by Steve Feasey
‘Alexa, stop,’ he called after her. ‘This is not what we’re supposed to be doing. We are meant to stay in position to provide covering fire for the lads when they come out.’ He glanced towards the opening off to his right, hoping that Trey and Charles did not choose this particular moment to come running out, hotly pursued by Caliban and his demon guards.
Alexa had come to a stop at one side of the great area of burnt land that marked the killing circle of the grenades. She looked down at the ground, frowning. She stood like this, unmoving, until Tom finally caught up with her.
‘Come on, Alexa,’ he said, taking hold of her arm and trying to steer her back in the direction of the hill.
‘Look,’ she said.
Tom looked down at the area that she was staring at. ‘What?’ he asked.
‘She’s not here.’
Tom looked again at the area in front of him. A huge swathe of rocks and stones had been scattered across a large area that radiated outward from the epicentre of the explosion. Most were blackened and had been broken up into much smaller pieces by the force of the blast.
‘But she turned into that thing, Alexa. She was turned into stone. And from what I see here, that stone has been blown to bejabers like everything else down here.’
‘No. I saw her leave, Tom.’
‘Alexa, you can’t possibly tell me—’
‘I know what I saw, Tom. My eyes never left her the whole time and, just as you fired, the Elemental looked up in our direction. It knew. And just as those bombs of yours were released I saw these rocks simply collapse in on themselves. She’d already gone before the explosions went off, Tom.’
Tom looked over again at the opening in the black tower behind them. As he watched, he could see what appeared to be movement in the darkness behind it. At first he thought that it might be nothing but a trick of the light, but as he watched it happened again – the blackness of the opening seemed to shift and expand as if it was stretching outward. He took hold of Alexa’s arm and she turned to see what it was that he was staring at. Suddenly a vast living cloud of bats burst free into the night sky. Thousands of the creatures poured out of the gap, a torrent of darkness that wheeled in an arc just outside the opening, gained height and turned to swoop straight down towards them.
Tom stared up at the vast black colony. ‘What the hell are—’
‘Run!’ Alexa shouted, and propelled Tom ahead of her, checking back over her shoulder to see how close the creatures were. ‘The car, Tom! Get into the car or we’re dead!’
They ran over to the car that Gwendolin and the Maug had abandoned earlier. It had been much further up the road than the lorry, and while it hadn’t entirely escaped the shrapnel of rocks and stones that the explosion had thrown up, it was still in one piece. They jumped in through the open doors at the rear of the vehicle and slammed them shut just in time to avoid the first wave of the creatures. As they looked out the entire colony of bats swooped and veered around outside the car. The bats attacked the glass windows, throwing themselves full tilt at the transparent panes. Their bodies made a satisfying thonking sound as they crashed into the toughened glass before sliding to the ground. Some would catch the car body at a slight angle and veer off in a helter-skelter, crashing to the ground. But they were relentless in their attack. The sheer number of the creatures throwing themselves at the vehicle created a huge din inside, a hailstorm of tiny bodies hell-bent on destroying the human occupants. Some shuffled their way up the bonnet, using their wings like leathery oars to propel themselves forward, and now their ugly, vicious faces were pressed up against the front windscreen, tiny rows of white teeth revealed in hungry mouths that were set in front of black, pinprick eyes.
‘What are those bloody things?’ Tom said, unable to take his eyes from the windows.
‘Skaleb’s Brood,’ Alexa replied. ‘The demon lord kept them as pets and would release them in the first wave of attack during a battle.’
‘Vampire bats?’
‘No, Tom, if only they were. I suppose the closest comparison I can think of in the human plane would be something like piranha fish or army ants. These things can strip a body of flesh in minutes. They hunt in vast colonies, hundreds of thousands of them swarming together to wreak devastation on anything that is unlucky enough to come into their path.’
‘What are they doing here?’
