The Master's Chair (The Chronicles of Terah) (35 page)

“Father told me to escort you and your assistant. Is Chris your assistant?”

Kevin nodded.

“Then Chris is supposed to go, too. “

“Thank you, Macin.” 

Macin nodded, bowed his head towards Kevin, and walked back to the sitting room to join his parents.

Chris glanced over towards Kevin when he saw Macin leave the kitchen and raised his eyebrows. Kevin nodded, so Chris quietly slipped out of the sitting room and walked over to the kitchen.

“What’s up?” Chris asked.

“Tomorrow morning the show gets under way.”

“Already?” Chris moaned. “I was hoping we’d have a couple of days before we had to meet him.”

“I know. But look at it this way, by this time tomorrow, we will have already spent a whole day with him,” Kevin said with a grin that was not at all convincing.

“What time are we leaving? And is anyone else going, or is it just the two of us?”

“Macin’s going to escort us, but it’s just the two of us out of our group. He’s meeting us at 7:30. And guess where he’s meeting us?”

“Here? Outside? I don’t know.”

“My room,” Kevin said quietly.

“Your room? You mean … the tunnel? So that really is where it goes?” Chris asked, almost in a whisper.

Kevin nodded. “Our own private passageway to Glendymere’s cave.”

“Are you going to tell the others where we’re going to be tomorrow?”

“Yes, sometime after dinner. Any second thoughts?”

“Tons! But don’t worry. I’m not going to back out on you,” Chris said as he grabbed a cookie that had been left over from the night before. “We’d better get back in there before everyone wonders what’s going on.” Then Chris headed back to the sitting room with his cookie.

Kevin poured himself a cup of coffee and stood in the kitchen slowly drinking it. While he was standing there, he overheard Blalick tell Sari and Macin that it was time to head back home, so he walked back towards the entrance hall to say thank you and good-bye.

A few moments later, Blalick herded his family towards the door to a chorus of ‘thank-you’s from the Tellurians. Macin was ready to go and quickly vanished down the passageway, but Sari hung back, not wanting to leave Theresa.

“Sari, would you be free to help me for a little while tomorrow morning?” Theresa asked. “I’d like to start cataloging the herbs that we have in the storeroom and getting them organized on the shelves and I really would appreciate the help if you have the time.”

Sari’s face lit up and her smile seemed to spread from one ear to the other. “Yes, miss. I will be happy to help. What time would you like for me to be here? I could be here as early as 6:00 if you wish.”

Theresa laughed and said, “I’m not that energetic. Why don’t we wait until around nine to begin?”

“9:00 it is. Thank you, Sister.”

Ashni put her arm around her daughter’s shoulder and. mouthed “thank you” to Theresa over Sari’s head as she steered her daughter out of the room. Blalick wished them all a good evening and disappeared through the door behind his wife.

~ ~ ~ ~

During dinner, Joan told the others that Macin would be leaving for Abernon on Sunday, so they needed to make a list of any and all supplies that they wanted him to pick up. “Ashni and I have pretty much finished the grocery list, but if there is anything special that any of you want, now’s the time to speak up. It’ll be a month before he goes again. I have to give him the list tomorrow night.”

Theresa smiled a wistful little smile and said, “I don’t suppose you included anything like chocolate on your list did you?”

Joan laughed. “Actually I did put baking chocolate on the list. I don’t know if they have it, but we’ll give it a shot. Anything else?”

Steve said, “It isn’t in the grocery category, but I would like some writing paper, quite a bit of it actually, and maybe a couple more bottles of ink. I’d like to start a journal.”

“I’d like some more paper and ink too,” Theresa said. “I want to make some notes about the different herbs and their preparations.”

“Okay. I’ll add paper and ink to the list. Anything else?” Joan asked.

No one could think of anything, so Joan reminded them again that once she gave the list to Macin, that was it for a month. She said she’d hold onto the list until dinner the next night, but after that it would be too late.

Then Kevin said, “Macin’s going to take Chris and me to Glendymere’s cave tomorrow morning. We’re leaving at 7:30.”

“So soon?” Joan asked.

Kevin shrugged. “From what Kalen said, we have a lot of work to do and not much time, so I guess the sooner the better.”

“How about you, Chris? Are you up for meeting a dragon tomorrow?” Theresa asked with a mischievous grin.

“No, but then I don’t think I’d ever be up for it, so I might as well go ahead and get it over with. I’m sure the idea is worse than the reality,” Chris said with a sick-looking smile.

“I don’t know about that,” Darrell said shaking his head. “All I can say is that I’m glad it’s you and not me. I’d probably faint dead away at the sight of him.”

“I hope not. You’ll have to meet him eventually,” Kevin said.

