Dear Govert,
I've found the Muscovite Chandelier and I've even taken a
Crystal part of it. I'll send it as soon as I'm back in
Weezebeecke. 'Till soon,
Your Anne-Christine
As Anne-Christine closed the envelope, she knew she hadn't
written the whole truth. She would enable Govert to make his
Time Journey to Anne-Lise's Moscow, but first she would try to
do that herself with the help of another little part of the
Chandelier which she had in her posession.
By concentrating hard, she hoped she could warn Anne-Lise
against the arrival of a so-called Baron de Gosselingue. But
she needed absolute rest for, with someone near her, she
couldn't concentrate, as she had noticed on previous
occasions.
Lisabeth, meanwhile, had started her first negotiations
with the Czar, to carry out her plans.
"The Czarina of Russia and a rolling Crystal Castle that
discussion may take some time!" Anne-Christine thought,
putting the piece of Crystal in the colourful fan of light
which sprang from her prism, as she prepared for her journey
to Anne-Lise.
Lisabeth returned discouraged from her negotiations with
the Czar. Though he had been enthusiastic about her ambitious
plan, he asked for something in return.
"A part of the Muscovite Glaswork", he had told her,
asking for the parts which had been stolen from his ancestors,
by which he meant the Glasses and the Decanter. He didn't want
the Sphere or the Tray, which they had found themselves.
"A nice message for Anne!" Lisabeth thought, somewhat
disappointed, as she opened the door. A wave of colourful
images made her realise what had happened in the room.
"Oh no!", Lisabeth cried, "Anne went away!"
Amidst all the confusing images, she saw her friend seated
in deep thought, while the Crystal was spraying out one
rainbow after another. She ran to the window. In one move, she
pulled the prism away and the normal sunlight reappeared, but
Anne-Christine didn't seem to notice. She was still in deep
thought, with her eyes closed. Even when Lisabeth shook her
hard, Anne-Christine did not awake from her trance. Lisabeth
rattled her chair but all in vain.
"How stupid!" she thought. "This is asking for trouble.
She certainly wants to go to Anne-Lise and that won't work,
beyond a doubt. Anne-Lise and Anne-Christine have too much in
common and, when those two meet, it will stir things up. You
can't just mix two eras!"
She finally tried to wake Anne-Christine by giving her a
box on the ear, but her friend didn't seem to feel
anything.
Then Lisabeth started to think:
"Anne was really fond of Anne-Lise and therefore she
couldn't resist, undertaking a spiritual journey to the Czar's
Ball. She wants to see how the Service was actually stolen and
certainly wants to warn Anne-Lise about Govert's arrival".
With mixed feelings, Lisabeth looked hopefully at Anne-
Christine's face but her friend gave no indication of what she
was going through.
"I certainly hope that she isn't going to steal the Czar's
Glasswork herself", Lisabeth's suddenly thought. "That would
be a real disaster. In this era one Service already exists and
then is she going to add another Service from another era?
Lisabeth's head was buzzing with these ideas.
"Why did Anne-Christine continue sitting there, without
moving? What was she doing? Two 'Annes' in a same era and now
two Glassworks that wouldn't work, would it?"
The longer she thought, the more she became convinced that
she herself couldn't do much, really, and that she just had to
wait until Anne-Christine wanted to return.
Lisabeth's next thought was:
"According to Anne-Lise's letter, all went fine in her
era, so I don't really have to worry. Perhaps it went all
right just because Anne is making this trip. Anne probably
wants to arrive ahead of Gosseling, so that they can fool him
in one way or another. Or would Anne be so stupid as to....",
she hardly didn't dare to think any further.
"She didn't leave to become her own great-grandmother?"
she realised all of a sudden. "That way, she'll throw herself
into an endless Time Spiral!"
On an impulse, Lisabeth jumped next to Anne-Christine and
cupped her hands next to her ear.
"Anne!" she called as loud as she could. "Come back! What
you are doing is very dangerous!" but Anne-Christine didn't
react.
"Typically Anne!", Lisabeth thought. "I can't do anything,
I just cannot reach her!"
Lisabeth thought the best thing to do was to restore the
situation which she had found when she arrived. She put the
prism in the sunlight again and left the room, her eyes hurt
by the glare of the light.
"It's her own choise", was her last thought, as she closed
the door.
Later, Lisabet came back from a horse ride in Moscow. She
had wondered about the strange world in which she now lived,
but her thoughts had also been dwelling on Anne's statue-like
appearance, which had impressed her very much.
