Tasker looked her up and down irritably. “What’s wrong with her? I thought you guys had just …” He nodded back at the stone circle. “I mean, what’s a tunnel after that?”
Ash gave him a steady look. “She just needs a moment.”
Their guide shrugged, fingering the strip of fabric hanging from his neck. “OK, sure, we wait,” he said, glancing about him. “But we can’t be long.”
Naeo hardly heard this exchange. Her eyes were fixed on the long slope ahead, dropping away into the tunnel and then disappearing below the earth. She sensed the weight of soil and turf and rock above, felt the lowness of the ceiling, the walls pressing in. She saw the throng of people emerging from the gloom, weaving and jostling, leaving no space, no escape.
It had caught her by surprise – a sudden and crippling terror of a simple tunnel. She could not even think why it was happening.
Ash stepped in front of her and lowered his face. “It’s not the Dirgheon,” he said, gently, seeing her more clearly than she saw herself. “Look, there are lights. Scientific lights – there’ll be no dark corners, no darkness at all.”
He stepped out of the way and Naeo looked doubtfully towards the opening. Sure enough there were lights, not only on the walls but – somehow – built into the ceiling, and these were not like any torches or lamps she had seen before. These did not flicker or dance or burn with an orange flame: they were just there. They were perfect strips of luminescence – white light, like the light of day. And the more she peered into the tunnel, she saw that although it was dimmer than the bright sunlight, it was filled with this miraculous light.
Ash was right about the Dirgheon. Since her escape, she had not been anywhere that reminded her of the soulless, deathly cells and passages that had been her home for those long years. Nowhere with its cold, hard edges; its brooding walls and ceilings that left no room for life.
Before she had time to think about it, she took hold of Ash’s sleeve and started walking, pulling him along beside her.
“Let’s go,” she said.
Tasker gazed after them, shaking his head. “Right you are, Princess.”
After a moment he pulled the green glove off his hand, pushed it into his pocket and then slipped past them to lead the way down the slope.
Naeo’s eyes never left the magical strips of light. She stared at them until her eyes hurt, until all she saw was their radiance. This was so different from the Dirgheon. This was magical. This was science.
More than once she collided with someone passing by and more than once someone snapped at her, telling her to watch where she was going, but still she kept her eyes on the lights. Ash stayed close, leading her through, weaving deftly towards the well-lit exit at the other end.
It seemed an age before they emerged from the tunnel and climbed another ramp, feeling the fresh outdoor air once again. Naeo’s shoulders started to relax and her breathing returned to normal. She let go of Ash’s sleeve, leaving it creased and mangled, and turned to thank him, but he was already looking ahead at Tasker, who was still on the move, darting to the left, through some double doors.
They followed him into a small building, which seemed to be some kind of entrance hall. The brightly lit space hummed with activity but they had little time to take it in as Tasker strutted on, walking confidently past the ticket office, shoulders swinging and arms ranging from his sides as though he owned the place. His eyes were everywhere, choosing the path ahead, trying to keep them as far from visitors and staff as possible.
“I don’t know where you find the cheek,” he grumbled loudly enough to be heard. “The rest of these visitors have to pay. Don’t they tell you that on those fruit-loop websites?”
They didn’t reply – they knew it was all for show.
When they reached the entrance Tasker slowed a little and an ugly official frowned as they approached.
“Entrance only!” she whined in the tone of one who used those words many thousands of times a day. “That way for the exit!”
“They’re with me, Trace,” said Tasker. He leaned towards her and whispered conspiratorially in her ear. “Wannabe druids.” He threw his eyes in the air.
The pug-faced woman turned her pinprick eyes to Ash and Naeo. “I swear they get younger every year,” she said in a monotone, already losing interest.
