Ch: 126 Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls
Lights and music rose from the house beside the haunted keep, carrying on all through the night. A man’s voice rose, accompanied by a very tight and dynamic band.
Worry the bottle Mamma, it's grapefruit wine,
Kick off your high heel sneakers, it's party time!
The girls don't seem to care what's on…
As long as they play 'til dawn
Nothin' but blues and Elvis
And somebody else's favorite song
“He’s doing that ‘Steely Dan’ thing again… wake up Shai.” Liam muttered, red eyed and cranky.
“Nahh, it’s fine. He’s got some feelings to work through with his new friend.” Becky yawned her words, but Liam was exhausted enough to understand. “You guys go to bed, we’ll keep him company.” She nodded to the two felines and Axio, chatting at a table in the garden.
Nara and Vreek were enjoying a refreshing mint tea, with just a sprinkle of Liam’s obscenely potent ‘nip. Immortal and tireless, Axio simply enjoyed new things and a chance to sprinkle a few spores in fresh territory.
Becky’s harp helped manifest the baron’s ghost in a more tangible and lifelike form and keep him stable. He was seated just across from Gary, reminiscing on his scattered, incomplete memories and smiling, while her brother played and sang to the moons.
Any major dude with half a heart surely will tell you, my friend…
Any minor world that breaks apart falls together again
When the demon is at your door,
In the morning it won't be there no more!
Any major dude will tell you,
Any major dude will tell you…
“What is this music? It makes no sense, yet is perfect for the moment…” Vreek wondered aloud.
“He has no secrets, ask and be confused.” Nara murred contentedly. “You will receive no simple nor comfortable answers from that one. Reegil fled from his presence without hesitation... Though that slippery otter will no doubt trumpet his own wisdom, when we return victorious.”
#
The madman was still deep in jazz rock territory, roaming the deep cuts, when the first rays of sunlight came over the garden wall, filtering through the trees.
Shai’s jingling bells heralded her arrival on the scene, with the three little hellions.
Gary paused and drew his flute out, piping a sweet, simple melody, it began as little more than a breathy whisper of anticipation. When the sun struck him, he stepped to the side, while drawing out a tenor recorder and playing a counter melody, along with his shadow self.
Soon, there were a dozen shadow swathed musicians, playing the increasingly complex, energetically layered piece. It swiftly gathered speed and energy, like a wave building towards shore and cresting higher.
“Tis a fine way tae see in the dawn…” Shai drew her violin and took up ‘Bolero’, a favorite of hers, for its slow build and wild passionate energy.
Rio was already adding his drum, helping Becky keep Figaro tangible and tapping his ghostly toes, to Ravel’s ‘Bolero’.
He was middle aged, medium height and build, a jolly, balding man with a kindly face. He gave off the ‘next door neighbor, who totally helps the local kids fix their bikes' vibes that were comfortable and warm when he smiled.
The blazing sun slowly rose through the fog and trees, bathing the garden in pearly light and wispy tendrils of glowing mist.
The triumphant finale rang out loud in the mist and fell silent, when Figaro stepped into Gary’s shadow and sank from view. A moment later, a massive raven shot out, winging for the distant sun in the morning sky.
“Wherever my buddy winds up, with a soul like that, evildoers better watch out… he’s giving off some superhero vibes. A real Batman kinda feeling.” Gary stood and stretched with a sad, tired smile.
“He seemed too classy to wear his underwear on the outside.” Becky mumbled as she staggered for bed. “Sorry, I can’t travel like this… need a nap at least.”
#
Gary and Becky stumbled down at third bell, looking marginal at best. The boy’s shadow was tattered and thin, while Becky had faint dark circles under her eyes and a listless gait.
Shai and Ivy were busy using a conjured food dehydrator of novel design, to dry a huge quantity of the golden figs. Liam was busy preserving leaves and sap samples in brine and alcohol while Axio carefully tended his small forest of cuttings. Overall it appeared everyone was having a productive day.
The late night crew was still bleary eyed and groggy, when they set out after fourth bell, traveling in formation again. Gary and Becky wound up in the wagon, while the kids rode double with the group, the giggling brats gleefully handed to and fro as they rode.
Backtracking their own trail proved swift and more comfortable for everyone, particularly their guide, who seemed to have been mentally strained by the ordeal.
