The Dragon in the Theatre Ch 10 / 11

10

The Tunnels



Chief mining Officer Lomax stood at the entrance to the Prosperity municipal mining Office. The ice storm was not was bothering him this morning so much as the tardiness of his visitors. Many of his workers though would comment that it was difficult to tell the difference between one of Lomax’s good and bad moods as the only difference was the angle of his sneer, so frozen was his face from standing out on the many excavations of Prosperity mountain that his expression had become rigid with displeasure. Lomax carried the scar of one such excavation a deep gouge that ran from above his eyeball through his cheek all the way to the corner of his mouth in a near straight line. It was a tunnel collapse where he had been the only survivor. Lomax had been trapped for several days behind a collapsed wall in a mineshaft and had had dug himself out using a shovel he had found on his side of the tunnel, whilst in total darkness. He was not a man who gave up easily. He could tell the minerals I his hands by touch alone and on his way out had discovered several large diamonds. Poyle had made sure he was well rewarded, and Lomax had spent the last decade as chief mining Officer, longer that any previous holder of the position, Mainly because no one else had survived that long.

Lomax stood at the entrance to shaft C. He knew exactly what Poyle was coming for today. One of the men had discovered a new mineral a dense black ore that had been found deep in one of the newer shafts. Lomax remembered thinking that other than its density there was nothing exceptional about it. It had no visual appeal certainly and he could not see there being any kind of economic value to be derived from the mineral, yet Poyle had now asked him to divert a large proportion of the workforce to locating more. Lomax had no issue with that, as Poyle was paying he could have what he liked, but he found the whole issue to be slightly curious. Lomax had kept a small piece of the mineral for himself, and he fiddled with it in his jacket pocket. He lifted it out and examined it closely. It was a small shard only a finger long but the edges were sharp. Lomax scraped the shard against the rock wall he stood next too and the wall was ground away with no damage to the shard itself. Perhaps he is looking to make tools of some kind with it Lomax thought to himself.

He heard Poyle’s vehicle before he saw it. Most of the workers arrived at the mining site using a cable car system that had been built many years before but Poyle had his own personal tracked vehicle. ‘In case of emergencies,’ he always told Lomax, which lomax interpreted as meaning he did not trust the Cable car. The vehicle made an horrendous noise as it ground up the earth beneath its tracks. The vehicle was fitted with a snowplough and had a mechanical shovel fitted to the rear, again Lomax assumed ‘For emergencies’. Poyle sat in his own compartment whilst his driver had a cab at the front of the vehicle. The vehicle came to a stop, and Poyle excited through a ramp that led down from the back of the vehicle. He walked round and greeted Lomax.

‘Good morning Lomax, always a pleasure,’ Poyle said as he held out his hand.

‘Likewise,’ Lomax returned although he always suspected Poyle shook hands only s a formality. If he could have avoided any contact with dirt he would have.

‘So tell me how is the search for the new substance?’

‘Straight down to business then I see thought Lomax.

‘This way sir, let me take you to my office and I can show you what we have and where we are looking.’

Lomax escorted Poyle to a group of small wooden huts that were set back into the rockface. Lomax opened the door to the nearest hut and let Poyle in. It was only small containing a desk, chair and a Heating element. The table had a few small pieces of the mineral laid out on it. On the wall behind there was a large illustration of the mountain with various shafts drawn on. The location of the mineral deposits had been illustrated.

‘As you can see sir, the actual volume we have discovered so far has been quite small, but I do think we are finding the very tip of the deposit. And that really is the problem.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘I think we’d have to take down the whole mountain to find anything of real volume, and frankly sir I don’t see how this material is worth it.’

Poyle could not explain why he needed this material but he could hear the voice again in his head. All it was saying was one word: More. Poyle needed to get the material out of the mountain.

‘I know you don’t see a value but I have potential buyers lined up, we need to start working harder.’

‘Sir this is where I have to talk to you quite seriously. The workers have always been on a percentage basis. You pay us based on the sales you make from the minerals we find. We can see the sales for diamonike and gold, but this stuff. What’s it for? Who wants it? The men are stretched too thin to work every product here and they want to work the valuable product, No-one working this stuff has been paid.’

