The Prophesy: Book 2 - The Right Hand of Destiny

 

The next few days were very busy for everyone. Princess Iridia returned home with the help of Paschal, but insisted her people would contribute to the war effort by supplying warriors, blowguns fit for the other members of the alliance, and darts and poisons. Paschal came back from his trip with a hundred centuries of fairies. Iridia had not told him what proportion of her army this represented. Bjorn returned home with his wife, but left his son Timor behind, as the sole representative of the Trolls. Yet this represented a huge share of the Troll population, which barely amounted to a hundred individuals. The Dwarf King and Queen were morose, and apparently depressed. They were seen roaming their apartments, barely talking to anyone, and not eating much. This alarmed Thorsten, because he knew both were good eaters before. Finally, he opened to the other princes about his worries. Enron quickly explained things to the worried Dwarf prince.

"I know what they have. They are depressed. You would be at less. First they lose one girl, then they lose the youngest one to evil possession and then they learn they had lost the oldest girl to a similar possession. They learn the two girls killed Diamondcutter's dad by treachery, and Diamondcutter has to call on the Wolf King's Bench for the execution of the youngest because of regicide. To wipe his name clean, Diamondcutter has to ask for the removal of all traces of the two girls. Notice I do not even mention a filial relationship between the two regicides and your parents, because they never existed. It is easy to wipe records, Thorsten, but memories are another matter. I am sure they are doubting themselves to the core, asking themselves what they could have done, and remembering the good moments only to be torn to shreds by the recent ones."

"What can I do?"

"Actually, nothing yourself. But I will ask for Francesca to see to them. She is a good healer. It may take years for your parents to get out of this mood."

"I have found, in Francesca's collection of ancient medical books, some herbs whose fragrance can help overcome a depression," Harp added. "The problem is we are still in the throes of winter even if we are nearing the end of spring, due to the volcanic dust that seems to block the sunshine. Most plants are freeze-dried and buried below a thick layer of snow. This will make finding them extremely difficult. As for their medicinal qualities, we will have to hope for the best when we find them, if we ever do. And some of these plants are only found on the southern continent that goes by the name Australia, according to the Ancient nomenclature. Assuming, again, that these plants have survived the first Cataclysm and this one. If only we had an ancient map of the world. I could plan my trip accordingly. Sorry, Thorsten, it makes for many ifs and maybe."

"There is another issue, Thorsten, related to your parents' present condition," Sitar added.

"Not another bad news?"

"If you are like Enron, I can't say you will find in it any reason to rejoice."

Thorsten looked at Enron, whose eyes were widening.

"Damn, Sitar's right! The situation cannot be left to deteriorate. Come, we need to talk to dad as quickly as possible!" exclaimed Paschal.

The four princes quickly left for Harold's study, leaving Sven under the care of Timor. Samantha and Silver Moon were currently accompanying Ian at the zoo, for his daily visit to his friends and the feeding of the animals.

***

The four princes barged into Harold's study dragging a freaked out Thorsten.

"Dad, call in Samson and mom. There is an emergency."

The king, taken aback by the seriousness and anxiety of Harp's voice, obliged immediately, and the other royals joined them in the study.

"What's the problem, Harp?"

"The Dwarf Kingdom is without effective royal leadership until Diamondcutter or Amethyst recover from their depression. It leaves the throne open to all sorts of abuse and power grabbers. We need to act before one of the dwarfs dukes realises he has an occasion in orichalque to usurp the Dwarfs Throne."

"That is true," replied Harold, after giving it some thought. "What would you have us do?"

"Do what you did with the Elvin Kingdom during Samson's incapacity. Name a regent! In this case, I suggest Thorsten. He is of Royal lineage, and I have seen him grow by leaps and bounds in the last few weeks since the incident which brought this on occurred."

Thorsten was white as a ghost, and his eyes almost popped out of his head as he heard Harp's description of the situation and the solution he envisioned.

"I have never seen you so diplomatic, Harp. Are you sure you are not running a fever?"

"No dad, I simply respected the Royal Decree. I am not above the law."

"I am not ready!" piped up Thorsten.

"And you think I was, when I ended Regent of the Elves, in the middle of a war?" replied Enron. "If I can, so can you!"

Thorsten turned to Harp, with tears in his eyes. "How could you do that to me? I will never be able to look dad in the face! I was finally getting to feel better and you have to load me with that!"

"You are wrong, Thorsten. I think your dad will be proud of you. You will have come to the forefront just in time to save his dynasty. He told you himself you would do a fine king one day remember? It was the day you almost lost your family jewels to treason. We were all there!"

"And you will no more be alone than Enron has been. We are there for each other, and you are part of us," added Paschal grabbing Thorsten's right hand. Every other prince added their right hand above Paschal's in a gesture of unity and solidarity.

"One for all, all for one!" claimed the four princes as they looked at Thorsten's face.

"So, dad?" asked Harp, not willing to let the iron cool while things were not finished.

Harold looked at Annabelle, who simply nodded; a look at Samson and an identical nod convinced him this was a unanimous vote of confidence in Thorsten.

"Fine. I agree too. Thorsten, you will be proclaimed regent of the Dwarf Kingdom at sext, in less then a quarter of an hour. I do believe Harp is right in his assessment: the longer the throne is left vacant, the more likely we will have trouble brew within the dwarfs. I will read the proclamation before we have our usual lunch. I notice the dwarf nobility is very attached to food!"

