by Steve Feasey
‘Then how do we—’
‘We need a distraction,’ Dreck said. ‘A big one,’ he added with a smile. He took a deep breath, holding it, and Trey watched as the nether-creature began to change colour. Even though he’d seen the same thing earlier, during the fight with the demons at the hell-hole, it was fascinating to watch. Dreck’s skin went from a dull grey through pink to red in quite a short time, but whereas before he had spat the tennis-ball-sized fireball out at the onrushing Shadow Demon at this point, he now went on holding his breath, the colour deepening and strengthening until his skin was a livid, dark burgundy and Trey could feel the heat burning off the creature. The Fire Imp’s eyes bulged in his head, and he motioned with his hand for Trey to step back down the passageway and get down on to the floor. Happy that the boy was far enough away, Dreck turned and spat the fireball into the corridor away to their left. Trey looked up from his prone position, and saw how the burning globe doubled in size as soon as it left Dreck’s mouth, and continued to grow even in the short time that he could see it before it disappeared from sight.
When the fireball struck the floor somewhere down the corridor and detonated, Trey could feel the wall of heat even from his place of safety. He looked up and saw the guards running down in the direction of the fire, already shouting out for help to extinguish the blaze.
‘Let’s go,’ Dreck said, and Trey thought he detected a new weariness in the Fire Imp’s voice.
The teenager got to his feet and quickly walked over to where his guide was standing. The demon looked terrible, his skin almost white, and there was utter exhaustion on his face. ‘Abig one like that takes it out of me,’ he said, waving away Trey’s hand. ‘I won’t be able to manage another for some time yet. Let’s go.’
They ran out into the corridor, not bothering to look behind them to see the guards battling against the fire – it was clear from their shouts and screams that they had their hands full. The Fae gate that led into the Great Hall was directly ahead, and Dreck reached out to grab Trey’s hand seconds before they jumped into the black opening.
There were no light displays for them this time. No Fae attacked, but Trey had the same feeling that he’d had before of being watched by a malevolent force.
Initially he allowed the Fire Imp to guide him, and he wondered again how the nether-creature knew the way in the inky void. But when they had walked for about thirty seconds or so, Trey came to an abrupt halt.
‘What are you doing?’ the Fire Imp said.
Trey stood in silence, planning his next move.
‘Let’s go,’ Dreck hissed.
‘How did you know that Alexa and Philippa were being held in the dungeons?’
‘What?’
‘Back there in one of the passageways. You asked me if I wanted to “get to the dungeons and free Alexa and the other girl”. How did you know that they were both there?’
‘It was just an expression. I’m guessing that Alexa is here somewhere. If she is, and she’s ahead of us, I would have thought that she’s made it to—’
‘How would she get past the Fae?’
‘What?’
‘You told me that there was no other way in or out. And yet you’re assuming that she somehow made it past the Fae.’
‘Look, are you going to stand here, of all places, and argue about some silly slip of the tongue that I …’
The Fire Imp’s words were cut short as he felt the teenager’s hand, which he held in his own, transform into something huge and hairy.
The werewolf grabbed the djinn’s wrist, wrenching the nether-creature up off its feet and into the air.
‘Put me down!’ Dreck bellowed. ‘Put me down this instant, or so help me, I’ll … ’
While one hand suspended the djinn above the ground by the wrist, the werewolf’s other hand was exploring the Fire Imp’s fingers, and Dreck realized too late what he was searching for. The Fire Imp tried to clench his hand into a fist to stop the lycanthrope, but Trey was simply too powerful and wrenched the hand open again. Dreck screamed out in anger as he felt the Fae ring torn from his finger.
‘Give that back!’ the Fire Imp screeched into the darkness. ‘That is my ring. You give that back to me. Now!’
Trey had a problem. The ring was too small – it was the perfect size for the Fire Imp, but even though the nether-creature’s hands and fingers were fat, the teenager knew that there was no way he would be able to put it on while in his werewolf state.
