The Star of Morcyth: The Morcyth Saga Book Five (3 page)

Dave nods his head, “I am now.”

“What happened?” he asks. “How did you get
here?”

“After you went through the door for the
interview, I sat there and waited for you,” he explains. “I must
have waited there for an hour before I started getting impatient. I
got up and went over to the door to listen to what was going on
inside but couldn’t hear anything.”

“I knocked on the door and when I didn’t
receive any answer I opened it. You could believe my surprise when
all that I saw on the other side was an empty office with no other
way out.”

“An office?” asks James. “Didn’t you make it
to this world when you went through the door?”

Shaking his head, he says, “That came later.
I got worried and called your name. I knew you hadn’t come back out
through the waiting room so I didn’t know what to think. Then the
stories of the missing people came to mind and I hurried down to
the lobby where I called 911.”

“The police showed up quickly and cordoned
off the entire area. When I told them what happened, they didn’t
believe me. They searched the office and didn’t find any trace that
anyone had ever been in there. They did find traces of you and me
in the waiting room.”

“They took me down to the police station and
questioned me extensively. What they were asking me began to make
me think they thought I had something to do with your
disappearance. After what must’ve been hours, my mom and dad
finally were allowed to take me home.”

“Outside the police station, the reporters
began their inquisition as my dad took me to the car. My mom said a
brief statement about how she was just glad I was okay before
getting into the car with us. When we got home, your grandparents
were waiting for us in the driveway.”

James sat back at that. He knew they
would’ve had a bad reaction about his disappearance and now he’s
going to hear about it.

“Your grandfather asked me what happened
while your grandmother cried. I sure felt sorry for them and told
them all I knew, which really wasn’t very much. My parents invited
them in and while I went to bed, they stayed up all night talking.
The police stopped by sometime in the night and asked my parents
more questions. Sometime before I woke up, your grandparents left
for home.”

“I wish I could tell them I’m okay,” James
says sadly.

“I know,” replies Dave. “They really care
about you. Anyway, I stayed home all day Sunday, didn’t leave my
room. I was hoping you would call or the police would find you
since they knew where you had last been, but nothing. When the news
hit about you and that I was the last one to have seen you, Seth’s
dad shows up at our place, demanding that I tell him where his boy
is.”

“He grew angry and almost came to blows with
my dad. In a fit of rage, he finally left, but not before giving me
a look saying ‘this isn’t over’. That’s when my dad turned and saw
me there. He gave me a look, a look that cast doubts about whether
he believed me or if I hadn’t told everything. What more could I
say?”

Ceryn comes over with two cups of ale and
sets them in front of the two friends then returns to his seat.
Neither he nor Perrilin are able to understand what’s being
said.

Taking the offered cup, Dave takes a drink
then continues. “Seth’s dad was seen driving slowly past our house
a couple of times that afternoon but thankfully never stopped. My
dad was worried about what he might do. He suggested that I stay
home from school on Monday but I didn’t want to just stay at home
and dwell on things. I actually thought going to school would take
my mind off things. How wrong I was.”

“I no sooner got to school the next day when
other students, kids I’ve grown up with come to me and begin
accusing me of being the killer. Can you believe that? Me? A couple
friends of Seth from the football team dragged me in the boy’s
bathroom and beat the crap out of me, at which time I was sent
home. I was suspended for fighting!”

“A group of reporters were waiting for me
outside my home when I got back. They flew at me like a pack of
vultures and started asking me the most outlandish questions. Like,
‘Why did I kill my best friend?’ and ‘How does it feel to know
everyone thinks I’m a killer?’ stuff like that. I tried to bull my
way through but they were blocking my way. Finally my dad showed up
from work and shoved them aside. After we were inside and the door
was shut, I went straight to my room and closed the door.”

