THE HAUNTED KINGDOM 3 by CHARLES E.J. MOULTON (ereader that reads to you .txt) 📕

forest gypsies. They saw him entering the secret world, talking to the hermit and being unrecognized by his family.
They saw him meeting the four evangelists and heading for home by flying through the air with Micahel. They saw him meeting Adnicul, becoming friends, fighting Rumar, losing his friend, talking to the angels, riding through the forest and entering the cave.
They saw the duel, the illusions, the temptation, Lucinda’s death and the mutual trip through the hell of hells. They saw themselves standing on the stairs of the cathedral.
As they walked down the stairs and headed for home, they felt themselves fall asleep.
They felt themselves wondered why, but know the reason in their heart of hearts.
The illusion was breaking up.
The old world was dying.
They were waking up.
They were being saved.

Iuventus Sacrum, Clurafar, Prosperania
The morning of September 24th 1425

“I only did it because it gave me the chance to come back home.”

- Adnicul, the original angel of the Hwee-Aiell-Sihl

The first one to open his eyes was Alexander.
He felt the mahogany table under his right cheek.
It felt like it had been attached to his skin.
He opened his eyes only slowly, feeling the sleep rest in his eyes like someone who had slept an eternity and forgotten what waking up was like. It felt like his dreams had lasted for five years and yet only lasted a second.
He saw his own green coat resting on his blue jacket, his red cape above it resting on his arms.
He felt his beard and realized he was no longer twenty.
Every bone in his body hurt, every muscle ached like it had not for years.
His knee hurt, he had forgotten about his knee. He had been young for so long that he had forgotten that he had a bad knee. It hurt, but oh my God, was he happy that it hurt.
Years? Yes, years. Had he slept years? It seemed so.
He tried to raise his head, but could only do so with the utmost difficulty.
His muscles and bones seemed to crack as sat up.
As he sat up, he saw Belinda to his right and Sieglinde to his left slowly awake.
Both smiled at him, their eyes wide open.
He embraced each one of them in turn.
“We’re back!”
There was a tear rolling down his wife’s cheek and he kissed it away.
“Thank you, Father!”
He chuckled, unable to speak.
”How are you, Mother?”
”I am fine now … thank you. Dear, come in to my arms.”
“Richard, I can’t believe that we made it out of there …”
”Don’t, Morgana … I’d rather not think about that place …”
Belinda spoke again, as she walked to the window and looked out.
“We’re back …”
Yes, they were back, but with a difference.
All that they had feared was gone.
There was a remarkably eerie, solemnly calm and peaceful giddiness to this crowd.
If this crowd had a mutual spirit, it would be a happy muse speaking slowly with a bright smile on her lips, waking up, but realizing by Jove, that ‘we made it’.
“Why, where are we? When are we?”
Soon enough, the thirty six people at the long table by the window were awake, trying to shake themselves into reality by simply moving about and thinking a clear thought about where they were..
Some of them were laughing, some of them were whispering, some were just standing by the newly open windows and gazing at the landscape outside, knowing there was no pit below to drop into, no threat to run away from.
In turn, the other sixty-four people woke up, stretching, thinking, wondering what had happened.
They were senatorial and normal people.
They had not been in control like the other 36, but their nightmares had been just as vivid.
Alexander dared the impossible, he asked them the question:
”What do you remember?”
Someone said:
”I remember hell!”
It became clear beyond all doubt that everyone in the room had actually gone through that hell of hells. 36 of them had been trapped there, one cage had been reserved for Alexander. He had never really figured out if he had been there all the time and just travelled in his mind or some there together with Adnicul. Regardless, he had won the game, as had they all.
More importantly, everyone in the room seemed to have a story to tell and a special little relationship with Lucinda. It was extraordinary, but this had been a collective illusion.
She had done her damndest really to create the haunted kingdom.
Her own haunted kingdom.
She had failed, thanks to Alex.
For a long while, conversations just naturally soared through the room, inspired little groups of interest, amusing two or three here and five or six there to simply dawdle in a corner and exchange views about what had just occurred. There was nothing planned about it all. They had all gone through hell together, literally. As everyone knows, there is not much more to be said about that.
One or two, the loners, stood by the windows, dumbfounded.
Erica came and hugged Patrick and soon Lance was with them.
Richard and Morgana stood close to that family and it was then that Alexander understood how much he loved his children and what a caring father he would now want to be.
They had all gone through hell together.
But heaven lay waiting here in their hearts alone.
Alexander poured himself a cup of wine and sat back on his throne, proud of his achievements.
He embraced his wife to his right and his daughter Belinda to his left.
His knee was hurting and he was loving it like never before.
All at once, he started laughing out loud.
Soon enough, the entire room was cheering out loud.

