by T J Trapp
“Lord Colin, it is so good to see you!” Reuben exclaimed, dropping his guise as a clutchman and clasping the prince’s arm. “I feared you were dead! When last I saw you, the elves had surrounded you in mortal combat, their mothers advancing upon you and the Princess!”
“The Princess – is she … is she all right?” Colin asked.
“Yes, yes,” Reuben said, laughing. “The Princess and Consort Alec have freed us – all the Theland riders who were captured and everyone else who was caught up in that wretched cull. There are about three hundred of us,” he gestured towards the straplines still emerging from the woods, “making our way back to Theland from New Haven. Besides our people, we have a few from Gott and the lands beyond.”
“And where is Princess Erin?” the lead rider asked, peering along the lines of ‘drones.’
“The Princess and Consort Alec stayed behind, in New Haven, holding off the elves and the dragon until we can get across this barrier. I hope we are past it – I could never tell exactly where it is, but we do not feel any of the illusions or dizziness that mark the obscuring field.”
Colin nodded. “Yes, you seem to be past it, because we have not yet reached it. How do you fare?”
“Lord Colin, it has been nip and tuck. Our riders, of course, are the strongest of this lot and have held up the best. The others – villagers – were held in captivity for these several weeks, and some are very weak. And as you can see, we are not dressed for this cold, and trek without boots. I fear some may suffer from frostbite as well as scrapes and cuts. We were able to escape with a few supplies, but you have found us just in the nick of time.”
“And the elves? Have they followed you?” asked the lead rider, looking warily at the forest.
Reuben shook his head. “I don’t believe so, not yet, not with an organized force. We have encountered a few clutchmen as we crossed the fields, and our riders had to fight off a couple of them, but they were not armed for combat and did not seem to be expecting our force coming through the croplands.”
“How about elf mothers?” asked Colin, remembering his previous encounter during the cull, and his failure to hold the dark energy. “Have you met with any of them?”
“No,” the second ‘clutchman’ said. “Nor have we seen the dragon. But we think that the clutchmen from New Haven may be assembling, and perhaps will try to capture us. We riders have adequate weapons, but against a large force we would not prevail. There would be enough of them to overwhelm us. We would give it our best, but it would be hard to outfight all of them. We have met up with you at a fortuitous time.”
Just then the scouts, still stationed at the edge of the meadow, sounded a battle whistle. Over a dozen clutchmen were entering the far side of the meadow, well beyond where the straplines of ‘drones’ were huddled.
“They come!” cried Reuben in dismay.
“Alert!” shouted the lead rider.
Colin sized up the attackers. They were not wearing armor, and were carrying only short swords and whips, not battle gear.
“I do not think they are trained warriors,” the lead rider said to Colin. “They look like they are following the escaped drones to round them up and take them back. Still, they are a threat and must be dealt with.”
Colin looked at the oncoming group. No mothers in the bunch. This should be an easy slaughter. “Eight riders to me!” he called. “The others, help our people escape these mountains.” His trogus reared and snarled. “Come!” Colin yelled. “We are going elf hunting!”
24 – The Other Side
Erin’s world was a blur of spinning lights and sounds and the acrid smell of burning metal. She fell to her knees, tangled in the torn sleeve of her flowing elf-mother robe, and buried her head in her hands. The whirling slowed, then, suddenly, there was light.
She was slumped in the center of a metal ring, similar to the one Alec had created in the consolidator building, but of a dull, tarnished material instead of the bright copper. Smoke billowed from the edge of the ring but she felt no sign of fire, or heat either, for that matter. The ring sat at one end of a long, dimly-lit room; the area looked dusty and unused. Through the haze, she could see light filtering in from an open door, catching wisps of smoke and motes of dust floating in the air.
Move. Get off the ring. That was my task. The last thing Alec told me to do.
Erin tried to get to her feet, but found herself weak and shaky. She crawled through the smoke to the edge of the ring and tumbled onto the gritty floor beyond. After a moment her balance seemed better, so she cautiously stood up. The dust on the floor showed her footprints clearly.
That’s a little better. The room was no longer spinning.
She stood staring at the metal ring, waiting for Alec to appear. After several minutes she sat on the floor, facing the ring. My consort – where are you? I am here, but you are not. Slowly the dust and smoke started to settle.
Perhaps I should scout around this place, as my wizard seems to be delayed.
She carefully walked to a doorway; beyond was a hallway, also looking deserted. Dust and dead insects were thick on the floor. The hallway was punctuated by windows; the glass was very dirty and each window was covered by bars.
To keep people out or to keep them in? Erin wondered.
Erin had regained enough of her composure that she could sense her surroundings. No one was in the immediate area, but she could sense people far away. Good – my ring and my rod seem to have made it through whatever trip I just took.
Her senses told her that two people were walking towards her from somewhere down the long, deserted hall. Their steps echoed along the empty walls long before she could see them; they seemed to be walking rapidly in her direction.
