Tuatha's Children By Bert McKenzie Copyright 2011
Chapter 11
"Brother Victor? What happened?" Craig asked as he and Jeff rushed to the man's side, working to untie the knots in the ropes holding the man to the chair.
The monk laughed a bitter sound. "He's crazy, you know. Father Stephen. Somehow he found out that I was working with you. He had his thugs beat me and bring me down here. I assume you are Mr. Langston. And this is obviously a vampire. I can tell by the paleness, the coldness of his touch. But what are you?" he asked looking up at Robin.
"You would call me a fairy," the king responded.
"I am sorry you came here for naught. You see, he expected you to do this. I am the bait. I'm afraid we are all prisoners now."
"What?" Craig asked in shocked surprise.
Robin quickly turned to the door and found it was locked again.
"Don't worry, we'll get you out of here," Craig promised and the three men stepped to the door, the older monk remaining in the chair. "Can you do that thing you did with the locked door again?"
Robin reached over and waved his hands over the door and hummed to himself, then tried the door again, but it didn't open. He looked surprised and a little angry. He again made some odd gestures over the door knob and then said a brief chant in Tuathan. He tried again and the door opened. As it swung open, the three were confronted with several men on the other side armed with rifles. An old man with long white hair wearing a black monk's robe stood to the rear of the armed men. They were dressed in what looked like army fatigues. The old man smiled. "You will notice," he said loudly, "that the guns are pointed at Brother Victor. After all, he is the traitor in our midst. I know you have several tricks up your sleeves, but please don't try them or surely Brother Victor will die."
"You're insane," Craig said, trying his best to hold his anger in check.
"It is a fine line between insanity and genius. Perhaps you are just looking at it from the wrong perspective," the man said with a beatific smile. "Now all of you back in the room. I'll bring my own wizard in to fortify our locks. Something with iron I think. That will hold this demon." He pointed at Robin. "I shall call our council of elders together to determine what we shall do with all of you. I think we will bring that one," he pointed at Jeff, "out into the sunshine to see if we can give him a nice tan. He looks so pale." The man laughed, then made a gesture and one of the armed soldiers pushed the door closed. They heard the lock snap in place.
"Well this is just great," Craig growled.
"Wait a minute. You're a vampire. Can't you turn into smoke and slip out through the cracks?" Brother Victor asked, looking at Jeff.
"Sorry, I'm not that kind of a vampire," Jeff replied.
"What kind are you?" Brother Victor asked again.
"The real kind, not the Hollywood kind. I can't turn into a bat or smoke or anything. And before you ask, I don't sleep in a coffin."
"But you are a night walker," Robin said. "You can move incredibly fast. If I can get the door open and shut again, you could slip out and not be seen. The door would be closed before the guns could fire."
"Worth a try," Jeff agreed.
Robin stepped to the door and made the gestures over the knob, chanted his chant and tried the latch. It was locked. He got down on his knees, focused his will on the door lock and slowly spoke the opening spell saved for only the most stubborn locks. He gripped the door and pushed. It refused to open. "This wizard the old man spoke of must be very powerful to defeat that charm."
"So we're stuck here for the time being," Craig said. He then pulled out his cell phone and quickly dialed a number.
"How long has it been?" Willow asked.
Scott looked at the clock on the dashboard. "Nearly an hour. Surely they should be there by now. Hope everything is going well." Just about then his cell phone rang. Scott picked it up and answered. "Okay," he said in the phone. "I've got an idea, hang in there."
"What is it?" Willow asked.
"They are trapped, locked in a basement cell."
"Great. I knew something like this would happen." Scott began dialing the phone. "What are we going to do?" Willow asked.
"We're going to call in the cavalry." He reached the house in Waterford and explained the problem to Jennifer. She relayed it on to Caseldra. "Yes," Scott said, "Of course there are trees; we're in the middle of a damn forest here. What as that got to do with anything?" He suddenly grew silent and gave Willow a startled look. He then hung up.
"What?" the younger boy asked.
"Well, when I call in the cavalry, I guess I really get the cavalry. They are focusing magic on our location. Just hang on and we'll see what happens." After the hurried phone call, they just sat and waited.
In about ten minutes, Willow perked up. "Something is happening. I don't know what, but I feel really strange."
"That's probably the magic. It's using you as a focus since you are part Tuathan and we're located in the woods."
"But what is it? What's going to happen?"
