by Eric Vall
“Prosper, down!” I said and pointed to the inner courtyard where he landed earlier.
The smart canterfly whistled in confirmation and began his descent.
We landed with a hop and a trot, and I let Zoie down before I dismounted from the nice leather saddle.
“Asher Alex!” Rylan shouted as he burst out into the courtyard, followed by Jenner and Arvid. “Lady Zoie! And Prosper! How was the battle? Did you ash all the demons?”
“Settle down, boy,” Jenner said as he tweaked his ever-present monocle, but he smiled warmly at Zoie and me. “Although, I must confess I am quite relieved to see you both back here safe and sound.”
“It’s good to be back,” I said and patted Prosper’s flank. “Were there any more problems after we left?”
“Only two demons made it over the manor walls, but Arvid took care of them until the red sun lifted,” Jenner reported with a deep crease between the white tufts of his eyebrows.
“I thought you told me the demon scourge only came with the light of the Red Moon?” I asked Jenner.
“Yes, that is why this day’s events are deeply concerning,” Jenner said as he scratched his stubbly chin. “The sun is the life the Goddess bestowed on us. There is nothing written about a demon sun in any of the ancient texts. All of Aventoll will be crying out for answers in the coming days.”
“So, the way I see it, the demons can come at any time, not just during the night,” I said.
“That is a likely prediction, yes.” Jenner nodded gravely.
“Is there any way we can reinforce the manor?” I asked.
“Laaantern,” Arvid pitched in with a slow nod, and he raised a log-like arm so he could point in an upward direction as if this meant something.
“Ah, yes, the lanterns,” Jenner said. “Well done, Arvi.”
“What about lanterns?” I asked as my gaze bobbed between them.
“I’m sure you noticed there are glow stones all around the estate similar to the light of your Duelist Stone,” Jenner explained and tucked his thumbs into his waistband. “These glow stones were harvested from the quarries on Om, which is where Arvid’s people are from.”
“Ohhmm,” Arvid confirmed with another glacial nod.
“The glow stones of Om have unique properties, and if they are arranged around the perimeter just right, then they act as a barrier to keep demons from spawning inside,” Jenner said as his lecture mode was in full swing. “Arvid and I discovered the lantern stone on the western wall is cracked in half, so a few of the demons actually spawned up through the small herb garden next to the kitchen.”
“Is that how one of them ended up in the upper library?” I arched an eyebrow and looked up at the broken window on the third floor.
“Indeed.” Jenner pulled out a baseball-sized stone from his jacket pocket. “When I heard them cross the barrier, I ran inside to retrieve one of the last replacement lantern stones I’d stashed away for safekeeping. One of them must have thought I was easy pickings and followed me inside, but lucky for me, Zoie was there to give the scourge a what for!”
“I’m glad you are okay, Jenner,” Zoie said and patted him in between his fluffy ears.
If the gray koala-man could blush, I was sure he would do it now under Zoie’s Disney Princess smile.
“Yes, well,” Jenner mumbled and then cleared his throat as his ears twitched.
“We should fix the lantern before the sun goes down,” I said and glared at the innocent gold orb in the sky as if it would suddenly betray all of us again and turn that awful red.
“I agree,” Jenner said and handed me the lantern stone so I could examine it up close. “I would hate for us to be caught outside the next time the sky bleeds.”
“You think it’ll happen again?” Rylan asked as he fed Prosper little pellet things he pulled out of his trouser pockets, and the canterfly tooted happily and slurped each one up with his long skinny tongue.
“I think what we just witnessed is proof enough that anything is possible,” I said, and then I tossed the glow stone back to Jenner. “What will it take to get the perimeter secured, Mr. J?”
“I’ll need a few assistants to remove the old stone, and then you, Mr. Alex, will do the honors by setting the new one,” Jenner said and then clapped his hands once as the plan came together.
“Laaaadder,” Arvid said and turned toward the courtyard exit, probably to retrieve the ladder in question.
“Yes, and can you also retrieve the hammer and chisel from the work shed, Arvid?” Jenner delegated, and the sloth-man nodded his confirmation as he shuffled off to gather the items we needed to fix the lantern.
