by Jeff Wheeler
Did she mean years or height? Six years old! Is that how she sees me? I’m six foot tall and still growing. Look at her face. I can’t be much younger than her. I might be older.
Maybe she means both her brother’s height and years. Six. I’m like a child to her. My world collapses around me.
I follow Tovenaar and Helen down the mountain path. We walk depressing miles before my senses return and I eat the bread and cheese.
When I finally look around, trees intrude along the path, but no snow, only the evidence of spring with snowcapped mountains in the distance. The redwood forest is a kingdom of giant trees. Is this valley a kingdom of giant people? How far have we come?
Helen’s strides are long. Tovenaar and I hurry to keep pace. Soon, she stops to allow us to catch up, to rest.
I flop against the tree she indicates and try not to watch her. That proves difficult. She is flawless up close. When she glances skyward, I don’t take my eyes from her face until her eyes widen.
Esme circles overhead.
The mountain dragon settles to earth not far from me, but she keeps her distance from Helen. I extend my hand, and she comes close enough for me to scratch behind her ear. She purrs and pushes closer until we touch head to head.
The memory from Esme blanks out all else. I soar. Five men far below. Snow melting. They shout in triumph and enter the cave.
“Master Tovenaar.” My cry is so loud that Esme bolts and takes to the air. “Esme brings me a warning. The wizards did not go to the mountain pass. They cleared the snow from the cave entrance and entered the tunnel.”
“Then they cannot be far behind.” Tovenaar stands. His robes and beard billow in a gust of wind. “We must find some place that we can defend. Helen, can you help?”
“The closest refuge I know is my father’s old summer palace. It is built atop a steep outcrop of rock and is difficult to reach, but it’s been unoccupied for several years.”
“How far?” Tovenaar swings his pack onto his back.
“Not far. We passed the turnoff a mile back. We can be at the castle before dark.”
My military training makes a suggestion. “If we backtrack without sign, they may lose our trail and pass us by.”
“My brother is not easily fooled, not for long. Let us hurry. I do not want to meet him on the road.”
* * *
The steep climb up the path to the castle is difficult, and the temperature drops quickly after the sun sets. I am comfortable with the width of the trail, and walk alongside Tovenaar, but Helen fills the road and hugs the rock wall tighter when we climb. I often look back to be sure she is safe. Once, Tovenaar pulls me back from the precipice when I look back too long.
As soon as we are within the castle walls, Tovenaar seals the gate while I worry that it is made of wood and will too easily burn.
“Considerable magic must be expended to burn this gate.” Tovenaar pats the latch for emphasis. “Notice the iron hinges and latch.”
“Yes,” I say, “but fires can start without magic. Arrows can distribute the flame.”
Helen points above the gate. “From the gatehouse, we can release boulders onto the trail. They will kill the enemy and obliterate the trail.” Her voice lingers like a persistent melody.
“My brother is among our adversaries,” Tovenaar says, “and I don’t want to kill any of them. Let us drop the boulders now to block the trail.”
“Magnanimous, but foolish,” Helen says. “Nonetheless, I’ll release the boulders now.”
She is so thoughtful, kind, and considerate. A maiden of unlimited sweetness.
“How will we get out with the trail blocked?” I ask before Helen can leave.
Tovenaar inclines his head. “Every castle must have an emergency exit.”
Helen nods; her face is angelic. “The cistern guards a steep drainage tunnel. In an emergency, we take special sleds and flush the cistern down the tunnel to carry our sleds to safety. Father insisted that I ride it at least once to be sure I could operate it. I admit I screamed on the last drop over the waterfall and into the river. I should inspect the sleds to see that all is in order.”
Helen starts for the stairs to the gatehouse. How gracefully she moves. She pauses at the door when Tovenaar calls after her.
“Wait for Eric after dumping the rocks so that he can learn the operation of the sleds. I will make preparations here. Then we should sleep. My brother prefers to start a siege early in the morning.”
