The Elderine Stone

by Lawson, Alan

  There was no argument between the three friends about where they were going to eat. Sherbit ran over to the window. He was just tall enough to see over the ledge but still too short that he couldn’t see all of the goods that had been laid out by the baker. He looked at the goods that he could see, laid out perfectly across the counter, his mouth watered and his eyes dilated as they tried to capture all the breads, buns and cakes in one gaze. His mouth watered, and he made little smacking noises as he tried to stop himself drooling.

  “Well are you just going to stand there and stare at them or are you going to come and eat some” Emily said as she headed towards the door.

  “I would” Jason replied, “but I don’t have any money, and even if I did I don’t think any shop keeper would accept any kind of money I would have”

  “Oh don’t be silly Jason I have enough here to buy all three of us something” Emily tapped a pocket in the side of her cloak, some coins jingled musically. “Shall we go in then, or stand here a little longer?”

  Sherbit didn’t hesitate nor did he need to be asked twice. No sooner had Emily jingled the coins in her pocket he was already stampeding toward the small shop door.

  “I guess we should go in then” Jason said as he joined Emily following Sherbit into the bakery.

  The bakery was cramped, but cosy. It was no larger than a standard sized living room. With a counter next to the door, fresh goods were laid out. There was a small curtained door that must have laid back into the preparation and baking area. Nonetheless the tiny shop still looked very inviting. The floors were covered in dark slabs of stone that looked worn, the walls were covered in a dark red wood and each wall, except the front, held a medium sized painting of either beautiful natural scenery or very rural looking buildings. One in particular had a picture of an old looking mill with a small shack beside it. Two very proud looking men with long brown cloaks stood outside. The bakery’s front wall had a large window and the front door letting in just enough light for the customers to have the privilege of seeing the items for sale. The area behind the counter, like the seating area of the bakery, was lit by dim but warming oil torches on the wall. The only area in the whole bakery that didn’t hold any light was a very shadowed place at the back right side of the shop. As no cake selling transactions would take place over in that corner, it didn’t seem so important. Along the wall closest to the door sat three tables, each with four stools tucked neatly underneath. Each table was adorned with a red and white chequered cloth. The third table, the one furthest from the door, also happened to be in the dark area; and would have made the perfect place for anyone wishing to eat their fresh treats in peace while remaining unseen.

  A plump lady, with rosy checks and grey hair tied into a bun stood behind the counter smiling and greeting every customer that came to buy some of her breads and cakes. She beamed at Jason, Emily and Sherbit as they gazed with longing at the treasures spread before them.

  “Hello dears” the lady gushed “Would you like to try some of these Strawberry tarts? They’re fresh”

  Sherbit nearly jumped at the chance but thought otherwise when he remembered he had no money and that it was Emily who had gracefully said she would pay for all three of them. He certainly didn’t want to ruin his chance for a free snack now.

  “Yes we would love too” Emily replied sounding very polite once again

  Jason started to snigger, but quickly turned it into a cough as Emily gave him a sharp look.

  “Well, go and take a seat then dears, and I’ll bring you some over with a glass of something sweet, ok?” She wafted them away with a smile and turned towards a door that must have led into the kitchen. Jason led the way over to the table closest to the door. As he sat down, Sherbit bounced over and sat next to him, followed closely by Emily sitting down opposite Jason

  It wasn’t long before the old lady returned, carrying a tray with three tall glasses of what looked like milk and a plate of strawberry tarts piled into a tall, sticky pyramid.

  “There you go dears! Now eat up, and enjoy.” She smiled again, and then added under her breath, “It looks like you haven’t eaten in days, poor things!”

  “Don’t we owe you something for this?” Emily asked, reaching for her purse.

  “Oh, no dear! It’s a treat. Now eat up.” She smiled once again, and headed back to the counter.

  “That was very nice of her!” Jason said, helping himself to one of the strawberry tarts.

  “Yes. Very.” Emily replied, apprehensively.

  Neither Jason nor Sherbit seemed to notice her tone, as they happily munched on the free tarts.

  “These are really good. Emily you should try one” Jason said with his mouth full of tart. Some off which had managed to find its way out of Jason’s mouth and had started to roll down his chin.

  “They look lovely” Emily said, but deep down she was thinking about the old lady’s actions. Why had she been so nice and given them this food for free? Emily shook her head. “I’m just being paranoid,” she thought. “She is just an old lady after all.”

  She took a deep breath, and a bite of a strawberry tart.

  “My goodness these are good!” Emily exclaimed, once she tasted the sweet strawberry jam.

  “I think Sherbit agrees with you there” Jason said as he looked over at Sherbit. Midway through his third tart, it was hard to see were the jam ended and the imp began.

  Emily laughed then pulled herself together.

  “I should really start thinking about what exactly we will be looking for when we get to the library. I mean it is a lot we have to look up. With the Order of Elderine the stone and the Dark lady, we will have our hands full”

  “We should be ok, I hope, but I am a bit anxious as to what we will find. I am excited too though.” Jason said as he lifted his glass to take a drink.

