Omasa excused himself and moved to the top of the stairway to block the door into the aircraft. One of the knights was now arguing with the policemen about something. Chris watched as the two girls were hurried onto the plane and took seats a few rows away from him. They were both focused on the tarmac and did not seem to notice Chris was even on the plane. Down on the tarmac it looked like things were escalating. The policeman was looking very agitated and demanding the plane wait for the search team to arrive. He’d evidently had enough from the knight because he demanded she turn around and place her hands behind her back.
She did. The man moved forward to place cuffs on her and was confronted by Omasa. Omasa looked over at the airport security and one of them walked over and started saying something to the policemen. The policemen were not having it though and the lead one grabbed Omasa by the arm and whirled him around to slam him down on the hood of the town car. Somehow the cop slipped and ended up striking his head on the town car and falling to the ground instead. The other cop took a step back and pulled his service revolver and aimed it at Omasa. Instead of turning and putting his hands behind his head as instructed Omasa neatly side stepped as the cop opened fire and brought down the flat of his sword hard over the man’s extended arms.
The gun hit the ground and clattered away as the man yelped in pain. The airport security had their weapons out now as well. Omasa walked calmly over to the captain and spoke with him for a few minutes. The captain nodded and started barking out orders. His men collected up the two injured policemen and worked on getting them comfortable. The captain spoke to Omasa and animatedly pointed to the sky after consulting with someone over his radio. Omasa shook the captains hand and walked back up the stairway and onto the plane flanked by the two female knights. He stopped and spoke briefly to the pilot of the Gulfstream before walking back to sit down by Chris again.
The pilot came on the overhead speakers a minute later. “Hello everyone. We’ll be taking off now. We’ll be doing it rather quickly as we suspect the enemy is approaching. Please ensure your seatbelts are fastened and prepare for evasive maneuvers if needed.”
With no further warning they began rolling rapidly down the private airstrip. Staring out the window behind them Chris saw more cars driving onto the tarmac behind them. They were too late as the engines of the Gulfstream pushed them into the air quickly after that. Chris asked Omasa what had happened down on the tarmac.
“Agents of the enemy got the local police all riled up about us being drug mules. Those two down on the tarmac were the advanced guard. The one I knocked out was probably on the enemy’s payroll or reported to someone who is. They weren’t trying to do anything but delay us until the enemy was able to get here.”
Something had been bothering Chris. “Sir, you keep calling them the enemy or the horde and stuff like that. Do they have a name? It all seems kind of vague. Who are we fighting?”
Omasa continued to stare out the window. Chris gave him time to collect his thoughts. “Are you familiar with the Christian bible? I know your family went to church pretty regularly but have you actually read it?”
Chris had. He’d read pretty much anything that was laying around if he didn’t have a book of his own to occupy him. He’d been struck by how different reading the bible was from going to church. A different message from a different time but the message was as relevant today as it was two thousand years ago. Plus, Glenda had challenged him to do read it. He nodded at Omasa.
“Ok. There is a passage in the bible where the prophets run into a man possessed by a demon and they ask him what the name of the demon is. The demon replies that his name is legion, for we are many.” Omasa paused to reflect on his own words for a second then kept going. “The horde, the enemy, the bad guys, legion, or whatever you want to call them have been around for eons. We’ve captured and tortured their foot soldiers and leaders. The only thing we’ve been able to figure out is that they’re too big and too old of an entity for us to figure out. We believe they’re spread across the whole entirety of the universes. They seek to enter all the worlds and dominate them. Their forces are made up of humanoids, monsters, demons and then it starts getting weird. If they turned their full attention on us we’d be dead. If they manage to get a portal fully open and keep it open for long enough then this whole planet is toast. The ones we fight here barely outnumber us but they get reinforcements periodically and they don’t have any concerns about collateral damage. We only get the reinforcements we breed ourselves.”
“Reinforcement by breeding. Is that working?” Chris asked.
“No your highness. Every year there is less and less of us. The assassins of the enemy target the royal family and the most powerful of the nobles. They try and weed out the power so that the rest of us are forced into hiding and can’t defend against them. At this point, you are the royal family whereas it numbered in the hundreds when we first came through the portal. I wouldn’t be shocked to discover more royals out in the world in hiding that we don’t know about. You’re the public face of the royal family now though. Also, the hottest assassination target on the planet.”
That sobered Chris right up. The fact that the whole planet hung in the balance was something he had not considered before. How did the regular people not know about the Xandians among them?
