by Peter Plasse
“Mount up and let us go recover your daughter. We ride to Belcourt, the capital city of Ravenwild. There sits Rolan Fairman, the King. His son, Prince Erik, is the young man with whom she went for the visit. They will be at the castle. Now look, please. I know you are angry with me. I have lied to you. I have acted unwisely by letting your daughter come here without your permission, but I assure you everything is fine. Please take a moment to enjoy something that no other person on your planet will ever experience: A brief ride, on a beautiful horse, on a beautiful day, to a castle in a kingdom in a different dimension.
“So, we will ride to the castle, pick her up, say hello to the King and Queen perhaps, and maybe even enjoy a medieval dinner. Jessica, the Paint is for you. His name is Storm. Blake, yours is the Dunn. His name is Fire.”
Blake noticed that the horses were outfitted for several days of travel, with full saddlebags, sleep rolls, ground-leathers, waterskins, one great block of cheese each, other foodstuffs, and cooking gear.
When all were mounted up, Hemlock said, “Now remember, if at any point you feel you have to say it, you can always say, ‘I want to go home,’ three times, and you will be home in your bed, asleep, one breath removed from when you awakened this morning.”
“Not without our daughter,” said Jessica, directing a fierce glare at him. “Are you stupid, or are you just pretending to be stupid?”
She had to admit, he was looking extremely wizardly at the moment, wearing a plain gray robe and carrying his staff, and riding a pure white warhorse slightly bigger than theirs. His had no saddle and merely a strap to either side of his halter that he touched lightly, causing his mount to rear up proudly. “We ride,” he shouted.
Jessica was the slightest bit encouraged when she noticed he was smiling.
“This is going to kill these horses,” she thought. They had been riding at a full gallop for a solid hour now. “We have to slow down.”
But, oddly, the horses did not show the slightest bit of strain as they poured it on.
“How much further?” Blake called out as the countryside raced past.
It was hard to tell a lot about the terrain through which they ran, as fast as they were going, but it was clearly big-sky country. It looked as though they were right at the end of a great prairie, riding towards mountains that rose upwards for thousands of feet. Despite it being a warm summer day, the peaks were covered with snow. The land looked to be lush with edible grasses, and they began seeing herds of cattle and goats. The first Humans they had seen, who waved at the trio as they galloped by, were looking after them. Some seemed to recognize Hemlock and called out, smiling warmly. Neither Blake nor Jessica could quite make out what they were saying.
Rounding a bend, with the mountains now towering directly over them, they came to the end of the vast plains.
The land turned rocky and they started their ascent. They made a series of very steep upwards climbs, perhaps ten, continuing on at this blistering pace for what seemed like hours, when the trail turned into an affair that was about three feet wide on either side of them, falling off for thousands of feet. The effect was dizzying. For the first time since they had started out, Hemlock called for a rest.
“Here?” asked Blake, looking first right, then left, at the immense drop off to both sides.
“Isn’t there a spot where we could spread out a bit?”
“There is not,” replied Hemlock. “We are on what is called the Knife Edge. It is like this all the way to the city gate. That way, an advancing army would have to approach single-file, making it virtually impossible to attack. I am having us stop and eat to acclimate you to the visual effect. It is very unsettling to most who do it for the first time, and I have learned you will have a much easier go of it if we do it this way.”
So they stopped, drank some of the water in the waterskins, and ate a meal of dried fruit, cheese, and nuts.
Hemlock proved to be right because, when they set off again, each was much better adjusted to the disturbing effect of being on a knife-edge thousands of feet above the ground and steadily climbing higher. “Is everybody all right?” Hemlock called out.
Both Jessica and Blake replied in the affirmative.
“Good,” he called out again, “because we’re going to have to pick up the pace a little. We have company.”
They both looked behind them.
“Now I’ll tell you something about how to survive in a land where your skin makes you a target to be eliminated. I’ve been watching them for a while. Their three best runners are numbers one, two, and four. We must kill these and then we can easily escape by outrunning the others. We will use longbows. Prepare to dismount on my word.”
He studied the all-too thin trail beneath them, looking for the perfect place to stop.
He imagined the landing of every hoof on the three different horses. Seeing just the right wide spot, he cried, “Now!”
The horses stopped on a dime and Hemlock was off, and had an arrow on its way, before either Blake or Jessica had dismounted. He had his second, and his third, off before the other two had even fired a shot. All three of his shots struck true. “Mount up,” he hollered. “We will give them full head. If you find yourselves getting sick, let the horses take you there. Close your eyes and hug them. They know what to do.”
He mounted up and had ridden off before they had stowed their weapons. They did what he said. They mounted up, closed their eyes, lay down, and hugged the necks of these magnificent animals that were born to do this run.
This day.
This moment.