He transformed back into his human form. The sudden weight of the demon he was holding out at arm’s length was too much for him, and he dropped the nether-creature.
Dreck screamed. At first Trey thought that the creature must have been hurt by the fall, but listening to the Fire Imp revealed that these were screams of a different sort.
The teenager slipped the ring on to his forefinger, and the Fae world was transformed.
He could see. Not see in the conventional sense – there was nothing much to see. But he was no longer blind to the things around him in the blackness. The first thing he noticed was the bright coloured aura that seemed to burn off him. It was a deep blue and it danced over his skin as if he was on fire. The next things that caught his eye were the Fae, who were hurtling in at a terrific speed, their teeth making that same sharp snickety-snick sound as they snapped them together. He looked down at the screaming Fire Imp by his side, and realized that the demon could no longer see: Dreck was floundering in the darkness, his arms flailing as he sought Trey out, oblivious to the Fae that were hurtling towards him.
The Fae had not illuminated themselves this time, and it was clear to Trey that they had only one thing in mind: to inflict death on the creature that had taken them away from their homeland and trapped them here in this place as slaves to the demon lord Molok. But Trey, thanks to the stolen ring on his finger, was able to make them out; their bodies, like his own, were covered in wispy flame, although theirs were of a deep purple colour which, coupled with their transparent bodies, made them difficult to see against the black background.
They were almost upon the Fire Imp when Trey took Dreck’s hand in his own. Immediately the blue aura that surrounded his own body also bathed the Fire Imp, and Trey could hear the hisses and shrieks of frustration from the Fae as they slowed down and hovered in the air all around them. One by one the Fae lit themselves up – little stars in a sea of obsidian gloom.
‘What are you doing?’ Dreck shouted in Trey’s direction. ‘Give me back my ring!’
Trey watched as the Fire Imp held his breath, magicking up a fireball with which to try to kill the boy.
‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you,’ Trey said, letting go of the Fire Imp’s hand again.
There was a tumultuous din from the Fae as, seeing the link between the two interlopers broken again, they swooped forward. The Fire Imp’s screams told Trey that he had given up any further thoughts of conjuring a fireball, and the teenager grabbed the nether-creature’s wrist just in time as the first wave of Fae reached it.
‘It seems that the fire outside didn’t leave you as depleted as you made out. Or could it be that you were just lying, Dreck?’
The Fire Imp looked into the darkness in the direction of the teenager’s voice. He could hear the anger and hostility in that voice, and sensed the danger he was in if he said the wrong thing now.
‘Yes, I lied,’ the demon said in a small voice.
‘It seems you’ve been doing a lot of that. You lied to Tom about the hell-hole, you lied to me about Alexa, and you lied about helping me.’
‘No, I—’
‘Let me explain what will happen to you if you lie to me: I will let go of your wrist and happily watch the Fae tear you to pieces. Heaven knows it’s what you deserve, after what you did to them.’
‘How do you know all this?’ Dreck said, his voice aquiver with fear.
‘They told me. They told me how you betrayed them. How you used sorcery to create these gates and lure them here fro
m their own realm, and how they are now trapped here forever. They told me how you work for Molok and how you helped capture Philippa, knowing that Alexa would come to her rescue.’
Trey paused, giving the djinn a chance to deny any of this. When there was no response he continued. ‘You lied to Tom about everything. You set the hell-hole up, didn’t you?’
‘Yes, but—’
‘What I don’t understand is why you didn’t kill me as soon as you got me through to this side. Heaven knows you’ve had enough chances. Or am I right in guessing that Molok wants to do it himself?’
The laugh that came from the Fire Imp caught Trey by surprise.
‘What’s so funny?’
‘Kill you? Do you think that we would have gone to all this trouble if all we wanted to do was kill you? You really are a very foolish boy.’
Trey was silent for a moment, trying to think through what the Fire Imp had just said. ‘If Molok doesn’t want me dead, what does he want?’
The demon didn’t answer.
