The Word Guardians: and the Battle for the Peacekeepers by Lawrence Yarham

Author:Lawrence Yarham [Yarham, Lawrence]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-08-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

The Country Mansion

The three of them stepped through the doorway onto a wide gravel driveway. The front of the house exactly fitted the description given by Yas’s mom.

“The front door,” said Sam to Yas as they surveyed the scene around them. “It’s the same as the image we saw in Alexandria.”

“Yes,” agreed Yas. They were in the right place. The front door was partly shaded and set back under a porch, columns on either side. It explained why the door had seemed dark and foreboding in the image they had been shown. Either side of the porch were large Georgian windows, and from the outside it was difficult to see in. The sun was low in the sky, and hidden by fog of changing thickness, casting occasional shafts of light and bright cloud that reflected in the windows. The air was fresh but cold, the moisture in the air making it so.

Yas looked behind her at the portal and the rippling image of the kitchen beyond. She noticed that her pendant was hot next to her skin and she stepped away, watching as she did so. The portal collapsed in on itself and winked out, leaving a clearer view of the long driveway. She imagined that in the distance were gates but trying to look too far resulted in a speckled snow blindness.

“Let’s get inside,” said Yas’s mom, shivering. The cold was starting to get to all of them.

They walked on the gravel as lightly as possible, each of them looking about for any signs of life or movement. They reached the porch and stepped up onto the large flagstone in front of the door.

Sam reached forwards to the door and pushed it gently. It moved, making a slight creak on its hinges. He looked back at them nervously. Yas’s mom put her finger to her lips to signal quiet, then she stepped forwards and pushed the door open a little more. She leaned forwards and glimpsed through, looking and listening for any signs of movement. Satisfied that there were none, she opened the door fully and went inside, followed by Yas and Sam.

They stood on a stone floor which led to the foot of a wide wooden staircase. In the right-hand corner near the door and acting as some sort of elaborate coat stand, was a white statue of a gargoyle.

“I don’t remember that being there before,” said Yas’s mom, in passing.

“Yeah, that’s creepy,” agreed Sam, regarding it carefully.

The stairs led up to a gallery landing that ran both left and right, to guest rooms. Light from the large windows at the front of the house cast eerie grey shadows that moved across the back wall upstairs. Portraits hung on the wall going up the stairs. Yas didn’t remember these and wondered if they depicted previous owners of the house. None of them seemed familiar.

The Great room that Yas had imagined was immediately to their left. Double doors opened inwards, allowing them to see through to the fireplace. They made their way into the room.

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