Rise of the Reaper

by Lorna Reid

  ‘That’s stupid,’ he remarked, trying not to glance at the statue. ‘How would he even balance?’

  ‘Being underneath him when he falls is what I’d worry about,’ quipped Danny, hopping up on the edge of the fountain and eyeballing the statue from head to toe. ‘Unless you get flowers and chocolates first.’

  Katrina and Poppy erupted into laughter.

  ‘Oh, for fuck’s sake,’ Russell huffed. He turned his back to puff at his inhaler, but not before Katrina got a glimpse at his bright red face.

  ‘There’s something written here on the leg,’ Danny said, cocking his head to read it. ‘It says “Not Thom’s” and there’s an arrow pointing to … well, it.’

  Katrina burst out laughing again, Russell’s squirming making it seem even funnier. ‘There are lots of sexy pictures carved around the edges of the grey stone here,’ Poppy said, eyes starting to fall out of her head. Russell drifted closer for a look and then reared back.

  ‘Right, that’s it, I’m going. That’s … who even made that thing?’

  ‘Well, I don’t think you can get them from the local garden centre,’ said Katrina, earning a glare.

  ‘I want one,’ said Danny, setting Katrina and Poppy off again. Russell made a noise of disgust and strode off down the nearest path, leaving them to tear themselves away from the fountain’s carvings and follow him, with Danny the last to leave.

  Katrina had barely recovered from her giggle fit when there was a shriek from the trees ahead and a large splash. She pushed through the branches masking the path to find that it stopped dead in front of a river. Only Russell hadn’t stopped.

  He was flailing and swearing in the lazy, flowing water, and Katrina looked for something to fish him out with. Thankfully, his temper acted like a propulsion system and he hauled himself onto the bank.

  ‘That’s it,’ he raged, ‘I’m going home.’ He wrung out his school blazer and glared at Poppy and Katrina, almost daring them to laugh, snigger, or even grin. It was torture.

  ‘I’m not going anywhere except to find Dad,’ stated Danny.

  ‘Suit yourself. You usually do,’ snapped Russell. Before a full-on argument could start, there was a flicker of light along the bank beside them. Katrina frowned.

  Without warning, there was a faint rush of air, and a sliver of orange light cut the air beside them, making them rear back. It seemed to dance, as if it were a concentrated heat haze, shimmering, constantly threatening to edge from view, to the point it made her eyes ache.

  ‘Care to join us?’

  She blinked at the voice.

  ‘Thom?’ Danny spun around. ‘Thom?’

  ‘Hurry up. I’m drained as it is, Dan. Can’t hold this thing open all day.’ Danny ventured toward the orange light.

  ‘Thom? Where are you? Where’s Dad?’ Before anyone could cry out a warning, the thing swept forward and swallowed Danny. The last thing Katrina saw before it hit the rest of them was Poppy shielding her face.

  Chapter 4

  ◊

  ‘SORRY. NOT EXACTLY A gentle introduction to magic, but I couldn’t bugger about – too drained.’ It was Thom. Katrina opened her eyes in time to see her mother’s concerned face before warm arms looped around her and held her close.

  ‘Mum?’ The familiar, darkly spiced, orangey perfume filled her nose. Seeing the crystal shard hanging from a silver chain, pointing down a low, black lacy neckline, and feeling the cheek pressed against the top of her head all made her feel safe. She felt light-headed and was having a hard time processing the chatter in the room. Her mother led her to a chair and squeezed in beside her.

  ‘You okay? The weird feeling passes quickly. It’s a first-time thing.’ Her mother’s brown eyes narrowed in concern and she rubbed Katrina’s hands, easing away the tingling.

  ‘What happened? What was that thing? What did he mean by magic?’ She cast a quick glance around the room, the stone walls, well-worn furniture, and rug-smothered flagstone floor not presenting anywhere familiar.

  ‘It was a portal,’ said Thom, crouching beside them. ‘I’m so sorry. I didn’t have much choice. We don’t have a great deal of time and there are now going to be a million and one questions.’

  And the rest, thought Katrina, catching sight of Poppy perched on the edge of a nearby chair, twitching with rapidly buckling restraint. Danny was planted in the middle of a voluminous red sofa, while his father, Peter, handed a still-dripping Russell a pile of fluffy grey towels.

