The Thirteenth Monk (Bartholomew the Adventurer Trilogy Book 2) Read online

  Books by Tom Hoffman

  The Eleventh Ring

  The Thirteenth Monk

  The Seventh Medallion

  Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of

  the Clockwork Glowbirds

  Orville Mouse and the Puzzle of

  the Shattered Abacus

  With lots of love

  for Molly, Alex, Sophie, and Oliver

  A very special thanks to my wonderful editors

  Debbie, Alex, Amanda, Molly, Beth, Karen, and Chris for their invaluable assistance and excellent advice.

  Copyright © 2015 by Tom Hoffman

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Tom Hoffman Graphic Design

  Anchorage, Alaska

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Tom Hoffman

  Visit my website at thoffmanak.wordpress.com

  Email: [email protected]

  Printed in the United States of America

  First Printing: 2016

  ISBN 978-0-692-32925-2

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  Chapter 1.Falling

  Chapter 2. The Meeting

  Chapter 3. Oliver Takes a Holiday

  Chapter 4. The Fortress of Elders

  Chapter 5. The Ant

  Chapter 6. The Adventurer II

  Chapter 7. Edmund’s Curious Question

  Chapter 8. Maiden Voyage

  Chapter 9. Voices Within

  Chapter 10. Pterosaur Valley

  Chapter 11. Bruno’s House

  Chapter 12. Edmund’s Creation

  Chapter 13. Song

  Chapter 14. The Island of Blue Monks

  Chapter 15. Welcome to Nirriim

  Chapter 16. A Song for Edmund

  Chapter 17. Into the Light

  Chapter 18. Edmund, meet Edmund

  Chapter 19. The Cave

  Chapter 20. The Key

  Chapter 21. The Swamp of Lost Things

  Chapter 22. The Blue Spectre

  Chapter 23. Creekers

  Chapter 24. The Thirteenth Monk

  Chapter 25. The Timere Forest

  Chapter 26. Neilana

  Chapter 27. The Fires of Life

  Chapter 28. The Traveling Eye

  Chapter 29. Thunder and Lightning

  Chapter 30. The Map

  Chapter 31. Return to the Timere Forest

  Chapter 32. Edmund the Explorer Goes Home

  Chapter 33. Lightning’s Lesson

  Chapter 34. The Beast from Below

  Chapter 35. City Beneath the Sand

  Chapter 36. In the Belly of the Beast

  Chapter 37. Worm Guts

  Chapter 38. Edmund Loses Control

  Chapter 39. The Ghost of Mintar

  Chapter 40. Life is but a Dream

  Chapter 41. The Queen’s Haystack

  Chapter 42. The Long Road Home

  Chapter 43. Augustus C. Rabbit’s New Job

  Chapter 44. The Scream

  Chapter 45. Edmund’s New World

  “The universe begins to look more like a great thought than like a great machine. Mind no longer appears as an accidental intruder into the realm of matter; we are beginning to suspect that we ought rather to hail it as a creator and governor of the realm of matter.”

  – Sir James Jeans, British physicist (1930)

  “For the simplicity on this side of complexity,

  I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity

  on the other side of complexity,

  for that I would give you anything I have.”

  ―Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

  Bartholomew the Adventurer Trilogy

  Book Two

  The Thirteenth Monk

  Chapter 1

  Falling

  Edmund was falling. He wasn’t falling for a lovely female Rabbiton, he wasn’t falling for one of the Tree of Eyes’ juvenile pranks, and he wasn’t falling for the persuasive banter of a fast talking door-to-door salesrabbit. He was instead falling through churning gray clouds at precisely one hundred and twenty miles per hour, terminal velocity for an object of standard air resistance.

  Edmund the Rabbiton was a ten foot tall, six hundred and ninety-four pound silver robot created by the former inhabitants of the Fortress of Elders. He had been created over fifteen hundred years ago, shortly before the mysterious Elders had abandoned their fortress and moved to Mandora, a peaceful new world of their own creation.

