The tide of unmaking, p.38
The Tide of Unmaking, page 38
part #3 of Berinfell Prophesies Series
The Lords and their friends stared at each other for a moment, a weary smile—very out of place—spreading.
“And count us,” Autumn said, barely containing a giggle. “Just six of us, right? And the prophecies say we’ve got to be Seven again, or the Tide will destroy everything!”
It happened all at once.
Laughter.
Spontaneous, exhausted, gut-wrenching laughter. Asp’s subterranean fortress had probably never seen such a display of utter tomfoolery. Jimmy cackled so hard that he fell out of his chair. And that, of course, set Bengfist to howling. Autumn and Kiri Lee leaned on each other and giggled so hard that tears poured.
Tommy held his sides, winced and coughed while he laughed. “Ow, ow, ow! Don’t forget, I’m hurt so bad I can barely walk! So we have that going for us too!”
Migmar, usually the most jovial of them all, failed to see the humor. He munched pensively on a piece of dragonroot and said, “Stop you this foolishness! Need we a plan!”
Eventually, the laughter decelerated. Except for a few sniffles and whispered sighs, the chamber grew quiet once more. That’s when they heard a peculiar sound.
“Oh, ah, that’s an awful smell,” Jast said.
Bengfist nodded and scrunched his face. “It…it’s like a maladon curled up and died around here.”
They all turned to Migmar.
“What?” Migmar objected.
Laughter roared anew, and it was several minutes before anyone could speak coherently.
“Okay,” Tommy said at last, “I think we all needed that. But now, we need to get serious. Now, we need a plan.”
“I think I have one,” said Kat, turning toward Migmar at the controls. “Migmar, you said you can open a portal anywhere in the world, right?”
“Of course,” he grinned. “Kat goes where?”
“It’s not where Kat wants to go,” she countered, “it’s where we want Asp to go.”
“Why didn’t I think of that before?” said Tommy.
“Oh, brilliant!” replied Autumn. The group gathered around the table, riveted to the monitors.
“Okay, Migmar,” Tommy said, “where’s Asp at?”
“Here,” he brought up a window as before; Asp was hovering high over a section of midtown Manhattan.
“Wait until he’s steady,” Tommy’s eyes narrowed. “Just use his coordinates. With any luck he’ll either fly right into it, or the portal’s gravity will snag him if you get it close enough.” Such a simple idea, Tommy thought. “Then we’ll send him…where do we want to send him?”
“Vaporlize him!” said Bengfist.
“It’s vaporize, Bengfist,” corrected Autumn. “Vaporize.”
“Not so fast,” Tommy said. “Remember, it’s better if we can convince him to move his armies back himself. They’ll listen to him more easily than us I’m guessing.”
“And then we vapor-eyes him,” added Bengfist.
“Everyone be on the ready,” said Tommy. “We’re bringing him back here. Weapons drawn.” The group readied their arsenal of combat skills and weaponry. Blades glimmered, fire danced, arrow points focused, stone hammers swung, all aimed at the open space above the Kevlar pad. “No one shoots until I give the signal. Remember: talk first, shoot later.” He nodded to Migmar.
Migmar entered the appropriate data and initiated the action command. He pressed the Enter key.
A small burp rang out as a pop-up message filled the window.
Unable to complete task.
Tommy glanced over, frustrated. “Unable to complete—? Try it again, Migmar.”
Migmar entered the same data, being sure he’d typed it in properly. Enter.
Unable to complete task.
“Blocking it, something must be,” said Migmar. “Not sure.”
“He’s got some sort of jamming gadget I bet,” said Autumn. “Or just the Dark Arts would do it, I’m sure.”
“Some bright idea that was,” said Kat.
“Hey now, it was a great idea,” Jimmy corrected her. “Joost not the right one. We need a better one, that’s all.” Everyone stayed their weapons and relaxed.
“No,”Kat thought, “now…right now we need to pray.” The other Lords exchanged glances, their eyes speaking what they all felt: shame for not thinking of prayer in the first place.
They bowed their heads and quieted their hearts. And each, in his or her own way, searched for Ellos.