"I hope everything is back to normal" she said, opening
the door of their room.
"Hello Lisabeth", Anne-Christine said, reading "The Chain
of Mountain Crystal" on her bed.
"Oh, how glad I am, to find you here again", Lisabeth
called, "You scared me to death!"
"Oh, you've seen me busy?" Anne-Christine asked, a little
anxious.
"What the hell were you doing?' Lisabeth asked. "You
seemed so distant!"
"You may guess three times!" Anne-Christine answerd with a
smile. "I can travel through time, just like Govert can. I
learned it from him and in fact it is just as simple as that.
Yonder I contacted Anne-Lise. She is a gentle and warm woman,
you know. I warned her about Gosseling's arrival. She will
bear it in mind and I told her exactly how to handle the
situation so that I may inherit the Crystal".
"So you arranged that yourself?" Lisabeth asked, looking
worriedly at Anne-Christine.
"Yes, I did. If she could take care of Archibald as the
heir, then it would come to me, sooner or later. And she had
to leave her letters with Weezebeecke's solicitor. That too,
she has understood perfectly".
Lisabeth looked at her with disbelief.
"Is that quite right, Anne? You already received your
letters from the solicitor and obtained the Glasswork via
Archibald. And a very long time later, you are going to
instruct Anne-Lise how to act so that you can lay your hands
on them".
"Yeah, that's how it works", Anne-Christine said self-
confidently.
"But how are your negotiations progressing?" she diverted
Lisabeth's further questioning.
"Not very well, I'm afraid", Lisabeth had to admit. "He
will make me a Czarina, if I'll make him a Grand-Duke, but the
position concerning my Crystal Castle is less clear. For this,
he wants the Glasswork in return, that is to say, the parts
which were stolen from his ancestors: the Decanter and the
Glasses".
Anne-Christine was startled:
"That isn't possible Lisa. You promissed me that!"
"That's exactly what's on my mind, too" Lisabeth
confessed.
"Couldn't we trick him the same way we tricked Gosseling?"
Anne-Christine asked that evening as she lay in their bed.
"What do you mean by that?" Lisabeth asked.
"Well, can't we give the Czar just a glimpse of the
Crystal and make it disappear shortly afterwards?" Anne-
Christine suggested.
"That looks difficult to me, Anne", said Lisabeth. "With
Gosseling it succeeded because it had to succeed anyway. If he
were able to travel in time, then he most probably would have
placed the Glasswork on the table on his return. Then it would
have disappeared before his very eyes. And, if he hadn't been
able to bring it back, then he would have ended his
experiments without any further complications. But I didn't
bring the Glasswork with me, Anne. To me it seemed too risky
after all".
"You've left it at 'The Watershed Inn' and made me think
you had hidden it in your portmanteau", Anne-Christine knew
all too well.
"That's right", Lisabeth admitted, feeling somewhat
guilty. "I wanted to tease you, but what's more, at that
moment I preferred crispy onions to the Glasswork".
"I can fetch it for you from Anne-Lise's time", Anne-
Christine said. "But I'll do that only after you promise to
give it back to me, so that I in turn can give it back to
Anne-Lise. I could just beg her to lend it for a while".
"That is very kind of you, Anne", Lisabeth sighed. "But
bringing back things from the past is even more difficult than
going there yourself, Gosseling told us".
"Oh, but I can do it", Anne-Christine said, "I just need
rest to concentrate. Tomorrow, as soon as the sun is shining,
I'll go back to Anne-Lise and then I'll fetch the Glasswork
for you. Just to please her, I'll steal it right after the
little Czarevitch's ball! After all, I already know that it is
hidden in the chandelier".
"Then the one who has stolen the Moscow Crystal will be
you", Lisabeth said, adding: "No Anne, I can't ask you that.
Such a concentration-trip must be very exhausting for you. To
me it seemed a rather frightening experience. But thank you
for your offer, anyway".
"I know I can do it", Anne-Christine said, feeling very
confident. "I am even convinced that I shall succeed, because
I feel that the Crystal can't be far away anymore."
"All right then. I can't stop you after all. If you make
up your mind then no one can stop you. But now I'm going to
sleep", Lisabeth mumbled, turning away from Anne-
Christine.
Anne-Christine entered her trance at the very moment
Lisabeth started her second negotiation with the Czar.
Lisabeth tried to make him let her keep the Glasswork, since
he would be glad to know that his future spouse would possess
the Crystal.