  ‘I know this won’t be popular,’ Peter said, ‘but I’d rather deal with the most pressing stuff before we sit down and get into all this.’ He looked at Jen and Thom. Thom gave Katrina a wink and stood up.

  ‘We can’t just leave it like this, you know that. They need to know something, at least,’ he said to his friend.

  Danny leapt off the sofa. ‘The other stuff can wait. What’s this about Mum?’

  ‘I want to know about the magic,’ protested Katrina, ignoring Danny’s foul look. Poppy was also about to weigh in, when Thom held up his hands, pausing the inevitable onslaught.

  ‘Danny.’ Peter took his son’s hands, weathering the determined glare with a long-cultivated casual ease. Katrina watched – they were so similar, down to the intense grey eyes and messy hair. ‘You won’t understand any of it unless you understand the basics. Where you are right now, where your mother is from, the Lands, our history …’ he paused, inhaled sharply and plunged in: ‘Magic. Blades, blood, war … You need to know what we’re talking about first. I don’t even know what’s going on with Niri yet … if it even is her. Equally, it could be Blake.’

  Pete scrubbed a hand through his brown hair, which currently sported blonde tips, and looked at Thom and Jen, uncertain what to do. Katrina felt like a giant, awkward spanner in their works, and it wasn’t pleasant.

  ‘You two, go. I’ll do my best to field questions,’ Jen said, sighing. Thom gave her a grateful smile. ‘I just … This doesn’t feel right without Jack and Josie here.’

  ‘That’s why I’m glad you’re doing it,’ muttered Thom, leaning in to hug her. ‘Jack can give someone else shit for once.’

  Jen pulled a face and Katrina’s eyes moved to Russell, who had caught his father’s name and was listening intently.

  ‘Thom.’ Pete’s voice carried a note of warning, and Thom puffed in frustration.

  ‘Anyway, good luck.’ He flicked Jen’s ear and got a punch on the arm before he could dart away to the opposite side of the room.

  ‘Bastard,’ Jen muttered through a smile. Katrina noticed her eyes sweep him up and down. She didn’t blame her – Thom was good-looking. Tall, broad-shouldered, brown hair and a wicked grin. He had a way of making people utterly at ease within moments, with his soft voice, cheeky banter, and genuine warmth. Everyone loved Thom.

  She looked over at Russell, who was towelling his hair dry. Well, nearly everyone, she thought. She didn’t know what Jack’s problem was; not even Poppy had wormed that out of anyone.

  Katrina watched Thom and Pete settle. Danny shot one last glare at his father, now sitting on the ledge of a wide, open window in conversation with Thom, and slumped back onto the sofa.

  ‘I … err.’ Jen shook her head and scratched her ear. ‘Look … we, that’s all of us’ – she glanced at Pete and Thom – ‘knew this would happen sometime. I … we just. Uh, fuck’s sake. What am I supposed to say?’ She broke off into a mutter, rallied her words and tried again.

  ‘Remember when you were about five, and you asked me if magic was real, and I said no?’

  Katrina nodded. She had been crushed. That was the year she had asked for a sword for her birthday. Jen took a breath and held Katrina’s hands, struggling to pull her dark brown eyes to meet Katrina’s. ‘I … kind of lied.’ Katrina’s mouth fell open – part of her wanted so very much to believe the words, instantly. Poppy’s cough and Russell’s noise of disbelief, however, ruptured her flash of confidence. Danny, for once, was silent.

  ‘I’m sorry
. It cost me so much to not tell you the truth. I hated it then, I’ve hated it every day since.’ Her mother’s voice wavered. ‘I’m half-sick of secrets.’ Her voice caught and her thumbs dragged lightly down Katrina’s hands as she sought the next words.

  ‘You expect us to believe that magic is real?’ Poppy’s eyebrows were practically scraping the ceiling.

  ‘Why would she lie?’ snapped Katrina, angry at Poppy, despite her own circling doubt. Her mother’s calming hands on her own trembling ones eased her down, in spite of Poppy’s infuriating shrug.

  ‘Believe what you want, but you’ll be lying to yourself if you doubt me,’ said Jen. ‘You didn’t just walk through a doorway and end up here. Look out the window.’

