The Map Maker's Choice

by Matthew J. Krengel

  “Who?” Lenny started to ask, but stopped. This trip was getting really weird, so he figured, why bother to ask? “Nevermind. I don’t know if I want to know. Just tell me I’m not going to get arrested for anything we’re doing.”

  “I don’t think you will,” Jacob said blandly. “I promise I’ll explain it all tonight.”

  Coronia led them out toward the beach and along the water, away from the houses just to the east. The water lapped gently on the shore as the sky turned a hundred shades of blue and purple. The moon glowed with a slight halo and Coronia could feel the energy of the nighttime. This was something few people on this side of the Divide felt anymore. Oh, they enjoyed a sunset, but they didn’t understand the power of dusk. It was a time when, if one really paid attention, one could almost reach through the Divide and into the world beyond.

  The shore was sandy, with hundreds of bits of driftwood nestled into the shore for the night, bleached slightly off-white and worn smooth by years of being rolled in the sand and lake.

  Jacob reached down and picked up a lengthy piece that caught his eye. It reminded him of Gandalf’s staff from the Lord of the Rings movies. At one point in time it had been a young tree, but after being torn from the ground and rolled smooth in the water, all it needed was a crystal at the top and he could see himself in the movie.

  “What’s that for?” Jane asked with a smile. She knew what he was thinking. They had watched the movies together several times.

  “You shall not pass!” Jacob said dramatically, and they both burst out laughing as he slammed the end of the staff down into the sand.

  “Hush, you two,” Eriunia said. She knelt by the water’s edge by Coronia and watched as the former mermaid set both of her hands atop the water and stared down deep into it.

  “She is here,” Coronia said finally.

  “But how do we cross back through the Divide so we can reach her?” Jacob asked.

  Coronia looked up. “No. I mean, when she went into hiding, it was on this side.”

  They were all silent as the words sank in. The Lady of Woods Lake was hiding not in her own world, but in Jane’s.

  “But where? It’s a big lake,” Jacob replied.

  The water under Coronia’s hand started to glow ever so slightly as the sun slowly vanished and the moon woke in all its glory. It was at this precise moment that the little bit of magic in the world came to life and gave her a glimpse of where the lady was hiding. Lenny stared in amazement at the glowing water and took a step back as his hands shook and his eyes widened.

  “What in the world?” Lenny exclaimed. “How’s she doing that?”

  “Hush!” Eriunia snapped with a glare at Lenny. When he raised his hands and took a step back, she turned her attention back to the lake.

  “Out there across the water is a land surrounded by water and shaped like a crescent moon,” Coronia said slowly. “On that island she has a small cottage hidden in the woods near the westernmost edge.”

  “Great, now we need a boat,” Jacob groaned. He ground his staff into the sand and wished with all his might that he and Jane could just enjoy a quiet day in Duluth. They could go down to the lakeshore and skip rocks or walk along the boardwalk and enjoy the warmth of the sun.

  “That won’t be a big deal,” Lenny said when he finally found his voice again. He still stared intently at Coronia as if he thought she might change into something else, but the single moment of evening had passed and the water under her hands remained dark once again. “Do you remember Bill Thompson from our sophomore year in high school?”

  “Yeah, the heavyset kid with the thick glasses?” Jacob asked. He remembered Bill being the kid in class not afraid to do anything. They had dared him once to start a food fight in the cafeteria, and the next day Bill was suspended for showing up with six cans of whipped cream and spraying half the lunchroom. Then his firecracker in the toilet of the teachers’ bathroom made every toilet in the school flood.

  “His family bought a resort not far from town,” Lenny said. He jerked his thumb back toward Hackett. “If anyone can get us there, he would.”

  They all trudged back to the car and started to climb back into it. Jacob was about to toss out his driftwood staff when Eriunia stopped him.

  “Save it,” Eriunia said. She set a hand on it and marveled at how smooth it was. “There might be a reason you were drawn to this particular piece of driftwood.”

