‘The clan looked to their leader, Maeve. The Christianity movement was the biggest threat they’d ever faced. But while she devised strategies to retaliate nothing worked. One night, she had a dream of the goddess Danu. In the dream, Danu told her there was a doorway to another world for her and her clan to seek refuge in. She showed her where this place was and instructed her to leave before the entire race was destroyed. Her clan, desperate as they were, accepted it. They entered the Otherworld and forged themselves a new identity - Seers.’
‘But some refused and decided to stay. They transformed themselves into faeries and hid in remote places on Earth. A small number proclaimed that one day the Tuatha De Dannan would take back the world that was stolen from them. Those who believed turned themselves into stone. Waiting to be woken on the day the lands are claimed back by their clan.’
Iliana was silent.
‘It’s just a story. None can really pin down their true origins. Scholars have been debating it for years. Although they’re kept near the arch. Several attempts have been made to cross them into the Otherworld to store them at the palace in Erp Surrel but the statues can’t cross. Maybe they were people once, maybe they weren’t. Who knows? One person’s theory is just as good as another’s.’
‘So, all the faeries and Seers came from the Tuatha clan?’
‘Yes. As for the faeries, they became stuck in their forms as time went on.’
Zelda’s aunt turned around and quietly joined the others.
Iliana watched her quiet retreat and glanced at the other statues.
A young pixie burst through the double doors, followed by a squad of jogging faerie guards.
It shouted squeamishly, ‘A Xinger! A Xinger! A Xinger is in the market hall!’
It’s shrill echoed hollowly off the walls.
A silence followed.
Then chaos broke out. The queue quickly disintegrated into a feudal frenzy and the crowd surged forward like a tidal wave to get through the arch together. Faeries began to squeal in terror to cross.
Three guards attempted to control the upsurge and were crushed.
‘Iliana!’ shouted Terrence from behind. She spun around to see Terrence surrounded by faeries running and screaming.
Zelda grabbed her arm, her face alarmed. ‘Time to go.’
‘Where is bloody Sires? We need to get to Sleepers Hill.’ Terrence growled.
‘Sleepers Hill? Where’s that?’ Iliana asked exasperatedly.
‘On the other side of that.’
He pointed at the arch, where faery now fought faery to reach it. They clambered around confusedly, and the hollow chamber was filled with a chorus of squeals, shrieks and curses.
Terrence grabbed Iliana who jumped with surprise, and ran straight to the centre of the chamber with her. She stared up at the doorway vortex that loomed upon her and gulped.
Terrence and Sires pulled out their swords and Zelda’s aunt pulled out a dagger that was inside her jacket pocket. The guards shut the doors and bolted them.
Creatures wailed and banged on the other side. It shook as blasted magick tried to break its wooden surface.
A line of guards formed waiting tensely with swords ready to meet whatever came through the doors.
Something hard exploded against the timber from the other side, sending splinters flying everywhere.
Galfen was shouting at his soldiers to hold a line then came rushing up to them. ‘Terrence, I need you to stay and fight this thing. If you do, I will put Iliana through the arch.’
‘Cecile, you go with Iliana.’
Zelda nodded and they exchanged silent looks.
Galfen beckoned to four soldiers and strode through the crowd, soldiers following him on every step. They shoved the mob back to give Galfen some room and he stood up on the well before the arch and pressed a block with one finger.
That’s when Iliana realised that there were markings on each stone. The strange symbols pulled familiarly at a darker part of her mind, the kind of part where her dreams played out.
She watched in amazement as the arch’s darkness started to swirl. It spun and spun and silver met black as it continued to turn.
And then stopped.
A winter wonderland filled the entire archway. A white, snow crusted hill at the ground sloped downwards to reveal further distant, interlocking hills and a little to the right, some white woods.
It was day there, and the clouds were mottled white and grey. It was like staring into a large painting of the countryside, except the clouds were moving lazily in slow motion, cheating any idea of a still image. It was a tranquil scene compared to the pandemonium that raged inside the arch’s chamber.
