Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers (16 page)

RUMOR LOWERED HIS SNOUT and breathed a strange, perfumed cloud into Kendra’s face. She felt her mind grow foggy and heavy, like she was entering a dream. Her eyes flickered and closed. When she opened them, only a moment later, she found herself in a strange, dimly lit room. There was dust everywhere, as thick as a blanket of snow. Except Kendra normally thought of snow as making everything seem fresh and new, but this room didn’t smell fresh at all. It smelled old, older than all of time.

As Kendra stood there, her eyes adjusting to the darkness, she became aware of a strange and faint murmuring. It was the room, Kendra realized. The very walls seemed alive with a thousand whispers.

“What is this place?” Kendra exclaimed out loud. “Where am I?”

Then Rumor’s voice came to her. “You’re inside the Box of Whispers, Kendra. At least your mind is. Your body is still here with me, in the vault of riches.”

“I’m in two places at once?” Kendra asked.

“I hardly expected you to understand,” Rumor snapped. “You’re dreaming, in a way. And inside your dream you’re in the Box of Whispers.”

Kendra didn’t feel like she was dreaming. The box seemed real enough. But she knew some sort of strange magic was occurring, for there was no other way that she could fit inside the Box of Whispers.

Then she heard Rumor again. “Go to your secret, Kendra!”

Kendra looked about the box but couldn’t see anything besides some dusty shelves that lined the walls. She cautiously approached the nearest shelf and, upon clearing away some of the dust and cobwebs, found herself staring at a row of tiny bottles. Then she noticed more shelves and more bottles, thousands of them, seemingly stretching on forever. Each bottle had a name on it. Scanning the bottles, she recognized some of the names: Honest Oki, Burdock Brown, Treewort Timm, to name a few. Then she saw her own bottle, clearly marked Kendra Kandlestar.

Rumor’s voice once again filled the box. “Everyone has a secret, Kendra. Some have many. But you, Kendra, have only one. And yet it torments you, night and day. It invades your thoughts, curses your very dreams!”

Kendra reached up to the shelf with her little hand and lifted her bottle from its musty perch. She squinted through the faint light to gaze upon its contents. And there she saw a poisonous red cloud, swirling and glowing and sending an empty, hollow feeling into the pit of her stomach.

“And will you open it, Kendra?” Rumor asked. “Will you?”

Kendra gulped and put her hand on the cork that plugged the bottle. She began to twist the cork.

“Are you sure, Kendra?” she heard Rumor say, and she quickly lifted her hand from the stopper. “If you open the bottle, all of Een shall know your secret.”

With a start, Kendra dropped the bottle. It landed on the floor, its fall broken by the carpet of dust. With a soft rattle, it rolled into the dark recesses of the box.

“Yes, Kendra,” Rumor whispered. His voice felt so close, as if he were whispering right in her ear. “Open the bottle, and everyone will know that you helped an Unger!”

Kendra couldn’t see the dragon, but she could imagine the dreadful beast with a long smirk spreading across his face. “Een has helped Unger!” he chanted. “Een has helped Unger! Een has helped Unger!”

The dragon’s accusation grew louder and stronger, building inside the box until it became a mighty roar.

“STOP!” Kendra sobbed. “I didn’t . . . I just tried to . . . I just wanted to help, that’s all!”

“And is that what you’ll tell the Council of Elders?” Rumor demanded angrily. “That you wanted to help an Unger? That you wanted to help one of the greatest enemies known to Een? Indeed, what will they do with you, Kendra, the curious little girl who is always asking questions, stirring up trouble? What will your uncle and the elders do when they learn you committed the gravest crime for an Een? I’ll tell you what they’ll do! They will cast you from Een, and you will be left to wander the outside world, shunned and alone!”

“No!” Kendra cried. “Don’t tell them! Don’t tell them!”

And as she said these last words, Kendra felt herself leaving the box and returning to her body. But her body was no longer the same. She felt cold, and her hands and pointed ears began to go numb. She wanted to wiggle her nose, but it stiffened even as she tried. Her eyes felt like they were filling with hard grains of sand, and her vision began to fade. Then, to her horror, Kendra realized what was happening. She was turning to stone.

Now, through grainy eyes, Kendra could see Rumor laughing with wicked delight behind the Box of Whispers that still sat glowing on its pedestal. Even as he was laughing, the red dragon appeared to be growing. Kendra could feel him feeding from her fear, even as her own energy drained away, even as she turned slowly to stone. But how could he be growing? Kendra wondered. Rumor thrived on fear, but she didn’t feel afraid of him. Not now. The only thing she was afraid of was her secret.

Then, it clicked, like a giant puzzle receiving its last and biggest piece; finally, Kendra realized the truth about Rumor. His power came from the fear of secrets, and with every secret that petrified an Een with fear, the dragon grew bigger and stronger. And, of course, every day someone in the land of Een hatched a secret, serious or otherwise. It was no surprise he grew bigger with each passing day.

Kendra’s mind began to feel heavier and thicker. It was like having a cast on your arm or leg, but to Kendra it was as if the cast covered her entire body, from the tips of her long braids to her tiny feet. She wondered if Oki had felt something like this when he had been turned into an onion. She would never know, of course, for when would she ever talk to Oki again? She would be trapped forever within her prison of stone!

Then, as if he had somehow known she was thinking about him, Oki appeared before Kendra. She could barely see his small gray body, whiskery and timid, scurrying over the carpet of gold coins towards her.

“Kendra!” Oki squeaked.

Kendra tried to yell back, but her throat was too stiff and gravelly. But now she knew what to do. She knew what she had to say. She could feel her spark begin to shine, deep inside of her, and once it began to shine, there was no stopping her.

