Kinvara
"So there are people heading towards us right now," Kenzie questioned a slight hint of amusement and a raised brow told me he was just doing this to be difficult.
"Yes," I replied
"And you want me to go outside with you."
"Yes."
"To fix the aerial."
"Yes."
"And why would I want to do that again?" He was leant indifferently against the door frame of his quarters, his arms folded casually across his chest fixing me with a challenging stare.
I sighed inwardly at his stubbornness; he wasn't going to give me an easy time of this. Fighting off the urge to glare back and say something I would more than likely regret later I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to do a small amount of grovelling, something which I loathed with a passion, something that Kenzie knew very well indeed.
"You know why," I growled. "Because you know exactly what to do and I only have a vague idea." I neglected to mention that it was either drag him along or go crawling back to Doone who already had enough on her plate without having to worry about my ineptitude with a spanner.
His bright green eyes changed from challenging to smiling and his smirk turned into an outright grin that lit up his whole face.
"It's nice to be wanted," he said with a laugh, lightly side stepping as I aimed a kick in his direction. I shook my head in mock despair, more amused than annoyed by his antics. I watched as he darted around his rooms, and quickly gathered a few gadgets and tools that were littered around. An unaccustomed eye may have taken his rooms to be an utter mess, which they were, but people who knew him better grew to learn that although he sometimes failed in his attempts he did try to enforce some organisation into his living space. A large oak table, not dissimilar to the ones in The Hall, was the centre piece in the room. It was completely covered with sheets of paper and haphazard piles of books. Neat sketches balanced precariously on the edge of the table and I knew that sometime in the near future a firm bang of the door or a gentle swish of a cloak would dislodge them and sent them floating softly under the table to join the other long forgotten pieces. The room itself was quite large but had gained the appearance of one much smaller because of the multitude of shelves and wall units that adorned the walls, all of which were crammed full of books, tools, spares and other apparently useful objects that Kenzie had picked up over the years. In fact the only neat area of the room was the cordoned off bit by the door, communications central.
Kenzie's rooms were on the first floor, quite far back in the complex, almost segregated from the rest of the Clan. They were put there out of necessity, more for location than privacy. It just so happened that the aerial was directly above us, meaning less hassle and better efficiency as far as setting up the watch tower communications was concerned.
"Ok I've got everything." He announced walking towards the door. I nodded in reply and reached for my own bag carefully putting it on my back cautious of the dangerously sharp weapon I had gone back for at the last minute.
"Are you sure we'll need that?" Kenzie asked warily tapping the sword that was now positioned within easy reach over my shoulder.
"I hope not," I replied, "But this time I'm not taking any chances."
He nodded in understanding his expression dark for a moment. Wanting to lighten the mood I reached up and ruffled his shaggy ginger hair, I grinned at his reaction as he swatted my hand away and tried in vain not to laugh as he stalked out of the room giving me a glare that would have frightened even the bravest of dragons.
I jogged to catch up and fell into step beside him. A comfortable silence descended both of us lost in thought, anticipating what lay ahead. Going above ground had become a rarity and to me that was a frightening thought. To the younger members of The Clan only seeing daylight through a few trapdoors scattered around the Platforms was normal. But to those of us who remembered the time before the dragons, who could see the extent of the damage to our world, the fact that we were hiding in caves made the future seem a very bleak and sheltered prospect. We had regressed, we were living like animals burrowing in the ground and scavenging for food always aware of being prey to a larger mammal.
"O for Gods sake," I turned to look at Kenzie my eyebrows raised in question. He was in the process of putting on a headset, a modified version of the ones mobile phones used. The wires were snaked around his wrist and then disappeared over his shoulder into his rucksack. I watched as he struggled with the headpiece, apparently unwise to the fact he had tangled himself up, before relenting and grabbing his arm. His eyes widened in surprise until he noticed me furiously picking at the knotted wires. He gave me a lopsided grin and muttered a "Thanks mum" under his breath as I carefully unwound the cable releasing the tension on the headset.
