They started heading back to the village about an hour or so before it got dark. On the way back they didn’t speak much, but walked mostly in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. And there was much to think about, at least as far as Sam was concerned.
Upon reaching the house, she told the boys that she would go around to check the traps were ok, just so she could spend some time with her own thoughts. The lasers also had to be switched on, like she did every night before they went to bed.
Anything crossing into the protected grid would immediately be detected and set off the alarm in her laptop, thus warning them of any possible intrusion. The problem with this particular system was that any animal could set off the alarm, as it had already done so, twice, and they would still need a visual confirmation to decide if they were being attacked or just visited by a four-legged wanderer. This is why Sam had had to raise the lasers higher from the ground, so that they could only be set off by a human or a bear. They didn’t have to worry much about the latter, as bears never really came this close to the village. If only that could be said of the men that were after them.
Nathaniel had a nagging feeling about this whole deal. It was one thing to play a stupid prank on the fish-boy, but why did they have to steal the arrows? What did Butler want them for, anyway? He looked at Azariel sitting calm on his branch and could not ignore the alarm bells ringing inside his head. His friend had deliberately kept him in the dark about what he intended to do.
‘Tell me again why we are meeting Butler in the dead of night? And what’s the deal with the arrows?’
The other wingman kept stroking his goatee and replied without even moving his eyes to look at his friend.
‘Relax. I told you to wait until he gets here. Then you’ll know everything.’
He gave a kick to the branch just below his feet and the whole tree shook lightly, causing the weakest leaves to detach and fall to the ground. A squirrel jumped scared from the tree next to theirs and kept on going. They had been waiting for a good while for the White Lord’s servant and he was losing patience quickly.
It wasn’t long when they finally heard the sound of hooves approaching at the edge of the woods, followed by the hoot of an owl. It was the signal they were waiting for. Azariel responded twice with the same sound. Soon their sharp and trained eyes spotted a lone horse trotting in their direction. It would reach them within minutes. They got ready.
Out of the darkness of the forest, underneath their hanging feet, the hooded figure of a rider appeared and stopped. Steven Butler removed his hood, lifted his little brown eyes up and spoke without getting off his steed.
‘Have you decided then?’
Nathaniel was clearly out of the loop here; he had no idea what was going on. Azariel responded without giving him a chance to find out.
‘You’re late. Do you think we’ve got nothing better to do than hang on trees in the middle of the night?’
Butler felt like yelling at the pretentious young wingman. Apart from his lord master, he allowed no one else to talk to him in that manner. He was the White Lord’s number one man, after all, and that had to count for something. But he remembered that he needed these two, at least for the moment.
‘My apologies,’ he replied instead, slyly. ‘My lord required my presence until late. I came as soon as I could. Have you made a decision? Will you do this little service for my lord? He personally asked me to assure you once again that he will honor his part of agreement.’
Nathaniel could no longer master his curiosity.
‘What agreement, Azariel? What is he talking about?’
‘Keep quiet, Nathaniel; I told you I will explain everything,’ the taller wingman snapped at his best friend. He then turned again to Butler.
‘Tell your master that we’ll do it. The three of us will be hanging by the sea after sundown. Oh, and I also have that item you asked us to procure.’
He handed down the two arrows he had grabbed from Daniel’s quiver. Butler reached up awkwardly with his right hand and took them, examining them carefully.
‘Is this what I think it is?’ He asked with a hint of excitement in his voice.
‘They belong to the Visitor; I think that is his initial right there. We saw the Sea-Queen give the set to him as a present.’
It was quite dark, but Nathaniel could swear he saw Butler’s eyes light up. He did not like what was going on one bit, but he would not say anything else at the moment. This man had always troubled him. He was unlike anyone else in the kingdom, always alone and mysterious, never with a smile on his face.
‘You have done very well, my friend, very well indeed. My lord Master will be most pleased about this. I am sure he will reward you extra for it.’
