Austerley & Kirgordon Adventures Box Set

by G R Jordan

  She shook on her restraints. Her arms screamed in agony as she fought to get back up, to get clear. Then the horror of realizing this was the end gripped her mind. Or was Dagon her eternity?

  *

  “Stop, stop,” yelled Austerley. Kirkgordon halted and Austerley fell over onto the stone floor of the path. Ignoring the pain, he dragged himself to the edge and looked down into the chaos below. In some ways it was beautiful, but he fought to ignore that thought and instead scoured the depths until he saw what he needed.

  “Alana, your wife, what weight is she?”

  “What?” said Kirkgordon. “What does that matter?”

  “It matters! It totally matters. What weight? How much?”

  “Ten stone. I don’t know. What the hell does it matter?”

  “Ten stone,” said Austerley. “Ten stone. Allowing for the transference, taking into account my weight, relative distance, the strength of field activity. Shit, I need instruments, I need some paper.”

  “Why? What are you doing?”

  “Something good before I die. It’s not her fault. She shouldn’t be there. That’s why we came, why I came. I brought him, back on the island, so I need to be the one to face him, not her. He’ll only be satisfied with me. I’m doomed. But she’s not. She’s not.”

  Kirkgordon watched Austerley start to scrape the stone around him, breaking off bits of dust and stuffing it into his pockets. Over and over he would call out calculations, shake his head at inaccuracies and start again.

  “When you get her, run. Just run, Churchy.”

  “She’s gone Indy, she’s gone. Stop this. Just stop this.”

  “Goodbye, Churchy. Maybe you’ll think more of me after this.”

  Kirkgordon watched as Austerley moved his hands in a complex fashion and chanted words that Kirkgordon could never have imagined. Austerley began to change. His complexion took on a grain-like texture and he began to twist. His body spun onto his front and his arms bent backwards. His chest became the only part touching the ground and his body held a shape that it should have been impossible for it to maintain. He screamed briefly before his entire body turned to sand and collapsed onto the path like a child’s ruined castle on the beach.

  Love Her or Leave Her

  Alana stared in horror at the tentacle now emerging from the rift in the star-filled scene below. The surface, whatever it was made of, that separated this place and that below was torn in the smallest of areas, only a few feet wide. But a tentacle, like that of an octopus, was emerging from it. Beyond it, the red eyes of Dagon stared back at her.

  There was a judder in the rope. It felt like it had stalled briefly before continuing its descent to oblivion. Something felt wrong. Well, more wrong. Her body felt like it was becoming detached from the situation, like she was drifting away. Alana wondered if this was how the mind coped with unimaginable horror, but there was something tangible in the feeling.

  It felt like there was a surface beneath, something solid and cold. And someone was watching her, looking down from above. She tilted her head to look at her body. It was turning into particles. She was cracking up into the tiniest pieces. Alana closed her eyes and tried to scream.

  *

  Kirkgordon watched as the sand particles began to form a shape again. They rose into a shape similar to that which Austerley had last held, but this figure was more feminine, more curvy than fat. He recognized the curve of that waist and how it swung inward and then out to a chest. Hair began to form, taking on a dark colour. And then the woman that had formed collapsed onto the ground.

  Disbelief filled his mind. Austerley had been right there and now Alana had formed right in front of him. He reached down for her, his heart suddenly lifted, and turned her round to see a face that was white with terror. She flung her arms around him and clung tight. He heard her tears, of relief, of joy, and of sheer exhaustion.

  “How did I…?” she asked.

  “Austerley. He changed places with you. I don’t know how, but he magicked you over here. He brought you back.”

  Alana leant away from her husband to study his face and a sudden look of worry passed across her face.

  “What is it? Alana, what?”

  She took her left hand from behind his back and counted a thumb and two fingers. Her ring finger and little finger were gone leaving two bloodied stumps. She screamed. Alana began to shake and convulse. Kirkgordon desperately hung onto her and began to make his way over towards the bridge.

  “Where are we going? Get me out of here. Get us out of here.”

  “I am. I’m taking us to safety. Alana, calm down.”

