The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3)

by E. G. Foley

  “That looks dangerous,” Dani said as they rowed past.

  “That reminds me,” Archie spoke up. “We heard about an accident at the Harris Coalmine not far from here. Have you heard what happened? A collapse? An explosion?”

  “Neither,” Emrys answered with a frown.

  Archie furrowed his brow. “What then? Problem with machinery?”

  Emrys shook his head, knitting his bushy eyebrows together with a skeptical frown. “Believe it or not, the rumor is, it was some sort of animal attack.”

  “What?” Archie and Dani exclaimed in unison.

  “An animal attack in the mine?” Isabelle echoed.

  “What sort of animals live down here?” Jake asked rather anxiously. Great. Yet one more reason not to like dark, deep caves and underground places.

  “Don’t worry, nothing lives down here except for us and maybe a few bats,” Emrys said.

  “You’re not saying bats attacked them?” Archie asked with a dubious arch of his eyebrow.

  “No, no, I’m not saying that. It couldn’t have been bats! After all…” Emrys hesitated. “Bats don’t usually eat people.”

  “Eat people!” Dani exclaimed.

  Ufudd leaned closer. “Aye, according to the pixies, all they found of those men was a few wee bones!”

  Emrys snorted. “As if you can take the word of a pixie. Troublemakers!”

  Ufudd ignored him, holding up his pinky finger. “All they found was a finger bone of one. Part of a toe of another…”

  The children stared at him in horror.

  “What Ufudd is trying to say is that nobody really knows,” Emrys said in a longsuffering tone. “The Company is being very hush-hush about it.”

  “Well, the bones looked like they had been gnawed! According to the pixies,” Ufudd said.

  Dani finally found her voice. “You…have pixies around here?”

  “Oh, Wales is crawling with ’em, poppet,” Ufudd assured her.

  “Wait,” Jake said, striving for clarity. “So, those coffins we saw at the funeral earlier today—they were empty?”

  “Except for the few bones they found in the dirt,” Emrys answered with a sigh. “Poor fellows. That’s no way to go.”

  “Eaten,” Archie echoed, pondering it.

  “But by what? It wasn’t bats!” Jake exclaimed.

  “Wolf, bear,” Ufudd suggested.

  “Impossible!” Emrys blustered at the senior dwarf, leading the kids to realize that this had been an ongoing topic of debate in recent days. No doubt, as overseer of the mine, Emrys was responsible for his workers’ safety. He had to be concerned. “I don’t know what happened to those coalmen, but bears and wolves have both been extinct in Wales for centuries.”

  “Not the tame ones! Years ago when I was a boy,” Ufudd told the children, “a traveling circus came through and one of the trained bears escaped—”

  “Oh, don’t start with that again, you daft old thing,” Emrys muttered.

  But the littler dwarf ignored him, earnestly addressing the kids. “Maybe it found its way down into the mine and has been living there ever since.”

  “That was fifty years ago! Bears don’t live that long!”

  “Maybe it had cubs!”

  “What, by itself?”

  Ufudd just ignored him. “Bears like mountains. This is the sort of place where bears can thrive.” He nodded sincerely at the children.

  Emrys dropped his chin nearly to his chest. “Don’t listen to him, please. I swear he’s going senile.” He lifted his head, heaving a sigh. “A pack of feral dogs, maybe. But if you ask me, it was just an explosion blew those poor men to smithereens and the Company doesn’t want to admit it. Either that or someone deliberately killed them.”

  “What, like a murderer?” Jake asked.

  “Well, it’s a dashed lot more likely than a bear! Look around you. Anything can happen if someone isn’t careful. Lots of nooks and crannies where an enemy could strike under cover of darkness. Maybe somebody wanted those men dead.”

  “But there has to be a bear,” Ufudd insisted, “because the pixies were spying on the coalmen, who are all beside themselves with fright at this point—”

  “I should think so,” said Archie.

  “And the pixies said they overheard the humans saying that now a few of the pit ponies have gone missing, too.”

  “Pit ponies?” Isabelle asked.

