Souls of the Never: A Fantasy Scifi Romance Time Travel series, with Dragons, Elves and Faeries. (Tales of the Neverwar Series Book 1) (13 page)

25 – The Island – The Beast’s fury

There was something wrong, the creature knew now. The girl had been holding out for much longer than she should have been able to. It decided to take a more ‘personal’ involvement and removed the spell which prevented the girl from seeing it. Surely the sight of its malevolence would finally bring the girl to the brink of hopelessness.

But as it stood before her, the cloak torn away, the reaction was...nothing. No terror, just the continual scream of pain as she burned. It looked around and saw the flame licking against everything on the island, the rivers of lava consuming the beach as it ate into the jungle.

Everything was as the beast had intended, so how was this girl, this child, able to defy it?

Then it dawned upon the beast how badly it had failed. With a thought it banished the inferno it had created, but the scene before it remained the same. It roared in anger, reaching out to crush the girl, sweeping its talons straight through the mirage. For all this time, all these months it had been watching an illusion.

Master would punish the beast for this. The pain of before would be nothing compared to the damage which would be inflicted on it when it returned with the news. But it never dawned on the beast to not return, as it was bound in slavery to its master, never to escape.

Desperately, it sought some method of redemption, some way to attenuate its master’s anger. It withdrew from the illusion and searched the planet below for any crumb of chance. It still couldn’t manifest physically on this world, but as it searched hysterically it found the familiar soul and drew closer to it.

As it hovered over the orb of light a plan of sorts began to form. If the soul could only be poisoned and defiled a little, then the beast had a chance to return to the girl’s dreams. It only needed a sliver of hatred to exist, so it could be cultivated and expanded, allowing it access again.

And this time there would be no slow advance. This time the soul would be ripped away and destroyed, before the ruined husk was returned to its master. Master would still punish the beast; for it would have denied him the satisfaction of corrupting the innocent, but it would still be useful as a mindless slave. And the Master would have his tool on the blue planet, ready to carry on his plan.

The creature studied the soul, wondering how best to attack. It seemed stronger somehow than it had been in the dream, but what was the soul of one of these humans compared to the being its master had created?

It had to be subtle, however, so the beast began by sowing doubt and anger, plucking the threads which tied the soul to its physical body to instil feelings of jealousy and hatred. Emotions which would unbalance the sub consciousness of the girl and warp her way of thinking, turning her from herself into a being the creature could again influence in the dream worlds.

The beast was so intent on its task it was unaware of the rising rebellion of the soul inside. Its control and dominance over it was let go for a fleeting instant, and the remnant screamed out. The beast slammed it deep into oblivion so fast it thought its actions futile. It would deal with it later, and the creature’s hunger flashed in anticipation.

It turned its attention to the task in hand. Just in time for the fury and power released from the single insignificant human soul to wrap it in pain.

Lashes of energy, unexpected but no less devastating for that curled around the beast’s body, causing welts to appear and scales to sheer off in agony. It was impossible, but its physical body was being destroyed by this spirit essence, and there was no way for it to fight back. Any attempt to erect a defence was ripped down, any offensive action instantly and painfully repulsed.

The beast retreated to its body but the soul continued its assault, fresh waves of pain wracking its body and mind. The beast ran. Its last desperate effort before its ruin succeeded, and it departed into the Never, but even here the beast knew it could still be touched as the whips of pain sought to drag it back to its death.

Just as it seemed it was doomed, the barbs let go, releasing the beast to escape further into the Never to safety. It raced, terrified toward its Master, knowing what lay ahead, but dreading what lay behind.

26 – Belfast – Payback’s a bitch

Katheryne’s heart thumped as she became fully aware of the thing, quite literally, from her nightmares. The very fibre of her being told her to run and hide but she knew if she did she would be defenceless against the beast.

The power flowed through her, unbridled as she summoned all her will and attacked. It was raw, untrained but utterly furious in its purpose as she lashed the creature with wave after wave of anger.

Part of Katheryne knew that to be angry was to give in to her inner passion, but too bad. This thing had pissed her off. It had hurt her, tortured her for months if not longer. And it had hurt her friends and tried to turn her against them. She felt sick to her stomach as she recalled the thoughts which had been going through her head just moments before.

