Читать книгу The Magical Key - Martie Florence - Страница 1
ОглавлениеChapter One
Verdant summer grass softened his footsteps on the top of the hill. The man meditatively viewed a splendid midday panorama of blue mountains and started descending from the hillside, down to a glen overgrown with fir-trees. Dark hair, dark eyes, a broad good-natured face. A grey suit and a jacket, a black satchel hanging on the shoulder, a sheath, unpretentious clothes of a knight-errant.
Suddenly resonant clanging of steel and gruff spiteful snarling became heard from behind the thicket. His hand on the hilt of his sword, the man hurried in the direction of the rattle. On a glade he saw a half of a dozen of loathsome trolls surrounding a young lady, trying to thrust at her with their lances and daggers. Malicious ugly muzzles, gnarled paws, shaggy heads, they were prevailing despite their clumsiness.
Her slim fragile figure was spinning around among the hefty slow-witted assailants, the flaps of her beige chamois-leather caftan fluttering, graceful manners in each swift gesture, in each movement of the glittering saber parrying all attempts to stab her. Two plaits of her blond hair were swaying and lashing her cheeks. Dark-blue trousers, a black belt with a circular silver buckle, elegant purple high-boots. Accurate noble features, cold indignation and resoluteness in her large velvet-blue eyes.
Straightway the man unsheathed his sword and dashed to save the girl unhesitatingly. Slashing and shattering the primitive artless panoply, he began to hew his way through the trolls towards her, his impetuous onslaught making the enemy squeal hoarsely and drop dead on the spot.
Meanwhile the lady deviated from a hurled lance and hit the head of the last presumptuous detestable monster with her saber cleaving the crudely-riveted helmet, iron bits scattered. The assailant gave a fearful whine, cowardly rushed away and quickly evanesced between fir-trees.
"It would be unwise to stay here," the man remained imperturbable when the thicket resounded with distant crackling of boughs, rattling of weapon and hollow growling of an approaching fierce horde, "the hills are infested with trolls."
"Thanks for your help!" She was trying to recover the breath, her voice turned out to be pleasantly melodious.
Looking around warily, their swords in their hands on the alert, the girl and the man retreated into the hanging branches at the other side of the glade and walked away through the dense forest.
"My valiant guardians took to their heels at the sight of the danger," a disdainful irony hardly dissembled a shade of a grievous disappointment in her intonation, "if you wonder why I am alone in the wilderness…"
"Well, I'll be glad of your company," he pronounced lively, manifestly trying to hearten her up, "I am Andreas, entirely at your service!"
"I am Lynette," she calmed down a little, but coldness lingered in her eyes, "we have to reach the town, but not along the main road."
Round the nearest hill they heard a mountainous river roaring, came out of the forest and saw the wild waters foaming and lapping between grey polished boulders, sparkling in the sunlight. They crossed a lush meadow with blossoming yellow and white flowers. Lynette leant on the hand of Andreas not to lose balance when fording the splattering stream, jumping from stone to stone and trying not to wet the tops of the high-boots.
Then they stepped onto the pebble strip and were about to ascend the slant strewed with large cracked bits of rock, but at that very moment a loud sinister howl echoed over the river dell. A dozen of trolls emerged from the woods, tramping the meadow, brandishing lances and halberds, and rushed into the water, plopping and splashing, slipping off, trying to get to the opposite bank quickly.
Andreas didn't let the first brute climb out of the stream without hindrance, met him with the saber hewing the lance shaft in half, the sharp iron tip dropped off. The stupid monster perplexedly stopped staring at the useless splintered stump in his paws, then pulled a dagger out, but one more lightning-like movement of the sword glittered smashing his ugly head too, and the waves took the dead troll away.
Lynette picked up a big oval cobble, swung her arm and hurled the stone violently, and it thudded into the forehead of one more assailant, toppling him down.
Still the other impudent brutes kept on attacking them, baring their fangs menacingly, getting nearer wading through the water, outflanking them inevitably.
All of a sudden arrows started swishing in the air overhead, piercing the screaming monsters. Lynette and Andreas looked around and saw several archers in dark-green suits, long fair hair being arranged in tails, young faces. Swiftly flicking new missiles out of their quivers and bending the bows, they were shooting uninterruptedly over and over again from between the rocks.
"Elves!!!" the trolls hoarsely bawled in horror and shrank back, but well-aimed arrows gave them no faintest chance to escape. The stream dragged the dead beasts out of sight, cleaning the landscape.
Lynette and Andreas sheathed their swords. He helped her to ascend the cliff, holding her hand, chivalrously supporting her when stones crumbled underfoot, and they came up to the archers.
"Nice to see you safe, Lynette!" one of the Elves exclaimed in a joyful clear voice, "but where are your brothers and your father? You always visit the neighbour castle together, don't you…"
"Hello, Iven!" she sighed. "Running fast, I believe, they have already hidden in the fortress… But Andreas helped me timely."
The Elves shook their heads indignantly, a mute sympathy in their kind grey-blue eyes.
"You must be a Grey Knight? Only your order prefers ordinary clothes to sumptuous attires," Iven looked at Andreas, sincere friendliness in his words, "and you wield a saber just as they do!"
"Right," Andreas gave a modest nod.
"The whole horde will be here soon!" another Elf warned peering into the woods beyond the river, "let's hurry up, or something."
All of them left the cliff rocks and got on an old unpaved road winding between hills, single grey boulders lying about. High bushes throwing chequered light and shade, the sunshine was beaming through the emerald leafage softly.
"Hm, no flags above the castle," one Elf murmured when they saw a distant fortress and stopped on a hillock to view peaked roofs of towers, grey walls with embrasures and merlons.
"We have accomplished our reconnaissance in the hinterlands," Iven turned to Lynette and Andreas, "now we must warn our queen about the troll invasion. Would you go with us?"
"I must make sure that my relatives are all right," Lynette answered pensively, "regardless of their attitude, they are my family."
"But how will you get inside?" Iven wondered, "I see the drawbridge raised!"
"Remember the tunnel where we used to play in childhood?" she explained.
"I'm going with you, Lynette," Andreas rather informed her about his decision unaffectedly than offered to help, "staying alone can be harmful to your health…"
"Oh, a Grey Knight will be the best guard for you! See you soon!" Iven smiled and waved them goodbye. The Elves disappeared in the shrubbery easily and inaudibly, stirring not a twig, not a leaf rustled.
Lynette and Andreas resumed walking along the road. In a short while she pointed at a deep ravine grown with willows, they descended to the bottom.
"This place is reminiscent of happy days. I grew up with Elvish children," she squatted down at a clear purling rill, drew up a handful of the crystal twinkling water and made a gulp, her sad coldness melted.
"Are the Elves in danger now?" he lowered onto one knee beside her to drink too.
"Hardly," she assured him. "No one knows the location of their kingdom. Somewhere in woods, but impossible to find unless they lead you there themselves."
The stony entrance archway was hidden with overhanging willow branches, but Lynette definitely knew the way. They plunged into the tunnel shade, the daylight dimly filtering through infrequent latticed square apertures in the high vaulted ceiling. The walls reflected and amplified their quiet tread.
At the end of the tunnel Lynette put her slender hand into the heart-shaped eyelet, groped for the inner latch to move it aside, and the firm wooden door screeched open when Andreas hauled the tarnished ring of the handle.
A staircase, a basement with stacks of barrels, some courtyard near a tower foundation.
Finally they found themselves in a cobble-paved lane inside of the stronghold.
Nobody all around. Deserted streets, shuttered windows of three-storeyed houses, only a wind rotating bronze weather-vanes above reddish tiles of roofs.
