In the Land of Stories Old

Chapter 52

Gothi elected to travel back to the Hole with them, chatting about the way the land had changed. He admired the land-bridge Merlin had made, and after asking permission widened it a bit more and created a stone railing on each side. He didn’t seem to have tired himself out by doing it, and shook his head when they asked him. “No, no—the magic held by Rock Trolls is elemental magic, there isn’t actually an end to it, although there are limits to what a single Rock Troll can do. And even some of that is just down to what we have a talent for. We could work together to great effect, though. We had tales, from long, long ago, that said at one time many of our people pulled a castle from a black granite mountain at the request of a man who had done our people a service, and that man made himself a king and his descendants ruled those lands from that castle ever after.”

Snow’s eyes went wide. “That sounds like my family’s castle, the Black Castle. It’s been there since long before the Cataclysm.” She sat up a little straighter, and both Merlin and Jack reacted to the little pulse of power as her own royal magic became active. “You should certainly come visit us so you can see it someday, Gothi, it’s magnificent and just unbelievably huge. And as we apparently had an alliance with your people, you are welcome there any time.”

That made the troll smile, and he bowed to her. “I would with pleasure renew our people’s alliance with you, Your Majesty, even though I am just one troll on my own, at least at present.”

“There must be a way to fix that,” Jack mused. “There is something called a library in the ruins of Valeureux, more books than any of us had ever seen in one place before. Perhaps it might have old knowledge that could help?”

“It’s possible,” Merlin agreed. “But you should only visit once the Valley is cleansed of its taint. I wasn’t sure what the taint might do to the triplets or their girlfriend, so I’m not sure what effect it might have on you either, Gothi.”

That made Gothi give the triplets a curious look, and they at once turned into dwarfs. Which made him all but fall off his feet laughing, and then he hugged them all. “Oh, it is good to see someone who resembles me, cousins! But…fairy magic?”

“Our girlfriend, the Princess Elana, is a quarter fairy,” Pino explained. “From stories we have heard on our travels, we suspect that her grandmother was descended from one of the grand high fairies who for some reason chose to have a child with a mortal man.”

“Or who caused a mortal woman to give birth to a child, one of those,” Noki shrugged. “Elana and her mother and grandmother lived apart from human people, but from the stories she has told us they were not…”

“Cruel,” Kio finished for him. “The did not use their magic against men in the horrible way their distant ancestress did, but only to see to their own needs and protect themselves.”

“Ah, a many greats grandchild of the Goddess Circe,” Gothi said, nodding. “Quite a legacy, that. Not a good one, to some, but her…activities were said to have been allowed to continue as a test for heroes.”

They all looked at each other. “That…was something the old gods did?” Hans finally asked.

“That they were said to have done,” Gothi corrected. “If you want my opinion, such as it is, I suspect the old gods did not want to kill the child of one of their own and thus start a war which would be like to kill even more mortals, so they let her stay as she was until a mortal or demi-mortal hero came along and settled the matter for them.”

He continued to tell them stories until they reached the Hole, at which point he fell silent and became visibly dismayed. But he did not hesitate to call up stone to make a small house for himself above the verge, and he set Ari’s stone securely into one of the outer walls. “I shall be comfortable here for the time being,” he said, examining his handiwork. One of the merjin had come up, apparently drawn by the use of elemental magic, and he bowed to her. “My lady, we are to be neighbors, at least for a time. I am Gothi.”

“You are like nothing I have ever sseen before,” she said. “What are you?”

Gothi smiled. “I am a Rock Troll. There was just enough magic to wake one of us, and so here I am.” He made a face, looking around. “The stones here…they still cry out in pain from what was done to them.”

She shrugged. “The waterss do as well, but we have gotten ussed to it. I am called Erisstia. So you are sstaying here, with the annoying sshade? We had hoped that he wass gone for good.”

“No such luck,” Ari said, fading into view. “Someone has to keep you from eating innocent travelers.”

The merjin actually pouted. “We have our duty the same asss you once did!”

“Your duty is to keep the unworthy away,” Jack told her mildly, but there was a thread of power in his voice that widened her oil-black eyes. “Eat all the thieves you wish. If raiders ever come, play with them to your heart’s content. But the innocents who are simply passing through this wild land and have no knowledge of what the Hole means, leave them be. Or show yourselves to them, even if you frighten them, that they might tell others and draw more prey to you.” He cocked his head. “Do the merfolk not come here, even to visit you? Lord Triton told me they still live, but he did not say where.”

She shook her head. “Our water iss too cold for them, and we do not…get along. If I could not ssee the burden of duty placed upon all of you to return to your island waterss ssooner and not later, I would ssend you up the coast,” she pointed, “to introdusse yourself them. They can enssnare men with their voicess, as we can, but they do not eat your kind. Perhaps when you return to your kingdom, you may pay them a vissit—their waterss are closser to the Valley than they are to the Hole.”

“I shall be sure to seek them out, then, when duty permits. King Triton said our alliance will remain unless treachery from one side or the other breaks it.”

“He was quite fond of your ancestor,” Ari said. “He had apparently said, on more than one occasion, that he would have been proud to have such a son as Adam de Valeureux.”

Arthur patted Jack’s shoulder. “No pressure.”

“Tell me about it,” was Jack’s reply.

That night Gothi came to Merlin’s side while he was sleeping, out of sight of the triplet on watch and not with the intent to wake him. “I cannot tell you what I know, but by the magic of my people I can share my vision,” he said, so quietly that his voice might have been one with the soft, stuttering breeze that flicked at the dying fire’s flames. He held out a small pebble, which began to glow from within. “When the turning point is upon you, one touch of your hand to shattered stone will call the future to your eyes.” The pebble broke apart into sparkles which fell on the sleeping mage and then disappeared. “Forgive me for gifting you such a terrible burden, young one, and that on top of the one Fate has already seen fit to make you carry. It is a poor thanks for your part in waking me.”

The troll turned then and trundled back to his little hut on the verge, accepting the hollow comfort of the hand Ari placed on his shoulder. Merlin kept his eyes closed and his breathing even, turning the words he’d just heard over in his mind and allowing the strange, taut bubble of magic containing the promised vision to settle itself within him. The turning point…a chance to change things. It was a valuable gift, even though he suspected it was probably not going to be a pleasant one.

fanfiction In the Land of Stories Old