“So then, how did they stop the fight? I thought they won the war?”
“At a terrible price. Amriel wouldn’t allow Gorhoth to claim victory but she knew Teldenar wouldn’t kill her, even though he should have for the greater good. They were partners ya see? So, she sacrificed herself. I’ve just explained to you that a dreamwalker can’t directly harm the body of another conscious bein’. This is because all conscious bein’s have an element o’ raw creative essence inside of ‘em that stops influences from the dream plane. Gorhoth, ‘owever, had attached his very soul to Amriel. She used her power to draw their bodies deep into the core o’ the planet. At least, so rumour has it. Teldenar, who was strongly connected to Amriel, knows perhaps what her true actions were but the observers of the fight say this much, that the soil bubbled and writhed, consuming’ their strugglin’ bodies. Then, shortly after, the earth quaked and shook and cracks appeared at the last place Amriel was seen with the enemy. Shafts o’ pure light burst through and up into the sky. Armies were knocked to the ground by the turbulence of the earth. Then, suddenly, it stopped. The humans who ‘ad been forced to fight for Gorhoth were released from ‘is control, the Hartiani fled from the battle and the remaining forces true to Gorhoth were overwhelmed. Amriel was lost, and so great was the elves’ sorrow that soon after, they returned to the world from which they originally came.”
“All except for Amy’s mother?”
“Not exactly, no. She was one o’ the three who stayed behind. Teldenar felt in ‘is heart that the fight with Gorhoth wasn’t over, and stayed to watch over Otthon should Gorhoth return. And return ‘e did. Amy’s mother was raised by Teldenar without ever knowing that he was her father. Nevertheless, she refused to leave ‘im and stayed alongside ‘im. Because she stayed, her guardian, Arnorial, was obligated to stay too.
As Gorhoth’s presence became more apparent, they sought for a way to really stop him, once and for all. It was while they were searching for a way to do that that they were joined by Amy’s father, Laszlo, who made up the fourth member of group who famously brought down Gorhoth for the second time.
I suppose you could say it was another kind of war, but fought very differently. Gorhoth, wary of ‘is previous mistakes, didn’t try straight out combat. He ordered his armies from the safety of his castle. However, Teldenar ‘ad been wise and come up with a careful plan. He’d personally spoken with the high council of Arbiters for information on Gorhoth. It’s not known what they told ‘im, and he didn’t reveal it to anyone else. I don’t even know ‘ow Teldenar managed to enter the Arbiters’ plane.
In the end though, it was another bitter victory. All the worse, cos now we know Gorhoth wasn’t truly destroyed. Ya see, Teldenar broke a fundamental rule o’ magic to try and destroy Gorhoth, and ‘e destroyed ‘imself in the process, followin’ the same fate as his beloved.”
“He broke a rule of magic? But I thought rules couldn’t be broken?”
Snipping gave a short, hollow laugh before continuing.
“Well remembered, forgive me for my poor turn o’ phrase. Yer quite right. Teldenar didn’t technically break a rule. Rather, ‘e ignored one. In Otthon, magic is manipulated by careful command. Whoever ‘as the best understanding of magic will therefore best be able to manipulate it should two people give conflicting commands. But if a mage isn’t careful and makes a command that’s directly contradictory to someone elses, magic has ways of resolvin’ the paradox.”
“What ways?”
Martay was impatient but also hooked on Snipping’s every word.
“The magic rejects both commands and consumes those who issued ‘em, to avoid the contradiction occurrin’ again. It destroys both o’ the mages.”
“So… Teldenar knowingly gave a contradictory command to Gorhoth’s, sort of, spell?”
“There’s no such thing as a spell, But in a way, yeah. I won’t explain all the complexities o’ magic use. Anyway, I’m no expert but what ya need to know is that most mages’ll protect their lives by commandin’ that the life magic inside ‘em can’t be touched by an outside force. It’s what’s called an absolute command, which typically gets avoided. However, this absolute command is common because most mages, like Gorhoth, believe that no other mage would be foolish enough to try and contradict it, leavin’ ‘em instead to simply try and attack the body indirectly.”
