Sanctuary (Order of the Ring Book 1)

by Phil Maxey

  It was 8:30 a.m. and the sun was offering scant illumination on the ice encrusted gardens that he and Eden were standing in.

  “Oh, stop screaming like a wee bairn! I hardly hit you!”

  They had been doing his training for twenty minutes already and his breath was creating a small cloud of white mist around his head in the frosty morning air.

  He leaned up against one of the more rounded statues which he thought was an elephant but on further inspection saw that it had only two legs.

  Eden beckoned him forward. “Remember posture! Everything begins with yer balance!”

  He puffed once again and pushed himself off the snow covered stone monster and tried to distribute his weight evenly between his feet. He then lifted his sword. He was told that it was a traditional medieval one-handed sword, not overly heavy, but his right arm was aching five minutes after they started.

  She lunged forwards and swept her weapon to his right, which he parried. “Good!” she exclaimed as she drew the stick back to attack his left. He quickly moved his sword across waiting for her attack, when she instead charged forward, ramming into him with her shoulder and knocking him through the air and onto the ground.

  “That’s cheating! I thought you were teaching me sword fighting not—whatever that was!” he shouted as he grimaced rubbing his own chest. Snow began to fall around them.

  Eden looked at him scornfully. “There are no rules in war, remember that.”

  One of the men Justin had seen the night before appeared fifty yards away near the house. He quickly ran the distance until he was in range to shout. “Jax has reached one of the other sanctuaries!”

  Justin and Eden covered the ground back to the house quickly and were soon standing in the study, with others.

  The scene in front of Justin took him a few seconds to absorb. Jax was sitting in a stern wooden chair at one of the tables, while his ring glowed with a purple light that seemed to twirl and twist in the air as if the ring was emitting a gas of some sort. But that wasn’t what disturbed Justin the most, for Jax’s eyes were jet black.

  Transfixed by the what was happening, he had to control his reflexes when Bartholomew put his hand on his arm. “It’s taken most of the night, but he finally got through to a Magi in the Rochester sanctuary.”

  All eyes were on Jax. “We were attacked two nights back by Draugr, we lost some good people, but the sanctuary held,” he said.

  “We were attacked as well, same result,” said Gus concerned, sitting close by Jax. “We have tried to reach the other sanctuaries but we couldn’t. Any word from them?”

  “We couldn’t reach them.”

  “You and Jaclyn have done well,” Gus looked pensive. “I should have been there with you.”

  “It was fate that you were not here Gus, your sanctuary will not fall, you have my word. We have been working on a spell which will keep them at bay if they attack again, our magic though seems weaker.”

  Even from where Justin was standing, he could see the sweat rolling down Jax’s face. He stepped closer to the fire watching the strange magical seance and thought could this be a way to contact his father? But then quickly dismissed the idea.

  “We think it’s the storm. Everything that has happened is part of a larger dark plan Aldo. Keep trying to reach the other sanctuaries, and we will do the same, the more the order know the less effective the enemy will be. I will try to return to you as soon as I can.”

  Jax went to say something else, but the words came out garbled, his head then slumped to the side. A young woman, moved forwards and put a glass of wine in his hand, which his fingers gingerly grasped. He then righted himself and the put the drink to his lips. “That sure does take it out of you, thanks for the wine, love.”

  Gus looked at the others standing around the table. “I suspect they attacked all the sanctuaries to gain control of the rings, they couldn’t have known most of the custodians would be here.” He looked into the darkness beyond the large windows. “If they learn of that fact, we can expect a far heavier assault than last time.”

  CHAPTER 16

  Kat sat at the cloth-covered dining table with her mother, eating their Christmas dinner. Despite the accompaniment of roast potatoes and vegetables to go alongside their chicken, finished off with a rich gravy, her food still tasted bland. Chip was going to enjoy his dinner today there was no doubt of that.

  Between her grandfather’s strange letters, teleporting herself a dog, and the event in the garden she decided the ring was best not on her finger until she better understood why her world had turned upside down, and she locked it away in her secret wooden box. She was pretty sure the old container wasn’t going to put up much of a fight if someone wanted to get into it, but at least it kept the ring hidden should her mother stumble upon it. She had also made plans.

  Between each bite her mother was making plans too, plans of what to do with the proceeds from Arnold’s shop. Kat had decided not to sell; at least not for a while, but she wasn’t going to tell her mother just yet. Instead she was going to use the possible sale as an excuse for her to leave and travel to Glastonbury. If possible today.

  She knew it was going to be an arduous journey, and the TV on in the background just confirmed what she already knew from looking out of the dining room windows. The winter storm was still battering the country, so much so that now people were dying daily. But her instincts were telling her she was in danger, and Dawn didn’t deserve to be in the middle of things either. So, leaving was the only option.

  She only knew one person crazy enough to help her get to her grandfather’s shop, her hacker friend SpindleStar. That’s what he went by on the forums that she hung out on, but she had no idea what his real name was. He was well known in the hacking community and seen as someone you could rely on in a sticky situation, and whatever was happening to her was definitely that.