Another explosion boomed from the doors, bigger lumps of wood speared through the air and stabbed a few faeries.
‘General, the door won’t hold,’ shouted back a soldier standing at the door, poised for a fearsome fight. His voice lost amidst the roar.
Galfen jumped down and shouted, ‘Right, one at a time.’
Two soldiers hopped up onto the well and stood at either side of the gateway, pulling faeries up and shoving their frightened faces into the portal.
Iliana could still see them on the other side, like watching someone walk into a T.V. and starring in the programme you’re watching. She found it a little disorientating.
The small faeries pulled their scarves around their tiny heads and heavy cloaks around their bony shoulders and ran for the hills.
‘Hurry up! Hurry up!’ shouted Galfen. More and more were being yanked through now. The door shattered apart and faeries started to pour into the chamber like a river of bodies.
The noise level increased dramatically and Iliana almost didn’t hear Zelda call her name.
She turned around to see her beckoning her.
Iliana squeezed through the mass of faeries to be at the feet of the well, two guards hoisted her and Zelda up onto the wall.
Zelda breathed ‘Ready?’
‘No,’ was Iliana’s shaky reply.
The scene of white snow and hills mounted over her now, ready to swallow her in. She wondered if she stuck her arm in would she see it on the other side. Would it be cold?
The last thing she felt was someone pushing her back, and then she was falling forward.
She hit something cold and hard and realised she was lying on the ground. Her fingers crunched around crushed snow, feeling the icy sensation seep into her bones.
There was snow all around her, the distant white hills sat in front of her for real now.
To her right a river gushed around the bottom of the hill and continued on into the distance.
‘Here, give me your hand,’ said Zelda. Iliana accepted her offer and stood.
She brushed snow off her hair and cloak and found it odd to see her breath; it felt like early spring all over again. She stood amazed at the landscape that surrounded her. The transition was almost dizzying. One minute she was in an underground room in England during a summer’s night. Next, she was in a completely different world on a winter’s day.
‘This…this…is…impossible,’ she breathed, completely awed.
‘But true,’ Zelda added.
Iliana nodded, left speechless.
Zelda turned to look through the arch; faeries were still coming through. The arch rippled repeatedly like water in reaction to the faeries passing through it. They gave the girls one scared look and then dashed away.
Iliana peered through the archway with Zelda and could see the chamber completely overrun with panic.
She couldn’t hear a thing either. It was like watching a violent film with the mute button on. Faeries clawed over each other hand over hand to reach the arch.
One faerie fell on the ground and scrambled up again. But before he could run off Zelda grabbed his arm. ‘I want you to tell me what happened.’
He tried to pull away but she held him tightly.
His purp
le eyes flashed with anger. ‘All I was doing was selling me tarot cards and crystal balls, then ou’ of nowhere, this big black thin’ that some people are calling a ‘Xinger’ came ou’ of one of the tunnels. Everyun’ just started runnin’.’ He went on, speaking rapidly. ‘Some fled to the tunnels and others wen’ fo’ the arch. The thin’ destroyed everythin’, all the stalls and some didn’ ge’ away fast enough.’
He yanked his arm back and ran. ‘C’mon Terrence,’ muttered Zelda, clenching and unclenching her fists.
After another minute, long black tendrils gingerly crept into the chamber from the broken doors, hooking onto the doorframe like hooks.
Iliana’s stomach tightened.
The Xinger entered and cast around the chamber. The faeries went from panicked to crazy. More squeezed through and ran screaming hysterically down the hill.
Iliana and Zelda could see Terrence, his sword aglow.
The Xinger whipped its tentacles at Galfen but he ducked. He shouted something at a soldier and pointed at Iliana and Zelda. He nodded quickly and sprinted to the arch and leapt through.
‘What’s happening?’ asked Zelda, her voice wavering.
