by W. D. Newman
CHAPTER 14
GAZAFAR LODGE
“Casey? Casey, are you feeling ill?” Jonah asked. As soon as everyone sat down at the table, Casey turned pale and, though she tried to hide it, her eyes betrayed the fear and uncertainty that was brewing inside of her. She reached up to brush a strand of hair from her face and her hand was shaking too.
“Casey,” said Louise, jumping up from her chair. She was suddenly alarmed by her granddaughter’s appearance and rushed to place her hand on her forehead. “If you’re running a fever, dear, we are going home as soon as Ben gets back.”
“I’m okay, Grandma, I’m just a little light-headed. I think I need something to eat; that’s all.”
Jonah nodded to one of the elves standing by the door and the elf disappeared through the tent flaps. A moment later, he returned with several more elves, each bearing a tray that was laden with food and drink; one tray for each guest.
“I am sorry we do not have finer foods to offer you,” Jonah apologized, “but this is an outpost and I’m afraid that all we have here are military rations.”
The dwarves, as only dwarves can do, began attacking their military rations with military precision. In a few minutes, their plates were empty. Casey was not really hungry, but she had to eat something and act normal so that her grandma would quit making a fuss over her. She had to have time to think too. Was she even supposed to tell anyone about her secret visitor? It seemed to her that if Venus wanted the others to know then he would have appeared to all of them. Why would he appear only to her? Was there a spy in this camp? If there was, wouldn’t Jonah need to know? For that matter, could Jonah be the spy? Casey immediately dismissed the notion. Jonah was a friend and she was embarrassed that thought even entered her mind. She would think it over, but she would need to decide soon, because deep down inside of her, she felt that time was running out; not just for Marcus, but for all of them.
When everyone had finished eating, and the trays were cleared away, Jonah stood to address the newcomers and to fill them in on the situation in Faerie.
“If you have spoken to Gabriel, then I’m sure he has informed you about Marcus’s captivity. Jupiter, the immortal who now goes by Bellator, has taken Marcus to his namesake city. He sits on the white throne now, waiting for us to bring him Excalibur. The Final Prophecy is happening now.”
“Before coming here,” said Amos, “we went over the prophecy with Gabriel. As we said earlier, he, Ben, and Hob are searching the archives at Dwarvenhall to locate a picture of the Dragon’s Cradle.”
“Do you really think Ben can open a pathway to Crag?”
“We do!” Gob proclaimed. “He opened one from Camelot to Atlanta Georgia!”
“This is exciting news indeed,” said Jonah. “I feel certain now that Venus has given this power of travel between worlds to Ben so that we can speak to the wisest one. Whoever that may be, I believe he or she holds the key to defeating Bellator.”
“Who do you think it is?” asked Louise.
“I believe it is Venus,” Jonah replied, without hesitation. “In all of Faerie, there is none wiser than Marcus and his wisdom and foresight are gifts from Venus. I believe that Venus will not meet us here for fear of Bellator sensing his presence. He gave us the prophecy so that we would know when the time was right for us to travel to Crag to meet with him. Once there, he will tell us specifically how we may overcome Bellator. That is what I believe.”
Casey could not stand it any longer. She had to tell someone. When the trays of uneaten food had been cleared away, the elves guarding the door were dismissed. The six of them were alone now; her, Louise, Amos, Gob, Nob, and Jonah. As busy and as hectic as things were, she might never have this opportunity again. She cleared her throat and spoke quietly, so quietly, in fact, that no one heard her. She repeated herself, a little louder, “Venus is not the wisest one.”
This time everyone heard her and after a few moments of awkward silence, Louise reached to feel her forehead again, as if a sudden fever may have beset her since the last time she checked. Casey brushed her grandma’s hand away.
“I’m okay, Grandma, really.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re okay, sweetheart,” Louise replied, “but where did that remark come from? Don’t you think Jonah would know best about to whom the prophecy is referring?”
“Actually, she is correct,” said Jonah. “Venus is not the wisest one. The Creator is wiser, but I sense that is not what she is talking about.”
“No,” Casey answered. “I’m talking specifically about the wisest one mentioned in the prophecy. Venus is not the one, it is someone else.”
