The Woods Out Back

Chapter 15 Ceridwen's Place

The castle proved to be even more splendid up close than it had appeared from the beach. High crystalline walls gave way to even higher crystalline turrets, spiraling up into the sky, every inch of them glistening and sparkling in the morning sunlight. Intricate angles and many-faceted stones threw the light off in a hundred directions, making Gary and his companions squint their eyes from the stinging brilliance.
This was a castle for a goodly king, Gary decided then, and not the appropriate palace for an evil witch. How sad for the land of Faerie that Ceridwen had come to call Ynis Gwydrin her home.
Geek met the companions at the front gate, eyeing them suspiciously and casting particularly uncomfortable glances at Kelsey's sheathed sword.
"Lady said to meet Tommy and a dwarf," the goblin asserted. "Just Tommy and a dwarf."
"She asked... she told... us all to help," Gary replied.
Geek's yellow eyes narrowed doubtfully.
"We refused, except for the dwarf," Gary bluffed. "So Ceridwen probably didn't tell you to expect us. But we thought it over and figured that repairing a wall would be a better thing than facing the Lady's wrath when she returns from her trip."
"And if I don't lets yous in, Ceridwen will punish you?" the goblin asked, and the weaselly little creature seemed to like that idea.
"In that event, we might as well kill you, since we would be doomed anyway," Kelsey reasoned evenly. "At least I might know some enjoyment before Ceridwen's wrath descends over me." The elf's hand inched towards his belted sword.
Geek's face crinkled for a moment, then he nodded stupidly and told them to follow.
"Well done," Kelsey congratulated Gary, but it was Mickey's expression towards the young man, both amused and amazed, that Gary took as the highest compliment.
They moved across a gigantic audience hall and along a maze of mirror-walled corridors. The ceilings were quite high, but Tommy had to stoop anyway, and even crawl in some places, just to get through. Gary went up front for some small talk with the goblin, trying to gain Geek's confidence, but Geek said little, and commented more than once that he hated the smell of humans.
The maze continued, down a stairway, through a few irregular-shaped rooms, up a stairway, and along several corridors. Gary suspected, and he knew that he wasn't the only one with the feeling, that Geek was purposely leading them in a roundabout manner, as if trying to prevent them from getting any bearings about their location in the castle. It made sense - they were certainly less likely to try any mischief if they couldn't even find their way back out.
Finally they came into a room, similarly mirrored as the corridors except for one wall where the glass had all been broken away. The companions were somewhat amazed to see stonework behind the shattered section; from every angle, the castle appeared almost translucent, though undeniably solid. In one area, the stones, too, were broken away - this was undoubtedly what Ceridwen wanted repaired, for the dwarf was no glassworker.
Beyond the hole in the wall lay another room, this one set with braziers and a pentagram design on the floor. Even Gary knew enough about legends of magic to guess this second chamber to be a room for summoning. He couldn't contain a shudder, wondering what beast Ceridwen might have conjured, wondering what hellish beast might have blasted the wall.
"Right there," Geek explained. "Fix the stones. The Lady will put new glass over them." Gary started to ask the goblin something, but Geek spun about and left immediately, giving the distinct impression that he was uncomfortable in this place.
"She brought in a big one," Mickey commented, looking at the blasted wall.
"A big what?" Gary dared to ask.
"Demon, lad," the leprechaun replied. "Ceridwen's always playing with demons."
Gary wanted to claim that he didn't believe in demons, but it seemed a silly thing to say to a leprechaun, since he didn't believe in leprechauns, either.
"So we are in the castle," Kelsey remarked. "Now we must find the spear and be gone. And quickly..." He stopped, seeing Gary with a finger over pursed lips, his other hand subtly pointing in Tommy's direction.
Tommy was oblivious to the conversation, though. The giant had already started clearing aside the rubble, while Geno measured the break and pondered the best way to patch it.
Kelsey called Gary and Mickey over to the far side of the room for a private conference.
"Do we let them work on it?" the elf asked. "I fear that the goblin will return to check on our progress."
"I can make the poor thing think he's seeing us fixing it," Mickey replied. "But I'd have to stay here."
"Could you then find your way out?" Kelsey asked. "I would like to have the dwarf, at least, accompany me on the search for the spear."
