Chosen (34 page)
‘Continue Thomas,’ said Ragnar
as if nothing had happened.
‘Hers is the power to combine
all others, the power of all worlds. Her name is Ti Athra. So say
Janus and Freya.’
At the mention of her
daughter’s name Max sobbed, still struggling with Haven.
‘Everything will be alright,’
said Haven holding her close, ‘when it is over, we will have our
child back again. Please Max, I promise you.’ The energy drained
from her body and she slumped against Haven.
‘You may take your place in the
circle Thomas,’ said Ragnar. Thomas walked with leaden feet to the
shrine and stood upon one of the rocks. Ragnar beckoned to someone
standing hidden in trees, a child with silver hair and a bear
amulet hanging from her neck emerged and walked towards Ragnar. She
looked to be about six years old.
‘Droog, I’m scared,’ she said,
‘who are all these people?’
‘All is well little one,’ said
Ragnar, ‘go . . . stand with the men in the circle.’ He patted her
hand before releasing her. She climbed up on the last rock in the
circle.
Max and Haven were stunned,
‘how can this be,’ said Max, ‘she’s grown so much since we left I
wouldn’t have recognised her if not for her silver hair.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Elkeira, who
was standing nearby, ‘I thought you knew, children on my world grow
very quickly until the age of twelve.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me,’ said
Max.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Elkeira
again, ‘I would have said something if I’d known.’
The area around the shrine was
suddenly filled with columns of light.
‘They must be the Uthians,’
thought Max, ‘they’ve come through the portals.’
Ragnar turned towards the
shrine, ‘time is short,’ he said to the four in the circle, ‘please
take each other’s hands and the portal will open.’
The four did as they were
asked. At first it looked as if nothing was going to happen, but
then Max started to feel a tingling up her arms.
‘Can you feel that?’ she asked
Haven, ‘the portal must be opening.’
‘I can feel something,’ said
Haven, ‘it might be an idea if we step back a bit, the energy is
building.’
‘Yes,’ said Max, ‘I’d almost
forgotten what Epona told me, it’s dangerous to stand too near the
portal, we could be sucked into it.’
Haven, Max and Elkeira, moved
back to the quarry, hoping it would be far enough away from any
danger. Fischer and his frozen men were standing at the edge of the
tree-line. The columns of light continued to pulse around the
perimeter of the circle, waiting for the portal to open. Max began
to notice that each time a column pulsed the colour changed
slightly, it was almost imperceptible unless you looked very
closely.
‘Wait a minute,’ she said,
‘something’s wrong.’
‘I just think it might take a
little more time than the portals we’ve been through,’ said Haven,
‘remember, this is a very big one. Look, the energy is beginning to
build.’ Max could see a swirling vortex starting to open in the
centre of the shrine, the colours pulsating in time with the
columns of light.
‘No, that’s not what I mean,’
she said, ‘how many columns do you count?’
‘I count seven,’ said Elkeira,
not understanding what Max was saying. A light dawned in Haven’s
eyes.
‘Oh, no, you don’t think. .
.’
‘Yes, I do think,’ said Max, ‘I
bet it’s Anubis, he’s the one that’s missing.’
Suddenly the vortex expanded,
completely covering the shrine and all inside it with pulsing
lights. The noise grew to a deafening roar; the wind was so strong,
Max, Haven and Elkeira had to hold tightly to each other to keep
from being sucked towards the vortex. Their hair lashed their faces
and their clothes were almost torn from the bodies, such was the
strength of the wind. The columns moved towards the centre of the
shrine and one by one were sucked into the vortex and disappeared.
Another column of light suddenly appeared but the last of the seven
columns had gone and the vortex closed, it was over.
The wind stopped so suddenly
the three huddling near the quarry fell to the ground. The vortex
shrunk to a pin-point of light and winked out of existence,
exposing the four Chosen. They slumped down, unconscious and fell
from the rocks they had been standing on. Max was the first to race
over, but she wasn’t quick enough. She stumbled and fell to her
knees as a beam of light flashed in the shrine.
A man appeared, screaming in
anger, his fists punching at the air. The haughty man that Stefan
had seen right before he died was gone, to be replaced by this
lunatic standing in the shrine. His face was purple with rage as he
swore and screamed, tearing hunks of hair from his head he waved
them at the sky. His eyes glowed red with anger. He was wearing an
old fashioned frock coat and fingerless, black leather gloves.
