Rise of The Mortokai
Page 15
‘Excellent,’ said Eric as he glanced at Finn. Even without the enchanted sword he was still able to do amazing feats of magic with just a wave of his hand. But Eric wondered for how much longer. ‘Perhaps you could get us home in a similar way.’
‘Of course.’ On cue a tear in existence opened before them and quickly grew wider. Through it they could see Daniel’s house, but Eric stopped them just as they were about to travel through the portal.
‘We can’t say anything about this to your mum, ok? I told her that we were going out for dinner.’
‘Come to think of it,’ Finn said as they started to walk through the magical gateway, ‘I am kind of hungry.’
ERIC TOOK A DEEP BREATH just before he opened the front door of their house in Belsize Park. It turned out that he had good reason to be nervous. As they entered the living room Tina was already standing there with a stern look on her face.
‘How was dinner?’ She asked.
‘Pretty, pretty good,’ Eric replied with a smile. ‘I would have brought you back some but I ate it all. You know me and my appetite.’
Tina unpaused the news report she had watched several times already. ‘So, what’s this? Dessert?’
The smile Eric had on his face vanished.
On the screen was CCTV footage from the carpark. The outside camera caught Daniel entering and a few minutes later Eric and Finn following. It then cut to Daniel being held in the air by the Shade although on film it looked as if he were floating before he vanished shortly followed by Eric. Finn began shooting before everything went black, with the occasional multicoloured flashes from her guns.
‘I have to admit,’ Finn beamed a broad smile, ‘I look pretty vekting awesome!’
Eric tried to shush her and Tina rolled her eyes at the remark as the newsreader introduced a guest via satellite link up.
‘...Danisa George is a New York Times journalist as well as a paranormal investigator. Danisa, welcome and thank you for taking the time to talk to us.’
‘No problem,’ replied Danisa.
‘You’ve seen the extraordinary footage, would you say that this is now concrete, definitive evidence of the paranormal?’
‘No.’
‘But you can clearly see the young boy being held in the air but what I can only describe as a... sort of... shadow creature.’
‘Which is your view of the events. Another view would be that the boy himself is causing the phenomena which would take this discussion out of the realms of paranormal and into that of the supernatural.’
‘And what exactly is the difference between the two? What makes “paranormal” paranormal and “supernatural” supernatural?’
‘That’s a whole different debate because there’s such a fine line between the two, but essentially paranormal events are beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Supernatural, literally means beyond or exceeding nature or the laws of nature including things characteristic of deities and other non-material beings. There is a lot of crossover, to be fair. Some things that are paranormal could be supernatural, some things supernatural can be perceived as paranormal.’
‘This isn’t straightforward, is it?’ The newsreader laughed. ‘Can you give us some examples?’
‘Ok, so, although psychic abilities, telekinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, extra sensory perception and the like are beyond normal scientific understanding and therefore historically paranormal, they would also be supernatural because they are abilities beyond which humans are born with, and therefore exceed the laws of nature. I can see you’re still confused, so when in doubt go with Steven King. His first novel, “Carrie” is about a girl dealing with supernatural powers. Another of his novels, “Firestarter” is also about a girl dealing with supernatural powers, and yet some people call it paranormal because it has scientists and the other has religion so is therefore supernatural... go figure.’
‘So, back to the video. What would your educated guess be as to what we are seeing?’
‘I don’t guess - I investigate,’ Danisa stated flatly.
‘Right... but you said earlier that it could be supernatural...’
‘I don’t know. It could be paranormal. It could be supernatural. It could be fake. Heck, it could even be magic, for all I know. Without investigation, it’s all just speculation.’
Daniel, all of a sudden, began to feel faint and stumbled. Eric caught him before he completely collapsed.
‘Daniel!’ Tina looked into his eyes as she put her hand to his forehead to check his temperature. ‘Are you ok? How are you feeling?’
‘I’m fine, Mum. Just a little tired, that’s all,’ Daniel replied. ‘I think I might just head up to bed.’ He took a step towards the stairs and stumbled again.
Eric grabbed hold of his arm. ‘Need some help?’
‘I’m not finished with you, Eric,’ Tina reminded her husband.
‘I know. I know,’ came his less than enthusiastic reply.
Upstairs, Daniel collapsed onto his bed. He was so fatigued he didn’t even bother getting undressed, he just kicked off his shoes. Eric chuckled and pushed his son aside to sit down.
‘You did good out there, Son. I never thought that I would get the chance to battle beside my boy.’
Daniel could sense that his dad was hesitant about something. ‘What’s on your mind, dad?’
‘It’s nothing much, really,’ Eric replied. ‘When you go back to Ariest, you’re going to need some money.’ He handed Daniel a piece of paper and a key. ‘This is all the info you need to use the family vault. On the reverse is the location of the family estate, well, it’s more of a castle.’
Daniel shot up. ‘What? Surely that must be a crumbling heap by now.’
