Blood and Fire (Book 3)

by Marcus Alexander

  Charlie, horrified by what she had unleashed, was forced to dance aside as the crack zigzagged towards her. She squeaked as the ground split even further, revealing an abyss that led to a pool of bubbling lava. For a split second she thought she might have overdone it. Maybe Bane was too angry now. If he continued to unleash this sort of power her chances of survival dwindled. But a feverish sense of determination rose within her and forced her to hold her ground. She would defeat him. She would. And in order to do that she had to continue to lure him on.

  ‘Foolish child!’ hollered Bane. ‘How dare you think you could defy me!’

  Groaning with power that was of a different magnitude from Charlie’s, he reached up to the ceiling and tried to pull it down on her head. With a shriek, she somersaulted out of the way, but Bane was far from finished. He stamped forward, pursuing her across the room, opening chasm after chasm. Stumbling over a fallen statue, Charlie lost her balance and wasn’t quick enough to scramble away. A wail of terror escaped her as she rolled over a chasm’s lip and fell down its sheer side. Fear gave her the speed and strength to grasp hold of a jagged rock face. Holding tight, she slammed hip first into the wall. Magma boiled and spat mere metres beneath her feet. Moaning with barely contained fear, she hauled herself up the cliff face and back on to safer ground.

  Bane’s unpleasant laugh welcomed her back into the fight and, without giving her a chance to recuperate, he began to open more and more chasms, forcing her closer and closer towards his waiting grasp. Realizing what he was doing, Charlie summoned her courage and, instead of jumping away, actually ran towards him. But Bane was wise to her tricks and greeted her with a punishing blow from his fist. It sent her flying, shattering what few columns were left, until the far wall stopped her. Groaning in disbelief, she sank to the floor.

  Bane laughed yet again. The sound of it was bitter and cruel to Charlie’s ears.

  ‘Not healing so fast now, are you, maggot?’

  When Bane ripped free yet another section of the ceiling, Charlie heaved herself upright and staggered for the door. She had to get to the courtyard.

  ‘Going somewhere? Pah! This is my palace. My city. There is nowhere to run to. Nowhere left for you to hide. Why not face the inevitable and surrender to your fate?’

  But Charlie was definitely not interested in that. She picked up a handful of broken statue shards and flung them at Bane in the hope that they would momentarily blind him. Without waiting to see if her ruse had worked, she hobbled through the antechamber, pulled herself through the hole in the wall and crawled into the courtyard on hands and knees, hoping against hope that Nibbler wouldn’t be late, hoping that for once fate wouldn’t stack all the odds against her. Hearing the thud-thud-thud of Bane’s pursuing footsteps, she crawled faster. For good or ill, for life or death, the moment of truth was fast approaching.

  The giant grunted when he caught sight of Last Laugh’s corpse.

  ‘Ahhh … so that’s where you got your new strength from. But you are a fool to think that more blood will help you now.’ He forced his way through the wall into the courtyard. He flicked her over with a negligent nudge from his foot so that he could stare down at her for one last time. ‘Humans. Squishy little Humans. I hate you all.’

  Charlie stared back at him and although fear flickered across her face, it also glistened with determination. ‘After all I’ve endured, after all I’ve had to fight through, I’ve never given up. I’ve never stopped moving forward. My parents have always been in my mind and so too has the thought of defeating you. And at last, at long last, today is my day. Today I am victorious.’

  ‘Are you mad?’ sneered Bane. ‘Disgusting maggot, it is you who lie beneath my boot, not the other way round. It is you who face defeat.’

  Charlie gazed up at him. The fear had left her face now and all that remained was confidence and certainty. ‘Oh, I wouldn’t be too sure about that. But before you go, I’ve got one last question that I’m dying to ask.’

  Puzzled by her words, Bane actually paused to humour her. ‘And what question is that?’

  ‘Well … is there any chance you’d let me see what’s under that hood?’

  ‘What?’

  ‘No? Oh well, I didn’t think you would.’ Charlie looked past him and waved at the heavens.

  Bane looked up.

  Rocksteady, Thief Cutter and their crews clung to the sides of the shaft. Jensen sat astride Hotstepper and at his side was Nibbler. Seeing the tyrant who had imprisoned them in the Winged Realm, the Winged Ones began to howl, their combined voices rising to a thunderous explosion of noise that whipped and echoed around the courtyard. Releasing their grip upon the shaft, they spread their wings, splayed their talons and dropped like stones.

