Roland's Castle (27 page)

Roland did so.

“Now it is time for you to meet the
sentinel,” she said.

She took him to yet another large
cavern. In the cavern was a, huge flame, many times the height of a
man. The flame almost had the appearance of a living creature in
the way it moved and the shapes it occasionally formed. Sometimes,
as Roland looked more closely, he almost thought he saw a face in
its flickering flow. He also noticed that the flame seemed to be
stooping, as if bent by sadness.

“This is Lumenfarge,” said the
Great Mistress.

“Hello,” said Roland.

The flame spoke with a voice that
was very odd. It was a contradiction in terms, like a booming
whisper, very loud and very soft, all at the same time. It said,
“So you are Roland, and you want to go to the sun.”

“Yes, I am Roland, and yes, I do
want to go to the sun.”

“I’ve wanted to go to the sun for a
very long time,” the flame said.

“That’s good,” said Roland, pleased
that the sentinel had its own reasons for wanting to go.

“No. No, it isn’t,” said the flame,
and its upper part seemed to wobble from side to side, as if it
were shaking its head very sadly, “I have been homesick, homesick
and sad for so long – so very long. And I can only stay home for a
very short time, then I must go back to my dull and lonely
existence at the frontier of light and dark.”

Roland tried to think of something
positive to say –‘there must be a bright spot somewhere’ hardly
seemed appropriate when talking to a living flame.

“And I cannot go to The Very Hearth
again, ever,” the flame continued, because of the stain of darkness
I now carry inside me.”

“I am sorry,” Roland said, “But I
understand that that will help us – it will protect us, so I am
told.”

“Yes,” Lumenfarge said, “Good can
even come out of bad, or at least from a mixture of the two…”

“Well err… good, I suppose,” said
Roland, unsure really what to say. “As long as something good comes
out in the wash. Now, are you willing to take my friends too?”

“As many as need to go.”

“Great! There are five of us – and
here are the others, just in time!”

A messenger had been sent to fetch
Roland’s comrades and they now entered the chamber. Roland went
over to them, “This is Lumenfarge, the sentinel who will be taking
us to the sun.”

“A flame with a name!” Oliver
quipped, “Now there’s a turn up!”

Roland shot him a look, indicating
that levity wasn’t appropriate just now.

“He seems to have a few prob’s,”
Roland said quietly, confidentially, so Lumenfarge wouldn’t hear,
“Let’s take it easy, shall we…”

Botherworth went up to Lumenfarge
and stared into his flowing, flickering body, plainly
fascinated.

“I understand it’s rude to stare,”
objected Lumenfarge.

“Sorry,” said Botherworth,
continuing to stare, “Didn’t know flames had feelings.”

“Well we do. You might at least
introduce yourself,” said Lumenfarge.

“Sorry. My name is Ebenezer –
Mister Botherworth to my friends. Those over there are my friends:
Oliver, Savitri and Brother Goodwill. So what’s it like being a
flame, then?”

“It’s a lonely life,” the flame
said, dolefully, “At least for a Sentinel. All I do is sit out on
the edge of the light watching the darkness – watch, watch, watch
is all I ever do…, then more watching. I never see any action!”

“What you wanna see action for –
you might get killed!”

“Better than just sitting and
watching…” Lumenfarge said, “Better that than being miserable…”

Even
Botherworth wasn’t
prepared to go along with that one. He said, “I think you need to
speak to a friend of mine…”

He called over to Brother Goodwill,
“Brother Goodwill! Can you do something to cheer this bright spark
up?”

“Oh yes! Gladly!” said Goodwill,
positively
leaping towards them.

“Been tried before,” Lumenfarge
said.

“Ah, but we’ve got the experts on
hand now,” Botherworth said.

“You must work on it as we go,”
said Roland, “There is no time to wait. Can you take us now?” he
asked Lumenfarge.

“Yes,” said Lumenfarge, and with
that the side of the flame split from his base upwards to form a
doorway into him, “Enter,” he said.

