The League of Doorways (A Book of Vampires, Werewolves & Black Magic) (The Doorways Trilogy - Book Two) (9 page)

Chapter Sixteen

The beet-wagon crawled to a stop. Smoke poured up from the front of the creature and it made a rattling sound deep within its body. Its black insect-like legs skittered in the sand, and the machine almost seemed to collapse with exhaustion.

“That’s as far as it’s going to take us,” Faraday said, pushing back the creature’s shell and climbing from the vehicle.

Zach and the others clambered out into the night.

“So, what now?” Bom grumbled.

“We walk from here,” Faraday told him.

“How far is this Clockwork City?” Zach asked, looking up at the sky, wondering how long they had before daybreak.

Faraday shrugged his shoulders and said, “I don’t know. Is it important?”

“Kinda,” Neanna said. “Let’s just say the sun doesn’t agree with me.”

Faraday looked at her blankly with his dead
, black eyes.

“I’m a Slath,” she told him.

“I thought that race was extinct?” Faraday said, moving away from the giant, dead beetle.

“I’m all that’s left,” she said thoughtfully.

Zach looked at Neanna and could see her eyes cloud over – grow darker – as she remembered how Throat had tricked her race of people. Zach moved closer to her. He wanted to put his arm around her, comfort her. But he didn’t. Zach didn’t know if he should. William did though, and Zach watched her squeeze one of his giant paws with affection.

With his chainmail armor clinking, Bom made after Faraday as he strode away across the desert. The others caught up with him.

“So, how long?” Zach asked, worried about Neanna.

“Until what?”
Faraday asked back, never taking his eyes off the dark horizon.

“Until we reach the city?”
Zach pushed, feeling frustrated that he was placing his trust and friends’ lives in the hands of an emotionless machine.

“We’ll reach it by daybreak,” Faraday said back.

“Do you even know where we are going to find the house of this man – Der Cribbot?” William woofed.

“No,” Faraday said, as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“Oh, great,” Bom blustered. Then turning to look at Zach, he added, “I know you are meant to be some kind of leader or something, but I think you are making a big mistake by following this thing, boy.”

Zach knew that Bom was cowardly, but he was starting to think that perhaps he was right – could Faraday be trusted? Did he have the faintest idea where he was heading? How long
had he been out in the desert? Zach wondered. Were all of the mechanical man’s cogs and parts, working correctly?  Then, before he had a chance to say anything, Faraday had pulled an odd-looking compass from one of the many pockets on his flight suit. He held it out in the palm of his hand and said
,
“The Outer-Rim, Clockwork City, locate Cribbot residence.’

The lid of the compass flipped
open, and a small dragonfly-looking bird sprung out and buzzed about just above Faraday’s open hand. A column of green light then arced out of the compass and formed a map of Endra. The dragonfly-type bird twitched, fluttered, and then zoomed into the holographic image that hovered above them.

“What is that?” Zach asked Faraday in wonder.

“It’s called a Seek-Wasp!”

“What does it do?” William asked, as he watched it rocket over the holographic image of Endra.

“It
seeks
out any location you request…”

“Like a Sat-Nav?” Zach pondered, aloud.

“Sat-Nav?” Neanna asked, glancing sideways at her friend.

“It doesn’t matter,” Zach whispered, unable to take his eyes off the creature that fluttered and buzzed overhead. Zach couldn’t help but think that to watch the Seek-Wasp was like being on one of those 3-D rides in theme parks. To watch it felt like he was racing just above the rough and craggy terrain of Endra, right behind its fluttering tail. Zach glanced at William who was transfixed by the thing. He was so immersed in its journey across
Endra, he swayed from left to right on the spot, his eyes burning fiercely behind his glasses. Zach looked up at the Seek-Wasp and immediately ducked, as it appeared to swoop beneath the arms of trees that sprawled across a giant forest. 

The Seek-Wasp’s wings fluttered so quickly, they were just a blur on either side of its black and yellow striped body. It tore through the holographic image of the forest, and it felt to the others like they were following it. It zoomed out of the forest, over mountaintops, and the vast blackness of the Onyx Sea. It reached the desert again, and here it hovered momentarily, before racing through the sky until it came to hover above an old stone building set on the edges of the desert.

“Cribbot…zzzz…residence…zzzz…located…zzzz,” the Seek-Wasp said in a buzzy sounding voice.

Without saying another word, Faraday snapped the compass-looking contraption closed. The green holographic image of the old building disappeared. The Seek-Wasp remained and hovered just inches above Faraday’s head, buzzing excitedly, desperate to guide him to the building.

