The Last Garden

by J C Gilbert

  “At least he’ll be out of my city,” said Lilly. “Don’t get me wrong, I would have empathy for whoever is next to have Daniel's buddy as a house guest, but right now my priority is to get him as far away from me as possible.”

  Elaine shook her head.

  “Demons are vengeful,” said Darcy. “They are kind of famous for it.”

  “OK then,” said Lilly. “Then surely this realm is perfect. There are no other hosts here. That is, unless he has an affinity for tiny space fish. This world is empty.”

  Elaine cocked an eyebrow, “is it?”

  “Then what do you suggest?” I asked.

  “We should take the demon into The Library,” said Elaine.

  “What could possibly go wrong,” said Lilly, deadpan.

  “We have so many more options if we keep him there. I could use the power of the Heart of The Library to bind him in a way that I just could not achieve here. There is such power in the Heart. I know it is difficult to quite grasp, but The Library’s Heart is a representation of literally everything. Not only could I bind him there, but I might be able to defeat him without any additional information. Please consider it, Alex.”

  The group was silent.

  In the distance a lone fish made an attempt on the sky, plummeting swiftly back down into the water with a plop. I was probably not the only one picturing what had happened last time Elaine tried to do something with the power of The Library’s Heart. Lilly had almost died. Perhaps worse than died.

  Part of me wanted to say yes, to trust Elaine, to have an end to this nightmare, to have my mom back. But even as I entertained the thought, Hank tore at my intestines and gnawed on my rib cage.

  “You can’t be really considering this,” said Lilly, “I mean she’s been tame enough so far, but do you really trust her to refrain from trying to take over the universe again when put within reach of all the power that she so eloquently describes?”

  “I can do this, Alex.”

  “She has been able to get to The Library herself before and hasn’t tried to seize The Library’s Heart,” I said, thinking out loud.

  “She is only now getting her power back,” said Lilly, “she said so herself. What’s to say that she just wasn’t strong enough before?”

  I looked over to Darcy to see what he thought. He hadn’t been present when Elaine had first betrayed us, but I was sure that his feelings for Lilly and what she had been through would be impacting the way he was thinking. He was looking grave but was apparently deliberately avoiding any input into the conversation.

  “I know that what I’ve done in the past has been wrong,” said Elaine, “I have been the literal worst, I know that. You have had little cause to trust me, but I want to help you. Give me the chance to prove myself.”

  “This is so sus,” said Lilly.

  I found that I was nodding. “You’ve helped me when you haven’t had to,” I said to Elaine, “but you have to understand, I can’t risk having you being tempted by that power. I know that Vicious is not with you right now, but even good people are tempted when the reward is as great as everything that there is. No, we won’t take Daniel to The Library. We will find another way.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Elaine was clearly trying to act like nothing had happened, but I could tell beneath her expressions that she was quite hurt. She had offered to do something selfless for us and had only been met with suspicion. I knew this Elaine well enough to know that she wouldn’t blame us for our suspicions. She was well aware of how her previous actions must impact people’s current perceptions of her, and yet she was hurt.

  The other Elaine, the Elaine that wrestled with Vicious, she might have been angry, violent even. This relatively calm state served to remind me just how different this Elaine was from the other. But even as I thought that thought, my mind wondered if she might still be using me, having only learned that to be in more control of her apparent state was useful in getting her way. I wondered if there would ever be a point when I fully trusted her.

  Elaine used her power to form a cage around the giant that looked like my mother. The cage itself was not made of the surrounding materials like the rest of the platform. Instead, it was a cage of energy, blue and crackling. It surrounded the giant and penetrated deep into the platform.

  Even watching Elaine perform this magic seemed to make Lilly uncomfortable. We had never really spoken that much about what happened to her that night that Elaine almost used her as a human sacrifice. I wondered how often she thought of it.

  With the creature secure, we came together and traveled back to my home world, landing right where we had left, not far from the museum grounds, and only moments later in our timeline.

  We made a plan. Darcy would use his contacts in this world to find an entrance into the elven realm. The elves existed in a place that was not quite separate from this one, but also not quite in the same space. Elves could be seen in the shadows of forests, the transient reflections of lakes, or on the edges of dreams. Darcy had had contact with them before and thought that, if he could contact them again, then he might be able to learn more about this demon. After all, the writing that Mom had been copying out was written in Elvish.

  There were many different kingdoms of elves, more than Darcy could reasonably contact, but there was always a chance that someone knew something, Darcy reasoned. If he could discover where this demon had come from, or even his true name, then that would be something for us to go on.

  “You will not be able to contact me when I have crossed over into the other world,” said Darcy.

  “You should change carriers,” said Lilly, “I never have problems with signal.”

  Darcy smiled. Lilly and Darcy were nothing alike, to be sure, but they seemed to balance each other. If only Darcy were honest with her, then maybe something more could grow.