Poyle could se what his issue was and the voice was getting louder in his head.

‘Lomax I think its time you showed me the source of the mineral itself. Please would you show me the mine?’

Lomax was quite shocked. It over ten years Poyle had never stepped foot near the mine.

‘Of course.’

They left the hut and walked back to the mine entrance. Lomax gave Poyle a hardhat and a jacket to wear. He looked down at Poyle’s shoes.

‘I’ll find you something more appropriate than those,’ he told him.’

Lomax returned with some boots with Poyle accepted with a look of minor disgust. Once fully dressed they entered the mineshaft.

‘Mr Poyle, I have to ask that you do anything I say. This can be extremely dangerous. If you hear an alarm stick with me, I’ll get you out.’

Poyle had no doubts whatsoever that he would be the first out.

They entered an elevator, which Poyle thought looked like a giant birdcage. There was probably room for five people in the elevator but Poyle alone took up half the space. With a jolt the elevator started to descend. The tunnels were lit with electric lamps meaning that the whole complex was covered in cables and tubing. The elevator took them down past several open tunnels.

‘These are al the open shafts that we think we have exhausted,’ Lomax told Poyle.

They Quickly reached the bottom and Lomax slid open the elevator door allowing Poyle to step out of the cage. Whilst there was light down here it was an orange glow that radiated out from the light sources themselves and did not fill the entire space.

‘It’s very dark down here,’ Poyle commented.

‘We can’t generate enough power this far down,’ Lomax replied, ‘we lose too much energy in the transfer.’

Lomax pointed to one particular shaft and Poyle walked down it. There was not a single one of Lomax’s men in sight.

‘Where are all the workers?’

‘At the ends of the tunnels – You’ll see some shortly, it’s break time shortly.’

They shortly reached they end of the shaft. It was only just tall enough for them both to stand in.

‘This is where we found the first piece. We think we would have to go down to find more, I’ve sunk two parallel shafts this deep alongside this one and only found small slivers so far. I think that if there is more of this stuff down here then its below us.’

Poyle heard the voice again in his head. Again only one word. Yes.

‘Then that’s what you’ll have to do.’

Lomax looked at him with dismay, then turned and excited his shaft. Some of the men were now starting to exit their shafts and take the elevator back to the surface. Once back in the central chamber Lomax stopped one of them. He held up the shard from his pocket.

‘Did you find any of this today?’

‘No sir.’

He asked several men in turn. None had discovered any of the mineral. He turned to Poyle.

‘Digging down is too risky at this stage, when there is far too much value at this level sir, we still uncover significant volume of diamonike and gold on a weekly basis. We would have to sacrifice that to try and find any more of this and for what.’

Poyle now knew what the problem was, why progress was slow and why he did not have enough mineral yet. It was this man. Poyle saw that the flow of men from the shafts had stopped. This was an opportunity.

‘Very well perhaps you are right. Come on lets go back to the surface.’

Poyle’s eyes darkened. He could feel a tingling sensation just beneath the surface of his skin. He looked down at his wrist. One of his veins was bulging, but it appeared darker than normal. Poyle looked closer. It was moving rapidly as if excited. His wrist and his stand started pulling him forwards. He followed the direction that they took him in, and he walked towards one of the walls of the cavern. He placed his hand flat on the wall of the cave and as he did so the wall became wet with what looked like black water. The water began flowing over his arm. The liquid became thicker the more of it seeped out of the rocks. Poyle felt a surge of energy as it entered his body. He felt no fear, no terror. All sensation was gone. He became cold but he knew that that whatever was happening was giving him power. A crack appeared in the cave wall and the liquid dried up. Poyle had drained everything there was from this part of the cave. It was inside him and he could feel it taking over his body. It felt to him like strength, strength physically that he had never had, strength to match his cunning. He let out a deep breath as if to release the pressure that had accumulated inside him.

‘Mr Poyle, are you coming?’ Lomax called over to him from the lift.

