The Island of Two Trees

by Brian Kennelly

  He walked to the desk to blow out the candles.

  “Can you leave them lit?” Lucy asked. “I don’t want to be in the dark.”

  Connor nodded. “Sure, Goose.”

  He climbed into one of the beds and got under the covers as the girls cuddled in the other. Normally, when the three of them slept in the same room together, they would talk and giggle late into the night. But not tonight. Tonight, they were too afraid to talk about anything.

  14

  MEETING THE MASTER SWORDSMAN

  Connor awoke when the sunlight crept across his face. He glanced to the girls’ bed. Lucy was still snoring away, but Maggie wasn’t there. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. There she was, standing beside the open window where the light poured in, painting on the easel. He got up and walked over to her.

  “I couldn’t sleep,” she said without turning around.

  She dipped her brush into a small carton of blue and returned it to the canvas, touching up the sea that surrounded the island. She had painted it all: the mountain, the queen’s castle, the river and waterfall, the lake and village in the plains, and the forest. But one thing was missing.

  “Are you going to paint it too?” he asked.

  “I don’t want to,” she said.

  When he didn’t respond, she turned around.

  “Pretending like it’s not there won’t make it go away,” he finally said. “We have to destroy it ourselves.”

  Maggie sighed. She put down the brush soaked in blue and picked up a new one, dipping it into brown and black and mixing the dark colors on her palette. Moving the brush over to the canvas, she began to paint the Shadow Tree. Several minutes later, it dominated the east side of her painting, opposing the queen’s castle on the other side.

  She turned back around, pouting. Connor smiled and rubbed her back. “We’ll be okay. C’mon, let’s wake up Goose and get ready.”

  The children washed up and sifted through the wardrobes, searching for new clothes. They each found something suitable, though there was nothing in those wardrobes that would be considered “normal” for them to wear. The clothes were very medieval, as if they had been transported back in time to when people lived in castles and villages. That was probably fitting since they were, in fact, in a castle, and a village rested just below them in the plains.

  Connor threw on a pair of wool brown pants and a loose, white shirt that could be tied up around the collar with a small, rope-like material woven through button holes. The girls, meanwhile, felt a little overdressed. The only options they had were long gowns, mostly pink and purple, that flowed down to their feet, like the one Anastasia was wearing yesterday. Though that made them feel like princesses—which was always a plus for little girls—they still had their reservations.

  “If we’re going to be training for battle,” Lucy said, looking down at the dress, “I don’t think this is the right outfit.”

  “Maybe they’ll have something else for us there?” Maggie wondered aloud.

  Anastasia knocked on the door, retrieving them for breakfast. They followed her through the castle to a kind of kitchen bordering an open space with a long table in the center and a large fireplace against the wall. Over the fire, a black pot full of a delicious-smelling something roasted above the flames. It was much more casual than the dining hall they had eaten in last night with Lady Mysteria. But the children couldn’t have cared less about that; they were too busy enjoying the eggs, bacon, and toast put before them, as well as what was in that pot, which tasted a bit like oatmeal.

  When they were finished, Anastasia said, “Please come with me.”

  The children rose from the table and followed Anastasia through the castle yet again, this time a long journey down many hallways and several staircases. More of the queen’s subjects and knights were walking around, all going about a chore or duty.

  After a few minutes, they entered through an arched, wooden door and came through a narrow entryway, then down a few stone steps into a large, empty room. One skinny doorway stood in the corner, and two double doors were open on the far wall, letting in sunlight and the sound of chirping birds. Beyond the double doors seemed to be a balcony, much like the one the queen had taken them onto last night, though the children knew they were much lower in the castle now. From this lower perch, they could better hear the crashing of the waterfall outside.

  The children’s eyes quickly found the many weapons lining the wall. Swords, spears, bows and arrows, knives, maces, and lances were perched in the air, hanging on hooks or tucked into iron sleeves. It looked as though they had entered a room that was fit to arm a band of knights marching off to battle.

  “I will leave you now,” Anastasia said. “Good luck.”

  As they waited, Connor took the opportunity to walk the border of the room and scan the weapons. He had never wielded real weapons like this, only pretend ones during pretend battles with Daddy. He was both excited and nervous at the prospect of training with them. The girls also walked around, unsure of why they, little girls, would be expected to use such instruments of war.

  After the three of them circled the room individually, they met back in the center.

  “I wonder how long we’ll be waiting here,” Maggie said.

  Connor and Lucy shrugged.

  Not a minute later, a shadow cast from the balcony fell into the room. They sensed it at the same time and turned around. A man stood in the doorway, but his features were masked in the darkness of his silhouette.

  As he slowly walked inside, the children backed up. When he stopped in the middle of the room, his features finally became visible. He was dressed in an outfit that made him look like the Count of Monte Cristo, with baggy brown pants tucked into black boots, and a blue vest adorned in a gold crest and gold lining thrown over a puffy white shirt. He had olive skin and a narrow mustache, with long, wavy dark hair hanging below a black musketeer hat.

