Kendra Kandlestar and the Box of Whispers (9 page)

FOR HOW LONG SHE SLEPT, Kendra did not know, but her dreams were not peaceful ones. She dreamt she was walking through a meadow near her house when she heard a whisper from behind her. At first she could not make out what the voice was saying in that foggy dream world, but then she felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find herself surrounded by the Council of Elders. “Een has helped Unger!” they cried all together, pointing at her. “Een has helped Unger!”

Then a violent shriek broke across her dream, so loud and frightening that it reminded Kendra of the sound the dark shadow had made when it stole the Box of Whispers. She looked up into the sky, but it was blue and empty. Then, the scream came again, ripping across her mind with such ferocity that she bolted awake.

Have you ever awoken suddenly to discover what you thought you were hearing in your dream was not a dream at all? That’s exactly what happened to Kendra. The shrieks hadn’t come from inside her head—but from the real world.

“What is that?” she cried. She scrambled out of her sleeping bag, her braids brushing the top of the log in which they slept.

The other members of the company were also now awake, their eyes all turned towards Jinx, who was still standing watch at the edge of their shelter.

“Some sort of monster,” the grasshopper reported, clenching three different weapons among her various hands. “But don’t ask me what kind—I don’t know.”

Kendra and Oki poked their noses out the end of the log and looked to the faint, early morning sky. There was more shrieking, so loud and sharp that they rubbed their ears.

“Look! There it is!” Oki cried, pointing to the clouds. “It’s a flying worm!”

Kendra couldn’t have described the monster better. It had a short fat body that tapered into a long tail, and a pair of spiny wings that cast a dark shadow upon the ground. The worm’s skin was thin and green with brown blotches, and it had only two tiny legs that ended with hooked claws. A single round eye darted about on its head (indeed, it seemed as if the eye
was
its head), while a long, sharp tongue zipped in and out of its fang-encrusted mouth.

“My word!” Professor Bumblebean uttered as he joined the others at the end of the log. “It’s a skarm.”

“A what?” Jinx asked.

“A skarm,” the professor repeated, quickly flipping open his
Comparative Book of Creatures
. He read: “Skarm live in scattered forests and meadows, and are nocturnal by nature. In a group they are known as a senate. Their diet consists of—”

“Oh, do shut it,
Bumblebrag
,” Jinx muttered.

“You must be overcome with fear to be forgetting my name again,” the professor told Jinx. “How many times have I told you? My name is BUMBLEBEAN.”

Jinx was about to muster a reply when Oki suddenly let out a sharp, “Eek!”

Everyone looked upward again. The skarm had suddenly turned and was now flying steeply towards the hollow log.

“It knows we’re here!” Oki whispered hoarsely.

“Everyone to the back,” Jinx ordered, herding the group to the rear of the log. She had no sooner spoken than they heard a loud thump, and the log took a sudden lurch, throwing them to the ground.

“What’s going on?” Kendra cried.

“The skarm has landed on top of the log,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. Now they could hear the slithering creature as its claws rasped across the wood above their heads.

“Don’t think of onions, don’t think of onions,” Oki murmured frantically.

“Quiet!” Jinx hissed, clutching her sword tightly. “We have to get out of here!”

But at that moment, the opening of the hollow log was darkened with the giant peering head of the skarm. As soon as it spotted the company, it released a dreadful shriek and sent its tongue flickering towards them.

“We’re trapped!” Professor Bumblebean cried. Now that the skarm was right on top of him, it seemed the professor had forgotten his scientific curiosity, for he was trembling as hard as Oki.

“I’m going to lure this overgrown slug out of here,” Jinx declared, slashing at the skarm’s tongue with her sword. “Elder Griffinskitch, you get everyone else out.”

“Hold on a minute, Captain,” Uncle Griffinskitch said. “We may be able to fight our way past this creature.”

“No way,” Jinx retorted abruptly. “You’ve had a lot of magic knocked out of you the past couple of days, Elder Griffinskitch. Trust me. I’ll take care of the one-eyed freak, and you get the rest of our gang to safety. Don’t worry. I’ll catch up with you later.”

