by J. M. Rojas
CHAPTER 18: THE CAVALRY ARRIVES
A black Chevy pulled up in a cloud of dust, and two men hastily exited.
“So glad you could make it,” Rowan said from the doorway of the house. There was a friendly sarcasm in his tone.
“Sorry, we got here as fast as we could.” The man who spoke was bald, dark skinned, with a lean muscular frame and feline-shaped eyes. He was also well dressed; wearing a brown vest over a long sleeved purple shirt, with star-shaped cufflinks and gem heavy rings glittering on his fingers. Gold-spat leather shoes poked out from under pin striped brown slacks, and on the spats were etched Lemurian symbols. “Almost forgot which road to take.”
Rowan grasped the man's hand firmly in greeting. “Just teasing. Glad you could make it, Jai. We are outnumbered, and I didn't know who else to turn to.”
“No worries, we lore-kin brothers need to stick together.” Jai's broad, charismatic smile proceeded the handshake. He then turned to the other newcomer who was straggling up the driveway from the car. The rotund man was carrying a heavy backpack and a large leather briefcase, which appeared to be excessively full under its straining straps. “Art insisted he bring all his... gadgets. Said, 'you never know when you'll need them'.”
“Hey Art,” Rowan said, waving to the struggling man. “Brought everything but the kitchen sink, I see.”
“You never know when you'll need them,” Arthur replied, using the adage Jai had just mentioned. He trudged up to them like a loaded pack mule; however there was no exhaustion on his face, only grim determination. Arthur was much older than Jai, and was short and fat, with wild and unkempt, black, bushy eyebrows and beard. He wore a tan coloured long coat over an argyle sweater, tattered blue jeans and road-worn boots that looked like they were about to fall apart with each step. A grey, wool beanie clung low across his forehead and over his ears, draping down his back like an old sack. “These Revenant are tricky scumbags. I have studied and fought them long enough to know that bringing a glaive is never truly enough.”
“You need a hand with that?” Rowan asked, reaching out to grab the leather briefcase.
Arthur pulled the bulging bundle out of Rowan's grasping hands and held it tight against his chest like a newborn baby. “Don't worry, I've got this. Dangerous things inside... don't want you to lose a hand.”
Rowan recoiled, and laughed uneasily. “Well, lets all get inside. I will introduce you to the others.”
Jai laughed. “Sounds like a good idea. Can't have Art dying of exhaustion under all that.”
“That would never happen,” the shorter man humphed. “Strong as an ox, and don't you forget it!”
After the house had been secured—every window boarded up, and every door locked and braced by furniture—everyone gathered in the lounge room of Thomas' woodland house.
“Mandrakis, Arthur Mandrakis,” Arthur said in an extravagant voice to Elly. Removing his sack-like beanie, he knelt on one knee in an overly gracious bow, revealing a bald spot on the top of his head. “But everyone calls me Art. It is an honour to meet you, Eleanor.”
“He's a bigger geek than your brother,” Caleb whispered to James with a quirked eyebrow.
James elbowed the older boy, but let out a snicker.
“It is an honour to meet you too—” Elly started to say, smiling and reaching to touch Arthur on the shoulder.
“And yes, my surname is Mandrakis!” Arthur continued, leaping to his feet. “Its not a fancy Lemurian name; I'm not Atlantean or Thulese, mind you. Its Greek, actually. Very cool, huh? Sounds like: Man Dragon. Well, as you can see...”
“He sure loves to hear himself speak,” Caleb whispered again.
“Sounds like someone else I know,” James jibed back.
Caleb frowned, then shrugged. “I guess you're right on that one.”
“... and so, that is why we are here. To protect you and your children—with the exception of Rowan and Emily of course, who can definitely look after themselves—from the creatures that have come after you. The horrible Revenant.”
“Well, thank you, Art,” Elly said, this time trying to initiate a handshake; but the portly fellow grabbed her hand and raised it up to his thick lips, kissing them ever so delicately.
“A pleasure,” he said.
“Ooh, dude, the geek is hitting on your mum.”
James shook his head and didn't dignify Caleb with an answer. However, he was a little disturbed at the newcomer's moves. He wasn't sure if Art was being friendly or friendly.
“Excuse my friend here,” the bald man said, stepping up and bumping Art out of the way so he could hold Elly's hand. “He can get carried away from time to time.”
Arthur grumbled something incomprehensible and shuffled out of the way.
“My name is Jai Absolom,” Jai said, kissing her hand also, and winking at Art cheekily. His companion rolled his eyes. “A half-cast, much like your son Jack. The best of both worlds.”
“He is the son of an Argadnellian and a mortal woman, is what he's trying to say,” Art piped in.
