Tommy Black and the Staff of Light by Jake Kerr

Author:Jake Kerr [Kerr, Jake]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Currents & Tangents Press
Published: 2014-11-03T08:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER ELEVEN

A WALL CONFUSES ME

I was ushered through the entryway into a large sitting room. Felice told me to make myself comfortable as she exited through an arch to the right, which led to an open room with a marble floor.

The room we were in was cavernous, with a ceiling that was probably twenty feet above my head. It was dark and lit by candles, as there were no windows. There were bookshelves against the wall to my left, while there were large wingback chairs in each corner with a reading lamp and side table next to each. One table had a book on it and a pipe resting in an ashtray, smoke curling up from its bowl. All of the walls were paneled in a deep reddish wood, with the far wall covered with portraits and various landscapes. The wall to the right was paneled and broken up by the arched doorway, which must have been at least twenty feet wide and appeared to be some kind of antechamber.

Dominating the room was a huge painting on the far wall. It was of a fierce man with black flowing hair holding a staff above his head. He stood at the front of an army dressed in bright colors on a huge grassy plain. In front of him was another army, this one dressed in drab grey. The staff shot lightning bolts and fire out toward the opposing army, spreading disorder and injury. I looked more closely at the painting, and the detail on the faces of the soldiers’ was magnificent. The looks of terror were realistic enough to make me shiver. I immediately recognized the face of the man holding the staff. It was my grandfather, and perhaps even more disturbing than the faces of the army he was defeating was the look of joy on his face. That joy, juxtaposed with the terror of the soldiers, made my grandfather look almost evil.

“Does anything in the painting look familiar?” I looked over to see Felice standing near the door she left through.

“That’s my grandfather,” I stated.

“Yes. But I was talking about that.” She pointed at the staff. I took a step closer to the painting and examined the staff. It was my grandfather’s cane. I looked at the cane in my hand and then back at the painting. The cane in the painting was missing the brass tip at the bottom, but it was undoubtedly the same one. I held up the staff toward Felice, and she smiled.

I looked back up at the painting. “That’s a battle from the Great War. You can see the trenches in the background. I’ve never seen depictions of the battles with anything other than guns and cannons.”

“Guns and cannons, ha!” I turned to face a man stooped with age. Unlike everyone else in the Citadel, he actually looked like a magician. He had a small beard that came to a point just beyond his chin. His white hair was slicked back on his head,

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