Kairos

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

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“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

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

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 20 Beth Above It All, part 2 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

It did not rain in the castle. Beth could see out the door that it still rained buckets outside, but in the castle, even in the open courtyard where they hid, there was not a drop. The sky still looked dark and dreary overhead, and she thought she saw some lightning up top, but she heard no thunder and felt no rain.

“What happened to the rain?” Beth interrupted the argument.

“There’s a bubble around the castle keeping out the worst of the collapse,” Mrs. Aster said in nearly her normal voice. “Come on.” She took Beth’s hand again and pulled her to a colonnade at the side of the yard where they could walk quietly in the shadows.

“Where are we going?” Beth asked.

“I thought we should first find my father,” Mistletoe whispered in Beth’s ear. “But apparently our first duty is to free the prisoners from the dungeon. Ow.”

Holly had slapped her sister’s nose when Mistletoe got too close to Beth’s ear. “I’m sitting here, if you don’t mind.” Holly grabbed two clumps of Beth’s wet hair and stood.

“Oh!” Mistletoe sounded perturbed. “Why don’t you get big and use your own feet like the rest of us.” Beth felt the back-and-forth wiggle Holly gave in response. She had to imagine the thumbs in Holly’s ears, the fingers waving wildly and the tongue sticking out at her sister.

“Quiet.” Mrs. Aster was not interested in fairy foolishness. She was being as serious as an old fairy can be. She led them through numerous inner gates, from courtyards to gardens of all sorts, one of which looked more like a forest than a garden inside a castle. They only cut through two buildings, and that was only briefly from one door to another, though in one they had to climb some stairs. At last, they came to a wall with another sturdy gate, and Mrs. Aster repeated herself. “Quiet.” Holly had been whispering about the scenery. Daffodil, Zinnia, and Hyacinth all whispered. At least Mistletoe stayed quiet, though Beth wrongly imagined she was still mad at her sister.

Beth did not understand how quickly fairies could change from one emotional state to another. It seemed like their small fairy bodies could only hold one emotion at a time, and their little fairy minds could not hold on to conscious memories for long. They flitted from one thought to the next and one feeling to the next at the blink of an eye, especially the young ones.

“Shh!” Holly shushed everyone, though they were already quiet. Mrs. Aster spoke.

“This is the main courtyard in front of the Bailiff’s Tower. Avalon does not have a dungeon, exactly. But the tower has lower rooms without windows and heavy doors that can be locked securely from the outside.”

“Tower of London?” Beth suggested and Mrs. Aster nodded.

“The thing is, those lower rooms are one of the few things that exist in only one castle, in a sense. After we arrive, we will find ourselves in the Land Castle and no longer in the Castle in the Sky. Beth nodded though she did not understand, exactly. Mrs. Aster pulled her wand out again, and this time she tapped twice and paused before she tapped once more on the door. The lock turned.

It proved a big cobblestone court with benches here and there, and a water fountain in the middle which had been turned on. Beth thought that odd. She saw more than enough water pouring down outside the castle bubble. They took a few steps. Everything seemed quiet until they were all in the yard and committed. Two dozen fairies flew in to surround them, changed to their big form, and held out their swords and sharp looking spears. Several held bows with arrows ready.

“You are all under arrest.” The fairy that stood between them and the tower door spoke.

“Lord Oak,” Mrs. Aster named the speaker.

“Father,” Mistletoe said, and smiled. She stepped away from the group and toward her father. She kissed him on the cheek before she spoke again. “The Kairos’ daughter, just like I promised.”

“My good daughter.” The man returned her kiss and turned to his troops while Holly stayed hidden in Beth’s drying hair and whispered in Beth’s ear.

“Mistletoe, betrayers! Mistletraitor!”

“Bring the human girl and old Mrs. Aster.” The man still spoke. “Half of you men stay here with Mistletoe to guard the rebellious fee. I’ll decide their punishment later.” He turned to his daughter. “These two will go to the dungeon with the others. You don’t mind keeping an eye on your friends until I get back. Do you?”

“Father.” Mistletoe smiled for him. “I could never be friends with traitors.”

Mrs. Aster whispered in Beth’s other ear. “Now would be a good time to say what angel told you to say.”

“What was that?” Beth asked.

“Didn’t the angel give you some words to speak?”

“Not that I can remember.”

“Move them,” Lord Oak said, and Beth found the butt end of a spear shove her from behind.

“Beth. You must remember for yourself. I can’t say the words. It won’t work if I say the words.”

Beth and Mrs. Aster stepped inside the tower and got driven to the stairs where they began the long descent to the basement level. Beth thought hard. “I know the angel said a number of things, but I don’t remember him saying anything special.”

“I do,” Mrs. Aster said. “I was hovering over Mister Deathwalker’s shoulder, listening. I distinctly heard the angel say, “Tell them Angel said…” But that is all I heard.”

Before Beth could answer, they came to a large open space, a wide landing where three great halls went in three directions while the stairs continued down. A goblin stood at the top of the stairs, and Beth would have been deathly afraid to look at it if Mrs. Aster had not just reminded her of Mister Deathwalker.

“If you are coming to help free the queens, you must hurry,” the goblin spoke in a voice that sent chills through Beth’s body, wherever the chills felt like going, but Beth ignored them as she shouted her response.

“They are enchanted. Run!”

The goblin was not slow. He saw the spears and the swords come out and ran down the next set of stairs, shouting.

“Traitors ahead of us,” Lord Oak said. “Be on your guard.” Beth and Mrs. Aster were shoved to the rear while Lord Oak and a half-dozen fee started down the stairs their weapons ready.

