by Eli Ingle
“I’m not going with you!” she said.
“None of that. Come here!”
“No.”
Turning on her heel, she ran away from them, faster than Rigel thought possible. The man hissed, seemingly torn between chasing the girl and leaving Rigel. After pausing for a second, he picked up Rigel with a grunt and held him suspended off the floor before throwing him to the other end of the street with an almighty roar.
Rigel landed with a crash that knocked the wind out of him. The Dark Angel lifted his hand and said something that Rigel could not hear before running after the girl.
A rumbling overhead filled the air, and then several stones fell from the tower and landed on Rigel, winding him yet again and pinning him in place.
What did this man want with them? He kept calling them Light Ones, although Rigel had no idea what that meant … Was it the power that Laurie said he had that the man wanted? The girl too – she had powers and could control them. Perhaps he would be able to learn how to control his powers. He remembered when Laurie had picked him up in the airship and they had been attacked by the Fallen One. How he had repelled it with the ball of white light. Powers he had never had any knowledge of … perhaps he would be able to recall them to free himself? It was worth a try. Getting it done, however, was a different problem.
How could he do it? He tried to find the mind-set he had had when he had sent that ball of white light towards the Fallen One. He would just have to think that he needed it, which in fact was not entirely untrue. He could feel it there, something getting hotter …
And hotter.
And hotter.
And hotter …
Until, with a blast of white light, the stones pinning him down exploded and sent red hot shards blasting into the walls around him. Feeling weak and dizzy, he stood up and glanced around, steadying himself against the wave of dizziness that threatened to overcome him.
How had he done that? He raised his hand and pointed at one of the walls, trying to think like he had done before.
After a moment he began to feel something, a tingling in his palms, and then a crackling, and bright white light clung about his fingertips, but the mere excitement of seeing it distracted him, and it faded away, crackling into nothingness.
Before he had the chance to try and conjure it again, a terrible boom filled the air.
The girl was thrown as easily as he had been and went soaring into the air before crashing into a bell tower at the other end of the courtyard. The impact crushed half the wall, leaving the tower unsupported. After a brief pause, a cracking could be heard and the tower fell on her, crushing her. The Dark Angel, calculating as ever, walked slowly into the courtyard, seeming to assess his handiwork. Rigel was left breathless with shock. She had been killed, just like that.
But then with a thunderous roar the stones from the tower rose as one, lifting into the air and hovering there. The girl, completely unharmed, stood up and pointed at the man. The stones hurtled towards him at a terrific speed. They should have killed him, but raising his hands at the last moment, he made each stone that flew within a foot of him burst into black smoke. Growling, the man charged and grabbed her, picked her up, and threw her again. She crashed against the floor, gouging out huge pieces of stone. Standing back up, she jumped over him and landed behind, grabbed, and pulled him backwards. They wrestled, each trying to subdue the other whilst flashes of white and black light lit the courtyard.
“You have learnt much in a short space of time,” said the man as they circled each other. “It is commendable. Shame that it is not sufficient.”
Drawing a cruel, thin blade that glittered darkly, the man advanced towards the girl, swinging it in a graceful circle. Rigel was standing against the wall. He raised his own hand in another attempt to produce the energy to fight off the man but the pair were constantly attempting to round on each other, making it almost impossible to do so without hitting her by accident.
“Yield,” said the Dark Angel, softly. “Yield to me and this can all be over.”
The girl refused to answer. Instead, she cupped her hands and pointed them at one of the huge stones on the floor. A slight shimmering appeared around the edges and as she raised her hands, the stone began to lift off the floor. The effort was making her shake until she swung her hands over her head and sent the stone flying forwards, hitting the Dark Angel in the chest. He was knocked backwards and collapsed against the wall. The girl spread out her fingers and Rigel saw white light shimmering around her palm – she was about to blast the man again when he suddenly sprung up and sent a shard of darkness through her heart. She gasped and collapsed to the floor, unmoving. The man turned and regarded Rigel with contempt.
“Pathetic. Weak. Both of you are. I could finish you off now but I won’t. Why? Because where is the sport in that? It’s like shooting fish in the barrel. I’ll wait. Wait a century if I have to. Yes, you’ll get stronger but it’s better than this. Don’t worry, my dear. I’ll be back. Oh yes, you can count on that. I’ll be back and then I won’t hold fire. You should not have crossed me so early. Nor should you have made your intentions clear. They are exposed in your heart for all to see. Foolish. I admit, more readily than anything, that I am disappointed.” Shaking his head, he dissolved into black smoke that blew away in the night wind.
Rigel hurried over to the girl and attempted to wake her. After a few moments she began to stir but when she finally opened her eyes they were blotchy and red and her skin was deathly pale.
“How are you?” he asked, realising that he did not even know her name.
“I feel awful,” she sighed, closing her eyes again. Rigel held her in his arms, a sense of desperation welling within him as he realised he had no idea how to help her.
“What’s your name?”
“Iselt …” Her voice was growing quieter still.
