From The Dark

by Tobey Alexander

  The feel of the Nivag’s finger filled Gabe with a strange sensation, he bottled the shiver that wanted to trace the length of his spine and held himself firm.

  ‘The sword you’ve held it in your hand, the power harnessed at your command.’

  ‘He has faced her, and so has Claudia.’ Archy interrupted.

  ‘I smell her blood.’ Yebot sang but did not finish his rhyme.

  ‘What is it?’ Archy pressed, sensing the pause and break in Yebot’s pattern of speech.

  ‘They shared the task to face their foe, where did the other of them go?’

  Yebot’s question hung unanswered for a moment. As the little Nivag looked up at Gabe, he mustered the strength to answer.

  ‘My son, Logan, he was there too. We fought together to kill the Magdon but at a price.’

  ‘My mother,’ Claudia began. ‘The man that resurrected the Magdon killed her. My brother wanted revenge.’

  ‘A darkened soul that’s filled with hate, it’s hard to stop what is their fate.’

  ‘Meaning what?’

  ‘It is not mine to judge or say, it would be right for him to stay. His life it is connected true, the same of her and him and you.’

  Releasing Gabe’s hand Yebot turned to look once again at Archy.

  ‘What do you say we get out of here and somewhere a little less dusty?’

  ‘A box is not a place to stay, my preference is to move away.’

  Scooping Yebot up into his hand Archy allowed the Nivag to scramble up onto his shoulder and peer out from beside his head.

  ‘You know he can’t stay there out there don’t you?’ Claudia laughed as they walked towards the insecure door Nahem had left them.

  ‘Give him some credit Claudia. Yebot has been with me for a long time and on many journeys, he has many ways to stay unseen and safe my dear.’

  ‘Your hat my friend not on your head, I thought it there or be you dead.’

  ‘I still have it you cheeky sod!’

  With a strange sense of accomplishment the four, Yebot included, left the intricate tunnels behind and made their way out of the dusty courtyard.

  19

  Reunited Friends

  Rain lashed onto the roof of the derelict food court. Water dripped somewhere unseen, rhythmic in its drip-splash sound that repeated every few seconds. With the torrential downpour, the temperature had dropped. No sooner had they arrived back at the abandoned theme park did they construct a more significant fire.

  Gabe and Nahem had scavenged what dry wood they could from around the building and piled up on a patch of cracked and dirt-strewn tiles in the former food court’s middle. Having splashed fuel from a Jerry Can onto the wood the flames had jumped to life bathing the room in heat and light.

  Now, as they added wood to the pile, the heat was noticeable around the small bonfire. Having dragged seats and logs around the roaring fire Gabe and his companions huddled around the fire to talk.

  ‘We need formal introductions I suppose,’ Archy began as Yebot warmed his hands close to the dancing flames.

  It was strange to see the pint-sized Nivag stood on the tiled floor next to the fire. Gabe couldn’t help cast curious glances at the small creature as it moved. Having seen the adult-sized Nivags in the beached ship, Yebot seemed an amusing and odd thing.

  ‘Yebot here was born by Nahem’s grandfather a long, long time ago.’

  ‘Time passes slower for those with the gift.’ Yebot said, the first time he had spoken without rhyme.

  ‘Do you always sing?’ Gabe interrupted, doing his best to hide the natural mistrust for the Nivag from his voice. ‘It’s quite, unique, thing.’

  ‘Yebot here has always been musical. If he does not rhyme his words, he will often sing what he says, it is his way of communicating.’

  ‘Is that normal?’ Claudia asked.

  ‘Is any of this normal?’ Gabe huffed. ‘We’re talking to a man over a hundred years old and a palm-sized half human half bone little thing in an abandoned theme park. What could be normal about this?’

  All eyes settled on Gabe making him feel self-conscious.

  ‘Finished?’ Archy scorned. ‘Shikekeh was a trusted shamen in a small village in India. In my younger years, I first met Shikekeh where he helped me birth Yebot into the world from a crystal I took from my time in Egypt.’

  ‘Egypt, India, Hadrian’s Wall, is there anywhere this adventure hasn’t taken you?’ Claudia pressed.

  ‘There are places, my dear,’ Archy smiled. ‘Few, but there are places I have never been.’

  ‘Sorry to interrupt but what does this thing do to help us stop my son and maybe save him?’

  ‘Yebot is no thing my friend, I am here from the start to end.’

  ‘Then what can you do to help me save my son other than stand there singing?’

  The frustration was clear in Gabe, his fists were clenched as he glared at Yebot.

