by Phil Maxey
Justin took his glasses off and looked at the drips on the lenses, then sat on one of the chairs. “If I was to hazard a guess I would say we were double-crossed. I can’t believe it, but it looks like Jax was working for the enemy all along.” He put his glasses back on.
“I thought he was one of your ring people or something!”
“He was, he is …” Justin shook his head. “I don’t know what’s going on, or why he did what he did, but we need to get word to Miss Toper and Bartholomew.” He had to contain the emotion that was starting to well inside him. He looked at Darren who seemed not to be understanding who he was talking about. “They are the other custodians—umm there are, I mean there were …” Justin sighed. “I need to drink something and see if we can find something to eat, then I’ve got a long story to tell you.”
CHAPTER 40
Over some of Mrs. Jones homemade soup, Justin told Darren everything that had happened to him over the past week. From going to Oxford station, the battles, and finally arriving at the house of Merlin sanctuary. He also told him what he had learned of the nine houses, the custodians, and the rings. As he was explaining, Darren kept looking at Kat and the ornate ring on her finger.
When he had finished, it was Darren’s turn. He told Justin about how he had met Kat in the south of London, the strange encounter on the road, and how they were under siege in Glastonbury. He also told him that the young lady sleeping next to them, could do some amazing things with her ring. Finally, he also told him about the Griffin in the cage. Justin caught a quick glimpse of the impressive creature before leaving the Glastonbury sanctuary, but didn’t want to venture too close.
As they were talking, Justin let Chip finish up his soup, which he happily lapped up although he could tell it was making Darren uneasy.
Once they had both caught each other up, the sun had gone down.
Darren lay back on the double bed, while Justin was slouched in one of the chairs.
“So, what do we do next?” said Darren.
“We got three nights in this place, but it’s probably not a good idea to even stay that long, they will be looking in all the local places like this for us. The old couple downstairs don’t deserve to be dragged into it.” He paused in thought. “We need to find a way to travel, I don’t know about you but I’m not up for hitchhiking in this weather even if we could find someone to take us all.”
Darren reached for his coat, pulling out his phone and a charging wire. “I could help with that. I haven’t told you what I do.” He briefly looked at Justin and back at his phone.
“What do you do?”
“Well officially, I’m a moderator for a few well known gaming forums, but that’s not my real job.”
Justin smiled. “You’re like an international spy or something?”
Darren’s face grew serious. “You shouldn’t joke about that stuff.”
“Oh …”
“I get paid to hack into secure online systems.”
“You’re a hacker?”
“Yup, and I think I could hack into a local car hire firm and get us some transportation.”
Justin looked surprised and went and sat on the bed next to him. “You can do that?”
“Yup. Usually it would be a walk in the park, but I’m going to have to do the hack with my phone, and that’s tricky. I’ll have to route through my home terminal back in London.”
“It’s still on?”
“It’s always on, even if I’m not there.”
“How long will it take?”
Darren looked intently at the small screen. “Few hours.”
“OK, great.”
“You should get some rest. I’ll let you know when I’m done.”
* * * * *
Kat was running in the dark, through tangled ancient forests. Her heart pounded and sweat was pouring from her forehead as she stumbled forwards, frightened for her life. They were almost upon her. Those dark ragged things, with blades that glinted in the moon light. And with them, grinning maniacally and shouting her name, was Jax. She came to a cliff precipice and looked down. Below she could see nothing. No bottom, just mist and the promise of sharp rocks and the bones of creatures that had already fallen. She whipped around and there he was, Jax, standing with Ulysses Goran, both smiling. They raised their ring hands in her direction and let loose a blinding flash. Her world turned white and she screamed.
She woke up in her single bed, feeling damp amongst the sheets. The room was dark, apart from the light from Darren’s phone and the full moon visible through the thin curtains. Justin seemed asleep next to Darren.
She blinked and rubbed her eyes. Then sat up.
Darren noticed her moving, and put his phone down, moving closer to her bed. “How are you feeling?” he whispered.
“Bit better. That really wiped me out.”
“I’ll get you a glass of water, and we got a bowl of soup, but it’s cold I’m afraid.”
She smiled and he went into the bathroom and poured her a glass from the cold tap, and gave it to her together with the soup.
She sipped the water feeling its coolness flow through her. She then jolted as if waking for the second time. “How long have we been here?”
“It’s about 10 p.m. so about five hours.”
“We have to let people know what happened in the sanctuary!” She started to get agitated.
“We will, but for now, eat the soup,” he said, smiling. “I’ve been working on a way for us to get out of here. I’ve almost hacked into a local car hire firm. It’s turned out to be more work than I thought, but I’ve almost completed the hack. Once I’m done we could choose any car we want, for as long as we want.”
She sipped on the soup, nodding. “Good work.” She then looked solemn and tears started to roll down her cheeks.
Darren leaned forwards and held her hand. “Hey, it will be OK, we will get back to Glastonbury, we’ll be safe there.”
