The Rainbow’s End
He was met with sudden confusion when a visceral force snatched his knife hand. This was immediately followed by a vice-like grip, surging over his back and shoulders. Try as he did to resist, Macmanus was seized and hoisted up from Marie. He saw then he was no longer alone with his victim.
Three hands held Macmanus’s own weapon arm with a fourth intensely lunging at his throat. Mac’s fingers were jammed backwards until he dropped the knife with a grievous shout. Whatever strength held him from behind whirled Macmanus about, before flinging the whole of him into the air, until he crashed into the coursing stream.
Dyllion picked up the ivory handled knife, quickly examining it as Tybain and Zendara advanced upon their water-spluttering adversary. Brage followed them, loosening his arms out after hurling the full weight of Macmanus.
Tilda assisted Theel in securing two lightly propelled motorboats to the near bank. Perion and Courinn, along with Professor Mifflin, leapt out from one of them, splashing through the water, making their way to Marie.
Tybain and Zendara grabbed Macmanus none too lightly, and with Dyllion’s help pulled him up from the water. Mac threw a wild punch, which Tybain barely dodged. Struggling to get free, all three boys tackled him. Macmanus put up a good fight, like a football running back refusing to go down. He pumped his legs against the boys’ inertia, until Brage threw himself into the fray, where they all collapsed in the foamy stream.
The four boys quickly gained advantage, getting a good hold on Macmanus and dragging him out onto the bank. While Mac flopped about, coughing up water, Theel assisted his comrades in securely tying him with some boat cord.
“Is it bad or worse?” asked Perion as the professor carefully examined Marie and her severely crippled arm. She was shaking and muttering incoherently.
“Worse,” answered the professor. “The pain must be unbearable. Courinn, she urgently needs your help.”
“She has it,” answered Courinn, glaring at how badly battered Marie appeared since they last saw her. In addition to her scabbed neck wound, the welted, black and blue bruises all over her looked horribly frightening.
In the moment the professor and Perion stepped aside, Courinn rose up in her glimmering black unicorn shape, her bright green eyes now misted with compassion for Marie. Tilda stared in childlike wonder at Courinn in her other form.
“We need a bit of water!” shouted Perion. Tilda shook herself back to reality and raced off to the boats.
“Can you hold her still?” asked Courinn in the unicorn’s deeper vocal register. Perion and Mifflin firmly grasped Marie and steadied her.
The unicorn gently grazed the tip of her golden alicorn across Marie’s sticky, perspiring forehead. Then she just barely dabbed the alicorn into the tiniest of tear droplets at the corner of Marie’s eye duct. Finally, she traced her gallant horn through a blotch of Marie’s blood, which had dripped and dried along her arm.
“All three healing elements?” said the professor with a hopeful smile. “Not taking any chances, are we?”
“Either of them separately might work,” said Perion, “but all three make for a potent recovery.”
Professor Mifflin turned to Perion, with a look of curiosity. “She’s been teaching me, sir,” answered the boy. Mifflin nodded in approval, looking back to the others.
“Where’s that water?” he called out.
Tilda found a metal cup and was clumsily filling it from the stream. Standing behind, Tybain stopped her, shaking his head. “Thanks, but we don’t have all day, sis.”
He took her cup and tossed the water in it to Theel, running up to him. Seizing the water and swirling it in his palms like a ball, Theel then amazingly flung it through the air— remaining spherical and entirely intact. Some twenty feet away, Perion stood and caught the water. Not a drop had spilt. Tilda stared at Tybain in a mixture of awe and annoyance, stepping out from the boat.
Courinn stood tall over Marie, her alicorn raised high into the sunlight beaming down upon them. From the tip of the horn, it began shimmering. She then dipped the alicorn into the water held in Perion’s palm. The unicorn slowly stirred it. Instantly, a sweet fragrance was set free. The water bubbled into a sparkling, light emerald color.
Marie was groaning as Courinn lightly touched her injured arm and traced a soft line down along her skin leading to her hand. Courinn then dipped her horn again into the remedy; from its very tip, she let three drops fall into Marie’s mouth.
Seconds later, Marie’s trembling abated; she opened her eyes. When she glanced around and saw who was near her, she let out a much-relieved sigh, then shut her eyes again and strove to speak.
