Posts
Changing the Prophecy
is now in print and can be purchased online or at your local bookstore. I am
making the story available here on my blog in short episodes to be released
every few days. Read here for free. Buy the book if you can’t wait to find out
what happens. To find your place where you left off or start from the
beginning, type the chapter and episode numbers into the search box in the upper
left corner of the landing page for The View from Amy’s World. For example, to
find the first episode, type “Chapter 1 Episode 1.” It should take you to it.
Enjoy the journey!
Chapter 1 Before Midsummer’s Eve
Chapter 1 Episode 1
Doshmisi awoke in pitch darkness to
Aunt Alice’s insistent gentle voice. “Dosh, wake up,” Aunt Alice said, as she
switched on the light next to Doshmisi’s bed.
“What’s up?”
Doshmisi asked, as she sat up in bed. The urgent tone in Aunt Alice’s voice instantly
snapped her awake. “It’s not Midsummer’s yet. What’s going on?” If it had been
Midsummer’s Eve, she would have expected Aunt Alice to wake her so that she
could go to the cabin in the woods and travel with her brothers and sister to
the land of Faracadar, as they had traveled the previous summer. Amethyst the
gatekeeper came from Faracadar every year on Midsummer’s Eve to take “the Four”
(as they were called) to Faracadar for a time. Doshmisi’s mother along with her
Aunt Alice, Uncle Martin, and Uncle Bobby used to be the Four; but now
Doshmisi, who was fifteen, Denzel, who was fourteen, Maia, who was twelve, and
Sonjay, who had just turned eleven, were the new Four. Doshmisi and her
siblings had been impatiently counting the days left before Midsummer’s Eve,
when they would return to Faracadar. But it was not yet the appointed time.
“They have come for
you tonight and so tonight you must go,” Aunt Alice told Doshmisi.
“They?” Doshmisi
asked. “Who did Amethyst bring with her?”
Aunt Alice’s voice quavered
as she answered. “Amethyst died a few months ago, baby. Ruby and Crystal have
come instead.”
“How could Amethyst
die? What happened to her?” Doshmisi struggled to wrap her head around the idea
that the sweet old woman who had baked delicious spice cake for them before
sending them to Faracadar only the previous summer had died.
“Nothing happened.
She just got old and her body wore out,” Aunt Alice replied with a sigh. “Now get
dressed. Remember to take a sweater. Would you please look after Zora for a
minute?” Aunt Alice handed her little dog, a silky black Pomeranian with shiny
brown eyes, to Doshmisi, who took the dog in her arms. Zora licked Doshmisi’s
chin with her rough tongue.
“I don’t want her
to bark and wake Elena. Meet me downstairs,” Aunt Alice continued. “I have to rouse
your brothers and Maia; and I have to figure out what to do about Elena.”
“Maybe she’ll sleep
through everything,” Doshmisi suggested hopefully.
“We should be so
lucky,” Aunt Alice responded grimly.
Elena was Maia’s
best friend and she was sleeping over for the night at Manzanita Ranch, where
the Goodacre children had lived with their Aunt Alice ever since their mother’s
sudden death a year and a half before. They were basically orphans because
their father had disappeared when Sonjay was a baby; but Sonjay insisted that
their father still lived, imprisoned in the Final Fortress in Faracadar. Experience
had taught Doshmisi not to discount even Sonjay’s most farfetched ideas so she had
reserved judgment on his conviction about their father.
Doshmisi wondered
what Aunt Alice would do about Elena.
As she looked in
the mirror to put on her woven green hat, given to her last year in Faracadar, Doshmisi
paused to study the face that peered back at her. She wore her hair short, cut
close to her head. She had coffee-brown skin and deep-brown eyes. She wore a
small shiny green stud nose ring, a silver ear cuff, a dark-green sweater, and
sea-green cotton pants. She picked up her dolphin earrings and put them in her
ears and slipped a silver bracelet on her wrist. She smiled with approval at
her appearance. She looked like the healers who lived on the islands of
Faracadar. She hoped one day, with greater knowledge, to join their ranks. Thinking
about the healers made her remember to take the herbal, a book with recipes and
instructions for medicines and potions to help sick people get well. The herbal
was an enchanted thing and therefore unpredictable. Although Doshmisi had
already learned a lot about how to use it, she hoped to learn more of its secrets
during her upcoming trip to Faracadar. She snapped the herbal securely in its
carry case, which she then strapped around her waist.
