Published: 3 Oct 2019

Rudy Returns to World

Alexis smells pine and cedar and the damp loam of a forest floor. The upper limb of the sun is still a few degrees below the eastern horizon and the sky is like a purple-gray. Three bright planets and the larger moon shine in the west. A Clydesdale grazes nearby. Alexis looks at the pool of water in the middle of the glade, and nods. This is the right place. He rides into a copse that will screen him from view, loosened the horse’s girth, and prepares to wait.

The gate delivers Rudy into a shallow pond. He glances up, and sees two Bright Travelers low in the western sky, and the moon a hand-span above them. I’m in the right World, at least, he thinks. He sloshes to the shore, takes off his pants and moccasins, and swishes them in the water to remove the mud. He gathers and then applies magic to the task, careful to suppress any sound. Everyone in a day’s ride probably heard the gate; no need to let them know anyone came through. I need to move quickly, though. Wonder where I am; wonder when I am. The spell book promised only I would be in harmony.

He is so intent on his task and his thoughts he does not hear the horse approach until its rider speaks. “Hello, Rudy.”

Rudy’s heart stops for a second. He jerks his head around. The rider adds, “My name is Alexis. I’ve been expecting you. I swear I will do you no harm.”

Rudy scarcely registers what the rider says. It is the horse that draws his attention – nearly 18 hands at the withers, it is taller than any horse he’s ever seen, and the colors – mahogany with a white face and white hair stockings on his ankles? Rudy finally looks at the rider: a tween wearing a tunic and tights, and with a two-handed broadsword slung over his back.

“How do you know my name?” Rudy asks.

“You’re the story-teller, but you’re also in your own stories,” Alexis replies. “If you want to put on your pants, Orion easily can carry us both, and we have a way to go. Even if you don’t want to put on your pants, we should leave here, quickly.” He chuckles.

Rudy giggles, uses the remnants of his magic to remove water from his pants and moccasins, and then puts them on.

“Do you want to ride in front or behind me?” Alexis asks. He’d gotten off the horse, and is watching it drink from the pond. “The view is maybe better from the front.”

Alexis is a head taller than Rudy, and his shoulders are broad. “In front, please,” Rudy says.

Alexis boosts Rudy into the saddle, mounts behind him, and puts his left arm around the boy. “You can hold the front of the saddle,” he says. “However, Orion’s gait is a little different from most horses so, if you don’t mind, I’ll hold you until you get accustomed to it.”

“Where are we going?”

“To take you home,” Alexis says. “To Barrone. That’s where you want to go, isn’t it?”

Rudy nods. “How do you know? And why would you do that?”

“Well,” Alexis says. “I have a sturdy horse. It’s a fine day for a ride and I have a beautiful boy to travel with.” Alexis sees Rudy’s blush reach his ears. “Oh, and I have questions that can be answered only in Barrone. Will you come with me?”

Without quite knowing why, Rudy feels safe. It is more than Alexis’s promise not to harm him. Rudy feels the truth in that. Whatever else Rudy thinks and feels is ineffable, but it is real. Rudy answers Alexis’s question by leaning into the tween’s grasp … just like George did, he thinks … and nods. Alexis feels what Rudy thinks, and tightens his grip briefly into a hug.

For the first hour, Orion picks his way westward through the forest until they reach a farm road. Many of the road’s paving blocks are missing or broken. Alexis points to a mile marker, fallen on its side. The numbers still are visible. “We’re two days ride north of Castle MacLachlan,” Alexis says. “That’s in western Arcadia. There’s an inn halfway between here and there. I hope to reach that, tonight, and the castle tomorrow. There are some people there we should meet before we go to Barrone.”

Rudy nods. “Now I know where we are, but, when are we?”

“Oh,” Alexis says. Rudy feels his embarrassment. “Sorry, I should have told you right away. It’s the 4^th day of Harbinger, Year 4 of Auric.”

Rudy lets out the breath he’s been holding. “That’s a month before I left! How long from here to Barrone?”

“Probably three months, or a little more,” Alexis says.

“Oh,” Rudy says. “My friends will think I’m missing for two months or more. They’ll worry; but, I suppose it can’t be helped.

“Who are the people at the castle you want to talk to?” he adds.

