Warriors of the Black Shroud (4 page)

Chapter 7

T
rue to her word, Frankie arrived at exactly the same time the next day. Now she was dressed more comfortably in a pair of shorts, some old sneakers, and a T-shirt that said
VAMPIRE IN TRAINING
. She asked Walker's mom if it was all right for him to go for a walk with her, but had grabbed his hand and was already heading out of the door before Mrs. Watson had a chance to answer. They went to the bottom of the yard, past the hole in the ground behind the barn, and into the woods at the far end. Walker had always loved the woods because he rarely saw anyone else in them, and he was surprised at how much he liked being there with Frankie. Her constant chatter was soothing, like the buzz of bees on a hot summer's day. They came to a clearing where somebody had made a bench out of two tree stumps and a log. Frankie ran over to it and lay down, her hands clasped behind her head, looking up at the patches of sky between the branches of the trees.

“My mom told me that your mom told her that you don't have any friends,” she said without turning to look at him.

“I do so,” Walker protested.

“I knew you must,” said Frankie. “It would be terrible not to have friends. Who's your best one?”

“Well,” Walker replied, pausing for a minute as if he was mentally going through an extensive address book, “my newest is a boy called Eddie.”

“Does he live near here?” she asked.

“Sort of,” Walker said.

“What do you mean—sort of?” Frankie demanded. “Either he lives near here or he doesn't.”

“Well, if you really
have
to know,” Walker said, getting irritated by her constant questions, “he actually lives in another world, but you can get to it quickly.”

“What do you mean—other world?” exclaimed Frankie.

“It's underground,” Walker replied. “At least, I think it is. You get there through a long black tunnel.”

“You mean he's like a miner?” asked Frankie, completely confused.

“No, he's a prince and he lives in a Kingdom,” Walker replied.

Frankie folded her arms and looked Walker straight in the eyes.

“Walker Watson,” she said, “I will believe everything you tell me, because I think you should believe what friends tell you, but if you ever lie to me then it's shame on you, not shame on me.”

“I'm not lying,” Walker protested. “He's real. I've really seen him.”

“No way!” exclaimed Frankie, swinging her legs down from the bench and sitting up. “Are you sure?”

“Pretty sure,” said Walker, although he didn't sound too certain.

“Pretty sure,” Frankie questioned, “or, like, absolutely sure? Did you actually touch him?”

“Yes, we held hands.”

“Why?” Frankie asked.

“To get into the Kingdom,” Walker replied. “You have to hold hands and jump into that hole I dug behind the barn.”

“Really?” Frankie said excitedly. “Can anyone do it? If we held hands could we go to the Kingdom?”

“ I don't think so,” said Walker. “I think you have to be with Eddie.”

“Oh, come on,” urged Frankie, “I bet you can. Let's try it. Please!”

Walker was about to explain to her that he didn't want to go back to the Kingdom but Frankie was already running toward the barn.

“It's not very deep,” she observed, looking into the hole.

“No,” agreed Walker, “it doesn't have to be. It gets deeper when you jump in.”

“Cool!” she cried. “Let's do it.”

She grabbed his hand and leaped in, pulling him with her. There was a jarring thud as their feet hit the dirt, and they both tumbled over. She got up and brushed herself off. Walker was relieved that he wasn't on his way back to Nebula because he would have to explain to everyone that he wasn't there because he wanted to be king, but because a girl had pulled him into the hole against his will. It would have been kind of embarrassing.

“Well,” Frankie said with a grin, “I guess you're right. We need Eddie. How do you get hold of him?”

“Actually,” said Walker, “he gets hold of me. I don't know how to get hold of him.”

“What kind of a friend is that?” Frankie exclaimed. “Now that you're my friend you will always be able to get me. Can't you text him or something?”

Walker mumbled something about Eddie not being a texting kind of guy, then got out of the hole and started to walk back toward his house. Frankie quickly caught up with him.

“Don't worry, he'll come back,” she said, “and when he does, come get me. I'm going to be here for weeks and weeks, practically forever, so we've got time. I want to go to that Kingdom place with you.”

