Stiltskin (Andrew Buckley) (22 page)

eneral Gnarly and Gnick led the way as the foursome followed the North Yellow Brick Road through the valley. After their encounter with the bandits, Gnarly and Gnick had scouted ahead to make sure the way was clear. Aside from a couple of farmers and an oddly shaped cow-like creature, their contact with anyone but each other had been limited.

Robert and Lily walked together in silence. Lily’s mind seemed to be elsewhere and Robert noticed that she seemed to be growing anxious as the day marched forward.

Robert was trying to ignore the way that General Gnarly glanced back at him every now and then. He now felt that the Gnome saw him as a threat, which was hilarious on various levels. To those who knew him, Robert was considered to be one of the least threatening things on Earth. Some people would have gone as far as to say that cotton wool or a really well made ham sandwich presented more of a threat than Robert. Robert was one of those individuals that people didn’t mind meeting in a dark alley because he would provide comfort in the sense that if there was anything bad lurking in the alley, it would attack Robert first because he looked like an easy target.

Robert was taking the silence as a time to reflect and plan.

“You really don’t have a plan,” said the voice in Robert’s head.

Robert ignored it.

Although, it was true. He’d considered using the vial of blood that the White Rabbit had given him. He’d said it would take Robert anywhere he wanted if he went through a door.

The problem was that he’d never seen or been through a door and the prospect scared him. The other reason was that he felt he needed to be here. Needed to stick to Lily because… well… he couldn’t actually come up with a reason.

“It’s because she’s beautiful, and despite all outward appearances she seems to care about your well-being,” said the voice.

Robert didn’t reply. He didn’t want to give off the impression he was going crazy to the others. Even though that was obviously what was happening, he didn’t feel the need to advertise it any more than he had to. Either way, he felt this was where he was supposed to be for the time being. The one thing that was still bothering him―

“One thing?” said the voice.

―was the cat. The voice in his head was strange, definitely. The fire that had started at the halfway house was very suspicious. The cat, however, he was certain had been real. He hadn’t imagined it; he’d held it in his hands.

“Maybe you didn’t?” said the voice.

“Shut up!” said Robert.

Lily jumped. “Damn it, Robert!”

“Sorry,” said Robert sheepishly. “I don’t have any control over it.”

“I know it’s not really your fault.”

Robert was a little surprised. This was the first time that Lily had admitted any hint that she knew what was going on with him.

“So,” began Robert, hoping to get back on speaking terms once again, “tell me about the Historian?”

“Well, for starters, he lives there,” said Lily as they crested the high ground of the pathway to reveal the foot of one of the surrounding mountains. Set into the foot of the mountain was a medium-sized castle built of a dark grey stone, with three tall towers and guarded by a high wall. Robert noticed that there were flocks of birds flying close to the castle walls and around the towers.

“I thought it’d be bigger,” mused Robert.

“The castle is just the front of the Archives. The mountain behind it is largely hollow. It was mined by an ancient group of Dwarves. There are countless rooms and passageways; many haven’t even been explored. It was originally supposed to be some sort of Dwarf kingdom but the Giants wiped them out.”

“How did the Giants get in there?”

“The Dwarves were so impressed with themselves for hollowing out an entire mountain and turning it into their kingdom that when the Giants rampaged across the land, the Dwarves felt the need to defend their mountain.”

“Wouldn’t they have been safer
in
the mountain?”

“They weren’t the smartest of the ancient races. They marched out to meet the Giants and were consequently crushed. The Giants wanted nothing to with the Dwarves or anyone else. They just wanted to get from the Southlands, where they had originally lived, to the North where they wanted to re-settle. The Dwarves just got in their way.”

“And now the mountain’s a library?”

“Precisely. It was taken over by the first Wizards’ Council and became home to our history. It was managed largely by wizards for many years until just over a hundred years ago, when the Historian was appointed to watch over and catalogue the Archives.”

“Over a hundred years? How old is he?”

“He’s getting close to his nine-hundredth birthday.”

“So he’s not human?”

“No.”

“Dwarf?”

“No.”

“Wizard?”

“No.”

“Look, it’d probably help if you gave me a hint.”

Lily stopped and turned to face Robert and he realized then that he had been wrong about her seeming anxious. She wasn’t anxious or nervous, it was fear he saw in her. She was scared of the Historian.

“Lily, what is he?”

Lily bit her lip and looked to the ground. “He’s a werewolf, Robert.”

Robert didn’t know why the thought of werewolves existing was any stranger than anything else he’d seen today but the concept struck him as amusing.

“Well yeah, of course he is. Now it just seems silly that I even guessed a wizard. I suppose he has an assistant that’s a vampire?”

“Don’t be ridiculous, there’s no such thing as vampires,” said Lily and continued walking.

Robert followed behind her. “So when it’s a full moon he turns into a wolf and terrorizes the local farmland?”

“No, he doesn’t do that anymore.”

“Ohh, so he’s a nice werewolf,” said Robert with a laugh.

Lily turned around and stood in Robert’s path. Her eyes were moist with tears.

Robert’s smile instinctively dropped from his face.

