“Come along gentlemen. Time is wasting,” Shakespeare announced.
The boys followed him down a long, dusty corridor.
The bad-attitude group continued to bicker at them. Kafka yelled, “You’d better beat her, or I promise we’ll all come back to haunt you for the rest of your days.”
The boys ignored him and continued to follow the great play-write down the hallway, which appeared to go on forever. They found themselves surrounded by mirrors. When the boys looked into them, they could not see Shakespeare’s ghost. When they looked straight ahead as they followed him, however, they could see him without any problem.
After what felt like forever, they reached a large wood and iron door at the end of the hall.
“This is it my lads, the door to the palace. I’m sorry some of my fellow ghosts gave you such difficulty. The sad thing is, they are still so surrounded by fear they cannot get past it. Therefore, they only trust in someone or something they can relate to. The ones you encountered who were so negative could not form a bond with you because of your goodness and light. However, I am certain if you succeed, things will be different for those souls, and so I wish you great luck. And if you do not succeed, then trust me when I say I would much rather cease to exist than remain imprisoned any longer. I have faith in you both. Now go, and do as you will, as you must. God be with you.”
Shakespeare stuck the keys into the door lock, and turned it. It creaked open. “Ah, before you go, I have something for you, Carter. It may not help you on this journey, but it is a symbol of my gratitude. I know how difficult it was to give away your heart-song. Mozart will take good care of her. I hope this will ease your loss, and help you to remember your time with us.
“I don’t think I’ll ever forget this time,” Carter replied.
Nodding, Shakespeare handed him his quill.
Carter smiled with delight. It was the best gift he’d ever received. “Thank you. I will treasure it always.” Carter bowed, and as he came back up, Shakespeare’s ghost vanished.
“Where did he go?” Carter asked Mason.
“Dunno, back to his desk, I suppose. When you bowed down to him like that, he just up and disappeared. I think that means it’s time for us to move on. Pretty cool he gave you that.”
“Very.”
Then, the boys stepped through the heavy door and shut it behind them. They were engulfed in complete darkness.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
BUBBLES OF LOVE
They’d done it! But the best part of it was they’d freed them! They’d freed all of the masters’ souls for their journey onward to a better place—one where Queen Zamora had no chance of ever ruling. They would be rid of the misery they were trapped in, imposed on them by the queen.
And now Mason and Carter stood on the other side of the heavy, iron door that looked like it was centuries old. As it slammed and bolted behind them, they knew exactly where they were: inside the palace walls. The corridor ahead was dark, and smelled wet and moldy. It was also ice cold. They assumed they were close to the dungeons or at least on the bottom floor of the palace.
Mason pulled off his backpack. Both boys leaned against the wall for a moment, each of them breathing a sigh. “Do you think she knows we’re here?” he asked.
Carter knew he meant the queen, and shrugged his shoulders. He was really tired, but they’d come this far, and couldn’t lose sight of their goal. “I hope not, but I suppose it doesn’t really matter what she knows, because we’re here and we’re going to get her.”
“That’s the spirit.”
“Wish I felt it, though.”
“I know. I’m tired and hungry, too. But this is it, Carter.”
“I know. I don’t think we have much time left..”
Carter nodded and followed closely behind Mason as they made their way down the hall. He held out his light wand, flashing it every few seconds so they could see where they were going. They didn’t want to alert anyone, but it was too dark not to use the wand at all. They knew sooner or later, they would be running into the queen.
Halfway down the hall, they heard a noise. It sounded like water dripping, but louder, much louder, and closer. “What the…?” Carter whispered, but before Mason could come up with a reasonable answer, they saw what it was. Stone pebbles were raining down up ahead where a shaft of moonlight cut through the darkness. From what they could see, the pebbles were being tossed down from a kind of rain gutter.
“Boys!” someone whispered.
Their eyes widened and they walked with trepidation toward the voice and the pebbles.
