Whistlestop (14 page)

“
Good afternoon, gracious
lord,” they replied in unison.

Brad smiled broadly and clapped one of
the demons on the shoulder. “Very good, I see you are beginning to
accept the new order of things. The Emperor of the Universe is
pleased by your obedience. You will be glad to know that the
symbols of your former lives have been erased by fire. Soon, many
of you will be dispatched to those sites to begin reclaiming the
land for more useful purposes. In the meantime, you will continue
your work in our fields and mines. I am certain you will agree with
me that this is the least we can do to show our gratitude for the
Emperor’s beneficence. Now you may make your way to the dining hall
where extra rations of food and water are available due to the
inclement weather.”

“
Wait!” shouted a
terrifying voice.

“
Who dares to interrupt
me?” Brad shouted back. Lynn felt a commotion behind her as a man
pushed his way through the throng. He was wearing a long white
hooded robe and stopped next to Lynn, and stared at the spot where
she was standing. A confused look passed over the man’s face
quickly and then he continued forward. As he pushed through to the
front, Brad started to shiver uncontrollably. He climbed off the
platform and used his sleeve to brush it clean in case the man
wished to address his prisoners, and then he fell to his knees and
pushed his face into the dirt. “Pardon me, Lord Breakneck,” he
squeaked.

Linger pulled off his hood and patted
Brad on the head. “Of course, my Son, you could not have been
expecting me.” The demon guards bowed perfunctorily toward Linger,
who smiled back at them. He grabbed Brad by the arm and pulled him
to his feet, and then pressed his mouth close to the other man’s
ear and whispered something Lynn could not hear.

Brad shook his head violently while
saying, “No, my lord.” Then both looked around the crowd. “How can
I serve you, sire?”

Linger stood on the platform and
asked, “Have any of you seen a stranger around here?” The people
kept their heads down and said nothing.

“
Shall I kill them all as
punishment, lord?” Brad asked. Now the crowd was looking up and
focused on the man in white.

“
Don’t be stupid,
Commandant,” Linger warned and then turned to the crowd. “Please
forgive my assistant; sometimes he says the most ridiculous things.
We honor and appreciate your help in taming this wild planet, and
the emperor is honored to consider you full citizens of the empire.
Please go have your meal and enjoy the rest of the day off.” The
crowd dispersed quickly and soon only Linger and Brad were left.
Linger put his arm on Brad’s shoulder and the two began to walk
away. Lynn followed them, relatively certain they could not see or
hear her. After walking twenty feet, Linger spun around. “I can
feel someone watching me.”

“
I’ll have my guards search
the camp, lord.”

“
First of all, they are my
children, not your guards, Commandant. They are here as much to
keep an eye on you as these slaves.”

“
I apologize again, my
lord. I swear I don’t know why I’m speaking this way,” Brad
moaned.

“
Do you remember why I gave
you this position, ogre?” Linger asked.

Brad froze in his tracks and dropped
his head. After a moment, he began to speak very slowly, “My lord,
my parents sold me to you when I was a small child. I believe you
told them you would remove the stigma of my genetics and make me
human if I would serve you faithfully. I am sorry I have failed
you.”

“
You never failed me,
Bartok,” Linger smiled. “And you do look human, so I have kept my
side of the bargain.”

“
And I have tried to keep
mine, sire,” Brad mumbled, “although we agreed to forget that
name.”

“
I apologize for that. You
need to know that this camp and the others are critical to the
Empire, Brad. The people of this planet have some amazing weapons
that might threaten the Empire if matched with the power of folding
and the wisdom of the seers. That is why we have destroyed their
infrastructure and their hope. After some time, they will give up
and settle for their new lot as serfs in the empire. Then you can
rebuild this planet as a full member state of the Empire of Axis.
Perhaps you can become Trehbor then? That would make me very happy,
Brad.”

“
What of the Knights of
Winterpast, lord? Has their scourge been eradicated
yet?”

“
Unfortunately no. We have
one in our custody now, but his father and son are hiding on
Whistlestop.”

A look of hatred passed over Brad’s
face. “I cannot believe the knights are consorting with the elves
who destroyed my home world.”

