The Map Maker's Quest

by Matthew J. Krengel

  “He wants to take Duluth doesn’t he?” Jacob said. He was nervous and his stomach was tied into knots. He was still torn between the beautiful woman sitting next to him and the exotic looks of Flying Cloud on the far side of the Divide. The raven-haired Native American girl was an equal to Jane in looks.

  “I want revenge,” Jackie muttered determinedly. Her mind was on the year of her life she had been held against her will on the far side of the Divide. “I’m going to go take another shower. Of all the things I missed, a good hot shower topped my list.” She slipped from the bed, her dark hair tousled, to find her way to the bathroom.

  “When did he want us back?” Jacob asked. He assumed the dwarf wanted them to return to the rebellion.

  “He said he’d check in today,” Jane replied. “Other than that, he said to sit tight for a day while he tried to find out what Cain has planned.”

  “What if there really is a traitor in our ranks?” Jacob asked finally. He voiced the concern on all their minds since Averill let the hint drop that they had been tipped off.

  “Only a few people knew the whole plan,” Jane replied.

  “It has to be Puck,” Jacob declared angrily. “He was the only one not there, and he is a greedy stinking goblin.”

  Jane did not reply, but in her mind she wasn’t so sure he was right. What if it wasn’t Puck? What if Bella the fairy or Eriunia the elf had found a way to send a message to the Adherents? What other plans were being carried out without anyone knowing? All of them had personal reasons to make a deal with the Adherents, and Bella had even tried once.

  * * * * *

  Cain vanished from his palace on Manitoulin Island and stepped into the Divide, his own anchor and skills bringing him to the Isle of Lakes seconds later. Moving through the Divide was hard for him, but he managed to arrive at the right place. He was an example of what a determined being could do with a good anchor and the help of a master map maker. He arrived on the docks in a flash of energy. A nearby dock hand’s face went from startled to frightened as he recognized the leader of the Temple. Hastily, the man picked up the wooden crate from the stack sitting on the heavy planks and hurried back to where they were hauling them into the belly of the great iron beast. Cain chuckled evilly. Normally he would have stayed and played on the fear of those poor souls, but he had places to go. Instead he went in search of the ship maker and the harbor master. It was time to move.

  “Is it ready?” Cain demanded. He walked up to where a grizzled old ship maker was standing next to a wooden table looking down at a stack of drawings. He needed the ship ready to move, and he was in a hurry.

  “We can launch in the next couple of hours, Master Cain.”

  Cain nodded. “Good, I’m sending a message to these supposed rebels.”

  He walked up the steps to the deck of the behemoth and started to look around. Placed around the main deck were forty of the great cannons mounted on moving rails that held them to the deck. The mounts allowed the cannon to slide backwards when fired so that the power of the explosion would not rip the deck planks to pieces.

  Under his feet a second deck filled with cannon was protected by cold iron hatches, only opened when the cannons were fired. Almost a thousand of his Adherents formed the crew, and they hurried about taking care of a myriad of tasks. No one wanted to be seen slacking while Cain was about, and that pleased him. He had carefully cultured the legends of fear surrounding him over the last years.

  Two hours later the ship slipped from the docks, and the captain brought the engines to half power. Cain knew he was stuck on the ship for the time being, but he was fine with that. The sheer amount of cold iron used to build the ship made it almost impossible for anyone to cross the Divide and land on the deck of his Goliath. Around the massive ship ranged twelve of his smaller Iron Ships, together they transported the remainder of his army. Never before had he gathered most of his forces in one place, but now was the time for his strike. He would move to the port city of Duluth and start there. His eyes traveled to the deck to where the last addition to the ship was bolted to the deck plates. That was his ultimate weapon, developed over the last few years with the help of his secret partner. Not even those he answered to in the hierarchy of the Temple knew of this machine.

  The other side will sit up and take notice now, Cain thought, and when this day is done, I’ll have all the technology in the world. Plus I’ll gain the location of what I truly seek.