“You don’t know how badly,” she weakly uttered, “I dreamed you were all looking for me. Here you are. I’m so tired.” She fell back to sleep.
“Will she be all right?” asked Perion. Courinn nodded. “Pour the rest of the ointment on her other limbs. It will renew her strength.”
After Perion did this, they covered Marie to keep her snugly warm. Then the professor stepped up to Macmanus, glaring down at the tied madman.
“Whatever part you’ve played in harming this young girl,” he said with uncharacteristic anger, “I can promise you’ll not have a chance to repeat.”
“Who are you supposed to be?” barked Macmanus. “I don’t believe this, I’m lost in the woods for years, haven’t seen a soul, then today it’s a dripdoodle circus. That girl stole my property and tried cheating—”
His mouth hung open in fear. More than fear: terror. Courinn stepped up in human form.
“No!” Macmanus cried, seeing her. He began kicking his tied legs. “Get away, get away from me!”
“So we meet again,” said Courinn. “I never expected to see you in this lifetime. I heard you were released, but it seems you’ve not learned from your mistakes.”
“You know one another?” asked Mifflin.
“She’s a demon dirgy!” screeched Mac, trying to slide himself away from Courinn. “Don’t believe her, she’ll have the gruckruckling thing at your throats!”
Everyone gazed at Courinn, who shook her head sadly, almost in sympathy. “This troubled fellow once abducted me, holding me for a ransom. From the beginning it was his undoing, as it was the night before Halloween. And he chose to hold me in a deserted house within the woods.”
“All these years,” croaked Macmanus in gasps of breath, “you’ve never aged ... at all! You’re of the devil!”
Courinn cleared her throat. “What you never understood, Deputy Macmanus—”
“— Macmanus!” said the professor. “This is Earl Macmanus?”
“— was that it was no human you kidnapped years ago,” continued Courinn, nodding in response to the professor’s question. “Haven’t you surmised that by now?”
Macmanus shook, trying to steady his breathing.
“What happened?” asked Perion.
“He threatened to kill me by sunrise, if the ransom was not met,” she explained. “I desperately pleaded with him for his own sake that if he did not let me go by midnight, he would be attacked by a powerful goblin who dwelt in the woods close by.”
“The Croakmire Goblin?” asked Brage.
“Unfortunately, yes,” said Courinn. “Who has always borne a particular interest in protecting children and a vengeful temper for those that would harm them.”
“It came at midnight, I assume?” asked the professor.
“It came!” shrieked Macmanus. “Because she told it to! Do you know what that thing did to me?”
“What I do know is, the goblin at last let you go,” stated Courinn.
“But it wouldn’t let me leave! I couldn’t get out of the woods!”
“Perhaps the goblin deemed it part of your punishment. But when you finally met someone, as you did today, did you kindly ask Marie to help you, or did you cruelly take what you wanted from her?”
“She’s a brat, a pork-helter brat! She tried to cheat—”
“—Shut up!” yelled Tybain, stuffing several leaves in Mac’s mouth. The lunatic spit them out, but when Tybain stuck a pointed finger at him with sober authority, he kept quiet.
“Well, what do we do next?” asked the professor.
“Throw this fellow into the stream again,” said Zendara. “Let him clean off a bit.”
“What about Marie?” asked Perion.
“She should rest,” said Courinn.
“Then why not make camp here?” said Brage.
“Yes,” agreed the professor. “We’re in a safe area. There’ll be no other threat to us.”
“To us, maybe,” said Courinn softly. The professor and those nearby turned to her, waiting for her to clarify. She stepped close among Mifflin, Brage and Perion.
“Macmanus was released by the goblin,” she quietly explained, “perhaps to see if he had learned some civility. After today’s events, I fear my goblin friend will return for him.”
The professor raised a brow. “Tonight?”
“At dusk, I’m afraid.”
“Will there be any danger to us?” asked Brage.
Courinn shook her head. “No. But I doubt we’d want to be near.”
“How about some hot soup?” said Theel, holding a metal bowl before Marie. Some four hours had passed and she was relaxed against a tree now, but still covered to keep warm. “Thank you,” she said, amiably taking the bowl and a spoon.
