by Tim O'Rourke
“I didn’t want to come back,” Wally snapped. “In Endra, I was mocked – I was a nobody; but here, I’m a somebody.”
“Are you?” Willow asked, glancing around the cave. “You seem very much alone to me. Even your friend left you and hasn’t come back.”
“Okay – you don’t have to rub it in,” Wally howled at her. “I know I get excited and can act the fool sometimes – but I’m really not that stupid. I’m the only Noxas who has managed to trap their own doorway. I’m the only one who has managed to figure out the doorway’s true power.”
“And what is the true power, and can it help save Endra?” Willow asked him.
Wally stepped away from the odd-looking table and crossed the cavern towards his doorway. Standing before it, he said, “Why does everyone go through their doorway like this?” he said, and stepped forward through the open doorway. There was a bang so loud, the cavern shook, sending down a shower of stone and dust from above. There was a blinding flash of light, and Willow threw one of her paws over her eyes. When she dared to look again, Wally was standing before her as a wolf. Like Willow, he was bigger than any wolf that a human would care to see. His fur was chocolate brown in colour with an orange streak of fur blazing down the front of his snout. His eyes burnt red as he stared at her.
“Step through the doorways like you normally would, and you change into your other self – the wolf,” he barked. “But that lacks such imagination. What happens if you go through sideways?”
Before Willow had had the chance to say anything, Wally had bounded back towards the doorway, flipped onto his side, and passed through it. This was followed by another Earth-shattering bang and flash of light. Wally stepped through the doorway as he had stood before Willow just moments before – a Noxas, with his long flowing beard, long matted dreadlocks, claws, and razor-like teeth.
As if brimming with excitement, Wally said, “But what about if I went through the doorway backwards? What happens then?”
Willow looked at him and shook her giant head. “I don’t know.”
“Watch this,” he said, and stepped backwards through the doorway.
The cavern trembled again as his doorway banged open and closed. This time the light was so bright that Willow felt a hot ripple of air pass over her. The light winked out and Willow barked at Wally as he stood before her.
Chapter Fifteen
Anna glanced to her right and gasped as Van Demon flew backwards under the sheer force of Tanner’s brow slamming into his face. The sound of Van Demon’s skull was sickening, like brittle bones being crunched underfoot. But this was soon drowned out by the sound of gunfire. Anna looked up to see six powerful-looking rafter horses come scuttling over the sand dunes which surrounded the shoreline. Their pointed hooves kicked up plumes of sand, almost masking the riders on the strange-looking creatures. The rafter horses’ manes twisted and coiled in the air as the riders held them like reins. With their free hands, Anna could see that the riders held crossbows, and they released wave after wave of stakes at Van Demon’s men.
As they raced nearer, Anna could see that each of the riders was dressed just like Tanner. They wore blue denim shirts and jeans. The tails of their long, black coats trailed out behind them, as their horses scuttled forward. The horse’s heads snaked back and forth on their serpent-like necks and screamed at the bandits who now fired back at the approaching peacekeepers.
“Release me!” Tanner hollered at one of the riders as they went tearing by. He then turned his back, leaned forward, and raised his tethered wrists into the air.
The peacekeeper turned his horse in the sand and came racing back towards Tanner. Anna looked up at the rider and could see that it was a pretty young woman. Her long, pulled-back hair fluttered about her shoulders as she raised her crossbow and took aim at the rope which held Tanner’s wrists together.
The woman released a shot, and the ropes disintegrated. Tanner whirled around and held his good arm up. As the female peacekeeper raced past, she threw a crossbow at Tanner who snatched it out of the air.
“Thanks,” he winked at the female as she raced away, unleashing another volley of shots at Van Demon’s men. “Turn around!” Tanner ordered Anna as he came running towards her.
Just as Tanner had done, Anna swung around, lent forward, and raised her wrists in the air. There was a cracking noise and she felt the rope fall free, releasing her arms from behind her back. She inspected her wrists; they were red and raw where the rope had cut into them.
