AFTERMATH (Descendants Saga)

by James Somers

  “Not at all,” she said. “He was too proud for his own good.”

  They were both looking at each other in a way that suddenly made me feel uncomfortable. It was almost like they had forgotten that I was standing there. I cleared my throat.

  Sadie looked my way. Adolf finally released her hand.

  “Cole and I were just discussing the barrier that has trapped everyone here in Ireland,” Sadie said. “There’s an army coming from Britain, Adolf, and we have no way of knowing what kind of threat we’re facing.”

  I stood by, letting her explain the situation I had intended on explaining.

  Adolf looked puzzled. “I’ve not heard of any barrier. Do people know this?”

  Sadie leaned in conspiratorially. “Not yet. We wouldn’t want to cause a panic.”

  “Cole,” Adolf asked, “why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”

  “I just found out before coming here,” I explained. “The king and Sadie’s father have gone with a team to investigate the barrier. But I’ve already been attempting to reach for a destination beyond its boundary and I can’t get through.”

  “If only the cherubim weren’t in control of the spiritual realm,” Sadie said. “We could go that way.”

  “Not without a direct portal,” I reasoned.

  “It doesn’t matter,” Sadie argued. “When the cherubim were loosed upon the spiritual plane it merged with the Underworld. Reports from those who attempted to go back found the abominations loose everywhere.”

  Adolf looked between us. “You’re talking about things I don’t know,” he said.

  I started to explain, but Sadie beat me to it.

  “Cole and I were tricked into entering the Underworld through a gateway in Siberia,” she said.

  “Why?” Adolf asked.

  “Black wanted us to release the cherubim—these beings that apparently created the realms we lived in on the spiritual plane. They were imprisoned within the form of a dragon.”

  “And you set them free?” Adolf asked.

  “We didn’t know the dragon was the cherubim, or what would happen to the spiritual plane when they were loosed,” Sadie explained.

  “Someone knew,” Adolf muttered to himself.

  “Yes, Black knew,” Sadie answered. “The cherubim undid what they had created, destroying our kingdoms in the process. And now, all of the abominable creatures that were trapped in the Underworld are roaming free upon our devastated lands.”

  Adolf considered our story for a moment as gunshots rang out regularly nearby on the gun range. “So, if these cherubim undid everything between the Underworld and our kingdoms on the spiritual plane—and its creatures were loosed there also—then wouldn’t we be able to backtrack from our former spiritual lands through the Underworld and out through the gateway where you entered from Siberia?”

  Sadie and I looked at one another like we had both been slapped silly. What had seemed like such a hopeless puzzle a moment ago made perfect sense now. Adolf had worked it all out.

  “You’re a genius!” I exclaimed.

  Sadie didn’t seem as joyous as me, though. “Are you forgetting about the Minotaur and those other abominations all roaming free? It was bad enough when they were confined to certain spaces. Now, they’ll all be everywhere. And what about the cherubim? They might notice us. If they’re powerful enough to generate this barrier you mentioned, then we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

  “Then we can’t let them notice us,” Adolf said, matter-of-factly.

  I gave Sadie a grin, satisfied with Adolf’s answer.

  She looked at him a bit incredulously. “And you’re coming on this doomed expedition now?”

  “Why not?” he asked. “I’m at risk as much as you are with Gladstone sending his army against us. I can handle myself well enough in a fight.”

  “I can vouch for that,” I added.

  Sadie glared at Adolf, her earlier interest turning to annoyance. “That’s just it. A fight is the last thing you want when you’re trying to sneak past the cherubim. They’re bound to notice any disturbance and stop you cold.”

  “I can be sneaky when I want to be,” Adolf argued, growing annoyed also. “I solved the problem and now you don’t want to go? You’re not afraid are you?”

  I winced. This was not how you spoke to the Lycan princess.

  Sadie’s mouth dropped open, then her teeth gritted together. “Are you calling me a coward?”

  “Now, wait a minute, both of you,” I said, attempting to interject before things got out of hand.

  “I’ll fight you right now,” Sadie asserted.

  Adolf laughed, waving her down. “I don’t fight girls. You shouldn’t get so riled up.”

  “Suggesting that we commit suicide by traveling through the Underworld to the human world isn’t nothing,” she said. “Cole, your new friend is going to get you killed.”

  “I thought you wanted a way off of this island,” Adolf complained. “I’ve given you one.”

  I looked at Sadie, pleading. “We do need some way of knowing what we’re up against,” I said. “Your own father, as well as Laish and Redclaw, said as much.”

  That seemed to stifle her complaints for a moment. She folded her arms defiantly. “Fine,” she said. “But we discuss this with my father before anything happens. Agreed?”

  Adolf and I looked at one another before I answered. “Agreed.”

  The fallen angel, once known as the Covering Cherub, stood by in the quads, watching the exchange between the three children. At first, he had been displeased to find his young protégé making friends with his old enemies. However, he soon realized that he couldn’t have hoped for a better circumstance.

  Walking among mortals wasn’t a completely free affair. He sometimes found mortals, like Brody West, who were protected from his intrusion. When he had first encountered Brody in the alley, knowing him as a Descendant before Black even did, he had been allowed access. Since being revealed to him and some of the others, his access had been restricted by the Almighty and His angelic host.

