The Black Dragon

by W. D. Newman

CHAPTER 24

  FAERIE

  Back at Castle Twilight, Marcus had hot baths poured for everyone and fires laid on the hearths of each room. Ben wanted to soak in the tub a while, but he was so tired he hastily scrubbed himself clean and then crawled in between the thick, downy sheets piled on top of his bed. In a matter of minutes he was sound asleep.

  In other rooms, just down the hall from Ben, were Louise, Casey, and the three dwarves. They also passed the day in slumber and it was well past supper time when Gabriel finally roused them. Ben, Casey, and Louise wanted to sleep even longer, but the three dwarves, realizing they had slept through mid-day meal, did not want to take a chance at missing supper too. They hopped out of bed, hastily dressed, and then followed their noses to the kitchens, where fresh baked breads and roasting meats caused their stomachs to growl loudly. The cooks laughed at the three dwarfs and shooed them off to one of the castle’s smaller dining rooms, where Marcus and Jonah were waiting. The Keeper stood and greeted them.

  "I'm glad you were able to join us. I trust you are well rested?"

  "Well rested and starved to death," Hob answered. "Where are the others?"

  At that moment Louise and the two children bustled into the room. Ben and Casey apparently shared the same sentiments as the dwarves, for they sat down at the table and immediately began heaping breads, cheeses, fruits and meats upon their plates. Hob, Gob, and Nob watched in dismay as the food on the table began to diminish. The waited anxiously as the children filled their plates and, when Ben and Casey were finished, the three dwarves made a dash at the remaining food. Before long, they were at each other's beards again; pulling, tugging, and yanking. Marcus managed to separate them before the beard pulling escalated into shin kicking, and assured them there was plenty for everyone to have seconds and even thirds.

  After everyone finished eating, Marcus directed them to his private study. It was crowded with everyone inside, but instead of inviting them to find a chair and make themselves comfortable, the Keeper walked over to one of the tapestries that depicted their home world of Faerie and tugged on the gilded rope that dangled from the corner of the wall-hanging. There was a muffled click within the walls and the bookcase on the other side of the room swung inward, revealing a set of stairs that spiraled downward, disappearing into the darkness below. Marcus lit a torch in the fireplace. He started down the stairs, the others following closely behind him, and the flickering orange flames made their shadows dance on the grey stone walls as they descended below the main level of the castle.

  A long hallway greeted them at the bottom of the stairs. As far as they could see, there were no doors on either side, just straight, smooth walls that diminished in the distance and vanished beyond the reach of the Keeper's torch. Marcus led them to the other end of this hallway, where a solitary door awaited them. The door was wood, rather plain, and of simple design, yet there was no handle with which to open it.

  "What is this," Gabriel asked, "and how do we enter?"

  Marcus smiled. "Touch the door," he instructed.

  Gabriel reached out and placed his hand upon the door. Immediately he felt the door warm beneath his palm and thin gold lines of light began to appear on the door. They were faint, at first, but began to brighten and take on a shape.

  "It's a Merlin tree!" Ben cried.

  "Yes, it is a Merlin tree," Marcus laughed.

  The golden lines flared like beams of sunshine and, before they winked out, the door opened and swung inward.

  "How cool is that," Casey exclaimed.

  "There is much, much more beyond this simple door," Marcus replied, stepping aside and holding out his arm, inviting them to enter.

  Gabriel entered first and the others follow closely behind him. The room was small, round, and completely unadorned. The floor and walls, rather than the polished tile and marble found throughout the castle, were constructed of plain, rough-cut quarry stone. There were no tapestries or wall hangings of any kind and there were no rugs covering the cold stones beneath their feet. Although the room was devoid of any mundane objects, it was not empty; in the center of the room, stood one of the oldest objects on Camelot.

  "The Faerie tree," Gabriel exclaimed! "When was it moved?"

  "I moved it the day everyone left for the Crystal Caves." Marcus answered.

  "I don't understand; how did you move it? How did you get it all the way down here? I didn't even know this room existed!"

  "It wasn't easy, but I was able to use the unicorn horns and the pathways to transport it from the tent to this room."

  "But, why?"

