The Fomorians

by John Triptych

  “He was quite evil,” I said. “But I was able to vanquish him.”

  “Well, this I have to see then,” she said.

  I turned and looked at Myrddin. “Can you help us get to Highgate?”

  Myrddin clapped his hands together. “Oh yes! Highgate. The home of a wizard, of tombstones and spliced gizzards!”

  Erin rolled her eyes again but didn’t say a word.

  Myrddin began to walk along the faint trail near the side of the ruins. “Come! Follow me, for the ground beneath our feet will change to another, as you shall see!”

  Erin and I both started walking right behind him. I was tempted to imitate Myrddin’s light and gangly steps, but then I realized I didn’t want to make a fool of myself any further so I just walked casually. Sure enough, the marshy ground beneath our feet became harder and began to transform itself into solid concrete. The scene around us shifted from a gloomy forest of hunched trees into a fog-lit urban street. In less than a minute, all three of us stood in front of the gated entrance to Amicus Tarr’s old house. From the faint illumination up in the cloudy skies it looked to be late afternoon.

  Myrddin jumped up and down in celebration. “You are here, you are here! To fallen London you have both returned, my dears!”

  I held my hand out. “Thank you, Myrddin. That’s twice you’ve saved me now. I’m forever grateful.”

  He shook my hand but he had placed something in my palm. As I withdrew my hand and checked, I saw he had given me a strange yellow pebble of some sort. I looked up at him in slight confusion. “What’s this?”

  Myrddin laughed hysterically as he started to skip away. “If thou ever have need of me, throw the nugget on the ground and count one, two, three! It is now time for me to go, for I must get back down into the darkness, before the cock crows.”

  I watched him slowly disappear as the mists began to swallow him up. “Well, if we ever need him again, at least he told us where he would be.”

  Erin looked around warily. “The underground Tube network is huge. You’ll be spending days just to try and find him down there.”

  I opened the creaking front gate and walked through as I placed the pebble in the front pocket of my jeans. “I found him before. I have a feeling I can easily find him again if the situation should arise.”

  After I had defeated Amicus I was able to obtain a key to his front door, but I lost it when Yob Ollie and Raver Dan took all my stuff, so I just went up to the heavy door and tried the metal knocker on it. I must have banged on it over a dozen times but there was no answer. The house seemed dead.

  I tried to knock using my fist but all it did was hurt my knuckles. “Amy! Are you in there? It’s me, Steve!”

  Erin walked up beside me and tried the doorknob. It twisted and she opened the door. “Sometimes, the most obvious solution works,” she said as she walked through the entryway.

  I hurried in after her and closed the door behind me. “Amy! I’m back! Where are you?”

  “I’ll look upstairs,” Erin said as she got to the landing and started up the steps. “Is she the only one supposed to be here?”

  “Yeah,” I said as I ran along the ground floor corridor that led to the inner hall. That was the room where I had met Amicus and it was also the place where I defeated him in a battle of magic. The large hall still seemed unchanged. The long side tables that had once held numerous small glass vials that contained the souls of the people he murdered, just so that he could trade their essences to those ghastly Fomorians, were still in place. The rows upon rows of old books along the walls were still mostly intact. And finally there stood the massive table in the center of the room, where Amicus had been standing, the ultimate platform where he met his end when the power of the black mirror was turned against him.

  I was so distracted by the memories while standing there that I had almost forgotten I was looking for Amy. I turned and walked back out into the shadowy corridor before opening the door that led to the mirror room. As I looked inside, only my many reflections through the infinite shards of broken silvered glass stared back at me. Ray had shattered all the mirrors in order to help me win the final battle against that old wizard.

  As I walked back out into the foyer, Erin came walking down the stairs. “There’s nobody up here either,” she said.

  A cold feeling of dread washed over me. In less than a day, everything that I had fought for seemed lost. An intense feeling of fatigue made my knees wobbly and I ended up sitting down on the base of the stairs as I buried my face in my lap. My mirror was gone and my sister’s boyfriend was being held by a group of gangsters. Now my sister was missing too. It felt like all my achievements were for nothing as I was seemingly back to square one. The game that was my life had apparently reset itself. I felt like I was ready to cry.

