Chapter 4
Richard chuckled with a smile at Chloe, seeming to return the motion of never stopping to look somewhere other than in her grass-green eyes, and she giggled back as he made his way through the staring crowd to greet her.
"Oh, my god, I…can't…can't…" Everything inside of Chloe abruptly stopped, so great was her disbelief at seeing him here. "I just can't believe…that you're here at last!" Her breath was continuing to sputter excitedly out of her, and it took all of her strength to not throw her arms around him and not ever allow him freedom again.
Richard returned Chloe's surprised stare, but then slowly smiled like he was about to laugh, and shook his head in joyous disbelief. "I told my friends we'd find you, and, well…I just…oh my god, I just don't believe it!"
"I know!" Chloe agreed. "It's crazy and still so great! I missed you a lot."
"Yeah, me too," Richard said.
For a moment it was silent between them, like they didn't know what their next step was. Chloe was waiting to see if she would allow herself to hug Richard, but he was looking her over instead.
"That was…that was pretty magnificent," he said at last, gesturing at Chloe's new, elegant dress. "Did you get a fairy godmother while you were here?"
"No, but maybe I should fill in an application to be one myself," Chloe replied with a light chuckle.
Chuckling as well, Richard reached to grasp Chloe's hands, relief washing over him. "Thank god you're safe," he said. "I thought maybe you were gone for good."
"Well, I would never try to stay far away forever," Chloe said matter-of-factly, and she smiled deeply to show her joy, although there were gallons more beneath the surface, which was hard to hide.
"You okay, Chloe?" Richard asked, noticing Chloe's mouth twitching slightly at the corners in trying to hide her joy.
"Yes, I'm fine, but- but I cannot even begin to tell you how glad I am to see you again. I've been very lonely without you."
"Same here."
They were both silent again before Chloe's immense happiness gave way and she began to cry. Her happiness driving her on, she put her arms around Richard's neck, resting her chin on his shoulder. "If I should ever leave your sight again, I swear to god…"
"No, Chloe!" Richard said, pulling her away so they could see each other face-to-face. "We're going to be fine! They'll never touch you again! Not while the Pagemaster and I are around."
Chloe faced Richard with a fixed look. "Let me finish, Rich," she said. "If you die in battle, I will die too! I swear on the pages this world is written that I will."
Richard jumped back a step, still keeping his hands on Chloe firmly. "You won't! No, you won't!" he said sternly. "I'm not going to let you do anything stupid like that!"
They stared tensely at each other, the only sound being their breathing. Chloe finally took a breath and stared much harder at Richard.
"Look, if you ask me to do anything, I will do it," she said. "But that does not include me not standing in your way!"
"And you won't! Chloe, you're part of the Binding Order. I won't let you die!"
"And neither will I!" Chloe exhaled deeply, and bore her gaze into Richard. "All right, this is how we will do this. The two of us will fight in battle beside the Pagemaster and the Binding Order, no matter what. But you cannot tell me I can't do anything for the good of this world. If the both of us don't fight, then the literary world will disappear forever! Do you think we were given our powers for no real reason?"
Richard sighed, folding his lips between his teeth in defeat. "Okay, then. We both will fight as best we can. But please, please, please Chloe, don't do anything drastic!"
"And in return, you will promise me you will have a good time before we leave here tonight," Chloe said, putting a hand on Richard's shoulder, and eyeing him like an eagle to a salmon.
In reply, Richard didn't say anything, but scanned his eyes downward once more on Chloe's new dress. It was blazing silver, much like the sparkles that had conjured it, and cascaded down her legs in ruffling waterfalls of silver and white satin, with a low ovular neck that spanned her shoulders in long sleeves with pointed ends. White ribbons were tied together at the crown of her head to make a little tiara, where the long ends dangled fluidly from her head to the middle of her back, where her red hair ended. To say the truth, Richard found it hard to look away from this display of beauty and magic. True, he had seen enough magic to last many years, but this was the icing on the cake.
"Wow, you look, well, remarkable!" Richard said, chuckling awkwardly.
Chloe half-smiled and smoothed her skirts modestly.
But something else popped into his head in the meantime.
"You want to meet my friends?" he asked. "They're still outside the tower."
When Chloe nodded, Richard pointed out the window behind him to Firedrake, Alice, and Peaseblossom, standing just outside the forest. All three of them smiled back at Richard and Chloe, who waved back a little tentatively, but she soon grew a smile.
"Come on over!" Chloe called, gesturing inside the tower. "There's plenty of room for all of you."
Looking back at Alice and Peaseblossom, Firedrake inched closer to the tower, and with his nose, allowed for the other two to cross in through the window. Alice was the first to climb in through, with Peaseblossom fluttering in right behind her.
