The Keeper of the Stones

by M J Webb

  Chapter 8

  14th August – Harry’s Kitchen – Lichfield

  Boghias lay mortally wounded on Harry’s kitchen floor, clutching the gaping wound in his stomach. Adrob was still trying to enter into the fight, the giant frame of Sawdon being directly in front of him reigning down powerful blows onto Harry’s sword and effectively blocking his path. Harry was already seriously wounded but he was gamely trying to defend himself with the last ounce of strength his body could muster. Then he heard the ‘bang’ from the living room as the box opened. It seemed to give him an additional surge of strength and energy, enabling him to hold out just long enough to see the light the stones emitted as it illuminated the entire house, before it was gone, and so too were the boys!

  Harry’s remaining strength failed him almost immediately. Sawdon’s sword struck one final blow onto Harry’s and it fell from his hand onto the floor, his knees gave way and he collapsed in a crumpled heap onto the tiles, totally exhausted and now expecting to die. He was completely at Sawdon’s mercy.

  The mighty Thargw towered above him for a moment, deciding whether or not to ‘finish him off’. Then he calmly reached down and picked up Harry’s sword. He placed it into his belt and lifted Harry up roughly by his clothes, dragging him through into the living room. Harry moaned in pain with every movement as they aggravated his terrible injury. Sawdon threw him down onto the couch. He landed with a jolt that winded him and sent a surge of excruciating pain up his wounded arm, making him scream out in agony. The warrior scanned the room but the boys and the stones were gone. He let out an almighty roar, so loud and fierce that it startled both Adrob and Harry, and seemed to shake the room’s very foundations.

  Harry recovered himself and managed a feeble smile. “Ha. You’re too late, Sawdon.” he said weakly, now resigned to his probable fate. “You’ve failed again. How will you explain this one away? It’s getting to be a habit, isn’t it?” he continued, defiantly mocking the Thargw with all the carefree abandon of a man who knew he was about to die.

  Sawdon seethed in anger, he knelt down beside Harry and placed his giant clawed hand around his injured arm, squeezing it tightly so that Harry wriggled violently in pain and screamed out in agony once more. “Raar… You have caused me a lot of trouble, Keeper!” he snarled. “Tell me, what have you told the boy? He fights well for one so young, but his skills are not yet honed, he is weak and he has much to learn. Your son? No, I think not, too young. He will be caught. The light will have sent him to Rhuaddan, and there he will be hunted and killed. There, he will be in my world, with no friends to aid him. You should be ashamed of yourself Keeper, for entrusting the fate of the stones to one so young.”

  Harry was ghostly white now, the blood had drained from his body and his sight was failing, he was hardly able to speak, he knew he was lapsing into unconsciousness, but he made one final effort to talk.

  “That ‘boy’ is stronger than you think! He will avenge me.” he said defiantly.

  Then his body went limp and it settled back into the couch as he fainted through loss of blood. Sawdon looked over at Adrob. The warrior was now poised with his sword raised to strike a killer blow against his helpless enemy.

  “Stop!” shouted Sawdon angrily. “That right is mine!” he roared in Adrob’s face, so loudly that the yung warrior almost wet himself with fright. “Go and fetch Boghias. We must return. We must see if we can locate the stones. And if we cannot, we must report back to King Vantrax.” he stated, with all the discipline of a trained soldier. Adrob sheathed his sword obediently and disappeared into the kitchen. He found Boghias barely alive and he helped him into the living room where he fell onto the chair, still bleeding heavily from his wound, moaning in pain and clutching his stomach.

  Sawdon still stood threateningly over the motionless Harry, but even Sawdon didn’t like the idea of killing an enemy who could offer no resistance and didn’t see it coming. He was waiting, hoping that Harry would regain consciousness. But after a short while he decided that it wasn’t going to happen.

  ‘There is no honour in such a kill as this for a Thargw.’ he thought. ‘But, I have my orders.’ He raised his sword to deliver the final blow.

  ‘Ring, Ring….’

  The front doorbell sounded twice. It was Sergeant Terry Faulkner of the local Police Force again. He’d been patrolling the area since the earlier reports of bright lights and bangs in the neighbourhood and he wasn’t far away when they’d happened again, as Harry had opened the box to allow Jake and Ben to escape. This time however, he’d seen the light and heard the noise for himself. He knocked the door forcefully when there wasn’t an instant response to the bell, determined to get some answers for the unexplained events.

  Sawdon looked at Adrob and then down at Harry. His sword was still raised to strike. ‘This is no soldier before me. Despite our history, he is an old man.’ he thought. ‘He will probably die of his wounds anyway. The mission was the stones, capture the stones, that above all else.’ he remembered.

  With Harry lying defenceless and completely at his mercy, Sawdon decided that there was little point, and no honour at all, in killing the old man now. He withdrew his sword.