It was then that Poyle sensed the piece of Dark, Lomax had in his pocket. How dare he keep that from me Poyle thought to himself. I pay this man’s wages and this is how he repays me. Poyle felt rage. It grew within him, and the sensation he had just felt in his hand was now coursing through all of his body. It was a feeling of pure power unlike any he had experienced before, and Poyle already knew that for him there was no turning back. This is what the Dark wanted, to merge with a living being. It may just appear to be a rock, a mineral but it was more than that. Poyle did not know what this substance was, but it had already taken hold of him. The anger was now in control.

Poyle walked back and climbed into the elevator. Lomax stood just outside it. Poyle held out his hand and lay if flat in front of Lomax.

‘I’d like my piece of Dark, please,’ his eyes had already turned black. Lomax looked at him with terror, and stepped backwards.

‘What are you?’

‘My Dark. I wont ask again.’

Lomax stood his ground but his face expressed all of his fear. Poyle’s eyes had turned completely black and Lomax could not bear to look at them. Poyle’s outstretched hand clasped together in the shape of a fist and Lomax felt his pocket pull itself towards Poyle.

‘Okay, okay, you can have it,’ he relented, and pulled the piece of Dark out of his pocket. He held it up towards Poyle. It started to melt in Lomax’s fingers and dripped down to the floor of the cavern and slid across the floor to Poyle where it crept up his leg and merged with his hand ithe exact same spot where the throbbing vein had been. Poyle smiled a wide, satisfied smile, his black eyes revealing no joy or hatred. He could feel more Dark in the cavern. He pointed his hand up at the ceiling and said only one word:

‘More.’

Suddenly a shard of rock dropped from the ceiling, followed by a rain of liquid dark. The liquid flooded towards Poyle. Lomax turned to look as he heard the noise. Rock fell as the ceiling crumbled and large shards fell from the ceiling. Poyle was already in the elevator cage as the rock started to fall. Lomax tried to run, but it was too late. Clouds of dust filled the cavern quickly and poyle watched as the mining officer disappeared behind a mix of dust and stone. Poyle stood in the elevator and heard the alarm sound as the elevator started to ascend. As he passed the area where the ceiling had collapsed he saw that a shard of black mineral was now evident. For now he had absorbed enough, but he knew he would need more.

Poyle stopped smiling and prepared to brief the workers on the tragic news. Dust blew up the mineshaft. He reached the top, coughing from the dust. He crawled out of the elevator as the claxon sounded to announce that there had been an accident.

‘Its Lomax,’ he coughed, ‘he’s been crushed in a collapse.’

‘Are you all right sir,’ one of the miners asked.

‘Yes I’m fine that poor man, and we were just discussing our plans.’

Poyle stood up.

‘I’m sure he’d want me to tell you what your new targets were.’

The miners all looked at Poyle with a mixture of shock and disgust.

Then they noticed a group of Poyle’s soldiers were standing at the main road.

‘Ah, I wasn’t sure if you would be necessary Captain Clovus, but would you please take command of the Mining operation. The previous management met with an accident.’





11

The Doorway



The Dragon sat with its wings outstretched patiently staring at Elliott. It made a low purring noise, and occasionally flared its nostrils, but it showed no aggression towards the family before it. John stared directly at the creature’s eyes. All he could think of was the safety of his son, and he suspected that this creature’s arrival was linked to his son’s pain.

‘John, Isn’t it incredible?’

John turned to face his father, keeping one eye on the Dragon.

‘Dad, what is that thing? Why are you so calm?’

‘Because I know why its here son,’ Grandfather replied, ‘besides once you know the truth, you’ll realise I’m anything but calm at this moment. I have so many feelings inside me. But son, you don’t need to be afraid of the Dragon.’

‘I can trust you on that Dad, yes?’

Grandfather sat down in front of his son and broke the line of sight between John and the Dragon. He gave his son a smile.

‘Don’t worry. We can trust the Dragon.’

John looked at the creature with fresh eyes. He had to admit it was a beautiful creature. It was only the size of a cat, but the wings made it seem much larger. Its skin was an amazing two-toned blue from the head the colour of the deepest ocean and its tail the blue of summer sky, the colours blending together across its body. The scales shimmered in the small amount of light there was in Grandfathers room. The Dragon just sat in the remnants of its shell, with its tail wrapped around its lower body. It folded its wings up and lay its head down on the sofa as if to go to sleep, perfectly calm.

