Rakara Read online

  “Wake up, Bek,” said Kar.

  I popped my eyes open and sat up. Kar was Kar, bendo dreen Kar standing there beside me. We were on a high cobbled road. All around us in every direction a wondrous warmth of winter white stretched as far as I could see.

  Woods. Woods Beyond the Wood. A vast density of trees

  with trunks, limbs, branches and leaves of whitest white.

  “It’s winter white,” I gasped.

  “Such. I’m the first jrabe jroon to see it. You’re the first bendo dreen,” said Kar.

  “Why didn’t you wake me?” I asked, not really caring.

  “I thought this would be better,” she answered.

  “You were right,” I said quietly.

  I pressed my hand to the cobbled road to test its springiness. The famed road described in many a Gwer drollek tale yielded to my touch. Bouncy. It WAS bouncy.

  “Shall we bounce?” I asked Kar.

  We bounced in circles until we got dizzy. Then we rolled down the bank and sat under a spread of whitest limbed trees.

  “Shall I tell you Dak’s Realm dream now?” asked Kar.

  I had forgotten all about it. Now I remembered.

  “Tell me,” I said, leaning back against a thick white trunk and gazing at white leaves trembling above me in the soft warm winter breeze.

  “Jroons rarely dream, Bek. Such is so,” she began. “But when they, we, do, the future is revealed! Isn’t that … I can’t wait until my first dream, Bek! Oh, I know. I’ve told you all my dreams. Well, I made ‘em up! All of ‘em! I haven’t had a dream yet, really. I …”

  “What about Dak’s dream?” I interrupted.

  “Oh, such. In his dream he saw Zinna and me as bendo dreen walking on the silver sands of Fan Wa’s Island. He saw Zinna smile and point at me. He saw us wander through the empty halls by trampolines and under trapezes. He felt himself at the Clock Face awaiting our arrival. Just as we stepped through the door, he awoke. ‘Realm dream,’ he muttered to himself. Then he sprang into action.”

  “Action? Why action?” I puzzled.

  “To be ready for our arrival. He had to make sure that the Acrotwist Clowns vacated the Island. That’s why he arranged for ‘em to fly on Cloud Castle City.”

  “But?” “Don’t you see?” pressed Kar. “No, I don’t,” I replied.

  “You will.” Kar smiled.

  Chapter Six

  To Blossom Castle

  “Where is Blossom Castle, Kar? I mean, in which direction?”

  “That way. Down the road a few spans. We make our final approach as bendo dreen.”

  “Why so such?”

  “It would be rude to be a Dragon. So said Dak.”

  “Oh, I understand. The Quing and the Quang.”

  “Exactly. We should go now if we want to get there before sunsink.”

  “Such. Let’s think of Gwer drollek stories that took place here in the ago. Make a game of ‘em as we walk.”

  “This road is truly bouncy, isn’t it, Bek? Gwer drolleks? All right. You start.”

  “Rindle Mer walked on these cobbles. The Woods were dusty brittle dry. No water.”

  “She brought ‘em back. Stubborn. She was stubborn.”

  “She had the trofle and the Prince of Orrun to help her.”

  “That was a lively Gwer drollek, true. And then about the jesterbeast. Remember that one? It wasn’t such and so a true Gwer drollek, being a short one, a thinzer. But I did like Sadlar.”

  “Yes, Sadlar. Roamer Lace walked on these cobbles, Kar. Dosh. O’Tan’s Gate.”

  “Bek, you are so smart. See? I knew you would know.”

  “What do I know? Why am I smart?”

  “We must pass through O’Tan’s Gate to discover the Ramps and the Realms!”

  “What? Why didn’t you say such before? It’s the most important! It’s ever fizzy! It’s the best! You know how much I love the Gwer drollek of Dosh and the random rain riddles! How many times did we play such, with me pretending to be Roamer Lace and you being Dosh? Now you tell me we must get through O’Tan’s Gate and see Dosh for real? Can such be so? Oh, fleckrunners! We’ll have to speak to a fleckrunner!”

  “Yes, Bek, we will, but quietly. It is for us to maintain their secret.”

  “Their secret isn’t known? I thought everyone knew that fleckrunners are really drulls.”

  “No, Bek. Their secret is kept.”

  “But how? After such and so a famous Gwer drollek story.”