They came up to a granite mansion, she fumbled about in her pockets for a bunch of three figured keys and unlocked the carved oaken front door.
"Anybody home?" Lynette called but got no reply. A hall with a marble floor, no fire in the mantelpiece, no candles in gilded chandeliers. Desolate corridors and rooms with white walls, red carpets and curtains, polished furniture.
"They must have departed in haste," Andreas conjectured viewing small wooden boxes scattered on a lacquered dressing-table, near a high mirror with a plain oaken frame and on the parquet in a bedroom, open lids, no jewellery on the pink velvet padding, "however, not forgetting about expensive things."
"My mother even took all my dresses!" she looked into a large wardrobe but found only a pink silk kerchief and a brown comb. "I'm not surprised that my parents left me. They would never miss a chance to remind me that I'm a burden for the family, as I refuse to marry some depraved money-bag."
"By the way, about money," he remarked, "the horde is oncoming. I have got enough to hire a ship."
"Let's do it half-and-half! Mother didn't find my savings," Lynette replied taking two dark-blue velvet pouches from a deep secret drawer, poured gold out of them onto the dressing-table, Andreas added his own coins. She quickly counted, sorted and shoved everything into her pockets.
They left the building and walked towards the embankment. No ships in the port, no boats on the broad full-flowing river surface, only one small yacht standing at the wharf, dark mahogany boards, carved railings at the high stern platform, a streamline bowsprit on the prow. A stocky man in a striped vest and black trousers was sitting on the ladder first stair, the hands supporting the chin dolefully, his face had an expression of an awful offence at all the world, even the old felt hat brims drooped.
"Excuse me, but where are the people of this town?" Lynette asked him. "Could they possibly relinquish the fortress to trolls?"
"I'm afraid, they could! Soldiers, officers, ladies, everybody packed up, embarked and escaped," the man grumbled without anger, "but I am captain Jim, and I stayed. No one believes that a Dwarf can ever be a good sailor. Yes, I'm a Dwarf, so what?"
"We do believe that you can, and we want to hire you, captain!" Lynette pulled the pouch out of her caftan pocket, lightly shook it up on her palm, and a clink of coins became heard, "gold beforehand!"
"Really?! Welcome aboard!" Jim got pleasantly surprised accepting the pouch, his face brightened up, he sprang to his feet merrily, taking the hat off and making an inviting gesture. Lynette and Andreas ascended to the deck. Having untied the thick mooring rope from a low wooden pillar, Jim followed them and got busy with the uncomplicated rigging of the ship, obviously anticipating a new enthralling voyage.
While the Dwarf was tugging cords to unfold the sails on the mast, two trolls climbed up the citadel wall, pushed the chain winch levers and lowered the drawbridge. Roaring triumphantly, the horde rushed inside deluging the town and breaking into houses. Being led by a chieftain, the most loathsome monster with a black tassel on the helmet top, a considerable quantity of them appeared at the wharf tramping heavily.
At the sight of them Lynette ran to help Jim to bind the last rope end, she stayed to tighten the knot when the Dwarf dashed up the wooden staircase to the high stern platform and grasped at the steering-wheel handles.
The ladder was long and narrow, the assailants could try to get onto the ship one by one only. Meeting them at the board, his saber glittering swiftly, Andreas instantly hewed the first monster, knocking him down into the water, then parried the halberd swing of the second brute who lost his balance and got overthrown too.
The third one hesitated to fight and apprehensively stopped blocking the way, the following trolls crowded behind him jamming and pressing forward, but the wooden ladder cracked under their weight and crashed down, the squealing assailants splashed the board up with cascades of drops.
The sails flapped and caught the wind, the yacht began to move away from the wharf. Three or four hurled lances stuck into the deck planks, doing no actual harm, and the monsters bellowed in powerless malice on the embankment.
"Oh, yes, I do like such adventures!" holding the steering-wheel at the stern, the Dwarf exclaimed with a broad smile, confidently leading the ship to the middle of the majestic river scintillating in the late afternoon sunshine.
"Look, this is Iven!" Lynette exclaimed, "let's pick him up!"
Iven waved his hand, standing on a small boat being rowed simultaneously by two other Elves in silvery-green cloaks with hoods. Andreas lowered a rope-ladder when the wide blades of the short oars made equable sweeps and delivered the boat to the very board.
"Do you need an assistant, captain?" having climbed up the rope-ladder easily, smiling Iven stepped onto the deck.
"Dwarf Jim, at your service!" the captain answered cheerfully, "it would be nice to see an Elf in my crew!"
"Our queen sent me to join you," Iven told them. "A troll detachment is pursuing you overland. Maybe, you have something very important for them."
"Any news about the town people?" Lynette asked him.
"An hour ago a whole flotilla sailed away unimpeded," the Elf looked at her, "apparently, the monsters are hunting for nobody but you."
"In the forest they attacked me but let my father and my brothers run away," Lynette pronounced thoughtfully and began to examine the contents of her pockets, pulling out the bunch of keys, the pink kerchief, the comb, another pouch of money, "what can I possibly have?"
"I'll take you to the queen, she can help us to find it out," Iven comforted her and went to the stern, Jim light-heartedly let him hold the steering-wheel.
The declining day flooded the sky above hills with the golden sunlight reflecting in the limpid waters, and the yacht seemed to continue sailing ahead along a liquid amber.
Iven veered into a channel separated from the main river-bed with a long willow-grown island and directed the ship towards a wooden pier where a dozen of Elves had already been waiting for them. Andreas helped Jim to pull rigging ropes, and the sails got folded. Iven threw the mooring hank, the Elves caught it and tied the yacht to a firm pillar.
"Good evening!" one Elf greeted them on their coming down a broad plank they had put across the narrow gap between the board and the pier flooring, "queen Veronica is inviting you for a dinner. I'll show you the way."
He led Lynette, Andreas, Jim and Iven deep into the forest. No path, just a smooth carpet of grass. The last ray of the setting sun faded away, the blue twilight began to shade the thicket, but a small yellow-orange lantern flared up in the hand of their guide seemingly all by itself. Other similar lights flashed between trees, they went in that direction and came out into a not very wide opening. Hanging on branches, garlands of lanterns turned the glade into a mysterious hall. In the middle of it they saw a table laden with food, silver goblets and dishes on a white cloth.
"Welcome!" a pretty woman in a long green dress calmly offered to take chairs. She had a very young but intelligent face, a lily was plaited into her long light-brown hair. Kindness and heartiness in her grey lambent eyes.
"Thank you, your highness!" Jim answered before sitting down, "it's a great honour for us!"
They took silver forks, tasted the dishes amply flavoured with fruit salad and immediately expressed a good appetite. Two Elves, acting as servants, smiled at that mute but sincere appreciation of the cooking and poured some drink from porcelain jugs into the goblets.
"I heard about your troubles, Lynette," queen Veronica pronounced in a while.
"We were going to the dimension of Dryads to make some purchases at their market," Lynette remained calm, as though the placid harmony of the evening subtle charm had assuaged her recollections of the recent events, "but the monsters attacked us on our way to the eastern castle portal."
"I suppose, they want the key your grandmother once gave you," Veronica explained.
"What for? Isn't it just a fine trinket?!" Lynette wondered taking the bunch out, separated the biggest key and put it onto the table so that all of them could view it, "I don't even know whether it matches any lock!"
"It matches the El Dorado portal," Veronica took a goblet in her hand, "somebody has to visit that world periodically and inspect whether it is all right. Your granny was one of such emissaries."