"I'll go with you," Gary offered. Kelsey gave him a sidelong smirk.
"I will need another fighter," the elf continued to Mickey, "if, as I expect, Ceridwen has the spear guarded."
Gary accepted the insult without comment, thinking that having two friendly - or at least nonenemy - fighters around him might not be such a bad thing.
"Take him," Mickey replied, looking to Geno. "The giant'll think the dwarf's here working, and the goblin'll think so, too, if the stupid creature returns.
"I'll give ye just an hour, though," Mickey went on. "If ye get into trouble or get found out, I've no desire to get catched in this castle!"
"Two hours," Kelsey bargained. "It is a big place."
Mickey agreed.
"The door's locked," Gary reminded them.
Mickey laughed and waved a hand, then called to Tommy. "Ye'd find patching easier if ye used this slab leaning against the wall over here," the leprechaun reasoned. Tommy and the others followed Mickey's leading gaze to the door, or at least, to where the door had been. Now the portal appeared as leaning beams and cross sections, the perfect infrastructure for a wall.
"Yeah, get it," Geno agreed, and Gary wasn't sure if the dwarf understood the illusion or was just happy to see that much of the work was already done.
Gary feared that Tommy would figure out the dupe - they had just come through that same door, after all. But the giant, not a powerful thinker, moved right up to the illusionary beams and searched for handholds along their sides. He tugged, but the illusion didn't move. Tommy set his feet wide apart and pulled mightily, then turned back to the wall holding his prize between his huge hands.
"Door's not locked anymore," Mickey said smugly. Gary looked through the illusion to the gaping hole in the wall; Tommy had yanked out the door, jamb and all.
A moment later, Geno came over to join Gary and Kelsey, though when Gary looked back, he saw Geno working hard beside Tommy, trying to fit the door, which still appeared as beams and planks, into the original hole in the wall. Mickey moved over to the side, plopped down, and popped his pipe in his mouth, folding his chubby little hands behind his head.
"Is dealing with leprechauns always this confusing?" Gary asked helplessly to Kelsey.
"Aye, lad," snickered the real Mickey, standing invisibly behind the elf. "Ye should try catching one sometime."
Gary blinked and looked back to the side, where the illusionary Mickey sat contentedly drawing on his pipe.
"Now off with ye," the real Mickey told them. "Ye got two hours and not a minute more!" He grabbed Gary as the man started away, and shoved something into his hand. "Take this," the leprechaun explained. "It'll get ye back to me and bring ye luck on yer hunt."
When Gary opened his hand, he found a four-leaf clover. He wasn't surprised.
Once again, Gary, Kelsey, and Geno found themselves in the maze, but this time they had no goblin to guide them. Kelsey took up the lead, alternating his turns, left and right, to prevent them from walking in circles. The elf tried to appear assured of his steps, but Gary figured that he was simply guessing.
"I would find our way if this was underground," Geno grumbled more than once. And more than once, the dwarf turned a corner and smacked a hammer into his own reflection, thinking, in his startlement, that the enemy had found them. "Stupid mirrors!" Geno just grumbled as he continued on his way, leaving a spider's web of broken glass behind him every time.
When they did actually come across one of Ceridwen's guards, an unfortunate goblin, it took them a long moment to even realize that it was not some manifestation of the tricky mirrors. The goblin squeaked once and turned to flee, but Kelsey's sword and Geno's hammer sliced and pounded it down before it got two steps away.
Then on they went, blindly, turning corners and crossing identical rooms with identical furnishings. Kelsey's confidence seemed to waver; they came to one four-way intersection and the elf hesitated and glanced one way and then another, before finally deciding to go straight ahead.
"No, left," Gary corrected suddenly. Kelsey and Geno turned on him in surprise.
Gary had no definite answers to their questioning stares; he just, for some reason he could not explain, believed that they had to go left at that point. Kelsey shot him an incredulous look and started straight ahead again, but Gary was certain of his mysterious insight.
"Left," he said again, more forcefully.
"What do you know?" Kelsey demanded. Gary shook his head.
"I know only that we have to go to the left," he answered honestly.
"We have wasted half an hour going your way," Geno reminded the elf.
