Crystal Cardinals - Daniel Blum (the little red hen ebook TXT) 📗

King asks.
“Open up. Open up,” Knight said.
The bloody knight throws a witch’s head through the doors. “I have been waiting forever. Is this not what you wanted?”
“Well it is a fine specimen,” King said.
“Ah. My lord I wait a quarter decade for a jester blade, please grant me this wish and put a smile upon my face.” The knight kneels before the king.
“Feed the witch head to my stone lion and you shall have your prize," King said.
The knight picks up the hair of the witch’s head and throws it in the mouth of the stone lion. “She had this around her neck.”
The knight opens his palm.
“A crystal cardinal,” King said.
“I have never seen anything like it before,” Knight said.
“Crystal cardinals possess the magic of eternal nightmares,” King said.
The king takes the crystal cardinal and dips it into water of the birdbath. The crystal cardinal soars and chases blue jays up the spiral birdbath. The knight’s eyes illuminate in the magic.
The king pulls down the burgundy drape. “Choose.” The knight examines the paranoid jesters trapped on the wall of swords.
“There are so many,” Knight said.
“All will fit your needs,” King said.
“The one with the grape diamond. The purple stone is alive in the moonlight,” Knight said.
“Wise selection.” “That purple diamond fell from my father’s hand on the island of fallen souls as the sharks ate the weak of hearts,” King said.
“What happened to your father,” Knight asks.
“He was eaten by the finned beast and forever dragged into the depths.”
The knight puts a blindfold on the imprisoned jester soul in the sword.
“The grape diamond will be forever burning with the flames of my heirs, my lord,” Knight said.
“Do you see the witch’s staff," King said.
“Yes it is quiet peculiar. Is it from this dimension,” Knight said.
“I assume nothing, witchcraft is all around the doors of the universe,” King said.
A small marble rolls out of the witch’s staff. The king and knight stare at one another.
“A marble with crystal markings,” Knight said.
“The after taste of a witch is always poor,” King said.
“The marble has a fire inside,” Knight said.
“Bring it to the fire,” King said.
The knight stares at the marble and heaves it into the flames. A gold door shoots out from the combustion. Floating spheres and ashes of gold specs soar softly on the outer ridges of the door.
“A doorway. But to where,” Knight asks.
“There is only one way to find out,” King said.
The king throws the knight through the witch’s door.
The knight stands up in a dollhouse.
“Hello. Who is there,” Knight asks.
A head of a lion statue rolls down the chimney.
“It is so bright. What is this,” Knight said.
"You are forever trapped inside the house of witch children,” Lion statue. The knight runs. He pounds on the door.
“You are wasting your time, get comfortable. We have got a long ride. Forever the hearts burn in witch houses,” Lion statue.
“King can you here me? King,” Knight said.
“No. No, no. Do not try to escape,” Lion statue,
The knight pries at a locked window. “Did you have a good life,” Lion statue.
“I will count to five and you will release me or the king’s wrath of royal fools will arrest your soul,” Knight said.
“There is one way out, but I do not think you would be interested”
“Yes anything please tell me.”
“Open that window and take a blue rose to the hour glass,” Lion statue.
The window magically opens on command.
The knight looks at the blue glowing rose in a pink sun’s reflection. “Is it witchcraft?”
“Pluck the flower and dunk it in the sands of planetary orbits.”
The jester sword glistens in the pink sun light.
“Okay, I will dunk the pedals then you are going to release me.”
The lion statue closes its eyes and slowly nods on a slant. The knight takes off a blue rose pedal and stares at the pink sun. The hourglass reflects purple candlelight. He drops the pedal into the hourglass. The sands rise. Blue dust swirls in a miniature tornado and forms planets.
“Are those planetary wishes,” Knight said.
“Take a planet of your choosing,” Lion statue.
The knight takes a miniature planet. “Jupiter is my token to reality.”
“Yes, now you are getting the door you stepped through,” Lion statue said.
“Thank you for the wish,” Knight said.
“As long as the hour glass of orbits is alive so shall your wish.”
“Open the door,” Knight said.
"Just remember a wish of witches always brings about a price," Lion statue said.
The king gets on top of a white horse and rides through dawn. “Warlock are you here?” Frogs croak on the bank of a pond and leap into the water as the king dismounts his horse. A man with a silver beard and a black robe walks up from the ground and opens an oak doorway.
“Warlock I need your advice. My knight has been missing for four moons. He walked through a witch’s door and never came back,” King said.
“He is in the dreams of the witch now,” Warlock said.
“How does he get out,” King said.
“He has to bargain with the host of dreams.”
“You must take him back into this world,” King said.
“Do not order me king I am not under royal law.”
“You live on my land you follow my tongue,” King said.
The warlock takes out a wand. Red and gold miniature stars rise up and down green liquid inside the wand. The warlock waves the wand under autumn leaves. The king’s crown melts down his face.
“My crown.”
“You better watch the way you talk to