Chapter 16

Ever since Winnie got the smart watch for her fourteenth birthday, each morning, Wagner’s rousing classic woke her. The tune inspired her to seize the day. Now hearing it blasting from the castle speakers meant a call to war. She bolted into the corridor, snapping her head left to right. Which way?

Kip burst from the room, right behind her. “Looking for the queen?” he shouted over the music. “I know where she is.”

“Show me.”

He clasped her hand. They raced through a maze of corridors. The song’s final note vibrated off the walls just as they skidded to a stop in front of a closed door with a large number four painted on it. Two mel-yew knights stood guard outside the room.

“This is it,” Kip said, still panting. “Meeting Chamber Four.”

Why not the throne room? That’s where the spiders attacked. Although, if Queen Bogen was here, maybe Winnie had time to warn everyone to prepare for the attack. She dropped Kip’s hand and rushed to the closed door.

He grabbed the back of her tunic, stopping her. “Let’s sort out what we’re saying first.”

“What’s to sort out?” She struggled in his grip. “We’re under attack.”

“We don’t know that. The music’s stopped. You said the spiders marched to the music.”

She puffed in exasperation, unwilling to admit he might be right. “The music could start again at any minute.”

“We can’t just rush in. They’ve got protocols.”

She finally yanked free. “You think they want us bowing and curtsying when the whole castle is under siege?” She stomped to the chamber door.

A pair of mel-yew knights clanked their metal heels in unison. They stepped toward each other, blocking the entrance.

“Stand down, men,” Winnie ordered. She remembered hearing that line in a movie.

“Begging the general’s pardon,” spoke a muted voice from inside the helmet of the guard on the right. “Queen Bogen is meeting privately with her councilmen.”

Kip hovered behind her, breathing down the back of her neck.

“Probably discussing national security. Play by their rules.”

She elbowed him in the stomach. “I gotta get in there.”

“My apologies again, General,” said the knight, “but our instructions were made explicitly clear. Only the Master Wizard may enter.”

“What?”

“Ha!” Kip said.

The knights separated for him. He strutted forward and opened the door. When he looked back to sneer at Winnie—and she knew he would—she slipped between the knights and pushed into the room ahead of him.

The temperature difference between the cool halls and this humid room blasted her in the face. Parted curtains revealed an open floor-to-ceiling window letting in the sultry air. Her stare shifted from the brilliant sunlight streaming inside to the queen. She sat at the head of an oval table with her advisors along both sides. Each pair of hands held playing cards from her world. That infuriating Kip must have brought them through the time tear.

“What is going on in here?” Winnie demanded.

Queen Bogen placidly looked up but not at her. “Master Wizard, we expected you to arrive alone.”

He stepped forward, but Winnie shoved him aside. “We’re under attack!”

Commander Fynn sprang from his seat. He punched a button behind the nearest curtain, setting off an alarm. Its deep buzz pulsed so loud Winnie felt it in her throat. At least that body-shaking sound proved the commander took her seriously. Rushing footsteps clattered down the corridor outside the chamber.

The queen threw down her cards. “To war!”

“By your command.” Fynn dashed out.

The rest of the queen’s council scrambled to their feet. A different battle raged inside Winnie’s head. Her inner warrior wanted to join the charge, but her thudding heart and frozen legs fought for self-preservation.

The councilmen didn’t join the fight either. They argued whether they should evacuate the queen to the north tower or the south.

“Enough,” the queen commanded. “We intend to observe the battle from this very spot.” She strode to the center window.

Zyke jumped to her side. “At least let me protect you, Your Majesty.”

Since Winnie’s legs refused to leave, she let her controlling side take over. “Call for palm reinforcements.”

“For the umpteenth time, General, no. What manner of monarch would we be if we sent peaceful creatures to war?” Queen Bogen glared out the window. She punched the button behind the curtain, silencing the alarm. A decisive clack of metal boots sounded from the courtyard below. “Well, well, well.”

Zyke harrumphed.

Winnie’s legs finally came unstuck. She tore around the table to the window. Far below, Commander Fynn and the mel-yew troops waited in formation. Alone. Relief flowed through her. They were safe for now.

Kip remained by the closed door as if braced for action. “What’s coming?”

“Unless they’re invisible,” Zyke said, “nothing.”

Winnie refused to believe him. “Then they’re still at the beach.”

“I’ll call me familiar, shall I?” said Kip. “He can fly round the area and see if anything’s on the way.”

