by Tim O'Rourke
‘No,’ she replied.
Hearing this, Zach wasn’t sure whether to feel disappointed or relieved.
‘How can you be so sure?’
‘If you had a reflection in Endra you wouldn’t be dressed like that, unless that’s how you carry yourself in your world?’ Neanna asked.
‘Of course not,’ Zach sighed, ‘but what has the way I’m dressed got to do with anything?’
Inching closer to the fire on his haunches, William stoked it again with a stick. Glancing up at Zach, with the glow of the flames dancing in his saucer-shaped eyes, William said, ‘if you had a reflection, you would have come through as plain old Zach. But seeing as you’ve come through dressed like that, suggests you’re just the one – a loner. Your clothes tell us that if you had been born into our world, you would have been a peacekeeper.’
‘What’s a peacekeeper?’ Zach asked, looking down at himself and straightening the holsters hanging about his narrow waist.
‘In your world they are known as police officers,’ William informed him.
‘What you’re telling me is, I’ve stepped into another world to become a copper?’ Zach said, sounding almost disappointed.
‘It’s not something to be taken lightly!’ Warden thundered. ‘Only those with the purest of hearts and the most accurate of shots were chosen by our Queen to be peacekeepers! All but a few have lost their lives. So mind your tongue!’
Sensing Warden’s admiration for these peacekeepers, Zach said, ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend anyone. The peacekeepers that still are still alive...where are they now?’
Hearing the boy’s apology, Warden could smell that he had a pure heart, one that had yet to be corrupted.
He might well become the peacekeeper he has to, Warden thought to himself.
‘The peacekeepers that remain were scattered,’ Warden told him. ‘But some say that they have now regrouped in the town of Tux. It’s just rumours, but that’s what I’ve heard.’
Worrying that he wouldn’t live up to the hype of the peacekeepers; Zach glanced at William and said, ‘you saw me on that stagecoach. I’d wouldn’t say I was a crack-shot would you?’
William didn’t answer. He no longer seemed to be interested in the conversation and had moved to the edge of the clearing, where he was sniffing the air.
‘You will learn to master the tools of your trade with time,’ Neanna said, her voice soft and kind.
‘What about you? Do you all have reflections in my world or are you loners too?’ Zach asked.
‘To that question we do not know the answer,’ Warden said, sniffing at the air and holding Wasp in his lap.
‘How come?’
‘We have yet to pass through the doorways and travel into your world,’ Neanna answered for the giant. ‘Only when we pass into your world will we know.’
‘So you reckon my sister Anna’s reflection is the Queen of your world?’
Nodding, Neanna looked at him with her pale eyes. She was surprised at how little Zach knew about his family.
‘Wow, that’s random,’ Zach sighed. ‘So how is this Queen of yours dying?’
‘Throat stole her heart,’ Neanna replied, then shot a glance over her shoulder at William.
Standing rigid – as if carved from stone – William continued to sniff at the air.
‘Who’s Throat?’ Zach asked.
Looking back at him, Neanna’s eyes had turned dark and dead-looking.
‘Your uncle Fandel’s reflection!’ she said, vanishing in a flutter of shadows.
Blinking in wonder, Zach watched as Neanna reappeared next to William on the other side of the clearing. Then something came screaming from the darkness towards them.
Chapter 8
For someone so large, Warden shot to his feet with surprising grace. Wasp skittered from his keepers lap, buzzing with excitement on the forest floor.
The beast entered the clearing in an explosion of broken branches and leaves, as if fired from a cannon. This was followed by an ear-splitting bang.
‘That was the doorway closing!’ William barked.
‘The doorway?’ Zach asked, confused.
‘Get back!’ Neanna warned him, flittering away in a spray of shadows to avoid the reach of the screaming beast.
Zach looked up at the huge white monster that now reared up on its back legs in the centre of the clearing. Without thinking Zach reached for the crossbows. His fingers twitched as he fumbled to release them from their holsters.
