Soulmaker

  Chapter 33

  Will withdrew the knife and swung around, black hair plastered over his crazed expression. Elanora covered Jacub with her body, crooning into his ear and stroking his matted fur.

  The bear breathed in one last time the scent of his cubs and of the young woman, their Soulmaker. “Thank you, child” he exhaled in a whisper that floated away with his spirit.

  “You killed him! Why?” she screamed up at Will.

  “He… he was one of them, Elanora.”

  “Didn’t you see him in chains and the panther trying to kill him? You couldn’t’ve thought he was one of them!”

  “I’m sorry,” he said, beseeching her with his eyes. “Last I knew, he was their leader. Anyway, the panther had practically killed him and he was in terrible pain. At least he’s not suffering.”

  Elanora looked from Will’s blood stained hands to her fallen friend. His face had relaxed in death and her anger subsided.

  “Will you get this fellow off me!” yelled Ashden again.

  Will ran to his side and helped lever the bear’s bulk off his legs.

  “About time,” he said. “What took you?”

  Will was saved from answering as a final wave of attackers rolled closer.

  From behind them suddenly came a fearsome growl, half cat half dog and completely menacing. They froze. Elanora’s belt was yanked back and she was dragged screaming into the shadows. The animals took it as a signal to charge Ash and Will, aiming for their throats.

  Elanora scrambled back to the wall on her elbows, unable to make out her attacker. “Buttercup?” she said, squinting into the shadows.

  “How good it is to hear that name,” Buttercup wagged her panther tail, “I’ve grown so used to Tearclaw,” she said.

  Elanora wiped the hair from her face, “Buttercup.” She flung her arms around the animal. “You’re alive.”

  Buttercup licked her face. “You’re troupe are outnumbered and Panther will fight to the death,” she said. “You will not win against them. I can lead you out of here to safety.”

  Elanora rubbed Buttercup’s chest and stared into her eyes. “I can’t leave. These are my friends, all of the animals and the soulings. We must reopen the Great Destination.”

  Buttercup nodded and stepped back from her Maker. “I owe you my soul,” she said with her head bowed.

  “You don’t owe me anything.”

  “I know how you were tricked by my father,” Buttercup’s nose drooped to the ground.

  “No, no. I loved you because I wanted to. That was an awful time for me, it’s true, but…”

  The offspring lifted her face and wagged her tail.

  “Then, I give you my life…because I want to,” she bowed again and pelted towards the fighting before another word could be spoken.

  Buttercup set her sights on Zsa Zsa who was latched onto Will’s hand. She wrenched him off, shaking him to the ground. When the Pomeranian saw Tearclaw he bared his pin prick teeth. Buttercup straddled him and set his fur aquiver with a roaring bark that sent him bolting into the dark.

  Elanora noticed the small victory but the sheer number of beasts was overwhelming. All their actions were simply forestalling the inevitable. The Great Destination would be lost.

  She scanned for Ashden, her heart racing. She saw him in the thick of it, every ounce of his being fighting for the soulings. He was brave, he was so brave. But he was being knocked to the ground as she watched by a chimp wielding a sharp wedge of timber. Just as the weapon was almost thrust into his skull, Ash deflected it with a piece of pipe that he had managed to slide out from the barricade. A slim beam of light shot into the room, searing the next beast who confronted him. It bought him time to steady himself on his feet before another attack.

  “We cannot win this on our own,” she said to Pin Pot who was still a lump in her pocket.

  The lump nodded.

  “If only I could fit through the barricade I know I’d find someone there to help us,” she sighed, wringing a clutch of her hair.

  Pin Pot timidly poked his head out of the pocket. His tusks quivered. Pendulous over the flames swung his old friend, Petsy. Pin Pot unfurled his trunk and tapped insistently on Elanora’s neck, his ears sagging but his eyes full and round.

  “You Pin Pot? You’d go?” she asked the little elephant who nodded. “How could I doubt that you would do such a heroic thing? But…you know you won’t be able to come back?”

  Silent for the longest time, the little blue elephant squared his shoulders as best he could.

  “Now, I don’t know if anyone there will help us but I do know that anytime I’ve cried out for help in my life, there has always been an answer. And I’m sure it comes from there,” she pointed beyond the barricade. “Besides, we don’t have any hope on our own.”

  Pin Pot stared into the once radiant chamber, and saw darkness and bloodshed.

  “I’ll make a good hero,” he declared, setting his ears high.

  Elanora beamed at him and ruffled his ear with her finger. “That’s right, and you deserve to blow your own trumpet. You’re the bravest souling I know.”

  Elanora kissed the top of his head then carried him over to the barricade, dodging teeth and claws. A chink of light shone out and she lowered him to the space. “Good bye,” she said as he squeezed through the gap into the brightness.