by Lady Ellen
Of course, with Benson being an insect, the attraction of the man was superficial, as would be a magnificent work of art, but nevertheless, he stared.
“Vadoma!” Benson called as he landed on her hand. “Persy and Thaddeus. They need your help.”
Vadoma was visibly shaken, both with Benson’s sudden appearance and his news. “Where are they?” she demanded, standing up.
Benson quickly summed up what happened on the forest path, ending in Thaddeus’ and Persy’s disappearance. Vadoma sat silently, listening to every word, but her guest seems even more intent. When Benson finished, the man jumped up.
“Vadoma, come quickly. I know what’s going on here.” He turned, strangely with a slight smirk on his face and bolted through the door of the vardo and down the steps. Benson and Vadoma were close behind. The glitter of the man’s clothes could be seen fading as he ran down the pathway. When Vadoma and Benson entered the forest, he had stopped about half way down the path.
He stood and called, “Bran! Bran! Show yourself at once.” the man commanded.
Smoke began swirling around again, getting thick and thicker. The dark figure reappeared, this time sneering, looking at the man in gold. “You bellowed?”
“Bran. I understand you’ve absconded with two visitors...now give them back,” Vadoma’s guest growled. “They are friends of Vadoma’s, don’t make me go down there.”
“You know, for a good looking dude, you sure can be a party poop,” grumbled the black-clad man.
Vadoma started to chuckle. “Oh, it’s you Bran...c’mon cough up.”
Benson didn’t know what to make of this camaraderie when all he was worried about was Persy and Thaddeus.
“Oy, what gives here?” he asked, looking at Vadoma.
“Bran is someone we know, and he is a Protector of the forest, you’ll see.” Vadoma smiled warmly.
Bran huffed, spun his cloak, disappeared in thick swirls of smoke, only to reappear in seconds with Persy and Thaddeus.
Benson, eternally relieved to see them again, flew over and sat on Persy’s shoulder.
“We have it, Vadoma,” Persy cried out. “We have the Hagstone.” She removed the Hagstone from her pocket and gave it to Vadoma, glaring back at Bran.
“Oh, my goodness” Vadoma exclaimed. “I can’t believe you actually got it. What happened? How did you do it?”
Thaddeus and Persy related their adventures in Beijing from the start to the sad loss of Krak Ling’s ring.
“Undoubtedly, that ring would have been a real boon for our side, but most important is that you two are back, in one piece, and we have the Hagstone. This will give us a massive advantage to face Melanthios,” said Vadoma kindly. She could see how upset the kids were, particularly Persy. Vadoma wanted to make sure that Persy understood how happy and grateful she was to have her Hagstone back and the ring....well, you couldn’t really pine for that which you never had.
Benson, although quiet through the narration, regained his composure and normal cockiness so spouted, “So ‘oo’s Sir Bran Flaky-ness? What’s the idea of vanishing with my friends?”
Bran glowered at Benson and in yet another whirl of smoke the man vanished and a oversized gleaming raven appeared, lighting on the man in gold’s, shoulder.
Persy, Thaddeus and Benson stared, mouths agape, at the bird.
Vadoma intervened. “Let me explain. Persy, Thaddeus and Benson,” her hand with palm up pointed to them, “Allow me to introduce two other friends. This...” she pointed her other hand to the man in gold, “is Count Pseudomorphius the Sanguine, and Bran the raven, is a Lord Leshii”
“Soo-doe-morf..’oo?” exclaimed Benson. “What kind of name is that?”
“They call me Murph,” the man in gold remarked flippantly. He put the fingers of his right hand up his left sleeve and extracted a silken handkerchief, proceeding to dab his face delicately. Murph turned to Bran. “I really have to say, Bran, that I find it quite distressing when you body snatch. Very disturbing indeed,” he ended, sighing softly, rolling his eyes up to their limits and shaking his hair back. Murph smiled, a big pearly dazzling smile, complete with FANGS!
Thaddeus couldn’t resist. “Some friend you’ve got there, Vadoma,” he commented to her in Silent Speak. Thaddeus was pretty sure vampires couldn’t hear this; they aren’t High Order Magical Folk...just undead, existing mostly in a different dimension, having amazing physical abilities, and could morph into creatures of the night.
