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"Dammit! Murphy!" Daniel launched off the couch, then had to grab the arm to keep from falling over as the last of the drug worked its magic. He shoved both hands into his pockets again, confirming what he already knew.
Ian ran into the kitchen, gun in hand, and looked around with alarm. "What happened?"
"He's gone!" Daniel declared as he stormed into the kitchen on newly steadied legs. "Murphy took the key."
"What?" Beth was at the bottom of the stairs, tugging her shirt down over tussled hair. "Gone where?"
"Gone back," Daniel replied hotly. He felt in his pockets again, unwilling to believe the key wasn't there. "He knocked me out and took the key."
"Knocked you out?" Ian lowered his gun. "Wait, what's going on? Murphy wouldn't just leave us here."
Daniel swore and hit the counter with a fist. "I trusted him!" When he saw the pure disbelief on Ian's face, he flushed with guilt. "We all trusted him."
Ian shook his head slowly as he holstered his gun. "No. No way Murphy would do that. He's probably just outside or something."
"He's gone, Ian," Daniel replied. "So is the key."
"Wait a second." Beth came into the kitchen and stood between them. "Are you saying Murphy took the key and went back to Ether, and left us stranded here?" She blinked up at Daniel, then Ian, then back again. "He wouldn't . . . He couldn't do that." Her head began a slow motion movement, back and forth, still refusing to accept the negative. "No, he wouldn't leave me here, after all that time searching." She turned and grabbed Daniel's shirt in both hands, giving a slight tug downward. "He wouldn't leave me here, not after all that. It took me years to find your key. Years!" She release his shirt and turned on Ian. "There are no more keys!"
"He wouldn't do it," Ian said quietly. "Murphy is my friend, he wouldn't trap me here and go back."
"There's no other explanation," Daniel replied with a shrug. "Murphy's gone, and so is the key. There's no note, no explanation." He took a deep breath and ran his hand over his face, vaguely aware of the fact that he now had two people -- one a complete and utter stranger to his world -- trapped here with no way home. "This is all my fault." It was hard to resist the urge to run around and start opening doors, hoping one of them would take them to Ether without a key.
"He wouldn't do that. Murphy is my friend," Ian insisted.
"As much as I'd love to blame someone else, it's my fault," Beth replied. "I should have gone back and accepted my role as the king's sister. Or hidden my identity and lived in the city."
"I turned my back on him, here in the kitchen," Daniel continued.
"Murphy wouldn't do it." Ian slammed both fists down on the kitchen counter top. "Dammit, he wouldn't work for Stefan!"
Daniel and Beth turned to look at him.
"You think -- I hadn't considered that," Daniel admitted. "Seriously, I thought Murphy was a trustworthy person."
Before Beth could comment, the bathroom door opened and Murphy stepped through, slightly out of breath.
Ian had his weapon pressed to the older man's forehead almost immediately.
"Oh, you're up," Murphy replied, looking at Daniel. "I'm terribly sorry, my timing must have been off."
"Explain yourself, old man," Ian ordered, clicking the safety off his weapon.
"Oh put that down before you embarrass yourself, Ian." Murphy waved a hand in the air and moved further into the kitchen, completely unconcerned. "Daniel, I apologize for the subterfuge, but it was the only way, honestly."
"You left us!" Beth retorted hotly. "You took that key and went back to Ether. Why? Are you working for my brother?"
"Good God no," Murphy nearly laughed. "Here." He handed the small metal key to Daniel. "Again, I apologize for my methods, but I will not apologize for what I've done."
Ian finally reset the safety on his gun and holstered it. "Just what exactly did you do?"
"Went to the castle," Murphy replied. "I was King Frederick's Personal Advisor for a long, long time. And Sheriff for the last ten years. And as such, I have castle privileges."
"Wait, so you went to the castle and just walked around?" Daniel asked.
"How else could we determine what's taking place without putting the Princess in danger?" Murphy turned to Ian. "You know me better than to believe I would ever betray you. Any of you."
"I thought I did," Ian replied.
"A note would have helped," Daniel said. "Or a simple explanation of your intent."
"There wasn't enough time, and Beth would have insisted she come along. Plus I couldn't bring either of you," Murphy explained. "I'm the one with castle rights, not a wanted man or a stranger the guards have never seen before. And, truthfully, I suspected it would be next to impossible for you to agree to hand me that key and let me step through the door alone. Clearly, I'd have to take the key with me in order to come back."
"All right, fine," Ian huffed. "So tell us what you found, before I decide to shoot you anyway."
"I thought you'd never ask," Murphy quipped. "First of all, most of the royal guard are, indeed, away from the castle. I presume they're on the way to the city to perform their big loyalty crackdown."