Warden circled the outer rim of the clearing led by his guide. He had towered over all of them with his great height but now, as he stood before this creature, Warden looked small and insignificant. Warden sniffed the air and could smell the animal’s anger and fear. He couldn’t see the creature but he knew it was colossal because its scent was strong and almost suffocating. Since losing his eyes, Warden’s sense of smell and hearing had become sharper. These senses let him ‘see’ things now.
The white fur-covered beast pounded its chest with two gigantic claws and roared with such ferocity that Zach feared his eardrums would burst. The creature had a long muzzle that, when opened, revealed a gum-full of teeth standing in jagged rows like slithers of ice. Its eyes were jet-black, and a series of razor-sharp horns ran vertical from the bridge of its snout, over its vast skull and protruded from its back. It looked as if the beast had swallowed a dozen rhinoceroses, which were now trying to break free.
‘What is it?’ Zach asked, trying to release his crossbows. Not daring to take his eyes off the creature for one moment.
‘It’s a lunar bear!’ Neanna replied, appearing beside him. ‘In your world it would be better known as a polar bear, but here they’re different…’
‘Completely different!’ William howled, ducking and rolling like a fur-ball beneath one of the lunar bears mighty claws.
‘How did it get here?’ Zach asked Neanna.
‘Just like you did!’ she said, but this time her voice came from the opposite side of the clearing. Zach looked round to see her standing just behind the bear. He glanced through the creature’s giant legs and yelled:
‘What? Through a doorway?’
Before Neanna had a chance to answer, she was gone again in a flutter of black shadows. Neanna knew that if they were to stand any chance of defeating this monster, she would have to find a way of drawing its attention so the others could make their attack.
‘With the veil between our two worlds being eroded by Throat,’ William shouted, ‘more and more doorways are appearing at random. Sometimes it’s not just people that come through them!’
Seeing Zach was having trouble with the only weapons that were available to them, William clawed the crossbows from their holsters and thrust them into Zach’s quivering hands.
‘Now how about showing us what a good peacekeeper you are,’ William grinned, his eyes lighting up like two smoking coals. Then he was off again, bounding like a giant dog towards the lunar bear which was twisting and turning, grappling at something that had attached itself to its back.
Zach bought the crossbows up to take aim as the creature wheeled round in the centre of the clearing. And now Zach could see what it was that the creature was trying to shake off. Neanna was climbing up the lunar bears back. Placing one hand over the other, as if she were climbing a giant stepladder, she reached up and took hold of the ivory looking horns.
To distract it, Warden rushed forward, letting go of the tether that connected him to Wasp. Blind, Warden flung himself into the air taking hold of one of the lunar bear’s powerful arms. The smell from the creature was so overpowering, Warden guessed if he still had eyes they would now be watering in streams.
Thrashing its arms about, the bear roared. Warden hung on with his claw-like hands, tossing this way and that like a paper kite.
‘What ya waiting for Zach Black?’ William shouted, ‘shoot!’ Howling like a wolf, he sunk his crooked teeth into one of the beast’s legs.
The bear wailed
and its eyes swivelled in their sockets. William tightened his jaws. Steadying his hands, Zach fought to take aim at the lunar bear. But with the bear lurching left and right, Zach’s friends kept appearing in his line of fire.
‘Hurry!’ Neanna yelled, clambering across the beast’s colossal skull.
‘I can’t get a clear shot!’ Zach roared above the bedlam of the lunar bear’s screams.
‘What, it’s not big enough for ya?’ William barked.
‘Very freaking funny,’ Zach hissed, closing one eye and aiming both crossbows at the bear.
Taking hold of one of its horns, Neanna dangled over the front of the bear’s massive face, yanking on its long whiskers. The creature roared again and Zach wobbled under the blast of breath that rushed from between its jaws.
‘Almost…almost there!’ Zach whispered, steadying his outstretched arms and squeezing down on the triggers.
Staggering again, the lunar bear lurched around as Warden fought to hang onto its arm.
