“I… can’t,” she said, her voice quivering. “I’m terrified, Jacob. I’m terrified just being here. I can’t believe how calm you are, but you always were the brave one. Stupidly brave, yeah, but still brave. I could never do what you do, and there’s no way I can go in there now.”
“You’re afraid?” I jeered. “I thought you used to strap rockets to your ass and blast yourself into space all the time!”
Artie’s eyes narrowed. “Space, Jacob? That’s absurd.”
I caught myself before I let my jaw hit the floor as I was once again reminded of how different Artie 2.0 was, and just little I actually knew about her even still. The idea of Artie not being an astronaut was almost too much to handle, but I did everything I could to pull myself back together.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come?”
“Just be careful, Jacob,” Artie said nervously.
I nodded and finally looked to Vincent. “Last chance, old man.”
He smirked. “I’ll silently echo Santino’s sentiments on the matter, but I will at least give you this.”
He tossed me a crumpled up piece of paper, which I caught in my left hand. I looked at it but didn’t attempt to open it, looking back to Vincent instead.
“You’ll know when to open it, Jacob,” he said, his smile supportive and proud now.
“Will I be all right, Vincent?” I asked.
His smile vanished. “I think so. Just… remember Helena and your son, and you’ll come back.”
I nodded. Good enough for me.
I turned back to the door, and with a deep breath to steel my nerves, pushed it open and stepped inside.
***
The first sensation I felt was pain, the second nausea again.
I doubled over as my intestines seemed to knot themselves in a way that made them impossible to untangle, while my body attempted to expel them at the same time, but the only thing my stomach managed to lose was my breakfast. It came out unceremoniously and left a nasty taste in my mouth, but once it was gone, I felt immediately better. It was the second time I’d vomited in as many days, and both times had felt surprisingly wonderful.
Still doubled over, I gagged a couple of times and spit out whatever had gathered in my mouth to the ground. It was then that I noticed the floor wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be. Instead of grass or snow, the floor was black, smooth, and slippery looking, so slick that it seemed a simple wrong step would send me sliding across the floor. I carefully tested this theory with a boot, but found that there was no risk of slippage at all.
“All right,” I managed to say around gags and coughs. “Let’s say I buy that…”
After one last cough, I found it within myself to straighten and look around. I tried to locate the door I’d literally just stepped through, but found it missing. Frantically, I looked everywhere for it, but all my search revealed was more darkness. In fact, I saw literally nothing, finally taking notice of the fact that it was completely dark in the cottage, not a single stray beam of light from outside penetrating within, obscuring even my hand in front of my face.
The peculiarity of my surroundings was making me nervous.
Oh, fuck it; it was terrifying me.
“Hello?” I called out, hoping my friends outside might hear me, but no reply came, only an echo that suggested this impossibly dark room was far larger than it seemed.
“Hello?” I repeated, but again received nothing in reply besides a series of echoes.
“God?” I called this time, recalling the last I’d thought I was dead. But again there was nothing. “Yahweh? Allah? Buddha? Thor, god of thunder! Zeus? Jove!! Oh, man, Venus maybe?”
Maybe I really was going crazy…
As I tallied off a few more divine names, I found the fear inside me shifting to utter annoyance. I was less concerned about the fact that this Druid was capable of playing such games with me, finding myself simply upset that he was instead. I knew I should have continued being scared at what I was experiencing, but I was startlingly calm.
Was I supposed to be impressed at his super dark hut?
Please…
But then there was a brilliant flash of light in front me, so bright that I threw up a hand to cover my eyes, but despite my precautions, I was blinded by its intensity, causing me to involuntarily take a few steps backward and fall on my ass. When my vision finally cleared, I saw that the light had formed into a cone, like a spotlight from a ceiling shining directly onto the floor beneath it. Centered within was a shadowy figure, little more than the silhouette of a bulbous, oddly man-shaped being. A mist billowed around him ominously and a series of colored lights flashed randomly and repeatedly.
The fear was returning again as I crawled backward, still unable to find the wall I’d expected three steps ago. I reached out behind me, blindly grasping for the door in a near state of panic, hoping beyond hope that this was just another one of the orbs dastardly side effects.
“Unfortunately that is not the case, Jacob Hunter,” a booming voice said from no discernible location within the expansive space. “Your orb has no power here.”
“Who are you??” I yelled, maybe a bit girlishly when my voice rose and cracked at the end, but I couldn’t help it.
There was no answer, but then my eyes caught the shape of the silhouette again, and I saw that it was changing, not in form, but in detail. What was once just an amorphous man-blob was now becoming something far more familiar. Obviously human, he wore what seemed to be a long, puffy robe with only his head and hands visible. I couldn’t tell what color his clothing was, or what his skin color was, or tell what he looked like in the slightest, but one detail was far more obvious than the rest: atop his head sat an object that was tall and came to a point at the tip, with what looked like a wide, floppy brim that encased it.
