Azrael's Twins

by V. J. Mortimer

  ‘Let me try something different,’ she said, sitting back on her seat. Weaving a circle pattern in front of the window Grady saw the air start to thicken into a thread. After a few more twirls from Niamh the thread began to snake its way towards the window frame. It bulged up against the edge of the window and then suddenly slipped between the frame and edge and appeared inside the library.

  ‘You’re in!’ Grady said excitedly.

  ‘Shhhhhh,’ said Niamh, ‘I’m trying to concentrate.’ The thickened string of air snaked its way down to the bottom latch and wrapped itself around the catch before flicking upward and releasing it without any resistance. Niamh concentrated a little harder and the thread twisted upward and around the top catch. In seconds that too was released and the window swung outward quietly.

  ‘You’re a genius!’ said Grady.

  ‘I know that,’ said Niamh. ‘Shame it’s taken you so long to figure it out,’ she said, sticking her tongue out at Grady.

  Grady drifted his broomstick closer to the window and ducked as he slipped through the narrow space. He smiled at his skill but then managed to snag his foot on the bust of an old wizard and tumbled backward, dislodging books from the shelf below the window as he fell. As he tried to disentangle himself from the pile of books and broomstick he was surrounded by a swarm of angry little library faeries who buzzed around him looking for all intents and purposes like wasps with an angry attitude and a target in their sights.

  Outside the window Niamh still hung on her broomstick, trying to stop herself laughing at her brother’s discomfort. ‘Well done Grady,’ she finally managed to chuckle as Grady picked himself up and tried to swat away the admonitions of the bespectacled buzzing faeries.

  ‘Well let’s see you do better, then,’ Grady barked back at her as quietly as he could.

  ‘Easy!’ Niamh smiled angelically as she drifted into the room and gently dismounted. ‘See?’ she said, placing a hand on her hip and swaggering past Grady. As she headed for the cabinet Grady growled quietly under his breath and used his best glower on Niamh who completely spoiled the effect by ignoring him. ‘Come on, clumsy,’ said Niamh. ‘Let’s see if we can get this cabinet open. Whatever was on that map had them excited.’

  Niamh stood in front of the carved section of wall and searched around the edge of it for a latch or catch or some other device which would allow them to see the contents. The wall had slid back into place so cunningly it was barely possible to see where the door might be. If it weren’t for the fact they had watched their father put the maps away they would not have known where to begin to look.

  ‘There’s nothing here,’ she said to Grady, who was looking below her for some less obviously placed mechanism, running his hands over the carved vines and shields engraved into the beautiful dark wood.

  ‘There’s nothing here, is there?’ said Grady.

  ‘That’s what I just said. Weren’t you listening?’

  ‘Of course not,’ said Grady absently.

  ‘I can’t find anything,’ said Niamh, stepping back and glaring at the wood. Grady thought his sister could win the world glaring championships, but a mean stare wasn’t helping them get the door open.

  ‘Do you think you can remember the pattern he made with his wand?’ said Grady.

  ‘Maybe,’ said Niamh, pulling out her wand. ‘Stand back for a moment.’

  Grady stepped away as Niamh pulled her sleeves up before making a complicated pattern in the air. He could feel the magic as his sister drew more power into the wand, but whatever she was drawing was not enough to get the door to swing open. Niamh frowned for a moment and resorted to glaring again.

  ‘That’s the strangest thing,’ she said, between frowns.

  ‘What is?’ asked Grady.

  ‘When I’m making the pattern in the air I can feel the magic flowing – it’s not like I have a problem with that. But it almost feels like it’s just bouncing off something, as if there is a covering or some sort of shield on it.’

  ‘Well Dad’s not stupid. He’s not going to make it easy for someone to get in there if the maps are important, is he?’ said Grady. ‘Can I have a go?’

  ‘Well I don’t suppose in this case you can do any worse, so alright. If you must.’

  Niamh stepped back and Grady pulled out his own wand. In his mind’s eye he conjured up the image of the door opening smoothly and then drew the magic, tracing in the air the same way he saw Niamh do moments before. Just like his sister, Grady felt the magic coursing through him but the spell hit a shield and almost physically pushed the hand holding the wand backwards.