Blake glanced a few times. It was too dizzying, too high, too fast, and he found himself getting slightly nauseated. So he let it go and hung on as Hemlock had instructed. Jessica never bothered. She gave it all to the horse, not to the fool that was leading them. She was going to gut him like a fish, when and if she had the opportunity, after they had recovered Stephanie and she was safe. Letting her go to a place like this. “Safe, my butt,” she thought. “Didn’t that ‘wizard’ just have to use a bow and arrow to kill three enemy Trolls? Safe? I swear he is going to answer to me for letting her come here on her own. No, not letting her come here, bringing her here for some hidden reason, for some secret agenda. I’m on to you, you cheap imitation of a wizard. You are a sham. I can feel it. I will expose you. Then I will gut you like a fish …”
Blake thought of Orie and Jacqueline and how they were making out. No doubt Orie was burying “3’s” in the backyard and Jacqueline was cooking something with Tanta Kendra, or messing with the computer. Kids and computers, you have to love them. It’s great, and you kind of know you’ve arrived when your kid teaches you something about the computer that you absolutely need to know, and you have needed to know for years, and now know thanks to your kid …
He was brought out of this brief reverie and back to the here and now with Hemlock’s cry, “Behold: Belcourt, the capital city of Ravenwild! Never in its history taken by siege!”
Blake looked back. There they were. Pretty close. No closer than before, and yet no farther back, and still they were coming after them. He, of course, didn’t know it, but the fact that enemy forces were able to roam unchecked this far into the kingdom, to the very city gate itself, spoke to the decimation of the Human, Elf, and Dwarf army at the hands of the Trolls and their much smaller, but no less ferocious, allies, the Gnomes.
The Knife Edge widened suddenly to a broad, empty flat, extending in both directions for a distance of about five hundred yards. Beyond it, to either side, were monstrous, jagged cliff faces and prominences, clearly not scalable.
The finish line now in sight, the three horses gave it everything they had, and the pursuing Trolls slowed up and watched them on their dash to the gate. It was opening in front of them and closing behind them so fast that neither Blake nor Jessica saw it happen clearly. But as soon as they were inside the Great Wall, the horses broke to a polite, slow canter, then reined themselves into a walk.
On
first appearance, the visage was one of pure peace and serenity. To their left was a beautiful lake. Young mothers and their sisters, and admiring younger-still friends, pushed carriages along an exquisite, manicured lakeside walkway. To their right was a simple park with all the accoutrements: things to hang on, things to swing on, things to climb high on, and ropes to swing down on. The children were all about like a thousand monkeys, laughing raucously and having the grandest time as they climbed, and chased, and splashed, and swung to and fro.
In a bit farther, they entered some woods, mostly pines and firs. But there were also some smaller trees that reminded them of the white birches back home.
They stopped at a roadside stable. The horses were led away as Hemlock muttered that they would be available as soon as they had been watered, fed, and brushed down. “Make sure you check the hooves,” he said to the stableboy, “and clean them of course.” His tone was gruff, his manner domineering. “You have the hoof cleaner I gave you the last time I saw you, don’t you?” He laughed a laugh as big as all outdoors and hugged the lad, who, while slightly embarrassed, seemed grateful for the warm embrace, which he acknowledged with a smile. He returned the hug with great enthusiasm. Hemlock placed a coin in the hand of the Elf boy who led the mounts away. “It is good to see you, Galen.”
“Thank you, wizard Hemlock. It is good to see you again as well.”
“Well there’s something you don’t see every day,” said Blake.
“What’s that?” asked Jessica. She was busy studying everything about them, as to what was the actual appearance of an everyday Human/Dwarf/Elf village, with a citizenry that lived behind a wall in which they obviously had complete confidence. She saw shops and eateries. She saw a look that reminded her of something almost Victorian in style. The lines were all quite pointed, and she wondered if this might have something to do with the Elf influence.
There were lots of houses that were multi-leveled.
There was every style of carved balcony that is; from flat, plain ones to broad, sweeping ones. Some had tables and chairs on them. A few of these were occupied by what looked to be families enjoying a mid-morning brunch.
These things, this telling glimpse into the lives of the Humans, and Elves, and Dwarves that lived behind the Wall, drew her eyes up.
It was then that she noticed the trees off in the distance. These were absolute monsters, rising out of the earth like small mountains. The tops became tiny, indistinct, in some of them. These looked to be the older ones, whereas in the younger ones, the tops were thick with green too dense into which to peer.
“From here we travel by them,” said Hemlock, noticing Jessica’s rapt stare at the impressive life forms.
“Meaning we go to the tops and walk from there?” Blake asked.
“Precisely,” said Hemlock.
On they walked to the base of one of them. They noticed it was like a modern day strip mall, with small booths for selling fast-food, in this case small sandwiches made of some sort of bread wrapped around a meat with lots of vegetables and some cheese added. There was every kind of pastry, various chips, breads, and cheeses. They had barely touched their stores so they paid these foodstuffs no mind, instead continuing on their way. They entered the tree itself and found themselves in a small chamber.
“Put your foot in the rope. In the loop there, that’s right,” Hemlock said to Blake. “That’s the way to do it. Good. Now, hang on tight to the rope. That’s it. This won’t take long. We will meet you there.”
With a definite “whoosh,” Blake began his ascent. Hundreds of feet later he was still going up when he noticed the rope was slowing. It stopped at a hand carved landing of solid, polished wood, the color of the purest golden butter. Each aspect of it gleamed brilliantly in the sun. In it were carved scenes of mountain ranges, animals, and faces. Onto it they all stepped out of the shaft, one at a time.