  He stood in silence sizing up the children with his hands crossed behind his back.

  He nodded to Connor. “You, step forward.”

  Connor gulped as he walked out in front of his sisters. Lucy and Maggie held hands behind him. When Connor reached him, the strange man thrust his arms out from behind his back, revealing two wooden swords. He tossed one to Connor.

  “Defend yourself!” yelled the man as he charged forward.

  “Connor, look out!” Maggie screamed.

  Connor fumbled the sword as he jumped back, thrusting himself into a defensive stance. The man lifted his sword into the air and struck it down upon Connor’s head, but the boy was able to lift his own sword to block the blow. In a flash, the man spun around, as if he were dancing, and swiped another blow across Connor’s side. Again, Connor was able to shift over and block it.

  The man then shuffled back with his sword pointed directly at Connor’s chest, and his free arm crooked over his head. Connor held his sword with two hands, crossed before his chest, as the two of them began to move in circles opposite one another.

  The man charged forward again and Connor again defended himself, blocking the sword-swipes that came at all corners of his body.

  “Leave him alone, you big brute!” Lucy screamed. She charged forward and leapt into the air, landing on the man’s back and strangling him around the neck. Maggie also jumped into the fray, lunging forward and throwing her arms around the man’s leg. Both the girls tossed punches against his body, Lucy on his head and Maggie his legs. Connor, meanwhile, stepped forward and took on an offensive role for the first time, hurling his wooden sword at the man. Amazingly, he was able to block each of Connor’s blows and fend off the little punches from the girls.

  All this went on for a very chaotic ten or twenty seconds. But then the man surprised the children by breaking into hearty laughter, yelling, “Alright, alright! I relent! You have me defeated!”

  Slowly, Connor stepped back, though he kept his sword raised high, and Lucy and Maggie fell off him and circled around to join their brother
. Despite the man’s obvious change in tone, they stood on guard. The girls’ hair was desperately frayed, and Lucy retained her angry grimace, one she had become famous for giving when someone upset her.

  “Wonderful,” the man said, collecting himself. “Just wonderful. You have the required fire. I was doubtful, but am relieved to see you have the will to fight. Now, we must simply show you how to fight. Allow me to introduce myself…I am Sir George, Master Swordsman and faithful servant of the Mysteria Queen.”

  He took a bow.

  “If you’re a servant of the queen, why did you attack us?” Lucy asked.

  “I wanted to see how you would react when confronted with unexpected aggression, especially this one,” he said, pointing to Connor with his sword, “since he will lead you across the island. I am pleased to see his skills are somewhat refined, but they do need work. As for you two girls, your passion and courage is reassuring. It will play a key role in your mission. Now, let us get to work. We only have but a few days to prepare you.”

  15

  TRAINING FOR BATTLE

  Connor, Maggie, and Lucy stood panting on the balcony as sweat dripped down their heads, keeled over and leaning on their knees. They couldn’t recall a time when they were this exhausted.

  After their rather dramatic introduction to George, the queen’s master swordsman got to work with them right away. He sent Maggie and Lucy into the corner room where they found something more suitable to wear for their training exercises, changing out of their dresses into white pants and a white shirt, like two fencers about to duel.

  Once changed, George led them and Connor outside. The balcony wrapped around the castle and funneled them into a doorway. But this doorway did not lead back inside the castle; rather, it led inside the mountain. The “doorway” was more of a hole chiseled out of the stone. They navigated their way through it and past a narrow passage that opened up into an immense inner chamber, lit up by giant torches hanging on the wall and a cone of sunlight falling through a hole in the upper crust of the cave.

  You might be thinking that they had reentered the Tabernaculum, and that the children were finally about to stand before the Mysteria Tree. But we are not at that part of the story yet. Indeed, this was a different chamber, one the children soon discovered was a training hall for the queen’s knights, a place where they could build their strength and refine their skills. Caches of medieval weapons hung on hooks, armor and chainmail were organized in piles, bull-seye targets littered with arrows lined the walls, and dummy manikins stood upright and tied to poles as practice tools for hand-to-hand combat.

  Yet in the center of all this stood an obstacle course that commanded the children’s attention. Perhaps you have run through an obstacle course before, at a summer camp or at a school field day, when you race through a series of jumps, climbs, and slides. But presumably those sorts of courses consisted of juvenile elements like swinging across monkey bars and tight-roping across a balance beam and hurdling over small pools of water. Presumably you have never navigated your way through an obstacle course that was meant to train knights!

  Sir George led the children directly to the start of the course, which began by dashing your way through a narrow, crooked path of boulders to reach a web of ropes hanging over a deep gorge. This was followed by the scaling of a twenty-foot cliff to a small plateau where one would ride a zip-line down across the open chamber, landing in wagons filled with hay, meant to break the force of your fall. Upon climbing out of the wagons, you would sprint across the stone floor—covering about one hundred meters—where a ring of fire (yes, a ring of fire!) about twenty feet wide burned atop hot coals. The next challenge involved leaping over the orange circle of fire and doing a series of push-ups, sit-ups and jumping jacks within it. Finally, after a leap back out of the fire, the course could be completed by sprinting about one hundred more meters to the finish line.

