by Lee Isserow
“Is that how it worked? I thought you had to have faith. . .”
“Isn't that the same thing?”
Ana scoffed. “The fact that the two of you can't decide how that invisible bridge worked isn't giving me great confidence that's how this invisible bridge works. . .”
“You've just got to have faith,” Rafe said, as she stepped out into the chasm, and instantly plummeted, saved only by the shadows inside his body, that burst out of his mouth and whipped around Jules's waist.
“Oh yeah, Just like Indiana Jones. . .” Ana grunted, as she helped Jules pull Rafe up again.
“New plan,” Rafe said, as he caught his breath.
“Is the new plan going to result in you falling down a massive hole again?”
“No, it's a different plan.” He looked at the other side of the chasm, where an identical tunnel sat parallel to the one they were standing in. “When is a chasm not a chasm?”
“This is an idiotic riddle―”
“It's not a riddle, it's a solution. . . this is a manufactured reality, with its own rules. So, close your eyes―”
“This sounds a lot like your last plan.”
”Shut up and close your eyes.” He grabbed Ana and Jules's hands, Jules and Ana took each other's hands in turn. “The combined power of the wellsprings brought this place into existence. It's a reality made from pure intent. . . so if our combined intent is that there should be no chasm. . .”
Without another word, they focussed their intent, for it to be just that, the chasm gone, the tunnel going straight through to the other side. Their breath entered and exited their chest in unison, and simultaneously they opened their eyes.
There was no longer a chasm between them and the rest of the tunnel. As if it had never been there.
“That was far too easy. . .” Ana muttered, suspiciously.
“Easy?” Jules scoffed. “You try falling down a massive hole that doesn't actually exist, and tell me it's easy. . .”
Chapter 46
The maelstrom
The tunnel continued onwards for what felt like miles and miles. With the chasm gone, once again there was no source of light, but the deeper they went it appeared that the shadows themselves changed in consistency. Soon not even Jules could see where they were headed.
“Well, this feels safe. . .” Ana huffed, as he told them the bad news.
They felt around ahead of them, used the walls as their guide, in case the tunnel opened out into yet another chasm. And eventually it did open out―but there was still ground beneath their feet. And they were not alone.
A deep guttural grumble rumbled through the very earth, through the walls behind them, vibrated the air they breathed. It was thick, and hot in the cave. And there was a sickly wet slithering all around them, that sounded as though they had come across a living wall of snakes.
“Can you see anything yet?” Ana whispered.
Before Jules could answer, there was a wet snap, that sounded out, as a giant eye opened just a few feet from their faces, sending out a bright yellow glow into the cavern.
All three of them froze as the giant eyeball glanced from one to the next, its iris a swirling vortex with the slightest tide of green caught in the maelstrom of the turbulent yellow whirlpool
The light from the eye made it apparent just how large the creature was, with an impossible number of tentacles that snaked around one another across its body. They slithered as it breathed, that deep guttural sound, the reverberations of the air going in and out of one of thousands upon thousands of tiny slits in its massive body. Although it had only opened the one eye on their level, it appeared to be just one of many closed globe-shaped skinflaps across the creatures gargantuan slimy mass.
“Is this it?” Ana whispered.
The creature murmured, a deep grumble that seemed somehow different to its breathing sounds.
“I think 'it' can hear you. . .” Rafe whispered back theatrically.
“How do we. . . y'know. . .”
Rafe didn't appear to understand what she was referring to.
“How do you kill something that looks like it's the size of a damn mountain?!”
“You don't.”
“But―”
“It hasn't attacked us. . . and it wouldn't take much for the damn thing to kill us.”
“But what about Jules's family!”
“We'll find another way.” Jules said. “We're not going to hurt it.”
Ana stared into the giant eye, which was almost as tall as she was, and gave in to a feeling that she had tried to ignore since they first stepped into the cave. There was something familiar about the creature, about this place―the same feeling that she felt around Jules.
“You're right,” she said. “We'll find another way.”
Rafe glanced at her, then at Jules. He could sense that there was something going on that he wasn't a part of.
“Has. . . And I hate to ask this. . . but has it got you two mesmerised?”
“No,” Ana and Jules responded simultaneously, which he did not find convincing.
“I really don't want to have to knock you two out. . .” he muttered.
“Try it, grandpa,” Ana scoffed.
“Definitely not mesmerised,” he sighed, a part of him wished that they had been―at least that would explain the vibe he was getting from the two of them.
They eye blinked, and once again glanced between the three of them. A warmth radiated off it. Not just a physical warmth, but a psychic sense of warmth. The cavern was filled with an inviting presence, as if the massive creature was welcoming them into its home, and into its heart. The light got smaller, dimmer, and felt to each of them as if it were coming from farther and farther away.
Soon, the creature, with its tentacles and closed eyes and breathing slits had disappeared. All that was left was the light, which had become an opening at the far end of an expansive, empty hollow.
