It Is Said (Mathias Bootmaker and the Keepers of the Sandbox) (13 page)

The heavy bundle came undone as it hit Mathias in the chest. He grabbed at the unraveling coat and quickly put it on. It was thick, warm and comfortable. It was exactly like the innkeeper’s.

“It will protect you from sharp thorns and branches,” the man said as he looked at the forest around them. “Once when things mattered, there were a thousand groundskeepers that tended to this land. The family Darke took good care of us and we took good care of the land. You will never find your way through the overgrowth. I will lead you through it, but I have rules.”

“Shouldn’t we wait for daylight?” Mathias interrupted. “Once the morning star rises, it’ll be much easier to see, much easier to manage our way through this blockade.”

The innkeeper came at him quickly. He grabbed Mathias by his jaw and brought his face close until they were eye to eye. He raised the lantern and stared at him for what seemed like an eternity.

 
“Let me be clear,” he whispered. “There is no morning star. There is no daylight. Those things are just fantasies.”

Mathias was stunned. He realized, as he watched the flame from the lantern dancing on the worn and haggard face of his new found guide through this nightmare, that he was trapped in a world that had no natural light of any kind. The Village Darke was in every respect dark.

“The story my wife told you is a good story, but it is missing some truths,” he said quietly. “I was the man’s closest and sometimes only friend. Alma was nanny to the children and confidant to the wife. The story is based in reality, but the reality itself was and is much worse. Lord Darke had foolish thoughts like yours, and they cost him and us
everything.
”

The innkeeper let go of Mathias and put the lantern down on the road. He pulled the length of rope over his head and dropped it to the road as well. He kept one end of the rope in his hand. He pulled it around Mathias’ waist.

“My wife told those children their bedtime stories,” he said as he tied a tight knot. “Now she tells Oracle the stories he wants to hear. Stories that justify his actions.”

“So now he pays for his stories?” Mathias asked.

“No,” the innkeeper said curtly. “For the villagers, Alma has stories that have their children up there safe and happy until they’re returned. He pays for those lies.”

The innkeeper pulled the other end of the rope around his own waist and tied another tight knot. The men were now bound together with only a few feet of rope between them.
 

“Stay close. Keep the rope between us taut. Do not wander, even for inches. It is not safe.”

Mathias didn’t understand why this was necessary. The blockade was so thick, he wasn’t sure how they would even get through it let alone get separated in it.

 
“Do not listen to anything you might hear. It will be difficult to do, but you will go mad if you do not.”

Mathias understood this rule completely.

“It is a long way to the cliffs. We will stop for nothing until we get there,” he continued to order. “We cannot have light while we travel.
 
It is not wise.”

With that he reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a pair of round wire framed glasses and put them on. The green lenses hid his eyes, but Mathias knew he was staring at him again. He reached into his own pocket and found a pair there waiting for him.

“These lenses will help you see. They were invented by Elias Darke to help us explore our world. Now we’ll use them to survive in it. Put them on.”

Mathias watched as the innkeeper shifted his weight from his bad leg to his good leg. He winced in pain as he did.

“How did you injure your leg?” Mathias asked.

“I earned it battling the Fetcher, while trying to save a little girl in the woods. She was the first child to be taken, but certainly not the last.”

“Was she a little blonde girl?”

The innkeeper glared at Mathias suspiciously.

“I felt her presence as I stumbled my way through the woods.” Mathias revealed. “I wanted to save her too.”
 

The innkeeper nodded and smiled for the first time.

“She had quite a little mind. A little player of parts she was, a princess, an enchantress, even a king. She was full of make believe. But we lost her.”

“What was her name?”

The man’s face went blank and a sadness came upon him.

“I don’t remember,” he admitted hesitantly. “You asked how we could do nothing. What is there to do when your children and babies are taken, hidden in a place you can see but dare not go to? Sadder still is even if you could, the parents of those children and babies will not do a thing out of fear. Fear that they themselves created.”

The innkeeper reached down, picked up the lantern and was about to blow out the flame, but then he stopped.
 

“My name is Ulysses. I chose this name for myself from a character in a story Alma told me when we were children. I do not know who you are, or where you come from stranger. I do not need to know anything about you. You probably will not live to see the end of the journey you have chosen, and I cannot waste what little space I have left in my free mind with useless information.”

He blew out the flame in the lantern, and the darkness came down upon them.

“Since they were all taken, no others have been born. We do not age. We do not die. We just exist. Truth be told, we were all lost before the child went mad,” he said as he walked passed Mathias towards the blockade. “This nightmare is not yours. It is ours.”

There is a moment that occurs when people first meet. A moment when observations and conclusions are made. Mathias’ first moment with the villagers was frightening and cold. And yet he remembered the woman crying at the inn. He remembered her red, clouded eyes.

