by SJB Gilmour
‘That may be a while,’ Angela told him. ‘We’ve just come from Conundrum.’ She then went on to tell Nathan about the little adventure they had just had. He even managed to crack a smile when Mel interrupted to tell him how Sarah, still a wolf cub, was prepared to take on the nearsighted dragon.
‘You didn’t hurt old Cexil, did you?’ Nathan asked when he stopped chuckling. ‘That old dragon and I go way back. I remember when he and I used to work together in the Nonagon archives.’ He sighed. ‘Then Marzdane took office and everything changed.’
Mel hedged nervously. ‘Well, he was a lot smaller when we left him, but he did seem to be okay.’
‘He’ll grow back to normal size in a day or two, Nathan,’ Angela told the worried bookwyrm. ‘The spell will wear off by then and he’ll be back to blowing fireballs at shadows, good as new. Now,’ she changed the subject crisply. ‘I think Benjamin’s going to be quite a while dealing with the Guild, and there’s very little we can accomplish here. We might as well do something constructive.’
‘What?’ Sarah asked her politely, looking around the forest. Everything seemed fine to her. Her aunt and uncle were safe with her, as were her friends.
Angela smiled gently at Sarah. ‘This place is perfect, Sarah,’ she said, ‘for werewolves. It’s just not the best place for humans, and this elevator definitely doesn’t belong here.’ She looked about the forest nervously. ‘Neither do we,’ she added. ‘I’m not sure we want to push the generosity of this forest too far.’
‘So what are we going to do?’ Sarah asked.
‘Not we,’ Angela corrected her. ‘You.’
‘Huh? What do you mean?’
‘You’re the only one with the power to do it, Sarah. You have to get us and the elevator to Ottispuschenshuffen, Ottispuschenshuffen and Ottispuschenshuffen.’
‘Can’t you do it, Uncle Robert? Aunt Roberta?’
Robert laughed. ‘We’re just Browns, Sarah,’ he reminded her. ‘We don’t have that kind of power. Your aunt and I could probably take ourselves just about anywhere we need to go, but neither of us have the power to carry passengers.’ He nodded at the elevator. ‘And lugging that thing around would just about kill us.’
Sarah was confused. She was feeling more than a little worn-out. Her temper wasn’t at its best and even though she knew she should have been more polite, she couldn’t help flaring up.
‘Then how the hell am I going to?’ she demanded hotly. ‘I don’t know the first thing about making portals or even where these Ottis-whatever people are!’
Roberta nudged her gently. ‘It’s okay, darling. Just listen to the trees, they’ll tell you everything you need to know.’
She sat on her haunches and listened. The faint, almost imperceptible thoughts came to her as the trees focused their attention on her. After several moments, Sarah felt as if a dam wall had burst within her mind and she felt a flood of power coursing through her body. She saw a multitude of images flash past her eyes and knowledge from the forest of Wolfenvald flooded her mind. She had such power! In the few short months during which she had been introduced to her enchanted world, Sarah hadn’t dreamed that such power would be hers.
The nature of the multitude of planes was made very clear. Establishing a portal from one place to another on the same plane was easy. Crossing planes was much, much more difficult.
As suddenly as the images came, they stopped and the forest was silent again in Sarah’s ears. She stood up and shook her golden mane. She felt stronger now, and her body felt bigger and more powerful. She realised that in seconds she had grown by an amount that would normally take months. She looked over her body and saw that she was much more developed than ever. Muscles flexed and rippled under her silky golden coat, and she felt the power of Wolfenvald pulsing through her every fibre. The others were staring at her in awe.
My thanks. She briefly cast the thought out to the forest.
‘Welcome into thine inheritance, Golden Mane,’ the forest replied. ‘Be well.’
Angela picked up a stick and cleared a space perhaps two metres wide on the forest floor. Then in the dirt, she drew a quick nine-pointed star, consisting of three overlying triangles.
‘Always make sure your nonagrams are even,’ she instructed.
‘Nonagrams?’ Sarah asked.