"So you found the royal court in the dungeon and didn't free them?" Beth asked.
"They aren't there," he said. "In the dungeon, anyway. The court members Stefan arrested, they're not in the dungeon. He's keeping their arrest quiet, and must have moved them out of the dungeon so no one would notice and ask questions."
"Not in the dungeon?" Daniel looked at Ian. "Would he have had them killed?"
"No, no way," Ian shook his head. "Even if he did that quietly, you can't make six important members of the royal house just vanish with no explanation."
"Then where are they?" He turned to Murphy.
"I'm guessing," Murphy said as he rubbed his chin. "And this is only a guess, mind you, but there is one place he could keep someone locked away without anyone noticing and starting unwanted rumors."
Beth snapped her fingers. "The Luddite cloister."
Daniel looked at Ian and noticed his cautious expression. He was fingering the hilt of his gun as it rested in the holster against his thigh, but not saying anything.
"I couldn't get there to check, it would have taken too long to travel there straightaway and I might have been noticed," Murphy continued. "So to use the key, I had to come here first, which I had intended to do regardless." He looked at Daniel. "Again, I do apologize for the methods I used. But I think we all can agree it was the safest thing to do."
"Unless you'd been caught," Ian quipped. "If Stefan saw you, questioned you, and got suspicious, he could have had you detained like the others. That would have stranded us here, Beth and I."
Feeling a bit like a third wheel, Daniel held up a hand. "Okay, he's back, and regardless of whether we agree or not, what's done is done. The question now is, where do we go from here?"
"To the cloister," Beth replied. "Right after I've had a shower, that is." She turned to go back up the stairs, then stopped and turned around again. "You guys aren't going to go off there without me, right?"
Ian glared at Murphy, who looked to Daniel, who was trying not to look Beth in the eyes.
Finally, he relented. "Okay, I promise you no one's using this key without me," he said.
"That tells me nothing," Beth retorted. "And I can't command you, but I can them." She pointed a finger regally at Ian and Murphy in turn. "Neither of you will return to Ether without me. Is that understood?"
Murphy bowed slightly. "As you wish, ma'am."
Ian merely huffed.
Beth gave them all one final glare, then went upstairs.
Daniel shoved the key back into the front pocket of his jeans. "I might have to put this on something more secure. Maybe some dog tag chains or something." He walked back out to the living room and folded the quilt back over the couch. "Not that it would have stopped you from taking it."
"Again, I do apologize," Murphy said, following Daniel to the living room. "It was my hope to go there and come back before you woke, but I'd forgotten what time I left, and you couldn’t have been unconscious more than ten minutes, tops. I made sure not to use very much of the chloroform."
Daniel turned to shrug and noticed Ian was still standing in the kitchen, his hand on the hilt of his gun. He raised his eyebrows.
Ian shook his head, his expression still dark and brooding. "How do we trust you now?"
Daniel turned to Murphy, who sighed heavily before turning back around.
"I came back," he said simply. "You've known me for a long time, Ian. Have I ever given you reason to doubt my motives before?"
"You've never left me stranded in another world before," Ian replied. "Apparently there's a first time for everything."
Murphy nodded and glanced at Daniel. "I deserved that, I did. There's nothing I can do to make you trust me, Ian. If you'd prefer, you can travel to the Luddites yourself, leave me here. If you fear there's a trap waiting for you."
"Hang on," Daniel held up both hands. "Okay, yes, I was pissed. Murphy should have explained what he was doing. Between the three of us, we could have convinced Beth to stay here and wait."
"Could the two of you have stayed here and waited?" Murphy asked.
"That's not the point right now," Daniel replied. "The point is, if you were going to turn us in to Stefan, you'd have brought back guardsmen. Or just sent them here before I woke up. Or, hell, you wouldn't have suggested we leave your apartment in the first place. So I think we can agree you screwed up, and move on from there." He looked pointedly at Ian. "Can't we? I've got the key now, we can get you and Beth back to Ether and finish this."
"It won't be finished until Stefan's gone and Beth's on the throne," Ian replied. "The sooner that happens, the sooner I can get back to my life."
"Your life as what?"
The men turned as Beth stepped back down the stairs, her hair was damp but she was fully clothed and ready.
"That was the quickest shower I've even seen a woman take," Daniel commented.
"It's because I don't trust any of you," she replied with a huff. "I can command they not leave me behind, but they can still actually leave me behind." She crossed her arms and looked at Ian. "Although they would have faced my wrath when this was all over."
"Let's just get this started," Ian huffed. "I'd be happier if we were having this argument in Ether. This place -- the idea of being trapped here -- isn't high on my list of fun things to do with my day."
