Durch Ferne Welten und Zeiten - 13. Chapter 13: Leaving Barron

Chapter 13: Leaving Barron

Master Criticus summoned Alexis to his workshop. None of the other boys were there, not even Petrus, the master’s apprentice. “Alexis, do you remember the day you arrived, when Petrus told of first meeting Marty and Chandler?”

“Yes, Master, I do. He and they talked about how vulnerable Barrone might be if Eblis were the source of Evil. I gather that is now come to pass.”

The master nodded. “You think well, and deeply. Yes. Andy and Billy have brought back news that suggests Barrone will be the next target of the Dark forces. The prince has already given instructions that I am bound to carry out. He has told me to preserve our knowledge; to save as many of the members of the college as possible; and to abandon Barrone.

“Our knowledge, the physical books and scrolls, are even now being moved into Marty and Chandler’s workshop, below ground. It is the easiest to hide, and it has been prepared with cedar to preserve the books. As soon as the books are transferred, we will evacuate the underground and seal it.

“The knowledge that is held in the minds of the students and faculty will be preserved by dispersing us all to several locations. You will lead one group. That group will include Rudy, Marty and Chandler, Mark and Kevin, and Petrus. Paul from the Temple will join you. Phillip and his companions have agreed to take you by boat to the city of Arcadia. From there, you will travel to the Castle MacLachlan. You will be expected there. I charge you with this on your oath to the light and to me. I also charge you to tell no one of this except those who travel with you. Are you agreed?”

“Billy and Andy?” Alexis asked.

“They will remain. It was their choice. They, better than any of us, know the risk.”

“And Phillip?”

“He has his own destiny, Alexis. He is not to know where you will go after you leave his boat; you are not to know where he will go.”

“Yes, Master Criticus. I will obey. How soon must we leave?”

“Phillip and his friends are making the ship ready. Stores will be delivered tomorrow. They recommend sailing with the evening tide.”

* * * * *

Master Criticus had been right; Alexis and his party were welcomed at Castle MacLachlan. They arrived just before the first blizzard of the season boiled over the western mountains.

After finding a room large enough for the eight, Alan took them on a tour of the castle. “We were told to provide a workshop, a mage’s workshop, for you,” he said.

“This tower holds a large cube that I’ve been told was once a cleric or mage’s workbench,” Alan said. “James examined it, and said there was nothing special about this location, and that he’d rather not climb all those stairs. So, he set up the temple on the main level. You can have the room, if you like. It it’s not suitable—”

“Yes, please!” Rudy said. “This will be just right.”

“Rudy’s right,” Kevin said. “Besides, the view is worth the climb.” He stood at one window, and then walked to another. “You can see the eastern valley and the western valley, and the ridgeline on which the castle sits. It’s beautiful!”

Alexis nodded.

Mindful that Ley Lines were still a secret, Rudy said nothing until Alan and Ivan had left. “Alexis? Would you spell the door? Chandler? Would you seal the room?”

Alexis and Chandler did as Rudy asked, and then asked, “What’s up?” “Trouble?”

“No,” Rudy said. “The castle sits on an intersection. Four lines meet in the center of this room, right where the cube is. Someone, once, knew about Ley Lines. I suspect the castle was built here because of them.”

“So there’s power, here?” Chandler asked.

“Yes, but we may have to learn a great deal in order to be able to use it.”

Rudy was right; there was a lot to learn about harnessing the magic that was gathered by the Ley Lines; however, there wasn’t much else to do in the winter: the castle was snowbound much of the time.

Spring had pushed winter behind the mountains. Alexis sat in the window of the tower, staring at the eastern valley. It reminded him of the Shenandoah. In the center, a lake reflected light from the sky; the sun had not yet cleared the eastern hills. Alexis was pulled from his reverie by Rudy.

“Alexis? You said, someday, I could try to open a gate to TomTom,” Rudy said. “I think I’m ready. May I? I mean, with everyone’s help, of course.”

The ceremony began in the early morning. Less than five minutes after the chant began, Paul tugged at Alexis’s arm, and led him to the eastern window. He gestured.

