Chapter Four
I opened my eyes slowly, unsure if I wanted to know where I was.
Memories flooded my mind then. I remembered the trip into the square with my best friend, Melody after school. I remembered eating dinner and talking to my perfect boyfriend Will about available jobs. I remembered the phone conversation with Alice and my heart sunk. Then, I remembered coming to the Merchant's Library, begging Antonio, the owner of the shop for a job. And lastly, I remembered reading from the glowing manuscript and . . . .
It had seemed too real, this new dream that I had about the world of Shakespeare. Only there had been something different about it.
Never before had I had the dream while awake. True, I had blacked out before the dream came but usually, I was asleep, wrapped up snugly in my bed beneath my blankets.
It had happened so quickly and seemingly out of nowhere. One second, I was reading about Henry IV, and the next, I had fainted.
I had become the Dark Lady once more and I could really feel her joy when all of the Seven Relics had been located, just as I could feel her anger when she had lost them. That was why I was confused and was unsure if I wanted to see where I was. Was I still in the Merchant's Library, sitting on the floor of the second floor of Antonio's private room, with the heavy book of one of the special manuscripts on my lap or was I in the world of Shakespeare, speaking with Caliban about the Prophecy of the Sycorax?
As I opened my eyes, I could feel the weight of the book pressing down upon my legs, so I knew where I was. I was back in the Merchant's Library.
I looked around and found that I was still alone. I closed the book. I wanted to read more but I resisted the urge. How long had I been under? Apparently, it had only been a few minutes but Antonio hadn't returned yet. I had only been out for a few minutes when clearly my dream had lasted for nearly an hour it seemed.
I quickly stood up and I wobbled on two legs before gaining my balance and holding steady. I felt lightheaded, a little dizzy. My body ached. I was stiff. I stretched and returned the book to the bookshelf.
Looking at the door to the room the entire time, I returned to the ladder and climbed down, out of breath before I had even reached the bottom. Something was wrong with me. I felt angry without reason and my body hurt as if I had fell down to the ground hard. My ears were ringing and even being around such wondrous objects couldn't make me feel better.
I noticed something just as I heard the footsteps approaching. I looked closely and I was perplexed. The item was there before I had blacked out and now, it was gone. Was I dreaming again?
Antonio came into the room as I found myself drifting towards the place where the ring used to be.
"Sorry, it took me so long," Antonio was saying, apologizing to me, which would have shocked me if I hadn't been shocked by something else already. I spun around and tried to look as innocent as possible. Antonio's eyes narrowed. "What are you doing?"
I shielded the spot behind me as well as I could. "N-n-nothing," I stammered, placing a hand on my chest. I started to breath hard from nerves but I played it off as being scared. "I was just looking at all of fascinating things you have back here. You startled me."
Antonio stared at me for a moment and I could feel his eyes burning though me, peering into my soul to find out if I was lying or not. His eyes flickered upstairs and I knew that he was looking up to make sure that his precious manuscripts were left undisturbed. My eyes followed his and my mouth dropped. The manuscripts weren't glowing anymore. Matter of fact, they weren't indistinguishable from the other books that lined the bookshelf.
I closed my mouth when Antonio looked back at me, trying my best to stand there and look nonchalant.
"You didn't touch anything?" Antonio demanded. I really wished he went back to acting the way he did when he apologized to me because the current look on his face was downright scary. I wanted to cower in a corner and shake to death from fright. Did this guy ever smile? And why on earth was he so stern? I would have to ask Will about his friend later.
I shook my head. "No, I didn't touch anything. I was just looking around; that's all."
Antonio didn't seem to believe me but he accepted it for now. He finished giving me a tour of the Merchant's Library. First, he showed me the rest of the room of goodies. He didn't take me up to the second level but he pointed out a door up there that I didn't notice while I was up there earlier—the glowing manuscripts had captivated me so that I couldn't see anything but them. He told me that the door led to a third level where his apartment was. He said that the door was always locked but at any rate, I wasn't allowed in his apartment ever.
We left the room. I took one last look back. Of course, the ring was gone and the manuscripts were not glowing. Again I had to ask myself if I was dreaming—or maybe the more appropriate question to ask was had I been dreaming earlier?
I knew I had dreamt about the Dark Lady and the Seven Relics because that was only a part of my imagination and wasn't real. But had I been imagining the glowing books about Shakespearean plays? Had they really been illuminated by a golden light, or was my imagination so active nowadays that I was always pretending like a little kid with an imaginary friend?
It had all been real, I was sure of it. I knew that I wasn't going crazy. The books had glowed and had invited me to come and read them. And what about the ring?
The ring—Leah's ring—had been present in that room. I hadn't imagined it either. I had seen it, its silvery surface and the slots that were missing gems. It had been there and now, it was gone. How long would it take for Antonio to realize that one of his artifacts had been stolen? And . . . stolen? Who could have taken it? I was the only one in the room at the time, so I was the only suspect. Antonio would blame me for sure and I didn't have an alibi except that I blacked out but I didn't think that excuse would hold up in Antonio's court.
I checked my pockets just to make sure that I hadn't sleepwalked and somehow took the ring. My pockets were empty so that meant that someone else had been in that room with me. Someone else had taken the ring and was trying to set me up to be the culprit. Was it a customer who had stolen it? Antonio himself? Surely not Antonio. Why would he hire me and then set me up as a thief. It didn't make sense. None of it made sense—the glowing manuscripts and the ring. Nothing made sense at all. I didn't think that I wanted to work here anymore.
I would have to tell Antonio. It was the noble thing to do. But I didn't want him to blame me for the heist. I was not going to be the scapegoat. I had to convince him somehow that someone else had come into the room while I was there. Someone else had swiped it. He would have to believe me. The manuscripts could help. Telling him about reading the manuscript would force him to believe me. Maybe he knew that reading from those strange and magical books caused people to faint.
Antonio led me back to the main part of the store. He fished around behind the counter for a contract for me to sign and then we were going to discuss the days and hours that I could work. The store was empty. The sky was dark outside now and the shop was going to close soon. It was now or never. I took a deep breath and exhaled loudly.
Antonio looked up. "Did you say something?" he asked curiously.
I shook my head and he looked down, searching for the contract.
"Antonio?" I called timidly, my throat dry. Over and over again inside my head I told myself that this was the right thing to do, even if I got into trouble over it. My mind flickered to Alice and what she would think when I was taken to jail for a petty crime; to Will's; to Melody's. I forced the thoughts away, pushing them back with mental might I never knew I possessed.
Antonio looked up again and he emerged from behind the counter, clutching a thick slip of parchment paper and a feathered quill.
"Antonio?" I called without being aware that I had made myself speak again.
He walked towards me with the contract he had finally found. He seemed not to have heard me because he didn't acknowledge me. Either that or he was ignoring me, which was definitely curbing my will to tell him about the missing ring.
"Here you are," Antonio said, handing me the parchment. I looked down at it instinctively, thoughts tugging at my brain and playing a very bizarre game of tug-of-war. I tried to make myself ignore the contract and speak to Antonio. The contract would become null and void anyway whenever I decided to speak up again. "I just need you to read over this and then sign it if you agree to the terms."
The words on the page were blurry even though I was wearing my contacts. I couldn't focus on them. I had to talk to Antonio. Why did I have a conscious? Why couldn't I be a soulless, heartless woman like the Dark Lady?
Antonio walked off and started tidying up the sales floor, beginning his pre-closing stuff. I watched him face a section of books and a lump rose in my throat that was hard to swallow.
