Emma and the Minotaur (20 page)

Will couldn’t help but laugh. “What are they?” he said. They were just standing there now, staring at them.

Mr Wilkins chuckled. “Teakettlers,” he said. “Very shy creatures, supposedly.” He raised his hands in the air. “Shoo!” he said, gesturing. “Off you go now! Shoo!”

The teakettlers moved away from them, walking backward, until they disappeared into the dark.

“What a teakettler?” Will said.

“Those things,” Mr Wilkins said, grinning. “You should look them up when this is all done. They whistle like a teakettle, that’s why the name, and they only walk backwards.”

“All stories are true,” Emma said.

Mr Wilkins turned to her. “The humming. I didn’t know you liked Beethoven. But the light is still on and you’re not humming anymore.”

“I didn’t either,” she said. “But that’s strange. I guess I don’t need to hum with my voice. I’m still doing it on the inside.”

Emma looked at her watch. It was seven forty-five. Funny, that, she thought, and smiled at the cartoon mouse. They walked on into the night, their way shown by the light of the flute.

“I wonder what else is out there,” Will said as they walked among the trees.

“Everything,” Emma said.

They said no more until they reached the clearing.

The grinning gray mouse on her watch told Emma that it was eight fifteen when it happened. Emma almost giggled at the mouse but before she had the chance, the thunder was upon them. It was like waking up from a dream. A single step had taken them into an enormous clearing with a single tree in the middle. This clearing was big. It was a great, roughly circular field with a lone giant tree in the middle. Emma knew that this wasn’t her tree, not Mr Oak, but it was his twin, the one that was helping Minotaur. She also knew that this enormous clearing wasn’t a normal part of the forest but it was as though all the trees had moved away to make room for what was happening inside it.

It was a picture of chaos. Surrounding the tree, there were dozens upon dozens of restrained human beings guarded by creatures of all kinds. There were centaurs, chimeras, trolls, gorgons, and harpies, among others. More creatures were coming into the clearing and they were carrying or dragging screaming or unconscious humans. Now and then, one of the prisoners would get away and run for the trees but he or she would be caught almost immediately and dragged back to the group and punished.

Near the great tree in the middle stood the minotaur. He was like a general watching his troops. He was standing next to a portal that had opened in the great trunk of the tree and he was supervising as trolls snatched up the closest humans and threw them into the opening, one by one.

“Oh my god,” Mr Wilkins said.

Emma stopped her humming immediately so that they wouldn’t attract attention. They didn’t need the light anymore for the sky was scorched there. It was red and it seemed broken like someone had taken a hammer to it and shattered it.

“Lucy,” Will said.

Emma turned to where he was pointing and saw her. She was one of the prisoners near the edge of the group. She was sitting on the ground and she was bloody and dirty. Her head hung down to her chest. There was a gash across her forehead and streaks of blood ran down her face. Emma didn’t see Jake anywhere near her.

“What now?” Will said.

“I don’t know,” Mr Wilkins said. “It doesn’t look like there is anything we can do.”

Lucy looked up from where she was sitting. She looked straight at them and her eyes widened. She took a frantic look around and then stood up and stumbled toward them. The girl looked like she could fall at any moment.

Lucy only took a dozen steps before she was noticed by one of the trolls that was lumbering about. He ambled toward her at a leisurely pace but its giant steps brought him upon her quickly.

Emma ran toward them. She got to halfway between them and the edge of the clearing and then she raised her flute in the air and hummed.

“Hey!” she called to the troll. “Here!”

The beast stopped for a moment and looked at her, seemingly puzzled. He gave her a frown and then looked at Lucy, who collapsed to the ground. He left her there and moved toward Emma.

“Dad, get Lucy!” Emma said, and ran away from the girl and away from her family. Will and her father ran to Lucy and, together, they helped her up and walked her hurriedly toward the tree line.

Emma ran, but the troll was too big and too fast. He was upon her quickly. He reached out with his enormous hand.

Like a blur, the faun was between them. He crouched down on his goat legs and jumped forcefully into the troll, using his horns to batter the monster’s ribcage. Emma heard the loud crunch of breaking bones and saw the troll go limp and fall to the ground.

“Why have you come here?” Domino said.

“I needed to help my friends,” she said. “I called you but you wouldn’t come.”

“Domino isn’t my real name, girl. I am called Satyr. No matter. There is nothing you can do now. He is too strong and we must go. Hurry!”

There was thunder.

They looked toward the great tree and Minotaur was no longer there. Thunder boomed again and the monster was standing next to them. A pained expression crossed Domino’s face but it was followed by determination.

“Go!” he said to Emma and almost threw her toward the forest. She ran but looked back and saw the faun attempt the same thing that he had done to the troll. This time, his opponent easily swatted him aside and he fell hard on the ground. Domino stood up and went at the minotaur again.

Emma reached the forest and found Mr Wilkins and Will tending to Lucy.

“Where is Jake?” she said.

Lucy shook her head. “Gone,” she said and pointed toward the tree in the clearing.

Emma thought she could hear her own heart breaking in half. She felt dizzy and her body went limp. She found herself sitting on the ground somehow.

“Oh no,” was all she could say.

Mr Wilkins came over to her but Domino burst in on the group.

“What are you doing? Run!” he said. “Now!”

They could hear the rumble of the ground behind him.

“Lucy,” said Mr Wilkins, “can you run?”

“Go!” shouted the faun. He picked up Emma and put her on his back. The others helped Lucy stand up. They ran together at first. Jingles hopped beside Domino. The thunder gave chase.

