The League of Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book Two) (11 page)

Chapter Twenty
-One

The Delf looked through the doorway that the black dust had created in the night sky. Through it, she could see Fandel with his hands bound behind his back as he crawled along the shoreline of the Onyx Sea. Black waves crashed against the sand. There were others, too.

“The peacekeeper!” she cried on seeing Tanner racing across the sand to
wards her. And there were more, too – just like him – at least six. “The girl!” she screeched again, as she watched Anna struggling with the bandit named Van Demon. She watched with a sense of delight as Tanner blew the bandit’s head clean from his shoulders. It saved her from doing the job at some later time, she guessed. But then Tanner turned his attention to the doorway again and came charging towards it, his crossbow blazing in his fist.

“Fandel!” the Delf whined, holding out a set of swollen fingers. “Take my hand!”

On the other side of the doorway, where it was just dusk and not yet night, Fandel turned and saw her. “Delf!” he cried out, and she couldn’t ever recall him looking so delighted at seeing her. Usually he was covering his nose and mouth with his handkerchief to block out her vile stench. But not tonight, he looked happy to see her. With his hands behind his back, he shuffled along the shore towards the door where she waited for him on the other side.

“Quickly!” she urged, maggots spraying from her lips. “Come to me, Fandel!”

And he did, as fast as he could. Through the doorway and over his shoulder, she could see Tanner and the other peacekeepers gaining on him fast. The stakes that they fired from their crossbows whizzed above his head. When he was within reaching distance, she stretched through the doorway and grabbed him.

“Come, come!” she cried, as Fandel stopped at the doorway and looked back. Then he was falling out of the sky just above the Delf’s head and into her arms. For such a thin man,
he was heavier than she expected. So grunting, belching, and farting, she lowered him to the ground. The Delf rolled him onto his side and untied the ropes that bound him. Fandel yanked his hands free and sat rubbing his wrists as he looked up at her. At first she could see the relief on his face at being saved – perhaps at seeing her too – but then his face screwed up as if his very flesh was cracking like stone.

“Jeez,” he groaned. “You stink.”

She hitched up her baggy skirt and turned away. She was hideous, the Delf knew that. She did stink like excrement, but she hadn’t always been like that. She had been beautiful once and would be again. Fandel wouldn’t look upon her with disgust then. No, no, no. He wouldn’t be able to take his eyes off her. He’d never want to let her go. Fandel would want her. But until that day came, his spiteful and callous comments hurt her all the same. Just because she was so ugly didn’t mean she didn’t have feelings – it didn’t mean that she didn’t hurt.

“A thank-you would be nice,” she huffed, snorting back a nostril of maggots. She swallowed them and looked back at Fandel.

“For what?” he said, standing and brushing the dirt and sand from his smart flannel trousers and waistcoat.

“For saving your skinny arse,” she belched, and handed what she had burped up to Max who licked greedily from her fingers.

Fandel saw this, and throwing his hands to his mouth, he gagged and said, “I think I’m gonna puke.”

“Maybe you would prefer it back on the beach with your friend, the peacekeeper,” she said, shuffling back towards Fandel. She brushed up against him, wrapping her arms around his neck. Fandel looked down into her upturned face. The smell coming from her mouth revolted him, and he pushed her away.

“Get away from me, you disgusting witch,” he groaned.

“You might not realise it yet,” she said, fixing him with her yellow eyes, “but one day
, you will come to appreciate me.”

Fandel looked into her eyes as they gleamed in the darkness. And as he did, there was a small part of him that did want to go to her. A part of him that wanted to take the Delf in his arms, entwine his bony fingers in her filthy, matted hair, and press his lips over her cracked and weeping mouth.

Stop it!
He cursed himself, and those thumping pains started to pound in his temples again. He rubbed the side of his head with the tips of his fingers. Everything had gone wrong! He should have brought the girl back with him. Throat – his reflection – wouldn’t be pleased.

“We need to get the girl,” he hissed, the pain inside his head becoming unbearable.

“Throat has everything under control,” the Delf tried to assure him, and then farted.

“Will you stop doing
that!”
Fandel screeched at her, the tendons on his neck flashing white through his skin. “I’m trying to think, goddamnit!” 

“But you don’t need to think,” the Delf soothed, reaching out and stroking his face with her claw-like hands.

Fandel flinched backwards as if her fingers were red hot.

“Throat is well pleased with you,” she lied, reaching for him again.

