by C. F. Cooper
“Come on, we need to get away from Sasha. I think she recognised me.” Gary walked through the crowd as far away from the alter as he could. The mist began to spread slowly over the ground.
“Free at last,” said one of the ex-prisoners as he recognised Gary and Calico.
“Yep,” Gary replied. “It is a relief.”
“No more nightmares, no more struggle. Surrender is freedom.”
“Sure feels good,” said Calico, raised eyebrows as he looked at Gary. They kept moving through the crowd to the edge of the mist. They reached clear ground and positioned themselves on the corner of one of the few remaining houses to watch the crowd.
The mist began to slowly dissipate leaving snow in its wake.
“We need more of that resin,” said Calico. “It will cure people.”
“We can never have enough of it,” replied Gary. “It must be given freely by the trees of Ydrassil and it causes them great pain to do so.”
“But we need it.”
“No, we know how they spread fear and convert their followers. We destroy that to defeat them.”
“Look out, here comes Sasha,” Calico pointed to small group emerging from the crowd. It was led by Sasha, but she no longer walked with the same confident air that Gary had seen before. She seemed to stagger slightly and put her hand to her forehead, wiping away beads of sweat.
“The resin is having an effect on her,” whispered Gary. “Come on,” Gary began to follow the group at a distance staying in the shadows.
Sasha reached the entrance to a small house and stopped in her tracks. She looked around as if searching for someone or something. Her forehead creased in lines of confusion. She shook her head and entered the house. One of the guards stood sentry at the door the house and the others marched off into the distance.
“Come on,” said Gary. “We need to see her.” He stood tall and straight and marched up to the guard. “Hail the Ice King.”
“Hail,” replied the guard.
“Do you see this man here.”
The guard looked at Calico. “What of him?”
Gary swung a punch and connected with the guard knocking him to the ground. He removed his last remaining piece of resin and rubbed it into the guard’s skin who mumbled as he passed out.
“Quick,” said Gary, grabbing the guard and pulling him out of sight with Calico’s help to the rear of the building.
Calico took the guard’s place and Gary slipped into the house. A small red lamp illuminated one corner of the front room. Sasha sat on a chair next to the lamp, her eyes glazed and face shining in the light.
“So, it was you,” she said.
“Yes. I made your father a promise,” he replied.
“My father?”
“I promised I’d save you.”
“I am beyond saving,” she sneered.
“I don’t think so.”
Sasha stood slowly and walked towards him uncertainly. “What did you do to me?”
“I gave you something that lets you find yourself.”
“I didn’t want to find myself,” she slurred as she stood before him. “The things I have done. I do not need reminding of those.” Sasha’s long cat tail whipped back, and forwards as she spoke. “Terrible things but things that needed to be done to save the garden.”
“No, they didn’t. You are helping to destroy everything that is good about this place.”
Sasha’s tail whipped up and circled Gary’s neck in a vice like grip. “Look at me, see what I see.”
Gary looked deeply into Sasha’s eyes. They were feline vertical slits which opened wide as she returned his stare, pushing out the white and green until only blackness remained. Gary could feel his breath being restricted and tried to call out to Calico for help. Nothing came. He collapsed onto his knees and Sasha followed him down, keeping eye contact until they lay side by side on the floor. He felt as if he was falling into the darkness, the room disappearing. The face from the mist appeared and spoke.
The sons of Adam betrayed us once and they will betray us again. Look what they have done to their own world.
The face dissolved and an image of Gary’s world appeared. It was a world of wars and famines, disease and pestilence. An image of ice sheets collapsing into the sea appeared and then of forests being destroyed by bulldozers and fires, animals running through the forest chased by fire, chased by man.
The first sin followed by many more.
An image of the gateway between worlds appeared. Gary recognised it from the visions Smallgrass and shared with him. A man stood by the gate guarding it, not letting anyone pass.
We shall stay in the old world and it will be ours. We will be the masters of this domain.
The guard stopped someone who wanted to pass through.
Will you stop me, your own brother from following his heart?
The guard pulled his sword from his belt and stuck down the other man. His blood slowly spread on the ground and as some of it seeped into the gateway it began to shrink and close completely.
The face of the Ice king reappeared.
The lands were separated by blood. They will be reunited by blood. It is the blood of man or the blood of the garden.
“You see now,” said the disembodied voice of Sasha. “You see.”
Gary shook his head. “No.” A searing pain tore through him and his vision returned. Sasha still had him by the throat, and he looked down to see blood seeping from his shoulder, Sasha’s claws protruding from her fingertips. “No,” he repeated. He stared into her eyes again and from some dark recess of his mind knew he had to let his own life flash before him. Sasha tried to look away but couldn’t.
Gary let the memories come flooding back to his mind. He was running on a beach and splashed through the shallow water laughing as he was chased by a friend. He was climbing a tree and attaching a rope to a branch to make a swing. Then he was at a concert in the mosh pit swaying with the crowd to the beat of the music. He was staring at a picture in a museum, moving in and out to see how the brush strokes looked like nothing but random colours up close, but came into the focus the further away he moved from the canvas. A cat sat on his lap purring as he stroked its head. Suddenly it turned and bit him. It was not sore, and he laughed as the cat’s tail swished to and fro as it gnawed on his hand. Then he was in the Smallgrass burrow, then below ground looking at the vision of Devin, then in Sasha’s village watching Oscar die and talking to Sasha’s father, promising not to hurt her.
