Chapter Twenty-Five
Baeroth leaned against the door frame. He started clapping slowly. ‘Well done, little paladins. I was wondering how long it would take you to find him. I had thought you would be a little quicker...’
I scanned the crowd. There were so many of them, fifty, at least, and they were blocking the only exit. They followed Baeroth as he sauntered slowly into the tapestry room.
We’d come so far, but our chances of fighting our way through fifty Blessed soldiers were non-existent. I couldn’t believe that this was where it ended.
Baeroth scanned our group, his gaze hardening briefly when he noticed Etienne. ‘Neve, my darling niece,’ he crooned, his smile not quite detracting from the glint in his eyes. ‘How delightful to see you again. Come here this instant.’ Baeroth clicked his fingers unnecessarily; his words shone with Influence. They were less of an order, and more of a statement of how the future was going to be.
Even from where I was standing I could feel the hazy desire to walk across the room grasp me for a moment before I snapped back into myself. Neve didn’t stand a chance and drifted away from me like a sleepwalker. Owen started to squirm as her grip on him loosened and left him hanging limply by her side.
I had to do something, anything. But what chance did I have against so many others? What could I possibly do?
I shook my head and tried desperately to think. My bow and arrows were back in Thornsvale village and my crossbow was strapped too tightly to my back to access easily or quickly. I slid my hand into my pocket: I had my bank cards, my iPod, a Sharpie. And my sonic grenade.
As I turned the siren in my fingers, the scene from my newly-remembered dream flitted before me. I edged quietly closer to Oriel as Neve continued to drift across the room towards Baeroth and slipped my free hand into his. He gave an answering squeeze.
I closed my eyes and steeled myself, trying to recapture the feeling I’d had in my dream, the feeling of rightness, of having all the jigsaw-puzzle pieces of my mind in exactly the right place, like taking a deep gulp of cold air after holding my breath.
Oriel seemed to sense what I was doing; I felt him turn towards me and then a wave of warmth as he gently offered me the control I desperately needed. I seized it gratefully.
There it was. The feeling wasn’t as strong as in my dream, but it was good enough. It would have to be. My head felt light and airy, like a life’s-worth of crap had been swept out. The threads of power running through my body that up until now had felt tangled and indistinct, had suddenly come unravelled; I could feel them as clearly as I could feel my muscles or the breath in my lungs.
I took a deep breath and whipped the siren out of my pocket, pulling the pin out with my teeth and throwing it at Baeroth.
There was a terrifying split second of silence before the room erupted into waves of sound. Baeroth’s head jerked back as if he’d been struck, and in that one moment of confusion his control on Neve’s thoughts slipped.
Neve shook herself awake and adjusted Owen in her arms, looking wildly around. ‘Grab onto Owen!’ I screamed over the din.
This had to be exact, or we’d be screwed. I launched all my mental effort into Channelling raw power through myself, yanking it towards me like a bell-pull. The doors to the tapestry room slammed shut and sealed themselves together, the wooden planks rolling together like liquid metal.
At the same time, the flagstones from the floor in front of us flew away, followed by the wood and rubble from the underlying structure of the building. They skimmed past Baeroth and landed across the room piece by piece, fusing together as they fell, creating an impenetrable wall. His minions didn’t even have a chance to react before they were bricked in.
In front of us now stretched a huge gaping hole from one side of the narrow room to the other, exposing the room below us. Beyond the hole, Baeroth stood alone on the remaining floor of his ruined gallery, his face curled in on itself with rage.
‘Jump!’ I shouted. The six of us leapt as one, plummeting into the darkness, the sound of the siren still ringing in our ears. Before we hit the ground, a tiny hurricane of wind caught us, landing us on our backsides inelegantly but otherwise unscathed.
Gasping with exhilaration at our bold escape, we hurtled up the corridor to the main hall. ‘That was far and away the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.’ Oriel beamed with pride.
I couldn’t even bring myself to be modest. ‘I know, right?’
