Valkeryn 2: The Dark Lands (10 page)

Edward’s eyes started to water as he continued to stare. He knew his brain was being tricked – the thing wasn’t really the size of a dinner plate. Instead, Tardis-like, it was a doorway to something much bigger – a doorway to an entire world. He took a few steps closer.

‘Are you ready?’

Becky stood rooted to the spot, grinding her teeth and still squinting at the strange phenomenon. Her hands clenched and unclenched. Edward understood what she was feeling. She was one of the few people on Earth to witness an actual rip in space and time. It defied comprehension, and even seeing it, knowing his friend had been pulled through to another place – he’d seen it happen – he still found it hard to believe. And if he found that hard to believe, then imagine if he ever tried to explain it to anyone else.

A noise from behind told him it was time to unfreeze Becky and move. He turned to where she stood.

‘I said, are you rea —’

He never finished. The girl sprinted forward, and then dived. Like Alice in Wonderland sliding down the rabbit hole, she hung in space for a second, her body elongating, and then she was simply… gone.

Edward’s mouth dropped open, and he felt a sensation in his stomach that worried him – excitement maybe, but more likely terror. Behind him, he heard the sound of the metal gate being wrenched open.

Go!

He ran and dived.

*

‘Oh, god, what is that awful fart smell?’

Edward was waving his flashlight back and forth in the small tunnel and at the sound of Becky’s voice, turned the beam back towards her. She was frowning and holding one hand over her mouth and nose, beckoning at him with the other. He immediately handed over another of the long black cylinders, and she snatched it from him, flicking it on, and pointing the beam down at her feet.

‘Yuck, there’s green water down here… and I think, poop.’ Despite being hunched over in the small tunnel, Becky tried to get up on her toes, which were already waterlogged.

He nodded, knowing she couldn’t see him anyway. ‘Smells like rotting vegetables, and a thousand other dead things.’ He moved his beam of light along the dismal corridor, and then turned to sweep it behind them. He brought the beam back once again. ‘Judging by all the tracks, I’d say everyone went…’ he pointed with his flashlight. ‘… thatta way. Let’s go before someone follows us through and drags us back.’

Becky maneuvered herself into a stooped crouch, and started to head down the corridor, trying to step over the deeper putrid puddles, and around lumps of fallen stone or twisted metal. She stopped and turned. ‘This is horrible.’

He came up behind her. ‘Sure is, but imagine if you fell into here, without a light, and without any idea of how you got here, or where to go… like Arn. The poor guy must have been freaking out. At least we know now that plenty of soldiers have been through and probably cleared it for us.’

She didn’t move on. ‘Cleared it of what? You mean the debris? They did a pretty crap job then.’ She turned away from him, and started to crab-walk further away in the dark.

Behind her Edward shrugged; that wasn’t what he was referring to, but decided not to elaborate. Besides, he didn’t really know what he meant, it was just a feeling he had. He turned around and sent the beam of light dow
n the tunnel behind them.

‘Hey! Bring that back to the front, I need the extra light.’

Her voice made him jump, and he did as he was told. When he spoke he sounded timorous, even to himself. ‘Now, as we planned, we’re gonna give this twenty four hours right?’

‘I didn’t agree to that. I said it’d only be for a day or so. And the “or so”, could be as long as we need to be here. Don’t worry, I’ll protect you.’ She laughed lightly and turned to scuttle further along the tunnel.

Her voice echoed, and the laugh seemed to go on and on, up and down the dark tunnel. Edward stopped; the giggling seemed to be coming from far behind him, and didn’t quite sound like Becky’s echo anymore. He had the urge to look over his shoulder, but was frightened of what he might see.

He hurried after her.
Nothing here but us chickens
, he thought, and hurried to catch her up.

*

Harper stood near the elevator doors and watched as the last of Briggs’s soldiers came back through the hole cut into the wall. The tallest, a mean looking fellow with a blond crew cut and more scars than a back-alley pit-bull, stood quietly conferring with her, nodding as she give instructions.

Harper wished he was a lip reader, but guessed from the severe look on her face, it was little more than curses and invective, probably directed at the two teenagers, Edward and Rebecca… and probably him.

