by W. C. Peever
“But that’s just it, Bailey,” said Mick. “That’s the part that doesn’t make sense. The poem says, ‘With it to the forest with due haste, Time itself you must not waste’. The altar must be in the forest.”
“I don’t think so.” Charlie pulled out a sheet of paper where he had written down the poem. “Listen.” Charlie began to read aloud:
Here lies power you honestly sought,
Of Merlin’s essence deeply wrought,
True of spirit and true of heart
This tomb is only the first part.
Under stone within the light,
Find the crystal glowing bright.
‘Tis the crystal you must find.
If again you wish to bind
The power that our ancient Lord,
Across dimensions broke and poured
To the forest in due haste
Time itself you must not waste,
For the other, seek power too
To with it make the world anew.
Charlie stopped reading and looked up from the paper. “‘Tis the crystal you must find.’ I think we need to go to the forest to be able to get the crystal out of the sword.
In this first half of the poem it doesn’t talk about the altar at all, just getting the sword and then getting the stone. The altar is in the second part. See?” Charlie read the second part of the poem:
To oblivion would justice go
And in its place discord sow
If on the altar crystal rests,
The Order can not fail the test.
For the Crystal Power imbue
The map to travel time to you,
To places where the crystals lie,
And to where Merlin went to die.
The catch, dear friends, is great I fear,
For Merlin only can hope to unhinge
The secrets that are entombed within
“Do you see it now?” asked Charlie. “The second part tells you how to use the crystal. The first part tells you how to locate the crystal. We have to go to the forest. Something there will help us get the crystal out of the sword. But what is it?”
“Maybe we’re taking this poem a bit too literally,” said Mick. “I mean the last two lines of the poem say that only a descendant of Merlin can take the lid of the sarcophagus. Obviously that’s not true, because someone besides you did, and whoever it was now has the sword.”
“Humph” said Bailey. “Read the first two lines before that, ‘And to where Merlin went to die.’ That’s where Merlin’s sarcophagus must be. That means the sarcophagus that we found and that held the sword and the stone was not Merlin’s tomb! So anyone could open it!”
Charlie looked dumbfounded at his other two friends. “We have a lot of work ahead of us. How are we going to find the final resting place of Merlin after a thousand years? No one’s ever been able to do that, except maybe my father.”
The children all looked at each other, their faces the suddenly the color of ash. “We need to find your father Charlie. We need his ring,” said Bailey.
“No. Wait!” Remember that the professor said your dad’s ring was broken – he could not fix the projection part. That must be why none of the other rings copied from his ring have that feature. Your dad’s ring can’t open the map. The only way we are going to uncover Merlin’s Map is if we can get the crystal out of Excalibur, which we don’t have, and place it into Merlin’s original ring, which we don’t have.”
“Damn!” said Charlie, throwing a book across the room.
Mick frowned. “Charlie, language please,” he said doing such an excellent Ms. Welling impression that all had to laugh. “Hey, what if there is a dimension where the order triumphed over the Vanari? If they triumphed over the Vanari, then the ring would have to have worked! We could borrow it and bring it back.”
“Could you actually do it, Charlie?” Bailey asked, not attempting to hide her concern. “You haven’t been trained at all on how to use your ring.”
“I think I can. In fact, if it works like it did was at the trials, I might be able to take you along with me. But first we need to figure out how to get there,” said Charlie. “We need to think of some circumstance that would drastically change the world.”
“Okay,” Mick thought for a moment. “Take us to a world where Merlin’s ring has been retired, and is in a museum. This castle’s as good a place as any for a museum, right?”
“Which means,” said Charlie, “That the ring would be on display here. Let’s do it.”
“Now?” said Bailey.
“Why not?” Charlie said. “We need to get the ring, or looking for the sword is useless.”
“True.” Bailey tapped her foot nervously.
“Alright then, let’s do it. How long do you think we will need to be there?”
“An hour?” Mick blindly postulated.
