The Three Thorns (21 page)

“Precisely the reason.” Cecil winked back holding his nose.

Tommy and Sebastian laughed at Cecil’s remark before they noticed each other. Taking a deep breath in disbelief, Tommy gazed at the familiar face of the posh boy he had briefly met in Warwickshire and was overjoyed to be in company with someone human again.

“Hey! Silver-spoon head!” he called to Sebastian and gave him a welcoming handshake.

Sebastian smiled, fixing his large glasses with one hand while greeting Tommy with the other. “Thomas, right?”

“What in heaven has happened to Peter?” Sebastian asked. A baffled look showed on his face, until Tommy explained the nymph’s real identity.

“
Extraordinary!
” Sebastian circled Ariel, studying her face at every angle.

“What is
that
thing?” Tommy asked, pointing to Sebastian’s appointed guardian. The tired pixie gave Tommy a grouchy stare, offended by the boy’s disrespectful tone.

“That’s my protector, Cecil Baskin. He calls himself a knight but I’ve never seen one like him before.”

“I thought for a while I was dreaming this whole thing. But now you’re here, it’s really real. I can’t believe it,” Tommy replied.

“I can. I’ve seen this place in my dreams,” Sebastian whispered, staring out at the evening sky.

“Let’s go talk to big stinky here,” Cecil joked, humoring the boys as they approached the troll.

“Sir Cecil Baskin, I’m glad you made it,” Ariel smiled as she bowed her head to the knighted pixie.

“We’re lucky to be alive after the attack we encountered,” Cecil went on, coughing as he told Ariel the story of his horrendous ordeal.

“And Lemis? Is he dead?” Ariel asked.

“I can only hope,” Cecil replied, hissing from the excruciating pain still throbbing at his tiny wings.

“What about Benjamin?” Ariel asked.

“Nothing yet,” frowned Cecil.

“You are the first friendly faces we’ve seen since the Black Swamp,” Sebastian added.

“Black Swamp?” asked Tommy, turning to Ariel for an answer.

Cecil interrupted, pushing the boys away from the grove by a tap of his stick. “Never mind all that. Come on, less chatter boys and more wander. Legs forward and eyes front.”

“This smell is rotten,” Tommy blurted out loud, holding his nose as he stepped away from the troll.

“That’s right. Nothing smells as bad as us trolls. Not even the pixie’s footwear,” grinned Ban Pan proudly.

“Tell that to the Nockwire,” Ariel mumbled, joking privately beside Cecil Baskin, who let out a strong and abrasive laugh.

“You’re kind of grouchy, aren’t you?” Sebastian asked, sneering back at the brazen rescuer.

“You’re lucky that’s all I am. Not all of us trolls are as tame as I,” Ban Pan warned.

“How did you find us?” Ariel asked the troll, her excitement and wonder evident.

“One of your fairies sought my help. When my nose perked up, I just knew it was you,” he said assuredly as Cecil’s fairy fluttered back into the pixie’s breast pocket.

“I’m so glad to see you. I thought you had been killed in the battle at Bothopolis,” Ariel said smiling with relief.

“Done for? Ban Pan Cackerin?” the troll said indignantly. “Don’t be ridiculous, why I’m the only one I know of who can make it through shoe trees without getting entangled,” he rambled. “By the way, I suggest you find another way to your destinations. There’s no way beyond that shoe tree even if you could get by it. Its forest is too thick and dangerous.”

And with that, the troll simply turned his back on them and marched away without even so much as a goodbye.

“Where are you going?” Cecil demanded.

“To the Stained Castle, of course. The trolls have been summoned there for an emergency meeting.”

“Everyone has,” Cecil added.

“That’s where we’re going. We might as well go together,” Ariel called.

“Ha! Travel with other kinds? Now that I do not do,” the troll scoffed, marching away.

Ariel looked to Cecil for support. “Well, what do you want me to do? He doesn’t travel with other kinds,” he whispered back to the anxious nymph, holding out his hands. “No troll does.”

“You’re the knight here,” Ariel said, encouraging the pixie to exercise his authority over the stubborn troll.

“I’m just a protector, not a negotiator,” Cecil insisted.

“Order him.”

Giving out a long groan, Cecil rolled his eyes and fluttered his little wings, taking small flying leaps to catch up with the stomping beast.

