Flight Through Darkness
“It was a guess. A lucky guess. It was a guess!”
“So said. I still say ye be better than ye know, Bek. Shall I carry ye by the legs, or can ye endure my grip?”
“I’m not quite as dizzy while I’m playing Jo Bree. Carry me by the legs. But wait. I’ll play softly so such that I can hear you explain about that blue globe and why you were a river and tell me more, as much as you can. How long have we been descending through Realms? Why aren’t we ever sleepy or hungry? Such and so sorts of things.”
“There now. I’ve got ye. So … That be a pleasant enough melody, Bek, but could ye play ‘The Greeting of the Moons’ from ‘The Festival of Chonkas?’ Such and so peaceful it be, a favorite of mine, ye know.”
“I’ll play it. Now talk.”
“…Mmmmm, nice. Same as ye, Bek, I thought that the blue cube would be like the others, but such so more densely planted. I was shocked when I remained Rakara inside. I had to think back to my morning with Dak and try to remember all that he told me. Such was why I shushed ye. I needed silence to think. And then I did remember the last thing that he said to me before I flew to fetch ye. He said, ‘Remember yesterday? Wasn’t that fun?’ Then he winked. Bek, on the yesterday that he asked me to remember, he and Ragaba had taught me to be a river. Oh, it was fun! It was all I could think of to shift to in the blue globe! I guessed, like ye!”
“We can’t rely so such on lucky guesses in the purple, can we? Now I am worried AND I’m getting dizzier!”
“Settle, Bek. Play another song on the Carven Flute … There. I will tell ye all the other that I know or don’t know. I don’t know why we be not sleepy or hungry. Such be so. Maybe it be something with the time waterwheel. I don’t know. I can’t say. Dak did mention it somewhat, but refused to explain. He said that we would see if we would see.”
“We haven’t seen anything like a time waterwheel, whatever a time waterwheel is. Maybe the purple …”
“Play, Bek, play. The chiming of the purple blends so nicely with …”
“Chiming purple? What chiming purple? Pick me up. Hold me around the ribs. I don’t care. What chiming purple?”
“It be how jrabes sense without sight. We sense by sound. Have I not told ye?”
“Yes, well, but purple chimes?”
“Colors sing pure notes, Bek. The purple so such chimes in harmony with the melody ye were playing.”
“I don’t hear any chimes like you, but I can see that we have arrived. Take us down in to ‘em. Go ahead. Swoop. Look, I mean, hear! The door is right there on the first sphere! It’s almost inviting us to hurry! I don’t want to think. Go forward. I don’t want to think. Get me close to the lever latch. I can almost … Sense us a tiny span closer … There … Umphhhh!”
“Bek?”
“Kar?”
“It looks like we’re …”
“Home?”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Realm!
It looked so such in every detail like our bramble bower border hedge home. We found ourselves dumped on the floor of the main tunnel a scant few strides from the entrance to the Assembly Bower. In a jumbled daze I reached to touch the tips of thorns growing sharp along the tangled branches of the wall.
“Ripe,” I mumbled.
“Listen,” said Kar.
I listened and heard nothing, which was a significant strangeness. Ever and always in the hedge a soft chankling sound fills the tunnels as chonkas jiggle on the belts of bendo dreen moving about. Such is so.
“The hedge is abandoned,” I surmised.
“This isn’t the hedge. We are inside the purple, I bet. No bendo dreen to be heard. It’s a puzzle. Let’s look for the fleckrunner,” announced Kar with impressive confidence.
Kar led. I followed. We explored along all of the tunnels, every one of ‘em, and peeked into every Bower and nest. Empty. No fleckrunner. No bendo dreen. We had a lengthy sit down at the table in the Chonka Repair Shop and remembered such and so earlier times when we’d been apprenticed to Zinna, so and such long before we discovered Zinna was a jrabe and Kar was her daughter.
“Remember when you were just jark dweg Karro and not a jrabe or a jroon?” I asked, wrapped in the comfort of sweet memory.
“And you were Silent Bekka,” added Kar. “So such, then was then. Now is now. I AM a jrabe jroon, the first and only. And we are supposed to be looking for a Ramp. The final Ramp! When we find it, we will descend to the Realm Beyond Realms!”