  The Thargw warrior didn’t know how many strangers were at the door, or what arms they carried. Others could have gone around the back of the house for all he knew, as they had done, they could be entering the kitchen even now through the open back door. He decided that they had to leave the house quickly, another fight there would serve no purpose and would definitely delay his search for the stones. And they were his primary concern. He immediately reached for the shard of Reolite and threw it onto the floor in the middle of the room. Taking out the paper that Vantrax had given him, he began to chant.

  “LeaddFenuke eralesskechad…….. ferek!”

  The shard shone brightly, the light suddenly shot out of it, up to the ceiling across to the front window and up to the sky above. The portal was now formed. Sawdon and Adrob lifted Boghias up, he moaned loudly in pain as they dragged him into the light, but the warriors were uncertain of how long it would last given Vantrax’ earlier warning to them and they had to avoid being trapped on an alien world. They entered the beam just as it was beginning to fade and they all disappeared into the light, not a secontoo soon. It quickly vanished.

  At the front door, Sergeant Faulkner was now very concerned. He’d seen the light rise from the window and it had confirmed the truth of all previous reports. He had no explanation as yet to its origin or meaning, but he knew it had emanated from Harry’s house. And now Harry was nowhere to be seen. He’d heard no bangs or earth shudders as reported, but the events were serious enough to warrant genuine concern for Harry’s welfare and a look through the frosted glass window of the front door revealed nothing. He was worried, and he radioed straight through to request backup.

  As soon as he’d finished speaking to Control, he walked over to the front window and peered in, ducking to look beneath the net curtains that covered the top half of the glass. He could clearly see Harry lying on the couch, his head was closest to the window and he was facing away from Terry so that he couldn’t see his face. His outstretched arm was dangling loosely onto the floor. At first, Terry thought that Harry was asleep and he knocked on the window as hard as he could in an effort to wake him up. There was no response and Terry may have left things alone, not wishing to disturb his friend, but he was more determined now than ever to get some answers for what he’d seen. He knocked again, but Harry still didn’t respond, so he peered long and hard through the glass window, this time searching the room with his eyes for any clues as to what was going on.

  The gold-coloured carpet was not gold throughout. Terry could see two large dark stains that appeared to be blood. One was next to Harry’s arm on the floor by the couch and a second was near to the armchair. That was enough for the experienced Policeman. He was now really fearful for Harry and he decided that, ‘Backup or no backup, I’m going in!’

  He reac
hed for his radio and asked Control to call for an immediate ambulance, before informing them that he was about to enter the property. Ignoring the advice of the controller to wait for his colleagues, he raced around to the side entrance, having correctly presumed that Harry would have been working outside at some point that morning and left the back door unlocked. He was surprised and concerned to find the back gate open and he pulled out his extendable baton, snapping it into the locked position and holding it over his shoulder, ready to strike any intruder if necessary. He walked cautiously around to the rear of the house and entered through the open kitchen door.

  There was no sign of anyone inside and nobody answered when he shouted, ‘Hello! Police! Anyone there?’ The kitchen was in a real mess; table and chairs were strewn everywhere, blood spatters adorned the floor, walls and ceiling and there were what looked like slashes on the door frames and walls. Terry was sure that an almighty fight of some description had taken place and his concern for Harry, as well as his own fear intensified, as he didn’t know if he and Harry were alone in the house, or if any intruder remained.

  He walked cautiously to the living room where he found Harry lying in the same position on the couch, unconscious and bleeding heavily from the severe wound to his arm, which appeared to be all but severed. Years of Police training took over. Terry grabbed the throwover from the top of the couch, he used it to apply pressure to the wound in an attempt to stem the blood loss, then he removed his belt and fastened it tightly around Harry’s arm, above the wound to act as an emergency tourniquet. When he’d finished, he radioed through to Control again to check on the whereabouts of the ambulance, giving them as much information as he could, as fast as he could.

  “Harry! Harry! Can you hear me? Hold on Harry, the ambulance is coming!” he shouted, even though he knew that Harry couldn’t hear him.

  He’d just finished speaking when he heard a siren and a Police car pulling up speedily outside. He heard the two occupants running up to the front door and he shouted to his colleagues as loud as he could, “Go round the back, it’s open!”

  The two young constables arrived in the living room seconds later. “Good.” Terry said as they reached him. “You! Go and open the front door and wait for the ambulance to arrive please, this guy’s got no time to waste, so get them in here ASAP, you understand?” he asked the younger of the two. The young Policeman nodded immediately and obeyed the command. “Right, can you take over from me please?” he asked the older constable.

  “Yes Sarge.” the officer replied, as he took over on the tourniquet Terry had wrapped around Harry’s arm.

  Terry stood up to examine the scene. It was obvious that something serious had happened in this house, but he didn’t yet know what. He knew they had to be careful not to touch anything in order to preserve evidence. Then he heard the sound of the approaching sirens as the ambulance raced up the road, he went to walk out to the front door to meet the crew, but something caught his eye.

  A small white stone lay on the carpet in the centre of the room, as if it had been deliberately placed there. There was nothing special about it, it was just unusual in its location and appearance, and in the way it was so perfectly situated. Terry didn’t know what it had to do with the events in that house, or even if it was significant at all, but his Policeman instincts told him that it was something he had to bag as evidence when the time came.

