Jack Shian and the Destiny Stone

by Andrew Symon

  Doxer nodded.

  “He only speaks under duress,” explained He Who Waits.

  “Ask him what he’s doing with the Kildashie,” demanded Jack. “I’ve seen him with them.”

  He Who Waits signed again to Doxer, who seemed bashful, but signed a reply.

  “He says he was captured by them. And he has information about a prisoner. Toonya?”

  “Doonya,” corrected Sandy. “What does he know?”

  “Let us conduct this interrogation indoors,” said Phineas. “Others may be in the square.”

  “Phineas is right,” said Grandpa. “Take the young man in and interrogate him. We’ll make our way to the Stone.”

  He Who Waits led Doxer indoors, followed by Jack and his cousins. Phineas followed, shutting the door behind him.

  Doxer was led to a chair and made to sit down. Jack glared at his apprentice colleague, trying to work out what he knew. Was he just putting on an act?

  He Who Waits pulled up another chair and sat opposite the youngster. Signing to him again, He Who Waits began to relate the story to the others.

  “He says the Kildashie and Thanatos are up in the castle. They are waiting for midnight to get the Stone – they believe that is the time that it will become free of the iron rings.”

  “Then why is he here?” demanded Jack. “Why doesn’t he escape?”

  He Who Waits signed again.

  “He is looking after the prisoner.”

  “Dad?!” squeaked Lizzie. “Where is he? Is he all right?”

  Doxer made to put his hand in his pocket, but Phineas’ sceptre was quickly at his throat.

  “Easy does it,” he said. “What’s in your pocket?”

  Doxer’s eyes grew larger, and his hands began to shake.

  “Raglan,” he croaked.

  “See? If you scare him, he can talk,” said Rana with evident satisfaction. “Let me have a go.”

  “This isn’t a game, Rana,” scolded Phineas. “Do you have any idea of how worried your mother will be? She’s probably in Keldy by now.”

  “What d’you mean, the Raglan?” demanded Jack.

  Doxer indicated his pocket, and as Phineas trained his sceptre on the youngster, Jack reached inside his pocket and retrieved a lump of sandstone.

  “It’s like the one Stegos brought to Novehowe!” Jack’s hand tingled.

  “How did you get this?” enquired Phineas. “The Kildashie must know it’s missing.”

  Doxer signed again to He Who Waits.

  “He says the Raglan was broken into three pieces – he stole this one.”

  Jack recalled the missing corner of the Destiny Stone. So that corner’s been broken into three: this one, the one Stegos had; and Boreus must have the other!

  “He says it has kept him alive. The Kildashie do not feed him much, and he has to work long hours. And he has shared it with Doonya.”

  “What’s he know about Dad?” squeaked Lizzie.

  “He’s kept in the cellar in the house next door,” said He Who Waits, as Doxer signed again. “But the guards have all gone up to the hall tonight.”

  “Well, let’s get him,” said Rana.

  “I’ll go,” said Phineas. “Doxer will show us the way. The others will need to get up above. It’s nearly midnight.”

  They were just about to leave when Doxer bolted upstairs.

  “Get him!” shouted Jack.

  He Who Waits bounded upstairs after Doxer, and hauled him down quickly.

  “He says he has something for you, Jack.”

  Doxer proffered a linen bag to Jack, and nodded encouragingly.

  “What is it?” demanded Rana.

  Jack reached inside and withdrew the vococorn.

  “It’s the one Tamlina gave you!” exclaimed Lizzie.

  Jack cradled the large ram’s horn. It had been too bulky to take when they’d had to evacuate the square. But it had summoned the monks and the Norse ghosts at Dunvik: without it they couldn’t have defeated the Brashat.

  “Tamlina said it would help us to summon allies in our quest,” said Jack softly. “But we’ve got the fjordsmen already. Who else is there?”

  Doxer nodded again eagerly.

  “We haven’t time for this now,” noted Phineas. “Grey Wolf, take Jack up above with the others. I’ll take the girls to see their father. They can’t go up where there’s fighting in any case.”

  The group left the house and parted. Phineas, Rana and Lizzie followed Doxer and He Who Waits next door while Grey Wolf and Jack rejoined the others at the side of the square.

