The House of Yeel - By Michael McCloskey Page 0,4

and taught a bit of the language to Jymoor. This unique combination of talents had been one of the reasons Jymoor had accepted the mission of traveling to the Far Coast. But the script on these books didn’t look even vaguely familiar.

Jymoor heard a noise from the adjacent room. She stepped through the huge archway uncertainly.

“Hello, is anyone—” her voice caught.

Before Jymoor an awful thing worked over a huge table. A tall cone of green rubbery flesh rose from the floor and extended higher than the top of Jymoor’s head. It was covered in thick skin with a sprinkling of warty growths. Several long hideous tentacles sprouted from the top of the body. Jymoor glimpsed eyestalks and dangerous looking hooks at the ends of the members before a shriek of terror clawed its way from her throat.

Jymoor turned to run in a panic. She bolted through the previous room and fumbled at the latch of the door to the stairs. Her shaking interfered with her dexterity so that the mechanism defied her for long seconds. She looked over her shoulder but saw no signs of pursuit. At last the door was open, and she ran up the sloped passage, winding round and round until coming to the top. She burst out of the passage and back into the kitchen.

Jymoor came to a hallway but wasn’t sure which way to turn. She panicked for a moment until she heard the soft rustling of the fountain. She ran toward it and came to the room full of columns. She headed past the glowing curtain portal and out the way she had come.

As she turned the corner, heading into the hallway toward the door, she was intercepted by a tall, thin man in heavy maroon robes.

“Please, dear lady, do calm yourself. I assure you there is no need—”

“Monster!” yelled Jymoor. “Run for your life!” She clutched at the man’s robes and tried to pull him toward the door.

“Monster? Oh no, no. That is not the case at all, I very strongly assure you, my lady. If you would take a deep breath and let me explain, you will see that there is absolutely no need for any alarm on your part. Calm yourself, breathe deeply, and I shall make everything clear. Very clear, simple, easy to understand, you see.”

Jymoor absorbed this speech reluctantly, at first ready to burst away without the stranger, and then with more calm, still looking repeatedly over her shoulder. At last she returned to the moment.

“Who…are…” she stammered.

The stranger shook his head. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Yeel. A collector of relics, examiner of artifacts. An alchemist at heart, really. I live here. So nice to meet you, my dear lady.”

Chapter 2: A Plea for Help

Jymoor’s eyes bulged. She had found the mighty Yeel! The tall man stood patiently before her, smiling serenely and shifting slightly in his reddish robes. She immediately believed his words, considering his height and pleasant appearance. She had imagined on her journey that the wizard would look either immensely handsome or unspeakably vile. Surely a personage of such stature could not look mundane. She felt relief that the other, darker, stories of his monstrous appearance were false.

“Yeel? My lord? Ah, a horrible thing—”

“The thing back there, the thing that you saw, which undoubtedly alarmed you, yes, of course, that was, um, just a gentle beast of burden, I assure you. It was my, ah, yes, a harmless creature, you see. He, ah, I mean it, yes it, trims the plants in the dome and generally keeps things in order. My helper, sentinel, a harmless worker.”

Jymoor dropped to her knees and groveled.

“Ah, no need for that my friend, I assure you. Neither I, Yeel, nor my, ah, nor the beast, the extremely kind and gentle beast that you saw, require any form of bowing or kneeling, I assure you. My good and very safe friend.”

Jymoor kept a respectful pose and listened as best she could to the Great Yeel, but she was hard pressed to keep up with the rapid rate of banter that came from the tall, skinny man. Nevertheless, her relief grew as she learned that this was Yeel, and apparently the awful thing she had seen presented no danger.

“Forgive me, Yeel. You mean, it’s like some sort of…giant goat?” asked Jymoor, still breathing heavily.

“Yes, yes, exactly like a giant goat. Only different. But no harm in any case. Are you all right, my friend? I inquire simply because of the