"El Dorado!" Iven exclaimed admiringly with his usual liveliness, "the splendid fabulous land, the marvellous dimension where Elves originated from!.. Trolls must never desecrate and spoil it!"
"Can you hide the key from them, your highness?" Lynette asked staring at the engraved ornamentation of the long haft in a daze.
"Trolls will not leave us alone, the energy of this piece of metal attracts them like a beacon," the queen shook her head, "the only way out is to find El Dorado and keep the key there, beyond their reach, till they are defeated here."
"Then, I will deliver it there," Lynette pronounced quietly but resolutely and united the bunch into a single whole again, "though, my granny never told me the way."
"Maybe, she believed it would be better for you to find the way of your own," Veronica lightly shrugged, "who can ever comprehend his destiny?.."
"My ship is at your disposal!" the Dwarf declared merrily.
"We'd better depart stealthily under the cover of the night," Andreas looked at Lynette.
"Elves can see in the darkness, you'll need me," Iven also manifested his wish to go on a voyage.
"I will not dissuade you from this dangerous mission," Veronica smiled with benevolent warmth, "you are free to follow the call of your hearts, and I cherish hopes for your success."
They drank a silent toast and stood up, the queen waved them goodbye. Lanterns in hands, Elves escorted them through the forest back to the pier. The rising sickle moon gleamed from behind hills and gave enough light to set sails, the favourable night breeze slowly moved the yacht away.
"Have a safe journey! Return soon!" the Elves wished them good luck, dimmed their lights out and disappeared in the silvery bluish-azure shades before the ship left the channel.
"The pursuers must have lost us for some time," Iven gazed at the woodland intently, but no enemies allowed themselves to be seen on the banks, no noise disturbed the quiet, only gentle lapping of the crystal water glimmering with moonlight. "I'll be on watch."
"I'll substitute you in a couple of hours," Jim nodded and turned to Lynette and Andreas, "let me show you your rooms."
The Dwarf opened the hatch in the front wall of the stern height, they went downstairs to the lower deck illuminated with Elvish lanterns, passed a hall with a broad lunch counter and entered a corridor, neat yellow-brown wooden panelling all around. Jim pointed at two doors in a suite of several cabins.
"Wake me up when my turn comes, I'll be on watch too," Andreas asked the captain.
Her face and her gestures looking very tired, Lynette indifferently chose the nearest apartment. A green woollen blanket and a white pillow on a berth, a bedside-table and a compact built-in wardrobe, a round porthole. She took her caftan off and put it over the chair-back apathetically, her russet silk shirt twinkled softly when she bent down to unbuckle her high-boots, then she curled herself on the bed and closed her eyes.
Chapter Two
Wreathing like a white cloud, a dense mist covered the river valley in the early twilight before the dawn. Weak wafts of an unsteady wind, periodically tearing the pale shroud, could not be of much avail, and the yacht was mostly drifting with the current. The mainsail fluttered again, and Andreas slowly rotated the steering-wheel, peering into the distance ahead, keeping to the midstream.
"Would you like some tea?" Lynette went out of the lower deck door, two big wooden tankards with carved floral ornamentation in her hands, and came up to him. She looked rested and fresh, no more sorrows of yesterday.
"Yes, thanks!" he took a tankard gratefully.
"Tell me about Grey Knights," mere curiosity sounded in her words.
"We are just a group of dreamers who rejected vanity life to become noble and fair. Not only Elves can keep spiritual values of goodness," no pathos in his level tones, as if just musing aloud on ordinary things, he tried the steaming tea.
"An exact contrary to other knights," she was thoughtfully holding her tankard in the both hands, "due to my long friendship with Elves, I have always wanted anything more than the prevailing petty mode of living."
"We dream that somewhere, maybe in El Dorado, we shall find a blissful splendid land," his stare became a little detached from reality. "Rainbows above majestic waterfalls, rainbows at fountains near sunlit palaces where good-natured people dwell…"
The river made a bend and began to carry the yacht by a massive rocky island separated from the bank with a narrow channel. On the high sheer cliffs an immense dark-grey castle silhouetted vaguely through the mist veil, yellowish flickering of torches on watchtowers, many yachts and big boats at the stony embankment.
"The town inhabitants are surely taking refuge over there," she murmured, "this unassailable fortress can stand any siege."
"Shall we make a stop to see your parents?" Andreas looked at her sympathetically.
"No, we shall not! They can do without me perfectly well," no definite emotions in her quiet but resolute reply, she dispassionately turned away from the castle and gulped the tea.
The rising sun dispelled the mist and shone a great city situated at the estuary where the river was inflowing into a sea. Granite and marble edifices, magnificent palaces and imposing mansions occupied the horizon.
"Ariadna, the main city of this continent," Jim went out onto the deck together with Iven, "the trade centre with many portals."
"We have to visit the human world," Lynette made a decision, "to find any hint about the El Dorado location."
"Really, their computers are not bad, as well as television," Iven agreed, "though, they use those excellent things mainly for filth."
"Last year I bought a laptop to watch only good films," Lynette remarked.
The city was approaching. Ships of different sizes standing along wharfs, two or three frigates under full sail far away at sea, ferry boats plying between the banks.
After the mooring at a fixed gangboard, a sturdy construction of dark wood at one of the piers, Lynette and Andreas left the yacht. Green and lilac suits of Elves, florid attires of men, hauberks of Dwarfs, multifarious crowds in the cobbled streets and squares paved with granite slabs. Green standards with stylized golden trefoils at flag-posts, steel-clad guardians on patrol.
"Dryads!" Lynette exclaimed seeing three pretty young women resembling one another like sisters. Pallid skin but merry eyes, curly hair. White summer frocks were adorned with blue and violet wild flowers.
"Oh! Hello, Lynette!" one Dryad chattered joyfully, "why didn't you come yesterday? We had weaved a new dress for you!"
"Hello, Martina! Certainly I will buy it, but later," Lynette assured calmly, "trolls appeared in this world."
"Ah!" the girls gaped in frightened astonishment, "we have to warn other Dryads and Elves, our relative folk!"
"Elves already know! Go home, but avoid the eastern castle way!" Lynette recommended.
"Don't worry, here we have our own portal. See you!" the Dryads flitted away in hurry, nearly running, and disappeared among the multicoloured crowds.
Lynette and Andreas turned to an arcade flanked with small shops, booths of merchants, tables laden with goods. Clothes and footwear, carpets and utensils, baskets with fruit, many purchasers, a sale in full swing.
"Going to the human dimension? wish to exchange currency?" some sly Dwarf emerged from the throng, smiling ingratiatingly, his luxurious hauberk sparkled with rubies on the collar. He gave Andreas three greenish banknotes for a small round piece of silver and evidently became glad of the deal.
"You will need cloaks, it is rather cold at the other side," one more tradesman offered, dark coats hanging on a clothes-tree behind him, and he wore a garment of the same kind himself.
"Anyhow, we can hide our swords under them," Andreas took out another silver coin to pay, "people get nervous at the sight of weapon there."
Walking away from the shops and booths they threw their new dark-blue cloaks, loose and quite long outer clothing, over their shoulders.
"How do you earn a living?" she resumed to bate her curiosity.
"Travelling merchants eagerly hire Grey Knights as guardians," he replied, "and I get employed from time to time."
"As for me, I embroider tapestries, my granny taught me that fine skill."
They came up to a comparatively not very large bluish-white marble building at the arcade end. A broad staircase, thick high pillars supporting the moulded pediment above the open entrance.