“Really?” he snivelled, and this time he let the Delf caress his cheek.

“How do you know?” he asked her.

“I’ve spoken with him.”

“You’ve spoken with Throat?” Fandel gasped.

“I’ve seen Throat,” she hushed, running her broken fingernails through the hair that circled his ear. Then, looking into his eyes, she lied again and said, “It was Throat who sent me to save you. He has a very special task for us.”

“For us?”
Fandel asked, his eyes wide and heart slamming in his chest. He felt scared but excited, too. He liked that.

“He wants us to travel to the Outer-Rim,” she lied again. “There we will take the key from the Noxas boy.”

“He has the key?” Fandel shuddered under her touch. “I truly have failed Throat.”

“No,” she cooed in his ear, her rancid breath making his skin flush cold. “He is very pleased with you and wants us to work together.” This wasn’t a complete lie, as she knew her brother had said she could have Fandel once he had finished with him.

“Really?” he asked, now finding some pleasure in her touch.

“Really,” she said, her blistered lips hovering over his.

Then suddenly, he pushed her away and said, “Hang on a minute!”

“What’s wrong?” she burped, fearing that he had seen through her deceit.

“How are we traveling to the Outer-Rim?”

“On Max
, of course,” she said, looking over her shoulder at the giant dog.

“If you think I’m traveling on that, you’ve got to be out of your tiny mind,” he hissed. “That thing doesn’t like me.”

Max turned his colossal head and looked at Fandel as if it understood every word he had said. It stood as tall as a lion, its matted, black mane blowing in the wind. It prodded at the ground with its three-toed paws and snarled at Fandel.

“See - it hates me,” Fandel spat, taking a step backwards.

“Get a grip,” the Delf said, leaving Fandel and going to her pet. She stroked its long hair and let the abnormal-looking dog lick her face.

“You can travel by dog if you wish,” Fandel spat, but I’ll make my own way to the Outer-Rim.

“And how are you planning on doing that?” she asked, wiping the goo from her face which had been left there by Max’s fleshy tongue.

Ignoring her, Fandel looked up into the star-shot night and started to chant.

Beat thy wings from the depths of torment

From the darkness above make thy decent

Raven black and as cold as snow

I give you flight, Mortality Crow!

Fandel recited the spell over and over, until his lips moved so fast that spittle flew from them and his words became just like undecipherable jumble. Then over the sound of his chanting came a different noise. It sounded like two giant sails flapping in the wind. Fandel’s lips stopped twitching and he opened his eyes. He watched with delight as the Mortality Crow swept out of the night, gliding just feet above the floor of the desert.

“Come to me,” Fandel called out to it, raising his arm into the air as if training a bird of prey. But the crow was far too big to be like any known species of bird. It swooped high up into the night sky, swooped around, then dropped like a stone. Just feet from the ground, it spread its mighty wings, and landed on a set of grey talons. The crow beat its wings, and both the Delf and Fandel shielded their eyes against the spray of sand that was whipped up into the air. The creature squawked and the noise was deafening. Max howled and retreated backwards, its teeth glinting in the dark as it rolled back its lips in a show of anger.

“Come to mummy,” the Delf cried on seeing the giant dog’s distress.

The crow opened its long
, black beak and made an ear-splitting screaming noise at the dog. Max yelped, and then emptied his bladder into the dust. Seeing this, Fandel clapped his hands together.

“Very good!
Very amusing!” he smiled.

“Get that thing away from Max!” the Delf cried, wrapping her arms around the dog’s neck, as if to comfort it.

“Leave the dog,” Fandel said over his shoulder as he made his way to the crow.

“I can’t just set Max free,” the Delf groaned.

“How very sentimental of you,” Fandel smirked as he mounted the giant crow, which squawked again. Then looking down at the Delf, he added, “I thought Throat wanted us to go to the Outer-Rim?”

“He does,” the Delf said.

“Then stop wasting time with that mutt and come with me,” Fandel said, although part of him would have been happy if she decided to go alone. But Throat had wanted them to travel together and Fandel didn’t want to make another mistake.

The Delf looked at Max and stroked his shaggy mane. “Mummy will come back for you,” she told him.

Max whimpered and rubbed his giant head against hers. Then one last time, the Delf sneezed a fistful of maggots into her hand and let Max lick them away. With black tears streaming down her cheeks, she turned and headed towards the crow where Fandel sat waiting for her. Max howled, but the Delf couldn’t bring herself to look back.

