Over the Darkened Landscape - By Derryl Murphy Page 0,19

cloud.

Dropping another bead, Jack continued on his way, the castle his confirmed destination.

At first he thought perhaps it was a trick of perspective, but as Jack neared the castle and the clouds slowly gave way, he could see what looked to be an old woman standing on one of the many steps and sweeping away great nimbuses of dust. The problem was not the woman, nor was it her fairly mundane task; rather, it was the fact that she seemed so much taller than she possibly could be.

As Jack had neared the castle he thought he had managed to get a grip on perspective by judging the height of the stairs and size of the castle’s large central door by comparing them with plants from the garden, which led all the way to almost the foot of the high stone walls. The stairs appeared to be tall and broad, enough so that he might have to pull himself up like a child new to walking, and if this was accurate, then the door was tall enough for him to walk in with a man on his shoulders, and a man on that man’s shoulders.

Even with this evidence, though, it was hard to credit the size of the old woman. Crookedly stooped over the broom, she still seemed to be nearly twice Jack’s height.

He would need to be careful, and so decided to stop and eat and think about his advance.

Sitting on the ground behind a bush, Jack opened his bag and pulled out his lunch. Bread, cheese, small flask of wine, and some fruit. He ate fairly quickly, but still enjoyed every bite and swallow. When he was done, he set the empty flask on the ground beside him, wrapped the leftover cheese and placed it back in the bag, then stood up, plan in place and ready to go. The direct approach seemed most sensible right now.

The old woman was still on the steps, a little closer to ground level by the time he approached the bottom stair. She noticed him when he was about fifty paces off, and stopped her sweeping to watch his advance. She was, he noticed, perhaps even taller than his first estimate.

Stopping at the bottom stair, Jack tilted his head way back and smiled up at her. “Good morning, Ma’am.”

She cocked an eyebrow at him, nodded her head. “’Morning.” The look on her face told him nothing, aside from that she was likely not enthused about his presence.

“My name is Jack, Ma’am, Jack Armstrong. I have traveled some distance to come and see what lay behind these clouds.” He gestured overhead. From here, nothing above could be seen through the billowing mist.

The old woman leaned forward and spit through a gap in her front teeth, warm saliva splattering onto the steps near Jack like stale dirty water from a wash bucket. “Came far, eh?”

Jack nodded.

“Better come in for some tea, then, I reckon.” She turned and started up the steps, leaving the broom lying where she’d been standing. Jack followed after her, scrambling up the stairs on all fours. But then she stopped suddenly, and he almost bounced off her heel. The old woman turned and glared down at him, shook a long, crooked finger and said, “But mind you stay no longer than a cuppa. My man is out hunting for the day, and you don’t want to be here when he gets back.”

“Why is that, Ma’am?” asked Jack, panting a bit as he raced to keep up with her renewed ascension.

The old woman had reached the landing, and swung open the huge wooden door, its hinges creaking and scraping in protest. She waved him in and then shut the door with a teeth-jarring slam behind them, answering, “Because my man is an ogre who eats boys and men for breakfast, usually broiled and on buttered toast.” She leaned down until she was almost looking Jack in the eye, and hissed, “And he has a ferocious appetite!”

There was a squeal of feedback from Jack’s earpiece just then, and a babble of voices all shouting at once. “Sad je prekasno! Andjeo, ti moraš naci nacin da pobjegneš, ili ceš patiti tamo za cjelu vjecnost.”

He turned the volume right off, blinking at the shock of the onslaught of noise as well as the thought of having entered the castle of an ogre; a carnivorous ogre, at that. He nodded, because the old woman seemed to be expecting some response, and when she grunted with some