Afternoon

Yes, even more extraordinary was when Queen Henrietta was awoken hours later and, without any first comments from anyone else, said:
“Why, I am alive and back home? Don’t tell me that it’s 1425 again?”

Evening

That day, it was decided that everyone present on the grounds of Iuventus Sacrum was to join in a feast that was allowed to last for as long as possible, to celebrate the fact the darkness had been conquered and love again ruled the hearts of Clurafar.
That night, the married couples of Iuventus went to each their own bed and, although not much sleep was found during that night, it was a night of long forsaken love making under moonlight and stars.

Back in Reality, The next morning, September 25th 1425

Alexander had just woken up and was standing by his window in his study and throne room once again.
The window was open and the cool morning air was filling his lungs with healthy air and his sense with calm beauty.
He had a hangover, yes.
But what a luscious feeling it was to have something that showed him he was alive.
Everyone had a hangover this morning. He wanted not to be different. It was a matter of pride to be drunk now. It meant he cared.
The hangover was the proof of a celebration of life.
No, change that, he thought.
This hangover is my witness to that celebrated a triumph of spirituality against the dark.
Everyone single soul had someone to wake up next to this morning.
No one was left alone.
Alexander sighed as he watched the sun about two thirds of the way toward Zenith.
He gathered that he was the only one out and about at this time.
Alexander had always been a morning person and this morning was special.
It was his first real morning in four and half years.
He lifted his hand and took a long look at it.
He chuckled.
“Old hand!”
He sighed.
“I’m not twenty anymore. Forever young illusions!”
He heard a small bird fly past his window. It was a robin. He leaned out and watched how it chirped happily and flew around the corner.
“Hey, birdie!”
He saw it disappear and felt how happy he was just to enjoy the morning, the real morning, for the first time in his life, without fear.
The bird flew back and forth a few times and then disappeared into the morning sun. He was reminded of the giggling robin by Julian’s Inn on the way back home from Alliland. He knew that this bird had been a messenger from Callenia, warning him of things to come. This robin was happy, it was chirping. The ghosts were gone.
He walked to the clock that Reland Mansicart had given him and smiled.
There were no longer a devil and angel there in his mind, but two men shaking hands.
“The truth is in the eye of the beholder!”
He leaned back, walked a few steps toward the middle of the room and closed his eyes.
He started to laugh, realizing how silly and wonderful this was.
“Alex, you are going try this for real?”
The voice sounded like Michael’s, not his own.
He lifted his hands and waited.
Nothing happened.
He lifted his hands again.
Nothing.
He laughed again.
He stood up on his toes and moved his arms about.
He stood back on the soles of his feet and opened his eyes.
He smiled.
“I just have to face it. I can’t fly anymore.”
He heard a voice behind him.
“What a shame.”
He turned around. It was Belinda, she stood there in the doorway in her yellow spring dress.
“Not being able to fly, I mean!”
He grinned, very happily.
“And you were such a good bird, Father.”
“I thought you were the bird.”
Alex opened his arms and beamed.
“Oh, Belinda. Come into Daddy’s arms.”
She walked calmly to him and they embraced.
They stood there for quite a bit just embracing.
She felt his familiar warmth, his back, his skin.
He felt her curves and her familiar soft hair, her arms, her back.
They stepped back and looked at each other.
Softly, she said: “I can’t believe you made it, Dad!”
He nodded, thoughtfully.
“You know what, I can’t believe it either … I went through hell to get you all out, just to be able to stand here and tell you how much I love you.
“I am proud of you, father.” She looked up at him. “So proud.”
He gave her a little peck on the nose and she smiled. “I am proud of you.” He paused. “Was it hard for you?”
She shook her head.
“Liar!”
She closed her eyes. “It is over!”
“That is true.”
“When time is ripe I might have to talk about it one day” Belinda said, looking out of the window, “just as you will want to open your heart about it all to me or anyone one day. But …”
She looked at him.
He nodded.
“I know you are thinking the same thing, Father, so say it …”
”The memories of going through hell and destroying your fear is almost a memory of happiness, whereas being chased by your fear isn’t. We were chased by our fears for thirty years and now we have conquered them.”
Princess Belinda and King Alexander walked to the window, crossed their arms over their chests and leaned out of the window, looking out across the plains.
“Nice view, isn’t it?”
”Yes. I’ve missed