The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) (20 page)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Waterfall Village

Jake couldn’t believe he had such an impressive piece of Nature on his property.

White Lace Falls plunged a hundred feet over the cliff’s edge, breaking into five whitewater plumes that p
ounded the boulders.

Where the last glow of sunset filtered through the spray, the light shattered into a rainbow that hovered in the mist between the thundering cascades.

It was breathtaking, tucked away within the sprawling wooded acreage of Plas-y-Fforest. Because the river with the waterfall cut through his lands, Jake’s ancestors had been able to let the dwarves live here in privacy for an age.

Well, there’s the waterfall,
Jake thought, but peering eagerly out the carriage window, he did not see signs yet of any dwarf village.

“Are we here?” Archie asked when Nimbus brought the coach
to a halt beside a grassy clearing on the banks of the river’s lower run.

“We must be,” Isabelle said.

This was confirmed when the house-brownie coachman came and got the door for them. Everyone climbed out dressed in their best finery for the occasion of the dwarves’ celebration.

The girls shone like jewels in satin gowns with puffy skirts that nearly r
eached the ground. Thankfully, the dwarves’ reception was not quite formal enough for the boys to wear tuxedoes. Instead, they had donned the nicest trousers, waistcoats, and jackets they had brought.

Still, without Henry to tie his
complicated red cravat, Jake had had to resort to having Miss Helena do it. Once the knot of his neckcloth was properly sorted out and smoothed down, he thought he looked pretty dashed smart, if he said so himself.

T
oo bad Petunia Harris couldn’t see him, he had thought, mugging in the mirror before they had left the cottage. Ha! Well, she’d get her chance soon.

Derek marched
ahead of them to the edge of the river, having somehow found the strength to stop staring at Miss Helena. The half-French governess admittedly looked fetching in her dark purple bustle-gown and elbow gloves, with her black hair all pinned up and a dark ribbon elegantly fitted around her neck.

Truthfully, out here in Nature,
though, it seemed like a better place for them to be wearing the hiking boots Derek had insisted on when they had had their tour of the goldmine, Jake thought.

He wasn’t quite sure what was going on when Derek nodded, standing at the river’s edge,
and gestured to Nimbus.

Nimbus
took his tin traffic horn out of its holder on top of the carriage and blew it.

Jake surmised that t
his was some sort of signal.

Der
ek beckoned to them. “Everyone, follow me. Mind your step.” He proceeded to walk out onto the stepping stones that led into the middle of the river.

Jake and Arc
hie exchanged a startled glance.

“Come along, it’s quite safe,” Derek said.

The boys rushed forward, though, even to Jake, it seemed dicey to undertake this little obstacle course when they were all dressed up.

The girls looked appalled at the prospect of gett
ing their fancy gowns splashed—or worse, falling into the muddy river.

Which Jake thought might be kind of amusing.
Especially since he and Dani O’Dell still weren’t speaking.

Fortunately, however, Miss Helena was right behind them, moving with her particular cat-like gr
ace, just in case either of the young ladies should wobble.

As it turned out, the stepping st
ones were very easy to walk on—close enough together for even a dwarf’s short strides.

T
he constant rumble of the falls grew louder as the group picked their way out toward the middle of the river.

All around them, the water pooled and swirled in eddies here and there. Old fallen logs trapped it in spots, creating tranquil little shal
lows, where fish drifted.

“So
, why are we doing this?” Jake called to Derek when he could no longer contain his curiosity.

The Guard
ian merely smiled over his shoulder, stopping when he reached the center of the river, but it was Archie who first grasped the answer.

“
Look! The waterfall’s slowing,” he said.

Jake blinked. “It looks like the water’s shutting off.”

“No, the flows are merely being redirected. See? Sluice gates on the upper river temporarily channel the water into the four side flows. That’ll leave the middle one dry in a moment. Then we can go in,” Archie said brightly.

“The dwarf village is
underneath
the waterfall?” Dani exclaimed.

“Behind it,” Derek said with a grin. “Surprise
.”

Sure enough, as they watched, the middle cascade trickled off, while the four remaining falls—two on ea
ch side—poured down all the stronger as the water was redirected.

“The dwarves
are really excellent engineers,” Archie murmured.

Derek nodded in agreement, but Jake just stared in astonishment as the waterfall
parted like theatre curtains, revealing the grand arched doorway to the dwarves’ secret realm.

“H
ow do we get up there?” Isabelle asked, cupping her hands around her hair in an effort to protect her golden curls from the mist and spray around the falls.

It was a good question.

The arched entrance to Waterfall Village was set about thirty feet up on the sheer rock face of the cliff, obviously for purposes of defense.

Jake didn’t see any way to scale it. No steps, no bridge, no ladder, nothing.

