Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book One) (22 page)

Chapter 36

With the key to the box of Endra hidden beneath his shirt, William bounded up the spiral stairs which led from t
he cellblocks. Zach, Neanna and the Captain were at his heels.

Racing from the stairwell, they spilt onto the exercise yard to find hundreds of Norsori waiting for them. Released prisoners fought with the guards for their freedom. Others hadn’t managed to get very far at all
, and lay dead or in restraints on the ground.

‘I’m too old for this!’ Captain Bom grumbled, flicking his eyebrows away from his eyes with his thumb.

With bows drawn, the Norsori came forwards, their wicked green eyes staring at them from behind their masks. Zach and his friends, edged backwards towards the stairwell, not taking their eyes off the prison guards for one moment. From behind them, a flood of Norsori spewed from the darkness at the top of the stairs and they were surrounded.

Within moments
, Zach had his crossbows held out before him. Neanna stood with her hands on her hips, and William snarled as he pulled back on his catapult and took aim.

‘You can’t escape!’ came a voice from above them.

Looking up, they could see the shape of a figure standing in the dark on a stone gantry that ran around the top of the prison walls.

‘Bring them to me!’ the figure ordered.

Stepping forward, several of the Norsori pushed and shoved them up a flight of wooden steps to where the figure was waiting. As they drew close, Zach guessed that whoever it was, they too were one of the Norsori. It was the arms that gave it away. They were so long, that without stooping or bending, the figure brushed the tips of his fingers across the ledge that he stood on. Just like the others, its face was covered with an iron mask. Its eyes were just visible. They were dark and cat-like in shape. On top of this Norsori’s mask, stood a huge black plume of feathers that sprayed outwards like the tail of a peacock. The figure was dressed not too dissimilar to the Roman soldiers Zach had seen in the old black and white action movies he’d watched with his dad as a kid.

‘I’m sorry, but I didn’t get to welcome you when you made your grand entrance into my prison,’ the figure said. ‘I am Marshal Goth, the governor of this facility. And you are?’

Ignoring his question, Zach said, ‘what do you want with us?’

‘Apart from putting an end to your pathetic little insurrection, I don’t want anything from you.’

‘So we’re free to go then?’

‘Not exactly. I think
they
would like to speak with you!’ the figure said and although his face was hidden, Zach knew that he was smiling.

‘Who does?’ Captain Bom asked.

Turning, Marshal Goth pointed over the top of the prison walls and out across Endra with one of his long arms.

Looking over the top of the wall, Zach and his friends gasped as they saw the army of Demonic Guardians and Radan gathered below. The tips of swordsticks twinkled in the glow of the fireballs that danced around their fists. The naked white bones of the Radan’s skeletal apes gleamed beneath the glare of the moon like silver statues.

‘All of them just for us?’ William whistled through his broken teeth. ‘We are popular.’

‘They’re not here just for us,’ Neanna said, staring at the thousands of troops amassed below.

‘Why else could they be here?’ Marshal Goth asked.

‘To invade,’ Captain Bom said, throwing his hands into the air as if to surrender.

‘Put your hands down. You’re embarrassing us,’ Zach scowled at Bom.

Lowerin
g his arms, Captain Bom said, ‘my days of fighting are over.’

‘You may not have a choice,’ William growled,
snatching a sword from a nearby Norsori and thrusting into the Captain’s hands.

Looking over the edge of the prison wall again, Mars
hal Goth said in a smug tone, ‘they’re not here to invade. My people struck a deal with Throat…’

But before he could finish, a
wave of swordsticks whisked over the top of the prison wall and sliced through a hundred or so unsuspecting Norsori guards. The tips of the swordsticks were covered with white mercury and as the Norsori flew back through the air, they burst into seething balls of white flame.

‘What were you saying?’ Zach said, snatching his
crossbows from their holsters and taking aim at the army below.

Turning away from the wall, Marshal Goth screamed at his guards,
‘We’re under attack. Ready yourselves for battle!’