  "With the new castle, we needed a more permanent location for the tree. We also needed a location that was hard to find and easy to defend. After Zoltan's visit, I knew I had to get the tree moved before his return."

  "He can't destroy the tree down here, can he?" asked Louise.

  "No, this tunnel is deep and runs far beyond the boundaries of the forest. The Faerie tree is safe here."

  "This is all very good," said Amos, "but why did you bring us here?"

  “We are taking the staff to Faerie,” Marcus answered, “for safe keeping. We will also be traveling to Mount Gazafar.”

  “We’re going to see the oracle?” asked Gabriel.

  “Yes,” the Keeper nodded. “I’ll tell you more along the way. Jonah has gone on before us to prepare things. Come, we haven’t any time to spare.”

  The Keeper stepped through the opening in the Merlin tree and vanished. Everyone looked questioningly at Gabriel. The elf shrugged and followed the Keeper through the magical doorway to their home world.

  When everyone walked through the tree, the first thing they noticed upon stepping out onto the grassy knoll in Faerie, was the sweet aroma of wild plum blossoms carried on a warm and gentle breeze. Around them, tall trees cast a dappled shade on the delicate pink flowers of the smaller dogwood trees that were scattered throughout the forest. It was spring time in Faerie and the woodland birds were rejoicing in the beauty of the day.

  “I remember this!” exclaimed Casey. “The night of the big celebration last summer was here, except there was a small tent on this hill and not a tree.”

  “The celebration last summer was a shadow of this place, an illusion,” said Marcus. “This is real. Jonah is waiting for us in the field where that celebration took place. Do you remember the way?”

  “I do,” Ben shouted, “follow me!”

  One of the most magical qualities about Faerie was the sense of peace and well-being that engulfed you upon arriving there. To some it was like a soft pillow for a weary head, a tender caress from a loved one, or a cool drink of water on a hot summer day. To Ben it was like the first day of summer vacation. It was like waking up on Christmas morning. It was like… well, it was an unexplainable magical feeling that warmed your heart and filled your spirit with an indescribable joy. How could anyone ever want to leave here?

  As Ben raced beneath the tall canopy of dark green leaves, Casey suddenly shot past him, laughing wildly. It looked like he was to lose yet another race to his sister, but right now that didn’t seem important. Ben laughed with her and ran even harder.

  When they arrived at the rock wall that bordered the forest, they paused to catch their breath and wait for the others to arrive. Through the gateway, in the field where the big celebration had taken place last summer, they could see Jonah tending to several horses. In the Twilight, the elfin horses were coal black, long, sleek, and powerfully built. Their Faerie counterparts were mirror twins with one exception; they were white as snow. Ben and Casey admired them until the others arrived.

  “Wow, I almost felt like running myself!” Louise exclaimed. “I swear I feel twenty years younger. Don’t you guys feel it?” she asked the dwarves.

  “We are usually not ones for the open spaces with green beneath our feet and blue above our heads,” Gob answered, “but we have lived in our cabin at Long Lake for many years now and h
ave grown quite fond of the outdoors. I remember…”

  Hob kicked him in the shin and interrupted him. “You have been living around elves for so long now that you are beginning to sound like one too.”

  Gabriel cleared his throat.

  “Ahem, present company excluded,” Hob added hastily.

  Gabriel and Marcus smiled.

  “Yes, we feel it,” said Nob, answering Louise’s question, while Gob hopped up and down holding his poor bruised shin. “It is very much akin to the feeling of finding a thick vein of gold after a hard day digging, or stumbling upon some hidden caverns with rushing waterfalls and cold rivers feeding deep, still lakes.”

  “Hmmm,” said Louise. “Not exactly what comes to mind for me, but to each their own.” Louise glanced through the gateway and spotted Jonah with the horses. She whirled around to face the Keeper, planted her fists firmly on her hips, and fixed him with an icy glare. “Now, I know I just said that I felt twenty years younger, but that doesn’t mean I am getting on a horse! What is Jonah doing with those horses, Marcus? You didn’t say anything about riding!”

