Blackfire: The Rise of the Creeping Moors: The Books of Bairnmoor, Volume II

By James Daniel Eckblad

Blackfire: The Rise of the Creeping Moors (Volume II of the trilogy) continues the story of four unlikely teenagers who are summoned by a mysterious stranger to save another world being destroyed by evil. Elli Adams and her friends Beatriz, Jamie, and Alex must overcome challenges of blindness, self-confidence, and Down syndrome as they struggle together to fulfill their mysterious calling as Bairnmoor's last prophetic hope. Join them as they adventure through singing forests and stardust valleys full of mystical, glorious, and ferocious creatures, all of which test their resolve in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Eckblad's novel wrestles with the age-old questions of Good and Evil and the nature of the heroic life, even as it provides a fresh perspective on how we can have faith in the Good against every indication that Evil is prevailing―and how each of us can be immensely more than we seem to be.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Release date: Nov 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781532616303

James Daniel Eckblad

James Daniel Eckblad has served as both a pastor and a trial attorney, with degrees in theology and law from Yale University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, respectively. His writings range from tales and short stories to short plays, and his papers and articles on law and theology have been included in various journals and symposia. Blackfire is his first published work of fiction. He lives and works in Chicago.

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Blackfire: The Rise of the Creeping Moors

The Books of Bairnmoor, Volume II

James Daniel Eckblad

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For

Mary Ann Urbashich, my wife

In Memoriam

Herbert Ellis, Literary Editor

Table of Contents

Title Page

~introduction~

~one~

~two~

~three~

~four~

~five~

~six~

~seven~

~eight~

~nine~

~ten~

~eleven~

~twelve~

~thirteen~

~fourteen~

~fifteen~

~sixteen~

~seventeen~

~eighteen~

~nineteen~

~twenty~

~twenty-one~

~twenty-two~

~twenty-three~

~twenty-four~

~twenty-five~

~twenty-six~

~twenty-seven~

~twenty-eight~

Blackfire: The Rise of the Creeping Moors

The Books of Bairnmoor, Volume II

Copyright © 2017 James Daniel Eckblad. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.

Resource Publications

An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers

199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3

Eugene, OR 97401

www.wipfandstock.com

paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-1629-7

hardcover isbn: 978-1-5326-1631-0

ebook isbn: 978-1-5326-1630-3

Manufactured in the U.S.A. December 4, 2017

~introduction~

Introduction to Volume II of the trilogy, including spoilers for Volume I:

In Volume I the reader was introduced to four extremely challenged young teenagers—Elli, Beatríz, Alex, and Jamie—who, in the basement of the Millerton library, were summoned by way of the ancient messenger Peterwinkle to learn of their call—by someone no one has ever seen named the Good—to set out on a quest to save a world existing perpendicular to their own. With reluctant consent, given largely because the children were told that they alone could accomplish the mission—if accomplishable at all—these exceedingly unlikely heroes, variously disabled by facial disfigurement, verbal abuse, blindness, and Down syndrome, entered the world of Bairnmoor (land of children), striving to release from her imprisonment far away beyond The Mountains the child Queen, Taralina, and so save her world—as well as their own—from annihilation by the evil Nothingness of Sutante Bliss. Protesting—first to Peterwinkle and then to others on the journey—that they had less ability than virtually anyone else to undertake such a mission, the children nevertheless set-out, trusting the call, and so discovered along the way the secret to how it is that anyone can come to possess the capacities needed to attempt that which is otherwise impossible.

On their journey through Bairnmoor’s haunted forests and mysterious moors, towering mountains and magical valleys, the children encountered various creatures, some terrifying and evil, intent on destroying them, and so their mission, while others they encountered were awesome and good, fulfilling their own mysterious calling to assist the children. Early on the children encountered Hannah—a woman of advanced age not apparent from her stunningly youthful appearance—who gave them their initial instructions and warnings for the journey, as well as a giant millipede known as a Mortejos that tried to devour them. They also chanced upon a stick man called Thorn who had just saved the oblivious children from certain death at the hands of Wolfmen and other vile creatures constituting Sutante’s vast army. In addition to Thorn, who swore to never leave the children, though soon forced to do so, the children were confronted in the singing Forest of Lament by the unicorn Childheart, who would, with huge misgivings, end up leading their mission party. They were astonished by the sudden appearance of a Four-winged condor named Starnee, as well as by a host of angels in the form of a squadron of flying toads. And then there was Kahner, a child belonging to the Den of Liars, whom the other children ended up both first trying to kill in self-defense and then healing and embracing as a valuable, though bewildering—and finally lethal—companion for the journey. But no encounter was as intense and unsettling and notable and perplexing, if not more terrifying, than the encounter by all four children at different times with Blackfire—a white dragon whose nature and significance in the cosmic scheme of things seemed randomly evil—or, at best, inscrutably irrelevant.

