CHAPTER V
“What is this?” the man holding the sword asked. Dylan couldn’t see his face as it was hidden in the shadows of his cloak. The cloak itself seemed to change from black to dark and then light green as if with the patterns of the leaves and it hurt his eyes to look at it.
“Who are you?” Bell asked.
“You are in no position to ask questions.”
“It is three and a half against one,” Lucas said. “And I have a big axe.”
“And you wouldn’t have time to draw it,” the man said. “Now again, where did you come from?”
“Sir,” Dad said, “It is not your concern, we have done you no wrong.”
“That is for me to decide.”
“I’m afraid it isn’t,” Dad said. “We have to go.”
“This is a portal.” the man said.
“He said it was not your concern,” Lucas said boldly and moved slightly to be in front of Dylan.
“Where does the portal go?” the man asked strongly.
“To Earth,” Dylan said.
“Dylan,” his Dad cried.
“What? He’s the Shadow Ranger.”
“He’s the what?” Bell asked.
“The Shadow Ranger. The nice woman in the village told me about him.”
“Is this true?” Bell asked the man.
“That is not of your concern,” he replied.
“Then we are at an impasse,” Dad said.
“Not at all. Your boy has given me the information I needed.”
“But we will die before we let you pass through,” Bell said.
“That would be a waste of a Forest Ranger.”
“My clothes give me away,” Bell said.
“You are Bell.”
“How do you know me?”
“I know many things.”
“You are the Shadow Ranger, are you not?”
“Perhaps.”
“Then you are a good man,” Lucas said.
The man sheathed his sword in one fluid motion and then slowly pulled his hood back.
“I try to be,” he said.
The Shadow Ranger had black hair down to his neck that curled a little. His face was tanned and clean-shaven. Dylan thought he looked like someone from the movies. Like a hero. “My name is Mattaeus.”
“I thought you were but a myth,” Bell said.
“It is better for me that way. Now explain.”
And so they did.
“Unbelievable,” Mattaeus, the Shadow Ranger, said.
“But very much true.”
“So what is your plan?”
“To steal the Book of Five Worlds,” Dylan said and the Shadow Ranger laughed.
Dylan blushed and felt stupid.
“I am sorry, Guardian, I laugh not at you, but at your plan. Surely you don’t think you four can do such a thing?”
“We have little option else,” Bell said quietly.
“No, I see that.”
“We could use the help,” Dad said.
“That you could, but this is foolishness.”
“Then you propose a better plan?” Lucas asked.
“No. You are in deep water here, you cannot protect the portal, nor can you hide it from the Black Queen. There will be all out war to get control of such a portal; your world will be wiped out.”
“This is not your world?” Dylan asked.
“No, it is not, Guardian,” the Shadow Ranger said. “You will need to warn your people, but in doing so you may alert the Black Queen sooner.”
“Our people would have to throw off their shackles before they could protect the portal,” Lucas said.
“And that would definitely alert the Black Queen,” Mattaeus said.
“But it would be better that she comes to quell a rebellion than comes to find a portal,” Bell said.
“It would lessen the soldiers on Chinerthia too,” Dad said.
“Perhaps and perhaps,” Mattaeus said.
“It matters not,” Lucas said, “Since the Yokum Rebellion this world is ruled by the Black Queen.”
“True enough, you see how your quest gets bigger and bigger?”
Dad sighed. “It does, it does.”
“It is a complicated affair, reliant on timing above all. We must think. Have you consulted the Wizard Btolomy?”
“Yes, we have.”
“So you’ll help us?” Dylan asked eagerly.
“Why, Guardian, you cannot steal the Book and lead a rebellion,” and the Shadow Ranger winked at him.
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And so they set off once again towards the village of Doomth, their number added by one.
“Here we are again,” said the Shadow Ranger.
“So it was you that helped save us from the brigands.”
“It was; I had been tracking them for awhile, taking them one by one.”
“Why?” asked Dylan.
“It is what I do, young Guardian.”
“Why?”
“He can tell you later, Dylan,” Dad said.
“Ok,” but it wasn’t.
A real life hero. He wanted to know; with a real life hero with them maybe they had a chance.
They got many looks from the villagers, mainly directed at Mattaeus. They knew or thought they knew who he was and there was much whispering. But the five of them walked through and to Btolomy’s hut.
“Well, well, the Shadow Ranger in broad daylight,” Btolomy said.
“If one can call this hut broad daylight,” Mattaeus said.
“Yes, yes, very good, the gloom helps the concentration. So a quest must be at hand; what did you learn?”
Connor told the wizard all that they had learned from Dr. Fozz and what had been decided.
“Then you are set upon a Quest.”
“It appears so,” Bell said.
“Well then, the rites should be performed,” said Btolomy, “but first guidance.
“To help you on your way you should seek the Twin Magicians, very powerful they are.”
“Such powerful magicians would have been found by the Black Queen,” the Shadow Ranger said.
“Indeed, but either they are powerful enough to avoid detection or there is something else afoot.
“Either way, you should travel to Columbina, to the Mountain Forest of Nun to find them. They will be a great asset, if they will help you.”
“Then we will go,” Bell said.
“Good. And now the rites,” the Wizard Btolomy walked past them out of the hut and into the forest a little way and they followed.