  For now though, his concern was for Harry. The Paramedics had arrived and started to get to work. But Terry could see that Harry was in a very bad way. He knew they had to get him to hospital as fast as humanly possible. Everyone was now frantically trying to save his life. But Terry, with all his years of Police experience, didn’t give much for his chances.

  Chapter 9

  14th August – Herfion Mountains – Rhuaddan

  Jake was confused and completely lost.

  One minute he was locked in a violent, life or death struggle with Sawdon, using skills and abilities he didn’t know he possessed to fend off the mighty warrior as his accomplice attempted to join the fight. The next, he was dragged from the kitchen and pushed into the light so fast that he hadn’t had time to object. And now, he found himself standing on a windswept, narrow ledge, seemingly half way up what appeared to be a small mountain, in a land he didn’t know but presumed to be the mystical Rhuaddan.

  He looked around anxiously and was horrified to learn that he was completely and utterly alone. He could see for miles from his high vantage point, but no other people were in sight. The scene before him was one that he might have expected to find in his native land of England. There were hills and mountains, fields and meadows, trees and some scattered buildings that he could just make out in the distance, though they were too far away for recognition. He thought it odd that the landscape seemed so similar. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected to find, but the striking resemblance to his homeland was the last thing he’d anticipated. He was reassured by it somehow and the only thing that was immediately noticeable to him was the lack of technology on view; there appeared to be no roads, no telegraph poles, pylons, large cities, or anything associated with a modern civilisation.

  It only took a few seconds for Ben to follow him through the portal, but it seemed to be a lot longer to Jake. He was just beginning to piece together what had happened in his mind, recalling the details of the fight with Sawdon, Ben pulling him away, placing him off balance and hurtling back towards the living room. He remembered seeing his grandfather stepping into his place and into harm’s way, with his sword in his one good hand and dragging his wounded left arm limply by his side. He’d stopped when he was able and tried to rejoin the fight, but had been pushed forcefully before he could, into the light. And then it had all gone black.

  “Aaaarrgh …….!!!!!”

  The loud yell that Jake heard was undoubtedly from Ben. His best friend appeared suddenly out of a light that opened up nearby. He was hurtling towards him rapidly, his left arm was clutching the box to his body, he was off balance and heading straight for the edge of the ledge, and the rocks below!

  Jake instinctively reached for Ben as he was going past. He grabbed his arm and held onto it tightly, bringing Ben to a rapid halt before he reached the edge of the cliff. But the sudden stop caused Ben’s grip on the box to loosen and it fell from his arms. It bounced on the rockface once and then disappeared over the ledge, out of sight!

  Both boys froze. They were horrified at the sight and the thought of what it might mean. They remained silent as they tried to listen to the box hitting the rocks below. But it was a good second or two before they heard a loud ‘thud’, indicating to them both that it had been quite a drop. They raced to the edge of the ledge to look for it, lying down as they peered over the side. They were both initially relieved to see the box in tact, it was on a larger ledge thirty feet below them, but then they realized that they’d have to climb down to get it. And they still didn’t know if the fall had damaged it in any way.

  “Oh sh…” Ben was about to swear, but he was interrupted by Jake.

  “Excellent!” he said. “Great! Nice one, mate!”

  “What??!! Err… What are you on about?” asked Ben incredulously. “It was you who grabbed my arm and threw me off balance! I wouldn’t have dropped it if you hadn’t...”

  He stopped in mid sentence as he suddenly remembered what had happened back home. “And you might be a little more grateful! I saved your skin back there, if I hadn’t …” He stopped again, thinking about Harry’s situation, before stating with much more urgency, “Oh Christ Jake, we have to get back – Harry!!”

  Jake fought back the tears as he realized he’d been rather selfishly thinking only of himself and his current predicament. His emotions were still running high, he wanted to sit down for a minute or two and think rationally about everything that had happened, to try to figure out calmly what he was going to do. But he knew they had no time if they were going to help Harry, and no other thought now entered his mind.
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br />   “Right! We have to go back, and quickly. So, we need the box.” he stated purposefully.

  Ben nodded in agreement and they both searched for a way down the mountain.

  “I hope you’re good at climbing.” said Jake, as he swung his legs over the side of the ledge.

  “Well, there’s only one way to find out.” answered Ben, following Jake’s lead without hesitation.

  The boys climbed down as best they could. They were half way to the box when Ben’s footing suddenly gave way and he almost fell. He instinctively saved himself by grabbing a large chunk of rock with both hands and lifting his feet back onto the rocks. But it was a close call. Too close. And it unnerved them both.

  “Whoahhh! Hey! Take it easy.” cried a concerned Jake loudly, as soon as he saw his friend was safe. “If you fall, you might take me with you.”

  “Oh nice one.” answered Ben, once he’d regained his composure. “It’s nice to know that you’re so worried about my welfare, you’re all heart.”