The 13th Horseman - By Barry Hutchison Page 0,26
thing.
I am the Deathblade, it said. Come to me.
Unbidden, Drake’s legs began to move. His feet made a series of hollow thuds on the lids of the plastic tubs below him as he strode into the cave and was swallowed by the darkness within.
IN A YAWNING CHASM between one world and another, he stops. There is a moment when he feels... something. A sensation. An emotion. Newly born, he cannot yet put a name to the feeling, but in time he will come to know it as “confusion”.
He is confused because it has moved. The shed has moved.
His ghastly outline turns. His gaze sweeps back across the realms he has already traversed. The worlds blur around him as he sets off again in the opposite direction, moving faster than he has ever moved before.
DRAKE FUMBLED THROUGH the dark, feeling his way along a plastic wall, deeper into the heart of the mountain. The cool breeze blew past him, making him shiver just slightly. From up ahead he could hear a low drone, but the blackness within the cave made it impossible to see what was causing the sound.
He stopped, and knelt down on the hard plastic floor. His fingers found the edge of a box lid and undid the flimsy clasps. He felt inside the open container, hoping to find a torch or lantern or something. But the box contained what felt like photographs and postcards, and a small wooden wind chime.
He closed the lid and moved on to the next box. There was a tangle of cables inside; an impossible knot of wires and extension cords. Not what he was looking for.
The next box was filled with wooden cups, shaped like old-fashioned goblets. The next had two flat rectangles of stone, one atop the other. There was writing carved into the surface of the top stone, but Drake couldn’t tell what it said.
Another box contained CDs, mostly, and a few books. The next one appeared to be filled with salt. Something hissed and snarled in the box after that one. Drake decided not to open it, and moved on to the next.
He decided to check two more of the plastic containers. If he didn’t find anything to light the way by then, he would turn back. There was no way he was carrying on in the dark, regardless of what the whispering voice in his head might say.
Drake didn’t know what was in the next box, but the smell was enough to make him close the lid without checking too closely. It smelled a lot like Toxie the Hellcat, but with a burned-meat edge to it that made Drake’s eyes stream.
He crawled over to the next box and put his hands on the lid.
Then he took them off again. A feeling, like the one that had led him to the cave, steered him three boxes to the left. His fingers found the lid’s plastic clasps and a feeling of warmth spread along both arms.
Drake opened the lid and the sound of a choir rang out from within the tub. A bright, brilliant light flooded the cave. Drake screwed his eyes shut and covered them with both arms, but the light still shone through. Blinded, Drake reached clumsily into the box. His fingers wrapped round some kind of hoop and he pulled it free.
He clicked the lid back into place and the music stopped. The blinding light went with it, leaving only the glow of the object in Drake’s hand to chase away the darkness in the cave.
Drake looked at the thing he was holding. It was a ring of glowing white light, about the size of a dinner plate. The light itself was solid enough for Drake to hold.
It felt warm to the touch, and the surface of the light seemed to move beneath his grip. It was a bit like holding on to a pipe, through which warm water was running, but a magical glowing pipe, that made you want to shout “Hallelujah!” as loudly and as often as you could. Even with everything he’d seen recently, this seemed particularly incredible.
Drake lowered the ring towards the floor. The shadows fled from its warm glow, revealing a printed label stuck to the lid of the plastic box.
HALOS, the label read. (ASSORTED SIZES)
Now come, the voice in his head insisted. Drake did as he was told. Holding the halo out before him to light the way, he continued down the plastic passageway towards whatever lay ahead.
The cave came to a