The Histories of Earth, Books 1-4: In the Window Room, A Prince of Earth, All the Worlds of Men, and Worlds Unending

by Steven J. Carroll

Surru did not care to be spoken to this way. He lunged at the good king, but Corwan struck his forearms together as Surru went to stab at him, and as the opposing army pressed in around him.

  Though they were too late to reach him, since King Corwan was already soaring high above the battlefield, until it looked below him like a sea of dots.

  *

  �� More precisely, this was Tavora’s idea. After hearing about Ata’s three-dimensional camera, she had the brilliant thought (based on her conversation earlier with Ata about motion pictures) that they might make these three-dimensional pictures move, like real people.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Battles of the Sky

  ���There he is!��� Ata shouted, to King Wilbur who flew in the pilot’s compartment.

  Lofting high, and hidden, in the clouds of Gleomu, sailed Darius’s flying machine, silently catching the wind. Peering over the body of the machine, Wilbur answered with his flight goggles pressed snugly into his face, ���Yes, and brace yourself.���

  This part of the plan was Ata’s doing, for he had for a long time wished to use his armbands, in concert with their flying machine, to catch someone out of the air. Though he had never had any reason to legitimize trying something so dangerous. Howbeit, this was the perfect opportunity, and if not for the gruesome battle waging below them, Ata might have liked the thrill of it slightly more.

  King Corwan sliced through the clouds, catching Ata’s mechanical ball, that hung by a rope from the flying machine, held within a fitted leather pouch. The aircraft lurched aggressively to the side, bobbing in the air as Corwan swung from the rope. He struggled to keep his grip as blood trickled from his side.

  Ata saw this, and yelled toward the front compartment, ���He’s hurt!���

  ���Well, then don’t just sit there. Reel him up, child,��� Wilbur answered.

  Rapidly turning a winch attached to the rope, Ata reeled in the King, pulling him into the rear compartment. Corwan slumped in exhaustion against the frame of the plane. Which disconcerted Ata, for it was strange to see someone who was renowned for his strength, seeming so weak, and taking in abnormally large breaths.

  ���Should we turn back, Your Majesty?��� Ata asked, very much hoping the King would agree that this part of their plan should be cut short, but he did not.

  ���I am not the only man who has been wounded in the fight, Ata, I assure you,��� he said. ���And I will not leave my men undefended.���

  And since it appeared that King Corwan’s mind was settled on the matter, Ata did not protest. Though, at King Wilbur’s direction, he began to tear long strips of cloth from his coat to bandage around the King’s torso, which did help a little.

  Determined to ride his lizard into battle, Timothy fashioned heat packs to his saddle, that rested on the animal’s sides. For since all reptiles are cold-blooded creatures, he’d needed this, or else his lizard would have been perhaps dangerously sluggish. Though at the moment, he rode along at a blazing stride, with the two dozen, or so, remaining real horsemen of Ismere.

  Late, the night before, while Ata was occupied, transforming his father’s three-dimensional still camera into a motion picture camera, Barbara was busy with her own difficult assignment, invisibly transporting the last remaining cavalrymen toward the rear flank of that massive warring army. (And within this group of weary riders, among others, were included: Timothy, Arthur Greyford, and Price Asa.)

  Yet, in order for such a meager force to do any good at all, let alone to have any hope for success, they had to have absolute surprise, which was Corwan’s part in their plan; To lure away the evil king, Surru, from his stolen globe (so that that fragile group of riders might have the chance to regain it, or, if that were not attainable, then to destroy it).

  And so it was, that as King Corwan rode to face the innumerable armies of Surru, from the front, the true attack came from the rear, catching the fragmented forces that did not go to attack Corwan completely by surprise. And moreover, their shouts for assistance, and the sounds of battle coming from near the Desert King’s globe were unheard, until Corwan was launched into the sky. And it was only then that Surru heard the noise of battle that King Corwan had referred to.

  Giving a cry of frustration, Surru flew on his lion toward the real battle, leaving his army confused and in disarray.

