Dear Gosseling,
Anne doesn't seem too happy these days and she doesn't want to
tell me what the matter is. Her only concern seems to be the
Chandelier in the Czar's Palace. Perhaps you know how to help
her.
Please do come to Weezebeecke Castle in due course.
Lisabeth
"Anne, I wrote Gosseling a letter and asked him to help
you. Maybe he will be here in a couple of days to cheer you
up", Lisabeth said, very discreetly, since for several days
now she hardly knew how to approach her friend.
"Ah, for that you may wait a long time. He will be well on
his way to Moscow," replied Anne-Christine.
"Why would he be?" Lisabeth asked. "To fetch the
Chandelier?"
"Or just a tiny piece of it!" said Anne-Christine. "In
that Crystal, time was frozen when Anne-Lise stole the
Moscovite Glassware. If he has a piece of that Chandelier, he
can travel back to that time by doing his concentration trick.
He will be certain where he'll land. And that will be very
close to Anne-Lise. He will introduce himself as Baron de
Gosselingue. No wonder the Baron knew so much about the
Glassware! I explained it all to him by giving him my bundle
of letters."
"Then we have to go to Moscow too and destroy the
Chandelier before he reaches it!" cried Lisabeth.
"That's what I thought, too", Anne-Christine said. "But
we'd better save our strength. He will succeed anyway, as
history has proved already. Fortunately, Anne-Lise will be one
step ahead of him and will fetch the Glassware from the
Chandelier just before he does. I just hope he will be delayed
on his present journey to Moscow and that he will need some
time to reach the Chandelier in the ballroom. Even then, he
will have to wait for the sunlight to reveal the images of
Anne-Lise and only then will he be able to concentrate himself
back to that time. Once there, he'll undoubtedly meet some
obstacles with Anne-Lise, so he won't be back very soon. And
that gives us the opportunity to travel to Transsyldavia."
"Transsyldavia?" Lisabeth mused. "What is the point in
doing that?"
"There I saw exactly the same Chandelier, in my bedroom in
the tower. In that Chandelier, the most interesting images are
stored. And when Gosseling obtains just a little piece of that
Crystal, then my number will really be up."
"What images are stored in that Crystal?" Lisabeth wanted
to know.
"The disappearance of the Glassware!" Anne-Christine
cried. "And that's what bothers me most. If Gosseling can lay
his hand on just a piece of that Transsyldavian Chandelier, he
will be able to displace himself to the time I saw the
Glassware explode. He may well be able to grab it away before
it's too late.
Perhaps that happened already. Maybe I didn't see the
Glasswork destroy itself, but I did just see Gosseling
snatching it away and taking it to another era that isn't too
far away from us now."
"So it will depend on who is the first to reach the
Chandelier", Lisabeth said.
"Yes", Anne-Christine sighed, "if we win that race and
destroy the Chandelier before Gosseling can lay his hand on
it, then he will never be able to travel to that time again
and I've made the Moscow Glassware disappear once and for all,
as was my duty. But if Gosseling wins the race to
Transsyldavia, then he can displace himself to the moment I
made the Glasswork vanish and he may grab the Service away
just before it exploded. If so, then one day he will own it
and so I failed after all. To steal my wine-set from under my
very nose, he may choose any moment he prefers. And we can do
nothing to stop him, since he is able to travel through time
and we aren't".
"Anne", Lisabeth said, "I've got something on my mind.
Gosseling doesn't have to go to Moscow right away. He may
travel to Transsyldavia first and then go to Moscow to correct
the course of history".
"You're right!" Anne-Christine cried desperately. "I
didn't think of that possibility".
"You did take your time, though", Lisabeth added.
"But he doesn't know yet that there is a Chandelier in
Transsyldavia, so he will still go to Moscow first", Anne-
Christine said thoughtfully.
"But we have to hurry, anyway, for perhaps he'll be
informed in Moscow and then he'll go to Transsyldavia without
delay. There aren't a great many of those Chandeliers around",
Lisabeth argued.
