Vengeful Earth: The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book Two Read online

  Vengeful Earth

  The Dark Sky Chronicles

  Book Two

  by

  Daisy Dyson

  Also in this Series

  Cursed Fire - The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book One

  Vengeful Earth - The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book Two

  Toxic Storm - The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book Three

  Scorpion Rising - The Dark Sky Chronicles - Book Four

  Copyright

  © Daisy Dyson 2021

  *

  Daisy Dyson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system in any form or by any means without the express written permission of Daisy Dyson.

  This novel is a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

  Dedication

  To Ben

  To all Dark Skygazers

  Contents

  Also in this Series

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty One

  Chapter One

  Dark Sky Camp, Forest of Northumbria

  ‘Go, Zara! Go, Zara! Go, Zara!’ Aimie chanted, bouncing up and down on her toes along with the rest of her posse who were clustered around the base of the six-metre-high timber pyramid that Zara was in the process of scaling.

  Zara ignored their noisy encouragement, her concentration absolute as she attempted to figure out the intricacies of a puzzle posed by the second level of the scarlet-painted obelisk at the beginning of the assault course that Rufus had labelled ‘The Towers of Zenith’. Oscar saw her grimace, then push her perspiration-drenched curls to try again, determination written across her face.

  ‘Theo! Theo! Theo!’

  Oscar switched his gaze to the pedestal of an identical structure on the other side of the arboreal arena at the centre of Dark Sky Camp, this one daubed in bright indigo-blue where Theo’s supporters were almost, but not quite, as frenzied in their encouragement as Zara’s were. He was torn; both Zara and Theo were his friends, but it looked like Theo was struggling.

  ‘Twist the third lever to your right, Theo!’ he shouted, surprised to hear that his voice was an octave higher than usual, his heart pounding as he watched Theo grapple with a silver handle protruding from the carved face of the third tier, trying to rearrange a complex set of metal bolts and wrenches. Oscar knew that finding the correct sequence would release the door of a wooden hatch behind which Max, the camp’s director, had secreted the iron-hewn key needed to access the fourth tier.

  He swung his gaze back over to his right to check on Zara’s progress, his stomach muscles tightening as he saw her slot the last of her levers into the correct position – causing a miniature door to pop open – and reach inside to snatch the key. For the first time she was now ahead in this crucial contest.

  ‘Theo! Theo! Theo!’

  The chanting quickened and grew louder. The partisan audience became more animated as each tense moment past, the air streaked with apprehension when their champion fell behind. Only Oscar was aware how much more this contest meant to Theo, how deep the hurt would run if Zara beat him.

  He zoned out, taking a few moments to admire the twin obstacle courses. There was no doubt they were impressive; designed and built by Rufus and his friend Blodvig as Saturday evening’s organised activity at Dark Sky Camp, an outward-bound weekend held in the Northumbrian forest. The contest had ostensibly been devised as an exercise to encourage team-building and bonding for the thirty-five participants whilst they waited for the clear azure sky to darken to inky black so the stargazing could begin.

  Oscar experienced a jolt of pleasure that the camp’s popularity had increased. There were ten more attendees than at the last camp – which had been held a month earlier at the end of July – although he had missed most of it. However, it was the last weekend in August; a bank holiday, too. His fellow teens no doubt welcomed the opportunity to enjoy a final gasp of freedom before the demands of the new school year grabbed most of their spare time.

  Yet his pride in the camp’s success was mingled with anxiety as he contemplated his own return to school in five days’ time. He loathed the feeling of being cooped up in a stuffy classroom, battling his claustrophobia and his desire to be outdoors, instead of being forced to listen to the regurgitation of dry facts from dusty old textbooks. His body screamed to be outside in the fresh air, studying his favourite academic subject; the natural world and all its varied inhabitants.

  Ever since he’d been selected to be part of the quest to retrieve the Stone of Exerith by Max, who in actual fact was the exiled emperor of the parallel magical world of Hadrixia, well, he knew his life would never again return to normality. When his parents had dropped him off the previous month, they had hoped his stay at Dark Sky Camp would provide him with a more diverse view of the world. But their plans had back-fired big-style as he now possessed even less enthusiasm for a return to the classroom at the beginning of September to commence his final year of A’ level studies.

  Oblivious to the mounting cacophony of screams all around him, Oscar continued to ponder whether it should be Theo or Zara who headed the next quest – for surely that was the reason Rufus and Blodvig had set up this high-octane competition of strength, endurance and cryptic intelligence unfolding before his eyes; both participants clearly vying to win with every sinew in their body.

  But Zara had led their previous mission. It had been a success and all four of them had returned safely to camp, albeit sporting a few minor injuries. They’d retrieved the ruby, one of the Stones of Hadrixia infused with the magical powers required to eventually return Max, Rufus, and Blodvig to their homeland where a battle for its very existence raged.

  If he was honest, he envied Theo and Zara’s chance to compete for a place in the next expedition – he would have loved to see Quinn, Rufus’s younger brother, and his sister, Sabina, again. Then his lips twitched into a smile; he had to concede that his desire to meet up with Quinn was nothing compared to Zara’s. Anyway, it was the re-acquaintance with Hadrixia’s plethora of magical creatures that he truly craved.

