The Tessellation Saga. Book Two. 'The One' (49 page)

‘Quickly go
through,’ Thaddrick shouted as his strength gave out. Mayan and
Lemba crossed the room and disappeared without hesitation.

‘Get Blue outta
‘ere Jed,’ Gideon’s father shouted to his namesake whilst holding
the last vestiges of the doorway together with his newfound
strength. Jed, hearing Gideon’s father, at last managed with
Darnel’s help to push the unconscious Toby off himself. As one,
they moved toward the fragile form of Thaddrick and taking an arm
each walked as quickly as their burden would allow them toward the
new gateway, following on behind the girls.

‘Wait,’ called
Jed as he left Thaddrick’s entire weight on Darnel’s arm; quickly
he crossed the room and silently retrieved the knife and the tiny
box and that had saved his life. Unseen by Darnel he placed them in
the pocket of his jerkin and raced back ushering both Darnel and
Thaddrick through the shining black surface, stopping only
momentarily to call to Jonus who still stood watching Jed, Gideon’s
father as he held back the door with brute strength. Rhoàld stood
over the unconscious form of Gath, a large knife in his hand and
salvation for his beloved within his grasp. Jonus jumped past Sonal
and Varan as they stood before the gateway calling for Rhoàld to
hurry as they passed through; and Gideon, finally unable to fight
the downward pull from the crystal any longer released the magic
and stunned by the effort it took fell to his knees.

As the crystal
fell toward the rock floor, Rhoàld felt Bastian move with horror
within him, realising something dreadful was about to happen Rhoàld
left the vulnerable form of Gath and moved toward Gideon. At that
moment Jed, Gideon’s father at last let the door go and rushed
across the room to aid his son, pulling Gideon from the floor the
two men dragged him from his kneeling position and half carried,
half pushed him through Thaddrick’s gateway, throwing themselves
after him seconds before the gateway snapped, sealing it forever
shut.

As the door to
the chamber disintegrated, the crystal hit the floor and shattered,
Medim at last soared free and the souls of thousands of people who
had died in his name found release. Dèvin had seen the valiant
struggle his uncle had given and had been proud of the bloodline of
his family as he recognised Gideon’s own blood. Now though, free at
last, he felt his soul rise as the light before him gave him
welcome, and he joined with the other freed souls finally and
together as one, they began their own Journey.

Medim’s soul
swirled around the stone room, he had watched in amusement as the
humans had fought, touching the magic’s roots oh, so tentatively.
He searched for a new host amongst the life forms before him and
quickly dismissed the ugly misshaped beings that managed to serve
the priests. He entered the mind of Toby Hollins but left it
quickly before Toby realised it was there, sex and hate, whilst
both were powerful emotions, the human had no magic. Finally, the
swirling purple cloud hovered over the unconscious form of the
king, Medim could feel the need for hate and revenge, he could feel
the blood lust and the anger but most of all he could feel the
power vibrating through Gath’s blood, calling to him. Without
hesitation, he entered Gath’s body and mind, settling in quickly
becoming one with his host. The unconscious mind of Gath recognised
a like being whilst Medim saw the mind of the man he had worshiped
as a human boy all those years ago.
The Journey wills in
mysterious ways…
Medim’s thoughts were interrupted by Gath,
I alone decide my Journey...
the now semi-conscious man
thought wearily but as it recognised the voice that had called so
frequently to him Gath’s dark soul smiled.

Toby woke up
feeling ill, he looked over to see the king still lying prone on
the floor.

‘My lord?’ He
asked as he moved toward the king, hoping, praying he was not dead.
He needed the king to get out of the chamber, out from the bleak,
the air outside was now unfit to breath. Already Toby could feel
his lungs struggling and without Gath conscious enough to maintain
the magic, the void was sucking the air out faster than ever.