"You are right once more", Anne-Christine said with
conviction. "We shall go to the Grand Duke as soon as
possible."
"We?" Lisabeth asked, "Do you want me to join you?"
"Of course", Anne-Christine said. "You don't need to guard
the Castle any more. The Glassware hasn't been here for quite
a long time".
"But where it is, no-one knows", added Lisabeth.
Ten days later, both girls were riding up the entrance
lane of the Grand Duke's Palace. The sentinel had spotted them
from a distance and had warned the Consul even before they
dismounted.
"A real day of honour!" the Consul exclaimed, "Not only do
you give us great pleasure, paying us a visit, but this time
there are even two visitors to welcome."
"Indeed", Anne-Christine confirmed. "I'm very happy to be
back here. A visit to Transsyldavia is very important to me.
And so it will be for my friend Lisabeth."
"What a lovely name", the Consul replied, "So what can I
do for Lady Anne-Christine and Lady Lisabeth?"
"Oh, but we have just modest wishes, your excellency. I
would like to spend a few nights in my former room in the
tower. I told Lisabeth so much about it that she wants to see
it with her own eyes."
"That's no problem, Lady Anne-Christine", the Consul said.
"But I'm convinced that it would be a great joy for His
Majesty to meet you. He hasn't seen you for a long time and
still has your name on his lips".
"I also think of the Grand Duke quite often," Anne-
Christine lied. "And I would greatly appreciate a meeting with
him. Perhaps he would like to meet Lisabeth as well?"
"Without doubt", the Consul said, inviting the girls to
enter the Palace.
"Perhaps you would have liked Alexej to be your servant
again but that isn't possible any more. He asked to be
dismissed right after your last stay here and he left for a
foreign country. What country it was he revealed to no-one.
The only thing he wanted to say was that it was a country
beyond the woods."
"Beyond the woods?" Anne-Christine repeated. "That argues
nothing good. Tradition tell us that Atilla the Hun's
descendants live there, isn't that right?"
"It is, Mylady. They are the Szekers and, strangely
enough, they are proud to be the descendants of God's Scourge.
But why do you want to know that?"
"I'm afraid that we will hear of him in the future. He
will be silently preparing his revenge for what I've done to
him", said Anne-Christine.
"And what did you do to him, if I may ask?" the Consul
wondered.
"Oh, not that much...", added Anne-Christine with a shrug.
"I just won a little game, that's all. But if you don't mind,
we don't need a servant at the moment".
"As you wish, Lady Anne-Christine. So I leave you alone.
You are free to go. The Grand Duke is absent for a number of
days but, as soon as he returns, I'll inform him of your
arrival."
"That is very kind of you, your excellency", said Anne-
Christine and Lisabeth and together they went to the tower
where Anne-Christine's bedroom was situated.
"It's still there!" Anne-Christine called, entering the
room.
"Are you certain it's the same?", Lisabeth was anxious to
know.
"You bet it is", cried Anne-Christine. "That colour, that
is the real Crystal. I can recognise it at once now, just like
Aardewerk can".
"How can we lay our hands on it? We must do that before
Gosseling arrives", said Lisabeth.
"Indeed we must," Anne-Christine replied. "But I'd like to
hold the Crystal in the sunlight tomorrow to see what actually
happened to the Glasswork. I'm a bit curious, you know.
Tonight Gosseling won't arrive and Alexej isn't here either,
it seems. I'll take this chance and leave the Chandelier
hanging over there for one more night."
Lisabeth was too tired to argue, although she wouldn't
have taken the risk herself. She kicked off her shoes and fell
on her bed.
"All right..... tomorrow we'll see what happened".
"Lisabeth, are you still awake?", Anne-Christine asked,
about an hour later.
"Yes", Lisabeth said sleepily. "Just about. Where is the
fire?"
"I am convinced the Glasswork is still around here
somewhere. Could that be due to the presence of the
Chandelier?" Anne-Christine asked.
