The Adventures of the Magnificent Seven
by
David Roth
Ebook copyright ©2011
Published by Edin Road Press at Smashwords
All rights reserved.
This book is also available in print through all online retailers.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Other books available by David Roth
Legends of Greenbrook Park
Sometimes I Hear Voices
Alice’s Goldfinch
Available through all online booksellers.
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Dedicated to
The real Magnificent Seven, great kids all.
In loving Memory of Henry the Cat
(1992—April 5, 2008)
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to my wife and editor, Linda, for keeping me on track, giving me hints and ideas along the way, and for always encouraging me in these little ventures.
Special thanks to Miss Ann’s students, who want to hear more about The Magnificent Seven, and to Kathryn and Gabby who read it and approved.
Thanks to Jake for saying “Why don’t you write about those kids you’re always talking about?”
Special thanks to Author and Artist of many disciplines, Lorrieann Russell for the way cool cover art. You rock, girlfriend!
Super special thanks to author Jesse V Coffey for giving the finished manuscript a critical look-see.
*Page 43 Excerpt from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.
Shaken, Not Stirred (chapter 6) is a shameless parody of Sir Ian Fleming’s classic spy story, Goldfinger.
Mystery on the Overland Express (chapter 8) is a shameless parody of Dame Agatha Christie’s timeless classic, Murder on the Orient Express.
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Their names are Lisanne, Josël, Kristof, Anton, Sabas, Dak, and Alyse, but they’re far better known by their traveling name, The Magnificent Seven. Best friends for life, if you find one of them, odds are you’ll find the other six. Children of far reaching and vivid imaginations, their creative fantasies have taken them to such places as outer space, the Orient Express, white water rafting, the circus, and others. What always starts as an adventure in the real world quickly becomes an adventure of the imagination for them, with a puzzle to solve before reality sets back in.
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Table of Contents
Chapter One…Rescue at Snakeback Falls
Chapter Two…Miss Erin is Missing
Chapter Three…Wet Water Wild
Chapter Four…Space, the Final Frontier
Chapter Five…Time and Time Again
Chapter Six…Shaken, Not Stirred
Chapter Seven…Towers in the Mist
Chapter Eight…Mystery on the Overland Express
Chapter Nine…Chestnuts and Tightropes
Chapter Ten…Tricks or Treats
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Chapter 1
Rescue at Snakeback Falls
Part 1
They called themselves The Magnificent Seven. They’d known each other forever and where you found one, it was most likely you would find the others, whether in mischief or high adventure. To see one was to see the bunch of them.
Lisanne was the eldest, although not their leader. That task fell to her brother Josël, who was followed in order by Kristof, his cousin Anton, the brothers Sabas and Dak, and finally Anton’s sister Alyse. Though not to each other across the board, they were all related after a fashion, and were closer than any family they’d ever met. They had to be. Their survival depended upon it.
Leadership of their group fell by default to Josël because he was the biggest. It was as simple as that. He was the biggest, and until one of the other males got big enough to challenge him, his rank in the group was not likely to change. Lisanne, on the other hand, was the wisest. Where Josël excelled in size and feats of strength, Lisanne had the gift of subtlety of the mind. She was quick to grasp concepts, knowledgeable of almost everything around her, and could size up new situations accurately in the blink of an eye. Had she been born a man, she would surely have been the leader. It was to his credit that Josël seldom made a decision without conferring with his older, wiser sister.
Lisanne had been educated in the finest schools available to her family. Tall and slender, with flaxen hair and sea green eyes, Lisanne carried a natural beauty that suited her under any circumstance. She was fortunate to have been born into a culture where learning the things and ways of the world were not forbidden to women. She was gifted with a keen mind and a nearly flawless memory.
Josël was tall and slender, like his sister, wore the same flaxen mane, but had eyes tending more to gray-blue, like polished steel. He’d had a warrior’s training. His gift was his skill with bow and sword, and his uncanny knack of knowing the right way to turn, the best path to take. Between them alone, they were formidable.
But they were not alone. They were The Magnificent Seven, and there were five more to that seven.
Kristof was the loner among the group. He had been an only child and raised by his mother. Swarthy and moody in appearance, he learned to make his way in life—alone if necessary. While he found occasional comfort in this band of brothers, he was at heart a loner. He was also very good with his hands. He could fix practically anything with almost nothing.
Kristof’s cousin, Anton, was the scrounger and, because of this, worked well with his older cousin. When something needed fixing and Kristof, in that rare moment, could not make do with what he had on hand, Anton seemed always to be able to find it for him. A handsome man, he stood out in any crowd.
Sabas and Dak were brothers, close enough in age that people often mistook them for twins. Blue eyed blonds, the brothers were full of mischief. If there was trouble to be found, Sabas was usually the one to find it. Precocious even as a child, it seemed he could invent trouble where none existed. He was the group’s prankster, but he was their singer as well. He had the making of a true Bard, the first in centuries. Dak was the quiet one. He said little, but when he spoke, his words reverberated with deep understanding and insight. He was the dreamer, the inspirer.
Alyse was still just a child. It was not yet known what her gift would be, other than to say that she had the same gleam in her eyes that her brother had and the birthmark on her forehead. It was shaped like a star, and they all considered it a good omen. Alyse was their good luck charm, and the other six guarded her like she was made of gold.
