Eschaton

by Andrew Hastie

  [London. Date: Monday, 3rd September, 11.666]

  The fire was raging across the city, turning the ash-filled sky a dirty orange. There was nothing left of East India House now but blackened timbers, while many of the other buildings on Leadenhall Street had been reduced to piles of rubble.

  ‘Where do we go?’ asked Caitlin, as the founder stood in the middle of the street watching the swirling pillars of smoke.

  He took one of the Anunnaki figures from his cloak and held it above his head.

  ‘The wind is from the east, but the fire travels along other lines. We need to locate the breach and stop the Djinn before they destroy the entire city.’

  The founder turned slowly around, using the figurine like a sensor, scanning for a signal. He stopped when it began to glow. ‘To the river!’ he said, putting out his hand.

  They appeared in the middle of a firestorm. A massive Djinn that looked like a cross between a Chinese dragon and an octopus was hurling fireballs at a beleaguered team of Augurs and Dreadnoughts who were taking shelter behind a ramshackle barricade of stone and rubble. The unit was commanded by Grandmaster Derado himself.

  ‘Master Derado? What the devil are you doing here?’ asked the founder.

  ‘The breach is five hundred metres beyond the beast. I’ve sent two artificers back to close it, but we’ve had no word from them.’

  The founder put his head up over the parapet and then ducked back down as another ball of flame scudded off the top of the barricade, singeing his hair.

  ‘I have something that may help,’ he said, holding up the Anunnaki.

  ‘I was hoping you were going to say that,’ said Derado with obvious relief.

  ‘Get your men back six hours or so. I will endeavour to send this beast back to where it came from and meet you there.’

  He turned to Caitlin and Josh. ‘I suggest you go with Master Derado.’

  ‘Not a chance,’ uttered Josh.

  Caitlin shook her head, and the colonel was already loading up a gunsabre.

  One by one, Derado’s men disappeared. The creature roared as the founder moved out from behind the shelter and held the figurine in front of him. The noise was so loud that the ground beneath their feet trembled and Josh found himself covering his ears.

  They stayed behind the barricade and watched the old man walk defiantly down the street towards the beast. He was whispering something as he walked and the Anunnaki’s timelines wove around his arm like tame serpents

  Waves of fire poured over the founder with no effect — the Anunnaki seemed to be creating some kind of force field around him.

  The Djinn focused all of its energy on the glowing figure, blasting the ground that he walked on until the cobblestones glowed white.

  The founder took a jar from another pocket and calmly placed it before the massive creature. He raised his voice, and they could hear a commanding tone but no real words. The limbs of the beast thrashed against the walls of the buildings around it, smashing them to pieces like a child’s toy.

  The founder’s body seemed to lose cohesion, flickering in and out of existence as he channelled the power of the ancient artefact. Lines of energy leapt from his arms, trapping the demon, binding it to him and drawing it towards the small jar.

  Josh watched open-mouthed as the Djinn seemed to collapse in on itself. The founder’s voice changed pitch and outlines of other beings shimmered around the demon. They were tall, with elongated bodies, like life-size versions of the Anunnaki, inhuman and unworldly — the spirits closed around the creature and absorbed it, taking it into the clay jar, which the founder quickly sealed.

  Exactly like the ones in Solomon’s temple, Josh noted.

  The founder looked exhausted when he returned to the barricade, carrying the jar. ‘We need to move back to the breach,’ he said, handing Caitlin the idol. ‘You may need this.’

  ‘Aren’t you coming?’ she asked, handling the figurine with a new respect.

  The old man nodded. ‘There will be more at the breach, and I can only hold one at a time. Do you think you can manage it?’

  Caitlin probed the timeline of the artefact, finding that it stretched far beyond anything she’d ever experienced before. ‘I think so.’

  Josh was looking at her like a child who’d missed out on his Christmas present.

  ‘What?’

  90

  The Bridge

  [Six hours earlier]

  The Djinn broke through the barricade and swept down the street, igniting everything in their path.

  ‘We need to blow the bridge!’ screamed one of Derado’s men.

  Josh looked at the portal shimmering within the flames and the trail of destruction around them and wondered whether anything was going to survive this.

  ‘You mean the breach?’ asked Caitlin.

  ‘No, the bridge,’ he said, pointing to the structure spanning the Thames covered in seven-story houses. ‘To stop the fire spreading to the south bank.’

  The officer chose a few of the most able-bodied men and grabbed a handcart full of dynamite. The air was full of burning embers, and Josh thought it was a brave man who’d stand anywhere near such an explosive cargo — let alone push it down the street.

  The founder went ahead of them holding the Anunnaki statue out before him.

  ‘We need to try and keep them within the walls,’ he said to Caitlin.

  The Roman walls had acted like a firebreak for the first two days, but the Mayor’s decision to close the gates to force the inhabitants to fight the fire had meant they were all trapped inside.

  ‘When is the Duke of York coming?’ asked Caitlin.

  ‘Not for another six hours.’

  The Djinn slowed as they came within the influence of the founder and the Anunnaki.

