Reaching the edge of the woodlands, the beasts crashed through the brush with a wild abandon. Leaves, twigs, and pine needles flew in disarray and cascaded to earth in the wake of their passage. One of the beasts, too reckless in its wild, ravaging onslaught, crashed into a small pine tree in its path. Impaling itself on a broken limb, it screamed out its pain as it broke apart, spewing bile like an engorged blood blister. It hung unheeded from the limb of the tree while the rest of its brood continued its charge.
These devil’s spawn could have only one origin – Acantha – and Michel knew that she was unleashing them in an attack on the cabin! With the strong need to warn and protect his friends, Michael began the trip back. The ground below him was an exploding blur as he traveled. In a matter of seconds he covered the distance necessary to return to the cabin.
With force sufficient to bowl him over, he snapped back into his body. As Michael flew across the room from the force of reentering his body, Brian let out a startled yelp. One minute he sat calmly watching, nearly asleep, and the next the magician was rolling across the floor from no force the boy could see. At the boy’s exclamation, the others that were still talking by the fire jumped to their feet. Sarah was the first to reach Michael’s side.
“Are you all right?” she asked worriedly, as she knelt by Michael’s side.
He stirred as though coming out of a deep sleep. Groggily sitting up once again, he looked from dazed eyes at Sarah. “All right? Yes, I think so.” He looked at his hands as though they were alien to him.
“What happened, Michael?” asked Everett, as he approached. Everett could clearly see that something unusual had occurred, he just did not know what. With effort, Michael pulled his gaze from his hands. He saw Everett staring at him with concern. He looked from one face to another in the small dimly lit cabin room.
“I left myself,” he offered lamely.
Thomas and Oliver exchanged questioning glances with each other at Michael’s attempt to offer explanation.
“What do you mean, you left yourself?” asked Everett.
Michael was finally able to explain what had happened in the last hour; from the first realization that he was free from his body, through the wondrous trip over the forest, to when he spotted the ghoulish creatures that were making the maniacal charge from the south.
“When will they be here?” asked Everett, readily willing to accept Michael’s story without question.
“I don’t know. Before dawn, anyway.”
“What are we going to do?” asked Sarah.
“We prepare a defense,” answered Thomas with a gleam in his eye. “Come on, Oliver. We’ve got work to do.”
Three hours later, in the early pre-dawn hours, the group had made all the preparations they could and were waiting for the attack inside the small, sealed cabin.
The windows were shuttered and bolted, as was the door. A blazing fire was burning in the fireplace to provide light, and to insure against the unlikely event that one of the beasts would try to use the chimney as a means of entry. Two heavy double-bladed axes, sharpened to a razor’s edge, were brought in for Thomas and Oliver. Sarah was holding an oak pitchfork; the tines brought to wicked points. Esther and Brian were huddled in a corner of the cabin; Brian bravely holding the club he had threatened the travelers with just a day earlier. Michael and Everett’s hands were empty, but ready to dispense magic.
They did not have long to wait, shortly after they had locked themselves inside the cabin, the ten remaining creatures that Michael had seen miles to the south came lopping into the small clearing that sheltered the cabin.
The dark red hairless bodies were almost invisible in the dim light. Only the scarlet red eyes, reflecting the pale starlight, could readily be seen.
The unnatural beasts slowed to a stop once the cabin was in sight. It seemed as though they were deciding how best to proceed with the attack. In truth, Acantha was guiding the beasts, and was watching the attack as it unfolded, through the eyes of one of the beasts.
With a blood-chilling howl, the creatures rushed to the cabin en masse, expecting to overwhelm unsuspecting victims. The charge was aimed at the door in the center of the front wall of the cabin. They were charging up a gentle slope and did not see the hastily camouflaged pit until it was too late. The shallow pit was dug the length of the front porch area and covered with a thin layer of branches and leaves. As the first of the beasts crashed through the thin covering, it fell a scant two feet before impaling itself on sharpened posts driven into the floor of the pit. Its wild thrashing sprayed blood and bile over the floor of the porch and the other beasts as they frantically tried to correct their course or jump over the pit.