A shady hall was dimly lit with an opalescent flare in the space under a high archway in the opposite wall, a slow whirl of soft light smoothly twinkling and flickering, not dazzling at all. Panoplied imperturbable guardsmen were standing still along the blue incrusted walls.
"Would you make a voluntary donation to the Ariadna municipality?" one knight inquired politely. A small lacquered table had a bronze tray with a mass of copper coins on it, Lynette and Andreas added some money to the heap, entered the archway and plunged into the portal hand in hand.
The shining flooded the air around them, they could see each other but neither walls nor floor slabs of that corridor. Within a few steps they found themselves in one more hall which looked like a vast grey basement. No decorations, no visible guard, observation video cameras in the corners and above an artless but neat stony staircase leading up to the exit. The lock clicked, the metal door got open in front of them, and they came out into an early evening street of another city.
Endless torrents of growling automobiles, gigantic houses drowning in a smog, a dingy sunset in the dirty sky. Puffs of dust and exhaust fumes made Lynette cough.
"We have to find an internet-cafe," Andreas also winced at the poisoned atmosphere.
"And quickly get away from here," she pulled her pink kerchief out of a pocket and tried to breathe through the fabric.
Two large black cars hurtled together, others had no time to stop and clashed against them grinding with crushed metal and scattering small glass bits of shattered windscreens. A jam blocked the traffic at once. Furious drivers started hooting and bawling arrogantly, immaculate expensive costumes and neckties but rude conceited physiognomies.
"Over there!" in a minute Andreas noticed wide brightly lit windows of a cafe. They came in and sat down to one computer in a row of tables, flat displays, chairs. Lynette hid her kerchief and began to type at the keyboard.
"El Dorado… Night clubs, gambling, shops," she commented the information on the screen, "they give this name to vulgar things."
"Let's look for legends," Andreas pressed some buttons, the display flickered, "they are much more trustworthy than any official system of notions."
"Yes, I see," Lynette examined the appearing text, "legends about Elves, Dwarfs, fairy lands… A-ha! That's it! They consider it to be abundant in gold, but unrealizable to discover."
"Maybe, Elves turned off the portal in time," Andreas surmised, "and greedy fellows could not get there."
"As that portal is closed," Lynette concluded, "there's no reason for us to stay here any longer."
Andreas left a banknote on the keyboard when standing up. A young sleek waiter, a clean white shirt and black perfectly creased trousers, picked the pay up nimbly.
They went out of the cafe and walked along the grey asphalt pavement of the dismal street. Flashy advertisements could hardly embellish the joyless bleak twilight.
Gripping at lapels of black jackets, jerking and tearing, two drunk battered men were awkwardly fighting under a red neon sign of a bar, their five or six brutal mates watching the scuffle with a guffaw.
Screams and rattling, shrill squealing music, shouts of scandals, howling of police sirens. Glum malevolent countenances, unfeeling indifferent people, fussing crowds seemed to take everything for granted. Darkness was falling quickly.
"Help me, please! I'm cold," a beggar, a middle-aged unshaven man trying to muffle himself up in a colourless threadbare suit, gave them a look of appeal, "I can recognize your kind hearts, help me!"
Lynette and Andreas took their cloaks off, gave them to the miserable man without any recompense and kept on walking.
"Thank you! Now I will not freeze to death at night!" the beggar brightened up and cried after them: "I wish you good luck, wherever you may roam!"
A short time later they reached the building with the secret basement. The door got shut as they came in, the lock clicked, and they went downstairs. Andreas put the two remaining banknotes onto the tray resembling the one at the other side but had paper money on it.
"No wonder that our ancestors emigrated from this nasty world…" Lynette murmured before entering the portal flare.
The city of Ariadna met them with the bright merry sunshine coming down from the clear blue sky. But the merchants and tradesmen were anxiously closing their shops, dismantling the booths, packing goods into sacks and baskets, rolling carpets up. Hurrying in all directions, detachments of soldiers supplemented the total muddle.
Lynette and Andreas returned to the yacht and saw Jim and Iven waiting for them at the gangboard, remaining outwardly imperturbable in contrast to alarmed sailors and merchants bustling near other ships confusedly.
"Trolls have been noticed near the city," the Elf explained the stir, "it's the rumour of the day."
"The monsters are hunting for me," Lynette was the first to come aboard, "we must sail away now, my presence can endanger these people."
They departed without delay and headed to the midday aquamarine expanse of the open sea, the surf rustle and crying gulls.
On looking back they saw the pursuers. A dozen of big boats made an appearance floating down the river through the city, hefty trolls swarming on the decks like dark shaggy spots, halberds in paws.
Hundreds of knights and soldiers lined up along the embankments, composed a kind of a phalanx, tight rows of shields bristled up with levelled lances, manifesting their eagerness to conduct a defence.
However the monsters didn't attack them, even hardly paid any attention to them, just passed by, intently chasing the prey ahead. Lubberly set sails made the boats careen, but the trolls took long oars. Barking something out rudely, the chieftain was urging the rowers forward. A gloating howl and gruff commands became heard when the hostile flotilla came out of the estuary and began to catch up with the yacht.
"They are going to grapple with us," Andreas checked whether his sword could be unsheathed easily. Standing beside him, Lynette tightened the belt of her scabbard. No shade of any fear but concentration in their eyes.
Jim dashed to open a larder hatch and took a not very large battle-axe out, the blade glinted with bluish steel.
"What shall you do with them?" Andreas slightly wondered when Iven, who had already put a quiver and a bow on his shoulder, hurriedly fetched three Elvish lanterns from the lower deck, in daylight they looked like big white convolute rosebuds in silver casings, small chains to carry or hang by.
"They can dispel all kinds of darkness," the Elf smiled a little enigmatically. Then he twirled one lantern by the chain like a sling and hurled it towards the enemies. It flew above the sea, burst in the air and scattered a sparkling golden mist above the two leading boats, a quiet crystal chime accompanied the flickering of that bright cloud.
"Elvish magic!!! It burns!!" the trolls screamed and dropped their oars rushing about the decks in panic, trying to avoid any touch of the weightless chatoyant veil. The two unruled boats collided and cracked breaking into pieces, squealing monsters clumsily flopped into the water, splashing and floundering.
Some playing and whirling amber puffs reached the yacht but did no faintest inconvenience to the four friends.
"Fragrant like roses," Lynette scented.
"The nectar from flowers grown by Elves," Iven nodded smiling.
"Ooh! Let me try too!" the Dwarf flung the second lantern vigorously, it exploded in the middle of the flotilla, and the new shining cloud produced a greater disorder, a louder whine, the boats began to veer round, bump against one another and capsize.
But one vessel did get closer, roaring trolls started to jump from it and climb the yacht board impudently. Iven strained his bow and shot one monster. Jim hewed the second brute with the axe not to let him step onto the deck. Andreas knocked two more assailants down into the water with swift blows of his saber.
Lynette took the last Elvish lantern from the steering-wheel where Iven had hung it and hurled it onto the enemy boat prow. Trying to escape from the shining golden nectar gushing out, the mob of remaining trolls heavily brattled towards the stern, bawling in horror. That panic rush made their vessel careen and overturn.
"Hey, we should spare illumination appliances!" Iven exclaimed in a joking discontent.
"But we did have a fun!" Jim went to the steering-wheel and rotated it to lead the yacht out of the magical mist diffusing in the air.
Andreas noticed an iron panoply glove dropped by one of the trolls, got a hold of it with the tip of his sword blade, raised it from the deck and threw it overboard. After that he sheathed the saber.
