Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book One) (6 page)

‘
He could complicate matters,’ Throat rasped, continuing to slump in his throne unmoved.

‘
He’s nothing and I will deal with him on his return.’

As if being pulled by invisible strings, Throat raised his head. From beneath his shifting robes he stared at Fandel.

‘The Radan said that he was dressed in the uniform of a
peacekeeper
. They said he was protected by the Slath. Perhaps we have both underestimated his
significance
in our plan.’

‘
Nonsense my dear friend,’ Fandel said. ‘He is nothing and has come to this land by chance. On his return into Earth I will make sure that he causes us no further problems.’

Throat then made a deep gasping sound and Fandel wondered if he was trying to cough or laugh.

‘Fandel, he will never return to your world. I have made sure of that. I have released the Demonic Guardians to recover him.’

Hearing this
, Fandel couldn’t help but shudder as he pictured the Demonic Guardians with their swordsticks, their white mercury venom and their devastating solar energies. Throat sensed Fandel’s fear on the other side of the room.

‘
You’re not softening are you?’ Throat asked.

‘
No of course not my friend, but…the Demonic Guardians…’

Grinning beneath his hood, Throat changed the subject.
‘Enough of your nephew, he will be dealt with as were his parents, but what about his sister?’

‘
It will just be a day or two now before she is in a total catatonic state,’ Fandel grinned along with his reflection.

‘
Good, good. Excellent,’ Throat whispered. ‘The Queen is near death. It is important that we get this right Fandel. They have to die at the exact same moment.’

‘Why don’t we just kill them now? Both of them tog
ether?’ Fandel asked the Throat, and the thought of it excited him.

‘The Queen will only die the moment the last of the light has faded from her heart in the box. At that moment you are to kill your niece.’

‘Let me bring Anna into Endra – to the Splinter. It would be…’ Fandel started.

‘No! No! No!’ Throated gagged. ‘She is not to be brought here. They will grow stronger if they come together. They have to be kept apart!’

‘But…’ Fandel said.

‘No buts Fandel. No
w go back into Earth and watch the girl. Leave Zach Black to me,’ Throat said, lowering his head and dismissing Fandel.

Chapter 10

Wa
rden and William set about the lunar bear. Using their long fingernails like tools, they cut away its hide and tore off large lumps of meat with their fists. Zach and Neanna sat by the fire. The temperature had dropped now and they warmed their hands before the flames.

Stealing the odd glance, Zach looked at the beautiful girl that sat beside him. Neanna glanced back and Zach looked away. Remembering how William had told him Neanna was related to those zombie-like creatures; Zach had trouble believing that she could be one of them. Stealing another glance, he watched how the flames illuminated her pale face, and gave her dark hair the appearance of molten lava spilling down the side of a volcano.

‘Why do you keep looking at me?’ she asked without looking away from the flames that twisted and jigged before them.

‘
I just find it hard to believe that you could be related to…those…’

‘
Things?
’ she finished for him.

‘
Well…yeah…I guess.’

‘
Like me, they were once Slath,’ she said her voice full of sadness. ‘But now… I’m the sole survivor.’

‘
What happened to the rest of them?’ Zach asked, not knowing how far to push the subject with her.

‘
Throat’s armies destroyed them,’ she whispered.

‘
But why?’

‘
Throat knew that we had certain powers. He knew that we could
blink
and…’

‘
What’s
blink?
’ Zach asked, blowing warm air over his cold fingers.

‘
You might have noticed that I don’t stay in the same place for too long. One minute I’m there and the next second I’m gone and can reappear some distance away. Well that’s what we call “
blinking”
–
in the
blink
of an eye I am gone,’ she explained,
blinking
away and reappearing on the opposite side of the campfire as if to illustrate the point to him.

‘
But why would Throat destroy your people because you can
blink
?’ Zach asked as William and Warden came back towards the fire, carrying lumps of meat in their claw-like hands.

‘
Because he wants to rule Endra,’ Warden answered for Neanna, taking his place by the fire with Wasp. ‘He hoped that he could persuade the Slath to join him in his quest to overthrow the Queen and her army of peacekeepers.’

William placed the bear meat on the ground in thick, red slabs. He passed one to his father, skewered another two pieces onto a pointed stick and then passed one each to Neanna and Zach.

‘You’ll probably prefer yours cooked,’ he said.

