Epic Fantasy Adventure: The Sands of Time: Holy Paladin's Quest: Book 2 (Sword and Sorcery Epic Fantasy Adventure Book With Angels and Magic)

by Blaine Hart

  “In a sense,” he said. “The strength that the Paladin Ancestors bestowed on me is getting stronger. Those who are in my reach and in my heart share in my physical blessing.”

  “Is it temporary like the Angel of glory’s blessing?” I asked. “How long will it last?”

  “As long as I live and you are in my reach and in my heart.” He responded, giving me a bright smile.

  “Master,” I said with a laugh. “Together we could win the annual tournaments quite easily.”

  “We need to stop the curse and get back to the tourneys first,” he chuckled. “Let’s grab some oars.”

  “First,” I said, “help me raise the sails.”

  “But there’s no wind.”

  “The canvas has been soaked for weeks,” I said. “They’re going to mold and then rot. Magic is a good and helpful thing, but it is no substitute for good stewardship.”

  “Longo is quickly becoming master of this boat,” Wendfala said with a smile.

  “It’s a ship,” I said.

  We raised the canvas and I could see it drinking in the sun. Then Kell and I happily set to the oars, and that became a game between him and me as we vied to see who could pull the longest and most propelling stroke. The island came closer and closer and the work was a delight as the Chaos sliced through still waters. The air was fresh and the sun was on our faces. We had a task and there was no magic or scheming. There were just two men in good work with Wendfala cheering them along.

  The sacred island neared. It looked like a tangle of glistening green foliage. As we approached, we looked for a shore or someplace to anchor. But everywhere around us the greenery was growing from the water, making a spindly green wall that attached to the island shore and high into the sky. I wondered what kind of plant would grow from seawater.

  We slowed as we closed in. We banked and turned so that we rowed with the sun behind us and the island on my side. We were so close that we could almost touch the gleaming vines and broad diamond shaped leaves reaching high above us. Below us the crystal clear water plunged to dark depths, and so there would be no anchorage. “We should just grapple a vine and climb on.” I said, but Kell kept us rowing. The vines and leaves crept by as we continued rowing for what seemed like an hour.

  “There,” Kell said, pointing ahead.

  I saw a beach. It was a pretty white sand beach and I thought that I saw something small and alive on it going between the water to the shore. We rowed. As we came closer to the white stands, I saw a little boy. He was dressed in worn britches as if he were a castaway. He had a small bucket and was running back and forth between sand and land.

  “Hello!” I called waving.

  The boy stopped and stared as the Chaos came ashore. He was like a cherub without wings. His face was innocent and he looked on us with genuine wonder. His downy yellow hair fluttered in the breeze and his round blue eyes were both beautiful and compelling. Behind him was a small simple crude sand castle and he looked like a delicate ragamuffin out on a special holiday.

  “Who are you?” he said in a soft voice.

  “My name is Longo.” I said as I jumped onto the shore, followed closely by Kell and Wendfala.

  “You’re ugly.” The little boy said.

  “And you are not,” I said. “Are you an Angel?”

  “You’re stupid too.”

  And so saying he turned his back, dropped his little pail. and vanished in a sparkle of glittering light.

  Chapter 4: Cheaters

  “I suppose that I am ugly,” I said to my master as we anchored the Chaos. “It’s been a while since I’ve had a proper bath and a shave.”

  “We are all a motley crew,” he said. “I hope the Angel doesn’t take offence.”

  “Do you think that the child was the Angel in disguise?”

  “No,” he said. “As it was with Gavial. the Angel will have a guardian.”

  “A child?”

  “Haven’t you yet learned to not be deceived by looks?”

  Byrinius came flying out of the sky and joined us in his human form, his black skin a stark contrast to the white sandy beach. The shore had a very strange shape. A round spit of sand jut into the calm waters and it seemed that the waves lapping at the shore did not wear away any of its perfect shape. A few feet in there was a long stretch of pristine white sand bordered on three sides by the oddest vegetation that I had ever seen. To our right, the plants were lush and green. There were tendrils like gleaming green vines and from them sprouted a tangle of tear shaped fronds of the same color. To our left was all brown. It was not as if they were dead, but rather they were like woody creepers. They too were thick sprouting with fine hairs all over them weaving and twisting together. Where the brown met the green in the middle of the white sand rectangle, the two seamlessly merged and their colors blended. Wendfala and I walked to the vines while Kell and Byrinius examined the wood.

  It was all a tangle that reached well over our heads. The stalks and stems intertwined, blocking out most of the sun when we tried to look through them. Wendfala and I made our way along the dense growth and saw no break or path. I wondered if we should not get some machetes from the ship and hack our way inland, but then I doubted if my master would even consider harming any living thing on the island of the Sacred Tree of Life. We met Kell and Byrinius where the two plants merged.