"As most of the nobles, whatever their origins!" piped up Samson, laughing, and looking at the four black holes sitting across the sofa.

"Continue, Samson, and you will lose that big wheel around your mid-section!" replied Harp. Harp was teasing, because Samson had been put back in shape by the war and was now fit.

***

The arrival of the Wolf and Elvin Thrones in full royal regalia tipped off everyone at the lunch: something was up! But what could it be? Oh, everyone noticed Thorsten in full body armour, and all the attributes of a prince, as well as the shiny leather belt and deep green tartan worn around the waist by Timor. Even he had his mace, shining and all cleaned up. The duchess in command of the fairies was also wearing the full set of signs of her status in the royal family of the Fairies, along with a blowgun and a tiny sword, whose efficiency had been proven repeatedly during the previous day's training session. The presence of a massive warhorse, a sort of Commander in Chief, wearing the Royal Colours, and of that huge wolf, Greywolf, also wearing the colours of the Royal House, completed the clear and loud message. Something big, really big, was up. Silence descended upon the usually boisterous assembly. The shock was complete when Harold stood up, and slammed his Hammer against the shield of the Skull, using it as a gong. As the Shield resonated, the observers saw Bata and Mitsuko pulse with light, while Excalibur sang a war song to the same beat. As soon as the silence returned, Harold started talking in a deep baritone voice, using magic to propagate his decree to all dwarfs.

"We, Harold, King of Wolves and Equines, Pharaoh Horus of Atlantis, also known as Thorus of the Dwarf Forges, protector and Liege of Elves, Trolls, and Fairies, do so proclaim this day and age, that, due to incapacity beyond our control of King Diamondcutter and Queen Amethyst of the Kingdom of Dwarfs, our Vassal, to assume their rightful duties at the leadership of the Dwarf Kingdom, we, in our duty as their Liege Lord, declare them unfit to govern and name one Prince Thorsten, heir presumptive of the Kingdom of Dwarfs, Regent to exercise authority in their stead, until such time as either King Diamondcutter or Queen Amethyst shall claim anew their rightful Crown, and we find them fit to exercise due authority in our stead on the Dwarf People. Stand before us, Prince Thorsten, and receive from our hands the signs of your rightful duty and state."

Thorsten stood, a diminutive figure in front of the mass that was Harold, and waited.

"Do you, Prince Thorsten, swear on your blood and magic to serve your people to the best of their interest, protect the weak and the poor, render justice in your domain with magnanimity and fairness, to serve your Liege to the utmost of your capacity, to be honest and fulfil your duty to one and all that have faith in you? State your name, rank, and say 'so swear on my blood and magic to fulfil my duty as Regent of the Throne of Dwarfs, until such time this duty is rescinded'."

"I, Prince Thorsten of the Dwarfs, so swear on my blood and magic to fulfil my duty as Regent of the Throne of Dwarfs, until such time this duty is rescinded."

A gong was heard as magic acknowledged the bind.

"We accept your oath, Prince Regent Thorsten, and as magic has recognised the validity of the oath, so do we. Please receive the impediments of power and wear them with dignity. Kneel."

Thorsten knelt down and bowed his head. Had anyone from the crowd seen his face, they would have noticed the tears in his eyes, and the deep sorrow the prince felt at that moment.

"Receive from Our hands the crown of the Regency," intoned Harold, as it materialised in his grasp, adjusting so it would be high and tight to Thorsten's head.

"Receive the Sceptre of Royal Command, the same your family has held in custody from the day we put them in charge of the Dwarfs." An elaborate, albeit short staff appeared and was handled to Thorsten's right hand, composed of ivory with an elaborate plating of twenty-four carat gold, representing a battle-axe and a hammer.

"Receive the Battle-axe of Commander in Chief of your army. May you live in peace but handle this axe with valour in war." The battle-axe was mithril with a gold engraving, stating its purpose 'In peace I rust, in war I shine!' not that it had ever known the ignominy of rust, being mithril. Thorsten took the battle-axe and slid it handle-first in the belt holders assigned to it.

"Receive the Hammer of the Miner, Merchant of the bounty of Gaia, Arbiter of trade, Protector of the Earthly possessions of the Dwarfs." A miner's hammer appeared, its face obsidian-black, hard as steel, yet, again, made of mithril in another of its crystalline forms. "May the hammer break more rocks than heads!" added Harold thus expressing his wish that Thorsten's reign would be peaceful and profitable. Again, Thorsten took the impediment, and quickly placed it in the proper location.

"Rise, Prince Regent Thorsten, and receive the acclamation of your people!"

Thorsten slowly rose to his feet and turned around, backing in the protective embrace of Harold, whose imposing figure stood at least twice as high as Thorsten himself. The prince really looked minuscule within the arms of Harold, but the statement was clear: harm will come to whoever opposes Thorsten in the rightful execution of his duty.

Acclamations, at first muted, gained in volume as the message came across loud and clear that Harold meant business. Thorsten had not only gained a throne, but an indefectible protector, whose mass could only be put to shame by the king of Trolls, Bjorn. After fifteen minutes of raucous noise, the royals sat at their table and began eating, ignoring the turmoil of the discussions around them. A slow procession of dwarfs of noble extract came to Thorsten to assure him of their support, and enquire as to the condition of his parents. Then came the immediate servants of the royal household, followed by the dwarfs of ever-lower status. At some point, a man of rather shabby appearances came to the table, and quietly presented himself.

