Chapter Twenty-One – Onslaught

Outside the court was now in almost total darkness. The full moon was wrapped in deep cloud and no longer shone through the glass roof. All that illuminated the space was the light pollution from outside. This gave the court a pale and sickly yellow glow and Adam had to adjust his eyes to see through it. Keeping his substance on the edge of Dispersal, he made his way out on to the floor and hoped he was not noticed. The court was so quiet that at first he thought the Elementals had left, but then he saw a crimson glow from further around the curve of the court.

He raised himself a few centimetres from the floor to avoid causing any noise and slid still further out across the mess and destruction. He could make out Air and Water still standing halfway up the staircases as if hypnotised. The only movement from them was the ebb and flow of Water’s gown over the stairs and the soft swirl of the breeze that enveloped Air. Both of them had their eyes closed and they did not notice Adam as he slipped past them at the foot of the staircases, heading towards where the light glowed.

As he rounded the curve of the circular court, he could see the full damage that had been caused to the building. The floor glittered with diamond fragments of shattered glass, picking up what little light bled in, and the contents of the gift shops had been tossed around by the force of a great wind. A shiny slick of water lay across the floor and dark, muddy smears showed the route Earth had taken over the wet surface. Around the floor on one side of the court a jagged crevasse had opened and split the white floor wide open. Glossy black beetles scurried from the crack and fled across the floor in droves, all heading in the same direction.

Adam followed them with his eyes and could see a dark figure huddled over a small bonfire. At first he thought it was D’Scover and began to rush towards him, but as he got closer, he saw a chilling sight. Earth was kneeling on the floor with her back to him, her long hair slowly crawling around her head and a seething mass of beetles on her back busy scuttling around. In front of her lay the weakly crackling body of Fire, deep gouges showing black across her smouldering chest, stomach and legs.

As Adam watched, Earth reached over her own shoulder and pulled great dark lumps out from inside her own back. As quickly as a hole was made, the beetles rushed forward like a glossy black tide to fill it back in. She took the black lump of what Adam guessed was coal and thrust it into the wound on her sister where it began to glow and burn and fill the gash left by D’Scover’s sword.

Adam moved slowly backwards and a pair of dark grey legs protruding from the plinth of a statue stopped him in his tracks. Kneeling down, and with his substance still in a weakened state, he was able to crawl into the plinth and lean over D’Scover where he still lay unconscious. D’Scover seemed to be drifting in and out of Dispersal and Adam could see the shining grey particles that represented him form and burst like tiny bubbles. Adam tried to ignore the grainy particles of the granite plinth all around them and concentrated a ball of energy into his hands before placing them on D’Scover’s chest and forcing the red surge into his friend. The grey bubbles stopped bursting and swirled for a moment before beginning to settle into their usual human shape. Adam rolled D’Scover from the plinth just before his substance fully formed once more.

“Don’t make a sound,” Adam whispered. “Are you OK?”

D’Scover nodded and automatically reached out, patting the wet floor around him for his sword, and sighed with deep relief when his hand fell on the hilt. He drew the weapon in.

“I don’t think that’ll do you much good any more,” Adam said.

The last bolt from Fire had not only damaged D’Scover, but his blade too. The tip of the sword had been melted away, leaving a charred, blunted end.

“This blade is double-edged and needs no point; it seems to hurt her,” D’Scover told him. “It will have to do.”

“If you’re sure,” Adam said softly.

“What is happening?”

“Earth’s healing Fire. She’s still badly injured but healing fast.”

“We do not have much time.” D’Scover gripped his sword tightly and tried to stand. “I think I can stop Fire, but I cannot take her sisters on as well.”

“Don’t worry, we’ve got a plan,” Adam explained. “Stay here till our signal.”

“What will your signal be?” “Don’t know yet, but I’m sure it’ll be obvious when it comes.”

With that, he Dispersed fully with a crimson crackle of light and vanished – reappearing inside the library next to Edie.