  She had sent him a private message the night before and was constantly checking her phone during dinner to her mother’s consternation, but so far, he had not replied.

  She put her knife and fork down on her plate, and took the opportunity to interrupt her mother’s description of the new car she wanted to buy. “Umm, I’m going to go to the Glastonbury shop, see it for myself.”

  Dawn looked up from her computer tablets screen. “Oh?”

  “Yes, I was thinking of leaving today.”

  Her mother looked confused. “Today?” She looked at the window and back at her daughter. “The trains are running?”

  “No, a friend is going to take me, the motorways are well gritted, we just need to be careful on the side roads.”

  Her mum shrugged her shoulders, then reached across placing her hand on Kat’s. “OK, as long you are careful. I don’t think there will be any estate agents open during the holidays, but you can at least start throwing some of the old contents away, get the place smartened up!” She smiled, then withdrew her painted nails, and continued looking at her digital screen.

  Just as Kat went to get up, her phone pinged.

  Her mum looked up again. “Your friend?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe.” Kat said, taking her plate into the kitchen, with Chip following her.

  Sweeping her dinner leftovers into his bowl, she tapped the phone screen and opened the message.

  “One hundred quid in crypto currency, plus petrol, for a one-way trip and I’ll do it,” said the white characters on the black background.

  “Yes!” she said to herself, while typing the same on the screen. She then ran upstairs to her room.

  After a few hours of trying to decide what to take with her, the glassy sun was just beginning to set.

  Her phone pinged again.

  As a light fluttering of icy flakes descended Darren Eagleton pulled up outside Kat’s home in his 1990s green and white four-by-four. The white part was the driver’s side door which hadn’t been re-sprayed yet.

  Grabbing her black backpack which consisted of a few days’ worth of underwear
, a jumper, trousers, winter socks, phone charging cables, her wooden box, a map of Somerset and as many snacks as she could fit into it, she ran downstairs to the entrance hall.

  From the noise, her mother was enjoying repeats on television.

  Kat zipped her jacket up and pulled the hood over her head, then stood in the living room’s doorway. “I’m off now, should be back in a few days. I’ll text you when I get there.”

  Her mum briefly looked across at the dark hooded figure, looking twice as big as she was due to the extra clothing then looked back at the large screen, laughing. “Oh, they really were so funny! Ah, OK, love, you be safe.”

  Kat went to say she was taking Chip with her, but chose not to, instead she went to walk to the front door but stopped. Running back into the living room she leaned over and hugged her mother, who was surprised at the sudden show of affection.

  “Oh, OK, love, have a safe trip, and call me when you arrive.”

  Kat wasn’t a ‘hugger’ but with all the craziness of the past few days, she wasn’t sure what was going to happen next.

  She nodded and feigned a smile then moved back to the hallway and picked up her dog’s home-made lead, which she had fashioned from some old computer cables, and with some effort opened the front door.

  Chip charged over the threshold, almost pulling his lead from her hand. She stepped outside uneasily, and pulled the door closed. She then walked carefully through the freshly fallen snow, up to the car, opening the back door, and picked Chip up so he moved onto the back seat. She then quickly got in the front.

  “You never said there would be a dog!” said the bespectacled, overweight man with a moustache in the driver’s seat, he quickly turned around, looking at the dog that was walking over the numerous A4 sheets of paper that laid strewn everywhere. “Ah, he’s going to ruin my research.” He quickly leaned back and pulled the paper out from under the dog that was now happily lying down. “That’s another hundred!”

  “OK!” replied Kat, getting her phone out of her pocket, and opening her crypto currency app. “Here!” She held it up in front of him. “One hundred transferred to your account, that’s fifty percent upfront as agreed.” She then realised that the vehicle she was in looked more of a wreck on the inside than it did on the outside. “You sure this thing will make it all the way there?”

  He looked through the windscreen at the falling snow and affectionately placed his hand on the dashboard. “Don’t worry about Jenny, she will get us there.” He leant across and pulled out a slim black metal box, with a small aerial pointing out.

  She looked at him incredulously.

  He started waving it over her. “I have to test for bugs.”

  She flapped her arms at him. “What are you doing! I don’t have any bugs, I’m a hacker too. Can we go?”

  He stopped and threw the device back in the glove box. “I’ll do the dog later.” He turned back to face his passenger who was putting her backpack between her feet, and held out his hand. “I’m Titus, well you know me as SpindleStar but when we’re in public call me Titus.”

  Kat rolled her eyes, briefly shaking his gloved hand. “I’m not calling you Titus.”

  He looked unsure how to respond, then sighed. “OK fine, call me Darren, but I can’t confirm that’s my real name.”

  “Whatever.” She looked at the snow that was now falling more heavily. “How long you think it will take us to get there?”

  “Three, maybe four hours.”

  She reached into her bag, pulling out a biscuit and passed it back to Chip who was laying down on the backseat.

  “You know you shouldn’t feed them sugar, right? It’s bad for their teeth.”

  “Yeah, I know that, it’s just one to settle him.” She reached back in and held out another one. “Want one?”

  He scrunched his face up, like she had just offered him rat poison.

  “I guess not,” she said, taking a bite out of it.

