The Catastrophe of the Emerald Queen (2 page)

“
Took so long to find you. Thought we’d never
find you but we did. Don’t want to do this, I really don’t but you
see if I don’t then they’ll punish me. I like my fields and my
house you see. I want to be nice to you, I like nice people but
they told me I have to do this
.”
 

Jared watched
mesmerized, realising something was seriously wrong but not
knowing what to do. 

The man moved slightly and Jared realised
that the multi coloured lights he’d seen were from something he was
holding in his right hand. The man held it up slightly and Jared
saw it was a knife. His stomach knotted with fear. The blade was
rainbow coloured and bright, casting vivid shades over the girl’s
bed, the lights playing over her face. 

“
Don’t want to but I have to you see? This is not
something I enjoy but each to his own life and all I wanted was to
live mine and then they found me and said I have to do
this
.”
The man grunted irritably and sniffed loudly
again, his shoes scuffing in a quick pattern on the floor beneath
his chair and then going still.  

He raised the knife over his head and spoke to the sleeping
girl once more.
“
So, you see I am so
sorry little girl but they told me this is a must and I have to do
musts you see. I will try and make it quick for
you.”
 

Jared realised what was about to happen and
dropped his can from numb fingers. It hit the floor with a wet
thud, the remaining soda foaming crazily over the side of the rim
and on to the floor, leaving a damp sticky puddle. Instantly the
man stood up from his chair and turned quickly to where Jared
stood, the knife held before him. 

“
WHO IS SPYING ON ME?”
he shrieked loudly and then Jared saw his face clearly
and the terror took almost complete control of him. The man wasn’t
a man, but some kind of monster. His forehead and chin sticking out
a full few inches beyond the rest of his face. His nose was
prominent and large, jutting forward, while his mouth was a slash
of teeth, jagged and yellow. The skin on his face was smooth and
taut, stretched tight as a drum and his ears were tiny against his
head, more like little stumps. Most terrifyingly of all, he had no
eyes, just smooth skin where they should have
been. 

He stood up and the chair scraped back on the floor.
“Spying on me! Come here!!!”
he snapped, beckoning with his free
hand and sniffing the air loudly, moving his head from side to
side. Jared shook his head and stammered incoherently. He tried to
move backwards but the creature sensed his movement and raised the
free hand in the direction of the door, waving it in a small
circle. The door, which had already been closed, now glowed briefly
a bright, brilliant blue around the edges. There was a sound like
rustling paper, the light glowing in a rhythmic pulse and the
window turned black, impossible to see through. Jared managed to
stagger back and put one hand on the handle to get out. It was
stuck and wouldn’t open. 

“
No way out now nosey little
boy
,”
the creature said, sniffing loudly again and
moving two steps towards him raising the rainbow coloured knife,
which glowed in his hand.
“Now come HERE!!”
 

Jared staggered again and tried to back
away. He looked at the girl, still peacefully asleep in her bed,
oblivious to this. 

“
Look I won’t hurt you
,”
the creature
said smiling at him and then laughed.
“Be easier for you if you don’t make me wait.”
The snicker was like the giggle of
some demonic clown and it broke the spell of fear Jared was under.
He tried to slide along the wall of the room to the main window but
the creature moved to block his path.
“Naughty, nosey little boy,”
it said waving its finger at him.
“Nosey boys shouldn’t
meddle.”
 

It moved towards him once more and Jared
watched as it raised the knife higher, the blade glowing. He felt
his palms sweaty on the wall, the tiles warm beneath his fingers.
He glanced past the creature to Sophie, desperate to cry out for
help but too afraid to try.  

Then he noticed something near Sophie’s bed.
The shapes and shadows in the plastic curtain nearest to her head
started to move. Jared stared as the shapes broke and then came
together, swirling and spinning and what he was seeing was even
harder to comprehend than the foul monster approaching him. The
forms merged into what looked like the shadow of a head. Then in
the heart rate monitor to the girl’s left, the reflections in the
glass over the readout display began to impossibly flow, bleeding
into the shapes near the plastic curtains like food colouring
dropped into water. Madly churning and flowing, drawn as if by some
crazy form of gravity. Then the cards on the right bedside cabinet
next to her head bled their colours upwards and at an angle to make
a lopsided kaleidoscope. 

He watched the scenes before him as if in
slow motion, his heart racing. The creature still bore down on him,
but the steps seemed slower now as if it was walking through water.
It hadn’t noticed what was happening behind it, its whole attention
focused on Jared.  

The colours stopped forming and Jared could
vaguely see what looked like a shadow of a head and shoulders with
a chest and arms below. The image was unclear and as he looked it
made less sense, his perception slipping as he stared and the image
faded under his frightened gaze. 

The shadows under Sophie’s bed and from the
creases in her top blanket then detached like banana peel and moved
suddenly upwards, like water drops when someone throws a large
stone in a river. The explosion of shadows merging at their zenith
to join the original shapes. 

The creature’s smile widened, the yellow
teeth shining with wicked malevolence and its breath foul in the
air as it raised the knife once more, reaching out with its other
hand to grasp Jared’s collar.  

Finally the light and shadow play in the background
finished. The shadow was fully formed and with a sudden burst of
white and blue next to Sophie, a figure appeared, thrown from the
light into the room. It landed on its feet and stood in front of
the bed, erect and tall. The explosion spilled the cards from the
cabinets, whipping round the room in a maelstrom. Sophie’s hair
blowing over her face in the sudden storm, the cards and teddy bear
on the other side swept away and tumbling to the floor. A plastic
beaker of water fell, cracking open and spilling its contents in a
widening circle. The cups next to it clattered
down
, burst from their
cellophane wrapping. 