Naeo heard all this, but her attention was elsewhere. She was gazing at the queues of people waiting patiently to buy tickets, taking in their odd appearance and their chatter in the languages of another world. But it was what they were doing that most caught her eye. Some held those little black oblongs in front of them – smaller than Tasker’s – and they stared at a rectangular glow at its centre: a muddle of colours, shapes and scripts. To her amazement, they occasionally touched or swiped the radiance with a finger and it would shift and change: a new set of shapes and texts taking its place. What was even more peculiar was that some would then raise the oblong to their ear then suddenly burst into conversation, as though talking to the strange black box. It was baffling.
Ash shared a bemused grin with her, but then straightened his face. “Don’t stare,” he hissed.
Tasker reached out for a silver handle, which seemed to be suspended in mid-air, but as he pulled on it they saw that it was fixed to a door made of a thick sheet of perfectly clear glass. It swung lightly on its hinges, letting in a gentle breeze.
“After you, Princess,” he said, sweeping an arm in front of him.
Naeo glanced at him irritably – she wasn’t keen on her new nickname and was a little unsure how she had earned it.
She stepped outside but then drew up sharply and gasped. There, arranged in neat rows across an enormous slab of dark rock was an army of bizarre creatures, each standing about her height, each sporting a glistening colourful livery. Her first thought was to run back inside, but Tasker slipped past her, calm and unfazed.
“Come on,” he said.
She blinked and looked more closely. This was no ambush. The creatures were still: not the stillness of a predator lying in wait but complete stillness – the stillness of something that was not alive at all. And something started to come back to her – the memory of another strange magic from the Other that she had once read about in a schoolbook.
“Cars!” she murmured, her breath quickening with excitement.
They were far stranger than she had imagined, not least because they were things of contradictions: massive and still, like a boulder worn smooth over countless years, and yet, somehow swift-seeming, with purposeful lines suggestive of speed. They looked designed, with all the marks of man-made symmetry and precision, but they also seemed to have been born – seeing with two silvery eyes, huddling over four circular feet, poised for a sprint.
“You won’t get far here without a car,” said Tasker, strolling towards the nearest row of vehicles. He pulled something out of his pocket and a large blue car honked and flashed its orange lights.
Ash jumped out of his skin and eyed the car as though it had just spoken to him. He turned to Naeo. “And you think my magic is weird …”
Suddenly a black car hurtled towards them from the near distance, roaring down a long smooth surface beyond the stationary cars. It moved at implausible speeds but with poise and grace – there was no judder nor bump, no trail of fire or smoke, no sign of effort at all. It seemed almost to be gliding above the earth and yet its four wheels were firm and solid on the surface. It was upon them in a moment and then it was gone, whistling off across the plain.
Tasker did not flinch. He turned and looked at them both for a moment, witnessing their shocked faces and wide eyes.
“Guys, it’s just a road,” he said, glancing over his shoulder. “Listen, you already look weird – you’re going to have to stop acting it. Things are going to be strange – just go with it. If you carry on like this, someone’s going to have you locked up.”
Ash bristled. “Have you been where we come from?”
“What’s that
got to do with anything?”
“Just that if you had, you wouldn’t think—”
He was cut off by a new sound, a sound so jarring and out of place that it instantly set their nerves on edge. It came from somewhere behind them – in the distance – from the stone circle.
Even as they turned Naeo and Ash knew what it was. The growl became a wail and the wail became a howl. It was at once canine, like the lament of a mountain wolf, and yet somehow controlled and conscious, like the cry of a human being. It echoed between the rocks and spread over the green plain, announcing something animal and wild.
Something inconceivable.
Something from another world.
“The Merisi are the keepers of a gate that must remain closed. The thought of free passage between the worlds is horrifying. Invasion is simply unthinkable.”
A SHARP CRY GAVE way to a chorus of terrified screams and suddenly they saw a crowd surging from the stone circle towards the tunnel, obscuring their view of the scene. Some voices rose above them all, shouting commands, appealing for calm, but they had no effect: the crowd pressed on, driven by fear and panic. The screams and shouts came nearer and all at once the glass doors flew open and people began pouring out, scrambling towards the cars. Some ushered children in front of them; some fumbled with bunches of keys or with the strange black devices, raising them to their ear, shouting. The woman with the flowery hat burst through the doors amid a shower of petals. She was carrying a red-faced child, who was the only person among the crowd who did not look terrified. He looked delighted.
