The Orchard of Hope (22 page)

“Thanks,
”
Kelsey replied with some
embarrassment. She wasn
’
t used to being good at anything
that wasn
’
t
violent. This was completely new to her. She was still feeling
awkward when she heard a faint sound that caught her ear and made
the hair on her arms prickle. It wasn
’
t much – perhaps the breaking of
a twig or the sound of something brushing through branches. It was
subtle but alarming to her. Kelsey suddenly turned her head when
she heard it again. Now she could feel the hair on the back of her
neck rising in alarm.

“I hear
something,
”
she
said in a whisper.

“I
don’
t hear anything, but I feel
creepy,
”
Maggie
added as she looked around cautiously. “Like someone or something
is watching us.”

Chapter

14

Watching, Waiting and
Scrying

“He didn’t see you,” Moss
insisted. “He couldn’t have. It’s impossible.” He waved his hand in
the air dramatically with each statement. He looked as if he was
erasing an imaginary chalkboard. Moss appeared even sillier because
he was wearing a green and purple striped sock over one ear and a
red and white polka dot sock over the other.

“But Maggie and Kelsey could hear
me when I carried the flame,” Nicholas said. “Maybe I was
impressing myself into the sorcerer’s laboratory without realizing
that I was doing it.”

“I can’t hear you,” Moss replied
as he leaned forward. “Talk louder.”

“Perhaps it’s the wool socks,
sir,” Nicholas said as Newton slowly raised his eyebrows and
nodded.

“Nonsense. I rarely use my feet to
listen.”

Nicholas gave up trying to reason
with Moss and repeated his statements in a louder voice. He also
spoke more slowly to make sure Moss heard him.

“Could I have been impressing
myself into the sorcerer’s lab without knowing what I was
doing?”

“No,” Moss replied. “That’s far
too difficult. You’ve never been to his lab or met him. It would
take a far greater power to impress yourself on the unknown.” Moss
stroked his green beard and then quickly glanced at Nicholas before
adding, “No offense.”

“None taken,” Nicholas replied.
But he did feel as if the sorcerer had seen him. Perhaps he hadn’t
seen Nicholas specifically, but the sorcerer knew that someone was
watching him. “Although, if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather
not spy on the sorcerer again.”

“Scry, not
spy,” Moss retorted. “It’s
not
the same thing, and we will
have to scry on him again. We have no choice.”

“Isn’t there something safer we
could try, instead?” Nicholas clasped his hands together in his
lap. His palms felt slippery as they met.

“Safe doesn’t always get results,
and we need results if we’re going to win this war. This isn’t just
about us, you know. It’s about the whole kingdom.”

Nicholas thought through the
situation. He tried to think of a way to convince Moss that this
wasn’t a good idea when he remembered something Newton had
said.

“Aren’t gargoyles very good at
scrying? Couldn’t we have Newton do this?”

“Leave me out of it!” Newton
exclaimed as he took a few steps backward. “That’s not safe at all
— for any of us!”

“Why?” Nicholas asked. “Why is it
OK for me to do this and not you?”

“Because the sorcerer knows him,”
Moss explained.

Nicholas was shocked.
“How?”

“Some other time. Right now we
have work to do.”

Nicholas felt an imaginary lead
weight in his stomach fall to the floor, pulling his spirit down
with it. Not only was he doing something he dreaded, but he also
felt that it was too invasive and that the sorcerer knew there was
someone watching. Besides, the sorcerer’s castle was a very creepy
place to be, even if you weren’t actually physically there. The
atmosphere could be felt, and it was disturbing. Nicholas always
had the impression that something was wrong – or about to go
terribly wrong – when he was scrying there.

“I just don’t see how this is safe
for any of us. I really think he saw me looking at him last
time.”

“He doesn’t know you,” Newton
said. “So even if he could see you, there’s no way he would know
where you were or who you are. Remember how scrying works: you
needed something that belonged to the sorcerer to be able to find
him.”

Nicholas nodded
silently. He didn’t know why he trusted the gargoyle, but he did.
There was something about what Newton had said that made more sense
than all of Mos
s'
arguments. Moss was supposed to be a genius, but he always
seemed to be so far away, and Nicholas often felt alone when he was
with Moss. Besides, Moss looked ridiculous with those two unmatched
socks over his ears. It was difficult to take anything he said
seriously.

“Shall we try again?” Moss asked
as he leaned forward and pushed the scrying bowl toward Nicholas.
Nicholas nodded, but he still didn’t feel right about what he was
doing. Even if the sorcerer was evil, it seemed wrong to be
watching him.

“Do you have the glove?” Nicholas
asked after hesitating for a brief period.

“I have something better,” Moss
replied, reaching into a pocket inside his coat and pulling out a
long scarf.

“I wonder how the sorcerer will
get through winter if you have all of his warm clothing,” Nicholas
remarked. Newton chuckled, while Moss considered the
statement.

“He will need to have more
clothing made, I suppose,” Moss replied with a thoughtful
expression.

Nicholas took the scarf and held it
in his hands. He put it around his own neck and inhaled the earthy
scent. It didn’t smell like the gloves. The scarf had a more
grounded fragrance. It was also very soft and fuzzy – not the sort
of thing Nicholas expected the sorcerer to wear. For some reason he
thought of the sorcerer as being tough and rugged. Perhaps that was
just the impression from the leather gloves.

