“What’s he doing?” Tomas whispered, leaning back from the slit and looking across the stairwell to Andreas.
“I think he’s going to attack the hall. Perhaps half of the townsmen are in there for the crop planning meeting. Hold position here Tomas, I’ll go down and get the men out.” He dropped his longbow and bounded down the stairs.
Tomas looked back through the slit and saw Valkrog dropping out of the sky as Andreas raced out of the doorway. He ran around the corner and into the doorway of the hall, yelling at the men. “Get out now, run for your lives, Valkrog is attacking the hall, run—run now!” He glanced up at Tomas in the bell tower and nodded.
Tomas breathed deeply and set his sights on Valkrog. He had to distract the evil bird and give the men time to escape.
He loosed several arrows into the air, not caring that they wouldn’t reach their target, only that Valkrog would see them and turn his attention to Tomas.
Andreas stood guard on the door, one eye on the sky, and waited until the last of the men had run out. With his face still turned to the sky, he ran back around and up into the tower.
Valkrog had seen the arrows and the man who fired them from the tiny slit in the tower. He slowed his dive, beat his huge wings to hover above the hall and faced the tower.
Tomas and Andreas were ready with arrows nocked, when Valkrog let out a piercing cackle. He held his gaze on Andreas and Tomas and, still flapping slowly, pointed one of his wings at the hall. The creature screeched at them. “Give the boy up, or face the destruction of the entire township.” A violent cracking noise accompanied a bolt of fire that extended from his wingtip down to the hall, and as it touched the roof, the electric flame expanded to cover the entire building in a bluish fire, building in intensity.
Valkrog shot up into the air, the electric bolt extinguishing as he turned his wing away from the burning hall. He whipped around laughing and flew away up over the Square.
Tomas looked at Andreas. “What do we do now?”
“Run,” Andreas said. “Let’s go, there’s nothing more we can do here.” They had just started running down the stairs when a huge explosion from the hall knocked them off their feet. They tumbled down in a cloud of masonry and plaster.
Screams came from inside several of the buildings close to the hall and men ran out of every doorway covered in dust, some bleeding from flying debris.
Valkrog’s maniacal laugh careened around the Square as he pointed his wingtip at random buildings, directing the withering fire over them until the buildings exploded into dust and collapsed. Columns of dust and smoke could be seen across the centre of the township. Men ran to wherever they could find shelter.
Andreas stood and staggered out of the swirling dust coming from the bell tower’s entrance, coughing and spluttering and pushing debris aside with his scratched and bloodied hands as he looked for Tomas.
“Over here,” Tomas said, sitting awkwardly against the wall, his face tight with pain. “I think I’ve broken an arm.” He was holding his left arm against his chest.
Andreas could see the unusual angle and the obvious pain as he knelt down and tended to his friend. “I think your shoulder is dislocated, not broken, but it’s going to be painful.” He glanced up at the fires and smoke around them. “We need to get away quickly—” He ducked instinctively as another huge explosion rocked the other side of the Square. The Elders’ Office cracked and groaned as it leaned over, then fell to the ground with an almighty roar and rising cloud of dust.
“That’s our cue. We can use the cover of the dust and smoke to get to safe ground. Do you think you can move?”
“What other choice do I have?” Tomas looked at Andreas and eased himself up, wincing.
Andreas took the lead and they scrambled away hugging the walls, trying to stay hidden in the dust and smoke. Tomas stumbled occasionally as he navigated the rubble, crying out in pain.
When they got further up the hill, the explosions stopped, leaving an eerie silence. Andreas and Tomas looked at each other, surprised, then they both jumped as they heard Valkrog’s loud, crazy cackle trailing off into the distance.
“What was all that about?” Tomas said, clutching his arm and still bent over in pain, but looking up at the sky.
Andreas stared into the distance. He shook his head. “I’m not sure, but I get the sense it was just a warning—and there’s no doubt now about who Makthryg wants, is there?”
Tomas looked back at his friend, his eyes pained. “Andreas, what do we do?”
