The Three Feathers - The Magnificent Journey of Joshua Aylong (22 page)

“The great gray wolf from the Ice Forrest. What a mighty friend the rooster has chosen for his quest. And how much greater his defeat will be once he realizes the full extent of your weakness.” The vulture’s thoughts penetrated Grey’s mind mercilessly. “I met your companion, wolf. At least what was left of her once the hunter was done with her remains. I commanded her to rise from the dead and she could not deny my request. Right now she roams the ice in search of her companion who has abandoned her for the rooster. As for you, you will die alone, wolf. And there will be no place for you to go where you will meet her again. You will have died for nothing but to feed my army, giving them life with your death. The one thing you will have accomplished is to bring the rooster to me. That will be your end. To give me eternal life in exchange for the rooster’s. And to feed the dead with your own demise.”

The wolf snarled and whined at the same time. His wincing echoed through the cave. Joshua was convinced that he was about to charge toward her any moment. But behind the vulture and out of the shadows two hyenas now stepped into the light. They were larger than the others, almost twice the size of the wolf. Their dead eyes spoke of blood and flesh hanging from bones and of a horrifying death.

“And you, Krieg.” The vulture looked at the horse, black saliva dripping out of her half decomposed beak. “I will give you a war of such you have not yet dreamed of. A war that will be fought in your heart. For you will watch while I feed on the Pegasus’ body and you will forever know that you did nothing to prevent me from doing so. That will be your enemy; the foe you will pursue for the rest of your life. It will be a war that will be fought inside you and you will be slain upon its altar each time you think of her. You will feel her pain and her love will escape you and comfort will never reach your restless soul.”

Krieg was frozen. Unable to move, he stood facing the vulture. Every fiber of his being told him to attack her full force. But what he saw in her eyes made him want to hide somewhere instead. Krieg, possibly the greatest war horse of his time, was immobilized by fear and a terror so great he could do nothing but accept his defeat.

Joshua was privy to the wolf’s and the horse’s exchange with the vulture. While he looked at her he could feel death’s unrelenting grip upon his throat. It was suddenly hard for him to breathe. He felt Krieg’s terror and Grey’s desperation as if they were his own, but through it all there was another presence he felt. It came from somewhere deep in the shadows of the cave. It was immense, its consciousness vast and its power almost limitless. At least under normal circumstances. But he felt that whatever it was, it was captive to the vulture’s curse like Joshua and the others.

“Help me,” the dragon whispered faintly in his thoughts. “Help me!”

And for an instant, Joshua could sense the magnitude of the nightmares it endured at the vulture’s hands. They were nightmares spun of the dragon’s dreams that once were of such beauty they would have made him weep. But now all the beauty was gone and what was left was perpetual hopelessness.

There was suddenly motion when the area beyond the reach of the light beam began to move. The spiders came back and crawled up the two pillars on either side of the web closing in on Wind. Their bodies crawled all over her and at first it looked like they were strengthening the cocoon. But then Joshua saw that the spiders untied her from the web and carried her down to the ground. Joshua and the others had to move otherwise they would have been overrun by the spiders who brought Wind’s limp body to a predestined spot where they placed her on the stone. They disappeared as quickly as they came, back into the shadows of the cave.

And then it dawned on Joshua. The body of water was very close to Wind. When Joshua and Grey’s eyes met for a moment, he knew that the wolf thought the same thing. Grey’s reminder to guard his thoughts was in his eyes as well. If they could somehow get the Pegasus into the water she might come back to life. Joshua felt a spark of hope return to him—hope that they might have a chance after all. It was slim, perhaps, but a spark might be all they needed. A spark and a moment of surprise. If they were to charge at her all at once and somehow catch her before she could lift off… Joshua began to think that it was possible to defeat her.

Was it a grin he saw in her? He thought at first that his eyes played tricks on him. The vulture did not grin in the flesh. But he realized that she grinned within his mind. And her grin became laughter. It mocked them and the three companions looked at each other, not knowing what to make of it. Then it dawned on them. She knew about the water. And she knew that they knew. She had known since they had defeated the hyenas back at the village. She was playing with them, playing with their hopes, building them up only to crush them again.