“Surely they’re not going to make us climb?” Isabelle asked in dismay.

The Guardian was apparently enjoying keeping them all in suspense. “Let’s hope not, hmm?”
he teased.

S
uddenly, a metallic cranking sound filled the air, and a mechanical platform rolled out from underneath the archway, right out of the cliff face.

When it reached its full length—about the size of a mattress—another layer of metal dropped out neatly from under it and likewise trundled forward. Again and again, this repeated with a series of loud metallic thuds. Clank, clank, clank, the long, broad platforms came clattering down and towa
rd them, creating a dark metal staircase with a red carpet down the middle.

By this means, guests could simply walk up to the entrance of Waterfall Village.

“Voila,” Derek said.

“How do
you like that!” Archie laughed as the bottom step locked into place with a bang right at their feet.

“After you.” Derek
gestured politely to the boys to go ahead of him. They did.

Then he wai
ted for the young ladies, who all looked exceedingly relieved. Miss Helena’s eyes twinkled as she placed her gloved fingers on Derek’s offered hand, lifted the hem of her long skirts, and stepped gracefully onto the bottom stair.

When they had all moved safely off the stepping stones onto the strange
mechanical stairway, they walked up in a group. Each metal stair retracted behind them, though not as quickly as they had rolled out.

Jake looked over the edge at the frothing river as they went closer to the falls. The breeze from the rumbling cascades blew h
is forelock around. “Brilliant.”

When they reached the top and stepped through the arch
way, the stairs disappeared behind them, and somewhere on the upper river, the sluice gates must have been cranked open again, for the main waterfall resumed flowing, arcing over them, and tumbling ceaselessly behind their backs. It was marvelous. Jake stared in wonder at the back of the waterfall.

They were behind it now
, invisible to the outer world.

Even more unusual was the sight before them:
hundreds of dwarves waiting to greet them. Emrys trudged out with a broad grin, opening his arms wide in a gesture of welcome. Old Ufudd came hurrying along a step behind him.

Miss Helena turned
quickly to the four of them. “Children, get into position as we discussed. We are going to meet the dignitaries on the receiving line.”

Jake turned to the nearest girl, who happened to be Dani, and
offered her his arm to escort her in, as the governess had instructed would be expected of them.

He lifted an ey
ebrow, however, when the carrot-head turned up her freckled nose and walked away, going over to take Archie’s arm, instead.

“Fine,” Jake muttered with a scowl
. Thankfully, Isabelle did not shun him.

At the head of the row, Miss Helena took Derek’s arm; the Guardian stood ramrod straight.

The dwarves were waiting for them. It was time to parade down the receiving line, nodding cordially to the dwarf bigwigs and shaking their little strong hands here and there as they went.

Isabelle was much better at all this than he was,
smiling and waving to the crowd like a blasted royal princess. Behind them, Dani and Archie were both waving madly everywhere—pair of cheerful little widgeons, Jake thought. It was all
he
could do not to scowl after Dani’s snub, but that would look haughty and rude. So he put a smile on his face.

Honestly, though, it was bad enough
still having Red peeved at him without Dani also joining the ranks of those against him.

Just then, the Gryphon bounded over to join
their party, landing a few feet away from Jake.

Jake looked over hopefully.
The noble beast folded his magnificent scarlet wings against his tawny lion-back and walked along proudly beside them in their formal parade.

Jake noticed that t
he dwarves had honored Red with a gold medal of some kind.

It hung from a blue ribbon around the Gryphon’s neck.

They sure love their mighty Crafanc,
he thought in amusement, and the feeling was obviously mutual.

Red seemed very happy here
in Waterfall Village. That realization actually came as a relief, for it dawned on Jake that maybe he had misunderstood.

Maybe Red was not so much avoiding
him
as choosing to spend as much time as possible with his dwarf friends before it was time to go back to England.

I hope so,
Jake thought. He could certainly see why Red liked it here.

Waterfall Village was snug and dry and extremely cozy.
It was underground, true, and a little dim for Jake’s tastes, lit only by streetlamps and hanging lanterns everywhere, but it seemed to suit the mining folk who dwelled there, and it was they who made it warm.

The dwarves
thronged the village center, crowding around to see their guests, waving and yelling friendly hellos.

Jake marveled at everythin
g, craning his neck to look around in all directions.

The village center sa
t under a tall, domed ceiling of hollowed-out rock, just like the Atrium back at the goldmine. Under this soaring space, it had all the amenities of an ordinary village, except everything seemed child-sized.

A
quaint fountain splashed in the middle of the village square; market stalls sold food around the edges. A clock-tower overlooked the scene, and little railroad tracks ran past for the crazy mining carts that pulled in each morning to take the men to work.