Chapter 54

Carmody stalked at the edge of the high platform, the simulated wind buffeting her armour as she looked towards the Tenth District.

“It was what he wanted” Sarah called out to her for the third time, busy directing Stanley as he ran his claws along the hard surface. Carmody glanced over at the pair, noting that the circle and pentagram within were nearly completed.

“I know” Carmody sullenly agreed. “But I wanted to fight at his side anyway”.

Sarah sat down awkwardly in her armour, nodding her head. She had her visor open, as did Carmody, and the stains of her tears were evident around her eyes.

“Do you think he beat her?” Sarah asked, raising her voice against the wind.

“Maybe” Carmody replied. It had been five minutes since they heard and saw the explosion in the distance. In the time that followed they had not heard any reply from Eric on their communication links, nor seen any sign of Nothing. She walked to her friends and examined the markings that Stanley had carved with his claws.

“Do you think this will work?” Carmody wondered. “We don’t have all the symbols and this isn’t made from that special paint the Sister used”

Sarah regarded her from where she sat on the deck, high above the copy of Pan City. This version of Archimedes Tower looked and felt the same as the one they had departed from. All it was missing were the rest of the AURA Project team and those strange pair from the Awakening Centre.

“It has to” her friend stated bluntly.

“Okay, let’s give it a try!” Carmody said encouragingly. “We’ve got nothing to lose”

Then they heard it, a scream of hatred coming to them across the sky. Carmody ran to the edge of the platform and saw the dreaded black shape, wings flapping as it streaked towards them. She drew Excalibur from her back and held it tightly, drawing courage from its solid handle.

“Better hurry, Sarah” she called out. “That bitch is back!”

=====

Sarah knelt to touch her bare hands to an arm of the five pointed star, focussing her thoughts on the world she had left. The Shock Gloves lay discarded to one side, useless until they were recharged.

She heard the screams of Nothing drawing closer, shutting out from her head the heavy beating of her wings. All she concentrated on was the circle and the star, willing the Portal to open. Sarah squeezed her eyes tightly closed, trying to see the way into the Light Side.

“I’m going to fight her!” she dimly heard Stanley shout, then Carmody’s cries for him to stay in the circle. Sarah knew she had no time left and felt her tears start again with frustration.

The noise outside of her head got louder and louder and panic started to fill her. Vainly she sought the calm indifference that her tutor Sister Domenica always showed. Maybe this was why she acted so cold, as a way to let her open the path to the After.

“I can’t do it by myself” Sarah whispered to herself.

“Let me help then” she heard Carmody’s voice and felt her friend’s hands lay onto the pentagram, fingers touching Sarah’s. “I have no idea what I am doing, but I can add what strength I have to yours”

Sarah felt a warmth flow from her companion, somehow filling her with new power. Then on her other side a scaled hand, tipped with long talons, brushed against hers.

“We Dracoris are unstoppable when we work together” Stanley said and Sarah felt a new power join with hers, hot and potent like the Vapora breath of the Steam Dragon.

The powers joined and flowed, three Dracoris as one, and the universe opened before her.

“I can see it all!” Sarah exclaimed in wonder. “All of the Realms, all of them connected!”

Before her in her mind’s eye Sarah saw the entirety of the Sphere of Existence. The vast and powerful Before, strange and unknowable. The immense After, filled with the eternal souls of every being that had ever lived. Between them lay the two halves of the Now, the shadowy Dark Side and the pulsing energy of the Light Side.

Dividing them all was the Boundary. Home to the Dragons and their Realms, she could see that now. It was so obvious, a place where the laws of both Light and Dark applied. A realm of magic and potent life, of wonder and despair.

All of it there, waiting for her to reach out and take it into her hands. Sarah felt her right hand stretch forwards, yearning to open the way into the Boundary. To see the realms of Avalon, to take Stanley back to his family.

“It is not the time, Sarah Evermore” Stanley’s voice spoke into her thoughts. “We can return to Avalon when we are ready. There is still much to be done in your home”

“Come on Sarah, Eric is waiting for us” Carmody reminded her.

“Of course” Sarah agreed and touched her hand to the Light Side, opening the Portal into her home.

