From The Dark

by Tobey Alexander

  29

  A Family Of Darkness

  As Yebot had connected with the decapitated Nivag, he had offered his small hand out towards Gabe. With his single eye closed, he had waited for his hand to be gripped. As soon as Gabe’s skin had touched the leathery flesh he had felt ripped from the spot and dragged through the air.

  Gabe could not tell if it was a physical event but his stomach lurched and his body felt like someone had tossed it onto a roller-coaster. Shutting his eyes Gabe allowed the sickening feeling to settle before he opened his eyes.

  At first, Gabe could see nothing; he wasn’t convinced he had opened his eyes. The world was nothing but pitch black darkness. He could feel himself moving his head from side-to-side, but Gabe could see nothing.

  ‘Yebot?’

  Gabe’s voice did not echo, how the sound did not travel made it feel he was in a small room.

  ‘Master’s kin, I sense you but cannot see you.’ It was odd to hear Yebot’s musical voice without the familiar rhyming. ‘Follow my voice and join us in the light.’

  ‘I can’t see anything.’

  ‘You don’t need to.’

  Confused Gabe span around until he could just about guess where Yebot’s tiny voice was coming from. Taking uneasy steps, Gabe moved along the unseen floor, and across the nothingness, in the hope, he would discover his companion.

  ‘I see you.’ Yebot declared.

  To Gabe’s surprise, a small dot of light appeared ahead of him. Heart racing, he moved with haste and as he did, the light grew larger and brighter. After a few seconds, the ball of light was the size of a basketball. Against the black backdrop, all Gabe could see was the bright light.

  He raised his hand towards the light. The bright light painted across his skin and Gabe recoiled at what he saw.

  Instead of his own hand, he saw the bones of a skeleton reaching out where had expected to see his own flesh. As the light grew brighter, he looked down and to his disgust stared at the body of a Nivag.

  ‘What the hell is going on?’ Gabe screamed and brushed his hands against the tattered cloth and leathered flesh.

  Recoiling in disgust at himself Gabe turned around and staggered back towards to the ball of light. As his half bone, half flesh torso touched the light Gabe once again felt himself falling through nothingness.

  Without warning Gabe found solid floor and his knees buckled beneath him. Collapsing to the floor, Gabe caught his breath and once again looked down at his body. Much to his frustration, the body he inhabited was still not his own, it remained that of a Nivag.

  ‘Yebot, where are you?’

  ‘Here.’

  Turning, Gabe was relieved to see the pint-sized Nivag stood on a rock to his side. The world looked out of focus as if there was a sheen of water between him and the world behind Yebot.

  ‘What is this place?’

  ‘We are in the mind of the Nivag your daughter recovered from the ground. This will allow us to see The Magdon and where she moves. It will tell us where we need to go.’

  Yebot waved a small hand towards the rippling world behind him. As if instructed by the small Nivag the watery effect faded and the world beyond came into focus.

  Beyond them the view was breathtaking. A sprawling landscape stretched out in front. A panorama of trees and wildlife, like something seen in a safari brochure, stretched as far as the eye could see. In the distance, two spectacular mountains climbed up towards the clouds.

  The rightmost mountain appeared very stereotypical in its appearance. Steep sides climbed skyward and ended in a visible crater atop what Gabe could only assume was a volcano. Set back was a second mountain, this was far less angular and appeared a bulbous mound from the earth.

  The sides of both were littered with plants and trees for the lower two thirds however the top third looked to be a barren rock. A tendril of smoke billowed from the fatter mountain; the smoke clambered up into the clouds telling him the volcano was in fact alive.

  ‘Where are we?’

  Yebot did not answer as a sudden movement caught both of their attention. From nowhere a pair of Nivags clambered up a small outcrop of rock to their side. They were very similar in appearance except, for the first time, Gabe could tell one of them was female. The mound of a breast on the fleshed half was identifiable, and the figure was slender against its bulkier counterpart.

