by J. M. Wilson
The rocks below became more sparse. The ground below gradually became green with grasses. They moved to the floor to rest, and take some warmth from the sun that was now shining through. As with the cherry orchard, the scene they had spent over an hour or so travelling over, just disappeared, along with the smell.
The barren landscape that Silverton had seen earlier, re-appeared.
So did something else.
The image of the castle they were trying to get to.
This time it appeared even further away.
Dena looked on in amazement, and momentarily felt utterly beaten.
As this negative emotion engulfed her, she witnessed the image of the castle move further away still.
“No!, No!, No!” shouted Berty.
Utter frustration, and an overwhelming sense of defeat flooded through his young body. Again, the castle moved further away. Then, as is the way with those who use their minds, his thought processes turned around.
Berty was mad now. So mad.
“It’s not real, it’s not, it’s a trick, I’m not tricked! I’m not tricked!”
He shouted as if his life depended on the words and the feelings within him.
The image of the castle faded a little.
“That’s it! Just that!” said Silverton “It is! It’s a trick! Now lets turn around and go to the real castle!”
The three turned in the opposite direction, away from the illusion, only to see another. This time they were overwhelmed and surprised by the view up ahead, and its closeness. A gleaming, stainless steel and crystal glass castle, tiered, like a wedding cake, right in front of them!
The structure was precise, strong and masculine, with clean square structures rising high into the sky. The ground of rock, dust and bushes was reflected in the stainless steel and glass, making it difficult to see where the ground ended and the castle began. The same could be said all the way up the building, the glass and steel reflected the blues and whites of the sky, making the structure hard to be seen now they were close up to it.
“We made it,” said Berty “But what now? Do we just go up and knock on the door?” They had not thought about how they would bring Ruby back, just that they would. The three flew to, then, hovered around the structure, searching for the way in.
All was very quiet now.
“Do you know what Berty? If we could find a door we might just knock on it.” Said Dena.
They flew around the large grand dwelling, but could see no door. No way to enter. They touched and pushed and pulled at things, just in case they might have been hidden doors. Berty even put his ear to the building in a few places, just in case he might hear something.
Nothing. The large and beautiful building completely eluded them.
Time was cracking on, and the light was begining to slowly fade.
They sat on the dusty floor looking at what was in front of them.
All three contemplated their next move and what it had taken to get here.
They had fled from their own, people they felt they could no longer trust, into a world where no-one cared about trust, or any of the other values, morals or rules they had been raised to believe in. Here, their minds had been used against them, their fears manipulated and their bodies assaulted, because this FarFrom character, apparently did not want to see them.
But they had got this far, in spite of what FarFrom had slung at them.
What should they really expect now?
Was FarFrom going to be mad and bad?
Why else would their elders have exiled him?
Also, it had been over forty-eight hours, more or less, since they had last seen Ruby. Might they already be too late?
The shining structure appeared to have moved further away.
They had to stop thinking like this.
It was negative.
‘Negative thoughts worked against them’.
Silverton projected his thoughts into the minds of his friends.
Some Minushi, and it appeared Silverton was one of them, had the ability to hear the thoughts of others, and be heard. Dena and Berty were impressed, only the most superior of minds had managed to achieve this.
“Why didn’t you let us know before that you could do this?” asked Dena.
“We have been a bit busy.” He replied shaking his head at her.
He did have a point.
A noise from the castle startled the three of them.
A loud creaking sound could be heard, much like the sound of an old wooden door on rusty hinges.
This was totally out of context with what they saw.
A steel and glass door opened in a smooth gliding movement.
Funnily enough, a door they hadn’t seen when they had been looking for one.
A screeching and banging noise grated as the glass door effortlessly glided open?
“I’m going to have to see to it that these doors get oiled.”
A small, older Manushi woman stood in front of them.
She looked very efficient with her hair very tidily pulled to the back of her head, and pinned. She wore a silver metallic suit with a belt, and black feet covers.
The belt was a toolbelt, and hung from it were a number of instruments.
A tape-measure, a thermometer, tweezers, and some string was about all that Berty could recognise. Before she opened her mouth to speak directly to them, Berty thought she reminded him of the school nurse, prim and terse.
He imagined she would have Ruby in a room somewhere, being measured for normal growth.
How tall is she..? How big her feet are..? Does she have fleas..? or bad teeth..?
She had probably been poked and prodded by this woman… and by all of the tools on her belt… and all of the results being charted on a big wallchart…
“Do come in” she said, in a voice that sounded like a cat purring, “Mr Right is expecting you. Would you like a cup of tea?”
All the while she spoke, she was pushing at the heavy looking, uncooperative glass door, for reasons that were not apparent to them.
“We’re here to collect our friend” Said Berty feeling braver.
