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The Dragon Lord waved his Amazons and guardians away. The Amazons trembled, and their ankle bells jingled. Even his mighty guardians felt their hair prickle.
Balancing over the pentagram, his fiery eyes bulged. Power coursed through him filling him with ecstasy. Flames erupted from his forepaws, and balls of fire swirled in his hands. The fire balls blazed, nearly scorching the constellations of the Zodiac painted on the dome. The stars of the Milky Way glittered.
“Open the way,” he commanded. “Let me see my world.”
The Dragon canted a mantra in the forgotten tongue. The pentagram burned, and fire ripped from the stone. The fire balls flared in his forepaws and the balls spun. The fire balls roared as the Dragon drew manna across the differential between Gehenna and Earth.
The Dragon repeated his incantation, and shouted again, “Open the way!”
For a third time, the Dragon canted the spell, and cried, “Curse this creature and drive its soul from its body. Send it into the deep. Damn it for all time. The power of the dragon compels you. The prince of darkness compels you. The curse of the accuser compels you.”
Chanting in the forgotten tongue, the Dragon’s mortal frame swelled as the manna coursed through him. Wisps of smoke twirled in thin threads and wove into ribbons.
“Depart souls of the innocents,” he cackled. “Cross the differential, and open the channel to my world.”
Lying on the altar tables, the dwarves shuddered. The maid’s blood ran from her chip driven by magical pressure. With the pop of a cork, her chip shot into the air, sailed across the throne room, bounced off the cornice at the foot of the dome, and fell to the stone floor clattering. The girl’s body stiffened and jerked as her blood sprayed from the wound. Boiling in the heat of the fire pits, her blood flashed into steam, and the dried flakes drifted down to the altar.
“I cast your soul into the outer darkness,” hissed the Dragon with glee. Wracked by one last spasm, the girl fell limp. Her body glowed white and her Kirlian aura briefly scorched the air and crossed the differential. Only a wisp of white fog remained.
The pentagram dissolved and Gehenna appeared. The stars of Capricorn blazed behind the red planet. The Dragon clenched the portal’s lip. Twisting his balls of fire, the roar subsided as he gazed upon the red clouds of the eternal storm. Over the Dead Sea of Umber, the storm boiled beneath the blazing light of Ashur. Lightning ripped the scarlet clouds. Ashur dusted Gehenna’s crescent in orange.
“Come forth, Nimrod, your master awaits thee.”
Crossing Over
Lightning flashed, and the clouds rumbled. Rhythmically, the rumble rose. A sound as if a tornado approached drifted down. Lightning split the sky and thunder cracked over their heads. White fire belched from the mouth of the telescope. Atop the telescope the crystal ball glowed, and the telescope rolled to face their destination.
Nimrod took pride in his courage, and he stood firm. He chuckled as both Adrammelech and Hermes flinched. The white fire revolved with a thunderous roar. The deck trembled, and the wind ripped their clothing.
A tornado shot from the mouth of the telescope. The tornado rose from the observatory atop of the Ziggurat and ran to the east over Zardkuh. It spiraled into the sky, and dipped towards the eye of the eternal hurricane. The tornado burned brighter as it raced over the dead sea towards the eye. White hot magic illuminated the valley of Uruk from the observatory. The tornado roared with fury.
Guards, soldiers, servants and overseers alike looked up from their labors.
Far beyond the mountains of Zagros, he knew the tornado curled up, the fiery coils plunged into the eye. Above the storm in the cold of space, the cords unwound into the spokes of a ladder. In his mind’s eye, the ladder rose to the portal above the planet. He had seen it before in the spirit. For first time, he would see the portal with his waking eyes.
Salivating with a thirst for victory, and a lust for the shedding of blood, he feared nothing. Upon his return to the Earth, his enemies would tremble in fear of their lives.
The riders kicked their steeds. The horses spread their wings. Slowly at first, smoke rose from the riders’ armor and the tips of their steeds’ wings. The smoke drifted to the telescope’s eye, and poured into the mote as if drawn by a vacuum. The riders shivered. Their bodies evaporated and their forms dissolved into ghostly fog.
The telescope swallowed up the Captain, and he plunged into the scope’s eye. The chain on his chair jingled as the riders drew up the slack. The whirlwind grew louder, the telescope slurped up the second rider. The chain went taut and Nimrod braced himself. Crouching behind the chariot’s guard, he cocked his heels into the footrests. Gripping the handle bars, he stretched out his arms, and hoped they would not rip from their sockets as he was drawn into the telescope.
Peeking over the guard, he saw the third rider swallowed by the scope’s eye, and his chariot jerked. The chariot slid towards Adrammelech and Hermes. Hermes retreated out of range of the oncoming chariot with cautious dignity, but the worm jumped as if he had a life to lose.
Nimrod grinned at them, and gave them a quick wave. Ducking beneath the guard he resumed his stance. He kept his head down, gritted his teeth, and he counted the seconds to launch.
The telescope took hold of the fourth rider and swallowed the ghost. The chain shot up the eye of the telescope. The chariot hurtled forward.
He gripped the handle bar and twisted his feet into the footrests. His stomach lurched. He felt a sinking sensation. Catching his breath, he shouted for joy. At his feet the granite deck of the observatory dropped away as the chariot flew into the air.
Passing through the eyepiece was as if leaping from a cliff. The chariot popped as he passed into the scope’s eye. He was weightless. The tornado dragged him through the telescope. He peeked and saw the telescope’s web of struts and braces flash past. They were in the tornado. With blinding speed, they shot up the passage through the tornado’s eye. Cords of smoky whirlwinds swirled about him.
The ghost riders flew through the tornado drawing the chariot. White hot magic burned on the outside of the tornado, and the smoke coils twisted around the inside. They went straight up and he glimpsed the Ziggurat falling away. They rolled over the fields of Uruk, and soared over the Zagros mountains and the Dead Sea of Umber.
Their tubular highway angled towards the eye, and the chariot looped as they rounded the bend. The eye was the one place on Gehenna where the tornado could pierce the atmosphere. Anywhere else, the jet streams would tear them apart. Why it mattered to a magical tornado, he knew not. He knew only what his master had explained.
The riders turned up, and he knew they would soon fly through the eye. The coils began to separate and through the spaces between the coils he caught glimpses of the storm. The inner wall of the eye roiled. Lightning flashed about them as they flew higher.
At the top of the eye, the hurricane boiled and lightning struck at them trying to bring them down. The coils unwound, spread and straightened into the rungs of a ladder. The Chariot’s skis bounced over the rungs as they flew up.
“You cannot keep us prisoner here now!” he laughed. He watched Ashur rise over Gehenna as the chariot shot into space. The scarlet clouds of the eternal storm fell behind him as the planet shrank into an angry ball. Flying higher, they rose above the lightning. The storm dipped below the horizon.
All around the naked light of stars shone without flickering. He marveled at the sight. Ahead of him, the riders flew towards a small circle of light.
As they neared the crossover, the ethereal riders melted. He knew the riders were solid on the surface of Gehenna, but they became spirit to cross the differential to Earth. He shook his head at the confusing sight.
Perhaps the portal reveals the truth as a looking glass reveals an image.
The chariot flew up the ladder to the crossover. A ring of fire burned around the outside. Inside the Dragon Lord gazed down upon them holding twi
n balls of fire. Above the Dragon, the Milky Way cloaked his master in a halo.
His chariot shot through the portal, and he soared across the gate.
Abruptly they stopped. The chariot hovered over the portal. Stationing themselves about the portal’s edge, the riders guarded the way with spears and shields at the ready.