Approximately 15-minute read time.

25

Tildy clutched her mouth in surprise before casually pretending it hadn’t happened. If Marklin noticed, he had grace enough to ignore it. “Can I come in?”

In her head, she briefly heard the witch’s voice saying something about not having a boy in her room, but the opportunity had not presented itself before. “Sure,” she answered, backing up to let him pass.

“This is quite a room,” he causally observed as he looked around, though he meant nothing by it. He looked himself over in the large mirror. As he adjusted his outfit, Tildy remained quiet, thinking he might be working up the nerve to say something.

He was. “I’m still angry at you, y’know.”

Tildy looked away, ashamed. “I didn’t mean to spy. I was already in the tree and wondered what you wanted to talk about. I didn’t expect it would be so, so private,” she finished lamely, embarrassed of the excuse.

“That shouldn’t matter. You weren’t invited for a reason.”

She whirled around as her anger flared. “But I’m your friend, aren’t I?”

He glowered at her with gritted teeth. “Yes.”

“And I shared my wings with you,” she retorted, pointing at him.

“Not on purpose,” he replied, crossing his arms.

“Fine. I really am sorry, even if you don’t believe me.” When he didn’t respond, she added, “I’ll share a real secret with you, if you can keep it. Even my adoptive mother doesn’t suspect.” She had expected this day would come. They had shared so many things on the Whitway, and keeping this from him had burned in her mind like an ember. She should tell him, and perhaps that would mend the cut she had done him.

Marklin’s response wasn’t terse or angry as she expected. Quite the opposite. His face exploded into a combination of chortles and snorts. If she hadn’t been annoyed, she’d have thought it a sunny break in the clouds that had fallen upon their friendship. “I’m sorry,” he said at last. “The girl,” he lowered his voice, “the girl who flies like a bird asks me if I can keep a secret. I’ve been carrying that for months!”

“Hmph,” said Tildy, reminding herself of the witch. “We hardly saw anyone on the road for months. Who were you going to tell, the Slither-withers?”

“Swee knowsa secret!” Marklin hissed, doing a fair imitation of their speech as he stalked toward her. This brought a smile to her face, and then a giggle. Together they sat on the bed, and they laughed and laughed like old friends until their sides hurt.

When they’d finally settled down, Marklin’s face grew serious. “Tildy, you realize you can trust me, right? I mean, with all we’ve seen together already, certainly you get that?”

Tildy studied his face, reading the fierce sincerity it showed. “Yes. I trust you. Of course. It was a stupid question.”

“I think your mother would counsel that it’s wise to ask.”

Tildy agreed. “Right.” She took a deep breath. “Remember the treasure I found after the Slither-wither attack? I didn’t share everything I found in the chest.” Marklin raised his eyebrows.

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She grasped the hidden chain around her neck produced the amulet. “This is the magnificent Mumnambulen!” she proclaimed. “Say hello!”

Marklin’s expression suggested he was hearing a joke he didn’t understand. “You want me to talk to a necklace?”

“No, well yes! I mean, it’s more than that.” She held the amulet to look at its face. “It talks back.”

“What, like you imagine what it would say?”

“No, I—”

“Is this connected to your abilities?”

Tildy thought he was being difficult. “Look, do you know how hard it was to admit this? Not only that I’d hidden it, but that it was magical.” She gave the amulet a shake, saying, “A little help here would be useful.” The jeweled eyes remained dark. “It, uh, it’s a little uncooperative sometimes.”

“Should I hide under the bed, so it thinks you’re alone?”

She wasn’t sure he was joking. “Don’t be stupid. It can hear you.” She gasped in exasperation. “Listen. It talks to me. The eyes glow and I hear a voice. Mum criticizes me or tries to make me feel foolish, but it’s also helpful sometimes.”

“Oh, how magnanimous of you,” the amulet said, finally speaking. Marklin tipped backwards off the bed. “Yes, full of grace, that one,” Mum said dryly, its blue eyes glowing.

“You took long enough,” she said, pulling the chain over her head.

“I was contemplating your growing recklessness with secrets.”

Tildy flushed, remembering she’d recently shared her wings – and so much more about herself – with Ramora. Since Marklin already knew her biggest secret, sharing Mum felt like a lesser matter. “You’ve decided to speak with us, then?”

“I have half as much to say when there is twice as little wit,” Mum replied.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Marklin said, his eyes reappearing over the side of the bed.

“This serves me right for paraphrasing an Orklin.”

This sparked Tildy’s interest. “You encountered an Orklin? What was it like?

Marklin chimed in as he sat down on the bed again. “Did it steal you from your owner? How did you get away?”

“Oh, I expect you didn’t talk to it at all,” she said with a shrewd nod.

“I bet you tricked it into letting you go.”

“Let him go? And where would he go? He has no legs,” Tildy said, pointing at the amulet.

“Don’t be stupid. I expect he got himself traded to someone else.”

“I’m stupid? You’re the one who fell off the bed.”

“Is it any wonder,” Mum began, “that I kept my mouth shut before? One would think I would have learned,” the amulet said to itself. “Ah me, you two are far more interesting than the dark beneath her clothes, but equally dim.”

“What?” asked Marklin.

“See!” said Tildy. “Equal parts helpful and insulting.”

“Well!” said the amulet in a haughty voice. “I certainly did not intend to be as obliging as that.”

Marklin laughed. “I think a court’s fool must have owned you at one point.”

“I have met many fools, youngling, but none as skilled as you.”

“Speaking of helpful,” she interrupted, “have you more to say about the power in the Last Shard?”

“Power?” Marklin repeated, but Tildy shushed him.

