by Darren Lewis
Isabelle turned to Ellie, whose eyes now glowed with the orb's power contained within her. Without warning Isabelle unleashed a torrent of blue fire at Ellie's feet making the concrete bubble and boil. Ellie clenched her fists and erected a barrier to save her feet and legs burning, as she was preoccupied with this Isabelle punched the air and sent forth a wave that struck Ellie and knocked her down to the floor but out of danger of the still bubbling concrete. Isabelle did not let up and punched the air again and again, each wave hitting its target. The glow around Ellie intensified as the orb erected a more formidable barrier against Isabelle's assault.
*
Eleanor's stomach lurched once again as Cole leapt from the building's rooftop and she clenched her thighs tightly against Cole's flank. On hearing the white dragon's roar Cole immediately dove for the ground, pulling his wings in close.
What's the plan? Eleanor asked as she strained to keep herself in place.
Kill it. Cole replied without emotion. The red dragon flared his great wings and leaned sharply to the right, following the roads at ground level. Eleanor glanced upwards and saw the white dragon in mad pursuit.
Are you sure? Eleanor asked quietly.
That's not a dragon. It's a living thing but it has no mind left, no control. Isabelle filled it with darkness.
Eleanor nodded as Cole used the streets to twist and turn gaining distance from their pursuer. A sudden warm sensation caused Eleanor to adjust her belt when she felt the hot metal of the empty hilt. She slowly drew it out and held it to her side. The hilt at first appeared empty but as the hazy green light shifted an edge could be seen. Eleanor carefully placed a finger on the edge and felt nothing. She tilted the hilt once more and the edge appeared again.
The white dragon emerged from their right side, claws extended. Cole roared and whipped his body away, causing Eleanor to cry out and cling desperately to Cole as he swung his powerful tail at the face of the dragon. The tail impacted on the brow ridge of the white dragon and sent it careening into the side of a low building, it bellowed in frustration as cement and glass showered to the street. Cole, shaking his head, powered away.
We can't do this forever. I'm not in that great a condition! We need to leave now! Cole shouted.
We can't leave Ellie behind to face Isabelle.
Then what do we do? Cole asked, his neck and eyes ever moving for the next street to take.
Eleanor gazed at the hilt once more, a gift from the Chinese magician Anqi Sheng over two thousand years ago. It could only ever be used against a particular enemy.
Cole! Go as high as you can without breaching the barrier!
As the white dragon tore itself away from the building's structure Cole obeyed instantly and thrust his wing muscles hard for the sky.
*
Isabelle's assault ended quickly as she saw she was having no impact on the young girl's magical barrier. Her mouth twisted cruelly as she simply stared at Ellie.
“All that power, young girl. And you know what? I'm still going to win.” Isabelle sneered. Ellie swallowed and took a step back. “Afraid?” Isabelle asked, nodding at the answer to her own question. “You should be. After this I will find your family and friends and put them away forever.” Ellie's breath became ragged and her hand's shook as Isabelle continued to bait her. “And of course your rabbits. I really want them. The Institute is going to dissect every single one to learn their secrets!”
“No!” Ellie shouted at the old witch.
“And what are you going to do, little girl?” Isabelle shouted back, her eyes mocking. “Then of course, wait until I get my hands on your brother.”
Ellie's rage exploded in a vast shower and dance of electrical energy that seared the rooftop. She cast no spells, she constructed no magic, and she balled up her rage and fury and simply ran with all her might at Isabelle.
Isabelle smiled and with flowing grace brought her hands in front of her body.
“And that is why you're going to lose.”
*
Eleanor clung desperately to Cole's back as he strained upwards almost vertically. The orb may have helped his recovery but the red dragon was tiring rapidly due to his long incarceration. Eleanor risked a look back and saw the white dragon giving chase and several orange and white explosions and concussions where Ellie and Isabelle had been.
“Hold on, Ellie.” She whispered. Looking back up she saw Cole was approaching the barrier's edge which was fortunate timing as she felt his large muscles quivering and trembling.