‘Of course not! Well, I hope not. There was staff there and Grimgaard was supposed to be the executor in my absence. Hopefully it’s all still in order. Anyway, you’ll need somewhere to stay once you get to imperial city and begin your training at the Mage Academy.’ Eric paused a moment as he tried to figure out how to deliver his next statement. ‘Do me a favour, Daniel, when you get to the academy, study hard. Don’t rely on this... other power.’
‘To be honest, I don’t have any real choice in the matter, dad.’ He gazed at his hands. The solemn look on his face did nothing to hide the stress that was building up in him regarding his imminent return to the faerie world. ‘You’re still a legend in Ariest. No matter what I do I’ll always be compared to you. I’ll always be the great Eric Mondragon’s son, always in your shadow. I’m afraid I’ll never be my own man.’
‘You have an amazing power within you, Daniel, something I’ve never seen before and I don’t pretend to understand it. But what I do know is that you will do great things. Greater things than anything I did with Grimgaard, Gydion and Tavisum. All you need to do is train hard, never lose yourself and you’ll cast a bigger shadow than I could ever dream of. Just remember this speech for your kids!’
‘Thanks, dad.’
The father and son hugged each other tight. Although the words of encouragement were given and received with love, they didn’t completely eradicate the hidden reservation they both felt.
‘Oh, and since you want to be your own man,’ Eric reached over to take back the key and paper, ‘you won’t be needing these.’
Daniel snatched the objects away from his dad. ‘I can still be my own man with a little bit of a leg up. Besides, in all fairness, these are my university fees,’ he joked.
‘Fine, fine,’ Eric smirked as he playfully pushed his son. ‘Right, I’d better go down and face the music. Rest well, see you in the morning.’
As Eric left Daniels bedroom, Finn stood in the corridor, looking up at him with a broad grin on her face. ‘I had to come up; Tina’s face looked like thunder.’
‘I’ve heard her colleagues call it her RBF,’ he laughed.
‘Her what?’
‘Don’t worry about it; I’m the one in trouble.’
‘I heard what you said to
Daniel; that was really nice. I - I wish I had the chance to have a relationship with my parents. Sometimes, anyway. If things...’
‘Don’t think about “ifs or buts” that won’t change anything. Whoever brought you up did a good job, Finn, remember them, that’s what matters. You’re a great kid and I’m so glad Daniel has friends like you in his life, you’ve seen how it is for him here.’
Finn nodded. She had seen it first-hand. She wanted to say more. Say that she wanted to be more to Daniel but this wasn’t the right time or the right person to be saying it to.
‘Get some sleep, Finn, you two have an early morning tomorrow.’
‘I don’t know if I’ll be getting much sleep,’ she said excitedly, leaving her issues of love behind as she remembered the night she just had. ‘I just fought Shade with the legendary Mondragon, with both Mondragons actually.’ Finn sighed as she headed off to bed.
Eric joined Tina downstairs on the sofa. She still watched the news, the same report being repeated every fifteen minutes with the occasional new eyewitness phoning in to say how they had seen three people running down Regents Street, one of them having purple hair and funny looking guns.
‘So that’s a Shade, then?’ Tina asked.
‘Yeah,’ replied Eric.
‘You should have told me what you were going to do.’
‘I didn’t want to worry you.’
‘I’ve been worried ever since Gydion told us that these creatures could be here. I’ve been worried because I knew that if you could do something then you would. It’s in your nature, it’s just who you are. I’ve kind of been prepared for it. But just imagine something had gone wrong? The first I could have found out about it could have been you or Daniel turning up on a table in my hospital. You should have told me.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Eric said as he held Tina’s hands.
‘I know you are,’ she replied.
‘The next time I do any heroics, I’ll tell you,’ he laughed
Tina put Eric into a wrist lock. You couldn’t have a husband like him and not expect to learn a thing or two about self-defence. ‘What do you mean “next time”?’
The only thing about having your husband teach you how to protect yourself, is that he would know how to counter your holds. In this case Tina didn’t mind however, because after freeing himself, Eric and Tina began to kiss.
‘THIS IS WHAT I WAS after,’ Daniel said to Finn as he showed her the encyclopaedia he had just purchased. ‘It’s for Princess Nyriel. The books she has in her library about this realm are so out of date I thought it would be a good gift for her when we get back.’
His friend had been trying to make the unflattering hat his mother had loaned her, look halfway decent on her. Finn would rather rip it off and throw it to the winds, but firstly, it wasn’t hers, and secondly, after the events of yesterday, wearing the hat to hide her distinctive hair colour, was a condition of her being allowed out. ‘Argh! This vekting thing!’
‘Calm down, Finn, maybe this will take your mind off of it.’ Daniel handed her the plastic bag the princess’s book had been in. He knew the one thing in a bookshop that could placate his companion... an encyclopaedia of guns.
Finn’s face literally lit up as she flicked through the pages. Her mind was racing. The possibilities for her uncle’s ingenuity were limitless. The young woman was now very anxious to get back to Ariest.
As she followed Daniel through the bookshop she continued to leaf through her new tome; pistols, machine guns, rifles all had her salivating. Until she saw a poster for an author who was having a signing of her new release that day and she came to a standstill.