Angela nodded. ‘Nonagons are shapes, nonagrams are diagrams. Mortals seem to have some sort of affection for pentagrams for some reason. Probably because five-pointed stars are easier to draw than nine-pointed ones. However, pentagrams do not have anywhere near as much power as nonagrams.’ She looked down to Sarah. ‘In time, you probably won’t even need to use nonagrams. For now though, it’s probably better to be safe than sorry. I’m not allowed to perform any sorcery here, so you’ll have to.’
Sarah nodded and wagged her tail. Everyone assumed his or her positions around the nonagram. Once everyone was assembled, she began to concentrate very hard. Unbidden, an image of a dusty old shop appeared in her mind and Sarah instantly knew the thought had come from the vast consciousness that was the forest of Wolfenvald. More importantly, she knew how to establish the portal she needed.
This was harder than anything she had attempted before. Once she had established a shimmering portal in the middle of the nonagram on the forest floor, Sarah concentrated on every member of the group as well as the elevator. She commanded the elevator to follow her. It rose off the ground and hovered behind her obediently. Then two witches, two Brown Coat werewolves, one bookwyrm, one Golden Mane and a wrecked elevator disappeared into the portal.
In moments, the very odd-looking little group arrived inside the dusty shop from Sarah’s vision. The huge amount of raw power required for such a jump surged through her body. Instead of leaving her feeling exhausted, as she would have expected, Sarah felt invigorated and stronger than ever. Surprised, she realised that the power of Wolfenvald was still within her and, it seemed, inexhaustible.
She looked around. The shop was old and littered with cobwebs. The wooden floorboards were worn and creaky. The front counter was cluttered with rolls of paper tied with string. Several candles flickered away, dripping wax onto the counter. The walls of the shop were plastered with postcards. Many were from various landmarks on Earth. There were also quite a few that were quite clearly not from Earth at all.
On the counter was a large glass bowl, identical to the one at Benjamin’s building, however this one contained hundreds of small silver nuggets. Above the counter was a sign.
Ottispuschenshuffen, Ottispuschenshuffen & Ottispuschenshuffen
Enchanted Ladders, Elevators and Stairways
Since before any of us can remember
The ruins of the office elevator floated perilously beside them. The others stepped away from it nervously.
Behind the counter was a very old man. He was bent over a large scroll, which was constantly trying to re-roll itself. Every time the old man flattened it out, he weighted it down with a paperweight and went back to his work. After a moment or two, the scroll would give a light tug and slip out from under the paperweight, and then quickly re-roll itself until it hit the old man’s pencil. This must have been going on for quite a while because the old man was becoming very angry and was constantly muttering curses under his breath.
He glanced up at Sarah and her companions. ‘Ve’re closed,’ he muttered and went back to his scroll. ‘Go avay.’
Angela cleared her throat meaningfully.
‘I said ve’re closed already!’ he said more firmly. ‘Can’t you see zat ve’re closed already? Vat do you vant?’ he demanded. Without waiting for an answer, he waved his pencil at a long bench seat along one of the walls. ‘Go, sit down,’ he ordered impatiently. ‘Von of us vill be viz you in an hour or so,’ he then turned back to his uncooperative scroll.
Obediently, Sarah went to follow the grumpy old man’s directions. Angela had other ideas. She stepped up to the counter and took the pencil from the old man’s hand with one hand and t
he scroll with the other. She then put them neatly to one side and grabbed hold of his long white beard and pulled him close to her.
‘No, Mr Ottispuschenshuffen, we won’t be waiting for an hour or so,’ she corrected him firmly. His eyes went wide as he recognised her and he began to stammer all sorts of protests. Angela gave his beard a very sharp little tug, which must have hurt terribly
‘You don’t have any other customers here, do you?’ she demanded, looking around.
‘‘N… No!’ the bearded old man stammered, yanking his beard free. He rubbed his chin and glared at her angrily. ‘Very vell?’ he demanded hotly. ‘Vat do you vant?’
Angela waved at the floating elevator and brought it a little closer to them. Then she clicked her fingers and the crumpled mass of the elevator fell to the floor with a crash. Hearing the racket, two more old men scurried into the shop. One, with glasses and a beard so long it dragged on the floor behind him, had a pencil tucked behind each ear and was carrying an armful of scrolls. When he saw the mess, he dropped the scrolls, which protested loudly as they clattered all over the floor. The other grey-haired and bearded man, who was even older than the first two, scurried after the scrolls, swearing under his breath.
