‘I didn’t lead him here,’ Stanley whispered to Kelly. ‘I swear it.’
The Collector raised an eyebrow. ‘Didn’t lead me here deliberately. Did you really think an EMP over a couple of blocks would cover your tracks? When I have the entire KG at my disposal?’
Stanley felt embarrassment at this fumble. He was an archaeologist, after all, not some sort of hero.
‘Seeker drones found the black spot within minutes,’ the Collector chuckled. ‘Seriously, Stanley, you are not cut out for this cloak-and-dagger nonsense. You could have at least worn a fake beard!’
Stanley straightened his back. ‘You’re a tyrant, William,’ he said plainly. ‘Your reign must end.’
‘“End”? What nonsense are you spouting?!’ spat the Collector. ‘The Northern Kingdom is safe and orderly. There is peace. Everything in place, everyone in place.’ He smiled a self-congratulatory smile. ‘So I take a little something – a trinket here, a treasure there – for my efforts? Isn’t that only fair?’
‘Want me to put him down, sire?’ asked one of the Elites, a brown-haired woman, as she glared at Stanley and Kelly.
‘Now, now, let’s not rush into anything, Captain Aiken,’ said the Soul Collector. ‘I think he’ll want to see what happens next.’
As Kelly listened to them, her eyes darted around for the best escape route. The Elites had spread out to cover the two paths out of the clearing, and she wasn’t sure she would be able to dodge their shots.
‘And you, my dear!’ said the Collector, snapping Kelly’s attention back to him. As she looked into his cold eyes, she could not sense anything of what he thought or felt. Her telepathic powers seemed to be blocked. Try as she might, all she could detect was the location of the source of this block – something pulsing on a finger on the Collector’s right hand.
‘Tell me. Would you like to come with me? You’ll live in one of my castles like a princess! Everything you could ever want will be provided, I promise.’
Kelly’s first instinct was to shudder – the very idea! Still, it was better to play along, at least for now. She cocked her head thoughtfully. ‘And what would you get in return?’
The Collector stopped. He was unused to people talking back to him. Stanley tensed visibly.
‘Why,’ William replied, ‘I would get to visit you whenever I liked. You and that wonderful horn of yours, and your beautiful golden hair. That’s not such a bad deal, is it?’
‘I’m not some animal to be stared at in a cage,’ Kelly said, more forcefully than she’d intended. She tried to keep her cool, but could feel her eyes blazing. How could she do any different? All her life she’d been angry at this man.
The Collector’s lip curled. ‘I’ll even let you live with your mother’s portrait,’ he added.
At this, Kelly could no longer control herself. The energy that she’d felt only in her legs now pulsed through her entire body. She screamed, lunging for the Collector, who zoomed up into the air.
‘Well, then. If that’s how you feel,’ he said, and snapped his fingers at his guards. ‘Take her alive!’
Without a moment’s hesitation the Elites drew their weapons. Stanley dived under the bench and Kelly dashed towards the closest guard. Her only hope was to surprise him with her speed.
Bolts started whizzing by, zzz! zzz! She looked up and saw the Elite ahead aiming right at her, but somehow she was able to remain calm.
As she watched the man fire at her, time seemed to slow – ever so slightly – and, without thinking, Kelly felt herself flick her horn, which connected with the bolt, and sent it sizzling right back at the soldier! The man’s eyes widened as it hit him in the chest and electric bands rippled out, shocking him into collapse.
With her heart pounding out of her chest, Kelly knew she didn’t have time to hesitate. She raced up the path, ducking under branches, towards the revolving door.
‘Don’t let her escape!’ bellowed the Collector.
A burst of three bolts whizzed past her and hit the revolving door’s control box, shorting it out and halting the door’s rotation. Kelly spun about and saw Aiken bearing down on her, brandishing a stinger rifle with a sighted scope.
