Fade to Black (40 page)

Roly came at her fast. Water splashed behind her and she jerked her head around. The huge serpent towered above her, his wide head standing ten feet out of the muddy water of the river, its slit eyes fixed on her. It lunged. Allie fell backwards, the skin of the snake rasping against her clothes as it overshot. She rolled behind a jagged stand of stones. Movement caught her eye on the other side of the cave. The stripeys had finished with Arthur Wendell. Now they hunched, heads low to the ground, eyes fixed on Robert. She ran to him, her eyes scanning for the motley serpent as she skirted the river. Roly catapulted out of the water again, knocking her to the ground with the force of his attack. He rose, back arched, ready for the killer blow. Allie grabbed her brother’s arm, both of them helpless to stop the inevitable. She saw the reptile’s muscles twitch, the strike imminent.

Michael landed on the huge neck, his fingers searching for the eyes. The serpent recoiled, swaying from side to side in an attempt to rid itself of the annoyance. Michael tore an eye from its socket and stretched for the other, his wings folded behind him. He gripped the neck with his feet and reached both hands into the remaining eye of the snake. A bloody, beach ball-sized eye was wrenched from its dark hole, hanging by a thread of muscle and sinew. It swung as a pendulum as the beast frantically fought to throw him off. It dove into the brown river, Michael still clinging to its neck. Allie stared at the water, willing him to come up. The lemurs reached them.

With no more time to think, she grabbed Robert and threw him and herself into the water. It occurred to her she had not seen the Lemur-things in the water. As she and Robert bobbed to the surface, the stripeys lined the bank, chattering and jumping up and down, but not jumping in. It was their chance; the demented lemurs
hated
water. Robert clung to her and looked desperately about. Roly was down under them somewhere. Mr. Black stood by the bend in the river, watching intently. Michael and the serpent burst from the water, a gaping hole in the throat of the beast. Allie supposed he was trying to drown it.

“Get out!” he yelled to them, water cascading in torrents off his body and wings. “Get into the light!” He was taken under the water once more.

“Robert!” she yelled, gulping for air. “Let the water take us towards the cave opening. Hold your breath!” She pulled him under the water. They would be taken over the top of Michael and the huge serpent, but it was a risk they had to take. The current whisked them away quickly. They rolled and tumbled as if they were in a giant washing machine. The skin of the serpent tore a strip off her leg. She squealed under water, a stream of bubbles escaping her mouth. Kicking to the surface, she saw Robert was desperate for air and convulsing. He did not have her lung capacity. They would have to stay on the surface. Blood erupted from somewhere beneath them. It spurted high above the surface of the water. She prayed it was from the serpent. She prayed hard. Her shoulder smashed against a rock. She winced and looked ahead—they were nearly to the cave opening, the dangling rooftop tree roots marking the spot.

“Allie!” Robert screamed, his eyes fixed on the water ahead. She saw what concerned him and she heard it. The river simply disappeared before them, its roar as it descended into the underworld growing louder as they were swept towards the vortex. She kicked higher in the water to try to get a better look. She froze. The water plummeted underground through a narrow fissure, nothing more than a slit. They would be trapped by it, crushed and drowned.

“Robert!” she yelled over the roar of the water. “Let my arms free! Hang on to my waist!” He tried, but he was tired.

“I can’t—my arms are numb!”

An errant tree root loomed into view. It was close to the water. It would be their only chance. Allie broke an arm free from Robert and lunged for it. The tips of her fingers brushed it. She stretched, her hand closed over a thin strand. Pain burst through her as her burnt and blistered skin protested at the effort, but her grip held. The force of the water was irresistible. It slammed into her chest and gushed up her nostrils. Shaking her head to clear the water, she yelled to Robert over the all-pervading roar of the underground waterfall. “You’ll have to climb up over me to the bank!” Her one-handed grip was failing, the bandages now wet and slippery and she was still far from fully recovered from ‘recharging’ Michael. “Do it now!” she screamed. He didn’t move. She looked questioningly at him.

“Allie,” he said, I can’t...”

“Don’t say that! You must! Try,
come on!
”

But Robert didn’t try. He rested his head on her shoulder. They stayed like that for perhaps half a minute, both understanding what this meant. The last of his strength left him. He looked at her and tried to smile. He let go.