“Who? Murph?” she replied, Benson and Persy also heard the conversation. “I love this guy, he’s intelligent, dresses well, always smells great, and I don’t have to cook for him. It’s a perfect friendship,” she finished with a slight grin.
“What’s a ‘Leshii’, Vadoma?” asked Persy aloud.
Murph jumped in. “Allow me, dear girl.” He bent his right elbow and crossed his right arm over his chest, while resting the left elbow on his right hand, and placed his left index finger on his bottom lip.
“You see, a Leshii is a protector of the forest and its inhabitants. Woodcutters hate them and believe me, the feeling is mutual. Leshii are tricksters and can be quite mean in their mission to look after the forest. They’re also shape-shifters, but mostly are in raven form, like Bran here,” explained Murph.
“Crikey!” whispered Benson to Persy. “We keep running into these shape-shifters. ‘ow we supposed to know ‘oo’s ‘oo in the zoo?”
Murph scowled slightly at Benson for the interruption and continued, “The Leshii live in their own dimension, as you’ve seen,” looking Thaddeus up and down (for too long a time, as far as Persy was concerned). “But there are secrets to taming a Leshii and if you’re kidnapped by one, there’s a way to escape. All very intriguing,” he muttered and then is silent.
Both Persy and Thaddeus look confused and suspicious at the same time, but Vadoma diverted their attention.
“Come,” she ordered. “I’m anxious to get back to the vardo and scry my crystal ball with the Hagstone, see what I can find at Bodesnoir.”
Persy and Thaddeus glanced at each other, shrug their shoulders and followed Murph and Vadoma, Benson flitted along behind them.
The four of them sat around Vadoma’s table, while Bran perched on Murph’s shoulder, hungrily eyeing Benson. Benson, became more and more creeped out by Bran and decided it’s probably better to get a ring-side seat in Persy’s shirt pocket.
Murph, Persy and Thaddeus sat very still as Vadoma commenced the grai with her tambourine. She stopped after a few minutes, her head falling forward and the tambourine sliding from her hand. In seconds, she sat up and moved her hands over her crystal ball. Swirling clouds could be seen by all of them as Vadoma concentrated on the ball with a glazed-over look. As the swirling slowed, she spoke.
“I see Melanthios. She’s reading her immense black book, talking to a large, football sized spider.” Vadoma reached into her pocket, took out the Hagstone and put it up to her face and looked through it.
“Ah, I can definitely sense the Cimaruta’s energy, quite clearly now,” Vadoma said, moving the Hagstone around the crystal ball and peering through it to search the room at Bodesnoir. “It’s strongest over this mirror on the wall.” Vadoma hovered over the mirror, moving very slowly.
Suddenly, she picked up a very strong energy glow in the bottom left hand corner of the mirror. “There,” she exclaimed. “It’s hidden in plain sight, alright. See? In that corner.”
Persy and Thaddeus jumped up and stood beside Vadoma, who had completely lost the flat persona of the scryer. She clicked her fingernail on the crystal ball, showing them where she’d seen the Cimaruta.
“It’s in the filigree of the mirror’s frame,” Persy pointed excitedly. “It blends in perfectly. No one would see it there. Very clever.”
“Yeah,” Thaddeus said. “If not for the Hagstone, we’d never have found it.”
“Okay. Now it’s about getting in there and getting it back.” Persy looked pensively out the window. Thad
deus, with Benson who had emerged from Persy’s pocket to sit on his shoulder, leaned closer to the crystal ball.
“Vadoma, can I borrow your Hagstone?” Thaddeus asked.
“Of course. Why?”
“I thought...” he trailed off, looking closer into the ball. “There. What’s that?”
Persy and Murph both got up and leaned over the crystal ball. “Where?” asked Persy.
“There, in the corner.”
Benson arched his next to non-existent neck out toward the crystal ball and asked, “Can I have a boo through the ‘agstone?”
“Yes, I think you’d all better,” Thaddeus suggested. Persy stood beside Thaddeus and Benson scrunching down to look through the stone with Benson. “My God. What IS it?”
Vadoma and Murph also peered through when Persy passed the Hagstone to them.
Murph is the one who made sense of it all. “Gobbuskins,” he sighed hoarsely. “Melanthios keeps Gobbuskins.”
“What...is a Gobbuskin?” Persy blurted.
