Kalina stood and walked around thefire, slowly examining the crown. Garth watched her and shook hishead. “It is the same from every angle, Kalina,” he statedfrustratingly.
“Sorry, Garth,” she repliedabsentmindedly, “but something is tickling my memory. Queen Mitacan you visualize it in the palm of my hand, or any hand around thesame size?”
Queen Mita wrinkled her brow for amoment. “Open your palm,” she requested.
Kalina held her palm flat and QueenMita landed in the center of it. Next she projected an image ofherself in Kalina’s palm and projected it over the fire. The imageshimmered slightly as she altered it to include the Crown of Lighton her head. Then in an eye blink, Queen Mita disappeared from thevision and the Crown of Light rested on Kalina’s palm.
“Does that help?” the Queenasked.
“Yes,” shouted Kalina. “I haveseen this crown and held it in my very hand not twenty years ago. Iam sure it is the same one.”
“Great,” shouted Tedi. “Whereis it?”
Kalina’s face clouded with frustration.“President Suarez of Cordonia showed it to me just before OscarDalek’s wedding. He thought it would make an unusual wedding band,but Callie declined it.”
“Well let’s go to Cordonia andget it back for the fairies,” exclaimed Tanya.
“The Cordonian Royal Palacewas buried under a mountain in the Collapse,” Garth stated.“Actually that is not a correct statement. The Palace merged withthe mountain is actually a better description. In all probability,the Crown of Light is now part of the mountain. Even tearing themountain apart piece by piece would not recover the crown in anycondition that we would recognize.”
Despair fell over the group andeveryone fell silent. Fredrik started moving a pebble around withhis staff and Tedi tried to shift his seat a little farther awayfrom Niki who kept trying to lean against him. Garth and Kalinastared at each other across the campfire and Queen Mita flewherself down to the ground. Arik looked around the campfire at thesullen group and rose to his feet.
“My father did not raise me tobe a quitter,” Arik announced, “and I know Prince Midge willaccompany me if no one else will. Are the rest of you in this onlywhen the way is easy?”
“Give the man a tattoo,”scowled Niki, “and he thinks he can bring a mountain to itsknees.”
Garth stood and placed his hand onArik’s shoulder. “Pay no mind to whiners, lad,” Garth smiledbroadly, “and never doubt your abilities. The Rangers are bound forKantor and if it is a mountain that must be conquered, then amountain will fall before us.”
Tanya leaped up and started rolling upher gear. Kalina gently touched her on the arm. “In the morningwill be soon enough, warrior,” Kalina smiled. “We have the chanceto enjoy the hospitality of the fairies before we depart and youstill have that session with Garth this afternoon. I look forwardto watching it. It has been a long time since a woman made Garthcry.”
Tanya laughed and turned to see Garthshaking his head and grinning. The atmosphere of the campsiteturned to one of enthusiasm and the Rangers spent the rest of themorning roaming the orchard and observing the way the fairieslived. Individual fairy guides were assigned to each Ranger toanswer their questions and explain the ways of the fairies to thehumans.
Excitement spread through the orchardas the fairies learned of the journey to Kantor to recover theCrown of Light. Fairy families brought their children out to seethe humans, especially Arik who was treated with awe and respectabove the other Rangers. Fairies started coming up to the Rangersto offer good luck charms or supplies for the journey and all ofthe Rangers’ spare clothing disappeared and was returned later,freshly washed and mended where mending was needed.
Queen Mita presented each Ranger with asmall sapphire bar to pin on their blacksuits to signify theirunity with the fairies of the Sagina Universe. Arik noticed aneighth sapphire bar that was much smaller than the rest, butdismissed it as another group of fairies came along to introducetheir children to the Bringer. Prince Midge’s words came back toArik and he smiled as he thought of his irrational fear of being anoutcast because of his branding.
Eventually, the Rangers broke from thepandemonium and returned to their campsite for the midday meal. Themeal was quiet as each Ranger pondered the strange people who hadopened their homes and heart to the humans. The smiles on the facesof the Rangers proved it was a beneficial experience.
Tanya moved and sat down next toKalina. “Did you really attend Prince Oscar’s wedding?” Tanyaasked.
“Yes,” Kalina answered as shewatched Tanya with her peripheral vision.
“You must have been friendswith Prince Oscar to have been invited to his wedding,” Tanyaprobed.
“He was not Prince Oscarthen,” Kalina remembered. “He was Duke Dalek at the time and he hadmany friends.”
“You must have met many of theother guests as well,” Tanya continued. “I understand AlexanderTork and Jenneva were in the wedding. Did you get to meetthem?”
“Ah, yes,” Kalina nodded. “Theyoung Lieutenant who was best man and the beautiful woman whoaccompanied him. Of course I remember them. Who could forget such afine looking couple? There was always such a crowd around them thatmost people couldn’t get close. And all that attention with so manyother celebrities present. They were a special couple.”
Garth stepped up behind Kalina and puthis hands on her shoulders. “Kalina, there are some things we needto discuss with Queen Mita and I would prefer to do that sooner,rather than later,” interrupted Garth. “Tanya, I’m afraid ourlittle session for this afternoon will have to wait for anothertime. I hope you don’t mind, but the opportunity to speak with theQueen of the Fairies is not one to be wasted. Why don’t youorganize the practice rounds for this afternoon and make itsomething that will entertain the fairy watchers as well as providea good workout for the Rangers?”
Kalina quickly rose with a smile toTanya and escorted Garth towards the Father Tree. Tanya bit her lipand wondered if she could beat Arik with a staff.
The rest of the day was spent inpractice and the Rangers took pride in showing off their skills.Tanya made sure that the practice rounds included archery, swords,staffs, knives, and of course, Lanoirian Stars. The archeryimpressed the fairies the most and they marveled at the accuracy ofArik’s longbow. Each of the Rangers was given an ovation after eachperformance and soon the warriors started trying to outdo theperformance directly before theirs.
Niki, however, felt left out. Kalinahad disappeared with Garth and she did not possess any demonstrablewarrior skills. Halfway through the practice sessions, Nikiwandered off into the orchard. Before she got very far, she raninto Garth and Kalina returning to the campsite and they corralledher into returning with them.
When the practice sessions were over, along parade of fairies swarmed into the campsite and spread longstrips of cloth along the ground. Family after family came andplaced a food dish on the strips until there were several longlines of small dishes from end to end. Queen Mita explained thatthis was a traditional sendoff for an army marching to war and theRangers were being honored as a fairy army.
The servings were extremely small, butthe potpourri of tastes was exciting. No one was sure what theywere eating, and even the explanations of the fairy host did notoften clarify the dish, but each was savored as a delicacy. Tedithought with amusement that while there were only seven Rangersmarching off to war, they probably devoured the equivalent of awhole fairy army during the festival.
Toward the end of the festivities thefairy crowd roared with approval and suddenly parted as a smallblacksuited fairy marched towards the seated Rangers. With a leapand a fluttering of wings, Prince Midge landed on Arik’s upraisedknee and posed in his miniature version of a Ranger blacksuit,complete with pouches and pockets and wide leather belt. The onlydeviation from the Rangers’ uniforms was the holes in the back toaccommodate the fairy’s wings. Pinned to the shoulder of Midge’suniform was the small sapphire pin that Arik had seenearlier.