  For the last fifteen hundred years Edmund had been known only as a ‘Model 9000 Rabbiton with the optional A7-Series 3 Repositorian Module’. That meant he was the caretaker for the Central Information Repository, a gigantic library containing the collective knowledge of the highly evolved and enigmatic Elders. It was Morthram, the Penrith Shapers Guild Master, who had suggested Edmund choose a shorter name for himself. He chose the name ‘Edmund’, naming himself after a long forgotten Elder known as Edmund the Explorer. Even though Edmund was a robot he had always wanted to be an adventurer and felt an inexplicable connection to Edmund the Explorer.

  Edmund had helped Bartholomew bring to a close the reign of the dastardly Grymmorian King Oberon, then taken on the role of Master of Rabbitons to the Fortress of Elders. As Master of Rabbitons, Edmund was responsible for the nearly fifteen thousand robotic Rabbitons abandoned by the Elders. He was also given the task of returning the Fortress of Elders to its original state, including a full restoration of the underground gravitator transportation system. Only the Rabbitons possessed the highly advanced technological expertise to perform this monumentally complex task.

  As Edmund was plummeting towards the ground below, he had only one moment of panic. That was when he thought he had lost his cherished adventurer’s hat to the one hundred and twenty mile per hour wind. The hat was a gift from his dear friends Bartholomew and Clara. In the days following King Oberon’s overthrow, Bartholomew had been exploring the expansive transportation system beneath the Fortress of Elders and spotted a hat in one of the ancient shops. It was a traditional adventurer's hat made from brown felt with a wide brim and a tightly woven straw band. The right brim folded up to the crown and a single purple feather was tucked into the straw band on the opposite side. Bartholomew remembered Edmund mentioning he had always wanted to wear a hat, so he and Clara presented it to him before their return to Bartholomew’s home in Lepus Hollow. Much to Edmund’s great relief he found his beloved hat still strapped tightly to his head.

  “Oh my, that was rather a fright. A real adventurer would never lose his hat.”

  Edmund eyed the large gleaming ship falling alongside him, also plummeting towards the ground at one hundred and twenty miles per hour.

  “I hope Oliver isn’t too distraught over the potential loss of the Adventurer II. I know he spent a great deal of time and effort on its design and construction, and he does seem especially proud of his creation. I suppose we could enlist the robotic A9 Engineering Rabbitons to help rebuild it. That should cheer him up.” Edmund cupped his hands to his mouth and hollered across to the sleek silver craft.

  “Oliver, no need to fret! We’ll be able to repair the Adventurer II with help from the A9 Engineering Rabbitons back at t
he Fortress!”

  Two heads, both possessing very wide eyes, popped up from behind one of the cabin seats. The heads belonged to Bartholomew Rabbit, also known as Bartholomew the Adventurer, and to Oliver T. Rabbit, former head of research and material acquisitions at the Excelsior Electro-Vacuumator Corporation, the largest manufacturer of electric powered household cleaning appliances in Lapinor.

  The extraordinary series of events in which the three adventurers were now deeply immersed had begun quite innocuously, nearly three months earlier at the Excelsior Electro-Vacuumator Corporation headquarters in New Fendaron.

  Chapter 2

  The Meeting

  Senior Engineer Alexander J. Rabbit strode down the long hallway, a sheath of technical drawings tucked beneath his arm. Alexander was employed at the Excelsior Electro-Vacuumator Corporation in the great Lapinoric metropolis of New Fendaron, and was on his way to meet with Oliver T. Rabbit, head of research and material acquisitions. This would be the first time Alexander had ever seen Oliver T. Rabbit in the flesh, but he had heard plenty of stories, each one more outlandish than the previous one.

  It was said Oliver had inexplicably vanished, returning many months later with fantastic tales of a talking tree covered with eyes, the daring rescue of his long lost sister Clara, who he claimed was a mystical shaper, the dethroning of an evil Grymmorian king named Oberon, and even a mysterious valley inhabited by prehistoric pterosaurs. He also spoke of a rabbit named Bartholomew the Adventurer who possessed shaping skills that beggared the imagination.

