Published: 4 Nov 2019

Diaspora

Master Criticus summons Alexis to his workshop. None of the other boys are there, not even Petrus, the master’s apprentice. “Alexis, do you remember the day you arrived, when Petrus told of first meeting Marty and Chandler?”

“Yes, Master, I do. He and they talked about how vulnerable Barrone might be if Eblis were the source of Evil. I gather that is now come to pass.”

The master frowns. “You think well, and deeply. Yes. Andy and Billy have brought news that suggests Barrone will be the next target of the Dark forces. The prince has already given instructions I am bound to carry out. He asked me to preserve our knowledge; to save as many of the members of the college as possible; and to abandon Barrone.

“Our books and scrolls are even now being moved into Marty and Chandler’s workshop, below ground. It is the easiest to hide, and it has been prepared with cedar to preserve the books. As soon as the books are transferred, we will evacuate the underground and seal it.

“The knowledge that is held in the minds of the students and faculty will be preserved by dispersing us all to several locations. You will lead one group, which will include Rudy, Marty and Chandler, Mark and Kevin, and Petrus. Paul from the Temple will join you. Phillip and his companions will take you by boat to the city of Arcadia. From there, you will travel to the Castle MacLachlan. You will be expected there. I charge you with this on your oath to the Light and to me. I also charge you to tell no one of this except those who travel with you. Are you agreed?”

“Billy and Andy?” Alexis asks.

“They will remain here. It is their choice. They, better than any of us, know the risk.”

“And Phillip?”

“He has his own destiny, Alexis. He will not know where you will go after you leave his boat; you will not know where he will go.”

“Yes, Master Criticus. I will obey. How soon must we leave?”

“Phillip and his friends are making the ship ready. Stores will be delivered tomorrow. They want to sail with tomorrow’s evening tide.”

Master Criticus had been right; Alexis and his party are welcomed at Castle MacLachlan. They arrive just before the first blizzard of the season boils over the western mountains.

After finding a bedroom large enough for the eight, Alan takes them on a tour of the castle. “Our sovereign prince orders us to provide a mage’s workshop, for you,” he says.

“This tower holds a large cube that was once a cleric or mage’s workbench,” Alan says. “James examined it, and said there is nothing special about this location, and that he’d rather not climb all those stairs. So, he set up the temple on the main level. You can have the room, if you like. If it’s not suitable—”

“Yes, please!” Rudy says. “This will be perfect.”

“Rudy’s right,” Kevin says. “Besides, the view is worth the climb.” He stands at one window, and then walks to another. “You can see the eastern valley and the western valley, and the ridgeline on which the castle sits. It’s beautiful!”

Alexis agrees.

Mindful that Ley Lines are still a secret, Rudy says nothing until Alan and Ivan leave. “Alexis? Would you spell the door? Chandler? Would you seal the room?”

Alexis and Chandler do as Rudy asks. “What’s up? Trouble?”

“No,” Rudy says. “The castle sits on an intersection. Four Ley Lines meet in the center of this room, right where the cube is. Someone, once, knew about the lines. I suspect the castle was built here because of them.”

“There’s power, here?” Chandler asks.

“Yes, but we may have to learn a great deal in order to be able to use it.”

Rudy is right; there is a lot to learn about harnessing the magic that is gathered and focused by the Ley Lines; however, there isn’t much else to do in the winter. The castle is snowbound most of the time.

Spring has pushed winter behind the mountains. Alexis sits in the window of the tower, staring at the eastern valley. In the center, a lake reflects light from the sky; the sun has not yet cleared the eastern hills.

Alexis is pulled from his reverie by Rudy. “Alexis? You said I could try to open a gate to TomTom. I think I’m ready. May I? I mean, with everyone’s help, of course.”

The ceremony begins in the early morning. Moments after they start the chant, Paul tugs at Alexis’s arm, and leads him to the eastern window. He gestures.

