by Karen Frost
Chapter Five
Rescue
Maude woke with her father’s book clutched tightly to her chest and the blankets wrapped up to her ears. She yawned and stretched her little arms and legs as far as she could, then rubbed her eyes. After lying still for a moment, she cast both the blanket and the book—she had finished it the night before in a matter of hours—aside and looked to Mary Jane’s bed. She was surprised to see that her sister was not there. Mary Jane never woke early; Maude usually had to drag her from bed to get her to breakfast before their mother came to fetch them. Maude slid from her bed and wandered to the door of their room, noticing the door was open. The tingling feeling in her arms told her that something wasn't right. She walked to Jack’s room and opened the door. Jack was sleeping on his stomach, snoring softly with his mouth open and his hair sticking out in every direction.
She pushed on his shoulder, calling softly, “Jack! Jack, wake up!”
Jack opened his eyes. They were unfocused. He rolled over onto his back and sat up, rubbing his eyes.
He said, yawning, “What is it, Maude?”
“Something is wrong. I think Mary Jane is gone,” Maude said.
Jack tensed.
“What? Where?” He asked, swinging his legs off the bed.
He dashed past Maude and into his sisters' bedroom. It was empty.
“I don’t know,” Maude replied, following him, “but I had an awful dream last night about Devorian. Now that Mary Jane is gone, I don’t think it was a dream anymore. Jack, I think Mary Jane is in Devorian.”
Without thinking, Jack grabbed Maude’s hand and the two rushed up the stairs to the attic. Jack noticed at once in the morning light that the curtain he had put over the mirror the day before was gone. It had fallen to the floor sometime during the night and lay in a crumpled pile at the base of the mirror. The mirror showed the same peaceful scene as always—the forest of trees, the sun, and a cloudless bright blue sky—but there was something unsettling about they way it looked now, for both children knew without a doubt that Mary Jane had passed through the mirror some time during the night, and they did not know why. Jack grabbed Maude’s shoulder and knelt down to look her in the eye.
“Maude,” he said, “you have to stay here. It isn’t safe for you to go in there. Stay far away from this mirror.”
Maude glared proudly at him, small though she was.
“I know what you're going to do, and I’m going, too.”
“Please, Maude. You have to stay,” Jack begged. “It's too dangerous.”
“I'm coming," she declared, shaking her head defiantly. "Now hurry, we have to find her before it’s too late.”
Before Jack could protest or stop her, Maude walked bravely through the mirror. Jack followed immediately. They arrived in Devorian still wearing the clothing that they had slept in the night before. Jack wore blue striped pajamas that hung loosely at the arms and legs and were an inch too short. He was skinny for his age, had just hit a growth spurt, and hadn't gotten around to buying a new pair of pajamas yet. Maude wore a light, white nightgown that went just barely past her knobby knees. Both were barefoot, but neither noticed. Without hesitation, they began to run in the direction of Mr. Brumby’s house.
The forest seemed to close around them like a narrowing, menacing tunnel as they ran. The forest was not the same as it had been the day before. It was darker, hostile. Several times Maude stumbled on roots that seemed to crawl out of the ground in front of them and Jack had to catch her and put her back on her feet. Both were breathless with burning legs and lungs by the time they reached Mr. Brumby's house. When they arrived, they knocked furiously on the door, Jack peering through the window to catch a glimpse of the red fox. A moment later Mr. Brumby opened the door, a small green book in his hand and reading glasses perched on his snout.
When he saw the children standing on the stoop he exclaimed, “Children! Whatever are you doing here? Has something happened?”
“Mr. Brumby, we think Mary Jane came through the mirror!” Maude cried. “Something is terribly wrong.”
“Oh my, I see,” Mr. Brumby said. “Please, come in.”
The two children tumbled into the small house and looked anxiously at the fox, who put down his book and took off his glasses, setting them gently upon the table by his chair. Maude rocked on the balls of her feet, while Jack paced. He had to duck to avoid hitting his head on the low ceiling of the house. Mr. Brumby rubbed his paws together anxiously.
"Now tell me what happened," Mr. Brumby said.
