Chapter 12

The moment Olban rounded the first bend in the cave, he was plunged into darkness. He rested is back against the wall and took a few deep breaths before poking his head around to see the entrance.

Stood there, a pair of legs so large they filled the entrance and considering they’d run into the cave without the need to crouch, that must make the whatever-it-was at least fifteen feet tall.

What the fuck is that thing? Echoed in his head. The tone of Gareth’s voice indicated a mixture of awe and terror.

“It’s obviously still Wellick. What Wellick is, that’s a different matter. I think he’s turned himself into a mountain troll, this time. I knew he was an idiot but”

How do you know he’s an idiot? What about Bobby? Eloise’s voice had a petulant air. Indignant. Possibly even insulted.

Olban sighed. “As Gareth said, we’re not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. You are in a completely different reality. A reality in which magic works. Clearly, this… this Wellick has the ability to read minds! Why you didn’t pick up on that when he answered you back’s beyond me! I didn’t say it, did I? You have to start thinking. It couldn’t be Bobby. There was absolutely no way it could be, so don’t fall for anymore of that bullshit again, OK?”

But he’s one of my best friends! I’d trust him with

“Trust him with your life? I can guess by the way you went on about him, but think! By all the Gods, woman! How did he get here?”

What? What do you mean?

“Clearly, he’s from Gareth’s world. Your world! True?”

Of course he is!

“Well, how did he get here? Are you here? Physically? In your own body? Is Gareth? The only way to cross from your world to mine or vice versa without magical aid is by head hopping! Hitching a lift! Gareth and I have been tied to each other since before we could even think. I have never spent time in his world in this body. He’s never spent time in this one in his. It requires immense amounts of magical preparation in order to cross over physically and the very day we take you on as a hitch-hiker, Bobby turns up? As I said, it’s time you started to use your brain. Anyone in your world who shows up here is obviously a fake.”

And now, we’re trapped? And it’s my… Oh, hell, it’s all my fault?

“Calm down, Eloise. It’s not your fault. I’m the one who chose to follow him. I was hoping he might reveal more, and he has. I don’t know what kind of trap he’s set in this cave, but he’s picked the wrong person to mess with.”

Look at that thing! How can we get out of here?

“I’m not trying to get out. I want to see this so-called portal for myself. See just what he had in mind for us. It’s obviously a danger and if it’s not neutralised, an innocent might fall fowl of it. I played in these hills as a boy. I know others in my village do, now.”

And you knew he was an idiot, because?

“Haven’t you ever seen a James Bond film?”

What? Of course I have!

“And what’s one of the defining characteristics of a Bond villain?”

Gareth chuckled. I see what you mean. He’s not just an idiot. If his brains were TNT, he wouldn’t even have enough to blow his nose! How can anyone be so stupid?

Olban could sense the confusion when she next spoke.

What do you mean?

“What happens when the villain has 007 in his evil clutches? Tied up? Strapped down with a laser ready to cut him in half? Dangling upside down over a pool of piranhas?”

Erm...

“He tells Bond his dastardly plot in detail, so, when Bond escapes he knows exactly what to do, of course! Welllick appeared as a friendly warrior but even before he’d completed his first bloody monologue, he was telling us everything. I might’ve even trusted him in his friendly persona! He could’ve even joined us and become, what we believed to be, a friend before he betrayed us! Instead, hello, I’m a friend, I’ve got some vital information for you concerning rings, but oh, no, wait, no I’m not, I’m going to steal your souls! Then he transforms himself into the most pitiful excuse for a monster truck imaginable? Here? In this world? A monster truck?”

I think he must’ve got that from me. Not that I was thinking about one at the time, of course, but…

“I know, Gareth. I was watching that YouTube video, too, y’know.”

If I had control, you’d be nodding, now. And that’s only one aspect of his stupidity. I might not have a grasp of magic the way Olban does, but the amount of work we put into it, even I know you can’t just pluck objects from the dream realm. Everything he said after we met him about portals and rings, trying to force us to take short cuts… Fairy stories the lot of it.

But I believed him!

That’s because you’re still new to all this. So, Olban… What is the plan, now?

“First, we check out this portal of his. I might be able to see what makes it tick. If I can, I might be able to disable or destroy it. All the time, that final aspect of his stupidity will be working in our favour. When we’re done, we just sneak out.”

What… final aspect? Asked Eloise.

“If he’s taken on all the qualities of a mountain troll, that final aspect.”

I… What’s so special about a mountain troll… Apart from the fact it’s a huge monster?

“They live in the high peaks where it’s freezing all year round. Snow doesn’t melt up there. They hate warm weather. It makes them dim witted, slow, drowsy. By the time we’re ready to leave, it’s likely to be asleep.”

How the hell do you know?

