Magic Portal (Legends of Llenwald Book 1)

by DM Fike

  “Wow,” she breathed, impressed Llenwald had such technology.

  “Bet you’ve never seen anything like it, huh? Shivant says it’s akin to giving magic to those who don’t have it. He’s gathered lots of brilliant minds to invent stuff for Emerged Falls, but I dunno if it will actually catch on. It takes a lot of infrastructure.”

  Avalon wondered how the people here invented technology similar to that of Earth. “Shivant must be a great scientist.”

  J.T. chuckled. “You truly are from the far reaches, aren’t you? Lord Shivant Emerson is my brother, the people’s chosen leader of Emerged Falls and Llenwald’s only kingdom of co-existing humans and Aossi. But aye, he wouldn’t mind being known as a scientist too, even if he just plays at one.”

  Halicia entered the room, carrying a canvas bag. “I have secured breakfast and two horses.” She tossed the bag to Avalon. “Take whatever you want to eat. If we leave soon, we’ll make it back to Emerged Falls well before sunset.”

  Avalon grabbed a fist-sized piece of hard bread and what appeared to be a dark purple apple. The bread tasted salty, the apple sourer than she expected, but the flavors somehow complemented each other.

  The Guardians didn’t waste much time eating their meal and packing their belongings back into the lightweight pouches they wore at their sides. They went outside, J.T. placing Avalon in front of him on his horse. She fully intended on asking him more questions, but the trotting hooves made chat difficult. She stared blankly ahead as they wound through a forested path, passing the occasional human on foot going the opposite direction.

  As the morning progressed into midday, the traffic on the road increased. More carriages and carts with wagons entered the road, which widened to accommodate more passengers. Aossi, dressed in the same tunics as their human compatriots, joined the crowd. The forest thinned to grasslands and then to huts on the side of the road.

  As the sun rose high in the sky, they came to a modest gate with two accompanying towers. A guard from above peered down at them as they rode through.

  “Ho!” he cried.

  “Ho!” J.T. and Halicia replied.

  They entered a town square. The smell of baking bread and raw fish hit her nostrils as people shouted over each other to attract customers between the stalls. Merchants varied from a table full of scarves to a jeweler selling golden necklaces to a cart of meat-filled pastries attracting two long lines of people to everything in between.

  Even more impressive than the goods were the people. All around her, skin tones ranging from normal human to rainbow milled about, ears of various lengths and pointiness. Wings sprouted from a group that passed by J.T.’s horse. Avalon spotted the telltale gills of an Arctic Merfolk around a booth made entirely of ice. Humans and Aossi shapes and sizes covered all the bases: tall and short, male and female, young and old. The horse trotted by a human woman holding the hand of an Aossi toddler, who could barely keep her chubby legs straight. She wondered if they were mother and child.

  A rumbling reverberated through the square. In a flattened patch of earth on the edge of the market, two robed women squatted like sumo wrestlers, their hands moving like martial artists as large stones flew from the ground up into the air around them. Uniformed fairies caught them and guided them toward a half-built stone building while plain clothes humans on ladders brushed on cement to lock them in place. Avalon’s eyes widened at such a coordination of magic and physical labor.

  “Our population is booming,” J.T. announced in her ear with pride. “Humans and Aossi alike want to live here, so we’re expanding housing on this southern edge. Wait until you see what we’ve already done to the rest of the valley.”

  They veered away from the market. Straw-covered huts, some barely larger than shacks, lined the dirt-packed streets. Children darted in the alleyways, giggling as they played. One teenage boy carried two buckets of fruit across his shoulders. He raised a hand in greeting in Halicia and J.T. “Ho!” he yelled.

  J.T. and Halicia again repeated the greeting.

  The more hastily thrown together huts gave way to sturdier houses built with planks and stones. The street had less ruts, and the townsfolk’s clothes displayed more color. People hailed the Guardians periodically, a few even running forward to shake J.T.’s or Halicia’s hand. They all glanced curiously at Avalon.