‘How dare you leave me behind,’
he raged. ‘Come back, open the portal.’ Nothing happened. He
suddenly bent down and picked up the unconscious Ti Athra. ‘If
that’s the way you want to play it, so be it. We’ll be leaving
now,’ he said with a cruel smile.
‘Wait,’ shouted Max, ‘that’s my
daughter, you can’t take her.’ Haven and Elkeira reached her side
and helped her back onto her feet.
‘No, I think you’re mistaken,’
said Anubis, ‘she is my daughter now, and if what I have been lead
to believe about the power she possesses is true, we will have the
most wonderful time together. I will raise her to be queen of the
four worlds, and together we will rule. Isn’t it wonderful, now I
have all your worlds to play in, not just this one, perhaps they
did me a service leaving me behind,’ he said looking to the
heavens. With a flash of light, he and Ti Athra vanished.
Haven and Max clung to each
other, ‘I can’t believe this is happening, we got her back and now
she is gone again,’ sobbed Max, ‘how could it have all gone so
horribly wrong, it wasn’t meant to end like this.’
‘We’ll find her, this is not
the end,’ said Haven.
Elkeira reached the shrine and
began to help the others, Max and Haven followed. Gilster, Thomas
and Tallon, were starting to wake. Elkeira checked her brother and
then went to Thomas, she lifted his head gently and he opened his
eyes.
‘Is it over,’ he asked huskily,
‘are they gone?’
‘Yes, they’ve gone,’ said
Elkeira, helping him to his feet, ‘and no one will ever be able to
call you a coward again.’ Haven was helping Gilster to his feet and
Max was talking to Tallon who was already standing.
‘How do you feel?’ she asked,
‘are you ok.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Tallon, ‘just
a bit of a headache. But, what’s happened . . . your face, you’ve
been crying,’ he said softly, one hand cupping her cheek.
‘Anubis took Ti Athra,’ said
Max.
‘What do you mean, Anubis took
Ti Athra,’ said Tallon, ‘shouldn’t he have left with the
others?’
‘He should have,’ said Haven,
who had just arrived with Gilster in tow, ‘but he didn’t, the
portal closed too soon.’
‘He’s got Ti Athra and I mean
to get her back,’ said Max.
‘You mean, ‘we’,’ said Haven.
‘I’m beginning to think this journey may not be over yet,’ said
Gilster.
‘Where’s Fischer and his men?’
asked Tallon looking around.
‘They were standing over the
other side,’ said Elkeira pointing, perhaps they got sucked into
the vortex.
‘We need to make sure, we’re
not safe until we know where they are.’
Too late they heard the cocking
of a gun. BANG! Thomas fell to the ground, a small patch of blood
on his coat growing larger and larger.
‘No.’ Shrieked Elkeira. She
spun around spying Fischer standing under a tree off to her left, a
smile on his face. Without thinking she nocked an arrow and fired
in one fluid motion. Fischer fell, a feathered shaft protruding
from his chest.
‘Thomas,’ said Elkeira falling
to her knees beside him, ‘speak to me.’
Thomas’ eyes fluttered open, he
coughed up bloody spittle. ‘I was brave, wasn’t I,’ he said, his
eyes focussed on Elkeira.
‘Yes my friend, you were the
bravest of the brave,’ said Elkeira cradling his head gently, ‘the
bravest of the brave.’ He shuddered, sighed and was gone.
The journey back to the city
was a sad, sombre affair. Elkeira had not shed a tear for her lost
friend and Max was worried she had gone into shock; she kept a
close eye on her as she walked ahead, holding tightly to her
brother’s hand. Max walked alone thinking of Ti Athra and Haven and
Gilster brought up the rear. As it always does, the return journey
seemed much quicker, they arrived back and found the abandoned
building they had left three days before, could it only have been
three days, so much had happened in such a short time. Haven
started a small fire in the grate as they sat huddled around
miserably, lost in thought.
Gilster broke the silence. ‘All
our worlds are in grave danger now. We have to do something, we
have to return and warn them of the dangers that are coming.’
‘Why bother,’ said Tallon, his
arm around Elkeira, ‘what can we do against Anubis?’
Elkeira looked up, ‘we can
fight him, that’s what we can do. I don’t want Thomas to have died
for nothing, and we have to save Ti Athra.’ She looked over at Max.
‘We’ll get her back, don’t worry.’
‘She’s right,’ said Haven,
poking the fire, ‘we can’t let him win, we have to offer some sort
of resistance.’
‘It’s settled then,’ said Max,
‘we fight.’