While Helen gracefully climbs the stairs to the gatehouse, Tovenaar pulls me aside so that I cannot watch her. He thrusts the puzzle purse into my hand.
“Pay close attention to the operation of the escape tunnel. If things do not go well at the gate, then you must escape and destroy the lens, but only when you are well away from me. I should not be within its influence when assembled.”
“Me escape? What about you and Helen?”
“What about us?”
“Helen. I’ll take her with me of course, but you can’t fight five wizards alone.”
“Take her with you? Are you mad? I’ve seen the look on your face, Eric, but don’t imagine more from her than kindness. Her father will kill you if you express other intentions.”
“But the wizards . . .”
“The wizards will not hurt a princess who has done no more than give us shelter and hospitality. My brother is with them. He would not allow it. Nor will they continue to fight me once they realize I no longer have the lens.”
“You said they were evil wizards.”
“Well, yes. Perhaps I exaggerated. Likely, they would tell you that I am the evil one.”
Now I’m confused once more. “I thought they wanted the lens so that they could exercise power without cost.”
“They claim that they want to destroy it, but I do not trust them to do so. The temptation of power is too great.”
“You told me that your quest was to find a way to destroy it.”
“Yes, it was, but I didn’t know how, and it’s taking me longer than I expected to figure it out. Besides, I am far more likely to destroy it than the others . . . I think. Of course, they don’t believe me. They say I want the power for myself.”
“Do you?”
“Sometimes I do, but now I know—”
“Why don’t you just scatter the pieces?”
“The families of the original wizards inherit an affinity for the puzzle parts. We are drawn to them. Only iron can destroy the lens, but only after the puzzle is assembled. To assemble the puzzle, approach it with intent and avoid the dark side. Once assembled, strike with iron.”
“How did you collect all the pieces, if the others are also attracted to them?”
“Easy. I bought three, and I stole the remainder from my brother and our four cousins: that is who pursues us.”
A large rumble outside the castle gate announces that Helen released the boulders onto the path. When the dust settles, she leans over the gatehouse railing.
“All done,” she says. “Eric, meet me at the main door of the castle keep.”
Meet her! My heart races at the invitation. All that Tovenaar said leaves my mind. Oblivious to all else, I tie the puzzle purse to my belt and run for the castle keep door. My love must not be made to wait.
Tovenaar shouts after me, but his words are lost in my thoughts of Helen.
* * *
The steps to the castle keep are too tall for me, and I have to jump up or knee-over each one. When I reach the top, Helen is already there.
“We released the boulders just in time.” She points beyond the castle walls. “I saw men farther down the path.”
“Where is the cistern?”
She leads me through the castle keep to the courtyard. Long pale shadows stretch across the expanse. The afterglow of the setting sun streaks clouds on the horizon.
“See the bathing pool in the center of the courtyard? The cistern is concealed by the cellar door beyond.”
“Bathing pool?”
“Yes. Fed by warm springs. My brother and I love to bathe there.”
Suddenly, I’m blind. I cannot see beyond my vision of her bathing in the pool.
“Eric? Eric, hurry before it grows too dark for me to show you how to operate the escape sleds.”
Clasping my hands in front to conceal my arousal, I follow her to the cellar door. She skips down the steps and opens the cellar door. I struggle with the steps. When I catch up, she stands just inside a large underground room. She applies steel and flint to light the candles hanging near the door.
A pool of water fills most of the vast room. Candlelight skips across the ripples. Four large sleds wait half launched from the narrow beach.
“See the stone ramp into the water?” She points to the far side of the nearest sled. “Just queue the sleds into the ramp and load everyone on board. Pull the lever at the end of the ramp, and a reservoir flushes it while a passageway opens at the far side to drain the pool. The sleds follow the water down the drain. No one dares take the passage without a sled, and it’s impossible to climb from the outside. Simple, huh?”
