by Perrin Briar
The family were starving by the time they got to their seats at the head table, on either side of the lord’s family. The family felt self conscious with the arrangement. They were not used to being the center of attention. They concentrated on eating quietly. That seemed to please the lord and lady both.
There was one member of the main table who was not part of the two families. He had a scruffy beard and didn’t speak often. When he did, it was in a low mumble that caused the listener to have to lean forward to hear what he was saying. He almost always ended up repeating what he was saying for this reason, the first words on his conversation partner’s lips being, ‘Excuse me?’ It was hard to believe that so much of the town’s future rested upon his narrow shoulders. He was the inventor. His name was Jeffrey.
He was inventing things only the family from the surface could begin to understand the purpose of. It was hard to imagine this little man hard at work in his workshop, knocking these things together. He didn’t seem all there to Bryan, his marbles scattered across the floor of his mind.
A minstrel took to the stage and began to sing.
There was a man,
A very strange enchanted man,
His cowl was black, his face pale as snow,
And he walked with a limp and had a glow,
He promised us jewels as far as the eye could see,
Instead he gave us nothing, and all he took from me,
A promise he made, to us all,
And he transformed into the beast we all hate and adore.
There was more, but it was lost to conversation at the head table.
“We’ve found suitable accommodation in the town for you all to reside in,” Lord Maltese said to the family. “It’s a cute little cottage on the outskirts of town. It was previously occupied by the good inventor here, but we’ve since relocated him to the castle. He’s able to focus on his inventions without interruption. Your house is close to the market and water well. It is fully equipped, though you might find you’ll have to buy a few things if required. Feel free to charge them to the castle.
“My lady wife mentioned you are from the surface and have some experience of engineering. It would perhaps serve you, and us, if you were to aid our inventor with his various contraptions.”
“Sure,” Bryan said.
The lord spoke with a booming voice that reached the back of the hall, so even the poor could hear their conversation. This was a show, one Bryan and his family needed to take part in.
“That will be fine until we find our way out of here,” Bryan said.
“Out?” Lord Maltese said. “But there is no way out.”
“There is always a way out,” Bryan said. “It’s just a matter of finding it.”
“We have spent centuries looking for a way out and never found one,” Lord Maltese said. “I can assure you, if there was a way out, we would have found it by now.”
“We’ve been in several worlds so far,” Bryan said. “In each one we were able to find the Passage. I’m confident that with enough time, we will find one here too.”
Silence, save for the etchings of knives and forks on plates. Lady Maltese placed a hand on the lord’s arm. His shoulders visibly relaxed. He smiled at his wife, who nodded back to him, before resuming eating.
“Of course,” Lord Maltese said. “We will make every effort to find this Passage of yours.”
“Thank you,” Bryan said. “I don’t want to be any trouble.”
“It’s no trouble,” Lord Maltese said. “I got word this afternoon the dragon has returned to his cave. I doubt we’ll be seeing much of him any longer.”
“That’s all very well,” a voice from the back of the hall said, “but what about…?”
His voice was lost to distance.
“Excuse me?” Lord Maltese said. “Who spoke?”
Silence answered him.
“Don’t be afraid,” Lord Maltese said. “That’s what this feast is for—for everyone to voice their concerns, ask questions and get helpful feedback. You will not be punished for expressing yourselves.”
A man far down at the opposite end of the hall stood up. A thousand pairs of eyes turned to him. He removed his hat, but he did not quail.
The lord squinted in an effort to identify the speaker.
“Jones?” he said. “Is that you?”
“It is, my lord,” Jones said.
“Jones is one of our finest cobblers,” Lord Maltese said as an aside to the family. “He fixes shoes to the very highest standard. Without him, we would all be walking barefoot. Speak up, Mr. Jones. Everyone here wishes to hear what you have to say, no one moreso than I.”
“That’s very gracious of you, my lord,” Mr. Jones said. “We all greatly respect you and your lady wife, of course. And we are all excited about the new developments we’ve got coming our way thanks to the inventor. But it seems this family arrived at a peculiar time.”
“How do you mean?” Lord Maltese said.
“Well, it’s the fact that with all these developments happening, it’s about time something came along and threw a spanner in the works,” Mr. Jones said.
“I can assure you, the family’s arrival has nothing to do with the developments we’re making,” Lord Maltese said. “In fact, with their unique knowledge of the technology from the surface, we could well expect development speed to increase, not slow down. Does that answer your concerns, Mr. Jones?”
Mr. Jones nodded and performed a slight bow.
“It does, my lord,” he said.
“Excellent,” Lord Maltese said. “Please sit down, Mr. Jones. You must be hungry. Does anyone else have a concern they’d like to voice?”
There was a pause, and then a young woman in her thirties stood up. She was closer to the top of the hall so it was easier for the lord to identify her.
“Cynthia Morris,” Lord Maltese said. “What issue do you have?”
“I’m concerned about the dragon,” Cynthia said, her voice clear and easy to hear.
