by Various
Having worked on the farm all his life, Jak was quite strong, but seeing the hideous creature bearing down on the defenceless young woman who was held captive gave him extra strength. He swung the metal bar as if he was bringing his axe down on a log and hammered it into the back of the creature’s head.
A snarl of pain escaped from the creature as it fell. Jak stood over it, ready to bring the bar down again, but the creature gave a groan and lay still. When Jak was sure it wasn’t going to get up again any time soon, he turned his attention to the woman. Now that he had a chance to look at her properly, he saw that she was about the same age as he was. Her dress was stained and torn, and her face – which would otherwise have been rather pretty – was streaked with dirt and grime.
‘You don’t look much like a princess,’ Jak said.
‘You don’t look much like a hero,’ she retorted. ‘But I think you just saved my life.’
Jak looked down at the fallen creature. ‘Yes, I think I did.’ He put the metal bar down and held his hand out in greeting. ‘My name’s Jak.’
‘Jahanna,’ she replied. ‘And I am a princess – or I was before the Nimon arrived.’ Jak realised that this must be what the bull-headed creatures were called – Nimon.
‘We should get away from here before another one comes,’ he said to the princess.
Jahanna looked at him sadly. ‘And go where? These monsters have destroyed the whole world. There is nowhere to go. You saved my life for now, but I’m afraid we shall both soon be dead.’
Jak grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the door. It was probably not the way one should treat a princess, but he didn’t worry about that. ‘There is a way to escape,’ he told her. ‘And another world to save.’
There was no time for further explanations and, since he had just saved her life, Jahanna trusted Jak. She kept a tight hold of his hand, and together they ran from her cell. They paused for a moment to close the doors, and Jak slotted the metal bar back into place. Jak then led the way back down the wide main corridor. He hoped that the Nimon who had passed him earlier had taken a different return route; whether they had or not, he was sure they only had a little time before the princess’s escape was eventually discovered.
Their luck held until they were almost back where Jak had first arrived. They had just reached the point where the corridor split in two when there was a furious roar from close behind them. Jahanna gave a shriek of surprise. Jak turned to look back, and saw that a huge Nimon was charging down the corridor towards them, its head down. The horns on the creature’s head glowed a livid orange. A ray of fiery light shone from them, and the floor between Jak and Jahanna exploded.
Jahanna ran, with Jak close behind her. Too late, Jak realised that Jahanna had taken the wrong turn: ahead of them was the wide window that looked out on to the ruins of Jahanna’s world. They were trapped.
Thinking quickly, Jak pulled off his jacket. He held it out, making it as large as possible in the hope of hiding the view of the window behind him and Jahanna. The Nimon roared once more, and came charging down the short stretch of corridor, apparently intent on impaling Jak on its horns. Its horns glowed again. At the last moment, Jak pulled his jacket aside, and leaped at Jahanna. He wrapped his arms round her and dragged her to the floor.
At the same instant, the Nimon’s horns shot fire. The light passed over Jak and Jahanna, and hit the window behind them, which exploded into fragments of glass that showered down. The confused Nimon skidded and stumbled as it tried to stop its charge. Jak hoped it would carry on and disappear out of the broken window, but it came to a lurching halt right on the brink. Slowly it turned towards Jak and Jahanna.
Jahanna leaped to her feet. She ran at the Nimon, knocking into it hard with her shoulder. The creature stumbled backwards and teetered for a moment on the edge of the window. Then, with a bellow of rage and fear, it fell backwards. Jak grabbed Jahanna to stop her from toppling after the Nimon. They stood there together, catching their breath while looking below them to where the Nimon had fallen.
The swirling blackness of the wormhole still filled the corridor. Jak took Jahanna’s hand and assured her that it would be all right, although he was far from certain it would be. Her forehead was creased as she looked towards the darkness. She seemed to be considering whether she would be able to step into it and leave her world – however damaged it might be – behind forever. But then two Nimon appeared at the end of the corridor behind them, and there was no more time to consider. Hand in hand, Jak and Jahanna ran into the darkness. They tumbled out of the wormhole, and landed in the field behind Jak’s house in a tangle of arms and legs.