‘As long as he keeps his word,’ Azariel responded, pretending not to really care. Deep inside however, Nathaniel knew that he was feeling quite smug right now.
‘Alright then; when it is time, all you have to do is tell your little story. You think you can do that?’
‘We can and we will,’ Azariel answered for the both of them. Nathaniel started to protest again, but Azariel stopped him before he could say anything. Butler looked at the other wingman for the first time since he got there. His face looked serene, yet there was something dark and menacing behind those small brown eyes. Nathaniel couldn’t help but pull back instinctively.
‘Are you sure?’ Butler asked, making it a point to speak slowly and clearly.
Azariel answered with the same cockiness as before.
‘It’s all under control. Tell your master to start working on his part.’
Butler took his eyes off Nathaniel and forced himself to smile, or at least pretend to.
‘Will do,’ he said. ‘Farewell.’
The wingmen watched him leave and dared not speak until they were sure he was really gone.
‘In the Great Lord’s name, what is going on Azariel?’ Nathaniel finally burst. ‘What is this deal you just agreed with the White Lord for us? What do we have to do?’
The taller wingman obsessed with his goatee sat quiet for a moment. He was now staring at Nathaniel straight in the eye, as he tried desperately to understand what it was he was involved in. After taking his own sweet time in deciding the best way to start explaining, Azariel began.
‘You know that my father is one of the oldest living wingmen in the history of Endërland, right?’
‘Yes, and?’ Nathaniel asked.
‘And that he has been the queen’s right hand since the beginning of time?’
Nathaniel nodded with his head, waiting for his friend to make a point.
‘He is the strongest and wisest of all our kind and his counsel has always been heard. Why then, when time came for the clan of the Northern Mountains to have a new chieftain, my father was passed over in favor of an imbecile, a charlatan who is not worthy to even kiss my father’s feet? He is the second most powerful wingman in the whole kingdom; that position was his. He should be chieftain of the northern tribe; he should actually be king.’
Without realizing it, Azariel was yelling louder and angrier than he had meant to. He saw that on the gobsmacked face of Nathaniel, who clearly hadn’t expected this.
‘What have you done, Azariel? What kind of deal did you make with the White Lord?’
Azariel looked at his friend intently, trying to determine if telling him everything was the right course at this point. Nathaniel had always been soft of heart. They had grown up together, being best friends since ever. They would do anything with and for each other. He had always gone along with Azariel’s little plans and games and never betrayed him, but he had also rebuked him often for going too far, according to him. Would he stand by him this time, or go against him?
Azariel decided he would take the risk and see. And if his friend wasn’t on his side, well, then he’d just have to deal with him.
‘The White Lord has confided in me about certain plans he has for the kingdom. And he has promised me that if I pledge my allegiance
to him and help him with a few little details, he will make sure that my father gets the position he deserves. And I will be forever in his good graces.’
‘What details? What do you have to do?’
‘Oh, nothing big; first we have to arrange that our northern cousin gets shot by a mermaid’s arrow, and then we just have to tell them what happened that day by the sea and to whom we think the arrows belong. That’s all.’
‘That’s all?’ Nathaniel yelled, now jumping down from the tree. ‘Have you lost your mind Azariel? Are you gonna let them kill Ghordi and start a war, all so your father can have a throne he probably doesn’t even want? What is wrong with you?’
Azariel seemed to be getting angry at the reaction of his friend; he clearly did not think things through properly. He shifted on the branch, so that he was now right on top of his friend and looking down on him.
‘First off, I do not like the tone you’re using with me. I am your superior in every way, Nathaniel; don’t you ever forget that. Second, nobody is going to kill Ghordi; they are just going to wound him slightly, enough to call for an investigation over it. And third, war is coming and you better believe it. It’s going to happen whether or not you and I are involved, and trust me when I say this, when it all starts to come down, I would prefer to be on the side of the White Lord. You do not want him as your enemy.’
He paused for a moment and decided to change tactics.