It was a difficult situation for me to be in. I wanted and needed the job that he had just given me but I also needed, not wanted, to tell him about the ring and how I had lied about touching the items of his backroom.
"Antonio?" I called again. My voice tried to falter but I held strong.
He looked over at me, inquiringly. I assumed he thought that I needed assistance with the contract but I didn't. But there was still the lingering voice that told me that Antonio must think that I was stupid.
"Yes?" he called, sounding only half-interested, wanting more than anything for me to just sign the contract so that I could be out of his hair for a while so that he could straighten up his precious store in peace. Or maybe I assumed too much. I really needed to stop that. It could be my downfall one day, my tragic flaw, if I was the hero of an epic tale that is.
"I . . . I have something to tell you."
If he hadn't been interested before, he was definitely interested now. He stopped facing and faced me. I gulped. I didn't like how quickly his face could turn to stone. I wondered if Antonio was one of those parents who were always glowering at their kids, you know those fussy, stern parents. And that was assuming he had kids. Stop it, Anne, I chided myself. Stop assuming already . . . .
I couldn't help I though. I was terrified of Antonio's wrath and I didn't even know the guy like that. I just assumed that he would get very angry and go all Hulk on me.
See, there I go again with the assumptions.
"What?" was all that escaped from the thin line of Antonio's pursed lips. He hadn't said it with curt but it was very well implied.
His eyes were upon me. They were staring with intensity, waiting.
I rambled through what I had to say without pausing to even take a breath, not caring if he comprehended what I said. I had just wanted to get it all out before I succumbed to nerves and fear:
"When I was in the backroom, I was looking at all of your treasures and I saw the replica of Leah's ring from Shakespeare's play, The Merchant of Venice. I didn't touch it, I swear. I left it right where it was. But then, I saw the glowing manuscripts upstairs and I couldn't help myself. I climbed up the ladder and I read a little bit of Henry IV. I'm sorry. And now, your ring is gone but I swear that I had nothing to do with it. Honestly, I was reading from the book and then, I fainted. The ring was gone when I came to."
Antonio's eyes flashed dangerously. He kept his temper in check for just a moment before he erupted like a volcano.
"WHAT?!" He cried. Then, he voice gave out and became a squeak. "The ring . . . You . . . The manuscripts . . . I can't believe . . . . I told you not to . . . ."
He couldn't make a complete sentence. I watched in horror, waiting for him to rush at me and strike me or something. But he didn't. Antonio spun away from me, muttering under his breath incoherently. I hadn't banked on him acting like this. I expected yelling and immediate termination but Antonio fled from the room.
Well, he didn't flee the room because there was nothing to flee from, but he did leave the sales floor. He was going to that backroom, going to ensure that I was right about the ring; about it being stolen that is. Maybe somehow he could tell that I had read from one of the Shakespeare manuscripts. After all, they weren't glowing any more.
I dropped the contract and I followed him. I don't know why but I did, my legs moving slowly but in sync with each other so that I did not topple over. I was a puppet, a marionette even, and Antonio's retreat into his storage room was the puppeteer who had mastered controlling the strings.
I could hear movement before I had even reached the open door. I could also hear banging, scrapes, and muttered curses. Antonio was moving stuff around, searching for the lost ring. He was panicked, freaking out, his movements a swift patter of his shoes against the floor as he moved about the room, swearing under his breath. I came to a halt in the doorframe, not daring to take a step farther as I cut the invisible strings that had previous bound me and regained control of my body. I was no longer a puppet.
Antonio was in an uproar, muttering to himself in disbelief. He looked behind his statues and Paleolithic pottery, underneath display tables and an antique chair that stood in the farthest corner from the door.
He happened to pause briefly and look over to find me standing in the doorway. He made a noise that resembled a growl and continued his search. I attempted to speak, to tell him more but I forgot how to speak. It was like I had no tongue, no mouth, and no lips.
Antonio stopped looking at me without warning. He was thinking. Then, his eyes flashed my way again for just a split-second and then up at a particular section of books. I knew right away what he was looking at—the section where the Shakespearean manuscripts rested. I gulped and I attempted to talk again.
"Antonio," I managed to choke out. "I don't know what is going on but—"
"SILENCE!" Antonio yelled in outrage and the entire room seemed to shudder in wake of his bellow. I took two fleeting steps backwards and continued to watch him as he stood there, looking up. I wanted to cry or at least run away, but my eyes forgot how to cry as well and I was frozen there, a puppet once more. I had to wait to see how this played out. I had to wait for Antonio to cast judgment.
He stalked over to the ladder then. It was in a perfect position for him to climb up to reach the manuscripts, exactly where I had left it earlier. I wanted to slap myself in the forehead and yell out "Duh!" I mean, how could I have been so stupid? Of course, Antonio would have eventually noticed that his ladder had been moved, which would have eventually led him to see that the manuscripts weren't glowing anymore and then perhaps to the conclusion that I had read from one of them. But that didn't matter anymore. He knew everything now. I had confessed . . . Well, not really confessed, because that was a horrible word for the current situation. I had told him that I had read from one of the manuscripts and that the ring was gone but I hadn't confessed to anything because I was innocent. Innocent until proven guilty. How would such a law that most of the world lived upon play out today in Antonio's court? How swift would his justice be for a crime that I didn't commit? I had to keep reminding myself that I hadn't stolen the ring not because I was trying to convince myself that it was true but rather because I wanted myself to believe that there was no possible way that Antonio could accuse me of thieving. I did not have the ring on me at all so how could I have taken it? Maybe he would think that I had hidden it but I didn't think that he would. For my sake, I hoped that he was smarter than that.
I watched silently as Antonio climbed the ladder faster than I would have expected him to be able to in normal circumstances. But this was by no means a circumstance that I would have liked to call normal. This was far from it. One of Antonio's prized possessions had mysteriously disappeared and he was trying to get to the bottom of something. If only I knew what. Surely, he didn't expect to find the ring inside one of the Shakespeare books. That idea was ludicrous, preposterous even, or any other synonym for wildly crazy one could think of with or without the use of a thesaurus.
Antonio stepped up onto the second floor and walked straight over to the formerly glowing tomes without delay. He pulled one from the shelf and I knew it was the Henry IV one that he had grabbed. After all, that was the one that I had read from and I had told him that when I had also told him that the ring was gone.
He flipped through the book and I listened as silently as I could, my breathing coming hard and fast. Over the sound of my breathing I could hear the pages flipping and I could hear other noises as well. Voices and other sounds coming from upstairs. Was I hearing things? This wasn't the first time that I had imagined something that wasn't there, something that wasn't tangible, and I was sure that this wouldn't be the last time.
Antonio closed the book shut with an echoing snap and I jumped reflexively. The voices and sounds that I had heard—or thought I heard—disappeared, which advanced my beliefs that I had been hearing things that weren't real. He returned the book to the shelf and climbed back down the ladder. Then, he glared at me and I knew that I was in trouble.
I opened my mouth to speak, ready to defend myself when the accusations started spewing from his mouth but Antonio didn't accuse me of anything. Instead he said—
"I don't really know what happened here," he began quietly, trying to keep his voice calm and steady while staring down at the hardwood floor. He didn't want to look at me because he feared that he would lose his cool again. "And I can't understand what happened right now either. What I do know is that my ring is gone and that you read from one of the manuscripts after I specifically told you not to touch anything. I must find out what is going to happen now and I need to do so alone." He then looked up at me suddenly and I cringed, waiting for him to unleash his wrath. "I need for you to leave and get out of here right now."