“After this, I shall stay home and happily work the bellows for Cheri… for a week… perhaps less.” He lounged across his pony’s shoulders and neck, showing clear signs that Nara and the kid’s ‘Horsie’ guild was still training new members.
“You ever wonder just how many secret societies there are?” The sleepy musician asked his tired sister and high priestess.
“Ducky says there are hundreds that have large memberships and cross town and domain borders. As for local clubs and cults… numberless as the stars in the sky.” She replied, before slipping down into the wagon bed for a nap.
“Tis only because we hae been on the move we hae nae been contacted by some. No doubt the shipwright’s guild an barge association will hae interest in Seahorse.” Shai said quietly, with Wilford on her lap.
“The publicans an innkeeper’s lodge will wish us tae register, as will the league of brewers an vintners. United alchemists did send a note last month, but twas directed tae Muktar by mistake. He did conceal thy name an nae mention it at my request.” She sighed fondly at her madman. “I’ll be keeping thee hidden as long as I may, despite yer antics.”
A scant half hour later, they crossed the fringe, leaving Vreek confused and upset. “Does the fringe usually move like that? Wasn’t it like, miles ahead yet?” Gary asked, when he noticed the jaguar man getting fidgety and stressed.
“Several miles to go, before we should cross… The fringe never moves, not by an inch in centuries. Even then, only to draw closer, contracting the lands of men and beastfolk alike.” His whiskers twitched constantly and the poor guy’s tail looked like a bottlebrush.
“It’s still moving. Slowly, but the scale of the thing is disturbing.” Luna said quietly, slowing, and falling back from the front. “There is no protocol for reporting an expansion of the fringe… we should simply fail to mention this and let word spread naturally. Deniability is a powerful tool.”
#
Poor phillip was absolutely flummoxed, so many sudden changes and new things had him in a tizzy. When the message arrived by courier, he skimmed it and rushed to find Julius, his face alternating between ghostly pale and flushed crimson.
“Your gr-... Julius, something is happening at the fringe… it’s moving.” Now it was the duke’s turn to look ashen and waxy. “Reports are confused, some even claiming that the fringe is in retreat… Chaos, utter madness.”
“Have we evacuated everyone? How much is lost?” He whispered sadly. “Never mind, rally my guard, we ride in defense of our people.”
Gadfly Jules vanished in a moment, replaced by duke Julius Rummel, heir to seventeen generations and determined not to be the last.
The duke’s personal guard thundered from the palace gates and flew up the road, with a baggage train following long after.
“Gods, if only we had a travel gift such as Belen is rumored to have…” Julius shouted over the thunder of his troop. “How does Wheatford obtain such riches? Our new friends are a potent blend of abilities as well, it boggles the mind...”
“Perhaps they have some secret training regimen… certainly we have seen nothing like…” Guard captain Alex looked a little sour as he spoke. “Like your new friend Gary… How many strange creatures does duke Belen have in that backwoods farming town? Do they grow oddities and potent gifts among the cabbages?”
It was a long road and horses can only run so far… they had plenty of time to walk, talk and speculate, while their mounts rested.
#
“Expanded? Into a ‘mushroom wonderland’? ‘Fantastic Fungal Forest’? What is this madness from my fringe watchers?” Leo was cranky and letting it show.
They hadn't caught wind of any more of the strange summoning cult in days, not a whiff after a sudden flurry of activity. That set his nerves on edge.
Nervous knights usually settle their stress by either enjoying a nice cup of herbal tea, or driving a lance into something otherworldly and vile. Tea was not cutting it today.
Mikkel, as senior Adventurer and Amicus, as the head of the college, were in the room, but gruff and hoarse old Anglin of War was doing the briefing.
“Out where those weird kids reported cult activity… mushrooms. I send scouts in, but enough of the growths are intoxicating, clouds of spores… That’s why they write reports like that… Now half my troops are requesting patrol duty in the new territory. Bunch of shroom heads.”
“How much new territory?” The duchess asked sharply. “Acres? Miles?”
“The border is still falling back, so far two historic baronies have been reclaimed, Ersen and Quinn. Neither house has any survivors to make a claim. The lost county of Kinnis has emerged as well… there is no eligible direct heir… at the moment, though that may change, in five and a half years or so.” Anglin’s growly voice got almost happy at the end there.
