“Uh, guys,” he muttered. “I think we’re actually inside the stomach of a giant whale.”
“Ha, good one.” Jed shook his head.
“Holy ushk,” Elijah rasped. “I think you’re right. Those things aren’t rock, it’s baleen.”
“Huh,” said Jed.
“What whales have for teeth,” Elijah said. “It’s how they eat…” Elijah trailed off as the teeth opened ever so slightly and more water flooded in, and with it came dozens of what looked like cat-sized shrimp, “krill.” Elijah finished.
“Demon krill,” Evan pointed out, scrambling to his feet. “We need to get out of here. Now.”
“Wait, you’re saying we’re inside a demonic blue whale or something?” Jed cried. “First giant slugs, now this. What have we got to deal with next, ginormous ostriches?”
The krill entering the whale’s mouth were alive, complete with snapping pincers. More and more monstrous krill poured inside the whale’s mouth, even as Elijah hurriedly retrieved the Rambrace.
The water splashed across Evan’s legs as it reached them, carrying the krill with it. He began throwing energy spheres with one hand, and wielding Ruaden with the other as the krill attacked. The aquatic demons leeched onto his arms and legs, attempting to eat into his armour, but Evan sliced several into pieces and blasted a dozen more with energy magic before they could.
Elijah screamed wildly, looking like he was tapdancing as he stamped on the demons and threw spells at them carelessly. Jed bellowed beside him, not using sorcery at all, only his axe to hack into the monsters.
One krill leaped up suddenly, colliding into Evan’s face. He felt its feelers on his skin, burning like boiled water. At once the magic in his hand turned to emerald fire, and as he yanked the demon off his face it burned to ash in his palm.
He looked round to see another stream of water racing toward them, this time from the opposite end of the whale.
“I think that’s stomach acid,” Elijah cried, “it’ll burn us alive.”
“Jed, get that portal open,” Evan commanded, kicking another krill away from him like a football, and also dealing with another who’s pincers clung to either side of his forearm.
“I’m trying, there’s too many of them.” Jed backed up against the side of the whale’s insides, fiddling with the Rambrace with one hand, whilst the other flailed at the krill with his axe.
“Forget fighting them. I’ll cover you,” he roared, wading toward Jed and slashing the crowd of krill apart.
“It’s almost here!” Elijah yelled.
Evan looked back at the churning stomach acid, less than a metre away now.
The portal abruptly bloomed to life as Jed activated the Rambrace.
“Get in, both of you,” he said, simultaneously summoning the water element and willing it form a wall of ice behind them. The low wall formed a moment before the acid tide hit them, but the liquid began eroding the wall instantly.
Jed ignored the endless amounts of krill still swarming in through the demon whale’s mouth and jumped into the portal, swiftly followed by Elijah. As he turned to do the same, the mass of krill almost toppled him over. The creatures were so clumped together they were like one amorphous being.
Evan roared incoherently as the wall gave way behind him and he charged into the portal, the acid splashing across his boots, eating into the armour and stinging his feet. A few moments more and the acid would’ve started eating away at his flesh instead, but by then the portal had swallowed him whole.
He was blinded by the blue, purple and white lights as he flew through rifts in space, time and between worlds. His body felt weightless even as his stomach twisted as if he was on a rollercoaster. Suddenly, he was tumbling through an ivory archway inside Veneseron’s mission chamber, falling on top of Elijah and Jed.
Mission monitors hurried over from their desks at the boy’s abrupt arrival.
Serveral demon krill came in through the portal with them, but Evan swiftly mashed them into mush with his fist.
“We, uh, got the amulet,” Jed said loudly, holding up the slime-ridden necklace. “It’s a bit dirty though.”
*
A roaring fire leapt and crackled merrily from its hearth, inside one of Veneseron’s many recreation chambers. Brooke lounged in the armchair, surrounded by various Venators who’d just been watching TV or playing games. Now, however, everyone’s attention was on two of Brooke’s friends.
Not for the first time Zeke and Xavier were in trouble.
“How could you?” Emillia demanded as she returned from the bathroom.
