by Sam Stone
Magic was being sucked from the air. An Allucian male ran frantically from his home in front of us as the mountain swallowed the structure before our eyes, absorbing it and replacing it with a blank rock face.
‘Oh my God!’ I yelled, seeing the half-absorbed body of another male Allucian as he was digested by the mountain. Only half of his face and a few fingers protruded when the rock stopped moving. ‘What is happening here? Was everything an elaborate illusion?’
‘Time is restructuring,’ Ilura cried. ‘We carved our life from the darkness and now it’s taking it back.’
‘What did you people do?’ I cried. But neither Caesare or Ilura answered me.
We continued to hurry forward. Around us the mountain closed in, and behind us the city fell and crumbled, becoming solid rock once more. The once-smooth streets became uneven slate, sharp spikes jutting out from floor and ceiling. Screams of the dying echoed around the cave. It was the most sickening torture chamber. The Allucians were being punished for their excesses; they were being digested by the very mountain that gave them shelter.
The illusion of daylight had now completely disappeared. We halted in a dark and gloomy cavern. Stalactites and stalagmites extended from the hollow floor and ceiling as though the mountain itself was growing fangs.
Ahead of us stood the nursery, and as far as I could tell, its structure was holding fast.
‘How can that be?’ I asked. ‘Why is the nursery still safe?’
‘That’s where he is kept?’ Caesare gasped.
‘Inside,’ Ilura replied. ‘Where else do you keep a king, but in a palace.’
‘Or an asylum...’ I murmured but neither of them responded.
We entered the nursery building, but this time I was even more alert to the malevolent presence within. There was a strong sense of madness and evil in the air. I’d sensed it before, but now it intensified. Glancing back from the huge hallway to the entrance doors I watched the mountain world as the rock closed in against the building and stopped one foot from the door. The mountain creaked and shuddered as though it had met with a force more powerful than itself.
I fell to my knees. My own magic had been quelled and now I remembered all my spells; realised I’d forgotten them without knowing. Such had been the magic of the Allucians. But now the block was gone and my head was free again. Anger surged up into my mind and heart. I had been psychically drugged and made into a pliable vegetable. With the return of all of my faculties I could feel the malice in the air. Caesare and any remaining Allucians would now suffer the consequences for their crimes. And maybe I would be destroyed along with them.
Caesare placed Ilura down in the open hallway and she fell against him, sobbing loudly. It was a human sound, one I had never thought to hear in this world of silence. But my heart was cold to her.
‘They are dead. All dead. My people, my family.’
‘You brought this on yourselves,’ I answered calmly.
Ilura cried harder, hysteria making her screams bounce around the hallway. But my brother had no sympathy for her now.
‘Stop it!’ Caesare said harshly. ‘Show me what you’ve done.’
She fell silent at his words and looked up at him in terror. It was ironic. She and her people had been our gaolers and now she was terrified of Caesare’s anger. My brother had grown in strength also over the course of leaving the garden. His abilities, like mine, had been stifled and subdued to make him controllable. Now I saw the anger and fury burning in his blood-coloured eyes. He pushed Ilura from him and she fell to the floor crying quietly.
Something echoed above us; a tiny sound, like the patter of small feet on a marble floor. I looked up the staircase that led to the nursery but didn’t want to go there and investigate. Upstairs I could hear the cries of the remaining women; their labour had begun and twenty more babies would soon be born. Their malevolent presence would wreck havoc on the remainder of this world, I was sure. But that didn’t scare me; what did was the thought of being sucked into the rock while still conscious, and I shuddered at the thought of the Allucian man I’d seen this happen to. Maybe he was still alive in there. It was too horrible a thought, even for a monster like me. But I stood up, tall and strong, remembering again my own strength. I could blast a hole into the rock with one word of power. The mountain would not hold me again.
Ilura continued to cry. I looked down at her coldly and then at Caesare. His anger was quieting. A woman screamed above us and Caesare looked up. I knew he was feeling apprehensive, perhaps even a little afraid now. The Allucians had imprisoned him for years, yet now that freedom was imminent he looked confused and uncertain. Then a change occurred. The scarlet colour seeped from his eyes and Caesare staggered back against the door frame. Within moments he gathered his composure and I knew that all his memories had returned.
‘Where is he, damn it?’ Caesare demanded, grabbing Ilura and dragging her to her feet. ‘Show me!’
She screamed again in terror and fright.
‘This way,’ I said.
I heard music; a lullaby, faint and enchanting. We left Ilura still cringing on the floor and walked towards a set of double doors to the left of the stairs. Caesare pushed the doors open with a crash and walked forward. We could now feel the call of this obscure song as we entered a wide passage with doors leading off it on both sides.
‘I saw this corridor when she brought me here yesterday. The double doors were open then.’
‘What is it?’
‘The doors of time,’ I muttered.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Miranda told me. The wrong door will lead to the darkness.’
‘Who is Miranda?’
I couldn’t answer but took his hand and pulled Caesare forward. He clasped my fingers firmly and I felt for a moment transported to an innocent time where a brother and sister could hold hands; a time before our sin. His fingers trembled. Caesare no longer seemed like the cruel, vicious and bitter monster he had become, but a frightened child. Just like me.