“Beth. You have to remember and say the words to make the magic work,” Mrs. Aster whispered sharply before a guard pushed her with a word.

“Quiet.”

At the next landing, the goblins were waiting in the hallways surrounding the landing, hidden in doorways and behind the tables and tapestries. The fairies stopped on the stairs when an arrow struck the bottom step.

“Oak!” A voice rang out in the hall. “We should not be fighting each other.”

“Deepdigger, I give no quarter to traitors.” Lord Oak kept his men up the steps where they argued about how to get past the enemy. The fairies could get small and fly faster than the goblins could react but getting Beth down the stairs posed a bit of a problem. Lord Oak wanted to keep them talking while they thought. “What have you to say for yourself?”

Instead of Deepdigger’s voice, Christopher’s voice rang out loud and echoed in the halls. “Angel said do not be afraid.”

“Chris!” Beth responded. “Ow!” She got hit on the head for crying out.

Chris’ words had no effect on the fairies, and he quickly figured the problem. “Beth. You have to say it. Angel said do not be afraid.”

“Do not be afraid,” Beth mumbled. She honestly did not remember being told to say that and was not surprised it meant nothing to the fairies.

“Beth. You have to say the whole thing, the exact words. Angel said do not be afraid.”

Beth opened her mouth and found a fairy hand in her face to keep her quiet. She reached up and found her own hand full of blue, electric sparkles which caused the fairy hand to hesitate, and she shouted. “Angel said do not be afraid.” She was willing, and now that Chris prompted her, she remembered that was what the angel told them to say.

The stairs were a dangerous place to say those words. Several fairies fell to their knees. Several tumbled down the stairs, including Lord Oak who moaned and put a hand to his head. Deepdigger and Deathwalker ran up, and Deepdigger took Oak by the arm.

“Oak. Oak,” he said. “We have to set the women free.”

Golden Door Chapter 20 Beth Above It All, part 1 of 2

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“Be careful where you set your feet,” Mrs. Aster said, as she got big and came to stand beside Beth. The others followed her example and Beth got to see the fairy men in their big form for the first time. They were all very handsome. Pinoak seemed skinnier. Cherry looked shorter and had a ruddy red complexion that seemed natural to his cheeks. Dogwood looked chiseled, with dark hair and eyes to match. He kept the serious expression on his face when Mistletoe came up to him and took his arm. Hyacinth looked shyly at her feet. Daffodil stifled a little, nervous laugh. Zinnia and Holy remained small, in Beth’s hair, and Holly said “Bleah!”

“Never you mind,” Mistletoe said.

“Enough of that,” Mrs. Aster said at the same time. “We need to get out of this rain.” She started to walk toward the trees that lined the stream that flowed out from the castle. Beth followed but slipped on her first step. She caught herself, but Zinnia fell off her shoulder and Holly only held on by yanking on Beth’s hair. “Careful,” Mrs. Aster continued. “The grass is slippery.”

Beth became extra careful after that, especially since they had to climb a hill to get to the castle gate. She noticed both Cherry and Hyacinth did not fare much better as they each took a step and slid back down a bit, arms out to hold their balance.

“Everyone, hold still!” Mrs. Aster cocked her head to listen for something. Eyes scanned the rainy sky, but it seemed hard to see anything clearly through that torrent. Dogwood finally identified the enemy when they were nearly on top of them.

“Harpies,” he hollered, and hands went up to fend off the beasts while everyone ducked.

All three men pulled swords which Beth hardly noticed they had. Mrs. Aster pulled a long knife from somewhere along with her wand. Daffodil and Hyacinth shrieked and Zinnia and Holy screamed in Beth’s ears, which Beth felt sure would make her deaf. Then she saw five harpies, just overhead.

They were naked women, about four feet tall, held aloft by great bat-like wings. They were a green scaly color, had little horns that poked out of their short reddish hair and sharp teeth that were barred to let out their screaming cry, like a bird of prey. They had arms and legs that ended in claws with thumbs on both their hands and feet. Beth did not see their eyes close enough to judge their intelligence, but she did see the malevolence.

 Three of the harpies attacked the three men with swords, knowing they were the greatest threat. One followed Mistletoe who scurried over to Mrs. Aster. The harpy pulled up on sight of the knife. The fifth went after Beth where Zinnia and Holly squirted out from her hair in search of help. They zoomed to Daffodil and Hyacinth who were no help at all. Beth got left to fend for herself, but she could only throw her hands up to try and keep the harpy claws out of her hair.

The harpy paused as Beth’s hands began to sparkle with blue sparks. Beth knew instinctively that it was something in the air, and not the rain. Beth felt something in the pit of her stomach that wanted to escape. It felt like the little left over she was promised by Lord Nimbus. The harpy turned away, but not fast enough. The blue sparkles congealed, and a stroke of lightning sprang from her fingertips. The harpy lit up the storm, cried out against the thunder and fell to the ground where it left a trail of smoke beneath the rain.

The other harpies abandoned the attack. The fairy men sheathed their swords, returned to their normal, small fairy size, and followed the harpies to be sure they stayed away. They disappeared in the rain as the women crowded around Beth with words of thanks and praise. Mrs. Aster knew better. She took Beth by the hand and lead her away from that place. Beth tried not to look. She prayed the harpy was just stunned but feared she made a smoking carcass.