  “I’m excited too, we may find some things that will shock both of us, but at least we will know the truth and perhaps maybe the reason for you being here”

  “Yeah, I hope so.”

  Jason and Emily finish off their tarts whilst Sherbit nipped under the table to lick himself clean. Catlike purring noises could be heard from where Sherbit was nestled under the table cleaning, he emerged a few moments later jam-free and faintly embarrassed. Jason and Emily, who had barely been able to contain their giggles, straightened their faces and picked up their cloaks.

  “We should say thanks to the old lady before we go for the tarts and drinks.” Emily said as she walked towards the counter.

  The three friends said their thanks then left the bakery feeling refreshed and full from the very enjoyable tarts.

  At the back of the bakery engulfed in shadows, a figure stirred.

  “Did you hear that?” a voice whispered. The owner of the voice was shadowed but for anyone who had purpose or interest could have squinted or focused enough to discern that the source of the mysterious voice was coming from someone who had dark black hair with piercing dark eyes which melted out of the shadows, resolving themselves into a young, clean-looking boy. The mysterious boy was well-dressed for someone of his age. He would have stuck out among the crowds of commoners, townsfolk and busy shoppers that paraded around the streets of Haspar, which is perhaps why he chose to sit in the shadows. Here was a boy who did not want to be known, or recognised.

  “Grimble? I said did you hear that? Did you hear what they were talking about?”

  “Yes, master. I did,” a rough sounding voice answered in return. The boy’s companion shuffled forward on his chair. He was a small, unusual looking creature. It looked almost brown in appearance. It vaguely resembled an elf, but lacked the well-expressed features that any elf would naturally possess. Instead this creature looked like it was pulled from the ground, earth, leaves, twigs and all. In appearance it looked as if created by Mother Nature herself.

  Perhaps it was half tree, and half elf.

  “They are going to the great library, to read about the Order of Elderine. What possib
le reason could they have for doing such a thing?” the boy pondered before pausing.

  “I think something unusual is happening Grimble, and we are not going to sit around here and watch it walk off. We will follow them to the library and find out exactly what they are up to.”

  “Good idea Master Devon” Grimble replied, without enthusiasm. He had been bound to his master, Devon Drake, since the boy’s birth and had endured many of the youngster’s ill-advised schemes in the past. Still, when one was bound to a house, and a good house at that – one that did not punish with hated metal, or forget to feed one – one did not disagree when the master’s mind was made up.

  Devon had decided from the very moment he heard what Emily was talking about The Elderine Stone, that there was something unusual about the three characters. He noticed that Jason seemed very unusual, however thought that he was perhaps a distant stranger who was merely visiting the country. Devon had spent many hours each day studying the people of the world. Due to this he did possess some knowledge of the types of people from the surrounding lands. This boy however was different, unlike anything he had studied before. It wasn’t his looks but rather the way he acted, the way he held himself. Devon had the lucky fortune of being the King’s son, and one of the descendants of the Order of Elderine. Hearing the mentioning of the name by Emily only intrigued more interest and Devon knew he had to find out what exactly they were up to.

  However, as one might come to expect, being the only prince of Haspar, carried certain duties that required fulfilling, and difficulties that required resolutions, which is why he was hiding in the bakery. He didn’t want to be spotted outside the castle walls. It wasn’t that the city was unsafe. It was the complete opposite of that, in fact it was very safe, perhaps too safe for his liking. Much to his resounding objections his mother and father were very strict, especially when it came to his studies. “The future King must know his Lands and History!” his father always told him, but Devon had always felt it would be better to get to know the lands of today rather than those of one thousand years ago.

  Devon stood up from the table, pulled a hood over his head and walked towards the door of the shop.

  “Have a nice day dears” the old lady behind the counter said as Devon sauntered by her.

  Devon didn’t reply, and Grimble merely slightly inclined his wizened head.

  As he passed by the table of bread and buns, Devon passed his hand over the table and deftly removed a bread roll, which he neatly tucked into his cloak pocket. It was so quick that neither the old lady nor Grimble managed to see.

  He walked out of the shop, without paying any attention to the old lady or his pernicious act.

  “We have to keep a close eye on them. Though at the same time, we don’t want them noticing us.” Devon said as he peaked round a pillar outside the bakery. Jason and his friends weren’t that far away, Devon quickly withdrew back into the shadows to avoid being detected.

  Jason, Emily and Sherbit were now walking towards the library. They held thoughts of what the guard had told them, to walk straight towards the dome. They had previously tried that several times before and felt that they were getting nowhere. They had decided that the guard’s advice should be heeded, and that’s exactly what they were going to do, head straight towards the dome and take no alterations in their direction.

  As they walked with their goal in sight along the busy market street they failed to notice the two unfamiliar faces peering out from behind stalls along the road. Every now and then the two shifty characters would dart out from behind a wooden market stall to the next. From within busy swarms of energetic morning shoppers or from behind the rickety yet still very sturdy supports of buildings, stealthily running to catch up with the three unsuspecting companions. They continued to dash from one object to the next, artfully avoiding detection.