Though coming from four different villages, they’d known each other from childhood; from an innocent time that predated Alyse’s birth. They met the first time when the villages all came together for the Gathering, their people’s annual festival, and had been inseparable since. Year after year, they’d travel from their own villages with their families to meet at Gathering or Festival. After a while, when they were old enough to be about on their own, they stopped using the Gathering as an excuse and met when it took their fancy. They were inseparable, although at this time they were simply seven young people who enjoyed each other’s company.
* * *
They were two days’ travel distant when the raiders came to the Gathering. It had been their practice to celebrate the Day of Birthing of each of their group at one time. The time and place of the celebration changed each year so that every seven years each of them hosted the small festivity on the date of his or her own Day of Birthing, and in his or her own village. For only the second time in their lives, the Day of Birthing celebration came during the Gathering. The first time this had happened, they were much younger, so it really wasn’t much of an issue. This year they’d agreed to celebrate early so they wouldn’t miss Gathering. It fell this year on Dak’s Day of Birthing, and he was excited and proud of being the host of their birthing festival.
The raiders arrived under the cover of darkness during the First Meal celebration. Three tall ships slid silently into the quiet cove where the village hosting the Gathering was located. They dropped anchor two hundred yards from the beach and slipped into the warm protected waters. Silent as dewfall, they swam to the dark beach and made their way into the village.
It was the smoke rising from the horizon that alerted the seven that something was amiss. There was always smoke at Gathering, but nothing of this magnitude. Kristof was the first to see it. He held up his hand to stop their horseback procession. The other six riders soon stood in a line on either side of his mount, gazing in silence at the distant columns of smoldering soot.
“What do you think it is?” Alyse asked.
“I don’t know,“ her brother Anton answered. “There’s always smoke from the cooking fires, and a beacon fire that’s left alit day and night, but this seems much.”
“Are you certain it’s coming from Gathering?” Dak asked.
Josël spoke first. “From this distance there’s no way to tell for certain. We’re still half a day’s ride away.”
“Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?” his sister asked.
“Well,” Sabas offered, “The horses are still pretty fresh….”
“I’m not,” complained Kristof. “I got a bad feeling about this.”
“You’ve got a bad feeling about everything, Kris. Poor boy. Would you like me to carry you?” Alyse teased her older cousin.
Kristof glared silently back at Alyse.
“Knock it off, you two,” Josël said, glancing in his sister’s direction as if some unspoken conversation were taking place between the two. Her nod back in his direction was imperceptible even if you were looking for it.
“It’s settled then,” Josël answered. “We ride.”
The way down into the valley that led to the cove where Gathering was being held was treacherous. Josël knew several ways to get to their destination, but everyone agreed that time was of the essence. It looked like there was trouble, although none of them could quite explain why. They were used to taking a leisurely pace; riding side by side when the road was wide enough so they could talk, tell stories, or if the mood was right, even sing. Not this time. The path Josël had selected was only wide enough for one horse but even then, they took it at breakneck speed. At the start of the descent, the slightest miscalculation could result in a thousand foot fall to jagged rocks below.
At last the trail leveled out and they all pulled up next to each other to catch their breath, give the horses a break and water them, and get water for themselves. From here Josël knew they could follow the stream all the way to the cove. That would be the path of least resistance but it was not the most direct way. It was certainly not the shortest. They rode in silence for about half a mile with Dak in the lead, when Josël called out to him.
“Dak, hold. Let me catch up with you.”
Josël dug his heels into his horse’s side and snapped his reins to speed the animal along. He drew alongside Dak, who was taking a long drink from his water bag. Dak passed the bag over to Josël, who took a long swallow and handed the bag back.
“Why have we stopped?” the younger rider asked.
“The road forks just ahead. If you’re not watching for it, you’ll miss it.”
“Does it matter? The river trail will take us to the cove.”
“The other fork will cut an hour from our journey.”
“We’ve been on the highway for two days. What’s another hour more or less?”
“I don’t know, but you heard Kristof. He says he has a bad feeling.”
“Great. Another of his bad feelings. I swear by all that’s holy, if Kristof didn’t have bad feelings about things, he wouldn’t have any feelings!”
“Have you ever known one of them to be wrong?”
“Annoying, isn’t it?”
They both laughed and were still laughing when the others caught up with them. Josël explained his idea that they take the less traveled trail; that it would save them time. He was surprised when no one but Kristof argued the plan.
“I don’t know,” the sullen one said, “I got….”
All of them joined in with him. “…a bad feeling about this.”
Lisanne spoke. “Is it still bad no matter which trail we take?”
“Well, yeah, I guess.”
“Then what difference does it make? Besides, an hour shorter means an hour less of your grumbling, and an hour closer to a hot bath and good food.”
“What’s wrong with my food?”
“Nothing, Sabas,” Lisanne answered. “But even you can’t compete with the food at Gathering. Come on now. Let’s get moving. I’m tired, I’m sticky and I’m hungry. Josël, you know this path. Why don’t you take the lead?”
* * *
It was twilight when Josël first broke out of the heavily forested trail into the clearing that marked the edge of the village where Gathering was being held. The heat of the day had begun to fade, but it was still light enough to see.
Alyse rode up next to Josël and stared in silence as the rest of the party rode out from the cover of the trees. One by one, they lined up on either side of their leader and stared at the place that had been their destination for nearly three days. Alyse asked the questions that were on everyone else’s minds.
“Are you certain we’re in the right place, Josël? I don’t see anything but smoldering ashes. This looks more like an abandoned campsite than a gathering. Where are the people? Where are the buildings? Anteer is our largest village! WHERE IS EVERYONE?”