“Boys, it’s all right. I know where your sister is, and I can be trusted.”
“Sure,” muttered Carter, knowing it was highly unlikely to find anyone trustworthy inside the palace walls.
“Wait a minute, Carter. Let’s at least check this out. We have no idea what or who will get us to the queen. We’ve never even gotten close to this level of the game at home. And the guidebook doesn’t give any hints, because they wanted to make this level harder than the rest. We’ve got to take a chance.”
“I think you’re being too trusting.”
“I think that’s the deal, Carter. We don’t have a choice.”
Carter thought about this for a second. Mason was right. They couldn’t rely on tbe guidebook any longer. The heart-song had chosen to stay with Mozart, and she probably wouldn’t be of any use, anyway. Her duties had been fulfilled when she helped guide them through the forest. Carter missed her already. He’d grown quite fond of her in the little time they’d spent together. He wished there were heart-songs on earth. He thought maybe if they made it back home, he would ask for a bird this Christmas.
Now it was entirely up to each brother’s own resourcefulness. In a weird way, Carter thought maybe it was all for the best. “Fine, let’s find out who it is, and get this show on the road.”
They slowly approached the gutter. Looking up, they saw two beady eyes peering down at them. The eyes pulled back from the gutter and the next thing the boys knew, an odd little creature jumped down to greet them.
“Victor is the name. Don’t have time to chat. Must sound the alarm, let the queen know you’ve arrived.”
“Wait a minute! I thought you said you were on our side!” Mason now felt his blood boiling. He didn’t like being proven wrong and he’d done everything by the book.
“Oh, I am, I am,” Victor said.
On closer examination, the boys could see he was part goat and part man. A satyr. Very interesting, but not shocking considering all they’d seen so far. Mason wondered if anything would ever shock him again. He doubted it.
“Then what the heck are you trying to do? If you sound the alarm, you’ll get us killed,” Carter said.
“Look, I have to do what I have to do, and believe me it’s not because I want to. But this is the way it must be.”
Carter tried hard to get a good look at his eyes, remembering Seyem’s words, but it was too dark and there was no way of telling if this goat-man was of the light or the dark. Carter was still inclined to believe the worst. How could a goat-man, ready to sound the alarm and blow their cover, be good?
“Do you know where our sister is?” Mason asked him.
“I do, I do.”
“Then take us to her, so we can get out of here, if you’re really all that good.”
“I can’t do that, boys. You know I cannot. It’s not how the game is played, and you must see this to the finish.” Victor pulled a timepiece out from under his vest. “Oh no, no more time.” He reached back inside his vest, and pulled out two small, silver packages. He tossed one to Mason, and then the other to Carter.
“What’s this?” Mason asked, an edge to his voice.
“That, boys, is something that may come in handy for you in the next—oh my goodness! We are down to twenty-three minutes and forty-two seconds!” He pointed to the bags, “Each sack carries the bubble of love.”
“What?” Carter asked, not un
derstanding anything the goat-man was saying.
“All I can say is chew it and blow when the time comes.”
“And that will be when?” Mason asked edgily.
“That will be for you to figure out. I can only do so much.” And with that, Victor took up a whistle tied around his neck and blew as hard as he could. The sound was so piercing, the boys had to cover their ears.
Seconds later, they were surrounded by knights dressed in black. They wore thick, red feathers on top of their black armor, like plumes on a bird. Their eyes glowed red through the slits in their metal helmets.
Mason looked back at Victor who was slipping away in-between the knights, and he could’ve sworn he saw him mouth the words “bubble of love.” He shook his head and felt certain they’d been betrayed.
Before long, Victor had vanished. And where was Mason’s baby sister inside this sinister castle? Victor said he knew. Even if the stupid, little goat-man did know, he wasn’t telling. He’d run off. Mason doubted at this moment that Victor had any clue where Izzy was. The circle of knights and their horses, who were as angry looking as their riders, closed in around them.