  “It’s just a stick, Eriunia,” Jacob said. Still, he hefted it in his hands and then motioned for Lenny to pop the trunk. “Fine, I’ll keep it.” He slipped the staff into the trunk, working it back and forth for a couple of minutes to make it fit before he was able to close the trunk.

  The drive back to town was quiet, and with the sun down the mood was a bit somber. Lenny had no clue what they were all pondering, but decided now was not the time to ask. When the lights of Hackett opened up before them, they pulled into a parking spot while Lenny used his phone to locate the resort Bill’s dad had bought.

  “Here it is,” Lenny exclaimed after a long search. “Thompson family resort . . . uh-oh . . .”

  “What?” Jane asked.

  “Says they closed. Went out of business about a year ago,” Lenny said. “Let’s go check the address.” He slipped the car back into gear and followed the directions on his cell phone. It only took them ten minutes to arrive at the location, and when they did, they let out a collective groan. Weeds and thick brush covered the entrance to the resort, and the welcome sign hung at an angle from a single wooden post. The small cabins that had once overlooked the lake seemed to have been struck by vandals. Most of the windows were broken out and graffiti was painted across many of the walls.

  “Wow, that’s one year of not being maintained?” Jacob muttered. Something felt odd about this place, but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

  “Too much for a single year, I’d think,” Eriunia replied. She could feel a darkness close by, something lurking just out of sight.

  “Did the phone say why they went out of business?” Jacob asked Lenny. He leaned over and looked at the small glowing screen while his friend tapped away.

  “Apparently Bill and his dad went missing after a heavy storm,” Lenny reported finally. “At least, that’s what the paper reported. No bodies were ever found. They were out fishing, a freak storm came in, and they vanished along with three tourists. Bill’s mom then moved into town.”

  Lenny parked the car just outside the closed gate and killed the lights. The resort grounds were dark except for a single light outside the building with a sign that read Office. It flickered and popped, adding a bit of a creepy feeling to the grounds.

  “Well, let’s go look around,” Jacob said finally.

  “Dude, you’re going to go trespassing?” Lenny asked with an upraised eyebrow. “What happened to the kid who never did anything wrong for fear of getting kicked off the football team?”

  “He changed,” Jacob said firmly. “You coming or not?”

  “Well, sure,” Lenny blustered. “Someone has to help you protect the helpless ladies.”

  “Don’t, Eriunia,” Jane said, a hand on Eriunia’s arm as the elf balled up her fist and started to wind up to hit Lenny. Thankfully, he wasn’t watching and missed the entire motion.

  “Let me grab my flashlight out of the trunk,” Lenny said. He walked around to the back of the car and popped the trunk lid. From inside he took an LED flashlight that sent a beam of light out across the grounds.

  “Bring your sword, Jacob,” Eriunia said suddenly. “This place feels wrong.” Something weird was going on with this place. Buildings didn’t just fall apart this quickly. Something was hastening the decay.

  “Whoa, Jacob,” Lenny said. He turned and let his flashlight cover Jacob’s sword for a minute. “Where did you get that? It’s sweet.”

/>   “Uhh, craft fair?” Jacob replied with a cheesy smile.

  “Sure, uh-huh,” Lenny said back. “When are you going tell me what’s going on here?”

  “Soon,” Jacob replied. “But I don’t think you’re gonna believe me.”

  Using the flashlight and the faint moonlight, they slipped around the broken wooden gate and entered the abandoned resort. Weeds and thistles grew everywhere, nearly erasing even the gravel road leading out to the campsites. Jacob walked up to the office building and looked inside one of the broken windows. Lenny’s flashlight lit the interior, showing a small room with another door at the back. It had a waist-high counter and the remains of a computer monitor sitting on the desk.

  “Creepy,” Lenny said as he flashed the light around the room. Photos of vacationers hung at weird angles alongside what looked like scratch marks on the walls. “What would do that? Wild dogs, maybe?” He pointed to the marks, then shined the light at the floor.

  “Wow, look at the size of those paw prints,” Jane muttered. Eriunia leaned into the opening and looked down at the prints.

