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

by Tim O'Rourke

  With his arm shooting outwards with lightning speed, Tanner fired one single shot into the heart of his friend. Moments later, the crow pulled Baran apart in its claw-shaped talons. Blood rained out of the sky and spattered the ground, which readily soaked it up.

  Turning to face his friends, Wavia and Nail, Tanner roared at them. “Go! Go! Go! Save yourselves. They don’t want you. They want me and the girl.”

  “But...” Wavia started.

  Racing towards Wavia and Nail, with Anna holding on for her life, Tanner shouted, “This is a battle we can’t win. There will be another day for us. But you must go now, both of you. I have seen enough of my friends’ blood shed for one day.”

  With the crow screeching overhead, Wavia and Nail looked at Tanner one last time, then pulling back on their creature’s reins, they fled across the desert. The crow hovered momentarily as Tanner and Anna raced away in the opposite direction.

  “The girl!” the Delf belched in Fandel’s ear. “We need the girl. Forget the others!”

  Just as Tanner had hoped, the crow banked in the sky, then came racing after him and Anna. He glanced over his shoulder to see the bird within striking distance. “Keep your head down,” he roared at Anna, who had pressed herself flat against his back.

  “We need the girl alive!” The Delf cried in Fandel’s ear as he guided the bird towards his prey.

  “I know, you stupid witch!” Fandel barked, leaning his head away, the stench coming from the Delf’s mouth making his stomach somersault.

  With the crow hovering just inches over the fleeing peacekeeper and the girl, it struck out with its talon, knocking them both clear of the rafter horse. Anna flew from the back of the horse, slamming into the ground. Dust clouds billowed up from beneath her, and she gasped as the air was knocked from her lungs. Tanner hit the ground with a sickening thud. His crossbow shot from his hand and he lay in the dust some feet away. Rolling over, he stretched out his hand to grab for it, but it was out of reach. With the sound of the crow’s beating wings drowning out any other sound, Anna wiped sand from her eyes as she saw it land. With her heart racing in her chest, she watched as her Uncle Fandel and the witch clambered from the bird and came towards them.

  “When are you going to learn that running from me is so futile?” Fandel sneered down at her. Then turning his attention on Tanner, he drew back his boot and kicked the peacekeeper in the ribs. Tanner rolled over in the sand and groaned.

  “Good to see you again, Fandel,” Tanner groaned.

  “You think this is funny?” Fandel spat, the veins on his narrow temples flashing green through his pale skin. “I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer, you little shit.”

  The Delf came forward, and wrapping her bloated fingers around one of Anna’s wrists, she pulled her to her feet. “Throat is going to be so pleased that we finally have you,” she grinned, a stream of maggots crawling over her front teeth in a white froth.

  Anna looked away, fighting the urge to puke.

  “Soon we’ll have your brother and the key to the box, too,” the Delf said, gripping Anna’s face in her hands and forcing it around so the girl had to look at her face.

  “You don’t even know where the boy is,” Tanner groaned, nursing his ribs. “What makes you think he is still in Endra? He could be back in Earth.”

  “He’s heading for the canyon,” Fandel gloated. “He’s searching for a way across the Outer-Rim.”

  Tanner eyed him with suspicion and said, “You don’t know anything.”

  Smiling, Fandel bent low over Tanner as he lay in the sand and said, “You know different, peacekeeper?”

  “I wouldn’t tell you even if I did,” Tanner smirked through his pain. “I’d rather die.”

  “That can be arranged,” Fandel smiled back. “But before I have that pleasure, I believe the Delf might have something for you.”

  “What?” Tanner asked. He watched the Delf let go of Anna and pick up her bag of charts and potions.

  The Delf bent over her bag made of bloat skin, and farted. Grunting and groaning to herself, she rummaged through the bag. When she had found what it was she was looking for, she straightened up. In her hands she held what looked like a tube of lipstick. She pulled off the cap to reveal a thin, red stick. Slowly she approached Tanner, while smearing the red paint over her blistered and maggot-infested lips.

