15: Return to Winterdark Tarn

The Elves were still trying to comfort Shane and assure her that all would be well, when the other Mortals began showing up. They were naturally curious to know why Shane was so upset and when Glorfindel told them, Lily Zhang and Cassidy Morgan, her flatmates, hugged her and promised her that they would protect her from her mother, which made even Shane smile.

"You don’t know my mom," she said, wiping her eyes with the handkerchief Lily handed to her.

"Shane, I promise you, no one will take you from here against your will," Glorfindel said solemnly. "We’ll deal with your mother when she gets here. In the meantime, why don’t we have our meeting and then perhaps Daeron will treat us all with one of his new compositions." He gave Daeron a significant look that wasn’t lost on any of the Elves or even the older Mortals and the loremaster nodded.

"I would be happy to," he said. "I’ve been working on this one piece and would be interested in hearing your opinions."

"That’s settled then," Glorfindel said brightly, giving Shane a reassuring smile. The young woman nodded, albeit reluctantly. Lily and Cassie sat on either side of her, holding her hands while the meeting went on. Everyone noticed, though no one commented on, Shane’s subdued manner, so different from the vivacious young woman with her razor-sharp mind who usually traded quips with Daeron or the Twins during these meetings. Now she sat with downcast eyes and did not contribute to the conversation. The Elves cast worried glances at her and at Glorfindel who acknowledged their worries with a single nod all the while speaking of the mundane administrative matters concerning the Academy.

"Now that the accreditation committee has come and gone, we can get back to the business at hand and resume our normal activities," he said. "To that end, why don’t we hear what Paul has to say about the camping trip. You took the first batch of students last weekend. How did that go?"

Paul Pettingill grinned. "Better than I or the other rangers expected. There were a few minor mishaps but nothing serious. Some of the kids had never been camping before and so it was a whole new experience for them and, in some cases, a bit of a shock, but they all got into the spirit of the thing and a few of them even asked me when they could go again."

The others chuckled. "We’ll have to see how the others do," Glorfindel said. "In the meantime, how are the Sindarin classes going, Gil?"

"Barry and I are very pleased with this current class and...."

****

As promised, Daeron entertained them with a couple of his songs, which were well received by them all and in the end, Shane appeared to be in a better frame of mind. Lily and Cassie convinced her to come with them to the ice cream shop. "We’ll indulge in hot fudge sundaes while planning how to keep your mom at bay," Cassie said with an impish grin while the Elves and the other Mortals chuckled.

Jud, Zach and Matt half-jokingly pledged to defend her to the death from her mother. "Or at least until your mom pays us enough to leave off defending you," Jud quipped. The others groaned or rolled their eyes, and Barry, standing next to Jud, gave him a smack on the back of his head. Jud stood there grinning unrepentantly, rubbing his head. "Just kidding," he said.

Once the Mortals were on their way, the Elves settled in the library, which was their favorite place to gather informally. "Shane looked very worried about this upcoming visit from her mother," Mithrellas said as she took a seat on the sofa. "Do you think we have cause to worry as well?"

No one really had an answer to that. "I think we will just have to play it by ear and hope for the best," Glorfindel said.

"What exactly can she do?" Elrohir asked. "Shane is of legal age after all."

"We’ll have to see, won’t we?" Daeron replied and then he changed the subject, asking Cennanion, who liked playing the flute, about his own latest composition and the two began giving an impromptu concert. Soon the others were joining in and the worries of the outside world were shunted aside for a time.

****

Labor Day came and went. Alex continued playing his role and others continued watching him play it. The Elves kept a careful watch on Humphrey Bogart and the Mortals continued on oblivious to it all. On the Friday after Labor Day, Zach invited Alex and Derek to join him the next morning for his usual get together with young Caleb and his siblings.

"I’m taking them hiking and it would be helpful to have a couple of other grown ups around to keep an eye on them."

