Diana Alderoot and the Gilded Mage

by Trista Shaye

  Diana pulled a warm blanket up around her and snuggled down into a large chair by the fire. This was the perfect place to sleep as the rain dripped off the eaves of the roof and pattered against the stone exterior. She sighed deeply. Although she was going to begin her search for clues tomorrow and everything depended on what she found, she was also positive she would sleep well that night. Something about the place radiated peace even though her mind ought to have been very troubled.

  ‘I guess I’ll have to save being nervous for tomorrow,’ she thought to herself, yawning and falling into her own dreams.

  Twelve

  After a lovely breakfast of berries, cream, milk and oats, Diana felt as ready as she possibly could be to meet the day and all that it would hold.

  Farran and Andante had tried to convince Matilda to stay at the cottage to guard their prisoner, but once she weaseled out of them where they were going, she refused to stay behind, insisting there might be some danger that still lurked there and she knew best of all of them how to defend and attack against any sort of thing. No, she would be coming along, and that meant they would also be dragging the mage with them. Diana thought that was best, since he was the only one who might be able to answer their questions if they found something strange.

  The group set out walking since Andante couldn’t carry all of them on his back, and since the Great Razing site, as the gnomes had named the scorched circle with the mushrooms, wasn’t all that far away.

  Matilda and Farran had packed a lunch and tea for them in a large basket and Andante had it nestled between his shoulders while Matilda marched stoically behind the mage, who’d been retied so he could walk more easily. The giant moth’s legs were a bit better, though not at full capacity, they could still carry some weight and now he only limped a little.

  Farran led the way, having been to the site several times since Andante’s disappearance hoping he would find his moth friend there.

  Diana walked a few strides behind, in awe yet again at the beauty of the place. The rain the day before seemed to have brought out all the colors with even more vibrancy. It was stunning.

  They stopped for morning tea by way of Farran’s encouragement, saying they would need their energy for the rest of their journey. Diana wasn’t sure if putting more food in her would cause her to have more energy at this point, or make her sleepy again. At their urging, she had a tea cake and some water anyway. She didn’t want to be rude after all.

  They traveled on into the morning light, as the sun slowly crept upward on the horizon and sent its warm face shining down on their path. They had been walking on the clearly marked paths up until that point, but now Farran veered off the dirt road and over the rocks that bordered it and into the tall grass. Diana could see a sort of well-beaten trail through the tall plants and in between the bushes.

  “This will take us to the site,” Farran said over his shoulder to the others as he continued to lead the way, pushing the long wavy stalks out of his face.

  Diana could smell it before she could see it, and suddenly wondered why she had eaten again. The smell made her stomach turn a bit.

  They came suddenly upon a wide open area where the grass had been burnt to the ground in a great circle all around and mushrooms dotted the outer edges of its circumference, grey and ashy in color. Diana scrunched up her nose and made a face.

  “It smells so rank,” she said, coughing and waving her hand in front of her nose.

  “Yes.” Farran nodded, not sounding sad and not quite angry either, both somewhere in between. “The smoke lingers still.”

  Andante shook his antennae and made a clicking sound. “It’s just as I remember. Before my mind went dark and my thoughts were not my own.”

  Diana patted his arm as she walked past and began to look more closely at the ground and the mushrooms to see if something might tell her anything at all.

  “What are we looking for in this terrible place?” Matilda questioned, her hands were on her hips and she still stood behind Kendel.

  Diana shrugged after a moment. “I’m honestly not sure. Perhaps something that links this place to the one in my realm.”

  “There’s another one of these horrid things where you’re from?” Matilda asked, sounding shocked. She pushed past Kendel and left him standing by the giant moth, who watched him out of the corner of his large eye.

  “Yes.” Diana nodded. “We think a wizard is working to destroy both realms simultaneously. At least, that was Kendel’s opinion on the matter.”

  “Taking the word of your enemy?” Matilda shook her head and squinted her eyes at the fairy lass. “And what do you mean by destroy the realms? What have wizards got to do with this?”

  “Well, that’s who cast this spell,” Diana explained, forgetting she had excluded Matilda from their conversation the night before while the biscuits were baking, “a very powerful wizard.”

  “Are you sure?” The gnome woman scratched behind an ear and looked skeptical.

  Diana was honestly not expecting her to question it, it seemed rather obvious to her. “Um, well yes,” she replied slowly. “You see – ” Diana didn’t get to finish.

  “We thought it was the trolls who did this,” Matilda declared, chuckling a bit.

  “Why would the trolls do this?” It was the fairy girl’s turn to be stunned. “It’s so far from the border, and do trolls even know how to make fire?”

  Matilda shrugged. “You got me, girl. All I know is several months ago it was heard being whispered around the troll fires that the gnomes had gone too far in their last attack. Things were starting to feel funny and the marsh grass was starting to disappear in certain places to be replaced by other things, unnatural things. The frogs, toads, and lizards were harder and harder to find.