  “Not famous here. Kept. Ragaba as Zinna warned me AND as Ragaba. Dak as Kadd warned me AND as Dak. Jroons and jrabes have special bonds with drulls. Their Gwer drollek story is known only to bendo dreen, and was also told in the Chronicle written by Roamer Lace and sent down the Well before the Portals closed.”

  “Kar, how many more hidden surprises are you keeping from me?”

  “No more, Bek, none. Look.”

  “Oh! The ivy is white! The towers! The walls! The highest terrace! The Gem Studded Pod! Let’s run! I can’t wait!”

  “Bek! Settle! We must walk calmly as bendo dreen travelers. We must rap politely on the bound timber gate.”

  “It will be carven!”

  “It will.”

  “Wait. I’m trembling faint. That is the spot.”

  “What spot?”

  “Where Dosh was collapsed and all tattered.”

  “Such.”

  Chapter Seven

  We Are Rude

  We stood before the bound timber gate of Blossom Castle. I was so such glad to be Bekka of Thorns, the Chronicler who had ventured from the hedge to see with my own two eyes the places of the Gwer drollek stories. Such was truly forcefully so. I bathed in the surrounding winter white beauty of Blossom Castle and the Woods Beyond the Wood. Kar nudged me. I looked at her. She pointed at the gate and made knocking motions with her hand.

  “Go ahead. You knock. You should be the first to knock,” I said.

  With satisfaction painted on her face, Kar advanced importantly and raised a fist to pound on the bound timber gate with its beautiful carven vines and flowers. But before she had time to strike the gate once, it swung open wide, and we faced a crowd of leaftrimmers and soilsweeps. I recognized ‘em at once from the Gwer drollek stories.

  “Are you the flowpangle repair team?”

  “Where are your gears?”

  “Your boots look sturdy. Are they?”

  “Don’t you need a ratchet?”

  A chorus of questions sang in our ears, and a pair of what I guessed were soilsweeps – they carried brooms – ushered us through the gate. I gazed for the first time on the famed terraces of Blossom Castle in their winter white bloom. I raised my eyes up, up, up to the magnificent Gem Studded Pod! The sparkle of the jewels! The glitter! In wonder I looked at the towers all around, the fat and thin of ‘em, and at the walls blanketed with white leaves and vines of ivy. I saw the bluest door in the tallest tower. I nudged Kar.

  “The Tower of the Quing,” I whispered.

  Kar nodded, and as if in response to her nod, the bluest door opened and a tall, most Royal creature, clad in a gown of gold with a silver spangled shoulder cape, appeared in the doorway. The crowd hushed in a nince. Silence descended.

  “Rude. Weedy rude. My nap has been destroyed by your thoughtless cruelty,” said the Quing -It had to be the Quing! -in her dull toneless voice. “I am humiliated. To continue the struggle is my burden. I wither, and yet somehow I endeavor to carry on.”

  So saying, she withdrew and the bluest door closed. I looked to Kar. She read my look. My look was meant to say, “Well, Kar, what now? You are leading this adventure.” My look must have spoken clearly because Kar quickly turned to the crowd and whispered, “We are not the flowpangle repair team. We are here to pass through O’Tan’s Gate.”

  There were gasps from all sides, and the crowd fell back. Murmured whispers followed. The greatest respect for the nap of the Quing dominated the scene. I said nothing, but I did notice something. B
y the bound timber gate, leaning against the wall, was a figure dressed in a purple tunic, yellow pantaloons, a red hat, and shiny purple boots. Fleckrunner! It couldn’t be other! I knew so from the Gwer drollek stories of Blossom Castle. The figure caught my eye and raised an ash green hand to beckon me. I nudged Kar.

  “What?” she whispered.

  “Over there,” I mouthed.

  She turned her head. She saw the fleckrunner. Her eyes brightened. She turned back to the crowd.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered to ‘em. “We have made a mistake being rude so such. We are really a team of Fools on our way to Clover Castle. My remark about O’Tan’s Gate was merely a jest. We meant no disrespect or rudeness. Your Castle was so close on our journey’s path, and we decided that a short detour to see the winter white would be a pity to miss. Such and so a beauty it is. Truly.”

  While Kar whispered her nonsense we moved to the open gate. The fleckrunner yawned mightily, and passed by us as if to be ready to close the gate. She drew near me and whispered, “Beckoning pool. Tonight so I have been told.”

