Keeper of the Realms: The Dark Army (Book 2) (39 page)

It was the Jade Councillors, servants and guards. Having broken out of the besieged tower, they were hurling themselves against the Stomen and Shades in a desperate bid to turn the tide.

‘Cut them down!’ roared Dridif’s familiar voice. ‘Fling them from the bridges and pound them inta the ground! Sylvaris! Sylvaris!’

Marsila, hands bright with the flame of her Will, decided that if Dridif and the Jade Circle were going to be the anvil then she was definitely going to be the hammer.

‘Sylvaris!’ she bellowed. ‘For Sylvaris!’ Leaping forward she joined the fray.

53

Return of the Hunter

Fo Fum’s fist smashed one of the large ornamental vases that lined the bridge, sending showers of soil, pottery and orchid petals through the air.

Charlie, fuelled by her anger, danced out of range. ‘Is that the best you’ve got?’ she taunted.

The mercenary didn’t reply. Sliding forward he whipped his heel towards Charlie’s face. Once again she ducked and somersaulted out of the way. Fo Fum matched her move for move, chasing her across the bridge. Dancing over fallen behemoths and springing off the broken remnants of once-mighty gargorillas, he pursued the small girl back and forth. But not once did he manage to connect or land a solid blow. Undeterred, he continued to wreak a trail of havoc.

‘You’re as bad as Mr Crow!’ snapped Charlie. Suddenly moving into the mercenary’s range rather than away, she ducked beneath a punch and drove the ball of her foot deep into Fo Fum’s gut. She followed this with a flurry of uppercuts. Confident that she could win this fight she stalked forward, trailing little puddles of darkness behind her with each step.

‘Money. Power. Titles. There’s always something, isn’t
there? And it always has to come at the cost of someone else’s pain.’

Growling, Fo Fum lunged out, but Charlie grabbed his fist.

‘Everything changes when you meet someone stronger than you, doesn’t it?’ Trickles of inky light oozed from Charlie’s eyes and her hair writhed like an angered goddess’s. ‘And I bet that just like Mr Crow you’ll try to run when you realize that you’ve finally met your match. So what are you going to do, Fo Fum? Want to come quietly?’

On his knees and wheezing, Fo Fum raised his ruined face. ‘Fo Fum will show you what he will do!’ Ripping the bandage from across his eyes he pushed Charlie aside and with the last of his strength threw himself into a burning tower.

‘Huh?’ Charlie stared with confusion at what she assumed was the man’s funeral pyre. ‘That was … easy?’

Uncertain what had just happened but glad of an anticlimax rather than a brutal fight she wearily trudged towards the Jade Tower. Apparently, the battle was over and they had won! She could see Jade Councillors armed with whatever had been close at hand emerge from the damaged but still-standing tower. Slowly she began to unwind. The anger that had fuelled her for so many days no longer seemed necessary. In fact, when she thought about it, the anger seemed more of a hindrance than a boon.

As Charlie stared at the place that she had once considered to be a fairy-tale city, her mind started to turn over and over. Little cogs of emotion and small wheels of logic that hadn’t been used in a while began to spin.

What had all of her rage achieved?

She hadn’t stopped the city from burning. She hadn’t preserved the wondrous architecture of Sylvaris. She hadn’t prevented the unimaginable and uncountable deaths of thousands of people, regardless of whether they were invaders or invaded. She hadn’t helped the refugees flee to safer locations and she had done little to stem the misery.

‘And I haven’t stopped Bane and I haven’t freed my parents,’ said Charlie, adding to her list of failures in an emotionless voice.

She looked down at her hands and examined the black Will that flickered from fingertip to fingertip. There were very few golden sparks left. Lifting her hands against the backdrop of fire, she realized that there was very little difference between the black smoke that filled the sky and the darkness that she now wielded.

Charlie suddenly felt very sick.

Lurching over she grabbed her knees as a wave of cramp clenched at her gut. Staggering over to grasp a railing for support she began to heave. Something clutched at her heart, then clawed at her stomach. The sensation tore at her throat and, still heaving as cramps gripped her body, she felt something fill her mouth.

‘Cluuuuurgh!’

Charlie vomited a thick oily substance on to the ground. Bent over and still struggling from the effects of the nausea she stared in horror and fascination at the puddle of black goo. It moved sluggishly like a sea anemone stretching its tendrils in search of food.

Disgusted, Charlie lurched back. As she moved, the puddle, no longer in her shadow, writhed and hissed as sunlight
struck it. Wriggling and twitching, it crinkled up on itself, finally fading away to nothing more than a faint stain.

‘Eeeurgh.’ Charlie wiped her mouth clean and slowly straightened. ‘What was that?’ She stopped, suddenly aware that something felt different. Hesitantly she put her hand to her chest. Feeling nothing there and uncertain what to expect, she summoned her Will. Raising both her hands, she stared in wonder and more than a little delight at the yellow flames that danced merrily across her wrists, fingers and knuckles. Once more her Will was golden.

‘Charlie!’ called Marsila from the far side of the bridge. Shattered armour, fallen foes and discarded weaponry lay scattered by her feet. Behind her milled the survivors from the Jade Tower, all of whom appeared slightly shellshocked but nonetheless ecstatic to find themselves still alive. Marsila, overjoyed in victory and thrilled to see that the young Keeper had shed her darkness, waved, genuine happiness etched on her face.

Charlie smiled and waved back. Eager to speak to both Lady Dridif and Marsila, Charlie began to walk towards the Jade Tower. As she did so, the aches and pains, bruises and sprains that she had suffered over the past week, no longer held in check by the force of her anger, returned with a vengeance.

