OTHERLANDER: A Long Way From Home

by T. Kevin Bryan

  John’s dragon, the mighty red Krag, approached. “Come on, Krag!”

  John leaped into the saddle, and he and Krag took to the sky to join the resistance.

  Deacon watched them go, then turned to Ellie with a smirk, “I told you I would think of something.”

  Ellie grabbed Deacon and, pulling him to her, gave him a big kiss. “I knew you would!” she yelled as she jumped off the dais and into the battle.

  Deacon was speechless. Then he re-hefted the executioner’s ax and followed his friends and leaped into the battle.

  On the balcony above the courtyard, Darcon watched in dismay as his plans began to crumble. “Seize them!” he ordered, pointing at Daniel and Thomas. The guard next to Daniel turned, but Daniel was too swift.

  He stood and, grabbing his chair, smashed it against the shadow warrior’s head. The warrior rocked back on his heels for a moment, then Albright gave him a shove with all his might, the being tumbled over the balcony’s edge; it landed far below with a bone-crunching thud.

  Daniel turned to grab Thomas, but then his heart felt like it had stopped. He was staring at Darcon, who held Thomas tightly and had his wicked blade pressed to the boy’s throat.

  Thomas squirmed. “Dad!”

  Daniel moved toward his son.

  “Don’t!” Darcon tightened his grip. “Perhaps this would be a good time to finish our business.” Darcon turned to the remaining guards and said, “Help the others. The professor will give me no more trouble. Will you, professor?”

  Chapter 98

  The battle raged on. John, atop his dragon, hacked a shadow warrior in the ribs. Then an arrow sliced through the air piercing John’s thigh. John grabbed the arrow and, grimacing, broke off the shaft.

  He looked up as another arrow whizzed past him. He followed the line of its trajectory and saw a shadow warrior bearing down on him, another arrow at the ready.

  John urged on his dragon and pulled out a spear lashed to the side of his saddlebag. He readied it as a jouster would. He felt another arrow streak past him as he soared toward the shadow warrior.

  “Steady, boy!” John encouraged his dragon.

  The dragons collided mid-air. John’s spear impaled the shadow warrior, who was thrust from his dragon and fell spinning to the ground.

  In the courtyard, amidst the battle, Deacon and Ellie stood back-to-back fighting shadow warriors.

  Ellie looked to the balcony. She saw Darcon pulling Thomas into the fortress, with Daniel following and the old man, Albright, as well.

  “Deacon!” Ellie nodded to the balcony. “Thomas.”

  Deacon looked in time to see them disappear into the darkness.

  “Where is he taking him?” Ellie asked.

  “I assume ’twill be the Door. I’ll get him,” he assured her as he stabbed another opponent, then looked to the sky and whistled.

  Thorn had been busy dispatching shadow-warrior archers and other guards; hearing his master’s call, he spun in the sky and dove. Coming in fast, the big dragon dropped hard on the warrior Ellie was fighting, crushing him into the ground.

  “Not bad,” Deacon said, admiring Thorn’s landing. Deacon then leaped into the saddle.

  Giving Ellie a smile, he grabbed the reins and commanded: “Up, Thorn.” And his giant friend again, eagerly, took to the sky.

  Darcon pulled Thomas along a dark passage. The boy’s feet barely touched the cobbled floor. Daniel followed, hoping against hope he could somehow save his son.

  Outside, the fortress was engulfed in flames. The battle continued to rage on the ground and in the air. Swords clashed their iron blades reflecting the burning fortress’s light.

  Chapter 99

  Ellie heroically fought another shadow warrior even though spent. The warrior swung his mighty sword with both hands. Ellie blocked the blow, but the force drove her to the ground. She was done, and the warrior’s next blow would kill her.

  He raised his wicked blade for her finish… then shuddered and fell forward atop her, with an arrow’s shaft protruding out of his back.

  Ellie struggled to push the body off, then saw Tuncan and his dragon diving to her rescue… just as burning timbers from the execution platform fell toward her.

  Tuncan bent in his saddle and, grabbing her, swung Ellie into the seat behind him. They soared into the sky as the burning platform collapsed to the ground.