  The horses crested the top of a steep hill. The Guardians pulled the animals to one side to give them a break. Halicia slid off her steed and murmured softly into his ears. J.T. dismounted, then helped Avalon down.

  “Welcome to Emerged Falls,” J.T. said, throwing his arm out wide down into the valley.

  Avalon gasped at the 180-degree view of Emerged Falls. The road they traveled merged with a perfect checkboard pattern of north-south and east-west running streets. The natural squares formed by the rows held quaint cottages, ornate buildings as tall as three stories, and more marketplaces. Horses, people, and more construction projects dotted the streets. It felt a little like looking down at Salt Lake City from the Wasatch Mountains, if you replaced the desert landscape with a fairy tale theme.

  Not quite as picturesque was the castle that loomed on the opposite side of the valley, a misshapen monster with its back to a stubby mountain. The castle had five turrets, each one flying a different colored flag—silver, brown, blue, red, and yellow. Each tower appeared to be designed by a completely different architect, each perhaps at war with the other. The tower closest to the town had leafy vines running up and down its length and many large airy open windows. Another tower had a Spartan aspect to it, made entirely of barren white rock, very tall and slender, with only wide windows on one side. A tower of middling size had a cylindrical shape with windows carved in odd shapes like stars and crescents. A very elegant tower toward the back of the castle stood stories above all the rest with symmetrical windows running at regular intervals, curtains billowing from them. The last tower barely peeked out from the back of the castle, dark and foreboding. All five towers were connected by rock walls of various colors that only added to the structure’s haphazard pattern.

  While the architects couldn’t agree on a design, they certainly agreed on protecting their masterpiece. Many concentric semi-circular walls surrounded the castle, each one with mini-towers and sturdy gates. The shield, sword, and vine crest of Emerged Falls dominated the center of the main castle gate. The mountain protected the castle’s backside, not only with its fortuitous craggy black stones, but also due to a colossal waterfall that split down either side like two watery sentries. The falls emerged not from the top of the mountain but through two unseen holes in the mountain itself, water barreling downward to a hidden point below. One river flowed westward through the middle of town until it met its sister outside the city at the edge of a forest, forming a sparkling lake.

  “It’s so,” Avalon paused for the right word, “eclectic.”

  J.T. laughed. “It’s meant to be, a culmination of Aossi and humans, of science and magic, of people and nature. A place where we all peacefully coexist, a grand experiment.”

  “A security nightmare.” Halicia muttered.

  “Aye, that too.”

  With the horses rested after the climb, they remounted and trotted back down along the house-lined streets. They reached the first wall within a half hour. Halicia, at the head of the group, yelled, “Ho!” conjuring a sparkle of ice flurries for the guards peering down at them. J.T. encored with a streak of flames from his fingertips. The helmets resounded the cry as they passed through the open gates, revealing a nest of fancier houses, some with oil lampposts in their modest yards, their round roofs like lazy bugs sunning themselves.

  They repeated this process several more times, greeting each set of guards as they crossed increasingly thicker walls. The houses continued to become more ornate with each passing gate. The square footage of their yards increased, and more ornate carvings popped from the facades. Fancy wooden fences made way for metal gates. Still, the servants tending the colorful
gardens or horses at the outlying stables called out “Ho!” as the trio trotted by.

  Finally, they made it to the castle gate, a looming metal structure with an unclimbable surface and the only barred gate they had encountered. After confirming their identities with ice and fire magic, the gate flew open in a flurry of gears. They entered a large stone courtyard milling with armored guards, the colossal castle doors yards away. J.T. jumped off his horse and assisted Avalon to the ground.

  A young guard greeted them, his ears poking out underneath tendrils of dark purple curls. He wore a simple tunic and heavy leather gloves with a matching wide belt. A short sword hung from his side, sheathed. He gave a curt, formal nod to Avalon before saluting J.T. and Halicia. “Lord Emerson welcomes you, General Shinkai and General Emerson.”

  Halicia raised an eyebrow. “This is quite a show. Does Shivant know the age of our guest?”

  J.T. motioned the guard at ease. “Where’s Shivant, Vernal?”

