by J C Gilbert
“Within a year, King Gildea was dead, and Prince Banner was crowned King of Telfor. With the kingdom falling into ruin, year after year, King Banner remained helpless and childless within the shell of his father’s kingdom. He lived an unnaturally long life, even for a decedent of Prometheus the Touched, such a long life that the people of Telfor suspected that he was in league with the monster, who he did not know was his brother.
“At last, the day came when King Banner expected that Death would finally take him to the halls of his ancestors. As he lay, old and weak, he turned to the priest who sat by him and said, ‘I only wish that my brother was here. Then I would know that Telfor will be in good hands.’ The priest turned away, for he had learned in his youth that it was bad luck to declare a wish on your deathbed.
"Sure enough, Prince Evan came with his faithful servant Death by his side. King Banner did not recognize his brother, for he had grown tall and scaled, and had the deep eyes of Death in his skull. Evan knelt down at his brother’s deathbed and asked, ‘what is it like to fear, brother?’ and it was then that the king finally realized his terrible mistake. He went to speak, but before he could, the mongrel that was Death covered the king’s mouth and stopped his breath. The tale goes on to tell of the final days of Telfor and the terrorizing of the last of the great kingdoms of old. With a monster for a king, you can imagine how that went down.”
“I don’t think I will sleep, you know,” I said, Hank churning in my heart.
“It might be better that you do not,” said Elaine. “We are in Telfor now, and though I have never seen Prince Evan or his hound, there are many other monsters that walk in the silent places of the night.”
“Oh,” I said, glancing out into the shadows.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Elaine had thoroughly terrified me with her story. I lay awake for some time, doing my best to think about anything other than Prince Evan and his creeping companion. My imagination betrayed me, and I saw skeletal fingers among the shadowy branches of the shrubs and dwarf trees. At length, I fell into the land of dream where I could be tormented by images far more gruesome than Elaine described.
When I awoke, it was still dark, and Elaine’s hand was covering my mouth. Adrenaline coursed through me and my heart raced. I pulled Elaine’s hand from me and searched her face. She had a wild look in her eyes. I couldn’t say whether it was fear or excitement, but it was clear that she was wide awake.
“Follow me,” she said in a whisper.
“Why?” I asked, suspicious of her looks and still jittery from the effects of the adrenaline.
“I want to show you something.”
“Are we in danger?”
“No, I don’t think so. Just come with me, or we will miss them.”
“Miss what?” I asked, but Elaine just waved her hand to beckon me to follow. The night was cold, and there was very little light to see by. I formed a cloud of fiery insects to guide our way. When Elaine noticed them, she turned around quickly and shook her head.
“Not here,” she said. “We do not want to be seen by the children.”
It seemed to me that this was just about the creepiest thing that anyone had ever said to anyone, and I had half a mind to go back to the relative warmth of the dull embers of our fire. But Elaine had already gone on ahead, and I was not at all confident that I would be able to figure out the way back to our camp.
I caught up to Elaine, and she led me up a small hill that culminated in a cliff. I thought I recognized this place as where we had watched the goblins prepare to attack Mason and his disobedient duck steed. Elaine crouched down at the edge of the cliff, and I followed her lead.
“Do you see them?” she asked.
I looked down over the shadowy lands that stretched out below us. It was hard to make out anything at all, so deep was the night.
“What am I looking for?”
“Just give your eyes time to adjust,” she whispered.
“We have been walking in the dark for a while. Surely my eyes would have adjusted as much as they are ever going to,” I said.
“I don’t mean adjust to the light, Alex. There are other things that our eyes can see if only we are patient.”
I took a deep breath and fixed my eyes on the darkness below. At first, the scene persisted as enduring shadow, but then something changed. Flickers of light started to show here and there. It was like looking at distant stars in the night sky. If I tried to focus on any one of the points of light, then it disappeared, and another would appear in my periphery.
“I see something,” I said, frowning.
“Just relax your eyes. They will become clearer soon.”
I did as Elaine suggested and tried not to focus on any one of the lights. Gradually, the lights grew steadily brighter. They were soft white lights, like small wisps of smoke or fog. Then they started to take shape.
All at once, the land below seemed to fill with the shapes of children. I drew in breath sharply.
“You see them,” said Elaine, her voice seeming to smile.
The children were playing among the many shrubs and oversized grasses. They seemed to be searching for something on the ground. Every so often, one would pick something up, examine it, and then put it in a pocket or bag.
My blood ran cold. “What are they? Ghosts?” I asked.
“No, not ghosts. Not quite, at least. They are some of the last children of the Kingdom of Telfor before it finally fell into dust.”
“If that doesn’t mean they are ghosts, then I don’t know what does,” I said hurriedly, fear stealing into my soul.
“But they never died. They simply passed into a separate realm,” said Elaine.
“I don’t understand. How?”
