Potlendh Read online

  Now that they were standing at the gates, they could hear no sound, and the old phrase “as quiet as a graveyard” brought unwelcome thoughts to their heads. No one to welcome them? Or, was the host just inside, ready in wait to spring on them with her flame and smoke?

  “Come on!” Uniqua urged them, and she trotted gaily through the gates.

  “She wants to spend the night in this place?” Carl said incredulously. He could not believe anyone would want to stay here for even a short visit much less live here.”

  “Where else are we going to go?” Karen stated the obvious. “Come on. We might as well go in.”

  “I want to go on record,” Carl told her. “When I was thinking of having an adventure, I was thinking of something much more exciting than this.”

  Karen shrugged. “Maybe it can only get better.”

  But Carl shook his head negatively. “Not often. You know how the stories in the books are. It always gets darker before it gets better. Somebody’s always getting hurt before they’re over, too.”

  With a growing sense of trepidation, the twins entered the castle courtyard. Sadly, they did not find the courtyard any more cheerful than the outside walls.

  Across the courtyard, Uniqua poked her head out of the main door leading to the greater parts of the castle. “What’s taking you two so long? Come on! ‘She who rules with flame and smoke’ is waiting to meet you.”

  It only took a minute or so of real time for the twins to cross the courtyard, but it felt like an eternity, for they felt like they were marching to certain doom. They reluctantly crossed the threshold of the door where Uniqua stood and then gazed at a gigantic room with such amazement. They were tempted to poke their heads back outside to understand the comparison. The outside of this castle was totally opposite of the inside: near total devastation versus near total opulence.

  By opulence, I do not need to describe in detail this gigantic room. All I have to do is tell you that there was color everywhere. Throw in a lot of jewels and add some gold and silver on the ceiling and walls, and I think you will get the general picture. The floor was highly unusual, made of polished precious stone, for the most part. Except for the center of the room, which proved to be a giant fish tank of some sort. The twins soon found themselves walking above transparent quartz and could see a cornucopia of marine life swimming and living underneath them. Before them at the far end of this cathedral-like chamber sat a huge throne: so big that they could only imagine a giant a hundred feet tall must occupy it. Whoever this “she” was, she must not only be gigantic but also very powerful, too. And, you know what they say about giants and powerful beings: they are dangerous.

  “‘Out of the pot and into the fire,’” Karen quoted an old proverb, which generally means that while escaping from one danger or problem, you usually end up with even a worse problem.

  “Hey, who’s the chicken on the throne?” Carl asked, seeing what looked like a chicken roosting on the edge of the monstrous chair.

  “I am NOT A CHICKEN!” Cassandra roared, her body enlarging with each word until she was about the size of a small house.

  The twins hugged each other out of sheer fright. Carl’s chicken had suddenly grown into a medium sized Dragon!

  “Oh, Cassandra,” Uniqua chuckled. “They didn’t mean you any insult. So, stop ruffling your feathers.”

  Cassandra turned her short, snake-like head towards the Unicorn and spoke to her in a rather miffed tone. “I do not have feathers! I have scales!”

  Uniqua sat back on her haunches and laughed out loud. “You can be so funny sometimes.” And she laughed so hard that she fell down on her side.

  “And, I am not funny!” Cassandra roared, although she was beginning to shrink somewhat in size. “Stop laughing at me.” She shrank some more. “It’s embarrassing.” It did not take her long to return back to the size of Carl’s chicken.

  The twins were totally confused but not much less afraid.

  “Could someone please introduce us,” Cassandra told her Unicorn friend who was still laughing so hard that she could not stand up. “After all, I am supposed to be the ‘she who rules with flame and smoke’ you know.”

  Karen gently pushed herself away from her brother and took a half step towards the Dragon. “We are Karen and Carl King,” she introduced herself and her brother.

  “King?” Cassandra repeated. “How can you be a king? You are female, I believe. That would make you a queen, am I right?”

  “Oh, that’s just our family name. It doesn’t mean that we are kings—or queens,” she added quickly.