  “Lord Emerson requests the presence of the guest in his study immediately.”

  J.T. gave Avalon a sympathetic look. “Can’t this wait until we get settled? I must aid Halicia in untacking the horses.”

  “Lord Emerson says he will gladly keep the honored guest company until you can join him.”

  J.T. groaned. “If Shivant does anything rash, I will hold you personally responsible, Vernal.”

  “I have no idea what you might be implying, sir.”

  J.T. cursed under his breath before facing Avalon. “Now, I don’t want to alarm you,” he said, the words rushing out, “but my brother has a strange sense of… appropriateness.”

  Avalon felt a flutter of worry. “Does he have a temper?”

  Halicia coughed discreetly.

  “It’s worse than a temper,” J.T. said, “It’s—”

  “We must be going,” Vernal interrupted, grabbing Avalon by the crook of her elbow and dragging her toward the door. “Good day, General Emerson.”

  “He truly is quite harmless!” J.T. yelled after her.

  * * *

  Avalon was too nervous to note much about the inside of the castle, but when Vernal led her up a set of stairs into a large laboratory-style room, she could not help but gawk at the strange containers and brightly colored coiled wire. The natural light coming from the large windows on the opposite wall illuminated the jars, beakers, and other glass equipment strewn across wooden tables. The room hummed with energy. It reminded her of her dad’s old lab.

  Vernal set her down on a surprisingly comfortable stool. “Lord Emerson will be here shortly.” He headed back for the door.

  “Wait!” Avalon said in a panic. When Vernal turned back to her, she changed her mind, fighting the nervousness inside her. “Sorry.” She waved him away as casually as she could muster. “I’m fine here.”

  Vernal paused in the doorway. “He isn’t as bad as General Emerson makes him out to be,” he said sympathetically, “Just a little overeager.” He disappeared before Avalon could decipher those words.

  Minutes stretched into eternity. Avalon fidgeted and, unconsciously, picked up a strand of red wire. She folded it into a heart-shaped pattern, then bent the wires into a neat pair of butterfly wings.

  “Did you discover a better way to transmit electricity with your design?”

  Heart pounding in a fight-or-flight response, Avalon flung her head toward the doorway. A man had his back to the brightly lit hallway, illuminating his outline but making it hard to see any concrete features. His voice, however, sounded vaguely familiar.

  “J.T.?”

  “Try again,” the man smiled, shutting the door, his body now wholly bathed in the light coming in from the window.

  While this man had the same square jaw and walking gait as his brother, the similarities ended there. Lord Shivant Emerson had all the elegance and poise that J.T. did not. Shivant stood regally where J.T. tended to hunch over, wore a silk shirt with embroidered cuffs in stark contrast to J.T.’s sturdy tank top, and had wavy beige hair tied back with three hair bands falling to his mid waist in place of the ashen spikes of his brother. Shivant gracefully extended a hand to Avalon, his skin tone shades lighter than she had expected given his brother’s dark complexion. Instead of shaking Avalon’s offered hand, Shivant kissed the back of it.

  “You must be Lord Emerson.”

  He nodded, draping himself onto a stool next to hers, foregoing the cushioned chair on the other side of the table. “And you must be…?”

  “Avalon Benton,” she whispered.

  Shivant laughed. “I suppose J.T. has been saying things about me again. You would not be acting so nervous otherwise.”

  “He didn’t tell me anything,” Avalon said truthfully.

  “He implied enough without telling you a thing, did he not?”

  Avalon gave an answer by not giving one at all.

  Shivant leaned one elbow on the table, his pale blue eyes laughing. “The truth is, I think my brother is a mite jealous. Ladies love a man with power, charm, and looks.”

  Avalon couldn’t keep the sarcasm from her voice. “Is that so?”

  “Well, brains, sometimes too.” He gestured across the coils on his desk. “You see here a few of my current experiments.”

  “So much for humility.” The words flew from of Avalon’s mouth. She bit her lower lip, chastised.

  To her surprise, Shivant broke out into contagious laughter. “You have me there.”

