The Black Shard Read online

  The Black Shard

  Victoria Simcox

  Copyright © 2011 by Victoria Simcox

  Two Harbors Press

  212 3rd Ave North, Suite 290

  Minneapolis, MN 55401

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

  ISBN: 978-1-938296-07-9

  Also available in this series,

  Book One.

  For my son, Tobias

  "...My power is made perfect in weakness..."

  ~2 Corinthians 12:9~

  - 1 -

  Horse Camp

  The summer horse-camp experience was not turning out the way Kristina had hoped it would have. The fact that she went along with Davina Pavey, the seventeen-year-old girl with the maturity level of a twelve-year-old, should have been a big enough red flag warning her not to go, but it wasn't. In this case, the flag could have been the size of a barn door, and it still wouldn't have mattered, because Kristina's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Kingsly, were the ones who made Kristina go in the first place. They were tickled pink, to say the least, when their daughter was invited by Davina's parents to go with Davina to the Tranquil Trails Horse Ranch, to participate in a week-long stay at a teen-girl riding camp. Unfortunately, the Kingslys just happened to overlook one minor detail; Davina and Kristina could hardly stand each other.

  After checking in at the camp's front office, Kristina was unpleasantly surprised to meet up with one of the most annoying girls from her last year's ninth-grade class, Hester Crumeful. Hester's family owned the Tranquil Trails Horse Ranch, and so Hester spent her summers there. Davina knew Hester from school as well, and they were quite happy to see each other. Kristina, on the other hand, was hoping that they would have remembered each other from Bernovem, but there wasn't the slightest hint that Davina or Hester recalled the magical land. Even so, Davina was thrilled to find out that Hester was the ranch owner's daughter, and from the first moment they greeted each other, Davina and Hester bonded together like lint on sticky glue. The fact that both of them really didn't like Kristina only brought them closer together.

  The first evening, there was a "get to know each other" marshmallow roast. It was scheduled for two hours, but about forty-five minutes into it, Davina and Hester disappeared from the campfire, leaving Kristina, who had not yet made friends with any of the other campers, standing alone by the fire. Having had her fill of marshmallows and not really feeling like introducing herself to the other girls, Kristina decided to call it a night. I'm kind of tired anyway, she thought as she headed up the dirt road that led back to her cabin. Besides, I want to be well rested for tomorrow morning's first horse-riding lesson.

  She arrived at the cabin and noticed that the light was on and the cabin door was ajar. Davina and Hester were sitting on the floor, thumbing through a book. They seemed captivated by it. Must be very interesting, Kristina thought. She watched from the doorway as Hester threw her head back, giggling—and that's when Kristina caught a glimpse of the book. No way! she cringed. Not my private diary! She flung the door wide open, and Hester and Davina looked up at her like two thieves caught red-handed in an expensive jewelry shop. Hester quickly shoved the diary in front of Davina.

  "Hey! Why are you shoving it in front of me?" Davina snapped.

  "This was all your idea!" Hester retaliated.

  Kristina marched in between them and snatched up the diary. "What the heck do you two think you're doing, going through my private belongings?" she shouted.

  Hester and Davina stood up.

  "You left it out in the open, so we just figured that you wouldn't mind if we looked at it," Davina said with a smirk. "We're all friends, right?" she added.

  We're not friends! Kristina thought, but she said, "It was on my bunk, in between my pillow and my backpack. I hardly call that being left out in the open."

  "I think the real issue here is that you may need some serious help," Hester said. "That stuff you wrote in your diary ..." She rolled her eyes and snorted. "Like I said, you need help."

  Peeved off, Kristina glared at Davina and Hester.

  Davina twirled her finger by her temple, gesturing to Hester that Kristina was crazy.

  "What was the name of her fantasy world? Bernysville or something bizarre like that?" Hester mocked.

  "What about the part where she meets a prince?" Davina goaded. "What was his name?"

  "Prince Wiener or something like that," Hester giggled.

  "Figures it was her who meets the prince," Davina said.

  His name is Werrien, Kristina thought. And he didn't befriend either of you because you're both such bone-heads.

  "And what about the part where that smelly rat she used to have—Raymond or whatever his name was—he goes there as well, and can talk like a human," Hester went on.

  "Very immature," Davina chuckled.

  Davina and Hester continued to ridicule Kristina, but their voices began to grow distant, and memories of Bernovem began to fill Kristina's mind. It had been two years and five months since she'd been to the magical land, and she still hadn't figured out whether it was a real place, or just a peculiar dream. There were times when even she began to think of herself as crazy.

  "Oh yeah, and the worst thing about what she wrote," Hester laughed, "was that you and I were there!"

  "Who gave you the right to put in your diary that we were in your loony-toon world?" Davina said scornfully, crossing her arms. "Actually, since she wrote lies about us, I should take her diary and throw it in the campfire," she said to Hester.

  "Or better yet, I'll take it and make copies of it and give them to everyone in her classes next fall," Hester said cunningly.

  Behind her thick glasses, Davina's eyes lit up, and she leered down at the diary.