Willow stood in the centre of the cavern deep within the Snowstorm mountains. The rest of the remaining Noxas had gathered around her. All of them except for her husband Warden, who didn’t agree with her decision to go into Earth and find Wally Willabee. Wilberforce had asked for a volunteer, and it had been Willow that had raised her hand.

He knew that
Willow had never gone as far as the edges of the Howling Forests in her life, let alone travel into another world. The mission that Wilberforce had offered her would be dangerous and Warden resented the high priest for putting his beautiful wife in that situation. It should have been him who was to risk his life by going into Earth, not Willow.

Curse my blindness!
He howled inside.

So he had decided to stay away from the caverns, and instead they had said their tearful goodbyes in private.

Wilberforce stood before
Willow in his noble gowns, cut from the leaves of the silkweed tree.

‘Close
your eyes and picture your doorway,’ he told her.

Willow closed her eyes.

‘Take deep breaths,’ he said.

‘What does my door look like?’ she asked.

‘You’ll know it when you see it.’

‘But what if I don’t have a doorway?’

‘Everyone has a doorway,’ Wilberforce explained. ‘Some don’t have to look at all. It just appears when they least expect it. Others have to work hard to find theirs, but for most they never find the doorway at all. It eludes them their entire life. It’s a lot like the search for true love.’

Squeezing her eyelids together and screwing her hands into fists, she searched her mind for her doorway.

‘Relax,’ Wilberforce whispered in her ear.

Way ahead in the darkness of her mind,
Willow could see something; like a solitary star in the night sky. She walked towards it, her arms outstretched.

There’s something there
, she said to herself.
Is that my doorway?

Without taking a single step, she moved forward in her mind. Whatever it was, it was coming nearer. It was narrow and oblong in shape and light radiated from around its edges. It looked like the centre of the universe was opening like a flower.

‘I can see something,’ she whispered and the Noxas exchanged excited looks with one another.

Whatever it was stood feet away and it pulsated like a heart. Then, through the glare of white light that glowed all around it,
Willow could see what looked like a door handle protruding from its centre.

‘I think I’ve found it,’ she said, sounding breathless.

‘Open your eyes Willow,’ Wilberforce said.

Opening her eyes,
Willow looked in wonder at her doorway.

It stood before her in the centre of the cavern and glistened. It was constructed from a series of giant icicles that reflected back the white glare of the snowy caves.
Willow approached it. She could see herself looking back, like a splintered reflection. She stroked the braids of hair that hung from her cheeks, and looked at the long eyelashes that curled from the corner of her eyes.

‘So this is my doorway?’ she asked. ‘It’s beautiful.’

Wilberforce’s reflection appeared in the icy doorway as he stood behind her.

‘Are you sure that you want to go through it?’ he asked.

Turning to face him, Willow nodded.

‘You can change your mind. It’s not too late.’

Although Willow was scared of what she might find on the other side of her doorway, she also felt exhilarated by it. This was her chance to step out from the shadow of the Howling Forests and do something for her people.

This is my chance to have some adventure!
she told herself.

‘I will go into Earth, find Wally Willabee and return with this League of Doorways,’ she said.

‘Then we have no more time to waste,’ Wilberforce said, stepping forward and placing one of his hands on her shoulder. ‘May our Queen’s peace be with you on your journey Willow Weaver, and may you return safe and well.’

Turning away from his cool stare and flowing white beard,
Willow faced her doorway. Without saying another word, she looked at her friends hoping to see her husband amongst them, but he wasn’t there.

Taking hold of the freezing cold door handle, she pulled the doorway open. Without looking back
, Willow stepped into Earth.

The icy doorway slammed shut with a boom that echoed throughout the caverns
, sending icicles and snow showering from above.

In his cave, Warden heard the closing of
Willow’s doorway. Throwing his arms out and his head back, he began to howl.

Chapter 37

Climbing to the top of the prison walls, the Norsori fired wave after wave of arrows at the Demonic Guardians and Radan that charged the gates below.