“Brage just whipped it up for you,” Theel continued. “Would you like some toasted bread and honey with that?”
“Yes, Theel, that sounds delicious,” she answered. When he raised a slice for her, she glanced at him with both her hands full. An awkward moment passed before they both laughed. Marie opened her mouth and Theel let her take a bite. “Wow, that is good!” she said, savoring it.
“I’m glad,” said Theel. “I made the honey, from an old recipe of my folk.”
“You’re the quiet one, Theel,” she said, chewing. “I haven’t gotten to talk with you too much.”
“It’s sometimes difficult getting a word out among my free-spoken friends. But they seem to always hear me when I have something important to say.”
Marie lowered her bowl and spoon. She looked closely at Theel. Of the Exiles, only he and Perion had light hair, but Theel’s was so blonde it was almost white. He also bore the most obvious physical difference, the thin scars that ran upwards from the corners of his mouth. Marie knew these marks were actually a type of gill, allowing Theel to breathe underwater as well as above it. She also knew he and his people were from the depths of the sea— the oceans of some other place and time.
“Do you remember your home?” Marie asked. At this moment, it was she that was feeling homesick and so alone.
“I do,” answered Theel sadly. “But without faith there would be little hope for our return.” He smiled. “I have seen great hope and faith in you as well. I’m certain you will soon find what your heart seeks.” Marie’s eyes brightened, touched by his sentiments, which dampened the ache in her heart.
“So you’re awake!” the professor’s voice declared merrily. Marie looked up as everyone approached, while Theel stood back. Courinn hugged her and Marie returned it tightly.
“I can’t thank you enough,” Marie said earnestly. She knew what Courinn had done.
“How do you feel?” asked Courinn.
“Like I slept a month. Much stronger.”
“And your arm?”
Marie raised and straightened it, without a hint of discomfort. She laughed in amazement. “Only a dull ache. It almost feels like new!”
Perion knelt next to her. They embraced just as tightly. “I’m so glad to see you again,” he said.
“I didn’t think I’d make it without you, Perion,” said Marie.
“Give yourself the credit,” said the professor. “I think we can all agree there’s few we’ve ever met as courageous and just plain hard shelled as you, young lady.”
“I found the magic braid you left for me!” she said excitedly to Courinn.
“Another of Perion’s wild ideas,” answered Courinn.
“It worked! It led me in the right direction, until—”
“—Until you ran into this maniac?” said Brage, motioning to Macmanus, half propped against a boulder-like rock. For the first time Marie glanced around their camp. There was a good fire burning with cooking and other gear set around it. It seemed to be a bit past mid-afternoon by the sunlight. She saw the two boats strung up by the riverbank. Then she saw Macmanus, tied, and half asleep.
“No,” she said turning away in sudden alarm. A shadow seemed to gather over her. “Not him. The trollogre.”
No one said a word. Even the professor was caught off guard. That is, until he broke the foreboding silence.
“Do not think about that now,” he said. “You are back among your friends and you still carry that which will see your quest fulfilled. Rest easy, Marie.”
Marie’s hand reached for the amulet around her neck, checking that it was still safe. Then she took her bowl of soup and spoon and began eating.
“By the way, Marie,” said the professor, “there’s someone with us you might not have noticed yet.”
From behind Zendara and Dyllion, where she could have been awkwardly hiding, Tilda Jentiss stepped out in her disarming, yet now somewhat rumpled summer dress.
Marie coughed, trying to swallow her soup. “Tilda!” she exclaimed. She then searched her friends’ faces for some answer.
“She helped us past the sheriff’s roadblocks, to reach this side of the wood,” explained Professor Mifflin. “Without her, we had little chance.”
“C’mon, we had a good chance,” whispered Dyllion to Tybain.
“Shut up!” replied Tybain brusquely, anticipating Tilda’s reaction. “This I gotta’ hear.”
“I’m sorry, Marie,” said Tilda. “Really sorry for the things I said to you and how bad I treated you and your family.” She looked down somewhat shamefully, until she strode past everyone, toward Marie.
“If you don’t really dig yourself much,” continued Tilda, after a long moment quietly between them, “then I guess it’s pretty hard to like anyone else. Around Bettyann and Trish, that’s all I felt like.”