“Yes.” I attempt to review her instructions, but her beauty interrupts every attempt.
“What was that?” She returns to the door in three quick leaps.
Unable to make any decisions, I attempt to follow. “I hear nothing.”
“There, again. Shouts. I don’t think that Tovenaar’s brother will wait for morning.”
Using hands and feet, I scramble up the remaining stairs.
Tovenaar’s shouts become clear to me. “The gate is aflame. Now, Eric. Go now. Destroy the lens.”
I attempt to grab Helen’s hand but cannot grasp it. I take her index finger instead. “Come. I’ll take you to safety.”
“What? No. This battle does not concern me. I’m going to my room until you children are finished with your games.”
Is she really in no danger? Then how shall I become her hero? She gracefully dances away before I can protest.
The puzzle purse glows and vibrates. Tovenaar must have unlocked the purse.
A pulse of light dazzles me. Are they flinging fire at the castle battlements? How long can Tovenaar secure the castle keep? I should help Tovenaar. No. If I go to him, then my sword will neutralize his magic. The only way to resolve this conflict is the wizard’s way: destroy the lens and remove the reason for the war.
I leap down the stairs, stumbling on the last step. First, move a sled to the launch ramp, then press the lever. When I am far from the wizards, assemble the puzzle and destroy the lens. For the first time since I met her, purpose clears my mind of Helen.
The sled nearest the ramp is my target. I apply shoulder to the sled. It doesn’t budge. What must it weigh, this sled made to carry several giants? I dig my feet into the sand and try again. This time the sled wobbles, but moves no closer to the ramp.
Flashing light from the wizards’ war reflects into the chamber. The battle is closer. I cannot wait for escape. I must destroy the lens now.
Intent on assembling the puzzle, I open the purse and spread the pieces on the bottom step of the stairs. Does the candlelight deceive me, or have the pieces lost their dull gray sheen and taken on color?
As if in response to my question, the colors brighten until each of the pieces is either red, yellow, blue, white, or black. What had Tovenaar said? Avoid the dark side.
When I flip the black pieces, the opposing side of each is colored red, yellow, blue, or white. A quick check reveals that all the pieces are black on one side. I label that as the dark side and make sure that no black shows. Now I have five pieces that display a white face, five that are red, five that are yellow, and five that are blue. I group them by color.
The white pieces obviously fit snugly together. I connect two, then add the third. They interlock and do not easily come apart. The fit of the remaining white pieces is obvious. Now I have a white equilateral triangle. I repeat the similar assembly for a blue triangle, red triangle, and yellow triangle. Four triangles of identical shape, but different in color.
I pause. The pieces of the white triangle are congruent to the pieces of the red triangle. I can swap a piece of one with a piece of the other. Should I? Not yet. I see no way to intermingle the colors in any meaningful pattern.
When I move the red triangle close to the white triangle, an edge of one snaps to the edge of the other like two lodestones. The triangles fit together. I move the edge of the blue triangle close to an open edge of the white triangle. They snap together. Likewise, the yellow triangle bonds to the remaining white edge.
My first assembly attempt forms a parallelogram. Nothing happens. I reconsider and shuffle the triangles around. Now the assembled structure is a three-pointed star with a white triangular center and the three colored triangles attached around the perimeter.
Is this the lens? Too simple. Tovenaar mentioned a sphere. Surely there must be more to give a wizard power over the elements. Nothing happens. What now?
I try to pick up the star by the red triangle. The triangle rotates up but remains connected by its edge to the white triangle.
Wait. If I rotate all the colored triangles up, then—
Without releasing the red triangle, I grab the vertex of the yellow triangle. Then I notice the black sides of the two triangles. If I lift the three colored triangles and connect them, they will form a tetrahedron with the white triangle as the base, but all the colors will be to the inside, and only black will show on the outside.
Avoid the dark sides.
