by Peter Plasse
It was a night of nights, and when they all awoke around noon the following day, Forrester was not only able to sit up, he had already journeyed to and from Cirrhus’s farm to check for enemies lurking about while everyone else slept.
By mid-afternoon they were all seated around the dining room table in the home of Cirrhus Wishfor and eating a veritable feast prepared by Maxilius Bravarus and his sister Daria, who blushed more times in that one afternoon than she had in her entire life at all of the compliments thrown her way. If, that is, a Troll can be said to be capable of blushing. Orie was deinvisibilized by the simple command, “Undo, Invisible, Orie Alexander Strong,” the credit for which would be forever claimed by Ryan, Gracie, and Jacqueline alike. For all that they had been through, their laughter over the great debate of who solved the riddle was as sweet a sound as Forrester had ever heard.
The next time they awoke, it was morning, and after yet another fantastic meal, they transported, one-by-one, to the catacombs far underneath the city of Belcourt. The pitch-blackness, which would have been a huge problem under ordinary circumstances, proved little more than a minor inconvenience, thanks to the combined talents of Cinnamon and Silver, and within an hour’s time they all emerged in the cellars proper of the castle. Up and up the stone steps they climbed, passing level after level for what seemed like hours, until the legs of all began to burn in protest. At Orie’s insistence they began to rest often. Forrester was by no means one hundred percent. Nobody argued.
They knew they were nearing the end of the ascent when torches began to appear in brackets on the walls and the air now smelled of burning pine pitch.
“Halt!” came the cry from the level above them. “Drop your weapons and identify yourselves!”
Orie, behind Silver who was in the lead, called out, “We are friends of Ravenwild, and we’ve come to help in the effort against the nation of Slova. As for dropping our weapons, we will do this for no one. More than once they have saved our lives on our travels, and if you want them, you’ll have to come and get them.”
There was a brief silence.
Jacqueline rolled her eyes and in a loud voice said, “Orie, pa … lease. Isn’t that a little overly dramatic?” Everyone started to laugh.
The Ravenwild soldier, a member of the King’s Guard, heard the voices of the children all laughing and said, “All right then, come on up,” but once he saw that they were in the company of three Trolls, he was not so sure and again ordered them to disarm.
“Chill,” snapped Gracie. “Haven’t you ever seen a Troll before?”
“Yeah, lighten up,” said Ryan. “They’re with us, and we look Human enough, don’t we?”
“Well, except the Cat and Wolf, of course,” said Jacqueline.
They all began to laugh again. The guard now looked thoroughly confused. “My name,” said Forrester, his deep voice resonating in the stone cellar, “is Forrester Wiley Ragamund. These,” he indicated Maxilius and Daria, “are my friends, Maxilius and Daria Bravarus.
“I understand completely that it might be cause for alarm for Trolls to be suddenly inside the castle gate, but know that the three of us renounce our Emperor and his evil ways, and would lay down our lives to protect Ravenwild,” he glanced at the children, “and its citizens.”
“So swear you?” asked the guard.
Each of the three answered, “I do.”
“It’s true,” said Jacqueline, “They’re cool.” Cinnamon nodded, “Yes” for emphasis.
“Very well,” he said. “Come this way.”
Included in their passage through the castle proper was a whirlwind tour, including a brief glimpse of the throne room itself.
Beyond the throne room, they passed down a corridor covered in thick red carpet with large rooms off to each side. Some looked like studies, others like function rooms, dining rooms, even ballrooms. All were appointed with chandeliers, crystal fixtures, and fine linen table covers. Even though it was only early afternoon, candles burned everywhere, giving the air a pleasant fragrance, the scent of which changed with each room that they passed.
The corridor ended in a sizable, airy reception area in which a central stairway rose to an upper level that was easily fifty feet above theirs. At the top stood a girl they all knew. Gracie spied her first and screamed, “Stephanie!!!” racing up the stairs towards her. In seconds all of the children were hugging wildly and hollering at the top of their lungs in the middle of the staircase, forcing Forrester to say, “Easy now, don’t fall. Best get down off of there now. Come on.”