“Be quiet, Alyse. Let me think.”
Josël swung his right leg over the horse’s head and slid to the ground. He took the horse’s reins and began to walk around the open ground from black patch to black patch, not saying a word. After a few moments, the others followed suit. It took just under an hour for them to cover the entire village area and come to the same conclusion. Other than burnt spots of wildly varying sizes - some of the larger of which were still smoldering - there was nothing left of either the village or the people from sixteen other villages who had come for Gathering. Even the small harbor that rested within the cove was empty. There was nothing left, neither man, dwelling, nor animal. Even the carrion eaters you might expect if there had been a raid of some sort were conspicuous by their absence.
Josël squatted down in the sand on the balls of his feet and drew an arrow from his quiver. He began to make lines in the sand, the way he always did when he was trying to think through some difficult problem. It generally didn’t help, and this was no different. The others stood around watching their leader trying to work out what he thought might have happened.
They were all mesmerized by the desolation and mystery of it all when Sabas came running up from across the camp, out of breath.
“Jos! You’ve gotta come look at what I discovered on the other side of the camp. I think I may have found a clue there!”
The Seven ran as one to the place Sabas found moments earlier. There was a small circle of large stones, each about the size of a man. This was the place where messages were left during Gathering. It enabled the various families who had gone to other villages to meet up and catch up on family matters and old times.
There at the base of the tallest stone was a scrolled parchment. It was tied with a silken ribbon, and sealed with a dollop of blood-red sealing wax. The imprint in the wax was too faint to make out in the fading light.
Josël slowly removed the ribbon, careful to not damage the wax seal in case that might prove important later. Kristof brought him several small stones which he placed on the top two corners of the scroll as he opened it, to see what message it might contain. Before he could even ask, Anton appeared out of the darkness with a torch.
“Thought you might need this,” he said, holding the light close to the surface of the scroll, letting out a stifled gasp as he did.
“This can’t be right,” Anton said. “It’s blank. Why in the world would anyone go to all this trouble to leave a blank scroll here for someone to find?”
Dak, who had been quiet for most of the hour or so during which they’d been walking through the village, held up his hand. “Wait,” he said. “I don’t think it’s really blank. You see those light discolorations scattered around the paper? There’s something there. Kris, what do you think?”
Kristof came over to get a closer look, taking the torch from Anton. “Dak’s right. There is something there. I’ve seen this before, and if I’m right, this doesn’t bode well for our friends and family.
“Sabas. Dak. Hold the scroll up in the air. Anton, take the torch around to the back of the scroll and get it as close to the paper as you can without burning it. I need to stay on this side.”
The brothers and Anton did as they were told. They’d learned that once Kristof’s mind started clicking, the best thing to do was either do what he suggested or just stay out of the way.
Slowly as he watched, letters began to appear onto the surface of the parchment in front of where the torch was held.
“Stop,” he called back to the boys. “Don’t get any closer. You’ll burn the scroll if you do. We have to be very careful from here on. There’s writing here, all right. It’s in lemon juice. It’s invisible until heat is applied and you usually only get one chance to read it because it’s very unstable.
“Lisanne, I can’t make any of this out, so it’s not in our language. Can you translate it?”
Lisanne began to read the scroll while Anton moved the torch behind the parchment.
“It’s in Drajoon, the Pirate’s language. No wonder you didn’t understand it. It says:
If you’ve gotten this far, my congratulations. That means you must be the so-called Magnificent Seven. Let’s see. My guess is that Sabas was off on his own and he discovered it, and Kristof figured out how to read it, but of course, he couldn’t. Dim little twit, isn’t he? Lisanne is the only one bright enough, so it’s most likely that she’s the one reading this.
That’s good. I want to make certain you get it all. Mistakes on anyone’s parts could be costly. Very costly, indeed.
I have your people. All 215 of them, as well as the animals and other valuables they brought with them to your Gathering. What a quaint little practice.
You, on the other hand, have something of mine, and I want it back. I propose an even exchange. You bring me my property, I release your people. It’s that simple.
There is a map at the bottom of the scroll that will give you directions to find us. I’m not willing to take chances, so I’ll help you simpletons out. You’ll find us at…
Their concentration was broken by the high pitched screaming sound coming from the side of Sabas’s sword belt.
“Aw, man,” Josël said in frustration as he threw the roll of picnic table paper he’d been helping to hold down. “We said we’d leave the cells turned off. Way to go, dork – nice job ruining the adventure.”
“Pipe down, dweeb. It’s my Mom. Yeah. Hi, Mom. Yes, ma’am. Uh-huh. Yes, but…. Aw, c’mon, Mom, we’re almost…. Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am, I’m not arguing with you. Yes, ma’am. About twenty minutes. Yeah. You too. G’bye.
“That was my Mom. She says I gotta leave now. Something about my Grandpa coming over. C’mon, Dak, get your bike. We gotta go. Same time tomorrow, guys?”
“Yeah,” Lisanne said, “I guess so. We’re not doing anything else. And besides—we got a village to rescue.”
The seven of them stood in a circle, each extending their right hands into the middle of it, palms down. Alyse was on the bottom and Lisanne on the top, in order by age. They pumped up and down lightly three times and shouted:
“SEVEN!”
They then mounted up on their trusty bikes and rode home. The adventure would continue the next day for the Magnificent Seven, right where it left off.