‘Hurry up Zach Black! I can’t hold on much longer!’ Warden barked.
William clung to the lunar bear’s leg by his jaws as Neanna continued to yank on its whiskers. Sparks flew up into the night like fireflies as the bear stumbled over the campfire. Then came two loud bangs in quick procession.
For a fraction of a second, Zach wasn’t sure if it had been the sound of two more doorways closing or the crossbows firing in his fists. Opening his eyes, he saw two wispy streams like cigar smoke coiling up from the ends of the crossbows.
Wailing, the lunar bear staggered forward. Looking up into its face, Zach could see two large wounds in the creature’s chest. Its white fur now spattered crimson with blood.
Numb, Zach looked up at the creature as it began to topple towards him, like a tree that had just been felled. Everything seemed to slow, as if time had stopped. The bear swayed, and then came crashing down on top of him.
Just as the lunar bear’s hot foul breath caressed his cheek like a kiss; Neanna was sweeping Zach away in her arms. The creature’s head thudded into the ground, and its skull made a sickening-crack as it hit the forest floor. Its huge head came to rest inches from where Zach was now standing with Neanna.
Holding the smoking crossbows, Zach looked down into the lunar bear’s eyes. The beast released a deep, rasping sigh, like a tube train rattling from a tunnel. Then fell still. William and Warden, led by Wasp joined Zach by the bear. For what seemed like forever, the four of them stood without speaking.
‘I’ve never killed an animal before,’ Zach said, breaking the silence.
‘It would’ve killed us all if you hadn’t,’ Neanna said.
‘We were all in danger,’ Warden boomed. ‘You did well.’
‘And besides,’ William said, ‘you’ve just caught us supper!’
Holstering his crossbows, Zach headed back towards the fire.
Chapter 9
Glancing back over his shoulder, his doorway closed with such force, Fandel’s teeth rattled in their wrinkled gums. He watched as the door folded in on itself like a piece of paper. It collapsed in half and then into quarters, then vanished altogether.
The flames from the torches which lined the corridor walls flickered, and for a moment everything went dark. Fandel didn’t mind the dark, in fact he preferred it. The corridor began to glow orange and red again as Fandel crept along it, casting long black shadows behind him as if he had wings.
This wasn’t the first time that Fandel had been through the doorways to Endra. He had visited many times before. The first trip had been by chance many years ago while studying at the Royal College of Medicine in London. He had been working late one night into the small-hours, trying to cram for a very important exam he was taking the following day.
Unlike his fellow students, Fandel had been left to study alone in the quietness of the college library. Creeping down in the dead of night, he would sit hunched over thick, leather-bound medical journals. His peers had long since gone back to their dormitories. Fandel had always struggled to make friends. Even as a boy he had been bullied and teased about his long legs and his gaunt, pale complexion.
‘Here comes the ghost!’ his classmates had often heckled.
‘It’s Spooky-Black,’ others would shout, making ghoulish sounds, chasing him across the school yard.
The day he realised how alone he was, Fandel had been surrounded by the rest of his class and been shoved to the ground. Wrapping his long legs and slender arms about himself, they emptied the contents of their half-eaten lunch boxes over him and beat him with their feet and fists.
‘Spooky! Spooky! Spooky!’ they had jeered as one.
Hiding his tears (he couldn’t bare them to see his pain), Fandel covered his eyes with his long bony fingers. Between every kick and punch he parted the first two fingers of his right hand and peered up to see who it was that dealt out this punishment. He needed to know who it was that delivered every kick and blow. He wanted to be able to remember their faces. Fandel wanted to make each of them pay one day.
‘Spooky! Spooky! Spooky!’ they mocked.
Glancing up between his fingers, Fandel scanned their jeering faces, and saw one like his – covered in tears. It was the face of his younger brother Edward, gazing down at him, jostled to and fro between the older boys.