Mistletoe and Mrs. Aster flanked Beth and walked her among the trees beside the swollen, rushing stream that came out from a spring in the castle and normally meandered down the gentle castle hill. Zinnia got big to walk between Hyacinth and Daffodil, and they followed. Holly got back up on Beth’s shoulder and held on to her hair, soaked as it was, but Beth hardly noticed until they halted, just shy of the gate where Holly gave a great tug and let out a gasp. They saw a dragon in the archway. Smoke poured from the nostrils in regular puffs that suggested it might be sleeping, but the fairies were wary.

“We should get small,” Mistletoe suggested quietly. “We could zip passed it before it could react.”

“That won’t help Beth,” Mrs. Aster countered. All the same, she got small and fluttered her butterfly wings rapidly to hold her place in the rain and wind. The wind started picking up, making flight difficult. All the same, the others got small as well, except Holly who was already in her small form and whispering in Beth’s ear.

“That is a big dragon. It looks mean, and scary.”

Out behind the castle, something exploded in the distant mountains. They could see the ash and steam rise in the air despite the dim visibility. “Avalon is collapsing,” Mrs. Aster spoke softly and then held her breath. The dragon stirred.

Beth and the fairies stood under a tree by the stream. The ground got soaked with a thin layer of water over top. Beth stomped her feet softly in her nervousness while she watched. Her shoes went squish, squish, but she paid them no attention. Then the dragon roared a great ball of flame, came out from beneath the archway, and it headed straight toward them.

The fairies scattered. Beth got left standing, again. She thought of flying up, but the dragon stretched its wings, and she knew it could catch her. Beth thought of running, but most of the castle hill was without cover. The dragon burped another ball of flame. It had not yet gotten close enough to crisp Beth’s tree, but she felt the heat and decided she only had one option. She was going to have to dive into the swift, swollen stream and pray that she might not drown or crash herself against some hidden rocks.

Beth called up her courage and got ready to jump when she spied something out of the corner of her eye. The dragon also saw and turned to meet this threat. Beth saw the knight in shining armor, and he made a charge at the dragon. How medieval, Beth thought. She felt thrilled to watch, but also a bit afraid for the knight because as Holly said, it was a very big dragon.

Dragon and knight drew closer and closer to battle. It looked to Beth like everything happened in slow motion. She began to squint against the rain, the closer they got, like her eyes intended to close the moment they made contact. Suddenly a light, like sunlight, shot out from the tip of the knight’s lance and the dragon head pointed straight up and poured a massive amount of fire into the sky. That flame, like a volcanic explosion, looked far more deadly than any fake little lightning Beth might be able to muster.

The dragon collapsed. The knight flashed bright as the sun for one brief moment, before the knight, his lance, and his horse all vanished. Beth thought how she could watch, even at the brightest moment this time. She just decided the rain must have blunted the actual brightness when Mrs. Aster flew down from the tree above Beth’s head and yelled.

“Hurry!” She yelled it downstream and again upstream, before she returned to her big form and grabbed Beth’s hand.

They hurried as well as they could toward the gate and made a wide arc around the dragon as the other fairies rejoined them. Beth walked carefully this time and found herself helping the old fairy over the slippery spots more than the other way around. She found herself thinking that, like the harpy, she hoped the dragon went back to sleep and was not actually dead. As frightened as she was to see a living, fire-breathing dragon face to face, it felt like an amazing miracle to actually see the dragon up close; and live to tell about it.

Mrs. Aster pulled her wand when they reached the gate. She tapped on the door three times, and they all heard the lock. “Push,” Mrs. Aster said, and they pushed the very heavy door just wide enough for them to squeeze in. Mrs. Aster pulled Beth behind some crates, boxes and bags that looked left to rot at the gate entrance, then she and Mistletoe began to argue about something in sharp whispers while Beth looked up in amazement.

Golden Door Chapter 19 Chris Down Under

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“Come on, now.” Deathwalker wanted to get them off the castle dock. “Careful where you step.” They slipped and slid to the end of the wood at the edge of the wet grass where they stopped and looked up the castle hill at the main gate. They could not see it well because of the fog that filled the air. It wafted through the air, hot ash mixed with sea water steam, and it smelled of sulfur.

“Careful,” Deathwalker said. “There will be guards.”

“There already are.” Watcher pointed. Rats poured out of rat holes dug beneath the main wall. Some came from the gate and some scrambled down from holes in the wall designed for archers. They began to swarm and soon looked like a bubbling river beneath the castle wall. They blotted out the grass and made the whole area look like a squirming rat color.

“Into the water. No, Rats can swim. Back to the boat. The grass is too wet to fire. Knives ready. Run!” Everyone said something, except Silverstain who simply screamed, even as a brilliant light appeared beside them. Crystal, the oread of the mountain, stepped out of a bright hole from some unknown place. Several dozen shepherd-like dogs followed her. They were all pure white except for a touch of pink inside the ears. Chris feared at first that this might be worse than the rats, until Deathwalker said a word with a sound of great relief.

“Hellhounds.”

Chris watched the dogs charge the rats. The rats abandoned their swarm and it looked like every rat for himself. He was about to say something when Redeyes tapped him on the shoulder and pointed. Catbird, Chris’ golden retriever, ran right in the middle of the dogs, barking his head off. He did not bite anything but looked to be having a great time dancing around, barking, like the best playtime.

Chris shouted, and Catbird came right up to him, panting and wagging his tail. The dog was not fooled or put off by Chris’ appearance, and he even let Silverstain pet him before he bounded off again to frolic and join the fun.