  “You took your time,” hissed a fjordsman as Jack approached. “And who’s the boy?”

  “Doxer. I used to work with him, in Gilmore’s workshop. He says he’s been kept as a prisoner …”

  “So where’s he taking the others?”

  “He says Uncle Doonya’s locked up next door. Dad’s gone to get him.”

  “We must get up above. Harald will need our help. Jack, you wait here for Phineas and the others.”

  A sudden feeling of stillness; and silence; then, “Arrp!”

  A shout from the foot of the square, and Doxer came running up, his face showing real concern.

  “Tarditas! Kildashie …”

  “What!?”

  Doxer tried to explain, but the words came out as a jumble. He Who Waits ran up, and watched as Doxer signed frantically.

  “He says the Kildashie have stopped time. It will slow down Harald’s men, but not the Unseelie.”

  “Then there’s no time to waste,” said Grey Wolf.

  The Seelie crew leant up against the rock wall, and at the signal, passed up through the Shian gate to the castle chapel. A freezing wind hit them first, followed by the realisation that something was badly wrong. By the light of several burning torches they could see fjordsmen and Cree sprawled everywhere, while dark-cloaked figures sped among the remaining soldiers, their flashing swords making mayhem.

  Jack’s heart jumped up his throat. This wasn’t supposed to be happening!

  The new arrivals had no time to adjust. Caught in the Tarditas hex, they all but froze – even Shian sceptres were easy targets for Thanatos swords, and Jack couldn’t even think of counter-hexes. Jack grasped the sandstone lump in his fist, and scrambled to the war memorial porch, then collapsed. The door was bolted shut.

  No chance of sheltering inside, then.

  The sound of fighting from the great hall reached Jack, and he guessed that Harald and Grandpa had made it that far.

  They must’ve got in before the Tarditas hex could be used …

  But the castle courtyard before him wasn’t a pretty sight. Thanatos were felling the fjordsmen and Cree with indecent ease. The skoffin – no longer tiny – was swooping down and snatching away Seelie soldiers before they could organise and fight back. Even some humans – unlucky souls: caught up in this – lay sprawled on the ground, their bodies frozen.

  The fight was as good as lost, even if some Seelie had made it into the great hall. Outside in the courtyard the fjordsmen just couldn’t get past the Thanatos. A fleeing fjordsman, nearing the shelter of the porch, was felled by a sword blow. He fell before Jack: blood gushed from a head wound, splashing the war memorial steps.

  As the blood splattered onto the flagstones, the dark ooze seemed to seep into the stone … and the stone groaned, as if it had been injured itself.

  Jack’s eyes opened wide with disbelief as the Thanatos reeled back.

  The stones are speaking!

  “Jack!” shouted Grey Wolf frantically as he joined him. “Summon the allies!”

  Jack peered blankly for a second. Allies?

  Then, without consciously thinking it, Jack reached into his cloak and withdrew the vococorn. Putting it to his lips, he blew steadily.

  Nothing: for a few seconds anyway. Then a soft shimmering sound that sped across to the castle’s great hall and echoed back again. The wooden door behind Jack creaked open, and two misty figures emerged.
r />   Jack gasped: the door behind him had definitely been bolted. “Who are you?”

  “226296, Parker,” said one. “You summoned us.”

  And with that hundreds of wispy figures sped out into the freezing night.

  35

  Deliverance

  The misty figures poured from the war memorial hall. Where each fallen Seelie lay, a figure would swoop down, embracing it. And around each body there was a soft murmuring from the flagstones. The sound got louder and louder, driving the skoffin into the icy air, where it continued to circle around, calling raucously.

  The Thanatos, repelled by the swelling sound, fell back into a protective circle in the centre of the courtyard, their swords a blur in front of them. But the misty figures paid little heed: they swept in among the Thanatos like wind through autumn trees. The Thanatos began to fall – soundlessly.

  “What are they?” gasped Jack.

  “Your allies. Remember you told your father the Thanatos would not stand against ghosts?”

  “But he said we couldn’t call Comgall.”

  “That’s right: because we’d need an army to defeat the Thanatos,” prompted Grey Wolf. “The ghosts of men who died fighting oppression. This is their memorial.”