“
It is shocking to imagine,
Brad,” Linger replied. “But once those two are captured or killed,
the elves will stop being a problem for us. Without the Knights of
Winterpast, they will stay on their planet and ignore the rest of
the realms.”

“
If I may ask, my lord,
what do you plan to do with the knight in your custody?”

“
Karl will kill him in the
next few days, I hope,” Linger said, staring directly at the spot
where Lynn was standing.

She sat up and snapped out of her
vision. Lilian and Arthur were looking at her. “Well, tell us?”
Arthur asked. “What did you see?”

Jerry woke to the sound of a young
child giggling. For a moment, he thought he was back in his bed in
San Diego, hearing his son playing with his sister or watching
Saturday morning cartoons on television. That vision was washed
away when he opened his eyes to see the stone wall of his cell
inches from his face. His body ached from the simple cot he slept
upon. There was another giggle and then a loud clang. He rolled
over to find out what was happening. A small glowing creature raced
across the opening to his cell laughing and singing. A second
later, the large guard chased after it with his axe held high.
There was another loud clang as the beast swung its axe and smashed
it into the wall. The small creature raced by again, still
giggling. Jerry could hear the guard grunting and panting for air
as it raced past the cell opening yet again. A voice whispered into
Jerry’s ear, saying, “This is pretty ridiculous, isn’t it?” Jerry
jumped off the cot and turned toward the voice. Standing on the
cot, inches from where Jerry’s head had been was another small
glowing creature. It was about a foot tall, very thin with
butterfly-like wings. It was wearing a brown tunic and leather
sandals. Its face was humanoid, but its ears were pointed and stuck
out too far and it had a shock of auburn blonde hair in disarray. A
gold chain hung around its neck with a large emerald pendant. A
sword hung from its belt. The giggling creature passed the opening
again, following by the panting guard.

“
Who or what are you?”
Jerry gasped.

“
Lord Knight, I am Simplot,
a humble sprite from the Realm of Giants. By your command, sir,” it
said, bowing graciously.

“
Why are you here,
Simplot?”

“
To save you, of
course!”

“
Am I in danger?” Jerry
asked.

“
Excuse me for a moment, my
lord,” the sprite said as it jumped from the bed and hurried over
to the bars. The other sprite zipped by again, still laughing. The
guard chased after it. Just as the guard passed him, Simplot stuck
his leg through the bars and tripped the guard, who stumbled and
crashed down onto the cold stone floor. The axe clanged and banged
as it came to rest near the exit door. “Come along, Isolde!”
Simplot called and then turned to face Jerry. “Well, that’s taken
care of for now. Are you ready to leave, Lord Knight?”

“
What? I don’t
understand.”

The other sprite walked through the
space between the bars and said, “Brother, why did you wait so long
to dispatch the guard?”

“
My apologies, Sister, but
I had to introduce myself to His Lordship,” Simplot explained.
“Perhaps you should do the same.”

The female sprite blushed hot pink,
and then curtsied deeply and bowed her head. “Lord Knight, forgive
my rudeness. I am Isolde, and I stand ready to accept my
punishment.”

“
Punishment for what?”
Jerry asked, looking totally confused.

“
Perhaps we should make our
exit, sire,” Simplot interrupted. “I doubt the guard will be
unconscious for long.”

“
I’m not leaving. I don’t
even know who you are or why you’re here!” Jerry exclaimed. The
sprites fluttered their wings and flew toward him. When they
landed, one was sitting on each of Jerry’s shoulders. He was about
to swat them away when they began speaking.

“
So, you are an honored
guest of the emperor, huh?” Isolde asked.

“
Nice quarters for a friend
of the empire, wouldn’t you say, Sister dear?”

“
Stop it, both of you,”
Jerry interrupted.

“
Come on, Lord Knight,
would the emperor put his friends in such a place, guarded by
demons from Hell?” Simplot quizzed.

“
If you stay here, you will
be killed very soon,” Isolde said.

“
You are the second
greatest threat to the evil of the empire. They wished to make you
join them, but even now they are realizing that can never
happen.”