But Charlie didn’t care. Limping slightly and gritting her teeth until she grew accustomed to the pain, she continued on, surprised at how content she felt. She began to think of all the things that needed doing, the preparations that she would have to make in order to find this mysterious Serpent’s Tail and what she would say when she finally met up with
her friends. As her brain continued to pick over ideas and plans, a terrible thought came to her.

‘Wasn’t Fo Fum already dead?’

In the excitement of battle she had completely overlooked this obvious truth.

‘How did he …’

As she turned to look at the wrecked tower, it exploded. Fo Fum, far, far bigger than ever before, stepped on to the bridge. Clutched in his hand was one of the wickedly sharp spears that the behemoths had been using. And erupting from his disfigured face, with all the speed and power of an industrial chimney stack, was a jet of smoke that boiled and bubbled upward to poison the sky.

E’Jaaz laughed aloud as the thrill of the fight filled him with an unquenchable thirst for life.

His third of the gargorillas had diminished as they had swept through the burning foliage of Deepforest, punishing and pushing aside what was left of the Stoman army. One by one his army had dwindled as they succumbed to the ferocity of behemoths and Stonesingers. But he cared not. For each of his losses Bane’s First Army had lost many, many more. Surrounded by a nimbus of golden Will, he watched with shining eyes as Shade, Stoman and rhinospider scrambled from his path, desperate to flee the crunching fists and thumping teeth of the gargorillas.

E’Jaaz’s white teeth sparkled as he grinned. Victory down on the Deepforest floor, he was certain, was his.

54

Panic

Charlie’s legs shook. She stared at them in disgust, unable to believe that they were betraying her. But as she looked back at Fo Fum she couldn’t fault her body’s reaction. He was a fearsome sight.

Standing with feet planted on either side of the bridge he stood nearly as tall as a behemoth. Ash and cinder from the still-burning towers billowed towards him like iron particles attracted to a magnet. Smoke too rolled round him like a dark whirlpool and with each and every breath he seemed to suck a little bit more into his lungs, only for it to seep out of his eyes in a paradoxical circle of power. Swinging his stolen spear in great arcs that made the blade thrum as it cut the air, he slowly turned his head from side to side.

Searching for his foe.

Searching for Charlie Keeper.

There was a hushed moment of disbelief as those who had survived the battle for the Jade Tower eyed this prodigious new foe that stood above their city like a demonic thunder god.

‘Feeeee-fiiiiiii FO FUM!’ he bellowed, his voice booming across the city like an avalanche. ‘I will not rest until Charlie Keeper’s life has flown!’

Charlie stumbled back, tripped over the shattered remnant of a gargorilla’s foot and landed on her bum.

‘By the Seven Hells,’ swore Marsila as she helped Charlie stand. ‘What the … what is … is that thing really Fo Fum?’

‘Y-yes,’ stammered Charlie, unable to stop staring at the looming ruin of a thing that used to be a man.

As it craned its muscled neck from side to side in its attempts to locate its prey, the two Keepers got a proper look at its face. Or what should have been a face. It had been so badly burned that now it was just one big mess of red blistered flesh.

‘Ugh,’ said Marsila, recoiling from the sight.

Charlie wanted to say something too, but she felt like she was close to panic. She reached deep, trying to find the anger that had fuelled her for so long, but it was gone. She had let it go and now she felt as though she was running on empty. Summoning her Will she stared at her golden hands. She had been overjoyed to see it mere minutes ago, but now she eyed it uncertainly. If she hadn’t been able to beat the regular Fo Fum with her dark Will what chance did she have of defeating this upgraded version?

‘Ha!’ roared Fo Fum as he caught sight of Charlie. Whipping the spear overhead he lumbered forward, his ruined lips splitting into an ugly approximation of a smile.

Both Keepers, reaching the same conclusion, turned and ran. Leaping from bridge to bridge and vaulting from roof to balcony to boulevard they tried to outdistance their enemy.

‘Any plans?’ gasped Marsila.

‘Me?’

‘Well you’re the one “in charge”, aren’t you?’

Charlie opened her mouth to reply, but decided it was best to keep running and try to come up with some sort of a strategy while she still could.

A behemoth’s arm whisked past her head to shatter against a tower. Charlie spun round. Fo Fum, still lurching towards them, picked up another remnant of the earlier battle, a gargorilla head. He flung it with all the speed and power of a cannonball. The Keepers were forced to dive out of the way.

‘Keepers!’ roared E’Jaaz. ‘This way!’

He still rode his original gargorilla, which was badly dented and chipped. About thirty more ran, lumbered and limped by its side. Some were missing limbs, others had large cracks across their torsos, all proof of the viciousness of the battle for Sylvaris.

‘Yaaa!’ shouted E’Jaaz, slipping from his mount. He slapped it on the back, urging it and its brethren on. Running to Charlie and Marsila’s side he watched as the gargorillas converged on Fo Fum.

‘Do you think that will work?’ asked Marsila.

E’Jaaz watched as Fo Fum sliced one in half and smashed another two into rubble with a stamp of his huge foot. ‘Er … I think the answer is going to be no. What’s next?’

Marsila and E’Jaaz shared a look, then both turned to Charlie. She stared back at the adults with an open mouth.

E’Jaaz frowned. ‘Really? No ideas?’

‘We could always go out in style?’ suggested Marsila, her old scowl returning.

‘What?’ scoffed E’Jaaz. ‘After all we’ve gone through? Not a chance. Besides you still owe me a kiss.’

‘Brain-rattled fool, you were asking for a dinner date in the Jade Tower and now you want to up the stakes to a kiss?’