It wasn't until Frankie had gone home and Walker was alone that he thought about what she said. It was true that he had no way of contacting Eddie, and Walker was probably just a job to him. An assignment. One Chosen One—find and deliver ASAP.

That night Walker had a strange dream—two strange dreams, in fact. The first one was really a nightmare. He was walking by himself in an empty, barren place and it was almost dark. There were no trees or shrubs, no buildings, no roads, just an endless flat expanse of rough, stony ground. Suddenly out of this wasteland came the most awful monsters—hooded giants that loomed over him, and skeletons with round, bulging eyes and ragged clothes that flew above him on black-feathered wings. They swept down like angry jackdaws, and he dropped to the ground to avoid them. As he did so, huge, blind black worms rose up out of the arid earth and crawled around his legs and arms, pulling him down so that he could not escape. It took all his strength to free himself from their slimy grasp, and when he was finally upright the skeletons dove toward him again, forcing him back down to the ground, where the worms trapped him once more. He woke up with his heart pounding.

He was convinced that he wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, but no sooner had he thought this than he was dreaming again. Now he was mounted on a gleaming white unicorn, a proud animal with a long, flowing mane, and it walked with great dignity through cheering crowds that thronged the streets of the Kingdom. Riding next to him on his right side was Eddie astride a similarly magnificent animal, only this one was a creamy color. The young prince held his sword aloft. Walker suddenly realized there were arms around his waist, and that he was not alone on the unicorn. He looked over his shoulder and there was Frankie. She winked at him.

“See?” she said. “I told you we could do it. Aren't you glad now you brought me with you?”

The two animals made their way down the long avenue to the courtyard of the palace. The king's empty throne stood in the middle of the yard with the stern figure of Lumina behind it. The two unicorns stopped, waiting for their riders to dismount, when suddenly white wings sprouted from the shoulders of the one ridden by Walker and Frankie, and the animal began to rise in the air. Walker looked down to see Eddie watching them and grinning. Up and up the unicorn flew and the Kingdom got smaller and smaller until it could no longer be seen. They flew into clouds and one of them formed itself into the face of the king. He smiled at the two children.

“All is well,” the cloud said. Then Walker woke up and it was morning.

He dressed quickly and went down for his breakfast.

“My, you look full of vim and vigor,” his mother observed.

“Yeah, I'm good,” Walker said. “I think I'll go and see if Frankie's around.”

“I'm so glad you like her,” his mother said. “She seems like a lot of fun.”

But it wasn't the prospect of seeing his new friend that had energized him. In fact he wasn't sure why he felt so invigorated, but he thought it had something to do with the dreams, even the bad one. He set out for Frankie's house, but then decided to go by way of the orchard to see if any apples were ripe yet. He rounded the corner of the barn and there was Eddie.

“So,” the prince said, leaning his hands and his chin upon the handle of his sword, “you've got yourself a girlfriend, have you? You
are
a lucky lad.”

“She's not my girlfriend,” Walker protested. “She's just a friend. Anyway, how do you know about her?”

“Ah well,” said Eddie mysteriously, “I know a lot of things—not that it does me much good when I have to deal with a stubborn fellow like you. It's all very frustrating. Here I find the one person who can help save the Kingdom after centuries of looking, and you don't want to be king—why not, I can't imagine. Most people would kill to be king; in fact I know some who have. Then I come back to the Outerworld to find you cavorting around with some girl.”

“I wasn't cavorting,” Walker protested. He wasn't quite sure what cavorting involved, but he was pretty certain that neither he nor Frankie had been doing it. “She's just my friend—the first friend I've ever had.”

“I know, I'm sorry,” Eddie said, his shoulders suddenly slumping in despair. “I'm sure she's great, but don't you see? The Kingdom may be in peril, and if it goes down, if the Black Shroud triumphs and the Source is extinguished, then my last hope for redemption goes with it and I will be lost for eternity.”

“You'll be what?” said Walker.

“Nothing,” the young prince replied. “I'm just worried, not just for myself but for all those good people in the Kingdom. Anyway, you've known me longer than you've known her so if anybody's going to be your friend it should be me.”

