The League of Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book Two) (10 page)

“Hold that for me,” he said.

Bom took it between two fingers and Faraday’s skin swung in the wind like a latex glove. Zach and his friends watched as Faraday’s metal fingers withdrew into his fist of cogs. There was a whizzing and grinding noise, as what looked like some ancient can opener appeared where his fingers had been just moments before. Holding his hand against the wooden door, he cut a hole in it with a cutting tool protruding from his hand. Splinters of wood showered from his fist. When the hole was big enough, he placed his free arm into it. With the side of his face flat against the outside of the door, he felt for the lock on the other
side. There was a clicking sound, then withdrawing his arm, he pushed the door open. Taking his skin from Bom, he covered his hand again as if it were a glove, and stepped inside the house.

Chapte
r Nineteen

Wally stood before Willow. She looked at him and yelped. His long beard had gone, as had his fangs, claws, and yellow eyes. Wally looked human just like he had when leading her through the woods. He stood before the trapped doorway and smiled at her. His face was young-looking, his skin smooth and flawless. It was pale, as were his eyes, which were no longer bright yellow, but hazel. His hair was ash blond, short, if not a little on the untidy side. For a human, he wasn’t bad looking, Willow thought. He no longer wore his scruffy dungarees, but a crisp white shirt and blue jeans.  

“The doorways have such untapped powers,” he smiled.

“But...” Willow yelped, her paws clacking on the ground.

“I have discovered there are many ways of passing through the doorways,” Wally smiled, looking pleased with
himself. “Frontways, sideways, and backways! Each of them changes you in a different way.”

“But you look like a human,” Willow woofed.

“I know,” Wally said, looking down at himself. “Disgusting, isn’t it? But, it has its benefits.”

“Like what?”

“Oh, I dunno,” Wally said thoughtfully. “Like when I need to mingle with the humans, which doesn’t happen often I must admit, but there have been occasions.”

“Like when?”
Willow pushed, her tail wagging from side to side.

“Oh
, let me see,” Wally said, rubbing his chin. “Like when your son, William, decided to rip a car apart in Parliament Square and then scale Big Ben.”

“Who is Big Ben?” Willow asked him.

“It’s a
what
not a
who
,” Wally smiled at her ignorance. “Big Ben is a giant clock.”

“What was William doing climbing a clock?” Willow barked.

“It’s such a long story, and one not for now,” Wally said. Then gesturing towards the doorway, he smiled at Willow and said, “Go on, give it a try.”

“I’ve had enough of doorways for one day,” Willow said. “Besides, the only doorway I want to go through is the one which will take me home.”

“Oh, c’mon! Live a little, Willow Weaver,” Wally teased her with that smile of his.

Willow looked at him with her red eyes, then at the doorway that had been fixed in place.

“What’s not to like?” Wally asked her.

Slowly, Willow trotted towards the doorway. Wally didn’t take his eyes off her. “Which way will you choose?” he grinned like someone who was just a little bit mental.
“Frontways? Sideways? Or backways?” 

Willow looked up at him and then went sideways through the doorway. The bang which followed shook the very walls of the cavern just like before. The flash of white light reflected in Wally’s eyes as Willow stepped from the other side of the doorway. She looked like and was dressed as a Noxas once again. The platted braids of silky blond hair hung from her cheeks and beneath her chin. She raised her claws before her dark eyes and looked at the hair which covered them. Willow wore the long, flowing blue robes that she had worn in Endra. It was good to be a Noxas again, she thought to herself.

“Oh, wow!” Wally breathed. “Warden Weaver is a very lucky man.”

Willow’s cheeks flushed red beneath the hair which covered them. “Thank you,” she smiled, flashing her long, sharp teeth.

“How about going backways through the doorway?” Wally said, rubbing his hands together.

“No – I’m fine just like this,” Willow told him.

“Oh, don’t be such a spoil sport!” Wally teased again. “It’s just a bit of fun.”

Looking back at the doorway, then at Wally, she suddenly giggled like a child. His sense of fun was infectious. “Okay, I’ll give
it a go – but just the once you understand.”

“I understand,” he smiled at her.

Turning her back to the doorway, Willow slowly walked backwards. She passed through its wooden frame and the cavern shook and flashed white. Then from the other side stepped a tall and elegant-looking woman. Her long, blond hair flowed about her shoulders in bright ringlets. Her dark brown eyes sparkled. Her lips were full and red, her skin so smooth-looking, it was like a child’s. A pair of hip-hugging trousers covered her long legs, and she wore a pale blue top, which was cut into a ‘V’ shape at the neck.

“What do I look like?” Willow asked.

“Not bad for a human,” he said. “But don’t worry, I’ve seen worse.”

“Do you have a mirror?” she asked, holding out her hand.

“Somewhere around here,” Wally said, disappearing into the shadows. “I’m sure Jennifer-The Martian-Green left one behind. Then stepping from the shadows, he handed Willow a small compact mirror.