‘Those Nimon will be right behind us,’ Jahanna gasped. ‘And now that they know where the wormhole is all the others will follow. They want to destroy your world, like they destroyed mine.’
She looked around desperately. ‘Why is it here? What created the wormhole?’
‘There was a device made of metal,’ Jak said. ‘I was told to destroy it but I couldn’t. So I buried it here.’
From somewhere deep inside the whirlpool of blackness came a bellowing roar.
‘We have to get the device,’ Jahanna said. ‘Before the Nimon get here.’
Desperately they scrabbled at the ground beneath the wormhole. It was soft from being dug the previous day, and they scooped out great handfuls. Soon, covered in mud and dirt, they saw the gleam of metal. In the blackness of the wormhole above them, a shape was beginning to form.
Jahanna grabbed the metal object from Jak. ‘It’s a black-light generator,’ she murmured. Quickly she pressed several of the studs set into the metal casing, and the device clicked open. Then she dropped it to the floor, and stamped down hard on the innards, grinding them with her heel.
A huge, dark hand reached out of the wormhole, grabbing at Jak – then suddenly it was gone. There was a terrible screeching sound, a roar of pain, and the blackness of the wormhole abruptly vanished. Jak and Jahanna stared in silent relief at the empty air. On the other side of the field, Jak’s cow munched contentedly on the grass, as if nothing had happened.
Inside the house, Jak’s mother also seemed to have noticed nothing. She had been counting the money that Councillor Jevan had given Jak; there was, she told Jak, more than enough to keep the farm running for years. More than enough for them to offer Jahanna a home. If Jak’s mother wondered where the girl had come from, she did not ask. She took her son’s word for it that she was homeless and needed their help and kindness.
Jak showed Jahanna the room that would be hers. He told her how sorry he was about her world, but how grateful he was that she had saved his.
Jahanna gave Jak a small, sad smile. ‘I’m glad we are both safe now,’ she said. She thanked him for rescuing her from the cell she had been kept prisoner in. Although she was filled with sorrow at the loss of her own world, she was relieved to be free of the constant fear she had felt around the Nimon.
After a sleep and a bath, Jahanna put on a dress that Jak’s mother had kept since she was Jahanna’s age. When Jahanna came down to join Jak and his mother for supper, she asked them, ‘How do I look?’
Jak looked at the young woman with whom he had escaped. ‘Like a princess,’ he told her.
Long ago, in a cosmos far away, death came to Winter. The planet of Winter had been at peace for thousands of years, and its people lived together in harmony, from the tall aristocrats to the diminutive minesmen. They lacked for nothing and felt that they had everything, so they were unprepared and ill-equipped to oppose the tyrant who rose from within them.
There had always been kings, queens, lords and aristocrats in Winter, but for the most part the planet’s rulers wanted what was best for the people; the general good, the preservation of peace and the well-being of the people of Winter were their main concerns. Sadly, all that changed when King Drextor came to the throne.
Drextor was the son of King Matthias, a great and noble ruler who had been loved by all. Drextor was of q
uite a different character to his father, however. From his earliest years, he craved power. He delighted in ordering people about, and went to great pains to see that he got whatever he wanted – the great pains being those he inflicted on others.
As a king, Drextor was not loved like his father. In the past, on the rare occasions when a ruler of Winter had overstepped the boundaries of their power, or begun to view themselves as more important than the people they served, that ruler was deposed. The aristocrats and the commoners would agree between themselves that the ruler must go, and a delegation of the aristocracy would simply inform the monarch that they were no longer the ruler of the people of Winter.
