“Th-th-th―”
“No need to thank me again. It was just lucky I was outside your parents’ cottage when that seven-headed poisonous snake was thrown―uh―jumped at your head. The least I could do.”
“B-but I p-paid that d-d-debt.”
“That is true, yes. But what I’m asking this time, aside from a quick fix-me-up, is for you to perform the exact same thing you did for me before I was sent to the Tower.”
Rumpelstiltskin leaned back in the chair and winced a little at the discomfort of his shoulder.
The wizard Niggle was sweating profusely and his twitch was now occurring every twenty seconds.
“B-b-b…”
Rumpelstiltskin used his good arm to loosen the hatchet from his belt loop and idly examined the sharpness of the blade.
Niggle observed that the loudest and most threatening words in the room were those that were not being spoken.
“O-o-o-of course,” said the terrified wizard.
“I’m glad you see it my way.”
Niggle twitched and hastily wiped the sweat from his forehead and rolled up the sleeves of his robe. Rumpelstiltskin watched as the wizard silently called into the room the magical essence of nothingness and moulded it into somethingness. He moved his hands in a circular gesture and the room around him began to glow blue. Niggle moved closer to the Dwarf and with his eyes still closed, he pointed a steady finger at Rumpelstiltskin and pushed it to his forehead.
Rumpelstiltskin’s body became rigid as the magic did its work, coursing through his body, his veins, his muscles, and his bones. He felt his shoulder snap back into place, the broken skin where the plants had lashed at him knitted back together, and even his muscles that were tired from all the recent running felt refreshed and made anew.
The blue glow diminished and the wizard Niggle resumed twitching and sweating. He sank into a chair and rubbed his temples.
“Th-th-there ya go. G-g-g-g-g-good as new.”
So easy. “And now the girl. I need you to tell me where she is.”
“I haven’t d-d-done a finding sp-sp-spell in a long time.”
“No time like the present,” said the Dwarf and grinned maliciously.
Chapter Twelve
The Historian
General 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.”