"We don't know," Jack said unhappily.
"You didn't destroy the mirror," Mr. Brumby guessed.
"We forgot," Maude explained mournfully.
"Well, never mind that now," Mr. Brumby said kindly. "What's done is done. Are you certain that Mary Jane came to Devorian?"
"Yes," Maude said. "She was gone this morning. I don't think…I don't think she came here on her own. She wouldn't have."
Mr. Brumby said earnestly, “I see. This is a serious matter indeed. Do have a seat. I think we will require more help than I can give. Stay here and I’ll be back soon as I can. Please try to remain calm. I’m sure everything will be alright.”
Having tried to reassure his guests, he pulled open the door and ran from the house on all four paws, disappearing among the trees with his tail flying behind him like a red-orange banner tipped with black. Jack watched him go, then shut the door quietly. Maude sat down on the floor, her bare white legs crossed like a pretzel.
She plucked at her nightgown and said in a small, scared voice, “Everything will be alright, Jack. You’ll see. Mr. Brumby will know how to find her.”
“She could be anywhere in Devorian,” Jack said hopelessly.
"Mr. Brumby can track her! He was able to find our path in the woods," Maude protested.
Jack didn't say anything. He didn't want to think of how difficult it would be to find his sister. They had only seen a small part of Devorian on their previous two trips through the mirror and for all they knew Devorian could be thousands of miles from one end to the other. Mary Jane could be anywhere, and if Mirrin had somehow taken her, it would be even harder to find her. He and Maude sat without speaking for what felt like hours, waiting for Mr. Brumby to return. As the minutes stretched, gloom and despair weighed more and more heavily upon them.
At last they heard Mr. Brumby's muffled voice calling from outside. They rushed to the door and threw it open. They saw Mr. Brumby standing on his hind legs a few yards from the house beside a large brown stag. The stag's horns were sharp and many-pointed and so wide he would have been unable to pass through the little doorway into the house. The stag nodded to them courteously, his brown eyes starkly un-human.
"This is Everyn Whitetail," Mr. Brumby explained. "Whitetail knows a great deal about the Green Forest and all that happens within it, and he lives near to the gate to your world. By chance, he saw your sister pass into Devorian during the night.”
“I’m afraid I bring bad news,” said the stag in a deep, ringing voice. “Around midnight, the girl human passed through the part of the forest where I was dozing. She was traveling north at a rapid pace. She was surrounded by a green mist, a mist I have only recently seen for the first time in the Green Forest. I have no doubt that is the magic of the sorceress Mirrin.”
'"Was she alright?" Jack asked.
“We have to go rescue her!” Maude exclaimed at the same time.
“Alas, I do not think it will be so easy," Mr. Brumby said. "If she's under Mirrin's enchantment, there may be little indeed we can do for now."
"Then what can we do?" Jack asked.
"We will help you," said a voice that was deep and rough as two boulders crashing together.
The words echoed through the forest with the clarity of a trumpet. They all but hummed with power and authority. Fox, stag, and children looked around them to see who had spoken, for certainly it had been none of them. Through the trees to the left of the house, they spotte
d the briefest glimmer of gold, and then a moment later the biggest stag any had ever seen stepped out from between the trees. It was breathtakingly majestic. It was five feet high at the shoulder and its antlers stretched four feet high and three feet wide. Whitetail, just under four feet tall at the shoulder and a dull brown color, was dwarfed beside it.
Another voice, female and light as the chords of a harp but just as powerful as the first voice, said from their right, “We will take you to Tarah. Your sister is beyond our reach for now, but from Tarah perhaps something can be done to save her.”
All spun around now to the other direction and saw that a giant leopard, pure white with black spots and clear pale blue eyes, stood watching them from a distance of only a few feet away. She was terrifyingly large, her triangular head level with Maude's and her tail, longer than her body and over six feet long, dragged along behind her. Her eyes were locked upon them with that intensity of focus found only in large hunting cats. Maude gasped, overcome by how beautiful the animal was.
“Fear not,” the leopard said gently as it stepped closer. “We mean you no harm. I am Alcide and the golden stag is Aldair. We offer you our services, if you will have them.”