"Hello, Prince. I am the prince of Robbers, the leader of the not so nice and always very dangerous dark alley society, a kingdom within your kingdom, if you wish. We have vowed between ourselves to protect your dad when he did not forget us at the evacuation of the Mines. We renew our vow of service to you, openly, this time. If you ever need anything done outside of the official venues, talk to any beggar, and it will be done."

Shocked, Thorsten looked at Harold for counsel, and receiving a silent nod, replied.

"We accept your vow of service and will remember it in times of need. We will not abuse of your offer, so please take no offence if it is not called upon for some time."

Thorsten again looked at Harold for approval and another nod told him he was doing fine and to continue in the same vein.

"Ah, finally an honest introduction! We also recognise your claim as the Prince of Robbers, and invite you to become part of our Privy Council. After all government officials are only patented robbers who complain because you step on their turf. Maybe you can help us deal with them. We suppose you have your own tax collectors, police and army. Some counsel from you will be welcomed. Given your credentials, we hereby name you Lord Exchequer, responsible of the finances of the Kingdom. We are sure you will be very effective at finding tax evaders and corrupt officials more intent in serving their interest than those of the Kingdom. Your first task is to do a full audit of the last five years."

Some around the prince had hiccups, but the wide smile of the four terrors, and the myrrh that shone in the other royals' faces showed they had found the exchange amusing, if not downright genial. Thorsten had, in a short sentence, enrolled without pay the most effective government officials ever.

Leaning to speak to the two dwarfs, Harold spoke up in a low voice.

"Thorsten, you have been staying with the four terrors too long! If your dad could have seen this, he would have laughed so much he would have lost it and messed the floor. The prince of Robbers has been had by a mere eleven year old, and is now officially a member of his government! I want to laugh so much my ribs hurt! Serve the Regent well, prince of Robbers! And don't look so horrified! You walked in the corner and gave the paint bucket and brush to Thorsten!"

***

The four terrors, as had so aptly named them Harold, returned to the Tunnel to resume their exploration. This time, Timor, Thorsten, and a centurie of fairies, plus their usual assortments of legionnaires, elves and dwarfs, a total of some five hundred trained military officers and enlisted men accompanied them.

The first goal was to resume the inventory of the lowest level found at the Tunnel entrance outside the Elvin kingdom. The goal was more complex than it appeared at first glance, given that there was such a considerable variety of material present. The mapping of the tenth level by Paschal took, in itself, the first week of exploration. As Paschal progressed, a pattern emerged. Each street was at right angle with any street it crossed; there was a hundred yards between each crossing; each ten block was set apart from the others by a wider street. At each corner were a number and a letter, so a person could always know where she was. Each sign also had a + or -. At first, the signs mystified the boys, until Thorsten noticed they indicated whether you faced east (+) or west (-), or north (+) or south (-). The elevator shaft doors were facing south and east when you exited as indicated by the - sign, at street -PC - +88, right smack in the middle of the whole structure.

This in turn helped the boys understand the signs found on the door. It became clear that the entrances to the rooms were numbered even on one side and odd on the other. So, in the end, saying to anyone who knew the system that a team was exploring room A3R20 and knowing one's own position made for easy travel to the aforementioned room without getting lost.

"Now, if we could only find an inventory!" moaned Harp.

"That's true, but for now we have had no such luck. And even if we had it right in our face, we might not even be able to recognise it. The ancient's technology is so far off ours we could consider the inventory as trash," replied Paschal, as he finished doing the map of level ten. "From what you have done on the inventory, what can you conclude?"

Sitar pulled out a scroll and began explaining his conclusions.

"Each box has a shipping slip which seem to indicate where it comes from, when it was shipped, a date of arrival and a list of contents for the box. Shipper, transit official, and receptionist also sign each slip. It seems to have been very well organized, not a spur of the moment affair. Some must have come from quite a distance since the ship and reception date difference are considerable."

"What about the contents of the boxes?"

"So far, I have verified a few only. The rooms nearest the entrance all have contents coming from a place named 'Library of Congress', and contain books held in airtight boxes."

"And further off?"

"I have found another labelled 'Twentieth-Century-Fox', and it contains these spools, and lots of drawings, along with pictures that show people, places and strange things, but I have yet to figure what they are."

"Is that all?"

"Well, we split off and I have yet consolidated my report with Enron's."

"I took off for the further end and found these big boxes. One full block was labelled 'Smithsonian' and there were these huge boxes filled with bones. One box made Thorsten faint! It contained these huge gems, and a blue diamond so huge I thought he was going to have a heart attack!"

"Wow!"

"It doesn't stop there. We found boxes after boxes of paintings, some of which are real masterpieces, Paschal. You should see them: They are framed and held in airtight containers. It seems they come from everywhere. One said 'Louvre - Mona Lisa - Da Vinci' and another showed writing I had not seen for quite a while, Cyrillic I think. I will have to access the wolf conscience to gain the knowledge. When Thorsten saw that room all in red, he began sobbing all out and repeating 'Amber! The fabled Amber room!' It took me ten minutes to make sense out of his disjointed speech. It seems the Amber Room was lost at the start of the war that triggered the Atom Cataclysm, and it was the bedroom of a tsar, the leader of a huge empire. The dwarfs of Eurasia had been involved in its assembly."