‘We’ve been betrayed men!’
Marshal Goth roared, pulling his bow from his back and firing off four arrows in a blink of an eye.

The Demonic Guardians released bolt after bolt of fire from their fists which rained down on the Norsori protecting the prison. The fireballs smashed into the Norsori and they flew screaming from the prison walls.

Crouching, Zach took aim and released a volley of stakes down into the army that attacked below. The stakes sped through the night tearing into the Guardians armour and sending Radan hurtling from their rides.

‘Bull’s-eye!’ Zach grinned
to himself, squeezing down on the triggers of his crossbows.

For maximum speed, William bounded on all fours along the top of the prison walls as arrows showered down all around him. Howling like a deranged beast, he threw himself into the air and climbed to the top of one of the search towers. Pulling his catapult from his trouser pocket, he hooked two inferno berries into the cartilage and fired them into the army below. Hitting the ground, the inferno berries sparked and fizzed, then exploded in a hideous green blast of energy. A shockwave rippled out across the battlefield and sliced through everything that it came into contact with.

Demonic Guardians and Radan were tossed into the air in their hundreds as if swept aside by a giant invisible fist. Seeing this, William howled in triumph and reloaded.

Neanna drew the hood of her cloak over her head, and her eyes shone blue from within the darkness beneath it.
Captain Bom stood awestruck as something similar to a war zone erupted all around him. He hadn’t seen anything like this in over two hundred years, not since the Battle of Neff.

But I had been a lot younger and slimmer back then
, he thought to himself, patting his bulbous belly.

Neanna saw him standing by the wall, which he couldn’t quite see over as he was a
mere four-foot-ten in height.

‘C’mon on old man,’ she said, ‘don’t just stand there we’ve got a battle to win!’

Pulling him by his arm, Neanna dragged Captain Bom down the stairs and onto the exercise yard. At the bottom, Neanna spun around, drawn to the far wall of the prison. The sounds of agonising screams came from the Norsori that were defending the hole William had made in it earlier.

Brandishing her teeth and fingernails,
Neanna
blinked
her way across the yard, slicing and gnawing through two of the Demonic Guardians who were scrambling through the hole and into the prison grounds.

Anna ran towards the lights in the distance as the sound of Max’s barking and slobbering got closer and closer. Her side burnt as if she had been stabbed with a fork. Sucking in mouthfuls of air, she tried to blank out the pain of the stitch jabbing away at her.

As the lights of
Piranha Bay got closer, so did the sound of laughter and music. It sounded as if somewhere deep within the streets of Piranha Bay, someone was holding a party. Glancing over her shoulder, she could see the silhouette of that giant dog racing towards her. With her arms working like pistons on either side of her, Anna raced into Piranha Bay and followed the sounds of the laughter and music.

The shops and buildings that lined the streets would have looked at home in any small seaside town, but none of them had lights burning inside. Apart from the building at the edge of town,
Piranha Bay was silent. Racing towards the building, Anna could see that the windows glowed orange from the lights which burnt inside. She could see the shadows of people flicker past the windows, and hear the sounds of singing and raucous laughter.

Glancing back, Anna glimpsed Max’s gnashing teeth in the dark as he bounded behind her. Drawing on the little energy she had left, Anna raced towards the building which she could see had a sign painted above the door. It read: 
The Poisonous Squid.

Throwing herself against the door of the
Inn, Anna crashed inside and slammed it shut behind her. Max’s skull collided against the iron frame of the door and he collapsed on the ground.

After her initial relief at getting inside the
Inn had passed, she noticed that the singing and laughter had stopped. Except for the sound of her exhausted gasps as she struggled to regain her breath, the Inn had fallen into silence. Turning, she peered around the room.

They all sat and stared at the girl
, who had just interrupted their drunken evening.

One of them stood and placed a jug of beer on a table. Wiping a coating of white froth from
his tatty beard, he grinned, ‘what do we have here then?’

Cringing against the door, Anna looked at the
Inn full of zombie outlaws.

