Kingdom

by Andy Tilley

  ‘Oh she’s still here alright, not far away either. Why, what’s the plan?’

  ‘Not really got a plan, I just want to talk to her I guess. Try and convince her to let it go, let my father live and leave Christine alone.’

  ‘Brilliant! Well I’m glad that’s sorted then Kingdom.’

  Foolishly I congratulate myself before realising just how much sarcasm this praise is steeped in. Keltz hasn’t finished knocking me down yet either, finishing me off with a voice that sounds spookily close to Aunt May’s.

  ‘You make a good point Cristian my dear and listen, I’m really sorry for getting all pissy about your father trying to slaughter my offspring. Maybe I should apologise to daddy? Yes, that’s what I’ll do, I’ll stop trying to kill him and apologise. Now, what do you suggest? Should I say it with chocolates or should I say it with flowers? I think flowers is best don’t you? Big bright yellow ones stamped all over his fuckin’ grave!’

  Jesus where did this come from! Keltz’s sarcasm has twisted his words so tightly that any humour in them is soon squeezed out, lost to the night. It’s difficult to know what his anger is directed at though; my naivety or Setantii’s vengeance. But he’s calming as quickly as he boiled, seems to almost regret his outburst too so rather than ask for an explanation I decide to let him finish his thought.

  ‘No, that isn’t going to work Kingdom. We’re going to have to be a bit more proactive here.’

  Proactive? Now what is he talking about? And pumping his shotgun like that while he makes this barely veiled threat. What’s that about?

  ‘Hang on a minute Keltz, I’m confused. I thought you were supposed to be Setantii’s friend? So why aren’t you trying to calm me down, convince me that Thomas Chevalier has got what’s coming to him? Come to think of it, why the hell aren’t you out in the woods helping her hunt him down?’

  There are many questions here but Keltz only offers one answer.

  ‘The picture. Look, it’s complicated but I think that Setantii knows about Christine’s picture and if ….’

  Keltz intriguing explanation is left hanging, splintered by a thunderous bang rattling through the trees. I don’t recognise the noise but my instincts do and they crouch me down behind the Range Rover, wrap my arms around my head. Keltz is already here and we’re still cowering when a second blast rips out from the woods. This time I see it before I hear it, a bright yellow flash that barcodes the trunks less than five hundred meters in from the road. My hand tightens its grip on the gun but I’m unable to stand until I hear my name, my human name shrieking beneath the rumble as its echo dies away. It’s Christine calling my name and this time not telepathically (as she had earlier tonight to spring me from my bed and bring me here). These words are real, as clear and present as the danger she is in, trapped amidst the torrent of gunfire that has suddenly ignited deep in the woods. I’ve made my decision; automatically check that the safety is off then set off scrambling into the dark, firing my shouts into the mayhem there.

  ‘Setantii! You leave her alone you hear! Christine! Christine!’

  Keltz is close behind, running too and shouting my name but I ignore him until his cry changes to such a sharp and demanding screech that I have to do as I’m ordered and throw myself to the floor.

  ‘Cristian, duck!’

  I hit the dirt as he pulls the trigger, the shot cracking the air where my head had just been. It’s on its way to pepper the chest of a mallard (momentarily lit by the powder flash), mid flight ten feet in front. The duck is dead by the time it flops onto the back of my head. My mouth is pressed so close to the ground so quickly that it fills with crap; crunchy leaves, small twigs and something pasty and bitter that’s best left a mystery. As I roll over onto my back, coughing and scraping these things from my tongue, I struggle to fathom what has just happened here. Why would Setantii attack me? And with a duck of all things! Is she attacking or just distracting?

  ‘Oh she’s attacking alright! With whatever she can set her mind on. She’s lost it Kingdom, completely. Now come on, we need to get to the others and protect your sister!’

  Go Keltz! The fiery little Scotsman leaps over me and by the time I’m up and running again he’s already a flickering silhouette backlit by the battle raging ahead. Three guns at least are blazing, almost continuously. I can see a building in the clearing ahead and that’s where they huddle; three men, backs against a huge steel door that one of them is struggling to open. They are surrounded, penned inside a ring of dead animals being bombarded by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of live cannon fodder incoming along every bearing; animals unseen until the last five meters or so where the stealthy gloom thins enough to blip them onto the radar. Something is dropping from a high tree, parachuting in and locking its tiny legs tight as it hits the drop zone. I recognise immediately the target, a man who now has a squirrel on his head (recognise his face that is, not because father made a habit of wearing rodents for hats) and my fear for him shouts out as he drops to his knees, arms flailing to grasp a bushy tail.

  ‘Dad!’

  Flung to ground and shot, the squirrel still twitches as my father struggles to stand, immediately forced back down though by an owl swooping up from its low trajectory. The bird hits hard, screeching into his face talons first. One of the men fends it away to arms length for the third to shoot. Feathers still flying the guns swing left, all three needed to bring down a fox. And still they come, as fast as Setantii can summon them from the dark woods, their assault rooting me behind the last of the trees oh but look at Keltz! He’s marching on, striding boldly across the clearing; pumping his shotgun, firing with one hand whilst grabbing for ammo and reloading with the other. When he reaches the door however, things get really weird.

