point of land in Bairnmoor. After an intense conversation with Butterfly that left the two friends somewhat estranged, Childheart departed for Sutante’s fortress situated far to the south.
FOR CHILDHEART AND KAHNER, VOLUME II ENDS with the unicorn traversing, successively, barren knolls, a vast desert, an expansive marsh, and a broad river of rapids. He manages to jump the rapids; then, in his exhaustion, he falls asleep, only to be harshly awakened by choking smoke. Kahner has at this point quite disappeared, his whereabouts and condition unknown, even to the reader.
Throughout Volume II, while searching for the boys, Thorn and Starnee had been pursued relentlessly by a flock of falcons determined to kill them. After managing to evade the falcons successfully a number of times, the Dactyl and condor were about to be dealt a lethal blow above a small lake in The Mountains, when, once again, approaching the end of Volume II, Thorn and Starnee escaped the falcons by diving into, and then floating on, a tributary running east through The Mountains that was too narrow for a falcon attack.
FOR THORN AND STARNEE, VOLUMI II ENDS with the Dactyl and condor exiting both the tributary and The Mountains on the back of a waterfall that would have sent them crashing to their deaths on the rocks below, but for Starnee’s ability to spread four wings and fly away. Soaring above a vast marsh located more than a thousand feet below them, the condor and Dactyl spy in the distance about a mile to the north a grove of trees and a river running through it west to east, also ending in a waterfall. Presuming the boys had likely jumped into this river near Taralina’s castle to initially escape enemy warriors, it now appears that Alex and Jamie have plunged to their deaths over the falls. Exhausted and hungry, as well as immensely disheartened, Starnee and Thorn land among the trees for cover. There they eat, decide their next course of action, including a search for their friends’ bodies, and then sleep—or, in the case of Starnee, half sleep, with one eye open.
Much earlier in Volume II, Alex and Jamie, having indeed jumped into the river as their only means of escape from Santanya’s warriors, were about to be pulled over a waterfall to their deaths, when they were saved just in time by the giant bumblebee, Simply Bee, and transported in the bee’s pollen baskets to Simply’s hive in Sanctuary, located far to the northeast. Throughout Volume II the boys became better acquainted with Simply Bee as a precursor to joining Elli and Beatríz who (the boys learned from Simply) with the assistance of the ground grub, Aneht, are to lead an impossible assault against Sutante Bliss back at the Queen’s tomb, but (unknown to the boys) only by way of the girls first assailing Sutante’s impenetrable fortress located beyond the vile “land of the shifting moors” called the OOeegaltabog.
FOR ALEX AND JAMIE, VOLUME II ENDS with the boys, transported by Simply Bee, about to be reunited with Beatríz and Elli at the appointed place, only to discover that both the ground grub and the girls are missing. An invasion of Sanctuary by forces belonging to Sutante Bliss is now underway, with various creatures of battle climbing out of the OOeegaltabog and overwhelming the land that until this moment was the only place remaining in all of Bairnmoor that stood between Bairnmoor and its annihilation. As Simply and the boys witness the invasion from a hidden place in the trees, they are all but bereft of hope, wondering what they can now do that will prove to be anything more than futile.
At the very beginning of Volume II, the reader learned that Elli and Beatríz had not been killed by the direct strike of the spear in Elli’s back that had propelled the girls into the dead Queen’s tomb, Elli’s knife stowed behind her in the waist of her skirt having absorbed the brunt of the hit. Discovering no body—but only the empty clothes—of the Queen atop the stone bier, the girls began a determined search for a way out of the pitch black tomb. After some hours of walking hand in hand down a long tunnel away from the front of the tomb, Elli and Beatríz encountered a giant ground grub named Aneht who rescued them from the tomb and brought them to the land of Sanctuary, the only place remaining in the whole of Bairnmoor that had not been invaded by Sutante Bliss. Throughout the course of Volume II Aneht has been “preparing” the girls for war against Sutante Bliss in the most unusual of ways: by engaging them in Socratic dialogue that occurs in various places. In one moment they are conversing outside Mud Mansion, only to find themselves a moment later talking in the stars.
Toward the end of Volume II, the two girls, their “preparation for war” having been concluded, found themselves stationed atop Glannabar, the sawed-off trunk of an enormous tree that is covered by a dome of invisible silk threads. From there the girls were shortly to enter—under the careful instructions of Aneht, but nevertheless all alone—the terrifyingly evil OOeegaltabog as their only way back to the tomb that would constitute their only chance to attack and defeat Sutante Bliss. As the girls and Aneht awaited the arrival of someone named Sara, who was going to lower the girls into the OOeegaltabog, Aneht suddenly realized that she had forgotten the girls’ knapsacks filled with all the necessary provisions. She abruptly departed to retrieve the knapsacks, leaving the girls alone atop Glannabar, but assuring them that she would return shortly.
While Aneht was away, the girls were attacked by a flock of falcons; the birds could not reach Elli and Beatríz, however, because of the protective glass bubble covering Glannabar. Shortly thereafter, a giant white spider climbed atop Glannabar’s invisible dome and reached down between the silk threads toward the girls, who in terror crouched low, awaiting their demise. But when the spider began to speak, Elli and Beatríz quickly realized that the spider was none other than the “Sara” Aneht had been waiting for.
FOR ELLI AND BEATRÍZ, VOLUME II ENDS with the two girls and Sara witnessing to their horror a flock of falcons dropping the limp body of Aneht into the middle of the OOeegaltabog. Sara then departs swiftly to obtain the provisions the girls will require during the next phase of their journey. As soon as Sara returns with the knapsacks, she carries Elli and Beatríz in urgent haste to the northern edge of Sanctuary and lowers them on black silk threads into the OOeegaltabog. Aided solely by the light of Aneht’s lantern, the Darknessfinder, Elli and Beatríz must pass through the OOeegaltabog to reach the fortress belonging to Sutante Bliss and so, inscrutably, the only way back to the Queen’s tomb. Shortly after entering the OOeegaltabog, Elli suddenly disappears into the murk of the bog, screaming for Beatríz, who cannot see her.
Blackfire: The Girl with the Diamond Key
The Books of Bairnmoor, Volume III
Copyright © 2017 James Daniel Eckblad. All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in critical publications or reviews, no part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without prior written permission from the publisher. Write: Permissions, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3, Eugene, OR 97401.
Resource Publications
An Imprint of Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 W. 8th Ave., Suite 3
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paperback isbn: 978-1-5326-1632-7
hardcover isbn: 978-1-4982-4003-1
ebook isbn: 978-1-4982-4002-4
Manufactured in the U.S.A. December 5, 2017
~one~
Childheart sprang to his feet, coughing, choking on smoke that had engulfed him and was filling his lungs and stinging his eyes. The smoke was so dense that it blotted out the light from the sky, rendering Childheart incapable of seeing anything whatsoever, including most urgently any place providing a way of escape. And he knew he couldn’t last long; so any way out of the smoke, of necessity, would have to be nearby.
Childheart’s thoughts turned to the river—toward which he was already dashing, heading in the direction of its sound. Within seconds, the unicorn, galloping with utter abandon, tumbled harshly into the surf, his left hind leg striking a submerged rock as he plunged beneath the roiling waves, and was pulled by fierce currents swiftly downstream to the east.
Childheart knew that struggling against the currents would only waste oxygen. Moreover, he saw no light penetrating the water from above, and so concluded that surfacing for air at this point, despite his dire need, would simply deliver him to the same smoke he sprang