gayla said. “Just like we always do. Isn’t that how you pair of moaning miracles ended up out here? Hmph. I figured you were different from those worry-winks who sit around Een fretting about the outside world. Or did you just get lost on your way to school?”
“We’re not in school!” Kendra cried. “We’re apprentices.”
“She knows that,” Oki said. “She’s just being jinxly again.”
“Hmph,” Gayla muttered, and she set off through the forest once more.
Kendra let her take a few strides ahead then turned and whispered to Oki, “Burdock sealed the curtain! How are we supposed to get through without his spell?”
“I don’t know,” Oki said. “It’s like Een has completely changed since we’ve been gone.”
“We’ve been away for months,” Kendra mused. “Do you think Burdock stepped down? Maybe Winter Woodsong is running things again.”
“Maybe,” Oki murmured thoughtfully. “But how did the weather change so suddenly? One minute it’s snowing and the next it’s summer!”
“What are you two whispering about?” Gayla snapped over her shoulder.
“Er . . . nothing,” Kendra said. She cast one more sidelong glance at Oki. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t need to. Kendra was thinking the exact same thing: Something strange is going on here. And I have no idea what it is.
IF YOU HAVE EVER tried to seek the land of Een, then you know it is a near-impossible quest. You would certainly need one of the small folk from that tiny place to guide you, for it is Eens alone who can cross the magic curtain. Why, if you or I tried to step through it, we would just end up on the other side of the land of Een, none the wiser. For Eens, of course, it’s different. As soon as they step through the curtain they will feel a slight crackle in the air, a tingle on the skin—and then they will be safely home.
Of course, the last time Kendra had crossed the curtain it had taken powerful magic. This was because Burdock Brown had sealed the curtain to prevent anyone from coming or going. Indeed, as Gayla now led them towards the curtain, Kendra half-expected to find it still blocked. Yet the plucky Teenling did not hesitate at all. She stepped through the curtain as simply as one walks through the rain. It was just like the “old days” (as Ratchet would say), before Burdock came to power.
“Strange,” Kendra mumbled.
“Talking about yourself again?” Gayla snickered, turning to confront Kendra.
“No,” Kendra said. She realized at once it was a weak comeback, so she quickly changed the subject by asking, “Where are we exactly?”
“The Hills of Wight,” Gayla replied. “Isn’t it the way you two came?”
“Well, er . . . ,” Kendra murmured.
“Getting an answer out of you two tree-tumblers is harder than getting a laugh from an Unger,” Gayla growled in exasperation. “Look, just tell me which way you’re headed.”
Kendra cast Oki a perplexed look. “Home?” she whispered. “To the yew tree house? Or maybe we should go to your parents.”
“And share a bed with my eight sisters?” Oki squeaked. “No thanks! Besides—Burdock has declared us criminals, remember? I don’t want to get my family in trouble.”
“But if the curtain’s open now, Burdock can’t be ruling anymore,” Kendra said.
“What’s up with you two murmuring measles?” Gayla demanded. “Don’t you ever have a normal conversation? You know, out loud?”
“Er . . . sorry,” Kendra said. “We were just trying to decide where to go.”
“How about home?” Gayla suggested, crossing her arms. “You do have a home, don’t you?”
“Well . . . we lived with my uncle,” Kendra replied.
“What do you mean lived?” Gayla demanded. “And what about your parents?”
Kendra struggled for a reply and instead just tugged nervously on her braids. How come this girl didn’t know that her parents had disappeared? She claimed to know Krimson, and if that was true then she should know that he was gone. After all, it seemed to Kendra that everyone in Faun’s End knew about her family disappearing. It had made Kendra herself sort of famous, just by default. She had never enjoyed that notoriety, of course, but now it sort of annoyed her that this wild Een girl was so oblivious to everything. Then again, Kendra couldn’t help wondering why she had never heard of Gayla before. She wasn’t exactly hard to notice. On market day in Faun’s End she would stick out like a smile on Uncle Griffinskitch.
