Whistlestop (28 page)

By the time the mayor and his
entourage arrived at the hedgerow, at least two thousand soldiers
and ten times that many citizens filled the park. The soldiers
tried to keep the people away from the park’s center for their
safety. “What is the meaning of this, General?” Mayor Faustus
Bandar Incognito shouted.

Aida stood, arranged her armor and
saluted. “My Lord Mayor, this group of elves has come to enlist an
army to defeat the empire.” Some of the elves in the crowd began to
laugh and hoot.

A soldier pushed his way through the
crowd and shouted, “They have a witch who killed the Wizard Master,
Mayor! I saw it with my own eyes!”

Sadie was suddenly standing in front
of the Mayor. The crowd gasped and began to back away. “I am no
witch, Lord Mayor, and what your soldier said is not entirely
true.” The mayor’s guards were now pointing their pikes at her and
trying to surround the mayor.

“
Well, if you are not a
witch, what are you?”

Sadie smiled and took a step backward.
Her body began to glow intensely bright and she grew to ten feet
tall. Her simple dress became a white uniform and a silver
breastplate formed on her chest. She pulled a long sword from its
scabbard and held it over her head as large wings sprouted out of
her back. “Now do you understand, Faustus?” He and most of the
crowd dropped to their knees. Instantly, she was back to normal and
touched him on the shoulder. “It’s okay.” In her touch, he felt
warm and safe and the sense of well-being surged from him through
the entire crowd. She pulled him up to his feet and kissed his
cheek. “May I tell you what did happen?” He nodded but could not
speak. “The mistress of the Wizard Master was a demon. She is the
one who killed him, and then she fled back to her dark cave in the
Lower Realm.”

“
Are you telling me that
the woman is gone and the Wizard Master is dead?” Sadie nodded,
feeling confused. A wide grin formed on his face and he turned to
the crowd and shouted, “The Wizard Master is dead and his bitch is
gone!” The crowd burst out in cheers and the elves danced around
and sang for joy. Faustus threw his arms around her and kissed her
cheeks. “Thank you, thank you, you cannot imagine the horror we
have endured with that demon here. You have saved our city and our
planet! This calls for a celebration!”

Two soldiers were pushing through the
crowd while a third behind them pushed a crumpled figure in a
wheelchair toward the center of the celebration. The elf in the
chair looked ancient and miserable, as though she was racked with
pain and could barely move. When they arrived next to the mayor,
all the elves knelt and bowed their heads. “What is the meaning of
this?” the disabled elf groaned.

With his head still bowed, the mayor
said, “Trehbor, apparently, the concubine of the Wizard Master has
killed him and fled.”

“
He’s dead?” she asked as a
smile began to form on her wrinkled mouth.

“
Yes, Majesty, that is what
I have been told.”

“
Where did the girl
go?”

Sadie bowed to the trehbor and
replied, “Your Majesty, the girl was not a woman at all. She was a
demon from the Lower Realm named Merihem Slaughter Breakneck. When
I uncovered her disguise, she killed the wizard and fled back to
her own realm.”

“
How can you know these
things, stranger?”

“
Majesty,” the mayor
interrupted, “this woman is an angel.”

“
God bless you, my dear,”
the trehbor said. “You cannot believe how long that witch has been
manipulating us.”

Arthur Truth pushed his way to stand
next to his wife and stared at the female in the chair. “Who are
you, Madam? I knew the trehbor and she was much younger than
you.”

“
Dearest Arthur, look at
what the demon has done to me. While she was able to bed the
wizard, she could not use those wiles on me. She placed a curse on
me so she could rule with impunity. I am glad to have lived to see
her gone. Now I can die in peace.”

“
We’ll have no talk of
death, Mariah!” Sadie interjected. “We are here to stop the empire
and their evil masters. Please let me try to remove it.”

“
No! I was warned it would
pass to all the residents of Ravenhead if anyone tried to remove
it. It is okay, I am happy to take this curse to the grave with
me.” The crowd began to back away slowly.

Sadie was a ten foot angel again. She
waved her sword over her head and all the elves and others
disappeared. “You see, Mariah, now there are no residents of
Ravenhead to catch the curse but you and me.”

“
Where did you send
them?”

“
To the Upper Realm, where
they are truly safe. Now please let me try.” The trehbor nodded and
began to cry.

Sadie walked behind her and put her
hands on the elf’s shoulders and held on tightly. Sadie instantly
found herself in a dark dungeon, chained to a wall at her wrists
and ankles. She struggled to free herself but could not. In her
mind, she knew this was impossible, but somehow it seemed real. “It
must be my imagination. Come out demon and show yourself!” A small
opening appeared in the ceiling, allowing a thin beam of light to
shine on her head. Suddenly, thousands of spiders began to pour
through the opening and across the ceiling and down the walls. They
crawled up the chains and onto her skin. They began to bite her
relentlessly, and she screamed in pain. In moments, she was covered
with the biting creatures which then began to spin a cocoon around
her. Within a minute, she was completely covered. The web began to
tighten on her body and she could feel the life being squeezed out
of her. She tried to move but the silk was too tight. She was about
to pass out when a blade sliced through the web. Two monstrous
hands pulled the cocoon from her body. Ten massive beasts
surrounded her. They drooled and licked their lips. They jumped
upon her and began to bite off chunks of flesh and she screamed
again. She pulled her hands off the trehbor’s shoulders and stood
shaking and sweating in the park.

“
I told you not to,” the
elf warned.

“
None of that was real,”
Sadie said, trying to convince herself. “I have never felt anything
like that before.”

“
You must allow me to die.
It is the only hope for my planet.”

“
Hi, Grandma!” Lilian
shouted as she approached.

“
Run for your life, little
girl!” the trehbor shouted with a look of terror on her
face.

