Sand Glass (34 page)

I did that
thing that I swore I could not do. I plunged my knife into a man’s
living flesh, with the intention of killing him. But he was too
quick for me. He twisted sideways as I drove down, and the blow
landed in his left arm instead. It sunk in up to the hilt, and just
as quickly slid out as he pulled away from me, with quite another
kind of expression on his face. It was disgust. I stepped back. I
remembered Jared’s words. That thing about us all affecting each
other’s fate. He was there across from me with Janey and pulling
her away from this monster. Alexander was laughing at me. He seemed
to grow in size or perhaps I was beginning to find out what this
reality really contained.

The others were
near the open gate and still they waited.

‘Go!’ I heard
myself say. But they did not. I turned to him and aimed the dagger
again; right at the heart. I felt that I was falling; falling in
slow motion towards the dark. But then suddenly I saw the rain fell
in deeper ribbons of glorious silvery light and there was light
from above. What was happening to me? The soldiers saw that the
others were standing by an open door and they pushed them roughly
aside and ran. Only two remained; they could not get their grip and
were being swept further towards the edge. I had missed and he was
laughing at me. For a moment I had seen through other eyes. And
nothing had mattered at that moment but the beautiful lust of the
kill….

But now the
power of nature made all impulses futile. I kept my balance and
watched Alexander’s men desert their posts, and I tried not to be
swept away. My blood mingled in the rain where he had struck me. I
didn’t care. There was shouting but I could hear no sound. Marcia
and Oliver frantically signalling. Jared and Janey with Ellen who
was staring towards us as if she was remembering something
important.

Then I
remembered something…. about mercy, and about love. Something that
felt quite different from this horrifying rage that had for those
moments consumed me. The rain was heavy as it fell on me now. I
remembered another thing. Something. Make it count. I slid to my
knees. He, looking down on me, had his knife out. He took the
silver blade out of my hand, twisting my wrist until I released it.
He seemed pleased with his prize. I was moving away from that
moment, to something else again. From the silence inside I watched
him and I wasn’t afraid. In slow motion I saw him. The water
spilling over him. My friends were all together. Then Ellen shouted
my name. Somehow suddenly she was there; by my side. She pushed
between us. and in an arc of red and silver his blade shot to its
mark, but it sank into her slim shoulder. He, aiming for me, had
stabbed the girl. Her blood splattered his face and his lips. At
that moment I pushed as hard as I could against him, a “No!” I
could not hear escaped my lips. Amazed my sudden rush of strength I
saw him fall backwards. And I was on him, but now I could not stab
him. I took the little flowers from my pocket and pressed them into
his mouth. He tasted the things. Bits of grass that he spat at me,
and pulled a stalk from his mouth.

‘Foolish Boy…’
but as he spoke his voice began to crack as if it was aged and
starting to decay.

His face
changed and he looked older than before. Ellen looked up at me;
Janey and Marcia came for her to shield her. Jared and Oliver waded
forward and dragged me back. The remaining soldiers were panicking
and screaming louder and louder, scrambling and trying to reach the
open gate. Poor Ellen’s eyes rolled back. And then as the rain fell
on her she smiled. And there she dissolved. The tie was broken and
not a trace remained.

We all backed
off from the monstrous Alexander, or Rimmington as he was better
known back home.

What had I
done? Earth and water. The essence. The rain poured over him he
tried to spit it out but it poured on all of us. He has turning
greyer and mottled and a horrible cackling keening could be heard.
We backed off. Water flowed over our feet. The soldiers were
screaming and pointing at him now. Cracks appeared. And a strange
fire hissed out of them. He was splitting and breaking and laughing
with insane fury.

‘I’ll get you
next time!’ he spat sparks that sizzled in the water.

The five of us
retreated to the gate. We saw the way out and ran. The last of
Rimmington’s men had taken a right on the corridor. Oliver went
left. We charged after him willing our leaden limbs to carry us
further. We could hear a cracking and hissing and from somewhere
distant a dreadful deep rumbling sound could be heard.