I couldn't help but smile and a glance to my right confirmed that Kenzie found the situation just as amusing. You see the idea of mothering or even befriending Kenzie had once been a distant and unobtainable prospect. Kenzie and I had met under less than favourable circumstances; the death of his parents had lead to my father The Clan leader taking him in and giving him a home, essentially adopting him. To say I was unimpressed with this new development would have been an understatement. At 14 years old, only 2 years since the first dragon awoke in London, I had become accustomed to my fathers undivided attention. So the introduction of a needy 5 year old did not go down so well and I really begrudged the fact that Kenzie stole precious time with my father off of me. Now that I think back on it, it seems ridiculous that I should have resented a 5 year old child, but my adolescent self had yet to learn the difference between a human need to be cared for and petty theft of affections. It took me almost a year to finally differentiate between the two. My father's duties as a leader often took him away from me essentially leaving me to care for Kenzie under the watchful eyes of an Elder. I think I really did try to hate him, but how can someone hate a child? Especially Kenzie, he was a sweetie even though at times I had been so cruel to him, he would still look at me with complete trust and adoration in his eyes and slowly as time went on I found myself caring more about him then I originally thought possible. I found that I grew to accept the fact that I was sharing a place in my father's heart with another; Kenzie had gradually made the transition from unwanted stranger to family member and I was surprised to find that losing some of my fathers time was a sacrifice that I was more than willing to make. As Kenzie got older, as he matured, he became an invaluable friend. Knowing me better then anyone else, as well as having the ability to question my authority, to challenge my judgement as only a brother could.
A cool chill had set in and I pulled my cloak tighter around myself as we neared the exit to the Platforms. The still silence seemed all the more apparent to me as our footsteps echoed around the deserted corridors, a fog of darkness had descended, lights so near the exit had been forbidden long ago. I traced my finger tips along the rough stone walls of the corridor searching for the markers that would aid our blind journey; Kenzie had taken a tight hold of my arm his finger nails digging into the soft flesh.
"Relax Kenzie, I've found it," I whispered as my fingers found the small, well worn groove in the rock. As long as I kept to the groove we would know exactly where to go.
After walking in darkness for a few more twists and curves, the corridor opened up in to a large circular room, lit up by moonlight streaming from the gaps in a small trap door in the ceiling. This was one of the original ways in and out of the Platforms, though not the nearest we could of chosen it was the most sheltered, offering the best protection if the travellers were near.
Several roughly chiselled blocks had been stacked up against the wall to create a series of steps leading up to the trapdoor; I walked over to them and stood on the bottom step.
"When we get outside the aerial is our main priority. Don't think about anything else just concentrate on getting contact back with Zeke. The fact that its night time should be to our advantage, the dragons are less likely to make an appearance and we should be able to use the darkness as cover to get over to the hill. When I open the doors I will go out first then you follow, I'll close the doors behind you."
Kenzie walked over to me, fiddling with his headset in obvious annoyance.
"I know how this works Kin, I have done this before," He replied clearly irritated. "You're going to need these, incase anything happens." He tossed two lumps in my direction, which I caught clumsily and looked at in confusion.
"One is a torch, press the big switch and light will come out of it. The other a sort of walkie talkie, incase we get separated, just press the red button and talk into the microphone bit"
He was speaking to me as if I was a child and I turned to look at him offended; I wasn't an idiot. I glared at him and saw a look of smug satisfaction on his face; he had gotten his own back.
A brisk wind whipped past, catching my hair so that it swirled around us in an auburn whirlwind, snapping us out of our sparring. I walked up the rest of the steps and slid the wooden beam across that held the doors in place. Kenzie stood next to me and at the same time we pushed as hard as we could upwards on the doors, they opened with an ominous creak and I shut my eyes as bits of dirt and plants rained down upon us, unfortunately Kenzie wasn't so quick. One final push and the doors were open and I was greeted with cool, fresh air and a bright full moon. Kenzie spluttering and coughing on my left spectacularly ruined the quiet of the night and I hissed at him to 'shut up' as I pulled myself out of the Platforms and into the outdoors.
As soon as we were both safely out I gently shut the doors behind us, hastily pushed a few sods of earth and branches on top to try and hide our escape route. I motioned for Kenzie to follow and we both began to make our way over to the small hill upon which the aerial was perched.
