Horizon - Chapter 11 - In The Ash-King's Land - Part 2

WHEN FIRST IN THE ASH-KING'S CASTLE.

When the giant aardvaark reached the gates and entered the courtyard of the Ash-Kings castle,it vomited up a line of prisoners, chained together and led at sword-point by the Ash-kings armour-suited guards.

When first Horizon saw the Ash-king he was almost unable to look him in the face for the Ash-king was quite a terrifying sight; made entirely from the ash of cremated human flesh with two glowing eyes like hot coals.

“Apparently”,said Levil, “He was created by demons out of the ashes of a thousand murderers who were burnt at the stake by his predecessor, bound together and animated by an unnatural force of darkness ”.

“What happened to his predecessor?”, asked Horizon, whispering.

“He was chained to a giant spit and roasted slowly over a bubbling volcano”, said Levil.

The Ash-king, being in a slightly more generous mood that day, did not condemn Horizon and his friends to be roasted; only to be eaten alive by the Giant Gruel that lived beneath his Castle but first they were taken to the dungeons and locked into a large cell with other prisoners and it is here that they had the enormous good fortune to meet the “Odourless Man”.

HORIZON AND THE ODOURLESS MAN

When Horizon and his friends were taken into the dungeons of the Ashking they saw that one prisoner in particular was weeping and wailing.more than the others.

“There there. Worry not.”,said Horizon to the man, “I am sure that we
will escape somehow”.

But the man said that he did not care about escaping,because, he said, he was
so utterly depressed with his life.

When they asked him why, he told them that he had three brothers: The Invisible man, whom you couldn’t see; The Silent man, whom you couldn’t
hear and The Gentle man whom you couldn’t feel and all of them were exceptional thieves who no one had ever caught, but he, The Odourless
man whom you couldn’t smell was a complete failure as a thief and an embarrassment to his family.

“I can’t wait to be eaten by the Gruel”, wept the odourless man, “I’m no
use alive anyway”.

“Don’t feel so bad”, consoled Levil, “Your lack of power has saved you from a life of crime. Be happy. There is a role for you to play even if it is merely to be a decent human being and they are as rare as all the
powerful and the talented these days”.

But the Odourless man was not convinced and, when they were pushed at spear point by the Ash-kings guards, into the underground lair of the Gruel and the heavy iron door which barred the exit was locked behind them, the odourless man threw himself infront of the creature expecting to be eaten but, to his surprise, the Gruel did not move.

“Why doesn’t it eat me?”,asked the Odourless man.

Rute examined his Lexicon of magical knowledge which he had kept hidden about his person and read that “A Gruel is a monster that is completely blind and deaf but which locates its prey entirely through its powerful sense of smell”.

The spirits of the odourless man were bouyed by this news, “You mean that my odourlessness is actually of some advantage?”.

Rute then told the man that the Gruel was controlled by a magical collar around its neck which also made it aggressive and that if he removed it then the Gruel would not attack them but he also told the man to be careful because although the Gruel could not see or hear, it could feel when it was touched.

Creeping up stealthily next to the Gruel the odourless man who was, despite not being very powerful, still a masterful thief compared to most ordinary men, undid the collar around its neck carefully and the moment that the collar fell free, immediately the beast became quite docile and timid and scurried off down one of its underground tunnels.

The Gruels underground lair was cris-crossed with tunnels and one of them,said Rute would lead them to the garden where the magical cure was kept
“but which one?”, he wondered.

Horizon took out his arrow of destiny and it floated infront of him pointing in the direction of the tunnel they must follow, “Trust the arrow”, Horizon told his companions, “It has never mislead me”.

Following the tunnel pointed out by Horizons arrow, they emerged into a secret underground garden – “This”, said Rute, “Is it. The Garden of
death,where we will find the cure”.

HORIZON IN THE GARDEN OF DEATH

“But”, cautioned Rute, “According to my lexicon the magical cure is guarded by two things: ‘The Executioners Daughter’ and ‘The Tree That cuts down men'. The First; the ‘Executioners daughter’, is a monster that is half woman and half machine. Created originally for executing the Ash-kings prisoners,she has four arms; one which is a noose that stretches out and strangles you, one which is an axe for beheading you, one which gives a lethal electric shock to all it touches and one which pricks you with a powerful venom that kills slowly and painfully”.

“I would not like to be embraced by her”, remarked Levil.

“Apparently”,continued Rute, “She was once a beautiful woman and the daughter of the Ash-kings executioner but when she refused the Ash-kings
advances, he had her turned into a monster designed to kill and kept her a prisoner in the Garden of Death”

Horizon was terrified at the thought of facing such a formidable monster. “Is there a way to kill such a creature?”,asked Horizon.

“Not kill”,said Rute, “But one can put her into a deep sleep by kissing her upon her lips. However, in order to do so, one has to get past her deadly arms”

Horizon could not think how he would accomplish this because the Ash-kings Guards had confiscated their weapons but then he saw that in the garden was a fountain which was designed so that the ‘Executioners daughter’ might drink without using her hands,which were useless for holding anything
other than death,and he also saw that in order to drink from the fountain she would need to lean forward and thrust her head out.

Upon seeing this,Horizon and his friends hatched a plan by which Horizon could put the Executioners daughter to sleep.

While Rute,Level and The Odourless Man hid out of sight behind a large hedge which was topiaried into the shape of a dragon, Horizon concealed himself inside the mouth of the fountain and they all waited until atlast they saw ‘The Executioner's Daughter’ approach.

