“Yes, she is actually,” said Arthur.
“You lucky guy, but won’t she end up ruling Discoucia?” asked Edward.
“No her father promised that she would be exempt from that, her sister Princess Alexandra will become High Queen Alexandra when her father passes away,” said Arthur.
“We’re just stalling for time, aren’t we,” said Edward.
“Yes,” replied Arthur, and with that they both walked into the grounds of the Tenebra estate.
The house seemed to be staring at them, and they walked carefully across the ground, feeling the ground for any holes. Edward led and Arthur followed, and they reached the front door, which was scary looking piece of architecture, and seemed to be swinging on its hinges.
“Were there really holes in the ground?” asked Arthur. Edward picked up a piece of broken brick from the floor and threw it into the fog. There was a silence, and a smash as it hit the floor.
“Sorry, but I had to prove that,” he said.
“And you gave away our position too,” said Arthur.
“Ooops,” said Edward, in a mixture of embarrassment and worry.
They pushed on into the house, and closed the heavy oak door behind them. The fog swirled after the jet of air that was created from closing the door. The House had now swallowed up Arthur and Edward.
A Very Big House in the Country
Jo had finished breakfast when Arthur and Edward were about to leave. Arthur gave her a kiss goodbye and joined Edward outside. She followed the maid who took her to Lady Lucy’s room; she had been very ill recently and had stayed in bed. Jo sat on a chair at her bedside, and for a second there was a little bit of awkwardness.
“So, Princess Josephine, by what fortune do you grace my humble home?” asked Lucy.
“I doubt that your home qualifies as humble, it is actually quite beautiful,” said Jo.
“Thank you, but you did not answer my question,” she replied.
“We got lost in the fog, and we saw your ghoul on the riverbank,” said Jo.
“Oh yes, I have heard it out there on the moorland, but it doesn’t frighten me,” she said.
“As I can clearly see, you’re all tucked up in bed behind a locked door and a large wall,” said Jo.
“Exactly, it’s good to be rich,” she said.
“I really don’t know how to reply to that,” said Jo.
“You’re much richer than I am, but you insist on taking the moral high ground, why?” asked Lucy.
“I don’t put much importance on money and wealth, if I lived with Arthur in a hut then I would still be the richest person on Alavonia,” she said.
“I in turn do not know how to reply to that,” said Lucy.
“Are you really ill, or do you just not wish to get out of bed?” asked Jo.
“Could we please talk about something else?” asked Lucy.
“Very well, tell me about the Great Rim,” said Jo.
“It is a massive range of mountains and at the top is a massive blue dome, no one knows who built it but it is too high for anyone to climb,” explained Lucy, who had now gotten out of bed and walked over to the window.
“What are you looking at?” asked Jo.
“There in the east you can just see the mountains, they are so high that on a clear day even the tops cannot be seen,” she said.
Jo walked over to look, and she did see the mountains, which were immense by anyone’s standards. “So that is the Great Rim, and how do you know of a blue dome if no one has been able to climb that high?” asked Jo.
“There is an observatory in the Astral Castle, not as big as the one on Tomo but with it the skyentists could see up into the mountains, and they saw that the dome exists and it is incredibly huge,” explained Lucy.
“Is there an entrance to the mountains?” asked Jo.
“There is only one; no one has ever been in, come with me to the library and I shall show you,” she said.
Lucy got dressed and took Jo into the huge library that was full of multi-coloured books of all sizes. Lucy found the book she sought quite quickly; it was bound in blue leather and had some beautiful gold binding. “The Legend of the Twilight Vale by Sir Alfred,” read Jo out loud.
“This is one of my favourite books because it sounds like such an amazing place, even though it couldn’t possibly exist,” said Lucy.
“Why couldn’t it be real?” asked Jo.
“It’s too impossible, the place is safe all the time and it can only be entered through the Gates of Destiny, which are made of solid granite and are impenetrable. Then there is the account of what it looks like inside, blue everywhere. Only problem is that the one person to write about the inside says that it is like a dream and he has no empirical evidence to support what he claimed,” she explained.
“What would you do to visit it?” asked Jo.
“I would stay there forever,” she said.
“What about your home and your husband?” asked Jo.
“I hate it here, it’s cold all the time and there is something that I have never told anyone,” said Lucy, pulling up her sleeve. She had several bruises on her arm, and they looked quite painful.
“How did you get those?” asked Jo.
“How do you think?” she asked.
“No, that cannot be true,” said Jo.
“I have wanted to leave here for months, but Edward wouldn’t allow it,” said Lucy.
“So he did this to you?” asked Jo.
“In the summer I’m an accessory, but in winter I’m a burden,” she said.
“Why can’t you leave?” she asked.
“I’m in the middle of nowhere, what can I possibly do? And I have thought about it for a while, but I don’t even have anywhere to go. My mother and father are dead, my home is now owned by Lord Yage for one of his wives, all I have now is this life here,” said Lucy.
“If he is bruising you like this, then you need to come with me,” said Jo.
“Where to?” she asked.
“The Twilight Vale,” said Jo.