We’re going to have to time this close to perfect. We need to find the ring and steal it just as the time limit is up so we don’t get caught. Charlie thought and took a very deep breath. “An hour, then,” he said and set the return timer on his watch. “Bailey, put on your gloves. Mick, take your staff.” Both nodded. “Now everyone take hold of me.” Mick and Bailey stood close and wrapped an arm around Charlie. “Here we go: One. Two. Three.”
A purple bubble encapsulated the triumphant spinning wildly around them, and then disappeared with a loud pop.
From a darkened corner came a surprised gasp. Tillie ran out of the room and down the stairs, to where her boyfriend, Samuel, was waiting for her.
Chapter Fourteen
Out of the Frying Pan
As the kaleidoscope of purple lights around the three friends slowed, it became obvious that the dormitory that they now stood in had not been used in a long, long time. It was not that there were cobwebs or broken pieces of furniture lying about. In fact the exact opposite was true. Everything was in place and polished to a sparkling finish. It was that they were, without a doubt, inside a museum.
“I guess we made it,” Bailey said. “You boys never had the dorm looking this clean. Imagine how happy Ms. Welling would be to see it like this.”
“You’re right,” Charlie said, looking all around, head spinning to the right and left like an owl. “This place has not been lived in for…awhile. Look.” He pointed to a bed that had been partitioned off by thick, horizontal velvet ropes attached to waist-length golden poles. “Whose bed was that?” He asked, expecting it to be his.
Mick walked over and read the golden plaque at its foot. “This was the bed that our Lord, the Great Freyr Vali, slept in as a boy. If you close your eyes, you can imagine him diligently practicing his skills in secret.” The children looked at each other, mouths agape. “It goes on,” Mick said with a sour taste in his mouth. “After the death of the dictator Henry Grayson, the self-proclaimed Headmaster of Thornfield Academy, our Lord returned to the castle and retrieved the crystal seeing staff that Grayson had been using in an attempt to locate the infamous outlaw and Jumper, Daniel Burrows. May the Gods of Vanaheim strike the Jumper and all terrorists into the fires of Muspelheim.”
Mick stopped and looked up from the plaque into the disillusioned faces of his friends. “The the way I read it, the Charlie of this world was captured and used to obtain all of the crystals for Vali. Grayson must have used the crystal staff; you know the one we saw in his office, to find your father. He found your father – but the staff – remember, it needs a life force to function. Grayson must have sacrificed his life to find your father After that, everything must have fallen apart.” He read some more, “There’s more.” He said, suddenly looking down at his feet, reluctant to tell her what else he had read.Bailey pushed him out of the way and read the plaque for herself, then she, too, went silent. “What does it say?” asked Charlie.
Bailey choked back tears, and then looked her lifelong best friend in his worried green eyes.”It says it was my father who betrayed your dad…the Order…it was he who captured you, Charlie.” Cha
rlie put an arm around her. “No!” She pushed him away. “Don’t you see Charlie? My father was evil.” Tears filled her eyes and she shook her head, hair spinning wildly around her. “My father destroyed our world. He took away my best friend…my family. The Vanari won. This is their museum, not ours.”
“In this world, he is not your father Bailey. Your father does not exist in this world. Who knows what he was forced to do.”
“Or maybe he’s the reason we’re both missing our fathers in our world, Charlie,” she screamed half out of her mind with anger. Bailey had spent all of her life looking at old pictures of her father, visualizing their perfect reunion, and now that fantasy was breaking like a pane of glass, and the shards were tearing her apart.
“Right now what really matters is that somehow we have arrived deep in enemy territory,” Mick interjected. “They will definitely recognize us, and I am fairly sure that they will not welcome our presence here.” He walked over to a pamphlet stand in the corner of the room and removed one of the colorful brochures. After a few minutes he looked back up at Charlie and Bailey. “The ring is located in a glass case in the library.”
Bailey cocked her head. “How do you know that?”