  Darcon continued dragging Thomas along. They descended steps chiseled out of the rock, and the passage turned to a cave.

  Deacon and Thorn flew over the forest. Smoke from the fully-engulfed fortress hung in the distance behind them. As they neared a forest-covered hillock, a massive black dragon rose from it and blocked their path. Astride it was General Nawg.

  Deacon reined up Thorn, and the two dragons hovered as they and their riders considered each other. Then, with a kick from each the dragons charged.

  Darcon, Thomas, and Daniel continued through the cave. Thomas noticed it seemed to be getting brighter. They turned a corner, and ahead of them was an opening.

  “Almost there,” Darcon said.

  “Where are you taking us?” Daniel asked.

  “You’ll see soon enough, professor.”

  The cave’s mouth opened, and they stepped into the light and a clearing at the edge of a dense forest. There stood the monolithic stones of this world’s “Mairead Fhada,” waiting patiently like silent sentries.

  Daniel followed close behind, remembering how he had come through the portal only a month earlier. Darcon dragged Thomas the rest of the distance to the stones. Moving himself and the boy to the center of the stone circle, Darcon stood marveling at them.

  Chapter 100

  As Deacon and Nawg crossed swords, iron flashed in the mid-air sunlight.

  “You may as well surrender,” Deacon shouted from atop Thorn. “You know it is over!” And he deftly parried a strike by the shadow warriors’ dark leader.

  “Never!” hissed Nawg.

  Their dragons turned and swooped toward each other for another attack. This time, just before they collided, Deacon stood in his saddle and launched himself onto the back of Nawg’s black beast.

  Deacon swung his sword, but Nawg blocked it, then stabbed so close to Deacon’s right eye that Deacon’s avoidance caused him to slide off the beast’s back. In the nick of time, he caught hold of the dark dragon’s saddle straps.

  Hanging precariously, Deacon desperately looked for an advantage, while Nawg stabbed his sword downward on either side, hoping to wound Deacon. But while Nawg was searching for the correct angle, Deacon saw his opportunity and plunged his blade deep into Nawg’s dragon’s heart.

  As its black blood spurted, the beast let out a death-crying scream, then spun and fell, out of control. Nawg attempted to hold on. Deacon just grinned at his adversary, even as he released his grip on the beast’s harness and dropped into space.

  Watching Nawg and his beast spinning, Deacon fell several hundred feet before he remembered his precarious state and called, “Thorn?!”

  Thorn trumpeted as he dove from the sky and snagged his falling master in his claws.

  The black beast crashed into the ground with a cloud of dust and earth.

  Deacon, now in the saddle, reined Thorn in. They landed near the ruined beast. General Nawg was nowhere to be seen. Deacon dismounted and cautiously walked the perimeter of the black dragon’s carcass.

  He looked down and saw Nawg’s black cloak protruding from under the dragon’s black-bleeding side. He stooped to fold back the cloth; he had to be sure Nawg was dead.

  Behind Deacon, Nawg silently reverted into his physical form and lifted his sword to strike. But Deacon saw his nemesis’ shadow and spun in time to dodge Nawg’s sword while thrusting his own.

  Nawg fell against Deacon, face to neck. Deacon bore the shadow warrior’s weight, then pushed him back. That’s when he saw his thrust had impaled Nawg, who was no more. After pushing Nawg’s body to the ground, Deacon wiped his blade on the grass
, then slid it back into its sheath.

  Deacon climbed into the saddle, patted Thorn on the neck, and said, “We must off to get Thomas.”

  Thorn bugled his affirmation, then the giant dragon leaped into the air, and they flew on to help their young friend.

  Chapter 101

  “It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Darcon marveled at the standing stones.

  He stood in the center of their circle, one hand gripping Thomas’s shoulders and the other holding his knife near Thomas’s throat. “That something so rustic, so ancient, could contain such power? And now its secret will be mine.”

  He turned to Daniel. “Professor?”

  “As soon as you release my son,” Daniel responded, never ceasing to stare into Thomas’s eyes.

  “In due time, professor.”