As Lisanne said, they had a village to rescue.
Part 2
Lisanne set the scroll back down on the ground in front of the rock. “It’s signed ‘T’rang, Captain, Black Gold.’ I’d say we have a problem on our hands.”
Josël was the first to speak. “So, you take this T’rang guy seriously, Li?”
“I should think so, Josël! This pirate has been raiding our coasts for years. Nothing on that scroll in any way contradicts his reputation….”
“…And there is the small matter of the missing village and villagers,” Dak added. “I think that’s a fairly significant clue that things are not as they should be. Unless we’re way off on our timing, which we never are, and this isn’t the time of Gathering, which it most certainly is, yeah, I’d say we take this seriously.”
Nothing else needed to be said. They’d been through this sort of thing before, and each of them knew how they had to proceed.
Dak was pretty much responsible to make sure the animals were ready to travel. That meant brushing them down, assuring that they were fed, watered, and well-rested. Bags for anything that they would need to carry with them had to be assembled, laid out and carefully packed so they would be balanced; and some thinking about things that might go wrong went into that part. In the event of some kind of emergency – any kind of emergency—they would need quick access to whatever the situation required. You couldn’t plan for every contingency, but Dak prided himself on the fact that so far he hadn’t been stumped when trouble arose.
Sabas worked on getting food and water ready. Normally this meant drawing from supplies they had on hand, or from those present in the village or in this case, Gathering. That the disrupted Gathering and missing village were the problem made it a bit more difficult for him. Not impossible, but more difficult. Fortunately they were well-provisioned from their ride to the Gathering, so all he really had to do was fill water bags. He worked side by side with his brother, getting the packs ready to load up on the horses when it was time to depart.
Josël and Lisanne spent most of their preparation going over the map at the bottom of the scroll while the image was still visible from the heat of the torch. Anton came up with the idea of using charcoal from the many cold fires left in the area to trace the image so it would be visible. It was then brushed in a coat of boiled tree sap and grape leaf, which made a nice shellac that set the ash and gave the image some permanence.
Josël looked up from the scroll and called over to Sabas: “Sabas – sing something for us while we work to make the time pass faster.” The others agreed, loudly urging him on. This was one of the many things that was part of the ritual when the Seven were about set out on an adventure. Sabas thought about it a minute, and then began to softly sing in a pure, clear tenor voice:
Come whiskey
Come women,
Come hardship or pain
Be steady
The Seven
Is riding again!
To Battle
The Evil
To seek for the good,
To glory
Press forward
As ever they should.
The other six joined him at this part of the familiar song:
We press to the battle
We seek for the mark,
We join the adventure,
To fly as the lark
Magnificent Seven
We answer the call
Nor danger delay us
We enter the brawl.
Sabas’ solo voice continued with a new verse, as he always did, this one for the present situation:
We came here
Together
The Gathering met,
But soon they
Were taken
To answer a debt,
The village
In ashes
The people are gone
Magnificent
Seven, we
Ride with the dawn!
We press to the battle
We seek for the mark,
We join the adventure,
To fly as the lark
Magnificent Seven
We answer the call
Nor danger delay us
We enter the brawl.
Once the song was over, there wasn’t much Alyse could do, so she simply made herself available to whomever needed her. Only Kristof didn’t seem to have much to occupy his time, except to pace back and forth around the scroll and map, and brood.
“I don’t like it!” he finally said out loud. “I got a really bad feeling about this.”
“Okay, Kris. Calm down.” Josël said, looking up from the now dried image of the island on the scroll they’d found. “What don’t you like? I mean, this’ll be a snap. We have a map, we have a decent bit of planning finished, we have plenty of supplies, and we have two days. What’s not to like? This should be easy.”
“That’s just the point, Jos. It’s too easy! There are too many clues here!”
“What do you mean, Kris?”
By this time the rest of the group had come to stand in a loose sort of circle around the three elder members of their band and listened in on the debate.
“Okay. First, where in the world is this island supposed to be? Li, is there any island matching that description within two days’ worth of any kind of travel in any direction from here that you know of? Search that catalogue of charts you have stored in that great brain of yours, Li. Is there?”
Lisanne’s face went blank for a few moments while she did exactly what Kristof asked of her. It was a little eerie to see if you didn’t know her and didn’t know what she was doing. She just went completely blank for a few moments while she focused all of her concentration on the item she was looking for. After about ten seconds the light in her eyes came back on.
“This is strange,” she answered. “Kris is right. There isn’t an island like that anywhere near here, and certainly not within two day’s journey, whether horse, boat, or anything else I can think of.”
Kristof continued.
“The whole two day’s thing is another problem I have. First, how could this pirate guy possibly know we’d find the scroll within two days of when he left it here, and more importantly, how could he know that we’d be the ones to find it? None of this makes sense. Finally, what is it that we’re supposed to have that’s so valuable the guy would kidnap an entire Gathering and burn a village for? What could possibly be worth that much?”
“I hate to admit it, cousin, but you’re making sense,” Anton said after Kristof finished.
“Let’s start with the ‘why’ and go backwards from there,” Lisanne said. “Anyone have any ideas?”
They kicked around several possibilities without much help. All they were able to determine was that it had to be something valuable and possibly personal. That was when Alyse spoke up. “Would it have to be big?”
“Why do you ask, Aly?” Lisanne asked. “What are you thinking of?”