At the bottom of the hill, about a mile from the castle, a vortex has formed. A line of people walks from the vortex into the valley. Alexis uses magic to see. Horses, sheep, dogs, people with baskets. It’s the People! He narrows his field of view. That’s Casey! He’s leading the way with a band of soldiers – Diné, in camo, but with bows and spears! He’s become the warrior he wanted to be! But where is TomTom…?

A second vortex forms beside the first, and another line of people walk from it. That would be the Athabasca, from Phillip’s world, Alexis thinks.

“Go tell Alan and Ivan,” Alexis whispers to Paul. “They can see this from the battlements; do not bring them here. Tell them these people are friends and will become allies. We will join Alan and Ivan, soon. Ask them to wait for us.”

Alexis then speaks softly, one-by-one, to each of the boys. “Keep chanting. It’s working, but you must keep chanting.” He gets a nod from each before moving to the next. The boys don’t understand, but they obey. The chant continues.

Alexis goes back to the window. He watches closely until the last person steps from the first vortex. TomTom! He’s wearing the outfit he and Jim created, he thinks. The first vortex closes; then the second.

“Rudy, it worked. It’s over. TomTom and his people, and Phillip’s people are here. We need to go with Ivan and Alan to meet them.”

Four Diné meet them halfway up the hill. Ivan speaks first: “Welcome to the Western Marches of Arcadia. I am Ivan, Duke and Baron. Alexis has told me there are among you those as noble as any of us, and that you will become our friends and allies.”

Alexis has compared ages and appearances with descriptions in Rudy’s story, and is confident he knows who each of the visitors are. “Ivan, Alan, Rudy, please meet Tommy Chee and his uncle, Joe Leaphorn. These are Phillip Windrider’s uncle Henry White Eagle Wings, and Johnny Two-Horses, a shaman – a mage from that world.”

“If you’ve not already walked too far, will you come with us to the castle?” Ivan asks.

“I don’t know,” TomTom says. “I think we’ve just walked several million million miles!” He grins, and then adds. “Thank you, we would be happy to come with you.”

“There are about 6,000 of us, between the two parties. All of us are prepared to live off the land, to hunt, gather, and plant. We have workers who are skilled in making weapons: bows, arrows, spears and atlatls. We have workers who are skilled potters, weavers, and basket makers,” Joe says.

“Alan has explained that Ivan holds the valley in which we arrived in trust to the prince of this land. We would not want to occupy land that belongs to someone else,” TomTom begins. “This is classic basin and range topography. I suspect if we travel far enough west we will find an empty valley.”

Alan holds up his hand, stopping Tommy. “Alexis said you would be friends and allies in the coming fight against the Dark. We would not want our allies traveling westward, which we believe is the direction from which the Dark will come. Besides, if you had to travel, you’d have less time to put in your crops. Winter comes early, here, and the growing season is short.

“I am Ivan’s regent; he is sworn to obey me until he is of age. He is my liege lord; I am sworn to obey him. We do not have a problem with this relationship because our oaths are based on mutual respect and love.

“In his name and the name of our prince, we offer you the valley in which you arrived, to have and to hold, a portion to fill with farms and a portion to leave wooded for hunting. We swear to protect you from those who would harm you. We ask your support and protection from those who would harm us. We ask that you enter into trade with us on fair terms. We invite you to send your brightest to our schools to be trained in magic, healing, and other skills. We ask you to accept our brightest as students to learn your magic and your skills. We offer this and we ask this.

“If you agree, you and Ivan would swear an oath. It would be like the oaths Ivan and I have taken: based on trust and love. It would bind all of us and our children forever and even beyond that. The oath would be to the prince of this land, not to Ivan.”

The Athabascan and Diné exchange looks and Alexis senses some reluctance.

“Joe Leaphorn, I assure you that such an oath cannot be broken as long as you and the Prince serve that which is Right. It’s different from the treaties that the Hispanglos and bilagaana made with your peoples. It won’t be written down, but it will be burned into the minds of those making the oath and the witnesses. It will be renewed whenever leadership of the country or of your people changes. It will be cancelled only by mutual agreement.”