“First we get your shoulder fixed my friend. Then we fight.”
~~~
Sarina was exhausted from a tough day spent mostly in remedial maths. She yawned. Some quality sleep would be brilliant. She fell into bed and was asleep by the time her head hit the pillow.
But there would be no quality of sleep tonight.
She was walking along the top of an old wooden log. The forest was dark, and she only had starlight to guide her. She shivered, wishing she had brought a jumper and looked around.
As far as she could tell, this place with the log was the same one that she had seen before in her dreams—at least that’s what it seemed like. Yet this dream had a strange quality. She frowned and shook her head. What was it? Her skin prickled and she sensed that this dream was from the future.
A premonition? Maybe.
And there was another thing. She wasn’t convinced the log’s familiarity came from her own memory. Weird. How can you be familiar with something you don’t remember? She shrugged and jumped off and onto the grass.
The log was at the edge of a small clearing in the forest, surrounded by tall trees and dense undergrowth. Struck by something on the other side, she floated across and saw a dark, ebony-black opening in the forest. When she got closer, she noticed a faint trail of blue-glowing footprints leading into what she now saw was a path through the forest.
Curious now, still shivering, she entered the trail and followed the line of glowing indentations on the ground.
She called out. “Hellooooo? Paolo? Are you here too?” No response.
The temperature dropped to freezing and shivering was no longer optional. The breeze had fallen to an icy stillness. Was that a humming sound she could hear from over the treetops?
Sarina looked up at the black sky and wondered if she could simply float up, when she found herself doing exactly that. She rose to the top of the treetops and strained to see down into the blackness. She saw the faint blue light and followed along.
With difficulty, she floated above the trail, and tried to make out the source of the humming. Was it getting louder? She was confused and getting progressively colder.
In the distance and at the end of the trail, she spotted a small figure plunging through the undergrowth.
“Paolo!” she shouted, trying to zoom along the top of the trail where it opened to the treetops, but the cold air was thick and wouldn’t let her move any faster.
Sarina pursed her lips and took a deep breath. Rats. She was determined to catch up with him. She put all her effort into pushing against the resistance in the air.
“Paolo, Paolo!”
This time she yelled louder, but it was useless, he couldn’t hear her. Moving only slightly faster now and straining with all her might to push through the thickness, Sarina left the forest behind her and followed Paolo down the main path across the fields and into the township.
Paolo was running hard and reached the edge of the township’s roads and cabins well before Sarina. She saw him stop and turn to some men clustered around the doorway of a cabin. Paolo was gesticulating and repeatedly pointing at the sky over the top of the hills on the other side of the township.
Sarina looked in the direction he was pointing, and realised where the source of the loud humming was coming from.
Paolo looked terrified as he mimed actions to the townsmen, trying to make himself understood.
Sarina saw that they must have grasped what he was warning them
about. Perhaps they could hear the same loud humming and buzzing that she could—which was now quite stressful—and were trying to understand Paolo’s warning.
Two of the men ran back into the cabin and returned with a long ladder, which they leaned against the hut. One climbed up while the other steadied the base. From where Sarina hovered, hugging her chest from the cold, she saw they were attempting to look over into the hills and determine the source of the ominously loud and painful noise.
Sarina rose up a little more to see if she could see what they clearly could not—and froze in terror.
The bird-like creature was heading to the township, and extending either side from its wings was a foul, black swirling cloud, that was mopping up the stars in the sky and bringing with it a dark terror.
“Over there!” She shouted at the top of her voice, and taking one arm away from her freezing body, pointed towards the rapidly advancing blackness.
But no one heard or saw her.
~~~
Suddenly she was falling—no, actually diving head first—down a black tunnel that was getting narrower and narrower, squeezing the breath from her, threatening to wedge her, stuck there with her legs in the air.
She awoke on the floor of her bedroom, partly wrapped in her sheets, half of her body out of the sheets and freezing cold.
