The Versatiles

by Alex Duncan

  ‘Rosie, look out!’ he screamed, tripping on the boot of a guard. His feet slipped on the polished cave floor, his knees buckling beneath him, and he went down as he saw his daughter catch a glimpse of Sam moving towards her with the speed of a whip and the intent of a tiger.

  Rosie hardly had time to lift her sword to protect herself as Sam, impassive and lost to the drugs swilling around in his veins, raised the blade into the air and pushed the dagger all the way up to the hilt in the soft part of her gut.

  In her mind she heard Sam’s voice, whispering over and over again the words he had spoken only hours ago.

  ‘I’ll never hurt you Rosie, I promise,’ he’d said. ‘I’ll never hurt you.’

  Then she saw the horror of it. The drawing on the parchment, the dagger, Sam killing her, and her eyes went wide then furrowed into sadness as she clutched her middle, where the blade had pierced her, and toppled to the floor with those already dead, lost and gone from the world forever.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Henry pushed away the stiff corpses of the guards blocking his path and crawled over the floor, collapsing on top of the body of his daughter. A dreadful wail shuddered through him and echoed around the cave as he pressed his faced down into the crook of Rosie’s still warm neck. He spluttered as he shook her and lifted her face up to his. She looked soft and peaceful and still held an expression of uncommon seriousness that her father had once found so endearing.

  The old man, chocking back his tears, brushed Rosie’s thick, black curls away from her wet face and kissed her forehead and her pale cheeks, the colour in them fading like the red sky at dawn. He screamed and banged his fist against the floor in a rage of grief.

  Above him, Sam stood, impassive, the dagger in his hand swinging at his side and staring not at the scene beneath him but straight ahead, unmoved and stony-faced.

  Several paces away Zanga could only watch the scene play out, his head shaking from side to side and his nails pressed into his closed fists as he tried to keep his tears at bay, his jaw tight and his mouth set in a straight, grim line.

  Olkys’ giggling resumed, he couldn’t help it; it was all too amusing. Zanga stared at him with an almost animal aggression but this only gave fuel to his fire and he snorted louder, bursting into helpless fits of laughter, banging his hands down on his thighs and wiping away joyful tears from his eyes.

  ‘Oh, lordy-loo, what a hoot!’ he cackled. ‘This is just the sort of thing audiences crave to see nowadays, a fine display of emotion, so melodramatic! This is a scene that would go down a riot in the theatre you know, they would lap it up like dogs.’

  ‘Damn you Olkys!’ Henry spat, gasping for air. ‘Damn you!’

  ‘I think you’ll find that you’re the one who’s damned Henry, hmm,’ he chuckled, biting his lip and adjusting his powdered wig. In his jollity he skipped in a circle and span on his toes.

  ‘And you told me that there was nothing I could take from you,’ he went on. ‘Pah! I am loathed to say I told you so…but this time I’ll make an exception…I told you so. Ha ha!’

  ‘You’ll not get away with this Olkys,’ said Zanga.

  ‘I think you’ll find (and do correct me if I’m wrong here) that I already did get away with it.’

  Henry, wracked and consumed in his anguish, turned away from them, cradling Rosie’s limp body to his chest and pulling her closer in to him.

  ‘Oh do stop with your winging Henry, you sound like a cat being strangled. It’s enough to give little old me a headache. You boy,’ Olkys called across to Sam. ‘Fine piece of work you did there, you should be jolly proud of yourself.’

  Sam turned towards Olkys’ voice and bowed his head.

  ‘Thank you,’ he said in a quiet, lifeless tone.

  ‘Are you still with me?’

  ‘I am,’ Sam nodded.

  ‘Goody, goody,’ said Olkys, rubbing his hands together. ‘Then enough of this procrastinating, would you please get me the stone.’

  Sam lifted his leg up and smoothly slipped his dagger back into its sheath in his boot, before standing quite still and blinking.

  ‘Did you hear me, hmm?’

  Sam nodded and Olkys was left shuffling his feet.

  ‘Well…?’

  ‘Samuel Steadfast!’ Zanga called over to the young man, stood as still as a statue. ‘Henry Versatile was right. The future does not have to be set. You can change it. It doesn’t have to be this way and you alone have the power to do something about it.’