“We’re all concerned with the dragon,” Lady Maltese said. “We have been living with it for years, but with any luck, with the inventor’s help, we might finally overcome it.”
“That’s not my meaning, m’lord,” Cynthia said. “It’s the effect these people have had on it that troubles me. You see, it’s true the monster used to come out of its lair every so often to feed on the innocent of the town, but that stopped when we started feeding it them bodies that come up out of Lake Rebirth. And the dragon didn’t come nowhere near us after that. Why would it? It don’t need to eat us no more.
“And then this family arrives, and the dragon comes out of its cave, chasing them, and they bring it right here. To our doorstep. Begging your pardon my lord, but why are we letting them stay here when it’s them the dragon wants? Why are we risking our lives, and the lives of our children, when it has nothing to do with us, none of our affair?”
“Yeah!” a few of the locals said, clapping.
It was a perfectly reasonable thing to be concerned about, Bryan thought.
The lord opened his mouth to speak, but this time Lady Maltese rose to her feet.
“Who among you here would not demand entry if you and your family were running for your lives?” she said. “If we lack the courage to protect each other, including the lives of strangers, well that’s too much of a sacrifice to make. It would mean our very humanity would be forsaken and there would be nothing more for us to do but turn up our toes and say we’ve had enough, and we’re no longer men and women. Then we can crawl back into the swamp where we belong and let the good lord take us, for we will no longer be human.
“You say you respect my husband and I. I ask for you to extend that respect to our guests, as well as to one another. We are one and the same, all here trying to do the best for ourselves and our families.”
She retook her seat. The applause was slow in coming, but once it started, it caught like a spark to a clutch of dry grass, and soon the whole room was alive with cheerin
g and whistling. Even Cynthia clapped at the impassioned and well-argued riposte.
“Well spoken my dear,” Lord Maltese said with a half smile at his wife, who nodded back respectfully. “As I’ve always said, if anyone thinks he—or she—could do a better job than me as lord, then he—or she—need only step forward and say so.
“They will be given all my powers and duties. They will be allowed to assume my role immediately. The opportunity shall always be available to you all. Please let that person stand and present themselves.”
No one moved.
“We all perform our duties here,” Lord Maltese said. “No one job is more or less important than another. Each needs to be carried out, and carried out to the best of his—or her—ability. Anyone can try any job he so wishes, so long as he can find someone to take his place. Are there anymore issues people would like to share?”
23.
BRYAN AND ZOE entered their room and shut the door behind them.
“Well,” Zoe said. “That was an unexpected evening.”
“Nothing like being blamed for the monster attacking the town to know you feel wanted,” Bryan said.
“It did all feel a bit strange, didn’t it?” Zoe said.
“A bit?” Bryan said. “I thought for a minute they were going to lynch us! What do you think the average IQ among these folks is? Ten?”
“They haven’t been exposed to the same kind of education we have,” Zoe said.
“You can say that again,” Bryan said. “How did we ever manage to develop past this? Believing in angels and demons and hocus pocus. I’m surprised we managed to develop anything as advanced as a toothbrush with this much mistrust and superstition.”
“It’s incredible, isn’t it?” Zoe said. “But without them, we would never have become who we are today.”
“I always thought that if we were to bring these people to the surface they would eventually get used to it,” Bryan said. “That they could assume normal, regular lives. But you know what? I don’t think they could. I think they’d end up turning into psychopaths.”
“It would take them twenty years to learn how everything worked,” Zoe said. “And what kind of work would they do? Land work, labor. But their children could make the transition. We essentially all have the same hardware.”
“Doesn’t always seem that way though, does it?” Bryan said.
“But it’s true,” Zoe said. “We’re essentially the same. There’s no reason why their children couldn’t become a doctor or a lawyer or a teacher or businessman on the surface.”
“So long as they leave all this nonsense behind,” Bryan said, shaking his head. “The human mind is capable of many incredible things, and yet it’s also capable of so much stupidity.”
“That’s the way we’re made, I’m afraid,” Zoe said. “We’re still that ape swinging from the trees scratching out a living and trying to survive.”
“Looking at these people, I can believe it,” Bryan said. “I’m not sure if anyone here could survive on the surface.”
“I’m not sure,” Zoe said. “The lord might be able to, though he’d find it difficult adapting to modern living, what with shopping at the local supermarket or going to work in a dead end office job.”
“Lady Maltese might be okay,” Bryan said. “But for the same reasons as the lord, she might find it difficult. The workers would probably find it easier to adapt, funnily enough. They would be used to the daily slog, used to going to work for a living.”
“What about the inventor?” Zoe said. “Could he survive?”
“He’d find it the most easy of all, once he got used to everything on the surface,” Bryan said. “Creative minds are always in demand. And if he could come up with a novel solution to a particular problem we have, or a product everyone would want, he’d be set for life. And he works from inside a room. The inside of a room looks the same anywhere.”
“You certainly are angry today,” Zoe said.
“Not angry,” Bryan said. “Just disappointed. With all our gifts, we’re still at the bottom of the doldrums, scraping out our survival. That’s all we’re doing, all we’re ever likely to do. Struggle.”
