Chapter 10

Loath as Cat was to ask the exhausted children to walk any more, there wasn’t any choice. Thankfully, their Sylfranian rendezvous wasn’t too far and for the kids, relief at being rescued and curiosity at meeting the lady who was going to marry ‘Rose’ overrode their weariness for the time being.

Upon reaching the rendezvous, Dreya materialised out of the shadows, making the kids recoil in fear.

“Don’t worry, it’s fine,” Cat reassured them. “It’s just my fiancée, Darla. She won’t hurt you. Sometimes she just likes to make an entrance.”

“Yeah, I thought she was scary, too, at first,” Mandalee confided, “but then I got to know her and she’s actually really nice.”

“Now, why don’t you all stay with Mel,” Cat suggested, “while I go and explain to my fiancée that leaping out at people and shouting ‘Boo!’ is not the best way to introduce herself.”

The kids laughed at that.

“I did not shout ‘Boo!’,” Dreya protested as Cat took her to one side.

“Never mind, you’ve got plenty of time to work on being around children, and here’s the perfect opportunity for you to get some practice.”

“Cat, we’re supposed to be stopping Ulvarius and getting history back on track. We don’t have time for child minding.”

“Dreya,” Cat returned, “we’re Guardians of Time. How can we not have time?”

Dreya rolled her eyes. “You know it doesn’t work like that. This is a critical moment for magic and for our world. We’re busy.”

“And in a few months,” Cat countered, placing Dreya’s hand on her belly, “or however long it might be for my unique pregnancy, there will be another critical moment for magic and for our world. Even after that moment has come and gone, we’ll still be busy people – probably saving the world from something – but we’ll still have to make time for our child.”

“That’s different,” Dreya insisted. “It will be our child. These kids are not our responsibility.”

Cat let out an exasperated sigh and shook her head. “I’m not asking you to adopt them, silly. Just get them somewhere safe until they can go back home.”

“Why can’t I just portal them back to Tedstone?”

“Because we don’t know the situation there,” Cat answered. “Ulvarius kidnapped them once, what’s to stop him doing it again? I can’t bear the thought of them going through this ordeal a second time. Is their town even still intact? Are their homes still standing? Are—” she took Dreya’s arm and discreetly moved them a bit further out of earshot of the children. Dropping her voice to a whisper, she finished, “Are their parents still alive?”

Dreya’s eyes widened at that. Her own relationship with her parents may have been less than ideal, but she knew her fiancée had fond memories of hers before that Monster killed them. It was not surprising, then, that her thoughts would immediately turn to that scenario when she met these children. It didn’t come naturally to Dreya, but she knew she needed to learn to think a little more about these things if she wanted to keep her relationship with Catriona.

“You’re right,” Dreya accepted. “We don’t know, and we don’t have time to find out right now.”

“Exactly, because we’re busy. So, for the time being, just get them somewhere safe while we do what we came here to do.” Taking Dreya’s hands in hers, she looked her straight in the eye and asked, “Will you do this for me?”

Dreya smiled. She’d said it again: those six words. Six words that could only ever have one answer.

“Yes,” she replied, “of course I will, Cat.” Then, after a moment’s consideration, she continued, “In fact, I think we can use this to our advantage.”

Cat, recognising the subtle change in Dreya’s expression, declared, “Scheming face!”

The sorceress frowned in annoyance. “Am I that obvious?”

“Only to me,” Cat assured her.

“Well, you’re right, I do have a ridiculous radical idea of how to bait Ulvarius and protect both history and the kids at the same time.”

*****

“Finally finished snogging?” Mandalee called out when they returned. Turning to the kids, she encouraged them to join in the teasing. “That’s what we reckon you were doing, isn’t it, guys?”

“Yeah!” they all chorused.

“We were not snogging,” Dreya protested, “we were planning.”

“Oh yeah?” Vashti challenged, hands on hips “then how come you’ve got Rose’s lipstick on your face?”

