The Black Shard (23 page)

She bit into the cookie that was oozing with rich, warm chocolate. "Mmm! I think this is the best cookie I've ever tasted," she said. Werrien agreed with a smile.

They could still hear the trio playing, and the crew hooting and hollering, but now it was only about half the volume.

"Will we arrive in Tezerel tomorrow?" Kristina asked.

"Yes. We'll leave here tonight, after the festivities are done with. Then we'll sail into the Sicapif Sea and arrive in Tezerel by early morning. Want me to let you in on a little secret?" Werrien asked.

Kristina went along with him. "I love secrets."

"Well, actually it's more like I'll give you a hint."

"Okay," Kristina said, wondering what he meant.

"Let's just say that when we arrive in Tezerel, you'll definitely know."

Both took another cookie out of the towel, and Werrien poured the milk into the two mugs and handed one to her.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing Tezerel," Kristina said happily, dunking her cookie into her milk.

"And I'm looking forward to taking you to Ezeree to meet some of my friends."

"Werrien?"

"Yeah."

"I just want to say again that I'm so sorry for overreacting."

"You know something?" Werrien said, while dipping his cookie in his milk.

"What?" Kristina said, dipping her cookie in her milk as well.

"You worry way too much."

"It's just that I really feel sorry for that girl, Jabela, being abused by her mean mother."

"I do, too." Werrien took a bite of his cookie.

"With your father being king of the land, isn't there anything he can do to help her?"

"I wish that there were, but without solid proof that Jabela's mother is abusing her, there's really nothing he can do for her. Jabela's probably one out of hundreds of girls—or boys, for that matter—who have to live in these terrible circumstances."

Without delay Kristina sat straight up and looked keenly at Werrien, her pale blue eyes glowing in the light of the lantern. "If she shows up in the Black Shard again, could you show your father?"

Werrien sighed. "I've thought about that already, but the thing is, I don't know where I will be when the situation shows up again—that is, if it even does show up again—and besides, the image never lasts longer than a few seconds, so even if my father did happen to get a quick look at Jabela in an abusive situation, it still wouldn't be any kind of solid proof to convict her mother. What I need to do is catch Jabela's mother in the act. Then I can have her arrested."

Kristina leaned back again and both sat quietly. Werrien took a third cookie and offered the last one to Kristina.

"Thanks, but I'm full," she said.

Werrien picked up his milk, and as he did so, he noticed a fearful expression on Kristina's face. Kristina gently pushed his mug down. Then she pointed at something moving near the corner of the galley wall. It was a shadow—a very tall person's shadow—and it brought a long, bony-fingered hand toward its face.

S
eeing the tall shadow, the color drained from Kristina's face, for she instantly thought of the old, gruesome hag. Kristina shrunk down a few inches on the bench, huddling closer to Werrien. Even though it was hard for her to fathom, she actually hoped that the shadow was that of the old hag, so that Werrien would have to believe her story of being attacked by her in the dark water behind the waterfall.

As Werrien turned to look at the shadow, its owner suddenly emerged from the darkness, and as it drew nearer to them, the long, lean, dark shadow began to shrink into a much shorter and stout one.

"Elzwur?" Werrien said. "I'll have you know, you gave Kristina quite the scare."

"How unfortunate," Elzwur said with a pout on his face and what Kristina thought was fake empathy in his tone.

Kristina rolled her eyes.
It figures; it's only the creepy dwarf, spying on us.

"My dear boy, your father has been looking for you for the past half hour," Elzwur said.

"What for?" Werrien asked with a slight edge in his tone.

"Werrien, that is none of my business, but I do suggest you make it your business to go to him right away. He did seem quite agitated about something."

"All right, then. Thank you, Elzwur," Werrien said.

Then Elzwur turned on his heel and left.

Werrien placed his mug on the bench beside him and sighed. "I must go and see what it is my father wants," he said to Kristina.

"Of course you must. I'll just watch the trio again," Kristina said enthusiastically, even though she was disappointed that their cozy little visit was interrupted by the irritating dwarf.

They both stood up, and Werrien turned to face her. "Are you sure? I mean, I don't want you to get upset again by their strange songs."

"I'm a big girl, Werrien, and if they do get weird, I'll just take a walk or go to my cabin."

Werrien winked at her. "Thanks for being so easygoing," he said.

"No problem," Kristina said, shrugging her shoulders.

"I'll meet you by the trio as soon as I'm done with my father. I shouldn't be long."

"Sounds good," Kristina said. But as she watched Werrien head off to the midsection of the ship, a nervous ache twitched in her stomach. So many thoughts began piling up in her mind—why was Elzwur so cold toward her? Why had she had such an explicit, heart pounding dream about King Sirus and Queen Navesa? Why did her face look so old in the mirror and then simply go back to normal? Was the old hag that had tried to kill her real or only imaginary? Why had she gotten so sick? Was it due to the food or her just not faring well at sea or perhaps both?
I'm really starting to wonder if Elzwur has been slipping something in my food to make me sick,
she thought.
He seems to always have a smile on his face when something bad has happened to me.

Werrien turned and smiled at her, but Kristina was too deep in her thoughts to notice, and all that she returned to him was a blank expression. Then he turned again, and she watched his tall, slender, muscular stature stride away.

Did King Warren figure out that Werrien was the one who took the Black Shard?
Kristina thought while she headed toward the midsection of the ship, where the trio was still feverishly playing their lively tunes. When she reached the trio, and she stood there, taking in the frenzied sight, she suddenly felt a light breeze against her left cheek.

"Hey! How's it going?" a cheery little voice whispered into her ear.

Taken off guard, she flinched and turned her head to see Looper standing on her shoulder. "Oh! Hi, Looper. It's good to see you," she said to the fairy, happy that he had interrupted her worrisome thoughts.

