The Chronicles of Jonathon Postlethwaite: The Seed of Corruption (39 page)

                            He watched, fascinated as the billowing thunder heads increased in height and darkness and the thunderbolts increased in intensity. Then the sound of thunder began to shake the paving stones beneath him and the sound hit his ears like the monumental sounds of a world tearing apart.

                            With his attention concentrated on the spectacle on the horizon, he was surprised when a voice spoke from behind him. Quickly he leapt to his feet and twisted around to face the owner of his voice. The man, as he could be loosely described, stood a few feet away, his hands placed on his bony hips.

                            Jonathan estimated him to be eight feet tall at least. He had a human body, jet black in colour with no item of clothing except the grotesque dragon like helm which covered his head and shoulders. He was also intensely thin, like someone suffering from a wasting disease, yet clearly defined muscle groups rippled beneath his thick and leathery skin. From inside the mouth of the dragon head helm, two grey eyes studied him intently and lips parted beneath them as a deeply resonating voice rolled forth echoing across the paved wastes.

"Who are you boy? " the naked black giant challenged.

Surprisingly, despite the frightening creature's appearance, Jonathon did not fear him at all, as an aura of honesty and justice surrounded him. He answered the question simply by giving his name.

The creature took a pace forward, stopped  and then began to circle him as if inspecting him.

“Who  summoned  you  here?”  the  giant  asked  as  he continued              his              interrogation.              Jonathan              was              confused.

Summoned?

                            The urge to tell the truth in the presence of this being was overwhelming.

"No one." he replied to the question and the giant stopped circling him abruptly.

“Then how did you get here?" he asked, seeming bemused. “No one enters this realm unless summoned."

                            Jonathan shook his head and shrugged his shoulders and pointed to the paving stone marked with strange symbols where he had emerged through the dimension door. The giant move slowly toward the stone and knelt down to study the inscription.

"Mmm." he muttered, then said something in a language that Jonathan did not understand and glance toward the storm clouds.

                            As the creature continued to examine the inscription on the slab Jonathan became curious and extended his consciousness toward his mind. Immediately the black giant leapt to his feet as if he had  been burned and turned to face him. Its eyes beneath the helm glowed an angry red. Jonathan stepped backwards and gasped as the other's mind repelled his probing. What had he done? he thought.

                            Evidently his intrusion was not welcomed at all and had produced this defensive reaction. Now the formidable looking creature stooped, his slim hands stretched out in readiness for an attack, physical or mental. He called out loudly an alien language, but did not take his glowing eyes of his antagonist.

                            Almost Immediately after strange words had left his lips, other figures similar to himself began to appear across the paved landscape. Some where close, others mere specks on the horizon, but they all began to converge on Jonathan and the black giant at great speed.

                            A crowd of the black giants had soon gathered in a circle around  Jonathan,  jostling for position and murmuring amongst themselves as more joined the burgeoning throng. He felt their minds brushing his, pressing probing, scrutinizing. He repelled them. All these beings were  very  similar in physique, the only distinguishing features being their grotesque and fabulous helms. All these were different.

There were birds and snakes, spiders and scorpions, griffins, dragons, great horned beasts and many others. All exaggerated, hideous meant to terrify. The crowd grew, there must have been thousands now and their murmuring had grown into a loud hum.

                            Surrounded and becoming increasingly intimidated by their attention. Jonathan addressed the original giant. All the others then fell silent.

“I’m sorry I disturbed you, I meant no harm, I just want to go back the way I came. Can I go now? “he pleaded and began to explain his dilemma but the he was cut short.  “Do  not  move  mortal."  the  giant  commanded.  “The Sentinel will decide upon your fate here." he added and gestured  to  another  startlingly  contrasting  figure  who made her way through the pressing crowd.

                            The woman, her pale white body a contrast to the other inhabitants of this strange realm emerged from the black mass of bone, muscle and masculinity and made her way forward to stand between Jonathan and the giant whose mind he had attempted to probe.

                            She removed her red plumed helmet and revealed her face. Despite her serious expression she was startlingly beautiful. Jonathan gaped back at her, he saw other faces with in hers, his Mother was there and so was Milly. He felt the warm flow of her mind in his.

                            After a  moment  of  tension  and  inspection, she  smiled and relaxed.

“A human Avatar."              she              said              softly              although              she seemed              surprised.

“Avatar." the others echoed, nodding in an appreciation that              Jonathan              did              not              grasp, except  that              theTurkanschoner had once called him avatar. The Sentinel dismissed them with a wave of a pale  and              elegant                            hand              and              they              wandered              slowly back,              the              alarm  call  satisfied,  from  where  they  had come, talking in low  voices  and  casting  the  occasional backward glance over their ebony shoulders.

                            The woman moved closer to Jonathan and knelt down beside him, so that their eyes were level. Despite her height, the Sentinel's physical proportions were similar to any human woman Jonathan had seen, she was not emaciated as the other giants appeared  to  be,  nor was she naked. A fine gossamer stocking of sparkling spiders' web covered her body from neck to toe, the tiny golden spinners always present to emerge and repair the rifts torn by the Sentinel's excessive movements.

                            Her  green  eyes  studied  him  for  a  while  and Jonathan felt her mind wash gently through his again. Jonathan needed an explanation of what had just happened to him, but she picked the questions out of his head.

“This world encompasses all time and space. It is our duty here to maintain a balance in the life force which exists in them. To continue to exist the living worlds need a balance in the dynamics of the life essence itself. The imbalances are visible here." she pointed to the storm which raged on the horizon and a strong gust of wind buffeted them.