  “Hey, lady, it really doesn’t matter how much of that stuff you put on, you’re still gonna look like an old mutt chewing a wasp,” Tanner said, inching backwards towards his crossbow. But Fandel saw what the peacekeeper was up to. He seized the crossbow for himself and aimed it at Tanner.

  “Get up!” Fandel barked. “C’mon, we don’t have time for your fun and games.”

  Slowly, Tanner got to his feet, one hand above his head, the other holding his bruised and battered ribs. Anna watched on as the Delf shuffled towards Tanner. She had smeared so much of the blood-red lipstick over her lips, it had covered her broken front teeth. Tanner had been right, it had done nothing to improve her looks. Only the most gifted of plastic surgeons would have been able to help her and even then, Anna doubted it. The woman was a train wreck.

  The Delf stood before Tanner and he lowered his arm and covered his nose with it.

  “Hands up!” Fandel ordered, waving the crossbow at Tanner. “The lady just wants a kiss, that’s all.”

  Then before Tanner had a chance to refuse or even react, the Delf had lunged for him. Flinging her arms tight about his neck, she yanked her face towards his and smothered her lips over his. Tanner tried to push her away, but it was like he had somehow fallen into a trance as his arms fell limply by his sides. The Delf kissed him, that bright red lipstick spreading around Tanner’s mouth. His cheeks were sucked inwards, making his face look emaciated. His eyes bulged in their sockets like two hardboiled eggs, as maggots crawled from the corners of his mouth.

  “Stop it!” Anna cried, taking a step towards the Delf.

  “Keep back,” Fandel snapped, turning the crossbow on her.

  “What is she doing to him?”

  “Sucking the truth from him,” Fandel giggled with a boyish excitement.

  “But how?” Anna asked, feeling repulsed by what was happening.

  “The lipstick is the congealed blood taken from prisoners tortured in the cells beneath the Prison of Eternal Despair,” Fandel laughed. “Some of that murderous scum had to be...how can I explain...persuaded to tell the truth and confess to their barbaric crimes. Some of their spilt blood was collected and is believed to get others to give up their secrets.”

  “Like a truth serum?” Anna asked.

  “Yes, I guess you could say that,” Fandel smiled at her. “I have never tried it myself – but the person being kissed is believed to be able to taste the pain – the misery – of those tortured souls, and fearing that such pain might be dealt upon them, they give up their secrets.”

  “You’re sick,” Anna breathed.

  “Thank you,” Fandel smiled, and then gave her a sly wink.

  The Delf broke away from Tanner and wiped the lipstick – congealed blood – off her lips with her arm. Tanner stumbled backwards and fell on his arse in the sand. Anna went to him, wrapping her arm about his shoulder. A few lost maggots fell from the corner of his mouth and into his lap where they wriggled away. His head rolled to the side like a drunk’s and his eyes rolled in their sockets.

  “What have you done to him?” Anna gasped.

  “He’ll get over it,” Fandel said. “Might take an hour or two, but anyone who is kissed by the Delf will need to take a moment.”

  “Whoa,” the Delf gasped, stumbling about herself as if giddy.

  “What did you see?” Fandel snapped at her, desperate to know what she had discovered. “What secrets does he know about the boy – Zachary Black?”

  Steadying herself, the Delf glanced at Fandel with a look of shock on her face, and said, “The peacekeeper has deceived all of us.” Then turning to look at Anna, sh
e added, “The peacekeeper has deceived you too, Anna Black...and your brother.”

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  “Bring him back,” Neanna hollered, as the spider-ship soared away, William dangling beneath it.

  “Go after him,” Zach shouted. Then glancing to his right, he saw Bom struggling now to keep his Butter-Flyer under control. “Go after William!”

  “I’m having problems steering this thing!” Bom roared.

  “Just do it,” Zach ordered. “We’ve got to get him back!”

  He looked ahead and could see that Faraday was already in pursuit of William, his mechanical arms dissecting anything that got too close to him.

  Way ahead in the distance, William dangled beneath the spider, his arms and legs waving and kicking desperately about. Wrapping the reins around her hands, Neanna yanked on them and the Butter-Flyer responded by shooting forwards. She pulled to the left a little, then to the right until she was heading in the direction of her friend. Bom pulled hard on the reins he was holding and his butterfly machine gained speed. The wings beat so fast on either side of it that they were just a haze as they zoomed after William.

