Vengeance Child

‘Jay,’ she called. But he vanished into the undergrowth without showing any sign he’d noticed her.

The cloud brought an early dusk. Heavy drops of rain began to smack against the leaves. Tree trunks groaned as the breeze tugged at them. Laura pushed on. Her legs ached; she longed to sit down to catch her breath. But time was running out. When – if! – she found Archer she’d then have to find Victor. The second stage of this disease would addle his senses. In that state he might be capable of anything. And she knew he blamed Jay for the epidemic. Ahead of her stood the castle walls. Even though much of the fortress’s interior lay in ruins, the walls were intact. She knew Archer had been fascinated by the castle. There was a chance he’d wandered up here to play in its grounds. Moments later, she broke free of the forest. Raindrops burst against her head. A cold trickle ran down inside her collar sending shivers across her flesh.

The big twin gates to the castle were locked. Standing ten feet high they proved a formidable barrier. Without keys she’d need a long ladder to have even a chance of gaining entry. Wasn’t there a small side door? She paused, trying to remember whether it lay in the section of wall that lay to her left or to her right. Storm-force winds howled through the battlements as, shivering, she chose the right-hand flank of the wall. It ran like some bleak cliff face, more than twenty feet high, to a corner tower, then turned at a right angle. In this half-light it made for a gloomy, monstrous place. Laura devoted her remaining energies to searching for the door. Within seconds she’d found it, then came a heart-dropping disappointment.

‘Locked.’ She turned the iron handle, tugged, pushed, then kicked at the old timbers. ‘I don’t believe it.’ The solid slab of oak was fixed tight into its frame. It didn’t budge an inch. ‘Archer! Archer!’ But if the doors were locked how could the boy be in there? Damn. She’d have to return to the village. Maybe she could find people to help search for him. Then, again, so many of the islanders were either sick or looking after sick relatives. And Victor, himself, might be comatose by now. Laura ran her fingers through her sopping wet hair.

Gusts of gale-force wind tugged at her clothing like vicious claws. A vulnerable child that depended on her wandered the island in a storm. The island was under quarantine, so the police couldn’t help. The islanders themselves were dying . . . So wrapped up was she in despair that she ran by it without recognizing what it was. She’d staggered a dozen paces before she realized something strange projected from the castle wall that sat on its grassy mound.

Turning, she peered back through the rain. Am I imagining this? For there, projecting three feet from the stonework, and some six feet above the ground, was a slender metal pole. At the end of the pole a triangular pennant in yellow. Laura stared. The pole wasn’t fixed to the wall. It protruded through what appeared to be a ventilation block. She took a step toward the pennant as it fluttered. Now she could see that the ventilation block was set in modern-looking masonry, which formed a bricked-up archway the size of a garage door.

The steel rod jerked up and down. It’s not the breeze making that happen. Laura scrambled up the low mound to the wall. There were no other openings. Just a single block pierced with holes. Through one of them someone had pushed a slender rod with its fluttering pennant.

The moment she stood on tiptoe to try to see through the holes a frightened voice rang, ‘Laura! Laura! I can see you!’

‘Archer! Are you all right?’

The storm drowned out most of the boy’s reply, but she made out the words, ‘Stuck here . . . cellar . . .’ Then a heartfelt, ‘Please, Laura, get me out. I don’t like it . . . dark . . . she might come out again. She’ll hurt me.’

Frantic with alarm, Laura called, ‘Archer! Who’s in there with you?’

The pounding rain obliterated his answer. Quickly, Laura reached a decision. ‘Just stay where you are, Archer! I’ll get you out. It might take a few minutes, so be patient, OK?’

He shouted again. Even though she couldn’t make out individual words she all too clearly heard his fear. Once more she tried to see through the ventilation holes. They were way too narrow. What was more, it seemed as if there was no light in whatever place Archer had found himself. She tried to slip her fingers through the holes below where the pole emerged, but the depth of the block prevented her from even wiggling her fingers through at the other side to reassure Archer. All she could do was call out not to worry, she’d be back soon to free him.

Rather than weave her way through the forest, she ran back to the main castle gates. From there a lane ran back along the island to the village. The first thing she was saw when she rounded the corner was Victor.

He approached the castle, calling out as he did so. There was such sorrow in the cry. ‘Ghorlan . . . Ghorlan, where are you?’