“There is good and evil in both worlds,” said Gary. “The evil is people trying to control things that shouldn’t be controlled. You need to fight it in both worlds, not force one world to fight the other.”
Sasha screamed and loosened her grip on Gary. She shook her head. “What have I done, what have I done.” She rolled away from Gary and put her head in her hands.
Gary sat up and pulled the small pendant of water given to him by Leo from his neck. He pulled Sasha close and unsealed it. “Drink this, it will help.”
She looked up, her eyes full of tears. “I can never make it right.”
“It’s never too late.” He handed her the phial and she drank it, leaning in against Gary as she drifted off to sleep. He carefully lifted her and placed he on the chair, positioning her head against a cushion and covering her with a blanket. “No-one is ever completely gone,” he whispered. “And if they’re not gone, it’s never too late.”
The door to the house opened and Calico’s head appeared. “Everything okay in there?”
“I think so. Time will tell. We need to let her rest for a while.” Gary walked to the door. “Come in, I’ll take a shift on guard.”
Calico entered the house. “I don’t think we can stay too much longer.”
“Let’s give her an hour or two.” Gary stepped outside and took Calico’s place.
Gary stood outside and surveyed the scene. People passed by periodically, greeting him with a Hail the Ice King which he repeated. The thing
that struck him though was the lack of any real interaction. They were only half there. Each person passing by had something to do. They were going somewhere, there was no one sitting around talking, sharing stories or songs as he had seen in Warrensgate and in Clowder Hollow before its fall. Life had become completely functional and lacking joy for those who had turned into doomwalkers. The lights had been dimmed and they only knew what they should do, not what they enjoyed doing.
After what seemed an age, Gary looked up at the sky. He could see the light from the morning sun beginning to make its presence felt. Streaks of orange were stretching out dimly lighting the village. The door creaked open and Calico’s head appeared.
“She’s awake. I think you better come in.”
Gary slipped into the house. Sasha was standing tall and proud. For a moment Gary wasn’t sure if she was once again a Doomwalker. She walked up to him, swished her tail round his neck and pulled him forward. She hugged him. “Thank you Gary. Thank you for saving me. I was lost.”
Gary hugged her back. “We need to leave now if we are going to slip out of the village.”
Sasha stood back and shook her head. “No, we must destroy the elixir first. If we do that the doomwalkers will be a spent force within days. We need…I needed to take the elixir at least once a week. Without it I started to have nightmares and headaches. The old me fighting back. If we can destroy the elixir, we destroy the army.”
The door suddenly swung open and they were faced with a group of soldiers facing them. “Commander,” one of them barked. “Your guard is missing.”
Sasha strode forward with purpose. “This is my guard. Two new recruits from last night’s ceremony. I am gathering intelligence from them. Tomorrow we march back to Springrise to complete our conquest and then onwards to Summervale.”
“Yes commander. Apologies for the intrusion.” He punched his fist to his chest. “Hail the Ice King”
“Hail,” replied Sasha. She stared at Gary.
“Oh, yeah, Hail,” he punched his chest. “Hail the Ice King.”
The entourage turned and left, marching.
Sasha pulled on her thigh length boots and slipped on her leather waistcoat.
“You look mean in that attire,” said Calico.
Sasha raised an eyebrow, “And?”
“Good. You look good. Good but mean.”
“Well, I wore this before I was turned, and I was nice then, mostly.” Sasha flicked her hands out wide and claws burst through her fingertips. “So just be careful not to annoy me too much.”
“They’re sharp,” said Gary, rubbing his shoulder. “I would listen to her.”
Calico raised his hands palms up. “I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Sasha smiled and winked at Gary. “Do you think I look good or mean?”
“Mean, but in a good way,” he replied smiling.
***
Sasha strode through the village with Gary and Calico following behind as if they were her escort. Each person she passed greeted her with a hail. They marched towards the centre of the village where doomwalkers were walking slowly in a circle pushing the horse mill that was pulling water up from bore hole. Sasha stopped at the edge of the hole and looked down. Gary and Calico stood at either side.
“Water is drawn from the sacred lake to create the elixir,” she explained. “It is then mixed with Kingsblood and heated. It allows him to control all that comes into contact with it. We have built…the Ice King has built a pumping station here and another one is under construction in Springrise. His control over each land is dependent on them. We needed to come back and get supplies of the elixir for our followers in Springrise. That is why I am here.”
“So, we destroy the pump?” said Calico.
“And the elixir that has already been made ready for transport,” said Sasha.
“And escape untouched at the end of it,” said Gary. “Easy,” he smiled and winked at the other two.
“Not sure we will do the escape thing,” said Sasha. “But two out of three will be enough to put an end to this. Follow my lead,” She turned and walked towards a guarded stockade. As she approached, the two doomwalkers at the gate greeted her with a hail. She returned the greeting. “How many barrels do we have?”