“Kinnis, Kinnis... Oh! Where is Tony? We’ll need some legal paperwork… we’ll appoint some conservators while we look for heirs… should take… some considerable time.” The duke mumbled happily, making some notes in his scrawling, childlike hand.
“Julius sent the kids out into the wilds, chasing some nest of minor undead… when they get back in town, we’ll have Tawny assume management of that pesky little county…”
The petite duchess made a dignified snorting laugh of derision. “Helene will be apoplectic, she has a distant claim to that title and has been rumbling about forming an expedition to Kinnis for years now. She might boil in her robes… You are a very cruel man, Leopold Belen. Young Liam and his friends have already irked that tedious woman.” The golden duchess sighed happily.
“Using your daughter’s strange friend as a scourge against your enemies is very dangerous. That boy is unpredictable, as is Helene.” Mikkel grumbled, thumping his peg leg once for effect.
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Anglin coughed quietly as well. “My lord, undermining discipline by provoking a known idiot with an unknown mooncalf, possessing strange arts and odd knowledge seems… unwise, currently.”
“I will not administrate my domain around the whims and desires of Helene Kinneman, no matter how influential her kin.” He stood, and put on his ‘dukeyest’ voice.
“Tawny will be conservator and responsible for reviving and improving whatever remains of the county of Kinnis and its domains, after…” He looked to Anglin who checked his notes.
“Records are scanty my lord… seven or eight hundred years, perhaps one thousand.” Anglin shifted in his robes, looking uncomfortable.
“Records are very scanty… I know I resisted putting literacy back in the orphanage curriculum…” As though each word were an insect sting, he spoke with painful hesitation.
“I find myself wondering why, when I so often bemoan the lack of records and my illiterate army. Why do your mad wizardling’s bath-time fairy-tales seem to ring in my ears as I try to sleep?”
Leopold just smiled and nodded at his old commander.
#
“Riders, six, approaching fast… well, as fast as humans can in this bog.” Nara chittered while pouncing from a mangrove onto the cart.
“Banner?” Khan asked briskly, as he freed his lance.
“None, but they saw me not. If anything they suspect they were seen.” She purred happily. “They are skilled… one of your elite warbands perhaps?”
“How far, how long?” Luna demanded, riding back from her flanking position.
“An hour as they travel, perhaps less. By human reckoning this should still be the wilds, they may be confused. Can you work this ‘travelin music’ spell, that we may avoid them?”
Gary levered himself up from the bed of the cart with a groan. “I’m still wiped and we need open road for that. I say, make camp and meet them on our turf. But I just remember, I aint reliable right now.”
“Eldritch Diarrhea.” Becky announced to the whole band, while his face turned bright red. “I warned you, but you'll eat anything…”
Dry land was hard to come by at the moment, so they settled for a boggy island in a marshy lake. Shai intended to use the dock to bridge the gap between their new home and the shattered road. Gary just strummed and sang from a camp chair… and provided the magic.
It must be getting early,
Clocks are running late.
Paint by numbers morning sky,
Looks so phony!
Shai and Becky laughed and skipped through his nonsense song, trying to figure out the lyrics, while they danced. Even wrung out like an old rag, her boy brought the weird.
Dawn is breaking everywhere,
Light a candle, curse the glare!
Draw the curtains, I don't care,
'Cause it's alright…
Shai was sweating and breathing just a little hard when he finished ‘A Touch Of Gray’.
“T’were heavy an unwieldy, yer magic… summat changes in thee, boy… by the gods…!” She spun in place slowly taking in her workings.
For a hundred yards, beyond the usual limit of his influence, the garden spread in almost dreamlike perfection. Verdant grassy fields, thriving herb and vegetable plots, fruit trees and even a small vineyard were all surrounded by a waist high, white picket fence. Twining vines of flowers, berries and thorns decorated the fence and the stone walls of the island home.
An arching bridge of stone crossed onto the island, but the entire lake and its surrounds were within the new boundary. Colossal lily pads floated in the crystal clear water of the pond, as lotus flowers bobbed between and among them.
Paths and walkways ambled through the pleasant grounds, circling the lake and winding among the fruit trees. Paper lanterns dangled every few yards, cunningly placed to illuminate the path, without dazzling any stargazers.