‘My King, wake
up!’ Toby exclaimed as he tried to rouse the seemingly comatose
man. ‘King Gath,’ he shouted, slapping the king’s face hard, he
lifted his hand to strike the king once more and as he did so, the
king caught his arm almost crushing it in his vice like grip.
Gath’s eyes flew open and Toby gulped as the once bright blue eyes
stared back at him now as black orbs floating in a sea of darkness.
Toby stepped back in surprise.

‘Call us…
MeGath, yes… MeGath,’ the king laughed, releasing Toby’s hand and
rubbing his own hands together. ‘My name is MeGath.’ At that moment
Thaddrick’s first gateway finally tessellated, becoming the portal
he had endeavoured to power using Gath’s own strength. The pull
from the gateway was overpowering as one by one the misshapen
servants rose from the floor, pulled by the vacuum the darkness
created and sucked out into the void. Toby too felt the pull as his
feet began to leave the floor.

‘Sire,’ he
called, ‘MeGath, help me,’ he screamed as his feet went from under
him and he flew toward the darkness. MeGath watched, again
dispassionately. With a flick of his wrist, the line severed, the
gateway closed and Toby fell to the ground with a bang.

‘Tell me of
this Thaddrick,’ MeGath asked himself aloud and listened as the
part of him that was Gath began to tell his tale. As he finished
his silent conversation he smiled, ‘Arotia will welcome both of its
sons home once more Thaddrick, wait and see,’ he said, adding, ‘and
the heir of the Emperor King Ramis will reign supreme across two
worlds forever. As I was meant to do father,’ he called loudly, his
words echoing around the room, and flowing out under the newly
strengthened dome. They reverberated across the dead space under
the dome and found the miniscule gap left by the unclosed Gateway
when the colonists first arrived. Finally, the words were sucked
through the breach and left to rebound across the void, whilst on
route to Arotia Thaddrick shivered.

Hi there, I
work at London Heathrow Airport and divide my time between my work,
my family, (which is huge, five children and six grandchildren so
far!) my friends, my garden and my beloved computer. I do hope you
enjoyed reading this book as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Currently the
third book in the ‘The Tessellation Saga’ which is to be called,
‘MeGath’ is undergoing scrutiny for typo’s and loose threads, (do
let me know if you find any I’ve missed!) I’ve added a sneaky peek
of the first three chapters at the end of this book.

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Alternatively,
for more of my random rambling read my blog:

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MeGath stared
at the wall intently as he mumbled his incantation, his eyes slowly
glazed over, gradually filling with darkness as the magic grew and
spread, the red rectangle he had drawn on the old brickwork with
fresh innocent blood, glowed with a malevolence he had not
expected. He smiled slowly.
This time
, he thought,
this
time, the magic will work,
the gateway will open. His eyes were
now as black as the night sky and as the storm raged outside his
window, the skies split, sending showers of brilliant white light
in every direction as the lightning spread. The pressure built
steadily as if called forth by MeGath’s magic, by his blood, the
life giving fluid that pounded in his heart and rushed through his
veins, it pulsed in time with the glowing blood he had used to draw
the outline for the portal. The blood was fresh, strong in magic
and new, the donor, an infant from a native Boeteshian nobleman’s
family, one with an embarrassing pregnancy to conceal. The nobleman
had been very glad to be rid of the evidence of his daughter’s
indiscretion and the child’s mother was told her baby was
stillborn. He believed the journey had been with him the day he
found out about the pregnancy and of course as a stern but fair
king, he was pleased to be in a position to help a loyal courtier.
He told the man he would have the baby placed in to one of his
farms to be brought up as a valued member of society and would
never trouble him again, he smiled wryly,
that last at least is
true
, he thought.

A pinpoint of
black light began to glow within the center of the rectangle, a
weak and sickly glimmer turning from black to a dirty, oily yellow.
It oozed from the middle of the wall spreading like a disease as it
ate its way across the bare brickwork and permeated the room with a
sulphurous noxious smell. MeGath continued his incantation, his
hands weaving in time to the unmelodious chant and as the cement in
the wall began to liquefy the bricks themselves softened and
bubbled under the intense unhealthy light. The crawling mass grew.
More pinpoints of black began appearing within the bloody
framework, each again producing more of the noxious brightness and
the acrid sulphurous smell. The seething goo spread outward almost
covering the entire bloody framework and in the center, the
darkness became solid, absolute. MeGath’s excited mumbling grew
louder as his gateway finally began to appear viable.