‘You are my best friend, Nathaniel. We have done everything together ever since we were younglings. I want you on my side; I want you and your family safe.’
The mentioning of his family caught Nathaniel off guard.
‘You don’t need me,’ he replied confused. ‘I may not be able to change your mind about this, but I don’t have to join you. Do I? I mean; if you really have to do this, is it necessary to drag me along with you?’
‘The testimony of two witnesses will seal the deal; that’s why I need you. But even if I didn’t, I would still want my best friend by my side. I wouldn’t want to do this or anything else without you. We stick together, remember? Brothers.’
Nathaniel’s doubts were written all over his face.
‘I don’t like this one bit, Azariel; I don’t like it at all. I don’t want Ghordi to get hurt and I certainly do not want a war. I like things the way they are. I’m sorry about your father; you know I love and respect him more than I do my own, but none of this feels right.’
‘You have my word, brother; no harm will come to Ghordi. Whatever wound the arrow causes, we’ll use Summer Water to heal it, and he’ll be good as new in no time. And once before the Lords, we don’t even have to lie or anything; just tell them what we know. I promise you, we will not have to do anything else.’
Nathaniel still didn’t look convinced. Azariel was losing his patience by now, and decided he had only one last card to play. He now got down from the tree and stood before his friend, still towering over him.
‘Well, I guess you need some time to think about this, so you do that. Just know this, Nathaniel, if you betray me here, you will still go before the Lords and they will hear about every single thing we have ever done. Oh yes, they will hear about how we kidnapped the fish-boy and tied him up on the tree to die; how we dropped him from the sky into the sea just for the heck of it; how we did lots of other things that were your idea, just because you’ve always hated the fish maids. I have a long list of misdeeds that are waiting to be confessed, my friend. I have been struggling for so long with my conscience, because I want these ugly crimes to stop, but I love my brother too much and dare not betray him. You go against me, Nathaniel, you don’t just lose your best friend; you and your family lose everything. So, if I were you, I would be where I belong tomorrow, by my best friend’s side.’
Azariel ended his threatening little speech, and feeling happy with himself for cornering his friend, he jumped up in the air with a powerful swoosh of his wings and flew away towards Sky-City.
Nathaniel was left tongue-tied on his own. His whole life he had looked up to his best friend, had respected and loved him for being strong and fair. It seemed now he had known him very little indeed. No one in the right mind would choose this mad path that led to sure war and death, and no friend or brother would treat people the way he just did. What was he to do?
What choice did he have? If he did not go along with Azariel’s plan, would that even matter? Just the arrow and his testimony would be enough to convince anyone. So even if he stayed aside, he wouldn’t prevent anything. On the other hand, if he spoke to someone about this, would they believe him? And would that not set off Azariel's anger?
Whichever way he rationalized it, the only choice he had was to go along with the plan, and pray that the outcome would not be what they hoped. For one, the arrow did not belong to the mermaids and they could not be blamed for anything. Of course, the Visitor was innocent, but that would at least prevent a war between the mermaids and the wingmen. But then, why was Butler so happy with the arrows?
Nathaniel thought long and hard about everything, but could not make up his mind. In the end he decided to fly home as well and leave the decisions for the new day. Maybe he would see things better in the daylight.
For a place where time did not really exist, days in Endërland seemed to be going by like minutes, or that’s how Daniel felt. He had by now managed to somehow get used to his new double life. He woke up in his own world, did his daily chores in and around the little house in Sotira, had his usual activities with Sam and Freddie throughout the day, until time came for him to go back to bed and fall asleep, only to awake again in Endërland. There his day began anew.
Diane insisted that he should not waste his time, but do something valuable with it. So, while in Sotira, Sam took it upon herself to teach him everything she knew about self-defense. It only made sense that he should learn to defend himself, seeing that there were people dead set on getting their hands on him. Of course, the added benefit to that was that Daniel and Sam would spend more time together, but Sam kept that little fact to herself. So they spent hours every day, training in the martial art techniques that Sam had studied over the past year, even though Daniel thought that was hardly necessary. He also helped her build the escape raft and test-drive it to see if it would work as they intended it. It wasn’t perfect, but it did the job.