  A righteous army; right.

  As shapeless as smoke, as fast as the wind, the ghostly torrent swept through the diminishing Thanatos force, until just three remained. 226296, Parker flew back towards Jack and reformed as a recognisable human shape.

  “They are infama. They have desecrated our memorial with their executions. We fought against tyranny; now you must do so too. Finish them off.”

  “He’s right,” prompted Grey Wolf, handing Jack his sceptre. “Otherwise they will come back to haunt you.”

  Jack stumbled over towards the trio, who seemed pinned back by the swirling ghostly forms.

  “What kind of hex do I use?”

  Jack aimed the sceptre, but his mind went blank.

  If only Dad was here. Why doesn’t he hurry up and bring Uncle Doonya up?

  Jack gripped the sandstone lump in his pocket.

  It’s one of the treasures – or part of one. I’ve got the Mapa Mundi; and we retrieved the Chalice. What puts them all together?

  A squawk from above as an eagle swooped down and attacked the skoffin. As it did so, a leather-bound volume dropped to Jack’s feet.

  It can’t be!

  But as Tamlina’s ring at his throat began to vibrate, Jack knew it was. He saw the letters firmly stamped on the book’s front cover, and his mind cleared. All the things Marco and Luka had said …

  “Your cause is just …”

  This was the fight against the Unseelie, the instigators of infama. Jack flicked the sceptre back to Grey Wolf, and thrust out his right wrist.

  “Gosol!”

  The bolt flew from his hand, a silver glow that quickly encased the remaining Thanatos. With a strangled cry they slumped to the ground, and folded.

  The triumph was broken by a resounding clash from within the hall.

  “Come on!”

  Jack picked up the leather volume, and made for the great hall’s doorway. The remaining fjordsmen and Cree were quickly behind him, and they burst into the hall.

  A scene of chaos met their eyes. The sign ‘Private Function’ on the way in hadn’t really registered with Jack, but now he understood. Dinner-jacketed men and ballroom-gowned women were frozen at their tables, only most of the tables were tipped over, their contents strewn over the surrounding floor. But if the humans were frozen, the Shian were not. Met by a volley of hexes, Jack dropped the leather volume and dived for cover behind a barricade of upturned tables near the door, where Harald, Grandpa and the others cowered.

  Not all had made the shelter of the barricade: many Seelie lay, motionless, on the ground, while the Kildashie fired hex after hex from the far end of the hall. Grandpa put his arm protectively around Jack’s back, wincing as a hex flew and splintered the edge of a protecting table.

  “Don’t your sceptres work?” bellowed Jack above the din.

  “A little; but the Tarditas slows us down. The Kildashie are drunk; but even so, they’ve worked out how to make time work for them. The only thing that’s saved us is this.” Grandpa showed Jack the Raglan fragment that Stegos had taken to Novehowe.

  “I’ve got Doxer’s one, Grandpa.”

  Jack took the sandstone lump from his pocket. As Grandpa held out his own fragment, the two glowed briefly, then clamped together in his hand, like magnets.

  “They’ve fused!” exclaimed Jack.

  “The Stone must want to reform. This gives us more strength.”

  Jack peered out from beside the barricade.

  “Are the humans dead?”

  “No – their time is frozen; but not like we do it. The Kildashie want to separate their time and ours.”

  Another loud crash as a fire hex set alight the splintered debris beside them. Phineas burst in the door, and crouched down instantly beside Jack.

  “The girls have got Doonya. He’s weak, but he’ll live.”

  Jack looked frantically around.

  I’m not sure we will …

  Harald and his soldiers crouched behind an upturned table, along with the remaining Cree, and even though quite a number of Kildashie had been felled (a result of drunkenly-inspired over-confidence), it still looked like an even contest.

  “Stone watchers!” called out Boreus. “Midnight draws on. Rise and see your precious treasure delivered to us!”

  An eerie silence descended as the Seelie considered this.

  “Is it a trap?” whispered Jack.

  “I don’t know,” said his grandfather, peering out from the side of the barricade.

  “Come out and see!” called Boreus. “As midnight approaches, the Stone will appear!”