  Keltz stops firing, casually drops his weapon to the floor and sets about heaving open the steel slab. Only when a thick stripe of light has spilled from it do the men finally seem to notice that this rather reckless reinforcement has arrived. It takes another moment for my dad to recognise Keltz, shout a loud and shocked accusation. The other men (already halfway through the door) are stopped in their tracks, reach back outside and restrain Keltz with his own arms, yanking them roughly up his back and dragging him inside and out of sight. I can still hear them as they secure their silkie prisoner with a heavy string of obscenities and threats. The last thing they collect is my father and in such a hurry too that his protest has time for only one word; the steel snubbing out the light and leaving Christine’s name alone in the dark.

  And that’s it. The battle is over, although what has been won or lost I have no idea. Initially I’m elated, so glad that it’s done (leaving me unscathed) that I actually laugh inside. Except the silence that’s settling isn’t complete and soon wipes the smile from my virtual face. Rap! rap! rap! it goes, the sound of remorse bashing on my head and it hurts so bad when I let it in. Shit, I should have done something to help! Am I really such a coward damn it! Why was it so easy for me hide? Maybe it was my silkie conscience that refused to set itself against one of our kind? If only Keltz hadn’t raided so heroically then maybe I could convince myself that this was true. It doesn’t take much longer before there isn’t room enough for both me and my guilty shadow behind this tree. Breaking cover I step out into the clearing, intent on making amends and shouting my sister’s name but still I daren’t in case my fear feeds these cooling embers and flares the melee back to life so I call out as quietly as I possibly can.

  ‘Christine. Are you there?’

  My voice is feeble and pathetic. It embarrasses me. It’s certainly not the brave roar of some evolutionary masterpiece (the bellow which Kingdom should command). No, this is the weak whimper of Cristian; the ‘man’ that failed Rose when she was attacked by the same evil that is at this very moment threatening my sister somewhere in these woods. Well, not this time Setantii. No way bitch!

  ‘Christine!!’

  So full blooded is my cry that exhausted birds take flight and I hurt my throat.

/>   ‘Cristian!’

  My name echoes back ahead of hers, from some dim corner tucked away toward the rear of the building. With it comes an opportunity for absolution that I am not going to let pass. I’m finally acting, running again but all too soon my heels are slamming into the dirt and halting my charge, jarred not by fear this time but thankfully by something far nobler.

  ‘Christine, are you okay?’

  Christine is on the floor, sitting with her knees tucked up tight into her arms. She nods but doesn’t speak. I raise my gun and take aim, feel the trigger begin to yield. On each side of her, standing perfectly still and staring directly at me are my Labradors; black, strong and capable of ripping my sister apart at the flick of a switch behind those bright blue eyes. I would call them, command them to sit or fetch something but what would be the point for Setantii holds their leash. The trigger is tight now, ready to hammer the bullet on its way but hey, what if? I lower my arms.

  ‘Christine, do you think that you….’

  Jesus Cristian! Was I actually going to ask a blind ten year old girl to try and crawl away? Just do what you have to do damn you!! Decision made. Weapon raised, elbows locked, wrists snapped and aimed at Lloyd. From this distance, the shot is sure. One eye closes the other focuses on a spot of grey between his huge brown eyes. I squeeze harder; snap, click and I’m in. I’m in and she isn’t here. She’s gone! It only takes and instant to check that those brown eyes were for real and soon I’m back behind my gun, calling them, their tails slapping Christine in the face as they leap from her side, so happy to see me as they would be to see Christine or Keltz or any one for that matter.

  ‘Okay boys, now you get yourselves home you hear? Go on, home!’

  One last lick and off they go, straight there, to the pile of culled game by the door.

  ‘I said home!’

  A hurried selection made the pair decide together that they should do as they are told and leave; Lloyd with a mouthful of rabbit, Bruce proudly showing his pigeon to me before setting of after his pal.

  ‘Are you okay sis’?’

  ‘Oh Cristian, it was awful. So loud and so scary but is daddy okay?’

  ‘He is Christine, he’s fine. Now let’s go and find him should we?’

  She is as light as a feather this one, with the grip of a bear but I would rather struggle to breathe than ask her to release her hold on my neck. After all, who needs air when you have something so precious in your life?

  Chapter 35

  Almost and hour has passed since Cristian took his sister down into the lab but Setantii is still fuming. High above the streets of Hartford she stalks, flecks of orange crackling through her and although she knows that rage won’t help sniff out her mark, she simply can’t quell it. This anger isn’t for Thomas Chevalier and his merry men though, for there’ll be times and places-a-plenty to deal with them. She’s mad at herself, cursing her decision to use the dogs to protect Christine whilst the battle raged in the woods. Of course the dogs had been ideal to begin with (guarding and taking down anything that Keltz sent to harm the girl) but at the end, when that unexpected opportunity to tell Cristian the truth presented itself, well what use were two soppy eyed and seal-faced Labradors then? Considering Keltz, Setantii remains in two minds; one purple (grieving the loss of a friend), the other red (despising his betrayal even though it had been suspected for some time). Purple prevails and pulls her spirit down to malinger amongst the naked branches of a winter oak for a while; a short rest she will use to purge her sadness by recalling the events that have wrecked her ancient bond with Keltz.