‘Very stylish, Cupcake,’ Raelthos added.
We skidded to a halt inside the main atrium. All laughter stopped and everyone stood around, looking nervously expectant. It took a couple of seconds for me to realise their looks were directed at me. ‘Oh, right. Yeah,’ I said. ‘I need to create a portal.’
Oriel hadn’t let go of my hand. He took hold of the other one and pulled me round to face him. ‘I’m right here. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.’
My teeth were chattering with adrenaline as I closed my eyes. This time, the feeling of calm came a lot quicker and I retreated into myself.
I could feel Oriel’s mind, brushing gently against mine, as close as the thudding of my heart. Everything sounded like I was underwater. I breathed in and out slowly, rhythmically.
Slowly, carefully, I inched outwards with my mind, hoping that I would recognise the dimensional wall when I found it.
Tentatively, I tried to envisage the outside world in my head: people, sounds, the feeling of space, of knowing that you could run for days and still not reach the edge. I imagined sunlight and colours and warmth. Then gradually, like reeling in a fish, I started to pull the image towards me.
Almost immediately, the tendrils of my mind brushed against something rubbery and solid and I pulled back, shaking my head. ‘What’s the matter?’ Oriel asked.
‘Just give me a sec.’ I reached back and expanded my mind outwards, feeling as I went. This wasn’t right.
The jail dimension was tiny. Miniscule. But at the same time it was impossibly wide. They’d made a jail out of a castle and managed to squeeze it into a matchbox, like a really nasty TARDIS. It was everywhere and nowhere, all at once. It went against everything the laws of physics told me should be possible and trying to comprehend it was blowing my mind.
And yet at the same time, it made total sense. The Sanctuary and the Jeopardy were layered on top of each other, and I totally got that. Portals only let you travel through the dimensional barrier; you couldn’t travel through space at the same time. It was like opening a window; if a portal opened in Saltmarsh, you’d come out in Exeter. You couldn’t step through and expect to arrive in New York.
What had never made sense to me was how they’d managed to create another dimension. But if you took a big piece of land and scrunched it up until it was teeny-tiny, it would hardly register as a bump and it would be easier for the surrounding pieces of reality to just pull together and cover the piece you’d hidden.
With understanding came a further, spine-numbing realisation. The jail dimension was like one tiny part of my shirt that had become balled up. If I took a pair of scissors and snipped it off, it would leave a hole and the whole piece of fabric could start to unravel.
I shivered as I finally understood why it was so important we stop Baeroth from completing the ritual and dissolving the barriers of his jail.
I opened my eyes again, bringing myself back to the atrium. ‘Okay, I don’t really know how to explain this properly in the small amount of time we have, but the jail dimension is both really big and really small at the same time. I can open the portal pretty much anywhere in the Jeopardy.’ I shrugged, even though all physical movement was starting to make me feel dizzy. ‘Where do you want to go?’
‘The Citadel,’ Oriel said without a moment’s hesitation, and immediately an image of a large wooden-panelled room lit with gas lamps and filled with sofas flitted into my mind.
I reached out and found the rubber barrier again, then carefully sliced a small
hole, widening it enough to allow a person to walk through.
Several deep breaths later and it felt safe enough to open my eyes. Head pounding from my exertions, I had to wait a couple of seconds for my vision to clear, but when it did I saw that the air in front of me shimmered like a heat haze. I’d done it. We were going home.
Still holding his hand, I snuck a look at Oriel. He tore his gaze away from the portal and turned to me, his face lit up like fireworks. He grabbed me in a bear hug, his arms tight around me and for a moment I thought he’d never let me go. ‘I knew it. I knew you could do it,’ he whispered into my hair.
I tried to answer, but the pounding in my head was increasing second by second until I felt sure I would pass out. My nose, already bleeding thickly from my exertions in the tapestry room, was now starting to gush. The thick walls of the jail dimension didn’t like the portal I’d ripped open and were trying to seal themselves shut again.