“Wait, Ban Pan, there is something I forgot to mention,” Cecil said finally.

“You’re welcome, now quit pestering me,” Ban Pan muttered in reply.

“No, not that,” Cecil insisted.

“Ha! Talk about ungrateful. What is it then, ungrateful knight?”

“This human is the reason we have all been summoned to this emergency meeting,” Cecil explained to the troll, pointing to Sebastian.

“And Tommy, too,” Ariel added.

“Let’s not forget Benjamin,” interrupted Tommy.

The troll instantly paused in his march and turned his massive hairy feet back round to face the mixed group.

“So, they
do
have names,” the troll scoffed, gesturing to the group to come closer. As the four approached him, Ban Pan bent down to face the guardians and whispered. “There is a better way to the Stained Castle than this one, but first you must give me something, something of reasonable value.”

“I knew you were a villain. And a cheat at that,” Tommy accused.

Cecil swiftly knocked Tommy on the head with his trusty stick to prevent the mouthy boy from insulting the troll further.

“That’s enough lip from you, boy,” Cecil insisted while Sebastian covered his mouth to keep himself from laughing at his friend’s sudden chastisement.

“Are we bargaining, Ban Pan?” asked the nymph.

“Of course we are…I wouldn’t be much of a troll if I didn’t.”

“We really don’t have time for this nonsense,” the pixie suggested, the flutter of his wings showing his exasperation at the troll’s stubbornness.

“Zip it, Gramps,” Ban Pan mocked. Cecil screwed his face up at the annoying creature. “I cannot believe that the Council chose you two to protect the Children of Abasin. Good grief, of all the civilians they could have picked,” Ban Pan continued.

“You know of the Children of Abasin?” Cecil gasped.

“Every soul in Abasin knows about The Three That Are One. I don’t know of one who hasn’t heard of
that
prophecy,” sighed Ban Pan, frowning at Cecil and the two boys.

“What is he talking about?” Tommy asked, looking between Ariel and Cecil for an answer.

“You mean to tell me
you boys don’t even know about your own future?” the troll began to tease Tommy, chortling to himself.

“Why don’t you shut your trap, you big furry fungus, before I help you shut it,” Tommy barked. Cecil and Sebastian reached out simultaneously to hold the boisterous lad back.

Ban Pan pointed at Tommy while laughing loudly. “You, my boy, are hilarious…look at the size of you and still you would dare take on a troll.” Ban Pan laughed a little longer until he shot back a serious look that frightened Tommy to his core.

“You, scamp, are this world’s last hope,” he muttered slowly. “The prophecy foretold three human children would return from being cast out of Abasin and come of age to kill the False One and take over this kingdom. This makes you three the most important people in this entire world right now, as well as the most hunted. And you don’t even know it.” Ban Pan chortled again and shook his head.

“Well, we weren’t told anything until now,” Tommy admitted, turning his blameful gaze toward Ariel and Cecil.

“My dreams,” Sebastian whispered to her.

“I told you they were true,” Ariel muttered.

“You didn’t tell me about the killing part,” Sebastian snapped back.

“That’s enough!” Cecil roared at the troll. “You’re scaring the boys.”

“If they’re scared now, what use do you think they’ll be on the battlefield? The way you two are mollycoddling them, you would do better to hand them over to Saul while you can and pray for a quick death,” the troll replied.

“I’m not scared,” Tommy declared, interrupting both creatures as he walked toward the troll with courage and conviction.

“Then I think Abasin maybe in luck with you at the helm, chap.” The troll smiled in respect to Tommy.

“I-I’m not afraid either, I just wrestled a bull horse with wings, you know,” Sebastian added after a few seconds of awkward silence.

“That a boy.” Cecil smiled to Sebastian, motioning for him to keep his large glasses from sliding off his nose again.

“You will lead us to this castle, no bargains necessary.” Tommy barked his order as if the ability to command came from somewhere deep inside him.

The new world was already changing them and they could feel it. Tommy’s eyesight had altered and his confidence was growing to an almost fearless high. All Ban Pan could do with the bold little human was obey his orders.

“Very well…
Prince of Abasin
,” the troll replied, placing his claw on his heart.

“Um…before we fulfil any prophecy, we’re going to need a decent pair of shoes. I’m a size six,” Sebastian spoke up, motioning the troll to cut down a new pair of shoes from the grove.