  ‘What’s wrong dad?’ Claudia rested her hand on her father’s shoulder but felt him tense at her touch.

  ‘I feel we are wasting time. What can any of this do to help us?’ Gabe stood as his voice rose. ‘I spent a day wandering through Nottingham and through tunnels underground and for what? So far nobody has given me any idea how this will help us at all.’

  ‘You were right to say his passion’s true, he screams at me and yells at you.’

  ‘You need to understand my little friend, his family has been broken by all of this.’

  ‘It was the same when you left them, it’s sad to see it happen again.’

  ‘But I hope this time there is something we can do to right, at least some wrongs laid at our feet.’

  Gabe remained standing. Nahem watched him with curiosity while the others in the room seemed to be wary of his bottled anger. After a short amount of silence, Archy offered a voice to break the quiet.

  ‘Nahem here has been in contact with Gabe’s son when he discovered a disturbing truth.’

  ‘She lives, not yet an adult, but she lives.’ Yebot’s musical tones remained in his all0-knowing answer.

  ‘How can you know?’ Gabe barked.

  ‘Yebot is aligned to us Gabe, I have never questioned his loyalty, and we have known each other for over a century.’ Archy smiled down at Yebot. ‘He is, and always will be, however, a Nivag. He remains able to feel the connection he has with the Magdon and those of his kind.’

  ‘So he could betray us, by accident?’

  Archy paused for a moment, eyebrow raised as he looked at Yebot.

  ‘I would never betray my friend and master.’ Yebot sang.

  ‘I have never had cause to believe otherwise my friend.’ Archy returned his gaze to Gabe. ‘There are many things you have yet to learn about the world we now inhabit Gabe, and I understand your frustration, I do. But please, please let me do what I think is best for all of us in this.’

  ‘I don’t know what, why, when…’ Gabe fought to find the words.

  ‘Sit down dad.’

  ‘No!’ Gabe’s bellowed, his voice bouncing off the walls. ‘I’ve lost him, and I need to get him back. I need to do more than sit here and listen to stories.’

  Archy rose. Supported by his canes, he moved around the fire to stand in front of Gabe. Gabe was taken aback how old Archy once again looked. The shadows cast on his face by the flicker flames added to his age, and he was awash with guilt and remorse.

  Placing one hand on Gabe’s clenched fist, the old man looked up at him.

  ‘I know all too well the pain and frustration you are feeling. I once had a family.’ Archy’s eyes welled in the fire's light. ‘I gave them up, I took on a whole new life to protect them as I thought was right to do. And now, now after all this time, I realise it was for nothing because I am stood here with you.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I abandoned my wife and two children so I could spare them being dragged into all of this.’ A tear rolled down Archy’s cheek as a painful memory danced through his head
. ‘Yet by you and your daughter, my kin, being here it means it was all for nothing. Fate would drag my family into this no matter the sacrifices I have made along the way.’

  ‘I didn’t realise.’ Gabe stammered as his fists unclenched. ‘I’m sorry.’

  The slap of Archy’s hand across Gabe’s cheek caught everyone by surprise, most of all Gabe himself.

  ‘Drag yourself from self-pity Gabe. I understand your pain, I have lived your pain and yet here I still stand. You need to harness that passion to drive you through the trials that are ahead of us but what you must not do is let your pity consume you.’

  ‘But Logan.’

  Another slap silenced him.

  ‘Logan is on a path that runs alongside ours.’

  Nahem took her cue. Unbeknownst to Gabe, there had been a lengthy conversation between the shamen’s granddaughter and Archy before they had gathered around the fire.

  The pair of them had sensed Gabe’s bubbling frustration. His outburst around the campfire had been expected, and they had planned their actions. Nahem had favoured a direct approach, but Archy had explained his reasons for the course they would take.

  As Gabe stood by the fire dumbfounded, Nahem realised that Archy’s understanding of his family was accurate.

  ‘Your son has set both himself and you on a path in search of the Magdon that was removed from the wreckage of Viktor’s ship. Willingly or not he has placed us all on a journey towards that destination, the routes may be different, but at some point, we will intersect and come together.’ Nahem explained. ‘Archy sent you to retrieve his friend so he could give us direction in that journey, without Yebot we are blind to where we should go.’

  ‘I feel no more enlightened.’ Gabe retorted, but the bitterness and venom from his voice had gone.

  ‘Have you stopped to listen?’ Nahem asked. ‘Or have you instead allowed your mistrust and frustration deafen you?’

  ‘I, well...’

  ‘So perhaps it is best if we consider listening to our guide as I believe there is something he may be able to tell us that will give us hope of direction.’