“It’s kind of a cross between goblins and zombies. Mean, but obedient to their master. Ruthless. Will perform any evil deed commanded of it by the master. Zoned out, like zombies, dead but not dead. They’re controlled by a complex poison developed by Voodoo sorcerers made from animal, botanical and mineral ingredients. They’re thought to be dead by their families and so are buried, then dug up in a few days by the sorcerer and look like that.” Murph finished and pointed to the being skulking around in the corner of Melanthios’ room.
“Figures our fanged fruitcake would know about these undead,” whispered Benson into Persy’s ear. “Probably some distant relation.”
“Benson. I’m going to duct tape your mouth parts together,” growled Persy quietly.
The Gobbuskin was about five feet tall, hunched over and so looked even shorter. Its arms were inordinately long, his, or her, gnarly, large hands hung at mid-calf level. Its skin was a deep gray-green, leathery and very dusty. Assuming it was a male, his face was squashed, like he ran into one too many walls, much like a bat’s. His hair was wispy, greasy and mud-encrusted. He had over-sized, low set ears, rounded and splayed out either side from his head.
This particular Gobbuskin was bringing something to Melanthios on a tray, from the corner. He laid the tray on the table near her, nodded and snorted at the same time, then lumbered away.
Vadoma sat in front of the crystal ball again and started moving her hands over it. She picked up the Hagstone with her left hand, looked through it, while continuing to move her right hand over the ball. Persy and Thaddeus stood behind her to watch as she moved around Melanthios’ room.
“Curious,” muttered Vadoma, “there’s a large stack of books on the centre table--all on cauldrons.”
Vadoma moved the view into the hallway and down the stairs to see the first floor of Bodesnoir. Several of the Gobbuskins could be seen busy at various jobs--reading large old books, some brewing potions in the vast kitchen, and some sweeping and dusting the castle.
“I wonder why we never saw them when we went in to find the key for Fawna?” Persy said.
“I think Melanthios allowed you to find that key,” Vadoma said. “She wanted to check out your energy levels, both of you, see what she was up against. I don’t think she really cared whether the Fairy Folk were bound or not. She needed an sneaky way to size up the competition, so she probably had the Gobbuskins hide themselves in their graves when she picked up you were coming.”
“Personally,” Murph sighed, “I think these things are more bark than bite, and there’s a way to put a muzzle on them.”
“Yeah,” said Benson. “You’d know all about the bite thing, wouldn’t you?”
“Hmm-umm,” Murph sneered, lifting one side of his upper lip to reveal a shiny fang, “Why yes, yes I do. Read the book, seen the movie, done the musical.” And he wiggled his eyebrows up and down, while breaking into a full laugh.
Benson couldn’t suppress the slight smile that slipped out.
“Murph’s right,” said Vadoma. “The Gobbuskins are not a tremendous problem, as long as they don’t come up from behind you, when you don’t have a chance to fight them face to face. They’re very strong and favour strangling from behind, but face on, all it takes is salt.”
“Salt?” said Thaddeus in disbelief.
“Yes,” said Murph. “It’s the zombie part of them. If a zombie comes in contact with salt or sees the sea, it will head right back to its grave. Easy solution, as long as, like Vadoma says, you don’t let them attack from the rear.” Murph finished with a wry smile.
“I’m guessing that Melanthios doesn’t really have them do a lot of evil work, she keeps them mostly as slaves. She has other, more evil beings, for doing the real dirty work,” Vadoma stated.
“Yeah,” said Benson, “like that Repfemicap, or whatever it is. That’s what Krak Ling called it. Creepy thing reeks of darkness and evil.”
“Exactly,” Vadoma said. She was absentmindedly letting her hands wander over the crystal ball, while staying involved with the ongoing conversation. She suddenly caught something out of the corner of her eye, and focused on the ball. “What the...?”
The others turned to her and Murph asked, “What? What?”
To see what she was looking at, they gathered around behind Vadoma, Benson was sitting on Murph’s other shoulder. Bran drooled. Persy and Thaddeus were in front of Murph, all peering into the ball. One didn’t need the Hagstone to see what caught Vadoma’s attention.
Persy and Thaddeus blanched, Benson’s eyes widened and Murph, went paler than he already was.
There, on the wall to the right of the mirror in twelve inch black letters, dripping red, were the words: “P - You Are Mine To Kill”.