“But not tomorrow,” Darrell said. Then after a moment, he added, “Kevin, do us all a favor. If you know that I’m going to have to meet Glendymere, don’t give me too much warning. I don’t think it would help, and it would give me that much more time to panic. Okay?”

“Okay,” Kevin said as they all laughed.

~ ~ ~ ~

Although Kevin had gone to bed early, he was still awake around midnight. He decided to go get a glass of cold milk, hoping that it would help him drop off to sleep.

When he got to the kitchen, he found that Chris was already there, heating some water on the stove. “Thought I’d fix a cup of tea. Want one?” Chris asked.

“No, what I really want is a big bowl of ice cream, but I’ll settle for some milk.”

“Did you have trouble falling asleep, too?”

“Yeah. I keep looking at that door and wondering what’s waiting for us at the other end of that tunnel,” Kevin said as he poured a mug of milk.

Chris sighed and said, “I have no idea what we’re walking into or what we’re going to have to do, and I find that idea scarier than the idea of meeting a dragon.”

Kevin nodded and drank his milk. “I don’t know how long we may be gone tomorrow. Maybe we should take some food with us, at least for lunch.”

Chris held up a small sack. “I just finished cutting some cheese and bread for us to take. I also threw in a couple of mugs. I was trying to figure out what we could use to carry some water with us when you came in. Do you have any ideas?”

“Not off hand. I’ll look around while you drink your tea,” Kevin said as he started for the pantry. A few minutes later he found a jug that had a wooden stopper in the top. The jug looked like it would hold about a half gallon, so they set it beside their sack, ready for the morning.

After Chris finished his tea and Kevin drank another mug of milk, Chris asked, “Feeling any better?’

Kevin grinned and shook his head. “Not really. How about you?”

“No, can’t say that I do,” Chris answered as he rinsed out the mugs. “Oh well, guess we should at least lie down for a while. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get lucky and fall asleep. Let’s go.”

Chapter 30

Glendymere

Kevin got up around 6:00 Saturday morning and headed towards the kitchen. The aroma of fresh coffee greeted him before he reached the sitting area. Chris was up, dressed, and pacing back and forth across the kitchen with a steaming cup of coffee in his hand.

As Kevin poured himself a cup, he asked, “Did you get any sleep at all last night?”

Chris shook his head. “I tossed and turned for about four hours, and then I gave up. How about you?”

“I dozed a little, but that was about it.”

The two of them drank a whole pot of coffee during the next hour and had just put on a fresh pot when Joan walked in. She offered to fix them some breakfast, but Chris said that he was much too nervous to eat, and Kevin said that he had already eaten some cheese and a piece of bread.

A little after seven, Macin walked into the kitchen, spoke to Joan, and asked Kevin if he and Chris were ready to go. When Kevin nodded, Macin led them down the hall to Kevin’s room, opened the door to the tunnel, and led them through a corridor wide enough for all three of them to walk abreast.

About a quarter of a mile later, they entered a large round chamber. Four tunnels led out of the chamber at right angles.

Macin stopped at the door and said, “You need to think of this room as a big compass. The hall we entered from is west.” Then Macin pointed to the hall to the left. “That hall is north. It winds around through the mountain for several miles before coming to a dead end. The east tunnel leads up to our house and then on to the peak of Wildcat Mountain, and the south tunnel leads to an underground lake.”

“Which tunnel do we take?” Chris asked.

“None of those,” Macin said. “We go northeast.”

“Northeast?” Chris frowned as he looked at what appeared to be a solid wall.

“Northeast,” Macin said with a grin as he started across the room.

As they got closer to the wall, Kevin and Chris saw a small dark alcove, about the size of a closet, set back in the shadows. Macin walked into the alcove and seemed to disappear. When Kevin stepped into it, he could see the light from Macin’s torch off to his left. There was a narrow opening in the wall of the alcove, just behind the chamber wall. Kevin stepped through the opening and found that he was in an “L” shaped passageway. After he and Chris turned the corner, the passageway widened and they were at the beginning of another large corridor that extended beyond their torchlight.

“That doorway is the main reason Father asked me to show you the way. It is a rather tight fit for him,” Macin said. “This entrance to Glendymere’s cave is private, so do not tell anyone else about it unless Glendymere says it is all right.”

The corridor was relatively level and straight, and after they had walked about half a mile, Kevin noticed a faint smell in the air. At first it came in whiffs and was too faint to identify, but after a while it became stronger and Kevin recognized it as the smell that lingers after a fire has been extinguished.

Eventually they came to a large wooden door with a heavy iron knocker shaped like a flying dragon and mounted on an iron shield. Macin lifted the knocker, slammed it against the iron shield four or five times, stepped back, and waited.