He turned to Maxilius and Daria and said, “Mission accomplished,” whereupon they all exchanged hugs themselves, a very un-Troll like thing to do in a public place.
Blake and Jessica had arrived at the, as yet under-repair, Great Wall hours before, and were escorted via the trees to the receiving foyer by Erik, where the children were jabbering wildly about all that had happened to them and all they had been through. When they had walked in and discovered that not only Stephanie, but Orie, Jacqueline, Gracie, Ryan, and even Cinnamon, were there as well, and all were safe and unharmed, it was a reunion like no other. In a few minutes there was not a dry eye in the place, including Forrester, Maxilius, and Daria, and this too was a very un-Troll like thing to do in public.
So, for the second night in a row, the children all slept in real beds. And had running warm water, and baths, and food that included fruits and vegetables, and fresh pancakes with a honey based syrup, and bacon, and sausage, and pastry things.
The next morning after breakfast, they all went to the stables and became reacquainted with Spirit, Cloud, Thunder, Lightning, and Fury, who, through Jacqueline, shared with them the details of their own escape from the clutches of the Trolls, and their harrowing journey back to the capital city. It was difficult to leave them, especially for Gracie, but the stablemaster separated them before too long, explaining that the horses needed to finish eating, get their wounds tended to, and rest.
Later that day, scrubbed, fresh, well fed, and handsome, they all met up in one of the elaborate function rooms close to the throne room. A crackling fire, with a touch of apple added to the oak, lent a crisp, sweet smell to the air. Wearing clean battle-clothes, all decided it would be safe to dine without weapons and armor for at least this one dinner, so all of these were hung on a pegboard mounted on the wall off to the right of their corner table, where they all sat and talked. For hours. Tale after tale after tale was told and retold and told again as family and friends celebrated their survival to date.
“The way we ran into this fellow,” said Orie, gesturing towards Forrester, “was too unbelievable … ”
“Oh, let me tell it,” cried Gracie. “You already told it once … ”
Blake leaned over suddenly and kissed Jessica hard on the mouth, causing the entire room to go silent.
“Oooh, Oooh, Oooh,” said Stephanie and Gracie.
“Dad, that’s gross,” said Jacqueline.
“Daaad,” intoned Orie.
Gracie and Ryan smiled broadly, as did Maxilius Bravarus, Daria, and Forrester, who winced slightly when he bellowed out a huge belly-laugh that the entire group echoed for the next minute.
“Now wait a minute,” said Blake. “There was nothing funny meant by that kiss.”
“I think they’re makin’ fun of you, old man,” laughed Jessica.
Blake raised his silver goblet of the House of Fairman and said, “I would like to offer a toast.”
Everyone echoed Jessica’s “Hear-hear.”
“I think all present would agree that we are together tonight under the strangest set of circumstances possible. Yet … here we are, for the moment, anyway. I have come to realize, over the last year, that the one thing you must have to persevere in this life is faith.” He looked at the kids. “At your age, I would expect that you probably put most of that faith in yourselves. But I can tell you with certainty that, at some point in time, we will all need to put our faith in something larger than ourse
lves. So here’s to faith: faith in each other, faith in ourselves, in the workings of the universe, and in something greater than our own limited selves.”
“To faith,” was echoed by all.
“The stories told here tonight will be told and told again for a long time to come. Not on our world, of course, except by us, but here. At every turn, we have each shown the other that we can be counted upon to be loyal to a fault, to act always with a sense of honor, to show courage in the face of danger, to value friendship more than life itself, to practice compassion in all of our acts, to always remind each other that the solution is the important thing, not the problem, and that skill is as important as passion, that sometimes there is just no substitute for strength, strength of body, strength of mind, and strength of spirit; nor is there one for love, love of family, of friends, and trusted newcomers to our lives … ” he nodded towards Forrester, Maxilius, Daria and Silver, raising his goblet …
There was a flash of light and a slight puff of smoke. There was a shimmering, a slight buzzing sound, and a soft glow in the opposite corner of the room.
