308) The Salvation of Eden, Chapter 72 — Lenny loses it

The house looked creepy, carved right into the cliff face, all shadows and cold stone. The only apparent entrance was a single door, solid stone, cut into the vertical side of the cliff. A large iron knocker hung bolted to the door. There was no handle, no other way to open it.

“See!” Dominic whispered, elbowing Kohra in the ribs. “The ultimate door, for the ultimate power-hungry criminal. This is EXACTLY my point, right here!”

Kohra sighed. Now she was never going to hear the end of Dominic’s theory of the door-less society. But, she had to admit, he had a point.

“How are we going to get in? Knock?” Lenny asked. Nobody responded.

The door was solid stone, with tiny cracks around the outside. There were no other apparent entrances, and the rest of the house was hidden inside the mountain itself. Not even a squirrel could sneak into a place like this.

“We could wait for someone to come out, and jump them,” Devona suggested. Then she added, “But we have no idea when that might be; it could be days, weeks. Okay, dumb idea.”

“I know!” brightened Melkorn. “We could threaten them! Like the wolf and the three little pigs!”

Nobody wanted to point out how that story actually turned out for the wolf. After an awkward pause, Kohra responded, “Hmmm…that’s a good plan, Melkorn! Let’s keep thinking, and see if we come up with any more good ideas!”

Melkorn grinned. He wasn’t used to people telling him he’d had a good idea. But after all, Miss Grok DID make him Chief Sign-tist.

“How about someone pretending they’re injured and need healing?” Dominic suggested. “The Commander was yelling for a Healer, so Graxia must have one.”

“Unless they were also in the tower,” Kohra commented, feeling grim.

“Why would they keep a Healer in the tower?” Lenny challenged. “That doesn’t make any sense. They’d be back in the house, back here, ready to receive the wounded. This is the entire reason Reilly and I were assigned to cover any retreat.”

Kohra looked down, gritting her teeth. Sometimes Lenny got on her nerves.

They stood and thought for several more minutes, but nobody had any better ideas.

Lenny strode up to the door. “Okay! We’ve got two excellent plans: Dominic’s plan to ask for healing, and Melkorn’s plan to threaten them. Let’s start with Dom’s. Get ready to attack.”

“Wait!” Kohra cried. “We should talk —” but Lenny grabbed the knocker and gave it a few solid raps. It barely made a sound, at least on the outside.

“It’s like a freaking tomb,” Lenny muttered.

A few seconds later, an old man’s thin voice emanated faintly from within. “Yes?”

“Healing!” Lenny yelled, furiously rapping against the door. “I was trapped under the tower! I need Healing!!” She trailed off into a loud groaning.

Dominic whispered instructions to the others, arranging them in an attack formation, in case this actually worked.

A few seconds later, the voice responded. “Uh…the red bird flies!”

Lenny moaned and gasped, putting on a real show. “HEALING! Help me!” She wheezed.“Helllllllp!”

“I SAID, THE RED. BIRD. FLIES!”

Lenny practically hacked up a lung. “Ohhhh…dying….” More violent coughing. “Oohhhgggghhhhhh, healing!”

There was a pause. “Look, I’m sorry, but we have new orders. You’re supposed to know that! I can’t let you in unless, uh, The Red Bird Flies!” He enunciated each word carefully and clearly.

Lenny moaned something unintelligible, coughing and spitting onto the ground.

“I didn’t catch that!” the voice shouted. “Please repeat! The Red Bird Flies!”

Lenny groaned, giving the knocker one last tap, then slumping heavily against the door, sliding down until she was laying on the ground. She coughed loudly, mumbling “Healing....”

“I’m so sorry, sir.” The voice did sound awfully sorry. “But I have very specific orders. I…I can’t let you in.”

Lenny stood up. “Screw this.” She pointed to Melkorn. “Korn, time for your plan.”

Melkorn grinned.

Without warning, Lenny unloaded, in an ear-splitting screech, “Now LISTEN HERE and listen well, because these are the last seconds of your miserable life, you old bastard! You’re right. I am not one of Graxia’s pathetic soldiers. You know why? Because they are all DEAD! Every one of them is DEAD! Your giant spider machine is DEAD! And your Commander ran away like a little coward! That’s why you got your miserable orders! Because Graxia, your idiot leader, is TERRIFIED! She knows we’re coming in this house whether you like it or not! That’s why she abandoned you! Do you hear me?”

Silence on the other side of the door.

“I asked you a question, old man! And if you won’t have a civil discussion at least, then I’m just gonna kill you right now. So I’ll ask you one more time, do you HEAR ME?”

Coughing on the other side. “Y-yes, I-I hear you,” the voice called back. “I…I’m sure we can w-work something out.”
“That’s RIGHT! And here is what we can work out. YOU open that door, and we’ll come in and take care of Graxia once and for all. And you get to live. YOU can run for the river, get in a boat, and leave this valley. Or….” She paused, listening carefully.

“Er, y-yes?”

Her voice cold, and deadly, she threatened, “Or, I am going to count down from ten, and when I get to zero, we blow this door into tiny, tiny pieces, and then you will be dead. Just like your army. Do you understand me?”

There was a pause.

“TEN! NINE!”

“Wait! Wait! I have, uh, I’m just following orders! Please!” His voice cracked; it sounded like the old man was crying.

“You have no orders anymore!” Lenny roared. “Graxia abandoned you! EIGHT!”

