Chapter 11

"Lady Mystic, we have the Battle Axe of Destiny. Now, how do we get across the lake to the island to either find the creature or the Spear of Light?"

"Normally the mermaids would escort you, or even the giant sea horses would give you rides, but they are still in hiding as long as the invisible lake serpent is on the rampage. The easiest way will be to have Briar fly you."

"I'm sorry, Avril won't..."

"Actually, Roy, let's fly." Roy looks at her with admiration and pride. He walks over to her and kisses her on the cheek.

"Any hints, Mystic?"

"Go through the castle. As you walk into the main hall there is a grand set of stairs leading upward on the left hand side. If you look under those stairs you will find a door, and behind it is a smaller set of stairs that lead down into a storage room. Somewhere in that storage room is a hidden lever that you must pull to open a secret door, with another set of stairs leading further down.

"At the bottom of those stairs you will find a lone room with a glistening pool of radiance, and into that pool you must dive. There are four caves underwater that lead off from the depths of the pool. One leads to the underworld, two lead to your deaths, and the fourth will magically make you get lost and you will wander in the passages forever."

"Any idea about the secret lever, or which tunnel to take?"

"I'm sorry, no. Only the Apothecary knows, and as I said earlier, he has gone into hiding with his fellow beings of the lake."

"You ready?" asks Roy, turning to Avril.

"Ready!" answers Avril, courageously. For those who understand The Way know that standing up to your own fears is the greatest courage there is.

Once again Roy is in his brown battle leathers and Avril is wearing her green tartan skirt with the dark green legging and another black short sleeve shirt, and always does she wear her trusted calf high dark brown leather boots. Both of them have their swords hanging at their sides. Roy has the Battle Axe of Destiny strapped across his back.

"Briar, if you would, great sir."

Briar lowers his neck so Roy can climb on. Roy scoots back to where he is sitting between where the muscles of the wings connect to the torso, and then Roy wraps his legs under the wings to give them a little more stabilization.

Roy's legs are spread apart to the point of being uncomfortable, but he will sacrifice his comfort so that Avril will feel secure as possible. Normally he would have his legs tucked up, and Briar and he would use their magic to hold Roy in place, but other magic users can feel when magic is being used nearby, and Roy doesn't want to go there yet. In truth, he very rarely ever wants to go there, because he is a knight not a pompous wizard.

Avril reaches out to him like a little girl wanting to be picked up. "Now, Avril, put one of your feet on Briar, and between me and the leverage you'll come up right into place."

"I have perfect confidence in you, sir knight, or I sure as hell wouldn't be flying." Tears come to Roy's eyes but he does not try to hide them, he only gazes down at the beautiful princess and grabs her hands while smiling.

Roy pulls with such force that Avril goes flying into the air and spins three fourths of the way around. She squeals with delight. When Avril is facing forward, Roy reaches out and grabs her by her petite waist and gently sits her in front of him, and then he pulls Avril hard back into him and wraps both his arms snuggly around her waist.

"Now, Briar!" Roy doesn't want to give Avril too much time to think about it.

"Oh my god!" exclaims Avril, as Briar flings all three of them into the air and starts flapping his mighty wings.

At first Avril is shaking and has her eyes squeezed shut and her arms holding on for dear life on Roy's arms. Once Briar levels out, Avril slowly opens her eyes. At first she is still shaking, but she has come to realize that while her knight is about no harm will befall her, so she then stops shaking and leans contentedly back into Roy.

Once she becomes even more comfortable, she trusts completely in Roy's arms being wrapped around her, and she leans out and over to get a better view of the ground underneath them.

"Oh, god!"

"Amazing, is it not, Avril?" Roy yells into the rushing wind.

Avril tries to turn around to talk to him, and her hair and fragrance engulfs Roy's senses and he closes his eyes and allows this temporary moment of heaven to soak in. Roy even lets it go when Avril's hair turns blonde with a pink streak in it.

"I thought I would be scared, but it is so beautiful."

"Think you could handle a little more?"

"Oh yes, I want more."

"Briar?" Roy says softly to the winds.

"Yes, Roy."

"If you would be so kind as to take a lap around the lake to see what we can see, and let's give Avril the ride of her life." Roy can feel Briar smile.

Just then Briar banks hard right and dives towards the lake. Avril screams in delight, but her grip on Roy's arms becomes almost painful. The three of them are flying very fast just ten feet off the surface of the lake.

