The Invisible Tower (7 page)

“Thank you,” Kynder replied. “And thank you also for selling Artie that lucky controller. I've never seen someone play a video game as proficiently as Kay did today. Really, I hesitate to say it, but it was almost magical!”

Merlin beamed. “Imagine that! I'm glad to have been of service and I thank you for your gratitude. As a gesture of goodwill, I wonder if you might allow me to give you the dollar tour?”

“That would be great, wouldn't it, guys?”

Artie and Kay both said sure.

“Fantastic!” Merlin said. He tented his fingertips. “Well, you've seen the store, so let's continue with the really interesting stuff, which happens to be in the basement.”

Merlin moved behind the desk and parted the curtain, holding out his hand as an invitation. Kynder accepted and walked to the back.

“Here we go, I guess,” said Kay.

Artie, bringing up the rear, confirmed, “Yep, here we go.”

And they went downstairs.

Kynder didn't get to see
all
the interesting stuff—only because he was so impressed by the second room. As soon as they'd stepped into the tropical greenhouse, Kynder gawked like a kid in a candy store.

“Ghost, phantom, Florida blue!” Kynder's finger pointed around the room, indicating orchids. “A nun's orchid, a pansy. Oh, look! What's that one, Merlin?”

“A Dracula cutis-bufonis.”

“My goodness, it's hideous! It's gorgeous!”

“Thank you, Mr. Kingfisher. How about you stay here with these precious plants while Kay and Artie and I carry on? I've a few things to discuss with them.”

Enraptured, Kynder absently said, “Yes, yes, that's fine.”

Artie and Kay shared a puzzled look. Merlin said, “Great. Follow me, then, children.”

Merlin led them through the same rooms that Artie had seen the day before, and they were every bit as fantastic the second time through.

Artie watched his sister closely. He was glad to see that he was not the only one who couldn't believe what was happening. Yet Kay's open mouth and widened eyes made him a little more afraid. What he couldn't believe was happening
was happening
.

Eventually they reached a comfy sitting room, and Merlin stopped. The room had three overstuffed leather chairs arranged around a low, round coffee table.

“Please, sit down,” the old man said. They did. Merlin stood behind the chair opposite them.

Kay studied the room. Its walls consisted mostly of shelves covered with musty scrolls and hefty tomes; it smelled ancient and was lit by dim electric sconces. Aside from the books, a whole shelf was devoted to an elaborate, open-air terrarium, in the middle of which stood a large mushroom-shaped thing made of Legos. As she looked closer, she saw windows in its large red cap, and a brown drawbridge door in its sturdy stem. In front of the mushroom house on a patch of moss were a little table and chair. And then, suddenly, she noticed something move behind one of the windows. She shook her head, but there it was again: the silhouette of a small man. Her heart quickened. To conceal her anxiety she pointed at the coffee table and quipped, “So, what, is this like the first meeting of the new knights of the Round Table?”

Merlin chuckled and said, “Well, I hadn't meant it that way, but yes, it is!”

Artie clapped his hands on his knees and with a lot of uncharacteristic authority he proclaimed, “All right—if this is supposed to be the Round Table, and I'm supposed to be King Arthur, and you're supposed to be my wizard—why don't you tell us whatever it is you're going to tell us?”

Kay playfully punched her brother on the shoulder and said, “You tell him, Your Highness!”

Merlin was equally impressed. He sat and stared intently at both Kingfisher children. Then he said, “Very good. Where should we begin?”

“Why don't we tell Kay about what happened yesterday?” Artie suggested.

Merlin nodded and began, “Well, as you know, Artie came here in search of a special controller for your tourn—”

“Wait,” Artie interrupted. “Why don't we get
Tom
to tell her?”

“Aha! Good idea. Tom?”

Kay asked, “Tom? Who's Tom?”

The answer came from the Lego mushroom. A voice there said, “I am Tom. Tom Thumb. And I am at your service!”

Kay shook her head. There, near the little chair on the patch of moss, stood a man no more than three inches tall. Kay stood up quickly and exclaimed, “What's that? Is this some kind of game?”

Merlin rose and held out his hand for Thumb to climb into and then sat back down. Kay remained standing, never taking her eyes off the little man.