‘They’ve breached the walls!’
Marshal Goth roared as scores of the Demonic Guardians scrambled through the hole.

Gnashing her teeth and clawing at the air
, Neanna sliced her way through the Demonic Guardians. Their bodies tore in two, their crimson innards flying through the night. They threw their swordsticks at her, but she
blinked
about them, dodging their fire. One moment she was there, but before taking their aim, she was gone again in a spray of black shadows. Captain Bom looked at the sword in his hands and raised it above his head. Surprised by its weight, he toppled over and landed on his back. Shaking his head from side to side, Bom looked up to see several of the Demonic Guardians racing towards him. Playing dead, Bom lay still until they had drawn level with him. Then swinging his sword, he took their legs from beneath them, sending them flying forwards in a gush of red. Pleased with himself, he smiled, lay back down and waited for the next wave to run past him.

Zach
charged along the length of the wall, and pointing his crossbows before him, fired over and over again at the Demonic Guardians that were now flowing into the prison. He knew that once the Guardians and Radan were within the prison walls, their battle would be lost.

Taking aim
, Zach fired off another volley, sending Radan and Guardians cart-wheeling through the air.

‘Gotchya!’ he yelled, releasing another wave of everlasting
stakes.

Seeing that they were being fired upon from above, the Guardians unleashed a shower of fireballs in his direction. They crashed into the walls all around him, sending Za
ch flying into the wooden staircase. Hitting the stairs, he tumbled to the bottom. Lying on his back, Zach looked up to see one of the Radan charging towards him.

The skeletal looking-
ape leapt through the air, releasing a thunderous roar from his bony throat. Closing his eyes, Zach fired off several shots. He waited for the beast and its rider to come clattering down on him in a shower of bone. When it didn’t come, he snapped open his eyes to see the ape and the Radan hurtling back through the air under the force of the stakes he’d hit them with.

Scrambling to his feet,
Zach inched backwards, away from the relentless stream of Demonic Guardians and Radan that spilled into the prison. Looking to his right, he could see Neanna
blinking
around the exercise yard as she launched herself at one Guardian after another. But as soon as one of them crumpled to the ground, another appeared to take its place. Zach watched her, and momentarily felt shocked at the ferocity of her attacks. He watched numbly as Neanna, the girl that awoken such strong feelings within him, as she bit and tore her way through the approaching Guardians. Smearing blood from her lips with back of her hand, she glanced around to see Zach staring at her. Looking quickly away, Zach saw William bounding towards him.

‘We can’t win!’ William barked. ‘There are too many of them!’

‘What about your catapult?’ Zach yelled over the sound of clashing swords and exploding fireballs.

‘I can’t use the berries within the prison walls without killing al
l of us!’ he howled, driving his claws through an approaching Radan.

‘We’re trapped
then!’ Zach roared. ‘We’re outnumbered!’

Neanna
blinked
beside him., and pointing into the sky, she cried,
‘look!’

Over the edge of the prison walls poured a river of grey smoke.

‘What’s that?’ Zach said.

The smoke crawled down the inside of the prison walls like dry-ice and it began to
take shape. Not just into one but hundreds of different shapes.

‘What is it?’ William asked.

‘Our friends!’ Neanna said, as the smoke took the form of hundreds of Cathedral Knights.

A pillar of smoke swept around them as Henry appeared just above their heads. With his beard twinkling like glitter beneath his ghostlike
face, Henry winked and said, ‘good to see you again, Zach Black!’

‘What
are you doing here?’ Zach asked, releasing another hail of stakes into the Demonic Guardians.

‘I want that curse lifted
, remember?’ the Knight bellowed. ‘I’m going to hold you to that promise and you won’t keep it from your coffin. Now stop staring at me and fight!’

Still playing dead, Captain Bom opened his eyes a fraction
, and seeing the Cathedral Knights arrival, looked up into the sky, laced his fingers together as if in prayer and cried, ‘thank God! The back-up’s arrived!’