Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book One) (17 page)

Chapter 28

The three of them walked all night towards the prison’s searchlights. The cliffs towered high above them as they made their way through canyons that had been cut in the hard-packed earth. The sky was cloudless and the moon illuminated their way. Pulling their clothes about them, they shivered against the chill wind that snaked around the cliff-faces.

They had walked in single file for hours, each one lost to their own thoughts. William took the lead, bounding ahead then pausing for the others to catch up. William knew that if he could return home with his granddad and nothing else, this may go some way towards gaining him his dad’s forgiveness. 

Neanna
blinked
back and forth amongst the rocks. Sometimes she appeared ahead of Zach, at other times behind him. She thought of her family and race of people and how, for her, their mission had to be complete if the curse Throat had cast upon them were to ever be lifted. Neanna conjured pictures of her mother and father in her mind, but their images were somehow distant and foggy as if peering at them through a dirty window. She could just make out her father’s long black hair and firm jaw line, and her mother’s wistful smile and perfect blue eyes, but that was about it; everything else was just a blur. The harder she tried to picture them, the more their faces turned into those nightmarish
zombies
that now protected the Howling Forests.

Zach
thought of his sister. Apart from that
freak
of an uncle, Anna was all he had left. He wondered if she were still alive and if he shouldn’t be with her, but William said she could only be saved if his Queen was saved and that had something to do with taking the box back to Anna. He still hadn’t come to terms with losing his parents and he wondered if he ever would, but to lose his sister as well would be unbearable.

Turning his thoughts aw
ay from the pain of his parent’s death, Zach turned his attention to William and his confession.

Hadn’t he said that the reason I was in Endra now was because of what he did?
Zach thought to himself, squeezing through a narrow gap in the rocks.

But how did William opening the box bring me into Endra?
He puzzled.

With these thoughts at the forefront of his mind, he quickened his step and caught up with his friend.

‘You said that everything that had happened was because of what you did?’ Zach asked.

William slowed so Zach could keep pace with him.

‘That’s right,’ William said.

‘I understand how opening the box caused your
dad’s blindness, but what about everything else? Where do I fit into all of this?’

Neanna
blinked
and appeared next to William. Zach wondered if she had done this so as to offer William some comfort.

‘For thousands and thousands of years Endra has lived a peaceful existence. Like Earth we’ve had our wars, but like you that was us evolving – learning to appreciate our differences and except one another. But the day I opened the box changed everything, not just for Endra but for Earth too.’

‘But this is what I don’t understand?’ Zach said.

‘Within days of opening the box a man walked out of the wastelands. It is believed that he was attracted to the light that I released. He caught its scent on the wind and followed it like a rabid dog. Shrouded in moving robes, which appeared to be alive, he strode up to the gates of the Splinter and demanded an audience with the Queen. Compared to him, the
Queens guards were feeble-minded and they led him high up into the Splinter and into the Queen’s chamber.’

‘The story goes that he held her captive for days at the tip of the Splinter,’ Neanna added, ‘and during this time she succumbed to his power and she hasn’t been seen since. We’ve heard rumours that she lays asleep and will die when the box is opened, and the full power of the Heart of Endra is released from the box and absorbed by this stranger.’

‘But she’s the Queen,’ Zach gasped. ‘How was she manipulated?’

‘Like your
sister,’ William growled, ‘she’s a child – innocent and naive. No one had ever experienced such evil in the whole of Endra before.’

William stared ahead at the towering searchlights a
nd pulled the collar of his shirt about his neck to block out the cold.

‘But where did this stranger come from and what is his name?’ Zach asked.

‘No one knows the answer to those questions, but Endra has named him Throat,’ William said.

Realising that they had been talking about his uncle’s double, Zach shivered and looked at his friends.

Neanna
blinked
and reappeared beside him. Her fingertips brushed the back of his hand.

‘Both Throat and your Uncle want what’s inside the box so they can rule both Endra and Earth,’ Neanna told Zach, her eyes sharp and serious looking.

‘Sounds like my Uncle. Not content with one world, he wants two to destroy.’

Stooping and w
ith his hair billowing out behind him, William stared deep into Zach’s eyes.

‘Our worlds are
reflected
Zach Black. I’ve explained this before. And with the box releasing its secrets, our two worlds are overlapping and soon we won’t be able to tell them apart. What happens here will happen in Earth!’

‘But I don’t understand,’ said Zach.