‘Well, the Tower of Leroth belonged to Skaleb; I guess that the original colony stayed on after their master disappeared. Caliban probably allows them to stay in the tower as another means of defence. Either that or he can’t get rid of them. Who knows?’
‘Great,’ said Tom, looking out of the rear window towards the tower. ‘And how are we going to get Trey and Charles safely away from here with this little lot wheeling around out here? If they come out now, the boys’ll be dead before we can do a thing.’
Alexa climbed over into the driver’s seat. There were no keys. Tom watched as she closed her eyes and placed the palm of her hand over the ignition, her lips mouthing words he was unable to hear. Seconds later, the engine burst into life. She turned to him and gave him a little nod. Switching her attention back to the front windscreen, she flicked the wipers on for a moment, throwing leathery-winged creatures off on either side of the car.
‘Hold on to your hat, Tom,’ she told him as she put the car in gear. ‘We’re going to lead them away from here. We have to get them far enough from the entrance so that they’re not a danger to Trey and Charles when they come out.’
‘And then what?’
‘I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far ahead yet.’ She pressed the accelerator down hard, making the car leap out into the darkness of the Icelandic night.
The cage hit the ground with an enormous crash, toppling over on to its front so that the creature inside was face down in the thick dust on the floor. Charles immediately dropped to his knees beside it and placed his hands over the two locks that held the thing secured on one side.
Trey could hear the occupants of the guardhouse now. The surprised shouts had quickly turned to shrieks of anger as they found their exit blocked by some immovable object barring the door. Orders were shouted out and he could hear them begin to attack the wood with their weapons. He turned to look at Charles again.
‘Quickly, Charles. We’re in deep trouble here.’
The sorcerer answered with a sharp nod of the head. Beads of perspiration were running freely down his face, which was a mask of concentration. A second later there was a metallic crack and Charles opened his eyes, glancing up at Trey with a look of jubilation. ‘It’s open,’ he said.
Trey scrambled over and helped Charles lift his side of the gibbet, heaving it open against the hinges on one side of the grotesque exoskeleton and letting it crash back down to the ground. There was little point in trying to be quiet any longer – the guards were already smashing at the wooden door with their weapons and soon they would break free of the obstruction that Trey had placed over the entrance. The creature inside slowly began to raise itself on to its knees, and Trey noticed for the first time that its entire back seemed to consist of feathers. Huge black feathers were plastered against its back and a number of them fluttered to the ground as the creature began to straighten its considerable frame. Trey looked at Charles, who simply shrugged his shoulders and continued to stare up at the thing in front of them.
The creature had risen to its full height now. Its back was still to them and it slowly twisted its head from side to side as if trying to remove some uncomfortable knots from the muscles of its neck. It reached up and unwrapped the lengths of leather from its head. When it turned round to look at Trey, he gasped (although what came out sounded more like a short bark). She was beautiful. And terrifying. She stood about seven foot tall and was dressed in black leather armour that appeared to be scored and marked from numerous battles. Her eyes were a cold grey-blue – the colour of the sea just before a storm – and when Trey looked into them he felt the shadow of
death fall over him for an instant. It was impossible to maintain contact with her stare. She smiled at Trey, revealing teeth that were sharp and pointed, as if they had been filed to make them so. A huge scar corkscrewed its way from the centre of her forehead across the bridge of her nose and down through both lips before finishing at her chin. Yet despite the teeth and the ruinous scar Trey thought that she was the most beautiful creature that he had ever laid eyes on.
She nodded her head towards them both in turn. ‘Thank you, Trey Laporte. Thank you, Charles Henstall,’ she said in voice that was both wonderful and appalling at the same time. It should have been a beautiful voice, but it seemed to Trey that it promised nothing but death and destruction to anyone that heard it.
‘How do you know our—’
There was a sound of splintering wood and Trey looked round to see the metal cage that he had used to block the door falling away. It crashed to the floor with an almighty din and the guards burst free.
