Candlelight Frontier
Lighting the path ahead
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Dear Spoken in Jest Readers,
This post is an experiment— when I sat down to write my posts, this one started like any other, but it took on a bit of a life of its own. It’s a little bit longer and more serious than our usual fare, but I like it anyway, and I wanted to share it with you. We’ll be back again with more of my usual posts on Monday. I may continue this story in some subscriber-only posts, so I’ve deviated from my usual title format and simply named this “Candlelight Frontier”, which will be the working title if/when I continue the story. Let me know in the comments what you think, and Merry Christmas to all!
“You have to turn out all the lights,” said Jenny, matter-of-factly.
Her brother Julian dutifully wound down the lantern until it vanished.
They had crawled up into the stuffy darkness of the attic. Jenny had found an old chest of her grandmother’s stuff.
It was their Mom’s by right, but their Mom had passed at a young age. Nobody ever explained the circumstances to them. All they knew was that, according to Daddy, they’d been official government mages before the Age of the Ninth Thaumaturge had been brought to an end by the Knight King and the Circle of Iron.
Most thaumaturges had been killed. Maybe that included Mom, but Dad never talked about it no matter what. All they knew for sure was their Dad had seen the writing on the wall, sold everything when the civil war had started, and driven a cart to the furthest corner of the empire. He had been regarded with great suspicion by the people of the village that they moved to, but thankfully only because they suspected him of being a con-man or, given his status as a widower, possibly a murderer. These days it could be worse.
Nevertheless, on sheer determination alone, he’d managed to scrape by on the edges. They’d had a bit of money saved up and he was able to supplement their savings by doing thankless jobs around town. Most people at this point would quietly admit he was a good and honest worker, even if there was a shadow over him. As long as his work wasn’t too public-facing, he could collect a coin or two as needed.
The kids helped with what they could. People were a little warmer to them, if not much. They didn’t regard them with nearly as much suspicion, at least, figuring they were bystanders in whatever was going on in the family.
But now it was winter, and most of the work to be done was done indoors. Their father was down at the ale-house washing dishes. Jenny was supposed to be watching Julian and doing a bit of sewing. Her Dad had found a kind lady, Mrs. Higgins, who was willing to sell Jenny’s work alongside her own and save the money for the family, but Jenny was sworn to absolute secrecy about it. Her Dad had let slip that he suspected Mrs. Higgins might be a mage in hiding herself.
Technically Jenny was, at this moment, doing her sewing. She’d slipped off the iron horseshoe her Dad made her wear all the time, and found her special needle. It was made out of bone, and it was therefore the only one they owned that listened when she talked to it, as long as she wasn’t wearing her horseshoe. So for much of this winter, as soon as her Dad left, and as long as she had nowhere else to go to do chores, she would find the special needle, and tell it what she wanted from it, and then she would go do other things around the house.
Of course she would keep an eye out. When she saw or heard her Dad coming back, she would run down and grab the needle and pretend she was sewing with it. She was vaguely aware that what she was doing was probably magic. She didn’t know much about magic, but she knew that daddy had given them the horseshoe necklaces to protect them from magic. Doing magic was very bad for you, he said.
But on the other hand, she did hate sewing, so, and how much harm could there be in doing magic on a piddling little needle?
With her new surfeit of free time, she had been poking around at the chests in the attic, which had never been properly cleaned since her Dad had fled their old home. And in one such chest she had found a bunch of very ornate candles. But the really big surprise had been what she had found when she lit one.
She struck a match and did so now, as Julian watched.
The candle cast a bright light, as bright as sunlight. Julian’s eyes went wide.
Jenny had selected her favorite candle, a bright green candle with a pattern of trees and a stag’s head traced on the stem. Now, where the candle’s light fell all around them, was a vision of an old forest. Jenny stood up, and walked into the space between two boxes. The boxes themselves stayed, and the shadows cast behind them also were still clearly attic, but where the light fell between objects was a glade, surrounded by enormous trees.
Jenny had not showed this to Julian purely for her own entertainment, however. There were things she had not been able to figure out by herself. Now that Julian was here, this would be a little simpler.
She walked twenty paces off into the forest. Light arced down between the trees in golden rays. By her own estimation, she had now walked further into the forest than the length of the attic. But she wanted to check.
