337. The Third Key: A Five-leaf Clover by no Light.

337. The Third Key: A Five-leaf Clover by no Light.

“We’ll do it in my study,” said Uncle Richearth leading us to it. “We’ll draw the curtains, lower the blinds and shut the shutters. We’ll banish any hint of light that can get through any hole and into the room.”

“But first clear your desk,” said Uncle Gentlerain, beginning to do this himself, pushing objects to the sides of the large cherry-wood desk. When he was done, he put the third coffer right in the middle of the desk on top of a green leather blotter.

“We won’t be seeing a thing, so whoever is going to open this should be standing right here before the box with the five leaf clover in one hand and the other hand right on the coffer,” advised Gentlerain.

“The last box opened with fanfare and a flash and what was in it flew out as if shot from a cannon,” said Uncle Brightfire. “We should be ready to catch whatever comes flying out of this box should it do that too.”

“Everything will be shut tight here. It won’t be able to leave the room unless it can walk through walls. But you are too bright, Fufi. Extinguish your flaming red hair, will you? Or it will be lighting my study up,” Richie said to his brother. And when Uncle Brightfire complied, Rich added, “Now go stand next to the switch by the door. The second the coffer has opened we will yell for you to turn on the lights, including your hair.”

Brightfire nodded and went to the door and laid his hand gently on the switch.

“After what happened with the second coffer, it could be dangerous for one of the kids to do the opening of this one. You do the honours, Gentie. Here’s the clover. Take it and use it as soon as I  banish the light. Which I will do now, so everyone stand on your marks, and good luck to all. May no one get banged.”

And Uncle Richearth turned his study into a place of total darkness. No light indeed for the five leaf clover to be able to do its trick.

“Speak out and say you are done when you are, Gentie,” said Uncle Rich’s voice.

“I’m done. It´s open,” answered Uncle Gent. This time there had been no fanfare and no blast at all. Of course, we couldn’t see what there had been. “You can bring back the light.”

Blinking, we all gathered round Gentlerain to see what there was in the coffer. He drew out an index card and read, “I found this while sweeping the floor. I haven’t the least idea what it is. It has a pretty colour so it might be valuable to someone. I’m keeping it here till someone claims it.”

“Is that all? What did she find?” asked Brightfire.

“A tiny pink ball of cotton or…a…a…Oh, by Og! No!”

“But what is that? Do you know?” asked Richie.

All we kids were watching them stunned, peering at a little oval ball that looked like the cocoon of a silkworm.

“Yes, by Og! I’ll bet I do know. This is Umbrian, under the curse of the cocoon.”

“What?!!! What Umbrian what?” gasped Richearth.

“Oh, ****!” said Brightfire. “Tell me you are wrong, Gentie.”

“Curl up inside yourself and wait for a thousand years until you are who you were again.”

“Oh! Oh, how awful!” said Richie.

We all gave little shrieks.

“You can ******* be shrank to the size of a little finger?” asked Fu.”That’s him inside the cocoon?

“A little finger because Umbrian was tall. Otherwise, to the size of  a distal phalanx.”

“What is that?”

“The top part of a finger. Where the nail is.”

“Well, at least we have found him,” said Richie. “We have, haven’t we?”

“Malina must have pronounced the cocoon curse when she was spitting out snakes and toads and curses. But I think she didn’t even know what she’d done, or she would have sought for him when he vanished. I mean, looked at the floor and picked the cocoon up,” speculated Uncle Gent,

“Maybe it’s a good thing she didn’t know what she was doing. I mean, that she didn’t get hold of him,” said Fi.

“Of course it was! That woman is crazy,” said Gentlerain. “No telling what she would have done with the cocoon.”

“And now what?” said Brightfire. “Do we have to wait for the whole of the thousand year period before Umbrian gets to be himself again?”

“Maybe someone can lift the curse,” suggested Gentlerain.

“And that someone would be?”

“Not Malina. We don’t know where she is, and even if we did, she’s so mean she would probably not want to.”

“How many horrible people do we know?” asked Richearth. “I know a lot of horrible women. But there is this one that stood out back then.”

“One of your ex wives?” asked Brightfire.

“No. Someone they knew. Someone I’m scared to mention. Someone who doesn’t stand out too much but has a foul reputation and that is the kind that you go to when you are desperate. I’ve never been that desperate enough myself to want to harm others badly, but… this is someone Malina might know. Malina left in a rage, not knowing what she had already done to Umbrian but swearing she would have revenge. Who would you go to if you wanted something really bad done to someone?”

“A blast from the past,” said Brightfire. “That would  have been…was it the Dark Horse Cabinet? A barbershop? Didn't they call it that?”

“Athanasius the Immortal and his multiple wife,” nodded Uncle Gentlerain. “He seemed harmless, always protesting his innocence, but he is unlucky even to mention.”

“His wife was three people in one, and one of her was known to all would-be troublemakers, the kind of person that goes from house to house selling trinkets and promising to jinx anyone you would have jinxed,” said Brightfire.

“La Avernina they called that one,” said Gentrlerain.

“She used people who didn’t even know each other against each other. She would say that if  A wanted to harm B, then A had to slip a potion into the cup of C, even if A had no idea who C was and nothing at all against C. And if A did, B was sure to end up harmed. Probably by D, whom no one knew about either. A weaver of harm, La Avernina. It helped that this weaver was not one, but three women, or something like that. Was she really three people?”