  Though at the present moment, the children didn’t know all that. From the starting point, the course just looked like perilous clutter, too chaotic and imposing to fathom. Sir George held out his arm in a wide, sweeping gesture.

  “I know you’re not about to say we’re going to be running through this thing,” Lucy said.

  “In fact, you are,” he answered with a smile. “We must build up your strength, agility, conditioning, and courage for your journey across the harsh terrain of this island.”

  Connor stepped forward. “Just show me where to start.”

  “Okay,” Lucy said, “You go ahead and get going, me and Maggie will be exploring the rest of the castle and looking for more princess dresses. Come on, Mags.”

  Lucy took a few steps away, but no one followed. She turned back around, met by their smirks. “Okay, fine,” she said returning to them. “Let’s do this.”

  The first time through the course the children shook as they climbed across the ropes above the gorge, staring down into hundreds of feet of darkness. Standing on the precipice of the cliff before the zip-line was no small feat either. The children moved slowly at first, prompting Sir George to bark at them like an army drill sergeant, pushing them to go as hard and as fast as they could.

  But after a few times through, the children got their feet under them and increased their pace. Connor was often out in front of his sisters, but would encourage them and wait on them at times. Lucy, being the youngest, would often lag behind, but her rambunctious nature served her well, for she rarely lacked energy.

  Other than the children and George, the giant hollow cavern remained empty for most of the day. Only a few knights stood by on watch, and a few servants brought the children water and food.

  When the day ended, after some thirty or forty times through the course, the children found themselves panting on the balcony. George approached them from behind. “Well done, today. Return to your rooms and get some rest. Day two of your training begins tomorrow.”

  “Are we going to be doing that awful obstacle course tomorrow?” Lucy asked.

  “No. Tomorrow we begin weapons training.”

  Anastasia returned and escorted them back to their room. She had dinner delivered directly to them, like room service in a hotel. They ate mostly in silence before the open window overlooking the water, enjoying the feel of the sea breeze against their overheated faces. Their bodies were sore and they looked forward to a good night’s rest. After eating, they each took a warm bath and hopped in bed, falling asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow.

  The next morning began the same way as the one before. Anastasia fetched them and took them to breakfast, then took them back down the castle to George’s training room. This time he waited for them in the middle of the room, twirling his wooden sword.

  “Welcome back, children. I will take things from here, Anastasia. Thank you.”

  The girl bowed and left as the children approached George.

  “You did well yesterday,” he began, beginning to walk around them like a circling shark and still twirling the wooden sword. “It was important first and foremost to prepare your bodies for what awaits you. But I know the queen has told you of the darkness that lurks on the east side of the island and what your mission is. Where you are going, enemies prowl, seeking the ruin of anything that is good. You will soon face an evil that is more powerful than anything you will find in your own world, and for this reason, you will need to arm yourself. Simple agility and strength will not protect you. Does what I say scare you, children? Do you want to flee? Or are you ready to take the next step in your training?”

  “We’re ready,” said Connor and Maggie in unison.

  “Yeah,” Lucy agreed. “Give us our weapons!”

  George smiled. “Very well, then, let us begin. Follow me.”

  He headed toward the balcony as the children shadowed him. He turned to the right and led them through the mountain doorway into the giant chamber. Some parts of the obstacle course had been removed; there were no more giant boulders or the wagon filled with hay, and the rin
g of fire had been put out, leaving only the coals in a circle of black soot.

  George led them to the very center of the chamber to a long wooden table. It was empty, save for a beige cloth draped over it.

  “Now,” George said, walking toward the table with his back to them, “in a moment you will each receive a different weapon. You will no doubt be unfamiliar with how to wield it, but today you will receive proper training from me. Each of these weapons has been crafted specifically for you and the mission you must carry out.” He stopped at the table and turned to face them. “I ask that you give me your best today, both physically and mentally. Yesterday was important and you did well, but yesterday pales in comparison to what you will do today. So let us begin. Lucy, my child, will you please step forward.”

  The youngest of the siblings walked over to Sir George as he began to pull back the cloth, revealing a row of small knives tucked into a line of narrow sheaths and hanging below a leather belt. He lifted the belt of knives and held it before her.

  “To you, Lucy, has been given these coral knives. Their blades are as sharp as any in all the realms, but all knives are sharp. What makes these special is their handles. They were shaped from the coral reefs surrounding this island. My finest knights prepared them for you, diving into the water and retrieving them so they could be smoothed down and crafted into what you see here.”

  Lucy’s eyes scanned the handles. They were an assortment of vibrant pinks, soft blues and purples, crystal ivory, and lime green.

  “With them, you will wield not just the protection of their blades, but you will carry with you the beauty of nature. Now, do you promise to not take them out until I begin my training with you?”

  “Yes, of course. Thank you…these are very pretty and they look like good protection. But…”

  “But what, child?”

  “I thought you were a master swordsman; how are you going to train me to use these knives?”