  “There is no way into the island where we searched, “Byrinius said. “Any luck on that side?”

  Wendfala and I shook our heads.

  “Perhaps,” Wendfala said, “that there’s clearer ways someplace else on the island.”

  Kell was frowning, staring at something. I followed his gaze to a place where tiny brown hairs meshed with tender light green shoots. He reached out to touch them but stopped. He stood back.

  “Wendfala,” he said, “give a wind, just a light breeze will do.”

  We gave her space and she waved her arms and sang her charms and the air began to flutter. In a moment it became a small wind and the tiny brown and green tendrils began to stir, then they separated like entwined fingers opening up and in a moment there was a small archway that led into the island. Kell smiled.

  Inside and there was an alcove of the plants. On both sides were tunnels through the foliage that went straight a little ways and then turned. To our left on the woody side it smelled of earth and musk and the sunlight filtered through. To our right the plant side smelled so fresh and clean, but the light was dim.

  “Anyone have a coin?” Kell said.

  “I say left,” Wendfala said. “We should walk with the light.”

  “I say right,” Byrinius said. “I have spent my life darting about the gloom of trees and I need a little light.”

  “I say,” I began, “that we split up—“

  “No.” they said together.

  We decided to trust Byrinius and his bird instincts. So with a stern warning from Kell to do no harm to the plants, we plunged in single file, Byrinius leading the way. The air was close and humid, but the scent was light and pleasing. Small shafts of light filtered through and it was like walking in green shadows.

  We had not gone a hundred steps past the first curve when we were confronted with a choice; two ways diverged before us. We took the left path, but all too soon we were confronted with another two choices of ways to go, and we quickly realized that the plant tunnels were a maze. Byrinius led us, alternating between left and right, reasoning that it might lead us inland. And for a few moments we thought that idea would work. The air became fresher and then we saw light ahead. We cheerfully ran to that light. Then we stopped defeated. We were right back at the entrance alcove.

  I resisted any comments about bird-brains.

  We tried twice again, through the green ways, and our third attempt heartened us for we had walked longer than either of our other attempts. But in the end, all that we accomplished was a long brisk walk back to where we started. Then Wendfala, undaunted, took the lead and we plunged into the woody sec
tion. But again our efforts were futile and after the second try we flopped back on the beach sand. “It could be just one bad choice at the crucial intersection that is throwing us off.” I said.

  I went back to the Chaos for some food and drink. I left my companions discussing things and when I returned, Byrinius was gone. Kell and Wendfala were looking to the sky where a white rook soared.

  “Aerial surveillance,” I said. handing out bread and cheese. “Should have thought of that first.”

  “It’s a last resort,” Wendfala said. “Byrinius cannot change his form as easy as you change your socks. This transformation will be the last in a while. When he returns it will be as a crow and it will be difficult for him to communicate what he has seen.”

  “But he’s your familiar,” I said. “Can’t you talk to him?”

  “He is my familiar in things spiritual. As a human can he understand our concepts, but his times as a man is fleeting and far between. He cannot comprehend things mundane in his true form.”

  Again I bit my tongue about bird-brains.

  The sun was warm, I was filthy and grimy, the rippling sea looked ever so inviting and I so wanted to swim. Kell thought that a splendid idea and as we stripped down I realized that I still wore the loadstone medallion. Wendfala needed to wait for Byrinius and so I gave the thing to her for safe keeping.

  The water was mild and so relaxing. I could feel the dirt of days sliding off of me. My master and I swam and floated and floated and swam. It was so good having just a small time of delight and relaxation. The sun was just past its noon as we relaxed, almost dozing on our backs. I don’t know how long it was before we heard the cawing of the white rook. We immediately swam back to shore. The bird was perched on Wendfala’s arm and the two were gazing eye to eye.

  “This island is a circle,” she said, never breaking her stare. “There are places like . . . like this one. Places where the sand meets the trees and wood.”

  The crow bobbed its head three times.

  “Three such places . . . no four. This place and three others. They are different, they look like . . . like man-scratch – I don’t understand. They are . . . they are, I’m not sure what he’s trying to tell me, they are against each other – no, they are away from each other . . . I can’t—“

  “They are opposite,” I said.

  In her other hand she still held my medallion. I saw the runes; man scratches opposite.

  “Wendfala,” I said. “Show him the loadstone.”

  She held the thing to him. He stared a moment, then two. His head flicked rapidly side to side. Then he spread his wings and let out a triumphal cry. He pecked at the thing on one of the runes and called out again.

  Wendfala smiled and cooed to him. He calmed. The two reached to touch beak to lips and then he flew away out over the sea.

  “Your medallion,” Wendfala smiled, “is also a map.”

  The three of us stared down at it. It was so simple. The greenery was the branches and leaves and the woody stuff were the roots. The spit of land on which we landed was in the shape of the rune Thyn. We studied, searching for some sort of clue through the maze. The tangling of branches and roots was like a Celtic knot, but as any sailor will tell you, all knots can be undone.

