From The Dark Page 9

  ‘What is it?’ They continued to walk, slower now. ‘You don’t seem happy she’s here.’

  ‘It’s not that,’ Claudia interjected. ‘It’s just since she’s arrived her and Reg have been very secretive. They’ve taken themselves away and left me to sort out the fire and stuff, keeping themselves private.’

  ‘I’m sure they have their reasons,’ Gabe was not convinced even by his own word. ‘Suppose we will find out soon enough.’

  They descended a set of steps which led them to a large brick building that sat at the side of the lake. Whatever use the building once had was now impossible to discern. The years had seen the painted signs weathered and decayed and what decorations had been on the walls had been plundered by curious visitors to the abandoned site over the years.

  Windows boarded and barred the pair made their way around the far side of the building and clambered up a narrow fire escape to a barricaded door.

  Prizing his fingers between the wood and wall Gabe pulled the sheet of plywood aside, and they both scrambled into the empty building.

  ‘Reg?’ Gabe hollered as he allowed his eyes to adjust to the firelight.

  The vast room was illuminated by a handful of gas lamps they had found in a storage cellar. The flickering flames added to the eeriness of the open space. Walking across the dusty floor it was clear to see this had once been a sizeable food court. Signs hung from the ceiling on chains identifying each of the food stalls by curious Americana themed names. The booths themselves stood empty, the machines and equipment long since removed and sold.

  It was a sad state of affairs, in the back of his mind Gabe had memories of bringing the children here when they had been toddlers. Casting reminiscence aside Gabe searched around until he found Reg and Nahem sat on the far side of the food hall.

  ‘Surprised we have a visitor.’ Gabe announced, trying hard to keep his tone neutral.

  ‘Reg asked me to come,’ Nahem answered. ‘I can leave if that’s what you would prefer?’

  ‘There’s no need,’ Reg countered and placed his hand on Nahem’s forearm to keep her seat. ‘I take it you succeeded?’

  There was a look of anticipation in the old man’s eyes as Gabe walked towards him.

  ‘I was,’ Gabe replied as he unhooked the box from his back.

  Having fashioned the handles into makeshift straps, Gabe had carried the cumbersome box on his back. Struggling now to free his arms he dropped the crate onto the nearest counter and lifted open the lid.

  ‘I am pleased,’ Reg beamed as he used his canes to stand. ‘You were gone quite some time, was there trouble?’

  ‘Could say that.’

  Turning to Claudia, he shook his head to ward off questions of his escapades back at the house. Gabe had decided on his drive back to their hideaway that the pressure of being hunted by the Police was something best kept from the others.

  For the time being it was not significant.

  ‘May I?’ Nahem asked as she approached the open box with Reg by her side.

  Gabe moved his gaze from her to Reg who nodded slowly.

  ‘It is said,’ Nahem began as she reached into the box. ‘That only those with your bloodline and the bloodline of protectors may yield the swords. I take it you have read such teachings from Archy’s journal?’

  Nahem wrapped her hand around the handle of Gabe’s sword and slowly lifted it from the wooden crate.

  ‘We have,’ Claudia answered. ‘Something about whatever it is that flows inside it, that joins us to the weapons.’

  ‘The Feng, yes.’ Nahem admired the glistening blade in the firelight. ‘Only when Feng and Hi, weapon and wielder, are in unison can it can unleash the true power of these swords.’

  ‘Archy’s journal said those who are not,’ Claudia struggled to find the right words and was relieved when Nahem continued her train of thought.

  ‘Those not compatible with the weapons are haunted by fever and illness. In fact, your great-great-grandfather was so incompatible in the beginning.’

  ‘The beginning?’ Gabe pressed.

  ‘Yes. When he first grasped the sword in the ruins of a temple beneath Hadrian’s Wall, he was not ready. He was saved, we believe, by the fact he wielded the sword to slay the Nivag.’

  ‘I’ve read the entry about Vercovicium and Archy’s first encounter. You’re telling me his body adapted and our whole bloodline should have nothing to do with all of this?’

  Gabe fought the fresh line of frustration and anger.

  ‘It would seem fate had another bloodline in mind, but Archy’s actions in the Vercovicium chamber cemented his bloodline into the world of Magdons.’

  ‘Just another bloody thing to blame the old bastard for.’

  Gabe did not mean to deliver the words with such venom, but his frustration betrayed him. Feeling three sets of eyes glaring at him, including Claudia’s, allowed guilt to wash over him.