  Thomas kept looking for some advantage. It seemed hopeless. Was it true that your life flashed before your eyes in dangerous moments? He did know that people and relationships did. He thought of all his anger. He had been angry at that kid in Britain. At Deacon. At his dad for leaving. Maybe even God. Thomas decided at that moment. He would grow up. And then Thomas had a sudden revelation. He was angry with all the wrong people. He should be mad at this Darcon guy. And that is who he should fight like Deacon and the resistance.

  He would resist the evil in his own heart, and he would fight this evil man that stood now restraining him. But what could he do? Then he saw it. Darcon’s forearm was wrapped in front of Thomas’s neck.

  Thomas sunk his teeth into Darcon’s left forearm.

  Darcon screamed, “Argh!”

  Daniel rushed forward.

  “Stay back!” Darcon demanded. He ignored his teeth-marked forearm, moved it across Thomas’s chest, then pressed his knife, so it pricked Thomas’s throat. The boy grimaced but focused on his father and stood bravely.

  Despite the sharp blade pressing against his soft neck Thomas said, “Dad, I’m okay.”

  Daniel stopped but now glared fierily into the eyes of the man who held his son. “If you hurt him, I swear I’ll kill you.”

  “We have the victory!” Ellie shouted to Deacon from atop the small Splinter.

  “Not yet!” Deacon nodded to the ground beneath them, where Daniel, Albright, Thomas, and Darcon stood among the standing stones.

  “Down, Thorn!”

  The dragons and riders descended, but not so swiftly as to make Darcon flinch.

  Chapter 102

  “Open the door, Professor, Now!” Darcon barked.

  Dad?” Thomas cringed as the knife pressed against his neck.

  “Open the door!” Darcon repeated.

  “Okay, okay... Thomas, you’re going to be all right,” Daniel reassured.

  Just then, beyond the stony circle, Thorn landed. Deacon sprung from the saddle and sprinted toward his friends.

  Seeing his old nemesis approaching, Darcon threatened: “Stay back, or the boy is dead!”

  Ellie was also running toward Thomas, but Deacon stopped her and commanded: “Darcon, it’s over. Let the boy go.”

  “You stay out of this. This is between the professor and myself.”

  Deacon and Ellie looked nervously at Daniel and Thomas.

  With a heavy sigh, Daniel began to direct Darcon.

  “Start at that stone.” Daniel pointed to the twelve-foot high “Long Meg,” the tallest of the moss-covered monoliths.

  Darcon dragged Thomas to the stone his father had indicated.

  As he did, dark clouds rolled in from out of nowhere. Both Darcon and Thomas looked up. Darcon smiled; even after thirty years, he remembered the electric thrill of the portal.

  Thomas, on the other hand, hated what was happening. He attempted to jerk away from Darcon but was held fast. The pendant slipped from out of Thomas’s jacket and arced out on its chain, glinting for a moment like a drop of sunshine then rested back on Thomas’s chest.

  Albright saw it. “The key,” he gasped. Albright turned to Daniel, barely able to contain himself. “Your son has the key.”

  Daniel nodded solemnly. He had seen it.

  Albright closed his eyes and began to whisper to himself almost as if in prayer.

  “When the veil is thin, and the warrior is armed…”

  Albright’s eyes flashed open, and he repeated,

  “When the veil is thin, and the warrior is armed.” Almost willing the boy to know what to do.

  Thomas, still clutched by Darcon, looked down at the gold Trinitarian pendant that now protruded from his jacket. Later he would say it was like an echo from far away he heard the verse. He whispered to himself through barely parted lips.

  “When the veil is thin, and the warrior is armed…” Thomas grasped the pendant in his hand and suddenly remembered the dying words of his friend Loren as he had given him the pendant: “And this will help you find the way. There are ancient stories told of an Otherlander. One who would bear the pendant and drive the darkness from our land. He knows the secret of the pendant. It unlocks the door through the mist to Otherland, your world.”

  Albright standing deathly still continued,” …walk the path of the Creator.”

  Daniel shouted, “Now, in a sun-wise direction, begin walking around the inside of the stone circle.”