"How do I know? You are the expert on Crystal. But in view
of the way you are behaving, that Wine-set can't be far away
for I'm tired, I want to sleep and you keep me awake!"
"I know what you mean!" Anne-Christine replied. "But I
want you to know I can't control those feelings when the
Crystal is near!"
Lisabeth didn't answer but gave her a kiss and then turned
over in bed.
The rest of the night passed without interruption and yet,
before the first rays of the sun, Anne-Christine had already
opened the shutters and put a glass prism on the window-
sill.
Because the sun rose late at this time of the year, Anne-
Christine and Lisabeth decided to make themselves comfortable.
Anne-Christine joined her friend in bed again and patiently
waited for the first images to appear.
It wasn't long long befor the first thin beam of sunlight
pierced the glass triangle and cast a fan of coloured light on
the Chandelier which began to convert these colours into
images.
After an uncertain length of time Anne-Christine suddenly
shouted: "So he did!"
She yelled it so hard that Lisabeth awoke abruptly from
her dream. Tears ran down Anne-Christine's cheeks.
"That asshole!" she shouted angrily, banging a pillow
against the wall.
"You saw it too, didn't you? That son-of-a-bitch, that
sneaky, slimy, dirty, creepy...."
Anne-Christine vainly searched for the right words and
threw threw another pillow at the wall. Lisabeth tried to
comfort her, putting an arm around her, but Anne-Christine
jumped from her bed and ran to the bathroom in tears.
After a long time, she calmed down.
"It's no use destroying the Chandelier, Lisabeth.
Gosseling will steal the Wine-set anyway, whatever we do. You
were a witness yourself".
"Yes," Lisabeth said. "But I've been thinking about it
while you were away. Gosseling may steal that Wine-set five
years ago, but maybe he will steal it for us!"
"What the hell do you mean?" asked AnneChristine, feeling
a twinge of hope.
"Well, the easiest way for Gosseling to make his journey
to five years ago is by departing from this room. He can do so
by concentrating and therefore he needs images from this
Chandelier. So he will return to this room with his Wine-set
in his hands".
"My wine-set! Anne-Christine cried, still angry.
"At that moment it is his Wine-set for a while", Lisabeth
continued unpertubed. "But then he has to leave from here
unscathed. Can't we prevent him doing that?"
"Perhaps we can", Anne-Chrsitine replied after careful
thought. "After all, there are two of us, and he is all alone.
I would even prefer him not to leave this room, for if he
does, you can forget about regaining that Crystal".
"That's the spirit!" Lisabeth cried.
"You know, it really isn't so bad, the plan you just told
me", Anne-Christine said after she had thought about it for a
while. "I'm even starting to like it. The question is, how do
we get Gosseling here?"
"He will show up, all by himself and in due course, I
suppose," Lisabeth predicted. And she was right.
That very day, Gosseling arrived at the Grand Duke's
Palace saying that he was searching for his son. He was
received by the Grand Duke's Consul, who had been informed by
Anne-Christine of Gosseling's possible arival. Gosseling was
given a room in another tower of the Palace.
During the days which followed, Anne-Christine and
Lisabeth saw Gosseling try hard to find the Chandelier. He did
so by pretending he was looking for Alexej. A quest which was
allowed by the Consul on condition that Gosseling be
accompanied by a servant.
The two friends could hear him discussing with the people
at the court more than once, while hiding in a corner of one
of the Palace's many corridors. They thus found out that it
wouldn't be long before he reached their room.
"It will happen tonight, don't you think so?" Anne-
Christine asked.
"Perhaps he will just take a look to see if it is here.
But he can only travel in daylight and with the help of a
Crystal Sphere or a prism to split the light", Lisabeth said,
while studying Anne-Christine's prisma attentively.
"If he doesn't have one, may he use yours then?" she asked
with a smile.
"But of course!" Anne-Christine replied. "Just lay it
where he can find it easily".
Lisabeth put the prism close to the window, on a table
which was decorated with exotic wooden inlays. As it was the
only object there, Gosseling could hardly overlook it.