  ‘Don’t listen to him Sammy Sturdyfoot, or whatever your name is. He’s full of wind…’

  ‘You have free will Samuel Steadfast. You can choose.’

  ‘Shut it you popinjay, this is none of your beeswax. Go on blabbering like that and I’ll make sure you never see your beautiful Isabella again. Wouldn’t that break your heart, hmm?’

  ‘You…’

  ‘Don’t tempt me, or I’ll have a little fun with her myself,’ Olkys rasped. ‘She is quite stunner isn’t she. Phew! Ha ha!’

  Zanga ground his teeth together and held his tongue.

  ‘Now boy, are you going to do as I ask, hmm?’ He clasped his hands together and batted his eyelashes. ‘Pretty-please.’

  Sam’s gaze moved down to take in the sight of Henry, rocking back and forth with Rosie draped around his arms, then back to Olkys, smiling and pleading. Zanga could see no sign of indecision in Sam’s eyes. The young man was still lost to whatever poison they had given him and under anyone’s command but his own. He took a step into the cave and beckoned Olkys.

  ‘Follow me,’ he said. ‘I’ll take you to the stone.’

  ‘That’s my boy,’ Olkys cheered, jumping over to him and following close on his heels.

  Sam stepped through the remains of the nightmarish slaughter as though it wasn’t there at all and headed across the smooth cave floor, his heels clicking against the polished rock but barely audible over Henry’s sobs. Olkys scuttled behind, chuckling away and winking cheekily at Zanga as he left them alone.

  Sam made his way quickly over the length of the cave and crossed the small wooden crossing between the bottomless moat and the other side until he stopped and stood in front of the door. He reached out and took hold of the bronze doorknob, ready to twist it open, but there his hand froze.

  Olkys tapped his feet and clicked his tongue on the inside of his mouth as he tried his best to wait patiently, but Sam’s hand wasn’t moving. He stood there, clutching the doorknob, as still as stone. Olkys leaned around the young man’s legs and peered up at him.

  ‘Any particular reason we’re dawdling, hmm?’

  Sam didn’t move.

  ‘Come along, chop-chop. I haven’t got all night you know, well, I do have all night, I’ve got as long as I want, but I get bored really easily, so if you’re going to open the door would you get on with it.’

  ‘I…I forgot,’ said Sam, his voice still flat and lifeless, ‘this is not the right door, forgive me, the stone is this way.’

  He turned and made to move past the small man on the narrow wooden platform, precariously squeaking over the moat.

  ‘Well, make up your mind,’ grumbled Olkys, letting him past and following him round the lip of the moat. They went a quarter of the way round the circumference until they reached another crossing for another door and again Sam crossed the bridge, followed by Olkys, now whistling a merry jig.

  Just as before, Sam reached out, took hold of the doorknob and suddenly froze.

  ‘Don’t tell me this is the wrong door too, hmm?’

  ‘No,’ answered Sam, quietly. ‘This is the door, right enough, only I thought I heard something, that’s all.’

  Olkys turned around, splaying his arms out to the side of him for balance on the small wooden crossing and glared back into the cave behind him. His sharp teeth were bared and his talon-like nails were on show but he immediately relaxed.

  ‘I don’t see anything,’ he mumbled, looking over the wretched sight. ‘Only the old man
clutching his daughter and the black prince consoling them, such a touching scene, if I had a heart it might break in two.’

  ‘I must have been mistaken…’

  ‘Hmm.’

  ‘Forgive me.’

  ‘Only if you get me the stone, hmm.’

  ‘Please, it’s this way, follow me.’

  Sam turned the handle and they both walked through the door into the space beyond.

  It was dark, much darker than the cave. It was so dark it was as if light could never be known in such a place. The ground under their feet was soft and mossy and the air was thick and oppressive.

  ‘What room is this, hmm? I don’t remember it.’

  Sam didn’t answer. He only led the way further into the dark.

  Olkys cleared his throat loudly.

  ‘Excuse me, how much further?’

  ‘Not far,’ said Sam.

  ‘But are we nearly there yet?’

  ‘You could say that,’ came another voice nearby.