“Well, Anton found this medallion sort of thingy a few months back that he’s been very excited, but very secretive about. He didn’t really even show me. I just heard about it from one of my girlfriends.”
All six of the other members of the Magnificent Seven turned very slowly to look at Anton, who was turning bright crimson.
“What do you have, Anton?” Josël asked. “Show us.”
The young man reached into his travel pack and pulled out a leather oilskin and began to unwrap it. When he finally had it open, he laid the skin and its contents on the stone table next to the scroll Lisanne and Josël had been studying.
It was more than a simple medallion.
It was large, the width of an outstretched hand across, and appeared to be made out of solid gold. On one side was the image of a three mast ship. The medallion was half a finger in thickness, and there were runes around the entire outer edge of the thing. Most startling of all was the image on the other side. It was the same image as the one that had been pressed into the wax seal on the scroll they’d been studying for the last several hours.
“Let me see that a moment,” Lisanne said. She took the medallion and a piece of the charcoal they used to trace the map. She rubbed the charcoal around the entire edge of the disc, and then slowly rolled it on edge across the parchment under the map. The charcoal rubbings left a trail of symbols on the scroll.
“Those are pirate runes,” Lisanne said, “and they’re very old. They’re so ancient I can’t read them. No help there, but I can at least begin to see why he might want this back. Where did you say you found this, Anton?”
“Up the coast about a day and a half ride. In the sand below the waterfall at Snakeback Falls.”
“Where?” Alyse asked.
“Snakeback Falls. You know – that waterfall that was formed during the big quake a couple hundred years ago. The one that broke the lake into two pieces, with that waterfall connecting them. It’s the one with those—”
“Those two stone pillars on either side of where the waterfall starts,” Lisanne suddenly cried out. “By the Ancients, if you take that map and stretch the middle part of the island, where the sand passes through the hourglass, you could be looking at Snakeback Falls!”
“Of course!” Dak shouted. “There’s supposed to be a whole labyrinth of caves there, behind the falls, that the quake uncovered when it sheared the mountain off, making the falls and dropping the short end of the lake! The lower lake empties into a deep channel river that runs half a mile to the sea. You could easily sail or row a three mast’er up there. That’s got to be where he’s hiding them!”
Only Kristof refused to share their enthusiasm about the discoveries. “I still don’t like it. Okay, it wasn’t as easy as it seemed, but there’s a lot of deception in this scroll. We’re going to be riding into a trap.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” Dak said after a few minutes of looking at the scroll. “This T’rang guy won’t be expecting us. He doesn’t know we know where he’s really holed up. Plus, I’d wager he’ll be expecting us to come by sea and up river. If we leave first thing in the morning and go by trail instead, we’ll be there by midnight. He’ll never expect it.”
Josël looked around his small band of friends. “It won’t be easy, my friends, but the element of surprise is on our side. I say we give it a go. Are you in?” He held out his hand and one at a time the members of the Magnificent Seven placed theirs on the pile, in order from oldest to youngest, pumped lightly three times and shouted in unison, “SEVEN!”
“It’s settled then. The Magnificent Seven rides at dawn. Until then.”
‘Um, hey, Josël, can we make it a little closer to noon? I got soccer practice at 9:00….”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Part 3
By midday’s heat they had ridden hard and long, pausing only to rest the animals. Now it was time for a longer break, if for no other reason than they were getting hungry. Little had been said on the ride northward; little was necessary. They were of one mind in their resolve to find this pirate and rescue the people of their village. Revenge for destroying the village was a secondary consideration, but it was on their minds. First and foremost, however, was making their way to Snakeback Falls without discovery. Whatever plan they had in mind went unspoken.
To say that they’d met before dawn as planned was an overstatement. They’d all slept in a circle on the sand near the stone circle, a tiny campfire burning at the center more for the reassurance of their commitment than for either heat or light. They each knew the necessity of rest before setting out, but none of them with the exception of Dak, really slept deeply. He could almost sleep riding his horse. Nothing stood between him and his slumber.
They’d supped the night before on venison taken in a short hunt in the woods they’d ridden through to the village earlier in the day. To this they added a stew of broth with wild tubers and forest herbs and apples that grew in the village. Josël believed that much of the next day’s success would depend on how well they’d eaten before setting off. There was no guarantee of a good hot meal once the journey began. Breakfast was jerked venison dried over smoke fires in a make-to hutch they’d assembled the night before. What they didn’t eat, they packed for the journey.
They called it midday but, by the clock, it was more like the place between noon meal and supper. It was the hottest part of the day and the oppressive heat was showing on both the team and the animals. Josël had been in the lead. He kept Anton by his side since the younger man had made the trip some time previously and might see things Josël might have missed. Josël reigned up and drew the group to a halt.
“Stay back here, I’m
going to scout ahead just a little bit. Besides, we’re due for a
break.”
He swung his leg over the horse’s head and slid to the
ground. He then withdrew his sword and set out silently down the
trail. About twenty minutes later he returned.
“There’s a turnoff just up the trail, perhaps 500 paces. It gets dense, but then opens to a nice clearing suitable for our needs. From what Anton has told me, we’re ahead of schedule, so we’ll take advantage of the time we’ve saved; rest, feed and water the animals, and give ourselves a break as well. After we’ve had our fill, we’ll talk about the plan. It’s better we walk the rest of the way.”
No one questioned their leader. They each in turn nodded in assent as he looked at them, then they started off down the trail on foot, leading their mounts.