"Perhaps!", the Czar had answered. "But then your rolling
Crystal Castle will become much smaller. You have to re-draw
it so that it can be transported on normal rails and not on
the 25 tracks you have designed now. That has the extra
advantage that you can take it with you anywhere."
Lisabeth felt that she had to accept this offer, even if it
meant that a considerable part of her drawings had become
useless.
"But then you have to build a railroad track from Moscow
to Transsyldavia and another one to the Black Sea", she
bargained, "because Anne loves swimming".
The Czar laughed.
"All right, you win, but then I want to cast an eye on the
Glasswork beforehand. I want to be convinced that you really
possess it".
"I hope that will be possible. At this moment someone is
working hard on it", Lisabeth said, not quite sure of herself.
And the Czar raised an eyebrow.
"I just hope that Anne really can fetch objects from the
past", Lisabeth thought on her way back to her room.
There she met a cheerful Anne-Christine, who was building a
little tower with the Muscovite Glasses.
"Be carefful what you are doing!" Lisabeth cried but at
the same time felt relief that Anne had managed to obtain the
Glasswork without a scratch.
"Did Anne-Lise agree?" Lisabeth asked.
"If I bring it back. That will be all right", Anne-
Christine said. "What did you do, meanwhile?"
"He will be satisfied if he can cast an eye on it, and I
have to adapt the design of my Crystal Castle so that it can
be transported on a normal railroad track", she said with
delight.
"Then we've won!", cheered Anne-Christine, "and we can
leave here soon".
"This is the real thing, isn't it?" Lisabeth asked,
watching at Anne-Christine as she packed her cane portmanteau
with the Decanter and the Glasses so that the Czar could see
them at once.
"Of course it's real", Anne-Christine said, feeling
offended.
In a short while, Lisabeth returned.
"Everything is in the bag!" she cried, puling Anne-
Christine to dance with her.
"Then you'd better bring back the Glasswork immediately
Anne, before it gets damaged", Lisabeth proposed when she had
danced enough.
"Well.., no, I'd better wait a while longer," Anne-
Christine amswered. "I'll give myself another journey, now
that I can travel too. There are so many things I still want
to see: Attilla, The Visigoth Prince and everything that
happened afterwards. I can only do that with the images which
are stored in this Crystal".
"No Anne, You will have other opportunities to do that",
Lisabeth said. "I prefere you to bring it back immediately. I
don't feel safe now, with two Glassworks here at the same
time. And it also frightens me seeing you go to all those
unknown eras. There are a great many dangers out there. Can't
you wait until we are back at Weezebeecke? Then we'll visit
'The Watershed Inn' first and there I'll give you the real
Glasswork".
"This is the real Glasswork, too", Anne-Christine
responded decisively, "It's boring here and, with the
Glasswork near me I always feel butterflies in my belly".
"Then you may do something with me tonight", Lisabeth
said, already knowing that Anne-Christine had made up her mind
and was longing to meet the Visigoth Prince.
"As soon as the sun starts to shine, I'll go", Anne said.
And Lisabeth was hoping desperately that tomorrow would be a
cloudy day, just like today.
"What a pity, all those clouds today, wasn't it?" Anne
asked, creeping to Lisabeth.
"Well, not really," Lisabeth answered honestly. "I can
feel you want to behave in an irresponsible way and I rather
see you waiting at least another day".
She took her friend by the shoulder.
"Besides, I've been thinking", she went on. "You don't
intend to fetch more Glassworks from the past, do you? It
wouldn't amaze me if you did."
Anne-Christine had to laugh.
"What are you afraid of? That you will lose more sleep
than you do already? Or do you fear a Glasswork
inflation?"
"The latter I fear the most", Lisabeth confessed. "I
wonder what will happen if you bring together the Glassworks
from all the other ages to our time. You can go on like that
endlessly. Then a disaster will occur, won't it?"
Anne-Christine had not thought about that.
"The Glasswork possesses a certain power", she said
philosophically, "And you are afraid to reach a certain
critical mass at which it will all explode spontaneously?"
"I just don't know", Lisabeth said. "That kind of thing
exists. You can inflate a balloon until it bursts and perhaps
it won't burst by itself but a little spark can cause an
explosion, just like gunpowder!
You already brought two glassworks together in our time, but
one is here and the other is at 'The Watershed Inn'. I suppose
that won't be a problem, but who knows what will happen when
they meet one another?"
"Perhaps you are right", said Anne-Christine. "I have to
be more careful. But I am so eager for these dangerous
games!"