But King Drextor had taken precautions; he had made sure that this would not happen to him. Before he even came to power, Drextor had begun work on a machine, with the help of his father’s artificers, that he was certain would allow him to rule unopposed and in whatever way he wanted. The machine was completed on the day of his coronation, and his first act as the new ruler of Winter was to show it to the council that advised the king on all matters. As the members of his council listened in horror, King Drextor explained how his Doomsday Machine could make the air itself burn. It could only be switched on by inserting seven keys into the seven locks, all of which the King kept safely stored in secret locations around his palace. Any opposition to his rule, the King explained, any attempt to remove him from power, and he would use the Doomsday Machine to destroy the whole of Winter.
The rule of King Drextor would have been long and cruel, except for two things: love and poison. Drextor was immune to neither. The woman he loved did not love him, but she pretended that she did in order to take the Doomsday Machine from the tyrant king. He was so blinded by his love for her that he did not even notice. He was likewise oblivious when she stealthily slipped deadly poison into his wine. Only when he was clutching at his burning throat did he become aware of the deception, but by then it was too late for him. His treasonous lover watched with satisfaction as he died.
With Drextor dead, it was up to the council to appoint a new ruler, but before they did there was the matter of the Doomsday Machine. The council decided that it should be displayed in the royal palace, as a reminder of Drextor’s cruel tyranny and as a warning against the same thing ever happening again. To ensure the machine could never be used, and that doomsday would never come to Winter, the seven keys were taken and hidden. One key was hidden in each of the seven provinces of the land, and the people of Winter continued with their lives, happy and safe from tyranny.
Until Queen Salima came to the throne.
Salima was not the kindest ruler that Winter had ever had, but nor was she the cruellest. The council had occasion to rebuke her, but she always seemed willing to accept their criticism. She would hang her head, as if ashamed, and promise to make an effort to think of the people in the future. Outwardly, she had the appearance of someone making an effort to become a kinder and more generous person. The truth, however, was very different.
Malpeth White had worked at the palace all his life. When he was a junior groundsman, he fell in love with a kitchen maid named Elsa. By the time they were married and their first child was born, he was head gardener and his wife was the palace housekeeper. When they saw their baby daughter for the first time, Malpeth and Elsa thought her skin was as pale and smooth, as unblemished and beautiful as the palace lawns after a fresh fall of snow. So they named the child Snow White.
As she grew older, Snow White also began to work in the palace. She cleaned and she tidied, and she helped in the kitchens and in the gardens. All the while, she grew more beautiful, her skin retaining the perfect, soft quality for which she had been given her name.
One day, when Salima had been queen for over a year, Snow White was cleaning the room where the Doomsday Machine was kept on display. By this time, everyone in Winter who wanted to had seen it, and visitors were few and far between, so the room where it was kept was rarely cleaned. Therefore, as she crawled beneath the machine with her cleaning cloths, polish, dustpan and brush, Snow White was confident that she was alone. She worked with such focus and concentration that it was only when she saw two pairs of feet pass by, close to where she was lying, that she realised she was not alone at all.
Snow White paused in her work, wondering what she should do. There were two people, and they were talking in low voices, one of which she recognised – it was the queen. If I reveal myself now, Snow White thought, it will seem as though I’ve been eavesdropping. What’s more, she had no idea how long the queen and the man she was with had been there. So, out of embarrassment rather than guile, Snow White stayed where she was, hidden from sight.
However, now that she knew the queen and the man were there, Snow White could not help but listen in to what they were saying. Much of it she did not understand, but it was clear that the man was an engineer. He explained to the queen how the Doomsday Machine was designed to work, and showed her the places where the seven keys had been removed. It was only as they discussed the keys that Snow White began to understand the purpose of their visit.
‘If these keys are hidden away,’ Queen Salima said, ‘then what use is the machine to me? Unless you can make it work again, I shall forever remain at the beck and call of those fools on the council. I shall be cursed forever to do what the people believe is right and good.’
There was suppressed anger in her tone. The queen’s voice had risen, and Snow White had no doubt at all that she had made the right decision in remaining hidden.
