by Teddy Jacobs
There was a moment of silence, and I wanted to say something, but there was nothing to say, nothing I could put into words. If there was anything I could have done to bring back Marga, I would have done it in a second. But here I was, and she was dead.
Karsten reached over and pulled his cousin into a bear hug, and then he let him go.
Elias took something out of his pocket then. “In my Aunt’s memory, I plant a seed.”
He kneeled down, and made a small hole in the ground. He dropped the seed in the center of the hole. Then he stood up and stepped aside. Karsten kneeled then, and picked up some dirt, and dropped it in the hole. He stepped aside. Then one by one, everyone in our group dropped earth into the hole. When we all had taken a turn, Elias and Karsten kneeled and patted the earth down with their bare hands.
They stood up then, and without a word, Elias started to walk again.
I wanted to call him back.
I wanted to plant a seed, too.
But I didn’t have a seed, and besides, my parents weren’t dead, not really.
Although they might as well have been. No, that was wrong thinking. If only I was a real wizard, I would know what to do, to counter their spell.
I hurried after the others. We were entering what could only be wild forest, and there were vines and thorny bushes everywhere, which had either been there before the wall or somehow crossed it, and we all pulled out our knifes, and swords, and hacked our way through the path, following our boy leader; Elias, for his part, just ducked and twisted his way around the obstacles.
Soon my arms were aching, and my face was scratched and bleeding. But just ahead, through some brambles, was the wall. There was nothing particular about its smooth surface, besides that it was covered with vines. But when I looked with my third eye I saw runes, in the shape of a small doorway. It was much smaller than a gate. The doorway was hardly bigger than Elias. I would have to duck, and some of the others, like the smith, would probably have to double over.
“Where are we going, Elias?” Karsten asked.
Elias pointed to the doorway. “It’s right here. We need to clear away all this ivy.”
Woltan shook his head. “Leave the ivy where it is. Just touch the runes and open it. We need to hurry, and the less disturbed we leave this, the better.”
Elias nodded. He seemed lost in thought, his eyes unfocused, and then he was reaching up, through the leaves, and tracing runes, and I felt my own eyes unfocus, as I followed Elias’s glowing fingers. I could see what he was doing — he was telling the gate to open, but the thing was old, and then the runes were glowing and the doorway was glowing, but it did not open. Elias stood staring at it, and I watched him, and the runes were starting to fade again. I could use some help, Anders.
I leaned forward and made the same series of runes as Elias. Now the door was glowing fiercely. Touch my arm, Elias, while I touch the door. Elias touched my arm and strength flowed into me, and then I held my hand up to the middle of the door.
There was a burst of song, and then the door opened.
“We must hurry!” Woltan shouted, and then we were all rushing through the hanging vines, though the door. Kara went first, with Elias behind her, then Karsten, then the smith. Woltan followed him, and then I was last. The wall was several feet thick, and with such a small doorway it seemed almost like a tunnel. Where the rock that had filled it now was anyone’s guess, but I did not want to imagine what it would feel like if the rock came crashing back while we were in there. At the end of the tunnel the sunlight shone through a bunch of vines that we had to pry our way through. The smith took out his knife but Woltan whispered. “No! We must alert no one to the gate here!”
Then I too was through, looking back at the tunnel behind me.
Before I could even wonder how to close it, it was gone. I looked at the wall with my third eye and there was nothing.
“Elias? Where is it?”
Elias shook his head. “It’s a one-way gate.”
Woltan turned to him. “What? A one-way gate?”
Elias nodded. “A prince used it, long ago, to get away without detection.”
“And when the prince wanted to get back?” Kara asked.
“He had to use another gate.”
“Where is the other gate, then?” Woltan asked.
“They’re all closed.”
There was a moment of silence, then.
Woltan was the first to speak. “We need to get moving. We can figure out how we will get back in once we get there. And if there is no way that will only make it safer for the family and friends we have left behind.”
If there was anyone to find a positive side to something, it was Woltan. “Let’s get walking,” he continued.
Kara nodded. “The dark lord may have scouts about, close to here. We must get moving. If we are lucky, we may be able to avoid his creatures completely, but I doubt it.”
“How do we know where to go?” I asked.
“The Book of Id will guide us. But we may all be a little lost until we get away from this forgotten city. The city has ancient magic that confuses those close to it, and makes it hard to navigate here.”
Woltan nodded. “Elias may be able to help you get out of its range.”
Kara walked quickly, and Elias followed her, and I behind him. Behind me was Karsten, Cullen and Woltan in the rear. Kara seemed to be good at finding anything that resembled a path, but I had no idea which way we were going. There were bushes and tree limbs and ivy in every direction, and when we couldn’t duck under something we had to hack or thrash our way through.
It was slow going.
I was feeling very tired, stumbling more than walking, I sensed something strange ahead. But I could see nothing through the overgrowth but a strange green glow.
Elias spoke ahead of me. “You can feel it, can’t you, Anders?”
Kara called out. “It’s the path we took into the city! After we fought the keiler!”