Two more of the beasts were unable to avoid the pit, as the wild jostling prevented them from altering course or jumping clear. They, too, were impaled by sharpened stakes and added their blood to the already drenched porch.
The seven remaining creatures that were able to throw themselves over the pit landed on the blood-coated floor of the porch. The slick substance on the wood planking threw them from their feet as they slid uncontrolled into the front wall of the cabin. One of the beasts struck the door headfirst, nearly knocking it from its hinges. The creature’s neck was broken on impact, spilling even more blood on the floor of the porch, seeping under the door and into the cabin.
Hearing the angry howls, screams of pain, and the wild thrashing, Big Thomas and Oliver grabbed rope ends that rested on the cabin floor. The ropes were threaded through small holes that the men had gouged through the front wall of the cabin. They were attached to the bottom of the supporting beams for the porch roof. The beams had been worked loose from the flooring before the men had locked themselves in the cabin.
Thomas and Oliver pulled the ropes with all their might, ripping the support beams from the roof of the porch. The rending and crashing of the wood told the travelers that they had been successful in bringing the roof down. Two more of the beasts were caught in the collapse.
The door of the cabin burst open as one of the beams from the porch crashed against it. The four remaining beasts lunged at the opening. The first creature through the door was pulling its body using the front legs only; the two rear legs had been smashed by the falling timber and were being dragged uselessly behind.
The beast was still dangerous, viciously snapping foam-covered fangs at the people in the cabin. Oliver quickly dispatched the beast with a deadly swing of his axe.
The last three surged through the broken cabin door in a snarling, gnashing heap. The first broke directly at Thomas, who with an easy upward swing of the axe gutted the creature as it leaped for him. The second charged straight toward the back of the cabin at Michael and Everett. The pair of magicians were more than a match for the hapless beast. Bolts of fire from the pair of magicians hit the beast at the same time. The room was showered in a rain of blood as the creature literally exploded.
The remaining beast raced directly to the corner where Esther had shrunk from the violence. Her small son, Brian, was standing over her with his club raised, determined to save his mother from the nightmare that was crashing down on them. As the beast gathered itself for the final lunge at the helpless victims before it, Brian closed his eyes and swung his club with all his might, throwing his hip into the swing just like his dad had taught him when using an axe.
Yelling with fear and anger, Brian felt the recoil as the club connected on the head of the beast. His entire body was jolted and vibrated with the force of the blow. The creature howled its agony as its body was thrown off course and into the wall beside the pair. Sarah was upon it and drove the tines of the pitchfork through it before it had a chance to make an attempt at regaining its feet.
The attack had lasted only a minute but the cabin looked as though it had survived a siege of hours. The defenders looked about them in shock as the silence of the night engulfed them.
“Damn, but that was fun,” chortled Thomas, with a smile on his face, as he leaned on h
is axe.
“Oh please, Thomas!” spat Sarah. “Not now.” She slid down the wall to embrace the frightened Esther, as the men stared.
“Well, fun or not,” Michael finally said, “we had better make sure we got them all.”
Michael cautiously led the men out to the destruction in front of the cabin. Everett was left to protect the three still inside as Michael, Thomas, and Oliver split up to search around the outside of the cabin. Michael and Oliver had just returned when Thomas came scurrying around the corner of the cabin. “Fire! There’s a fire started behind the cabin where the wood ends!”
The three men ran from the front of the cabin back in the direction that Thomas had come from. The fire was small but growing rapidly. Brush had been piled from the thick growth of bushes behind the cabin. The flames were already reaching over Michael’s head, and crawling along the dried brush toward the cabin, as he raced around the corner. With hands waving in the air, Michael constructed another of his green bubbles over the area being consumed by the fire. Within minutes, without air to feed it, the fire began to die. Unnaturally quiet, with head bowed and mouth set in a tight scowl, Michael spun to return to the cabin.