"I could help you find the ring," I offered and I didn't know why. Clearly, Antonio wanted me to vacate the premises, yet I wanted to remain to try and help him recover an item that I had no clue about its whereabouts.
Antonio shook his head and shook with rage that he did a remarkable job of suppressing. "No," he said flatly. "I want you to leave now."
I hesitated. I wanted to ask him if I still had a job here. Asking such a question was tempting and I probably would have asked it like a dummy if Antonio hadn't yelled at me a third time.
"NOW!"
I turned on my heels and raced from the shop without looking back, the tears able to fall now.
I stepped outside into the cool, crisp night air. The sky was completely dark but the square was not. The streetlamps had been lit and colorful lights danced around all of the little shops and eateries, coming from outside and within. I broke into a brisk pace, sobbing openly as I headed back to Will's job to meet up with him and Melody.
I wiped my face with the back of my hand and I couldn't figure out why I was crying. I had nothing to cry about. In fact, I should have been relieved that Antonio had let me leave without blaming me for stealing the replica of Leah's ring and calling the cops to have me arrested. I assumed, something that you know that I liked to do often by now, that I was crying because of the intensity of the predicament that I had found myself in. It also didn't help that Antonio had yelled at me too. Those few things had fueled my desires to sob.
I knew that I needed to stop crying soon because I did not want Will and Melody to see me in such a state. I didn't want them to comfort me, especially Will, who would figure out some way to blame himself for my troubles. And then, what was I going to tell the two of them when I saw them? Would I lie to them and say that I got the job at the Merchant's Library? Or would that even be a lie? I had indeed received the job but now I was uncertain if Antonio would allow me to retain my new position after today's debacle.
I would tell them the truth. I didn't want to lie to my friends. Besides, lying would be very difficult in my current state. I was so riled up with negative emotions that they wouldn't believe me anyway if I told them that all was well.
Passing the seafood restaurant made me think about Alice again, which in turn caused me to cry harder. I sat down for a while, reflecting on the phone conversation with Alice while I tried to regain my composure.
I stopped crying and continued to dab away at the drying tears. My eyes were bloodshot, I was sure, but the redness would go away soon enough. Maybe if I sat there long enough, my eyes wouldn't be red when I returned to Will's workplace. I didn't have all night to just sit there and think and I needed to meet up with Melody soon anyways so we could catch a bus home. I wanted desperately to go home, to go to sleep, and wake up the next morning from this nightmare, hoping that everything would be better tomorrow. Tomorrow . . . .
I quickly realized that I didn't really want to think about tomorrow a whole lot. Tomorrow I would have no job just like before and I would have to relive today over and over again as my memories replayed the images before my mind's eye like I was watching a rerun of a television show—my least favorite television show to be a little more precise. And what if the police suddenly showed up at my door? How would I be able to explain it to Alice, explain that I was innocent? She would be devastated if I was hauled off to jail. After what happened with our parents . . . I don't think she could handle losing me too . . . .
I forced those disturbing images out of my mind and tried to relax. My head was spinning so fast that if I stood up at the moment, I would probably fall over.
People past me and I watched them walk by without truly seeing them. All I could see, all I could think about was the glowing manuscript, the missing ring, and the dream about the Dark Lady.
For some strange, unexplainable reason, my mind was suddenly more concerned about the dream than anything else at the moment.
The Dark Lady was continuing her quest for world domination and she had at long last managed to acquire all of the Seven Relics since the last time I had a dream about her. Hotspur had brought her a skull while Caliban had given her a . . . .
I gasped as I recalled the dream. Caliban had given the Dark Lady a ring! The last Relic was a ring, a ring that was much like the pilfered ring from Antonio's shop. What a strange coincidence. I fell asleep and had a dream about a ring and then I woke up to find that Antonio's ring had been taken. Was I going insane?
I knew that the dream had nothing to do with the disappearance of Antonio's ring but I couldn't help but to see the weird connection that the two separate events had. I didn't really see what the ring had looked like in the dream—dreams were just weird like that with their odd camera angles and such—but there was no way that it resembled the missing ring in anyway possible. They were two separate rings and just part of a coincidence and . . . why was I even trying to compare the dream with reality anyways?
I stood up and realized that I had been sitting there for nearly twenty minutes. My tears had long since faded now. I checked my reflection as much as I could in my glass watch face and from what I could see, my eyes were no longer red. I was ready to face Will and Melody but was I ready to tell them the truth?
I returned to the courier building faster than I had wanted to. I couldn't stall anymore. I had to go on in and face my boyfriend and my best friend and tell them what happened, but only if they asked me, which they surely would since they were both waiting to hear if I had found a job or not. After trying to summon as much courage as I could—and feeling exactly like the cowardly lion did at the beginning of The Wizard of Oz—I entered the building.
Will was exactly where I had left him and if I hadn't known better, I would have wagered that he had never left the spot at all. But of course, I knew better. I had been gone for nearly an hour and he was at work. He had probably moved from that very spot at least two dozen times over the course of the last sixty minutes; nonetheless, it was very strange to find him standing in the exact place where he had been standing when I had departed. If was almost as if he had been waiting for my return for the past few minutes, anxious to hear the good and even the bad news. Sadly, all I would have for him was bad news.
Will's eyes lit up when he saw me and my mind started concocting lies to tell him almost automatically. He was so adorable, especially when he regarded me like he was regarding me now. His face looked like a small child's on Christmas morning.
"Hey, sweetheart," he greeted, coming over to me at once. "How did it go?"
"Unexpected," I replied, allowing him to sweep me up into a hug. At least, I hadn't told a lie yet.
He kissed my forehead gently and chuckled. "Unexpected?" he repeated. "How so?"
But I was looking around the room. I had noticed something. "Melody hadn't returned yet?" I changed the subject. I needed more time to gather myself before I told him what had transpired at the Merchant's Library. Plus, I wanted Melody to be there too when I said it. Maybe it would be easier. Maybe it would be harder. Who knew? I just wanted them both present so I didn't have to repeat myself. I hated telling some stories twice and this was one of them.
Will shook his head. "No, not yet," he told me. "I expect that she should be returning soon though."
"She should be," I said.
Will stared at me. I looked at him and then quickly looked away. That was it. I had given it away. Will would know that something was wrong now. I might as well go ahead and spill the beans.
"Did you get the job?" Will questioned me. "You don't seem too excited if you did."
"It's a long story," I told him, continuing to barely skirt around the edge of the truth. "And I kind of want to wait until Melody gets back to tell it."
Will understood completely and didn't press me farther. He was so kind and unselfish. He would give me the world if I asked him too or maybe a kingdom or something of that nature.
"Okay, we'll wait to Melody returns," Will agreed.
He walked behind the counter across the room and started stacking up a pile of heavy boxes. I remained where I was, just as nervous now as I was when I had first met him.
"So, how's work?" I asked, sparking a time-filling conversation, although work was the last thing that I wanted to think about.
"Tonight was pretty boring actually," Will told me, straining to lift up one of the heavier boxes. I wanted to assist him but I hesitated and in that split second, he had already gotten the box up off the ground. "We didn't have too many deliveries. I've been mostly standing around waiting to see you again."
He flashed the smile that I loved and I wanted to hug him again.
Blushing slightly, I looked around the room trying to come up with another question to ask him as a topic starter. I couldn't think of any but it didn't really matter anyway because at that moment, the door opened behind me and Melody strode in to save the day. She was looking very smug with a gi-normous grin on her face. She didn't even have to tell us that she got the job at The Boutique because we could get the picture by her facial expression alone. And I couldn't help but to feel slightly jealous.