They went left, and at the next intersection, when Geno and Kelsey looked to Gary for guidance, he quickly replied, "Straight ahead." At each corner, Gary's feelings grew more definite - he only feared that the sensations might be some trick of Ceridwen's to lure them into a trap.
But then, with a profound sigh of relief, he figured it out.
"It is the spear," he announced unexpectedly. "Cedric's spear is calling to me!"
"Good spear," Geno mumbled, and Kelsey did not argue the point, nor did the elf any longer doubt Gary's instincts.
They knew a few turns later that they were nearing Ceridwen's private quarters. No longer did mirrors line the walls, and the furnishings were much richer in this section. There were many more guards, though, marching in tight, well-ordered formations.
The companions came through a set of large double doors, into a spacious room filled with comfortable chairs and a long oaken table. Across from them stood another set of double doors, even more ornate than the ones they had just come through, and corridors ran off both sides of the wide room.
"Meeting hall," Geno reasoned.
"And Ceridwen's chamber beyond," added Kelsey. He looked to Gary for confirmation. Gary closed his eyes and heard the cry of the spear. Very close, straight ahead.
"That's it," Gary announced. He started forward, but Kelsey pulled him suddenly around the door and back into the previous corridor. Geno, too, slipped out of the room, and before Gary could begin to argue, he heard the marching stomp of many boots.
Peeking through the slightly cracked door, they saw two nervous goblins rush into the meeting room from the left corridor, quickly straightening their armor and helmets and taking positions on either side of the ornate double doors. A moment later, the troupe arrived, in ranks three abreast and five deep, marching from right to left through the meeting room and led by one burly goblin and a troll he commanded to keep his ragtag troops in line. The burly goblin paused to consider the two guards, eyeing them suspiciously for some time before he two-stepped to catch up to his still-marching troops.
"We have to take them out quickly," Kelsey whispered, lamenting that he had left his bow back on the beach. In answer, Geno flipped two hammers up into the air.
Kelsey grabbed the door handle and mouthed, "One... two... three," then yanked the door open and Geno let fly.
The first hammer caught the goblin on the left square in the faceplate of its helmet, hurling the creature back into the wall. The second goblin, breaking into a run, caught the next hammer on the shoulder, a glancing but wicked blow. Still, the goblin managed to keep on going.
Kelsey charged in; Geno readied another hammer. But Gary beat them to it, hurling his spear at the fleeing monster. He got the goblin on the hip and it went down squealing.
The first goblin had recovered by then, but found Kelsey, or more pointedly, Kelsey's sword, dancing right in its face. The creature yanked out its own weapon desperately, then lost all sense of reality. It felt no pain, but saw the floor rush up and the room spin about wildly. The goblin realized its horrid fate in the last instant of its life, as it looked back to its headless body still leaning upright against the door.
The other goblin stopped squealing almost immediately as Geno fired hammer after hammer into its head. Gary figured that the thing was dead after the second hit, but the dwarf hurled three more hammers into it, then rushed up and konked it a few more times just for good measure.
"Fine throw," Geno commented, tearing out Gary's bloodied spear and handing it back to the man. Gary knew that the dwarf wouldn't give him an unconditional compliment, and sure enough, Geno lived up to his reputation.
"Next time, hit it in the lungs so it cannot yell out," Geno growled. "Its screaming will probably bring the whole force back upon us!"
"Next time, you try to hit it right with the first throw," Gary snapped back. Geno shrugged and "accidentally" dropped a hammer on Gary's toe. Gary grimaced and bit his lip, but would not give the dwarf the satisfaction of seeing his pain.
"The door is trapped, no doubt," Kelsey said to them, reminding them that they had little time to waste.
Still fuming, Geno stomped over and inspected the portal. He grunted and scratched his hairless chin, then moved to the other end, grunted and scratched his chin again. He pulled a chisel from his endlessly pocketed belt and went to work, tapping here and tapping there, popping a hinge pin on one side and then the other. Then he walked back three steps, bowed to Kelsey (eyeing Gary all the while), and tossed a hammer into the center of the doors. They fell in like a cut tree, hitting the floor with a tremendouswhoosh!
"Stealthy," Gary remarked sarcastically, and he prudently hopped away before Geno could have any more accidents concerning hammers and toes.
