Chapter Thirteen: Much Ado About Nothing

Soon, Daphne felt rough ground beneath her and she opened her eyes to see that Sir Marylebone had set her down on top of a wide dirt plain on a mountain top. She took a deep breath, but the air was thin and ragged and she coughed loudly.

"All rise," Sir Marylebone said, "for Lord Westminster, leader of the Parliament of Fowls!"

Daphne looked around and saw that a variety of different birds had landed around her. And then a large bird, what looked like a large white bird of prey, larger than any bird she had ever seen, larger than she was, set down in front of her and all the other birds looked up at it in reverence.

Daphne tried to keep her calm and said, "Lord Westminster, I presume?"

"I am," the white bird said. "And you are Daphne Blackwell, the young girl who wishes to go to Home Again, are you not?"

"I am," Daphne said, trying not to make her voice quiver. "Is there some problem with that? Why is it that you have kidnapped me?"

Lord Westminster looked at her with its sharp eyes and said, "I am a Roc. I have lived for thousands of years. I have worn down mountains with my beak. I have carried away poor beggars and bejeweled kings and shown neither any mercy. Of all the things inside the Storylands and outside, there is only one thing which I fear. Do you know what that is?"

"No," Daphne said.

"I fear Nothing," Lord Westminster said and as he said the last word the other birds are shook with fear themselves. "Nothing cannot be stopped. Nothing cannot be tamed. Once let loose, Nothing will spread far and wide and it will devour us all. We will all become Nothing."

Daphne swallowed nervously, suddenly knowing why they had taken her.

"And you wish to hold Nothing in your hand," Lord Westminster said. "Do not deny it. There has been a prophecy -- as there always is in the Storylands, written a long time ago and revealed only recently -- about you, Daphne. About how you shall wield Nothing and when you do, it will all be over for the Storylands, for the world."

He approached Daphne and she felt very small as he blocked the sun over her head. "We will not kill you," Lord Westminster said, "for that shall give the advantage to our enemy, the Apolytikion. No, we shall only interrogate you. We shall learn what you know, we shall know to wield the Nothing."

Lord Westminster spread his wings and Daphne could think of nothing so frightening as this very moment. "And then," he said, "we shall not fear Nothing at all."