by Bill Hiatt
“Maybe not,” I said. “If someone like Tal is here, he could hide from detection, but he’s going to be aware of us, right? He’d have to keep watching for Vanora’s guards.”
“Good thinking, Stanford!” said Gabriela, patting me on the back. “Yes, if he or anyone else with magic is here, someone will spot us soon enough.”
“Should we just stand here and wait?” asked Dan, fidgeting a little. Like me, he had probably been expecting a big reunion on the beach with whoever had made it this far. Finding no one was bound to be a letdown, if not an ominous development.
“If we stand here, we’ll be very conspicuous to anyone Vanora sends through,” said Shar. “Everybody seems to come out around this part of the beach.”
“The castle, perhaps,” I suggested.
“After the beach, that’s the first place Vanora’s men will look,” Shar pointed out. “If we had a large garrison to defend it, that would still be my first pick, but with just the four of us, I’m not so sure.” He looked around. “I’ve only been on this beach and in the castle. Anyone have any ideas about the rest of the island?”
“Out of curiosity, I asked Carla one time,” I said. “The castle is the only place where you can have a roof over your head.”
“And quite a roof!” said Gabriela. From where we stood, we could see most of the castle’s southern wall, its weathered stone looking eerie in the moonlight but still quite formidable, even if we didn’t have the men to defend it.
“The rest of the island is bigger than you think,” I continued. “Near as we can figure, it’s about the same size as Sri Lanka.”
All of them stared at me as if they had never taken geography in their lives.
“In other words, it would take more than six days to walk the width of the island and more than twice that to walk its length.”
Dan looked grim. “So if, for some reason, the others don’t find us—”
“It might be a long walk to find them,” I said.
“What’s the terrain like?” asked Shar.
“Schizophrenic,” I replied. “Most of the original island was destroyed when some guy named Ruggiero escaped from Alcina; that part I read about in Orlando Furioso. Apparently, Alcina rebuilt when she recovered her power, but Carla thinks she was still a little off. The island has a beach more or less all the way around, which is normal enough, and some low hills right in front of the castle. North of the castle is like an Italian forest, I guess because Alcina had spent so much time in Italy. You’ve seen the holm oaks and cork oaks out the northern castle windows, right?” Shar nodded. “Well, Carla tells me that forest goes on for miles. However, if you walk east along the coast for a while and then try to go north, you run into tropical rain forest, which I guess corresponds to what the island would be like if it occupied about the same position in our world that it does here.”
“Show us,” said Shar. I could almost see the tactical part of his brain working.“I’ll keep magical watch for any new intruders,” said Gabriela. “If we walk along the coast, we can quickly retreat into the sea and back to the Encante.”
The idea seemed safe, and, since our friends hadn’t appeared yet, I figured we might as well explore a little, if only to look for possible hiding places.
After getting torches from the castle, we walked along the coast for about five hours, making it something like two in the morning local time. (I had to estimate, because watches and cell phones were too technological to work in this world.) Apparently, the island was more schizophrenic than I thought, because in a couple of steps we gained four and a half hours. We had been walking by moonlight, but abruptly the sun was rising in front of us.
“That’s one wrinkle Carla didn’t mention,” I said.
“The island must not all be in the same physical location,” said Dan. “It appears to be one island, but it’s stitched together somehow by magic.”
He was probably right, though I couldn’t imagine what purpose that odd geography served. However, the situation at least worked to our advantage this time, because we could get a clear view of the rain forest to our north in the early-morning light. It was a green mass that loomed far above us, with trees soaring two hundred feet in the air, thick leaves at the top dimming the sunlight beneath them to shadow, and thick undergrowth.
“Good hiding place,” observed Shar.
“Well, except that we’d have to hack our way in, and any decent tracker could follow the path,” I pointed out.
“Yeah, but I wonder if Vanora has even the remotest idea what this island is like. Aside from Carla, we didn’t,” said Dan, squinting at the tangle before us.
“Maybe Vanora doesn’t know, but I think I’d prefer the castle anyway,” I said.
“I’d prefer the Ritz-Carlton, but beggars can’t be choosers,” said Shar, smiling just a little.
I kept wishing Tal or somebody would come charging out of the rain forest and lead us to safety. Searching the whole island for them could take weeks, and we didn’t even know whether they were here or not. Coming to the island had seemed like a good idea, but a this point I wasn’t so sure.
“Now that we have more of a sense of how big it is, I have to ask. Can Tal keep an eye on the whole island?” said Dan, looking back and forth as if he might develop x-ray vision and spot our friends.
That was another problem I should have thought of. “Based on what he’s told us, it’s challenging to keep watch on all of Santa Brígida. This island is much larger.”
Dan looked downcast. “So someone else might conceivably be on the island and not know we’re here.”
“That would seem to be an argument for traveling enough of the island to make sure Tal senses us…if he’s here,” said Shar.
“If I were Tal, I would keep watch on the southwest beach and on the castle,” said Dan. “That’s where we’d be most likely to show up. That’s also where Vanora’s goons would be most likely to show up.”
“Yeah, but if he did that, he would have known we were here hours ago,” I said. “Do you see any sign of him? I don’t.”