The rain blurred his image so much he’d become a ghost of a man. Laura ran to him, then grabbed his shoulders. He gazed right past her.

‘Ghorlan!’

‘Victor. It’s me, Laura. Snap out of it.’

‘I saw her,’ he muttered. ‘I was on the ship . . . the N’Taal . . . all those people, they didn’t stand a chance. I-I held on to the baby . . . I really tried. Ghorlan! Where did she go?’

Fiercely, she shook him. ‘Victor. Victor! Listen to me. Remember who I am. Remember what you’re supposed to be doing. Victor, give me the name of the boy you’re looking for.’

He stared as if she babbled a language he didn’t understand.

‘You’re not well, Victor, but I know you can still hold it together. What you’ve got to do is to want to help me. Then you can start thinking clearly again. Use your willpower, Victor. Want to be well enough to help. You can do it.’

He studied her features. It was as if he saw someone familiar, only he couldn’t quite place the face.

‘Victor. Who am I?’

As the rain streamed down his face he shook his head.

‘Remember this.’ She grabbed his hand, then held it to the side of her head. ‘Can you remember when you stroked my face, and what you said about the line of my jaw?’

‘Soft. Like apple blossom.’ He blinked. ‘Laura?’ His eyes sharpened. ‘Laura, where’s Jay?’ He twisted round. ‘Jay was here a minute ago. My God . . . he showed me you. You were at Badsworth Lodge. A girl with bandaged wrists. You had a puppy.’

‘Scraps.’ She grinned with relief. And, dear God in heaven, it felt such a big, stupid grin. But it was so good to see the man back to his old self. Even if it might only be temporary. ‘But he’s grown into a big old pooch now. The dog with the bottomless pit for a stomach. The children love him.’

‘They love you, too.’ He rubbed his face. ‘The ship. I stood on the deck. I was there when it sank. At the end the refugees weren’t frightened. They were furious. Their anger! It was like standing inside an exploding bomb.’ He began to walk. ‘We must find Jay. I think I’m starting to make him understand. We’ve got to persuade him to realize that what he’s doing is wrong.’

‘Victor.’ She caught his arm. ‘I’ve found Archer. Somehow he’s got himself trapped in the castle. There’s an old dungeon or something.’

‘Archer will have to sit it out. Jay’s our priority.’

‘Victor. Archer’s terrified.’

‘Jay is the cause of all this mayhem. If we can—’

‘No, listen to me. Archer says there’s someone in there with him. He’s frightened they will hurt him.’

Victor paused. ‘Who is it?’

‘A woman. That’s all I could make out. Please, Victor, Archer’s so vulnerable. If we don’t get him out the shock alone could kill him.’

‘And my sister is in a coma. I’m deep into second stage. Sometimes it’s hard to remember even my name. Islanders are dying. Jay is probably already planning to inflict even worse carnage on human beings. What if he decides he can get inside the heads of nuclear technicians and make them detonate a nuclear reactor? Or tricks the army into releasing nerve gas?’

‘Archer’s a little boy. It will only take a few minutes.’ She explained what she’d found emerging from the wall.

Victor inhaled deeply. ‘OK. I’m pretty sure I know where he is. It’s the old smugglers’ vaults.’ He hurried toward the castle gates. ‘Until a few years ago they were used to store maintenance equipment. Then the structure was declared unstable so the castle’s trustees had the place bricked up.’

‘Victor, it’s no good going that way,’ Laura told him. ‘The gates are locked.’

‘OK, there’s a side door that—’

‘Locked.’

‘It’s never locked.’

‘It is now. I’ve tried it.’

‘Damnation. No doubt another of Jay’s tricks.’

‘Victor. Keep a grip.’

‘I’m fine. And I know what Solomon told us is true. And that’s no delusion on my part. Jay is a vengeance weapon. One that I’m going to stop – or die trying.’

‘Where are you going?’

Victor nodded at a tree that grew close to the wall. ‘If the gates are locked there’s only one way in.’

‘You’re joking.’ Laura watched as the tree whipped around in the storm. Its branches beat at the battlements as if furious at the castle’s temerity to dominate the island.

Victor gave a bleak smile. ‘Right at this moment I can’t see myself joking ever again.’ He nodded upwards. ‘Use only the branches I use. Stay as close to the trunk as you can. And don’t, whatever happens, look down.’