Sanctuary (Order of the Ring Book 1)

by Phil Maxey

CHAPTER 17

  Justin sat in the study alone. Christmas day had just passed into history and he sat on the hard floor in one of the aisles of books surrounded by even more that were laid out around him.

  Miss Toper had taken him in there a few hours before, pointed out several volumes from authors that had names that sounded made-up and told him to read as much as he could. She also said, usually this would be par for the course before the awakening. “You may have skipped the ceremony, but you still need to learn!”

  The first book he opened was at least two foot square and appeared to be entirely consisting of large coloured plates of heraldic coats of arms. He learned that the house of Pendragon was predictably a red dragon surrounded by three swords, and that the house of Lancelot’s coat of arms was three simple red bands on a white background.

  The second book he opened he spent more time with. “Stanley’s Guide to the Order of the Ring Vol. 1.”

  The early chapters detailed how the Romans occupied most of the southern part of the UK, and how, just after that period, the kingdom was in chaos, until a man arose called Arthur Pendragon who brought all the clans together under one banner. Then it went on to say …

  ‘It is said that the Roman General Aulus Plautius brought with him a magical sword partially smelted from Orichalcum, a substance which had been mined from Atlantis. The early Britons gave this sword a name, Excalibur and it was what was melted down to create the rings of the nine houses.’

  Most of the passages that followed he knew from school, or picked up from books and films, but it was when Lancelot appeared on the scene that the book’s description of events told a very different story to what he had been led to believe.

  ‘Guinevere was so taken by Lancelot that they quickly fell in love. This however was disastrous for the kingdom as Arthur was driven insane with jealously and used the power of the sword Excalibur to slay the brave knight, and imprisoned his wife in a dungeon until she was old and grey.’

  Lancelot slain? Guinevere kept a prisoner? This wasn’t the storybook tale that he had grown up with.

  He went to read more, when a bell began to ring out around the house. He had not heard the sound before, but he was sure it wasn’t rung for good reasons. He stood and opened the doors to the lobby. People were rushing hither and thither, and he immediately felt the cool air from the open front doors.

  Eden ran down the stairs, stopping as she saw him. “Och! Where’s yer sword? They are coming!” She rushed away, leaving the house by the entrance.

  He felt his side and realized he had left his sword in its sheath back in the study. He had taken it off after growing tired of its weight. He ran back into the room, and grabbed it as the bell continued to ring. Returning to the lobby, Sparrow was there.

  “Come with me,” she said, dragging him by the arm up the stairs. “We’re going up on the ramparts.”

  They both ran up as others ran down, and the sound of the large front doors could be heard being secured behind them.

  As they walked onto the first-floor landing, she stopped by a few quivers of arrows lying in a small pile with a breastplate and a helmet next to them. “Quickly, you need to put those on.” She handed him the helmet which he awkwardly placed on his head and over his glasses, while she helped him fasten the breastplate. She then grabbed up all the quivers in her arms.

  They continued climbing the second staircase, until they reached the door to the roof. Through it was a small plain staircase. They both scampered upwards, until they opened the top door and were outside, in the night air and on the roof of the house.

  As they trekked across the snow-laden surface towards the outer wall, the lights of Oxford became visible as glows through the dark greys of the night sky.

  Sparrow looked down at the woods. “Look!”

  Beyond the garden walls, masses of shadows shifted amongst the gloom. But his attention had been caught by something far off in the distance in the sky.

  As he strained to better see, dark shapes were just visible between the constant falling snow. “What’s that?”

  Sparrow looked up. A blanket of fear fell across her face. “Get your sword you’ll soon be needing it.” She started to lay out her arrows against the wall.

  “But what are they?”

  “Wyvern!” She could see he looked nonplussed. “Giant lizards with razor sharp teeth and claws, that fly!”

  That was enough for him to make sure his breastplate was on tight, and raise his sword.

  Battle had already begun far below as the sound of grunts and the clash of metal rose from the garden and bright flashes of blue reflected off the clouds above.

  Then he heard them. A screeching noise that hurt his ears.

  “Here they come!” Sparrow shouted.

  An intense feeling of panic grabbed him, and he looked back at the door to the stairs. He took one step in that direction before he was knocked forwards landing painfully on his chest in the snow.

  He instantly spun onto his back, as the snow around him flattened out and was dispersed as if he was lying under the rotors of a helicopter. Looking up, his view was eclipsed by huge webbed wings, and a body made of dark green scales.

  He waved his sword upwards just as the creature’s tail swept through the air knocking it from his hand.

  Run!

  He tried to get to his feet but he couldn’t get any traction against the icy surface. Above, screeches echoed about the sky.

  He then heard a hissing noise and watched as a volley of arrows slammed into the creature’s side causing it to crash down just a few yards from him.

  As it writhed on the ground, it’s wings thrashing around it, he took the opportunity to take stock of what was happening around him.

  Sparrow was firing arrows off in all directions while ducking as the creatures swooped down on her.

  Quickly he got to his feet, jumped over the wings of the fallen creature, and grabbed his sword, he then ran back and drove the sharp blade into the Wyvern’s neck rendering it lifeless.