  Katrina moved to the open window and leaned on the sill beside Poppy. Danny remained on the sofa, paying more attention to earwigging on his father and Thom, while Russell remained buried in towels, looking curious but miserable.

  To Katrina’s astonishment, they were high up. The woods lay far away, smothering the landscape in both directions, while sandwiched between the woods and where they were now sprawled the odd gardens they had been wandering through.

  ‘There’s the river Russell fell in.’

  Katrina squinted, trying to see between trees and tumbledown sections of wall.

  ‘How is that possible? How did we get all the way up here?’ whispered Poppy, shaking her head.

  ‘Maybe a giant bird carried us,’ Katrina said, unable to help herself. Poppy’s incredulity at her mother’s words had irritated her. She ignored the glare she got and hurried back to her chair, even more questions circling in her head. Jen met her expectant look and grinned through a bit lip.

  *

  Danny watched Poppy resume her seat. As she flicked her hair back over her shoulders, it caught the sunlight. As much as he wanted to know more about the so-called ‘magic’ stuff, he was torn between listening to Jen and trying to catch what his father and Thom were saying – it was excruciating, but his mother was more important.

  They’d been talking about something called the beacon – a distress signal of sorts – to do with a company (some sort of military unit) and who had sent it. It could have been his mother, but he didn’t know why or what it all meant, and the fact that he could only catch a few words here and there was aggravating him. As much as he hated to admit it, his father had been right. He had no idea what they were talking about.

  Grudgingly, Danny let his attention flick to Jen, who was attempting to explain, in between more questions, how magic worked, and how it was part of everyday life in the Lands – whatever those were. She was explaining something about how it came from inside you, like tugging something out.

  Danny’s attention flicked back to his father and Thom when he heard his mother’s name again, and only returned when there was a flash of light from Jen’s chair.

  A pale silvery wisp was burning in her hand, which she encouraged Katrina to touch. Tiny tendrils snapped and whipped around the disturbance Katrina’s tentative fingers made in the light, and she squeaked and reared back, making Jen laugh. Beside him, Russell shifted forward and frowned, his wall of logic having taken a direct hit.

  ‘It’s okay, you won’t get hurt,’ Jen said, waving Poppy over.

  ‘What is that?’ Russell asked. He sounded suspicious, like he was convinced that it was all an elaborate plan to trick him.

  ‘Concentrated magic. Mirror magic in this case. That’s what I was born with.’

  Danny’s curiosity began to uncoil and he started to wonder about his parents. His father was leaning back against the stone window frame, a scuffed boot swinging to and fro as he talked with Thom. The sleeves of his black-and-purple-striped top with the skull on the front were rolled up, meaning he had been writing. Danny tried to imagine what magic his father would have. Something explosive would be cool, he thought, but then anything his dad had would be cool.

  ‘That’s one of the ancient magics you said about?’ queried Russell. ‘Not the natural magics.’ He had been interested then, for all his misery, Danny noted. You don’t have a bookcase full of fantasy books and not secretly want to believe in something like that.

  ‘That’s right,’ Jen said. ‘Natural magics are the elemental ones, like fire and earth. The ancient ones, like portal, psy, and the others are considered by some to be more “man-made”, which is what’s caused so much fighting and prejudice in the past. They’re less pure to some.’ She shook her head.

  ‘War?’ Russell said.

  ‘War, discrimination, death.’

  Trust Russell to winkle out the dull historical stuff, Danny thought, itching to go and take a closer look, but reluctant to move in case he missed his father saying something important.

  ‘So, where does this come from?’ said Russell, adjusting his cocoon of towels. ‘I don’t understand – where are we? You’ve mentioned lands? Where are they? Is this some parallel dimension thing?’ He shook his head, looking as though he couldn’t take much more.

  ‘The Broken Lands are what’s left of an ancient world known as Theandra. In ancient times, during the Great War, a powerful weapon was unearthed and used – it literally tore the world apart – something that had been prophesied by a number of Oracles.’

  Jen took a sip of water and continued. ‘A company of mages, working in secret, did their best to prepare for it, to try and minimise the devastation.’

  ‘Why them? Didn’t anyone else do anything?’ said Poppy.

  ‘They were largely ignored by those in power.’ Jen shifted in her seat to make more room for Poppy, who wedged herself in beside Katrina.