“Is he OK?” she asked.

“Yes, he is now; he’s waiting for us to make a move. He can handle Fire as he managed to injure her before, but we have to try and do something about the sisters. Earth’s healing Fire and is distracted at the moment, so maybe we can talk to the other two.”

“Adam, I have an idea,” Edie said. “When I realised I couldn’t sense D’Scover any more, I felt something else as well.”

“What?”

“I might be wrong.” Edie looked nervous. “When I reached out to search for him, I think I could feel them, the Elementals. You said Fire was wounded; was it in the stomach and legs, and further up her body?”

“Yes, across the chest,” Adam said.

“I felt a flash of pain, burning and a white light that was enough to throw me out of your thoughts. I supposed it was D’Scover, but it could’ve been her.”

“How?”

“They are, in a sense, living spirits and part of the living Earth,” she explained. “I couldn’t pin it down before because everything was so chaotic, but now it’s quieter it might work.”

“Are you saying you think you can communicate with them?” Adam asked. “Get inside their heads?”

“I managed with you, but with them? I honestly don’t know,” she replied. “But we’re here and so it must be right.”

“You and your destiny rubbish will be the death of me,” Adam sighed.

“I’ll ignore the obvious irony in that statement,” Edie said. “As we’ve no time to row about it now.”

She sat down on the floor in front of the doors of the library and crossed her legs.

“Where are they?” she asked. “Air and Water I mean.”

“Still on the stairs.” Adam ran to one side of the doors. “I’m guessing that Water is here.” He pointed to a space halfway up the wall to the left of the doors. “And Air in the same spot on the other side.”

“I’ll try Air first,” Edie said, and closed her eyes.

At first all she could feel were the still sleeping security guards taking their silent and somnambulistic walks around the building. She stepped lightly through their dreams as she had no desire to wake them and make them face the horror of the battle being played out in the Great Court. She felt a number of other spirits in the building, but could not tell where they were and reasoned that they must be the ghosts who routinely haunted here, driven back by the chaos and confusion.

She concentrated and drew her thoughts closer in and, for a second, she brushed over D’Scover still in his hiding place behind the plinth. She could not make out his exact thoughts, but felt his urgency to get on and she shuddered at the intense, dark anger that wafted over her from him. She felt the raw hatred of Earth crouching over her still weak sister and she quickly pulled her thoughts away, afraid of being detected in her roaming. Then nothing, a cold and empty sensation of falling which churned, and she nearly opened her eyes. Then she realised that she had found Air.

All around her wind whistled and the space was cold and vast. Edie felt as though she had stuck her head out of a car window at great speed and struggled to find a rhythm to her breathing. She let herself go and allowed the falling sensation to take her, and the nausea began to subside. Air was asleep.

“Can you hear me?” Edie tried. “We need your help.”

After the initial shock she felt surprisingly safe in this falling world; no floor rushed up to meet them and she moved as gracefully through the air as a leaf caught in an updraught.

“Can you hear me?” she tried again.

The wind caught her and turned her around and around, tossing her up and down as lightly as if she was made of paper. The sounds around her were of a rushing breeze that twisted her hair round her head and toyed with her. For a moment Edie thought she could hear something, a word, and then more, and she realised Air had been speaking, but she had not known how to listen. Her voice was more a collection of rustling noises than words, but strung together Edie could just make them out.

“Safe, the people, it is good?” Air whispered in her ear.

“Yes, they’re safe, but I don’t know for how much longer,” Edie said into the wind. “You can help us; you can remove your sister Earth so we can defend ourselves from Fire. You could get Water to help you. Please, help us.”

“Fire, strong, Earth, angry, this is not possible. Not stop, not remove, not possible,” the voice continued. “Should not be here, in this place, this is my place, you not here . . .”

Air’s voice began to fade away and the falling sensation grew less and less until Edie felt as if she was simply drifting in the breeze.

