Ash Mistry and the World of Darkness (18 page)

You’re alone now. How does it feel?

Cell after cell clanged open.

All empty.

Ashoka’s heart shook. It couldn’t end like this. He hadn’t even said goodbye. He hadn’t said how much he loved them, how much they meant to him; how much he needed them.

A last cell. A last hope.

1839.

He swung the door open.

“Lucks?”

“Ashoka!” A girl ran at him, hugging him with all her might. She buried her head into his chest and Ashoka cried as he held her. “I thought I’d lost you.”

“Son?” A man stumbled out from the back of the cell, hand in hand with a woman with ragged hair and a torn suit jacket. “Ashoka?” she said.

It was them. It was them!

He felt reborn. He’d been given a second chance to do his life right, to do it better. He felt light enough to float away. He hadn’t realised how much fear had weighed him down.

His parents ran to him and all four of them huddled together in the depths of Savage’s slaughterhouse. Ashoka smothered himself in his mother’s hair and hugged his father tight. He’d doubted. He’d been afraid. He’d thought he’d lost them forever and here they were. He’d never let them out of his sight ever again. The nightmare was over.

“I thought I’d lost you,” said Ashoka. “I’m sorry.” He should have been with them. He should have stopped all this. He wiped his sister’s tears. “I missed you, Lucks.”

Stupid thing to say, but what words could ever express how much she meant to him?

“It’s over now, we’re going home,” he said, holding Lucky’s hand, looking at each of them.

How could a few days make such a difference? It wasn’t that they were malnourished or ill, but they must have lost hope, and that was the poison that had flooded their veins. Despair. What had they seen? What had they heard? Did they know what took place on the other side of the door when Dr Wells and his staff took one prisoner after another?

“Let’s get out of here.” He led them back into the laboratory.

Ten others stood around the room, some huddling by Parvati.

Parvati’s face glowed with happiness when she saw Ashoka with his family. “Well done, Ashoka.”

Ashoka hugged his sister closer. “Now let’s get the hell out of here. Have you got all you need?”

She waved the data stick at him. “Got it all. It’s worse than we thought.”

“With Savage it usually is. What’s up?”

Parvati took him to the screen and the map illuminated on it. “See these dots? More of Savage’s poison factories. He’s been testing on whole villages. Six are in China.”

“He’s double-crossed the Dragon Court …”

“No surprises there.” Parvati smiled and it was sly and very serpentine. “Ti Fun’s not going to be happy.” She tapped the walkie-talkie. “I’ll call him.”

One of the prisoners scowled. “What about him?”

They all turned to see Dr Wells trying to slip away into the corridor. Ashoka ran and grabbed him, pushing him against the wall, the other prisoners gathering round menacingly.

Dr Wells looked desperately at Ashoka. “Please, I’ve done what you asked.”

One man held a scalpel up menacingly. He spat and said something with a snarl and Dr Wells whimpered and pressed himself further against the wall as if hoping to disappear through it. “Please …”

Thump thump thump
. There was a beating in Ashoka’s ears and in his chest. It beat harder and harder. Ashoka stumbled, steadying himself as shadows danced in the corner of his vision. His dad braced him. “Son?”

Exhaustion. That was all. He’d been running on adrenaline and now he’d found his family it was all catching up with him. “I’m … fine,” he said with an effort.

Parvati looked concerned too. “You don’t look—”

And that was when Dr Wells slammed his fist on the alarm.

K
laxons screamed and emergency lights came on, casting them all in a hellish crimson gloom.

Parvati spun and the doctor had barely lowered his hand when she struck. He held up his hands to try to block her, but she grabbed him and her fangs slid out.

“Last mistake you’ll ever make,” she said. “Time to die, scumbag.”

“Wait,” said Ashoka. “We need him.”

Parvati didn’t let go. “We have all the data.”

“Which could be filled with scientific gobbledegook. We’ll need him to be able to make sense of it. He comes with us.”

“Fine. Tie his hands.” Parvati shoved him into the arms of one of the other prisoners. “We need to get out of here. Now,” she said, her fangs retracting into her mouth.

Any second now a band of heavily armed and exceedingly angry security guards were going to burst in and fill them with a lot of bullets.

“The lifts,” said Ashoka, but his dad shook his head.