“So what do we do now?” asked Shar. “Just turn around and go home?”
We were all getting irritable, but it was obvious to me the answer was probably yes.
“Check out the castle,” I suggested. “Tal may well have passed through and left us some kind of message. We’re going to need to sleep pretty soon anyway, and we’ve got a long trip back.”
“And if we find nothing?” asked Dan.
“Then we go back to our own world and lie low while we try to figure out what’s happening,” I said. “I can’t think of any other option that makes sense. At least then we can monitor what’s going on at home. Here we have no way of knowing anything unless something happens right in front of us.”
Shar still wanted to explore the island, but even he had to agree that we didn’t have enough information right now. At least Gabriela spared us a five-hour walk back by moving us in and out of the Encante. Each world’s geography seemed remarkably fluid when compared to another world’s. Some day I would figure out how that worked.
We had no sooner walked out of the sea near the castle than Carla came running toward us, her long black hair swaying with each step.
“Thank God I found you,” she said, hugging each of us in turn. “I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”
“And we for you—and pretty much everybody else,” Shar said.
Carla looked despondent. “Everyone else is Vanora’s prisoner by now. I only barely escaped myself.”
“How did you think to look for us?” asked Dan.
“Tal and I detected your escape from Vanora, but we didn’t know where you went. After he was captured, I watched for you as best I could.”
“We’re glad you did,” I said, smiling. “But what do we do now?”
Carla smiled back. “Tal and I had a plan already worked out. He figured out where Vanora’s security was weak. I couldn’t execute the plan without help, th
ough. That’s why I so desperately wanted to find you.”
We all walked up to the castle together, happy that we finally had a goal beyond just looking for our missing friends. In fact, if everything went well, we could rescue everyone else.
If everything went well. That was always the catch, wasn’t it?
Chapter 13: The Valley of Lost Things (Tal Sixteen)
Not since my past-life memories first awakened and temporarily overwhelmed my mind had I felt so helpless.
I could think just as well as I always had, but my brain and body weren’t collaborating very well. People listened to me patiently when I tried to speak, but I could tell they wanted to reach down my throat and pull the words out. Always I was conscious of how little time we had. Always I could feel the weight of the scythe of Cronus upon me.
It would have been easier to switch to mental communication, but my mind seemed unable to access my magic at all. That made no sense. I could see why my younger counterpart couldn’t use magic, since he was basically me before the past-life awakening that gave me magical ability in the first place. Why couldn’t I use it, though? I had the past-life memories. I could remember how to use magic. Of course, I could remember how to talk, too, but that wasn’t the same as actually being able to do it.
Even with all these other problems, the worst part was not being sure who—or what—I was. Was I really Taliesin Weaver, minus my memories from age twelve and earlier? Everyone treated me as if I were, but I feared I was just a piece of him at best, or perhaps some defective double created by the botched attempt to break Cronus’s spell. I could remember the ending of that spell, and I could remember a sensation of being pulled apart. But was I really pulled out of Tal Twelve, or was I the product of Dark Me, a.k.a. Magnus, visualizing me intensely but ineptly, not freeing me, but conjuring up this defective form of me? Perhaps he even caused the spell to fail on purpose. Who could tell? Atlante, that hijacker of Jimmie’s body, a sorcerer we didn’t know and had no reason to trust? Lucas, who had gotten enmeshed in the spell through powers he didn’t know he had and certainly didn’t understand? No, there was no way to be sure until I recovered my ability to read minds. If it could be recovered. If it was in fact mine.
Astolfo had visualized this place as a valley on the moon. We all seemed to see it as a multicolored vortex through which we swirled. Though tethered somehow to Magnus and Atlante, we all agreed to stay together physically as much as possible. We quickly discovered we no longer needed to ride the hippogriff or be levitated; we traveled at the same speed just by floating forward. That being the case, holding hands was the easiest way to stay together. I ended up with Tal Twelve on my left and Eva on my right. I remembered when holding hands with Eva would have meant something to me, but now her hand was just like any other. Tal Twelve was the one who had feelings for her, but he yielded the spot next to her to me, for all the good that did either one of us—or her. I could tell she found the whole situation disturbing and was perhaps frustrated by her inability to fix it. I wanted to try to comfort her, but my talking almost invariably had the opposite effect, so I kept quiet.
Our first objective was to find my lost memories. We had no idea how to find one thing among the billions that had been lost since the beginning of human history, but Magnus and Atlante believed our wishes would lead us in the right direction. If it was impossible to find anything in this place, it would not be so heavily guarded—or so at least Atlante believed. Right now it was as good a theory as any.
After what seemed like a very long time, we came to a rift in the vortex, an invitation to pursue a different path. We turned gently, slid through the rift, got hit by a flash of moonlight and starlight, and found ourselves in an imposing circular throne room.
The walls around us were black like a night sky, though their chief decorations, images of the constellations of the zodiac, glowed like real stars and seemed to rotate gradually around the room. At the farthest point away from us stood a silver throne, upon which sat a beautiful woman robed in black and crowned in glistening pearls. Above, suspended by magic, was a gleaming image of the full moon.