“You know them, or did. At least, you wrote about them. Umm. Maybe you don’t know them. That’s something we have to talk about. They are Ivan, Duke MacLachlan and Baron of the Western Marches; his regent, Alan Viscount Silvanus and his father, Aaron Lord Silvanus; Ivan’s Chancellor, who is an elven tween named Greyeyes; and a cleric, James. Do these names mean anything?”

“I once met a cleric named James,” Rudy says. “It could be the same one, or another. He had an acolyte named Kenneth. I heard stories about the new duke, and the boys who took the castle from a false duke. I know the names Ivan, Alan, and Greyeyes, but I’ve not met them.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to get them to tell you their story so you can write it,” Alexis says. He met James and Kenneth at an inn. Wonder if they told him enough to write their story. He’s only just heard of the restoration. There’s a lot for him to hear and learn – and write!

They stop only to let Orion drink from streams that cross the road. At one of the stops, Alexis digs flatbread and dried fruit from his saddlebags; Rudy takes a can of Vienna sausages from his backpack and shows it to Alexis. The lettering seems to have melted, and is illegible; however, the picture is clear. Alexis chuckles. “If you put enough mustard on those things, like a cup or two apiece, they’re okay,” he says. “They’ll keep for a long time; let’s save them until absolutely necessary, okay?” Bologna! That’s what Argon would call them; bologna!

“You recognize them?” Rudy asks.

“Yes, they exist on another world.”

“Oh. You’re not from here,” Rudy says. “I guess I should have known that. Where are you from? How did you know where to find me?”

“I’m from this world,” Alexis says. “But I’ve traveled a bit. It would be easier to show you than to tell you how I knew to find you. Will you trust me for a bit longer?”

Rudy looks hard at the tween. He swore, and I feel really good about him. He nods. “Yes, when you are ready.”

Alexis lifts Rudy into the saddle, mounts behind him, and then puts his arm around the boy.

“Orion’s gait is as smooth as any horse I’ve ever ridden,” Rudy says. “There’s really no need for you to hold me.”

“True. But, why didn’t you object until now?”

Rudy takes Alexis’s arm and presses it into his tummy. Alexis feels his smile.

It is still daylight when they reach a crossroads at which are an inn, a wind-powered gristmill, and a few houses. In the stables of the inn, Rudy stands on tiptoe to help Alexis groom Orion. “He’s really beautiful,” Rudy says. “His coat is almost the same color as my hair – when it’s wet, that is.”

“Orion is a bit more brown, I think,” Alexis says. He cocks his head as if he were listening and then adds, “Orion thanks you for saying he is beautiful, and says you are, too.”

Rudy looks startled until he sees the smile in Alexis’s eyes. “And he likes the color of your hair,” Alexis adds.

“Come on,” Alexis says. “Orion is set for the night, and we need a bath. Orion? If you have to poop, poop in the corner of the stall, and please don’t step in it, okay?”

Rudy looks for another smile, but Alexis seems serious. It doesn’t help that Orion bobs his head as if acknowledging Alexis’s request.

Alexis does not give Rudy a chance to ask, but hurries the boy through the mudroom and into the inn.

The bath is busy, but not overly crowded. I have gained today only a little boy magic, Rudy thinks. Mark had none to share. Oh! I do hope he and Kevin are all right. Rudy feels a pang of guilt that he’d not thought of those boys, sooner. I wonder if they’ll be able to create their own magic where those lines of power intersect. I think that’s what Kevin had planned. He was a little too …. a little too … Something was going on, and I’m not sure what it is, but he seemed to understand the magic. Oops, Alexis is naked, and I’m not.

Rudy tosses his clothes into the wash bucket, and stands by Alexis who pulls the chain to deluge them with warm water. Before Rudy can gather the great magic, Alexis begins washing Rudy’s hair.

He’s using the great magic, Rudy thinks. Does he have no boy magic? How long was he waiting for me? How did he know where I would arrive? Whatever else Rudy might have wondered is pushed aside by the tingle of Alexis’s magic removing the mud from the pond. Alexis kneels, and runs his hands and the soap across Rudy’s legs, and then his feet, careful to wash between each toe.

“I don’t usually like washing feet,” Alexis says. “They’re the most unattractive part of the body – and the dirtiest. Yours, however, are like the rest of you – perfectly formed and quite beautiful.”

Rudy blushes, and then takes a handful of soap and lifts it toward Alexis’s head. Alexis ducks so Rudy can reach his hair, and waits patiently as the boy washes him.