She turned back. From her perspective, unaccountably, this forest contained a little circle with stacks of boxes, between which Julian was peering, afraid to follow.
“Now, Julian, you see the box on the right there? Look around behind that and tell me what you see.”
Julian dutifully obeyed. After a moment his mop of golden rings reappeared in the gap. He looked frightened.
“I can see you when I look around this side of the boxes,” he said, “but I can’t when I look the other way.”
Jenny nodded to herself. Just as she had suspected.
She walked briskly out of the forest and blew out the candle. They were a very scarce resource.
All of a sudden she heard a clatter downstairs. She looked out the window. Dad? It couldn’t be, it was far too early.
She hurried down the ladder. It was her father. Fortunately he hadn’t noticed the needle. He was unwrapping himself from his thick coat. She sat down hurriedly and grabbed the needle. He lumbered into the middle of the room. Once Jenny got a look at his face, she could tell something was wrong. He was very pale.
He turned to her.
“Where is your brother?” he said, in a loud whisper.
“He’s upstairs.”
She expected him to ask why, but he didn’t.
“Get him. Quickly.”
She threw down the sewing and hurried upstairs to fetch Julian. When they came back down, though, she realized she’d made a mistake. Her father was staring at the needle, which had kept going after she let go of it.
“What is this?” he said in a choked voice. He rushed towards her, and for a moment she mistook the look in his eyes for anger, and flinched when he reached towards her neck. But his hand was gentle, he only moved her hair aside, and probed for the chain of her necklace.
“I… the necklace was getting heavy…” she started to say.
“Jenny, are you doing magic?”
There was a heavy thumping on the door.
“Open up, in the name of the king.”
“The emissary of the circle. Damn it all,” her father said.
Jenny thought fast.
“Daddy. I have an idea.”
He pointed at her.
“You, young lady, are in more trouble than you know. Let me deal with this. You stop that damned needle. And put. On. Your. Necklace.”
He went to the door, as slowly as he dared.
“Coming sir, coming,” he shouted.
When the door creaked open, the space between the door gap revealed a crowd of men in armor. A circle was emblazoned on their chest-plates. They held grey banners with white lettering.
A man with a pinched face at the head of the group looked contemptuous as their father bowed.
“The Iron Clerks have caught wind of magic being done in this village. We are here to sniff it out. Who lives in this house?”
“Just me and my children, sir.”
“Call them.”
“Of… of course,” he said, flatly, “Jenny? Julian?”
The two walked up and stared wide eyed at the man. He looked down his nose at them. He pulled out a small device like a compass from a leather holster at his side, and looked at the needle carefully. He narrowed his eyes.
“Strange,” he said, carefully, “There was a clear sign of magic in this direction a moment ago. Now it’s not here.”
“Don’t know anything about that, sir,” said their father.
“Don’t you? How long have you lived here, sir?”
“Many seasons, sir. How many I couldn’t say.”
“Born here, were you?”
“I was not, sir, no.”
“Hmmm. Why did you come here?”
“The mages killed my wife. I was trying to get away from the war.”
“Is that so? A likely story.”
He gestured to the guards behind him.
“We search this house. Most likely they are hiding a mage here.”
Jenny spoke up.
“Are you talking about the lady in our attic?”
Her father looked at her in shock. The man with the pinched face sneered.
“My, what an interesting thing to omit.”
“I… I don’t know what she’s talking about. Jenny, be quiet!”
The man cuffed her father roughly with an iron gauntlet.
“No,” he said, callously, “keep talking,”
“I’ll take you to meet her. Just don’t hurt Daddy.”
The man looked over at her father.
“We will decide what to do after we meet this mage.”
She lead them inside and pulled down the ladder to the attic. The man brought four of his soldiers with him.
As Jenny ascended the ladder, she heard one of the soldiers whisper to the man.
“Could this be a trap, sir?”
“Afraid of a little girl, Sargent? Be serious.”
They climbed up after her into the gloomy darkness of the attic.
“It’s dark as pitch up here. Where is your mage hiding?”
“Let me light a candle. I’ll show her to you. She’s at the back of the attic between those boxes.”