The three of them stared at it, not entirely sure what just happened. The titanic creature they had been sent to kill had vanished, and the dimensions of the cavern they were in had just shifted in front of their very eyes.
“Onwards?” Rafe asked.
The other two walked towards the light without a word. There was a knowing, an understanding, that what they were searching for lay in the light beyond the entrance. And despite having just been face to face―or face to eye―with a creature of cosmic proportions, neither Ana nor Jules harboured any fear.
Whatever was waiting for them in the next chamber had welcomed them into its home, into its heart. They were guests. And Rafe was the only one among them that feared they might also be lunch. . .
Chapter 47
A pattern
The glow that poured out of the next chamber was not just from a single eye, but from a myriad eyes. Each of them protruded from the slick, slimy skin of a creature that they could see clear as day.
It appeared to be almost as wide as the mountain itself, and similarly tall. It had little room to move inside the chamber, but the three of them figured that when one is a creature the size of a mountain, and apparently trapped within a mountain, there is very little need to move anywhere.
This iteration of the creature had all its eyes open, and they could clearly see its swarming mass of tentacles, thousands upon thousands of them, along every part of its body, slithering back and forth across its immense, monolithic bulk. Every so often, one would reach out into the air around it, slink back and forth and round in spirals, as if it were stretching or flexing its endless number of muscles to put off atrophy just a little longer.
“They wanted us to try and kill this?” Rafe said, his eyes wide, and mouth wider. He, like all magickians, had heard the tales of creatures of this size. Beings of the Outer Realms that had traversed through to the Natural World of man, with the power of gods at their disposal. But he never in all his life ever thought he would find himself face to face with one. . .
The creature made a sound t
hat was different to the noises it had made in the previous cavern. Wet and guttural sounds that slopped and sloshed out of hundreds upon hundreds of mouths at the same time. They sounded to Rafe as though they were the smacking of lips and rumbles of hunger. He threw that thought to the wayside, for if the gigantic fiend simply wished to devour them, why would it bother with the ruse of the room they had just left. That seemed to him as though it was some kind of test, to grant only the worthy, those that did not attempt to attack it, entrance to its inner sanctum.
He could hear repeated clicks and growls, a pattern to them. Despite the massive thing's many mouths―and many tongues within those many mouths―it was clear that it was speaking some ancient dialect of a language before the human tongue evolved to its current, singular form. And the more it spoke, the more Rafe realised that some of the sounds, the proto-words, were roots he had heard before, words that he had reproduced in his head whilst he cast.
“It's nice to meet you too!” Ana said, her words punctuated the silence left as the creature stopped speaking.
Rafe turned, confounded. “You understand it. . .?”
“You don't?” Jules chuckled.
From the shadow adept's jubilated expression, it looked as though all his cares, fears and anxieties for the safety of his family had been washed away by the creature's aura. And Rafe realised that his fears, of this many mouthed, multi-tendriled beast, had evaporated also.
Despite not being able to understand the thing, it was as if this impossible being of epic scale was a distant part of himself. He reckoned that the only reason he could not comprehend its archaic language was due to his own lack of magick―or perhaps because he was not an adept―the connections Ana and Jules shared with their realms made them closer to the old ones than he ever was. Less watered down, as the more blood-conscious members of the magickal community might call it.
The creature made another sound, shorter than the last. Ana nodded and took hold of Rafe's hand. Her grasp, tight on his fingers, felt warm and familiar, but he tried not to linger on that thought. For the creature was speaking again, and this time, Rafe could understand every word it said.
“As I was saying,” the licks and growls translated in his mind, even though he could only hear them as clicks and growls. “I am engorged with the most joyous of emotions to finally be meeting with you.”
Chapter 48
The right decisions
The great beast's eyes glowed brightly, each blinked to its own beat as it spoke.
“It pleases me to know that you have grown into your natural abilities, and will continue to develop them for good.”
“I don't think he's talking about me. . .” Rafe muttered.
“You have no need to fear, Raf-clar'Keh. You are fulfilling your purpose in guiding the young one.”
“What did he call you?” Ana squealed.
“Nothing,”
“Is that your name? Your real name?! The name you hide behind Rafe Clarke?!”
“No, you're heard wrong.”
“I'm going to remember that.”
“You should forget it instantly.”
“Turn you into, what did you call it?”
“I didn't call it anything.”
“A meat puppet?”
“Said no such thing.”
“Names do have power,” Jules added, with a chuckle.
“I hate that you're ganging up on me.”
“Raf-clar'Keh, I'm going to remember that forever and ever,” Ana giggled.
“This is in no way fair. . .”
“Children,” the great creature barked, a shiver rippled across all three of them, and caused instant silence. “I appreciate that you are jesting at your guardian's expense, but this is not the time.”
“Can we go back to that 'guardian' thing?” Ana asked.