He can’t help but notice I’m attracted to him: I’ve been hard since I first saw him, but here, in the bath … Neither boy realizes the other has the same thought.

Alexis pulls the chain, again. This time, it is the one with the blue knob. Cold water deluges the boys, and shrivels their erections. “Oh!” Rudy exclaims.

“Now is not the time or the place,” Alexis says. “But later, perhaps. Rudy, will you share with me tonight?”

The boy smiles and nods and tosses Alexis a towel.

The common room is busy. Alexis and Rudy sit at a trestle table with four men, members of a caravan that arrived from the south just before dark. The caravaneers say they are en route to the castle. “Trade’s opened up since the new duke?” Alexis asks.

“Yes, and it’s a lot safer, too. Don’t know the whole story, but from what I heard…” The man tells of a band of adventurers storming the castle, killing all the trolls—

“Yes, trolls,” the man says when Rudy gasps. “Killed all the trolls and many of the men, too. Turned some of the men loose. A few of the brigands tried to band together, but they are under some sort of spell. They couldn’t attack anyone!” The man laughs. “Most of them got honest work, or moved far away.”

“Thank you for your story,” Alexis says, and gestures to the potboy for a round of ale. “Do you have others?”

It is just past compline when Alexis and Rudy reach their room. Rudy’s mind is full of stories about the castle, both before and after what the man called the restoration. The man said dwarves, who live in the mountains, were involved in the restoration and after years of isolation are starting to trade with humans. A squad of elves – some folks say they are from the elven king’s army – have come to live at the castle and are teaching archery to local boys. There is a temple at the castle, and one at a village about a day south, and there are real healers, again.

“That was fun,” Rudy says, as he undresses for bed.

“Good stories, but not well told,” Alexis says. “Bet you could do a good job of retelling them. Are you too tired to share?”

Rudy has taken off his trousers and moccasins. He pulls his shirt over his head, and tosses it onto a chest. He stands, naked and erect. He steps into Alexis’s embrace. Alexis lowers his head and kisses the boy. Rudy gasps and then fumbles at the laces of Alexis’s tights while Alexis pulls off his tunic.

Alexis and Rudy shared, slept, wakened to rain and thunder, and shared again. After the second sharing, Rudy snuggles against Alexis, warmed by sex and the woolen blankets. “Alexis, do you believe in love at first sight?” Rudy tries to hide his trembling.

“I do, Rudy,” Alexis says. “And I love you. But I’ve known you from your stories for years. I’ve loved you for a long, long time. It’s not, for me, really love at first sight.”

Alexis feels the boy’s smile. “It is, for me,” Rudy says. “Alexis, I love you. I feel like I have known you forever. I shouldn’t love you so much, I think. I … I don’t know what to do about Sam.”

“Sam has been your companion in this life,” Alexis says. “Yes,” he responds to Rudy’s open-mouthed look. “You wrote about him, and you are right, he’ll be terribly worried when he finds out you’ve disappeared. Please remember, ‘love shared is love multiplied.’ I know, that sounds like an easy answer, but it’s the way things work. Sam will understand. He didn’t seem to have any problem with you and Arthur and his companions sharing, did he?”

Rudy shakes his head. That memory is from this life, and is fresh. No, Sam and I shared with Arthur and George and Larry, and I am so happy that we did. Rudy remembers Sam’s first love, the boy William, now dead. I wish Sam had shared with Gary. He is so much like William. Maybe, just maybe, we can get Sam and Gary together. Oh! I wonder if that really would be a good idea!

By sunrise, they are awake and dressed. Before they leave the room, Alexis pulls Rudy into a hug, and kisses him. “Rudy, thank you for last night. Thank you for sharing yourself. I felt you. I felt love and wisdom, too. You are truly remarkable.”

Rudy’s blush nearly matches his hair, and hides his freckles. “I’m a boy,” he says. “I’m supposed to love easily, although I feel something different – stronger – with you. But, wisdom?”

“You know,” Alexis says, “that you have lived before. You know that you have magical talent beyond your age. You should know you also have wisdom and experience that will – soon, I think – awaken in you.”

Rudy kisses Alexis. Thoughts that had been chasing one another in his mind coalesce. Rudy understands. His next decision is an easy one. He takes Alexis’s hands in his, and looks into Alexis’s eyes. “Will you guide me, for I know I will need your help? Will you protect me, for I know I will need your strength? Will you be with me, for I know I cannot face this, alone? Will you love me, for I love you?”

