Dwarfs

Avalon 1.11 Dance the Night Away part 1 of 5

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After 4086 BC in the Italian Peninsula. Kairos 18: Kartesh of the Shemsu

Recording …

“It says here Kartesh originally came from Egypt.” Lincoln summarized the information from the database as they walked. “It says she genetically altered the Shemsu people for the sake of the Agdaline, whoever they are, and had her people spread around the globe. It doesn’t explain. I could look up Shemsu and Agdaline.”

“No, finish about Kartesh.”

Lincoln nodded. “The gods collectively decided that she needed to be responsible for her work and made her a lesser goddess over the Shemsu. Then they moved her to Rhodes to protect her from the god Set.”

“Sounds complicated,” Captain Decker said.

“Real life usually is,” Alexis countered.

“Anyway, hey! It says in this lifetime, the gods collectively first recognized her as the Kairos and formally invested her with her little ones.”

“Little ones?” Lieutenant Harper asked.

“Us,” Mingus answered. “This is the life when she became our goddess, or god as the case may be.”

“But wait,” Lockhart interrupted. “You just said in this life she got made goddess over the Shemsu people.”

Lincoln nodded. “That, too. Maybe that is why they made her an actual goddess, lesser goddess anyway.”

“Sounds complicated,” Captain Decker repeated himself.

“Real life usually is,” Alexis gave the same response.

“Hold on,” Boston interrupted. “I need to stop for a bit.” She rested several days after her ordeal in Faya’s time, but she was still far from perfectly healed. Now, she felt exhausted, and ached everywhere from having walked all day.

Lockhart looked at the sky and thought they should all stop for the night. “Make camp,” he said. “We have a long way to go tomorrow and the next day as well. No reason to push it.”

Roland stayed near Boston the whole time with plenty of cursory looks toward his father. Lockhart, Alexis, and Katie thought it was cute. Lincoln had no opinion. Captain Decker did not appear to notice. Whether Mingus noticed or not, no one could say.

Roland found the hunting good and came back with a better notion of where they might be. “North of what will one day be Rome,” he said. “We spent the day moving through the seven hills, and the Tiber River is not far.”

After that, they had supper and went early to bed. For the supper, Alexis found a real treat. There were more ripe grapes on the nearby vines than they could possibly eat. Before bed, Lockhart went back to two on watch through the night. Everyone knew the easy days of Faya’s mountain village and sleeping in were over.

Roland and Captain Decker took the wee hours. They would wake Boston and Katie just before dawn, though Roland said he would take Boston’s turn.

“Suit yourself.” The captain did not argue. He went to one side of the camp while Roland went to the other. An hour went by, and the moon finally rose, the tiniest sliver just past new.

No wolf, Roland gladly thought, just before he heard a fascinating sound in the distance. It sounded a bit like the wind whistling in the trees, but it gradually grew louder and more sustained.  He strained his ears and all at once, he realized the whistling changed pitch and tone. Someone was making music.

Roland stood and moved a short way into the woods. He definitely heard music, and like the best music of the little ones, he recognized that it had a magical, hypnotic quality. As he thought about it, his eyes opened wide. He spun and ran to the camp, but too late. Lockhart, Decker and Lincoln had abandoned everything in camp and were running off. Katie Harper paused to change her fairy weave from military style to the sheerest, see-through nightgown that barely came below her hips and otherwise showed her as naked. Alexis rose a bit behind but danced off with Katie into the woods before Roland could stop her.

Boston fought her stiffness and tried to get up and join them. She looked to be in pain. Roland thought the pain might be helping her. He tackled her. She fought back. “Father!” Roland yelled.  Mingus sat up and shook his head, trying hard to clear it.

“Father!” The music started to strengthen and came nearer.

“Son?” Mingus appeared to break free of the spell for the moment. He quickly gauged Roland’s struggle and put his hand to Boston’s forehead. She passed out as he spoke. “Quick. We must get away from here before we get caught up in the dance. Hurry.”

They had to struggle to walk, dragging and carrying Boston between them. Mingus shook his head several times as they went, and Roland agreed with him, but his mind stayed occupied with saving Boston. The music decreased slowly in volume as they added distance. It seemed amazing to Roland how one simple set of pipes could carry for so many miles. But then, it became no longer one simple set of pipes. Other musicians started to join in.

Boston woke and struggled for a moment before she realized she was trapped. She kept her mouth shut and dragged her feet until the pain made her feet move again. By then the creatures that streamed by to join the dance fascinated her. She saw fauns, shy goat legged people with small horns adorning their ruddy faced heads. The fauns tried to move through the trees, but they could not help being seen. She saw dwarfs, or perhaps they were gnomes. They were quite small, and cute. Some of the last were the greatest of all. They were Centaurs, majestic and stately creatures, that galloped toward the music.

The music became faint by then and Boston spoke up. “I’m fine,” she said calmly. Mingus and Roland stopped and eyed each other. They let go, and Boston made a dash for it, but the elves were much too fast for her. They grabbed the arms and lifted her off the ground as they turned her back to the path.

“Let me go,” she struggled, but again she soon gave it up. It hurt too much to struggle. Then they saw the last of the centaurs. He looked old, with gray hair around his hooves and on his head. He kept shaking his head, much like Mingus, and Mingus had a thought. There was no telling what lay ahead, and they could use an ally.

“You can fight it,” he told the Centaur. “You can win against it.” The centaur stopped and looked at them with eyes that said he did not grasp what they were saying.

“Come with us. This way.” Mingus said, and they began to drag Boston further from the music.

“But—” the Centaur pointed in the direction the other had galloped.

“This way. Short cut,” Mingus lied like an elf.

The centaur slowly turned and followed.

Avalon Pilot part II-3: Avalon

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Lockhart spoke as the door closed.  “I feel like I died.  I thought when I died I would get to be young again.”  Lincoln struggled to not throw up.  Boston looked around and grinned with all her might.

“If we died, we went to Heaven.”  Boston pointed at the castle, rubbed her shoe in the green grass and reveled in the fresh air and glorious colors everywhere she looked.  Somehow, the colors all seemed richer and brighter to her than they ever did back on drab old earth.  A field of ripe brown grain grew, not far away on her right, and a small sparkling blue river on her left flowed into the deep green sea not twenty yards to her rear.  It all felt too wonderful, and the castle, the most wonderful of all.  It looked like a veritable tapestry of colors with more spires, towers and keeps than she could count, all with flags fluttering in the cool breeze, and some of those towers shot right up into the clouds.  “I feel like I’m in Oz, you know, from black and white to color.”

“If it’s any consolation, I feel like I died too,” Glen said.  “But the feeling will pass, shortly.  And no, Boston, this isn’t Oz and it isn’t God’s heaven.  This is in the second heavens.”

“I don’t understand,” Lockhart admitted.

“Very simple.”  Glen motioned for Mister Bean to proceed.  The little one strutted up the path and the others fell in behind.  “The second heavens is my name for the place between Heaven and Earth.  It is where Aesgard, Olympus, the Golden City of the gods and all the other places of the gods used to be, including the places where the spirits of the dead were kept until the coming of the Christ, like Hades, you know.”

“This is the place between earth and heaven?”  Lincoln started to feel better.  “It must be small.  Thin like a line?”

Glen shook his head.  “Infinite and eternal as far as I know, and multi-layered, like a fine French pastry.  The isles of Avalon are called innumerable, but actually, they add up to very little compared to the vastness of it all.  Alice keeps the atmosphere and everything functioning well enough for this little part so we have a sanctuary for my little ones, and others across the various islands of the archipelago.”

“What do you mean she keeps the atmosphere?”  Lincoln took a deep breath and wondered.

“I mean the natural state of the second heavens is chaos.  It folds in and back on itself and even time is uncertain and in flux.  In order to have anything here that approximates earth and the natural laws of physics, it has to be carved out of the chaos and sustained.  Otherwise we would all be floating through an airless, ever changing and swirling mass of stuff the color of rainbow sherbet and with the consistency of something like cotton candy.”