‘Our world is being ravished by desert. The dust is eating away our rivers and streams. Endra is getting hotter by the day. Our seas are polluted and black. Species are on the brink of extinction. Does any of this sound familiar?’ William howled.

Zach
’s eyes grew fat and round as the realisation of what William was saying hit him like a train.

‘Earth is suffering because of global warming!’
Zach said. ‘Not because of Throat.’

‘Call it what you want,’ Neanna said. ‘The end result will be the same!’

‘Like I said before; whatever happens in Endra happens in
Earth
. Whether it’s caused by some insane sorcerer’s lust for power or your ruler’s greed – the effects will be identical,’ William barked.

‘But what can we do?’ Zach asked.

‘I don’t think we can ever put the genie back in the bottle,’ Neanna sighed, ‘but we can try and reverse some of the damage that Throat has caused or stop it from getting worse.’

‘And to do that we need to get the key to the box and then get the box to your sister,’ William said, turning and heading once again in the direction of the prison, his grand
dad and the key.

‘But why do we have to take it to my sister?’ Zach called after him. ‘Wouldn’t it make more sense to take it straight to the Queen?’

‘We’re hoping that as they are
reflections
it won’t matter which one of them opens the box,’ Neanna said, then
blinked
away.

‘Besides,’ William howled, his voice bouncing off the stone cliffs that reached high above, ‘that’s the one mistake we’re counting on Throat making!’

‘What’s that?’ Zach called out, racing after his friends.

‘He’ll keep your sister in Earth. He won’t bring her into Endra. Instead of having to battle our way up to the top of the Splinter, we can slip through the front door of your uncle’s cottage!’

Chapter 29

Fandel rushed around his kitchen as he gathered as many of his potions and remedies that his pockets would hold. He peered out of the kitchen window. Throat had got him wondering if the police would soon be at his door, and he didn’t want to be around when they did. Fandel knew that he had to get Anna into Endra as soon as possible, but he wanted to take everything that he might need. After all, he didn’t know when he would be returning, but when he did, he would be ruler and then the police wouldn’t be able to touch him. He’d see to that.

Fandel thrust purple, orange, green and turquoise bottles into his coat and trouser pockets. He rammed spell books and note pads with pages of scribbled handwriting into a small lizard-skinned satchel. Scooping up the linen cloth which contained the yellow spiky tablets, he climbed the stairs two at time to Anna’s bedroom.

Throwing open the door, he rushed inside. His niece lay on her back, eyes closed and her chest rising up and down at irregular intervals. Fandel took one of the tablets from the cloth. He opened her mouth and pushed one over her tongue. Holding her jaw shut, he watched for her throat to ripple as the tablet forced its way through her body.

Content that she had swallowed it, he wrapped her in the bedding and gathered her in his arms like a pile of dirty washing. Fandel left the room and carried her downstairs. He glanced around, making sure that he had everything. Facing the fireplace, he closed his eyes and within moments he could see that fist urging him forward from the darkest corner of his mind. He moved towards it, the girl pressed against his chest. Opening his eyes
, he grinned at the sight of his doorway standing open before the fireplace. With two long gawky steps, Fandel carried Anna into Endra.

Throat stood on the balcony and peered out across the desert. The moon was sinking in the distance, and he knew that by the time the moon rose again he would have the key to the box in his hands.

The thought excited him and he appeared to shake at the thought of opening the box. The spiderpedes scuttled over him as his cloak continued to fall away in powdering lumps. Throat couldn’t wait for the day when his cloak would be whole and made of the finest materials. He lusted for the day he could reveal his true self to Endra and Earth.

As quick as candlelight being snuffed out, Throat shot a hand from beneath his cloak and snatched hold of one of the spiderpedes. Holding it up to his face, he appeared to speak to it as if whispering in its ear.

‘Bring me the key,’ he hissed.

Throat opened his mouth wide as if he were going to choke. A deep retching noise escaped from his throat as he breathed a puff of black smoke over the spiderpede he held in his open palm. The insect-type thing then began to twitch like a fly that had been swatted. It rolled onto its shell and kicked its legs until they grew brittle and broke away. The spiderpede then disintegrated into a pile of dust before Throat’s eyes.

Holding his hand out over the edge of the balcony, Throat blew the spiderpedes ashes into the night. They hovered in the air like a swarm of minute bees which then began to take form. They swayed on the wind as they took on the shape of a demon with a long bony skull, deep empty eye sockets
and a mouthful of shark-like teeth. The demon stretched and pulled in every direction as it took shape. Its wide mouth opened and it screamed as if in pain. Then it began to shrink and get smaller – taking the form of a small, angelic looking boy, no older than about eight years old.

