Boggin stopped to stare at a distant patch of columns amidst the spikes and teeth of the cave features. The children pointed beyond. There was a glow with an orange aura. Broggia hurried next to him, his eyes fixed on the discovery. He held Boggin tight, and they limped forward through the rough terrain. They had to cross as a spider would, grabbing a stalagmite at each step and pulling forward. The children seemed quite used to it, using their spears as fifth limbs and their safety rope as a pulley.
An opening of ground gave them respite, as they were able to stand on a somewhat flat surface. It was hardened layers of cooled lava. They stared at the glorious glow before them. The children pointed and smiled. Beyond the mineral buildup of teeth, like some giant demonic stone maw, was the glow of a pool of molten lava.
“Ohhh... what do we have here?” Broggia exhaled with a blessedly sonorous voice.
“Oh my, by the Father of Light, a gift, a gift beyond all measure.” Boggin fell to his knees. Tears flowed down his face. He gripped his hands in a fearsome prayer of gratitude.
Broggia's visage shuddered. “It’s a fearsome furnace. Hotter than any we could have hoped for, endless flame, endless fire, endless heat.”
Everyone stood in amazement. The children patted each other, staring at the glow, feeling the warmth from a distance.
Broggia turned to Boggin. “Son!” Boggin stood, wiping his tears and snot. “We have work to do!”
The days were spent in this way. Alfred was King and carefully looked over every aspect of their Refuge, their Sanctuary. He would stop everyone and then pose with the strange “mouse and keyboard” mime.
“Why does he carry a filthy mouse in one hand and tickle a board with keys on the other?” they would ask.
Alfred found he could focus on what was at hand by pretending he was playing his game. It helped him look directly at something in front of him that the others tried to see but couldn't. For a few moments, he would “sit” there poised and focused. Then he would come out of his trance, leap up and smack and rub his hands. The folk stared at him, trying to follow and discern his every move.
“Right,” said Alfred, taking a deep breath, ready to give a complete set of plans and instructions. “So... no one chop down the mushrooms! There are only a few dozen, so let's keep them here to light us. If we need wood to build, let's find an opening somewhere along the ratkin road and bring it in. There are many tunnels that led this way and that. I want the small children, carefully, attached with rope, to explore and find a way out. If we can, then we can chop wood there and bring the wood down to build what we need. First order is building the walkway to the furnace. The miners should keep to mining the ore and building up a supply, ready for when the furnace is in full swing.
Foodwise, we will need to get up to the top as well. We know we have a few days of food but need more. The ogres can't patrol this land as well as we know it! So we'll do hunting parties and harvest fields untouched. These will be tough outings, but we'll make sure to have a good show of force.
We must rescue our people from the ogres as soon as possible. They have the husbands and brothers of our Lady Nihan and her ladies.”
Lady Nihan bowed, having a tenuous hold of her composure. The other ladies comforted and gave strength to each other. All looked ten years older, aged by the strain and lit starkly by the blues of the cavern. Yet there was peace and quiet here, with the calm echo of many whispering and laughing, working at small projects and making plain soups and simple pies.
“Loranna, you and your sister will lead the hunting party!”
Loranna nodded affirmative.
“Oh! And you'll find a safe area for the wood choppers, using your elven cloaks to hide if necessary.”
Loranna nodded again, with a smug expression.
“Annnnd then...”
Loranna's eyes widened, wondering.
“You'll call out the group to hunt for food!”
“Yes, I'll lead the hunting party,” Loranna affirmed.
“He said you and me, your sister...” Niranna added.
“Yes, both of you, hunt, lead, group... for food!” Alfred thought he explained... clearly.
Loranna and her sister posed with their elven cloaks and bows. Alfred blinked then shook it off.
“Hedor, take Ruig, some men and the boys to chop the wood and bring it back. The farmers will help build the walkway and furnace for Broggia and Boggin to do their work.”
Hedor and Ruig bowed curtly, smug with confidence.