“Maybe you should shift to a river again,” I suggested.
“I don’t feel it,” said Kar. “I feel … we should go under to the forge tunnels. I feel that.”
Kar led. I followed. We went down the cut dirt stairway to the caverns. Fires burned in every forge. Our shadows flickered on the walls. No fleckrunner. No bendo dreen. The only chankling was from my chonka as I descended the stairs.
“The fires mean something. They can’t be real,” said Kar.
“Why not?” I asked.
“Who started ‘em? Who’s tending ‘em?” she said, and before I could tackle her, she calmly reached out and placed her hand into the middle of an angry dancing yellow forge fire. She picked up a red glow coal and squeezed it, held it out to me. “See? Here. Hold it.”
“I believe you,” I said, backing away. She was a jrabe jroon. I wasn’t.
She tossed the coal back onto the fire and sat herself down on an anvil. She tapped the toes of her highboots on the floor and scratched her forehead. She looked at me and shrugged.
“Any ideas, Bek?” she asked.
“Only one little one,” I replied.
She tilted her head and threw out her hands as if so such to say, “Well?”
“I see chunks of bittem in that bucket. Did you ever hear of bittem being burned in forge fires? Why is that bittem there? It shouldn’t be there. Bittem burns green. Forge fires glow yellow red hot. It’s the only thing I’ve noticed out of place,” I said.
While I spoke, Kar abandoned the anvil to walk to the bucket. She stood over it and stared down into it.
“The only thing out of place,” she mused.
She lifted the bucket, crossed to the forge and without a word dumped the bittem onto the fire. Green flames shot high. The cavern walls turned into sliding red sand which flowed around me up to my knees. The ceiling parted, giving way to a high pink sky. The green flames became water, a green river drifting lazily by, a green river shooting up sparks of color, all the colors of the rainbow.
“Realm Beyond Realms!” gasped Kar.
“How do you know?” I spouted, struggling to free my boots from the sand.
“The last secret,” she hissed.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Following the River to Sparkle Sea
“What last secret?”
“Here. I’ll tug you out. The last secret wasn’t from Dak, so such. It was from Ragaba. When I left Fan Wa’s Island to fetch you for to go on this Realm Beyond Realms adventure, I sped low to the waves as a pale green cloud with sky blue wings. A shadow overtook me from above. It was Ragaba. She was shifted to Golden Dragon. She swooped to me and puffed from her nostrils golden steam, hissing, ‘Red sand, green river, Realm.’ Then she wheeled away and left me without another word. So such. This is the Realm!”
“Red sand and a green river?”
“And a pink sky and other somethings somewhere. We have to find ‘em. Oh, Bek! Let’s look for a time waterwheel!”
“Why?”
“Here’s water. Here’s sand. Sands of time. Waterwheel! I’ll shift to Green Dragon. We’ll follow the river … Such! Hop on!”
“There is a gladness for me that you can shift and don’t have to crush my ribs with your bony jrabe arms. Oooooh … Well …”
“I’ll go higher.”
“Ooooh … Well … High enough! This pink light, I think it might make me dizzy. The river already looks like a ribbon. I don’t want it to look like a thread! The red dunes, th
ey seem endless. Can you see anything other?”
“Nothing but patches of red straw grass. But the river does run. It’s going somewhere. And somewhere is where we’re going, too.”
“Kar, it’s so strange, the pink light, the silence, the sparkles on the river.”
“Truth. Play the lullaby again, Bek. Play it as we soar … La la, la la, la la, la la, and there will be thorns in the morning.
That’s a good song, Bek. It makes me to feel content. Will you … Oh! Something! A sea! A sea!”
“I see it. Oh, sparkles. The river. The red dunes. A sparkling sea! What now?”
“We’ll fly over it! Straight out over it! We’ll search for … something!”
“Look at those twinkles. How they flash! Is the pink darkening? Could there be night?”
“I’ll feather myself and we’ll such and so float in the sparkles if darkness falls. We’ll drift on the swells. We’ll …”
“Kar! Isn’t that an island over there?”
“Bek, good! An island!”
“I see white walls! I see a blue turret tower! I see halls! It’s a somewhere!”
