by Tim O'Rourke
Seizing her chance, Anna rolled over onto all fours and scrambled up the tunnel and into the awaiting darkness.
Rushing forward, the Delf flung her arms around the neck of her pet. ‘What has she done to my baby?’ she wailed, spraying a wave of maggots from her throat. ‘She’s hurt my baby!’
Max broke free of her, and consumed with rage, he dived for the air vent. Thrusting his long snout into the hole, he tried to scramble forward. Squeezing his huge head into the air vent, Max fought to lever himself off the ground. Snapping his powerful jaws open and closed, he tried to capture the girl that crawled away in front of him. But he was just too big to squeeze inside.
‘Get that thing out of my way,’ Fandel snapped, pushing past the Delf to get to the vent. ‘I’ll go after her. You see if you can’t find where this tunnel comes out!’
Pulling on Max’s leash, she coaxed him from the hole and away from his prey.
‘Come with mummy,’ she cried. ‘We’ll catch her as she comes out!’
Max pulled his huge skull from the air vent and went bounding towards the stairs. The Delf waddled after him, dragging her bag of potions behind her.
Holding the candle in his fist, Fandel crawled into the hole and made his way after his niece.
Anna followed the curves in the tunnel as she raced on her hands and knees. The beast had stopped barking and howling, but she could hear someone else in the tunnel behind her. She guessed it wasn’t the dog as it had looked too damn big to fit inside the vent, and the woman had looked too fat and out of shape.
No. It’s Fandel that’s behind me, she thought to herself and raced onwards.
Fandel’s head thudded as he crawled through the air vent like a rodent scurrying along a city sewer.
I don’t need this! I don’t need this at all! He screamed inside as he chased after the girl. And I thought the boy was a pain in the arse!
As Fandel made his way through the tunnel, he tried not to think of what his reflection might say if he didn’t catch the girl. Then again, he was getting fed up with having to undertake all of the dirty work. Why couldn’t Throat get out into the field once in a while?
It’s my turn to sit in that throne and put my feet up!
If they were reflections, didn’t that mean they were also equals and Fandel wanted his fair share of taking it easy. Whether he would find the courage to suggest this to Throat was another matter. Gritting his teeth, he continued through the tunnel after his niece.
Ahead, the darkness seemed to fade into a milky-blue, and Anna crawled towards it. As she drew nearer to the light the breeze got stronger. Daring to glance back over her shoulder, she could see the orange glow of candlelight in the distance, and she knew that her uncle was gaining on her. Turning forwards again, Anna pushed on.
To her relief the light that illuminated the walls of the tunnel ahead was the glow of the moon shining above. She looked up to see a set of ladders leading up to ground level. Gripping hold of them, she placed one hand over the other and pulled herself up.
Just feet behind Anna, Fandel reached the end of the tunnel. Chucking the candle away, he started up the ladder after her.
‘Why can’t you just give-up?’ he yelled up at her.
‘You first!’ she shouted over her shoulder, taking hold of the grate that sealed the exit from the tunnel.
With all of her remaining strength, she forced the grate open with her shoulders and climbed from the hole. She turned just in time to see her uncle’s arm reaching up out of the ground as he snatched at her. Crawling forward on her stomach, Anna reached out, grabbed the grate and slammed it shut on his arm.
Her uncle’s agonising screams echoed off the walls of the tunnel beneath the ground, which was followed by the sound of him smashing into each and every rung on the ladder as he fell back to the bottom of the air vent.
Smiling, Anna dragged herself to her feet and looked about.
‘Which way?’ she said aloud.
Then, in the distance, she noticed a cluster of twinkling lights set between two menacing looking cliffs. Guessing that this was Piranha Bay, Anna ran towards them hoping that she would find help there. The wind whipped around her, and howled in the distance. Pausing for just a moment and listening, she realised that it wasn’t the wind that she could hear, but the sound of that vicious dog coming after her again.