Thoughts were starting to form in my mind, coalescing themselves into ideas, but before they reveal anything to me, the light softened and I could see the man in vibrant detail now. He stepped forward to reveal an extremely old man with a bushy beard that fell to his navel. His robes were red, as was his hat, with the shapes of small half-moons woven into it the fabric.
I sat there dumbfounded, unable to form thoughts let alone words.
All except one.
“Dumbledore?”
The old man smiled not unkindly at me. It almost seemed warm as he leaned upon a long thick staff that I swore hadn’t been there a second ago.
“A worthy guess,” he said in a gravely but strong voice. “And a fine comparison if your mind holds the character true.”
“Wh-what?” I asked through jittery teeth. “Who are the hell are you?”
The man sighed deeply and rested heavily on his staff. For a moment he seemed almost weak and brittle, but something told me he was anything but.
“I have gone by many names in my lifetime, Jacob Hunter, and will go by more in the years to come,” he said, his voice suggesting he found this fact quite humorous, “but I suppose there is one still yet to come that you may be rather familiar with.”
My eyes went wide as all of Wang and Vincent’s cryptic words and fears about a lone British island in the middle of nowhere coalesced in my mind, along with an odd reference I now remembered my mom had made about Bardsey Island fifteen years ago.
The man smiled again. “You go it.”
I gulped.
“Merlin.”
XI
Answers
A Cottage in the Middle of Nowhere, Time/Space
January, 44 A.D.
My first instinct was to dig into my pocket and retrieve the note Vincent had left me. I straightened it and looked at the single word he’d written there:
Merlin.
I dropped the page and stared with wide eyes at the man before me.
He wore a bored expression with lazy eyes, like an old, laid up St. Bernard retired from a life of carrying rum around his neck, and he took a deep, impatient breath as the smoke and light show around him co
ntinued, a show that somehow seemed far less intimidating now.
When the man had first been revealed, the show had added mystique and awe, but now, as I looked at this man who claimed to be – of all people – Merlin, the smoke and light show simply looked like just that: a smoke and laser light show, like something out of a Kiss concert or lame haunted house or some damn thing.
As this realization set in, I found myself rising slowly to my feet, straightening carefully in case I had to react quickly to an attack. I analyzed the old man’s face as I rose, studying his cold eyes, grizzled features, long beard, and his… reading glasses. At these I stared the longest, failing to understand where they’d come from. Last time I’d checked, glasses hadn’t been invented yet. Not even close.
When I was able to finally focus on these details, the insanity of the situation became fully realized in my mind. I closed my eyes and looked again, the full picture before me clear now: Before me stood a man dressed like a wizard, with a low budget smoke machine and laser lights behind him, an appearance that reminded me of a professional wrestler making his entrance, just without his theme music.
With this thought came something else to the production.
Music.
It sounded like…
The Beach Boys?
Don’t Worry Baby?
I glanced away from the man, and then back at him, the music playing around us. We locked eyes, and while mine narrowed in anger, his tightened in self-satisfied amusement. He cocked his head to the side, his smile lingering, and it was that look that caused me to rethink everything.
“No…” I muttered, shaking my head and waging a finger at him frantically. “No no no no, I don’t think so. No. Nope, nuh-uh. Not buying it. No, sir.” I pointed a finger over my shoulder. “I think I’m just going to go now.”
I turned to leave and was surprised to see the cottage door right where I’d left it. I’d thought that it would have remained hidden but there it was. Surrounding it was nothing but a sea of darkness, an endless and invisible ocean of wall that stretched as far as my senses could discern. But through the cracks in the roughly created door I could see Agrippina and my friends beyond. They seemed to be waiting patiently, but they wouldn’t have to wait much longer as I reached for the door.
“Are you really so willing to simply abandon all the answers you’ve sought for so long, Jacob?”
My fingers were inches from the door, but as the man finished his statement, my hand was already clenched into a fist. I looked down from the door to see it shaking on its own accord, but I lifted it to my forehead and squeezed my eyes shut, forcing the hand to calm down. I couldn’t believe what was happening, but I also knew that if I wasn’t actually hallucinating, that this was my only shot at answers.
My hand went still, and I gave those outside the door one last look, but then I turned to face… Merlin.
I looked at him, my expression betraying nothing and my eyes set determinedly, and noticed that the music had vanished. For Merlin’s part, he didn’t look the least bit impressed as he continued to lean heavily on his staff. My first instinct was to snap at him and demand answers immediately, but then the thought was gone, pushed from my mind by the rational logic I’d thought lost to me in recent months.
“You are most lucky that your mind is more durable that you might think,” the man said.
I didn’t take my eyes off of him. “Why don’t we tackle that one right away then,” I suggested. “What the hell do you mean?”
He shrugged. “All in good time, young man.”
I really wanted to get mad, but something told me it wouldn’t help.
“You are quite right,” the man said.
“Stop that,” I ordered.
“Stop what?”
I glared. “That!”
“What?”
“Reading my mind!” I snapped. “Or whatever the fuck it is you’re doing.”
The man nodded excitedly, his smile widening. “I am most excited for this, I must say, Jacob. This will be quite refreshing.”
