Blood Stone (11) (The Underground Kingdom)

by Steve Elliott

  “Did you ever see a drawing or a picture of it?” she was asked.

  “No, never,” she replied.

  “That’s it!” Trix suddenly exclaimed, excitedly. “A drawing! That’s where I’ve seen it!” So saying, she suddenly dashed out of the room, closely followed by Zen, leaving everyone staring after her in astonishment.

  “Is there something we’re missing?” one of the Elders remarked in a puzzled tone. “What is the matter with the young elf?”

  “She thinks she might have seen the blood stone mentioned somewhere,” I hastily explained, as I turned to follow Trix. “We’ll come back and let you know.”

  “Do that,” the Elder said to my retreating back. “We’ll need as much information as we can gather.”

  I set out after Trix, with the rest of the group straggling behind me. I could see Zen in the distance as he galloped behind his mistress. I wondered where Trix was headed and exactly what had she suddenly remembered? Frankly, at this stage in the game, I’d welcome any signpost that pointed us in the right direction for the next step. Blood stone? Snoles? Knarls? All these concepts meshed confusedly in my mind as I ran. Then a thought occurred to me. Why was I running at all? My lifetime of human instincts had taken over. I could fly, for heaven’s sake! What a dumbo! Without breaking stride, I took to the air and rapidly gained on my quarry. Trix appeared to be heading for the library and I alighted on its steps and waited for her to catch up. She arrived, panting, and grinned at me.

  “No fair!” she complained. “That’s cheating!”

  “Well, you shouldn’t have run off without an explanation,” I told her. “Now, what’s all this about?”

  “I’d been trying to remember where I’ve seen that blood stone reference before,” she explained, as we walked up the steps to the library doors, “and when that Elder talked about a drawing, it suddenly popped into my mind. I’m positive I came across it in the Book of Histories * here in the library. It was on one of the back pages, just a scribble in one of the margins, but I’m sure I saw it there. Anyway, I’ll soon find out.”

  * See ‘Trix (3)’

  Chapter 10

  By this time the others had caught up and Trix précised the situation for them as we all regained our breath.

  “What did the Book say about the blood stone?” Rosewing wanted to know.

  “I can’t remember,” Trix replied. “All I can recall seeing is the word, along with a sketch. It didn’t make any sense at the time so I didn’t bother about it.”

  “I guess we’ll just have to wait and see then,” Thorn proposed.

  “There was something else there, too,” Trix supplied, frowning in concentration. “Something weird, but I can’t bring it to mind right now.”

  “Thank you for that helpful input,” Nix told her. “You’re a veritable mine of information.”

  “Hey, it was years ago!” Trix protested. “What do you think I am? I’m sorry I can’t be as perfect as you are.”

  “That’s true,” Nix agreed, modestly buffing his fingernails on his shirt front. “I am unique. And amazingly handsome. And charismatic to an insane degree. It’s too bad the rest of you inferior specimens can’t match my blinding brilliance.”

  Bon giggled. “Is he always like this?” she whispered to Thorn.

  “Pretty much,” Thorn replied. “Sometimes he’s even worse.”

  “Wow!” Bon exclaimed, admiringly.

  We made our way through the library as Trix led us to the Book of Histories. She reverently ran her hand over its cover and then opened it.

  “If my memory serves me correctly,” she told us, turning pages, “the drawing was somewhere at the back, almost like an afterthought.” She began muttering to herself. “Hmmm, not there. Or there. Somewhere around here, I’m sure of it. Not here either. Maybe the next page …. No, not there either. Where the devil is it? I’m positive it was somewhere around here. Here, perhaps? Damn!” Nix began tapping his foot impatiently until Thorn punched him on the arm.

  “Stop that!” she commanded.

  “You stop that!” he retaliated, rubbing his arm. “That’s sexual assault, that is.”

  “In your dreams,” Thorn scowled.

  “I know,” Nix leered. “I’ve had a few marvellous times with you there.”

  “Don’t be disgusting, ” Thorn told him.