"So, where is he now?"

"Resting. He is in shock! I would be at less. I took him back to our tent. He is sleeping under the watchful eyes of Timor."

"So far, anything strange?"

"No, but it may not always be the case, Paschal. I want the security to be maintained. In my book, you are not even safe in bed. Timor is in charge of the first night shift, followed by one of the fairies, two hours later; then it rotates to a legionnaire centurion, and is followed by a wolf, and then a dwarf. That should give us ten hours of rest. We resume exploring tomorrow."

"All right, Sitar. I admit I'm feeling tired. It has been a long day."

***

It took some weeks to finish the tenth level. The process was repeated at the ninth level, and the pattern repeated itself for subsequent levels until the first one. There, a huge surprise greeted the explorers. It was no longer boxes that were present, but whole buildings. Some whose names they had seen earlier, like the Louvre, but others totally new, like the Parthenon, with a mention of 'reconstructed from original' or the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican, also with the same mention, or other superb structures. That clarified the need for the five hundred foot drop before the first landing. Apparently, the Ancients had been hard at work duplicating their most important treasures. It contained things of every origin and style. There were frescoes painted on walls, that showed strange animals, and named 'Lascaux' and others showing a series of partial hieroglyphs, named 'Tut-Ank-Amon' and others, hundreds of others.

"I wonder how the ancients managed to do that. It must have cost the two legs and the two arms to pay for that!"

"Given they had a bridge of gold on the west coast, I doubt it bothered them. And maybe the poor taxpayers were unaware of this. Governments are very good at hiding things, Thorsten!" replied Harp.

"Should we go see the other caves before moving anything?" asked Enron.

"Given the surprise of that layer, I think we should. We have not actually measured the depth of the first landing on the Elvin side, but I had the feeling, when we did the first primary exploration, that it was at least twice as deep. If this is an indication of the height of the ceiling in the cave, the buildings in it must verge on the gigantic."

"Paschal, you are scaring me. I was hoping it only indicated the layer had not been built!"

"Harp, in your dreams! You counted the layers, and they are ten, as here."

"Do we follow the same protocol? Anyway, we may have to go back home shortly. The weather is clearing up outside, and that means crocodile priests and the orcs may be back on the prowl."

"Enron, we have done our share of this exploration. We will come back next winter, which, given the weather, should be very rapidly. We are at the end of summer and there is still snow and ice in the mountains, and even in some valleys. Rivers have not thawed much. We need to spend some time materialising food and replenish the reserves. Dad and Samson are short on recipes!"

"I can imagine the grumble of some stomach at being fed the same stuff day in day out because dad just hasn't mastered the art of food creation yet, Harp. I heard he tried creating salmon cookies, and everyone puked that evening!"

"Stop laughing at dad's efforts, it's not everyone that knows how to cook like you!" replied Paschal, whose disasters at cooking were legendary.

"Will the tessaract be applicable to this still? I wonder what we could do to speed things up. Move the entire structure?"

"No, Sitar, we vowed to respect the resting place of these poor people. I will hold my word. The caves will stay in place. I have been looking at the issue, and I will create the tessaract cube at the lowest level. We will move all the contents of all levels into it then move it to Lava Flows. I plan to make the cube at the centre of the lowest level so as to minimise teleporting distance. I also changed my idea of putting everything in a single tessaract. I plan to create another one at the other location when we do the move."

"Why is that?" wondered Thorsten.

"Simple: a tessaract changes the volume of an object, not its mass. We have moved huge masses, but these cubes will have a density a thousand times higher than normal matter. I must take into account that fact. We will put them in a suspension field fed by the core we moved under the College of Magic. A direct feed should help things considerably."

"How long will the core be able to sustain that field?" worried Paschal, who couldn't wipe out of his memory the collapse of the west coast.

"I estimate about a thousand years or so. By then we will have found another solution."

"But why the suspension field?" Thorsten asked, really trying to get a grip on magic.

"The tessaract cube will act like a needle and penetrate the hardest rock. Even as we feed the contents here, we need to support it. We will have to install a net. If we do not, it will sink right to the mantle and probably to the planetary core."

That made everyone shiver. Any mistake and the planet would blow up!

"I wish I could help you with the magic side of things!" Thorsten piped up, sounding sad.

"Do not worry, you are nearing the time when it will burst forth. There must be a reason why it has not shown itself yet."

"You say that to console me, Harp. I feel so useless!"

"You sure were useful when it came to understanding these symbols," replied Paschal.

***

The princes had returned to the military campaign, trying to put to good use the few meagre days of summer available to check on the progress of the ice around the kingdom. The ice shelf had made inroads in the upper valleys, progressing by a couple of miles down the long valleys that once separated the northern duchies. Orcs had not yet returned, and the crocodile priests' nests were open, the crocodiles were still in them, frozen solid. Apparently the Hunters had tried to wake up their masters once summer had come back, but the crocodiles were long dead, encased in ice blocks. There was no trace of the Hunters themselves. Since none of the traps and other tracking devices had been triggered, they were still in the kingdom, but where? That was the mystery. They couldn't be far, reasoned Sitar, since the entire kingdom was like a giant spider web and none of the filaments of the web had been tripped. The royal army began a systematic search from east to west and west to east, staying between the kingdom's border and the First Wall. The hilly terrain made the search difficult, slow, and painful. As the two armies were nearing each other, traces of Hunters became more common, but showed age, the freshest dating, according to a tracker, several months.