“Twenty readied to transport to Springrise. Enough to last until the pumping station there is complete.”
“Good, good. And what about the Kingsblood?”
“Two flasks, but more is on its way from the Crystal City. It should arrive tonight.”
“Open the gate. I want to inspect the cargo,” she commanded.
“With all due respect commander, this is not your usual escort guards”
“Yes, yes you are quite right. However…”
“Sorry I am late commander,’ came a voice from behind.
Gary turned to see the guard they had knocked out. He had forgotten about him. The guard looked at Sasha and nodded. He then turned to Gary and winked at him. The guards opened the gate and Sasha entered followed by Gary, Calico and the other guard. The centre of the stockade held a smaller cage, inside of which was a collection of barrels and two clay flasks. They moved out of earshot of the gate.
“Are you alright?” Sasha asked the guard.
“I am now. I came to couldn’t find you. But I remembered my old life, realised what I have done.” He shook his head.
“It wasn’t your fault. We have all been poisoned. Now we must do what we can to stop it happening to anyone else.
The guard nodded his head. “Anything I can do, I will.”
“How do we get into the cage?” asked Gary.
Sasha pulled a key from the pocket of her leather waistcoat. “I have one, but there are four locks. Each commander holds a key and the gate does not open without all four being in place. We can’t get into the cage.”
“Okay,” said Gary, so maybe we should have had a plan before we talked our way in here.”
“We do, it’s just my plan, not yours,” said Sasha, smiling. Gary, help me bring those torches over here.” She pointed to a stack of wooden torches lying on the ground at the edge of the stockade. She turned to the others “Make sure the guards do not lock us in once we’ve started.”
Calico nodded and walked over the gate. “Do we have any prisoners ready for the ceremony tonight?” he asked, an attempt to divert their attention.
“All the prisoners have been converted. We need to get the elixir to Springrise now to finish off the job,” one of them replied.
“Ah, very good. How long is the journey?”
Gary carried as many torches as he could while Sasha dragged three leather waterskins. Reaching the inner cage, she dropped two of the bags and took the seal off the third. “Pitch oil for the torches,” she said, pouring the thick black liquid into the cage. She then brought a flint lighter from her pocket and sparked it on the ground. The pitch burst into flames.
“Now the torches,” she said.
Gary threw them through gaps in the cage towards the barrels and flasks.
“What the…” the guards heard the burst of flames and pushed past Calico. He managed to trip one of them as he ran past.
Gary saw the other guard approaching and swung at him with one of torches, making clean contact and knocking him to the ground. “The pump?” Gary said to Sasha. She nodded her head, passing Gary one of the remain waterskins. He knew what to do, He ran past the guards lying on the ground and out of the stockade closely followed by the others. As he reached the horse mill, he shouted at the doomwalkers monotonously at the wheel. “The elixir save the elixir,” he shouted, pointing back towards the stockade.
They took the bait and abandoned their posts, running towards the fire. Gary pulled the sack from his shoulder, opened it and began walking round the wooden mill pouring on pitch oil. He saw Sasha running towards him, flaming torch in her hand, cat ears erect and her tailing flicking around furiously behind her. She was a beautiful sight. Eyes burning green with determination. She threw the
torch onto the mill and it immediately ignited. She ran past him to the edge of the chasm waving for him to join her. Pulling the one remaining sack of pitch from her shoulder she poured it over the ropes which connected the mill to the pump. Gary knew what to do, forcing himself forward against the burning heat of the wheel, he retrieved the torch and ran towards Sasha. She nodded as he reached her, and he held the torch against the rope watching the flame take hold.
Calico and Sasha’s guard reached them just as the flames began to leap and dance into the sky.
“Two out of three?” she said.
“Let’s see about escaping now,” said Gary.
“Follow me,” said Sasha. She led them walking slowly and calmly through the crowd that was now heading in the opposite direction towards the fire.
“Commander, the fire,” someone barked at her as they passed.
“It is under control,” she said. “I will seal the perimeter.”
“Very good commander,” he replied.
“Just look straight ahead and follow me,” she said to the others.
Behind them was a large explosion, followed by the boom of another then another.
“Keep walking,” she repeated.
Gary couldn’t help himself. He stopped and turned to look. Inside the stockade the barrels were exploding one by one, creating a mushroom of flames and smoke that was growing larger with each barrel. Then there was yet another explosion, this time larger than all the previous ones. The earth shook and knocked them to the ground. The mushroom cloud expanded further and turned deep red. It was the same mushroom cloud they had seen at the ceremony only larger. Gary took a deep breath. He suspected he knew what would happen next. A face appeared in the sky. The same face from before but this time it screamed. The sound was so loud that they covered their ears. Looking around no-one else was covering their ears. A doomwalker looked at them and pointed, shouting. Gary couldn’t hear what he said but the other doomwalkers heard him and looked at the four companions lying on the ground. More of them pointed and they began to circle, pointing and chanting. The face in the cloud stopped screaming and in a low booming voice that seemed directed at them began to speak.
