Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book One)

by Tim O'Rourke

  ‘That he had seen me…’

  But before Zach had a chance to finish what it was he was about to say, William howled, ‘C’mon. Let’s get going!’

  Zach and Neanna glanced one final time at each other, then made their way from beneath the overhang and joined William on the shore.

  ‘There in the distance,’ he said, pointing between the cliffs that broke through the sand like jagged skyscrapers, ‘can you see those torches burning in the search towers? That’s where we’re heading.’

  Zach and Neanna looked at the orange glow that seeped from the towers and lit up the night sky miles away.

  ‘I don’t think we will make it by dawn,’ Neanna warned, not wanting to be caught in the glare of the sun again.

  ‘If we hurry we’ll be able to reach the prisons perimeter by day break. We’ll take some shelter during the day, and then we’ll break-in tomorrow night.’

  Before either one of them had a chance to reply or even put forward another suggestion, William had bounded off across the sand and towards a huge valley cut between the cliffs.

  As the mortality crow swooped towards the Splinter, it opened its mighty talons. Fandel buried his head amongst its feathers as it dived for the balcony that jutted from the side of the tower. Fanning its wings on either side, the crow lost altitude and came to rest on the railings that circled the balcony.

  Wasting no time, Fandel slid from the back of the giant bird and climbed over the railings. Flapping his arms out before him, he shooed the crow away. With an ear-splitting squawk, the crow disappeared back into the night in a flurry of silky-black feathers.

  Fandel pushed open the tall glass windows which led from the balcony and hurried into the Queen’s chamber.

  ‘Such an unusual entrance Fandel,’ Throat rasped from the shadows. ‘Couldn’t you find your doorway?’

  On hearing his reflections voice, Fandel spun round to find Throat slumped in his throne at the opposite side of the room to the Queen, who lay looking lifeless in her bed.

  ‘Throat…’ Fandel began, but was cut short.

  ‘This had better be good Fandel,’ Throat gasped, his voice sounding as if he had spent the night chewing on broken glass. ‘You’re carelessness has caused quite a commotion in Earth!’

  Fandel stammered as he tried to find the right words. He was taken aback at how the news of his wretched nephew’s escape had reached Throat.

  ‘Throat,’ Fandel began, his mouth turning dust-dry, ‘Zach was assisted by the Noxas and the Slath.’

  ‘I don’t want excuses Fandel,’ Throat cackled.

  ‘And there was this annoying cop…’

  ‘I don’t want to hear it Fandel. I just want to know how you intend to clear up this mess!’

  ‘I have some important news,’ Fandel began, annoyed that he appeared to be taking the blame for his nephew’s antics. After all, wasn’t it Throat who was meant to have dealt with him in Endra? Wasn’t it the Demonic Guardians fault? They were the ones that had let him slip back into Earth. But Fandel didn’t have the stomach, and if he were to be honest, the nerve to point this out to Throat.

  ‘Don’t just stand there!’ Throat choked. ‘What’s this news?’

  ‘There is a key to the box’ Fandel said, knowing deep down that he now had the upper hand.

  Hearing this, Throat sat up in his throne. His robes began to disintegrate as he moved and the sound of the spiderpedes could be heard as they scuttled about him.

  ‘What key?’ Throat gagged.

  ‘One of the Noxas has it. Before your arrival in Endra, two of the Noxas were entrusted to repair the box and fashion a new lock and key for it.’

  ‘Find this Noxas!’ Throat gasped. ‘Bring me the key!’

  ‘We already have the Noxas and the key, my dear Throat,’ Fandel said. ‘He’s one of the inmates in your prison of eternal despair!’

  Throat twitched in his throne and the spiderpedes spun their webs all around him.

  ‘But we’ll have to move with speed. Zach and his friends are on their way to the prison as we speak to free him,’ Fandel warned.

  ‘Impossible!’ Throat screeched. ‘They will never break into that prison, let alone break anyone out!’

  ‘Don’t be too sure Throat,’ Fandel said. ‘My nephew and his friends, however much it pains me to say it, have proved themselves to be resourceful and cunning foes.’