"Nicole’s not coming?" Derek asked.

Zach shook his head. "Saturday is the one day in the week where she doesn’t have to deal with the kids and she can get stuff done without them underfoot."

So they agreed and Saturday morning the three of them got into Zach’s van and drove to Nicole’s house where they were warmly greeted. It took a few minutes to get the children organized and all their gear stowed away and then they were off.

"Everyone set?" Zach asked and there was a chorus of ‘yeses’ from them all. Alex, sitting in the back with the four Lord children while Derek sat up front, studied them. Adam, the oldest, was almost thirteen, while his sisters, Rachel and Hannah, were a few years younger. They appeared to be well-adjusted and happy children and from the banter that passed between them and Zach, it was clear that they looked on him as an older brother. He felt a twinge of envy at the easy camaraderie between them. As an only child with no cousins, at least none his age, he’d been pretty much his own company throughout his childhood. He hadn’t really minded, but sometimes, like now, he wished he’d had at least one sibling to grow up with.

"So where are we going, anyway?" Adam asked.

"That’s a surprise," Zach said with a smile. "Just sit back and enjoy the ride. We’ll be there soon enough."

The children settled, the girls whispering and giggling, while Adam stared out the window. Young Caleb was engrossed in a picture book that his mother had given him at the last minute. Alex stole a glance at it and with a start, realized that it was not the typical store-bought book, but obviously handcrafted. The images on the page were painted in bright colors, including gold and silver, and seemed to depict people that looked surprisingly like some of the teachers and staff at the Academy. He thought he saw Loren and even Elwood but there was something not quite right about them. It took him a moment to realize that their ears were all wrong. They seemed to be pointed, almost leaf-shaped.

And that was odd enough but then he noticed that the text, while written in the Roman alphabet, was not in English, but in Sindarin, for he recognized some of the words. He leaned over and spoke in the child’s ear. "Can you read that, Caleb?"

"Huh huh," the boy answered with a nod. He pointed to the text. "And ia, ennas dorthant vi Laurinand aran estannen Amroth...."

"Do you know what it means in English?" Alex asked.

Caleb nodded and puckered his lips as he went back to the beginning of the text. "Long ago, there lived in Laurinand a king named Amroth. See. That’s Amroth there." He pointed to one of the people in the painting and Alex had to force himself not to react, for the child had pointed to the character that looked like Ambrose Elwood. "And that’s Glorfindel. He’s Amroth’s friend and there’s Elladan and Elrohir."

Alex looked to see him pointing at Loren and two who were obviously supposed to be Dan and Roy, except they all had those leaf-shaped ears. "Why do they all have pointed ears?" he asked.

"’Cause they’re Elves," Caleb answered, giving Alex a put-upon look that he recognized as one that was often on the faces of children who were convinced that the grown ups around them were mentally retarded.

He hid a smile even as he tried to assimilate this new information. Elves, of course. Why not? He was tempted to ask some more questions but decided not to. "It’s a lovely book," he said instead. "Who made it for you?"

"Daeron," Caleb replied.

"He means, Darren Harper," Zach said, glancing up at the rearview mirror. "Darren’s made a few of these books for Nicole’s kids. They’re fantasy stories and he likes to illustrate them with people from the Academy."

Alex merely nodded, pretending indifference. It made sense to illustrate the story with people Caleb knew. It probably amused the child to see his friends in the pictures as much as it must amuse Harper to paint them. Still, he had to wonder.

By now, Zach was making the turn off from the James Dalton Highway onto an unpaved road and Alex, looking about, recognized the area. "Mt. Horace?" he asked with some trepidation.

Zach nodded. "We’re going to go hiking at the Mt. Horace Resort. I thought we would go on the Winterdark Tarn trail. It’s a bit of a climb, especially for Caleb, but I think with you and Derek on hand we can manage."