Sarina collected her thoughts. That was some dream for sure. But was it a dream or a premonition? It consumed her attention, and screamed ‘Urgent! Real!’, a feeling she couldn’t shake as she climbed out of her bedclothes, but she had a growing sensation that what she had seen wasn’t ‘yet to be’.
She rearranged the bed, yawned and climbed back in, exhausted and more than a little confused.
~~~
Makthryg glanced outside and saw a flurry of wings at the gates. Valkrog.
The bird-man alighted from the air and his wings morphed into arms as his feet touched the ground and he transformed back to almost human.
Makthryg nodded. Creating Valkrog as his commander-in-chief had been a wise move. Despite his sadistic streak, the part-bird-part-man was proving to be a fearful foe for the township. He was optimistic that the creature was bearing good news of the whereabouts of the boy.
The door to the hall opened and Valkrog strode in, his eyes bright with fight. “The townsmen are weak, your Greatness. They could only cower and run from my power.”
“Be careful of the pleasure you take in these acts of violence, Valkrog. We must always be driven by our precise battle tactics, never overcome by raw emotion. That leads to careless mistakes. But by the sense of it, you were successful and have news for me?”
Valkrog bowed his head. “Your Greatness, the boy was not to be seen. But I did as you asked to put fear into the townsmen, and destroyed some of their precious buildings. My Lord, you should have seen—”
“Enough! I expect more from you than simply satisfying your bloodthirsty lust for destruction!” Makthryg glared at the creature.
Chagrined, Valkrog fell silent and stood to attention. “Your wishes, my Lord?”
Makthryg stood and gazed out of the window towards the township. “We know Xtrium exists. Our soothsayers had predicted as much, but until we saw the foolish boy with his hands glowing blue, it was just a soothsayer’s fantasy. If, as I suspect, he has simply discovered its whereabouts by accident, he will be unaware of its import.” He turned back to stare at the bird-man. “But let me be crystal clear, Valkrog, in case you are tempted by your thirst for violence. Since the townsmen refuse to give the boy up, I will have to force them to find him for me. But if you kill them, we risk losing the boy.”
He flexed his fingers and cracked his knuckles.
“These idiot farmers have no idea how much their lives will be improved once I have the power. Their primitive ways will be distant history when I transform this world and liberate it from the shackles of nature. They will be forever grateful to me, even if now they cannot see.”
“Your Greatness, if I may suggest a bold move?”
“Speak your mind, Valkrog.” He sat down and gestured for Valkrog to continue.
Valkrog stepped closer and held his superior’s gaze.
“Your Greatness, even though we have sent the women and children away, this has not been enough to convince the townsmen that they must capitulate. We need an immediate crisis that the men will have no option but to act upon.” His lips curled, “If we hold some of their so-called “elders” hostage I believe we can force them to act. They will still be cowering from all the destruction I wrought upon them,”—Valkrog’s beakish-face briefly flickered into a smile—“so fearing there is more to come, I think they will be persuaded to give the boy up.”
Makthryg stroked his chin and looked at the bird-man. “And just how will you capture these elders”?
“Master—” Valkrog paused and moved his shoulders as if flexing his wings. “I believe I can invoke the Darkness again.” He looked at the sorcerer for permission.
“Very well, Valkrog, if that is your choice.” Makthryg hesitated, his eyes unfocused and distant, as if remembering something painful. “You would do well to take extreme care. The Darkness does not take kindly to frivolous use.”
Valkrog said nothing. Only his eyes revealed his anticipation.
~~~
The blackness approached rapidly across the entire sky, blotting out the scant remaining light from the stars.
Sarina heard a terrifying sound, growing in volume as the darkness descended on them. An empty, howling scream, that she realised with horror was becoming louder inside her own head.
Panicking, she looked around to get her bearings. She was still floating in the air, close to the cabins, but Paolo and the men were not to be seen. Above the abominable howling, she heard frantic shouting and yelling coming from the centre of the township.
She turned her attention back to the ominous dark cloud and the giant wings of the bird bringing the destruction.