  Throat sat for a moment, and the sound of the spiderpedes scuttling to and fro across his body made Fandel’s flesh crawl.

  ‘I will destroy the prison and slay everyone within its walls!’ Throat seethed. ‘And then we will search through the rubble for this Noxas and snatch the key from his lifeless hands!’

  ‘But what about Marshal Goth and his people. He has been a good and loyal governor as have his guards, the Norsori,’ Fandel reminded him.

  ‘They can all be replaced,’ Throat heaved as if he were going to be sick. ‘We don’t have time for any further delays. If we can find that key we can open the box. Once the box is open the Queen will die, as will her reflection. There will be no more of this waiting for the box to erode above that volcano. Its power will be ours!’

  Fandel began to get an excited flutter in his pot-belly as if he had swallowed an angry bee.

  ‘I will go to the prison at once…’ Fandel said, no longer able to wait to be joint ruler of Endra and Earth.

  ‘Not you!’ Throat spat. ‘I need you to go to the girl. She has been left in Earth for far too long on her own. After the theatrics that have occurred there, the authorities will soon be after you, and if they find you they find her. Go fetch her and bring her into Endra.’

  ‘But…’ Fandel stammered. ‘I thought you said it would be dangerous…that it could cause complications if the two were brought together…that they could get strength from one another.’

  ‘Don’t bring her here to the Splinter. Take her far away from here…somewhere…’ Throat thought aloud. ‘Where there is magic that will prevent them from drawing strength from each other.’ Then Throat had it. Why hadn’t he thought of it sooner? It was perfect.

  ‘Where should I take her?’ Fandel asked.

  Grinning from beneath his writhing and shifting hood, Throat said;

  ‘Take her to the Delf!’

  ‘Not the Delf!’ Fandel cried. ‘Anywhere but the Delf!’

  ‘Why not?’ Throat rasped.

  ‘She has bewitched me,’ Fandel hissed. ‘I dare not go back there Throat...or I fear I may never leave.’

  ‘I’ve asked you to take the girl to her, not marry her!’ Throat gagged as if he were choking. ‘Pull yourself together!’

  ‘But…’ Fandel protested.

  ‘No ‘buts’ my dear Fandel!’

  ‘The Delf?’ Fandel whined, his heart beginning to race again at the very mention of her name.

  ‘Don’t fail me again Fandel,’ Throat rasped, then slumped back into his throne.

  Chapter 28

  The three of them walked all night towards the prison’s searchlights. The cliffs towered high above them as they made their way through canyons that had been cut in the hard-packed earth. The sky was cloudless and the moon illuminated their way. Pulling their clothes about them, they shivered against the chill wind that snaked around the cliff-faces.

  They had walked in single file for hours, each one lost to their own thoughts. William took the lead, bounding ahead then pausing for the others to catch up. William knew that if he could return home with his granddad and nothing else, this may go some way towards gaining him his dad’s forgiveness.

  Neanna blinked back and forth amongst the rocks. Sometimes she appeared ahead of Zach, at other times behind him. She thought of her family and race of people and how, for her, their mission had to be complete if the curse Throat had cast upon them were to ever be lifted. Neanna conjured pictures of her mother and father in her mind, but their images were somehow distant and foggy as if peering at them through a dirty window. She could just make o
ut her father’s long black hair and firm jaw line, and her mother’s wistful smile and perfect blue eyes, but that was about it; everything else was just a blur. The harder she tried to picture them, the more their faces turned into those nightmarish zombies that now protected the Howling Forests.

  Zach thought of his sister. Apart from that freak of an uncle, Anna was all he had left. He wondered if she were still alive and if he shouldn’t be with her, but William said she could only be saved if his Queen was saved and that had something to do with taking the box back to Anna. He still hadn’t come to terms with losing his parents and he wondered if he ever would, but to lose his sister as well would be unbearable.

  Turning his thoughts away from the pain of his parent’s death, Zach turned his attention to William and his confession.