“She could be one out of three, or something like that, though two of herselves she mostly kept in the dark. But it also helped that Athanasius was a barber, and he went from house to house too, early in the mornings, to shave his clients and receieved people in his barber shop in the afternoon and sometimes in a back room for wicked business.”

“What became of this people? Are they still around? Athanasius and Avernina?”

“They moved to the mortal world. We’re talking mostly mortal clients now, though he is immortal. And she too.”  

     

336. The Cow, the Grogoch and the Amber Oracle

 336. The Cow, the Grogoch and the Amber Oracle

“Groggy,” said Neferclari, pinning her nose between her thumb and her index finger.

“Of course! She’s right!” said Gentlerain. “He doesn’t live on the island, but he lives among cows and similar creatures.”

So Uncle Gent found out where Groggy was living at the moment and it turned out to be the barn of a human family. And though it was not precisely a convenient place for us to go to, we went there. Not because there are no cows on our island, but because it seemed right. And we were fortunate in that Groggy received us smiling from ear to ear though also stinking as awfully as he usually did, and  we were also fortunate in that we found him precisely tending to a cow and that there were still Peter Keys about the place, which he allowed us to pick for our purpose.

“I’ll replant these at home,” Uncle Rich assured him as he picked a few. “They can’t fade or die while they are with me.” Uncle Rich is the only one of our uncles who is not too afraid of dirt. 

And the uncles let Esmeraldo do the honours of opening the second silver coffer, tapping it lightly with the bouquet of Peter Keys under the warm noon sun. As the box sprung open there was a blast of fanfare and something flew out of it, and before anyone could catch this a cloud from the sky above us descended until it was just over our heads, that is just over our uncles’ heads, for they were the tallest.

“Hi, you three of the five Goodfellow boys!” said a woman whose carefully painted porcelain-like face appeared in the cloud. So did her nattily manicured long-nailed hand, holding an index card. And we knew she had trapped what had flown out of the box. “I know you would have called on me if you had gotten to read what is in this card,” she said, tearing the card in bits and giving them to eat to a raven that sat on her right shoulder.  “So I’m here to spare you the trip and tell you about it.”

“Wise Amber! Hi to you too!” cried my three uncles. “How are you?”

“What does it matter how I am? I’m here, aren’t I? That should be good enough. I needn’t be springing happy for you, need I? Useful should do. Like three hundred years ago, I was at Nick of Time’s workshop ordering stuff I needed when Malina appeared with Umbrian in reluctant tow. While he entertained himself examining a collection of golden cups, Malina whispered to me she was sure Umbrian had only courted Fancy Feverfew because he was under a spell. She insisted it couldn’t have been otherwise. He couldn’t have liked that curdless bowl of tasteless, vomitive whey. I told her whey was tangy, so wrong metaphor she had employed there. I said saltless sea water was more like it. But she never was one for interesting language, except when she took to cussing. And she wasn’t particularly original at that herself, though she was enthusiastic when at it.  She told me to stop speaking nonsense and insisted I prove her right. `I’m here because you are here. I knew you would be and I’ve come to tell you to tell Umbrian he was hexed,’ she said. `He doesn’t believe me. You’re supposed to know almost everything. Surely you know he was hexed. You he will believe. And you are telling him he was wether he was or not. Or else!´ Ah, she wouldn’t have it otherwise.”

A word here about who Wise Amber is. We later learned from our uncles that this lady of enormous prestige is called The Oracle because many people consult her when they need to know something past, present or future. Many people in Fayland have crystal balls and peep creeks and talking heads and boards and such, but for the really difficult questions, they go to Amber. And she gives sound advice aside from almost always informing correctly, though she is an oracle and they can’t be always understood. Ah, and she is interesting to look at. She had big hair that is like red amber. Yes, dark red and a little transparent. It shines like crystal and has a little spider trapped in it since ages ago. Two of her three eyes are the colour of green amber. The third one, which is right in the middle of her forehead, is golden amber at its most magnificent.   

“When I confirmed that she was right, ok, yes, he’s been hexed, Malina made me repeat this before Umbrian. He listened with interest and everyone thought he would explode in anger but though he did explode it was in laughter. He didn’t say a word, but he laughed and laughed and laughed and when Malina made him stop, he refused to be angry with whoever had sprinkled love dust on him. Apparently his experience was good and it made him happy that he had been hexed. He was the last person I thought would be amused by a joke at his own expense, but that went to show you can never tell with some people. Unfortunately this made Malina furious, and she began to berate him viciously. And then he began to retort, and asked her who she thought she was to tell him what he could and couldn’t enjoy, and they had this dreadful fight where first it was words and then snakes and toads they flung at each other – Wow, how they infested the workshop! - and then, when they got to curses, Umbrian vanished. To put an end to the dispute before it got entirely out of hand, we supposed. Left behind, Malina began to swear she would take vengeance herself since Umbrian could not be counted on to. And she disappeared in a blaze of flames, ranting and rambling awful threats. And then an Aurea found something that you will  probably find too, if you’re careful, but not even I noticed what it was or am even now sure about this. And now I have to go.” 

And before we could thank her, Wise Amber went. And so did we, but after thanking Groggy again for the flowers. And where did we go? Well, first to have lunch at Uncle Rich’s plantation and next to find a dark place where we could open the third coffer in no light with a five leaf clover. 

335. The Second key: Peter Keys by Noonlight

 335. The Second Key: Peter Keys by Noonlight

“Different boxes, different keys,” said my Uncle Gentlerain. “We’re to use a five leaf clover for this one.”