  “If it’s any consolation to you,” Erin said, “I didn’t detect any signs of a struggle, so it might be possible that she just went out on her own.”

  I jerked my head up. My lips trembled with worry. “But why would she do that? She knew the streets were dangerous with all these monsters lurking about. Now I’ve lost everything!”

  Erin leaned on the handrails of the staircase as she looked off into the distance. “We should go to my father’s place. Perhaps he may know how to help us.”

  I sighed. There was no point in staying here if Amy was gone. “Alright, what else is there to do?”

  We left Amicus’s house and started going along the deserted streets of the city. Erin was moving with an air of confidence. She didn’t even bother to hide herself when she moved about. I was cautious at first, hiding between street corners and the sides of buildings while sprinting to keep up with her but in the end, I gave up and just walked alongside. We moved past broken-down barricades where the military had tried to put up a fight. There were cars and trash strewn just about everywhere. The howling of dogs could be heard in the distance. As we walked along an intersection a black raven started down at us as it lay perched on top of a broken lamppost. The gray skies above us slowly darkened as the night began its inevitable descent.

  The walk turned out to be a long one. It must have been almost three hours when we crossed the river Thames via the Blackfriars Bridge and made our way into Newington. My legs were aching and my stomach growled. “How much longer?” I asked.

  Erin didn’t seem tired at all. Her stride was as energetic as ever. “We’re nearly there.”

  I let out a deep sigh as we turned right along The Cut. This used to be the trendy area of the city before the Fomorians overran it. I noted the many shuttered shops and bars along the avenue as we moved through the street. Erin led the way as she walked up to the front of an underground entrance to a club. The door was unlocked and it opened to a flight of stairs leading to the darkness below.

  “Right, here we are,” Erin said as she gestured at me to go down the steps.

  I looked up at the sign above the door. It said THE BASEMENT in bold neon violet. “Your dad lives in a club?”

  “Sort of,” Erin said. “Now down you go.”

  “I can’t bloody see down here,” I said as I took a few steps down. “We’ll both be fumbling about in the dark.”

  “I’m pretty sure I left a torch on a table by the side of the door; see if you can find it.”

  I grumbled a bit as I used my outstretched hands to find my way in the pitch blackness of the interior. I could smell stale beer and cigarettes all around as my feet strode through hollow tins and crushed glass. I felt my way along a long table, my fingers lightly touching upon a few ashtrays and drinking glasses. I overturned what I thought was a wineglass and the rotten, sticky liquid stuck to my hand. After what seemed like an endless procession of bottles, my fingers touched on hard plastic. I instantly sensed that it was a hand torch as I gripped it and my thumb felt the bumpy ridges of the power switch.

  “Did you find it?” Erin asked from the top of the stairs.

  I flipped the switch on. As I ran the narrow beam al
l over the room, I could see that the patrons had evidently left in a hurry. There were still a number of musical instruments up on the raised stage. Numerous chairs and stools lay strewn about along with a number of upright and upturned tables. A disk jockey’s console was at the far end of the room, along with huge speakers at its side. The only other door on the ground level was the entrance to the toilets.

  “Yeah, it’s working now,” I said as I heard her coming down the stairs after she closed the top entrance.

  Erin made her way into the club until she stood beside me. “I haven’t been in here for a while, but my dad always said that if trouble started, then we would meet here.”

  I arched my eyebrows as I looked at her. “Here? But this place is deserted.”

  “Follow me,” she said as she walked towards the door leading to the toilets.

  I shined the light ahead of her as I took a few steps forward. “Are you saying he’s been hiding in the loo all this time?”

  Erin opened the door and walked inside. “Don’t be cheeky, Steve.”

  I walked in after her. She moved past the doors to the men’s and women’s toilets and stood in front of a third door with a sign that said DANGER: HIGH VOLTAGE. She bent down and pulled out a key from the inside of her left boot before placing the said key into the lock. The door’s inner bolt gave way and it opened. Almost immediately I was half blinded by intense illumination as the door revealed a vast hall beyond.