“Thiz way! Thiz way!” it beckoned.

Zach glanced over at Faraday and said, “Did that wasp just speak?”

“Yes,” he replied flatly, not even drawing a breath.

“I didn’t think insects – or birds – could speak,” Zach breathed.

“It’s a machine,” Faraday said.

Neanna threw her sling of inferno berries over her shoulder, and Zach could sense she was keen to get to shelter before daybreak.

“Let’s get moving,” she said, and the Seek-Wasp fluttered away into the night
.

They followed the Seek-Wasp for an hour or more across the flat, dry land. Every so often, the tiny winged creature would swoop above their heads and buzz excitedly.

“Thiz way!
Thiz way!” it would buzz. Then it would be gone again, racing away into the distance for them to follow.

It wasn’t until Zach’s legs began to ache and each step became more sluggish, that he looked down and noticed that they had all been walking for some time in what appeared to be about a foot of snow. He glanced back over his shoulder, and could see their footprints fading away into the distance.

“Snow?” Zach whispered aloud, bending down and taking a handful. It felt soft and crunchy like snow, but it wasn’t cold, it was warm.

Warm snow?
Zach wondered. But that would be impossible, right?

“It’s not snow,” Neanna said, suddenly
blinking
beside him. “It’s the ash I was telling you about.”

“Ash?”
Zach said curiously, letting it sprinkle through his fingers.

“It’s what’s left of Clockwork City,” Faraday said. “The city was burnt down when…”

“The volcano last erupted,” Neanna cut in, wanting to finish the story herself.

“Wrong,” Faraday said. “Throat set the city ablaze, killing everyone in it, and leaving those dead peacekeepers to patrol is borders.”

“But why destroy it?” Zach asked.

“Because of the box that you seek,” Faraday reminded him. “He couldn’t risk it being taken – stolen away. So he destroyed everyone and everything for a hundred miles or more. That box hangs alone, suspended in the searing draughts of air that surge from deep within the volcano.”

“So how are we ever gonna get up there and take it down?” William barked, his fingers reaching inside his shirt and gently touching the key hung about his neck.

Faraday stared back at him.

“We’ll find a way,” Zach said, walking away into the ash. He whispered to himself, “There is always a way.”

Chapter Seventeen

Throat skulked across the upper chamber of the Splinter. His cloak of spiderpedes trailed behind him. Zach Black and his friends were getting dangerously close to the Outer-
Rim. But dangerous for who? For Zachary Black, he hoped. But to hope wasn’t good enough and he rung his bony hands together. He had spoken to the one who traveled with the boy, and Throat had been assured that he was being led into the trap which had been set for him.

“None of them will return,” the other had said, as Throat watched them in the swirls of black dust he had created.

It circled and swirled before him like a miniature sand storm. Throat stared into it from beneath his decaying hood and said, “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” the other replied. “The boy and the others do not suspect a thing. They trust me.”

“Good. Good,” Throat smiled, and he was comforted by the words that were spoken through the dust. “You will be rewarded well.”

“I’m not looking for rewards,” the other said. “I just want you to set my people free.”

“And I will,” Throat rasped, coughing up a globule of blood. He spat it from the corner of his mouth, where it festered on the cold stone floor at his feet.

“What about the key?” the voice spoke through the swirling dust.

“Just keep it safe,” Throat said. “I have another coming to relieve you of that worry. Just make sure that you lead the boy to Cribbot’s. Then lead them into the Craggy Canyons. They will have a surprise waiting for them there.”

“I will do my best,” the voice said.

“I know you will,” Throat chuckled, as if gargling on a mouthful of nails.

“Are you going to kill Zachary Black?” the other asked.

“That is not your concern,” Throat spluttered.

“You said you just wanted the box…”

“Have you developed feelings of friendship for the boy?” Throat asked.

“I am fond of him, yes,” the voice wavered.

“Well don’t become too attached,” Throat said with a smile. “Grief is such an unpleasant thing, as you well know.”

“But why kill Zach…?” the other started. “That wasn’t part of the deal. I would never have agreed to help you if I’d known…”

“Just make sure they head for the Canyon,” Throat rasped. “I will have my army of dead peacekeepers waiting for them. It won’t be me who kills the boy – it will be the very people he has come into Endra to lead.”   

The dust fell out of the air and settled on the floor before him. With one skeletal foot, he brushed the dust away, scattering it to the four corners of the Queen’s chamber.

That had been some hours ago, and he waited for more news. It would come in time. With his cloak being carried behind by the thousands of spiderpedes that thrived over it, Throat went and stood before the Queen.

