Behind the Curtain

by Shannon Ainslie

  They helped each other get fitted into their long chain-mail shirts. Then they picked up some leather caps and long, hard pieces.

  “Leather skull caps and protective pieces for your arms and legs.”

  Rowdy and Jordyn turned the pieces around, sorting out the puzzle. After they put the hard leather caps on and tied them under their chins, they looked at each other and laughed.

  “This isn’t about appearances,” Granny scolded. “You should be respectful of Boc’s generous gifts. It takes a very powerful wizard to transport physical objects from the spirit world.”

  They hushed and faced one another with their blades drawn. They tested the mail and the leather. They got accustomed to the weight and feel of the armor on their bodies as they moved.

  After that, the group watched as Jordyn practiced shape-shifting from warrior to snake and back until she could do it quickly with ease.

  When Granny was satisfied, they put the weapons and armor away, anticipation rising inside of them.

  Rose took Jordyn home right away.

  Everyone was to eat and rest in preparation for the early day coming; all were to be ready to go at dawn’s first light. Jordyn would have to sneak out of her window. Rose was going to meet her.

  “Granny?” Rowdy ventured, dipping bread into his chili, a frown of worry on his face.

  “Don’t think it. You must be careful with your thoughts.” She approached him with milk and cookies, her crystal eyes glowing.

  “If you are going to succeed, you will have to learn to block the negative ideas in your mind.”

  She placed the dessert down and put her hands on his shoulders. “You need to be conscious of your thoughts. You have an army of good spirits connecting with you. You have unspeakable evil about to sense you if it hasn’t already. Be wary of your visions and the fears some of them may bring.”

  Rowdy watched the sorceress with admiration as she swayed back to the kitchen. He dipped his cookies into his milk thoughtfully.

  “Positive thoughts only, young warrior. Focus only on your goal.” Granny watched him while she kneaded bread for the morning. She put some herbs and seeds into the soft dough, then left it with a towel over it to rise.

  Rowdy went to his bath, hoping yet dreading to receive another vision, one last insight before his departure. He listened to the water humming, trying to do as Granny had told him; to think only good thoughts and about the completion of his goal. But his mind kept wandering. There was no trace of Wizard Boc. There was no vision, only the rotten stench of the timber wolf filling his nostrils and throat.

  He dried himself, looking at the mark of protection on his chest, etched with the claw of his master. It was a scar now. The scabs had fallen off, leaving a silvery-white symbol. He traced his fingers along it, feeling some consolation. He braided his long wet hair. He dressed.

  When he got to his couch, Rose blinked up at him from her comfortable box on the side table. He sighed and patted her head.

  “Rose, I’m trying to hold only good things in my mind, but fear keeps crawling in.” He looked at her plaintively. She gurgled at him soothingly and nodded; she was afraid too.

  He closed his eyes, knowing he needed sleep, but he was restless. He focused on the image of Boc. The details of his face and his steady amber eyes. He felt comfort at last. His sleep was short and dreamless.

  Chapter 11

  Conan and Cern

  Jordyn shook him awake. It was dark in the house. The window was showing twilight, softly touching the shadows in the room. Rose and Jordyn were only outlines until Granny turned the kitchen light on. Her bread was baking, the soothing, familiar aroma putting an ache in Rowdy’s heart.

  She snapped the water on. Her face was somber when she shook some leaves into the tea from a jar he hadn’t seen before.

  “Sit and drink. It will keep you warm for several hours.”

  They did as they were told, Rose included.

  Jordyn stared at him silently while they drank the bitter concoction. Her eyes were sleepy but alive and determined in her pointed, pale face. He envied her courage.

  The crew was quiet and grim as they followed Granny up the dark stairs. They could feel their body temperatures increasing. Rose perched on Rowdy’s shoulder. She shifted her weight nervously from foot to foot. He reached up and stroked her soothingly, feeling his own nerves screaming in his gut.

  Rowdy and Jordyn transported to Sionnin. They put their armor on. Granny was stirring her cauldron, something she had never done in front of them before. They gathered around, peering into the lifeless, murky water.

