by Simon Kewin
“But I gave them the book!”
“True. And that is unfortunate. But the main thing is you didn't destroy it. If you had succeeded then all really would have been lost.”
“Why?”
“It should be perfectly obvious to everyone. You have to use the book, break the necromancy by turning it against them. Fight fire with fire. There is no other power great enough to defeat the undain. It is their weak spot, the fact that they used this magic to become what they are. That undain lord has saved you all by plucking the book from the flames.”
“But gran said we had to destroy the book,” said Cait.
“Then it is a good job you didn't listen,” said the archaeon. “If you had asked me I would have explained it to you.”
“But wait a minute, what about me?” asked Danny. “You haven't mentioned what I'm gonna do.”
“I think you should go back home to your family,” said her mum.
“No.”
“It's too dangerous.”
“You said yourself nowhere is safe now. And I want to go with Cait.” He glanced at her. “Plus, you know, it might get me out of doing my exams.”
Her mum sighed once more. “I don't like it. You're a nice lad, but you're just a boy.”
“I'm two months older than Cait.”
“And what would your parents say if I let you do this? What right do I have to draw you in?”
“It's too late for that.”
Her mum thought for a moment, studying Danny. “We'll discuss it on the way, OK? That's the best I can offer.”
“What do you think, Cait?” said Danny.
In truth she was torn. Yes, she wanted him to come, didn't want to have to say good bye to him. But was she just being selfish? And what dangers would she be leading him into? She couldn't ask him to do that.
“I think … I think it has to be up to you, Danny,” said Cait.
Her mum looked hard at her, eyes narrowed. She sighed. “Very well.”
“So, we do have to go back to the refinery after all?” asked Cait.
“We could hide inside one of those bone containers,” said Johnny
“If we have to,” said her mum. “I'm not sure yet.”
“There again, you should have asked me,” said the archaeon. “Didn't I mention that I know more than all of you put together? There is another portal that leads from this world into Angere. Actually there are several, but only one you have a chance of getting to. It opens on that side of the An, but a long way from the river and the White City. If you're lucky, they may not know about it and you'll be able to get through without being discovered.”
“Is this end of it near?” asked her mum.
“No. It isn't even in this country. But it would be possible to get there by hopping between Lesser Portals, if you happen to be learned enough to know where they all are. I've plotted a route that will take three jumps. Fortunately for you, it is pouring in Manchester.”
“What does that have to do with it?” asked Cait.
“If you get that far, you'll find out,” said the archaeon.
“Very well,” said her mum. “And how far is it to the first portal?”
“Around half a mile according to the GPS in this mobile. This whole area is a nexus. The one you need is a disused mine shaft named Hobbe's Adit. It leads to a natural cave the miners reached last century, exposing the portal. There are many superstitions about the mine, no doubt because of everything that has come through the portal over the years.”
“Is the mine shaft sealed now?”
“There is a fence around it and there should be a locked metal gate covering the entrance itself.”
“Excellent. Then we will go there first thing tomorrow and follow your route across to the Angere portal,” said her mum. “I think it's best if we travel together for at least the first hop.”
“The Portal into Angere itself, though,” said the archaeon. “You might not like it.”
“Why? Is it dangerous?” asked Cait.
“No. It is perfectly safe. But you do have to leap into the flames of a lava pit.”
From the corner of her eye, Cait saw both her mum and her gran glance at her, worried, each aware of how she felt about fire. Deliberately, she kept her expression calm, although there was a knot of alarm inside her. To actually jump into the flames …
“A lava pit?” she asked.
“It is in Iceland, in the mountains, an area of volcanic activity. There is a cave and inside a small but permanent lava pit: a pool of red hot, molten rock. You jump into it and end up in Angere.”
“Out of the frying pan,” said Johnny, quietly.
“Well, so we'll need to get warm clothes as well as some food on the way, then,” said her mum.
“There's another thing,” said the archaeon, who sounded as if it was enjoying being the bearer of bad news. “This portal only connects the two worlds once every sixmoon, which I take to mean every half a year. So you'll have to jump in together. At any other time it is a Lesser Portal and you'll end up somewhere on this world.”
“But how do we know someone hasn't already used it in the past six months?” asked Cait.
“Ah, true, little witch. You spotted that. Well, either you hope they haven't or you spend that long sitting in a cave in the Icelandic mountains to check. Those are your only choices.”
“That's fine,” said her mum. “Thank you for the information. That's what we'll do. If we can get to Iceland, we can at least escape Genera. And that will mean Nox having to explain to Menhroth how he managed to lose the descendent of Ilminion. The Witch King won't give him another chance. Now let's try and get some sleep. It doesn't look like rain and we can light a fire in this clearing to keep warm. We'll set out for this mine in the morning.”
A roar swept through the woods even as they lay down. It was distant but clear: an engine of some sort. Everyone went quiet, listening intently, all except for Ran, who sprang to his feet. Another engine-sound joined it, nearer, coming from a different direction. Distantly, Cait could sense owls taking wing and swooping away, animals of the woods scurrying for cover.
“More chainsaws?” she asked.
“They're moving,” said Danny. “Coming closer.”
