by Tim O'Rourke
“Don’t watch me! Watch where you’re heading,” Faraday said, pulling at the tips of his fingers on his right hand, as if removing a pair of gloves. As he pulled at his pearly-looking skin, it began to come free, revealing his mechanical arms hidden underneath. Once he had removed the skin on his right arm, he pulled the skin from his left. From the corner of his eye, Zach watched as Faraday laid the flesh from his arms across the top of the dashboard, like a pair of baggy rubber gloves. Then the air was filled with a whizzing sound, as his arms transformed into an array of tools, knives, and odd-looking gadgets. To look at his arms reminded Zach of the Swiss army knife his dad would carry with him. But whereas his dad’s knife had five or six tools, Faraday’s arms appeared to have hundreds – no thousands!
Faraday pushed back the beetle’s shell and stood up. Where he once had fingers, he now had ten rotating blades which he slashed through the air. Then as quick as Neanna had blinked away, Faraday was gone. He sprang from the beetle, his arms rotating so quickly on either side of him, they seemed to propel him through the air.
The riders on their tiger-bikes released a torrent of stakes at him, but he just batted them away with his arms as he twisted through the air. Just as Neanna had done, Faraday landed on one of the tiger-bikes just behind its rider. In one swift movement of his mechanical arms, Faraday had sliced the head from the rider and it went spinning away. A deafening thud was heard as the rider’s head bounced off the bonnet of the beet-wagon.
Neanna raced alongside him, both of their tiger-bikes bounding forwards. Attached to the side of her bike was one of those sidecars which Zach had seen earlier. He watched as the top slid back and one of those dead peacekeepers climbed out.
“Hey, Neanna!” Zach tried to warn her.
Neanna was so focused on the other tiger-bikes which leapt and bounded all around them, she failed to see the dead peacekeeper reach for her. With one hand gripping the wheel, Zach took one of his crossbows from its holster and took aim. The beetle scuttled left and right as he tried to keep it steady and fire off his shot. With his finger hovering over the trigger, he screwed up his eyes and fired. The stake whizzed from his crossbow and sliced into the respirator covering the dead peacekeeper’s face.
As it sucked in air through its torn mask, the creature began to convulse. Through the lenses of its respirator, Zach watched its eyes grow fat and round. They bulged and then popped out of their sockets altogether, exploding against the inside of the mask. The dead peacekeeper began to thrash about uncontrollably as he tried to claw the mask free from his face. Neanna saw the dead peacekeeper as he finally ripped the mask free, his gooey eye sockets wept black tears onto his deathly pale face. Just like the other had, he shrieked, “URG! URG! URG!”
With one hard kick with her foot, Neanna knocked the creature off the bike, where it rolled away lifelessly into the sand.
The last remaining tiger-bikes with their riders circled in the sand ahead, then came bounding towards the beetle. Leaning out of the window again, William took aim with his crossbow.
“No don’t do it!” Zach yelled.
“Show some backbone, will ya!” William howled, his eyes glowing like two hot coals behind his glasses.
The inferno berry rocketed through the air just inches from Zach’s face and thudded into the ground. The whole world seemed to tremble then explode in a bright green flash of light. The shockwave created by the exploding inferno berry carved through everything in its wake, taking the remaining tiger-bikes and their dead riders with it. The circular blade of green light raced towards Neanna and Faraday, as they bounded along in front of the beetle. Just seconds to go before it sliced them apart, Neanna blinked away. With lightning speed, Faraday leapt into a standing position on the back of the tiger-bike, and then, back-flipped through the air.
For a moment Zach lost sight of him as he frantically steered the beetle away from the approaching shockwave. There was a ripping sound. Zach glanced out of the open shell to see Faraday being dragged along in the dirt, the knives and blades on his mechanical arms hooked into the side of the beetle. The vehicle wailed in pain and began to slow. Using his arms as a set of hooks, Faraday pulled himself up and back into the car. Zach slid to one side so Faraday could take control again. His arms whizzed and hummed as the tools which ran the length of his arms folded away.