“Hurry up.  Come on,” Boston interrupted.  She got excited.  “The Castle gate is opening.”

The others saw the gate opening but were presently huffing and puffing to get up the hill.  They paused to stare at the girl and Glen spoke.  “I’m fifty-seven, Lincoln is sixty-five, and Lockhart is sixty-eight, ready to retire.  We will get there.”

Boston frowned and ran ahead.

“I think it would be best if I let Lady Alice take it from here.”  Glen finished his thought and vanished from that spot.  Lady Alice met Boston as she ran inside the door to the castle courtyard.

“Thank you Mister Kalderoshineamotadecobean.  You did your job perfectly and brought them here safe and sound.”  Alice’s first thought was for her little one.  The little Bean grinned more broadly than a human face could possibly grin and marched off across the castle courtyard with a real swagger.  “Hello Boston dear.  It is good to see you again.”  Alice stepped up and gave Boston a kiss on each cheek, and Boston had a thought.  She spun around and saw Lockhart and Lincoln but no Glen.

“Glen?”  For all her reading and experience with the subject of the Kairos, she still felt uncertain about exactly how all these different lives of the Kairos actually worked, especially when an old man vanished and became a much younger woman, or traded places with her though time, or however he explained it.

“Yes, Glen is here.”  Alice touched her heart and responded with a very human smile.  “But not at the moment.  For now, he thought I would be best to explain.”

“Trouble?”  Lockhart picked up on something in Alice’s voice.  Once upon a time, he had been a police officer, and he still showed the instincts now and then.

“Eh?”  Lincoln originally worked with the CIA.  He had other virtues, though presently his thoughts were for his missing wife.

“If you will follow.”  Alice waved them forward and they crossed the courtyard.  They tried hard not to stare.

The yard overflowed with bustling little ones, all about on some errand or other.  Dwarfs, elves of light and dark, and others hard to categorize could be seen working and walking across the cobblestones.  Fairies and pixies of many different types and sizes fluttered through the air.  Two hobgoblins struggled with a barrel of something and tried to load it onto a wagon.  One big creature stood off in one corner, like an ogre or troll in the shadows.  The men did not want to look too close.  Boston, of course, delighted in all of it, and even clapped several times at the sights that came to her eyes.

At the back of the courtyard, they stepped through a gate and into a garden-like area.  It looked big and well groomed, but it seemed more nearly the size of a small forest than a garden.  The trees appeared to be placed randomly, like in an old growth forest, but the paths were clean of debris.

“One could get lost in this castle and wander for days without finding a door,” Lincoln remarked, quietly to himself.

“It has been known to happen.”  Alice heard, and threw the response over her shoulder.

They traveled through several buildings, several courtyards, and several gardens—all different—and came at last to the spring from which the small river flowed.  Boston guessed when she saw the naiad sunning herself.  She would have been more taken by the sight, however, if the naiad had not been lounging in a plastic lawn chair.

“Is nothing sacred?” Boston asked with a click of her tongue.

“Very little these days,” Alice sighed, and opened a door to a building which might have been called a cathedral back on Earth.  The building, a tower, contained only one room, all wood.  It looked like a construction as old as time itself.  The wood looked full of delicate carvings, the walls and floor full of intricate mosaics and the ceiling full of magnificent paintings all picturing the one hundred and twenty-one lifetimes of the Kairos, so far.  In the center of the room, there sat only one piece of furniture.  A three-pronged table held in its grasp a crystal that throbbed with a discernibly bright light.  The visitors found it otherwise impossible to tell where the rest of the light in the room came from, since there were no windows and no other visible doors but the one.  It seemed to Boston as if the building had been built around the light to trap the light inside for all eternity. Boston held her breath in that sacred space.

************************

MONDAY

Lockhart, Lincoln, and Boston are introduced to the Heart of Time, Roland, and Doctor Procter, and everything in Boston’s mind is lovely until the middle of the night. They have to hurry. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon Pilot part II-2: Mission Team

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The woman marine arrived in the lunchroom first.  She saluted Colonel Weber and the captain who stood up to greet her.  The colonel went straight to the introductions.  “Lieutenant Harper.  Captain Decker.”

The captain stuck out his hand.  “Welcome to the monkey house.”

She shook the hand and responded with her name.  “Katie.”

“Sit,” the colonel said, and it sounded like an order so both complied, while one of the three men across the table spoke.

“Decker and Harper.  Sounds like a couple of cops from a cheap television show.”

Colonel Weber pointed at the speaker and continued with the introductions.  “Robert Lockhart is the assistant director of the so-called men in black organization.  Ben Lincoln is the one with the missing wife.  Of course, you know Doctor Emile “I am stealing your property” Roberts.”

“Sir.”  The lieutenant acknowledged each man and kept it business-like.  “Mind if I ask a few questions?”  The colonel waved as if to say be my guest, but good luck getting any straight answers.

“I read the briefing but I don’t exactly understand it.  I have heard of people who claimed to be reincarnated, but this sounds a bit more extensive than that.”

“And I hardly expected to find it in a briefing paper,” Captain Decker agreed.

“Not reincarnated,” Lockhart rubbed his unshaven chin as he spoke.  “He sometimes refers to himself as an experiment in time and genetics going back to the beginning of history.  And if the paper was accurate, you will find it says he also remembers the future.”

Lincoln touched Lockhart on the arm to quiet him and spoke to the marines.  “May I ask your security clearance?”

The colonel answered.  “Both Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper are cleared all the way to the top.”

Lincoln rubbed his own chin.  “That might not be high enough.”

“That’s right.”  Lockhart grinned.  “There are some things it would be best if even we did not know about.  Isn’t that right, Emile?”

Doctor Roberts looked up.  He tried to keep a low profile in front of the colonel who kept threatening to arrest him, but he could not resist a response.  “Like Santa, spry little elf that he is,” he joked.

“Yes.”  Lieutenant Harper thought they were all kidding and tried to get back on topic.  “What does it mean when it refers to elves and dwarfs?  I assume that is code for something.”

Doctor Roberts went back to hiding and Lincoln said nothing, but Lockhart grinned more broadly and shook his head slowly.  The lieutenant reacted.

“You must be joking.  I stopped playing fairy princess when I was five and found out there are no such things.”

Before a more reasonable response could be made, the entrance of the women, who were laughing and having a wonderful time, interrupted them.  Colonel Weber and Captain Decker stood.  Lieutenant Harper also stood, though after what she just heard, she felt like it might have been safer to stay seated.  The colonel at least got to introduce the director, Roberta Brooks.

“Bobbi,” Bobbi said, as she shook their hands and took her seat.

Boston butted in front and took each hand in turn.  “Mary Riley, but everyone calls me Boston.”  She said it twice and went to sit next to Lockhart.

Mirowen nodded shyly at the marines but avoided shaking their hands.  “Mirowen.”  She went to sit beside Doctor Roberts.

“Mirowen?”  The captain asked, like he might be searching for a last name.

“Soon to be Roberts, I think.”  Lincoln sounded morose.  Mirowen’s presence underlined for him like nothing else that Alexis was missing.

“For now, just Mirowen.”  Lockhart kept grinning and raised his hand to point his thumb at the couple.  “She is an elf.”

Mirowen blushed, but she brushed back her hair to reveal her pointed ears.  She turned quickly to Doctor Roberts and he gave her a peck on the lips to reassure her.

At the sight of those ears, Lieutenant Harper sat.  When she sat, the captain sat with her, and barely in time to deal with what happened next.

“Hi, I’m the Princess, but people call me…”  The Princess paused and pretended to think about it before she concluded, “Princess.”  She smiled her dazzling smile.  “Right now I have to go home.  My husband owes me a footmassage, or something.”  She reached to take both the captain’s and the lieutenant’s hands.

“And where is home?” the Captain asked, while he unsuccessfully tried to keep his eyes from wandering up and down her curves.

“204 BC,” the Princess answered with a straight face.  “Now don’t let go,” she added, and vanished from that time and place so Glen could return to his own time and face his own dilemma.  The captain let go, but only for a second.