“It’s a somewhere in the Realm Beyond Realms.”
“Do you think there’ll be a fleckrunner, Kar?”
“Why should I know? I don’t know. I have no more secrets.”
“Should you fly in so such as a Dragon?”
“Again, why should I know? I have no more secrets.”
“If so is such, why don’t we land on that beach behind those rocks? Then why don’t you shift to Rakara? Then why don’t we march up and try to enter the somewhere?”
“You are the Chronicler, Bek. I have no more secrets. I am a jrabe jroon, the first and only. I will follow your lead as ever was always when we were misfit younglings in the hedge. Your plan is mine.”
“It isn’t really a plan, so such.”
“Whatever it is, we’ll follow it together.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
The Hall of Jroons
Rakara plunged low to the waves and skirted the island to land on a red sand beach wedged between the sparkling sea and a tumbled wall of black slab boulders. I hopped from her neck, and she shifted to jrabe. She swirled her dark green mantle and blinked her sightless milky eyes.
“Why did you do that?” I asked.
“I felt like swirling. It be exciting to swirl. I be brim fizzed over with excitement! Realm Beyond Realms!”
I understood. The colors of sparkle on the sea grew ever more thrilling as darkness descended. We were on an island in the Realm Beyond Realms. Nothing more needed to be said. We listened to the gentle plashing of the wavelets, and moved off down the beach. My highboots crunched in the sand. Rakara floated close by. Her mantle touched my arm. I studied the great black boulders, tilted and fallen all over one the other. Two of ‘em leaned together, and in the thin triangle of space between ‘em I saw steps.
“Steps,” I whispered.
“I sense ‘em,” said Rakara. “Let’s go.”
The steps twisted a lane of darkness up through the boulders until they leveled to become a straight road on the flat table top of the island. The road led directly to a magnificent blue turret tower glowing in the night. Tall white walls lit up luminous stretched out curving away from the left and the right sides of the tower.
“There be Halls inside,” said Rakara.
“How do you know?” I whispered, awestruck by the sight I was seeing.
“So such like ye do! We saw ‘em from above!” she said, giving me at the same time a sharp bony elbow jab in the shoulder.
“Oh. Right,” I mumbled, rubbing my shoulder.
“I’ll lead us in. I should be first,” said Rakara with a brightness of confidence which flooded my natural nervousness with relief.
She floated swiftly before me, and I hurried after her. The height of walls and tower grew and loomed monstrously at our approach. A cross-hatch gilded door at the base of the tower swung open.
“They be expecting us,” said Rakara, and she swirled her mantle twice in excitement.
I swallowed and forced myself to pass through the opening. The turret tower was hollow and lit with an eerie blue light. Another gilded door on its far side opened, and yellow light streamed in. Rakara, without hesitation, floated through. I, with a fair measured nince of hesitation, stepped through. Such! We beheld a Hall of dazzle! Rainbow glitter lights filled its cavernous space. Twenty or thirty dome-like satiny tents were scattered across the polished gleaming golden floor. The tents were rainbow colors, some red, a few orange, two yellow, a host of greens, three blues, and a smattering of purples. Such was miraculously so! Soft chimes sounded as the rainbow glitters danced in the air.
“Ah, glitter! Oh, tents!” I gasped.
“What tents?” asked Rakara.
“Those there! Can’t you sense ‘em?” I whispered.
“Those be not tents, Bek! They be jroons!” she shouted.
Her shout echoed with the chimes, and the tents collapsed into robes. Heads emerged from the robes. Pale blue faces with storm gray eyes turned as one to gaze at us. Long dark green beards glimmering with moss, and each one tied in the middle with a bow the color of its robe, trailed to the polished golden floor. Pale blue hands with long talons slithered from sleeves. Rakara swirled her mantle.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Another Riddle?
“So. They are here,” boomed the yellow-robed jroon nearest me.
“They are,” thundered a blue-robed jroon far across the Hall.
The jroons, all of ‘em, takked their talons together in unison. Tak, tak, tak. Instantly the soft flutter of chimes ceased. The glitter twinkles in the air continued to dance, but silently now. All of the gray storm eyes stared fiercely at us, waiting, expectant. My brain was empty, which is never a surprise. I glanced at Rakara. She wore a small smile on her thin jrabe lips. Such gave to me support, and I waited for her to act. She acted.