Daniel laughed, then pulled the key back out of his pocket. "Okay, so, we're going to the Luddite place, right? How, exactly, do I get there? I've never seen it before."
Murphy nodded to Ian. "Give him the key, he's seen the front doors of the cloister."
Daniel paused, then reluctantly handed Ian the key.
"Just the front doors," he replied, placing the key into the lock of the bathroom door. "We'll have to ask for admittance."
Daniel was nervous, having just gotten that key back, but Ian turned the knob, then pulled the key out and handed it back before pushing the door open.
He was surprised to find the Luddite cloister so large.
They were standing on a narrow path halfway up the side of a mountain, facing a massive carved stone door that sealed the mouth of a cave. Daniel had expected something more along the lines of an old building with a Catholic bent, but the more he looked up at the cliff face, the more carvings he noticed.
The doors were carved with an intricate, scrolling pattern that matched the carvings in the cliff around the door. Further up, more sculpting displayed scenes of a forest with impossibly tall trees and a worm-like creature among the roots. To the left of the door was another tree carving, but this one stood a more reasonable height. Entwined in it's intricate branches were figures, some human, some not, held in an eternal, fatal embrace. Directly above the door, a line had been carved, with no details or ornamentation. Just a long, solid, straight line chiseled deeply into the stone.
Ian walked up to the large door and grabbed a big metal wheel, then pulled. There was a groan, then a puff of dust, but the doors swung willingly enough, pivoting on a central balance. When the opening was wide enough to pass through, he led the way into the dark cave.
Daniel was last through the door, but Murphy helped him pull it closed. As the last of the sunlight was shut off, they had to stand still a few moments to adjust to the dim lighting. Daniel blinked as he glanced around. The Luddite cloister reminded him of Petra, but unlike the ancient Jordanian city, this one was fully functioning and currently occupied.
There were brass sconces every few yards, fitting with fire crystals that lit the main expanse and indicated openings, hallways and doors all around the multileveled perimeter. Daniel noticed a few people walking around, but dressed in long, flowing brown robes it was difficult at a distance to tell if they were men or women.
Ian started across the large entry and they followed. "We're not going to get anywhere standing here, so we might as well start looking."
Daniel leaned closer to Murphy, afraid his voice would echo disturbingly in the huge cave. "You're sure these people aren't practicing a religion here?"
"Only if silence and antisocialism can be called a religion," he replied. "Which, I suppose, it could be, if you think about it."
"These people just prefer to be left alone," Beth interjected with a harsh whisper. "Tell me you've never felt that way."
"I have," Daniel replied with a shrug. "I'm sure we all have. But I'm talking a day or two, maybe a nice quiet weekend. But a lifetime?" He shook his head. "Solitude as a lifestyle seems to go against the human need for companionship. How many of them are here?"
"No one knows." Murphy pointed down the long corridor Ian had just entered. "If these hallways run deep into the mountain, and each door is someone's home, then it could be thousands."
Daniel quickly counted as many doors in the corridor he could see, then considered the number of tunnels they'd seen when they entered the facility. "No way it's that many. Ether isn't large enough. A percentage like that? No, it can't be that many." He'd met more than his share of individuals who talked of escaping their lives and heading for a nice, quiet cave somewhere in the hills. Living off the grid, removing themselves from society, from the cultural storm of technology, politics, all the clutter and detritus of everyday rat race living. Only thing was, none of them ever actually followed through.
It was a simple thing to complain about. Traffic, work, distractions. Losing sight of what's important in life. Falling victim to too much change, too much clutter. But actually selling off all your worldly goods, moving out of your comfortable home with its modern conveniences and giving up the security of a phone or the simple act of dialing 911, and moving into a cave up on a mountain somewhere, was an entirely different story.
Daniel could see a handful of people doing it. Taking the idea from wistful thinking to practicing lifestyle. But thousands?
Ian stopped at the first door in the hallway and tapped on it. After a long silence, a center piece of the wooden door slide sideways, revealing a window and the face of a middle-aged woman.
"We're looking for any newcomers," Ian explained. "Where would someone new here find a room?"
Daniel looked at Murphy, eyebrows raised.
"No one here would know the royal court by sight," the older man explained.
The woman looked at Ian, then glanced to the side to look over Daniel, Beth and Murphy. After a long silence, she pulled away from the window, then reappeared and shoved an old, yellowing piece of paper at Ian.
Seconds after he took the sheet, the window slammed shut.
He glanced at it, then handed it to Daniel.
It was a map, with large red X's in a handful of rooms down various corridors. He counted fifty three marks, spaced out so that no two were in a room directly touching another.