The battered and disorganized pursuit lagged behind and vanished from sight. Soon the shore evanesced too, only the azure sea scintillating all around. Drifting in the blue sky above the horizon, massive clouds were even more splendid than the nectar haze. From afar they resembled majestic snow-white castles, unknown fabulous kingdoms, sails of mysterious ships. A moment of peace.
"Where shall we go now?" Lynette stood beside Andreas.
"Maybe, to the University Lighthouse?" he looked at her, "the professors can advise us what to do…"
"It is rather a long way. I offer to make a short stop at that island," Jim gazed at a bluish silhouette, a group of conical mountains looming in a distance, "Dwarfs come there to mine minerals."
The wind favoured them to approach to the solitary piece of land quickly, and in a minute they could distinctly see the lush verdure, wild forests on uneven slopes, shrubs on high cliffs.
"A chance to have a lunch on a steady ground," Lynette commented the view in an undertone.
Antique wind-lashed colonnades and arbours of white marble, grass thrusting up between slabs of footworn paths. Polished with waves, a broad staircase was leading straight into the water and could serve as a wharf.
The yacht came up to the half-sunk stairs, Iven and Andreas furled the sails and lowered their new ladder. Jim went ashore, Andreas threw the mooring rope hank for him to tie the ship to a vertical fragment of a crashed column.
After disembarking they arranged a lunch on stony benches in one of the arbours. Tankards, a deep wooden plate with a pile of buns on it.
"Dryads abandoned this place many years ago," Iven looked around, "but their portal must be somewhere over here."
"Do you feel it with your Elvish magic?" Jim was eating and drinking with a good appetite.
"Elves don't know any magic," Iven took a bun from the plate, "we just live in harmony with nature."
"Well, I agree that the Universe has a vital power. I feel better among greenery than in a desert," Jim went on trying to understand, "but why do wizards utter different incantations? And what is the Dark Witchcraft?"
"To wield that power one must formulate his wish clearly. Thoughts can be vague, but words make them definite… And the Dark Witchcraft is nothing but a despicable hypnotism…" the Elf raised his tankard but didn't drink, listening to something he turned to the old footpath flanked with bushes and a dilapidated colonnade.
Seven Dwarfs were wearily walking along that road towards the arbour. Dark jackets and trousers, boots and hats, sacks hanging on shoulders, pickaxes in hands and battle-axes in belts, all their working clothes and tools had a cover of dust. The most imposing bearded Dwarf was obviously their leader, his mates looked younger and not so mighty.
"Thanks Goodness! If only you knew, Jim, how we are glad to see you!.. and your nice yacht!" the leader pronounced in a joyful bass.
"Master Huges?! What happened?!" Jim stopped eating.
"We need your help," Huges smoothed his short beard, "our hired captain got crazy at the sight of precious stones we had mined. He grabbed a fistful, took the ship and disappeared. But you can take us home!"
"M-m-m-m… well… I don't know…" Jim hesitated.
"It's all right, Jim," Lynette assured, "we shall wait for you here."
"The Southern Cape is not far, you'll return to your friends tomorrow. Besides, we shall pay," Huges put two dozens of big sapphires and emeralds onto the bench.
"We shall need some travel expenses," Jim divided the treasure into four equal parts, passed three twinkling piles to Lynette, Iven and Andreas, the last portion became his own.
"Beware of trolls!" Andreas warned the Dwarfs, "they are near the Ariadna City and can quickly come to the Southern Cape!"
"Oh, heh, heh, let them attack us!" Huges tapped at his axe handle, "we shall be glad of some fighting practice!.."
"Why not pay a visit to Dryads?" Iven suggested watching the Dwarfs going away to the yacht. He led Lynette and Andreas along the road and soon pointed at a stony archway having no architectural function, standing alone for no obvious reason: "The portal!"
"Can you activate it?" Lynette asked.
"Yes, I can. Try yourself, it is possible if you have good intentions. Just touch it and think of your wish to pass."
Lynette put her palm onto the marble and immediately stepped back, as an opaque golden radiance flared up in the archway. The Elf smiled and invited them to enter the portal with a gesture.
The golden afterglow changed to soft pastel tints of the evening twilight, delicate pale pink and blue colours embraced the white bloom of the spring orchards, fresh leafage and grass. Unlike the landscape, the arch remained seemingly the same, Iven switched it off with a touch.
"I have never been in this part of the town," Lynette murmured. Accurate green hedges, two-storeyed wooden houses with sun-parlours among apple-trees, a settlement and a garden in one. Whitish slabs of the streets looked rather like footpaths on lawns than pavements. An Elf in a silvery suit was trimming bushes with large long scissors. Lynette asked him: "Excuse me, can you tell us the way to the Cherry Line?"
"Sure!" the Elf smiled and waved his hand pointing, "go to the Fountain Square and then turn to the left!"
Statues of young women in tunics and big bowls of flower-beds encircled the square, a beautiful fountain had a shape of an immense marble flower, water cascades falling down from the petals. Dryads and Elves in white summer attires were leisurely enjoying an evening walk, kind friendly faces and blithe clear laugh.
Elvish lanterns began to sparkle everywhere meeting the early blue night with a warm orange gleam, a soft yellow illumination shone from windows.
"Martina?" Lynette called and gently knocked at the halfway-opened door of one house.
"Oh, come in!" smiling Martina, in the same dress as in the morning, appeared in the doorway and let them enter the veranda lit with candles. Her eyes twinkled as she noticed that Iven looked at her in admiration.
A small low table between two sofas, white flowers in big wicker baskets standing on the floor, climbing ivy growing from flowerpots, the interior had elements of a garden or a wild nature landscape.
"I want to pay for the dress," Lynette took a sapphire out of the pocket and put it onto the table.
"My work is not so expensive!" Martina protested sincerely.
"I'm recompensing your keeping it for me," Lynette sighed, "I don't know when I can take it home…"
"But you can try it on, it's in my workshop upstairs. The white shoes are yours in addition!" the Dryad picked up the sapphire, viewed it without any great interest and put it back nonchalantly, then she pointed at the high-boots of Andreas with a clement care: "Tonight let your feet rest, put on the footwear for guests! Meanwhile, I'll bring tea."
The girls went out. The men took their bags, jackets and weapon off, hung the things onto small polished wooden coat-hooks near the door. The guest footwear turned out to be very flexible and soft brown leather shoes, easily stretching and assuming the necessary size. The Elf remained in his own which were actually of the same kind.
They washed their hands at a miniature decorative waterfall in the veranda corner, clear water lapping in a basin laid out with grey stones.
Martina brought a silver tray with porcelain cups and a tea-pot on it, the Elf assisted her in laying the table.
Then Lynette returned, and Andreas couldn't help looking at her. The new long bluish-white frock fitted her straight figure perfectly, and she had arranged her fair hair nicely, flower-topped hairpins holding golden curls. Tucking up the loose skirt, she gracefully sat down, took a cup from his hands and, being manifestly pleased with his attention, gave him a charming effulgent smile.
Meanwhile beautiful voices sang a simple but merry song somewhere in the town:
"Touch the petals, touch the leaves
With the gentle midnight breeze,
Let the springtime dream away
In the starlight of this May!
When enchanting minutes flow,
Take a rest before you go,
Let your weary heart forget
All your sorrow and regret!
Still together, all as one,
We are feeling fresh and young,
Like the petals and the leaves,
Like this gentle midnight breeze!"
"Let's go to the night party!" the Dryad exclaimed when the delicate euphonical music became heard.
They drank the tea up and hurried outdoors.