There were four of them, all demons. Three looked similar to the Shadow Demons that Trey had encountered before, two carrying short swords, the third an axe which Trey guessed had been used to break through the door. But the fourth demon was a creature that Trey had never seen. It had to stoop down low to get through the wrecked doorway and it lumbered after its companions. It was a huge, foul-looking thing with white skin hanging from its body in sagging folds. A great boar-like head sat atop hunched shoulders, and the greedy eyes that crested the vast snout were constantly on the move. Great tusks curved down from its upper jaw, giving it a sabre-toothed look, and it carried a huge, heavy-looking crossbow in its arms. Initially the guards had rushed out. But as soon as they caught sight of their erstwhile prisoner standing next to the werewolf and the human they slowed to an almost complete stop, approaching no more than inches at a time.
A sound began to come from all around the cavernous room. It started as just a whisper, the same word being chanted over and over. It seemed to be coming from the cells set into the outer walls.
‘Moriel … Moriel … Moriel … Moriel …’
Trey looked round at the guards as they fanned out and began to creep forward. He reached his hand over to Charles, trying to push his friend behind him where he might be safer for a moment or so at least, but the sorcerer gently waved his friend’s hand away, choosing to stay by the werewolf’s side.
‘Moriel … Moriel … Moriel …’ It had grown louder now, like a chant in a school playground when two children square up for a fight.
The angel looked at the guards with thinly disguised hatred before turning to Trey and Charles. ‘You two must leave now,’ she said. ‘You have important work to do here.’
‘I don’t think they are going to simply let us walk past somehow,’ Charles said, nodding at the demons. ‘Besides, we can hardly leave you to face them alone.’
The angel looked at the demons creeping slowly towards them, her scarred lips curling up in a look of pure contempt. ‘Why do you think that they advance so slowly? They know that they are already dead,’ she said.
Trey looked between the magnificent warrior angel Moriel and the demons and instinctively knew that she was right. The four nethercreatures looked petrified and he guessed that it was only a greater fear of their master, Caliban, that kept them from turning around and running from the place.
Moriel took a slight step away from Trey and Charles and snapped her giant wings open behind her. Trey gasped again. She was magnificent. Her wings were huge and shimmered in what little illumination there was in that place – the lustrous black feathers seemed to suck up the light and reflect it back off the millions of tiny spines that they were made of. The sight of the angel unfurling her wings had stopped the demons in their tracks. She stepped forward again, leaned down, grabbed Trey and Charles around the waist and leaped up into the air, beating those great wings like a colossal eagle taking off for its mountain eyrie. She flew straight up into the darkness, higher and higher until Trey could make out the wooden ceiling above them. She banked slightly and, using her wings to slow down, alighted with them on a small landing at the top of the stone staircase.
There was a ladder leading up to a heavy wooden hatch set into the ceiling and she nodded her head towards this. ‘Through there you will find the remainder of the tower. Be careful as you ascend. Luckily a number of the guards are out with the sorceress now, but you must still take care. Avoid the vampire, whatever you do. You cannot hope to defeat him here in Leroth – no one can.’ She turned to look at Trey again, her eyes seeming to pierce through into his very soul. ‘Caliban has something of your father’s that he took from him shortly before killing him. Once I have finished with the business in hand -’ her eyes shifted for a second towards the dark void below them – ‘I will try to retrieve it for you. It is yours, and the vampire has no right to have it.’
‘Moriel, I—’
There was a shout from below, followed by a smashing sound over their heads and all three of them were showered with tiny droplets of liquid. A crossbow bolt skittered over the landing, doing a neat little pirouette at their feet, before falling off the edge into the darkness. Instead of an arrowhead, it appeared that the bolt had been equipped with a glass vial of some toxic substance. Trey could feel the areas of his pelt where the liquid had touched him already beginning to burn.