This thing deserved to be destroyed. It was an abomination, made evil, by evil. It was beyond pity so it got none. It fled to its body but Katheryne followed, refusing to let it escape. The power she was using to attack was but a tiny fraction of what she was capable of, and part of her quailed, as she realised this was because she wanted the beast to suffer.

She was barely aware her consciousness was now far above the planet as she punished the body of the creature, ripping parts of it away in chunks of rotten flesh.

The thing attempted to flee deeper into the Never but Katheryne simply reached in and began to pull it back, savouring the fear she felt coming from it.

Let it think it can escape, just tease it, she thought with cruelty.

A faint voice tugged at the back of her head, telling her to stop, to pull back from this madness, that this wasn’t who she was.

Katheryne wanted so much dismiss it and continue the destruction and dismemberment of the beast. What was one little voice to the deeds this thing needed to answer for?

She baulked as she realised the insistent voice didn’t come from her. It came from the creature. For a second her denial wrote it off as an attempt to fool her into letting it go, but then the dreadful realisation hit her like a freight train.

She knew the taste behind the voice, although it was faint and was clearly in pain. Katheryne had known it and loved it all her life. She released the beast and watched as it escaped into the Never.

She withdrew to her body. Perri and Krista looked at her in shock as she turned to them, her face a mask of anguish. She said a single word before collapsing on the floor. “Mum.”

27 – Belfast – Roundabout ways

Katheryne woke unwillingly. She knew pain awaited her and tried to keep beneath the protective blanket of unconsciousness as long as possible, but the voices calling her name wouldn’t let her do that. She opened her eyes reluctantly.

“Kat, thank God!” Perri hugged her tightly, holding on for dear life. Krista too looked on in relief, though Katheryne could see the pain in her red rimmed eyes and the glimmer of tears still present there.

“Are you OK? What happened?” asked Krista. Katheryne tried to sit up only to be overcome by a wave of nausea,

“Here, drink this,” said Perri, holding a bottle of water to her lips. She let her friend take a few sips before thumping her gently on the shoulder. “That’s for scaring me half to death…again.”

Katheryne smiled and managed to sit upright without puking.

The two girls looked at her expectantly. “How much did you see?” Kat asked. She didn’t know how to explain what had happened, because she wasn’t sure herself.

Krista kneeled down beside the two of them. “Perri had her back to you, comforting me.” She looked embarrassed but gave Perri a brief smile.

“Katheryne, you were surrounded by some sort of energy; at least that’s what it looked like. I’ve never seen it’s like before. It was alive, part of you somehow,” marvelled Krista, “but that wasn’t the scary part.” Perri and Katheryne looked inquisitive so Krista went on.

“There was rage on your face Katheryne, a fury I never thought you capable of. Whatever it was you were doing and whatever you were doing it to, you wanted to kill it or at least hurt it very badly. Can you tell us why?”

Katheryne took a deep breath. This was going to be hard on them all.

“You’re right; I did want to kill it. It was the creature from the dream.” Perri gasped and Krista’s lips tightened into a thin line.

“It had me under some sort of spell. I was starting to hate you, all of you. Every fear I’d ever had, every little doubt or insecurity I’ve ever felt, it magnified and fed back to me.” Katheryne shivered.

Perri took her hands in hers. “Oh my God, that must have been horrible.”

“How did you break it?” asked Krista, ever the more practical one.

“I didn’t,” said Katheryne, “there was a voice...only it wasn’t a voice, more a thought, or a few thoughts. But they told me it was a lie, that I shouldn’t listen to the thing trying to make me hate you.” She looked into their eye with shame in hers.

“And I was starting to hate you, all of you...I’m...sorry.” Krista put a supporting hand on hers, alongside Perri’s.

“I didn’t know who was right, who I should listen to…the spell was making me enjoy hating you,” continued Katheryne, “until I recognized the flavour of the thoughts. That was enough. I saw the creature and knew it had been making me think those terrible things about you all...so I got mad, madder than I’ve ever been. You’re right Krista, I wanted to kill it, but more than that, I wanted to make it suffer. I wanted to hurt it so much, like it had hurt me and for a while it felt so good. I was enjoying myself as I tortured it.”

Katheryne looked at Perri and saw the horror on her face. She wanted to explain herself but Krista interrupted.

