Chapter 12: History

Olivia jumped down off the waggon and pulled off her hat, to wipe her brow.

She dusted it off against the thin linen of her wide flowing pants and looked around. If you looked at where she stood from the air, the mountain range formed a large ‘Y’. It was called the Yani Mountain Range. In the fork of the ‘Y’ was an area that was known as the Forbidden Valley. It was believed that all who approached the valley were turned away.

Silver Kingdom sat on the south side of the longest leg of the mountain range, and Innis Kingdom was on the other side. From the sea, a large crescent-shaped island with three tall mountain peaks called the Sentinels guarded the entrances to the valley. No ship in living memory had been able to sail into the bay the island guarded.

The team of archaeologists, scientists and historians had made a camp in the pass, which led into the forbidden valley from Unna City. They were in fact, investigating the phenomenon of why they couldn’t enter the valley beyond. They believed the magical wall or whatever it was, that protected the valley had moved. The very fact of them being this far into the passage supported this notion.

The pass now opened out into a small basin high in the mountainous region. They could see where, on the other side, the valley closed up again. For all intent, it looked like part of the mountain, but the scholars knew it wasn’t. Roads don’t disappear under the sides of a mountain.

They had recently accessed a set of buildings that were no longer under the protection of the shield. They were all very excited at the find. They believed it was a small mountain village used as a way station. They hoped to learn something about what happened during the Wrath of the Gods that had plunged civilisation back into the dark ages.

They were not that hopeful that the village would tell them much. However, the little village was still an interesting find as it had historical significance. On one side of a wide paved road were eight smaller homes in their own fenced allotments. One building looked like a small café and shop.

Olivia walked over to the building that the scientists believed was a hotel that took up the other side of the road. The hotel was three stories high and built in the form of a broad ‘U’ shape. Between the arms of the hotel, was a wide area that the historians believed had been used for parking carriages or whatever type of vehicle they had used at the time.

However, they were perplexed as to why they couldn’t find any hitching rails or water troughs for the lankys. They also didn’t know why the ancients had painted diagonal lines on either side of the centre of the road or why the arrows that point the way around.

Professor Inkle was looking at the lines when Olivia approached him. “Why did they paint them going in the wrong direction?” he said mystified.

Olivia looked at the markings and then walked to the other entrance and looked back. “They didn’t. See if you were coming from the valley this is the entrance as it is on the left side of the road as we use. See the shape of the kerbs.”

The professor joined her, looked around and walked as if he was coming off the main road and into the drive. “Ah! Yes, I see. The lines also make sense now. If they used a carriage that was driven by something like those new steam motors with no lankys, you would park your carriage in here. The angles would make it easy to manoeuvre.”

Olivia grinned at him. He smiled back, “See, this is why I wanted you, Olivia. You have a very sharp mind and see things differently from me. Come let’s find you a room.”

He took her to the hotel, and she was amazed at the difference in the designs of the furniture and fixings. “It looks like the ancients were here just yesterday,” she said.

She pointed out there was a bit of dust, but not as much as she would expect from an abandoned building. “Yes, we have been wondering about that as well.”

“Markus said they had a massive thunder storm here two weeks ago with lots of lightning. They had been about a klick down the road, and when he walked this way after the storm, the village was suddenly here. He sent a message to me immediately. The men with him were too frightened to enter in case they got swallowed by the monster that guarded the valley,” he told her gleefully.

Olivia lifted her eyebrows at him, and he chuckled and patted her arm. “Yes, I know. They had technology that we are still working out how to redesign. We have learned that much at least.”

“What else did Markus say?” she asked as he directed her up some wide stairs.

“He found a strange tower on the hill. He said he thinks it was hit by the lightning. So far, other than the exciting technologies, we haven’t found much of interest, as far as records goes.”

“Most of the books seem to be fictional stories, but even so they do give some insights. They appear to have been a sexually liberated society. Most of those books are on the steamy side.” He chuckled and added, “I’ve noticed many of my companions wandering off to bed with them.”

Olivia had to chuckle with him. He then said, “Juno believes that this is a hotel, visitors stayed here before continuing down into the valley or just holidayed here. He believes the hidden valley once held a magnificent city. I would love to find out if that were true.”

Olivia stopped to look at a device on the wall. She frowned. “You know those theories that certain energy can be used to provide light sources. I think this establishment used these devices for that purpose. See where they have put them.”

The professor picked out the devices she was pointing to and nodded. “Yes, that will give the boys something to think about. I wonder how they got the energy to them.”

“I don’t know, we will have to keep looking I guess,” she said smiling at him. The professor showed her into a lovely room. “These will interest you,” he said. He opened a door, and she looked in.

She played with the taps on the sink, “Why two taps?” she wondered aloud. “One had a green top and one with a red top. Hot and cold water?” she said aloud as she turned them and water flowed into the basin.

She felt the temperature and commented, “Shame the hot doesn’t work anymore. I wonder how they got it into the pipe, something else to ponder, huh, Professor.”

He nodded in agreement. “Well, make yourself comfortable, Rahul will have lunch ready soon, meet me downstairs when you’re ready dear,” he told her.

They returned to the bedroom as two men placed her chests in the room at the foot of the enormous bed. She thanked them, and after ushering them out, she took out a clean set of clothes.

The pants she selected were a little narrower in the legs than the ones she wore. It still wasn’t acceptable in polite society for a woman to wear pants, but out here, she didn’t care. They were a lot more comfortable, allowed her to ride astride and they protected her legs better.