‘My hand’s getting very tired, Dreck. It must be the weight of all your lies. I can almost feel your wrist slipping out of my grasp …’ He slackened his grip a little.
‘No, wait!’ the demon shouted. ‘He wants you to fight for him. He wants a werewolf as his champion at the next Demon Games. Not just any werewolf. No, he wants the lycanthrope that Caliban is so fearful of. To show the vampire upstart that Molok will not simply roll over like the other demon lords have. To show Caliban that he is still as powerful as ever.’
Trey stared at the nether-creature. With only the blue light dancing over the demon’s features it was impossible to see the Fire Imp properly, but he doubted he would spot any deception there, even if he could – the demon was terrified, and in no position to lie.
‘That’s madness,’ Trey said in a small voice.
‘Not here in the Netherworld, it’s not. Here it makes perfect sense.’
Trey shook his head.
‘You’re right about one thing, Laporte.’ The Fire Imp’s voice was a little bolder now. ‘If Molok had wanted you dead, you’d have been dispatched long before now. And I would have taken great pleasure in carrying out the role of your executioner.’ The demon laughed. ‘Now give me that ring back, and I will take you to him. It’s the only way you’re going to see your little girlfriend again.’
Trey thought about everything he’d just been told. It was his fault that both Philippa and Alexa had been captured – they had been nothing but bait to lure Trey here. If it hadn’t been for him, neither of the girls would be in the hands of the demon lord. And the creature whose wrist he held in his hand right now had plotted and planned with Molok to bring all this about.
The teenager gazed into the distance at the glowing rectangle that he was certain was the exit to this place and the entrance to the Great Hall where the demon lord, Molok, was waiting for them. He turned his head and sensed the Fae hovering, lightless once more, in the air all around them.
‘He’s all yours,’ he said, letting go of the Fire Imp’s wrist for the last time and walking off in the direction of the Great Hall.
19
Alexa opened her eyes and tried to lift her head, but the movement caused a grenade of pain to explode between her temples, and she stifled a moan, screwing her eyes shut again.
One side of her head throbbed, waves of pain that ebbed and flowed like a tide in synch with her pumping heart. She could taste blood. She carefully explored her mouth with her tongue, hoping that the blow the Maug demon had inflicted on her had not knocked any teeth loose, and was relieved to find that the blood seemed to come from a large cut on the inside of her right cheek.
She managed to pull herself up off the floor into a kneeling position, fighting the waves of nausea that threatened to overcome her. When she was certain that she was not going to be sick, she opened her eyes again and looked around her.
She was in a large circular chamber which looked to have been carved directly out of the red rock that rose up on all sides. Sconces set into the walls held burning torches, and these shed a dancing, wavering light that was not strong enough to fully penetrate the shadows of the curved roof, so a deep, impenetrable blackness hung overhead, as if something dark and sinister might be hiding there, waiting to fall down on her at any second.
With a low grunt she got herself up on to her feet.
Entry to the place was via a single door set into the rockface away to her right, and there were no other windows or openings. The floor was the same red rock as the walls, but she was standing on one of six large low plinths made of a black, highly polished stone, which were set out evenly around the perimeter of the chamber. Each of them was identical. They sat slightly proud of the floor, were about three metres square and each made from a single piece of the black stone. In front of each of these, at the corners, were two waist-high rods, which looked to be fashioned from the same stuff as the plinths. Alexa shook her head at the incongruous sight of the piece of furniture that had been placed in the centre of each of these plinths: an ornate chaise longue, upholstered in red velvet with a gold trim. She turned to examine her own piece of furniture, noting how it was securely fastened into the base with large, ugly metal braces. Behind the chaise longue, at the back of the plinth where it met the red rockface, an arch had been carved into the wall, through which Alexa guessed must be some kind of toilet, and possibly a bed.
