“You aren't going alone. They saved us both and I owe them my life as much as you.”
He looked at her and didn't argue knowing that a life was the greatest debt a fox could owe.
*
Eorl hadn't felt so energized for several centuries. The great London Cemetery, with its avenues and cities and villages of the dead, were crumbling and rumbling and coming to an end.
He smiled at the destructive waves shaking and showering his world to rubble.
“Finally!” he screamed, “I have waited too many lifetimes! Finally, the progeny of Able has returned as he promised. As he promised! As he promised it is the end.”
He laughed and spun on his heels in the dark, and when the the carved effigy of a horse crashed from above, he embraced the darkness with glee.
*
Alodia scratched at the bars of her bedroom window, desperate to join the multitude below. She stared at Daegal, who stared back at her, and she was thankful that they could at least see each other before the end.
As she pounded against the old and rusted bars a crack began to appear in the window frame above.
Acca, her maid, had been locked in the room with her and joined her when the window started to show signs of giving. They pushed and beat the bars, until their paws began to bleed, and when they thought it wouldn't shift any more, they started throwing their bodies against the metal.
With a crack and shower of plaster, the solid iron broke free and fell onto the fox-filled steps of the palace below.
On the verge of jumping from the window, Alodia held Acca back, and fighting through the fog of desire, gritted her teeth and hissed in her ear.
“Acca, remember what I said. Do not go to the light. Find your family if you can and get to the surface. Listen to me!” she screamed, pulling the older vixen's head away from the window. “There is nothing but death here.” She held her, but the old fox would not listen and broke free jumping out the window, falling through the fiery air, her old bones shattering on the paving stones below.
“No!” Alodia yelled, nearly following her servant over the edge.
She breathed heavily and continued to fight the desire to leap towards the Light, and carefully walked along a ledge until she was above a pillar several stories below. Half falling and half climbing, she wasn't sure how, she found herself amongst the throng on the ground. She began to fight her way through the crowd towards the sphere and to Daegal.
*
When Gremian, waving his sword from his perch above the sea of foxes, saw Roe across the crowd an uncontrollable fury took hold of him.
He knew he did not have long now, and if he missed his chance, the energy building around him waiting to be tapped would dissipate and be lost forever.
“Stop them! Don't let them approach the reliquary!” he screeched across the crowd.
The Shadow Foxes mixed in the crowd were less affected by the energy and those still loyal to the council hacked away at the Foxes of the Light surrounding them on their way to confront Roe.
“Kill them, you fools, kill them both, they will destroy the birth, the Light, the renewing!”
In despair, the Foxes of the Light turned towards Roe and Scarlett and bared their teeth like ferals protecting their kill. They would let nothing stop the cleansing.
Roe fended off the first attacks by kicking and flipping out of the way, but as the horde grew and broke through the invisible barrier around himself and Scarlett, he tapped in to that energy burning within him, longing to be released.
There was no bark but with a mind-splitting focus of thought, an arch of power ripped through and across the rotunda sending foxes and their parts spraying into the air, hitting the curved walls behind the crowd in a fine mist.
As if in response, the light surrounding the cage seemed to crack and flutter, swelling to a peak, the entire assemblage at risk of exploding.
*
After witnessing the horror of Roe laying waste too hundreds of foxes in an instant, Daegal felt the heat growing around him, but by being in the cage was somehow protected from the intoxicating power emanating from it. The cage began to tremble, the metal turned to a burning red. The chains harnessed around the face of the vixen fell away and splashed molten onto the ground next to Edward and Gwen. The sphere began to spin with a gathering speed within the grip of the jaw.
He took Mercia, still breathing raggedly on the floor, between his jaws and carefully hoisted her on his back in an attempt to protect her from the scalding metal. As he did, he looked up to Gremian, breathing silently, passing a look across to Roe and the open path now between them.
Gremian knew there was no fighting Roe but he could feel that the energy was ripe, that the time had come and with a sinister smile he raised his sword and prepared to plunge it into the flesh of the two foxes below. The crowd roared around him, eager for the ritual to come to an end.
*
Roe searched for the power once again and as the sword of Gremian began to fall towards its target he willed with all his might that the blade would be blown away, the Supreme Councillor with it. Nothing happened. The power emanating from the fountain was too strong and he could not fight through its opposing current. With the effort, however, a voice hit him like a burning arrow. The voice from his dream, now alive in his waking mind. 'You have the Art of Destruction, you must cut the path, Roe, now, you must cut the path.' He staggered from the force of the intrusion, as if the other fox was screaming into his ear.
Scarlett had run past him, and with a suicidal leap, attempted to put herself between the blade and its target.
*
'Roe..the Light...you must enter...you must cut the path...to us,' the voice said, as he stumbled into a drooling wealthy merchant and was pushed aside.
*
Without warning a roar pierced through the power of the light, and with it a sword arched through the air to meet the sacrificial sword of Gremian, deflecting it away from Scarlett.