While Doshmisi dressed,
Aunt Alice awakened Denzel and Sonjay. She sent Denzel to her nightstand to retrieve
the amulets, which the children wore when they traveled in Faracadar. Doshmisi
wore the Amulet of the Trees, Denzel wore the Amulet of Metal, the Amulet of
Watersong belonged to Maia, and Sonjay had inherited their mother Debbie’s
amulet, the Amulet of Heartfire. Last summer, the energy in the amulets had
assisted them in their quest to take back the Staff of Shakabaz from the
powerful and malevolent enchanter Sissrath. According to Aunt Alice, the
amulets enhanced the gifts and abilities that the children already had within
them.
Doshmisi had
discovered that she had a gift for healing and she had made good use of Aunt
Alice’s herbal to heal the sick. Denzel had discovered he had an aptitude for
inventing, building, and making things. Maia, who had befriended the drummers
of Faracadar, had proven herself to be a brilliant musician and had used her
talent for music to save their lives on more than one occasion. The power of
the Amulet of Heartfire had brought out Sonjay’s innate leadership skills and
his ability to see straight to the truth. In the end, Sonjay had been the one to
take the Staff of Shakabaz from Sissrath.
Sonjay dressed in
his favorite lemon-yellow T-shirt and jeans and grabbed a canary-yellow
sweatshirt, which he tied around his waist. His hair stood out from his head in
short baby dreadlock twists. He ran his hand over the dreads as he raced down
the stairs to find his inseparable companion Bayard Rustin, an enormous, eye-poppingly
bright, green-blue-yellow-red parrot. Sonjay entered the sitting room and
turned on the light. Bayard blinked at him in the sudden brightness and asked,
hopefully, “Amethyst makes spice cake?”
Tears filled
Sonjay’s eyes as he held out his arm for Bayard to climb aboard. “No, you
greedy heap of feathers, no spice cake.” Then he continued more gently,
“Amethyst died. Ruby and Crystal came instead and they didn’t bake anything.
They’re in too much of a hurry.”
“Uh-oh,” Bayard
said as he settled on Sonjay’s shoulder. “Uh-oh.”
“You can say that
again,” Sonjay agreed.
Bayard obliged by
repeating, “Uh-oh, uh-oh, uh-oh…”
“Alright, that’s
enough times,” Sonjay interrupted. Sometimes, Bayard acted as annoying as a
pesky little brother.
Just then Denzel
joined them. He was the tallest of the four Goodacres and had the lightest skin
of the four as well. He had large eyes and large hands. He wore his hair in a
short natural, not quite as short as Doshmisi’s hair. He was handsome and
caused a stir among the girls who went to his school. Prepared for the trip to
Faracadar, he wore a pair of sturdy hiking shoes and his characteristic
red-and-white plaid flannel shirt. He carried a partly filled backpack. “Here bro,”
he said as he handed Sonjay the Amulet of Heartfire. “I have to go to the
garage to grab some stuff. Tell Aunt Alice I’ll meet you guys on the porch in a
few minutes. Hey, take your skateboard and a spare set of wheels.” Sonjay
glimpsed duct tape, a screwdriver set, a crescent wrench, and some wires
bouncing around in Denzel’s backpack. As Denzel headed out of the room, he
turned in the doorway to give Sonjay one last instruction, “Oh, yeah, get the
canteens from the pantry, aight?”
“I’ve got it
covered, man,” Sonjay assured him.
“No spice cake,”
Bayard informed Denzel mournfully.
“While you’re in
the pantry, you better find something to feed that bird. If he gets hungry he’ll
drive us all nuts,” Denzel pointed out.
Upstairs, Maia
opened her eyes as Aunt Alice gently tapped her shoulder. Aunt Alice held a
cautionary finger to her lips, indicating that Maia should remain quiet. Maia
slipped silently from her bed, glancing anxiously at her friend Elena as she
tiptoed out of the room behind Aunt Alice, who led Maia down the hallway to
Doshmisi’s bedroom and then handed Maia her clothes and her travel drum.
“I think we got out
without waking Elena,” Aunt Alice said worriedly. She informed Maia that
Amethyst had died and that Ruby and Crystal had come to take the Four to
Faracadar. Maia’s eyes welled with tears at the news about Amethyst. “But it’s
not Midsummer’s Eve,” Maia said, as she wiped at her eyes with her sleeve.
“Will it work tonight? Will it be OK?”