  The last cavalrymen of Ismere broke through the ranks of mostly underprepared foot soldiers, at the rear of the army, with blazing effectiveness. And Timothy rode at the head, alongside Asa and Arthur, since his animal was the fastest, and since he had his force-shield ready to barrel through the enemy line, like an unstoppable wedge.

  There were feelings of deep regret, as Barbara stood on their low hill, watching the two kings battle, knowing that she was solely to blame for losing her medallion and that it was the worst thing imaginable to grant an evil king the ability to be invisible.

  ���Do you think he’s alright?��� she asked Tavora, after King Corwan was launched into the sky.

  ���He’s been in wars before… I bet he’s had worse injuries,��� Tavora said.

  Though Barbara did not take that as the settled truth. And as the girls continued to whisper about the health of King Corwan, partially forgetting that they themselves were scheduled for execution, Surru soared overhead to remind them of that fact.

  ���Kill them!��� he shouted to their guard, as his lion flapped in the sky above them.

  Their hearts could have burst in their chests. Both girls had secretly hoped to have been forgotten about in the tumult of that morning, but now they knew that this was obviously not the case.

  Their guard closed in on them, and drew his sword. The sound of the metal blade being drawn out was the worst unforgiving noise they could have ever wished to experience. The girls pulled each other close, shutting their eyes tightly.

  Howbeit, the sword’s blade never came down to strike at them.

  And the reason for this will sound odd at first, until it is explained: The reason the sword never struck at them was because of kindness, kindness that was completely unearned and undeserved, kindness toward a man who had caused such violence and ruin, but kindness nonetheless.

  That morning, as the dawn light broke upon Oded, he found that his daughter had been taken, and that his ropes had been half cut, and that further, there was no one to attend to him. He pulled with all the strength left in his battered arms. The fibers of the ropes creaked and strained.

  Seconds later there was a roar that shook the stones of Ismere to their foundation: He heard the forces of Surru give a devastating battle cry and he heard their feet pounding the soil as they ran, or galloped upon horses, or upon lions. Rubbing the rope against the post he was tied to, the strands began to break. If this had been any other time, he would have a guard around him at all hours, but now the army was distracted with the promise of a final battle.

  And then, there was the sound of war behind him. He continued to strain at his bonds, as King Corwan was shot into the sky. With his last ounce of strength, Oded pulled at the ropes again, burning the hair and skin from his wrists. And for the first time in a year he was free.

  Running on lumbering and atrophied legs, he hurried to where Tavora and Barbara were held captive, as their guard lifted his sword to attack them. Having been confined for the space of a year, just that small run was more than enough to weary his bones and joints. Oded collapsed into their guard with all his weight, leaving both men injured and sprawled across the grass.

  Timothy caught a glimpse of the globe. ���It might work,��� he thought. This horrible, foolish plan might actually work. And so he rode as fast as he could toward the ancient device, using his force-shield to bash through the remaining soldiers.

  Only a few more strides, and the war would soon be over. Then, out of the sky like a silent massive hammer, Surru’s lion struck Timothy’s lizard in the side. Causing a two-part ch
ain of events: For one, it sent Timothy tumbling through the air, sliding upon the grass, causing bruises and aches to swell through his whole body. And the second part being, if you will remember, Timothy had insisted upon riding his lizard into battle that morning, and had fashioned heat pouches to either side of his animal to keep him warm, since all reptiles are cold-blooded. And because of this, the lion’s paws pierced into one of the heat pouches, splitting it open, and spilling out a sack of burning lamp oil, which scorched that winged-lion’s paws. She roared in pain, shaking Surru from her back.

  Disoriented, Timothy stumbled to his feet, and began to turn the brass crank to charge the globe. From the corner of his eye, he saw something flash in the reflection of the sun, and he dove away as Surru’s sword blade sliced the air only inches away from his face. Yet, when Timothy turned back toward the globe, the Desert King was vanished.

