Firestone Key

by Caroline Noe

  “No! Go!” Bert yelled at him, mindful of the men pursuing them, though they were being delayed by Baal’s irritated burp of flame. Even as the words left his mouth, Bert knew that Asher would take no notice. Asher was not the man to abandon a friend at such a time, no matter the peril to himself.

  Arriving at Bert’s side, Asher offered himself as a crutch. When this manoeuvre proved too slow, Asher flung the cripple over his shoulder and tried to run. It was a futile gesture, or would have been, had not a horse and cart raced out of the forest, heading directly for them.

  Styrx would have been far from proud - he had prized decorum in his daughter above all – but their saviour was Serena, blond hair flying in the wind, driving the cart as though she were racing death itself. Thundering up to the fugitives, the cart skidded to a halt, earth flying from the wheels. Asher threw Bert into the back and flung himself after the invalid.

  “Go!” he yelled, quite unnecessarily.

  “Yah!” Serena yelled. The horse duly galloped away.

  Bert just yelled from the pain.

  “Where be Drevel?” Serena shouted at Asher.

  “Not know,” he replied.

  * * *

  One room inside the castle had been cleared of debris, scrubbed and re-furnished to a basic level of comfort. It was this room that Leila was occupying. She had considered returning to the chamber she once shared with Gawain, but harsh memories decided against it. The sooner she left this castle and lived somewhere else, the better she would feel, but, for now, this room would do. The castle had been searched, unearthing items that had been packed away by Gawain when she fled, a decade before. Still traumatised by the turn of events, she vented her anger by tearing every item to shreds; all except the wall hangings that Gawain had commissioned for their wedding and a poorly carved wooden chest. Leila was staring at that chest, wondering why she was bothering to keep it, when the Firestone told her of Drevel’s approach. It spoke no words yet always warned her of impending danger. Smiling, she surrounded herself with any warrior who happened to be in the vicinity.

  When Drevel arrived at that location, he found himself caught in a trap before setting eyes on her. Held fast by the hands of several captors, Drevel watched as Leila glided towards him. He expected to die instantly and delivered one last silent prayer of love to Serena. As he was a brave man, he didn’t flinch when Leila’s hand reached out for him. Confusingly, she only touched his hair, gently stroking him as though he were a pet...and then, he felt the magic begin to take hold and transform…

  * * *

  Serena, Bert and Asher had been on the run for hours. There had been more than enough time for Serena to tell the men of the existence of the Firestone and to describe the relic that could possibly defeat it. Unfortunately, giving them that information necessitated the revelation of the source. Knowing that Asher and Bert would shield Harlin from the consequences of his tragic actions, Serena told them the truth, only leaving out his attempt to seduce her. The realisation of Harlin’s betrayal shattered Bert’s trust and broke his heart, piling agony upon agony.

  Earlier, thinking that they had lost their pursuers, Serena had slowed the cart, only to hear a terrifying howl echo through the trees. Endless flight had followed. The predator was an animal - that much they could determine from the howling - but they didn’t care to find out the nature of the beast.

  Leila, not wishing to send the destructive and difficult to control Baal after them, had created a new abomination: one smaller, faster, but equally as deadly. Had they but known it, they were the first people to be hunted by a render.

  Unable to shake the pursuing beast, Asher suggested a desperate ploy; they would leave the cart and cross the river, hoping that the predator would lose their scent.

  “Ye not knowing if it track by smell,” Bert had pointed out through pursed lips; the pain of his fried leg was intolerable.

  “Not matter,” Asher responded. “No choice.”

  Serena turned the cart and headed for the riverbank, where she unshackled the horse and slapped it on its rear. It galloped away into the forest. As soon as the cool water flowed over Bert’s horribly burnt leg, he passed out from the pain, leaving Asher to tow him across the river. Serena clambered up the far bank and scanned the trees for the pursuing beast. Sure enough, she saw a flash of something black, pounding through the undergrowth.