Their prayers ended. They were silent a minute. Some glanced at computer monitors. Others watched the luminous line that represented the Tide of Unmaking as it crept slowly but inevitably across the holographic globe.
“I have to admit,” Kat said, “I had a hard time praying.”
Autumn and Johnny looked up sharply. They glanced at each other and then back to Kat. “You, too?” Autumn said.
Kat nodded. “Maybe it’s being back on Earth,” she said. “Or maybe it was our trip to Jett’s house, but as soon as I closed my eyes to pray, I couldn’t stop thinking about my parents…my human parents that is.”
Tommy sighed. “I kept asking Ellos to give me a plan…to show me how to defeat Asp or stop the Tide. But I just kept thinking about this fishing trip my parents took me on when I was like eight.”
“Looks like we we’re all thinking of our folks,” Johnny said.
“Not all of oos,” Jimmy said.
Kiri Lee looked up but said nothing.
“Sorry,” Johnny said. “I wasn’t thinking.” Jimmy waved dismissively.
“Maybe we could visit them,” Kat whispered. “They have a right to know what’s happened…and what’s happening right now.”
“Least we can do,” Johnny said.
“We don’t have time,” Tommy said. “The Tide is advancing. People on Earth, in Allyra too…they are dying by the thousands. Maybe the millions.”
“I know,” Kat said. “You’re right.”
Autumn made eye contact with Johnny and said, “This could be it, Tommy. Asp, the Tide, the Nemic…the end of everything. You know that, right?”
Johnny nodded. “We’re not givin’ up,” he said. “But…just in case…don’t you want to see your folks, your human folks, that is…just one more time?”
Kat’s moist eyes glimmered with hope. “We’ll never have another chance like this,” she whispered. “The portals. We can go wherever we want…in a heartbeat. And be back just as fast.”
Tommy found no comfort in the eyes of his friends. Grief, despair, ache, fear—these things he saw. It was like looking back in time…before they were all Lords. Tommy saw them as they might have been as children. How frightened and needy they all were.
Or maybe, he thought, maybe that’s just how I feel.
If this was the end of all things, and Tommy knew it very well could be, it would mean a lot to see his Earthly parents one last time. Maybe, Tommy thought, it might just be what we all need to finish this.
“Ten minutes,” Tommy said.
“What?” Kat asked.
“We portal to our parents for ten minutes,” Tommy said. “We can’t spare any more time. If you can’t find them, just come back here. Agreed?”
They all nodded.
Migmar had clearly grown adept with the controls. His small fingers raced across the keyboard, and the luminous globe spun to the Eastern Seaboard. Tommy gave Migmar the street address of his family home. The instruments in Asp’s fortress tapped into several satellites and, in moments, Migmar had a portal open.
“Is ready,” the Gnome said, taking a bite from a twig of dragonroot.
“Glad I’ll be gone for a little while,” Tommy said with a wink. “Go ahead and open the link.”
A few clicks from Migmar, and a shimmering, vertical seam opened above the octagonal Kevlar footpad in the corner of the chamber. The seam spread open, forming an opening the size and shape of an arched door. Flickers of blue and white electricity danced around its border.
Tommy looked to the other Lords. “Ten minutes,” he said. “That’s all. No matter what.”
They nodded, and Tommy stepped into the portal.
A flash of light. A dizzying array of patterns. Nausea. Tommy kept his stomach in check, but suddenly, he was falling.
Only a few feet, it turned out. He hit the turf and rolled to a crouch. He looked up and felt a pooling heaviness in his stomach.
He was home.
As much as he wanted to take in the surroundings—the carport where he’d hit tennis balls against the side of the house and yelled at thunderstorms, the sycamore tree he’d climbed, the one that leaned in from the Ledbetter’s yard so conveniently, and the little sewer vent in the side yard where Funny Face, the family cat, had first appeared—he just couldn’t waste a moment.
Strange, he thought, climbing up the front steps. It looks exactly like I remember it. He glanced at the driveway. Ha, my parents still haven’t even gotten a new car.
Then, it dawned on him. Seven years, Allyra time. But on Earth, I’ve only been gone, what? A month and a half? He laughed.