Turning, she ran as fast and as hard as she could towards Piranha Bay.
Chapter 36
With the key to the box of Endra hidden beneath his shirt, William bounded up the spiral stairs which led from the cellblocks. Zach, Neanna and the Captain were at his heels.
Racing from the stairwell, they spilt onto the exercise yard to find hundreds of Norsori waiting for them. Released prisoners fought with the guards for their freedom. Others hadn’t managed to get very far at all, and lay dead or in restraints on the ground.
‘I’m too old for this!’ Captain Bom grumbled, flicking his eyebrows away from his eyes with his thumb.
With bows drawn, the Norsori came forwards, their wicked green eyes staring at them from behind their masks. Zach and his friends, edged backwards towards the stairwell, not taking their eyes off the prison guards for one moment. From behind them, a flood of Norsori spewed from the darkness at the top of the stairs and they were surrounded.
Within moments, Zach had his crossbows held out before him. Neanna stood with her hands on her hips, and William snarled as he pulled back on his catapult and took aim.
‘You can’t escape!’ came a voice from above them.
Looking up, they could see the shape of a figure standing in the dark on a stone gantry that ran around the top of the prison walls.
‘Bring them to me!’ the figure ordered.
Stepping forward, several of the Norsori pushed and shoved them up a flight of wooden steps to where the figure was waiting. As they drew close, Zach guessed that whoever it was, they too were one of the Norsori. It was the arms that gave it away. They were so long, that without stooping or bending, the figure brushed the tips of his fingers across the ledge that he stood on. Just like the others, its face was covered with an iron mask. Its eyes were just visible. They were dark and cat-like in shape. On top of this Norsori’s mask, stood a huge black plume of feathers that sprayed outwards like the tail of a peacock. The figure was dressed not too dissimilar to the Roman soldiers Zach had seen in the old black and white action movies he’d watched with his dad as a kid.
‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t get to welcome you when you made your grand entrance into my prison,’ the figure said. ‘I am Marshal Goth, the governor of this facility. And you are?’
Ignoring his question, Zach said, ‘what do you want with us?’
‘Apart from putting an end to your pathetic little insurrection, I don’t want anything from you.’
‘So we’re free to go then?’
‘Not exactly. I think they would like to speak with you!’ the figure said and although his face was hidden, Zach knew that he was smiling.
‘Who does?’ Captain Bom asked.
Turning, Marshal Goth pointed over the top of the prison walls and out across Endra with one of his long arms.
Looking over the top of the wall, Zach and his friends gasped as they saw the army of Demonic Guardians and Radan gathered below. The tips of swordsticks twinkled in the glow of the fireballs that danced around their fists. The naked white bones of the Radan’s skeletal apes gleamed beneath the glare of the moon like silver statues.
‘All of them just for us?’ William whistled through his broken teeth. ‘We are popular.’
‘They’re not here just for us,’ Neanna said, staring at the thousands of troops amassed below.
‘Why else could they be here?’ Marshal Goth asked.
‘To invade,’ Captain Bom said, throwing his hands into the air as if to surrender.
‘Put your hands down. You’re embarrassing us,’ Zach scowled at Bom.
Lowering his arms, Captain Bom said, �
�my days of fighting are over.’
‘You may not have a choice,’ William growled, snatching a sword from a nearby Norsori and thrusting into the Captain’s hands.
Looking over the edge of the prison wall again, Marshal Goth said in a smug tone, ‘they’re not here to invade. My people struck a deal with Throat…’
But before he could finish, a wave of swordsticks whisked over the top of the prison wall and sliced through a hundred or so unsuspecting Norsori guards. The tips of the swordsticks were covered with white mercury and as the Norsori flew back through the air, they burst into seething balls of white flame.
‘What were you saying?’ Zach said, snatching his crossbows from their holsters and taking aim at the army below.
Turning away from the wall, Marshal Goth screamed at his guards, ‘We’re under attack. Ready yourselves for battle!’