“I was born in this world! My grandfather made regular trips up to the mountains. He even traded with them. Befriended them!”

But it’s just a monster! You kill monsters!

“They’re a pleasant enough people, if you treat them with respect. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Down here, they’re dim, stupid creatures but up in the peaks, they can be bloody clever. If you go around in this world, sword swinging at everything that looks a little scary, you won’t last the week.”

But trolls are evil! Everyone knows that! They eat people!

“And that’s the kind of attitude that will get you killed. Why would any creature be born evil? This is reality, not bloody Lord of the Rings! Keep your prejudices in check! Enough of this, we’d better get in there.”

So we’re going deeper? In here? But it’s dark. I can’t see a foot and it’ll only get worse the further we go.

“I wouldn’t worry about that.” Olban dug into his tool belt, withdrew a box and held it up to his face. A small, circular metal box with an ornate design that glistened on the sides. A design of flames and it was the flames that were sparkling.

What the hell is that thing/

“I’m a smith.”

So?

“This is my firebox.”

You still rely on flint to light fires?

Olban rolled his eyes. “I suppose in your world, the smiths have to waste time starting up their forges in the morning, do they? Here, there’s no need for that. When the end of the work day is done, we store the flames, the heat of the forge in one of these. It saves fuel, far more efficient than letting it go out by itself and then having to spend hours every morning starting it up and pumping the bellows to get it back up to the correct temperature.”

Seriously? That thing? But it doesn’t even feel warm!

“It wouldn’t be a very good storage device if it allowed the heat to leak out overnight, would it?” Olban closed his fist around it and then his eyes, in concentration. Follow the threads, regulate the power, subdue it and… He opened the lid and a bright blue flame flickered into existence. He held it aloft and ventured further into the cave.

He didn’t have far to walk before it opened up into a large cavern and at the centre, hovering a foot off the floor of the cave, a ten foot wide ball the light wouldn’t touch. A ball of pure darkness.

What the hell is that thing? Bloody hell, Olban. He really is stupid if he expected us to willingly step into that. Where does it go?

“Where does it go, indeed?” Olban dropped down to one knee, placed his hand on the floor and opened his senses. “First on the agenda… Let’s try this… It’s… Shit this is a powerful magic, but I… Hang on.”

A deep rumbling voice echoed into the cavern from its entrance. “Step into the portal, Olban. You know it’s the only way out.”

He doesn’t seem too drowsy so far, Olban.

“Troubling. He must have only taken on the appearance and strength of one. Still an idiot though. We’ll have to find another way to deal with him. Right now, though…”

As he’d been talking, just as when Gareth had activated his circle with the drop of blood, patterns began to glow around his hand. They pulsed with a metallic light, some golden, some silver, some had a blueish tinge or the stark orange of copper. Olban closed his eyes, concentrated and the light expanded, following thousands of threads of metal as they wove their way around the cavern. Before long, the entire space, from wall to ceiling was aglow with the most intricate design Olban had ever seen.

Wow! Gareth chuckled. This is way more impressive than anything I’ve seen you make.

It’s beautiful! How did you do that?

“All I did was make the design visible. This thing… I recognise some of the elements. Over there is where the magic enters the pattern, over there, there and there… Anchors… The rest? I think this must be ancient. There are legends in this world, just as there are in yours.”

What kind of legends?

“You have the lost city of Atlantis. We have the Celenian Empire.”

Well, go on, then! Patience was clearly not one of Eloise’s virtues.

“OK, OK. There’s little in the way of proof, but this might be a big one. A global empire, masters in the crafts capable of wonders we couldn’t even dream of. They say they could just walk to another continent in the blink of an eye. Some say they even explored the moons, possibly even had easy access to other worlds, such as yours, without the need to use the dream to gain access.”

So you’re saying, a global civilisation, like ours back home, just… poof… fell?

“It may have taken decades. Maybe even centuries, but essentially, yes. That’s what the legends say, anyway.”

But how? How could something so huge, so… so powerful

“Eloise, please, shut up. I’m trying to concentrate. I don’t know how, OK! Do you think for one second your civilisation’s going to last another thousand years, the way your lot are acting right now!? You’ll be lucky to have a habitable planet!”

He’s got you there, Miss Parker.

Olban circled the cavern three times, studying this or that on the walls, ceiling and floor. Occasionally, he’d crouch or kneel, tracing the lines of light with his finger before continuing.

Any clue? At all? Asked Gareth.

Olban shrugged. “The only thing I can determine is that… thing is not the original intention. See here?” He pointed at a part of the pattern. “See anything… well, wrong with it?”

Gareth sighed. “You know I”

“Art and magic are the same thing, here, remember. Look at that. Does it seem to fit the pattern around it?”