“Oki,” she rasped, but her voice came out soft and muffled because her throat was turning to stone. “Oki,” she repeated, and now the spark was building, and her voice was louder.

“What are you trying to do, Kandlestar?” Rumor demanded.

Kendra could hear a panic in his voice, and it only gave her more strength. The spark was going to burst forth from her. She could feel it. She mustered the last of her strength, and the words came out even louder and clearer. “Oki!”

“Kendra! Kendra!” Oki called, still running towards her.

“I helped an Unger, Oki!” Kendra shouted. “I saved his life!”

Oki skidded to a halt, a few paces in front of Kendra, his eyes as wide as saucers.

“No! How can this be?” Rumor screeched, shaking his fist.

Even as the giant dragon roared, Kendra could feel the cold stone slipping away from her body. At last she could wriggle her fingers. At last she could twitch her pointed ears! She had told her secret and was free!

“Oki!” Kendra cried, rushing forward and embracing her friend.

“It’s impossible!” Rumor screamed, rising to his full height and hovering over the two tiny friends. “You told your secret!”

“Yes,” Kendra said. “Now release my uncle and friends and give me the Box of Whispers!”

“NEVER!” Rumor yelled.

“But we had a deal!” Kendra exclaimed.

“THE BOX IS MINE!” Rumor roared. “You can never have the box. And you won’t have to worry about being expelled from Een, Kendra. I can promise you that. Because after I finish with you, I’m going to go tell every Unger, skarm, and other wretched beast I can find in this infernal world about the secret formula for the magic curtain. As soon as they get their claws on that whisper, I can assure you that Een will be nothing more than a wasteland!”

“How dare you!” Kendra demanded angrily.

“Don’t worry, Kandlestar,” Rumor hissed, rearing above her. “You won’t be around to witness the destruction of your beloved land!”

“Watch out, Kendra!” Oki yelled.

With all his might, the small gray mouse pulled his friend behind a giant silver vase, just as Rumor unleashed a blazing jet of fire upon the gold-covered floor. The flames licked around them, scorching Kendra’s braids and Oki’s tail, but the vase protected them from the brunt of the dragon’s attack. Quickly, they darted through the maze of treasure, trying to hide from Rumor.

“We have to get the box,” Kendra gasped. She tried tugging her braids, but they were scorched and black, and they crumbled between her fingers.

“I think we have bigger problems right now,” Oki said, coughing from the smoke of Rumor’s outburst.

“No, don’t you see?” Kendra said. “There are thousands of secrets in the box, and he feeds on them, on the fear we have of them. If we open the box, we’ll take away his power.”

“What in the name of onions are you talking about?” Oki asked.

“It’s the only way, Oki. I’m sure of it!” Kendra insisted in a frantic whisper.

“Okay, okay,” Oki conceded. “But how will we get to the box? As soon as we step into the open, that dragon will fry us.”

“We’ll split up,” Kendra said. “You go one way, and I’ll go another. He won’t be able to get us both at the same time.”

Kendra knew her little friend was so afraid that he couldn’t even speak. But Oki took a deep breath and seemed to make up his mind. He nodded his approval of Kendra’s plan, then squeezed her hand.

“Good luck,” Kendra murmured.

“CURSE YOU!” Rumor howled as Kendra and Oki darted out from the mounds of treasure, each going a different direction.

The ferocious dragon curled his tail and brought it down against the ground with such force that a great crack opened up, right down the middle of the room. The floor creaked and groaned as each side of the chamber began to give way, sagging towards the center. Everything inside the vault—the gold, the jewels, even Kendra and Oki—began sliding towards the gaping hole.

“The box!” Kendra cried. “Where is it?”

Then she saw it, across the floor. It had been thrown from its pedestal by the force of Rumor’s attack, and it was sliding towards the great opening. Without a second thought, Kendra dove over the avalanche of gold coins and wrapped her hands around the box, just as it was about to plunge into the depths below. It throbbed within her hands, but she held it tightly.

Kendra barely had a chance to let out a sigh of relief when Rumor sent his tail crashing to the floor again. The ground crumbled beneath Kendra. Still clutching the box in one arm, she pulled herself back as jewels, glimmering treasures, and thousands of gold coins disappeared over the lip of the crack into nothingness below. The sound was deafening.

Rumor breathed out more fire, and soon, there was so much smoke and dust in the chamber that Kendra could barely see. She closed her eyes against the stinging fumes, and when she next looked up, she saw the dragon hovering over her, his tail poised to flatten her.

“Careful!” Kendra cried, holding the box above her like a shield. “Would you really chance destroying the box?”

“And what good is it to you?” Rumor hissed. “You don’t have the key.”

For a moment, Kendra felt her heart drop, but she said boldly, “Neither do you!”

“I have it, Kendra,” Oki shouted, and she looked up to see her tiny friend on the other side of the chasm. He began running towards her, the magic key clenched tightly in his paws.

“Look out for the hole, Oki!” Kendra cried. She could see that he meant to jump across it, but he was so tiny, and the crack so wide. She wanted to yell at him, to tell him that she didn’t want him to risk it. There were so many things she wanted to tell him, her best friend in the whole world. But when she opened her mouth, only one thing came out. “DON’T THINK ABOUT ONIONS!” she yelled at the top of her lungs.

Oki leapt across the crack. How he was able to do it while clutching the key, Kendra never knew, but in the next instant, the tiny mouse landed next to her with a triumphant thud.

“Silly little fools!” Rumor growled, rearing back to scorch them with flames.

“It’s now or never!” Kendra shouted to Oki.

Together, they grabbed the long key, and plunged it into the Box of Whispers.