“Now.”  Glen smiled at the military people.  “Lovely to have you here.  Lovely to meet you both.  You can’t come.”

“Now, wait a minute,” Colonel Weber wanted to protest, but Glen cut him off.

“Despite your soldiers, you have no authority and no real power here.”  Glen walked around the table to the far wall, the only big, blank wall in the room.  “Be gone,” he mumbled.  “Before somebody drops a house on you.”

Once at the wall, Glen turned and looked around the room.  He had instructions.  “Bobbi, I guess you need to play hostess to Mister Smith when he gets back here on the Kargill ship, at least until I get back.  Emile and Mirowen, make a decision already.”  He took a deep breath and then paused to consider what he was about to do before he spoke.   “Letting ordinary mortals other than me and my immediate family into Avalon is not a common occurrence.  But Lincoln, you can come and fetch your wife.  Lockhart, you need to come to be the boss, and keep a tight rein on Lincoln.  Boston, you need to come to keep Lockhart from freaking out, and you need to behave yourself.”  Glen shook his finger at Boston while Lincoln, Lockhart and an excited Boston got up to stand beside him.  “That’s it.  Colonel Weber, Mirowen and Doctor Roberts better be here and untouched when I get back.”  And with that said, he turned again to the wall and spoke softly.

Emile took Mirowen’s hand and she looked at him, smiled broadly, and repeated an ancient rhyme.  “How many miles to Avalon?  Three score miles and ten.  Can I get there by candlelight?  Yes, and back again.”  Part of the wall turned momentarily dark.  A seven-foot-tall and seven-foot-wide space took on a shadowy look before it suddenly became as bright as a window facing into a sunny day.  An archaic archway formed around the space and it became an opening to another place, altogether.  The grass there looked green with life, and the castle in the background, high on a hill, looked positively medieval.  The aroma of life filled the stuffy conference room, and people sighed, softly.

In the foreground, a little creature stood and bowed most regally in Glen’s direction.  Several eyes shot toward Mirowen.  Mirowen kept up a glamour that made her look nearly human with only the pointed ears to give her away.  This creature in the archway was clearly not human, and Glen did not help when he named the thing.

“Kalderoshineamotadecobean.  Lovely to see you.”

“My Lord is always gracious.”

“Speaks sort of human,” Decker whispered to Harper, who did not hear him because, for some reason, she was crying.  “Bit of a shock though.  I can’t imagine an ogre.”

Glen invited his fellow travelers to cross the threshold, and he watched them closely as they went, before he turned once more to the room and spoke.  “Oh, and Mirowen, don’t worry.  I hope to be back long before the baby is born.”

Mirowen flushed as red as Boston’s red hair before Glen stepped through the wall and the entrance to Avalon snapped shut with a bright flash of light.

Golden Door Chapter 26 The Broken Heart, part 1 of 2

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Beth, Chris, David, and James all entered the annex room at roughly the same time. It looked much bigger than they expected for a small room off the main banquet hall in the Castle of Avalon. Then again, the banquet hall itself was a huge room, built to accommodate all the residents of a castle that was big enough to almost be a small city, with more rooms and buildings than could reasonably be counted.

The annex proved a long room, almost like a hall, with a big fireplace on one end and bookcases on the other. Along the long wall where the door was located, tapestries alternated with instruments of war, like swords and shields, long spears, and suits of armor. The other long wall appeared to be all windows, with two glass doors that let out to a stone-built balcony. Beyond the balcony, a sculpted garden stretched out to the horizon and the setting sun.

Mama hugged each of her children as they came in, while the lords and ladies of the dais went to sit at the semi-circular table on the fireplace end, though near the center of the room. When Mama went to join the dais, she sat in one of the two empty seats in the very center of the semi-circle. Everyone imagined the other empty seat would remain empty. It had to be for father, though the Kairos, Lady Alice might sit there.

Lady Goldenvein, the goblin queen sat to Mama’s left hand and took Mama’s hand to comfort her. Beside Goldenvein, her husband, Lord Deepdigger seemed deep in thought. Next came Lady Biggles and Lord Noen of the dwarfs, who spoke quietly with each other. To Mama’s right hand, after the empty chair, Lord Oak and Lady Ivy, king and queen of the fairies were followed by the elves, Lord Galadren, which is “Strongheart”, and his wife, Queen Lisel.

“Children.” Lady Lisel was the first to speak. “It seems it is time to talk with you.” She waved for them to come forward, and Beth, with a look to her brothers, came to the center of the room where seven chairs had been set up, facing the dais. Chris came with her and Davey and James, with a little push from behind, sat in the four chairs facing their mother and the table. The elders of the little ones sat behind the young people. Mrs. Aster of the Fairies sat behind Beth. Mrs. Copperpot of the dwarfs sat behind James. Professor Deathwalker of the “dark elves”, which is to say, “goblins”, sat behind the Chris. Inaros of Constantinople, the oldest elf on record, and one presently confined to a wheelchair, rolled up to sit behind David.

“Did you enjoy the day in Avalon?” Lady Ivy asked abruptly, and the children all nodded and smiled, but voiced nothing.

“I imagine you are wondering why you are here,” Lord Oak glanced at his wife and began, haltingly. He looked down to the table where he worried his hands. “Your father is fine, though fading, as you know… Lady Alice, one of your father’s future lifetimes may herself be too sick to attend…well…” He looked up to see the children nod, sadly. They understood, but said nothing, and Lord Oak looked away. He seemed at a loss for words. Strongheart, the elf king took up the telling.

“The plain truth is we need your help,” he said, bluntly, before he explained. “You see, at the beginning, when the steady progression of days turned to history, old Cronos and the Kairos got together to instill some small part of themselves in a common thread, like the threads of fate, only more so, not less. It was not yet woven, of course, because history was not yet written.” He stopped. It felt like he was giving a speech and he needed something to wet his lips.

“We call that thread the Heart of Time,” Lord Noen said, from the far end of the table.

“Think of it more like a crystal,” Lady Biggles added for her husband. “Think of it like a heart shaped crystal, red in the center inside, and glowing, like the beating of a real heart.”

“We all saw the Heart of Time,” Chris said, softly, and the others nodded. They saw it broken and knew it had missing pieces.

“Of course,” Lord Noen breathed, and Lady Biggles kindly patted his hand.

“As long as it was kept safe and beating, time continued in an orderly way,” Stongheart added.

“History is built on that,” Lord Oak said, trying to regain his place.

“Only now it is broken,” Goldenvein spoke in her chilling goblin voice.

“There are missing pieces,” Lord Oak continued.

“We must put the heart back together or things in life, in the world…” Lady Ivy interrupted her husband.

“In your world,” Goldenvein interrupted the interruption.

“…Will begin to fall apart,” Ivy finished.

“Alice by herself cannot hold life together, forever,” Lady Biggles added her two cents.

“History is in danger of being swallowed up in a confusion of time.” Lord Oak came to a stopping point, and everyone looked at the children to see if they were following along.

“I am very confused,” Beth admitted.

Davey took that as his chance. “I don’t understand,” he said, turning to the others.

“What are you suggesting?” Chris asked. He didn’t get it either, exactly, though he suspected something might fall on them.

James yawned while the people at the table looked at each other. He stepped into that moment of silence. “Where did the pieces of the heart go?”

Strongheart nodded, thinking the children were at least understanding something. He pointed at Professor Deathwalker. The others waited for the professor to speak.

Deathwalker stood behind Chris and pulled out a piece of paper. “Skipping over all the math and scientific rationale, blah, blah, blah,” he said, a comment which the members of the dais found funny for some reason. “The consensus is the pieces have moved into the future, a piece to each future life of the Kairos, whoever he or she might be.”

Golden Door Chapter 22 A Taste of Freedom, part 2 of 2

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Beth spied Mistletoe, crying, and she guessed the enchantment on her broke when she finally remembered to say the words, even though Mistletoe had not been there to hear the words spoken. Beth felt glad. She really wanted Mistletoe to be her friend, with Holly, of course, and the others who were all there comforting Mistletoe in her distress at having betrayed them.

