The Winter Letter

by D. E. Stanley

  “Don’t worry. We’ll find him.” Gatnom turned and peered into the darkness of the caverns. Surely Will didn’t hide inside, but he didn’t know about the evils dwelling in the caves of Baru yet. Gatnom shook his head. What had he been thinking leaving Will near this place? He had to go in and look, but wasn’t sure if he wanted to bring Wohie. Inside lived all sorts of terror, but with the spy somewhere nearby leaving her here could be just an dangerous.

  At that moment an echo whipped past, blown from deep within one of the the darkest caves. The words were unintelligible, but Gatnom knew the voice.

  “Will!”

  ***

  “Be still boy. Stop fighting, It’s no use,” said the spy from behind his black mask. He looked like a ninja, with only a small slit exposing his eyes. He was right to, there was no use. The spy’s grip was a vice.

  “Let me Go! Who are you?!”

  ”I am Andrias, high protector of the city of Neba. I have come for you.”

  “Why me?! I’m not from this world! I came here by mistake! My name is—”

  ”Your name is William Wesley, from Earth. I know this already.”

  “Well then you know I came here by mistake!”

  “That is something I do not know. No one from Earth comes to our world by mistake.”

  ”What do you mean?!“ Will was almost screaming. “I have nothing to do with this world or your war!”

  “War. What do you know about war? What have they told you?“ asked Andrias. His eyes looked angry. Will realized he had better stop talking.

  “There are a lot of things you do not know young William, and I can see in your eyes that you are deceived. You have everything to do with this world and this war. You…” The spy stopped talking and turned towards the light at the cave entrance.

  “Will, where are you?!” rang Gatnom’s voice inside of Will’s head. Will looked at the man, wondering if he had heard. He had.

  “Siopao!” the man said firmly. There was a pop, then the magically emitted voices ceased. The spell was broken. “You must come with me. I must take you to the king.” The spy turned to leave, holding Will still with one arm, but stopped when he saw Gatnom and Wohie peering into the distant entrance of the cave. The man looked back into the darkness then back at Will, whose face was becoming more distorted as terrible imaginations of this evil king exploded in his mind. It would be better to die than to surrender to whatever torture he would be forced to endure at the hand of this King. There was no reason to return home, nor any reason to stay. Will suddenly did not care if he lived or died. The color inside of his heart flashed to the brightest volcano red and a matching hew glowed in his eyes. The depression he had lived for the past month had found an outlet: rage.

  “I will not go!” Will shouted from the deepest part of himself. The scream rode roughly up the throat, the type saved for moments of heroism or insanity. Will wasn’t sure which he was about to attempt, nor did he care. “I hate King Mel! He killed my parents! I hate him! If I meet him I will kill him!“ With every new sentence a new drop of sweat beaded up on his forehead, falling with a sizzle to the cavern floor.

  Down the tunnel Gatnom and Wohie were now approaching fast, running full throttle towards Will and the Spy. The spy glanced back and forth from the silhouettes running his way to Will, whose eyes were glowing so bright they were adding red to the blue glow from Andrias’s ring.

  ”What are you talking about William? I was there the day your parents died. I know—“

  ”DON’T TALK ABOUT THEM!“ Will screamed like a beast. “NEVER SPEAK ABOUT THEM!” Then, a new word that he did not understand began popping from his lips, over and over and over. “PUR! PUR! PUR! PUR!”

  The dark spy snapped his head back to Will. He seemed confused. “How do you know—”

  “PUR! PUR! PUR! PUR!” Will screamed as he twisted his face in the shape of a fire. With every repeat of the word a flame pulsed from Will’s eyes, like a flashing heartbeat, growing hotter with every thump, until with a crackle a bubble of fire appeared all around, enclosing the two inside.

  “Hudor Thureos!” the spy yelled. With his free hand he motioned like he was holding a shield. Instantly, a thick bubble of water expanded, colliding with the fire and extinguishing the flame completely. Once the spy could see the fire was out he looked back towards the entrance of the cave. Gatnom and Wohie were still coming, now fighting their way through the knee deep sand on the floor of the cavern.