  “Really?” Cassandra sounded doubtful. “That’s good, I think. Because we have enough kings and queens in this land already, I think. Although, I think that being a king or a queen is a good thing to be. Makes one sound important, don’t you think?”

  Uniqua finally stopped laughing enough to stand up on all four legs.

  “So, are you a queen?” Karen asked, and Uniqua fell into another fit of laughter. She was hopeless.

  “Me? A queen?” Cassandra blinked her Dragonish eyes at Karen in astonishment. “My mother is a queen. I’m just her daughter.” Then Cassandra looked away from Karen and added with a note of sadness in her voice, “I’ll never be a queen.”

  “Why’s that?” Karen asked on the spur of the moment.

  “Such a tale is too long to tell,” Cassandra replied. “As it is already late, we must think about dinner and going to bed. I will explain myself at a later time.” She looked back over at her friend. “When you are through enjoying yourself, you might want to think about dinner.”

  “Ooh! Aahh!” Uniqua sputtered, rising to her feet. “I’m so sorry, Cassandra. But I did really enjoy myself. You can be so funny at times.”

  “Maybe, but one of these days your laughter is going to get you into trouble.”

  “And maybe, my dear friend, you’ll be able to maintain your size.” And with that, Uniqua lost all inhibition and control for the rest of the evening right up to dinner time.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CASSANDRA’S STORY

  Cassandra employed three cooks: Hunny, Bunny, and Runny: three young female Rabbits. How they came to work for Cassandra is part of a history that we are about to learn, so I will wait until Cassandra explains to the twins her story. I will say this much, however: these three Bunnies were the best cooks in all of the land; that is, if you like vegetables. I know that many children do not like to eat vegetables, but I can assure you that if you ate their vegetables, you would find them absolutely delicious. They could even make the vegetables taste like your favorite meat or cheese dish or even—sometimes, like for dessert—candy, cake, pudding, and ice cream.

  Everyone sat down at or (in Uniqua’s case) stood before an ornately carved oak dining table in a comparatively smaller dining room, which was still big enough to hold my entire house. If you have ever seen pictures of or watched movies that showed fancy dining rooms in large, expensive hotels or dining rooms in modern castles, then you can picture the kind of dining room the twins found themselves in. There were some differences, of course. For example, all the portraits on the walls were Dragons, which Cassandra explained were her ancestors. Dragons had built this castle a long, long time ago and kept adding to it with each successive generation. Then, too, the castle had no electricity, so there were more candles set around the room than one could count, and there was a roaring fire in one of the largest fireplaces I have ever seen. (You could walk inside it if you wanted to—that is, when there was no fire roaring inside it.)

  The Rabbits, in the role of servants, set the table according to the needs of the individual guests. Inasmuch as Uniqua did not require silverware—I’m not sure how she would manage a knife, fork, or spoon—she had a wide silver trough placed in front of her, in which she could graze contentedly. Cassandra preferred a large silver bowl, although she had the dexterity to wield utensils with her claws. To watch her eat, you would think she had no table manners at all. Her lo
ng snakish snout would disappear into the bowl, and all you could hear is a mixture of grunting and crunching as she quickly gobbled up the meal. The children were treated to fine (real) silverware and gold cups; even the plates are lined with gold. Everything was on the largish size, since everyone knows that Dragons tend to be a bit on the largish size themselves. So for the twins and the Rabbits—they seated themselves when their servant roles were finished—it was almost comical to watch them eat, trying to manage such big forks and spoons and knives. When they tried to drink from the cups, they tried not to drown or get a bath!

  “So, Cassandra,” Carl ventured to begin a conversation. He and his sister had to sit on three large books piled onto their chairs. Otherwise neither of them could barely see over the table. “I would have thought that Dragons liked to eat meat.” The Rabbits suddenly stopped eating and looked at Carl with wide eyes, as if he had said something naughty.

  Cassandra, at that moment, had her mouth full as she raised her head out of her bowl. She swallowed quickly and responded, “What? Don’t you like the food?”

  “Oh, no! I mean, the food’s delicious. I just thought Dragons only ate meat.”