Zach looked down at the bloody piece of meat he had been handed. Glancing across at Neanna, he saw she was already holding her slab of bear meat over the campfire. Noticing Zach
’s look of revulsion, she said, ‘believe me it tastes better than it looks.’

Trusting her, Zach dangled his slab of meat over the fire with the stick. He glanced across at William and Warden who were both shoving the uncooked meat into their mouths. Blood oozed and dribbled into the hair that swung beneath their chins. William then released a belch that rattled through the air. Grinning at the disgusted look on Zach
’s face, William said, ‘excuse me, but it tastes so damn good!’

‘
Anyway,’ Warden said, ‘getting back to what I was saying…where was I? Ah yes, Throat. He had hoped that the Slath would join him and he would be able to use their unique
blinking
abilities to defeat the peacekeepers.’

‘
Why did he want you to join him?’ Zach asked Neanna, turning the meat over the fire.

‘
What an army we would’ve made,’ she said, her pale blue eyes looking haunted. ‘Imagine an army that could
blink
across a battlefield, never being in the same place long enough for the peacekeepers to take aim. To be able to change battle formation in the
blink
of an eye. To surround them in an instance. We would’ve been invincible.’

‘
So a meeting was called in the vast banqueting halls of the Splinter by Throat for all of the Slath to attend.,’ Warden said, pulling small pieces of the raw meat apart, rolling them between his thick thumb and forefinger and feeding them to Wasp who lay curled in his lap.

‘The Splinter?’ Zach asked.

‘The Queens Tower and the axis of Endra. Our world spins around it, as does yours,’ Warden began to explain. But before he could finish, Neanna had started to talk again.

‘
But when my father Nardith refused to join him, Throat smiled and told them to leave the Splinter in peace. But Throat was keeping a secret. He had cursed them with one of his many demonic spells. As my people were unwilling to use their abilities to
blink
to help him overthrow the Queen and her army of peacekeepers, he took their gift to
blink
away.’

Taking the slab of meat from the skewer, Neanna ripped it into tiny chunks. She blew on one of the pieces to cool it, and then popped it into her mouth. As she chewed the meat she continued.

‘It wasn’t until my people stepped from the Splinter into the burning glare of the desert to find that their stagecoaches had been taken that they realised they had been deceived. Their skin began to itch in the heat of the sun and they knew they had to get back to the safety of the Sleeping Caves, which used to be our home. The caves were four nights travel away and, as they could
blink
just short distances at a time, my people knew they would never reach the safety of the caves without being burnt alive.’ Neanna placed another piece of meat into her mouth and chewed.

Wiping the lunar bear’s blood from his lips with the back of his hand, William said,
‘the Slath’s only chance of survival was to
blink
across the desert to these forests. The trees would have shielded them from the searing heat of the desert sun. But as they tried to
blink
they realised they couldn’t. Their gift had been taken away from them.’

‘
So my father, with his skin peeling then blistering,’ Neanna recalled, ‘led his people across the desert and to the Howling Forests. For two days and nights they crawled on their hands and knees, their bodies smoldering and burning in the heat until they reached the safety and shelter of the forest.’

‘
How comes they didn’t die?’ Zach asked, pulling his slab of meat from above the fire.

‘
Throat won’t let them. Beneath the curse he placed upon them they will spend the rest of eternity somewhere between life and death. They will forever protect these forests and the Noxas who live within them. They remain like…what is it you call them?’ she looked across the fire at Zach. ‘Ah yes…I remember now…
zombies!
’

Feeling embarrassed, Zach broke her gaze and looke
d down at the meat. It was overcooked and burnt in places, but even so his stomach somersaulted at the thought of food. He couldn’t remember how long ago it had been since he had last eaten. He guessed that it must have been the toast he’d had at his uncle’s on the day he had found the doorway. How long ago was that now? Was it minutes? Hours? Maybe
days? He couldn’t be sure.

Then a thought came to him and he said,
‘Neanna, how comes you didn’t end up like the rest of your people?’ Waiting for her answer, he placed a piece of the lunar bear meat into his mouth. It tasted salty and dry but his stomach welcomed it.

‘
The day my father led my people to the meeting at the Splinter, I had come down with a fever. My father had been reluctant to take me but my mother hadn’t wanted to leave me in the caves unwell on my own. So they made a compromise. I would travel as far as the Howling Forests with them, where I would be left in the charge of Warden and his family until their return.’