“Now’s our chance,” Deathwalker said and started forward toward the gate. He was the only one who really paid attention. The dogs had driven the rats down, around a corner of the castle wall. There were still a few rats between them and the gate; stragglers that escaped the main force of dogs and might still be tempted to attack the original target, but everyone had their knives ready and waiting.

Stalker and Crusher took the perimeter and kept most of the rats away. Redeyes cut one. Broomwick fried one and Watcher grabbed it for lunch, which Chris preferred not to watch. They made good progress up the castle hill but stopped within sight of their goal. There was a giant three-headed dog pulling against its chain, barking, and growling, and looking very hungry.

“Cerberus.” Deathwalker identified the beast.

“We could transition through the wall,” Redeyes suggested.

“No good,” Stalker said with a shake of his dark head. “Walls have guards which luckily can’t see well because of the mist.”

“No good,” Deathwalker echoed. “Transitioning through the wall sets off the alarm. The only alarm-free way in is the gate.”

“Transitioning?” Chris asked.

“Becoming insubstantial and walking through the wall. Like when we go to ground when the sun comes up.” Silverstain whispered and licked Chris’ ear. “You taste good.”

Chris was not sure how to take that, but Crusher interrupted with a word. “We got company.”

“Rats?” Watcher squeaked. All heads turned, expecting to see a pack of rats that escaped the dogs, but instead jaws dropped into the silence. Deathwalker finally named the visitor.

“A Knight of the Lance.”

Chris heard the respect in Deathwalker’s tone. He did not know what made this one a Knight of the Lance, whatever that was, but he saw the knight in shining armor with the lance pointed toward the three-headed, snarling dog, riding on a horse that looked to be running on air. Chris’ only thought became please, don’t kill the beast. They saw a brilliant flash of light just before the lance struck home. The goblins all moaned and covered their eyes. Chris and the fire sprites saw the knight vanish and the dog collapse.

“I’m blind,” Watcher yelled.

Broomwick quickly covered Watcher’s mouth. “Quiet.”

“The eyes will recover,” Stalker said.

“Quick, while the beast is down,” Deathwalker commanded. They staggered forward. Chris grabbed a blinking Silverstain with one hand and Redeyes with the other and move them forward. Heathfire took Stalker and Deathwalker by the arms. Broomwick brought Watcher and helped Crusher, though the troll insisted he could see.

When they reached the wall, teary eyes were working well enough. Chris wondered who had the key, but Deathwalker killed that notion. “We can transition through the gate without alarming anyone. Quickly now but stay hidden and quiet when you get inside.”

Chris kept looking at Cerberus. “Just sleeping,” Silverstain said with a smile, even as one of the dog heads began to snore. “Transition,” Silverstain added, and Chris looked up to see her half swallowed by the solid door with only her front half sticking out from the wood. “Think insubstantial,” she said and gave a little tug on Chris’ hand.

“It’s easy,” Redeyes said, and Chris watched while the goblin disappeared right through the gate. Redeyes’ head alone stuck out from the gate as the goblin must have turned around, and he whispered again, “It’s easy,” and the head disappeared.

“Come on.” Silverstain gave another tug on Chris’ hand.

“If I bump my nose, I’ll find a way to get even,” Chris said.

“Promises, promises,” Silverstain said, and she pulled Chris to where he saw his own hand disappear into the door before he thought to pull back. At that point, there was nothing to do but follow with the rest of his body.

“It feels funny, sort of like a ghost,” Chris said.

“Shh!” Silverstain hushed him as they came out on the other side, inside the castle. There were big boxes and bags dumped by the castle gate, like a delivery that no one bothered to put away. Deathwalker grabbed Chris’ free hand and pulled him and Silverstain behind the nearest box. The others all hid and waited.

“We need to move from cover to cover as much as possible,” Deathwalker whispered.  “Hiding in the shadows doesn’t do much against goblin sight.” Chris nodded. He could see where the shadows were, but with his goblin eyes he could see them as only slightly less bright than the rest of the courtyard. There were torches at various points along the wall and a fire pit in the center of the courtyard, but they were harder to see than the shadow areas. With that, he truly realized what a bane the sun could be.

The group moved out slowly, crouched down, headed for the columns that ran along the edge of the courtyard. They got about half-way there when they heard a shout. At once, the yard filled with arrows and people started running as fast as possible back to the crates. Watcher took an arrow in his leg. Crusher took one in his side and roared.

Deathwalker pulled Chris’ head down and shouted at him. “What did the Angel tell you to say?”

“What?” Chris asked before he remembered. “He said, don’t be afraid.”

“What?” Deathwalker balked and the arrows did not cease. “Angels don’t talk that way. I was standing just on the other side of the door.”

“He said, don’t be afraid,” Chris insisted. “Don’t be afraid.”

“Do not, not don’t.” Deathwalker shouted again.

“You have to say the exact words,” Redeyes spoke up, even as he leaned in Chris’ direction. He got an arrow in his arm for his troubles and fell to the ground, face up, but in pain.

“All right,” Chris said, with an annoyed look on his face. “He said do not be afraid.”

Deathwalker threw his hat to the ground and swore. “Stupid and stubborn teenagers.”

Silverstain ran to her brother. “You have to say the whole thing, exactly for the magic to work.”

“Angel said,” Deathwalker prompted.

“Do not be afraid.” Chris shrugged. He had the right words in his mind, but he did not like being called stupid and stubborn. Just for that, he was going to be stupid and stubborn.

“The whole thing.” Deathwalker shouted a third time. “Angel told you to tell them what?”

Chris shook his head in the pretense that he did not remember.