“Oh, I get it,” Gayla said after Kendra’s hesitation. “You’re an orphan.”
Kendra yanked on one of her braids and managed only a nod.
“Hmph,” Gayla grunted. “Don’t sweat it, Braids. So am I.”
“You are?” Kendra asked.
“Yeah,” Gayla replied with a wave of her arms. “No big deal. I live with my brother. C’mon, just follow me. We live just outside of Faun’s End.”
Without waiting for further discussion, she turned on one heel and set across the low hills that rolled before them.
“We better keep an eye out for Burdock and his men,” Kendra told Oki quietly. “Just in case they’re still looking for us.”
“You’re whispering again!” Gayla accused over her shoulder.
Fiddling with her braids, Kendra decided it was best to keep quiet and see if she could make it three steps without rousing Gayla’s ire.
They walked for a few hours, for we must remember that Een feet are small and their destination lay some distance from the curtain. Yet with each step the landscape grew more familiar, and by mid-afternoon Kendra realized with sudden elation that their path would take them right past the old yew tree house where she lived with Uncle Griffinskitch.
They turned a bend and Kendra’s heart leapt as her home came into sight. It was a strange house to be sure, the trunk of a yew tree rising above its roof. In fact, the house was built right into the tree, and here and there doors or windows peered out between roots or from a knothole in the bark, giving a tantalizing hint of the mysterious rooms that lay beyond. It was a true wizard’s home, filled with nooks and crannies and odd, confusing passages. Kendra adored it.
Yet something was now different about the house. At first Kendra couldn’t put her finger on it, but as they drew closer she realized the house looked to be in fantastic condition. In fact, it looked better than it ever had.
Strange, Kendra thought as they walked along the fenced pathway that circled the house. It’s been months since we’ve been here.
Yet here were some fresh flowers planted outside the front door (something she had never seen before), and the windows had been cleaned (her own chore, one she often neglected). Then Kendra noticed a trickle of smoke curling out from the kitchen chimney. She stopped and stared.
“Someone’s moved into my house!” she exclaimed. Her stomach was churning with both anger and fear; if anyone has ever come into your room and meddled with your belongings while you were away, then you probably know exactly how Kendra was feeling at this moment.
“Eek!” Oki cried. “I bet it’s Captain Rinkle!”
“What are you two nattering ninnies mumbling about now?” Gayla demanded. “This is my house. Or my brother’s, if you want to get all professor about it. Which ol
d Beards would. He’s kind of annoying that way. Master and brother.”
Kendra turned and looked at Gayla. Master and brother? she thought—and then a realization struck her. It was like a hammer ringing a bell; for at that very moment she knew why Gayla’s name sounded so familiar—and it made her feel faint.
“What’s wrong, Braids?” Gayla asked. “You look like you’ve seen an Unger.”
The Kazah ring, Kendra thought. It’s taken us . . . Her knees began to wobble. “G-G-Gayla?” Kendra stammered. “Your name is Gayla? And your master is your brother? Master . . . .”
“Gregor,” Gayla said brusquely. “Gregor Griffinskitch. You probably know him. He’s always parading about, trying to get on the council and sucking up to all the Eld . . . .”
But Kendra didn’t hear the rest. For now it was perfectly clear to her, and it was at once both terrifying and magnificent. It wasn’t where they had landed, Kendra realized, but when. Somehow she and Oki had traveled back through time—and they had found her mother.
IN YOUR TIME as a young adventurer, following Kendra’s many quests, you have probably come to learn a great deal about the magical race of Eens. Certainly you have realized that they have a rather sing-song quality to their names, with the sounds of their first matching their last. Take, for example, the name of our young heroine, Kendra Kandlestar, or the names of a few of her friends: Ratchet Ringtail, Honest Oki, and Juniper Jinx.