“I understand,” said Marie. “I was no angel either.”
Tilda fought back tears. “I also lost someone, taken by that monster out there. Someone almost as special as your mother is to you. I’ll do whatever I can now to help you finish what you started.”
“Thank you, Tilda,” said Marie. “You’re brave for saying all this.”
“A lesson for us all,” said the professor. “Now Marie, how do you feel about continuing on after you’ve eaten?”
“I think so, sir.”
“Fine, then let’s share a bite and break camp. It would do us well if we could be back on the water by dusk.”
Nearly two hours later, the party had eaten, cleaned up and finished getting the last of their things packed into the two boats. The sun had dropped low and evening quickly approached. Marie was up and about, looking and feeling a good deal better. She was now extinguishing their fire, the most physically demanding chore they allowed of her.
Marie thought about seeing her mother. She turned and stared out into the trees, wondering if she was out there, somewhere. Zendara approached, noticing her interest in the woods.
“Everything all right?” he asked.
Marie turned to him. She liked Zendara. He had a gentle, easygoing way about him. He listened when she spoke. He was easy to confide in, easy to trust.
“Zen, I haven’t told this to anyone yet,” she began.
“What’s that?” he said, stepping closer.
“Twice this morning, I saw my mother in these woods.”
Zendara froze in alarm, then tried to soften his reaction.
“That means something,” said Marie. “Doesn’t it?”
“Are you certain it was your mother?”
“Zen, I know my own mother, even if I haven’t been with her in three years.”
Brage stepped up, noticing their anxious exchange. “No sad faces,” he said cheerily, “we’re moving out soon.” He then saw Marie’s fear and frustration. Brage motioned to Zendara. “What did you say to her?” Zendara shook his head.
“Brage, I saw my mother today twice in these woods,” said Marie. “Can both of you tell me what that means?” Brage blinked while taking a long, drawn breath.
A short whistle sounded. They looked back and saw Tybain motioning to Macmanus. “What are we doing with this creep?” he asked.
Brage turned to him, clearing his throat. “Put him in the boat. The professor wants us to hand him over to the sheriff.”
Tybain cocked his head, confused. “We’re gonna’ just hand him over? Along with ourselves?”
“In the boat, Ty, please,” said Brage gruffly, turning back to Marie. He did not know how to tell her.
Tybain turned away. He and Dyllion grabbed Macmanus, raising him to his feet.
“If what you’re saying is true…” said Brage slowly, not wanting to continue.
“I’m very sorry, Marie,” Zendara interjected. “Your mother is already dead.”
He reached out and lightly touched her shoulder, trying to absorb back from her the sudden emotional blow. Before Marie could fully react, a low roar began all around them, stretching into a wretched cry of rage. The last of the light vanished. Like an eruption of shadow, night plunged down upon them.
As Tybain and Dyllion held Macmanus at his feet, the madman suddenly shouted in terror. The boys tried to restrain him but were flung aside, as if by force.
Courinn’s eyes searched around her. She knew only too well what was happening.
“It’s too late,” she said softly. “He’s here.”
“No!” Macmanus cried, standing helpless in front of the same large boulder.
“Gruckruckler! Don’t let it take me again!” His wide eyes bulged, as if trying to leap out from his skull, that is, until they found Marie. “I’m sorry! Forgive me!” he pleaded in some last desperate belief that only she could pardon him from the nightmare he was about to face one more time.
An orange swirl of light burst out from the stone, tearing through the many cracks and seams suddenly appearing at its base, reaching upwards and seizing the petrified form of Macmanus. With another scream of anguish, he was helplessly lurched under and into the bolder. He disappeared, along with all the light.
Marie ran to the mass of rock, searching it with her hands. Everyone watched her, not sure how to react, until Perion gently tried to back her away.
“No Marie,” he said, “it may still be hexed.”
“There’s no danger,” assured Courinn. “He’s gone.”
Marie pulled away from Perion. “You just can’t take him away!” she yelled, glaring down into the rock. “He should be judged! By humans! Not by a goblin or the devil or anything else! I hate him, but bring him back and let him face what he has to!”