“Uh, give me a minute, p-please,” the voice pleaded.

“SEVEN! … SIX! … FIVE! ….”

Kohra wondered what Lenny would do if he called her bluff. This really wasn’t a good idea.

“FOUR! … THREE!”

“Wait!”

“WHAT??” Lenny shouted.

“Uh….”

“TWO!” Lenny practically screamed.

“No! Wait! I just, how do I know you’ll let me go?”

“YOU DON’T!” Lenny yelled back immediately. “But you choose NOW!”

“Uh….”

“ONE!”

“Okay! Okay! I’m, I’m opening the door! Please, I’m unarmed.”

A lock clicked, there was a scraping sound like a metal bolt sliding in its bracket, and the door, a solid 18-inches of stone, swung open.

Kohra shook her head in amazement. I can’t believe this worked. Gods Lenny, how do you do it?

Lenny stood smack in the centre of the doorway, hands on her hips like she could intimidate whoever, or whatever, was on the other side of that door into submission through sheer force of will.

The old man bowed deeply. “Byron, at your service, ma’am. Uh, welcome to the Zhaalmohhrian home?” His shirt was soaked in sweat and his legs trembled visibly as he tried to maintain his composure. “Please don’t hurt me.”

“Eyes down!” she snarled. The man looked up in fear. “I said eyes down!” She kicked him, right in the stomach, and he doubled over, sinking to his knees. He kept his eyes down.

“How many troops are in this house?” Lenny demanded. “How many?”

“Uh, no troops, Ma’am. They’re all, they were all outside. Nobody, uh, nobody returned.”

“Anybody else?” Lenny asked, sneering down at him like he was a worm she’d just as soon crush with her boot.

“Uh, yes Ma’am! There’s a cook! Probably hiding in…his bedroom is the right hallway, at the end. And the High Priestess! She’s at the back, Ma’am! But….” He trailed off, his entire body trembling.

“But what?” Lenny demanded.
He hesitated; Kohra could see the whites of his eyes.

A small column of fire sprang to life in Lenny’s hand.

“But…ma’am! No! It’s just, the High Priestess, ma’am. She, uh, she never comes out of her Sanctum! It’s…the house, it’s separate from her Sanctum. The Zhaalmohhrians, even Graxia, cannot enter! Nobody can!”

“Then we’ll deal with her ourselves,” Lenny assured him. “Where is this Sanctum?” 

The man, looking thoroughly miserable under Lenny’s leering stare, rose stiffly to his feet, pointing behind him, across a little courtyard. “You see those three archways? The left is the guest wing. The right is the main part of the house; through there is Master Graxia’s library, the kitchen and cook’s quarters, the reading room.” He paused, swallowing and peering around like he expected to be struck dead at any moment.

“Th-the High Priestess. She’s down the central hall. And Master Graxia’s bedroom as well.” He looked like he was about to pass out.

“Is she in there?” Lenny demanded. The man nodded pitifully. “Did she bring in a bunch of barrels in with her?” He nodded again.

“What about the Hooded Man? Where’s his room?” Devona asked.
He looked at her questioningly. “Uh, I-I don’t know,” he began.

“The Hooded Man!” Lenny growled. “You know, terrible fashion sense, dresses all black, travels to the Kingdom of Anthor every few months?”

“I…I don’t know who you mean, Ma’am. The only person who goes all the way to Anthor from here is Master Graxia. But she’d never wear a hood, ma’am. Or black clothes. She’s far too…well, she’s famously stylish, ma’am.”

Kohra swore under her breath. Have we had it wrong this whole time? Is this not even the Hooded Man’s place?

But no, the Zhaalmohhrian logo! We first saw it on the stallion back at the caravan. Clearly, Hoodie is from this place! It occurred to her that he might be the invisible person Lenny and Reilly had both mentioned. He WAS some kind of spy, after all.

Lenny reached down, placing her index fingers on either side of the man’s head, right on his temples. The man whimpered, his body shaking uncontrollably. For a few long seconds, eyes closed, she said nothing. Then she opened her eyes and looked directly into his.

Lenny’s voice was low, threatening, deadly, as she addressed him. “Your mind just showed me the people you love the most in all the worlds. If you are lying, if you haven’t told us everything you know, if some ‘surprise’ happens in this house, then I personally will hunt them down, and when they’re gasping for mercy, right before I slit their throat….”

Lenny paused, slicing her finger across her own neck. “I will tell them that their death is your fault. Because you were a coward. That will be their last thought, you hear me?”

“P-please,” the man stammered. “I’ve told you everything.”

“Then go! Get out of here! And never come back!”

Like a beaten dog, he scampered out the front door, eyes on the ground, and disappeared down the path into the forest.

Lenny looked around, beaming in triumph, her demeanor changing instantly. “Well, we’re in!” she said brightly, as though discussing the local sports team winning their first match of the season.

Kohra stared, partly in awe, partly in horror, partly in fear. She wanted to say something, but had no idea what. After all, Lenny HAD gotten them into the house. But, kicking that man in the stomach? Threatening to murder the people he loved? She shuddered.

Sometimes, I really don’t get Lenny. Oh, who am I kidding? I never really get Lenny.

Well, she DID have to scare that guy. Maybe…maybe she did the right thing? I just don’t know anymore. That man didn’t look evil. Maybe he thought he was doing the right thing too, working for Graxia. He probably thinks THEY are the Good guys, and WE are evil. I just…I don’t understand anything anymore.