Tommy knew the door would be unlocked, but he knocked anyway. Didn’t want to startle them.
She came to the door, looked through the sheer curtain, and gasped. She opened the door slowly and whispered, “Tommy?”
“It’s me, Mom,” he said. “I know I look older and—” He never finished the sentence.
His mother crushed him in an embrace and wept on his shoulder. “Thank you, thank you, thank you, Jesus,” she said, squeezing him tighter and tighter. “I thought we’d never see you again!”
Tommy’s father was there in an instant. Soon his strength added a few more ounces of crush to their embrace.
“I missed…you…too,” Tommy said. “But…can’t breathe.” They released their son and pulled him inside.
The den soon became a jumble of half-spoken sentences and phrases. Tommy kept an eye on the clock. He had just three minutes left.
“The scroll you left,” his mom said. “It’s all true then…oh, my gosh, look at your ears.”
Tommy laughed. “All true.”
“You look so much older,” Mr. Bowman said. “A man now, really. Elf…er, Elf-man?”
“Seven years passed in Allyra,” Tommy said. “I know it doesn’t seem like that long to you, but—”
“Long enough,” Mrs. Bowman said. “Don’t you ever—”
“Mom, I can’t stay,” Tommy said gently. “I only have a few minutes left.”
Fresh tears ran down her cheeks. “Why, Son?” Suddenly she was hugging him again.
Tommy did his best to explain it all, using up as few words and as little time as possible.
“That explains a lot,” Mr. Bowman said. “The attacks. They’ve been on the news. Terrible things, Son. All over the world. Thousands and thousands dead. And that, what did you call it? Tide? Scientists are saying it’s a geothermal vapor wave caused by global warming.”
If the moment hadn’t been so utterly grim, Tommy might have laughed.
“I have to stop it, Dad,” Tommy said. “Ellos, uh…God…told us how to in His prophecies. But…we lost our Seventh Lord. And I have no idea how we’ll even get close to Asp. And we can’t fight him. It’s just—”
“Shh, shh, shh,” Mr. Bowman said. “I know it seems hopeless, Son. But you listen to me. I don’t understand much of what you said, but I do know that the darkest times are when God can use you to shine the brightest.”
“Thank you,” Tommy said, embracing his father. He stood up. “I needed to hear that right now, needed to hear it from you. I’m sorry, but I…I have to leave now.”
Wiping her tears on her sleeve, Mrs. Bowman hugged Tommy once more. “You go do what you have to do, Son,” she said. “We’ll be praying for you.”
They followed Tommy outside to the lawn. The portal appeared. This time, closer to the ground.
“Mom, Dad,” Tommy said. “If we stop it…if we stop the Tide, I won’t be able to see you again. And if we fail…everything…everything will be gone.”
“That’s not true at all, Son,” Mr. Bowman said. “If you stop the Tide, it’ll just be a little longer…until we see you again.”
Tommy’s lips trembled as he forced a smile. He knew what his father was talking about. I can trust you, Ellos, Tommy thought. And he stepped into the portal and was gone.
“This is maddening,” Bengfist grumbled. “With every flicker of this…what did they call it? Moniterd? Every time the picture changes, I see the destruction caused by Asp’s forces…and there’s nothing we can do to stop them. I wish there were something more productive we could do while the Lords are away.”
“Agreed,” Jast said. “But at least it is to be only ten minutes.” She looked over at Migmar, but the Gnome seemed lost in thought. She glanced downward. “Migmar,” she said abruptly. “Why is that light blinking?”
She pointed at a red light flashing on one of the monitors. On screen there were at least four Drefids standing in what looked like the husk of a burned-out house. “Migmar?”
The Gnome blinked at last. “Sorry,” he said. “Know not this.” He reached up and pushed on the screen with his finger. The red light stopped flashing.
“…much longer,” came the raspy voice in mid sentence. “So if you’ll kindly open a portal for us.”
The Drefids seemed to be staring right through the screen.
Migmar ducked beneath the console. “See us, Drefids can!” he whispered urgently.