Sarah didn’t know what to think when she saw the wizened old codgers scampering about. They immediately began bickering among themselves and hitting each other with the rolled-up scrolls.
‘Umm… Excuse me?’ Sarah asked politely. The three old men ignored her and continued to fuss among themselves.
Shaking her head ruefully, Sarah gave a short but very loud yip. The men froze and looked at her in absolute horror.
Before they could flee, Angela stepped in. ‘Gentlemen,’ she began most reasonably. ‘Now that we have your attention, we’d like you to take care of this,’ she said pointing to the crumpled mass of metal, which was still smoking more than a little.
One of the old men stepped up to the elevator and peered at it for a moment. ‘Ahh,’ he murmured. ‘Ze Millennium model. Vat happened to it?’ he asked Angela.
‘Trolls,’ she said shortly.
The other two old men began whispering nervously to each other. The first old man and Angela ignored them. He shook his head in dismay.
‘You know, ze varrantee doesn’t cover acts of troll,’ he warned officiously. ‘Zis could be expensive.’
Angela shrugged. ‘Whatever. Just fix it, and this time, we want it to be nice.’
One of the other old men stepped forward inquisitively. ‘Vat do you mean by zat?’ he asked, full of professional curiosity.
‘It was rude!’ Mel interrupted.
Sarah wagged her tail, which was the wolf equivalent of nodding her head. ‘It was more than rude,’ she told them adamantly. ‘It was awful!’
The old man pulled on his beard thoughtfully. ‘You know, zis isn’t ze first time ve’ve had zis complaint about ze Millennium model,’ he mused. The other two crowded around the machine and began pottering, completely oblivious to their customers. The first old man looked at his partners. ‘Perhaps zere’s somezing vrong viz ze silver digestion process. I’m always bad tempered ven I have indigestion,’ he muttered. ‘But zen, it iz a high-performance machine. No ozzer machine has been able to reach through to as many planes as ze Millennium model. It needs high quality fuel and regular tuning… ’
‘You can check its serial number against your service records,’ Angela stated flatly. ‘I’m sure you’ll find this machine has always been serviced by you, and at the required intervals.’
One of the other old men made to scurry off. ‘I need some chicken soup,’ he muttered. ‘I think better ven I’ve had a good bowl of chicken soup. Oi!’
Angela offered her hand to the old man with whom she was speaking. ‘I’m Angela Harding,’ she said and quickly introduced the others to the old man, who nodded politely at them all. He seemed completely unfazed at the oddly assorted group assembled in his shop.
‘Vell, I am Laurence,’ he said with a polite bow. ‘And zese two are my brothers Maurice and Jerome.’ Maurice did not look up from the elevator. He merely waved one hand at her.
Jerome, who was shuffling off in search of chicken soup, threw both hands in the air. ‘Vy did he have to tell zem our names, already?’ he muttered, and disappeared through the doorway.
‘You must be needing somezing to tide you over in ze meantime?’ Laurence asked Angela.
‘Naturally,’ she replied. ‘We can’t go tiring out our only Golden Mane here, now can we?’
Laurence agreed and shuffled back behind the counter and began rummaging under the mess of scrolls and papers. Finally, he found what he was looking for. He held up a small leather pouch tied with a leather thong.
‘Here ve go!’ he announced triumphantly. ‘I knew I had a set of zese laying around here somevhere.’ He handed the pouch to Angela. ‘Be careful viz zose,’ he warned. ‘Zey’re very basic, but zey are still ze best ve make. Portal stones are much more potent zan any elevator. If you’re going to use diagrams, make sure your circles are round and unbroken and your nonagrams are even.’
‘I’m a witch, Master Ottispuschenshuffen,’ Angela replied huffily, ‘not a dunce.’
He smiled and rolled his eyes towards the cobweb-covered ceiling. ‘Oi,’ he sighed. ‘I know. I’m sorry to sound like a boor, but you have no idea how many schmucks come zroo zat door not knowing ze first zing about portals.’ He laughed wryly. ‘You deal viz ze public often enough, Miz Harding, and you’re bound to get a little cynical. Now,’ he said briskly, brushing his hands down the front of his robe. ‘If you don’t mind, I’ll get to verk on your elevator. Vere can ve contact you? Perhaps ve can contact you at ze Amazon base? Zey have an account viz us of course.’