The boys stood back-to-back in the middle of the circle. No one said a word. In fact, it was more silent than any silence either Carter or Mason had ever experienced. Even when their mom insisted on peace and quiet in the house, there was always some background noise. But not now. Nothing—absolutely nothing—made the slightest peep. Nothing. It didn’t even seem like the horses or their riders were truly breathing. Carter thought he might pass out. Mason was sure he would.
Then, a noise. A loud, cackling, unmistakable noise—laughter. They recognized it immediately. It was the same laughter that got them into this mess. It was the queen. Two horses standing on the outer rim took a few steps back and then to the side. The boys watched in awe as Queen Zamora entered the circle.
She was very tall, towering over both boys. Long, dark red hair cascaded down her back and she was cloaked in velvet robes of black, gold, and silver. Her fingernails were extraordinarily long and painted the deepest purple. They were so dark they almost looked black. But in the light of the moon, a faint, purplish shimmer danced along the razor-sharp tips, and they gleamed dangerously. Mason narrowed his eyes in anger. She better not have picked up his baby sister with those trashy-looking nails. They looked like they could slice through steel.
And then there were her eyes. They were so very different from the others they’d seen so far. They were empty, like two black holes, with nothing to offer except hatred and a desire to swallow others up into their nothingness. Out of everything the boys encountered on this journey, the cold, dead eyes of Queen Zamora were by far the most frightening.
“We finally meet,” she said.
The boys took a step back.
“Now you’re afraid? Why? Isn’t this what you’ve been waiting for? A chance to get me? A chance to save your precious sister? A chance to save Boysen and your own world? This is what you wanted, isn’t it? How foolish you have been! I’ve only been toying with you up til now. Though I did have a bit of fun.”
She bent down and lowered her face towards theirs. They took another step back..
“You’re a silly lot. And, at times, you have been an aggravation to me. But I suppose it has all been fun. And now the fun is over, boys. You are here, which means you are mine, and you might as well go down like the rest of them.” She stood tall again and gestured with her sharply tipped fingers. “Seize them! Bring them to the ceremony room! Let them see their sister and witness the changing of the souls!”
The boys were roughly yanked by two knights who followed the queen through a pair of large gates leading to the palace interior.
Candles lit up the castle and the damp, stone walls. Black roses—thorny and dead—were scattered throughout the room in vases, on tables, even on the floors.
The knights continued to follow the queen up a winding staircase. Mason felt for the package Victor had tossed his way. He could only hope against all odds that the goat-man was truly on their side, and what was in his pocket was a weapon worthy of beating the queen at her own game.
They stood outside another heavy door. The queen threw her arms up and it opened magically. Their jaws dropped as they saw Izzy tied to a bed made of gold. She cried out for them. Both boys fought back tears. Izzy! Anger swelled in their throats and in the pit of their stomachs. Rough looking leather straps held her down.
She cried out, recognizing her brothers, and turned her tiny face to see them.
Victor stood next to Izzy and gently clasped his hand over her mouth. Seeing Izzy like this made them both struggle to be free of the knights. They tried desperately to get to her, but the guards held them tightly. The queen cackled. Izzy continued to cry. Carter thought his heart might actually break.
“Let them go,” the queen ordered her men. “There is nothing they can do to me.” The guards released the boys. “Now leave.”
The knights left. The queen faced the boys, who had taken out their light wands, pointin them at her.
She laughed even harder. “Oh please, don’t insult me.”
They fired the wands up and together, directed the beams of light at her. It shone bright on her skin. She easily blocked it with her arms, cackling all the while. Wind blew fiercely inside the room, a fierce wind that could knock a child over. Victor fell back. Izzy screamed.
Carter stiffened, refusing to let the wind pull him anywhere. He made every effort to move towards Izzy, while still shining the light on the laughing queen.
The queen pointed a finger at him and uttered the words “Ulsa, me dora, me unlia filimin urthea.”