  “Well,” Cassandra began thoughtfully, “I do like the taste of meat. But do you know where meat comes from? Why, if I wanted to eat meat, I would have to eat all of my friends.” Amazingly, a tear formed in her left eye. “That would be terrible, don’t you think?”

  “Uh, okay,” Carl agreed timidly.

  “I do like charcoal, however,” Cassandra added. “I think it tastes a bit like meat, don’t you think?”

  “Uh, no,” Carl slowly answered, hoping that he was not going to offend the Dragon again.

  “Oh, well, you just haven’t tried the best kind of charcoal yet. I’ll send some to your room just before you go to bed.”

  “Ahem,” Uniqua interrupted, clearing her throat. “Cassandra, my dear, the meal is quite finished, unless you think you can get larger by eating everything on the table.” She whinnied another laugh. “I believe it is now time for you tell your story. These children are looking for an adventure, and I cannot think of a better way to get started than by telling them everything.”

  “Everything? Are you sure?”

  Uniqua nodded.

  “Okay. Let’s see. About three hundred years ago, my mother laid two eggs, and—”

  “Uh, Cassandra. Not that part. Just the important parts, please,” Uniqua advised.

  “You’re three hundred years old?” Karen blurted out in astonishment.

  Cassandra nodded. “How do I look? Now be honest, dear. You can’t offend me.”

  “Nice,” Karen suggested hesitantly. But when she noticed a queer look in the Dragon’s eye, she quickly added, “Beautiful. I would have never guessed.”

  That answer made Cassandra feel very good. “Thank you, child. Yes, three hundred years does seem like a long time, but you know Dragon years are not quite the same as human years, I think. Why, I’m still just a child compared to other Dragons.”

  “Yes, Cassandra. You’re young and beautiful. But let’s get to the point and talk about more recent times, shall we?” Uniqua had a habit of controlling conversations and did not like long and pointless meanderings. I’m sure you know people like that. They start a topic and then go off on different tangents that usually have nothing to do with the original topic, and it takes forever to get them back on point.

  “Okay.” When Dragon started talking she had brightened up so much that she actually grew three sizes larger. But Uniqua’s words made her think of her problems, and she diminished back to her diminutive size again. “It all began about ten years ago. I think. Like I said, time isn’t the same to a Dragon, and I’m not sure that time is the same on the Island as it is in the real world.”

  “Cassandra,” Uniqua reminded her.

  “Well, it isn’t,” Cassandra persisted. “Time isn’t even the same everywhere on the Island, you know. It changes all the time.”

  “That is neither here nor there,” Uniqua argued back. “The story, please.”

  Cassandra let out a long breath, and there was a hint of dark smoke with it, which the twins noted right away. I believe they started to understand the “flame and smoke” part.

  “Whatever happened—” (she looked over at Uniqua)—“my parents were the king and queen of this castle and rulers of Derkesthai.”

  “The land between Lonely Field and the Deadly Desert,” Uniqua clarified, as if that meant anything to the twins or you and I at the moment.

  “And I was the only little Dragonet in the family.”

  “I thought you said that your mother had two eggs,” Carl interrupted.

  Here Cassandra looked like she was going to cry. “It was stolen before it hatched. To this day, I don’t know if I have a brother or a sister. I just hope that no one tried to eat it, but I don’t think so. Because every now and then, I have this strange feeling—”

  “The story,” Uniqua jumped in authoritatively.

  “Yes, very well. Derkesthai used to be the richest land in all of the Island. I don’t mean that we had lots of gold or anything like that. I mean, how can you eat gold? It’s nice to collect and all, and we Dragons just love to collect as much as we can. But what can you really do with it?” Uniqua cleared her throat. “I mean that we had the richest farmlands and gardens. Not only did we feed everyone who lives on the Island, but we had the best cooks, too.” Here she looked appreciatively at the three Rabbits. “And people from all over the Island were constantly sending us orders for our delicious food.