Willow stood in the centre of the cavern deep within the Snowstorm mountains. The rest of the remaining Noxas had gathered around her. All of them except for her husband Warden, who didn’t agree with her decision to go into Earth and find Wally Willabee. Wilberforce had asked for a volunteer, and it had been Willow that had raised her hand.
He knew that Willow had never gone as far as the edges of the Howling Forests in her life, let alone travel into another world. The mission that Wilberforce had offered her would be dangerous and Warden resented the high priest for putting his beautiful wife in that situation. It should have been him who was to risk his life by going into Earth, not Willow.
Curse my blindness! He howled inside.
So he had decided to stay away from the caverns, and instead they had said their tearful goodbyes in private.
Wilberforce stood before Willow in his noble gowns, cut from the leaves of the silkweed tree.
‘Close your eyes and picture your doorway,’ he told her.
Willow closed her eyes.
‘Take deep breaths,’ he said.
‘What does my door look like?’ she asked.
‘You’ll know it when you see it.’
‘But what if I don’t have a doorway?’
‘Everyone has a doorway,’ Wilberforce explained. ‘Some don’t have to look at all. It just appears when they least expect it. Others have to work hard to find theirs, but for most they never find the doorway at all. It eludes them their entire life. It’s a lot like the search for true love.’
Squeezing her eyelids together and screwing her hands into fists, she searched her mind for her doorway.
‘Relax,’ Wilberforce whispered in her ear.
Way ahead in the darkness of her mind, Willow could see something; like a solitary star in the night sky. She walked towards it, her arms outstretched.
There’s something there, she said to herself. Is that my doorway?
Without taking a single step, she moved forward in her mind. Whatever it was, it was coming nearer. It was narrow and oblong in shape and light radiated from around its edges. It looked like the centre of the universe was opening like a flower.
‘I can see something,’ she whispered and the Noxas exchanged excited looks with one another.
Whatever it was stood feet away and it pulsated like a heart. Then, through the glare of white light that glowed all around it, Willow could see what looked like a door handle protruding from its centre.
‘I think I’ve found it,’ she said, sounding breathless.
‘Open your eyes Willow,’ Wilberforce said.
Opening her eyes, Willow looked in wonder at her doorway.
It stood before her in the centre of the cavern and glistened. It was constructed from a series of giant icicles that reflected back the white glare of the snowy caves. Willow approached it. She could see herself looking back, like a splintered reflection. She stroked the braids of hair that hung from her cheeks, and looked at the long eyelashes that curled from the corner of her eyes.
‘So this is my doorway?’ she asked. ‘It’s beautiful.’
Wilberforce’s reflection appeared in the icy doorway as he stood behind her.
‘Are you sure that you want to go through it?’ he asked.
Turning to face him, Willow nodded.
‘You can change your mind. It’s not too late.’
Although Willow was scared of what she might find on the other side of her doorway, she also felt exhilarated by it. This was her chance to step out from the shadow of the Howling Forests and do something for her people.
This is my chance to have some adventure! she told herself.
‘I will go into Earth, find Wally Willabee and return with this League of Doorways,’ she said.
‘Then we have no more time to waste,’ Wilberforce said, stepping forward and placing one of his hands on her shoulder. ‘May our Queen’s peace be with you on your journey Willow Weaver, and may you return safe and well.’
Turning away from his cool stare and flowing white beard, Willow faced her doorway. Without saying another word, she looked at her friends hoping to see her husband amongst them, but he wasn’t there.
Taking hold of the freezing cold door handle, she pulled the doorway open. Without looking back, Willow stepped into Earth.
The icy doorway slammed shut with a boom that echoed throughout the caverns, sending icicles and snow showering from above.
In his cave, Warden heard the closing of Willow’s doorway. Throwing his arms out and his head back, he began to howl.
Chapter 37
Climbing to the top of the prison walls, the Norsori fired wave after wave of arrows at the Demonic Guardians and Radan that charged the gates below.