The three of them stepped through a swirling gateway, a circle of shadow and light that surrounded the circular Portal and put their feet onto the platform of Archimedes Tower.

“They’re back!” Sarah heard Lilly shout, running towards them from across the windswept space. Sarah grinned and ran too, her eyes seeking out the form of Eric on his stretcher.

Then Lilly stopped and screamed in shock and horror, pointing at the Portal behind Sarah. Their other friends, Achmed and Angelina, even Jericho-Two and Seven, had stopped and stood open mouthed in fear.

Sarah turned and looked back, seeing Carmody and Stanley stepping onto the platform. Part of her mind registered a hint of sadness that the fancy weapons and armour that Eric had summoned were gone, with both girls back in their grey AURA jumpsuits.

Lilly was looking at Stanley, her eyes tracking him as he moved to the side of the platform.

“You can see him?” Sarah asked in surprise.

“That big blue dragon?” Lilly replied, pointing her hand at him with incredible accuracy. “Is that really Stanley?”

“I see him too!” added Achmed, coming to stand at his girlfriend’s side. “Was he always that big?”

Sarah looked at Carmody, who was holding her cricket bat against her chest in confusion.

“Maybe coming through the Portal made him completely real?” Carmody suggested and shrugged her shoulders. A sudden gust of wind pushed her backwards, almost tugging her into the Portal.

Sarah felt the wind grow stronger too, then saw a loose container bounce across the platform and vanish into the revolving Portal. The noise was growing louder too, a rushing sound like a waterfall coming from the open gateway.

“Is this normal?” Angelina called out in alarm. More containers were starting to move and even people were feeling themselves pulled towards the Portal.

“Miss Evermore!” Sarah heard her tutor call out sternly. “You have opened a Portal to all of the Realms, not just this one!”

“What?” Sarah shouted back, having to brace her feet against the landing deck as the growing wind tugged at her. Stanley had lowered himself, all four feet gripping the deck tightly. Carmody was braced against his body, her left arm locked around Lilly’s waist.

“You have connected all of Existence to this one Portal!” Sister Domenica shouted, raising her voice for the first time that Sarah had ever heard. “You need to close it before our entire world is sucked into the Void!”

Sarah looked with panic at her teacher, who was being held onto tightly by her tall assistant with one hand. His other was locked around one of the supports for the big wind barrier and he had a look of sheer terror on his face.

“How do I close it?” Sarah yelled, feeling Achmed grab her waist and brace her against the now howling gale.

“Focus your power onto the Circle!” the Necromancer answered. “Imagine the Portal closing like a door. Use your mind to lock it like a key!”

With Achmed’s help, Sarah knelt and put her bare hands onto the painted circle. She closed her eyes and imagined it was a door, just a plain old door like the one to her bedroom. Sarah imagined just reaching out to the doorknob and pulling it closed. The knob almost felt real in her hand as she dragged it shut, feeling like she was pulling it closed against a surging hurricane.

It was nearly closed and she was smiling with relief when a voice spoke to her.

“Not so fast, girl child!” snarled the voice of Nothing and the door was wrenched open once more.

Sarah’s eyes snapped open and she gazed with horror as the bloodied and shredded form of Nothing reached a broken taloned leg through the Portal. The dragon’s foreleg touched the hard landing surface and her broken claws gripped tightly into the deck.

“Oh crap!” Sarah said.

=====

Nothing had barely survived the final attack by that boy child Eric Hargreaves. Only a desperate tumble backwards had saved her, yet she had little strength left.

She had lain for some time, bleeding and close to dying on that hard courtyard. Her consciousness had wavered in and out a number of times until at last she had held onto wakefulness.

With agonising slowness she had stood upright, stretching out her tattered wings and enduring the pain that every part of her body felt. She promised herself that the boy child would suffer all kinds of exquisite torture when she took hold of his real world body.

To achieve that, she needed to follow the cursed Dracoris as they fled this artificial realm. She cast her nose about, scenting the air until she caught the whiff of the Vapora. Once she knew the direction, she gathered her remaining strength and climbed into the sky, following the trail of scent her prey had left.