That evening, the servants, who brought the two friends
their dinner, introduced an old acquaintance.
"This gentleman would like to interrogate everyone in the
Palace about his son who disappeared", one of the court
servants said. "Can I assure him that you will grant him an
interview?"
"By all means", Anne chuckled. "He is most welcome, for we
can use some entertainement here!"
Gosseling entered and was shaken, firstly seeing the
Chandelier and secondly by seeing Anne-Christine and Lisabeth
in the very same room.
"Hello, Govert", Anne-Christine said. Lisabeth stood up
and kissed the scientist on the cheek. Gosseling was surprised
and could not find words of greeting.
"I should have known", he finally said.
"We knew you would come", Lisabeth said. "And we waited
for you, for we'd like to have a long chat with you".
"Will you allow me to sit down?" Govert Gosseling asked,
after both servants had left the room.
"Be my guest", Anne-Christine said. "Would you care to
share our dinner?"
"No, I don't want to eat under these circumstances",
Gosseling said, his face expressing a visible disgust for
food.
"It seems to me you have the initiative," he added after
sitting down. "So please go ahead".
"Well, Govert, it is clear what you are up to", Anne-
Christine began. "We have seen in the Chandelier how you took
the Wine-set away from me at a moment when I thought it was
disappearing in quite another way and apparently forever. So
we came to the conclusion that this is the way it has to be.
We want to co-operate with you in every possible way and we
even prepared a prism for you, there on that table. After all,
we can't change the course of history, can we?"
"Something is wrong here", Gosseling replied. "Thank you
so much for your co-operation, but this is not the way I know
you Anne-Christine. Never in your life will you let me lay my
hands on your Crystal."
"Why not?" Anne wondered. "I don't possess it now and,
what's more, the Chandelier shows clearly that you take it
away at a very strategic moment. I saw the Glasswork vanish
before my very eyes, but I couldn't have guessed that it was
you, snatching it away. That wasn't very clever, was it? And,
besides, I can feel the presence of the Glasswork very
intensely for a number of days. It can't be long before you
bring it back to our time."
"To be honest with you, I too can feel the influence of
the Glasswork, Anne-Christine", the scientist said. "Do you
also long for the good old days when that endless pursuit made
life exciting?"
"Yes" said Anne-Christine. "And I don't know why".
"I do", Lisabeth proposed. "Extremes are often closer than
one may think at first sight. You hate and love one another at
the same moment, and that goes on for a rather long time. That
Crystal Wine-set enables two extremes to touch one another.
Without it, you both aren't worth a farthing. The Glasswork
stands at the crossroads of your lives. Most people can't
function properly without a fixed point in their minds. The
Glasswork has served that purpose for ages. It is a sort of
pivot around which everything revolves. The origin of a ruler,
or a stand to hang your coat on. As I have seen it, Anne-
Christine's life is exactly perpendicular to Govert's. Anne is
a young woman and Govert is an old man, but both lives cross
at the hunt for the Moscovite Glasswork. You would miss a
chance if you didn't try to recover the Crystal together. You
could divide it into two halves, so that you can re-start with
equal chances. Without such a basis to her life, I see Anne-
Christine languishing at Weezebeecke. And you too, Govert, are
out of phase when you are not hunting for the Crystal. You
will never be a proper technician. You'd better stick to your
spiritual travels, which you can do with the Moscovic Service
as a starting point."
Gosseling didn't know what to think of Lisabeth's
theories.
"So you swear I'm really going to steal the Service?" he
asked incredulously.
"Yes", Anne-Christine said "That's one thing that is
certain".
"In that case, I'm in favour of Lisabeth's proposition",
the scientist said. "After we've divided it fairly, we can
start all over again, indeed".
"You're growing more sensible at last. You'd both better
listen to Aunty Lisabeth more often", Lisabeth said, feeling
pleased with herself. "Here, I've got two toothpicks. The one
of you who draws the shortest will obtain the Decanter with
the Sphere and six of the Glasses. The other one will get the
Tray and the other six Glasses. I can't think of a better
division."