  Between them, they held a basket of some sort. Standing far enough apart to keep the basket tense it supported something of weight. As the Nivags climbed over the jagged rocks, they came to rest on a plateau in front of Yebot and Gabe.

  Watching in silence, Gabe observed them lay the basket down on the ground. Their movements were cumbersome and their breaths, air being drawn into invisible lungs, were laboured and hoarse. Stepping away from the basket the Nivag’s caught their breath and looked out across the sprawling grasslands.

  Gabe’s attention switched to the basket as it moved. At first, Gabe could not tell if the wind had touched it, but they quickly answered his curiosity. A furred hand, oversized for the scale of the arm, gripped the edge of the basket from inside. Rising without haste, the infant Magdon pulled itself up and over the edge of the basket and moved to the rock by Yebot’s side.

  Although a fraction of its average size the Magdon was still fearsome to behold. All sinew and muscle the beast already looked every inch the hunter and killer it was. Transfixed by the Magdon Gabe moved closer until it stood him a little way behind the creature as it looked off towards the landscape.

  ‘There is only ever one to live, and the rest will slumber. One alive at any time, this being the infant of the one you destroyed in the depths of the ship.’ Yebot explained.

  ‘Why only one?’

  ‘When the Magdon ruled, the world could not provide sustenance enough for too many of their kind. Over the centuries they evolved to live solitary lives, all female, all from the same line of descendants.’

  ‘How is that possible if they are all female?’

  ‘Legend speaks of one father Magdon. Impregnating a hoard, they turned on him and drank the blood from his body.’ Yebot shivered at the thought. ‘In that act of defiance, they sealed their fate, and so the collective separated to the corners of the earth and lived one life at a time.’

  ‘It’s hard to believe any of this,’ Gabe confessed as he watched the Magdon before him staring at the world.

  ‘Yet here we are, in the mind of a Nivag staring at a beast almost as old as time.’

  ‘And of all the things I realise, it’s that I will kill it like I killed its mother.’

  As the words left Gabe’s mouth the air changed. The two Nivags and Magdon turned around and stared at him.

  ‘They sense us, we must leave.’ Yebot declared, his voice filled with panic.

  ‘How can they possibly know?’

  Before Yebot could answer the Magdon launched itself through the air, claws outstretched and mouth opened wide.

  ‘Come home.’ Yebot bellowed, and in an instant, they were back in the barren car park outside the zoo.

  Disorientated and overcome with confusion Gabe staggered around to the driver’s side of the Jaguar and dropped into the driver’s seat. Followed by his daughter his senses were still flooded as she bombarded him with questions.

  ‘Give me a minute.’ Gabe barked, his voice harsher than he had intended.

  Stepping back Claudia watched as the colour returned to her father’s face. She watched as Gabe checked his hands, seeming to admire the flesh over the bone as he sat in the driver’s seat. After a few minutes Gabe’s senses had returned, and he felt aware of his surroundings.

  ‘What did you learn my boy?’ Archy asked as he rounded the car.

  ‘I saw it,’ Gabe intoned. ‘It’s nowhere near grown yet, but it will be soon.’

  ‘Where is it?’ Claudia pressed.

  ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘What did you see?’ Archy added.

  ‘Calm down guys, please! I need time to
piece together what’s just happened.’

  ‘Anything that could help us?’

  Gabe closed his eyes and tried to recall what he had seen.

  ‘Mountains,’ Gabe sighed. ‘No, wait. A volcano, maybe two. Lots of trees. Get me some paper.’

  Fumbling in the door pocket, Claudia found a scrap of folded paper and a pen and thrust it to her father. Taking it, Gabe sketched the vague outline of the two mountains. It was a very simplistic rendering, but it resembled enough of what he had seen to make sense to him.

  ‘How was the Magdon moving, getting around?’ Archy pushed.

  ‘Nivags, two. Carrying it in a basket.’

  ‘And how were they getting about?’

  ‘Walking.’ Gabe answered.