  Holding his forearm bands crossed in front of him, Timothy raised his force-shield as an invisible sword clashed against the energy barrier. For that brief flash, as that weapon pressed against his shield, he saw Surru’s face and noticed blood on the king’s forehead, and an awful wound on the Desert King’s shoulder.

  Though, being that it was impossible to defend against an unseen enemy, Timothy Hayfield hit his bands together once, making a bubble around himself. Timothy’s heart burned with agony; To be so close, yet unable to fight against the evil king, it enraged Timothy to his core.

  Then he saw the dials quickly adjusting, and the brass crank charging the globe. Light spun outward in colored circles. Soon the globe would be taken from Gleomu, and Surru would have learned from his errors, and they would never again have the chance to defeat him.

  Timothy had seen this so many times before that he knew the signs. The globe was now fully charged. His mind was settled, he would lower his defenses and run toward the device. Perhaps he would touch the face of it, before Surru.

  If only Barbara hadn’t been caught, he would not have to reckon with an invisible foe. Though he would not apportion very much blame to her. After all, it is what he would have done himself, disobeying orders to save a friend.

  The globe was ready. Timothy lowered his energy barrier, running in a full sprint toward the face of it. Yet, from out of the sky a flaming arrow sizzled past the globe of Gleomu. It was shot from the flying machine, with Ata and King Corwan firing burning arrows at the globe; Meaning that it had come to the part of their plan in which the globe must be destroyed. However, Ata was not a sure shot with the bow, and especially from that distance, and while standing in the cramped rear compartment of the aircraft.

  Then, Corwan stood to take his shot, as the blood soaked through his bandages. As a side note, it is often said that in times of great distress, when the lives of loved ones are in peril, that the body will be capable of incredible feats. And I believe that this might have been the case in this instance. As the bow string was drawn back as far as the good king had ever pulled it. And with a miraculous aim, the flaming arrow was released, and it pierced into the face of the globe, sending up a flash of light, and it began to ignite that ancient device.

  It then blinked invisible for a half-second, and when it was reappeared the fire was put out. Surru must have stamped out the flame with his hand, Timothy thought. Then the globe disappeared again. ���The arrow,��� Timothy thought. ���He must be going for the arrow.���

  And all this occurred as Timothy ran toward the globe. Raising his front force-shield, he rammed into the place where the arrow might have been, and he was right. The back portion of the arrow broke off as Surru tried to pull it free, leaving the point and a half-part of the arrow still buried into the globe’s face.

  Splinters dug into Timothy’s skin as he gripped the remaining portion of arrow and pulled, as if the fates of all worlds had depended on him. Though as soon as he had the arrow, he felt a cold and sharp pain, so deep that he’d almost not felt it.

  Barbara and Tavora ran toward the globe, hoping against all odds that they could manage to regain it. And as they hurried past wounded enemies whom Timothy had knocked into, as he rode toward the globe, Barbara was able to find a weapon, a bow and a quiver of arrows that were left unattended to, and Tavora found a simple ax, that had been owned by one of the foreign fighters, that she thought she might be able to wield.

  But as they approached the globe, it was the worst outcome they could have imagined. And these were the things they saw: Timothy rushing into an invisible foe, and then pulling the half-portion of an arrow from the face of the globe.

  And Barbara screamed with absolute fright, as she saw Timothy turn invisible for a brief moment, and then fall to the grass, having been stabbed through.

  And if there was a stab wound from an invisible sword, then there must also be an attacker. The blood boiled in her face, as she strung her new bow, firing an arrow toward the space near the globe where the attacker might have been. The arrow sung through the air, and vanished in an instant, and the imprint of a man lay motionless in the grass.

  Faster than they ever thought to run, the girls came to Timothy, kneeling in the newly blood stained grass.

  ���He set the dials for Eddesu. I had to stop him,��� Timothy coughed and spattered.

  Barbara could not hold back her tears.