  The companions exchanged curious glances as Granny closed her eyes and muttered a string of words they could not decipher. She chanted over and over again while they watched the water.

  The tea Granny had given them was having an effect, making them sweat. At last a vision appeared in the water. It was the symbol of protection.

  “This is good.” Granny nodded, but she wasn’t finished. Rowdy wiped the sweat off his brow, feeling uncomfortably hot.

  Granny stirred the vision away and chanted more. The ghostly wisps of an army of powerful animals emerged before them, and Rowdy’s belt started buzzing. Jordyn’s blade buzzed too.

  “The army of spirits is awake,” Granny said.

  For a third time she stirred the vision away and chanted. The brown water began to boil and turned black. The symbol of the serpent emerged clear and silver. All eyes turned to Jordyn, who was sweating uncomfortably.

  “What?” she said defensively.

  “Where is your heart, young one?” Granny asked in a whisper.

  “With Sionnin,” Jordyn stated with conviction.

  Granny nodded, her glowing crystal eyes searching Jordyn with suspicion. She took Jordyn’s hand and sliced it with a gemstone, then squeezed her blood into a vial on a silver chain. The fierce green eyes didn’t flinch.

  The symbol in the cauldron faded away.

  Rowdy took the amethyst, shifted to a mouse, and tucked the amulet in his cheek. He hopped onto Rose’s back, her body heat rising.

  Jordyn shifted into a snake and crawled onto Rose. Granny put her blade into Rose’s beak and the vial around her neck. Without a word, Granny pulled the curtain back. Soundlessly, the trio swooped into the twilight of Sionnin.

  With Granny’s tea in their bellies, the mouse and the snake were warm enough to look at the land beneath them. The blizzard had passed; there was no wind. Rose was able to fly straight and fast, slowed only by the weight of the blade in her beak.

  Rowdy was at a loss to memorize the route to Boc’s cave. There were no landmarks. He wondered with awe how Rose knew where she was going. As the light of the day grew stronger, the vast white land below them grew harsher with its cold glare. Not a single sign of life could be detected.

  *

  They made good time getting to Boc’s cave. Rose landed at the mouth of it, and the mouse and the snake got off. Rose put the blade down, and Jordyn slithered around its handle, then morphed into her human form with a blast of white light. She stooped to pick up the mouse and put him in her pocket.

  “Good job, Rose,” she whispered, looking around the cave with wide eyes. She hadn’t realized its enormity. She took her offering from around the crow’s neck and laid it at the mouth of the cave.

  “The master’s house,” she murmured. She caught sight of a shimmering sheet half-hidden in the shadows. On quiet feet she walked to it and stooped to pick it up. It was mostly white but shimmered and took on the colors of the cave around it. It was another gift from Boc. It was an invisible cloak of sorts. Hurriedly, she balled it up and stuffed it into her clothes, bowing at the shadows around her. It was another tool they could use.

  Rose cawed at her to hurry and flew away low to the ground. Jordyn followed after her at a fast pace, her leather boots smashing through the snow. Rowdy stuck his head out of her pocket and clung on.

  They were go
ing to the mice tunnels Rose had spoken of. Rowdy was going to run them in hopes of finding a covered route to the walls of the Great Mountain or, with great luck, a way in.

  After two hours of breaking through snow, Jordyn had to stop for a rest. She kneeled to melt some snow between her hot hands and drink what she could, then gave some to Rose and Rowdy. They looked around them.

  Ahead they could see sparse birch trees, shiny with ice. They could see the outline of a stream.

  “It’s getting warmer. The snow is getting thinner.” She sat back against a bank to rest and then sprang up again in alarm. She turned and dug some snow away from where she had sat.

  “Ugh!” She gasped, then began to dig frantically. Animals frozen in mid run were heaped in a pile, their terrified eyes stuck open. Rowdy gasped. Rabbits, foxes, badgers, and raccoons were piled on top of each other, buried in the snow. Jordyn picked up a frozen crow and cradled its stiff body in her hands, looking with horror and grief at Rose.

  “Caw!” Rose nodded. Rowdy shuddered. Jordyn was so angry she felt tears prick her eyes. She stood up, renewed, and charged full tilt, toward the stream far ahead. Rowdy clung on.