“It’s just Eden, and Sparrow. I didn’t know them well, but they seemed nice people and now they’re dead. Probably because of me. If I had just—”
“No, no. Don’t think like that. It was that bloody Jax, and whoever that old wrinkled guy was. If you had given them the ring we would all be dead now, I’m sure of it.” Justin murmured behind them, but continued sleeping. “We’ll get a car, get back to Glastonbury, then figure out our next move. They might have evil wizards and zombies, but we got the internet!”
He wasn’t joking, but she let out a small laugh anyway.
“You need to build your strength, in case we need your magic powers again. I’ll see if I can get some more food from Mrs. Jones downstairs, as there are no shops open around here.”
She nodded, then looked at Justin. “How is he? He seemed to be close to Sparrow.”
Darren frowned. “I’m not sure, but he wants revenge I know that much. He told me how he got drawn into all this. It was his birthday not so long ago, on the twenty-first.”
Kat’s head twitched and her eyes widened. “Twenty-first of this month?”
“Yeah, why?”
“No, reason.”
“Anyway, yeah he was in battles with monsters and evil zombie knights. It was pretty wild from what he told me.”
She nodded.
“OK, I’ll go downstairs. Hopefully they’re still up.” He got to his feet, put his shoes back on, and left the room.
Kat looked at the gangly, dark-haired young man laying half under the sheets, still fully clothed, but completely lost to whatever dream he was having.
CHAPTER 41
Darren managed to get some more food from Mrs. Jones and Kat and he enjoyed eating some ham rolls with a hot cup of tea. They left some for Justin wrapped up, then Kat went back to sleep and Darren crept onto the unused side of the double bed and quickly fell into a deep sleep himself. Justin was the first to wake. It was 7 a.m. and still dark outside save the moon that was filling the room with a cold light.
After using the toilet, he
walked back to the window, pulled a corner of the curtains back and looked out. The lunar glow illuminated the snow, making vague shapes just visible, but way off in the distance, at the same level that he was, were tiny orange lights. Is that the sanctuary?
He quickly dropped the drape and pulled back. There was no way they could see him from that distance, but with magic who knew what was possible. We can’t stay here.
He had slept reasonably well, but still felt drained. He looked at Kat. She seemed to be sleeping peacefully, and he noticed the plates with remains of food and the mugs. Good.
He then noticed a small piece of paper was at the top of the bed, near the pillow he was using. Walking quietly, he picked it up returning to the bathroom where he closed the door and turned on the light.
“Hi, it’s me, Darren. I’ve got into a local car hire firm called Garth’s cars. There were others but Garth’s had the worst security and the best choice of vehicles. I wasn’t sure what you would like to drive. So, I’ve gone for a 2014 four-wheel drive SUV with all mod cons!” Justin smiled. “I just need to tell them when we want to pick it up. They are about a twenty-minute walk from here. Darren.”
He put the note on the sink top and sat on the toilet. A quiet knock came at the door.
“Can I come in?” said Kat.
He got up and opened the door. She came in and he pushed it closed behind her.
“How’d you sleep?” she said.
“OK, I guess, still feel tired, you?”
“Some bad dreams, but yeah, at least now I can stand up. Umm—”
“Yes?”
“Thanks for carrying me, after I did what I did, well, it knocked me on my arse.”
He smiled. “I kinda had no choice. What exactly did you do? Things were crazy, then we were standing in a middle of a blizzard.”
She sat on the toilet. “Honestly, I don’t know what it is. If I have a clear enough picture of a place in my mind, I can go there, and bring people with me.”
“So, you can teleport?”
“I guess, but when you say that, it makes me feel like I’m in a cheesy sci-fi show.” She started shaking her head, then looked up with sorrowful eyes. “I’m sorry for what happened to the others. If I had known I would have tried to do more.”
His eyes fell away from hers. “Nobody knew what was about to happen or could have guessed—” he gritted his teeth. “Jax was playing us all along.” He looked back at her. “Did you see what happened to Sparrow? I saw her get thrown, but then I couldn’t see where she landed.”
Kat was hesitant to reply.
“It’s OK, you don’t have to tell me.”
“I saw her land, then the others there walked towards her, then we left. So, I don’t know what happened, sorry.”
He sighed. “She could still be alive.” He had a thought. “Could you use your teleport power to bring her and Eden back here? I know a person is different to a dog, but …”
She nodded. “I can try. Should I try now?”
He nodded.
“OK then.” She closed her eyes, and tried to fill her mind with Sparrow’s slight face and long blonde hair. Justin could see the strain on Kat’s face as her face tightened. She then let out a breath. “I’m sorry, it’s not working, I don’t know why. Maybe I need to rest more.”
“It’s OK, you should keep your energy, we don’t know if we’re going to need that ring of yours to save us again.”
There was a faint knock at the door again.
“Come in,” said Justin.
“Can I join this—” Darren saw how glum everyone looked, then changed what he was going to say. In his hand, he had the wrapped ham rolls. He handed them to Justin. “These are yours, they’re pretty good.” He noticed the folded piece of paper. “You read what I wrote?”