The doors had a different essence to them. A strange and violent tumult rocked and pulled at their handles and knobs. A thousand screaming voices could be heard behind one. It was made of polished silver and I caught my reflection in it. I remembered seeing the same reflection in Joanna’s hairbrush several lifetimes ago. Déjà vu. I shied away to the other side of the corridor as we passed the door. It sounded like the hell of our Christian world and I had no urge to visit it, even if some part of me felt I belonged there. Door after door, all different. One was plain white, silent. I put my hand on the frame and the cold-looking wood was red hot and burnt the skin from my fingers.
‘Ouch!’ I stared down at my healing skin, watched the blisters shrink and dissolve.
Caesare stroked the handle of another door. This one was made from a million different cuttings of hair, all brunette and all belonging to different people. The door bowed as he touched it and blood seeped through its keyhole. Caesare pulled his hand back sharply.
‘What’s happening?’ he cried.
I shook my head, unable to reply, though the answer was on the tip of my mind, somewhere in my conversations with Miranda.
Farther down the corridor I saw a door which inexplicably felt right to me. How would I know which one was right? I feared the darkness because Miranda had warned me of it, even though I didn’t understand what it was.
‘This one,’ Caesare murmured.
He stopped by a door of knotted, whorled wood. It looked like old and rotten driftwood polished smooth by the actions of the sea.
‘He’s behind there.’
‘The King?’ I asked, but Caesare didn’t reply.
‘Where are the babies?’ Ilura said, and I turned to find her behind us. ‘They must be here too. They did this.’
Caesare shook his head. ‘They are just babies. It’s him. He’s loose.’
Caesare stepped forward but I gripped his hand, holding onto him firmly. ‘I need some explanations before I go
in there.’
‘We don’t have time. But you’re right, you shouldn’t come through here. Wait with Ilura.’
‘No,’ I pulled at his hand, tried to hold him back.
Caesare looked at me for a moment. His eyes were watery.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said. ‘I always loved you.’
Then he shook his hand free from mine and stepped forward, his fingers closing around the doorknob. Ilura ran before him and placed herself in his path.
‘Please,’ she begged. ‘Don’t let him out. You don’t know what he’s capable of.’
‘I only want to talk to him.’
Ilura grabbed his arm.. ‘You came here to find him. We knew that. Even though you swore allegiance, we knew all along that in your heart you wished to absorb his power. Caesare, being near his essence all these years has changed you and us. What do you think will happen when you see him in the flesh? Touch him?’
Caesare paused for just a second before viciously batting Ilura out of the way. She smashed back onto the marble floor. Her head cracked loudly and there was the sickening crunch of bone on bone. He opened the door.
Light, not dark, flooded the corridor and the strength was drained from my limbs as I narrowed my eyes to try and see into the blinding glow. Then the door slammed closed behind Caesare and my brother was taken from view.
Ilura was in my arms. Blood seeped from her temple and her nose and I lay her broken body down on the floor to examine her wounds further. Her breathing was shallow and there was a strange and sickening looseness about her neck. Some remembered healing made me straighten her body and I tried to keep it in line with her neck as she opened her eyes and looked at me.
‘What’s in there?’ I asked.
‘The ultimate God,’ she answered. Her lips moved and her voice was croaky. Blood flecked the corners of her mouth as she spoke.
‘Ilura, I can’t help unless I know more. Is he dangerous? Will he destroy my brother?’
‘It’s all a curse. He was cursed.’
‘He once told me he sold his soul,’ I answered, remembering the night Caesare tied me to his pentagram.
‘It was disguised as a blessing, but she hates all men...’
‘Who?’
There was no answer. Ilura’s eyes were frozen wide, her mouth slack.
I stood and looked at the door. The call was gone now, but I could hear nothing from inside. This corridor, this whole world, was not my world and I had been taken into the darkness unwilling. Therefore my doorway to my own future had to be here also. This was not my fight or my choice.
‘Choose a door,’ Miranda whispered. ‘But choose right.’
I remembered her warning. That one day Caesare would attain great power and would try to force me from my future. I had to block his return.
‘Use the word,’ she said. ‘It means nothing to some, but has great significance to you.’
I drew my triskele symbol large in the air, covering the doorway, and I saw the faint blue of the symbols aura as it sunk into and barred the door. Then I said the word. My power word. It’s a different one for everyone. But mine held the full force of my will as I demanded my life back.
‘Isabella!’
As my last child’s name crossed my lips, hard mountain rock grew over the entrance, sealing it forever. My brother was trapped and so was the King with him.
I turned and saw them then; ten pairs of eyes staring down the corridor. The malevolence was gone from the gold pupils but the babies were still an extraordinary sight. Some were standing, some were crawling. Miniature monsters. I knew that they held unfathomable power. But I had my strength back and I would fight them to the death if necessary.
‘Find your own doorway, but never come into my world,’ I warned and they shuffled back. They had seen enough.