  “Over in the coalmine, dearie, they use small ponies underground to pull the coal carts. They’ve got a whole underground stable at the Harris Mine, from what I’m told. And I’m very sure a bear would like to eat a pony if it got the chance.”

  “Ew,” said Dani.

  “All I know is that someone ought to get to the bottom of it!” Ufudd declared.

  “On that much we agree,” Emrys said. “Now can we please change the subject, Master Ufudd? You’re scaring the children.”

  “Oh! Dear me.” Ufudd hesitated, realizing that perhaps Emrys was right. “Well, no worries, children. If there is a bear, he won’t be getting into our mine! Not with doors like that.” The old dwarf pointed to a massive metal door at the top of a stone pathway that sloped up from the other side of the water. “Not even a goblin can slip past our security! Nasty little thieves.”

  “Goblins, too?” Dani cried.

  “Oh, don’t worry, my dear, they’re just little tree goblins. More of a local pest problem than anything,” Emrys hastened to assure her.

  “Talk about gold fever! They’re obsessed with it,” Ufudd chimed in.

  Emrys nodded. “They’ve set up a whole colony in the trees beyond that door just so they can be near the gold.”

  “What’s a goblin going to do with gold coins? Go on a shopping spree?” Archie asked in a quizzical tone.

  “They eat it, poor wretches,” Emrys said. The children marveled at this information. “They’ll swallow a gold coin whole if they get their little green hands on one. Pop it right into their mouths and gulp it down. Half the time they’ll choke to death—it gets stuck in their wee throats. If that don’t kill ’em, the gold is poison to their system and makes them dreadful ill. But that doesn’t stop ’em from wanting it.” Emrys shook his head. “You’d be shocked at the lengths they go to.” He leaned closer. “Want to see?”

  They eagerly agreed to this. None of them had ever seen a goblin, after all, and Emrys seemed to think it was perfectly safe.

  So off they went.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  A Goblin Mystery

  They rowed across the water until they reached the stony ledge on the other end of the flooded quarry. There, they climbed out of the boat and walked up the slope toward the mighty metal door.

  A few feet in front of the security door, Emrys opened a small hatch and pulled down a periscope, like one might find on a submarine (Archie’s newest craze, having completed his flying machine).

  Emrys beckoned Jake forward, cordially offering him the first look through the periscope. After all, he was the owner of the mine, not to mention the fact that goblins had established their colony on his property without asking anyone’s permission.

  “You can observe them through the scope without them noticing you. It’s camouflaged in the landscape. I like to come up once a week or so to make sure they’re behaving,” Emrys said. “Haven’t checked on ’em in a while. You’ll see we put up nets twenty yards outside the door to help keep them off. By this time of day, with the sun going down, the nets are probably covered with goblins. Yes?”

  “No,” Jake said in surprise, peering through the periscope. “There’s a crowd of them gathered around the base of one of the tree trunks. So those are goblins!”

  “I want to see!” Dani cried.

  Emrys stared at Jake. “They’re not on the nets? Are you sure?”

  “Are they little green creatures, about knee-high, with big heads and little skinny bodies? Pointy ears, gold eyes?”

  “Aye, that’s them,” Emrys said, sounding confused
. “May I?”

  Jake stepped back so the head dwarf could confirm it.

  Emrys grasped the handles of the periscope and stared through the viewer for a moment. “Hmm…” He turned the periscope this way and that. “The boy’s right,” he said after a moment, turning to Ufudd. “There’s something going on out there. I’d best go see what’s got ’em all riled up. This won’t take long. You’re welcome to come along and see the goblins if you like,” he told the children.

  Dani gasped.

  “You’ll be safe behind the nets, dear. Don’t worry, we dwarves have been dealing with the greenies for a very long time. Occupational hazard, you might say. Where there’s gold, there’s goblins.”

  “So, they’re not dangerous?” she asked.

  “Aye, unless you’re a pixie!” Ufudd said.

  Emrys explained this remark: “Tree goblins mainly eat grasshoppers and other insects, but they’ll gobble down a pixie without even thinking about it if they happen to catch one.”