Roland thanked the Great Mistress
of the Lighthouse for all her help, then he and his fellow
adventurers entered the sentinel. Inside Lumenfarge it was cool and
light, neither too hot or too bright for them. They could still see
the outside through the thin film of flame wrapped around them.

“Can you breath?” Lumenfarge
asked.

“Yes,” said Roland.

“Not too warm? Not too cold?”

“No. No, not too anything.”

“Good. Are you ready?”

“Ready as ever likely to be,”
Oliver said.

with that the flame rose up through
the roof of the cavern, up into the sky of the moon. They looked
down through the wall of flame, then up at the great cosmos and its
panoply of stars and galaxies. Then the darkness inside Lumenfarge
thickened to protect them and they turned towards the sun and
accelerated.

The journey to the sun was long and
punctuated only by Brother Goodwill’s attempts to cheer up
Lumenfarge. It was a difficult task as the sentinel had indeed
spent many years alone in the darkness and knew little of company
and cheer. All the while the disk of the great star grew larger
until it was all they could see. As they got close in they could
make out great dark clouds on its surface. So it seemed that even
on the sun the war against darkness was continuously fought.

They passed through the upper
layers of flame to find yet more flames beneath. They passed
downwards beside massive columns of fire roaring upwards and
outwards towards the darkness above. At times they heard screeching
and groaning sounds. Sometimes a faint scream.

All the while the sentinel’s
doleful voice and Brother Goodwill’s chirpy tones could be heard as
they exchanged views on the value of life.

“I think,” said Goodwill, “that the
test of whether you have a positive view of life is this; even if
you have lived a life full of pain with just one moment of
pleasure,

if you can wish for your life to
recur eternally for just for that one moment of pleasure, then you
have truly affirmed life!”

“Sounds dreadful,” said the
sentinel.

“Oh, not really,” said
Goodwill.

“Have you ever known real pain?”
Lumenfarge asked.

“I have been in battle and
wounded.”

“That is pain from without. I mean
pain from within.”

“It seems to me that your pain from
within is caused by a lack of interest in things outside you —
things, people, to occupy your mind.”

“I have no one. I don’t have any
friends, and my family don’t want to know me because I carry the
darkness within me, which is why I can carry you and have this
conversation with you.”

Botherworth lent over to Oliver and
said confidentially, “Bit of a misery, isn’t he?”

“But a useful misery,” Oliver said,
“Kind of like someone else we know!”

“Oi! You watch it!” Botherworth
said, but there was a flicker of a smile on his face.

“After this is all over, we do need
to do something about trying to cheer Lumenfarge up,” Savitri said,
“He is putting himself out for us.”

“We can offer him our companionship
– and we will invite him to the victory party,” Roland said.

“Do you think he will come?”

Roland shrugged, “He is willing to
help us, why not?”

Despite the sentinel’s ability to
shield them the friends could now feel the heat of the sun’s
centre. With intense white heat now all around them Lumenfarge
said, “This is far as I am allowed to go.”

“We must now go on foot,” Roland
told his companions.

“On foot! Have you completely lost
it!” Oliver objected, “What’s out there makes the inside of a
baker’s oven look like an ice house! Is there even anything for us
to walk on?!”

“There is a path,” said Lumenfarge,
“It is narrow at first but gets wider. Follow it with no diversions
and it will take you to The Very Hearth.”

“And we have these,” said Roland,
producing the gentians from his pocket.

“Flowers!???” Oliver exclaimed in
disbelief. Then he saw the darkness that they cast around them.
“They are very errm… dark, aren’t they.”

“The Great Mistress of the
Lighthouse assured me they would protect us, even in The Very
Hearth – the centre of the sun.”

As Roland held up the tiny flowers
the darkness inside the sentinel grew even darker.

“More darkness,” said Lumenfarge
miserably, “I always bring trouble with me when I return home.”

“Perhaps if your kin lightened up a
bit — no pun intended,” Oliver said.

Roland shook his head at Oliver,
then told Lumenfarge, “I do not believe you are a bringer of
trouble. You have helped us and that is all I see. Thank you. If
there is anything we can do for you…”

“Don’t mention it,” said
Lumenfarge, “If you need me again…”

“Yes, we will,” said Roland, “We
will need you to get us back, so please stay.”

