The Invisible Tower

by Nils Johnson-Shelton

  Merlin stood behind the counter chopping garlic or onions or something. The kitchen was warm and comforting and smelled fantastic.

  Artie pointed at the sideboard. “Really, Merlin? Couldn’t you have put the stone near one of those nice chairs you have?”

  “Ah, silly me. Sorry, child. I am preoccupied.”

  “Yeah, aren’t we all,” quipped Artie, sounding more like Kay. He grabbed Excalibur’s hilt and slid it out of the table sideways, cutting the thing in half. It collapsed to the floor in two pieces, forming a dilapidated M.

  Thumb, sitting at a very small table in a very small chair on the countertop next to the cutting board, chortled quietly at Artie’s act of petty defiance. Artie checked out his little knight. He appeared to be drinking beer from a thimble. On a plate in front of him was a dark, crisplooking bing cherry, stem and all.

  Thumb asked, “How’d it go, lad?”

  Artie was put off by everything he saw. Merlin was cooking dinner and Thumb was kicking back like nothing was wrong? What was with that?

  “As you can see, not so good, guys!” Artie waved the air around him. “You don’t see Qwon here, do you?”

  “No, but that doesn’t mean you were too late,” offered Merlin. “You weren’t too late, were you?”

  Artie couldn’t believe this. “Yes, Merlin, I was! Some dude covered in moss—maybe it was Numinae—took her right out of her room. Lance and I tried to stop him, but he gated back to the Otherworld through an arc of lightning!”

  Merlin slammed the flat side of the knife on the cutting board. Everything on the counter jumped, including Thumb and his little dining set. The little man’s cherry fell to the floor. Thumb managed to steady the beer thimble.

  “Blast it!” Merlin yelled.

  That was more like it.

  Thumb downed his beer and stepped to the edge of the counter. “Sorry for looking like we’re taking it easy, lad. You must remember that we’re both quite old. When we get a chance to relax, we take it.”

  Artie changed the subject. “How’re Kay and Bedevere?”

  Merlin stepped from behind the counter and said, “They’re fine, child. We’re watching them.” He pointed at a monitor on the wall. There Artie saw his knights, recovering in bed. Kay was propped up and reading a paperback. Bedevere still slept. “I’m cooking dinner for you. Are you hungry?”

  Artie was beyond hungry. He could’ve eaten a tin can and a pile of wet yarn right about then. “Yeah. Starving, actually,” Artie said.

  “Good. Now tell us what happened, and quickly. Once you’ve eaten, you need to get back.”

  Artie sat on a stool and told them everything. Merlin and Thumb were disappointed about Qwon but relieved that Artie had found the Font of Sylvan. Merlin put a plate in front of Artie, and as he devoured his dinner, Merlin and Thumb outlined the plan.

  Artie half listened as he ate. He didn’t mind the fact that he and Thumb were about to go after Tiberius and Numinae. He probably should have minded, but he just didn’t. It wasn’t because he was particularly brave (which he was turning out to be), or very stupid (which he clearly wasn’t), but it was simply because he was fixed like a laser on getting Qwon back. The other things seemed like low hurdles he had to clear in order to save his friend. She was all that mattered.

  As Artie speared his last bite of food, he asked, “Why do you think she was taken?”

  “I can only guess, Artie,” Merlin said seriously. “Numinae may have taken her for some unknown reason, of course, but it’s just as likely that he didn’t take her at all, and that the Mossman was an agent of Morgaine’s. She may believe that kidnapping Qwon will buy her some insurance against your return to power. There’s only one way to find out for certain.”

  Artie slapped his fork on the table. “Get back there, ASAP. Find Numinae and ask him what he knows. If he doesn’t know enough, chop off his hand and get you out of this place so you can help me find out,” Artie summarized with a heavy dose of kingly purpose.

  “Sounds like the plan to me, lad!” Thumb exclaimed, standing up. “Shall we then? To the Font of Sylvan?”

  Artie stood too and said, “Yes. But let’s see Kay and Bedevere first.”

  “Agreed,” Merlin said as he left the room. Artie grabbed Thumb and they followed.