“It’s right here in the brochure. It even has a map of the best route to take to get there.” Mick took a breath. “Thing is, this isn’t only a museum, it’s also Vali’s personal residence. It’s a museum one day a week, and that day is not today.” Mick took out his staff, Bailey put on her gloves, and Charlie made a fist with his right hand and produced the sword he hadn’t yet given back to Marley.
“I don’t think that we should go looking for trouble, guys, but I do think we should be ready if we bump into Lord Bobby in his night gown,” Bailey said. All three smiled.
“I wish Tillie was here. We could really use her power of invisibility,” Charlie mused. Bailey nodded and used her power to unlock the door from the dormitory to the hallway.
“Which way?” asked Charlie.
“The quickest route is down the stairs and through the hall where the Headmaster’s study is,” Mick replied. “But, the Headmaster’s study is now ‘the Great Lord’ Vali’s study. So the safest way is actually through the armory and then down the back stairs to the library. How much time to we have, Charlie?”
“About forty five minutes.”
“Then we better get going.” They headed up the stairs to the armory. As they drew closer to the heavy oak doors they could hear the unmistakable sounds of metal against splintering wood, of people sparring.
“I wonder who would be using the museum to spar? You’d think that they’d want to preserve the room like they did the dorms,” said Bailey.
Mick began running his fingers along the left side of the wall, searching for something. “I know where there’s a small peek hole in the wall, or at least in our dimension.” The others hurried over to join him. The hole was indeed there, but what they saw inside made each one’s blood boil. In the center of the armory, bloodied and bruised to within an inch of his life, was Marley. He was surrounded by young boys who seemed to be using him as target practice for their swords. Marley, on the other hand wielded only a short wooden stick.
“Take that, you stupid arse.” The voice was that of Lance MacAlcester. “How long do you think you can hold up against all of us? Foolish move, trying to sneak into the castle like that. You and that Burrows fool are like public enemy number one!”
Marley stood up, shoulders back; chin held high, his stubborn pride as resilient as ever. “I am,” Marley coughed, “so sorry for you boys.”
“Sorry for us?” Ralph LaGrosse sneered. “That’s funny. Just a little while ago Lord Vali said that about you and your terrorist friends.” The boys chuckled and then renewed their attack. Marley fell to his knees, blood soaking his shirt.
Charlie’s knuckles turned white on the hilt of his sword. His eyes shot to Mick and then to Bailey. “Bailey, will you do the honors?”
“With pleasure,” she said closing her eyes, funneling and focusing her inner power, her anger, and her need for vengeance into her gloved hands. The crystal in the center of her palm grew warm while light from its core radiated outwards, producing blue illuminations dancing along the walls. Her emotions amplified her natural ability until the crystal simply could not hold any more, sending a visible torrent of sapphire lightning towards the door. The resulting force blew the oak doors off of their hinges and flying into the room. One landed on Ralph, crunching several bones and knocking him out. “One less to deal with” said Charlie, brandishing his sword as, the three children emerged from out of the dust.
“Impossible. You’re all dead!” Lance’s voice wavered. “I killed the girl myself, and I watched you die, Burrows at Lord Vali’s hands.”
“Well then, just think of us as ghosts coming back for revenge,” said Mick. “Are you ready to die?” One of Lance’s cohorts charged Mick, who slammed his staff on the ground, causing a green bolt of light to shoot from the crystal. The charge hit the boy square in the chest and sent him toppling backwards, unconscious.Lance yelled to the five remaining members of his group: “Kill them, kill them all!” The room erupted into a melee of flashing light, fire, and clashing weapons. Two Elementalists battled Bailey, sending fireballs at her, which she deflected with her gloves. Mick had his hands full with the three others, all guardians. They sent bright green energy bolts, like Mick had, sailing across the room at one and other. That left Lance and Charlie. Lance picked up a short sword, and they began to circle each other in the center of the room.