  “Found it!” Trix gloated in a triumphant whisper. “I knew I wasn’t imagining it.” We crowded around to look.

  “Stop shoving!” Nix complained to Thorn. “I know there’s no chance of you actually being one, but the least you could do is to try to act more like a lady, if you don’t mind.”

  “You horrible excuse for a depraved degenerate,” she replied. “Go back under the rock you crawled out from and leave this to normal people.”

  “Quiet, you two!” I hushed. “This is a library, not a war zone. Behave yourselves!”

  “She started it,” Nix sulked. “As always,” he added.

  “Did not!” Thorn denied. “It’s always his fault! I’m totally innocent.”

  “I’ll slap you both in a minute,” Trix growled, looking up at Thorn and Nix from her diminutive waist-high height. “We don’t have time for this right now.”

  The surrealistic thought of the tiny Trix applying her threatened punishment was quirky enough to make everyone pause. One by one, we examined the passage in the book to which Trix had pointed. It was indeed a drawing, hastily sketched by the look of it, with an accompanying paragraph of description. The paragraph read as follows:

  Place the blood stone in the appropriate place. It must be exact, with no variation. The blood stone itself must be without flaw, perfect in essence, otherwise disaster may happen. Once done, everything is finished. Guard the blood stone carefully. It is the rarest of the rare. Nothing will work without it.

  “Well, what you make of that?” Nix murmured, after we had all read the inscription.

  “It doesn’t make things much clearer, does it?” Thorn announced.

  “I don’t know about that,” I disputed, staring at the drawing that accompanied the inscription. “You see, I think I know what the blood stone is.”

  “You do?” Rosewing asked. “What is it?”

  “I believe it’s a ruby,” I stated. “They’re fairly rare but they can still be found if you search hard enough.”

  “A ruby?” Niama echoed. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen one.”

  “As I said, they’re not common,” I told him, “so I’m not surprised.

  “What do it look like?” he asked, curiously.

  “It’s a gem – a red coloured sapphire, to be precise,” I lectured.

  “The blood stone!” Trix exclaimed.

  “Exactly!” I agreed. “The red colour could be compared to blood.”

  “What they want it for?” Nix complained. “What possible use could it be?”

  “It could be purely symbolic or religious, as Trix said,” Thorn murmured thoughtfully. “I can’t think of any other purpose.”

  “There was something else,” Trix muttered, staring at the page. “I remember seeing it before.” She rubbed her forehead in frustration. “Something really strange.” She flipped over the page and there, staring us in the face, was a detailed map.

  “Ah, that was it!” Trix proclaimed with satisfaction. “I knew there was something else.”

  “What in the world is it?” Nix asked.

  “It’s a map, silly,” Thorn scornfully replied.

  “I can see that, wombat features,” Nix replied, “but what is it a map of?”

  “Wombat features?” Thorn parroted in an affronted tone. “How dare you? You’re a ……. a wombat’s bottom! And that’s being generous.”

  “Oh yeah?” Nix bickered. “Well, you’re a ……”

  “Enough!” Trix ordered, glaring at the disputants. “If either of you says another word I’ll march you outside by the scruff of the neck and kick you all the way down the stairs! Do you understand
?”

  Unnerved by Trix’s uncharacteristic display of aggressive command, Nix and Thorn fell silent while the rest of us pictured the risible scene of Trix’s threat in our minds.

  “That’s better,” she announced. “Sorry to be so abrupt, but this is serious. I think this map will lead us to the blood stone …… ruby, okay? We have to find it before the Knarl do. What does everybody think?”

  “Even if it is a map to the ruby’s location,” Thorn pronounced, “then what?”

  “Then we’ll decide what to do next,” Trix asserted. “Maybe we’ll destroy it, or something. That might stop the war.”

  “Or it might initiate it,” Bon announced, uttering her first words since we’d entered the library. I jumped a little. She’d been so quiet as to be almost invisible. I’d forgotten she was present.

  “A distinct possibility,” I agreed. “We don’t know anything about the Knarl’s thought processes or what they really want. It’d pay us to be careful about what we did with the ruby.”