“Motorcycles!” said Johnny.
“How can that be? How can they possibly have found us?” said Cait, fear thudding through her stomach.
“Bookwyrm!” said Danny, shouting into the mobile. “How did they find us? Only you could have told them!”
“Nonsense,” said the archaeon, its voice calm and measured. “Why would I do such a thing? It must have been something you've done.”
“We've done nothing!” said Danny.
“Then tell me,” said the archaeon. “The food you're eating. How did you pay for it?”
“I used my card,” said Johnny. Even as he said it, realisation flooded across his features. “Oh. Damn. You think they noticed? They spotted the transaction?”
“Of course they did,” said the archaeon. “Didn't I explain things to you? They would have known within seconds. They would have come straight here. They must have been combing these woods ever since. Really, it is a miracle you have survived this long. Did you not consider it odd your card still worked when you have been missing, presumed dead, for so long? They obviously left it active in case you ever returned.”
“I didn't think,” said Johnny.
“None of us did,” said her mum.
“Can we fight them?” said Danny, jumping to his feet. “We have four witches and a dragonrider. I bet we could take them.”
“No. We run for the portal,” said her mum, getting to her feet and helping her gran up. “This is not the time to fight. Archaeon, which way is this mine?”
“Due north. But hurry. The amount of electronic chatter is increasing. They're closing in on you.”
“OK. Come on!”
“But I haven't told you how to open the portal yet” said the archaeon. “Listen to me befo
re you lose the signal or they cut me off.”
“Speak quickly,” said her gran.
“Get inside the mine and head downward. Always downward. You need to pass through the cut passageways into the natural caverns. From there, look for an eye-shaped hole in the ground. That's the portal. The bottomless pit they call it. Jump in. But according to the book you must carry bloodstone with you. Bloodstone is the key. Without that, you will simply fall onto the jagged rocks.”
“Right,” shouted her mum. “Now let's go.” She set off at a run toward the tall ferns that were the only easy way out of the glade. It was already dark under the trees. She raised a hand above her head as she ran and a faint, glowing globe appeared for them to follow.
Danny, Johnny, Fer, Cait, her gran and, at the back, Ran raced after the light. The sound of the engines grew louder. There were three or four of them, impossible to tell how close they were or which direction they came from.
They sprinted through the ferns, fronds slapping their faces, following the bobbing light. They had to weave between tree trunks to avoid low-hanging branches. The uneven ground was treacherous in the half-light. Cait fell and Danny stopped to haul her up. A few paces later he tripped. They ran as quickly as they could but the engines grew louder, roaring like wild creatures that didn't have to pause for breath.
Fer's breathing was rapid and panicky. Would she be able to make it? Cait slowed to lend the Andar witch an arm. Danny moved ahead. Johnny was behind with her gran, who was muttering something about her age. Ran was somewhere behind them all, no doubt ready to leap to their defence.
“How do we know which way is north?” shouted Cait between breaths.
“Follow your mum,” said her gran. “She'll find the way.”
“What does the archaeon say, Johnny?”
“It's gone,” he panted. “No signal.”
They careered on, seemingly for much more than half a mile, blundering through the darkness. Cait was completely disorientated, unsure about which way they were heading and which way they'd come. She tried to calm herself, reach out with her mind to see a picture of the woods and their position within. She couldn't do it. Fear clouded her mind. She saw only darkness, with flashes of light here and there: wildlife fleeing, perhaps, or a brief glimpse of one of their pursuers.
She was about to shout that they were lost when the werelight stopped bobbing.
“The fence!” called her mum.
They caught her up, all except Ran panting heavily. Her mum worked at pushing over a wooden post that supported the fence.
“They're right behind us,” said Johnny. The sound of motorbike engines was all around, like a swarm of insects descending upon them.
Cait and Danny moved to help with the fence. The post gave way, its base rotten where it was embedded in the ground. The fence sagged enough to allow them to clamber over.
“Wait a moment,” said her mum. “They know where we are now, anyway.” The light which still guttered near her head shot into the sky. After a few moments it exploded like a distress flare, lighting the whole scene with a bright blue-white glow. Up ahead lay a mound, presumably the entrance to the mine.
“Come on!” said her mum. They took off, over the fence and up to the entrance.
As the archaeon had said, a metal door was set into the ground. Icy air breathed around its edges. The door was rusty but a large, silver padlock kept it clasped shut.
“What do we do?” said Cait. “It looks strong.”
Her mum held her hands to the metal of the door. Cait could sense her working magic. Ice radiated from her mother's hands, frosting the door. The metal pinged and cracked. Ice, thought Cait. Was that how magic worked for her mother, too? Did she have her own deep pool of cold?
Cait reached for the quiet place within herself. There was a flutter in her stomach: a whisper of the witch-girl as she helped Cait work the spell. Then cold was pouring out of her hands, too. The pain in her shoulder and down through the muscles in her chest sharpened.
“Enough,” said her mum. “It should be brittle now. Stand back.”
Cait didn't dare turn around. The riders were right on top of them. Her mum raised both hands and an icy blue light shot out, something like Cait's outside the factory. Her mum grunted then the door shattered, broken into shards of frozen metal.