Chris saw Heathfire and Broomwick sitting with an elf girl and thought about Silverstain. He hoped she was all right. David saw Floren sitting on a bench with a couple of older kids, and Owen and Alden sitting on the ground in a circle with some youngsters. James saw the youngsters, Picker, Poker and Grubby, and remembered they left Warthead outside to guard the gate to the courtyard. He hoped Warthead was all right, but then something definitely felt wrong. Picker, Poker and especially Grubby were quiet and behaving. Before he could voice his concern, they were all out the door and the door slammed shut behind them.

Several marines stood and pointed their rifles at the group. “You are under arrest,” the captain said. “You are surrounded, and my men have orders to shoot if you give any trouble.” He pointed out two machine guns set up on the perimeter where they pointed down on the courtyard. “Sit and keep quiet while we wait for the rest of your people.”

“Aren’t you supposed to read us our rights?” Chris couldn’t help himself. One soldier slapped his mouth.

“No telling what these men are seeing, or who they think we are,” Inaros said by way of caution, but he directed his voice, as elves can, so only the young people heard him.

Chris touched his bloody lip, but thought fast and grabbed Deathwalker, and dragged him to sit on a bench beside the wall. Mrs. Copperpot and Inaros followed the motion, so David and James went with them. Beth ran to give Mistletoe a hug, but that just made her cry harder.

“Captain,” one marine came up with his hand out. “I think it is starting to rain.”

The captain looked up at the dark sky. “I’m not surprised,” he said. “It’s been threatening since we got here.”

“Letting ordinary humans into the castle of Avalon is the last straw,” Deathwalker griped and shook his head.

“But how do we get away from them?” Mrs. Copperpot asked, and kindly did not add, “without the young people getting hurt.”

“I was thinking,” Chris spoke up. “Deathwalker and I could transition through the wall.”

“Not without a distraction,” Deathwalker said. “And that won’t help the others any.”

“You can do that?” David asked his brother, but Inaros spoke right away.

“David and I could run out before they could react, but not with the door closed.”

“We may be able to help with that,” Mrs. Copperpot said, and she turned to James. “Dear, how do you feel about deer?” James did not understand until she added, “I think a yearling with nice white spots.” James nodded, and one second, he was James, and the next a young deer stood in his place, and it tapped one front paw like it was anxious. Mrs. Copperpot quickly became a mother deer, and they seemed to come out from the bushes and stand by the door. Mrs. Copperpot even took her front hoof and scratched at the door, while James kept an eye on the marines.

“Hey, captain,” a marine noticed even as David practiced directing his voice to Beth.

“Beth. Come here right now. We need you to escape with us.” Beth looked across the courtyard and frowned at her brother, like she was not about to do what her twelve-year-old brother told her, and David should know better than to shout across the whole yard.

Inaros put some command in his directed voice. “Now!” and he made sure Mrs. Aster heard as well.

“Now,” Mrs. Aster insisted, and Beth reluctantly got up, still thinking it was her twelve-year-old brother being stupid. It had begun to drizzle, so Beth put her hands over her head against the rain and walked, slowly. Mrs. Aster chided her.

“Beth, your brothers are bright and have some good ideas. You have a terrible attitude. You should listen and pay attention to what is going on outside of your own mind. Like you should have listened to what the glorious one told you to say.” Beth felt properly scolded, but then the sky opened a little more and it began to rain.

“Marine,” the captain yelled just in time. The marine lowered his rifle. “We don’t shoot women and children,” the captain did some scolding of his own. “You two, get that gate open and let the deer out.”

As the marines opened the gate, the rain came harder. Shortly, there was a flash of lightning that lit up the courtyard and struck close. The thunder rolled across the courtyard.  People screamed and gave the appearance of panic as they stood up and ran around. Picker, Poker, Grubby, Owen and Alden were masters of wreaking havoc, but in this case, the fairies, especially Zinnia and Holly, gave them a contest. The marines were not concerned about their prisoners but determined to get them to settle down and be quiet. The captain began to look at the rooms at the back of the courtyard, under the colonnade walkway to see if they were suitable to hold the prisoners.

“Now,” someone said, though no one was sure exactly who.

Chris and Mister Walker leaned back and transitioned right through the courtyard wall. The two deer created a bit of a distraction of their own, hesitating on going out until a very small Inaros and David raced by and out the door. The deer followed. Mrs. Aster shot up to the top of the wall and became miffed that she had to shoot back down.

“Beth fly! Now, hurry!” Beth stared at the fairies in their distress. Even as her feet left the ground, it took another second for the words to penetrate. Then she glanced quickly at the marines and flew as fast as she could. One marine saw and took a shot, and fortunately missed as Beth topped the wall and raced out into the garden beyond, which proved more like a little forest. She did not get far, however, before Mrs. Aster really yelled at her.

“That is three times you have not been paying attention. You need to start paying attention to what is going on before you get everyone killed.” They reached the others, and the others heard. “Being a teenage girl is absolutely no excuse. You need to listen to your brothers and listen to your elders and keep up before you have everyone’s blood on your hands.” Mrs. Aster really steamed.

“I’m sorry,” Beth said to the fairy. “I’m sorry,” she told everyone else. “It’s just everything is so new and strange and different. It is not what I expected. I can’t keep up.” She began to cry, and Mrs. Aster looked to bite her tongue, like she wanted to say tears were no excuse and did not make anything better. But Chris stepped up to hug his sister.

“Okay. I’m stubborn and stupid,” he admitted the part he had not told his mother.

Then David was not about to miss out on a hug. And finally, James came up and tugged on Beth’s sleeve.

“We need to go,” James said.

“Young James is right,” Mrs. Copperpot agreed.

“Yes,” Inaros said, with a look to the sky, though all he could see was tree branches. “It is raining harder. We have temporary shelter under the trees, but it is beginning to come in torrents.”

“Well,” Deathwalker clapped his hands while Beth wiped her eyes. “We appear to have no choice. We must go to the tower.”

“We must do what we can,” Mrs. Aster agreed, reluctantly.

“Before the whole island reverts to the natural chaos of the second heavens,” Inaros said, and Mrs. Aster looked at him like she was not going to say that part.

They started to walk, and James spoke. “You mean we have to face—”

“Don’t say her name,” Mrs. Copperpot interrupted. “You say her name and she will hear us and know where we are and where we are going.”

James held his tongue, but David heard enough to worry.

************************

MONDAY

Beth, Chris, David, and James, together again, enter the tower where the Heart of Time is kept. They must confront Ashtoreth. Monday. Until then, Happy Reading.

*

Golden Door Chapter 22 A Taste of Freedom, part 1 of 2

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Noen and Strongheart got their men ready to form a wall with a fist of men at the front to punch their way up the stairs. The elves brought all their globes to eye level and prepared to flash the lights in the faces of the ghouls as they ran with the hope that it would keep the enemy off balance or at least interfere with their aim. Between ducking and returning fire from behind a dozen obstacles, it took considerable time to organize the effort.

David came out of his sad state with the words, “I want to go home.”

“Me too,” James admitted.

“And you will,” Inaros assured them both. “As soon as we can get you and the women out of range of the ghouls. “David, are you ready to run fast?” David nodded, and as he thought about it, he almost grinned.

“Are we ready?” Strongheart shouted up and down the line.

“Ready as ever,” Noen mumbled at Strongheart’s shoulder, but he paused when he heard sudden moans, groans, and shouts in the ghoul line. The ghouls blocking the stairs suddenly began to fall, and they all heard Beth and Chris shout from the staircase. “Angel said, do not be afraid!” A great light, the combined lights from all the fairies shot across the underground room. The elf lights flared in response and added to the brightness, thought the elf lights seemed small by comparison. No one waited. Strongheart did not even have to yell, “Go!”

“Come along James.” Mrs. Copperpot took James’ hand like they were still strolling in the woods, but they put up glamours to make themselves appear like piles of lost and forgotten things and walked a spritely pace, slightly bent over to make themselves even smaller than they were. Inaros and David simply ran like the wind, and it seemed to James that two rockets flew by him on route to the stairs.