“I honestly don’t
know,” Aunt Alice replied.
“Then why did they
come tonight?” Maia asked. “I don’t think we can do this without Amethyst.” Her
voice trembled as she said Amethyst’s name.
“We’re going to
have to do it without her. And we’re going to have to do it tonight. Something
is up. Get dressed and ready to travel and we’ll ask them about it when we see
them at the cabin,” Aunt Alice informed her. Maia dressed quickly, pulling her
deep-blue sweater over the explosion of long braids that covered her head. She slung
her travel drum over her shoulder. “I have to get the timber flute from the
library,” she told Aunt Alice, as they stepped softly down the stairs.
After fetching her
timber flute, Maia joined the others on the front porch where they had assembled.
Sonjay handed Maia her water canteen and Denzel handed her the Amulet of
Watersong.
“How do you know
they’re here?” Doshmisi asked. She held Zora under her arm and petted the
little dog so she would stay quiet.
“They came to the
house and found me,” Aunt Alice answered.
“Are they allowed
to do that?” Maia wondered aloud.
“They did it,
didn’t they?” Denzel replied.
“Amethyst never
left the cabin, but tonight Ruby and Crystal came to the house and found me. Things
are changing.” Aunt Alice gave Doshmisi a hug, handed her the lantern, and then
put her arms around Maia and squeezed. “OK, go. You know where to find them,”
she instructed as she released Maia and bent over to embrace Sonjay.
“What do you mean?
You have to come with us,” Maia pleaded.
As Aunt Alice
turned from Sonjay to give Denzel a parting hug, she replied, “I can’t. Elena’s
here. What if she wakes up?”
“She won’t,” Maia
assured her aunt. “She sleeps like a rock. Besides, she’s not going to start
wandering around the house looking for us if she does. She’ll just go back to
sleep.”
Aunt Alice
hesitated, considering her options.
“She might go
wandering through the house looking for me,” Denzel mumbled.
“She’s not that
weird,” Maia defended her friend.
“It seems weird to
me,” Denzel informed her.
“She just has a
crush on you. Would it hurt you so much to be nice to her?” Maia demanded in
exasperation.
“I’ve called your
Uncle Bobby. He should arrive in a couple of hours,” Aunt Alice said. “He’ll be
here by the time you get back. When he gets here I’ll go to the cabin.”
Doshmisi noticed that Aunt Alice had not
reprimanded Denzel and Maia for bickering about Elena and took it as a sign of
how distracted and worried her aunt was.
“Come with us to
the cabin,” Sonjay begged.
“Uh-oh, uh-oh,”
Bayard squawked.
“You know you want
to,” Doshmisi tempted Aunt Alice.
“Oh alright,” Aunt
Alice agreed. “I suppose Elena will sleep through this.” Doshmisi handed Zora
over to her aunt as the family stepped off the front porch and hurried down the
driveway to the path bordered by raspberry brambles that led to the cabin in
the woods.
As they approached
the cabin, they saw light streaming from the windows. The door flew open and
Ruby hurtled out. She burst into tears as she flung her arms first around
Doshmisi, and then around Maia. Her mother, Crystal, stood in the doorway,
surveying the scene. Crystal and Ruby had a fire-engine-red tint to their rich,
brown skin because they were of the People Beyond the Lake. When Ruby reached
for Denzel, he quickly held out his hand and shook hers to prevent her from
engulfing him in a weepy hug. “How’s Jasper?” he asked.
“Fine. He’s at home
waiting for you. He’s especially waiting for Dosh,” Ruby replied with a short
laugh as she shook Denzel’s hand and then Sonjay’s. Jasper was Ruby’s younger
brother. At the mention of his name, Doshmisi’s heart raced.
“Let’s get moving,”
Sonjay said impatiently, as he nodded in greeting to Crystal.
When they entered
the cabin, they saw that Crystal and Ruby had already placed the four travel
cushions in a neat row on the floor and had surrounded each square cushion with
the requisite four passage sticks, pieces from the original gateway door linking
Faracadar with the world in which the Goodacres lived with Aunt Alice. A
powerful enchanter of old had created the gateway with deep enchantment and
very few had passed between the two worlds using the gateway door or the
passage sticks.
The jars of
colorful powder twinkled brightly, lined up next to one another on the table.
The Goodacres missed the delicious scent of Amethyst’s fresh-baked spice cake.