The boy floated in the night sky on the other side of the balcony where Throat stood.

‘My hollow child,’ Throat rasped. ‘Go to the prison and wipe them out.
Wipe them all out!
’

Smiling at Throat, the boy bowed his head, before separating into a swarm of black ash again and swooping away across the desert.

The doorway crashed shut causing Fandel’s bones to rattle beneath his wrinkled skin, like a sack full of spanners. He looked down the narrow street that twisted and turned before him. Just above his head was a sign which read:

Welcome to the town of Thud

Please ride Rafter Horses with care

Kill your speed – not a citizen!

Beneath this, someone had scrawled in excrement:

Population 1

Fandel’s heart began to beat behind his thin ribcage as he thought of Thud’s sole occupant.  He stalked down the main street with Anna tucked in his arms. Doors wailed on broken hinges and litter danced along the gutter in the wind. The shop windows stared back at him, like dead eyes as he made his way through town to the shack beneath the granite tree. Moonlight glittered off the broken glass from the gas lamps that had once lit the streets. Thud was silent; the only sound was his shoes clacking against the cobbled stones beneath his feet.

Although Anna weighed no more than a pile of bones, Fandel’s arms started to tire and his twisted spine had
begun to ache as he carried her. The temperature was a little above freezing, yet a fine sheen of perspiration glimmered across his brow. Ahead, he could see a rocking chair that had been abandoned outside a derelict barber’s shop. Fandel huffed and puffed the last few steps towards the chair. Lowering Anna onto the pavement, Fandel slid into the chair to rest.

‘I’m in no rush to see the Delf again,’ he muttered to himself. ‘A couple of minutes
well-earned rest won’t hurt.’

Fandel thought of the Delf and although his heart missed a beat
, he hoped that he could resist her charms, if that’s what they were.

I’ll knock on the door of her shack and just dump the girl!
Fandel thought to himself.

‘Yes, that’s what I’ll do. No “hellos” and no “goodbyes”. I’ll instruct the Delf to keep the girl locked away and to give her one of the tablets three times a day until I return,’ he muttered.

Without opening his eyes, he dug his hanky out of his trouser pocket and patted his moist lips. He felt feverish and anxious. He didn’t want to go back to that shack. His legs were telling him to run fast back up the main street and never return to Thud. But he couldn’t do that. Fandel knew that he had to bring the girl to the Delf – Throat had told him to do so.

Tucking his hanky back into his pocket, he gripped the arms of the rocking chair and stood up. He grimaced as he straightened and the joints in his spine gave an audible
‘popping’
sound.

He stooped down to gather up the girl, and then screamed.

‘Where has she gone?’ Fandel said, whirling round and looking up and down the street for Anna, who was no longer lying on the cobbled road.

‘I don’t believe this!’ he cried, searching underneath the rocking chair and then peering into the gutter. ‘Where can she be?’

Fandel rushed up and down the street kicking over empty rubbish bins and looking through the filthy windows of the deserted stores. His heart thundered in his chest, and this time it wasn’t at the thought of the Delf but at the thought of what Throat would do to him if he didn’t find the girl and find her quick.

‘
Come back to me!’
he screamed, the tendons in his neck threatening to snap like guitar strings that had been over-tightened.

‘You can’t do this to me!’
he screeched, dropping to the ground and pounding the street with his fists.

Snivelling, Fandel crawled to his feet and ran to the shack beneath the granite tree. He banged on the door so hard that the knuckles on his right hand started to bleed. He smothered his nose and mouth with his left hand as the putrid smell of crud enveloped him.

Gagging, he banged on the door again and roared:

‘Delf, open the door! It’s Fandel Black!’

A shuffling sound came from within the shack. This was followed by the unmistakable sound of farting and belching. Fandel whipped the hanky from his pocket again and secured it around the lower half of his face.

The door swung open and she greeted him with one huge maggot infested smile.

‘My dear Fandel,’ she belched.

Fandel turned his head away at the stench which wasn’t too dissimilar to the smell of rotting eggs and decomposing fish.

‘I always knew you would return one day. Just can’t resist me eh?’ she grinned, and as she did, a sea of maggots crawled over her teeth and slid down her chin.

‘Just shut up you insane old
witch!
’ Fandel squealed. ‘You’ve got to help me find the girl!’