He stood and watched her sleep like he had so many times before. Then sighing deeply he rasped, “My only mistake was not snapping your neck the moment our mother brought you into this world.” 

Chapter Eighteen

They walked in silence, the ash growing deeper, and now almost to their knees as it now fell from the sky like giant snowflakes. It settled in their hair and on their shoulders. Bom clawed it from his beard and grumbled. Faraday’s jet-black hair now looked grey where the powdery ash had settled. The wind whipped it up into small flurries as the Seek-Wasp headed through the falling ash, every few minutes calling out, “Thiz way! Thiz way!”

Then, Zachary noticed
something sparkling in the distance. The light almost seemed to dazzle and spin like a Catherine Wheel firework. As he drew closer, his heart began to quicken as he realised it was the sun starting to rise over the burnt-out remains of Clockwork City.

“Neanna,” he breathed
, looking back at her. She trudged through the ash-snow, her cloak pulled about her shoulders, head down, and hair covered white with ash. Then looking over at Faraday, he said, “How long to that building? We don’t have time for any detours, Faraday. We need to get my friend out of the light.”

“We’ll make it in time,” Faraday said, “we are on the edges of the city now. It’s not far.”

“How far?” Zach pushed.

The Seek-
Wasp swooped out of the sky, its wings buzzing. “Seven-point-three miles,” it hummed. 

“Seven miles!”
William howled. “We’ll never make it in time.”

With his face as expressionless as a shop mannequin, Faraday      

stuck two of his rubbery-looking fingers into his mouth and made the most ear-splitting of whistles. Instantly the air was alive with the sound of beating wings. Zach looked in the direction of the noise and his legs began to wobble. To his amazement, three giant butterflies fluttered from the sky and hovered a few feet above the ash-covered ground. Neanna rubbed her eyes as if they were deceiving her somehow. Zach looked at them more closely, and could see they weren’t in fact real butterflies, but machines that looked like they were. Their bodies were flat like surfboards, and covered in a fine coating of silky, black hair. From either side protruded two large, metal wings that beat majestically up and down. On them had been painted the most intricate of patterns, more beautiful than the markings he had ever seen on butterflies in his own world.

Without hesitation, Faraday leapt on board one of them, bent forward
, and snatched hold of what appeared to be a set of reins. He pulled on them, and the butterfly-machine swooped through the air in a wide arc and came to hover just above Zach and his friends.

“Get on!” Faraday said, pointing to the other two butterflies which hovered just above the ground.

“How high does it go?” William yelped, fear in his voice.

“I don’t understand?” Faraday said back.

“He doesn’t like flying,” Zach said, remembering how scared William had been on the aeroplane back in Earth. Zach climbed on board one of the metal butterflies and gripped the reins in his fists. Then glancing down at Neanna and holding out his hand towards her, he said, “Come on,

Neanna, you don’t have a lot of time before the sun is...”

Before Zach had had a chance to finish, Neanna had blinked, and was standing behind Zach, her arms thrown tightly about his waist. Then to everyone’s surprise, Bom was clambering on board the remaining flying machine.

“What exactly are these creatures?” he mumbled, reaching for the reins.

“They are called the Butter-Flyers,” Faraday said, pulling back on the reins so the creature swopped around in the air again. The Butter-Flyer cried out, but not in pain. The sound it made was like that of tiny children laughing, enjoying some secret.

“Another one of those entangled contraptions,” Bom sighed.
Then looking down at William, he said, “C’mon.”

William stood in the ash, his long
, brown dreadlocks twisting in the wind like a headful of snakes, and shook his head.

“You need to man-up!” Bom roared.

“You can talk,” William snarled, brandishing his teeth at him.

Zach looked down at his friend and smiled. He thought it strange how someone so big, so powerful - a werewolf - could be afraid of flying.

William glanced up at him, his bulbous glasses glowing red. “And what are you smirking at, Zachary Black?”

“Nothing,” Zach shrugged, trying to mask his smile.

“Please,” Neanna said from over Zach’s shoulder. “Do it for me, William.”

Yelping like a scared puppy, William leapt onto the Butter-Flyer and flung his thick
, hairy arms around Bom’s neck.

“Let go, you stupid wolf!” Bom shouted. “You’ll strangle me!” 

William lessened his hold, but not much.        

With some trepidation, Zach took hold of Neanna’s hand, and this time, she didn’t let go.

“Ready?” Faraday asked the others as he hovered about in the air above them. Then he was gone, soaring away towards the smouldering remains of Clockwork City.