  “So will birds, since they all share the trees,” Ufudd said, nodding sagely.

  “Yes, but they’re still goblins,” Archie pointed out.

  “Well, it’s true none of the goblin species are what you might call lovable, but the greenies are relatively harmless, especially to folk of your size. Granted, they can be vicious when they’re cornered. They’ve got the claws and teeth to do some damage if they feel threatened. But in general, they’re more scared of you than you are of them.”

  “Master Emrys knows how charm ’em,” Ufudd said.

  “Harrumph.” The head dwarf glanced at Jake. “I do think that at least Your Lordship ought to come along and see them, since they’re on your property, after all.”

  “I’d be glad to.” Jake welcomed the chance to step out onto the surface world again, among the trees and grass and sky. He could barely wait to get a breath of fresh, country air after these few hours underground.

  Emrys stepped forward to undo various complicated locks on the huge hydraulic door.

  Jake tilted his head in thought. “Do you think I should have the goblin colony removed?”

  The head dwarf gave a noncommittal shrug. “Nuisance that they are, I don’t really know where else they’d go, poor little wretches. I can’t speak for others, but myself, I can’t help but feelin’ a little sorry for ’em.”

  “I don’t,” Ufudd said flatly. “They remind me of this one’s Uncle Waldrick, only smaller. And green.”

  Jake arched a brow at the elderly dwarf in amusement, while Emrys stepped onto another weight-triggered mechanism; the massive door opened slowly with a puff of steam. Then Emrys put on a pair of little, wire-rimmed spectacles with darkened glass lenses to shield his eyes from the sun. “I’ll go first. You stay back a bit until I figure out what’s got them in a fuss.”

  Emrys marched out.

  Jake and the others followed a few cautious paces behind him, as instructed. The moment they stepped out into the fresh evening breeze, rich with its autumn smell, the pink and orange sunset dazzled their eyes after the twilight underground.

  Emrys was wise to carry his dark glasses with him.

  Since the kids’ vision had not yet adjusted, they could hear the chattering of the frightened little goblins, but missed the startling sight of them rushing back up into the trees by the hundreds.

  By the time the world came back into focus for them, they would not have seen the tree goblins anyway, on account of their chameleon-like skin.

  When Jake had seen them on the ground, they had been the same pleasant green as the surrounding ferns and mosses. But as they scampered up the tree trunks, holding on and climbing with their large yellowed claws, they began turning brown and grayish; and when they vaulted back up into the branches, some of the goblins turned red, others yellow or orange, depending on the colors of the autumn leaves in the trees where they hid.

  Emrys walked about twenty yards ahead and pulled up a section of the sturdy brown netting that protected the door to the goldmine. He ducked under it, then walked over to where Jake had seen the goblins gather.

  The kids watched the head dwarf walk around, looking up into the trees, and then searching around on the ground.

  Emrys suddenly stopped, staring down at something by his feet.

  “Did you find something, Master Emrys?” Archie called.

  The head dwarf glanced over grimly and nodded, beckoning to them.

  “No thanks, think I’ll stay back here,” Dani said with an uneasy glance at the colorful canopy of trees overhead.

  Isabelle stayed back with her behind the safety netting, and little Ufudd remained to guard the girls, but Jake and Archie hurried out to see what the head dwarf had found.

  Emrys gestured to them to slow their strides as they approached. “Be careful, don’t step on them.”

  “What is it? What have you found?”

  He pointed at the ground.

  Jake looked down then and saw them: three dead goblins.

  Their little greenish bodies were but stiff, dried husks, as if all the life had been sucked clean out of them.

  Alarmed and yet fascinated at this morbid sight, the boys bent down slowly, staring. Jake was surprised to find how the other goblins of their colony had apparently laid out their dead, arranging them in a row on a mossy stone veiled by a tuft of tall grass.

  The first looked newly deceased, but the other two had obviously been dead longer.

  “What do you think happened to them?” Archie murmured, poking at one with a twig.