  ‘Wow. That’s weird,’ he said, dropping the wand to his side.

  ‘Told you,’ said Niamh. ‘Any bright ideas now?’

  Grady stared at the cabinet, looking up and down its face as if some new opening would suddenly show itself. Nothing did and his frown deepened. ‘What if we both have a go together? I mean, Dad’s much stronger at magic than we are, so maybe if we pool our strength we might have a chance. Worth a try?’

  Niamh shrugged, but pulled her wand out and moved to stand behind her brother. ‘On three, then.’ Grady nodded and held his wand out in front of him. Niamh sighed and began counting; ‘One, two, three.’ Both children began to make the same pattern in the air but both felt the same unyielding shield in place. ‘You’re doing it wrong, Grady,’ hissed Niamh. ‘Just watch me again.’ Niamh traced out the pattern in the air as Grady watched.

  ‘That’s what I was doing, Niamh,’ he grumped in reply.

  ‘No you weren’t, Grady. You were circling when you should have been crossing and crossing when you should have been circling. Now try it again.’ Niamh took a breath as she tried to compose herself. Her brother had the most astonishing ability to annoy her by just simply being. Not being anything but just ... being. Despite her mother explaining to her that it was completely normal to hate little brothers, she would need him in ways she couldn’t yet understand. Niamh didn’t think she ever could understand and used her politest “Yes Mum” response in that case. Right now she could think of a hundred different ways she could do without her brother. His ability to get the red mist rising in front of her face and cause her to abandon reason was currently at an all time high. They needed to find Quinn as quickly as possible and this lock wasn’t helping.

  Steadying herself she counted again. ‘On three. One ... two ... three ...’ With a swish of their wands the children started weaving the patterns but again, both could feel the unyielding shield. From the corner of her eye Niamh was keeping an eye on Grady’s wand. ‘Circle now, Grady,’ she said, reaching for her brother’s hand and guiding it into a graceful circle. As she did so she suddenly felt a surge of power and the shield melted away beneath their spell. It happened so suddenly Niamh dropped her brother’s hand in shock. As she did so, the shield suddenly snapped back into place and both wands flew backward. Niamh turned to look at her brother; ‘You felt that, didn’t you?’ she said quietly.

  Grady was staring at his wand trying to figure out what had happened. He nodded without saying anything. ‘Let’s try it again,’ he said. ‘But this time, give me your hand.’

  Niamh nodded, knowing what her brother was thinking. The shield had given way when she had been touching Grady. Before then there was no way their spells could break through the protective charm cast over the cabinet. But somehow, together, they were much stronger than they were apart.

  ‘On three again, then,’ said Niamh. ‘One ... two ...’ Niamh took a deep breath before finishing her count, ‘three,’ she finally said.

  The moment they started to weave their pattern they felt the shield collapse beneath their charm. Suddenly locks started to whirr and by the time the children had completed their pattern the wall started to swing open revealing the rows of cylinders inside. The children dropped their wands and looked down to where they still held hands.

  A sudden realisation dawned on them. ‘Oh no,’ they both said at the same time. ‘We need
each other to be strong!’

  Bree and Hugh felt their hearts were about to explode. They fought for breath as they ran to stay ahead of the moving rock face.

  Miranda’s face kept pace beside them, smiling serenely but looking to the children as though she were enjoying seeing the danger threatening to engulf them at any moment.

  ‘You run well,’ she said in her smooth voice. ‘Can you keep running? I don’t recommend stopping unless you would like to become a living fossil, living for a very short time, anyway...’

  Hugh glanced at her as he ran, wishing she would vanish back to where she came from. His momentary loss of focus on the rough rock floor ahead of him caused him to miss an uneven slab of rock and he found himself flying forward into the back of Bree. The two children screamed as they hit the floor. Bree felt the blood start to seep from a gash across her cheek. Hugh put his hand to an eye and felt the bruise rising from where he had hit Bree’s foot as he fell.