“You’re not from this world, are you?” The sneer of revulsion that Lance gave him sent shivers down his spine. “No? I didn’t think so,” He said as he thrust his sword at Charlie’s chest. The two battled fiercely and it soon became obvious that while Lance had training, it did not compare to Charlie natural instincts. Charlie blocked stroke after slice that Lance hurled at him, and at the right moment counterattacked with more ferocity and better accuracy. When it quickly became clear to Lance that he could not win with the sword, he backed away and resorted to his ability, taking control of Charlie’s mind.
Charlie didn’t know why he did it, but he dropped his sword and fell to his knees. Lance held Charlie’s mind in his grip while picking up his sword, raising it high above his head, the point aiming for Charlie’s neck.
Marley, still idle from the beating, noticed Charlie from across the room and yelled at the top of his lungs. “No! Charlie!”
Bailey looked up and, adrenaline pumping, she threw all of their opponents across the room, then focused on Lance’s sword, hoping to hurtle it through the air, but she was too late, as Charlie’s blood cascaded over the floor.
Enraged at his failure, Mick yelled for Bailey to close her eyes and drop to the floor, while slamming his staff to the ground with such force that the entire room shook. The room was engulfed in a blinding green light, reducing Lance and his friends to piles of grey dust. When Bailey opened her eyes again, she saw Marley holding Charlie’s limp body in his hands, and Mick slumped against the wall, his energy zapped from the effort.
“Mick, Charlie needs help!” called Bailey. Her leg had been badly burnt by a fire ball. She paused. “There’s just so much blood,” she said, falling.
Using his staff to help support his weight, Mick hobbled over to Charlie’s side. “It…took so much energy…” Mick was breathing hard. “I don’t think I can heal him.” Mick held his staff over Charlie, and focused with all his soul, but the emerald at the tip remained cold, and Mick collapsed on top of Charlie’s chest.
“Hand me your staff, son. I think I can still do it,” Marley wheezed at Mick. “Come now, let me do what needs to be done. I need your staff.” Mick handed it over, and watched as Marley moved the glowing emerald tipped staff over Charlie’s neck. Slowly the color came back into Charlie’s face, and he opened his eyes.
“Did we do it? Where is Bailey?” Charlie asked surprised at how weak his voice was.
/> “I’m right here! Don’t worry about me Charlie, I’m fine.” She smiled at him, and grasped his hand.
“Far from fine, I would say,” came Marley’s rough voice. “Let me see that leg. It looks bad. Fire burns are difficult, but I’ll give it a shot. Meanwhile, why don’t you tell me how you three got here and why you’re here? I buried Charlie after he was slaughtered. You must have jumped here from another dimension, but why? What could you possibly need with us here?”
“We came here for Merlin’s ring. But if Vali has all the crystals, then there’s little point really.” Charlie’s heart sank.
“We came all this way and the crystals have already been taken from their resting places and reassembled.”
“Well that’s not quite true, Charlie. You have not come in vain. You, I mean the Charlie of this world, refused to help Vali. Even after he murdered, one-by-one, all your friends and even your mother, you refused to give in.” A tear welled up in Marley’s eyes as he spoke. The Guardian rubbed his face with one of his massive hands. “But the ring that is in the library will not help you. When Vali killed Charlie, I managed to switch the ring. The ring that Vali has entombed in glass is actually a fake.”
“Then where is the real ring?” asked Charlie, regaining some of his strength.
“With your father. I can take you to him if you wish.”
“Wait,” said Charlie. “He’s here in this dimension? In the castle?”
“No, not in the castle, and yes Grayson was able to find him. Anyway, we’re all hiding in a cavern deep in the forest around the school. We have been using the underground tunnels, and shadows of the forest to hide the resistance. I was stealing weapons from the armory when I was captured last night.”
“We need to hurry! I need that ring, and we only have a half hour before I’m recalled.”
“Can you three walk?” They nodded, and all four of them made their way to the back of the armory. Marley pulled on a sword hilt that was hanging high on one of the walls and a door appeared. “This will take us out of the castle, and from there it is only a ten minute walk to the ruins.”