Chapter 3
Another guard came up to them. "Children if you will please follow me their Majesties want to see you both right away." Crystal and Dagger look at each other not sure what to do. What are we going to do? I do not like this one bit. I also want to know where they took Kal and Kono. We could try to make a break for it but I am not so sure if that would be a good idea, Crystal said. I do not know what we are going to do, but I don't like it either. I have no clue where they took Kal and Kono but we should not make a break for it, and it definitely would not be a good idea, Dagger answers her. He looks at her and they silently agree that they should follow the guard to see what this is all about. He leads them through a huge archway and into an even bigger hallway. They pass several doors in the hallway but the soldier doesn't lead them into any of them. As they come to the end of the hallway a couple of pages come out of the shadows and open the big double doors. They see a bunch of finely dressed people and they wonder again what is going on. They step on a red carpet and the guard tells them to walk all the way down it until they reach the thrones. Crystal and Dagger look at each other and Crystal all of a sudden gets very nervous. Crystal and Dagger walk down the length of the carpet amid many whispers. As they near the thrones Crystal stops as well as Dagger. For a few minutes they look into faces that are almost identical to theirs. Then they start to walk down the carpet again. The king gets up to greet them. "Welcome to my Kingdom, my name is King William. How have you two liked your visit so far?" "We have enjoyed our visit, so far, very well, Your Majesty. Thank you for asking." Crystal and Dagger reply at the same time. The King inspects them and spots Dagger's ring. At the same time the King is inspecting Dagger the Queen is inspecting Crystal and spots her necklace. The Queen gets King Williams attention and tells him what she saw. And in return the King tells her what he saw and they confer about whether or not they should leave their guests for a few minutes to talk to the children. After a couple of minutes they agree to do just that. "My people," the king says, "my Queen and I need to talk to our young guests about something important. We shall only be gone a few minutes." The King and the Queen get up and a page hurries up to tell them to follow Their Majesties. The Children follow the King and Queen into a little privet room off of the ballroom, and the door closes behind them. "Children it is nice of you to visit our Kingdom," the Queen says in a silvery voice. "Your Majesties, what are we doing here? Some guards took us and our two friends off the street and said that you had wanted to see us. What is this all about?" Dagger asks as politely as he could. "Young man what is your name?" The Queen asks him. "Should I not be asking you that, Your Majesty?" Dagger questions. "Dagger! That is no way to talk to a queen. Now answer her question and remember what Kono told us." Crystal admonishes him. The Queen smiled and said, "My name is Queen Fiona." All of a sudden Crystal elbowed him and he said, "Queen Fiona, my name is Dagger." The King smiles and says, "Young lady what is your name?" "King William, my name is Crystal." The Queen looks at Crystal and says, "Crystal come here please. I want to look at that necklace that your are wearing." Crystal takes the necklace off and hands it to the Queen. "Just what I thought Husband; it's just what I thought." The King addresses Dagger. "Dagger may I please see that ring? I just want to inspect it. This is also what I thought it would be." The King looks at the Queen and she nods. They open their arms and give the children big hugs. All the while saying, "Welcome home kids, welcome home." Crystal and Dagger look at each other still not believing that this was possible. Over the last half hour the King and Queen had told them that they were Princess Crystal of Karnà and Prince Dagger of Karnà. They were about to go back out into the ballroom wearing the crowns that princesses and princes wear. They were scared stiff. They didn't know what to do, an hour ago they didn't even know who they were but now they did and it scared them silly. "Are you all right Hon?" her mother asked her. She smiled, looked up, and nodded. "I'm just a little bit scared of going out here in front of all those people, but I know that I'm going to have to get over it." Her mother smiled and agreed with her. "It's time to go back out there," her father announced. He opened the door and stepped out as a herald announced the king, queen, and their two children. The subjects applauded when they stepped out of the little room and she dropped a curtsy and he bowed. "We are pleased to inform you, our people that our children The Crown Princess Crystal of Karnà and The Crown Prince Dagger of Karnà have returned to us at last." The King announced after his wife and children had taken their seats. "You are all probably wondering why you have never seen them before." He pauses and a bunch of heads nod as if saying yes. "The Queen and I sent our children away during the Battle of Light and Evil. We knew that our enemies were plotting against us and that if they killed us that our children would be killed as well. We knew we couldn't let that happen so we sent them away to a different time so that they would be safe." The children looked like they were angry about something but if they had anything to say they held their tongues. I can't believe that they would just let us go like that, Dagger thought angrily. I know but they had a good reason you have got to admit that. They just didn't want to see us get hurt, Crystal protested. We will talk about this