Ready? He called. Eleanor took a deep breath and gripped Cole's back tighter.
Yes!
Cole turned his body so they were both facing the ground.
“Do it!” Eleanor yelled out loud and Cole brought his wings in close to his body and let himself fall, his course straight for the white dragon.
*
Steady. Steady. Not yet. The orb called to Ellie. Her muscles were drained after the magically enhanced pounding she'd wrought on Isabelle. The old woman had just stood there, gazing on from behind an erected shield. Ellie dropped to her knees and hung her head, the orange glow fading from her skin.
Isabelle smiled.
*
Eleanor screwed her eyes as tight as possible against the shrieking wind. Cole's wings were wrapped tightly around her legs and his own legs tucked into his body. Eleanor didn't know how fast they were descending but from the height Cole had reached any attempt to pull out of the dive would most likely rip his wings off.
The white dragon, in response to this headlong dive, beat upwards, coming straight at Eleanor and Cole. Its maw open and talons ready to pierce its enemy.
Eleanor knew this was just luck, but luck based on her and Cole's years of flying together. Of ascending to great heights and performing fantastic manoeuvres. Her thoughts quickly flashed onto Malachite and what had been lost this day. She leaned forward with renewed purpose and held the hilt off to her side slightly. The white dragon was only seconds away.
NOW! She instructed Cole.
Cole opened a dragon thread entrance in the place the white dragon had moved past. He then ducked his head and extended his forelegs in front of him. Eleanor leaned all the way forward and let go of Cole so her arms were free.
The impact was immense and Eleanor was catapulted forward. She thrust her arms forward, both hands clenched around the sword hilt. As the two dragons locked talons and maw she felt the seemingly insubstantial blade enter the white dragon's body. It screamed in agony and all three fell into the dark, open doorway of the dragon thread.
*
Disorientated, Eleanor depended on Cole's dwindling strength to not only hold onto the squirming white dragon but to reopen the thread before they were all cast loose and lost forever.
*
Ellie's neck was enclosed by Isabelle's long, cold fingers, she was powerless to resist. The old woman then lifted her up and slammed Ellie into the ground. Ellie instinctively formed a shell of magic for her back but still her breath shot out and she wheezed painfully on contact with the concrete. Isabelle moved her hands by crawling her fingers like some gruesome arachnid from Ellie's neck until they wrapped around Ellie's head.
*
The white dragon twisted and Eleanor held onto the sword hilt so tightly she felt her hands begin to burn and cramp.
Cole! She cried in fear for herself and her dragon. A point of light flickered ahead that expanded rapidly into a doorway, an exit.
Jump into it! Cole shouted and Eleanor released her grip on the hilt and flew forwards into the light ahead and all three appeared high above the city at the point where Cole had begun his wild descent. Eleanor went weightless as her arc reached its height before gravity reclaimed her. Time seemed to slow as a thousand deaths presented themselves to Eleanor's mind. To fall from this great height, for the white dragon to pierce her body with a wicked talon, to have Isabelle create some mighty spell incinerating her in an instant. Then she felt the grip of a strong paw grabbing her w
aist and pulling her in tight. Time resumed its normal passage and she looked up and saw Cole beating his wings to hover as he looked down. Eleanor followed his gaze and she watched sadly, her own imagined fate forgotten, as the mortally wounded white dragon fell towards the ground.
I'm sorry. Eleanor spoke quietly as she squeezed Cole's leg, noticing deep scratches and cuts upon his legs and body. The red dragon didn't answer as he swung his rider onto his back. She rubbed his spine, feeling his sorrow and placed the now useless sword hilt into her belt.
Let's get back down there. She said simply.
*
“Mine now.” Isabelle said in a sing song voice.
The cold fingers on Ellie's head made her want to cry out in terror but she held her nerve. Isabelle turned Ellie's head so they were staring into each other's eyes.
*
“No, Isabelle!” Eleanor screamed, tearing the sword hilt once again from her belt, as Cole landed on the roof of the Institute. “Cole get over there!” She ordered as she watched Isabelle lean over Ellie.