  Kar, assuming the manner of Fool, crossed her eyes and hopped backwards out onto the cobbled road. I followed, spinning while I pushed my nose up with my thumb. It was the best I could think of such so quickly. The fleckrunner closed the gate.

  Chapter Eight

  To the Beckoning Pool

  “Isn’t this good? Isn’t it, Bek?”

  “Did you hear the fleckrunner?”

  “Of course. Beckoning pool. That’s the why that it’s good! Such!”

  “Where is the beckoning pool? I wonder what was wrong with the flowpangles. Why did they think we were a repair team? Wasn’t the Quing …”

  “Bek, settle! First is first. We have a task. You know where the beckoning pool is. How many times have you pretended to be Roamer Lace running to summon Ripple Bight? Well, here it is in front of you for real! You, Bekka of Thorns, are standing on the high cobbled road in the shadow of Blossom Castle! Think now, in the Gwer drollek, which way did Roamer Lace run from this spot to find the beckoning pool?”

  “I … Down … Left.”

  “Down left it is. Let’s go.”

  “Do you think we’ll see Ripple Bight? Oh, look! There IS a path!”

  “Such. Let’s follow it. We’ll be the first bendo dreen and jrabe jroon ever to walk this path in the winter white Woods.”

  “Waterwizard, Kar. I’ve never seen a waterwizard. There are such and so many in the Gwer drollek stories, and yet, if we find Ripple Bight, he will be my first. Have you met one, with Ragaba or with Dak?”

  “No, but it is a truth that they both of ‘em mentioned Ripple Bight.”

  “Another thing you didn’t tell me! Are there more?”

  “Quite a few, so such said.”

  “You’re keeping secrets from ME?!”

  “I am bonded to hide things. In time, you’ll know all. I promise with a vow.”

  “Why couldn’t we stay longer at the Castle? Will we go back? I would like to get a closer look at the Gem Studded Pod. I am the Chronicler. I should be given time to study whatsoever we visit. What about a crump? Is there a crump? And I didn’t see nester musicians. Only soilsweeps and leaftrimmers and one fleckrunner. Where were the nester musicians? And why only one fleckrunner? Was there a jesterbeast somewhere? I surely would like to go into the Visitor’s Hall Tower and find the room where Dosh told her strange tale to Roamer Lace. Why didn’t we …”

  “Settle, Bek. Look there. What do you think? Is that or not a beckoning pool?”

  “I … think … from the Gwer drollek … it seems … Kar, what are you … Oh.”

  “I be bonded to be Rakara now. It be my duty to summon the waterwizard, Ripple Bight.”

  “What should I do? Should I do something?”

  “Ye should tie down your tongue and sit over there. Practice patience. Sabeek orrun. Silent Bekka, heed your name. Such … I be Rakara, jrabe and jroon, daughter of Ragaba, daughter of Dak. Ye be wizard of watery tune. Ripple Bight, ye beckoned be, by … this … snack!”

  Chapter Nine

  Through the Gate

  Kar thrust out from beneath her dark green mantle a lavender hand and dropped a something, it looked like a pebble, into the pool. Ploop! was the sound it made, and ripples spread in circles. Kar stood head over feet, not upside down, and I struggled not to ask her why. I kept my tongue tied down and stared intently at the widening ripple circles. Something bubbling came rising from the depths of the beckoning pool. Waterwizard? It had to be! It was!

  A black point tip broke the water’s surface. Cap! Conical cap! Up it rose. It was decorated with a flung mix of red moons and stars. Up. Mint green forehead! Orange eyes! Up. A beard in flow down a black robe with many and more a red moon and star! Bright orange beard that banished Kar’s orange jrabe mass of curls to drab and my own coppery bendo dreen locks to lifeless dull! Up. Seated on air above the pool floated the first waterwizard I had ever seen. I noticed I wasn’t breathing. I breathed.

  “What jrabe be ye to send to me a Realm pebble cake?” asked the waterwizard, suspicion dripping from his lips to join the water flowing from his beard.

  “I be Rakara, jrabe daughter of Ragaba and jroon daughter of Dak. I be sent here with Chronicler Bekka of Thorns to request from ye a passage through O’Tan’s Gate. We seek to journey to the Realm Beyond Realms. We seek to be the first jrabe jroon and bendo dreen to do so such,” answered Kar boldly, blinking her sightless milky white eyes.