  “Heudo,” the spy said calmly, and at those words everything faded to black. Will, without choice, in the middle of a battle, fainted into a deep sleep, while farther down the tunnel Gatnom and Wohie stopped running at the same time. They dropped slowly to their knees then fell face first, sound asleep in the sand.

  Sixteen

  The Tower

  Every sight was blurry and every noise muffled. The voices seemed distant and the sky a hundred miles higher than it should be. Will could tell, through his grogginess, he was being dragged through fields of rocks and creeks, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t wake up enough to see who was dragging him. He was half there, half in a dream a world away. He dreamt of school, of home, of books he had read, of stories his dad had told him, of scary men in black mask, of doing magic to impress friends, of burning houses and crashed cars, of flying talking bugs, and of creatures with funny mouths and long noses that spoke in a language that sounded like backwards Chinese. The last one was the result of too much Minum Manis, surely.

  During one of his short moments of awake he discovered he was indeed being drug on a makeshift cot. The next time he woke to a swirl of neon colors that made Will feel like he was going to throw up. In the middle of his constant coming to and passing out he thought he counted five moons and seven nights, but actually it was only two moons (Nos and Hyp) and four nights.

  He finally came fully to on a couch beneath a very high ceiling. The room was perfectly round and warm, but the grey stone blocks that made the walls made it feel cold. Fifteen foot windows dressed in thick purple curtains were set a few feet apart all the way around the room, accept for in one spot where there was a wooden door. Near the ceiling the window’s two vertical sides curved together, making sharp points. Will grabbed his bag and walked to one of the open windows. Below, a gold forest started just beyond a metal fence surrounding the building. The trees went on seemingly forever until they faded into the outline of mountains a great distance away.

  To the right and left were two more stone towers identical to the one he was now in. Will gasped. He was in a castle. But how did he get here? Did the King kidnap him from Gatnom’s tent in the middle of the night? He couldn’t remember a thing. He leaned onto the wall with one hand and shook his head, but then he snatched his hand back. The stone wall was as cold as ice.

  Turning, he ran to a window on the opposite side of the room. Straight down lay an ocean at war with a field of scattered rocks. The tower was hovering over the water, as if it was built leaning from the edge of the cliff. He slid on the goggles from his bag and looked down. Fish were floating on top of the water. At first Will thought they were dead, but later he found out they were only taking their mid-day siesta. He eased over to the wooden door and looked closely at a painting of a short haired man hung over it. He wore a high collared shirt and held a large staff the color of a gun barrel. A scar fell over one eye, then turned and crossed his face just over his lip, before curving again and disappearing beneath the collar. There was a name plate attached to the frame.

  Lord Markus, The Under-King

  The door creaked and Will jumped completely over the couch. A man as short as a child but with ears as big as a grandpa stepped inside the room. His lips were fat and his eyes were only half open. He wore a black tuxedo and a hat that reminded Will of a dunce cap wore by bad kids back in the day. The hat looked taller than the man, which made him resemble an oversized crayon.

  “Come,” the short man said, without an inkling of kindness. Will didn’t move
. “Come,” the man said again with a perfectly straight mouth, like the first pictures ever taken of people before smiling became popular.

  “Where am I?” Will asked.

  No Answer.

  “Who are you?”

  No answer again.

  “Answer me!” Will screamed. He lifted his left hand towards the man in order to make his threat more evident. “You will answer me!”

  The short man rolled his eyes. “Come,” he said again. Then, he turned and left the room.

  Will stood for a minute with his hand still lifted. The man had totally ignored him. After a minute he followed through the door to a staircase that wrapped around the tower like a snake. More cold grey stone (barely lit by the one window) welcomed Will with a shiver. Just below, a single flight down, was another door, slightly cracked open. Will got down on his knees and peeked through the keyhole. Inside, Gatnom and Wohie sat on a couch, staring blankly out of an open window.

