Wychetts and the Thunderstone

by William Holley

  The car swerved at the last moment, and Edwin felt a searing heat as the flaming orb hurtled just wide of its target.

  “A near miss,” said the Weather Vane. “Twelve inches wide on the starboard side.”

  “Thanks for the running commentary,” muttered Stubby. “When we get blown out of the sky, I’m sure we’d all be grateful if you could let us know.”

  There was another flash and boom from the airship. The car swerved again as a second flaming orb whistled narrowly past.

  “That was a second red light we just missed.” Bill looked increasingly worried. “I can’t afford three more points on my licence.”

  “We are nearly within range,” said Inglenook. “I suggest you all hold on to something. This will require a very complicated manoeuvre…”

  Chapter 25- You Lied to Me

  “Step into the cage with me.” The blonde haired woman beckoned to Bryony. “There isn’t much time.”

  “Mum?” Bryony repeated the word, too shocked to say anything else.

  “Of course it’s me.” The woman smiled. “Don’t you recognise your own mother?”

  There was something odd about the voice, and the smile wasn’t quite how she remembered it. But Bryony was in no doubt whatsoever…

  “What are you doing here, Mum?” Bryony’s amazement turned to curiosity. “Did the Shadow Clan kidnap you as well?”

  “The Shadow Clan is not our enemy,” said Bryony’s mother. “There is another more terrible danger to come. Please step into the cage.”

  “No.” Bryony felt conflicting emotions churning inside her. She wanted more than anything to fall into her mother’s arms, and yet her feet seemed fused to the trembling rainbow. “You must tell me how you’re involved in this. About the Moon of Magister. About everything.”

  Bryony’s mother looked hurt. “Don’t you trust me?”

  “I…” Bryony hesitated. “You lied to me.”

  Bryony’s mother flinched.

  “Inglenook lies,” she hissed. “He hides the truth from you. How many times have you asked him about me? Step into the cage, and I’ll tell you everything.”

  “Tell me now,” growled Bryony. Her cheeks reddened, and droplets of sweat trickled down her forehead. She could feel something welling inside her, something greater and more terrifying than anything she had felt before. “I’m sick of people hiding things from me. Tell me now!”

  There was a loud cracking noise, and the Bridge of Fire shuddered.

  “You are running out of time.” Bryony’s mother waved desperately. “Step into the cage before Bifrost shatters.”

  “I have Rainbow Magic.” Bryony raised her glowing hand again. “Nothing can harm me.”

  The Bridge of Fire shook again, and Bryony crumpled to her knees. She tried to stand, but her legs had turned to jelly.

  “Quickly!” shouted Bryony’s mother. “You have only seconds left!”

  “I can’t move.” Bryony’s vision blurred. Her heart pounded like a crazy drumbeat, and her skin felt as if it was on fire. “Mum, what’s happening?”

  “It’s the Rainbow Magic, it’s burning you up. You must come to me.”

  Bryony looked around, but all she could see was a veil of pulsing bright colours. “Mum, where are you?”

  “I’m here. This way.”

  Arms stretched out before her, Bryony crawled blindly towards her mother’s voice…

  Chapter 26- Now for the Tricky Part

  There was a flurry of booms and flashes, and suddenly the air was ablaze with red orbs. Edwin clung on to the driver’s seat headrest, but his stomach churned as the car weaved its way through the barrage of fiery missiles.

  And then the sky was clear.

  “We have breached the airship’s defence,” announced the Weather Vane. “Good driving.”

  “It was nothing,” said Bill, who still seemed to think he was in control of the car.

  “There it is!” The Shield Maiden jabbed her spear towards the wedged shaped object hanging from the underside of the airship. “The Thunderstone.”

  Having recovered from the car’s aerobatics, Edwin leaned forwards to study the Thunderstone. Close up it was a lot bigger than he’d realised, about the size of his mother’s kitchen table.

  “You kept that on your windowsill?” He turned incredulously to Val. “Between a potted plant and a novelty cow jug?”

  “Told you it made a very good paperweight.” The Shield Maiden hoisted her spear as the car closed in on its target. “Now for the tricky part.”

  “Tricky?” The Weather Vane groaned. “In my opinion that sums up the whole day so far.”

  “Then you need to get out more,” said Stubby. “This has all been pretty so-so by our normal standards.”

  The car skimmed the underside of the airship, so close that Edwin instinctively ducked his head. Val kept her arm aloft, and a fork of lightning leaped from her spear to strike the Thunderstone.

  There was a terrific crash of thunder, the loudest Edwin had ever heard. The car dived steeply, and Edwin looked up to see a halo of sparks around the Thunderstone as it burst free from the metal clamp.

  Val whooped with delight, but Edwin wailed with dismay when he saw the giant stone plummeting towards the car.

  Val raised her spear, sending another fork of lightning to strike the hurtling Thunderstone. There was another deafening clap of thunder, and then the Thunderstone began to shrink. By the time it fell into Val’s outstretched hand it was no larger than a bread roll.

  “How…” Edwin gawped at Val, but a chorus of angry shrieks diverted his attention to the pursuing swarm of Storm Hags.