  ‘Don’t stop,’ said Miranda’s face, smiling out of the rock beside them. ‘And don’t look back.’ Hugh and Bree, in deference to the basic laws of narrative, turned and looked behind. They screamed as they saw the rock face grinding away, almost on top of them.

  Bree sprang to her feet and yanked Hugh up behind her. ‘Run!’ she screamed, before whipping out her wand and, as she also turned to run, letting rip with a blasting spell. It smashed into the wall with a loud boom but when the dust cleared the rock face was still relentlessly gliding forward after them.

  ‘Bree!’ shouted Hugh, pointing ahead. ‘Look!’

  Bree turned to see the rock face ahead of them was still advancing, but much more slowly now. The children suddenly found themselves running up against it. ‘What’s happening?’ screamed Bree at Miranda, who appeared from the wall ahead of them.

  ‘How well do you think you can trust me?’ smiled the creature.

  ‘At this point, not much!’ yelled Hugh. Looking back, the children could see the rock face behind picking up pace again. The tunnel grew smaller and smaller as the end of the tunnel threatened to crush them into the face.

  ‘Then use what trust you have and run!’ laughed Miranda. The front of the tunnel suddenly sped up and the children found their way open again.

  ‘Come on, Hugh!’ yelled Bree as she sprinted to keep up with the advancing tunnel face. Behind them the end of the tunnel was gaining speed and despite sprinting the children now found it nipping at their heels. Bree threw all her energy into one last effort, but it seemed to do no good! The space grew smaller and smaller. Hugh ran beside Bree now, both screaming at the top of their lungs. The hungry rock seemed ready to consume them when suddenly the tunnel face disappeared. The children shot out into a large cavern, but discovered they were several feet off the ground. They hung in mid air for a moment before crashing to the floor in a heap. Behind them the wall boomed shut as the space they had been in microseconds before vanished. Looking back, the children could see nothing but an inert rock face with no sign of what had just been there save a halo of dust which spread out and dissipated from where the walls of the tunnel had been. The halo spiralled back inward and turned golden as the semi-transparent form of Miranda reappeared. She stood in front of them, smiling.

  ‘You do run a good race,’ she said, but malice tinged her words.

  As she stood in front of them the children could see behind her that a figure had stepped out from the shadows. It clicked its fingers and torches scattered around the walls sprang to life. Bree and Hugh picked themselves up as the figure approached.

  ‘What the hell are you two doing here?’ said Quinn, stepping forward to stand beside Miranda.

  Bree and Hugh stood open-mouthed. This was definitely Quinn, but the boy they saw before them was not the one they had grown used to. He stood taller without the familiar slightly stooped stance with which he was usually seen slouching around school. His shoulders seemed broader and his chin was more firm.

  But more worrying to the children was the look in Quinn’s eyes. The normally dark and brooding pupils had been replaced by clear, bright, deeply blue eyes. The red torchlight reflected angrily from those eyes and suddenly Bree and Hugh felt very, very scared.

  ‘It’s this one here,’ said Niamh, reaching for a heavily engraved cylinder.

  ‘Are you sure it’s that grinkelhank?’ said Grady.

  ‘Of course I am. I had a good view of Dad putting it away.’ She slid the cylinder from its slot and opened it at the nearby table. As she unscrewed the top of the cylinder she felt a wave of magic course over her. She gasped for a moment from the shock of it before turning to Grady. ‘Did you feel that?’

  ‘That’s what I felt the first time I saw this map with Dad, but I didn’t think anything of it then. I don’t think I was able to feel magic the same way I can now. I bet you won’t be able to describe the map to anyone now either.’

  ‘Hey!’ said Niamh. ‘You said map and not “grinkelhank” that time.’

  ‘Well now you’ve had the charm laid on you, I can talk to you about it.’

  ‘Let’s see what’s on here then,’ said Niamh. They unrolled the map on the table and weighted the corners with books. The parchment seemed old but firm with the map of the castle and hills around them clearly etched in varying shades of ancient ink. ‘What did you see when you looked at this with Dad?’