Lisabeth drew her friend closer to her.
"You'd better play those games with me", she said,
starting to kiss Anne-Christine passionately.
"Anne, you have been travelling!" Lisabeth said on her
return from her daily horse ride. She saw that the Glasswork
was complete. It now stood on the Tray and was crowned with
the Crystal Sphere.
"I just wanted to take a look at the entire Glasswork",
was all that Anne-Christine said, her eyes glued to the
Crystal.
Lisabeth sighed:
"I've got good news for you. We'll go back to Weezebeecke.
There I'll work on a new Crystal Castle and in the meantime
they'll prepare the wedding, which will take place in the
autumn".
"Excellent news!" Anne-Christine said, jumping up. "I'm
getting so bored here!'
"You don't need your portmanteau any more, do you, now
that you've eaten your raw crispy onions every day?" Anne-
Christine asked.
"So you are thinking of taking the chandelier with you, I
suppose?" Lisabeth asked on her turn.
"Yes, I am a Crystal addict. I don't know if the entire
chandelier fits into this portmanteau, but I want to take as
many pieces as possible".
"Be my guest", Lisabeth said. "But first, you have to get
rid of that Glasswork. You promised me and Anne-Lise as well,
remember?. I still am not very confident, you see".
"I'll do that today" Anne-Christine said.
"Don't wait too long. The weather may change for the
worse", Lisabeth advised.
"I know what's good for me!" Anne-Christine exploded.
"All right, all right. I only said it because I intend to
leave tomorrow morning at the break of day.", Lisabeth
retortef defensively.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of it, the sooner the
better", Anne-Christine said, already collecting her
belongings.
Next morning, Anne-Christine carried a heavy portmanteau
into the train, accompanied by the Czar's Adjutant, to whom
she granted a long farewell kiss. The train started off
noisily and sped to Warshaw without delay, where they had to
continue their voyage on horseback.
Anne-Christine's horse clearly suffered from the heavy load of
Crystal.
"Why don't you get rid of something?" asked Lisabeth. "A
small portion of the Crystal will do, won't it, whatever the
purpose you have in mind?"
Anne-Christine didn't answer right away.
"There will even be more after you've recovered your
Glasswork from 'The Watershed Inn'", she said eventually.
"You'll get your Glasswork back", Lisabeth confirmed.
"Don't worry. Or didn't I thank you enough for your assistance
during my negotiations with the Czar?"
"Without that assistance, you wouldn't have made it",
Anne-Christine said.
"That's true", Lisabeth had to admit. And she saw that
these words put Anne-Christine into a better mood.
After a number of days they reached 'The Watershed
Inn'
"You may look under that loose plank beneath your bed,
right away!" Anne-Christine proposed, while Lisabeth enjoyed
her second cup of soup with fresh crispy onions.
"Why do you think I've hidden the Glasswork under the
bed?" Lisabeth asked, choking.
"Oh,... because that seemed to be the best place for me to
hide that kind of thing", Anne-Christine answered, while her
cheeks turned fire-red.
A little later they walked together to Lisabeth's
bedroom.
"You won't find it in here!" Lisabeth said. "Take a look
yourself, then I don't have to crawl on the ground".
"No, I believe you", Anne-Christine said. "It is rather
dusty over there".
"Will there be any room left in your portmanteau for some
more crispy onions?" Lisabeth asked, changing the subject.
"No, it is completely full with the chandelier", Anne-
Christine said and she proved her words by opening her cane
portmanteau. Lisabeth saw the warm glow of the Mongolian
Crystal and that the lid could just close.
"All right, you have convinved me. But now, about your
treasure: I'll explain where to find it. You'll have to go to
the back yard. There, behind the stable, you will find a
hollow tree. Put your fingers among its roots and there you'll
find your Glasswork."
Anne-Christine gazed at her friend in disbelief, but she
stood up to follow the instructions.
In a short while she was back again.
"There's no hollow tree whatsoever", she said.
"No, that's right", Lisabeth said, "I just needed to get
rid of you to recover the Muscovite Glasswork from it's real
hiding place".
She pointed at the Tray, the Glasses, the Decanter and the
Sphere that were sparkling on her bed.
Anne-Christine saw that she had been caught in her own
trap like a silly child, but she tried not to show it.
"Thank you", she said, seeing that her victory was out of
reach.
"And you stuck to your promise", she admitted hastily,
starting to pack the entire Glasswork into her cane
portmanteau among the similar Crystal of the Chandelier, and
saw how the lid could just close.