  “Ah, Louise,” Marcus chided, “I hear you are quite the rider, but there is no need to fear. These horses, like the ones in the Twilight, will not let you fall. We are on a tight schedule and we will be riding hard to Mount Gazafar. It is only a half day ride to the lodge at the base of the mountain. If you feel you are unable to make the journey you may wait for us back at Castle Twilight.”

  “Why are we on such a tight schedule?” asked Casey. “Doesn’t time sorta stop when you go through the tree?”

  “Not this one,” Ben answered. “Remember when the snakers were attacking the forest?”

  Casey shuddered. That was the most terrifying night of her entire life. She was certain that everyone was going to die that night, but reinforcements from Faerie and Dwarvenhall arrived just in time to defeat the snakers.

  “Marcus was waiting for reinforcements,” Ben continued, “and he didn’t know if they would make it in time.”

  “I remember,” Casey replied. “Let’s drop it, though, because I don’t want to remember!”

  “Besides,” said Ben, ignoring his sister, “the time displacement was going from our world to Camelot. There wasn’t a time displacement going from Camelot back to our world.”

  “Don’t you have that backwards?”

  “No. Time in our world ceases for us when we leave it. But time in Camelot doesn’t cease when we leave it.”

  “Then why is the Faerie tree different?”

  “Remember how we talked about time being like a fabric and each one of us being like a thread in that fabric?”

  Casey nodded.

  “And we talked about how the Merlin tree weaves the threads in that fabric together to form one cohesive plane of existence?”

  “Yes, I remember all of that,” said Casey. “Get to your point Ben!”

  “Well, I think that the elves have lived here and travelled back and forth between the two worlds for so long now, that the Merlin tree has woven the fabric of time between the two worlds tighter and tighter, making the time displacement smaller and smaller until it’s almost non-existent.”

  “You are absolutely right, Ben,” said Marcus. “When we first came to Camelot, we discovered that time in our world paused for us while we were gone. However, down through the centuries time began to move again, slowly at first and then faster and faster. Eventually, the passage of time in each world aligned and now we can travel back and forth and remain in the same time frame. I am very impressed that you were able to understand that, especially coming from a world that has no magic. Anyhow, that is why we must hurry. Every second brings us closer to Zoltan’s return.”

  “But when we came here last summer, through the tent, there was a time displacement then,” Casey pointed out.

  “Yes, but that was not real,” the Keeper reminder her. “The time displacement was part of the illusion.”

  “About this trip to Mount Gazafar,” Amos interrupted. The big man’s eyes had glazed over when Ben started talking about time displacement and he was now ready to change the subject and get moving. “Do the kids really need to go along with us?”

  The Keeper studied the children for a moment and then nodded. “As I’ve said before, I cannot see the future where Zoltan is concerned, but I do have a gut feeling that Ben has to go with us. I’m not sure about Casey, but fate has brought her here to Camelot, so I think she too must go.”

  “Is there any danger in this trip?”

  “No, we are safe in Faerie. The only danger lies in the possibility of discovering a future that is hidden from me; a future that might cause us despair.”

  “Well, there is always hope,” Louise interrupted. “You said yourself the future is not carved in stone. Come now, let’s get moving. You’re not separating me from my grandchildren. I will go to this Mount Gazafar."

  Marcus, Gabriel, and Amos helped Louise, the children, and the dwarves onto their horses. Everyone had their own horse to ride except, of course, Amos. The man was simply too large to ride anything smaller than a draft horse and had to transform into a bear to make the journey.

  The day was fine, and even though they rode at a fast clip, they were able to take in their surroundings and enjoy the quiet beauty and splendor of Faerie. They were traveling east, toward the morning sun, across a gently rolling alpine meadow that was sprinkled with tall yellow dandelions and bright blue bachelor buttons. It looked as if bits and pieces of blue sky and yellow sunshine had rained down upon the meadow and, as they rode, their horses stirred swallowtail butterflies that flitted among vibrant clumps of purple vetch. In the distance, Gazafar, a lone gray mountain bare of vegetation, reared high above the hills around them. The air here was so pure and clear that the mountain seem close enough to reach out and touch. However, it was well past noon by the time they reached the lodge at the base of the mountain.

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