People were going along streets and lanes towards the square, gathering there, where several Elves playing violins and singing a melodious fairy ballad near the fountain. Lynette began to dance with Andreas, Iven invited Martina, and they joined other fluidly whirling pairs. Merry laugh and light-hearted joy in the air, sparklets in kind eyes. Happy enchanting minutes.
After the dancing the violins played a tender lullaby, and the four of them walked back to the house of Martina, the men arm-in-arm with their ladies.
"Iven?!" some Elf wondered encountering them in the lane, "haven't you gone to the South?"
"Sammie?" Iven and his friends stopped, "what's wrong?"
"From the coast we saw the yacht sailing to the Southern Cape, and a part of the troll horde followed it," Sammie told them, "our archers reported this news to queen Veronica…"
"Now Jim is with Dwarfs, they can defend him, but how shall he return to us alone?" Iven got worried, "I must see the queen!"
"Actually our Elvish Kingdom is close at hand, I'll show you the way," Sammie offered.
"Well, wait for me here, it's a safe place," Iven said to Lynette and Andreas, warmth gleamed in his eyes when he turned to Martina: "See you!"
"Good luck!" Martina smiled to him and, as the two Elves went away, led Lynette and Andreas to the house, "will you chatter with me before going to bed, Lynette? Tell me about your adventures!"
Chapter Three
Their clothes had been washed and cleaned, no more dust from mines, the Dwarfs looked rested and full of energy. They were peering into the distance where grey sails appeared catching up with them quickly.
"What do those contemptible monsters want from you?" Huges inquired carelessly.
"Helping my friends I quarrelled with trolls terrifically," Jim replied in a similar phlegmatic way, "but I have no regrets at all, you know…"
"Well, boys," Huges cheerfully turned to the other Dwarfs, "let's make a surprise for the filthy hooligans!"
The first boat approached to the yacht, six or seven leering brutes could see only Jim standing at the steering-wheel. He gave them an ironic smile and raised his hat in a derisive greeting.
The trolls howled in rage at that mock. This time they didn't jump as they had been doing during the attack near the Ariadna City. Instead of that, having sailed closely, the monsters thrust out make-shift ladders, wooden cross-beams were crudely bound to long stakes having iron grapnels at ends. They grappled the yacht with those awkward constructions to make bridges between the two vessels and started climbing up frantically.
But the Dwarfs who had been hiding squatting behind the board parapet suddenly sprung up, their battle-axes began to deal heavy blows to the enemies, cleaving helmets with loud clashing, knocking the assailants down one by one.
Shrill screaming of the brutes, splashes in the water, cracking of the unreliable ladders.
The fight was momentary but impetuous, no brute had a real chance of getting over the board railing to set foot onto the deck, and the victorious Dwarfs had quite contented expressions on their faces. They leisurely hewed the remaining ladders off, and a gust of the wind overturned the empty hostile boat flapping with its tangled sail.
The rest of the flotilla slowed and almost stopped, apparently not daring to attack any more. Huges menacingly shook his fist at them.
The rocky shore got nearer, the surf waves breaking and frothing at stones and cliffs.
"Southern Cape!" Jim announced pointing at high towers and houses built of greyish granite.
"Home, sweet home!" Huges exclaimed joyfully.
Having passed between two majestic watchtowers at the stony banks of a narrow channel, they entered a haven, a vast lagoon enclosed with citadel walls, then moored between other yachts of much the same types, and their ship became practically indistinguishable among the others.
Dockyards, giant winches, mechanisms. Glowing furnaces and banging hammers at forges. A couple of large ships under repair. Shipwrights carrying planks and girders, blacksmiths pushing handcarts with coal, a work in full swing.
Dwarfs everywhere.
But they also noticed a dozen of Elvish archers in dark-green suits standing on the embankment.
"Excuse me, who is captain Jim?" one Elf came up to the Dwarfs who were just unloading their sacks and bags from the yacht.
"I am," Jim responded, this time he lifted his hat without any irony but, no doubt, respectfully, "at your service!"
"My name is Sebastian. Queen Veronica sent us to guard you on your way back to the island," the Elf told him, "when you join your friends, we shall go home through the Dryad portal."
"You have arrived so quickly!" Jim got a little amazed.
"We happened to be in the vicinity when received the instructions," the Elf explained.
"When are we departing?" Jim asked.
"Maybe, in an hour?" Sebastian suggested, "we shall replenish your supplies and bring more weapon…"
"All right, old chap, heh, heh!" Huges patted on Jim's shoulder jovially, "you have enough time to dine with us! Be my guest!"
They left the yacht to the care of the Elves and unhurriedly walked away from the docks towards the city buildings. Granite blocks were carved and polished so masterfully that any joints could hardly be visible, massive houses and walls looked almost monolithic.
Facing the port, the nearest inn had a roomy pub hall on the ground floor. They plunged into the drone of voices of numerous visitors, mostly Dwarfs, though some three knights in long black cloaks were also sitting at one of the sturdy wooden tables.
"Delighted to see you, master Huges!" a human, a stout man in a white cook's garb, smiled and made a wave to the servants. Two young Dwarfs, neat aprons over dark suits, promptly brought trays with tankards, big plates and silver jugs. A broad vacant table was instantly laid for the new-comers.
"Bring me another beer!!" one of the knights, a narrow well cared-for face, small conceited eyes, roared and pursed his thin lips arrogantly.
"Please, do not make noise," the cook said politely, "we shall serve you in a moment…"
"Shut up and do what I say!!" the knight squealed fastidiously.
The cook suddenly became not a soft-hearted laggard but a strong resolute man. He promptly grabbed the offender by his cloak collar, hauled him from the chair into a standing position and gave him a violent push towards the exit. The knight flew across the hall, tumbling head over heels, the hauberk clanking, and flopped down not far from the door.
His mates shrank in fear, sidled away from the table and minced retreating, squinting at the cook apprehensively. They took their companion under his arms to lift him from the floor.
"You will be punished!" being dragged through the doorway, the knight whined before leaving the inn. "Trolls will destroy you with my machinery!"
"Hush! Don't reveal it!" his fellows got even more frightened than before, restless eyes denoted uneasiness, faces turned pale.
The Dwarfs chuckled, and the dinner went on. Rich dishes with chopped meat, pepper and stewed vegetables, beer in tankards and red wine in bowls.
"Hmm, they help trolls!" Jim murmured thoughtfully, not sharing the total merry mood, "it looks like a serious conspiracy!"
"Relax!" Huges was optimistic and life-asserting, "there have always been enough scoundrels with nefarious purposes, but we must never let them spoil our life!"
"Still, I advise you to abstain from new mining expeditions for a while," Jim tried to get focused on his plate.
"You know the situation better," Huges gave him a shrewd glance, "do you think this mess will be for long?"
"In a day or two, I believe, my friends and I shall make the uninvited guests leave this coast."
Soon distant but clear chimes sounded from the city clocktower. Jim stood up, made a ceremonious bow of goodbye with his palm on his heart and walked out into the street.
He dropped in on a jewellery shop. Two men in rich black camisoles were admiringly surveying showcases with sparkling platinum necklaces and gold rings on dark-blue velvet cushions.
"Would you exchange it for cash?" Jim put an emerald onto the counter.
"Oh!" the goldsmith, an imposing bearded Dwarf in a dark-grey suit, examined the precious stone through a magnifying glass, nodded and readily gave him a dozen of gold coins. "Excellent! Very pure! Do you have more?"
"I'll use them later. But right now you can deal with master Huges."
"Has he come back, at last?! Nice!" the goldsmith exclaimed gladly. "What could possibly delay him?"