As she drew closer, the destination became obvious. The sky breaching Tower of Archimedes and the landing platform at it’s very peak. She flapped her tired wings and lifted her broken body, screaming out in pain and hatred at the Dracoris she saw huddled there.

Nothing was almost upon them when they opened the Portal.

“Noooo!” she screamed, fearing her prey had escaped her at last. Then the wind began to blow, drawn into the open Portal.

“The fools!” she had cried out in delight. “The path is still open!”

Nothing had swooped in, pushing herself eagerly into the gateway between realms. The Dracoris Familia, Sarah Evermore, tried to push the Portal closed right in her face.

“Not so fast, girl child!” snarled Nothing and the Portal was wrenched open once more. Her right foreleg reached into the Light Side and she gripped her damaged talons into the landing deck.

Nothing laughed at the horror in the mortal faces she saw beyond the Portal. Even dear little Seven was there, watching as her old companion clawed her way into the real world.

“I am Nothing!” she screamed at their human faces, relishing the terror her very presence gave them. “There is no-one in this world that can defeat me!” she gloated and readied herself to push into their realm.

“There you are!” said a strange voice, echoing in the Void. Nothing turned her head to see a big green Dracoris Verdana racing at her, jaws held wide open.

Nothing let out one short squeal of fright then the green jaws snapped shut around her head and carried her off into the black Void.

“I have been looking for you everywhere” said the green dragon, then Nothing was gone. There was nothing left. Nothing at all.

“Who the hell was that?” gasped Sarah, her mouth hanging open.

“I think that was Alexandrettica the Twelfth, Daughter of Kormogorrah the Ninth” Carmody answered without hesitation. “Anyway, you really should shut that Portal now”

Sarah closed her mouth and reached out, pulling the door closed in her head and locking it. The swirling circle of light and shadow shrank down to a pin-point then vanished altogether.

“Thank goodness that is over” Sister Domenica said and came over to help Sarah back to her feet. “Although next time, I suggest only opening a Portal to one Realm at a time. That way we can avoid the complete and utter destruction of all Existence”

“Sure thing, Teach” Sarah said tiredly. Sister Domenica looked at her exhausted pupil and smiled gently but flicked her on the forehead anyway.

“My name is Sister Domenica, impudent child” she reminded her then stalked away, summoning her assistant to her side with an imperious command. “Come, Pike, we have a lot of work to catch up on”

Sarah watched her teacher leave, then sought out Eric’s stretcher. They had laid him against the back of the wind shield, watched over by Lucky and Nero. The new girl, the one called Seven, was kneeling at his side, her forehead pressed against his as she tenderly stroked the still face.

“I keep trying to call him, but he doesn’t respond” Seven said with a catch in her voice. She lifted her head to meet Sarah’s eyes. “Why didn’t you save him?”

She knelt too and took the silver key from the inside of her coveralls.

“I did” she answered the girl and laid the key across his forehead. Nothing happened for a few tense seconds, then Eric’s eyes snapped wide open and he drew a deep breath.

“Did it work?” he asked her in his emotionless tone. Then he saw her expression and laughed, making Sarah laugh too.

Soon all of their friends were crowding around, wanting to ask questions all at once. Sarah stood up and let her friends rejoice with him, moving out of the way. She felt a warm hand grip hers and saw it was Carmody, her beloved cricket bat in the other hand.

“We did it, Carmody” she said. “We went into another world and brought Eric back to us”

“We are Dracoris” Carmody nodded in agreement. “We can do anything if we put our minds to it”

“Hell yeah” Sarah replied. Then she sobered and looked to the other side of the landing deck, where an intrigued Jericho-Two was looking over a bewildered Stanley.

“Though I think my days of flying around invisible are over” she added. “Looks like everyone can see my Steam Dragon now”

“You’ll just have to share him now with the rest of us” her friend declared. “No more solo jaunts off to Port August, or sneaking out to see him on your tower roof”

“I don’t want to share him” Sarah sulked. “I found him, so he’s mine!”

“You are a very strange girl, Sarah Evermore” Carmody told her in exasperation.