  “We have to find it first,” Niama pointed out. “Are you sure this map shows its whereabouts?”

  “We can only hope,” Rosewing replied. “Well, are we going to chase down this ruby or not? We can’t let the Knarl get hold of it.”

  Once again, everyone looked to me for the answer. I really wished they’d stop doing that. It was so embarrassing. Okay, flattering maybe, but embarrassing all the same.

  Chapter 11

  “Okay, okay,” I surrendered. “I guess we have to. If we do find it, then at least we’d have a bargaining chip.”

  “I’ll copy the map,” Trix volunteered.

  “And I’ll gather the supplies,” Thorn decided. “Now, who’s coming on this jaunt?”

  “The usual crowd, I suppose,” I told her.

  “Me, too!” Rosewing demanded.

  “And me!” Niama volunteered.

  “I’d like to come as well,” intruded Bon’s soft voice.

  “You?” Nix questioned with a furrowed brow. “Are you sure, Bon? It could be dangerous, you know.”

  “I realise that,” she answered, “but what else can I do? I was a slave under the Knarls and I’d do anything to stop that from happening to others.”

  “You’re such a brave little thing,” Nix praised, patting her hand and causing Bon to blush. He glanced at me. “She can come with us, can’t she?” I shrugged at his question.

  “She’s your friend, my friend,” I told him. “If she wants to come along, I can’t really stop her. Just so long as she realises the dangers.”

  “Nix has a girlfriend! Nix has a girlfriend!” Thorn began to sing in a high-pitched, girlish voice.

  “Stop that!” growled Nix, his face glowing beetroot red. “Don’t make me come over there!” Thorn poked out her tongue at him.

  “Hah!” she snorted. “And what would happen if you did, I’d like to know? The day an unbelievably ugly, frighteningly fat, child-scaring, monstrously mutant, weedy, pathetic excuse for a borgulessa could do anything to a One is the day the whole world would come to an end.”

  “I can’t believe I’m hearing this,” Bon gasped. She turned to me. “These two are friends? How can they talk to each other like that?”

  “It comes as a bit of a shock when you first hear them,” I conceded, “but don’t be fooled. They really are the best of friends. They just show it in a very peculiar way, that’s all.”

  “Well, ‘peculiar’ is hardly the word I’d use,” Bon murmured, as she listened to the bartered insults in awe. “This goes way beyond peculiar.”

  “Don’t I know it,” I chuckled, “but you get used to it. Believe it or not, they’ve both put their lives on the line for each other a number of times. Their friendship may be eccentric, but it’s as solid as steel.”

  It was Rosewing who finally put an end to the squabbling. “That’s enough of that, you two!” she commanded. “Come on, we have to get going. The sooner we start, the sooner we’ll find this blood stone thing. Everybody outside!”

  We trooped outside and went to gather our individual supplies for our journey. Tracey, of course, was reluctant to give Rosewing permission to accompany us but her daughter’s determination remained inflexible. And so, to prevent a major drama, Tracey resignedly succumbed to Rosewing’s begging.

  “Just be careful, my darling,” Tracey pleaded, her eyes filling, as she gave Rosewing a farewell hug. “I can’t bear the thought of anything happening to you.”

  “Nothing is going to happen, Mother,” Rosewing assured her, kissing Tracey on the cheek. “I can look after myself, you know. Aunt Trix has taught me how to fight with a knife and Uncle Nix schooled me in unarmed defence. Besides, Zen will be there as well and you know how protective he is of me. I’ll be fine. Really I will.”

  “Make sure you look after her,” Tracey warned me, looking over Rosewing’s shoulder.

  “Of course I will,” I vowed. “After all, she is my daughter, too. I won’t let anything happen to her. Cross my heart.”

  “You’d better!” Tracey muttered. “Every time you go out on one of these little trips of yours, some disaster or other always follows. I’m sure you attract them. I don’t know how you’re still alive.”

  “That’s not my fault,” I protested. “I’m the world’s most peaceful person, you know that. I can’t help it if every weirdo under the sun wants to line up to fight me.”