The beetle continued to slow. It shuddered and lurched forward, its six legs trying to move forward over the desert. It screeched and then stopped. Zach glanced sideways and watched as Faraday pulled the flesh back over his hands and arms, like gloves made of skin. Faraday caught Zach staring at him and said nothing.
Chapter Thirteen
The Delf travelled through the night towards the Outer-Rim. The Splinter was so far behind her now that when she looked back, it was no longer visible on the flat horizon. Max panted as she pushed him faster and faster across the desert. His thick, pink tongue lolled from the corner of his mouth as he grew tired. When she thought the dog could carry her no further or faster, she would take a fistful of the maggots that crawled from her ears, nose, and mouth and lean forward so he could gobble them from between her fat fingers. He licked her fingers clean and galloped on.
As she travelled towards the Outer-Rim, the Delf thought of how she had once been – how she and her brother had once both been. They had been beautiful. They had been loved by all who looked upon them. They were meant to have been the future rulers of Endra. There had never been twins before in the monarchy. But then, the other had come. The Queen, who now lay asleep at the top of the tower, had spoilt everything, the Delf thought with bitterness. Why had she ever been born?
The wind blew hard across the desert floor, and the Delf bent low over Max, losing her face in his unruly mane. She dribbled maggots into his long hair, and they wriggled down the length of his giant skull.
“Faster, there’s a good boy,” she soothed in his ear.
Max sped up, a wake of dust blowing up from beneath his black paws. Although the Delf had spent a great many years living alone in the shack beneath the granite tree, she had hated every moment of it. The loneliness seemed to eat away at her. Her brother had been busy putting his plan together, getting everything in place so that when the time came for them to retake the kingdom which was rightfully theirs, it would pass without interference.
Throat had discovered that the Queen had a reflection – a girl from the other side of the doorways. She would have to die too, but how would he take her? Neither the Delf nor Throat could travel through in their current condition. It might kill them, and even if they could pass through – what sort of beast would they turn into on the other side? But there was another who could help them. The child’s uncle, Fandel Black. From the doorways, Throat studied him and knew that he had a heart that longed for power – he lusted after it. And that was good. So Throat showed Fandel the doorways and what power lay behind them. Fandel’s sick heart fell in love with Endra. But he didn’t fall in love with its beauty – he fell in love with the idea that one day he might rule it alongside the other – Throat. But Fandel had been deceived. He was not Throat’s reflection. Throat didn’t have one – nor did his sister. Twins were a reflection of each other, were they not? How could they possibly have another?
But in his desire for power, Fandel readily believed Throat’s promises that one day he could be a king. All Fandel had to do was to kill his niece. A small sacrifice, Throat assured him, for the rewards he would receive. But what about Fandel’s brother? His brother’s wife and the other child – the boy, Zachary Black? Fandel had wondered. Throat had promised to deal with them and he had. The parents’ plane – a freak accident – blowing into smithereens as it touched down at Manchester Airport. And the boy? He was proving harder to dispose of – but the Delf knew in her heart that her brother would keep his promise. He always did. When she had begged him to send someone to fill her lonely nights, he had sent Fandel.
The Delf remembered how disgusted Fandel had looked on arr
iving at her little shack beneath the granite tree. He had almost vomited into his hanky as he looked upon her bloated and maggot-infested face. He had heaved as she had belched and farted – but with a little magic, Fandel found it nearly impossible to leave her. He was starting to fall in love with her. But she hadn’t been able to snare him for more than a few months, as Throat had other plans for him. The time had come for Fandel to take the yellow spiked tablets back into Earth and feed them to sweet Anna Black.
The Delf had cried black tears of anguish as Fandel had left that night, back through his doorway into Earth. And for the first time since looking beautiful, she’d had strange yearning feelings in her bloated belly. She had fallen in love with him. She liked his darkness, his cunning and cruelty. That’s why she yearned for him. The Delf knew that feeling wouldn’t pass until she had him completely. Throat had promised her that that day would come. Throat always kept his promises.