  “Hurry!” she told Asher, helping him to drag an unconscious Bert from the river and secrete him behind nearby rocks. Very carefully, Serena peeped out and saw the render arrive on the other side of the river. Sniffing the earth, it realised that the trail had been lost and let loose a plaintive howl. Sticking its elongated snout into the water, it drew back with a snort of disgust, clearly deciding against going in. It ran up and down the bank a few times and then slunk back into the forest with a growl. Serena breathed a sigh of relief and drew back behind the rock.

  “It goed,” she told Asher and nodded at Bert. “How be him?”

  “Sickly,” Asher replied. “He need healing. Not able stay out in open.”

  “Ye be taking him to Melith,” she said, peeping out from behind the rock to check that the creature had truly gone. As the riverbank was clear, she rose from their hiding place.

  “Where ye going?” Asher asked.

  “Find Drevel.”

  “Lone? He may died. What be ye...?”

  Serena cut short his list of reasons not to go. “Asher, be not leaving Drevel. Need to know. Beside, not able carrying Bert.”

  She dived into the river before Asher could continue his protestations. If he followed her, Bert would die out here. Lifting up a prayer for her safety, Asher let her go. It seemed that the women of this domain were not to be reasoned with. As Melith popped into his thoughts, Asher picked up Bert and began the long, hard climb into the mountains.

  By the time that Asher arrived back at the makeshift camp in the caves, Bert was racked by fever, with infection spreading through his damaged leg and poisoning his body. Melith was left with no choice, but to amputate. The man’s screams made every person in the camp shudder, but none more so than Harlin.

  * * *

  Serena had scarcely left the forest before she was taken. Leila laughed in her face, happy to have the renowned beauty as her newest guest in the castle.

  “Where be Drevel?” Serena asked.

  “Who?” Leila taunted. “Oh, you mean the great hairy brute that came to kill me. He died, eventually.”

  The devastated Serena had no way of knowing that Leila was lying. “What happened to ye?” she asked, her sapphire eyes boring into Leila’s. “Ye may be beautily on outside, but inside ye died men bones.”

  Leila grasped her by the throat, choking the life out of her rival, until an interesting thought suddenly occurred to her and she relaxed her grip.

  Serena gasped, fighting to fill her empty lungs with air, but something strange had engulfed her body. It was as though every cell was being compressed, squashed. She opened her mouth to ask what Leila had done, but all that emerged was, “rivet.”

  Cackling with mirth, Leila looked down at the pile of clothes, seemingly hopping about on their own. Lifting the newly formed frog, she ordered, “Fetch me a cage.”

  Within the castle, a dog howled.

  Chapter 18

  The people of the former alliance came down from the mountains before the onset of winter, their resistance fading in the face of Leila’s overwhelming magic. The victorious Queen had sent word that they may return to the villages in order to farm the land. They had little choice, but to comply. Gradually, the mountain caves had emptied until even Asher decided to leave, taking his family and a heart-sore, one-legged Bert with him. Bert, ever loyal, would have stayed with Harlin, but that young man had disappeared, limping into the night without ever offering a word of explanation or regret.

  Time passed. The castle was restored; the temple built. Ecstatic magikers migrated to Leila’s kingdom to join the priesthood or fill the ranks
of her soldiers. Having failed to find a way to destroy the Key of Old, Gergan suggested that the parts be separated and hidden, far from the Firestone - for rumour of its existence was spreading throughout the land.

  “Be knowing of dry well,” he told his Queen, unrolling a parchment map and indicating the site. “Be nearly Twissen Forest. If ye conjuring snake; conjuring it grow largely.”

  Grasping the Firestone, Leila felt the power pulse through her blood. Opening her fist, she deposited a tiny serpent onto the map. It squirmed and slithered, wrapping its body into a tight coil, directly over the location of the well.