  ‘If I may?’ Nahem peered at Reg for a moment who offered a curt nod in reply.

  Gabe watched as Nahem stepped towards him. Holding the sword in her hand, she opened her palm and drew his attention to the handle.

  ‘You see here?’ Her slender finger pointed to a series of small spikes in the grip's centre. ‘These are what unite Feng with Hi.’

  ‘Those being?’ Gabe snapped.

  ‘Feng being the power held within the weapon, the poison that robs the Magdon of life.’

  ‘And Hi?’

  ‘Your blood.’ Nahem paused for a moment. ‘Your blood flows through the sword, and the sword flows through your blood. That is how you could defeat the beast two years ago, by becoming one with a weapon as old as the monster herself.’

  ‘All magic and fairytale.’

  ‘More a thing you do not understand that is easier to dismiss than understand!’ Nahem countered. ‘If it were that then perhaps all of your family would have died in the bowels of Viktor’s ship.’

  Nahem allowed the words to hang in the air for a moment before she continued.

  ‘Your great-great-grandfather was a man thrust upon a path, not through choice or destiny but by chance.’

  ‘And see what it has cost us all, see at what it cost him.’

  Gabe sensed Reg tense, a wave of sorrow appearing on the old man’s face as he recalled the loss Archy had shared with him.

  ‘Archy wanted none of this to plague you. I understand your resentment, but he did everything to keep his family clear of everything he had done. I’m sure you have understood that from the legacy of his journal.’

  Gabe had read the leather diary from cover to cover since Sara’s death. It had taken time for him to leaf through the discoloured pages but when he had, it had allowed him to realise that the loss he felt was something Archy had understood all too well.

  The moment Archy had emerged from his final facing against the Magdon, in the depths of the old diamond mine in South Africa, he had done so knowing it lost him his family. All he could leave behind was the memory of a crazy old man obsessed with monsters and madness.

  Assuming a new identity, Gabe had read how he was forced to watch his family and children grow from a distance.

  Gabe fought to hold back the tears in his eyes as the weight of Nahem’s words hit him like a tonne of bricks.

  ‘I see in your eyes understanding of his pain.’ Nahem added. ‘It is a pain that seems to haunt your family.’

  Nahem turned away from Gabe and stepped back to Reg.

  Stepping up to the old man Nahem moved her attention from the sword in her hands and up to Reg. With a solemn stare, she raised the sword and held it out towards the old man.

  ‘Wait!’ Gabe barked as Reg’s quivering hand reached up towards the weapon.

  Reg paused and looked at Gabe.

  ‘Haven’t you heard anything we’ve just said Reg? I know after all these years you must be curious but Archy never gave you the swords for a reason. It’s mine and my family’s burden to carry, not yours.’

  For the first
time in a long time, a wry smile appeared on Reg’s face.

  ‘My boy,’ Reg said as his hand gripped the handle. ‘I buried the swords hoping that nobody would ever have to wield them again. If I had known the pain that would have caused you I would have never let you follow in my footsteps.’

  It took a moment for what Reg was saying to sink in and both Gabe and Claudia’s brows furrowed with confusion.

  ‘You didn’t bury them.’ Claudia stammered. ‘My… Archy… wait…’

  The realization hit both as Reg lifted Guardian, the sword, from Nahem’s grip.

  In an instant decades of age disappeared from his face and Reg appeared younger before them. The lines on his face did not seem to be so deep, and the darkness around his eyes lightened a little.

  ‘For too long I have hidden, I have lied.’ Reg confessed. ‘It is time I re-emerge from the shadows I have created and return to the journey I passed to you.’

  ‘Reg?’ Gabe gasped.

  ‘No my dear boy and please forgive me. One day I pray you will understand my reasons, but I have long been too old to still be on this path.’

  ‘It’s not possible, you should be…’

  ‘One-hundred and twenty-six years old.’

  ‘But that’s not…’ Gabe tried to understand.

  ‘Part of the curse of wielding these swords, not only a harder life but a longer one.’

  ‘Are you telling me you are…’

  ‘My name is not Reg, never has been. My name is Archibald Barney Skevington, and that journal is mine.’

  Claudia and Gabe stood staring at the old man, the same look of surprise and disbelief painted across their faces. Although neither would have believed the confession somehow they knew it was true.

  The old, weathered man they had known as something now transformed Reg before their eyes into Archy.

  14

  Troubled Thoughts

  Archy sat in silence as he allowed the revelation to sink in. The look of disbelief on both Gabe and Claudia’s face said it all. Rather than push the old man sat on the battered chair and waited.