“You are very perceptive, Joshua Aylong,” he felt her pestilence wreaking havoc in his mind, searching it for every little scrap of thought she could use against him. It was over. And he was suddenly transported back to the day when the farmer took the other rooster from the pen and held him down on the ground to cut off his head and he felt the rooster’s terror at that moment. He could not help feel responsible for his death and for every single soul that had perished before and after him. Joshua wanted to die at that moment. He wanted it all to end, wanted to just disappear into oblivion and nothingness and not experience the terror of this moment any longer. He looked at the wolf next to him who shook his head ever so slightly in a ‘no’.

Then Grey, without giving any indication he would do so and in one fluid motion, charged toward the vulture who was, at that moment, about ten yards away from them. The large wolf gained speed fast and just before he reached her, she lifted off, mocking him with her laughter and loud cries. At the same time the hyenas moved toward the wolf, closing in on him and meeting him at the place where the vulture had just sat. Their fangs tried to dig into the wolf’s neck but he was strong and quick and he avoided them and caught one of them by the throat. Normally the hyena would have died instantly. But she was already dead and nothing could kill her now. The wolf knew that. He pulled her toward the water. She was fighting him but lost ground quickly. Then the other hyena came at him from the side and he had to let go of the first one in order not to be bitten to death by the second.

All this happened within a few seconds. And while the wolf charged at the vulture, Krieg charged at her as well and when she lifted off, the horse unfolded his wings and lifted off into the air also. The vulture gained height fast whereas Krieg had to work for his momentum at first. But then he was up and Joshua saw him gaining on her as they flew ever higher until Joshua could barely make out who was who. And then their battle in the air began.

Joshua tried to get closer to Wind but the spiders surrounded him within seconds of the vulture’s lifting off the ground. He had very little room to move and could do nothing but stare back into their dead eyes that were watching him vigilantly. They were about his height and a single one of them could easily kill him in an instant. There was nothing for him to do but to wait. He witnessed the wolf fighting the hyenas. Grey gave them hell, but Joshua knew that his attacks were finite. At some point his strength would leave him. Then he could only jump into the water. They couldn’t follow him but there was no place to stand inside the round opening. It was a crater with a sharp edge going straight down. One could either stand next to it or swim in it. There was nowhere else to go.

Joshua could see the dark outline of the dragon on the other side of the spider’s web. His body seemed to move and his contours changed and Joshua realized that he was covered with spiders that moved on top of him. His neck feathers stood up at the thought of it.

Joshua tried to communicate with the wolf but he was so focused on surviving the fight against the hyenas, he was not listening at all. Grey looked at him once and Joshua saw the exhaustion in his eyes. At some point he would have to give up. Joshua felt helpless and once began to fly over to him but a single shot of the sticky spider’s web flew toward him immediately, missing him only by a few inches. It was a clear warning not to move. And then it happened. The wolf had just countered yet another attack from one of the hyenas and for a moment he stood, shaking, blood smears all over his coat, saliva dripping from his snout and near complete exhaustion. He had nothing left in him.

“I’m sorry, Joshua,” he thought when he lowered his head, a sign that he was defeated. The hyenas closed in on him and Joshua knew that the wolf didn’t have it in him to defend himself any longer. At that moment Krieg came crashing down, landing half on his legs and half on his side, tumbling several times, sliding on the harsh ground and ending up close to the Pegasus. He lay there completely still.

“Krieg!” Joshua tried to get closer but couldn’t. “Krieg, are you alright?” He asked. There was no answer. Not a sound, a thought, or even the slightest movement from the horse. He might as well have been dead.

“Watch out, Joshua!” Grey’s thoughts reached him at the same time as the vulture came swooping down and grabbed him. She lifted him up, digging her powerful talons into his flesh. She looked at him while she rose into the air.

