by Sean Stone
“You’re gonna have to teach me that,” I told Clara. She ignored me.
“Mr Panomie, I presume?” she said to the gnome.
“That’s right. These… things won’t hold me for long,” he croaked.
“We’ll see,” Clara said and returned to her seat. The rest of us did the same.
“Why would you be stupid enough to come back here?” I asked. He turned this black eyes on me.
“I came back to help you.”
“Oh really? Barbichu’s servant has come back to help us!” I snorted.
“I was not a willing servant,” he said bitterly. “You think yours was the first child he took?”
“What are you talking about?” asked Ashley.
“My kind—”
“Gnomes?” I asked.
“Yes. Gnomes,” he snapped. “We are a servant race. Enslaved in permanent servitude to the imps. When Barbichu ordered me to track and kidnap children for him I refused. He took my child. My son. He told me that when I found him the girl who could break the curse he would return him to me.” There was a flicker of sadness in the little gnome’s eyes but it was very quickly replaced by that nasty scowl that had permanent residence on his face.
“So you’ve been taking children for the last thirty years in the hope of getting your son back?” said Clara. He nodded. “And now you have him back you want to exact some revenge?”
“I don’t have him back. The imp said that the term of our deal stated I had to find him the child who could break the curse and he found the child himself. When you summoned him he knew who she was the moment he saw her.”
“So he’s refusing to give your son back to you?” said Ashley.
Panomie nodded. “I can’t defeat Barbichu — imps out power gnomes — but you can.” He looked directly at me. “I’ll take you down there and whilst you fight him I’ll get the children.”
“What happened to all the other children?” Richards asked hopefully.
“Dead.” There was no remorse in Panomie’s voice whatsoever for his part in their deaths. He didn’t care in the least.
“This plan sounds fantastic but I can’t beat Barbichu. Imps are much more powerful than sorcerers,” I said.
“What makes you think that, because he said it was so? If he was so much more powerful than you then why did he need such a plan to take your girl? Why not just take her from the beginning and be done with it? Because in a fight he isn’t half as strong as he says he is. Tonight’s plan was all to distract you.”
“Look around you! Look at the body count!” Richards snapped.
“All I see is dead humans. No sorcerers. The only sorcerer who fought him was a weak one,” Panomie said simply. Everything he said made sense. Maybe we could beat Barbichu. I looked at Clara to see what she thought of it all. She nodded.
“Go with him. Stop the imp and save Leah,” Clara said. She issued us orders as if we were part of her staff.
“What about him? He still took all those children,” said Richards.
“If his part in it was coerced as he says it was then I’m willing to overlook it as long as the main culprit is dealt with,” said Clara. “And as long as Leah is brought back alive.”
“Well as long as you’re willing,” Richards muttered sarcastically. “I don’t know who appointed you queen of…” He tailed off without being stopped. “Whatever. I don’t want to know anymore than I already do. As long as the girl is brought home and you can clean this up and give me something to take back to my boss I’ll make do.”
“Then it’s settled. Eddie and Ashley you go with Panomie. Richards will stay with me.”
“How exactly are you going to explain all these deaths?” I asked.
“Attempted terrorism usually works,” she said. “Now go. I imagine you don’t have much time.”
“Alright. I just need to stop by my place and grab something first. I think we’ll need it,” I said.
“How did you know all that?” Ashley asked as we drove back to my house.
“All what?” I asked, knowing very well what she meant.
“About my dad?”
I took a moment to think about it. Did I really want to tell her the truth? There was nothing really wrong with it but I knew it would worry her. I decided she’d been lied to enough. “I just saw it. When I looked at him I somehow saw what he was hiding,” I confessed. That was the only way I could explain it. “I think it’s a side-effect of the darkness. A new power.”
Ashley nodded slowly as she digested the information. “It was scary. Seeing you like that. The way you spoke, the way you looked. It was just like Rachel.” I said nothing in reply and Ashley said nothing else either. The rest of the journey was in silence. Hearing her say that was all the motivation I needed to get rid of the darkness and thanks to Barbichu I had a good idea how to do it.
I left Ashley and Mr Panomie outside the house and darted up to my room. I could hear Doris singing in the kitchen but there was no sign of Gavin. I was thankful for that. Doris and Gavin can be entertaining but sometimes I could really do without them.
Once in my room I used magic to lift the bed and then retrieved the old wooden box that I kept underneath it. I’ve mentioned this box before. I keep all my rarest ingredients in it and for the last few months I’ve also been keeping all my magic reserves there too. Since Rachel stole them from my storage unit I decided to store them a little closer to me. I lifted the lid of the box and saw the simple glass box inside, glowing brightly with a rainbow of colours all swirling together slowly. I’m not a weak warlock by any measure, your average sorcerer would not want to pick a fight with me but the power in the cube was enough to flatten me. It was a combination of wit and luck that had gotten it away from Rachel. The reason I keep the magic in a box rather than inside me is because I very strongly believe that magic corrupts. The more magic a person consumes the more it speaks to their darker side and considering I literally had a load of darkness inside me I decided it was best not to bait it. Now the situation was different. I was going up against an imp and I needed all the help I could get. I didn’t know how much this would increase my chances against Barbichu but it had to do something. Despite Panomie’s revelation that Barbichu was not as powerful as he claimed, I still lacked faith in my ability to defeat him. I lifted the box and sucked the magic out. To say I didn’t love the feeling of all that power rushing into me would be a massive lie. Like a heroin addict getting his first fix of the day I relished in it and somewhere deep down I knew that I would not be giving the power up anytime soon.
