The Magical Key

Martie Florence

The third one hesitated to fight and apprehensively stopped blocking the way, the following trolls crowded behind him jamming and pressing forward, but the wooden ladder cracked under their weight and crashed down, the squealing assailants splashed the board up with cascades of drops.

The sails flapped and caught the wind, the yacht began to move away from the wharf. Three or four hurled lances stuck into the deck planks, doing no actual harm, and the monsters bellowed in powerless malice on the embankment.

"Oh, yes, I do like such adventures!" holding the steering-wheel at the stern, the Dwarf exclaimed with a broad smile, confidently leading the ship to the middle of the majestic river scintillating in the late afternoon sunshine.

"Look, this is Iven!" Lynette exclaimed, "let's pick him up!"

Iven waved his hand, standing on a small boat being rowed simultaneously by two other Elves in silvery-green cloaks with hoods. Andreas lowered a rope-ladder when the wide blades of the short oars made equable sweeps and delivered the boat to the very board.

"Do you need an assistant, captain?" having climbed up the rope-ladder easily, smiling Iven stepped onto the deck.

"Dwarf Jim, at your service!" the captain answered cheerfully, "it would be nice to see an Elf in my crew!"

"Our queen sent me to join you," Iven told them. "A troll detachment is pursuing you overland. Maybe, you have something very important for them."

"Any news about the town people?" Lynette asked him.

"An hour ago a whole flotilla sailed away unimpeded," the Elf looked at her, "apparently, the monsters are hunting for nobody but you."

"In the forest they attacked me but let my father and my brothers run away," Lynette pronounced thoughtfully and began to examine the contents of her pockets, pulling out the bunch of keys, the pink kerchief, the comb, another pouch of money, "what can I possibly have?"

"I'll take you to the queen, she can help us to find it out," Iven comforted her and went to the stern, Jim light-heartedly let him hold the steering-wheel.

The declining day flooded the sky above hills with the golden sunlight reflecting in the limpid waters, and the yacht seemed to continue sailing ahead along a liquid amber.

Iven veered into a channel separated from the main river-bed with a long willow-grown island and directed the ship towards a wooden pier where a dozen of Elves had already been waiting for them. Andreas helped Jim to pull rigging ropes, and the sails got folded. Iven threw the mooring hank, the Elves caught it and tied the yacht to a firm pillar.

"Good evening!" one Elf greeted them on their coming down a broad plank they had put across the narrow gap between the board and the pier flooring, "queen Veronica is inviting you for a dinner. I'll show you the way."

He led Lynette, Andreas, Jim and Iven deep into the forest. No path, just a smooth carpet of grass. The last ray of the setting sun faded away, the blue twilight began to shade the thicket, but a small yellow-orange lantern flared up in the hand of their guide seemingly all by itself. Other similar lights flashed between trees, they went in that direction and came out into a not very wide opening. Hanging on branches, garlands of lanterns turned the glade into a mysterious hall. In the middle of it they saw a table laden with food, silver goblets and dishes on a white cloth.

"Welcome!" a pretty woman in a long green dress calmly offered to take chairs. She had a very young but intelligent face, a lily was plaited into her long light-brown hair. Kindness and heartiness in her grey lambent eyes.

"Thank you, your highness!" Jim answered before sitting down, "it's a great honour for us!"

They took silver forks, tasted the dishes amply flavoured with fruit salad and immediately expressed a good appetite. Two Elves, acting as servants, smiled at that mute but sincere appreciation of the cooking and poured some drink from porcelain jugs into the goblets.

"I heard about your troubles, Lynette," queen Veronica pronounced in a while.

"We were going to the dimension of Dryads to make some purchases at their market," Lynette remained calm, as though the placid harmony of the evening subtle charm had assuaged her recollections of the recent events, "but the monsters attacked us on our way to the eastern castle portal."

"I suppose, they want the key your grandmother once gave you," Veronica explained.

"What for? Isn't it just a fine trinket?!" Lynette wondered taking the bunch out, separated the biggest key and put it onto the table so that all of them could view it, "I don't even know whether it matches any lock!"

"It matches the El Dorado portal," Veronica took a goblet in her hand, "somebody has to visit that world periodically and inspect whether it is all right. Your granny was one of such emissaries."

"El Dorado!" Iven exclaimed admiringly with his usual liveliness, "the splendid fabulous land, the marvellous dimension where Elves originated from!.. Trolls must never desecrate and spoil it!"

"Can you hide the key from them, your highness?" Lynette asked staring at the engraved ornamentation of the long haft in a daze.

"Trolls will not leave us alone, the energy of this piece of metal attracts them like a beacon," the queen shook her head, "the only way out is to find El Dorado and keep the key there, beyond their reach, till they are defeated here."

"Then, I will deliver it there," Lynette pronounced quietly but resolutely and united the bunch into a single whole again, "though, my granny never told me the way."

"Maybe, she believed it would be better for you to find the way of your own," Veronica lightly shrugged, "who can ever comprehend his destiny?.."