Zach pulled on the Butter-Flyer’s reins and the creature – machine
– made that soft, playful noise. It tilted to one side and Neanna tightened her grip on Zach.

“Are you sure this thing is safe?” William howled as Captain Bom banked his Butter-Flyer to the right, then left.

“How should I know?” Bom roared, and then shot away after Faraday.

Zach glanced over his shoulder at Neanna, as their Butter-Flyer fluttered up into the air. The wind tugged at their hair and clothes as they swept through the sky right behind the Seek-
Wasp that raced ahead of them all. With his arms still firmly wrapped around Bom’s waist, William dared to look down at the city way below. And as he did, he was startled to see through his telescope-like lenses, a never-ending stream of abandoned beet-wagons snaking away in every direction. It was like the people who had once lived in the city below had fled.

They soared over deserted streets and buildings that had collapsed into mountains of smouldering rubble. Giant drifts of ash leant against what few gutted buildings still stood. Most of what William saw through his glasses looked like little more than a burning wasteland. Eventually they left the deserted city behind and
swooped over pastures and fields covered in a blanket of grey ash. Banks of hills lay ahead and as Bom guided the Butter-Flyer over them; to Williams’s amazement, he saw and heard of the strangest creatures he had ever seen. Neanna saw them, too.

“What are they?” she shouted over the roar of the wind.

Zach looked down and nearly lost the grip of his reins. The huge, brown animals herded across the fields, their shaggy-looking coats being tugged by the wind, and their hooves sending up clouds of dust. But just like the other creatures Zach had encountered in the Outer-Rim, these bears had been entangled with machinery. Although their bodies were covered in hair, their giant heads looked to be constructed of some shiny, silver metal. And it wasn’t only mechanical bears that Zach could see in the milky shafts of sunlight which where shining over the hilltops. He could see what looked like giraffes with necks that were made out of an intricate column of cogs and pistons, just like Faraday’s face. There were zebras with clockwork legs, and a family of elephants breathing fire from their tusks.

“I don’t really know what those creatures are,” Zach told Neanna, but in his heart he knew they were the creatures Der Cribbot had smuggled through the doorways from Earth, and had become entangled with the technology he had brought with them. At first Der Cribbot had sounded like some kind of conservationist, wanting to help protect animals, but he had just created monsters.  

Faraday pulled back on the reins attached to the Butter-Flyer machine and he began to descend back towards the ground. As Zach steered his Butter-Flyer through the sky, it banked sharply to the right. Bom was just ahead, and as his banked, William tightened his grip around Bom’s neck and closed his eyes.  He remained like that until he heard Bom gasp, “You can let go of me now.”

William cautiously opened his eyes and peered down at the ground
, which was now only a couple of feet beneath him. Zach’s Butter-Flyer machine had come to a halt and sat hovering just above a set of wooden gates, which led to a large, sprawling farmhouse. Zach recognised it from the holographic image that the Seek-Wasp had conjured in the desert.

Bom let go of the reins and said, “Are you gonna let go of me
, wolf-boy, or what?”

Brandishing his teeth at Bom, William leapt the few feet to the ground, sending up a shower of ash with his huge claws.

“You can let go, too. That’s if you want to – I don’t mind you holding onto me,” Zach said, peering over his shoulder at Neanna, who had now totally immersed herself beneath her cloak.

“Don’t flatter yourself,” she half-joked from beneath her cloak and let go of Zach. She then
blinked
towards the farmhouse door.

The farmhouse
, with its white-covered roof and stone walls, reminded Zach of a picture you might see on the front of a Christmas card. But the stone house didn’t look welcoming. There was no warm, orange glow of firelight shining through the windows. No snowman –
Ashman
– in the front garden to welcome guests. It sat dark and empty-looking at the end of the front garden path.

Faraday stepped from his
Butter-Flyer machine and joined the others at the front gate.  He pulled the silver coloured disc from his pocket again, flipped open the lid, and held it up in the air. The Seek-Wasp zipped back and forth one last time and then dived into the device. With a quick snap of his wrist, Faraday closed the lid on the Seek-Wasp and placed it back into his pocket.

“I told you we would make it in time,” he said, looking at Zach. Again his voice was so expressionless. Faraday swung the gate open and made his way up the ash-covered path towards the house where Neanna stood, cloak draped about her. 

“Be careful!” Bom warned him.

William pushed his shoulder against the door, but it didn’t budge. It was locked tight. Rolling up the sleeve of his flight suit, Faraday removed the skin covering his right arm and handed it to Bom.