  The moment of realization that he had just killed something was quickly superseded by Sparrow fighting for her life with two of the creatures attacking her simultaneously.

  She was now also using her sword in her other hand, and was swiping through the air as claws and tails flashed by her face.

  Charging forwards he ran towards her and slashed his sword at one of the creatures’ tail causing it to screech and fly back up. The other creature though had its talons locked into her shoulder and was dragging her to the edge of the roof.

  Just as it pulled her across the wall, Justin lunged and grabbed her leg.

  The top part of her body dangled over the edge, as her sword dropped to the ground below. In one swift movement, she pulled an arrow from the quiver on her back, loaded it and fired it upwards into the creature that held her, it screeched and let go. Justin quickly pulled her back onto the roof. She immediately let go another two arrows and the creature fell through the air to the ground far below.

  “You OK?” Justin asked, out of breath.

  “I’m fine.” She stood back up and looked over the wall to the battle raging beneath them.

  CHAPTER 18

  Bright flashes dissolved into hideous creatures, and screeches played out in Kat’s mind, she then awoke. Looking around her, she could see Darren with his eyes closed, still in the driver’s seat. He had a small round purple bump on his forehead.

  She grabbed his arm, while trying to look outside the car. “Darren!”

  He jumped, his arms scrambling around him. “Keep the probe away!” he said, as if waking up from a dream.

  “Calm down, we’re OK!” she said, pulling her hands back.

  His eyes whipped around. “Did they take us?” He felt his wrist, pulling his sleeve back to reveal an old watch. “What time did we crash, can you remember?” He didn’t give her a chance to reply. “It’s stopped at 7:10 p.m. We may have missing time.” He grimaced, and reached up, gingerly touching his
bump, “I must have put up a fight.”

  She reached into her pocket and pulled her phone out. “8 pm.” She realised snow was fluttering past her face. Looking around herself, she looked at the back of the car. One of the rear doors was open and Chip was nowhere to be seen. “Chip!”

  Darren looked upwards through the windscreen. “Are they still up there?”

  “I don’t know, no, I think they’re gone. Darren, I don’t think—”

  “This is a level five encounter, where is—” he searched under his seat, eventually pulling out a small dark green box with a plastic screen. “Gotcha, I need to record the radiation.” He flicked the small switch on his device and started running it over himself. “Hmm low levels, that’s good. That means we won’t have to wear the hazmat suits. I always have two in the car, in case. Wait here I need to get my recording kit.” He went to open his door, but it only made it a few inches before being blocked by branches and snow. He pushed the silver foil security blanket off him, then awkwardly squeezed through the front seats and made his way to the cabin behind the rear seats.

  Seeing that he was fine, Kat’s attention returned to her missing dog. She pushed the door open, which knocked up against some branches, then got out, her boots sinking a good foot into the snow.

  The light from inside the car lit the nearby trees but not much else. Beyond was a level of darkness she rarely saw in the city.

  “Chip!” she shouted.

  A rustling came from the trees. She wasn’t sure what to do, so she put her hand on the door, ready to jump back inside. The noise turned to crunching and a dog like shadow turned into Chip as he bounded up to her.

  “Where’ve you been!” she said, kneeling, and hugging him. “You’re freezing, come on,” she said, lifting him into the back of the car and closing the door.

  She moved to the front and inspected the car while glancing up at the sky. “Doesn’t look like too much damage, but we should probably dig out some of the snow from the front wheels, you got a shovel?” She looked inside at Darren slowly being lost underneath a mountain of boxes and clothes.

  “Yeah, sure, hold on,” he shouted.

  Kat got back in, and fiddled around with the dashboard until she got the heater working.

  “Got it,” he said, handing her the small metal shovel.

  After quickly warming her hands, she put her gloves on and set about shoveling some snow from around the tyres. It wasn’t long before she had created a small path back to the road.

  Darren was sitting in the back recording his account into a small Dictaphone.

  She got back in. “We should go, unless you want to stay out here all night.”

  “Yup, I’m done anyway.” He climbed into the driver’s seat and turned the key, and as before the engine spluttered, but then picked up into a strong hum.

  “Here goes nothing.” He put the car into reverse, and slowly pushed down on the accelerator. The wheels spun for a few seconds. “Come on girl,” he said as he rocked backwards and forwards urging the car to move. He then pressed down harder and the car jolted backwards and he drove onto the road. He let out a big breath. “For a moment, I thought we might be stuck.”

  “How’s your head? I got some water and some painkillers if you need it.”

  “They’re going to have to try harder to abduct me, but no thanks, I don’t believe in them.”

  She went to ask what he meant but thought better of it, instead taking the water from her pack, and sipping some herself.

  As they drove off she looked into the bleak night around them, with only a few points of lights from far-off towns and solitary farmhouses visible.

  Soon they passed Stonehenge. Darren’s head was aching but his thoughts were racing, going over every detail of the ‘event’ to even realize where he was.

  Kat though noticed the dark monoliths on the hill and instinctively rubbed her ring as they vanished into the night behind them.