  “A couple times, different trolls reported seeing a misty figure walking the marshes at night in the direction of The Dappled Peaks – dragon territory. They said they threw mud and yelled and the shadow lit up like a fire and then flashed and was gone. But nature kept going missing and the creatures of the realm continued to hide and become more scarce. They blamed the gnomes, though it weren’t us who did that, we don’t know that kind of magic. So when this happened, well,” she gestured about. “We figured it was the trolls, getting back at us for something we didn’t even do.”

  “A wizard,” Kendel said from behind them and they all turned. “The trolls saw a wizard walking on the marshes, that was a disappearance spell. Some use fire, some use smoke – it does the same thing – moves you physically somewhere else.”

  There was silence for a few minutes as Diana’s blood ran cold. Matilda had said this had started several months ago, long before either of the fairy rings appeared. Their two realms weren’t the first to experience the dark magic after all.

  “Did they mention anything about mushrooms?” Diana suddenly wondered aloud, looking at the gnome woman with wide eyes and an intensifying heartbeat.

  Matilda shrugged. “Eh, not that I know of. Mushrooms usually grow in The Marsh quite well. Good food for the trolls and all that. I think those were some of the things that were starting to disappear, replaced by something else. I can’t remember for sure, though.”

  “Well, at least that’s kind of good news,” Diana said, sighing. “But their realm is still being destroyed in a way, as well.”

  “It must have all started there,” Kendel breathed out, he looked rather shaken. “This has been going on longer than we thought. That means we don’t have a lot of time left before …” his gaze fell to the ground.

  “Before what, mage?” Matilda demanded, suddenly feeling her blood begin to boil. “What has your kind been doing to us all?”

  “My kind?” Kendel looked up, shocked and afraid.

  “Not his kind, Matilda,” Diana cut in, placing a hand on the woman’s arm. The gnome’s hands were clenched into fists and she looked q
uite angry. She must have finally figured out the implications of what was going on: her world was ending.

  “Not his kind, my foot!” Matilda bellowed and shook off the fairy’s hand. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but I can guess at what’s going to happen to our realm if a wizard has been in it causing mischief, especially if he’s the same one who’s been in The Marsh.” She marched towards the bound mage and Andante tried to stand in her way, but she pushed him aside and kept advancing. “Things are going to start to disappear, aren’t they? We’re gonna lose even more baby moths, won’t we? Our rivers gonna run dry? Our flowers stop blooming? Summer go away?” She was livid.

  Kendel cowered back from her wrath and shook his head quickly. “None of that!” he cried out in a squeaky voice, “You won’t notice anything at first. Then things will start to die, the flowers and grasses. This spell works from the inside out and you won’t know it’s killing things until your realm is about to utterly end.”

  Matilda stood back a little, blinking as she let his words sink in.

  Diana used the pause to step between the two and Farran tried to reason with Matilda, as he drew her to one side for a moment. When the two gnomes finally came back around, Farran looked frazzled but he had done his job and Matilda didn’t look like she was about to bull-rush Kendel and sit on him for all eternity but rather, that she was only considering it now.

  “His kind didn’t do this,” Diana said, finally realizing something for herself. “One of them did, but not all of them. And not Kendel.” She began to untie the vines that held him bound. “He’s never been to another realm but his own and mine. He’s never been to The Marsh and he’s never seen a troll in his life. He’s innocent,” she declared, as much for her own sake as everyone else's.

  Kendel was somewhat shocked as the last of the vines fell away and he flexed his fingers and arms.

  “I could have lied to you about all that, you know,” he said, then added quickly, “don’t think I’m not thankful! I like feeling my hands again, but why do you believe me now?”

  “You said you haven’t been there before,” Diana stated.

  “Yes, but lately I’ve been saying a lot of things you don’t believe. Why’s this any different?”

  “Because you told me when we were friends, and you didn’t lie about it then. I know you didn’t lie,” Diana said, looking him in the eye. “And besides, we need your help. We can’t figure this mess out without you, Kendel. If it is a wizard doing all of this, then you’re the only one who will know how to fight back, you’re the only one who will know how to fix all that’s been set wrong. I know you hate adventures and I know I dragged you along on one anyway. But Kendel, now we need you to come with us, to choose to help us. Prove yourself, and prove me right. Prove your innocence.”

  The mage stood so still Diana wondered if he’d turned into a statue.

  She turned to her gnome friends then. “This isn’t the source of all that’s been happening and neither is the trolls’ realm. It’s not a realm causing this, it’s one person. One wizard. I have to track him down and get him to change everything back to the way it was.”

  “How are you going to do that?” Matilda asked, wondering at the girl before her.

  “I … I don’t know. Not yet. But I have to or hundreds of lives will never be the same again and hundreds more will lose everything.” Diana gulped. She wanted to feel very brave in that moment, filled with resolve and trust in herself, but she didn’t. She felt very small and weak, and unsure of what would happen when she reached the next step in her journey.

  “With my help,” Kendel said, he swallowed loudly as they all looked at him. “I can help you track him down and I can help you change his mind. He just needs to know what he’s doing and how terrible everything is becoming. He’s probably a headstrong student who wants to prove to his master how good he’s become at spells and things.”

  “To become his own master.” Diana nodded, that sounded like an interesting theory. But that was all they had at the moment, theories and ideas. Nothing solid.