  Gabe held Nahem’s gaze for a few seconds. The burning fire reflected in her eyes seemed both physical and metaphorical, somehow he could not tell if the flames were a reflection or something burning deep inside her.

  ‘Care to listen?’ Archy pressed, and with reluctance Gabe took a seat back on the log.

  ‘A Nivag’s soul is dark and twisted, your path ahead unclear and misted.’ Yebot said as he walked around the base of the campfire towards Gabe. ‘We are all one and all connected, the link between us well protected.’

  ‘What he is trying to say,’ Nahem interrupted, sensing Gabe’s frustration at Yebot’s incessant rhyming. ‘Something connects the Nivags, almost like a colony of worker ants. Their minds can speak to one another, it is a defence mechanism that allows one Nivag to pass the mantle of protector to another should they fall.’

  ‘Kind of like a fallback plan?’ Claudia declared with a knowing nod. ‘Clever.’

  ‘It seems that way.’

  ‘So little Nivag.’

  ‘Yebot, my name is Yebot.’ He interrupted, a scowl painted on the skinned half of his face.

  ‘Ok, so Yebot here will tap into whatever channels or mental links these creatures have and find out where they are keeping it?’

  ‘Not quite.’ Archy sighed.

  ‘I had a feeling you would say that.’

  ‘Something severed Yebot’s neural connection when he imprinted on Archy. The links are primal, defence and protection of the Magdon is key and with an imprint made to anything but them, his own link was disconnected.’

  ‘So how does that help us then?’ Claudia was asking questions before her father could in the hope it would allow him time to think and calm his frustration.

  ‘Yebot can hijack another Nivag’s neural link and piggyback the connection through their shared existence.’

  ‘And we happen to have a Nivag lying around who will let us pop Yebot here into his head and find us out everything we need to know!’

  ‘Not exactly.’ Archy confessed.

  Gabe was about to speak when a wry smile tickled the corner of Archy’s mouth as he suppressed an all-knowing grin.

  ‘But perhaps I know where there may be one we could use.’

  ‘I can’t afford another trip to Africa!’ Gabe groaned.

  ‘No need my boy, there is another one a little closer than that.’

  ‘Go on.’

  ‘First, we eat and then perhaps it would be pertinent to tell you about something that happened in 1944.’

  20

  Operation Pluto

  Sandown 1944

  Rain lashed down, dragged sideways by the rough sea wind that rolled in from the coast. Taking cover beneath the high perimeter wall of Sandown Fort Archy looked out across the open central section of the old fort and admired the rain.

  Glad to be shielded from the weather Archy observed a pair of soldiers conduct their nightly handover of sentry patrols. Seeing the weather, Archy felt nothing but pity for the soldiers stationed on the watch outposts on the fortified wall. Well, he did until he saw which soldier had been allocated the night duty.

  ‘That’ll be nice for you,’ Archy muttered to himself as the soldier clambered up the slippery ladder.

  The war had been raging for almost four and a half years, and it was taking its toll on the morale of everyone. Although Archy, having now assumed his new identity as Reg, had avoided being drafted he had kept his contacts in the world of history and that had allowed him to venture to Sandown.

  They had built the fort in the late nineteenth century and was quite a sight to behold. Edging on the coast of the Isle of Wight the strengthened walls looked imposing from the ocean. Forming part of a secret operation, PLUTO, supporting the war effort and the impending landings on the beaches of Normandy. Archy had been called in to advise on the historic protection of the fort.

  Being one of the few civilians on site, most of the soldiers had met him with. Most seemed dissatisfied with their postings, rumblings in the mess spoke of a desire to take the fight to the Germans and not protect a fort on an isolated island off the British coast.

  Archy’s appearance had only riled them more. A non-military outsider who, in their eyes, did nothing but hamper the war effort.

  ‘You’ll be signing the Official Secrets Act,’ the senior officer had told him. ‘Everything you see here is to be kept in the strictest confidence. You are to advise but not interfere. We will listen to what you have to say but we will build this pipeline and no manner of trinkets and relics will stop us taking the fight to Hitler.’

  It had been a less than inspiring speech, and in true military style, Archy had offered his opinion and advice which had, for the most, been ignored.

  PLUTO, PipeLine Under The Ocean, was a massive project and commanded a lot of secret work from the units deployed to the island. Between various sites across the coast, a network of pumps was being put in place to pump fuel across the English Channel to support the war effort. It was a mammoth task and required manpower and secrecy.

  It kept Archy out of trouble and allowed him to help in his own way to the war effort.