Ceridwen's room, for this was indeed the witch's private chamber, was among the most remarkable places Gary Leger had ever seen. A huge desk lined one wall, covered with parchments and inkwells, quills and books, some opened and some tightly bound with leather straps. Metal sconces, gracefully designed, though somehow discordant or unbalanced, or something else that made Gary uncomfortable to look at them, were evenly spaced around the room, each holding a torch that burned with a different-colored flame. The witch's bed was centered along the back wall, huge and canopied in purple silk. All three companions breathed a little easier when Kelsey went over and moved the curtain aside, showing the bed to be made up and empty.
The elf spotted the spear case, set on the wall beside a changing screen opposite the desk. He sheathed his sword and went for it immediately, reaching with hungry hands.
"Trap!"came a call in Gary's head.
"That's not it!" Gary cried.
The warning came too late. As Kelsey grabbed the case, it broke apart in his hands and an egg fell from a concealed cubby in the wall behind it. The three companions froze, staring at the cracked egg curiously, and with a shared sense of dread.
The egg split in half and a cloud of black smoke burst forth. Kelsey threw his hand over his mouth; Geno dove away; and Gary, too, assumed the vapors to be toxic. But the trap was nothing that simple; as the cloud rose up, it took a definite shape. Glowing red eyes appeared and a huge, gaping maw opened wide, hungrily. Black mist still hung about, obscuring the monster's form, but it seemed to have no absolute form anyway, shifting, growing limbs, almost on a whim, a writhing mass of blackness. Whatever its shape, it was huge and mighty, exuding a horrible power.
And for all his denials and all his logic, Gary Leger would never again make the claim that he did not believe in demons.
A thick black arm shot out at Kelsey from the still-forming cloud. The elf got his shield up to block, though his arm went numb under the sheer weight of the blow, and countered with his sword, the magical blade sizzling and hissing as it struck demon flesh. The demon howled - it might have been a laugh - and another arm appeared, and then a third arm, and a fourth beside that.
"Tylwyth Teg!" the monster bellowed in a voice that Gary could only compare to the grating of a diesel truck. "I have not killed one of the Tylwyth Teg in centuries! Is elf flesh still as tasty as I remember?"
A hammer whipped past Kelsey into the mist, but seemed to float to the floor, finding nothing tangible to smash against.
In an instant, Kelsey was pressed hard, fending against all four demon arms. The elf's shield and sword worked in perfect harmony, parrying and blocking. Kelsey dodged and dove, coming right back up to catch another blow with his fine shield. For all his brilliance, though, Kelsey couldn't hope to slow the attacks enough to get in any more solid hits of his own.
Gary knew that he must go to his companion, his friend, but he found his feet rooted to the floor in terror. He lifted his spear halfheartedly in both hands as if to rush in, but then changed his mind and took aim, thinking it wiser to throw the weapon instead. The demon's red eyes fell over him, and, caught in their hellish gaze, Gary felt as though his weapon weighed a hundred pounds.
The monster continued to stare at him, and continued to battle Kelsey, as though its mind could work easily in different directions at once. Gary noticed Geno dash ahead and slide down to the floor, the cunning dwarf's hammer going to work furiously on the eggshell, smashing it to little bits. For the first time, the demon seemed wounded; its ensuing cry was obviously founded in pain. A huge, clawed foot appeared from the mist and stomped down on Geno, but the diminutive and stubborn dwarf kept on smashing at the bits of egg.
The demon roared again, in pain and outrage, and twin lines of fire shot out from its eyes towards Gary. Gary managed to get a blocking forearm up in front of his face in time, but the searing jets burned into him and their sheer force hurled him backwards across the room. He found himself sitting against something hard, alternately clutching at his arm and at the twin holes burned into the armplate of Cedric Donigarten's fine armor.
Despite the distractions of both Gary and Geno, there was no letup at all in the demon's attacks against Kelsey. A heavy arm thumped against the elf's shield, and another battering limb came in the other way at the same time, forcing Kelsey to throw his sword out wide in a desperate parry. A third arm came in between sword and shield, with long horrid claws reaching for Kelsey's heart.
Kelsey threw himself straight backwards into a roll, but the arms, stretching impossibly long, followed him every inch of the way.
