The Magical Key - Martie Florence

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her recollections of the recent events, "but the monsters attacked us on our way to the eastern castle portal."

      "I suppose, they want the key your grandmother once gave you," Veronica explained.

      "What for? Isn't it just a fine trinket?!" Lynette wondered taking the bunch out, separated the biggest key and put it onto the table so that all of them could view it, "I don't even know whether it matches any lock!"

      "It matches the El Dorado portal," Veronica took a goblet in her hand, "somebody has to visit that world periodically and inspect whether it is all right. Your granny was one of such emissaries."

      "El Dorado!" Iven exclaimed admiringly with his usual liveliness, "the splendid fabulous land, the marvellous dimension where Elves originated from!.. Trolls must never desecrate and spoil it!"

      "Can you hide the key from them, your highness?" Lynette asked staring at the engraved ornamentation of the long haft in a daze.

      "Trolls will not leave us alone, the energy of this piece of metal attracts them like a beacon," the queen shook her head, "the only way out is to find El Dorado and keep the key there, beyond their reach, till they are defeated here."

      "Then, I will deliver it there," Lynette pronounced quietly but resolutely and united the bunch into a single whole again, "though, my granny never told me the way."

      "Maybe, she believed it would be better for you to find the way of your own," Veronica lightly shrugged, "who can ever comprehend his destiny?.."

      "My ship is at your disposal!" the Dwarf declared merrily.

      "We'd better depart stealthily under the cover of the night," Andreas looked at Lynette.

      "Elves can see in the darkness, you'll need me," Iven also manifested his wish to go on a voyage.

      "I will not dissuade you from this dangerous mission," Veronica smiled with benevolent warmth, "you are free to follow the call of your hearts, and I cherish hopes for your success."

      They drank a silent toast and stood up, the queen waved them goodbye. Lanterns in hands, Elves escorted them through the forest back to the pier. The rising sickle moon gleamed from behind hills and gave enough light to set sails, the favourable night breeze slowly moved the yacht away.

      "Have a safe journey! Return soon!" the Elves wished them good luck, dimmed their lights out and disappeared in the silvery bluish-azure shades before the ship left the channel.

      "The pursuers must have lost us for some time," Iven gazed at the woodland intently, but no enemies allowed themselves to be seen on the banks, no noise disturbed the quiet, only gentle lapping of the crystal water glimmering with moonlight. "I'll be on watch."

      "I'll substitute you in a couple of hours," Jim nodded and turned to Lynette and Andreas, "let me show you your rooms."

      The Dwarf opened the hatch in the front wall of the stern height, they went downstairs to the lower deck illuminated with Elvish lanterns, passed a hall with a broad lunch counter and entered a corridor, neat yellow-brown wooden panelling all around. Jim pointed at two doors in a suite of several cabins.

      "Wake me up when my turn comes, I'll be on watch too," Andreas asked the captain.

      Her face and her gestures looking very tired, Lynette indifferently chose the nearest apartment. A green woollen blanket and a white pillow on a berth, a bedside-table and a compact built-in wardrobe, a round porthole. She took her caftan off and put it over the chair-back apathetically, her russet silk shirt twinkled softly when she bent down to unbuckle her high-boots, then she curled herself on the bed and closed her eyes.

      Chapter Two

      Wreathing like a white cloud, a dense mist covered the river valley in the early twilight before the dawn. Weak wafts of an unsteady wind, periodically tearing the pale shroud, could not be of much avail, and the yacht was mostly drifting with the current. The mainsail fluttered again, and Andreas slowly rotated the steering-wheel, peering into the distance ahead, keeping to the midstream.

      "Would you like some tea?" Lynette went out of the lower deck door, two big wooden tankards with carved floral ornamentation in her hands, and came up to him. She looked rested and fresh, no more sorrows of yesterday.

      "Yes, thanks!" he took a tankard gratefully.

      "Tell me about Grey Knights," mere curiosity sounded in her words.

      "We are just a group of dreamers who rejected vanity life to become noble and fair. Not only Elves can keep spiritual values of goodness," no pathos in his level tones, as if just musing aloud on ordinary things, he tried the steaming tea.

      "An exact contrary to other knights," she was thoughtfully holding her tankard in the both hands, "due to my long friendship with Elves, I have always wanted anything more than the prevailing petty mode of living."

      "We dream that somewhere, maybe in El Dorado, we shall find a blissful splendid land," his stare became a little detached from reality. "Rainbows above majestic waterfalls, rainbows at fountains near sunlit palaces where good-natured people dwell…"

      The river made a bend and began to carry the yacht by a massive rocky island separated from the bank with a narrow channel. On the high sheer cliffs an immense dark-grey castle silhouetted vaguely through the mist veil, yellowish flickering of torches on watchtowers, many yachts and big boats at the stony embankment.

      "The town inhabitants are surely taking refuge over there," she murmured, "this unassailable fortress can stand any siege."

      "Shall we make a stop to see your parents?" Andreas looked at her sympathetically.

      "No, we shall not! They can do without me perfectly well," no definite emotions in her quiet but resolute reply, she dispassionately turned away from the castle and gulped the tea.

      The rising sun dispelled the mist and shone a great city situated at the estuary where the river was inflowing into a sea. Granite and marble edifices, magnificent palaces and imposing mansions occupied the horizon.

      "Ariadna, the main city of this continent," Jim went out onto the deck together with Iven, "the trade centre with many portals."

      "We have to visit the human world," Lynette made a decision, "to find any hint about the El Dorado location."

      "Really, their computers are not bad, as well as television," Iven agreed, "though, they use those excellent things mainly for filth."

      "Last year I bought a laptop to watch only good films," Lynette remarked.

      The city was approaching. Ships of different sizes standing along wharfs, two or three frigates under full sail far away at sea, ferry boats plying between the banks.

      After the mooring at a fixed gangboard, a sturdy construction of dark wood at one of the piers, Lynette and Andreas left the yacht. Green and lilac suits of Elves, florid attires of men, hauberks of Dwarfs, multifarious crowds in the cobbled streets and squares paved with granite slabs. Green standards with stylized golden trefoils at flag-posts, steel-clad guardians on patrol.

      "Dryads!" Lynette exclaimed seeing three pretty young women resembling one another like sisters. Pallid skin but merry eyes, curly hair. White summer frocks were adorned with blue and violet wild flowers.

      "Oh! Hello, Lynette!" one Dryad chattered joyfully, "why didn't you come yesterday? We had weaved a new dress for you!"

      "Hello, Martina! Certainly I will buy it, but later," Lynette assured calmly, "trolls appeared in this world."

      "Ah!" the girls gaped in frightened astonishment, "we have to warn other Dryads and Elves, our relative folk!"

      "Elves already know! Go home, but avoid the eastern castle way!" Lynette recommended.

      "Don't worry, here we have our own portal. See you!" the Dryads flitted away in hurry, nearly running, and disappeared among the multicoloured crowds.

      Lynette and Andreas turned to an arcade flanked with small shops, booths of merchants, tables laden with goods. Clothes and footwear, carpets and utensils, baskets with fruit, many purchasers, a sale in full swing.

      "Going to the human dimension? wish to exchange currency?"

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