“
How do you know that,
Brother dear?” Isolde asked.

“
Yeah, how do you know
that?” Jerry chimed in.

“
Because he is angelseed,
my dear Sister.”

“
Ah, yes, I had forgotten
that,” Isolde replied.

“
What?”

The sound of the door into the
corridor creaking open interrupted their conversation.

“
Almost out of time, Lord
Knight,” Simplot noted.

“
Please choose life,”
Isolde said as she kissed his ear.

“
Bring me the knight’s
head,” said Karl’s voice from down the hallway.

“
Let’s get out of here!”
Jerry shouted. The sprites grabbed the tops of Jerry’s ears and
pulled hard. The group flattened to a sheet, collapsed to a line
and shrank to a dot, which disappeared just as three guards
approached the locked cell.

“
Ouch!” Jerry cringed from
the pain as lightning filled the sky and heavy rain poured down on
them. Jerry reached for his ears out of instinct but the sprites
were no longer on his shoulders. He saw them standing on either
side of him. All three of them were now the same height. “What
happened? How did you shrink me?”

Isolde giggled again and leaned in and
kissed him on the cheek. “Oh, Lord Knight, such silly questions you
ask. Did you shrink or did we grow, perhaps did we meet in the
middle?”

“
Huh?”

Simplot drew his sword. “Sister, stop
playing games with the knight. You should draw your weapon as well.
We must cross the ogre wood before we reach home.”

She frowned but complied and held the
gleaming blade over her head. “Why did you bring us here, dear
Brother? Wouldn’t it have been simpler to pop into the town
square?”

Simplot drew a short dagger from his
belt and handed it to Jerry. “You should practice your technique as
well, Lord Knight. We may encounter an ogre or two in the
wood.”

The dagger blade was a foot long and
glistened from the drops of falling rain. There were odd letters
engraved on the blade. A different set of letters was engraved on
the opposite side. “This is beautiful. What does it
say?”

“
That side is written in
Elfish, and says, ‘Stolen from Jeremiah Beetleweed Mosscatcher.’
The opposite side is written in our tongue and says, ‘Stolen from
Simplot the Younger.’”

“
I assume Simplot the
Younger is you,” Jerry began. The sprite nodded. “How do you know
Jeremiah?”

“
Let us walk and I shall
tell you the story of this planet we call Bastion,” Simplot said as
he turned and walked toward a dark forest several hundred yards in
front of them. He explained that this planet was the original home
of the ogres. They were a fearsome looking species of giants who
lived an agrarian life in the woods and plains. While they were
very suspicious of and aggressive with strangers, within their
society, they were gentle and loving, with a long history of
writing and singing epic poems and the useful knack for making the
best cheese and whisky in the realm. The sprites moved to the
planet half a million years ago when their own planet’s sun became
a nova. First there had been war, as the ogres feared the visitors
were there to enslave them. Over a few years, passions calmed and
the two learned to live in peace, although there was little trade
between them. The only meaningful trade was whisky and cheese for
gold, which the ogres saved in hidden caves, since their simple
lives had no need for the precious metal.

It was those stashes of gold that
brought the attention of the Empire of Axis. The empire craved the
cheese and whisky of the small planet, and massive amounts of gold
were shipped to the sprites and through them, to the ogres. While
the sprites used their share to build cities, improve technology
and the lives of their citizens, the ogres stored theirs away.
Rumors about the hidden gold reached back to Axis and ultimately
became too much of a temptation for the empire to ignore. Elven
spies inside the empire learned that Bastion was about to be
invaded. A large force of elven warriors joined with the sprites to
repel the enemy. Early in the war, many ogre villages and farms
were overrun by the emperor’s legions. Many children were stolen to
become slaves throughout the empire. Ultimately, the empire was
forced to retreat and try their conquests on other planets and
realms. The Beetleweed Mosscatcher brothers were part of the army
that came to support the ogres and sprites. Simplot became close
friends with Jeremiah. When the war ended and it became time to
return to Whistlestop, two daggers were forged with the comic
engravings to remind them of their friendship.