Outside the
walls of the castle, the storm continued to rage; mage’s sang
spells of calming to the heavens to no avail, anxiously offering
their lives as balance for the magic they were using, draining
themselves as they strove ever harder to control the abnormal
weather. Mothers held their children and sank onto their knees in
supplication to the gods and tears fell in abundance as the winds
blew chimneys from rooftops and screaming animals fought to relieve
the pressure building inside their heads. Out at sea, a small
vessel shuddered under the continued onslaught of the ferocious
waves as a group of men lashed a young girl to a grating for
safety.

High in his
tower, MeGath ignored the storm outside and sliced both his palms
deeply with a small ceremonial knife, grimacing with pain he raised
his arms and watched as his blood sped freely along an invisible,
horizontal line, joining and mixing with the sulphurous mass on the
wall encouraging the barrier to open.
It’s happening… it’s
finally happening,
he thought as he watched his blood become
one with the crawling, bubbling darkness. Still the mass expanded,
grew ever nearer the bloody rectangle,
it will merge this time,
it must,
he thought as his voice rose to a pitch beyond human
hearing. Somewhere in the castle, dogs began to bark.

‘NOW’, he
screamed as the sickly disease finally began to eat at the bloody
painted framework. ‘NOW’, he screamed again as the knife dropped
from his sticky red hand and fell to the floor spinning soundlessly
and spreading droplets of blood in a small circle.

The bloody
outline glowed brighter as the sickly mass covered it, suddenly it
flared with an incandescent flame and as MeGath closed his eyes to
avoid blindness, a jolt of pure energy tore from his body, exiting
through his outstretched and bloody palms. Straight along the
invisible line it went and then out through the burgeoning rift and
on into the darkness that had once been a wall, on into the black
velvet nothing lying beyond it. Like a beacon in the night, it lit
the dark, inky space briefly and disappeared but within moments the
energy bolt returned, somehow brighter and stronger than before, he
stopped singing as the light exploded in his head causing him to
fall to his knees. Immediately, he pushed the heels of his bloody
palms into his eye sockets attempting to retrieve his ruined vision
and lessen the growing pain. With his eyes screwed tightly closed,
he failed to notice as his body began to glow, brighter and
brighter he shone as the light’s energy released through him and
into the room, more and more spilled from his pores and dissipated
as quickly into the air. It seeped out through the walls and
windows, flowed through fabrics and doors until finally it joined
with the winds of the storm and scattered, once more filling the
world with a message of hope and love.

MeGath opened
his sore eyes tentatively, not noticing his now healed palms, he
watched as the unexpected blast of energy affected the gateway he
had created. Despite his pain, he smiled, congratulating himself as
the sticky wall disappeared and the velvet darkness of the ether
and the thin veil separating it from the void beyond came into
view, never before had he or any living thing seen into the ether
itself with physical eyes. The Ether, being a spiritual place, a
place of peace and learning, the place where the roots of all magic
were at their strongest but also the place where the barrier, that
thin veil between good and evil could be broken. He watched in
wonder as the veil holding back the void pushed and stretched as
the evil behind its thin membrane struggled to break through, his
own spell of opening had called the magic and he was ecstatic.

‘We have done
it,’ he said quietly as he stared, thinking of the power that would
soon be his to command, then he would finally rule the whole of
Arotia not just Boetesh and from there, with the use of this and
subsequent gateways he would open, he would rule worlds. As he
continued to stare at the inky blackness before him, its dark glow
gently dimmed and faded, the blood on the wall began to dry with
small veins and cracks appearing as it released dull red flakes to
fall gently to the bare wooden floor. MeGath watched in horror as
the doorway to his future began to disintegrate before his impaired
vision.