  Avalon found herself smiling in spite of herself. Her hands absentmindedly twisted the wires as she tried to pinpoint why J.T. had tried to warn her about Shivant.

  Shivant pointed down at her hands. “You have already acquainted yourself with one of my projects.”

  “Sorry.” Avalon chucked the mutilated coil back on the table.

  “Nay, do not feel embarrassed.” Shivant offered her the wires back. She held it gently. “These are the simple tools I am using to conduct my electrical research. I have a hunch that the contents of the metal may have something to do with the quality of the charge, but I have yet to confirm…” Shivant trailed off as he caught Avalon staring at him rather than the contents of the desk. “I apologize if I bore you. I often get carried away by my interests.”

  “No, it’s okay.” The way he explained things reminded her of her father. He used to take apart household appliances and explain their electrical guts. At least, he did before her mother had gotten ill, and the stress of Miasmis destroyed normalcy in their family.

  A shadow flew across the window. Avalon caught the fleeting glimpse of someone with large translucent butterfly wings. Her mind froze.

  Kay.

  Shivant tracked her gaze. “Ah, the aerial researchers. Are you curious to discover what they are working on?”

  Shivant walked across to the windows. Avalon followed stiffly, breath held tightly in her lungs, burning. Past the curves and edges of the other four towers stood the mountain behind them, much farther away than Avalon had previously judged from her initial view of the castle. Fairies flew toward the mountain top, each carrying a heavy knapsack.

  They all wore familiar uniforms, but her heart ached when she realized none of them were Kay. Of course he wasn’t here.

  “You may not be able to see it from here,” Shivant said as the fairies flew high above and out of sight, “but they are carrying material up the mountainside to a machine that will eventually allow even humans to fly.”

  “Like an airplane?”

  Shivant paused. “Come again?”

  Avalon blushed at her error. “I mean, how will humans fly?”

  “Through machines powered by wind magic. We are still puzzling over the details, but we have a small version that can carry up to three people with some success. Only the fairies operate them for now as we work the kinks out.”

  The soft hum of raging water caught Avalon’s attention. She pressed her face against the glass and watched one of the two waterfalls crash down the mountain. The water flowed down into a d
eep dark chasm behind the castle wall. The white foam gathered in a rich black pool of water several hundred feet below the castle itself, the craggy rocks cupping it from all sides.

  “This place is crazy.” The water mesmerized Avalon. “How could you build this place so close to the waterfall? Doesn’t the water erode the foundation of the castle?”

  “An inquisitive mind, my favorite kind. We use magic to maintain the castle grounds. A merfolk team swims deep into the bottom of the pool and knows where the water feeds into an underground cavern system. Earth wielders patch up the rest.”

  “Earth wielders?”

  Shivant startled her by stomping one foot on the ground. Small vibrations emanated from his leather shoe, buzzing underneath Avalon’s sneakers.

  “I have felt this land many, many times,” Shivant said. “I can feel where the water wears away at the edges of the castle foundation. With a little magic”—a brief jolt rolled under her shoes—“I can push it away and keep the castle reinforced.”

  Avalon glanced up at him as he finished and noticed a light fade behind his retinas.

  Realization hit her as she stared at his small, but slightly pointed ears. “You’re a Guardian, like your brother.”

  “And I have heard rumor you might be the Child of the Statue.”

  Avalon leaned back against the windowsill. “That’s what Desert Rose and Nobody believed.”

  “Nobody?” Shivant asked, surprised.

  Avalon’s heart fluttered at the recognition in his voice. “You know Nobody?”

  “Everyone knows Nobody,” Shivant replied dryly. “He has a certain… reputation.”

  Avalon grinned knowingly. “He is quite a character.”

  “How did you meet him?”

  Avalon gave Shivant a sanitized version of her escapades in Utah and Idaho, telling Shivant how Nobody had appeared out of the blue and befriended her. She only revealed that Desert Rose was after her rather than explain their many violent encounters, and she left out any mention of Kay whatsoever, refusing to relive his death. She also didn’t give away any details of her foreign world. It was tricky, but keeping her sentences short helped.