And he made the second coffer stolen from the Aureas with their express permission appear.

“Will it be by moonlight again?” asked Neferclari.

“By noonlight, dear. Where can we find five leaf clovers, Richie? There’s not many of them readily available on the island, because they all have to do with treasures, and one doesn’t want one’s treasures messed with, does one?”

“I have like a hundred and fifty in my gardens. But I don’t know if any of them will open the second silver coffer. I’ve never linked them to a treasure or tried to find one with them. So far, they’ve been just for show. Except I haven’t shown them to anyone but myself. Would you like to see them?”

“Obviously. We´ve enough problems without having to go hunt for a five leaf clover, don’t we?”

“You´ve got this wrong,” said Azuline. “The second box must be opened by a Peter Key. I’m sure I heard that right.”

Uncles Rich and Gentlerain glanced at each other. Azuline had made them doubt.

“The child might be right. I was so concerned about having to steal the boxes that I may have got the instructions wrong.”

“The Aurea was rather confusing,” said I, Heather, “when she spoke.”

“It’s moonwort by moonlight, Peter Keys by noonlight and a Five Leaf Clover by no light,” said Azuline. “That’s what the golden girl said. It’s not the two last plants by noonlight. It’s the clover by no light at all.”

“Promising,” said Gentlerain to Azuline. “That’s what you are. She did say something like that. Or that, actually.””

“Alright. Now, Peter Keys can be found almost anywhere here on the island, but the best place for them is near cows. Where there are cows, there are cowslips,” said Richearth. “And that, to my knowledge, is what Peter Keys are. Yellow flowers that grow where cows have…well, deposited  and rid themselves of what they are better off without.”

“Dung!” said Esmeraldo, in case someone hadn’t understood what his father was saying.

“What a place for keys to fall in!” said Neferclari.

“But they were St. Peter’s keys, the keys to Heaven, so when they fell into the waste they made pretty flowers grow right out of it as soon as they grazed it.”

“You have cows on your plantation, Richie?” asked  Gentlerain.

“I don’t even have my ten sheep. I don’t know where the ten sheep I have a right to are, now that I think of it. Sheep aren’t good for plants.”

“Well, don’t worry about them now, if you haven’t till now, Richie.”

“This girl Betabel, the one who married the Ravenous Unchagedling who evolved into a Garbageeater…  how do you spell that? Garbageeater with one e after another?”

“I have no idea,” said Gentlerain. “Never heard of one. Well, yes. Alpin I have heard of, and his succesion of trasnformations too. But not of any other eaters of garbage, the usual vermin excluded. I’ve never seen that word in print either.”

“She was taking care of my sheep for me. And then she went and married this horrible fellow and I hope he hasn’t eaten my sheep. He ate everything he set eyes on. He was my brother-in-law. I should know.”

“He is your brother-in-law, though you may have lost contact. Your sheep were never garbage, I’m sure. So surely he hasn’t eaten them.”

“Before he was jinxed into becoming a garbageeater, he might have. Of course, for a while there he was an oyster, but that doesn’t count. They don’t eat sheep. What do they eat? Phytoplankton and other teensy things I suppose. Boy, it does make me nervous not to know how to spell garbageeater. Irritating sensation.”

“Call him a rubbisheater and be done with the ee problem, Daddy,” said Esmeraldo.

“Does that have a hyphen?”

“A what?” asked Esmeraldo.

“A little line between both words that shows they are connected.”

“Your sheep are probably with Betabel’s family. Other members of her family were shepherds too and tended unclaimed sheep,”  I said.

“I want them back!”

“Not now, Richie. We have other things to do,” said Uncle Gent.

“I think it’s irresponsible of Betabel not to have warned me that she was going to abandon my sheep. Is she my sister-in-law now? Or is she just my brother-in-law’s wife? He’s still my brother-in-law, though I haven’t seen him in ages. That I like.”

“Like Heather has just said, someone from her family must be tending to the sheep. Let´s get on with the coffer business. Take us to a cow, Rich.”

“I don’t have even a single chicken in my plantation. Only my dogs and cats and Branna’s Arcane, who is a dog too, and they don’t count.  Not as farm animals, do they? I really want my sheep back now that I´ve thought of them. I´m not going to be able to go anywhere until I have  found my poor lost sheep. What if they are off the island and some wolf eats them?”

“Look here, Richie, I will call and have someone from my office go find your sheep this minute, but you take us to a cow while I give the order.”

“Texas?” said Richie. “We’re going to Texas? With the yellow roses. But are there cowslips in Texas? I don’t think so. Not naturally.”

“Somebody on this island has to have a cow,” said Uncle Gent. “But first I have something on my mind too. I want to thank my daughters for having disowned me in front of Granny Grimface, Thank you, girls. I want to think you did that so she wouldn’t eat me for having let your grandmother raise you instead of doing it myself.”

“We have no problem with you, Daddyman,” laughed the Blue Twins. “But that witch might have seen it otherwise.”

“I saved my dad too,” said Esmeraldo. “Though I’m still hopping mad at him for considering ceding me to Ambivolo.”

“I did nothing of the kind. I just reminisced about a man who was older than the hills and tried to fool me into being his daddy,” said Richearth. “Actuallly, he did fool me for a while there.”

“Were you drunk?” asked Esmeraldo.

“Certainly not! I never am!”

“Then stupid. I was trying to find an excuse for you.”