  “But he’ll get us. He’ll kill us.”

  “The others still need me,” said Kirkgordon. He threw Alana over his shoulder and began to run along the path but he could feel her still shaking and writhing. “They need me, my team need me!” And the heaviness of thought that had haunted his mind was lifted like a dust cover off a sofa.

  *

  Nefol reached the bridge at pace and didn’t slow down. Havers was ahead of her and had just begun to engage some frog-men who seemed stunned that someone was attacking them. One by one they were thrown over the side by the whirling arms and legs of Havers, moving like a man possessed.

  On reaching Havers, Nefol nimbly jumped onto the wooden barrier edge and began to run along it. She passed by Havers, hurdling both the spy and his foe before continuing along the edge. The frog-man would be too heavy for her to throw so she concentrated on getting past as quickly as she could. A quick kick to the head and she was over one. Another felt a blade slash across him as the tiny figure of the girl went past.

  She reached the stairs and descended the handrail barrier. A somersault took her past another and she kept running. Not once did she look beyond the wooden structure to the unthinkable drop below. Calandra had taught her well, and now she was totally focused in the moment. Nothing would stop her descent.

  *

  Austerley was hoping against hope that something might stop his descent. Dagon was staring right at him and he could feel that darkness penetrating his mind. But he also was at peace. It reminded him of his contentment on the island when he had plunged into the water, doomed to spend eternity with Dagon. The worst had happened. But he had a ringside seat at something most people never got to see.

  As he stared at the opening below, a thought struck him. He had managed to blend the walls into liquid in the tunnels. What would happen if he could liquidize the rift? Maybe the seal could be momentarily turned to liquid before being shut again. What’s the worst that could happen? Well, he could cock it up completely, letting Dagon out into this world and damming it to eternal hell and darkness. But on the other hand, he could stick one over an Elder god. Austerley, the man that messed with Dagon! Doubtless he wouldn’t survive, but his legend would.

  A tentacle raced towards him from the rift and gripped his waist. It was tighter than any belt he had ever worn and he thought it would rip him in two, but then Dagon wouldn’t be able to pull him face to face. Despite the pain, he knew he would reach the rift intact. Timing was the thing now. For once he would have to be on time with his plans.

  The tentacle pulled him closer to the rift and Austerley spread his arms out as far as he could. He forced himself to chant despite being dragged downward towards his end. He felt a surge of power like he had never known. He was so close to Dagon’s stars that the power he was able to tap was incredible. Even the darkness in his foot hadn’t come close. He was going out on a high.

  Austerley felt himself touch the edge of the rift and power flowed from him. The solid form of the rift turned to liquid and he felt the tentacle rise and Dagon race upward. And then Austerley’s hands were clear of the rift skin and it turned back to solid. The tentacle waved about furiously, shaking Austerley like he was in some giant cocktail maker. But the tentacle didn’t descend. It shook and it waved but it didn’t descend. He had trapped Dagon.

  *

  Calandra wat
ched the robed frog-man as he peered over the platform edge. His arms were waving frantically and he was croaking about something. The rope was being winched up in a hurry and she found herself being lifted to her feet. She was prodded over to the rope and her hands were strung up behind her on its hook. The robed frog-man seemed in a panic and was desperate to get her over the side as quickly as possible.

  A voice called inside Calandra’s head: We’ll see her now, see her meet her doom in Dagon’s grasp, and then we’ll destroy Dagon in a winter’s storm, just like poor Ferrean. Then we’ll take Kirkgordon for our own. Then he’ll be all ours.

  The frog-men swung her round on the beam and began to let her descend. She heard a mocking call from Farthington, telling her to pass his compliments to Dagon. But she wasn’t truly listening. She was peering down towards the rift, eager to see her foe in Dagon’s arms, eager to see her gone from her sight. The rope dropped too slowly for her and she cursed these frog-men with their interminable delays.

  Beneath her something was happening. She could see a tentacle with someone in it. The tentacle seemed to be not operating through a hole in the rift but rather it was trapped within the skin between the worlds. And that person that was being swung back and forward was too large for Alana. That was no woman, curved and shapely. Instead it was a hulk of a man, fat with straggly hair. That was Austerley! How was that Austerley?