"All right", replied Gosseling. "And Anne-Chrsitine may
have the honour of drawing first".
Anne-Christine draw the longest toothpick and Lisabeth
showed that the other was broken.
"For once you are honest", Gosseling teased her for the
first time, after a long while.
"Tomorrow, early in the morning, I'll make my voyage, if
you both agree".
"It's a deal", Lisabeth said, standing up to show him the
way out.
"Was that really necesairy, that division of the
Glasswork?" Anne-Christine asked crustily after Lisabeth had
closed the door.
"Yes, that seemed to me the most proper way to make him
trust us", Lisabeth answered. "You know, I found out something
-and it is a bit of a gamble- but I think he will have the
Glasswork in his possession for no longer than a few
minutes."
"Is it a big risk?" Anne-Christine asked. "For, if it is,
I would rather like to know what is going to happen".
"Trust me for once", Lisabeth said. "You will see that
everything will turn out fine tomorrow."
After a tumultuous night, Anne-Christine and Lisabeth were
awakened by Gosseling, who was knocking at their door,
accompanied by a servant.
"So early?" Anne-Christine cried. "We are still in our
nightgowns!"
"The sun is shining already", Gosseling countered.
"All right, then", Anne-Christine mumbled to the servant,
who showed Gosseling into their bedroom and waited outside
himself until the scientist would come out.
Once in the bedroom, Govert Gosseling opened the window
and shutters wide and found a prism in his pocket, which he
put on the window-sill. A cold flow of air entered the
room.
"Do you mind us staying in bed, with that cold air coming
in?" Lisabeth asked.
"No, on the contrary, it enables me to work quietly",
Gosseling answered.
He placed a chair and the exotic carved table under the
Chandelier and started concentrating, supporting his head with
his hands and both elbows resting firmly on the table, waiting
for the images to appear.
His face was hidden as his back was turned to the girls.
Lisabeth watched Anne-Christine, who herself was watching the
scene intently. She seemed to want to miss nothing of what was
going on.
Suddenly, it was all over, when Gosseling cried
triumphantly: "I've got it! I've got it! I've made it!.
Hurrah, it's here again!"
He jumped around, wildly overturning his chair backwards
onto the ground. This noise made the servant rush into the
room. He was astonished by the dazzling colours emerging from
the Chandelier.
"Leave us alone", shouted the scientist who's immediately
lost his good humour. "You are annoying us".
"Not until I've heard from these two ladies that
everything is all right", the servant said, looking
expectantly at the two girls in their bed. Gosseling paced
angrily and with large steps to the window and snatched the
prism away. A more normal light progressively filled the
room.
"Luckily you didn't enter too soon, you fool!" he shouted
at the servant, but his irritation turned to amazement when,
returning from the window, he saw that the Service was
gone.
"Who's got the Glasswork?" he demanded. "Which of you has
got the Glasswork?"
But in his heart he knew very well that neither girl had
left the bed. The servant, too, had remained a long way from
the table, still standing at the doorstep.
"What's happening here?" the servant asked. "Do you want
me to remove this man or not?"
"To me, that seems an appropriate thing to do," said
Lisabeth. "The sad loss of his son will have effected him this
way. Obviously, he isn't in full control of himself any
more."
"Will you come with me voluntarily or do I have to use
force?" the servant asked Gosseling who could hardly hide his
anger.
"I really can travel in time", he managed to say. "I had
the Moscovite Service right in my hands and I took it with me
to our present time, but you stole it from me, one way or the
other, and you'll pay for that!"
He cast a furious glance at Anne-Christine and
Lisabeth.
"Of course you can", soothed the servant, pulling
Gosseling by the arm. "Of course you can travel in time. But
now we travel to your room, nice and gently, and if the ladies
will be so kind as not to say a word to His Majesty about your
behaviour, you won't be in any trouble, I promise you".