The next morning they returned
to the portal in the alley where they had originally arrived. After
much discussion and debate which lasted the whole night, it was
finally decided Gilster would return to Elaxier to give whatever
warning and help he could, Tallon and Max would go to Earth and do
the same, Elkeira was going back to Naturine to find her father who
would call together all the clans and Haven would stay in Chaos. At
no time would they stop looking for Ti Athra but for now, people
must be warned.
Max hugged Haven, ‘good-bye,
make sure you take care of yourself.’
Haven held her tight, ‘if you
ever need me, just call, I will hear your thoughts no matter where
you are.’
‘Thank you,’ said Max, as she
slowly pulled away from him, ‘I will, and I’m sorry things turned
out the way they did.’
She turned back, tears
glistening in her eyes, ‘we will always have a connection though .
. . our beautiful daughter.’
Tallon was still unsure what
had happened between Max and Haven, he decided it was best not to
ask. All he knew was Max had come to him and he was happy.
A plan had been made to meet up
again at Max’s house in one year’s time. There they would discuss
what could be done next, in what would effectively, be a war
against Anubis. The rest of the good-byes were said quickly. Nobody
wanted to prolong the agony. Haven would find Elkeira in Naturine
and take her with him to Max’s. As he stood back the portal opened
and his friends disappeared.
I can’t believe it,’ shrieked
Freya in delight, ‘we did it.’
‘Who’d have thought he would
fall for such a simple trick,’ laughed Apollo.
‘All we have to do now is
maintain the cloak with a little of our energy and we’re free of
him.’
‘I still feel bad about the
four worlds we’ve left behind,’ said Epona. ‘We know the sort of
havoc Anubis is capable of.’
‘You know he’ll find a way out
eventually,’ said Minerva, ‘but until then at least, we’ll have
some peace.’
‘And look at it this way,’
added Ragnar, ‘the rest of the universe will be safe from him, at
least for awhile.’
‘I suppose,’ said Epona, ‘but
it still feels wrong.’
‘I think I might stay for
awhile,’ said Helios, ‘I can open the portal occasionally to see
what he’s up to, if it gets too bad I’ll call you back.’
‘Can’t guarantee I’ll come back
laughed Freya.’
‘I will,’ said Epona, ‘if you
call I’ll always come back, I don’t like what we’ve done.’
The End
as if nothing had happened.
‘Hers is the power to combine
all others, the power of all worlds. Her name is Ti Athra. So say
Janus and Freya.’
At the mention of her
daughter’s name Max sobbed, still struggling with Haven.
‘Everything will be alright,’
said Haven holding her close, ‘when it is over, we will have our
child back again. Please Max, I promise you.’ The energy drained
from her body and she slumped against Haven.
‘You may take your place in the
circle Thomas,’ said Ragnar. Thomas walked with leaden feet to the
shrine and stood upon one of the rocks. Ragnar beckoned to someone
standing hidden in trees, a child with silver hair and a bear
amulet hanging from her neck emerged and walked towards Ragnar. She
looked to be about six years old.
‘Droog, I’m scared,’ she said,
‘who are all these people?’
‘All is well little one,’ said
Ragnar, ‘go . . . stand with the men in the circle.’ He patted her
hand before releasing her. She climbed up on the last rock in the
circle.
Max and Haven were stunned,
‘how can this be,’ said Max, ‘she’s grown so much since we left I
wouldn’t have recognised her if not for her silver hair.’
‘I’m sorry,’ said Elkeira, who
was standing nearby, ‘I thought you knew, children on my world grow
very quickly until the age of twelve.’
‘Why didn’t you tell me,’ said
Max.
‘I’m sorry,’ said Elkeira
again, ‘I would have said something if I’d known.’
The area around the shrine was
suddenly filled with columns of light.
‘They must be the Uthians,’
thought Max, ‘they’ve come through the portals.’
Ragnar turned towards the
shrine, ‘time is short,’ he said to the four in the circle, ‘please
take each other’s hands and the portal will open.’
The four did as they were
asked. At first it looked as if nothing was going to happen, but
then Max started to feel a tingling up her arms.
‘Can you feel that?’ she asked
Haven, ‘the portal must be opening.’
‘I can feel something,’ said
Haven, ‘it might be an idea if we step back a bit, the energy is
building.’
‘Yes,’ said Max, ‘I’d almost
forgotten what Epona told me, it’s dangerous to stand too near the
portal, we could be sucked into it.’