  Spider-ships with their riders dived towards them on either side. Zach fired wave after wave of stakes from his crossbows. Neanna discovered that if she tilted her body weight to the right or the left, the Butter-Flyer banked in that direction. If she leant back, the creature soared higher, and if she bent forward, it lost altitude. As she grew more confident of flying the Butter-Flyer, she pulled her catapult free and released one of the inferno berries. It thudded into an approaching spider-ship and then erupted in a flash of green light. Several spider-ships, which were close by, screamed, and their riders gripped their respirators as they caught fire on the seething shockwave of light that came from the exploding berry.

  Zach glanced up to see William was only feet away now. Neanna swooped alongside the spider-ship that had hold of him and seized the reins again to gain greater control of the Butter-Flyer. The dead peacekeeper riding the spider turned to look at Zach, its dead eyes staring out from behind its mask.

  “Give up, Black!” the dead peacekeeper wheezed at Zach from behind its mask.

  Zach, taking aim with his crossbow, simply said, “Not today – not ever!”

  “You won’t make it across the Outer-Rim!” it rasped.

  ‘”I’d rather die trying, than let you take me,” Zach shouted over the roar of the wind, then he released the stake into the dead peacekeeper’s face.

  Out of the corner of her eye, Neanna saw Faraday sweep in beneath the spider-ship, and with one deadly swipe of his arms, all six of the creature’s legs were separated from the rest of its body. Immediately, the ship began to roll uncontrollably and the rider’s eyes filled with panic as it screamed and spun away.

  Zach glanced down to watch Faraday swoop after William as he tumbled through the air. Neanna raced the Butter-Flyer downwards to draw level with William. One of the spider-ships swooped in close to Faraday and rammed him from behind as he reached for William. Faraday lurched backwards and fell off the spider he had taken. To his horror, Zach looked down and saw both William and Faraday plummeting to their deaths.

  Without thinking, Neanna yanked back on the reins, lent forward, and raced towards them in a complete nosedive. Zach and Neanna’s decent was so rapid, both could feel their cheeks rippling against their skulls.

  With only inches to go before they were racing alongside William, another of the spiders swept in, the rider reaching for him. Pulling on the reins so tightly she thought they might snap, Neanna got every last drop of power from the Butter-Flyer and inched towards William.

  Desperately trying to hold on to Neanna, Zach aimed his crossbow with a wavering hand and released a short burst of stakes at the dead peacekeeper. They thudded into it, thick streams of black blood spraying into the wind. The dead peacekeeper let out an agonising moan, giving Neanna the chance to grab hold of William as he continued to plunge towards the ground.

  Neanna released the reins momentarily and reached hold of William. The wolf-boy howled as he took hold of his friend. Holstering one of his crossbows, Zach helped pull William onto the Butter-Flyer. Once on board, Zach put one arm tightly about his shoulders and Neanna picked up the reins again.

  “Are you okay?” Zach shouted at him.

  “You took your time, Zachary Black!” William howled, his long hair flowing back from his face.

  “Oh, quit complaining,” Zach muttered and drew his crossbows again.

  Then prodding Zach in the chest with one long finger, William barked, “Don’t you ever try and get me to go flying again!”

  “Duck!” Zach roared in response, releasing another surge of stakes at the approaching spiders. Then looking back at Neanna, he said, “What are you waiting for? Go after Faraday!”

  Neanna looked down and could see Faraday racing towards the ground below which looked rugged and scattered with giant red boulders.

  “Faster!” Zach hollered, seeing that Faraday was now just feet from smashing into the rocky ground below and his own death. But in their hearts, all of them knew that they would never reach Faraday in time.

  “Don’t look!” William howled, and turned away.

  But as Zach was about to close his eyes, something shot passed his eye line.

  “Look! Look!” Neanna shouted.

  William peered over Zach’s shoulder just in time to see Captain Bom skim just above the rocky ground and snatch Faraday from the air.

  “Whoa!” Zach roared, and punched the air with his fist.

  With Faraday clinging to him, Bom circled his Butter-Flyer in the air as if doing a victory roll.

