CHAPTER THIRTY – BATTLE
From where they were, the pathway slanted across the top of the plateau upon which the ruins of Tintagel castle stood, located high above the sea. The path turned and went on towards a small peninsula of the island. It jutted out and was roughly triangular in shape, barely two hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide at the base, but eventually narrowing to a point. On both sides was a sheer drop to the sharp, jagged rocks far below, wet with spray and shining in the moonlight. At the base of the little peninsula, Redfeld and the Professor stood talking. All around were the Captain’s guards – a dozen of them, armed with sub–machine guns, rifles or pistols – and all looking outwards, on watch for any interruption.
Tom and the others hunkered down in a hollow in the ground, from where they were able to observe Redfeld’s party at a distance. Eventually Septimus spoke in a whisper, “Tricky them guards. Outnumbered over two to one we are, boyo,” he observed.
“Come on, we can take them.” Charlie blustered.
Edward looked doubtful, “Leaving aside for the moment that we have no weapons while they are all armed to the teeth, they hold an easily defensible position with only one way in. The ground narrows and we have to cross it in the open. We would get cut down before we got fifty yards.
Charlie was now forced to agree. Even with his speed he would struggle to avoid a hail of bullets as he crossed the gap.
“Hang on, I remember something,” said Tom. “Near here there is a canyon – well more a narrow thin cave with the roof gone. It runs towards that direction,” he pointed now to a spot about twenty yards from Redfeld. “Come on! Stay in the shadows.”
He led the way, crouching and half crawling across the ground and keeping to dips in the terrain. They came to a point where the ground dropped sharply into a rocky culvert or canyon only six feet wide, eight feet deep and twenty feet long. He slid down one end and the others followed him. They could now stand up and were hidden completely. He led the group down the culvert to where some steps ran back up the southern end. He crept lightly up a few steps and found that they were now much closer to Redfeld. In fact, they had come right round the side; the nearest guard was about twenty feet away with his back to them.
Redfeld and Neoptolemas were about fifty feet away in the middle of the rocky peninsular. They were standing side by side and had their arms stretched out in front of them with their hands held upwards. Both faces were turned away, but Tom could see part of Neoptolemas’, and he was concentrating intently, his eyes tightly closed and his lips moving slowly as if in prayer.
Tom pointed out Redfeld and the Professor to Septimus, who had moved up next to him. “It’s not looking good, boyo,” the Welshman breathed in his ear.
Suddenly, they all heard a high–pitched whining sound, which got louder and louder, and in the air in front of the Professor a disturbance occurred. It reminded Tom of the waving in the air when heat seems to ripple off the road on a hot summer’s day. It got more and more pronounced and striking.
Tom and Septimus slid back down the steps and told the others what they had seen. “So, this confirms it then,” Edward said grimly, “Neoptolemas is a traitor and the two of them are making this doorway. No sign of the Custodian, mind you, but that changes nothing: we have to stop them.”
“Those guards though, they are still a problem,” Septimus pointed out again.
Tom nodded then turned to Mary and said, “I’ve been thinking about that. Do you think that you can you make a barrier in time around Redfeld and the Professor and all of us?”
Mary thought for a moment and her face screwed up with concentration. “You mean one of my walls? Yes, I can make walls to surround them, so no one can walk through them.”
“Good! Make one when I say. I want it so most of the guards are outside the wall. Can you do that?”
“Yes, Master, I can do that,” Mary replied. Tom sighed. She had forgotten again.
“Mary, please call me Tom! But thanks.” Tom now turned to the others.
“Charlie and Edward, can you take care of any guards that are left; Septimus, you and I will rush Redfeld and the Professor. I won’t be much use in a fight but if we can break their concentration, we ought to be able to stop this door business.”
“Ok, it’s a plan.” Septimus said. “Let’s get on with it. It won’t be long before that door is open.”
They all crept up the stairs. Mary peered over the top step for a few minutes. Then she popped her head back down to report to them.
“I think I can bend a wall around to cut off those eight guards on the far side. I dare not make it too close to us or we might get confined by it. That will mean that these two guards and maybe those two will remain.” She pointed out two groups.
There was a grunt from Charlie. “I will take the furthest, I’m faster than you,” the sailor said to Edward, “you deal with these two.”
Edward nodded, his eyes already studying his targets.
