The Orchard of Hope (37 page)

“What?” Kelsey asked.

“Just because the cause of the
problem is removed doesn’t eliminate the effects. You may need to
work through this for a long time to recover
completely.”

Kelsey thought for a few moments as
she looked around the room. She stared at the tall windows and
velvet drapes as she tried to understand the seriousness of the
injury.

“What kind of repercussions?” she
asked.

“The seed of doubt can shake your
confidence, especially when you really need it,” the king answered.
“This life is difficult enough with all of the physical and
emotional trials already here. Adding an imaginary burden can be
enough to break someone.”

“But you’re going to be OK,”
Newton interjected. “It didn’t change who you are. It only changes
the way you view yourself. Inside you’re still the same person. I
can smell it.”

“All of you and your senses of
smells,” Kelsey said with a sigh.

“We’re all going to be here for
you,” the king assured her. “I just don’t want you to have a false
sense of security that everything will be fine once the source of
the injury is gone. It’s not that simple.”

“OK,” Kelsey agreed, “but first
things first. Let’s just get rid of the mark. We’ll deal with the
whatever-happens-next when it happens.” She turned to Nicholas.
“Can you get it off?”

“I’ve prepared a solution of logic
and reason,” Nicholas said as he held up a clear flask that looked
as if it contained rubbing alcohol. “I think that this will combat
the chaos and disorder that’s been implanted. But if that doesn’t
work, we’ll try an elixir of common sense.”

“However,” Moss interrupted, “the
ingredients for common sense aren’t all that common, so to speak.
We had more of those ingredients before Newton baked them into
cookies and ate them all, but that’s another story.”

“I baked those cookies for you,
but you wouldn’t eat them,” Newton replied defensively, “and they
would have done you some good.”

“Regardless,” Moss continued,
ignoring Newton’s remark, “we’ve studied the plant you brought, and
we think this solution will work. We’ve been calling the plant ‘the
seed of destruction.’ You’re lucky you had a piece of Megan’s soul
to help protect you from self-destruction. That little bit saved
you. It probably kept the seed from taking root in your
heart.”

Kelsey glanced over to the corner
of the room where Megan and Roland were in conversation and
watching from a distance. She smiled at them, and then turned her
attention back to the king.

“Bardou the wolf called it the
seed of doubt,” she said.

“Doubt and destruction are two of
the main ingredients in the solution that the sorcerer fed to these
plants,” Moss explained. “These plants could cause a variety of
troubles.”

“You won’t be completely cured
overnight, but you will get better,” the king added as he patted
her on the shoulder. “I have every confidence in the abilities of
these two sorcerers.”

“I don’t know if this will sting
or burn or anything,” Nicholas said to Kelsey as he swirled the
ingredients in the flask to mix them gently. “We’ve never done this
before.” Nicholas took the flask and poured a bit of the clear
liquid onto a cotton ball and then rubbed it onto the mark on
Kelsey’s arm.

“It’s cold. It feels like icicles
scratching my skin,” Kelsey informed Nicholas. It was also slightly
painful, but she didn’t mention that part.

Moss and Nicholas studied the mark
for a few moments. The petal had faded slightly, but it was still
there.

“Try again,” Moss said with
encouragement.

Nicholas repeated the application,
but when this didn’t further erase the mark, he decided to saturate
Kelsey’s arm with the solution by slowly pouring it over the mark.
Just before the last of the solution was gone, the mark
disappeared.

“Stubborn little bugger,” Moss
said to himself. Then he looked at Nicholas and continued, “You
have excellent instincts. Pouring that solution to drown the mark
did the trick!”

“I think it may have been easier
to remove if we had gotten to it sooner,” Nicholas said. “It’s
programmed to spread and multiply, as if it’s taking root. I
treated it like a plant root. They die when they’re flooded with
water, so I thought that maybe the seed of destruction would die if
we drown it with the logical solution.”

“We never get away from plants,”
Maggie sighed.

“The earth is covered with them,”
he replied.

“I’m just not good with
plants.”

“But you’ve learned how to be
better with them,” he said with an encouraging smile.

“We all have a lot to learn and a
tremendous amount to accomplish,” the king replied. “This plant is
only one of many strategies the sorcerer is planning.”

“This could be very serious for
the whole kingdom,” Nicholas added. “We need to stop him before he
moves onto his next plan – whatever that may be.”

“Can we do it?” Kelsey asked. “He
has such a large head start on us. These plants are everywhere, and
we don’t even know how to tell them apart from the natural ones
that are harmless.” She felt the doubt slowly rising inside her
like the foam on a glass of ale. It fizzed and bubbled gently,
tickling her with fear.

“We don’t have a choice,” Nicholas
replied. “We have to fight him. I know he scares me, and maybe he
scares some of you also. But we shouldn’t ever let fear stop us.
There’s too much at stake.”

“I like the way this conversation
is going!” Newton exclaimed.

“I hope I can find a way to help,”
Maggie interjected. “I’m not a warrior, but I want to
contribute.”

“Thanks to all of you,” the king
interjected. “We now have all the hope we need. I’m grateful to
have all of you working with me. I have no doubt that we’ll win
this war, but it won’t be easy. We don’t have much time, but with
effort and determination, we can overcome anything.”

“How do you know we’ll win? How
can you be certain?” Kelsey asked.

“Because I’ve seen the end,”
Newton answered. “As I’ve told Nicholas, Gargoyles have excellent
scrying skills. I already know the future, but I don’t know how to
get there.”

Kelsey suddenly felt very tired as
she looked around the room. She studied the faces of all her
friends, and in the eyes of each one, she saw the reflection of the
hope that they had all worked to save. Hope was something worth
fighting for, and she had fought for it without realizing how much
she, herself, needed it. Her gaze finally settled on
Nicholas.

“Let’s take him down,” she said
with conviction.

“That’s the spirit!” Newton said
as he flapped his wings with excitement.

Acknowledgements

There were many people who assisted
in the making of this book. First of all, I’m grateful to my editor
Ken, who has a keen eye for detail that I always appreciate. It’s a
pleasure working with you you. I’d also like to thank Cory for
taking time out of his busy schedule to work on these
illustrations. My only criticism is that you should do more
portraits of gargoyles. You really have a talent for it. Finally,
to my many friends and family who supported me as I worked on
multiple books at one time: I know I behaved like someone with a
split personality at times, but remember that there’s so many
varieties of me to love because of it. I love each one of you and
so do my other personalities.

Fiction Books By Amy
Neftzger

For Children:

All That The Dog Ever
Wanted

Bedtime Stories For Dogs

Bedtime Stories For Cats

The Orphanage of
Miracles

The Orchard of Hope

For Adults:

Conversations With The
Moon

Leftover Shorts

Confessions From a Moving
Van

The Ferryman

For more information, please visit
Amy’s website at:

www.amyneftzger.com