She dismissed the man and turned towards the scientist, her face like stone. He felt his heart start to race. This isn’t going to be fun.

Colonel Marion Briggs stopped only a pace in front of him, planting her legs and stood with her hands on her hips. She wasn’t tall, but she had an aggressive, authoritative presence that filled the room, and now, his personal space. She tilted her head to the side as she studied his face, her eyes moving fro
m his left eye to his right, and then back. Harper waited, beginning to fidget.

‘Friends of yours?’

He shrugged, trying to remain cool. ‘Not really, I mean, no. It was Rebecca Matthews, Arnold Singer’s girlfriend, and also Edward Lin I’d say, his best friend. I guess they are trying to find him.’

‘Uh-huh.’ She smiled flatly and with absolutely zero humor in the curl of her lips. ‘You guess they are trying to find him; that’s a pretty good guess. I mean they certainly knew where to come, and what to do.’ Her smile parted to show her teeth ground together. Her pale eyes bored into him. ‘The girl meets with you often… right?’

He looked away, feeling his stomach flipping over. ‘It’s your job to maintain security now. What happened to that?’ He turned back to her and raised his eyebrows.

The unfriendly smile returned to her face, and she grabbed the front of his coat pulling towards her. ‘You know what I think? I think those two kids just saved us a lot of trouble – now we don’t need to worry about them anymore. After all, you saw what that freakin’ world did to a full squad of combat professionals. How long do you think some teenagers with a couple of stolen Glocks will last?’ She tugged him even closer to her face, and spoke in a whisper. ‘We’ll scrape up what’s left when we go through… in… ninety-four minutes. Might even work in our favor – they can act as a distraction, decoys even, so we can travel uninterrupted.’

She snorted and pushed him back, yelling a single word. ‘Samson.’ It made him jump. She twirled a finger in the air, and the large, scarred soldier started yelling orders to the men and woman, causing them to file back towards the elevator. She turned away from him.

Harper shook his head and wiped some of the woman’s spittle from his face.
How long do I think they’ll last? Well, one other kid without a Glock has managed to survive for months
, he thought and jammed his hands in his pockets. He went to follow the soldiers into the elevator, but Briggs had positioned herself at the doors and she held up her hand in front of his face.

‘You get the next one, Doc.’ She half turned, but seemed to have another thought. ‘Any other surprises we need to know about? Last chance.’

Harper shook his head.

She nodded, but her eyes were narrowed. He could tell she didn’t trust him now… if she ever did. ‘By the way, Doc, we left your men supervising floor safety and defense. Who’s in charge of your security?’

Harper frowned. ‘Markson, Zackary Markson. He’s a very go...’

She shook her head. ‘Not anymore, Doc. Tell him he’s fired. In fact, tell them they’re all fired. We’ll assume full control of all internal and external security from now on.’

She stepped back but kept her eyes on him as the doors slid shut in front of her face.

Chapter 13

What’s an Elephant?

A shadow fell across Arn as he was hunched down examining the footprint. He sat back quickly, landing on his ass, and fumbling for his knife.

‘It’s me.’ Grimson stood over him, swaying slightly, his eyelids and nose paler than usual. He blinked constantly as if he was having trouble focusing.

Arn got to his feet, and hurried to the youth, grabbing him on each side of the head, and staring into each of his eyes, turning his face and looking for cloudiness, dilation in the pupils, or anything that might indicate some sort of permanent damage. Thankfully there was nothing obvious. And just as well – his medical experience extended to bumps and bruises, and anything else got treated with the
feninlang
flowers.

He nodded his approval and ran his knuckles up over the Wolfen’s head. ‘About time, Grim. How do you feel?’

‘You saved my life again, brother Arn.’ Grimson pulled away and wiped his nose. ‘Hungry, thirsty… and sore all over. Where are we? Did I miss anything?’