“But Teldenar didn’t.”
“Correct. At least, it’d certainly seem so. There aren’t many accounts o’ the exchange but Amy’s mother reported that whatever it was Teldenar ‘ad done, there was a clear magical rejection and both Teldenar and Gorhoth were consumed and destroyed by pure magical essence. Gorhoth screamed in fury in ‘is final moments. Teldenar simply smiled and passed away silently. I guess that’s why Amy’s mother believes that Teldenar had acted with informed intent, and knew that ‘e was goin’ to his death.
Anyway, those were the two great wars o’ the elves against Gorhoth. Sometimes I wonder if Amy’s parents accidentally affected Earth’s history with memories from the wars, cos there’re distinct similarities to the two world wars o’ Earth. Who knows though, it could just be pure coincidence but it gives ya an idea o’ the terrible impact the wars ‘ad on the worlds as we know them.”
“So now our ultimate goal is for Amy to fight Gorhoth again? Knowing that if history has shown us anything, it is that she will have to die to do the job and it won’t actually destroy Gorhoth forever…”
“Yeah and no, and don’t be a stupid little git! Certainly, if we don’t fight, Gorhoth’ll continue to hunt Amy down anyway but there should be no intention for her to face ‘im unless we find some way to be certain we can stop him.”
“Didn’t Teldenar think he was going to do that last time?”
“I reckon so, yeah. I didn’t say that it’d be easy but it’s the only real option and I’ve tried to bring you to that understandin’ as delicately as I could. We can complain all day about what the right thing to do is. Or, we can just get on with it. No one wants to do the crappy job, but someone’s gotta.”
“Right…” replied Martay slowly. “Where to now then?”
“Food. With open eyes though. For now, our primary goal is to keep Amy safe and to reunite with her parents. If we can find ‘em we can think more about our greater purpose and plans.”
During their conversation they had already descended a considerable distance and the higher peaks were now behind them. Where at first the road had been incredibly tight and winding, now it was starting to straighten out a little. They started running alongside little rivers and lakes. The sky was no longer pitch black, it had developed a thin but rapidly growing layer of pinky gold on the eastern horizon. They were leaving the mountains behind and pressing further into Italy.
For quite some time the drive was smooth, quiet and uneventful. They were on the motorways, so the interesting and somewhat enjoyable part of the drive was over. They felt they were making good progress as the sky filled with more light. Then something made Martay's hands clench the wheel and the blood drain away from his face. There was a police car in the rear-view mirror.
“Snipping!” He firmly prodded the Imp. “Snipping wake up, we might have a big problem.”
The Imp was wide awake in a second and spun in his seat to look at the car tailing a few hundred meters behind them.
“It’s probably a regular cop, just drive normally.”
Martay wasn’t convinced and the hair on his neck started to prickle. It was clear Snipping didn’t believe his own suggestion. He hadn’t taken his eyes off the car at all. The police were slowly getting closer. For a brief moment they thought it would simply overtake them but then its lights flashed on and it gave a short blast from its siren.
Martay swore loudly. “I didn’t do anything wrong. Do you think it’s the enemy?”
“Possibly but we can’t outrun ‘em and if it’s the enemy we can’t let ‘im get to Amy either. We need to get away from ‘em cleanly.”
“Right, yeah, beca
use that will be so easy!”
Martay was thinking hard and fast. “Ok… ok look, I can try something to give us a little extra distance but it won’t do much. There’s an exit very soon, we’ll slow them down and then get off the motorway.”
“Do what ya need to boy, I’m gonna check if it’s really the enemy. Shake me if ya need me!”
“What?!?”
Snipping’s eyes had already glazed over. He had entered the dream plane.
Martay slowed the car right down to an eventual stop and the police pulled in behind him, leaving a little distance between the cars. So far so good Martay thought. His fingers thrummed on top of the steering wheel as he watched the police nervously in the rear-view mirror. If they were wrong and these were perfectly normal police then they were about to make their lives unnecessarily difficult.