  It was noon when they reached the frozen stream, birch trees now close, rocks now exposed. They had passed hundreds of frozen bodies, and Jordyn’s anger hadn’t abated.

  She unburied a rock and bashed the ice above the stream until it broke. Everyone took a long drink, ignoring their hunger pangs.

  Rose bounced around busily, pecking through the snow, searching for the mouse corridors.

  “Now what?” Jordyn asked Rowdy.

  “Caw!” Rose cried. They ran to her. There was an opening in the ground.

  “Okay, Rowdy, it’s your turn. Keep an eye on the time.” Jordyn tickled his tummy and placed him in front of the hole.

  *

  He was still warm from Granny’s tea, but he knew that would wear off. He knew he would have to keep moving and be quick about it.

  He took a deep breath and scampered into the darkness. At first he felt his way with his paws and whiskers, but then he found he was able to see. Not clearly, but he could see shadows and outlines. The corridors were full of frozen bodies he had to dodge around.

  The air was scentless and void of movement. He heard his own paws scratching along the surface. His heart was beating quickly. He thought of the jogs he had done behind Rose’s tail feathers and calmed down, finding his rhythm.

  He had been running for a good hour before he noticed a shift in temperature. It was getting warmer. He knew he was on the right track. When his path diverged, he would feel for the warmest route and take that one.

  At times his face would be covered with a spider web, which made him cringe. When he felt the ground tremble, he followed the increasing vibration beneath his paws.

  Down in the tunnels he lost track of time, urged on by the increasing signs of life ahead of him. He stopped at once when the stench of rot hit him. His body filled with anxiety. He listened. He heard voices. And smelled death. He walked forward carefully now, alert for danger.

  The sounds of voices grew louder. The earth beneath him trembled more. He saw light at the end of the tunnel, faint but there. He continued softly toward it until the voices were booming and heat was pouring in. There was a hole at the end. He peered out to see a great blackened stone wall with a fire burning in it.

  “Give me that!” The timber wolf growled, and Rowdy recoiled into his hole.

  “Yes, Master!” a voice said. There was a shuffling of feet.

  “Get more supplies! I need more meat!” Wizard Conan shouted, and many replied, “Yes, Master!”

  Many hooves rattled about, and then it was quiet aside from the crackling fire and Rowdy’s thundering heart.

  “Stupid goats!” Conan muttered, slamming his fist down on the ground.

  Rowdy watched in horror as huge clawed feet approached the opening of his hole. A single claw was bigger than him. It shone in the light of the fire, the sharp end hovering by the opening.

  “Ah, they are good slaves though.” A woman’s soothing voice could be heard. It sounded like music. It sounded like silk. Sorceress Cern.

  “Hmph. I suppose you’re right,” Conan said grouchily, then sniffed. “I smell something.”

  Rowdy’s fur prickled.

  The beast sniffed again.

  “What is it, Conan?” the musical voice asked.

  “Don’t know…”

  Rowdy had collected enough information. He turned and fled full speed back to his companions, following the colder air this way and that, dodging frozen bodies. He knew if he hit a spider web, he had gone the wrong way, but he didn’t. He ran without stopping until he popped out onto the snow, just as dusk was falling.

  His companions scolded him profusely for leaving Rose to find her way home in the falling night.

  They wasted no time shifting and attaching to Rose’s back, all tired, hungry, and cold.

  Granny was not pleased when they arrived with the night fallen behind them. She snapped the window and curtain shut irritably. She glared at the group with her eyes glowing fiercely.

  “It was my fault,” Rowdy began, then realized he was squeaking incomprehensibly. He hopped to the floor and spat his amethyst out. He held his paw on it, and with a blaze of orange light, he became human.

  “It was my fault,” he began again. “I lost track of time in the tunnels.”

  Jordyn curled around her blade and shifted to a human, squatting on the table. The candles burned her rear, and she jumped to the floor with a yelp. She stood beside Rowdy, facing Granny.

  Granny’s anger left her suddenly. She exhaled.

  “I just worry is all.” She cast Rose a look of apology. Rose warmed herself by the candles.