Alexis speaks instantly. “I will be with you as long as I am able; I will love you forever.” The air in the room shimmers.

Rudy gasps at the power of Alexis’s oath. Then Rudy responds. “Alexis, I will be with you, too, as long as I am able; I will love you forever.”

In the common room, the caravaneers are glum. “Rainstorm last night turned the road into a morass,” the one who told the stories explains. “The new duke has started working on the roads, but hasn’t gotten to this one, yet. We’ll stay here, today. It’ll cost us a bit of our profit.”

Alexis nods. “Perhaps you’ll share more stories, later?”

The man agrees, sure that Alexis will, as before, pay for the stories with ale.

After breakfast, Alexis and Rudy return to their room. Alexis pulls a book from his saddlebags.

“How did that book fit?” Rudy asks. “Oh, I feel the magic. Are you a mage, too?”

“I know a few things,” Alexis says. “However, these saddlebags were made by my late master, who was a lot smarter than I am.”

Alexis hands Rudy the book.

“Liber Heroicum,” Rudy reads from the cover. “The Book of Heroes?”

“Open it to the first page,” Alexis asks.

Rudy gasps. He translates the Old Elvish as he reads.

“That’s my name,” he says. “And I’m from Barrone in this life, and, I think, the one before that. But I’m not a high master mage! I was just accepted as an apprentice the day before I was taken to another world!”

“Perhaps not now a High Master Mage,” Alexis says. “But you will be when you write this.”

“But this book is ancient,” Rudy protests. “I can feel its age. I have written stories in this life – stories about heroes, but so long ago?”

“Yes, the book is ancient,” Alexis agrees. “But, I know you are the author. Perhaps as you remember your past lives, you will remember more stories, and you will remember writing these. Please, open the book.”

Rudy’s fingers slide along the edge of the pages until the book opens to a picture.

Three boys stand on a rectangular slab of stone surrounded by pine trees. They kiss, and then two step off the slab. The remaining boy faces away from the setting sun. In moments, a gate appears. He turns, waves to the other boys, and steps into the vortex.

Rudy gasps, again. “That’s Mark and Kevin and I. But that just happened!

“Alexis, I’m afraid! What is this? What am I?”

Alexis pulls Rudy into his embrace. “Please do not be afraid. This is just a book. You are a boy who has lived many lives and who is a mage and a storyteller. That is all. There is nothing Evil here.”

Rudy feels Alexis’s trepidation, and wonders, Will he tell me the rest?

“That doesn’t mean that it is always safe. In fact, there are many dangers told in the book. There are many dangers you will face. Please remember my promise to be here for you.”

Rudy relaxes. Alexis asks him to read the story that follows the picture. Rudy reads.

A boy walks into a public house. The boy’s clothes are ordinary: shapeless and nearly colorless trousers and pullover shirt that hangs past his waist, and moccasins. He sits at a table and looks at the door as if he were expecting someone. In a booth across the room, two boys sit side-by-side. They look at a book. Their whispers echo from the walls of the booth, and travel clearly to the table where the boy sits.

“He’s got to be Arthur in the first story” Kevin whispers. “It’s obvious.”

“It’s too obvious,” Mark says. “I think he’s the healer in Minnesota. He’s always a healer or a teacher and the healer is Tyler’s teacher, and at the monastery—”

“No, no. Look,” Kevin says. He moves his finger across the page. “See? It’s got to be Arthur in the first story. He’s a healer, and he’s all the time teaching George and Gary and…”

The boy at the table across the room listens to their argument for several more minutes before standing and walking toward the booth. He stands at the end of the table, and says, “He’s none of these.”

The two boys look up. One fumbles as he tries to close the book. Before he can, the new boy says, “The real author is none of those people. He’s the storyteller. Who is the storyteller?”

When neither of the two boys answers, the first one continues, “Rudy. Sometimes known as Rudbeck. Do you know of him?”

Once again, Rudy stares at Alexis. “This just happened, two days ago. How?”

“You know gates move between times.” Alexis says. ”The simplest explanation is that the book, too, at least, this copy, has moved in time. You wrote it in the future, it traveled with someone into the past. It came into the possession of my master, who gave it to me. Copies of it also traveled to other worlds and times.”