Haven, Max and Elkeira, moved
back to the quarry, hoping it would be far enough away from any
danger. Fischer and his frozen men were standing at the edge of the
tree-line. The columns of light continued to pulse around the
perimeter of the circle, waiting for the portal to open. Max began
to notice that each time a column pulsed the colour changed
slightly, it was almost imperceptible unless you looked very
closely.
‘Wait a minute,’ she said,
‘something’s wrong.’
‘I just think it might take a
little more time than the portals we’ve been through,’ said Haven,
‘remember, this is a very big one. Look, the energy is beginning to
build.’ Max could see a swirling vortex starting to open in the
centre of the shrine, the colours pulsating in time with the
columns of light.
‘No, that’s not what I mean,’
she said, ‘how many columns do you count?’
‘I count seven,’ said Elkeira,
not understanding what Max was saying. A light dawned in Haven’s
eyes.
‘Oh, no, you don’t think. .
.’
‘Yes, I do think,’ said Max, ‘I
bet it’s Anubis, he’s the one that’s missing.’
Suddenly the vortex expanded,
completely covering the shrine and all inside it with pulsing
lights. The noise grew to a deafening roar; the wind was so strong,
Max, Haven and Elkeira had to hold tightly to each other to keep
from being sucked towards the vortex. Their hair lashed their faces
and their clothes were almost torn from the bodies, such was the
strength of the wind. The columns moved towards the centre of the
shrine and one by one were sucked into the vortex and disappeared.
Another column of light suddenly appeared but the last of the seven
columns had gone and the vortex closed, it was over.
The wind stopped so suddenly
the three huddling near the quarry fell to the ground. The vortex
shrunk to a pin-point of light and winked out of existence,
exposing the four Chosen. They slumped down, unconscious and fell
from the rocks they had been standing on. Max was the first to race
over, but she wasn’t quick enough. She stumbled and fell to her
knees as a beam of light flashed in the shrine.
A man appeared, screaming in
anger, his fists punching at the air. The haughty man that Stefan
had seen right before he died was gone, to be replaced by this
lunatic standing in the shrine. His face was purple with rage as he
swore and screamed, tearing hunks of hair from his head he waved
them at the sky. His eyes glowed red with anger. He was wearing an
old fashioned frock coat and fingerless, black leather gloves.
‘How dare you leave me behind,’
he raged. ‘Come back, open the portal.’ Nothing happened. He
suddenly bent down and picked up the unconscious Ti Athra. ‘If
that’s the way you want to play it, so be it. We’ll be leaving
now,’ he said with a cruel smile.
‘Wait,’ shouted Max, ‘that’s my
daughter, you can’t take her.’ Haven and Elkeira reached her side
and helped her back onto her feet.
‘No, I think you’re mistaken,’
said Anubis, ‘she is my daughter now, and if what I have been lead
to believe about the power she possesses is true, we will have the
most wonderful time together. I will raise her to be queen of the
four worlds, and together we will rule. Isn’t it wonderful, now I
have all your worlds to play in, not just this one, perhaps they
did me a service leaving me behind,’ he said looking to the
heavens. With a flash of light, he and Ti Athra vanished.
Haven and Max clung to each
other, ‘I can’t believe this is happening, we got her back and now
she is gone again,’ sobbed Max, ‘how could it have all gone so
horribly wrong, it wasn’t meant to end like this.’
‘We’ll find her, this is not
the end,’ said Haven.
Elkeira reached the shrine and
began to help the others, Max and Haven followed. Gilster, Thomas
and Tallon, were starting to wake. Elkeira checked her brother and
then went to Thomas, she lifted his head gently and he opened his
eyes.
‘Is it over,’ he asked huskily,
‘are they gone?’
‘Yes, they’ve gone,’ said
Elkeira, helping him to his feet, ‘and no one will ever be able to
call you a coward again.’ Haven was helping Gilster to his feet and
Max was talking to Tallon who was already standing.
‘How do you feel?’ she asked,
‘are you ok.’
‘I’m fine,’ said Tallon, ‘just
a bit of a headache. But, what’s happened . . . your face, you’ve
been crying,’ he said softly, one hand cupping her cheek.
‘Anubis took Ti Athra,’ said
Max.
‘What do you mean, Anubis took
Ti Athra,’ said Tallon, ‘shouldn’t he have left with the
others?’
‘He should have,’ said Haven,
who had just arrived with Gilster in tow, ‘but he didn’t, the
portal closed too soon.’
‘He’s got Ti Athra and I mean
to get her back,’ said Max.
‘You mean, ‘we’,’ said Haven.
‘I’m beginning to think this journey may not be over yet,’ said
Gilster.