“Who intrudes upon my solitude?” demanded the woman. Even without the use of my magic, I could feel power building all around her. If she continued to think of us as intruders for more than a few seconds, we would be in trouble.
Was the vortex trying to kill us, or had it really led us to a place in which we could find the lost part of me? If we were in the right spot, then we couldn’t afford to make an enemy of this woman.
“Gracious lady, forgive this disturbance in your tranquility,” said Atlante, bowing deeply. We followed his example. I was surprised to see the hippogriff join in, but then I realized Atlante was causing the hippogriff’s moves by manipulating the reins, which the sorcerer had been holding throughout our journey in the vortex.
“We did not come here by choice,” continued Atlante. “We stumbled here through the Valley of Lost Things.”
The woman’s power stopped building, though she was clearly holding what she had already conjured up. “I have heard of the place, but I thought it impossible for anyone to find it and enter it.”
“Indeed, that would normally be true,” said Atlante. “We were able to accomplish that feat under the guidance of and through the consent of Lord Phul, whose life we recently saved.”
“Such a claim sounds like idle boasting,” said the woman, looking at Atlante more closely. “You are just a youth…no, more than that, I see now. Still, to save Phul’s life is not a thing a mortal could accomplish.”
I should have been more concerned about the possibility that this woman, unconvinced that Atlante might be telling the truth, would attack us. Instead, I found myself studying her moon-pale skin and raven-black hair. Was I just hypnotized by her beauty, or had I seen her in some earlier life?
“The circumstances were most unusual, my lady, for Lord Phul had fallen victim to an ambush while visiting Olympus. Perhaps you have heard of the dire peril that now exists there.”
“Something of it have I felt,” the woman admitted. “Tell me more of it.”
With some prodding, Alex told what he had witnessed. The woman’s eyes widened as he continued.
“If you speak the truth, these are evil tidings indeed,” she said. “Such black news has not been heard in Caer Sidi for centuries.”
Then I remembered where I had seen her before.
“Lady…Arianrhod,” I said, bowing again. “I…beg…your pardon…for not…having recognized…you…sooner.”
Her eyes, dark as space, met mine for the first time. “Taliesin?” she asked, squinting at me. “You are much changed…and there is something wrong, I see.”
“Indeed, that is one of the very reasons for our venturing into the Valley of Lost Things in the first place,” said Atlante. “Like Alexandros, Taliesin has been the victim of the magic of Cronus. We must have been sent here because you could in some way restore him.”
“Yet the magic of Cronus is not the only magic at play here,” said Arianrhod, looking more closely at Magnus. “I see an enchantment, an enslavement, a possession. I see…an abomination.”
“A new nickname,” whispered Gordy to Carlos.
Now I really was worried. Arianrhod was more than powerful enough to undo the magic that kept Magnus in existence. If she tried, however, Magnus would defend himself, with at least Atlante also jumping to his defense. As much as I wanted to be rid of Magnus and to set Robin Goodfellow free, I wasn’t sure a free-for-all in Caer Sidi was the best way to do it.
“I beg your pardon, Lady Arianrhod,” interrupted Eva, “but the situation is more complicated than you may have realized. The duplicate of Taliesin that you see before you has also within him the soul of Jimmie, whose body is now occupied by Atlante. If the spell keeping Taliesin’s double ends, Jimmie goes with it.”
Arianrhod looked as if she might have laughed if she had not been so angry. Looking at Magnus, she said, “I see that, aside fr
om stealing bodies and trapping souls, you also weave elaborate lies.” Turning to Eva, Arianrhod added, “Few know more about souls than I do. Souls are by their nature indestructible, except perhaps by God Himself. If the spell maintaining this abomination ends, he will cease to exist, but your friend’s soul will not. ”
Eva and pretty much everyone else looked at Magnus accusingly.
“Yeah, I lied,” he said, looking at them defiantly. “You ought to be happy that Jimmie was never in any real danger.”
On the surface, Magnus remained his usual smug self, but I knew he must be worried. He was suddenly looking much more expendable than he had just a moment ago.
“Yet you did put him in some peril,” Arianrhod said. “Though the soul could not be destroyed, the ending of your spell might have made it more difficult to reunite the soul with its body.”
Much to my surprise, she shifting her disapproving glance to the rest of us.
“Though you have been deceived, to have allied yourself with this abomination was an ill thing, a vile thing. You should have found another way. As it is, you have made yourselves partners in his enslavements and dispossessions.”
“Lady,” said Gordy nervously, “may I be permitted to speak?”
“You may,” replied Arianrhod coldly, “but choose your words with care, and do not think to deceive me.”
If she were trying to make Gordy even more nervous, she could hardly have done a better job. However, he made himself continue anyway.
“Lady, please don’t blame everyone here. I’m the one who made the decision to join forces with…Magnus, as he calls himself. We know that he is an abomination.” Magnus glared at Gordy, who did not even glance in his direction. “However,” Gordy continued, “we had little choice. We were under attack, and he was the only one with the magic to save us. He was also the only one who could help us find a way to restore Tal and our other friends.”