‘We’ve been betrayed men!’ Marshal Goth roared, pulling his bow from his back and firing off four arrows in a blink of an eye.
The Demonic Guardians released bolt after bolt of fire from their fists which rained down on the Norsori protecting the prison. The fireballs smashed into the Norsori and they flew screaming from the prison walls.
Crouching, Zach took aim and released a volley of stakes down into the army that attacked below. The stakes sped through the night tearing into the Guardians armour and sending Radan hurtling from their rides.
‘Bull’s-eye!’ Zach grinned to himself, squeezing down on the triggers of his crossbows.
For maximum speed, William bounded on all fours along the top of the prison walls as arrows showered down all around him. Howling like a deranged beast, he threw himself into the air and climbed to the top of one of the search towers. Pulling his catapult from his trouser pocket, he hooked two inferno berries into the cartilage and fired them into the army below. Hitting the ground, the inferno berries sparked and fizzed, then exploded in a hideous green blast of energy. A shockwave rippled out across the battlefield and sliced through everything that it came into contact with.
Demonic Guardians and Radan were tossed into the air in their hundreds as if swept aside by a giant invisible fist. Seeing this, William howled in triumph and reloaded.
Neanna drew the hood of her cloak over her head, and her eyes shone blue from within the darkness beneath it. Captain Bom stood awestruck as something similar to a war zone erupted all around him. He hadn’t seen anything like this in over two hundred years, not since the Battle of Neff.
But I had been a lot younger and slimmer back then, he thought to himself, patting his bulbous belly.
Neanna saw him standing by the wall, which he couldn’t quite see over as he was a mere four-foot-ten in height.
‘C’mon on old man,’ she said, ‘don’t just stand there we’ve got a battle to win!’
Pulling him by his arm, Neanna dragged Captain Bom down the stairs and onto the exercise yard. At the bottom, Neanna spun around, drawn to the far wall of the prison. The sounds of agonising screams came from the Norsori that were defending the hole William had made in it earlier.
Brandishing her teeth and fingernails, Neanna blinked her way across the yard, slicing and gnawing through two of the Demonic Guardians who were scrambling through the hole and into the pri
son grounds.
Anna ran towards the lights in the distance as the sound of Max’s barking and slobbering got closer and closer. Her side burnt as if she had been stabbed with a fork. Sucking in mouthfuls of air, she tried to blank out the pain of the stitch jabbing away at her.
As the lights of Piranha Bay got closer, so did the sound of laughter and music. It sounded as if somewhere deep within the streets of Piranha Bay, someone was holding a party. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see the silhouette of that giant dog racing towards her. With her arms working like pistons on either side of her, Anna raced into Piranha Bay and followed the sounds of the laughter and music.
The shops and buildings that lined the streets would have looked at home in any small seaside town, but none of them had lights burning inside. Apart from the building at the edge of town, Piranha Bay was silent. Racing towards the building, Anna could see that the windows glowed orange from the lights which burnt inside. She could see the shadows of people flicker past the windows, and hear the sounds of singing and raucous laughter.
Glancing back, Anna glimpsed Max’s gnashing teeth in the dark as he bounded behind her. Drawing on the little energy she had left, Anna raced towards the building which she could see had a sign painted above the door. It read: The Poisonous Squid.
Throwing herself against the door of the Inn, Anna crashed inside and slammed it shut behind her. Max’s skull collided against the iron frame of the door and he collapsed on the ground.
After her initial relief at getting inside the Inn had passed, she noticed that the singing and laughter had stopped. Except for the sound of her exhausted gasps as she struggled to regain her breath, the Inn had fallen into silence. Turning, she peered around the room.
They all sat and stared at the girl, who had just interrupted their drunken evening.
One of them stood and placed a jug of beer on a table. Wiping a coating of white froth from his tatty beard, he grinned, ‘what do we have here then?’
Cringing against the door, Anna looked at the Inn full of zombie outlaws.