Two men, wearing some sort of uniform with dark blue pants and lighter blue shirts, emerged from a cross hall a few paces away from her. Each appeared to have a small weapon attached to a black leather holster on the waist, and a short stout black stick in their hand. One poked his stick and a beam of light shot out of one end; he moved the beam back and forth across the floor, and up towards the ceiling.
That doesn’t look like a sword – is it a death rod? Erin wondered. A death rod that shoots light? And – what is he looking for?
Erin stepped out of the room where she had landed, and waited for them to notice her. And quickly, they did. The man with the light directed it at her face, then past her to the open door, and flashed the light around the room she had just left. The wisps of smoke still hung in the air, and reflected the light.
The other man looked keenly at Erin and said something in a harsh language that sounded, somehow, vaguely familiar. She looked at him quizzically, and he repeated it.
“I said, what are you doing here?” the man said.
Although she knew she had heard this language before, Erin had a hard time understanding the man.
Instinctively she blurted out, in Thelandish, “Where am I? Who are you?”
They looked at her with no hint of comprehension.
Try something else. The only other language that came to her still-spinning mind was Elvish. “I just came here. I don’t know where I am. I ended up here, and I don’t know how or why.” That was stupid. If I am on Alec’s home planet, they will not know Elvish any more than they know Thelandish.
The two men looked at each other in surprise, and then, for the first time, looked at her closely and eyed her torn robe.
The one of them replied, in perfect Elvish, “We apologize, Mother. We were not expecting a mother to arrive here, in this place any way.” He bowed his head.
They are elves?! Erin tried to hide her look of surprise.
The second man lowered his gaze respectfully. “Your transport must have gone awry. You are at an old transporter ring that was used in times past by orb spies. We did not expect anyone to be using it, but we are stationed here just in case a spy tried to make use of it. We apologize, Mother, for our rudeness. Our observers detected that someone attempted t
o use it most recently, and we were sent here to investigate.”
Erin sensed the rightness of their words, and took the opportunity to seize the initiative. She threw back her head and raised her arm imperiously, her smudged torn sleeve flapping loosely.
“Why did I end up here?” she said, in her best mother-voice. “Who is at fault for this grievous error? Where is my welcoming group? Where are the remainder of my people?”
The two clutchmen looked at her unhappily. “Mother, we were not expecting any mothers today, and were not expecting anyone to arrive here at this place! I apologize for the lack of the appropriate welcoming party to meet you.”
The other clutchman peeked up at her face, trying to gauge the extent of her anger. “Mother, this transporter ring is no longer in use. I am sorry for this error, but the fault must lie with whoever sent you. Somehow, you arrived at the wrong ring. Your drones must have used the wrong calculations. We cannot control who comes through the ring.”
“Yes,” the first clutchman hurriedly interjected. “The wrong ring. Most arrive at our main entry rings. They are in a different place on this world, not here.”
“You can port there, if you would like,” the second clutchman said, helpfully.
“Can you port me there, from here?” Erin asked. Wherever ‘there’ is. And wherever ‘here’ is.
“No, Mother, I am sorry to advise you that we cannot.”
“Unfortunately, Mother, we do not have a portal here, and even if we did, we have no drones to operate it.”
“We do not have drones here at this outpost,” the first clutchman said, his words falling over the other man’s in a shower of helpfulness. “We have drones at our service areas.”
“Yes, Mother, at the place called ‘House of Servitude.’ You could port from there.”
“Yes, Mother, you could port from there to the receiving site. They could take care of all your needs – at the receiving site you would receive a proper welcome. And clean clothing. We have failed to give you the welcome you deserve, here at this humble site.”
“The nearest ‘House of Servitude’ is several hours from this outpost. We can arrange for you to have transportation to the ‘House.’”
“‘House of Servitude’?” repeated Erin.
The clutchman changed languages and asked, “This is the local language, do you speak it? To get to the ‘House’ it would be most useful if you did.”
Erin listened carefully to the sounds that the clutchman was making. They seemed much more familiar. I understand now. That is Alec’s home language.
“Yes,” Erin replied in halting English. “I language know, but not it talked in a time.”
She did not need to use her elven senses to tell that her use of the language was not correct. The look on the clutchman’s face told her that. She could sense that he understood her, but barely. And the harsh sounds had to come from a different place in her throat, not the soft lilting tones of Nevia.
The clutchman tried to regain his composure; he was not expected to correct a mother’s error. “Yes Mother, the thought is correct, but the words are not spliced together correctly. And the sound is not quite – as the local orbs would voice it.”
Erin’s rod warmed slightly and she sensed the proper response to a clutchman who corrected a Mother. “If the wild orbs do not like how I speak their language, then they can learn to speak it as I do,” she said haughtily, in Elvish.
The clutchman bowed his head. “I am sorry, Mother; I did not mean to correct, merely to inform.”
The other clutchman quickly spoke. “Can I obtain a vehicle for you? I could take you to the nearest ‘House.’ Then they can properly see to your comfort.”
Erin thought for a second. If this ‘House’ is several hours from here, Alec might not be able to locate me. Again speaking in Elvish, she replied, “No. I will stay here and wait for the rest of my group.”
“As you wish, Mother.” The clutchman bowed.