later children, Crystal and Dagger heard another thought-speech voice that startled them. That thought-speech voice sounded oddly familiar. Now Queen Fiona was talking to Crystal and Dagger, "Children why don't you go find your two friends and make sure they are being taken care of properly. If the guards give you any trouble just pull rank on them." She stopped to smile at them. "Believe me it works every time." They knew that they had been dismissed. They jumped up and with a few words to the guard that had been assigned to help them find their way around the palace they were headed off to the guest wing. A few breathless minutes later and they were lost. "Where are we Dagger?" Crystal asked looking around. "I don't know," he replied a little nervously. He didn't like this hallway! There were so many doors! All of a sudden a bell goes off near Dagger's head, Crystal nearly screamed. All of the doors were opening and boys beginning to come out of them. All the boys were between the ages of ten to fourteen. Crystal starts to say something to Dagger in a high pitch voice. "Dagger I think we took a wrong turn back their in the corridor. All of the boys stop and look at them. An adult walks up to the group of boys. He wasn't at the speech Mother and Father made, Dagger thought. Crystal just gulped. "Young Lady," the man began, "just what do you think you are doing roaming the pages wing? This wing is not for ladies." "I'm sorry sir; I think my brother and I took a wrong turn somewhere. We are just visiting some relatives in the palace for the first time. We were looking for the guest wing, if you could kindly point us in the right direction we will be on our way." The man told them which corridors to go down and they were on their way. Why didn't you pull rank on him like mother told you to do, Dagger was angry but it wasn't her fault he just hated adults who were like that. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the boys that he has to teach. They respect him and if I had pulled rank on him he would not forget that in a while the boys would always be teased about that and he would have lost his respect in the boys. Dagger agreed with her on that one. A few minutes later Crystal and Dagger stood in front of a door and they knocked on it. They waited for a few minutes and no one came to the door. "Did they give us the wrong door number?" Dagger wanted to know. "I don't think they did. Mayhap they are asleep." Crystal suggested. "I don't know. I thought Father said they were in room 216." All of a sudden they heard a bunch of people talking. It sounds like it might be a group of those boys and that one guy, Crystal thought. It also sounds like a Kal and Kono, Dagger told her. Let's go check it out. As the prince and princess of the realm it is our duty to ensure our friend's safety, Crystal said. They walk down the corridor and around the corner.
Another guard came up to them. "Children if you will please follow me their Majesties want to see you both right away." Crystal and Dagger look at each other not sure what to do. What are we going to do? I do not like this one bit. I also want to know where they took Kal and Kono. We could try to make a break for it but I am not so sure if that would be a good idea, Crystal said. I do not know what we are going to do, but I don't like it either. I have no clue where they took Kal and Kono but we should not make a break for it, and it definitely would not be a good idea, Dagger answers her. He looks at her and they silently agree that they should follow the guard to see what this is all about. He leads them through a huge archway and into an even bigger hallway. They pass several doors in the hallway but the soldier doesn't lead them into any of them. As they come to the end of the hallway a couple of pages come out of the shadows and open the big double doors. They see a bunch of finely dressed people and they wonder again what is going on. They step on a red carpet and the guard tells them to walk all the way down it until they reach the thrones. Crystal and Dagger look at each other and Crystal all of a sudden gets very nervous. Crystal and Dagger walk down the length of the carpet amid many whispers. As they near the thrones Crystal stops as well as Dagger. For a few minutes they look into faces that are almost identical to theirs. Then they start to walk down the carpet again. The king gets up to greet them. "Welcome to my Kingdom, my name is King William. How have you two liked your visit so far?" "We have enjoyed our visit, so far, very well, Your Majesty. Thank you for asking." Crystal and Dagger reply at the same time. The King inspects them and spots Dagger's ring. At the same time the King is inspecting Dagger the Queen is inspecting Crystal and spots her necklace. The Queen gets King Williams attention and tells him what she saw. And in return the King tells her what he saw and they confer about whether or not they should leave their guests for a few minutes to talk to the children. After a couple of minutes they agree to do just that. "My people," the king says, "my Queen and I need to talk to our young guests about something important. We shall only be gone a few minutes." The King and the Queen get up and a page hurries up to tell them to follow Their Majesties. The Children follow the King and Queen into a little privet room off of the ballroom, and the door closes behind them. "Children it is nice of you to visit our Kingdom," the Queen says in a silvery voice. "Your Majesties, what are we doing here? Some guards took us and our two friends off the street and said that you had wanted to see us. What is this all about?" Dagger asks as politely as he could. "Young man what is your name?" The Queen asks him. "Should I