There’s no Hound Around, not a Sound, and it can’t be Found
The foyer of the house looked as bad as the outside. At the end of the room was a large door, and on either side was a staircase, that led to different rooms. Arthur gasped, when he thought he saw a man in the corner, but it was actually a suit of armour. Arthur walked up to it and inspected it. The helmet was dark, and the rest of the body was made of a dull metal, that had long since lost its sheen. There were rotting green drapes hanging from the crumbling plaster walls, and inside the windows let in very little light.
“Where do we check first?” asked Edward.
“Where would the smoke be coming from? You know the place better than I do,” said Arthur.
“Let’s try the main sitting room,” said Edward. They walked over to the door, and Edward opened it carefully. Some falling crumbs of plaster fell on his hair, and when they opened the door they strained their eyes to see inside. The sitting room was large, with the same plaster and fixtures as the foyer.
“This place has seen better days, who were the last owners?” asked Arthur.
“The Franklyn family, they were trying to turn this into the biggest fortress west of the forest, but they ran out of money, peasants,” he said. Arthur then felt rather awkward; the rich people in the Discoucia were much more polite when it came to their treatment of less well off people. But Sir Edward seemed to be different, an arrogant country sort who had space enough to develop his own opinions of the rest of the world, and could inflict them on the poorer farmers that he allowed on his land.
“So tell me Arthur, what your opinion of the lower classes is?” asked Edward.
“I think that money isn’t a blessing but instead a chock that divides people, to be honest I have more money than I will ever need. However I don’t count my self-worth in how much I have, it’s what I do with my life that will determine my character,” explained Arthur.
“Very nice
speech, you have your opinions and I have mine,” he said, and they pushed on through the house. They came to a room which was obviously the kitchen, and they found the source of the smoke.
The stove had been burning from the night before but Arthur noticed that something was missing, but he didn’t say anything as it was something so glaringly obvious. However Edward didn’t seem to notice, which made Arthur even more suspicious. “So this must have been what was causing the fire, but it doesn’t actually answer any questions,” said Edward.
“No not at all, but I think we should split up, you go upstairs and I will check the cellar,” said Arthur.
“Very well, yell if you get into trouble,” said Edward, who headed through a door at the back of the kitchen.
Arthur walked back into the foyer through the sitting room, and found that there was a door below the staircase and Arthur opened it. The door didn’t creak like he expected it to and when Arthur felt the hinge, it was covered in oil. “Something about this doesn’t make sense” said Arthur, who pressed on down into the cellar. He then found his answer in the cellar room.
It was a dark place, which had a small amount of light coming in from the holes in the roof, and the floor was covered in grey dust. Arthur walked over to the back wall, and on it were chained two figures. One was a skeleton, with rags from where the clothes used to be. The next figure was a woman, who looked quite old, with long grey hair and ragged clothes. She seemed to be asleep.
“Excuse me, but what are you doing down here?” asked Arthur.
“I…I…who are you?” she asked.
“Oh my lord, you’re alive? Sir Arthur Pageon here from Discoucia, let me help you down,” he said.
“I’m so cold,” she said. Arthur looked around for something that he could use to get her off the wall, and instead found what he thought was a pile of fur coats. In fact it was a costume, of the ghoulish creature…
Arthur then found a crowbar in the corner next to a pile of other tools, which just added more answers to the mystery. Arthur broke the chains off the wall and got the woman down. “Who are you?” asked Arthur.
“I am Lady Elisa Franklyn, and the poor soul you see on the wall is my late husband,” she said.
“You must be freezing, put this on,” said Arthur, handing her the hideous looking costume.
“I can’t wear that!” she said.
“Look, it’s either this or my jacket, and that isn’t very warm,” said Arthur.
“Oh well, if I must I must,” said Elise weakly. Now Arthur was standing next to the ghoulish creature, which stood staring with horrific red eyes, and jet black claws. They made for the stairs, but out of the gloom came Edward, holding a gun.
“I see you’ve discovered my little secret,” he said, walking them back and he stood beneath a shaft of light coming through the floor.
“I guessed it for a while, a stove without any food, you knowing exactly where you are going and the whole ghoul routine but please fill me in with the details of why,” asked Arthur.
“One simple thing, control,” he said.
“Control of who?” asked Arthur.
“The stupid farmers, they think something is out to get them at night so they stay in and don’t get out of line, and Lady Franklyn here just got in the way. I needed a ruined house to conduct my business from and this one was the easiest. Ruining her family and her home was easy,” explained Edward calmly.
“So what happens now?” asked Arthur.
“You are going to stay here, I’ll tell the princess that you were mauled to death by the monster and Lady Franklyn will continue her life down here much as she has done,” said Edward, in a horribly calm voice.
There was a puff of pink smoke, and a piece of paper landed onto the floor in front of Edward. “Is this a trick to distract my attention?” he asked.
“No, but I think that you should read it, it is from Persus of course,” said Arthur. Edward picked it up, not once taking his eyes of Arthur and Elise.
“People like you deserve one thing, help from above,” he read. Edward looked at Arthur with a puzzled expression, and Arthur smiled.