‘Door’s out of order,’ she said, before vaulting the walkway rail into the rainforest. Branches exploded to the left and right of her, plumes of leaves crackling with energy.
Some distance from the path, Kelly darted around a tree and dug her heels into the soft earth to bring herself to a stop. Taking a moment to get her bearings, she tried to sense the presences around her. There was one closing in from another direction.
A hand came around the tree and seized her neck, hefted her up and flung her to the ground. Kelly crashed and rolled into a patch of dewy ferns.
As Kelly looked up, dazed, Aiken strode towards her, crushing orchids under her boots.
‘Don’t fight, girl,’ she said. ‘There’s no point. The Collector always gets what he wants.’
Kelly rolled sideways, over and over, deeper into the ferns, so fast they whipped around her confusingly. She heard bolts sizzle past, but the ferns quickly bounced back into place to cover her passage. She stopped flat on her stomach, watching Aiken through the quivering fronds.
Aiken just sighed. ‘Listen, girl, this will go a lot easier if you just show yourself.’
Kelly inched back as Aiken stalked through rays of sunshine bursting down through the canopy. Kelly heard a twig crack behind her and looked around to see a soldier coming from the other direction. She was about to be trapped!
Kelly surged up from the ferns and cracked her shoulder against the Elite’s legs, knocking him off his feet, as she tore off in a new direction.
The third Elite stepped into view from around a bush and fired. Kelly launched at him, planting a fly kick into his chest that sent him crashing backwards.
He landed with a splash and Kelly realised she had come full circle, reaching the forested side of the pond.
The Elite rose dripping from the water. He had lost his gun, but he pulled a long knife from a sheath at his waist and sprang at her. The blade flashed as it descended towards her.
A vine curled around the man’s arm and flicked the knife away. The Elite grunted, confused, and then more vines wound around his neck. They lifted him, choking, up into the trees.
The Collector walked casually into view along the other side of the pond.
‘I told you,’ he said to the struggling man, ‘to take her alive.’
He waved a hand at the vines. The Elite’s face turned purple as he clutched at his throat, kicking his legs. A moment later he fell still.
‘See how important you are to me?’ said the Collector. He walked towards Kelly across the top of the water, as if it were solid ground. ‘I won’t let any harm come to you, my dear. I’d even sacrifice my own loyal soldiers to protect you.’
Captain Aiken stepped into view behind him, her rifle trained on Kelly. Kelly was crouched at the pond’s edge without any cover, bruised and out of breath.
‘Send her to dreamland, sire?’ Aiken asked.
‘Don’t miss this time, Captain,’ said the Collector.
Zzz! A bolt whizzed from under the bench and hit Aiken in the back. Her eyes widened as white bands arced across her chest armour. She convulsed, then pitched face-first onto the ground. Under the bench, Stanley lay holding his discharged stinger.
The Collector turned with a howl of rage. ‘That’s the last time you defy me, Stanley Solomon!’ He reached up a hand, and fire began to collect at his fingertips.
Before she knew it, Kelly was on her feet tearing through the shallow pond. The Soul Collector tried to dodge, but she grabbed him by the arm. She wasn’t sure what she was doing, but she knew she had enough strength – and anger. She bore downwards with all her weight, flipping the Collector over to crash on his back in the pond. There was an audible crack and he screamed.
Kelly ran to Stanley as he emerged from under the bench.
The Collector rose, covered in mud and duckweed. Whatever concentration had kept him above the surface was now gone. He clutched his right arm, which hung limp, his face a mask of fury.
‘You … dare?’ he thundered.
He flung out his good hand and a ball of fire hurtled towards the bench. Kelly gritted her teeth and felt something instinctual take over.
Her horn pulsed as a shockwave erupted out of her – and then froze in the air like a giant bubble around her and Stanley. The fireball burst against it and fizzled out of existence.
Kelly blinked, and the bubble faded away to nothing.