Walker was amazed that Eddie thought of him as a friend, but shocked at what else he said.

“Whoa. Back up a bit. What do you mean—if the Source is extinguished?”

“Like the king said, after the Black Count was defeated at the Battle of Barren Plains he swore revenge,” Eddie replied. “He vowed to destroy the Source, because if that goes we go with it. Light is the only defense we have and without it the Warriors of the Black Shroud would destroy the Kingdom and enslave everyone in it.”

“Who is the Black Count?” Walker asked.

“He's like the king,” said Eddie, “only he's the King of Darkness. He used to control all of Diabolonia until King Leukos defeated him. Now his power is limited to the Outer Wastes, although our king is convinced that he's getting closer.”

“But Lumina thinks he's too weak to be a real threat,” Walker said.

“That's what she'd like to think,” Eddie assured him. “Lumina was a young warrior in the last war with the Black Count, and during the Battle of Barren Plains something happened to her—nobody knows what and she won't talk about it—but whatever it was it changed her. You may think her hair's white because she's old, but it's been that way ever since then. No, she may not want it to be so, but the threat's real enough, all right. Remember your dream last night, the real scary one? Well, if the Shroud took over it would be like that, only ten times worse.”

A shudder ran down Walker's back at the thought of it. Then another shudder ran down his spine when he realized that he had never mentioned a word to Eddie about his dreams.

“How do you know what I dreamed about last night?” he asked. “I never told you about them.”

“I was the one who sent them to you—me and the king,” Eddie informed him. “He sent you the nice one with the unicorn and your girlfriend.”

“She's
not
my girlfriend,” Walker protested. “And you can't send people dreams. They're private.”

“If you're desperate you can,” Eddie assured him, “and we need you to step up and become King Leukos's heir. The future of the Kingdom depends on it.”

“If it's so important, why did the king tell me I only had to be his heir if I wanted to?” Walker replied. “Why couldn't someone else be king? Why couldn't you? You're a prince, so you're halfway there already.”

“I may be a prince, but I'm not a Chosen One, and only Chosen Ones can rule,” said Eddie. “That's all I can tell you. Come back to the Kingdom, I beg of you.”

Chapter 8

A
strodor pulled on the gold-edged gown of a page in the royal household. He smoothed it down and looked at himself in the large mirror on the wall. The uniform looked good, he thought, but not as good as the armor of a knight.

“One of these days,” he told the mirror, “you'll be looking at His Majesty's Loyal Lightkeeper, the noble Astrodor!”

It was what he wanted more than anything else Nebula could offer. It wouldn't be easy, he knew. It had been hard enough to become a page, and he probably wouldn't be one now if it was not for the fact that his father was a teacher in the Kingdom's only school. Teachers were revered in Nebula and their families were given special privileges, but they were also held to higher standards. So Astrodor worked hard and energetically did everything he was told as fast as he could, although perhaps he should slow down a bit. Running into that new Chosen One in front of the king probably hadn't helped his career.

Astrodor left the dressing area and went into the family room. Houses in the Kingdom only ever had one bedroom, solely for the use of the frail and elderly or the sick. Because of the energy that every citizen got from the Source nobody slept until they became advanced in age, and Astrodor was too young to be tired. He was the eldest child of the family, with three younger brothers, Artor and the twins, Avradin and Amradin, and one sister, Amalia. The twins were the only ones in the family room when Astrodor entered it.

“Where's everyone else?” he asked.

“Mom and Amalia have gone visiting,” said Avradin. “I dunno where Dad is.”

“Staying out of trouble, I hope,” Astrodor said.

“Is he in trouble?” asked Amradin.

“He will be if he keeps telling his students that the king only won the War Against Darkness because he was lucky,” Astrodor replied.

“Is that bad?” asked Avradin.

“Bad!” said Astrodor. “It's almost treason. Everyone knows that the king was a hero during that war and that if he hadn't won the Battle of Barren Plains, Nebula would've been overrun by the Shroud.”

The twins looked up at him, their eyes wide with fear.

“Will he lose his job and have to work in the stone quarry?” Amradin asked.