‘Galfen is not leaving anybody behind, he’s going to collapse the arch.’
Zelda breathed in surprise and put her hands to her chest. ‘He needs his majesty’s permission to do that.’
‘Since his majesty is not here, he’s looking for yours.’
Zelda frowned. ‘How did you know —’
Zelda’s aunt appeared before the arch and abruptly stepped through. ‘Cecile, we need your permission, do you grant it?’
Iliana looked from one to the other.
Zelda closed her eyes, cursed loudly and replied, ‘Yes, tell Galfen he has it.’
Zelda’s aunt nodded in acknowledgement and stepped back through. Balls of fire were being hurled at the Xinger, but it didn’t slow down as it ghosted forward.
Zelda’s aunt shouted something at Galfen and everyone whipped around and dashed towards the arch.
Zelda’s aunt leaped through first and landed deftly on her feet.
Iliana pulled a face at her graceful manoeuvre; she had fallen through like a clown.
Sires came next, a trail smoke followed behind him and Iliana saw that his beard was singed. He landed in a star shape on the ground and scrambled up, hastily tapping on his beard gently.
Galfen bulleted through the archway and roared, ‘Everyone get back now!’
His face was red from exertion and his chest heaving.
Iliana took five large steps back. She watched as he started doing something to each block of stone. The symbols flared to life, but as Galfen went over them, resting his hand each time, it would dull and die. He levitated to reach the top ones.
‘What’s he doing?’ Iliana asked Zelda, trying to distract herself from what lay on the other side of the arch.
‘To collapse an arch, you need to drain its energy. Without it, an arch can’t function. He has to cut it off from its energy source which comes from the Earth. It’s like a tree without roots.’
Through the arch, Terrence turned from the Xinger and Galfen signalled him.
He gave one last savage slash at the Xinger, and threw himself through the archway, landing on the snow.
‘Now Galfen!’ he bellowed.
Galfen pressed both green hands on either side of the arch and started muttering some words in a fast, unintelligible rhythm.
A black tendril rippled through the arch and slithered its way around his waist. Galfen ignored it and continued his incantations. Ice crusted at the foot of the archway and slowly spread upwards, cracking and hardening as it went.
The tendril snatched back in surprise.
Galfen stopped muttering and stepped back. The blocks that formed the arch and the image of the chamber were all covered in a thin sheet of glistening ice.
‘Like putting a tree into hibernation,’ Zelda said lowly.
Iliana expected something more dramatic, like the blocks to crumble and disintegrate.
The Xinger hovered in the ruined chamber; a carnage mess of broken bodies and splintered remains were all that was left. It stared at them chillingly through the ice.
It raised its ebony finger and pointed it straight at Iliana, then turned and floated back out of the chamber.
‘Safe for now,’ said a weary Terrence.
Iliana shivered, and it wasn’t because of the cold.
Chapter Five
02/16/4017
p347. Entry No. 34. (Code Status of facility: blue)
Subject 17 was injected again, with limited results. This new elixir developed by my team has shown to be unpredictable. The subject became agitated and restless, forcing us to put it back into a comatose state. The new substance that we constructed from fragments of the Cayedese comet has incurred unusual physical changes, as well as behavioural in all test subjects that were exposed to it. But what it has given us has been miraculous, and as a scientist as well as a researcher, I naturally abhor from using such a word and yet I am at a loss for another that best describes what it does. All subjects have begun to display signs of fully functional, healthy bodies.
The elixir was a test of mine, a deviation from what has been done so far. I created it because I know we can do better. I know because I have created better, although I have kept my ‘side project’ a secret, and it must remain highly confidential until the ministry understands. Right now, they are not ready for it, and I understand. Gretta is the only person I trust with this knowledge at this point in time, she understands what I want, she knows my vision. Already I have seen the usefulness of my own subjects, witnessed what they can do, and I can make them be anything that I choose. Such potential!
