Chapter 31-The Four Elements
Hours seemed to pass wastefully back at the castle. All of the Knights had left except the ones who were present for the morning’s task. Brown and Alexander had disappeared after the previous night, and Harold had gone away on business, so the twins had no one to talk to. The two women had softened after returning to the castle, but after getting back to the castle, they had locked the hospital wing so that they could tend to Gregory in “Peace and quiet.” At least that’s what they said. This scenario left the twins alone to explore the castle for the first time.
They decided they would first try to find an entrance to the four turrets which surrounded the main tower. It was already late afternoon when they began their exploration of the grounds. The soft warm glow from the sun had heated the air outside while they were in the castle. As they stepped outside the doors, the strength draining blast of hot air took its toll on their systems. They looked at each other, questioning their choice to enter the heat, but in the end, Irgen stepped recklessly outside. After all he did control fire, why then should he be afraid of the heat?
They closed the door softly behind them. Still fearing reprisal from their mother, they left nothing to chance, which might jeopardize their opportunity to explore the castle.
Deftly, they stole towards the turret flying the dark blue flag. Its solid stone structure rose smartly into the air to the right of them. They approached the stone structure, and were disappointed to find no door around the massive circular base. Neither of them spoke, each of them were entranced by the magnificent building before them. They closed in on its complex and yet bare stone walls, searching for clues to its entrance, but nothing appeared. Disappointed they sat down in the shadow of the mighty building, leaning their backs against the smooth cold rock edifice behind them. Irgen began uprooting shoots of grass in frustration.
“You know Idus. I really thought magic was supposed to make life easier, not harder.”
“Yeah, I guess the grass isn’t always greener.” Idus replied with a sigh. As he did so, he felt his eyelids droop. In the background he could faintly hear his brother’s voice as he replied, but to Idus it was already fading. The shade from the structure created a very pleasant temperature. He felt his body relax, and then he disappeared into the realm of sleep.
He opened his eyes, and found, to his surprise, a strange grey haired man scratching his chin in front of the tower. The old man looked like he should belong in a museum, and definitely not in the 21st century. A large white toga flowed elegantly over his aging body. A grizzled white beard descended from a pointed chin. Scarred cheeks augmented the deep furrowed lines on his forehead. The man appeared to be in deep concentration over something, but what it was, Idus couldn’t tell. Suddenly he stooped down and lifted a very small rock off the ground. Idus wondered how it got there, as far as he could tell, the grass surrounding the castle had been free of the smallest rocks for centuries.
The old man peered silently at the rock for a moment, before it seemed to transform into water in his hand. The water trickled softly out of his fingers into the grass before him.
As it hit the earth, a small hole began to develop. It grew larger and larger, and a stone staircase appeared. Unsurprised, the man carefully set his feet onto the stone steps. As he did so, Idus saw a movement out of the corner of his eye. He turned and found a young man creeping stealthily towards the old man descending the steps. In the young man’s eyes, Idus could decree the same fury which had propagated his own a few days before. He tried to cry out, tried to run and warn the old man, but it was useless. He could not alter the past. He could merely sit and watch as the young man slipped silently into the hole, leaving Idus standing horrified by himself as the hole closed behind him.
Minutes passed like hours as Idus looked frantically at the hole, waiting to see what would happen. Finally the hole reappeared and the young man came sprinting out of the building as though the devil himself was after him. His eyes darted back and forth as he flew up the stairs. For a second they landed starkly on Idus and a bone chilling feeling came over him.
The eyes had changed in the time the man went down the tunnel. Blue flecks were all that remained of the once brilliantly blue eyes. They were replaced by ravenous red slits of a deranged soul. Greed seemed to emanate wickedly from those eyes as he reached the top of the staircase.
When the man reached the grass he calmed down and dropped the bundle he was carrying with a thud on the grass. The tunnel once again disappeared behind him as he spread out the filled linen sheet. The young man reached down and lifted a glittering blade with a flourish. Deep inscriptions lined the blade and the hilt. Idus gasped silently as he realized what it was. It was Alecto’s sword.
Next the young man reached back down and pulled out a brilliantly blue staff. It shined and glistened, turning different shades of blue as he twirled it in the air. Then he let out a gleeful laugh, and grabbing the linen sheet, he ran towards the gate. The gates slammed with a hollow thud behind him, and just as the dream dissolved, Idus looked back down and found the rock had reappeared right where it was before.
Idus opened his eyes to see Irgen peering questioningly at him.
“Wake up sleepy head. Was you havin’ a bad dweam?” Irgen said with a forced frown as he mimicked rubbing his eyes.
“Oh shut it!” Idus said with a smile as he playfully shoved his brother. “Actually, I think now I know how to get into the tower.” He stood up and Irgen asked:
“Wait, so do you mean to tell me you were doing something useful when you was a sleeping. I mean most of the time I just sleep. Yah know what I mean.” Idus rolled his eyes as Irgen burst into laughter.
