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Lyoriel grabbed him around the neck and yanked him through
the opening. Hastily she threw the grating back into its place and she and Chardiye
crawled for their lives.
"Can you send us back again, or something?"
Chardiye panted.
"No," Lyoriel said, "We can't. If we go back,
Jhudora will notice that the hourglass is gone before it's supposed to."
So they crawled through the ventilation passage,
sometimes hearing snatches of conversations that included the words "Eyrie"
or "hourglass" in them.
There was a roar of rage from somewhere below
them. Jhudora must have discovered that Lyoriel was gone from her cell.
"That woman has a voice like a bolt of lightning,"
Lyoriel said fervently.
Light was spilling from a grate nearby, but
it wasn't the same flickering green light as the rest of the castle. It was
sunlight.
Chardiye surged forward and kicked the grate
away. He jumped out, shouted for Lyoriel to get on his back, and took off into
the sky above Faerieland. Evidently some of the Dark Faerie guards had been
informed about Chardiye and the Time Faerie's escape. Threatening screeches
could be heard from below, and some guards shot sparks into the air at them.
Chardiye was just beginning to celebrate his
victory when a fireball emitted from one of the guards' staffs hit Chardiye's
wing full on, giving him a nasty burn. He tumbled right around in the air. Lyoriel
shrieked and clutched the hourglass more tightly lest it slip from her grasp.
Chardiye used his other wing to aim himself
at Neopia Central as best he could. He could see the construction of the Guild
Headquarters and, within another minute, had sped past it. Pets and owners gawked
wide-eyed at the two of them whizzing down to the field just outside the court
that, in a hundred years, would be Chardiye's own neighborhood.
Lyoriel leapt off of Chardiye's back and plopped
safely in the grass just a moment before the Eyrie slammed into the ground a
few yards away. It was another second before Chardiye realized that this was
the very place where he had originally dug up the time clock. There was a little
pile of dirt just to his left.
"Chardiye," Lyoriel said, a tiny hint of sorrow
in her voice, "I'm afraid I'll have to take the pocket-watch now. You understand,
don't you?"
Chardiye nodded and started to take the chain
off of his neck, but Lyoriel stopped him.
"You don't need to do that. The chain has to
be around your neck for me to be able to send you anywhere." She took the Time
Clock in her little white hand. Her other hand she put to her lips and blew
Chardiye a kiss. "See you in one hundred years."
She turned the knob.
Chardiye felt the speeding sensation for the
third time in these few hours, but instead of flying backward, he was flying
forward this time.
"Chardiye! Chardiye! Chardiye!"
Chardiye opened his eyes to see Keetri bouncing
up and down in front of him. His garden, his house, his street, and his sister
were all back.
"Brother! Let me see it!" Keetri was pointing
at something that was hanging around Chardiye's neck.
With trembling paws, Chardiye lifted his hands
to look at a shining golden pocket-watch on a chain. At first glance, Chardiye
thought it was the Time Clock, but on closer inspection he saw it was much different.
It was newer-looking, with a pattern of hourglasses adorning the hinged cover.
He flicked the pocket-watch open to see the same pattern bordering the highly
polished face, which was ticking amiably at exactly the time Chardiye guessed
it must be; four-thirty.
He looked at the inside of the cover. Instead
of the usual inscription, two words were now etched elaborately into the gold.
Thank You
Chardiye smiled to himself.
The End
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