The Elderine Stone

by Lawson, Alan

  “What are they planning on doing, sire?” Grimble said still watching the remaining half of the bread.

  “Don’t you listen, Grimble? They are going to go to the North in the hopes of defeating the Dark Lady, and you know as much as I do, that we can not let that happen. It should be us, or rather me who defeats her, and not some outsider.”

  “Oh yes, yes now I see.”

  “Okay Grimble let’s go see what they are up too” Devon said throwing the remaining piece of bread to the ground.

  Grimble looked at it, as if it was the last piece of food around, but he quickly shook of the illusion when Devon pulled him along towards the Library.

  The figure in the shadowed alley watched as Devon and Grimble walked towards the library entrance, then when they reached the steps the figure moved back into the shadows out of sight.

  Chapter Seven: The Great Library

  The entrance chamber of the Great Library was a long and wide room. The air carried a peculiar smell, which you would expect to find, upon entering any building that was a monumental tomb of old books, scrolls and mysterious ancient artefacts. This library was no exception. It was the grandest of buildings that one could imagine. A strange looking circular object delicately floated in the air as if it had its own will to fly. It looked like a crystal clear glass globe which contained a strange swirling mixture of dark blue and purple liquid. The colours didn’t mix, but slowly swirled throughout the glass container, like an endless dancing sea. Three tubes emerged from the globe at different sides, one traced along a beam on the roof and disappeared through the back wall, and another followed a beam on the roof and then came down the left wall into a strange looking stone pedestal with equally strange looking markings up one side. The third tube went straight up through the roof, heading to goodness knows where. Along the wooden panelled walls stood several display cases containing old scrolls, books and tattered pages with various different images and texts. Curiosity filled Jason as he sensed the great magical histories that would be stored within the building. Leaving the others he walked over to one of the cases to look at its contents. Peering through the window of ones of the cabinets he noticed a plaque which was placed within glass enclosure. He read the plaque softly to himself.

  Bridge Sprites and their Riddles.

  A Fantastic collection of riddles collected through the years.

  By Evabe Tricks

  The book was opened at a page with the title Hardyhan Bridge. In the centre of one of the pages the author had neatly drawn picture of a rather old looking stone bridge with vines growing over it, at either side stood two large gates, which would stop anyone from crossing. Underneath the image was a small description. Jason was quite surprised when he read further. Apparently the bridge was the only known route to the mountains in the north. He thought to himself that he would actually have to cross this bridge at some point and any information that he could find could turn out to be very useful, whatever it was that he would encounter. The description read:

  To those adventurers who wish to seek out the mountains and ruins to the north, it would be wise, when and if, crossing by the Hardyhan Bridge to keep your wits about you. For there lives a creature, that is cunning in its very nature. To pass across the bridge alive and well you must answer a riddle that the mischievous creature will ask.

  Don’t be hasty in your answer, as a correct answer will be a wrong answer. But you can not guess any other answer either, hoping that it will be right. Instead you must give an answer that you know to be wrong but feel confident enough that it is right.

  With his jaw dropped Jason initially stood thinking over the passage. His face was a painted image of confusion. “Give an answer that you know to be wrong, but confident that it was right, surely you’d have to be crazy to even be able to do that” he thought to himself, thinking that whoever wrote that book was surely out to bewilder its readers. Although when he thought about it, nothing really was straight forward here. He pondered the text a bit further until he finally thought he understood it. Either he did understood or his brain was getting tired of rereading the same passage and wanted him to believe he understood. If he ever needed to cross the bridge he would have to know he was giving a wrong answer. He chuckled at the thought then continued to look around the library entrance chamber.

  He noticed a large tapestry which hung majestically from the north wall above a large wooden door at the far end of the room. The robed figures yet again appeared on the material, a spectacle that was becoming far too familiar in Jason’s own opinion. The tapestry portrayed two robed figures, one of which was holding what looked like a blue orb. A pedestal had been sown into the centre of the tapestry and appeared almost as if it was surrounded in light. This however was only visual trickery, created by the various yellow and golden threads sown into the fabric. The pedestal looked familiar. It looked much like the one that Jason had seen in the cave chamber back home, and again like the one he has seen in the Elderine Forest. Jason almost didn’t notice it at first, but when he looked closer he began to make out the outline of what appeared to be a dark figure in the tapestry it was very unclear, but it obviously played an important part in the story that the tapestry’s creator was trying to tell.

  Jason finally pulled his eyes away from the woven work of art. He hadn’t realised how long he had actually been staring at it. He quickly looked around the library to locate his friends, spotting Emily and Sherbit standing next to an ornately curved counter at the end of the room talking to an old man.

  The man was a stick of a figure, long thin and slender, with an owl like face. His eyebrows were bushy and rose when he spoke. He wore half-rimmed glasses which he pushed up at regular intervals whilst continuing to speak to Emily and Sherbit. He was wearing a long brown cloak with several patches. Jason thought to himself that this chap really did fit the build of a stereotypical librarian. Not that he was assuming all librarians had to fit that build and look exactly the same as this one.

