The Elderine Stone (13 page)

“
Grimble? I
said
did you
hear
that? Did you
hear
what they were talking about?”

“
Yes, master. I did,” a rough sounding voice answered in return. The boy’s companion shuffled forward on his chair. He was a small, unusual looking creature. It looked almost brown in appearance. It vaguely resembled an elf, but lacked the well-expressed features that any elf would naturally possess. Instead this creature looked like it was pulled from the ground, earth, leaves, twigs and all
.
In appearance it looked as if created by Mother Nature herself.

Perhaps it was half tree, and half elf.

“
They are going to the great
library
, to read about the Order of
Elderine
. What possible reason could they have for doing such a thing?” the boy pondered before pausing.

“
I think something unusual is happening Grimble, and we are not going to sit around here and watch it walk off. We will follow them to the library and find out exactly what they are up to.”

“
Good idea Master Devon” Grimble replied, without enthusiasm. He had been bound to his master, Devon Drake, since the boy’s birth and had endured many of the youngster’s ill-advised schemes in the past. Still, when one was bound to a house, and a good house at that – one that did not punish with hated metal, or forget to feed one – one did not disagree when the master’s mind was made up.

Devon had decided from the very moment he heard what Emily was talking about The Elderine Stone, that there was something unusual about the three characters. He noticed that Jason seemed very unusual, however thought that he was perhaps a distant stranger who was merely visiting the country. Devon had spent many hours each day studying the people of the world. Due to this he did possess some knowledge of the types of people from the surrounding lands. This boy however was different, unlike anything he had studied before. It wasn’t his looks but rather the way he acted, the way he held himself. Devon had the lucky fortune of being the King’s son, and one of the descendants of the Order of Elderine. Hearing the mentioning of the name by Emily only intrigued more interest and Devon knew he had to find out what exactly they were up to.

However, as one might come to expect, being the only prince of Haspar, carried certain duties that required fulfilling, and difficulties that required resolutions, which is why he was hiding in the bakery. He didn’t want to be spotted outside the castle walls. It wasn’t that the city was unsafe. It was the complete opposite of that, in fact it was very safe, perhaps too safe for his liking. Much to his resounding objections his mother and father were very strict, especially when it came to his studies. “The future King must know his Lands and History!” his father always told him, but Devon had always felt it would be better to get to know the lands of
today
rather than those of one thousand years ago.

Devon stood up from the table, pulled a hood over his head and walked towards the door of the shop.

“Have a nice day dears” the old lady behind the counter said as Devon sauntered by her.

Devon didn’t reply, and Grimble merely slightly inclined his wizened head.

As he passed by the table of bread and buns, Devon passed his hand over the table and deftly removed a bread roll, which he neatly tucked into his cloak pocket. It was so quick that neither the old lady nor Grimble managed to see.

He walked out of the shop, without paying any attention to the old lady or his pernicious act.

“
We have to keep a close eye on them. Though at the same time, we don’t want them noticing us.” Devon said as he peaked round a pillar outside the bakery. Jason and his friends weren’t that far away, Devon quickly withdrew back into the shadows to avoid being detected.

Jason, Emily and Sherbit were now walking towards the library. They held thoughts of what the guard had told them, to
walk straight towards the dome
. They had previously tried that several times before and felt that they were getting nowhere. They had decided that the guard’s advice should be heeded, and that’s exactly what they were going to do, head straight towards the dome and take no alterations in their direction.

As they walked with their goal in sight along the busy market street they failed to notice the two unfamiliar faces peering out from behind stalls along the road. Every now and then the two shifty characters would dart out from behind a wooden market stall to the next. From within busy swarms of energetic morning shoppers or from behind the rickety yet still very sturdy supports of buildings, stealthily running to catch up with the three unsuspecting companions. They continued to dash from one object to the next, artfully avoiding detection.

Unaware and unconcerned, the three friends walked on towards the dome of the Great Library. It wasn’t long before they had reached the end of the road and were once again faced with the decision, should they go left or should they go right?

“
I don’t understand” Emily said as she looked both ways then jumped a few times to see if she could see over the roofs that obstructed their path to the library. “We can’t possibly go straight ahead there is no way, passed this building in front.”

“Maybe that’s it, maybe we are supposed to go through that building, I mean there is no other way around it.” Jason replied.

“Well let’s go look, maybe one of those doors leads to an alley way, which will lead us to the library”

Devon and Grimble watched with suspicion from behind a trade cart that was sitting at the end of the road, they were considerably close to Jason and Emily who still didn’t notice. Sherbit, on the other hand, found his gaze returning again and again to the cart. His nose twitched. He could have sworn that the scent of those wonderful strawberry tarts had been following them from the bakery. He surreptitiously checked his tail for jam, just in case he had neglected to clean all of his body. Sadly he was a very particular cleaner, which meant there was no jam in sight, much to his disappointment. A slight movement brought his attention back to the cart, but he was distracted when Emily pulled him away as they walked towards the row of buildings facing the road.

“
Do you think he saw us Master?”

“
If he did I don’t think he would have done anything about it” Devon replied as he peaked over the cart to watch Emily rap on a few of the doors. “What are they doing anyway, why don’t they just go to the library?”

“Maybe they know we are here master, watching them”

“
Don’t be stupid Grimble” Devon said as he slapped the back of Grimble’s head. “If they knew we were watching them they would have come over and said something. I think they are lost, they don’t know how to get to the library.”