Toward the end of Volume I, leading up to the beginning of Volume II, Thorn and three of the children—Beatríz, Alex, and Jamie—survive an encounter with a vile Thrasher at the end of a long passageway in The Mountains, thanks to the timely arrival of Starnee. At this point, the children and Thorn note the inexplicable absence of Kahner, who only moments earlier was with them in the passageway. The five questing companions soon discover at an open castle window high above the ground none other than Elli, whom Sutante Bliss’s daughter, Santanya, is holding captive. On escaping from the castle with the assistance once again of Starnee, Santanya sends out troops to capture the children, Thorn, and the condor. However, forces loyal to Sutante, but inexplicably hostile to Santanya, also spy the children from their encampment at the dead Queen’s castle some distance away and send out warriors to apprehend them, thereby engaging the two wicked sides in competitive battle. Although circumstances seem grim for the children and company, Childheart arrives just in time to rescue Elli and Beatríz and, with Starnee’s help, deliver them to the stairwell in Taralina’s castle that will hopefully lead them down to the Queen’s tomb—where the girls will attempt to open the tomb door with their black key, and thus fulfill the most critical portion of the prophetic poem engraved on the tomb door:

At close of time the door be shut

Against the child within without;

The lock a seal against the death

Of nothingness about.

Through space and time a child shall come

To open this eternal door;

The Queen, released from imprisonment,

Will spread her life forevermore.

The child shall come with forces fierce:

Evil, legions of children to meet;

And with the sword of right and good

Adultish nothingness defeat.

From some dimension far beyond

The reach of our eternity;

The child shall come and open wide

This portal with a diamond key.

While Starnee and Childheart continue to battle enemy forces by the hundreds at the top of the castle stairs, the two girls descend the steps and enter the tomb hall. They begin to dash to the tomb door, only to be abruptly blocked by dozens of warriors bolting from their hiding places. Then, to the shock of the girls, Kahner steps from among the warriors and tries to persuade Elli and Beatríz that, as their friend (who will, he says, explain everything later), he wants to help them get into the tomb. Instead, Kahner tricks them. He steals the black key and tries to kill the girls, hitting Elli in the back with a spear that propels her (and Beatríz whom Elli is shielding in her arms) into the locked tomb door. The impact of the girls’ bodies forces the door open, causing the girls to tumble into the tomb, apparently killed. Then, as if on its own, the door swings shut and locks. At this final moment in Volume I, it is unclear what has happened to those doing battle above ground: Alex and Jamie, Thorn, and of course Starnee and Childheart who, where Volume II opens, are doing battle at the top of the stairs, hoping against hope before their deaths to fight just long enough to allow the girls to get to the tomb with the diamond key.

~one~

Like a swarm of giant insects, raging Wolfmen stormed into the castle courtyard to finish off the condor and unicorn, and so bring an end to the children’s quest and all that remained of Bairnmoor. Starnee and Childheart were simply hoping against hope to last just long enough to allow Elli and Beatríz to get to the Queen’s tomb, and so keep the quest alive.

Some of the Wolfmen bolted into the courtyard one at a time from the narrow passageways to the right and left of Starnee and Childheart, at times stumbling from being pushed by warriors behind them. Other Wolfmen were climbing heavily on the shoulders of fellow warriors to scale the wall in front, some of them, once over the top, falling hard in their exhaustion to the stony pavement below.

Childheart and Starnee were outnumbered by nearly two hundred, but they knew they could endure a while longer if they simply went on the offensive, attacking the enemy forces as soon as they emerged from the slender openings or appeared above the wall. Childheart struck to the left, Starnee to the right, both of them to the front as needed. As soon as a warrior launched himself from one of the side passageways, Childheart gored with his horn or bludgeoned with his hoofs, while Starnee stabbed with his talons and beak. Together they piled up bodies in front of the openings, forcing other warriors in the passageways to push through dead weight to enter the courtyard. And often a Wolfman (or an occasional Unperson) had not even cleared the top of the wall before Starnee or Childheart had killed or disabled him, sending him crashing backwards on top of those trying to scale the wall themselves.