  From inside a rage emerged. She felt her hands start to firm up and go cold. Her body cracked as it was taken over by ice. What the hell was Austerley doing? How did he get there? Alana was meant to have died.

  From out of nowhere, snowflakes began to form and a wind began to howl. The vast cavern began to freeze over, sheets of ice forming on its walls. Calandra’s mind was filled with hurt and rage. She had lost Ferrean before; she would not lose Kirkgordon.

  *

  Kirkgordon had succeeded in reaching the far side of the cavern and set Alana down beside the tunnel. She continued to babble and kept holding him with a tight grasp, refusing to let go.

  “We can go, we can get away. C, we can go, leave all this this, get back to our children. We’ll be safe there. Hide in our house. Underground, we can live underground where he can’t find us with his eyes. We’ll be safe, underground. There are no stars underground, no sky for him to come from. Take me there, take me home.”

  “Alana, stop it. I need to help them. Austerley gave himself for you. Havers is still in trouble. Nefol needs me. And Calandra might still be there.”

  “Don’t you leave me for her. Stay with me. Don’t leave me. She’ll take you, she’ll steal you. Stay with me. Choose me.”

  Kirkgordon was struggling to get a word in past Alana’s ramblings. She was intense and very scared but he needed to help the others. Looking around, he couldn’t see any frog-men up on the upper edges and paths and decided Alana would safer waiting here. “Stay here and stay out of sight. Just don’t say anything. I’ll be back soon.”

  “Don’t leave me,” Alana screamed. “Stay.”

  He turned away to run for the bridge but Alana flung her hands around his legs causing him to trip. As he landed she began to crawl up his leg, nails digging in with desperation. There was only one solution. He placed a hand close to her neck and jabbed a pressure point. Alana collapsed to a silent form. Picking himself up, Kirkgordon took Alana and placed her inside the tunnel. It was narrow but he positioned her in as much shadow as he could.

  It struck him what he had just done. Alana was here, needing protection, but he had chosen to leave her exposed while he went to save the others. And he knew it wasn’t all the others. Austerley was probably Dagon food by now, and Havers could go swing for it for all he really cared. Yes, Nefol was a concern, but really he was going for Calandra. This was unfair. His mother had once told him that having two women never brought anything good. She couldn’t have foreseen this.

  Anyway, it was done. A sudden chill filled the air and snow began to form and fall before his face. A wind whipped up and here, far below the ground, in a place it never should have occurred, the mother of all winter storms was forming. He turned to look over the edge and saw a maelstrom of ice whirling above the rift.

  His mind shot back to that evening when Cally had spoken of her past. When she had told him about Ferrean. About the rescued children. About the witch and the curse. About how she had killed her own love. And a wild cackle echoed around the cavern filling every part of the void. No, she can’t go like this. This will break her. No, no, no!

  He ran onto the bridge.

  So Long, Havers

  Nefol somersaulted and landed on the platform before side stepping a frog-man and catching him across the back with her blade. She scoured the space for Calandra but could not see her. Across from Nefol stood a battered man with one eye missing but a proud gait. Farthington.

  “Where is she?” cried Nefol, stepping clear of a swipe from a frog-man’s hand.

  “Child, they lowered her down after Kirkgordon’s wife. I think you are too late.”

  Nefol raced to the edge and peered over. She saw Calandra descending far below on the rope. Hearing a hop behind her, she side-stepped and a frog-man sailed past her off the platform, giving a hideous croak as he fell. Nefol ducked the next attacker and moved clear of the edge.

  The air turned cold and a wind started to blow which swept hard across the platform. As she grabbed the central pole supporting the crossbeam, Nefol felt the wind speed pick up and saw the frog-men struggle to fight against it. One put up his webbed hands and was caught by the wind, sending him flying over the edge. The robe worn by the frog-man conducting the ceremonies inflated and flapped loudly before being carried to the air.