“We’re done!” cried Gentlerain raising his voice a little. Something he very rarely does. He has such a clear, steady voice, never saying a word louder than the next, and is always easily understood.  “We’re done with reminiscing and complaining and  thanking and spelling  and sheep and other distractions. Let´s find us a cow!” 

334. Very Dark Eyes

334. Very Dark Eyes

We had our doubts before climbing up the kiddynapper’s tree. It was only natural, considering what we were hearing come floating down from up there. You see, the Grim Granny was singing to herself her own version of Dark Eyes. And she wasn’t doing it softly. She was shouting with more vigour than a choir of slavic soldiers.

“Eyes that pop out, when they see me, eyes that freeze square, how they fear me!

Eyes that freak out when they sight me, eyes that go blank when I bite thee!

I’m here to take away your happiness, and make it mine instead!

You’ll rue the day you met me!

La la lai la, la la lai la, you are as good as dead!”

“Is that her raving madly?” asked Uncle Richie. “Voice not bad, but lyrics yes.”

“I told you she was ******* ****** terrifying!” hissed Uncle Fi.

“And I always thought she was an invention of Mummy’s to spook us into behaving. You believed in her, Fi. And you were ******* right. Oh, sorry! Sorry for  the foul word. I don’t say them. You are contagious, Fi.”

“I don’t think I want to do this,” grumbled Fi frowning darkly. “I’m not climbing up there to confront her! I loved my mother too much not to be traumatized!”

“Wow!” said Richie. “You’ve spoken three sentences without saying a foul word, Fufi. You must be really scared. What about you, Gentie? Did you or did you not believe in Granny Grimface? Did you think she was real, or a ruse of Mummy’s?”

“I didn’t know what to think, so I decided to try to find her and see for myself. Not by provoking her into popping up and eating our parents. I wouldn’t ever do that. But I noticed the way our father would look away whenever Mummy mentioned her. He never said she wasn’t real. He just made himself scarce when about to be questioned on the subject. So I was curious.”

“Did you really think, Gentie, like Fufi did, that someone would be able to eat our parents? I mean, they are not precisely unpugnacious.”

“I almost died of a heart attack when I met Eulalie,” said Fi. “It took all the calm and the courage I could muster for me not to fly out of Fancy’s life the  very moment I realized who Eulalie was. I never would have courted Fancy if I’d known who her ****** foster gran was.”

“When we were little, I decided to learn all I could about her, because if she were real, she would have to be stopped. But I wasn’t able to learn much,” said Gentlerain. “Only that she wasn’t likely to be Mummy’s invention, because there were other much older people than us who had been tormented by the idea of her when they were kids. But now I know that she turned her husband and his mistress into peas and swallowed them and that is probably all she has eaten. Of people, I mean. Of course.”

“She ate her cheating husband?” asked Richie. “What are we doing here?”

“They were a childless couple all their married life. She wanted to order a kid, or even a dozen. But he refused to. He said either kids showed up naturally right in front of his eyes or he wouldn’t have any. Then, after centuries together, she discovered he had kids with another woman. And she turned him into a pea and swallowed him. And the other woman too. Like I said.”

“And they are still inside her?” asked Richie.

“No. She was forced to throw them up. But she was never normal again. Before she was made to release her peas, she had brought up their  kids. Everyone had been thinking how nice of her that was, to care for her missing and unfaithful husband’s children. And then the eating part of the story came to light. And everyone shied away from her, and she got into the habit of abducting abused kids and bringing them up in her eucalyptus home.”

“Before which we now stand. I know this song. It’s an intense love song,” said Richie. “Do you think I should join the singing?”

And, before he got an answer, he did just that. He began singing Ochi Chyornye in Russian because he was not scared at all any more. He had told himself he was used to domestic quarrels and had always come out of them the better for having had them. They had ended with his being abandoned by all his dreadful wives, of course.

“Who is that down there?” hollered Granny Grimface. “You sing good, cheeky *******, but are you mocking me?”

“No!” Uncle Rich assured her. “I just was moved into participating. I like your voice. Do you really like mine? Maybe we should get together and-"

And Uncle Fi nudged him in the ribs with an elbow. Brutally.

“Ow!” complained Uncle Rich.

“Mrs. Bloodstone, I’m Brightfire Goodfellow. I don’t know if you remember me. I’m a friend of Fancy Feverfew’s. She introduced me to you once,” said Fi.

And Granny Grimface came down her tree, and I will have a word about the tree before I go on. Though it looked at first like an Australian tree, it now morphed into what seemed to be a rainbow eucalyptus tree, for its bark became many coloured. I know this tree because of Beau’s visit to somewhere near Mindanao when he went to acquire the carrousel horse that made it possible for the Atshebies to have a safe name day party. Granny did not descend from it alone. She did this  surrounded by a swarm of little children who would not stay quiet but began to dance all around us, giving little leaps and bounds and making ugly faces and tee-heeing and cracking up more loudly when they saw we did not respond to provocation. And I must say they looked happy.

“Who ironed your shirt?” Granny Grimface asked Esmeraldo.

“Why?” he cautiously answered her question with another.

“It’s very well ironed.”

“Ah!” said Esmeraldo. Just that.

“Are these your kids?” she asked Brightfire.

But before he could answer, Azuline said, “We’re his nieces and his nephew. And he is a nice uncle and always treats us right.”

“Yes!” said Neferclari. And Esmeraldo nodded.

“Good!” said Granny Grimface. “He had better be!”