  Erin stepped into the large, high-vaulted room and gestured at me to follow. “Come inside so I can lock the door behind us.”

  While my eyes were still somewhat blinded by the sudden brightness of the ceiling lights, I gingerly stepped inside the place. As I rubbed my eyelids with my other hand, Erin closed the door behind me and placed a heavy bolt over it. Within a few moments, my vision returned to normal and I looked around in total surprise.

  It looked like a massive underground library. The walls must have been three stories high and they were filled with all sorts of books, from leather-bound tomes to mass market paperbacks and even ancient rolled scrolls. The entire place was lit by two gigantic chandeliers that must have been imported from mainland Europe. A narrow spiral staircase embedded in the middle wall looked as if it led into a small room upstairs. A massive brown oaken door stood partially open at the opposite side of the hall from where I was standing. Three long wooden tables dominated the center of the place, and there were quite a few books lying open on them. Several antique leather couches were positioned strategically near the bookshelves, along with an uncountable number of chairs in all shapes and sizes.

  I was about to head off towards the oaken door when Erin placed a restraining hand on my chest just as I got in front of her. “Father, I have returned,” she bellowed. Her loud voice nearly made an echo across the chamber and even turned a few pages on some open books that had been left out.

  Less than a minute later, the great oak door opened up even further and someone stepped through. At first glance I thought it was just another teenage girl, but her face looked familiar to me—

  “Amy!’ I said as I ran up to her.

  “Steve!” she cried out as she hugged me tightly. “Oh my god, what happened to you? Where’s Mark?”

  I buried my head in her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Amy. We got nabbed by a couple of gangsters and they took all of our stuff, including the black mirror. They tied us up, but Mark was able to free me and told me to run, and so I did.”

  She drew back. Her face was a mixture of shock and surprise. “But…Mark…he… They still got him?”

  I looked away and nodded.

  Amy started to weep. She moved sideways and sat on the couch just as her knees began to give out. I sat down beside her and tried to comfort her as best I could. My sister placed her hands over her eyes as the tears flowed. At that moment I saw a thin, gray-haired man with a moustache come out of the room above us and he started to make his way down the narrow spiral staircase. He wore a tailored, high-collared shirt with a silk cravat underneath his embroidered crimson-colored dressing gown. As he made it to the ground floor, Erin walked over to him and they too hugged each other; she started whispering in his ear. The man looked to be past fifty at least, with his thinning hair and leathery cheekbones, but he looked pretty fit and I could not see an ounce of puffiness in his rangy body. The two of them then slowly walked over until they stood in front of us.

  The man took out a fancy silk handkerchief from the top pocket of his gown and handed it to my sister. “Here you go, lass.”

  Amy wiped some of her tears using the cloth. “Thank you, Mr. Urquhart.” Then she turned and looked at me. “Was he hurt by them?”

  I shrugged nervously. “Just a little. But that’s because he put up a fight. Anyway, I’m sure he’s okay, Amy. Mark’s tough, you know.”

  The man looked at me as he held out his hand. “I don’t believe I’ve had the pleasure. Gareth Urquhart, at your service.”

  I stood up and shook his hand. “Steve Symonds. This is my sister, Amy. But I can see that you’ve already met.”

  Gareth smirked. He had a bit of a Scottish accent. “Aye, we did indeed, lad.”

  I exhaled deeply. At least I found my sister. That was good news for once. “Can I ask how you were able to find her? Both Erin and I went to an old wizard’s place because that was where I left her, but she was gone.”

  “I can answer that, Steve,” Amy said as she managed to compose herself. “I waited for days in that old house and I was getting more frightened by the minute. I thought things took a turn for the worse one night. I was woken up from my sleep by the sounds of someone entering. I ran out into the hallway, thinking it was you and Mark, but instead I bumped into Mr. Urquhart here. I didn’t know who he was at first, but thankfully he was able to calm me down and explain before I made a run for it.”

  “Wait a minute,” I said as I pointed to Gareth. “Why did you enter Amicus Tarr’s house? What were you doing in there?”