  "Wait!" Kristina said, clutching her diary tightly to her chest. "I'll make you a deal. I'll forget you guys ever snooped through my diary and let all of this go if you promise me that you'll tell no one about this."

  Davina looked at Hester and said, "What do you think, Hes?"

  Kristina's stomach cramped up as the other two girls stood there, taking their sweet time thinking about what she'd said.

  "Hmm," Hester said, looking Kristina up and down. "All right, I guess we have a deal."

  Hester and Davina gave each other a high-five, which Kristina found annoying, and then, as if the kerfuffle that had just taken place was no big deal, they raced out of the cabin, leaving Kristina alone again.

  Kristina angrily shoved her diary into her backpack as tears began to well up in her pale blue eyes. She was so sick of Hester and Davina and decided there were no meaner people on Earth than the two of them.

  She changed into her pajamas and brushed her teeth. Then, as she was putting her toothbrush back in her pack, her hand felt a little leather pouch. She took it out and untied the gold tassel that held it shut. Inside it was a small, tarnished silver ball—the gift that her teacher, Miss Hensley, had given her two Christmases ago. At home, every night, Kristina would click open its small latch, and then place the open silver ball—which was also a music box—on her night table beside her bed. Then she would get into bed and watch as inside the ball, the figures of a girl and boy (who looked just like Werrien and her, standing on a rock) turned to an unknown tune.

  She placed the silver ball on the night table beside her bunk and got into bed. As she lay on her hard mattress, staring at the boy and girl turning in circles to the tune, her thoughts drifted to Werrien, the teenage boy she had met in Bernovem—actually the true prince of the land. When she'd first met him—boy, had he
annoyed her with his sarcastic remarks. But as time went on, she could see that he had a kind side as well, and through their adventure and near-death experiences, he actually became the best friend she had ever had. The longer she was away from him, the more she longed to see him again. If Bernovem is real, I wonder how Werrien is doing, and if he is living in a palace now, instead of in hiding with Leacha. Thinking of Leacha brought a smile to Kristina's face. She was such a kind old gnome woman and cared for Werrien like he was her own son.

  Her thoughts drifted to Taysha and Lisheng—the horses. I wonder if they're doing well and if they're both living with Werrien.

  She pictured Raymond in her mind, the pet rat she used to have. She really wanted to believe that Raymond had stayed in Bernovem, but because she had found his cage wide open the morning she had returned home, she was leaning to accepting the saner option—that he had escaped from his cage and had run away for good. Oh, how I miss Raymond. At times she wondered if getting another rat to replace him would make her feel better. She never did, though, because she knew in her heart that no other pet could ever take Raymond's place.

  She thought about the first day back to school following the holiday break, soon after she had returned home from Bernovem. She had actually looked forward to going back to school—a rarity—to tell Miss Hensley about her magical adventure, but when she ran into the classroom, so very excited to see her teacher, she was instead greeted by another teacher, Mr. Cracket, the most boring and annoying teacher in the whole world, whose breath always reeked of garlic and stale coffee. He was her class's substitute teacher whenever Miss Hensley was away.

  "Is Miss Hensley sick?" Kristina remembered asking Mr. Cracket.

  "Oh, no, something far better than that," Mr. Cracket replied, his permanently red face grinning back at Kristina. "She's been transferred to another school."

  "What!" Kristina almost shouted—an octave higher and she definitely would have been shouting. "Where to?"

  "Uh, uh, uh! Sorry! That's totally confidential," Mr. Cracket said, his finger wagging back and forth in front of her face like the pendulum on a metronome. Then he cut loose with his annoying, fake laugh that he was so famous for. "Now take your seat and get ready for an exhilarating pre-algebra quiz."

  Wow! That was about the worst day of that year, and this day at horse camp is probably the worst day of this year.

  Kristina heard footsteps coming toward the cabin, so she quickly got out of bed, grabbed the silver ball from the table, put it back in its leather pouch, and shoved the pouch back into her backpack. Then she got back into her bottom bunk to pretend to be asleep.

  Hester, Davina, and another camper entered the cabin. Kristina could hear them talking and laughing about her. They made Kristina so angry that she decided that first thing the next morning, she would call her mother to come to pick her up and take her home. Even though she would have loved to ride a horse, she just couldn't take another day at camp with the likes of Hester and Davina.

  ~ ~ ~

  The birds chirping outside the cabin woke Kristina. She got up and quietly went to look out the window. The sun was already shining brightly, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was a beautiful day for horseback riding—a perfect sunny day that she would instead spend driving home with her mother, trying to explain to her how she just couldn't get along with Davina and Hester.

  The other girls were still sleeping when Kristina very quietly made her bed and packed up her belongings. On her way out of the cabin, a floorboard squeaked and woke Davina. She opened her eyes just as Kristina was disappearing out the door.

  About ten minutes into the twenty minute walk back to the ranch's main office, the morning sun was already making Kristina sticky hot. Her backpack felt like it was stuffed with rocks rather than clothes. She decided to stop momentarily and take it off to relieve her aching shoulders. After it fell to the ground, she felt as light as a feather. She wiped the sweat from her forehead and looked around at the dark green forest surrounding the dirt road. She heard gravel crunching. Then someone suddenly appeared around the bend in the road. It was a boy, but she couldn't see his face very well because he was wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap. He walked directly up to her, picked up her backpack, and handed it to her.