They were going to escape. They were free.
“Inside!” shouted her mum.
Cait glanced to make sure the others were ready. The light wasn't only coming from the flare. A semi-circle of motorcycle headlamps had them trapped, pinning them to the mine entrance. Danny, her gran and Johnny were standing still, silhouettes against the light, hands held up in surrender.
Only Ran was moving. He bobbed from side to side, deciding which rider to bring down first.
24. Shadow Paths
“Into the mine!” Cait's gran shouted.
Her mum paused to scoop up several shards of cold metal from the ground, cradling them in the upturned hem of her black cardigan. She stepped through the doorway. The blue light above them shot past their heads and through the doorway.
“Get in quick,” said her gran. “And watch your heads. Especially you, Johnny.”
“But, Ran!” shouted Cait. “We can't leave him.”
“No choice,” said her gran. “He's buying us time. We have to go.”
They pressed inside. Cait followed the light, Danny grasping her hand. It was still inside the cave, the air old and settled. The shaft sloped sharply down. Shouts from outside became distant as they felt their way forward. The rushing sound of their breathing was loud in the enclosed space. A fat drop of water splattered to the ground with a tap.
The mine shaft ran in a straight line. Here and there, rusting rails were embedded in the ground. It wasn't as cold as Cait had expected. The worst danger was the ceiling, which was uneven and very hard. A couple of times she scraped the top of her head on a low-hanging spike. From the cries of the others, so did they.
“Down here, I think,” said her mum. The shaft continued but a small tunnel burrowed steeply into the darkness on their left. In the bobbing blue light it was clearly natural. It would be a tight fit. Cait didn't mind enclosed spaces; it was crowds that stressed her out. But this would make Danny uncomfortable. She squeezed his hand.
Running footsteps pounded toward them. Cait turned in alarm, expecting attack, trying to ready some spell. But it was Ran who emerged into the blue light, out of breath, his face cut and bleeding. He didn't speak. He nodded, then turned to stand guard while the rest of them took turns to worm their way into the side-tunnel.
They scrambled down a steep slope. She banged her head again and again, making it throb. She spat out grit that found its way into her mouth. The thick air was a weight in her lungs. Danny said nothing. His breathing was rapid.
She was about to say something when they emerged into a large, square cavern with a sloping floor. It was perhaps only the size of their living-room back home, but felt much larger after the confines of the tunnel. In the lower corner of the room, a trickle of water drained into a small almond-shaped hole.
“Here,” said her mum. “I think we need to go through here.”
Ran arrived last, sliding down the tunnel to land beside them.
“The archaeon said we needed bloodstone,” said Cait. “How do we get that?”
“The archaeon thinks we're all fools. But witches know all about iron and I think it's the iron in the bloodstone that opens the portal. The steel from these pieces of the gate should do just as well.” She handed each of them a shard of the metal she'd been carrying in her cardigan. “Careful, don't cut yourself.”
Danny kneeled to peer through the eye-shaped hole. He picked up a rock the size of his fist and dropped it through. After five or six seconds it crashed and clattered onto rocks far below.
“What if you're wrong?” asked Cait. “What if it has to be actual bloodstone, whatever that is?”
“I'll go first,” said he
r mum. “If I'm right you won't hear me hit the rocks and you can follow. If I'm wrong, well, you'll need to think of another plan.” She lay on the floor to wriggle through the small gap.
“See you on the other side!” she said, and she was gone. For a moment they were cast into utter darkness. Each of them, Cait knew, was counting to themselves, listening for the sound of a body landing on rocks. But there was nothing.
A faint light came from behind as her gran held aloft a guttering flame. Shifting shadows danced around the walls of the cave. At the same moment, calls and footsteps echoed down the tunnel. There was another noise, too, like the snuffling of large animals.
“Let's go,” said her gran. “Hopefully they won't know about the iron.”
Cait lay down to squeeze through next. She clutched the shard of cold steel in her hand, held her breath and launched herself into the darkness. There was a dizzying moment as she tumbled through empty space.
Then she found herself sprawled on freshly mowed grass. Her mother stood next to her. Trees and bushes swayed around them. No one else was in sight.
“Well then,” said her mum. “That worked.”
Danny appeared next, then Fer, each tumbling to the ground, shock on their faces. Next came Johnny then Gran. There was a pause while they waited for Ran. Had he become involved in a fight? Had they captured him? Danny helped her gran up. Then Ran appeared, unharmed, rolling over and onto his feet in one liquid movement.
“Let's go,” said her mum. “In case they do know about the iron.”
Cait stood, realising the piece of metal she'd carried was gone, eaten by the portal. “Where are we anyway?” she asked.
“Dublin,” said the archaeon's voice from Johnny's mobile. “St. Stephen's Green.”
“Ooh, lovely,” said her gran. “Haven't been here since my honeymoon.”
They hurried away. Cait glanced nervously backward, expecting to see riders in black leather materialising. In the distance, the delighted shouts of children and the squeak of swings filled the air. Beyond that was the rumble of traffic.
“Where is the next portal?” asked her mum.