At the bottom of the hill, about a mile away from the castle, a vortex had formed. A line of people were walking from the vortex into the valley. Alexis used magic to see. Horses, sheep, dogs, people with baskets. It’s the People! He narrowed his field of view. That’s Casey! He’s leading the way with a band of soldiers—Navajo, in camo, but with bows and spears! He’s become the warrior he wanted to be! But where’s TomTom . . .?

A second vortex formed beside the first, and another line of people walked from it. That would be the Athabasca, from Phillip’s world, Alexis thought.

“Go tell Alan and Ivan,” Alexis whispered to Paul. “They can see this from the battlements; do not bring them here.” Paul nodded. “Tell them these people are friends and will become allies. We will join Alan and Ivan, soon. Ask them to wait for us.”

Alexis then spoke softly, one-by-one, to each of the boys. “Keep chanting. It’s working, but you must keep chanting.” He got a nod from each one, before moving to the next. The boys didn’t understand, but they obeyed. The chant continued.

Alexis went back to the window. He watched closely until the last person step through the first vortex. TomTom! He’s wearing the outfit he and Jim created, he thought. The first vortex closed; then the second.

“Rudy, it worked. It’s over. TomTom and his people, and Phillip’s people are here. We need to go with Ivan and Alan to meet them.”

Four Navajo/Athabasca met them halfway up the hill. Ivan spoke first: “Welcome to the Western Marches of Arcadia. I am Ivan, Duke and Baron. Alexis has told me that there are among you those as noble as I, and that you will become our friends and allies.”

Alexis had been comparing ages and appearances with descriptions in Rudy’s story, and was confident he knew who each of the visitors were. “Ivan, Alan, Rudy, please meet Tommy Chee and his uncle, Joe Leaphorn. These are Phillip Windrider’s uncle Henry White Eagle Wings, and Johnny Two-Horses, a shaman—mage from that world.”

“If you’ve not already walked too far, will you come to the castle?” Ivan asked.

“I don’t know,” TomTom said. “I think we’ve just walked several million million miles!” He grinned, and then added. “Thank you, we would be happy to come with you.”

“There are about 6,000 of us, between the two parties. All of us are prepared to live off the land, to hunt, gather, and plant. We have workers who are skilled in making weapons: bows, arrows, spears and atlatls. We have workers who are skilled potters, weavers, and basket makers,” Joe said.

“Alan has explained that Ivan holds the valley in which we arrived in trust to the prince of this land. We would not want to occupy land that belonged to someone else,” TomTom began. “This is classic basin and range topography. I suspect that if we travel far enough west we would find an empty valley.”

Alan held up his hand, stopping Tommy. “Alexis has said that you would be friends and allies in the coming fight against the Dark. We would not want our allies traveling westward, which we believe is the direction from which the Dark will come,” he said. “Besides, if you had to travel, you’d have less time to put in your crops. Winter comes early, here, and the growing season is short.

“I am Ivan’s regent; he is sworn to obey me until he is of age. He is my liege lord; I am sworn to obey him. We do not have a problem with this relationship because our oaths are based on mutual respect and love.

“We offer you the valley to the east of the castle, to have and to hold, a portion to fill with farms and a portion to leave wooded for hunting. We swear to protect you from those who would harm you. We ask your support and protection from those who would harm us. We ask that you enter into trade with us on fair terms. We invite you to send your brightest to our schools to be trained in magic, healing, and other skills. We ask that you accept our brightest as students to learn your magic and your skills. We offer this and we ask this.

“If you agree, you and Ivan would swear an oath. It would be like the oaths Ivan and I have taken: based on trust and love. It would bind all of us and our children forever and even beyond that. The oath would be to the Prince of this land, not to Ivan.”

TomTom and Johnny Two-Horses looked stunned. Joe and Henry nodded, but Alexis sensed some reluctance.