“I suppose I should be returning the Lord’s canterfly to the palace,” Rylan sighed reluctantly as he fiddled with Prosper’s reins.
“Well, about that,” I said in a teasing tone as I walked up to the butterfly pegasus so I could scratch him under his weird coiled muzzle. “It seems as if I saved Asher Mec’s daughter from a demon, and with that comes some pretty awesome perks. For one, Prosper is now where he belongs, but I need a stable boy who can take care of him. Do you know anyone who might be up for the task?”
Rylan’s shoulders slumped, and he hung his head dejectedly. “Darby is a good stable boy even though he has a limp and doesn’t speak very good. And then there is Elwyn, but he makes the canterflies nervous because he’s from the Isle of Terr like Ambassador Sskern.”
“Rylan, buddy, I’m joking,” I said and put my hand on his shoulder. “You’re the only stable boy I would trust to tend to Prosper. Besides, that was kind of the deal. I saved Mec’s kid, and I got a cool horse-butterfly animal and a reliable caretaker for my trouble.”
It took a second for my words to sink in, but when they did, Rylan grinned so wide I thought his face would crack in half.
“You mean I can stay?” Rylan asked as he looked at all of us with his big hopeful brown eyes.
“I don’t think you have a choice now,” I laughed and ruffled his hair. “I think you’re stuck with us.”
“That is correct,” Jenner added with a twinkle in his eyes. “You have been bequeathed, Rylan and Prosper, as a gift from the Asher Lord. There is no higher honor.”
“There you go,” I said back to Rylan. “Totally stuck with us.”
“I will be the absolute best stable boy you have ever had, Asher Alex,” Rylan said in his Serious Duty voice as he clutched Prosper’s reins to his chest. He acted like I’d just offered him the keys to the kingdom instead of the opportunity to muck out stables, and I tried not to laugh.
“I don’t doubt it, pal.” I nodded and gently nudged him in the direction of the stables near the carriage house. “Why don’t you go ahead and get Prosper settled into his new home, and then you can come back and pick out your room in the manor.”
“You mean I can sleep inside the house?” Rylan gasped with his Christmas Came Early expression.
“This place has like thirty-eight rooms, so of course you can sleep inside,” I snorted.
“Yes, sir, thank you, sir!” Rylan said and hurried Prosper down the hill before I even got a chance to correct him on the title thing.
“I’m never going to get him to call me just ‘Alex,’ am I?” I sighed.
“He looks up to you,” Zoie said as she came up behind me so she could rest her chin on my shoulder. “As he should, seeing as how you make a habit out of being a hero.”
I peeked at her and couldn’t help but grin at the sultry look in her indigo eyes. My gaze traveled down and locked onto her petal-soft lips, and I leaned in a little closer. Just before I could capture her sweet mouth, Zoie rubbed her cheek and chin against the side of my neck in a seductive feline nuzzle. Then she pulled away a moment later and innocently flicked her tail from side to side as if she wasn’t a Giant Tease, and I just stared at her with a dry mouth.
“Did the Asher Lord decide to bequeath you with any other gifts, Mr. Alex?” Jenner asked, and I snapped back to the present.
Jenner’s Old English Professor Voice effectively derailed my train of thoughts featuring my seductive minx of a wife with way less clothing, but it was similar to being dunked into an icy lake of water.
“Uhhh, yes…” I said as my man-brain did a quick reboot. “Something about more help around the estate. I guess he’s sending me more farmhands.”
“Oh, excellent,” Jenner said and rocked up onto his feet with a pleased expression. “More hands means this place will be tip-top in no time!”
At that moment, Arvid walked back into the courtyard with a wooden toolbox in one hand and a sleepy smile on his brown furry face.
“Let’s fix the lantern before the sun goes down,” Zoie suggested and followed Arvid as he ducked through the kitchen.
