A Crazy Day with Cobras (8 page)

But the guard didn’t seem to care about the elephant, nor did he seem to care about their bare feet and torn coats. “You must come with me,” he said gruffly.

“Why?” asked Jack.

The guard wrapped his hand around the hilt of his sword. “Because if you do
not
, you will be put in jail for the rest of your lives,” he said.

“Oh,” said Jack. “Good reason.”

J
ack and Annie silently followed the guard to his carriage and climbed in the back. The guard flicked the reins, and the pair of black horses took off, trotting down the dirt path.

Annie looked at Jack. “I wonder where we’re going,” she whispered.

Jack just shook his head. His worst thought was that the Great Mogul had changed his mind and wanted to punish them.

The horses passed the mud huts, the men and boys hauling hay, the women and girls cooking outdoors. They passed goats and sheep and chickens.

The horses clopped down the stone road. They moved easily through the bazaar. Jack saw that the silks and carpets were hanging on the lines again. Oranges, lemons, and pineapples were back in the baskets. Tent poles were all standing, and the bearded merchants looked happy and busy.

The horses trotted down the street toward the Red Fort. When they came to the drawbridge, Jack expected them to cross the moat and head back to the palace, but they didn’t. The horses trotted past the fort and down a road along the river.

The sun was low in the sky when the horse-drawn carriage came to a square. The horses stopped before a massive red gateway with an arched entrance.

The guard turned to Jack and Annie. “You are to go inside and wait,” he said.

“Okay. Thanks for the ride,” said Annie.

The guard stayed in the carriage while Jack and Annie climbed out. They walked up to the looming gateway.

“Where are we?” Annie whispered to Jack. “And why are we here?”

“If I knew, I’d tell you,” whispered Jack.

Jack and Annie stepped under the high, arched entrance. Leading from the entrance was a narrow canal stretching to the horizon.

In the sunset, Jack thought he saw a cloud of mist hovering above the ground. Then he realized it was a shimmering, milky white dome about twenty stories high. It seemed to float between the earth and the sky. There were four tall towers at the corners of a terrace beneath the dome.

Jack and Annie just stared at the dreamlike vision. Then they saw a man walking along the narrow canal toward them. As the man got closer, Jack caught his breath. It was the Great Mogul! No guards were with him. He was all alone.

The Great Mogul stopped and stared at them. His gaze took in their ragged, torn coats and bare feet.

Jack panicked. They looked terrible. Would the
ruler think they weren’t showing proper respect for him?

“Bow,” Annie whispered.

Together, they bowed from their waists and brushed their right hands on the ground. They straightened up, raised their right hands into the air, and placed their palms on their heads. Then they lowered their hands and stood perfectly still. Jack cast his eyes down, afraid to look directly at the Great Mogul.

There was a moment of silence. Then the all-powerful ruler spoke. “I have never read such writing before. Or seen such artwork,” he said.

Jack looked up at the Great Mogul. But he didn’t know what to do. Were they allowed to talk?

“Excuse me, Your Majesty,” said Annie. “Is it all right to speak?”

“Yes,” said the Great Mogul.

“Thank you. Well, Jack wrote the words,” said Annie. “And I drew the pictures.”

The Great Mogul nodded. “Your story and
pictures tell of riding through the world in a tree house. You tell of saving a huge octopus, a baby gorilla, and a baby kangaroo. You tell of helping brilliant men named Leonardo da Vinci and William Shakespeare. You tell of rescuing children from a giant ocean wave and from a sinking ship. You are a great storyteller,” he said to Jack.

“Oh, not really,” said Jack. He felt embarrassed. “I just told about stuff that happened to us.”

The Great Mogul turned to Annie. “Your pictures are filled with life and joy. They are rich and stirring. You are a great artist,” he said.

“Not really,” Annie said. “Lots of people draw better than me. What you probably loved was the perfect printing of Jack’s story and the sparkly colors of my pens.”

“Yeah, we can’t take credit for those things,” said Jack.

The Great Mogul almost smiled. “The perfect letters and the sparkles were not what I liked best,” he said. “I liked the heart in the story. I liked the heart in the drawings.”

Jack couldn’t explain why, but he thought he understood what the Great Mogul meant.

“And now I want to answer the question you asked me today,” the Great Mogul said to Annie. “You asked if I loved anything. I could not speak freely in front of my guards or my foreign guests. But the answer is yes. I once did love something—some
one
—very much. My wife. She was my best friend and the mother of many children. I wept an ocean of tears when she died.”