  “I was searching for his diary,” Gareth said. “And his mirror as well.”

  I frowned as I crossed my arms. “What? How did you even know about him?”

  “My order has been keeping tabs on him for years,” he said.

  Now I was totally confused. “Order? What order?”

  Gareth’s nose twitched as he gestured towards the oaken door. “I’ll talk to you about it after you’ve had a bath. This way, please.”

  Chapter 6

  As the soap suds began to dissipate, I could see my wrinkled toes at the foot of the bathtub as I lay stretched out along its length. The oak doors had led to a very long corridor with numerous bedrooms, a full service kitchen, a dining hall, a lounge and two bathrooms. It had been ages since I’d had a proper hot bath with bubbles and all, so I was enjoying every bit of it. When you’ve been running around the city and going through to other worlds for days on end, one tends to forget about how one smells. As the dirt and sweat washed away from me, so too did my frenetic energy and I ended up dozing off for a bit at one point. At least half an hour must have passed since by the time I opened my eyes, there was very little foam left on the surface of the lukewarm water.

  Without warning, the door suddenly swung open and Erin walked right in. She was carrying a stack of towels and she placed them on the chair beside the tub. “Your clothes have been washed and are now in the tumble dryer. I’ve included one of my father’s gowns so you can wear it for the time being.”

  I instantly twisted sideways and bent my knee so she wouldn’t see my privates. “Oy! What is it with you? You’re supposed to bloody knock first! Can’t you see I’m in the bath?”

  Erin just shrugged. “You’re not the first boy that I’ve seen naked.”

  I fumed. “I don’t know how you were raised, but in my family it was always prudent to knock before entering! It’s not just about being practical, there’s the concept of good manners as well.”

  Erin snorted in contempt as she turned around and lef
t, closing the door behind her.

  There really wasn’t much point in staying in the bath any longer, so I rinsed off the soap and dried myself with one of the towels that she had placed on the chair. The dressing gown was several sizes too big and it reached past my ankles, but it was better than walking around naked, so I put it on and opened the door. I could smell some cooking coming from the kitchen, which made my stomach growl. I tiptoed over to the dining room to see if anyone was over there. I noticed Amy sitting at the long table having a cup of tea so I walked on over.

  Amy glanced at me as I sat down beside her. “I’m glad you’re alright, Steve. You had me worried for days.”

  I placed a reassuring arm over her shoulder. “Don’t worry, we’ll get Mark back safe and sound. I owe him one for freeing me from the restraints.”

  Her shoulders were trembling. “I don’t want to think about it too much. Ever since this whole ghastly affair started, I just can’t think straight. Every day I’m worried about Mum and Dad. And now Mark too. The only one who seems to be handling this well is you, Steve. You’ve changed so much, and for the better I must say.”

  I noticed the tea set in the center of the table. I poured two cups from the pot, added several spoonfuls of sugar and some milk, and placed them in front of me. I nudged the second steaming cup to the side until it was in front of an empty chair beside me. “Don’t worry about Mum and Dad. As long as they’re alive, we’ll be reunited with them. Same goes for Mark.”

  Amy nodded, then she noticed the other cup. “Why did you make two cups and place the other one to the side?”

  I sipped at my tea. “The other one’s for Ray. He always liked extra sugar in his cuppa.”

  She placed her hand on top of mine and smiled a little. “That’s very sweet. I’m glad you’re keeping his memory alive.”

  Gareth walked into the room carrying a tray of food. “I’ve got a bit of dinner, if anyone’s interested. Nothing fresh I’m afraid, so it’s either been tinned or frozen.”

  As he placed the steaming dishes on the table, Amy stood up and walked over to the cabinets to get some plates. I started to get up in order to help her, but she made a gesture that she could handle it so I continued to sip on my tea instead. Erin entered the room carrying another tray with even more food as Gareth sat down and helped himself. Within a few minutes, we were all going through plates of fried mushrooms, roasted tomatoes, eggs, bacon, toast and hash browns. There was also a big bowl of beans, but I’ve always hated them so I compensated by eating more bacon instead, for the simple fact that more bacon makes everything better.