Silverstain suddenly arched her back. She took an arrow in her kidneys, and Chris shouted. “Angel said do not be afraid.” The arrows stopped. They heard any number of archers fall to the ground. A few staggered out into the open and came up close for fear of the damage they might have done.

Heathfire and Broomwick popped out of the fire pit to rejoin them. Crusher bled badly from the wound in his side. Watcher held his leg and stared at it like he feared he might lose it. Stalker held his hand against his shoulder where an arrow scraped him and opened a big gash. Redeyes cried. Silverstain breathed rather shallow.

Deathwalker retrieved his hat and walked out into the courtyard without a word. Chris tried to think of every reason why this was not his fault, but he could not think of any. Deathwalker was right. He knew exactly what Angel told him to say almost from the start, but he felt determined to be stupid and stubborn, exactly as was said. For one brief moment, in an event most rare in all of history wherever teenagers have lived, this teenager felt a moment of remorse and whispered, “Sorry.”

A very goblin looking man ran up to Silverstain. “Doctor Burns!” he roared and tried to help Silverstain off Redeyes. The doctor came straight away and stopped the goblin’s hand.

“Don’t move her. Sorry Redeyes,” he said. “Back up.” The big goblin took a big step back.

“Lord Deepdigger,” Deathwalker called.

“Professor Deathwalker,” the big goblin turned.

“Let the doctor work. We have to free Goldenvein and the other ladies.”

The big goblin glanced back once before he said, “Right.”

Meanwhile, Heathfire and Broomwick each took Chris by an arm to help him along. “Don’t worry,” Heathfire said. “The doctor is my uncle. Silverstain is in the best hands.”

Chris swallowed to keep his eyes free of tears and his face straight. “So, are you planning on going to medical school?” Heathfire gave him a strange look. Broomwick laughed before he could stop himself.

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

MONDAY

Beth struggles to enter the castle, but when they succeed, they are betrayed and beth has no memory of Angel telling her to say anything. Meanwhile, David and James try to set the women free. Until Next Time, Happy Reading

*

Golden Door Chapter 18 James at the Door, part 2 of 2

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Picker and Poker screamed, and Grubby let out a string of invectives which would have even horrified the most loose tongued redneck, if anyone listened. But before the panic could set in, the group found their escape route blocked by several winged creatures that came down to the lowest tree branches and grabbed on with their feet-claws with prehensile toes so they could keep their hands free. They were muddy colored with a kind of dark green mold color splattered around their skin, like army camouflage, and they were not more than three feet tall, but there were plenty of them.  One of them spoke up against the rain.

“Lady Copperpot. Sir Pug. You must make a dash for the gate while you can. We will keep the bats busy for a time, but there are so many I don’t know if even we can kill and eat them all.”

“My thanks, good pixies,” Pug offered a salute.

“To the gate,” Mrs. Copperpot yelled, and turned her wolf.

James realized that the pixies were the reason everyone kept looking up during their journey. They were being followed from above for a long time, but of course, Mrs. Copperpot worried because she had no way of knowing if they were on the right side of things or if they had become slaves to Ashtoreth. James almost shrieked when the pixies first appeared, but he held his tongue and was now glad, because he had to save his shriek for when they came to the edge of the trees before the gate. They saw a beast, the biggest serpent of all lounging right in front of the door, and everyone stopped short. James added words to his shriek.

“What is that?”

“I don’t know,” Warthead said. He had stayed alongside James the whole way from the ogre lair, but now he stepped out on the main path for a better look.

James yelled, “No!”

Grubby yelled, “Warthead, No!”

The giant serpent lifted its head to gaze on the ogre, and Mrs. Copperpot breathed one word. “Basilisk.”

Pug added to the yelling. “Don’t look in its eyes.” Picker and Poker had their hands over their eyes so they would not have to look at the bats. There was no worry there, but for James, being human, the minute he heard “Don’t look in the eyes,” that became the thing he most wanted to do in all the universe. He would have looked, too, but for the distraction of localized thunder that sounded like it rumbled right down the main path. He looked there, instead, and saw a knight covered head to toe in plate armor, with a big lance held tight beneath the arm, riding on a tremendous steed that sounded like thunder as it charged.

Warthead had stopped moving where he left plenty of room for the knight to ride by. The basilisk, however, rapidly uncurled as it seemed to recognize the challenge and danger it faced. The knight grew close. The basilisk poised to strike when there came a tremendous flash of light, and everyone blinked. When they looked again, the knight had disappeared, and the basilisk began to thrash around. Pug recognized what happened.

“He blinded the beast.”

Mrs. Copperpot needed no more invitation than that. “Hurry.” She dismounted. “Run to the gate.” The serpent started whipping around, and while they faced the danger of someone being struck, the basilisk inevitably moving away from the gate.

“Run now!” Pug yelled and drove Picker and Poker ahead of him. Bogus and Reese stayed with the wolves, and after shouting ‘Good luck,” they rode off as fast as they could.

Grubby dismounted, grabbed James’ hand, and went straight to Warthead. “We got to go now,” Grubby yelled. James felt more worried and touched the ogre on the knee, just below eye level. He feared the ogre had turned to stone, but Warthead shook his head and looked down, so James hollered up.

“Go in the gate!” He turned and ran, and Grubby ran beside him with Warthead following.

“Ogre is half-stone already. Basilisk would have to look overtime to finish the job,” Grubby said.

Mrs. Copperpot rapped her cooking spoon against the door three times, and they heard the lock open. Then she and Pug and two motivated young dwarfs shoved the gate open. Once Warthead made it in, him being the last, they appreciated his help in closing the solid oak door that stood about twelve feet tall. It clicked when it shut. The lock fell back into place, and everyone breathed to be safe. The basilisk had been blinded and the bats remained outside the walls where they tried not to end up pixie food.