‘It is my destiny to rule, to be obeyed, to have people do my bidding,’ Queen Salima continued. ‘Make this machine work again, and I shall truly be queen of Winter. The people will tremble when they so much as breathe my name.’
On one wall of the room was a large mirror. It had originally been placed there to throw more light on to the machine so that visitors could see it better; now, Snow White found that she could see the queen and the engineer reflected in it as they examined the machine. The engineer slid open a panel in the side of the machine, revealing a hidden screen.
‘I have made an extensive study of the original plans of this device,’ the engineer said, ‘and you are right, of course, Your Majesty – without the missing seven keys it cannot work. Nor is it possible to recreate these keys. But there is a facility that the council do not know of which will help you to gain the power you seek.’
Snow White strained to hear, and silently pulled herself a little closer to the edge of the machine so as to get a better view. The engineer was working at some controls, which were set into a panel at the side of the screen.
‘I do not pretend to understand exactly how this works, or all that the device can do,’ he was saying, ‘but the machine was designed to be a whole. It communicates with itself, not just through gears and wires, but also through the air.’
A picture started to form on the screen. It was indistinct, gloomy and dark.
‘What use is that to me?’ the queen demanded. ‘And why do you show me nothing but a darkened room?’
‘But, Your Majesty,’ the engineer said, his voice low and husky with excitement, ‘the machine knows.’
‘Knows? What do you mean it knows?’ the queen snapped. Snow White could hear in Salima’s tone that she was quickly growing impatient.
‘It knows where its missing keys have been hidden. It can sense them. It can feel them. And, on this screen, it can show us where they are.’ Snow White could see the engineer wringing his hands in the mirror. He looked just as nervous as she felt.
All was silent while the engineer waited anxiously for the queen’s response. She looked at him fiercely for a moment or two – then she laughed. The engineer appeared to relax a little.
‘The council does not know of this?’ she asked at last, when she had stopped laughing.
‘No one knows of this, excepting myself and Your Majesty,’ replied the engineer.
‘And where is this room in which the first key is hidden?
’ the queen demanded.
The engineer looked down at the ground. ‘Alas, that I do not know – all I am sure of is that this key is hidden in the province of Seazalon. But if we examine the image there will be clues. Find that room, and you shall find the key. It may be a long task,’ he added, ‘but if Your Majesty truly wishes to restore this machine to working order …’
The queen considered this. ‘Show me the other keys,’ she said at last.
The engineer pressed a button at the edge of the screen, and one by one the location of each of the other keys was shown. One was between books on a dusty shelf, another was resting on a high ledge above a window and was bathed in bright sunlight. One was under a rock beside a pond, another in the hollow trunk of an old tree beside a wide lawn. One was in a cupboard, hidden among all manner of bits and pieces, and the last key was hanging on a hook behind a large tapestry in a dining hall.
‘I shall find them,’ the queen said quietly. Even in the mirror, Snow White could see that her eyes were filled with burning ambition. In that moment, Snow White knew that she had to stop Queen Salima from acquiring the machine’s keys.
The queen and the engineer talked for a while longer. Snow White paid close attention as the engineer showed the queen how to operate the screen, and listened carefully as the queen made plans to try to work out where each of the locations could be. By the time the two of them left, Snow White was stiff from lying so still for so long, and her throat was dry from breathing in dust. She pulled herself out from beneath the Doomsday Machine, and wondered how she was going to stop the queen.
She could, she thought, go to the council. But how likely were they to listen to her? Would they take the word of a young girl working in the palace over that of the queen of Winter herself? It seemed unlikely – and, once Queen Salima became aware that Snow White knew of her evil intentions, the girl would not live long.
Being diligent, Snow White finished cleaning the room. As she worked, she thought more about what she had seen and heard; she wondered who she could tell, what she should do. Her only course of action, she knew, was to try to locate at least one of the seven keys to the machine before the queen could.