“No, son. The lifts will stop working in emergencies. It’ll have to be the stairs.”

Ashoka looked at the ragtag fugitives, who were all staring at him. How come he’d suddenly been made boss? It’s not like he had a clue what he was doing …

“Grab those lab coats – they’ll help us blend in. Parvati and I will go first; you wait a level below until we give the all-clear. You and you …” he picked two of the strongest- looking, “… help the stragglers.”

Parvati took his arm. “We shouldn’t wait for everyone. The deal was to save your family.”

“It’s all of us or none.”

Parvati laughed. “You heroes are all the same.” She flipped out her dagger and prepared herself. “Time to embrace your destiny, Ashoka.”

“Any tips?” Ashoka wiped the sweat from his hands and took his bow off his back.

“Avoid the bullets.”

“Er … thanks.” Ashoka wiped the sweat from his hands again. He tightened his grip on the bow and notched an arrow. He only had four, so he had to make each one count.

They ran to the staircase door, Parvati just behind him. The lights blinked on and off and the alarm was deafening in the narrow concrete confines of the corridor. Another laboratory worker rushed out of the room opposite, but Parvati hissed at him and he rushed straight back in, locking the door.

People were bursting out into the corridor, clutching laptops or folders. Other patients, experiments, stumbled around in a panic, bewildered by the noise and lights. Ashoka barged through them towards the staircase doors.

Don’t think.

Don’t think of the guards and guns and bullets and grenades and gun smoke and fire and—

He slammed the doors open, bowstring pulled to his cheek and eyes peering down the line of the arrow shaft. He was expecting a hail of bullets.

Instead all he got were the alarms ringing above him and more red flashing lights. The stairwell echoed with footsteps as panicking staff rushed past. “All clear,” he shouted to Parvati, who ushered the others up the stairs.

More and more people emerged from all levels, rushing to the staircase. Ashoka tensed as he spotted a pair of heavily armed guards, but they ignored him and ran up the stairs two at a time.

Ashoka joined his family, taking hold of Lucky’s hand. “Stick together,” he shouted, his mum and dad following close behind.

Suddenly the staircase shook. The steel frame groaned and bolts popped out of the wall as the stairwell shifted. Massive, jagged cracks split the concrete wall and Ashoka gasped as a man tumbled screaming from the floor above.

“What’s going on?” Ashoka clung to the railings as the whole column of steel quivered. The walls rippled and cracked.

“An earthquake?” said Ashoka’s dad, his teeth rattling as he clung on to his wife.

Ashoka caught up with Parvati. “We can’t be trapped underground during an earthquake!”

“I don’t think this is an earthquake …”

“What is it then?”

But before she could answer another tremor tore the stairs below them clean off the wall. A man tottered on the step, balanced with one foot on the upper level. He had files stacked up to his chin and wobbled, unable to decide whether or not to let go of the paperwork. He hesitated too long and was thrown into the air as the upper deck peeled away. He grabbed for the edge, but missed by a few centimetres and tumbled away, screaming.

Electrical cables tore off the walls and sparks jumped and crackled in the blinking darkness. Earthquake or not, they had to get out of here right now.

“One more floor!” Ashoka shouted. He pushed Lucky ahead. “Go!”

They ran as the staircase rocked back and forth. Chunks of concrete fell away. A cable touched the steel railings and sparks erupted in all directions, showers of lightning spraying around them.

He waited until his family had passed him, then ran.

As another tremor shook the building, they stumbled through a brand-new rent in the wall and found themselves outside at last. Rain lashed down and high winds buffeted them, drawing their breath away as the building creaked and the two tall chimneys swayed. Clouds rolled overhead and there were flashes of lightning. Ashoka grabbed hold of Lucks as she was blown backwards; his parents were huddling together. “Where to?” he shouted over the howling gale.

Parvati gestured towards the beach. She waited behind, helping the other prisoners out of the gap in the wall, everyone forced to link arms or hold hands against the mighty winds that roared through the chemical works.

The wind howled through the quivering cables and rain pelted down, nearly horizontal now, and hitting as hard as marbles. The drops exploded against the steel cylinders that creaked and buckled as the ground trembled and split asunder. Long chasms opened up, and down fell buildings, tanks, vehicles and people.