Struggle. The keyword to everything the family had been through since they arrived in this place. Zoe was sure there was going to be a bit more struggle before they returned to the surface—if they could return.
24.
THE FAMILY slept like the dead. They fell asleep the moment they pulled the covers over themselves. Nothing could wake them, which was just as well, because nothing did.
They slept through what remained of the night, all morning, and then into early afternoon. By the time they awoke, the sun was high in the sky and the birds were singing.
They got up, washed and dressed. Cassie and Aaron were knocking at Bryan and Zoe’s door before they were completely ready to receive them. Bryan opened the door and let them in. Aaron fell on the bed, Cassie into a box chair.
“What are we going to do today?” Cassie said.
“The same thing we do in every world we come to,” Zoe said. “We’re going to go looking for the Passage out of here.”
“It’s not so bad here, is it?” Cassie said, tracing her finger around the edge of a coffee table. “Compared to the other places we’ve been, I mean.”
“No,” Zoe said. “I suppose not. Why do you say that?”
“Because if we couldn’t find the Passage in this world, it wouldn’t be the end of the world,” Cassie said. “Living here wouldn’t be so bad. Who knows what the next world might be like. I mean, look at the last one.”
Zoe paused in brushing her hair.
“We’re going to get out of here, Cassie,” she said. “We’re going to find the Passage and we’re going home.”
“But we might not find our way out of here,” Aaron said. “Dad didn’t, so why should we?”
Zoe turned back to the mirror and combed the same spot of her head for five minutes. She still looked distracted, a million miles away.
“Father was killed down here,” Aaron said. “You’ve seen how many dangers there are. And we’ve got each other. Dad would have been alone. And he wasn’t in the past two worlds, so far as we can tell. So there’s no reason to suspect he got much farther than the pirate world.”
Zoe nodded, but she clearly didn’t believe that. Her former husband had been an explorer, an adventurer. He wouldn’t have let a little life threatening danger get in his way. But Aaron was right they hadn’t heard word of him in the past two worlds. But then, those worlds were huge. Just as there was no reason to think he had gotten through them, there was no reason to think he hadn’t gotten out somehow.
But the question remained: if Aaron’s father had managed to get out, why hadn’t he come to find Aaron and Zoe on the surface? He would have. That was the problem with the idea of him getting out.
“At least you know your father was once here, or in these worlds,” Cassie said. “My mother just disappeared one day, never to be seen again.”
“None of this helps us find the Passage out of here,” Bryan said. “Come on. Up on your feet. If I know our hosts, I’d say we have a very nice breakfast ready and waiting for us.”
The family left the room and headed downstairs to the main hall. They were greeted by friendly staff, who looked like they’d been waiting for a rather long time. They snapped to attention from their bored lounging positions when the family presented themselves.
The staff showed the family to their seats at the head table. The tables from the feast of the previous night had all been cleared away. The floors had been scrubbed clean. Clearly it wasn’t just the baths that were well maintained. Lady Maltese ran a tight ship.
“I’m sorry we’re late,” Bryan said. “We were more tired than we thought.”
Their server, a tall thin morose looking man, only smiled and gestured to their seats.
“It is of no concern,” he said. “Breakfast is served whenever you are ready, sir.”
> He looked up, and plates of food were brought over and deposited in the middle of the table. There was meat from the feast, cold cuts that looked just as delicious as they had the previous night. There was mead and ale to drink, but none of the family touched it.
“Do you have any hot drinks?” Zoe said.
“Mulled wine, perhaps?” the server said.
“Coffee, or tea perhaps?” Zoe said.
“Certainly,” the server said. “We have both. Would you prefer to have them after your meal?”
“Customary?” Zoe said. “No, we’ll have them now, if that’s okay.”
“Of course,” the server said, though he looked a little confused. “What would you like?”
The whole family wanted coffee. The server headed away to whisper in someone’s ear. Within twenty minutes their coffee was brought to them. It was clearly freshly made, the aroma strong.
While they waited, the family tucked into the food. There were eggs and ham and bread—some of the best bread Zoe had had in years. It was fresh, still warm. Either they made their own here—most likely—or it had been brought over from a bakery in town. They all ate heartily and well. There was little left on their plates by the time they were done.
“Would you care for cakes and pastries?” the server said.
Bryan put a hand to his stomach.
“I couldn’t eat another bite,” he said.
“I’ll take some,” Cassie said. “If there’s one thing I’ve learnt during this whole experience it’s that you should never turn away food if it’s offered.”
“I’ll take some too,” Zoe said.
Everyone filled their pockets with lemon cakes before they set off outside. They were met by a man holding the reins to a fine specimen of a horse. It was black and sleek, its hair shining. A man was bent over, checking the horse’s shoes. When he straightened up, Bryan realized it was the lord.
“Ah,” Lord Maltese said. “I see you’re up.”
“Yes,” Bryan said. “Apologies. We overslept.”
“No matter,” Lord Maltese said. “Yesterday was clearly a tough day for you.”