The Collector was wearing an expression of disbelief. ‘My, my,’ he said. ‘Seems you have some tricks of your own. That horn of yours …’ He squinted at it. ‘Maybe you really are a unicorn, eh?’
Kelly glared at him.
‘Still,’ William said, ‘are you any match for Lucifer’s Ring?’
He winced as he moved his broken right arm, waggling his fingers. A moment later an easel and canvas rippled out of the air.
‘No,’ whispered Stanley.
William reached towards Kelly with his left hand.
Colour began to drain from the world around her. Amorphous streaks whizzed past, flew through the Collector and slammed onto the canvas. The grey of the stones at her feet oozed from under her. Pink and red and violet and blue streamed overhead as hanging flowers were robbed of their lustre. She was the eye in a storm of whirling colour being drawn towards the Collector.
Kelly felt a strange pull, as if something was reaching for her very soul. Something grimy, something grasping. She gasped as the pink colour of her own arms bled from the surface of her skin.
‘No!’ she shouted. The mysterious energy inside her surged through every vein and artery, and she gathered it to push the foreign influence out with a jolt, and harden herself against its return.
The Collector stared at her with undisguised amazement. On the canvas beside him was a beautiful picture of the Greenhouse, with a blank spot in the middle. Around Kelly, all was desolation – except for Stanley, who was still crouched behind her.
‘You can resist my power?’ the Collector muttered.
‘That’s right,’ said Kelly, as if she’d known all along. ‘Haven’t you seen my horn? I’m the Golden Unicorn!’
With that, she charged. The Collector yelped, waved a hand and shot upwards. The tip of her horn just missed his ascending boot.
‘We have to leave,’ Stanley shouted to her.
‘Where? We’re surrounded!’ Kelly said.
‘I studied this place before I came,’ Stanley said. ‘There is another way out.’
Kelly nodded to Stanley, hearing his instructions in her mind.
She threw herself into a huge somersault before landing heavily with a splash, feeling something break underfoot. Just as Stanley had promised, she’d broken through the bottom of the pond. Water gurgled as it drained away.
‘Unicorn!’ the Soul Collector shouted from high above, a twisted smile on his face. ‘You truly are a magnificent find! And you … will … be mine.’
He slowed to a hover, clutching his broken arm.
Kelly looked around for anything to bring him down. She spotted the easel and ripped it apart with her hands.
She flung a length of wood at the Collector, but he simply flew sideways and smirked.
‘You have to stop stealing for your stupid paintings! Just stop it!’ Kelly screamed at him, but he laughed in her face.
But his expression changed from amusement to confusion as he stared past her.
‘What?’ she demanded, and followed his gaze.
All colour and life had returned to the Greenhouse. The flowers and trees and shrubs were all back – damaged, but back nonetheless.
‘You undid the painting!’ Stanley said to Kelly, his eyes bright. He laughed, overjoyed, and looked up at the Collector. ‘Your paintings can be reversed!’
A dark expression took over the Collector’s face. ‘This does not end here, Kelly Swift,’ he said. ‘Don’t forget your dear mother! One click of my fingers and she’s gone forever.’ He slipped a comstick from the folds of his jacket and held it to his mouth. ‘This is the Collector – all KG close in immediately!’
Kelly felt a hand on her shoulder and jumped, but it was just Stanley.
‘Now we really have to run,’ he said.
Through broken tiles in the pond’s floor, the last of the water suddenly cascaded inwards, revealing a drainage tunnel beneath.
They stepped into the hole and splashed down into the shadows.
The Collector circled above them. ‘There’s nowhere to run where I cannot find you!’
Another fireball blazed down and Kelly fell backwards, pulling Stanley with her further into the hole. Flames exploded and tiles rained in, blocking the entrance.
Stanley spluttered as Kelly stood up.
‘I can hear what you’re thinking,’ she told him, ‘and we are not doomed. We will be all right. Now, let’s go.’
Together they descended into the dark.