  They walked through at least a dozen rooms, passing under a fragrant peach tree laden with bursting fruit, through a cave of ice, and through a cloud. They passed under a geologic formation twinkling with earthen jewels of every color: purples like those of a sunset peeking underneath a thunderstorm, reds like those of a quickening volcanic crater, greens like the skins of a million chameleons in a limitless field of young wheat. They passed through run-of-the-mill closets and storerooms, pantries and wine cellars.

  As they walked, Artie couldn’t fight the feeling that he was going to a place that would change him forever. When they came to a stop in the hospital room, Artie smiled, tingling with anticipation. His immediate future was alive and waiting. This was who he was. He was a kid who grew up in the suburbs of America, but who had come from a place that most people thought only existed in their imaginations. And it turned out he was so special that he could even become king of this place, and help save it and the world in which he’d grown up. It was pretty amazing.

  He snapped out of it as he became aware of Kay. He looked up and was surprised to see that she was dressed, Cleomede strapped to her side. She flashed her brother a sad, knowing smile. She was half turned to Bedevere, and had a hand on his side where his right arm should have been. The knight was still asleep.

  Kay pointed at Artie and said, “Merlin and Tommy told me where you went. No Qwon, huh?”

  “No,” Artie said, looking at the floor. “Someone took her to the Otherworld. I couldn’t save her.”

  Kay stepped over to her brother and said, “Well, let’s go and save her then. That cool with you, Bro?”

  Artie looked up at his big sister. “I think it’d be better for you to stay here and get some rest, but I also think there’s no point in arguing with you.”

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “You got that right, Art.”

  Merlin asked, “Are you sure you’re ready for this, Kay? You were recently bloodied by a divine boar, after all.”

  “And I hope I see that pig again,” Kay said, shooting daggers at Merlin. “Lavery too. I can’t believe he stole two weeks of our summer vacation in that stupid library of his.”

  The old wizard smiled and shook his head. Artie retrieved the infinite backpack from a peg on the wall and removed a moongate coin. Then he slung the bag over his shoulders and tightened its straps. He drew Excalibur, and its blade rang through the wizard’s endless, living chambers.

  “Well then, children, Mr. Thumb, off with you. I have nothing left to give. When you return, I expect you to bring me my freedom. If you do not also have Qwon, rest assured that I will do all that I can to help you retrieve her.”

  Artie placed the coin at his feet and gently put his sword’s pommel on it. He pictured the dark forest that contained the source of the Glimmer Stream and whispered, “Take us to the Font of Sylvan!”

  The gate twirled open, and in a flash the Kingfishers and old Sir Thumb vanished, returning to the Otherworld once again.

  27

  IN WHICH THE TRIO ENTERS THE CAVE OF TIBERIUS

  After shaking off the effects of the latest Moongate Express, Artie and his knights found themselves standing on a low mossy rise next to a picturesque brook. The surrounding woods were every bit as dark as those beyond Serpent Mound back in Peebles, Ohio—and way creepier.

  The tightly packed, towering softwoods choked the sky from view. Their massive trunks gave the woods a cathedral-like feeling. The air was dank and there was no breeze. The stream babbled pleasantly to their left. The occasional buzzing mosquito flew around them, except for Kay, of course, thanks to Cleomede’s scabbard’s bug-off magic.

  “Man, Artie, these are, like, Avatar-level creepy woo
ds, right?” Kay marveled.

  “Yeah,” Artie confirmed.

  “What’s Avatar ?” asked Thumb, back to his two-foot height.

  “Oh, nothing. A movie,” Artie answered.

  “Ah,” Thumb answered off handedly as he drew his sword and checked its blade.

  “There should be a gorge around here. We should walk upstream a little,” Artie said.

  They went to the stream and immediately found what they were looking for.

  The trees had obstructed a massive black basalt boulder in the middle of the brook. It was about fifteen feet high and half as wide and it cleaved the running water in two. It was perfectly egg-shaped and propped up by smaller rocks forming a stony nest. On its top grew a gnarled tree with golden leaves. The tree’s roots encased the rock’s crown with a tangle of long, crooked talons.

  “Wow, that’s beautiful,” Kay breathed.

  “No kidding,” Artie said.

  “Almost looks like it was placed there by a giant hand,” Thumb commented.

  “Or a giant green dragon claw,” Artie added.