Jinx didn’t wait for further argument. She used her strong hind legs to bound past the skarm and out of the log and into the open. With a scream, the skarm tore after her.

“Hurry!” Uncle Griffinskitch commanded the remaining members of the company. “Let’s go!”

They scrambled out of the log and darted into the underbrush of the woods. The skarm was still shrieking and the small band of companions could not help but to turn and gaze back upon Jinx. The bold grasshopper was fiercely swinging her weapons, lunging forward at the skarm even as the hideous creature attacked with its long, sharp tongue. Jinx dealt the worm-like beast a mighty blow of her sword, and at once, the skarm went squealing into the sky. Jinx turned and hopped quickly back to them.

But the skarm wasn’t finished. It turned in the sky and winged back towards Jinx, its claws extended.

“Watch out!” Kendra shouted.

Jinx didn’t have a chance to react. The skarm scooped her up with a violent screech and, quicker than a blink of its single bloodshot eye, returned to the sky. Jinx was gone.

KENDRA WAS STUNNED. One minute Jinx had been there. The next she was snatched up in the claws of the skarm.

“She’s dead and gone!” Oki wailed.

“Humph,” Uncle Griffinskitch muttered. “We don’t know that.”

“I do say, Elder Griffinskitch, what should we do now?” Professor Bumblebean asked.

“There’s nothing we can do but go on,” the old wizard replied.

“But we can’t just leave!” Kendra cried. “We have to try to save her.”

“There’s nothing we can do,” Uncle Griffinskitch said, a soft sadness in his voice. “How can we chase the skarm? That dreaded creature is across the skies now.”

“But—”

“Kendra,” Uncle Griffinskitch said, cutting her off. “Let’s trust that she can look after herself. It is Captain Jinx, after all. In any case, she made a brave sacrifice so that we can continue our search for the Box of Whispers. And that’s what we must do. Now, come on.”

So, with heavy hearts, the remaining members of the company fell into line after Uncle Griffinskitch, and they left behind the hollow log and the site of Jinx’s heroic last stand.

They traveled hard for the next few weeks, stopping only to sleep, eat, and take the odd short rest. The mountains drew ever closer, looming like a row of jagged black fangs. Much to Kendra’s despair, there was no sign of Captain Jinx. Uncle Griffinskitch tried to encourage her to keep hope for the tough little grasshopper, but Kendra held less and less with each passing day.

In addition to the sadness she felt for Jinx, Kendra continued to struggle with her nightmares. Each and every night, she found herself immersed in a horrific dreamworld plagued by never-ending chants of judgment: “Een has helped Unger! Een has helped Unger!” Sometimes it was Uncle Griffinskitch who spoke the words, sometimes other members of the council. Sometimes it was no one at all, and the words just hung over her head like a dark thundercloud, ready to rain down punishment on her. And yet, no matter whose voice it was, it always sounded the same: dark and venomous and cold.

Kendra woke each morning thoroughly terrified. If she were found out, she would be cast from Een, left to wander the outside world forever. She shivered at the very thought. If Jinx, so strong and brave, could not survive the outside world, how could she? Kendra had never felt so helpless and alone. She could not tell anyone her secret, yet the secret itself gnawed at her like a monster, hungry and relentless.

The only thing that compared to the fright of Kendra’s nightmares was the landscape itself. You have probably never been near the mountains of Krodos, but let me tell you—they are a wretched, wild place. With each passing day, the way became more tangled, more ominous. The very ground was now damp and soggy, and the air had turned so hazy and thick that they couldn’t even see the sun.

“Marshlands,” Uncle Griffinskitch said grimly.

“Well, our proximity to Krodos is increasing then,” Professor Bumblebean remarked. “My maps tell me that once we cross the marshlands, we’ll be near the foot of the mountains, where the castle rests.”

The journey through the marshlands only became tougher. The ground was muddy and thick, and long brown reeds stretched above their heads. The swamp had a sharp pungent smell that stung Kendra’s nostrils. With no sun or moon, time had little meaning. Kendra was not sure how her uncle knew when to stop and rest, or when to continue. She had no idea. She felt as if the fog were choking her, and she was chilled right to the bone. Sometimes, she felt as if she would never be warm again, no matter how tightly she wrapped her cloak around her frigid body.