Nicholas looked the scarf over one
more time and then settled into the scrying basin to concentrate.
He had just turned the basin for the fifth time when the image
immediately came up clearly, and he jumped back in
horror.

“I saw us! I was watching this
room!” Nicholas exclaimed. “I knew it! He saw me yesterday, and now
I’m seeing what he’s seeing. He’s watching us! Or he’s deflecting
me somehow so that I see myself when I try to spy on him!” He felt
his pulse quickening along with his breath. He started to gasp and
felt like he couldn’t get enough air into his lungs to fill them
adequately.

“Oh, my!” Moss exclaimed. “That is
brilliant! A mirroring spell to deflect scrying. I must begin
working on one immediately.” He smiled thoughtfully as he stared
into space for a moment.

“You’re not worried about this?
How can you admire the work of someone who knows where we are and
wants to destroy us?”

“Calm down, calm down,” Moss said
dismissively as he took the scarf. He put on his large
silver-rimmed glasses and studied the object. “This is my scarf. I
brought the wrong one.”

“You what?” Nicholas
asked.

“I’ll take that,” Newton said as
he snatched the scarf with one of his talons. “I’ll get the correct
one.” He took off in flight, his large wings flapping as he sailed
quickly across the floor and down the hallway.

“You have quite an imagination to
think up such a spell in a moment of panic,” Moss said pleasantly.
“You’re going to be a fine sorcerer!”

“If my heart can take
it.”

“It’s good exercise to get the
heart going like that,” Moss said as he patted Nicholas on the
back. “I’ll bet you feel really alive right now!”

“Alive? I feel as if I nearly had
a heart attack. I didn’t know what was happening.”

“But did you see how fast you made
the connection? And you didn’t know that you were looking for me.
This is excellent progress.”

“Moss, I’m not sure we’re on the
same page here.”

“Oh, we’re not
on any pages. Pages belong in books. We’re in the castle,” Moss
replied. “Besides, pages get very soggy when scrying. Trust me,
I’ve tried it before.” Nicholas had concerns about
Mos
s'
ability
to keep him safe while he was learning, and he made a mental note
to speak to the king about it.

Just then Newton
arrived with what looked like the exact same scarf and draped it
around Nichola
s'
neck. He patted Nicholas affectionately on both shoulders a
few times before sitting down on the table without
speaking.

“Thank you, Newton,” Moss said
politely, and Newton nodded.

Nicholas felt the scarf with his
fingers. It looked almost identical to the one he had just held,
but this one had a coarser texture. It wasn’t soft and felt more as
if it belonged to the same person as the glove that Nicholas had
held the day before. It also smelled similar. It had a musty scent,
but it contained a hint of a smoky fragrance, as if someone had
been sitting too close to a wood fire while wearing it. Nicholas
took a deep breath and leaned forward to begin the
exercise.

After only a few minutes, he
located the sorcerer. He was in a different place. Nicholas knew it
wasn’t the sorcerer’s home, but he couldn’t say why. The sorcerer
was with a group of other people at what appeared to be an informal
meeting. There was a long table in the middle of the room, and
people were milling about and talking with one another.

“What do you see?” Moss
asked.

“People,” Nicholas replied, “He’s
with a lot of people.”

“Where?”

“I don’t know. It’s a large room,
like a private dining room at an inn. It has a huge table and
terrible blue wallpaper with a print of teacups on it. It looks
like he’s at a business meeting of some sort. Everyone is talking
and exchanging business cards.”

“Can you hear
anything?”

Nicholas leaned close to the water
and could hear garbled bits of speech. It sounded like everyone was
under the water.

“I can’t make out what they’re
saying.”

“We don’t care what everyone is
saying,” Moss replied. “Focus on the scarf. You need to hear his
voice, the sorcerer’s voice.”

Nicholas did as he was told and
listened. He relayed everything he heard to Moss, and Newton took
notes by dipping one of his talons into an inkwell and writing with
it on a pad of paper. The sorcerer was telling everyone the same
story, but it didn’t make sense to Nicholas.

“There once was
a wolf who was eating a chicken, but he was eating much too
quickly, and one of the chicken’s bones became caught in the wolf’s
throat,” the sorcerer said. “The wolf tried to swallow the bone,
but the bone was stuck and wouldn’t budge, so he became very
worried that he would choke on it
.
Each
time the wolf turned his head he felt the pain of the bone poking
him in the throat, and so he began to search for a way to remove
it. At first he tried using a stick, but that only pushed the bone
farther down and made the wolf yelp with pain. He begged for help
from every rabbit, squirrel, skunk, and
other creature he saw. All of the animals refused, stating
that the wolf was likely to eat them once they had retrieved the
bone and the wolf was able to eat again.

“Finally, the wolf came across a
crane. The bird quickly saw the advantage of having a wolf for a
friend, so she agreed to remove the bone in exchange for a favor.
The crane could fit her long beak down the wolf’s neck without
putting her whole head inside the wolf’s mouth, and she quickly
loosened the bone to remove it.” The sorcerer paused here and then
added, “So to this day the wolf owes the crane a favor.” The
sorcerer handed his business card to the listener, who laughed and
then moved on to speak with someone else.