Willow peered into it then gasped. “Oh my
, I look hideous!” she cried.

“Look on the bright side,” Wally said, taking the mirror from her. “At least you can change back, humans are stuck looking like this. It would be enough to drive me completely insane.”

“I guess,” she said, trying to get used to the way she now looked. “I can change back anytime I want, right?”

“Anytime you want,” he smiled.
“But not just yet.”

“Why not?” she asked him, hoping that he hadn’t tricked her in some way. She had heard from Warden that his friend was rather wild.

“We need to go and mingle with the humans,” he told her.

“Why?” she gasped.

“I have something to show you,” Wally said, heading back towards the slide.

“Show me what?”

Wally sat on the slide, and the blades of grass waved back and forth like thousands of green coloured fingers. “You said you wanted my help to save Endra.”

“Yes,” Willow said.

“Well, I need to take you to the Railway Station,” Wally said, glancing back at her as those blades of grass started to carry him back up the slide and into the dark.

Chapter Twenty

They stood huddled in the narrow doorway. There was a staircase which led up into the darkness. Faraday followed Zach’s stare. He turned to look at the others, and with eyes as black as the shadows at the top of the staircase, he said, “Do not worry, the house is empty.”

“How can you be so sure?” Zach asked him.

“The whole city is empty,” he said back, and pushed open a door which led off the hallway. After seeing all those wild animals roaming freely about, Zach couldn’t help but fear what might be waiting for them on the other side of the door. Faraday stepped inside and then made a screaming sound in the back of his throat. It sounded like unoiled gears grinding together.

Within a heartbeat, Zach had drawn his crossbows, and Neanna and William stood on either side of him, catapults loaded.

“What is it?” Zach breathed.

Faraday looked back at him and with an expressionless stare, he said, “I was just joking. Like I said, there is nothing here.” 

“You were joking!” Zach barked, his heart still beating.

“Great!” Bom grumbled. “The machine is developing a sense of humour. That’s all we need.” 

“A sick sense of humour,” Neanna groaned, brushing past Faraday and stepping into the room.

“That wasn’t funny,” William snarled at Faraday, placing his catapult into his back pocket.

Faraday just looked at him.

Zach holstered his crossbows, and stepping past Faraday into the room, he said, “I didn’t know you had a sense of humour.”

“Apparently I haven’t,” Faraday said back.   

Zach found himself standing in a large lounge. Bom was standing by the front windows and peering out at the Butter-Flyers. There was a small sofa, and Neanna was curled up on it, her eyes closed, already asleep. There were bookshelves and a small table, which was covered in sheets of paper. A fireplace was carved into the wall and it was covered in soot.

Faraday crossed the room to the table. Bending down
, he picked up some of the sheets of paper which were spread across it. He appeared to study them, while William and Zach looked on. After a short time, he handed them to Zach. The pieces of paper contained symbols and numbers. Zach had no idea what it all meant but guessed it was some kind of complex mathematical equation. Zach handed the sheets of paper to William, who peered at them though his bulbous glasses.

“Is this meant to mean something?” he woofed, placing them back on the table. Faraday scooped them up again, folded them, and placed the sheets of paper into one of the many pockets covering his flight suit.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Bom said, turning away from the window. “I’m going to see if I can’t find some food in this place.” 

“I’m not hungry,” William said. “I just need some sleep.” And like Bom had, he left the room. Within moments, the sound of his bare feet climbing the stairs could be heard in the lounge.

With Neanna asleep beneath her cloak on the sofa, Zach and Faraday stood alone in the centre of the lounge.

“So you have a sister then?” Faraday asked Zach, as
he thumbed through large, dusty-looking books, whose pages were ivory coloured and curled at the corners. “She is the Queen’s reflection?”

“Yeah, her name’s Anna. She’s all I have left - my parents died.”

“How?” he asked.

“In a plane crash,” Zach said,
then quickly added, “I don’t really want to talk about it.” He crossed to the window and looked at the Butter-Flyer machines that hovered a few feet off the ground outside.

“Where’s your sister?” Faraday said, inspecting the bookshelf.

“In Earth. She’s being held captive by my Uncle Fandel. He’s poisoning her. That’s why it’s so important we get the box and take it to her. I don’t know how much time I have before...”

To think of his sister’s death was too painful, and he trailed off. Noticing a splinter of sunlight cutting through a gap in the curtains and falling on Neanna as she slept, Zach pulled them closed.

“You care about her, don’t you?” Faraday said.

“Of course I do, she’s my sister,” Zach said, turning to look at the mechanical man again.

“I wasn’t talking about your sister,” Faraday said, and glanced down at Neanna.

“She’s my friend
,” Zach answered back, his cheeks flushing scarlet.

“Oh,” Faraday said, turning back to the bookshelf.

