Dennis McKiernan - Once upon a dreadful time

Laurent frowned and said, “The riddles of the Fates said nought about any River of Time.”

“But they did speak of conflict,” said Michelle, who had heard of the redes upon reaching her manse. “And I fear for the lives of all the young men should war come.” Laurent pushed out a hand of negation. “My lady, we will not strip the Winterwood of all vigorous young men, for some must stay to defend the realm, as well as to care for those who need tending.”

There came a polite cough, and Michelle turned to see the steward of the Winterwood-a dark-haired, light-blue-eyed, slender man-standing at the entrance to the overlook chamber.

“Arnot?”

“Princess, an Ice Sprite has brought word that Raseri and Rondalo were located late yesternight, and even now they are on their way to the Black Wall of the World.” Michelle cried, “Wonderful!” and clapped her hands. “We must get word to the king, as well as to the other manors.”

“I will send falcons, my lady.”

“Oh, do so immediately, Arnot.”

Arnot inclined his head and then hurried away.

Michelle turned to Laurent. “How utterly splendid. Perhaps it won’t come to war after all.”

“We cannot be certain of that, my lady, even though this is indeed good news.”

. .

In midmorn, a hawkmaster rushed down from the falcon-tower mews, a message capsule in hand. He hurried to the yard where King Valeray and Sieur Emile and the warband were looking over the first group of recruits.

“A message, my lord, from the Winterwood.” Valeray opened the capsule and drew out the tissue-thin scroll. Moments later he whooped. Sieur Emile and the others looked at him. “ ’Tis marvelous news: Raseri and Rondalo are on their way to the Black Wall of the World to intercept Hradian.”

Sieur Emile smiled, but then grew somber. “Let us hope they get there in time.”

“Indeed,” said Valeray. “Now I must take these good tidings to the others.”

Valeray found Celeste and Saissa and Borel in the grass court getting ready to set out to pass among the faire-goers, for with the arrival of men to undergo training, uneasy was the mood.

Upon hearing this, Saissa insisted that she and others go among the folks and reassure them, for as she said, “They should enjoy themselves while they can.”

Upon hearing the falcon-borne message, Saissa asked, “When were they found?”

“Yesternight, late,” said Valeray.

“Then, by now they might have reached the Black Wall. We can but hope for their success.”

“May Mithras watch over them,” said Celeste as she looked past Borel to see three-summers-old Duran running across the sward, his toy horse Asphodel in hand.

Dawn came to the village that lay a league or two from the Black Wall of the World, and a young man bearing a knapsack and a walking stave came down to the common room of the inn where he ate a hasty meal. He then paid his fare and set out ere the sun broached the horizon.

Up the hill past the hamlet he hied, and over the crest, and just beyond he threw off the glamour concealing him. . and Hradian mounted her besom and sped toward the ebony darkness looming into the sky.

With one hand she clutched the amulet that would set her master free, and she gloated over her victory in obtaining it in the manner she had, and she reveled over the vengeance she would exact from Valeray and all his get for the deaths of her sisters.

On toward the Black Wall she hurtled, and her heart began to pound, for beyond that towering shade a dreadful darkness lay, and had it not been for her sister Iniqui she would not have known the way to the Castle of Shadows, and to get lost in the blackness would spell her doom. Only incredible fortune would allow someone astray therein to find his way back unto Faery.

Yet Iniqui, unearthing ancient scrolls and tomes and a grimoire or two-perhaps one of them even Orbane’s-had studied the darkness and the castle within, and she not only had found a description of the key-the amulet-she had also found the way to and from the dreadful prison, a straight course, oui, but one at an angle to the wall itself: down and leftward was the way.

This sinister and sinking path she had shown to her sisters, and now Hradian was the only one left of the four acolytes- But I will make those murderers pay, and dearly. Oh, but the revenge my master will visit upon them will be so very sweet.

And I will be the one to loose him upon them as well as upon the entire world.

Just before Hradian reached the blackness, she took a sight on the sun, whose limb just then rose o’er the rim of the world, and she arced leftward and downward.

Oh, Sister Iniqui, let me pray to the gods of Enfer that the way to the castle remains true, and it has not drifted from its place in the Great Darkness beyond.

And, gritting her teeth and trembling, into the blackness she plunged.

She could see nought beyond the tip of her broom in the darkness nigh absolute. Yet on she hurtled, the strain of keeping her flying spell active causing beads of sweat to gather on her brow and runnel down her face. For the Great Darkness seemed to sap magical energies, and not long could even the most powerful of warlocks or witches or wizards withstand the depletion. And as to the darkness itself, it stretched away in all directions-sinister, dextral, forward, hindward, upward, downward-the blackness extending outward forever, its limit unreachable, no matter the course but one.

And within this Great Darkness floated a castle, supported by nought, a castle it is said of many dimensions, but Iniqui’s scrolls and tomes and grimoires did not tell how this was known. Oh, they did speak of a Keltoi tale-teller who told of it in a riddle, yet how such a place had come to be-a Castle of Shadows in the Great Darkness beyond the Black Wall of the World-none could say. And it was a terrible prison- inescapable, it was claimed. Yet e’en could one win his way free, then what? Unless he knew the course, the single way to escape the darkness, and the means to follow it, he would be lost forever. Might as well remain in the castle, instead.

Ah, but I have the key, and I know how to use it. Quite simple it is, yet in its simplicity lies its secret. Oh, how Orbane will reward me, for I alone will set him free.

On she hurtled in a straight line, down and leftward from the wall. And but for her beating heart and the sapping of her spell, she had no way of measuring how long the flight.

. . And on she went. .

. . and on.

But then in the distance ahead- A faint glow! Oh, Iniqui, the gods of Enfer have smiled upon me, and I have found the way.

On she flew, the glow nearing, and now she could see the stone bridge. Out it jutted from the dark castle for no more than fifty strides, where it abruptly ended, as if shorn off from another half standing elsewhere far away. Along its low stone walls stood ever-burning torches, barely casting a glow, the light itself seemingly sucked away by the ebon surround.

Weary, Hradian alit upon the stone of the bridge, and above her loomed the massive bulk of the castle, great dark blocks milled from rock and assembled into walls and turrets and buttresses and roofing. Massive and strong it seemed, unbreachable.

Hradian looked up at the dark stone faintly glinting in the torchlight. What’s this? There was but a single tower when Iniqui led us here, yet now it is of a size to host a multitude. Did my master somehow change it to what it has become? Ah, faugh, it is of no import. Instead, I must set my master free.

Clutching the amulet, Hradian strode forward, toward a gaping archway, its opening filled with shadowlight, much like that of the twilight walls. And as she reached it, she paused.