Fireflies twinkled in all the shrubs and garden beds, while nocturnal predators feasted on the skeeters and blood suckers cast out to his perimeter.
The pools swirled and bubbled energetically, while strange new spices perfumed the air, riding an even more impressive cloud of steam.
From the highest rafter, a hive dangled, swarming with fat, black, sugar wasps, slowly patrolling the yard and visiting the blooms.
Gary held up an index finger, expectantly. Shortly, one buzzed drunkenly over and alighted on his finger. With a puff of his breath, the insect dissolved into a small clot of smoke, then reformed, buzzing off on its mission.
“I’m too tired to figure it out, but those wasps are not real. It’s ok.” He sagged onto a stool, barely able to sit steady. “How long til company comes?”
“Half an hour… less after this spectacle. Any mage within a mile must have sensed that casting.” Luna muttered.
“Gary, into the grotto, you’re a liability right now.” Liam spoke firmly and backed it up by having Tallum lift him up and drag him limply away.
“I’ll remember this indignity… probably.” He mumbled sleepily when Tawny tapped her wand to his forehead.
#
Wine red, nearly purple silk, embroidered with a moon and four stars in gold waved in the golden sunshine. The banner of the duchy of Shiraz was a brave sight, lifted on a lance in the fading afternoon sun. Even at one foot square.
They rode up to the limit of the grassy sward, delineated by a line as clean as a knife cut. Well groomed turf of wild grasses, low growing herbs and mosses inside, scraggly marsh plants and stringy reeds outside.
The charming fence with the toxic bramble and pretty flowers made it even more sinister.
“Hail the inn… we ride under the banner of Abed Mubarek, duke of Shiraz, on contract to investigate strange events and… well, probably this house…”
He turned to the riders behind him and spoke softly. “I feel like an utter fool… look at this place. Witchcraft beyond a doubt.”
“Oh, yeah… I’d be suspicious too…” A tall, brown haired, brown eyed man in common workman’s clothes spoke, from right beside his stirrup. Barefoot, he was playing a guitar of some type, strolling among their troop, smiling and strumming.
His crew of veterans bobbed their heads and clapped or whistled along to ‘Tinker In The Lane’, a traditional favorite, when a high energy jig was needed.
They were already several measures into the song… with surprise, Irving realized he was whistling the melody, and had been for a while.
#
“Where’s Gary?” Becky asked very calmly, as the riders approached the outer fence line.
“We did put him in the grotto an Tawny did put him tae sleep. Hae he wandered? Check the workshop.” Shai muttered distractedly, peering at the riders. Odd, Nara reported six, now there were seven people, one afoot and holding a guitar…
“Oh gods…” Liam, Khan, he be out among them.”
#
“I’m having the weirdest dream right now…” The lunatic said, strolling around barefoot, among the completely unconcerned horses, still picking a sprightly tune.
“Do you guys ever wonder, did the first person to knock on a door think, ‘I’m going to punch your house until you come out and talk to me.’?”
“What is it? It looks human, but can we be sure?” Matt whispered to Vergil.
“I say we cut it in half to find out… Cause he’s making me nervous.” The big ax man grumbled.
“Are arms for your chair just chairs for your arms?” The strange musician asked no one in particular, while opening the gate and waving them through.
A large, red haired hillwoman came sprinting out to collect the man, dragging him away with promises of tea and cookies.
“Oh! Goodie, I was feeling snacky… did I wander off?” He sang cheerfully.
A small man with an outrageous mustache strolled out after the hillwoman, waving a greeting. “Irving? Did you re-up with War?” Khan shouted across the expanse of lawn.
“Khan! I thought you and Luna would be off somewhere making bab…-”
Just then, Luna dashed out the gate pursuing a trio of tiny children, who were in turn, running after the huge red haired girl and her wandering idiot.
“You work quickly my friend.” The man in the armor of a captain of War’s legion said with a grin.
#
“You are now Wheatford’s Adventure guildmaster and these are the greenies that have been making so much noise…” He swallowed all that in just a few bites, Khan was always odd anyway. “The strange one… Is he Belen’s new mad wizard?”
“Certainly not.” Khan protested, hastily. “He’s no more a wizard than I am.” He replied with a wink.