  “Aww, he’s just showing off now,” William woofed.

  Zach looked back over his shoulder and could see another swarm of flying spiders with dead peacekeepers approaching. Then for the first time since the spiders had attacked, Zach saw the Seek-Wasp go fluttering past him and hover over the red coloured rocks below. Tapping Neanna on the shoulder, Zach spoke into her ear and said, “Neanna, land this thing. I think this is the canyon we’ve been searching for.”

  Neanna banked the Butter-Flyer to the left and swooped towards the ground. With the machine hovering above an outcrop of red coloured rock, Zach and his friends jumped off. Bom brought his Butter-Flyer within a few feet of the ground, and both he and Faraday came racing towards the others who had now taken cover behind the rocks. The flying spiders swopped low, their wings made of webs beating on either side of them. Then, one of the dead peacekeepers saw where Zach and the others were hiding and zoomed in towards them. Darts sprayed from the spider’s fangs, burying themselves into the rocks.

  Huddled next to one another, Zach looked at his companions who stared back at him.

  “What?” he asked them.

  “What now?” Neanna said.

  “Do you have a plan on how we’re gonna get out of this?” Bom added.

  But before Zach had a chance to think up an answer, the rocks they cowered behind started to move, as if coming alive.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  The rocks rolled aside to reveal a hole in the ground. Zach and his friends peered into the darkness, as the spiders and the dead peacekeepers swooped above them. The darts from the spiders’ venomous fangs whizzed all around them.

  “I think we should go down there,” Zach said, looking at the others huddled around him.

  “So that’s your plan?” Bom grunted. “We don’t know what’s down there.”

  “Got a better idea?” Zach snapped back, glancing up at the spiders. “I think these rocks have been rolled back for a reason.”

  “Like what?” William asked.

  “I dunno, but I think someone or something is offering us a way of escape,” Zach tried to explain.

  “You can’t be sure,” Neanna said.

  “Trust me,” Zach smiled back at her, and then disappeared into the hole.

  Zach found himself in a narrow tunnel. It was wide
and high enough for him to be able to stand. It was dark, and he felt his way by brushing his fingertips against the coarse stone walls. The others followed into the tunnel, and the boulders rolled back over the opening, sealing them all inside. From the other side of the rocks, Zach could hear the spiders screeching and the dead peacekeepers’ respirators hissing as if they had suddenly come under attack.

  “Keep moving,” Faraday said in the darkness, his synthesized voice echoing back off the tunnel walls.

  Zach blindly followed the tunnel downwards until the darkness seemed to lighten. At the bottom of the tunnel, Zach led the others out into a rocky chamber. The walls pulsated with an orange glow which gave some light to their surroundings. On the opposite side of the chamber, there was a much larger, wider tunnel than the one they had followed down from above. Huge piles of boulders and rocks lay scattered over the ground. Then from the larger tunnel came a noise so loud and terrifying, that Zach and his friends hid behind the nearest pile of red coloured rocks.

  From behind them, Zach could see the mouth of the tunnel. The screeching from within it got louder and louder, until it became unbearable. Beneath the sound of the screaming, Zach could hear a dull thud-thud sound. It made the ground shake beneath them.

  “I knew this was a bad idea,” Bom groaned.

  “Shhh!” Neanna said, placing her forefinger over her lips.

  The ear-splitting sound was almost on top of them. They peered over the top of their hiding place to see what it was that could make such a noise. Then, out of the darkness of the tunnel, they saw a piece of railway track come crashing down onto the hard-packed ground. A plume of dust belched up from beneath the track. This was followed by two gleaming black pincers as they gripped onto the track and scurried forward, pulling a gigantic body behind it.

  It was the largest scorpion any of them had ever seen. And when they looked at it again in sheer disbelief and wonder, Zach and his friends realised that it wasn’t a scorpion, but in fact a train which had been designed to look like one. The rest of the body came lumbering out of the tunnel, a huge black tail snaking menacingly back and forth. The tail reached blindly down behind, ripped up the piece of track that the train had just scurried over, and threw it over the length of its own body, slamming it down in front of it again, providing another length of track for the creature to crawl along.