Artie put a hand on his sister's arm and said, “Kay, I know it's crazy, but
that
is Tom Thumb.”

Kay dropped back into her chair, saying, “Like from

Grimms' fairy tales or whatever?”

Thumb answered, “The same, my dear, though I was never properly a member of the family Grimm. The truth is that I have always been a friend of Merlin's, and I was very dear to King Arthur himself—for your information you are looking at a bona fide knight of the Round Table!”

“Artie, please tell me what's going on,” Kay pleaded weakly.

Artie smiled and asked Thumb to explain instead. And he did. With lots of class and good-natured British authority, Tom Thumb told Kay all about the adventure to pull Cleomede from the stone, and how together they'd killed three nasty little dragons.

When he was done, Kay asked quietly, “But how can any of this be true?”

“Well—” Artie started.

But Kay had a revelation. She interrupted, asking, “Does this have anything to do with what Kynder told you last night? About how you appeared in my crib? About Mom?”

She
had
heard. Artie's heart sank.

“My dear Kay, it has everything to do with that!” Merlin said excitedly. “Please, can I tell you some of what I know? I'll first tell you why you're here, and then tell you about the Otherworld.”

“The Otherworld,” Kay said flatly. “Like the video game?”

Artie said, “Kinda. The
real
Otherworld. That's where I got the sword.”

“Oh, okay,” Kay deadpanned.

Merlin interrupted them by waving his hands through the air. The library changed. All around blossomed a world of giant trees and purplish skies. Apparently, Merlin's tale was going to be illustrated.

Merlin cleared his throat and began, “Tom and I used to live in the Otherworld. In a place called Sylvan.”

“That's one of the lands in the video game!” Artie said.

“Yes, and it's what you see now in this room,” Merlin said.

“Sylvan is the emerald isle of the Otherworld,” Thumb said longingly. “I spent many a fine year there.”

Merlin continued, “The Otherworld is this world's sibling. It's not an alternate reality, but more a hidden place that is superimposed over and around ours in subtle and invisible ways. This side shares much with its sister: trees, plants, and creatures; the atmosphere; the planet and its location in the solar system; time. In some ways the worlds feed each other. For instance, when animals go extinct here, they move there. And in other ways they are totally different: while we get our energy from oil and coal, they get theirs from an amazingly clean source only found on their side; while we have too many people, they have too few; and while we have science and progress, they have magic and stasis. The Otherworld is where I learned all of my ancient craft, and I yearn to return to it.”

“Wow,” Artie and Kay said together.

“Yes. It's a remarkable place. One that I've been unable to see for a long, long time. In fact, I've not seen even a crack of sky or a patch of meadow in
this
world for the same length of time. The Invisible Tower is my prison, you see. A cabal of Otherworld witches and sorcerers conspired first to murder the original King Arthur, and then to jail me. I have been here for nearly fifteen hundred years, unable to see a path to escape. Until now.”

“You mean until Artie showed up?” Kay asked.

“Precisely. Which brings me to why you are here. Artie, I need your help. Simply put, I need you to break me out of this prison.” Merlin paused, and the silence was deafening. He put his hands together like he was praying. He leaned toward Artie and said quietly, “Our fates are intertwined, my liege. Only with your help, and the help of your sword, Excalibur, can I get the key that will destroy the invisible tower that rises above this building in Cincinnati, Ohio.”

“You mean there really is a tower up there?” Artie asked faintly.

Merlin leaned back and said, “Hard to believe, but yes.”

Kay was less impressed. “Okay, so why were you imprisoned? Doesn't that mean you did something bad? And if that's the case, why should we help you?”

Merlin wrinkled his forehead and said, “Good questions, Kay. The short answer is that I am not bad, and that I need to be freed so that I can help you and your brother save the Otherworld—and this world too.”

Kay gave Merlin a sidelong glance and said, “I didn't realize the world needed saving, Gramps. Sure, it's messed up and everything, but it's not like it's going to blow up anytime soon, right?”