We walked forward, and assembled in front of a glowing line. I wondered if Cullen could see anything, but I was sure he could feel the energy.
No plants grew on either side of the line. It was like a small cut in the vegetation, with nothing growing two feet on either side. When I closed my eyes and opened the third one, I could see glowing green running in both directions, toward the city and away from it, and the platform underneath. When I opened my eyes, I could still see it faintly.
“Can we ride it, do you think?” Woltan asked.
Elias shook his head. “I’m not sure we could all get on safely, and for all we know it’s not working properly.”
“It was working fine when I and Kalle and I came in here. We rode it in.”
Elias shrugged. “You rode it in, but I’m not sure we can ride it out. Look at the way the energy is flowing. I think there were two lines, originally.”
When I looked at the green line again and tried to detect movement, I could see what Elias was talking about. The energy was flowing toward the city. I could see the wall in the distance. Elias was right.
“Should we just follow the path, then?” asked Woltan.
Kara nodded. “I know the way, more or less, once we get to the gateway at the end of this path.”
I had a funny feeling about this, but kept it to myself.
We started walking the path. The energy from the line seemed to call to me, pulling at me, and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Elias and Woltan must have felt it too, because they kept looking up at the line every few seconds. Nothing grew on the path itself, just smooth stone, and none of the plants to either side encroached upon it either. On both sides there was thick forest; we could only see a few feet both directions. Strange noises came from far off in the distance, and was glad it was still morning; I wouldn’t have liked to imagine what this would be like at night.
We walked quickly and in silence for around half an hour. I figured that the line must be at least two miles long.
A gate appea
red up in the distance and I hurried towards it. I came to the trail end and shook my head. Kara was right behind me, and she looked at me, and then at the gate, and then at me again.
“It’s not the same gate, is it?” said Kara.
I shook my head again. The other gate had been square, and the runes had been different. This one was round, and part of me knew what the runes meant; I could reach out and activate them, but I didn’t even know what that would do, or what the purpose would be. “There must be several paths into the city. We may be several miles away from where we thought we would be.”
Elias came up behind me and looked at the runes. “This is the east gate. I’m not sure what gate you came in on.”
Woltan spoke then. “They came in through the great gate, by the great courtyard.”
Elias nodded. “The west gate.”
Kara and I groaned. “We’re several miles off course,” she said.
She pulled something out of her bag. It was a book. It took me a moment to realize it was not just a book, it was the book. The book Kara had stolen from the spice shop, starting off the chain of events that had left me with strong magic, but also parents who couldn’t wake up.
“Is that it? The book of Id?”
Kara hushed me with a finger to his lips. “There is a map,” she said, then.
She opened the book, not letting me see the pages. Slowly and carefully she turned them, then opened the book wide so we could all see. There was a colorful map of the old city, and the forest around it. There were the eight lines that ran out from the city; you could see the one we must have stumbled upon. There was the circular gate at the end, and the label: Eastern Transporter. There were markings all round the old city, of places I had never heard of, but Kara was examining the map intently. “Here,” she said, pointing to a small X on the map where it was marked Rangers Outpost. “This stream, these hills, there is no mistaking it. This is where we live, we Kriek. Although why it is marked so, I have no idea.”
She found another spot. It was farther to the north, and there was a mountain there. “Here, inside this mountain, is where the dark lord lives.”
“And the glass castle?” I asked.
“Here,” she said, pointing. “On the far side of the mountain.”
Woltan nodded. “If the map is right, we must continue east through these woods, and come to an old stone road. We will have to cross a river. I wish we had a way to keep going eastward. There was ancient magic to find one’s way, but we of the old city have not traveled for hundreds of years.”
That was when Cullen spoke up. “I know little of magic, but much of iron. My master was even more skilled. And he handed down to me a little steel device called a compass. Perhaps it can be of use.”
He went through his bag, then pulled out a disk-like object, with a needle inside it, that moved back and forth.
“How does it work?” I asked.
Cullen shook his head. “That, I know not. I know only that the needle inside always points towards the far north.”
Karsten laughed. “Talk about a bag of tricks! I wonder what else you have in there, smith.”
Cullen smiled. “A number of treasures. But none perhaps as valuable as this little round device — or as the sword on my side.”
I nodded. It was quite a blade, and it seemed magical, though different from the pixie blades. I would have to ask Carolina about it.
Kara closed the book and put it back in her bag.
We started walking east; Woltan held the compass, followed by me, Kara, the smith, Elias, and Karsten. The going was easier here — we were not exactly in a clearing, but the forest was not nearly so dense. We could not walk a straight line exactly, but at least we could see where we were going, and walk around the fir trees. The needles felt good underneath my feet.
We walked on and on, dodging trees. There was no sign of the enemy, no strange smells in the air, no strange feelings of malign energy. There was just sunshine, and pine needles, and clean cold air.
Suddenly, Karsten whistled.
We turned around and backed up to where he stood.
“It was the mushrooms!” he said. “I saw some mushrooms here, and when I dug them up, my feet hit stone, and I found this!” He was pointing at a patch of three cobblestones, tightly fitted together. The road. It was narrow, more of a footpath, covered with hundreds of years of dirt, but you could see stones every few feet.