“Mrs. Bloodstone, I am Gentlerain Goodfellow,” said Uncle Gent, who always takes the initiative when he smells blood. “We’re trying to locate Umbrian Silvervine Parry, and we thought you might help us with this.”

“I remember you perfectly,” Eulalie said to Brightfire. “You are the incendiary. And I wish you had shown more interest in Fancy than Umbrian did. She went from bad to worst when you left her. And you, Gentlerain, or whatever your name is, I haven’t eaten Umbrian, if that is what you are implying.”

“Any information you could give us would be of use,” said Gentie.

And then the granny began to look like a really bad witch. She even grew a black hat, so malevolently did she cuss.

“You would have to ask that ******* lying ***** whose hair I *******pulled right off her nasty head when the Golden Girls had sewn it ******* back. I forget what her ****** name was. Make my Fancy cry! I couldn’t allow that, though it was over an ******* that didn't deserve her, they broke her heart. But you can’t ask that ****, because she absconded with that ******* fool and is missing too. I should have ******* eaten those two pieces of ****! Blast their ******* black hearts!”

“Yes, we know you had a showdown with Malina Badlight. And we know she is missing too.”

“Did the Aureas tell you that?”

“I read about it somewhere.”

I, too, had read about the fight. It was described in  faithful and colourful detail in the index card from the first coffer. The Aureas had had to sew Malina’s hair back on a third time.

“So we were in the press, were we? Good. That will ******* teach people to stay away from me. And what about you, the cheeky singer? Who are you and why are you here?”

“He’s my beloved and perfect daddy,” said Azuline. “He couldn’t be a better model daddy. And I love him to the moon and back.”

“If you say so,” shrugged Granny Grimface. “Anybody else have a daddy here? Good or not?”

“No!” said the Blue Twins in unison.  

And Esmeraldo and Neferclari nodded to support their answer. Yes, mercifully Esmeraldo was prudent and kept his mouth shut.

333. Oldtime Boogeywoman

 333.  Oldtime Boogeywoman

Eulalie Bloodstone, better known in nurseries as Granny Grimface, was a boogeywoman who had haunted my uncles’  childhoods.

“But she is still active,” said Uncle Gentlerain, who had done some research in the archives of the Prudent Siblinghood of Preventers.

“You mean Old Grimface truly exists? I didn’t think she was for real. I thought we were being made fun of. We never really got to see this woman when we were little. Who would have thought we would get to see her ferocious mug now?” said Uncle Richearth.

“A ****** living nightmare,” muttered Uncle Brightfire.

“She’s not all bad. But it isn’t wise to want to have to do with her," said Gentlerain.

“Is she one of those kiddynappers they scare us with?” asked Neferclari, who had heard her nanny threaten her and her brothers and sisters with all sorts of sinister folks who sequestered children.

“Yes,” said Gentlerain. “But not the average kind. She only abducts kids who have been mistreated by their parents.”

“WHAT?” gasped the Bluebell Twins. “And to top it all she eats the poor abused mites?”

“No! It´s more like she eats their parents,” said Richearth. “She devours parents who batter their kids. I remember Mummy asking us with tears in her eyes if we wanted Grimface to chomp on her when we were being too naughty.”

“I couldn't get the image of that monster jumping at our mother's throat like a wolf out of my mind. I was so afraid one of us might make a mistake and this would happen. Would you like to have your ******** parents  *******eaten, malevolent, wayward kids?”  asked Uncle Brightfire.

“No! No! Nooooo!” cried  Esmeraldo and Azuline and Neferclari in unison. “No, please no!”

“Well, then you ******* mustn’t misbehave! Or your parents will lose it and batter you when you blast their nerves and next thing you know  you’ll be ******** destitute orphans.”

“Sometimes,” said Esmeraldo, thinking  twice, “when I am very angry, I just might wish- ”

“She can’t eat you, Daddy! You’re a good daddy! Good!” cried Azuline, clutching her father’s arm.

“Oh, for  the sky’s blue sake, no, honey!” cried Richearth, hugging Azuline. “That would be all I need. To be eaten at my age by a demented and outraged kiddynapper! How would I explain that to your grandfather? No, honeylamb, that can't happen. ”

“No! Kiddynapper, no! She doesn’t nap kids,” corrected  little Neferclari anxiously.

“Oh, she ******* does,” said Brightfire. “She takes the ******* kids off with her when she’s *******done gobbling up their unlucky, sorely tried parents.”

“And what does she do to the kids?”

“She ******* adopts them. Well, she’s dirt poor, she ******* is, so the ******** kids she naps lose all their **** privileges. Supposing they had any. They could be poor, starving  kids, and be better off with her. But you’re not. So it wouldn’t make sense for you to change your indulgent folks for her. Don’t get your folks angry enough to *******  smack you in a ******* temporary fit of raving madness if you want to keep your status.”

“We don’t rightly know what happens to the kids. But she doesn’t seem to want to be mean to them. Quite the contrary. So we´ll have to ask Fancy Feverfew about this,” said Gentie. “because this old lady seems to have raised Fancy. And Fancy was never to my knowledge eaten. Anyone know anything different?”

“Fancy was raised by Old Grimface? I didn’t know even that,” said Richie. And Fi nodded, and said he did.

“Now that I think of it, why are you guys ******* thinking of taking these kids to see a ******monster? They’re already wailing like a hysterical Greek chorus!” cried Brightfire suddenly. "That fiend is capable of tearing an arm off of each of us if something goes wrong."  He had refused to read out loud the controversial index card his brothers had come to him with, saying he employed sufficient profanity when speaking and there was no need to teach the kids further colourful language.