“A worthy topic at last,” said the amulet with much dignity. “I have put long thought into this matter. Truly, I have thought of little else whilst buried within your pungent adolescent dresses. In fact, the answer is so laughably simple, even ones such as you could have figured it out.”

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Marklin looked at Tildy. She saw her own confusion reflected on his face. “I don’t understand.”

“If I may be permitted to finish,” the amulet interrupted, its voice amplified, “the answer is quite simple. It is not real.”

There was a pause while they waited for more information. After a minute, it occurred to her that the amulet was also waiting for a response. “Of course, it’s real. You and I felt it, as did the witch,” she added, as though that were evidence enough.

“Aha!” cried the amulet triumphantly.

Tildy failed to understand its logic, and the look on Marklin’s face reflected her own confusion. “What?”

“A paradox! Something that should not be, yet is. As a spirit of the elements of the earth, I would know if it were a true worldly power.”

Marklin looked even more confused. “I think it’s broken.”

“I would say your wits were broken, but that would imply they worked from the first.”

She laughed as he considered whether the insult deserved a frown or a smile. “Tildy,” he began casually, “is your fire hot enough to melt gold?”

“Oh ho!” cried the amulet. “Your friend is quite the joker, a right jester. With a tongue that sharp, it is a wonder he does not cut off his own lips!” The jeweled eyes glittered brighter than Tildy had seen. “Although that might improve his discourse. And appearance,” the amulet mused.

Tildy laughed harder despite Marklin’s angry look. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help it,” she said, covering her mouth.

“If anyone here is due an apology,” said Mum, “it is the extremely rare and valuable artifact of the ancient world that some wispwisher holds in her hand like a stringer of fish!”

She held the amulet up again. “You’ve tipped the balance toward insulting again. Back you go.” She lifted Mum’s chain over her head.

“If you put me back in there, I shall not speak to you for a week!” it protested.

“Sounds like a good start,” she replied, stowing the amulet. She looked up at Marklin. “I think I might have shocked it into silence.”

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Marklin seemed struck dumb as well, because he didn’t respond for several blinks of his eyes. “That was so bizarre,” he said slowly, as though not believing his own eyes and ears. “Its face didn’t even move.”

“That’s your observation here?”

“I mean, if you hadn’t been talking to it before tonight, I would’ve thought this some trick being played on us. You know, like when a performer casts his voice through a puppet.”

That idea hadn’t crossed her mind before. “But he’s talked to me in different locations at varying times of the day. How would that even be possible?”

“Dunno,” Marklin said with a shrug. “Maybe someone’s magically speaking through it. That hardly seems less unlikely than a talking amulet.”

Tildy thought he made an interesting point but didn’t agree. “To what purpose? Testing new lines for a minstrel show?” She laughed.

“Perhaps to keep track of you – or whoever has it. Listen in, learn your secrets, and use them against you.”

“That’s quite a conspiracy. What secrets could a thirteen-year-old girl have that would be worth that effort?” Marklin raised his eyebrows, and she blushed. “If someone knew about my wings, why would they need to listen? Anyways, how in the world would such a person predict I’d visit Alarune, much less find the hidden chest?”

“I’m only saying, don’t trust it. It let that adventurer die when it could have opened the chamber.”

“There must be more than that. Not helping meant that Mum also remained trapped.” Eager to change subjects, she added, “I’ll be careful, alright? Listen, what do you think it meant about the power not being real?”

“I still say it’s broken.”                                                                     

Tildy thought about this for a moment. “I don’t think so. I’ve read very little about charmed items, but I think they’d either work or they wouldn’t. If I had to guess, it’s more likely they’d go mad. I mean, all that time alone with no one with whom you could speak.”

“I have no idea about that,” said Marklin. “But you seem to think it’s mistaken, which means there’s something very wrong with a powerful magical object—”

“Or something is interfering with a powerful magical object,” Tildy said, completing the thought. They exchanged a worried look.

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“You should ask the witch.”

Tildy crossed a protective arm across her chest, knowing she would confiscate it. “I’m not showing it to her.”

“Why? It’s dangerous, whatever else it is.”

She shook her head. “How long have I had it? And nothing bad has happened.” Seeing his incredulous face, she added, “Nothing bad from possessing it. Besides, we’ve met plenty of perils on this adventure already. I recognize when danger looks me in the eye.”

“Fine,” replied Marklin. “Do as you will. Just don’t complain to me when it strangles you.” He stretched with a yawn and stood. “I need to get to bed.”

Feeling like she needed sleep, too, she walked him to the door. “Marklin, we’re friends again, right?”

He took long enough to respond that he worried her, though it wasn’t much time at all. He laid her fears to rest with a simple smile. “Tildy, I expect we’ll always be friends.”

She beamed and said good night. When she was dressed for bed and comfortable beneath the covers, she thought long about Mum’s words. How could they be right? Sure, she could be tricked, but what about the amulet itself? More importantly, who could fool the witch? And how could such a deception occur without a magical power that Mum could recognize? How could a creature both have and not have some worldly power, as Mum put it? The contradiction made her head hurt.

This was all assuming, of course, that the amulet was telling the truth. She had no reason to doubt it, though Marklin’s words haunted her, and the necklace seemed heavier around her neck as she drifted to sleep.

Her last conscious thoughts lay upon the hidden window, so when she peered through it in her dream, she was not surprised. She saw no key below her, despite the soft green illumination. As it grew brighter, she felt a hefty pull upon her neck. Mum, suddenly a leaden weight, dragged her away from the window and into the darkness below.

It’s Tildy’s 14th birthday, and she learns that some gifts come wrapped with strings and some come with strings attached in Chapter 26 – Birthday Presents.

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