The wood-burning cooking stove squatted cold and silent in the corner. Doshmisi
remembered the warmth and sweet spicy scent that had greeted them the previous
year when they had arrived at the cabin, filled with questions. Crystal touched
the jars of powder tentatively with trembling fingers.
“Do you know how to
do it?” Aunt Alice asked.
“Sort of,” Crystal
replied. “We should have prepared for this better; we didn’t imagine that we
would lose Amethyst so soon.”
Aunt Alice ran her
hand up and down Crystal’s arm in a comforting gesture. Amethyst was Crystal’s
mother. “Amethyst is watching,” Aunt Alice said.
Crystal smiled even
as tears filled her eyes. “So she is,” Crystal agreed.
Knowing that time
was short to gain information, Sonjay cut to the chase. “Quickly, tell us why
you came tonight. Why couldn’t you wait until Midsummer’s Eve?”
“Uh-oh,” Bayard insisted.
“Uh-oh is right,”
Ruby confirmed. “Compost has laid siege to Big House City with an army of
Mountain People. They assembled outside the city a couple of weeks ago and
surrounded it. They won’t allow anyone in or out.”
“What do they
want?” Denzel asked. “Have they made any demands?”
Ruby answered,
“Well, they say they want the Staff of Shakabaz, even though they must realize
that it will not come to them now, after it went to Sonjay at the Battle of
Truth. And they could never use it, even if Cardamom handed it over to them, which
he won’t of course. Sissrath has not appeared at Big House City. We don’t know
where he went or why Compost remains on his own. We can’t make sense of any of
it. We need your help.” Compost worked for Sissrath. The Four had defeated Sissrath
with the power of truth in a nonviolent protest the previous year. During that
protest, which people referred to as the Battle of Truth, the Staff of Shakabaz
had chosen to move from Sissrath’s control into Sonjay’s hand. As powerful as
Sissrath was, he had not been able to prevent the staff from changing hands.
Sonjay had left the staff at Big House City under the watchful eye of the
mighty enchanter Cardamom for safe-keeping. The royal family that ruled
Faracadar lived in the Big House at the center of Big House City.
“Cardamom can’t do
anything to stop the siege?” Sonjay questioned.
“He has not done
anything so far,” Ruby replied.
“What about High
Chief Hyacinth and the princess?” Maia asked. “Where are they?”
“The high chief is
with Cardamom in the Big House. Princess Honeydew went to the Wolf Circle with
her mother a few months ago. She has begun studying how to use her powers as an
enchantress.” The Four had traveled with the high chief and his daughter the
year before and Doshmisi had helped them to reunite with Honeydew’s mother,
High Chieftess Saffron, after Doshmisi discovered that Sissrath had imprisoned Saffron
at the Final Fortress and put her under an enchantment of forgetting. The Four
were the princess’s distant cousins and part of the royal family through their mother’s
ancestors.
“Something doesn’t
seem right about this,” Sonjay said.
“What do you mean?”
Crystal asked.
“The siege doesn’t
make sense,” Sonjay explained.
“I agree,” Crystal
told him. “Jack visited us today. He was extremely distraught. He told us to bring
you to Faracadar and that prompted us to attempt to come before the appointed
time.”
“What exactly did
Jack say?” Doshmisi asked.
“You know how hard
it is for him to put things into words. He said to come get you and he said ‘whales’
over and over again,” Ruby told her. “He also said ‘bad oil’. He plopped a large
clump of algae on the kitchen table.” Jack was an intuit. Intuits had psychic abilities
and they could often see the future. Jack was just a little boy, only six years
old, and his intuit’s mind moved so quickly that he had trouble talking clearly
so other people often had a hard time understanding what he meant. Intuits rarely
lived more than sixteen or seventeen years because the intensity of their lives
burned them out young.
Doshmisi groaned.
“Not the whales again,” she said to no one in particular. She loved the whales
and, unlike most other people, she could even hear them when they spoke, just
as she could communicate with the trees in their language. But the trees made
sense to her while the whales talked in poetry and Doshmisi had a hard time
figuring out the meaning of the words the whales spoke to her. She didn’t want
to have to rely on the whales to explain anything to her in their poetic words,
Just then a
startling crash came from outside the cabin. Aunt Alice and Crystal bolted,
followed closely by the others, with Zora yipping at their heels. Aunt Alice
had grabbed the lantern on her way out the door and she held it high to reveal
Maia’s friend Elena sprawled on the ground next to an overturned plastic bucket
beneath one of the cabin windows.
