The Defenders of Aletheia by E M Wilkie

Author:E M Wilkie
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: childrens adventures, childrens books, christian adventure stories, christian allegory, christian books, christian books for kids, christian fantasy adventures, christian teen fiction, christian youth fiction, kids books, kids adventure stories
Publisher: E M Wilkie
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

THE DECEIVEDORS

“Jack?” Harris Merryweather peered through the crack in the door through which his brother had vanished. He had heard Jack scraping and pushing through the narrow pipe beyond the door, but now there was silence. “Did we find Aletheia, Jack?” he called. He sat back on his heels and considered what to do. Jack had only been gone a minute or two and he knew he should be patient. But it wouldn’t hurt to wait inside the intriguing wooden door, and Harris decided to do exactly that. It was more of an adventure than waiting in the soggy ditch, especially since it was starting to rain.

Harris was smaller than Jack and he squeezed quite easily through the crack in the door. He found the pipe easier to navigate than Jack had done too, even with his school rucksack on his back. He crawled over the moist dirt and dried leaves down the tiny tunnel. Like Jack, he was not too concerned about how to reverse the journey. If his brother came this way, then it must be alright. Harris reached the bend in the pipe, and suddenly, most unexpectedly, everything changed.

He crawled through the entry to the very large cavern: and stopped in horror. In front of him was the strangest gathering he could ever imagine. Instinctively, Harris knew it was not a meeting where he would be welcome, and he ducked behind a nearby rock and peeped cautiously at the fantastic scene.

It was like being trapped in a horrible dream. The cavern was lit with a few flickering lanterns which cast strange, weirdly moving shadows on the walls. Around the massive cave, in some semblance of order, were seated ugly, bulbous creatures which were unlike anything Harris had ever seen before. They had heads, and bodies, and arms, and legs, as people did; and eyes, and ears, and noses, and mouths, all in approximately the right place; but their bodies were distorted, as if all the parts weren’t exactly sure how big they were meant to be, and what shape was intended either. They were clothed in tatty, disgusting garments that didn’t fit. It was almost as if they were unfinished mutations that someone had discarded too early in their creation. They were speaking together, and Harris could understand their words which were formed through a curious hissing sound. It was – it was just as you might imagine a snake to speak. It was a very peculiar accent.

In the centre of the cavern, clearly in charge, was a particularly massive brute that was enormously fat and clothed in a bizarre blue robe which might have been intended to portray dignity and importance. But now the gold fringe was dirty and frayed, and there was an inconvenient hole in the body of the robe with which the wretch fiddled as he talked.

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