  Hadn’t he said that the reason I was in Endra now was because of what he did? Zach thought to himself, squeezing through a narrow gap in the rocks.

  But how did William opening the box bring me into Endra? He puzzled.

  With these thoughts at the forefront of his mind, he quickened his step and caught up with his friend.

  ‘You said that everything that had happened was because of what you did?’ Zach asked.

  William slowed so Zach could keep pace with him.

  ‘That’s right,’ William said.

  ‘I understand how opening the box caused your dad’s blindness, but what about everything else? Where do I fit into all of this?’

  Neanna blinked and appeared next to William. Zach wondered if she had done this so as to offer William some comfort.

  ‘For thousands and thousands of years Endra has lived a peaceful existence. Like Earth we’ve had our wars, but like you that was us evolving – learning to appreciate our differences and except one another. But the day I opened the box changed everything, not just for Endra but for Earth too.’

  ‘But this is what I don’t understand?’ Zach said.

  ‘Within days of opening the box a man walked out of the wastelands. It is believed that he was attracted to the light that I released. He caught its scent on the wind and followed it like a rabid dog. Shrouded in moving robes, which appeared to be alive, he strode up to the gates of the Splinter and demanded an audience with the Queen. Compared to him, the Queens guards were feeble-minded and they led him high up into the Splinter and into the Queen’s chamber.’

  ‘The story goes that he held her captive for days at the tip of the Splinter,’ Neanna added, ‘and during this time she succumbed to his power and she hasn’t been seen since. We’ve heard rumours that she lays asleep and will die when the box is opened, and the full power of the Heart of Endra is released from the box and absorbed by this stranger.’

  ‘But she’s the Queen,’ Zach gasped. ‘How was she manipulated?’

  ‘Like your sister,’ William growled, ‘she’s a child – innocent and naive. No one had ever experienced such evil in the whole of Endra before.’

  William stared ahead at the towering searchlights and pulled the collar of his shirt about his neck to block out the cold.

  ‘But where did this stranger come from and what is his name?’ Zach asked.

  ‘No one knows the answer to those questions, but Endra has named him Throat,’ William said.

  Realising that they had been talking about his uncle’s double, Zach shivered and looked at his friends.

  Neanna blinked and reappeared beside him. Her fingertips brushed the back of his hand.

  ‘Both Throat and your Uncle want what’s inside the box so they can rule both Endra and Earth,’ Neanna told Zach, her eyes sharp and serious looking.

  ‘Sounds like my Uncle. Not content with one world, he wants two to destroy.’

  Stooping and with his hair billowing out behind him, William stared deep into Zach’s eyes.

  ‘Our worlds are reflected Zach Black. I’ve explained this before. And with the box releasing its secrets, our two worlds are overlapping and soon we won’t be able to tell them apart. What happens here will happen in Earth!’

  ‘But I don’t understand,’ said Zach.

  ‘Our world is being ravished by desert. The dust is eating away our rivers and streams. Endra is getting hotter by the day. Our seas are polluted and black. Species are on the brink of extinction. Does any of this sound familiar?’ William howled.

  Zach’s eyes grew fat and round as the realisation of what William was saying hit him like a train.

  ‘Earth is suffering because of global warming!’ Zach said. ‘Not because of Throat.’

  ‘Call it what you want,’ Neanna said. ‘The end result will be the same!’

  ‘Like I said before; whatever happens in Endra happens in Earth. Whether it’s caused by some insane sorcerer’s lust for power or your ruler’s greed – the effects will be identical,’ William barked.

  ‘But what can we do?’ Zach asked.

  ‘I don’t think we can ever put the genie back in the bottle,’ Neanna sighed, ‘but we can try and reverse some of the damage that Throat has caused or stop it from getting worse.’

  ‘And to do that we need to get the key to the box and then get the box to your sister,’ William said, turning and heading once again in the direction of the prison, his granddad and the key.

  ‘But why do we have to take it to my sister?’ Zach called after him. ‘Wouldn’t it make more sense to take it straight to the Queen?’

  ‘We’re hoping that as they are reflections it won’t matter which one of them opens the box,’ Neanna said, then blinked away.