  Suddenly, the door opened, putting Will face to face with the short man’s big ears.

  “Come.”

  “Will!” Wohie screamed as she ran over and hugged him. Her voice was trembling and her eyes were red.

  “What’s wrong? Where are we?” Will asked. At that, Wohie turned away and started sobbing.

  Gatnom walked over from the window. “Will, I have to talk to you. It is very important.”

  “Okay.”

  “Do you know who the spy was?”

  “Spy? I don’t know... wait… yeah, that guy in black, and a… a cave!”

  “What was his name?” Gatnom asked again.

  "Oh man, I don’t remember. I think his name was... Oh I can’t think straight, I think it was...”

  “Try Will, it’s important.”

  “Man, I can’t remember.”

  “Think.”

  “I kinda lost it in there. He was—”

  Gatnom grabbed Will by the shoulders, clearly frustrated by Will’s bad memory. “You have to remember! What was his name?!” he shouted.

  Will looked at Gatnom and stopped speaking. He suddenly reminded Will of the man from the middle of the smoldering logs.

  “Tell me who you are! Tell me who dropped you into our forest! Do you work for the King?!”

  “Gatnom!” Wohie yelled from behind. “Stop it!” She pushed in between the two boys, separating them. Gatnom spun around and walked back to the open window. Now, he was sobbing.

  “What’s going on?” Will asked. “Where are we?”

  “We are at Master Jared’s keep on the coast of the Eastern Sea,” Wohie answered. “It’s a long story, sit down.” She walked over to Gatnom and placed her hand on his shoulder. He wiped his eyes with his cloak, then turned back to Will.

  “Will, I am sorry. Please, forgive me. It’s been a terrible few days.”

  “Few days? How long have I been out?”

  Gatnom sat down on the couch. “Sit, please,” he said. Will sat. “When we heard you scream in the cave—do you remember the cave yet?”

  “Yeah, I think so.”

  “Okay. Well, we came running as fast as we could. Right as we got close some very strong fire magic exploded. I thought you were dead, but then there was a shield of water. The next thing I know Wohie and Jabber were waking me up. From what I can tell, the spy must have thrown an extremely strong sleep spell. Wohie was the farthest away, so she woke up first, but still she slept for almost twelve hours. It took six more to get me awake. We couldn’t wake you at all, and we couldn’t even remember what had happened for another three hours or so. The spell was so strong; only a very strong magi could have thrown it. That’s why we were asking you who he was.”

  “Wait! I remember, the guy in black. He said he was sent from the King to come get me.”

  “Really? Why you?”

  “I asked him the same thing.”

  “Well, he would have had it not been for Jabber and the other butterbugs. Jabber told us they arrived just as the spell was thrown. They swarmed the cave just as we fell to the floor.”

  “So the spell didn’t hit Jabber?”

  “Those kind of spells don’t work on butterbugs, they are immune to a lot of magic actually. When the spy saw them all fly into the cave he set you down and blasted through the middle of them. He flew! Do you know what that means?”

  “Umm, he’s really strong?”

  “To say the very least. Jabber tried to keep up, but couldn’t. He lost him at the Sudden Peaks. Jab said the spy flew over the mountains toward the city.”

  “Where’s Jabber now?” Will asked.

  “He’s outside somewhere, he doesn’t like the indoors very much. While you were still sleeping we carried you back to camp, but when we got there—” Gatnom swallowed hard and looked away. “—when we got there, the carts were still there, but the boys were gone. We looked everywhere, but finally one of the trees told us some men had come and taken the boys while we were asleep. It was a trap the whole time. The spy drew us out of the camp so he could send in the raiders to get the boys. I practically gave the boys to the King!”

  “No Gat,” Wohie said. “Don’t say that.”

  “We have to find them Will,” Gatnom said with new tears in his eyes. “They are helpless against such evil. That’s why I was asking so strongly. You fell from the sky and for a moment I assumed... I’m sorry.”

  “It’s cool man. It’s okay.”

  “Can you remember anything he said in the cave? Anything?”