All the Lords of the Dias hugged their wives, but briefly. “We have to rout out the ghouls,” Lord Noen explained.

“Go to the antechamber on 2B,” Strongheart suggested to his wife. “You should be safe there for the time being.”

“Ashtoreth must be mad letting ghouls inside the castle wall,” Deepdigger growled.

“Her madness was never in doubt,” Lord Oak said. “Are we ready?”

Inaros spoke before the others could answer. “One for all, and all for one.” The elf, goblin, fairy, and dwarf looked at one another, nodded and yelled the charge as they raced back down the stairs and around the corner.

“This way,” Mother was at the top of the stairs on the third-floor landing. She had hugged Chris and Beth but was anxious to get away from the fighting. The children all wondered how their mother had the least idea where she was going since she had such poor eyesight, especially in the dark. The widely spaced torches could not be helping her much. Yet she led the crew to the second floor and turned right at the top of the stair, like the antechamber on 2B was as familiar as the living room.

“Everybody in,” Lady Lisel encouraged the group. The room proved a long hall, with tables along the walls with vases of flowers and bowls of fruit ripe and ready for eating. There were oriental rugs here and there across the wood floor, and sections of chairs with plenty of coffee tables, end tables and reading lamps, looking haphazard, but clearly organized. One long wall looked full of books, with a door at each end and a grandfather clock in the middle of the wall to break the uniform bookshelves. The short walls on each end had tapestries, beautiful and intricate in detail. One detailed the untarnished forest and fields and the other showed the shore and the sea, with water that looked wet enough to flood the room. The other long wall had tall windows, and several glass doors that led out onto a brick balcony, though no one could say exactly where they let out in the castle since from another perspective, the room was still two stories underground.

“I don’t like the look of that sky,” Mrs. Copperpot mused, as she looked out those windows, and the elders agreed with her. The young people, meanwhile, thought to inform the various women on the disposition of their children and friends. Chris had a hard time talking about Silverstain. Mother stood right there to hold Lady Goldenvein’s hands and comfort her.

“I’m sure she will be all right,” Mother said.

“I don’t know,” Chris admitted his own serious concern, and Beth balked.

“We left them all in the courtyard,” she said. “We can’t just abandon them.”

“Who knows what might be attacking them even now,” Chris agreed.

“Worried about Silverstain?” Deathwalker asked Chris, gently.

Chris kept a straight face as he turned his eyes toward the others, and in particular Beth, in case she should get the notion he had a girlfriend. “And Redeyes and the others.”

“And Grubby,” James said.

“Oren, Alden, Floren and Mickey O’Mac,” David named them all.

“And Warthead,” James added.

“I am sure the ogre is just fine,” Mrs. Copperpot smiled for James.

“Still, the young people have a point. We might fetch them,” Mrs. Aster agreed.

“And we will be moving away from the fighting,” Deathwalker pointed out.

“But the children don’t have to go,” Mother said.

“Actually, the children are the ones who must go,” Mrs. Aster countered.

“The young people know the children and will follow them,” Deathwalker explained. “Where we might have fallen under the enchantment.”

“The young ones might not trust us, in case we are enchanted,” Mrs. Copperpot agreed.

They all looked at Inaros, and he spouted, “2B or not 2B …” Deathwalker and Mrs. Aster took him by the arm and dragged him out the door. The children and Mrs. Copperpot followed.

“We’ll be right back,” Beth assured her mother.

“Hey David.” Chris put on his frightening aspect complete with cat eyes, little horns, sharp teeth, claw-like hands, and serpent tongue. He tapped his brother on the shoulder. David turned and screamed, and then he hit his brother while Chris ducked and laughed.

James immediately put on a glamour of his lion and roared at Chris, but he just made David scream louder.

“Chris!” Beth interrupted them. She started glowing slightly against the darkness of the stairwell and floated over to get between them and shake her finger at them all. “Cut it out.”

“So much for the element of surprise,” Deathwalker said from the top of the stairs.

“If you are finished playing around, we have to try to be quiet,” Mrs. Aster added.

The boys all got quiet by then, staring at their sister. Beth nodded and floated to the top of the stairs. David turned and raced to the top in a second, so he could grin and say to his brothers, “What took you so long.”

“Hush now,” Mrs. Copperpot hushed them when they all arrived on the first floor and walked down the hall to the courtyard door. “Quietly,” Mrs. Copperpot added when they arrived. Deathwalker gave her a look that said he knew that much. He cracked the unlocked door and stuck his head out, Mrs. Aster floating over his shoulder where she could see for herself. Everyone sat there, quietly, on park benches or on the ground, now and then looking up at the overcast sky. The dome over the castle kept out the weather, but it looked to be pouring up there. In fact, it looked like the whole island might be tearing apart.

Golden Door Chapter 21 Guards in the Deep, part 2 of 2

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“She wouldn’t,” Mrs. Copperpot looked dumbfounded. “She let ghouls into the castle? That is the most awful, ridiculous, never should happen thing I can imagine.”

“To me!” Strongheart stepped out the door, and the elves and dwarfs came running.

“Maybe a full hundred,” one of the elves reported.

“We have to stick together,” Noen said as he and Strongheart began to yell orders and set their warriors in battle formation.

The women paused at the door, except for Queen Ivy. She went to James with a word. “Let me have Seabass a minute.” James hardly knew what to say in the face of all that beauty. He held out the cat and was surprised Seabass went willingly to this stranger, though he supposed after a time in close quarters she was no longer a stranger. Ivy assured James when he saw Seabass go invisible. “Your kitty is fine and should be safe.”

“Can you make me invisible?” James asked, and Ivy let out a smile as Mrs. Copperpot grabbed James’ hand and pulled him to the door.

“What’s Wrong?” David asked his mama. She said nothing but turned first to lady Goldenvein.

“I am sure Deepdigger is fine.” She patted the goblin’s hand as she took the Lady’s arm.

Goldenvein nodded, stood, and looked like she might be holding back tears. “And your children,” she said. “I know you are worried about them.” Mama said nothing as the two women came out from behind the table, arm in arm, but David thought the look on his mother’s face was far more frightening than the goblin face.

“David,” Inaros called, and David went to him.

“We will have to fight our way back to the stairs as a unit,” Strongheart said, and he dressed his troops once more while he waited on the scouts he sent out.

Inaros willingly sacrificed his knees as he knelt to talk to David and more face to face with James. “Ghouls can make you see things that aren’t there. They say where there is one, there are ten, and where there are ten, there are a hundred.”

“A hundred ghouls?” David spouted, but he did try to keep his voice down.

“Maybe not. We don’t know. But you have to be careful about what you sense. They can fool your ears as easily as your eyes.” James looked up and Inaros caught the unasked question in the young man’s face. “I don’t know about touch and smell. I tried not to ever get that close to one, and I certainly never tasted one.” Inaros leaned on his cane to get back up. David helped him.

Two elves and two dwarfs showed up at the front and one of the elves spoke. “They are coming down the stairs and out from behind the piles of forgotten things. It looks like a whole compliment.”

“There aren’t that many,” one of the dwarfs objected. “We should make for the stairs.”

Noen smelled something. He scooped some dirt off the floor and tossed it at the dwarfs with a few words. One of the dwarf scouts revealed himself to be a seven foot, green creature with big, sharp teeth and claws. It did not live long. David and James watched, fascinated, while the ghoul deflated and shrank and seemed to melt until there was only a green and purple smudge left on the floor. Mama did not watch. She covered her eyes.

“Now, with care” Strongheart said, and they started to move. “Women and children keep to the middle.” That was not always possible as they had to navigate now and then around the support poles and the occasional pile of forgotten stuff. A few ghouls braved the elves and dwarfs that formed a circle around the women and children, but those ghouls were quickly shot down. The dwarfs had crossbows. The elves had regular bows, but they were uncanny marksmen.

Shy of the stairs, all of the torches in the room went out.