The monolithic creature ignored her completely. “You have made the right decisions, to lead you to the here and now. . . but you did not come of your own volition. . . and those that forced you to gain entry to my domain made decisions that were. . . poor.”
“Why do they want to kill you?” Rafe asked.
Every single one of the great god's eyes flicked in his direction. “Why do men do anything they do?”
The question felt rhetorical, and Rafe decided not to answer.
“For power, children. They and their masters believe that to be a god killer would result in their strength multiplying a thousand-fold. They have studied the ancient texts. They have learned things that no man should have gained knowledge of without the correct mindset. They know Gog ha-Magog is due, and they wish to prepare themselves. Believing it prudent to kill one god in the hope of killing another.”
“Death covets death,” Rafe said under his breath, but even though his tone was hushed, it appeared as though the massive being heard him.
“Indeed. The death of one god leads to the death of another and another, until one man wields the power of all those from whence I came from. . . And that cannot be allowed to pass.”
The creature continued to speak, but its words were no longer being translated for Rafe. He glanced to Ana and Jules, who also seemed to suddenly be unable to understand the gigantic thing.
The cave complex around them began to contract, as its words reshaped reality. The walls of stone receded, and in an instant, they were back in the forest in front of the men that had forced them into the cave in the first place.
But there was no longer a cave or mountain behind them. And they were no longer alone.
Chapter 49
A thousand questions
Fire, water and sound were hurled at the mountain-sized colossus, and each volley and assault was as impotent as the last.
It bore hundreds of thousands of teeth in its thousands of mouths, and narrowed each of its hundreds of eyes in anger as its children attempted to do it damage. Tentacles shot through the air, wrapped around each of the men in turn and tore them from their positions on the ground. In a flick of motion, each were whipped into one of its myriad mouths. The screams could still be heard from inside its epic, slimy body, even after they men appeared to be torn asunder as the jaws clamped down on their flesh, crunched their bones and squished their organs. A if the tremendous creature was not only ripping apart their bodies―but also their souls.
“You must go now,” it said, with the mouths that were not preoccupied chewing on the three abductors.
“Hold up, I still have a thousand questions. . .” Ana said, but they would not be answered.
“Your questions can wait until next we meet.”
And with that said, the plants and trees around them began to fade, and dissolved into nothingness with a shimmer and a ripple, as if they were a flashback in an old movie.
“The boy is important,” the creature said, as it too began to disappear. “As are the two of you. . .”
Rafe decided it was best not to take that personally.
“You must safeguard his life. . . with your own.”
And as the last remnants of the Ethereal Forest dissipated, and the three of them found themselves back in central London, a handful of words whispered through the back of Ana and Jules's minds.
“Your father would be proud to know the kind of people you have become. . .”
Chapter 50
It's not over. . .
London began to reappear around them, brick and stone replacing the plants and flowers, but they were not returned to the grounds of the church that had acted as their doorway to the Ethereal Forest.
They were standing at the foot of a long metal staircase that had been painted black at some point in the past. Painted the once, most likely, and never again, as most of the paint was rusting and peeling from the surface of the stairs, decades of foot traffic scuffing it from the ribbed surface of the steps.
The staircase climbed alongside a building that was two floors of tan coloured bricks, segmented by a white border, with cracked windows interspersed seemingly at random.
They were hinged at the top, and looked as though they only opened an inch or so, probably filling some health and safety standard for the bare minimum of ventilation required in an industrial building.
“Where the hell are we now?” Rafe asked, as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small black dish a few inches in diameter, almost filled to the brim with water that never left its surface. He began to cast to work out where they were geographically. It felt as though it might have still been London, but industrial buildings all looked alike to him. Could have easily been Manchester or Glasgow, Berlin or Barcelona. . .
Jules looked the building up and down, and wrapped his fingers around the bannister of the black staircase.
“They're here. . .”
“Natan and Akif?” Ana asked.
She barely caught his nodded response as he began to ascend.
“We shouldn't just rush in, there's no way to know what wards they might have―”
He paused momentarily, then continued up the staircase. “No wards are going to stand in the way of me getting my family back.”
“That's all good and well,” Rafe shot, following up behind him. “But let's be smart about this, okay?”
“Only if you've got a plan that's faster than me getting up these stairs and through that door. . .”
Rafe continued after Jules, and signalled to Ana, who followed them up and took hold of his hand. Rafe in turn grabbed Jules's arm. And in an instant, the three of them exploded into a cloud of atoms.
Ana led the way, transitioned the three of them through the wall of the building, passed through the brick, past a thin layer of undercoat that was harbouring mould beneath it, and an even thinner layer of white paint that had been steadily turning yellow and bubbled from all the moisture that lay under it.
Still in mist form, they traversed across what looked like some kind of sweat shop. Rows upon rows of battered wooden desks laid out on top of a bare concrete floor, each with a sewing machine at the centre. Although from the dust on all the surfaces, it looked as though none of them had been used for some time.