As Kendra plodded through the thick mud, hour after dreary hour, her mind began to fill with all sorts of strange thoughts. There was, of course, the voice from her dreams that continued to haunt her. On top of that, she began to imagine she would find her mother amidst the foggy ghost world of the swamp. Any second, she thought her mother would just magically appear and say, “Why, Kendra, there you are! I’ve been waiting here all these years for you. Let me take you and your friends out of this wretched swamp.”

It was all in her mind, of course, but Kendra began seeing all sorts of strange shapes in the fog. Finally, on what her uncle said was the third day in the marsh, Kendra saw the tiny figure of Captain Jinx standing before her.

My mind is playing tricks on me again,
Kendra told herself.

“I told you I’d catch up with you,” Jinx declared.

“Except you’re not even real,” Kendra sulked.

Jinx laughed and, with a mighty leap, landed in the soft earth right in front of Kendra, spraying her with mud.

“Captain Jinx!” Kendra cried. “It is you!”

The rest of the company gathered about the grasshopper, their faces beaming with smiles. Kendra and Oki were so happy they wanted to hug Jinx, but the feisty grasshopper warded them off with a dangerous wave of her sword.

“None of that mushy stuff!” she warned.

“But Captain, how did you survive?” Kendra asked.

“That pesky worm tried to feed me to its babies,” Jinx explained. “But I gave it a piece of my sword, I’ll tell you that! Once it was tuckered out, I took a piece of rope from my pack and harnessed that foul slug so that I could ride it into the marsh and look for you. I jumped off its back two days ago and have been looking for you ever since.”

“Welcome back, Captain,” Uncle Griffinskitch said warmly.

“You have made a remarkable escape,” Professor Bumblebean told Jinx. “However, I can’t help but wonder if you haven’t traded one misfortune for another.”

“What are you talking about,
Bumblehead?”
Jinx snorted.

“Why, I believe your encounter with the skarm has damaged your brain,” the professor said. “The name is Bumblebean, remember? And what I mean is that we’ve been wandering around here for days.”

“Well, I’m here now,” Jinx declared. “I’ll get us out of here.”

She assumed the lead of the company, and with a lighter spirit, they set off through the marsh again. But after several hours, it appeared they were still going about in circles.

“Well, my mother never guessed that I would die in a fog,” Oki said.

“Oh, you’re always in a fog,” Jinx retorted crossly.

“I do believe I will consult my maps,” Professor Bumblebean declared.

“You egghead,” Jinx said. “Your maps aren’t exactly going to part an opening through this wretched fog, are they?”

“Well . . . no,” he admitted.

“Uncle Griffinskitch, don’t you have a spell to help us?” Kendra asked.

“Humph,” the old Een grunted. “I can make a light shine from my staff, but a light certainly won’t help us in this haze. It’ll just bounce back at us.”

No one knew what else to say. They were all exhausted, so they just stood there, in the fog on the wet ground, waiting for something to happen. And then, something
did
happen. And that something was a voice, traveling towards them across the marshlands, soft and distant.

“I say, whatever could that be?” Professor Bumblebean asked, cupping a hand to one of his large, pointed ears.

“Shhh,” Jinx said, listening hard.

They all listened. Then, quite distinctly, they heard a song through the fog:

Gold, gold,

Beautiful gold.

The most wondrous thing

I ever know’d!

This was followed by a long string of giggles that sounded rather like “tee hees.” Kendra and the rest of the company looked at each other blankly, not sure what to make of the strange voice. It came again:

Gold, gold,

Beautiful gold.

The most wondrous thing

I ever know’d!

“It’s no monster, that’s for sure,” Jinx said excitedly. “It could even be an Een!”

“Whoever it is, he has atrocious grammar,” the professor announced.

“Who cares,
Bumblebutt?”
Jinx retorted. “We could use a friend right about now. Let’s go!”

“I’ll lead the way this time, Captain,” Uncle Griffinskitch declared, hobbling over to the front of the group.

Jinx opened her mouth to argue the point, but the grizzled Een was already shuffling through the fog, and it was either follow or be left behind.