“It was an accident,” Xavier held up his skinny arms in defence as Zeke attempted to hold in his laughter.
“How is setting fire to my hair an accident?” Emillia cried. “I’d be bald right now if Joelle hadn’t been able to grow it back.”
Minutes before, Emi had sprinted out of the rec room and into the nearest bathroom, dismayed by how her hair had suddenly been burned when she’d tried to change the TV channel. Joelle had swiftly followed her and Brooke was relieved to see she’d been able to restore Emi’s hair, good as new. That didn’t stop Emi being furious, however.
“How many times do you want us to apologise,” Xavier implored, “It was just a prank, mainly Zeke’s idea, but…”
“You know full well it was yours,” the much bigger Zeke chided him, his baritone a stark contrast to Xavier’s high pitch.
Xavier flinched comically. “How very dare you?”
The small and stick-thin Xavier was practically the opposite to the tall and muscled Izekiel. Another slight difference was that Xavier was a pasty human, and Zeke was a grey skinned Yurod alien. The Yurod closely resembled humans, though, aside from the skin colour and three small nodules above the brows, almost like eyebrow piercings.
“You thought it would be funny, didn’t you?” Emillia interrupted, her face scrunched into a scowl.
It was too much for Xavier as he burst into uncontrollable laughter. “Well, yeah. It was pretty hilarious. Your face was a picture.”
With a cry of indignation, Emillia stormed from the room for the second time. Even Brooke worked to suppress a giggle.
“Well done guys, she probably won’t talk to you for weeks.” Joelle rolled her eyes.
“Ha,” said Xavier. “Emi’s got the memory of a dogfish, she’s probably forgotten about it already.”
“She’s not that bad,” Brooke reprimanded him.
“Oh yes she is. She’s the epitome of dumb blonde, maybe dumber. I’ll make it up to her and let her use that conditioner I brought in the city last week. It gives my hair a vibrancy and shine to die for.”
“You’re so gay,” Zeke snorted.
“Takes one to know one,” Xavier replied.
“Right,” said Joelle, falling back into the seat beside Brooke. “Can I get back to watching my Jewelball game now? Or are you planning yet another of your amazing pranks?”
Xavier shrugged. “Hey, don’t judge. It was a spur of the moment thing, not an elaborate prank. We’ll save one of them for later.”
“Well, prank me and I’ll get you back ten times worse,” said Brooke.
“Here, here,” Joelle agreed.
Xavier looked like he was going to respond, but he was distracted as the door banged open and Jed burst into the room.
“Yes, we have arrived. Bow down to your demon slaying saviours,” Jed proclaimed at the top of his voice.
Brooke looked up as the three of them emerged, their armour covered in grime and blood.
The three boys couldn’t be more different. Evan was pale, tall and slim, with light brown hair and stormy grey eyes, whereas Jed was tanned, short and stocky, with close cropped blond hair, slightly chubby cheeks and lime green eyes. Elijah was just a little taller than Jed, with smooth ebony skin, long braids, and large tawny eyes like two golden coins.
Brooke leapt up to hug them all as they came over, wearing lopsided grins.
“Please tell me tha
t’s not your blood all over you?” she asked.
“No.” Evan grinned. “It’s mainly Onlekk and demon krill.”
“Demon krill?” Xavier exclaimed. “You’ll have to tell me at length about these monstrous crustaceans. I hate normal sea creatures, let alone ones that will actively try to eat me.”
“Crustaceans?” Jed asked.
Xavier just shook his head. “Rueda, I’m surrounded by Neanderthals.”
“Oooh, may I?” Evan’s eyes alighted on the sweets spread across the table.
“Help yourself,” said Joelle, beckoning Evan to pick up a large bar of chocolate.
“Ha, I got you beat, boys,” said Brooke. “Demon krill are nothing compared to giant jellyfish with eel tentacles.”
“What, no way,” Evan cried, before sucking out a big gloop of green troll treacle which lay inside his chocolate bar.