Tasker took them both by the arm and shoved them in front of him.
“We’re going! Right now!”
In a couple of strides they were by the blue car, and Tasker reached out and pulled a handle in its rear flank. A door flew open to reveal a long cushioned seat and before they knew it they had been bundled inside and the door slammed shut with a muffled clunk. Immediately the screams and shrieks and shouts were silenced. They could still see the terrified faces running past the windows, mouths chattering, parents calling out for their children, but somehow the car rebuffed these sounds, sealing Ash and Naeo in an eerie quiet.
The door in front of them flew open, letting in a brief burst of noise, and Tasker leapt into the front seat, heaving the door closed behind him. He pushed a key into a small slot and then turned it.
The car roared.
Ash and Naeo braced themselves against anything they could lay their hands on. Suddenly they wanted to escape the growling cage of metal, but before they could do anything Tasker grasped a lever and rammed it forward. All at once the vehicle lurched ahead, mounting a bank between the rows of cars and the road. They were all thrown back in their seats as it dropped down on to the long, smooth road of rock. With nothing in its path, the beast snarled and took off at the pace of a trot, and then a canter, and then it tore away at a racing gallop. Naeo grimaced as the seat pressed against the wounds in her back, but she was too scared to give it much thought.
She turned to the window and saw the unthinkable.
The sun’s rays plunged from the sky in a muddle and weave, spiralling erratically between the rocks. But more worrying still: the stone circle had been transformed. The void of the standing arches now rippled with golden sunlight, shimmering and shifting like the surface of water. The blaze brought forth things of darkness and shadow, crouching and crawling from the ether. Their half-blood shape was unmistakable: powerful, sloping necks, high canine ears, the muzzles of wolves and the lithe, powerful stance of a predator.
Naeo shook her head. “This can’t be happening!”
The creatures looked smaller than she knew them, less than the height of a man, but they had lost none of their menace, none of their terrifying, chilling intent.
And now they were here, in the Other.
How could this be? How could they be showing themselves like this? In broad daylight? This went against all the rules, all the teachings. Even for Scarpia – even for Thoth himself – this was unimaginable. And yet there they were, breaching the way between the worlds.
Around the Ghor, the muscular forms of the Ghorhund clawed and fought for position. Among them slunk the smaller, slighter beasts, prowling like cats between the growing forest of black limbs and drooling jaws. Already they were spilling outside the circle, some straying on to the open plain, others lunging towards the fleeing visitors before being called sharply back to heel. They were wild but disciplined, as though waiting for something.
“Stay low,” said Tasker. “We have to drive past the stones to get away.”
But as they drew near the circle one of the Ghor seemed to catch a scent, falling on to all fours and prowling forward, ears alert, muzzle in the air, before finally looking straight up at the blue car as it roared past.
“GET DOWN!” yelled Ash, throwing himself down on the seat.
But it was too late. The beast lifted its half-human head and let out a bloodthirsty howl that turned the heads of all the assembled creatures. Already it was in motion, hurling itself forward and snapping at the air as a pack of Ghorhund fell in behind it. They gathered speed, ripping at the pasture and sending clods of earth high into the air, baying like hunting hounds.
“Faster!” shouted Naeo, her eyes wide and desperate. “They’re going to catch us!”
Tasker slammed his foot down and rammed the large lever forward. “I’m trying!” he cried, desperately eyeing the mirrors.
For a moment the car lost pace but then it growled, the wheels screeched and it lurched forward at an even greater pace. But still the creatures were gaining on them, pounding the earth and yelping with excitement. Some tourists ran in panic across their path and for a second it looked as though they would be trampled, but the Ghor bounded into the air, clearing the tallest of them by a hair’s breadth. The pack of Ghorhund followed, throwing themselves skywards and arching over the terrified clutch of tourists, knocking two of them over as they passed.