Oriel sensed my distress. ‘Neve,’ he said, and I felt rather than heard the panic in his voice, ‘you and Owen go first. Kallista and Raelthos will follow. Quickly. We’ll have to go last; we need to hold the portal open.’
Neve glanced at me and darted through with Owen clutched to her chest, leaving a liquid ripple in her wake. When it came to her turn Kallista paused and turned to me, her boot nudging the slick mercury of the portal. ‘I swear, Zero, if you’ve got this wrong and you’re sending me into a hell dimension, I’m going to rip your legs off.’
I didn’t even have it in me to answer her. Trying to keep the portal in place was like walking against the current of a fast-moving river. I felt heat searing through my nose and knew I wouldn’t be able to hold it open for much longer. ‘Just go, Kallista,’ Oriel growled.
She needed no further instruction and strode through, Raelthos following on her heels.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Etienne hesitate. Unable to say anything against the crushing weight in my head, I reached out blindly with my foot and kicked him on leg. He ignored my feeble effort. ‘It’s been a privilege to meet you, Roanne, but I have to stay here.’ I watched as he stepped backwards towards the stairs. I wanted to argue with him, to beg him to escape with us, but I could see his mind was made up.
Finally it was time for Oriel and I to go through; just a few more seconds and I could let the weight drop. The thought gave me new strength and I smiled up at him. He grinned back in triumph and squeezed my hand.
There was a thump at the top of the wide staircase; our heads flicked round in unison only to see a limp body tumbling down into the hall. Momentarily shocked, neither of us noticed Baeroth appear in the room and his wave of psychic fury hit us it sent me sprawling across the floor. My hands flew out of Oriel’s grip and my control left me, snapping away from me like a rubber band. The portal blipped into nothingness.
Dizzy greyness closed in on me, spinning inside my head. Desperately, I fought back nausea and cracked an eye open. Oriel lay to the side of me, his hand too far to grab. Baeroth smirked. ‘You didn’t really think I’d let you escape that easily, did you?’
Oriel sprang to his feet and Baeroth span round to him with a snarl. ‘Stop!’
Oriel was instantly still, his hand on Tempest’s grip. From where I was laying, I was certain I could hear his teeth grinding in frustration at his immobility.
Cartoon birds fluttered around my head, but I managed to summon a weak laugh. ‘Do what you like, Baeroth. You’re too late. Owen’s gone.’
Baeroth chuckled softly to himself and hunkered down next to me, his face masked in mock-confusion. ‘Now, whoever said that it was Owen I needed?’
The world seemed to slide away from under me. Baeroth ignored my look of horror and casually inspected his blackened fingernails. ‘The child was bait. Only ever bait, because I knew my fool niece and nephew would stop at nothing to bring him safely home. All my accomplice had to do was plant one of my old research books, one detailing an impossible ritual, and...’ He struck his hands together, the sound echoing through the cavernous hallway. ‘They really did pull out all the stops, didn’t they? Just look. They brought my pet project over from the Sanctuary and delivered her directly to my doorstep.’ He inclined his head towards me.
I remembered the last time we’d spoken. How he’d told me about the project he’d been working on. Stupid Roanne. It had never occurred to me that his project might be me.
Baeroth shook his head as if he could quite believe I hadn’t cottoned on before now. He knelt beside my head and leant towards me as if he was about to impart a salacious piece of gossip. ‘I created you,’ he whispered. ‘You are - I believe the Sanctuary term of phrase is - genetically engineered. You’ve been a long time coming, little Psion, and now you’re here I intend to make the most of you. I’m leaving this place.’ He looked around the gloomy hallway. ‘Oh, not to the Jeopardy. No, the Jeopardy lost its appeal some time ago. This time I’ve got my sights set on the Sanctuary. Which is, of course, where you come in. The only Psion to have ever been able to cross to the Sanctuary.’