“Come on,” was all he said as he passed Thomas and Oliver.
Back in the cabin, Michael paced from one end of the small room to the other as Thomas and Oliver told the others about the fire. His face was set in a scowl as he continued his pacing.
“What’s wrong, Michael?” Sarah asked. “You found the fire and put it out before it did any harm.”
Michael stopped his pacing and looked at each member of his party in turn. The frown was still on his face when he spoke. “Yeah, I put it out. What I want to know is who started it! These beasts weren’t clever enough to do it.” He waved his arms toward the front of the cabin to indicate the creatures that had attacked them. “So who does that leave?”
He went on. “Dry brush was stacked against the back wall. That fire was set by human hands, and the intention was to burn down this cabin; probably hoping to kill anyone that didn’t get out in time.” “But there’s no one here but us,” objected Everett.
“That’s precisely what I mean,” answered Michael.
All of the friends looked at each other, hoping not to see a guilty face.
“Oh, that’s ridiculous,” argued Oliver. “None of us would do that.”
“There’s got to be another explanation,” offered Thomas.
“I don’t know,” Michael sighed. “We’ll worry about it in the morning. For now we have enough to do. We need to clean this place up, and secure the door, so that we can get a few hours of sleep.”
The members of Michael’s group went about the chores of cleaning the cabin in silence, as they thought about the possibility of one of their friends working against them.
CHAPTER 20
The next morning little was said about the fire, or who might possibly have set it. Instead they began building the flying sailing vessel.
“All we really need,” said Oliver by way of instruction, “is just a sled with seats on it. We’ll need side rails, of course, to keep landlubbers like Thomas from falling over the side.”
“Me?” responded the mountain man, wounded by the barb. “I never fall out of my seat...unless I’ve had too much ale, of course.”
Thomas’ admission helped to lighten the mood, and the travelers once again began to work together in good spirits.The men worked through the afternoon, fashioning and shaping the wood they had cut the previous night. Esther was busy inside the cabin with Sarah sewing the rough cloth she had been using as drapes for the open windows into the sails that Oliver had specified. Brian spent the afternoon helping the men with the woodwork. He practically worshiped Michael, and was in awe of the magic that he had seen the man perform.
“Do ya’ think maybe I could come with ya’, Michael?” he asked at the first occasion that the two were alone. “I’m a good fighter. Ya’ saw me bash in that crummy beast, didn’t ya’?”
“Yes, I saw,” Michael answered. He stopped the work he was doing and tilted his head toward the cabin. “That’s why I feel good about leaving you here. Your mother is a fine woman. She doesn’t deserve to be left alone. I’m glad she has a brave young man like you to protect her.”
Michael looked down at Brian and saw that the boy was staring at the cabin. “You wouldn’t want her to be left alone, would you?” he asked.
“No,” Brian answered slowly. “I guess I didn’t think about Mom being alone. I think maybe I’d better stay here.”
Michael clapped Brian on the shoulder as the two went back to the work of building the craft.
By late afternoon the flying boat was completed. It was quite simple, just flat boarding about eight feet long, with one trapezium sail supported by a yard and boom. Notches were cut along the outside of the planking where the travelers would sit. This would allow their legs to drop over either side, as though they were riding bareback. A railing was built along both sides for safety.
“Well, what do you think?” asked Oliver when Everett walked over to join him alongside the flying boat.
“Not much to look at,” replied Everett, somberly.
“It doesn’t need to be pretty, Everett...just functional. We don’t need to cut through waves, or keep from being swamped by taking on water, so all we need is what you see here.”
Michael and Thomas joined the pair as they stood examining the new craft.
“Not very pretty,” remarked Big Thomas.