  “They’ve done it. They’ve worked out how to get the Stone out of the Stone Room. The power they’ll get from that will make them unstoppable,” said Harald dejectedly.

  Great, thought Jack. He was supposed to be our trump card.

  “But we’ve still got the double Raglan fragment,” said Grandpa, winking at Jack. He seemed very relaxed, given the situation.

  The hexes had stopped, and Jack risked a peek out from the side of the barricade.

  “They’re not hiding,” he hissed.

  The Kildashie had emerged from behind their shelters at the far end of the great hall, sceptres still at the ready, but clearly not lacking confidence. Many of them clutched goblets of wine, and staggered slightly.

  “I don’t trust them,” said Phineas. “Stay where you are.”

  Jack didn’t need to be told. His gut was telling him that the Kildashie were what they’d always been: treacherous. And drunk or not, they outnumbered the Seelie force. But for some reason Grandpa Sandy felt bolder than that: he emerged from the side of the barricade, strode to the centre of the hall, then paused.

  “What do you want of us?”

  “Only your attention while we demonstrate who’s in charge,” said Boreus, grinning widely.

  “Grandpa! Come back!” whispered Jack.

  But Grandpa showed no sign of hearing. He advanced another few steps.

  “Behold your famous Stone!” cackled Boreus, as twelve chimes sounded.

  He pointed his sceptre at the end of the great hall, and fired a bolt. A glow emanated from the fireplace, and slowly the Stone appeared.

  There were gasps from the Seelie army, peering out from behind their barricades. The Stone! And without the iron rings at either end! Even Grandpa Sandy seemed perturbed at this. He stepped back briefly, but found himself caught as a dozen or more hexes flew all over the place.

  They are drunk!

  As Grandpa fell sideways, Boreus strode forward and stood over his apparently lifeless body. Then, reaching down into Grandpa’s cloak, he withdrew the Raglan fragment. Holding it aloft in triumph Boreus called out, “The fragment stolen from my brother Stegos!”


  He withdrew another Stone fragment from within the folds of his own cloak, and held the two pieces. Just as before, the two clamped together.

  “See! The Stone re-forms!”

  Jack gulped. If the Raglan and Destiny Stones merge together, then they’ll have huge power … He tugged nervously at the Mapa Mundi around his neck.

  And if they get this, they’ll have the full set.

  “Now where is the third treasure?” roared Boreus. “Come out, pup, and face your destiny!”

  With his back to the barricade, Jack flicked the Mapa Mundi into the Sphere. The circles remained blank … for ages.

  Has the Tarditas hex got to the Mapa as well?!

  Furtively, Jack peeked around and surveyed the hall.

  I’ve seen this before somewhere …

  With a sickening feeling Jack realised where. The time the third spiral arm had moved he had witnessed this – and Boreus was about to kill him. Jack stared at the circles again. Slowly the Mapa Mundi began to appear in one … and the King’s Chalice … and the Stone of Destiny, iron rings and all. And in the second circle was Jack, clutching a leather-bound book –

  I didn’t notice that before …

  – but he wasn’t alone. With a stomach-churning sensation Jack saw that the second figure was Boreus, holding a sword. There was no mistaking the message: he tied the flag around his neck once more, and stooped down to pick up the leather volume.

  This is what must happen.

  “Jack! What are you doing?” hissed Phineas.

  “No, Jack,” shouted Grey Wolf. “You can’t trust them.”

  But Jack stepped around the side of the barricade, and stood for a moment surveying the scene.

  Yup, this is it.

  Without the power of the Raglan to counteract the Tarditas, Jack moved slowly forward.

  “Grandpa.”

  The old man’s eyes flickered, and he looked up at Jack.

  “It’s all right Grandpa. You can go back to the others now.”

  Looking dazed, Sandy stood up. Then, shuffling back towards the remnants of the Seelie army, he collapsed behind the barricade.

  “I’ve failed him,” he mumbled.

  “Come here, child,” ordered Boreus, and Jack took another few hesitant paces towards the Kildashie leader, stepping over a prostrate human. “Give me the Sphere. I know you have it. Isn’t that right, boy? Boy?! Where’s my wine steward?”