“What are we waiting for?” Chris asked nervously.

“Several years ago, Glendymere was sleeping when a friend of his, an elf, came to visit. Glendymere is always aware when someone is nearby, but he does not necessarily wake up. When the elf entered his chamber, Glendymere yawned in his sleep and caught the elf’s clothes on fire. It gave the elf quite a scare and shortly after that Glendymere had my grandfather install this door and knocker. We wait for him to answer so that we know he is awake.” Macin reached for the handle and started to open the door. “It is safer that way.”

“I thought you said you waited for Glendymere to answer,” Kevin said with a slight frown.

“He did. He told me to come in and to bring both of you to his inner chamber,” Macin replied.

“I didn’t hear anything,” Chris whispered.

“He was not talking to you,” Macin said quietly.

“Telepathy,” Kevin said. “Like Xantha.”

Macin nodded and led them through the door and down the hall to a fork. He pointed to the right and said, “That leads to Glendymere’s entrance hall, where he receives most of his guests.” Then he started down the left fork. “This leads to Glendymere’s sleeping chamber. Very few are allowed to enter this area.”

The hall led to a large circular room. A football stadium, complete with bleachers, could have been set up in there with room left over. The ceiling was about a hundred feet high and a shaft about ten feet wide opened to the sky directly above the center of the room. Along the right-hand wall was a large rock basin filled with water. Fresh water fed into the basin from a spout in the wall and the overflow drained into an underground stream through a lip in the rim.

Glendymere was curled up like a cat along the opposite wall. His enormous head was resting on his front paws and his tail was wrapped around his body. As the trio entered the room, Glendymere raised his head, cocked it to one side, eyed the two humans and said, “
Welcome to my home
.”

Kevin stared at Glendymere in awe. He was exactly as Xantha had remembered him, only more so. His movements had a fluid grace and elegance that was animalistic, but his eyes radiated an intelligence that far surpassed anything a human could even hope for.

Chris froze in mid-step. He was mesmerized by the sheer power and imminent threat that Glendymere embodied.

“Macin, would you please give Chris a drink of water before he faints,”
Glendymere said with a chuckle.
“Myron, I’m happy to meet you at long last. I’ve looked forward to this day, but I always thought Badec would introduce us. I am very sorry about your father’s illness.”

Kevin was a little surprised that he felt relatively at ease in Glendymere’s presence. “Thank you. I wish I had had the opportunity to know him,” he answered. Then after a moment, he continued, “I want to thank you for agreeing to tutor me, but I have to admit that I have absolutely no idea what a sorcerer does, or what kind of powers he has. I’m afraid that you have an impossible task ahead of you.”

“Nonsense. You have the power. All we have to do is direct it,”
Glendymere said
. “I see that you think of yourself by your Earthly name, Kevin. Would you be more comfortable if I were to address you as Kevin?”

“Yes, I would. I know that when I get to Camden, I’ll need to answer to Myron, but for now, I would prefer Kevin if you don’t mind.”

“Fine by me, and if you choose, you can continue to call yourself Kevin after you’re seated, but we’ll talk about that later. Right now, I’d like for you to try to get your assistant moving again so that the two of you can fix up that room over there.”
Glendymere nodded towards a small room that was located next to the water basin.
“You’ll need a place to work, and there will also be times when it will be necessary for you to stay here over night. You’ll find some human furniture in the adjoining storeroom. Pick out a couple of beds, tables and chairs. When you have the room squared away, we’ll begin.”
Then Glendymere turned his head towards Macin,
“Thank you for escorting them, Macin. You may leave now if you like. I know you have things that you need to do to prepare for your trip to Abernon.”

Macin nodded to Glendymere, turned back towards the tunnel, and left.

Chris was barely able to move, but he managed to stumble across to the small room that Glendymere had indicated. As he and Kevin started going through the furniture trying to find two suitable beds and a couple of tables with chairs, he began to loosen up a bit.

“I have a feeling that Glendymere had us set up this room to give you something to focus on, something to get your mind off your fear. Are you going to be okay here?” Kevin asked.

“Yeah. Just give me a couple of years to get used to being around something that could destroy me with a snort,” Chris said in a half-hearted attempt at humor. Then he added seriously, “I hadn’t really thought about just how dangerous he is, but as soon as I saw him …”

“I know what you mean, but I keep remembering something that Xantha told me: ‘If he sees you as his enemy, he would be the most deadly force you would ever meet. If he sees you as a friend, you are safer with him than you were in your mother’s womb.’ Those aren’t his exact words, but that’s the general idea. He is dangerous, but not to us,” Kevin said quietly. “Think you can get past this fear thing?”

Chris slowly nodded. “Just give me a little time.”