“What will be?” I asked, confused.
“In time,” he said as he turned around, “but please, first come with me.”
“Come with…” I started, taking a step toward him, “but we’re in a tiny hut. Where are we go…” but before I was finished, Merlin stepped to the side to reveal another door opposite the one I’d entered. My feet took me closer on their own, as I couldn’t believe my own eyes. There was no way the door had been there just seconds ago, but there it was. I looked behind me at the first door again, just for reassurance, but while it was still there, it seemed very far away.
“The choice is yours, Jacob,” the old wizard said. “Take what time you need, but I would not tarry for long. I suspect you will be most excited for what is to come as well.”
With that, the man stepped through his door, but I was unable to see anything beyond it before the door was shut, leaving me all alone in the pitch black room. All that was visible were the two doors.
I glanced between them again.
Like I really had a choice.
***
I approached the second door cautiously.
I felt naked without Penelope, but thoughts of my beloved lost rifle wouldn’t help me now. The memory of how I’d destroyed her had come to me for the first time in a dream last night as I’d slept with Helena in my arms. It had been more like a nightmare than a dream, and I’d snapped awake with a jolt at the apex of the memory. Helena had slept through it, of course, and I hadn’t had the heart to wake her to discuss it.
I looked at the orb in my hand now and frowned, hating it and everything it was capable of. A part of me still wanted to destroy it here and now, but since it had been the key to my entrance into this hut, I figured I may need it to leave as well. I placed it in the shoulder bag I had at my back and put it out of my mind.
The last thing I did before giving the second door another thought was to check the pistol at my thigh. My trusty old Sig P220 had seen me through plenty of tight spots over the years and I was glad to have it now. Although, there was an odd thought at the back of my mind that manifested itself from Santino’s earlier prediction that I’d meet Yoda in here; about the wise Jedi master’s warning to Luke that what he would find in that creepy-ass cave was only what he took with him. I never really understood what that meant as a kid, but as an adult, I’d realized how that one simple, poorly structured line of dialogue had been filled with a vast array of interesting philosophical and transcendent implications that for some reason resonated with me in this moment now.
But like Luke, I kept my weapons right where they were.
I looked up to inspect the door, noticing that it too was as odd as the man who had just stepped through it. Completely out of place in this ancient world, the door, which was actually two large double doors, had giant pane windows that dominated their upper halves, and had large, rectangular shaped door handles on each. Curious, I leaned even closer, again making note that while the doors looked like wood, they were in fact made out of another material, one that was quite adept at mimicking its appearance, if nothing else.
Plastic.
I snorted out a laugh at the sight. Not only was it impossible for these doors to exist in this time period, but I also felt like I’d seen them before, only I couldn’t place from where. I had no idea what resided beyond them, but considering their appearance, I suspected the worst. Or the best. I wasn’t sure yet.
Only one way to find out though.
I grunted reluctantly and once again debated whether to turn back or not, but instead of deciding I let my actions do my thinking for me. I reached out with both hands and pushed both doors wide open, and stepped through like a cowboy entering a saloon.
If only I felt as confident as the swagger suggested.
***
Stopping just past the threshold, I felt my heart drop into my stomach.
Not because I was feeling the orb’s draw or the crushing pr
essure from all that I was responsible for, but because I had just stepped into a room I’d stepped into a thousand times before. It was a space more familiar to me than anywhere in Ancient Rome, but I hated it just the same.
The space was large and open, with a series of low walls spread throughout like a basic maze. To my right were a series of low couches and in front of me, a small podium, but the most prominent feature here were the low walls that created sectionalized rooms with booths, tables, and chairs arranged to seat people in an efficient manner. Narrow pathways connected these small sections, but only one of the four contained a large, U-shaped bar that dominated its center along with an innumerable number of bottles filled with alcohol.
Finally, scattered along the walls, ceiling, and pretty much everywhere else where stupid knickknacks could be crammed, were decorations and items that gave the entire room a distinct Western/Cowboy theme. Large pictures of desert locations or Native Americans, statues of desert creatures, and many other stupid things were everywhere, and a familiar resentment and sense of loathing swelled in my heart.
“Holy shit,” I said, still not believing my eyes. “Is this my…”
“Do not say the name, Jacob,” a voice that was becoming familiar said from beside me.
I turned to see the wizard Merlin standing there, still leaning heavily on his staff.
“Why not?” I asked.
He turned to meet my eye. “Don’t give them the free advertisement.”
I blinked twice. “What?”
Merlin smiled. “A jest, Jacob, little more.”
“Yeah,” I said. “Right. Sure.”
I looked out over the restaurant again, memories I’d long since tried to forget flooding back into my mind as I stood there. The day after I’d turned sixteen, I’d applied for a part-time job at this place, after one of my best buddies had already been employed here for a few months. The two of us had thought it would be so much fun spending our time working part time as bus boys.
Boy had we been wrong.
A Hunter and His Legion (The Praetorian Series Book 3) Page 37