*
Roe ground his teeth, his head twisting upon his neck, scraping across the rubble of the rotunda.
*
Samson did not pause to acknowledge his daughter, nor to look at the collapsed form of the boy that was his son He did not notice as the red metal burned a curving pattern into his paws. All of his focus was upon the fox in front of him and the theft of life that fox represented.
*
'Roe. We are close. As close as we can manage. You must accept us into your mind. You must let me help you to open the way.' His body began to shudder, a seizure of his muscles taking
hold, trying, instinctively to fight the voices.
*
“You cannot stop this, Samson, it has gone too far.” Gremian growled, pacing across the hot metal, each step releasing a scalding hiss.
“We do what we can, student, and all I can do now is to kill you,” Samson responded, lowering his sword towards his old friend.
*
“I cannot...stop...fighting you,” Roe whispered into the dust, tears streaking down his face.
*
Gremian swung his sword again, barely missing the top fur of Samson who gracefully curled beneath the blade. Samson kicked hard at Gremian's midriff, sending the councillor to the floor and knocking Scarlett off the orb with him.
*
'To fight...or not to fight. It is of no matter, Roe. In battle...there...is...only...the void. The time...is...too...near...it...is...too...late.'
*
Gremian recovered first and with a sweep of the leg pinned Scarlett to the floor, bringing his blade to her throat. To protect his daughter Samson reacted without thinking, he tossed his sword towards Gremian, slicing across the fox's shoulder, opening a grisly wound.
*
“No...I...will...not...fail...help...me...tell...me...who...you...are...,” Roe fought to standing and wobbled, the world blurry and full of a blinding pain.
*
“You've given up your sword, old fox,” Gremian sa
id, wincing through the pain. “Your jaws can't save you this time.”
Dropping Scarlett, Gremian charged upon Samson, his sword brandished in a sweeping arch glittering through the sparkling light.
*
“Roe...my son. We?...we...are...you...” The voice wept and was becoming desperate, yet Roe continued to fight it.
*
Samson tried to move but his feet had become welded and burnt to the metal of the sphere. As he spun, Gremian's flight through the air came to him in flashes. He shifted, and the turning of the sphere swung his body to meet Gremian's blade. It cut through his chest, the force of the blow ripping his paws free, sending him to the ground below.
*
Roe could see his uncle, his father, his friend struck from the high perch of the fountain, now standing at the base of the fountain, the rage keeping the old fox alive. No, something else. His head drooping, he rose to meet the tear stained gaze of Roe. In those eyes, Roe could see it, the years of lessons, the void. A light smile passed over Samson's face, as he held out a paw to Roe.
*
Gremian tried to find his balance upon the spinning sphere, positioning his sword towards the forms within. Suddenly the sphere came to a jarring halt, sending the Supreme Councillor onto his side with a howl.
*
'We...are...you...Roe...,' the voice breathed resolutely into his ear. The breath soothed his shaking legs and evened his breathing and softened his mind.
*
He was on a dune, the crash of waves not too distant, the undulating grass and sand stretching towards a clear horizon and a sunny sky. He was warm and comfortable and completely at peace. He giggled and it was the giggle of a pup. He looked up and met the gaze of his mother. She looked down into his eyes as if she was seeing the whole world. The void passed through Roe, brought to life by a feeling, a feeling that was a memory, a memory that lived forever within him. He looked out again, towards the ridge which released the final dune to the sea, and standing on the edge, he saw himself, older, with the shadowy form of other foxes standing behind him.
“Roe, this is the place where you were born, but are not to be born,” his older self called to him from across the dunes. “You will have this memory forever, but you cannot stay. The void is within you. You must enter the sphere. The cleansing is inevitable. You must use the Art of Destruction to cut a path, to join with us. Here is the heart,” he said lowering his head between a tuft of sandy grass and raising it, the heart now between his jaws. The fox smiled as he held the red flesh out to Roe. “It is my heart, it is your heart. You must become one with it within the sphere.”
Roe stood alone, his mother gone but the feeling lingering. The sea spat and crashed from behind the dune until it merged and became one with the cacophony of the rotunda.
*
Edward screamed as the hot metal of a leaf and vine cut and cooked the flesh of his forearms. He had scaled the vixen fountain, the freed Gwen pushing him up from below, and held the sphere in place, stopping its rotation. “Progeny of Able, get up and stop this horrible animal Gremian,” he yelled towards Roe, still lying across the floor.
A breath of fire whipped through Roe and he came to his paws, eyes burning blue. He ran towards Scarlett helping her to her paws, tears and a silent scream pouring from her face at the sight of her collapsed father.
Daegal watched all that passed outside the cage in a delirium of pain. He was on the verge of losing consciousness but held on stubbornly in the hopes of saving Mercia from the flames. Suddenly, he felt a sweet touch and smelt the singe of hair passing through the burning cage. The energy of the sphere had transcended the bonds of its steel form, the weave and lick of the leaves having turned to pure energy. He turned to find Alodia, woven lines burnt into her flesh, floating next to him. She placed a trembling paw onto his cheek.