Olivia went back to the bathing room and tried the tap in the cubicle she believed was for washing her body in. The water was tepid and flowed out of the spout over the top of her like rain. It was perfect for cleaning the road grime off, on a hot day. She loved the shower.

Dressed and refreshed she headed downstairs. She was pondering why the village was now accessible. She decided a ride after lunch was in order. Markus agreed to take her up to the funny tower, and they packed some sandwiches, several bottles of water and a flask of tea.

It was a lovely afternoon for a ride. The sure-footed lankys didn’t have to work too hard to get up the path to the tower. They had been up on the hill for about an hour looking at the tower when they heard the yelling below. They crouched down and looked over a short wall that stopped you falling off the path to the road below. “Shit!” said Olivia to Markus’ surprise.

Thirty men had ridden into the carriage area and were yelling at the scientists and rounding them up. They were all armed to the teeth and dressed as mercenaries. They were not gentle about it either. “Mercenaries my left foot,” growled Olivia quietly. She knew trained soldiers when she saw them.

They heard one of the men yell out, “Where is the Princess?”

Markus looked at her fearfully. She grinned at him, “Not where they think she is.” They watched as the men collected the thirty or so scientists into a huddle. They pulled the professor from the group and the bloke, who had yelled out, smashed his closed fist backwards across the older man’s face.

“Where is the Princess?” he screamed into his face. The professor would have fallen, but the two lackeys held him up for the next blow. “Where is the Princess?” the man growled again.

“Riding, she went for a ride to look at the wall,” he spat out with dribbles of blood.

“You two go look. Do not harm the Princes you understand?” he growled at the two men he had picked, and they hurried remounted and rode away to do his bidding.

Olivia took in the measure of the man. Lord Paul Bracken if she wasn’t mistaken. He wasn’t much taller than she was and had developed a nasty reputation of late. She had seen him at the ball, but he wasn’t at the dinner. She suspected that he had deliberately stayed away from her.

She knew that he worked for Lord Walter and that his mother’s lands were to the south-west of theirs. They had been having difficulties with that lot for some time. The border skirmishes were becoming a serious problem.

Some odd rumours had also been coming back from that region. Olivia knew that Walter’s family had been very upset over the cancellation of their union. Brandi was not a good as catch as herself.

She had felt Paul’s eyes on her several times at the ball and each time the necklace had warmed, as it was now. She guessed she had her own warning system. “We had better go down there,” she said to Markus.

“No, no,” he said shaking his head. “If they are going to harm them, they will do it, if you’re there or not. Your presence may give them even more of a reason to do so.”

“Shit! Well, we can’t just stay here,” Olivia, said exasperatedly. She looked back over the short wall when she heard Paul say, “Keep the old man and kill the rest.” Olivia saw red. She thought frantically and looked around trying to find a way to help her friends. If she hadn’t come here, they would have been safe.

She looked at the tower. It seemed like a ball of energy was inside it to her. She let her eyes follow the flow of the energy. She found a point where it stopped, and she could see the path it wanted to take, but it couldn’t get there anymore. She felt the metal and she decided that it was copper.

‘It needs to be joined back together, ‘ she thought not knowing why she felt this was true. So she pictured it in her mind as she thought of the copper stretching up to meet up with the conductor on the other side. The tower suddenly glowed brilliantly.

Olivia and Markus both shivered as they felt waves of a different form of energy pass over them. They watched as the semi-transparent wall of light and energy washed past them and down the road in both directions as it expanded out like waves from a pebble dropped into water. It curved to meet the land as it expanded.

The energy shield moved towards the little village, and several of the men screamed and started running away from the semi-transparent wall as it went to pass over them. The shield finally stopped about 200m up the road and now covered the village and the valley once more under its protective umbrella.

Markus whispered to her, “That was where it ended before. You can see the difference in the colour of the road. This tower must maintain the shield. The storm must have broken something, but how did it get fixed?”

Olivia grinned at him and turned her bling on. Markus fell backwards on his arse and gaped at her. “Bloody Hades!” he exclaimed. He looked at her in utter amazement as she turned it off and it disappeared again leaving his friend as she usually looked. Except that, he could now see a faint glow surrounding her, marking her as a chosen one.

They heard more yelling and crawled back to the wall. The couple both peeped over. They could see five of the men that had come with Paul were on the other side of the shield. They were milling around as if lost.

Paul yelled at them to get the fuck back to him, but it seemed they couldn’t hear him. He pushed one of the other men in the back and told him to go get the fucking idiots. Reluctantly, the man approached the shield and yelled at the men.

Both Markus and Oliver had to put their hands over their mouths to stop the giggles as the men on the other side had scurried away from the wall fearfully. They were looking around for the voice as they kept backing away from the shield and then they turned and ran down the road.

Lord Paul yelled at the man to go through the shield and get them back. The man backed away from it. Paul then ordered another soldier to shoot the man if he continued to disobey. The man looked at the soldier who was loading an arrow into his bow. He turned and ran through the shield. Paul yelled at him to stop and come back, but the man kept running after the others.

Olivia and Markus had to hunker down as they giggled. They could still hear Paul ranting and raving. He sent another soldier and this time he said he would shoot him if he didn’t try to come back. The man nodded and got on his lanky and rode down the road. He stopped before the shield, braced himself and walked the lanky through. He turned the lanky around and tried walking it back into the shield.