“Who do you believe it to be?”
“I don’t know, but I know it’s not Venus.”
“How?” asked Louise. “How do you know this?”
Casey looked around the table. All eyes were on her and, except for the buzz of the hummingbird wings, the tent was silent. Maybe she should have kept quiet. Maybe she should have waited until Ben, Gabriel, and Hob were back, but it was too late now. The proverbial cat was out of the bag. She swallowed the lump in her throat and dived into her story, “Venus spoke to me.”
The silence that followed her startling declaration was even longer this time.
Louise’s hand twitched and she began to wring her palms, her face plainly etched with worry. “When exactly did Venus speak to you? I’ve been with you since we left home, dear.”
“It was just a few moments ago.”
Amos casted a worried glance at Jonah, while Gob and Nob stared uncomfortably at the ground and shuffled their feet. Casey jumped up from her chair and the two dwarves yanked on their beards.
“You’ve got to believe me, why would I make this up? Right when we all sat down at the table everything froze. Even the birds quit moving! And that’s when he appeared to me.”
Jonah studied Casey with a thoughtful expression, as if seeing her for the very first time. “Can you tell us what he said to you?”
Casey told them everything. Everything except for the very last thing the immortal had told her about love. True or not, that particular piece of information just didn’t seem relevant to their plight and the statement still had her puzzled.
“What are we going to do,” asked Amos.
“For now, nothing,” Jonah answered. “It is good information to know, but we will not act upon it without discussing with Gabriel. We may even send word of this to Marcus to see what he thinks, but for now, we are going to proceed with our original plan.”
“Which is?” Louise prompted.
“You, Casey, and Amos will ride ahead to the lodge at Gazafar. You will be more comfortable there and safer too. Gob and Nob will wait here with me for the others to return from Dwarvenhall. When they do return, I will send them on to the lodge to meet with you. I do not know when, where, or how we will formulate a rescue, but that is our strategy for now.”
At that moment, one of the brightly colored honey birds darted through the window and zipped across the tent to hover over the table in front of Jonah. There were two words in this message from Marcus. One encrypted word was written on each wing and the tiny bird lingered just long enough for the elf to read the message aloud.
“Arinya, Gazafar,” Jonah mused. “What could that mean?”
“Oh my,” Amos exclaimed. “We forgot all about Arinya!”
“Who is Arinya?”
“Arinya is the dreadful water nymph that used to guard the Black Hills entrance to Kahzidar,” Gob answered with a shudder. “When Ringwald was overthrown, the lake she inhabited was drained and she somehow found her way to Long Lake, where we live, and captured Hob.”
“She was holding him ransom in exchange for Ben,” Nob interjected.
“To make a long story short,” said Amos, knowing how much dwarves loved to talk, “Marcus sent one of the honey birds to Casey with a clue as to how to escape from her.”
“Casey froze her!” said
Nob, jumping back into the conversation.
“And then we melted her down and put her into three different flasks,” Gob added
Jonah looked across the table at Amos and the big man shrugged sheepishly. “The message Marcus sent was Give Snowflake. Ben figured it out and Casey tricked Arinya into taking the snowflake charm from her bracelet. As soon as the nymph touched the charm, she was instantly frozen.”
“How, pray tell, did you get her into a water flask?”
“We fished her out of the lake and put her in a rain barrel on the dwarves’ porch. As she melted into the barrel, we drained her into the flasks.”
Jonah shook his head. “Very resourceful. I can’t imagine why Marcus wants you to take her to Gazafar, but I’ll ready a pack horse to carry the three flasks. I need to send a pack horse anyway so they can send us back some much needed supplies. We are using the Gazafar Lodge as a central distribution site to supply these mobile garrisons we have in the fields.”
“What’s the purpose of these garrisons? You can’t defeat Bellator, so you’re not going to fight him, are you?”
“Fighting will be an absolute last resort. It will mean certain death for all of the elves, but we would rather die than allow him to recover Excalibur and subject us all to his rule. He knows that too, and I believe he wants the war. It’s his nature. It’s what he does best.”