  Oh, it wasn’t the first time. Not in the least. Job came to mind. He had been prevented from harming Job, until the Almighty allowed him to be tested. Even then, his ability to afflict the man had been confined to certain means. In the end, the whole matter had been turned around. Very unsatisfying.

  The problem here was somewhat different.

  Adolf knew of Lucifer, though he hadn’t mentioned his association to Cole and Sadie, yet. The angel had free access to Adolf and always had. Apparently, since the boy was running with these two, his restrictions regarding them were more open ended. It was a delicate business. Much like wandering a maze. Sometimes you found dead ends. Other times the way became clear, only to become blocked further ahead. And another way would have to be found.

  Lucifer didn’t like it, but there was little choice. Some things just are the way they are. One either accepts reality, finding ways to accomplish plans, or one settles for defeat. Lucifer had never settled for defeat.

  Oh, happy day! He thought. These children were feeding all sorts of information about his rival, Black, to him without even realizing what they were doing. More importantly, they intended on trying to foil his plans. All Lucifer had to do was use them to his own advantage without bringing down his own house of cards.

  Adolf was his key to the future destruction he envisioned. However, he couldn’t allow the boy to be turned by the ideals of these fools.

  “I’ll have to keep you on a short leash, young man,” Lucifer said to himself. No one else could hear his words, or see his form though he remained very near to them. Adolf was his gateway, his access into the situation. And, for now, that gave him an advantage.

  Clockworks

  William Gladstone sat in the backseat of his motorcar while his driver, Jeffrey, turned onto Lower Thames Street, heading for his Clockworks factory and warehouse complex. The site had been added onto a larger complex that included the Tower of London
after major repairs and renovations to the city in the wake of battles between the Lycan and vampire armies. The pixies had also wrought a great deal of destruction, as well, all leading to a horrible mess for Gladstone to deal with, once everything was said and done.

  The massive warehouse doors opened as his driver steered them onto the great concrete staging area with its steel plate reinforcements. The plates themselves were a necessity in order to protect the concrete from crumbling as it was trod upon by the automatons. Unfortunately, as yet, none of them had walked at all.

  Gladstone’s engineers had assured him that these great steel beasts would function magnificently if a power source could be procured. He had nothing but their word to go on. However, each of these engineers stood to suffer a sudden disappearance from society, if it turned out they had squandered millions in tax revenue only to produce the equivalent of several hundred giant metal statues.

  His motorcar passed through the great sliding doors. A thought from Gladstone caused them to reverse their course on their greased tracks. The doors closed behind him.

  Wenches and cranes, three hundred in all, hung from heavy mounts on the walls and ceiling of the structure. The Clockworks factory had been used to engineer and fabricate all of the necessary parts for Gladstone’s army. Here in this nine hundred yards of warehouse space, the Prime Minister’s special team of engineers, mechanics, welders and laborers had assembled those pieces and parts into three hundred metal men, each standing fifty feet high.

  Gladstone peered out from under the canopy of his motorcar, as the legs of his automatons passed by on either side. He looked up, disappointed by what his army yet lacked. Life. Power. Animation. For the moment, they were useless hulking things loaded with various killing implements but unable at all to use them.

  Yet, the Prime Minister had hope. Black was standing inside the warehouse up ahead. The lights on the front of the motorcar found him in the half light of the cavernous space. He waited with his hands held behind his back, wearing a dark suit, with a white shirt unbuttoned at the collar. Dark spectacles hid his eyes from view, the headlights flashing briefly across the round mirrored lenses.

  The motorcar pulled to a stop a mere ten feet away. Gladstone exited, leaving Jeffrey behind the wheel. The motorcar driver also happened to serve the Prime Minister in other ways. He had been in the special forces division of the British army, was a master in the art of Kalandra and also an expert in guerilla warfare. He also happened to be an elf who had come from Xandrea five years ago.

  Gladstone whispered for light. Fixtures high above among the rafters came on at his command. He may have served Britain as Prime Minister for over ten years now, but Gladstone had lost none of his potency as an elf spell caster. Still, as William stepped toward Black, he realized how out of his league he truly was.

  Black looked around at the automatons standing in neat rows extending far away through the warehouse. He nodded slightly. “This is quite a collection of scrap metal you’ve gathered together, William.”

  “It will be more than that when you empower them, my lord,” Gladstone replied. He removed his derby and wiped his brow. Being in such close proximity to the angel made him sweat involuntarily. Gladstone was about to ask if the angel could accomplish the task, but he thought better of it. A misstep like that, with one of the Fallen, would have him found later that evening dead in his own warehouse.

  Black smiled a little, gazing upon the nearest automaton giant. He closed his eyes, while Gladstone waited to see if anything would happen. Truth be told, the Prime Minister was slightly skeptical.

  Black drew upon the deep well of power flowing through him from the cherubim. He was aware of the constant drain upon their resources due to the energy barrier currently in operation around Ireland. Still, the cherubim had power to spare, something that might have caused him to be envious had he not formed this coalition with them.