  Placing the Firestone on a table at the far end of the room, Leila returned to Gergan’s side and took one part of the Key from his hands. As she wafted it back and forth before the serpent’s gaze, its body began to grow, swaying in time with the Key. Suddenly it struck, its head darting forward and swallowing the part whole. The Key part made its way down towards the gut, its outline visible through scaly skin. Slithering over the side of the table and dropping into a neat coil on the floor, the snake made its way out of the room, beginning the long journey to its distant destination.

  “And the other part?” Leila asked, making a mesmerised Gergan jump with fright.

  “I…er…I,” he stuttered. One good idea per day was all that could be expected of him.

  Leila pondered whilst poking a few dead insects into a hanging wooden cage. Inside, the captive frog gratefully received her food with a flick of her tongue.

  “Cave,” Leila announced.

  “Cave, Majesty?” Gergan prompted, when she didn’t elaborate.

  “I’ll try a new spell,” she muttered, pacing back and forth, deep in thought. As the Queen told the High Priest of her plan, she was overheard by someone she no longer noticed: a pet frog, hanging in a cage.

  * * *

  Drevel had been a man of the soil; a man who relished the freedom of open sky. Six years chained to a wall, constantly on his guard to escape the attentions of nearby renders, had almost driven him insane. To his shame, he lived for the few times that Leila allowed him to accompany her to the villages, even though he was forced to witness the terrible retribution she would inflict on any sign of rebellion amongst the people. He comforted himself with the hope that the loyal Asher was keeping his beloved Serena safe, out of the clutches of this despot. He genuinely hoped that she would find happiness with another man, for she was lost to him now. A “dog” Styrx had called him – how ironic.

  Being dragged from his cell and attached to a heavy chain and two iron bars signalled another, all too brief, respite from the delights of the castle. Drevel followed Leila in an attitude of quiet servitude: a tame pet. He had lost none of his loathing for the Queen, but such action might, one day, lead to a relaxation of his guards and facilitate escape. It took time to travel to their destination. At night, he watched as they sheltered inside their carriages, leaving him chained to a stake in the ground, rain pouring down on his mangy head.

  When they arrived at the sparkling waterfall, Leila beamed at Gergan. He bowed low, sycophantically appreciative of his Queen’s approval. It was how he had remained High Priest these six years.

  Lifting high that infernal stone, Leila began to chant, invoking a spell of such spiteful power that it drained even the Firestone. “Now!” she screamed.

  Gergan threw the remaining Key part into the air. It was seized by an invisible whirlwind which flung the metal through the waterfall and into the cave, rotating the part until it was deeply imbedded in the rock. Like a spiralling tornado, the evil spell filled the cave and spilled out again into the open air. Gergan and the guards immediately collapsed under the onslaught of such supernatural venom. Even Leila staggered, needing to take a moment to draw on the healing power of the recovering Firestone.

  A moment was all that Drevel needed. When his chain fell from the hand of the senseless guard and the iron bars dropped, he bolted, heading into the thickest area of undergrowth. On and on he pounded, weaving in and out, ignoring the tightening chokehold of the chain as it dragged behind him. It was nightfall when he drew to an exhausted halt, finally sure that he had evaded his tormentors. Peering up at the stars, he delivered a plaintive howl to the night sky. He was free, but he was no longer man.

  Returning to the villages, he eventually tracked down his former friends. After an agonisingly long session of barking and pawing in an attempt to prove his identity, he was rewarded with the worst of news: Serena had gone after him, six years before, and had never returned. No-one knew of her fate.

  * * *

  Seven years of rule had made the Queen increasingly despotic, and bored. With the rebellious reduced to fauna and the rest genuflecting, Leila had little in life to interest her. Each passing day proved more tedious than the last, until fantasy became her only haven of joy. Caleb, once again, loomed large in daydreams and haunted her nightmares. Craving lost innocence - a time when she was loved and not feared - she began to fixate on one theme: time travel.

  The knowledge that Elaine had, with the Firestone’s assistance, successfully travelled back in time was both blessing and curse. Leila had the stone and the necessary power. That she could not conjure herself forward in time and be restored to Caleb could only be a matter of usage. If she found the correct spell or uttered the right words…But no word, in any language or form, seemed to work.