The endless steel fence flapped like paper and the supports tore free as waves, dozens of metres high, smashed upon the shore.

“What the hell is going on?” Ashoka yelled, trying to be heard.

Parvati shouted something, pointing to the sea, but the wind swept her words away.

Suddenly gunfire exploded all around them. Ashoka covered Lucky as people dived to the ground, screaming.

Guards drew up in a ragged line in front of them, blocking their escape. Dogs snarled and barked, saliva dripping from their heavy jaws.

“Down on your knees!” shouted one of the guards. “Now!”

“Get behind me,” snapped Ashoka to his family and the others. He raised his bow.

“Put that down, boy!” The guard levelled his sub-machine gun at him.

He’d take out one, maybe two. Enough to make a gap for them to run through. The bowstring tensed as he pulled back. Wind buzzed through the cables.

“Put it down!”

More guards joined, forming a line of steel across the beach.

They’d almost made it – but almost wasn’t enough.

“Ashoka, I’ve been trying to tell you …” said Parvati, touching his arm gently. “Look.” She pointed to the sea, to the swirling clouds and the crackling lightning. “Look at what’s making the storms …”

Ashoka looked out to sea. The waves, black and green, smashed against the shore. They struck the buildings nearest the water and dragged rubble away. Pipes broke and great jets of gas and flames burst into the night sky. The two chimneys swayed, one bent now and fire blossoming along the cracks. Then, slowly at first, it fell, crushing a line of parked tanks.

The ship
Pandora
yawed, and crates tumbled off its sides. Waves knocked it against the quayside, smashing up the walkways, and they in turn rent gashes into its low hull. The three other ships were flung against each other and the decks were a mess of rolling barrels and tumbling crates that had broken free of their straps and buckles. Men were tossed overboard or crushed by debris. But there was something else at work. As one wave rose over the decks Ashoka glimpsed something driving it.

“It’s not the waves …” muttered Ashoka. He gazed at the sea along the seafront. The waves were rolling higher and higher, but not because of the winds. There were shapes under the water and they were coming closer.

Cloaked in seaweed and frothing seawater, an immense claw reached out of the pounding waves. Each nail was almost five metres long and thick as a tree trunk. Scales glistened marble, black, green, purple, shimmering and iridescent and ancient.

Dragons crawled from the sea.

A
sh had rested and eaten. He had his manacles and a crude spear as weapons and the lantern to help him on his way. “Let’s go, Rishi.”

Rishi stayed where he was.

“Rishi?”

Rishi raised his head and faced the direction of Ash’s voice. “What’s your plan? We escape,
if
we escape, then what?”

“Go after Savage. Stop him.” Wasn’t that obvious?

Rishi nodded. “Yes, but how will we stop him?”

“I’ll think of something,” said Ash.

Rishi sat down. “But when? When it might be too late? No. Let’s think about it now. While we can.”

Reluctantly Ash lowered himself down on the rock beside the sadhu. “This would be so easy if I was still the Kali-aastra.”

Rishi drew his fingers through his tangled beard. “Ah, yes. The Kali-aastra. Killing seems to be the answer to most things, doesn’t it?”

Ash frowned. “It is what I am. Kali made me this.” He scratched his thumb. “I need a Great Death to awaken the powers of the Kali-aastra. Then we’ll be able to deal with Savage.”

“A Great Death? That’s what powers you, is it? You’ll never defeat Savage if this is what you believe.”

“What do you mean?”

“When did you awaken the Kali-aastra the first time? When you died. When you gave your life to save your sister’s. When Rama faced Ravana, who offered his life to awaken the Kali-aastra?”

“Lakshmana. Rama’s brother,” said Ash. Lakshmana had taken off his armour, urging Rama to strike, but Rama hadn’t been able to do it. He couldn’t kill his own brother. “What’s your point, Rishi?”

“Love. It is love. Not death. Death is easy, Ash. Let me tell you a story. One of Kali.”

“Is this going to take long?”

“Shut up and listen,” said Rishi. “You might learn something.” He crossed his legs and got comfortable. “So, imagine a battle. Rakshasas cover the earth, their bodies dead and broken, and who stands, alone and victorious?”

“Er … Kali?”