  “They won’t let us take the Thunderstone,” said the Weather Vane. “It is the source of their power.”

  “That is correct.” Val inserted the Thunderstone between the prongs on the end of her spear. “But whoever wields the Thunderstone controls all elemental beings.”

  Lifting the spear with both hands, Val tilted her head back and shouted. “By the power of Thor’s Hammer, I command you to obey the Shield Maiden of Asgard!”

  The Storm Hags went into some kind of frenzy, screeching and cackling as they zoomed around the car, so fast that their ragged bodies disappeared into a blur. Then there was a flash from the Thunderstone, and Edwin saw lighting crackling all around. The Storm Hags’ terrible screams changed, blending into a harmonious song that reminded him of a church choir.

  And then he saw they weren’t Storm Hags anymore, but beautiful white robed beings with wings of shimmering gold.

  “Advance, my Sun Daughters!” Val pointed her spear at the Shadow Clan’s airship. “Destroy the enemies of Asgard!”

  The Sun Daughters obeyed Val’s command, flying at their target in a streak of gold. The air rang with their singing, and Edwin had never witnessed such a beautiful yet terrifying sight.

  “Now I will leave you, my brave boy.” Val patted Edwin’s shoulder. “A Shield Maiden must follow her troops into battle. You must rescue your fellow Guardian.”

  Val stepped out of the car. Edwin screamed, but his cry became an amazed gasp when he saw a pair of glittering wings unfold from the Shield Maiden’s shoulders. And his gasp faded into a whimper as he watched Val fly off gracefully in pursuit of the Sun Daughters.

  “What a woman.” Bill sighed and shook his head. “I must find out what vitamin supplement she takes. Think your mother could do with some.”

  A barrage of red orbs boomed from the Shadow Clan’s airship. Some Sun Daughters fell, but most flew unharmed through the defences to ravage Darkwing in a blaze of fiery wrath. Explosions flared like buds of orange blossom, and plumes of black smoke billowed from the airship’s shredded fuselage.

  “Sun Daughters!” A croaky voice crackled from the airship’s loudspeaker. “Darkwing is under attack! Action stations! All crew to their posts!”

  “But I haven’t got a post,” rasped an old man’s throaty voice.

  “You are a post,” said the croaky voice. “So
just shut up and stay in your bucket.”

  “Typical,” groaned the throaty voice. “There’s no respect.”

  Edwin tore his gaze from the battle to look for Bryony below. After seconds of frantic searching he spied his stepsister crawling along the Bridge of Fire, whilst great shards of multi-coloured glass sheared away from the rainbow beneath her.

  “There she is.” Edwin pointed through the car window. “But what’s she playing at?”

  “There is a lady in the cage,” said the Weather Vane. “I assume the girl is trying to reach her.”

  Edwin didn’t recognise the blonde haired woman who was beckoning to Bryony, but he feared the cage would be no safer place for his stepsister than the crumbling rainbow.

  “Take us down” he urged Inglenook. “We don’t have much time.”

  “Yes, Young Master.”

  The car dived at the rainbow. Edwin stood up to look out of the sunroof, his gaze locked on Bryony as she inched to within touching distance of the cage.

  Edwin still couldn’t identify the blonde haired lady, but suddenly Bill seemed to know who she was.

  “It’s her!” he shouted, pointing through the windscreen. “I’d know that traitor anywhere!”

  The lady looked up when she heard Bill’s cry. At that same moment a mighty tremor shook the rainbow. There was a terrible noise, like a thousand thunderclaps combined, and the Bridge of Fire shattered into a haze of multi coloured crystals.

  The car dived into the blinding technicolour snowstorm. Edwin reached out his arms as he saw Bryony falling, but he knew he wouldn’t reach her in time.

  He lost track of his stepsister in the flurry of rainbow flakes, and saw the cage tilting forwards. There was a scream as the blonde haired woman fell through the opened door.

  And then the blizzard cleared, and Edwin looked back to see Bryony clinging to the swinging cage.

  “We’ve got to make another pass,” he told Inglenook. “Turn this thing around.”

  “I am trying,” said the Keeper of the Ancient Wisdom. “But we have taken on some extra weight.”

  Edwin looked to the front and saw someone perched on the car’s bonnet…

  “It is you!” The blonde haired lady glared through the windscreen at Bill. “I didn’t expect you’d have the nerve to face me in battle.”

  “Um…” Edwin glanced enquiringly at Bill. “You know this lady?”

  Before Bill could reply, the blonde haired lady punched her hand through the windscreen and grabbed his neck.

  “Quite well by the looks of it,” said Stubby.

  The car veered away from the hanging cage, but the blonde lady remained crouched on the bonnet, laughing as she squeezed Bill’s throat. Edwin tried to squirm through the front seats to aid his stepfather, but Bill lashed out and caught the blonde lady’s face with his fist. Her laugh turned into a gurgled scream as the impact sent her teeth flying from her mouth.

  Edwin watched the set of gleaming dentures hurtle past the window. Then he looked back at the blonde haired lady. She had grabbed Bill’s arm, and was laughing again as she tightened her grip on his throat.