Tommy kept close to the troll as the group began their journey together. The others trailed behind along the edge of the enormous cliff side Cecil and Sebastian had flown up.

The edge stretched into the distance as far as the eye could see. The road was tiresome and dangerous, but if they were lucky enough not to be deterred from it, its route would eventually lead them straight to the Stained Castle, just as Ban Pan had promised.

Lemis fell off his omnicorn when it crashed onto the castle’s top balcony, shredding through a large piece of royal carpet. In a flash, the chief sea guard found himself surrounded by members of Saul’s guards.

“Wait, I’m General Lemis, I’m the chief sea guard of Denasin. I’m a servant! I am a servant!” the pathetic creature protested as the royal guards pointed their glistening scythes and glowing staffs at his throat.

“What brings you?” one of them hissed.

“Please! I seek the favored Knight,
Jodo Kahln!
” Lemis shrieked as the royal guards left him to resume their stance in a militant line, confident that he was no longer a threat.

Without warning, an undertaker who worked in the prisons far below appeared at the top of the lift shaft.

“Lord Lemis, I have some of your surviving troops waiting for you outside my dungeons, if you please,” the disease-ridden creature said smoothly, coaxing the new arrival to join him on the rickety and grimy elevator. With what little dignity he had left, Lemis brushed his armor and jumped back on top of his omnicorn. Saul’s royal guards were infamous for killing unannounced visitors and Lemis knew how lucky he had been.

“We’ll make our own way, rat,” he spat back at the undertaker, before he flew off the edge of Saul’s castle toward the few remaining troops below. “Give me news,” he demanded.

“Jodo Kahln has gone to counsel the king of the goblins, Lord Lemis,” said one mutant sea guard.

“Borland,” Lemis whispered back in shock. “Stay here and wait for my return. I must consult with Jodo Kahln,” he barked at them as he prepared to take flight into the black skyline.

***

The Nockwire stood on higher ground to keep watch for any foul play or unwanted attention a gremlin or goblin would inflict upon Jodo Kahln and his new baggage.

“Keep up, old man. Lose track of me and you’ll never get out of here alive,” Jodo warned, walking confidently across one bridge of many thousand.

“Indeed, you wouldn’t want to get lost in a place like this…something worse could happen to you than scrubbing my back,” taunted Thestor.

“I doubt that very much,” Jennings muttered under his breath, amusing Jodo who’d been the only one to hear his insult.

Jodo walked steadfast across each of the descending bridges that led toward the city below the blue fog. As they got lower, Jennings noticed little shacks, shelters, and half houses welded onto the rocky cliffs on either side of the inlet. Screeches from goblin families fighting their neighbors penetrated his ears.

“Trespassers!” one goblin growled out through the mist of the mountainside.

“You’re not welcomed here!” another goblin creature yelled down at them.

“I smell human stink,” an elderly goblin mocked.

“Call the goblin guards,” one older goblin screamed.

“Fresh meat! Fresh meat!” chanted a group of young goblins.

“Kill them!” another random goblin called out.

“Gobble their skin…gobble them all up,” screeched a cackling female.

As Jennings studied the grotesque creatures, he noticed how well their houses and shacks had been built and how closely they resembled the stone walls. It was inventive camouflage. Even Jodo couldn’t tell the difference between some of the crafted houses. It was obvious to Jennings that these goblin folk were creatures of intelligence. The threatening jeers failed to intimidate the knight and his Nockwire assassins, which reassured Jennings that he was in safer company than he realised.

They had only crossed the entrance to the Goblin City, and already an inconspicuous goblin guard flew silently above the weakest target. Its dangerous claws reached for Jennings’ withered neck while it landed discreetly behind him.

Jodo Kahln didn’t have to see the trouble brewing, for the powerful knight simply sensed the threat. Using his dark magick, Jodo pulled the scrawny man away from the creeping goblin. When he landed at the feet of the unconcerned Nockwire, Jennings realised Jodo had safeguarded him from harm.

The goblin fiend cautiously hopped back a step and crouched, squinting at the young warlock.

“You’re intruding here,” it hooted.

“King Saul may permit your kind to live here, but may I remind you that this city still belongs to him. And since I have jurisdiction, it is
you
who are invading
my
path, goblin,” Jodo explained, approaching the goblin guard.