Soon the courtyard became a killing field. Bodies both inert and quivering were everywhere. Starnee and Childheart had eliminated half the enemy forces, and neither one had been significantly injured; but they were slowing, nearly spent, and the warriors were gathering in the courtyard, preparing for a final charge. Within a minute or two dozens of the enemy had surrounded Childheart and Starnee and were about to fall on the two exhausted friends; screeches of vile delight erupted from wagging jaws, and eyes glistened with wicked intent.

Barely able to raise their heads, Starnee and Childheart glanced into one another’s eyes with looks of resignation. They had fought the good fight; but the battle was finished, and the fate of the two friends belonged to their adversaries.

As the enemy tightened the circle and readied their weapons, savoring the moment of capture and imminent torture, Childheart and Starnee glanced at one another as if to say, I’m sorry I can’t finish you before they do—but maybe we’ve given the girls just enough time.

And then, just as the Wolfmen and Unpersons were about to fall on Childheart and Starnee, the ground began to shift violently and to rumble deep beneath the surface with a deafening roar. Cracks opened in the earth, splitting the courtyard and separating the enemy ranks. The inner walls of the castle grounds began to shake and sway, and suddenly-loosened stones crashed to the ground and on the heads of the warriors surrounding Childheart and Starnee. Immediately, the enemy forces, already frozen in terror, dropped their weapons and began to scatter. At the same time, the outer wall began to crumble at its foundation, opening up gaps and holes in the wall through which the enemy fled, screaming fear and confusion.

The inner walls encircling Taralina’s castle were disintegrating, and boulders were now falling in large numbers and careening toward Starnee and Childheart in the otherwise vacant courtyard.

Let’s fly! shouted Starnee, taking flight up and over what remained of the outer wall; Childheart followed swiftly, jumping the crumbling wall and grazing Starnee with his swirling mane. Childheart, once clear of the falling walls, stopped in a cloud of dust and turned to look back at Taralina’s castle. Starnee pushed against the air, circled toward Childheart, and landed beside him. They watched in silence as both the inner and outer walls of the compound lathered the ground with stones and billowing dust. The two witnesses to the destruction stood stiffly and without speaking until all had become settled and the dust in the air had all but dissipated. To their surprise, the castle was intact; to their dismay, the stairway down which the girls had sped had sunk into a crater, and vast remains of the inner wall were piled deep on top, entombing Elli and Beatríz far below. Childheart and Starnee stood staring and wondering, tears falling.

Once again for the two companions hope faded. It was not entirely extinguished, however, and in that remnant hope they turned back toward the battlefield to the south where they had left their other companions. None of the enemy were anywhere to be seen. Those who had fled Taralina’s compound had scrambled east of the castle and north over the hill and out of sight. Those that had ushered forth from Santanya’s castle had retreated and returned to the compound. A brisk easterly wind brushing down the grasses was the only sound in an otherwise quiet world; bodies of the dead and dying littered the ground for many hundreds of yards, and far to the south smoke trailed from long patches of smoldering grass. Neither Starnee nor Childheart yet spoke; together they scanned the field for evidence of Thorn and Alex and Jamie, but not at all certain at this point that they actually wanted to find any.

Back to the air, said Starnee.

Why don’t you begin the search from the southern edge of the battlefield heading north, said Childheart, and I’ll do the opposite.

Starnee flew slowly over the battlefield, sweeping east to west and back again as he headed gradually north. Childheart, beginning where Starnee had left him, trotted south searching among the bodies of enemy forces scattered about much of the large field between the two castles. They continued their search in this fashion for nearly an hour, neither one spotting anything of interest. They were still a long way from meeting in the middle when all of a sudden Starnee wheeled and landed next to what appeared to be, but Starnee knew instantly was not, a pile of sticks. Starnee poked gently at one of Thorn’s limbs. Seeing no movement, Starnee nudged another limb, and then another, and then put his right eye in front of Thorn’s nose.

Noticing Starnee’s probing movements on the ground, Childheart galloped toward him, jumping over bodies and arriving swiftly. It’s Thorn! exclaimed Childheart through the cloud of dust encircling him.