Sarina frowned. Why wasn’t this scary? Was this a dream, or another premonition? Or was it now real?
Then it struck her. She’d seen the dark cloud in a previous dream. A dream that at the time she’d believed was a premonition. So maybe this was simply a recurring dream.
She took a deep breath and firmed her resolve. Of course it was only a dream and that meant that she was in control and she could do whatever she wanted.
To prove it to herself, she cupped her hands around her mouth and, over the noise, shouted to the massive bird. “This is just a dream! You wait!”
She laughed. She hadn’t felt this powerful since—well since never really. Strange. Maybe it was a chance to have a dream where she was in control.
Sarina looked at the huge bird approaching and the dark cloud extending from either side of its wings. She raised up her arms, palms facing the creature and using her best exorcist-like voice she shouted, “Be gone, ye evil creature!” She liked the idea of saying “ye evil creature”, but wasn’t entirely confident it would work.
A thunderclap rocked the air and Sarina saw the giant bird’s head in the distance turn to face her, and it repositioned itself to head towards her.
“O … kay,” she muttered, “so maybe that wasn’t such a good idea after all. Anyway, it’s just a dream.” She pulled herself up to float tall and strong and at the top of her voice yelled out. “You don’t frighten me OK? Bad bird. Nasty bird!” She nodded. That should do it—and then she screamed in pure terror as the bird whipped its wingtip around and shot a bolt of black, crackling energy at her.
Sarina dived out of the air and down towards the grass below, feeling the black bolt zap past her left shoulder. The near-miss tossed her around and threw her down onto the ground with a thump.
“Ouch!” She got back to her feet and looked up, rubbing her shoulder where it hurt, and now very angry. She tried to shut the persistent howling out of her head, without success, and glared up at the dark sky.
“This is my dream and if you are going
to play rough, then so will I.”
An idea flashed into her head and she reached over to pick up a large, brush-like broom she’d seen leaning against the cabin nearby, and float-jumped over to a small ornamental pond.
She steeled herself, looking at the pond, and with one quick snap of her fingers, turned the water into orange-coloured paint. Take that you ugly bird. My magic is stronger than yours.
She dipped the broom into the pond and flew back up into the sky, dripping orange behind her, and with a mighty two-handed sweep of the brush from behind her shoulder and towards the advancing bird, she hurled large comet-like balls of orangey-yellow paint across the sky.
Each ball of paint-splatter hit the Darkness and with a loud ripping sound, tore a large hole in it, as if it were gossamer-thin fabric.
The bird screamed in anger, its beak wide open. It flapped its wings and accelerated towards Sarina.
Sarina stopped in the air and waited, the brush held back over her shoulder in two hands, ready to strike.
Ok, here goes. one … two … three … NOW! She whirled the brush over her shoulder and flicked the destructive fireballs at the monster, then she flipped around in the air and repeated the move.
Two of the paint-balls struck the creature directly and it squealed in pain, tumbling and writhing, desperately trying to maintain flight.
Sarina dived back down to the pond again and infused the brush.
A thought occurred to her and she smiled as she lifted up into the air.
This time she took the broom handle in both hands, but instead of flicking fiery orange paint balls at the stricken creature and the disintegrating blackness, she began painting in the air.
Working quickly, she covered a vertical area all the way from one side of the township to the other. The vertical orange wall rose up to meet the highest point in the atmosphere and secured itself between the sky and the earth, creating a quivering, impenetrable, but translucent orange membrane.
The bird’s momentum was carrying it, and the remnants of the blackness, directly into the other side of the membrane. Sarina stopped to watch from a distance. The creature came into contact with the substance, shrieked and recoiled in pain, the scream vibrating through the membrane and howling all around the township. Sarina covered her ears at the painful screech and watched as the bird managed to push itself off and away from the orange surface, in pain and damaged.
The Dreamer Chronicles Trilogy Boxed Set Vol I - III: A Sci-Fi Parallel Universe Adventure (The Dreamer Chronicles - Science Fiction For Kids And Adults) Page 4