Now they were nearer than ever. Naeo could see their yellow eyes, their glistening fangs, their snarling snouts wet with drool. The Ghor leader hurled itself over the grassy bank and landed on the road just a few strides behind the car. It lost its footing, its claws skating over the smooth surface, but then it dug in, scouring the grey rock.
The car was still accelerating – the moan of its engine building to a whine – and for a moment Naeo thought they would make it. But then the beast seemed to summon new energy and it launched itself, claws and jaws outstretched, towards the car. It hung in the air, its hideous, half-human features straining, its tongue lolling from its mouth.
And then it struck.
As the rear window shattered, the entire car shook with the force of the blow and then it fishtailed, swinging left and right, wheels screeching.
Tasker had to fight to keep control, and Ash and Naeo were thrown from their seats, smashing up against the side windows. Naeo cried out as the wounds across her back screamed. Through shards of flying glass, they saw the creature’s wide yellow eyes and its black hands clawing at the metal frame, twisting it out of shape as it struggled to keep hold. As the car veered wildly from left to right, one of the beast’s limbs was wrenched free and it swung wide, only to slam its claws into the side of the car. It gave a vicious snarl and its furred face grimaced with pain, but somehow it held on. With herculean strength it began crawling up the car’s flank, tearing at the metal as though it were paper-thin. Naeo watched in horror as it trailed blood and drool up the side window, drawing back its black lips and baring its fangs as it prepared to smash its way in. Ash was dragging Naeo away from the window, trying to put himself between her and the beast, when she heard Tasker cry out.
“Hold on to something!” he screamed. “Anything!”
Instinctively her eyes shot to the road ahead. There, on the other side of the road, hurtling in their direction at an incredible speed, was a giant vehicle, wheels thundering, engine screaming. It would be passing them any second.
Naeo knew instinctively what Tasker was going to do and she tightened her grip on the headrest in front of her, indicating to Ash to do the same.
In the instant that the colossal vehicle whisked past, Tasker jerked the steering wheel. The car swerved dangerously, throwing driver, passengers and beast to one side.
There was an almighty crash as they sheered down the side of the larger vehicle, jostling with its gigantic wheels, ripping at its bodywork. For a moment all was noise and destruction – squeal and boom and judder – and Naeo thought it was over, that this was the last she would know. She pressed her eyes closed, hugged the headrest and waited for the inevitable.
And then there was quiet.
Suddenly the only noise was the buffeting of wind and the hum of the car.
She opened one eye. Then two.
She blinked at the daylight, took in the blur of passing cars, and the breeze coming in through the gaping hole in the side of the car. Then she turned to look where Ash was staring, open-mouthed, at the mayhem out of the back window: the giant vehicle veering down the road, the black body of the Ghor tumbling over and over down its centre, crashing into the other chasing Ghorhund, sending them flailing and tumbling, letting out yelps of pain. Soon all were littered across the road like the fallen on a battlefield.
Naeo turned to Ash, a grin slowly forming on her lips.
He wiped a trail of blood from his brow. “I love these car things,” he said, grinning and patting the seat.
“WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?” bellowed Tasker, swivelling round in his seat and steering the mauled vehicle with one hand. His eyes were wild, his face beaded with sweat and his sculpted hair skewed to one side.
“I have no idea,” said Ash in all honesty. “We knew they were chasing us, but we didn’t think they’d come through the circle. I don’t think they’ve ever done that before.”
“You’re not kidding they haven’t!” cried Tasker, turning back to the road to take a corner and inadvertently knocking a lever that sent two arms sweeping across the front window. He cursed and wrestled with his controls, setting off a loud honk and various lights. He turned to glare at them. “JUST TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON!”
Circles of Stone Page 17