“Get down!” Tanner roared, as he pushed her down into the sand. As she fell, she watched Tanner bound over her, releasing a volley of stakes into the head of a bandit who had been racing towards her. The bandit flew through the air as if being dragged backwards by a pair of invisible hands.
Tanner landed in the sand on both feet, crouched low, and fired off another flood of shots at the approaching Dammed Bandits. They raced forwards; some with axes held high, others firing bullets from their rifles. The bullets whizzed and whined over Anna’s head and thudded into the sand all around her. Anna pressed herself flat into the ground, and watched as the group of peacekeepers raced their rafter horses across the sand as they gunned down the Dammed Bandits. Tanner crouched someway along the shore on one knee as he picked off the approaching bandits. Anna saw that his eyes seemed bright and keen. The fever he had been suffering from the wound in his shoulder, now gone.
Anna tried to stand, but as she did, she felt someone sit astride her. Rolling onto her back to see who had hold of her, she cried out at the sight of her uncle’s narrow and pointed face leering down at her.
“And where do you think you are going?” he sneered, his hands still fastened behind his back.
“Get off me!” Anna screamed over the sound of gunfire and the cries of the dying. She hoped that Tanner might hear her.
“I can’t let you go, sweet little Anna. I have to take you with me.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you!” She hissed, thrusting her hips upwards. With his hands tied behind his back, Fandel toppled off Anna and into the sand.
“Ahh, you little bitch!” Fandel cried out, trying to get to his feet.
Seizing her chance, Anna got up and headed towards Tanner further along the shore. She ducked and dived as she dodged the bullets and stakes that still whizzed overhead, then a hand grabbed her ankle and she fell, face-first into the sand. She spat the grit from her mouth and looked back to see that it was Van Demon who had hold of her. His jaw swung loosely where Tanner had shattered it with his forehead. Anna recoiled in disgust as she watched Van Demon’s tongue roll from the open wound and flop on to his chest. He made a gargling noise as he tried to speak, but his fleshy grey tongue just beat against his chest. His eyes swiveled in their broken sockets as he looked at her.
Then there came two bangs in quick succession. The first sounded like an explosion, as Van Demon’s head flew clean off his neck and thudded into the sand some distance away. Anna glanced back to see Tanner standing with one of the dead bandits’ smoking rifles in his hand.
“Are you okay, kid?” he asked in his dry tone.
She nodded, and the second bang came and Anna flinched so violently, she thought her heart might just stop. Staggering to her feet, Anna watched as a twisted black doorway appeared on the beach.
“No! No! No!” Tanner roared as he raced towards the doorway that had materialized before Fandel in the sand. “Don’t let him go through it!”
Hearing his cries, the other peacekeepers turned their rafter horses and galloped along the shore towards the doorway, as Fandel crawled towards it. He looked back, his pointed face beaded with sweat as he saw the peacekeepers racing towards him. He hurried towards the door, his hands behind his back. Fandel dropped forward, face-first into the sand, just as the doorway flew open.
“Get him!” Tanner roared as he raced towards the door.
Fandel looked back, and fixing Anna with his beady black eyes, he smiled. Then a hand appeared from the o
ther side, took hold of Fandel by the collar, and dragged him through it. The doorway slammed shut as the stakes from the peacekeepers’ crossbows bounced off it. Then the door was gone, and so was Fandel.
Chapter Sixteen
The beet-wagon crawled to a stop. Smoke poured up from the front of the creature and it made a rattling sound deep within its body. Its black insect-like legs skittered in the sand, and the machine almost seemed to collapse with exhaustion.
“That’s as far as it’s going to take us,” Faraday said, pushing back the creature’s shell and climbing from the vehicle.
Zach and the others clambered out into the night.
“So, what now?” Bom grumbled.
“We walk from here,” Faraday told him.