Derek nodded. "The tricky part will be getting over the boulders, but it’s a good walk and there’s a lot to see. I wouldn’t mind seeing the tarn again. We didn’t really stay very long when we were there before." He looked back at Alex and frowned. "You all right, mate? You look a little sick."

Alex shook his head. "I’m fine. Road’s a little bumpy. Are you sure you want to take that trail?" he asked Zach in as nonchalant a voice as he could manage. "Adam and the girls should be all right but I don’t know if Caleb can do it. Perhaps he and I can go on the Snowflake trail instead."

"I wanna go on the Winterdark trail," Caleb protested, practically jumping up and down in his safety seat. "I don’t wanna go on the Snowflake trail. That’s for babies."

"And there you have it," Zach said with a smile. "It’s okay, Caleb. We’re all going on the Winterdark trail."

"Yay!" all four kids yelled. Alex closed his eyes and swallowed, trying to still the terror that was threatening to overtake him. Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad this time. At least he was forewarned and he was trained to keep his emotions in check. He could pretend this was part of a mission and he’d been sent to scope the area. If he kept that idea in mind, perhaps he could control the cold, sick feeling that was settling in his gut.

In a matter of minutes, they were at the resort and after gathering all their gear they headed for the funicular that would take them to the trail head. Derek agreed to be Rachel and Hannah’s trail buddy while Alex teamed up with Adam. Caleb naturally stayed close to Zach.

"We’ll stop at the tarn and have our picnic," Zach told them as they set out. The children and Derek were very enthusiastic about that but it was all Alex could do to keep his breakfast down at the thought of picnicking at the tarn.

Yet, the walk itself was quite pleasant even though it was much colder than when he’d been here before. They’d all brought rain gear for storms could come up suddenly in the mountains but at the moment the sky was a cerulean blue and the sun was warm. Alex felt himself relaxing somewhat under the influence of the warm sun and exercise, breathing in the pine-scented air. For a time he even forgot about the tarn but simply enjoyed the walk, speaking with Adam and learning something about the boy, his likes and dislikes.

They moved slowly for Caleb’s sake so it took them nearly an hour to reach the fall of boulders that would have to be climbed, at which point Zach carried Caleb while Derek helped him over the boulders. Alex stayed with the three older children, then Derek took Rachel across before coming back for Hannah, at which point Alex helped Adam to maneuver around the fall until they were all safely on the other side.

"The tarn is just ahead," Zach assured the children and another fifteen minutes found them there.

Alex let Adam go ahead of him so he was the last to reach the tarn. He stopped as soon as he saw it. In spite of the sun blazing overhead, the tarn seemed to reflect nothing and there was an ominous air to it. Perhaps it was the starkness of the mountains surrounding it, perhaps it was something less definable. Alex didn’t know. He only knew that he did not want to be there. The others were now on the other side of the tarn where Derek and the children were looking for stones to skip, while Zach put out the picnic.

"Hey, Alex," Derek called. "Why don’t you join us?"

Alex swallowed nervously and made his way towards them. The children were laughing as they counted the number of times their stones skipped across the surface of the tarn. Caleb was having trouble getting the stones to skip and Derek helped him. When he was able to make a stone skip twice, the little boy clapped his hands and jumped up and down, giving a pleased yell. Alex winced and the feeling of threat rose within him.

"Shhh, not so loud," he whispered, glancing around, half expecting something to be there but the place was empty save for themselves.

"You okay, Alex?" Adam asked, giving the older man a worried look.

Alex forced himself to smile. "Sure, Adam. Everything’s fine. How many times did you skip the stone?"

"Five," the boy said proudly. "I bet you can’t beat that."

"I’m lousy at skipping stones," Alex lied. He was standing a good ten feet from the tarn and closer to the trail than the others, as if making sure he had plenty of room in which to escape. Escape from what, he didn’t know, only that he did not wish to be any nearer to the tarn than he already was. "I bet Derek is a champion skipper though."