  “Where do you need to go?” Andante asked. “I will fly you there.”

  “We need to go to the troll realm,” Diana said. “We need to hear from them what they’ve seen and see for ourselves what’s going on. If Kendel can look at some of the weird happenings, maybe he can figure out how to fix some of it.”

  “You can’t fly into The Marsh,” Matilda said, shaking her head. “You’d be shot down in an instant.”

  “She’s right, my friend,” Farran agreed, patting the moth’s arm. “You’ve been through enough already, stay here and mend.”

  “Farran’s right,” Diana said. “You should stay here and fully heal. We’ll find our way. Thank you for your courage and help. We would never have gotten this far without you.”

  “Nor I without you.” Andante churred and bowed in thanks and Diana set a hand on his soft forehead.

  “I’ll go with you,” Matilda decided, striding forward with confidence.

  “What?” Farran stuttered. “My love, you cannot. What about our wedding? We’ve waited so long and worked through so many things to make it happen.”

  “We won’t have a wedding, or if we do, we won’t have much of a life, if this doesn’t get sorted out. I can lead them into The Marsh, I’m one of the most stealthy gnomes we have in our division. I can get them through.”

  Diana turned to Kendel and motioned with her head for them to leave and wait on the path that lead back home while the two gnomes worked it out – one way or another.

  She and the mage and Andante parted the grass back the way they had come and stepped over the rock and marble boundary to the road.

  “Thanks,” Diana said to the mage as they sat and waited.

  “For what?” Kendel asked, shrugging his shoulders to get feeling back into them.

  “For helping. I know you think this is pointless, but to me, it’s not. It would be pointless to sit back and do nothing when I know I can do something, even if I don’t know what that something is yet.”

  “Well, I didn’t promise to not complain and I didn’t promise to like it.” He sighed. “But, I suppose it’s not pointless.”

  “Especially if we succeed.”

  “I just want to point out, so you’re not disappointed, that the likelihood of that is a thousand to one.”

  “Well, it’s better than a thousand to none,” Diana determined, staring out into the distance.

  “Whatever you want to tell yourself, I guess.” Kendel said and they fell into silence.

  After a time, they heard the footsteps of the gnomes approaching and they stood to face them as they emerged from the grass. Farran looked sad but he wasn’t crying and Matilda looked grave but determined.

  “She’ll be going with you,” Farran said with a deep sigh. “She’s right, she’s the best. She’ll get you where you need to go.”

  Diana rushed over to Farran and hugged him tightly. She didn’t know what else to do. He was being so generous in letting Matilda help them without putting up a fight. It wasn’t an easy decision she was sure.

  “Thank you,” she said, releasing him.

  He smiled sadly and nodded. “It’s for the good of everyone. It’ll be awkward to have so many show up to the wedding and have to explain why the bride isn’t there. But, it will be worth it if you can save our worlds.”

  “You’re still having the wedding?” Diana asked, confused.

  “If my family hears about this mission, the trolls are bound to hear of it and we’ll never get into The Marsh. Even if we’re going to help them, they won’t believe it. Best to keep my family in the dark and keep this entire thing a secret.” Matilda explained.

  “Won’t they be mad?” Diana gritted her teeth, imagining the worst and feeling awful that she was keeping the two apart for even longer.

  �
�They’ll be furious,” Andante said shaking his fur.

  “Likely, they’ll say whenever I turn up I won’t be allowed to marry him anymore.” Matilda put a hand to her brow.

  “But we’ll work it out again. Even if we have to run off somewhere and get married in the wilderness,” Farran declared, sounding a little more confident. “I’m not waiting another five years.”

  “You won’t have to,” Matilda assured. “Just wait until we’ve saved the realm.”

  “I can do that.” Farran nodded, then paled as he thought about how much he would be missing her while she was gone and how long she might be away. “I think …”

  Thirteen

  They had returned to Farran’s cottage after lunch for the various teas and dinner. Matilda and Farran spent the entire time together in the kitchen, either baking and making food, or packing for their journey into The Marsh.

  Diana, Kendel, and Andante looked at a rough map Matilda had drawn for them of the border and her plan to sneak in at the east side under cover of darkness. This would be the best place for them to try and make it under the defenses of the trolls, as the gnome and troll troops were camped out more in the middle and western sides. The gnomes had attacked on the east before, so it wasn’t entirely defenseless, just less so.

  “What do you intend to have us do once we get in?” Kendel asked, enjoying the freedom of his arms being untied and sitting at the actual table.

  “I suppose we’ll have to find a troll so we can ask some questions,” Diana mused, turning her head so she could look at the map from a different angle. “What do you suppose this is?” She asked, pointing to a squiggle on one side.

  Kendel tilted his head and so did Andante.

  “A scribble,” said the moth. “Finding a troll will be quite easy, miss Diana. Keeping it from alerting the entire troll nation of your arrival will be another thing entirely.”

  “That’s the trick, indeed.” The mage sighed and slumped down in his seat so his elbows were on the table and his chin resting on his hands. “I can cast some sort of confusion spell, maybe … if I can recall one.”