“How far is this Clockwork City?” Zach asked, looking up at the sky, wondering how long they had before daybreak.
Faraday shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know. Is it important?”
“Kinda,” Neanna said. “Let’s just say the sun doesn’t agree with me.”
Faraday looked at her blankly with his dead, black eyes.
“I’m a Slath,” she told him.
“I thought that race was extinct?” Faraday said, moving away from the giant, dead beetle.
“I’m all that’s left,” she said thoughtfully.
Zach looked at Neanna and could see her eyes cloud over – grow darker – as she remembered how Throat had tricked her race of people. Zach moved closer to her. He wanted to put his arm around her, comfort her. But he didn’t. Zach didn’t know if he should. William did though, and Zach watched her squeeze one of his giant paws with affection.
With his chainmail armor clinking, Bom made after Faraday as he strode away across the desert. The others caught up with him.
“So, how long?” Zach asked, worried about Neanna.
“Until what?” Faraday asked back, never taking his eyes off the dark horizon.
“Until we reach the city?” Zach pushed, feeling frustrated that he was placing his trust and friends’ lives in the hands of an emotionless machine.
“We’ll reach it by daybreak,” Faraday said back.
“Do you even know where we are going to find the house of this man – Der Cribbot?” William woofed.
“No,” Faraday said, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
“Oh, great,” Bom blustered. Then turning to look at Zach, he added, “I know you are meant to be some kind of leader or something, but I think you are making a big mistake by following this thing, boy.”
Zach knew that Bom was cowardly, but he was starting to think that perhaps he was right – could Faraday be trusted? Did he have the faintest idea where he was heading? How long had he been out in the desert? Zach wondered. Were all of the mechanical man’s cogs and parts, working correctly? Then, before he had a chance to say anything, Faraday had pulled an odd-looking compass from one of the many pockets on his flight suit. He held it out in the palm of his hand and said, “The Outer-Rim, Clockwork City, locate Cribbot residence.’
The lid of the compass flipped open, and a small dragonfly-looking bird sprung out and buzzed about just above Faraday’s open hand. A column of green light then arced out of the compass and formed a map of Endra. The dragonfly-type bird twitched, fluttered, and then zoomed into the holographic image that hovered above them.
“What is that?” Zach asked Faraday in wonder.
“It’s called a Seek-Wasp!”
“What does it do?” William asked, as he watched it rocket over the holographic image of Endra.
“It seeks out any location you request…”
“Like a Sat-Nav?” Zach pondered, aloud.
“Sat-Nav?” Neanna asked, glancing sideways at her friend.
“It doesn’t matter,” Zach whispered, unable to take his eyes off the creature that fluttered and buzzed overhead. Zach couldn’t help but think that to watch the Seek-Wasp was like being on one of those 3-D rides in theme parks. To watch it felt like he was racing just above the rough and craggy terrain of Endra, right behind its fluttering tail. Zach glanced at William who was transfixed by the thing. He was so immersed in its journey across Endra, he swayed from left to right on the spot, his eyes burning fiercely behind his glasses. Zach looked up at the Seek-Wasp and immediately ducked, as it appeared to swoop beneath the arms of trees that sprawled across a giant forest.
The Seek-Wasp’s wings fluttered so quickly, they were just a blur on either side of its black and yellow striped body. It tore through the holographic image of the forest, and it felt to the others like they were following it. It zoomed out of the forest, over mountaintops, and the vast blackness of the Onyx Sea. It reached the desert again, and here it hovered momentarily, before racing through the sky until it came to hover above an old stone building set on the edges of the desert.
“Cribbot…zzzz…residence…zzzz…located…zzzz,” the Seek-Wasp said in a buzzy sounding voice.
Without saying another word, Faraday snapped the compass-looking contraption closed. The green holographic image of the old building disappeared. The Seek-Wasp remained and hovered just inches above Faraday’s head, buzzing excitedly, desperate to guide him to the building.
“Thiz way! Thiz way!” it beckoned.
