Chapter 18
Blinkem found the greenhouse empty. Had Alice wandered?
He made his way from the expansive lawn that held the crystal structure through the stone paths that circled the outside of the manor, leading into dense wooded gardens.
Beyond rows of perfectly hedged trees, shadows revealed a stumbling figure.
King Evoldo sauntered with an inebriated flair towards a marble and stone structure, which could have been a gardener’s shed.
The vestibule boasted stained glass windows of roses.
Blinkem crept low behind the camellia hedging and watched, shielded by a sculpture of a noble king on a horse.
Peering from below the horse’s raised hoof, Blinkem figured he’d be virtually invisible, since he was almost as white as the marble.
A lantern or torch of some kind was lit from inside the structure, and King Evoldo’s figure was visible through the circular window of the illuminated family crest. Evoldo turned to the window, and Blinkem ducked, for it seemed the King was staring directly at him.
Maybe he wasn’t as invisible as he’d thought?
Blinkem held his breath, but, after a moment, the light went out.
Cautiously, Blinkem crept over the grass to the side of the structure, and, ducking below the circular window, he listened.
Nothing could be heard from inside the building, no feet shuffling, no drunken stumbling.
Only quiet. Blinkem pressed his fingertips to the soil.
The ground vibrated. Yes, Evoldo had gone below.
Blinkem entered the stone building, which was not a gardener’s shed but a tomb.
A monument to the founding King and Queen of Ev stood in the center, bathed in shadows and moonlight cast by three surrounding windows.
Tombs were rare in Oz Territory, but for royalty from centuries ago were not uncommon, though the whereabouts of the former king’s and queen’s bodies in this tomb was unknown to Blinkem.
He was sure the marble sarcophagus in the center of the building did not house a body, for a light shone from within the stone receptacle.
Blinkem knelt and began to feel around the chiseled relief panel at the end of the sarcophagus.
He traced rosettes with his fingers and felt the edges for anything that might open the box.
He ran his fingers along the floor and felt a divot in the stonework.
Standing, he looked at the floor beneath him and found a scarcely visible carving of the “O” with the “Z” through its center, with the top third of the O and Z hidden beneath the sarcophagus.
“It’s a track,” Blinkem whispered. With both hands, he pulled the raised framed border of the panel.
Sure enough, the panel began to roll. Blinkem, now able to slide his fingers behind the panel, swung it open along the “O” depression in the floor.
A stone stairwell led below ground, with a faint light that flickered from around a sharp corner.
Blinkem made his way into the hidden stairwell and peered around the corner from where the light came.
A tunnel of stone sloped into darkness, and a torch—likely lit by Evoldo—was secured to an iron wall holder.
Beyond the torchlight, it was black as pitch.
Blinkem hurried past the lit torch into darkness.
His eyes adjusting, he saw another stairwell at the end of the corridor.
Quietly he crept toward it, looking down into the opening to see the spindled flight.
After a moment listening—he heard only silence—Blinkem descended the turning steps.
A rank stench like rotted meat wafted. Toward the stairwell’s end another flickering light shone.
Moving toward it, Blinkem found himself stepping into a large circular room.
Around its edges, piles of broken stone and marble lay at the entrances of tunnels carved into the walls.
The room was once the catacombs of the royal family of Ev.
Blinkem did not know this by any monuments in the room, for the stone chambers were unrecognizable as piles of rubble.
He knew from the stack of bones, with wads of mummified royal fabric clinging to them, tossed carelessly about the center of the room.
The wall which once had held the entire lineage of Rosemarie’s royal family was now a tunnel.
A tunnel that led where? The mines? Rosemarie would never have allowed it.
The light in the room began to grow as a light from within the tunnel began to gleam.
Blinkem turned to creep back out of the tomb.
There was a gargling bark, followed by scurrying.
Blinkem took off running, and multiple sets of feet and the distinct clicking and scratching of nails on stone began to echo behind him.
Blinkem ran as quickly as he could, grabbing the corridor torch on his way and throwing it to slow whoever approached.
From the corner of his eye, behind the flame that whipped through the air, he saw short erratic figures in pursuit.
They were stocky bulbous creatures shouting with harsh voices.
Even in his quick glance, the protruding brow and widespread short, sharp-tooth jagged smile of a gnome were unmistakable.
Blinkem fled from the entrance of the marble building and dashed across the yard.
Quickly, the gargled shouting came from all around him.
Gnomes pursued him on all sides like watch dogs that had been lying in wait.
He had heard of the gnomes but hadn’t believed they could be real.
Now he had only one chance of escape. He would have to shift.
At the mere thought of shifting, his clothes lay in a pile on the ground, and the crushing pain arrived the way it always did—and then, in a dash, his white body was propelled by legs that would carry him five times the speed of any gnome or man.
In moments, he was safely beneath the surrounding hedge gate as gnomes scurried and snarled, sniffing the air.
Blinkem remained still, his mind pounding. Was Evoldo in league with the gnomes? Or had he been injured? Did Rosemarie know of the destruction that came to her family’s tomb?
Blinkem hoped desperately that he and Alice could make it out of Ev and find Tattypoo before it was too late. For there was one thing he knew for sure: The land of Ev had returned to the corruption that had killed Rosemarie’s parents. No one was safe here.