  “We need to be careful,” Eriunia said. She nodded at the prints, “Not just any dog makes prints like that.”

  The mournful howl of a wolf suddenly erupted from the night and echoed across the water. It held on for what seemed like minutes before finally fading into the distance.

  “All right, that sounded close,” Coronia groaned. She knew what wolves were and didn’t like them one bit.

  “Probably a timber wolf,” Lenny said. “The populations have finally been growing again.” He waved his hand nonchalantly. “I doubt they’d come this close to a group of people.” He turned back to the overgrown parking lot and pondered how the weeds had grown so fast.

  “Where’s the dock?” Jane asked. She wanted to find a boat and get out of here.

  “Wait a minute,” Jacob replied. “We should go look inside.” Jacob walked to where the single light still flickered weakly outside the old screen door. He stepped inside the office and started rummaging through the papers on the floor. “Here we go,” he called to the others. “A map of the lake and the major islands.”

  Suddenly interested, they all crowded inside and stared at the map. Jacob unfolded it and smoothed it with his hands. Jane reached over and helped hold down the last two sides for him when they kept curling up.

  “Look at this island,” Jane said. She pointed to the top of the map and the corner where she moved her hand from started to curl. “It looks like a crescent moon. Can you read the name on it?” She squinted, but the flashlight glared on the weathered paper so that she could not make out the words.

  “It says ‘Garden Island,’” Lenny said. He leaned over and pointed at the map, his hand brushing against Jane’s. Another round of howling from outside made all of them jump. It sounded closer.

  “Wow, I can’t believe there are this many wolves around,” Lenny said. He turned away from the map and shoved the rust-covered screen door open. As he pushed, the door squeaked loudly. The light outside chose that moment to flare up. “What in the world?” he exclaimed.

  “What is it?” Jacob asked. He was trying to refold the map but without the use of the flashlight it was nearly impossible.

  “I think I found the wolves,” Lenny muttered. He took a step back and shut the door, then he flipped the small lock over and prayed it would hold.

  “What!” All four voices echoed as they rushed to the battered door and broken windows to look out. Standing in the middle of the overgrown lawn was the biggest, blackest wolf any of them had ever seen. Its eyes glowed red ever so slightly, and Jacob was positive he could see decay occuring around the creature. The weeds straightened taller and broke through more of the parking lot, while the sign hanging outside finally gave way and crashed to the ground.

  “Why did I leave the shield in the car?” Jacob muttered.

  “I don’t know,” Eriunia replied. Her eyes were sharper than the others’, and she could see seven smaller wolves crouched around the black wolf, waiting for orders. “It’s a Black Wolf. Some people call them Hellhounds, and it’s never good to see one of them out in the open. They bring despair and decay. That’s why the buildings here are falling apart so quickly. The smaller ones are dire wolves.”

  “I thought everything deemed mystical or magical got sent to the other side of the Divide?” Jacob asked. Carefully he raised his sword and hoped he could drop a couple of the wolves before they made it through the door.

  “So did I,” Eriunia replied. “Unless the Adherents found a way to send it through or it managed to find a hole in the Divide somewhere.” Eriunia searched around on the floor until her hand came in contact with the leg of a wooden chair that had once sat in the entrance. The rest of the chair had fallen to pieces, but this one piece was made from the heart of a red oak and still held its strength. Desperately, she picked up the foot-and-a-half-long piece of oak and looked back out the window. She caught a flicker of movement out of the corner of her eye as one of the wolves started forward. Moments later the others followed suit, and eight shadowy killers advanced on them.

  “Quick, out the back door,” Jane yelled. They had no weapons except for Jacob’s sword and the cudgel Eriunia had found. She cupped her hand over Bella’s hiding place to protect the fairy and leapt toward the back of the room. The other door opened easily and they ran out the back as a round of snarls and growls followed them. Moments later, the wolves smashed through the front door of the resort and the chase was on. Running along the back of the building, they could see the decaying remains of a dock sticking out into the water about forty feet, ending with a cross piece that ran another twenty or thirty feet out to either side.