They settled into the well-secluded clearing and loosed the horses to allow them to graze, drink, and rest unencumbered. Each knew that a sharp whistle from them would recall their mounts.
They ate a cold meal of more of the previous night’s smoked jerky, fruit, and cold stew, washed down with the last of the current wine they’d brought with them from the Day of Birthing celebration, and some cool water from a steam they’d discovered not far from the clearing. The horses found it first, and were more than willing to share. Bellies full, the Seven gathered in a circle to talk about what they’d do when they arrived at the falls. This was Josël’s specialty. He was the strategist among them, but he was a confident enough leader to listen to any concerns, objections, or alternate ideas that any of the group might offer. He squatted in the dirt at the edge of the clearing, withdrew an arrow shaft from his quiver, and silently began to etch a rough map into the dirt. After several quiet moments, he spoke.
“I’ve never been to Snakeback Falls, nor has Lisanne. Apart from Anton, have any of you?” They all shook their heads in the negative. “I thought not. However, Anton’s description meets well with what Lisanne remembers from maps of the area.
“It looks like there are several ways into the lower lake below the falls, which is the most likely place to find our quarry. I’m ruling out that approach because I think it’s the most likely location for them to have placed lookouts. I would expect them at the place where the channel from the ocean runs up into the lagoon as well and possibly at the oceanfront. That rules out using any of those approaches and expecting any degree of stealth. The way I see it, we’ll need to enter their camp from the far side of the falls.”
“That’s impossible,” Kristof said. “Just how are we supposed to get past their guards? There are only two ways of doing what you suggest. One is to ride to the beach and cross in the shallows where the channel empties into the sea, and the other is to ride around the upper lake. One puts us out in the open where their outlooks see us, and the other adds an extra day to our route.”
The rest of the group were agreeing with Kristof’s assessment when Alyse spoke up. “There is another way, you guys. We could swim the upper lake.”
“That’s crazy, Aly,” Sabas answered. “Just how do you suggest we get seven people with loaded horses across a lake that large and that deep without being observed? There must be another way.”
“No,” interrupted Lisanne. “I think I see where Aly is headed with this. First, we don’t need to take the horses or supplies with us. All we need is what we can carry. Second, we will be under the cover of darkness, so we won’t have to cross very far from the falls. In fact, the falls themselves will be the only problem, as far as I can tell. I think we need to figure out how to make a safe crossing there.”
“Okay,” Dak asked, “let’s assume we can do that part. What’s the plan after that? How do we know this pirate guy will make good his promise?”
“We don’t,” Josël answered, “so we allow that he will, but plan that he won’t. Here’s what I have in mind….”
Josël outlined his plan for them. It was bold and a little foolhardy, but they all agreed it had at least an even chance for success. They finished their planning, whistled for their horses, reloaded them and mounted up for the second part of their plan. They had an eight hour ride ahead of them before they reached the shoreline above the falls where they would put their plan into action.
Crossing above the falls would be the most difficult part of the plan. Once that was accomplished, the rest should go fairly easily. Well, as easily as it can go when you are a band of seven against two hundred seasoned pirates. But, they had the element of surprise on their hands and they figured that would be enough to cinch the deal.
They rode in silence once again as they made their way to what would either be a stunning rescue, or a slaughter of themselves and their families.
* * *
It was almost the stroke of midnight when Josël signaled them to stop and dismount. The sound of the waterfall just beyond the tree line helped cover any noise they might have made, but they were carefully silent none-the-less. Once everyone had dismounted and the horses relieved of their burdens, Josël again called them into a circle to discuss the plan.
“I don’t want any grumbling about this, so don’t even bother. Alyse, I want you to remain here with the horses. If we’ve not returned for you by dawn, return to your village and let them know what’s happened here. It’s critical that if we fail, our people know what to do.”
Alyse began to protest, but Josël just held his hand up and shook his head no.
“I believe this is the safest place to make a crossing. They won’t expect anyone to try crossing the lake so close to the waterfall. Because of that, I also don’t think there’ll be a sentry here. We should be relatively safe as long as we’re careful.
“Once on the other side, we’ll make our way down to the caves behind the falls. That’s where I think we’ll find our people and the pirates. We need only capture their leader and free enough of our people to subdue the rest.”
“You worked out how we’re actually going to cross a waterfall yet, oh fearless and wizened one?” Kristof asked.
Josël smiled. “Actually, I was sort of hoping you’d figure something out. Go take a look and report back on your idea.”
Kristof was gone for fifteen minutes. When he returned, he motioned the group together to tell them his idea.
“First, we need to
fashion a sort of catapult from some of the pine trees near the upper
bank. They’ll have to be two or three young ones close together so
they can work together. Young ones so they won’t snap under the
strain.
“The distance across the falls is about 100 yards. I’m
thinking we fashion a grapple from some oak forks I saw on the way to
the falls. We tie our rope to it; catapult it over the falls to the
other side. Dak is the lightest, so he’ll have to be the one to
test it, unless you want me to just toss you over with the rope
instead?”
“I’ll pass, thanks.”
“Once on the other side, you make certain that end is secure, and the rest of us shimmy our way across. We want to stay out of the water – the current from the falls is too strong, and would pull us off the rope. Once over there, we signal Alyse and she loosens the rope from her side. The rope, which we may need to have in place to get back, simply drops below line of sight from below.
“Piece of cake.”
“Good work, Kris. All right, everyone....”