I headed for the door I had seen earlier, knowing with a certainty that this was mine. It was of fine polished mahogany with golden cherubs engraved around the frame. Each of them bore the face of my children. There was no door handle, only a child-faced door knocker. I reached forward, caressing Isabella’s image before rapidly knocking three times on the door.
I glanced back down the corridor. The babies were gone and the world of the Allucians was finally silent. The door swung open before me and candlelight poured into the corridor. Inside I could see my Parisian hotel room. With two steps I was back once more among my possessions and in my own world. I also knew that I had arrived back only seconds after Caesare had stolen me from my bed.
The mahogany door silently closed behind me and faded away to become nothing more than a blank wall. I examined it for cracks but there was no trace. The door and the corridor were gone. I looked over at my bed and saw the covers and sheets hanging over the side. I straightened it up and lay on top. My ‘normal’ world would never know that I had been torn from my rightful path, and yet I had months of memories spent with the Allucians. Being back in my own time saved me from the darkness that Miranda spoke of.
Chapter 41 – Present
Entity
‘And so, the King was a distant memory and all of it perhaps an insane and vivid dream?’ I ask.
Lucrezia nods. ‘I put aside the memories of my brother and that world. Until now.’
Lilly and I stare at Lucrezia as she makes this final revelation. Is this the part of her story we need?
‘A king?’ Lilly shudders. ‘Powerful? Evil?’
Lilly looks over at me.
‘I don’t know if he is evil, but certainly very powerful. His contact with the Allucians changed them and my brother. I suspect that they used him to source their supremacy. It was evil and wrong of them, even if they believed they had no choice in order to survive.’
‘Did you feel drained as you stood outside the door?’ I ask.
Lucrezia is thoughtful. She tips her head to one side and her eyes become vacant, as if she is looking back in time to study the corridor and the door once more.
‘No, Gabi. But then there was some kind of ward on the door already. I suspect that it was crumbling though, and that this being was controlling the babies, making them alter the reality of their world in order to aid his escape.’
I stay silent. How do I broach the subject of our strange stalker?
‘How long could your ward hold?’ Lilly asks.
‘I don’t know. Indefinitely perhaps. It would take an incredible power to free them from the rock if nothing else. But that is the power the Allucians had and then lost. I’ve thought long and hard on the subject. Caesare has never returned for me, nor have I sensed his presence since that night. I assume that if he does, then the King will be free. But then, this king may well have destroyed my brother.’
‘I suppose you have explored all the options. It is possible they were using the King to gain power,’ I agree.
Lucrezia nods. ‘Yes. But if he is so powerful, then how did they imprison him initially? Caesare had those answers, but didn’t want to tell me anything. Maybe they did some kind of deal with the King until they learnt how to manipulate his strength. The Allucians were nothing once their magic was crushed, and their power had clearly been suppressing mine.’
I thought for a moment. On the surface, the Allucians had been benign. But how would the search for ultimate power affect any race? Maybe the Allucian Chief had believed his aim was ultimately good. They had, after all, stopped Caesare from hurting Lucrezia. But there were too many unanswered questions.
‘So you’re a witch as well?’ says Lilly, changing the subject.
“That’s so cool.’
‘I could definitely teach you some stuff,’ Lucrezia says. ‘I think perhaps you both should learn some spells. You never know when you’ll need them.’
I look at Lilly and I see the fear I feel, reflected in her eyes.
‘This king...’
‘Yes?’
‘You’re sure he was trapped?’
Lucrezia bites her lip in thought. ‘I’m only certain that Caesare pas
sed through a doorway and that something else was there. Ilura said it was the King, but I really don’t know. Why are you so concerned about him?’
I tell her about the mysterious entity that passed over Lilly and me in Turin, and something of the events of the last few weeks.
‘We felt nausea and intense weakness. I even felt like my lungs couldn’t get enough air,’ Lilly explains.
‘And stomach cramps, you say?’ Lucrezia looks unnerved as we both nod. She stands, wrapping her arms around herself in a subconscious defensive stance. ‘This thing you mentioned. I came across it too. About ten years ago.’
‘Where?’ I ask.
‘Stockholm. But nothing since. I’d forgotten about it until now, but it was terrifying at the time. I had no energy at all, and suffered intense vertigo and sickness.’
‘Yes. And we’re not used to feeling weak,’ Lilly says.
‘It was clearly taunting us,’ I say. ‘And let’s be honest, we were being followed.’
I glance around the coffee bar and my head begins to feel woozy. It is almost like being drugged.
‘Gabi? You ok?’ Lilly asks.
I shake my head, trying to clear it. My limbs feel weak, a dull pain begins to throb behind my eyes and pins and needles dance over the tips of my fingers as I reach for my coffee cup. Lilly is looking at me intently as though my sudden strangeness is apparent.
‘Sorry. I’m fine. Really,’ I say, but I’m not convinced.
Lilly strokes my leg under the table. I feel that familiar tingle of passion surge through my skin and feel better briefly. Her touch steadies me.
‘Well, I’m not,’ gasps Luci abruptly as she slumps in her chair. ‘Something’s wrong.’