“Understandable, go on,” she looked across at Perri, willing her to understand what her friend had been going through, and Perri nodded in agreement. There would be time for recriminations later.

“I heard the voice again. I thought it was inside me and it was telling me what I was doing was wrong, that I wasn’t that sort of person. I could feel the love for me and the disapproval of what I was doing. But it wasn’t coming from me.” Tears came unbidden and sobs caused her chest to heave.

“It was coming from the creature,” she cried, “It was coming from my mum.” Katheryne broke down and could say no more.

She sat on the ground for a long time. Long enough so that when she went to rise she was sore and stiff, but the others hadn’t wanted to push her for fear of tipping her over the edge.

After a while Perri asked the question they all wanted answered.

“How? I mean, she’s dead isn’t she. I’m sorry Kat, but isn’t she?”

Katheryne sniffed. “I thought, everyone thought she was, but there was no body; the accident, everyone thought she’d been vaporised or something. My god, all this time she’s been alive and we didn’t know.”

“She’s not,” Krista said sharply, but softened her tone when Katheryne’s expression darkened.

“At least, not really. Look I’m sorry if this hurts you, Kat, but let me explain what I can?” Katheryne nodded.

“This is going to be difficult for you to listen to, both of you, because you knew the person who was Katheryne’s mother,” Krista began, “but the voice you heard was...at least I think it must have been, from your mother’s soul. She is dead, but her soul is a prisoner of Tenybris.”

Perri instantly grabbed Katheryne’s hand and squeezed it in support. Katheryne was simply…numb. She was beyond shock, past denial.

To think for so long her mother was dead only to now find out she was in some sort of limbo of torment was, well, horrible was putting it mildly.

“But I heard her, I felt her Krista,” said Katheryne, pleading for it to be so, “I know it was her...it was too familiar for it not to have been. We have to help her. She saved me so there’s no way I’m going to leave her like this.

“You said that she wasn’t really dead. Well if she isn’t then we can help her can’t we?” begged Katheryne.

Krista’s emotions were in turmoil. What had happened to Katheryne’s mother was almost exactly what had happened to Dwenn. If she gave into the hope that rescue was possible for her mother, then it was possible, more likely even Dwenn could be saved.

After all Krista had a clear impression Dwenn still inhabited her own body. Otherwise, who could have created the trap which had almost killed her? Even as she thought this, that the girl she loved had tried to do this to them, she died a little inside.

If Katheryne’s mother could be released and allowed to pass on to the Never, freeing her from bondage and torment, then so could Dwenn. And maybe, just maybe, her soul mate could come back to her, made whole again. But only if the corruption could be purged from her.

It seemed too much to hope for, but that’s what Krista had just been granted. Hope, for the first time in so many empty bitter months.

“Perhaps,” admitted Krista, somewhat guiltily, “Katheryne you have to understand one thing. Your mother is dead.”

Katheryne stared back defiantly for a second, daring Krista to be wrong, before lowering her gaze in acceptance.

“There is no way to return her, for there is no body to return her to. I’m sorry, if there was a way, any way conceivable, I would say.”

Katheryne wilted before her and it was all Krista could do to remain strong. It would have been so easy to take her into her arms, tell her it would be okay.

But it wasn’t okay, because for Katheryne’s mother, the only release would result after the defeat of the beast she had as her host.

“You...we, have to free her soul from the beast. She is in pain Katheryne, trapped within her own corrupted soul,” said Krista. “The only hope is to destroy the vessel she is imprisoned within, free her essence to pass into the Never and be reborn.”

Katheryne watched as Perri’s face flushed in anger and frustration as she struggled still with what was going on around her.

“For God’s sake Kris,” she spat, “How the fuck is Kat going to do that?”

Krista groaned, but Perri was in full flow.

“She’s just found out her mother hasn’t been truly dead for two years, instead she’s been imprisoned inside a monster and made to watch as she tortured her own daughter!”

Perri looked like she was about to grab Krista by the hair but Katheryne was there, between the two of them, a presence which seemed to diffuse the hostility.

She embraced both of them, and Perri and Krista felt a calm overcome them. They could feel their friend’s love flowing in a circle as they clung to each other.

“I know what I have to do,” whispered Katheryne, “and I know what you need to do Krista.” Then she turned to Perri.