  Sule Skerry is where she had unwittingly scuttled their friendship, as Keltz had placed Aunt May’s husk next to the lighthouse of that treacherous rock. Setantii (excited by the prospect of Cristian’s ascension) hadn’t been able to resist the temptation to flip out and enter Cristian’s mind, peek at his intentions. It was during that opportunistic domino that Setantii glimpsed Christine’s picture. What an epiphany! In an instant the world, the universe, everything changed as Christine’s revelation swept away the folly of the past decade. And what a folly that petty squabble had been! Attempting to unravel the tightly twisted fates of Setantii and the Chevalier’s had been like trying to spin water the wrong way down a drain; possible of course but completely unnatural. And this is what Christine’s premonition makes exquisitely clear; that it isn’t about fission anymore, it’s about fusion and the desire of Mother Nature to reunite human and silkie before returning them to the stars! But there is portent in Christine’s omen too, a warning of those who will set themselves against the child’s ascension. They are there in the picture; three men embraced by Tuthera’s dark aura in a pact to destroy Earth’s final creation. As for who might be capable of manipulating and mediating such an alliance, well as hard as it to accept (and as much as Setantii tries to deny it) tonight’s foray in the Hartford woods leaves no room for doubt. It has to be Keltz and a final ripple of purple signals Setantii’s acceptance.

  Time to refocus. Setantii is moving again; dropping from the tree, sweeping left toward a short row of houses which are set back from the main road and partially hidden behind a tall, unruly hedgerow. Tricky to find for your average visitor these homes but for this silkie the mission target is painted clear, angst oozing through red brick at the centre of the terrace. Behind that wall lies Setantii’s only hope of reaching Cristian. Up and in, gliding along the landing now then drifting to a halt outside a bedroom door left partially open to allow street light to dribble in and dilute the darkness. Finally Setantii can see her; a woman who has no idea that silkies exist but in the next few moments must agree to help one!

  Snap click booh!

  ‘June. I have news about Rose.’

  June isn’t dreaming yet and so the voice she hears unsettles her almost sleep. She turns onto her side, gathers more quilt into her arms and shuffles her cheek deeper into the pillow. Setantii repeats the booh and it only takes a moment for June to register that the voice is real. So roused she snaps open her eyes and rolls them toward the door.

  ‘Hello? Is there somebody there?’

  It’s a timid demand and it shakes with fear. Setantii has to act quickly, before terror takes hold and her message is lost to the bogey man in the shadows.

  ‘Your daughter and her baby are in great danger June. This is what I want you to do.’

  Chapter 36

  This is a dreadful place. And these stairs! Okay they’re wide enough but so long and ridiculously steep! A tilt of only four or five degrees more toward the vertical and they’d be a ladder. Badly lit too and the whole sense is one of descent not into a real place but into a state of mind, a stairway to fear and depression. Two more careful steps and I finally bottom out but into a space that does nothing to dispel the illusion. The ceiling of the cave is low, only inches above my head and I have to tell Christine to tuck down as I first lift then lower her to the ground. I stand and straighten my back but these claustrophobic carbon walls are pressing so close that even without Christine’s grip it’s hard for me to breathe. Laboratory is far too grand a word, a euphemism as ridiculous as that used by those Englishmen who insist that their graffiti stained council house is their castle. Leading away from the steps is a gently sloping tunnel cut through the coal seam, four strides wide. I can’t see its full extent because less than fifty feet in the string of pathetic bulbs runs out. Scrooge would have better Christmas lights than this. Ah there’s Keltz! But he’s stood strangely still, his back straight up against the wall and his head and shoulders lit by torch beams shone from some kind of chamber that’s carved into the opposite wall. These bright shafts of light flame Keltz’s red hair and his pale white face seems float from out of the black coal, the ghost of miner’s past. I can see the hand that points one of the lights now and then another aiming the barrel of a shotgun!

  ‘Dad? What the hell are you doing? Is this how you thank someone who just saved your life?’

  ‘He’s silkie Cristian
, and that makes him the enemy! Now come over to us, bring Christine with you.’

  To his credit Keltz seems to take this demolition of his character square on the chin, nodding it firmly to let me know that perhaps it would be best if I joined them. I’m still holding Christine’s hand so we walk together through the tunnel. As we approach Keltz she tenses, tucks closer then even shuffles behind me, eventually swapping hands and sides completely until I’m shielding her. Dad’s attitude is bad enough but to lose Christine’s trust like this? I’m about to say something when dad beats reaches out to grab her hand. Christine doesn’t need anymore encouragement. She pulls toward him dragging me with her through the narrow entrance that he’s been guarding and immediately I am shrunk, not by fear but by the immensity of this…this god knows what! I have no idea where I am. It could easily be an ancient alien craft, swallowed up millions of years ago by the swamp that would eventually become this bed of coal. But this place isn’t alien or ancient. My dad built this.