As I walked downstairs I pulled my phone out and called up Matt’s number. There was a chance that I might not come back from the fairy realm and I didn’t want to leave things the way they were even if he had been a dick. He didn’t answer and it went straight through to voicemail. In a way that made it easier.
“Hey Matt. Listen, I’m know I’ve been a bit of a dick lately and actually you’ve kind of been a dick too but I guess I’ve been a bigger dick. Anyway I’m sorry. If I get back from this I’ll be a better friend. We’ll go bowling or something. Whatever normal friends do these days.” I hung up without explaining what I might not be coming back from and headed out to where Ashley and Panomie were waiting.
“All sorted?” Ashley asked. I nodded.
“What now?” I asked.
“Now I open a portal and take you to my world.”
Panomie led us to a quiet area just up the road and then drew a small black stone from his pocket. It looked like quartz only with streaks of brown running through it. He rubbed it in his massive hands a couple of times before throwing it at the brick wall in front of us. There was a quick flash of white light and the wall sort of rippled.
“Is that it?” Ashley asked, clearly unimpressed. I wasn’t exactly wowed myself. I was about to say something when I noticed a very faint ripple of light moving across the wall.
“The wall’s a portal now isn’t it?” I asked, more suitably impresse
d.
“It is,” Panomie said with a nod. “Just walk into the wall and you’ll pass through to my realm.”
“Like in Harry Potter?” I said thinking of platform nine and three quarters. In case you haven’t noticed yet, I’m quite a Potterhead.
“Harry Potter?” He gave me a quizzical look. I assumed that Potter wasn’t nearly as popular in the lower realms. “Who wants to go first?” he said.
“You,” I replied. There was no way I was going to walk unsuspectingly into a potential trap. For all we knew this could be an extension of Barbichu’s plan. Panomie shrugged and then he just walked into the wall and was gone.
“My turn,” I said and stepped forward. I touched the wall with two fingers. Rather than feeling rough and bricky it felt fluid, like a thick gel. I pushed my whole hand inside. Although it had a liquid-like feel to it, it didn’t feel wet in the least. Slowly I moved forwards letting the wall swallow more and more of my arm until finally my face and body went through. There was no moment between realms. No blackness or colourful displays. One moment I was looking at the wall and the next there was a massive room before me filled with a variety of people. It certainly was not what I was expecting.
27
The room was bigger than a warehouse. It had a high ceiling and a white marble decor. Tall pillars stretched from floor to ceiling and the edges of the room were lined with what looked like shops. The place was filled with other beings all bustling around in a hurry. Most of them were rather short, four feet at the most, but some were much taller. Some even towered above me. Some looked human, some looked very different. I’d never seen so many different species in one place; not even in Rachel’s menagerie. A swishing noise announced Ashley’s arrival and I turned around to greet her. Behind me was one long wall full of portals. Different coloured frames had been lined up next to each other each containing a shimmering silver fluid that was slowly moving around. Looking up the wall I saw that there were queues of people waiting at each portal. Ropes were positioned to hold them back and keep them in their individual lines. There were a few portals which had no queues one of which was our one.
“Is this some kind of airport?” I asked Panomie.
“What’s an airport?” he replied.
“A place you go to travel,” I explained.
He nodded. “Yes. If you need a portal somewhere you come here. This is the Portal Station.”
“Why isn’t there a queue at this one?” asked Ashley in awe. The concept was a lot to take in. It may seem unkind of me but I hadn’t imagined that the fairy realm would be so sophisticated. Is that racist?
“This is a private portal owned by Barbichu. Only his staff can use it,” Panomie said. “If you want to rescue the girl we need to get going.”
Panomie led us through the crowds and we got a lot of strange looks. Panomie explained that humans were a rarity down here just as gnomes and fairies were a rarity on our end. As we neared the door a thing stepped into our path. I say a thing because I had no idea what it was. It was about the same height as Panomie but was completely hairless, had a long nose that spiralled under itself and ginormous pink eyes that contrasted its blue skin. It was wearing a black uniform and had some sort of ID badge on that I presumed meant he was security.
“And what do you think you’re doing with two humans, gnome?” he said gnome as if it was an insult. I remembered that gnomes were a servant class.
“Private business,” Panomie growled back. The blue guy didn’t like that at all. He rocked back on his heels and stuck his chin out aggressively.
“If it’s private business you’ll show me some private business papers,” he said. Panomie reached into his dungarees and pulled out a rolled up filthy looking piece of paper which he thrust into the blue thing’s hand. “Let’s have a look at this Mr Blue said and unrolled the paper, not breaking eye contact with Panomie until it was absolutely necessary. The smug condescending look on his face very quickly turned to horror at whatever he read. He rolled the paper up as quick as he could and shoved it back at Panomie as if it was burning him. “I am so sorry, Sir,” he said quickly. “Please, I did not know. I hope your master will not be displeased with me.”
