The Rules. Book 1; The End Read online

‘You’re running out of water Annie! And let’s face it, water is all you can control these days, I’m afraid. Oh no, wait – you’re the one who’s afraid!’

  Even as he walked free of the blazing entrance, he allowed the flames to continue to envelop and wrap around him.

  He had grown in size, and in power, within a matter of minutes.

  He was now so tall that his skin should have split and shredded. But it appeared to be a part of the fire itself, waving and swirling as if it were beginning to lose its physical substance.

  Beth! Let me have more control! It’s our only chance!

  ‘Okay, I – arrrggghhhh!’

  She screamed in disgust and horror as she was splattered by chunks of molten, burning flesh.

  A whole section of Foley’s face flew past her ear.

  His grossly overstretched body had finally reached a point where it couldn’t take any more growth. It had split, exploded, disintegrated.

  A huge, grotesquely muscled creature now stood where Foley had been.

  Its muscles twisted and twirled as if they were an amalgamation of flame and flesh.

  What passed for a skin was lava-like, a blood-red viscous fluid flowing beneath a cracked, continually moving crust.

  The head was a small-planet’s molten core, the features formed from broken layers of shifting, blackened ash.

  ‘See Annie?’ he boomed. ‘At last my power is immeasurably greater than yours!’

  Beth sprung to her feet. As part of her movement, she lithely twisted around and ran.

  ‘“You won’t even notice the difference,” you said!’ she gasped furiously at Lynese.

  Oh, so you’d much prefer it if we both died?

  ‘You were going to sacrifice me to save yourself? Wow, if you’re a good spirit, what the heck are the really bad ones like?’

  Well, I’m afraid you’re about to find out!

  A massive wall of fire exploded into life just in front of her.

  Its base hovered just above the furrowed ground, the flames needing no fuel to burn. It was as thickly impenetrable and rose higher than a line of closely planted leylandii trees.

  Beth whirled around. Foley – no, not Foley; it wasn’t Foley anymore, it was Argothoth – was casually striding towards her. The flames around him cavorted hypnotically.

  Beth glanced apprehensively off to where she had last seen Gerry and Heddy herding the livestock. Thankfully, they were nowhere to be seen.

  They’ve gone back inside, she reasoned, to try and rescue the rest of the herd. They’re probably safer in there than out here.

  Perhaps, once he’s finished with me, he’ll spare them.

  But didn’t she have one last chance?

  ‘Hew, Hew! Come to me!’ she cried as loudly as she could.

  Argothoth came to a halt. Was that surprise on his face? Amusement?

  Beth could sense the sword’s struggle to pull itself free from the stone it was embedded in. She felt the air vibrate.

  She thought, maybe, that she could even hear the air quivering.

  Or was it Hew’s pulsating blade singing in sorrow?

   Even Hew can’t help us now girl!

   

   

  *

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

  Chapter 49

   

  Argothoth was moving towards Beth once again.

  ‘Annie!’ He spoke with a mock tenderness. ‘You can’t even control a young girl!’

  Told you!

  ‘Oh just shut it, can’t you?’

  ‘You? But…but what are you doing here?’

  Argothoth was no longer looking at Beth.

  He was looking behind her.

  He was looking up, looking up at something that soared even higher than his own wall of flames.

   

   

  *

   

   

  Beth turned to see what had caught Argothoth’s attention.

  But the incredible heat of the flames distorted everything around them in a trembling, whirling haze.

  Her own eyes added to the problem; they were out of her control, rapidly-blinking and watering no matter how hard she tried to focus.

  An agonised shriek rang out behind her.

  Turn around girl! We have to see this!

  But by the time Beth had obeyed Lynese, it was too late to see what had happened.

  There was no sign of Argothoth.

  Unless you counted the small pile of black ash that had collected in one of the furrows.

   

   

  *

   

   

  ‘What the heck’s going on Beth?’

  Hearing the voice behind her, Beth whirled around.

  (She was doing a lot of whirling around these days, she realised.)

  Where the wall of flames had been only a moment before, Drek was standing on top of one of the muddy ridges.