  ‘They must still be in Africa.’ Claudia muttered under her breath, and she unlocked the pay-as-you-go phone they had been using.

  Opening a browser, she took the sketch from her father and scoured hundreds of images on a simple search for volcano, Africa.

  ‘Any of these?’ Claudia asked as she handed Gabe the phone.

  ‘The first one is Erta Ale, two craters but...’

  ‘Not that one.’ Gabe interrupted.

  ‘This is Mount Nyiragongo, well I think that’s how you say it.’

  ‘Maybe, is there another picture?’

  Claudia adjusted the search and handed the phone back. Scouring the images of tourists perched on the crater’s edge Gabe found the picture he was looking for. A long view with Mount Nyiragongo and its sister peak by its side and he knew his daughter had struck gold.

  ‘There, they were looking at those.’

  Handing the phone around Nahem was the last to be given the device. Pinching the screen, she zoomed in on the mountains and nodded.

  ‘That would make perfect sense,’ she explained. ‘To grow, the Magdon not only needs food, but she needs heat. A source such as a volcano would aid her growth and enhance her rate of growth.’

  ‘Then we can’t waste any time in getting there.’

  ‘How big was it?’ Archy asked as Gabe started the engine.

  ‘Already too bloody big but if we move we may have a chance of stopping it before it becomes a problem.’

  Gabe slammed the door and waited for his passengers to join him in the car. Winding down the window, he allowed Yebot to clamber along his arm and into the car.

  ‘What will we do with the head we found, bury it back far underground?’

  Gabe smiled.

  ‘I have a better idea than that.’

  As Gabe pulled out of the car of the car park, he turned onto the coastal road. Speeding up along the tarmac, he kept his window down. As they passed the limit of the zoo ground, Gabe tossed the tattered Nivag skull into the ocean. He did not wait to see what happened to the severed head, but he knew, before long, the waves would claim the remains and drag it far out to sea where it could once again be lost and forgotten.

  It had served its purpose, and Gabe did not want to look upon its grotesque face ever again.

  30

  The Gathering

  Logan entered the chamber in silence. The musical hum from the chanting Veks carried in the air as he rounded the corner to get a view of the cavern. The sheer number of robed followers caught Logan by surprise. As he found himself a position to the side of the main entrance, he tried to count how many there were.

  ‘We find ourselves at a junction once again my brothers and sisters.’ Vincenzo’s voice was unmistakable.

  Stood on a raised platform Vincenzo dominated the attention of the gathered followers. They turned away all masks from Logan leaving him unnoticed by the crowd. Vincenzo’s face, although obscured by his gilded masks, seemed to look across at Logan as he entered the room.

  Without offering Logan any acknowledgement, Vincenzo continued his speech to the crowd.

  ‘Viktor betrayed us and risked everything for his own gain. He put our master in peril and a danger he could not protect her from. Ultimately, it cost her life.’

  ‘His betrayal has undone decades of work to find the sleeping Magdon, now where do we stand? Lost as we were before.’ An angry voice bellowed from the crowd.

  ‘Hold your tongues.’ Vincenzo barked, and the muttering from the crowd silenced. ‘I stand before you now with a ray of light in our own darkness. For certain our search would begin from scratch, a blind search for the slightest needle in a haystack.’

  Logan ambled around behind the crowd of Veks. The narrow ledge he had found stretched all the way around the cavern and up towards the hanging cage. As Logan moved towards the cage, it surprised him to see the more delicate details etched on the curved bars.

  In the flickering light of the dancing flames, Logan could see an intricate pattern carved into the silver bars. Shuffling Logan peered at the design filled with curiosity. In the lines, he could make out the faint outline of horses and soldiers.

  ‘What is all this?’ Logan hushed to himself as he reached the cage and moved aside the vines that were woven between the bars.

  Below him Vincenzo continued to speak, his voice echoing with confidence around the cave.

  ‘With Viktor eliminated many of you will be aware I have brought the boy into the safety of the castle.’