Arn stood back and smiled. “Miss anything?’ He shrugged and looked around with a slightly indifferent expression. ‘Nah, not much. Oh wait, you did nearly die after being attacked by a giant carnivorous bat, there have been miles of jungle I had to carry you through, we ate a rat thing that looked like a miniature elephant, trunk and all, and…’ He tapped his chin as if trying to remember an obscure fact. ‘… and, oh yes, we nearly got eaten by a monster snake… who itself actually got eaten by a bigger monster.’ He raised his eyebrows, grinning and looked down at the youth, whose mouth had dropped open.

Grim shook his head in disappointment. ‘Aww, and I missed it all.’ He frowned. ‘And what’s an elephant?’

Arn laughed and slapped him on the shoulder. ‘C’mon, we better get going. And don’t worry, I’ve got a feeling there’ll be more interesting things for us to discover on the way. By the way, look at this.’ Arn pointed to the footprint.

Grimson smiled up at him, but then looked down at the track in the soft soil. He frowned and got down on his hands and knees to examine it. He sniffed it, and then got back to his feet, the frown still in place.

‘Well?’ Arn asked.

Grimson looked back at the print, and shook his head. ‘Strange.’ He seemed to be confused. ‘Not… right.’

Arn shrugged. ‘Okay then brother Grim, let’s go.’

‘Brother Grim?’ He looked up at Arn grinning, before his face became serious. He brought out his blade and made a slice across his palm, then held the blade out, and his hand, with blood welling up from the wound.

‘Brothers in word, in deed, and in blood,’ he said, with a smile.

Arn took the blade and ran it across his palm, and then gripped the boy’s hand. ‘Brothers.’

The blood mixed, a portion of the young Wolfen’s entering Arn’s system.

*

Eilif’s finger traced the outline of the letters carved into the stone. She lifted her sleeve as if to check that the name was the same, but she didn’t need to. She could never understand all of the complex writing of the Man-Kind, except for one word she had committed to memory. That one word, a name, was now, in turn, cut into her flesh.

She sniffed, and then threw herself forward to sniff again at the rock – a scent, his scent, in the smallest specks of skin where he had perhaps grazed himself against the stone. She sat back on her haunches feeling dizzy and excited – it was proof they were heading in the right direction and probably weren’t that far behind now. She could find him in a matter of days.

She closed her eyes and laughed, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. It was probably the first time in weeks she felt any sense of hope, or dare she think it, lightness of being. She opened her eyes, the dizziness still with her. She couldn’t remember much of the recent fight – was Bergborr attacking her, or saving her? And now she found herself a captive of a Panterran and Lygon war party.

Bergborr had told her that they were hostages, effectively being used to try and force Arn to return with them. He said they’d do as they were bid, for now, and soon as an opportunity for escape presented itself, they’d take it.

But, he had whispered to her, it was important that she follow his instructions. He was only pretending to be their friend, and she must trust him.

She frowned – why wouldn’t she trust a fellow Wolfen? But still, something inside her urged caution. Eilif sat for a few moments with her head down in silence, listening; no one approached. She opened her eyes and looked again at the letters – no one else would know what the faint carvings meant. But she did – it was a message from him, to her and her alone, she was sure of it.

She could sense him and her brother, Grimson, in the air.
All may not be lost just yet
, she thought as she got slowly to her feet. They had made camp at the top of the cliffs, and Bergborr and the Panterran, Orcalion, had walked a few paces away and were looking out over the edge trying to find a route to the ground, which lay a dizzying distance below.

Eilif stood and looked out over the Dark Lands. They were feared by most Wolfen – a place of myth and mystery. The endless thick vegetation looked forbidding and mysterious. She took a deep breath. She didn’t care. She would run headlong into Hellheim itself if it meant finding her brother and the Man-Kind. She would be patient. Time was still on her side.

Two Panterran approached Bergborr and Orcalion. One of them carried a small, crumpled object. She concentrated on the thing, and drew a little closer. The small hooded creature opened his hand and showed it to the Panterran counselor, who lifted it, and sniffed. He wrinkled his nose. It was a piece of fabric, red. The breeze was blowing towards her, and a few atoms of its scent drifted towards her sensitive nostrils and made her eyes burst wide. Reason fled from her as she sprinted forward, almost blind with determination. She covered the dozen paces between them in seconds.