“I am here, my Daegal. I will always be here now.”
“Alodia, why? Now, you will die...and I have failed to protect you.”
“We all die, Daegal. I am blessed to decide when and with whom.”
Gremian smiled at Roe and Scarlett, ignoring Alodia as she passed through the molten metal. “You never had a hope of defeating me, Progeny of Able. You escaped all those years ago because your death was due today and was fated to be paid by me.”
He raised his sword one last time, aiming it at the back of Daegal's neck, and as he was about to bring it down, the point of another burst from his chest. Ursula stood below, a wobbling yet smiling Samson leaning against her. She had thrown the blade with such force that it had cracked her teeth causing a trickle of blood to seep out from between her jaws.
Swaying, and touching the point with a tentative paw, Gremian dropped his own sword into what little water remained in the fountain base. He felt a great gush of blood emerge from the wound, then he looked up with a smile. “You fools,” he screeched wildly. “Traitor's blood to cleanse.” Using the metal of the cage to pull the blade free, he sent a fountain of blood sizzling across the sphere.
“No!” Scarlett yelled, as she jumped through the air onto the crumbling fountain. Roe followed her, looking up towards the mosaic in the ceiling of the rotunda. What remained of the mosaic sprinkled down around them.
The blood absorbed quickly into the energy of the sphere, tearing through the wavy pattern with a flash of red, as if it was hungry for it. As soon as Roe and Scarlett landed, they tossed the body of Gremian out of the building orb of Light.
“Do not worry, Scarlett. It is as it should be,” Roe said, reaching into the pack still attached to Scarlett's back. He pulled out the black box, opened it, and pulled out a heart. Not an ancient heart, dried and desiccated, but one still beating and pumping blood from the severed arteries. As the heart entered the Light it was brought to life and the blood flowed across Roe soaking through his fur into his skin. The heart began to glow and as it did, Roe brought it to his jaws and consumed it. The sphere burst into a halo of light, scarring all near it with the same series of swirling lines.
*
The chains restraining Gwen had fallen away and watching the others rise she quickly stepped into the Light casting herself into the vortex joining Edward and the foxes already there. Spinning around the solitary form of Roe, the group of six rose away from the jaws of the fountain, floating towards the distant ceiling of the rotunda.
*
Scarlett caught a brief glance of Samson and Ursula, the realization of what was about to happen already on their faces. Spencer appeared at their side, the Beast dangling from between his jaws. He focused his attention on the form of Scarlett floating away. Without warning he ran up the fountain and leapt through the fire, joining the maelstrom.
*
All was silence for Roe, as his body became the vessel for the Light, and within his gathering void he harnessed the Art of Destruction. His legs dropped to his sides as his head was pulled towards the image of Able above. “I choose to cut a path.” He opened his jaws and cracked through the power of the cleansing, as if opening a course through a great body of water. He let the Art gather those around him and just before releasing all into the flow, Roe saw a small pup float down from above and crash into the swirl. He let go, and all he could see before oblivion was the smile of Mercia under the stars in Hyde Park.
Sanity began to return to the Burrow, and the confused foxes below awoke to themselves, and the death strewn about them. They shook their heads clear, and one by one noticed the flickering orb of energy floating above them. They smiled at the beauty of it.
Ursula dragged Samson, near death but still breathing, to the river Tait. She splashed his face with the cool water and held him in her paws and both looked up, happy to be together even at the end.
*
Just before the orb reached the ceiling it released a pulse, which cut across the Burrow and rumbled even the London of the Hantsa above. The look of awe on the foxes below shifted to one of terror as the heat of the cleansing reached its peak.
; Light, blinding and powerful, expanded out from the orb and as it travelled it grew in its intensity. Acey, just waking from a lengthy sleep on Ursula's Island, rolled over and stared at the electric shadow flickering on the wall of his new bedroom. An intense light was coming from the window over his shoulder. He turned towards the sparkle and witnessed a universe of suns give over its energy, and as it did, all turned to dust and nothingness.
Time itself was burnt away. All that remained was a lingering bitter memory in the void.
Chapter Eighteen
Twenty years earlier...
He could barely run any more. His muscles were sore and he was so exhausted he felt like he'd just been in a battle. It was, however, going to be a beautiful day. Gremian, trotting across the royal rotunda, paused as he always did, to admire the ancient fountain at its centre and the glorious mosaic of Able glittering far overhead. Light poured into the space from the numerous openings set into the edge of the dome. He took a deep breath of the fresh air and allowed himself a moment to appreciate the light cool breeze tickling his whiskers.
Then he trotted on with a light gait and a smile. Pups were playing in the river Tait, sending small battleships down its swift and shallow current, rescuing them before the plunge underground. An iron grate meant no clumsy paws would result in a tragic drowning, although plenty of boats were sacrificed to the fun and went missing through the gaps.
The Progeny of Able (The Burrow of London Series Book 1) Page 34