And he’s still alive, but barely. Let’s get him out of here! ordered the condor.

Starnee slapped the air with his wings above Thorn, grabbing him with his talons. Follow me! he shouted back to Childheart as he shot skyward and bolted toward the brown forest near the western edge of the battlefield. Childheart galloped close behind as his friend headed far into the forest before setting Thorn on the ground and settling next to him. Childheart soon joined them in a clearing just large enough for Starnee to take off from.

He has a broken leg, but I’m seeing nothing else amiss, said Starnee as he poked tenderly at Thorn, tipping parts of him one way and then another, as if playing with food on a large plate. He seems to have lost a lot of blood, though—or whatever it is he has in his veins.

Childheart was unable to say anything; he just stared at Thorn, pondering the thought that neither Starnee nor he would be able to heal him. Noticing however that the wound had crusted over and was no longer bleeding, Childheart suggested that the bird find some good water. Starnee took off and headed straight for the river that flowed around Taralina’s castle to the east. Childheart stood over Thorn and rubbed him with his velvety nose, speaking tenderly to him.

Starnee returned with water, but only after taking what to Childheart seemed an inordinate length of time. So it was that difficult to find suitable water? the unicorn said pointedly.

No. But I had to fly wide of the castle and above the clouds, Starnee said brusquely, and got some for you, too.

Childheart, chagrined at his own petulance, replied apologetically, Thanks. Yes, I should have thought it would take longer to get.

Not a thing, not a thing—as Sticks would say. Starnee eased some water into Thorn’s mouth and then let Childheart drink from his bill. No sight of Alex or Jamie—though likely they’re in that castle, the condor said, pointing his beak toward Santanya’s compound.

We should get him out of here as soon as possible, said Childheart, and I suggest we go back.

Go back? Starnee blurted out. Back to where—and how?

Back to Taralina’s castle. There are going to be few, if any, enemy left, and what’s there we should be able to handle. We’re too exposed here, and it’s not clear what our next move should be anyway. Besides, perhaps we’ll find some food there—and maybe, just maybe, another ‘word’ or sign of some sort from someone or something about what to do next.

Let’s wait just a little longer, okay? Let the water work? Maybe he’ll be a bit stronger and better able to manage the flight. And we both could use some rest and sleep. I’ll watch—with one eye anyway, and sleep with the other.

And so one and a half of them turned in, as if for the night, the sky remaining unchanged in its invariable duskiness.

Childheart lay next to Thorn’s head and fell quickly into a deep slumber. Starnee sat halfway up one of the leafless trees and half-slept. While Starnee watched in the never-ending twilight, it occurred to him that ordinarily he would have found leafless trees—in their season—rather beautiful. But not these.

~two~

The tomb door slammed shut with a piercing bang as Beatríz fell hard against the stone floor; and then all was instantly quiet. Beatríz was stunned, but acutely aware of her aching head and the painful weight of Elli on top of her, making breathing difficult. It was completely dark inside the tomb, and Beatríz could feel it. She also felt Elli’s head dangling next to her ear and reached up tentatively to touch it.

Beatríz gasped in short little breaths, struggling to get out from underneath Elli; but she couldn’t move, either Elli or herself. Elli! Beatríz whispered sharply. When Elli did not respond, she remembered the spear striking her friend’s back, thrusting the two of them fiercely against the door and into the tomb, certainly killing Elli she now thought with rising horror. What was she to do next, she asked herself. But it was getting harder to breathe, and she knew there would be nothing else next to do unless she escaped quickly from under Elli’s body. Beatríz squirmed frantically. She was making no progress and beginning to panic when she heard a deafening roar surrounding her, as if she was inside an angered lion, and then felt the pavement starting to shake—so violently that it cast Elli off of her.

Beatríz turned over and buried her face in Elli’s chest, sobbing uncontrollably while awaiting the imminent collapse of the ceiling.

Then, just as suddenly, the shaking stopped and all was once again silent, save only the noise of a dissipating rumble and the sound of Beatríz’s own diminishing sobs. When her crying had finally subsided to a whimper, and she was about to move, Beatríz realized that nothing had fallen, that the floor itself seemed intact, and that, to her nearly euphoric delight, Elli’s chest against her cheek was rising and falling!