“It is our duty to ensure that balance remains in all such living worlds. Because you have left your dimension the balance has  swung  dramatically.  You  will  return  there Avatar. You must counter the forces which grow out of control in the souls of the living being which exist there.  This is your destiny." the Sentinel smiled sympathetically.

" Avatar? Destiny? " he thought out loud.

“You are a special being." she explained as if it would enlighten him. Then she elaborated. “Or in your case one half of a polarity,  there  will  be  another,  an  enemy who  you  have  already  encountered.  You will already   have  felt  the  presence and will be compelled to      face it. Fight it. And fate will make it happen.

                            She              probed              Jonathan's              mental              and              spiritual responses. She knew his thoughts and his fears. “You must face this man and all that which flows through him, it is unavoidable. If you do not he will destroy you." she said. He looked at her face and saw him there. Flax of

course. Jonathan was frightened. In the back of his mind, after his earlier brush with him, he had been ready to flee. He just couldn't face him at all then. Plain fear. His instinct compelled him to flee. What would be different in the future? Since then he had been prepared to get back to the derelict house and escape to  another realm with his friends, leave Flax to his devices. If Rislos's Field Imploder worked and Dubh was destroyed then fine, but if it didn't then Flax's fate was irrelevant, or so he had thought.

“You cannot avoid him, eventually he will seek you out and destroy you." the Sentinel repeated, eaves dropping on  his  thoughts.  She placed  a  hand  on  his head and Jonathan felt her warmth flow through him.

“Do not fear him. You are as strong as he. Bury the fear and triumph. "

                            Slowly Jonathan began to consider the oaths he had made to himself and his ancestors, he had a duty to them and the millions of others Flax would destroy if he got beyond the boundaries of  Dubh. And he was getting there fast. To merely set  in  motion  the machine and run was not enough to quell the nagging doubts he would always carry with him if he did not know that he had succeeded.

                            If he did not, it was more than nagging doubts. It was the guilt of failure. He would fail himself and all those he had sworn his oaths for. Oaths resting on love. He would fail his own love. He had to face Flax and see him and the city perish, only then would he really be satisfied. The Sentinel smiled broadly.

“You have the strength and you have allies." she said, and then the              smile              dissolved.              “Turkanschoner?"              she questioned. "There is a Turkanschoner with you?" Jonathan              nodded. The              Sentinel              pointed              to              the disappearing giants. “They              are              Turkanschoners              too,              Guardians              of    the Dimension Doors to this Overworld. They fled here when their world was destroyed. Now they serve we Sentinels."

                            Jonathan tried to explain what he knew about the Turkanschoner  of  Dubh.  He  explained  what the  Tallmen had done to him and how he had inadvertently rescued  him.  The  Sentinel  stopped  him by  raising  her  hand.

“Tallmen?" she queried and delved into Jonathan's mind again. He experienced her running through his memories of the Tallmen and their artificially sustained dimension. It was like a high speed slide show running through his head. He felt dizzy and she stopped.

“Sorry, but I had to be sure." she gave Jonathan a smile of triumph.

“Finally we have found them. These Tallmen are the Shetani, some of my people, who rebelled against our ways and sought to escape into the mortal dimensions. They escaped us and until now we did not know how or where. This is where the darkness in your world has its root. They too must be destroyed, their technology is dangerous as are their souls. I have seen what you have planned in you mind. Carry it out."

                            The  Sentinel  looked  deep  into  Jonathan's  eyes and, as he looked back into hers, he saw the faces of  all those he loved appear again in her face. Then he saw his own face. He knew why she did it.

“Go Jonathan, you have little time." she pointed to the

furious storm on  the horizon. “Evil strengthens  in  your absence. Go now with the strength of true love” she pointed to the slab and raised her arms.

Obediently Jonathan walked towards the inscribed slab. But more than her words propelled him there.

“Just one more thing Jonathan." she said. “Do not fail or the dimensions will topple one after another and we can do little more than watch. The strength you need awaits you in your world. It is the spark that can create the fire    to consume this evil." she paused for a while and smiled. “It is not enough to love and avenge the dead alone. You must love the living too."

Their eyes  and  mind  met  again  and  he  felt the sincerity and truth in her words. He knew too who and what she referred. She nodded. “He cannot stop you this way, for you have the power he has never  experienced. His deeds thus multiply against him. You have love in your heart. It is a force against  which his power cannot succeed. His soul and his city are his own grave. Bury him in it Jonathan. Him and the Shetani, these ‘Tallmen’." she finished.

                            Jonathan  slowly  approached  the  position  of  the dimension door which was indicated by the inscription on the slab, hesitating when the opening back to his world suddenly erupted in a swirling abyss before him.

“Go quickly now, you have lost much time here. Time passes here at a greater rate here than in you realm. Go now!" she urged as she waved a  long  elegant hand in farewell.

                            Jonathan              waved              and              stepped              into              the  madly swirling colours. Back in the rift of time and space through which he  had  travelled  to  reach  the  Overworld  of   the  Sentinels, little in its image sucking walls suggested anyone else had passed this way. When he reached the main tunnel however, its walls seethed with trapped images of thousands of High Hats passing this way and  this burdened with packing cases. A whole day had  passed during the short time Jonathan had been away.

                            He studied walls manically shifting murals of the High hats who worked feverishly to transport Flax's booty back to Dubh. Looking closely, he was able to pick out images  of  the  chamber  on   the   Dubh   side   of the dimension door. High Hats surged into the hall, breaking open wooden and metal  crates  and examining  their  contents.