Fandel reached down, took hold of the Delf’s arm, and hoisted her up onto the crow. She sat behind him, her lumpy and misshapen bosoms pressing into his back. Fandel shuddered. The crow leapt into the air, its massive wings unfolding as it carried Fandel and the Delf up into the night and towards the Outer-Rim.

Below, Max howled as he raced around and around in circles as if chasing its own stubby tail.

Chapter Twenty
-Two

With the Dammed Bandits all dead, the peacekeepers made camp on the shore of the Onyx Sea. They sat together before the fire and ate what was left of the rations they had brought with them. They kept far enough from the shoreline to be out of reach of the crabs that scuttled sideways out of the water and fed on the corpses of the dead bandits. Anna had never seen such huge crabs, and she moved closer to Tanner. Their claws waved back and forth in the air as they raced out of the water, their crusty shells coated with barnacles and lengths of black seaweed which made them look as if they had hair. The crabs made a screeching sound as they fought over the remains of the bandits lying in the sand. Their giant arms were as long as a man’s leg and their bodies as bloated and as large as an armchair.

They snapped open their claws as they dragged the dead back into the water. Anna covered her ears to block out the sound of the deceased bones crunching and splintering as the crabs pulled them to pieces.

“That’s so disgusting,” Anna groaned, putting aside the strip of dried meat which had been given to her by one of the peacekeepers.

“Crabsters,” Tanner mumbled around a mouthful of meat. “A cross between a crab and a lobster, I guess. You’re quite safe. They never attack humans – unless they are dead.”

“That’s nice to know,” Anna said, drawing her knees up beneath her chin as she watched one of the Crabsters tear the leg from one of the dead bandits and scurry sideways back into the water with it.

“Are you okay?” Wavia asked her.

“No, not really,” Anna said back. “I haven’t a clue as to what’s going on here. Where am I?”

“You’re not in Earth,” Baran said, cleaning sand from his crossbow.

“I kinda guessed that a few days ago,” Anna sighed, looking through the flames at the peacekeeper. He was clean-shaven with dark brown hair. He must have been about twenty-three – but no more. Baran’s eyes were blue and his mouth looked nothing more than a stern slit beneath his nose. Anna thought that he looked kinda moody.

“You’re in a place called Endra,” Tanner said, as the other six peacekeepers drew closer around the fire. Anna studied them. They were all male apart from the female who had introduced herself as Wavia. Anna thought she was really pretty with her long blond hair and light blue eyes. She didn’t look much older than Anna, about twenty years. But she had a way about her that suggested she was older than she looked. Anna thought that she somehow commanded the respect of the other peacekeepers, although she wasn’t the leader of the group; Tanner was. Anna knew that by the way the others listened intently to his every word. She sensed their respect for him. But perhaps Wavia was his deputy, Anna wondered.

“My uncle brought me here through a doorway in his fireplace,” Anna told them, and however bizarre her story sounded, she knew the group she now sat with would believe her. She wondered how they had all come to be in this world too. Perhaps they had been born in Endra? Maybe it was their home? “My uncle was trying to kill me,” she added. “I don’t know why.”

“I do,” Tanner said, as he tightened the piece of string he had fixed just below the wound at the top of his arm.

“Why?” Anna asked him.

“Because you and your brother are very special,” he said through gritted teeth, the wound still causing him pain.

“My brother?” Anna breathed. “What’s Zach got to do with this?”

“He’s one of us,” a peacekeeper called Nail said.

Tanner shot him a stern glance, and Nail dropped his head. Nail was handsome, Anna thought, even though he did have one of those goatee beards which made some guys look a bit pervy. His hair was a mass of black curls, and he had a white scar that ran from the corner of his right eye and down the length of his cheek which looked like a tear. He was probably the youngest of the group, and Anna guessed he was only a year older than her. 

“My brother can’t be a peacekeeper,” Anna said, and then quickly added, “He’s geeky.”

“And what about you, Anna Black?” Wavia asked her.

“What about me?”

“Are you fit to be a Queen?”

“Say what?” Anna asked, confused. 

“You have a reflection,” Tanner told her. “And she is the Queen of Endra.”

“Whoa!” Anna said, standing up. Crabsters or no Crabsters, Anna wanted to know what was going on. “What’s a reflection?”

“Your double,” Tanner started to explain.