  “Honestly? I have no idea.” Emrys shook his shaggy head uneasily. “Pixies didn’t do this. They’ll set traps for tree goblins to protect their own people among the branches. But pixies can’t do this.”

  “Do you think they might have found some gold somehow and eaten it?” Jake inquired. “You said it made them sick.”

  Emrys shook his head. “It doesn’t look like that when they die of gold poisoning, either.”

  “Maybe some other disease, then?”

  “Not one that I know of,” Emrys said.

  “Maybe they fell out of the trees and broke their necks,” Jake suggested.

  “That would be extremely strange. They’re born up there, it’s their natural habitat.” Frowning, Emrys glanced up into the trees again. “Maybe I can lure one down to tell us if any of them saw what happened.”

  He reached into the pocket of his waistcoat and pulled out a small nugget of gold. Lifting it toward the treetops, he gave a low whistle. “Come on, now, I know you’re up there. Look at this here! Nice shiny gold. Come on down and have a word with your old pal, Emrys.” The head dwarf let out a few sharp, chattering sounds, at which the boys glanced at him in surprise.

  He shrugged. “I’ve picked up a little of their language over the years.” He did it again, clicking his tongue in a way that was difficult to imitate.

  It was enough to snare the tree goblins’ attention. Of course, the real lure was the little gold nugget in his hand. Jake watched in wonder as a few small silhouettes crept cautiously down the tree trunk, head first. You could just barely make them out, so well their chameleon-like skins matched the mottled tones of the bark.

  As they moved closer, it was easier to see them despite their inborn camouflage. Their movement gave them away, along with the gleam of their yellow, catlike eyes.

  They wore tattered remnants of brownish rags around their waists for clothing. As three of the creatures crept into position a few feet above Emrys’s head, chattering warily, not taking their eyes off the gold nugget, Jake noticed that they had nasty sharp teeth. They looked like some strange blend of minor devils, squirrels, and tree frogs.

  Emrys used the gold nugget to persuade the goblins to explain what had happened to their dead companions.

  Jake and Archie listened to the exchange, mystified by the quick, staccato sounds the creatures made—even more so by Emrys’s attempts to answer them.

  “What are they saying?” Jake prompted
at last.

  Emrys shook his head with a frown. “This one here, with the tip of his ear bitten off—you see him?”

  The boys nodded.

  “I call him Striper. He’s usually one of the friendlier ones. Striper says this is the third day in a row that they’ve found one of their colony dead.”

  “Really!” Jake said. “No wonder they’re upset. Did he see what happened?”

  “Striper says he doesn’t know for certain what happened to the first two, but this third one today, he claims he witnessed the whole thing.”

  “What did he see?”

  “Striper says he was just sitting on a branch eating a chestnut when he happened to look over to where this one, called Momp, had wandered off by himself and was sharpening his claws against a stone. Then Striper says a black cloud floated up and suddenly surrounded Momp.”

  “A black cloud?” Archie echoed.

  “Or a bit of fog, or a wisp of smoke, or something like that. That’s what he said.” Emrys shrugged.

  Jake furrowed his brow in confusion. “What happened next?”

  “Momp went stock-still, staring straight ahead like he was frozen, while the black cloud swirled around and around him. A moment later, it disappeared, and as soon as it flew away, Momp fell over, stone dead.”

  The boys were silent, trying to make sense of this mystery.

  “A black cloud…” Archie pushed his spectacles higher up onto his nose in thought. “I wonder, could it be some kind of gas escaping from the mine?”

  “Gases don’t pick specific victims,” Emrys said.

  Jake nodded with a wary frown. “It does sound like a deliberate attack.”

  “Besides,” Emrys added, “the gases that can hurt you don’t have a color or a smell. This was a black cloud of some sort.”

  Jake scanned the surrounding landscape uneasily, looking for any sign of this mysterious black vapor. “Have you ever heard of anything like this happening before around here, Master Emrys?”

  “No! Can’t say I have.” The head dwarf scratched his shaggy head, obviously confounded.

  “What do you think it means?” Jake asked.