She selected a certain candle by the light through the trapdoor. As the men turned to file through and peered at the space beyond, she took her opportunity. While nobody was looking, she pushed the trapdoor closed, and lit the candle.
This time the light was even more radiant and blinding. Hot desert air blew through the attic, all the more jarring because of the contrast with the chill.
“By the circle!” one of the men shouted.
Jenny positioned the candle carefully, so the light was cast between the boxes. The men found the world around them transformed into burning sand.
The man with the pinched face turned around and looked at Jenny with a look of pure rage.
“Why you little…” he said, and started to run.
Jenny blew out the candle. The men vanished. She was alone in the darkness. She took a moment to catch her breath and then opened the trapdoor.
“Daddy?” she quavered, “The man says to come here. He says don’t worry, he won’t hurt me, as long as you and Julian come here right now.”
The guards downstairs laughed amongst themselves, wondering what cruelty their commanding officer had devised. They pushed her father and younger brother towards the ladder.
“He says to hurry,” she said, letting panic creep into her voice, “and keep your hands where he can see them.”
Her father, and younger brother slowly climbed to the top of the ladder, urged by a ring of guards at the bottom. Jenny selected another candle by the meager light.
Once they’d come up, she pushed the door closed.
“Daddy! Help me get these boxes over the door.”
“What?” He looked around in the darkness, “Jenny, what did you do?”
“There’s no time Daddy, please.”
After a moment, he relented, and helped her. In the darkness they struggled to maneuver a heavy box over the door. Then she lit her favorite candle.
Instantly, the space between the various chests and boxes became a portal to a forest. The trees were enormous, bigger and older than any trees Jenny had ever seen.
“A magelight!” said her father, stunned, “You’ve been playing with these?” He groaned, his face an anguished mix of anger and despair.
“No wonder the Iron Circle found us. I thought I’d told you…”
“I know, Daddy, I know. But listen, we can escape this way. We’ll go through into the forest, then I’ll throw something and knock down the candle. The candle will go out. The door will close.”
He looked down at her. He regained control of his emotions.
He closed his eyes and shook his head.
“You have no idea how bad this idea is,” he said, “but unfortunately, we don’t have much choice.”
He turned, and grabbed the chest of her grandmother’s things, carrying it some distance into the clearing beyond, and then came back.
“Julian, drag that chest across into the clearing. Be careful not to knock the boxes or we might lose the portal. Jenny, that smaller chest there, can you lift it?”
Jenny tried experimentally to heft it. She could barely budge it.
“What’s in there?”
“Gold. Here, grab that box instead. I’ll take this one.”
In total, they moved a dozen or so boxes and chests that her father pointed out across the portal.
The trap door started to rattle. There were angry voices from the other side.
“Damn. That’s all. Jenny, Julian, get through. Carefully.”
He lit a match in the corner and set it to a box of papers. It caught, and in a few moments, began to flare. He shoved them inside a box so their light wouldn’t drown out the portal.
“Daddy, what are you doing?” said Jenny.
“Jenny, hurry through. Quickly.”
He followed closely behind her, picking up an old mortar from a mortar and pestle that had been stored in a dusty box. When they were all safely in the forest, he threw it, underhand, at the candle.
The boxes vanished. They were now in the middle of the forest with the chests they’d managed to salvage.
“The… our house will burn down,” said Jenny.
“Yes,” said her father, “and it will destroy the candle in the process. It may even get a couple of the soldiers, if we’re lucky.”
He sat down on a box.
“Daddy…”
“Be quiet child.”
He did not say it loudly. It would have been better if he had. He did not sound angry. He sounded sad. Sadder than Jenny had ever heard him sound.
After a very long moment, he opened his eyes and spoke.
“We have enough stuff to camp here. Keep your horseshoes on, for now. The Circle will find us, eventually. I don’t know how far from the borders we are,” he looked around, “But if we are where I think we are, the Circle may be the least of our problems.”
As if in response to his statement, an arrow was suddenly quivering in the dirt beneath his feet.
Jenny and Julian froze, transfixed by the sight of it.
Their father just nodded grimly.
“Oh, yes. I was afraid of this,” he said.
“Elves.”
This is great and is acting like a nice full length novel.