Finally, a trail was found, leading up into a very narrow gorge, and into a cave. The last days of the Hunters could be seen on its floor. Tired from their long walk, starving due to their incapacity to hunt in the thick layer of snow that favoured their preys, or stalk them because of the meagre forest cover, the last Hunters had found refuge in the cave. There, without any wood to build a fire, they froze to death, huddled together.

"General Winter won another battle, it seems!" explained one of the Legionnaire Decurion that had participated to the discovery of the necropolis.

"True, but a victory does not make a war," replied Sitar, basing his comment on a long experience of sweet victories turning into sour defeats.

***

The princes moved the search parties back to their home base, and proceeded to install vast greenhouses, draining energy from the planet's depth to warm them up for the upcoming winter. Fresh fruits and vegetables were seeded, and their growth accelerated to fruition. In less than a month, four crops were grown in the greenhouses. Meanwhile, Francesca had scoured the kingdom for medicinal plants, using the short time snow was thinnest or entirely melted to pick up the plants and move them in huge greenhouses dedicated to their production and reaping. Even plants which had no known medical application got their greenhouses, and were grown, before their seed were put into dry storage bins for better days.

Insects, which had suffered immensely from the prolonged winter, were also raised in farms dedicated to their preservation. Bees, particularly, were put to contribution to pollinate the fruit trees and the graminaceous, as well as other flower-bearing plants. Project 'Eden' named from a book one of the boys had found fascinating in the treasure trove of the eastern caves of the Tunnel, occupied quite a few elves and most of the fairies who found in it something they really relished.

Paschal had gone back repeatedly to the Tunnel, accompanied by Timor. It seemed he was searching for something in particular, but could not find it. But one day, he came home with a hop, apparently very pleased at himself.

"So, you found what you were looking for, Paschal?"

"Yes, dad. Look at this!"

Paschal popped a globe of the world in the middle of the room, about six feet high, which could rotate on its inclined axis.

"May I present to you the World of the Ancients, with all its important divisions? That is a precious tool in our quest of artefacts, and plants, Harp and Francesca. We were wondering about that place named Australia and how to get there. Look below, here. And this mass is called Asia, and that tiny part Europe. Here is where we are, a place named North America. You can even see the Great Lakes. There are other places I had no knowledge about, Africa, Antarctica, and South America. We have a way to make sense of many things we have been struggling with. Look there, Yamato, the land of your ancestors, Japan! And look there, a place named Egypt! We saw that name in Kantar!"

Paschal's joy was to behold. He was hopping around, making war whoops and generally making a fool of himself.

"Dad, he is right. This gives us a scale of the globe we live on. We know the size of the kingdom, but we never did walk to the west coast. Now we have a better idea of the continent's size. Teleporting is neat, but it twists the impression of distance. You have a feeling everything is next door. But this shows we have a lot of unexplored land. Mapping does not equate exploring and grasping distances."

"A remarkable point, Enron. We now know we have a lot more to cover than I thought. Ah, the pleasure of ignorance!"

The royals spent hours exploring the globe, looking at all its features. Eventually, after a quick night snack, they retired with plans to discuss what to do with that new knowledge the next morning.

Prime found the royals eating a quick breakfast, impatient to start the discussion as to what to do with the information Paschal had uncovered.

"I think I found the path Nestor's son, Marlin, used to reach us. It would make sense he used that narrow land bridge to cross the mountains. It is the closest point between Atlanticus and Pacifica," staarprpted Harp. "Since he had no knowledge of teleportation, he had to walk the distance. It's no wonder he took some years to reach us."

"Yes, it does explain that," Harold replied. "I would much like to have an idea of the condition of these continents. Were they spared by the wrath of the Atom God or as damaged as we were?"

"The economics of war would suggest that it is production centres that got targeted, not the wilderness," answered Sitar. "However, damage would have been worldwide, as we now know. The Breath of the Atom God still kills effectively after all these years on the west coast, and there is no reason to believe it was less lethal at the time of the collapse of the ancients. And there are other deadly things in this world. The Atom God is but one of those. Life itself is dangerous in the form of contagious sicknesses; some chemicals can kill hundreds. I read something in one of your books, Harold, about nerve gas. Apparently the chemical blocks nervous influx, effectively killing a person by stopping the breathing. Another burns the skin off a person and can linger in valleys for a long time. That is what has me worried when we visit the Tunnel. There is no guarantee that these gases are not there, lurking, seeping out of a breached container."

"It's one thing I wanted to ask, boys. Why didn't you bring everyone back from the west coast?" questioned Annabelle.

"Mariners are more exposed to the Breath than most. They have to withstand it while it moves their ship; they regularly cross the deadly currents carrying residues from the wastelands. They get exposed to corrupt water and wave sprays. Their family themselves suffer from this. Most mariners' wives grow sterile within ten years of marriage if it is not the man within an even shorter time. The women have an inordinate proportion of stillbirths and deformed children. There is also a very high rate of tumours. Overall, mariners have a very short life span, once they enter their profession. Of all the mariner families we met, none would have lived more than three years, and they would have died horrible deaths. I think they knew that and welcomed an honourable way out."