“King Evan used them in a spell. It is said that on one summer night he had all the children aged between five and seven go forth to the riverside to gather up stones and pebbles. The river was called Forthel and flowed not far from the citadel. This was in the early days of his reign when the people of Telfor did not yet know that he was the monster that haunted them, though many suspected. His subjects did not hesitate to pull all their children from their schooling to gather up the stones and pebbles. There had been many times in the past when the whims of the king or others of the royal family had interrupted the education of the youth for a day of crafts or dances. And so, forth they went to the riverside. Some carried bags, in which to put their stones, others wore their pants and dresses that had the deepest pockets. All the children were happy to have time away from classes, as children often are, and energetically searched out the best stones for their king. Each child had fixed in their imaginations a different idea of what the best stones would be like. Some sought the smoothest, others the most symmetrical, and others the most beautiful.
“When the day was done, King Evan met with the children at the bridge that crossed over the river and inspected what they had brought him. ‘I see that you have brought me many kinds of stones,’ said King Evan. ‘I see round stones and flat stones, I see white stones and gray stones. Who is it that brought me these stones?’ he asked, picking up a large stone from a pile and feeling its weight, for it was very heavy. A girl stepped forward and declared, ‘I gathered the heaviest stones that I could find.’ The king smiled and nodded. ‘Then you have served me well,’ he said. That is when he cast his magic. All the mothers and fathers who had gathered to see what the king was doing found that they could not move. The king then proceeded to bind each of the children with ropes, filling all their pockets and bags with the stones they had gathered.’
“Stop,” I said, “I don’t want to hear it. He drowned them, didn’t he?”
Elaine nodded.
“What kind of spell would need him to drown children?” I asked.
“I’m not sure. It didn’t work, apparently, whatever it was. But now the children return here each night to search out stones from the river bed, trying to find the right stones to please their king. The river Forthel has long
since been diverted, and the riverbed dried up, but still the children search under the stars.”
“Is there nothing we can do for them?” I asked.
Elaine shrugged. “Maybe. My sister has tried to speak with them in the past, but, to my knowledge, never had any success. Now come, let’s get back to camp. We have lingered here too long, and we mustn’t disturb them.”
“What happens if we do?”
Elaine shot me a glance that was intelligible even in the shadows of the night.
I awoke the next day to the morning song of hundreds of unseen birds. It was hard to believe that there was anything sinister about the country as the sun bathed the branches and grasses in her soft orange glow. Elaine slept a little longer than me, so I set about making breakfast from our provisions. It would be instant noodles and a handful of nuts for me and my companion. I took our small camping pot and left Elaine in search of a stream. There were many in the area, but even in the light of the morning I half expected to find a child searching for stones along the water’s edge. When I had filled the pot, I returned to Elaine as quickly as I could.
“What is it? Soup?” asked Elaine as she investigated the peak of my culinary expertise.
“Sort of. The noodles are made from wheat flour.”
“How odd,” she said and took a sip. She looked up at me with wide eyes. “This is delicious!” she said, and took another sip, apparently burning her mouth.
“Just noodles,” I said.
“I’ve never had anything like it. Do you eat like this all the time in your world?”
“It’s not considered healthy,” I said.
“Who cares about healthy?”
I shrugged. “Not many, now that I think about it.”
We covered a lot of ground that morning. Gradually, the stones and shrubs gave way to taller and taller trees as we left the lost Kingdom of Telfor behind us. I felt a part of me relax that I didn’t even know was tense when Elaine informed me that we had passed beyond its ancient borders. We stopped only briefly at noon to eat before continuing on toward the Village of Rlanor.
“If we push on, then we may be able to reach the village by nightfall. I could do with sleeping in an actual bed, even if it is just at an inn,” said Elaine. “I could teach you Napkins while we are there if you like?”
“No, thank you,” I said. “I still don’t drink.”
“I suppose technically I don’t either. It has been ages.” Elaine shot me a sly smile.
“You like saying that, don’t you?”
“There are few trade-offs for being cursed to spend all eternity hanging out in a garden, but saying that is one of them.”
It was hard going that afternoon, and I was beginning to see the journey taking its toll on Elaine. After all, just a few days ago, she could not walk at all. It was hardly surprising that she would be weary after a full day hiking in the wilderness. It must have been about two o’clock when she collapsed.
“Elaine!” I cried and hurried to her side. Before I reached her, she was already trying to get back on her feet again. We were in a densely covered forest now, and Elaine was lucky to have undergrowth soften her fall.
“Don’t fuss,” she said. “I just lost my footing.”
“We should stop.”
“No. We need to make it to Rlanor before it is dark.”
“You aren’t going anywhere,” I said and led her to the base of a thick pine.
Elaine sighed heavily. She was clearly frustrated with the limitations of her weakened body. She opened her mouth to say something, but stopped, apparently listening.
“What is it?” I asked.