  Bane bellowed and lifted his shadow-wreathed fists. The dark halo covering his shoulders spiked and flared. Bunching his legs beneath him, he sprang towards his adversaries.

  But it was a futile act of defiance. There was no stopping this avalanche of judgement, no means of stemming the tide of glittering scales and razor-sharp teeth. Winged One after Winged One collided with him and soon he was lost beneath a rustling mass of snarling, growling dragons. ‘NO!’ he roared and punched a fist free. ‘I WILL NOT –’

  The Winged Ones shouted wordlessly and pulled him back into their embrace.

  ‘– MY LAND! MY EMPIRE! MY –’

  Again he surged free from the mass, flailing at the pack of Winged Ones, and, ignoring the teeth clamped round his limbs, he lurched towards Charlie.

  ‘YOU! MAGGOT! ALL YOUR FAULT –’

  Somehow he managed to free an arm from his executioners. Lashing out, he tried to grab at Charlie. But once again his efforts were foiled as the Winged Ones pulled him back.

  ‘– FILTH! I HATE –’

  Then he rose no more. The dragons enveloped him and smothered him with their bodies.

  Charlie watched with grim eyes. As the mass of winged beasts rolled over Bellania’s greatest enemy there were flickers of bright colour as lightning was released and sombre blooms of darkness as Bane’s powers ebbed away. It was not a pleasant sight but she had to be sure. She had to be certain that he was gone. She waited until it seemed to be finished.

  ‘I’ve done it,’ she whispered to herself. ‘It’s over.’

  She felt a weight fall from her shoulders. Her back straightened and her eyes glistened not with tears but with hope. After all she had been through – the Wyrms, Lady Narcissa, Stix and Stones, Constantina, the Daemon Kindred, Edge Darkmount, the broken bones, the lost friends and mentors – she had finally succeeded in accomplishing all her ambitions. The Winged Ones had returned (dragons, real dragons, she still couldn’t believe it!), Bane was dead (she’d defeated an actual giant!) and Bellania was free. She had suffered dark cruelties and horrors but now at last she could enjoy her fairy-tale moment.

  Charlie, still covered in all sorts of dirt and wearing little more than rags, smiled broadly up at the heavens. Life felt sweet.

  ‘Hey!’ she said to Rocksteady, who had paused to oversee his brethren. ‘Did you guys sort out that god?’

  ‘It wasn’t us who attended to the matter,’ he replied, ‘but that problem has been fixed.’

  ‘So I can Portal?’ she asked.

  ‘You can Portal.’

  Charlie grinned at that. Summoning her Will, she tore open a rift. As she jumped through the glimmering opening, the last she ever saw of Bane were wisps of his bandages fluttering beneath the Winged Ones’ talons.

  68

  Crow’s Revenge

  Charlie’s Portal deposited her in the ruins of Bane’s Throne Room. Breathing freely and feeling more relaxed than she had in a long time, she padded past the chasms and crevices that now marred the marble floor and headed towards Bane’s Tapestry …

  Then staggered to a stop when she realized that something was dreadfully wrong. Where her parents should have been there was nothing but a gaping hole.

  ‘Over here, Charlie,’ chuck
led a cold voice.

  Feeling her stomach lurch, Charlie took her time in turning round. She really didn’t want to see what came next.

  Mr Crow stood at the edge of one of the crevices. The smile on his face and the nasty gleam of victory in his dead eyes said it all. On either side of him, still encased in lumps of the amber-like substance, were her parents.

  Elias and Mya Keeper.

  And they were uncomfortably close to the chasm’s edge with nothing but a long fall between them and the fires below.

  ‘You –’ began Charlie, but was cut short by the lawyer.

  ‘Oh no, no, no,’ he tut-tutted. ‘We won’t be having any of that, my filly. It is my time to speak. Yes, it is.’ He paused to twitch and twitter, then waited for a wayward crow to return to his body before carrying on. ‘I’m a lawyer so I can accept that other people will always have different views. But let me tell you this, my pretty filly, in my humble opinion all of this is your fault! Yes, you, Charlie, have caused all of these mishaps to happen to poor Mr Crow. So it is only fitting that you suffer some hardship by way of recompense. But I’m not an unnecessarily cruel man; I’m a lawyer, not a thug, so I present to you a choice. Who shall pay for your sins? Elias Keeper?’ He gave the casing that housed her father a little nudge that carried him closer to the edge. ‘Or Mya Keeper?’ He gave her mother’s casing a similar nudge. ‘So who is it to be, my filly? Make your choice.’