“Oh. But they do know about us.” Penny had heard them talking and now she swiveled her chair around to face Chris. Chris almost forgot what they had been talking about as he was so surprised to see the chairs in this airplane could be swung around. “They know about us and they sponsor fun activities like the Spanish Inquisition and the Salem Witch Trials. That bible you just spoke about clearly states in the King James version that thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. As a witch, I take that rather personally. Especially since a lot of witches and wizards have converted to Christianity over the years. I’m still not sure how they justify that to themselves but they seem happy. We’re known by the common people as rumors and myths. The higher up the ladders you move the more people know the truth. Then again, the higher up the ladder you go the more likely you are to be talking to either one of us or the enemy. It’s a delicate political game we play. You’ll get to be in charge of all that excitement once you pass your trials. Assuming you’re not assassinated or don’t die in the trials of course. Bottled water with lime?” Miss Penny held out a small bottle of fancy fizzy water to Chris. It had a picture of a sliced lime on the front of it. He almost dropped it as he was still a little preoccupied by how casually she brought up his never making it to the legal age to drink. She spun her seat back around with a cavalier wink and a smile.
Chris turned to ask Omasa another question and saw that he’d nodded off again. The two girls who had boarded the plane after he did were both whispering and staring back at him. He smiled and waved at them and the younger one spun her chair away from him with her hand over her mouth to hide her giggles. The older of the two inclined her head into a bow which Chris acknowledged by dipping his head briefly as well. The girl then turned her seat the other way. An hour later the pilot came across the overhead to let them know they would be landing soon. Everyone began preparing to land by gathering their belongings together and chunking their trash in the forward trash container.
Chris felt the plane begin to dip and heard the thud of the landing gear going down. They’d been flying for a little over six hours at this point and Chris wondered where they were. He looked out the windows and saw they were descending into the ocean. He looked as far forward as he could expecting to see an island of some sort but nothing was there. They continued to fly lower and lower as they moved in to land on what appeared to be the ocean. Chris saw Omasa looking at him so he turned back out the window and really focused. The water melted away and he could see now that there was an island they were landing on. No matter how hard he focused he could not see it clearly though. He was focused so hard he was giving himself a headache when they touched down.
As soon as
the wheels touched the landing strip the illusion melted away and Chris could see the island they had landed on clearly. It was beautiful. Lush rain forest looking jungle surrounded the short airstrip. A very large estate was situated at the end of the airstrip. Large areas of the island were linked together via covered walkways with Romanesque buildings scattered all around. The island was low on one side and went right into a boulder strewn sandy beach while the other side looked like it swooped way up before crashing down into the ocean. Chris saw people wandering around all over the property. Focusing in confirmed that everyone he saw looked the same so disguises must be discarded on the island like they had been back at Miss Penny’s manor.
The people on the island were dressed in robes for the most part in what looked like a school uniform. The majority of the people he saw were young. He’d guess most of the people he could see from the window as the plane taxied to the end of the runway were in their early teens. They were dressed in a similar style to the robes he wore but in a variety of colors. Many of them carried staffs while some of them had various other items strapped to the outside of their robes. One of the big benefits of the robes was that they were voluminous enough to hide a lot of weapons or other gear underneath them and in the numerous inside pockets.
The plane rolled to a halt and the door was opened letting in a burst of warm salty air. They waited as a mobile stairway was guided over to the door to allow them to walk down to the tarmac. Looking out the window Chris saw several high-end planes were parked at the end of the broad tarmac. He was staring out at the other planes and wondering what countries they were from when he heard a soft cough. He turned around and the two girls who had boarded the plane were staring at him expectantly. He locked his eyes on them and they both bowed deeply. Then they fell to their knees and did the salute. Chris, feeling a little embarrassed for them, hurriedly told them they should rise.
The younger girl started gushing. “We didn’t know you were the king. Sorry. You just look so normal. Not like a king. Not in a bad way though! I just always pictured kings as taller and really handsome!” She stopped talking and blushed bright red as her sister stepped on her foot and Chris continued staring at her wondering where she was going with all that. Did that mean she didn’t think he was handsome?
“Your highness, please excuse my sister. You’ve got her a bit flustered. She’s never seen a purple robe up close before. We pledge our fealty to you and please call on us as needed. I’m Brittany and my younger sister here is called Nicole in the common speak. We are both of the clan of Emptor. Good luck with your training and the trials.”
With that the two girls turned and left out the front door of the plane which now had the moveable stairway firmly attached to it. Chris realized he had not really said anything during the whole exchange. The sisters had carried pretty much the entire conversation for him. Omasa nudged him and smiled.
“Remember how I told you the royals are paired up to keep the race strong? That doesn’t happen by magic. Most times powerful families with daughters and sons of high potential will curry a lot of favors to do things like get their daughter on board the same plane as the new king. The new king who happens to be single and lonely.” Omasa and Wessel both laughed at the stricken look on Chris’s face.
“Apart from that my lord.” Wessel brought up another question. “Are you curious where you are?”