Although it was almost 3 o'clock in the morning, the darkness could do nothing to hide the spectacular beauty around us. Once a great British monument, the ruins of Thensmere Castle were a slight to behold. Vast turrets loomed high above the forests surrounding us and though green and crumbled with time, the vast scale of the place made me look around with awe every time I saw it. We were walking through the courtyard at the moment; it was the central area of the castle with access to every point. The floor had been tiled with ornate intricate swirls, of reds, gold's and Burgundies that wound around the yard in an endless spiral of autumn colours. The entrance to the Chapel was to my right, still almost intact the sacred place once had some of the finest stained glass windows in the country, depicting unusually random patterns and colours instead of biblical references which once led many a conspiracy theorist to believe that it was a language of sorts referring to a treasure hidden long ago. It was a ridiculous thought and one that I had never dwelled on for long; treasure would be of no use to me now.
A sharp crack on my left had me spinning round, hand grasped tightly on my sword. I peered through the darkness trying in vain to pinpoint the source of the noise. There were two arches to my left, one leading to a twisting staircase up to the turrets and the other to the old castle gardens. It seemed unlikely that there would be anything in either though as both were dead ends. I started to walk forwards but again froze as I heard another softer snap; I turned to look at Kenzie, he was standing as still as a statue his eyes wide and uncertain.
'What do we do?' he mouthed.
I put my hand up in a firm 'Stop' gesture and slowly walked towards the arches, drawing my sword as I went. I ignored Kenzie's muffled yelp and decided to investigate the turret arch first. I cautiously moved into the archway, my eyes fixed upon the staircase. I breathed a sigh of relief as my surroundings became clearer. The staircase had partially collapsed; there was no way anyone could have climbed up it. I turned to leave, then froze in horror as something flew past my face and landed on the floor with a soft snap. I couldn't help it, I began to panic. I was frantically searching for the torch Kenzie gave me, my logic being; that if I was going to die I at least wanted to see who did it. In my blind panic my sword dropped to the floor with a loud reverberating clang that seemed to snap me out of my foolishness. I stood still and forced myself to take a few deep breaths; I reached into my jeans pocket and pulled out the small torch Kenzie had given me earlier and pushed the on switch. The staircase and surroundings were suddenly clear.
I stood for a moment in disbelief and then I began to laugh. The sight before me was ridiculous even by my standards.
Kenzie suddenly ran in, small pistol in hand. "Bloody hell Kinvara," he said as he saw me leant against a wall wiping tears from my eyes. "What the hell were you playing at? I thought something was trying to hurt you."
"It was crows," I said shaking my head at the whole situation. "The noise we heard was bits of nest material falling out and hitting the floor." I shone the torch up first at the nest, nestled deep in the rafters and then at the floor that was littered with twigs, bits of moss and shiny black feathers.
Kenzie stared at me, trying to comprehend what I had just said, then quickly grabbed my arm and started to drag me out of the staircase.
"Hey! Wait, what are you doing?" I questioned as I made a wild grab for my sword.
"This is freaking me out Kin, I'm not as brave as you I can't handle false alarms like this. We need to keep moving, or I'm likely to go completely crazy."
His voice had gone slightly high pitched at the end, making his plea all the more desperate and sincere. I berated myself for once again going impulsively off track, it was not behaviour befitting of a leader.
"I'm sorry Kenzie, we'll stay on track this time, I promise."
I put my sword away and once again entered the spiralling autumn courtyard, this time going straight ahead, through the huge entrance gates and across the old stone bridge that once stood proud over the mote. I could see the aerial now, a dark shadow against the skyline and it did indeed look a little worse for wear, I just hoped that Kenzie could fix it.
I turned to ask him what he thought the problem might be, but my voice was drowned out by the worse possible noise imaginable. A shiver of dread ran up my spine and a deep bubbling fear began to rise from my gut. I looked at Kenzie and saw a mirror image of horror in his eyes.
"Please tell me it's not." He whispered.
"I can't." I replied shaking my head whilst frantically searching the skies, "We're going to have to run."
I shoved him back the way we came, dragging him along with me until another almighty roar, much closer than the first, surrounded us kick starting the adrenaline. We legged it back into the courtyard, slowing momentarily to hightail it around the corner into the old Chapel, both of us skidding to a halt and flattening ourselves against the walls either side of the door. Breathing heavily, I looked around at my surroundings in alarm; we had automatically picked the only room still intact. I looked at Kenzie and saw he had come to the same realisation; we were trapped in here and the dragon was approaching.