  ‘After the Great Cataclysm, what was left of Theandra was a sea of broken pieces, like lily pads on a pond. Thanks to the work of the ancient mages, each was magically sealed to prevent the Lands from being sucked clean, with their own atmospheres and the rest: preserved, but alone.

  ‘In preparation, the mages had created Bridging Lands, like the one you’re in right now – the Gateway – to connect all the pieces they could save together as best they could when the world finally broke apart.’

  ‘Like a hub,’ said Poppy.

  Jen nodded and let the magic in her hand dissipate, much to Katrina’s obvious disappointment.

  ‘Slowly, as the Lands readjusted, redrew boundaries, fought skirmishes over new, old, or changed territory, and survived the desolation, grief, and chaos in the years that followed, they recovered and rebuilt.’ She took another sip of her drink.

  ‘Portals were constructed to permanently link the Lands together for trade, aid, whatever. The Bridging Lands like this one fell out of use and were lost from memory.’

  ‘But we’re here,’ said Poppy.

  Jen grinned and waved a hand over at Thom, who was approaching with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. ‘Nothing is truly lost. Anyway, blame him,’ she said.

  Thom snorted and sank into a large chair, joined by Peter who crushed in beside him. ‘I didn’t drag us into this mess all those years ago. That was bloody John.’

  Poppy’s neck almost snapped as she whipped round at the mention of her father’s name. ‘Dad?’

  ‘He came from the Lands. His grandfather was one of the old keepers here – old farts who were charged since ancient times to guard and watch over the place, given its power, blah blah blah.’ He waved dismissively. ‘John was snooping around one day, as usual, and found a portal from the Gateway to our world.’ He nodded at Jen.

  ‘How is our world connected to this place? It isn’t part of any broken world,’ said Russell, clearly annoying Poppy by leaping in before she could ask more about her father.

  ‘It isn’t – not really. They’re nothing to do with one another.’ Thom propped his feet up on the coffee table and had them kicked away by Peter, who vied for the best spot, much to Danny’s amusement.

  ‘The Ancients who built this place stumbled across it while they were forming the portals here in the early days of the Afterma
th – the time following the Cataclysm. Since our world was magically ignorant, vastly different in culture, mindset, and many other things, with an almost flatline level of ambient magic, they deemed it best to leave well alone. The portal to our world was buried back in the woods, safely out of the way.’

  ‘Are there any more separate worlds?’ asked Katrina. Her eyes were wide and she hung on Thom’s every word. So did Danny, to his own surprise.

  ‘Yeah. More’s the pity. I know of at least one other, and it’s not the sort of nightmare you want anything to do with.’ I do, now, Danny thought. He turned things over in his mind.

  ‘So … you’re from our world?’ Danny said, realising how odd it sounded.

  ‘Me, Jen, Pete, and Mana.’ Thom looked at Russell, who started at the mention of his mother. For a moment his mouth opened, and Danny thought he was going to ask about her, but he didn’t. He looked down and started playing with the embroidered pattern on the edge of a towel.

  The flash of relief on Thom’s face didn’t go unnoticed by Danny, whose curiosity cogs inched around a few notches. ‘So, Mum … She’s from these Lands?’ said Danny, wanting to find out the important stuff.

  ‘Yeah,’ smiled his father, some happy memory overcoming the sadness for a moment.

  ‘Is this where she is? Is this what’s happened to her, some weird magic thing?’ Danny demanded.

  ‘No, I don’t know,’ his dad said, looking frustrated. ‘Look, there’s so much you don’t know.’

  ‘Then tell me,’ Danny said.

  His father looked to his friends for support and then scrubbed a hand through already messy hair. ‘She vanished while on a mission, over five years ago. She and one of our best friends, Blake.’

  Blake – Danny remembered him – quiet, softly spoken, deathly pale, black hair, and a burning, dark intensity that Danny remembered finding fascinating. He felt a tiny prickle of shame that he had never focussed much on why the man had suddenly dropped out of their lives.

  ‘We don’t know what happened to either of them,’ his father continued. ‘There had been a pitched battle, but no bodies were found. We think they were taken or sent somewhere – together or apart, we don’t know. We’ve searched ever since.’