“My husband knows of stone and of mortar, but he is back at the Keep, caught by the ogres.” An old lady walked forward with a look of emotional exhaustion. Lady Nihan stepped forward to encourage her. “But I know of it. I worked with him, helped my husband, I did.”
“What are you saying?” Alfred felt sorry for her, for she looked as if she had gone through a lot. He knew her from the Keep, a busy old lady who did her daily hard routine of work without complaining. All of this, and losing her husband to the ogres, was a monumental and terrifying change. Yet she stood before Alfred willing to help.
“There are the right mixes of limestone and clay down here. We can make mortar and with stone, make walls and things. A furnace or two, some stone foundations for the walkway, what have you.” She bowed with a sudden purpose.
“Very cool, very good. Excellent!” said Alfred, nodding.
She nodded back.
“What is your name, milady?” Alfred bowed.
She giggled like a young girl.
Lady Nihan nudged her.
“I am Stanba, wife of Deago the Mason.” She bowed curtly.
Broggia, rubbing his chin, winked at Alfred, nodding as well. “Great! You shall work with our awesome smiths to build that walkway and furnaces!” said Alfred.
Stanba looked at Lady Nihan with the biggest smile, full of emotion and now hope. Lady Nihan hugged her with encouragement.
Alfred felt the moment was right and stepped close, touching her arm. “As King and Lord of this land, I will not stop until we rescue them all, your husband and all the husbands, and the knights and Verboden and Abedeyan.” He looked to Lady Nihan, who gushed with tears while trying to do everything, from gritting her teeth and tightening her neck, to maintain composure.
“All of you, you have your duties!”
“Milord, what will you do?” Everyone stopped to look at Derhman, Cory's father. He had a gruff facial expression, having also been through an emotional roller coaster, knowing his son was living a nightmare under the ogres. And none of them knew what a roller coaster was!
“Derhman... your son is brave. He stayed on the wall with me as the enemies neared. He was ready.”
Derhman broke down, grasping and covering his face with red hands and white knuckles. His wife hugged him tightly.
“I am going back to the Keep and plan some sort of rescue. I'm going alone cuz I have some magic to use, some tricks. Just... ah.. Derhman, you must make sure everyone is busy doing their tasks while I'm gone.”
Derhman looked up from his hands, sniffling, and brought his intense emotions under tenuous but needed control.
“You shall be Steward, Executor of the Caves!”
Some laughed while others guffawed, patting Derhman proudly on the back.
“But, but, I'm a farmer.”
“See any farms down here?” Alfred waved his hands in a sweeping gesture.
Everyone shrugged, no, nope, naw, nupe... noight, naught...
“Steward of the Sanctuary! That'll be your position!” Alfred grasped Derhman's big shoulders. “You'll make sure the walkway is built, the furnaces burn hot with that lava, the steel is made, the food and wood is harvested. And I'll get Cory back.”
Derhman stood proud and ready.
Chapter Forty-One: The Return of the Wizard
Alfred wore a small sheath with dagger, and he had a small goblin buckler and small backpack with food plus a skin of water. He carried a second skin with oil and a small copper lamp. He pac
ked lightly and efficiently.
“You know you're going to need my bow,” Loranna said, standing with him under a giant mushroom, a nice little area with a simple tent he had put up to shade his sleeping spot.
“Have you come to see me off?” Alfred tried to focus on packing well and remembering everything he needed.
“Yes. And to give you a hug.”
“A what?”
“A hug.” Loranna easily skipped closer and hugged him.
Alfred hugged back, patting her and toddling to keep balance. He did not know how to hug a girl yet. It was quite different from hugging a mother, as the emotions were very strange and haphazard, as it were.
Loranna stepped back and looked at him. Then she glanced at the other families amongst the mushrooms in their own camps. She eyed him, stepped in closer and whispered. “It's them, isn't it? You're going to find them?”
Alfred looked at her, tightening his belt. His eyes suddenly narrowed. “Shhh... “ He stopped short so no one could see his lips puckering to shush her. “We need an alliance. We can't fight the ogres alone.”
Loranna became fearful. “I'll tell everyone. I'll tell them! It's too dangerous!”