All around, the lines were smooth, curved, intertwined in an exquisite symphony of colour, but the section Olban had pointed out did look out of place. There was more colour there, but the colour didn’t seem to play into the theme. Brighter greens, purples, blues and yellows, not even metallic. The lines also had a… jaggedness about them…

And that is…? It does look wrong somehow.

“Wrong? No finesse! Very little in the way of skill, craftsmanship or care.”

How did he get those colours like that? I thought everything had to be woven with metal threads?

“Salts do contain metal and they have a vast range of colours the pure metals or even the alloys can’t produce. I’ve never seen anything like it. I might need to research that possibility myself. It might open up whole new avenues.”

And you think that cretin out there did that?

Do not use that word!

What? Why? He is!

It’s obscene!

It’s just an insult! An apt one in his case!

It’s disgusting! Do you even know where it comes from? What it means?

It means absolute and utter moron. Why?

It means someone who was born with a thyroid deficiency leading to deformities and developmental issues! I suppose you still call people spastics as an insult too, do you?

Olban sighed. “Gareth, just… think before you speak from now on. We’ve got a guest. Remember where she comes from.”

What do you… Oh, the loony b

Loony bin, now? Good god, I’m sharing a head with an ape!

Now who’s being offensive! I’m not used to being criticised for saying something in the privacy of our own head! You’re the one who has to make allowances, Eloise. OK, I’ll try to cut it out with insults that mock the mentally handicapped, but expect the odd slip up from time to time! Or do you find mentally handicapped offensive, too?!

It’ll do. It’s no longer the modern term but I suppose it’ll have to do.

Good. So, do you think that… thing out there did this?

“I suppose it’s possible, with instruction.”

Instruction by whom?

“Yes, quite. Another troubling conundrum, but I think I have a way to solve two of our earlier ones.”

Deal with the troll?

“Hopefully take Wellick out of the equation permanently, too. Yes. The anchors.” Olban walked over to the one on the wall opposite the entrance and placed his hand on it. Again, follow the lines, tap into the magic, increase the flow.

He nodded in satisfaction as he looked over his shoulder to see the ball drifting towards the entrance and then through it into the tunnel beyond. It was far too large to fit, but that didn’t seem to bother it in the slightest, and any rock it passed through seemed unaffected by it once it’d passed.

When it got to the bend in the passageway, Olban rushed over to the one on the left of the entrance and did the same, a very slight increase there. He rushed back to look down the passageway. It was just the right amount. The portal followed the course of the cave perfectly.

Gareth began to chuckle. What happens when it reaches him?

“I cut the power. The sphere should vanish and anything inside it should go with it. Assuming it is a portal, at least. It seems this may have been a waystation.”

A what?

“Oh, think of it like an airport. Remember what I said about them being able to travel from one continent to another in the blink of an eye?”

“So, if we had stepped into that, we could’ve appeared anywhere?”

“Without the tampering, yes. With it, I’ve got no idea where it goes, or even if it goes anywhere.”

“It has to go somewhere, doesn’t it?”

“I can’t say. I really can’t. If we stepped through and appeared somewhere that doesn’t exist, what then? Would we cease to exist, or would we be trapped forever in darkness? A void? Not something I want to consider.” He rushed back to the bend in the passage to watch its progress and when it was just about to reach the entrance, dashed back to the cavern and withdrew his dagger.

A howl of terror echoed down into the cave and the moment it reached Olban’s ears, he stabbed one of the thicker golden threads.

The light dancing around the cavern winked out in an instant and at the same time, the howl of fear transformed into one of pure agony.

Olban bolted back to the entrance to the cave, but what lay there when he arrived wasn’t the troll. It wasn’t even the Wellick that’d introduced himself to them before all the transformations. Its skin was a deep purple, it had horns and a pointy nose, razor sharp teeth and its eyes were lit by a malevolent red glow which seemed to be fading, but it wasn’t whole. Everything below the waist was gone. Its innards spilled onto the ground as it gasped in pain.

Oh, God! I think I’m going to throw up!

No, Eloise. You’re not. No physical control, remember. You’ll just have to be disgusted in private.

Olban knelt by its head and it looked up at him, gasping.

“What in all the hells are you?”

It gulped. “What did you do!?”

“I’m not going to ask again. What are you and who sent you?”

“I… I’m… It hurts!”

“I’m not surprised. Where are your legs?”

“Where you’re meant to be.”

“And where is that?”

“Please! Help me! Master, please!”

“I’m not your”

“He’s coming!” It gritted its teeth against the pain and even managed to giggle. “He’s coming!”

And with that, the light in its eyes winked out and it slumped to the ground with a final sigh.

Who the hell is he? Asked Gareth. That did not sound good!

Why did he call you master?

“I have a sneaky suspicion that wasn’t directed at me.”

Who, then?

“Presumably this he who appears to be coming. I have to get back to the village! I need to consult with Master Stell!”