Goniff's Evil
Arms full of carved pumpkins, Castle and Alexis barely made it through the door of the homeless shelter. Holding tightly to their orange globes, three boys and three girls clustered around Rick. "Please tell us a story, Mr. Castle. Your stories are so much fun."
Castle smiled down at the hopeful faces. "Well it is almost Halloween, and if that isn't the time for stories, I don't know what is." Castle sat cross legged on the floor. "Alright, gather round."
Once upon a time there was a beautiful girl named Kate. She lived with her mother and father in the Kingdom of High Towers. Her parents, Beck and Anna, weren't rich, but they weren't poor either and Kate was happy. She had enough food to eat and clothes to wear and she knew her parents loved her very much.
The Kingdom of High Towers was ruled by a King named Hiram. He was a good king, but he was getting old and close to the end of his reign. He had no children or queen, so all his cousins were trying to convince the citizens of High Towers to proclaim them the next king. Some of the cousins worked very hard to feed people who needed food or build new houses for people who needed them to live in. But his evil cousin Goniff had another idea. He wanted to buy his way to being king. But he didn't have the money and he had no wish to earn it. So he enlisted the aid of six men who were as evil as he was. Goniff's men covered themselves in dark cloth and went out at night stealing anything valuable they could get their hands on. Goniff opened a stall in the Friday marketplace to sell what they stole. He paid his six thieves a dime for every dollar's worth they stole. Some of the rest of the money he gave away to the people to buy their support to make him king, but he was very greedy and he kept a lot of the money too.
Many of Anna's neighbors had told her precious things had disappeared from their homes while they slept. One night, one of Goniff's bandits sneaked into Kate's home and grabbed a ring that had belonged to Anna's mother, but Anna saw him. She followed him and saw him give it to Goniff. Anna went to all her neighbors and told them what she had seen. When Goniff's stall opened on Friday morning, Anna led all her neighbors there to confront Goniff and reclaim what his men had stolen.
Goniff was furious, especially at Anna. He took a bag of the money he got for his stolen goods and went to visit the evil sorcerer Voltan. Goniff asked Voltan for magic that would punish Anna and make her family miserable. Voltan's face creaked with an evil smile. In exchange for Goniff's bag of money Voltan gave him a vial of liquid. The contents of the vial looked beautiful, glowing with a rainbow of colors and they smelled like a meadow of flowers. But sometimes evil can be disguised as something beautiful and the vial was full of evil. Anna's neighbors were grateful to her and wanted to hold a celebration for her. Anna made sure she talked to each person at the party and made sure that they knew how much she appreciated their efforts, but she had been working all day too and she got tired. While Anna, Beck, and Kate were at the celebration with their neighbors, Goniff climbed through a window in their house and poured three glowing drops under Anna's pillow, where the glow could not be seen.
Finally unable to keep her eyes open any longer, Anna returned home from the party ahead of Kate and Beck. Taking off her party clothes, she put on her white sleeping gown and got into bed, her head resting on the pillow covering the drops of the evil potion. As the scent of flowers reached her nose, she breathed in deeply. Darkness surrounded her, a heavy weight on her eyes and her chest. She could barely breath, or make a sound, or move. When Beck returned from the celebration with Kate, he thought his wife was sleeping soundly and happily climbed into bed beside her. Anna always rose with the sun, but the next morning she didn't. She just lay in bed with her eyes closed and nothing Beck did could wake her up.
"Was she really asleep?" one of the girls asked.
"No," Castle replied, "but Beck and Kate thought she was." He continued his story.
Leaving Kate to watch over Anna, Beck went to get a healing elder woman. Under Beck's and Kate's watchful eyes, the elder examined Anna, but she could find no fever, no wound to explain why Anna wouldn't wake up. "I fear this is not illness but evil magic," she told Beck and Kate. "Anna is held in the grip of a powerful spell."
"It had to be Goniff!" Kate cried. "Who else would want to hurt mother?" Beck sank into a chair by the bed with his head in his hands, but Kate went from neighbor to neighbor, banging on doors trying to get someone to help her go after Goniff. But when they heard her story they were all too scared someone would put a spell on them too, to help her. Finally she reached the village scribe, Alexander, a cousin of Hiram, but so distant he never thought about trying to be King. He had lost nothing to Goniff, but the moment he saw Kate, he fell helplessly in love with her and decided he'd do anything to make her fall in love with him.