Carter shot back, elevated in mid-air. He went flying across the room and hit the wall hard. He fell and shook his head, trying in vain to see straight.
Mason screamed, “No! Carter! Izzy!”
“You can’t help them, you little fool. You’re all mine, now. Don’t you hear it? Don’t you feel it? You may have destroyed my volcano, but my wrath brings it back to life. The tide is rising with every passing second. Your time is running out!”
Mason looked from his brother slumped against the wall, back to his sister, crying on the slab, straining against the thick, leather straps. He fought back his rage, he fought back his fear, and all the horrible feelings he knew that could take over every part of him. He thought of the love he felt for his brother and his sister. He thought of the love he felt for his mom and dad. He put these thoughts in his head and in his heart. He wished fervently for Carter to read his thoughts. Two minds were better than one, and when focused in love, instead of hatred and fear, any war against any enemy could be fought and won.
In his mind, he screamed as loud as he could to Carter, “Think love, Carter, think Mom, think Dad, think Isabella, think of all the fun we’ve always had together, and all the fun we’ll still have!”
“How amusing!” The queen yelled, “But the fun is over. Love! Love! What a bunch of hooey! Yes, I can read minds, too.”
And that’s when both boys knew they had to believe Victor and his strange words about a bubble of love. Carter struggled with the last ounce of strength he possessed to get out the wrapper. He opened it and, sure enough, something that looked exactly like chewing gum was inside. He popped it into his mouth and chewed and chewed. The queen was still so caught up in her tirade, she didn’t notice the boys and what they were doing. Mason opened his package and also started chewing his gum.
“You hear it, don’t you?” she screamed. “This will be gone, all of it, and then I will come into your world and own it all! I’m going to have a lovely time with your mother and father, and then, well, when I don’t need them anymore…”
The boys tuned her out, and chewed and chewed and continued to think of their family and their love for them. Together they blew bubbles. Mason’s grew larger, faster, because he hadn’t been weakened by the lump on the head as Carter had. First it was the size of a fist, then a small cat, th
en a child, and they kept growing until they nearly filled the room.
Carter’s bubble soon caught up with Mason’s, and before long the room took on a soft, pink hue.
It suddenly dawned on the queen that things weren’t going according to plan. “What are you doing? Where…where did you get that?! How could you have?!” She looked over at Victor and knew her loyal servant had betrayed her. “Victor!!” she screamed, her voice shaking with fury. “You did this.” She pointed her finger at him and out came a flash of fire. It hit Victor, who was already lying on the ground from the gusts of wind, and knocked him unconcious.
The bubbles took on a life of their own as they floated towards the queen. She cowered from them. The two bubbles merged into one. As the queen tried to escape from the room, she found herself trapped. The boys, the injured Victor, and Izzy watched as a huge bubble encapsulated the queen.
Once inside, the queen couldn’t get out. She tried to break free, like a frenzied rat caught in a glass cage. The queen started shrinking, and, before long, she was no more than a foot high. She continued to rant and rave, screaming that she would come back and they would pay.
“I will torture you, do you hear me?! I will torture you and your family! When I am finally through with you, there will be nothing left. You will be nothing!! Do you hear me?!?” Her voice was not much louder than a small child’s.
The boys looked on as the bubble floated through a large window, with her trapped inside.
Carter and Mason ran to Izzy and began frantically unbuckling her restraints. She threw her tiny arms around them, and kissed each of their faces over and over. That was something they used to hate, but they both knew they would never hate it again. In fact, her big brothers would always cherish Izzy’s kisses. The three wrapped their arms around each other and held on tight. Tears of joy streamed down their faces. Mason ran his fingers through Izzy’s black curls and Carter tickled her feet. She laughed.
Victor moaned on the floor beneath them. In their moment of reconciliation they’d forgotten about him.
The Clover Siblings and the Evil of Desmal Page 12