  ‘There were flames everywhere!’

  His clothes were splattered with dirt and mud as if he had been running.

  He was panting, sweating. Like he had run fast and hard.

  Or like he had been fighting. Fighting with an opponent who could control fire.

  ‘Going on?’ Beth said innocently.

  ‘Come on Beth! I could see the fire from miles away!’

  He looked down at his feet. His brow creased in puzzlement. There was nothing around him that could burn.

  ‘And the farm–’

  He looked more baffled than ever as he pointed over towards the farm sheds. They were no longer on fire.

  Yes, they were heavily charred, and smoke was curling up from every blackened timber. Yet the flames had vanished, just as the wall of fire had disappeared.

  Beth was puzzled too.

  Once alight, shouldn’t the sheds have kept on burning? It wasn’t a blaze like the more magical firewall, which had burned despite there being no wood or other type of fuel to keep it going.

  She was thankful, however, that the blaze had finally come to an end. Smoke-blackened and weary, Gerry and Heddy were having less trouble bringing the horses and cows outside into the fields. Most of the animals weren’t rearing up and lashing out with their hooves as they had been earlier.

  ‘What is that?’

  Drek was curiously moving over towards something he had seen on the ground.

  ‘Is it a…a mask?’

  Beth tried to warn him.

  ‘Drek! Don’t–’

  She was too late.

  Drek had realised he was looking at the remains of Foley’s face.

   

   

  *

   

   

  ‘How come the farm’s no longer burning?’

  Kneeling and painfully doubled over, Drek was too busy retching to hear Beth’s whispered question. She hoped Lynese was listening. She hoped Lynese would answer.

  He sucked all the flames back into himself, hoping he could save himself by drawing on their energy.

  ‘What killed him?’

  Well, you can’t see me, obviously; but if you could, this is the point where you and all your friends just give a shrug, rather than politely admitting you don’t know. I couldn’t see who his killer was – or what it was – either, remember? I only have your useless eyes to see with. It’s so debilitating. Now, if you’d let me–

  ‘Let you change me into a monster like Fol – Argothoth – you mean?’

  I’ll have you know I’m extremely beautiful!

  ‘Yeah, and I’d just be a few chunks of butcher’s meat lying around in a field, waiting for some dogs to eat!’

  Dogs. The word made her think of Foal.

  Poor Foal! The little wolf was standing a long way back from where Gerry and Heddy were still struggling to calm a few of the more unnerved horses. Being a wolf
, of course, she would have completely the wrong effect on the already terrified animals.

  She looked forlorn and miserable, her head and tail hanging low. She held her injured leg out before her as she limped around.

  Oh don’t be silly! Lynese was still continuing their conversation. We wouldn’t have to go that far! But if you gave me just a little more control, Beth, I could get rid of that awful hair, give your eyes–

  ‘My hair? What’s wrong with my hair? And my eyes?’

  Beth, darling, let’s get back into the real world, can we please? Why do you think lover boy’s not really interested? Now I could just make subtle changes at first, so he wouldn’t realise–

  ‘I’ve told you I’m not interested in him and – wait a minute! You’re just trying to draw my attention away, aren’t you? What was that Foley was saying about taking over from you? Didn’t he say that?’

  Well I can’t remember what he said it was all so–

  ‘Shhhuussshh! I wasn’t asking you if he said it! What I mean is – why would he want to take over from a mild mannered, innocent little water fay, eh?’

  Beth’s question was met with a silence she would have thought normal only a few days ago.

  ‘Hey, aren’t you going to answer me that, eh?’

  Oh, so you mean, you are asking me now?

  ‘Don’t give me this! You knew full well I was!’

  Well, I suppose we were what, these days, you’d call an item. Get what I’m saying girl? Ohh, this really is terrible, you know? I’m sounding more and more like you with each dreadful day!

  ‘Quit stalling! You went out with him? With that?’

  I’ll have you know Argothoth used to be amazingly handsome! Way off your scale dear! But you know, some guys – there I go again! – well, they just let themselves go, don’t they? He didn’t want to waste his powers, he said, on something so trivial as keeping his looks! Trivial!