“Get down. Hit the dirt.” Noen and Strongheart yelled at the same time. A number of elves and dwarfs leaned over the women and children, and just in time. Some hundred arrows came in their direction. The elf armor and dwarf chain rejected most of them, but some took a hit and were wounded, a few badly.

“To cover!” Strongheart yelled. Noen did not yell. He already scurried behind a support beam. James David, Inaros and Mrs. Copperpot got behind a pile of forgotten stuff even as elf lights, little globes of pure light, began to rise toward the ceiling and the second volley of arrows came from the ghouls.

James saw the grin on David’s face, a poor imitation of Chris’ grin, but he also saw the wide, unblinking eyes so he knew it was a grin of fear, not happiness. James felt it, but distracted himself by examining the pile, curious as to what stuff might be forgotten. There were lots of clothes in that pile. James pulled out some broken guitar strings and one pick. He also pulled out a number of disposable butane lighters, a few of which still had some life in them. He stuck two working ones in his pocket and dug deeper beneath the clothes. He found a cheap plastic ring with a spider on top and slipped it on his finger.

 “I remember these. Halloween rings.” He held it up to his brother. “Hey, Davey. Look what I found.” David looked briefly, but his expression did not change much before he went right back to grinning and staring off into space. “Earth to Davey,” James mumbled.

“Mexican standoff,” Noen shouted from behind his pole.

“They stick their heads up and we can pick them off,” Strongheart shouted back, and James looked to the side because Strongheart crouched just on the other side of Mrs. Copperpot.

“They outnumber us,” Inaros leaned over and said to the elf Lord. “They can wait us out.”

“And how long can you keep those fairy globes aloft?” Noen shouted back.

Strongheart paused to stroke his chin. He felt surprised the ghouls were not already trying to attack the globes, magically. Maybe the ghouls knew the globes took energy which would become exhausted in time and they were content to conserve their own energy and wait things out. “You need to come here. Be prepared when the lights flash.” Strongheart yelled and lowered the globe he controlled to eye level. Several nearby elves saw what he did and lowered their globes as well. He waved to his men and gave some kind of signal. “One, two, three, go.” Strongheart yelled and all the globes at eye level flashed like photographer’s bulbs, guaranteed to give any watching ghouls a vision of spots and hopefully a headache.

Noen moved fast and arrived before the arrows started again. “We have to find a way to get to those stairs,” he said.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” Strongheart quipped.

“I mentioned we needed an elevator in this tower,” Mrs. Copperpot said, grumpily. “Too bad no one listens to old ladies, no matter how well she cooks.”

“We listen good grandmother,” Noen said. “But right now, that is not helping.”

“James. David.”

James heard the voice and turned to look. It looked like his dad, standing off to the side, waving to him like he wanted him to go quietly in that direction.

David looked and shouted, “Dad!” He tried to get up, but James grabbed him and yelled at him.

“It isn’t Dad. It’s a ghoul.”

Normally, David would have broken James’ grip in no time, but this time, for some reason, James found more than enough strength to hold his brother back. Inaros noticed when David shouted. He squinted, and it did not seem to James that he was seeing James’ and David’s father. Mrs. Copperpot looked and said, “James, don’t be fooled.”

Strongheart looked and shot an arrow with the words, “God forgive me.”

Noen let lose a crossbow bolt and said, “Aye.”

David saw his father struck with both deadly projectiles and Dad reached a hand to his chest. He saw his father transform into a ghoul and begin to melt. David stopped struggling and put his head in his hands. James marveled at his own strength and looked again at the cheap plastic spider ring on his finger. He let his imagination run for a bit.

“They have compromised our flank,” Noen noted the obvious.

“What can we do?” Mrs. Copperpot asked, a bit of worry in her voice.

“Pray for a miracle,” Inaros responded. “That was what Captain Van Dyke always said.”

Golden Door Chapter 21 Guards in the Deep, part 1 of 2

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Strongheart and Inaros guided David, Floren, Alden, Oren, and the elves safely to the Bailiff’s Courtyard. Mickey O’Mac stayed off to the side most of the way where he could keep an eye out for possible intruders or obstacles, but they found the way easy going and saw no sign of activity.

“Too easy,” Mickey decided. “We dare not let down our guard.”

“Most of the Castle under the Sea has been emptied,” Strongheart said. “And with the air bubble in place, the mermaids and water sprites seldom visit. Most of what is here is up on the castle walls looking for you on the outside.”

“And here we are on the inside,” Inaros said with a big elf grin. “I take it the women are in the deepest rooms.”

“Yes,” Strongheart nodded. “The fourth floor down, in a small room off the area that is one wide open, room but for the basement column supports. It is the room where they keep the forgotten things. There is bedrock beneath them so they can’t dig out and the bedrock is enchanted so the dark elves like Lady Goldenvein can’t go to ground and escape.”

“Go to ground?” David wondered.

“Dark elves, trolls and such avoid the light,” Floren explained quietly in David’s ear. “The sun can even turn some to stone, so when the sun comes up, they sink into the ground and they can move through the dirt and rocks until they find a cave, or maybe a basement, or anyway a place where they can rest until nightfall.”

“How can they make their flesh move through solid matter?” David’s scientific curiosity started acting up.

Floren scrunched up her face. There were all sorts of possible answers. Magic was a good one, but one David would never accept on face value. In the end, Floren told him, “Let us just say the flesh of the little ones is more flexible in one way or another than the mud and dust flesh of normal mortal humans.”

“Boy.” Inaros spoke and David looked up. “We have to go now and rescue your mother.”

“Is my father here?” David asked. He presently thought of his father and had in that moment the slightest glimpse of what it might be like to have responsibility for all these little ones, as Floren called them. He thought, no wonder his father lived so many lifetimes. One life could not possibly handle them all.

“Your father is somewhere, I am sure, but ladies first.” Inaros kept one hand on his cane and held his other hand out so David could step up beside him. David imagined the old man would need help with the stairs, assuming there were stairs.

“Floren.” Strongheart also spoke, but to his daughter. “You need to keep Oren and Alden here. You should be safe if you stay quiet in the courtyard.”

“Quiet? Oren and Alden? Father, by myself?” Floren certainly sounded like a teenager.

“I’ll stay and help,” Micky decided.

“Two of my soldiers will stay with you, so you boys better behave until we come and get you.” Strongheart gave them a stern look before he turned with Inaros, David, and a dozen elf warriors and went into the tower. David heard Floren behind him until the door closed.

“Sit! Stay!”

Mrs. Copperpot said Warthead had to stay outside the gate and not come into the courtyard. “All the halls in the castle have an enchantment that stretches them to accommodate to the big ones, like ogres,” she explained for James. “But Warthead is too young. Picker, Poker, and Grubby, you too. Stay here.”

“Hey!” Grubby protested.

“Will four of my men be enough?” Lord Noen asked.

“I’ll stay and help,” Pug volunteered. “My world is full of forest and grasslands. You know I am not much for buildings and underground positively gives me the creeps.”

“Thank you,” Mrs. Copperpot thanked the gnome before she turned to the boys with the kind of fire in her eyes that caused the big ogre to look at his feet and caused Picker and Poker to look away. “Four guards had better be enough.” Grubby also looked away, but he whistled softly as if to say he was not listening. “Now, come along James.” Mrs. Copperpot held out her hand for him.

James moved under the old dwarf’s protective wing, but he could not help the words that came out in his softest voice. “I’m too young for this, too.”

When Lord Noen led them in they saw the light from the torches in the hall reflected off good steel and heard the voice of Strongheart. “Friend or foe? Whom do you serve?”

Lord Noen signaled his dwarfs to put down their weapons. “We serve the Kairos. Strongheart?”

“Noen?” Strongheart stepped out from the shadows down the hall. “It is good to see you free of that wicked one’s domination.”

“More like damnation,” Noen said with a ruddy grin that sprang up beneath his full beard. “I must say, I am glad to see you. I can use the help setting the women free. No telling what is down there or what kind of guards she may have in this place.”