“Shadow Ranger,” Bell asked, “you do not know us, why do you commit to such an impossible mission?”
“My secrets are my own, but I have committed my life to justice. If we fail then nothing has changed, but if we succeed then my Oath is complete.”
“Who did you swear to?”
“Here we stand in the forests of Sylvae; amongst the nature that is the Mark of those from this World,” Btolomy stopped and said. “Ultimately your plan lives or dies with the protection of this soil and so the rite is performed here.
“Are you individuals?”
They all placed one hand to their heart, one to their forehead and answered yes, so Dylan did too.
“Yet you have banded together for a common goal?”
Again Dylan said yes because everyone else did.
“And do you Pledge yourselves not only to this goal, but to its Quest?”
Again everyone said yes.
“Do you give yourself Heart, Mind, Strength and Soul to this Quest?”
Again everyone agreed, though Dylan did not understand.
“Then I send you on a Quest. Dylan of the Shed, you are named Guardian of the Portal, do you accept this Quest to protect the portal?”
“I guess.”
“Do you?” Btolomy boomed.
“I do,” he said and could feel his Dad’s eyes on him.
“Connor of the Shed, you too have been named. Do you accept this Quest to protect the porta
l?”
His Dad looked at him and he looked back. “I do,” his Dad said still looking at him.
“Then I send you and all that may follow you on this Quest; you are bound to it and by it. You are the Foreshadow of Balance and by that you shall be known,” then Btolomy bent over and put his hand to the ground.
Dylan felt his insides shake and he thought he would throw up. It was weird, no one was touching, but he felt like they all were. He could feel Lucas, his Dad, Bell and the Shadow Ranger.
“It is done,” Btolomy said and the feeling passed though Dylan still felt a little sick.
They walked back to the village and sat on a circle of tree logs. Around them the villagers were going about their day’s business, but Dylan could feel their eyes on them.
“You will need help,” Btolomy said.
“You think?” Lucas asked sarcastically.
“Of course. You should visit the Twin Magicians as I have said. They are very powerful.”
“If they are so powerful the Black Queen would have felt and found them,” Mattaeus said again.
“True, but they have bound themselves from her in some way.”
They both looked at each other as if they were communicating, Dylan thought, with just their eyes. Was the Shadow Ranger trying to get the Wizard to say something more?
“Where is this forest?” Dad asked.
“The Mountain Forest is near the sea.”
“I know it,” said Bell.
“From there I would think you will need to free the True King, in order to secure Sylvae from attack.”
“That would be to warn the Black Queen, a world in rebellion,” Bell said.
“Indeed, but it would not happen until you are at least into the next world,” Mattaeus said. “By then she will have most likely caught scent of the portal anyway.”
“You’re not coming with us?” Dylan asked.
“Like I said, Guardian, you cannot steal the Book and lead a rebellion.”
“Can the people of Sylvae overthrow the Chinerthians?” Dad asked.
“With the True King freed, perhaps they would take heart. There are many soldiers still out there waiting for the time to rejoin him.”
“So it is decided,” Btolomy said. “You need to get to Capel and buy provisions and then push on to the Mountain Forest of Nun. Powerful magic you will need.”
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And so the Foreshadow of Balance left the village and began their walk to the town of Capel. It wasn’t a long walk and there were paths cut into the forest. Not well cut until they got closer to the town where they became paths made for horses and carts.
By the time they got there it was late and they found an inn to stay in. Lucas apologized that they could not all stay at his house, but it was too small. Bell had a place out into the forest, again too small for all of them, but they all agreed it was OK.
Bell and Lucas went to their homes to pack what they thought they would need while Connor, Mattaeus and Dylan put things in their rooms and then sat down in a corner of the inn. Dad and Mattaeus had big, frothy beers while Dylan had to have water. The inn was made of wooden beams and stone. The stone walls were laid with wood, but the fireplace was bare stone. Everything seemed to be made of wood, even the cups. Dylan had never seen anything like it outside of a book. Inside though, it was pretty cosy, if a little gloomy.
“So what is it you do exactly?” Dad asked Mattaeus who looked around.
Sure that no one was close enough to hear, Mattaeus explained.
“I was born a Chinerthian, or at least half of one. I grew up there, but my mother, she was from Sophoi and her Grandfather was from here; so you can see how I could not stay with the Chinerthians.”
“No, not really. Where is Sophoi?”
“Right, you are,” he looked around again, “Outworlders. Well maybe there should be a special name for you. Anyway, the Mark of Sophoi is wisdom and philosophy.
“Has anyone explained the Marks? And the Balances?”
“Bell sort of did.”
“OK, so the Sophoi Mark is wisdom, the Sylvae is nature, Hokino is magic and Chinerthia is war. From wisdom and philosophy comes peace and peace is opposite to war, but linked to magic. Magic and nature are linked as are war and technology. Nature and technology are opposite and so on.”
“So each planet’s Mark is either linked or opposite to the planet’s next to it?”
“Yes, that is the Balance. Or it was, I suppose,” Mattaeus shrugged and drank the rest of his beer.
Dylan had tried to follow everything he said, but it was confusing thinking of planets and Marks when a few days ago he’d been thinking of Maths homework and a short story for English. And having to be in the Christmas play.