“Would we be subject to your laws?” Henry asks.

Alan looks to Alexis for an answer.

“We have no laws as you know them,” Alexis says. “There are penalties for evildoing and you would be expected to enforce those penalties on your people – tempered with mercy and guided by wisdom. I don’t think you will find any conflict with your beliefs and ethics.

“For example, certain actions, such as rape, murder, and providing dangerous drugs to a child are normally dealt with by executing the perpetrator, not as punishment or an example to others, but to make certain he or she cannot commit the act, again.

“Destruction of property is dealt with by requiring restitution. Depending on the seriousness and intent, the perpetrator may be ostracized … and in this world, that is equivalent to exile. There is a Thieves Guild, and members of the guild do steal. If caught, restitution is expected. Punishment is in the hands of the guild, itself.

“Thieves not in the guild, such as highwaymen, footpads, and muggers, may be exiled, or given the choice of joining the Army where they will work for a living. Physically harming another is dealt with by requiring restitution and ostracism. There are other penalties; however, they need not worry a reasonable person who is committed to Good. There are few criminals; there are no prisons.

“Children are not expected to display adult traits and are taught, but not punished.

“Some of the people who live here are innate lie detectors, nearly infallible, so justice is swift. I suspect that some of the People will find they, too, have that gift.”

“This is what we expected,” Joe says. “You look surprised. Stories of this world are told on ours. We expected we would come to this world; we expected we would be helped by powers from this world. We knew what we were getting into. Still, it is a lot to swallow at once.”

Joe and Henry exchange glances. They agree. “We accept; thank you.”

Alan chuckles. “I remember the letter Patrick wrote to the prince to tell him Ivan’s dukedom had been restored and we had met the Cordillera. I think the next letter to the prince will be even more fun to write.”

The End (of this story)

Postscript 1
Years? Decades? Perhaps centuries later, the Xander sails to Beringia; Phillip and his companions return to the stone house on the hill overlooking the harbor that had been their home before the latest war. There, Phillip opens the medicine bag for the last time. Safely nestled in the sand are two kernels of corn Johnny Two-Horses had put there so many years ago. One is white; one is yellow. Phillip knows the story: First Man and First Woman had been created by the Basket Makers from two ears of corn. When the White East Wind and the Yellow West Wind blew on the corn, the white ear of corn became First Man; the yellow ear of corn became First Woman.

Phillip plants the corn in the garden beside the stone house, and lives there with his companions for the rest of that life.

Postscript 2
The lamplight shows more white hair than red when Rudy, High Master Mage of Barrone, puts the last tittle on the last story in the book and blots the ink. When he is sure the ink is dry, he closes the book and begins to chant. The words are Athabaskan, part of the spell that opens gates, the part that puts the traveler in harmony with the place where the gate opens. No one can open the book to a place that would take him out of harmony, he thinks when the spell is completed.

End Notes
All trademarks used herein are the property of their owners. (Can you say, “tautology”?) The words of John Dryden are in the public domain. The precepts of Peter Abelard are in the public domain. The names “Joe Leaphorn” and “Jim Chee” appear in this Earth-analogue in several excellent novels, set in Navajo country, written by Tony Hillerman.

The concept of a “forever-companion” is inherent to the stories from world. Occasionally, a bond forms between boys that is destined to last forever. Literally. Beyond this life, and into others. Many boys may swear an oath to seek their friends “if not in in this life, then in the next.” However, it is somewhat random as to whether they will meet in the next life … or one separated by several lifetimes. It is our understanding, however, that “forever companions” will always be born at or near the same time, and will always find one another in these lives.

Charles Dickens gets credit for the notion of ghosts of Christmas Past and Present.

Phidippides’ marathon is indeed a myth. d’Artagnan was very likely a real person who was fictionalized by Alexandre Dumas.

This book wraps up many of the stories of World, though we hope it is not the last from the fertile mind of David. Let David know you are reading: David dot McLeod at CastleRoland dot net. He deserves your feedback.

15,571 views