Chapter 8 - The Elder of Elders.
The boys decided that it would be good to show their mother around the city, take her to the market and introduce her to some of the people they knew. Now Tom had only ever apparated himself from one place to another, so was not quite sure if he could or even should apparate himself and their mum out of the hideout and back to the city gates.
“Well,” said Jon, “don’t look at me, I’ve never done it before either. But it can’t be that difficult, dad and Flintock apparate several people at a time often enough, especially Flintock, I’ve heard he can apparate over fifty people at a time without blinking.”
“Yes, but we don’t know where the door to this place is, so if we’re to get mum out of here, we’ll just have to try,” Tom suggested. Quite unusual for Tom, he was normally very risk averse.
“But what if it goes wrong and we lose our mother in the process? What if we arrive at the city gate and mum doesn’t? What if she’s left in limbo land somewhere?” Jon added.
“Well,” mum decided to butt in, “if you don’t mind me joining in while you’re both talking about me as if I wasn’t here, why don’t you ask my opinion? Why not ask your wise old mum what to do, it’s what teenagers are supposed to do, don’t you know?”
The boys spoke in unison. “Sorry ma, do you know what to do?”
“Well, apparating sounds like a good idea, but unless you know what you're doing, it’s probably best we don’t go that way but instead take the stairs.”
“What stairs?” asked Tom, “we don’t even know where the door is, never mind the stairs.”
“Well,” she said, “just saying like, but ever thought of asking?”
“Asking who?” said Jon.
“Well, me of course.”
“But how would you know where the door is?”
Their mum walked over to the fireplace, reached up and pulled a candlestick on the wall, and with a grating of stone, a door appeared.
“How’d you know about that?” gasped Tom.
“Well,” she answered with a smile, “health and safety, it’s what your dad did as a job in the mines, so, if I were down here on my own and there was a fire, how would I get out? Well, I wouldn’t unless I knew where the fire escape was would I? Come on, let’s go and have a look around.”
The three of them went through the stone door and onto a staircase. As soon as they were through, there was the screeching of stone on stone and the door slammed shut again. As it did so the darkness disappeared, lanterns set at intervals suddenly lit every few steps of the way. At the top of the stairs, they could see there was another door, so they climbed the stairs, opened it, and stepped out into a small office.
In the council chamber, things were in full swing when the Elder held up his hand and brought procedures to a halt. “Excuse me ladies and gentlemen, recess for five minutes.” And with that, he stood and left through the door behind his chair.
“What are you doing here?” he said in a harsh whisper, “I’m in the middle of a council meeting. How did you find the door.......?” as he spoke, he realised. “Ma, that was supposed to be an escape route in case of emergency, that’s another secret down the drain. You’ve only been here half a day and you’re unravelling everything. What are you doing here?”
“Oh, sorry my sweet, nice to see you as well, the boys wanted to show me around the town, they were worried about apparating me out in case I got stuck in never-never land, so I suggested the stairs. No harm meant, sorry. Anyway, the boys might need an escape route one day.”
“But you knew the stairs always lead to where I am, now you’re stuck in my vestry with no way out except through the council chamber, and anyway, the boys can apparate out if they were in danger.”
“Well, you could always apparate me and the boys out to the gate, then be back here in a flash, couldn’t you?”
“Aaaargh!” Llewellyn said in a rage. There was pop, and all four of them appeared at the city gate followed by another pop and Llewellyn was gone again.
“What did dad mean by the stairs always leading you to him?” Jon asked.
“Well,” mum started, “it’s like this, if there’s an emergency or I’m in danger, those stairs are sort of magic, and they’ll always take me to where your dad is so he can sort out the problem.”
“So, you knew they would bring you out in the council chamber, but you still went for it.”
“Yes, thoughtless of me really, wasn’t it?” she said smiling.
“Are you alright Elder of Elders?” asked Aneta as the Elder reappeared in the chamber, “We thought we heard voices and a fairly loud Aaaargh coming from your vestry.”
“No, thank you, I’m fine, just stubbed my toe on the way back out. Now, back to business,” he said firmly as if to say, no more questions.
“Do we know when, where or even if the Master has returned?” Aneta continued.
“At the moment, we have no idea, unfortunately, Songhai Chen never gives a direct answer, he always speaks in riddles and parables. But if he says that the Master is returning, then we must believe that is true.”
“So, he is not yet returned?”
“That also we do not know, the information is now twenty-four hours old, so he may be back, or he may not yet have arrived.”