About two hours later, when they were almost done, Glendymere said,
“I forgot to mention that you’ll need a candle. You should be able to find one in the storeroom.”

“A candle? Won’t we use glowstones?” Kevin asked.

“No. A glowstone won’t work for our first exercise. You’ll need a candle.”

Chris walked out of the storeroom with a couple of candles and candlesticks to see which one Kevin wanted. Kevin chose a slender candle and a brass candlestick. He set it in the center of one of the tables and then said to Glendymere, “Well, unless there’s something else that we need to get out of the storeroom, I guess we’re done.”

“Good. Come on out here and have a seat,”
Glendymere said.
“Kalen sent me a message saying that he had not found a way to tell you that I’m a dragon before you left the Gate House. I wasn’t sure how I was going to let you know before you walked in here. I didn’t want to ask Blalick to tell you because he would have been deeply offended if any of your group had balked at the idea of working with me. Fortunately, Xantha took care of the problem. If he hadn’t, Chris might have had a heart attack. Are the rest of the humans in your group afflicted by dragon-fear?”

“I think Darrell is, but the others didn’t seem to be too upset with the idea,” Kevin said as he and Chris walked back into the large chamber.

Glendymere nodded his massive head.
“I guess we need to get down to business now. First of all, we need to talk about magic. I’ve searched through your minds, and neither of you has the faintest idea what it’s all about. No, Chris, we don’t use bat’s wings, spider’s webs, or eyes of newt. I don’t think any of the real sorcerers on Earth ever did either. That’s just something that someone made up to sound good in stories.”

“That’s good. I was dreading having to go out and collect them,” Chris said in a valiant effort to seem at ease, but his shaky voice betrayed him. Now that they were back in Glendymere’s presence, his knees threatened to buckle, so he slowly and carefully sat down on the cave floor across from the dragon.

Kevin sat down beside Chris. “So what do I need?”

“Only yourself. The power of magic is all around you, but the best source is within your own body. You’re very fortunate. You have the best of two worlds, the elven world and the human world. From the elves, you have a unique relationship with nature, one that humans without elven blood cannot hope to achieve. And you also have the magical power that resides in the mind of certain humans: the seeing eye, the outstretched hand, and the energy bolt,”
Glendymere said as he studied Kevin.
“How much do you know about elves?”

“Not much at all. We’ve only met two, Duane and Paul, but we didn’t know that Paul was an elf until we got to Kalen’s house,” Kevin said. “Actually, Kalen called him Pallor, but Paul is the name we knew him by.”

Glendymere nodded.
“Elves are elementals, as in the four elements of nature: fire, water, air, and soil. An elf can project a part of his essence into the forces of nature. For example, an elf can become one with the wind and clouds. As long as the clouds are already there an elf can join with them, pull them together, influence the wind to stir things up, and create a storm, but the basic elements must already be in place. Going the other way, an elf can join with a violent storm system and settle it down, but an elf could not make it simply vanish.”
Glendymere stopped because Chris’s mouth suddenly dropped open. He waited for Chris to speak.

“I’ve got a question. That tornado, the one that triggered the key that transported us to Terah, seemed to come out of nowhere. There was no way that Paul could have counted on a tornado forming at that precise time and place. That’s been bothering me ever since we got here. Did he cause it?” Chris asked.

“I’m sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about,”
Glendymere said. Then, as Chris opened his mouth to describe the sudden storm, he added,
“No, no need to explain, just let the memory surface. I’ll look at the memory and see what happened.”
After a couple of seconds, Glendymere nodded and said,
“Ah, yes, I’d say that tornado was definitely Pallor’s work. And a good job of it, too. He didn’t have a whole lot to work with, just a few clouds and a little wind. He did a fine job of controlling it. I doubt if I could have done much better myself,”
Glendymere said in such a way that Kevin and Chris both knew that he had just paid Pallor his highest compliment.
“Do you see what I’m talking about when I say that an elf can join with nature?”

“For the sake of argument, let’s say that I can sort of imagine something along that line, especially since I was in the middle of that storm, but that does not mean that I think for even one minute that I could do it,” Kevin answered.

“Fair enough. I’ll accept that for the moment. Now, about the human magical powers … let’s see, maybe a little demonstration would help. Come with me.”

Kevin and Chris stood up and waited for Glendymere to get up. As Chris watched Glendymere slowly unwind and stretch, his eyes got bigger and bigger, and by the time Glendymere was standing, Chris’s face had gone chalky white and he was swaying on his feet. Kevin took hold of his shoulders and gently eased him back to the ground.

“Take a deep breath, Chris,”
Glendymere said gently.
“You’ll be all right in a moment.”

Chris nodded his head in jerky movements and said, “It’s just … that … you’re … you’re so big.”