“NO!” Edie screamed. “YOU CAN’T IGNORE US; IF YOU LET HER BEAT US, THEN SHE’LL BEAT YOU TOO. WE KNOW YOU DON’T MEAN PEOPLE ANY HARM SO TELL ME, WHAT WILL FIRE DO IF NO ONE STOPS HER?”

The falling sensation stopped so abruptly that Edie felt as if she must have hit something hard; instinctively she looked down at her feet, and was amazed to see that she was still in mid-air above a bank of thick white clouds. A cloud in front of her began to lose clumps, which started to stick to each other as if a small child was building a person from cotton wool. Within moments, a humanoid shape stood in front of Edie, lumpy and misshapen, but obviously with the form of a woman. Two arms stretched out from the cloud and smoothed the shape as it smoothing a statue of lumpy white plaster.

The figure leaned forward and, with a flourish, tossed its head back again, throwing fine strands of cloud behind it and revealing a face framed with hair of white gossamer strands. Her face was almost too perfect to look at and Edie was struck by her beauty and could not speak for a moment. Air smiled with a calm and saintly expression that lit her whole face with a golden sunset glow, and in an instant, Edie knew she would help them.

“Mortals fear sister,” her voice breathed, “and right to fear her. Fire wants living, for food, fear is food, she is hungry, always hungry. She should not take mortals, not right. Too much destruction, upset balance of worlds. Can help. But cannot stop Fire, too strong for Air. Water also not strong. Fire boil Water, kill her – choke Air, kill her.”

“Can you and Water do anything about Earth?”

“Earth? Earth angry. Anger is not control, anger can be dealt with.”

“I’ll take that as a yes,” Edie smiled. “Thank you.”

“Thank child, pretty witch inside thoughts of Air. Will stop Earth, witch stop Fire, all will balance again for a time.”

“What do you mean for a time?” Edie called out.

“I never said anything,” Adam replied.

She was back in the library and Adam was crouched down in front of her.

“You all right? You look dead pale,” he said. “Did it work?”

“Yes.” Edie jumped up. “We have to get outside.”

They ran out through the doors and already Air and Water were descending the stairs. This Air looked very different from the ethereal, cloudlike one Edie had spoken to. This new Air was bruise-black, churning with storm clouds, and her robe was now decorated with silver flashes of lightning. The moon had split the clouds and now hung in an otherwise black sky, casting brilliant light into the court, illuminating the descending sisters. Water had also undergone a dramatic transformation and now met her sister wearing a robe of churning dark sea set off with tresses of wild waves tipped ice-white. Both of the sisters carried expressions of serious determination and on reaching the bottom step, they turned and walked together towards Earth.

“WHAT DO YOU IDIOTS WANT?” Earth raged as they neared her, standing over Fire’s still prone and smouldering body.

“Enough, this is done, balance is needed.”Air’s voice was still soft and almost intangible, but something in her tone made Edie shudder.

“Balance?” Earth laughed and the court shook so hard that sheets of glass fell from the roof and cascaded around them, shattering into great shards on the floor. “What do you know of balance? Pathetic waifs – look at you, what can you do to me?”

“Restore balance, it is time.”

Air looked to Water who spread out her arms in a slow and languorous movement. A waterfall cascaded from each arm to the floor and began to flow towards Earth and very quickly she was standing in a puddle.

“You think these droplets can hinder me?” Earth laughed.

Water smiled and tipped her head to one side, with a steady drip falling from the rolling waves that made up her hair. Slowly she brought her hands together and, when they were directly in front of her, she raised her palms to the ceiling. The puddle rose too, in a solid, shimmering curtain around Earth, whose eyes now darted nervously about. Experimentally she reached out a long ebony finger and touched the curtain of water that now imprisoned her. She screamed and snatched it back as the water dissolved her finger, leaving only a shower of small, polished-clean stones cascading to the floor at her feet with a rattle.