“That was a Knight of the Lance,” Mrs. Copperpot said, between deep breaths.

“Now, I don’t know,” Pug doubted it. “No one has seen a Knight of the Lance in Avalon for a thousand years, and with due respect, even you are not old enough to have seen one for sure.”

Mrs. Copperpot frowned at the gnome. “What else could it have been?” Pug prepared to answer her but got interrupted by a new, commanding voice.

“Stand where you are. We have you surrounded.” A hearty dwarf stood before them, hands on a big ax, surrounded by a dozen more, some armed with crossbows.

“Noen.” Mrs. Copperpot identified the speaker without adding his honorific, “Lord.”

“Grandmother,” Lord Noen responded. “You are a traitor to the realm, all of you, and you will be held in the dungeon pending trial.”

Warthead expressed exactly what everyone felt. “What?”

James had a different thought, and though his voice stayed soft and very unassuming, he said what he was told to say. “Angel said, do not be afraid.”

The dwarfs staggered. A couple collapsed to their knees. Most put their hands to their heads and shook them, like they were removing cobwebs. Noen staggered forward a few steps, his eyes on the ground. Then he looked up and seemed to see the group for the first time, and he spoke.

“Grandma. What are you doing here? You know it isn’t safe.”

“Noen,” Mrs. Copperpot commanded her grandson. “You need to take us to the dungeon. We have to set the ladies free first of all.”

Golden Door Chapter 18 James at the Door, part 1 of 2

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“Before we move off,” Pug rubbed his bearded chin as he spoke. “I’ve been thinking about James fallin’ off the bear. Let me see if there is something I can do.” He put fingers to his lips and let out a shrill whistle. The bear returned, moving carefully on the rocky path. Two mountain goats followed, far less concerned than the bear about slipping on the wet stones. Picker and Poker got one goat. James and Grubby got up on the other, which left Pug and Mrs. Copperpot to ride the bear. Warthead did not need the help, and they were not sure he was coming until he followed them down from the cave.

Down at the bottom of the hill, Pug made them get down and stop and wait. The goats, not comfortable so near the bear, headed back into the hills to be lost among the rocks. The bear also wandered off, but James got the impression it would be close if needed. It got uncomfortable when the rain started again, but they sheltered under the edge of the trees, which helped a bit. Mrs. Copperpot pulled out her cooking spoon and stared at James. She had something in mind but at the moment, James really did not want to know.  He preferred to listen to Grubby complain about the rain.

“Don’t you know that I’m like cotton candy. I’m gonna wither and melt in the rain, like the Wicked Witch of the West. Why do you think imps live in the desert?  I’m like a sponge and all this rain is gonna make me swell up until I’m Warthead’s size and you’re gonna have to wring me out like a wet washcloth and hang me on a line to dry. The rain is getting in through my hair.” He did have a hairy little body for one so young. “It’s gonna soak my insides all the way to my spine and I’m gonna get ricketies and Arthur-itis and have to walk bent over like old dotter human people.  Sheesh!”

Mrs. Copperpot ignored the imp and clunked James on the head with her spoon. She held both Picker’s and Poker’s hands with one hand so she could give James a real bonk.

“Ouch.” James felt his head and imagined he would find a lump any minute.

“I should have done this right from the start, but it is hard to remember what human people are like,” Mrs. Copperpot said. “Now you got some dwarf endurance and no excuse for not keeping up. You will never run with the elves, but you can set a spritely pace and keep it up all day.”

“Thank you,” James said before they heard a rustling of leaves in the forest. A pack of a dozen wolves poked their heads out from the trees and two came right up to Pug.

Pug introduced the gnomes riding on those two wolves as Bogus and Reese, and they got down to join the others. James thought Smurfs, but he hoped he did not say it out loud. Besides, they were not blue.

“Now it is our turn,” Pug said, even when James realized that Reese was a girl. She stepped up first, and they all took turns with Pug giving James a big hug. That was it. There was no singing or chanting or dancing or pelting James with dust or dirt or grass or anything; and there was no hitting on the head either, for which James was grateful. When they were done, a she wolf stepped right up to James. James felt surprised to know it was a she wolf, but she wolf or he wolf, James still had to hold his feet to the ground and not run. The wolf thought at him. That was how James described it, like a picture suddenly transported into his mind. Then the wolf licked his face and James tried not to say, “Eww.”

“Ride with me,” the she-wolf thought, and James did not dare argue. He got on the wolf’s back as carefully as he could to avoid pulling the wolf’s hair.

“Hold on with your knees, like on a horse,” Pug instructed, though James had never ridden a horse so he could only guess. “And there is a handful of skin at the back of the wolf’s neck you can grab. It won’t hurt her.”

Pug got everyone up on other members of the pack, though Picker and Poker were rightly scared, and Warthead, of course, needed no such help, having very long legs to carry him along. Neither was there a wolf that could hold him. Even the bear would have struggled with Warthead’s weight, despite Warthead’s youth. But at last, when everyone got ready, Pug led them into the dark, rain-soaked forest. Bogus and Reese brought up the rear with the pups in the pack.

It did not take long to reach the spot where they encountered the spiders. Mrs. Copperpot, Pug and Grubby kept looking up whenever they came to a clear spot, though James imagined it had to be impossible to see anything through the rain. James did not want to look, and he did not feel happy about being out in the wilderness when he started to hear the thunder and lightning in the distance.