To their wonder, the same orange light began to form again, but this time from within the rock. Seconds later, Macmanus appeared, entombed in the stone, lying in repose within some mystical trance. His eyes were open, but unaware and lifeless. Marie’s face was awash in an orange hue as she gazed at him. Then the light faded until the large rock stood dark and still. No one said anything for a long time.
When at last Professor Mifflin spoke, it seemed like out of a dream. His voice, with its air of assurance and authority, quickly broke down whatever boundaries of the fantastic still lingered about them.
“Prepare the boats. Make certain there is no remaining clue we were here. Let us leave this place.”
The boats traveled slowly upstream with a minimum of sound. A dim gas lantern was kept in each, just enough so they could see one another and a scant bit of their way ahead. They spoke in quiet whispers as they went along. In the first boat were Brage, Tybain, Dyllion, Tilda and Theel. In the second were the professor, Perion, Zendara, Courinn and Marie, who was wrapped in a blanket like before. She said very little and her friends respected her wish to be left alone.
“How far is it to the wood’s border?” Courinn asked the professor.
“Once we join the river, a good four miles,” he answered. “After that, the river enters an underground passage as it bends northward. We’ll come ashore at that point, where I have long kept an in-ground bunker for the boats. From there it’s another quarter mile to the wood edge and the road.”
Within the boat ahead, everyone dolefully stared at Brage. “Zendara told her,” he said softly. “He just came out clean with it.”
“Only way to really do it,” said Tybain as he scribbled into a small notebook.
“So what does that mean for Marie now?” whispered Dyllion, not wanting to be heard in the second boat. “Is it all over? Does the professor know?”
Brage shook his head. “I don’t know. Maybe that’s what they’re deciding now.”
Dyllion peered behind. “It doesn’t look like Marie’s talking much.”
“Are you really sure about this?” said Tilda, in her usual obtrusive voice. “Her mother is dead, just because Marie thinks she saw her here?”
“Shh,” said Dyllion. “Quiet, they’ll hear.”
“Grow up,” said Tybain, with a jab to Dyllion’s shoulder. “Brage just said they’re probably discussing the same thing!”
“That’s the foretelling of this place,” said Brage to Tilda, ignoring his friends’ all too familiar chatter.
“What place?” she asked.
“This area between the streams,” he continued, “leading out from the river into Lake Gwindylo is called the Witch’s Fingers. It’s considered a safe haven from any of the wood’s evil, but is also believed to be a refuge for ghosts of the dead.”
A shiver went up Tilda’s spine. She glared into the passing woods. “Are there really ghosts here—?” She suddenly gasped aloud in fright. From the dark trees a shimmering, ethereal face with a long beard stared back at her.
“Aye, Greywindle!” Brage called out. “There you are!”
“Looks like a ghost to me,” said Tybain to Tilda with a grin. She stared, her hands half covering her eyes. “I’ll never get used to this place,” she muttered.
In the second boat, Perion and the professor also turned in warm greeting. “Our thanks once again,” said the professor. The ghostly bearded form smiled and nodded, floated along with them as they continued upon the water.
“Whoa,” said Marie, now speaking up. She glanced at Perion. “Greywindle?” she asked, confirming the ghost was real.
“Yes,” said Perion. “A very good and trusted friend of ours. He helped Courinn and I to regroup with the professor.”
“He’s often aided us through the woods’ deceptions,” said Professor Mifflin.
“I saw him twice,” said Marie. “Even after being scared out of my mind, I felt there was something good about him.” Blinking several times to observe the spectre clearly, Marie instead saw that he had disappeared.
“He doesn’t linger much in one place,” said Mifflin. “Indeed, Greywindle led us to you.”
Marie fully turned to Courinn. Her reawakened curiosity now required some answers. “How long were you looking for me?”
“Three days,” said Courinn. “We knew you had emerged from the hillock out of phase, but we couldn’t know how long. You were lucky. It could have been weeks, even months into the future. And without Greywindle, who can travel through the forest in a stream of light, the chances of finding one another any time soon were quite slim.”
Marie remained silent for a long moment. “Lucky?” she solemnly said at last. “It did seem like luck was on our side. But I’m too late. My mother is gone.”
Perion and the professor exchanged glances. “We don’t know for certain,” said Mifflin.
“There is always hope, Marie,” said Zendara. “Do not yield to despair.”