“It's our only hope, and you won't tell anyone! Give them hope.”
“You mean lie to them!” Loranna hissed.
“Shh... I mean... give me time. We need help! We have no knights, no wizard, no cleric, and your arrows won't work on monstrous ogres!”
She whispered with force, “I doubt little stone critters will do any better! Vile angry little pests!”
“Shh!” Alfred came up close to her, almost covering her mouth with his hand. He glanced about. She did too, again at the families. All were busy attending to their own needs. Many slept, many tinkered, and many were off mining or making mortar.
Her group of scouts and explorers, Hedor's men and the boys, were preparing themselves for the journey to find another exit and were not yet ready to march off. They were loud and could be seen through the mushrooms, a ways off, gathering what they needed. “They won't hear us!”
“Not them... THEM...” Alfred was looking at the stone columns, a few reached from the ceiling to the mushroom isle, and there were many jutting rocks.
Loranna quickly realized and looked around.
“Loranna!” Hedor called out and waved through the fungi forest. Loranna stepped back, and she and Alfred peered at Hedor. “Enough with your courting – let us go!” Hedor said. Many farmers and their wives suddenly looked up with discerning eyes. Loranna's sister, in her elven cloak and bow, looking like a small mysterious warrior, suddenly giggled like a child. Loranna's mother and father peered from their campsite with parental apprehension.
Alfred said cleverly, “Duhhhhhh...”
Loranna shrugged it off and departed from Alfred. “He's not my courtier! I was just having a word with the King... Gosh!!!”
She hurried away, looking back once and giving a shhh signal.
Alfred turned to see Loranna's father witnessing the shhh signal. “It's not what you think... it's about,” he said, half-heartedly.
“What's it about then?”
“Ahhh....” Alfred hurried away in the opposite direction.
Loranna's mother came up to her husband. “A queen for a daughter... shouldn't be completely discouraged.”
The father rolled his eyes, calculating the good and bad. “Oh well... yeah... hmph.”
Both returned to their campsite with a light step and a pat on the bottom. Oh!
Alfred trekked down a new tunnel, moving away from the blue hue of the Sanctuary, he readied his oil lamp and flame. He walked cautiously, traveling for awhile through a network of tunnels and small caves, finally coming to an area of unique brilliance. It was spectacular and gorgeous. He couldn't see all the way up. The walls near him had gems and crystals in them. He waved his flame across the wall. The gems absorbed the light and reflected it back in many wondrous colors. Amazingly, the light refracted and seemed to be carried up the walls and across the vast space, fading as it went up but ever so sparkling and brilliant.
Alfred set down his pack and sat down for a rest. After drinking a little water and eating some dense cake, he waved his lamp light again along the crystal filled rocks. The light patterned outward, climbing like thousands of tiny starry spiders. He could see it illuminating the vast cave as it faded off with many tendrils.
He looked next to him to see Tirnalth towering over him like a ghost, staring blankly beyond. He lurched.
“Oh! Tirnalth, you scared me!” Alfred leapt up, balancing the oil lamp to avoid spilling it. He tried to hug Tirnalth but merely walked through him, hugging himself.
“What?”
“Alfred? Is that you?”
“Yes, Tirnalth, I'm right here in front... of you!” Alfred stepped back to stand in front of him and gently hopped up and down to catch Tirnalth's blank stare.
“I can sense you, know you are here, but I cannot see you.”
“OKAY TIRNALTH! YES, I'M RIGHT HERE! CAN YOU SEE... THE CAVE? WE ARE IN A CAVE!” Alfred was on his tiptoes, smiling at the seemingly distant Tirnalth image.
“Hush, Alfred, I didn't say I couldn't hear you! Just not see you.”
“OH! I mean... oh... sorry...” Alfred stood back down.
“In a cave? Why the brazens are you in a cave?”
“We had to flee the ogres.”
“Ogres?! What on earth?”
“We were betrayed, Tirnalth, by the Merchants of Telehistine. Bankrupted and betrayed, they took all our best weapons, disarmed the Keep, and made us blind on our borders. We didn't see them coming, the slave raiding ogres!”