“Yeah, that’s really good work. I’m very impressed.” Justin smiled. “I’ve never really been that good with computers, myself. Good choice of car too.”
Darren nodded. “So, when are we leaving?”
Justin went to reply when Kat beat him too it. “We’re not.”
Both men looked at her with wide eyes.
“What?” said Justin. “We got a car now, we can go back to the safety of Glastonbury, or London if you want.”
“That’s what they think we will do. They will be waiting. So why don’t we do something they won’t be expecting?”
* * * * *
Darren sat in the SUV, looking through old binoculars which they had traded another gold coin for. At first, he wasn’t sure giving away their only source of money for a few bits of food and an antique pair of binoculars was a good idea, but then he got a peek into Kat’s small velvety bag. It contained at least another twenty coins, more than enough for any situation. They also got some more soup, bottles of water, a packed lunch for them all and some blankets in case they broke down. Mrs. Jones was surprised they were leaving so soon, and he thought he detected a slight sadness in her at them leaving before their three nights were up.
Flickers of snow landed on a small hill of snow that went all the way up to the cars door handle, and he looked at the ominous gothic sanctuary a mile off, waiting for any sign of movement.
When Kat told him and Justin that she wanted to go back to the Pendragon sanctuary and rescue Sparrow and Eden if they were still alive, they thought she had lost her mind. They also flatly refused to go along with her plan. He had almost bolted out of the room to get the car himself right at that moment, but then he realized he now had a friend, perhaps two, and he had always been short of those.
In his other hand, he held his mobile phone. Kat still had hers as well but the signal was too bad for any voice conversations. Text messages did seem to still get through. “Not seeing any movement at the house, and there’s only one car there.” He finished typing then sent.
After he and Justin had calmed down, she told them of her plan. It was a good one, but it didn’t help his nerves much as it relied upon magic. Even though he had spent some hours reading through her grandfather’s journals and had seen it with his own eyes, he still didn’t completely believe it was real.
His felt his pocket with the back of his hand. The bottle was still there, but now it was empty. He had taken the last pill before they left. He felt just about OK for now, but in eight hours when it had worn off, he wasn’t sure how he was going to be.
The first part of her plan was to get the car and have it ready to leave in a side street close to the sanctuary. At 9 a.m. when the hire car place opened, they were there, trying to keep warm, ready to pick up their new shiny SUV.
So here he was sitting in a hire car, falsely paid for, getting ready to be the getaway driver for a young wizard. Or was it sorceress? Witch? He wasn’t sure.
His phone pinged and Chip who was on the back seat, let out a whimper. It was a message from Justin. “We’re in position.”
A few hundred yards away Justin looked at the dark-grey stonework of the house that he had come to hate. The weather was better than the day before, with only the occasional white flake floating down.
The long road up to the building was narrow and caked with snow. They didn’t want to drive up to its front door, and not get back out, so instead they parked at the bottom of the street, a few hundred yards from where they had parked the day before, but this time more hidden. He had the idea to use the snow around them to bury their car inside a small mound making it look like it had been there for days.
Once it was done, he and Kat walked ahead on foot. But not taking the route they had before, this time they would find back alleys, and climb over people’s garden fences if they needed too, anything not to be in direct view of the towering house’s windows.
They crouched down behind another snow encrusted car, just outside of a small dark alley which they had just walked up, and were close to the car park in front of the sanctuary.
He looked at Kat. “You sure you can do this? If you can’t find them, get yourself back here, then we le
ave OK?”
Kat gave a slight nod then looked at the shadowy windows and her eyes grew sharp. This time it was they who were in for a surprise.
She focused on one of the small windows at the side of the house. She hoped it was a small room, unoccupied. If it wasn’t it would all be for nothing. She concentrated then she was gone.
Justin shook his head, last time he was part of it, but this time he saw her go. There was no ‘poof’ of smoke or fizzing out like in a sci-fi movie, she was just there, then not. “Good luck,” he said under his breath, he then held up the phone. “She’s inside,” he typed and sent to Darren.
Kat froze, her eyes looking around the small, but impressive office. By now she was used to seeing old books, but the gilt binding on the volumes around her still looked impressive in multiple rows on two of the rooms four walls. The room was empty of people. She let out a breath, and quickly but quietly moved to the window and looked out. She could just about see Justin ducking down behind the car.
She had no idea where Eden and Sparrow were, but she presumed it would be somewhere secure. There was also her mother. If she was here she was going to rescue her too. Maybe the basement? When they walked through the main entrance hall the day before, she noticed several doors, one of which was under the stairs. It could just have been a utility closet, but the door looked sturdy.
Teleport or walk? She still had no idea how any of this stuff worked. Could she end up half in and half out of a wall? Had she just been lucky so far? Then she had an idea. Instead of thinking about the place, maybe just focus on the person she wanted to travel too. First up, her mother.
Many images of her mother jumped into her head, the one she settled on, was her mother driving. Something she had seen hundreds of times over the past years. The image was crystal-clear. She opened her eyes, but she was still in the small office. She sighed.