“No.” The dragon responded weakly.
“Cole! Now! What's wrong with you?” Ellie thumped the red dragon on his back. Cole looked over his shoulder at his rider, his eyes whirling in exhaustion.
“No, trust me.”
*
“Mine now.” Isabelle repeated. Ellie gave the old woman a small smile.
“Take it.” Ellie whispered and Isabelle clamped her fingers down hard on Ellie's head. Ellie's body jolted as Isabelle leached the magical power the orb had given her. Both their body's glowed orange and both contorted in pain as power traversed from one to the other. Isabelle began to laugh as the faint orange glow from Ellie faded.
“Oh.” Isabelle breathed. “Incredible.” And she released Ellie who slumped to the ground, completely drained of the orb's power. Isabelle flexed her fingers and smiled as electricity jumped from finger to finger. She looked down at Ellie and then over her shoulder at Cole with Eleanor on his back. “Well,” she said, “that was anti-climactic. I expected better really.”
Ellie rose painfully clutching her stomach. Cole started to move forward but she waved him off.
“Then you may have it.” Ellie said. “Now.” She instructed the orb. Isabelle frowned and then a look of abject horror crossed her face.
“What have you done? What?” The old woman cried. Her skin began to glow an intense orange and her face twisted with pain.
Cole now rushed over and Eleanor leapt from his back to stand next to her younger self.
“What are you doing?” She asked as Isabelle fell to her knees.
“Giving her a choice.” Ellie replied with her own voice without taking her eyes from Isabelle. The young girl took her older counterpart's hand and walked over to the writhing woman. She gently laid a palm on Isabelle's cheek and then looked at Eleanor.
“Follow me.”
The world disappeared.
*
I remember this.
Cold mud sucking at my boots as I race forward.
This terrible day.
No time, no speed. I cannot run fast enough.
People, villagers walking by me. They look demented. Their eyes have witnessed a wrongful deed masquerading as a righteous act.
No. Arianne. My poor Isabelle.
The tree and the misshapen figure hanging from it. Battered and bruised it sways gently. There is no breeze. It is swaying because of the person clinging to its feet, sobbing and wailing.
Isabelle?
The person turns and growls. It is Isabelle. But Isabelle from the future, old, twisted. Her eyes blaze white in the dim light. Her hair is matted with the blood of her mother, Arianne.
“You!” She hisses.
Ellie looks up at Eleanor as they walk slowly towards the harrowing scene.
“This was you!” Isabelle accuses with a trembling finger thrust out viciously at Eleanor. “For all your good intentions, for all the people you saved, you couldn't save her!” Isabelle finishes with a wail and she once again turns and clings to her mother's feet.
“Why are we here?” Eleanor whispers, tears streaming freely down her cheeks. “What good will this do?”
Ellie moved in front of Eleanor and crouched down beside the inconsolable Isabelle.
“Because she belongs here in this dream, this nightmare.” Ellie replies, once again in that strange merged voice of her and the orb, and in doing so she reaches out a hand and strokes Isabelle's hair. “No amount of sorrow, wisdom or pity we bestow upon her will change that.”
“Then why?” Eleanor pleads, the memory almost too much to bear.
Ellie turns to the woods and points to a patch that a rapid rustling noise is emanating from.
“Because of her.” Ellie finishes.
A figure emerges from the darkness of the trees, panting and sobbing. They stand there a moment examining their surroundings, as if they have forgotten their place in the world. A gasp from Eleanor makes them direct a fierce gaze upon her. It is Isabelle, but the young Isabelle who has just found her mother and has sworn vengeance on the perpetrators of her mother's death.
Ellie grabs onto the old Isabelle's shoulders and with a great effort turns her towards the young girl who has burst from the forest. She leans into the old woman's ear.
“There's still a chance for her. You belong here. But she doesn't have to stay here with you.”
The old Isabelle shrieks as the younger one studies her in horror.
The world disappears.