  Alexander muttered to himself as he padded briskly down the hall. “Unadulterated poppycock – ridiculous stories told by rabbits ignorant of the most basic scientific principles. He may once have been a great scientist, but Oliver T. Rabbit is now nuttier than my Aunt Molly’s fruitcake.”

  Reaching the end of the corridor, Alexander stopped and eyed the ornately carved wooden door adorned with a brass plaque reading Oliver T. Rabbit. With a dismal shake of his head, he knocked loudly on the door.

  There was a garbled sound from within which sounded vaguely like, “Umber!”

  Correctly assuming the word he had heard was ‘enter’, Alexander swung the door open and was met by the sight of a rather plump rabbit leaning back in his chair, both feet resting on his desk. In one paw he held an éclair from which he had just taken a substantial bite, the now obvious reason for his nearly unintelligible response.

  “Éclair?” Oliver pointed to a plate of the delicious pastries sitting on his desk.

  “No thank you, sir. I don’t want to take up too much of your time. As you had requested, I am here to show you the revised drawings for the Mark VII Commercial Series 2 Electro-Vacuumator.”

  “Ah, yes, the new commercial Electro-Vacuumator designs.” Oliver removed his feet from the desk and set the half-eaten éclair on the window sill behind him.

  Spreading the drawings out in front of Oliver T. Rabbit, Alexander began his presentation. “As you can see here, sir –”

  “Oliver. Please do call me Oliver.”

  “Yes, sir... Oliver. As you can see here, I have made four changes to the existing design of the Mark VII commercial model – here, here, here, and here. These relatively minor alterations have increased the total output of the duplonium engine by twelve percent, all with no increase to the current manufacturing costs. It’s rather exciting if I may say so... Oliver.”

  “Yes, quite exciting indeed. Twelve percent at no additional cost.” Oliver reached for the half-eaten éclair, pausing to gaze out the window at the busy streets below. “Not quite as exciting as facing Zoran the Emerald Shaper in the Fortress of Elders though. Now that is a day I will not soon forget.”

  “Zoran... I’m afraid I’m not familiar with him. He was someone you worked with?”

  “Ha! Indeed, he was my boss for two days until he threw me into a dungeon and then tried to vaporize us all. If it wasn’t for a fifteen hundred year old robotic Rabbiton named Edmund, I’d be a pile of purple glowing ashes.”

  “Ah, a pile of glowing ashes. Well, thank you for your time, Oliver. I’ll just leave these drawings with you, and at your leisure you may make whatever changes you wish, or approve them as they are.”

  Oliver glanced at Alexander with an apologetic smile. “Pay no attention to my fantastic tales, young sir. These are well crafted, thoughtful designs and you are to be highly commended.” Oliver quickly initialed each of the drawings and handed them to Alexander. “Your drawings are approved as they stand.”

  “Thank you, Oliver, it is an honor to receive such praise from a great scientist such as yourself.” With a quick nod to Oliver, Alexander walked out the door, closing it carefully behind him.

  Senior Engineer Alexander J. Rabbit strode back down the hall, muttering to himself. “It’s all true. Oliver T. Rabbit is as mad as a bag of frogs.”

  Chapter 3

  Oliver Takes a Holiday

  “Drat. Bartholomew was right, I must refrain from telling tales of our adventures to rabbits who possess no understanding of the science behind them. That’s one more engineer who thinks I’m quite mad, and I’m afraid there aren’t many left who would disagree with him.”

