Into the Faerie Lands
By J. R Bennett
Chapter XIII
Making Things Done
~*~
“You lot
are amazing,” Bloom said confidently, in the hospital room. “We wouldn’t have won
if it wasn’t for you lot.”
It had been
several days since the Pedigree had brought
everyone back to the island. They were delivered to Bathill where Bloom
arranged for everyone to be taken to a nearby hospital to be looked over. Ed
was rushed off to surgery for the gash on his face while Zach was easily
bandaged. Zach seemed to have no problems with being fussed over by the nurses,
especially when he found himself attracted to one of the younger lady nurses who
needed to draw blood for a sample. Now, the party sat in a private room waiting
to be updated on Ed’s condition. Bug-a-Boo had vanished again and was nowhere
to be seen, leaving Sir Guthrie Bloom to entertain them.
“When you
are all better, I think you should stay with my wife and me at our apartments
in the city,” Bloom insisted. "Her Majesty would like to have an audience
with you as thanks for your efforts.”
Zach let
out a snort, he had no time for monarchs and the like.
“Both Her
Majesty and the Lord Chancellor agree that you have all earned an Order of the
Deltic Empire,” Bloom went on, “for services in the protection of the Empire.”
There came
a knock at the door and a nurse entered the room.
“Mr.
Worsley is ready to accept visitors,” the nurse said, curtly.
Bloom
stepped forward.
“He asked
specifically for you lot,” the nurse added, gesturing toward Zach, Alice and
Travis.
The nurse
led the trio down the whitewashed hall to a corridor, and then up a flight of
stairs to another corridor and another whitewashed hall. The nurse stopped at a
door and entered alone; after a few seconds her head appeared from a crack. “He
is ready for you now,” was the announcement.
Everyone
found Ed in a hospital bed looking haggard. Half his face was covered in a white
bandage with a pad of cotton on his left eye.
“Well,”
announced Zach, “we’ll have to call you Cotton-Eye Joe from now on.”
Ed didn’t
seem to crack a smile.
“This is
all my fault,” Ed croaked, looking evermore in pain from his wounds.
“I don’t
know what you’re talking about,” Zach replied. “No one died…Well, besides
Manoo, those who fought outside—”
Zach was
cut off by a powerful elbow to the stomach by Alice.
“Ed,”
Travis said, “you’ve done nothing wrong. You warned everyone when something was
wrong and we all saved the day. If anything you made us heroes…or a couple of
Mary Sues. I don’t think I could stand being called Mary…”
Ed let out
a weak smile. “Thanks,” Ed replied, and then lifted his left hand to gesture
toward his bandaged eye. “They had to remove it.”
There was a
brief silence, no one wanted to say any more for that moment, they were just
glad they were alive after that ordeal.
Just then a
plume of smoke from a chimney outside found its way into the room via an open
window. From the smoke appeared Bug-a-Boo, looking glad to see everyone and
carrying a large silk bag. “Good day,” Bug-a-Boo cried, with a fluent bow. “I’m
happy to see you all well.”
Zach sent a
glare.
“I
apologize for disappearing right after arriving in Bathill, but I had to make a
visit to some interested parties about this matter,” the wizard explained.
“Kina knows
we’re here,” Alice protested, dryly.
“Not Kina. A
certain man with a jolly demeanour who has been assisting me with a request I
made shortly after you three were brought here.”
Zach rolled
his eyes. “You expect me to buy that Santa Claus has some interest in all
this.”
“I expect
you to buy anything,” Bug-a-Boo fired back at Zach. “You’ve been though
probably the most cliché of hero’s journey’s and have seen magic performed
before your eyes. Goodness knows how many miracles Jesus did before the
Israelites and look at how many still didn’t believe him. Whether to believe or
not is none of my concern. You are a grown man who is perfectly capable of
coming to his own conclusions.”
Ed laughed,
but stopped when he felt the side of his face flare up in pain.
“Ah! Ed, my
boy!” the wizard announced. “I come with a gift from the Master Smith of the
North. When he heard about your eye he made you this.”
Bug-a-Boo
produced from the bag a black box and lifted the lid to reveal an ivory eyeball
with a sapphire iris and an ebony pupil.
“Now,” Bug-a-Boo
went on, “I’ve placed a charm on it so you’ll be able to use it like a normal
eye. We tried to find a stone that would match your eye colour, but sapphire
was the closest. It shouldn’t be too noticeable once it’s inserted.”
“Thank you,”
Ed replied.
“Now, as
for you three,” Bug-a-Boo continued, “I don’t normally do this, but once Ed
wanted you all to visit I set to work fashioning these for you.”
The old
wizard handed Zach, Travis and Alice each a black box. Inside each of them was
a small press bell, just like the one Ed used the first night he appeared.
“These
bells,” Bug-a-Boo explained, “will allow you to travel between worlds, or call
on me when needed.”
“I thought
giving a person the power to cross worlds was a dangerous thing,” Travis
pointed out.
“I felt it
was a worthy duty for Ed to provide his closest friends the right,” The old
wizard explained. “Plus, you all proved yourselves very worth of the right.”
“You’re a
regular Deus ex Machina, Bugs,” Zach
put in.
“I wouldn’t
use that,” Bug-a-Boo replied, trying not to blush. “Now, whenever you to are
ready to go, all you need to do is press the button on the bells and you will
be bought back home. I recommend waiting a few minutes after you leave your
world for this one, that way no one will be the wiser to the matter.”
“And what
about my nicks and scrapes?” Zach queried. “People are going to wonder about
stuff like that.”
“Ah! My
little Zacchaeus, if you are as smart as Ed claims you should be able to come
up with something. I don’t expect any of you keep secrets, though I do hope you
will take a moment of sober thought before doing so.”
With those
last words, Bug-a-Boo gave a curt bow, walked to the window, and jumped into
the smoke still billowing from the neighbouring building.
“I guess
this is goodbye,” Ed said at last, with a forlorn look.
“Not
really,” Travis said, assuring him. “We will always come back.”
“It’s fine,”
Ed went on. “I’ve been hung up on leaving you guys, but now I can see that you
three are always going to be there at the end of line when needed.”
It was a
very teary goodbye. Ed hugged every single person despite the pain he was in,
and thanked Zach, Alice and Travis for coming with him into the Fairy Lands. Once
everyone had said their goodbyes, the trio pressed their bells and disappeared
from the hospital room, leaving Ed alone. Ed wasn’t sad though. Far from it.
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