I brought up the rear as I trailed them all through the kitchen’s back door, past Arvid’s trampled herb garden, and to the wall that wrapped around the manor house. A sturdy looking ladder was propped up against the ivy-covered wall right underneath what looked like an archer’s tower. As I scanned the top of the wall’s perimeter, I noticed there were similar towers spaced every ten feet apart, and at the top of each one, I could see glow stones mounted high into the yellowish brick.
From my place on the ground, I could also see where the problem was. The glow stone on the tower in front of us had a giant crack clean through the middle, and it looked like it would crumble out of the wall at the first sign of a strong breeze.
“Zoie, would you mind removing the stone?” Jenner asked as he rummaged in the toolbox and pulled out a wooden mallet and a small iron chisel. “You have small hands and great dexterity for this task. We want to try to preserve as much of the stone’s wholeness as possible. There is a chance we can sell the pieces to people in the market for a nice price. Sometimes people even make jewelry out of them.”
“I will be careful,” Zoie said and took the tools in one hand as she climbed up the ladder.
Arvid and I shuffled over to brace the ladder as she got to the top. She perched herself up there with her typical cat-like grace, and then she carefully began to chisel the halves of the glow stone out of their setting.
“Drop it down here, I’ll catch it,” I called up to her when she had the first half removed. She tossed it to me, and I caught it with both hands, even though I could tell Jenner was worried for a second by the way he lunged toward it on reflex. I smirked and then tossed the stone half to him just to see him scramble for it, and I laughed a little at his frazzled face.
“Asher Alex, honestly!” Jenner chuckled as he polished the glow stone with his handkerchief.
“Here’s the second one!” Zoie called out and dropped the other half into my hands.
“Are you sure our replacement stone is big enough?” I asked as I realized one half of the busted stone was the same size as the one Jenner got from the library.
Jenner held up the replacement stone, and the jagged half of the broken one side by side. “This one is smaller, but it’s also newer, so it should do at least for now. Like the rest of the estate, this is another thing that should be properly updated in the future.”
I nodded along with Jenner and hoped the extra help Gavlain Mec was sending would be the start of making this place truly livable.
“What’s next?” I asked as Zoie climbed back down the ladder and landed next to me.
“Now, it’s your turn, Mr. Alex,” Jenner said as he put the new glow stone into my hand and bustled me toward the ladder. “When you get up there, you’ll want to set the glow stone into place, and then you dedicate its function with your own Duelist Stone.”
“What do you mean by dedicating the function?” I asked with a puzzled frown.
“Well… I’m not really sure, actually,” Jenner said and tapped his chin. “All I know is the last time this happened, Old Kel took care of it. But that was ages ago. I think all you have to do is just… will it to protect the manor.”
“Right, well, that’s clear as mud,” I scoffed and started climbing up the ladder. I guess I would just have to figure it out when I got up there.
When I finally managed to balance myself at the top of the ladder, which was not as easy as Zoie made it look, I brushed out some of the dry clumps of clay until the setting was clear of any debris.
“Are you sure I don’t need any mortar?” I called down to Jenner.
“No mortar needed!” Jenner called back, so I shrugged and held the replacement glow stone up to the center of the setting.
Then, with my other hand, I tugged the Duelist Stone out from under my tunic and sat there stumped. What was I supposed to even do? To me, it looked like this plan was missing a few steps like the South Park Underpants Gnomes. I didn’t know what it meant to “will” the orb into place, and without some sort of grout-like substance, I was pretty sure it would just fall out and probably crack like the other one.
“How is it going, Asher Alex?” Jenner asked.
“Fine, just give me a sec,” I grumbled down at him as I tried pressing my Stone against the orb in its loose setting.
Nothing happened.
“Maybe it would help if you visualized what you wanted in your mind?” Zoie’s voice floated up to me from below.
It was worth a shot, so I let the Stone fall back against my chest and held the lantern stone against the setting with two hands. Because falling from fifteen feet in the air would really suck, I braced my forearms against the wall until I was confident enough to close my eyes and do what Zoie suggested.
I thought about the wall and how the lanterns in all of the towers were lined up like an electrical circuit, and then I thought about how it only needed this missing piece to close the connection.