  With a long sigh, Oliver T. Rabbit turned his attention to the stack of unanswered letters sitting on his desk. “I suppose a year ago I wouldn’t have believed my stories either. If someone had told me there were rabbits who use their mind to create thought clouds, then convert those clouds to solid objects, I would have laughed louder and longer than most.” He smiled, remembering the first time Bartholomew had shaped an object in front of him. A molasses cookie had blinked into existence right in Bartholomew’s paw. Rabbits with this ability called themselves shapers, and some shapers could blink themselves almost instantly to other locations, or transform themselves into the physical form of other creatures. Bartholomew called that formshifting, and was quite adept at it himself.

  It had been a slow, painful process for Oliver to come to the realization that these seemingly miraculous events had a solid foundation in certain esoteric principles of physics. Unfortunately, most of these principles lay outside the current boundaries of general scientific knowledge. As a result of his research and experimentation, Oliver now understood more about the science of shaping than any other living rabbit. To his great dismay, however, his theories regarding these phenomena had been soundly rejected by his peers, many quickly distancing themselves from Oliver T. Rabbit and his preposterous new ideas. Even with an abundance of proof, a good number of these scientists still did not believe in the existence of shapers, claiming the objects created by them were only ‘illusions’”.

  Oliver pulled a letter off the top of the stack and began to read. One of their suppliers was raising the price of cast wheel assemblies. For no particular reason he flipped the letter over and wrote, ‘The Adventurer’. It was this seemingly insignificant event which would eventually lead to Edmund the Rabbiton’s spectacular fall from the sky.

  The Adventurer was the name of the vessel Bartholomew and Oliver had sailed up the Halsey River towards Penrith during their search for Oliver’s long lost sister Clara, who had also been Bartholomew’s dearest bunnyhood friend. The Adventurer was tragically torn apart on jagged rocks, disappearing forever beneath the roaring river. Bartholomew and Oliver had barely escaped with their lives.

  Ever the perfectionist, Oliver meticulously sketched the craft. He had originally designed it as a three-wheeled duplonium powered wagon to carry their supplies, later converting it to a power boat for their excursion up the Halsey River. Duplonium is an extraordinarily rare element, and a source of unlimited power. A piece the size of a small marble could drive a massive steam generator for hundreds of years. Since Bartholomew’s discovery of a huge duplonium deposit in the Swamp of Lost Things, all the Excelsior Electro-Vacuumators were now powered by this rare element. His discovery had incidentally made Bartholomew an exceedingly wealthy rabbit.

  Oliver eyed the completed drawing with
a wistful smile, then turned the drawing sideways and slid it into his outbox, reaching for the next letter. His paw stopped in mid air, however, his eyes filled with the brilliant light of realization.

  “Good heavens! I am a complete dunderhead! Why have I not thought of this before?” He grabbed another letter and flipped it over, scribbling madly, his pencil racing across the paper. “Yes, yes, this is quite elegant, it will certainly work. It is simple physics and nothing more. This will change everything.” He leaped to his feet, grabbed the drawing and dashed out of his office.

  Ten minutes later Oliver T. Rabbit unceremoniously barged into the plush offices of Augustus C. Rabbit, president of the Excelsior Electro-Vacuumator Corporation. Oliver held the drawing up in front of Augustus. “You are looking at the future, sir. This is the beginning of a great revolution in the world of rabbits and muroidians.”

  Augustus C. Rabbit looked at the drawing curiously, then at Oliver, then back at the drawing. He slowly removed his gold rimmed glasses, pausing for a moment to brush away a speck of dust. “Oliver, I hope you know I have nothing but respect and admiration for you. Your reputation as one of Lapinor’s foremost scientists is beyond question, and the Excelsior Corporation has been extraordinarily lucky to count you as one of its employees.”

  Exactly thirty-four minutes later Oliver flew out of the office, banged the door shut behind him and dashed out the front door of the Excelsior Electro-Vacuumator Corporation headquarters.

  The following morning, Senior Engineer Alexander J. Rabbit was strolling down the hallway to his office, a large porcelain mug of steaming coffee in one paw. He stopped to peruse the bulletin board, one notice in particular catching his attention.

  NOTICE FROM

  PRESIDENT AUGUSTUS C. RABBIT