I was running
in a narrow stony alley, and then as suddenly as a lightning strike
I was outside on a wide table land of stone. About a hundred yards
distance I could see an edge. And above that the sky. The first
grey streaks of dawn were visible. We had come right out the other
side of the mountain. We jogged and limped towards this boundary,
with, as yet, no clear idea of how we would get out of there. At
last we all stopped. There it was, smoking in the early morning
mist. Rising in twirling turrets of soft columns towards the dome
of pale blue. A slight wind ruffled my hair. A cool trace across my
cheek. It was all in monochromatic greyness. But then as we stood
there, and we all stared out, the dawn stung with heralds of light
across the landscape. And to our left there was as sparkle of
silver as the golden light filled this reddish rocky enclave of
mountain rest with the pale and clear light of morning. I was no
longer uncertain why I had come on this journey. For this. I saw
the faces of the others and they were all transfixed with wonder. A
brief stillness at the heart of the things we feared the most. It
maybe could have been no longer than a minute, two at the most. We
were all victims of our captured selves for when it flowed back
into our bones we would want to fly. I thought it was the end of
the road for us all. There was no time. And the ground began to
shake, and the beat of boots could be heard, as the soldiers on
finding no exit by that route had turned to follow our course.

And so I know
what it is to be free. In a moment that promised to be our last I
found liberty and lightness of heart. I finally saw that it was
something I had to choose. Freedom. I was no longer free if I took
a path that led only to death and decay. I have made my choice….and
I will look to the light and the morning, as I did then, while I
saw the silver flowers sparkle on the edge of forever.

We could hear a
rumbling sound. And at once the ground shook.

‘Earthquake?’
asked Marcia. Could the charges have gone off. Oliver consulted his
watch. ‘Uh, no. Too early.’

Suddenly we
were all stumbling to keep our feet, as the ground shifted again
and a few medium sized pebbles fell around our feet.

‘No good.’
Janey looked out scanning the horizon. The sun shimmered from
behind the streaks of cloud and blinded us. Janey was edged with a
halo of light. Jared went to join her looking out and down onto the
new summer land plains that we had not seen before. Marcia and
Oliver were searching round for a way out. But the walls rose
steeply on either side enclosing this area. The precipice was
unclimbable up or down. And soon the soldiers were coming. I turned
to the light and treading carefully towards the edge saw what they
saw. Green and growing things, trees and fruiting thickets and lush
meadows and vines. And I thought I saw mottled creatures like pie
bald sheep. To the left a moving sparkle. I remembered so long ago
that sparkle seen at the edge of the world as I stood near Adam and
looked at that place from that high place above our camp; …. Was it
those silver, otherworldly flowers. Why could I see them now?

I turned as did
Janey and Jared. Marcia and Oliver in from of us looking back
towards the aperture from which we had emerged. The ground throbbed
and shook, and we heard the distant growling of fault lines
shifting. They came. They ran out of the doorway. But they seemed
in disarray. There were no more than ten. At least half did not
show from the many we had seen before. And behind then was a slow
thudding. We all stood waiting. Eyes fixed on the entrance of the
tunnel. And a thin lick of smoke curled from the doorway and
spiralled upwards. And in heavy strides lumbering towards us and
finally emerging form the tunnel was a huge black crusted being
that was in the shape of a man. But it shimmered with heat like the
fire of a furnace. And where mouth ought to be there was just a
crack. The crack spilt apart to reveal a uncomfortably bright
furnace red of fire. There was a voice, and how shall I say….it was
as if your nerves were on fire. There was a sensation of vertigo
when you concentrated on it.

Then the thing
turned. It seemed to be trying to orientate on something. And like
a needle of a compass it settled on Jared. He moved, it moved.
Larger pieces of rock shattered and fell between. The soldiers
clearly had no further hostile intentions towards us and were
trying to climb the rock walls to escape. We stood our ground.

‘You have me!’
the monster roared. Jared seemed to crumple. He was trying to speak
but was trembling too much.

‘What the hell
is that?’ I tried to keep my mind focused on the practical aspects
of our situation and my natural optimism, although an encumbrance
when it did emerge (as opposed to the bouts of dramatic doom), at
this point keep me reasonably calm. Janey seemed affected too. Even
Oliver was gripping the cross bow but not arming it, and moving
from one foot to the other seemed quite at a loss of what action to
take. Marcia was the calmest, she looked at me then, and I saw the
fire in her eyes go out, as this thing approached us.