With those feelings for Fandel Black newly awoken inside of her, she slowed Max to a gentle stop. The Delf farted as she climbed from the oversized dog. Taking her bag of potions, she sat in the dark on the desert floor. With her dirt-ridden fingers, she rummaged through her bag until she seized what it was she had been looking for. Taking a small wooden box, she opened it and looked down at the black dust inside. With her thumb and forefinger, she pinched some between her broken fingernails. Raising her hand in the air, she faced the wind and released the pinch of black dust. It shone like glitter in the air, but instead of blowing away on the wind, it hovered just above her head where the Delf had released it. It twinkled like a tiny cloud of glitter in the night.
The Delf tilted her head back, her yellow eyes rolling back into their sockets. Her blistered lips began to open and close as she started to chant.
Dust of night, Dust so bright
Show me the soul, of the man I control
Is he in danger? In Earth or in Endra?
Dust blow away and create me a doorway!
Over and over the Delf chanted the words, until the sparkling black dust above her formed a hole in the night. A bright white light shone out of it, illuminating her craggy face. The Delf rolled her eyes down and peered into the light. She could see Fandel, and he was in trouble.
Chapter Fourteen
Willow followed Wally Willabee down into the hollow. The mist swirled around her giant flanks like dry-ice. She watched as Wally scraped away a mushy pile of wet leaves to reveal a metal grate. Gritting his teeth, he hauled it up to reveal an opening that spiraled deep into the ground.
“Follow me,” he grinned back at Willow and climbed into the hole.
Willow looked back one last time at the woods, then guessing it was safe to follow Wally, as he had once been a friend of Warden’s, she scrambled into the hole. She found herself teetering on a ledge, and using her giant paws, she steadied herself. Wally stood beside her, and reaching up, he closed the grate back over the hole, throwing them into darkness. She heard Wally rummage through his pockets. There was a clicking noise and then a white beam of light. Willow yelped as the light from the device he held in his hand shone brightly into her eyes.
“Sorry,” Wally said. “I guess this is the first time you’ve ever seen a flashlight.” He pointed the light away to reveal what appeared to be a slide that coiled around the inside of the shaft Willow now found herself peering into. However bright the light from Wally’s flashlight, it did nothing to penetrate the deep well of darkness beneath her.
Wally sensed her fear and said, “Don’t worry, Willow Weaver, you haven’t got to climb all the way to the bottom. There is a quicker way.”
Wally bounced the beam of light off the muddy ledge they stood on and down the length of the slide. It was green and covered in what looked like silky lengths of grass and patches of moss.
“This is the Green slide,” Wally beamed with excitement.
“Is it called that because of its colour?” Willow asked, watching the way the long blades of grass seemed to wave back and forth like thin fingers.
“No,” Wally said. “It’s named after its inventor. Her name was Jennifer-The-Martian-Green.”
“Where is she now?” Willow asked him.
“She went through a doorway and never came back,” Wally said with a sense of sadness.
“So how can she take credit for inventing a slide?” Willow asked. “I thought they had been around for hundreds of years? We have them back in Endra.”
“This is no ordinary slide,” Wally exclaimed, his eyes suddenly burning as bright as his flashlight. “This slide doesn’t just carry you downwards – it carries you back to the top! Jennifer-The-Martian-Green was a genius!”
“Carries you back up?!” Willow barked.
“Let me show you!” Wally beamed, lowering himself onto the slide.
Willow watched as Wally settled on the blades of grass covering the slide. Then the blades of grass lent forward as if caught in a breeze, and carried Wally a short distance down the slide.
“See? Isn’t it incredible!” Wally exclaimed. “Now watch this!”
Wally stood up and turned around so he was facing the top of the slide. Again, the silky blades of grass lent forward, carrying him back to the top.