Alexa took in all this in an instant, just as she also took in the way that the air immediately at the border of the black stone base seemed to shimmer and fizz. She dug a hand into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out a handful of coins. Drawing her arm back, she threw them at the shimmering wall before her. The coins struck the curtain of magic and lodged there, as if held by a viscous, jelly-like material. She watched, frowning, as the metal discs began to vibrate, oscillating back and forth with increasing vigour until the air hummed with the energy in them. When they shot back in the direction they had been thrown from, it was with such force that, had Alexa not dropped to her knees to avoid them, she would have been badly injured. She puffed out her cheeks and shook her head. Still on her knees, she tried a simple spell – the ball of light that she’d used in the tunnel. Nothing. Her guess had been correct. The cell was designed to stop any magic being used within its confines.
She frowned, looking down at the coins scattered on the floor around her. She knew that the skill needed to create and maintain such magic was immense, and she wondered who, or what, might have been responsible for helping Molok with these enclosures.
‘Alexa?’ said a small voice off to her left.
She spun round to see Philippa emerging from the archway at the back of a neighbouring cell.
‘Alexa! You’re awake.’
Philippa ran towards the edge of her plinth. Alexa held out a warning hand and was about to shout out for her to stop when she saw the girl pull up short of the curtain of magic that marked the edge of her own cell.
‘Are you OK?’ Philippa asked, offering her friend a sad smile.
‘Not really. I feel as if my head’s been kicked in by a horse.’ Alexa returned the smile, ignoring the pain that this simple action set off in her face and head. ‘I was going to say that it’s good to see you, Philippa, but that hardly seems appropriate, given the circumstances.’
Philippa’s smile melted away. ‘They brought you in about an hour ago. You were bleeding.’
Alexa nodded. ‘It looks like you’ve done a bit of that yourself,’ she said, acknowledging the bruises and scratches on the other girl’s body.
Philippa sat on her chaise longue. She pulled at the hem of the tunic she’d been made to wear, trying to cover up some of the injuries she’d suffered at the hands of her jailers. ‘You shouldn’t have come for me,’ she said. ‘It’s my own stupid fault that I’m in this mess. And now you’ve been captured too. If I hadn’t been so idiotic and—’
‘None of this is your fault, Philippa. You mustn’t think tha
t.’
‘But it is. If I hadn’t run to that thing that disguised itself as my dad, if I’d remembered the warnings that you all gave me not to leave the safety of the Ashnon’s magic, I wouldn’t have been captured, and you wouldn’t have had to endanger yourself like this.’ She lowered her head, staring at the floor between her bare feet.
‘You were tricked, Philippa. You were deceived by creatures for whom deceit and lies and corruption are a way of life. You mustn’t blame yourself for what happened. If anyone is to blame, it’s me for convincing you to come here in the first place. But we’re going to get you out of here.’
Philippa sniffed and lifted her face, giving Alexa a strange look. ‘What’s the point?’ she said. She laughed a sad little laugh, and stared ahead with a stoical look. ‘I mean, really – what’s the point?’
‘What do you mean?’
When she spoke again her voice had a hard quality to it, and Alexa had the impression that something had fundamentally changed in the girl who had left them to come to the Netherworld. She had already lost her father in a horrific manner, and it seemed that now she had lost the most treasured of all commodities: hope. ‘What I mean is that I’m really no better off there than I am here. I can see them now, Alexa – the demons and vampires and djinn and other nether-creatures. I can see them. When the Necrotroph demon left my body, it changed something inside me irrevocably, so that I can never go back to not seeing them. I can see through the disguises that they cloak themselves with in the human realm. So I ask you, what’s the point in going back? How can I ever expect to live a normal life there?’
Alexa stared at the girl, her mouth gaping in disbelief at what she was hearing. ‘Philippa, you’re a prisoner. Look at you! They’ve beaten and mistreated you, and locked you in this terrible place. At least back in the human realm you’re free to live your life how you want to.’ Her head was pounding now, but she went on. ‘I know things have been terrible for you. I know that your life has been turned inside out. But you have to believe me when I say that you do have people in the human realm who care for you and want to look out for you. I wouldn’t be here otherwise. Because I’m one of them.’