  Mr Crow the Lawyer

  ‘I’m not playing your game.’

  ‘Oh yes, you will, Charlie. You will! For if you do not, both parties will take the plunge!’ Reaching out, he pushed the casings further until they were teetering right on the edge. ‘Choose!’

  ‘Neither.’

  ‘Oh, how very spineless of you. Choose one so that at least the other will live. Show some of that courage I’ve always been hearing about. Come on, little filly, it really isn’t all that hard. Just pick the parent who you love the least.’

  Charlie scowled at that. ‘You’re more twisted than I ever remember.’

  ‘Yes!’ shrieked Mr Crow, abruptly furious. He briefly split into birds before assuming his original shape. ‘And who do we have to thank for that? You, little miss perfect. You! Now make your choice before I grow weary and make it for you.’

  ‘No,’ repeated Charlie firmly. ‘You don’t get it, do you? I’m not making a choice and I’m not playing your game. And you must have been reading too many bad books or watching too many cheesy movies to think that a thing like this would work in real life. Only an idiot would allow themselves to get sucked into a decision where one of their parents had to die. Forget it.’

  ‘Last chance, Charlie Keeper.’

  ‘No! This is your last chance. If you leave now I’ll give you six months’ head start before I come for you, and that’s the only offer you’ll get from me. Now or ever.’

  Mr Crow looked at her like she was a fool. ‘You don’t seem to grasp the principle of my offer, do you, my little filly? I hold all the cards and you have none.’

  ‘Oh, I wouldn’t know about that. My friends are just behind you. I’d say that gives me a slight edge to my bargaining power.’

  ‘I’m not falling for that old trick,’ sneered the lawyer, and instead of looking round he kept his eyes fixed firmly on Charlie.

  ‘It’s no trick,’ said Jensen.

  Hotstepper was too dignified to say anything and merely growled loud enough for echoes to bounce around the once great room.

  Nibbler, on the other hand, couldn’t have kept his mouth closed for all the money in the world. ‘You pack of featherless birds! You big-nosed chump! You’d better step back nice and quiet or I’m going to finish the job I started in Sylvaris. Next time I open my mouth –’

  ‘Thanks, Nibbler,’ said Charlie, interrupting his flow. ‘I’ve got this.’

  He blushed and waved at her.

  Mr Crow screeched, more than ever like a bird. Twisting his head round, he stared at Charlie’s companions. He was somewhat reassured to see that they still stood on the far side of the room and that several crevices lay between him and them. There was still an opportunity for him to come out on top.

  ‘So what’s it going to be, Mr Crow?’ asked Charlie. ‘I come for you now or in six months’ time?’

  Rapidly growing more and more unstable, Crow jerked back and forth from bird form to lawyer. Pretending he’d never heard her words, he shouted at her, ‘Choose!’

  ‘No.’

  A stillness settled on Mr Crow. ‘Very well. I’ll choose for you. Both.’

  Screeching, he pushed both parents from the ledge. With a final hop and a skip, he leaped into the air and – with that peculiar sound of breaking glass – split apart into hundreds of crows.

  ‘Nibbler!’ screamed Charlie.

  ‘On it!’ he replied and burst into motion.

  ‘Hotstepper!’ cried Charlie. ‘Keep those birds in this room!’

  He nodded and spread his wings wide.

  Charlie raised her arms and tore open two Portals. Seconds later, her parents, still encased in the fabric of the Tapestry, appeared through the Portals in front of her. They plummeted back down the chasm only to reappear seconds later, falling in a non-stop loop much like she had done with Jensen on top of Narcissa’s tower.

  Nibbler appeared above the chasm’s edge with Charlie’s mother in his grasp. He gently deposited her casing at Charlie’s feet, then disappeared back over the edge. Long moments later he returned with her father.

  ‘Thank you, Nibbler.’

  ‘You got it, Charlie.’

  The two of them paused to watch Hotstepper hurl himself around the Throne Room in complicated manoeuvres. Every once in a while he would unleash a jet of flame, shepherding the crows away from the exit.

  ‘Want to help Hotstepper push Mr Crow towards me?’

  Nibbler grinned. ‘It’ll be a pleasure.’