Zach glanced over at Faraday and said, “Did that wasp just speak?”
“Yes,” he replied flatly, not even drawing a breath.
“I didn’t think insects – or birds – could speak,” Zach breathed.
“It’s a machine,” Faraday said.
Neanna threw her sling of inferno berries over her shoulder, and Zach could sense she was keen to get to shelter before daybreak.
“Let’s get moving,” she said, and the Seek-Wasp fluttered away into the night.
They followed the Seek-Wasp for an hour or more across the flat, dry land. Every so often, the tiny winged creature would swoop above their heads and buzz excitedly.
“Thiz way! Thiz way!” it would buzz. Then it would be gone again, racing away into the distance for them to follow.
It wasn’t until Zach’s legs began to ache and each step became more sluggish, that he looked down and noticed that they had all been walking for some time in what appeared to be about a foot of snow. He glanced back over his shoulder, and could see their footprints fading away into the distance.
“Snow?” Zach whispered aloud, bending down and taking a handful. It felt soft and crunchy like snow, but it wasn’t cold, it was warm.
Warm snow? Zach wondered. But that would be impossible, right?
“It’s not snow,” Neanna said, suddenly blinking beside him. “It’s the ash I was telling you about.”
“Ash?” Zach said curiously, letting it sprinkle through his fingers.
“It’s what’s left of Clockwork City,” Faraday said. “The city was burnt down when…”
“The volcano last erupted,” Neanna cut in, wanting to finish the story herself.
“Wrong,” Faraday said. “Throat set the city ablaze, killing everyone in it, and leaving those dead peacekeepers to patrol is borders.”
“But why destroy it?” Zach asked.
“Because of the box that you seek,” Faraday reminded him. “He couldn’t risk it being taken – stolen away. So he destroyed everyone and everything for a hundred miles or more. That box hangs alone, suspended in the searing draughts of air that surge from deep within the volcano.”
“So how are we ever gonna get up there and take it down?” William barked, his fingers reaching inside his shirt and gently touching the key hung about his neck.
Faraday stared back at him.
“We’ll find a way,” Zach said, walking away into the ash. He whispered to himself, “There is always a way.”
Chapter Seventeen
Throat skulked across the upper chamber of the Splinter. His cloak of spiderpedes trailed behind him. Zach Black and his friends were getting dangerously close to the Outer-Rim. But dangerous for who? For Zachary Black, he hop
ed. But to hope wasn’t good enough and he rung his bony hands together. He had spoken to the one who traveled with the boy, and Throat had been assured that he was being led into the trap which had been set for him.
“None of them will return,” the other had said, as Throat watched them in the swirls of black dust he had created.
It circled and swirled before him like a miniature sand storm. Throat stared into it from beneath his decaying hood and said, “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” the other replied. “The boy and the others do not suspect a thing. They trust me.”
“Good. Good,” Throat smiled, and he was comforted by the words that were spoken through the dust. “You will be rewarded well.”
“I’m not looking for rewards,” the other said. “I just want you to set my people free.”
“And I will,” Throat rasped, coughing up a globule of blood. He spat it from the corner of his mouth, where it festered on the cold stone floor at his feet.
“What about the key?” the voice spoke through the swirling dust.
“Just keep it safe,” Throat said. “I have another coming to relieve you of that worry. Just make sure that you lead the boy to Cribbot’s. Then lead them into the Craggy Canyons. They will have a surprise waiting for them there.”
“I will do my best,” the voice said.
“I know you will,” Throat chuckled, as if gargling on a mouthful of nails.
“Are you going to kill Zachary Black?” the other asked.
“That is not your concern,” Throat spluttered.
“You said you just wanted the box…”
“Have you developed feelings of friendship for the boy?” Throat asked.
“I am fond of him, yes,” the voice wavered.
“Well don’t become too attached,” Throat said with a smile. “Grief is such an unpleasant thing, as you well know.”