  “Bendo dreen, eh? Left the hedge? That be a promise of sea storm strength. Jrabe jroon, eh? The first mingling of mountain lake with desert stream. A new and singular creature. Daughter of Dak? He gave to ye this pebble cake, did he?” mused the waterwizard in an easier manner.

  “Yes. He told me that with such a cake I could summon Ripple Bight,” said Kar.

  “Ah, there! Ye have known my name! So said … Realm Beyond Realms. Ye pair of younglings would battle the currents and fight the eddies to gain the Realm Beyond Realms? Ye would solve the puzzles? Ye would risk the Ramps?” asked Ripple Bight, turning his orange-eyed gaze first to me, second to Kar.

  I nodded barely. Kar nodded firmly.

  “So Dak the jroon sends me his daughter,” continued Ripple Bight, “And the daughter drags along with her a hedge-loving bendo dreen who has courageously left the hedge! There be memories of card games and pebble cakes lapping at the shore of my mind. Dak’s daughter! It be bar eons since I saw the young jroon. I recall that he was drawn to the time waterwheel. Yes. That was it. The time waterwheel. I wonder what became of that? Do ye know, Dak’s daughter?”

  The blank look on Kar’s face was probably matched by mine. The Gwer drollek Ledgemoon story with Dak the jroon in it had no ending we knew. Time waterwheel. I had never heard such a thing said about in that story or in any other. It added to my knowledge another unknown, like as such Jo Bree had been. I reached to touch the Carven Flute, the Jo Bree, in my belt. Ripple Bight shrugged and smiled.

  “It be for another tide, perhaps, to know of such things,” said the waterwizard. “Be ye ready then, younglings, to be tested? Be ye prepared to battle choppy seas of confusion and bafflement? Be ye certain that ye wish to be confronted with crashing waves of Ramps and Realms? If so, at the set of the sun, I will sweep ye on a surging breaker through O’Tan’s Gate.”

  Before we could answer, he plunged into the beckoning pool and sank rapidly away out of sight. I looked at Kar and at the darkening white all around us. Time sped to sunsink.

  The trees fell in a curl of breaking waves and we were swept tumbling through O’Tan’s Gate.

  Chapter Ten

  The First Ramp

  Bek! Bek! Look what happened! Automatic shift! The first ever! Bek! Where are you?

  Kar, I’m here. Where are YOU? What is this? What happened to me?

  Lean to the left, Bek … Ah, there you are! You’re a spotted green blade of grass such as so like me! We’re blades of grass in
the field beyond O’Tan’s Gate! Truth! Such! It has to be! Oh ha, feel. My roots tickle in the bed of black pearls! Do yours? Those are drulls quivering above the blue bushes, aren’t they? Where are the star fingers? Where is Dosh? Look for a pink blob. Bek? Bek? Say something, Bek.

  I feel fuzzy with peace. Your voice, Kar, is so softly invisible. Mine, too. Thinking with thoughts, that’s how we’re talking. Like skrabblers! Truth, I tingle in peace. Such. Let’s stay here forever. I like to sway.

  Realm Beyond Realms, Bek, Realm Beyond Realms. Collect your thorns, Bek. We’re looking for a Ramp.

  Why bother? Let’s stay here and wave in the gentle breeze. Why can I see without eyes? Is it such like this to shift? I’ve never shifted except in dreams. Kar, how lucky you are to be a jrabe jroon.

  There then, so you taste the wonder of shifting. Such I am glad, Bek. But we can’t stay here. I will shift and dig you up carefully.

  No! Leave me behind! I …

  ---------------------Imagine my pleasure.

  Bek! It’s the pink blob! Dosh! Is it Dosh? Are you Dosh?

  ---------------------I am Dosh, pink drull, star-fingered.

  ---------------------You are the singular jrabe jroon Rakara.

  ---------------------Ripple Bight has told me that you seek the ---------------------First Ramp and would visit the

  Realms. Dosh … Dosh … Dosh. ---------------------The bendo dreen flutters. Yes, bendo

  ---------------------dreen. I am Dosh. Imagine my

  pleasure. You knew Roamer Lace. You spoke to her. She … ---------------------…saved me. Yes. Imagine my pleasure. Such was the story. We know it, yes. But now about the

  Ramp. We want to travel the Ramps to the Realms. We have a journey. We have a quest. We have a challenge. Can you lead us to the First Ramp?