  “Yeah, or that,” Kay said unenthusiastically. They looked to each other for courage and moved around the rock.

  Behind it rose a high, imposing gorge about a hundred yards away.

  “Bingo,” Artie said, and they moved toward the stone crevasse.

  The rocks that formed the gorge’s walls were angular and jumbled. Their edges looked like knives.

  As they got to the proper opening of the gorge, they found a worn single-track path on the right side of the stream. Artie took the lead, followed by Kay and Thumb.

  The stream, which had been quaint and babbling near the egg-shaped boulder, was now hard and jabbering. The air in the gorge was cooler than that in the forest, and countless drops of spray exploded from the water’s dismal roar.

  Eventually they reached a curtain of high ferns. Artie passed through it while Kay and Thumb took a break to drink from the stream. When he got to the other side, Artie called, “Guys, come check this out.” Kay and Thumb shook the icy water from their hands and pushed through the plants.

  Even Thumb, who knew a lot about the mysteries of the Otherworld, couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

  Not twenty feet away, the jagged gorge made a ninety-degree turn to the right, swallowing the stream, the path, and their sight line. No sensible course of water would have made such a hard-angled turn. But the thing they couldn’t believe was that in this turn there was a raging, misting waterfall… that fell in reverse !

  A turbulent pool turned in front of them. A white churn of water followed this as it hit the surface. But instead of coming from above, the cascade came from below, and this fell quickly through and around the sharp bend in the gorge.

  “By the trees!” Thumb gasped.

  Artie and Kay were speechless.

  They moved to where the water dropped off. The path ended and was replaced by a series of rusted iron rungs and chain links driven into the rock face. These went down the gorge and disappeared around the bend.

  “Guess we’re going down,” Artie yelled.

  They sheathed their weapons, and Artie climbed onto the first rung.

  The wet metal was slick and, judging by the thin coating of slime and algae, not used very often. They made their way gingerly.

  They went straight down about twenty feet and stopped on a very narrow ledge just before the turn in the rock. Artie pushed his back to the cliff and scooted to the right to make room for his knights. Kay and Thumb clambered down and they stood shoulder to shoulder (though of course Thumb’s shoulder only came to Kay’s knee), panting and sweating. The ledge was so thin that both Kay’s and Artie’s toes tickled the edge of the precipice.

  Thumb yelled above the hiss of the water, “Why in the blazes didn’t we bring some rope? We should be tied together!”

  He was right. If they had been smart, responsible knights, they would definitely have had a long length of strong rope. But they didn’t. Artie promised himself it was a mistake he’d never make again.

  Artie slid to the bend and peeked around.

  The scene below was even more mind-boggling. The stream fell fifty more dizzying feet, the water still rushing in the wrong and impossible direction. At the bottom the water bent in a smooth right angle and continued on for a distance of a hundred feet or so before disappearing into a huge cave at the end of the gorge. Artie couldn’t really see inside the cave, but he could tell that somewhere in there was a dim, orange light.

  He turned to Kay and Thumb and yelled, “Well, it looks like we’re on the right track.”

  “Good, I guess?” hollered Kay.

  Artie peeked back around the corner and looked for the next set of rungs and chains. He saw them continuing down and across all the way to the floor of the gorge.

  The only problem was that the nearest rung was about ten feet away.

  He turned to his knights and told them the bad news. They discussed jumping for it, fashioning a makeshift rope out of their wet clothes, or attempting to traverse it rockclimbing style. Ultimately they ruled out all three.

  They stood there for a few minutes without speaking. Between the wet and the cold they all felt pretty crummy.

  Then Kay yelled, “How stupid! The swords!”

  “What about them, Sir Kay?” demanded Thumb. “Excalibur and Cleomede! They’ll cut through anything if we want them too! We’ll just stick them into the rock and monkey-bar our way down. The last one will pull them out, and we’ll keep going!”

  They agreed that it was a great idea. They rearranged themselves on the ledge, Thumb and Kay switching places by climbing back up a little, squeezing around each other, and coming back down. Artie drew Excalibur and flipped it around, holding its point down. He went to the end of the narrow ledge, took a deep breath, and leaned out as far as he could. Thumb held on to his leg to steady him.