"I did it!" Melody cried at once. "She liked the dress that I made and would like to see some more of my designs. I can't believe it! I'm going to be a fashion designer for the Boutique."
Will smiled at her. "Congratulations, Melody."
I tried to smile but it appeared on my face rather lopsidedly. "Yeah, good job, Mel," I said sincerely, although the jealousy continued to hover around me. "I'm so proud of you."
"Thank you!" Melody cried and she looked like she was on the verge of crying tears of joy, quite the opposite from the way that I had been feeling for the past half an hour. She embraced me tightly and cried some more. "I can't wait to tell Alice. Maybe she could join us too!"
I nearly started balling again at the mention of Alice's name. I was so saddened by the fact that she had lost one of her jobs and that I had failed to obtain a job for myself. I had had it and then I had lost it just as quickly. Why hadn't I listened to Antonio when he had plainly told me not to touch anything? If I hadn't touched anything, then I wouldn't have been in the predicament that I was in.
But Melody was right, I realized after the hug was over. It would be a good idea for Alice to sell her clothes at the Boutique as well. I had been telling her for years to do so and maybe with the help of Melody, I could convince her to do it now that we actually need the money that she could make. It would be an easier replacement job for her. She would be able to work mostly from home and would have more free time to catch up on her homework and go out and have fun or even date for that matter. I really thought that it was a good idea but then again, I wasn't Alice who was so attached to the products that she created that she would hate to see them being sold in a store. But desperate times sometimes called for desperate measures.
And that went for me too and not just for Alice. I was desperate for a job and now, I would do nearly anything to get one. Perhaps I would return to the square tomorrow and talk to the manager at the seafood restaurant. Even if I didn't like the job—and was utterly terrified to get a job at a restaurant after what happened to Alice—I could at least grin and bear it and stick it out until I managed to find something better. The plan that I had was simple enough and relied on whether or not I would be facing jail time for a crime that I didn't commit.
"So, how did it go for you, Anne?" Melody asked suddenly. "Did you get the job?"
I hadn't expected her to ask me that question so soon. I had expected her to talk more about the Boutique and tell us more about her interview, but she didn't. It was time for me to tell them what happened. I couldn't stall any longer.
Hearing what Melody had asked me, Will approached us, coming closer to hear better.
"I did get the job," I said quietly and I was surprised that the two of them could hear me. As a smile started to form on Will's face—more than likely my favorite smile—and as Melody opened her mouth, I quickly added, "But I didn't get the job."
Melody looked confused. Will stared at me, flustered and waiting for me to explain such a paradox.
"What do you mean?" he asked me when I didn't explain immediately. "Do I need to go and speak with Antonio?"
I shook my head. "No, you don't," I told him, glad that he was trying to stand up for me, even against an old friend of his family. "I'll explain everything."
Will and Melody waited in silence. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to tell them, about which details I wanted to leave out of the recap. Then, when I was sure that I was ready—only about 70 percent sure—I proceeded carefully.
"I had to convince Antonio to give me a job since I hadn't had any work experience before," I began slowly. "After a bit of . . . persuasion, he gave me a job and I was well on my way to becoming his assistant."
"Then, what happened?" Melody asked impatiently.
"He gave me a brief tour of his store," I answered her question surprisingly quick. I had to stop doing that though. Acting upon impulse was not a good idea. I had to be careful about what I told Will and Melody, especially with what I was about to tell them. I didn't want them to think that I belonged in a mental institute. What had happened at the Merchant's Library was nearly enough for myself to believe that I needed to be locked away in a padded cell. "Then, he left me in the backroom, his secret room, as he returned up front to tend to some customers. He told me that he would be right back and he ordered me not to touch anything."
While I spoke those last two sentences, I could see Will's eyes grow larger and larger with each and every word as he was immersed deeply into my recount. He was enjoying my tale so far and I didn't know why.
"You got to go into Antonio's chamber—the room where he keeps all of his artifacts?" Will demanded. "What was it like?" He added curiously.
I gaped. This was so uncharacteristic of Will that it would have been funny if I were someone else. I had never seen him act this way before. His was forever curious of course, but he never took pleasure in anything that had me upset. Clearly he could see I was upset. He had been concerned before and I knew that he had known since I had first returned that things hadn't gone well at the Merchant's Library. But now, he was no longer concerned but excited. I realized then what had him so stimulated.
The stupid manuscripts. The ones that William Shakespeare had apparently penned himself. Will was infatuated with them. If ever he had an obsession, it was those manuscripts. He had once told me that when he was a kid, he used to beg Antonio for the opportunity to read them but Antonio had never obliged. Ever since his arrival in town last year, Will has wanted to somehow devise a way to sneak into Antonio's private stores and read from the manuscripts. I had told him that we would never be able to and I felt like such a hypocrite. After all, I was able to read from one of them, however briefly, and it hadn't taken any skills at being cunning.
"It was pretty cool, I guess," was my response. I still hadn't recovered from the shock of Will's sudden change in behavior and personality. "He had all kinds of neat stuff. It was like a museum."
"Did you see the manuscripts?" Will questioned me. "Were they glowing?"
I gaped again. How did Will know that the manuscripts shone—or had shone rather—with a golden light? I hadn't mentioned that yet, nor was I planning on mentioning it because I didn't want him or Melody to think that I was off my rocker.
But then again, Will and Antonio were friends; I kept forgetting that. Of course, he would know that the manuscripts glowed. He had probably even caught several glimpses of them throughout his life. If Will knew such bizarre information, then maybe he wouldn't think I was crazy. But there was still Melody who would.
Melody scoffed before I could answer Will's questions. "Glowing manuscripts, Will? Please tell me that you don't believe in that."
Will looked offended when he regarded Melody. "I've seen them," he informed her. "So yeah, I do believe in that."
Melody rolled her eyes and I thought that it was best for me to rejoin the conversation before an argument broke out between a skeptical Melody and a suddenly crazed Will, who now reminded me of that squirrel who was hopped up on coke in that one animated movie about hedges. You should have seen the way that he was staring at me, waiting for me to continue and answer his questions.
"Yes, I saw the manuscripts," I confirmed and I thought that Will was going to jump out of his pants; he was so excited. "And yes, they were glowing."
Will was ecstatic and Melody rolled her eyes again. "No, no," she said. "Please, Anne, don't encourage this. Those books were not glowing. It's absurd. It's impossible."
"That what I thought too," I said. "Well, at least, I used to think it was impossible, but I can't deny it anymore now that I've seen them with my own eyes. They were really glowing, Melody. I swear."
"Of course, they were glowing," she said sarcastically. "Books glow all the time."
"Did you read one of them?" Will ignored Melody's remark to question me.
I hesitated. I didn't want to tell him that I did. I didn't want to see his reaction. He would probably jump out of the roof if I told him that I did. But I did tell myself that I would tell him and Melody the truth and well, he had asked me if I had read from one of the books, so I would have to remain true to my word and tell him the truth.
I nodded. "Yes, I did."
Will was beside himself with glee now. What he had wanted for a long time now had finally come to past. Until now, I had never noticed that he had always wanted me to read from one of the manuscripts and not himself. Sure, he had wanted to be present when I did so but it had always been me. I just never noticed the way that he had phrased such a proposal, and now, he had finally gotten what he had wanted all along.
"What happened next?" Will asked.