  ‘The bit he was after was some tunnels which seemed to come and go on the map. Dad said they could never figure out how to get into them.’

  ‘Disappearing tunnels?’ said Niamh, with disbelief written on her face.

  ‘That’s what Dad said they were.’

  ‘Well I can’t see anyth... hang on!’ said Niamh, stabbing a finger at the map. ‘What’s that?’

  A sinuous tube snaked its way around the parchment. It wriggled and swirled its way across the page until it abruptly came to a halt right underneath the centre of the castle. For a moment it pulsed as if alive, before fading slowly and disappearing.

  ‘That’s in the library!’ yelled Grady.

  ‘I’m right beside you. There’s no need to shout!’ Niamh yelled back at Grady as she stuck her fingers into her ears.

  ‘Sorry,’ he said. ‘But that’s right underneath us!’

  ‘And?’ said Niamh.

  ‘And that means it’s something to do with the vaults and the treasure room. Quinn’s always wanted to get in there and I bet this has something to do with him.’

  ‘Could Quinn be controlling the tunnels, though? He’s not magical enough for that, is he?’ said Niamh.

  ‘No idea,’ said Grady. ‘But he’s powerful enough to cast a charm to make a goblin look like him. Come on. Let’s get down there!’

  ‘That’s right at the bottom of the castle, Grady. There’s a library to get through, golems to get past, and Jak is on guard in the door. PLUS we don’t know the spell to cast to get in There is NO chance we can get in there without someone seeing us.’

  ‘Where’s your sense of adventure, Niamh!’ said Grady. ‘And do you have a better idea?’

  ‘Niamh bit her lip for a moment before shrugging her shoulders. ‘Okay, but let’s put the map back first. Might look a bit obvious if we leave it sitting on the table, don’t you think?’ Niamh rolled up the parchment and slid it back into its cylinder before screwing the cap back on and slipping the cylinder gently back into its slot. Niamh paused as she was about to close the door and reached for a brown leather-bound folio which was tucked into the bottom of the cabinet.

  ‘Niamh!’ said Grady. ‘That’s Dad’s diary! You can’t touch that!’

  ‘I know it’s his diary, Grady, but think for a minute? If this is in here then maybe he’s written something in it which might give us some idea of what those tunnels are about.’

  ‘We don’t have time, Niamh,’ said Grady impatiently. ‘We need to get down to the library.’

  Niamh glanced at the book before sighing and thrusting it back into the bottom of the cabinet. ‘That book is importan
t, Grady,’ she said stroppily. ‘I’m coming back for that.’

  ‘Whatever,’ said Grady, waving his hand dismissively. ‘Can we get going?’

  Niamh started to close the door of the cabinet but as it swung shut she felt it whip out of her grasp and snap closed with a dull thump. The sound of whirring came from within and a blue glow eclipsed the door for a moment before winking out. Niamh stared wistfully at the cabinet for a moment before reaching for Grady’s hand and retraced the pattern in the air. She felt the pattern sink back into the door and in seconds there was no way of telling where the door ended and the wall began. She grabbed her broom and headed for the door with Grady. As she left the room she glanced back at the panel; she was coming back for that diary some day.

  Grady was already peering out into the corridor.

  ‘No one there,’ he said, as he stepped out and started trotting along the hallway towards the stairs. Niamh quickly caught him up and the two of them headed down. They took the stairs two at a time, leaping the bottom few each time they came to a landing. There was no sign of anyone in the stairwells as they rapidly descended, but Niamh knew their luck could only last for so long. As if on cue a door opened up below them and the sound of conversation drifted upwards.

  ‘Quick,’ whispered Niamh. ‘In here!’ She burst through a door off one of the landings with Grady close behind. Without waiting to see where they were she sprinted down the narrow hallway they found behind it. Another door lay at the end of the corridor which was lit by windows along the top. They burst through that door but suddenly stopped short. The corridor had disappeared and a rough stone tunnel lay before them. Grady bowled into the back of Niamh, knocking her to the ground. ‘Grady!’ she yelled. ‘Watch where you’re going, you idiot!’