The queen waved her hand. “Have it done.”

He bounded to the window and whistled through his teeth. A black bird with a bright orange beak glided inside and lit on his shoulder. Kip mumbled to the bird, and it flew away.

“This should only take a tick.”

The bird gave Winnie a new idea. “Your Majesty, we need your flying guards. If they carried heavy rocks, they could bomb the enemy.”

“And what enemy would that be?” Zyke said in a superior tone.

Now it was Winnie’s turn to harrumph. “Look. I’m telling you they charge to that music.”

Queen Bogen blinked back. “Music? Are you hearing music, General?”

“Your Majesty,” Jebb, the green toad, said, “vill wine can make people hear things that aren’t there. Perhaps the general had too much with breakfast.”

Winnie spun toward him. “I didn’t drink any wine! I’m talking about the music that played in the hall a minute ago. It’s an omen.”

“Oh, that music.” Queen Bogen smiled. “We told you our technicians were up to the task. They’ve recorded the music. They even put your timepiece right.”

Now her dream made sense. Frama-12 got Wagner’s music from Winnie’s watch. Since nobody seemed to be in any hurry to head to the throne room, maybe the lurk in hadn’t reached the watch post after all.

Queen Bogen gently stroked Winnie’s watch, now strapped to her white wrist. “Such a handy adornment. We suppose you’d like it back.”

Winnie definitely wanted it back but not right now with warts touching it. “Uh, you can borrow it a little longer.”

“How wonderfully kind of you, General.”

While Winnie debated whether to nod or curtsey, Kip’s pet bird flapped back into the room. It carried a dazed, little, floppy-eared rodent in its beak. The bird dropped it at Kip’s feet. “This was the only threat. The grounds are now safe,” the bird said. “Baubles for me trouble?”

Kip pulled a gold button from his wizard’s robe. He tossed it into the air. The black bird caught the button in its beak and flew away. Kip waved his hand over the dazed animal while mumbling under his breath. The air crackled and sizzled. Winnie’s ears popped just as the animal vanished.

“What a relief, eh?” Kip said, “We’re not under attack.”

She blinked at him in disbelief. Had he really made that fuzzy little creature disappear, or was it just another trick? Her ears still hurt, though. What about that?

“We never were under attack.” The queen’s bulging eyes shot a heated stare at Winnie. “Don’t believe for a moment the loan of this trinket will change our opinion on what transpired today. You had us put the royal guard on alert for nothing.”

Winnie looked from the queen to the empty spot at Kip’s feet. Why didn’t anybody demand to know how he’d made that furry rat with bunny ears go away?

“What you just observed, Your Majesty,” Kip said, “was a test of your guards’ emergency response time. Admit it. They could’ve assembled a bit faster. That’s the whole point of practice drills, wouldn’t you say? To improve efficiency?”

Queen Bogen dipped her head in a half nod. “Our own father used to say something very similar. We believe the expression was ‘practice drills bring many kills.’ At the time he was referring to the hunt, but the phrase is still apt.”

She and her advisors returned to their card game.

“Good work, General.” The queen collected the cards and began to shuffle.

Winnie had to give the nutty wizard props for making her look good. Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.

“In the future, please inform us of all practice drills. May we deal you in, Master Wizard?”

Kip rubbed his hands together. “Don’t mind if I do.” He slid into Commander Fynn’s vacated seat.

Winnie shifted her weight. “Uh, is everybody just going to play cards now? We probably should talk about this war thing. That music really was an omen. I had a…” She caught herself. Not everybody believed in dreams. “I had a premonition.”

“Did you really?” the queen said absently as she dealt the cards.

Winnie pulled up a stool between Kip and Zyke. Maybe she could steer the conversation back to the upcoming conflict. Before she could bring up battle plans, Jebb spoke first. “Might we return to our original discussion, Your Highness? As the hunt is at hand, you still must choose the main dish for the banquet. Would Your Highness prefer skitter stew or scrambled wiggies?”

“Dear sir,” the queen said. “Of those choices there is no contest.”

Food? Were these people insane? “Excuse me, but weren’t we just talking about the war? That’s a little more important than what you’ll serve at a banquet, don’t you think?”

Kip cleared his throat and gave Winnie a stern look.

Jebb rearranged the cards in his hand. “Obviously, you have never treated your palate to the delicacy we call scrambled wiggies.”

“Our seneschal makes a good point,” the queen said. “Scrambled wriggles stand alone.”