Allie wailed as the brown water surged through the narrow opening. Robert was gone. She hung on until she felt the root start to give way. She spun around and grabbed the larger roots, hauling herself out onto the earthen bank. The lemurs were sitting on the bank facing away from her, all of them watching the water back where Michael and Roly battled. Mr. Black paced up and down near them, his attention on the water as well. They had given her up for dead. The sound of the rushing water changed and it rose where it entered the underground waterfall, banking up towards her. It was Roly, but not as he was. His head lay pinned against the rock face, a split running between his empty eye sockets. A still-attached eye bobbled to the surface. A dead, cloudy eye if ever she saw one. Adrenaline coursed through her. She had to assume Michael was all right. Checking again to see that she remained undetected, she ran for the steps that would take her to the opening... and the world above.

A bellow echoed through the cavern. She had been seen. The chattering escalated. The stripey lemurs came for her. She hit the steps at full pace and sprawled headlong onto them, gashing her forehead on the stone. She scrambled again for traction. Something grabbed her ankle. Hungry black eyes stared into hers. She kicked at it, but it hung on. She wondered why it didn’t bite her; it had the equipment. Then she got it. He wasn’t the leader, he was just the first to arrive. She rolled and pushed on for the opening, dragging the creature with her. Another ran up her back. She twisted her upper body, throwing it off. The mat of earth and roots was barely ten feet in front of her. The pack arrived. The creature on her leg seemed unsure of what to do next. She punched it on the back of the head. It bared its razor teeth and hissed, but still didn’t bite. She pushed at the earth covering. It lifted, the bushes above swinging upwards with it. Cold air rushed in. The lemur let go; the boundary of its world could not be breached it seemed.

She scrambled up through the hole and stood. She turned to close the earthen door. A lemur sprung out of the hole at her. She ducked and its momentum carried it over the top of her. It landed on all fours, facing her. She looked down into the hole; the rest of the pack sat there staring up at her, not daring to breach the underworld. This one, she guessed, was the leader—Mr. Black’s little general. Well, Mr. Black’s little general was going to die. At least this she could do for Robert. The first pale stirrings of light nibbled at the darkness in the east as they circled each other among the trees.

“Come on, then,” she said, flapping her fingers back and forth. “Make your move, stinky.” It cocked its head as a dog would and as Mr. Black had.
Interesting
, she thought.

It started bobbing its head up and down, then jumping up and down on the spot, working itself into a frenzy.

“In your own time,” she announced in a tired tone.

It jumped at her, teeth bared, claws out. She twisted her upper body and rammed her elbow into it as it passed over her shoulder. It hit the ground with a thump, rolling twice before regaining its balance. It circled her again. Allie decided to let it think it had gotten behind her by stealth. She let it crab around till she could not see it. She closed her eyes. She
felt
it. In her mind’s eye, she watched it crouch, preparing to spring at her back. She watched it finally jump at her. She waited a millisecond, then spun away, grabbing the creature as it sailed past at head height. She followed it to the ground and forced her hands around its neck, her elbows pinning its clawed hands to the ground. It squirmed and bucked under her weight. Its bared teeth inches from her face, it hissed and spat at her as she increased the pressure around its furry neck. She felt sinews and muscle crunch under her thumbs. Her burnt hands screamed in pain, but it was nothing to her. She felt a pop as its windpipe collapsed. She squeezed harder—the thing stopped thrashing about, its claws stilled. The black light in its eyes went out. She tightened her grip and hung on till she could grip no more. She wept, her tears splashing the unseeing eyes of the creature. She had lost Robert and killing this foul thing did nothing to bring him back. She rolled off and stood. In a rage, she grabbed the lemur, strode to the hole in the ground, lifted the bush canopy and hurled the dead thing at the rest of the pack. They scattered in a chattering, disheveled rabble. She slammed the bushes back into place and faced the paling sky.