The people of the Village Darke were in pain, and Mathias was beginning to truly understand their sadness.

 
Mathias’ first moment with Ulysses included a knife and a threat. Now the man with the self given name was doing everything he could to help him. Mathias was grateful, but not entirely sure he should trust him. And yet he did.

Mathias put his glasses on.

The lenses were very effective. Everything was bathed in a green hue, but everything was quite visible. He looked up towards the castle. The entire structure was giving off a faint light. What little ambient light there was in this world was being provided by the castle itself.
 

The lenses were borrowing illumination from the stronghold in which Mouse was being held, in order to light the way to him.

Mathias felt a tug at the rope around his waist. Ulysses was stepping closer to the blockade. It was the same twine of folly as before, but this time, because of the lenses, he could see movement. The blockade was slowly moving, gently breathing, and ever growing.

Ulysses raised his arms and put his hands on the natural wall. Over his shoulder, he gave Mathias a wink, smiled a crooked smile, and turned his attention back to his task.

He placed his hands on one of the wide vines and for a moment nothing happened. Then gently, he began to move it. And it moved with his touch. He moved several other pieces in this maze in this manner. Each one responded willingly to the movement. The plant life remembered and respected him.

In that first moment when people meet, observations and conclusions are made. Mathias was learning very quickly that the observations and conclusions he made about the people of the Village Darke were wrong.

Ulysses had created an opening large enough for both men to step into. Mathias felt another tug at the rope tied around his waist. This time he followed without question.

10
.

The Castle in the Sky

The Castle in the Sky has a long history and many names. It has a past, a present and a future all at once. Designed by one man, drafted by a dozen, and executed by thousands, at its birth it was an idea so radical that some thought it would topple over on top of them.

Applying all their craftsmanship and the inventive designs of Elias Darke, the villagers labored to build what they first called the Castle on the Rock. They put their hopes and dreams into their work and imbued their construction with a special energy all its own. The castle compound consisted of three distinctively separate sections that all worked together to make a whole.

The Exchange was built for commerce and equity. It was the working machinery of their world. Trading and lending houses were put side by side with guilds and societies, and merchant and business concerns. It managed the goods of the people. It fueled the practical side of their hopes and dreams.

The Institute was a place of learning. Great minds would gather with young and old alike to teach in classrooms and lecture halls. Important debates and discussions were held there, volumes of knowledge and learning were stored there, all with the belief that an educated people would be a strong people. This was of cardinal importance to securing the well being of future generations.

The Towers housed the family, their staff, and those who cared for the castle and its grounds. The seven gabled mansion and its three towers were a glorious legacy from the ones who built it to the ones they chose to lead them. It was to be a safe haven from the pressures of ruling. It was meant to be their home.

The castle complete, the villagers gave their accomplishment its second name. They named it Darke Tower Castle after the man that inspired its creation, and because the villagers knew of Elias’s unbounded love of the void up above, they named the endless emptiness around their world the Darke Sky.

Since then the Castle in the Sky had seen many events that brought it to its current condition. The buildings and shops of the Exchange had long ago fallen into the sea. Instead of freeing minds, the Institute had become a prison to the very minds they tried to free. The Towers and the mansion buildings were still a haven and home, but now it was murder and mystery that resided there.

It was in the presence of this once magnificent but still imposing structure that Mathias and Ulysses had stopped. They had made their way through the blockade in silence. It was an exhausting endeavor. Once passed it, they made their way to the end of the path which stopped at the edge of a cliff.

They sat at the drop with their legs hanging over the edge.
 
Directly across from the two men were the rock tower and the castle. Below them was the inky blackness of the sea around this world. Remains of buildings, shops and institutions littered the gentle surf far beneath their feet. Large pieces of what once must have been a massive bridge leading to the tower was still trying to make its way there, but it was broken and drowning.

Their first attempt at a conversation was awkward and forced. Ulysses had told Mathias a bit about the castle and its history. But that wasn’t the tale he wanted to tell. There were other graver things on his mind.

“We wanted to prove to ourselves that we could do it and we did,” Ulysses said. “It was our obligation to make it work and we failed.”

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a silver flask. He tugged at the cork that kept it sealed, took a drink and then passed it to Mathias.

“Have a drink,” he insisted. “You’ve earned it.”

Mathias sniffed at the mouth of the flask. The smell was fruit filled and inviting.

“It’s mulled wine distilled from branchberries,” Ulysses said with a hint of pride. “I make it myself.”

Thirst made Mathias adventurous. It was sweetened and spiced well. The drink warmed his innards and almost immediately made his head spin. It was a strong wine. Ulysses chuckled as he took the flask back, took a quick swallow and passed it back to Mathias.