  ‘How long will it hold them?’ Caitlin asked, staring wide-eyed at the fire demons. Their leader was a magnificent specimen, with a tall and sinuous body of flame, and as he walked up the street like a nightmarish spectre, everything he touched turned to cinders.

  ‘Long enough to get the civilians through the gates.’

  ‘How many more gates are there?’ Josh asked.

  ‘Eight,’ Derado said, joining them. ‘My men have two under control, and the Augurs are working on a third.’

  ‘We’re not going to be able to save them all.’

  ‘I never thought we would,’ said the founder. ‘Just save as many as we can; they’ve never been able to count the dead.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Fire was so hot it vaporised bone,’ explained Caitlin.

  The Djinn came to a halt before them. Josh could make out three distinct shapes — each one looked capable of taking them on its own.

  91

  Nemesis

  The first Djinn approached them, its eyes dark and full of malice. As it got closer, they could see that beneath the halo of fire its body was covered in vicious shards of bone. Razor sharp and stained with dark blood, the blades extended out like swords from its many arms. Josh counted at least six pairs, but it was difficult to be sure as they were constantly moving.

  Behind it, the other two held their ground. They were smaller and more disfigured than their leader, each with bloated bellies that glowed as they belched fire.

  The founder was tiring, his arms shaking as he held the Anunnaki before the demon; the fire seemed to be drawn to it, ribbons of flame flying towards the talisman, like so many moths to a candle.

  The figurine was beginning to glow white hot again, and the ghostly spirit forms appeared around it.

  ‘Caitlin, go forward and hold the others back,’ the founder ordered.

  She glanced nervously at Josh before making her way along the burning street. He could tell she was worried and fought back the urge to follow her. Josh had no idea how he’d be able to help and was pretty sure she would’ve hated the idea that she needed it.

  Some of Derado’s men were preparing to trap the Djinn the founder was holding, but it was
proving hard to lock down. Josh could see the tremor in the old man’s hands as he focused on keeping it in check.

  A team of Dreadnoughts were following Caitlin up the street towards the smaller Djinn, who were throwing everything they could at the founder. Enormous balls of fire detonated against the shield that he’d created. Josh watched the flames wash over the invisible sphere, entirely engulfing him in fire.

  Smoke and ash filled the air, like a black snow-storm, and it was becoming harder to see Caitlin clearly as Josh moved out from behind the defences to try to get a better view.

  ‘Get back!’ barked Derado, who was helping two young artificers set up a complicated-looking breaching device. They’d both taken off their helmets.

  Josh recognised the red hair of his friend.

  ‘Bentley?’ Josh shouted, taking off his helmet.

  ‘Josh?’ Bentley said, looking around for him.

  There were a million things he wanted to say, but there was no time. Josh could see from the strain on Bentley’s face that the battle was not going well.

  ‘Fifteen seconds,’ warned Bentley’s accomplice.

  ‘Check,’ Bentley responded, his concentration returning to the work at hand.

  Josh turned back to the Djinn. He’d had enough of standing around; it was time to get involved.

  The Dreadnoughts couldn’t contain the Djinn, and the founder was on his knees. Josh walked into the sphere and placed his hand reassuringly on the old man’s shoulder before stepping out into the fire, knowing why he hadn’t been given an idol.

  These Djinn were too powerful for the Anunnaki, its bindings being broken as quickly as they were made, but Josh didn’t care — he had seen the colonel take on hundreds of these creatures with nothing but a book.

  All he had needed was a name.

  The founder collapsed, and the holding fields dropped with him.

  A scream burst from the demon’s chest as it broke free, its whole being seeming to swell with power as it was released.

  Josh stood calmly before it and waited for the attack.

  As it touched him, he felt the cold, icy darkness again, just like the time in the maelstrom. He was like poison to them, and the moment they connected the Djinn realised it had lost.

  Josh saw the creature’s eyes grow dark as it fought to free itself, but it didn’t stand a chance. The halo of flames flickered and died as its body crystallised and then shattered into a million ebony fragments.

  Josh had no time to celebrate. He could see the team ahead were struggling to hold the other two Djinn. Caitlin was standing in the middle of a ring of fire as they tried to incinerate her.

  Bentley and the rest of the Dreadnoughts rushed passed Josh, heading towards the breach. With the Djinn distracted it was their only chance to shut it down. Bentley moved like a soldier now, no more the bumbling, overweight blue falcon, but a well-drilled lean, mean, fighting machine.

  Caitlin focused all her energies on the Anunnaki, manifesting a large group of ancient spirits to contain the demons. She had a clay pot at her feet and was close to trapping the first of the two when Josh stepped into her sphere.

  ‘What are you doing?’ she hissed through gritted teeth.

  ‘Checking you’re okay,’ he said flippantly.

  ‘Are you insane? I can’t protect both of us!’

  ‘No need,’ he said with a wink. ‘I’m toxic to them.’

  He stepped out of her shield and walked towards them.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Josh noticed Bentley and his team setting up their equipment in front of the breach.

  He wasn’t concentrating on them. His targets were floating three metres off the floor looking at the strange human walking towards them.