The golden stag Aldair, almost unbearably shiny in the light now that he was completely out of the cover of the woods, added, "There is still time, if we hurry. Alcide and I have come from our homes in mountains and forests many days distant, traveling as fast as we could upon hearing that the eternal flame was at its end and the witch Mirrin would soon be released.”
Jack looked to Mr. Brumby and Whitetail for guidance but the two animals seemed spellbound by the awesome leopard and stag.
Mr. Brumby whispered disbelievingly, “Can it be true that the magical beasts have returned to Devorian? They haven’t been seen since the early days of humans. They are legends, fairy tells we tell our young.”
“All legend has some basis in truth,” Alcide said kindly.
“We must leave now,” Aldair announced to the children. “Time is short.”
Jack suddenly noticed that though the sun continued to shine brightly in the sky, the woods were darker than they had been only an hour before; long shadows seeped out from the edge of the trees, staining the grass. He looked questioningly once more at the brown stag and the fox, silently asking whether the white leopard and golden stag were to be trusted.
Catching Jack's look, Whitetail said, “If legend is to be trusted, so long as you are with them, the magical beasts will keep you safe. They are from a time long before Mirrin’s own. She cannot corrupt or destroy their magic. Go safely and may you safely leave Devorian.”
Mr. Bumby nodded in agreement. Alcide stepped close to Maude and crouched before her so low that her narrow back reached only to Maude's waist. Fearless, Maude grabbed hold of the silky white hair of the leopard's neck and pulled herself into a sitting position on her back. Alcide rose slowly so as not to unseat her rider, her strong muscles bunching and moving beneath the thick pelt of fur. Maude continued to grasp Alcide's fur tightly as she became used to the cat's smooth movement. Alcide looked back, her fierce blue eyes just barely able to see Maude atop her back.
“Will you be able to ride?” She asked.
Maude nodded.
Aldair presented himself to Jack to mount as well, but the ascent was more challenging. He would unseat Jack if he lay down and then stood again, so Jack would only be able to get on if the stag was already standing. Mr. Brumby saw the problem immediately and rushed into his house. He returned a moment later carrying a small ladder, which he placed beside the stag. The ladder was just tall enough that Jack could stand on the top rung and throw his leg over Aldair's back, which he did awkwardly. The stag was much taller than the leopard, and when both were mounted Jack sat above Maude by several feet.
“Good luck, children,” Mr. Brumby said. "I hope you are able to recover Mary Jane. Perhaps we shall meet again one day under better circumstances.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Brumby,” Maude said, waving. “Goodbye, Mr. Whitetail.”
“Are you ready, little one?” Alcide asked.
Maude nodded.
“Then hold on!”
The golden stag and the white leopard in unison turned to the east and began to run. The immediate acceleration caused Jack to slide a foot backward on Aldair's back before he was able to tighten his legs around the stag and pull himself back to Aldair's shoulders. Maude, who was saved by the fact that she had been holding Alcide's neck fur tightly, merely felt a jerk as the cat's powerful legs began to churn beneath her. Both found the ride to be uncomfortable. In particular, Aldair bounded with bone-jarring leaps that threw Jack forward and backward mercilessly, and the stag had a tendency to dart with lightening skill around trees. Alcide was little better.
"Please!" Jack gasped, his eyes watering. "Could you slow down a bit? This hurts."
"My apologies," Aldair exclaimed.
He slowed immediately and changed his gait so that rather than bounding into the air, his legs moved smoothly. Alcide did the same. Aldair said ruefully, "I've never been…ridden."
They continued weaving among the trees, moving as quickly as they could without the children losing their balance and falling. Maude's fingers quickly cramped from holding so tightly to Alcide's fur, but she didn't dare loosen her hold. The snow leopard's strong legs swept forward and backward, forward and backward in great sweeping strides and Maude pressed her knees into Alcide's sides to keep from sliding off backward as the cat ducked and dodged large tree branches. The stag and leopard ran for what felt to their human riders like hours. Neither Jack nor Maude knew for how long they had been traveling; all the forest looked the same as they passed through it, and they caught only brief glimpses of the sun above. Eventually, however, the beasts began to tire. Their charging sprint became a languid lope and finally a shambling walk.