  Icicles began to form on the pole and Nefol wrapped her arms around it as her grip started to slip. The platform became like glass, and several frog-man slid past her over the edge to their doom. She saw Farthington lying on the floor, keeping himself as flat as possible as the wind continued. She was stuck now with nowhere to go until this wind abated.

  *

  The steps were icy and Kirkgordon felt the wind become stronger. He had no weapons to speak of and wondered how he would get past the frog-men to reach the bottom. Realizing he would be blown off the stairs if he stayed upright, Kirkgordon crouched, using the barrier on either side of the stairs as shelter, but he stumbled and half-fell, half-slid down the steps until he crashed into the corner turn where the steps doubled back on themselves.

  Again he started and slid over the hard wood covered in ice. He was moving faster than he had imagined and was unhampered by the wind. Turning another corner, he saw a frog-man huddled on the steps below, using the barrier in the same way as him. Kirkgordon slid on his backside and raced down the flight of stairs like a tobogganist who had forgotten his gear. Crashing into the frog-man, they dived down to the corner turn where the barrier gave way, and Kirkgordon desperately flung his hands out.

  The frog-man sailed out into the open air and fell. Kirkgordon was left hanging by a hand that was beginning to slip. The wind bit into his skin and he felt the snow melt on the back of his neck. Looking down, he saw the mass of stars and thought this must have been how Armstrong felt. But without the ridiculous balancing act. Sorry, Cally, I tried.

  A hand grabbed his. The grip was firm and tight. He found himself being pulled back onto the stairs, his arm in agony from the stress. Another hand grabbed him and pulled him to the safety of the next flight down and the barrier’s shelter.

  “Mr Kirkgordon!” shouted Havers. “Too much to do to have you departing so soon. I fear that Miss Calandra is not in a good way and is compromising the mission.”

  “I doubt this will affect Dagon much.”

  “Dagon is your mission, Mr Kirkgordon. Farthington is down there and he will pay.”

  Kirkgordon watched Havers descend the stairs in a half crouch as if the ice wasn’t there. His balance was immaculate and a frog-man was dispatched in rapid fashion. Following the spy, Kirkgordon tried to b
e careful but slid several times, crashing into the barrier. Fortunately his speed was insufficient to break the fixing.

  As he reached the bottom of the stairs, Kirkgordon found Havers sheltered and watching like a twitcher in a hide. The subject of his attentions was a man lying on the floor, and Kirkgordon recognized Farthington from the clothes he had been wearing. Nefol was clinging to a pole on the platform.

  “Nefol!” shouted Kirkgordon over the wind, “Where’s Cally?”

  Flicking her head, Nefol indicated over the edge. Kirkgordon saw the rope dangling off the end of the beam and saw that it wasn’t moving.

  “On the rope, Nefol?”

  Nefol nodded. The rope appeared to be frozen, covered in ice. Although it swung from side to side like a pendulum, it wasn’t descending. A large chunk of hoarfrost covered the top of the beam and the platform was a mix of snow and ice.

  “We need to get that rope moving upwards, Nefol. Can you get near the crank handle?”

  Whether his words were just lost on her or whether she thought his idea was just plain dumb, Kirkgordon didn’t know. Either way, Nefol remained gripping the post tightly.

  “I can help, Mr Kirkgordon,” shouted a prone Farthington.

  “Don’t trust him, Mr Kirkgordon,” shouted Havers. “He’s a murderer. Nefol, he killed your father. He deserves to die!”

  “And you are not a murderer, Major Havers?” laughed Farthington. “How many dispatched in the service? You and me, Major, we are one and the same. Now we have a common enemy and need to end this portal. I don’t think Mr Kirkgordon will let us destroy anything until he has his friends back from down below, so let us put the past aside while we sort out this problem.”

  Farthington moved onto his knees and started to crawl carefully towards Nefol and the pole, keeping as low as possible to the floor. Kirkgordon saw Havers brace himself before launching forward, sliding across the snow and ice. Barrelling into Farthington, Havers grabbed him tight as they slid uncontrollably towards the edge. Kirkgordon watched in horror as both men disappeared off the platform and out of sight.