  CHAPTER 19

  Sparrow had done her best to kill as many of their aerial foes as possible, but all too soon she was out of arrows and together with Justin they retreated downstairs to join the remaining fighters who were now hanging on, defending a small area of the gardens just outside the main entrance to the house.

  Eden was badly injured, barely standing, but that was not the worst of her pain because her partner Finn, had fallen. His bloodied body had been pulled back into the main house by her and others. Eve tried desperately to restore him, but she couldn’t. Eden had said some words over his body and returned to the battle outside.

  The custodian for the house of Pendragon was largely responsible for repelling the first attack from at least five hundred Draugr. His mighty sword had felled dozens, including a cave troll which he defeated single-handedly until the hordes descended upon him. Eden and Jax tried in vain to get to him, but both were too involved in their own battles, and by the time she reached where he was bravely fighting, he was mortally injured.

  Justin knelt with Sparrow, both sheltering behind a mound of snow which previously was one of the house’s many ornate statues. He had killed a few of the Draugr himself, or at least they stopped moving after he slashed at them a few times. He wasn’t sure how you could kill a thing that was already dead, but mostly he acted as a distraction for the other creatures that attacked.

  I’m still alive, he kept saying to himself while checking his arms and legs were still where they should be.

  As he sat there catching his breath, he watched the scene in front of him, and felt like he had been transported seven-hundred years back in time to a medieval battle. It was all he could do to hang onto the idea of who he was before he discovered the Georgian house he was now defending.

  The dark, rotting bodies of the undead who had previously been warriors lay amongst some of the people he recognized from the night before in the study. The heavy snow was already trying to make them all just memories, and the metallic smell of blood drifted around him on the night air.

  “They seem to be gathering their forces,” said Miss Toper behind a low wall close by.

  She was wielding her own sword and was covered in an ornate armour the likes of which he had not seen before. Justin noticed a small trickle of blood coming from the side of her mouth. “I don’t think we can withstand another attack.” She whispered something to Gus who was crouching next to her, his eyes full of the weight of what she had just said to him.

  He nodded, then put his arm under her shoulder and they started walking back to the main entrance.

  Sparrow’s head fell. “The sanctuary will fall, it’s time we got back to the main house.” Just as she was about to get to her feet, a hundred yards away a wave of the undead suddenly arose and started charging towards those now retreating to the house.

  Jax stood. “I got this!” His ring glowed with an almost blinding blue light, which shot out as a forked beam of intense light, scything through dozens of the first row of attackers.

  Justin and Sparrow ran back with the others. Just as he got to the main doors, he looked back to see Jax slam his fist into the ground, causing a shockwave which blasted the attackers away through the air.

  Sparrow dragged him through the doorway, pulling the large doors closed. “What about Jax?”

  “He can take care of himself,” she said as others helped her secure the doors.

  Justin turned around. The lobby contained the remaining thirty-four defenders. Most had some form of injury.

  Miss Toper stood uneasily. “We have all fought valiantly, but now is not the time to fight to our deaths. We—” she coughed, “—We must make our escape to fight another day. We do not know the state of the other sanctuaries. Maybe they have fallen, maybe not, either way we must find out. So, we will divide into three groups. Sparrow and Justin go with three others first to Winchester, then onto house of Merlin’s sanctuary and finally Finn’s sanctuary in Wales. Myself and Bartholomew, together with Eve and the more seriously injured of you will go to the Londo
n sanctuary, and try to get to Gus’s sanctuary. Gus, go to Eden’s sanctuary in Edinburgh—” Eden tried speaking up but the pain restricted her to broken words. “—I know you want to see your sanctuary, Eden, but you and the others need to heal, I’m sure you will also be chased by the forces outside as well.”

  Jax appeared from the back of house, exhausted but unscathed. “The wards won’t last long,” he panted. Eve gave a glancing, relieved look at her nephew.

  “Jax I’ll need you to go with Sparrow and Justin,” Miss Toper said.

  “Great, where are we going?”

  “They’ll explain on the way, for now, let’s move do—” before Miss Toper could finish something large and solid slammed up against the front doors, causing them to rattle on their hinges. “—Quickly we must go now!” she said, moving as quickly as she could to the already open door behind her.

  It was one of the many doors in the old house that Justin had not been through, and most ran through the doorway and down some old steps, which seemed to go on forever.

  Eden corralled some of those with her to carry Finn’s body with them and followed the others.

  Finally, Miss Toper took one last look at the house that had been her home for most of her life, and after her cat ran into stairwell, pulled the entrance to the crypt closed.

  The air grew noticeably cold and took on a scent of damp as they reached the bottom and came out into a cavern with low hanging arches.

  Candles lit their path and illuminated stone sarcophagi lining both sides of the wide room.

  “This is where the ancestors of the house of Gawain are laid,” whispered Sparrow as she and Justin ran along the stone floor.

  Soon Miss Toper was standing at what looked like a plain wall, but on pressing a hardly noticeable indentation in the stonework, a section started to descend into the ground. As it did the ground shook slightly, making the candles flames jump.

  Above their heads, far in the distance, the screeches and roars of their enemies were growing louder.