“
I don’t know which door it is, they all seem to be locked” Emily said as she tried to push open another door that had no reply to her tapping.

“
Maybe it’s this one over here” Jason pointed over to an old rusty looking door, with very ornate curves and designs around the marble frame. At the top of the door sat a very proud looking statue of an owl.

“
Well we should try it. Jason, try pushing that door open”

Jason walked up to the door and with a gentle push the door creaked and swung open. The door opened to reveal a street with rows of obscure looking buildings with robed men and women.

“
This must be it. Look!” Emily shouted as she pointed down the street. “We are in the library section of town, all these people are either philosophers, students of magic, or mentors” Emily looked around at all the robed figures walking from building to building carrying bundles of books, some had scrolls tucked neatly under their arms. It was a very different scene from the market street.

Sherbit was clinging to the ends of Jason’s cloak as the three friends walked passed the busy scholars and teachers of magic and history towards the blue dome of the Great Library. They could see the large white marble building in front of them. Six pillars stood proudly at the entrance of the great building, holding up the front of the large domed roof. Each pillar had a painstakingly carved figure of a robed man holding a book. Two stood facing each other, holding what looked like orbs in their hands.

Jason looked at the marvellous building. It was a masterpiece of creation, with smooth white marble walls surrounding the entire structure. There were large windows positions with equal distance along each wall. The blue dome was so rich and lustrous in colour, that Jason couldn’t take his eyes off it for long. Jason’s eyes were often drawn back to the figures embedded in the marble pillars - they reminded him of the robed men he had seen in his visions. He found them daunting. They seemed to watch his every move, but he knew that they were only statues, nothing more. They couldn’t
actually
be watching him, but he still felt something, a prickling sense of unease.

The statues kept their own council on the matter, but elsewhere, in an alley nearby, a slim shadow skulked. Jason and his companions were being watched by more than just Devon and Grimble.

“Well what are you waiting for? Let’s go in” Emily said as she started to walk up the marble steps towards the entrance of the library.

Sherbit followed her, jumping up each step, again he was humming a tune, very similar to the one he had been singing while they were walking towards Haspar.

“
Jason. Are you okay” Emily stopped as she turned around to see Jason standing at the bottom of the steps still staring at the figures in the statues.

“
Yeah I’m fine, it’s just these statues. I don’t know what it is.” Jason looked around again as if he was scouting the area, for anyone who might be watching. As soon as he felt assured that there was no one with any unwanted intentions, he followed Sherbit and Emily up the steps to the library entrance.

As soon as the three companions entered the library, Devon and Grimble walked out of a crowd of magic students, it was almost a miracle that they were actually able to hide among them.

Grimble started to walk towards the library but was quickly pulled back by Devon.

“
Where are you going? We don’t want to go into the library right after them. They will catch onto us, fool.” Devon said taking a bread roll out of his pocket which he had lifted from the bakery earlier. “We will wait here a while, then we will go in”

“
Good idea sire, we will wait here, then we will go in” Grimble said eyeing up the bread.

Stretching out his arm Grimble tried to grab the bread, but with a quick swoop of his hand across Grimble’s head Devon denied him the pleasure.

“
Grimble you have to stay focused. We have to be fully aware of our surroundings and concentrate on what these trouble makers are up too. If my father had heard what we heard, those three would be in prison by now” Devon took a bite of the bread. “But really where is the fun in that? Besides, if they are planning on doing what I think they are going to do, well then we can follow them, cut them to the chase, and win the goal for ourselves”

“What are they planning on doing, sire?” Grimble said still watching the remaining half of the bread.

“
Don’t you listen, Grimble? They are going to go to the North in the hopes of defeating the Dark Lady, and you know as much as I do, that we can not let that happen. It should be us, or rather me who defeats her, and not some outsider.”

“Oh yes, yes now I see.”

“
Okay Grimble let’s go see what they are up too” Devon said throwing the remaining piece of bread to the ground.

Grimble looked at it, as if it was the last piece of food around, but he quickly shook of the illusion when Devon pulled him along towards the Library.

The figure in the shadowed alley watched as Devon and Grimble walked towards the library entrance, then when they reached the steps the figure moved back into the shadows out of sight.

The entrance
chamber of the Great Library was a long and wide room. The air carried a peculiar smell, which you would expect to find, upon entering any building that was a monumental tomb of old books, scrolls and mysterious ancient artefacts. This library was no exception. It was the grandest of buildings that one could imagine. A strange looking circular object delicately floated in the air as if it had its own will to fly. It looked like a crystal clear glass globe which contained a strange swirling mixture of dark blue and purple liquid. The colours didn’t mix, but slowly swirled throughout the glass container, like an endless dancing sea. Three tubes emerged from the globe at different sides, one traced along a beam on the roof and disappeared through the back wall, and another followed a beam on the roof and then came down the left wall into a strange looking stone pedestal with equally strange looking markings up one side. The third tube went straight up through the roof, heading to goodness knows where. Along the wooden panelled walls stood several display cases containing old scrolls, books and tattered pages with various different images and texts. Curiosity filled Jason as he sensed the great magical histories that would be stored within the building. Leaving the others he walked over to one of the cases to look at its contents. Peering through the window of ones of the cabinets he noticed a plaque which was placed within glass enclosure. He read the plaque softly to himself.