“I see. By dividing your forces you prevent him from winning with a single battle and, if it does come to war, having to fight multiple battles will buy us time until…” Amos caught himself and managed to hush before he completed his thought about the final confrontation with Bellator and the chosen one. He glanced at Louise and he could tell by the expression on her face that she knew what he was about to say. “Louise, I’m sorry, I…”
“Forget about it, Amos. We’ll cross that bridge when we get there. I guess we need to get started to Gazafar, though. I’d like to get there and rest until Ben returns.”
“Come,” said Jonah, rising from the table. “I will accompany you to the stables and see you on your way.”
None of the elfin horses were large enough for Amos to ride, so the big man transformed into a bear for the journey. Although Louise never failed to complain about riding horses, she was actually becoming a fairly decent rider. This time, however, she chose instead to ride upon the back of the bear rather than one of the swift black elfin steeds. She invited Casey to ride with her, but Casey opted for a horse instead.
Jonah helped Casey into the saddle and then secured the three water flasks to the extra mount they were sending along for a pack horse. Gob and Nob waved goodbye to them as they pulled out of the garrison and headed across the open fields. Even though they were riding forward, to a confrontation from which they may not return, just being in Faerie lifted their spirits tremendously. Here, the air was clean and fresh. Small white clouds floated lazily overhead and the bright yellow sun warmed the winds that blew across the grasses. Beneath this warm sunshine, the steady plop-plop-plop of the horses' tread and the creaking of the saddles caused Casey’s eyelids to grow heavy and, before long, she was sound asleep.
After a long nap upon the horse's back, the remainder of the trip was pleasant and uneventful. Amos, in the form of a bear, was unable to speak with them, but Casey and Louise talked long about many things. Casey told her Grandma about her friends in school and about her new boyfriend, Tom Bartley. She asked about Joey and was happy to learn that he was doing well. No matter how tender and sweet the memories, long distance relationships rarely work out for the young at heart. Casey did think of Joey often, but the two of them had grown apart since Christmas and he had found a new girlfriend too. Maybe she would get to see him before they returned home. As she tried to imagine what that meeting might be like, Louise interrupted her thoughts with talk about her goats. George had bought her a cheese making kit for Christmas and Louise had immediately fallen in love with the hobby. She was explaining the difference between hard cheeses and soft cheeses when they crested a hill and the lodge came into view. They came to a halt and Louise climbed down so that Amos could transform.
“Where is everyone?” the big man mumbled, while rubbing his back. After learning from Jonah that Gazafar Lodge was a distribution center for the mobile garrisons, he expected the place to be buzzing with activity. It appeared just as deserted as it was the last time he was here.
“Do you think everything’s okay?” asked Louise.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to check it out. You two wait here. If everything is okay I’ll come out and signal for you with my right hand. If I wave with my right hand, that means come on to the lodge. If I wave with my left hand, that means make a beeline back to the garrison. I’ll take the water flasks with me and Louise can ride the pack horse. Remember, if I wave with my left hand turn around and ride back hard to the garrison. Tell Jonah something is amiss at the lodge and let him decide what to do next.”
Louise and Casey nodded. Amos took the three water flasks down from the pack horse and slung them across his shoulder. Although the flask were large and quite heavy, the big man did not seem to notice them. After he adjusted them so that they sat comfortably across his back, he helped Louise up into the saddle.
“I see that you have a watch like Ben,” said Amos, nodding at Louise’s wrist. Ben had taught Amos how to tell time on his wrist watch. Since then, he was always asking the time, so Louise, unable to find a wrist watch that would fit around his gigantic wrists, found a pocket watch at the flea market and bought it for him. The watch was the color of silver and had a gold embossed bear on the lid. It was a perfect gift for Amos and the big man cherished it greatly. “If I don’t come out within half an hour, ride back to the garrison. Keep your eyes and your ears open, okay?”
“We will,” said Louise. “You keep your eyes and ears open too, you hear me?”
Amos smiled and then turned and trotted across the open expanse toward the lodge. Louise and Casey watched him all the way to the courtyard gates. When he arrived at the entrance he turned and glanced back at them for a brief second before disappearing inside. A cloud passed over the sun, blocking its warmth, and a chill ran up Casey’s spine. Suddenly, Faerie did not seem like such a pleasant place after all.
*****