  Olkys span around on his heels, ready to face the stranger behind him, but in the darkness he could only see the open door leading to the burning lights of the cave in the distance.

  ‘Who said that?’ he called out. ‘Who’s there, hmm?’

  ‘What’s the matter Olkys, forgotten me so soon?’

  ‘Who is it, hmm? Show yourself.’

  ‘If you insist.’

  The door slowly swung on it’s old, rusty hinges and from behind it, dressed only in a guards jacket and breeches, her black curls falling down past her shoulders, a wry smile on her lips and a twinkle in her eyes, stood Rosie Versatile.

  ◆◆◆

  ‘My word, there’s a trick indeed!’ yelped Olkys, jumping back and slapping his thigh at the sight of Rosie. ‘I’d never have thought you’d have had it in you…you…you sly young fox! How in the name of all that is wondrous did you go and do that, hmm?’

  ‘The same way as you would have done Olkys,’ said Rosie, stepping out with her hands casually in her pockets, ‘the same way as Apollo would have done and the same way as any trickster would have done. I was a little afraid that you’d see right through it, but apparently not.’

  ‘How, how, how? I’m dying to know.’

  ‘Now where’s the mystery once the secret’s been revealed?’

  ‘Oh, go on…’

  ‘All right Olkys, all right,’ she said. ‘It was simple really, as with all illusion, it was merely a case of a little misdirection. Show him Sam.’

  Sam proudly lifted the murder weapon from inside its sheath in his boot and held it out. The blade of the dagger caught the light from the cave’s pyres for a moment and gently glowed as he brought up his finger and touched the sharp point. He pressed down with the tip of his finger and the whole length of the blade smoothly disappeared down into the hilt of the dagger. It was nothing more than another of Sam’s stage props.

  Olkys dropped his head into his hands and pitifully chuckled away to himself in disbelief.

  ‘I didn’t know what he was doing to begin with,’ Rosie continued. ‘For a moment I thought he might actually be obeying you and moving in to kill me. But then I remembered what he’d said to me earlier on, that he’d never hurt me, and I looked into his eyes and I believed him without a shadow of a doubt. And with a quick wink I knew the game he was playing.’

  She smiled over at Sam who moved to her side and returned the stage dagger to its sheath.

  ‘It was right you see; the drawing,’ she went on. ‘It was exactly what happened, just not quite the way you or I imagined it to be.’

  ‘This is an absolute riot, I really am most terribly impressed and congratulate you on your resurrection,’ hailed Olkys, clapping loudly. ‘From an evening filled chock full of illusion I declare that you should win first prize.’ His sharp-toothed smile faltered. ‘But I find myself dallying about and still lacking the one thing that I came all this way for, so if you don’t mind…where is it, hmm?’

  Sam held his hand up for Olkys to see and squinting his eyes up tight the small gentleman caught a glimpse of the stone wedding band circling the young man’s middle finger.

  ‘You…you had it all along…you toe-rag. Why didn’t you tell me?’

  Sam puffed out his cheeks.

  ‘I suppose it’s like what Zanga said, I chose not to. It was quite lucky really, the poison they used on me hardly worked for more than a minute. I’ve always had a terrible sense of smell you see…well, worse than terrible, none, fell on my face as a youngen you see, can’t smell roses or anying. It was their bad luck I suppose. Once it wore off, I just thought that if I stayed as still and gormless as a cow they’d still think I was useful and I wouldn’t get into any trouble. And then it came to me, the drawing, it was right, it was going to happen and there was no stopping it. It was blind luck that Rosie knew what I was on about and played along, she’s a right good actress she is, convinced you and everything…’

  ‘Bravo, bravo,’ Olkys mumbled, the smile now completely gone from his face and turned upside down into a vile grimace. ‘But enough, hand it over.’

  Sam pursed his lips and folded his arms.

  ‘Why should I?’

  ‘Because…well, because I told you to.’

  ‘Not good enough I’m afraid.’

  He slipped the small ring off his finger and flicked it like a coin through the air to Rosie.

  ‘This is turning into piggy-in-the-middle! Save yourself the trouble girl…’

  Rosie laughed and looked around the darker than dark room.

