E.C. EDWARDS - The Mighty Antimagic Spell -
Chapter 13 - Elmbridge Old Gate, a Magic Door
Next to a hidden forest path, where someone right in the head would not stop, there was a carriage. The horses were tired and hungry. They ate grass with gusto, like a wolf devouring its prey. It was clear they had come a long and difficult way.
A man and two children got off the carriage. The man, Mr. Benjamin Green, paid the coachman for the trip and thanked him. Then he beckoned to the two children to follow him.
Elizabeth’s heart was pounding with fear because she didn't know what was to happen next. Only when she saw the little boy Johnny smiling and winking at her, she recovered her courage and calmed down.
How come this little boy who was hit so badly and probably that happened every day could smile so sweetly with happiness in his eyes? That was really surprising.
The children could hardly follow Mr. Green, as he moved very fast, as though someone chased him. Elizabeth expcted at any second to be scolded because they couldn’t keep up with the man, but this did not happen.
However, something else happened. Johnny took Elizabeth by the hand and hurried a little to reach Mr. Green.
“Johnny, are you okay?” the smart gentleman asked, displaying the care of a parent.
“Better than ever,” Professor Knudlac.
Better than ever, after such a blow? Professor Knudlac? What happened to Mr. Green? Such questions crossed the frightened girl's mind. What happened ... who was the man she left with? Poor kid did not understand anything at all. There were more questions in her mind than strands of hair on her head. She could imagine her head blasting with questions eager to replace answers. She wanted to say something, but the few words of the gentleman assured her that she was to face many surprises. What she found out was mind-blowing; she was struck speechless:
“My dear Elizabeth ... my name is Knudlac Eaden. I'm a distant relative of your father’s.”
The girl still looked at Mr. Knudlac with some doubt. How can you trust a stranger who still lies above all? Who lied to the damn director of an orphanage and who also says he knew her father. As for a joke ... even if that were the case, poor kid didn’t know because no one in the orphanage taught her about the sense of humour.
Something seemed to tell her to run away, to turn back where she came from. Maybe it was better, she thought. But something kept telling her: why is that little boy so ... not-sad? What was on his mind? And…
And the girl's thoughts are interrupted by this gentleman’s gaze who removed his glasses and threw them in a rusty garbage bin, near a bench. A gaze as gentle as the one in the picture she kept folded all the time near her chest.
“You have the eyes ... the gaze so gentle”, the girl managed to say.
The professor smiled.
“Elizabeth, I've been looking for you for so long. For so long ... Your parents left me a letter telling that if something happened to them, to replace you and take care of you. After failing so many times, I finally found you.
The elegant gentleman paused, then hurried to look for something in the sleeve of his long coat:
“But if we don't hurry, I may lose you again ...”
Then he bent and approached his face to hers, so that she could see his friendly gaze.
“When I heard about your parents’ death, I wanted to bring you near me, but unfortunately some bad people were ahead of me. They hid you ... they forcefully grabbed you from me without me being able to track you down. And ... they are still looking for you, to take you back from me.
“What people?” the girl asked, scared.
“The same people who ... hurt your parents.”
You could tell just by looking at her face how frightened she was.
“I don't want to scare you, but unfortunately we don't have much time. You're far too important to them, being the Edwards’ daughter. Please just trust me and let me do what is necessary to protect you.”
Elizabeth approved, nodding her head slightly. She was too frightened to speak.
Professor Knudlac finally pulled out of his left sleeve a thin stick of mahogany with gold inlay and said the following words:
“Locus Inrita!”
Blackish dust came out of Elizabeth's clothes, and the particles got together in a small bulge of powder, then it disappeared as if swallowed by something.
“I reversed one of Miss Hortensia Blackwood’s spells. To know all the time where you are, she cursed you using a powerful spell”, Mr. Knudlac tried to explain what he had just done.
You would expect Elizabeth to be amazed at what happened, but she wasn't.
“So I used to project those light fountains unaware ... or maybe not?”
“Yes, almost any child like you can do ... little magic tricks at first.”
Finally, the girl began to understand that what happened around her had a very clear reason.
“Miss Blackwood ... Hortensia? I felt she was a witch,” Elizabeth managed to mumble.
“Yes, she is a very bad and strong witch. She was chosen by Vlad Dragoesti to watch over you. He didn't have the courage to kill you, because he didn't know what kind of magic protects you. Some evil and powerful wizards have been destroyed forever by such protective spells. That's why he chose to keep you alive under his supervision all the time. But we will discuss these things later. Follow me ...”
The two children followed the professor along some side paths. Elizabeth calmed down to the depths of her heart. She felt Mr. Knudlac just wanted to protect her, so she quietly followed the smart gentleman and the boy.
She could finally enjoy everything she saw. Beth admired everything before her heavenly eyes. For many years she saw nothing out of the orphanage windows but walls of other buildings, so she was pleasantly surprised by the greenery of the trees and the colours scattered on the ground of that mysterious park.
The unexpected visit of a hedgehog made her even more cheerful. Moreover, the chirping of the birds flying from one branch to another to build nests, red and furry squirrels, hairballs rolling on the twigs, made the girl as she had not been for long ... happy. As she had never been in the orphanage for so many years.
Finally, she had the opportunity to enjoy life ... to enjoy what the wonderful world outside the orphanage's walls offered.
What else could be said? It was a beautiful spring day, a day that brought the biggest changes in Elizabeth's life. Even if she did not know her future, such a pretty and good child, was happy she met someone who really cared about her. Someone with the same ancestor’s blood, who gave right to life to all descendants, including to her.
This guy she didn't hear about offered her freedom and rescued her from that children’s prison ... the orphanage.
Elizabeth, Johnny and Mr. Knudlac rushed through the park as if flying. They followed unknown paths, according to a logic that only Mr. Knudlac understood. The professor’s speed that forced them move to keep up with him, made the two of them repeatedly confuse each other or get stuck in things lost by who knows who.
The trees shaped in a vault of greenery and flowers, with inviting scent, seemed to lead us slowly, slowly, into a fairy tale world. Still, ... it was not just a sensation, because anyone could say that the following part of the story was taken from a fairy tale.
At one point they got in front of a rusty metal gate, as old as hills. It had on it some unknown writs and inscriptions with built-in heads of creatures carved in bronze. Creatures as unknown as those words written on the gate.
They went past the gate and entered a meadow that had a huge and old oak in its midst. This oak was slightly different from all the other trees, which formed a large circle around it. The rest of the trees seemed to respectfully keep some distance from him so as not to disturb him, but they were still close enough to hear him. What to hear ...? The stories he probably had to say, because he was big and thick, and his bark was old and full of wrinkles so one would say he was the first tree that came up on Earth and he certainly heard many stories from all over the world.
Unlike the other trees that were green, this old and lofty oak had rusty leaves, as if he was the only tree that did not know that spring had come, but he thought it was still autumn outside.
Mr. Knudlac stopped by his side.
“Ostium Aperire in Antiquis!”
Elizabeth looked around but saw nothing changed. She looked at Mr. Knudlac and Johnny inquiring. Did… the professor say the wrong spell? For… yes, Mr. Knudlac was definitely a wizard.
“Johnny, see you on the other side,” Knudlac said, smiling. “Thanks for the help ... you are free to do what you want.”
Where? What? Which side? And what is on the other side? Elizabeth wondered in horror.
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