‘Come on, son, Let’s tend to Elliott, the Dragon will rest for a while.’ Grandfather sat down on the sofa next to Elliott who sat up and looked at him.

‘Its real isn’t it?’ Grandfather smiled. The boy could be so innocent with his questions and Vlad loved him so much for that.

‘Yes Elliott, it is. Do you know why the Dragon has come here?’

Elliott looked down at the floor, as if he feared that he would be in trouble, then looked back up at his Grandfather and Father.

‘I brought the Dragon here didn’t I?’ Grandfather chuckled then looked at John.

‘No I don’t think you did Elliott, but I do think you are the reason the Dragon is here. You see when I was about your age I found a Dragon egg as well. There is something about our family that is special and I think that is why the Dragon is here. It is here to look after you.’

‘Why did I never get a Dragon then?’ John asked, ‘I’m not jealous, I’m just curious.’

‘Do you remember being Elliott’s age?’

‘Not really, no,’ John realised.

‘Then how do you know you didn’t have a Dragon too?’

Elliott laughed. John looked at him and grinned.

‘Ok, I don’t do I.’

‘No you don’t. But no you didn’t, and I think there is a reason you never had a Dragon, but for now that isn’t important. Right now I think its very important that we find out why Elliott is getting sick.’

‘Yes Dad you’re right, come on son lets have a look at you.’ They checked Elliott over, taking his temperature and checking him for rashes, but they did not find anything. ‘How does you feel Elliott?’

‘I’m all right now. When the egg cracked my head felt like someone was hitting me with a hammer and chisel, like they were trying to split my head open and let all the voices out.’

‘You said that before son, the Voices, you mean the voices you always hear?’

‘Yes, they got louder when I first saw the Egg, but not in a nasty way. I think the Egg made me hear them better.  It amplified my senses. Does that make sense?’

‘I think it does Elliott,’ Grandfather replied, ‘you see the Egg comes from the same place as we do. We are a little bit out of time and space here and I think you feel that more than your father and I do. The Dragon is here to help you and make things better. That’s what he’s for, but I’m still a bit worried. When my Dragon came to help me I didn’t have these problems. I think I need to get you some help.’

‘Dad, where are you going to get help? No-one in Prosperity knows the truth about you do they?’

‘Exactly. I’m going to have to send a message home. Come on, we can leave the Dragon here. There might just be enough magic left in the building to re-open my doorway.’

John picked Elliott and cradled him in his arms, which was not difficult as the boy was only small.

‘You go ahead John, I’ll be along shortly.’

Grandfather knelt down and looked in close at the Dragon.

‘Hello old friend,’ Grandfather whispered, ‘It’s been a long time.’

He reached out his hand and stroked the Dragon on his head. The Dragon responded by craning its neck up, clearly happy to have the attention.

‘I know why you’re here. I just don’t know why you’re not an adult.  Unless of course?’ A small tear had formed in the corner of his eye.

Grandfather stood up and looked back out of the door that his son and Grandson had just walked out of.

‘Is it the Boy? I always wondered if it was going to be him?’

The Dragon could not answer but it did raise it’s head to meet Vlad’s and Vlad swore it nodded a yes.

‘Are you trying to give us more time?’

There was no answer of course, but the Dragon continued to purr.

‘Or are you giving me some more time? I know it’s my time, or you wouldn’t be here, but I have so much to do. I can’t leave them yet can I.’ 

The Dragon looked at Grandfather and their eyes met. Grandfather smiled.

‘Ok, Old friend, so I have some time. Thank you.  I have some things to take care off.’

He patted the Dragon gently on its head, and the Dragon curled up and went to sleep.  He left the Dragon, who was now snoring loudly and walked downstairs into the main Theatre. He stood in the doorway and looked down at his old friend, old and new at the same time and the tear rolled down his cheek. Soon he thought to himself, but not just yet. He turned and left the room, no time to waste.

He joined his son and grandson on the main stage and stood directly beneath the Proscenium arch.

‘Elliott, you’re doorway is in the new library room, but mine, mine is right here.’ He raised his arms up above his head pointing to the archway.

‘Really?’ the boy replied, clearly amazed.