"Harp's explanation stands, Annabelle," intervened Francesca. "We already have our hands full with the children, and even with the help of magic, we will not be able to save all. Some have so many genetic defects it's a miracle they even live. We have children with brain tumours bigger than a chicken egg, located right in the cerebral trunk. If we remove the tumour, they die because they stop breathing, but they were living in excruciating pain. I had to cut the neural pathways to the pain centres to give them a dignified death. Do you want a complete list with descriptions? I stand with Harp, Annabelle. His decision was the best he could take under the circumstances."

Francesca's intervention had put to rest the debate, and the discussion refocused on what to do with the information afforded by the globe now sitting in the middle of the room. Finally Enron exposed his views.

"I believe we cannot do much until we have found a safe way out of the kingdom, if it is possible. Then there is the problem of the dragon child. And we do need to try and figure out if there are other magical beings on the planet. We also need to resolve the mystery of the Kantar Prophesy concerning Ian and the right hand of destiny. For some reason, I believe the two are intimately linked. Have we made any progress in cracking the meaning of the Dwarfs' Prophesy?"

"Not yet, Enron. I am totally baffled," replied Yamato. "And our esteemed inventor of writing is as stuck as I am. The letters seemed to be randomly aligned."

"What if they were not letters but numbers?" suggested Thorsten from his position near Harp.

"Would you please elaborate, Thorsten? Maybe you have put your finger on something we have not considered."

"One of my pastimes when I was at home was cryptography. There were many books about this in the royal library, and most talked about the need to first remove what they called redundancy in a message to make it harder to break once it got encoded. It took me some time to find a definition of redundancy as it pertained to cryptography. It implies removing any duplicate information so there would be no patterns apparent. They described ways of compressing messages in terms of redundant bits, a bit of information being either a zero or a one. They also showed that any text could be represented by a string of zeros and ones. Once the message had been converted into that stream, it was amenable to compression, and, after that to encryption. For instance, doing preliminary work, which counted the number of consecutive patterns, and created a dictionary, it was possible to transcribe the message as a number followed by a pattern. According to that book, the rate of compression could be measured by the number of bits that were needed to compress compared to the number of bits of the original message. Not all compression methods were good, and one method might be good for one type of stream and give terrible results on another."

"That is very interesting, Thorsten. What else did you learn?"

"The second level is the encryption proper. Once a message got compressed, it was encrypted. There are simple encryption methods, such as substituting one pattern for another. If you are careful, you can even use the compressed message itself as the source of the key to encrypt the message. One of the most complex was the dual key encryption method. One key was used to encrypt a message, and another key to decrypt it. I have yet to figure out how this was possible. One thing that bugged me was the mention that the encryption key was public, but that the decryption key was private. I do not understand the idea. If a key is public, how can a message be encrypted safely?"

"We'll deal with that when we work together, Thorsten. Do you have anything planned today?"

Thorsten looked at Harp, asking a silent question.

"You can go with Yamato, Thorsten. I only plan to add more greenhouses and increase our production. In this case it will be livestock farms. Bigger greenhouses, but greenhouses nonetheless."

***

Thorsten and Yamato worked long hours trying to figure out the contents of the short book. Apparently, it was made up of short texts and the code changed from one text to the next. When they realized that they began to stop decoding the whole book in one piece. After a month or so of arduous work, the two agreed that the encryption was probably there more or less to guide them and that, like most events so far, could not be forced.

The two decided to return to the royal dining hall with what they had at hand, however meager their reaping had been given the time they had spent on it.

"Hey, look who is here!" exclaimed Harold as he saw the two walk in at vespers. "I though you had decided to become hermits!"

"Maybe we should after this is finished," replied Yamato, whose eyes showed how tired he was. Even Thorsten seemed completely out.

"Have you found something?" asked Samson.

"We think so. It's thin but it's a start," replied Yamato. "But first, some food! We have been running on half rations for the past weeks."

"You spent a month at it!"

"Has it been that long, Harold? We did not see time pass."

Thorsten and Yamato sat, no, collapsed in their chair and began to eat slowly, under the watchful eyes of their friends. However impatient they were of learning anything, no one interrupted their meal. They had earned their peace and quiet. Finally the two rested their cup, wiped their mouth with a napkin and looked at the assembly, silent. After a few minutes, Sitar couldn't hold it much longer.

"What?"

"What, what?" asked Thorsten in a tired voice.

Fire almost escaped Sitar's ears as he clarified his question.

"What did you find?"

It was Yamato that answered the question, slowly searching his words.

"The book is indeed compressed and encrypted as Thorsten had suggested, in a numerical form. It carries a hundred symbols and no punctuation whatsoever. It is composed of s dictionary-based compression stage and a numerical encryption of the compressed text. We found out that each text is encrypted using a different method, from, we guess, the most simple to the most complex. Each subsequent text seems to build on the knowledge acquired decrypting the previous text, so there is no jumping a text. Decrypt it badly, and you are headed for a brick wall. You went nuts when you devised that book, Harp."

"Hey, I am male, I have the right to nuts!"

Everyone laughed at Harp's comment, which helped relax the atmosphere.

"We have managed to decipher a number of texts. The simplest was the one prophesying the arrival of the four terrors, their guide and an ambassador at the Mine. It was quite detailed and fitted closely the description Thorsten could give of the events. The next text told of the demise of the girls, their possession be Evil entities, which it names the Fallen, and the Royal Decree proclaimed by you, Harold."

After a sip of water, Yamato resumed.