  But there was something wrong with her face. Her toothless gums were swollen, and had turned an odd shade of green. Her eyes grew bulbous, and pointy fins sprouted from the top of her head.

  Her skin peeled away to reveal dark scales beneath, and the fingers round Bill’s throat became webbed and tipped with claws.

  “It is Grinny Greengums!” cried the Weather Vane. “Rival to the throne of the Nyx Queen!”

  “Rival no more,” gulped Grinny Greengums. “For I shall be ruler now the old Queen is dead.”

  “But the Queen isn’t dead.” Edwin was too shocked by events to do much else but gawp.

  “Not yet,” said Grinny Greengums. “But I’m working on that right now.”

  Bill’s face contorted as those webbed fingers closed ever tighter round his neck. His eyes bulged so much that Edwin feared they would pop out of their sockets, and his mouth gaped until he resembled a fish out of water.

  But that wasn’t the only similarity to a fish. Bill’s skin had turned scaly, and gold tipped fins protruded from his head.

  And then Edwin realised.

  “It is the Nyx Queen. It was her all along!”

  “But not for much longer,” gulped Grinny Greengums. “Her reign is about to end, and I shall rule in her stead.”

  “Not if I’ve got anything to say about it.” Edwin pointed the Wychetts Key at Grinny Greengums. “Inglenook, save the Nyx Queen.”

  “My pleasure, Young Master.”

  A beam of white light shone from the Key at Grinny Greengum’s face. The Dark Nyx recoiled, but kept hold of the Nyx Queen as she slid backwards across the car’s bonnet. Edwin lunged forwards, but couldn’t stop the Nyx Queen being dragged through the shattered windscreen.

  And then the Nyx Queen was gone, thrown over the car bonnet.

  A dark scaly arm lunged at Edwin, webbed fingers seizing his arm that held the Wychetts Key. Grinny Greengum’s face appeared close in front of him, her toothless mouth emitting a fishy stench that made his stomach heave.

  Edwin grimaced as the dark Nyx tightened her grip, but clung on to the Key as though his life depended on it.

  Which, he knew, it did.

  Grasping Edwin’s shoulder with her free hand, Grinny Greengums pulled him onto the car bonnet.

  “So is this just a routine day for Wychetts?” enquired the Weather Vane, still perched in the opened sunroof.

  “Very much so,” replied Stubby, who was clinging to the hem of Edwin’s top pocket. “Although it’s now edging into the category known as ‘slightly more interesting’.”

  Edwin tried to raise the Key, but the dark Nyx twisted his wrist. The Key slipped from his hand, and Edwin cried in horror as it clattered over the edge of the bonnet.

  “You have lost,” gulped Grinny Greengums. “And now you will join the Nyx Queen in death.”

  Edwin struggled, but knew he was too weak to stop the dark Nyx hurling him from the car. Then he saw a hand clinging to the edge of the bonnet, a webbed hand with golden tipped claws. The Nyx Queen sprang into view, lunging at Grinny Greengums in a blur of scales and teeth.

  “You shall never take my throne!” The Nyx Queen slipped her webbed hands around Grinny Greengums’ neck. “Nor shall I permit you to harm my allies.”

  Grinny Greengums struck back, clawing at the Nyx Queen’s face.

  The car pitched forwards. Edwin clung to the bonnet, but the Nyx Queen and Grinny Greengums were too absorbed in their battle to notice. The two rivals still grappled with each other, locked in a deadly embrace as they rolled from the car.

  Edwin watched the Nyx Queen and her enemy tumble through the sky, their bodies shrinking into tiny dots.

  But he had no time to dwell on the fate of his ally. The car veered crazily, and when Edwin checked he saw the right wing was disintegrating in a stream of feathers.

  “What’s happening?” Edwin checked the other side, and saw the left hand wing was in no better state.

  “We are falling,” announced the Weather Vane. “You have lost the Key, and with it Wychetts’ magic.”

  “That is not quite true,” said a deep and cheerful voice. “Wychetts’ power is still yours to command, Young Master.”

  “Inglenook?” Edwin checked the front of the car. “Where are you?”

  “Falling to earth,” said Inglenook. “At a most exhilarating speed.”

  “I’m sorry,” sobbed Edwin. “I didn’t mean to drop you.”

  “I am getting quite used to it, if truth be told. But fear not, Young Master. The psychic link is holding.”

  “The psychic link!” At last Edwin figured out how he was talking to Inglenook. “Like what happened in the Cavern of Death?”

  “Precisely, Young Master. It is your belief in Wychetts’ power that is maintaining the magic flow between us.”

  Edwin breathed a relieved sigh. “So please do some
thing to help us. We need your magic.”

  “I would indeed. But there is one in greater need at this moment.”

  Edwin realised whom Inglenook meant. “Bryony!”

  The car had travelled some distance during the Nyx fight, and it took Edwin several seconds for him to get his bearings. He spotted the smouldering hulk of the Shadow Clan’s airship to the left, still under attack from Val and the Sun Daughters. His gaze travelled down a long metal chain, where he spied a dark haired girl clinging to the hanging cage.