  “You made it to the tunnels?” Granny was curious now.

  “I have to get home,” Jordyn interrupted, looking worried.

  “Yes, yes,” Granny said. She looked at Rose. “Take this child home at once. We will reconvene in the morning at eight o’clock sharp.” She looked at the group. Everyone nodded. Hastily they returned to the regular world to get Jordyn home before her long absence was noticed by her family.

  With Rose and Jordyn gone, Granny and Rowdy had time to talk. He told her everything while cramming food into his mouth hungrily.

  After all of her questions were answered, Granny was quiet in thought.

  Rose tapped on the door, and Rowdy let her in. She ate hungrily while Rowdy and Granny thought.

  “Tomorrow you and Rose fly straight to the mouse hole. Keep track of time. The time it takes to get there, cover the tunnel to Conan, and make it back. Jordyn will stay home, lest we draw attention.”

  With that, Granny nodded and left. Rose looked at Rowdy with food on her face. He broke into much-needed laughter. She cawed at him playfully and flapped her wings.

  * * * *

  The next morning, Rose flew out early to deliver a note to Jordyn, telling her to stay home. Rowdy hoped she would use the day to mend fences with Jess and alleviate any suspicions her family might have.

  They drank their warming tea concoction and followed Granny up the stairs.

  Their task was simple this day, and when the crow and the mouse swooped into Sionnin, they found the flight conditions to be favorable again.

  It took them two hours to fly to the mouse hole. It took him under two to traverse the tunnels to the Great Mountain. When he met the stench and warmth at the end of the tunnel, curiosity made him pause to listen once again.

  He heard the scrabbling of the goat hooves and the magical voice of Cern. He saw an animal on a spit in the fireplace. He heard Conan eating, tearing flesh and crunching bones. Rowdy shuddered and ran full speed back to Rose, who flew him straight back to Granny’s window.

  “Just under six hours there and back,” she said with satisfaction.

  It was a sunny Sunday afternoon when Rowdy was released from his
duties. He walked through the neighborhood, feeling relieved for the break. And relieved he had survived the first part of his journey to Sionnin.

  He wondered what Jordyn was up to. If she was with Jess. He wondered what his dad was doing. And how his work was going. All he could do was hope for the best. He decided today he would relax and find things to do that would get his mind off Sionnin. He knew he had math homework but was too antsy to work on it yet.

  He went home to get some change. He wanted a big greasy piece of pizza. His dad wasn’t home when he got there. The house was a bit untidy. So Rowdy cleaned it up and went to grab a handful of change from the jar on his shelf above his bed. He discovered the jar was empty. He guessed his dad had taken it for booze, so he walked down to the local pub to see if he was there.

  The weather was so fine Rowdy could see the backyards filling with neighbors getting their barbeques fired up for the upcoming season. It was almost May; the rainy season was over.

  He was thinking about Jordyn. He missed her already and hoped to see her outside her window that night. He could tell her about the tunnels and the timber wolf while he ran his fingers through her hair.

  The days were getting longer, and he was meeting her later and later at night. He thought she should tell her parents about him. He figured she didn’t because she was ashamed of his family. He was, after all, going to see if his dad was drinking on a Sunday afternoon. Rowdy figured Jordyn’s parents were perfect, just like their house. He was suddenly overcome with doubt, embarrassment, and shame. Was he kidding himself trying to be in a relationship with Miss Rich and Perfect?

  “Hey, man!” A hard, heavy arm came around and slapped across Rowdy’s shoulders. He saw the baseball mitt on the end of it and knew right away it was Hugo.

  Hugo’s backup catcher, Thomas, came into view, carrying a ball.

  “You got something to say to me?” Hugo squeezed Rowdy roughly, then tried to trip him. He stuck his foot out and pushed Rowdy forward, but Rowdy had already planted his feet. He hardened his jaw and pushed Hugo away from him.

  “Where is your demented crow today? You going to pull a knife on me again, psycho?” Hugo stayed right up close to Rowdy’s chest, breathing on his face. Rowdy squinched his nose up at the smell. Thomas hovered close behind him.