There was a silence, and then Edward looked up. He saw a small black object fly out of a window and sail down at him. He was so mesmerised by the object that he failed to get out of the way, that the object then came into contact with his forehead. It was a brick and it knocked him completely senseless, which made him crumple to the floor in a heap.
“Run,” said Arthur, who grabbed Lady Elise’s paw and pulled her past Edward and up to the top of the stairs.
“I can’t run,” she said.
“Then I’ll carry you,” said Arthur, who picked up Elise and carried her through the garden while carefully avoiding the holes in the floor. They made it out of the ring of trees and were greeted by an unexpected sight. It was nearly dark and in the field was parked the Nostradamus, and Jo was pacing up and down the deck.
“Start her up, Jo, we’re leaving for the Twilight Vale, screw the Astral Castle, let’s just get to safety!” shouted Arthur. Jo never asked about the fact that Arthur was carrying a horrible creature, but she had since learned not to question such things. The ship lifted off and blasted towards the Great Rim and it wasn’t a moment too soon, because Sir Edward had begun to wake up…
Voyage’s End
The Great Rim was invisible at night and from the deck of the ship Arthur saw in the distance the lights of the Astral Castle. He wished that he could go and see it, as his lifelong dream is to see all the wonders of Alavonia. The ship sped across the flat land that lay between the forest and the mountains, and Arthur returned to the sitting room where there were three women inside.
Lady Franklyn was asleep on the settee with a blanket covering her. Jo was sat on a chair, as was Lady Lucy. “Edward is not going to be happy, but I don’t think this could happen to a better person,” said Arthur.
“I’ll drink to that, if I had a drink,” said Lucy.
“Oh no, I have no idea what we are going to encounter ahead but we should be in complete control of our faculties nonetheless,” said Arthur.
“The book says that we should land the ship in the sheltered cove above the main door, and that way it will be safe from anything coming towards us,” said Lucy.
“You know an awful lot about this, don’t you?” asked Arthur.
“It’s my favourite subject, so you’re in my territory now, boy,” she said in a cocky voice.
“Well we have never actually been formally introduced, it’s nice to meet you Lady Lucy,” said Arthur.
“It is nice to be here, thank you both for taking me away from Sir Edward and I’m sure Lady Franklyn here will agree with me,” said Lucy.
“I’m sure she will, poor woman, what he did was barbaric,” said Jo.
“I hope that Archie will be able to help, I know it is unfair for us to bring her someone to take care of,” said Arthur.
“If everything she has said is true, then I think that she will be more than capable to cope,” said Jo.
The ship got about a hundred yards from the mountain face, Corky stopped the engines and Arthur went down to his room to find out what was going on. “I can’t go any further sir, I don’t want to harm the girl,” said Corky.
“We do have lights, you know, and I think we should use something we haven’t used in a long time; drop the anchor,” said Arthur.
“All the way?” he asked.
“No, till it’s about a metre from the floor, then I’ll get out and guide you to the cove,” said Arthur.
“What cove?” he asked.
“There is a sheltered cove that you can park the ship while we are inside and there are shops around the Astral Castle if we are gone for too long, so you can survive without us,” said Arthur.
“Are you going to be gone long?” asked Corky.
“No idea, this is going to be a bit different, you see we’re going in to the mountains, all four of us, and we don’t know how long it
will take,” said Arthur.
“Well you be careful lad, and make sure you and your missus get back in one piece,” he said.
Arthur smirked and walked out of Corky’s room. When Arthur was on the deck he let down a rope and tied it to the banister. Before he climbed down he saw Jo and Lucy laughing through the window, and he felt happy that Jo had found another friend. He climbed down and the ground was very rocky. After walking over to the anchor which was hanging down from the ship, he pulled it up the small slope around the still unseen door. There was a group of rocks that Arthur wedged the anchor in, and Corky turned on the ship’s floodlights. The whole area was illuminated and Arthur saw the door, which was huge, about twenty feet tall, and was such a simple looking door that it could have been missed by the normal rock climber.
The ship landed in the sheltered area above the door and they looked out across the dark and empty landscape, and then up at the invisible tops of the mountains. “Come here Arthur, I want to show you something, have you got a sledgehammer?” asked Lucy.
“I think you know the answer to that,” said Arthur, who walked down into the hull and reappeared with a large hammer.
Lucy took it, and she walked over to an outcrop of rock, and swung the hammer so hard that when it hit the rock, Arthur and Jo thought that there would be a spray of rock, but that never happened. The hammer smashed into the rock and bounced off. Lucy had to steady herself when the recoil came back through the hammer handle.
“What type of rock is this?” asked Arthur.
“It’s Blue Granite, so hard that the only mine in this whole range is only six feet long,” said Lucy.
“She has definitely fortified herself well,” said Arthur.
“Do you honestly believe that Authos lives in there?” asked Lucy.
“You read the book, didn’t you?” asked Jo.
“That was just a romantic fantasy, it couldn’t possibly be true,” said Lucy.
“I’m going to sleep,” said Jo.
“I’m not, we’ve come so far already and I want to carry on, and I don’t think you would allow me to go alone,” said Arthur.
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