‘Where’s Fischer and his men?’
asked Tallon looking around.
‘They were standing over the
other side,’ said Elkeira pointing, perhaps they got sucked into
the vortex.
‘We need to make sure, we’re
not safe until we know where they are.’
Too late they heard the cocking
of a gun. BANG! Thomas fell to the ground, a small patch of blood
on his coat growing larger and larger.
‘No.’ Shrieked Elkeira. She
spun around spying Fischer standing under a tree off to her left, a
smile on his face. Without thinking she nocked an arrow and fired
in one fluid motion. Fischer fell, a feathered shaft protruding
from his chest.
‘Thomas,’ said Elkeira falling
to her knees beside him, ‘speak to me.’
Thomas’ eyes fluttered open, he
coughed up bloody spittle. ‘I was brave, wasn’t I,’ he said, his
eyes focussed on Elkeira.
‘Yes my friend, you were the
bravest of the brave,’ said Elkeira cradling his head gently, ‘the
bravest of the brave.’ He shuddered, sighed and was gone.
The journey back to the city
was a sad, sombre affair. Elkeira had not shed a tear for her lost
friend and Max was worried she had gone into shock; she kept a
close eye on her as she walked ahead, holding tightly to her
brother’s hand. Max walked alone thinking of Ti Athra and Haven and
Gilster brought up the rear. As it always does, the return journey
seemed much quicker, they arrived back and found the abandoned
building they had left three days before, could it only have been
three days, so much had happened in such a short time. Haven
started a small fire in the grate as they sat huddled around
miserably, lost in thought.
Gilster broke the silence. ‘All
our worlds are in grave danger now. We have to do something, we
have to return and warn them of the dangers that are coming.’
‘Why bother,’ said Tallon, his
arm around Elkeira, ‘what can we do against Anubis?’
Elkeira looked up, ‘we can
fight him, that’s what we can do. I don’t want Thomas to have died
for nothing, and we have to save Ti Athra.’ She looked over at Max.
‘We’ll get her back, don’t worry.’
‘She’s right,’ said Haven,
poking the fire, ‘we can’t let him win, we have to offer some sort
of resistance.’
‘It’s settled then,’ said Max,
‘we fight.’
The next morning they returned
to the portal in the alley where they had originally arrived. After
much discussion and debate which lasted the whole night, it was
finally decided Gilster would return to Elaxier to give whatever
warning and help he could, Tallon and Max would go to Earth and do
the same, Elkeira was going back to Naturine to find her father who
would call together all the clans and Haven would stay in Chaos. At
no time would they stop looking for Ti Athra but for now, people
must be warned.
Max hugged Haven, ‘good-bye,
make sure you take care of yourself.’
Haven held her tight, ‘if you
ever need me, just call, I will hear your thoughts no matter where
you are.’
‘Thank you,’ said Max, as she
slowly pulled away from him, ‘I will, and I’m sorry things turned
out the way they did.’
She turned back, tears
glistening in her eyes, ‘we will always have a connection though .
. . our beautiful daughter.’
Tallon was still unsure what
had happened between Max and Haven, he decided it was best not to
ask. All he knew was Max had come to him and he was happy.
A plan had been made to meet up
again at Max’s house in one year’s time. There they would discuss
what could be done next, in what would effectively, be a war
against Anubis. The rest of the good-byes were said quickly. Nobody
wanted to prolong the agony. Haven would find Elkeira in Naturine
and take her with him to Max’s. As he stood back the portal opened
and his friends disappeared.
I can’t believe it,’ shrieked
Freya in delight, ‘we did it.’
‘Who’d have thought he would
fall for such a simple trick,’ laughed Apollo.
‘All we have to do now is
maintain the cloak with a little of our energy and we’re free of
him.’
‘I still feel bad about the
four worlds we’ve left behind,’ said Epona. ‘We know the sort of
havoc Anubis is capable of.’
‘You know he’ll find a way out
eventually,’ said Minerva, ‘but until then at least, we’ll have
some peace.’
‘And look at it this way,’
added Ragnar, ‘the rest of the universe will be safe from him, at
least for awhile.’
‘I suppose,’ said Epona, ‘but
it still feels wrong.’
‘I think I might stay for
awhile,’ said Helios, ‘I can open the portal occasionally to see
what he’s up to, if it gets too bad I’ll call you back.’
‘Can’t guarantee I’ll come back
laughed Freya.’
‘I will,’ said Epona, ‘if you
call I’ll always come back, I don’t like what we’ve done.’
The End
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