Looper did a little dance, his steps feeling like a piece of yarn dangling on her shoulder.

Kristina took notice that most of the crew members watching the trio were drinking out of large wooden mugs. Some of them were casually conversing, some cackling loudly, and others had their arms around each other and were singing and swaying to and fro to the music. Some slammed their mugs together in merry toasts—and included in one of these cheery, little bundles were Hester and Heerzek. The rest of the crew was still dancing in front of the band and showing no signs of slowing down. Sepel and Davina were among these, and even though the music was very energetic, the two of them were engaged in a very close, slow dance.

Kurdy, still wildly playing his squeeze box, was at the same time dancing happily around in circles, kicking his legs out in front of him, and only stopping briefly every so often to bend down and pick up his mug that was set at his feet. Then he'd take a long swig of it and place it down again, leaving foam to run down the sides of his unshaven face.

One of the crew members, a dwarf with a short black beard and a blue-and-white, striped beanie on his head, danced merrily up to Kristina. "Would my lady give me the pleasure of a dance?" he asked, his smile stretching from one of his pointy ears to the other.

Kristina was not in the mood for dancing, but even so, she couldn't resist this friendly little fellow's huge smile. "Well ... maybe just a short dance," she said, and before she could blink the dwarf whisked her out onto the dance floor. Noticing Werrien was not on the deck, the rest of the dancing crew had a heyday, one after the other, cutting in to dance with Kristina. She danced and danced and was twirled by one dwarf and spun by another gnome. Then she spun to Heerzek, and she landed in a dip in his arms. As she stared up at his face, to her great horror, it was not Heerzek's joyful, lively face that she gazed up into, but instead, an old man with an abhorrent face. He leered lewdly at her with dark, squinty eyes. He bared his teeth like he wanted to bite her head off.

With her heart racing, Kristina jumped to her feet and quickly backed away from what now looked like Heerzek again. Her stomach wrenched with pain, and she clutched her arms tightly around her midsection, panting as she backed away from him.

Heerzek's face paled with worry. "Are you all right, Kristina?" he said, reaching his hand out to help her.

"I'm fine. I'm just a little tired," she said.

Heerzek gently took hold of her arm.

Kristina suddenly felt dizzy again.

"Can I walk my lady back to her cabin to rest a while?" he asked her, looking very concerned.

"Uh ... no, thanks. I'll manage fine," she said politely and stood up straight.

Hester, who had stopped dancing with a gnome as soon as Heerzek had caught Kristina in his arms, now stood panting, looking overheated and perturbed at Heerzek for being so concerned about Kristina.

Feeling nauseated again, Kristina headed toward the stern, to the captain's cabin, hoping she would run into Werrien, on his way back to meet up with her. She finally decided that she would tell Werrien about the horrible visions she had been having.
I don't know what he's going to think, but I can't take it anymore. I feel like I'll go insane if I don't tell him.
She kept her eyes on the wooden deck and walked briskly. For a brief moment she looked up and caught sight of Elzwur a few yards ahead, standing with his back to her. He was talking with Razkin, and in the midst of their conversation, Elzwur began to laugh.
This is the first time I've ever seen Elzwur laugh. Razkin is probably telling him that I'm not feeling well again, and I bet Elzwur is overjoyed with the news.

She continued walking very quietly past them, and neither Razkin nor Elzwur noticed her.

Once she made it to the opening in the deck floor leading down to the lower deck, she climbed down the ladder and headed to King Warren's dining cabin door. She lifted her fist to knock on it, but then hesitated.
What am I doing?
she thought.
What if Werrien's in some heated conversation with his father? I can't just invite myself in.

She heard footsteps coming from up on the main deck, and then, as she turned to look up, she saw Elzwur's shoe stepping down on to the ladder. Fearful he might see her, she glanced around for a place to hide. There was only one spot—behind the ladder. Quickly, she got behind it, just as Elzwur was descending it. When Elzwur reached the bottom of the ladder, he went very quietly to King Warren's cabin door and put his left ear against it. He was facing Kristina, who was crouched behind the narrow ladder. As he stood eavesdropping, his squinty eyes stared directly at her, but it was too dark for him to see her. Kristina watched his face contort into different expressions, ranging from suspicion to surprise and then to what she figured must have been sheer joy, even though she'd never seen Elzwur look joyful.

She tried desperately not to move a muscle. Finally, he took his ear off the door and, seeming in a very buoyant mood, he reached inside his pocket and took something out of it. Whatever it was, it was too small for Kristina to see it. She could only see Elzwur's hand cupped around it. Gazing at it, he chuckled quietly, and then tossed it in the air. Kristina watched it fall but still couldn't tell what it was, though she could see that it was gold and shiny. Elzwur's eyes also trailed the strange object as it fell toward his open hand, but before he caught it, the servant's cabin door, right next to King Warren's cabin, opened, and Dargin quite suddenly stepped out into the hallway, startling Elzwur. Elzwur jumped, and the object fell to the ground. Kristina watched as it slid across on the floor in the direction the boat was listing. Then it disappeared into the darkness, somewhere at the other end of the narrow hall.

Dargin held the door open. "Ah, Elzwur! Just the one I was going to look for," he said.

Elzwur's eyes nervously scanned the floor in search of the object.

Dargin noticed his apprehension. "Lose something?" Dargin asked curiously.

"What?" Elzwur said.

"Do you need help finding something?" Dargin asked.

Elzwur thought quickly. "No! I just thought that I saw a spider crawl across the floor." He looked at Dargin and made a squeamish face. "One of those large, black creepy-crawlers," he said, wiggling his fingers by his crooked nose. "Sure hope it's not a poisonous one."