Suddenly there was a loud rustling in the trees, and Rood stepped out between two tall pines followed a large white horse. Willow gasped in shock and astonishment. Then as he looked closer, he realized that it wasn't just a horse. There was a long golden horn extending from the animal's forehead. It was an actual unicorn. Willow and Scott quickly stepped out of the van. "Firebrand, it's good to see you, old friend," Scott said addressing the unicorn. The animal stepped forward and nuzzled Scott, making sloughing horse type noises.
"Is that...is that really a unicorn?" Willow asked in astonishment. Before him stood a huge stallion. It was pure white with deep blue eyes. There was a sharply pointed, golden horn coming straight from its forehead, about two foot long. Its hooves were a matching gold in color and it had a long, shaggy main and tail. The animal was a beautiful thing to behold, and something right out of a fairy tale. "I didn't know they...I mean I thought they were just..."
"Just a fairy story?" Scott asked with a laugh. Firebrand made a nickering sound as if laughing along with Scott. "And you have to be careful what you say. Firebrand can understand English.
"He speaks our language?" Willow asked in astonishment.
"He doesn't speak it, but he understands it." The stallion nodded his head in agreement.
Scott turned to Rood and began speaking to him in Tuathan. At the same time Willow looked into the trees and saw movement. Other fairies and unicorns were stepping out among them. The other animals appeared slightly smaller than the leader of the herd, and their horns and hooves were gleaming silver. Most appeared to be females with only one or two males in the group. The fairies who walked along beside them were all wearing battle armor, chain male tunics gleaming gold over white under tunics, and gilt capes hanging down from the shoulders. They wore golden helmets capped with white plumes, and each carried a silver long sword strapped to their waists. They appeared to be mostly men, but Willow noted that Rowana and Caseldra were both in the forefront.
Rood held out a bundle to Scott, who unrolled it, revealing a gold chainmail tunic and belt, a cape and sword. Scott quickly pulled it over his head and belted it over his shirt and jeans. Scott then leaped up onto Firebrand's back. Rood and the others began mounting the rest of the unicorn herd as they came out of the woods. "What about me?" Willow asked.
"I think it best if you stayed with the van. We may need it as a quick getaway."
With that, Scott said a word to Firebrand and he leaped toward the steep hill to their right. Willow stared in awe. The three men who had headed up the hill earlier in the evening had to climb it slowly as if mountaineering. It was practically a cliff. There was no way a rider on a horse could possibly ascend the embankment. But the unicorns bolted after their leader, each one deftly running up the slope and dancing up the almost vertical incline. As swift footed as mountain goats and graceful as ballerinas the unworldly animals climbed swiftly up and out of sight. As they all disappeared, Willow realized someone else had stepped out of the woods. He turned to see Jennifer standing there. "Amazing, aren't they?" she said. "I'm here to keep you company while the rest of them are out rescuing our loved ones."
"Just what I needed, a babysitter," Willow remarked.
Firebrand leaped over the crest of the hill and out onto the short flat field surrounding the compound. He broke into a full gallop heading directly for the wall in front of him. The rest of the unicorns charged over the hill and onto the field behind him with the palace guards clinging to their backs. As he neared the wall, Firebrand planted his feet and leaped sailing into the air and over the white adobe barrier. The rest of the unicorn herd followed, easily clearing the ten foot wall. As Scott and Firebrand dropped gently into the courtyard of the monastery a loud alarm claxon began to sound. In a matter of minutes, men were running out of the dormitories, many of them armed with a variety of weapons, mostly silver crosses, wooden stakes, and bottles of holy water. But a number of them also carried what looked like flame throwers and automatic rifles. Fortunately the men armed with wooden stakes and holy water were in the forefront so the men with the dangerous weapons hesitated rather than shooting through their own ranks.
"We could use a little help here," Scott yelled as he swung his sword, easily slicing a wooden stake in two.
"Now, Caseldra!" Rood shouted and the girl hurled a small bottle toward the oncoming army. It smashed on the ground and a purple haze seemed to emit from it, blowing toward the armed men and engulfing them in the cloud.
"They're using poisoned gas! Hold your breath!" someone in front of the cloud shouted, but the sounds of the battle seemed to diminish.
In no time the purple vapor dissipated to show an empty area. The men were gone. "A simple traveling spell," Caseldra explained as she brought her unicorn up beside Scott."
"Where did they go?" Scott asked in concern. "Where did you send them?"