Suddenly, the glow stone vibrated and then stuck against the setting as if attracted by a high-powered magnet.
“Hey, it’s in!” I hollered, and then I had to grab the sides of the ladder as a brief wave of vertigo washed over me. Man, I was higher up than I’d first thought, and the ground seemed to spin when I looked down.
“Good, is it glowing?” Jenner shouted through his cupped hands.
I shook my head to get the weird blur out of my vision and then squinted at the glow stone.
“No, it’s still dark!” I called out and then polished the orb with my shirt sleeve as if that would actually make a difference.
“Will it to protect us!” Jenner said again, and I rolled my eyes because that was just as helpful as the first time he said it, which was Not Very Helpful At All.
I huffed, balanced my weight on top of the precarious ladder, and then closed my eyes again.
I visualized the manor house and all of its floors and rooms. I visualized the stone garden with the beautiful murals, the stables with the carriage house, and the courtyards. In my mind’s eye, I pictured the light from the Bhraya comet falling down on the estate like a shroud, and with it all the protection from the Goddess. I pictured all of the people I wanted to keep safe, Zoie, Jenner, Arvid, Rylan, and even Prosper the canterfly, and I willed their safety whenever they were behind the walls of the manor.
I visualized so hard I didn’t realize there was a problem until it was too late.
“Alex!” Zoie cried my name, and I opened my eyes in the face of blinding white. The entire wall seemed to be glowing all the way around, and the Stone around my neck was blazing, too.
I gasped and gripped onto the ladder as the energy suddenly rushed out of me. I swayed as I was hit by another wave of vertigo, but this time it ran me over like a double-decker bus, and I wobbled harder.
“Alex!” I heard Zoie scream again, but my vision darkened, and my sweaty hands slipped off from the ladder. My hearing went a little screwy then because the next thing I thought I heard was the sound of the ocean roaring in my ears…
“Arvid, catch him!” Jenner yelled.
The air rushed past me as I fell off the ladder, and I vaguely had enough brainpower to understand this was potentially a very bad thing.
And then there was n
othing but blackness.
When I came to again, it was to the sensation of a cool damp cloth being dabbed against my forehead, my neck, and then down on my bare chest. It was so soothing I hummed low in my throat, and then I turned my face into the warm palm against my cheek.
“Will he be alright, Jenner?” Zoie’s anxious voice trembled from beside me.
“He’s a strong lad, my dear,” Jenner whispered. “I think he just overdid it on the protecting us aspect.”
I tried to open my eyes, but they felt heavy and gummed over. I was a little confused at what was going on, but then I felt Zoie’s comforting fingers in my hair, and my concern faded as I fell back under the black waves of unconsciousness.
The second time I surfaced, I was a little clearer, and I was actually able to open my eyes. I looked around the dark room as I tried to piece together how exactly I got there, and why I wasn’t in my own bed. I thought I was fixing the fence at the Carter’s Ranch, right? Did I sleep over? No, wait… I wasn’t on Earth anymore.
If I needed another reminder about my current location, the silhouette of a gorgeous cat-woman as she stared out the window was all the proof I needed.
Zoie looked like an angel in the silver moonlight as she sat and looked out over the grounds of the estate. She wore that sheer nightgown I saw her in the night she woke me up and told me the magical origin story of Aventoll, and she was so beautiful that for a brief second I feared she was actually a dream.
But then she seemed to sense my gaze on her, and as she turned to me with her soulful blue eyes, I knew I could never dream up someone so perfect.
Zoie smiled and flowed over to my bedside as I tried to raise myself up on the pillows.
“Hey,” I said as she tucked herself into my side, and I wrapped my arm around her so I could bring her warm body flush against mine.
“How do you feel?” Zoie asked in a hushed voice as she drew patterns on my bare chest with her fingernail.
“I feel like I was hit by a dump truck,” I remarked as I rubbed my palm up her arm.
“What is a dump truck?” Zoie asked with a cute tilt of her head
“It’s like a big carriage that hauls away garbage,” I explained, and her puzzled expression only grew. “Never mind. What happened?”