As they exchanged mission stories, she thought back to when she’d first met Jed and Evan. Back then, Evan had been a socially awkward and nervous guy, whilst Jed had been rather too overconfident. Both of them had changed so much since then. Due to months of physical training, they’d grown a lot more athletic too. Still, Brooke reckoned she’d beat them both in a lap around the Fortress.
“We done it, mission complete, another adventure under the belt for Jed Jagger,” he proclaimed.
“Yeah and it looks like you brought half the demon back with you.” Brooke pointed out.
“You’ll never guess what,” said Jed. “We had to face a bloomin’ regenerator fiend. If I hadn’t been there, these two would have been goner’s.”
“Sure.” Evan chuckled as Jed sat between Zeke and Xavier on the sofa.
“Jed! You’re covered in blood,” Xavier complained, jumping back and whisking his cloak away. “You’ll soil my new cloak, you philistine. I spent a lot of money on this.”
She shared a grin with Evan. They both knew how fussy Xavier was about his clothes and appearance.
“I don’t care,” Jed beamed like a child. “We got the amulet. Padrake will be thrilled.”
“X-U5 won’t if you get blood all over the sofa,” Elijah warned.
Brooke hadn’t met Veneseron’s head-porter, but knew the cyborg and his army of droids were in charge of keeping the castles clean.
Jed waved a hand dismissively. “This is a time to rejoice. We should party.”
Brooke laughed. “What, just because you did well on one mission, and I bet Evan did most of the work.”
“Why would you think that,” Jed responded, putting on a hurt tone. “You think Evan’s a better Venator than I am?”
“Maybe, but in Archives training we’re told the only way to kill a regenerator is to burn every body part to ash, and we all know Evan’s ability with the fire element.”
Jed waved the scarlet pendant in her face. “Who snatched this from around the neck of a two-headed demon I wonder. Oh yeah, me.”
“Jed, you are so puerile.”
“Swallowed a dictionary again, mate?” Jed smiled back at Xavier.
“Shall I take the amulet to Padrake?” Elijah held out his hand.
“Go on then. I’d probably lose it before I could get it to him.” Jed tossed it over.
Elijah caught it deftly before leaving, muttering about getting himself cleaned up first.
“Hey,” said Evan, looking around the chamber, “where’s Taija? Has she been okay?”
“She’s probably in the Archives,” Joelle answered. “She’s hardly left that place. Don’t worry, we’ve all been looking out for her, as you asked. She just prefers being by herself I think.”
Brooke agreed. She’d hardly interacted with Taija herself since Evan’s sister had arrived at Veneseron. Taija was quiet to the point of anti-social. She didn’t show it, but Brooke suspected underneath the tough exterior, Taija was probably terrified of what she’d done before coming here. Brooke didn’t know the specifics, but she knew Taija had used so much of her demon powers it had almost killed her.
“Some people are just loners,” said Xavier. “I think she’s just trying to settle in.”
“Should I, uh, go and see her?” Evan asked.
Brooke could tell Evan wasn’t the best at social situations himself.
“Don’t worry, mate,” said Jed. “I’ll go track her down in the Archives in a bit. She’ll be overjoyed to see me.”
Jed joked, yet Brooke knew Jed had bonded more with Taija than anyone.
“So, anything good happen around here whilst we intrepid heroes were out risking our necks?” Jed ran an already filthy hand through his hair.
“Zeke and Xavier used a spell to make Emillia’s hair fall out,” Brooke sighed.
“No way,” Jed snorted.
“I didn’t have anything to do with it actually,” Zeke mumbled.
“Don’t be a swine,” Xavier scoffed. “You manipulated me into it.”
“Alright, we get the point,” interrupted Jed. “Can we talk about how well I performed on my mission now?”
“Talk about whatever you want, but I better get cleaned up myself.” Evan cut in, heading towards the door. “You coming?”
“Naa,” said Jed, leaning back and placing his arms round both Xavier and Zeke’s shoulders, getting demon blood on them both. They pushed him off the sofa, Zeke sniggering but Xavier jumping up to scrub furiously at his usually spotless clothes.
“I’ll come with you,” Brooke said.
“So how did your mission go?” he asked as they set off down the corridor. “I was worried about you being paired up with Bane.”