  A wolf leapt out in front of them, its flashing teeth passing so close to Jacob’s face he could smell the beast’s fetid breath. He yelped and fell backwards, thrusting his sword in front of him and hoping he would strike the beast. He felt his sword strike the creature but it had little power, and then the wolf was gone. Jacob scrambled back to his feet and felt his cheek where he thought the teeth had almost struck him. The skin on his face felt cold and tight like a bad windburn, and this sent a shiver down his spine.

  “Where did it go?” Jacob exclaimed. They started running down the weedy path toward the dock.

  “Vanished into the darkness,” Jane called back.

  Eriunia felt the creature coming it lashed out at her, and she swung her makeshift club hard. She felt the solid oak piece strike the wolf and heard a yelp of pain as it rolled away. She knew at least one of the creatures was out of the fight. The dock was twenty feet away when three more of the dark creatures erupted from the tall grass in front of them and attacked.

  Jacob saw them coming this time and raised his sword. He was not getting bested this time. He waited until the last second and leapt forward to swing his sword at the lead wolf. The blow connected solidly, and the blade bit deep. A hiss of darkness and a cloud of black mist arose from where the wolf had been. Then it was gone. He had little time to celebrate as another one leapt for him. He struggled to get his sword up in time when a glowing fairy net dropped over the wolf and stopped it in its tracks.

  “Thanks, Bella,” Jacob shouted. He sent a weak backhand blow toward the last of the wolves but it slowed and leapt to the side to avoid the strike. As it leapt through the air, Eriunia swung her thick oak chair leg and connected solidly. The wolf rolled off to the side and vanished into the weeds.

  Moments later, they were all rushing down the wooden planks of the dock. On each side of the structure boats were still moored to the uprights, but all of them had holes smashed in the bottom. When they reached the cross section, Jacob looked right and then left. Suddenly hope filled him as he spotted a single boat still floating.

  “Lenny, see if you can get that boat running,” Jacob shouted, pointing toward the eight
een-foot Lund Pro. He turned back toward the shore and spotted the wolves gathering again. Two were limping, but the big black one paced as it stared at them. The creature reminded him of a general marshalling his forces for a final push.

  Lenny rushed to the end of the dock and looked down at the boat, which had a 120-horsepower motor. The keys were missing, but that wouldn’t stop him. Lenny’s dad ran a small engine repair shop, and Lenny knew his way around the engines of boats and lawn mowers ­almost as well as his dad did. He bent over the console and shouted back, “Give me a minute.”

  Jane watched as Lenny dove under the controls to the boat, holding the flashlight in his mouth as he worked. She motioned for Coronia to pull the ropes off the front of the boat and get in. Meanwhile, Jane grabbed the rope at the back and slipped it over the top of the aluminum upright holding it in place. With the rope gripped tightly in her hand, she looked back and her heart sank. The monster wolf snarled and glared at them as its forces started forward. Thankfully, the dock was narrow and the wolves seemed reluctant to get to close to the water.

  “Knock them into the water,” Coronia shouted. “Dire wolves hate the water.”

  Eriunia had been thinking the same thing, and she struck the first one with a heavy blow that sent it tumbling into the lake, where it thrashed around trying to make it back to land. Next to her, Jacob struck out with his sword and another of the wolves vanished in a puff of black smoke. The next one Eriunia swung at reacted faster, and its teeth sank into the oak club and ripped it from her hand. Instead of fighting the momentum, the elf let the wolf take the club and struck it in the side with her knee, sending it head over tail into the lake as well.

  Suddenly they heard the roar of a boat motor behind them. Lenny whooped in victory.

  “Go,” Jacob shouted. He motioned Eriunia toward the boat and started to back away from the wolves. Another one charged and reached him as he was trying to step into the boat, and he stuck it in the side with the sword. For a moment the weight of the wolf dragged him down, but then the creature slipped from the blade and he fell backwards into the boat. The moment they were all in the Lund, Lenny slammed the throttle wide open and the boat leapt away from the dock and into the open water.