  Jumping in the air, he joined his elder brother in harassing the birds.

  ‘Hey, Mr Crow!’ shouted Charlie. ‘If you don’t want to get eaten by dragons or burned to a crisp, I’d suggest you get out of here.’

  The birds shrieked angrily at her.

  ‘What? Nowhere to go?’ She pulled open a large Portal. ‘I know you like choices,’ she hollered, ‘so how about this? You’ve got five seconds to get out of here and then I’m going to let Nibbler and Hotstepper indulge in their passion for roast chicken. Sorry, roast crow!’

  The two Winged Ones growled accommodatingly for her and even breathed out an extra flare of flame. Jensen, looking on, smiled in amusement.

  ‘One! Two! Three! Four!’

  The birds didn’t wait for the count of five. With a nasty shriek, they spat towards Charlie’s Portal. She waited for them to grow closer, then tensed and twisted both her Will and the Portal in an unusual motion. When the last crow had disappeared she allowed the golden circle to shimmer shut.

  ‘So where did the other end of the Portal open?’ asked Jensen with an appreciative grin.

  ‘In the lava?’ suggested Nibbler.

  ‘Did you send him to the Tangerine Isles so the crocophiles could have an afternoon snack?’ said Hotstepper.

  ‘None of those,’ said Charlie.

  ‘So where did ya send him?’ asked Jensen. ‘Back ta Earth?’

  ‘No, I sent him to as many different places as possible and to as many different destinations as I could think of. I’ve scattered those birds up and down Bellania, across Earth and even sent some to the Patchwork Realm. There’s no way he’s coming back from that.’

  ‘So he’s not dead?’ asked Nibbler.

  ‘No,’ replied Charlie, ‘but he’s not exactly whole either. And at least this way we can rest assured that he’s never going to hurt anyone ever again.’

  ‘Well, I’m not sure about that,’ said Hotstepper, taking the part of devil’s advocate. ‘We’re talking about hundreds of evil birds haunting the realms. There could be a whole lot of people out there getting pe
cked on the hand right about now.’

  ‘Yeah, maybe,’ admitted Charlie, then chuckled at the foolish image his words conjured. ‘But sooner or later any bird that angry is going to get swatted to the ground and turned into mincemeat. No … it’s the best solution I could think of. Besides, what’s the worst that could happen?’

  ‘Grumpy, black-feathered birds try and take over the world?’ said Nibbler.

  ‘A sharp increase in unwelcome bird poop falling on people’s heads?’ suggested Hotstepper.

  ‘Courts of law constantly get interrupted by crows pretending ta be injury lawyers?’ said Jensen with a sly wink.

  Charlie paused to shake her head at her friends. ‘I gave you guys the perfect opening for bird puns and that’s the best you can deliver? It’s a sad day in Bellania when the only heroes we have to offer are you three.’

  ‘I like the taking-over-the-world idea,’ admitted Hotstepper. ‘Maybe we should come up with a name for potential bird threats? How does this grab you? Doctor Crow and his army of Feathered Commandos.’

  ‘Nice,’ agreed Jensen. ‘Wot about the Dark Crowman and his Peckmeister Minions?’

  ‘Oh, my days, are you trying to kill me with pure cheesiness? Enough already,’ insisted Charlie. ‘Stop trying to drop one-liners and help me with my parents.’

  Charlie used what was left of her Will to open a large Portal back to the Jade Circle. The others lifted her parents with as much reverence as possible and together they left the ruined shambles of Bane’s Throne Room behind.

  Minutes later, Charlie and Nibbler returned through another Portal. They scampered over to the dais with cheeky expressions plastered across their faces. Grunting and groaning, they strained against the Devouring Throne until it toppled into one of the chasms to plunge into the lava with a satisfactory splash. Job done, the two exchanged a high five then departed, to return no more.

  69

  The Day After

  E’Jaaz strode by Charlie’s side as they wandered along Deepforest’s floor. The dragonsblood had not been as kind to him as it had to Charlie. Perhaps he had taken too much or maybe he had tried to use too much Will while physically weakened. Whatever the cause, it had left grey streaks in his hair and dark shadows beneath his eyes, his face looked gaunt and it was clear that he had lost a lot of weight. But for all the physical changes he had undergone, his roguish spirit still remained, he still stepped with a swagger and each time he smiled his white teeth flashed merrily in the sunlight.