She smiled brightly. "I looked at a map and set it for that really huge canyon that you have to the west of these mountains." Scott began to laugh as he imagined the group of men suddenly looking about themselves to find they were in the bottom of the Grand Canyon. The remaining fighters were quickly encircled and standing quietly. Once they found that silver crosses and holy water had no effect on the army of elves and unicorns, they pretty much surrendered.
"Now where would our heroes be?" Scott asked as he slipped to the ground.
Meanwhile inside their cell, the men heard the sound of the alarm. "That means someone has breached the wall. We have intruders in the courtyard," Victor said.
"Great, now Scott and Willow have probably been captured," Craig growled.
"You can't open this door?" Jeff asked, looking again at Robin.
"No, the lock is spelled stronger than I, and the door is reinforced with iron."
"Well, vampires don't worry too much about iron," Jeff said and walked up to the door. He took a deep breath and kicked it with all his might. The door groaned and made a loud cracking sound, but seemed to stand in place.
"I think that is even more than you can manage, night walker," Robin said as he stood aside.
"Think so?" Jeff asked and leaned against the door. It groaned again and fell outward with a loud crash.
"Come on, let's go," Craig said and jumped through the doorway, quickly followed by Jeff, Robin and Brother Victor. A lone man, left as a guard was laying face down with the door on his back. Brother Victor stopped to pull the door aside and check on the man as the others ran down the empty hall and pulled open the door to the stairs. They dashed up the stairway and down the hall, rushing out the door and into the courtyard, Jeff taking the lead.
A young fairy standing close to the door was just about to open it as it burst open and three men rushed toward him. He thrust his sword stabbing the first man in the stomach. The man groaned and collapsed onto the dirt of the courtyard and Robin shouted. The fairy guard instantly realized his mistake and jumped back.
"My lord, night walker!" Robin shouted and dropped to Jeff's side. Craig did as well, seeing the long sword still impaling his friend.
"This is gonna hurt like hell," Craig said and grabbed the hilt of the sword.
"Just do it," Jeff groaned as others of the fairy army came forward, surrounding him.
Craig yanked the blade back out, handing it to the stunned fairy who had stabbed his friend. The blood gushed out of the wound. Robin quickly ripped off his shirt and dropped to his knees trying to staunch the flow of blood. "Scott," he called. "Call for medical assistance."
"No, it's okay," Jeff said in a pained voice.
Scott had run up to the group and quickly whipped out his cell phone.
"It is not okay," Robin said urgently. "You are severely wounded. If we get you not medical assistance immediately, you may die."
Jeff was breathing a bit easier now and tried to sit up, but Robin held him down. "Dude, I'm already dead. He missed my heart, so I'll be okay." Robin jumped back in surprise as Craig reached down to help is friend up. The vampire slowly got to his feet and pulled away the blood stained shirt, handing it back to Robin. He then pulled up his own blood soaked shirt, showing a deep wound in his stomach. It had already partially closed. "By morning this will be a scratch," Jeff said gingerly holding his stomach.
"Yeah, a painful one," Craig growled, glaring at the young guard. The young elf dropped to his knees before Jeff and mumbled something in Tuathan as he stared at the ground. He lifted the hilt of his sword toward Jeff.
"He's offering you the opportunity to return the deed," Scott said.
Jeff just laughed although it was obvious the laughter caused him to hurt again. "Buddy, I don't think you could survive the same," he said as he clasped the younger guard on the shoulder. The fairy looked up in astonishment.
"Come on. Let's find out where the boy is," Craig said as he turned to the men that had been rounded up and were staring nervously at the fairies in their gold tunics with their beautiful unicorn mounts.
Jeff smiled at them and said, "I think that's my job again." He took a deep breath and began to dash off toward the buildings to the far left. Craig, Robin and Scott ran after him. They ran around the buildings and through a narrow alleyway. Just as they came out into the opening they heard a loud whining whir. They had come out to a small heliport pad that was located behind several of the buildings. A helicopter was rising out of the compound in the dim predawn light. It quickly rose up and darted off toward the east.
Brother Victor came running from between the buildings to rejoin the group watching the helicopter leave. "Father Stephen is in that helicopter," he said quickly as he ran up to Craig. "With the boy!"
"No!" Robin cried and began to dash toward the disappearing helicopter as it vanished over the buildings in the east. He dropped to his knees in the middle of the helipad, and realized Scott was right beside him, holding him.
"We'll get him back," Scott said. "There's nowhere in this world he can take our son where we won't find him."
"Dawn will be breaking soon," Craig said, putting a hand on Jeff's shoulder. "We need to get you somewhere safe."