“Rain’s gonna get dangerous when the lightning catches us,” Bogus yelled from the rear.

“Keep your eyes open for tornadoes,” Reese added, and Picker and Poker both yelped at the idea of tornadoes. Grubby did not mind so much because he thought Reese said watch out for the tomatoes.

They came to the rough, side path that led to the postern gate and moved carefully, eyes, ears, and noses as open as they could be. It was not long before they came to the wall, and the path took them to the left, toward the gate itself.

“And I thought this little, forgettable gate might be unguarded,” Mrs. Copperpot mumbled.

“I thought the same,” Pug agreed. “I said I have been watching this gate, but the demon in the castle doesn’t miss a trick. She has all the basic guards here, like all the gates. You found the snakes. The spiders were a bit of a surprise. Then, we got the bats.”

“Bats?” Mrs. Copperpot interrupted.

“Oh, sure,” Pug said, clearly not thinking about what he was saying. “Vampire bats, big as your dwarf arm.”

“Bats,” Mrs. Copperpot yelled, and the wolves certainly understood something. They began to turn around even as the sky filed with a cloud darker than the rainclouds, and one that flapped and screeched.

Golden Door Chapter 17 David Home Free, part 2 of 2

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Floren ignored the old elf, having her eyes focused on the castle. “The front gate is bound to be guarded. We could swim over the wall at some point,” she suggested.

“Not recommended,” a new voice spoke, and David squinted to see who or what it was, thinking at first one of the mermen followed them. Then he imagined it must be a merchild because the voice had a child-like quality to it. A figure formed in the water, like one made out of water, and it looked to David like a jelly baby or maybe a translucent gingerbread man. The figure continued.

“Going over the wall sets off alarms. The gate is guarded, but my people can lead them away. Where is the son of the Kairos?”

“Here.” David raised his hand. He had learned he had to admit that much and there was no use in hiding. He knew his father was the Kairos even if he was still not certain exactly who this Kairos was. At once he found himself surrounded by jelly babies. They pressed up against him and swirled around him in a way that made him start to swirl with them. The current they created turned him around and around until he got dizzy. He swallowed hard when the swirling stopped, because he thought it would be impolite to throw up.

“Now the young lord can have some say over wind and wave if you manage to escape the creature in the castle and get back to the surface,” the first jelly baby said.

“My thanks, Lord Sweetwater,” Inaros returned a warm smile. The jelly baby turned to him.

“Don’t mention it, you old coot of a pirate. Just be ready to go when the time comes.” Lord Sweetwater broke the gingerbread outline that held his body together and blended back into the sea. It felt strange to watch. David found himself staring.

“Water sprites,” Floren explained for David. “They are as anxious as the rest of us to overcome Ashtoreth and the demons trying to destroy our home.” And they waited and watched.

It looked to David like a great fist formed in the water. The fist looked made of water, but it had the same kind of Jell-O-like look the water sprite used to hold his form together. It crashed hard into the gate, pulled back and crashed a second time. After it crashed the third time, the fist came apart into a hundred different sprites. Mermen, enchanted mermen as Inaros explained, came pouring out of the gate with cattle prods. Apparently, they intended to give the nearest sprite a jolt. Fortunately, the sprites were quick. They easily lead the mermen down the hill and across the underwater meadow, away from the gate.

“Now!” Inaros and Floren spoke at the same time and the swimmers made a dash for the gate. They would have made it, too, if a tentacle did not shoot out from the caste and wrap around Inaros. The suckers on that tentacle said this was no ordinary squid. A second tentacle caught David by the arm and a third caught Floren by one leg. The boys both screamed as the squid squeezed out from beneath the portcullis.

David screamed with the boys as he tried to peel the tentacle from his arm. Floren yelled for help as they saw Mickey O’Mac arrive with the strangest sight David had yet seen in this strange world. It was a knight in armor, covered head to toe in shining plate, riding a white horse, a lance tucked neatly under his arm. It looked to be riding as it might have ridden on flat, dry ground, and being underwater did not appear to make the least bit of difference.

The knight charged for the kill, but that is not what it did. One touch of the lance and the giant squid exploded, just like the water fist, but instead of sending out a hundred water sprites, it turned into hundreds of tiny squid that littered the castle hill and splattered against the castle wall. David watched as the knight faded from sight before entering the castle. “It just vanished,” he said later, to anyone who would listen.

Floren and Inaros recovered quickly and grabbed David. Alden and Oren were ahead of them for a change, and Mickey went right with them. They all entered the gate and came into a courtyard where they fell to the ground. The water did not follow them in.

“Hold it right there, you traitors.” An elf in bright golden armor stood in front of them and a dozen elves holding elf bows with arrows at the ready had them surrounded.

“Father?” Floren spoke to the armored elf who was in fact, Lord Strongheart.

“Did we transition to the upper castle?” Mickey whispered.

“Air bubble,” Inaros answered in not so quiet a voice. “The water is still up to the gate and overhead. There’s a storm above the sea, but not raining here.”

David had his hands up in surrender, like he had seen in a million movies. “What can we do now?” he asked to no one in particular.

“What did Angel tell you?” Inaros saved that question all through the journey. He was not certain Angel told David anything, but he hoped.

“Angel said, do not be afraid.” David came right out with it. He kind of whispered it and kind of asked it like a question, but the words were spoken. The elf in armor immediately doubled over like a man hit in the gut. Oren raced toward his father, while the elves around them fell to the ground and trembled. Floren followed her brother, but by the time she arrived, their father started recovering.