"Nothing really," I replied truthfully, much to Will's dismay. His face fell then slightly. "I blacked out and I had a dream and when I woke up, one of Antonio's artifacts was missing."
Will's face changed completely then. Concern creased his face again. It was like he was bi-polar or something. One second he was excited, the next he was stunned, and then the next he was troubled. He was troubled and I didn't understand why. What was going on with him?
"One of the artifacts is missing?" he asked in a shocked voice. "Which one?"
"Uh, uh, a ring," I told him. "It was a replica of Leah's ring from The Merchant of Venice."
Will looked sick all of a sudden. "That's bad," he said before repeating those two words several more times.
I looked at him. "What's bad?"
Will seemed to regain some composure when he responded. "The ring being stolen," he said. "Antonio was probably furious."
"You bet he was," I said, recalling Antonio's reaction when I had told him that his beloved ring was gone. It had not been a happy moment and was one I never wanted to relive. But I knew that I would be reliving it for many days now. Memories were sometimes painful like that.
"Who took it?" Will demanded, a crazed gleam in his eyes. What was up with him? This wasn't the Will that I knew and loved and it was scaring me. I almost started crying again. I was so afraid that he might do something rash and dangerous without warning and I had never felt that way in his presence before. He seemed more concerned about the missing ring than Antonio did and that troubled me. Why? Was there something that Will was not telling me? I would have to ask him when I managed to calm him down. "Did you see who took it?" Will repeated.
I shook my head. "No," I told him truthfully. "I told you I blacked out for a while and when I came to it was gone."
Will was thinking hard. He started pacing. "Someone must have entered the room and stolen it while you were unconscious," he surmised.
"But who?" Melody spoke up for the first time in a long time and I jumped. I had nearly forgotten that she was there with us as well. "Who could have possibly entered Antonio's shop, snuck past him and some customers to the backroom and steal a ring while Anne was there asleep. It sounds insane. It doesn't make sense at all. It is almost as preposterous as those glowing manuscripts." She scoffed, something she was doing quite often during the course of this conversation. As far as skeptics went, Melody was the worse skeptic of them all. But I didn't care about her skepticism right now. I was bothered more by Will's atypical behavior.
"Does Antonio have an idea who might have done this?" Will inquired, ignoring Melody's remarks altogether.
I shook my head.
"I need to talk to him," Will said simply.
"Why?" I demanded, my voice suddenly shrill.
Will rounded on me. For a second, he had that crazed glint in his eyes but then it was gone. He appeared to be my Will again. "That ring is very important to Antonio," was all he said.
"Why is it important?" I hit him with another question. He was not going to escape from me easily, even if his expression was relaxed and calm again.
"I cannot tell you, but you will know soon enough," Will skirted around the edges of answering my question.
The tears came then. I could feel them and there was nothing that I could do about them. I was angry, scared, and sad all at the same time. Will was withholding information, perhaps valuable information, from me and I didn't like it one bit. Why was he doing this? In an instant, he had changed and I wanted the old Will back. The old Will would have told me. He would have told me everything. The old Will never lied to me, nor kept secrets. The new Will did.
"Why can't you tell me?" I cried, asking my third "why" question in a row. "Will? What is going on?"
He didn't respond. He turned away from me and stared at the front door. From the way that he was standing, with his head hung low and his shoulders slumped, he looked pained. I was torn between comforting him and yelling at him some more. For the first time in our relationship, I chose to do the latter.
"I said, what's going on?!" I screamed and I was surprised that Will's co-workers or his manager didn't come out from the back rooms to find out what was going on and what was causing such a commotion. But I didn't care about them. All I cared about was making Will feel bad because he didn't seem to care to hear the rest of my story, about the part where Antonio told me to leave his store and me wondering whether or not I still had a job and could ever show my face again at the Merchant's Library. Nor did he seem to care to find out that I may face criminal charges if Antonio believed that I was the culprit in the heist. All Will cared about was finding out who had stolen the precious ring. It was a stupid replica of a fictional ring for crying out loud, even if it was the replica of an artifact from Shakespearean lore.
Melody stepped cautiously towards me when Will didn't respond and I stood there shaking with fury. "Anne, calm down," she said quietly.
I calmed a hair and tried to lower my voice when I spoke again. Overwhelmed with emotions—this had been a really, really, really, really, really horrible day—I spoke in sobs. "Will . . . please . . . ." I begged him, my mouth trembling.
He turned back around to face me, his face grim and resolute. "Anne? I want you and Melody to head on home. I'll see you tomorrow at school, okay? I am going to go and talk to my boss and see if I can take my break now and run down to the Merchant's Library to talk to Antonio. I'll call you when I get off if you want me to."
"I don't want to go home," I said defiantly, while trying to process what he had just told me. It was too much for my brain to handle right now.
"Anne, please," it was his turn to beg. "Trust me on this one, okay?"
That was it. He had said the wrong words.
I narrowed my eyes at Will. "Trust you? How can I when you won't tell me anything?" I shook my head. "No, not this time, Will. Until you tell me what's going on, I am not going to trust you. I am not leaving until you tell me." I then folded my arms across my chest and summoned the meanest look I could produce with tears rolling down my cheeks.
Will approached me and my anger ebbed away when he touched me. Now was the only time ever that I hated that he had that kind of effect on me.
Will hugged me close. "My darling," he whispered into my ear so that only I could hear him. Nearby, Melody stared at us, straining to hear what Will was telling me; however, his words were for my ears only. "I will tell you everything, I promise. But now is not the time. Please do as I say and tomorrow we will talk after school and I will tell you everything, okay?"
I hesitated. A part of me still wanted to insist that he tell me right now, but another part of me wanted to do as he said. Although Will had acted strangely tonight, he still had never led me astray. If now wasn't the time for me to know what he was keeping from me, then now was not the time. Tomorrow would be fine. At least that was what I wanted to believe.
I nodded then and Will pulled away from me, holding me out at arm's length. He smiled. It was a genuine smile, although it wasn't exactly my smile because it was too strained. He kissed my forehead and my knees became weak.
"I'll go home," I told him after the gentle forehead kiss. "But first, before I go, I just want you to know something."
"And what is that?" Will asked me curiously.
"I may not have a job working with Antonio anymore," I admitted.
A jolt rippled through Will's body and I felt it. "Antonio doesn't suspect you, does he?"
"No, I don't think so," I told him. "He just told me to leave and after what happened with the ring and all, I don't think that I have a job anymore." I sighed. "This has to be a record or something." I sniffled and wiped my face. "I was hired and fired in less than an hour."
"You may not have lost your job," Will attempted to assure me but it wasn't working. "I'll talk to Antonio about that as well. Once he gets to the bottom of everything, I'm positive that he will be willing to have you come back and work for him."
I nodded to give Will some satisfaction, although I believed quite the opposite.
Will kissed my forehead again. "Now, go home. Everything will be fine tomorrow."
I nodded again and stood up on my tiptoes. Will took the cue and leaned forward to kiss me just as gently on the lips. "I love you," he whispered when the kiss and my ten seconds in Heaven was over.
I didn't falter in my decision to say those words back to him. After all, I did, even when he was acting so different.
"I love you too."
We kissed again.
"Eww, PDA!" Melody cried in disgust. "Too much PDA!"
Will and I pulled apart and he smiled awkwardly. I didn't smile back because my lips didn't want to.
"Call you later," Will promised me as he handed Melody and me our belongings.