‘Who is it? Who’s helping you?’ Because if I ever managed to get out of here I would be dedicating my immediate future to hunting them down and beating the shit out of them with a baseball bat. No, even better, I’d be getting my freakishly strong Guardian friends to beat the shit out of them.
‘Now you don’t really expect me to answer that, do you? I think after the trouble you have caused me, I shall drain your power until your mind is a shrivelled husk and allow you to wallow in your own insanity still wondering who it was who betrayed you.’ He smiled brightly, as if someone had suggested a picnic.
He got to his feet and stalked across the hall, aiming a kick at a figure on the floor at the foot of the stairs as he went. Etienne’s eyes were swollen shut and his face crusted with blood that stood out even against his darkly mottled skin.
My hands flew to my mouth to stifle a sob. ‘He was my first attempt at selective breeding, you know. It didn’t work, and of course once we were sealed in here he became useless.’ Baeroth peered dispassionately at Etienne, crumpled on the floor. ‘I’ve kept him alive for this long because he hasn’t caused any trouble, but now he’s turned traitor...’ I squeezed my eyes shut to stop the tears that were threatening behind my eyes from falling.
Wait. I’d just squeezed my eyes. I tried it again. It worked. I flexed my elbow a tiny bit. It worked. I tried a leg. That worked too. Baeroth wasn’t controlling me; I could move. I remembered the throne room, of breaking back through Baeroth’s attack and leaving him collapsed on the floor surrounded by his minions. Maybe he couldn’t control me.
Baeroth was still talking, although whether it was aimed at me or at Etienne or at himself, I wasn’t sure. ‘Well, then. First stop: the Citadel, I think. There are some things I need and I have some old scores to settle. Yes...’ He waved a hand in my direction. ‘Stand up. And come here.’
Baeroth hadn’t realised that he couldn’t command me. The thought took me by surprise and I hesitated before I slid to my feet, my eyes fixed and glassy, and made my way over to Baeroth.
Keeping my shoulders slumped obediently, I tried not to shudder as Baeroth’s hands moved through my hair to roam across my scalp. From where I was standing I could feel the power building inside him. I didn’t have much time.
Slowly I shuffled my feet apart into as wide a diagonal as I could make to stabilise myself. I let my head fall down onto my chest, slowly, dreamily, and gradually focussed my weight on my front foot.
Agonisingly I waited until Baeroth’s head was hovering directly over mine. When he was so close I could smell the rot of his breath, I whipped up snake-fast.
Baeroth was a tall man and my head caught him only a glancing blow on the chin, but like me he was a Psion, not a Guardian. His mind was capable of extraordinary things but his body strength was only average and the shock of my attack was enough to break his grip on me. I wasted no time. The years of self-defence classes with Cat-Lady Carole ca
me flooding back and I rammed my elbow backwards into his solar plexus so far it almost made contact with his spine.
As he staggered, wheezing and doubling over with pain, I kicked upwards with more energy than finesse. My heavy boot connected squarely with his lower jaw and his head snapped backwards, a fine spray of blood flying through the air.
Baeroth seemed to fall to the floor in slow motion, and I debated whether or not to give him another good kick. Finally, he slumped to the floor, almost lost in the folds of his dark cloak.
Baeroth’s hold on his mind broken, Oriel stumbled to one side. ‘We did it!’ I shrieked.
‘You did it,’ Oriel amended.
‘Whatever. We have to get out of here before he wakes up.’ A groan interrupted me and I span to see Etienne stirring on the floor.
I ran to him, but he was already shaking his head. ‘Don’t even think about it,’ he said thickly. His rattling cough interrupted me when I started protesting. ‘I told you before I can’t go, but you have to. Go. Now.’
A groan from across the room told me Baeroth was waking up and I flinched instinctively. ‘Ro, you need to decide,’ Oriel said, glancing over towards Baeroth. ‘Bring him or not, but either way we need to go.’
Clutching Oriel’s hand, I pulled a hole in the barrier and stepped through, pulling Oriel with me, still watching Etienne for a sign that he’d changed his mind.
Zero Page 26