“Yeah, doesn’t look like much,” agreed Michael.
“Aahhh!” wailed Oliver, as he threw his hands in the air and stalked to the cabin. “Functional! Functional!” he shouted as he marched to the cabin without looking back.
“What’s gotten into him?” inquired Michael of Everett.
“I’m not sure,” mused Everett. “I think he wants everyone to see this thing as pretty.”
“Why would he want that? All that matters is that it works.”
Everett shrugged his shoulders as the three men began the walk back to the cabin.
They decided to make the first attempt at flying Oliver’s airboat after a late lunch. Of course everyone showed for the first attempt. Oliver would be piloting, with Michael on board to do his magic and keep the boat flying.
“Okay,” said Oliver, “now, I’ll keep the sail filled, you keep the craft in the air.”
“I don’t see any problem with that,” answered Michael.
“Yeah, but you gotta do more than that,” continued Oliver. “The wind is blowing in from the west; if we want to go south, that means you gotta keep pressure on the port side of the craft so that we don’t get pushed east.”
Michael looked at Oliver as though he were suddenly speaking a foreign language.
“I don’t understand a word you said, Oliver.”
“No, I don’t suppose you do,” sighed Oliver, as he put his hands on his hips. “Let me see if I can explain this so that even a landlubber like you can understand. Okay, it’s like this.” Oliver pointed toward the ocean. “The wind is coming in from the west, but we want to go south.” Oliver pointed to the south. “The wind will be pushing us from the right side, not from behind, that means we’ll be pushed to the left. But we don’t want to go left...understand?”
“Sure, I’ve got you so far.”
“Good. So, if you keep pressure on the left side of the craft, we won’t be able to go in that direction, and the wind will sort of ‘squirt’ us straight ahead. If we were sailing in the ocean, the water on the hull of the boat would act as that pressure, but since we don’t have any water, we use your magic instead.”
“Right, I think I’ve got it. Besides, I’m sure you’ll quickly tell me if I’m not doing what you expect.”
“You’ll do fine. Get on behind me, I need to be in the bow to handle these lines.”
Michael and Oliver sat on the length of planking making up the hull of the air-boat. The sail was down as Michael b
egan raising the boat. When they had reached the top of the tree line, Oliver pulled one of the ropes he was holding, and the sail began to travel up the mast.
As the sail filled with air, the vessel surged sideways. “Pressure on the left, Michael. Pressure on the left. Don’t let us drift sideways.”
As Michael used his magic to stop the air-boat from moving to the left, he found it beginning to tip over on the left side.
“Push down on the right side!” yelled Oliver, as he grabbed the railing to keep from being pitched over the side.
Michael fought to keep the craft level, as Oliver finally regained his balance and began to maneuver the sail. Once righted and the sail filled again, the vessel surged ahead. A few tense seconds passed when Michael and Oliver were flipped on their side, but when they had corrected and began actually sailing south the group left on the ground celebrated with cheers and handshaking. Brian was jumping up and down, clapping, and cheering all at the same time. His head was craned back in an almost impossible position to watch the two men overhead.
Michael and Oliver were now flying over the tops of the trees at an amazing rate of speed. Oliver had never sailed such a fast vessel before.
“This is wonderful, Michael!” he called over his shoulder. “There’s no friction from the water to slow us down. We’re literally flying with the wind!”
“Great! Let’s turn it around and head back. We’ll try it with everyone on board.”
Their robes flapped in the air, and their hair swirled around their heads as Oliver used the wind to turn the air-boat back the way they had come. Michael reversed the instructions Oliver had given him earlier, and they were soon back to where their flight had originated. Oliver untied one of the ropes and lowered the sail as they approached the clearing where their friends waited for them. As they drifted into the clearing, Michael lowered the air-boat slowly to the ground. They were greeted by handshakes and backslaps when they finally landed.
The Enchanted Emerald (The Enchanted Stones Book 1) Page 16