Michael. What had he yelled? “Get into the light?” She looked up at the hill, the tower not visible from this angle. Although a mist of sorts still clung to the top. That was where she would go, St. Michael’s tower. Scrambling through the still wet and slippery long grass, she reached the mist-enshrouded summit, the tower a ghostly edifice at the limits of her vision. Pausing but a moment to catch her breath, she walked the remaining few yards and stepped inside. No dead Abbots hung from unseen wooden beams. She stood still, deep in contemplation. There seemed nothing else for it but to wait, for
something.
The mist thinned.
It will be a nicer day tomorrow
, she thought idly. Then she wondered how she was going to tell her parents that she had lost Robert. Despair and grief gripped her. She was safe, but… A rumbling caught her ear. Again, she got down on all fours and listened. All hell was breaking loose beneath her, literally. She jumped back off the floor and backed out of the tower. Nothing happened.

Then, Michael and the black creature burst through the floor of the tower, flagstones ricocheting off walls, mortar and razor sharp chips of stone scattering in an instant across the grass. Mr. Black disentangled himself from the rubble first and flew to one side of the tower archway, alighting on the wet grass. Michael now stood on the other side of the tower nearest her. The protagonist and antagonist slowly circled the tower, staring unblinkingly at each other. It was Allie and the lemur-thing revisited.

She saw now that Mr. Black or Belhor or Gwynn ap Nudd, whatever and whoever he chose to be, had black wings, but not like Michael’s. They were leathery and crinkled like fabric that had been left folded too long in a dark closet. They were shorter, more angular and bat-like. She backed away closer to the mist. Michael raised his arm; Mr. Black did likewise. Mr. Black changed direction; Michael mirrored it. It was a ritual she suspected had been played out many times before. It was probably all part of the game without end. They were as much prisoners of it as she. This was a fight to the death—about that she had no doubt. Their movements continued in unison, but she noticed Michael edging closer to his quarry, for that was what Mr. Black was, the hunted. Whether or not he understood that, she did not know. Michael’s eyes never left those of his prey. No words passed between them, at least that she could hear or comprehend. As if she had commanded it, she was suddenly plugged in to the audio between them. Michael nodded at her. He had let her in on the action. Mr. Black glanced at her. Again, they had both taken their eyes off each other as though there had been an unspoken agreement to do so. The Rules. Michael had alluded to them on the first night of this horror show.

“It’s time, old friend. You know it as well as I,” Michael said to Mr. Black.

“I like it here! The locals are so friendly and the food is a delightful surprise.”

“Pack it in. The sun is nearly up; there will be witnesses.”

Mr. Black jerked his thumb towards Allie. “There already is, thanks to you.”

“It can’t be helped. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here.”

Allie shook her head as if to clear it. What was going on here?

Michael rushed through the archway at Black, who jumped straight up, his stubby wings holding him airborne with frenzied beating, the whooshing of air from them disturbing the grass thirty feet below. He moved to the side of the tower Michael had occupied. Michael slowly and silently rose to the same height, but still on the opposite side of the tower from Black. His was an effortless ascension, smooth, practiced, his pure white wings barely moving—the albatross to Black’s hummingbird. Mr. Black breathed hard.

“You can’t keep this up,” Michael said. “This isn’t your domain. You belong with the rats and the blind worms. Even this crisp morning air will probably do you in.”

Black wasn’t amused. Allie sensed his desperation.
Careful, Michael.

“Careful, Michael,"
Black mimicked in a pansy voice. “Christ, next you’ll be ironing his handkerchiefs.”

“At least they’ll fit his nose,” Allie said. Black looked around at her, the childish insult stinging. Michael used the distraction and struck. Hurtling around the top of the tower, he snared one of Black’s wings, but only just.

Black shrieked and tried to fly up. He was a giant wounded bat. Michael clung to Black’s wing tip as they flew around the top of the tower in faltering, dipping circles like two wounded prehistoric birds. Black suddenly heaved against Michael, sending him smashing into the stone abutments of the tower. It was a show of strength Michael seemed not to have anticipated. Allie saw the anguish on his face. Black threw himself on Michael, pinning his wings by his sides. They plummeted to the ground, Black riding Michael all the way down. Breath exploded from Michael as he hit the earth with a deep thud. Allie’s heart raced. This was not what she had expected. Black had Michael flat against the ground, neither Michael’s arms nor legs could be freed. Allie rushed to help him.