Some of the kids groaned. "Don't worry, Castle assured them, "it won't get too mushy." Castle continued with his story.
Alexander told Kate about a story he'd heard of a magic mirror which could show anyone's evil deeds. She decided at that moment that she'd find that mirror to find out what spell Goniff had put on Anna and show all the people of High Towers that Goniff should never be their king. Alexander asked to go with her to write her story.
Alexander and Kate set out into the mystic woods. The branches above them twined into a leafy roof that blocked most of the light and heat of the sun in the daytime and the stars at night, making it impossible to see in the inky darkness.
Even in her wool cloak, Kate shivered in the gray dimness of day, grateful for the warmth of Alexander's arm around her shoulders. At night they huddled together against the freezing cold. They had hiked for three days when the woody roof above them began to thin, allowing light and warmth to come through. Tiny flowers peeked out from the ground and a path appeared leading to the shore of a lake. A great stone sat in the water, with an object at it's center, sparkling as the light hit it. "That's it!" Alexander exclaimed. "That's the magic mirror."
Kate dipped her hand in the water. "How do we get to it? The water is too cold to swim in and we have no boat."
Alexander shaded his eyes, looking again at the big rock. "Kate, I don't think that's a rock. Look at the shapes on it. I think that's a giant turtle. Maybe we can lure it to shore."
"How?" Kate asked. "I have heard that the big ones only come to shore at the Moonrise Festival, when the people sing at midnight."
"That's how!" Alexander realized. "The turtles like music. We can sing the Moon Song. I have heard you sing to give rhythm to your steps. Your voice is as lovely as the birds that perch in the towers. My notes will be beneath yours but lend strength to the song. We have nothing to lose by trying."
Kate began softly, her notes getting stronger as the music flowed through her and Alexander sang at her side. Slowly they could see the flashing light of the mirror coming toward them as the turtle swam to the shore. Finally it crawled up on the bank, cocking its head at the beautiful sounds from Kate's throat. Alexander grabbed the mirror and thrust it beneath his cloak.
The way back to the village was even more difficult than the journey to the lake had been. The woods were even darker and colder and the mirror was heavy, weighing Alexander down and slowing his feet. But finally Kate and Alexander reached the edge of the trees. Ahead, they could hear the roar of a crowd gathering in the square. Goniff had built a wooden tower so he could stand above all the citizens of High Towers to speak.
As Goniff began to brag about all the money he had given the people of the kingdom, without a hint that it was done with what he had stolen, Alexander climbed the stone steps on the side of one of the high towers that gave the kingdom its name. The climb was difficult, with the weight of the mirror dragging at him at every step, but finally he was high enough to catch Goniff's image in the glass. A vision of Goniff formed in the air above the square and his words poured over the crowd. But instead of the stories Goniff wanted the people to hear, his voice told of breaking into the people's homes and taking what was most precious to them. Then the mirror showed the potion Voltan had given Goniff to put the evil enchantment on Anna.
The crowd gathered angrily around the wooden tower, pulling at the beams that braced it until it was in pieces and Goniff fell to the ground. Bruised and frightened, Goniff tried to escape, but the people formed a ring around him and he was caught. He was taken to the edge of the Mystic Forest and told that he would remain in the murkiness and the cold forever, or be thrown in chains into the dungeons under the towers. The citizens surrounded Voltan's lair, demanded a cure for Anna, and gave it to the healing elder.
Kate and Alexander took the elder to Kate's home, where Anna was restored. Together, Beck and Anna and Kate and Alexander returned to the square where the citizens of High Towers were waiting.The people lifted Alexander on their shoulders and proclaimed him the next king. But Alexander asked to be put down. Kneeling on the ground he asked Kate to be his queen. They were married on the stone steps of the high tower where Alexander had used the mirror,while the people sang the Moon Song. Kate and Alexander lived happily ever after, ruling High Towers with generosity and wisdom.
"That was a little mushy Mr. Castle, especially the end," one of the boys complained.
The girl next to him punched his arm. "Well I liked it!" she declared, "and when I grow up I want to live happily ever after just like Kate and Alexander."
"Yeah," Castle murmured, fingering the white gold band on his finger, "so do I."