"The next text is the last one we have been able to decrypt. Since the events have not occurred yet, we are left to conjectures as to the true meanings of this short text. It is very dark and sends shivers down our spines. Here it is:"

 

The Two Fires

---

Born of Amethyst, cut like a Diamond, Thunder a child,

In doubt weak, in love victorious,

To protect his love, courage shall find and vanquish his fear,

The weakest shall best the strongest.

---

Baptized in the breath of the Dark Lord,

Fire shall forge his mantle,

Victor without magic, against the Beast immune,

But find it in battle he shall.

---

Gone will be the heavy gold crown,

Replaced by one born of love and magic,

Lightweight yet heavy,

Seen by all yet invisible.

---

His Hammer shall thunder,

Beat the Beast asunder,

Held high to protect his love,

As the Beast to break their bond tries in vain.

---

As the double edge of the axe

Cuts through skin and bones,

That to this day had never seen pain,

Two furies shall meet over the prone body.

---

Eternal bond of Magic,

Forged in the heat of battle,

Quenched in cold fury,

Polished by love.

---

Mountains will tremble in fear,

Water shall boil in the heat of the battle,

Air will sizzle with the crack of lightning,

Of two Fires, only one will remain.

---

Yamato sat back after finishing the reading, his booming voice once again silent. The reading of the poem had left listeners sitting on the edge of their seat.

"Have you made any sense out of this?" Enron asked.

"Actually, no. We are simply too tired to think straight anymore. We have been spending very few hours of sleep lately."

"Go rest, then," decreed Harold. "It is not one day or more of delay that will change things by much. Let's plan on meeting on the morning in two days time. If you need more rest, take it, we will understand."

***

Two days later, the royals met in Harold's study, and began to compare notes as to what they understood of the Prophesy. Sitar was first to take the stand.

"From what I understand, this describes a battle of magnitude such that the earth will tremble, the sky will be lit, and water vaporise as the elemental fires meet. It implies at most two opponents. One will fight for his love the other to squash that love."

"But who will be the opponents?" Annabelle wondered.

Sitar stayed silent, looking at everyone and gently hanging his right hand so it pointed toward Thorsten without downright seeming to do so. His posture told the answer to anyone with open eyes, and gradually the number of propositions dropped as each head turned toward the prince. A heavy veil of silence descended on the table: Each member of the royal households compared the prophesy to what they could see of the Dwarf Regent. It took several minutes for Thorsten to notice he was the centre of attention.

"What did I say?" asked a worried prince.

"Nothing, my child," replied Annabelle.

"Then why is everyone looking at me like that?"

"Did you read the Prophesy, Thorsten?"

"Yes, I did, as I helped decode it with Yamato. Why do you ask?"

"Have you given thought to its meaning?"

"No, to be honest, I had enough with all that mathematics. Harp, my love, I will hide every mathematical book from you from now on. You went overboard with those Prophesies!"

It was Harp's turn to fall under the scrutiny of the others, and as he realised what Thorsten had said, he became so white one would have thought no blood was left in his body. Had thunder struck him right there, the result would not have been more dramatic, as he froze in space, his eyes getting ever bigger. He was the defenceless love, the prone figure Thorsten would protect against the Dark Lord! After several misses, he managed to grab his cup of water, only to spill most of it on his shirt as he tried to drink with trembling hands. And he had written the prophesies from his recollection of Atlantis' Book of Prophets! How many things concerning him had he missed? Meanwhile, Thorsten watched the trouble that descended on Harp, wondering what could be causing it.

Afraid to trouble Thorsten more than he was already, Paschal decided to turn the analysis on another problem.

"Let's forget the identity of the proponent of the Light for a bit. Who could be the proponent of darkness, the Dark Lord?"

"I say it is the Minotaur. After all he was the leader of the Black Mages," proposed Samson.

"The problem is we do not know if the Minotaur has control over a fire elemental," opposed Annabelle.

"And I don't think he is more immune to magic than any of the black mages were, or else he wouldn't have waited for Meagan to die to do his move and grasp the leadership," added Harold.

"Do we know of any entity immune to magic, yet non-magical in its normal state?" asked Sitar. "I have yet to look into the nomenclature of magical animals or life forms."

Enron quickly materialised an imposing tome that listed all known animals to the elves. At the top, embossed in gold, was an apple tree, with a title: The Tree of Life. The index at the end proved a precious help as it allowed for a search of a primary key and a secondary one, a necessity considering the book had over sixteen thousand pages written on thin velum.

"Ah, here we are. Magical beings nope, it's not there."

"Search under immunity to magic," suggested Paschal.

"Ah, there are entries. And here it is, non-magical, page nine hundred and fifty six, three thousand two hundred and twelve, and eleven thousand six hundred and fifty-two. Let's start with the first." Enron slipped a parchment between the pages of the index in order to return to them quickly later on.

Enron opened to the first entry, and began scanning down the dense text.

"Oh, oh! Let me read the entry here."