  ‘Why would you bring him here?’ A voice barked from the audience. If Vincenzo was angered he did not show it, perhaps helped by the featureless gilded mask covering his face.

  ‘Viktor, in his final moments, shared the truth with the boy. The truth that our master’s offspring survived and was removed from the safety of the Mors wreckage to wander the wilderness.’

  ‘But how does bringing him here help us? Our master is dead by his hand and that of his family.’

  Logan shifted his attention away from the cage and turned to pay attention to the gathering below. The mention of his name and his family had piqued his interest, and he was curious to see how Vincenzo would answer.

  Until that moment Logan had only half been paying attention to what was being said. Now, however, he wanted to know what was happening.

  ‘His family remain committed to that cause. Our watchers keep us informed that they have recovered a way to locate the infant. They too move close to their goal, and in such a juvenile state our master is vulnerable to them.’

  Logan watched as Vincenzo moved across the platform of rock and cast a quick glance up towards him.

  ‘Logan is different. He has had every opportunity to gain our knowledge and release himself from our charge to return to his quest. Amongst us he is one of a few who can link with the Magdon, he has heard her voice and felt her in the depths of his soul.’ Vincenzo paused and then pointed up towards Logan. ‘Isn’t that right Logan?’

  Logan’s heart raced at having been caught observing the gathering. The sea of featureless ivory masks turned to look at him. Although he could not see the eyes beneath the masks Logan could feel them boring into him as he balanced on the ledge beside the cage.

  ‘Have you seen enough Logan?’ Vincenzo asked. ‘Perched up there have you seen that my brothers and sisters are not of the same ilk as Viktor?’

  ‘I’ve seen enough, yes.’ Logan replied as calm as he could.

  ‘And yet you stayed, you even ventured into here to see what was happening. Why was that?’

  ‘I needed to know.’ Logan stammered.

  ‘You needed to see if I was lying, to see for yourself what I told you in private in this very room.’

  ‘You’re not the people I thought you were.’

  ‘We aren’t the people you think we are.’ Vincenzo answered. ‘Everything I said to you was the truth. We shall rescue and protect the Magdon and house her here.’

  ‘We cannot trust him.’ Another voice interrupted, and Vincenzo raised a hand in anger.

  ‘The boy is here is he not?’ Vincenzo snapped. ‘Had he come intending to destroy our order or harm our master then you must know I would not allow him to stand there.’

  Logan felt self-con
scious. He knew all eyes were locked on him and although he could not see the faces, he could read their mistrust for him. He felt the same towards them, but everything he had seen and read told him the world was not as simplistic as he believed.

  All Vincenzo had offered Logan could not deny that what he intended felt altogether right.

  ‘You are here because you have made a choice, have you not?’

  Logan could not answer. Instead, he nodded.

  ‘You understand the world is not a matter of right or wrong, black or white. We fill the world with grey, and every perspective needs to be explored.’

  ‘I suppose.’ Logan whispered.

  The cavern tensed as Vincenzo weighed up how best to approach the situation. Logan, frozen like a deer in headlights was on the edge. Precariously balanced on the ledge beside the cage, but also on an emotional level. Vincenzo knew he had guided the young man along a path and now two directions lay in front of him.

  Pushing too hard would force him to return to his default course and away from the Veks. The other path, however, offered them both the chance to move forward.

  ‘Logan,’ Vincenzo softened his voice and changed his posture. ‘Without you, I am confident we will capture the Magdon. We both know a caged animal, locked away from contact will breed nothing but anger and frustration. With your help, we can educate her, bring her around to a world where humans and Magdons may co-exist.’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Logan sighed.

  ‘You knew before you entered this place, Logan. Why else would you come if not to allay your concerns, put to be your fears and suspicions? Have I done anything that says we are not true to my word?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Then you know what you must do my friend.’ Vincenzo’s unseen eyes pierced through Logan. ‘You have made your choice, you now need to allow yourself to accept it.’