Chapter 22: Doors of Heaven

We are led up to an elaborate set of wooden doors. They look like they were stolen off the front of a Church. The doors are big and heavy, with lots of art carving with amazing detail of saints and angles. I hear Alys give a little hiss of breath as she recognize the doors.

"Yours sweetie?" I ask.

She only gets off a whimper as she nods franticly at me.

"How do you like them doors?" Elmer gloats as he leads us through. "We just finished putting them in. They was some find."

The room that Elmer leads us into is even more decorated then the hallways outside. The murals on the walls this time, show not the cute pastoral sense but rather, looming mountains and bright sunlight. The whole room is lit up like high noon with as many candlelight and chandeliers as that could be stuffed onto the walls and in the ceiling. While we are busily looking around at the art we don't notice the guards.

In all this time we have not seen any heavily armed men. Mostly a small pistol or a knife strapped to the waist. But as we enter through the doors, there are a dozen heavily armed men who all turn to look at us. Diana goes from being amused to alert in seconds as she draws her cloak tightly around her. I draw Alys close to me, tucking her hand under my arm. The men look bored as if they don't get much work.

I can only hope that they aren't given a chance to do something.

Once again I hear Alys whimper, she recognizes something in the room. I follow her gaze to the end of the room where a dais has been set up. The gold inlay on the platform gleams in the heavy candle light. The hardwood platform holds up what looks like a gold painted throne.

The thing that gets my attention is the man sitting on the throne. He is short. Even with the throne to prop him up his feet dangle down like a child's. He has rich brown hair and a good complexion. He eyes are a watery blue. What really draws me is the amount of jewelry he is wearing. He must have gobs and gobs of gold chains around his neck, rings on every finger and a monstrous crown on his head.

"What the hell are you two doing here?" The king yells at Elmer and Bernard. "The two of you were told not to show your faces out of the mines 'til I said so."

Elmer looks like his is going to cry. Bernard just sucks in his cheeks.

"Ah, your kinglyness." Elmer tries to get out. He waves at us.

The three of us just stand closer together. We put Alys in the center, I am now hugging her as she starts to shake.

"We found them." Bernard says, glumly.

King Louie looks to us now that his attention has been drawn to us. He twists to get out of his seat and strides past the odd couple, stalking up to us.

"Well now this is something." He remarks as he gets us in sight. "What pretties." He reaches out and tries to stroke Alys' hair. She shies away.

"Now my pretties, don't be mean. I am sure we can be friends." He rubs his hands together. "What do you want for them?" He looks back over his shoulder at Bernard and Elmer.

"Can we come back?" Elmer pleads. "I promise we will be good. I will talk to my sister like you wants."

King Louie looks speculative and swings his gaze back to us.

"I think I can overlook your general stupidity this once." The Odd couple do a high five behind the king. Diana and I exchange looks of disbelief. It is like being guarded by cartoon characters.

"Now get the hell out of here. All of you." Louie yells and sweeps his hands in a gesture of out. "Out, out. I want to meet our new arrivals."

The guards grumble somewhat that they never get any fun but they listen to their king and leave. The Odd couple sulk out behind them until the hall is empty and the doors bang shut.

"Now Chronos?" Diana asks me. She has been living in fear that they would search us for weapons.