  As Beth listened, she glanced over towards the limping, sorrowful Foal. If all Argothoth’s flames had gone out, if her own calming charm or whatever it was over Heddy had faded, why was Foal still a wolf?

  Why was that spell still working? If, indeed, it was a spell, rather than something more akin to the way Solly and the soldier had split to become those hideous creatures.

  Yet nothing similar had happened to Foal, from what she had seen.

  And what of the other dogs she had seen transforming into wolves? – hadn’t they changed back almost immediately?

   If she gave Lynese just a little more control, could she transform Foal back into a lovable little sausage dog? Could she cure the burnt leg?

  Naturally, he was upset when I said it was over. Obviously far more upset than I’d thought he was! You know how they want to get back at you when their pride’s hurt, don’t you? Oh, perhaps you don’t.

  ‘And you didn’t think to let me know this? That a guy who’s like some walking weapon of mass destruction might want to “get back at” us?’

  Me darling, not you! I do have a private life you know! Or at least, I did. Ooh, look – here comes lover boy!

  Galilee, grimacing as he rubbed the back of his sore head, had appeared beneath the burnt arch. He was heading towards Beth, glaring warily even though she greeted him with a bright smile.

  She had been on the point of running over to him – but his glare, combined with Lynese’s sarcastic referrals to ‘lover boy’, made her decide against it.

  Besides, Foal had spotted her and was now excitedly bounding across the furrowed field towards her.

  Look, let me start with your complexion at least and–

  ‘Complexion? There’s nothing wrong with my complexion!’

  Darling, perhaps we’d better start with correcting that atrocious eyesight of yours!

  ‘Shuuuusssshh!’

  Galilee looked from left to right, his puzzled scowl changing into a curious frown when he spotted the still retching Drek.

  ‘Why? What’s wrong?’ he whispered back, presuming Beth’s shushing had been directed at him.

  ‘No, not you Galilee; Lynese! I’m telling Lynese to be quiet!’

  Beth sat down with relief on one of the higher ridges as Foal rushed into her arms.

  After leaping up to lick Beth’s face, the tiny wolf made herself comfortable in Beth’s lap. She whimpered with pleasure under the expert caresses of Beth’s hands.

  ‘Lynese? Oh yeah, your “water fay”.’ He said it like it was something he found very hard to believe. ‘You have to talk to her?’

  See what I mean? Even lover boy allows this Machal enough leeway to hold a proper, civilised conversation!

  ‘Yeah, well,’ Beth replied to Galilee. ‘Do you think I should allow her a little more control so we can, well, talk to each other silently like you and Machal?’

  ‘Hmn, no. It’s probably for the best if you don’t, for the moment. At least until we’ve got a better idea who this Lynese is.’

  ‘Ha, see, smart ass!’

  Galilee glowered.

  ‘No, no, not you!’ Beth spluttered urgently.

  She was finding it hard to concentrate, as Lynese was raging furiously.

  Who this Lynese is? What a cheek! So it’s okay for him and Machal, but not for us? Don’t you realise he’s also insulting you, darling? Making out you’re not big and strong enough like him to keep everything under control?

  ‘Lynese – she keeps badgering me to let her have a little more control!’ Beth added.

  ‘Are you sure she can’t read your thoughts already? She might, you know, be making out she can’t; just so you’re not on guard about what you’re thinking.’

  He doesn’t trust me at all, does he?

  Beth thought back to something Lynese had said earlier.

  ‘I don’t think she can. She said she thought she’d be able to do it, but she can’t. It’s just my emotions she reads, I reckon.’

  ‘Hmn, well she would say that, wouldn’t she?’

  Galilee’s puzzled frown had returned as he scanned the smouldering buildings. Even though the sheds were no longer burning, Heddy and Gerry were still busy leading out panicked animals and letting them loose in the fields.

  We just can’t please him, can we darling?

  ‘What happened here?’ Galilee sounded mystified. ‘Just what did you do to defeat the odrad? – I presume you did defeat it? And who is that?’