“I do not think so,” Bengfist said. He brazenly slid into Migmar’s chair so that he sat directly in front of the screen where the Drefids waited impatiently. He grabbed the headset from Migmar and spoke into the mic. “We, uh…have had some…moniterd problems,” Bengfist said. “Can you see us?”
The hiss that came through the speakers made the hair on Bengfist’s forearms stand up straight. “Of course we cannot see you,” the Drefid said. “This is a keyhole camera, dolt! Now, give us the portal to the New York Armory, or I will report you to Lord Asp myself.”
“Ten thousand apologies,” Bengfist said, trying to make his voice raspier. “We will open a portal…right away. Uh…where are you?”
The exasperated Drefid practically screamed the address.
“You get that?” Bengfist whispered to the Gnome. Migmar nodded.
“English military is upon us!” the Drefid screeched. “Now! Give us the portal, now!”
Migmar jumped back into his seat. His fingers raced over the keys.
A small blue circle appeared on the globe. It completely surrounded England but shrank for several seconds until it was directly over a tiny corner in the northwest. Then, the globe spun slightly. A new circle appeared over Italy.
Migmar kept typing away. He hit the final key with a hearty laugh.
Bengfist, Jast and Migmar looked to the monitor. The Drefids were already entering the portal Migmar had opened within the burned-out house. Soon the room was empty, and the camera switched off.
“Where’d you send them?” Bengfist asked. “The New York Armory?”
Migmar shook his head. “Opened, I did, the portal right above Mount Etna in Italy. Is an active volcano, explosively.”
“You sure you don’t want to take the 12-gauge with you?” John Briarman, Johnny’s dad, asked. He leaned out of the shadow cast by the barn’s roof and held out the formidable looking shotgun. “It’ll fix those Dref-varmints, and good.”
“We can’t, Dad,” Johnny said. “It’s got a lot of inorganic stuff. Won’t go through the portal. Besides, I have a little more firepower than that now.”
“You’re not going to show off, are you?” Autumn asked.
“Just a little.”
“I think you both should show off, my gems,” Mrs. Briarman said, still drying her eyes. “A little.”
They got up off of the bales of straw, and rounded the back of the barn to the field where the Briarman’s had once grown corn. A severely weather-beaten scarecrow leaned on its post at the field’s edge. Its head was an old throw pillow with a Jack ‘O Lantern’s face drawn upon it.
Johnny pointed at the scarecrow and asked, “Do you need that anymore?”
“Nah, Son,” Mr. Briarman said. “Do your thing.”
Johnny cracked his knuckles.
Autumn muttered, “Oh, brother.”
“You might want to back up a little,” Johnny said. He held out his hands, palms facing upward. A flicker of white flame formed in his left hand; a ball of orange fire in his left. He flicked his hands, and the two fireballs crisscrossed. Back and forth they went. A red ball of flame joined them. Then a blue one. Soon, he was juggling fireballs.
“Mom said a little showing off, Johnny!” Autumn grumbled.
Johnny winked and turned toward the scarecrow. The circling fireballs intensified to a ring of flame. Johnny yelled and heaved his hands forward. The ring of flames became an inferno and surged into the scarecrow like a freight train made of fire.
It was flash-incinerated. The heat washed backward, but Autumn raced forward. Her lean legs churned like pistons, becoming blurred as she moved faster than the eye could steadily follow. She encircled the blaze. The flames dimmed instantly. The faster Autumn went, the faster the flames were starved for air. In a matter of seconds, the blaze was out.
Autumn skidded to a halt in front of her parents. “Well?” she asked.
“I always knew there was something special about you,” Mrs. Briarman said. She gathered Johnny and Autumn into an embrace. “No, that’s not quite right. You were special long before you got these powers.”
Mr. Briarman joined the embrace. He spoke haltingly, emotion choking his words. “Johnny, Autumn,” he said. “We’re both so proud’a you.”
Just then, a black shape raced around the other side of the barn. It moved swiftly. Autumn sidestepped it, but the thing barreled into Johnny. He sprawled backward with the thing on top of him. There was a flash of teeth at Johnny’s throat and then…