"A horde of trolls and some greedy troll-like humans," Jim explained to the shocked goldsmith, the two customers listening to the news agape. "These days are not propitious for voyages."
"We should adjourn our evening departure!" one man said to the other.
After that Jim left the jewellery shop and went to the port. Workers kept on fussing, loading or unloading boxes and packages, doing repairs. Despite all those crowds he noticed the same three knights standing on the embankment and viewing the ships in the harbour. He stealthily came closer and hid behind a heap of some huge grey sacks to overhear the talk.
"All the Dwarfs and all the yachts are as like as two peas," the uncultured knight grumbled through gritted teeth, "how can we possibly find that very captain?"
"One more vessel has arrived lately, but it's full of Elves," his mate folded his arms haughtily, "not what we are looking for."
"We sold only two airships to trolls, let's take the last one," the third fellow uttered in a not less supercilious manner. "We shall intercept anyone who will sail towards the island!"
The knights strode away from the docks. Jim waited till their dark cloaks got out of sight, then he hurried to his yacht.
The Elves had mounted a tremendous arbalest on the deck, a construction on a wooden stand. A wide bow, a big lever of the straining mechanism, a steel trigger. There was a stack of missiles for that construction, long lances with feathering at ends. Bunches of usual small arrows had been brought and piled up too.
"Three humans co-operate with trolls," Jim worriedly informed them, "they are going to pursue us in some airship, as I heard…"
"An airship? A gigantic flying bean-pod they call a zeppelin? Well, we'll see…" the reply expressed no particular disquiet of the Elves, they looked ready for any trouble.
But all of them were quite attentive when passing the gateway channel between the watchtowers, leaving the fortified lagoon and going out into the open sea.
The troll flotilla had been awaiting for them within an easy reach from the coast line. This time the hostile boats flocked together and rushed to attack as a united pack, far outnumbering the yacht defenders.
Having deviated from several hurled javelins which flew over them and stuck into the deck, the Elves met the approaching enemies with a shower of arrows, shooting uninterruptedly and not missing.
The quivers getting empty quickly, Jim helped the archers to unbind the additional bunches of missiles.
In a minute the fight was over, hoarse snarling and screaming of monsters changed into silence, and the unruled boats drifted away without crews.
Then an increasing low rumble became heard. A grey sinister silhouette, a titanic zeppelin was moving towards them flying not very high above the sea, throwing a long shadow onto the water surface.
"The airship," Jim muttered when the apparatus lowered to them, and the bulky balloon covered seemingly a half of the blue late afternoon sky, two large propellers thundering.
The three knights leant out of the wooden gondola, their physiognomies grinning viciously, and threw a long thick rope with a massive iron hook at its end. That piece of metal thudded onto the deck, scratched the planks and caught hold on the board at the prow, near the bowsprit. The rope stretched tight, and the airship started tugging the yacht towards the shore.
"They want to smash us against the coastal rocks!" Jim took his battle-axe and dashed to hew the rope, but it turned out to be too thick and firm to be cut quickly.
Two Elves pulled the straining mechanism lever, another two loaded one of the huge arrows onto the enormous crossbow and, rotating that weapon on its stand, aimed it at the zeppelin.
The immense missile launched with a swish and pierced the balloon through.
Quickly reloading the arbalest, the Elves went on shooting over and over again, making more and more new holes.
The hot gas which had been keeping the apparatus in the air now was leaking, gushing out of gaps with torrents of steam. The zeppelin began to lose height.
The tension of the rope weakened, the Dwarf finally separated it from the yacht and flung the hook overboard.
The airship plopped down into the water and started to sink gurgling loudly.
"In an hour or two we shall be at the island!" Jim declared cheerfully, taking the steering-wheel and regaining the control over the yacht, making a turn and heading to the golden setting sun. "Maybe, Iven is already there."
"According to the plan," Sebastian pronounced, "we are gathering at the old portal."
"Can the enemy possibly get to the Dryads?" the Dwarf asked. "My friends went there without any key…"
"Who knows," the Elf replied, "usually only good-natured people are able to activate the transmission to our settlements, but we cannot be sure completely. Trolls are very perfidious."
"I don't quite understand that system of worlds," curiosity sounded in Jim's intonation, "are they different planets?"
"Some of them are, such as the human world and El Dorado," Sebastian explained, "but many of them are just isolated regions of one planet. For example, the constellations and the Moon at our Elvish realm and at the Dryad town are the same as here. Though, time zones don't coincide…"
"Isn't it miraculous!" the Dwarf admired, "even if you don't call it magic."
"It deals with special crystals which accumulate the solar energy and influence the space around the chosen land," Sebastian shrugged, "I'm not an expert, queen Veronica knows how it functions…"
"Well, travelling between planets and stars has been carried out through portals," Jim continued wondering. "Then, why do humans construct rockets and spaceships?"
"Actually, rockets are needed to launch satellites only," the Elf answered. "However, with few exceptions, humans are not aware of dimensions and portals…"
"With few exceptions?" the Dwarfdoubted. "But hundreds of human families live all over the Ariadna continent! How could they get there?"
"Some people manage to learn the truth and emigrate," Sebastian replied a little sadly, "but the majority believes in the deliberately false human science."
The peaceful evening shaded into a night. Stars sparkled in the cloudless sky, the Moon shone brighter. The Elves hung a couple of lanterns onto the crossbow to illuminate the deck.
Soon they saw a far-away yellowish flicker.
"What's that?" Jim wondered.
"Bonfires on the island beach," the Elves peered into the dark distance, "better to switch the lanterns off and come closer gingerly!"
Chapter Four
The morning sun shone the veranda and woke up Andreas who had been sleeping under a green blanket on a sofa not taking his clothes off. He put on the jacket and the high-boots.
Lynette came in, she was dressed in the same caftan, the same shirt and trousers as before visiting the Dryads.
"Already going?" Andreas buckled the belt of the sheath.
"I don't want any trolls to get to this place hunting for me," she sighed, "better to wait for Jim and Iven at the island."
They walked through the blooming town towards the portal. Lynette touched the marble arch with her palm, the radiance flared up, and they stepped into that light cautiously.
Moonlight flooded the ancient road, the colonnades and the half-sunk staircase with blue silver. The arbour where they had lunched could be seen clearly. Dark silhouettes of prowling monsters were also sharply defined against the cyan night landscape, throwing long shadows onto the footpath slabs, even the iron blades of their halberds looked black.
Lynette and Andreas quickly hid into the bushes growing between columns and kept on watching the brutes from behind branches.
The trolls didn't notice them, loitered near the arbour, hoarsely snorting and shuffled away along the bay shore.
Andreas went out of the shrubbery, gazing around intently. Lynette joined him, peering into the blue darkness too. They slowly walked along the road and then dipped into the thicket, following the enemy stealthily. In a while they saw lights shimmering from behind the leafage ahead. Having slunk through bushes, they squatted behind the last vegetation cluster at the overgrowth edge and looked out.
Crackling bonfires shone the beach sand, trolls walking about or sitting and drinking something from kegs, slurping loudly. Two giant zeppelins stood out above the surf like two oblong light-grey hills. One of them had been tied to stakes just two dozens footsteps away.
"Ah!" Lynette gave a gasp of astonishment at the sight of the imposing airships.
"Shhh!" Andreas warningly put his palm onto her shoulder as three monsters started a talk at the nearest bonfire.
"Have you found them?" the chieftain barked rudely, he had a black tassel on his helmet top and that distinguished him from the others.
"Not yet," one brute, an ugly creature with a long nose, replied in a strident voice but with a fearful subservient intonation.