"Thank you, Roy and Briar. Thank you very much." Avril says with tears in her eyes. But these tears are not from the rushing wind; these tears are from a beautiful heart.

As soon as they reach the lake's edge where the river comes into it, and where they had started their journey into the Brigand Mountains, they bank left and Briar starts flapping his wings to gain altitude.

After several more minutes of flying, Roy yells out to Avril as he is pointing down to about three o'clock. "Avril?"

"Yeah."

"See that trail down there? That is the trail we will take to go the City of Wizards when we are done here."

After they circumvent seventy-five percent of the lake, Briar banks left and heads towards the island and the castle. He spirals down into the huge walled-in open courtyard. Avril, with the help of Roy, slides down Briar's neck and unsteadily lands on the ground. Roy slides down and reaches out for Avril to help steady her. She smiles up at him in the fashion that not only are her soft and warm piercing blue eyes glistening, but her smile is also being reflected in them.

"Fear not, Princess, the lightheadedness will go away in a moment. The first time I flew, the ground swayed for hours and I had to fight getting sick, but I flew for many more hours. How are you feeling?"

"A little lightheaded, but other than that I feel wonderful." Roy smiles.

Then Roy turns and looks around the courtyard. He sees nobody so he yells out, "Hello! Is anybody here?"

And then Avril chimes in. "Hello!" and then she says, "Oh, I like the tone of the sound in this courtyard." and then she sings, "Dream, dream, dreamer." and her beautiful voice echoes off the walls divinely. Then she turns to Roy and says, "If we live, I'll have to make something like this for my castle."

Roy tilts his head to the side and towards her, and then shakes his head and grabs her exquisite hand and then says, "Come on, sweetheart." Avril smiles serenely.

As soon as you walk into the Apothecary's castle you know that he is there to serve the universe, for there are no frivolous flashy extras. There is only the light gray stone with flecks of shinny black in them that make up the castle and simple brown wooden doors leading to various places off the main hall.

Once again Avril calls out, "Hello." Only her echoes answer them.

"Well, let's not waste time looking for the Apothecary. Since he is a very powerful and bright wizard, he will not be found until he wants to be. I think the Mystic said the door was just over here."

They walk over to underneath the main stairs and they easily find the door leading down into the storeroom. Whether guests were expected or not, there is a burning oil lamp hanging beside the door. While still holding Avril's hand, Roy picks it up and holds it out before them as they make their way down the steps. As soon as they get into the storeroom they start looking for the latch to pull to open the secret door.

After they pull everything that looks like it could be the latch, and move everything twice and still nothing happens, they start getting concerned that it is going to be near impossible to find.

"Avril, try your magic."

"Okay." Avril starts moving her hands about in intricate spidery patterns, and eventually shimmering lights and bouncing bubbles of magic start floating about and then Avril says, "Show us the way." And the shimmering lights and transparent pink and gold bubbles start bouncing from wall to wall, and several things do light up with a saffron glow, but when they test them they still cannot find the way.

When Avril has her back to Roy, Roy wiggles his fingers behind his back and his own magic goes out by way of shimmering lights.

Avril turns around and asks, "What was that?"

"Remnants of your magic, I guess." Another object does start glowing, but it only turns out to be bag of magical herbs.

"Now what?"

"Try your magic again, but this time let me hold your hand."

"What will that do, you are not of magic ... are you?"

Without answering that specific question, Roy says, "There is only one force stronger than magic, and that is positive feelings." The truth of that spell is there is nothing stronger than love, but Roy doesn't want to say that to Avril to complicate her life anymore than it already is. After all, she is betrothed to his king.

Roy walks up and takes her right hand into his left and looks down at her with complete confidence. He nods his head to her. She raises her left hand and wiggles her fingers as she silently says a spell. Instead of many shimmering lights, only one comes to power from her magic, and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger until finally it is bigger than either of them have ever seen one become.

"Wow." And then with a whoosh of power it flies and hits the walls and it explodes out and fades away, but after it fades away the outline of the secret door is glowing.

Just as they are wondering how to open it, it opens on its own accord. How wonderful that their magic was not strong enough individually, but together it was. Roy can't wait to tell Avril about everything, and that time is coming soon. He hopes she won't be upset that he kept certain things from her, but unfortunately his king gave him this task to not only help save the world, but to test his future queen. Roy is not sure about the honor of it, but it is necessary for the survival of the world.