Some of my colleagues have merely dubbed the remnants used from Cayedese, as the ‘comet formula’. It’s so much more than that. I have only begun in the last ten years to test its possibilities, and the results have been astounding. There are times where I have stood before it’s magnificence, and wondered in awe at what this miracle synergy can do.
More tests need to be conducted, of course, but I sat up with Quirin one night. We spoke of what achievements this formula could give us. Perhaps, the cure so that we so badly need…
- M.B
T
he king’s horse was the first to arrive at the ruins. Scattered rubble lay strewn across the devastated earth, and plumes of smoke assaulted the crisp clean mountain air. He pulled his mount up and it whinnied in protest.
Seamus stared up at the broken prison with a mixture of fear and foreboding. The rock pedestal on which the former high security jail sat on had disintegrated. What once gave the bastille a commanding view of Erp Surrel and the land further south to the Reservation Plains, was now smashed to disgrace and beyond recognition. Debris stretched down like fingered talons towards the land from the shadow of the mighty mountain, and was scorched black.
Birds soared overhead in the clear morning sunshine, scouring for leftovers of the remains their counterparts had feasted on.
From behind, he heard cursing exclamations coupled with desperate galloping. His guard hounded after him with ferocious thrusts to catch up to him. Seamus liked to experience momentary freedom from their chain of defence when he could, even if just for a minute.
He closed his eyes and inhaled the clear, pure air and absorbed the vastness of space around him. His horse neighed in the shadow of the Beast, as the mountain had been named. It was a befitting name to house some of the most terrifying and offensive criminals in the Otherworld.
The sounds of hooves beating the snow could be heard getting closer now, Seamus was certain that if he cared to turn in his saddle, he wouldn’t see too few furious expressions staining his men’s faces. He smiled, it was nice to know he could get one up on them the odd time, made him feel sharp in a body that was too old to climb the Golden Stairway anymore. His hooded eyes peered over the mess
above him on the slope. He hoped that there could be survivors huddled somewhere, but from his all-encompassing view of the desecrated structure, it didn’t look probable.
The hoof drumming slowed to a stop behind him. Without turning, he barked, ‘Get the Eye Wielders, I want them to get a good view of the wreckage.’
One of his men looked up at the mess, a boorish man with stubble prickling about his jawline, his lips were downturned in disgust.
He hawked and spat. ‘Ain’t likin’ the looks of this one bi’.’
The youngest in the guard, Kevin, pulled his reins to the right, horse head turning dutifully, and raced back to the company that Seamus had personally handpicked to accompany him.
He regarded the lost prison in deep thought, almost as if he could find out what happened by just staring at it.
He turned to the captain of the guard. ‘Jamel, tell me you’ve received more leads.’
The man shook his head solemnly. ‘Nothing your majesty. I’ve had eyes and ears scrape every street.’
‘I want high personnel involvement in this one. We’ll need the minister for Secret Affairs involved.’
Jamel inclined his head. The king was demanding hourly reports on anything that moved, even breathed of anything relating to the breakout.
Rumours had abound in the Erp Surrel like a festering swarm. Citizens were suspecting Old Hardigan from the Swamps, who had planned and staged the breakout so he could reunite with his bandit brothers. Women at the watering wells were whispering it was Fergus of the faerie forest, who charmed the guards with sweet, sickly faerie spells before blowing them up.
Regardless of whoever broke out the inmates, they were out now, and it was clear to Seamus and his ministers that control over the situation was imperative.
It was a call of defiance if Seamus had ever seen one, and when he found the perpetrator he would need to come down hard. Civilisations have fallen over the idleness of kings, and he wasn’t one to fall.
He had called for an immediate emergency meeting with the whole cabinet once he had been informed of the grim news. It was 2 o’clock in the morning and it had taken some time for the ministers to make their way through the rough trodden streets in their carriages, to reach the Situation Room in the palace.
Return of the Starchild (The Divine Inheritance Series Book 1) Page 8