  Elaine’s role was to make sure that Daniel didn’t do any more damage to the town. She would stay outside the museum and make sure that any overpowered beams of light were stopped in their tracks and reflected back if that was at all possible. She set herself up just outside the gates to the museum’s grounds, sitting cross-legged and closing her eyes.

  “I will better be able to see the whole area if I don’t have to rely on the restrictions of this body,” said Elaine.

  I didn’t know exactly what she meant by that, but I thanked her and returned with Lilly to her car. Our role was simply to get back to my house, to find the Orb of Lyren, and return to face Daniel.

  The deserted streets were surreal. As we walked, I thought I caught a glimpse of something stalking in the shadows. It might have been a large mechanical cat. The world really was going crazy.

  While in the car, I noticed that Lilly was strangely quiet. I knew Lilly well enough to know that this was not a good sign and I debated whether or not it was worth asking her what was up.

  Soon we were back in the suburbs of Torbay. Everything seemed relatively normal here, with people mowing their lawns, riding their bicycles, and talking at tables outside of coffee shops. I knew it was an illusion. I knew what they would be talking about, I knew what the news stations would be showing the world.

  When we got home, I saw that my dad’s car was gone. Hank immediately started to tell me of all the ways in which Daniel could have got to him. I took a few deep breaths and told myself that he was probably fine and that he was very unlikely to have gone downtown for any reason if he could help it.

  Lilly pulled up to the curb, and I got out of the car. “This won’t take long,” I assured her. “Just wait here.”

  “Yes, boss,” said Lilly.

  I unlocked the front door and ran upstairs. I was reasonably sure I knew where the Orb of Lyren was, but all the same, I was eager to have it in my hands. Knowing that we had a chance against this guy was a hope worth clinging to. When I walked into my room, I immediately saw that something was off. The window was open, and the curtains were blowing
gently in a breeze. I frowned, wondering if I’d opened them for some reason. I couldn’t think of one and pulled the window closed and fixed the latch.

  When I turned around, I noticed something, some movement in my periphery. I scanned the room, trying to find exactly what it was I had seen. At first, I came up with nothing, and then I saw her. There, hovering over my bedside table, was the fairy.

  I frowned and smiled. “Hello there,” I said. “What are you doing here? If you want to go home, then I can do that, but you will have to wait for a bit. It’s kind of a busy day.”

  The fairy looked at me, it’s expression unreadable. It flew over to me, right up close to my face, apparently studying me. After a moment, she turned around and flew out of my bedroom door. I started after her, a strong sense of déjà vu coming over me.

  “Where are you going? Wait!”

  Just as I got to the top of the stairs, I saw her fly over my living room and towards the kitchen. Perhaps she was hungry?

  I followed after as quickly as I could, and was soon in the kitchen as well. I couldn’t see the fairy, but then I heard a voice.

  “I am sorry to do this, Keeper,” said the voice. I spun around and had just enough time to register that the voice belonged to Brunhilda before something hard hit me in the forehead with a whack.

  All faded to darkness.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  When I came to, Lilly was bent over me, pulling my eyelids apart with two fingers.

  “What are you doing on the floor?” she asked.

  My head was spinning, and the lump on my forehead where I had been struck was sore. I winced and pulled myself up, resting on one elbow. I was confused as to where I was, confused all the more when I realized that I was in the kitchen. Why had I been in the kitchen?

  And then I remembered.

  “Brunhilda,” I said

  “Yeah, I saw her. She was in quite a hurry when she left your house. I didn’t like the look on her face, so I went after her. I followed her for several blocks, but then she lost me. She seemed to be going south. What happened? Did she attack you?”

  “Yeah. I think?”

  “Why would she do that?”

  I was having difficulty stitching my thoughts together, but then cold clarity washed over me. My eyes grew wide as I searched around for my bag. I opened it up, searched inside, but it wasn’t there.

  “What is it?” asked Lilly, “did she take something?”

  “The Library,” I said, “she has taken my key to The Library. She has taken Alice.”

  “Oh, Alex. That’s dreadful. I should have chased her for longer. Why would she do that? What does this mean?”

  “She has been trying to travel into the past to stop Eric from coming into being. I told her that there was no way that I was going to let her through. I should have known she would try something like this.”

  “We need to warn the Librarian,” said Lilly.

  “There is no way,” I said.

  I felt so stupid. I felt naked without the book next to me. If I came up against any danger now, there would be no escape.

  “We need to get hold of Darcy,” I said. “He knows where Brunhilda and her tribe are hauled up. If we could talk to them then maybe they can help us get the book back from her.”

  “That would be a good plan if it wasn’t for the fact that no one can contact Darcy. He has gone to the other world, remember?”

  My head was all fuzzy. “Right, of course. Then we need to get back to Elaine. We can’t risk The Library falling into the wrong hands.”

  “I can’t believe you just said that one sentence,” said Lilly.

  My heart sunk. “What choice do we have?”