‘Yes, You see we’ve never told you this but when we first came to Prosperity we didn’t actually arrive on a ship, we came from another world. And we arrived right here on the stage.’

‘Wow,’ was Elliott’s only response and the adults both laughed at this. 

‘Now both of you off the stage please, just wait there in the wings.’

Grandfather started walking round in a circle on the stage. He held up his walking stick, the one Elliott recognised as his favourite. It had a small green gemstone mounted at the top of it. As Grandfather walked the stage the gem began to glow and within a few seconds it was possible to see something that was not there before. John and Elliott could see that there was something appearing in the centre of the circle Grandfather was creating. The air had seemed to warp, and it reminded Elliot that he too had seen this happen, that first night he had come to the Theatre. As he walked faster the image became more and more defined, until a man started to appear. Sparks fired in all directions. It was as if he was in the room. They could see that he was sitting down, then his chair and the room he was in started to become visible. The man seemed aware of was what happening, turned and looked at Grandfather as he walked past and waved, then got up from the chair and walked into the centre of the circle. Then he spoke.

‘Vlad, what happened, you look old?’

Grandfather laughed. The man still appeared ghostlike through the shimmer

‘And as usual I can always count on you to cheer me up. How are you Koje?’

‘I’m good how long has it been?’

‘Well I haven’t been able to do this for five years, I haven’t been strong enough.’

‘It’s been that long? Do you need me?’

‘Can you get here? I’m sorry for the short notice.’ The man on the other side did not seem troubled and immediately started to gather items from around him.

‘Give me a minute.’

Koje picked up a coat and then his body that had previously appeared to be slightly ghostly was suddenly solid and he appeared in the centre of the stage.

Koje stood in the centre of the stage, where nothing but bright lights and a magic trick had been just ten minutes before. John wondered if this day could bring any more surprises. The man looked like nobody he had ever seen before. He had long black hair that was tied up at the back and his clothes were of a style John had never seen before. The man looked as if he had just crawled out from under a mechanical device. He reached out his hand for John to shake it.

‘Hi John, I’m one of your father’s little secrets. Sorry about that. He and I have been talking though these doorways ever since he came to Prosperity. I was a trader who did some business with his world about twenty years ago and we um, swapped frequencies. By the way, where is here anyway?’

‘This planet is called Terraline,’ Grandfather replied.

John smiled, and wondered what else he would learn about his father today?

‘Hi. This is my son Elliott. How did you do that?’ The boy stood there staring at the newcomer, checking him out. Koje gave him the look back and Elliott smiled.

‘It’s simple really, your father and I have a two-way doorway – It’s just been closed for a while. We did some work together back in the day.’

Grandfather winked at Elliott. 

‘Hi Mr Koje. You are Granddad’s friend?’

‘Yes mate I am.’

‘That makes you my friend too, doesn’t it?’

John and Grandfather smiled and Koje let out a broad grin.

‘Certainly does. You and me are mates. Ok?’

‘Yeah. Come and see my Dragon.’

Elliott turned and ran off upstairs to Grandfather’s room, leaving the adults behind

‘I’d best get after him,’ John said quickly following him. He left Grandfather and Koje alone. They waited until John had left then started to talk.

‘Koje, I’ve asked you here because I need your help. You’ve not heard from me because I haven’t been able to open a portal in five years. There hasn’t been enough energy to do it. Until today. And it’s all because of the boy.’

‘You think he’s the…’ Grandfather held a finger to his lips. Koje understood.

‘I thought things were quiet, but I assumed that if you really needed anything I would hear from you. How are things?’

‘Poyle is still here. John and I are talking, but only about Elliott. Of course I’ve just told him I’ve been lying to him for ten years. But I haven’t told him everything yet. At the moment it’s too hard for him. All he has is Elliott. And the boy. He isn’t right. He has always been different, but he’s a wonderful child, but given where he came from, I have to know more. All this time I’ve accepted what happened without really knowing what it was. And you see Koje, the thing is..’

Vlad paused.

‘Go on,’ Koje said.

‘We have a Dragon upstairs.’

Koje’s eyes widened and he put his hand on Vlad’s shoulder.