“He’s not a
nice
werewolf. There are no nice werewolves. He terrorized Thiside for many years and killed a lot of innocent people. He stole a passport and fled to Othaside in the early eighteenth century and hid in France quietly for thirty years. But he couldn’t keep his blood lust in check and he finally snapped. Othasiders named him the
Beast of Gévaudan
because that’s the province he was terrorizing at the time. Your history books actually have some of the details. He attacked two hundred and ten people and killed one hundred and thirteen of them. A special task force had to be assembled to cross over to Othaside to hunt and capture him. He was dragged back here and served a hundred and thirty years in the Tower before being released and appointed, at his request, to be the Historian. He’s a murderer, a killer of men, women, and children. He’s not nice, Robert.”

“I’m sorry, Lily, I didn’t know.”

Lily wiped a sleeve across her eyes. “Well, now you know. Let’s make this visit short.”

She turned and walked away, passing the Gnomes who had stopped to see what the shouting was all about.

“You’ve got a real way with the ladies, moron,” said Gnick.

“Who’s that?” asked General Gnarly who had been watching Lily.

Robert looked down the road to see that Lily was talking to a bright blue glowing ball.

“That’s her Fairy. She went after the Dwarf.”

Lily beckoned the three of them over. “Veszico had an altercation with Rumpelstiltskin but essentially she lost. The Dwarf was heading toward the City of Oz which means he definitely has an agenda.”

“How do you know?” said Robert.

“Because he’s heading toward one of the most populated areas in Thiside. If you’re an escaped convict on the run, then staying away from people is normally the best thing to do.”

“So there must be something there he wants.”

“Or needs,” added the General.

“Hopefully, the Historian can tell us what he was doing when he was caught, which might give us some idea of where he’s going,” said Lily.

Veszico’s little voice rang like the tiniest of tiny bells.

Lily looked confused.

“No, I haven’t seen Jack since he went after you.”

The Fairy’s voice rang again but this time with urgency.

“I’m sure he’s fine, and regardless, I have a different task for you. I need you to fly to the Kingdom of Hearts. Agent Tweedle is on assignment as council to the Queen. I need you to send him to the Tower as quickly as possible. There’s a prisoner there who needs interrogating; the Guard Troll will know which one. He might be able to shed some light on how and why Rumpelstiltskin escaped but tell him to use caution.”

The Fairy nodded, shone brighter, and flew off toward the East.

“Come on, we’ve lost enough time already today,” said Lily and started a quick pace toward the Archives with the Gnomes running on ahead.

Robert stayed where he was until they were out of earshot. “Uh, voice in my head?”

“Who, me?” said the voice.

“Yes. Do you think she was telling the whole truth about the werewolf thing?”

“You think she wasn’t?”

“Well, it just doesn’t feel right.”

“Are you asking my opinion or just looking for someone impartial to talk to?”

“Your opinion.”

“Well, if I’m you, then we actually share the same opinion. Which is…”

“…she’s not telling the whole story.”

The castle loomed up ahead of them as they got closer. The sun was beginning its downward spiral, quite literally, and the shadows of the Western mountains began to point dark fingers across the valley.

Robert noticed what he had thought were birds weren’t birds at all.

“What are those things?”

“They’re pixies,” said General Gnarly and spat on the ground. “Sodding awful creatures!”

“I thought they were supposed to be nice creatures?” said Robert.

“Someone really ought to slap you up the side of the head every time you make an assumption in this world that begins with
I thought
,” said Lily.

“I’ll do it,” said Gnick.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Robert sarcastically, “but I’m sort of new here and the only thing I have to go on is the Fairy Tales from Othaside. And in those stories Pixies are cute, happy, magical creatures.”

“Well, here they’re not cute, they’re never happy, and they’re certainly not magical,” said General Gnarly.

“Sort of like Gnomes, then, are they?” said Robert, grinning.

“Good one, moron,” said Gnick.

“Hmph,” said the General.

“Oh, c’mon, General, that was a classic, coming from the moron.”

“I suppose.”

“Think of Pixies as guard dogs,” said Lily. “They generally only ever listen to one master and they’re very protective. They’re not overly smart but they do have the ability to perform simple tasks.

“And why don’t Gnomes like them?”

“Because they’re too short,” said General Gnarly gruffly and knocked on what looked to be the only door set into the castle wall.

Robert mouthed the word
seriously
to Lily, who just shrugged.

There was the buzzing sound of wings flapping extremely fast, and a small black creature, about half the size of a Gnome, flew down from above and hovered in front of them. It had large, black, marble-like eyes set into an oval-shaped head above two slits that Robert assumed were its nostrils. It smiled a wide mouth full of tiny sharp teeth and a green tongue. Its arms and legs were short but the hands and feet were larger, disproportionate. The creature was completely naked but didn’t seem to care in the slightest. Its manhood, in this particular case, dangled for all to see. On its back a pair of almost transparent wings flapped like a hummingbird’s and smelled faintly like oranges. To Robert they looked like mini-demons; this was reinforced by two small red horns protruding from its head. It looked at Lily and Robert in turn and then finally decided to address Lily.

“Whats you want?” said the Pixie.

“We’re here to see the Historian.”

“Ee’s bizzy, go way.”

“Let us in, you ugly little piece of bandersnatch excrement!” said General Gnarly.

The Pixie looked down as if surprised. Robert noticed that more Pixies were now lining the walls above them, intently watching the scene.