Now that they had time to look around them, the children saw that in this part of the woods the trees grew closer together and the sun was completely lost above the dense canopy of leaves. Maude shivered as a whisper of cold air passed over her bare arms. This part of the forest felt unnaturally still and dark. Maude leaned closer to Alcide, afraid. A bird cried mournfully somewhere far away.
Aldair growled, "This is a dark and fearsome place. Many hundreds of years ago a terrible battle was fought here and the soil drank its fill of the blood of men. Be brave; the spirits of the dead that still walk this land cannot hurt you."
Maude did not feel comforted by Aldair's promise that they would be safe. The four continued to creep slowly through the dark forest. Here and there the sun broke through the dark ceiling of tree branches and sent shafts of light like spears into the forest floor, illuminating twisted roots and misshapen rocks that littered the path. Once Jack thought he saw in the distance a dimly glowing white light in the shape of a knight and heard the sound of a sword dragging against the ground, but he shut his eyes and would not look further, fearful of what he might see. Finally the trees began to grow further apart and the sun returned. Both children breathed a sigh of relief. Maude, pitying Alcide for having carried her for hours, slid from the leopard's back and walked beside her to let her rest.
"Alcide, will Mirrin hurt Mary Jane?" Maude asked, twisting her nightgown in her tiny hands.
"No, child, she will not," Alcide said.
"How do you know?"
"I believe the witch has other plans for Mary Jane. Some strategem that requires her," the leopard replied. "When we discover her plan, then we will know why she has taken your sister."
"And we can get her back?" Maude pressed.
"We shall do all that we can."
"Why is Mirrin so evil?" Maude asked. "Why would she want to be evil? Can't she just be good?"
Alcide sighed. She said quietly, "You are too young to understand, youngling, but it is possible for a human to be broken. Not broken like the arm or leg like one of your play toys, but broken on the inside, where no one can see. Some people are bor
n broken, and some people are broken by something that has been done to them by someone else. Mirrin was broken long ago, when she was taken as a child and imprisoned by the King of Tarah. It is a terrible, terrible thing, to break a person. Now Mirrin does not care about good or evil. She is like a wounded animal. She feels so much pain that she lashes out blindly against the world, even the things that have nothing to do with why she hurts."
Maude considered the response for a moment. She wanted to understand, but she could not. So she said to Aldair, "Aldair, you and Alcide aren't like the rest of the animals in Devorian, are you?"
"No, we are not," Aldair agreed. "We are magical beasts."
"What are magical beasts?"
"You ask many questions," Aldair said with a snort that Maude guessed was laughter.
"Mr. Brumby and Mr. Whitetail were surprised to see you. Why?" Maude persisted.
"The magical beasts have not lived in Devorian for over a thousand years. There is no animal alive, nor his grandfather's grandfather's grandfather who has seen a magical beast since that time. It is no wonder they looked at us as though we were imaginary beings," the stag replied.
"You lived in Devorian, but you left," Maude said. "Why did you leave?"
"The time for we magical beasts was coming to an end and the age of Men was beginning. We had no place in the new world being created by humans. Because of this, we left our homes and spread like seeds in the wind to all four corners of the earth. I journeyed west, farther west than any beast of Devorian had ever yet gone, and lived in the great woods there until such a time as Devorian would have need of me again."
Alcide added, "And I went to the furthest mountains north, beyond the Far Reaches, and made my home in the snows there."
"Are you really over a thousand years old?" Maude asked, her dark eyes round with awe.
Alcide chuckled.
"Certainly, little one," she said, "and many years older than that besides. Plants and trees wither and die, seasons come and go, but eternal are Aldair and I, for we never die. So it is with all the magical beasts of Devorian."
"There are other magical beasts? How many? Will they return to Devorian, too? If you left when humans came to Devorian, why didn't you come back when they disappeared?" Maude asked.