  "Thanks," she said, wondering who he was.

  "Just don't ever say that I never did anything nice for you," the boy replied—and then a familiar and irritating grin filled his face.

  Right away, Kristina knew his voice and his grin. A dry lump filled her throat. "Graham Kepler?" she said surprised.

  "Kristina Kingsly!" Graham said in a high, mocking tone.

  "So you're here at camp as well?"

  "Yup, but not in the same way you are, taking it easy and lazing around. I work here," Graham said smugly.

  "Small world," Kristina said, not wanting to continue their conversation. "Well, I need to get going." She began walking away in the direction of the office.

  It was bad enough that in her English class last year, Graham's desk had been directly across the aisle from hers, but now, even worse, he was working at the same summer camp that she was attending. She wasn't too surprised, though, knowing now that Hester's family owned the ranch. Actually, when she thought about it, she remembered that there were many times on the school bus when she'd heard Hester blackmailing Graham, telling him that if he didn't do exactly what she wanted, he wouldn't be able to come to her ranch. So, that must be why she always got her way with him, Kristina pondered.

  Graham stood very still, watching Kristina descend the road. Then as she was about to turn a curve, he hollered, "You should really watch your back! You never know what could be lurking around in these woods!"

  Graham's words brought goose bumps to Kristina's arms. She thought back to when she had first met him, way back in kindergarten, Graham had always been a bothersome, mean kid, but for some strange reason, when school started back up two Christmases ago—after Graham, Hester, Davina, and she had come back from Bernovem—Graham's demeanor had changed. For instance, instead of being immature and annoying—like when he would throw spit wads across the aisle at her while a test was in session, or let out silent but deadly farts that would linger around her for ten minutes or more, or squish chewed-up food through his teeth and then show it to her—he had become more poised and self-assured. He stopped his crude jokes and would instead just stare at her from his desk or from across the lunchroom. Then when she would look at him, a cynical smirk would envelop his heavily freckled face. Thinking back on these creepy memories only solidified Kristina's decision to go home.

  - 2 -

  The Riding Lesson

  Kristina was relieved that the road curved and she was finally out of Graham's view, but still feeling uneasy, she quickened her pace. It was going to take about ten more minutes to get to the office, and as the road wound deeper into the woods, the hot air began to dissipate, and in its place, cool air lingered. She felt good to be out of the hot sun, and she slowed her pace slightly. She was finally beginning to relax, but no sooner had she done so, then she heard, off to her left, some rustling in the woods. She stopped dead in her tracks, and her eyes searched between the trees. She was sure that she had caught sight of a person passing from behind one tree to another. "Hello," she called out, but there was no response, just more rustling. Maybe it was a deer. Then Graham's words entered her mind: "You should really watch your back. You never know what could be lurking around in these woods." Even in the coolness of the shade, her hands grew clammy. She started to run, her heavy backpack pounding on her back, and she didn't stop until she had made it to the front steps of the main office. Panting, she leaned on the stair rail and looked up into the window. She viewed a woman, standing behind the front check-in counter, talking on the phone.

  Kristina climbed the stairs and entered the office. The bell on the doorknob jingled, causing the woman to glance through cat's-eye glasses at her. Seeing Kristina, the woman's eyebrows lifted above her
glasses, revealing an agitated expression.

  As Kristina approached the counter, the woman lowered her voice to a whisper and went into a back room and closed the door behind her.

  Standing at the check-in counter, listening to the woman's annoying laughs behind the closed door, Kristina finally decided that she might as well sit down. There was a couch behind her, so she plopped her overheated body down on it, and grabbed a Horse and Rider magazine off the adjacent table. If only my cellphone got reception out here, I could have already called my mother, and she could have already been here, waiting for me by now.

  Suddenly, Kristina heard a noise outside—heavy footsteps running up the porch stairs. The doorknob turned, and the bells on it jingled. She looked up from her magazine to see Davina standing in front of her, panting heavily.

  "Listen, I need to talk to you," Davina said, between heavy breaths.

  Kristina scowled at her. "If you're going to try to coax me into staying here, don't even bother, because it won't work. My mind is already made up. I'm calling my mom to come get me, as soon as the check-in woman comes out of the back room." Kristina sighed. "That is, if she ever decides to come out."

  A persuasive smile suddenly appeared on Davina's face. "What if you were able to ride the most beautiful horse here—would you change your mind?" she asked.

  Kristina thought she seemed like a used-car salesman trying to close on a deal. "As if that's going to happen." Kristina stuck her nose back into the magazine.

  "Well, this just happens to be your lucky day, because Hester has arranged for you to ride what she thinks is the best horse here."

  Kristina slowly peered over the top of the magazine. Her expression changed to a more suspicious one. "What? Why would Hester arrange that for me? There's got to be a catch."

  "No ... I think she just feels bad for how she treated you yesterday."