  “I found it,” I said.

  I traced my finger along a path that wove along the branches, and then down from the upper center in a twisting path, that ultimately led to a limb that led to the trunk and the heart of the island. It stood out to me as plain as if someone were drawing it with some magic pencil.

  “Well done,” Kell said. “Well done Longo the cunning.”

  We wasted no time. My master and I dressed and we three plunged into the maze. I led slowly and cautiously. I did take some wrong turns, but with my companions help and encouragement, we pressed on. For the longest time it was like walking through low, close grape arbors. But as we followed the medallion’s path the shadows from above shifted and the arbor slowly grew wider and taller. There were fewer leaves and the vines became thicker until we found ourselves walking on a giant vine that was as thick as a strong man’s back. Our hearts rose when we felt fresh air and soon we were walking in sunshine our path rising upwards.

  Trekking on the huge horizontal vine, we had to tread carefully, for the thing was round and we slipped often. But as it rose it widened and when we reached the crest we all paused to behold a wonder. Before us was a giant valley and around that valley we saw a dozen other thick vines that came from all angles and merged into a massive tree trunk far below is in the center of a placid crystal blue lake. From where the trunk sprang, another trunk also grew out, just as big as the other one and yet it was the brown color of the tap-root that grew in the tangled maze.

  We descended down to the lake and then swam over to the tree. The water was pure and I couldn’t resist drinking in a lot of it as I swam. As we came ashore on a giant earthy mound, I saw the little boy we had seen earlier sitting at the base of the massive Tree of Life with his arms folded and looking at us so very cross.

  “You cheated!” he said. “You have a map! Cheaters!”

  “No one told us the rules,” Kell said as we approached him.

  “Well I’m telling you now. You cheated so you lose. Go back to your stupid boat and die in the flood with everyone else.”

  “You know of our plight?” I asked.

  “I know everything.,” he said. “I know that that stupid ugly Moanmalla devil got the drop on our blessed Gavial because she was busy helping you to kill that stupid ugly Visalth creature, so it’s all your fault because you needed her help and you couldn’t even kill a stupid bone-dragon by yourself because you’re stupid.

  “And you witch,” he went on. “It’s all your fault because you got yourself kidnapped and you needed a stupid Paladin to help you because you’re too dumb to help yourself and all this is because of you and you started it. He then turned to me. And you Longo el-stupido.”

  “I know,” I said holding up my hands. “It’s my fault because I’m ugly and stupid.”

  “And you smell.”

  “I know,” I nodded. “I smell worse than a mangy dog rolling in dead fish.”

  The boy started to giggle.

  “You smell worse than a dead dog that’s been rotten three days and then rolled up in dead fish.”

  “I smell worse than a bloated dead pig left in the sun till it explodes!” I exclaimed gleefully.

  “You smell worse,” the boy laughed, “worse than a whole pile of dead bloated pigs left in the sun a hundred days and then exploding -- Bsssshhhh!”

  “I smell worse,” I said raising an eyebrow and leaning in toward him, “than a camel fart.”

  “Ohhhpp!”

  He covered his mouth and his eyes went wide as he giggled and danced in circles.

  “A camel fart,” I added, “after he’s eaten a pile of monkey poop.”

  The boy broke into peals of childish laughter. His delight was contagious as he kept laughing and pointing, causing even Kell and Wendfala to chuckle.

  “What you said!” he cried. “What you said!”

  “What? Camel farts or monkey poop?”

  The boy fell down rolling in glee. Kell and Wendfala eyed me.

  “I have two small cousins,” I said. “This could go on for hours.”

  “You’re funny,” the child said finally as he rose. “I’m gonna call you Longo el-funnio.”

  “Why not el-farto?” I asked? ripping out a good one.

  The little boy laughed uproariously. Kell and Wendfala just smiled, shaking their heads.

  “Okay,” the boy said wiping the tears from his eyes. “Okay you pass the test.”

  “Test?” I asked curiously.

  “You stand in the Sacred Tree of Life itself. You want a blessing from the Angel. The least you can do is to show us that you have some life in you. Too many people take life too seriously. Life is to be savored and enjoyed. True life can’t happen without laughing sometimes, no ma
tter how dire the time. So I’ll help you go to see the Angel of Life. But to do that I have to pause the world.”

  “I – I don’t understand?” I said.

  “That’s just because you’re stupid,” the boy said slipping back into being a brat. “I am the Angel’s protector. I could let you in to see Gavreel, but that would drain the life from you. I mean you are mortals, no offense.”

  “None taken.”

  “So I have to pause the world just a moment so that your life would stand still and couldn’t be drained. To do that I need some sands of time.”

  “And where would I find these sands of time?” I asked.