  ‘Theo! Theo! Theo!’ screamed Wil, pumping his fist in the air next to Oscar. ‘Quick! Grab the rope! Grab the rope!’

  Oscar reconnected with the present just in time to see Theo flick his over-long, mahogany fringe from his eyes in a gesture that usually made his admirers swoon, but who were currently otherwise engaged urging his opponent to beat him.

  ‘He’s still a few seconds behind Zara. That delay on the levers at the second tier cost h
im big-time. Imagine being beaten in an obstacle race by a girl!’ sneered a tall, ginger-haired guy with an upturned nose and a face that looked as though a steamroller had been diverted.

  ‘Shut up, Felix. There’s no way you would have even got past the first tier. You’ve never done a day’s exercise in your life!’ Oscar shot back at him, nervously fingered the Swiss army knife concealed in the pocket of his black combat jeans.

  But Felix had a point, sort of. Throughout their quest in Hadrixia, Oscar knew Theo had struggled with the knowledge that Zara had been designated their leader. There were sound reasons for her selection which had nothing to do with their strengths and skills, simply the timing of their birth, but he knew Theo still smarted at the assumed slight on his abilities. Now that they had returned to Dark Sky Camp for a second time, Theo had confided in him that he saw this competition as his chance to outclass Zara in front of Max and Rufus, to demonstrate that he was worthy of being chosen to lead the next mission, and his passion to prove himself was palpable. Oscar’s heart gave a nip of sympathy for his new friend and he dispatched a request to the director of fate that Theo would get his chance this time.

  However, it looked as though Zara would be chosen once again. As he watched, she grasped a thick coil of rope she had liberated from a complicated set of spools on the fifth and final tier of the first obelisk before casting a glance down to her avid supporters for a boost of encouragement. She then shot a quick look across to where Theo still wrestled with the fourth puzzle and gritted her teeth for the next part of the challenge.

  Curling her muscular legs around the rope, she launched her weight forward into the trees, swinging in a low, wide arc and landing like an acrobatic cat onto the protruding ledge of a wooden column fifteen metres away. She whipped away her tether before dashing across an eight-metre-high rope bridge, her arms outstretched to maintain her balance and momentum on the evenly-spaced planks, then lunged onto the next platform, wrapping her arms around the tree trunk to steady her progress.

  ‘Go, Zara! Go, Zara! Go, Zara!’

  Without pausing to catch her breath, Zara reached out and grabbed the spring-loaded karabiner above her head, clipped it onto the harness at her waist, and leapt from the precipice, flying along the zip wire like Peter Pan’s older sister. It was only a short ride to the final obelisk, looming like a tall crimson shard at the end of the obstacle course, which she completed in seconds.

  Oscar joined the sprint through the woodland clearing to watch the final stage of the challenge unfold, relieved to see that the wobble of the parallel zip wire meant that Theo was hot on Zara’s trail, that they were evenly matched when it came to physical strength and mental agility.

  ‘Go, Zara! Go, Zara! Go, Zara!’

  Zara scrambled out of her the harness, adjusted her fingerless leather gloves, and began to scale the diagonal web of woven coir netting to attempt the sixth and penultimate tier where a procession of multi-coloured, multi-sized, interlocking cogs awaited her attention.

  ‘Start with the blue one!’ shrieked Aimie, her voice hoarse from the continual coaxing of her friend.

  ‘Then the yellow!’ Jasmine cried, pogoing on the spot in excitement, her long, flat fringe, the colour of espresso coffee, bouncing into her eyes. The tangle of silver chains and pendants she wore around her neck jangled as she moved and it was clear to Oscar that every muscle in her gymnastics-honed body craved to join Zara at the top of the impressive tower. ‘Go, Zara!’

  ‘Theo! Theo! Theo!’

  Oscar swallowed down on his anxiety as Theo finally joined Zara on the last obelisk. He knew their rivalry had increased, not decreased, since the completion of their mission in July, and the two friends displayed an identical gleam of determination in their expressions. Jaws clenched, lips pursed, their eyes and minds fixed completely on the task in hand, ears deaf to the raucous calls of their supporters; their powers of concentration sharpened to achieve nothing short of the ultimate prize. Tenacity was one attribute in plentiful supply on those parallel pyramids, moulded and chiselled from the very pine trees that surrounded the clearing, and erected with great skill (and maybe a little magic) by Rufus and his fellow Hadrixian, Blodvig.

  Oscar loved Blodvig; a seventeen-year-old whose straggly brown hair had thankfully lost the emerald tinge it had sported the last time he had encountered him. His miscalculated potion-making antics had resulted in a surprise transmorphication from his father’s apothecary in the ginnels of Hadrixia to Dark Sky Camp on the other side of the portwall and his fortunate rescue by Rufus. However, his ill-advised, often comedic, exploits continued to infuriate Max, so Rufus kept Blodvig occupied organising a multitude of outward-bound activities and running the camp’s canteen, as he too was now stranded in Northumbria.