  “Everything is so blurry. I can hardly remember my name right now, but I know he told me. It was Andrea, no And.. Andrias! That was it, Andrias from the City of Neba!”

  Wohie and Gatnom both looked up with big eyes. It seemed the color drained from both of their tanned faces.

  “What? What is it?” Will asked.

  “Are you sure?” Gatnom asked.

  “Yeah, positive.”

  “Gat, is that... Why would he be in The Foot Forest?”

  “I don’t know. I need to talk with Master Jared.”

  The door slammed. Master Jared stood there. “I already know. I hear everything in my castle,” Master Jared said. “William, there is no room for error here. Lord Andrias is the strongest knight in King Mel’s regime. He is one of the original three. Once he and Lord Markus served together under King Neba, before King Mel turned the knight to evil. That said, tell me, why did he not take you if he came for you?” Master Jared raised his voice to an accusing tone at the end.

  Will felt a rush. He was tired of being accused of being the bad guy. “I tried to fight him!”

  Master Jared looked at Will, who had stood up during his answer. He smirked slightly. “I see your getting much bolder now,” he said. “Good. We will need that.”

  Will felt his blood cool. He didn’t like this guy very much.

  “Master,” Gatnom interjected, “if this is true then the boys are already at The City of Neba. What will happen to them sir? We must get them back.”

  “You speak like a fool, boy. With one spell he knocked all three of you out for hours. He absorbed all you threw at him, and now you want to charge off into the city of the king and take them by force? You would die.”

  “Send an army. Send the strongest knights you have! We must get the boys back! We—”

  “Silence!” Master Jared screamed. “I know you care for them, but there is little hope now. They have been taken like hundreds of other boys east of the peaks. Anyone who tries to rescue them will die, and more importantly, if you take off into the city and cause problems the war could start before we’re ready for it — before Lord Markus is ready. Besides, all the knights are serving at the war games and there are no other groups capable of lasting even a minute against Lord Andrias, much less if you met King Mel!” He spit on the floor at the mention of the King’s name.

  “But sir, the boys. We must do something!”

  Master Jared tossed Gatnom a stone hard stare. Gatnom turned around and dropped his head to his chest. “Yo
ung one,” Master Jared said. His voice was softer. “Listen to me; trust my council. The best way to help your friends now is to take your place in the War-Games. Win, become a great knight and give our enemies the wrath they deserve. You have dreamt of this moment for years, take it now in the face of sorrow and adversity. Push the pain down deep and use it to make yourself strong.”

  Master Jared turned and walked to the door. Just before exiting he stopped and turned around.

  “Young Magi, remember what I said. I hear everything in my castle. Everything. Do not attempt anything stupid.” With that he disappeared through the door, letting it slam hard. The boom bounced through the round stone room, but was soon drowned out by Wohie’s sobs. Gatnom held her, letting her tears wash his filthy striped shirt. Will sat. When would he wake up from this nightmare? How could he do nothing? It just wasn’t right, no matter how dangerous it was.

  “Gatnom,” Will said. “What are we going to do?”

  “I am afraid we must listen to Master Jared.”

  “But—”

  “There is no questioning this. I’m sorry. He knows best.”

  “But what about Jubal and Randiby? What about the younger ones?”

  “I know it’s not easy. It’s not easy for me either, but it is what we must do. We have no choice.”

  “Why? We have a choice, there is always a choice!” screamed Will. The red began to come back to his eyes. “I don’t know anything about your world, but in my—”

  Wohie stepped in between Will and Gatnom and yanked Will by the arm, half dragging him over to a desk. She grabbed a piece of paper and a feather and began to write. Meanwhile, Will turned back to Gatnom.

  “We can’t stay here and do nothing,” he said. “Either let’s go get our friends or take me back to Mt. Highness. I—”

  Wohie jerked Will’s arm and shoved a piece of paper in his face. In messy letters it said:

  Master Jared HEARS everything in his castle.

  STOP TALKING!

  Will was silent in an instant.