“You have lost, Joshua Aylong and now you belong to me.” With that she dropped him. He was at least fifteen yards up in the air and fell straight down. A few weak flaps from his wings slowed his fall somewhat but when he hit the ground it felt as if his body broke into a thousand pieces. He tumbled several times over and over until he came to a stop. The world spun around him. He could not focus his eyes on a single point. Sickness rose up in him and he knew that something was broken inside him. He tried to lift his head but couldn’t move. The spiders had cleared out of the immediate area and he had a straight line of sight to Grey and the horse. Despite the pain he felt everywhere in his body it was his heart that hurt the most when he looked at them. And then he felt the end of all things descending upon them when the vulture landed next to him.

There was one question left in Joshua. To make him understand. To make him grasp what had happened to him, to his friends. There was a dream once. A dream of three feathers on a blackened stone. Why he searched for them he still could not say. But he did and it had cost him everything, and not only to himself, but also to his companions. The ones that were closest to him had suffered the most. Too high a price for a dream, he thought. Better end it now. But he had to ask the question. It was his curiosity that won over his fear at that moment. So he turned his head and looked straight at the vulture. It was as if he looked into an abyss of unimaginable horror.

“Why?” He asked, despite it all.

The vulture cocked her head as if she couldn’t believe that he could ask this question.

“Why? There is no why,” she answered simply. “You opened the door and I stepped through it. And what happens from now on is on you. Your dream awoke me. You defeated the mirror labyrinth that was designed never to be defeated. It activated the light beacon connecting this world with another and from there with yet another and many more beyond that one. In time all of Hollow’s Gate will awaken. And all of it will serve me, will feed and give strength to my legions. And when we have reached critical mass, I will send them through the beacon and into the other worlds and from there into the others beyond. And darkness will reign until the end of days.”

Joshua was in shock. The revelation that he was the stone that started the landslide that lead to the extinction of… everything… was too much for him. He closed his eyes. For a moment, he heard the sliver of a melody.

“LOOK AT ME!” The vulture screamed in her thoughts. He did not dare not to follow her command. When he opened his eyes, her face was close to his. “You gave me life, Joshua. And now, through your death, this life will become eternal. And nothing will have the power to stop me.” The vulture looked up, spreading her wings and letting out a cry as if to summon the heavens for her purpose alone. Joshua closed his eyes again. The melody was like a whisper that slowly gained momentum.

The vulture turned Joshua on his back and stepped onto both his wings, pinning him down. Her beak was lifted in the air ready to strike and take his life to gain hers forever. Deep inside him something stirred. Something made its way to the surface. Fluid motions, powerful jaws and legs, eyes penetrating his very soul. The lioness had awakened and Joshua let her go free. He was no longer in the way. He stepped aside, opening an ancient door that was shut for all too long. She had answered his call and he saw her. Low to the ground she came toward him, an amalgam of speed, power and grace. And when Joshua opened his eyes, the vulture saw the face of the lioness in him. There was a moment of absolute terror in her—a terror she had not yet experienced. It hit her like a battering ram. She saw the lioness in Joshua’s eyes and she knew she could not stand against her.

Joshua let out a rooster crow that echoed through the cave and beyond. And at that moment, the melody reached its crescendo.

“TURTLE!” The wolf’s thoughts reached him the moment Alda broke through the surface of the water. Her massive body was suspended in the air for a moment. Joshua saw the vulture, still fighting the terrifying image of the lioness he had evoked in her. And for a split second, time slowed down. He saw the water cascading from the turtle’s massive back. He saw the spiders react and try to move away from the crater. He saw Krieg lift his head. He saw the hyenas turn to flee and he saw Grey grab one of them at her throat, holding her down.

Then, with a deafening, cacophonic sound, the turtle slammed back into the water. The tidal wave swept over the edge flowing far into the cave, washing over Grey, Krieg and Wind, taking with it hundreds of spiders. The vulture lifted off into the air, screaming. Joshua was swept further into the cave where he was washed onto a small rock ledge. From there he watched the scene unfolding before him.

The water reached the dragon. It immediately began to disintegrate the spider’s web. He shook his massive body and most of the spiders fell off his back. It wasn’t that they died when the water reached them. It was more that something let go of their tortured bodies and whatever had stopped the process of decay now progressed with immense speed. Within seconds they were gone.