Suddenly the light in overhead lights in the finished basement in the home where Sabas and Dak lived came to life.
“Are you kids still down there? Oh, hello, children. Anton, your father is here to pick you and Alyse up to take you downtown for ice cream. You boys want to go along too? Of course that includes you and Lisanne, Josël. I’ll call your mother.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Part 4
“Good work, Kris. All right everyone, let’s build a catapult and go rescue a village.”
The Magnificent Seven stood in a tight circle and extended their arms to the center. Beginning with Alyse at the bottom, they added their hands. Dak, Sabas, Anton, Kristof, Josël and finally Lisanne’s hand at the top. Weighing the seriousness of their venture, they stood in silence for a few moments, heads bowed, staring at their tower of arms and hands. They pumped the pile ever so slightly three times, and then spoke the word that meant that the game was afoot, this time softly, recognizing the need for stealth. “SEVEN!”
Alyse took the horses one at a time and hid them in a makeshift clearing far enough from the trail to not be seen; any sounds the well trained animals may have made masked in the roar of the waterfall. She organized the supplies left behind; the ones not required to achieve the planned rescue into two groups—things needed upon completion of a successful rescue and just what she’d need should the others not return as planned. If it should be the latter, she knew all she would need to bring back was personal effects and the scroll – the proof of what they’d discovered. She would ride Josël’s mount knowing that the others would follow. She hoped it wouldn’t come to that. After setting a series of alarms in a circle fifty paces around where she’d erected a small lean-to shelter from brush and branch clippings, she settled in for what she figured would be a troubled sleep. The morning would come soon enough regardless of the outcome – she might just as well be rested.
Her sleep was interrupted when the night lit up in flashes of blinding lightning and the roar of thunder.
“All the better,” she thought as she fell back into a deep slumber. “This’ll help cover their approach.”
* * *
It had taken time to find the right configuration of oaken branches to build a proper grapple, and a little longer to select three good, limber trees. Not wanting to risk a mistake that might get them captured—or worse—Kristof tested the first shot out into the open water of the upper lake, well away from the falls. He’d set marks on their rope to determine how far the catapult was flinging the grapple and this helped fine-tune just how far to pull the saplings before releasing them. An additional test-throw to gauge for wind and they were ready.
One rope was coiled on the ground at the front of the catapult while another, shorter piece was attached to the top where the three saplings were tied together. The longer rope had the grapple attached to it. The grapple was set into a crook Kristof made in the treetops by tying a series of short branches together to both separate the tops of the tender trees and create a flinging basket that would easily release the grapple at the right moment in the backlash swing.
It took all six of them to pull the trees back almost perpendicular to the ground to get enough flexion in the release to fling the grapple far enough. Kristof spent several moments adjusting where they all stood so the release would be straight and easy. They were aiming for a spot in a large tree about thirty feet above and twenty to thirty feet beyond the base of the far ‘horn’ on the other side of the falls. That was the place Kristof felt the grapple would have the best chance to catch and hold Dak’s weight while he shimmied his way across the falls to secure it there for the remaining five rescuers.
“One. Two. Three. NOW!” Dak yelled into the fury of the waterfall. As one, they released their hold on their side of the rope. The swish and crack of the saplings as they snapped back into place with a fury was hidden in the roar of the falls, and in the first crack of thunder as an offshore squall rolled into the cove. This would be both good and bad. If there were only lightning, they risked being visible as they crossed the falls on their rope bridge. If the usual downpour came as well, their passage would be even more difficult to follow than it would have been in the darkness alone. The storm, though brief, did not disappoint.
They secured the rope at their side of the falls and young Dak began his deadly traverse of the span of rope above Snakeback Falls.
It was about ten minutes later, visibility obscured by the darkness and the still raging squall, that Josël felt the three oscillations in the otherwise steady thrum of the rope that indicated that Dak was safely on the other side. One by one the intrepid adventurers made the way across the dangerous waters. Lisanne lead, followed by Sabas, Anton, and Josël. Kristof made his case that he needed to go last so he could watch the rope and make sure his creative knot-tying held. It almost worked.
Just as Kristof was about to reach the branches on the distant side of the falls where the grapple was secured, the rope loosed itself from its anchorage in the saplings. Hanging on for his life, Kristof swung, Tarzan-like toward the trees and almost certain injury. Sabas had heard the snap and twang of the rope as it released and shouted to Josël to turn and look. Just in time Josël, Sabas and Anton reached out to catch their clever friend as he swung past them.
“Easy release, huh?” Anton jibed his older cousin.
“Just like I planned it,” he answered.
Kristof signaled Alyse to pull the rope back to the escape position. He then pulled a second rope from his pack, which they used to rappel down the face of the sheer wall of rock on that side of the falls. Once again, Kristof left the rope in place for them to use if they needed it for a quick escape.
Twenty minutes later, they found themselves in the brush at the base of the falls, watching for some sign of life or indication that there were caves behind the falls as the legends and rumors had indicated. There were two of the three tall ships anchored in the harbor, just as Josël expected. He believed that the third ship would be anchored offshore in the ocean at the end of the deep water channel that led away from the cove. Several tense minutes of watching indicated that something was happening behind the falls.
Lisanne was the first to see it. At random intervals, there seemed to be a faint glow of light moving across the wall of water. Dull, as if the light of a single torch carried by a single sentry.