Zach placed another chunk of meat into his mouth. The saltiness of it made his mouth feel as dry and arid as the desert floor.

‘Where is the rest of your family?’ Zach asked Warden and William.

They looked at each other, then back at
Zach.

‘
They left two days ago and are heading for the snowstorm mountains. They’ll
be waiting for us there,’ William said.

‘
Why didn’t you go with them?’

‘
We were waiting for you,’ Warden answered in his booming voice. ‘It was unsafe for them to stay. Throat’s magic is eating away our world, turning it into a wasteland. That desert beyond this forest was once half the size it is now, but day by day it grows. It stretches, reaching out and taking more of our home. Soon there will be nothing left of the Howling Forests. If we stayed, the desert would take us with it.’

‘
But isn’t there anyway of stopping it?’ Zach asked, throwing the leftovers of his supper onto the ground. Seeing this, Wasp sprang from Warden’s lap, pounced on the food and began to lick it with his forked tongue.

‘
If we are to save our world, we have to save the Queen and her
reflection.
Your sister!’ Warden said.

Hearing this, Zach jumped up, placing his hands on the hilts of his
crossbows. ‘Well? What we waiting for? Let’s get going!’

Sniggering, William and Neanna looked at each other.

‘What’s so funny?’ Zach snapped, not liking the idea of being the butt of some joke.

‘
It’s not as easy as that,’ Warden said in his deep voice. ‘The Queen can only be saved by opening the box that contains her heart.’

‘
Where is the box?’ Zach asked.

‘
Far away from here,’ William said.

‘
Let’s go and get it then.’

‘
We need to get the key first if we are to open the box,’ Neanna added.

‘
So where is this key?’ Zach asked, hopping from foot to foot in his eagerness to save his sister. Again, William gave his father a knowing look.

‘The prisoner has it,’ Warden said.

‘
Where’s this prisoner?’ Zach asked.

‘
He’s being held in the prison of Eternal Despair on the other side of the Onyx Sea,’ William said. His voice sounded hollow and full of dread.

‘
I guess from the sound of your voice that this is somewhere we really don’t want to be going,’ Zach said, fingers dancing over his crossbows.

Fixing him with his magnified eyes, William said,
‘The Onyx Sea is patrolled by the Dammed Bandits. A murderess race rumoured to be the half-eaten remains of dead outlaws. These outlaws were once fed to sharks, and they returned from the depths of the sea to kill and plunder – they’re the
zombies!
’

‘
And even if we were to make it safely across the Onyx Sea,’ Neanna began, ‘The Prison of Eternal Despair is a maze of tunnels that stretch for miles, each one filled with the most terrible and evil of killers.’

‘
You’re not selling this to me,’ Zach said, slumping to the ground, fearing that the rescue of his sister and the Queen of Endra was doomed before it had even started. ‘It sounds impossible,’ he said looking amongst them.

‘
And it well might be,’ Warden said, ‘but you leave tonight. The dawn is drawing close. Today you shall rest as I fear you will need every ounce of cunning and energy to survive the journey you are about to make.’

‘
What’s this
“you”
business?’ Zach asked. ‘Aren’t you coming with us?’

‘
I’m sorry, but my blindness will hamper your mission. I will take a separate path from you, head to the Snowstorm Mountains and protect my family the best that I can.’

Looking across the dying fire at William, Zach said,
‘but what about William? He’s your son. Isn’t he family?’

Bowing
his head and speaking in a voice so low Zach struggled to hear him, Warden said, ‘this is my son’s punishment. He has to go with you to make peace with the rest of his family and Endra.’

Zach looked across at William, who also had his head bowed as if in shame.

‘What could your son have done that was so bad, to earn your forgiveness he has to go on such a dangerous journey?’ Zach asked, starring at Warden in disbelief.

‘
He will tell you if he chooses to. Now it is time for you to rest.’ And without another word the giant rose to his feet, yanked on Wasp’s tether and disappeared into the forest.

Zach
, William and Neanna sat in silence and it became unbearable.

‘
So why are you putting yourself forward to come on this journey,’ Zach asked Neanna, the silence becoming deafening.

Fluttering like shadows in candlelight, Neanna
blinked
and reappeared curled on her side by the burning embers of the fire. She lay and looked at Zach with her pale-blue eyes.