“How would he get here? You closed the portal yourself?”
“That, we do not know either.”
“But surely, until he returns, we can do nothing,” Aneta said as if making a point.
Flintock raised his hand to speak. “I’m sorry to say this, but Aneta has a point, until he shows his hand, there is little we can do. But talking of hands, what happened to the hand that Thomas, son of Llewellyn shot off?”
“As far as we know, it is still in the cave. But why?” asked Aneta.
“Because if his hand is still in Trymyll, then he could use it as a gateway back to here,” Flintock answered.
“But the cave was collapsed in its entirety by Llewellyn the Brave, it could not get out.”
“Maybe not, but disgusting as it sounds, his severed hand may find enough space amongst the fallen rocks to make an exit, and as long as the Master is alive, the hand will have power.”
“And if it has done, then the Master has an entrance back into Trymyll,” finished Aneta.
“Someone must return to the Blue Mountains and investigate, see if there is any sign of the hand of the Master,” the Elder announced, “Flintock, would that be you?”
“I will leave immediately after we are finished here,” he replied, “may I take the two young wizards with me? Their dragons may be of use.”
The Elder hesitated. “No, it would be best if you went alone this time, if you find anything, then return for reinforcements.”
The boys and their mother entered the city through the main gate after being taken to just outside the city by their father. They headed straight for the market to show their mother around and introduce her to some of the traders.
A voice from one of the stalls interrupted their progress. “Hello Gwen, long time no see, how are you?”
“Hello Arthur, I’m fine thanks, my boys are just showing me around, they think I’ve never been here before.”
“Well carry on lads, I’m sure there’ll be something new to show her,” he replied with a smile.
“What!” exclaimed Tom, “you’ve been here before?”
“Oh yes, many times, how else would I know about the ‘fire escape’? In fact, before you two were born, I lived here for a few years.”
“Oh, I thought this was your first visit,” Tom said with a hint of annoyance.
“No, been here loads of times, even the odd day trip while you were at school.”
“Did you know about this Jon?” Tom asked looking daggers at his brother.
“Yes, obviously, but dad made me promise not to tell you.”
“Why?”
“Because he thought you might be upset that mum was seeing him and me while you were at school I suppose.”
“Well, I am upset now, how could you ma?”
“Well,” she replied,” it was difficult, how could we bring a child who knew nothing of magic, dragons and wizards through to a world like this, it would have been traumatic for you and such a huge secret to keep from your friends at school. It was just too risky.”
“But even if I told them, who would have believed me?”
“True, but they may have teased you and bullied you as a result, called you mad boy and things like that.”
Tom was just getting into the conversation when he spotted someone in the crowd. “Jon, Jon, look, over there, isn’t that Llewel the loser?” What’s he doing wandering around, I thought he was in the dungeons forever?”
“Oy! Llewel!” shouted Jon, “What are you doing here?”
Llewel turned to see who was shouting. “Oh, hello boys,” he said in an unusually pleasant manner, “I’m just getting a few provisions before returning home.”
“But we thought you were banged up for good.”
“Oh no, all that nastiness is in the past now, I’m a reformed character, the Elder himself released me a few days ago.”
“I don’t think so,” Tom said drawing his wand with Jon following suit. “Call the guard, escaped prisoner,” he shouted. “Escaped prisoner!”
Llewel just stood there calmly as the city guard ran over.
“This man has escaped from the dungeons, He is Llewel, former High Elder of Wrth y Môr, and he was supposed to be imprisoned for life.”
“Oh no, no, no, no,” the guard said, “we all know who he is, no, no, no, no, he was released three days ago by the Elder himself,” reported the guard. “he’s a free man now. So, go on, on your way all of you.”
“You see young Tom, it’s just as I said,” Llewel said beaming.
“But that’s impossible, the Elder wasn’t......”
Gwen grabbed him by the hand and pulled him away, “Come on you two, shopping to be done. You were just about to blurt out something we all might regret later, so best we just leave and go tell your father. Now, all back to the hideout,” Gwen demanded. They headed back to the gate and as soon as they were clear, there were three pops as they apparated back to the hideout. In their panic, the boys forgot all about their fear of losing their mum on the way. Fortunately, they all arrived safely, and Gwen was not stuck in limbo-land or never-never land or even inside a wall somewhere.
“How do we let dad know, he’s stuck in a boring meeting that could go on for hours and give Llewel the time to escape,” Tom said urgently.
“Well, it is an emergency, best we use the emergency exit.”