Strongheart returned the smile and gave the shorter man a hearty slap on the back. He did not say anything, but he looked like he would not mind having a band of dwarfs at his back.

“James!” David noticed first and shouted.

“Quiet,” Inaros scolded, and David nodded, but nothing would keep him from his brother. He hugged James and James, not the touching type, nevertheless hugged him back.

“You won’t believe what happened to me,” David began, still too loud.

“Quiet,” Mrs. Copperpot repeated the word. “You will just have to tell him later. Right now, we need to be quiet.” She hushed David and David quieted.

“Later,” David whispered.

“Me too,” James agreed. At least, unlike Davey, James always seemed to whisper.

They came to the stairs, and it would be four long flights down. They stopped on each floor and looked around but found nothing and no one. David at least hoped that was a good sign, but Inaros and Mrs. Copperpot looked more worried at each stop. At the bottom of the stairs, they came to a wide room with pillars spaced equally in every direction. The pillars made it impossible to tell how big the room really was, but James and David got a good idea from the echo, especially when Inaros placed his hand over David’s mouth.

Strongheart signaled with his hands. He placed several elves to guard the stairs and along the path without a word. Noen mirrored him with his dwarfs. The last two elves and two dwarfs they told to guard the door and then tried to figure the lock. Strongheart risked a whisper.

“They are in here?”

Inaros put his hand to the door as if feeling for what might be inside. He nodded while Noen took a great whiff of air with his bulbous dwarf nose and whispered, “Yes, and I smell something else, too. We best hurry.”

Mrs. Copperpot grabbed Inaros’ hand, and Strongheart and Noen added what they had as well so the old dwarf woman could use her cooking spoon to the greatest effect. Nothing happened at first and Inaros gritted his teeth and leaned into it. Then the lock popped with a great sound that echoed everywhere. The door opened but squeaked, loudly every inch of the way. Whatever might be in that big basement room certainly knew they were there, and where they were, too.

The women all sat around a table, playing Rook, and sipping tea. It seemed a small room, but there were mats, pillows, and blankets on the floor, and a bathroom behind a back door. There also appeared to be a sink and stove in the corner with clean dishes in the drain. In all, the women made it work.

David saw his mama quietly watching the game. She sat between the goblin and the bearded dwarf wife. David felt amazed his mother was not totally freaking out, but she stood so he could run to her, and hug his mama, and cry a little. Noen went straight to his wife, Lady Biggles. Strongheart also caught Lady Lisel in a big hug and added a brief kiss. Lady Goldenvein, the dark elf stayed seated, but Ivy, the Fairy Queen stood and dropped Seabass the cat from her lap.

“Oak?” Ivy asked.

“No sign of him yet,” Inaros said. “But Beth is with him, and Chris is with Deepdigger.”

Seabass went straight to James and let out a “meow.” He had always been a verbal cat, and James picked him right up and heard him softy purr.

“We must go,” Lord Noen said to everyone, even as they heard a word shouted from the distant stairs.

“Ghouls!”

************************

MONDAY

David and James with the women need to escape the ghouls and get to a place of safety. But the place of safety turns out to not be so safe. Until Monday, Happy Reading

*

Golden Door Chapter 14 James and the Ogre, part 3 of 3

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James felt groggy, but he only had to sit down for a few minutes in the rain. The ogre, and that was what it was, apparently suffered the worst of it, being thrown back by the blue lightening to crash into the cave wall. Luckily, ogres are very hard to damage, and he rather damaged the stone wall of the cave.

“Are you all right?” Grubby asked James in most uncharacteristically impish fashion. Nature would have had an imp rolling on the floor with laughter over such an encounter, but James was the son of the Kairos.

James nodded, though one hand stayed on his head. The ogre shook his head and spoke. “That little guy is powerful. I never been beat up before.”

“First time for everything,” Grubby said, and puffed out his chest a little. “Storyteller’s son.”

“But my Ma and Da said to watch the cave and don’t let in strangers.

“His name’s James. Now he’s not a stranger.”

“At least not any stranger than you guys,” James mumbled while Grubby helped him to his feet and got him out of the rain. It looked ready to pour.

“James.” The ogre caught that much. “Good to meet you.” Warthead stuck out his tremendous hand and James’ hand got completely swallowed up in the big mitt. He would have been better to shake one of Warthead’s fingers. But then, James watched the handshake because he could hardly look at the ugly puss of the ogre, and besides, he did not feel altogether certain if there might be more blue lightening. It turned out to be safe enough, and James could not imagine anything more special than making friends with an ogre, so he looked up at last, but when the ogre smiled in delight, James had to quickly look away to avoid throwing up.

“Ma and Da aren’t here,” Warthead repeated himself in his gravel-deep voice. “They gone up to the castle for special visitor, I think. I don’t rightly remember.”

“Woah!” Grubby was by the entrance to the cave. “There must be a monster storm coming. Listen to that thunder.” They heard a dull roar in the distance, but it was growing. James paid close attention and after a moment he voiced his skepticism.

“I don’t think that is thunder,” he said.

Warthead, who was not particularly able to follow their thoughts, looked around instead and pointed at something else. “Spiders.” Grubby and James looked quickly. They were at the bottom of the mountain, quite a long way, but obviously excited as if sensing they were getting close to their prey. They began to climb the hill at a rapid pace.

“James!” The word came wafting down from above with the wind and the rain.

“James!” It was Mrs. Copperpot, Picker and Poker.

“Grubby! James!” Pug was with them, and the trio in the cave had to go outside to look up.

They were soon spotted, though the dwarfs and the gnome were quite high up the mountainside above them. “Up here, James. Quick! Tsunami!” Pug pointed in the direction of the roar which was becoming very pronounced. They began to hear trees crash in the wave.

James looked for a way, but there was no easy way. The cave was carved out of a small cliff. Meanwhile, Warthead scratched his head and Grubby had his eyes glued on the spiders. He saw when they abandoned the rush up the hill and began climbing trees in an attempt to get above the onrushing water.

“Hurry James!”

“There’s no way up!” James shouted.

Grubby picked up a stone and threw it at a spider which was ahead of its fellows. It cracked against the spider’s back but did no real damage. James spun around to see. The spider was almost as big as him, and he might have screamed at the sight if the water did not come first. With a great roar and something like the sound of freight trains, the wave crashed through the last trees like a flood breaking through a levy.

“Water!” James shouted, and Warthead moved. He grabbed Grubby in one big paw and James in the other and stretched his arms as high in the air as he could, which was almost high enough for James to reach the rock ledge above the cave mouth, but not quite.

“Spider!” Grubby shouted, as the water quickly rose above the ogre’s mouth. A spider had made the jump to Warthead’s arm and zeroed in on James. James panicked, but tried kicking first, and to his surprise, he caved in the beast’s head in a way that Grubby’s stone had not. A second kick sent the spider flying off into the drink, as the water was now up to Warthead’s elbows. It actually reached to his upraised wrists, and the water stayed up for a few minutes before it began to recede almost as fast as it came in. James understood that if the tidal water did not drown them or crash them and crush their bones against something hard while coming in, it could still do the same, or drag them for miles on the way out, and just as easily.

The time went by slowly, slow enough for Pug and Mrs. Copperpot to climb down almost within reach. Mrs. Copperpot looked full of fret and worry, but Pug seemed a rock of calm and kept assuring them that everything was going to be all right.

Warthead stood that whole time with his arms raised straight up to keep Grubby and James above the water. James felt a little surprised the ogre was not brushed aside in that torrent, but he was not. He stood like the stones themselves, unmoving, even long after James imagined the poor ogre drowned and had to be dead and gone. As the water went down somewhat slowly, it felt agonizing to watch the big creature, hoping against hope for signs of life. When the water was once again below the chin and it started to pick up the pace of retreat, Warthead looked like no more than a statue, and James imagined he might stand in that pose for a thousand years. He wanted to cry, and Mrs. Copperpot did not help with her words about the ogre’s bravery and heroic stand. Then Warthead shook his head and opened his eyes.

“Warthead!” James and Grubby shouted together.