“Cierra la boca.” Idus said after a while.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well for those of us who paid attention in Spanish. It means shut up. For you…” The two grinned at each other.
“Alright, alright, so what is this master plan you have for getting into this somewhat impenetrable structure?” Irgen asked as he confidently slapped the firm wall, and turned as though modeling the gigantic blocks of stone.
Idus scratched his chin as he looked at the ground. “We need to find a small rock of some sort, it should be somewhere around this building.”
“A small rock? What do we need a small rock for? We got plenty of big ones right here.” Irgen said as he pointed at the structure.
“Just do it, Irgen. I had this dream and…”
“A dream?” Irgen interrupted remembering his own with horror.
“Yes a dream.” Idus said softly thinking Irgen was about to make fun of him, but he didn’t, instead Irgen had fallen silent and was already searching intently for the stone.
“Tell me about it, Idus. Were you in it?” Irgen asked excitedly.
“Well, yes, I was in it, but only from a viewing perspective. I didn’t take part in any of the dream.”
“Oh.” Irgen said as he cast his eyes back down dejectedly as though to look for a rock.
“But it seemed to have happened long ago in the past. So I couldn’t be in it.”
“Hmmmmm. Tell me about it.” Irgen asked musingly, so Idus did. When he finished, Irgen looked brightly at Idus.
“What side of the building was this man standing on?” Idus slapped his forehead. He had forgotten the rock had reappeared, probably meaning the small pebble never moved unless picked up.
“Over on this other side. We were facing the castle.” They wandered over to the other side and began searching. It wasn’t long until they found it, sitting alone amidst the well-cared for tufts of grass, but as Idus went to pick it up he found he couldn’t. It was as though the little pebble weighed more than a large stone block.
“But how could the old man pick it up without any problem?” He thought whimsically.
“Because the old man turned the stone into water, he was a Water
conjurer. You are not one,” came Irgen’s soft voice inside of Idus’ head, “but together, we are one.” Idus nodded as he reached again for the pebble, expecting it to still be immovable, but it lifted free as lightly as a feather. Indeed it seemed to weigh about that much in his hand. He looked at it intently, and almost of its own free will it melted into water in his hand and gently cascaded through his fingers onto the ground below them.
The twins watched awestruck as stone grinded against stone revealing a large passageway chiseled in the rock before them. Wordlessly they slipped into the hole, and plodded down the passageway. In the tunnel, they found the strange cool feeling return to them. After descending a short while, they entered a large room. It was about the same size as the ones in the castle, but it was rectangular not circular. The walls were bare as well. Indeed except for a large spiraling staircase in the middle of the room, the room was completely empty.
The brothers exchanged dissatisfied glances, both had been expecting something a bit more glamorous, luxurious, and extravagant than this. They wandered slowly into the chamber, fully expecting that upon reaching a certain point in the room, the room would transform into a dazzling spectacle, but they reached the stairs and still nothing happened. Disappointed they began trudging up the staircase.
“Why don’t the stairs ever end in this place?” Irgen asked as he methodically plodded up the stairs. Idus didn’t answer, inside he was wondering what the next floor would contain. They ascended a long way on the staircase until finally they emerged out of breath onto the upper floor. Here the twins were not disappointed. They found that now they had to leave the staircase entirely, for it stopped at this floor.
They gasped as they entered the new beautiful room. The walls no longer looked like stone; instead, now they looked like the ocean itself. Idus went to the wall and tried to touch it expecting to feel cold hard stone, but instead his hand sunk forward into the wall. He pulled it back quickly in astonishment. He gazed at his dripping hand as Irgen came over to look at it.
“Well that’s a unique addition to a room. Wouldn’t you say so Idus?” Irgen asked playfully. On each side of the circular room, was a table. Each filled with scrolls in the strangest writing the brothers had ever seen. Soft bright blue velvet carpet covered the entire room. No chairs could be found in the room, the brothers assumed the floor had been made comfortable enough that chairs weren’t needed. The tables certainly seemed that way as they were about the same size as Aristotle’s table.
They wandered around the room for a while, searching for something useful, but eventually they gave up as none of the scrolls made any intelligible sense to them.
They mounted the staircase and headed down to the basement of the building. Once there, they marched towards the tunnel which reappeared as they did so. In quite good spirits, they left the tower. They were quite happy with their success in exploring the building, but as soon as they took one step out of the hole they stopped.
Before them, with an exhausted look on his face, stood André, it was the first time Idus had seen his father. His tired voice rang out as he grinned.
“You know what they say, when the cats are away, the mice will play.”
The Brothers Tuerl & The Staffs of Zeus Page 31