“Oh. I’m so sorry,” said Annie.

“Me too,” said Jack.

“You have shown me your hearts,” said the Great Mogul. “Now I show you mine.” He turned and looked at the shimmering dome. “This is the tomb of marble I built for my wife. It is called the Taj Mahal.”

J
ack, Annie, and the Great Mogul were silent for a long moment. The marble of the Taj Mahal seemed to change color as the sun went down. Against the darkening sky, it went from pale pink to orange to purple. The dome sparkled as if it were covered with a thousand tiny lights.

“How did you make it sparkle like that?” Annie asked finally.

“Stonecutters set precious stones in the marble,” said the Great Mogul. “Many were cut in the shapes of flowers and leaves. The emerald rose you chose today is like the carved flowers set in the Taj Mahal.”

“It’s really beautiful,” Jack said.

“Yes. Many say it is the most beautiful building in all the world,” said the Great Mogul. “But hidden beneath the sparkle and magnificence of the Taj Mahal is simply the lonely heart of one person who loved another.” The Great Mogul had tears in his eyes. He cleared his throat and looked away from them. “And the elephant I gave you—where is she now?”

“Uh … actually …,” Jack started. He didn’t know what to say. How could he protect Morning Breeze?

“We left her in the forest,” Annie finished. “She has a baby she wanted to take care of. You
probably didn’t know this, but Morning Breeze was a new mom when she was captured. She’s a good mother. She should stay with her baby.”

The Great Mogul nodded. “I understand,” he said. “My wife was a good mother, too. The last thing she said to me was ‘Please take care of our children.’ Do not worry, the elephant will remain in the forest with her child.”

“Thank you,” said Annie.

The Great Mogul stared at them for a long moment. When he spoke again, his voice was kind. “You are ambassadors from far away,” he said, “but you are children, too. You should go back to your home, to those who care for you.”

“A splendid idea,” said Jack, trying to sound like an ambassador.

“Come.” The Great Mogul walked with Jack and Annie back to the arched entrance and through the tall gate. He waved at the driver in the cart. Then he turned to Jack and Annie.

“Farewell,” he said. “Travel safely.”

“Thank you,” said Annie.

“Bow,” Jack whispered to her.

Jack and Annie performed their bow one last time. When they straightened up, the Great Mogul nodded.

“Oh, and thank you for the emerald rose,” said Annie. “It is a priceless treasure.”

“You are most welcome,” said the Great Mogul. “The rose was my wife’s favorite flower. And, as you know, emeralds stand for love.” For the first time, a warm smile crossed his face.

Jack and Annie smiled back at him.

But the Great Mogul was suddenly serious again, as if he wasn’t allowed to smile. He looked at Jack and Annie for a moment. Then, without another word, he turned and walked through the tall gate, back toward the shimmering tomb of his wife.

Jack looked at Annie. “Let’s go home now,” he said.

Jack and Annie walked to the guard and his horse-drawn carriage. “Please take us to
the trees outside the walls of the Red Fort,” Jack said.

The guard flicked his reins. The black horses trotted along the river in the pink twilight. They passed veiled women on the backs of elephants, white oxen pulling a cart, and small boys driving a herd of sheep. They stopped near the row of dark trees outside the Red Fort.

“This is fine. We’ll get out here, please,” said Jack.

The guard gave them a silent nod.

Jack and Annie jumped out of the cart. They ran under the trees to the rope ladder and climbed into the tree house. Jack grabbed the Pennsylvania book. Before he made the wish, he and Annie looked out the window.

In the distance, they could just see the Taj Mahal. It glowed faintly in the hot night, like a shimmering cloud.

“Oh, wait …,” said Jack. “I just remembered something.” He reached into his bag and pulled out the note from Kathleen and Teddy. He read aloud:

Jack put the note away. “Our mission wasn’t really done until now,” he said. “We were so worried about the emerald rose, we forgot the part about uncovering the heart of one who’s alone.”

“The Great Mogul,” said Annie. “Even though he has millions of followers, he’s really lonely.”

Jack and Annie looked out the window again. “Good-bye, Great Mogul,” Annie said. “I hope your heart feels better someday.”

Jack took a deep breath. He pointed at a picture of the Frog Creek woods. “I wish we could go home,” he said.

The wind began to blow.

The tree house started to spin.

It spun faster and faster.

Then everything was still.

Absolutely still.

Jack and Annie were wearing their own clothes again. Jack’s bag was a backpack. A warm wind was blowing the trees in the Frog Creek woods.