From there, a wooden walkway led towards another, and another, and so on. It became evident that the walkways converged and diverged, merged and unmerged. Some merged to the point that large platforms were formed. On these sat dwellings, sheds for storage, and even housing for animals. It was country living in the sky. Everything was neat and tidy. There was no wasted space.
On they trudged through this skyward miracle for what seemed like hours. It did not seem possible to Blake that it could take hours to walk across the top of any tree.
“How much longer, Hemlock?” asked Jessica. Her tone was as frigid as her temperament.
“Just a few more minutes.”
“And what happens then?”
“You will be in the arms of Stephanie, a lot less angry at me, and you will all go home as soon as you wish. I know it was wrong of me to let her travel here unattended and have you thinking of her as being in danger. That was not proper, and I beg your forgiveness.”
Jessica heard this seemingly heartfelt attempt at an apology and decided to reserve judgment until after they had hugged Stephanie. Hey. Maybe she had overreacted a little.
“Hemlock,” said Blake. “Question. Why, when everything here inside the wall is obviously quite civilized and safe, did you transport us to a spot outside of it? Why not focus the effort on a location on the inside?”
“Fair question, Doctor,” he answered. “And were I a better wizard, I would not only know the answer to that, I would have done as you suggest. As it stands, the only lines of flux that connect your world to this one, and therefore allow travel between the two, happen to run on this end to locations outside of it. I do not know why.”
“In other words Stephanie transported to a location outside the wall also?” asked Jessica. Her tone was downright menacing. Her teeth were bared. So much for the reserving judgment theory.
Hemlock wisely chose not to answer.
As it turns out, any answer he might have offered would have been interrupted by their arrival at a large set of double doors in front of which stood two guards, fully armed, one Human and one Dwarf. Each clasped his hand over his heart in salute. “Welcome, wizard Hemlock, the King is expecting you. It will be a few moments … new security measures.”
“Very well. It is good to see you, Brandt and Thede. Might I ask if the Queen will be receiving us as well?”
“I am not permitted to speak to the whereabouts of any of the royal family,” answered Brandt. “Technically, I should not have taken the liberty of telling you that you would be getting an audience with the King, but... since I have known you for as long as I have…” His voice trailed off. It sounded in good humor, and there seemed to be genuine affection for Hemlock, but it was also touched with the flavor of bone-weary fatigue. You could see it in his eyes. He was exhausted, poor man. Looking closer, Blake noticed the signs of recent battle: small, fresh lacerations, as well as bruising up on the left forehead and temporal scalp regions.
“Lad, I’m a Doctor of Medicine,” he said softly, “Do you have any injuries you’d like me to take a look at?”
Brandt glanced at Hemlock, who nodded almost imperceptibly in the affirmative.
Brandt chuckled slightly, answering, “Well, Doctor, not at the moment, considering the location of my most serious injuries, what with the lady present and all.”
“I see,” said Blake, “Well, she’s a Doctor of Medicine and Science as well, and it would be fine with her to examine what’s injured and try to help you out. By the way, he may be capable of great feats of interplanetary wandering, and other wizardly acts, but the man has no manners whatsoever. My name is Dr. Blake Strong, and this is my wife, Dr. Jessica Strong.”
They shook hands warmly, as did he and Thede. Jessica also shook hands and exchanged a few pleasantries.
In a few minutes Brandt opened the doors and each was soon standing in the same sort of looped rope affair that they had used to be transported up. This time, however, there were three of the ropes side-by-side.
Down they went, basically in free fall. “Don’t get sick now,” called out Hemlock. “You’ll fall
.”
At the bottom when the doors opened, they could see right off that they were inside a huge fortress. They emerged into an immense hall with vaulted ceilings extending upwards about a hundred feet. Massive beams of what looked like white oak provided the structural support.
Humans, Elves, and Dwarves rushed hastily all about, each one looking like he or she was on a mission of great importance. All were fully armed, which struck both Blake and Jessica as odd considering they were within a fortress that was inside of the wall. But unlike the faces of gaiety that they had observed on the citizens in the park an hour or so before, who were certainly more proximate to the dangers just beyond it, the facial expressions of those they saw here right in front of them were grim. Many looked frightened.
Hemlock noticed the anxious faces as well, and Jessica thought she saw a flicker of surprise pass over his features.
“Stay close to me,” he said. “We proceed now to the Great Hall. There we will meet Rolan, King of Ravenwild, Prince Erik, and Stephanie.”
They crossed through the antechamber. They noticed that there were several transport chutes like the ones they had just used all around them in a broad circle. Elves, Dwarves, and Humans waited in small lines to enter, or exited sharply with business to which to attend. The three of them, in fact, were the only ones who did not appear to be hurrying. More than one worried looking face glanced at them in passing.
Arriving at the entryway to the Great Hall, Hemlock turned to face them. The guards gave little indication that they were even there. “Once again I apologize for what I have done. In a moment you will be with your child, and Erik, and the King and Queen of Ravenwild. Jessica, Blake, I humbly beg your forgiveness. I was wrong.”