Freddie for his part spent time teaching both of them everything he knew about the history of Visitors. There was surprisingly a lot more to learn than they had expected.
Daniel was tempted every now and then to call his father just to let him know that he was alright, but he knew he couldn’t risk exposing himself to his kidnappers; they were surely watching David. It pained him to keep his dad away like this, but this was best for both of them. At least he was still okay and whoever was after him, had left him alone so far. Freddie kept in touch with the Order of the Guardians, and they in turn kept a watchful eye on David.
While in Endërland, Diane also made sure he was learning everything he needed to know about the history of the kingdom and familiarize himself with its people and their customs. There were few historical documents and manuscripts in the only library available in the whole kingdom, which was conveniently located in the castle.
Unlike the library where he used to work, this one wasn’t very big and did not contain any books. It mostly consisted of a section on the top floor, where they stored The Endërland Chronicles, an official publication of the kingdom throughout its history. Daniel spent hours in there every day, reading everything that had been recorded through the years, mainly by the first king of Endër, his great grandfather, Ari, and then his mother.
At first he felt confused, as he had expected to see dates on the documents that were more like bulletins. Instead of being dated, which was obviously not possible, since time in Endërland was not measured in months or years, they were numbered, starting from one and ending with 4769, the last one. There was no indication as to how often the bulletins were
written, nor was there a visible pattern, anything that could help Daniel understand when the very first one was written, and in turn how old Endërland was. It could have been a season ago or a hundred thousand as far as the records were concerned.
As for their content, Daniel would need years to sift through them all, but from what he gathered, they mainly recorded the most important things that had ever happened in Endërland, which for a kingdom without wars and conflict wasn’t much. Soon he got tired of reading about who married whom and who begot who, or all the different celebrations and feasts that were described in unnecessary detail. There was nothing in there about the beginning, about how the kingdom and everything else in it was created by the Great Lord. It seemed that the bulletins had begun to be recorded after Endërland had become the place they now knew and loved.
Still, there was much there to read and study. Daniel learned more about the four Lords, about the mer-people and the sky-people. There was a lot of information to be absorbed and many names to be remembered, but the best thing about it all, Daniel thought, was that even though these were old writings, the information in there remained true and relevant to this day. That was of course largely due to the fact that all the people who had been there in the beginning, were still there today and not much had changed.
When he wasn’t reading in the library or spending time with his mother, Daniel would help out with the preparations for the celebrations that were now almost finished. He and Nemo spent a lot of time with the girls in the castle, sewing up costumes, gathering flowers and making large bouquets out of them, or preparing colorful banners. They also built a kite together, painting it blue and green, and drawing the symbols of the two kingdoms of land and sea on it. It wasn’t the best looking kite, but they were both very excited about it.
Everything was now ready and most of the people had already begun their journey towards Arba. Almost the entire population of Endërland got together to take part in the celebrations. The citizens of Endër and most of the villages surrounding it had already started their journey towards the city of the Lords. It would take them almost an entire day to get there on foot, and about half a day riding. Daniel and Nemo would accompany the queen in her carriage, as she set out early morning last of all her people.
When the special day finally arrived, Daniel woke up and got out of his room, noticing that it wasn’t as bright as usual that morning. There was also a strange noise coming from everywhere around him, and that’s when he looked up and saw the sky completely covered by multitudes of wingmen flying in perfect formation towards Arba. There were thousands of them, organized in quadrants of hundreds. They wore their festive clothes and flew majestically above them, almost invisible in their white-and-blues. The sky thundered with the sound of their enormous wings beating the air, and their songs of celebrations. It was such a remarkable sight, and no matter how much Daniel tried to prepare himself, he could not help but gasp in awe of everything new this place presented him with.