"Okay," I said. I would be waiting for that phone call. I would talk to Will and try to convince him again, without Melody around, to tell me at least a little bit of what he was planning to tell me tomorrow. I was impatient and I didn't want to wait nearly twenty-four hours. It reminded me of how I felt a year ago when I was waiting to hear Will proclaim his crush on me, although that was something that I hadn't been expecting at all. And what he would tell me tomorrow was definitely something that I would have never, in a million years, expected.
Melody and I said farewell to Will and we left. I fought hard against the urges to give Will some time to speak with his boss about a lunch break and then follow him back to the Merchant's Library to eavesdrop on his conversation with Antonio. I eventually won the fight because it was difficult to do that when I was now sitting on a bus with Melody on my way home.
Melody was pretty good company. She didn't ask me how I felt, which I was grateful for. She did not bring up what happened at the Merchant's Library, nor did she bring up our conversation at Will's job. She talked about the Boutique and I was finally able to hear some details about her interview. Sure, my jealousy was still there hovering like a dark cloud, but listening to Melody describe the place that she would be working at took my mind off of rings, manuscripts, Antonio, and Will. I was astounded that I wasn't even thinking about Alice's misfortune today, and I wasn't reminded of it at all until the bus pulled to a stop about a block away from the apartments that Alice and I resided in. Melody's apartments were across the street from mine, of course.
We climbed down out of the bus, the only two getting off at this particular bus stop. The doors to the bus slid closed behind us and the bus pulled away from the curb, rejoining the light traffic. I thought about Alice as I gazed up at my apartment building. She was up there somewhere on one of the upper floors, awaiting my arrival. She would be waiting to hear how my first job hunt went and she would be disappointed to find out that I was unsure whether or not I had a job or not. Unlike Melody or Will, I had to lie to Alice for her sake. I hated to do that but she was already devastated by losing one of her jobs and I didn't want to devastate her anymore; she didn't deserve that. I would just tell her that Antonio would be getting back with me soon after interviewing some more candidates who had more work experience. Yeah, I would tell her that. That lie sounded good.
Melody and I walked up the sidewalk mostly in silence. Melody made a few comments here and there about how she didn't want to go to school tomorrow and would rather sit around at home all day and make clothes to display in the Boutique, but I barely listened to her. She could no longer hold my interest tonight and separate me from my problems. Alice was on my mind now and soon I would be lying to my sister just to protect her. Did that make me a bad person?
Was Will a bad person, a bad boyfriend, for not telling me everything about why he cared so much about Antonio and the stolen ring? I reminded myself yet again that Will and Antonio were old friends and that maybe he wanted to talk to Antonio first before telling me anything.
All sorts of thoughts beleaguered my mind and would have liked more than anything just to lie down and go to sleep. And whether I woke up in the morning or years later like Rip Van Winkle, I just hoped that all of my problems would disappear.
I said bye to Melody outside of her apartment building. She hugged me and said, "Don't worry about a thing, Anne. You'll find a job and you'll be okay."
"Thanks, Mel," I said.
I crossed the street and Melody watched me make it safely to the front entrance before she disappeared inside. I walked in slowly, past the office of the landlord and up the flight of stairs at the back of the hallway. I walked up to the sixth floor and fumbled in my pockets for the key. I found it, entered the apartment and stepped into the living room quietly.
Alice was sitting on the sofa, the television on. Just as I had expected, she was waiting up for me.
"Hey, Alice," I called, closing the apartment door behind me. I tossed my backpack into the hallway that led to my bedroom.
Alice didn't respond. I looked at her and noticed that her head was slumped. I walked around the sofa and found Alice fast asleep, her snoring low and steady. There were black streaks running the length of her face and there were also black splotches on her shirt, which meant that her mascara had run. Alice had cried herself to sleep. Poor thing.
Well, so much for talking to her tonight.
I eased Alice into a lying position on the couch. Her snoring faltered once and her eyes fluttered but they didn't open. She was completely asleep again the moment her head was resting against a sofa cushion. I went into her room and found a blanket in her linen closet and I covered her up with it so that she wouldn't freeze in the middle of the night. Then, I scooped up my backpack and went into my own room.
The first thing I did was set my alarm clock early enough so that I could get up and ensure that Alice was up so she wouldn't miss school. Then, I sat down on my bed and waited for Will's phone call.
Twenty minutes after the girl he had hired had left the store, Antonio continued to search for his lost ring.
It was in the back room somewhere; it just had to be. There was no way that the girl had stolen it and it was nearly impossible for someone to have entered the room and taken the ring, unless . . . .
Antonio had formulated several theories throughout his continuous search for Leah's ring but he just couldn't see how any of them could be plausible. Prospero and Oberon had long since sealed off the known gateways that allowed travel back and forth between worlds when Antonio had decided to live in the human world and protect the manuscripts. But that was a long time ago and Antonio knew that there were other ways to travel between worlds without using the gateways; however, there were few who knew of these ways and all of those men were either a part of the King's Men or the Sycorax, allies to the Three Thrones.
It didn't make sense to Antonio that any of those men would betray their allegiance to their kings, let alone their entire country. Antonio was very patriotic and would never do something like that, but some people weren't like him. Some people weren't as devoted to the armies of Shakespeare or to their country. Nonetheless, would someone actually go so far as to steal Leah's ring? The ring was special but just like with the gateways, not too many people knew what it was capable of.
What would the thief stand to gain from such an admittedly cunning act of larceny? That was one of the many questions that Antonio would have loved to answer. Besides, selling it for a large profit because of its valuable components, there would be nothing more to gain if the person did not know of the ring's true powers. But then again, what if they did know more about the ring than Antonio wanted to believe they did?
Something clicked in Antonio's mind then. He constantly received reports containing news from the Shakespearean world from various sources and he knew that there was rise in anarchical activity from an unknown group of what Antonio deemed as wily, criminal misfits who were led by a strange woman known as the Dark Lady. The Dark Lady was an enigmatic character, who kept her face concealed behind a mask of tragedy. Perhaps this strange enemy had an interest in Leah's ring. It would make sense if the Dark Lady was seeking to destroy the Three Thrones and the King's Men, but why would anyone wish to destroy such institutions in the first place? For centuries, the Three Thrones and the King's Men have brought peace and prosperity to Shakespeare and why would the Dark Lady and her faction want to destroy such a golden era?
Of course, Antonio didn't have the answer to that question but he was beginning to think of someone who might have a slight idea about what was going on and an idea on who might be behind the robbery that took place tonight. Antonio knew that the girl—Anne was her name—had nothing to do with it and he had been hoping that she had seen the perpetrator; however, she had been unconscious; unconscious from reading one of the manuscripts—another mind-boggling mystery for Antonio to contend with eventually. What had caused Anne to faint? The manuscripts possessed great power in their own rights, but never before had Antonio heard of someone passing out from reading the texts.
Antonio was about to head upstairs to his private apartment that was above the Merchant's Library when he remembered something. He quickly darted down the hallway and into the front room.
The sales floor was empty and devoid of customers. Antonio knew this already because he hadn't heard the bell chime to announce the arrival of visitors to the store since Anne left; however, he wanted to double-check and make sure that he was truly alone. After all, someone had managed to infiltrate his shop already and Antonio didn't want the same thing to happen again and with easier access.
He walked the length of each and every aisle before locking the front door. He flipped the open sign around to read "closed" and he headed back to the back room, hoping that he wouldn't anger potential customers by closing his store nearly two hours early.