“More of your ‘orphan’s secrets’ Khan? This brushes up against my lord’s specific orders, walk carefully if you wish to keep your secrets.”
Viscount Irving Kline came into War’s legion’s rolls the way most minor nobles did. Too many children, not enough inheritance, as a result he had a more relaxed view of social position and relative ranks.
The family estate was little more than a single farmhouse and an almost thriving dairy operation, run by his wife and sisters. His pay kept the operation afloat in lean times, while they kept him sane when got the occasional chance to go home on leave.
Watching the hillwoman and the four children play on the lawn felt homey and very natural, setting his nervous mind at ease… Until he remembered they were somewhere out in what should have been the wilds, in a surreal inn that should not exist.
“I imagine you will pretend innocence with regards to the fringe retreating…” He muttered, trying to sound disgruntled, but the three tiny kids were doing something adorable with the horses that defied explanation, including his own parties’ mounts.
“Rather let us say, We have no clue as to why the fringe is behaving oddly. Our contract was a straightforward eradication of a minor undead infestation, which we completed.” He smiled beneath that stache, smooth as ever.
“If duke Mubarek wishes a copy of our report, he need only request it, after the appropriate filing period.”
Khan stood from the bench and motioned the small troop towards a gate in the vine topped wall. “Hot baths, hot food, warm beds. Perhaps a bit of beer and wine if we can behave… all those await inside.” Khan called to the riders, as the occupants of the house took the warrior’s mounts into the stables for a good rubdown.
“Our hosts will tend your horses, is anyone in need of medical attention, horses or people?” A compact young warrior with spiky black hair asked crisply, all efficiency and precision. Three women in robes, including the oldest of the children, performed the usual wildland medical exams on the mounts and riders, with brisk and careful attention to detail.
The small warband found themselves soaking in a vast garden pool of turbulent, bubbling hot water that soothed every part of them. Tea and cakes, quiet conversation and some time inside four sturdy walls lulled the veterans into complete relaxation.
#
In the bath, the private pool seemed to no longer have a bottom… Wilford swam down so deep, Shai began to fret and then panic. Just as she was about to dive after, he vanished and popped out of the waterfall with a deranged giggle of joy.
“Yay!”
Soon all three were swimming down and shooting out from above, laughing in glee. Dannyl watched as the wee ones dove down and erupted from nowhere, until he had to try it.
With an instinctive, gasping deep breath, he dove, swimming down deeper and deeper in the hot, swirling water. When he hit his limit, Dannyl let the not quite water flood his lungs. It had been terrifying the first dozen times, now it was just frightening.
He forced himself into the slow steady rhythm Wilf had taught him, exchanging the water in his lungs very slowly, to keep himself from panicking. Satisfying the breathing instinct went a long way in staying calm.
Now at least twenty yards down, he felt a strange suction on his upper body, not like the water was being drawn in, more like HE was being drawn somewhere.
#
Dannyl flew out from the waterfall with a horrified, wailing scream of mortal dread. He splashed down heavily, thrashing like a mad thing, until Becky and Shai wrestled him down enough for Tawny to cast something.
“Red, hideous red cloud… watching, watching forever, watching me, forever…” He stammered, rocking back and forth on the paving stones, wrapped in a robe.
“Ohh! Yeah, the waterfall takes you right by the Devourer Of Souls… They're funny!” Amy sang happily. “Don’t be scared, everybody meets the Devourer, someday!”
“It almost touched me…” He shuddered and gasped, great, heaving breaths that shook his whole body as he calmed himself.
“They’re interested in us, mortals hardly ever appear there naturally…” Amy patted him on the shoulder and smiled sweetly.“Now they know your name, you made a friend!”
Wilford shot from the waterfall again, in a huge torrent of bubbly, steamy water whooping ecstatically.
“Amy, Wilford, Rio! Dinnae sport wi the nature of reality an entities older than the world… tis bound tae distress the others.” With an effort of will, a stone floor appeared, cracked and fissured to allow the water to circulate. The nervous bathers relaxed a bit with something solid under their feet.
“Awww… no fair…” Rio grumbled, sulkily with his brother and sister standing by, dripping and unhappy.
“Go look behind the waterfall, ye silly whelps, I hae a sinkhole intae the beyond for ye there.” She shook her head and sighed, mocking disappointment and frustration. “They do learn these things from that man of mine… foolish bairn that he is.”