Just then, the shimmering grew more intense and the sound coming from it grew so loud that Tom could feel the rock vibrating under him. Then, in an instant, the sound was gone and a moment later the shimmering vanished as well and a dark hole in the air appeared. Through it, fuzzy and indistinct like an out of focus picture, Tom could see shapes. The picture sharpened a little and Tom realised he was seeing men: soldiers lined up ready to come through. Not just a few either: many men in fact, all armed and looking fierce: an army ready for invasion.
Redfeld laughed and then said, almost to himself, “At last!”
Septimus gasped and then a moment later whispered. “Time’s up. Got to go!”
Tom nodded to Mary and she closed her eyes and concentrated. But, at that moment, the Professor suddenly moved his arms violently and gave a huge shout. The air in front of him vibrated and there was a loud boom like a crack of thunder.
“What are you doing, old man?” Redfeld said in an angry voice, his head snapping round.
The Professor said nothing but kept on gesturing with his arms.
“Stop it!” Redfeld said and fumbled for his pistol.
“I mean it, old man, what are you doing?”
“I am closing the gateway to your world, Captain – forever. Did you really believe I would help you? I set up my Institute to protect my world from men such as you,” Professor Neoptolemas said quietly, his voice calm but determined. As he spoke, the black hole in the air grew smaller.
Tom looked round at the others. So his instincts had been right; the Professor was not a traitor after all. In his breast pocket Tom could still feel the acorn and he smiled to himself.
“We had an agreement, old man. I would leave the boy alone and you would open the gateway,” Redfeld’s voice was almost a growl now.
“I lied, Captain. My mother told me it was a sin to lie, but I am sure she would not mind me lying to a power–crazed lunatic!”
“Why you ... wait. You are keeping me talking so you can close the void. It won’t work!”
Then he pulled the trigger. There was a huge bang perhaps magnified by the gateway.
The Professor groaned and slumped to the ground, apparently dead.
Tom shouted out at that and Redfeld spun round.
“Now, Mary!” shouted Septimus and Mary nodding, stretched out her arm and closed her eyes again.
“Stop now,” she whispered. A moment later a shimmering silvery wall appeared curving across the headland. Eights guards were trapped the other side of it.
“Now!” bellowed Edward, and he and Charlie charged the two pairs of guards within the wall. The guards turned and fumbled at their sub–machine guns, but the two Walkers were upon them like tidal waves. Charlie simply barrelled into his pair, both arms outstretched and the three went down in a heap. Edward kicked one guard hard on the knee and his leg collapsed under him, the guard screamed in agony and dropped his gun. Edward caught it and struggled to bring it to bear. The other guard fired his sub–machine gun wildly. One bullet grazed Edward’s ch
eek and he cursed before he finally fired his own gun, hitting the guard in the arm and forcing him to drop his own weapon. Edward pulled the trigger again, but the gun jammed and he swung it round like a club, catching the guard on the chin. The first guard reached over and caught his ankle and now Edward went down.
Tom and Septimus charged forward towards Redfeld, who was, for the moment, taken aback by what had suddenly erupted around him. Tom crouched down over Neoptolemas and saw blood oozing from his chest. Pulling the handkerchief out of the Professor’s pocket, he pushed it inside the old man’s shirt over the wound to try and stem the bleeding.
Septimus was moving towards Redfeld. “Well then, Captain, have you got the courage to fight fair and put down the gun? I mean, it’s hardly sporting, is it?” All the while, he was closing in and suddenly made a lunge for the pistol.
Redfeld simply laughed, shook his head and fired. Septimus spun round and landed face down, not moving. Was he dead? Redfeld looked down at the body for a few moments and then turned towards Tom.
Tom backed away down the rocky headland towards the cliff edge. He looked around for a weapon, but there was none. He reached out for the Time Flow to Walk away, but Redfeld shook his head.
“You can’t get away that way, boy. I just put up a barrier of my own. No escape! Two of your side are dead and my guards outnumber the rest, even with your lady’s little barrier, which won’t last long,” he said, nodding towards the struggle between Edward and Charlie, and then to the tiny Mary, who was slumped down, looking worn out and exhausted.
“Just one bullet will bring your wall down – shame to kill the young lady, but I am afraid you brought this on her, on all of them in fact. I did warn them, you will recall. You thought to oppose us, you stupid little boy, we who have conquered an entire world. You think a few of you undisciplined louts can defeat us? If so you really are more of a fool than I thought.” His face contorted and he spat out the words, “Tell your friends to surrender. NOW!”
Redfeld then moved towards Tom, the pistol at the ready, his finger curling round the trigger.