Meeting Of Magicals
No matter how hard she tried, Persy couldn’t take her eyes off those words.
“No worries, Persy,” Thaddeus gently said, seeing how disturbed she was. “It’s more threats from Melanthios, she’s just trying to scare us.” He put his arm around Persy’s shoulders trying to offer her comfort. Persy crossed her arms over her chest and stared out the window.
“Yeah, well, she’s doing a good job,” she murmured.
Thaddeus glanced to the side and noticed Vadoma leaving the vardo, Murph following close behind. In a few minutes, they returned.
Vadoma explained, “Persy, Angelica contacted me through Silent Speak. She asked for an update and then requested that I have you Time-Linx back to Laurel. There’s to be an emergency meeting of the Magic Folk Governing Council tomorrow morning. They want all nine members to advise their potential to assist you against Melanthios, at least, as much as they are allowed to do.”
“Oy, here we go then,” whined Benson. “‘nudder round of gastronomical gymnastics—ugh.”
Persy snapped out of her victimized mood and said rather sharply, “C’mon Benson get with the program. We’re going to be doing a lot of Time-Linxing for a long while I expect; and I’m ready to take this she-demon on. Vadoma, Murph, can’t thank you enough for your help and support in locating the Cimaruta. Thaddeus...we’re out of here.”
“Whoa,” said Murph. “Who peed in your cornflakes?”
Persy, with her hand on the door stated, “Melanthios.”
Vadoma was leaning against the kitchen counter, arms folded over her midriff, smiling. “You’re welcome my dear, but here, take the Hagstone with you, it will help you see through many magical illusions and covers.” She chose a very decorative cord, slid the Hagstone onto it and walked over to tie it around Persy’s neck.
Persy touched it gently, thinking to herself that this is where her Cimaruta should be resting. “Thank you so much, Vadoma. But, don’t you need it?”
“Not nearly as much as you,” Vadoma reassured her, putting her arm around Persy and giving her a warm hug. “You can return it to me later. For now, I hope it can help you.”
“Wow, that’s cool, Perse,” said Benson. “That should put a chink in M
elanthios’ armour.”
“Any help at all, is totally appreciated,” Thaddeus added.
“And that’s essentially what the meeting is about. You’ll see,” said Vadoma.
“Thank you again Vadoma.”
Vadoma smiled over Persy’s shoulder, and slowly pulled back. “Come, Laurel will be waiting, let’s get you two, er, two and a half, to the portal.”
“Hey,” complained Benson again. “I ‘eard that. I may be small, but I’m not ‘alf of anyfing.”
Vadoma and Murph laughed. Bran still looked hungry.
Persy, with Benson deep in her shirt pocket, and Thaddeus walked into the Time-Linx chanting ‘Totus Temporis’ repeatedly, while concentrating on Laurel’s meadow. The shimmering surroundings and high winds seemed to stop almost before they began. Getting better at this all the time.
It was sunset when they exited at the edge of the meadow. The river behind, was relatively quiet. Laurel was waiting patiently for them.
Laurel smiled; obvious relief spreading over her face. Persy and Thaddeus ran up to greet her. Benson buzzed around in circles, not only happy to see Laurel, but delighted the ride was over.
They turned, hearing splashing from the river. P-C was excitedly sloshing out of the water and running, if one could call it that, to meet them. Francis was hooting away, circling them, playing a kind of tag with Benson.
“Hello, hello, hello,” exclaimed P-C, dancing around each of them in turn. “I’m SO glad you’re safely back.”
Amid all the frivolity, Francis perched on a low tree branch nearest to Thaddeus. Thaddeus looked up and stroked the owl’s feathers, softly. “Hey, fella. You’re out early. There’s still some daylight left.”
“Had to see you,” Francis responded. “Laurel’s been telling us about your adventures, you great ape, been worried sick about you.” Francis was probably pouting. Hard to tell with an owl.
P-C came up to nose his way under Thaddeus’ arm and tuned into the conversation.
“Sorry to have worried you two,” Thaddeus looked down at P-C and back to Francis. “But, so far, mission accomplished. We have the Hagstone, and know where the Cimaruta is in Bodesnoir. Now, we have to figure how to get in there, grab the Cimaruta, and get out in one piece.”