“Very well,” said Lumenfarge. Your
friend has tried to cheer me up. I appreciate that. Its nice to
have company after all this time, even that of lesser forms.”

“I am glad we have been able to do
something for you.”

Roland turned to Goodwill and
Botherworth, “I don’t see much point in you two coming with us.
Perhaps you would like to stay here and continue trying to cheer up
our fiery friend?”

The fortresser and the caretaker
both nodded their agreement.

“Now, are we ready?” Roland
asked.

Oliver and Savitri replied that
they were.

“Very well, then. It is time we
stepped into the sun!”

Lumenfarge opened the doorway in
his side. Roland walked towards it and peered into the white tumult
of flame outside, then took a deep breath and held

his gentian out over the threshold.
The eerie dark shadow it cast showed that there was indeed a path —
of sorts. It was made of solid flame. There were also walls and a
ceiling of solid flame. It was in fact a corridor. Roland took
another deep breath and stepped out into it.

Almost immediately there was a
reaction to his presence. There was a scream that sounded almost
evil — or like a warning of evil — and the walls, floor and ceiling
around him brightened, reddened and flexed, as if with rage. Flames
all about leapt and writhed in anger.

Oliver and Savitri stepped out
behind him, joining him at his side.

Roland held his gentian higher and
put a foot forwards, then another. The others also held up their
tiny flowers as high as they could, sending darkness spilling out
around them. The flames immediately retreated to the fringes of the
shadows like frightened, wounded creatures.

“Are you quite sure this is safe?”
asked Oliver.

“No,” said Roland.

“Okay, just asking.”

They all started to walk quickly
and as they did so the flames continued to back away from the dark
pools cast by the gentians. Beyond the shadows the flames continued
to redden and grow in intensity. There were sounds like the
growling and snarling of angry animals that grew louder as they
walked. There were also even more sinister sounds, such as distant
screams. They began to think they saw faces in the flames and in
the walls – the floor, the ceiling….

“Did you see that?” Oliver asked,
pointing at one.

“And that!” Savitri added, pointing
at another.

“Let’s just keep on moving,” Roland
said.

“What did Lumenfarge mean by
calling us lesser forms?” Oliver asked, trying to keep himself
distracted.

“It seems that the Great Flames
created us just to help them in their war.” Roland said.

“Is that true?”

“So it seems.”

“They owe us then, don’t they?”

“Perhaps they think we owe them!
Anyway, we have no time to waste thinking about it,”

They reached a junction where
several other corridors joined the one they were in. The route
ahead became wider, like a road. Beyond the junction a large number
of flames blocked the way. They hissed and shook and reddened with
rage at the sight of the approaching adventurers. They were
determined to stop them but Roland stuck his gentian forwards and
they were pushed aside. As they fell back the walls, floor and
ceiling shook as if with rage and a dull roar echoed all
around.

As they proceeded more and more
flames blocked the way, their hisses and growls and roars of rage
filling the ears of the adventurers. They all glowed red with rage
and reached out fiery tentacles that felt along the edges of the
gentian’s shadows.

Soon hundreds – thousand -of flames
were all around the adventurers, hostile and angry faces that
shrieked and screamed hatred pressed right up against the edges of
the shadows. Roland had never felt so frightened, and the others
were also clearly very scared. There was nothing between them and
the fury of the flames but mere shadows, and they did not feel like
enough — not nearly enough. Roland wished for a strong shield, a
suit of armour or better, a stone rampart. None of these could have
protected them as well as the darkness of a gentian’s shadow, but
they would have felt more substantial, more reassuring.

“We must be near somewhere
important now,” said Roland, “judging by the reception – and the
look of the place.”

There was, indeed, now an
appearance of magnificence and grandeur around them, as if they
were on a great thoroughfare in a great city. The towering walls of
flame at its sides had the appearance of great buildings. Before
them they saw a what looked like a great doorway with burning
bright white pillars and an even brighter white light shining out
between them from a vast chamber beyond.