Indeed, names are very important to Eens—so much so that they will change them, both first and last, when they marry, just to keep this magical sound alive. Sometimes it’s the wife that will change her names, sometimes the husband. It doesn’t really matter to Eens, as long as they can keep that sing-song sound. In the case of Kendra’s family, it was her mother who had made the change, but it had been something that Kendra had completely forgotten—until now.
“Your mom wasn’t always called Kayla Kandlestar, you know,” Ratchet had told Kendra one day while she watched him tinker with one of his inventions. “She only changed her name to match your father when they married. The way my gramps tells it, your uncle was furious. Gramps says he yelled so loud that it shook the magic curtain.”
“Why? What made him so angry?” Kendra remembered asking.
“I guess he thought the Griffinskitch name was better,” was Ratchet’s explanation. “According to Gramps, your mom was becoming this great sorceress, while your dad was just a simple gardener. If anything, your uncle thought your dad should do the old name switcheroo. But your mom refused. She changed her name and waved good-bye to the name of Gayla Griffinskitch.”
And now, young readers, you will understand why this name had seemed vaguely familiar to Kendra. Her mind had fumbled with it until this very moment, when at last she had pieced together the puzzle to realize that the wild Teenling who stood before her was her mother—or at least the girl who would one day become her mother.
Yet she was hardly what Kendra had expected. The person Kendra had always imagined (and you too, no doubt) was loving and nurturing. This girl, Gayla Griffinskitch, was obnoxious, wild—and maybe even a thief!
It was too much for Kendra to think about all at once. Her legs felt weak and her stomach began to churn. Oki squeaked at her, but it sounded as if his voice was far away. The whole world began to spin around her—then, in one fell swoop, she fainted.
When Kendra came to, she found herself stretched out on one of the big wooden chairs in the kitchen of the yew tree house. Near her, on the hearth, a small cauldron was bubbling. It offered a comforting, familiar smell. Countless times Kendra had leaned over that cauldron, preparing dinner for her and Uncle Griffinskitch, and for a moment she managed to convince herself that everything that had happened that day was just a muddled dream.
Somehow I fell out of the cloud ship and banged my head, she thought. And now, here I am, safe inside my own house. I didn’t really meet . . . .
Then Gayla leaned over her. “Hmph,” she snorted. “You’re alive after all. I told Eeks you’d be okay.” She dabbed at Kendra’s forehead with a ball of cloth—and instinctively Kendra jerked away. She couldn’t help it—meeting this young version of her mother was all too strange. It was like encountering a ghost.
“Don’t worry, Braids,” Gayla said hotly. “I’m not going to hurt you. Who do you think carried you all the way in here?”
Kendra’s mind was buzzing. She found herself wanting to do one of two things. The first was to hug Gayla and tell her that she was her daughter. The second was to just run out the door and try to forget any of this had ever happened. But in truth, Kendra was too stunned to do either.
“Besides,” Gayla continued, completely oblivious to Kendra’s swirling vortex of emotions, “you’re not going to get any nursing from Beards. Or sympathy.”
“Uncle Griffinskitch?” Kendra murmured.
“He’s not my uncle,” the Teenling said. “I told you, he’s my brother.”
Kendra’s eyes flickered. Everything was so confusing! “Oki?” Kendra murmured.
“He’s out picking carrots for the soup,” Gayla replied. “But he wouldn’t say what’s going on with you two. I guess that’s your job.” She crossed her arms and looked at Kendra expectantly.
“Well, er . . .” Kendra stammered. She had no idea what to say. Instead she just stared at the floor.
“Let me guess,” Gayla finally said. “You have an ornery old master who treats you like kitchen scraps. So you filched his ring and ran for the hills. And then you bump into me and now you have no place to go.”
“That . . . er, sounds about right,” Kendra said. At least the part about having no place to go, she added in her head.
“You can stay here for now,” Gayla said, turning to stir the soup on the hearth. “Beards won’t like it—but he doesn’t like anything. What happened to your folks anyway?”