  ���Shh.. shh…��� she tried to quiet him from speaking to save his breath, ���I know you did all you could,��� she said, cupping his face in her hands. She knew instinctively that this was a fatal wound, and if Timothy were to stay in Gleomu, he would die in less than a few minutes.

  ���I hear it,��� Timothy said, softly, meaning that he heard ringing in his ears. Though Barbara, herself, heard it as well, since she was still touching Timothy’s face.

  The broken arrow, held tightly in his hand began to brighten. Several feet away, an orb started forming around the imprint of King Surru, still lying in the grass. And now Barbara knew there was no way to retrieve that portion of the broken arrow from the invisible king, and that if Timothy stayed he would die in Gleomu, and if he went to heal himself in Eddesu, the Desert King would slay him there.

  ���Stand back,��� Barbara yelled to Tavora, with such imperative that it startled her friend, causing Tavora to jump to her feet and back away.

  The fright showed on Tavora’s face. ���Are you leaving?��� she asked.

  ���I have to,��� Barbara shouted, as an orb formed around herself and Timothy, so that her words became muffled.

  ���Oh, no… The time,��� she thought. But now it was impossible to speak to Tavora to ask how long they would have in Eddesu?

  And so she pointed at her wrist to give the Earthly gesture for a watch, as their orb lifted from the ground. But outside the orb Tavora’s face looked bewildered. And so Barbara tried another way, pointing at the sun and then toward the globe. ���What time?��� she mouthed the words very deliberately.

  And this time, Tavora understood her message, checking the dials, then holding up her index finger to make the sign for ���one���.

  ���One?��� Barbara said aloud, frustrated by this circumstance. ���One, what?��� she said. One minute, one hour, one day, one week, one month, or one year, all were possibilities.

  Yet before she could make this clear to Tavora, with some gesture, Barbara and the grievously wounded Timothy were shot away from Gleomu locked within a circle of light, along with the invisible king, in an orb of his own.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  One

  As it so happened, the arrow that Corwan had shot from high above the battlefield in Gleomu, had pointed directly toward the place where the ruins of the ancient king, Tiglath’s, palace had been.

  They descended through the ceiling of that massive vaulted building, with its multiple balconied and terraced floors. Yet, even while in ruins, the architecture was extraordinary, as if the builders had spent hundreds of years design
ing the intricate details of that structure, since time in that world hadn’t mattered.

  Barbara and Timothy landed on the main palace level, with broken stone and rubble all around them. Timothy was by then only barely conscious. Yet, somehow, Barbara managed to get him to raise his energy barrier, forcing her outside of the protective bubble, but creating for him an impenetrable defense against Surru’s invisible sword.

  The evil king had descended alongside them, and this was the most horrific circumstance she could have found herself in. The moon beams and dim starlight fell in a single column through the hole in the ceiling, but the rest of the palace was black to the core. Surru’s wounds, while deadly on Earth, or while back in Gleomu, would here soon be simple bruises, possibly within the hour.

  ���I know you’re here,��� Barbara called out into the darkness. ���Come and fight me,��� she said, but there was no answer.

  In this place, her senses were heightening by the minute, but still there was no movement in the vacant emptiness, and no sign of life either. And so she waited, with her bow in her hand, and an arrow ready on the string, along with Timothy’s broken arrow that he’d pulled from the globe, tucked away in her side pocket.

  And she waited, and waited, with the glow of Timothy’s energy barrier gently emanating from behind her. With each passing moment, her eyesight improving and her hearing becoming more adept.

  Then she heard it, the crunching of sand and fragments of stone scraping along the floor. The sounds that she heard, they were from footsteps. But nothing she would have ever heard on our world, without her now exceptional hearing.

  She fired into the pitch dark of the palace, where she’d heard the noise. The footsteps shifted in an instant, ducking away.

  Crunch, crunch, crunch, crunch.

  The footsteps ran with leaping steps toward her. She fired again, but its movements were faster than her arrow could fly at that distance. Yet, as the steps grew closer, running through the center column of light, Barbara’s eyes widened.