“Hush,” she said, cocking her head. “We need to get off the road,” she said urgently and sprung to her feet. She lost her balance a little as the blood ran from her head, but steadied herself against the tree trunk before pressing deeper into the forest.
I followed after. Elaine looked this way and that and at last found a place to crouch down.
“What is it?” I whispered, joining her.
“Soldiers,” she said.
“And we are avoiding soldiers?” I asked.
“Yes. I am the sorceress Vicious, remember? If we are caught, they will think the worst. There are some brave men and women in Avonheim’s armies. If one of them decides to take a shot at killing the queen’s wicked sister, then I’m afraid I will never make it to Rlanor.”
I nodded and rested my eyes on the path through the forest, waiting.
CHAPTER TWELVE
We waited, crouching behind the low bush, that, I soon realized, was not adequate to completely hide us from the road. We would need to depend on the soldiers happening not to look this way as they continued along their path. Soon I heard what Elaine had heard, the clattering footfall of a dozen or so soldiers.
It had not occurred to me before now that reaching Tabitha would mean having to keep a watch over our shoulders. Elaine was a wanted fugitive, after all.
Soon the soldiers came into view. They did not seem to be armored like the ones that I’d seen in Avonheim, though that was so long ago that I could not be certain. These soldiers were wearing light armor, which made sense, as they were patrolling the forests beyond the borders of Avonheim. I opened my mouth to try and breathe a little more quietly. It seemed to me that there would be no way that we could remain hidden from these watchful eyes. Every one of them were diligently scanning the trees for what they did not know was there. I wondered if there was any way that they might have been alerted to our presence on the road, but I couldn’t think how.
After what seemed like an eternity, they passed our section of the wood and continued down the way we had come.
“They are not rangers then,” said Elaine once they had passed. “There is no way anyone with even the slightest skill in tracking would miss the trail that we left leading over here. Ah well, suits me fine. We should wait here a little while longer though, just in case.”
We stayed a further ten minutes or so and heard no more than the flutter of birds and the occasional hum of an insect. Eventually, Elaine stood.
“Will you be OK to carry on?” I asked.
Elaine nodded, though she was not at all convincing.
We were not walking long before the path took a bend and arced around a cliff face. We should have been more careful, as we could not see the path ahead of us, but by the time we realized our mistake, the lone soldier was in full sight.
Elaine froze, her eyes wide. I looked at her and then looked at the soldier. I had to think fast. I took her hand and led the way toward the man. My heart was racing in my chest as Hank did his best to overclock my already taxed adrenal system.
“Good day to you,” I said.
“Good day,” said the soldier.
It was a gamble, but what other choice did we have? Either he would recognize Elaine or he wouldn’t. If he did, well, I could only hope that he was afraid of fire.
“Have you lost your party?” he asked.
“Party? Oh, no. It’s just the two of us.”
“Two peasants walking alone in the forest? Not a sight I see very often. Your friend there seems dressed for a funeral,” he said gesturing toward Elaine.
I shrugged. “We can handle ourselves,” I said in a way that I hoped didn’t sound like a threat, but at the same time did sound like we had some strength.
“I’m sure you can. I meant no offense. I suppose that you ran into the other wardens?”
“No,” I said, trying to think of a plausible lie that would explain why we were not on the path. “We, um, we were off the path for a while.” There was no point complicating the lie.
The soldier regarded us both for a moment, apparently thinking something over. It was then that I noticed that his hand was over the pommel of his sword. I didn’t see when he put it there, so natural were his movements. My heart jumped.
The soldier nodded and smiled. “Right you are,” he said. “You better get a move on if you were planning to ge
t to Rlanor by nightfall.”
“Yes,” I said. “Good day to you.”
“Good day,” said the soldier. And with that, he continued on his way.
When he was gone, I breathed a deep sigh and looked to Elaine. “Are you all right?” I asked.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Elaine. “I just froze. That’s never happened to me before. You did alright, though. I thought for sure that he would recognize me.”
“Maybe you are not as well known in this area as you thought?” I asked.
“A bit of a wound to my vanity, I suppose, but all things considered I think that it is for the best.”
We continued our way toward the Village of Rlanor, but we had not been walking long when it became clear that we would not make it there before nightfall. We made camp just before sunset some distance from the path. Elaine insisted that we do not make a fire this close to the village in case we attracted unwanted attention. I gathered up some large stones from a nearby riverside, doing my best not to think of the children I had seen doing likewise, and made a small pile in a clearing. Using the fire magic, I warmed the stones to the point that they glowed red
As soon as the flames went out, the stones went dark, though heat still irradiated from them.
“Very nice, book girl,” said Elaine.
We settled in for the night, muscle wary from the day’s long hike. Elaine was not looking at all well. Though we were taking it easy since the soldiers passed us, it still seemed like we had overdone it.
“Will there be any more long days like that after the village?” I asked.
Elaine looked thoughtful. “I don’t think so, but that depends on whether or not we are forced to take any detours.”
“Detours?”