  “Their village is near Huntly, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So we go down there as quickly as we can. It can’t be that easy to hide a village of Anglo-Saxon refugees. We will find them.”

  I shook my head. “She doesn’t even have to make it back there to use The Library. She could be in The Library right now. This is beyond us. We need Elaine.”

  “I’m here,” said Elaine. Shadow rapidly formed in the middle of the kitchen, taking Elaine’s shape. She stepped out of the darkness as if she were just stepping through a door. It was an awesome display of power.

  “What has happened?” she asked.

  “I was attacked,” I said. “By a girl named Brunhilda. Elaine, she has taken my book. I can’t travel without it.”

  “I will find her,” said Elaine.

  “But what about downtown?” asked Lilly, but before she could finish her sentence, Elaine had turned into shadow and disappeared.

  I was nervous now, more nervous than I had been in a long time. I managed to get my feet and made my way to the couch in the lounge. Lilly paced backward and forward as we waited for Elaine to return.

  “Where is she?” asked Lilly after a time.

  “She will bring it back to me,” I said, trying to convince myself.

  “We are losing time,” said Lilly. “The longer we wait, the more destruction Daniel is going to do to the city.”

  “I need my book, Lilly.”

  “You have pretty much given it away now,” said Lilly.

  “I did what I needed to do.”

  “You did what she wanted you to do.”

  “Come on,” I said, feeling defeated. “There is no use us freaking out all day. Book or no book, I’ll get the orb and will go stop Daniel.”

  “We are confronting him without your book?”

  “There is nothing I can do about that right now.”

  I found the Orb of Lyren in a cardboard shoebox that I had stowed under my bed. Once its chain was safely clipped to my belt, we left for downtown. Though it would have been quicker had Lilly used her raven wings and flown us down, it wasn’t worth the risk of being shot out of the sky by the air force. They were probably on the look-out for strange flying objects at present. We parked up once more outside the police cordon and walked our way back toward the post office and toward the entrance to the museum grounds.

  The whole landscape had changed. Where before we could see all the changes that Daniel was making and the things he was building, it was now all obscured by what looked like an energy field.

  “The way is shut,” said Lilly.

  I walked right up close to the energy field and looked at it carefully. It had a mirror-like quality, and a shimmering image of myself looked back out at me.

  “We will have to find a way in.”

  I followed the energy field upward, looking to see if this was something that we could fly over, but it did not look promising.

  “Maybe we can just walk through?” asked Lilly, reaching a hand out to touch the substance.

  “Lilly, don’t!” I shouted, but I was not fast enough. A burst of energy surged through the field and impacted the point where Lilly was touching it. In an instant, Lilly was flung back. For a few seconds, she was hurtling through the air before she crashed through a shop window, glass flying everywhere.

  “Lilly!”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  I ran over to the smashed window as quickly as I could and climbed through. It was a boutique clothing store, the sort that I was always too nervous to go into. Well, I thought to myself, there is a first time for everything. I feared for the worst when I saw the state of the glass inside. Sharp shards were everywhere, and mannequins were in disarray.

  I found Lilly in a clothing bin. She was sprawled backward on an awkward angle. When I drew close, I saw that she was moving. I went over to her and touched my hand to her face. “Lilly?”

  Lilly reluctantly opened her eyes and looked at me. “How the turntables,” she said.

  My head was still throbbing from the blow that I had taken at the hands of Brunhilda.

  “At least we match now,” I said.

  “But I’m the one with the wings, still the one with the wings. The Library
didn’t give you any wings.”

  “A lot of good they did you,” I said with a smirk.

  I helped her out of the clothing bin, and we exited the store, electing to use the front door this time.

  “So what now?” asked Lilly.

  I looked at the energy field around the museum grounds. The cityscape was there reflected, shimmering, making my hometown look like something alien. We walked the perimeter, searching for any place where the field didn’t entirely cover it. “There’s got to be a tree root or part of the gate or something that the field hasn’t quite sealed off.”

  Lilly did not look so sure.

  “What about tunnels? Are there tunnels under the museum grounds?” I asked.

  “No, that’s Lincoln Park. All right, we do this until we think of a better plan.”

  “Hopefully Elaine will come back soon. If anyone can help us, she can.”

  The wish hung in the air, unanswered.

  We decided it was best that we stay together rather than risk Daniel taking us by surprise. There did not seem to be any more creatures coming and going from the museum grounds. It was like Daniel had staked his claim in this world and sealed off the outside completely. As we walked, we passed several candidates for possible entrances into the grounds. Each time we found that the field penetrated through bark and stone and clay. It was as if it completely disregarded the physical nature of things, cutting the space off in a more fundamental way.

  We came to an area of the outer park where an overhang gave us some hope. The field seemed to come to a stop at the top of the cliff but showed no sign of continuing below. We realized that if we could burrow upward from underneath the overhang, then we would soon be on the other side of the energy field.