Winnie curled her lip in annoyance. “I’m glad they’re standing by themselves, because we have more important things to discuss. Like my premonition. It says the lurk in will crash through the castle gates.”

Kip cleared his throat louder.

“Nothing will reach our gates,” the queen said. “Unless you tip over the army again.”

Her councilmen chortled along with her.

Winnie took a deep, calming breath and tried again. “All I’m saying is you have to recruit stronger fighters to help the mel-yew.”

“Shall it be scrambled wiggies, then, Your Highness?” Jebb asked as if Winnie hadn’t even spoken.

“Look,” Winnie said through clenched teeth, “if we don’t build up the army now, you’ll lose everything. Not just wiggies. Whatever they are.”

“We will be celebrating the hunt quite soon. We decree there shall be no more talk of this boorish war of yours until after the hunt.”

“It’s everybody’s war!”

“We do hope you’re not raising your voice to us, General. As you are aware, such conduct is unforgivable.”

Kip jumped up. “Your Majesty, the general is so overtired she doesn’t even realize she’s speaking so loudly.”

“I’m wide awake. Make them listen, Kip. They’ll believe you. You’re the wizard.”

“Even when she’s tired, she’s the most insolent general we have ever had the misfortune to encounter.”

“She might be talking in her sleep, Your Majesty,” said Kip. “That’s how tired she is.”

He mumbled a few incomprehensible syllables. Instantly, her eyelids drooped closed. The queen’s voice faded.

Winnie fell into a dream where she sat in a swaying Ferris wheel car. It reached the bottom, then whooshed upward so fast she laughed. She gripped the bar with both hands. At the top it eased to a halt. An unmoving dark sea lay in the distance. Frama-12’s odorous ocean didn’t just assault her nose during the day. It even haunted her dreams.

A second smell, sweeter and familiar, blew in from her right. Her dad’s cologne. She turned. Dad sat next to her. His hair looked sleep tousled, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses as if he’d just woken.

She let out a delighted squeal and gave him a hug.

After they pulled apart, he wrinkled his nose. “What stinks?”

She grinned, feeling silly, feeling relieved. It felt like visiting day at summer camp all over again. “It’s the ocean.”

“Smells like rotten eggs and three-day-old roadkill.”

She laughed. “Believe it or not, you get used to it.”

He chuckled along with her. “I don’t believe it.”

“How’d you get here?”

“I’m not sure. One minute I was dreaming about deep-sea fishing when Mikey showed up and asked me to visit you. He wanted us to talk about a gherkin takeover. The kid’s imaginative, but rogue pickles?”

“I think he must’ve said lurkin.”

Dad nodded. “He said you’d understand. His message to you is they’re still a few weeks away.”

“Is he one hundred percent positive about that?” She squinted toward the horizon.

He lifted a pair of binoculars and focused them on the ocean.

“See any lurk in out there?”

“What do they look like?”

“Giant spiders, but nobody wants to believe me.”

Still looking through the binoculars, he said softly, “Are you being diplomatic?”

“Maybe.”

He lowered the binoculars, but when she tried to take them, he wouldn’t let go. She stared into his eyes. Without his glasses, she easily saw his loving concern.

“You have to make an effort to get along with the people here,” he said gently.

“Dad, I am.” She tugged at the binoculars.

He still wouldn’t let go.

“Your teachers always say you have leadership qualities,” he remarked, “which is good. They also say you have a tendency to get pushy. Not so good. Mikey claims you’re provoking a queen this time. Queens don’t give their subjects detention; they put them in jail.”

Queens put their subjects in dungeons, but Winnie kept that to herself. “Dad, she’s almost as bad as having another stepmother. I don’t like ladies who aren’t my mom bossing me around.”

“I’ve got news, Win. You didn’t always like it when your mom told you what to do either.” He finally let go of the binoculars. “Seriously, you need to be a team player.”

“I’m not on a team. I’m at war.” She focused the lenses on the jellied ocean.

“Sweetheart, warriors need allies. Don’t try to do this on your own.”

When Mom’s medicine stopped working, she’d fought alone. If Winnie hoped to stay true to her mom’s bravery, she had to do the same.

“Did you hear me, Win?”

She lowered the binoculars. “I wish you were really here instead of in a dream.”

“What I’m telling you is still true. The only difference is I won’t remember this conversation. You will.” He thumped her lightly under the chin. “Get some allies.”

His image faded, leaving Winnie alone on the Ferris wheel until it faded too.