‘Vlad, does that mean what I think?’

‘Yes Koje it does. And in truth I couldn’t be happier, despite the implications. But again it’s not normal. When it was my turn a fully-grown Dragon came. Elliott found an egg. I swear Koje it’s as if it wants us to have more time, like he’s not ready yet.’

‘Wait a moment; you have a baby Dragon upstairs? How big is it?’

Grandfather laughed.

‘That’s so typical of you, here I am talking about the single most important event of my Grandson’s life, and all you want to see is the Dragon. This is just like when we went gorflag fishing of the White Iles.’

‘Now I know why you called me, you need someone to deal with the heavy equipment.’

Grandfather looked down and held his hands up.

‘Caught you. You’ve no idea how to look after a baby Dragon do you?’

‘Of course I don’t, I’ve only ever seen a full-grown adult. But you needn’t worry about how you get to the Dragon homeworld, you should see Elliott’s portal room. Besides look at me, I’m an old man I wont be able to help, and if we do have some time I need to spend it teaching the boy. ’

‘So all you need me to do is go off through a dimensional portal to find some Dragon food and come back here and look after it for you.’

They both laughed together. Koje put his arms round his old friend.

‘Come on old friend lets go see this Dragon.’



Upstairs the Dragon was still sleeping and Elliott had sat down to play with his cards. Koje looked over the Dragon whilst it slept.

‘It’s not green. I don’t know why I expected it to be green.’

‘Dragons can be any colour,’ Grandfather replied, ‘all depends on their mood, their diet when they are created, that sort of thing.’

‘Really?’

‘Oh yes, Dragon’s choose these things themselves. And trust me they don’t all breathe fire.’

‘That’s all for children’s stories is it?’ John asked.

‘Something like that,’ he replied.

‘So, you know we are going to need to feed it soon,’ Koje interrupted.

‘Don’t worry about that now old friend,’ Grandfather clearly had something else he wanted to talk about, ‘There is something else I need your help with. When I first took over the Theatre John and Elliott went off to live in the Town whilst I restored the Theatre. I had some help of course, John you always knew that, and some of it came from labourers within the town. But most of it was Koje.’

‘Yeah I wondered how you managed to do it all.’

‘Koje was a trader in rare objects..’

‘Mostly stolen objects it has to be said,’ Koje added.

‘Yes, your past could fill several volumes. We met about twenty years ago. We became good friends, and whenever I needed help Koje seemed to just turn up. When we came here, it seemed that he had the ability to just come through the portal whenever I called. I’ve never been able to work out why or how.’

‘And now the Theatre is in danger again.’

‘Let me guess,’ Koje asked, ‘Poyle.’

‘He thinks there’s something in the Theatre, something valuable and he wants to get his hands on it. When I first planned to open the Theatre part of the reason was my profession obviously, I was an Entertainer and here it was, my own Theatre. No longer did I have to travel from place to place at the beck and call of others, I would be the manager and the lead performer if I wanted too, or I could turn my hand at producing. But you see there was something else more important than that. I needed to disguise what we were. I knew the truth, but the two of you, John you didn’t remember anything and Elliott was just a baby. We had escaped the end of our own world. I had to make sure that the Theatre was protected, and I thought the easiest way to do that was to have as many people coming through the building as possible. That way the fact that this spot seems to be some form of special place hopefully would not draw too much attention. I don’t know if it would have worked or not because Poyle had us closed.’ The old man smiled. ‘Now Elliott’s portal is open though, I do wonder if others from this world will be drawn here because of what it is. That’s the problem, the treasure that Poyle thinks is here is of no value to the likes of him.’

‘And he’s given dad five days. He’ll be coming back with Inspectors and he’ll seize control of the building if we haven’t complied with every city regulation he can think of.’

‘So you really do need my help. In fact I think I need to round up some of my old accomplices to help out too.’

‘Do you think you can do that?’

‘How long do we have again?’

‘Poyle is coming back in five days, and the Dragon hasn’t been fed yet, but it hatched three hours ago. We have a bit of time before it gets hungry.’

‘Right well we’d best get moving then. Come on John, Think we’d best leave the boy with his Granddad. You and me are going on a fieldtrip.’