“Yes, thank you Arthur,” Jai said firmly, silencing any further interruption from his companion with a look. “My father, Oron Cethaphis is from the Lemurian land of Argadnel. He became a Shade—a wanderer who left the Library to live in your world, much like Thomas—and met my mother, Esmeralda Absolom in Paradise. She was a doctor at the time, and saved his life after he was almost killed by a group of rebels in an alleyway just outside her apartment. The police scared them away before they could finish the deed. Ever since then, I have been trained to be a Kratoth—a knight order of Atlantis—in the service of the Library; even if my father refuses to return to his people. I met Arthur here on one of my first missions. He—”
“Let me tell them my story,” Art finally cut in again, hands waving above his head as he stepped in front of Jai.
“Go ahead,” Jai laughed, stepping back.
Arthur turned to everyone in the room, took a bow, and began to speak in a hurried manner. “Well, you see, I was a hacker—well still am in a way, but we won't go there—and an administrator for this website called Ancient Artefacts Emporium. That's how we met, actually. And when I say 'met', I mean it in the looses sense of the term. You see, I was selling artefacts that I—and some of my contacts—had procured through backwater pawn shops all across the globe and explorative ventures, when Jai came a-knocking. He not only validated the 'junk' I was selling—which so many of my friends ridiculed me about, saying they were fake or weren't from an advanced, pre-human civilisation—but demanded I stop. Cease and desist, I believe the words were. I was making a lot of money, ya know, so I thought maybe he was another rival collector or a government agent. Well, he offered me a large sum of money to buy all my artefacts, and wanted the names and addresses of all my clients I had sold any too. I refused. Then he threatened me. I refused. Then he demanded I shut down the Ancient Artefacts Emporium. I refused. And THEN he said that if I gave in to his demands he would hire me to work for him, and show me things I could only imagine. Well that is what perked my interest.”
“Not my threats?” Jai asked rhetorically with a grin.
“Pfft, as if I would be scared of you. Anyway, I am always thirsty for knowledge, so I said yes. He paid me, which was good. I bought a whole ton of things I so badly needed, like—”
“Art, the point.” Jai's arms were crossed and he was shaking his head; but his grin was still beaming.
“Yes, yes, the point. Well anyway, he revealed to me the existence of the Library, the Lemurian settlers and their secret war with the rebels, and told me that my conspiracy theories—or 'facts' as I had listed them on the website—were ninety-five percent true. Close enough. But yeah, anyway, I was hired as a lore-kin technician and started working with the Library in helping them transition into this modern society they had stumbled into. Whether that is technology or language and culture...”
Jai lipped to the amused looking audience, “Just technology.”
“... I have been a v
aluable asset to the Library. Hell, they didn't even know what the Internet was. Oh, and I got trained in how to use a glaive too.”
“Yes,” Jai said, quickly cutting in. “I taught Art how to speak with his mind and how to use a glaive. Surprisingly enough, he's pretty good with one.”
“What do you mean 'surprisingly enough'?” Arthur sounded indignant, his brows furrowing.
“I didn't mean anything by it,” Jai replied, winking at the Grey children.
Alora and James both laughed.
“Arthur is a strong and loyal friend to the Library and myself,” Jai continued, “and was also a friend to your father, James and Alora.”
The children's faces became serious and their attention remained on the well dressed man.
“We have not only come to help protect you from Kaelan's forces, but to offer you sanctuary.”
“What do you mean?” James asked, standing from the couch he shared with Alora. He walked over to the man. “What kind of sanctuary? Do you mean the Library?”
“No, not the Library. I am talking about a project that Arthur and I started two years ago, which has now just begun to blossom. A boarding school of sorts. On the coast of Paradise, for Lemurian and lore-kin children. It is called, the Trident Academy.”
“The Trident Academy?” James repeated, his face looking as if he had bitten into a lemon. “I don't want to go to some fancy boarding school; I already go to school in Willow. I have friends there. Family.”
“You are in danger here,” Jai said gently, resting a hand on the boy's shoulder.
James shrugged the hand off and stepped away. “I-I'm not like Jack. I can't just pack up and leave just like that. Just so easily.”
“He didn't find it easy at all, James,” Rowan said. “Jack left because he thought it was the only way to protect the family.”
James cast his gaze at his shoes.
“I have heard that the strength of Thomas is in his children,” Arthur finally said, drawing the boy's eyes to his intense stare. “And although I don't know you, I do see it. I heard how you defended your sister and friend from the Revenant. A very noble act. Our school will protect you both, so you don't have to fight them again.”
The boy's doubt disappeared when he turned to his mother who simply smiled and nodded.
There was silence, then James said, “Then, if going to this Trident Academy will protect Alora and mum... I will go.”
“You have my word on it,” Jai said, kneeling before the boy. Arthur did likewise. “You have the word of the lore-kin who still were faithful to your father and his vision of a strong and united people.”
