Aurelius and I (35 page)

THUD!

I hit the stone floor hard, sending a shock of pain up through my buttocks and through the rest of my body. In my concentration at my friends’ demise, I had failed to pay any attention to where I was going and, as such, had tumbled over the first obstacle that had lain in my path. What made things worse was that that obstacle just happened to be the lifeless corpse of my great friend and companion, Aurelius-Octavius Jumbleberry-Jones. How fitting that I should meet my death alongside the man who had died for me; a man whose death I had caused through my lack of trust.

A mirthful smile crossed the lips of my would-be killer, but this time no words of boastful triumph crossed them. Having learned the lesson from his previous (and all-too-recent) attempts to kill me, this time the great warrior was going to end things as quickly and efficiently as possible. With this in mind he raised the deadly scimitar high above his head and prepared to strike.

It was at that moment that my wrist began to burn.

I couldn’t understand it; why now? What was the language I was supposed to be translating? Certainly it was likely that Rain’s distant cries of desperation or Barry’s struggling, final gargles were being uttered in a language that was not my own, but so had almost every word spoken to me since I entered that wretched forest - the watch had only previously given off heat as a warning when coming across a new language for the first time, so why was it hot now?

I feel I must confess that, at the time, such questions barely entered my head, for they mattered little to me. I was, after all, quite certain that I would not live long enough to discover their answers. Floored and unarmed, I closed my eyes and waited once more for the killing blow of the scimitar. It was a blow that never came.

“AAAARRRRGHHH! WHAT THE???!!!”

I opened my eyes to discover the Captain Blackheart hopping around holding his foot and wailing like a toddler who has just stubbed their toe. I quickly got to my feet, seeing the cause of his pain as soon as I did so; there, barking and nipping at the vile beast’s impractically sandaled feet, was a very proud-looking Baskerville.

“Good boy!” I said, never having felt such love for another creature at any time previous to that moment, or indeed since for that matter. “Good boy!”

My opinions were, needless to say, not shared by Blackheart.

“CEASE, VILE BEAST! CEASE!” He demanded to no avail, the little terrier being too low to the ground and too fast in his attacks for the Captain to be able to take a proper swing of the scimitar.

It was only then, from my standing position, that I was able to see the reason for the burning in my wrist. My watch, it seemed, was not the only thing that was glowing; now that’s its face read midnight, its impromptu illumination was mirrored by the letters carved into the sacred stone.

It was as if time had stood still. I remember feeling as though I was somehow separate from the melee that ensued around me, only distantly aware of the drowning ogre, the battling tree elf, and the enormous gravlier and my terrorising terrier. It was as if all that was happening around me was occurring in some other dream-like, half-reality from which I had ascended to a higher plain. I felt positively god-like as I was struck by the wonder and awe of the realisation of the tablet’s power, and how it was that that power could be the one thing that could yet save the forest, and with it our lives.

Slowly, deliberately, and with an epic sense of divine providence, I began to read the words from the ancient stone.

I should at this juncture point out that that which I am about to record is only an estimation of what the great and powerful words meant in English, for that is all I am able to recall. Let me assure you however, that when the words were originally spoken, they were done so in a tongue that was far from our own, one which no living creature had held the slightest comprehension of how to speak for many millennia. As result the power and resonance of those words may well not be done justice by what follows, but it is the best that I can do.

“Oh great and powerful Elders,

I have arrived as prophesised to call on thee,

To empower me,

With the ancient wisdom,

Of thyne own innate magic,

That I might open the doorway,

Between this place and all others,

In this world and in others,

In order that I may defend the cause of the Alundri,

From those who would seek to destroy us.”

There followed a great and all-consuming pause. Baskerville ceased his relentless attack, the mermaids subdued their attempts to drown Barry, the trolls granted Rain a few more precious seconds of life, as all waited to discover the great and secret power I had unlocked.

For an awful moment, despite the intense energy I had felt flowing through every vain in my body as I had uttered the words, I doubted whether they had had the desired effect. After all, I had never even seen the place I had sort to open a portal to, and knew only its name, would that be enough?

As if in answer to my doubts, the silence that had filled the cavern was replaced by the distinctive sound of a creeping wind, light at first but rapidly growing in stature. Then, without warning and to everybody’s great surprise, a small but rapidly growing circle of blinding blue light slithered from out of the air above the tablet.

That was quite enough of a warning for the cowardly mermaids who promptly ducked under the water and followed the river out of the cave as fast as their fins would allow, leaving Barry to grasp the stone edge of the water with those branch-like fingers and wrench himself to safety - however temporary that safety might have tuned out to be.

The circle of light began to rapidly increase in size. A great wind whistled through the cavern. The dirt from the floor of the chamber was now being whipped around like horizontally-falling hailstones, causing each of us to instinctively cover our eyes.

“HOLD ON!” I yelled, dragging Aurelius’s lifeless body and wedging it and myself behind the nearest of the Romanesque columns that supported the temple’s ancient roof.

I watched as Barry, now free from the mermaids’ murderous clutches, wrapped one of his tree trunk arms around another of the pillars, reaching out and clasping the ankle of the bruised, beaten and barely conscious Rain with the other. The royal couple quickly followed suit, securing themselves as best as possible behind the belt of the tree elf.

Blackheart and the trolls had clearly failed to heed my warning and continued to stumble about the cave, unbalanced by the wind and blinded by the dirt and grit it carried with it.