“Are the spiders gone?” Warthead asked. “That one tickled and I almost laughed.”

“But how did you?” James could not decide what to ask. “The water was up for a half hour at least, or twenty minutes or more. How?”

“I held my breath,” Warthead said, in an intuitive moment—a very rare thing in an ogre.

“Good choice.” Grubby praised the ogre’s thinking. It was a fifty-fifty proposition of Warthead coming up with the notion of holding his breath underwater.

James twisted his face. “I thought after so many minutes without oxygen the brain cells started dying.”

“No fear of that,” Grubby said, and waved off the whole problem with his hand. “He hasn’t got any to lose.”

Warthead grinned and nodded and began to wonder why he kept holding his arms straight up in the air.

It was still an hour or more before Picker and Poker found a way down from above and the water went down enough to gather in the cave entrance. The others were a bit leery of the ogre, but he seemed such a good fellow, and Mrs. Copperpot recognized how young he was. Why, converted to human ages, she imagined that Warthead might be the youngest of the lot, despite his hulking size.

“You know,” she said, as she sighed and accepted that she now had five, a full handful of boys to watch. “Now that the spiders are washed away, the path to the gate should be open.”

“At least for a little while.” Pug agreed. “And we ought to go before it gets dark.”

Mrs. Copperpot looked up at the sky where there was a genuine stroke of lightning and boom of thunder, and the rain began to strengthen. “Yes.” She agreed, before she added, “And I don’t like the look of that sky.”

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MONDAY

Chris boards the ship to cross the underground sea but the cavern wall cracks and the volcano bring up a monster from the deep while Beth flies above it all and gets to taste sweet puffberries. Until Monday. Happy Reading

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Golden Door Chapter 14 James and the Ogre, part 2 of 3

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Look.” Picker pointed to the sky. They saw shadows now and then since about mid-day, observable even in the darkening sky. Everyone looked. Something paced them, flying overhead, and likely several somethings, but it seemed impossible to tell what by looking up through the trees.

“I don’t like the looks of that sky.” Mrs. Copperpot repeated her comment from earlier, and while James agreed that the heavy, dark clouds closing in overhead did not look good, he now realized that even her earlier comment had been intended to disguise the fact that she saw something overhead, shadowing them. No doubt, she did not want to frighten James, as if anything could be more frightening than those snakes.

“Shh!” Pug stopped their progress. They heard a clicking sound ahead. “That’s new here,” he said. “But I am not sure what it is.”

“Not animal?” Mrs. Copperpot asked with some surprise. She felt that surely the gnome would have been aware of any animal that might make that sound.

“Not machine.” James breathed in his quietest voice. At least not any machine sound he ever heard. This click-clicksounded like someone tapping sticks together, and he said not machine because he kept trying to think of what, other than an animal, might make such a sound.

Click-click. It became pronounced, and they began to hear a kind of chittering with it. It sounded like a hundred squirrels tapping their teeth all at the same time.

“Better wait here while I check see.” Pug said, and not even Mrs. Copperpot would argue with that good advice.

They waited for what seemed like a long time, but what was probably a rather short time. The clicking never went away, though it did not sound like it got any closer. The chittering sound came and went, but it also seemed to keep its distance. Then there came a terrible crashing though the bushes, and James and the boys backed up and prepared to climb or run behind trees, while Mrs. Copperpot pulled out her magical spoon, apparently, her only weapon. What came from the woods was a great bear, and it reared up momentarily as it reached the path. Mrs. Copperpot almost did something to the beast but held back just long enough to see the beast return to all fours and Pug seated firmly on the beast’s neck. Even as Pug shouted, Mrs. Copperpot already scooped up Picker and Poker, one for each arm, who protested being treated like sacks of flower.

“Hurry! Get up! Spiders coming!” Those were Pug’s words and all the explanation they needed. Mrs. Copperpot leapt on the bear’s back and James climbed most of the way up, holding on to Mrs. Copperpot’s dress as the bear passed by, but barely paused. Only Grubby looked close to missing the ride.

“Wait up!” Grubby yelled, but Pug would not stop, and neither would the bear as the clicking and chittering sound came suddenly much nearer.

“Grubby!” James yelled back and grabbing tight with one hand to a great tuft of bear hair, which the bear hardly felt, he reached his other hand out and back as far as he could. Grubby ran, and in one great effort of speed, he managed to grab hold of James’ hand. They rode that way for a little bit as the sound of clicking and chittering receded into the distance. Grubby bounced on his feet like a frog while James held on as well as he could, but for all their effort, the imp seemed unable to get up on the bear’s rump. Finally, James thought to slide back a little to better help the imp, only his grip on the bear’s back slipped altogether and both he and Grubby went teetering off into the bushes. The bear did not stop. The twins kept yelling and so they likely did not hear the boys fall, and neither did they see them, looking only ahead toward safety.

“Ugh!” Grubby rubbed his head. “I think I smashed into the tree, but lucky it was only my head.”

James also moaned, but he had crashed into a bush, which frankly, broke his fall. Otherwise, he certainly would have broken something else. “Where are we?” James looked back to be sure they were out of range of the spiders, even as he got slowly to his feet. Grubby took a good look around.

“I think I know,” he said. “This is the ogre way. Come on. I’ll introduce you to a friend of mine.” Grubby also looked back in the spider direction. “We better hurry,” he added as he started off at a good pace. James had to hustle, but he felt well worn by then and could not really keep up with the imp who might not have had elf speed, but certainly moved faster at a jog than James could run.

“Wait up.” James had to call after a little way, but Grubby did not hear or did not listen. James stopped anyway, put his hands on his knees, and took a number of deep breaths. It did not take long for the young man to recover, but he thought he better walk after that, at least for a little while.

James did not feel happy about being left alone in the woods again, especially on the edge of the Craggy Mountains and ogre land. Then again, he had never seen an ogre. He had seen spiders and imagined they were giant spiders, so he really had no choice in the direction he went. He came to the first stone filled rise almost immediately, and he thought he saw where the path wound its way up between the stones; but it appeared hard to tell. He decided to sniff. He looked for Grubby and figured that Mrs. Copperpot and the others were likely out of range by then. This time he decided to trust his sixth sense.

“A little to the left,” he said out loud to himself.  It appeared as if Grubby had deviated off the main path about halfway up the rise. James began to climb, sometimes needing his hands to help pull himself up, and in this way he eventually came to where a smaller path separated from the main ogre way. “Grubby,” he said out loud, pointed down the smaller path and started out that way without hesitation.

The way remained rough, mostly up hill, and James began to wonder if maybe he was in the mountains already. He finally had to stop and sit on a rock for a fifteen-minute break. Of course, he saw the shadows pass overhead the minute he stopped, but he ignored them with the hope that they would go away. When they did not, he moved on, thinking that his break seemed like a very short fifteen minutes.

James paused. He raised his head and sniffed, almost without thinking about it. His mind kept thinking of Grubby and he felt a strong sense that Grubby was close, up off the left-hand side of the trail. Not far from there, he came to a place on the side of the mountain covered with stone and the occasional hardy bush. He found a cave a little bit further up the side, and it looked dark. James looked overhead. The sky also seriously started darkening now, like it might start raining at any moment. James tried to convince himself that the cave looked dark because of the sky. Then a few drops of water fell on his head, and he decided he had no choice. He did not realize that Grubby was still pulling him forward.

James got to the cave entrance before the downpour started, and then he heard a voice.

“Who is the stranger in my door.” The voice sounded terribly deep and frightening to hear. James dutifully screamed.

The deep voice screamed in echo of James’ sentiment, and James caught a glimpse of a giant who put his hands to his ears while James started to scramble away. Unfortunately, the rocky side of the hill had not been designed for a rapid escape. A giant fist shot out of the cave, right over James’ head, and would have smashed James flatter than a cracker if it hadn’t bounced off. There were great blue sparks, like lightening, that passed between the giant’s fist and the boy’s head. At the same time, Grubby hollered as loud as he could.

“No, Warthead! No!” He yelled too late.