Morgan Rice - A Rule of Queens

An eerie moan pierced the darkness, setting them all on edge.

“I wonder if we’d be safer risking the sea,” Matus said softly, his voice echoing off the cave walls.

The waters twisted and turned, and as they went deeper and deeper into this place, the currents dragging them in as if dragging them to their fates, Thor turned and glanced back, and he saw that the ocean was already gone from view. They were embraced by the darkness, by the glowing waters, and they were now at the mercy of wherever the tides should take them.

“The current runs only one way,” Reece said. “Let’s hope it also leads us out of this place.”

They floated in the blackness, turning a narrow bend, and as they went, Thor looked out and examined the walls, and all along them, he saw pairs of small, yellow eyes blinking in the darkness, belonging to some unknown creatures. They blinked and scurried, and Thor wondered what they were. Were they watching them? Were they waiting to strike?

Thor tightened his grip on his sword. He was on alert as they turned and turned.

Finally, they turned a corner and Thor saw, up ahead in the distance, the waters came to an abrupt end. They stopped at a beach of black sand, giving way to a new terrain of black rock.

Thor and the others looked out, baffled, as the boat came to a stop, bumping gently against the sand. They all looked at each other, then out at the wide rocky expanse before them. The cave disappeared in blackness.

“Is this where the ocean ends?” Indra asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Conven said, stepping out of the boat and onto the beach.

The others followed, Thor going last, and as they stood on the beach, Thor looked back at their boat, rocking gently on the soft currents. Thor looked out at the glowing water, saw where the cave twisted, and saw the exit no more.

He turned back around, and peered into the darkness, darker here without the glowing of the water, and felt a cold draft rise out of somewhere.

“We can camp here at least,” Elden said. “We can wait out the night.”

“Assuming nothing eats us in the darkness,” O’Connor said.

Suddenly, in the distance, a torch was lit—then another, and another. Dozens of torches lit up the darkness, and Thor, grabbing the hilt of his sword, looked out and saw people facing them, small people, half his height, their bodies way too thin, looking emaciated, with long, pointy fingers, long pointy noses, and small beady eyes. Their heads were rose to a point.

One of them stepped forward, clearly their leader, held up his torch and broke into a grin, revealing hundreds of small, sharp black teeth.

“You stand at a crossroads,” the creature replied.

The leader was not like the others. He was three times their height, twice as tall as Thorgrin and his men, with a big belly, a long brown beard, and carrying a staff. The man rubbed his long beard as he stared down at them in the tense silence.

“A crossroads to what?” Thor asked.

“The land of the living and the land of the dead,” he replied. “It is where the ocean ends. We are the keepers of the gate. Beyond us lie the gates to the land of the dead.”

Thor looked beyond, over his shoulder, and in the distance he saw massive gates, a hundred feet high, made of iron ten feet thick. His heart leapt with excitement and hope.

“It is true then?” Thor asked, filled with hope for the first time since Guwayne’s death. “There is a land of the dead?”

The creature nodded back solemnly.

“You can stay here for the night,” he replied. “We shall provide you harbor, provisions, and send you on your way. You can go back from where you came and continue wherever the ocean takes you.”

“Why should you give us your hospitality?” Reece asked, cautious.

The creature turned to him.

“That is the duty of the Keepers,” he said. “It is our job to keep the gates closed. We do not accept people into the land of the dead—we keep them out. Those who have lost loved ones come here, searching, grieving, and we reject them. It is not yet their time. They struggle and strive to see them the ones they love, and we must send them away. As we must send you away.”

Thor frowned and stepped forward.

“I want to enter,” he said, without hesitating, thinking of Guwayne. “I want to see my boy.”

The creature stared back at him, cold and hard.

“You do not understand,” he said. “There is but one entrance, and there is no exit. To enter those gates means to never leave.”

Thor shook his head, determined, filled with grief.

“I do not care,” Thorgrin said firmly. “I will see my son.”

“Thorgrin, what are you saying?” Reece said, coming up beside him. “You can’t enter.”

“He does not mean his words,” Matus called out.

“Yes I do,” Thorgrin insisted, filled with sorrow and a longing to see Guwayne. “Every one of them.”

The creature stared back at Thor for a long time, as if summing him up, then shook his head.

“You are very brave,” he said, “but the answer is no. You will stay here for the night, then you will set back out for the ocean. The morning tides will take you away. Stay on them long enough, and over the course of a moon, you’ll reach the eastern shores of the Empire. This is no place for men to stay.”

“I will enter those gates!” Thor demanded darkly, drawing his sword. The sound of the metal leaving the scabbard echoed loudly off the cave’s walls, and the cave came alive with the sounds of insects and creatures scrambling to get out of the way, as if they knew a storm were coming.

Immediately, the dozens of creatures behind their leader drew their swords, too, white swords made of bone.

“You disgrace our hospitality,” the leader sneered at Thor.

“I don’t want your hospitality,” Thor said. “I want my boy. I will see him. And not you, or any creatures of this world, will stop me. I will walk through the gates of hell to do so. I want enter the land of the dead. I will go alone. My men can accept your provisions and head back out to sea. But not I. I will enter here. And no one and nothing of this earth will stop me.”

The leader shook his head.

“Every once in a while we encounter someone like you,” he said. He shook his head again. “Foolish. You should have accepted my offer the first time.”

Suddenly, all of the creatures behind him charged Thorgrin, dozens of them, swords held high, racing toward him.

Thor felt such a determination to see his son that something overcame him: his body suddenly welled up with heat, and his palms felt on fire, as he felt more powerful than he’d ever had. He replaced his sword, raised his palms, and as he did, an orb of light shot forth and flashed through the cave, lighting it up. He moved his hands in a semicircular motion, and as he did, the beams of light struck the creatures on the chest, knocking them all down.

They all collapsed, moaning, writhing on the ground, stunned but not dead.

Their leader’s eyes opened wide in shock as he looked Thor over carefully.

“It is you,” he said, in awe. “The King of the Druids.”

Thor stared back calmly.

“I am king of no one,” he replied. “I am just a father who wishes to see his son.”

The leader stared back at him with a new respect.

“It was told there would come a day when you would arrive,” he said. “Of a day when the gates would open. I did not think it would be so soon.”

The leader looked Thorgrin over long and hard, as if looking at a living legend.

“To enter those gates,” he said, “it is not the price of gold. But the price of life.”

Thor stepped forward and nodded solemnly.

“Then that is the price I shall pay,” he said.