“My life was beginning to spiral down into
the gutter. Not only do I have the worry of what happened to you,
but now everyone thinks I’m guilty. Even my parents were no longer
as supportive as they had been. Of course in my state of mind I may
have imagined that, but I knew I had to find out what happened to
you. And the only place to do that was back where I last saw
you.”

“So later that night I sneaked out and
wearing that hat from Bakersfield that was always too big for me, I
was able to sneak to the bus stop before anyone recognized me. I
took the bus downtown and made it to the building on Commercial. A
cop was stationed in the lobby. I waited until he was distracted by
another person then hurried over to the elevator and got in. The
door closed before he had a chance to see me. I got off on the
twenty third floor and went down to room 2334.”

“The doorway was covered in that yellow
police tape. I didn’t really expect to find anything there, after
all the police had gone through with a fine tooth comb and they
didn’t come up with anything. But I knew I had to do this. Removing
the tape, I opened the door and stepped within.”

“That’s when I was hit from behind and fell
to the floor. I turned and saw Seth’s dad standing there. ‘I
thought you might come back here. The killer always returns to the
scene of the crime,’ he said. I then told him, ‘I did not kill
anyone!’ But he didn’t believe me.”

“He came at me and I scooted away, knocking
over a table in my attempt to escape. He kept yelling at me to tell
him what happened to Seth and the others all the while trying to
reach me. I scrambled away, finally got back to my feet.”

“I saw the blow coming and tried to block it
but it connected with my jaw and actually knocked me back off my
feet. I crashed into the wall and fell onto one of those small
tables that were there and knocked it over. Books and magazines
went flying. I felt a static shock from something before he grabbed
me and threw me across the room.”

“Hurt and praying nothing was broken, I got
back up and looked into the eyes of a madman as he approached me. I
had to get out of there, all thoughts about finding out what
happened to you gone. I was now simply worried about my own
survival. He was between me and the door to the hallway outside. I
tried to make it around him but he caught me and after a quick two
blows to my stomach, threw me again across the room where I crashed
through a door and hit the floor.”

“Groaning, I twisted to look at him coming
and the shock of what I saw, after all I’ve been through must’ve
been too much and I passed out.”

“What did you see?” James asks.

“When I came to, I was lying in a clearing.
Standing over me was this little creature, it had a weird hat and
some kind of vest or something. It frightened me and I got up and
ran away through the trees. I could hear it calling to me but I
wasn’t paying any attention to what it was saying. The enormity of
what I was experiencing was overwhelming.”

“At first I thought I was hallucinating, and
then after awhile thought maybe this was the afterlife, though it
sure wasn’t any afterlife I’d ever heard about.” He takes the cup
in his hand and takes several more drinks.

James can see he’s looking to him for a
response, but he’s not sure what kind to give him. That creature
was definitely Igor, of that can be no doubt. But why doesn’t Dave
have an understanding of the language like he did? Could it have
been because he ran away from Igor? Hard to say for sure.

“I experienced the same thing when I went
through the door to the interview,” he tells him. “The creature you
met is an agent of a god in this world, he’s really not all that
bad.” After taking a drink himself, he asks, “Then what
happened?”

“What happened?” parrots Dave. “I ran and
ran and ran hoping to find a way home. I eventually came to the
edge of the forest and saw several people riding horses, as well as
one man leading a team of horses pulling a covered wagon. Running
out of the forest, I yelled to them and flagged them down.” A
haunted look comes over him as his voice softens, “I thought they
would help me. I was wrong.” Tears begin welling up in his eyes and
a sob begins to escape him.

“They weren’t interested in helping me,” he
says, eyes looking toward the floor. “When I came close to them,
they began talking to me in a language I never heard before. I
tried to tell them I was an American and that I spoke English, but
they didn’t understand.”

James can see his emotions getting the
better of him and says, “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me
anymore.”

“I need to,” he says as a tear runs down his
cheek. “I was later to find out they were slavers, on a raid to
take people so they could sell them at a slave market.”