One of the policemen seemed completely normal as he stepped out of the car with relative ease. The other seemed less confidant but Martay considered that this may only have been because he was quite portly. If they were regular police maybe it was worth the risk to just go through the standard procedures. They had all the legal documents in the glove box. Then Martay realised how desperate his logic was.
Papers or not, he would still have to explain what he was doing with a living mythical creature and an unconscious girl in the car. Given that the car belonged to her and she was knocked out in the back, the police would probably get the wrong impression. There was nothing for it, he had to run either way.
The police were about to get level with the back wheels when Snipping suddenly came to with a start.
“Go! Drive! Go! Are ya bloody deaf boy? MOVE!”
Martay stomped hard on the accelerator, slamming it all the way to the floor. It wasn’t a sports car but it shot forward energetically, leaving the police to yell angrily at them before running back to their car.
Martay instantly pulled off down the exit ramp, driving as fast as he dared on the tight loop, then hammered it on the straight back road.
“Alright boy, we’re lookin’ for a dirt track that leads off this road!”
“How do you know that?”
“Don’t be stupid now, just look for the damn track!”
They barrelled along nearly a kilometre before Martay shouted, “There!”
He could see the tell-tale signs of dirt and little gravely rocks pulled onto the edge of the road by the tyres of other cars over time, and the trees formed a gap wider than anywhere else. He hit the brakes hard to avoid overshooting the track and flung the wheel hard to the right.
The car heaved slightly under the force of the turn and as they hit the dirt itself the whole thing slipped about a meter before the tyres regained traction and pulled the car straight again.
Martay's heart was pounding with adrenalin, his hands gripped so hard on the wheel that his knuckles were turning white. Snipping seemed anxious and alert but otherwise unbothered by the neck breaking ride. He had his eyes peeled wide open looking for another sign. They needed more than a path that was hard to follow, they needed a hiding place.
To Martay's dismay, the track got increasingly rocky and uneven. Tree roots broke up what little of it remained. Snipping, on the other hand, had boosted confidence. As he explained to Martay, the police would struggle to follow them here. The track would buy them much more time than their stunt on the motorway.
They had been able to hear the sirens the whole time but flashing lights behind them had disappeared. The police had overshot the track, realised what had happened and backtracked. Martay pressed on.
The track started to wind and the sirens of the police car started to fade. Martay had to drive extremely slowly to avoid severely damaging the car over some of the taller rocks and roots but they realised the police car had been unable to continue the pursuit.
The fear inducing sound of the sirens had been replaced by a new sound, rushing water. The path pushed through the last line of trees and came to an end at what looked like an old, medieval ferry crossing at a wide and powerful looking river. They had nowhere else they could go. They were blocked.
“Oh, ya gotta be joking!” Snipping screeched. “I’m gonna kill miss Amriel when she wakes up!”
He was utterly exasperated and had a nervous look in his eyes.
“We ‘ave to cross the ferry.”
“Are you mad? I wouldn’t put a foot on that thing, let alone a car!”
In the heat of the moment Martay had switched back into Hungarian and swore loudly.
“There has to be another way!”
“Not unless ya wanna drive back into the waitin’ arms o’ the police.”
Martay quickly got out of the car and approached the ferry, testing it gingerly with his foot. Nothing happened. As tense as a strung bow, he cautiously stepped fully onto the wood, ready to spring back any second if he had to. But there was no need. His weight didn’t have even the slightest affect. Old and rickety as it might look, the ferry was very sturdy.
“Ok, I guess we’ll have to try it, no point wasting more time!”
They clambered back into the car and rolled it forward slowly.
“Snipping get in the back, take off Amy’s seatbelt, open the doors and hold onto her. If we go in we have to get her out of the car straight away, before it starts to fill with water.”
Strange as it was for Martay to give Snipping an order, the Imp obeyed without hesitation. The plan made good sense.