Angela’s face hardened briefly and then she politely shook her head. ‘No thank you, Master Ottispuschenshuffen. We’re enjoying a bit of R and R. We’ll be staying at The Manor.’
Laurence smiled and nodded as diplomatically as he could. ‘Of course, of course. Ve’ll send our quote for ze repair by Certified Pixie Mail in a veek. Maybe two, who knows?’ He began shooing the group out of the shop and into the street. Once they were outside, Laurence shut and locked the door and swung a sign over onto the glass window.
Closed for Repairs
Once outside, Angela finally turned her attention to Mel’s bleached hair. ‘Mel, darling,’ she chided, ‘that look certainly fooled the troll back in Melbourne, and I’m sure it was fun to do, but it doesn’t really suit you, you know.’
Mel held a tuft of her hair out in front of her eyes. ‘I know,’ she grimaced. ‘I’m not sure I want to stay blonde.’ She then muttered a few short words in Magaeic. Her hair shimmered briefly then returned to its natural black colour.
They were standing on a wide, paved road surrounded by blackness. Beyond the road, far into the dark nothingness surrounding them, Sarah could hear faint voices coming to her as if carried by a distant wind. She glanced back at the shop only to see it had moved several hundred metres down the road. This place was weird!
‘Careful,’ Angela warned. ‘Don’t step off the edge. There are all sorts of nasty things out there.’
Sarah and the others cautiously moved to the centre of the strange road. Only Mel and her aunt seemed unfazed by the strange surroundings. She looked curiously at her teacher. ‘Where are we?’ Sarah asked. ‘I managed to get us here, but I don’t really know where ‘here’ is.’
Angela looked around at the empty street in the middle of the black void. ‘This is Neroland,’ she told them. ‘Most planets are billions of years old but as best as we can’t tell, this place is only several thousand. We think it was part of another place that somehow managed to get lost through an enormous portal.’ She shook her head sadly. ‘You know the mortals’ theory about how their precious dinosaurs died out?’
Sarah wagged her tail.
‘Well it must have been an event sort of like that, except with some sort of massive portal instead of a meteor. W
hoever found this place also discovered that for most planes, it can be a lot easier travel to and from if you go through here.’
‘How come?’ Mel asked, absently standing much closer to Sarah than she would do normally.
Angela frowned for a moment while she tried to figure out how to explain it. Then she smiled. ‘Travelling between planes is hard because often you have to go through a great many planes to get to the one you want. But, this place is where a lot of those planes seem to meet. Think of them as rocks in a bucket,’ she told the girls. ‘There are little gaps of empty space where nothing really fits. Well, this place is in one of those gaps and around it are hundreds of planes. It’s been called a number of things over the years. The most often-used term I guess would be Limbo.’ She paused to look at Sarah seriously. ‘We don’t use that name much because of the meaning it has for the various churches in your mortal world. Some of them make a big deal about it, but of course, being mortal, they have no idea what they’re talking about.’
The surrounding blackness gave no hint as to the time of day. There did not seem to be any source of light, though Sarah could see quite clearly. She could also hear quite well. The wails she could hear did not sound happy or friendly.
‘What’s that noise?’ she asked, feeling very nervous. ‘What’s making those cries?’
Angela shrugged. ‘We don’t know,’ she confessed as they walked. ‘They’re not as loud as I’ve heard them in the past, but we can always hear them when we come here. We think they might be what’s left of the poor souls who were on this piece of real-estate when it was suddenly transported into the middle of nowhere.’
Angela then led them along down the empty road. After several minutes, they arrived at a massive crossroads. The mysterious road branched off in dozens of directions. At the centre of the crossroads was a large signpost. Signs pointed off in each direction the strange roads branched out to. There was Hades’ Realm, R’lyeh, Valhalla, Yomi-tsu-kumi and dozens of other Heavens and Hells. There were also roads to Nirvana and another road that led off towards Earth. Not far down that road, it forked again into three. The three directions led off to Lower, Middle and Upper Earth. Further down yet another direction, Sarah saw signs for Loch Ness, The Alps, Uluru and Yosemite.