Josël was about to pull everyone together to formulate the final plan of attack when there was a noise in the trees behind them. Anton stepped forward, shoving a small captive in front of him. His prisoner’s head was covered with a sack, and the prisoner was dripping wet and covered with mud.
“Look what I found sneaking around on the trail behind us,” he said as he pulled the sack from his prisoner’s head.
“Aly!” Josël said in surprise. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be back watching the horses!”
Voice trembling, the youngest member of the Magnificent Seven stood her ground. “What, and let you guys get all the glory? No way!”
They were all stifling a laugh when Dak reminded them, “Hey – she is our good luck charm, after all. This could be a good thing.”
It was hard for Josël to be mad at Alyse, knowing what she went through to catch up with them; so he just smiled at her and said “Okay, Aly, okay. Work your magic then. Bring us good luck.”
They all gathered around the young woman, barely into her teens, and hugged her. Lisanne drew a cape from her pack and draped it around Alyse’s shoulders to warm her as Josël laid out the final part of the plan.
They would work their way along the face of the rock behind the massive waterfall, along the relatively clean ledge they’d discovered. One by one, they’d enter the main cave. Once there, Lisanne would lead all but Josël and Sabas to find the missing villagers and release them from their shackles. Josël and Sabas would find and confront T’rang.
They’d release the men of the villages first so they could steal their way to the ships and commandeer them, making them ready for the rest of the villagers to make their escape southward to the cove of the Gathering. T’rang, they would leave for his men to find, ridiculed and embarrassed, and warned to never gain bother their people.
They’d all just stepped through the entrance when a blinding light lit up the inside of the cave. A large man stepped out of the shadows. Hands on his hips, he took several excruciatingly long moments to size up the group of rescuers before speaking.
“Josël, what in the world are you kids doing out here at 3:00 in the morning? And why is the garden hose turned on and pouring over the top of the garden shed?”
Sabas and Dak’s grandfather looked around the yard with his bright flashlight. He saw where the bicycles had been lashed together in a circle, and where someone laid their picnic table on its side next to their cookout pit. There was a rope dangling down from the tree next to the garden shed with a small folding deck chair tied to the end. The hose, as he’d already noted, was hanging over the top of the garden shed and the nozzle set to wide spray. Just inside the open shed were a wild assortment of stuffed animals and action figures. That was when he put it all together.
“Oh. I see. The Magnificent Seven rides again eh?
“C’mon. Let’s pick this mess up. Jos, your mom would have a fit if she saw this stuff scattered all around the yard. I have no idea how you’re going to explain the puddles by the garden shed. You kids better hope it rains tonight.”
Almost on cue, thunder rumbled in the distance.
The Magnificent Seven, having accomplished their mission, stood in their circle while the old gentleman watched. Eyes twinkling with the memories of his own childhood, he smiled as the children went through their usual ritual. “SEVEN” they said in unison.
“Okay, guys,” Josël said, smiling as he did. “Let’s clean up this mess before the rain hits, and get some sleep.”
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Chapter 2
Miss Erin is Missing
Part 1
If they ever gave an award for the Kool-Aid Mom of the Year, it would no doubt go year after year to Erin, Lisanne and Josël’s Mother. If there was ever a party in the neighborhood, it was a spot on probability that it would be in their rear garden, and that ‘Miss Erin’ would be in the middle of things passing around the cold drinks, candy, chips or whatever. Nor was she beneath getting down with the children, dressing up, putting on the funny make-up or twirling around in circles with a blindfold. All the children loved their mothers, naturally, but if you took a poll, Miss Erin was the hands down favorite.
Because of this, it was only natural that they had all assembled there to celebrate their stunning Rescue at Snakeback Falls adventure. It had been their most spectacular adventure yet, and everyone was reveling in the telling and retelling of the story. Lisanne had even gone so far as to suggest that someday, when they were older perhaps, it would make for a great book. To this end, she informed them, she was writing it all down in a journal on her Mac.
After a while, it became fairly obvious that the revelry was not going to end simply because it was getting close to dusk, so a decision was made by Miss Erin to have the whole lot of them remain for a supper cookout and then spend the night. This suggestion was, of course, met with great approval on everyone’s part. Josël set up the grill and the fire pit that allowed them to have a campfire in the back yard while Alyse and Lisanne went inside to help Miss Erin prepare the feast. Kristof helped Josël, and Dak, Sabas and Anton helped set up the yard umbrella, picnic table and chairs.
When the coals were just right and the meat cooked to Miss Erin’s satisfaction, the eight of them dined on a sumptuous feast of hamburgers, grilled potato halves with sour crème and chives, salad, and a fruit salad. For dessert, Miss Erin provided all the fixings for them to make s’mores over the now gently burning iron fire pit. As darkness slowly came to the garden, they all helped with the clean-up process and found their way indoors for more storytelling and an evening of games. One by one, as the night progressed, the group of children known affectionately—to themselves at least—as the Magnificent Seven slowly found their way to the basement where a make-shift dormitory had been set up for them. Boys were on one side and girls on the other. Miss Erin had hung a sheet at each section of the room to give them all some privacy should someone need to get up in the night.
Tonight before they all fell asleep, Miss Erin joined them for their favorite part of any sleep over. They would sit on the floor in a tight circle while Miss Erin read them a ghost story.
All the lights turned down, it seemed somehow fitting that a storm was brewing in the distance as Miss Erin opened the book and began reading her story:
“This is the story of Ichabod Crane and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving.