Chapter 24
Kip watched over Winnie, lying so still. The longer he sat with her, the greater his need for revenge became. A vision replaced reality. I storm through the castle corridor. One flick of my wand sends knights and servants hurtling from my path. I face the queen, her pink eyes wide with fear. I call on the power of Krell, and lightning shoots from my wand.
A change in air pressure made Kip’s ears pop, yanking him to the present. He recognized the pain and understood. Someone had just cast a teleportation spell. He twisted toward the entrance where the wig gets had stood.
He jumped to his feet and pointed his wand at Cyann. “Bring them back.”
The blue-eyed voga stared at him. “To what end, Master Wizard?”
“You know what end,” he said through clenched teeth. “The queen and her assassins are my targets.”
“Look behind you. The general is very much alive.”
“She’s in a ruddy coma!”
“Breathe,” she said gently. “If you use your abilities to call her back, the general just might wake.”
The wand vibrated to the contrary. He stared at Cyann with an intensity that sent her flying until her back pressed into the wall.
“Return my transport.”
Even from her immobile position, her voice remained composed. “Breathe, my dear friend, and remember who you are.”
With the help of his wand, he’d become strong and powerful. “All who stand in my way shall perish, beginning with you, old woman, if you don’t do my bidding.”
She stared calmly back. “That was an impressive imitation. What you’ve conjured, however, is not Krell.”
“I don’t need Krell. Watch my wand remove your essence, leaving nothing but a husk.”
“Before you remove anything, young wizard, you might want to ask your wand if it knows which herbs and leaves are necessary to restore the general to health.”
Reflexively, he peered over his shoulder at Winnie. The brief distraction broke the hold spell. Cyann catapulted from the wall. She muttered a spell of her own. The wand flew from Kip’s hand and hovered in the air midway between them.
“Oi!” He reached with hand and mind.
The wand shuddered in place. He gnashed his teeth and willed the wand to obey. It glided closer. Cyann drew a symbol in the air with her finger. The wand immediately reversed direction but only by inches.
Her voice whispered inside his mind. “Remember.”
He ignored it and reached again for the wand. Rage calling out to rage. The wand edged toward him. Cyann’s power pulled it back. The wand vacillated between the dueling pair, never reaching either.
Willum flapped and squawked. “Master, leave it be!”
Kip muttered a spell, silencing Willum’s voice.
Cyann restored his voice with a nod.
“It’s wrong!” the bird cawed and flew out of the cave. His departure broke Kip’s focus. The voga commanded the wand to move closer to her.
“You are Kenneth Paul Skyler of Earth,” she proclaimed. “Your true self knows that the energy coursing through that bit of wood does not define you.”
The wand promised power beyond his imagining. He was no mere boy named Kenneth but a real wizard. Renewed fury gushed into him. The wand flew toward his outstretched fingers. He leaped to catch it. Cyann’s counter magic pulled it just out of reach.
He bellowed in frustration.
“You’re hurt,” she said. “Betrayed by the queen. Hindered by the oracle. You feel responsible for the general’s injury. But are you evil? That’s the question you must ask.”
He most definitely had been betrayed by the queen and hindered by the oracle. In fact, he could have protected Winnie if the oracle had let him. And now he faced the oracle’s confounding sister. “I can destroy you.”
“I’ve no doubt you’re capable.”
The wand quivered between them.
“The real Krell had no conscience,” she said. “I believe you do. If you let the ghost of Krell use your hand to harm anyone, the weight of it will end you.”
“I want revenge!”
The wand shot closer to him.
“What about Winnie?” Cyann shouted.
The wand halted in the air.
“Do you want her to recover?” she asked.
An unexpected tightness suddenly gripped his throat. Had the wand’s power taken over? He fought to speak. “She must.”
“Really? Because if revenge is so important, why should you care about anyone?”
He believed in Winnie. He admired her fighting spirit. He wanted to say so, but a force blocked more than his words. He couldn’t breathe.
Krell is not dead, a dark whisper spoke in his mind. He will return. Kill the queen, and the realm is ours to rule!
His head pounded. His lungs screamed. With what little air he had left, he used it to utter the words that mattered. “Help Winnie.”
A tornado of fury churned deep inside. He drifted above it, clearing his head. Sure, the queen deserved punishment, but Winnie’s survival mattered more. A feeling of giddy lightness splashed over him. He wanted Winnie to survive because he cared for her.
Kip saw past the levitating wand to Cyann’s glowing blue eyes. They radiated kindness and warmth. If this voga was not the enemy, why was he fighting her?
The wand shimmied in the air, then clattered to the stone floor. It stopped pulsing the same moment its connection to Kip blinked out.
“Did you—” He looked to Cyann. “—kill it?”
She smiled. “You conquered it.”
Across the room, Winnie groaned.
He ran to the cot. “Winnie?”
“I’m sorry,” Cyann said from behind. “She’s still lost in a dark place. I’m hoping you’ll be able to call her back.”
He looked up. “With magic, you mean?”
“I meant she could use the sound of a familiar voice.”
Self-doubt crashed over him. How could Winnie ever forgive him for breaking his promise to protect her?
“Go on,” Cyann said gently. “Take her hand again and speak to her.”
He slid his hand into Winnie’s. “I’m so, so sorry,” he murmured. “I want to make it right. I have to.” With those words, he knew what must be done. “Cyann, I need to go to the lookout post for Winnie.”
She smiled. “I’ve summoned a few friends on the chance you might suggest it.”
As if on cue, three robust wig gets glided through the mouth of the cave. The birds landed between Kip and the voga.
“Wigget-wigget, where-to, where-to?”
“Take the wizard to the big beach,” Cyann said.
Kip bowed low. “Thank you, Mistress. And…sorry about…”
“Stay true to yourself, young wizard, and all is forgiven.”
On the flight to the beach, he correctly pronounced the incantation that reduced odors. Instead of the ocean’s rotting stench, a pleasant pine scent encircled his head. His anger had left him, but his increased magical ability had remained.
Far below, a group of palm had gathered on the beach. The man horses waved yellow and green flags while two palm teams bounced and wobbled on the gelatinous ocean, chasing after a round object shaped like a coconut. All members of the tribe laughed and cheered, but with all eyes on the sporting event, none watched the horizon.
“Carry me out to sea,” Kip ordered the wiggets.
“No-go, no-go,” they honked in unison.
Wiggets never refused a rider unless they sensed peril. Still airborne, he closed his eyes to an inner vision and searched across the sea.
Safe. A little farther…safe. Farther still…also safe. Farthest of all he felt a ripple of movement. The march toward their shore had begun, and no one was keeping watch.
On Kip’s command, the wig gets lowered him to the beach. He strode to the tallest palum. “Why isn’t this watch post being manned?”
The leader pinned back his ears. “Wizard! You are no friend to the palum. You disrespected our queen’s councilmen.”
The game stopped. The spectators crowded toward Kip from all sides. He recited a convincement spell under his breath, instantly reducing the tension in the herd.
“Friends,” the leader announced, “the good wizard has come for a visit.”
Welcoming hands now clapped him on the back.
He smiled indulgently. “Thank you and greetings, palm tribe. I come on behalf of General Windemere to see how things are going. This is the watch post, correct?”
“We remember the general quite well,” the leader said. “She brought us a gift.”
The leader nodded to a palm youth. The young one ducked out of the circle and returned with Winnie’s binoculars. He passed them to the leader.
“We call it the swing-thing.” The leader held it by the strap. “When one holds it thusly, it swings in the wind.”
“If you think back, just a bit,” Kip said, “you might recall it does more than that.”
The leader looked more closely at the strap. “It does do more. It can hang about our necks.” He tried to put it on, but it only fit halfway down his long nose. “Or perhaps not.”
Kip helped untangle the leader from the strap. A simple brush of his fingers over the palum’s soft nose gave him insight into the creature’s innocent mind. The palm understood skirmishes between their kind, but that related only to one’s position in the herd. The concept of battle was so foreign not even the smartest palm comprehended it. No wonder they forgot to watch for an enemy.
The queen’s command to keep the palm from battle made sense. These prey animals knew to flee from danger but not to alert the castle. Perhaps if he enchanted the binoculars? An incantation came to mind. It wouldn’t help them understand the importance of keeping watch. No spell could do that. It could, however, compel them to do it anyway. They’d even send a warning to the castle upon the first sighting of movement out to sea.
He handed the enchanted binoculars to the nearest palum. The horse man dutifully trained the lenses on the horizon. With the watch post manned, Kip whistled to his wiggets.
On the flight back to the castle, he turned his attention to Winnie’s condition. Maybe his increased powers would inspire him to create a potion to revive her.
The wig gets set him down in the courtyard. Four knights clacked up to him.
“Come with us,” the nearest ordered. “The queen is stripping you of your powers.”
Kip followed, pretending to obey. At the first turn in the corridor, he whispered to the guard at the rear, “Tell Queen Bogen I’m invisible and I’m already in her presence.”
He dashed away.