“What? Where?” Dreya replied, bringing a hand to her face to search for it.

“Well, if you weren’t snogging, why are you trying to find it and wipe it off?” Fumika asked, pointedly.

Mandalee laughed and applauded. “Oh, I am loving this! The great ‘Darla the Dark’ tricked by a pair of fourteen-year-olds!”

“I’m fifteen!” Vashti corrected her.

Mandalee hid a smile. “Oh, well, that makes all the difference.”

“OK, there may have been one little kiss,” Dreya admitted. “Like this.”

She pulled Catriona close and, to her astonishment, kissed her full on the lips. Cat hadn’t expected such a public show of affection.

The children’s reactions were a mix of cheers, applause, giggles and “Aww!”

“OK, break it up, you two,” Mandalee grumbled, good-naturedly. “We’ve all got better things to do than watch you trying to eat each other’s face off, right guys?”

“Right!” they all agreed.

Dreya broke the kiss and Cat quickly composed herself. “Alright then, listen everyone,” she announced, “Darla’s going to open a portal. It’s like a big blue door that can take you somewhere safe, OK?”

They all nodded.

“It might look a bit scary, but it’s perfectly safe,” Dreya assured them. “It’s just a special kind of teleporting, really,” she explained. The advantage being that she could transport multiple people simultaneously.

Mandalee moved over to the sorceress and looked her up and down. “Actually, Darla, I have to say you’re looking a little tired to me. Maybe all these young magic students could help you?”

“Yeah, can we?” Fumika called out.

“What can we do?” Vashti wondered.

“Well,” Mandalee replied, as if considering. She beckoned Vashti over. “If you take Darla’s hand,” the girl did as she asked, “and then…Fumika are you the next oldest?” He nodded. “OK, you can hold Vashti’s hand,” he did so, “and then everyone else can hold hands in a line, from the oldest to the youngest.”

“Can you do that?” Cat asked the remaining ten. “It’s really important that you’re in the right order or the magic might not work.”

“Why, what are we going to do?” Vashti asked.

“You’re each going to give the person in front of you a little bit of your magic,” Mandalee explained, “and then all of those little bits are going to add up to a nice big magic top-up for Darla so she can open up a portal that’s big enough for all of you.”

As the kids busied themselves getting into the right order, Mandalee answered the puzzled look on Dreya’s face, whispering, “Relax, I’m not suggesting you actually take magic from them. Just pretend. Help them feel like they can do something to help themselves. It’s a lesson in self-empowerment and sharing at the same time.”

Cat joined them and asked her friend, “When did you get to be so good with kids?”

“I’ve always got along really well with kids.”

“I thought that was cats?”

Mandalee shrugged. “It’s both. You should see me play with kittens.”

The children were all in a line now, so Cat told them, “Well done, guys. Now, imagine the magic inside you is like…” she floundered for a moment, searching for an analogy. She smiled when she found it. “…like light in a box.” That was how Daelen had described his Shadowkin people. “You need to send out a little bit of that light to the person in front, and pass on the light you get from your friend behind you. Ready?”

The kids nodded; serious looks on all their faces.

“OK then, take a deep breath, picture the light in your mind and pass it on.”

The dozen magic students had completely forgotten about their situation and the danger, now. They were just focused on their ‘lesson’. Each imagined they were giving a little of their magic to their friend, who was in turn passing it on up the chain to ‘Darla’ who, to her credit, made a show of ‘feeling’ that power.

It may not be real in the physical sense, but Dreya found it to be an intriguing idea. After all, she had learned to drain power from others. She had only done it in defence or, in Daelen’s case, taken all he had left with his consent, but even then, it was her taking it. Might it then be possible to actively give it, instead?

Shelving that thought for now, she focused on opening a portal.

“Well done, guys, you did it!” Dreya congratulated the kids. “I could feel your magic flowing into me. I can tell you’re going to be really strong when you grow up if you keep practising your magic.”