  ‘Besides,’ William howled, his voice bouncing off the stone cliffs that reached high above, ‘that’s the one mistake we’re counting on Throat making!’

  ‘What’s that?’ Zach called out, racing after his friends.

  ‘He’ll keep your sister in Earth. He won’t bring her into Endra. Instead of having to battle our way up to the top of the Splinter, we can slip through the front door of your uncle’s cottage!’

  Chapter 29

  Fandel rushed around his kitchen as he gathered as many of his potions and remedies that his pockets would hold. He peered out of the kitchen window. Throat had got him wondering if the police would soon be at his door, and he didn’t want to be around when they did. Fandel knew that he had to get Anna into Endra as soon as possible, but he wanted to take everything that he might need. After all, he didn’t know when he would be returning, but when he did, he would be ruler and then the police wouldn’t be able to touch him. He’d see to that.

  Fandel thrust purple, orange, green and turquoise bottles into his coat and trouser pockets. He rammed spell books and note pads with pages of scribbled handwriting into a small lizard-skinned satchel. Scooping up the linen cloth which contained the yellow spiky tablets, he climbed the stairs two at time to Anna’s bedroom.

  Throwing open the door, he rushed inside. His niece lay on her back, eyes closed and her chest rising up and down at irregular intervals. Fandel took one of the tablets from the cloth. He opened her mouth and pushed one over her tongue. Holding her jaw shut, he watched for her throat to ripple as the tablet forced its way through her body.

  Content that she had swallowed it, he wrapped her in the bedding and gathered her in his arms like a pile of dirty washing. Fandel left the room and carried her downstairs. He glanced around, making sure that he had everything. Facing the fireplace, he closed his eyes and within moments he could see that fist urging him forward from the darkest corner of his mind. He moved towards it, the girl pressed against his chest. Opening his eyes, he grinned at the sight of his doorway standing open before the fireplace. With two long gawky steps, Fandel carried Anna into Endra.

  Throat stood on the balcony and peered out across the desert. The moon was sinking in the distance, and he knew that by the time the moon rose again he would have the key to the box in his hands.

  The thought excited him and he appeared to shake at the thought of opening the box. The spiderpedes scuttled over him as his cloak continued t
o fall away in powdering lumps. Throat couldn’t wait for the day when his cloak would be whole and made of the finest materials. He lusted for the day he could reveal his true self to Endra and Earth.

  As quick as candlelight being snuffed out, Throat shot a hand from beneath his cloak and snatched hold of one of the spiderpedes. Holding it up to his face, he appeared to speak to it as if whispering in its ear.

  ‘Bring me the key,’ he hissed.

  Throat opened his mouth wide as if he were going to choke. A deep retching noise escaped from his throat as he breathed a puff of black smoke over the spiderpede he held in his open palm. The insect-type thing then began to twitch like a fly that had been swatted. It rolled onto its shell and kicked its legs until they grew brittle and broke away. The spiderpede then disintegrated into a pile of dust before Throat’s eyes.

  Holding his hand out over the edge of the balcony, Throat blew the spiderpedes ashes into the night. They hovered in the air like a swarm of minute bees which then began to take form. They swayed on the wind as they took on the shape of a demon with a long bony skull, deep empty eye sockets and a mouthful of shark-like teeth. The demon stretched and pulled in every direction as it took shape. Its wide mouth opened and it screamed as if in pain. Then it began to shrink and get smaller – taking the form of a small, angelic looking boy, no older than about eight years old.

  The boy floated in the night sky on the other side of the balcony where Throat stood.

  ‘My hollow child,’ Throat rasped. ‘Go to the prison and wipe them out. Wipe them all out!’

  Smiling at Throat, the boy bowed his head, before separating into a swarm of black ash again and swooping away across the desert.

  The doorway crashed shut causing Fandel’s bones to rattle beneath his wrinkled skin, like a sack full of spanners. He looked down the narrow street that twisted and turned before him. Just above his head was a sign which read:

  Welcome to the town of Thud