“Oh yes, I know dear. She’s here. Come on in.” She smiled at him when she had finished speaking.
Her teeth looked too big for her mouth. Instead of a purring cat, he thought she was more like a purring lioness that had just been fed.
They were ushered through the doorway, and out into an impressive hallway.
It appeared sterile and cold, yet attractive, as it shone.
Glass stairs rose out of the floor and seemed to float up to the next level. Through and beyond the shining steel banisters were white walls.
The floor was white marble.
‘It was like being stood inside an ice sculpture’ Dena thought.
In this gleaming hall, the three stood and waited, because the purring woman had told them to. Strangely enough, their bones began to warm in what looked like a lifeless, cold room.
A whirling noise fast approached the three young Manushis. It came from the rear, and had them turning on their heels, to identify what had startled them.
What approached, neither Berty, nor Dena knew, but there was a man sat on it. Silverton identified the object for his companions. It was a black, shining disability chariot, designed to imitate those used, he had to say, by disabled Humans?
The three were totally taken a back by this, much to the amusement of the man seated in the contraption.
“Ah yes! So you made it then? Well done! Well done!”
This man, with his oriental face, and unusual accent, circled around the three, greeting them, as they stood and stared in disbelief.
His clothes, woven in bright colours, shone like silk.
He appeared to be wearing baggy pantaloon type trousers, and a baggy shirt with no collar.
He was an older man, yet he had maintained his good looks.
His hair was black, though it was ‘salt and pepper’ grey at his temples.
He wore f
ace hair in the form of the beard of a goat. It was long and silver grey, and he too had beads, gold beads at the end of it.
“What?” He asked as they stared at him, “You’ never seen a Manushi on a mobility scooter?”
“A what?” Berty and Dena said in shocked unison.
“You’ve seen these before haven’t you Silverton?” Asserted the stranger.
“I believe the Manushi have missed a trick from the Humans. Your mind can rest whilst you move about!”
Not convinced, nor much impressed, the three raised their eyebrows in a disbelieving type gesture.
Silverton spoke out,
“You obviously know who we are sir, but we do not know who you are?”
He stood his ground well, Dena thought, and he sounded confident, as he addressed the stranger.
The stranger stopped whirling the scooter around them.
“I sir, am Tinzel, the greatest Manushi scientist this planet has raised to date.”
Silverton looked at his companions and said,
“FarFrom?”
They witnessed the good natured approach he had used towards them, momentarily falter, with just the look he used, as he addressed Silverton.
“I’d prefer. ‘Always’,” said FarFrom, “as in, ‘Always Right.’”
He laughed without any humour, and then said,
“Come! You will want to be seeing our Ruby.”
FarFrom did not look or act like any other superior minded elder that the three had ever met before. His manner seemed normal-ish, but at the same time, quite mad. He teetered on the edge of ‘compos mentis’, appearing rational and irrational within the space of one sentence.
Dena and Silverton knew from their wealth of reading, that such persons are usually unpredictable.
For now, they would watch, listen, and learn.
FarFrom whirled his machine into action. He took the three bemused travellers through the twinkling stainless steel and glass corridors, to a room with mirrored glass doors.
They watched themselves approaching the room.
The doors in front flew open.
Ruby had seen them flying up the hall behind FarFrom, and had run to the doors to greet them.
To her surprise the doors flew open and she hovered down the hall to greet her new friends.
“I knew you would come! I knew you would! Mr Wright said you would never make it”
“I think” said Dena, as they entered the room, “Mr Wright may have underestimated us.”
In the room, a large glass table had been set for five. The plates looked like square mirrors and were framed by glistening silver cutlery.
White linen napkins had been folded into swans and sat on the plates.
The drinking glasses were rimmed in silver.
The whole setting was majestic.
FarFrom positioned himself at the head of the table. He instructed his guests to take a seat.
Without saying a word, the doors opened to reveal a host of people who did, it seemed, as FarFrom instructed. A feast of food was served and the four of them were told to eat.
“Eat, eat!”
At first they all sat in silence, unsure of the hospitality being shown to them.
Soon FarFrom had them engaged in conversation as he asked about Myton and the people he hadn’t seen in years,
“How is Old Proffer?”
All except Silverton played along with the game, whatever the game was that FarFrom was playing?
Dena was aware of how quiet Silverton was.
She was aware of how tired the children looked and of how hungry they all were. So, for the sake of their hunger and the chance to recover their strength, she entered into conversation with FarFrom, well aware of all the players in this game.
When the meal was finished FarFrom showed them into another room.
“We’ll be more comfortable in here children,” he said.
The room was round.
Against the wall of half of the round room, were four identical beds.
Above each bed was a round porthole type window.
On the other side of the room, there was a large fireplace with a raging and crackling fire, flickering oranges, reds and yellow flames danced as they worked to keep the white room warm.