"Hello, there," Chloe said, looking down at Alice from Peaseblossom. "I'm Chloe, Richard's friend. What's your name?"
"I'm Alice," Alice replied, curtsying sweetly. "Wow. I daresay Richard was right about you. You really are beautiful."
Chloe looked at Richard with a semi-shocked grin, on the verge of laughter. "You said that?"
"Okay, I might have said something like that," he admitted.
"Yes," Alice added. "He also said that you can imagine things to life."
Chloe nodded. "I can, but I myself never imagined any of you would show up here. Well, I can say that I've been spared lots more time trying to find you. You even brought us a ride back to the rotunda!"
Richard glanced at Firedrake, who was keeping his head close to the window. "Well, if the whole Binding Order can ride on Firedrake's back," he said with a shrug.
"Firedrake? Is that your name?" Chloe asked the dragon.
Firedrake nodded. "And can I tell you how good it is to finally meet you?" he said. "The way Richard talked about you, I truly expected a wonderful young woman. And that, you certainly are."
"Thanks, to all of you," Chloe said, looking between her unexpected guests. "It's great to see you all here, and I'm more than happy to have you stay for the fun."
"You will?" Alice asked, half surprised and half excited.
"Why not?" Chloe said. "Let's go dance."
Richard swallowed hard. Dancing, for him? Well, that was debatable, but for Chloe, he supposed he could try.
Alice and Peaseblossom followed Chloe to the center of the dance floor, where, as Chloe began to move to the beat, Alice twirled around, and Peaseblossom just hovered in midair, moving to her own rhythm.
Following them, Richard concentrated on what the others were doing for the so-called dance. Lots were just moving their feet to the beat, while others were simply snapping their fingers rhythmically, with the clip-clop of shoes being just a whisper under the fiddling and drumming.
Okay, I guess that's nothing. Just go with it, he told himself. Over and over, Richard urged himself to take the first step, which was simply to get into the music and develop a sense of rhythm. But that was easier to think about, instead of doing. His natural rhythm was in baseball or studying, not dancing. Oddly enough, he'd never been to a homecoming or turnabout dance in his high school years; he refused to go.
But in stepping out, Alice took his hands, and twirled around with him. Richard let out a surprised cry as he was swept away by his little friend, but in being gently twirled around, he slowly grew comfortable with moving around to the music, even if it was slightly off with Alice's gleeful dancing. She giggled at Richard's reaction, and laughed along with him as he grew into this dance, just barely coming over the happy barking of Jip, who jumped around the whirling couple excitedly. Other Order members soon recognized the other Proverb, and, also recognizing his energetic partner, created a little circle around Richard and Alice. They began clapping, to the arrival of their comrade, and to the vivacious energy of the music.
Chloe laughed watching Richard dance with Alice, and she stepped inside the circle too, taking Peaseblossom with her. The little fairy flew around the circle, casting halos of fairy dust over the dancers, and the Binding Order cheered, celebrating their Proverbs, and their new friends. Jip barked along with them, soon charging into the circle, where Alice met him with a hug, and Jip met her with a lick on her face.
When the fairy dust settled, the Order joined their leaders, and soon, every person there was dancing to their lead, who were all laughing till their stomachs hurt.
They were having so much fun, that Chloe's mind had completely forgotten the next real purpose of this gathering, and the night was almost over.
When Chloe could finally notice how high the moon had gotten, she dashed to the window, and squinted down at Dracula's castle. The windows were still alight, but she didn't see anyone wandering around. Still her heart began to drum hard; who knew how much of the salt grains the Count had gotten through.
The moment this question struck her, Chloe threw herself towards the front of the room, and to get everyone's attention, zapped away the magical instruments. All became almost completely silent.
"Listen up everyone! Listen up! The night is almost over, and I think maybe we've partied long enough. We have to get out of here now!"
"Right now?" Richard seemed slightly confused by Chloe's immediate haste.
"Count Dracula! He might catch us if we don't get out while we have the chance to. Look, Richard, I'll explain this to you while we are getting out of here, but we must do it right this moment!"
"Who is Count Dracula?" Alice wondered out loud. "Quite a curious name."
"Just hope you never have to find out," Richard told her as he took her hand to lead her out with him and the others.
Under the helpful leadership of Sir Hugo, everyone followed him and Chloe to the window, as she shut her eyes to make the party disappear, and the ladder reappear. It came as ghastly white, but was solidly tangible enough for someone to climb. Chloe reached over by her bed, and grabbed her blue-and-silver cloak, fastening it around her neck. In her hands she grasped her bow and arrows and slung them around her back, before picking up her skirts to climb out the window. Slowly, she took the first rung and began to climb down, her friends close behind her.