  “What’s his name?”

  “Chip.”

  “OK, he’s your dog, he’s your responsibility, remember that, I don’t do well with dogs.”

  Kat tried not to roll her eyes again.

  “Right then.” He revved the engine which spluttered. He glanced quickly to his side, then they pulled away slowly while the back wheels spun trying their best to get some grip.

  As they neared the end of the road, he pondered slightly which direction to go, then turned right.

  “You don’t have any kind of satellite navigation?” she said.

  He snorted. “If I want my every movement tracked, sure, why not. Don’t worry I know which way to go, we just keep heading west. Get on the M3.”

  Kat blew out her cheeks. “OK.” She had heard stories that he had repeatedly hacked into the most secure of computer systems, so she hoped driving from Croydon to the west country wasn’t beyond him.

  As they pushed on through the county of Surrey, they passed through towns and villages that were deserted apart from a few gritting vehicles trying to keep the roads open.

  Kat watched the homes and shops lit by the glow of street lamps pass by. “I know it’s Christmas but I didn’t know everything had been shut down as much as this.”

  “This is definitely the deep state’s doing. They are all saying it’s part of global warming!” He snorted. “Rubbish! This is all man-made.”

  “Not every problem is man-made, some things just are,” she said quietly.

  He glanced at her. “Trust me, most things are the doing of some evil cabal. I’ve seen things—” his voice trailed off until he was silent. She was glad for the lack of detail.

  Glancing to the backseat to make sure Chip was sleeping, she reached into her pockets and pulled out her earphones which she promptly placed in her ears. Darren started talking. She couldn’t hear exactly what he was saying, but it had something to do with the route. Soon the soothing music from her phone was making her eyes heavy, and as a gritting truck passed them on the opposite side of the road, she fell asleep.

  “In a few hours, we should pass Stone Hen—” when he saw her eyes were closed he mumbled something to himself, then concentrated on the road.

  * * * * *

  A violent jolt startled Kat awake. They were travelling fast.

  “That one almost got us!” shouted Darren, trying to look at the mostly dark grey sky above their heads, while keeping the car from veering off the road.

  “What’s going on!” she shouted while she pulled the earphones out.

  “I knew it! They use the first—” they bumped over a mound of snow, causing the car to swerve slightly “—chance they have to take me!”

  Kat quickly looked at the backseat, Chip was now on the floor, looking concerned. She turned back to look at Darren when she noticed a sudden glow in the sky on the horizon. “Why are you driving so fast? You’re going to ki—” before she could finish she saw a large dark shadow move across the road in front of them.

  “Did you see it? Did you?” he said breathlessly.

  Kat wasn’t sure what she saw, but the feeling of being in a dream started to wash over her once again. The car bumped again. “Slow down! Whatever is above us won’t need to kill us if we skid off the road!”

  The car slowed slightly, and he looked briefly at her with a grave expression. “Promise you won’t let them take me!” Just as he finished more shadows swooped in front of them.

  Up ahead the car’s headlights caught the shape of a bridge passing over the road.

  “Look! On the bridge!”

  Kat strained her eyes. Against the blanket of dark clouds, three forms sat on top of it.

  “What do I do!” shouted Darren, “Maybe we should stop!” He reached down the side of his seat and pulled out a small plastic packet, labelled ‘Survival Blanket’, “Sorry I’ve only got one!” he said, trying to wrap it around himself.

  Chip started growling behind them.

  As they got to within twenty yards of the bridge Kat instinctively re
ached into her backpack and pulled out the little wooden box. Due to the constant bumping she kept missing the hole with the small key she had put on her keychain.

  “Come on!” Finally, the key slid inside and she pushed the lid up, grabbed the ring and slid it on her finger.

  Unlike the last time she tried it on, a jolt of energy ran through her and she suddenly felt like she was floating. Looking down she confirmed her feet were still on the floor of the car.

  She caught Darren looking confused at her out the corner of her eye, but her focus was the dark things on the precipice of the bridge which were now growing. Her mind was telling her what they were even if she did not want to acknowledge it.

  Each of the three creatures spread its wings out, then dropped onto the road.

  “Aliens!” shouted Darren, pointing. The car started to slow, the rear wheels beginning to sway outwards.

  “No, don’t stop, push through them!”

  “What? OK!” shouted Darren as he increased his speed.

  As the headlights fully illuminated the beings that looked like they belonged in a medieval depiction of hell, they changed their posture in preparation to attack the oncoming car. These beings were different, wearing what looked like armour.

  Kat clenched her hands together, then flung her hands out in front of her. “No!” She opened her eyes and the creatures were still there. “Why’s it not working?” she said, more to herself than her driver as they rapidly approached them.

  “We’re going to hit them!” shouted Darren.

  Just as their car reached the creatures, the winged monsters jumped to the side.

  “Ha!” shouted Darren, “They won’t get—”

  Before he could finish the steering became uncontrollable. Darren fought with the wheel, but the car careered across the road, it’s wheels sliding over the freshly fallen snow.

  “I can’t control her, there’s something—” They left the road and slammed into a small mound of bushes and snow.