  ‘I don’t think you realise what you’ve walked into, do you?’

  ‘What do you mean, hmm?’

  ‘You opened the door Sam, why don’t you show him.’

  ‘Show me what…?’

  Sam narrowed his eyes with concentration and through the unending darkness beams of light suddenly broke through. The light pierced the blackness, flooding it with colour and life and movement and soon enough the darkness receded to reveal the wind swept beach of Sam’s dreams. It was a glorious and wild morning. The fresh wind blew around them, their feet crunched on the grey bay and the sound of the waves crashing cymbal-like against the shore filled their ears.

  They were back on the other side of the door.

  ‘No, no, no! You tricked me! It’s not fair! It’s not fair!’ screamed Olkys, stamping his feet like a child in a tantrum. ‘Give. Me. The. Stone!’

  ‘If you want it,’ said Rosie, feeling the bracing wind blow her long curls this way and that, ‘you better go and find it, it’s more trouble than it’s worth.’

  She kissed the stone and with one great sweep of her arm threw it over their heads where it landed with the other pebbles at the water’s edge, the white waves crashing over and clawing at them all.

  Olkys ran to retrieve it and fell down on his hands and knees delving into the wet pebbles. Only then did he see how clever they really were.

  The beach was not made up of pebbles but instead, there were thousands upon thousands of small stone rings, in likeness and shape and weight the wedding band’s twin. He stared in horror one way then the other along the endless distance of the beach and knew that every pebble was the same. Every one was the same as the ring he was after.

  ‘Just a little…er…idea I had,’ said Sam. ‘I figured the best place to hide a needle…’

  ‘…was in a stack full of needles,’ Rosie finished with a sly smile.

  ‘Curse you!’ Olkys shrieked, throwing a handful of pebbles aside and scrabbling for more. ‘I’ll come back, don’t you think that I wont, I’m like a bad penny. Someone will soon wish hard enough and then I’ll be there. Who knows, perhaps you’ll wish for me…hmmm.’

  ‘Perhaps, but not for a while.’

  ‘Stranger things have happened Rosie Versatile,’ he growled, pointing a sharp talon at her, the green sea splashing up past his waist. ‘You might crave to see that mother of yours, you might wish to see her so much you’d be willing to murder for the c
hance, and when that time comes, there I’ll be. Ha ha!’

  He was raving now and ripped off his soaking wig throwing it into the waves as he grabbed at more stone rings in vain.

  ‘If murder’s what it’ll take then my mother will understand that I’ll never come for her.’

  Rosie took hold of Sam’s hand and they turned to leave the beach. The doorway still stood ajar leading back to the dark fires of the cave and beyond each side of the frame the beach stretched on for as far as the eye could see.

  In his fit, Olkys yelled after them.

  ‘Pah! I wager you don’t even know what you are.’

  Rosie stopped a few paces from the door and kept her back to him.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You’re not like them Rosie Versatile, you were born on this side of the door. You’re quite different, I assure you.’

  Despite herself, Rosie shifted her bare feet in the stone rings of the beach and turned to face him.

  ‘You see, you’re of two worlds, Rosie Versatile, real and imaginary. You’re practically fictional! Ha ha!’

  ‘What does it matter?’

  ‘It matters a great deal, because no one like you has ever existed before, you’re unique. Every night in your sleep, dreams, wishes, stories and nightmares try to get out of you, but you fight them back. That’s your curse. You’re a doorway, a living doorway, between the two worlds, the only one. Who knows what other powers you have. Oh, it sends a chill down the spine doesn’t it, hmm.’

  Rosie tucked a long, dark curl of hair back behind her ear as she let Olkys’ words sink in. The steely sky rumbled over-head as dark clouds began to embrace the morning sky and the waves grew as they reached out for the shore.

  ‘It’s my curse,’ Rosie finally said, turning her back again. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

  ‘No wait, there’s more…’

  ‘Goodbye Olkys.’

  ‘Wait…oh, drat it…where’s that stone…?’

  Rosie and Sam left the wild beach hand in hand and closed the door behind them. Through the corner of his eye Olkys saw the door close and disappear leaving only the endless stretch of beach as he scrabbled desperately at yet more handfuls of stone rings.