Perion then caught Courinn’s eye, who looked like she desperately wanted to say something, struggling with some thought. “What is it, Courinn?” he asked. “Are the tales of this part of the wood true?”
“Yes,” she said. “The dead walk here as ghosts. But there was— is— something more to the tale, something I can’t remember.”
This did little to comfort Marie. Her head and eyes were downcast; her shoulders slumped. “We were getting so close,” she said. “So close,” she softly repeated.
Then a wisp of light fell upon her neck, catching her globe amulet. It faded and reappeared. They all gazed ahead. The stream was heading straight for a swiftly emerging glow, which began to dance upon the water. The professor and Courinn smiled. They knew what was coming.
“Just beyond the next bend, my dear,” said Professor Mifflin, “is a sight that may bring you a lifting of heart.”
It looked to Marie like they were coming to a place where night somehow abruptly ended and day began. Rounding a wide bend, the trees suddenly disappeared. The land opened up, revealing an expanse of boulders and rocky terrain, from which the stream broke off into another outlet, becoming the genesis of the Witch’s Fingers. Beyond this, the flowing artery was a good-sized river, spanning some hundred yards across.
It was the first time in many days that Marie could peer up into an open sky. After the claustrophobia of the wood, she experienced a jarring, but momentary shift of environment. Then her breath was taken away.
The clearest rainbow Marie ever saw streaked across the night sky, glowing with a majesty all its own. Marie noted right away how it was different from any normal rainbow: not a continuous gradation of color, but far more distinct in separation. The color order also differed. It should have been red to purple, with orange, yellow, green and blue in the middle. But this rainbow had red and purple in the middle with green and blue on the outside. The dark sky only heightened the rainbow’s triumphant intensity. Color bled down over all of them.
“Now that’s how we do a rainbow back home,” said Zendara.
“Fantastically exquisite,” said Mifflin. “It defies every known rule of physics.”
“Your next stop,” said Perion to Marie. “The end of that rainbow.”
In the front boat, Tilda sat mesmerized. “Is it like that every night?”
“Night and day,” said Brage. “Everyday.”
“Then how come we don’t see it at home?”
“Nope,” said Tybain. “It’s only visible from within the wood.”
Marie’s comrades watched her gazing upward, sensing a bit of her gloom ease away.
“How far is it?” she asked at length.
“If all goes well, after a little rest we could be there by tomorrow afternoon,” answered the professor.
Marie took another deep breath, never taking her eyes from the multi-colored light. Perion saw that light reflected in her eyes. He also now saw something else there as well: dogged resolution.
Marie turned to the boat ahead. “Theel,” she said, addressing him, “I remember what you said to me today about hope and faith. You too, Zen,” she added, glancing at him. “Both of you were right. I have to see this to the end, don’t I? I have to find out the truth of what happened to my mother. Whatever the truth is. Good or bad.”
Courinn nodded assuredly. “I can’t imagine you turning aside now.”
Onward they continued, passing through the rocky, open ground and again back into the woods, where the rainbow faded from view. They took turns napping and keeping watch, though they let Marie sleep, untroubled. Apart from the unearthly eyes watching them and the occasional supernatural creature’s eerie night sounds, the night passed slowly as they motored upriver.
Professor Mifflin noted aloud it was just past eleven o’clock when they reached the underground entrance. When she woke, Marie saw that the river literally plunged into a cave-mouth entryway, quickly disappearing from view. They carried their supplies and gear ashore, while the boys lowered the boats into a fairly deep underground bunker, which was sealed to look ordinarily inconspicuous. Professor Mifflin often conducted testing and research in this area of the woods— actually throughout the whole of Spellhollow’s western arm. This forced him to construct the bunker as well as other helpful conveniences for his excursions.
They briefly settled there at the river bend and had another meal, already prepared and quickly served. Marie never ceased to be amazed at how effectively the exiled boys worked together, in spite of their occasional clowning and roughhousing. The professor demanded efficiency. The boys delivered it. As they ate, Marie saw Brage and Zendara closely huddled with the professor, no doubt discussing some kind of strategy.
Professor Mifflin then announced they would continue on a bit. “Are we gonna’ travel all night?” groaned Tilda.
“Not much longer,” he answered. “We’ll sleep once we’re back