Fortunately, I have large hands. I set the star flat and palm the central white triangle so that I have a thumb or finger at each of the vertices. I lift the white triangle. The colored sides fold downward. I collect the colored vertices with my free hand and guide them together. Each colored edge snaps to the colored edge adjacent to it. The tetrahedron is complete.
I set the tetrahedron onto the step. It glows. Colors flow between the joined edges to discolor the triangular faces.
“No, Eric.” Tovenaar stands at the top of the stairs. His face is flushed. “You should have waited until you were far away. Now you must give the lens to me.”
I clutch the lens to my chest. A wall of fire springs up between Tovenaar and me.
Had I done that? I look to the lens. The tetrahedron represents the element fire. What about the other elements, the other Platonic solids?
As if my thought is a request, the lens reshapes into a cube, and I feel new power flow to me. Before I can gasp, the lens changes into an octagon and sparkles like a diamond. The colors swirl together on the triangular faces, and new power infuses me. Next, the lens assumes the shape of a dodecahedron quickly followed by an icosahedron swirled with the luminescence of mother-of-pearl. Water is mine.
My power over the elements of the world is complete. None can match me. Even the aether of heaven is not beyond my grasp.
The lens frees itself from my hand, levitates, and spins. When it slows, the edges and vertices are smoothed away, and the lens is now a transparent sphere with each of the Platonic solids inscribed within. It returns to my hands, and we reconnect.
I stagger back under the power influx through the lens. Where does it come from? From those near me? I shudder and struggle to regain my wits. The fire blocking the stairs sputters and dies.
“What have you done?” Tovenaar shouts from the top of the staircase.
“I assembled the lens. It chose me.”
“Nonsense. I chose you. I chose you because you are not a wizard. I chose you because you lack ambition. I chose you because you have an iron sword. I chose you because you are no killer. Do it now, Eric. Destroy the lens before we are all undone. Destroy it before the others break through the gates and we fight among ourselves to possess it.”
“My sword did not stop the lens from making a fire wall. I don’t know whether it can destroy the lens.”
“The lens makes you the most powerful wizard in the world, and you wield a sword
. If you cannot destroy the lens, then no one can.”
Esme lands near Tovenaar. I glance in her direction. Through her eyes, I am a stranger. Fear distorts her face. She retreats and leaps into the air. She doesn’t circle back.
“I must fix some things first.” I shove the lens into my pocket.
“Please, Eric. Don’t. This is the way the seduction starts.”
“Should I give the lens to you? Not likely.” I gesture, and he sprawls onto the pathway. Did I hurt him? Do I care?
Helen is easy to find. Her bedroom window lights the courtyard. I don’t bother to knock. She sits before a mirror in her bedroom and combs her hair. She looks up in surprise when I enter. Her eyes narrow as if she doesn’t recognize me.
“Eric? Is that you?” When she stands, she towers over me. “Is the battle over?”
“Almost, my dearest. I am here to smooth our path.”
“What path?”
“The path of true love.” I raise my hand. “First, I will change you to my size.”
“What? Why?”
“So that we can be together.”
“I like my size. If you change my size, I won’t recognize myself. I won’t be me.”
“Then I’ll grow large. That’s it. Mighty rulers should be larger than mere humans.”
“No. Don’t. I don’t love you, Eric. Besides, not only am I twice your height, I’m older than you.”
“I can fix that. I have power. I can fix anything.”
“I could never love a man so thoughtless of the consequences. Do it, and you will possess only an illusion, not me. Is that what you want?”
“But, I love you.” I’m stunned. This is not what I expected. “I have power but can do nothing.”
“Sometimes the best thing love can do is let go. What greater power is there?”
“Eric.” Tovenaar leans against the door. He looks much older. Does the lens drain him with my efforts? “My brother and my cousins breeched the gate. Soon they will find us. If you persist, I must join them against you. You will have to kill us all. Before you are finished, all of the twenty wizards’ descendants will die, aged by your magic. Please. Is power worth all those lives?”