‘Give him to
me!’

‘No!’ I took a
step in front of the others. This wasn’t bravery. Or so I thought I
just wasn’t going to let the fear overcome us all. I saw Marcia
half turn. The light of dawn washing her face with colour.

‘Look!’ she
cried. And we turned and saw something blue and greeny-grey, and
curling at the top with white dazzling glints of glasslike
patterns. It was distant yet advancing. I turned to the
creature.

‘Fool!’ it
grated and spat fire. The ground moved underneath us and we were
all through to our knees. The thing took a step forward and grabbed
at Jared’s ankle. Oliver and I pulled it off. It was hot and
gritty. It backed off. It grabbed a gun off one of the soldiers.
The man dissolved into dust. The coal like monster swept a hand
around and touched two more of them. They dissolved leaving their
guns only. He pointed a barrel at us.

‘No good.’ said
Oliver. We two faced him. The two girls looking out towards the
advancing roll of cloud.

‘Any ideas
Milnes?’ Oliver said.

‘Not really?
You?’

‘Just one.’

‘Oh?’

‘I’ll not let
him take Arden .’

‘I won’t
either.’

‘Good.’ Said
Oliver and loaded the cross bow with a sharp bolt, ‘Milnes?’

‘What?’

‘You’ve got
more guts than anyone else here today.’

‘Thanks Reece.
So what now?’

‘Same as
always…’

I looked at him
and he smiled. The rumbling and crashing of rocks could be heard.
The creature fell sideways and backed off a little. It still had
the same coordination as Alexander, whatever it might look
like.

‘We are going
to have to jump!’ Marcia yelled above the crashing and rumbling of
the convulsing mountain.

‘Look!’ said
Janey.

I half turned
to see the foaming of a huge tidal wave rolling over the land!

‘It is our only
chance!’ Janey shouted, ‘we have about two minutes left.

‘Okay!’ I
yelled, and to Oliver, ‘we need to create a bit of space to take a
run at it.’

‘A pickle,’
Oliver raised his crossbow. The creature raised a gun; ‘Shit!’
Oliver was looking round for a distraction. He fired at one of the
remaining soldiers. He dissolved in a cloud of dust and the gun
clattered to the ground just behind the creature. It turned. We ran
forwards. And picked up two of the guns and fired them. Park of the
creature broke off like some piece of toffee brittle. It swayed and
turned back towards us. Oliver had reloaded the cross bow and fired
it. The spikes stuck in and burst into flames. The monster was
enraged. But a least we had some clearance. The thing still had the
long bladed knife. Marcia and Janey were right behind us with
Jared. I could hear a roaring weighty sound.

‘The sea. It’s
coming.’ said Janey, ‘one minute.’

‘Then we jump.’
said Marcia.

‘How long
before the switch happens?’ asked Oliver circling to the right to
pick up another weapon dropped by one of the men, now deceased.

‘About a minute
and a half.’ Said Janey.

‘Why do we
always cut it so fine?’ Oliver looked at me he dropped the gun and
picked up another. We fired some shots at the thing. It backed
right off, more chunks steaming with fiery oblivion. Jared was
between Marcia and Janey, he was staring at the thing as if
transfixed.

‘Thirty
seconds.’ Janey said.

There was
another shift in the ground underneath our feet and everyone rolled
over and over. The creature lunged forward. It took hold of Jared’s
belt and pulled him into its embrace. The knife hovered by his
neck. Oliver was trying to take aim but there was no way we could
be sure that he wouldn’t hit Jared.

‘Take him out!’
Marcia screamed.

‘I can’t.’
Oliver’s moved his aim.

‘We have no
time!’ said Janey.

Suddenly the
ground started to break up beneath our feet. The monster raised the
knife to take the killing blow. Jared was struggling with it. But
it was pulled back wards by another. The remaining life of Michael
Elland. Battered and dying he folded the minster in his embrace.
But he could not stop it from stabbing at Jared. Elland pulled it
back. Jared cried out and fell forwards blood welling from his arm,
and the knife fell between them all.