“Mother, we are sorry, but if you want to wait for your clutch, we must leave you here. We must continue our inspection rounds. We are stationed in that building over there; if you need us, you can summon us.”
The clutchmen both left; Erin remained standing in the dirty hallway. She watched them until they turned the far corner of the hall, and then sensed them until they had left the building. My Great Wizard. I hope you arrive shortly. I will wait for you, as long as I can, before embarking on the next part of this unfortunate adventure. She looked out one of the dirty windows. But why didn’t you tell me that I would meet clutchmen on your world?
Erin found a dilapidated wooden chair and placed it by a hall window near the doorway of the room where she had first arrived. She looked out the window at a view of pleasant red brick buildings set among grassy areas, and many sidewalks criss-crossing between them, lined with trees. The trees are changing color, just like the trees in the Elf Mountains. It must be fall here, too. She thought sadly of her mountains and the beautiful Ryn River that flowed through her country. Theland. I feel no closer to home here than I did when I was tied in the dungeon at New Haven, she thought sadly. I want to be with my children. Alec said this diversion would get us home.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud boom! and a flash of multicolor light coming from the doorway. The dirty window next to her shook, and for an instant threatened to crack. Erin jumped up and looked through the doorway towards the ring. The smoke increased, and with it the acrid burning smell she had experienced before. Then, through the smoke and dust, she could see a man in loose dirty-white clothing materialize in the center of the ring.
Alec!
✽✽✽
Alec’s world spun and spun and spun. He was lost in a kaleidoscope of color and pain. The whirl of colors continued until there was only a single color – or a dirty gray absence of color. Alec collapsed in a heap and tried to quiet his churning stomach.
Breathe. In and out, in and out. Within his mind things seemed to shift – a strange sensation of time and space realigning.
Alec lay for a time with his eyes shut, trying to recover his senses. Slowly his body quit spinning, and his mind became less fuzzy. He rolled over and tried to sit up. He put his head between his knees and sat quietly as his body stabilized.
Focus. Where am I? Did this work?
As he became accustomed to this new place, he could feel dark energy flowing around him, like a faint cosmic breeze from another world. His head was still spinning: every time he moved, his eyes felt as though they were disconnected from his being, but as the seconds wore on, his gaze cleared, and he could see where he was.
He was in a dingy, dusty, poorly-lit room, sitting in the middle of a dark metal ring.
Slowly he stood up, trying to regain his balance.
Focus. He could feel his medallion, buried in his side, throb and pulse.
He sensed dark energy flowing through the ring surrounding him. Did I do it? Did I open a link from one universe to another? The background dark energy didn’t feel as high as he had become accustomed to on Nevia. Either he was now on Earth, or he was in another, unknown place.
He shook his head and looked around. The puffs of smoke billowing from the edge of the ring were starting to subside and he could see more of the room; it seemed vaguely familiar, like a dream-memory from a time long ago. For the most part it looked like no one had set foot in it for ages, except there was a scramble in the dust right next to the ring, and footsteps leading away from it.
“Great Wizard, it is good of you to join me,” a voice said, from the other side of the room.
Erin!
And then, with a catch holding back a sob, “What kept you so long?”
He wanted to run across the room to her, but he could manage only a slow wobble.
“I had a little problem with the transporter ring. It broke apart when I sent you, so I had to repair it. Then the elves decided to try to break down the door to capture me. I was able to slow them down, but I had t
o leave when the transporter ring was only partially repaired. The partial ring required so much dark energy that I had to link to the dragon stuck to the outside of the building, and draw extra dark energy from it. And then just as I left, I could feel the power globe crystal shatter as I was making the transit. If I had needed even another instant, I would have had a problem.” She put her arms around him and laid her head on his grimy chest. He held her close.
“Where are we?” he asked, looking around. “Did we go where we intended to go?”
“I don’t know where we are, but there are elves here. You didn’t tell me that there were elves on your home planet. Two clutchmen came to investigate the noise when I arrived in your ring, and they found me. They thought I was a mother” – she spread the folds of her elf-mother robe – “and didn’t bother me. They offered to take me to a proper reception area for mothers – they said it was far away, and that the nearest portal was also far away, at a service area they called ‘House of Servitude.’ Do you know it?”
“Elves?!? No, there shouldn’t be elves here!”
“They were elves. I could sense them.” She changed languages. “Words this way spoke was,” she said.
“That is English,” Alec said, in English. “The main language of my home country, the USA.”
“‘Uessahay?’” repeated Erin, trying to mimic his sounds.
Alec looked around the room again. “Maybe we did succeed,” he said in Thelandish. “Let me see if there is any dark energy here.”
Alec focused. He could feel the flow of dark energy coming through the smoldering ring. “The transporter ring here is linked through the zero-point. It connects the dark energy dimensions of two different universes.” He sensed. “Dark energy is flowing from the other universe to this universe. I can feel it, like a little breeze. I wonder if the flow has put enough dark energy in the background that I can use it in this world without a concentrator.”
“You speak wizard speak,” Erin said. “It is harder to understand than English.”