  Galilee asked the last question as Drek finally rose to his feet. The boy’s face was pale, his eyes bloodshot. His lips were still dripping with saliva until he gave them a wipe on the back of his sleeve.

  Ah, picking on your friend too now is he?

  ‘Shuussshhhhh!’ Beth was getting irritated.

  It was like having a constantly nagging, endlessly berating conscience – although your conscience usually tried to keep you on the straight and narrow rather than persuading you to try stepping off it!

  Galilee gave Beth yet another baffled look until it dawned on him that she was once again attempting to keep Lynese quiet.

  ‘Well, Galilee,’ Beth said, ‘taking your second question first, that’s Drek. He’s a friend of mine. And yes, I defeated the odrad. With a sword.’

  Beth couldn’t tell if his suddenly arching eyebrows suggested that he was impressed or found her answer hard to believe.

  ‘And the fire?’ He stared back once again at the heavily charred buildings. ‘What happened there?’

  ‘Ah, all that was caused by Foley, who–’

  ‘Another friend, eh? And he did all this?’

  This time there was an accusatory tone to his questions.

  Beth ignored him.

  ‘A friend who transformed into this…well, whatever it was. It was called Argothoth.’

  ‘Argothoth?’ Now his eyes widened, a blend of surprise and apprehension. ‘And he transformed into him? Sheesh!’

  He glanced at the clumps of flesh scattered across the field as if for the first time. He pursed his lips
as it dawned on him what they were.

  ‘You know him? You know Argothoth?’ Beth asked.

  ‘I know about him. He’s not quite up there with the real fire overlords – the ones we think of as gods like Vulcan and Mixcoatl. But yeah, he’s important and powerful enough to cause us trouble. So where is he now? What made him take off?’

  Yet again, Galilee scanned all the areas around him, this time searching for any signs of Argothoth.

  ‘Well, dead, I suppose. I think.’

  ‘You think?’

  ‘Well, he was here one minute. Then, poof, gone the next!’

  ‘Poof? Argothoth went “poof”? Just like that?’

  He doesn’t believe you darling!

  ‘Yeah, just like that!’ Beth snapped back, annoyed by Galilee’s disbelief.

  She almost woke up Foal, who had fallen asleep in her lap.

  ‘How? How on earth did you defeat him?’

  ‘Well if you must know, Mr Know-it-all, I didn’t! It was something behind me. Argothoth looked up at it, said something like, “What are you doing here?” – and he ended up like that.’

  She pointed towards the small pile of ashes.

  ‘Something behind you?’

  Galilee sounded more doubtful and suspicious than ever.

  ‘You don’t trust me, do you? Even when I just nearly ended up like a hog roast. Even when I saved you back there–’ she waved a hand in the rough direction of the farmhouse – ‘you’ve still got to make out I’m hiding something from you!’

  ‘Really? You saved me?’

  He rubbed a hand through his hair like he was embarrassed, chastised.

  ‘I didn’t know, sorry. And it’s not you that I don’t trust; it’s Lynese.’

  ‘Oh yeah, who’s inside me, right? Which means you don’t trust me either. Go on, admit it Galilee! It’s like this Argothoth, who nearly killed us all, and all you can be bothered telling me about him is that he’s important and powerful. You don’t say! Well if that’s all you can be bothered telling me about him, I’ll just have to ask Lynese about him, won’t–’

  She bit her tongue. What a stupid, stupid thing to say when she was having a go at him for not trusting her.

  ‘Lynese? What’s she know about him?’

  ‘Well, you know; not too much I suppose. She went on, well, I suppose you’d call it a date–’

  ‘A date? She was his lover?’

  ‘I wouldn’t put it that strongly! I said a date.’

  That’s my girl. His lover? Other way round, more like!

  ‘It figures, I suppose,’ Galilee mumbled sourly.

  ‘Figures? What’s that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Look, okay, I’m sorry that we’re still going on about this Beth. But look, please; I’m just trying to make sense of how someone as powerful as Argothoth could be beaten so easily.’