  Chapter 12

  We began our journey, following the map that Trix had copied. She had the best knowledge of areas outside the settlement, so we let her be the guide. Along with Zen, of course. Those two were probably the finest scouts in existence. As an aside, I began to have some disturbing thoughts about that ruby. What on earth could the Knarls want with it? The fact that it was mentioned in the ancient elf book made me wonder. Trix’s ancestors had an undeniable genius for technology and had written that brief description about the ruby, emphasising the exactitude of its position. But position in what? Some sort of technological device, I suspected. And what sort of a device used a ruby? My logical chain of thought pointed to something I didn’t really want to think about. After all, we humans used rubies too, and not just in jewellery. Could the Knarl have access to a laser? Perhaps a leftover from the Age of the Elves? Great, that was all we needed! Not only did we have to face miniature fire-breathing dragons, but maybe a laser cannon as well. Yeah, this whole situation was getting better by the minute.

  Nothing untoward occurred the first day and we settled down that night to prepare our evening meal. Nix and Bon sat side by side, almost rubbing shoulders, so obviously attracted to each other that I was surprised Thorn wasn’t having a field day by poking fun at Nix’s emotions. However, she stayed uncharacteristically silent on that subject, and I began to suspect that she was subtly encouraging their relationship. I excused myself to begin the process of returning to my human body – something that had to be explained to an astonished Bon and Niama.

  “You really are a human, then,” Niama exclaimed, round-eyed.

  “Of course I am,” I agreed. “You knew that before.”

  “Well, of course,” he said, flustered, “but, you know, I thought you were maybe ….. joking, or something.”

  “No, sweetie,” Trix informed him, slipping her hand into his, “he really is a true human, the poor thing. But don’t blame him. It’s not his fault. Just look upon it as an unfortunate accident of Nature.”

  “Don’t be so cheeky!” I scolded her.

  “Yes, behave yourself,” Nix agreed. “Stephen can’t help the way he was born. Just thank your lucky stars. After all, by a twist of Fate too horrible to contemplate, you could have ended up as a human, too.”

  “What is this? An ‘insult Stephen night’ or something?” I complained.

  “Leave him alone, you horrible borgulessa,” Thorn declared, throwing a protective arm around my shoulders. “Anyway, you can’t talk. In fact, someone as ugly as you shouldn’t even be allowed to talk. All you deserve is to
be locked away somewhere out of public view.”

  “How can you say those sorts of things to Nix?” Bon responded heatedly, her face flushing. “You’ll hurt his feelings. Besides, he isn’t ugly! He’s handsome and kind with it. He’s considerate and gentle and everything a borgulessa should be. I think he’s marvellous!”

  We were all dumbfounded by Bon’s unexpected impulsive outburst. She blushed bright red once she’d realised the consequences of her little homily and lowered her eyes in dismay.

  “Well, that was ….. um, nice,” Nix said, haltingly. “It made me all sort of ….. tingly. I appreciate your support and ah, compliments. It was …. err, lovely, really.” His fractured speech ground to an awkward halt and we all sat in embarrassed silence until, by some psychic agreement, we all started talking at once.

  “I didn’t really mean ……”

  “That’s not what I …..”

  “He isn’t really …….”

  “Of course, there’s always …..”

  “Let me say that …..”

  “Wait a minute, there’s …..”

  “Woof!”

  I held up my hands to stop the scattered debate.

  “Everybody settle down,” I commanded, looking around. “And that applies to you, too,” I told Zen, sternly. “We can take this up later, but for now I have to go and perform some maintenance on my human body. Please excuse me for the duration. I won’t be long.”

  Thorn gave me a quick kiss as I lay down. She draped a blanket over me and held my hand.

  “Behave yourself up there,” she warned. “No running around with strange human women, do you hear?”

  “I hear and obey, O Light of My Life,” I told her, squeezing her fingers. “Your every word is my command.”

  “You’re such a silly,” she chided, bending down and kissing me again. “I don’t know why I put up with you.”

  “That baffles us all,” Nix interjected from the sidelines.