  Thomas stood frozen, still in the grip of Darcon.

  “Continue walking in the circle,” Daniel directed. “Thomas, it’s okay, show him the pattern!”

  “No, Dad!” he beseeched. “I won’t go without you!”

  “Thomas, you must. Your mother is waiting for you, and I will find you, no matter what!”

  Darcon prodded the boy. “Get on with it!”

  Thomas searched his mind for the rest of the verse. “Walk the path of the creator,” he whispered silently.

  Thomas cringed and took a hesitant step. With a blinding CRACK! Lightning struck the monolith known on earth as “Long Meg.” And Thomas continued walking the Trinitarian pattern: The Pattern discovered by his father. The pattern he had walked, which had brought him to this strange world. But why was it working now? This was not tied to any astronomical event that he could discern. It had to be the pendant. The pendant was the key. The key that would open the door to his world! All these thoughts rushed through Thomas’s mind as he continued the leaf-like threefold symmetrical pattern. Darcon followed behind with his hand locked on Thomas’s shoulder.

  Thomas whispered the ancient verse to himself as he shuffled along.

  “Destruction awaits he who steps to the right or left.”

  Lightning flashed. Thunder rolled.

  Thomas apprehensively looked from the gathering storm to his father as he and Darcon continued their deadly game of follow the leader. As they passed each stone, lightning struck it with a crack and a sizzle. But the flash also illumined and held the stone in its surging, humming grip.

  Darcon continued pushing his unwilling hostage along toward the next stone in the pattern. “Thomas!” Daniel shouted over the storm, just as another bolt struck that next stone… and held it with a hum.

  “Thomas, listen to me!” Another surging-and-holding flash of lightning, and a delayed clap of thunder.

  “Son, I won’t ever—”

  Lightning on the next stone drowned out Daniel’s finale to that sentence, and now all the stones were held in the lightning’s grip. The humming and surging were deafening. Thomas looked with fear again at his father. He could see him shouting, but the increasing power of the cosmic forces drowned out his voice.

  Thomas knew what was coming. Then he saw the old man, his father’s friend with eyes closed mouthing words. And it hit him.

  “Destruction awaits he who steps to the right or left.”

  Many things seemed to happen at once. All of it was in hyper-slow motion to Thomas.

  Thomas looked up at Darcon and saw that he was enraptured by the cosmic electrical forces surrounding them. He felt the tyrant’s hand loosen its grip on his shoulder, and Darcon’s awe of the power around him cause
d his knife hand to relax.

  Thomas anger welled up in him and he pushed the evil tyrant with all his might, and at that, Daniel leaped forward and knocked Thomas from Darcon’s grasp, forcing him to the ground and sheltering his body.

  Darcon then lashed out and swung madly at Daniel but instead plunged his knife into the back of Albright, who had rushed at the moment he saw Thomas move.

  Daniel shoved Thomas out of the circumference of the stone circle, and Deacon grabbed Albright, pulling him as well as the lightning streaked from all the stones and struck Darcon.

  Surging through Darcon’s rising body, this time, the bolts of lightning caused their target to writhe in agony, though his scream could not be heard.

  Ellie watched in horrified amazement, Daniel rose, pulled Thomas to his feet, dragged him to a sprint, and shouted to the others, “Run!”

  They all dashed away from the circle of glowing monoliths, just as the umbrella of lightning surged to a peak of power and exploded, making Darcon disappear and expelling a concussive blast that knocked them all to the surrounding ground.

  The dust cleared.

  Deacon stood and checked on Ellie then gently helped her to her feet. “You all right, love?”

  “Yes.” They hugged tightly.

  Daniel and Thomas checked themselves for damage. Daniel looked his son over, brushed the hair back from his face, then enveloped the boy in a fierce hug.

  “Everyone all right?” Ellie asked.

  Thomas looked from his dad to Ellie. “Yeah, I am now.”

  It was then that Thomas heard a groan. They all searched, and Deacon yelled,” Over here.”

  Daniel rushed to his friend’s side. He cradled his head. “Albright, you stupid fool.”