“The merchants? The Lords of Silver... are ever corrupt and greedy for power!” Tirnalth said angrily, staring blindly at the wall.
“I thought the Crusades defeated them or something – long ago? Then I thought we were allies... but I'm not so sure anymore...”
“Oh, defeating the enemy does not mean eradicating all evil and malignancy. Defeated they were, but left to fester and grow they did. A new enemy, softer and gentler, arose in its place – taking merely a generation to buy out, sell out, corrupt and pollute the minds of the victorious.”
“Tirnalth, why do you, how do you know of such things? Why didn't you warn us?”
“I am... Now! I just learned of it myself! I read furiously about it moments ago. I felt it! I felt you feeling it... this presence of deception and malice. The best way to defeat the strong is to weaken the pure of heart from within. And when at its weakest, attack! I felt it Alfred, when you came to the tower and it crumbled before you. I lost connection to the world. But only momentarily! I am reconnecting from my hidden sanctuary far within the depths of another realm. I have just now retied the cord.”
“We need your help, Tirnalth! How can we fight ogres?”
Tirnalth could almost see Alfred. He bent over to look into his eyes, but he was a bit off. Alfred stepped back. Tirnalth finally saw Alfred. His eyes widened. Alfred nodded in approval. Then Tirnalth sneezed a most fluid guffaw. Alfred could almost feel the magical mucous sprayed on him. Tirnalth stood up and quickly wiped his sniffling sneezer.
“Oh, that's much better. These heavenly places have so much pollen! Everything is always in season here! I should have chosen a barren wasteland in some purgatory somewhere! Would've have been much quieter than all the singing and glory here, oh my!”
“Tirnalth!”
“On and on, everyone is chirping in joy...”
“Tirnalth!”
“Oh yes, Alfred, sorry my dear boy.”
“We need your help. Can you help us?”
“Oh, well, as I said, I'm reconnecting now. I'm binding the cord between the Westfold and here. Here being my library. When it is well made, I can return fully. And see you as well. I shall bind to this spot! Where I am now.”
Alfred looked about the glowing ghostly image of Tirnalth. He glittered amongst the gems and created a constant flow of lig
ht. Alfred did not realize it till now, but the cave was an incredibly perfect spot for Tirnalth.
“When I return, Alfred, I will have greater powers and be ready to really help. I sense that this area is not seen by the witch. I sense she cannot or does not look here for you or me.”
“The Underworld you mean?”
“Yes, Alfred, the Underworld! I am much safer here, to reveal and use my powers. I may not be powerful enough to confront the witch, but I most certainly will be powerful, capable and veiled from her villainous vigil.”
“Well, that's good news, I think.”
“You must go to the gnomes, Alfred! You must ask them for help.”
“The gnomes?”
“Yes, the lost people of the hill kingdoms.”
“The lost people of the hill kingdoms?”
“Yes.” Tirnalth began to fade. “They will help you if you can persuade them.”
“Lost people? Where? Who?”
“The gnomes! Just wait here. They will find you! And don't worry. I will return soon! Keep up the good work!” Tirnalth smiled and waved goodbye.
Alfred leapt to grab Tirnalth from leaving but Alfred merely wafted in a glowing effervescence. He stood looking as the remarkable light display faded before him and he was left with his singular oil flame in a vast sparkling cave.
“The gnomes?”
Chapter Forty-Two: The Gnomes
Alfred was sitting, as Tirnalth ordered. He was dozing off as his oil lamp slowly burned. He had lost track of how long he had been there. A faint ringing sounded somewhere, echoing in the vast cave. He heard another sound from a different direction. He could hear something cranking ever so subtly. He turned his ears to try to pinpoint it. There was something cranking like a small tiny gear, and something metallic twanging by the slight tension. He couldn't tell for sure. He tried to lift up his lamp to see. Then he remembered and lowered the lamp to the gems embedded in a jutting rock. The gems reflected and twinkled, sending light rays up the walls.
Alfred 2: And The Underworld (Alfred the Boy King) Page 22