not be asking you that, Your Majesty?" Dagger questions. "Dagger! That is no way to talk to a queen. Now answer her question and remember what Kono told us." Crystal admonishes him. The Queen smiled and said, "My name is Queen Fiona." All of a sudden Crystal elbowed him and he said, "Queen Fiona, my name is Dagger." The King smiles and says, "Young lady what is your name?" "King William, my name is Crystal." The Queen looks at Crystal and says, "Crystal come here please. I want to look at that necklace that your are wearing." Crystal takes the necklace off and hands it to the Queen. "Just what I thought Husband; it's just what I thought." The King addresses Dagger. "Dagger may I please see that ring? I just want to inspect it. This is also what I thought it would be." The King looks at the Queen and she nods. They open their arms and give the children big hugs. All the while saying, "Welcome home kids, welcome home." Crystal and Dagger look at each other still not believing that this was possible. Over the last half hour the King and Queen had told them that they were Princess Crystal of Karnà and Prince Dagger of Karnà. They were about to go back out into the ballroom wearing the crowns that princesses and princes wear. They were scared stiff. They didn't know what to do, an hour ago they didn't even know who they were but now they did and it scared them silly. "Are you all right Hon?" her mother asked her. She smiled, looked up, and nodded. "I'm just a little bit scared of going out here in front of all those people, but I know that I'm going to have to get over it." Her mother smiled and agreed with her. "It's time to go back out there," her father announced. He opened the door and stepped out as a herald announced the king, queen, and their two children. The subjects applauded when they stepped out of the little room and she dropped a curtsy and he bowed. "We are pleased to inform you, our people that our children The Crown Princess Crystal of Karnà and The Crown Prince Dagger of Karnà have returned to us at last." The King announced after his wife and children had taken their seats. "You are all probably wondering why you have never seen them before." He pauses and a bunch of heads nod as if saying yes. "The Queen and I sent our children away during the Battle of Light and Evil. We knew that our enemies were plotting against us and that if they killed us that our children would be killed as well. We knew we couldn't let that happen so we sent them away to a different time so that they would be safe." The children looked like they were angry about something but if they had anything to say they held their tongues. I can't believe that they would just let us go like that, Dagger thought angrily. I know but they had a good reason you have got to admit that. They just didn't want to see us get hurt, Crystal protested. We will talk about this later children, Crystal and Dagger heard another thought-speech voice that startled them. That thought-speech voice sounded oddly familiar. Now Queen Fiona was talking to Crystal and Dagger, "Children why don't you go find your two friends and make sure they are being taken care of properly. If the guards give you any trouble just pull rank on them." She stopped to smile at them. "Believe me it works every time." They knew that they had been dismissed. They jumped up and with a few words to the guard that had been assigned to help them find their way around the palace they were headed off to the guest wing. A few breathless minutes later and they were lost. "Where are we Dagger?" Crystal asked looking around. "I don't know," he replied a little nervously. He didn't like this hallway! There were so many doors! All of a sudden a bell goes off near Dagger's head, Crystal nearly screamed. All of the doors were opening and boys beginning to come out of them. All the boys were between the ages of ten to fourteen. Crystal starts to say something to Dagger in a high pitch voice. "Dagger I think we took a wrong turn back their in the corridor. All of the boys stop and look at them. An adult walks up to the group of boys. He wasn't at the speech Mother and Father made, Dagger thought. Crystal just gulped. "Young Lady," the man began, "just what do you think you are doing roaming the pages wing? This wing is not for ladies." "I'm sorry sir; I think my brother and I took a wrong turn somewhere. We are just visiting some relatives in the palace for the first time. We were looking for the guest wing, if you could kindly point us in the right direction we will be on our way." The man told them which corridors to go down and they were on their way. Why didn't you pull rank on him like mother told you to do, Dagger was angry but it wasn't her fault he just hated adults who were like that. I didn't want to embarrass him in front of the boys that he has to teach. They respect him and if I had pulled rank on him he would not forget that in a while the boys would always be teased about that and he would have lost his respect in the boys. Dagger agreed with her on that one. A few minutes later Crystal and Dagger stood in front of a door and they knocked on it. They waited for a few minutes and no one came to the door. "Did they give us the wrong door number?" Dagger wanted to know. "I don't think they did. Mayhap they are asleep." Crystal suggested. "I don't know. I thought Father said they were in room 216." All of a sudden they heard a bunch of people talking. It sounds like it might be a group of those boys and that one guy, Crystal thought. It also sounds like a Kal and Kono, Dagger told her. Let's go check it out. As the prince and princess of the realm it is our duty to ensure our friend's safety, Crystal said. They walk down the corridor and around the corner.