#
Irving settled into the vast pool in the garden and watched steamy water shoot from the foundation stones of the house, in a constant torrent. Every once in a while, a tiny naked child would shoot from the fissure in the stones, swim to the edge of the pool and scamper off giggling wildly.
They invariably vanished through a flowered arbor, darting into the inner reaches of this mad place, only to erupt again, from the gushing fissure in the wall.
“I must see this…” Emma, their priestess of Dana, rose from the bath and swathed herself in one of the ridiculously soft robes. She followed the young dark skinned boy with a tight cap of kinky ebon curls, shining with water droplets in the evening sun. “Wait for me young man!” She called.
With the child’s bare butt leading the way, Emma vanished into the arbor, reappearing alone a moment later looking confused. “Odd…” She muttered, then turned about, marching back in.
Mere seconds later, she confidently strolled out, and back into the large garden pool, meeting Amy on the way in. “Hi I’m Amy, you were chasing Rio, he didn’t like that. Do you know any fun songs?”
“No sweet child… I don’t, can you tell me why I cannot pass through this arbor?” She asked, squatting down to converse with the strange girl.
“The private pool is for family… I like you, you can come play!” Just like that, a tiny hand clasped hers and led her off through the enormous white trumpet blooms and leafy shadows.
The big garden pool was beautiful, warm, welcoming and bubbly, the other side of the arbor sent her mind reeling. Dense clouds of steam drifted everywhere, creating an atmosphere of quiet and privacy, even with others in the bath.
Foliage, blossoms, moss and rounded stones were the overall theme. Long shafts of bamboo arched up and inward around the courtyard bath. Twining and flowering jasmine invaded every gap and space that was not currently being taken up by flowering ginger and camelias.
She gasped in pleasure as Amy tugged on her hand. “Come on… you wanted to see.”
“Amy, dinnae tug on our guest so, tis rude. They be new tae our company an may be unsure. Be at ease priestess, we hae no worries here.” The giant hillwoman from outside was floating naked, with the brown haired man, who seemed nearly unconscious.
“Is your companion ill? He seems moontouched and odd, but this sleep is unnatural.” She murmured softly.
“Tis duskmoon pollen, wi acolyte Tawny’s strongest spells that keep him asleep. We did fight wi an intoxicating slug, he were slimed most thoroughly. Best we leave him sleep it away, he kin be troublesome.”
“Gary ate a big gross slug, then he did a bunch of funerals, I’d be sleepy too!” Amy chirped. “Come try the waterfall…”
“Amy, No! Dinnae put outsiders through the waterfall, she will nae thank thee for it, child.” Shai scolded her daughter gently, but firmly. “Look what it hae wrought in Dannyl, the poor bairn.”
She nodded in the direction of a pale, waxen faced young man, sipping tea wrapped in a robe and blanket in the corner.
He met her eyes with a haunted gaze, forlorn and stressed beyond endurance. “Don’t, do it. Gods, don’t do it, the things I saw…”
Emma disengaged from the tiny dynamo who was still cajoling and trying to get the priestess to follow her into a small pool of swirling water near the waterfall. “Your friend looks unwell, duty calls me away, miss Amy.”
With a huff of disappointment that made the priestess smile, the little girl sprinted over and leapt into the swirling pool and vanished.
A moment later, while the healer was still making her way over to the shaken form in the corner, she shot from the waterfall and into the pool with a loud whooping laugh.
“Dannyl, he be under the care of our healer, Acolyte Tawny… he did simply see summat distressing.” The hillwoman said softly, appearing at her side while she checked the young man’s pulse and breathing.
“Yeah, ‘distressing’ that’s the word.” He mumbled. “I never felt so… small before, so mortal.” The lad’s voice was distant and cold, as though touched by something deeply alien.
“Mistress Shai, you say he ‘saw something’, was this during your recent undead contract? Perhaps we should investigate the scene…”
A sweet golden voice rang out behind Emma, causing her to jump and blush bright red. “Dannyl is well, he will be in full possession of his faculties soon, I have that assurance from an expert in the field.” Tawny smiled and rested a hand on her patient’s shoulder.
“Brushes with the eternal and unfathomable are a risk of the Adventurer’s trade, as you well know, priestess Emma.”
#