“I’m Rigel. Listen, don’t worry. I have some friends; they’ll try and help you. Just let me try and find them.” He rested her on her arm, so she was not lying on the stone, before standing up. “Laurie!” he shouted. “Laurie, where are you?!” Desperation welled within him as he realised that no-one could hear him. “LAURIE! I NEED YOU! WHERE ARE YOU? Please … won’t someone help? Please?”
Hurrying back over, he cradled her to his chest, crying because he felt as if he should have done something, but had no idea what that should have been. It was too late; he could see that. The girl’s breathing was becoming more laboured by the second. For all the Dark Angel’s bravado about not finishing them off, he seemed to have mistaken the strength of the spell he had cast into Iselt’s heart. Tears began running down Rigel’s cheeks and splashing her. He tried to wipe them away clumsily. What had she done to deserve being attacked by the Dark Angel? What had either of them done?
“Don’t … cry…” she whispered. “I’ll come back. I … I don’t know how but somehow I know I will. Don’t cry. Just … wait.”
“Wait? Wait where?” he lifted her a little. “Iselt? Wait where?”
But she had vanished. With a wisp of air and bright light, she had just gone.
“Where did you go?” he asked, stupidly. No reply came, just a whispering of wind and a faint string of laughter before that too faded away. Standing up, he wiped his nose on his sleeve and went to sit on one of the large overturned stones.
He barely noticed the cold seeping into his bones or the tears dribbling down his cheeks. He felt numb inside and in shock at what had happened. Why had it happened to Iselt? And how easily it could have been him …
The pilots returned sometime later but he was still so wrapped up in his thoughts that he did not even realise until they were standing beside him. Turning his head, he saw them assembled, looking grim and silent.
“What happened?” he asked, after taking a moment to find his voice.
Laurie was nursing a cut on his forehead. L’aroche had a black eye and a bloody nose. “It was a trap,” replied Lau
rie, “we got there and there was this little girl stood there. So we went over, asking her where her mum was, could we help her and then … and then …”
Tink took over. “She changed. I don’t think she was ever a little girl. Probably a disguise. She turned into this … this thing. And we couldn’t get away. It took us down before we had a chance to pick up our rifles. After that we just held it off until it seemed to flee.”
Laurie shook his head, defeated. Rigel stared at him. Laurie looked over the ruined courtyard, noting the destruction.
“What happened here?” he asked.
Rigel recounted what had happened to him whilst they had been away. Laurie jolted when he mentioned Iselt.
“There was a survivor? A girl was here?”
“Yes … what about it?”
Laurie stood up, pulling his hair. “Oh no! It wasn’t an accident coming here. Somehow it had been planned … we were supposed to pick her up. I had no idea! How was I supposed to know … and now … . You said she died?”
Rigel swallowed hard. “That’s right.”
“Oh, Godsdammit!”
“Stop it, Laurie, stop it! You’re not making any sense!”
“It makes perfect sense!” he snapped. “That girl, she was another like you. There are several. We don’t know how many but we were supposed to pick them all up and now look what’s happened.”
“What do you mean, another one like me?” he asked. “What’s going on? Tell me! Why aren’t you telling me everything?”
“Calm down, Rigel, calm down. It’s not easy to explain, you know. We don’t know enough.”
“What?”
“It’s a grey area …”
“Tell me!” shouted Rigel, grabbing a fistful of the Captain’s coat and pulling him up. It was only after the other pilots gasped that he realised what he was doing. He was holding Laurie, a full grown man, high off the ground with only his hands. Putting him down again quickly, he brushed himself off but remained alert, demanding an answer. Laurie sighed before deciding to answer.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “Fine. At this rate we’ll be dead by the end of the night anyway. Right ... where to start?”
“At the beginning?” suggested Rigel.
“I don’t know enough details, only the legends. They said that there will come a time when we will need the Guardians of The Light. That time is now, so we were sent looking for them. We got you – you were the first. I didn’t realise that this was another of the places but it turns out that it is. But she died. What am I supposed to tell everyone? It was a trap, very well laid but we should have foreseen it, taken more precautions. But we didn’t. Now look. What a mess. And I don’t even know if we are going to be able to get back … .”
“Is there another way to get back?” interrupted Rigel.
“There is,” said Tink. “You go through a portal to get back to where we were supposed to be going. But it won’t work – you need certain equipment and to find the right place. There was a very slim chance we could have done it at your place but not here. I’d never even heard of this place until we landed.”
“So you didn’t travel with any backup? That was clever.”
“Don’t you speak to us like that, young man!” snapped Laurie.
“I’m just saying! If I was you I would have done a better job of it.”
“He could be right, sir,” said Tink.
“Shut up Tink!” shouted Laurie.
“But what about what Iselt said?” asked Rigel, thinking. “She said to wait for her. She kept saying that, but why would she? She was dying …”
“I don’t think she was dying,” said Laurie after a long pause. “At least, not really. From what we heard, there is usually a chance of the Light Ones coming back … at least while there’s a threat. So there could be a chance that she will return.”
“What! You mean she’s immortal?”
“Not necessarily. The Dark Angel might just have intended to get rid of her for a while or if she did die then she might come back. But there are ways for you to die completely. We don't know … we barely know anything but we’re sure that there are more of you … I don’t know anymore. I just don’t know …”
“So, what? Are you we going to wait for her?”