Antonio locked the door to the back room upon entry, securing himself and his artifacts. He then ascended the ladder once more and walked in a circle on the second floor, passing the resting place of the Shakespearean manuscripts. Like before, when Anne was with him while he searched for the missing ring, Antonio noticed that the manuscripts were now glowing with a golden light, as if inviting him to read from them. What did this all mean? What was so special about Anne that had caused this? Clearly she had more to do with the situation than Antonio and even Anne knew. Antonio knew she was innocent in the crime that was committed against him but why were peculiar things happening since her arrival? Hopefully, Antonio would know everything soon enough.
Antonio unlocked the door to his apartment with a wave of his hand and a silent command. The door swung open and he stepped inside. He was in a tiny corridor with a staircase that curved upwards. The door closed behind him and Antonio was submerged in darkness temporarily. He mumbled a couple of words and light appeared in the palm of his hands as though he was clutching a flashlight. But he wasn't. With the light guiding him, he climbed the staircase.
At the height of the stairs was another door. It unlocked and opened at Antonio's silent command just like the one downstairs. This door led to the sitting room of Antonio's apartment. The apartment also had a kitchenette, a bathroom, and a bedroom. It was much smaller than Antonio's home had been in Shakespeare but he had made it comfortable enough with his pleasant additions.
The door to the apartment closed magically as well and Antonio made a beeline straight for his bedroom. The light from his hand flew through the air and lit the chandelier above Antonio's bed the moment that he stepped foot into the chamber.
Without pausing, Antonio walked across the room and opened up his closet. Antonio pushed his clothes aside, their metallic hangers clanking loudly. He now faced a seemingly blank wall. Antonio waved a hand and a door appeared out of thin air, now a part of the wall. Antonio twisted the doorknob and stepped into a concealed room.
This room looked much like the stock room downstairs in the store but it was not even half the size. Light illuminated the room from an unseen source and a bronze casket took up most of the space inside of the room as it gleamed in the center. The small chamber was an odd place to store a casket, but the bronze casket was no ordinary casket.
Besides being comprised of bronze, the casket possessed magical capabilities like many inanimate objects that the people of Shakespeare owned. There were three of these magical caskets. The other two were gold and silver and belonged to Prospero and Oberon respectively.
Antonio opened the casket. It was empty, of course. There weren't any dead, mummified bodies inside but just the shiny, bronze interior. Antonio knelt before the casket, closed his eyes and recited several lines:
To the dread rattling thunder
Have I given fire and rifted Jove's stout oak
With his own bolt; the strong-based promontory
Have I made shake and by the spurs pluck'd up
The pine and cedar: graves at my command
Have waked their sleepers, oped, and let 'em forth
By my so potent art. But this rough magic
I here abjure.
At first, nothing happened. But then, as Antonio climbed to his feet, the casket began to glow with a pulsating, bright bronze-colored light that filled the small chamber. The casket slammed itself shut with a bang. Antonio took a step backwards and shielded his eyes. He hated this part of the process. But he knew that it would be over shortly.
And soon enough, the light started to dissolve, disappearing. The casket swung open by itself, without nay assistance from Antonio. The light faded altogether and Antonio peered into the casket.
It first appeared to be empty but then a spectral figure started to rise, moving creepily like something out of a horror movie. The specter was Prospero and he looked like silvery smoke. This was not the true Prospero; however, but rather, it was a ghostly liking of Prospero, a doppelganger or sort to speak.
The shadow of Prospero climbed out of the casket and stood next to Antonio. They faced each other and the specter spoke.
"Antonio, my friend, I have been waiting," the figure of Prospero spoke, sounding exactly like the man it represented. "I have been trying to contact you for quite some time now. Where have you been?"
"I'm sorry, my lord," Antonio apologized to the manifestation, speaking directly to the leader of the King's Men although Prospero was currently not present in the human world inside of Antonio's shop, the Merchant's Library. Antonio knew that wherever Prospero was at the moment—more than likely at his home where he usually kept his own casket, though he has been prone to take it with him on various trips—he was seeing a similar spirit. Only the spirit that Prospero would be seeing was of Antonio. "I was downstairs. Whenever I am downstairs, I cannot know that you are trying to contact me. I will check more often in the future."
"You may not have to," Prospero spoke in a low, calm voice when there should have been perhaps apprehension in his voice. Antonio himself was now feeling a bit apprehensive.
"What do you mean?" Antonio demanded. Did Prospero already know about the missing ring? So wise was he if he did know.
"The Royal Beacons are lit, my friend."
Antonio's eyes grew nearly too large to be contained in his face. He felt a rush of shock and wonder. The Royal Beacons hadn't been lit for centuries.
"The Royal Beacons are lit? Do you know who the person is? The descendant of kings?"
The specter shook its head. "No, not yet," Prospero told Antonio. "But I hope to know soon enough." He sighed. "And that's not all. A lot has been going on since you left. Plans years in the making have been executed already. I fear a rebellion."
Antonio frowned. "What else has happened, my lord?" he questioned anxiously. "Have the Dark Lady attacked any of the kingdoms with her armies of thugs and hooligans?"
The spirit of Prospero shook its head once again. "The Dark Lady has yet to strike. At least not directly."
"I don't understand," Antonio said.
"One of the Golden Kings is dead," Prospero announced. There was emotion in his voice that time. It was of defeat and not of grief, although deep inside, Prospero was troubled and grieving over the lost of King Hamlet.
"Dead?" Antonio echoed and hung his head. He didn't look at the specter as he asked, "Who? Who is it, my lord?"
"King Hamlet," Prospero said simply.
"Oh, no," Antonio gasped. Out of the three Golden Kings, he had had the closest relations with King Hamlet. "Poor Gertrude must be heartbroken. And young Prince Hamlet. The boy is not ready to become king."
"He is not to become king," Prospero informed Antonio, who looked shocked once more.
"What?" Antonio cried in indignation. "Why?"
"Claudius is to be crowned king in a few hours," Prospero proclaimed much to Antonio's dismay. With his absence, the world of Shakespeare was moving towards chaos and he didn't like it at all. Not that he could have done anything to prevent it—not even Prospero seemed to be able to prevent it and he was ten times as powerful as Antonio was.
"Do you think that is a good idea, my lord?" Antonio wanted to know Prospero's opinion and the true motive behind such a bold and rash move. Antonio did not like Claudius. He never had and probably never would. Claudius was a sneaky man and everyone knew that he had wanted to be crowned king of a Golden Throne for years. He had always been jealous of his older brother and Antonio would have liked for someone other than Claudius to become king of Denmark. Why couldn't Gertrude just serve as queen ruler, instead of just queen? In the past, there had been queens who had ruled smaller kingdoms, or queendoms as they liked to call them, but never before had there been a female ruler of one of the three Golden Kingdoms and it could have been a precedented event if Gertrude became ruler. "Claudius has always wanted to be king. For all we know, he could have had King Hamlet murdered."
"That was what young Horatio thought as well," Prospero said. "But the King simply died in his sleep, of natural causes."
"He could have been poisoned," Antonio suggested.
"Perhaps," Prospero agreed. "But like I told Horatio, we will learn the truth eventually. What is done in the dark always come to the light."
"Can't you do something?" Antonio asked Prospero. "Can't you stop this from happening?"
"I'm afraid not, my dear Antonio. King Henry and King Duncan have been told that Prince Hamlet is in no right mind to rule a kingdom. He has been declared insane when I just believe that the boy is extremely intelligent, but because of such information, Henry and Duncan have decided that the prince cannot be king, which makes Claudius the natural heir as it should be anyways had King Hamlet not amended the law years before he died."