“I doubt it,” Astrodor reassured them. “Teachers are way too valuable to get rid of. I have to go to the palace. I'll see you at Quiet Hour.”

He hugged the twins good-bye and walked down the short garden path and onto the street. Two of his friends, also pages, were waiting for him on the corner of a wide avenue. They usually walked to work together, although Astrodor hardly ever walked anywhere, but sped along half jogging.

“Astrodor, slow down, will you?” one of the friends pleaded.

“You two always take forever,” Astrodor protested. “Come on! We may be missing something at the Palace.”

Grumbling, the other two pages tried to keep up with him until they saw something that stopped all three of them dead in their tracks. A juggler was balanced on a board on top of a large ball while tossing several smaller balls high in the air. He was always in the same place and normally the pages paid no attention to him. But today a small boy ran around the corner chased by another boy and a girl. He ran straight into the juggler, knocking the board out from beneath his feet and causing him to come crashing to the ground. The boy ran over to the man to try to help him up.

“I'm sorry, sir,” the boy said. “I didn't see you and I was going too fast.”

The juggler looked at him and raised his hand as if to strike him.

“Get out of here, you little brat!” he yelled.

“Hey, stop that!” someone in the crowd called back. “Leave him alone. He's just a child.”

“He may be just a child,” another of the onlookers cried out, “but he should be kept under control! Parents have no idea how to bring up children nowadays!”

A fearsome shouting match broke out with the audience taking sides either with the juggler or with the little boy, who by this time had run away, terrified. The pages stood watching, openmouthed. They had never witnessed people arguing in the street before, and as for striking a child, well, that meant working in the stone quarry for the rest of your life.

The juggler wanted nothing to do with the argument. He picked up his board and balls and walked angrily away. The boys looked at one another.

“Wow!” exclaimed one. “That was scary.”

“My dad saw the same sort of thing a couple of cycles ago,” said the other. “He'd never seen anything like it either, and he's old. He says that Nebula's changing, and not for the better.”

“Let's go before it changes any more,” said Astrodor. “I don't want to be late.”

Walker looked at Eddie after hearing his plea to return to the Kingdom. His shoulders were hunched in despair, and he looked tired.

“Okay,” he finally said. “I'll return to the Kingdom, but on two conditions—that I can come back here whenever I want, and that going there doesn't mean I've decided to be the king's heir.”

Eddie thought for a moment.

“All right then, it's agreed.”

“On your honor?” asked Walker.

“Everything I do is on my honor,” Eddie replied pompously.

“Oh,” Walker added, “and that Frankie comes with us.”

“That's three conditions,” Eddie pointed out, “and the answer is no.”

“Why not?” Walker protested.

“I can't go bringing every Tom, Dick, or Harriet to the Kingdom!” Eddie cried. “We'd end up with half the Outerworld, and there's just not that much room.”

“It's not half the Outerworld,” Walker protested. “It's only one skinny girl.”

“No,” said Eddie.

“If she doesn't go, I don't go,” said Walker determinedly, crossing his arms as he spoke.

“Oh for goodness' sake!” cried Eddie in exasperation. “You're the most stubborn person I've met for centuries. Well, if you're really determined then I suppose we'll have to take her, although I'm still against it. I know things have changed since I was born, but in my experience girls are no use when it comes to defending Kingdoms.”

“I bet she would be,” Walker said, “but that's not why I want her along. I just want someone from the Outerworld with me while I make up my mind.”

“All right, all right,” Eddie said. “I agree. Let's go get her.”

“I don't even know if she's home,” Walker said.

“She's home,” Eddie assured him.

“How do you know?” asked Walker

“I just know,” Eddie replied. “Let's go. I'll beat you there.”

Eddie started running down the dirt road toward Frankie's house, even though Walker had never told him where she lived. He was surprised at how fast Eddie moved, especially since he was carrying his heavy sword. It was almost as if his feet never touched the ground.

By the time they got to Frankie's front door Walker was panting, but Eddie didn't seem to be breathing any faster. Walker grabbed hold of the black metal doorknocker and rapped sharply. After a few minutes the door swung open to reveal a very tall, very thin woman with a tired and worried expression on her face.