“We’ll have to, I suppose, but I have no idea how long it might take. We’re not going anywhere, so I suppose so it doesn’t really matter, but I think after a few days we’ll have to go.”
Rigel had never seen the Captain so disheartened. It worried him to think that he might be swaying, unable to see the right course of action. But what was the right course? They were stranded on a strange world with no people to help them and things lurking in the darkness. Laurie eventually managed to make a decision and stood up abruptly.
“We’re going back to rest,” he instructed. “Everyone return to the ship immediately.”
Quimby, L’aroche, and Opal stood up and began following Laurie out of the courtyard.
Moving swiftly, they remained wary of meeting another person or creature stalking the empty streets. Unfortunately they had no idea where to go as they had already been lost when they had stopped.
“I’ve had enough,” said Laurie. “Rigel, cover your eyes.”
He did so as Laurie pulled a canister from his belt, twisted it, and lifted it above his head. The pilots copied Rigel by covering their eyes. Unseen by them, a gold flare screamed from the end of the canister, rocketing into the sky. A cannon-like blast sounded from the flare as it exploded, so loud it shook the floor.
BOOM!
The blast from Spanner’s reply flare let them know that the signal had been retrieved. Shielding their eyes, they looked around the horizon until they found the silver ball of light soaring into the sky. Now they knew that the ship was north-east of their position, so they reset their course and set off.
The walk back seemed quicker than the original trip but Rigel barely noticed anything; he stepped over fallen stones and followed the crew down side streets without even seeing anything. His mind kept repeating the fight between Iselt and the Dark Angel and then her final moments. Guilt was starting to creep in – he should have done more to save her …
Had it not been for Laurie stopping him, Rigel would have walked straight past the ship. He climbed up the ladder and left the expedition crew to describe what happened to the people who had stayed aboard the Persefoni.
Stumbling along the corridor, he lay on top of his bed fully clothed and was asleep almost immediately.
CHAPTER NINE
Rigel opened his eyes. He saw the underside of the bed in his cabin and some relief seeped in. The encounter with the man in the courtyard could almost have been a dream … but then a faint breath of pungent air wafted over him. The smell of something rotting. Something dead. Sitting up abruptly, he banged his head on the bed and fell out of it. He did not land on carpet. He landed in a marsh. Crying out, he scrambled to his feet with some difficulty, clutching the bed post for support and trying to ignore how his feet were being pulled under by the bog. He looked around, trying to quell the panic rising within him. Where was he?
His bed was half sunk in a swamp. Dead trees lined the area around him whilst dense swirling fog obscured his view of anything else. Birds that sounded like loons were howled their mournful cry in the distance, providing an unwelcome soundtrack to the scene. Turning around, he saw a line of torches burning into the distance. He heard voices. Letting go of the bed, he squelched through the bog and managed to move quickly enough to avoid being sucked in. Following the line of torches, he noticed the voices becoming louder.
Suddenly a scream broke the quiet, and a splash followed. Rigel charged forwards blindly, unable to see anything ahead. Then the fog grew thinner and he saw them.
The man from the courtyard was kneeling on a very low wooden pier. Clutched between his fists were a girl’s hair and jacket. He had forced her head into the marsh and was holding it ther
e whilst she struggled to break free. Thick, glutinous bubbles rose from where her mouth was whilst the man grinned. Rigel was paralysed by fear and could barely bring himself to move. But then he saw the almost white hair – sullied by the marsh – and the leather jacket.
Iselt.
Rigel pulled his legs forwards, struggling through the bog with all thought of danger forgotten. In that moment he only knew that the most important thing was to save her. But the marsh was holding him back. The thick mud pulled his legs down, making it almost impossible to move at all. Still he pressed forwards, panicking as he saw her struggles to break free become weaker.
“Stop!” he cried, reaching out, trying to move over. “Stop! Please stop!”
The man looked up, hissing. Rigel fell backwards as he saw his eyes. They were purple and pupil-less. Blood was dripping from his mouth and as he looked at Rigel he smiled, causing the skin to split along the edges. Landing in the mud, Rigel tried to pull free but the thick liquid was sucking him under.
“Help! Help!” he screamed, but the marsh sucked in the sound. Only the loon-like birds replied – an echo to his despair.
Bubbles were rising around him and the surface of the bog was rippling. Something … some things were rising on either side of him. A head, hair, slimy and covered in mud. Ragged clothes, wasted flesh. Rotting hands reached out on both sides. Rigel tried to scrabble away but the mud pulled his hands under. The creatures laughed, a horrible bubbling noise as though the marsh was stuck in their throats, before reaching down and pressing on his chest, pushing him under the bog. The thick liquid pulled him under greedily. Filling his ears, muddying his eyes, up his nose and down his throat. His chest was burning. He could not breathe. A lungful of mud. Nothing. Suffocating. The pain. He was sick. Further down, he could hear their laughing and it was for nothing. All for nothing. How pointless, how very pointless it all was. Drowning. Dying. Laughing. The creatures grabbed hold of his ankles and pulled.