  The old man passed a small piece of yellow-aged piece of paper over to Emily, followed by a quill and a small pot of something that must have been ink. He positioned it just to the right of the paper. Emily reached for the quill lent forward and began to write something. The librarian watched over the rim of his glasses as the young girl jotted down whatever it was that she was writing. She stopped after a short period of time and handed the quill back to the librarian, who quickly took it off her and smiled. His eyebrows rising as he did so. Tucking the paper into a wooden cabinet behind him he turned and pointed down the hall. Jason spun round to see where the librarian was pointing to.

  His long slender finger directed the friends towards the pedestal in the corner, the one in which the strange pipe with the peculiar mixture of coloured liquid had flowed into. The pedestal definitely looked remarkably similar to the one which Jason had seen in the chambers both back home and in the Elderine forest. A large brown circle was neatly carved around the pedestal, and on top sat a large green gem.

  Emily started to walk towards Jason, Sherbit followed closely behind her. Sherbit jumped from tile to tile of the marble floor, almost as if he was trying to avoid any cracks or joints.

  “Well Jason let’s go. I have talked to the librarian and he has said it was alright for us to search the entire library for any information. Though I have to say he was a bit concerned when I told him what exactly we wanted to look up.”

  Jason gulped.

  “What do you mean the whole library? We could be here for days if we have to search everything.”

  “Oh don’t worry Jason, it will be fine.”

  Emily started to walk towards the pedestal in the far corner. Jason stood there just gazing at her, wondering how she could keep her cool in situations like these. Surely they would have to spend hours searching through the parchments, tomes and old dusty books for any relevant information, that is, if there was any to be found. “What was going on?” he thought as he watched Emily approach the pedestal. �
�Perhaps this strange pedestal was an indexing device” he laughed at the thought, but then he really couldn’t deny any possibilities or alternatives in this world. Anything could be essentially possible. “Expect to find the unexpected” he thought “and the strange things to be normal.” He slowly started to walk towards Emily and Sherbit who had now reached the strange device.

  “Come on” Sherbit signalled showing his teeth in a grin.

  “Shush” Replied Emily as quick as Sherbit spoke “Remember where you are.”

  Jason finally made it over to the stone object, for some reason his stomach was turning, maybe it was nerves, but nonetheless he knew that whatever was about to happen he had to do it.

  “Come stand in the circle” Emily directed as she shifted over to make a little more room, to allow enough space for the three friends to stand together within the circle on the floor surrounding the pedestal.

  Jason placed one foot in then the other. When Emily was sure that they were all within the perimeter of the circle she turned to face the stone resting atop the pedestal, she placed her two hands on the green stone, then announced.

  “The Order of Elderine and the Lady of the North”

  Immediately there was a strange buzzing noise that seemed to come from the large globe floating in the centre of the chamber. Jason looked up to see the mixture spinning within the globe much faster than before, he could have sworn that the mixture was spinning and merging with greater speed. The colours began to mix, the contents appearing to expand and contract as the mixture slowly began to move its way along the three tubes. The three friends could feel the ground beneath them vibrate slightly and then a little more. Soon their surroundings were starting to seem blurry. The walls blurred in with the windows and the containers. The librarian at the end of the hall didn’t seem to take note of them or the fact that they were rapidly fading and merging in with their surroundings.

  The buzzing noise grew louder. Jason closed his eyes. He felt two small arms wrap themselves around his leg. It was Sherbit, the tiny creature was not accustomed to this device either. He sighed and closed his eyes again, absently resting his hand on Sherbit’s little head.

  Within seconds the noise stopped, the ground was motionless. Jason opened his eyes.

  They were now standing in an empty room, the walls were bare. They were standing alone, in a room with no door, no windows, and more importantly no books or any containers to hold such items. Had they been tricked, had they somehow been magically warped into an inescapable prison? The only other item in the room along with the three friends was an identical pedestal like the one that had brought them in here.

  “Well what now?” Jason asked as he looked around the room “We can’t do much research in an empty room, can we?”

  “Jason just wait” Emily replied sounding very mother-like.

  Jason waited. Sherbit was still cowering behind his legs. Nothing happened. Then with a pop at the back of the room a book case appeared, then another, and another. Two more appeared at the same time, giving a total of five empty book cases standing in the room.

  Jason looked on in amazement. An empty silence filled the room for a brief moment, and then the empty cases started to fill up with books. Large dusty tomes and smaller indexed catalogues, one case started to fill up with scrolls, whilst another seemed to fill up with a series of books that belonged to a volume. A few books landed on the floor. At the back of the room there was another pop and a few strange looking objects and artefacts appeared on some of the shelves. Each shelf on every bookcase had something on it. Jason was speechless for a moment. He collected his thoughts and swallowed hard

  “How on earth did that happen?”