  The warehouse and the metal giants housed within sprang into sharp focus in his mind. Moreover, he reached out to them, searching for the workings of their mechanical bodies. They were not merely things that he could add power to and leave them to operate independently. He would have to control them like gigantic marionettes.

  The machines had actually been constructed so that a man could ride in them like a vehicle. The pilot’s chair resided behind heavy armor in the chest cavity. What should have been a head—if they had been constructed anatomically correct—was in truth nothing more than a complicated weapon’s system, able to lob grenades and shoot armor piercing rounds from its Gatlin style gun turret. Jet’s in the left arm ran to armored tanks containing fuel. Flame could be thrown from a distance of nearly one hundred feet.

  The problem with animating these hulking brutes was in the mechanism itself, its construction. Complex hydraulics had been fashioned along with cable and pulley systems to be used in moving the automaton’s arms and legs and torso. However, this presented more of a challenge in the sense that these same mechanisms would fight against him unless he consciously activated them. It was a complicated puppet, not to mention the more daunting task of animating three hundred such creatures at one time.

  Black was left with no recourse. He would have to simulate, in each metal giant, the missing pilots. He suddenly wished that Southresh was on hand. He had the particular talent of being able to draw out lesser spirits in order to serve his purposes. However, Southresh had not shown himself in many months. Black had the feeling that he was currently serving with Lucifer in some way.

  He applied his power and his will to the pilot controls within the cockpit itself, leaving the rest of the giant free to obey these controls. Being an angel, Black was not familiar with technology as much as the humans who used these machines. It would take a bit of getting used to.

  William Gladstone waited impatiently next to Black as he stood in the warehouse before the automaton he intended to animate. So far, sixty seconds had passed and the beastly machine hadn’t budged so much as a centimeter. His high hopes were steadily crashing down with every passing moment.

  He waited a bit longer. Finally, he opened his mouth to speak. A massive metal foot lurched forward slamming down on top of Gladstone’s motorcar, flattening it like a pancake. Jeffrey lay on the pavement floor of the warehouse, breathing heavily. He had just barely managed to escape the car in time.

  Gladstone gasped as the foot raised, revealing the wreckage. He wasn’t concerned about the car. Honestly, he hadn’t even been worried about Jeffrey’s near death experience. He was, however, breathless with excitement over the giant foot rising from the destruction it has caused.

  Black had done it. He had brought the automaton to life. The metal giant took another step and another. It walked toward the outer door of the warehouse. Other automatons began to move as well, walking out of line to follow the first.

  “You’ve done it!” Gladstone exclaimed. He was shouting with glee like a child at his first fireworks display. “They’re amazing.”

  Black walked up beside him as a total of ten automatons fell in line, walking toward the door which was now opening. “What they are, is nothing without me controlling them. You will muster your human army and prepare to transport them to Ireland.”

  “And the automatons, my lord?”

  “I will create a portal and walk them through,” Black said. “You only need to tell your men that this is a new technology like the Clockwork men. They can even go through with them.”

  Gladstone laughed. “When our army emerges in Ireland, Brody West and the Shade King will not know what has hit them.”

  Black grinned. “Oh, they’ll know.”

  Trust

  It was already after dark by the time Brody returned to Highmore Castle. We were up with the queen, waiting for him when he arrived. His trepidation showed in his eyes when he walked through the door to find myself, Sadie, his wife and Adolf sitting at their dinner table. Laish had not come with him, or Redclaw.

  “Hmm,” he said, comin
g into the room with us. He looked at his wife and daughter. “Am I in trouble for something I don’t realize?”

  Queen Sophia smiled. “Cole and Sadie have brought a new friend to meet you, Brody,” she said.

  “I see.”

  I noticed Sadie give Adolf a slight leer as her mother mentioned him being our new friend. Then she glanced at me in a not entirely friendly way. She was angry with me over Adolf. When they had met, she initially seemed to like him quite a bit. Unfortunately, the matter of going into the Underworld had gotten her dander up. Our experience in that place had been memorable for all of the wrong reasons.

  Still, we required some means of heading off this army, of gathering intelligence at the very least. Adolf had come up with that way, and I was impressed. I could only hope that Sadie would let go of her resentment and consider him a friend as I now did.

  “And they wish to discuss a certain matter with you regarding the barrier,” Sophia continued.

  The light of understanding dawned in his eyes now. “Well then, introductions first, I suppose. Who is this young man you’ve brought with you?”

  I waited a half second to give Sadie the chance to introduce him. She sat in her chair as still and cold as stone, glaring at me. I stood up. “This is Adolf, sir,” I offered. “I met him in the quads while training.”

  I wasn’t sure if I should speak of the matter of Adolf and the Shade King’s son, Liam. I decided to wait on that.

  Brody smiled, crossing the room to shake Adolf’s hand.

  Adolf stood. “Very nice to meet you, sir.”

  “Any friend of these two is welcome in our home,” Brody said, releasing the boy’s hand.

  He took a seat next to his wife. “Now, what’s this about the barrier?”

  “Does it really go all the way around the country?” Sadie asked.