I feared the king and queen would be too weak to hold their position against the now near gale force wind that relentlessly sucked all that was not tied down through the portal of blue flame. It was a fear that was quickly forgotten as I realised that Baskerville and Ophelia would certainly not be able to do so.

I moved quickly toward them, but not quickly enough. A particularly strong gust catching the fairy princess in its wake as I was forced to watch, helpless, as she was swept mercilessly toward the light. Then, just as it seemed she was lost, her limp and powerless body was snatched from the air by the slobber-filled mouth of my brave, four-legged companion.

Unfortunately, due to his stature not being immensely greater than that of a fairy, my big-hearted canine’s small body simply became swept up in the swirling winds along with his enchanted passenger.

“NO!” I cried.

I was determined that I had not come this far in search of my beloved pet in order for him to be taken from me at the last. Leaving Aurelius wedged as securely as I could behind the pillar, I recklessly pursued my doomed dog, determined that I would not merely cower and bear witness to the loss of two creatures who had repeatedly braved everything to save my life. Whatever was on the other side of that portal, we would face it together.

Summoning every last meagre fragment of strength I had left within me after my battering at the hands of the vindictive mermaids, I broke into the closest thing to a run I could muster before launching myself forward at full stretch, my arm reaching desperately out before me toward oblivion as I prayed that it would be enough.

It was.

Just.

As I crashed painfully to the floor I skidded along the uneven ground a little way, grazing my ribs as I did so, but it was a pain that was instantly quenched by the ecstasy that flowed through me at the feel of fur between my outstretched fingers.

I pulled Baskerville toward me by his back leg – not usually an advisable way to pick up a dog, but acceptable under the circumstances – and dragged he and Ophelia into my chest where I held them tight, closed my eyes against the gritty wind, and awaited the fate that we would now meet together.

Travelling through the portal was a great deal more painful than I had anticipated. I had expected to be shaken around a bit, perhaps even sent spinning upside down by the powerful winds, and I had feared the possibility of the heat that might be generated by the flame-like cosmic doorway, though I suspected that it could not burn like an actual fire or else it would be no kind of portal at all, but merely an incinerator. Travelling through the portal felt like none of these things though, it felt like being slammed against a brick wall.

The wind howled around us. I could hear the panicked cries of Blackheart and his troll henchmen as they too were swept through the long tunnel that lay behind the portal. I could not, however, see what that tunnel looked like for I could not bring myself to open my eyes, reasoning that I would do so when the wind stopped, signalling our arrival. After a few minutes had passed without this happening though, my curiosity got the better of me.

I opened my eyes expecting to find myself in the centre of a tornado of illumination, spinning helplessly toward our chosen destination. Imagine my surprise then, when I was faced only with the same dingy, damp cavern.

After a few seconds of initial bemusement, I realised what had happened. By some miracle we had not been sucked through the portal, but had instead become wedged against the tablet itself.

I ducked as a troll flew low above my head, taken by the now hurricane-force wind into the gaping ring of fire. His friend followed soon after.

Using my sleeve to guard my eyes against the great wind, I searched the cave for my compatriots. I could see no sign of Aurelius (or what remained of him), but I did manage to locate Barry, who was holding on admirably to both Rain and the pillar that was providing them both with their lifeline. It was clear, though, that he would not be able to do so for much longer.

Then my eyes fell upon Captain Blackheart. At first I was unable to fathom how on earth he remained standing. He stood alone, directly in the centre of the great chamber, far from any pillar or other artificial means of support, and yet he remained unmoved. It was quite incomprehensible. Then I saw it. Buried deep in the ground before him stood the scimitar.

He was holding on for dear life, his hands gripped firmly upon the handle, his heels digging stubbornly into the floor, refusing to allow himself to be moved.

Then the wind picked up again.

The pull of the portal was now so great that the entire chamber shook with it, as if it might itself be transported in its entirety through the portal. The pillars that were providing the only source of safety for my companions suddenly looked far less secure.

The scimitar, though, stood firm.

The same could not be said for Blackheart however, who quickly found his footing taken from him by the intense gale. The only thing stopping him from being sucked into the great blue disk of flame was his grip on the scimitar. And it was a grip that was slipping fast.

Unfortunately, Barry’s was slipping faster and the great ogre, the tree elf and her two fairy tag-a-alongs were sent spiralling around the outer edge of the cavern.

Blackheart quickly followed suit, the scimitar remaining stubbornly still where it had been entrenched in the ground.

The three figures swirled helplessly around the roof of the cave above my head like leaves caught in a breeze. Each spiralling ever closer to the inevitable, irresistible pull of the now Ferris wheel-sized portal.

Blackheart, being nearest (and quite possibly heaviest) was the first to be taken through it. He disappeared through like a hot coal through jelly, smoothly melting into the blue with one final, silent scream.

It was then that something wonderful happened - the portal began to shrink.

Even against the wind and the dirt I could not hide my smile. Having taken what it had come for, the portal was closing, leaving us behind it. It was a smile that quickly faded as I realised with horror that it was not closing quickly enough.

Barry, his great bulk providing him with greater momentum through the air, looked destined to be pulled through the rapidly-decreasing portal before it closed. For one awful moment his eyes met mine and I saw that they were filled with fear and panic at the unknown prospect at what lay in wait for him on the other side. It was a look that was mirrored in my own eyes, for I did know what awaited him, and it was a knowledge more frightening than the ogre’s ignorance.