Cavaliere del Giardino Overture

Chapter 19

"Take me to the church."

Sammy heard his voice and nodded walking to the church. The church was tiny and cheap, with plastic stained windows instead of glass. Instead of pews, metal benches ran across the room. With a shiny tiled floor and the smell of old cigarette smoke, it was practically a desert Chapel. On that day that was neither hot nor cold, in the bluster of the late summertime, the church spire brought her eyes heavenward. It was an art that stayed in every season, yet in the bright sunshine of the day, the stones were every hue from dark gold to desert dunes.

She walked into the church and looked around, watching the candles, there were snails around the church looking at her as she walked in. The church choir was different compared to other choirs that didn't sing hymns. Their voice was almost like angels', high notes soaring over the clouds, graceful notes dancing on the staves, and they sang for Gods only. She clapped and pointed to the doors. The snails nodded starting to move out humming gently as they did. She turned to the frog statues as she heard his voice once more. "I can help you once more. Pilo.....has bullets correct? I can make myself bullets, stronger bullets, armor-piercing....but your hand...it will break after 5 bullets in an hour and not healing." She heard this as she closed her eyes and slowly nodded.

"You will no longer hear me or see me. May I tell you something?" She nodded. "Killing Dracula will put this forest in peace, she was supposed to be the angel of death, tasked with killing Athos and Tarot, but when she failed....She left and sealed herself away. Now that she's out....that is what awakened Athos, That's what made the gods awakened her pure anger....that long ago." Defiant's voice echoed around the church. "I will take my leave and allow you to end her. It was fun going berserk a few times," The shell cracked slowly and exploded, the noise of glass breaking and shattering echoed around the room as the shell reformed and grew together.

Liquid oozed from her shell as it moved to her hand and shined. The black before them had a velvet quality like the air had been thickened somehow. Without an upwards, glance Sherbet knew it was star-speckled and cloudless. She stood and walked out, now deep black and blue markings up, swirls and stars going up to her arm and cheek. She looked at her left hand, four of her fingernails were painted black as she nodded slowly. "I think I'm ready," She grabbed the needle tying it to her arm and smiling softly to herself. "I'm ready." She said walking into the forest.

The forest path is wide and civilized. The city has used our taxes to lay wood-chips and place garbage bins along the route. The trees are so separated by this swathe they have cut that I still need my sunglasses. The brilliant rays are not dappled but shine hotly from above as strong as at any beach without the benefit of a cooling onshore breeze. But all that will change in twenty minutes, then the noble efforts of the bureaucrats will end and the forest will reassert itself. The path will twist, snaking around the ancient trees. The roots will criss-cross, gnarled and uneven- as beautiful as any picture book illustration.

In the forest, the sky vanishes almost completely, only a few fragments of blue remain- like scattered pieces of an impossible jigsaw puzzle. The air is rich with the fragrance of leaves and loam, damp too. Even so many hours after the rains have passed, the soil remains wet, slowly releasing its heady fog. Outside is the noon daylight, the powerful rays of early summer, but in here everything is cool and the colors have the softness of that time just before twilight. The only movement is the occasional bird, startling in trees or a squirrel dashing up a nearby trunk. The sound of running water in the brook has the same hypnotic quality as music.

Vampires roamed around the forest only to be shot down by the snail as she continued her walk through the forest and across the lake, she looked up.

This castle that arises from the battered Earth is as the mind of the bad kings, of those, hide their hearts behind walls of stone as they plunder and kill. Up here, with the wind in our hair and only the sweet birdsong above, one could be forgiven for seeing their vain-glory as benign. Yet She has seen the slaying and the suffering that multiplies. A good king could live in a humble cottage and still be revered, never needing armies or weaponry, only their giving heart.

The castle was bold on the blue beyond. It stood there as if conjured from the storybook of a child. It was perfect. Sammy imagined unicorns in the courtyard, because if those towers could exist, why not? Every stone was even and square as if those who built were set on perfection as if they really loved what they made. They were walls made to protect a community, to echo with laughter and to be the shelter they needed for the millennia to come. The castle walls are the strongest thing for miles around, yet when Sammy looks carefully she notices the stones. It is built of stones of varying sizes and shapes, each one unique. From a distance it is uniform grey, from up close it is a mosaic of humble rocks, each of them nobody would think anything of were they loose by the roadside. But together they are a castle, the crown of the landscape and protector of ancient peoples.

She slowly pushed into the castle door before hearing a feminine voice. "I allow you into my home, My sweet assassin," She heard as Sammy looked around. "I will be amazed if you can find me then I will reward you with the chance to kill me," She said as stomping was heard around the corner. "They're living rocks, Boulder Beetles!" She said as the big golem-like creature rounded the corner.