Panomie didn’t say a word. He returned the paper to his dungarees and then waddled haughtily passed the security guard. Me and Ashley both followed.
“What was all that about?” I asked.
“Barbichu is a well-known name around here. And not for good reasons. He’s rich and powerful and has sway over the government. Nobody quite knows how, but most would prefer not to make him angry.”
“So he’s like a gangster?” Ashley asked.
“I don’t know what that is.”
“A powerful criminal,” she explained.
“Oh, then yes. Most believe his activities are unlawful,” said Panomie. We reached the doors and found ourselves in a long entrance hall which Panomie began leading us down. There were a lot more security guards in this room but none of them approached us. They must have been warned not to.
“Hang on. There’s an imp who has sway over the government?” I asked, thinking back to the scraps of information I’d picked up about the race.
“Why is that so hard for you to believe?”
“I thought imps were only a step above gnomes in terms of respect down here?” I said. That’s what the books had said anyway.
Panomie snorted. “I don’t know where you heard that. Imps are a high race. One of the highest. Second only to the fay. The government is made up almost entirely of fay and imps.”
“Our lore needs updating,” I said to Ashley as we stepped outside.
“Well that’s not what I was expecting,” I said out loud. We were standing at the top of some long stone steps the same marble as the building we’d just come from. At the bottom was a vast city with buildings more fancy than anything London had to offer. Towers of stone twisted high up into the sky; I mean the stone literally twisted like a helter-skelter. Some buildings hung apparently with no help in the sky and with no discernible way of reaching them. Carriages were flying around above us, pulled by creatures moving too fast to make out. I had thirteen years of experience with magic and supernatural creatures but this put even me at a loss for words, and trust me that is no easy feat.
“What were you expecting?” asked Panomie, looking up at me with one bushy eyebrow raised quizzically.
“Something dirtier,” I replied.
“This is just the capital. There are far dirtier places in this realm. You’ll see soon enough.”
“How does the sun get down here?” I asked, noting the sky shining brilliantly above us. “I thought this realm was underground?”
“It’s just called the lower realms it isn’t actually low down. And that sun is not your sun, it’s our sun. Our realm is parallel to yours,” explained Panomie.
“So, we’re basically in a completely different world right now?” asked Ashley. She didn’t look too pleased about this revelation.
“Yes.”
“But I thought gnomes dug tunnels to and from their world?” I said. “That’s why you’re always so dirty, isn’t it?” He gave me a displeased look.
“Don’t believe everything you read in your little books. Gnomes cannot dig between worlds. We can open portals in the ground. That’s probably where that myth comes from. We don’t actually go into the ground.”
“So why do you always have mud on you?” said Ashley.
“Because that’s what Barbichu wanted. He wanted me to correlate with the human mythology. All part of the show he said.”
“But why? Why put on a show at all? Why the whole marriage charade? Why not just take the children at first sight and not put on a show at all?” Ashley demanded angrily. Her anger had come out of nowhere and had taken even me by surprise. I could understand why she was angry though. The whole scheme seemed unnecessary and did little more than mess with people’s heads. I supposed that was what Barbichu wanted; to mess people up mentally
.
“Gnomes are unable to take children without their consent,” said Panomie. He looked a little ashamed by this fact as if it revealed some sort of great weakness in him.
“Why?” Ashley demanded, not relenting in her assault. I accepted it as one of this weird magical rules, like vampires not being able to enter a private residence without an invitation. Ashley did not.
“I don’t know,” he said exasperatedly.
“Why the dirt though? Why did Barbichu want you to play up the gnome digging myth? Why did he insist on using marriage as a consent? Why didn’t he just take the children himself once you’d found them?”
“Because he’s weird!” snapped Panomie. “I don’t know. I’ve had enough of your questions! We need to save my son!” He started hopping down the steps angrily and we followed him. We had to walk at an annoyingly slow pace to avoid overtaking him.
“Don’t forget my cousin,” Ashley warned him. “She’s why I’m here. And it’s your fault she’s here. So I don’t really care about your son.”
“Noted,” he said without bothering to look at her.
We reached the bottom of the stairs and he cast his hand up releasing a yellow light into the sky. Within seconds one of the brightly painted wooden carriages swooped out of the sky and stopped before us and I got the chance to see what was pulling them. It was a hideously beautiful creature. I know that makes no sense but allow me to explain. It was a woman with a stunning body and most of it was on show, only her most intimate places were covered. She was wearing a a small pair of golden knickers and a thin layer of fabric covered her breasts. That was it. Her skin was incredibly pale and her dark purple eyes really stood out against it. Her nose was long and pointy and her black-lipped mouth was thin and open revealing very sharp silver teeth. Her slender hands were tipped with black talons as were feet. She was the only creature I’d seen so far that was human-sized. And from her back were two humungous black feathered wings. She was bound to the carriage by a heavy looking white chain that was wrapped around her flat stomach. She did not look happy about it but she made no attempt to free herself.