“They were lost,” Kendra said, tugging nervously on one braid. “Outside the curtain.”
“Oh,” Gayla said matter-of-factly. “Did you know them?”
“N-no,” Kendra said. “I was just a baby.”
“Yeah, never knew my parents either,” Gayla declared. “My mom died when I was born—she was pretty old, you know. Then my dad died right afterwards. Broken heart, Beards says. Whatever. Now it’s just me and him.”
Kendra was in shock. She had spent her whole life without parents, but it had never occurred to her that her own mother had grown up the same way.
“But Unc—Beards, I mean, your brother, that is,” Kendra sputtered. “He’s your brother. He cares about you.”
“Hmph,” Gayla muttered with a roll of her eyes. “You’ve obviously never met him! He was thirty years old when I was born. Sure most Een siblings have large gaps between them—but not that large. My brother never expected to have a sister, especially one he’d have to take care of.”
Kendra tugged a braid. This story sounded all too familiar.
“The only thing Beards cares about is becoming an elder,” Gayla continued. “That’s why we have to always act like model citizens. Set the right example. Een forbid we ever damage his reputation—or his chance of becoming an elder.”
At that moment, as if to catch Gayla in the act of speaking ill of him, the door flew open and there stood Uncle Griffinskitch himself. Or at least Kendra was sure it must be him. The uncle she knew was mostly one long white beard and so hunched and squat that he was a full head shorter than her. This Uncle Griffinskitch was actually taller than her, an imposing fellow with a gray beard that barely went past his waist. He was wearing a dark robe, and in his hand he was holding a wide-brimmed hat with a long, crooked peak. Kendra had never imagined that Uncle Griffinskitch could look so young and vital. Indeed, she might not have recognized him at all, except for his eyes—and his voice.
“HUMPH!” he scowled. “And who is this?”
Kendra assumed he was speaking about her, but he reached behind him and pushed forth little Oki, who looked more abashed than ever.
“He was racing through the garden like a wild Izzard,” Uncle Griffinskitch grouched. “Scurried right into me, not even looking where he was going.” Then the wizard noticed Kendra sitting next to the fire. “Another one! Who—”
“Relax,” Gayla interjected, rolling her eyes. “These are my friends.”
“Humph,” Uncle Griffinskitch muttered. “I suppose I should be pleased that someone wants to come around here other than that Krimson boy, but—”
“He planted all the flowers around the front door,” Gayla interrupted. “You said they brightened the place up.”
“Aye,” Uncle Griffinskitch muttered, hanging his hat on a hook by the door. “As I was about to say—you’re a little old to be playing with Eenlings.”
“They’re not Eenlings—look, she’s got a wand,” Gayla said, pointing at Kendra.
“Humph,” Uncle Griffinskitch grumbled, casting the most fleeting of glances in Kendra’s direction. His voice and glare were so dismissive that Kendra shrank into her chair. She wished she could just disappear. Thankfully, Oki slinked across the room and climbed into the chair next to her, which instantly made her feel better.
“I told you last week they were coming,” Gayla said to Uncle Griffinskitch. “Remember? They’ve come all the way from Charlo’s Crook for Jamboreen. It’s tomorrow!”
Kendra looked at Oki in surprise and excitement. Jamboreen was the biggest festival in the land of Een, a grand carnival held every year on the longest day of the year. Of course Kendra hadn’t looked at a calendar since arriving in the past; to discover that Jamboreen was the very next day sent a thrill to the very tips of her pointed ears. It would be like you suddenly waking up one day and instead of having to go to school you were told it was Christmas vacation.
Uncle Griffinskitch frowned at Kendra. “Who’s your master, child?”
Kendra tugged nervously at her braids. How could she tell him that it was, well . . . him?
“It’s Nevryn Nightsky,” Gayla piped up.
Kendra Kandlestar and the Crack in Kazah Page 4