Dreya could see the idea take root in their impressionable young minds: Sharing their individual powers, co-operating together, they could grow strong and achieve goals. It was the Council of Mages in miniature. The very thing she had come back in time to save.

“See, Darla?” Mandalee prompted. “You’re fine with kids. You just need a little practice.”

Dreya gave her a smile of thanks, amazed that her friend had found a way to help a dozen lost and frightened children plus her relationship with Catriona, and add a new facet to her plans, all with the same idea.

“It’s like we were saying about making time for the kids,” Cat put in. “I know you’re busy with preparations at your end, but in between times, do yourself a favour and play with them.”

“I will,” she promised, trying hard not to look terrified.

She was Dreya the Dark: she had taken the Black Tower in five minutes, conquered a world of dragons in a spare afternoon and helped defeat Kullos. Compared to that, how much trouble could a dozen kids be?

Checking they all still firmly held hands, she led them through the portal and closed it behind them.

*****

The portal had barely closed when a corpse stepped out of the Sylfranian shadows in Ainderbury. Like Dreya, it did not shout ‘Boo!’ but it still made the two Guardians jump.

“What a touching display,” it sneered in a voice not its own.

Mandalee swore, drawing a sword and chopping it into pieces before Cat had time to blink.

A second corpse appeared and continued, “You two have been making quite the nuisance of yourselves out here, trying to stop the advancement of Ulvarius’ plans. As if you could!”

Its lips – or the rotted remains of them – did not sync with the words, but simply parted to allow the sentence to come out in full.

With a glance, Catriona caused the plants to pull the body apart.

Ten more corpses stepped out in front of them, one of which spoke up, “If it makes you feel better, by all means chop these into pieces as well, but it’s completely pointless. It’s not like Ulvarius is actually inside any of these bodies. They’re just meat puppets. There are plenty more corpses lying around and if they did somehow run out, well, Ulvarius can soon make more. All Ulvarius has to do is extinguish a few pointless lives.”

“Their lives aren’t pointless!” Catriona argued, while Mandalee decided actions spoke louder than words and shattered every last one of them in a heartbeat.

“You’re right,” came Ulvarius’ voice again, this time from a single corpse behind them. The remains of a young boy. “Not all of them, anyway. Not completely. Some of them could be of use to Ulvarius like this one was when I drained the magic right out of him.”

Mandalee’s assassin’s instinct was at war with her love of children. She wanted to smash this defiled body like the others, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Just like I’ll do to all those you ‘rescued’. As if Ulvarius won’t just pick them up again later.” The corpse shrugged. “Like I say: pointless, but this one’s still useful,” the voice taunted. “Ulvarius thought the body of a child might just make you pause for a moment to listen. In many ways, I’m doing you a favour.”

“Really? How’s that?” Cat demanded, acidly.

“I’m helping you to conserve your energy, instead of wasting it smashing empty bodies. You’re going to need all your energy for running in a minute.”

“You’re deluded if you think we’d ever run away from you,” Cat scoffed.

“Oh, no, of course not,” the voice replied. “You won’t be running away from Ulvarius. You’ll be running towards me. Desperate to be with Ulvarius, you’ll be.”

“Like my friend says, you’re deluded.”

The corpse shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. You see, Ulvarius controls so much land hereabouts, so many towns and villages, filled with, for the most part, pointless people filling their pointless lives by doing pointless things…pointlessly. But as we’ve established, not all of them are pointless. Some of them are quite useful as my meat puppets. Now, they might not be up to much intellectually – as if they ever were – but they can follow simple instructions. For example, if I make contact with my puppets in one village at random…” the child corpse made a show of considering, “…say one over that way, for example,” he pointed to the North East, “I can tell them to do this.” In the middle distance, they saw a huge fireball flare up into the sky as a village exploded.