In Evan’s first mission, Bane Madagant, along with Sintian, had left him behind.
“He was…typical Bane. But no. In fact, he saved my life.”
“Good. At least he was there when it counted. I bet Joelle was really jealous you got a job with Bane and she didn’t.” Evan chuckled.
The winding passageways were softly lit by flickering flames, or else glowing balls of light embedded in the walls themselves. These walls were lavishly embellished with an array of brilliant artworks, depicting bizarre and fantastical landscapes, vistas of phenomenal settings, or else architecture from ancient cities and civilisations.
“Greetings, young demon hunters,” a statue at the end of the passage doffed his crown as they passed.
Now the twin suns of Veneseron had surrendered to night, the statues around the Fortress had come alive. They passed a second statue in the next corridor, this one playing a game of Eye-Spy with a couple of Apprentices.
She and Evan had arrived at Veneseron at near-enough the same time and had trained here at the Fortress ever since. Normal Venators spent their time here honing their magical talents and preparing for missions across the many worlds, but she and Evan weren’t just normal Venators.
“I, uh,” Brooke hesitated. “I know you only just got back, I only arrived back here a few hours ago myself, but I don’t suppose you’ve heard if Vanderain is back yet, have you?”
The High-Master of Veneseron had travelled to the Realmer capital of Del-O-Reth and had been trying to call a meeting of the Republic council, because of her and Evan.
“I don’t know,” Evan said, the traces of humour leaving his expression. “Why? Are you still worried about that Rakarn girl who saw you use demon magic?”
“Yes,” she whispered. The corridors were empty, but she still had to be careful. If their fellow Venators found out she and Evan were half demon there’d be chaos. Evan got attention enough for his new burn mark. He’d told her that the looks and whispers of the other Realmers didn’t bother him, but Brooke could tell he was lying.
“Selina knew I’d used demon magic. We need to tell Vanderain the Dark-Venators might know about us. He’d want to know.”
Evan nodded grimly. “We should’ve let Tarensen know already, but…” he trailed off.
She knew Evan felt incredibly guilty about what had happened to Tarensen, but it wasn’t his fault a Demon Disciple had almost killed one of their
Masters. As far as she knew, Tarensen was still in the infirmary, recuperating from his grievous injuries.
“Maybe we can tell Taretta,” Evan said. “She’s Vanderain’s daughter after all. But like I told you before...”
He met her gaze, his long lashes framing dark misty eyes speckled with odd spots of red.
“You’re worrying way too much. I know it’s serious, but there’s nothing we can do about it. This Selina might’ve told all of Velkarath what she saw, but who’s to say anyone believed her? From what Vanderain said, my dear old mother is off waging wars on other worlds. She probably isn’t even at Velkarath. Besides, Selina might’ve decided she’d been mistaken anyway.”
She nodded, knowing he was trying to make her feel better, but it didn’t stop the pit of dread inside her.
Evan stopped outside the boy’s bathroom. “Right, I need to shower and then return my armour. I’ll see you tomorrow for our first day back to training,” he smiled at her warmly.
“Yeah, not that our missions were anything like a vacation,” she grinned back.
They parted ways and Brooke headed down the stairs to the second floor of the castle, heading for her bedroom. The Fortress was usually alight with activity at all hours, but she didn’t even see a statue about now.
She wasn’t very familiar with this part of the castle. There were literally over a thousand different corridors, and Brooke wasn’t close to knowing them all. In the centre of this passage was an open door, and as Brooke passed it there came a great crash.
Brooke froze. “Hello, is anyone in there?”
There was no answer. Brooke knew pixies and gnomes often snuck up from the forest and broke into the castles to steal stuff, but she also had the nagging feeling whoever had caused the crash might more sinister.
She placed a hand on her sword hilt and stepped into the strange room.
*
Lok had returned to the Chamber of Remembrance once again, his feet taking him there like they often had for the past six weeks.
Six weeks. Rueda, has it been that long already?
He wound his way through the labyrinth of statues, searching as ever for his fallen friend.
Angels and Elves- Act I Page 4