Geno was made of the stuff of mountains, but even that dwarfish trait seemed puny under the weight of the demon's huge foot. The dwarf smashed away, and when the pieces of egg were too small to hit anymore, he stuffed as many as he could grab into his mouth and swallowed them. He felt the weight on his back diminish, as though his actions had actually lessened the substance of the monster. Spurred by his success, the dwarf dropped his hammer aside and reached out with both hands, trying to find every last bit of eggshell.
But then the weight returned, crushing him down, pinning him helplessly. In one hand, Geno held a fair-sized chunk of the shell, but he couldn't hope to get that hand anywhere near his mouth.
He bit the foot instead, but that seemed to have little effect. And even Geno, who had eaten more unconventional meals than a billy goat in a junkyard, had to admit that demon flesh was among the most horrid things he had ever tasted.
The demonic gaze fell over Kelsey, and the elf slumped, knowing he was surely doomed.
Propped against Ceridwen's desk, one arm hanging useless by his side, Gary thought again of his parents. Where would he run when Kelsey was gone and Geno crushed? Where could he hide from this hell-spawned monster?
A temporary reprieve came to them as the goblin patrol unwittingly rushed into the room. The demon's head shot up and the creature sent its flaming beams out at the newest intruders. The burly goblin, in the lead, threw its arm up as Gary had done, but it was not wearing armor nearly as fine as Cedric's. The fire bored right through the goblin's arm and then right through its head, and it fell, smoldering and quite dead, to the floor.
Flashes of fire continued throughout the goblin ranks, felling several others. Goblins rushed all about, banging into each other, hacking at each other to get free and get away. The one troll bravely, stupidly, charged ahead, not understanding its foe. A demon arm caught it by the throat and lifted it from the ground before it ever got close to the misty cloud. The great, clawed hand clenched down - Gary heard a resoundingsnap  - and the troll suddenly stopped thrashing.
The demon shook the huge form a few times, then hurled it into the midst of the scrambling goblins, crushing one. And then the demon, too, came on, suddenly just a billowing cloud once more. It overtook the goblins in the meeting room and passed right through their ranks. One cloud became three and a monster stood to block every exit.
Hearing the screams from that meeting room, cries of sheer terror and sheer agony, Gary hugged tight to the desk leg and even Kelsey, bravely in pursuit of the monster, stopped in his tracks and backpedaled.
In a moment, the cries diminished and three goblins came rushing back into the room. Jets of flame cut two of them down; the third ran right by Kelsey, hooking the stunned elf's arm and holding tight behind him.
"Pleases! Pleases!" the goblin sputtered. "Kills it! Oh, kills it!"
Kelsey shrugged the goblin away and stood firm to meet his foe. Geno stuffed that last hunk of eggshell into his mouth, retrieved his favorite hammer, and moved beside the elf.
Gary, too, knew that he must go and join his friends, go and die beside his friends. Determinedly he hooked his arm over the desktop and pulled himself to his feet. He meant to turn and go straight over but found himself held suddenly by the images in an open book on Ceridwen's desk.
Gary blinked several times, glancing over his shoulder and then back to those strange images. In the book, he saw Kelsey and Geno, standing as they were now standing in the middle of the room! Cowering in the corner behind them was the goblin.
"It has been an honor to fight beside you," Kelsey said to the dwarf, and Gary blinked again as the spoken words became a flowing script (though in a language he could not read) at the top of the page!
"A journal?" Gary breathed in disbelief.
He continued to stare dumbfounded as the page turned of its own accord. The next scene showed him the demon in the door, advancing on his friends.
Gary grabbed a nearby quill and poked it at the image of the demon, but the instrument snapped apart as it struck the magical book. Desperately Gary grabbed at the pages and flipped them back, hoping beyond reason that he might turn back time.
But the demon came on and the book fought back against Gary's actions, its pages trying to catch up with the events at hand. Gary put all his weight on one side of the book to hold it open where it was, at the two pages depicting Kelsey reaching for the spear case, and the egg coming apart on the floor.
Gary couldn't see the renewed fighting behind him, but he heard a crash by the canopied bed and heard Geno grunt and groan from that direction. Without even thinking of the possible consequences, the desperate man grabbed at the page with the intact demon egg and pulled with all his strength.
Suddenly Gary was in darkness, floating in space, it seemed, but there were no stars and no sun to light the way.