  “Well, we made the mistake of boasting about how rich we were, and there was this little king who just couldn’t understand what we meant by the word ‘rich.’ The only thing he could think of was gold and jewels. But you could be rich in friendship. You could be rich by being smart. You could be rich by being the ruler of such wonderful lands.”

  “Cassandra,” Uniqua muttered.

  “Well, it’s true! I can’t help it if Kurt was such a stone-head.”

  “Who was Kurt?” Carl asked, hoping that the story was beginning to get interesting. He was acting a bit rude at this point, for he slouched forward and put his elbows on the table and then rested his chin on his open palms.

  “The king who started all of this problem, of course,” Cassandra reproached him. “Haven’t you been listening to what I’ve been saying? He wanted to come and steal all of our gold, of which we do have some and would have gladly given him some. Not that gold is important. I mean, there is no use for gold here on the Island, unless you want to make jewelry or something. There is no such thing as money around here either. Whatever you need, people just want to help you and will give you what you need.”

  “Now that just doesn’t sound normal,” Carl remarked to his sister.

  “That’s right. It wasn’t normal for Kurt to want to come and take all of our gold,” Cassandra rejoined. “That’s pretty selfish, if you ask me. Sharing is one of the best things people can do for each other, not hoard things.”

  “No, I meant—” He didn’t finish his sentence because Karen suddenly kicked him in the leg under the table.

  “Let’s get to the good part, if you please,” Uniqua prodded.

  “What good part?” Cassandra questioned. “There is no good part! You mean to tell me that when Kurt had my mother and father enslaved THAT was a good thing? That I should be happy that I no longer have a mother or a father?”

  “No, Cassandra,” Uniqua said tiredly. “All I’m saying is that you should get to the interesting part, even if it is tragic or sad or terrible. These young children have been walking all day. They just had a huge meal. The fire is warm, and you are dragging out your story. You might get to be four hundred years old and still not finished telling it. These children are tired. So, let’s get the bottom line, please.”

  The Dragon did not look all that happy at the moment. The tears that were beginning to form in her eyes were not from being angry or upset
with Uniqua but because she was remembering that fateful day when she lost her parents.

  “Kurt and a hundred of his soldiers rode up to the gates of our castle,” Cassandra related tearfully. “He demanded that my parents give him all of our gold. My father refused, of course, and there was a terrible battle.

  “You would think that attacking a Dragon is the dumbest thing in the world to do. I mean, my Father was huge. He could breathe out fire. He could crush five soldiers in each hand. The problem with my Father, though, is that he has a very soft heart. He doesn’t like to hurt people or animals. If he crushed a flower or stepped on an innocent insect, he would cry for days.

  “But Kurt’s soldiers fired arrows and threw spears. They even brought in this terrible cannon that fired arrows by the hundreds at one time. We Dragons might be thick skinned, but I can tell you that a hundred arrows sticking out of your face or neck or even your claws hurts! My Father was losing control of his temper. He retaliated by trying to scare the soldiers into running by roaring at them fiercely and spewing fire over their heads, but nothing worked.

  “Then Kurt raced in, holding his sword high and stabbed my Father just under his chin. Just when he was breathing out another blast of fire. Well, instead of raising his head in pain—which I would have done—my Father lowered his head, and Kurt was bathed in a ball of flame. In the end, Kurt was horribly burned, and his soldiers carried him on a stretcher as they retreated back to his own lands.

  “My Father was heartbroken, and he vowed to never hurt another living thing ever again. He even swore never to breathe fire again, as he was afraid that he might accidentally hurt someone.

  “When Kurt’s brothers found out how badly injured their brother was, they made the long trek to the Mountain of Power to speak with the Lord of Power in person. They demanded that the Lord of Power do something. And, he did. Of course, he never asked for my Father’s side of the story; he only listened to the lies of the brothers. Then the Lord of Power came here and told my Mother and Father that they had to surrender themselves to the two brothers to be punished for their brother’s injuries. My Mother and Father, being soft-hearted, bowed their great heads to the Lord of Power, and without one complaint or protest accompanied him to that far away province governed by the brothers. And I, their only child, was never told what had happened to my Mother and Father. I was orphaned at a tender age.