"The marks are occupied, or vacant?" He asked, glancing around to see if he could get his bearings. "Okay, if this is that central section, then it stands for occupied."
"I think you're right," Murphy agreed.
"That makes more sense. I can see, with a stretch, that many people living this life. But where does that leave us?"
"Here." Ian pointed to a section of the map with no marks at all. It was one large room, above them and two corridors over, with no red X's anywhere near by. "If I wanted to lock someone away and make sure no one noticed, this is where I'd put them."
"Looks as good as anything," Beth agreed. "We can start there, and if we're wrong, branch out."
Without waiting for the others, she started back down the hallway toward the open foyer, then to the left in the direction of the marked stairs.
Daniel followed after her, catching up as she reached a set of steps carved into the stone wall. "So tell me, who built this place?" he asked as he fell in step beside Beth. "It's obviously old, but why so many rooms for so few people?"
"Well, according to ancient myth--"
"It's just that," Ian interrupted. "A myth."
"Says the man who didn't believe in Otherworld," Beth retorted. She looked at Daniel again. "Ether's first King and Queen, tired of sleeping under the stars because the brightness from the four moons offered them no privacy--"
"Four moons?" Daniel asked.
Behind him, Ian huffed, but Murphy shushed him.
"The King aimed a great arrow at the largest of the moons," Beth continued, undaunted. "His aim was true, naturally, and the moon broke into many pieces. The largest of them fell to the ground, hitting the mountainside. Once the dust settled, they climbed the cliffs and found this shelter, an offering of peace between the moons and Ether." They'd reached the top of the steps, so Beth turned left, down the corridor marked on the map. "But the truth is, once upon a time, a long, long time ago, my ancestors carved this place out to use as Ether's first official castle. Until the Queen got sick and tired of living in a cave. The end."
Daniel laughed shortly. "I'd stick with the moon story, it's more romantic."
"Look, down there, to the left." Ian pointed, interrupted Daniel's less-than-helpful thoughts. "That door is barricaded."
"Someone wants to keep whoever's inside from coming out," Murphy agreed.
Daniel glanced back the way they'd come, his hand instinctively touching the weapon in the holster that hung from his hip. "This is a little too easy, don't you think?"
"If I thought Stefan had any clue someone would find them here, I'd agree," Ian said as they approached the door. "But I doubt he's considered that possibility."
Daniel helped Ian lift the heavy beam lying across the door, wedging it shut, then Murphy pushed it open and stepped through.
"Who's there?" a voice demanded.
"It's Sheriff Murphy, councilmen. We've come to rescue you."
Daniel stepped into the room but stayed near the door, still unconvinced finding the royal court could be this simple.
There were six men, all graying and dressed in brown robes pulled around them for warmth in the dimly lit room. There were wooden benches with thin blankets, a barrel of water with one ladle handing from a peg on the wall, and nothing to heat the room or provide fresh air.
The six rushed up to Murphy, blinking in the bad lighting, and introduced themselves hastily. One by one, they shook everyone's hand, and Daniel didn't even try to keep their names straight.
When the last of the six had made the rounds, shaking hands and nodding his thanks, they all stepped back as one and looked at Beth.
"Murphy, could this be true?" the tallest of the six asked.
"Sir James, it is indeed," Murphy replied with a wide smile. He motioned for Beth to step forward. "I present to you, Princess Marabeth, here to claim the throne from her murderous brother, Stefan."
"Murderous scum of a brother," Beth corrected. She squared her shoulders and smiled at the six. "With your help, good sirs."
"Okay, let's get this over with before Daniel's paranoia comes back to bite us," Ian interjected.
"Get what over with?" Daniel asked in a sharp whisper.
"Proof, of course," Murphy replied. He reached into his jacket and produced a solid white crystal, which he handed to Beth. "Proof that she is who she claims to be."
Beth took the crystal in one hand and gripped it tightly. As Daniel looked on, the solid white color fluxed, then changed, displaying a double helix, lit brightly from within. She then handed it to one of the six men, who put on a set of glasses and examined it closely.
Moments later, he nodded and passed it to the man to his left, then stepped to Beth and offered his hand.
"Your Royal Highness."
"That means we can leave now," Ian said to Daniel. He turned to the others and waved them toward the door. "Come quickly, we might not be safe here."
"But where are we going?" one asked.
"And how can we help the Princess?" Another questioned.
"Wait, that's a good question." Daniel grabbed Murphy's arm. "Do we take them to my uncle's house and risk messing with their perceptions?"
"Well we can't risk marching up to the castle in the open, can we?" Murphy gave Daniel's should a pat. "Don't worry, these men are mature enough to handle it. Probably better than you did."
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