“No!” the Guardians cried out together. The sound of the destruction carried on the wind, the ground shook and smoke began to drift towards them.

“You care so much about children? How many do you suppose were in that village?” the boy corpse wondered. “More than the dozen you just ‘rescued’, I’ll bet. If you hadn’t taken those from me, the ones in that village would still be alive. For a while longer, at least. This is why you’re going to run to Ulvarius as fast as you can, because every five minutes you keep Ulvarius waiting, another town or village will end the same way. Like this!” He pointed behind the Guardians, who spun around just in time to witness another explosion.

“Stop! Please!” Cat begged.

“No more, Ulvarius!” Mandalee growled. “You’ve got us.”

Once again, the boy corpse shook his head. “Not yet I haven’t, and the destruction doesn’t stop until I do. Run to Ulvarius, run to the Black Tower. Then it stops. And don’t even think of using any magic to teleport or speed you up or any other magic for that matter. If you do, Ulvarius will simply guess how many five-minute intervals it would have taken you, add an extra five per spell, and then double it. Ulvarius wants you to understand the cost of your interference. Every random village that explodes, every child that dies while you desperately try to reach the door of my Tower is a result of your actions.”

“Alright, Ulvarius, you’ve made your point!” Mandalee snapped.

“Wait!” Cat demanded. “The door of your Tower? What about your grounds’ defences? Are they going to let us through?”

“Either way, you’re running to your deaths,” the boy corpse shrugged. “Precisely how you die doesn’t really matter, does it? So why spoil the surprise? Now, Ulvarius would suggest you get moving. Run like people’s lives depend on it. Because they do.”

With that, the boy corpse collapsed to the ground as the puppet’s strings were cut, and without a word passing between them, the two Guardians set off running as fast as they could without magic.

*****

As it turned out, the Black Tower’s defences did let them through. It had taken them twenty-five minutes to run all the way from Ainderbury. Cat was sure she’d shaved five minutes off her personal best running speed, but that didn’t help the handful of villages she had seen explode along the way. She was sure Mandalee could have done better on her own, but she knew Ulvarius wouldn’t stop until he had both of them and her best friend would have refused to leave her on her own no matter what.

The black robed figure who greeted them at the door was far from the one Catriona was used to. Of course, this place wouldn’t be Dreya’s for another three hundred years, and even then, only if they could somehow get history mostly back on track. It could never be precisely the same – that ship had sailed. The best they could do now was to take care of the broad brushstrokes of history and try not to look too closely at the fine bristle-work.

Thinking of artwork, Cat compared the tyrant that stood before her to the portraits of Ulvarius she had seen in her time. Either the artists had been ‘encouraged’ to use their imaginations, or else his foul magic had led to some serious degradation. She had been attacked by the lich form of Ulvarius when the Timeline changes caused his resurrection. Quite frankly, apart from size, seeing the living tyrant now, he looked little different in the flesh, figuratively speaking, because literally speaking, there was barely any flesh to be seen. He was about five feet tall, with a melon-shaped skull to which half a dozen wispy hairs still clung tenaciously. His body was emaciated with skeletal, talon-like hands and sharp fingernails that looked like they hadn’t been cut for years.

The Champion of the Gods, Ossian Miach Kaidool may have been all skin and bone, but he had a large, imposing frame, a powerful, confident stride and a noble bearing about him that could not have been further from the form of Ulvarius.

To all appearances, there was nothing to fear from this individual who looked like he might blow away in the next gust of wind – if only – but appearances could be deceptive, and they certainly were in this case. For the magic of Ulvarius was unmatched, unrivalled by any of the mortals of this time. With the unstable higher planar energy from the control device fragment he had found, his power was likely a match even for Michael.

Fortunately, as Catriona was fond of saying, power wasn’t everything. There were people in this world who were ready to stand up to this tyrant and, with a little help from the future, they were going to put a stop to this threat and build a legacy that would last for centuries to come.