"Yes, there are others. As to whether they will come now, that I cannot say. We did not return when all that remained of men was the memory of their deeds because the time was not yet right. Nor is it now. It will be many hundreds of years more before the time comes for Devorian's magic beasts to walk the land freely again," Aldair said.
"Then why did you come back if the time wasn't right? Couldn't others come for the same reason?"
"We came because we were needed," Aldair said simply. "Devorian called to us, and we heeded. But a thousand years is a long time. In that time some beasts, having ranged far and wide in the lands beyond Devorian, may have lost their way back home. Others may have long since chosen to lay down their immortality and pass over to the Other Realms. Some few proud beasts, too, will ignore the call that calls Devorian's old defenders back to her."
He fell silent and Maude asked nothing further. She wondered what other sorts of fantastical creatures had once lived in Devorian and marveled at how the magical beasts had waited patiently for a thousand years in exile. Then she imagined Aldair with his liquid amber eyes traveling thousands of miles through forest and plain to return to a land from which he had been away from for so long, answering a silent call to come home. She said after thinking for many minutes, “Aldair, will humans ever return to Devorian?”
“I think not. Their time here has passed. Now is the time of the animals.”
"Will there be a time after them?"
"That even we beasts do not know, but we know that we will be part of whatever comes, for we know all things that will come before it and some of what will come thereafter."
"How do you know?" Maude asked.
"It is within us to know," the stag replied.
Maude frowned, considering his words without understanding them.
"You're immortal?" She asked, changing the subject.
"If we choose to be."
"What if you don't want to be anymore? Then you die?"
"A magical beast can choose to become mortal. That beast would then eventually go to the Other Realms. You might call that death. Those who cross over are never again seen in this world. But we believe that they live on in the Other Realms," Aldair said.
"Do the humans and animals go there as well?"
"They may. Only when I stand upon the shores of the Other Realms myself will I know the answer to these questions," the stag said.
"So you'll go there, too?"
"When the time comes, I, too, will cross to the Other Realms," Aldair answered gravely.
Maude opened her mouth to ask more questions, but Jack stopped her, fearing that her questions for the stag would otherwise be endless. They had by this time broken free of the forest trees and were now walking in a small field among tall, green grass and heather. The soft sunlight shining down upon Jack made him drowsy, and he struggled to keep his eyes from closing. He asked, “Are we close to Tarah?”
“It has been many years since last we traveled in this land," Alcide said, "and we know the trail to Tarah but from long ago memory. I will go and seek to the north and south to be sure that we have not strayed from the path. Aldair will remain with you. Call out if you are in danger and wherever you are, I will come to your aid.”
She turned away from them and began to bound northwards through grass. Aldair suggested, "It would be best if we moved under the trees for shade while she is away. Rest while I keep watch; you will need all your strength for the journey to come."
"Why, are we in danger?" Jack asked.
He looked around nervously.
"Since the moment you entered Devorian today you have been in danger," the stag rumbled. "Now that the witch grows stronger, there is no place that is safe here any longer."
The three moved to the edge of the field where it met the forest and Jack slid down from Aldair's back, landing painfully on his bare feet. He sat on the grass with his legs crossed, leaning against a tree trunk. He felt hungry and tired, and his legs and seat hurt from hours spent riding Aldair's narrow back. Maude flopped down onto the ground next to him and he picked a twig out of her hair.
"I'm tired," she complained. “And hungry.”
Jack smoothed her hair back from her forehead. Her forehead was damp with sweat.
“We'll be there soon,” he soothed, though he did not know how long it might be before they reached Tarah. “Rest now.”
Maude curled into a ball, her head on his lap, and fell asleep immediately. Aldair took up a position several feet away from the tree, his large ears alert for any sounds of danger. Suddenly he stiffened and his nostrils flared. His ears flipped forward and back, listening.
“What is it?” Jack asked.
“The smell of magic is in the air. Something is not right.”
The stag snorted, pawing the ground and shaking his head as though trying to escape an irritating fly. Jack yawned, suddenly so unbearably tired that he thought he could not remain awake for a moment longer. His eyelids drooped sleepily. He thought he should be concerned about Aldair, but he no longer had the will to care. And then something strange and unexpected happened: time stood still.