  ‘Theo! No, the red cog is two turns to the left, the green is three to the right!’ shouted Wil.

  Oscar smiled at the animation on Wil’s pale face, his cheeks flushed for the first time since he’d arrived earlier that day having reluctantly been forced to abandon his best friend and constant companion - his gaming computer - by his “end-of-their-tether” parents. He was clearly in his element because what was unfolding before them was a real-life, action-fuelled quest for victory, albeit in less comfortable surroundings and beyond the reach of a selection of sugar-laced snacks, and Oscar had to laugh when he heard, as if on cue, a loud rumbling noise from Wil’s stomach.

  He wondered briefly whether it was possible for both Theo and Zara to collect their designated golden stars, hidden in the chamber of the last tier, and insert them in their respective coloured pole on the finish line at precisely the same moment. But, of course, he knew there could only be one winner. Next up to compete were Wil and Jasmine, but Oscar had no doubt whatsoever who the winner in that challenge would be as he cast a surreptitious glance across to where Jasmine was busy limbering up whilst Wil stuffed a handful of popcorn into his mouth to stave off his hunger pangs.

  ‘Your friend Theo is a total loser, Oscar. Useless! He’ll never work it out,’ Felix spat in disgust as Theo switched the final blue cog to the right and the hollow at the top of the final pyramid failed to reveal the expected prize. ‘If the idiot lets Zara win, he’ll bring shame on the whole boys’ team. Wait until I get my chance up there. I’ll show them how to complete a kid’s obstacle course – vertical or horizontal. No way will I be experiencing the indignity of coming second to a girl! I intend to—’

  But the continuance of Felix’s monotonous commentary on Theo’s failings was interrupted by a shriek of panic from Aimie.

  ‘Zara! No! Zara!’

  The chants of the crowd tumbled into silence as everyone concentrated on the unfolding drama at the summit of the scarlet tower. Zara had lost her toe-grip and was hanging by her fingertips from the upper rim of the final tier. The index finger of her right hand was poised only centimetres away from a silver corkscrew-shaped mast she had managed to release from the top of which dangled the golden prize.

  Oscar gulped down on his raising anxiety as he watched Zara’s swaying body, high above the sawdust and mulch-strewn ground, with only an expanse of twisted rope netting to break her fall. He abandoned his scrutiny of Theo’s continuing struggle to match the colour co-ordinated cogs in order to will Zara to regain her foothold and complete the task.

  But victory was not to be Zara’s fate that day.

  As though in slow motion, she released her fragile purchase and tumbled towards the forest floor, her legs and arms splayed wide when the rope meshing halted her descent. She bounced into its cradle, heat rising to her face as she struggled to contain the threatened tears of anger and disappointment. The silence that permeated the air until Zara sprang to her feet unscathed, broke, and the boys in the audience resumed their bellowing for Theo’s success with vigour.

  ‘Theo! Theo! Theo!’

  Oscar sprinted towards Zara, reaching her side at the same time as Aimie.

  ‘I’m fine, I’m fine! Don’t fuss!’ Zara urged, whi
pping off her helmet and shaking out her halo of copper-coloured curls.

  In unison, they swung their gaze upwards to watch Theo – who had been oblivious to Zara’s tumble – grab his golden star and tuck it securely under his armpit. He then performed a perfect arc along the zip wire down from the pinnacle of the purple obelisk, landing gracefully on the ground in a practiced martial arts manoeuvre, and jammed his star onto the purple pole, a triumphant grin spreading across his handsome face as he sought out Zara at the peak of the scarlet tower.

  But before he could register her absence, a roar erupted into the stifling August air, and a dozen teenagers rushed forward to gather around their champion, hoisted him onto their shoulders, and carried him off on a celebratory lap of honour.

  ‘You did great, Zara,’ Oscar offered, disconcerted to see his friend’s freckled face blazing with humiliation and her amber eyes missing their habitual hint of confidence.

  ‘No, I didn’t, Oscar. I lost!’

  ‘But you…’

  ‘Leave it, it doesn’t matter.’

  Zara lifted her curls from her face and tossed then over her head as she stared at where Theo was being paraded around the forest clearing on Felix and Milo’s shoulders. Oscar’s own joy at Theo’s triumph was tempered by the raw disappointment he saw written boldly in Zara’s expression.

  ‘Theo! Theo! Theo!’ the crowd chanted as their hero punched the air with exhilaration, clearly still unaware of what had happened to Zara on the final tier, but nevertheless ecstatic at being crowned the winner and therefore a certainty for the role of leader in the approaching quest to recover the next Stone of Hadrixia for Max.

  ‘Sorry, Zara, I—’ Aimie began, placing her hand on Zara’s forearm, clearly upset by her friend’s distress.

  ‘Well, we can’t win all of the time, can we, Aimie?’ snapped Zara, parroting a well-used phrase of Oscar’s mother’s. ‘Perhaps Theo does have a point. I’ve had my turn.’