“
Lilian, why are you here?
It is much too dangerous now. I can’t believe my father allowed you
to come.” Dark clouds formed over the city park and black raindrops
began to pour down on them. Lightning crackled and danced across
the sky.

“
Poppy said you needed
help, so I came.”

Lightning shot from the sky and
ignited several trees nearby. The wind began to howl and the
puddles of rainwater began to boil. “Lilian, please leave
now!”

“
Grandma, it will be okay.
Now please step away from the elf.”

Sadie did not want to comply, but
something in her mind told her to move. “Don’t let the demon take
the child!” Mariah begged.

“
Come out, come out
wherever you are,” Lilian sang. A horrified look crossed the elf’s
face and she passed out with her mouth open. A massive cloud of
black smoke poured from her open mouth and formed a thousand foot
monster floating in the air and looking down on the child. “You
should have stayed inside, Marthrusta.”

The creature seemed half animal and
half cloud, with bulbous eyes and a massive mouth full of jagged
fangs. “Haven’t you tortured me enough, demon? And why do you
disguise yourself as a child?”

“
My name is Lilian, and I
am not the demon who stole you from your home. I am here to return
you there.”

The beast shouted “Liar!” and then
shot a stream of fire at Lilian. The grass ignited and the hedgerow
was burning like a torch. Sadie looked on in horror. When the beast
stopped, Lilian was standing in the same spot, looking totally
unfazed. “What kind of demon are you, Lilian? Are you a
god?”

“
No, but I can do this,”
Lilian replied and then snapped her fingers. The beast and the
clouds evaporated into nothing, leaving the sun shining down upon
them. Lilian walked over to the trehbor and took her hands. The elf
was completely healed and trembled as she stood for the first time
in years. “How do you feel, Mariah?”

“
I feel great!” she laughed
as she hugged the girl. “How did you do that? You must be an angel
too!”

“
No, I’m just a girl, but a
very blessed one.”

Sadie pickup up Lilian and hugged her
close. “How can you do such things, darling?”

After kissing her grandmother and
getting on her own two feet, she said, “You should ask Poppy the
next time you see him. I have to go now before the Evil One
discovers me here. The beast is gone forever now.”

“
You said its name was
Marthrusta. I have never heard that name.”

“
That’s because she is not
from our universe. The Evil One stole her from her home and used
her and others as curses on his enemies. I have simply sent her
home again. She will be happier there.”

“
From another universe?”
Sadie gasped.

“
I can’t stay, Grandma,
you-know-who is already learning what happened. Goodbye,” Lilian
said as she gradually faded away into nothingness.

Sadie waved her sword and all the
people from the city returned and saw their beloved trehbor was
cured. “Time for a celebration now?” she asked. The trehbor nodded
and smiled.

The dragons were huddled in a dark
cave. Archimedes had been hit by two arrows which still protruded
from his chest. “Will you be okay, Archimedes?” Beatitude asked as
she examined his wounds.

He coughed deeply and sighed, “I don’t
know, Sister. I can’t believe the elf was so wrong about the number
of demons here. We didn’t stand a chance, and I don’t know what to
do now. We can’t leave this place without the elf. Soon, the demons
will find us and kill us all. My poor Emmanuel!”

“
How did they capture him?”
another dragon asked. “I did not see when he disappeared. Are you
sure they got him?”

Archimedes growled and asked, “Are you
suggesting my son is a coward?”

“
Of course not, Brother,”
the dragon said as it backed away and hid behind several
others.

“
Perhaps we can find a
safer place, Archimedes,” Beatitude suggested. “This is an entire
planet after all, and just maybe they won’t find us.”

“
Five of our siblings are
dead and Emmanuel is missing. I cannot believe the demons won’t
hunt us down. Now they know we escaped from Winterpast and must
have already figured out that an elf folded us here. Perhaps I’m
the lucky one and will die of my wounds before they find this
cave.”

“
Please don’t say such
things,” the red dragon Crimson said.

A voice said, “Please don’t eat me!”
The dragons turned to see a human wearing robes and a pointed hat
standing near a small hole leading deeper into the cave. “I heard
sounds and I thought someone had come to rescue us.”

Archimedes walked over to the man and
asked, “Who are you and what do you mean by we?”

“
Mr. Dragon, I am Nestor
Antares Summoner, a seer of Asterpast. My team was left behind
after most of the people fled to the Empty Realm. Our job was to
protect the Temple of the Inner Sanctum. Unfortunately, there were
too many demons and we had to flee. We have been hiding in this
cave ever since.”

“
How many of you are
there?”

“
I cannot tell you that,
noble dragon, until I know your intentions. Do you intend to kill
and eat us?”

“
No, of course not!”
Archimedes bellowed. “We were brought here by an elf to eliminate
the demons, but there were many more than expected and we had to
retreat as well.”

Nestor sat on the floor of the cave,
saying, “Perhaps we can come to an accord then.”

“
What did you have in mind,
human?”

“
First, you do not need to
speak. As highly trained seers, we are able to hear you communicate
with each other.”

“
Really?” Archimedes
thought.

“
Yes, really. Five of our
number are trained doctors, who can treat any injuries while we
plan our next moves. In total, we are one hundred strong, and as
luck would have it, one member of our team is a sprite.”

“
What’s a
sprite?”

“
All will be known in due
course, Mr. Dragon.”

“
My name is
Archimedes.”

“
Archimedes, you should
know that we already have a plan, but until now did not have the
tools to bring it to pass. Your arrival completes our
requirements.”

“
Tell us about your plan,
Nestor.”

“
We must agree to move
forward together first, Archimedes. We cannot divulge our plan if
you do not intend to fulfill your part.”

“
And what exactly is our
part?”