  Artie stuck out his arm and twisted his body around, straining at Thumb’s strong grasp. It took a little bit of effort, and a lot of sparks flying from the point of entry, but considering it was solid rock, Excalibur easily slid into the cliff wall. Before Artie let go, he asked it to stay put. He pushed it with his fingertips, and it held fast.

  He barked, “Okay. Next!”

  Kay handed over Cleomede.

  The next move was going to be hard, and they all knew it. Artie emptied his mind and Kay willed her body to help her brother.

  Artie took three quick, deep breaths.

  “Here goes! One! Two! Three!”

  With one hand holding Excalibur, he turned and fell, and it was one of the scariest things Kay had ever seen.

  Artie whip-lashed around the corner, stopping himself with his left forearm and the length of Cleomede, along with a little bit of his face, against the rock. His grip held. For her part, Kay was clenching her fists, and Artie could feel this. Excalibur helped him hold on too, and it urged him to keep moving.

  Artie spread his dangling legs on the rock to steady himself. Then he took Cleomede, reached as far as he could, and pushed it into the rock. A tingling, magical current coursed from Excalibur through Artie’s arms and chest to Cleomede.

  Once Cleomede was in place, Artie let go of Excalibur and moved his right hand to join his left on Cleomede’s hilt. He let go with his left hand and stretched out for the rung. It was just out of reach.

  He gripped the sword with both hands again and began to swing, running a little along the rock face with the sides of his feet. Then he lunged with his left hand, and this time he caught the wet iron bar.

  Dropping down, he quickly brought his hands together and his feet found their way to the rung below.

  He was across. Artie had never felt so alive. He moved down to make room.

  Thumb came next. He executed a series of acrobatic moves that would definitely have gotten him a medal finish at the knighthood Olympics. Swinging easily and strongly, Thumb came down to land above Artie’s head. Seeing his little, ancient
knight do this eased Artie’s nerves.

  But then, of course, came Kay. She not only had to get down but also had to pull out the swords.

  Kay peeked around the corner and when she saw what she had to work with, her eyes opened wide.

  Artie wasn’t too psyched by the look on her face.

  “It’s okay, Sis, just go for it!” He concentrated the muscles and tendons of his body on hers, just as she had done for him.

  Kay blew out her cheeks in disbelief. Then her face disappeared back around the corner.

  Suddenly her arm whipped around and grabbed Excalibur. She gripped it hard, and Artie clenched his fists, and he felt her body count off—One! Two! Three!

  Kay swung around, slammed into the rock, and yelped. Her eyes were closed tight. Her left hand quickly joined her right on Excalibur.

  She opened her eyes and looked straight at her brother. “I don’t like this, Artie!”

  “Don’t worry!” Artie counseled. “I did it, you can definitely do it!” Which had to be true, right? Since Kay had always been so headstrong and so good at everything she did?

  Thumb said, “Don’t look down!”

  Which, of course, caused Kay to look down.

  Artie felt her body tense. She was on the verge of freezing up.

  “Kay! Look at me!” Artie ordered. She did. “You’re Kay freaking Kingfisher! You don’t think—you do! Now move!”

  Her brother was absolutely right. She was Kay freaking Kingfisher.

  She retightened her grip. Then she let go with her left hand. She was Kay freaking Kingfisher. She reached out and grabbed Cleomede. She swung between the two swords and when she drew closest to Excalibur, just as her momentum was about to shift back to Cleomede, she switched her grip on her brother’s sword from underhand to overhand. It was a good move. She shifted her weight and hung as straight as she could under Cleomede. Then she pulled hard at Excalibur. The sword came out. She was Kay freaking Kingfisher and now she was swinging like a monkey. Fear shot back into her. With Artie’s help she willed it out. She threw Excalibur to Thumb, who caught it easily and passed it down to Artie. She switched hands on Cleomede, then reached out for the rung. Being slightly longer than Artie, she reached it just by the tips of her fingers. She worked at the wet iron and finally got a good grip. She moved over to the topmost rung, then reached for Cleomede and asked it to come out of the rock. The sword slid eagerly away. Kay sheathed her weapon, her heart going rat-a-tat, rat-a-tat-tat, and let out a deep, long breath.