Long ago the ‘Executioners daughter’ had been very lonely in her captivity but she had gotten so used to being hated and feared
that eventually she had just accepted her role as a monster. She had even grown to love her garden and took comfort in the little fountain from which she drank water; the only pure thing in her life.

However, on that day Horizon was concealed within the fountain and when ‘The Executioners Daughter’ leaned forward to take a drink, not only did she feel the gush of water against her lips but also Horizons kiss and the moment she did so she felt faint and fell quickly into a deep sleep.

The moment she fell asleep, Horizon took that hand of hers which was an axe and used it to sever itself free, he then cut off her other three hands. “When she wakes up”,said Horizon, “She will be harmless and will perhaps be able
to lead a more normal life”.

“Now”, said Levil, “surely we can get Horizons cure and leave this place”

“Not yet”, answered Rute, “There is still one more hurdle to overcome”.

Rute then led them to a place within the garden where an enormous and terrifying tree stood. “It is known as ‘The Tree That Cuts Down Men’ ”,
he said.

“In the old days”, he informed Horizon, “this garden had been called ‘The Garden of Life’
and in those days there had been a great orchard upon which had grown ‘the golden fruit of revelation’ but then the Demons entered our world and, because the fruit of revelation was an antidote to their poisonous lies, they destroyed the orchard,leaving only one fruit on one tree and using their corruptive power they distorted that tree so that it would kill anyone who dared try and pick its fruit”.

“If the tree is distorted?” asked Levil, “Won’t the fruit be distorted also?”.

“No”,said Rute, “The fruit was the only part of the tree that the demons could not distort because the truth held within was too strong. The children of this tree will be born without its deformity”.

Horizon now looked at the tree. It was huge with leaves the colour of bronze and 10 long branches,5 on either side. On nine of its branches was an axe and the branches moved like human arms but on one of its branches it held a golden fruit. Then Rute pointed towards the base of the tree and they all saw that round about it were littered headless skeletons. “Many have tried to pick its fruit and every single one has lost their head”.

Again,Horizon was stumped. How would he get the fruit out of the tree without losing his head too. He began to despair and thought that
maybe it just wasn’t his destiny to succeed.

However, the moment he thought this the guiding arrow of his destiny leapt up out of his bag and whooshing through the air it shot through
the magical fruit of the monstorous tree and like a trained bird it brought the fruit down next to where Horizon was sitting.

Horizon was stunned. “My arrow of destiny”, he said, happily, “What would I do with out you”.

HORIZON KILLS THE ASH-KING

With the magical fruit in their possession, Horizon and his friends went back out of the Garden of Death and following Horizons guiding arrow they found their way through the Gruel's tunnels to a discarded secret doorway which
opened into the Ashkings Castle.

However,as they were attempting to leave the castle, The Ashking himself appeared with a guard on either side.

“Give me the fruit that you have stolen”,commanded the Ash-king.

Horizon refused but the Ashking took off brass gauntlets that he wore and Horizon saw that underneath,his hands were made of flame and the
Ash-king came close,threatening to burn Horizon if he did not surrender the cure.

Horizon did not know what to do. The guards had confiscated their weapons. Panicking,he threw the fruit that was the cure at the Ash-king and immediately the Ash-king exploded and the Ash from which he was made was scattered in all directions by the force of the explosion.

Seeing their powerful master destroyed by Horizon the Guards, rather than attacking him,turned and fled, believing that he must possess some awesome destructive power.

Horizon was now safe to leave but he was sad, “The cure is gone”,he cried.

“No”,said Levil pointing to the Ashkings remains, “look! There, among the Ash”.

Glittering like sunlight among the ashkings remains were four silver seeds,the seeds of the fruit which had been the cure.

Levil, “If the seeds survive then the fruit survives – we can plant them and grow more
cure”.

Reassured,Horizon collected the shimmering seeds and,putting them into a pouch,he and his friends left the castle of the dead Ashking.

HORIZON ON THE WAY HOME

After Horizon and his friends had left the Ash-kings castle they traveled through
his land to the place of ‘The Leaping Stone’.

Horizons home was very far away from The Ash-kings land but ‘The Leaping Stone’ was a huge magic stepping stone and all who stepped upon it would be transported to where ever they wished to go.

Horizon,Levil and Rute all stepped upon the Leaping stone together and Horizon closed his eyes and thought of his home land.

The moment that he opened his eyes,he saw his homeland infront of him. The leaping stone had transported him and his friends there faster than
a fifth of a thought.

HORIZON ARRIVES HOME

Upon arriving in his homeland, Horizon first went to see his Mother,Oak and his father Acorn who were overjoyed to see him for they’d missed him and worried about him so much.

Then Horizon showed the seeds to the Tree people who had first advised his mother to send him into the land of humans and one of the elders told
him “Plant those few seeds in the soil of our forest”.

So Horizon did so and to his astonishment,a great tree instantly sprang up out of the earth where he had planted the seeds.

“Now”,said the elder, “The fruit of that tree will be the father to ten and from that ten will grow many orchards”

And, in the days that followed something even more miraculous happened. the King of the Gnomes and the King of the Giants,both presented with
the amazing new fruit as a gift to a king,ate of it and saw that the war which they had been fighting against each other was senseless and
only a few days after,a truce was officially declared. Furthermore,the Gnomes and the Giants began planting and cultivating the fruit
both to eat and to export to all parts of their world and wherever the fruit spread so too did its healing power of revelation.

Now, when Horizon and Levil looked through their soul glasses at their world, all they could see was light.