"Fair to middling," Derek admitted as he helped Caleb find another flat stone.

"Picnic’s ready anytime you want," Zach called out. He’d pulled out a blanket and had set the food on it. The girls skipped one more stone each and then joined him on the blanket. Derek and Adam were still competing with one another. No one was paying attention to Caleb who’d wandered closer to the water apparently having lost interest in skipping stones. Alex had been scanning the area around them, trying to keep his mind off the tarn, not wanting to look at it, attempting to keep the panic he was feeling at bay.

"Caleb, come have some lunch," Zach called out and Alex turned to see that the little boy had moved away from the others and was crouched on a flat boulder that jutted out a bit from the shore, looking intently into the water, though Alex didn’t think he could see anything. The sight of the boy leaning over the boulder, a hand reaching out for whatever had caught his attention, sent shards of ice through Alex’s blood.

"NO!" he shouted and ran towards the boy who, startled by his shout, over balanced and with a shriek fell into the tarn. Alex dove into the icy waters, discovering to his horror that the shore dropped off steeply so the water was immediately over his head, but worse than that, he could not see anything, for no sunlight penetrated the darkness surrounding him. He started swimming in the direction he thought was where Caleb had fallen in, terrified that the little boy was so far down in the water that he would not be able to find him. He realized that the weight of his boots and coat were pulling him downward and he shrugged off the coat and would’ve tried to remove his boots but he was afraid to stop, fearing that Caleb had little time.

And he needed air.

He started swimming to the surface but for some reason he didn’t reach it as quickly as he should have and in the darkness that surrounded him with no landmarks to use as a guide, he wondered if he was actually moving down instead of up. The pressure on his lungs increased and he quickly reversed direction, but now he did not think he could make it. Contrary to all his training, he allowed himself to panic as he desperately reached for the surface, but he never made it. In the darkness, his lungs burning with an excruciating need to breathe, the icy water leaching all the warmth from his body, he knew himself a failure and as he gave in and let out the breath he’d been holding, his last thought was that they would never find his or Caleb’s body; the two of them would be entombed in the tarn along with whatever lived there for all time.

Then darkness of a different kind took him....

****

Light and a feeling of warmth was the first thing of which Alex was aware as consciousness returned.

"That’s it, Alex," he heard a soft voice say, its tone darkly melodious and Alex felt a shiver of something that could have been either fear or delight sweep through him at the sound of it. "Open your eyes, child. There is naught to fear."

But Alex was in no hurry to obey the voice’s command. He was still struggling with memory, trying to piece together what had happened.

"Artemus, open your eyes."

The sound of his real name shocked Alex into doing just that and he found himself gazing into the eyes of someone he did not know, a tall man with long black hair braided with gemstones. He wore a dark robe of burgundy trimmed with black velvet, its flowing sleeves showing a black silk shirt underneath with intricate silver embroidery on the cuffs.

But it was the stranger’s eyes that caught Alex’s attention: slate grey with the slightest hint of a reddish purple tinge that might have been due to the flickering torchlight that was the room’s only illumination. As he gazed into the man’s eyes, he felt himself captured, unable to look away and he felt oddly naked, as if the person looming over him could see every nook and cranny of his soul and was measuring it against some standard of which he was ignorant, but he had the sense that he was somehow found wanting and shame burned him.

Then the man moved, holding out his hand and Alex found himself taking it without any conscious thought as he was pulled up into a sitting position. Now he had an opportunity to view his surroundings and gulped. He was in some sort of hall that reminded him of paintings he’d seen showing scenes from life in a medieval castle. He couldn’t help wondering if he’d fallen into a medieval fantasy story or something.

He felt rather than saw the stranger smile. "It’s a bit anachronistic, I agree, but I like the atmosphere it evokes."

Alex stared at the man. "You called me Artemus," he said.

"It is your name, isn’t it? More so than ‘Alex’." The man shrugged.