“Floren? Oren?” Strongheart grabbed his children and gave them great hugs. “But what are you doing here?” He looked around. “Where are we?”

“Castle under the sea,” Inaros said as he stepped up and bowed to his Lord.

“I remember,” Strongheart said, and his face turned to anger and hate. It appeared terrible to see, but he quickly looked away and into the castle where the demon Ashtoreth was located.

“No time for that,” Mickey shouted to be sure he was heard. “Dungeon first to free the ladies.”

“You can put your hands down,” Inaros told David, and Alden helped him lower his hands while Strongheart stood.

“This way,” the elf Lord commanded, and they headed toward the dungeon, but now as liberators rather than prisoners.

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MONDAY

James reaches the back door but it is no easier getting into the castle than it was for David. Chris also finds the castle door guarded. Until Monday, Happy Reading

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Golden Door Chapter 17 David Home Free, part 1 of 2

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

It took a few minutes for all the swimmers to get their bearings, not to mention coming to realize that they were not going to drown. They left the naiad’s grotto, in part being pulled out by the current, and went to sea. They needed to find the underwater castle of Amphitrite. David had asked who Amphitrite was, but all Inaros said was “Your father.” It seemed to David his father was practically everyone.

David looked around, more surprised that his eyes did not sting from the salt water than he was about being able to see at that depth with a darkening sky overhead. Back home, David hated to get his eyes wet and never opened them in a pool, let alone in the ocean at the beach. But here, he saw quite well, and certainly well enough to see skinny old Inaros, with his long legs and long arms, looking very much like a frog. Floren undulated her body, more like a snake, or he imagined a mermaid. It felt hard to tell how Oren and Alden looked in swimming because they were already playing shark and about to fall behind.

“Keep up,” Floren yelled at them, and David got startled. He did not know they could talk underwater.

“We got a coral reef ahead,” a different voice startled David. Mickey O’Mac swam beside him, laying on his back with his hands behind his head and kicking with his feet. He grinned as he turned again to his stomach and swam down toward the coral. David followed.

The reef appeared all pink and green, but the colors were dulled because the light was dim. “Must be a real blow going on up there,” Inaros said. He saw David and Mickey and followed them down, but David did not see him, so he jumped again. “Sorry. Can’t hear well down here. You never know when someone might be sneaking up on you.”

David nodded and felt a bump on his leg. He figured it was Alden or Oren, but when he turned, he saw the teeth of the shark as it turned and opened its mouth. A string of some kind shot out from between David and Inaros. It slapped the shark in the mouth and left a thin layer of something like jell or plastic which effectively cut off the danger from the teeth. The shark turned aside and David looked at Mickey. He appeared dazed from the exertion of whatever that stringy magic was.

David felt his hand grabbed by Inaros and he, in turn, grabbed Mickey by the scruff of his collar. “More coming,” Inaros said as he headed them straight toward the reef. There were a dozen sharks, not far off, and coming on fast. David wanted no part of it. “In here,” Inaros said, dragging David toward a hole in the coral no more than ten inches in diameter.

“I can’t fit in there.” David started into his liturgy of protest, but Mickey, somewhat recovered, cut him off.

“Get small,” he said and he and Inaros both yanked on David’s hands and pulled him right into the little hole.

The big shark, a great white, which had gotten mostly free of its mouth covering, came seconds behind. It smashed its own snout into the hole with enough force to collapse the coral all around. If a shark could be said to be angry, this was an angry shark. The hole became covered with debris that blocked their exit, but Mickey hollered at them from the back.

“There’s another way out at the back of the reef.” David and Inaros both sighed relief and followed. The way through the coral seemed full of twists and turns, and some jagged spots where they had to be careful, but soon enough they popped out of the coral and resumed their normal sizes. Immediately, David wanted to get small again, but he was not sure how. The great white, its mouth now free, showed a remarkable degree of intelligence and swam over the top of the reef to get at them on the other side.

“Run!” Mickey shouted. He went left and Inaros went right, but David stayed frozen for a moment in the face of those terrible teeth. The great mouth started to open when two spears shot straight into that maw. Again, the shark turned aside and began to thrash about in an attempt to dislodge the projectiles. Its jaws snapped shut and sliced right though the metal spear shafts, but it was the damage on the inside that it could not do anything about. The shark had no gag reflex to rid itself of anything, once eaten.

Two mermen came up alongside David. They had something like crossbows in their hands, and the weapons were loaded. They only seemed to be waiting for a clear shot to finish the monster. Floren came wiggling up and grabbed David by his shirt collar in much the same way he had grabbed Mickey, and she hauled him off in the direction of Inaros. Together, with Oren and Alden, they entered an underwater forest where the weeds grew thirty and forty feet high.

Floren and Inaros lead the way while David sought for safety and squeezed between Oren and Alden. The boys stayed quiet, but Alden especially looked around for monsters hiding between the weed trees, or sharks that might be following them. Oren was the one who pointed out the mermaids who paced them, mostly hidden in the weeds. David could not be sure, but he imagined they were giggling. They seemed to regularly point at Inaros and his frog stroke. David did not blame them for giggling.

They stopped at the edge of the forest and looked out on the castle hill. It looked exactly like the one above, with more towers and spires than David could count, some of which went right up out of sight to poke above the surface of the sea. Far off to their right, the sea appeared to be boiling. There were occasional flashes of red and it looked like a mound was slowly building.

Inaros explained. “An underwater volcano, but I don’t know if a new island is forming in the archipelago or if Avalon is slowly falling apart.” He shook his head, sadly.