Jared glanced up as the lights dimmed and then the bulbs
exploded, shards of glass scattering over the room. As he raised
his arm over his face he saw the heart rate monitor screen fizzle
out,
flat line and then come
back to normal.  

The creature turned at the sudden noise
while Jared sat on the floor and stared transfixed at what was in
front of him. 

The newcomer was tall. Taller than anyone
Jared had ever seen. He was dressed in a black robe secured with a
cord at the waist and a hood that completely covered his head, the
face just a dark shadow. He had a huge sword strapped to his back
in an old, red sheath and secured with a purple sash.  

The creature shrieked in anger and fear at
the newcomer and dropped its knife. 

“
MORDALAYN!!!
”
it hissed in
disbelief and fury. 

The newcomer made no reply but advanced in
three strides and grabbed the bald monster with both hands by the
lapels of its scruffy jacket. 

“
No! Not my fault, don’t hurt
me!
”
The creature pleaded pathetically, trying in vain to
break free. Jared watched speechless as the wriggling creature was
hauled into the air, squealing and kicking madly, trying to prise
free of the grip. The newcomer pulled it forward to stare at its
face.  

“
You would DARE?!!”
he growled at the monster in a deep, gravelly voice
and with a
“snikt!”
noise unsheathed claws from the
fingertips on one hand which pierced the tips of his black glove.
They were at least three inches long and looked sharp as razors. He
slowly put his hand near the struggling creature’s
face. 

“
No, please have mercy, not my fault, they made
me do it!!!
”
The creature wailed, kicking like a
fish on a line.  

 
As the newcomer seemed to be
on the verge of deciding what to do, he glanced in Jared’s
direction. Jared shook his head and after a pause the figure
grunted angrily and threw the pathetic form down to the floor. The
creature whimpered and covered its head with its arms.
“
Don’t kill me, I’m sorry.”
It gibbered frantically, trying to curl up into a
ball. 

The man scooped up the rainbow knife and
held it for a moment. The colours faded out and the blade turned a
dull brown. The metal changed to a lump of jagged rock which the
figure placed in a pocket in his robe. 

He glanced at Jared and then reached into another pocket.
Jared staggered slightly and his legs collapsed and he fell back
against the wall. The man turned to the fear stricken would-be
assassin and picked it up by its collar again. It shrieked
indignantly and continued pleading
.
“No, no!!! Let me
go, I’ll be good.”
 

The huge figure opened his hand. In it was a green jewel,
encased in silver. He blew on the jewel which rose up and hovered
over the squirming creature. The bald figure’s shrieks rose like a
tocsin in the room and the jewel began to spin fast over its head.
The newcomer then let go and stepped back and as the jewel
span
, a brilliant green light
enveloped the thrashing creature in a diamond shape and held
it. 

Just before the light flashed brightly and closed in on
itself, taking the creature with it, the bald monster turned and
glared
at Jared and flung its
hand out; the gnarled, twisted fingers pointing at him.
“Nosey little boy!”
it shrieked and a bolt of black
energy launched from its rotten fingertips. Jared was frozen for a
moment, unable to scream as it entered his chest and pinned him
immobile to the wall. The hooded figure glanced quickly at Jared
and shouted in anger but then the monster was gone, the sudden wind
from the explosion signaling its absence, once more scattering the
cards that littered the floor. 

The man leaned forward and neatly caught the now clear
jewel as it fell, spinning from the air, putting it back into his
pocket. Straightening up he turned to Sophie and walked over to her
bedside. Dropping to one knee amongst the chaos littering the floor
he bowed his head, placing his hand on her arm. He whispered
quietly and taking another crystal
, held it in front of him in both hands and broke it in
two. A glowing orange liquid, just a few drops, fell to the girl’s
sleeping body. They ran backwards and forwards as if on a sheet of
glass, forming lines and lines and then vanished. Sophie glowed for
a second and then was normal. The man rose and turned, crouching
down in front of Jared, his face hidden in the dark depths of his
hood, a scarf covering his mouth and nose. He had eyes of emerald
green, shining brightly amidst the shadows of his hidden
face. 

“
Don’t be afraid
,”
he said softly but
in a voice that was deeper than any Jared had ever heard before.
 

Jared shook his head, his ears still ringing
and his vision full of dancing white dots.  

“
What’s your name boy?”
 

“
J, J, Jared”
he stammered after a few seconds. 

“
Are you hurt?”
 

“
No, he didn’t touch me. You got here before he
could
.”
 

The figure rose. He extended his hand and
Jared took it and struggled to his feet. 

Just then there was a frantic banging on the door.
“It’s locked,”
one man’s voice said.  

“
Kick it in
!”
someone else
shouted. 

“
I have to go Jared
,”
the man said
taking him firmly by the arm.
“The spell he placed on you means his people, my enemies
can track you.”
He pulled
back Jared’s right sleeve as the pounding on the door and the
frantic shouts grew louder. Removing a bracelet from his own huge
forearm he placed it on Jared’s wrist, whispering something as the
metal curled in and shrank on itself to fit his smaller arm. The
round jewel in its centre briefly glowed before returning to a
cloudy green. Jared tried to pull away but the man held him
firmly. 

“
This is a warning sigil
,”
he explained
over the increasing din as the people outside hammered on the
door.
“It will alert you if
my enemies are close. The jewel will glow and become warm if they
are near to you. If it does so, hide wherever you can, don’t let
them get hold of you, do whatever you can to get away.”
Jared nodded mutely, still confused
and frightened
. “I promise
you I will come to protect you”
the man continued
.
“One final thing. Do NOT tell anyone about me.”