“Sister,” Earth’s voice oiled from within her aqueous prison, “we can join forces and be stronger than ever, just you and I. We can have this mortal world for our own.”

“No.”,” Water spoke and the gentle ebb and flow of her voice hid the insistence within the words. “Our sister is correct, we must have balance. It is time for you to take your leave.”.”

She lowered her arms and looked away as the curtain of water closed in on Earth. At first she struggled, but each part of her that touched the water was eroded by it. Screaming, she turned around and about, trying to avoid the inevitable touch of the water, until finally she gave in to it.

“YOU CAN SEND ME BACK THIS TIME, BUT EVENTUALLY I WILL REGAIN MY STRENGTH AND RECLAIM ALL I HAVE LOST,” she screamed.

“Will take time, time, generations of mortal time, that will be enough balance,” Air said.

She gently blew and her breath formed a solid column of wind spiralling around her, speeding up the erosion of her sister in a whirling vortex. A maelstrom of stones and earth spun in front of them until all that remained was a small pile of gravel on the floor. Water knelt down and the now filthy puddle rushed back towards her and flowed into her waiting arms. Air cast a small dismissive gesture with her hand and the pile of gravel was swept across the floor where it cascaded down into the crevasse Earth first crawled from.

“And what did you plan for me, my errant sisters?”

The familiar voice of cracking hot bones made them all turn. Behind them stood the fully recovered Fire, burning with a white-hot light that seared and boiled like the surface of the sun. She walked slowly to them, her infernal robe causing the white floor to crack where she walked. Adam and Edie backed off into the ruined remains of the shop and dived behind a smashed display case for cover.

“I am surprised at you, Air,” she said in patronising tones. “Did you think you could bring me down with your pathetic summer breeze?”

She leaned towards her sister and breathed on her a humid and hot waft that enveloped her in a fierce, churning heat haze. Air clutched her throat, and gasped – her eyes startled and staring. She fell to the floor at her sister’s feet, desperate for breath, and gasped short gulps. Fire ignored her plight and rounded on her other remaining sister.

“And did you think I would fall like my ineffective sister to a bit of water?”

She shot out her arm and pointed to Water, casting a flare of such intensity that she vaporised on the spot, leaving only a thin echo of a scream and a wall of steam momentarily filling the court. D’Scover saw his chance and ran from his hiding place, swinging his sword out and casting a thick black gash across Fire’s back.

“DAMN IT, BOY, WILL YOU NEVER LEARN?” Fire screamed and turned towards him.

Her gown roared with fire and the trapped souls within it screamed and wailed at D’Scover as she moved towards him.

“YOU WERE LUCKY LAST TIME. THAT LUCK HAS FLED YOU NOW.”

Adam and Edie watched as the wound on Fire’s back hissed and began to close and heal with a searing white light. Behind Fire, Air still lay on the floor, gasping in the broken glass, her dark gown fading to a paler blue with each gasp. Her mouth slowly moved as she lay staring towards where Adam and Edie hid and she reached out her hand to them.

“She’s trying to say something,” Adam said. “I’m going to see what it is; maybe I can help.”

He closed his eyes and shifted his substance once more and slid across to where Air lay on the floor. The space around her was unbearably hot, but Adam knew it was not strong enough to harm his substance; he leaned down as close as he could through the haze and placed his ear close to her mouth.

“Child, innocent, child, must be child,” she gasped. “Belief stronger in innocence.”

Adam’s thoughts reeled in his mind as he instantly realised what she was saying, and what he must do. He stood up and forced himself across the wreckage to where D’Scover was backing away from Fire.

“A CHILD!” he shouted. “YOU CAN ONLY DO THIS IF YOU’RE A CHILD. IT’S YOU, AND YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE THAT YOU’RE THE SENTINEL.”