Dragons: Dragons are ferocious animals that can breath fire and burn anything to a crisp, melting rocks and burn anything within a mile range. There are four families of dragons. The Gold Dragons are by far the biggest, but also the most peaceful. Next come the Red Dragons, slightly less massive than their Gold cousins, but somewhat quicker than them when they move around. Next are the Green Dragons that seem to relish water, whereas the other three try to stay away. It does not mean they cannot breath fire, but it is their jaws and the spines that constitute their main tools of offence and defence. They are fish-eaters and have only been seen in great fresh water lakes. They have been known to attack fishermen, but only after repeated provocation from their part. The last type of dragon, even if it is the smallest, is by far the most fearsome. It is the Black Dragon. It is a documented man-eater, and will go out of its way to attack a human settlement. It is quick, vicious, and without mercy. Dragons can fly long distances. Their adult size varies from thirty to sixty feet in length, and stand at a range of twenty to twenty-five feet at the shoulder. They are egg-layers, and appreciate particularly hot sands found near volcanoes. They bury their eggs in the sand and leave them to hatch under the protection of a clutch nanny. Under their dragon form, they do not possess magic, but if they impregnate (See: Impregnation) at birth with a magical being, they can then take that form and possess magic as long as they maintain that alternate form (See: Metamorphism). Immunity: Dragons are immune to magic, and to about anything a person can throw at them. Some were seen swimming in lava lakes, diving from high altitude into the molten rock.

"That is enlightening. Who else is on that list?"

Enron flipped to the next entry, and began reading.

Unicorns: Unicorns are magical but gain their magic at their sexual maturity only. They are gentle creatures, found only in the deepest forests of South America. The young are immune to magic, but lose their immunity when they gain their own.

"That doesn't fit our need. We will have to rescue the unicorns one day, if they need it. Continue with the last entry."

"Ok. I found it."

Centaur: It is a hybrid of horse and human. It is non-magical, but immune to magic. Ill-tempered but amenable to discussion, it is ferociously territorial in nature.

"There is no reference to any ability at breathing fire. There is a map showing their territory in Africa. The rest describes living habits and social structure."

"Can you look at Minotaur, just to make sure?" asked Thorsten.

After searching the index, Enron opened to a page somewhat further down in the book.

Minotaur: Human mutant, unique of his species. It is ferocious, breaths fire, and magical but vulnerable to magic. Sterile.

"It goes on to give a reference to retro genesis, and radiation exposure."

"That reduces the number of potential opponents considerably. But are we sure this book is up to date?"

"That can be checked easily."

Enron flipped to the entry 'Human' and found a whole cascade of information. A couple attracted his attention.

"Listen to this:"

The convergence of recessive genes in the human population amongst a restricted group had led to the re-emergence of a race long lost to history, the Atlanteans. Atlanteans are humanoid, magical, and live extremely long lives. The new group shows intense capacity at magic, including telepathy with animals, the creation of a Common Conscience, and the ability to propagate their magical capacity across species barriers (See Omega Conscience).

"Omega Conscience?"

"I'm looking for it! Ah, here it is!"

The Omega Conscience is the merging of all Common Consciences into a single entity. At present, the number of entities of this sort is limited to a select group of Atlanteans, Elves, Canines and Equines. It is expected to expand further and enclose most of animals that have herding traits.

"But that's us!" exclaimed Paschal.

"Yes, it seems we fit the description pretty nicely," replied Enron.

"I wonder what that book has to say about the Trolls."

"Let me see the index Trolls ah here we are "

Trolls: Trolls are part of the ancestral tree of humanoids. They represent a branch that comprised a wide variety of proto-humans, most of which have been driven to extinction. Their branching out from the main evolutionary tree occurred at the same time as Homo erectus. The Trolls of today migrated in deep forests from their original habitat of savannah in order to escape hunting by their cousins, about the time Homo habilis evolved from Homo erectus and discovered fire. Contrary to their cousins, trolls never domesticated fire and thus eat their meat raw, and need powerful jaws to do so. Social structure: At present the Trolls are a tribe composed of twenty families of an average five members each, two adults and the rest juveniles per family unit. A recent development is the appearance of a central leadership, following a sudden migration from their usual western realm to an eastern one. Note: The species is on the verge of extinction, but doing an unexpected comeback in their new realm. The number of multiple births has exploded. Speech: The Trolls evolved speech independently of humans, but are capable to speak human languages. It is a language oriented toward the immediate necessities of life, which is unfit to express higher concepts. Behaviour: Generally peaceful, the Trolls ignore the notion of war, but will protect their young, to which they are ferociously devoted. Trolls mate for life.

"Well, Timor, it seems your species will survive after all. I'm glad of that."

"Thank you, Enron."

"I wonder how that book manages to keep so up to date?" wondered one of the many that were sharing Harold's study that day.

"I think it is an auto-updating book. It scours the planet both in space and time, and notes, and catalogues all changes. This is very high magic, dating to Atlanteans. But one thing tickles me: it says that the Atlanteans of origin were humanoids, but not downright humans. It does not say that Atlanteans have human ancestry either. Something is not said here."

"Enron's correct, I had ticked on that too. Maybe we'll find out in time." Francesca added. "Are there many books like that?"

"A few I know of. The Book of Genesis logs genetic mutations, combinations, and other changes across species. It too is huge, and actually uses a special type of page to let a person look in depth at a species' genes, and trace changes. Don't ask me how that is done, it's way out of my field." Enron answered.

"I'll have to look into that one. Maybe it could help me understand what damage the children you rescued underwent."

"You are welcomed. It is in the Elvin Royal Library. Just ask magic to bring the Book of Genesis, and it will be available for your perusal."

"On a parting note, Enron, I have been scouring my memory, and I do not think Atlanteans had anything to do with these books. It is magic, but not of our doing."