The angel looked back down below her into the darkness. Her wings were smoking in a number of places. ‘Scum,’ she hissed. ‘Go now. Quickly, before they fire again. You will need to wash that acid off you as soon as you can. Go.’ She nodded her head at them, turned and leaped out into the fetid air, snapping her wings open and swooping down into the darkness in the direction of the demons.
Trey looked over at Charles, who was staring back at him with wide-eyed incredulity. There were little curls of the same smoke rising up from the young sorcerer, and he had large holes in his clothing where the acid had already burned through.
‘Come on, Charles. We need to find something to wash this stuff off before it burns any deeper.’ He put his shoulder against the hatch above their heads and pushed upward, relieved when he felt it give under the pressure. The large wooden door fell back with a crash and Trey pushed Charles through the opening ahead of him. He pulled himself through and slammed the hatch shut behind him, having taken one last look down for a final glimpse of Moriel.
The pain was exquisite and excruciating. Although they had both mercifully avoided most of it, the skin where the acid had burned through was already little black puddles of bubbling flesh. And the stuff was still burning, releasing a foul stink of charred skin and hair as it did so. It wasn’t clear to either of them when, or even if, the acid would stop burning through the tissue, and they looked at each other with alarm.
Charles had attempted to wipe the acid away from a spot on his shoulder with his hand, and now his fingers were also coated and erupting in a series of angry-looking blisters. ‘We need some water,’ he shouted, looking around the room in desperation.
They were in what appeared to be a large storage area. Shelves encircled the walls, and these were piled with all manner of objects and paraphernalia.
They both ran to and fro, batting at their burns with open palms, desperate to find something with which to douse their wounds.
A menagerie of stuffed animals was heaped up in one part of the room, their taxidermed faces staring out at Charles and Trey with lifeless glass eyes. Wooden boxes and crates were piled up in small islands here and there, and to Trey’s left was a mass of wooden chairs and other furniture that he guessed were stored here in between banquets that Caliban might hold for his evil cohorts.
Charles ran over to the far side of the room. In front of a vast array of wine bottles laid down in racking against the wall lay two huge wooden barrels marked ‘Ale’.
Trey looked questioningly at Charles.
‘It’s all there is,’ Charles said with a shrug.
Trey’s back was becoming excruciatingly painfu
l as the acid burned through fur and skin to the flesh below. He grabbed one of the large barrels out of the rack and set it on its end, driving his fist down through the top. Bending forward, he lifted the barrel high over his and Charles’s heads and rained the brown liquid down on the two of them, soaking their bodies in the strong-smelling liquid.
They sank to the floor, rolling in the last of the ale until the pain had almost disappeared. Charles turned to look at the sorry figure of Trey. His normally magnificent coat was plastered to his skin with the sticky beer. He looked like a bedraggled dog after a downpour. A laugh escaped from Charles. It was an alien sound in this environment, and Trey turned to look at his companion, a puzzled expression on his features.
‘I have to say,’ said Charles, once he had managed to gain control of himself again, ‘I personally am not having the best of days so far.’ He looked down at his blackened fingers and grimaced at the pain that still nagged at the flesh.
Trey looked over at him. ‘What was that thing? Was it really an angel?’
Charles nodded. ‘She’s a battle-angel – an Arel. There are very few of them left. They were hunted down and destroyed after the Demon Wars. She was pretty impressive, huh? Would have been a bit of a looker too if somebody hadn’t carved her up like that.’
‘She was amazing. Just about the most amazing thing that I’ve ever seen. How did she know our names, Charles? Nobody’s supposed to know that we are here.’
Charles shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Just like I don’t know why we both felt utterly compelled to get that thing down from the ceiling without knowing what it was or why we were doing it. I don’t have all the answers, mate. And when it comes to Arel battle-angels I don’t even know the questions.’
‘An angel,’ Trey said with a shake of his head. ‘When you think of angels you imagine them playing golden harps on white fluffy clouds. But she was … fearsome. Do you think she’ll be OK? There were four of those demons down there, and she wasn’t armed.’