“NO . . .” Fire spun round and screamed at them, hurling a bolt of fire in their direction that made Air gasp and vanish.

The distraction gave D’Scover the chance he needed. He closed his eyes and the veil of years fell away from him until he was just as he had been when he died – a skinny boy in faded and poor clothing clutching a sword that stood nearly as tall as he did. His leg glistened with the blood from the ancient wound once more and he limped forward. Taking a deep breath, he lifted the burnt and ruined sword with both hands and stood his ground.

“He’s injured!” Edie cried out. “How can that be?”

“Don’t worry,” Adam tried to reassure her, “it happened centuries ago, when he died. A crucifix shattered and a piece of the crystal . . .”

“Crystal,” they exclaimed in unison. “That’s it!”

“We have to tell him that’s the key,” Adam gasped. “The crystal – that’s the last part of the puzzle, the missing piece.”

“But we can’t get out there. What can we do?”

“Can you put an idea in his head?” Adam said in desperation.

“Possibly,” she shrugged. “I dunno, but it’s worth a shot.”

She closed her eyes while Adam stood in front of her to shield her from the heat of the battle. D’Scover still stood in front of Fire, brandishing his sword and slowly circling round in a dance of mutual avoidance. He stared defiantly at her, his face set in an expression of pure concentration and, just for a second, he dropped his gaze. The sword seemed to become heavy and it drifted down as he stared into the distance, momentarily removed from the fight. He took several steps backwards and lowered the blade.

“What is it, boy?” Fire’s words flicked round the circle. “Are you admitting defeat?”

D’Scover looked down at his leg and plunged one partially Dispersed hand deep into the gory, ancient wound; he screamed in agony. Pulling out a blood-covered, sharp-edged scale of crystal, he wiped it on his clothes. The light bounced off it just as it had when it stood within the monastery as part of the crucifix. He took the fragment and held it to the broken tip of his sword. The second the crystal touched the metal a furious wave of silver-blue sparks ran up the weapon and coursed over the blade and the hilt. Sparks spattered and jumped from the blade as they fused the shard to its tip, falling to the floor like a shower of stars. D’Scover raised his new blade and smiled a cold smile at Fire.

“Now, demon,” he said with a placid tone, “we shall see who triumphs.”

He hefted the crystal tip up over his head and ran forward into the flames. Fire took several steps backwards, but not far enough to avoid D’Scover’s attack. As he reached her, he lunged and the glittering sword thrust deep into the blazing Elemental. A solid column of brilliant light erupted within her and burst through the remaining glass of the ceiling which rained down upon them with an ear-splitting roar.

For the briefest moment they all watched the relief on the faces of the souls trapped within her as they spiralled upwards and vanished. Fire slammed herself against the walls of the column, trying to escape the cold white prison it created, but to no avail. The light grew brighter and brighter until they could no longer look and it exploded with a deep, sonic throb that bulged the walls momentarily. Then all was silent.

“Red, are you all right?” a small voice called from the moonlit shadows.

“Edie!” Adam called out her name in desperate relief and ran towards her. “We did it, we really did it!”

She ran out to meet him, glass crunching under her feet, and was relieved to find that he had enough strength to give her a proper hug. D’Scover walked over and joined them, still a boy and dragging his heavy sword through the debris on the floor.

“What do we do about all this mess?” Adam grinned.

“I THINK THAT IS OUR CONCERN.”

Looking about, they saw that next to them the twelve figures of the Senior Council had silently formed a shadowy enclave. Their chanting voices sounded louder and more solid in the ruined court.

They were not alone. Standing in the middle of the circle of figures stood Sister Goodman. She was wearing her nun’s habit once more and was violently struggling against unseen restraints. From the terrible contortions on her face it was easy to see she was in intense pain and screaming, but no sound could be heard.