Then, the deed was done and hope was lost. The remaining two Golden Kings had made a decision and there was nothing no one could do about it, not even someone as influential as Prospero.
"Claudius was probably the one who supplanted such lies!" Antonio stated knowledgeably.
"He did tell Henry and Duncan about the prince's condition," Prospero said, stating facts and not accusations, reserving judgment for the day that Claudius was ever proven guilty of such a heinous crime. "And they made their decision accordingly."
"I knew it," Antonio was pleased with himself.
"Gertrude gave testimony as well," Prospero said.
"Why would she do that?" Antonio couldn't figure it out for the life of him. "Why would she make it easier for her dead husband's brother to come to power? What's in it for her?"
"I don't know, Antonio," Prospero's voice was suddenly grave and the specter was mimicking his current facial expression. "So many questions and not enough the answers. But the answers will come soon enough. For now, I want you to ensure that the ring is kept safe. I fear that many very powerful, magical artifacts are being discovered by our new enemies and we don't wanna make it easier for them to find them."
Antonio was suddenly uneasy. "That's what I was contacting you for, my lord," he said quickly. "The ring. It has been . . . It is—"
"—Gone," Prospero finished, already cottoning on. "Then, it is happening."
Antonio was baffled. "What is happening? Prospero, what is going on?"
"The Prophecy, the Royal Beacons, the Relics, they are all connected," Prospero sought to explain without really explaining; Antonio was still standing there, looking utterly confused. "Everything is happening now and I have already set some plans in motion myself."
"What plans?"
"I've got Othello returning so that we can discuss the Relics. Desdemona is contacting him right now as we speak. I've sent Mercutio and Orlando to find Caliban so that the Sycorax could be fully involved in all of this. And Titania has the Fairy Wings in the skies, providing aerial coverage of the palace, the Three Thrones, and some of the surrounding areas. Until we find out whom the Prophecy speaks of, we must be careful and remain on alert at all times. I might even bring you back home now that the ring is gone. We may need a safer place for the manuscripts and it seems that even among the humans, precious artifacts can be taken."
Speaking of artifacts, Antonio recalled something then and it sent chills up and down his spine. "The manuscripts. One of them was read earlier today by a human girl. I wanted to talk to you about—"
But by then, it was Prospero's turn to look shocked. "Which one?"
"Henry IV," Antonio told him. "What does it all mean? What is so special about the manuscripts, other than the fact that they seem to predict the future."
"I will explain everything to you later, Antonio, I swear. But right now, we have a problem."
"A problem?"
"We must find that girl, the one who read from the manuscript. She is the key."
"The key to what?" Antonio wanted to know. He hated being out of the loop.
But by now, Prospero was distracted. "When Othello arrives I am going to send him there with a small team. We must find the girl. Do you know any information about her, Antonio?"
Antonio shook his head sadly. "I had hired her to work here and I was going to have her fill out a form, but I made her leave before she could do so." Antonio sighed and then explained further. "When she had told me that the ring had been taken, I knew that she didn't have anything to do with it, but I kind of lost my cool there for a second anyways. I was frustrated and I acted rashly and I am sorry, my lord."
"There's no need to apologize, Antonio," Prospero told him. "Just try and find her. Help will arrive soon enough."
Antonio was going to ask why the girl was important but he didn't because of two things. The first was that he knew that Prospero would not give him a concrete answer and would withhold information from him for now. And the second was that he had heard something pelt against the window out in his bedroom, something solid.
Prospero had heard it too. "What was that?" The specter inquired.
Antonio was looking back over his shoulder. "I don't know. Something tapped against my bedroom window. It was probably nothing."
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, it happened again. Only this time, there was a—
CRASH! The window shattered and Antonio could hear something heavy and muffled rolling across the carpeted floor.
Antonio was in outrage. "What the—"
"What happened?" Prospero wondered. Apparently, he could hear a slight tapping noise but not the shattering of glass.
"Someone just broke my damn window!" Antonio cried.
"Tend to the matter," Prospero said. "I shall remain until your return."
Antonio nodded and stormed out of the tiny room and back into his bedroom. He looked down, peering through the dark gloom and saw a rock about the size of a fist resting on the floor at the foot of his bed. His eyes followed a path of destruction—broken glass—to the window that was shattered, a rock-sized hole having destroyed most of one of the panels.
Antonio walked slowly and cautiously towards the window, keeping his body hidden in the shadows so that whoever was outside would not see him until after he had seen him or her. Who would do something like this? Antonio wondered. Perhaps the thief had returned and was taunting him.
Antonio pressed his back up against the wall immediately to the left of the window. Another rock pelted the window, but it was no more than a mere pebble and didn't do any damage. Antonio leaned to the right and peered out the window, the bright moonlight blinding him for just a split-second until his eyes had time to adjust from the abrupt change in lighting.
A boy stood out in the alley behind Antonio's store and home. He looked very familiar, a little too familiar. Antonio sighed with relief and opened the broken window. He knew this boy.
Glass chunks fell to the carpet below as Antonio lifted the window with ease. Will waved up at him, although his face was not looking too pleasant. Antonio wondered why Will was paying him a visit out of the blue. What a strange day. Antonio promised himself that before the day came to a close and it was all said and done, he was going to fill his bathtub up to the brim with piping hot water and relax for at least an hour and allow the water to soothe his body.
"Will!" Antonio hissed, poking his head out the open window. "You broke my window!"
"I know," Will told him. "It was the only way I could get your attention. I tried the door downstairs but it was locked."
"What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to talk to you," Will told him. "May I be allowed inside?"
Antonio considered it for a moment. He still had to finish his conversation with Prospero, whose magical clone was waiting by the bronze casket in the adjacent and normally hidden side room. And later that night, perhaps, if Prospero managed to speak with Othello within the next few days—time moved differently in the Shakespearean world than it did in the human world—Antonio was informed that Othello would be arriving with a search team to assist him in finding the girl—Anne Hathaway.
"I'm afraid not," Antonio denied Will entry into the Merchant's Library and prevented the boy from telling him the purpose of his visit. Antonio hated to be rude but there were more pressing matters at hand than for him to listen to whatever Will would have to tell him. "Now is not a good time, Will. I'm sorry."
"Please, Antonio," Will was not planning on leaving without pleading. After all, he had promised Anne that he would speak to Antonio and he didn't want to go without having fulfilled his promise to his girlfriend. Besides, he was supposed to call Anne later and he wanted to call her with what hopefully would be a piece of good news to ease her troubled mind. "I beg of you and I implore you to allow me at least ten, fifteen minutes of your time. I will not take long."
"Can it not wait until tomorrow?" Prospero asked. "I'm having visitors soon."
"Is that why you closed your shop early?" Will asked.
"Yes," Antonio replied truthfully. "I have some important matters to attend to, but I promise you that we can talk tomorrow."
Will looked down at the ground. He didn't want this; however, if Antonio had "important matters" to attend to, then Will had no choice but to allow him to do so without interruptions. Maybe it had something to do with the ring.
Will looked up at Antonio, knowing that he was about to let Anne down. "Okay, tomorrow then," he spoke quietly. "Just let me know when and uh . . . sorry about the window." He stalked off into the night.
Antonio watched him leave quietly and he waved a hand near the window. The glass on the floor rose and twisted through the air magically before resealing the hole in the window.
With his window perfectly normal again, Antonio returned to finish speaking with Prospero and to prepare for the arrival of several members of the King's Men . . . and an unexpected visitor . . . .