Looking shocked and confused, but most of all frightened at seeing his older brother being treated in such a cruel way, Edward continued to cry. Fandel stared at his younger brother and their eyes locked. In them Fandel could see fear and his brother’s shame. It was that look of shame, which hurt Fandel the most. It wasn’t the chants of “Spooky” or the kicks and the punches; it was that look of embarrassment in his little brother’s eyes that hurt the most.
Wasn’t an older brother meant to be stronger and powerful – the protector and role model, and yet here he was, rolled up into a defenseless ball, humiliated and demoralised by the rest of his classmates.
Removing his hands from his face, Fandel looked at them. He stared up through his tear-drenched eyes and he hated them. He hated all of them, but most of all he hated Edward for looking at him in that way. He hated Edward for seeing him like this.
Then they stopped. His classmates had either grown tired or bored with their attack, but whichever it was they scooped up their school bags, ties and jumpers and sauntered back across the schoolyard where they began a game of football. Just one stayed, his little arms swinging against his trouser pockets and his perfect, round face smeared with tears.
‘I hate you!’ Fandel hissed, pulling himself up and brushing the dirt from his school uniform. ‘Stop looking at me like that!’
Watching his older brother straighten his tie and blazer, Edward continued to sob.
‘I’ll show you!’ Fandel cried. ‘I’ll show all of you that I’m not the weakling you think I am. One day I’ll be more powerful then you could ever believe!’
Edward just stood and sniffed, confused that his big brother Fandel could hate him. After all he hadn’t called him names; he hadn’t kicked and punched him. Edward had just wanted to help him but was too small.
Snatching up his bag and looking back at Edward, Fandel said just above a whisper, ‘if you want spooky, I’ll show you spooky!’ He then walked away.
If Fandel had been a loner before, he became a complete recluse after this incident. Spending hours locked away in his bedroom with his head buried between the pages of science manuals. There were also the books he kept hidden away under the mattress and in a secret shoebox at the back of his wardrobe. These were the books he didn’t want anyone to see, the books that spoke of dark things. These were the books that taught the secrets of the Demonic Arts. They had titles like ‘The Eternal Wisdom’, ‘The Satanic Formula’ and ‘The Spirit Guide’. Each of these books had been bound in a black, leathery-type material that felt cold and waxen to the touch…like the skin of a corpse.
Fandel hadn’t ordered these through the library. He hadn’t come across them buried
beneath piles of yellow-stained newspapers in the second-hand bookshops he frequented. They had been left just outside his bedroom door; stacked in neat little bundles and tied together with tangled lengths of hair.
Fandel had no idea who had left these for him and why, and he wouldn’t find out for several more years. Not until he was studying alone one night to be a doctor, bent over his medical books in the quiet of the college library.
The bang had been so sudden and violent that Fandel had jumped from his seat scattering his revision notes into the air. He watched as they see-sawed to the library floor. Bending at the waist he reached over with his long arms and gathered his notes together. His handwriting was messy and readable only to him. The words were written in black ink that spiraled and looped across the pages, as if a spider had dipped its feet in an inkwell and then raced across his work.
Gathering the last of the pages together, Fandel heard another bang. This time it was quieter and was followed by another and then another. Placing his work on the table he called out, ‘hello. Is anybody there?’
He waited in the stillness of the library but there was no answer apart from the constant banging. Creeping around the edge of the table, Fandel followed the sound. It seemed to be coming from between two rows of shelves that were crammed with books from top to bottom. Making his way towards the end of the row of books, Fandel peered down the aisle. Narrowing his dark, beady-eyes, he looked with curiosity at the door which stood in the middle of the aisle between the two rows of bookshelves.
The door didn’t seem to be attached to anything. There was no frame or hinges, yet it swung open and closed, and this was the source of the banging sound.
Glancing back over his shoulder at the table where he had been working moments ago, Fandel could see his paperwork scattered across the table beneath the glow of the lamp.
‘Hello!’ Fandel called out again. ‘If this is some kinda joke then I’m not laughing!’ Again he was met by silence and the bang, bang, bang of the door opening and closing.