"Where am I and who are you?" Alex demanded, refusing to answer. "Am I... am I... dead?" he whispered and then another thought came to him as he leapt from where he’d been lying on some sort of bed. "Caleb! Where’s Caleb? Is he....?"

"Your young friend is safe," the man assured him, taking him by the shoulders. "Even now he is being rescued. That is not your concern at the moment. What we must determine is whether you are to be rescued as well."

"What do you mean?" Alex asked, his eyes widening.

"Do you want to be rescued?" the man asked.

"What kind of question is that? Of course...."

"Think carefully, Artemus Gordon Meriweather, on your answer," the man said and the tone of his voice was darker than before.

"Who are you?" Alex demanded.

"I suppose in your mythology you would call me the Angel of Death," the man replied, "though I am much more than that. Now, do you want to be rescued?"

Alex gulped, suddenly afraid. "I don’t know," he whispered.

The man nodded. "A truthful enough answer from one who deals with lies and deceptions on a regular basis. You are on a cusp, Artemus Gordon Meriweather. You can go either way. Remember, there are many things from which one can be rescued, and Death is the least of them. Now, I think it’s time to send you back. I see my people have found your body and are attempting to revive you."

"Your people?" Alex asked in confusion.

Instead of answering, the man bent down and kissed Alex’s forehead. A great lassitude stole over him and even as he struggled to ask one more question, darkness took him once again....

****

"... coming around. Breathe, Alex. That’s it, mate."

Alex recognized Derek’s voice as he gasped for breath.

"We need to get him out of these wet clothes," he heard someone else say. The voice was unfamiliar to him.

Alex’s eyes fluttered open and he saw several people leaning over him. Zach and Derek were there, their expressions of concern changing to relief as they saw he was awake. There were others with them, strangers who were competently removing his frozen clothes. One of them brought forth a blanket and wrapped it around him. He was not sure what had happened. His memory seemed fractured and he was finding it difficult to put all the pieces together.

"C-c-caleb?" he stuttered.

"He’s okay," Derek assured him. "Little tyke only fell into three feet of water. If it weren’t for these other hikers coming upon us just as you went into the tarn we wouldn’t have been able to find you. Somehow they knew where you were and were able to bring you to the surface."

Alex glanced at the strangers, four of them, tall and handsome with long hair. They were dressed in hiking clothes but Alex had the strangest feeling that underneath the flannels and Levi’s were flowing white tunics and dark surcoats. He blinked a number of times and when he looked upon them again, all he saw was four hikers. One of them was dripping wet but it didn’t seem to bother him. "Th-thank you," he whispered as he huddled in the blanket.

"Our pleasure," one of them said and it was the same one who’d spoken before. "I think we had better get you and the little one off this mountain as quickly as possible. We’ve got some extra clothes with us that should fit you. Here. Have some hot tea. It should help."

Alex took the cup of tea and drank it gratefully, relishing the warmth that spread through his body. With the help of the strangers, he managed to get into a pair of sweats and thermal shirt and one of them gave him his coat, insisting he had no need of it. Glancing around, Alex saw that the picnic stuff had been put away. Caleb was wrapped in a couple of blankets, sitting on his brother’s lap. The older children were pale and subdued and Hannah was shivering. One of the strangers produced another blanket from somewhere and wrapped the girl in it.

"We’ve called for a helicopter," Alex heard one of the strangers tell Zach. "It should be here momentarily."

Even as Alex was wondering how anyone was able to get a signal so deep in the mountains he became aware of the chump-chump of helicopter blades somewhere in the distance and looking up saw a medical chopper coming into view. In moments it made a landing and soon, they were all hustled into it. The strangers waved at them as they flew up. As the pilot swung the chopper around, Alex, sitting next to a window, looked out, intending to wave back, but all he saw was the tarn and the surrounding plateau. There was no sign of the strangers anywhere. It was as if they’d disappeared into thin air.