Beatríz sat up with a start, comprehending that Elli was now lying flat on her back. She began frantically searching the floor with her hands. Not far from Elli’s body Beatríz discovered her friend’s knife, still in its sheath, but bent. A few moments later she also found the spear; its point was flattened and still warm. She strained to reach beneath Elli to see if she could find a wound—or at least some blood.

Elli groaned when Beatríz touched a spot on her lower back, so she began to call again for Elli while she rubbed her arms and caressed her face. Elli! Elli! Beatríz repeated several times. Elli’s arms soon moved and she sat up abruptly, coughing harshly.

Beatríz? yelled a terrified Elli while grabbing her friend’s hands.

Elli! Elli! You’re okay! The spear didn’t hit you!

But I felt it, Beatríz! I felt it! Elli searched rapidly around her back, finding neither the spear nor a wound, and then grimaced when she touched a slight depression in her lower back.

Elli! Your knife saved you! And, Beatríz said, pausing, and then continuing as if whispering a prayer of gratitude, you saved me, Elli! Beatríz released her friend’s hands and picked up the weapons. Here!

Elli received the spear and knife and felt each of their tips. Oh my, she said softly. Oh my! She added quickly, Are you hurt, Beatríz?

No—just a headache; and my body hurts, and I’m tired—and scared—and sad, she replied.

Stay right here, Beatríz! I’m going to scout around—I won’t go far, I promise.

No, Elli! I’m going with you!

Hand in hand, darkness blinding both of them, the girls walked stealthily around the chamber, stumbling into the locked door and three walls. They prepared themselves for stumbling into Taralina’s bier. They finally found it. It was made of smooth stone, and the top was too high off the ground to reach, so Elli made a stirrup with her hands and gently hoisted Beatríz several feet into the air. Beatríz reached out slowly to touch the corpse, or skeleton, or whatever she would find.

Oh! Beatríz screamed, pulling back her hand.

What, Beatríz? Elli asked, not certain she wanted to know the answer. Beatríz? she asked again, becoming frightened by Beatríz’s silence and lack of movement. Beatríz?

Elli, Beatríz said quietly, her clothes are here, as if she had just been laid out, but, . . . but there’s no body, not even a skeleton.

Are you sure? Have you felt all around?

No, Elli. No. She’s not here; let me down.

The two girls sat, their backs to the bier, in silence, thinking and wondering, and finally resting. Elli had forgotten all about her amulet until now—Santanya said she had found only her knife.

At length, Beatríz spoke first. What now, Elli? She then added in a quivering voice, We’re going to die in here, aren’t we?

I don’t know, Beatríz; I really don’t know. And I’m hungry and thirsty; and I’ll bet you are, too, said Elli.

Beatríz gathered herself. Well, as much as I don’t want to move from this spot, maybe for a very long time, we’re not going to have any food or water just come to us.

Okay. Let’s go. There’s only one direction, but I don’t know what direction it is, or where it leads, or where it will end. The girls walked protectively along the wall stretching away perpendicular from the wall revealing the tomb door, Elli’s bent knife in front and Beatríz behind. Beatríz held tightly to Elli’s hand, resisting the urge to grip her own knife, fearful to lose it.

After perhaps two hours of uneventful treading on a slow trek downward, hunger and thirst began to vie for control of their minds, leaking a rising despair into their hearts.

We have to rest, Beatríz, Elli said almost matter-of-factly before stopping.

No. I don’t want to stop, Elli. Let’s keep going—I’ll lead.

Their positions switched, and with Beatríz now holding her knife with one hand while gripping Elli’s hand with the other, the two girls searched more carefully with their feet while grazing the wall lightly with their arms and shoulders as they stepped.

Beatríz had been in the lead for just a short while when she stopped and remarked that she heard a faint scratching sound in the distance. They continued on apprehensively, but with resolve. As the slight noise like that of someone digging became gradually louder, the tunnel leading away from the Queen’s bier was turning just as gradually from stone to earth. Beatríz whispered that it smelled like the passageway they had taken beneath the Forest of Giant Trees. (Not so very long ago one of them would have said to the other, But that’s not possible, and the other would have voiced something in the affirmative, but not any longer.)

Soon they walked into a cold draft and past a narrow passageway on their left. Increasingly the tunnel assumed the verisimilitude of the one through which Thorn had taken them, and they wondered if somehow they had stumbled back into it—and whether they were also now stumbling upon another Mortejos.