“I be Rakara, the jrabe daughter of Dak the jroon. I be the first and only jrabe jroon ever. Ye see before ye Rakara, jrabe jroon, and Bekka of Thorns, bendo dreen Chronicler. We together have descended the Ramps, solving various and so puzzles and riddles along the way, in order to visit the Realm Beyond Realms. We have met the challenge of my father, Dak the jroon! We be here!” boasted Rakara, and there and then she shifted to Golden Dragon, flew around the Hall above the jroons, skidded to a landing next to me, shifted to Kar, draped an arm around my shoulders, and grinned a happy jark dweg grin.
“So. You think that you have met the challenge. She thinks that she has met the challenge,” chuckled an orange-robed jroon.
Merriment spread among the jroons. Laughter shook ‘em before once again in unison they takked their talons together. Tak, tak, tak. Instantly a platter of cakes appeared and sailed around the Hall so such that each jroon could pluck for himself a cake. Each plucked, and the platter sailed to rest at our feet. Two cakes remained.
“Are you hungry? Wouldn’t you like a pebble cake?” sang a green-robed jroon, looking not at us, but around at his companion jroons and winking.
“We’re not hungry,” said Kar.
Such was so quite a jest to ‘em, for they fairly rocked with laughter. When, after an annoying length of time, they finished laughing, they settled, and a purple-robed droon slid forward just above the gleaming golden floor. He came to a stop in front of us and studied us with his gray storm eyes. He stroked his mossy dark green beard below its purple bow. He ate the remaining two pebble cakes. He swallowed the final few crumbs. He spoke.
“Not yet,” he rumbled low and powerful. “Not yet, Rakara, daughter of Dak. You are not yet hungry. No hunger. Yes, you have descended the Ramps. You have passed by the Ricks. You have passed by the Berry. You have dealt successfully with Violet, Lionel, Guy and Slingsby. With the help of this bendo dreen here, you have solved the fleckrunner’s falsehoods. And now you are present here in the Realm Beyond Realms. If you would ever leave this Realm, you must
solve one final riddle. If you would ever leave this Realm, you must travel to the Waterwheel of Time, and when there, you must unlock the riddle before the Wheel in your sight turns one full rotation. Jrabe jroon, first and only, we wish you well.”
“What is the riddle?” asked Kar quickly.
In place of an answer, the purple-robed jroon lifted silently up and up, and one by one, the rest of the jroons joined him, lifting up high to the top of the Hall. The glitter twinkles began to race, dancing madly, fizzing. The cavernous Hall whirled in a rush. A white mask of fog swirled around us. Dizzy, I fell. Kar kneeled next to me. The fog so such then vanished stark in a flash. Kar and I found ourselves seated, both dazed, on the flat table top rocky surface of the island. Sprays of stars hung in the black night sky above us. Around us the island was black ink dark. No glowing blue turret tower. No white lit luminous walls. No Hall. Only barren black rock. Such was so.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Discussion
“Well, Kar?”
“Well what?”
“Well what now?”
“We find the Waterwheel of Time and solve the final riddle.”
“How do we do that?”
“Not so such by sitting here.”
“Why did the jroon offer us pebble cakes? Why did they laugh when you told ‘em we weren’t hungry? Did you know that the Realm Beyond Realms had jroons? Were those jroons the same like your Dak?”
“Bek, settle. I knew nothing about this Realm other than what Ragaba as Golden Dragon hissed to me. Red sand, green river. No more than that. Dak is better than any of those jroons. His robe is golden, so such bright like the floor of that Hall. The hungry and the pebble cakes? I don’t know. I don’t care. What we have to do is find that Waterwheel of Time.”
“What if I can’t figure the answer to the final riddle? What IS the final riddle? We’ll be stuck here. That’s all. Stuck. I want to go back to the hedge, the Well of Shells, my own hut in the meadow. I am bendo dreen! I should be at home!”
“Bek, settle. You may be bendo dreen, but I am jrabe jroon, the first and only! I will solve the riddle if you can’t.”
Rakara Page 7