*
Cole and Ellie had retreated to a far corner of the rooftop leaving Isabelle alone with Eleanor. The old woman was still in a lot of pain and had fallen to the ground sobbing on the return to the rooftop of the skyscraper. Eleanor sat down next to Isabelle and cradled the old woman's head on her lap.
“What have you done to me?” Isabelle ground out between her teeth. Eleanor stroked Isabelle's hair.
“Ellie knew she would never be able to fight you, she doesn't have it in her to take you down and she knew you would try and take the orb's power. She had to make you believe you'd won.” She explained. “So the orb is inside you now, latching on to every magical cell in your body.”
“Why?” Isabelle cried.
“To give you a choice. Keep the magic within you and let the power burn you up and kill you or let it go and come back to us, to me.” Eleanor's voice fell to a whisper. Isabelle's face contorted with hatred.
“Never!” and she shook her head to try and free herself but Eleanor held firm.
“Listen to me!” Eleanor said harshly. “All these years of pain and bitterness, the orb will take them away. I don't know if that's right or wrong considering what you've done, but it's giving you the chance to start again! That's why it showed you your mother and who you were and the horror at seeing what you would become.”
Isabelle tore at Eleanor's hands as she sobbed but Eleanor held on even tighter.
“All those years and I never got the chance to say I was sorry about your mother. I loved her too but now you have to let it go or it will literally destroy you! Your mother would be ashamed, Isabelle!” Eleanor pleaded. Isabelle became very still though the pain was still evident on her face. She reached up and brought Eleanor's head down to hers.
“What reason?” Isabelle groaned. “Just tell me why I shouldn't end it?”
Eleanor's eyes filled with tears and she stroked the old woman's face.
“Because you are forgiven, and loved.”
Isabelle sobbed and shook her head violently.
“No! You can't say that to me! Not to me!” Isabelle screeched as tears ran freely from her eyes. Centuries of unshed pain coursed and fell upon Eleanor's hands, each hot with the anger withheld for so long. Isabelle's fingers gripped Eleanor's shoulders painfully but Eleanor leaned further forward and placed her lips with a gossamer touch upon Isabelle's forehead.
“Let it go and come back to me.” Eleanor whispered.
Isabelle arch
ed her back and screamed.
*
Fern blew out an exhausted but satisfied breath as he watched the woman he'd battled with float around the room. Human magic, he thought and tutted. All fire, lightning, wind and rain, trying to batter your opponent into submission. Fern had quickly realised this person's magical abilities didn't vary too much so he encapsulated them in a large bubble. Simple but effective he thought happily. Any fire she tried to cast was snuffed out, any rain added water inside the bubble, lightning gave her a quick jolt of her own medicine and the wind magic just made her float quicker round the room. Satisfied she couldn't escape Fern made his way down into the basement to check on Flare and Ellie's family.
*
Cole and Ellie watched from a distance as Isabelle screamed in pain and fear. The scream continued as if drawing breath was no longer required and then both gasped as a large cloud of orange dust was expelled from Isabelle's mouth.
“Yes.” Ellie whispered and hugged Cole's leg. The dragon rumbled tiredly but contentedly.
*
“Isabelle? Can you hear me?” Eleanor asked cautiously as she watched the orange cloud leave Isabelle's mouth and then hover, almost protectively over both of them. Isabelle blinked and opened her eyes, causing Eleanor to laugh.
“What?” Isabelle asked crossly.
“I forgot you had blue eyes!” Eleanor answered, stroking Isabelle's hair.
“Uh, are you okay, Ellie?” Isabelle asked, her expression one of complete bemusement.
Yes, she's fine. The orb answered. Eleanor and Isabelle looked up into the orange glow.
Thank you. Eleanor said.
Yes, thank you. The younger Ellie said as she and Cole walked over.
My pleasure. There are just a couple of things though. Ellie, the old one that is.
Thanks. Eleanor replied flatly.
Don't mention it. You're mortal now. The orb sighed. Your life has been bound to me all this time. Doing this has ended that link.
Eleanor's eyes grew wide.
Mortality? She blew out a breath and then smiled. I understand. Where will you go?