Hemlock Simpleton, a.k.a. Pinus Porphyrius, appeared.
His wizardly appearance was shot. Thin when they had first met him, he was now drawn and gaunt.
His robe was in tatters, he and his garment both being filthy and unkempt. The look in his eye was one of a person haunted by memories too horrible for a sane person to endure. He gazed wildly about as though trying to figure out where he was, who he was, and how he had gotten there.
There was another flash of light and another slight puff of smoke. This
time there was no buzz, and another form appeared.
“Minos Artery,” said Ryan.
“Arterios,” Orie corrected him.
“Indeed,” he said, stepping smartly to the side of Pinus whom he grasped firmly by one of his now emaciated upper arms, giving him a little shake as if to remind him that he had no power over anybody any more.
“Pinus,” he said sharply, “You have something to say to these folks?”
His eyes lost their disoriented look, and he walked directly to Jessica. “I was wrong,” he said, looking her straight in the eye, “but I will spend the rest of my life in prison believing what I did was also, in some sense, right.
“The Trolls march this way. All of them. I have no doubt of that, were you not here … all of you … together in this place, the Trolls would have already succeeded in eliminating the Humans, Elves, and Dwarves to the point of sure extinction. It was necessary to have lured you here, in the way that I did, to prevent that. There was simply no other way.
“The High Court of whomever and wherever do not agree with me. This being the case, I am ‘removed’. So be it. But I want to say, before I go off to oblivion, two things. First, I am profoundly sorry for the way I tricked you to get you all here. And I mean that. Yet, at the same time, I did what I felt I had to do.”
From the sleeve of his robe he removed a small book adorned with many colored ribbons marking selected passages. He turned to one of these and began to read,
“But from beyond the stars there will arrive a lost girl, on the verge of womanhood, in the great reaches of the Ravenwild forests, who can be their savior if she is herself first saved. She will travel to the Enchanted Northland, spelled since the time of the Great War by twelve great wizards, whose bones will have long since turned to dust, but whose sorcery will never weaken nor fail. There she will match wits with the Dukkar, a creature given life from lifelessness by the power of those same twelve wizards, and if successful, she will come to possess a talisman that will give her more power than has ever been seen on this world, since even before the Great War.
“If she fails, all is lost.
“She will be recognized by those who save her by the blood-red gemstone that she wears on her neck, on the finest of golden chain. It will be in the shape of a heart, and two serpents will wrestle at its center. Take great care with this precious stone, for it will be how she finds her way home.”
He held the book out to her, saying, “I would like you to have this. It is thousands of years old. It and two others like it survived the bonfires centuries ago when all books were burned. It was given to me by Jared Novaman’s father, Hamond. Jared is the man who rescued your daughter from the Slovan Plains. Hamond had two of these books and used to make mention of a theory that having all three would allow the holder to, in a limited way, peer into the future. The third book is unaccounted for. It disappeared long ago. Jared had the other, but it was destroyed when the Gnomes burned his home to the ground.
“Second, it is time for you to go. You remember how?”
She nodded, “Yes,” taking note of his remorse, which she believed to be heartfelt. The gratitude. The humility.
He nodded as well, continuing, “This is not your fight. Not any more.” He offered her his hand.
She declined to accept it, returned his steadfast gaze in kind, and nodded, “Yes,” again, but did not speak.
Minos Arterios said, “We apprehended him months ago. The charges levied against him totaled several pages. Many were as egregious as those committed against you and your family. Many were not. The death sentence was on the table, but he pled on all counts and the jury believed his story, so instead, he received life without parole.
“Easy for them, it was just another day in their peaceful lives. Different where they live. No bombs going off. No unrest. Their lives are wonderfully ordinary.