A low thrum of resonant voices grew from the circle and slowly they began to close in on the writhing figure in their midst. Soon it was almost impossible to see her through the closed ranks of the Council. They raised their hands above their heads and, with a sudden silence that seemed to make Edie’s head almost burst with the oppressive pressure of it, they ripped into Sister Goodman. Tearing great clumps of her substance away, they tossed them into the air in a frenzy of movement. Each torn mass rose into the air and crackled with an explosive energy before splitting apart with fierce lilac sparks that cascaded to the floor around them. They could just make out the agonised and twisted face of the sister as she tried again and again to escape the circle, but it was all in vain. Within moments, the last mass was thrown into the air, and she was gone, forcibly Dispersed for ever.

“Better late than never,” Edie said angrily, trying to mask the shock she felt at the horrific scene she had just witnessed. “Couldn’t you have been here an hour or two ago?”

“WE DO NOT ANSWER TO YOU, WITCH CHILD. HOWEVER, AN EXPLANATION MAY BE WARRANTED. SISTER GOODMAN HAD HER CO-CONSPIRATORS KEEP US OCCUPIED. WHEN WE WERE MADE AWARE OF THE SITUATION, IT WAS FITTING THAT OUR PRIORITY SHOULD BE TO PURSUE HER. SHE WAS UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF POWERFUL DEMONS AND IT WAS WITHIN THE INTEREST OF ALL CONCERNED THAT THE VOYNICH BE RETRIEVED. OUR PRIORITY WAS THAT SISTER GOODMAN BE FORCIBLY DISPERSED. THE EVENTS PLAYED OUT HERE WITH YOU WERE OF SECONDARY SIGNIFICANCE.”

“You would have just left us to die?” Edie gasped.

“THE IRONY OF THAT STATEMENT SEEMS LOST ON YOU. YOU CHOSE TO BE HERE. WE DEAL WITH ISSUES BIGGER THAN THE LIFE OF ONE CHILD AND THE SPIRITS OF TWO OTHERS.”

“Hold on,” Adam interjected. “How did you know what was going on here at all? I mean, if she had you occupied, how did you know?”

“I told ’em.” Marcus walked out from the shadows to join them on the debris-covered floor. “I followed Sister Goodman and then contacted the Senior Council, well, me and Emma did.”

“Marcus, you did? We thought you’d run off!” Adam laughed. “Sorry, mate.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Marcus replied, “I nearly did!”

“The book, the Voynich,” D’Scover asked. “Did you retrieve it?”

“THE MONK’S BOOK IS SAFE. NOW YOU MUST ALL LEAVE SO WE CAN DEAL WITH THIS DESTRUCTION IN A WAY THAT THE LIVING WILL COMPREHEND. YOU WILL MAINTAIN SUBSTANCE AND ESCORT THE GIRL TO D’SCOVER’S OFFICE. D’SCOVER, WE WILL SUMMON YOU IN EIGHT HOURS TO DISCUSS THESE EVENTS.”

With that, the shadows turned away and began to drift into the darkness.

“But you can’t just . . .” Edie stammered “. . . I mean, after all we did they just . . .”

“Come on,” Adam cut in, pulling her away, “let’s get out of here.”

They walked across the destroyed court, heading out the way they came in, the guards still resting in their undisturbed slumber. D’Scover blended his outward image back into his adult form as he walked, his immaculate suit and spotless black coat looking hopelessly out of place in the mess. Adam wondered what was different about him and realised he could see the crystal tip of the blade poking out from under D’Scover’s long coat. He had kept the sword.

“Hold on,” Adam said as they reached the door, “I forgot something.” He Dispersed quickly and was back in a few seconds.

“Done, let’s go,” he said and they all walked out of the door into the chill of the night air.

“What did you do?” Edie asked him.

“Just had to say my thank yous!” he laughed and they both ran on ahead to catch up with D’Scover.

In a dark library standing like an island of calm, cut off by a white court that was now a chaos of broken glass and smouldering rubble, thousands of books ruffled their pages with pride.