“It’s not like we planned it, Fufi,” said Richearth. “Things happen. And one thing leads to another. And we’re really here because we thought you might know something about Fancy that we didn’t. Didn’t you date her for a while? Got to know her family?”

“I broke up with her because I was *******scared of her ******gran. I’m not the kind to appeal to **** grans. But I can tell you right out that if that ******** whacko sees it the way I am seeing it, she might just ******* tear a bite off of the three of us in front of these kids! Awful beastly, that granny!”

“Nah!” said Uncle Gentlerain. “Let’s not exagerrate! I haven’t been able to find a record of her having eaten anyone in our archives. And I don’t think she could have erased all trace of her victims. She has taken charge of some abused kids, that fact is established. Don’t cry, children. All you have to do is behave and nothing  bad will happen to anyone.”

“You’re ******* frightening them!” cried Brightfire.

“Plus you are sounding like Pappy again, Gentie!” said Richearth. “I’m about to break into tears myself!”

“Bah!” said Gentlerain. “We are all good people, nothing will happen to us! Eulalie has nothing against us.”

“You’re hearing Uncle Gentlerain,” I, Heather, said, hugging the kids. “He knows a lot about difficult people. We will all be just fine. Nobody has done anything bad!”

“He’s frightened us! That is bad!” said Esmeraldo, pointing at his uncle Gentlerain.

“Don’t be ridiculous, Gemmy,” said Gentlerain. “Nothing can frighten the likes of you!”

And Esmeraldo laughed, because that was rather true. And Arabella took hold of Azuline's left hand and Belinda took hold of the child's right hand and also of Neferclari's left hand and with Esmeraldo next to me we all went off to see Fancy Feverfew, to ask her about the woman who had raised her.

“I don’t want anything to do with her! It’s not because she was bad to me, quite the contrary. She saved me from a rotten life. She kept me warm and well clothed and shod and very well fed and talked to me as sweetly as no one ever had before, and never ever harmed me. But when I grew up and fell in love with Umbrian, well, she disapproved of him. And she said he would bring me nothing but trouble. And that he might batter our kids or me. She may have eaten him, now that I think of it! Oh, by Og! How awful!”

And there was no way we could get her to say more, because she couldn’t bear the thought of Umbrian’s having been eaten, so we all left her in her dolmen, certainly wringing her hands and sounding as if she were crunching on her nails, and went off to see on our own Old Granny Grimface, who lived at the top of the tallest tree in Minced Forest. A eucalyptus. Imported from Australia. 

 

332. The First Key: Moonwort in Moonlight

332. The First Key: Moonwort in Moonlight

Moonlight. The Richearth Plantation. The garden where Richearth creates new flowers. My uncles Richearth and Gentlerain, my oldest first cousins the Blue Twins,  two of my youngest first cousins, namely Azuline and Esmeraldo, my niece Neferclari and I, Heather, and, of course,  Beau, who is always in my mind no matter where he is physically. We are all standing in a circle, and within it, lying on the dark green under the lunar beams grass, the three silver coffers Nick of Time’s daughters allowed us to steal from them. And also, tiny but terribly powerful, a fern with a frond that has leaflets like crescent moons and a sprig loaded with bunches of round spore cases that some call grapes.

“I don’t know if this is going to work, because the moonwort I grow here I myself modified to better. Where in both worlds can we find old-fashioned moonwort if mine won’t serve?” asked Uncle Rich.

“I may have some in my garden,” I, Heather, said. “But it is never easy to find. It’s such a small fern.”

We were trying to open the coffers and we had been told the key that would open the first of these was moonwort, but  only under the light of a waning moon. Nothing else would do the job. Luckily, the Apple Island Moon goes through all its phases every Monday night. Several times. Dizzying, but tonight convenient. 

“Well, we won’t know if the new-fangled moonwort will work if we don’t try it,” said Gentlerain.

But before we could…

“What is the meaning of this?” cried Branna, rising from the shadows in a silver nightgown. “Why are you out here in the middle of the night, Richie, and with these children yet?”

“And with my brother Gentlerain!” nodded Richearth. “ Who is a prude of the first water, isn’t that so, Gentie? And who only misbehaves when hexed. I am not with a ladyfriend. That is clear, isn’t it? What problem is there then?”

“Good…good evening, Gentlerain,” said Branna. “I…I didn’t mean… anything like what Richie is suggesting. I feared there might have been some kind of an … an accident. How is…Mabelle?”

“Mabelle is used to her husband getting up in the middle of the night and vanishing into the darkness until breakfast. And nobody ever accuses him of being a…a…well, a gay deceiver or whatever! At least not lately,” continued Richie.

“Mabelle is fine,”said Gentlerain. “I often have business that can only be done late at night. That is what we have here now. I’m sorry if we´ve startled you.”

“Branna is an astronomer and she is always awake at night. Spying on the stars and on me. Not that I mind. I’m flattered. But you ought to understand we have business out here, Branna. For once. Not always, like you do. And don’t say you never leave the house but just climb onto the roof.”

“I…all I will say is, I don’t want to bother you, but why are you being so mysterious, if I may ask?”

“Now is when Gentie will tell you he is trying to help a woman who was an old friend of mine. Don’t let that upset you either! It’s impossible for there not to be any old ladyfriends of mine. I’ve been around for centuries.”

“Actually, we are trying to find Henny Parry’s long lost brother. He was the sweetheart of a woman who has been ailing since he disappeared. My daughters had something to do with all this, so I feel I should find Umbrian Parry,” said Gentlerain.