  It was Claudia who spoke first.

  ‘Why didn’t you tell us before, before you sent us to Wollaton Hall?’

  ‘I couldn’t,’ Archy answered. ‘The time wasn’t right for me to return from my forced exile.’

  ‘So you forced us to walk the path you were too afraid to walk yourself?’ Gabe snapped from behind his daughter.

  ‘I can understand your frustration Gabe, and I’m not saying you are wrong.’

  ‘Too bloody right.’

  ‘It wasn’t a simple choice to bring you into my world. I understand all too well the consequences and the costs.’

  ‘Sara!’

  ‘I never meant it to be that way, I never meant for...’

  ‘You cried at her funeral.’ Gabe yelled. ‘Were they tears of sadness, regret or guilt Reg, Archy?’

  ‘They were tears of loss Gabe, I never meant for you to lose anything.’

  ‘But we did. I lost my wife, my son, my family. Because you wouldn’t do it yourself.’

  ‘At my age what could I have done to stop Viktor and his people in resurrecting The Magdon Gabe, what could I have done?’

  ‘But why not tell us from the start, why not tell us the truth rather than allow us to wander into this twisted world?’

  ‘Because you needed to learn, to discover and believe for yourself. If I had led you, then you would never have understood or even realised everything. For you to wield the swords, you needed to believe.’

  ‘The weapons you uncovered are particular as you know. There is no way an unprepared mind, no matter the bloodline, can wield them.’ Nahem interrupted her voice a welcome change from Gabe’s frenzied and angered tone.

  ‘You couldn’t be led down the path,’ Archy explained. ‘You needed to discover it for yourself.’

  Gabe pushed past Claudia and stalked towards Archy. With a swift move his path was blocked by the slender, yet imposing, form of Nahem.

  ‘He is old, he has lived with more than his lifetime of difficult decisions.’

  ‘It doesn’t change the fact he lost everything dear to him.’ Archy hushed as he stood and moved Nahem aside.’

  Nahem moved with reluctance but never removed her stern gaze from Gabe. She sensed the anger and frustration bubbling inside him but had her own duty to protect Archy.

  Moving past the young Indian woman it was incredulous to see how different Archy looked. From the weathered and frail appearance he had adopted as Reg he somehow seemed much younger now. Standing taller, back less crooked and no longer a reliance on the canes Gabe had always been accustomed to seeing.

  ‘How is it you’re able to walk like that, look like that, be like that?’

  ‘Because the sword feeds him, and you all, with power.’ Nahem answered for Archy. ‘The Feng inside the weapon forms at one with you and allows you to succeed where mere mortals would not be able.’

  ‘It makes us immortal?’ Claudia pressed in disbelief.

  ‘Not at all my child,’ Nahem countered. ‘It prolongs life, increases your senses and awareness. Channels through you an ancient sentience that even my ancestors did not comprehend.’

  ‘I would say it was all magic and fairytales,’ Gabe replied. ‘But having seen you change before my eyes and having felt the strange power when we were in the ship's belly I kind of know it’s true.’

  ‘My boy,’ Archy began, and for the first time, Gabe saw tears in the old man’s eyes. ‘I regret what I have taken from you, what my curse has cost you.’

  Archy held out Guardian, the sword, to Gabe who stood firm at first.

  ‘I cannot wield this again Gabe,’ Archy pleaded as he reached down and grasped Gabe’s hand.

  ‘It’s yours.’ Gabe defied, but Archy kept his grip on his wrist and forced Gabe’s hand around the handle.

  ‘It ceased to be mine when you rediscovered it in the depths of Snowdon. From the moment you held it, it became yours.’

  Gabe felt his fingers being wrapped around the handle as Archy passed the sword back to him.

  It took every ounce of self-control for Gabe not to throw the sword to the ground. Gabe wanted nothing more to do with this world of monsters and secrets. He wanted to take his daughter and run, hide and stay away from it all. Yet, with the weapon once again in his palm he once again felt the strange sensation coursing through his body.

  Gabes senses felt attuned, heightened and everything around him felt crisper and more in focus. The crackling flames on the burning wood seemed loud and, in the distance, he could hear the rhythmic thumping of his heart beating in his chest.

  ‘Will you continue to tread the path before you?’ Nahem asked.

  Gabe’s attention waned a little as the question was drowned out by the sudden influx on his senses.

  ‘Dad?’ Claudia asked, her voice snatching him back.