Born to Rule

Her eyes were colorless but had a bright spot in them. Alicia quickly realized that it was a reflection of the moon.
    “’Tis your fate, your destiny.”
    “Destiny?” Alicia was completely baffled. “Who are you?”
    There was a kack kack sound.
    “Hush, Percy,” said the old woman. She reached up and stroked the peregrine’s feathers. “I am Berwynna of the Chimes.”
    “Berwynna?” Alicia said.
    “Think, girl, think hard,” Berwynna said.
    Alicia opened her eyes wide. Could this be like…like…Merlin? She had barely even finished the thought when Berwynna shrieked, “Like Merlin! I am the sister of Merlin! But I am nothing like him.” The spiders quivering over her ears hoisted themselves up on their silken threads into the hair that was piled like a bird’s nest on Berwynna’s head.
    “Merlin’s sister? I didn’t know he had one,” Alicia said.
    “Nobody does. It’s always Merlin this, Merlin that!” Her voice was shrill. “It’s enough to drive one mad.”
    Alicia collected herself. Merlin’s sister? Had she not wished for just this very thing? A Merlin!
    “What is my destiny?” Alicia asked again.
    “You think I’m going to tell you right off the bat?” Berwynna asked.
    As if on cue, a bat flew out from Berwynna’s hair. “Yikes!” screeched Alicia, but she pressed on with her questions. “You claim there is much to be done. So what is it that I must do?”
    “Look, my dear, you have proven your courage and your determination by coming into the forest on a cold night when you have been castled.”
    So she agrees that it was perhaps wrong that I was castled, Alicia thought.
    “Of course I agree. What do you take me for, a nitwit?” This time a very tiny insect crept out of her ear.
    Holy monk bones, she’s got lice! “Oh, yuck!” Alicia muttered.
    “I’m a friend to all creatures. If some decide to live on me, far be it from me to evict them.”
    “But what is it that you want me to do?”
    “Restless spirits lurk, my dear.” Berwynna stepped closer to Alicia and stood on her tiptoes. The reflections of stars now danced in her eyes. Berwynna smiled and then began to speak in a singsongy voice that scratched the night.
“Now listen closely to my tale
Though it may turn your pink cheeks pale.
There’s still a story incomplete;
Look closely and you’ll see, my sweet.
Two spirits must be put to rest
Until another dream is blessed ,
And then, when every stitch is sewn ,
Evil’s work is o’erthrown .”
    “What?” Alicia was completely confused.
    Berwynna sank down from her tiptoes and rocked back on her heels. She folded her arms across her narrow chest and looked at Alicia with a smug little grin.
    “Go figure” was all she said.

Chapter 17
    A GHOST PRINCESS

    When Alicia returned to her bedchamber, the little weeb looked at her hopefully. “I’m sorry,” Alicia said. “I didn’t find a mate for you tonight.” She sighed, and it seemed as if the bird sighed with her.
    Alicia looked at the clock on her mantel. It was just before midnight. Not even an hour had passed, but it seemed as if she had been gone for at least three. How strange! Alicia took off her backward clothes, put on her thinking tiara, and slipped into bed. She pulled the covers up to her chin while she stole another look at the clock. Had it all been a dream?
    She repeated the strange, tiny woman’s verse until it sang in her head. “Two spirits must be put to rest…when every stitch is sewn”…what could it mean? She looked across to the little bird and felt sorry for him. But a fat lot of good it had done her to sneak out on this bitter-cold night. All she had accomplished was to find a nutty old lady who spoke in nonsense rhymes.
    Alicia picked up Love Letters of a Forgotten Princess . She had read some of these love letters over a hundred times and could recite many by heart. As she paged through the book to find her favorites, a few words in one of the letters caught her eye, as if for the first time.
    “What is this?” she whispered to herself. As she read, Alicia felt her cheeks turn pale.
    “Hidden in a turret the tapestry is lost, but its magic can be found between the seconds of midnight’s chimes.”
    Alicia’s head seemed to spin with glittering fragments of stories—words, rhymes, verses that began to stitch themselves together with new meaning. Words came back to Alicia. The words of that strange creature made of bark, moss, and magic—Merlin’s sister,