Daniel, who had walked on, unaware initially that he had lost his companion, but returned once he had, to see what was holding Finn’s attention so much that it had taken it away from her beloved weapons.
‘She looks so much like my mother,’ Finn whispered when she felt Daniel’s presence.
‘I thought your parents died when you were very young?’
‘They did, but there’re in the family pictures uncle Quinn has shown me.’
Daniel looked at the poster. The authors name was NJ Kavanagh, a fantasy writer. He had to admit that, despite the authors dark hair, there was some resemblance between the two. ‘She could be a distant relative of yours. Did your grandad have any siblings?’
‘Yeah; two brothers and a sister.’
‘Ever since I found out about the history of humans on Ariest I’ve been thinking about this. Because people tend to live longer on Ariest there are only three generations of Jesson’s, Thomas, your dad and you. If your grandad was taken from here, during the early days of the industrial revolution, some 250 years ago, there could be ten or as much as twelve generations here. The same could be for your mother’s side.’
Finn thought about Daniels possible explanation as she studied the poster. ‘You could be right,’ she shrugged. ‘Come on, let’s go.’
Daniel made his way to the exit, his head turning this way and that as his eyes drunk in the sight of all those gorgeous books, all that knowledge. Finn momentarily lingered at the poster until she finally made up her mind.
She picked up a copy of the signed book by NJ Kavanagh, headed to the counter and exchanged it for the encyclopaedia of guns Daniel had bought her. Having placed the book in the bag and wrapped it up, Finn walked quickly to catch up with Daniel.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The ancient Egyptian noted the dubious look Gydion gave her as he puffed on his pipe. She enjoyed seeing it vanish as she explained to him that when the war was turning against her, Sayyidah had cast a spell of duplication on herself.
Sayyidah never left Ariest. Sayyidah never left Ariest. The weight of the words reverberated around Gydion’s mind as the realisation set in. The self-duplication spell was a simple spell to cast, but to create exact copies possessing an independent mind that was linked telepathically to the original, was a bit more intricate needing more time to cast and ideally in a ritual.
Gydion looked at the Sayyidah duplicate, remembered the time they had spent recently in one another’s arms, and deduced that it must surely have been a ritual that was used. But that wasn’t something that you could do at a whim during battle; it took time and preparation.
‘She must have had it set up already,’ Gydion thought aloud, ‘as a failsafe of sorts.’
‘Did you really think she would go into a confrontation without something to fall back on? Your adversary has had the advantage of planning and plotting for decades for a war that you did not even know you were participating in,’ she said gleefully. ‘You have lost, husband.’
‘I have lost nothing. I still yet draw breath and as long as that is the case I shall fight.’
‘Strong words husband but ultimately meaningless. You had your chance to end me before but you failed to do so. What makes you think you can do it now?’
‘Because it seems as if the only way to finish this is with her death... or my own.’ Gydion’s lips moved imperceptibly behind the shield of his pipe. ‘Of the two possible outcomes, I know which I would prefer.’ He completed his spell and fired an arcane bolt from his mouth toward Sayyidah.
The aim of Gydion's bolt was straight and true. Sayyidah had no chance to avoid the point-blank attack, but Baelthorn made sure that she didn't have to as he conjured up a barrier to take the blow.
‘Well look at that. Did you actually just try to kill your loving wife, Gydion?’ She mocked.
‘Like I said, it seems to be the only way to end this.’
‘You have a lot of bravado now that you know she is but a duplicate of Sayyidah.’
‘I will be exactly the same when I see her again.’
‘And you think Baelthorn will allow that to happen? You honestly think you will escape here alive? Your God made you an offer and you refused, now you shall reap the consequences of your impudence and feel his wrath.’
‘And I already told you that you are no God to me!’
His hands moved with rapid fluidity and he sent a ball of swirling arcane energy flying towards the “would be” god. The attack took Sayyidah by surprise but Baelthorn, the intended target, merely grinned. He was an entity that relished combat and the prospect of facing an opponent after millennia of being imprisoned excited him.
The dragon Lord raised his hands and an invisible force guided the energy blast away from him and into the ceiling of the cavern where it exploded causing debris and stalactites to rain down. Before they had even touched the ground Baelthorn was on the counter attack, opening his mouth wide and breathing black flames at Gydion. In defense the Archmage turned his back allowing his robes to take the full brunt of the fiery assault, yet remain unscathed.
‘His cloak has been enchanted to protect against elemental attacks!’
‘Not only that, my dear wife. It has been upgraded since last you or your maker saw it. Not only does it protect against but it absorbs magical attacks and converts it for my own use so that I might do this...’
Gydion's hands were but a blur as he cast another spell. As he finished, the air in front of Baelthorn began to shimmer and swirl and suck him into its black hole centre.
‘My Lord, you must fight the pull! That is the banishment spell,’ warned Sayyidah. But how? I know from personal experience that the casting of this particular enchantment takes time, she mused, yet he did it almost instantly. It must be the energy he absorbed. It must increase his ability to cast as well as the power and potency of spells, but it cannot last forever. And I also know that for the banishment to be successful, the caster must concentrate on the target of the conjuration.