“Perri, you need to help both of us,” she said. “You’re the most important out of all of us, will you help?”

“Really?” Perri asked, “You need to ask? What do I have to do?"

“You have to help get us to Sanctuary. Don’t ask me how; I just know you have the answer.”

Krista and Perri almost jumped. How was Perri, who had trouble even grasping the concept of the dream world, going to transport them to a world which was denied to them by not only the leadership who were corrupt, but at least one servant of the greatest threat to reality ever?

“Are you mad?” Perri asked incredulously, “For fecks sake, Kat, I got lost on a direct flight to London last month! I ended up taking two buses and a train and ended up arriving a day late. And you want me to take you halfway across the galaxy to somewhere I’ve never even been?”

The answer was glaring Katheryne in the face as she turned to Perri.

“Perri, had you ever been to London?” she asked.

Perri wondered where she was going. She was suspicious of Katheryne’s motives. Why was she asking all these questions?

“No,” she answered, “never.”

“But you still got there?”

“Yeah, indirectly, I lost a suitcase for God’s sake. It had my makeup and underwear in it. It took me two days to collect enough to go out.”

“Thanks Perri, I knew I could rely on you,” said Katheryne, as she turned to Krista.

Perri was oblivious for a second before she realised she had in fact given them a way to get to Sanctuary. She still had no clue how it would work but she supposed it was better than nothing.

“Krista,” said Katheryne, “We can’t get to Sanctuary directly; the portal from Earth is blocked right?” Krista nodded suspiciously, “So how about we go around? Get to Sanctuary from somewhere else?”

Krista dismissed the idea right away, shaking her head, “Impossible, we can only travel through Sanctuary. It’s the hub, the nexus that binds the Never. It’s never been possible to travel directly from one world to another.”

“Why?” asked Katheryne.

Krista stared back, blankly. She was totally thrown by the question. The Liberi could create a portal to anywhere they had been to before. They could also share the impression...the taste almost, of a place they had been to another, enabling them to travel there also.

The limitation to this was it could only be done between locations on the world they happened to be on at the time.

Travel to other worlds required you to go through Sanctuary, however briefly. For it provided the anchor, the reference point in space/time which allowed the creation of portals across the vast distances between worlds. Without this anchor, a portal would be cast adrift and the Liberi would end up lost amid the endless realities.

Krista and Derren had explained this as much as possible to Katheryne and Perri, Krista thought, so why was she asking this question when she already knew the answer?

But as she looked at Katheryne smiling back at her, Krista knew she was missing something very important. Katheryne had shaken her badly; her level of adeptness with the power within her at this early stage was astounding, almost frightening. Yet she had seen the force flowing through her, had felt the intensity of her talent as she assaulted the beast, so at this stage Krista didn’t think Katheryne was incapable of anything if she put her mind to it.

“You can do it can’t you,” Krista said incredulously, “You can travel directly.”

“Not exactly,” Katheryne replied, “I can get us to wherever we need to be, but I think I’ll need your help to show me where to go.”

Perri stood gaping. She was so far out of her depth she didn’t dare interrupt, but Krista, also, still didn’t fully understand.

Katheryne seemed to realise and so went on, “I can see the paths Krista, the threads between the realities,” she watched as Krista’s eyes widened in wonder. Katheryne knew only the Liberi had possessed this ability before now.

“And there’s a pattern there, a subtle intricate movement, but I can read it. I know how to do this; you just have to trust me.”

“I...trust you Katheryne,” Krista stated. And it was true. She trusted and would follow this girl to the end of all endings. At last she accepted that she too was bonded to Katheryne, a bond of sisterhood and love as strong as her own with her brother. And through her, she felt Perri as well, some fledgling power awakening inside her, unbeknownst to her conscious mind.

Katheryne smiled, acknowledging Krista’s acceptance and welcoming her also, as the sister to stand alongside the other sister of her heart. But what had to happen next would be...difficult, and Katheryne grimaced inside as she took Perri’s hands.

“You…Perri, I need you to stay here,” she blurted out, cringing as she waited for the explosion...which never came. Perri simply looked back at her with sad but affirming eyes and sighed.

“So,” she said, haughtily, “What’s this incredibly important job I have to do? The one that’s going to stop me flying off to other worlds, and meeting cute alien guys.”