“Plus he is curious and wants to know where Umbrian hides so well. You don’t know these people because they are from centuries before you, Branna,” said Richearth.

“I know Henny Parry. Can I help?”

“You can let us get on with what we are doing before it gets to be dawn and the moon hides, love,” said Richearth.

“Get on with it, Daddyman!” encouraged the Blue Twins. They were a little impatient, because they were not too happy to have to be always present in case they were needed while their father tried to find Umbrian.

“I don’t see any keyhole or escutcheon or keyway or anything  on these boxes. They seem to be made in one solid block. I hope just touching this first one with a sprig of moonwort will do the job. I’ll dig it up whole, roots and all. I don’t want to harm it,” said Gentlerain.

“Nothing will happen to it. I’m here. I can raise the dead. I’ll see to the plant.”

Gentlerain knelt on the grass and very softly began to loosen the fern from the earth. When he had, he asked, “Shall I touch the box with the tip of this or with the roots?”

“Pass the roots over where the keyhole should have been,” said Richearth, “but make sure the moon is shining on that.”

Gentie touched the first box and it snapped open, just like any coffer might when opened with a more common key.

“And what have we here?” asked the Bluebell Twins, kneeling to take a peek within the box.

“An index card, I think. Richie, plant this plant back, will you?”

Uncle Rich did just that, not even taking the plant from his brother’s hands with his own. He simply made the little fern float back to its place. And there it stayed, looking as settled as if it had never left it.

“But what does the card say?” asked the twins.

“Thank you for stealing the coffers, Esmeraldo,” said Uncle Gentlerain.

“WHAT?” exclaimed the Bluebell twins.

“No, it doesn’t say that,” laughed Uncle Gentlerain, “I just remembered I hadn’t thanked Esmeraldo for lifting these boxes.”

“Anytime, good sir,” said Esmeraldo.

“I thought it was you,” said Richearth to his brother.

“Your boy got ahead of me.”

“There was no time left to hesitate,” said Gemmy.

“Indeed there wasn’t,” nodded Gentlerain.

“Well, don’t waste more time now,” said the twins. “Read that card! Out loud, Daddyman!”

Gentlerain drew out the card and gave it a glance.

“The only person I know and like who could read this card out loud is your Uncle Brightfire,” said Gentlerain to his daughters.

“WHAT?”exclaimed the twins.

And Richearth tore the card from his brother’s hand. 

“Oh! Oh, wow! Yes. Only Fufi could.”

331. Nick of Time and his Daughters

331. Nick of Time and his Daughters

Somewhere in an Apple Island neighborhood. A street that is always misty with a low mist that doesn’t much reach above most of the trees. Now a garden that is no more than a vast expanse of unkempt, dandelioned lawn,  a square pink building with four floors, the fourth being like a flat rooftop terrace, partly covered with glass that was a blinding golden in the sunlight and went a solid black at night. There were  many windows on the other three floors, all of them with their blinds down. But on the ground floor there was also a double door that never looked shut if you took a second look at it. There was a very small purple metal sign on the door with fine print in light blue that said, “If you want to come in, do it without knocking.”  And once you had stepped in, another small sign, this time lavender coloured with deep pink letters, said, “We’re probably upstairs. Do some climbing.”

And now, up close, the sound of sweet and low singing. Whispered singing.

“Spin, spin gold spin, as the earth spins, round the sun spins, as the hands of clocks spin, spin, spin, sisters, spin! All we need is sunlight, all we need is a beam, all we need is a ray, to spin spin golden gold.  Sisters, spin away!”

Nicholas Philomel, impressively older than the hills or anything much older and with the longest and fluffiest white braided hair and braided beard to be seen in Fairyland and the yellow eyes of an observant cat, is said to have woven the web of time. Once he had done that, there was no having any more time than that he had produced. Some say this is AEternus’ fault, for he put a stop to the time weaving. Others say this is just that Nick of Time ran out of whatever material he had spun time with. In any case, Nick no longer weaves time, and he can’t give anyone more of it. But he now runs a workshop that can give you lots of other covetable  things. If you know how to ask for them.

In this workshop, which is on the peculiar rooftop of the building, - the rest is Nick’s home - labour seven girls, known collectively as the Goldspinners or the Aureas. Nick calls them his daughters for he himself spun them out of gold. They are pretty to look at and sing very nicely and most catchily too while they are at work. These girls spin the gold coins that can always be found in the coatpockets of fairies who wear the special coats Apple Island deals out to its inhabitants. The girls also spin other things, like jewelry, magical or not, of course, but also solid gold cups of joy, tableware for the haughtiest tables, clothes that make you vulnerable to thieves and even body parts and especially hair of solid gold for people who desperately want to be desired for the wrong reasons.

The spinners don’t spin like most people do. They get into some wheels that depend on their hips to spin like hula hoops. Sometimes, they themselves spin like dervishes. When they begin to spin like tops, to watch them is to loose your balance yourself. They go faster and faster and soon things begin to fall to the ground, out of nowhere. But they only spin from ten in the morning  to four in the afternoon because that is the light they need to do their job. And aside from their agreement to spin gold for Titania’s Apple Island project, they only take orders for specific things and never make a lot of stuff to later sell.    