  Unaware and unconcerned, the three friends walked on towards the dome of the Great Library. It wasn’t long before they had reached the end of the road and were once again faced with the decision, should they go left or should they go right?

  “I don’t understand” Emily said as she looked both ways then jumped a few times to see if she could see over the roofs that obstructed their path to the library. “We can’t possibly go straight ahead there is no way, passed this building in front.”

  “Maybe that’s it, maybe we are supposed to go through that building, I mean there is no other way around it.” Jason replied.

  “Well let’s go look, maybe one of those doors leads to an alley way, which will lead us to the library”

  Devon and Grimble watched with suspicion from behind a trade cart that was sitting at the end of the road, they were considerably close to Jason and Emily who still didn’t notice. Sherbit, on the other hand, found his gaze returning again and again to the cart. His nose twitched. He could have sworn that the scent of those wonderful strawberry tarts had been following them from the bakery. He surreptitiously checked his tail for jam, just in case he had neglected to clean all of his body. Sadly he was a very particular cleaner, which meant there was no jam in sight, much to his disappointment. A slight movement brought his attention back to the cart, but he was distracted when Emily pulled him away as they walked towards the row of buildings facing the road.

  “Do you think he saw us Master?”

  “If he did I don’t think he would have done anything about it” Devon replied as he peaked over the cart to watch Emily rap on a few of the doors. “What are they doing anyway, why don’t they just go to the library?”

  “Maybe they know we are here master, watching them”

  “Don’t be stupid Grimble” Devon said as he slapped the back of Grimble’s head. “If they knew we were watching them they would have come over and said something. I think they are lost, they don’t know how to get to the library.”

  “I don’t know which door it is, they all seem to be locked” Emily said as she tried to push open another door that had no reply to her tapping.

  “Maybe it’s this one over here” Jason pointed over to an old rusty looking door, with very ornate curves and designs around the marble frame. At the top of the door sat a very proud looking statue of an owl.

  “Well we should try it. Jason, try pushing that door open”

  Jason walked up to the door and with a gentle push the door creaked and swung open. The door opened to reveal a street with rows of obscure looking buildings with robed men and women.

  “This must be it. Look!” Emily shouted as she pointed down the street. “We are in the library section of town, all these people are either philosophers, students of magic, or mentors” Emily looked around at all the robed figures walking from building to building carrying bundles of books, some had scrolls tucked neatly under their arms. It was a very different scene from the market street.

  Sherbit was clinging to the ends of Jason’s cloak as the three friends walked passed the busy scholars and teachers of magic and history towards the blue dome of the Great Library. They could see the large white marble building in front of them. Six pillars stood proudly at the entrance of the great building, holding up the front of the large domed roof. Each pillar had a painstakingly carved figure of a robed man holding a book. Two stood facing each other, holding what looked like orbs in their hands.

  Jason looked at the marvellous building. It was a masterpiece of creation, with smooth white marble walls surrounding the entire structure. There were large windows positions with equal distance along each wall. The blue dome was so rich and lustrous in colour, that Jason couldn’t take his eyes off it for long. Jason’s eyes were often drawn back to the figures embedded in the marble pillars - they reminded him of the robed men he had seen in his visions. He found them daunting. They seemed to watch his every move, but he knew that they were only statues, nothing more. They couldn’t actually be watching him, but he still felt something, a prickling sense of unease.

  The statues kept their own council on the matter, but elsewhere, in a
n alley nearby, a slim shadow skulked. Jason and his companions were being watched by more than just Devon and Grimble.

  “Well what are you waiting for? Let’s go in” Emily said as she started to walk up the marble steps towards the entrance of the library.

  Sherbit followed her, jumping up each step, again he was humming a tune, very similar to the one he had been singing while they were walking towards Haspar.

  “Jason. Are you okay” Emily stopped as she turned around to see Jason standing at the bottom of the steps still staring at the figures in the statues.

  “Yeah I’m fine, it’s just these statues. I don’t know what it is.” Jason looked around again as if he was scouting the area, for anyone who might be watching. As soon as he felt assured that there was no one with any unwanted intentions, he followed Sherbit and Emily up the steps to the library entrance.

  As soon as the three companions entered the library, Devon and Grimble walked out of a crowd of magic students, it was almost a miracle that they were actually able to hide among them.

  Grimble started to walk towards the library but was quickly pulled back by Devon.

  “Where are you going? We don’t want to go into the library right after them. They will catch onto us, fool.” Devon said taking a bread roll out of his pocket which he had lifted from the bakery earlier. “We will wait here a while, then we will go in”

  “Good idea sire, we will wait here, then we will go in” Grimble said eyeing up the bread.

  Stretching out his arm Grimble tried to grab the bread, but with a quick swoop of his hand across Grimble’s head Devon denied him the pleasure.

  “Grimble you have to stay focused. We have to be fully aware of our surroundings and concentrate on what these trouble makers are up too. If my father had heard what we heard, those three would be in prison by now” Devon took a bite of the bread. “But really where is the fun in that? Besides, if they are planning on doing what I think they are going to do, well then we can follow them, cut them to the chase, and win the goal for ourselves”