With a wide smile spread across his face, Wally howled, “Incredible! I’m telling you, the girl was an utter genius. It’s such a shame she left and never came back.”
Watching Wally going back and forth on the slide like an excited child, Willow couldn’t help but sense that he was lonely somehow – that he missed his friend. “Do you miss her?”
Wally stopped sliding up and down, and with a sorry look on his face, he looked up at Willow and said, “Yes. She was my friend. She was a bit cheeky at times for my liking, but she was a dear friend.”
“Maybe she’ll come back one day,” Willow said.
Wally sat quietly for a moment as if remembering his friend. Then, forcing the look of sadness from his face, he smiled up at Willow and said, “I’ll race you to the bottom!” Then he was gone, whisked away into the darkness, carried on those blades of grass.
Willow gingerly stepped onto the slide, the grass seeping through her paws. Then they were moving, and she raced downwards as if being carried on a wave. The slide spiraled below, her long, sleek coat and whiskers billowing out behind her. At the bottom, the blades of grass stopped rippling, and she slid gently off the slide. Wally was waiting at the end, where he skipped excitedly about from foot to foot.
“I won! I won!” he howled with excitement. “Willow, I won!”
On all fours, Willow walked towards him, her bushy white tail waving behind her. “You cheated, you had a head start,” she said. “And besides, I haven’t come through the doorways to race you – I’ve come for your help.”
Wally stopped skipping on the spot. He turned off the torch, throwing the cavern at the bottom of the slide into darkness. Moments later, a series of lamps flickered on. Their warm orange light lit the rocky enclosure, and Willow glanced about. The room was circular, and the walls had been cut out of the rock deep below ground. It smelt damp, and large parts of the walls were covered in moss where water dripped from high above. In the middle of the chamber was a solitary door. Willow looked at Wally, then back at the doorway. She slowly moved towards it, her claws making a ‘clacking’ sound on the stone ground beneath her paws. The door was made of rusty coloured woods. It looked old and warped out of shape. Large, dark brown knots covered the door like bruises. As Willow drew closer to it, she noticed that the door had been fixed to the floor with iron clasps. The top of the doorway had similar looking clasps attached, which stretched out on either side and were screwed into the walls.
“I’ve trapped it,” Wally said, coming towards the doorway.
“Trapped it?” Willow woofed. “I’m not sure that I understand.”
“The doorways have a habit of moving,” Wally said, stroking the long, fine beard that grew from his chin. “They’re not stable anymore. There was a time when
you could predict – know for certain – where you would step out on the other side of your doorway.”
“What changed?” Willow asked him.
“Throat changed everything when he took the Queen prisoner,” Wally said.
“So you do know then what’s happening on the other side of the door?” Willow quizzed him.
With a look of shame, Wally nodded his head and said, “Yes, I know what is going on.”
“So why hasn’t the great League of Doorways come to Endra’s rescue?” Willow asked, staring at him with her deep crimson eyes.
“Because, like I’ve already told you, there is no League of Doorways, it’s just me,” he said, breaking Willow’s stare and going to an odd-looking table that jutted out of the ground like a pillar of rock.
“So why is Wilberforce under the impression that there is this mighty League, made up of the Slath and Noxas, who have travelled into Earth over many hundreds of years?”
“I don’t know,” Wally said, shrugging his huge shoulders.
“You lied to him,” Willow yelped, understanding now how Wilberforce had been deceived.
“I didn’t lie, I just…” Wally started, still unable to meet Willow’s stare.
“You lied,” Willow barked, feeling cheated herself somehow.
“And can you blame me?” Wally suddenly barked at her, his sense of fun leaving him. “I was always considered a joke. No one ever took me seriously. I was always the wild one. All the other Noxas thought they were smarter than me. Even your husband, Warden, felt the same.”
“Warden has spoken about you often,” Willow told him. “For all these years, he believed you were dead, blown to pieces by an inferno berry in the howling forests. But all the time you have been living here in Earth. Don’t you think that was a cruel thing to do?”