“I wonder how they would have felt if he had not done what he did, and they lived here and not in their tranquil, safe, comfortable neighborhoods.
“Personally, I think they should have let him go. He is right. Without you, there was no chance of the Ravenwild citizenry surviving. None. You and your children have put the Ravenwild nation in a position to have at least a fighting chance for survival.
“He did what he felt, in his heart, that he needed to do.”
Jessica never said a word. She didn’t have to. The look on her face said it all. Minos Arterios shrugged and said, “Oh well, what do I know? My job was simply to catch him, and when it was over, to get him here so he could say to you what he wanted to say. Come on, Pinus. Time to go … ”
“Hey, wait a minute there, Minos,” said Orie. “Won’t we need to use the transporter device to get home?” He withdrew it from his vest. It was blinking red. “And can we all go at once? I thought you said that we could only change-shift two adults and one child at a time.”
“Not to worry, young Orie,” said Minos. “It will happen this time as Pinus originally said it would. It has been taken care of. Good memory, though.” And with that, Minos and his prisoner disappeared.
The drama of their exit was cut short by the entry of Erik. He too was dirty, having labored for hours moving blocks of stone. He looked anxiously at Stephanie.
“We need you,” he said. “Despite all the extra help you brought us, the Wall will never be repaired in time. Many, most of the blocks of stone are way too large.
“My father’s army is several days out and the Trolls will, in all likelihood, be here before they make it back. Without them, the city is entirely indefensible without the Wall. Please.”
Stephanie stood and threw her napkin down hard. Her young face set with determination, she walked out with him. She did not look back.
Forrester also stood abruptly and said, “I must go. I must journey to The Gate. We will need reinforcements. Lots of them.” He walked the few steps to where Orie was sitting and removed the fenestrated half of the tell-all from Orie’s pocket, placing it in that of his own.
He turned to go, and Orie said, “Hey.” Forrester turned back to him. Orie reached into a pocket and pulled out the switch that they had labored so hard to remove from Cirrhus’s bed. “You’ll need this. Up for me, down for you, remember?” He tossed it to him, Forrester catching it with a smile.
“We will need to figure out a way to … ” he was mumbling to himself
as he strode from the room and started down the back stairs. He stopped and turned slightly. “Silver, would you please come with me?” he called. Jacqueline translated.
The huge Wolf padded from the room, nodding her head and thinking, “Be safe,” to Cinnamon and Jacqueline, who returned the thought, Jacqueline wiping at a tear that slid down her cheek as the great Wolf vanished around the corner.
Orie, Ryan, and Gracie were the next to stand.
“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Jessica.
“Mom,” said Orie. “Haven’t you been listening? The Trolls are bearing down on us. They’re a few days out. We need to get ready.”
“Get ready for what?” asked Jessica. “We won’t be here when they get here. We’ll be back home where we belong.”
All of the children looked uncomfortably at one another. “Dad,” said Orie, “Tell her we’re not leaving until we know it’s safe for everybody here.” He turned toward Gracie and Ryan, his expression silently imploring them to agree. Each shifted their weight back and forth on their feet. Everybody knew that Jessica’s word was law where they came from. Even so, each nodded meekly in the affirmative.
Jessica rose to her feet, her eyes on fire with fury. “Now, you all wait one minute,” she growled. “This is not our war, and has never been our war, and will never be our war. In case you forgot, we live in Salem, Connecticut, and we are going home. I have no problem staying to help with the preparations to make the city as safe as possible before the Trolls get here, but as soon as they do, we are all outta here, and that is not up for discussion, negotiation, or any other form of argument.”
Orie looked at Ryan, Gracie, and Jacqueline. “Come on guys,” he said, “let’s go. Mom, Dad, we’ll talk about this later.”
The four of them started to file out of the room, Cinnamon following dutifully behind, the three older ones strapping on their leather body armor and weapons as they left.