Once he had completed the instructions, Martay continued rolling the car onto the ferry.
As the front tyres transferred all their weight, the ferry dropped slightly with a low creak but gave no sign of giving way or failing. Martay gave the car more power and as they inched forward the ferry levelled out again. Martay paused. He didn’t want to inch the back of the car on in case it tipped the ferry. With grim determination he lurched the car forward with a quick burst of throttle. The back wheels hit the ferry and pushed the car further forward. However, the weight from the front of the car as they shot forward balanced it out so that for a moment the ferry bobbed at either end like a slow see-saw.
Martay jumped out and quickly unbound the ropes holding the ferry to the ramp, then lifted the big barge pole to push off. A thick wire passing through the middle of the ferry held its course straight so that it wasn’t overly difficult for Martay to push them along on the water.
The tricky part was pushing the ferry hard up against the ramp on the other side. He called for Snipping to jump onto the ramp and get a rope around one of the solid wooden bollards.
Getting off the ferry was much faster and easier than getting on. Martay simply gave the car a good amount of power to get the front wheels firmly onto the ramp before the ferry could tip forward. As he powered on, the back wheels gave the car a hard jolt as they hit the edge of the ramp but rolled over it. They were across.
“Right!” exclaimed Snipping as he closed the doors and returned to the front seat, “now to find a safe place to stop and plan our next move.”
This was easier said than done. The track didn’t continue very far on this side of the river before it vanished altogether and Martay was left to make a route of his own through the trees. The sound of the car was the only noise that seemed to disturb the peace of the forest. This was perhaps the reason why they had not seen a single animal, thought Martay, but the apparent emptiness was still eerie.
After some time carefully picking out a path they ended up driving along the base of a short cliff face. It seemed quite out of place somehow, jutting suddenly out of the ground as they squeezed past a thick line of bushes, but it meant that there was a clear space to drive in. Martay, thinking to use this to his advantage, started to speed up when Snipping hopped dramatically in his seat shouting “Stop, stop!”
Martay hit the brakes out of shock. Snipping had been silent up to now. Unfortunately, the sudden stop sent Snipping, who had not been wearing his seatbelt, flying forward where he crashed against the dashboard and glove box. O
nly his dignity was injured but his face filled with the unmistakable signs of an oncoming Snipping snide remark. Martay cut him off.
“You screamed stop so I stopped! It’s not my fault you shocked me like that! Why did you want me to stop anyway?”
“Cos, ya moron, we’re meant to be lookin’ for somewhere to hide and this cliff is obviously somethin’ Amy created. She probably created a hidin’ place for us somewhere nearby. If we fly along at top speed we’re gonna miss it! It’s gettin’ dark as well.”
He was right. The sunlight was failing quickly, which would make it very hard to spot any clues left by Amy.
“Well then, what do you suggest we do? “
Snipping furrowed his brow in thought.
“Well, since we ‘ave to slow down at this point we should probably turn off the car so that the police can’t track the sound, if they’re still followin’ us o’ course. We need to keep searchin’ for a place to rest which I’m sure Amy must’ve created somewhere nearby. I reckon we should proceed on foot from ‘ere.”
Martay didn’t relish the idea of struggling on foot again. They may have been out of the mountains now but it was still very cold and there was no way he was leaving Amy in the car. He would have to carry her again.
Despite his internal complaints, there was nothing else for it. He switched the car off, got out and started to gently remove Amy from the back seat.
They trudged onwards following the base line of the sudden jutting cliff on their left. The going was much easier than it had been in the snow but the walk was still uneventful until the sun was long gone and the moon was providing all their light.
They could see the tapering end of the cliff a little way ahead of them which caused them to stop and reassess their plan.
“Snipping, that’s the end of the cliff and still nothing. For all we know she could have created something on top of the cliff, or maybe she didn’t create anything at all! I’m starving, we should go back to the car and get some food.”
Snipping looked both frustrated and disappointed.
Bridge Between the Worlds (Dreamwalker Book 1) Page 31