  “He now believes it’s hidden close by,” Cain muttered. Last night he had met with his ally, and they agreed someone had found the book. Not just any book but a volume that contained a detailed recording of a thousand years of learning forgotten in the mists of time. Imagine knowing everything, all the great things created during ancient times and all the secrets of the world from before the great Divide. Great cities built deep underground, others that floated high above the earth, unlimited knowledge from a time when the fathers of the human race lived for a thousand years.

  The others mocked him when he volunteered to go and begin spreading the word in the wilder lands across the ocean. He ignored the fools and spent years with his mentor studying the few ancient texts and pictographs that survived the great floods that accompanied the formation of the Divide.

  It was out there somewhere in the New World, waiting to be found. More importantly it was near Lake Superior. He’d managed to glean that from the other volumes of knowledge. But the great lake covered a vast amount of land, and, at nearly four hundred feet deep, the book was impossible to find without narrowing the search area even more. He had begun to think it was impossible until one of his Adherents returned yesterday. He brought a strange story of an old man who let slip a tale while he thought the Adherent was unconscious of a strange book filled with amazing things. The old man claimed to have taken the book from its resting place and hidden it in the city of Duluth.

  “That’s all I need,” Cain muttered aloud. “I’ll tear that city apart one stone and brick at a time if I have too.”

  Chapter Two

  Kidnapped

  Jackie and Jane sat at the small dinner table eating scrambled egg, pancakes, and sausage links ravenously. They had doused their pancakes with syrup from a small glass jar Grandpa Able had warmed in the microwave and set out. Their mom still slept downstairs and Grandma Kay had not joined them, so they kept their voices low. Jacob was in the bathroom upstairs cleaning up, and Grandpa Able was fussing over the gas stove, making another pan of scrambled eggs.

  “How do you feel?” Jane asked. She looked over at her sister and marveled how her clothes now fit her sister perfectly. The extra pairs of blue jeans she had in her suitcase had come in handy with Jackie back.

  “Better than I have in almost a year,” Jackie said. Another fork full of eggs vanished, and she leaned back in the chair with a happy sigh. “I could eat forever, but I think my stomach shrank while I was there.”

  A thump upstairs, and Jacob emerged at the top of the steps, an irritated look on his face. Directly behind him on the steps was Tasker, and the dwarf bustled by him and came downstairs.

  “Look who I found,” Jacob said. His hair was still damp and he was struggling to pull his left arm through the sleeve of his shirt. He accepted a plate of food from Grandpa Able and sat down on the nearby bottom step of the wooden stairs.

  “I made you this,” Tasker said to Jackie.

  Jackie reached out her hand, but suddenly Jane stretched out her own hand and stopped her. Tasker seemed to miss the exchange and laid the small golden medallion on the table next to Jackie. His chest came to the middle of the table, and he stood on his toes to take a plate from the far side. He walked over to Grandpa Able.

  Jane looked down at the medallion and wondered if it was different from the one Tasker had already given to Jackie. It looked to be the same, and so she closed her hand over it and slipped it into her po
cket.

  “Would you like some breakfast?” Grandpa Able asked quietly.

  Tasker nodded and accepted a scoop of eggs and several pancakes.

  Jane waited as he seated himself on an empty chair across from them. When he and Jacob were finished eating, they all stood silently waiting for Tasker to begin. After almost a minute of silence Jane finally piped up. “So what are we going to do? I can’t see Cain taking this one without doing something.”

  “He isn’t,” Tasker replied. He leaned back and stroked his beard with his gnarled hand. “We had people watching the harbor all morning and the Iron Goliath left the Isle of Lakes early as the sun was rising. They lost it in a fog bank less than an hour later.”

  “Where is he heading?” Jane asked. The fact that the massive ship had survived the raging fires stoked by Yerdarva was not a good thing. Even worse was the news that the leader of the Temple of Adherency was moving his army.

  “I’m not sure,” Tasker replied. He shrugged and handed his plate back to Grandpa Able.

  Absorbed as they all were in the tale, Jane, Jackie, and Jacob all missed the curious look on Grandpa Able face. He was a man struggling to remember something he’d blocked out of his mind for decades. For his part, Grandpa Able felt he knew something about this Cain character but he could not remember what it was to save his life.

  “What are the rest doing?” Jane asked.

  “I assume Yerdarva is sleeping,” Tasker replied. “Using dragon’s fire tends to tire out any dragon. I don’t think she’ll recover any time soon. Puck’s still missing, and I’m starting to think he died at the Isle of Lakes or returned to his forests. As for Bella . . .” He paused to take a breath. “Her wing’s healing, but I doubt it ‘ll ever work again. When I left Eriunia, she was marshaling what forces she could and preparing to march on Duluth.” Tasker stopped for a minute and tapped his chin, “Oh, there was one more thing.” Tasker turned to Jacob and said, “Flying Cloud wanted me to tell you she’s looking forward to seeing you again.”

  “You mean all of us?” Jacob stammered as his face blushed red.

  “No,” Tasker said, oblivious to the angry stare Jane was aiming at Jacob. “I think she just meant you. I think she likes you.” Tasker also missed the pained look that covered Jacob’s face as Jane turned away and fiddled with a bit of food still on her plate.

  Jackie broke the minute of awkward silence that followed. “Eriunia wants to take the city?” Jackie asked. “Even without knowing what Cain’s doing?”

  “Aye, she means to take the city,” Tasker replied. “I gave her my blessing. It’d be a major blow to Cain’s power around the lake.”

  “What if Cain shows up with his entire army?” Jackie asked. “I may have been locked in a dungeon cell but Carvin kept me informed towards the end. I know he has a large army and a lot of guns.”

  “I don’t think he’ll move to Duluth,” Tasker said with a wave of his hand. “Remember, he already controls the city on my side of the Divide. More than likely he’s heading to Madeline Island to retake the fortress there. We can send someone to warn those still there to flee if they spot the fleet approaching.”

  Suddenly there was a shriek from downstairs. All of them leapt to their feet. Jackie and Jacob led the charge across the kitchen and raced down the stairway, skidding to a halt at the bottom of the steps. Four black robe Adherents held Mrs. Timbrill between them. Three of the magical muskets were pointed at them, and Jackie leapt back, falling in a tumble on the steps on top of Jane and Tasker. One of the Adherents triggered his musket and the ball of energy slammed against the wall at the bottom of the steps. The blast left Jackie’s hair standing on end and a blackened mark on the wall. There was a shout from the basement meant for all of them.

  “Stay away from us or we will kill her! We have the Runner and the Map Maker’s mothers!”

  “What do you want from us?” Jane shouted back. Fear coursed through her body, she had just gained her sister back, she couldn’t lose her mother the same way.

  “We want the book!”

  “What book?” Jane asked incredulously. Her mind raced, trying to figure out what the man was talking about. “I don’t have any books!”

  “The old man knows what we’re talking about,” the Adherent shouted back. “Deliver the Golden Book of Knowledge to us at Enger Tower on this side of the Divide and we will return your loved ones to you unharmed. You have three days. Be there at sunset two days after tomorrow,” the Adherent shouted.

  Jane lunged around the corner, desperate to reach her mother but all five of them vanished through the Divide. Shocked silence filled the room. After about half a minute voices erupted on all sides. The only one that kept his wits was Tasker who raced upstairs to grab his map. The others looked about in confusion as Jacob hurried to join the dwarf.

  “Do I go after them?” Jacob asked. “I can get my shield and sword. Maybe I can catch them off balance.”

  Jane could feel herself slipping into an almost catatonic state as the frightened face of her mother filled her mind—the pleading looking of “help me” she had given Jane just before vanishing with the pack of Adherents. Despite the good night sleep, Jane felt her energy slipping away. She stumbled back and sat down heavily on the steps. Would they ever manage to gain the advantage over the Adherents? Each time she thought they were a step ahead, she turned around and found they were falling further behind.

  “What if you don’t,” Tasker pointed out. He examined the map before him and caught a glimpse of the markers of the five Adherents and a sixth marker before they vanished again off his map. They had jumped to Duluth and then must have removed their anchors. Whatever map maker was working with them had erased their markers.

  “We know they jumped to Duluth on the other side of the Divide,” Tasker confirmed. He looked over to Jane who had just watched the same thing happen on her map.

  Jane lay her head down on her map and fought back the tears as frustration threatened to drown her.

  “What about this book?” Jane asked curiously. The comment about the book kept running through her mind and she latched onto it, trying to keep her mind from spiraling into darkness. She looked over at her grandfather and waited for him to explain.

  “It was a long time ago,” Grandpa Able began slowly. He sat down heavily and rested his head in his hands, he was a man burdened with a heavy weight. “I was scouting in Laos, trying to find the trails the Viet Cong were using to move men and material into South Vietnam. I stumbled across an abandoned city in the jungle. The locals called it the Cradle of the Vanishing Ones. The local population feared the place and stayed away from it. They feared ghosts and who knows what else they attributed to the area. Anyway, I followed someone into the ruins and saw him open a secret door in a stone pillar.” He paused as if unsure he wanted to continue. Grandpa Able looked at Tasker again and pondered his face trying to place where he had seen it before. He had never really gotten a good look at the short figure in the abandoned city, at least not at his face. Tasker was about the same size but he didn’t think it was him.

  “So what happened?” Jane prompted.

  “I found a treasure room,” Grandpa Able said quietly. “It was unlike anything I had ever seen before. Gold coins and gem stones piled in every corner. In a hidden compartment I found a book.” He paused struggling with the words. “It was a book of knowledge, a written records of many things long since forgotten. I took it and enough gold coins to buy a house and hide the book when we returned to Duluth.”

  “The book is here?” Tasker asked curiously. His heart beat wildly hoping that the old man had kept it here. Tasker knew about the book and it suddenly dawned on him that this was what Cain was seeking. For good reason, the book was something Tasker had sought for a time also.

  “No,” Grandpa Able replied.

  “Well, where is it?” Jac
kie asked.

  “I don’t know,” Grandpa Able replied. He shrugged in a defeated manner.

  “But you just said . . .” Tasker burst out.

  “I said I brought it back to hide,” Grandpa Able replied. “I didn’t say I was the one who hid it. I paid someone I knew to arrange a hiding place for it. I don’t know where it is.” Grandpa Able shrugged, “I have something for Jane and Jackie. It might help the two of you find what you are looking for.”

  He shuffled over to where his old scroll top desk sat against the wall and slid the top open. The desk was a work of art, every part of it engraved with leaves and flowers. He opened a side compartment and pulled out a small wooden box.

  “What is it?” Jackie asked.

  “Proof of what I’m telling you,” Grandpa Able replied. He flipped the lid open and removed an amulet attached to a thick necklace chain. He handed the amulet to Jane and smiled at her. From the bottom of the box he pulled a golden coin and tossed it down on the table in front of them. “Here is a coin from the horde.”

  All of them gathered around and stared down at the golden coin. Jane’s eyebrows rose in surprise. The coin was the size of a fifty cent piece, it glowed in the light. Etched into the surface was an image of a regal looking man with his head turned to the side. The thing that drew their eyes was the slightly pointed ears and the flowing script around the outside that none of them was able to read.

  “Can you read that, Tasker?” Jane asked.

  “No,” Tasker muttered. “I think it’s some form of elvish. Show it to Eriunia when we get back across the Divide.”

  Jane looked at the dwarf curiously. She could have sworn she saw a glimpse of recognition on his face just for a moment. Maybe it was shock, but it seemed to her he knew what they were looking at and didn’t want to share. Rather than press the issue, she looked at the amulet in her hand and turned it over. The back of the stone was rounded and polished, it was made out of a Lake Superior agate clamped into an elaborate golden setting. On the front was an etching that looked like a lantern set between two vertical lines. There were four numbers etched into the polished surface. On top was a three and on the bottom was a seven, to the right and left were four and one in that order.