“What can be done?” Mr Wilkins yelled as they ran.

“Nothing!” said Domino. “If Minotaur could be stopped then maybe the rest would retreat, but only to come back again. It’s over.”

“Can Minotaur be stopped?”

“No,” shouted the faun. “There is no power in this world strong enough.”

From her place on the back of the faun, Emma cried. Jake was gone and the world was ending. The roar of thunder was nearly upon them, and then the Minotaur would take them too.

“I never showed Jake my present,” she said. “My new mouse watch.” She looked at the time and the grinning mouse said it was eight thirty. It made her giggle through her tears.

“It’s eight thirty,” she said. “That’s funny.”

They broke into a clearing.

It was Mr Oak’s clearing. Emma realized what it was that the faun was doing. Maybe there was a way out of this. They could be transported out.

When Emma saw Mr Oak, the tree began to sing what sounded like a lullaby. It seemed that it was his way of saying that everything would be okay.

“Retreat and regroup,” she said as the faun reached the ancient tree. “Hello, Mr Oak.”

A line of light opened in the middle of the tree and it became a portal.

The faun put her down and they both turned to look back the way they had come. The rest of the group wasn’t as fast as Domino.

Emma managed a smile when she saw her family and her friend Lucy emerge from the forest and into the clearing. They had made it, and they would be safe for a while longer. Maybe they would be able to figure out some way to survive the end of the world.

Mr Wilkins and Lucy smiled back at her. Will gave her a grin.

There was thunder.

In an instant, Minotaur was upon them and he burst into them and sent Will and Lucy flying. He picked up Emma’s father by his leg and twisted, drawing a scream from the man.

Emma screamed along with him and started to run toward them. Domino grabbed her.

The minotaur threw William Wilkins down to the ground. His leg made an awkward angle.

Emma punched at the faun to no avail.

“No! Let me go!” she screamed.

Domino picked her up and threw her at the portal in the tree.

As Emma disappeared into the light, time seemed to slow down. She saw Minotaur raise a fist into the air to strike down her father.

Behind the monster, inside the forest, there was lightning.

15

The Wizard and the Lightning

Emma was floating in light.

She was in a space without bounds. There was new knowledge inside her and she didn’t know how it had gotten there.

One of the things Emma knew was that she was inside of the tree, and inside every tree, and that this was the place where every creature had come from.

Another thing Emma knew was a song, but she did not know its purpose.

A third thing she knew was the tree’s real name, and Emma realized that being told this was something very special and that she was privileged to hear it. The tree’s name was a song that was impossible to sing, but he was known as Life, and Yggdrasil, and Iusaaset, and more.

A fourth thing she knew was that the tree had once been greater, but it had waned as all things, even the trees, someday must.

A fifth she knew was that the tree’s twin was Knowledge.

Emma was not able to measure the passage of time in any manner. She tried to look at her watch but she was only able to see the things that were shown to her. It was peaceful there, where she was, and she became content to just float alone with her new knowledge.

A sixth thing she knew was that she would be betrayed, but not by whom.

The seventh thing she learned was a big thing that could not come to her all at once because it would drown her. It had to be given to her a little bit at a time.

Emma saw the world like it had been long ago, before any animal ever crawled or walked upon it. There were forests everywhere and they stretched from sea to sea. The planet was all green and blue and it seemed to ripple as the wind brushed the tops of the trees and made them sway.

For a very long time the world was like this, and so it would have remained but for the Lord of Light.

It began on a day when a concept appeared. It was a new thing unlike any that the trees had ever imagined. Among their forests, there came a creature who could move about by his own will, one that could affect the world in the ways of his choosing. The creature was the Lord of Light.

The trees saw the concept and they were curious about him and imagined more like him. In the light of the void they sang the new concepts, and they gave life to them, to the imitations of the original walker.

It was in this way that the elves came to be, and the dwarves, and the unicorns, centaurs and minotaurs, gnomes and goblins, and dragons and all the beasts and creatures that ever walked the Earth. They all came from the trees. They were birthed by their magic. They all came from the music.

The Lord of Light was the first, and he ruled over all the creatures of the world.

A long time passed, and then everything changed with the arrival of a creature unlike any that had existed before it. In an unprecedented, impossible event, both Life and Knowledge defined a concept, and contributed equal parts into it. The creature that came from this union was different. It was not as strong nor as fast as many of the others, but it was cunning and it had a freedom to devise its own destiny in a manner that would prove devastating. While the rest of the creation, save the Lord of Light, had to abide by the will of the trees, these new creatures, human beings, could choose to follow their own ways.

The reason for their independence was that no other intelligent creature could procreate like they could, in the manner of the animals. The rest relied on the trees to replenish their number but the humans could multiply among themselves. They soon spread throughout the world.

In time, the Lord of Light came upon a human woman that he took as his wife. The woman became the night, and she gained power over it. She was called the Queen of Darkness.

For millenia, the Lord of Light and his Queen of Darkness ruled over the creatures of the world, and all was in harmony.

But there came a day when the Queen of Darkness fell in love with a human being and took him to her bed. The Lord of Light, heartbroken, fled the Earth and went to a new place that he created. The new place was called the World of Light.

When they saw that the Lord of Light had gone, the humans ran amok. They found themselves unrestrained by his power. They could do as they would with the world. They brought down trees and they built houses. They killed the creatures that inhabited the forests and they ate them, and they wore their furs and made trinkets from their bones.