“To Mark and Kevin’s world,” Rudy says.

“I think so. The stories tell of more than one Earth, which is what Mark and Kevin, and others call their world.”

“You say I live in my stories – this one, for sure. But do you, too?” Rudy asks.

“Well, yes. At least, the story you and I are now living is in this book.”

“You have read it?”

“Only the beginning of it. That’s how I knew where to find you. There is just enough information to do that.”

Rudy hands the book to Alexis who flips a few pages, and reads.

Rudy is so intent on his task he does not hear the steps of the horse until it is fewer than five paces away. “Hi, Rudy,” the rider says.

Rudy’s heart stops for a second. He jerks his head around. The rider adds, “My name is Alexis. I’ve been expecting you. I swear I will do you no harm.”

The picture on the facing page shows a boy kneeling by a pond and rinsing clothes in the water. Behind him stands a huge horse ridden by a tall tween.

“This story goes to the end of this page, when we reach the inn. After that, I cannot open the pages.” Alexis points to the clues that led him to Rudy – an hour’s ride east of the road at a fallen mile-marker that showed a two-day ride to the castle. And the date: one day after First Market of the month of Harbinger in the 4^th year of Auric at dawn.

Alexis closes the book and hands it to Rudy. “I could not open that page until two months ago. My master had just died. His last gift to me was this book. I was in the city of Arcadia. It took me most of the time to find the pond. Whatever magic controls the book, it’s very precise.”

Alexis laughs. “I’ve read in the stories that some people think you’re an elf, because you wrote in Old Elvish. No elf would ever have so precise a sense of time! It’s as if you wrote that – or will write it – to make sure I can find you.”

Rudy ducks his head, and then looks up and smiles at Alexis. “If I did – I’m glad I did.”

Alexis returns Rudy’s smile. Then, his smile vanishes. “There are still parts of the book I cannot read. There are parts of the book that you will not be able to read. They may be stories that you have not written yet; perhaps they are stories that happen in the future; or stories you or I are in. I suspect what I cannot read and what you cannot read may not always be the same. We’ll have to be careful about what we tell one another. Here, you try.”

Rudy feels his fingers slip along the page edges until the book opens. The Translator III – Dragon Warrior, he reads. “I remember this!” he exclaims after a few pages. “I remember reading his journal and spell book! The spell to open the gate came from his book! Of course!”

Alexis waits, silently, as Rudy thinks. “That is in a much older life, but I remember it.”

Alexis pulls a blank book from the saddlebags. “Rudy, you need a place to record the things you see and hear. Someday, I think it will be the foundation of your stories. Some of them, at least.”

Rudy laughs. It isn’t a mocking laugh, but one filled with joy. “Thank you, my beloved. Just as Arthur gave George a journal, you have given one to me. Art imitates life; life imitates art. Am I George to your Arthur?”

Before Alexis can answer, Rudy adds, “Oh, and does Orion really understand you? Does he really talk to you?”

“He’s pretty smart,” Alexis answers the easier question. “He has learned not to poop in the middle of his stall, which is a vast improvement.”

“Hmm?”

“You see how big his hooves are. If he steps in poop, I have to clean them. ’Nough said. Does he understand me? I like to think he does. Does he talk to me? Well, I’d like to think the thoughts I hear are his, and not just mine. Perhaps we’ll find the answer to those questions during this story.”

Alexis and Rudy spend the day exploring the book. In the late afternoon, they bathe, and then join the men from the caravan for supper, stories, and more ale. The stories and ale end earlier than the previous night.

“We’ll be off to an early start, tomorrow,” one man says. “Can’t make up an entire day, but if we can get to the castle in time to unload before dark, we can get off early the next morning.”

“Should we travel with the caravan?” Rudy asks Alexis. “There’s safety in numbers,” he says, parroting something he heard, somewhere, somewhen.

“True, but they will be slower than we are. Besides, I saw a couple of the tween drovers looking at you and, well, I just found you. I don’t want anyone else in the picture for a while, anyway.”

Rudy blushes. “Nor do I. Will you share with me, tonight?”

Alexis nods. “Happily. Tonight and tomorrow, if you will. Tomorrow, we’ll leave before they do and eat breakfast from trail supplies while we ride. They’ll have to stop more often. On Orion, we’ll beat them to the castle by a couple of hours.”

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.

15,561 views