  ‘Hello boys,’ he said through a smile. ‘Want to play?’

  92

  Breached

  Caitlin watched as Josh strode towards the Djinn. She held them in the Anunnaki bindings for as long as she could, but time was running out, and she could feel them beginning to regain control.

  ‘Josh!’ she shouted, but he wasn’t listening.

  As she tried to hold on to the connection something distracted her. The Dreadnought team working on the breach were frantically attacking something, men and equipment flying in all directions as they tried to fight off some new threat.

  Her concentration lapsed and the Anunnaki spirits faded.

  Josh was standing with his arms extended out to the demons, who seemed to be frozen to the spot, each one with a blackened tentacle wrapped around him. Their surfaces had darkened, their internal fires extinguished.

  Caitlin looked back to the breach, where a dark figure was carving its way through the Dreadnoughts as if they were toys, and it was making its way towards Josh.

  Josh was still locked onto the Djinn, and whatever he was doing to them was draining them of all their energy. Their bodies were turning to obsidian.

  The creature from the breach was through the defences and closing in on Josh. Caitlin tried to move, but time seemed to be slowing, and she called out, but her voice was too weak from the summoning.

  As she collapsed to the floor, she saw the entity reach Josh and screamed.

  It was Dalton — a hideously distorted version of Dalton.

  93

  Time Falls

  There are too many breaches, Sim thought, looking at the map on the table.

  It had been a long night, and the timeline was covered in hastily scribbled notes and broken models.

  The Dreadnoughts had suffered terribly in the last eighteen hours; half of them were reported missing, and the rest were in Bedlam getting treated for third-degree burns. The Great Fire had taken every able-bodied Draconian to contain the attack.

  The rest of Sim’s team were asleep under their desks or upstairs in the bar getting drunk. No one wanted to talk about what was going to happen next, not even Derado, but Sim knew they would have to, because as far as he could work out, this was only the beginning.

  The latter part of the cascade was imminent. He was in no doubt of that. The previous temporal anomalies were minor infractions compared to the all-out assault of the night before. The continuum had started to collapse, and the Djinn had broken through in vast numbers and multiple locations. They’d used the fire to cover their arrival; it was a type nine cataclysm and was so powerful there was no way to detect it before the event.

  And something had taken Josh.

  Caitlin had returned to the Draconian HQ with her godfather. She was in a bad way. Her parents had gone with Alixia to the infirmary a few hours ago, and there’d been no news since.

  Sim had heard that the founder was also critical, and it felt like the entire Order was holding its breath waiting for the inevitable news.

  Astor woke up and raised his head from the desk with a note still stuck to one cheek.

  ‘What time is it?’

  ‘Five,’ Sim said quietly.

  Astor stretched his arms and yawned. ‘Is it over?’

  ‘No, I think it’s just starting.’

  94

  Confined Spaces

  Josh was in some kind of cylinder. He put out his hands and felt the glass curved around him. There were no lights and nothing to use as a point of reference.

  The air inside the pod smelled faintly of ozone, like the air-con in a Land Rover Discovery he’d stolen once. It had been one of the hottest days of the year, and the leather seats were baking when he jumped in. The steering wheel seared his hands when he’d gripped it, leaving welts on his young fingers for days. His mum told him off for playing with matches, which was of course what any normal twelve-year-old should have been doing.

  Josh didn’t mind confined spaces, but there were a few times when the lift in their block had broken down with him in it. The smell of urine in that small metal box was enough to put off anyone going into it, let alone being trapped in there for three hours while maintenance struggled to wind the thing down to the next floor — it still gave him nig
htmares.

  This felt the same. His fingers swept the inside of the pod looking for something with a timeline, but there was nothing — there was no kind of chronology in here at all.

  He was in the maelstrom.

  He concentrated on his breathing, slowing it down the way he used to practice with his mum when she was in pain; counting between breaths to focus his mind on something other than the inside of the tube. As his mind calmed, Josh tried to remember what had happened after he collapsed the timelines of the two fire Djinn, but the last thing he could remember was seeing Dalton.

  Josh couldn’t quite recall how, but there was no mistaking the arrogant twat’s face as it leered down at him just before the world went dark.

  At least Caitlin was safe. He was sure of that.

  95

  Founder wakes up

  [Citadel, Maelstrom.]

  Lord Dee was pale and drawn, his eyes constantly flickering under the paper-thin lids, and every so often he would moan softly. Rufius sat beside him, who wasn’t a patient man, and remaining quiet and still was his least favourite activity.

  ‘Will he survive?’ he asked Alixia.

  She grimaced. ‘I don’t know.’

  ‘We should convene the emergency council,’ Rufius muttered to himself.

  ‘Grandmaster Derado has already initiated it.’

  Rufius nodded. ‘Always had a lot of time for Derado. He was a good man in my time.’

  ‘As he is here. It’s strange to think you have known the founder longer than all of us. I still have trouble coming to terms with the fact you were part our lives in another time.’

  Rufius tapped his temple. ‘It feels more like three lifetimes in here.’