“No, not anytime soon. But here's the thing: energy and life and magic for eons used to flow freely between the worlds. But those who jailed me here believed that the Otherworld—
their
world—would be safer if it was isolated from this side. So they closed all the crossover points and separated earth's twin realities. This is bad because if they remain separated, there's no chance that this side will gain access to the Otherworld's clean energy source, and if this side can't get that, then it's doomed. The Otherworlders haven't cared about this side for more than a thousand years, but what they've forgotten is that they share this world's fate. Everything is connected. Eventually they too will suffer from higher seas, and heat, and drought, and flooding, and disease. Humans and fairies and everything in between will die, and knowledge and magic will pass with them. We must stop this from happening.”

“But how?” Artie asked, his knee suddenly bouncing wildly.

“First by getting me out of here. Then by reconnecting the worlds and reestablishing your kingdom. And ultimately, by defeating those who killed Arthur the First, and captured me, and sealed the worlds from each other over fifteen hundred years ago.”

Thumb added, “We stop it by putting an end to the reign of the foul witch Lordess Morgaine of Fenland and her illegitimate son, Mordred!”

The rural scene around them darkened and became overgrown with vines and hanging mosses. “Fenland. That's in the video game too,” Artie whispered. He knew that Fenland was where the really hard quests took place.

“That's right, but you won't find Morgaine in the game,” Merlin said. “She is real, and far too troublesome to inhabit something as straightforward as a video game. Surely she knows by now that Cleomede has been drawn from the stone. She will try to prevent you from getting Excalibur, but once you do get the sword, she will likely try everything in her power to take the sword from you. She will not want you to use it to free me. She will not want you to take your kingship.”

“I have to say, Merlin, this isn't much of a sales pitch,” Kay said.

“No, it won't be easy, lads, but I'll be with you, and we know that you can do it,” Thumb said encouragingly.

Kay asked, “All right. So what happens if we say no?”

Merlin shifted in his chair and said, “Then there is no hope. I will remain imprisoned, and you and your children will live in a dying world. Magic—real magic—will fade. Science will cease to progress. Artie's destiny will go unfulfilled. You, Kay, will learn nothing more about your mother. And all the while you both will wonder what life would have been like if you had said yes!”

Another silence overcame them. The Otherworld scenes projected around the room faded.

Merlin and Thumb waited. Kay crossed her arms. Artie continued to bounce his leg furiously. Finally he broke the silence by asking, “But why me, Merlin? I'm just a stupid kid! I mean, why would I be able to beat the people that you and the real King Arthur couldn't?”

Thumb said soothingly, “You are not that different from the first Arthur, you know. He too was terrified of his destiny when he pulled the sword from the stone…”

Merlin waved at Thumb and said, “The reason why you will succeed where your genetic sibling could not is that this time we will be ready for the treachery that befell Arthur the First. This time we will not be tricked.”

“Wait. Genetic sibling?” Artie asked, his head spinning even more.

“Correct. You are kindred to Arthur the First—you were made in the Otherworld by DNA from relics of the first Arthur's parents: a finger bone from King Uther Pendragon and a lock of hair from Lady Igraine. When you were a baby, I risked much and had you brought here, so that Morgaine could not find you.”

“Whoa. So you're saying that Artie's, like, a clone?” Kay asked.

Merlin said, “No. A clone is a copy—technically Artie is King Arthur's brother.”

“Man. Far out,” Kay said.

Artie wrinkled his eyebrows and thought hard. He put a hand on his knee and forced his leg to stop bouncing. He looked at Thumb and then at the wizard. He said, “I don't know. This doesn't sound fun, Merlin.”

“Nonsense, lad, it'll be the adventure of your life!” Thumb said eagerly.

“Yeah, it'll be great,” Kay said with a heavy dose of irony. She was obviously not convinced about all of this, but even so, Artie could sense that she was more excited than she'd ever been. The idea of her being a knight, and of him being a king, really got Kay pumped.

“Please, Artie,” Merlin said gravely, leaning forward. “If I've learned anything during my captivity, it is that power has its limits. I can't escape without you. You can't reconnect the worlds without me. I need you, and the worlds need us. Will you help? Will you take the next step and retrieve Excalibur? Will you answer your destiny and become our once and future king?”