“Yes?” was all she said.

“Please, can Frankie come out?” Walker asked.

“Oh, you must be the boy from down the road—the Watson child,” the woman said. “Let me see what she's doing.” She closed the door, leaving them standing on the step.

“She needs feeding up, that one,” Eddie declared.

Walker looked at his strange companion with his shoulder-length red hair, his fedora, and his sword.

“Don't you think you should hide, maybe?” he asked. “Frankie's mom may not want her going around with weird people.”

“Weird yourself,” Eddie retorted. “What's weird about me? Anyway, she can't see me or hear me, so even if I
was
weird it wouldn't make any difference.”

Then the door flew open and Frankie burst out, almost knocking him over. Today's T-shirt said
HIGH MAINTENANCE BUT WORTH IT.

“You came to my house!” she enthused. “How cool. That means we really are friends. Maybe we should cut ourselves and exchange blood to make it official. It wouldn't have to be a big cut, just a little nick, really.”

Walker didn't think that was a good idea at all, so he changed the subject.

“Eddie says he'll take you to the Kingdom,” he said.

“Yay!” She screamed with delight. “Excellent. When do we go? When do I meet him? Oh, this is soooo great!”

“He's right there,” said Walker, pointing to Eddie, who was glowering with disapproval.

“Where?” asked Frankie, looking in the direction that Walker was pointing.

“Eddie, please stop that,” Walker pleaded. “How can you take her to the Kingdom if she can't see or hear you?”

“I've changed my mind,” said Eddie.

“Well, I haven't,” Walker assured him. “So if you'd just go away please and leave us alone, we have things to do.”

Frankie looked quite bewildered, but not nearly as confused as she did when she suddenly saw Eddie standing right next to her.

“All right, then. If that's the way you're going to be,” said Eddie, “we'll all go.”

“Oh wow!” cried Frankie. “How d'you do that? That
is
amazing! I'm Frankie, by the way.”

“No kidding!” said Eddie. “I kinda guessed that. You're the only skinny girl around here that I can see.”

“And I'm kinda guessing that you're rude, and it's not cool to be rude to people you just met,” said Frankie.

“Oh, I'm so sorry.” Eddie smirked. “If I upset you that much maybe you'd prefer to stay here and not have to be in my company.”

“Nice try, buster,” said Frankie, “but I don't upset easily.”

“Will you two stop?” yelled Walker. “You're making me remember why I never wanted friends.”

Much to Walker's surprise they both fell silent.

“Are we going to the Kingdom or not?” he demanded.

“Yes,” grumbled Eddie. “We're going.”

The three of them made their way back to the hole in the ground and stood on its edge.

“Now hold hands and don't let go until we're in motion,” Eddie said sternly.

“How will we know we're in motion?” asked Frankie.

“You'll know because you're moving,” replied Eddie. “That's what motion means.”

“Is he always this nasty?” Frankie asked Walker.

Walker just sighed, shrugged his shoulders, and took hold of her hand. He felt Eddie's hand close around his other one.

“On the count of three we jump,” Eddie commanded. “One—two—three!”

They leaped into the air, and instead of the jarring sensation on their feet and ankles, they were enveloped in the smooth, silky blackness and strange floating feeling that Walker now knew meant they were on their way to the Kingdom. After what seemed both forever and no time at all they found themselves standing upright, only this time they were in the courtyard of the Palace.

“Oh—my—God!” Frankie cried. “That was totally awesome—I mean absolutely, completely the most amazing thing that ever happened to me, way better than snowboarding.”

She looked around in wonder, staring at the people, the buildings, and the silver birds high above her head.

“This,” she said in an unusually hushed voice, “is the most beautiful place I've seen anywhere.”

Walker looked at her with admiration; she seemed to have no fear. He also noticed for the first time how pretty she was. She glowed, not just in the way that everybody in the Kingdom glowed, but also because of excitement and anticipation. Then anxiety overtook him. He knew that by coming back he could be walking into a trap. Even though the king had let him return to the Outerworld before, there was no guarantee he would again, and bad as it would be to be captive himself, it would be far worse to know that Frankie was caged because of him.