“Joe Leaphorn, I assure you that such an oath cannot be broken as long as you and the Prince serve that which is Right. It’s different from the treaties that the Hispanglos and bilagaana made with your peoples. It won’t be written down, but it will be burned into the minds of those making the oath. It will be renewed whenever leadership of the country or of your people changes. It will be cancelled only by mutual agreement.”

“Would we be subject to your laws?” Henry asked.

Alan looked to Alexis for an answer.

“There aren’t any laws, as you know them,” Alexis said. “There are penalties for evildoing, and you would be expected to enforce those penalties on your people—tempered with mercy and guided by wisdom. I don’t think you will find any conflict with your beliefs and ethics.

“For example, certain actions, such as rape, murder, and providing dangerous drugs to a child are normally dealt with by executing the perpetrator, not as punishment or an example to others, but to make certain he or she cannot commit the act, again.

“Destruction of property is dealt with by requiring restitution. Depending on the seriousness and intent, the perpetrator may be ostracized . . . and in this world, that is equivalent to exile. There is a Thieves Guild, and members of the guild do steal. If caught, restitution is expected. ‘Punishment’ is in the hands of the guild, itself.

“Thieves not in the guild, such as highwaymen, footpads, and muggers, may be exiled, or given the choice of joining the Army where they will work for a living. Physically harming another is dealt with requiring restitution and ostracism. There are other penalties; however, they need not worry a reasonable person who is committed to Good. There are few criminals; there are no prisons.

“Children are not expected to display adult traits, including honesty, and are taught, but not punished.

“Oh, and some of the people who live here are human lie detectors, nearly infallible, so justice is swift. I suspect that some of the People will find they, too, have that gift.”

“This is what we expected,” Joe said. “You look surprised. Stories of this world are told on ours. We expected that we would come to this world; we expected that we would be helped by power from this world. We knew what we were getting into. Still, it is a lot to swallow at once.”

Joe and Henry exchanged glances. They nodded. “We accept; thank you.”

Alan chuckled. “I remember the letter Patrick wrote to the prince to tell him Ivan had been restored to the throne and that we had met the Cordillera. I think the next letter to the prince will be even more fun to write!”

The End (of this story)

Postscript 1

Years? Decades? Centuries later, the Xander returned to Beringia; Phillip and his companions returned to the stone house on the hill overlooking the harbor that had been their home since before the latest war. There, Phillip opened the medicine bag for the last time. Safely nestled in the sand were the two kernels of corn Johnny Two-Horses had put there so many years ago. One was white; one was yellow. Phillip knew the story: First Man and First Woman had been created by the Basket Makers from two ears of corn. When the White East Wind and the Yellow West Wind blew on the corn, the white ear of corn became First Man; the yellow ear of corn became First Woman.

Phillip planted the corn in the garden beside the stone house, and lived there with his companions for the rest of that life.

Postscript 2

The lamplight showed more white hair than red when Rudy—once High Master Mage of Barrone, now in residence at Castle MacLauchlan—put the last tittle on the last story in the book and blotted the ink. When he was sure the ink was dry, he closed the book and began to chant. The words were Athabaskan, part of the spell that opened gates, the part that put the traveler in harmony with the place where the gate opened. No one can open the book to a place that would take him out of harmony, he thought when the spell was completed.

End Notes

Braves, Google, Harley-Davidson, Wikipedia, Dungeons and Dragons, and any other trademarks used herein are the property of their owners. (Can you say, “tautology”?) The words of John Dryden are in the public domain. The precepts of Peter Abelard are in the public domain. The names “Joe Leaphorn” and “Jim Chee” appear in this Earth-analogue in several excellent novels, set in Navajo country, by Tony Hillerman. Again, the translators wonder at the coincidences.

The concept of a “forever-companion” is inherent to the stories from world. Occasionally, there forms between boys a bond that is destined to last forever. Literally. Beyond this life, and into others.

Many boys may swear an oath to be companions “in this life and the next.” However, it is somewhat random as to whether they will meet in the next life . . . or one separated by several lifetimes. It is our understanding, however, that “forever companions” will always be born at or near the same time, and will always find one another in these lives.