“When one of them dismounted and drew a
wicked looking knife, I knew I was in trouble and tried to get out
of there. I turned and ran but was soon overtaken. I fought with
them, but they overpowered me. They tied my hands behind my back
and with their knives, cut my clothes off of me. Stripped naked,
they hauled me up into the back of the wagon. Two other people were
there, one was a young girl. I…” Overcome with emotion, he stops
his narrative.

James lays a hand on his shoulder and says,
“I understand. I’ve run across these slavers before and I know the
kind of people they are. You needn’t tell me anymore than you feel
you must.”

Dave brings his eyes up off the floor and
gazes into his friend’s as a smile comes to him. “That first night
was the worse. The things they did to that poor girl…” a shiver
runs through him. “Anyway, we traveled for days. I gradually began
to be able to understand basic commands. They captured several
more, and when they had ten of us tied and naked in the back of the
wagon, they made for the slave market.”

“We traveled for days and that covered wagon
got extremely hot while the sun was beating down upon it. When we
at last came to the slave market, we were separated and ushered
into pens. I was there for three days before it became my turn up
on the slave block.”

“My first master was none too pleased to
discover I didn’t speak the language and beat me often. Within
days, he sold me to another who treated me even worse. I longed to
die, just to end the humiliation and agony which had become my
life. But I simply couldn’t bring myself to do it.”

Lifting up his tunic, he shows James the
patchwork of scars, the result of being beaten and tortured by his
former owners. From neck to waist, he can see where his friend had
been cut, burned and who knows what. Dave twists and he can see his
back is even worse. “I’m sorry,” is all he can think to say at the
horror his friend must have endured.

Replacing his tunic, he continues, “Finally
I was sold to an inn and worked there until I heard him play ‘Home
on the Range’. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing at first. Then
something came over me and I had to reach him, to see if he was
real. In the back of my mind I knew I would be facing a beating,
but I couldn’t stop myself. I rushed through the crowd and made for
the stage where he was playing. But I didn’t make it. They stopped
me before I could reach him and dragged me out of there. I was beat
to within an inch of my life.”

“As I lay there in my pen later that
evening, pain throbbing in every part of my body, Perrilin came to
me. You know the rest.”

Tears in his own eyes, James comes forward
to give his friend a hug. “You’re safe now.” Glancing back to
Perrilin, he says, “Thank you for bringing him here.”

“I take it you know him then?” asks
Perrilin.

“All my life, he’s my best friend,” replies
James.

“How did he come to be here?” Ceryn
asks.

“I’ll tell you sometime, but right now I
just want to get him back to The Ranch,” he says. “You’re both
welcome to come too.”

Perrilin shakes his head and says, “I can’t.
As much as I would like to find out more about this, I have an
engagement that can’t be put off any longer.”

“I’ll come by in a few days,” Ceryn tells
him.

Getting up, he brings Dave to his feet as
well and says, “Thank you both again.” Leading Dave outside he
says, “Let’s go.” He hears the other two get up and follow them
outside.

Indicating one of the other horses, Perrilin
says, “Your friend can have this one.”

“Thanks,” James says. Helping Dave onto the
horse, he then mounts his own.

As they ride back to The Ranch, James
glances over to his friend. Glad to have him with him again, yet
saddened by all that’s happened to him. He may never know the
extent of the pain he went through, and he’s not really sure he
wants to.

After getting back onto the main road to
Trendle, Dave breaks the silence and asks, “How have you been?”

“Not too bad,” James replies. “I have a
place and some friends here. I’m sure you’ll fit in just fine.”

“I want to go home,” he says sadly.

“I know, I’d like to as well, but I’m afraid
we’re stuck here,” he says. Feelings of guilt assail him as they
reach the outskirts of Trendle. Where his friend has had the worse
sort of experiences since coming to this world, he’s actually
thrived. He comes to the conclusion he’ll put off telling him about
his magical ability until it’s absolutely necessary. Not sure how
he’ll react to that.