“I’m going to guess a hidden island in the Bermuda triangle which I guess explains where all the missing ships and boats end up…” Chris answered.
Wessel looked impressed. Omasa looked like he figured Chris would have figured that out by now. “Yes sire. Good job. Like we talked about before illusions don’t work on videos. They also don’t work to hide us from spy satellites or ship and plane radar. We do what we can but we have had to capture crews and sink ships and airplanes over the years. We typically either let them retire here or we give them the option for us to wipe their memories and drop them off in some foreign part of the world. Most decide to stay here.”
Chapter 9: The Hallowed Halls
Wessel took the lead as they walked off the tarmac towards a large group that had gathered in front of the great hall to greet them. The eclectic group included wizened looking warriors and wizards as well as fresh faced students. As Chris approached they all went down on one knee and extended their hands in the pledge of fealty. Chris was starting to wonder how he was expected to attend classes and learn anything if everyone kept bowing to him all the time. He was going to end up being some kind of major teacher’s pet on a pedestal so high he’d be bound to attract a lot of haters.
Chris and the group he was with stopped in front of the kneeling group of greeters. Chris motioned for them all to rise and said thank you to them as they did. He really needed to find a book explain the protocol so he could stop making random awkward gestures every time someone decided to do the kneeling thing. Maybe as king he could just go ahead and make the kneeling obsolete. He was already sick of it. He didn’t feel like he had done anything to earn or deserve it.
The woman in the front of the delegation stood up and walked over to Chris. She bowed deeply to him. “Hello your highness. I am the headmistress of these hallowed halls. My name is Locasta. I’d like to give you a quick tour and wind up in the dining hall if that sounds good to you?”
Chris agreed out loud that sounded like a good plan. Internally, he was wishing she’d just send a plate of food to wherever he was going to be sleeping. He was exhausted. Everyone was standing around Chris now taking the time to formally introduce themselves to him. He noticed they introduced themselves with their common names and then their family names and clan. He began to wonder how he should be introducing himself since he had no idea what clan he belonged to. He mentioned the conundrum to the man with the huge white beard who was currently introducing himself. The man smiled down at him.
“Royals have no clans sire or rather they are a member of all the clans. To be a royal is to be of all the people. You get the name your mother gave you and eventually you may get some sort of honorific added to it but mostly you’ll be Chris. Once all this kneeling and fealty pledging dies down I imagine you’ll notice you get treated a lot more normally. I know I’d hate all this attention myself.” The man smiled through the thick beard and wandered over to speak to Wessel. He left Chris feeling a lot better knowing there was a light at the end of the tunnel as far as all this bowing and kneeling and pledging stuff went.
The group began moving towards the giant grey manor. It was similar in architecture to the house Miss Penny had in New England but far larger. The closer they got to it the larger Chris realized it was. He finally remembered to try and focus and saw that there was some sort of illusion making it look smaller. Miss Penny had been looking closely at him as they moved towards the manor.
“Aye sire. If you look closely at a lot of the things around here they tend to change. You’ll notice if something is outside and it is covered from being easily seen from the sky then there is a very good chance it is not what it seems.” She pointed over at a small garden with a circle of shiny rocks around it that was under the cover of a large white cloth roof. Chris peered directly at it and after a second or two of shifting his focus and moving his head about he saw that the rocks were all glowing brightly. He looked back at Miss Penny but she just smiled and kept walking. That must be something he’d learn about later. He filed it away with the million other questions he had and kept walking.
The entrance to the hallowed halls was a huge archway with giant doors that were both standing open. There was a large alcove inside the doors that would easily hold fifty to a hundred people at once. Inside this alcove had been set out trays of refreshments. Chris grabbed some cheese and a large glass of some sort of bubbly juice from one of the trays as they walked through. He wasn’t sure what he was eating or drinking but they were both delicious. Lacosta pointed out things in the alcove that had been charmed to perform certain functions. A lot of it was
very practical like the floors were actually sucking dirt and mud off their feet and ferrying it away so they would not take it inside. The large mirrors hanging on the walls showed what you looked like with your illusion charm. They could be used to check yourself before you flew off to the rest of the world.
There were paintings of the kings and queens scattered around the alcove as well. Chris was gazing at them as they walked hoping to spot his biological mother. As they neared the end of the alcove Chris noticed Omasa and Miss Penny move closer to his side. Omasa put his hand on Chris’s shoulder and pointed at a large portrait of a beautiful woman with deep brown eyes and flowing brown hair. The portrait showed her on a boat with the seas bouncing her around roughly by a fog covered pier. Her face was resolute as she began casting the spell of forgetfulness. In the foreground of the picture Chris recognized the knight painted there who was spiriting away a bundle that must have been him as a baby.
Son of the Keeper: Book 1: Principles of Magic Page 7