  Another year of failure passed. Leila grew despondent and enraged. Initiating a thorough search of her kingdom, she hunted for Elaine in every nook and cranny, driven mad by the notion that her enemy held the answer.

  One night, in desperation, she decided to change direction. Instead of asking the Firestone to move her in time, Leila commanded it to find Elaine. Taking her literally, the Firestone promptly disappeared…and didn’t return.

  * * *

  Somewhere, in the ever-changing mists of time, the Firestone re-appeared, to be accidentally stepped on by a pregnant woman. From there, it hung quietly and innocently around the neck of her scarred young daughter, content to bide its time in the ever rolling wheel of violence and evil. When it sensed the presence of blood kindred, it started to flex inside, coiling and uncoiling in the joy of the sport.

  The first trip back with Elaine, from whence it came, was exhilarating and enlightening. In its own foul way, it had missed the caress of its enslaved Queen, despite enjoying her cries of abandonment echoing down the missing years.

  Recognising the danger that Harlin posed when armed with the Key of Old, it exerted its stranglehold on the vortex, pulling Elaine back through time and engineering its way into the hands of another aching blood soul. When Elaine caused the death of Neil, the Firestone laughed for joy at the cycle of ruin.

  Clutched tight in her blood-stained hand, the stone sang its song through the spiralling years as it returned, yet again, to the beginning…

  PART THREE - DESTINY

  Chapter 19

  Elaine’s third journey through the slipstream lasted a matter of seconds, but in the cold, hard desolation of hell it was an eternity. The Hunter in the abyss had learned all it needed about its wounded prey and found little defence remaining against its savage assault. Slashing its way into her mind, it twisted and turned, slicing her thoughts into bloody wreckage.

  Staring at a frozen image of her mind, as though into an evil mirror of fairytale lore, Elaine was forced to confront every failure, inadequacy and clawing need within herself. The mirror shattered under the strain, releasing shards of sin. Neil’s blood spattered her hands as the betrayal of those she once thought family screamed condemnation. She was dying from within and the decay spreading from the disease was entirely deserved. Justice had been served and all that remained was to return the Firestone to Harlin.

  Then let the world be rid of me.

  When the Hunter knew it had won, it gently stroked the vortex and withdrew its power.

  * * *

  “Send Elaine to the time she left before,” Neil had said and the Fir
estone listened. Elaine’s arrival was so swift that the slipstream flashed out of existence with barely a breeze and a silent flicker, as though it was tired of making an announcement.

  Elaine emerged at night, yet she recognised her destination only too well. Finding herself back in the castle courtyard, she sprinted for the shadows, threw herself into the darkest corner she could find and peeped out at the castle’s other occupants. Miraculously, no-one appeared to have noticed her extraordinary arrival. The sentries, patrolling the battlements above, had their gaze resolutely turned outward.

  Thrusting the Firestone into the pocket of her jeans, Elaine crawled along the ground and hid behind a mound of horse feed. As far as she could see, the drawbridge was up and the portcullis firmly locked in place. There was no escape, no way back to Harlin, even if she had arrived at the correct time. She was a prisoner in the enemy stronghold, with their greatest weapon burning a hole in her pocket. Crouching low, pressed up against the mound, Elaine pondered her next move. There was little she could do, alone. Hiding seemed the most viable option, at least until the drawbridge was lowered in the morning.

  Elaine emerged from her hiding place and sidled into the stable. Whinnying and neighing greeted her arrival, but, thankfully, no grooms were present. She remained there, hidden between the horses, listening to a gathering commotion, until curiosity finally got the better of her.

  Peeping out of the stalls, she noticed that the courtyard was deserted. Soldier and civilian, alike, were all perched at the top of steps or lining the battlements above, staring and pointing at something beyond the walls. Suddenly, those people began flooding down from their observation posts. Across the courtyard they came, rushing straight past Elaine as they headed for the gatehouse.