  “The Indexing Stone searched the library for anything that contains any details on what I mentioned when I touched it. So these books and scrolls should contain some information on the Order of Elderine, and the Dark Lady.” Emily walked towards one of the bookcases and lifted a hardcover book its cover was a magnificent emerald green. “The good thing is that these books are only magical copies, the real books are stored deep within the libraries inner chambers. It prevents the books from being damaged, or stolen, and it means several people can read the same book at the same time”

  “Wow! That’s incredible!” Jason said in what almost seemed like a gasp.

  “Well come on you two let’s not stand around all day. The sooner we get through these books the better.” Emily spoke as if she was uninterested in what had just happened. It was as if she had expected this to happen, or even that she knew that the books would appear. In truth however, she was just as astonished as Jason and Sherbit were, she just didn’t want to admit it. Her grandfather often told her that the best actors made the best leaders. It was only now, as she kept her hands out of sight of the others so they wouldn’t see them shake, that she thought she understood what he meant.

  The three friends began their individual searches at different corners of the small room, each grabbing a book, or scroll and skimming through it for any clues that could help them in their quest. Many of the books describe the Order of Elderine and how they were formed, when and where, but there was no information on the Dark Lady or the Elderine Stone. Emily did come across several books that mentioned the Lord of Darkness and that he had been imprisoned. However any relevant information, such as any sort of answer to any one of their questions remained hidden from their eyes. It almost seemed like the books were trying to hide something from the three friends, the books didn’t want to release the secrets of the Order of Elderine or the stone.

  Sherbit was the first to break the silence when he came across a very old, looking scroll, though it didn’t smell too old, in fact it felt and smelt like it was a fresh piece of parchment that had just recently been written upon and dipped in coffee to get a stained effect, Emily could have sworn that the ink was still damp when she took the scroll of Sherbit. She began to read it aloud so the others could hear.

  It was on a dark and dreary night,

  The three remaining members of the Order proceeded to the inner chamber.

  Their prisoner waited.

  The Stone Master carried the stone,

  The Others cried orbs to aid the binding

  Within the stone that would hold the demon.

  The chant began, the orbs held high,

  The stone sat waiting.

  The dark shadow chained to the walls struggled for release,

  With its last words, I shall bring another; it was drawn into the stone.

  The door was sealed.

  The room was quiet.

  Then, another came,

  A female…

  Before Emily could finish reading the scroll, it disintegrated, leaving a pile of dust on the ground and an ash-like substance on her clothes and hands.

  “Well that was something” Jason exclaimed looking at the pile of dust on the floor, “I don’t think scrolls are supposed to do that”

  “You’re right someone or something is trying to stop us from getting further in our quest. We have to be cautious. Let’s finish with the rest of these books, there may be something else. Then we should get out of the city before we are caught.”

  Emily walked over to the artefacts whilst Sherbit continued to look through the scrolls. Jason decided that he should try his luck looking through the books of the volume. Walking over to the bookcase and looking at its contents, there were at least twenty various sized books lined up all neatly bound in what looked like red leather. One book, however, which had been placed in the centre was green, it had the title All things Elderine Old, New and Now, imprinted in gold along the spine. It’s worth a try Jason thought as he lifted the book down. The book slipped through his fingers and landed open with the pages facing the ground. Jason bent down to pick it up, placing one of his fingers between the pages that the book had fallen open at. Jason didn’t even glance at the contents until he was standing up again. As he leant against the bookshelf he began to open the book a
t were it fell.

  Jason suddenly jumped back with surprise, what he found was totally unexpected, in a matter of seconds he had uncovered and completely by accident, exactly what they had been looking for.

  “Emily come here, I think I have found something”

  Emily looked over at him, placing a strange looking metal block back on the shelf.

  The Story of the Hero.

  It has been said that a hero will come, a hero not familiar to this world. This hero will be the one who will vanquish the new evil, the evil that has been summoned forth by the Dark One.

  Many will stop him, many who believe that only a member of the Order can stop the evil.

  The writing began to fade. Jason turned a few more pages hoping to find some more clues. The next page was blank, and any page that followed on after. Jason gulped as his heart and hopes sank as the penultimate page he turned to also bore the same appearance as those before. He turned one last time to find a picture. It looked like a mountain, with a ruined building at the foot. A caption below the picture read:

  The Lost City Ruins, at the foot of the Mingus Mountains.

  “That is where we have to go” Emily explained

  “To the Mingus Mountains?”

  “Don’t you see Jason, you are that Hero, and there are people who are trying to stop us, we haven’t been imagining this. We should go to my house at once, it’s on the way. We can stock up on supplies and then at first light head towards the Mingus Mountains. Then we can fight the Dark Lady.”

  “Wait.” Jason said interrupting Emily in her excitement “I don’t know if I’m capable of fighting anyone, never mind the Dark Lady, who by the sounds of things seems to strike fear into the hearts of so many people here”

  “But Jason you have to, it’s your Destiny! Besides you are the only one who can defeat her. You have to” Emily sounded so emotional that Jason felt guilty for even thinking about questioning who Emily thought he was.