Wirl's End Chapter 4.

Chapter Four.

 

In the Royal Palace.

 

          After what seemed like hours and feeling very sick, Brian was dumped like a sack of potatoes on to the floor. James was dropped next to him. He looked very dirty and rather pale faced.

          "Stay there!" ordered the rider. He handed his reins over to one of his men and strode off into the castle.

          Brian did not feel much like moving, so he did as he was told. James obviously felt the same as he too sat on the floor, holding his head in his hands and moaning quietly.

          They did not have to wait long. The rider returned with four well-armed soldiers. Brian and James were hauled up from the floor, roughly brushed down, and then marched through the castle until they reached the throne-room.

          Brian and James were not too gently made to bow to the man sitting on the throne.

          He spoke. "Is this the pair who came from or is going to World's End?"

          "It is, sire," answered the rider. I thought you had better deal with them yourself."

          The King nodded. "What is your name, boy?" He pointed at Brian.

          Brian was a bit shocked to find himself talking to a real king.

          He stammered, "Brian Keeper, sir!"

          The rider poked him in the back and said, "Sire!"

He stammered, “Brian Keeper sir!”

The Rider poked him in the back and said “Sire!”

“Sire,” said Brian.

          "You say you come from World's End"?

          "Wirl's End, sire."

          "Are you a wizard, boy?" shouted the King.

          Brian stepped back. "No sire, I am just an ordinary boy. My mother says I have a bit of the devil in me sometimes."

          The whole court gave a gasp.

          Brian realised what he had said. "No, I mean, she says that because I do naughty things sometimes, but nothing else. I'm not a wizard or anything, just a boy. "

          Then he remembered why he had come through The Door. "And if it pleases your Majesty, "he remembered reading that in a book, "My friend Lexa came through The Door before me, and I was sent to find her."

          The King leant forward. "You came through The Door?"

          Brian nodded. "Yes, Sire. Please. Sire. I don't understand all this. I just came to find Lexa."

          The King leant back. "If you are just an ordinary boy, then you probably wouldn't know about it."  The King studied Brian for a long moment, his fingers drumming once on the arm of the throne.

“Your tale matches the Warder boy’s,” he said at last. “Two children, from two different places, both speaking of the Gate… both losing a companion in the forest.”

He leaned forward. “This is no small matter. The Gate has been sealed for generations. No one has crossed it in my lifetime, nor my father’s.”

His gaze sharpened. “And yet you stand here.”

A murmur rippled through the court. Aldan raised a hand for silence.

“I will not call you liar, Brian Keeper. But neither will I call you safe.”

He turned to one of his captains. “Fetch Master Corren. At once.”

The captain bowed and hurried from the hall.

Aldan returned his attention to Brian. “There are scraps of old knowledge in this kingdom, fragments, half‑truths, warnings. I do not pretend to understand them all. But Master Corren keeps what records remain.”

His voice dropped. “If the Gate has opened again… then the forest is shifting. And that means the Evil beings are moving.”

He sat back, troubled. “We must know whether your coming is accident… or design.” He looked round. "Where's the Royal Historian? He can explain it to you."

          An old man came forward and bowed.              

“Take this boy,” Aldan said, his voice tight. “Not to tell him anything, to hear what he knows.”

The old man bowed stiffly.

Aldan turned to James. “And you, Warder‑son, you will explain yourself again. Slowly this time. Every word.”

The old man led Brian into a small chamber lined with shelves. Most were empty. A few held cracked leather books or loose sheets of parchment.

“Sit,” he said.

Brian sat.

The old man lowered himself onto a stool opposite Brian. “Understand this, boy: nothing we know is certain. When the forest turned against us, the old records were lost. What remains are fragments ,  warnings, scraps, half‑truths.”

Brian swallowed. “About the Door?”

“About everything,” the old man said grimly. “The Gate. The forest. The Witch. And the creatures the Gate was built to keep out.”

He leaned forward. “Tell me again how you came here.”

Brian repeated his story. The old man listened without interrupting, his expression tightening at each mention of the Door.

When Brian finished, the old man exhaled slowly. “The Warder boy told a troubling tale ,  not the same as yours, but close enough to make a man uneasy. Two children, from two different places, both lost in the Dark Forest. Both with a companion who vanished without a trace. And both found near the old Gate‑path.”

He tapped the table. “Long ago, the families who tended the Gate learned one thing for certain. If someone goes from our world to the other, someone must come from that world to ours. The worlds must stay balanced.”

Brian nodded. “So I was told.”

The old man hesitated. “There was one other saying the families left behind. No one remembers what it means.”

He lowered his voice.

“All magic stops beyond the end of the world.”

Brian frowned. “What’s the end of the world?”

“If we knew that,” the old man muttered, “we’d all sleep easier.”

He rubbed his temples. “The Gate was built to keep the evil ones out ,  the things that slip through when the balance fails. The families guarded it for generations. But when the Witch’s shadow grew long, they fled. All of them. We only learned the truth a few months ago ,  that the Gate was ever guarded at all. Until then, we didn’t even know your Door existed.”

He glanced toward the throne. James was finishing his account. “That lad is the first person with his family’s name we’ve ever found. The first clue in years.”

He straightened suddenly. “Ah. The King wants you.”

Brian thanked him and hurried back across the hall.

Aldan leaned forward on the throne. “Well. At least now we know where to find the people who were meant to guard the Wall. Thanks to this young man.” He nodded at Brian.

Then his expression hardened. “I am still not certain whether you are a wizard or not. So I am sending you to the one person who will know for certain , the Witch, Calizone.”

James gasped.

Aldan raised a hand. “If your friends were anywhere near the part of the Dark Forest where you were found, then she will have seen them. Or taken them.”

He gestured to the foresters. “My men will take you to her cottage. After that, they will search for your companions. Now ,  go. Get yourselves cleaned and fed. There are hours yet before nightfall.”

Brian and James were led away, washed, given food, and before long found themselves once more riding behind a forester, heading back into the Dark Forest.