 It turned out Nick had nothing to say about Umbrian’s disappearance because AEternus had confiscated the Web of Time ages ago and hidden it away somewhere unreachable. So Nick couldn’t consult it to see what had happened to Ambivolo’s son. And so Ambivolo did some ranting against AEternus for hiding the web and not being transparent and Esmeraldo  again kicked him in the shin, this time the left one,  for maligning his grandfather.

“Ow!” said Ambivolo, and after that he asked, “Whose kid is this?”

“Mine,” said Richearth. “I am sorry he has caused you pain, but I don’t really know if I should apologize for him or not. AEternus is my father, and you have called down all sorts of curses on his descendants. That’s me and these kids here. And Gentie. Are you upset, Gentie? Need we be offended?”

“Esmeraldo, darling,” I, Heather, said, “one must answer words with words. Not kicks.”

“You mean I should have cussed this donkey back instead of kicking him like a mule?” asked Esmeraldo.

“Not exactly, I am sure,” said Gentlerain, answering my cousin before I could. I think that also served like an answer to his brother’s question.

“Well, you probably don’t mind hearing your father maligned because you don’t like him, but my Grandpa is my Grandpa, good or bad, and I have to defend what’s mine.”

“What? I have never said I don’t like AEternus. I don’t like the way he does certain things. That is all. And don’t sass me, boy. I’ve had my share of quarrels with obnoxious kids and I always win. Exercise caution. You’ve been forewarned,”said Gentlerain.

“You don’t like children because you haven’t any. And you haven’t any because they don’t like you,” said Esmeraldo.

“I do have children. Two daughters standing right there next to you.”

“Well, go sass them for their having started this mess you are trying to right and leave me be.”

“WHAT?” cried the Bluebell Twins in unison.

“Oh, dear!” sighed Uncle Richearth. “Will I have to do something about this?”

“No, no!” said Ambivolo. “You are getting me wrong! I like this brave boy. He is spunky and defends his family. I admire that. He has the cheek to call me a donkey! Those are traits I value. I was asking whose he was because I would have offered to keep him for myself should he have been available.”

“My wife would kill me if I were to give Esmeraldo away,” sighed Uncle Richearth. “Actually, it’s not the first time I’ve done something like that, because I had this one kid, Feeseepkee, who I had to give away because -”

“WHAT?” cried Esmeraldo.

“Oh, dear!” sighed Richearth.

But before Richie could say more, Gentlerain intervened. “You see, pleasant child? As my father, who is your grandfather, would say, you said I didn’t like my father and now you are having trouble with yours. That’s the way things work in this island. And it serves you right.”

“Yes, Papá would say that,” nodded Uncle Richearth. “It would be exactly like your grandpa to say that, Esmeraldo. Gentie is getting to be more and more frighteningly like him every day. Scary.”

“Bah!” said Gentie.

We were so into our own things that one of the seven Goldspinners had to leave her spinning wheel and say something so we would get back on track and discuss the business we had come to discuss.   

“All I can tell you about Malina Badlight is that I myself spun solid gold hair for her and implanted it on her scalp, and that she was back in no time screaming she wanted it off her head. She admitted it had the advantage that she didn’t have to dye her hair every forthnight, but it was dangerous to have in the places she frequented and attracted unwanted admirers. So I pulled it off her head, roots and all, hair by hair, not strand by strand, because I didn’t want to break any of it by accident. And that hurts, so while I was at it, she yelled and cussed something awful.”

“Awful awful!” chorused the other six Goldspinners softly, spinning more and more softly too until they stopped.

“As if we hadn’t warned her this would happen,” said the girl who had spun Malina’s hair. “So I turned the hair into a wig so she could wear it when she chose to and not  all the tine and everywhere. You can’t go everywhere with solid gold hair without someone wanting to tear it off you. To steal it or because they are envious.”

“We had warned her and warned her!” said the other spinners. “Three times seven times. That’s twenty one, in case you can’t multiply.”

“I even sewed all her original hair back on to her head. And did that for free, though she couldn’t sue us, because we had warned her what would happen.”

“Warned her, warned her! Three times seven times! That is twenty-one. It ought to be enough,” chorused the rest of the spinners nodding vehemently.

“We know very well what it is to be wanted for the wrong reasons,” the first of the spinners went on. “So we keep to ourselves and do almost nothing but work and when we do go out, we are careful who we show ourselves to, and it is a one time thing. The moment first astonishment is over at the sight of us, we rush back home. Before someone chops us in pieces and sells these.”

“That doesn’t happen on this island,” said Gentlerain.

“Of course not. Only among mortals. It’s a risk we took whenever we left it. So we don’t any more. We were new then. We are older and wiser now. We have our fun at the local fairy rings.”

“What else do you know about Malina?” asked Gentlerain.

“What we know about our clients we keep in silver boxes. We don’t spin silver, and that metal isn’t kind to us, so we never even touch these boxes aside from when we open them to put the information in and snap them shut after.”

And she pointed at an enormous shelf there was against the whole of one of the walls in the workshop. On each of the many stands there were small silver coffers with numbers on them.

“Numbers 13513, 13514 and 13515 are about clients that could give you information that will help you. Unfortunately, we have to be discreet and can’t just  give you these boxes. But we can turn our backs on you while you steal them.”

“Steal them?” asked Uncle Richie. “But we aren’t thieves!”

“One of you will have to be if you want the information. Now we and our father will turn our backs on you and you do as you please.”

It didn’t happen at first try, but the girls said they would give us three chances. After the third try the three coffers in question had gone missing.

“Good,” said the Aureas in unison. “Well, that’s all we can do for you unless you want something else.”