“I is catching an old biddy sneaking in the woods. When she knows I is seeing her, she snarls at poor little Piffle, then comes to the gate. She is wanting to be talking to the Leonard, she is!”
Glennys frowned and Hubert shrugged, then both hurried toward the gate.
A few moments later, they were staring at an elderly woman dressed in tattered green clothes with hair so greasy it looked wet. Her forearms were scratched, and she was nearly as bent over as Old Leif. Hubert could make a direct comparison because Old Leif himself was keeping an eye on her until he and Glennys arrived.
“Thank you, Old Leif,” said Glennys. “We’ll take it from here.”
“Ma’am,” said Old Leif, bowing so low that his bent back caused his nose to almost touch the ground.
Hubert nodded, then turned his attention to the old woman. “You there. My brownie says she saw you prowling about this castle and that you snarled at her. What say you?”
The old woman shot a glance at Piffle, who was now sitting on Hubert’s shoulder, and momentarily looked like she was going to argue her case, but then sighed and slumped. “It is all true, milord. I was afraid of approaching such a fine edifice and speaking with those clearly superior to myself. As for the snarling, well, yes I did just such a thing. But in my defense, I’ve had a bad time with faeries as of late, and I wasn’t sure if that one was good or evil.”
Piffle jumped to her feet, her eyes almost as red as her hair. “Evil?! How dares an old biddy like ‘that one’ calls Piffle the Brownie evil! Feh!”
“Settle down, Piffle, she didn’t mean anything by that,” said Glennys.
“Indeed I did not. My apologies, little one.”
Piffle crossed her arms and turned away. “Hmpf.”
Glennys motioned for the old woman to take a seat on a workman’s bench. “What is your name, Old Mother?”
“Jenny, milady.”
“Welcome, Jenny. You said you’d had a rough time with the faeries?”
“I did, milady. It was a foul act of the fae that brought me here to this very place.”
“Faeries?” said Hubert. “What did the faeries do to you?”
“Oh, not to me, milord, but to my grandbaby, Braeth. The faeries stole her,” said Old Jenny before falling to her knees in front of Hubert. “They took her, and I’m afraid they mean to do her great harm!”
Chapter Three
Old Friends
L eonard smiled when they reached a broad meadow, then winced when he pulled back on Poppy’s reins. “We’re here. How long will my wound take to heal, Merlin? It feels like the arrow is still in my shoulder.”
“I added a touch of magic to the botanicals I used to hasten the healing. You should be well and back in fighting form soon.” The old wizard inhaled and briefly glanced at the sun. “I am anxious to continue our rescue mission of your grandfather, Claws Crimson.”
Leonard nodded. Yes, my grandfather, the notoriously ill-tempered king of the Dark Elves who, for some reason, needs my help, he thought.
Just ahead stood a now familiar circle of faerie stones with a man-sized sandpit at its center. Leonard climbed off the huge plow horse and, wincing again when he grabbed two heavily-laden sacks of apples tied to the back of the saddle, trudged off toward the stone circle, calling, “This won’t take long,” over his shoulder.
Merlin and Taddy followed Leonard from a distance, with Taddy getting increasingly agitated with each step he took toward the pit. “I don’t like this place. It unnerves me, Merlin.”
“An unnerved dragon? That has to be a first.”
Taddy continued to fidget. “What does it look like, Merlin? The creature that dwells below the sand pit?”
“The Eater of the Dead is a strange-looking creature. He . . . it . . . is, in essence, a massive mouth lined with a hundred dagger-like teeth and surrounded by a large number of fleshy, grasping appendages. Rather like an upside-down octopus.”
Taddy grimaced. “I don’t know what an upside-down or downside-up oct-toe-pus looks like, and from how you describe it, I don’t want to know.”
Merlin chuckled. “I don’t blame you one little bit. Did I ever tell you how he almost ate me, once?”
“Yes. At least a dozen times.”
“Ah yes, well, repeating oneself is something that comes with being ancient, I suppose.”
Merlin and Taddy arrived at the edge of the Faerie circle just as Leonard tossed the second bag of apple onto the sand. “There, never let it be said that Leonard of the Green Valley does not keep his promises. Two sacks of Sir Francis’s most delicious apples every year until I die,” said Leonard, turning back toward Taddy and Merlin just as Eater pulled the second bag below the sand. “Taddy, did I ever tell you how I struck a bargain with the Eater of the Dead—”
“Yes, I was waiting up here while you were doing it. Let us be out of here, Leonard,” said Taddy, eyeing the pit with a mixture of nervousness and disgust.
Leonard grabbed Poppy’s reins. “Very well, let us be on our way.”
“Not so fast,” said Merlin, pointing back toward the pit.
Leonard turned. The tip of Eater’s tentacle was motioning for him to come closer. “What do you think he wants? I don’t have any more apples.”
“To talk, perhaps?” said Merlin, with a shrug. “Go and see.”
“Be careful, Leonard,” said Taddy, uneasiness in his voice.
Leonard paused at the edge of the pit and waited. “The last time he did something like this, he gave me the giantkiller gauntlet. Do you think he wants to hand over another magical item?”
Merlin sighed, then climbed off his horse and joined Leonard.
“Be careful, Merlin,” said Taddy, backing up a little.
The tip of Eater’s tentacle disappeared. After several long moments of doing nothing but staring at the sand and waiting for its return, Merlin shrugged and laid down.
Taddy’s eyes grew as wide as dinner plates as he hesitantly moved forward and nudged the old wizard’s boot with his muzzle. “Oh no, Merlin! Don’t do that!”
Merlin waved off the anxious young dragon. “No need to worry, Taddy, I’ll be safe. I’ve been wanting to visit my old friend for some time, and this affords an excellent opportunity to do so.” The pit sand began to shake, and, as he sank into the sand, the lone tentacle wrapped itself around Merlin’s waist and pulled him under. The sand stopped vibrating, and then all was quiet.
Taddy stamped his feet. “I don’t care what he says. This is not a good idea.”
Leonard stepped onto the sand and laid down. “Merlin’s right, we’re in no danger. Think of him more as ‘Eater of the Apples,’ than ‘Eater of the Dead.’ It’s less scary that way. Oh, and keep an eye on the horses, eh, Taddy?” The tentacle made a third appearance, and Leonard quickly vanished under the surface of the sand.
**
Even though he’d only done it once before—that time on his first quest when he’d been laid into the pit before anyone knew what would happen next—Leonard was surprisingly relaxed as Eater’s tentacle pulled him down through the sand. Barely conscious the last time, now he was able to concentrate on the sensations that went along with such a strange experience. The way it worked, apparently, was that, in addition to physically pulling Leonard down, Eater was also causing air to percolate up from below. This had the effect of separating the grains of sand, making the ground appear to vibrate to those watching above. It also made it easier for bodies, living or dead, to be pulled through them. The journey was a short one, and the next thing Leonard knew, he was in the open space of Eater’s cavern and being carefully lowered to the ground. He brushed the sand out of his eyes and sat up.