Blushing, James stammered. “If we survive this, sign me up.”
Alora stepped next to her brother, her face resolute. “Sign me up, too.”
Caleb raised his hand, then said, “Well, I suppose I can take a year off uni and find a job in Paradise. If these... creatures... will be threatening my best friend and his family, I can't just do nothing about it. I suppose calling the cops would be a bad idea.”
“A very bad idea,” Rowan answered.
“We will go wherever Rowan deems is necessary,” Elly said as she began to hobble towards her eldest son with her walking stick. “For the safety of the children.”
Rowan rushed to his mother's side, holding her hand and letting the weary-faced woman lean on him. “I think it will be the best option, until things settle down here. Besides, you will be closer to Emily and I.”
“You have a point,” Elly said. “You know, Rowan, the reason we never moved to your father's secret house after the house fire... is because we didn't know about it. Would have saved us the mortgage woes we had after he passed away.”
“Sorry mum, but dad kept this place secret to you because he was worried that his hidden workshop and artefacts would put the family at risk. He didn't want Revenant or worse coming after you.”
“I understand,” Elly said, “I suppose I didn't know everything about him for good reason.”
“He did plan to one day clear out all his junk,” Rowan said, “and give it to the Library. He wanted to surprise you with this place, but...”
“Don't worry, some things are not meant to be,” his mother said with a melancholy smile, patting his back. “Well, all we can do now is protect our family with whatever means possible. If I have to up and move to Paradise with the kids, then it is something I will do without second thought. Your step-father was a very intelligent, compassionate and strong man, Rowan. Even though he wasn't your biological father, I can see him in you everyday.”
Rowan smiled. “He will always be dad.”
I do not like to be the bearer of ill news, Rowan, but the Revenant are drawing near. A voice suddenly popped in heads of everyone in the lounge room.
They all started at the unseen speaker. A glaive appeared in Jai and Arthur's hands as they edged towards the direction of the front door.
“Who was that?” Alora whispered fearfully, squeezing James tightly as if he was a plush toy.
“I-I don't know,” James wheezed after a strangled cry for air. “Ease up there!”
“Sorry,” the girl said, relaxing her grip, but not letting go.
“Hold back!” Rowan suddenly shouted to the other two lore-kin. “He is a friend!”
Jai stopped Arthur from bounding towards the door, and turned curiously to Rowan. “A friend? Who or what is that?”
“That would be Arajasta,” Rowan replied with a knowing grin. “Don't worry. He is on our side.”
“What is it?” Caleb asked.
I am not an it, boy! Arajasta boomed in the teenager's head. I am Azlazarani. Once I was a Lord from Suruun; but I ascended with my brothers and sisters into the Great Aether, chasing after knowledge, power and eternal life.
Caleb raised a brow. “A ghost?”
I am more than some mere apparition of the fallen. The boarded-up windows began to rattle, and the lounge room ceiling light and lamp on the coffee table flickered. Alora squealed and James jumped. I lived before the Fall, and will still be here even after the second demise of Man, when it comes.
“They are an ancient people of Lemurian and Ramaean blood,” Rowan said, with open hands, signalling everyone to calm down. “A breakaway of the Sorrarani. Once friends of Atlantis—teachers of the Four Knightly Orders!”
“I know of these people,” Jai said slowly as if recalling a memory. “My father told me of them. The Old Gods who were worshiped by primitive man.”
Arthur added, “I have also studied early Three Empire lore and have heard about the Azlazarani.” He turned to Rowan. “But how did you manage to make friends with such a omniscient being?”
“He's trapped,” Rowan said, looking up at the flickering ceiling light as if searching for the invisible speaker there. “Inside an Osirian device called the Reflecting Cube. I have it hidden in that study desk in the corner over there.” He pointed to a dusty bulk wedged between two bookshelves.
“Curious,” Arthur replied, squinting at the table and its sealed roller door. He then began to approach it with an eagerness in his eyes. “That is where the myth of the genie in the lamp comes from, I bet. Wonder if we can get a couple of wishes from him...”
I can you hear you. Arajasta said, and the room seemed to creak and groan from some hidden weight on the house. The lights went out, and the room was left in a grey twilight that squeezed through the gaps in the boarded up windows. Then the study table suddenly shook violently as if possessed by a demon. One more step, fat man, and I will break those planks and fling you out of the window like a stone from a sling-shot!
“Ha!” Arthur's expression changed from curious to haughty confidence. “Big words for a voice in a box! I know you're limitations; I have read about the Reflecting Cube. Lets have a look at ya!”
“Art, don't provoke him,” Jai warned. “Do not open the desk!”
Fat man indeed, Arthur thought, ignoring his friend's command. He reached out and grabbed the roller door
handle and began to lift. Man Dragon isn't afraid of a trapped fly!