“We cultivate these mushrooms in the old city. The are delicious and full of energy, raw or cooked.”
I looked around. The mushrooms seemed to like the stone and soil combination. There were hundreds of them along the road.
Woltan smiled, patted Karsten on the shoulder. “We won’t be lacking for food or road now, and had we not taken you along, Karsten, we would be lacking both.”
Karsten smiled. “Tonight we’ll have soup, if we find a spring. And if you save any for later.”
Elias and Cullen put down their bags and began picking mushrooms and stuffing their mouths with them. Karsten, laughing, followed suit. It was good to see Karsten laugh. I idly touched my hand to sword hilt, and the image of Carolina came to mind. Eat now, Anders, with the others. The road is not long, but it is hard, and you may have to fight your way along it.
I dropped my hand from the sword and Carolina faded from my view, smiling at me. I saw Kara looking at me.
“What counsel does your pixie give you?”
“To eat now, while we can, for the road is not long, but difficult, and we may have to fight along it.”
Kara nodded, and bent down to pick up some mushrooms. She handed two to me. “Good advice.” She bit into a mouthful, and chewed, swallowed. “They taste like berries and nuts put together.”
I took the mushrooms and ate them. I bent down to pick several more, then looked over at Kara and Woltan, who were busy picking mushrooms. “Is this the road then, of which the map speaks?”
Kara nodded. “It’s going the right way. And it’s very old.” She pointed one way down the path. “This way leads Southeast to our country, the land of the Kriek. That way leads northwest around the dark lord’s mountain to the glass palace, and beyond, to the ocean and the merpeople. I think you may have to travel this path again soon.”
“Won’t I be able to make a portal?”
Kara shook here head. “Not with your uncle’s eyes on you. And we can’t make a portal somewhere where there are no Kriek, and to a place we’ve never seen.”
Then we were walking Southeast, on the path, picking mushrooms as we walked. The road was narrow, perhaps three or four feet across, but at least there were no trees on it.
We came to the end of the mushrooms and began to walk faster, still chewing on the mushrooms we had picked.
For some reason, maybe the walking, the fresh air or the food, I felt better than I had in weeks. The air was still chilly but the sun filtered through the trees surrounding the path, warming my neck and arms.
It was another hour before we came to the river.
My legs had begun to feel sore, and when I looked at the others they looked weary as well. The river was shallow, and the smell of the water dried my throat. I had had nothing to drink since that morning.
Soon we all were sitting down except for Karsten, who gathered wood together to make a fire. Elias helped him assemble twigs to start it with. Soon we had amassed a formidable pile. I watched Kara knock two rocks together from her bag, and start the fire. Karsten took out a large metal pot from his bag, went and filled it with some water from the river. He propped it on rocks that he had arranged around the fire.
“The water is clear, but it’s safer to boil it. We’ll make soup, with some rolls I brought with me. We can drink the water too, once it cools.”
Then we all were throwing our leftover mushrooms into the pot, and Karsten added a few spices from some small pouches in his bag. The smell was sweet – my dry mouth started to water.
Woltan stood for a moment. “We rest here un
til we have eaten, and then cross this river and keep moving. Kara and I will scout it out, but it appears neither deep nor treacherous.”
Kara scowled. “Appearances can be deceiving.”
Woltan shrugged. “It would be easy with magic to divine the best path, but I would rather not. The dark lord will be looking for us.”
No one spoke for a while then until Cullen pulled out a small harmonica from his bag, and began to play, hesitantly, at first, and then with more assurance. Woltan frowned – maybe the noise worried him — but the others seemed to relax, and gradually I relaxed too. Then we were drinking hot soup out of little tin cups, dunking rolls into the soup. The rolls were good alone, but with the hot mushroom soup on and in them, they felt particularly wholesome — I felt a warm feeling in my stomach that moved out to my aching feet and legs.
Later I would remember that fire, remember the smell of the burning wood, the taste of the hard rolls gone soft from the fragrant soup. And the sound of the water roaring past, the cold air, the humidity, and the sound of one lone harmonica before it too fell silent, so Cullen the smith could take his fill.
Now though we were packing up — Woltan was already in the river, finding a path while Kara shouted directions and watched him from the shore.
He crossed in less than two minutes, walking slowly and carefully.
From the other side of the bank, he gestured us on. It was strange to not communicate with Woltan by magic, but I figured Woltan was trying to be extra cautious.
Cullen went next, holding his forge and his other supplies up high and dry. The water never went past his knees, so I figured he might not have bothered.
Then he slipped. He overbalanced – he was going to fall into the water, forge and all. But then he righted himself, and continued walking, a little more cautiously. When he arrived at the other side of the river, he waved us on as well.
Elias and Karsten crossed together — Elias slipped at the same point where the smith had; again I was sure he was going under, and I gasped, but Karsten’s hand was out in a flash. Then Karsten was slipping too, but they remained upright. A moment later they were walking again slowly, holding onto each other. When they reached the other side I let out my breath, and watched it appear in the cold air.