"Idiots!!" the chieftain roared, "loafers!"
"Don't worry, lord Stetsko!" another menial, stocky and bulky, tried to pacify the fury of their ruler, "they cannot escape now! Our flotilla keeps an eye on the yacht, we will not let the Dwarf take them away!"
"Yes, really!" the first monster gave a series of nods in a fit of a servile ardour, "our boats will come here in the morning to surround the island!"
"Find them!" the chieftain uttered arrogantly, "I sense the key, it must be somewhere close at hand!"
The two menials minced away, the chieftain imperiously strode to one more group of his soldiers to order them about, only growling indistinct commands could be heard.
Lynette and Andreas wordlessly exchanged glances. He pointed at the near-by zeppelin with an expressive look, she nodded.
The gondola was designed like a marine ship deck, wooden planking and parapets. The balloon had a vast hole at its bottom with a black sooty burner fixed under it, resembling a large oil-stove, a weak flickering flame illuminating a heap of numerous barrels and kegs.
Having sneaked up, Lynette and Andreas got onto the gondola deck through the open wicket in the parapet, he helped her to climb aboard. Then they unsheathed their swords and simultaneously cut the two thick ropes the airship had been moored to the beach with. The unleashed apparatus swayed and slowly moved upwards.
"Add some hot air to the balloon, and I'll get rid of the superfluous ballast!" he asked her quietly, grabbed a keg and threw it overboard.
Lynette reached out her hand and turned the burner faucet on. The flame glared and rumbled triumphantly.
The trolls bawled and rushed to the launching zeppelin. One snarling monster jumped up, his paws clutched at the wooden banisters, but Andreas dropped another keg onto his head and knocked him down.
"Stop them!!!" the chieftain screamed somewhat hysterically and trotted towards a big long boat. His two obsequious assistants hastily followed him and bustled awkwardly putting a sail on, hampering each other in a tangle.
The bonfires, the scurrying enemies, the shore, everything was getting away becoming smaller and smaller.
"What a lumber! A kerosene engine!" Andreas came up to a ridiculous aggregate of cranks, cylinders, gear-boxes and pistons at the stern and tugged at a lever. The device sneezed, puffed with smoke, rattled but did begin to work rotating a pair of huge propellers.
Then they saw the second airship chasing them, rising and approaching to them rather quickly, ferociously howling trolls brandishing lances in its gondola.
Lynette and Andreas resumed throwing the ballast out, and that let them gain height. The hostile zeppelin appeared to be straight below. A big barrel fell onto it, fractured it and made a hole in its shell. The balloon shrivelled, steaming hot air hissed out, and the airship with whining monsters collapsed into the sea.
"Oohhh!" Lynette passed her hand over her forehead, giving a sigh of relief, "what now?"
"To the University Lighthouse, I suppose," Andreas looked around at the night sky, then clicked with a couple of switches on the engine control panel, and the zeppelin made a slow turn, "that bright constellation indicates the North."
"What if we get lost?"
"We shall not! Watch attentively!" he diminished the burner flame and led her to the gondola prow, they stood there holding at the parapet.
The stars, the sea glimmering with the moonlight, nothing more in the night expanse.
But one star gleamed somewhere far away at the very horizon line, gradually getting brighter.
"What's that?" she wondered.
"The Lighthouse!" his calm tone was reassuring.
"You must have been involved in such adventures many times," she gave him a look.
"Not considering this our trouble," he replied a little musingly, "my life is rather boring."
"Really?" she queried, "but hired guardians travel a lot and fight a lot?"
"At the sight of a Grey Knight," no pride but an ironical pity in his intonation, "robbers usually think twice before attacking. Thus, I don't have to use my sword very often. I take part in commercial trips mostly to see the world."
The aquarelle azure was insensibly lightening, and in the early morning twilight the two travellers saw a distant coast. A colossal lighthouse towered above a town of geometrically immaculate streets, rectangular buildings of white stone, even dark tiles of roofs seemed to be precisely adjusted to one another. There were no fortification walls, but a massive breakwater protected the harbour.
"We should not park our transport here, it's too large to be imperceptible," Andreas tugged at a rigging rope, a valve at the balloon top let some hot hissing air out, and the zeppelin lowered to the beach, nearly touching the water.
Hand in hand they easily jumped off onto the sand, the surf waves washed their high-boots. The empty airship rose again drifting away, and they headed for the town shone with the pink dawn.
A flagstone embankment, a long house with a dark wooden entrance door, a parquet in a corridor with high windows.
"Isn't it Andreas, one of our brilliant graduates?! together with a young lass!" a middle-aged man in a long dark-purple mantle wondered. His short brown hair wasn't turning grey yet, and his face had no particular wrinkles, but he made an impression of an intelligent and sophisticated person.
"How do you do, professor McClellan!" Andreas greeted him.
"When shall you settle down, get married and busy yourself with science, at last?" the professor shook his head, pretending a disapproval, but his eyes were benevolent.
"We have an interesting heirloom, would you take a look at it?"
"Let's talk in my study!" professor McClellan showed them the way to a vast hall with a vaulted ceiling. Lacquered wooden desks were swamped with things from different worlds and times. Rolls of antique manuscripts, a grey portable computer with some rich multicoloured text on the flat display, figured bronze candlesticks, piles of paper near a white printer. Ancient voluminous books with golden titles, digital compact disks in transparent plastic boxes on the shelves of bookcases.
"Amazing!" the professor exclaimed when Lynette gave him the key, after a short but attentive surveying he returned it to her and began to rummage on a shelf, "I have seen it, but where?.. A-ha!"
He chose a large book in a dark cover, opened it and put it onto a table, turning pages. Drawings of archers, knights, castles… and a picture of the key.
"Dryads and Elves left El Dorado and locked all its portals," Lynette read the ornate italic text, "not to fight multifarious invaders any splendid land always attracts… They descended from the Malachite Plateau and created a realm near the Ariadna City…"
"The Malachite Plateau? Very interesting!" professor McClellan came up to the globe, gently rotated the big sphere and found the necessary spot on a greenish continent. "As a rule, chronicles make no mention of such desolate places."
"Still, it's a vestige," Andreas leafed through the book, "how far is it from here?"
"It would be faster if you had a ship…"
"We do have a ship!" Lynette exclaimed after throwing an occasional glance at the sea behind the windows, "look, Andreas!"
The yacht was sprightly approaching to the lighthouse, the morning breeze filling the mainsail.
Lynette and Andreas hurried outdoors, nearly running to meet Jim and Iven at the wharf, waving their hands.
"We remembered that you had been talking about this town!" the Dwarf smiled alighting onto the embankment, the Elf following him, evidently also glad of the rejoining.
"I'll acquaint you with one of my teachers," Andreas led them to the building, they entered the study. "Professor McClellan, let me introduce Iven the Elf and Jim the Dwarf to you… eh… What are you doing?"
"Packing up to go with you," the professor had taken three big black rucksacks and now was pulling wrapped things, pocket books and pencils into them, "I hope, you don't mind?"
"But it will be dangerous!" Lynette warned, "trolls have been chasing us!"
"My grown-up children forgot about me, my wife left me, so, why should I immure myself in the library?" the professor took his mantle off and remained in dark trousers, high-boots, a white shirt and a brown waistcoat. "Am I not a researcher?"
"And what's our new destination?" Jim asked.
"The Malachite City," professor McClellan bent over a map spread on a table, his finger traced a route, "then we shall go up the Northern River to the Plateau."
They helped the professor to finish the packing, took navigation tools, a quadrant, a bronze compass.