The floor was covered in sheepskins, thick and white beneath their feet.
White settees and chairs were placed around the fire, covered in white feathery cushions.
The silver framed beds were also covered in sheepskins and dotted with feathered cushions with sequins, which twinkled in the firelight.
“Look,” called out Berty, “It’s snowing!”
Berty was stood on one of the beds, looking out of the porthole.
Silverton looked at FarFrom with a measure of distrust.
FarFrom smiled and said. “It all adds to the atmosphere. I want you to be comfortable.”
Ruby just stared. This room was very similar to the room she had been kept in, and again it was strangely familiar.
FarFrom turned to her and simply said,
“I know! Its like heaven!”
Silverton heard Ruby’s thoughts.
‘How did he know?’
Then he knew.
FarFrom was dipping into their minds.
“That’s right my boy,” said FarFrom to Silverton.
“There are very few of us who can use our minds in this way, only the superior, superior minds.”
Silverton interrupted him,
“Enough of this, FarFrom! I do not need you to compliment me on my abilities! It’s time for you to tell us what is happening? We presume it’s all down to you!”
FarFrom’s face changed.
It became troubled more than angry, but anger could be seen, as his eyes flashed at Silverton.
The tone of his voice changed, becoming more severe, the friendliness fading.
Slowly, precisely, and very very softly, he said to Silverton.
“I’m not accustomed to being spoken to in that manner, young man.”
Trouble and puzzlement had entered his demeanour, his confident strutting around the room stopped.
He asked them all to be seated.
Simply and quietly, almost with regret, he said,
“I couldn’t have known. No-one could. I pushed too far. I went too far, and I didn’t account for her ambition!”
CHAPTER 12
FARFROM’S REVELATION
‘History will be kind to me for I intend to write it!’
(Winston Churchill 1874-1965)
FarFrom sat in a white, high-backed chair, beside the crackling fire. For anyone who may have passed this scene in normal life, it would have looked like an elder telling his youngsters stories of the past.
But this was no story, this was the truth, and the cost of this truth, as yet, could not be measured. The consequences of past deeds had not yet been settled, indeed they might have only just begun.
FarFrom’s eyes filled with water.
Were they tears or just the moisture in the eyes of an old man?
They didn’t know.
He looked into space, as he remembered the past as it was recorded in his superior mind.
He recited the events to the children, as he called them.
“She came to me, you see, for help. I was a serving councillor of the Highest Council, voted for by my neighbours and peers, known for my research into the study of the mind. All my work was certificated and recognised by the scientific fraternity and hailed as ground-breaking.
There comes a time however, when to achieve at the next level, one has to push further! Harder!
We were studying the Human race… Their impact upon us, and… Well, let’s just say, what our impact could be upon them.
We needed to be able to manipulate the Humans at times to save ourselves, you must see?”
They were unsure as to wether FarFrom was questioning them, or telling them?
He stopped and looked at them.
�
��That’s it! It was like that!”
He was trying to justify himself, before he went on.
“The Humans plough through life on a day-to-day basis, never looking to see the impact they have upon their own existence, let alone anything else on the planet!
For years and years our two species rubbed along.
They never affected us, and we didn’t them.”
Silverton quietly dipped into FarFroms thoughts.
He could see the images in his mind of the Human race through the ages, and the Manushi just living. The Manushis not bothered by the Humans’ existence, and the Humans oblivious to the existence of the Manushi.
“But then it all changed!… With their Human inventions, and their `Industrial Revolution’.
Land was being mined!… Farmland turned over to industrial land, and land for the building of their cities!
We were being pushed away from our own lands and turned out by their plunderings. We had no defence against them!
We only ever got as far as gentle manipulation… moving them to other areas… just bending their thoughts…not changing them…doing just enough to… to survive…to be able to stay in our homelands!
Then… Then, I met Elladore”
“My mum?” Questioned Ruby.
“Yes Ruby, your mum.”
FarFrom continued with his version of the truth, telling how Elladore came to the Highest Council as a young, gifted superior mind.
FarFrom had recognised how special she was from the beginning.
Just a child of twelve. FarFrom had recognised how special she was from the beginning. The youngest ever gifted youngster to be introduced to work, with the Highest Council.
“The girl,” he said, “Just dipped in and out of our minds, reading our thoughts, and placing her own in our heads!
We were all fascinated by her abilities.” FarFrom said, “I was the scientist they asked to mentor Elladore.
If I had not been asked, I would have requested that honour!... To work with that girl! She was truly outstanding in her ability.”
He’d worked with Elladore, studying and copying her thought processes.
This was how he learnt to dip into minds himself, he told them, by studying and practicing with Ella.
“You see,” said FarFrom,
“Ella was very much like me. She wanted to know more… And do more!