“And what’s that meant to mean?”

“Nothing,” Faraday said.

But Zach knew what Faraday meant. If a machine had picked up on the fact that he liked Neanna more than just a friend, had the others? Zach wondered. Had he made it that obvious? It was times like this that he missed his dad. He would have been able to ask his advice. But instead, he was discussing it with a machine.

“Is it that obvious?” Zach asked him, his voice just above a whisper.

“Just a bit,” Faraday said. “Are you going to tell her?”

“Tell her what?”

“About how you feel for her.”

“Nah, I don’t think so,” Zach said, glancing down at Neanna as she slept peacefully. And he did want to tell her, but he knew he couldn’t.

“Why not?” Faraday asked him, replacing the book he had been looking through and plucking another from the shelf.

“She might laugh at me,” Zach whispered.

“Why would she laugh?”

“I dunno,” Zach shrugged, and then said, “Look
, can we just change the subject? I thought we were meant to be looking for anything that might give us the whereabouts of this Cribbot guy. Find a way to turn the machines off.”

Faraday shook the book he was holding by the spine, as if he was hoping that something which had been hidden inside would fall out. When the book failed to give up any secrets, he discarded it by tossing it onto the floor.

“If we do find a way to turn off the machines, then I might be turned off, too,” Faraday said.

“You were off when we found you,” Zach reminded him.

“I was switched off,” Faraday said. “I was just powered down – there is a difference.

“So what you’re saying is that if we find a way of switching off the machines for good, then the same might happen to you?” Zach asked him. “So you die?”

“I’m just a machine - a synthetic life form,” Faraday said. “I can’t catch a cold, but I can be permanently switched off – so yes, that would be like dying.”

Zach looked at Faraday as he started to dismantle the bookshelf at lightning speed.

“Are you sure you want to switch off the machines then?” Zach asked him.

“We have to, or you won’t get across the Outer-Rim,” Faraday said. “You saw all of those wild animals – machines – that we flew over. This part of Endra is wild and barren. You will never get across it alive with those beasts roaming free.” 

“Couldn’t we just fly across the Outer-Rim on those Butter-Flyer things?”

“They are a weak and a fragile creature,” Faraday told him. “There are many more creatures which take to the skies, and most of them would tear apart those Butter-Flyers. They won’t get you to the volcano safety.”

“What about you?” Zach asked. “You can’t just die along with the other machines.”

“Why not?”
Faraday said. “I am nothing more than a machine. I have no feelings. I don’t know love or fear. I can’t even make people laugh. So you could say I’m dead already.”

“But you seem like more than just a machine,” Zach breathed as he watched Faraday inspect the dismantled bookshelf for any secret drawers or cubbyholes hidden behind it. “I want to find Der Cribbot and find out who I was. I know why I was made. But not who I was.”

“Why were you made?” Zach asked him. “I kinda get the whole animals being entangled as they came through the doorway. But why make machines which look like men?”

Faraday turned away from what remained of the bookshelf and looked at Zach. His eyes were as black as ever, and his hair fell across his brow. “Just imagine you could make one person run at super speeds, you were able to give them the ability to jump over buildings, and they could live two, or perhaps even three hundred years.
Their very arms, weapons. What would that person be?”

“Invincible,” Zach breathed slowly.

“Then let’s say you were able to make a thousand - no five thousand, or perhaps ten million of these
invincible
people. Just consider an army made of these soldiers - what would this army be?” he asked.

“Unbeatable,” Zach said, his mouth turning dry and his head beginning to thump.

“I think you’ve got the picture,” Faraday said.

“So Throat wants to use this army to overthrow Endra?” Zach asked him.

“No,” Faraday said. “This is a world of magic and sorcery – he has the Demonic Guardians for that. But your world – Earth – is different. It’s a world of technology – he would need a special kind of army to conquer such a world.”

“So what you’re suggesting is that when the time comes, when my sister and the
Queen die, when he has the power inside the box, Throat will send mechanical men like you in to...” Zach began.

“Yes,” Faraday said, brushing past Zach and leaving a pile of scattered books in the corner of the room. He then began to hurl the pillows from the armchairs and search beneath them.

“So, what about me?” Zach asked him. “Where do I fit into all of this? William and Neanna believe I’m a peacekeeper who has come into this world to defeat Throat and his armies. But you make it sound like an impossible task.”

Faraday strode past Zach and back towards the lounge door and disappeared into the hallway. Zach rushed after him to find Faraday pulling open a wooden door that was tucked beneath the staircase. He yanked it with such force that the frame that housed it began to snap and splinter.

“Cover your eyes,” he said as he pulled on the door one last time. It came away in his hand in a shower of wood and masonry where he had actually pulled the brickwork away from around the outer edge of the door.

Faraday cast the door aside, and looking back at Zach he said, “Follow me.”

Zach followed the machine into the darkness beneath the stairs.